Following are outlines, abstracts, or in some cases full-text reproductions of several of my published writings. If you'd prefer to search by topic, simply enter the appropriate key words in the search box in the upper right corner.
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"Vestiges of Creation" in America's Pre-Darwinian Evolution Debates
A History of the Baptismal Order
A Lutheran View of Science
A Lutheran View of the Third Use of the Law
Becoming Less Fruitful: A Demographic History of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, 1928-2008
Confirmation: Learning God's Worldview
Darwinism, Contraception, and the Decline of Manhood
Debating Evolution before Darwinism: An Exploration of Science and Religion in America, 1844-1859
Do Evolutionists Have Faith?
Generational Generosity: Handing Down Our Faith to Our Children and Our Children's Children
God's Life-Giving Gospel Is Active at Conception
How a Christian Child's Love Won Jane Roe's Heart
How Luther Shared the Creator's Comfort
Isaiah Offers Comfort from God the Creator
Joseph Henry: The Rise of an American Scientist
Natural and Theological Science at Princeton, 1845-1859
Quakers in America: From Persecution through Toleration to Domination
Rediscovering the American Republic, Volume 1: 1492-1877
Rediscovering the American Republic, Volume 2: 1877-Present
Saved Sex Is the Only Safe Sex
Studying Luther's Large Catechism: A Workbook for Christian Discipleship
Teaching Objective Morality to a Postmodern Audience
Telling the Next Generation: The Evangelical Lutheran Synod's Vision for Christian Education
The Church and Science through the Ages
The Culture of Life: Ten Essential Principles for Christian Bioethics
The Gospel Comfort of Galilean Mathematics
The Lutheran Hermeneutic of the Real Presence
The Natural Law of the Family
Toward a Natural Law of the Family
Wanted: A Model Father
War Memoirs of the Rev. William and Jean McMurdie
When Evolution Became Conversation: Vestiges of Creation, Its Readers, and Its Respondents in Victorian Britain
When Science and Christianity Meet
Articles and Book Chapters
These works have been published in peer-reviewed journals or included in scholarly anthologies. Researchers often use such venues as stepping-stones toward the development of a book-length project.
A review essay (sometimes called an essay review) examines one or more recent books in depth, indicating where the new scholarship fits in relation to previous scholarship on related topics. Like a book review, it analyses a book. Like a research article, it relies upon a substantial bibliography.
As a writer and an editor, I have published several books and am working on a few others.
Devotional Writings
Here I offer my scholarship in service to the Christian church, with a particular desire to edify a general audience. Professors accustomed to a "publish or perish" university culture may find my academic writings more impressive than these simpler devotional items, but I am convinced that the most lasting value is to be found in these straightforward attempts to communicate God's Law and Gospel with clarity and compassion.
Although a teacher, I remain forever a student—whether formally or informally. I invite my students to peruse these research papers, most of which I have written for courses at Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary and others of which may have been written for other purposes.
Op Eds
An op ed appears on the page "opposite the editorial page." Here guest columnists evaluate currrent events and suggest new angles for addressing controversial topics.
Book reviews help fellow scholars to obtain a basic understanding of recent scholarly literature, so that those desiring to learn more will know where to look. Reviews go beyond summarizing by also evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a book and comparing it with other books on related topics.
What did Americans at Princeton, Yale, and Harvard think of evolution before Darwin published Origin of Species? How did their theological commitments shape their scientific outlook? That's what I set out to discover when preparing my doctoral dissertation for a public defense before a panel of professors at the University of Notre Dame in 2003.