Lutheran denominational history (includes ELCA, predecessor, and international ELC bodies)

[1] This Study takes as its starting point the conviction that “the vulnerability and defenselessness of humankind are the precondition for its capacity for openness and solidarity.” The study also identifies and rejects a second concept of vulnerability, which the authors apparently hope to defeat by way of reasoned argument. Insofar as they proceed as […]

[1] It is perhaps surprising that given the wide ethnic and religious pluralism that have long been characteristic of the United States, that there have not been more incidents of tension and conflict between different groups of Americans. Certainly there have been such incidents, often in times of war or national upheaval, and some of […]

“We are not what we know, but what we are willing to learn” -M.C. Bateson In the last years of study in the ELCA, we have learned that: Even as we confess one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, we hold different points of view about human sexuality; especially our church’s willingness to bless same-sex […]

[1] Elections present a host of questions that pertain to Lutheran involvement in politics. Given Luther’s emphasis on following conscience but the reality of political differences causing undo tension within the church, what exactly should Lutherans do? An examination of Lutheran history offers potential answers and, at the same time, frustrating ambiguity. [2] Lutherans historically […]

[1] Scott R. Murray, currently a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor in Houston, Texas, began this book as a dissertation at New Orleans Baptist Seminary. His work was motivated initially by what he perceived as an ethical libertinism in the ELCA’s human sexuality studies of the early 1990s. The goal of this book is to […]

[1] The next three issues of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics will focus on various dimensions of the theme: “Ethics and Family: An African American Perspective.” The theme emerged in conversations with several members of the Conference of International Black Lutherans (an association of African and African American Lutheran teaching theologians and bishops in the […]

[1] In the wake of the September 11, 2001 tragedies in New York City and Washington, D.C., and the subsequent “new kind of war” being waged by the United States and its coalition partners, it may be useful to review the statements relating to war and peace from the antecedent Lutheran church bodies of the […]