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Editor's Comments |
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Introduction to the Issue
by Kaari Reierson
This month is a continuation of the work laid out by Victor Thasiah and Michael Shahan, JLE's book review editor. The brilliance of this month’s authors and the timeliness of the subject matter I cannot claim for myself. I can only begin in gratitude that Journal of Lutheran Ethics is able to publish fresh, compelling, and profound contributions to the world of Christian ethics. |
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New for Advent |
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Advent, Virtue Ethics, and the Telological Suspension of the Ethical
by Clint Schnekloth
Three years ago I had the unique pleasure of attending an evening lecture by N.T. Wright (then Anglican Bishop of Durham) titled: "Learning the Language of Life, New Creation, and Christian Virtue." Essentially, Wright argued for an eschatologically conditioned appropriation of virtue ethics. He encapsulated this viewpoint in one short definition, "Virtue is what happens when wise and courageous choices have become second-nature." |
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Book Reviews |
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Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation by Oswald Bayer
reviewed by Dennis Bielfeldt
Bayer's "contemporary interpretation" of Luther's theology is must reading for anyone interested in Luther and Lutheran theology generally. In this ably translated book deriving originally from 30 hours of lectures from a general studies course at the University of Tübingen in 2002, Bayer compares his approach to Luther to a documentary that draws upon a deep repository of archival footage to present a topic from multiple perspectives. |
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Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation by Oswald Bayer
reviewed by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
Martin Luther's Theology, a masterly and mature summary by the grand old man of Luther studies in Germany, is not just a review of the reformer's thought across the doctrinal loci: it is a handbook for life. This is quite deliberate on Bayer's part. "Intellectual knowledge about faith," he writes in the Preface, "is not separated from the affective experience of faith; the art of disputation serves the task of caring for souls." |
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Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation by Oswald Bayer
reviewed by Paul Sponheim
In this volume the English-language-preferred reader of things theological receives a distinguished German scholar’s summation and appropriation of the fruits of some forty years reading Martin Luther. The book's immediate source was a series of fifteen double hour lectures given at the University of Tùbingen in 2001-2002. |
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Featured Articles |
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Justice As a Memorial
by Nicholas Wolterstorff
Jesus is not instructing his disciples to perform the mental act of remembering him. He is instructing them to perform the bodily actions of eating bread and drinking wine as a remembrance of him. The Greek word translated here as "remembrance" is anamnêsis. The word might also be translated as "memorial": do this as a memorial of me. The question I wish to consider in this essay is whether, for those of us who are Christians, not only is the Eucharist a public memorial of Christ but so also is doing justice. |
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Interview with William Schweiker
Libbi Williams, interviewer
William Schweiker, MDiv., PhD., is the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics in the Divinity School and the College at the University of Chicago, and Director of the Martin Marty Center. His work focuses on the global implications of theological ethics. JLE recently met up with Dr. Schweiker to discuss the project that he calls theological humanism. |
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Budrus: Considering Alternative Narratives
by Libbi Williams
It was an average Tuesday morning. My mom drove me to school. I sat through homeroom, trying to ignore the obnoxious ten year-old who was swinging his feet into the back of my desk. After roll call and announcements, I left home room and went to my pre-algebra class. Mrs. T was talking about triangles when another teacher knocked on the door. Mrs. T paused her lecture and went into the hall for a minute or so. When she returned, she had a distraught look on her face. She looked at the floor, glanced at the class, bit her bottom lip, and then began to speak: "Class, I have some very bad news. The administration thinks it’s best to share this with you. A plane has just hit the World Trade Center." |