Book Reviews

[1] Allow me first to express my gratitude to the Journal of Lutheran Ethics and particularly the efforts of Book Review Editor, Michael Shahan, for assembling these courteous and thoughtful responses to The Role of Justification in Contemporary Theology. I am honored that the Journal of Lutheran Ethics would find this book important enough to […]

1] With Lisa Dahill’s lyrical exposition of Bonhoeffer’s spirituality, we find a contemporary Lutheran theology working within a critical appropriate of virtue and character. Bonhoeffer has too long been labeled a “command of God” theologian, whose work confronts Christians with Jesus’ words “Follow me.” Certainly an “ethic of command drives the first part of his […]

[1] On February 1, 1941, Eberhard Bethge wrote to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his best friend, for Dietrich’s birthday on February 4: I offer my hearty congratulations and wish you a good and fruitful use of your powers, success in articulating your new insights, good stimulating friends, and good coffee and tea in your new year. Along […]

[1] Can theology speak to economics? Does Christianity provide the principles for action in economic life? Indeed, can it offer a vision of an economic order distinct from the one in which we live today? These are the questions asked by Kathryn Tanner in Economy of Grace. Her answers, not surprisingly, are yes. In this […]

[1] The final stage through which civilizations pass on their way to social dissolution, according to C. Northcote Parkinson, is “liberal opinion.” His point is that the great spiritual disease of any democratic society is the hegemony of a feeble sentimentality that weakens the thinking and will of its people. Parkinson avers: “What concerns our […]

[1] Several summers ago, I wandered into the Vanderbilt Divinity School bookstore and was surprised to find a large number of economics titles-more, in fact, than are used in the business curriculum. Curiously, all of the economics books were focused on the shortcomings of capitalism in general, and markets in particular, like those by John […]

[1] As a Lutheran and a political scientist, I originally reacted to In Search of the Common Good as Gulliver: It seemed as though I had washed up on a strange beach, could not understand the native languages, and was uncertain whether I was surrounded by elves, giants, or horses. This is a book by, […]

[1] This is an important and timely volume for several reasons. First, and most importantly, it addresses a question that is nothing less than urgent in our fractured and morally uncertain times: Is it possible to formulate a framework for moral thought, speech, and action that has as its goal the good of all? This […]

[1] When they enter the field of bioethics, too many theological ethicists check their theological credentials at the door. Thus, they lose theological eloquence, as they learn medical-ese. Not so with Valparaiso University’s Gilbert Meilaender: he never loses fluency in that first language of faith. Not every Christian will agree with his conclusions on abortion […]

[1] Vergil puts these words into the mouth of the Trojan hero Aeneas when he was shipwrecked in a country he feared was populated with barbarians, in which case he would have been able to establish no common bond: “These men know the pathos of life, and mortal things touch their hearts.” It is always […]