Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
At the end of his encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis suggested we use a spiritual rather than a technological paradigm in working with the environment. One thesis of our book is we do well to do the same in all personal relationships. I think of a paradigm as the theoretical perspective or framework we use to […]
Last week, I examined the basic Christian message or Gospel that proceeds from the statement “God is love.” Perhaps trying to be too clever, I suggested everything else is commentary. My intention was simply to make clear that this message is always changing as it is applied to the particulars of the situation being addressed. […]
When I first tried to summarize the chapter on love last week, I wrote, “The seventh chapter of the book maintains that Christianity is all about love overcoming the violence of this world and that everything else is commentary.” I stewed about that for some time and finally changed “love” to “God’s love.” It better […]
The seventh chapter of Faith, Hope, and Love in the Technological Society maintains that Christianity is all about God’s love overcoming the violence of this world and that everything else is commentary. It also asserts we are already in a place in Paul Wildman’s description of the techno-utopian-drift where our dependence on technology has severely […]
Franz and I intentionally used the term “vision of the future” for hope’s promise. Nonetheless, my discussion groups frequently characterized it as utopian. An online conversation with Paul about what he calls techno-utopian-drift, or TUD, convinced me to examine further society’s growing dependence on technology. Both of us believe it is important that society makes […]
People are really worrying about the future. That’s what I found in all my classes from the high school, the young adults, the three more mature, and the online ones. When we discussed hope, all spoke in one way or another of fearing the future. Some seemed to live under constant threat. A lot of […]
I have been trying to show that our visions of the future impact the way we live in the present. The responses I have been receiving reflect the discussion that has taken place ever since the first century. They range from “needing to wait” because there is no way we can realize the promises now, […]
The Just Society is the second vision on which our hope is built. In it, God promises he will bring the day when all people will treat one another fairly. The promise goes beyond fairness, however. It involves a distributive understanding of justice in which each person has enough. Like all other visions of the […]
Christian hope is based on God’s promises about his future actions. The resulting visions inspire our loving actions in the present. Isaiah’s beautiful picture of the Peaceable Kingdom serves as the model for the first vision. Its promise addresses one of history’s most poignant expressions of humankind’s lamentation at the ever-present threat of war. No […]
The visions of the future associated with Christian hope are quite different than those of technology. Like every proclamation of the Gospel, they call believers to loving action in the present time. The two technological visions that Franz and I suggested, on the other hand, make no demands except patience. “Technological expectation” is a determinism […]
Frontline Study is an online discussion of the scriptures, inviting you to share your comments and your reflections on each weekly topic. Simply click on the "Add Reply" text at the top of each post to see what others have posted and to add your thoughts.By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
