http://lutheranforum.org daily 1 2007-08-15T18:07:56Z http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-the-deliverance-of-god-by-douglas-a-campbell Salvation has been understood in terms of “justification by faith” for a long time. While the phrase itself is important in a few of Paul’s letters, what is “justification by faith” in all of its complexity? And is it the best or even most Biblically accurate construal of salvation? According to Douglas Campbell “justification by faith” has taken on a particular yet very complex form—one that cannot be pinned to one tradition, but touches all in some way. It has developed over time and influences the very bedrock of commonplace Christian thought and practice. It is married to a particular reading of Romans 1-4, yet it is fundamentally not Pauline. For Douglas Campbell, this understanding of salvation which shapes Christian existence has several problems as it has come to be understood and needs to go. This is the burden of Campbell’s book, The Deliverance of God, which contains 936 pages of text and 241 pages of endnotes—both full of complex argumentation—toward this end... No publisher Kyle Fever book reviews 2013-05-22T15:55:59Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-luther-and-the-beloved-community-by-paul-r-hinlicky I am writing in the hope of persuading pastors to read Paul R. Hinlicky’s recent books. They meet a crying need for the sort of books that were published in previous generations by authors like Gustaf Wingren, William Lazareth, Gerhard Forde, David Scaer, and Robert Jenson. Their books have helped pastors to orient themselves and their flocks, and Hinlicky’s books do, too. I recommend that you begin with Luther and the Beloved Community... No publisher Jonathan L. Jenkins book reviews 2013-05-03T14:08:42Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-201cpreaching-from-home201d-by-gracia-grindal This book intrigued me in the first place because of my interest in Lutheran hagiography: I figured it might direct me to some givers-of-Christ I hadn’t known before. And it certainly did that—but learning about some remarkable Lutheran women is only a piece of the whole book’s project, which is packed with far more than the title would lead you to believe... No publisher sarah book reviews 2013-04-09T19:47:28Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-from-willow-creek-to-sacred-heart-by-chris-haw The author Chris Haw is part of a loose phenomenon known as the New Monastics. The outward appearance of the new monastics boils down to privileged young white evangelicals moving into intentional communities in economically devastated sections of older cities and attempting to live not under the older monastic imperatives of poverty, chastity and obedience but under a more progressive banner of justice and prophetic living. If you just read the names of who blurbed From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart you might be forgiven for immediately jumping to the conclusion that this is the latest offering from what used to be called the emerging church. Or, only reading Willow Creek in the title you might immediate assume it is the latest offering from the American evangelical publishing industry breathlessly proclaiming the new world-changing read. Normally I would have counted three strikes and called the book out. That umpire needs to get his reading glasses because From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart can’t be judged by its cover. There are many parts that make a Lutheran wince, but the overall read is much preferable to any of those cover assumptions and would make great source material for a study group... No publisher Mark Brown book reviews 2013-01-02T13:15:41Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-justification-is-for-preaching Justification is for Preaching is either not a preaching manual, or it is the most Lutheran preaching manual ever written. It is not a typical preaching manual because it lacks recommended outlines and tips for poise and diction. It is the most Lutheran preaching manual ever written because it repeatedly hammers the point that preaching justification is not a method but a means... No publisher David C. Drebes book reviews 2012-10-25T13:05:53Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/Changing_Churches These two books landed on my desk at the same time. It was fortuitous: the two (one with three authors) are closely related. Mattox and Roeber document their departure from Lutheranism; Hinlicky and Braaten document their determination to remain with Lutheranism in spite of its serious failures. It is no coincidence that the two appear at this time. We are at a time of discernment as Lutherans and our identity is being tested No publisher John Hannah book reviews 2012-09-10T15:34:07Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-worship-as-repentance-by-walter-sundberg Challenges, both antiquated and modern, to the traditionally penitential posture of Lutheran worship are the subject of Walter Sundberg’s most recent monograph. In light of the mainline’s imminent collapse, this book represents a very needed corrective to the cheap grace and valueless absolution offered by contemporary Protestant liberalism. By interpreting the liturgical tradition, with special attention paid to the practice of penance in the early church, the development of confession and absolution in Lutheranism, and the influence of the liturgical movement, Sundberg offers a compelling alternative to the “grace sold on the market” (20) that is peddled by so many these days. Sundberg advances the radical proposition that to be a Christian is challenging; to follow Christ is costly; to worship is to repent... No publisher John Hoyum book reviews 2012-08-14T13:14:55Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/Review_of_The_Lutheran_Confessions I rarely prescribe a book as necessary but The Lutheran Confessions: History and Theology of The Book of Concord is an exception. Here is a book that I am willing to say is “A must have book!” That is, if you are a Lutheran pastor. It is a necessary companion to The Book of Concord (2000, Kolb & Wengert, ed.) just like Sources and Contexts of The Book of Concord (2001, Kolb & Nestingen, ed.). This book is the completion of the intended three volume project. No publisher John Hannah book reviews 2012-06-12T13:54:54Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-the-devils-whore The provocative title of Dragseth’s edited volume embraces Martin Luther’s irreverent assessment of reason’s role in the life of faith. Throughout this text, words like “misreading,” “mischaracterization,” and “misunderstanding” appear repeatedly as theologians, historians, and philosophers reappraise Luther’s relationship to and influence on philosophy. Originating with a panel on the quandary of Lutheran philosophy at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in 2008 (with some of the papers from that panel subsequently published in Lutheran Forum), this diverse and rich collection of articles is a must-read for anyone invested in Martin Luther’s life, thought, and legacy... No publisher Deanna A. Thompson book reviews 2012-06-04T12:28:12Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-as-christ-submits-to-the-church-by-alan-padgett A reader’s first question in response to Alan Padgett’s title might run something along the lines of, “Shouldn’t that be the other way around?” Certainly the phrase “as Christ submits to the church” has a biblical cadence to it, imbuing it with authority, and yet it jars against other phrases and concepts that echo about in the Scripture-steeped mind. A reader’s next question, then, might be so bold and accusatory as, “Did he take the phrasing of some particular New Testament verse and flip it around? Is the rephrasing some clever, attention-snaring ploy to advance his (possibly nefarious, certainly liberal) purposes? Or worse” —for our uncertainty gives way inevitably to self-doubt— “is it possible that he is actually quoting the New Testament? Have I missed something? Does Christ submit to the church?”... No publisher Katie M. Benjamin book reviews 2012-05-11T06:27:49Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/Review-of-Critical-Issues-in-Ecclesiology Carl Braaten is one of today’s Lutheran theological giants. Here is a Festschrift, a fitting tribute to his contributions from his peers and the students nurtured by his distinguished and skillful teaching. His bibliography of his published work included in this volume is 17 pages long!... No publisher John Hannah book reviews 2012-03-06T18:45:32Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-who-is-jesus-disputed-questions-and-answers-by-carl-e-braaten I have had the experience more than once before of spending most of my time reading a book being utterly perplexed as to what it was supposed to be about, not because of any unclarity on the part of the writer but because of the title. Perhaps this is a marketing department issue more than anything else. In any event, such was my experience in working my way through this latest offering of Carl Braaten. At the end, my hunch was confirmed by the author himself... No publisher sarah book reviews 2012-03-01T05:10:57Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-feasts-fasts-and-seasons-in-early-christianity The past is always changing, which is rather confusing for us since we think of it as fixed and finished. But it does change, in the sense that what we know about it and how we interpret it changes. In particular, it is separating out our interpretations based on our contemporary notions from “the way it really happened” that makes a regular reassessment of evidence about the past an extremely necessary task. This is what Paul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson (the latter an ELCA pastor and professor at Notre Dame) set out to do... No publisher sarah book reviews 2012-02-23T09:42:54Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-seventeenth-century-lutheran-meditations-and-hymns This latest in the massive Classics of Western Spirituality Series helps to fill in a hole in the anglophone world’s knowledge of Lutheranism after the Reformation. The three devotional writers featured here—Johann Gerhard, Heinrich Müller, and Christian Scriver—as well as the assorted hymnwriters were all seventeenth-century men, well after the Reformation but just before the flowering of Pietism. They held their own, Gerhard in particular, in the confessionalization of European Christianity, but, as editor Eric Lund is at pains to point out, that didn’t mean they were dry-as-dust concretizers of orthodoxy, penning erudite but irrelevant volumes on esoteric themes. Quite the contrary, living in one of the most traumatic periods of European history, and dealing with the fallout in their parishioners’ lives, they were very much concerned with the personal faith of Lutherans and how it was expressed in daily life... No publisher sarah book reviews 2012-01-27T09:20:02Z News Item http://lutheranforum.org/book-reviews/review-of-parade-of-faith-by-ruth-a-tucker “As church history marches into the twenty-first century, we find Billy Graham on the final night of his final crusade, March 12, 2006, leading a parade of sixteen thousand followers from the vast New Orleans Arena to Bourbon Street to claim the infamous French Quarter for Christ. Riding a motor scooter, Graham serves as grand marshal, as Christians lift their voices singing, ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.’ What a fitting climax to one man’s career and to a two-thousand-year parade of history! Problem is, the story is an Internet hoax. It is a reminder that even sacred history includes lies and urban legends.” So writes historian Ruth Tucker near the end of her remarkable nearly five hundred-page biographical pilgrimage through Church history. She willingly looks at the good, the bad, and the ugly of Christian history as she portrays many of the greats from down through the ages... No publisher Brian Scoles book reviews 2011-11-29T13:33:19Z News Item