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| Dying Well - What Have Churches Said? by Roger Willer, Guest Editor What does it mean to die well in this culture? Last January that question brought together nearly 50 Lutheran ethicists, pastors, chaplains, hospital and hospice care-givers at the annual Lutheran Ethicists' Gathering for a rich and wide-ranging discussion. The April and May issues of JLE are dedicated to sharing key insights for its audience by presenters to the Gathering. Like sharing news of a superb hole-in-the wall restaurant, we want others to benefit from the excellent fare of last January. Last month’s writers looked back and forward, if you will; back to the Reformation and forward with a proposal for improving on standard approaches to ethics used in end-of-life questions. This month's writers introduce and thereby juxtapose a U.S. and a European church document respectively, that provides perspectives on the moral and pastoral issues of faithfulness in dying. Read more. | |
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| European Protestant Churches Reflect on End-of-Life Issues by Ulla Schmidt In her article, Schmidt examines the document “A time to live, and a time to die” a document created and adopted by Community of Protestant Churches in Europe. Grounded in Protestant theology, the document intends to guide the leaders and parishioners of CPCE's member churches to think about this complex ethical issue, considering both the public voice of the church as an institution and for people struggling with these issues in their own families.
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| Commending Life's End to God: The ELCA Message on “End-of-Life Decisions” After Two Decades by Aaron Klink Luther's sermons and letters of pastoral counsel speak eloquently about the ability of faithful Christians to face death confidently trusting God's promises in the Gospel. In that spirit, the ELCA adopted a social message on “End-of-Life Decisions” in 1992 that picks up this tradition of speaking honestly and faithfully to issues faced by the dying and their loved ones. As a hospital chaplain, Klink explores the gifts of the 1992 message and ponders what issues and questions might need further work from a Lutheran perspective given the changes in technological, medical and social climate over the last two decades. | |
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| Diasporic Feminist Theology: Asia and Theopolitical Imagination by Namsoon Kang Review by James Childs Namsoon Kang is professor of world Christianity and religions at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth Texas. The book is a collection of previously published essays. Though each of the essays/chapters have their own integrity and distinctiveness, they do reinforce one another and combine to build a coherent picture of the author’s vision of today’s complex world as the imposing context for a theopolitically engaged feminist theology. The book is through and through an enterprise in setting the table for doing feminist theology in our globalized world. However, in the process, her analyses, insights, and cautions are important for the totality of the Christian witness and the theology that informs it.
Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women’s Lives Matter by Traci C. West Review by Laurie A. Jungling Disruption has a negative connotation in a culture that wants to be orderly and efficient. Society should run smoothly, so the belief goes, with minimal disruption to its political, economic and social order. In such a society, everyone benefits. But do they? Is it possible, even probable, that what we see as social order is just a façade that allows some people the privilege of an easier life while other people suffer oppression and marginalization behind the façade? Is it possible that the social ideas and practices used to maintain the façade are the very things that deny some people the privileges that a healthy society should provide? Traci C. West says yes!
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© May 2015
Journal of Lutheran Ethics
Volume 15, Issue 5
We are the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God's grace. Liberated by our faith, we embrace you as a whole person--questions, complexities and all. Join us as we do God's work in Christ's name for the life of the world.
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