Items included for this subject area 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.
Churches & Political Activity – The Call to Repeal the Johnson Amendment: students and others interested in politics and the church can assess this effort to explain a long-debated issue. One of the two-kingdoms concerns: Who gets to decide what is “religious” and what is “political,” and how would that be done?
How God as Trinity Dissolves Racism: The widespread Christian failure to understand and experience God as Trinity has provided a breeding ground for both implicit and explicit racism. This brief essay offers students a way to consider unity and distinction among the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve by starting with Father, Son, and Holy […]
The Merits of Using “Worldview” in Religious Education: Worldview is a useful concept in religious education because of its encompassing character. Three characteristics of “worldview” are distinguished: religious and secular views; organized and personal worldviews; and existential questions.
From the intro: Perhaps as much as any other election, Christians have a vested interest in this one. The Bible has not changed, and the doctrine of the two kingdoms remains the same, but culturally and societally life for the American Christian, who holds dual citizenship in the temporal and spiritual kingdoms, has taken on a […]
From Meilaender’s book, Neither Beast nor God: To be human is to learn to live and love within limits—the limits of our embodied, mortal life, the limits of those whose being opens to God. It is to acknowledge, honor, and esteem the particular place—between the beasts and God—that we occupy in the creation. One need […]
The Vocation Movement in Lutheran Higher Education: This article from the Executive Director for the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities argues that vocation is the a raison d’etre for ELCA colleges if that “no longer means being a college almost exclusively populated by Lutherans?’” The reader can weigh the validity of the case.
The Good (and Bad) News About Christian Higher Education: ‘Christian colleges are as strong as they’ve been since the 1920s,’ says historian William Ringenberg. But there are challenges on the horizon. This interview explores several current issues in Christian higher education including institutional identity, academic freedom, the role of the Christian scholar, and concern for increasing […]
Does religion poison everything? Marvin Olasky shares his notes from a debate with Christopher Hitchens, one of the radical atheists of the 2000s. Students can use these notes to assemble their own apologetic when discussing Christianity with their spiritual-but-not-religious peers.
For those monitoring the emerging research on the nature and nurture issues of LGBT matters, see the Fall edition of the New Atlantis, Special Report–Sexuality and Gender, and responses such as those from Warren Throckmorton at Grove City College, “The Editor of The New Atlantis Responds to My Critique of the Mayer and McHugh Article.” The […]
What Role Should the Bible Have in Society? This 38 min video panel discussion includes Alister McGrath, Tim Keller, Brian McClaren, and Dempsy Rasoles-Acosta. They consider how best to convey the Scriptures to our times and how the Bible is or isn’t authoritative in our lives today–questions that congregations and Christian colleges must also consider.
