Book Review. - Literatur

Book Review. - Literatu

The Dynamic of the Lutheran Reformation

The Augsburg Confession is a confession of faith. But through its four hundred years it has become more: it is a witness to the persistence of the Lutheran Reformation. It was in its origin an episode in the growth of the Lutheran movement; it is a testimonial, after four centuries, to the permanent power of its principles. Why did the principles formulated under the inspiration of the Lutheran movement have this quality of persistence, becoming largely identified with the name and personality of Luther, maintaining their distinction through centuries and under varying circumstances? Why did not, for example, the Wycliffe or the Hussite movement persist under its own impulse? Historians remind us of the mysterious element” in all great revolutions of human thought (Trevelyan p.195); and the simplest explanation is thus summarized: The greatness of Luther and Calvin, as contrasted, for instance, with Marsiglio, Wyclif, or Gerson, does not lie so much in greater zeaI, more thorough method, more logical aim, ns in their greater opportunity. The fullness of the time had come. (Workman, p.17.) This opportunity- is thought of as a complex of political, ecclesiastical, intellectual, doctrinal, and economic ingredients, proportioned according to the school of the historian. (Cf. Smith, p. 699 ff.) But it is startling to what an extent these ingredients are present in the manifold attempts at revolt from Romo and its system before the Reformation. A review of these ferments at work in the pre-Reformation period may serve to emphasize in a less usual way that principle which stands out, by contrast with the past, as the dynamic of the Lutheran movement -- the sola fide

Texts for the Church Year 1950-1951

Texts for the Church Year 1950-195

In Many, Much

Pastors of large churches have always had to suffer from well-meaning brothers who masked their sometimes subconscious envy behind a hearty I\u27ll bet you just wear yourself out on that big job. In addition, two movements of thought have recently bedeviled them. One is that God is dead, and perhaps the whole operation should be turned into a used-car lot. The other is that the parish is dead, that it is a shame for people to come on a Sunday and be comforted when they ought to give up all and live in tenements. In all three corrosive comments is the grain of uncomfortable truth. It is hard to keep up with the case load of human need. It is hard to remember and to help people remember that God is very much alive and His Christ is with them. It is hard not to be discouraged over the apathy not merely of the nonattenders but the attenders

Give Attendance to Reading

Give attendance to reading, St. Paul exhorted Timothy. This exhortation has sometimes been applied to contemporary ministers as follows: Let them keep up their private studies, their reading of the Bible and of the many other materials which enrich their mind and ministry. That is a useful and necessary exhortation. The original intention of 1 Tim. 4:13, however, is simpler. St. Paul tells Timothy that he is to minister faithfully and vigorously to his congregation till St. Paul himself will come. This ministry means bringing the Word of God to people. That he is to do through three routes: reading the Scriptures to them, exhorting them concerning Scriptural facts, and teaching them the significance of these Scriptural facts for themselves

Theological Observer. - Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches

Theological Observer. – Klrchllch Zeitgeschichtliches (Theological Observer. – Of course contemporary history

Preaching from Isaiah.

Preaching from Isaiah, the book by Professor John P. Milton of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., was published by Augsburg Publishing House of Minneapolis in 1953 and was reviewed by the present writer in the CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY in the May issue of 1954 {pp. 407 f.). The purpose of this extended study is to stress the underlying principle of the work regarding the choice of sermon texts for the Sunday morning service, a principle which renders this book especially noteworthy and which is valid for many other areas of the Scriptures as a source for preaching texts

Training the Parish for Christian Citizenship

Citizenship is in the midstream of American thought. The Communist menace bids man review the foundations of government. Party politics utilizes radio and television in addition to earlier tools of press and propaganda. The great social problems of our time - public and social welfare, the racial question, the conflicts of capital and labor, control of economics-are all related to government and citizenship. Hence the questions concerning the Church\u27s place in this program are more insistent than ever. More specifically: What shall the parish do to train its people for citizenship

Homiletics: Outlines on the Standard Epistle Lessons

Homiletics: Outlines on the Standard Epistle Lesson

President Louis J. Sieck, D. D.

The late president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., has gone to his heavenly rest. Therewith he joins the ranks of the theologians of the Church whom it remembers with honor. Throughout his life it seemed as though Doctor Sieck was not destined for the role of theologian in the professional sense of the term. After an assistantship of one year to the late President of the Missouri Synod, Dr. F. Pfotenhauer, at Hamburg, Minn., Louis J. Sieck became assistant pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in St. Louis, beginning in 1905, and pastor after 1914. A large and active congregation situated close to the business district of the city, this parish demanded incessant activity in the various domains of parish administration - management of plant and school, fund-raising, training for leadership of the laity