Churches & Political Activity – The Call to Repeal the Johnson Amendment: students and others interested in politics and the church can assess this effort to explain a long-debated issue. One of the two-kingdoms concerns: Who gets to decide what is “religious” and what is “political,” and how would that be done?
How God as Trinity Dissolves Racism: The widespread Christian failure to understand and experience God as Trinity has provided a breeding ground for both implicit and explicit racism. This brief essay offers students a way to consider unity and distinction among the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve by starting with Father, Son, and Holy […]
The Merits of Using “Worldview” in Religious Education: Worldview is a useful concept in religious education because of its encompassing character. Three characteristics of “worldview” are distinguished: religious and secular views; organized and personal worldviews; and existential questions.
From the intro: Perhaps as much as any other election, Christians have a vested interest in this one. The Bible has not changed, and the doctrine of the two kingdoms remains the same, but culturally and societally life for the American Christian, who holds dual citizenship in the temporal and spiritual kingdoms, has taken on a […]
From Meilaender’s book, Neither Beast nor God: To be human is to learn to live and love within limits—the limits of our embodied, mortal life, the limits of those whose being opens to God. It is to acknowledge, honor, and esteem the particular place—between the beasts and God—that we occupy in the creation. One need […]
The Vocation Movement in Lutheran Higher Education: This article from the Executive Director for the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities argues that vocation is the a raison d’etre for ELCA colleges if that “no longer means being a college almost exclusively populated by Lutherans?’” The reader can weigh the validity of the case.
Why Give Alms? It is unlikely that the solutions relevant to the particularities of ancient circumstances could be simply adopted for our world. Those ancient efforts might, however, inspire our own efforts to help others. Historians Peter Brown and David Downs demonstrate the timeless importance of heated discussions of this responsibility in all of its […]
The Good (and Bad) News About Christian Higher Education: ‘Christian colleges are as strong as they’ve been since the 1920s,’ says historian William Ringenberg. But there are challenges on the horizon. This interview explores several current issues in Christian higher education including institutional identity, academic freedom, the role of the Christian scholar, and concern for increasing […]
Does religion poison everything? Marvin Olasky shares his notes from a debate with Christopher Hitchens, one of the radical atheists of the 2000s. Students can use these notes to assemble their own apologetic when discussing Christianity with their spiritual-but-not-religious peers.
Why Do We Judge Parents For Putting Kids At Perceived — But Unreal — Risk? This extensive discussion examines changing cultural norms and perceptions about protecting and over-protecting children. Using some recent research, the article includes moral analysis, which students can assess with various ethical theories including a Lutheran ethic.
