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.
If We are Not Just Animals, What Are We? There is something in the human condition that suggests the need for special treatment. Almost all people believe that it is a crime to kill an innocent person, but not to kill an innocent tapeworm. And almost all people regard tapeworms as incapable of innocence in […]
Betsy DeVos’s Misunderstood Alma Mater: Calvin College is no fundamentalist Christian school — Students can use this profile of Calvin College to compare their own campus and perceptions, and how their friends perceive Christian higher education. “Calvin is a school that has produced both DeVos and Paul Schrader, the writer behind both Taxi Driver and […]
Concordia Journal, Winter/Spring 2017: Five feature articles on key Ref 500 themes and topics including “Luther, Learning, and Reformation: a Look at Then with Some Thoughts for Now” by Robert Rosin: “Without the ‘New Learning’ as the liberal arts revival was called, Luther’s Reformation simply would not have happened.”
Is It Time for Evangelicals to Strategically Withdraw from the Culture? For a few years, Rod Dreher has been exploring the idea of the local congregation stepping out of culture stream. He is not proposing a new monasticism–but some are not sure precisely what the implications are of such a withdrawal. Here is a four-part […]
Religions must speak to the faithless, as well as to each other: This brief essay can assist students with considering the current challenges both of religions explaining themselves to each other as well as to a parallel world that has no religious language or concepts.
Communal Living and its Discontents: This first-person and review essay can help introduce students to the utopia movement and includes discussion of Christian communal living. The piece also serves as a reflection on biblical anthropology and human nature. Another piece on Christian communities can be found at GetReligion: The Wall Street Journal explores trends in Christian […]
How the FBI Is Hobbled by Religious Illiteracy: As religion takes an ever-higher profile in America’s national-security concerns, the FBI will play a crucial role in determining how groups are treated. Steven Weitzman, Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses his new book about the history of the FBI […]
In Religious Freedom Debate, 2 American Values Clash: This 7 min. audio clip summarizes the current debate about freedom of religion and nondiscrimination. Students will hear a concise overview that concludes with no resolution, preparing them for further study on how a constitutional democracy can manage and mismanage these and many other rights and values […]
What Kind of Freedom Does a Republic Promise? — Students can consider terms, themes, and biblical congruence and non-congruence in this essay that argues, A righteous republic is based on a certain vision of the common good—and not just any vision, but a vision that draws deeply on prophetic religion. That is what makes it […]
An Essay by Mustafa Akyol, author of The Islamic Jesus: How the King of the Jews Became a Prophet of the Muslims (St. Martin’s Press, 2017): Jesus claimed to be the very savior–the Messiah–that his people awaited. But unlike other Messiah claimants of his time, he did not unleash an armed rebellion against Rome. He did […]
