Books

The topic of certitude is much debated today. On one side, commentators such as Charles Krauthammer urge us to achieve "moral clarity." On the other, those like George Will contend that the greatest present threat to civilization is an excess of certitude. To address this uncomfortable debate, Susan Schreiner turns to the intellectuals of early modern Europe, a period when thought was still fluid and had not yet been reified into the form of rationality demanded by the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Schreiner argues that Europe in the sixteenth century was preoccupied with concerns similar to ours; both the desire for certainty -- especially religious certainty -- and warnings against certainty permeated the earlier era. Digging beneath overt theological and philosophical problems, she tackles the underlying fears of the period as she addresses questions of salvation, authority, the rise of skepticism, the outbreak of religious violence, the discernment of spirits, and the ambiguous relationship between appearance and reality.

In her examination of the history of theological polemics and debates (as well as other genres), Schreiner sheds light on the repeated evaluation of certainty and the recurring fear of deception. Among the texts she draws on are Montaigne's Essays, the mystical writings of Teresa of Avila, the works of Reformation fathers William of Occam, Luther, Thomas Muntzer, and Thomas More; and the dramas of Shakespeare. The result is not a book about theology, but rather about the way in which the concern with certitude determined the theology, polemics and literature of an age.

Three decades ago, renowned literary expert Robert Alter radically expanded the horizons of biblical scholarship by recasting the Bible as not only a human creation but a work of literary art deserving studied criticism. In The Art of Biblical Poetry, his companion to the seminal The Art of Biblical Narrative, Alter takes his analysis beyond narrative craft to investigate the use of Hebrew poetry in the Bible. Updated with a new preface, myriad revisions, and passages from Alter's own critically acclaimed biblical translations, The Art of Biblical Poetry is an indispensable tool for understanding the Bible and its poetry.

A concise commentary, highly useful as an accompaniment to the reading of the Augsburg Confession itself. All who are interested in the doctrinal traditions of the Lutheran Church can find here the means to increase their theological and historical understanding of the text.

The theological perspective of the Augsburg Confession is made clear by comparisons with the writings of Luther and other Reformers, as well as with other main streams of the Christian tradition.

Included for each article of the confession are the English translation of the text, notes on the text, and theological and historical commentary on the meaning of the article. Also included are an extensive introduction to the writing of the confession, footnotes, a selected bibliography, and an index.

In its Danish, Swedish, and German editions this commentary has become a indispensable introduction to this classic confession of the Lutheran Reformation.

Here is a source of fresh insight into the meaning of the Augsburg Confession -- and guidance into the meaning of the gospel for today.

Burned-out believers and spiritual secularists have given up any hope that an engaging and meaningful spirituality can be found in a single Christian denomination. So rather than attending worship at a local church, they attend to their spiritual needs elsewhere. While these disaffected believers have not rejected the existence of God, they have strongly rejected whatever it is they think the church today has to offer.

To counter this trend, churches across America are constantly updating their culture to accord with the culture outside the church. But is this the best framework for recovering authentic Christian spirituality?

Authentic Christianity offers another idea-that the Lutheran tradition embodies a framework of Christianity that uniquely addresses the postmodern condition. It does so not by being "emergent" or by making up a new approach to church or to the Christian life. Rather, it does so in an unexpected way: by being confessional, sacramental, and vocational.

Baptism, for Paul, is a christological event that he also uses in his ethical argument. The discussion of the relationship between Paul's theology and ethics has made use of the terms 'indicative' and 'imperative' since Wernle and Bultmann. As subsequent discussion has shown, these terms are problematic not only because of their rigidity and ambiguity. In this study, Samuli Siikavirta focuses on Romans 6-8, the key text for the interplay between Paul's theological and ethical material. He brings the discussion back to what he sees as central to this interaction: baptism and its cognition. Both elements are examined in their Jewish and Stoic settings. Death to sin, slavery to God, holiness and the indwelling of the Spirit are all seen as integral parts of the baptismal state that is deeply christological rather than symbolical. Paul's cognitive language is then viewed in light of his desire to remind his addressees of who and whose they are because of their baptism.

Lutheran parents learn how to prepare for Baptism and how to serve as faith instructors with The Baptism of Your Child. Pastors can use this book to help explain the rite of Baptism and what the catechism teaches. Specific strategies, tips, and resources are included for the child's first three years of development to help parents teach and model the Christian faith. The Baptism of Your Child also includes an explanation of the Baptism service from the Lutheran Service Book, models for family devotions and prayer, and pages for memories and notes. This is an ideal book for Lutheran churches to distribute to expecting and new parents.