Today is Laetare Sunday. Laetare, is the Latin word for “rejoice” and what a perfect time for me to tell you about a truly superb book that I can not possibly recommend to you enough. You will be delighted with it. Pastor Matthew Harrison’s newest book . You can buy a copy here, and you can hear Pastor Harrison talk about his book.

Here is a nice PDF sample from the book, with all the endorsements for it: little-book-of-joy-sampler(2)

Here is the book’s description provided by the book’s seller:

“So many churches, so many pastors and Christians have so little joy today,” my friend observed. “These are difficult times.”

With these words Matthew Harrison embarks on a quest to rediscover the joy of being a Christian, the secret of living a Good News life in a bad news world. In A Little Book on Joy, Harrison takes the reader on a journey…

* from the father’s joy at the prodigal’s return, to the joy of Mary’s Magnificat.
* from the joy of the Holy Spirit and repentance, to the manifold joys of life together in community, marriage, and family.
* from the joy of forgiveness and perfect righteousness in Christ, to the joys of humor, worship, the sanctity of life, and the wonders of creation.
* from the joy of a faithful pastor and cheerful giving, to the joy found in weakness.
* from the joy of the Gospel mission throughout the world, the joy of everyday life and of a genuine and faithful Lutheranism, to the joys in store for us in the life of the world to come.

Study questions follow each chapter making A Little Book on Joy the perfect guide for a Bible study on the topic of Christian joy.

A Bible reading guide for “The Great Ninety Days of Joy after Joy: Daily Texts with Prayers to Gladden the Heart from Ash Wednesday through Pentecost (or any time),” makes this the perfect devotional guide for Lent and Easter, or any time of year.

Pastor Matthew Harrison was baptized in a small rural parish, raised in a large suburban church, was a missionary to native Canadians in Ontario, served as a graduate assistant at the seminary, studied in Australia, vicared in Texas, and served as pastor in rural Iowa and inner city, Fort Wayne, Indiana. After co-founding a nationally recognized neighborhood renewal project in what was the poorest census tract in Indiana, he became the Executive Director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care and has administered nearly $100,000,000 of charitable giving worldwide. He writes, translates, and speaks extensively. He delights in his wife, Kathy, and two boys, Matthew and Mark. He is an avid bluegrass banjo player and luthier, and finds joy in it all.

Everyone knows that the Crusades were horrible miscarriages of justice, and examples of Western Imperialism, right? The Pope called the Crusades to find a “release valve” for the warring knights in Europe and to rob the East of its wealth and to plunder the Arab states in the Holy Land. That’s the common take on the Crusades. The Crusades were assaults on the otherwise peace-loving Islamic nation-states. These and other myths are shattered to little pieces in this fascinating book.

Stark marshalls impressive evidence that the common view of the Crusades is far from the truth in this fascinating account of the motivations of the Crusaders and the often overlooked reality of just what was happening in the Holy Land at the hands of Islamic armies bent on spreading Islam by force of arms.

If you have ever wondered if there is more to the story of the Crusades than the received wisdom we were all given in our basic history courses, you will enjoy this book, very much.

I have an interesting story to share, well, at least it is interesting to me. If you are a book geek, like me, you’ll may find this interesting too. If you are not, stop reading now.

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Dr. Robert Kolb and in the midst of a back/forth e-mail discussion that day, somehow the matter of finding copies of old printings of the Book of Concord came up and we were discussing how it is rather interesting to notice that in most of the 17th century and into the 18th century, the most commonly found copies of the Book of Concord printed are only copies of the Latin Book of Concord. Latin, of course, was the language of the schools and scholars, so it makes sense. But finding German printings of the BOC beyond the 16th century is more difficult. I have one printed in the 1700s, and the first German/Latin diglot edition, printed in the 1700s as well, but a German edition from the 1600s is much less frequently found.

Then conversation in the e-mail discussion turned to the “holy grail” of Book of Concord collectors. I told Dr. Kolb that I had been on the “hunt” for a first edition of the 1580 German Book of Concord for nearly ten years, and had found one about five or six years ago, bound with a copy of the Saxon Church Order, but it was going for around $4,500 and so I had to pass. Well, after our e-mail exchange, I was poking around again looking for a first edition of the 1580 Book of Concord and to my amazement, found one listed by a German rare book shop. Talk about eerie! The next day I e-mailed Dr. Kolb and told him he was my good luck charm.

The book arrived a couple weeks ago. I was able to purchase it for a considerably lower price because it is missing the title page and a few pages of the foreword. I suspect, but can not prove, that it fell victim to an unfortunate practice out there of removing key pages from rare books and selling them as separate pieces. Egads! But, if so, it only benefited me, for I was able to obtain a first edition of the BOC for a lot less than the other one I had found.

I’ve posted a few photos here for you to see it. The first photo is the book as it now sits in my office, surrounded by some other Luther related items, and sitting under the Cranach Weimar Altar painting. The close up below is a shot of the most important page in the book for establishing its authenticity, the printer’s colophon. You’ll notice the date on it is 1579, not 1580. Here’s why. The Formula of Concord was printed in 1579, but was bound up into the whole book only in 1580, so that is why you will find in first editions of the 1580 Book of Concord, this kind of printer’s colophon with a date of 1579 on it.

So, there’s my 1580 Book of Concord story. Sorry about the quality of the photos, I just used my iPhone camera.

Printer's Colophon Page in 1580 German Book of Concord

I have been enjoying a new book just published titled The Bible in Pictures: From the Workshop of Lucas Cranach (1534). A number of years ago, the publisher, Tachsen, produced a facsimile of the first complete Luther Bible translation, the 1534 edition. What Tachsen did with this book is pull all the illustrations out of the first complete Luther Bible, used a companion volume also published at the time, and printed a complete collection of the illustrations that Cranach and his workship prepared to illustrate the 1534 Luther Bible. It is a handsome, 200 page hardback volume. I picked it up from Amazon. The cover image Amazon uses is the German, not the English edition, but the book is in English.

There is a great new book out by Dr. Christopher Boyd Brown titled Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation. In this book, which began as his dissertation for his Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, Dr. Brown offers a new appraisal of the Reformation and its popular appeal, based on the place of German hymns in the sixteenth century and in the lives of the early Lutherans. He focuses on the Bohemian mining town of Joachimsthal, where pastors, musicians, and laity forged an enduring and influential union of Lutheranism, music, and culture as the “test case” for his research.

The Lutheran hymns, sung in the streets and homes as well as in the churches and schools of Joachimsthal, were central instruments of a Lutheran pedagogy that sought to convey the Gospel to laymen and women in a form that they could remember and apply for themselves. Townspeople and miners sang the hymns, in their home, they taught their children, counseled one another, and consoled themselves hen death came near.

Shaped and nourised by the theology of the hymns, the laity of Joachimsthal maintained this Lutheran piety in their homes for a generation after Evangelical pastors had been expelled from their city during the Counter-Reformation. They finally chose to leaqve their homeland rather than submit to the demands of their Catholic church and political rulers. Singing the Gospel challenges the prevailing view that Lutheranism failed to transform the homes and harts of sixteenth-century Germany.

Dr. Brown is Assistant Professor of Church History, Boston University School of Theology. He is also the General Editor of Luther’s Works: American Edition, New Series. It is published by Harvard University Press.

I’ve been enjoying reading At Home in the House of My Fathers a new, huge, book containing letters, sermons, essays and other writings from the first five German-born presidents of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Brought to us by that German-translating machine, Rev. Matthew Harrison, this book is a treasure, indeed. There is nothing else like this resource, containing the passionate, Gospel-centered witness of the early leaders of the Missouri Synod. You will be deeply moved by their profoundly pastoral and confessionally faithful witness. You must get this book, and you can now, at LOGIA books, by ordering from their online web site”

Here is what others are saying about the book:

G. K. Chesterton once famously said that the church is the ultimate democracy; saints are not disenfranchised just because they happen to be dead. Harrison’s volume confirms this truth in spades. Great fathers of the LMCS speak also to us on a wide range of topics from the church’s call to mission at a time of opportunity (Pfotenhauer) to her response to moral issues in society (Schwan on the temperance movement) to a touching discussion of the nature of women as human creatures within the church (Brohm). But “worth the price of admission” is the multifaceted and very personal piece of correspondence from Wyneken to Walther on Anfechtungen, depression, and church politics, including the difficulties of their own personal relationship. Read, appreciate, and learn!
Rev. James W. Voelz, Ph.D., Professor of Exegetical Theology
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

A treat awaits you if you think you know the Missouri Synod. The contents of this book should have been the reason many of us had to take German in college, but alas, struggling through Thomas Mann was our lot. Matthew Harrison has done a great service by making available these essays, sermons, and other writings to English speakers. Walther, Wyneken, Schwan, Pieper and Pfotenhauer give readers more than a historical glimpse into an earlier era of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. They offer delightful theological responses to situations that are surprisingly contemporary.
Rev. Terry Cripe, President, Ohio District
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

I wanted again to remind all of you that through the month of June all editions of Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions are on sale at 50% off. I would point out that the digital edition is a particular value, since when you buy it you receive the LOGOS software with it, and also a copy of the English Standard Version of the Bible in the Logos edition, so you have two resources, for the price of only one, and now for only $15.00 given the 50% off sale. I would encourage you to consider publicizing this in your congregation and gathering a batch of orders and sending them into CPH by the end of the month, when the sale ends. To see the various editions of Concordia, please visit: http://www.cph.org/concordia Also, don’t miss out on the daily Twitter feed of readings from the Book of Concord, available at: http://www.twitter.com/bookofconcord

I’m doing some travelling and, naturally, have the opportunity to spend some quality time with the Kindle while waiting and flying. Recently Tolkien’s works have become available, and I picked up Lord of the Rings, in Kindle format, all three books, for $14.00. As I begin to read these books again, I’m reminded of what a reading treat they are. Tolkien did not write these books to impress anyone, or hope they would be made into a movie, from which he would garner residuals. He wrote for the sheer pleasure of writing them. He could not even afford to have his manuscripts typed, by a “ten fingered typist” as he once put it. The story of the horrible problems these books went through via various editions and printings at multiple publishing houses was interesting to read.

The edition I picked up has a nice summary of the history of the texts, but the text itself is the thing. This is a piece of literature that one must savor. There is nothing “quick” about Lord of the Rings. You are along for a long ride, and you just need to sit back and enjoy it, as I’m doing, mightily. It has been a few years since I read LOR, in fact, I think the last time I read LOR was a year before the first of the Jackson movies came out. It is fun comparing and contrasting what is in the books to what Jackson put in his movies. I’m very impressed by how Jackson handled things down to a very fine level of detail, capturing verbatim parts of the dialogue, and on the other hand, how artfully and skillfully he turned the printed page into a movie.

I’m looking forward to several weeks of a reading banquet, courtesy of JRR Tolkien and the wonderful world he created, inhabited by some of the truly most unforgettable characters in all of literature.

"Literature adds to reality, it does
not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that
daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the
deserts that our lives have already become.  In reading great
literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the
night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still
I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in
knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.”

— C.S. Lewis

I think you will enjoy hearing more about Bo Giertz and the new translation of his wonderful devotions for every day of the church year. Click here to listen to the interview on the KFUO Afternoon Show.

Here is a PDF flyer featuring a myriad of theological books and other resource that are presently on sale. Please take a look at these items, featuring remarkable value for the price, and note: those who quality for the professional church worker discount [all those on  church’s body roster as a professional, full-time church worker] are able to take an additional 20% off the listed prices. Please do not miss this opportunity.

Download professional_book_sale.pdf

Famous among English speaking Lutherans for his masterful work, The Hammer of God, Bo Giertz’ collection of daily devotions is now available in English for the first time:
To Live With Christ.
It is 830 pages, hardback, for $19.99.
You may place your order here.
Or call 800-325-3040.
This book was originally two books, but we decided to publish both together. Here’s what Bishop Giertz had to say about this work:
“I myself once began with a clean slate, not knowing much at all about Christianity. It was the beginning of a long life of continuous exploration. I have written this book in the hope that it will help some reader follow the same path. He will not regret it.”
To Live With Christ is for the believer who wants more knowledge, help in prayer, help in understanding the Bible, familiarity with the rhythm of the Church Year, and desires a structured daily devotional life. Beginning with Advent, each daily devotional includes a Scripture reading, meditation, and prayer.

You might remember that a number of years ago I sent out a question to various e-mail lists asking if you would be willing, ready and able to purchase the English translation of the magnum opus by the famous Lutheran orthdox dogmatician, Johann Gerhard, his Loci Theologici. The response was very positive. I wanted to update you on the project and where things are. Two volumes have been released, the first On the Nature of Theology and Scripture and the second On the Nature of God and the Trinity. The third volume in the works now is On Christ.

I can not emphasize enough how significant this publication project is. It is the first time that this monumental work of Lutheran theology has ever been translated into English. Rev. Benjamin Mayes, the editor for the series has done simply an outstanding job on this translation, supplementing it with many useful resources. Here is how he describes his work:

We have carefully compared the English translation to the original Latin and added annotations, a glossary, indices, a list of the works cited, and other typographical improvements. In addition, Gerhard’s two dedicatory epistles, included in the first volume of Preuss’s edition of the Loci Theologici, have been translated by the Rev. Heath R. Curtis and included here.

With this message, I’m reminding you once again about this series and encouraging you to purchase these volumes, or, have the congrgation you serve purchase these books for you, as part of your continuing education. No, they are not inexpensive. They are priced at $54.99. Professional church workers receive a 20% discount from this price, roughly $11 or so off each volume. I believe it is a sound investment in your theological growth and education. Not light reading, to be sure, but a treasure-trove indeed, incomparable in its scope and depth.

Here are the volumes in production and in the works. We are releasing one a year and will be increasing that to two a year when this is possible. This is, and will be, the most thorough Lutheran dogmatics in the English language:

On the Nature of Theology and Scripture 
On the Nature of God and on the Trinity 
On Christ 
On Creation, Predestination, and Sin 
On the Law and the Gospel 
On Justification 
On Good Works and the Sacraments 
On Holy Baptism 
On the Holy Supper 
On the Church 
On the Ecclesiastical Ministry 
On Political Magistracy 
On Marriage and Celibacy 
On Death 
On the Resurrection and Judgment 
On Eternal Death and Eternal Life

Let me conclude with the words of Dr. C.F.W. Walther as he describes the importance of Johann Gerhard’s Loci Theologici:

Among the works that deal with dogmatics in detail, one can ask which one is first and foremost just as little as one can ask which star outshines all the others. Just as in the latter question one can only speak of the sun, so in the former question one can only speak of Johann Gerhard’s Theological Commonplaces. . . . The proofs from Scripture are everywhere clear and exhaustive. The refutation of opponents is pervaded and pulses just as much with the spirit of love toward them as with the love of the truth; it seeks out the opponents in all their hiding places and always robs them of their last supports, so that no further contradiction seems possible. The application of the whole as well as of the particular is simple, illuminating, clearly arranged. Free from destructive fragmentation—at times an error of the later dogmaticians—the entire development of the doctrine flows along briskly with its linguistic, historical, and antithetical excursus like one great stream that describes pleasant bends in the river. Everything is all of a piece. Ethics here are not yet separated from dogmatics; the former appear here like grapes growing from a ripe vine. Biblical isagogics, hermeneutics, exegesis, history of dogmas, patristics, and polemics are added here not like a merely worthwhile appendage, but are organically woven into the whole like necessary beams, like adornments in this architectural marvel. The expression and style are so certain and thereby so simple and brisk; the development of topics, even with its exhaustive precision, goes forward without burdensome repetition so swiftly; even the most dry and subtle subjects are discussed with such exceptional freshness and facility; everything is handled with such holy seriousness; and the words are soaked with such devout meaning that the reader, being taken away by the speech of this precious man, does not know whether he has before him a work for the promotion of Christian erudition or a devotional book. One does not tire of it as long as he reads it and notes how light and warmth go forth from this speech of noble simplicity and true depth of spirit. In sum, in our opinion this work of dogmatics is, in content and form, the most glorious, most complete work in this field that has ever been achieved within Christendom, and until the Last Day it will probably remain the model for all who labor in this field.

Source for Walther quote:

C. F. W. Walther, “Lutherisch-theologische Pfarrers-Bibliothek,” Lehre und Wehre 1 (1855): 300–301. Translation by Benjamin Mayes.

I’m very happy to let you know about a new book that just hit the CPH warehouse and is ready for immediate purchase. It is Rev. Dr. Arthur J. Just’s Heaven on Earth: The Gifts of Christ in the Divine Service. It’s simply wonderful. It is deep, yet clear. For those who have wondered what Lutheran worship is all about, this is the book for them. For pastors who feel they have far too many people in the congregation who are ignorant of why Lutherans worship the way they do, this is the book they will want to use.
 

Many people have enjoyed Dr. Just’s video presentation on these issues. Well, if you liked the movie, you are going to love this book. As you read the deeply moving history of the development, use and meaning of the Lutheran liturgy you will find a renewed sense of purpose, understanding and appreciation for why we do, what we do, in the Lutheran Divine Service. Dr. Just covers the following topics:

• Preface
  Introduction: The Historic Liturgy
• The Theology of Worship
• The Structure of the Historic Liturgy
• Jewish Origins of Christian Worship
• The Table Fellowship of Jesus
• The Historic Liturgy and the New Creation
• The Psalms in Worship
• The Christian Concept of Time
• Baptism: Entrance into the Divine Service
• The Historic Liturgy as Divine Service: Liturgy of the Word
• The Liturgy of the Lord’s Supper
• Conclusion: Lutheran Liturgy in the Postmodern World
• Appendix: Seasonal Proper Prefaces from Lutheran Service Book.

The book includes extensive notes and a helpful glossary.

If you have been looking for one, single book to put into the hands of people to help them "get" what the liturgy is all about, this is it. It is paperback and is priced at $14.99. It comes with extensive charts, graphs and other helpful illustrations and photos. Rostered church workers receive a 20% discount from that price.

Coming soon to a certain publishing house, near you, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions—The Digital Edition. We are not taking orders yet for it. We anticipate that we will have it in stock and ready for purchase in early April.

Last week I spent several hours giving the electronic edition of Concordia a shake-down cruise and— wow—is it nice! The folks at Logos have done a terrific job. Every single cross reference in the book, either to the Confessions or Scripture, is hyperlinked, the search functionality is awesome, and of course, if you add this to whatever existing Libronix system library you have installed on your computer, you can keyword link to your heart’s delight.

Another great feature is that when you search on a word or phrase, or any sort of search at all, by displaying the search results in concordance mode you can easily distinguish between the text proper of the Confessions and the notes, introductions, annotations, etc. throughout the book.

On what computers will it work? All PC systems and any Mac that has an Intel processor with a Windows operating system running. On my Macs, I use Parallels and Windows XP. If you can’t dedicate at least two gigs of memory to VISTA, I strongly discourage using VISTA on a Mac. On the other hand, Windows XP with one gig allocated to it really flies
and the Logos system performs very quickly. In fact, I was talking to
Logos on the phone and we were working on some things together and the
tech on the other end of the phone line was amazed at how fast my
MacBook Pro was booting into Windows and running. She said, "Yea, we’ve
noticed here that all the Macs run Windows a lot faster than the PCs we
have." Smile.

One more comment, apparently there are some people who think that the LOGOS software costs hundreds of dollars. No, in fact every LOGOS enabled product comes as a stand-alone item, which will install the software on your computer you need to search and use the book you’ve bought. So, in this case, you would pay around $29.99 for the electronic edition of Concordia and the LOGOS system is installed on your computer for you to use the Concordia edition.

Here are a few screen of the electronic edition to whet your appetite. Click on the image for a sharper image.

Read more…