Book Reviews

[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 […]

[1] Witnessing for Peace: In Jerusalem and the World, written by Munib Younan and edited by Fred Strickert is available from Fortress Press, Minneapolis and is copyright 2003. xiv + 169 pp., paper, $16.00. For more information, or for purchase information, please visit the Fortress Web site. [2] This book by the bishop of the […]

[1] Must Christianity be Violent? “Of course not!” is the obvious answer of any faithful Christian. However, that is the title of this book, a compendium of lectures sponsored in March 2000 by the Center for Applied Christian Ethics of Wheaton College (Illinois). The impetus of these lectures was to engage the concern often leveled […]

[1] Must Christianity -defined as that theological ethos whose normative basis is the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ – be violent? This question, the title of the third book to be reviewed below, is answered with a definite “yes” by the first and emphatic “no” by the second. [2] To be sure, the […]

[1] One of Sharon Welch’s gifts is to take a common ethical question and discuss it in ways few have imagined. She transforms questions into prisms which invite us to turn them in the light and meditate on what the resulting refractions might mean for our moral vision. In After Empire, Welch approaches an issue […]

[1] On Sunday, January 20, 2005, three days after the “Report and Recommendations” of the task force for the ELCA Studies on Sexuality was released, there was no mention of the report, no notice in our bulletin, at my local church. In this respect, our response to this report was no different from our response […]

[1] Robert Benne’s The Paradoxical Vision: A Public Theology for the Twenty-first Century first appeared five years in advance of that century. A decade later there is plenty of the century left and the need for religious traditions to be constructively engaged with their “public environment-the economic, political, and cultural spheres of our common life” […]

[1] “When [the American Churches] are less able and willing to form their members spiritually or morally, [they] put heavier emphasis on their role as public actors.” (p.189) Anyone who has come to think that his\her denomination is just publishing too many “social statements” and is doing a bit too much lobbying, might jump for […]

[1] There is no more timely book than The Paradoxical Vision. Given issues like war, peace, sexuality, and how the “public” voice of the Christian community ought to be expressed, this book provides a theological and ethical framework that is vital. Its vitality lies in a clear articulation of Lutheran “public theology” or “social ethics.” […]