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.
From the Journal of Lutheran Ethics: Lutherans have a complex and complicated relationship with the public and organized struggle for social justice, especially when it involves political action and taking a prophetic stance. Calls for the church’s active involvement in social, economic and political causes is often viewed with suspicion. Luther himself had a complicated relation […]
The Hinxton Group, an international consortium on stem cells, ethics, and law, has published their Statement on Genome Editing Technologies and Human Germline Genetic Modification: “We acknowledge that when all safety, efficacy and governance needs are met, there may be morally acceptable uses of this technology in human reproduction, though further substantial discussion and debate […]
This 45 min. exchange from The National Constitution Center on various proposals of legislation regarding religious freedom and equal rights touches on several of the disparate, conflicting, and confusing issues in advocacy, practice, and the role of religion in the public square. While the discussion wanders a bit, it does serve as a way to […]
The Great Math Mystery: this 60 min. NOVA program on the nature of math addresses an old question that many students have never considered: is math a human invention that we impose on reality, or is math part of the nature of reality and already “put in place” which we then discover? One’s answer to […]
This 50 min. audio interview with two of the directors of the Vatican Observatory offers for students a thoughtful conversation with two Jesuit astronomers about science, faith, the Christian narrative, and the ways they think about research, the universe, and the love of God.
“Did Neanderthals Have Souls?” is a brief starter article that can be used to explore views and responses to the findings in paleoanthropology, human origins, human nature, and the image of God. The article includes the usual popularized ideas and will need additional content and sources to assist students with the larger discussion.
“United in Suffering” is a essay that can help students reflect on several views of martyrdom, past and present. From the article: “Christians look with horror at the martyrdoms of Christians in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. But we are not horrified enough. We cannot bear to ask what these martyrs might demand of […]
This brief article by David Talcott poses some questions about which students are puzzling but finding hard to articulate. Does being a man or a woman have any ethical significance for the way we live together in civil society? Is there is something irreducibly significant about being a man or being a woman. Talcott says our […]
Religion and the Social Sciences, edited by R.R. Reno and Barbara McClay (Cascade, 2015): More often than not it’s a class in the social science that challenges the faith of students, not a class in biology. Does critical understanding of our religious traditions, institutions, and convictions undercut them? Or can a modern social scientific approach deepen faith commitments, making […]
In “O Canada — Liberal evangelicalism: a case study,” church historian Mark Noll surveys several studies on the failure of the United Church of Canada to remain a vital institution. That failure could be described as essentially cultural rather than primarily theological, and that the problem had less to do with that church’s liberal evangelical character or its […]
