Issue: November/December 2012

[1] On the surface, it would appear that the two conversations featured in this issue of JLE could not have less in common. The first conversation is a response to Fritz Oehlschaeger’s recent book, Procreative Ethics: Philosophical and Christian Approaches to Questions at the Beginning of Life (Wipf & Stock, 2010). The second coalesces around […]

Introduction [1] Fritz Oehlschlaeger will be a new voice to many who read the Journal of Lutheran Ethics. A friend and conversation partner of the present writer, Oehlschlaeger is a lay theologian who deserves to be known for reasons I hope to make clear in the course of this essay. In this recent book, he […]

[1] The central philosophical question posed in Fritz Oehschlaeger’s Procreative Ethics and Paul Hinlicky’s review of the work relates to the origin and the identity of the self and the moral responsibilities of that self to others. Both works lead their readers towards a conclusion that we have moral responsibilities to those in our communities. […]

[1] Fritz Oehlschlaeger and Paul Hinlicky are gentlemen and scholars who walk their talk here at the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley. I am honored to work alongside them. We are allies at most points, but assigned dialogs such as this one call for highlighting differences. In fact there is not much higher praise […]

[1] Let me begin by thanking the Journal of Lutheran Ethics for making possible such extensive consideration of my Procreative Ethics: Philosophical and Christian Approaches to Questions at the Beginning of Life. I owe particular debts of gratitude to my friend Paul Hinlicky for his generous and detailed engagement with the book and to Jennifer […]

[1] The question concerning technology and religion2 typically confronts us today when skeptics and enthusiasts debate the reality and validity of computers’ mediation of theological experience, when dubious observers denounce the deleterious effects of digital technology on spirituality, or advocates praise the benefits of online piety. Some laud, some decry, some embrace, some recoil — […]

[1] An essay in a journal about Lutheran ethics must do two things by my view, it must say something practical about how we live together, and it must speak from a particular theological vantage point. This is a big target, too big. Fortunately, I have been graciously asked to tie this all together using […]

[1] There is no single question concerning technology and religion; the variety of technologies, their vast phenomena require attention to each and every instance to discern and evaluate their significance. A. K. M. Adam’s essay urges caution; it also charges communities to carefully evaluate technology from the various teachings and orientations that arise from the […]

[1] I like books that confirm my considered judgments, but I have come to like even more books that compel me to litter the margins with observations, questions and challenges. Transformative Lutheran Theologies, a collection of sixteen essays presenting feminist, womanist and mujerista perspectives, offers reading experiences of both types. My first question concerns the […]

[1] It’s November, Target has been full of Christmas décor since September, and the malls have been playing holiday music for a month. Thus we are typically singing the anthems of the Advent and Christmas seasons well before it is liturgically appropriate. Of all the hymns I am happy to sing outside of Advent, to […]

[This review is adapted, with permission, from a review of this book previously published in Trinity Seminary Review.] [1] In this first-ever volume of its kind, edited by Mary J. Streufert, ELCA Director for Justice for Women, the voices of sixteen well-known Lutheran women theologians from different racial, ethnic, and sexual-orientation backgrounds emerge, rise, and […]