Alien and the Proper: Luther's Two-Fold Righteousness in Controversy, Ministry, and Citizenship
"This book probes the beating theological heart of Luther's evangelical theology." - Michael J. Chan, Ph.D., Concordia College
In his Galatians commentary of 1535, Martin Luther insists that "our theology" relies on the proper distinction of two kinds of righteousness: Alien and Proper. In relation to our Creator, we freely receive our "alien" righteousness from Christ who has obtained it for us through his death and resurrection. In relation to humanity and God's created order, we practice a "proper" righteousness by actively fulfilling God's commands that set down the form and pattern for good human living.
The Alien and the Proper "helps us to appropriate Luther's theology as our theology as well." - Mark Mattes, Lutheran Bible Institute Chair of Theology, Grand View University
Luther posited that this distinction was the key to understanding our humanity. His regular use of this anthropological principle, particularly when applied to justification by faith, the nature of sin, and the proper practice of God's gift of humanity, demonstrates its centrality and importance.
In The Alien and the Proper, five authors examine the historical development of Luther's Twofold Righteousness and propose ways in which it can continue to serve Christians today. Through these essays you will learn about Luther's radical divergence from medieval theological formulations, and you will discover what it means to be human.
Essays by:
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Bondage of the Will
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Cambridge Companion To Martin Luther
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Defending Luther's Reformation
Over the course of history, many critics have attacked Martin Luther and brought many false claims against him. Defending Luther's Reformation directly addresses those controversial views of Luther, and equips readers to defend the existence of Lutheranism as a confession, dealing with both the successes and failures of the Lutheran Reformation.
Defending Luther's Reformation will prove a valuable resource for Lutheran pastors, teachers, and students as well as those simply interested in history and the Reformation.
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Ethics of Martin Luther - POD
This comprehensive, systematic survey of Luther's ethical thought and teaching clearly discusses all the major ethical issues that concerned Luther. Contemporary readers will be especially interested in what the Reformer has to say about the Christian's attitude toward secular society, toward the state, and toward war. The Ethics of Martin Luther offers scholars and nonspecialists alike a much-needed explanation of Luther's ideas.
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Freedom of a Christian: A New Translation
Martin Luther's Classic Work, Newly Translated by Robert Kolb
Originally published in 1520, The Freedom of a Christian is one of Martin Luther's most well-known and enduring treatises. In it, the German Reformer examines Christian ethics and how justification by faith alone impacts the liberty of believers. He famously writes, "A Christian is a free lord of everything and subject to no one. A Christian is a willing servant of everything and subject to everyone." Luther also further develops ideas and doctrines that were key to the Reformation, such as the priesthood of all believers and union with Christ.
This addition to the Crossway Short Classics series features a new translation from the original German to English by renowned Reformation scholar Robert Kolb. The Freedom of a Christian reminds modern-day readers that it is ultimately grace that transforms God's people and frees us to love and obey.
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Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
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Luther and Erasmus
This volume includes the texts of Erasmus's 1524 diatribe against Luther, De Libero Arbitrio, and Luther's violent counterattack, De Servo Arbitrio. E. Gordon Rupp and Philip Watson offer commentary on these texts as well.
Long recognized for the quality of its translations, introductions, explanatory notes, and indexes, the Library of Christian Classics provides scholars and students with modern English translations of some of the most significant Christian theological texts in history. Through these works--each written prior to the end of the sixteenth century--contemporary readers are able to engage the ideas that have shaped Christian theology and the church through the centuries.
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Luther's Letters of Spiritual Counsel
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Luther's Liturgical Criteria and His Reform of the Canon
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Luther's Rome, Rome's Luther: How the City Shaped the Reformer
This book reconsiders the question of Martin Luther's relationship with Rome in all its sixteenth-century manifestations: the early-modern city he visited as a young man, the ancient republic and empire whose language and literature he loved, the Holy Roman Empire of which he was a subject, and the sacred seat of the papacy. It will appeal to scholars as well as lay readers, especially those interested in Rome, the reception of the classics in the Reformation, Luther studies, and early-modern history.
Springer's methodology is primarily literary-critical, and he analyzes a variety of texts--prose and poetry--throughout the book. Some of these speak for themselves, while Springer examines others more closely to tease out their possible meanings. The author also situates relevant texts within their appropriate contexts, as the topics in the book are interdisciplinary.
While many of Luther's references to Rome are negative, especially in his later writings, Springer argues that his attitude to the city in general was more complicated than has often been supposed. If Rome had not once been so dear to Luther, it is unlikely that his later animosity would have been so intense. Springer shows that Luther continued to be deeply fascinated by Rome until the end of his life and contends that what is often thought of as his pure hatred of Rome is better analyzed as a kind of love-hate relationship with the venerable city.
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Martin Luther : An Introduction To His Life And Work
Luther's impact on theology and history was monumental, his writing was prodigious, his character was complex. The need for a critical overview of Luther's life and work, particularly concerning his writings and theology, is now met in Bernhard Lohse's comprehensive introduction.
Beginning with an overview of Luther's world, Lohse summarizes the course of the reformer's life, highlighting the findings of Luther research and the question that still surround the figure about whom "we know more . . . than we do about anyone else in the sixteenth or any earlier century."Attention is given to al of the major writings, their relative importance, genre, and historical context. Lohse expertly guides the reader through significant issues in Luther's theology and discusses landmark contributions to the interpretation of Luther. Editions, translations, and other aids for the study of Luther are clearly described and a select bibliography of related works in English is appended.
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Martin Luther on Holy Baptism Sermons to the People (1525-39)
The liturgy is not a style of worship. The liturgy is the substance of justification as it is brought through means.
This book is an introduction to the liturgy and its importance. It takes the liturgy and makes it easy for the layperson to understand that the New Testament church service brings God's presence, in Jesus the Christ to the people of God who have been cleansed from their sins. This is a holy meeting made possible by the blood of Christ that cleanses the believer. This understanding of the church service helps one to understand that the church service is more than a meeting place; it is the manifestation of the New Testament church on earth as Christ calls His bride around Word and Sacraments.
Heaven on Earth will deepen your understanding of the Divine Service and why it remains the Church's chief worship service.
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Martin Luther's Basic Exegetical Writings
First and foremost a doctor of Sacred Scripture, Martin Luther lectured and preached on the Bible for more than 30 years. His work as a reformer of the Christian Church is incomprehensible apart from his work as a Bible teacher. From his first lectures on the Psalms and Romans, to his monumental series on Galatians, his sermons on Matthew and John, and his final lecture series on Genesis, Luther returned the attention of God's people to His Word and the centrality of Christ's saving work.
The excerpts in Martin Luther's Basic Exegetical Writings span Luther's career. The accompanying introductions place each work in its historical context and provide an overarching narrative of Luther's academic, pastoral, and personal life from 1515 to 1546. The chronological arrangement of the excerpts allows the reader to observe both the development and remarkable consistency of Luther the exegete, theologian, and reformer.
Martin Luther's Basic Exegetical Writings is a user-friendly introduction to his interpretation of Scripture, theological concerns, and pastoral insights. This anthology of Luther's lectures and sermons will serve both the classroom and the Church and will be a valued addition to any home library.
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Martin Luther's Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (1535): Lecture Notes Transcribed by Students and Presented in Today's English
Martin Luther's most comprehensive work on justification by faith, his commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is translated and edited from the Latin into a lively style, paralleling his spoken lectures. Combined with the passion and faith expressed in these lectures, the biblical foundation for the crucial doctrine of justification is underscored and expressed to a new audience.
The commentary is also a historical document, a recording of a professor in a classroom in 1531 from July to December of that year, which expresses the Reformer's commitment to the good news of Jesus' death in the sinner's place, challenging the reader/hearer to compare St. Paul's theology with what he/she hears in the church today.
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Martin Luther's Theology
This definitive analysis of the theology of Martin Luther surveys its development during the crises of Luther's life, then offers a systematic survey by topics. Containing a wealth of quotations from less-known writings by Luther and written in a way that will interest both scholar and novice, Lohse's magisterial volume is the first to evaluate Luther's theology in both ways. Lohse's historical analysis takes up Luther's early exegetical works and then his debates with traditions important to him in the context of the various controversies leading up to his dispute with the Antinomians. The systematic treatment shows how the meaning of ancient Christian doctrines took their place within the central teaching of justification by faith.
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Martin Luther's Theology of Beauty: A Reappraisal
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Martin Luther's Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation
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Martin Luther, Volume 1 (His Road to Reformation, 1483-1521)
This first volume in Martin Brecht's three-volume biography recounts Luther's youth and young adulthood up to the period of the Diet of Worms. Brecht, in a clear, eloquent translation by James Schaaf, discusses Luther's education at the University of Erfurt, his monastic life, his canonical trial in 1519, the Leipzig debate, and his earliest contributions to the beginning of the Reformation. Illustrations enrich the text.
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Martin Luther, Volume 2 (Shaping and Defining the Reformation, 1521-1532)
Brecht here describes the years in which the distinctive aspects of the Reformation took shape. During this time four difficult conflictsthe Peasants' War, the interchange between Luther and Erasmus, debates on the Lord's Supper, and the rise of Anabaptist groupsstrengthened the need to fashion new orders for govering the church and the need to develop new patterns for worship and the instruction of youth. Luther the theologian was occupied with problems of politics, economy, law, and education. In addition, his own life was altered by his marriage.
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Martin Luther, Volume 3 (The Preservation of the Church, 1532-1546)
The third volume of Brecht's magnificent biography describes the final fourteen years of Luther's life, beginning with the accession of Elector John Frederick in 1532. The period is often treated briefly because some Reformation developments continued without him, his Catholic opponents paid only partial attention to him, his personality displayed great tensions, and his judgment, errors. Yet the preservation of the churchthose confessing the Reformation gospel being identical, according to Luther, with the truechurchdominated Luther's concerns.
A work of immense and engaging scholarship, gracefully translated by James Schaaf, this volume offers comprehensive and original interpretations of Luther's private life, his congregation and the church in Saxony, his professorial lectures and theological controversies, Bible translation, Luther and the council of Trent, and his later writings about the Jews and Turks. With 34 illustrations.
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Of Good Comfort: Martin Luther's Letters to the Depressed
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On Being a Theologian of the Cross: Reflections on Luther's Heidelberg Disputation 1518
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Paragon of Excellence: Luther's Sermons on 1 Peter
Scholars routinely describe how Martin Luther prioritized the books of the New Testament that he believed most truly represented the gospel, the Living Word of Jesus Christ. Luther adored the Gospel of John and the Pauline epistles. Less well known is the admiration he had for the pastoral epistle of 1 Peter. Dennis Ngien's careful explication brings 1 Peter into the light of Lutheran biblical scholarship, demonstrating its standing for Luther alongside the Gospel of John and the Pauline epistles as the "true kernel and marrow of all books."
Ngien rejects caricatured portrayals of Peter disappearing halfway through the book of Acts. Instead, Ngien demonstrates that, for Luther, Peter stands alongside John and Paul as a master of the majestic doctrine of justification. Luther variously describes 1 Peter as "the paragon of excellence" and "the genuine and pure gospel." Ngien uses the epistle's five chapters as thematic frames for describing the depth and breadth of regard Luther had for Peter.
Indeed, for Ngien the sermons on 1 Peter present the most comprehensive early expression of Luther's mature thought and reflect the reformer's vocational maturation as "care-taker of the soul." Proclaiming Christ as gift and example, 1 Peter preached "genuinely evangelical words" that helped Luther understand his call as a theologian and, more importantly, as a minister.
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