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Editor's Comments |
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Authority in the Church
by Kaari Reierson
Sez You! This well-known playground insult (or am I the only one reading JLE who knows Brooklynese?) doesn’t characterize ecclesiastical disagreements. But it does get at the root of what they are often about. To put it in more refined terms befitting this journal: Who can exercise authority, and how is it properly exercised in a church? |
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Publisher's Commentary |
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JLE Publishes On
by Roger Willer
Whether or not it’s true that change is the only constant in the universe, change has been the constant theme behind the scenes for the Journal of Lutheran Ethics in the past 10 months. As most JLE reader's now know, editor Victor Thasiah has resigned his position with the ELCA’s churchwide office to teach Christian ethics in the department of religion at California Lutheran University (CLU). CLU's great gain is JLE's sizeable loss. |
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Featured Articles |
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Sources of Authority in the Lutheran Tradition: Back to the Future
by Kathryn A. Kleinhans
Let me begin by saying that I am not an historian; I am a theologian who works within a confessional tradition, frequently drawing on historical sources for constructive purposes. Reflecting this orientation, the appropriate hymn text to accompany this presentation is "The Church of Christ in ev'ry age...must claim and test its heritage." |
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There will be an answer...
by Dave Brauer-Rieke
I grew up in Seattle. My father taught law at the University of Washington. My mother was a speech pathologist doing research with special needs children, also at the university. Language was important to both of them and if I had a dime for every time I was told, "Words have meaning, use them carefully." I would be a rich man. |
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Sources of Authority according to the Lutheran Confessions
by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
A lot of our talks have been focusing on the issue of authority as power and process. I am going to focus on the issue of authority as truth, with power and process coming into play only in relation to the question of truth. |
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How It Is and How It Might Have Been Otherwise
by David E. Fredrickson
The Christian historian Papias of Hierapolis surprises us when he lays down a principle (which turns out to be quite conventional) of assigning higher value to oral sources than written ones. Early in the second century he wrote, "But, if perchance there came also anyone who had followed the presbyters, I made inquiry concerning the words of the presbyters: what Andrew or what Peter had said, or what Philip or what Thomas...[had said].... For I did not suppose that the things from the books would aid me so much as the things from the living and continuing voice." |
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Book Reviews |
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A review of Robert Benne's Good and Bad Ways of Thinking About Religion and Politics
by Michael Shahan
An impression I have of some of today's newest Lutheran seminary graduates, and also of some rather seasoned Lutheran clergy, is that of relative indifference toward the nearly half-millennium old Lutheran heritage: i.e., towards Luther himself and his theology, and towards the Lutheran Confessions. Sometimes this is expressed as outright hostility and rejection, sometimes the antipathy is only implied by a dismissive attitude toward key Lutheran concepts. |
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A review of Peter Leithart's, Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
by Timothy J. Furry
The theological sense one makes of Constantine the Great reflects deeply on one's other theological commitments. Beyond the painfully simplistic evaluations that Constantine's reign was obviously a regrettable fall or that Constantine really was great, anyone interested in questions of theology, politics, and violence must attend carefully to the sweeping changes that he wrought. |
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A response to Timothy J. Furry
by Peter J. Leithart
I am grateful to Timothy Furry for his careful and generous review of my book, and to the Rev. Michael Shahan for the opportunity to offer a brief response. Since Furry's main criticisms concern my (mis)treatment of Yoder, I focus my attention there, doing my best to keep my rhetoric under control. |