Book Reviews

Book Reviews are listed beginning with the most recent issue.

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Review of Just War Against Terror by Jean Bethke Elshtain

[1] Jean Bethke Elshtain opens Just War against Terror by asking a simple, but crucial question. “What Happened on September 11?” is the title of the opening chapter, where she challenges her readers with two different interpretations of that terrible day in New York, Washington, D.C. and western Pennsylvania. The first is Pope John Paul […]

A Review of Having: Property and Possession in Religious and Social Life by William Schweiker and Charles Matthewes

[1]If property is a relation among persons with respect to things, as Morris Cohen says,[1] possession in the human realm is a relation among persons and things commonly called having. The distinction is as important as their connections. Both notions and their relations are explored in this welcome collection of essays coming out of a […]

Review of George Hunsinger’s Disruptive Grace: Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth

Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 2000. Pp. 375. $39.00 (cloth) [1] Hunsinger is a great teacher because he is the best of students. He does honor and justice to the theology of Karl Barth through lucid studies in political, doctrinal, and ecumenical theology. His writing is the output of a rapt and apt pupil; it beautifully re-presents […]

A Review of Craig A. Carter’s The Politics of the Cross: The Theology and Social Ethics of John Howard Yoder

Brazos Press, 2001. Pp. 254. $18.99 (paper) [1] Like me, you might begin reading this review for the sake of balance, to listen at least for a little while to the voice of a pacifist sectarian whose theology, though interesting and admirable, is also eccentric and unrealistic. You, as a reader, therefore begin with the […]

Toward a “Protesting” Labor Ethic

A review of A New Protestant Labor Ethic at Work by Ken Estey Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press ix and 150 pages Paper. $14.00. Reviewed by Wayne C. Stumme [1] Recently the two Lutheran synods and seminary in my community joined with others to sponsor an impressive conference entitled “The State of Faith: Ethics at […]

Reviews of Durable Goods

This review, originally published in and © Markets and Morality (Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 278-280), is available from Journal of Lutheran Ethics through a link to the Markets and Morality website. To read the article in HTML format, please use the following link: [ View article ] (McCann) This article, originally published and © […]

Commendable Realism

Review of Durable Goods: A Covenantal Ethic for Management and Employees by Stewart W. Herman. Soundings: A Series of Books on Ethics, Economics and Business. University of Notre Dame Press, 1997. Pbk., 256 pp. ISBN 0-268-00885-X. $20.00. [1] I have long thought that Stewart Herman’s Durable Goods: A Covenantal Ethic for Management and Employees is […]

Review of Herman’s Durable Goods

This article, originally published and (c) March 1999 in Theological Studies (p198) is available from Journal of Lutheran Ethics for download in PDF. To download the article, use the following link: [ Download PDF ]

Review of John W. De Gruchy’s Reconciliation: Restoring Justice

[1] Is there a place for Christian insights about reconciliation beyond the realm of the personal and private? Even more, is it possible that these same insights can help pave the way to a more deeply reconciled national identity in South Africa? John W. De Gruchy has charted a difficult and courageous path indeed in […]

A Review of Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation by John Witte, Jr.

[1] John Witte is a well known and accomplished legal historian and the present volume does not disappoint. His thesis, explicitly stated in the Introduction is that: “It was the combination of theological and legal reforms that rendered the Lutheran Reformation so resolute and resilient” (p. 4). And he argues against those 20th century historians […]