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| James Russell Lowell's life is a study in itself. |
One of the best rewards of blogging is the regular contact I have with many thoughtful laymen. Precious few clergy communicate with me, so I assume my work has the highest possible value. After all, they pay millions to be deluded by Fuller, Willow Creek, and their synodical dungeon-masters.
One frequently asked question concerns books to read and worthwhile sources. Some people are moving out of the ELCA/LCMC orbit, which is almost devoid of good contemporary sources. Others were bred in the Olde Synodical Conference, where learning is more like stumbling about in a darkened basement, holding an unlit candle stub.
Nothing needs to get in the way of research. Once upon a time I counted myself fortunate to be 50 miles from the Notre Dame Library, which purchased an entire Protestant seminary library for its theology floor. Now anyone with a digital device can search the world of religion for free, mindful that I own most of the Lutheran topics and graphics worth searching. Sorry - that happens with almost 16,000 illustrated posts.
I believe in using multiple sources for the same topic and following where the research leads. One question to ask is - What did the authors find most important?
For Luther, the answer is obvious. Everything in his work depended on the preached sermon. Some writers and professors like to start and stop with Luther and the Scriptures, but that is too easy and vague. I remember one of James Tiefel's catastrophic sermons, where he kept tossing out sola this and sola that. Doubtless he found his limited Latin vocabulary intoxicating. Too many solas can do that.
Many writers jumped on the Luther topic for the 500th, but any author missing the sermon foundation for Luther books and lectures fails to grasp Luther. The best place to start is not with everyone's opinions but with Luther's sermons. I give away Luther's Sermons whenever possible. There he teaches the Scriptures as a whole, texts in particular, and the doctrine of the Christian Faith. Those sermons are also his confession of faith.
Most importantly, Luther considered the sermon the number one task of the clergy. Look at the situation today, where seminaries like Mequon encourage plagiarism and sharing the same sermon. One of my friends attended two meetings at roughly the same time. Two different WELS leaders gave the same devotion, verbatim. No wonder sermons sound dead today. They are like hearing the white pages being recited.
Beware. Reading Luther's sermons will spoil anyone, so most blogs and discussion groups will suddenly seem like a visit to a turkey farm, where one turkey suddenly warbles his song, then others join in just as unexpectedly then stop, no one making any sense or making any music - except from a turkey's limited perspective.
Luther biographies are good for background. Reading Luther should provide an appetite for studying his life. But we should focus on the source material first of all. Naturally, Luther's constant teaching on the efficacy of the Word will motivate us to study the Word and experience it as God's revelation.
After Luther - and with Luther, we should read
- Melanchthon, Luther's best student,
- Chemnitz - the student of Luther and Melanchthon,
- and relatively few others.
Do you really want to know the Biblical meaning of Justification by Faith? Then read Melanchthon's clear and Biblical essay on the topic in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. Here is a handy link to Melanchthon on Justification by Faith.
Book of Concord selections can be found here.
Do you want to study the Justification topic in depth? Then read the shorter - or even the longer - version of Luther's Galatians Lectures. I read every word of the longer version to Mrs. Ichabod years ago. Later I read it again to make graphics from it, after creating graphics from the shorter version of Galatians. In other words, the Galatians lectures can and should be read many times over.
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| Luther or Ski? One of these guys is wrong. |
Those Other Lutherans from the Muhlenberg Tradition
The Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry has created an actual library of e-books to read. They are all from outside the Olde Synodical Conference, which has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Thrivent's UniSynod.
The General Synod started it all, with a genuine doctrine blender named S. S. Schumucker. From the General Synod came extreme aversion to the Book of Concord and a great love for revivals. Many union congregations were formed, such as St. Paul German Village in Columbus, Ohio and St. Paul in New Ulm, Minnesota. The clergy would have Calvinist and Lutheran communion services on different Sundays, Calvinist and Lutheran confirmation with different groups. I am not sure if the trend was for two clergy or for one with a double confession of faith.
Bizarre you say? Impossible? We have the same today, with clergy swearing to a quia subscription to the Book of Concord and spending their free time and money at Fuller, Willow Creek, Trinity Divinity, or their own SynCon seminary - all equally against Luther's doctrine and ashamed of the Reformer's teaching.
The General Synod broke up over its Pietistic apostasy, so the General Council broke free from all that nonsense. The strength of the General Council was its struggle with these issues. Gettysburg remained the General Synod seminary and Philadelphia started the General Council seminary.
Unfortunately, when the General Synod and General Council merged together in recognition of the Reformation's 400th, the liberal element won. That was the ULCA, the Masonic and liberal controlling element of the Lutheran Church in America.
Luther Weigle, he dean of Yale Divinity came from the ULCA, converted (if that be the right term) to Congregationalist, and led Protestantism in the National Council of Churches and Revised Standard Version of the Bible (minus the Virgin Birth in Isaiah 7). OK, they backpedaled on Isaiah 7 but kept their odious claim in the footnote.
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| Schmauk is one of the overlooked greats of Lutherdom. Did anyone notice I spelled Confessional Principle wrong? |
That is why we need to know the Lutheran Library books. When ELCA leaders deny the basic articles of faith and clamor to have communion with the Calvinists, Baptists, and Moravians, they are simply repeating the General Synod experience, one which Weigle - a Gettysburg Seminary graduate - represented so well.
Avoid the WELS/ELS Repeat after Me Style of Learning
We must put good content into the hopper (our brains) to have good results. We also need to avoid the repeat after me style of WELS and the Little Sect on the Prairie. They have one verbatim answer to every question and hate to be knocked off their robotic path toward their ultimate truth - We have the best denomination ever!
The synods and professors do not judge all books, all authors, the Bible does, as Luther said so well.
"The Holy Spirit teaches man better than all the books; He teaches him to understand the Scriptures better than he can understand them from the teaching of any other; and of his own accord he does everything God wills he should, so the Law dare make no demands upon him."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 280. Pentecost Sunday John 14:23-31.
