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.
This exemplary discourse between two thoughtful and informed Christian scholars serves as a model for students in how to engage in constructive exchange about a vexing culture shift, in this case the topics of transgender, gender dysphoria, and gender identity. Linked first here is Robert Gagnon’s response article as a fast way to understand the […]
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 […]
“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 […]
Point and counter-point on the functions of God’s left-hand kingdom: two views from First Things: Can Civil Society Fix Us? More to the point, the writer wonders whether civil society as a disparate collection of communities can offer the same challenge to the expansive state that the imposing edifice of the medieval church did to the […]
In “The Supreme Court, 9-0, on student organizations’ ‘freedom to express the thought that we hate,’” UCLA Law Prof. Eugene Volokh offers a perspective on students, free speech, and campus organizations. The Court “made clear that, while reasonable and viewpoint-neutral restrictions on student group membership policies are constitutional, viewpoint-based restrictions on student group speech are unconstitutional.” (Some […]
How do the students in our classrooms today make sense or nonsense out of sex? This nine paragraph essay, “Sex and Tradition” by Peter Leithart, sets out a polemic for which they will need a little background and assistance to sort out. But a session or two will enable them to consider this theme’s cultural […]
In his essay, “Ghosts in the Secular Age,” Ross Douthat proposes three variations for the future of secularism: 1) one worldview among many; 2) a buffered, perceptually closed mindset; 3) the privatization of the spiritual. The article can be used in courses in modern history, philosophy, sociology, church and society, world religions, psychology, and systematic […]
