C.F.W. Walther was an extremely popular preacher and professor. Our professional/academic book team has been working hard at bringing out a new edition of what many consider to be the most important lecture series he gave to students Law and Gospel. By the way, the “proper distinction between,” that is normally added to the title, was just that: added later. The lecture series he gave was simply, by him, titled Law and Gospel. You can download and read/see an extended sample of this forthcoming volume. It will be available in late June/early July.

Here is something that may fascinate you, as it did me: we have actual copies of the lecture notes Walther prepared and then gave for the Law and Gospel “Luther hour” lecture series he presented on this. These lectures were delivered outside the normal classroom experience and intended to be a bit more relaxed and less formal in nature. Here is a blog post that Rev. Engelbrecht posted to his blog today.

My colleague, Charles Schaum, prepared the following for our web page on C. F. W. Walther. On the site you can view samples of Walther’s handwritten notes for the lectures on Law and Gospel. In July, CPH will release a new translation/edition of Walther’s Law and Gospel, which has been one of the most influential documents in American Lutheran churches.

“When C.F.W. Walther gave his lectures on Law and Gospel, he generally used notes on three or four leaves of paper folded into a booklet. Walther used his notes as a guide for what he intended to say to the students, but he felt free to depart somewhat from them if needed. Nevertheless, his notes show the material that he wanted to communicate.

“Walther wrote his notes in longhand, but in an abbreviated style. He left an ample margin on the right where he wrote references to works, other remarks, and space for revision.

“These notes are important because one can use them to answer questions about whether the original transcriptions were accurate. For example, the German versions refer to a hymn writer as pastor “Lollmann,” as does the Dau edition. Yet Walther’s notes clearly show Caspar Neumann as the hymn writer, as the new edition of Law and Gospel indicates.”

Here is a PDF scan of some of Walther’s notes.