About

80th Annual Conference - Septemer 25-26, 2015

Care for the Earth in a Global Society: Resources and Strategies in Lutheran Higher Education

This year's conference invites faculty to identify and share strategies and existing resources that can help our learning communities better care for the earth. We believe this focus is very timely and appropriate for a conference that will be held on PLU's campus. News and scholarship about climate change and sustainability abound in our daily lives. Residents of the Pacific Northwest value the ecological treasures of the mountains and waters in our region. PLU identifies sustainability as one of the core values that upholds its mission to "care for other people, for their communities, and for the earth.

Almost forty faculty from seventeen colleges and universities in Lutheran higher education have registered to attend. Thirteen of those participants will present talks, in addition to invited lectures that will be presented by six distinguished speakers. All told, we expect that the conference will be a rich source of information for faculty who seek to teach their learning communities to care for the earth.

• Conference Hosted by Pacific Lutheran University

Keynote Speaker

Rev. Dr. James B. Martin-Schramm, Professor of Religion, Luther College

Jim Martin-Schramm joined the Religion faculty of Luther College in 1993.  He is an ordained member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and holds a doctorate in Christian Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  Most of his scholarship has focused on issues related to ethics and public policy.  He is the author or co-author of several publications including Climate Justice: Ethics, Energy, and Climate Policy (Fortress Press, 2010) and Earth Ethics: A Case Method Approach (Orbis Books, 2015). Jim served on the inaugural board of the Iowa Wind Energy Association and currently serves as chair of the board of Iowa Interfaith Power & Light and the Winneshiek Energy District.  Jim coordinates the colleges and universities page for lutheransrestoringcreation.org, directs energy and climate programming for Luther’s Center for Sustainable Communities, and serves on the board of Luther College Wind Energy Project, LLC.

Keynote Address

Earth Ethics and Joyful Stewardship

One of the goals of this conference is that “participants will become better informed about evidence that Earth’s climate is changing; that the actions of human beings are driving these changes; [and] that altering earth systems has and will affect global society and life on the planet.”

 Much of my teaching and scholarship has focused on the intersection of ethics and public policy, and most of it recently has focused on ethics, energy, and climate policy.  I will begin my remarks this evening by summarizing some key information from recent studies on climate change and then step back from these findings to reflect on what drew me to this work, what particular gifts in Lutheran higher education support it, and finally how these values and commitments take shape at the institution where I teach, Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.

Session 1

Joint Appointments for Interdisciplinary Work: Engaging Multiple Perspectives About Global Concerns

Kevin Brandon and Rachel Eells, Concordia University Chicago

Changing Southern California Lifestyles: the Making of a Documentary on Local Community Efforts During the Drought

David Grannis, California Lutheran University

Global Environmental Governance and Caring for the Earth

Daniel Braaten, Texas Lutheran University

Homo Economicus vs. Image of God

David Tucker, Concordia University, Portland

‘Backyard’ Communities as Sources of Inspiration and Innovation

Paul Jackson, St. Olaf College

“Earth Has Not Anything to Show More Fair”: Teaching the Sustainable City

Michael Kalmes and Mark Looker, Concordia University—Ann Arbor

Plenary Speaker

Dr. Michael Behrens, Associate Professor of Biology, Pacific Lutheran University

Michael Behrens is Associate Professor of Biology and a marine ecologist at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.  He received his Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.  His research primarily focuses on the larval ecology of bivalves, disease ecology of marine invertebrates, and community-based monitoring.  In addition to this, Mike has worked with environmental education programs in California and Washington, most recently serving various roles with Harbor WildWatch, in Gig Harbor, WA.

Plenary Session

An Increasingly Human-Altered Ocean: Key Impacts and How to Use Them in Lutheran Higher Education

The ocean has long been thought of as vast and its resources inexhaustible. However, for centuries, humans have been impacting the ocean and the species living in it. This presentation will explore multiple ways that humans have altered, directly and indirectly, the marine environment and the communities within it. I will use both presentations of recent research and vignettes to present both the patterns of change and the impacts of those changes. Additionally, I will offer strategies to move past the negativity of these results and stories to use them to further core values of Lutheran higher education and provide hope for our students.

Breakout Sessions

Begin With Wonder: Music and Cosmic Awareness

Susan Palo Cherwien, Musician, Poet, & Hymn Writer Luther Seminary

The Intrinsic Value of All Creation – Lutheran Higher Education & Sustainability

Dr. Marit Trelstad, Professor of Constructive and Lutheran Theology Pacific Lutheran University

Invited Speaker

Dr. Charles Bergman, Professor of English & Environmental Studies, Pacific Lutheran University

Charles Bergman is Professor of English and Environmental Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Twice a Fulbright Scholar in Latin America, he is a passionate spokesperson for animals and the environment. His course in Environmental Literature in Antarctica gave PLU the distinction of being the first college or university to have courses offered on all seven continents at the same time. He writes and publishes extensively on animals, nature, and sustainability—with many cover stories in such magazines as Smithsonian, National Geographic, Audubon, and many more. His photographs accompany his articles. He has written three books, and has won the Washington State Book Award, Southwest Book Award, and the Benjamin Franklin Book Award.  He was a finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award.

Invited Speaker Address

Talking With Penguins

Penguins may be the most anthropomorphic bird in the world. They are like children and evoke a parental affection of us. They are also irresistibly comical, self-important clowns whose pratfalls only make them more endearing. These little clowns have a message for us, a call to the academy from the bottom of the world. I know, because I talked to a king penguin on South Georgia Island. I bring a double message from him—one about animals and another about ice. We live during a period of mass extinctions, and we are watching while our planet quite literally is burning up. The frightening future of global warming seems already to have arrived. I feel like the “Ancient Mariner,” returning from Antarctica with a message I must make you hear. But it is not about guilt. It’s about what I call “the penguin glow.” The penguins have something to say about the academy’s role in the face of a planet in jeopardy. And they have a message about how to find our way, and sustain spirit and motivation, in the process. And there are other voices in Antarctica that are insisting on being heard. From the penguins and the ice of Antarctica, I bring two messages—one about a more generous and even more mystical understanding of animals, and another about a truly frightening future for the planet, a future that, judging from the heat waves and fires this summer, may have already arrived.

Session 2

The Great Burning or the Great Economy: Which Will Lutheran Higher Education Serve?

Sean Horner, Pacific Lutheran University

Lutheran Education in the Anthropocene

Ernest Simmons, Concordia College – Moorhead

A Strategy for Environmental Partnership: Concordia University Wisconsin and Mequon Nature Preserve

Mary Korte, Concordia University Wisconsin

The CUW Bluff Restoration Project: A Case Study in Environmental Stewardship

Don Korte, Concordia University Wisconsin

Strategies for Stewardship and Service in the Classroom: Consumerism Gets a Community Makeover

Jean Kelso Sandlin, California Lutheran University

An American Environmental History Course in a Lutheran Higher Education Context

Matthew Bloom, Concordia University Texas

A Christian Virtual Frontier: an Integrated Vision for the Blended Classroom

Ardelle Pate, Concordia University Chicago

Plenary Speaker

Dr. Thomas Ackerman, Director, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO), University of Washington

Thomas Ackerman is Director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) and Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. He previously served as the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program. He is the recipient of the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. Dr. Ackerman has extensive and distinguished experience in climate research, and has authored or co-authored nearly 200 peer-reviewed journal articles on a wide range of climate-related topics.

Plenary Address

Climate Change: A Struggle for Evangelical Hearts and Minds

The science of climate and climate change has advanced dramatically in the past quarter century. Our robust understanding of greenhouse climate change is that (1) increasing greenhouse gas concentrations must increase Earth surface temperature, (2) human activity is causing a rapid rise in CO2 concentrations, and (3) the climate warming produced by these changes is most likely to be large (4-5˚C) by the end of this century. A major fraction of the US evangelical community disputes and denies these scientific conclusions. Sociological research suggests that this denial is more closely associated with political views than with religious belief or doctrine. It is difficult to break through this denial because there is little challenge to this thought pattern within the evangelical community. Also, some evangelicals portray their perception of environmentalism as a false religion that attacks the fundamental creation order.  What is our role as Christian academics? How do we interact with our academic and church communities? How do we speak truth in love, but still prophetically? I suggest that we focus on two issues. The first is the role of social justice in climate change. By our actions as the wealthy and large consumers of Earth’s resources, we are failing to “do unto others” and to love the least among us. Secondly, we need to plead for and lead an honest discussion within the Christian community on the relationship between science and religion. This is a complex discussion with no easy answers that demands careful dialog, intellectual struggle, and a loving spirit.

PLU Planning Team

• Ms. Diana Duclos

• Dr. Lynn Hunnicutt

• Dr. Pauline Shanks Kaurin

• Dr. Frank Kline

• Dr. Justin Lytle

• Dr. Samuel Torvend

2015 ALCF Committee

• Justin Lytle, President, Pacific Lutheran University

• Brian Harries, President Elect, Concordia University Wisconsin

• Doreen Moyo, Past President, Concordia University Alabama

• Robert Hayes, Secretary, Concordia University Chicago

• Patricia Trautrimas, Treasurer, Midland University

• Mark Looker, Concordia University Ann Arbor