Issue: July 2004

Volume 4 Number 7

Biblical Perspectives on Education

[1] I have been invited to draft an essay regarding biblical perspectives on education. The specific context for this essay is the preparation of a social statement on education by the ELCA. Two qualifications need to be stated at the outset. The first qualification is that the communities that formed the Bible did not share […]

Congregations as Communities of Moral Deliberation?

[1] It has been said that “May you live in interesting times” was an ancient Chinese curse. Surely ours qualify as “interesting times.” Difficulties surround us on international, national, regional, local, familial, and personal levels. The issues-the “war on terror,” the conflict in Iraq, the ongoing devastation of world and local hunger, the economic disparities […]

Take a Cruise on the Ship of Fools

[1] I wonder if church can be “church” if you are not face to face with other people gathered to be together as a believing community. I wonder if being together, physically together is mandatory for “church”? If your first reaction is to say being physically present is mandatory, then www.shipoffools.com is not church. [2] […]

Vocation: The Crux of the Matter

But yield who will to their separation, My object in living is to unite My avocation and my vocation As my two eyes make one in sight. Only where love and need are one, And the work is play for mortal stakes, Is the deed ever really done For Heaven and the future’s sakes. Concluding […]