Binding and Unbinding the Conscience: Luther's Significance for the Plight of a Gay Protestant

Abstract

Capetz reviews the significance of Luther's polemic against celibacy in the light of the decision of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to amend its constitution and require that gays and lesbians vow celibacy as a condition of holding office in the church. His historical investigations lead him to draw parallels between Luther's anguished attempts to live as a celibate monk and the dilemmas he experiences as a gay man. While the institution continues to disavow the radical potential inherent in its own tradition, Capetz, like many others, feels compelled to follow Luther and leave the monastery behind, along with the religious ideals it represents, in order to engage in the bold experiment of creating new models of Christian life.     

Protestant Ghosts and Spirits of Capitalism: Ecology,Economy, and the Reformation Tradition

This essay analyzes current Protestant perspectives on the relationship between this tradition and capitalism from the perspective of social and ecological concerns. Rather than deciding between the tradition's purity or culpability in the rise of capitalism, this essay suggests that those concerned with both the future of the tradition and social/eco‐justice must acknowledge both the tradition's congruence with global capitalism and the tradition's prophetic ability to critique and propose alternatives.     

Wittgenstein,Aesthetics and Philosophy

Books reviewed: Peter B. Lewis (ed.), Wittgenstein, Aesthetics and Philosophy (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004). 255 pp., price £49.50.
Reviewed by Ole Martin Skilleås, University of Bergen, Norway
Department of Philosophy
University of Bergen
Sydnesplassen 7
NO‐5007 Bergen
Ole.skilleas@fil.uib.no     

Aesthetics,information and meaning

Aesthetics has been defined relative to objective and subjective values; its historical and cultural world views are referenced. The author's view of beauty as communication is also introduced, where chance and necessity, the two antithetical realities produce the informa‐tion processes of modern time. That is, “difference” is associated with chance, the irrational, the spontaneous and the individual aspect of reality as opposed to necessity, the rational, the formal, and the universal aspects of things. Information is introduced as, the origin, as well as essence, of life. It is what produces information and is the only agent which produces both matter and psyche. Order and disorder, and the laws of “opposites” are considered building blocks of identity and difference and information. Information and Communication as an interconnecting agent are also considered a bridge between Eastern and Western philosophy, i.e., in its deconstruction of the particular into a web or field of energies in the West, and in Eastern thought in its becoming one with Nirvana or Brahman, the Sufi or the Tao, the ultimate one and all. Because goodness and truth under the influence of reason and science had failed, Eastern philosophy as an alternative to Western models is recommended. It is suggested that all that is left objectively is beauty, thus reason as basic is giving way to rules of beauty. And its principles are capable of describing man's evolution and his culture, as well as his aesthetic experience, which is nothing but information processes and communication. In conclusion, design as aesthetic communication is introduced as a model to reflect the above principles.     

American College Students and the Protestant Work Ethic

Abstract

The concept of the Protestant work ethic (PWE), originally proposed by Weber (1958), was examined in a study of 422 American college students. Although the PWE has been heavily studied, no definitive conclusions have been reached regarding its genesis and whether it is dispositional in nature or more heavily reliant on demographic variations. Mirels and Garrett's (1971) PWE Scale was used to measure the ethic. The authors hypothesized that older, graduate, and non-American students would express a greater belief in the ethic. The results indicated that it was the younger, undergraduate, and non-American students who expressed greater belief in the PWE.     

Respect,Challenges, and Stress among Protestant Pastors Closing a Church: Structural and Identity Theory Perspectives

The number of American churches has been declining at a rate of about 1 to 2% per year, but this statistic hides the reality that in liberal, moderate denominations the number of churches that close is nearly three or four times the number that open. Despite this trend of decline, no one has studied how closing churches affects the pastor. What challenges does the pastor face when closing a church, and how do these challenges affect the pastor’s level of stress and well-being? The study draws on structural and identity theories to further our understanding of pastoral identity threats and ways that congregational and denominational support may ease a pastor’s burden. This research used a mail survey to explore the experiences of pastors who have experienced the closing of a church in any of five Protestant denominations (Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ). The research adds to our understanding of the context of ministry by highlighting not only the effects of clergy age and experience but also the congregational context and middle administrative body (judicatory) respect and support in the challenge and in the affirmation of pastoral identity through the process of closure and church death.     

The Attitudes and Attitude Estimates of Catholic,Protestant, and Jewish Students

Summary

This study was a cross-cultural extension of previous research concerning the relationship between attitudes toward homosexuality, attitudes toward heterosexual sexual practices, personal sex-guilt, and sex stereotyping. One hundred twelve Brazilian male college students completed a series of attitude measures previously administered to a comparable sample of Canadians. As had been previously found in Canada, antihomosexual (Anti-H) Ss were more disapproving of various heterosexual sexual practices and reported greater personal sex-guilt than prohomosexual (Pro-H) Ss. The intercorrelations among the three principle attitude scales were only moderately positive in both samples, suggesting that attitudes toward homosexuality are somewhat independent of more general sexual attitudes. Anti-H Ss also stereotyped the sexes more than did Pro-H respondents and were more willing than Pro-H Ss to label a male as homosexual when he exhibited what they thought was a single feminine characteristic. In these respects the Brazilian and Canadian results were strikingly similar.

More antihomosexual prejudice was found in the Brazilians. They also assigned much higher probabilities to a “feminine” male being homosexual than did Canadian Ss. The findings of this study provide potent cross-cultural confirmation of Churchill's theory of antihomosexual prejudice within a sex-negative environment.     

Catholic Schooling, Protestant Schooling, and Religious Commitment in Young Adulthood

If and how Catholic and Protestant schools influence the religious lives of their students once they have graduated is unclear. Methodological limitations and inconsistencies in previous studies have resulted in confusing and often contradictory findings. Using data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health ( N  = 11,212), I compare the religious lives of young adults who attended Catholic, Protestant, and secular schools as adolescents. The results suggest that Protestant schoolers are far more religious as young adults than those who attended a secular school, a difference that is at least partially explained by the schools' religious environment. But young adults who attended Catholic schools report levels of religiosity that are similar to those educated in a secular school, and are actually lower for some outcomes. Studies of religious schoolers that ignore the religious tradition of the school overlook these differing effects and forfeit statistical explanatory power.