Items included on this page come from a variety of sources. The perspectives conveyed may or may not express a Lutheran ethos. They can serve our instruction as discussion-starters, examples (positive and negative), and illustrations of intersections between God’s two kingdoms, intersections sometimes characterized by tension, sometimes by congruence. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
After the Exile: Poetry and the Death of Culture — The pagan was closer to van Dyke and Tennyson than we are. They have poetry, and we do not. We are a people now illiterate in a way that is unprecedented for the human race. We can decipher linguistic signs on a page, but we have […]
Word and Image: Martin Luther’s Reformation: The Morgan Library & Museum in NYC offers a dozen online displays of its major exhibition for Ref 500 including Young Martin, Works of Art in Medieval and Early Modern Devotion, the Reformation Media War, Luther on Trial, the Bible, the Art of Reformation, and Luther’s Household Objects.
Terry Waite: 25 years ago, Waite was daily news–a hostage negotiator taken hostage for five years by terrorists in Lebanon. These two recent items examine his analysis of the Middle East, his poetry, and his faith. For example, Waite has come to value corporate silence, “which is something sadly lacking in our society today,” and the […]
Why Hell Can’t Freeze Over: Quantum Physics And Absolute Zero — We frequently hear popular references to “quantum” in movies and TV. Here is a brief, readable intro to the basic themes in classical “common sense” physics and the quantum world. Instructors and students in various disciplines–psychology, theology, lit, math, and others–can consider the implications.
Reforming Music: harmony and discord in the sixteenth century — The Lutheran Reformation impacted heavily on the lives of innumerable people, on their faith, but also on the artistic and cultural output of the era and of the following centuries. This series examines how music and faith intertwined, how they influenced each other, how they […]
Love of Literature Feeds Karen Swallow Prior’s Faith: “There is a literary way of approaching not just literature, but culture and the church,” says this English professor at Liberty University, author, pro-life activist, and research fellow with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention—all roles that require her to share her faith […]
Christ’ Three-Fold Coming in Music: The Christmas Oratorio’s musical beauty and theological simplicity drive home the power of Christ’s coming in all its forms in order to help bring about the coming of Christ in the hearts of its hearers, while pointing them toward the final coming of Christ at its end.
Bach’s Holy Dread: Scholarship tends to secularize Bach. But the historically informed performance movement helps restore awareness of his firm theological grounding, bringing Bach’s spirituality to the forefront. To what extent does he faithfully transmit Lutheran doctrine? What did he privately believe?
Hollywood discovers God! Again! — New York Times headline the other day: “Secular Hollywood Quietly Courts the Faithful.” The basic message of this in-depth business feature was that this is a topic that is not new and that it is not going away, in part because Hollywood has entered an era in which making profitable […]
Love, Liberal Education, and the Secret of Human Identity: A truly Christian education in the liberal arts can raise the soul to see a glimmer of what Dante wishes for us to see. I have become painfully aware of the chasm between those who love the liberal arts, what I have called the free-making arts, and […]
