Issue: October 2011

Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. Exordium A poem inspired by Genesis 4, the story of humanity’s first child. It’s entitled “Without You.”1 Back before the dawn, east of envy, error or wrong, that’s where I wish […]

Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. How It Is [1] The Christian historian Papias of Hierapolis surprises us when he lays down a principle (which turns out to be quite conventional) of assigning higher value to oral […]

[1] Welcome to the continuation of the excellent papers presented at the Association of Teaching Theologians. The papers posted this month, still heeding the call to address the theme of authority, are threefold: [2] Darrell Jodock, in Rethinking Authority in the Church Today addresses the nature of authority, the nature of authority in the church, […]

Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. [1] My concern is to sort out the kinds of authority that exist in the church. The Questions [2] Three basic, interlocking questions need to be considered. What is the nature […]

See Part II of this article by Susan Wilds McArver Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. [1] The decision by American Lutheran churches to ordain women, made in stages through joint study and church convention, used modern […]

[1] Sez You! [2] This well-known playground rejoinder (or am I the only one reading JLE who knows Brooklynese?) doesn’t characterize ecclesiastical disagreements. But it does get at the root of what they are often about. To put it in more refined terms befitting this journal: Who can exercise authority, and how is it properly […]

[1] Whether or not it’s true that change is the only constant in the universe, change has been the constant theme behind the scenes for the Journal of Lutheran Ethics in the past 10 months. As most JLE reader’s now know, editor Victor Thasiah has resigned his position with the ELCA’s churchwide office to teach […]

Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. [1] Let me begin by saying that I am not an historian; I am a theologian who works within a confessional tradition, frequently drawing on historical sources for constructive purposes. Reflecting […]

Copyright 2011 Lutheran University Press. This essay will be published by Lutheran University Press in a book entitled Sources of Authority in the Church. [1] A lot of our talks have been focusing on the issue of authority as power and process. I am going to focus on the issue of authority as truth, with […]

See also Response to Timothy J. Furry [1] The theological sense one makes of Constantine the Great reflects deeply on one’s other theological commitments. Beyond the painfully simplistic evaluations that Constantine’s reign was obviously a regrettable fall or that Constantine really was great, anyone interested in questions of theology, politics, and violence must attend carefully […]

See also Review of Peter Leithart’s, Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom [1] I am grateful to Timothy Furry for his careful and generous review of my book, and to the Rev. Michael Shahan for the opportunity to offer a brief response. Since Furry’s main criticisms concern my (mis)treatment […]

…a man’s religion is the chief fact with regard to him. – Thomas Carlyle, 1795–1881 [1] An impression I have of some of today’s newest Lutheran seminary graduates, and also of some rather seasoned Lutheran clergy, is that of relative indifference toward the nearly half-millennium old Lutheran heritage: i.e., towards Luther himself and his theology, […]