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.
The news museum in Wash. DC, the Newseum Institute, and the libertarian organization, Spiked, sponsored a 1 hr. panel discussion on religion and free speech. The panel includes representatives from the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Secular Policy Institute, the Acton Institute, and an independent legal commentator. Students can consider the several views set out in this […]
OT scholar David Lamb notes that the Old Testament is full of sexual violence. We read of rapists, pimps, and other perpetrators of sexual exploitation. Every day we hear about sexual assaults on college campuses, in the military, and even in churches. Sadly, many of us are no longer shocked when we hear such horrific news. Stories […]
Says William Carroll in “Mind the Gap”: Before we rush to embrace transhumanism, it is crucial to ask what it means to be human. Can a mechanistic understanding of mental function sufficiently apprehend what it is to be human? Or does the mind (and, more generally, the soul) remain radically other than, and not reducible to, physical […]
This article on “Life After Death” considers whether it is ethical to use vaccines that save millions of lives but are derived from the tissue of aborted children. Some pro-life advocates “have a deep aversion” to using vaccines that may contain “the remains of an aborted child,” says Debi Vinnedge, founder of Children of God for […]
“Was There an Exodus?” is a very readable essay series in Mosaic that examines the long-standing debate about whether the Exodus actually occurred. Not just for Biblical studies, the themes can apply to the social sciences, history, the sciences, and any class that accesses the past to understand the present. This exchange can help students […]
This brief profile about “More Students, Secular but Feeling a Call, Turn to Divinity Schools” discusses those “religion: none” students who can be found at divinity schools around the country, especially those schools inclined toward theologically and politically liberal Protestantism, such as Harvard and Chicago Theological Seminary. These schools “offer even atheists and spiritual seekers a language of […]
This position statement from the American Principles Project proposes a four-part strategy to regard the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision not as a matter of settled law (cf. Dred Scott, Roe, etc.). Joined by 60 scholars from several disciplines, the statement says, “To treat as ‘settled’ and ‘the law of the land’ the decision of […]
This position piece from Sojourner’s Domestic Violence in the Bible series argues that Christians have a responsibility to address domestic violence in general and the well-being of women in particular. “Christians need to do a better job when it comes to preventing violence and abuse in our congregations and communities,” especially those Christians who are […]
From LiveScience, this brief article about evolutionary psychology and religion serves as a convenient inventory of the usual and now popularized claims about the human origins of religion. Links to sources are also included. The brief article can be used to introduce students to these ideas often cited in the popular press, then follow that […]
The Evangelical Origins of the Living Constitution by John Compton (Harvard Univ Press, 2014) argues for a revisionist view that nineteenth-century evangelical Protestants, not New Deal reformers, paved the way for the most important constitutional developments of the twentieth century. Says reviewer David Skeel: “A ‘living constitution’ is not tethered to the Founding Fathers’ intent or the literal […]
