I received a copy of the new ESV Bible Atlas, and my reaction is, in one word, “Wow!”  You owe it to yourself to check it out. I am particularly impressed by the huge beautiful pictures of the Temple grounds in Jerusalem at the time of Christ and the cut-away images of the Temple itself. Full disclosure: I was given a copy of the ESV Atlas as a gift by Dr. Lane Dennis of Crossway, and what a wonderful gift it is. You can order it now for only $35. An amazingly good value for such a rich book, which comes with a CD and a poster, as well.

Here is Justin Taylor’s description of the Atlas.

The new Crossway ESV Bible Atlas (352 pages) will be shipping soon from Amazon.

The text of the Atlas was written by Professor John Currid (RTS-Charlotte, NC). The maps were done by David Barrett, who also served as the cartographer for the ESV Study Bible. Here’s what it contains:

175 full-color maps
70 full-color photographs
3-D re-creations of biblical objects and sites
indexes
timelines
65,000 words of narrative description.
“The atlas uniquely features regional maps detailing biblically significant areas such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Italy, and Greece. It also includes a CD with searchable indexes and digital maps, and a removable, 16.5 x 22-inch map of Palestine.”

One of the neat things for me is being able to see the ESVSB illustrations—of the tabernacle, the temples, Jerusalem at various times, etc—in great detail over a two-page spread on glossy paper.

If you want to flip through 40+ pages of the Atlas virtually, click here. Just put your mouse on the right-hand side of the atlas to flip to the next page.

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the old books I have in my office. I just shot this with my iPhone camera.

My colleague, Rev. Dr. Benjamin Mayes is diligent to share with me everything he discovers by way of orthodox Lutheran theological resources online. He has done it again by providing me a link to an on-line digital edition of the work by Leonard Hutter titled Concordia Concors. What, you might wonder, is Concordia Concors? It is a response to an attack against Lutheranism launched by the Calvinist Hospinian, with his work Concordia discors, or, Unharmonious Harmony.

Leonard Hütter, (1563–1616) was born in Nellingen, near Ulm, educated in Strasbourg, Leipzig, Heidelberg, and Jena; professor in Wittenberg 1596; champion of Lutheran orthodoxy; called redonatus Lutherus (Latin for “Luther given back”), by anagrammatic rearrangement of the letters in Leonardus Hutterus. His works include Compendium locorum theologicorum and Concordia concors.

In his book The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism, Volume 1, Dr. Robert Preus has this to say about Concordia concors and Leonard Hutter. (By the way, Dr. Preus’ book is truly a sine qua non on the subject of orthodox Lutheran theologians and their theology. A truly brilliant work of erudition, and, as always, written in a clear, easy to understand manner.

“After the final overthrow of the Philippists he was called to Wittenberg as professor of theology. Together with Giles Hunnius he was most effective in establishing confessional Lutheran orthodoxy. His activity centered primarily in dogmatics and symbolics. His most important work in symbolics was his Concordia Concors, written in 1614,in which he defended the Formula of Concord, in reply to the Calvinist Rudolf Hospinian.”

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.