Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE) is an online publication dedicated to promoting awareness of, study of, and conversation about Christian ethics in the Lutheran tradition.

It is a free, interactive journal for all who are interested in Lutheran ethics, both in the United States and around the world. A bridge between the academic study of Christian ethics and the contemporary life of the Church, JLE is a meeting place for scholars and professors, seminary and college students, pastors and bishops, and theologically informed lay leaders.

JLE offers scholarship, resources, and discussion. It publishes original articles, makes important, previously published contributions to Lutheran ethics available electronically, and provides links to relevant material elsewhere on the Web. Among its resources are church social documents, brief opinion pieces on vital issues, book reviews, longer scholarly works, and reports on "works in progress." JLE provides a message board to encourage online discussion of material it publishes.

Christian ethics thinks and talks about the moral life from within the life of faith. Lutheran ethics is Christian ethics set within the one Church of Jesus Christ and marked by the theological tradition that arose with Martin Luther’s Reformation in the sixteenth century. This living tradition understands the life of the baptized as one lived in grateful response to God’s love for sinners revealed in Jesus Christ. The gift of faith in the Gospel frees believers to a new way of life in God’s world in which faith is active in love. JLE therefore attends to what Lutheran ethics shares with and can learn from other Christian traditions as well as what distinctive concerns and contributions Lutheran ethics brings to the ongoing, ecumenical conversation about the moral life.

JLE incorporates a broad view of the scope of Lutheran ethics. It embraces consideration of foundational questions and current social issues, of personal and public dimensions of the moral life, of past, present, and future, of domestic and global topics, of individual and corporate responsibilities, and of the concerns of church and society. JLE publishes article and resources relating to five areas of Lutheran ethics:

1. biblical and theological basis and orientation;
2. history;
3. contemporary issues;
4. the church’s social witness; and
5. vocation (living out the Christian calling as family member, citizen, worker, and in the church as pastor and lay).

JLE is published by the Department for Studies for the Church in Society unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It speaks out of the ELCA’s "Confession of Faith" and seeks to enhance its life and mission in society by offering an open forum to clarify, deepen, and enliven Lutheran ethics.

JLE reflects the ELCA’s ecumenical commitments and its participation in a world-wide Lutheran communion, welcoming use by and contributions from persons in other Christian traditions around the globe. It invites persons from other religious and secular traditions to join the discussion.

The Department for Studies maintains its own Web page for ELCA social statements, messages, and social policy resolutions as well as for studies on social issues published by the department. JLE offers online opportunities to contemplate these social statements, messages, social policy resolutions, and studies. It should be noted that the views expressed by individual contributors to JLE are those of the authors not of the ELCA.

Kaari Reierson, Associate Director for Studies, is JLE’s editor. Michael Ring, Web Developer and Communication Specialist for the for Church in Society, is the managing editor. The Editorial Board consists of the executive staff of the Department for Studies:

• Rev. Roger A. Willer, Director
• Rev. Kaari Reierson, Associate Director
• Ronald Duty, Assistant Director

Michael Shahan functions as its book review editor. An Editorial Council, with ecumenical and international representation, provides advice and counsel to the journal and assists in its editing.

JLE solicits original articles and welcomes unsolicited contributions. Click here for more information on what and how to contribute to JLE. The Department for Studies welcomes ideas for what should be in the journal.

JLE is updated on the first of each month.