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.
“Give A Donation, Ask For Naming Rights” is a 4 min. audio clip that considers new trends and expectations in gifts, funding, and institutional advancement and identity. Joan Weill, wife of Citigroup billionaire Sandy Weill, announced a donation of $20 million to small Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondack Mountains with a string attached: She insisted that the […]
A steady stream of news stories has emerged over the past few years regarding the free speech of Christians on campuses. A simple Google search of student free speech news on their Web search page and their News search page will produce many case studies that students can sort and sift for issues in religious […]
Elizabeth Corey, associate professor of political science and director of the Honors Program at Baylor University, offers this essay in which she argues that, “Within a Christian university, the legitimate goods of diversity must be balanced against a notion of unity, an idea of the particular ‘constitution’ of a place—its heritage, its tradition, and the constituency […]
One of Luther’s best known writings is, “Can Soldiers, Too, Be Saved?” This article, Ponder Christian Soldiers, commences a new online series that explores the world and faith concerns of Christians who serve in the military: “Pacifists, one the one hand, deny or downplay the impact that military service had on King David, Francis of […]
“Daniel Callahan on Communitarian Bioethics” is a mid-length interview with the founder of the Hastings Center, the leading study- and thinktank in bioethics. Students can gain a helpful survey of the field in this discussion. Callahan’s forthcoming books is Five Horsemen of the Modern World: Disease, Food, Water, Chronic Illness, Obesity (Columbia University Press, 2016)
This human interest piece from The Daily Beast discusses a distressing case of child illness and likely death. Students will find interesting the case itself and the ethical issues–but also the writer’s characterization of religion, “heaven” put in quotation marks, and assertions about what is certain and what is not. Hebr. 11:1-3 comes to mind. […]
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 […]
In this essay, “Integrating Faith and Learning with the Trinity,” Mary Korte argues for a robust application of theology to the curriculum and presents a thorough discussion of such an application to the environmental sciences: “The goal at a Lutheran university should not be to integrate a generic spirituality, an inoffensive but vapid Christianity, or a […]
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 […]
According to the new Pew Research Center report, the share of the public saying science and religion are often in conflict is up modestly from 55% in 2009, but the parsed results are mixed. People’s sense of conflict between religion and science has less to do with their own religious beliefs than it does with […]
