Journal of Lutheran Ethics: The Podcast Episode 2 “Unpacking Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times”

Amy Carr is a Professor of Religious Studies at Western Illinois University in the Department of Race, Religion, Gender, and Multidisciplinary Studies. She also leads adult education at Trinity Lutheran Church of Macomb and has fostered ecumenical conversations about civic life and faith and about abortion. She studied at Carleton College (BA in Religion), Vanderbilt Divinity School (M.Div.), and the University of Chicago (PhD in Theology). She is currently working on a book for a Cascade series on Lutheran reconstructions of doctrine called Facing Divine Affliction: A Lutheran Theodicy for the Sinned-Against. She also participates in state-wide conversations about higher ed as WIU's representative on the Faculty Advisory Council to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Christine Helmer holds the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Chair of Humanities at Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, where she is also Professor of German and Religious Studies. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2017 from the Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki. Dr. Helmer is an internationally renowned scholar of: Martin Luther, specifically the relation of Luther’s theology to medieval philosophy; Friedrich Schleiermacher, particularly his exegetical theology and the role of dialectics in his theology; the early twentieth-century Luther Renaissance; and historical/constructive theology. She is the author of five books, including the co-authored (with Amy Carr) work, Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times, and has edited (or co-edited) thirteen volumes. Dr. Helmer is instructor of the free online course, “Luther and the West” (on coursera.org). She is completing a book in constructive theology, Theology: Explorations of World, Self, and God, and co-editing (with Jacqueline Mariña) a volume on Schleiermacher and democracy.