Science, Biological, Medical (genetics, illness/mental illness, death)

Lloyd Steffen and Dennis R. Cooley. The Ethics of Death: Religious and Philosophical Perspectives in Dialogue. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014, 325pp.

The Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE) is in the midst of a season of significant change, and I want to share these changes with JLE’s many readers and friends. Beginning in September 2013, JLE will move from a bi-monthly to a monthly publication schedule. The journal’s hope is that monthly publication will be able to […]

[1] Mental illness can happen to anyone. Three years after my ordination as an ELCA pastor, I was diagnosed with an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in 1987. The OCD would manifest itself in washing my hands a lot and often checking to see if I had done everything correctly. It was controlled by medication and therapy. […]

[1] Nourish us, O God. This is a simple prayer of the church, of its people, of its leaders. Yet mental illness can draw us away from the belief and trust that God provides what we need for a balanced life. Dark emotions triggered by stressors that include social, biological, environmental, and relational factors can […]

Note: the typical civilian practice is to use all lowercase letters in the word “soldier.” However, in military contexts and writings, the Army now requires the use of “Soldier” instead as a sign of respect. The author uses this capitalized version throughout the article. [1] According to the ELCA Social Message on The Body of […]

[1] The new social message on The Body of Christ and Mental Illness from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) begins with a cry from Jesus on the cross: “My God, my God why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my […]

[1] The ELCA’s church council has approved an ELCA social message on mental illness entitled “The Body of Christ and Mental Illness.” The message seeks to raise awareness of the challenges of mental illness, offer reflection and direction, and inspire action. The message offers a definition of mental illness from the National Institutes of Health, […]

[1] On the surface, it would appear that the two conversations featured in this issue of JLE could not have less in common. The first conversation is a response to Fritz Oehlschaeger’s recent book, Procreative Ethics: Philosophical and Christian Approaches to Questions at the Beginning of Life (Wipf & Stock, 2010). The second coalesces around […]

Introduction [1] Fritz Oehlschlaeger will be a new voice to many who read the Journal of Lutheran Ethics. A friend and conversation partner of the present writer, Oehlschlaeger is a lay theologian who deserves to be known for reasons I hope to make clear in the course of this essay. In this recent book, he […]

[1] The central philosophical question posed in Fritz Oehschlaeger’s Procreative Ethics and Paul Hinlicky’s review of the work relates to the origin and the identity of the self and the moral responsibilities of that self to others. Both works lead their readers towards a conclusion that we have moral responsibilities to those in our communities. […]