One of the most oft-repeated Luther quotes, including by the ELCA Social Statement “Caring for Creation,” is this: “If I believed that tomorrow the world were to end, I would plant an apple tree today.” But the proverb raises some questions. First, where did he say it? Attempts to identify the beloved words in Luther’s […]

Misa Campesina1 Nicaragüense The Nicaraguan Campesino Mass In the Nicaragua of the seventies, there began a social crisis in the countryside and the city, motivated by the indiscriminate movement of campesinos from their own land by corrupt landowners, which led to a vast army of people displaced and impoverished. Some migrated to cities in search […]

It’s been eleven years since we started Faith in Place and our roots are in the City of Chicago. This might seem a strange location for an organization that connects the teachings of faith to practices of care for Creation, or, if you like, an organization that practices natural theology, but that depends on where […]

A Confession Recently I had the privilege of teaching a seminar at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) entitled “Nature Writing in Theological Perspective,” which was the follow-up to a previous year’s seminar on “Theologies of Creation.” Where the first class had focused on constructive theological texts by academic theologians, the second course […]

Let’s say that it’s early morning, Advent. The alarm blares and I crawl out from bed. Through my bedroom window I can hear the wind blow snow, but once I pull on a sweatshirt, I am not cold. Since I live on Long Island, and my house is old, I begin my day by turning […]

N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: HarperCollins, 2008) 332+xiii pp. hardcover. Most people in the wider culture think that Christian hope is about “going to heaven when you die.” Apparently many Christians think so, too. Wright shows that if this is all that […]

Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, and Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) 185 pp., hardcover. Marilynne Robinson, Absence of Mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010) 185 pp., hardcover. Two of the most important contributions to theological discourse in recent years have come from the perhaps unlikely pens of a Marxist literary theorist and a […]

EarthBound: Created + Called to Care for Creation, DVD. Directed by Hal and Kevin Dragseth (St. Paul: Seraphim Communications, 2009) 158 min., with Facilitators Guide on CD-ROM. $89.95. Lutheran video resources for lifelong learning have made great strides in terms of production value in recent years. For those content with a lecture caught on tape […]

The number of Christian denominations in North America is unknowable, perhaps in the vicinity of 3800. Since we don’t know precisely how many inadequate alternatives already exist, the absurdity of introducing a new one is more philosophical than mathematical. The number of Lutheran bodies is more easily established. Valparaiso University’s index puts it at 28. […]

It was easier for American Lutherans to practice schism in the 19th century. Whole synods moved in and out of fellowship with one another. In 1864 the delegates of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania walked out of the Convention of the General Synod over dissatisfaction with S. S. Schmucker’s Definite Synodical Platform and the admission of […]