From Bailing Water:
Freddy Finkelstein said...
Rev. Tomczak,
No problem -- I've been busy myself this week, on the road again for business. Catching a red-eye back home this evening, I'll mention and recommend a book that I have been reading here at the airport (which I mentioned on this blog some months ago): The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church, by Schmauk and Benze. Published in 1911 (and recently reprinted by CPH), it is a follow-on of C.P. Krauth's Conservative Reformation. Old, yet surprisingly contemporary in application, here are some quotes:
"Change in itself is not progress, and the right of every individual to think as he pleases is not, it itself, the attainment of [Christian] liberty...";
"the currents of knowledge are flowing away from a fixed faith, and are beating against a fixed Confession...";
"The enemies of the Church's doctrine and Confession are often her own most brilliant and thoughtful sons... the Mother sees her own offspring repudiate their material birthright, even when -- at times -- they are proud to bear her face and name...";
"...the Source of [our] Witness [is] the Word, and the standard of [our] Witness, the Confessions, are central...";
"...it is impossible to maintain uncritically the dogma of Biblical infallibility, in the same breath with a loose, critical and destructive dogma of confessional fallibility. The quill that bristles against the Confessions, cannot successfully spread its shelter over their Source." (from the Introduction and Preface).
Freddy Finkelstein
December 13, 2008 1:17 AM
