Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Justification In Luther's Preaching On Luke 18:9-14, Lowell C. Green

Concordia Theological Monthly

The author develops the thesis that Martin Luther rested his pastoral preaching on doctrinal preaching. In a careful examination of texts of Luther, he demonstrates this and raises the question concerning the continuing importance of doctrinal preaching.

The Pastor And Books, Carl A. Eberhard

Concordia Theological Monthly

It was Dr. Herbert H. Farmer of Cambridge, England, lecturing at the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville some years ago, who told of a minister coming into his study one day and seeing a set of Goethe's works. He tapped them on the back and asked: "Any sermons in Goth?"

Walther In The Pulpit, F. R. Webber

Concordia Theological Monthly

A clergyman's working library is a good measure of the man. In the first four volumes of Lehre und Wehre may be found a series of 22 articles, some of them lengthy, in which Walther discuss the books that he considers essential. He does not say so directly, yet it is implied that these are the books that Walther found most useful in his own sermon preparation. It is a significant fact that his long list of books (most of them in the Latin language), does not contain a single book of sermons other than Luther's Kirchen- und Haus-Postille.

Kings And Priests, Richard R. Caemmerer

Concordia Theological Monthly

This review will spend little time on the excitement that greeted the first two volumes of the new translation. The reader will be impressed with the clean job of editing by Jaroslav Pelikan and the remarkably high and uniform excellence of the translations by six contributors. The introduction adequately notes the settings of the seven psalm expositions and correlates the locations in the Weimar and St. Louis editions of Luther's works. Footnotes - occasional but not too many - explain renderings of German idioms, suggest sources of Luther's quotations or indicate parallels, many of them in the two preceding volumes …

Luther Expounds The Gospels, Lewis W. Spitz

Concordia Theological Monthly

Both the state of Luther scholarship and the condition of the church have changed radically since the middle of that century of light, when J. G. Hamann lamented: "What a shame for our times that the spirit of this man who founded our church lies thus under the ashes. What a power of eloquence, what a spirit for interpretation, what a prophet! How good the old wine will taste to you!" Though Theodosius Harnack a hundred years later hailed the renewed study of Luther's theology as one of the most joyous developments in theological scholarship, his own work remained the …

Preaching On The Holy Spirit: A Study Of Luther's Sermons On The Evangelical Pericopcs, Martin E. Marty

Concordia Theological Monthly

"In our day the Holy Spirit suffers great ignominy," sighed Luther, in reference to current doctrinal misunderstanding. "In our day the Holy Spirit suffers great ignominy," might be a contemporary comment on neglect of the worship of, and witness to, the Holy Spirit. It has become almost a rubric to bemoan this neglect on Whitsunday, the third great feast of the church year, but this complaint is often followed by a tendency to contribute to the neglect and the ignominy through silence from the pulpit, as far as a living concern for the work of the Holy Spirit is concerned, …

Techniques In Modern Preaching (Toward Communicating The Gospel), Vernon Boriack

Concordia Theological Monthly

All of us have been preaching the crucial doctrines of sin and grace Sunday after Sunday, year after year, but have we really been "communicating" these cardinal doctrines which are the Christian faith? "To communicate" means "to impart, convey, share, make it so that we hold in oneness" truths with others. Have we been achieving this end? Or while our preaching has been strictly orthodox in content, have we perhaps been employing words and phrases and thought forms which ricochet off the minds of our people like petty rifle bullets off a Patton rank? Have the minds of our people …

Are We Really Preaching The Gospel?, Elmer A. Kettner

Concordia Theological Monthly

With all of our glorying in the Gospel and our striving to retain purity of doctrine, is it possible that there is too little preaching of the Gospel in The Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod? It's not only possible; I fear that it's highly probable. This is not a blanket accusation against every pastor in Synod. One can judge only from the sermons that one hears and reads. Nor is this written to be sensational or critical. In this respect I am perhaps "the chief of sinners"; I have sometimes by-passed the Gospel. The Scriptures remind us to "exhort one another …

Liturgical Developments In Europe, Walter F. Buszin

Concordia Theological Monthly

Despite the many serious impediments imposed by destructive warfare and total defeat, the Germans have published perhaps more liturgical literature during the past few postwar years than the people of any other nation. This is significant already because it indicates clearly that they do not regard liturgics as an area which is rather nonessential in character. The ravages and dispossessions of war and defeat drive man to the stark realities and basic needs of life and existence. In days of scarcity and want, man craves not dessert and luxury; on the contrary, he is then perfectly satisfied and altogether happy …

Quick And Powerful, Martin H. Franzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The object of preaching and teaching in the Church is, quite simply, to move men. We preach in order that men may be stirred into newness of life; and we teach in order that men may continue, in the Spirit-moved pulsation of repentance and faith, to grow, to increase, to live and move under the continued and inevitable forward tension of the grace of God that dare not be received in vain. This is a commonplace, and there is nothing startling about it; the startling thing is that so many of our sermons (good sermons, carefully constructed sermons, and not …

A Critique Of Contemporary Lutheran Preaching, Erdman W. Frenk

Concordia Theological Monthly

Preaching, i.e., the public proclamation of the Word of God, is the chief function of the Christian ministry. It is duty number one on a pastor's functional docket. It is his first and foremost responsibility. It was this in the early Church. It became this again through the Reformation. It must be this in the Church of our day. At the top of any list cataloguing the duties of a pastor in the order of their importance, preaching must stand first. If there is one field in which the pastor will seek to excel, it is in preaching.

Thomas Guthrie, Apostle To The Slums, F. R. Webber

Concordia Theological Monthly

Everybody is aware that Dr. Thomas Guthrie was one of the most noted pulpit orators of the nineteenth century, but the fact is often overlooked that most of his long life was devoted to congregational work in the worst of Edinburgh's slums. He built a spacious church there and a parochial school; and in that district his well-known sermons were preached. They fill most of the sixteen volumes of his collected works, and very few sermon books have enjoyed so large a circulation.

Discourse Of Luther On The Holy Trinity, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

This discourse is taken from a two-volume collection of sermons of Luther which has the title: Predigten D. Martin Luthers auf Grund von Nachschriften Georg Roerers und Anton Lauterbachs, bearbeitet von Geog Buchwald. The volumes appeared in 1925 and 1926, respectively, in the publishing house of C. Bertelsmann, Guetersloh. In the fascinating introduction Dr. Buchwald, an eminent Luther scholar, points out that the sermons of Luther published in the old editions of the Heuspostille are unsatisfactory on account of the editing process to which they were subjected. As is well known, they were not written by Luther; the notes of …

John Chrysostom, The Preacher, John H. Fritz

Concordia Theological Monthly

John Chrysostom - the name Chrysostom, the golden mouth, was given him by the Church because of his oratorical ability. He has been known by that name since the seventh century. He was born of noble parentage at Antioch, Syria, on the river Orontes, in 347 A. D. Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome were outstanding cities in those days. Antioch was one of the most splendid cities in the Roman Empire. It had a population of two hundred thousand. Though half of the inhabitants were nominally Christians, their Christianity varied from severe asceticism to almost pagan laxity.

The Lord's Prayer, The Pastor's Prayer, G. H. Smukal

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Chief Shepherd teaches His undershepherds to pray: "Hallowed be Thy Name." Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2.

Does not this Petition express that desire which is strongest in the pastor's heart? To entertain this desire, the Lord has prepared our hearts. We thank Him for such unmerited grace.

Some expositors borrow for further extension of this and the Second Petition the phrase of the Third: "on earth as in heaven." However, it cannot be proved that our Lord intended this construction, nor is it required to furnish a satisfactory meaning.

Sermones "Dormi Secure", J. H. Fritz

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Of course," says Emerson, "there is a portion of reading quite indispensable to a wise man." If books were not to be read and studied and the information and knowledge contained in them not to be used, there would be no purpose in writing and printing them. Books are the workman's tools. Every minister should have a good working library, a sufficient number of good books.

The Pastor And His Sermon, E. J. Friedrich

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the course of the last fifteen or twenty years much was said and done to discredit the pulpit as an instrument of power in the building of the kingdom of God. Even within the sanctuary itself strident voices proclaimed with prophetic finality that the pulpit had lost its power and that the day of preaching had passed forever. Systematic efforts were put forth in many quarters to supplant the preacher by religious technicians in the fields of worship, education, social service, and organization; and men quite generally staked their hopes for a virile and world-conquering Church upon agencies and …

Sermons And Outlines, F. H. Eggers

Concordia Theological Monthly

Sermons and outlines on Confessions

Sermons And Outlines On Christian Education, H. J. Bouman

Concordia Theological Monthly

Sermons and Outlines on Christian Education

Sermons And Outlines, H. J. Bouman

Concordia Theological Monthly

Sermons and Outlines

Sermons And Outlines, F. H. Eggers

Concordia Theological Monthly

Sermons and Outlines

Sermons And Outlines, Theo. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

Sermons and Outlines

Sermons And Outlines, G. H. Smukal

Concordia Theological Monthly

Sermons and Outlines

Outlines For Funeral Sermons, T. Laetsch

Concordia Theological Monthly

Outlines for Funeral Sermons

Reflections On The Status Of Our Preaching, E. J. Freidrich

Concordia Theological Monthly

Among the eighty brethren who replied to the questionnaire submitted in the lost issue of this journal sixty-five went on record as being deeply concerned about the preaching that is being done in our Synod at the present time. They claim to have observed certain definite symptoms which must be regarded either as positive evidences of decline or as a handwriting on the wall warning us that a decline is bound to come unless we give more attention to the preparation and the delivery of our sermons. The following paragraphs present a number of the most interesting statements received on …

A Series Of Advent Sermons, T. Freidrich

Concordia Theological Monthly

"Behold, He Shall Come I"

A Serles of Advent Sermons on Mal. 3, 1-6

Preaching On The Augsburg Confession, Theo. Laetsch

Concordia Theological Monthly

Preaching on the Augsburg Confession. The four-hundredth anniversary of Luther's Small Catechism, celebrated wherever the name of Luther was known, has undoubtedly been a source of richest blessing. Pastors and people become better acquainted with its history and contents, learned to appreciate this little book the more highly, and thanked God the more sincerely for this precious gift. The sermons preached on the Catechism during 1920 were not in vain, but productive of splendid results, sure as Is.55, 10. 11 still holds good. Let us hope that similar streams of blessing will flow from the celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary· …