History

What did the Lutheran Reformation look like in a specific locality? Rev. Dr. John A. Maxfield reveals this by detailing the intellectual, personal, social, and political influences and events that shaped the Lower-Saxon town of Brunswick on its journey from evangelical reform to Lutheran culture. Lay historians, students, and clergy alike will see with great clarity how the spark of Luther's evangelical teaching ignited in one particular community amidst ecclesiastical and political challenges.

This reader with commentary helps Christians understand and critically examine major arguments that have been made in the Western intellectual tradition through an examination of great texts. The book explores themes related to the natural world, human nature, politics, and God.

The core of a liberal arts education lies in the debates made possible by a shared set of texts and questions. Combining their expertise in science, theology, political science, and history, the authors guide readers through the most important sections of classic texts from the Reformation to the modern era, explaining their significance and the debates they sparked. The texts are organized around four themes: God, science, society, and human nature. Rather than simply summarizing the texts, this introduction presents them in a way that allows readers to engage directly with the material. The authors provide historical context, point out potential themes and connections, and encourage readers to explore the ideas and questions the texts raise. Reflection questions are included.

This book facilitates teaching for professors from a wide variety of disciplines and will work well for students in great books courses. In addition, it will be of interest to Christian classical learning organizations, including high schools.

Series Foreword I. Introduction Early Christology Initial Problems Justin Martyr, Melito of Sardis, Irenaeus of Lyon, Tertullian of Carthage, Origen of Alexandria Further Problems The Arians and Athanasius; Apollinaris of Laodicea; Theodore of Mopsuestia; Cyril, Nestorius, and Eutyches; Leo and Chalcedon II. Melito of Sardis A Homily on the Passover III. Irenaeus of Lyon Against Heresies IV. Tertullian Against Praxeas On the Flesh of Christ V. Origen On First Principles VI. Athanasius Orations against the Arians VII. Apollinaris of Laodicea On the Union in Christ of the Body with the Godhead Fragments VIII. Theodore of Mopsuestia Fragments of the Doctrinal Works IX. The Controversies Leading Up to the Council of Chalcedon Nestorius's First Sermon against the Theotokos Cyril of Alexandria's Second Letter to Nestorius Nestorius's Second Letter to Cyril Cyril's Letter to John of Antioch Pope Leo I's Letter to Flavian of Constantinople The Council of Chalcedon's "Definition of the Faith" Bibliography

In challenging both traditional and contemporary notions of the nature and history of the Biblical apocalyptic literature, Professor Hanson begins by saying that the origins of apocalyptic cannot be explained by a method which juxtaposes seventh and second century compositions and then proceeds to account for the features of the latter by reference to its immediate environment. "The apocalyptic literature of the second century and after is the result of a long development reaching back to pre-exilic times and beyond, and not the new baby of second century foreign parents. Not only the sources of origin, but the intrinsic nature of late apocalyptic compositions can be understood only by tracing the centuries-long development through which the apocalptic eschatology developed from prophetic and other even more archaic native roots."

In this ground breaking study, Professor Hanson focuses on one strand which can be seen running through the heart of many of the so-called apocalyptic works, the strand of apocalyptic eschatology. He seeks to demonstrate that the rise of apocalyptic eschatology is neither sudden nor anomalous, but follows the pattern of an unbroken development from preexilic and exilic prophecy.

By means of a detailed analysis of the Hebrew text and a new translation of it into English, Professor Hanson demonstrates why scholars must look again at the apocalyptic eschatology. This contextual-typological approach will call for a reexamination of many opinions about this literature.

The 665 Saxon immigrants of 1838-39 played a crucial role in the formation of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, one of the largest Lutheran Church bodies in the United States today.

This book is an English translation of an 1867 account of that Lutheran migration written by immigrant pastor J. F. Koestering. It compiles eyewitness accounts and personal reflections on the journey from German homeland to unfamiliar American soil and their struggles with all types of tragedies and challenges in the first years of settling in Missouri.

In his own day a center of controversy, in the four hundred years since his death known too often solely as an apostle of mockery and irreverence, Erasmus can be seen today in a new light--as a humanist whose concen is at once contemporary and Christian.

The Essential Erasmus is the first single volume in English to show the full spectrum of this Renaissance man's thought, which is no less profound because it is expressed with the grace, wit, and ironic detachment only a great writer can achieve.

Contains the full text of In Praise of Folly

Ever to Emmaus describes the theological journey of a Lutheran pastor and professor who was shaped by his doctoral work on the Emmaus story from Luke 24. It is a theological memoir that narrates how his theology has deepened in both his exegetical work on the Gospels and Paul, and in his teaching and writing about liturgy, preaching, catechesis, diakonia, and the reading of literature. The story of the road to Emmaus is the lens through which he interprets both Scripture and the church. This is also evident in how his work in global theological education was shaped by Jesus' teaching on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Emmaus not only gives us Word and Meal as the structures of the liturgy, but they are also the means for mission.

The Reformation did not happen overnight, not with the singular act of posting of the Ninety-Five Theses, or even the presentation of the Augsburg Confession.

Prof. Dr. Zeeden's classic study of how medieval church practices continued and developed within Lutheran church orders offers readers a unique perspective on how faith influences the act of worship. Historians of liturgy and theology will discover insights and important continuity between the Lutheran churches of the sixteenth century and their forebears of the late medieval period.

2022 Foreword INDIES Finalist, History

The gates of hell shall not prevail.

Decimated by war, revolution, and famine, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia was in critical condition in 1921. In The Gates of Hell, Matthew Heise recounts the bravery and suffering of German--Russian Lutherans during the period between the two great world wars. These stories tell of ordinary Christians who remained faithful to death in the face of state persecution.

Christians in Russia had dark days characterized by defeat, but God preserved his church. Against all human odds, the church would outlast the man--made sandcastles of communist utopianism. The Gates of Hell is a wonderful testimony to the enduring power of God's word, Christ's church, and the Spirit's faithfulness.

A treatment of the evolution of Christian thought from the birth of Christ, to the Apostles, to the early church, to the great flowering of Christianity across the world. The first volume introduces the central figures and debates culminating in the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon among which the theologies of the early church were hammered out.