|
|
| Perspectives |
|
An Open Question?
FREDERICK
J. GAISER
(see full text of essay under “Editorial”) |
|
|
The question today... is not why get married
at all, or why stay “in” once “in,” but for whom this blessed
freedom is meant. Who can be included in the joyful one-flesh union
celebrated in Genesis? What decisions will best serve a stable and just
society?.... The question needs to remain open at least long enough for
people of good will on both sides to be truly heard (not to mention those
in a variety of middle positions), and, more important, long enough for
the Spirit to work in a way that might surprise us all.
|
Articles
|
|
Can Marriage Be Defined?
DON
BROWNING |
|
|
Marriage is a multidimensional reality consisting of natural, contractual, social, religious, and communicative elements. While emphases shift over time, a full view of marriage today must include all these dimensions.
|
|
Biblical Teaching on Marriage: A
Brief Survey
FRANCIS
MARTIN |
|
|
In the Bible, marriage, from the beginning, partakes of elements common to the surrounding world. With time, biblical writers use language appropriate to marital relationships to describe the relation between God and Israel and Christ and the church, thereby raising the theological significance of marriage.
|
|
Passionless Sex in 1
Thessalonians 4:4-5
DAVID
FREDRICKSON |
|
|
Paul’s argument in 1 Thess 4:4-5 accepts the philosophical notions of Paul’s day that sex in marriage should be without passion. Therefore central values for a modern discussion of marriage will have to be reinforced from other
sources.
|
|
Luther on Marriage,
Vocation, and the Cross
JAMES
ARNE NESTINGEN |
|
|
Martin Luther’s treatment of marriage is best considered in relation to his doctrine of vocation and to the theology of the cross. In the former, marriage is a matter of law and freedom; in the latter, a matter of death and resurrection.
|
|
Church, State, and
Marriage: Three Reformation Models
JOHN WITTE, JR. |
|
|
The Reformation produced three significant models of marriage: the social model of Lutheranism, the covenant model of Calvinism, and the commonwealth model of Anglicanism. These models continue to have their influence in parts of the world informed by these religious traditions.
|
|
Marriage on TV
MARY E. HESS
|
|
|
While it is important for teachers of religion to consider how television portrays marriage, it may be even more important to consider how we use television and how we help people engage the media with critical perception. People of faith need to do a cultural intervention, providing a deep and sustaining vision of what marriage can be over time and in connection with community.
|
|
Blessing Same-Sex Marriages
PATRICIA BEATTIE JUNG
|
|
|
Conjugal relationships can be properly blessed when they are voluntary, publicly and communally supported, steadfast, and sexually exclusive. These elements exclude the possibility of the church’s blessing of casual unions, but not necessarily the blessing of committed same-sex
unions.
|
Perspectives
|
|
“Is it lawful to marry?”
PHILIP
NESVIG |
|
|
Marriage in the biblical tradition is, in the perspective of this essay, the public and life-long union of one man and one woman. The church dare bless no other
arrangement.
|
Resources
|
|
Moral Agency at the Borders: Rereading the Story of the Syrophoenician Woman
JANE E. HICKS
|
|
|
Was the Syrophoenician woman a person of low position seeking sustenance or an urban member of the ruling class seeking advantage? Our reading will be informed by our own situation. In our approach to Jesus, we can be the Syrophoenician woman as we risk solidarity and difference.
|
|
Texts in Context: What Does This Mean?
A Four-Part Exercise in Reading Mark 9:2-9 (Transfiguration)
DAVID J. LOSE
|
|
|
Where shall preachers and teachers locate the meaning of the gospel story of the transfiguration for themselves and their hearers: behind the text, in it, around it, or in front of it? Each location will yield insight, and none can be ignored.
|
|
Face to Face: Just War
and Iraq? |
|
|
Ethical Theory Says No
SHAUN CASEY
|
|
|
Ethical Action Requires Conversation
PATRICIA LULL
|
Reviews
|
|
Old Testament Theology, by Gerhard von Rad
JAMES LIMBURG
|
|
Reading Biblical Poetry: An
Introductory Guide, by J. P. Fokkelman
CHRISTINE ROY YODER
|
|
The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church, ed. by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, and Sources and Contexts of the Book of
Concord, ed. by Robert Kolb and James A. Nestingen
ROBERT BRUSIC
|
|
A Scientific Theology, vol. 1,
Nature, by Alister McGrath
ALAN G. PADGETT
|
|
Greed: Economics and Ethics in
Conflict, by James M. Childs, Jr.
WALTER E. PILGRIM
|
|
Authentic Spirituality: Moving beyond Mere
Religion, by Barry L. Callen
CAROL L. SCHNABL SCHWEITZER
|
|
