Book Reviews

[1] It is always a privilege to review an excellent book, particularly a path-breaking one that plows new ground, like Jensen’s and Childs’ Moral Warriors, Moral Wounds. The sense of privilege is magnified when the authors are long-time friends and colleagues, as is the case for me with “Wally and Jim.” The former and I […]

Editor’s Note: Though this book, so insightfully and thoroughly reviewed, is not our customary work of theological ethics, it is a work of historical and moral significance with implications for today’s world. It might well be considered in tandem with Mary Solberg’s A Church Undone: Documents from the German Christian Faith Movement, 1932-1940, which was […]

[1] Tex Sample, emeritus professor at Saint Paul School of Theology, Leawood, Kansas, has been thinking creatively and helpfully about the church’s role in society for a very long time. His previous books include U.S. Lifestyles and Mainline Churches, Hard Living People and Mainstream Christians and the delightfully titled Ministry in an Oral Culture: Living […]

[Originally published in JLE July/August 2016] [1] Some weeks ago the Journal of Lutheran Ethics was contacted by the publisher about our interest in reviewing Martin E. Marty’s new book, October 31 1517: Martin Luther and the Day that Changed the World, published this year by Paraclete Press of Brewster, Massachusetts. It was further suggested […]

[Originally published in JLE July/August 2016] [1] Moral injury often occurs when warriors witness or participate in an act so radically contrary to their values that the bottom drops out of their moral universe and their feelings of shame and guilt are so deep that their sense of self-worth is virtually destroyed. Some would distinguish […]

The three reviews of books dealing with the work of H. Richard Niebuhr, Lutheran perspectives on contemporary legal issues, and the discussion of moral injury in the context of just war each in their own way address concerns that are potential issue on the agenda of the church as public church. H. Richard Niebuhr’s work […]

[1] Why Niebuhr now? That question is the title of John Patrick Diggins’s last book. Diggins was asking the question about the life and writing of Reinhold Niebuhr. His book—published posthumously—probed Niebuhr’s work in relation to the challenges facing American society in the early 21st century. Jon Diefenthaler is asking the same question about the […]

[1] Moral injury often occurs when warriors witness or participate in an act so radically contrary to their values that the bottom drops out of their moral universe and their feelings of shame and guilt are so deep that their sense of self-worth is virtually destroyed. Some would distinguish this from PTSD that usually results […]

[1] Christian Ethics at the Boundary is a splendid book! Karen V. Guth is rightly concerned that the divisions among those who identify with a particular approach to Christian ethics may create discord, which compromises our endeavors and forfeits our resources for addressing complex moral issues. Her focus in this book is the division between […]

[1] It is a challenging task to provide a clear and fair evaluation of a volume of collected essays. This is doubly true when the volume includes contributions from more than a dozen different authors whose diverse interests coalesce around an emerging ​theme still being defined. In this instance, a reviewer more closely resembles a […]