09/26/2025
Editor’s Introduction: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
[1] Martin Luther was a pastor, a husband, and a father. He was, also, a university professor. He was a tireless advocate for education for girls as well as boys, for the working poor as well as for the wealthy elite. He insisted to both parents and princes that they must provide education for all […]
For Congregational Discussion: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
The Journal of Lutheran Ethics is meant to be a bridge between congregations and the academy. This issue in particular is a good time to discuss the connection between our NECU schools and our ELCA churches. The following discussion questions can be used to lead a conversation on this relationship. Luther was both a pastor […]
The Calling of Lutheran Higher Education in Divisive Times
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
[1] As Executive Director of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU), I have a job description, but I have a vocation too. It is a calling that transcends the tasks of administration to touch the spiritual, intellectual, and moral life of our communities. To lead NECU is to be a steward of 28 […]
The Critical Role of Lutheran Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
Jose Marichal, Maya Goehner, Tyler Haug
[1] Artificial Intelligence is a highly contested topic. Many conversations in social, political, and academic contexts eventually turn to the implications of AI on job prospects, college success, and more.[i] [2] While discussing this topic can often feel overwhelming, the role of synthetic thinking produced by AI requires us to analyze the broader implications felt […]
Creating Mission-Based Statements in Lutheran Institutions of Higher Education
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
Christian Scharen, Linda E. Thomas
[1] Just days after the election, with the board of directors on campus for their fall meeting, then LSTC President, James Nieman, scraped his prepared board report. Instead, he shared five significant potential threats he saw to in the rhetoric of the U.S. President elect. He also gave theological responses to those. Nieman clearly stated, […]
The Future of Academic Freedom in ELCA Seminaries and Theological Education
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
Introduction [1] Over the past several decades, theological education has undergone significant changes due to declining enrollment and more recently a global pandemic. In response there have been seminary mergers with undergraduate institutions, widespread use of hybrid and on-line models of education, and closures. While changing winds have affected all seminaries, the ones who have […]
“The ICE Is Coming”: Reimagining Paul Revere’s Ride for Our Time
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
[1] In August, my daughter and I flew into Boston for a brief vacation in Western Massachusetts before I drove her to a university in Rhode Island. We spent one night in a town called Revere, not far from the airport. The next day, we began our journey to a vacation village in Hancock, a […]
Book Editor’s Introduction: October/November 2025
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
[1] In this edition we include two singular book reviews that deal with a constructive proposal for Christian Ethics and social engagement, and a guidepost for examining the church’s place and role in the world. [2] Jason Mahn’s review of Angela Carpenter’s Grace and Social Ethics: Gift as the Foundation of Our Life Together, offers […]
Book Review: Grace and Social Ethics: Gift as the Foundation of Our Life Together by Angela Carpenter
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
[1] On Sunday, July 20, 2025, my Lutheran congregation sang these lines from “Lord You Give the Great Commission” (ELW #579): Lord, you show us love’s true measure: “Father, what they do, forgive.” Yet we hoard as private treasure all that you so freely give. May your care and mercy lead us to a just […]
Book Review: How the Light Shines Through: Resilient Witness in Dark Times by Chad Lakies
October/November 2025: Lutheran Responses to the Crises in Higher Education (Volume 25 Issue 6)
[1] Chad Lakies’s argument in his book How the Light Shines Through: Resilient Witness in Dark Times challenges the church to take seriously the pluralistic secular age we live within and approaches theology and faith in a new way but does not encourage the church to lose its own identity in the process. This book […]