Book Reviews

[1] Firstly, I am grateful to Robert Benne for plugging my new book, Empire of Sacrifice. I don’t think it’s “brilliant,” but I do think its analysis of religious violence in America sheds some light on Lutheran CORE, and especially its Chapter 4, “Sacrificing Sex.” [2] More substantively, while my essay might appear to Benne […]

1] The Christian life hurts. God hurts. That theme is firmly embedded in Lewis’ writings, and it is, I think, the deepest reason for the power of his writing. “The Divine Nature wounds and perhaps destroys us merely by being what it is,” Orual reflects in Till We Have Faces. This theme — that God […]

[1] The debate about the ethics of abortion is at once political, emotional, judicial and religious. Arguments in favor of one position or another often focus on the humanity or personhood (or lack thereof) of the fetus, the rights of both the pregnant woman and the unborn child, the constitutionality of various modes of abortion […]

[1] This book is not for the reader already convinced of a woman’s “pro-choice” in terminating a pregnancy. Nor is it necessarily for those who are strongly pro-life. Rather it is most helpful for those who do not quite see clearly where the Christian church has stood vis-a-vis abortion until the twentieth century. [2] First […]

[1] I want to thank Dr. Yarrrison for my first “pro-choice” review. I wish I had many more. I am confident that this type of dialog will lead us to the truth regarding God’s plan for human life. But I do need to correct a few problems in Dr.Yarrison’s assertions, however. The first problem is […]

[1] At an Ash Wednesday Service a few years back, the Dean of an Episcopal Cathedral in the South began his sermon by apologizing for what he deemed to be a “conservative” element in his homily. I braced myself for a torrent of reactionary, Bible-thumping, “hell-fire and damnation” rhetoric with women and children covering their […]

[1] In Paths Not Taken: Fates of Theology from Luther to Leibniz1 Paul Hinlicky seeks to retrieve a number of features from Leibniz’s (1646-1716) philosophy for today’s theology, particularly his metaphysics, his doctrine of the compatibility of divine freedom and human freedom, and his theodicy (this world as the best of all possible worlds) in […]

See The Core of Lutheran CORE: American Civil Religion and White Male Backlash by Jon Pahl Ah, how to respond to a rant? Especially by an author (Pahl) who thinks his new book (Empire of Sacrifice) is so brilliant that it provides the analytical key to everything that Lutheran CORE is about. It is so […]

o the honor of the Most High alone, and for my neighbor, to be enlightened from it…. – Inscription from Orgelbüchlein by J. S. Bach, Weimar, c. 17141 The Ethical Overtones of a Famous Inscription [1] Searching for an ethical tone in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach is difficult but not impossible. It is […]

[1] Kudos to the JLE and July authors who responded to The Shock Doctrine. [2] When I first arrived at Bread for the World in 1978, the commonly held wisdom was that the cause of hunger was poverty. Simply stated, “If people had money or other resources (e.g. arable land) they would feed themselves.” As […]