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The celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation brings with it an increased interest in all things Lutheran. Certainly one area of well-deserved attention is the rich tradition of a vibrant musical life in Lutheran congregations. This heritage--which continues to be lovingly passed from generation to generation--is due, in part, to the value Dr. Luther himself placed on music in worship. Because the organ and the choir continue to play a significant role in the ministry of most Lutheran churches today, it would be easy to assume that this has always been the case. Not necessarily so. Both essays, in a lucid and thorough manner, paint the picture of the role of the organ and the choir in early Lutheran worship, thus dispelling a number of myths and assumptions that things have always been this way and offering some useful reflections on what this all means for the faithful practice of church music in our own time.

The Jerry Evenrud collection of images of the parable of the Prodigal Son is the largest known such collection in the world. It encompasses works from 1540 to 2005. The historical span of the collection affirms the continuing resonance of the parable. The media range from etchings, paintings, ceramics, sculpture, and fabric. The collection reveals the desire of the artists to delve into the meaning of the parable and to convey that meaning to others. Some artists depict the entire narrative in a series of works, usually four to six segments. Others focus on one aspect, such as the pig pen or the return of the prodigal. The segment most frequently portrayed by a single print is the homecoming embrace by the father the scene that represents the focus of the parable and thus of faith grace and forgiveness.

Harriet Reynolds Krauth Spaeth (1845-1925), daughter of the nineteenth-century Lutheran theologian Charles Porterfield Krauth, was a highly educated and accomplished woman in her own right. As music editor of the Church Book with Music (1872), she was the only woman ever to serve in that capacity. The story of her life and contribution to the Lutheran tradition of liturgy and congregational song is told in this excellent treatment by Robert D. Hawkins, who initially presented this topic at the Vi Messerli Lectures in Church Music, October 16-18, 2011.

James Engel (1925-1989) was a part of the generation of musicians who shaped Lutheran church music during the mid-to-late-20th century. As such, he played an important role in the history of Lutheran church music. Engel was known by his colleagues and students as an excellent musician, choir director, composer and teacher. He had a positive influence on the next generation of Lutheran musicians. In his later years, he became well-known as a composer of church music. His organ and choral works have been performed by many musicians through the years. One of Engel's signature choral works is titled I Walk with Angels.

A tale of research comes to life in the form of a story that began more than a century ago. As the storyteller, the author has cast her Aunt Dot as a quiet rebel and a very strong woman. In the depths of the Depression, she worked to save money and follow her older brothers to Carthage College. After two years she succumbed to the cultural ideal of the era and gave up college for marriage. She became a wife with several titles -- wife-in-waiting, minister's wife, housewife, and war wife.

Anna B. Hoppe is one of the most prolific Lutheran hymn writers of the early 20th century. She composed hundreds of hymns along with opinion pieces and devotional writing. All the while, she lived quietly in Milwaukee, working as an office secretary and volunteering in various roles at her church. Despite her humble life, she became acquainted with several important Lutheran church musicians and pastors of her day and they, impressed by her work, helped to spread the news about her remarkable achievements. Today Lutherans still know her through just a few of her hymns--O Son of God, in Galilee (LSB 841, LW 400, LBW 426), For Jerusalem You're Weeping (LW 390), and Rise, Arise (CW 30). Hoppe's major collection, Songs of the Church Year: Hymns on the Gospel and Epistle Texts and Other Songs (published in 1928 by Augustana Book Concern, 334 pages in hard cover) is still listed on amazon.com, but copies are scarce. You will find in these pages two inspiring stories of perseverance. One is the broader context of Lutherans in America finding their way, making the transition to English, enduring the suspicions of Germans during World War I, most of its members just getting by in hard times. Singled out is the story of Anna Hoppe, unmarried and living with her family, having only a grade school education, working in menial jobs, and serving in her church. But, all the while, also keeping up with the larger issues of the day and of Christianity in the world and finding creative expression of her deeply felt faith in original poems which she humbly offered to the wider Church.

Martin Luther's Small Catechism is the template and springboard for this book, the purpose of which is to add to what Luther teaches in the Small Catechism and to fill in its blanks, as it were, by expanding on the catechism, theme by theme, with over 400 quotations from other works by Luther along with 50 quotations by other authors or speakers. In addition, this book identifies the background of the five major parts of the catechism and addresses issues that are not addressed in the catechism. Luther's theology of the cross, and its dispute with what he calls the theology of glory, runs all through Luther's theology, most often without being identified as such. And it runs throughout his comments quoted here. One might say, as he once wrote, The cross alone is our theology. It is a theology that addresses the question: What enables us to become right with God? Is it obeying God's law? Is it faithful religious practice? Is it standing up for justice? Is it doing to others what we would have others do to us? Is it simply trying our best? In contrast to the assumption that such positive actions bring us into a right relationship to God (an aspect of the theology of glory), Luther would say that none of these fine things can put us right with God. No matter how hard we try, we don't measure up. In Luther's own words: It is certain that a human being must utterly despair of his or her own ability before being prepared to receive the grace of Christ.

Michael Hayes, a self-professing evangelical, offers in this volume perhaps the first--and only--biography that shows how Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life and legacy can be of great inspiration to evangelicals, while not diminishing or dismissing his (Bonhoeffer's) liberal theological, ethical and social commitments. Hayes understands Bonhoeffer's contribution to address key concerns for evangelicals: scripture, salvation, sin, Jesus Christ, church, and world. He argues -- throughout this biography -- that for Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Bible had immense authority (a primary evangelical commitment) while he simultaneously avoided a fundamentalist hermeneutic. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ever the Lutheran, Jesus Christ is unquestionably the incarnate Word of God, present in preaching, community, and sacraments, at the center of the church, history, nature, and individual lives. Hayes challenges fellow evangelicals not to diminish Bonhoeffer's importance for lacking an emphasis on a private experience of conversion, as understood by American evangelicals. Hopefully, evangelical Christians will appreciate one of their own who has spent four decades of prayerful engagement, scholarly discernment, and ongoing conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and here offers a masterful tome about this contemporary witness to Jesus Christ. In Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Follower of the Living Jesus, the life story of Bonhoeffer is told in a way that evangelicals can--hopefully--hear and respect, without distortion or domestication. Michael Hayes has gifted the church of Jesus Christ with a unique and marvelous gift that can instruct and inspire disciples in the the third millennium who seek to be followers of the living Jesus.

Five hundred years ago the Protestant Reformation became a major turning point in Western history. Born in a university setting, the dialectical interaction of the life of the mind and the life of faith has been a hallmark of Lutheran higher education from the beginning. As Concordia College observes the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, it is important to ask what is in need of reform today and what resilience remains within the tradition to help effect such reform? At its core, Lutheran liberal arts education emphasized preparation for vocation in service to neighbor. Today, the understanding of neighbor must be expanded to include all faith traditions and the natural world. The thesis of this book is that Lutheran liberal arts education must move beyond an anthropocentric to an ecocentric understanding of vocation in order to foster planetary citizenship and sustainability leadership.

Gerhard O. Forde wrote and taught powerfully about the primary importance of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. In an article in the Lutheran Quarterly, he wrote: Let us be . . . radical preachers and practitioners of the gospel by justification by faith without the deeds of the law. . . . What is at stake is the radical gospel, radical grace, the eschatological nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. The sermons in this book were prepared for congregational worship and seminary chapel services. They accompany scripture readings throughout the church year. They encourage, they reprove, they explicate tenets of the faith, they focus the biblical story. And without exception they point to the loving God who comes to us in Jesus Christ, that great good news of God s grace.

There are many ways to tell a story, and after 500 years of the Lutheran family, there are lots of stories to tell. For a movement that is so large and so old, the story of Lutheranism could be told in any number of large and important books. But sometimes, in trying to tell the big story, the smaller stories get lost. There are just so many details that readers can lose track about where they are and what is going on. This book tells the narrative a different way, by focusing on the small stories the stories of Lutheran individuals and groups and events over the course of 500 years. Each one is brief, only about 800 words. But the stories themselves illustrate their particular time and place, and give you, the reader, a sense of how Lutherans lived out their faith in their particular context.

Sermons of Consequence is a collection of sermons preached at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, Illinois. Although the places and people have named have local familiarity, the sermons set forth here speak to the wider human condition, which makes this book applicable to people everywhere. These sermons provide a model for broader witness to the Holy Spirit as the power for consequential preaching.

This book celebrates the ministry and extraordinary gifts of Charles W. Ore, nationally recognized church musician, educator, and composer. During his teaching career, especially his many years at Concordia College, Seward, Nebraska, Ore's contributions have helped shaped church music in America.

What is the vocation of Lutheran higher education--especially now that it is not only or primarily education for and by Lutherans? Over the past several decades, this question has lead to a new concerted effort to retrieve and redefine what it means to be a college of the church.

This is the story of early organized Lutheranism of Norwegian background in America. It is an intriguing account of God's very capable pioneer servants facing their assignment, invading areas for which they were partially but not fully prepared, learning on the job, and boldly encountering the challenges that were uniquely theirs. They planted the church, sought out the people for whom they were responsible, founded congregations, built institutions, cared for the needy, instructed their people, sponsored mission work, kept their people informed, and engaged their adversaries in controversy. Amazingly, these servant leaders did many things right. Humanly, several mistakes were made. The end result was that, with the grace of God, their work was highly effective.

This collection of essays from leading Lutheran thinkers, theologians, and activists excavates Luther's theological focus on social and economic justice. By bringing these forgotten elements of Reformation theology to light, The Forgotten Luther helps contemporary heirs of Luther's thought to honor and advance this neglected part of his legacy by responding to the economic and social injustices of our own time.

A Festschrift celebrating the ministry of Dr. Kurt Hendel, focusing on historical Lutheranism, in honor of his retirement.

Freed in Christ to engage our neighbors in a multi-religious world, Christians live and work in an increasingly multi-ethnic and multi-religious context. How does this affect their calling to serve their neighbors and their community? What resources does the Lutheran Christian tradition offer? Woven into this book are more than fifty stories of ELCA inter-religious engagement. These examples from local ministry settings are supplemented by practical tips, theological reflection, and historical analysis. The result is a guide for study, discussion, and action as a contribution toward the 500th observance of the Reformation in 2017 and beyond.

In this volume, readers are invited to enter into conversation with theologians whose work represents the dynamic search for truth that Walter Bouman once shared, and who continue in the enterprise to which he gave his life. The book begins with the funeral sermon delivered in 2005 by his nephew, Stephen Paul Bouman, for as Walter often said, to begin at the end of the story is to better understand its message. The essays that follow represent the rigorous thinking that Bouman would likely have enjoyed--whether or not he would have agreed, as the authors in this book often indicate. In the first section, Jesus is Risen!, Mark Allan Powell, James M. Childs, Jr., and Gordon W. Lathrop, each a cherished colleague with whom Bouman worked and struggled in strengthening his own theological position, continue arguments on some of the topics in which he was engaged. The second section s essays are by Jonathan Linman, Michael Rinehart, John Buchanan, and Robert Wright, who worked with Bouman on a variety of endeavors or were involved in teaching or leadership roles in the church or the academy. In the third section, the outcome of some of Walt s teaching is seen in contributions from former students and colleagues Becky Robbins-Penniman and Anna Madsen. The chapter is rounded out by a new musical composition by Carl Schalk dedicated to Bouman, and a reflection on the Schalk motet by Nancy Raabe. The volume concludes with Andy Bouman s family reflections on his father.

This book is a collection of Rev. Dr. Eshetu Abate's essays originally published in different books and journals. The significance of the essays for churches in Ethiopia and beyond can be described in two ways. First, they were written during the last period of the Socialist government of Ethiopia and the first decade of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (between 1990 and 2002). This time signifies the years in which Ethiopia was going through social, economic, political, and religious changes. Eshetu, as a prominent theologian and pastor, reflects on issues that the Ethiopian communities faced during those periods. Second, Eshetu is one among few Ethiopian theologians who have initiated the conversation about Christian theology from an African perspective. He understood his own context, which included the crucial, existential issues that African Christians were facing, to be the legitimate context out of which Christian theology should emerge. He did so without compromising the centered-ness and uniqueness of Christ. Eshetu was a theological thinker, pastor, and a leader of considerable reputation. Through his lectures and writings, he has contributed to the development of theology in an African con-text. In his leadership and life testimony; he was able to influence his students, who later became leaders in different churches and organizations throughout the world. Eshetu died of cancer on December 28, 2011, in California.

The career of Luther D. Reed (1873-1972) was marked by roles as pastor, professor, and seminary president. In the midst of the frontier tradition, he, with the assistance of many others, helped Lutherans in America recover their liturgical inheritance. He was a founder of the Lutheran Liturgical Association in 1898 and is best known for his monumental The Lutheran Liturgy: A Study of the Common Service of the Lutheran Church in America (1947).

Clergy leading faith-based institutions will find in this book practical tools to help them become effective stewards of people and resources in their organizations while being rooted in the Spirit An experienced and ecumenical group of clergy, policy leaders, and academics offer specific tools on important topics such as discovering the leader within, leading through changes, multicultural mission and management, spiritual entrepreneurship, creating a shared vision and strategy, and various topics on the stewardship of organizations.

Dr. Bouman's theology, revealed through his lectures, focusing on God.

Dr. Bouman's theology, revealed through his lectures, focusing on the Church

Paul Manz enjoyed a long career, serving as organist, composer, teacher, and recitalist. Known for his improvisations, Manz cultivated and vigorously promoted the idea of the hymn festival a program of singing, readings, and organ music, often assisted by choirs and instrumentalists. Hymn festivals continue to be popular throughout the United States largely due to his vision and energetic leadership. He was twice named one of the Ten Most Influential Lutherans and received many honorary doctorates and awards.

Elisabeth Fedde, a deaconess from Norway, answered a call in 1883 to come and help sick and indigent Norwegians in Brooklyn. The group that called her expected that she would walk the streets of Brooklyn and minister to those she found in need. They did not know they had called a pioneer with unusual abilities. Before two years were out, she had begun a hospital and motherhouse to train deaconesses. Three years later she established a Deaconess Hospital and Motherhouse in Minneapolis. Her foresight, good humor and sheer grit made it possible for her to found what are now huge medical complexes in Brooklyn, Minneapolis, Chicago. Her story includes the history of the Lutheran Deaconess movement as it began in Germany, Norway and here, along with the struggles of American Lutherans as women began to take more public roles in society. This book tells what she suffered and how she struggled to make her dreams bear fruit.

In his long academic career at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dr. Gerhard O. Forde was known for his life-changing teaching and preaching, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen for you. Forde taught that theology is for proclamation. His classes were his form of evangelism. Avoiding secondary discourse, or philosophical mode, in classroom teaching and preaching, he used first order, primary discourse to speak directly to his hearers, not about God, but for God, declaring the justifying word as clearly as possible. He showed the difference between law and gospel and how to do the text to the hearer. He taught students to be preachers who would speak the unqualified word of grace and forgiveness. This book is an introduction to his teaching and witness. From Dr. Hans Wiersma, Augsburg University: I've said for some time, publicly, that I was born again under the teaching of Gerhard Forde. That may sound dramatic but it's true. From Dr. Rolf Jacobson, Luther Seminary: He refused to write his theology for that guild [of academic theologians]. Instead, he wrote for preachers. He could have written for the guild, of course. His mind was first class, and he wrote beautifully. But, like St. Paul, he came to preach Christ and him crucified. Toward that goal, he was steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord.

Henry L. Lettermann (1932-96) served as professor of English at Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Illinois, from 1959 to 1988 where his talent for poetry became readily apparent. From 1979 to 1987 he served as a member and secretary of the Hymn Text and Music Committee which produced Lutheran Worship in 1982. His original texts, translations, and observations about the process of preparing this new hymnal provide fascinating insights.

In the traditional theology of sacrificial atonement scholars have represented Jesus' death on the cross as the ultimate redemptive sacrifice for the world. Repeated critiques of this traditional understanding have given rise to rise alternative understandings of Jesus' death on the cross. This book provides an analysis of the traditional theology of atonement and a commentary on the criticisms that have surfaced, and provides an evaluation of the Colin E. Gunton contribution to the discourse.