Issue: April 2014: Deliberation

The United States Senate has been called “the world’s most deliberative body.” It carefully considers proposals for public policy and is, therefore, engaged in “legislative deliberation.” By contrast, this issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics focuses on the current commitment to and emerging emphasis upon deliberation in the life and work of the Evangelical […]

​There are many different philosophies of ethics. Which ones have informed the ELCA and how has that changed over its 25 year history? Dr. Roger Willer, Director for Theological Ethics in the Office of the Presiding Bishop, charts out the ELCA’s use of responsibility ethics, including what still has yet to be done.

Simpson situates the ELCA and its ethical discernments within the greater history of Lutheranism in 20th Century America, noting its goal of being a “community of moral deliberation.” ​​How is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America really Lutheran when looking at its theology, and does that reflect such a community?

​The concept of a community of moral deliberation is a unique philosophy of the ELCA. Anderson locates how the ELCA at a denomination level lives out this ethic and explores the possibilities of congregations becoming the source of the ELCA’s energy regarding commununal moral deliberation. The need for local communities to explore theology and social issues is increasingly pressing as a new generation is coming of age with more individualistic attitudes.​

[1] This helpful volume contains essays by Foster McCurley, Samuel Torvend, Carter Lindberg, Eric Gritsch, Carl Uehling, Robert Duea, and Martin Marty. It also includes a summary of a roundtable discussion of the Future’s Group, an informal gathering of chief executive officers of Lutheran social ministry organizations. Topics covered range from the biblical basis for […]

Christian Social Teachings: A Reader in Christian Social Ethics from the Bible to the Present. George W. Forell, Editor, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2013.