The hopes for nanotechnology are evident in the amount of public funding devoted to it over the past few years. Nanotechnology, indeed, has been proclaimed the source for a revolution comparable to the emergence of the steam engine, electrification, or computer technology. The visions for nanotechnology include advancing broad societal goals such as better health care, increased productivity, sustainable development and improved comprehension of nature.

The Alchemy of Nanotechnology
by Noreen Herzfeld
The claims for nanotechnology are strikingly similar to those of alchemy.  Nanotechnology shows two faces in today’s world.  The first face matches the real results of medieval alchemy in that nanotechnology, as a method of materials science, has already produced a variety of new and improved products.  The second face matches the aspirations of alchemy; boosters of nanotechnology claim that it will ultimately give us a method through which one form of matter can be changed into any other, and will lead to unprecedented wealth, restoration of the body, and even life everlasting. [read article]

The Ethics of Nanotechnology: A Lutheran Reflection
by Thomas D. Pearson
This year, my three-year-old granddaughter wanted a doll for Christmas – but a very special kind of doll.  “I want a doll just like me,” she instructed the family.  “Only better.” Nanotechnology is an emerging technology that promises simply and swiftly to overcome the problems involved in making things “just like me, only better.”
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Nanotechnology:  Small Times are Upon Us
by Gayle E. Woloschak
What is Nanotechnology?  Most of us have some idea of what technology means, but it is the “nano” prefix that is puzzling.  A nanometer is one-millionth of a millimeter, so the scale that we are looking at is miniscule.  When we think about what sizes we see under a microscope, we are usually thinking about organisms that are a micrometer in size; a nanometer is one-thousandth smaller than a micrometer and therefore is smaller than what can be seen in a standard microscope. [read article]

Do Not Steal:
A Lutheran Vision of Practice of Economic Justice

The Civil Rights Movement of the 60s—A Personal Perspective
by Robert Benne
As a student at Midland College in the late 50s, I became aware of the civil rights movement going on in the South.  The national news carried reports on sit-ins and demonstrations going on in a number of southern states.  Though all this seemed very distant from northeast Nebraska, my readings of Reinhold Niebuhr—especially his Interpretation of Christian Ethics—enabled me to relate at least intellectually with this exciting movement, whose time had come in America. [read article]

The Power of One…Community
by Rudolf Featherstone
The recent home-going celebrations relevant to the life and Christian witness of Mrs. Rosa Louise Parks makes available to us a reflective moment to seriously ponder her impact upon us, our progeny, and our own witness to the Christian gospel.  To recall that era is—on the one hand—to recall a time of great pain. [read article]

The Church in Socially Turbulent Times
by William E. Lesher
As I reflect on it from the vantage point of forty years, the Edmund Petters Bridge in not so sleepy Selma, Alabama marked a turning point in my ministry, both in what was my second parish and since.  My arrival at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Logan Square, Chicago, one of nine congregations in the newly formed Northwest Lutheran Parish, had barely preceded the historic Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights. On what was immediately dubbed Bloody Sunday by the media, six hundred black protesters set out on March 7, 1965 from Brown Chapel in Selma on a civil rights march to the state capitol in Montgomery fifty miles away. [read article]

Preaching Politics Introduction by Kaari Reierson Is it just my jaded perspective, or does it seem when it comes to news coverage of mainline Protestantism, good news is no news?  The investigation by the IRS into All Saints Church in Pasadena on the grounds of campaign intervention garnered front-page attention and multiple newswire stories.  On the other hand, the letter signed by the ELCA bishops opposing budget reconciliation which cut Food Stamps and Medicaid received nothing approaching the publicity of All Saints. [explore portfolio: Preaching Politics] "Render unto Caesar" by Marie Failinger “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” is as much a challenge as a command.  It is a cryptic call to Christians to consider more thoughtfully what we owe to the state---and as importantly, what we do not---rather than, as we might want to pretend, a clear signal of the boundary between the governances of God’s left and right hands. [read article] Politics in the Pulpit by Gracia Grindal As the old salt Henry Horn once said to a class here at Luther Seminary:  Preach the Word of God in the service, and then during the adult forum there can be political talk.  The same sermon will very likely propel a full panoply of political opinions in the congregation. [read article]

by Jess O. Hale, Jr. Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology and life inspires a multitude of responses, ranging from passionate opposition to a dangerous thinker all the way to emphatic embrace of a saint.  With a large body of contemporary discussion partners included in those responses, Bonhoeffer’s influence extends far beyond the theological society that bears his name. [read article] Shipshewana and the American Way of Fear by David Miller Follow the fear. It will tell you what you need to know about the challenge of Christian witness in these times. It also reveals the wound that the incarnation of God in human flesh hungers to heal—making us, our nation and world more truly human. [read article] Between the Pew and the Forum by Ulrik B. Nissen In the recent case of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena the question of how the relationship between church and state should be qualified seems to have reappeared.  For All Saints, an important distinction is made between political and partisan. The church acknowledges that it would not be right as a church to take a partisan stance. However, it maintains as part of its self-understanding and history as a “Peace and Justice Church” that Christian faith entails certain moral and theological values that can be presented in a non-partisan way. [read article]