I appreciate hearing from people. I cannot offer any details, except to say I exchange a lot of doctrinal views with people. The contacts are mostly email. Some are IM. A couple of people phone every so often.
I offer my opinions and satire to get people to study the Scriptures and the Confessions. Battles alert people to the issues. Otherwise we are listless and apathetic. The great Confessions have arisen during doctrinal crises, and so have our best hymns. The ecclesiastical corporations, in league with Thrivent, do not like that. But it must be God's will.
Here are some brief suggestions. I get used books from Alibris. Far better to have a few great books than tons of famous books.
The KJV is the gold standard of English translations.
For those who cannot take the KJV, some updates are fairly good, as long as people realize they are anti-Sacrament (Babtist customers). Grammar is no longer as precise, so the KJV should be the favored version for any citation.
I like the Concordia Triglotta because of its Historical Introductions. The Introductions should be read a little at a time, ignoring some of the excruciating details preserved for all posterity. The episodes like the Crypto-Calvinists should be studied. The Triglotta is the best translation.
I will talk about how to read the BOC on another post.
The Sermons of Luther should be read, studied, digested, read over again - before any other books. I have linked some on the left column. The sermon set from Grand Rapids is very cheap and in a good format.
The best authors are Chemnitz - any of his books.
Henry E. Jacobs - mostly out of print but very good. Krauth and Schmauk are from the same Muhlenberg tradition and worth owning.
Schmid - Doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. This was popular among all conservative Lutherans. The ALC and WELS pastors often owned a Schmid because one volume contained so many fine quotations from the age of orthodoxy. He also wrote the History of Pietism, NPH.
Lenski is the only commentary I would suggest, and Lenski is not universally handy for people. However, for a dedicated layman, Lenski is quite useful because he deals with the doctrinal issues. I believe he tried to straddle the UOJ issue, unsuccessfully.
The best Biblical commentary is the Book of Concord.
