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Editor's Introduction |
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The Challenges of Asymmetrical War to Just War Theory: Conversations between Ethicists and Military Chaplains
by Kaari Reierson
The preponderance of the papers in this month comes from the 2012 Lutheran Ethicists Gathering. This year’s gathering was an extremely fruitful conversation between military chaplains and ethicists, focused on the question of “The Challenges of Asymmetrical War to Just War Theory: Conversations between Ethicists and Military Chaplains.” Gilbert Meilaender gave the keynote presentation on facing ambiguity in warfare, David Baer spoke on developments in international law and combatant distinction, Wollom Jensen sought new language for just war, and Stewart Herman spoke to vulnerability in their supporting panel presentations. The report from the conference shows the breadth and depth of the conversation. |
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For Holy Week |
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The Silence of Easter
by Clint Schnekloth
During the Easter season, I wander the halls of church and mutter on the bike trail, "He is risen!" I'm perennially hoping someone will overhear and respond. Often someone does. Even if I speak into silence, in the absence of others, I can still hear the echo of the Easter Sunday litany resounding in my auditory memory banks — "He is risen indeed! Alleluia!" |
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Papers from the Gathering |
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Facing Ambiguity in Warfare
by Gilbert Meilaender
My assignment, as I understand it, is to try to say something helpful about the fact that soldiers will sometimes find themselves in perplexing situations, circumstances in which all their alternatives seem morally problematic and which may leave them with a burden of guilt so heavy as, even, to be in some respects disabling. What should Lutheran moral reflection and Lutheran pastoral care have to offer them? |
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The Rule of Distinction and the Military Response to Global Terrorism
by H. David Baer
A military response to global terrorism raises challenges to the existing moral and legal framework for conduct of war. Indeed, some might argue that the so-called war on terror requires adopting an altogether new framework for thinking about the conduct of war. The older framework, anchored in the 1949 Geneva Conventions, presupposes an antiquated model of war as a conflict between sovereign states, so the argument would go, and this traditional paradigm is irrelevant to the current challenge of fighting terrorist groups, which do not represent sovereign states, but which are nevertheless capable of armed attacks with a global reach. Such an argument would, however, exaggerate the case. |
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A New Language for Just War
by Wollom A. Jensen
General Carl von Clausewitz said, "War therefore is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will" (Clausewitz, 1976). Stated a little differently, the intention of war is the destruction, in the most literal meaning of the word, of the enemy. The issues facing combat soldiers, military commanders, and chaplains are serious and life altering. Chief among these issues is the question of how chaplains can care for warriors who are asked to see, experience, and perform tasks that threaten to erode their souls. |
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Notes from the Front Lines: Reporting on the 2012 Lutheran Ethicists Gathering
by Kaari Reierson
Major David Buffaloe spoke about ethical challenges to soldiers. Much of his training focused on high intensity conflict, but there are many other areas in which a soldier encounters ethical challenges. In his own training at West Point, Buffalo spent a fair amount of time on Michael Walzer’s book Just and Unjust Wars, and it proved influential to his thinking.
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Featured Articles |
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Biblical / Ethical Reflections on the Enspirited Life
by Paul Jersild
I begin these reflections by turning to selected passages in the Gospels, the book of Acts, and the Pauline letters, arguing the centrality of the Spirit to any consideration of Christian faith and life, or to biblical and Christian ethics. Then I address several hermeneutical issues in relating what I call "spirit ethics" to Scripture or specifically the New Testament. The third and final part of the paper makes a brief application of this spirit ethic perspective to the current issue of homosexuality. |
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Women and Theological Writing During the Reformation
by Kirsi Stjerna
In comparison to the volumes of religious writing by medieval (often visionary) women and the booming scholarly work around them in the last three or so decades, the sixteenth century Protestant women have generated significantly less interest. There are reasons for that: First of all, so few women of the period have been remembered even by their name or for their lifetime of achievements that the very idea of studying Reformation women’s theologies has seemed futile or impossible. Second, so few theological texts from the Protestant women have been recognized as of value or been available that it has generated an impression that the mothers of the Protestant faith either did not write theology or were not interested in it. |
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When Government Defines "Religious" (Church): An Historical Example
by John R. Stumme
An agency of the federal government issues new regulations that include a definition of a “religious” organization, and critics charge that the definition restricts religious freedom. Sounds like a reference to recent events, and so it is. Yet it is also a summary of events in the late 1970s. The particulars differ but the disputes now and then revolve around the same church-state question. It might be instructive for us today to recall how Lutherans responded then to a government agency’s determination of what counts as a religious or church-related organization. |
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Book Review |
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Bonhoeffer Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy by Eric Metaxas
Review by Christine Muir Shahan
Once in a while a nonfiction book comes along that captivates the attention of the reader on multiple levels. The book is vivid, moving, drawing in the reader in the fashion of a good drama, all the while based on profound historical details. In such rare occasions, emotion becomes integrated with fact. And if the author has done his job, the perception of the reader will be changed forever. Eric Metaxas has written such a book, a biography of the famed Christian writer and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. |