Book Reviews

[1] John Witte, Jr. in his book Law and Protestantism notes that “many legal historians have tended to deprecate the 16th century in general and Lutheran theology in particular.” Some “have dismissed the ‘Reformation’ altogether as a historian’s fiction and a historical failure.”[1] But this book invites us to take a second look at the […]

With this December issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, we bring the second installment in our series of notes on books addressing genetic engineering. For interested readers, the first of these columns appeared in the September issue. Works reviewed in this month’s column: David B. Resnik et al., Human Germline Gene Therapy Phillip Kitcher, […]

[1] This passionate, clearly-written book is a post-Euro-American essay in Lutheran theological ethics. Which helps to explain its considerable strengths and some of its unfinished business. [2] Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda teaches Christian ethics at Seattle University. She writes from the perspective of an intense Third World experience. She served for a number of years as […]

[1] The year 1950 has been described as the “crossroads of American religious life.”[1] It was a paradoxical time of oppressive anxiety and intoxicating prosperity. Anxiety was fed by events and situations that had thrust Post-World War II America into a frightening new world: the Cold War and threats of Communist espionage and subversion; atomic […]

[1] A remembered chapter-title from a now all but forgotten high school history text lives in my mind with the vitality of a banner whipped by the wind! This is the title, “The Promise and Hope of American Life”. Phrases have a way of sticking, or gathering up into themselves over the years multitudes of […]

[1] One of the fruits of the 1997 North American Lutheran-Reformed Formula of Agreement was its development of the concept “mutual affirmation and mutual admonition.” Given a common core of shared belief, each brings to the other a fresh charism and a corrective of reductionist tendencies. The Journal’s request for a Reformed perspective on Lutheran […]

A review of Executive Values: A Christian Approach to Organizational Leadership [1] The claim of this book is quite clear: “We will be successful, whatever we do and wherever we go, if we faithfully follow the Golden Rule of Leadership, and live our life for an audience of one – Jesus Christ” (p. 158). This […]

[1] A significant number of books have appeared in recent years that address the subject of ethics in view of the spirit of relativism that is deeply rooted in our pluralistic culture. Daniel Lee’s book makes a distinctive contribution in addressing this challenge. Lee, Professor of Religion at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois has […]

[1] The analysis of most public policies is a two stage affair. First we ask: Should we adopt this policy (unemployment insurance, minimum wage legislation, regulations on abortion, etc)? The second, if the answer to the first question is yes, is: How should the policy be structured? Taxes are different. All governments have always had […]

[1] Upon finishing Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living, a collection of forty sermons preached by the Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes, to the multicultural, cosmopolitan congregation of Harvard’s Memorial Church, my soul spoke to me saying, “Peter Gomes may be a twenty-first century Don Quixote, daring to ‘Dream the Impossible Dream,’ of the coming […]