Ethics in Lutheran Perspective

Orientation week June 3-6, 2024
Class sessions June 7 - August 29, 2024

This online companion course was developed in 2005 with Synodically Authorized Ministers particularly in mind. The course was developed and recorded by Dr Craig Nessan, Academic Dean and Professor of Contextual Theology, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, IA. The class will use lectures on DVD, textbook readings, essays posted online, and threaded discussion. The facilitator for this course is Pr. Adam Wutka. he has been serving ELCA congregations in central Kansas for the past nineteen years, currently at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Great Bend, KS. In addition to teaching in his own congregations, he has organized and taught in an area-wide Lutheran Confirmation ministry, taught Latin and basic electronics in the local homeschool co-op, has taught multiple classes to adult lay ministry students in his synod, and has previously facilitated several other Select Learning courses. Since 2020, Pastor Adam also serves part time on the staff of the Central States Synod as the director of Lay ministry, overseeing the synod's Parish Ministry Associate program.

TEXTBOOK: Timothy F. Lull, Editor. Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings.  Minneapolis: Fortress Press,  (3rd Edition). Click here to order from Amazon.

DESCRIPTION:

This course will offer an introduction to the field of Christian ethics, paying particular attention to distinctively Lutheran themes. Lectures and readings will examine how the Lutheran theological tradition shapes ethical reflection for the church in its mission today. How do the Word of God, law and gospel, sacraments, liturgy, reason, theology of the cross, Christian freedom, vocation, and two kingdoms teaching shape and condition ethical deliberation? Together we will consider how to give constructive leadership in order that congregations become communities of moral deliberation.

OBJECTIVES:
1. To introduce basic ethical terms and concepts
2. To examine the core themes of a Lutheran perspective on Christian ethics
3. To understand how these core themes shape ethical reflection
4. To develop a method of ethical reflection
5. To consider how to lead communities of moral deliberation

SESSIONS:
1. Life in the Presence of God
2. God's Law
3. Human Nature: Created by God
4. Human Nature: Fallen into Sin
5. The Authority of Scripture and Tradition
6. Experience and Reasoning as Sources of Authority
7. Luther's Two Kingdoms
8. The Danger of Misinterpreting Luther's Two Kingdoms
9. The Dynamics of Justification and Christian Freedom
10. The Ethics of the Cross
11. Moral Deliberation in the Congregation
12. An Ethical Agenda for the Church

CLICK HERE for a syllabus.

*** If you already have access to the DVDs, click here for the online registration only.