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.
Women’s Mental Health and Well-being 5 Years After Receiving or Being Denied an AbortionA Prospective, Longitudinal Cohort Study — Here is the JAMA study on whether there are associations between having or being denied an abortion with women’s mental health and well-being. Students can study the research and assess it for methodology, reports on it from […]
Were Neanderthals Religious? What exactly is religion? This article can introduce the question in a brief and current way, setting up the usual issues of the transcendent, the numinous, symbol and concept, and whether religion is what we do to bind ourselves (ligio) to God, or what God has done in Christ to connect himself […]
How I Learned To Love Statistics — And Why You Should, Too: A theoretical physicist who hated stats now offers this apologia for understanding and using statistics. Students can consider his views on data, truth, and what we can know and not know now that the word post-truth is in the OED.
Opposing ends of the spectrum: Exploring trust in scientific and religious authorities — This study examines public trust in scientific and religious authorities for information about the risks and benefits of science including values, knowledge, media attention, and trust in religious organizations and scientific institutions. See also commentary, For Some, Scientists Aren’t The Authority On Science.
Answering the biggest question of all: why is there something rather than nothing? — Students can get a start on Liebniz’ question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” with this brief essay. The author summarizes the usual responses from theism to multiple universes while leaving the question open.
Are Religious Kids Meaner or Nicer? A Christian sociologist responds to two closely followed but contradictory studies and what they tell us about science. The contradictory studies raise larger questions about the role of research in understand the social world around us as well as the church. Flawed science like one of these study provides justification […]
The Surprising Theological Possibilities of Virtual Reality: “What has Silicon Valley to do with Jerusalem?” Why should Christians care about this new wave of technology, and what are we to think of it? How do Christians, who are both consumers and creators of culture, react to this new medium?
Mind In The Natural World: Can Physics Explain It? — This brief, subtle essay considers a new book that makes some philosophical leaps about science that need some attention rather than being given a “pass.” Students may have to read it a couple of times and get a little help in seeing the point. But the […]
Accidental Tools: A Difference In Our Ancestors And Monkeys — A set of brief essays that can provoke students with the “and then God said” discussion: Capuchin monkeys are tool users par excellence. They use tools to dig, to open fruit, and to smash rocks together. Whatever we say about this, it is striking that the […]
God and the genome: A geneticist seeks allies among the faithful: Is the human genome sacred? Does editing it violate the idea that we’re made in God’s image or, perhaps worse, allow us to “play God”? Harvard Geneticist Ting Wu’s Wu is making the case that one of the most visceral scientific debates of our time need not be […]
True Paradox: How Christianity Make Sense of Our Complex World by David Skeel (Veritas Books IVP, 2014)
David Skeel teaches corporate law at the UofPenn Law School. This book calmly presents five chapters in 160 pages that explain the Christian account of life to a skeptical, distracted, yet still-interested society. No simple answers here to human complexities. Rather, Skeel discusses how these complexities point us toward Christ.
