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Six Christian Sermons On The Way To Lutheran Unity, Robert Kolb

Concordia Theological Monthly

Four hundred years ago this year Evangelical theologians throughout Germany were picking up a new ninety-nine page book published in Tuebingen and saying something like, "What has the smithy forged this time?" James Andreae, or Schmiedlein, born the son of a smith - a fact his better-born antagonists never let him forget -was in 1573 one of the most prominent and one of the most reviled theologians in Germany.

The Reformation As A Youth Movement, John W. Constable

Concordia Theological Monthly

The parallels between then, the period of the Reformation, and now are striking: changing social patterns brought on by a growing money economy, a movement that grew out of the university experience of the reformers, a period of more time for thought, young people that were beginning to criticize the society in which they found themselves, and an establishment against which many were directing their darts of opposition.

J. S. Bach: New Light On His Faith, Christoph Trautmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The author relates the history of the Calov Bible that Johann Sebastian Bach had acquired at age 48 (now in the Concordia Seminary Library, St. Louis) and indicates the significance of the numerous marginal annotations Bach inscribed in that Bible. The article is taken from Musik und, Kirche, vol. 39, no. 4 (1969), with the permission of the Bȁrenreiter-Verlag, Karl Vőtterle KG. The translation was provided by Hilton Oswald, editor at Concordia Publishing House.

Thomas More And The Wittenberg Lutherans, Carl S. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

A man for all seasons" was also a polemicist, although this is not generally noted. Some of Thomas More's biographers, writers about the relationships between Henry VIII and Martin Luther, one biographer of Luther, and a few scholars about the 16th century,. have told in some detail the story about the relations between More and Luther. Only Sister Gertrude Donnelly investigated these relations comprehensively. One can learn something about some aspects of these relations from secondary sources, although the accounts may be distorted. Sometimes reference is made to the polemic More wrote against Bugenhagen. No writer seems to have noticed, …

Martin Chemnitz' Views On Trent: The Genesis And The Genius Of The Examen Concilii Tridentini, Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

"In recent centuries one or the other of [the] pillars supporting the Tridentine system have appeared to tremble, but as a whole the system has always survived the various crises which had only brought about certain individual degenerations. Beginning with 1958-1959, through a whole concourse of historical and spiritual factors, and certainly under an impulse of the Holy Spirit, the [Roman] Catholic Church (and more generally the entire Christian world) abandoned the Tridentine system on all fundamental themes. The brief intervening time cannot distract us from the global dimensions and the definitive significance of this abandonment."

Matthias Flacius Illyricus. A Biographical Sketch., Henry W. Reimann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Matthias Vlacic, the son of Andreas Vlacic and his wife Jacobea Luciani, was born on March 3, 1520, in Albona, a south Istrian town of 1,200 inhabitants. The Vlacics, originally rural peasants, had lived in this Adriatic city as artisans and landlords for three generations.

Luther And The English Reformation, E. George Pearce

Concordia Theological Monthly

Martin Luther never came to England. So far as I know, he was never invited. Melanchthon was-many times, sometimes by King Henry himself, very often by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but he always found reason to decline. Martin Luther never set foot on the realms of Henry VIII. What, then, is the connection between Luther and the English Reformation?

Melanchthon The Confessor, Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

By definition, a confessor is "one who confesses." Specifically and strictly, a confessor is an ordained clergymen who hears confessions and is authorized to grant absolution. Or he is one who professes or gives heroic evidence of his faith in Christ, a saint who suffers persecution for his faith without undergoing martyrdom in the process.

The Seventeenth Century Dogmaticians As Philosophers, A. C. Ahlen

Concordia Theological Monthly

To assert that philosophy and theology are not identical would obviously be unnecessary in addressing myself to the present group; but to remind you that there are vast areas of common interest shared by these two disciplines is probably not superfluous. Living as we do in a time when reason is often ridiculed and up-to-the- minute theologians present highly rationalized arguments in favor of antirational views, we need to remind ourselves that philosophy is inescapable. The moment we reflect critically upon our experiences and beliefs, we begin to philosophize.

Robert Barnes And Wittenberg, N. S. Tjernagel

Concordia Theological Monthly

From the year 1521, when Henry VIII attacked the theology of Martin Luther in his celebrated Assertio septem sacramentorum, to 1540, when he reiterated his theological Romanism by ordering the execution of Thomas Cromwell and Dr. Robert Barnes, English policy respecting Lutheranism went full cycle. Between those dates on which the conservative position of Henry VIII was so emphatically stated, the king of England departed from orthodoxy and came very near to espousing the theology of the Lutheran reformers of Wittenberg, Germany. The royal dalliance with heresy during those years was not unconnected with the king's success in securing his …

The Lotthers: Forgotten Printers Of The Reformation, W. G. Tillmanns

Concordia Theological Monthly

The name Lotther is so similar to that of our Reformer that it must arouse the curiosity of the reader when he finds this name recorded in Luther's correspondence. Yet most Luther biographies do not even mention this name, and those that do pass it over lightly. Thus the family which has rendered outstanding service to the cause of the Reformation is today all but forgotten.

A Short History Of The Lutheran Church In Great Britain, E. George Pearce

Concordia Theological Monthly

“Lutheran” is a word that many English people find hard to pronounce because it is so seldom used in this country. In few countries of Western Europe is the Lutheran Church as little known as it is in Great Britain. When recently an inquiry was made at the B. B. C. in London regarding the possibility of a Lutheran religious broadcast, the surprising reply was given: "It is the policy of the B. B. C. to broadcast only the services of those churches which are in the mainstream of the Christian tradition." How strange that the largest of all Protestant …

Notes On Luther's Interpretation Of John 6:47-58, John Theodore Mueller

Concordia Theological Monthly

Christ's discourse in John 6: 47-58 is no doubt one· of the most striking and challenging appeals from the lips of our Savior that are recorded in the Four Gospels.

It constitutes the climax in a long and earnest address delivered by our Lord when His Jewish followers, impressed by the amazing miracle of the feeding of more than five thousand in the wilderness with five loaves and two fishes, came to Capernaum to take Him by force and make Him their King, not indeed because they believed in Him as the promised Messiah, but, as Jesus frankly told them, …

The Formative Years Of Doctor Luther, E. G. Schwiebert

Concordia Theological Monthly

There can be no doubt that many of Martin Luther's contemporaries realized that he was one of the great men of history. Almost twenty years before he died, his friends began to collect the Reformer's letters and writings, while at different times twelve table companions recorded his conversations with the dinner guests. The three funeral addresses delivered at the time of Luther's death in 1546 testify to this same conviction. Since he had died in his native Eisleben, a service was first held there in the Andreas-Kirche, on which occasion Jonas, who had accompanied Luther on the journey from Wittenberg, …

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Reformed Abraham Scultetus says in his Annals: "Students from all nations came to Wittenberg to hear Luther and Melanchthon. As they came in sight of the town, they returned thanks to God with clasped hands, for from Wittenberg, as hitherto from Jerusalem, the light of evangelical truth had spread to the uttermost parts of the earth." And so the historian Green calls Wittenberg "the little town which had suddenly become the sacred city of the Reformation."

Luther's Theological Method, W. H. Dau

Concordia Theological Monthly

When Luther began his theological studies at the Augustinian convent in Erfurt in 1505, the teaching of theology in the universities and its practice by the clergy were in a deplorable condition. At that time Luther did not realize this fact, but as he proceeded with his studies, his eyes were opened, and he stood aghast at the havoc that had been wrought on true theology.

Luther: A Blessing To The English, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The First English Lutherans and the First English Lutheran Theological Seminary

''Martin Luther" is written over the page with the names of Gardiner, Cranmer, Thirlby, and Bilney, the degree list of Cambridge in 1521.

A committee was sent to London to have Luther's books examined and to get an order from Cardinal Wolsey to burn them - Drs. Humfrey; Robert Ridley, uncle of the martyr; John Watson, praised by Erasmus; and Henry Bullock, a pupil of Erasmus, ''most learned Bovillus," now professor of Greek and vice-chancellor.

The books were burned on Market Hill about the Easter term, and the grand …

The Import And Content Of Luther's Exegetical Lectures On The Epistle To The Hebrews, Walter E. Buzin

Concordia Theological Monthly

It has been abundantly proved that, when Luther nailed the famous Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Castle Church In Wittenberg, he had no thought of disrupting the Church. The tenor of the theses shows very clearly that he had in mind only to uphold the honor and the integrity of the Church he loved and to keep his fellow human beings from being defrauded financially as well as spiritually. His theses likewise show that he wanted to be and remain a faithful subject of the Pontiff at Rome. He took for granted that the Pope would heartily disapprove …

King Henry Viii Courts Luther, W. Dallmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

On March 11, 1535, Dr. Barnes, "the king's chaplain and professor of theology," was again in Wittenberg, "treating only- of the second marriage of the king," and trying very hard to get Melanchthon to go to England. Of course, he did not win the Lutherans to approve of the divorce.

Melanchthon And Luther's Translation Of The New Testament, H. O. Keinath

Concordia Theological Monthly

When Philip Schwartzerd changed his German name to Melanchthon, this act might have been considered symbolic of the linguistic interest which was to be dominant throughout his life: Greek. As a student of Greek he proved to be the ready helper who enlisted much technical knowledge of the language in the service of Luther's translation of the New Testament. True it is, Luther was the translator, but he was a translator who did not hesitate to draw upon reliable information wherever he found it in order to produce an adequate version. Melanchthon therefore became one of the great colaborers of …

The Story Of The German Bible, P. E. Kretzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

In his thirteenth sermon on the life of Luther, Mathesius remarks: ''In my youth I saw on un-German German Bible, undoubtedly translated from the Latin, which was very dark indeed; for at that time the learned men did not have much regard for the Bible. My father also had a German postil, in which, besides the Gospels of the Sundays, several passages from the Old Testament were explained in postil form, from which I often read to him with great delight." At the same time the father of this pupil of Luther often expressed the wish that he might sec …

The Story Of The German Bible, P. E. Kretzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

For the student of the Bible and its various translations and versions it is most stimulating to be told by scholars who know the field that, in addition to more than a score of Psalters which have till now been found complete or in parts, and at least a dozen renderings of other parts of Holy Scripture, as we have seen, there is an immense field of study in the history of the German Bible whom possibilities arc not yet exhausted.

The Catechism In Public Worship, Theo. Laetsch

Concordia Theological Monthly

In the year 1516 Luther had been called as pastor of St. Mary's, or the City Church of Wittenberg, and at once began to expound the catechism to his congregation. Beginning in June and continuing to February, 1517, he preached on the Ten Commandments, following up this series by another on the Lord's Prayer, February till April.

Luther's Use Of Medieval Latin Hymns, P E. Kretzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

Luther possessed a versatile genius of surprising fertility. His university training had been almost entirely in the field of the humanities and in philosophy, and he had taken up theology only while acting as instructor at the universities of Wittenberg and of Erfurt; and yet he became one of the most profound theologians of the entire Christian era. He was no philologian, and yet he was able, chiefly on the basis of the most intensive form of home training, to present some of the most thorough linguistic discussions, in Greek and Hebrew as well as in Latin and German, which …

Luther's Academic Relations To Erfurt And Wittenberg, P E. Kretzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

The word academic is here used in the special sense of something Agreeing with scholastic rules, customs, and usages; for the age in which Luther lived was very particular in its observance of such relations. And although Luther, in his personal opinions and judgments, made use of great freedom in analyzing such customs, yet his abhorrence of any form of radicalism kept him from actions which might have been regarded as iconoclastic, also in the field of academic courtesies. In other words, while he was not necessarily conscientious and punctilious about these customs, he took part in their observance with …