Divorced, Remarried, and Catholic: Please Don’t Change Church Practice — This first person essay from a divorced Catholic (“My Plea”) argues for maintaining that tradition’s divorce exclusion from the Eucharist. As a discussion artifact, students may find much to respond to, pro and con, in considering marriage, culture, and ways in which the church is […]
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.
"Open Book" by R. Marxhausen: the Bible, the book open to us all
Religious Belief and Faith as Rational
Religious Belief and Faith as Rational — These two Cosmos and Culture articles can be used to introduce the reader or student to current themes in psychology and religion. While the ideas are not new (Hume, Schlierermacher, Otto, etc.), these themes are being reexamined in today’s context of the cognitive sciences which may actually tend […]
What is Marriage Now?
What is Marriage Now? — This Christian Century cover-story-plus-comments on a 1 Cor. 7 case for same-sex marriage may serve as a useful discussion piece for Christianity and culture, exegesis and social issues, and personal engagement in controversial matters for the church.
New Christian Voices: Tim Dalrymple and Patheos
New Christian Voices — A fifteen minute video interview with Tim Dalrymple, editor of the Evangelical channel at the Patheos website. Dalrymple, who has a special interest in Kierkegaard, took a new direction after an injury as a world class gymnast at Stanford, doing graduate work at Princeton and Harvard, then expanding the Patheos Evangelical […]
God’s Word Produces Faith and Fruit
God’s Word Produces Faith and Fruit — A helpful 7 page essay from Robert Kolb on the priesthood of all believers and vociation: “One of the ways any Christian community bears fruit is in how its care for each other overflows into genuine mutual care for the neighbors and strangers in their midst.”
Five Guidelines for Christians in a Pluralistic Society
Five Guidelines for Christians in a Pluralistic Society — Protestant Christianity is losing the mainstream status it once enjoyed. Law Professor John Inazu suggests ways to model a winsome faith in this changing cultural context.
Exploring Vocation: Undergrad Education as a Quest for Purpose
Exploring Vocation: Undergrad Education as a Quest for Purpose — An update on the Lilly Endowment program for Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) that challenged 88 universities affiliated with a variety of Christian denominations to examine their educating for the Christian’s calling and purpose. See also www.resourcingChristianity.org).
Art and Craft: Free Will, Sin, Biochemistry, Art Forgery, Psychopathology, and Jurisprudence
Art and Craft: Free Will, Sin, Biochemistry, Art Forgery, Psychopathology, and Jurisprudence — Very hard to categorize, this remarkable case involves a bipolar forger who gives away his work under false but not criminal pretenses. Students may find this a fascinating cross-discipline case study involving theology, biology, psychology, criminology, and assorted other -ologies.
Cracks in the Secular
Cracks in the Secular — James K.A. Smith proposes that the emerging normative secularism is not emerging but gasping: “What if an increasingly “secularized” society is not the final victory of some Enlightenment myth in which history ends in unbelief, but rather as the final unsustainable part of a long detour we’ve taken in the […]
How Jesuits Schools are Transforming Urban Education
How Jesuit Schools are Transforming Urban Education — An overview of the Cristo Rey Network offering eight lessons all schools could learn from these parochial college prep schools.
