A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Lutheranism

  • Sexuality, status confessionis, and the ELCA

    I see that Carl Braaten has issued yet another jeremiad against the ELCA. This one is in response to the recently-issued draft social statement on sexuality and the accompanying recommendations. There’s not much new there, with one important exception. Braaten has now decided that the controversy over the full inclusion of LGBT people in the Read more

  • Is marriage sacred?

    In arguments about gay marriage you sometimes hear suggestions that we should have a strictly civil version of marriage (or union) for the public realm that applies to gay and straight people alike, while leaving “sacred” marriage to religious bodies. This may or may not be a good idea, but what I wonder is whether Read more

  • Return of a blogger

    I’m happy to see that Andy of Sinning Boldly has returned to blogging after a lengthy hiatus. Right now is looks like his focus is a little more on the devotional/spiritual side of things. Welcome back, Andy! Read more

  • Just war at the JLE

    Always a timely topic (unfortunately): the Journal of Lutheran Ethics has a review symposium of Gary Simpson’s War, Peace & God: Rethinking the Just War Tradition. Read more

  • November/December reading notes

    Also known as the lazy man’s book review, or capsule reflections on books I might not get around to posting on at greater length: Ecology at the Heart of Faith by Denis Edwards and Nature Reborn: The Ecological and Cosmic Promise of Christian Theology by H. Paul Santmire A Catholic (Edwards) and a Lutheran (Santmire) Read more

  • Lutherans to repeat Anglican follies?

    Oh great. Is the Lutheran World Federation about to go the way of the Anglican Communion? In my experience, Lutherans are less keen on centralized ecclesiology than (some) Anglicans, so maybe we can avoid an analogous meltdown and keep cooperating, like with the good work of Lutheran World Relief, under the loose confederation that seems Read more

  • Whither the ELCA blogosphere?

    Maybe it’s bad form to call out bloggers who haven’t posted anything in a while, but I can’t help but notice that several bloggers from my sidebar who’ve been inactive for months are ELCA Lutherans! I’m talking about Chip Frontz, Andy of Sinning Boldly, and Thomas of Without Authority. What’s the deal here, fellas? What Read more

  • The Lutheran Song

    I’d be a bad Lutheran if I didn’t link to this (well, I might be a bad Lutheran anyway). (I don’t think Adam Sandler has much to worry about, incidentally.) Read more

  • The holiness people

    Jeremy has a fascinating post (a re-post from his first blog, actually) about growing up in the Pentecostal Holiness Church and eventually converting to Lutheranism. As someone who was raised in a household that could best be described as moderately observant sometimes-Presbyterian, the kind of all-encompassing religious subculture that Jeremy describes is pretty hard for Read more

  • Sex and the modern Lutheran

    You may not have noticed that the ELCA has released a draft of a new social statement on sexuality, which you can read here. The Journal of Lutheran Ethics has several responses here. After a period of comment and feedback, the social statement will be taken up for official endorsement at the 2009 churchwide assembly. Read more