Protestant and evangelical writes have been increasingly developing something like a political theology, although often without intentional and careful connection to the fundamental theological disciplines.

Into this relative void, thinkers like Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; PhD Candidate, Calvin Theological Seminary)  provide an important voice, reflecting on the theological ground for the church’s involvement with and relation to our every day environs. Ballor is research fellow at the Acton Institute, executive editor of the Journal of Markets & Morality, and associate director of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research. He is author of Get Your Hands Dirty: Essays on Christian Social Thought (and Action) (Wipf & Stock, 2013), Covenant, Causality, and Law: A Study in the Theology of Wolfgang Musculus (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), and Ecumenical Babel: Confusing Economic Ideology and the Church’s Social Witness (Christian’s Library Press, 2010).

Join us as Dr. Ballor presents what are sure to be two stimulating lectures this week, one on the inherent relation between theology and economics, the second on the social thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Theology and Economics

Tuesday, April 15  |  Kantzer Lecture Hall  |  7:00-8:30

Respondent: Stephen Long, Marquette University

In the first of two lectures, Ballor will consider the relationship between the disciplines of theology and economics, two disciplines that have for some time had little sustained conversation with each other. More ambitiously, he will argue for their mutual necessity and interdependence. Following the lecture, Stephen Long (PhD, Duke University), professor of Theology at Marquette and author of  Divine Economy: Theology and the Market (London and New York, Routledge, 2000), will a formal response. The event is sure to offer a stimulating conversation.
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Bonhoeffer’s Social Ethics 

Wednesday, April 16  |  Lantern Lounge (Waybright Center)  |  10:00-11:30am

Ballor’s second presentation, a Systematic Theology colloquium, will address the issue of Bonhoeffer’s social ethics. Set within protestantism’s crisis of natural law (and the famous Barth/Brunner debate), Ballor will present Bonhoeffer as a “middle way” between them. Bonhoeffer’s ethics, according to Ballor, are grounded in his doctrines of vocation and vicarious-representative-action (Stellvertretung) and expressed in his doctrine of the divine mandates (family, work, government, and church).
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Interested in thinking well about theology and ethics? Don’t miss the chance to hear Jordan Ballor in two lectures that address this important intersection. Can’t watch in-person? Watch the live-stream via stream.tiu.edu.