The ideas and viewpoints expressed in the posts on the Ideas and Creations blog are solely the view of the author(s). Luther College's mission statement calls us to "embrace diversity and challenge one another to learn in community," and to be "enlivened and transformed by encounters with one another, by the exchange of ideas, and by the life of faith and learning." Alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of the college are encouraged to express their views, model "good disagreement" and engage in respectful dialogue.
Religion, inter-religious dialogue, diversity, and how they fit together. Gereon Kopf, Luther professor of religion, explains how to talk about tough topics with people who don't share the same opinion.
Studies show practicing forgiveness promotes longer life. Loren Toussaint and co-authors of "Forgiveness, Ego-Integrity, and Depressive Symptoms in Community-Dwelling and Residential Elderly Adults" discuss the benefits of forgiveness, especially in older individuals.
It's time to advance justice rather than situations of "just us." Guy Nave, Luther professor of religion, and his class wrestle with the idea of God as one who works from the bottom-up on behalf of many rather than one who works from the top-down on behalf of a few.
Learning by clowning around? Not quite, but take a look at learning through the eyes of a clown with Robert Vrtis and though you won't need a red nose, you may find that learning life lessons from a clown is deeper than you think.
Can natural selection create design without the existence of an Intelligent Designer? Luther Professor of Religion Robert Shedinger asks this and more in his newest blog post "Darwinian (Dis)analogies."
Amy Weldon, Luther associate professor of English, writes about why "Being a writing teacher or a teaching writer is like being in a long marriage, where sometimes it's exciting and sometimes it's a drag and sometimes you have to work really hard to keep the spark alive amid the piles of email and dirty laundry and sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail and sometimes just staying in it is a triumph."
Professor Todd Pedlar tries to teach the value of necromancy, not quite like Lord Sauron of J.R.R Tolkien fame... rather as a liberal art, to "communicate with the dead" through studying the past.
Brad Miller, Luther associate professor of computer science, discusses where the worlds of the accelerator and the academy intersect, why he's so excited about it and how he hopes to help it along.
Luther senior Chris Norton encourages us to appreciate the little things, saying "Do not wait until something is taken from you to appreciate it." Read on for a reflection from Chris on the four-year anniversary of his paralysis.
The religion department decided to dedicate this year's religion forum to the topic "teaching religion at a college of the church." It seems that, while I was away on sabbatical, my colleagues felt that there is a need to clarify the purpose and scope of the academic study of religion at a church affiliated college. From my experience, I have to agree that there seems to be a lot of confusion with regard to the academic study of religion in general and its role at Luther College in particular.
Aaron Lurth, Luther's director of visual media, shows a behind the scenes look at the inauguration of Luther's 10th president, Paula Carlson.
Brooke Joyce, Luther's composer-in-residence, gives an honorary nod to Homecoming with a short video of excerpts from the composition studio reunion concert.