In this new edition, readers will encounter the dramatic history and heroic persons associated with the various documents in the Lutheran Confessions. Helpful introductions, insightful notes and annotations, and new tools and guides aid reading and comprehension.

Additional features:

- An expanded timeline and general index

- Enhanced page layout features and design elements

- New essays in the introduction that provide an overview of the textual issues and history of the Lutheran Confessions

- A summary of the nature and meaning of the Church's

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546) was one of the greatest religious thinkers and reformers of all time. Founder of the Lutheran Church, his Protestant movement against the dominant Catholicism altered the course of European history. His fortitude in confronting and overcoming corruption within the Church hierarchy is legendary. He was a man of great intellect and unmatched moral courage.

But Luther had other opponents: the Jews. Judaism not only repudiated Christian theology by denying that Jesus was the true savior or Messiah, but it also took on an air of supreme arrogance--Jews as special, as different, as chosen by God. As such, Jews are unwilling to repent, to accept Christ, or to see the true meaning of the Old Testament; hence they slander and insult Jesus, Mary, and indeed all Christians. Jews, said Luther, harbor an intense and deeply-rooted hatred for all non-Jews, and thus are willing to use, abuse, and exploit people for their own ends.

For Luther, Jews are arrogant and stubborn liars. They are greedy materialists, ever covetous of Christian wealth and power. They are congenital misanthropes, the master haters of humanity. And through their damnable usury--lending money at interest--they exploit, bankrupt, and enslave innocent people everywhere. Given the chance, said Luther, they would slaughter us all.

Hence his dramatic plan of action: destroy the synagogues, ban Judaic teaching, confiscate ill-gotten Jewish wealth, put Jews to hard labor, and ultimately, drive them out of Christian lands. Jews are incorrigible corrupters of humanity, and nothing less would get to the root of the problem.

On the Jews and Their Lies thus stands as one of the most remarkable books in history. Owing to its controversy, it is also one of the least-known. Now for the first time, the entire text is presented in English, in an authoritative fashion--complete with proper introduction, detailed footnotes, and helpful bibliography and index.

This is not just ancient history. Martin Luther's book is suffused with lessons for the present day.

American Christianity teaches the centrality of the individual-my will, my experiences, my decision, my heart, my work, and my dedication. Yet we couldn't be more unaware that Christ and His saving and comforting work are being lost. Our minds and hearts are captivated in some way by those who often preach the Christian instead of Christ.

Wolfmueller sounds the alarm against the false teaching and dangerous practices of Christianity in America. He offers a beautiful alternative: the sweet savor of the Gospel, which brings us to the real comfort, joy, peace, freedom, and sure hope of Christ.

And it's for you.

The story had to be told, the story of a large, confessional church body gradually, almost imperceptibly but seemingly irrevocably, losing its evangelical and confessional character and identity. But then, contrary to all expectations and historical precedent, a reversal of a trend which has dominated modern church history! The lay people and rank and file clergy of the Missouri Synod take a stand. They elect new leaders with a mandate to turn the direction of their synod back to the old ways, to the evangelical orthodoxy they had learned and known so well. They support an investigation of the doctrine of the largest and at the time most prestigious seminary of their synod. They study the issues confronting their church, they review their doctrinal position; and in convention assembled they take the bold unprecedented step of condemning the doctrine taught at that very seminary which was founded by and flourished under the greatest theological leaders the synod had ever known. The majority of the faculty members denounce the action of their church, and at what seems like a propitious time they refuse en masse to carry out their call to teach in the church. Students by the hundreds follow their professors into what was called an exile, but was really more a sort of captivity, led by the prestige and persuasions of their teachers and by the incredibly great pressure of their peers. And for the most part both faculty and students are still lost to the church, lost not because their friends and former brethren have not tried to retrieve them, but because they reject their synod, not merely its leaders and some of its actions, but also its theology. The scars inflicted on their church by their departure are deep, and they will last beyond the lives of any of us.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546) was one of the greatest religious thinkers and reformers of all time. Founder of the Lutheran Church, his Protestant movement against the dominant Catholicism altered the course of European history. His fortitude in confronting and overcoming corruption within the Church hierarchy is legendary. He was a man of great intellect and unmatched moral courage.

But Luther had other opponents: the Jews. Judaism not only repudiated Christian theology by denying that Jesus was the true savior or Messiah, but it also took on an air of supreme arrogance-Jews as special, as different, as chosen by God. As such, Jews are unwilling to repent, to accept Christ, or to see the true meaning of the Old Testament; hence they slander and insult Jesus, Mary, and indeed all Christians. Jews, said Luther, harbor an intense and deeply-rooted hatred for all non-Jews, and thus are willing to use, abuse, and exploit people for their own ends.

For Luther, Jews are arrogant and stubborn liars. They are greedy materialists, ever covetous of Christian wealth and power. They are congenital misanthropes, the master haters of humanity. And through their damnable usury-lending money at interest-they exploit, bankrupt, and enslave innocent people everywhere. Given the chance, said Luther, they would slaughter us all.

Hence his dramatic plan of action: destroy the synagogues, ban Judaic teaching, confiscate ill-gotten Jewish wealth, put Jews to hard labor, and ultimately, drive them out of Christian lands. Jews are incorrigible corrupters of humanity, and nothing less would get to the root of the problem.

On the Jews and Their Lies thus stands as one of the most remarkable books in history. Owing to its controversy, it is also one of the least-known. Now for the first time, the entire text is presented in English, in an authoritative fashion-complete with proper introduction, detailed footnotes, and helpful bibliography and index.

This is not just ancient history. Martin Luther's book is filled with lessons for the present day.

MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546) was one of the greatest religious thinkers and reformers of all time. Founder of the Lutheran Church, his Protestant movement against the dominant Catholicism altered the course of European history. His fortitude in confronting and overcoming corruption within the Church hierarchy is legendary. He was a man of great intellect and unmatched moral courage.

But Luther had other opponents: the Jews. Judaism not only repudiated Christian theology by denying that Jesus was the true savior or Messiah, but it also took on an air of supreme arrogance-Jews as special, as different, as chosen by God. As such, Jews are unwilling to repent, to accept Christ, or to see the true meaning of the Old Testament; hence they slander and insult Jesus, Mary, and indeed all Christians. Jews, said Luther, harbor an intense and deeply-rooted hatred for all non-Jews, and thus are willing to use, abuse, and exploit people for their own ends.

For Luther, Jews are arrogant and stubborn liars. They are greedy materialists, ever covetous of Christian wealth and power. They are congenital misanthropes, the master haters of humanity. And through their damnable usury-lending money at interest-they exploit, bankrupt, and enslave innocent people everywhere. Given the chance, said Luther, they would slaughter us all.

Hence his dramatic plan of action: destroy the synagogues, ban Judaic teaching, confiscate ill-gotten Jewish wealth, put Jews to hard labor, and ultimately, drive them out of Christian lands. Jews are incorrigible corrupters of humanity, and nothing less would get to the root of the problem.

On the Jews and Their Lies thus stands as one of the most remarkable books in history. Owing to its controversy, it is also one of the least-known. Now for the first time, the entire text is presented in English, in an authoritative fashion-complete with proper introduction, detailed footnotes, and helpful bibliography and index.

This is not just ancient history. Martin Luther's book is filled with lessons for the present day.

Walther's Hymnal: Church Hymnbook is the first of its kind: an English translation of the first official hymnal of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. This was the hymnal that C.F.W. Walther edited and used. The hymnal provided Christians throughout the LCMS a common experience during the synod's early years in America, in the same way that Lutheran Service Book provides a common experience today.

Now presented for the first time in English, this is an invaluable resource for history enthusiasts, church musicians, and anyone who wants insight into how our forefathers sang and prayed. This is a chance to share in that song and prayer of the saints gone before us.

Matthew Carver, MFA, is a translator of German and classical literature. He resides in Nashville, TN, with his wife Amanda and their young son, where they pursue interests in art, orthodox Lutheran theology, liturgy, and hymnody.

In this collection of essays newly published in English, Volker Leppin restores a holistic understanding of Martin Luther's development amid a late-medieval context strongly influenced by mysticism. Far from marking a clean break from earlier ideas, Luther's emerging theology drew upon deep wells of both personal mystical experience and the guidance of earlier mystics. Meister Eckhart's student, the fourteenth-century priest and theologian John Tauler, was an especially important source of inspiration for the young Luther, though he was also an avid student of figures such as Bernard of Clairvaux.

Leppin's careful research overturns conceptions of late-medieval mysticism as inherently works-oriented, illuminating instead how Tauler and others influenced Luther's emerging views on indulgences, the Passion, the Eucharist, and theological tenets including the concepts of law and gospel, justification, and the priesthood of all believers. United with Christ continues to expand upon threads drawn in Leppin's 2024 Sola: Christ, Grace, Faith, and Scripture Alone in Martin Luther's Theology, helping us understand the emergence of the Reformation as an innovative series of developments from, rather than an absolute rupture with, late-medieval Christianity.

Luther is lyrical, even ecstatic, as he proclaims the benefits of justification by faith alone...The three treatises are short reads. It would not be unfair to refer to them as pamphlets. But they are surely the weightiest pamphlets in Christian history. from Wedgeworth's Introduction

Luther was not just a firebrand who riled up the establishment and accidentally started a religious movement. In these three treatises, we get a full picture of what Luther stood for and what he stood against. In his An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility, he explains the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and calls upon German princes to reform the church, since the Papacy refused to do so. Then in The Babylonian Captivity of the Church he attacks the sacramental system of the Roman Catholic church and explains that the Lord's Supper is not a sacrifice made to God, but an offering of the promise to the people. He calls for them to feed the people the bread and wine again. Finally, in his inspiring On the Freedom of the Christian, Luther proclaims the heart of the Reformation: the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Because God has saved us once and for all from our sins and no works can increase our salvation, we are free to love both God and our neighbor, not from a spirit of fear, but out of gratitude for everything God has done for us. Read these works and be inspired.

What man is there whose heart, hearing these things, will not rejoice to its very core, and in receiving such comfort grow tender so as to love Christ, as he never could be made to love by any laws or works? Who would have power to harm such a heart or to make it afraid? For it believes that the righteousness of Christ is its own, and that its sin is not its own, but Christ's, and that all sin is swallowed up by the righteousness of Christ is a necessary consequence of faith in Christ.

This booklet introduces readers to the Augsburg Confession, one of the most important charters of Christian liberty. From the time of its appearance in the sixteenth century to this day, the Augsburg Confession connects back to the first Christians and shows how the Bible can be read and Christian life can be lived today. You will see how the gospel enlivens all aspects of the life of faith and the mission of the church.

The book first clarifies the difference between a theology of glory and a theology of the cross and explains how each perspective shapes the very nature of being a theologian. The main body of the book provides commentary on the Heidelberg Disputation -- the only complete analysis of this document currently available. Underlying Forde's exposition is the contention that one ought not speak of the theology of the cross as merely another item among a host of theological options; instead, one must pursue what it means to be a theologian of the cross and to look at all things through suffering and the cross.

In the last decades of the twentieth century, American Lutherans embarked on a journey fraught with peril and filled with promise: the formation of a new church intended to unite Lutherans throughout the country in a shared vision of ministry, service, and fellowship. Congregations, leaders, institutions, publications, programs--the whole ministerial infrastructure of three of the country's Lutheran church bodies--were reborn with the ringing in of the New Year in 1988. Yet, the birth of this new church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was not universally celebrated.

From his front-row seat as the ELCA's first secretary, Lowell G. Almen tells the story of the ELCA's birth, life, and growing pains as it sought to promote and embody Christian unity. A Dream Eclipsed is a memoir of the ELCA's first three and a half decades told from the wealth of Almen's personal and professional experience. It offers a unique view into the triumphs, tribulations, and ongoing work of the ELCA's founding era as the church looks forward to what lies ahead. In facing that future, Almen writes, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the whole church always must be on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), taught by the resurrected Christ, informed by the words of Scripture, and renewed in faith through the breaking of the bread.

The Lutheran in the title doesn't mean The Lutheran Toolkit is just for Lutherans. It's about a Lutheran witness for the whole church and for all sinners with ears to hear. It's a slender book about the big theological ideas the evangelical reformers of the 16th century used as a lens for understanding God's work in Christ.

Starting with Philiip Melanchthon's 1530 Augsburg Confession, which was drafted to defend the preaching and teaching of Luther and his colleagues, Ken Sundet Jones sees its primary themes as a set of tools that God uses to build faith in us. He takes the reader beyond scholarly analysis and historical explanations and uses his own experience as a college professor, parish pastor, and sinner looking for mercy, to discover God's handiwork in our lives.

Each chapter takes as its starting point one of the foundational ideas presented to the Holy Roman Emperor and representatives of the church, including Sin, God hidden and revealed, justification, ministry, the Christian life, the church, sacraments, and vocation. These are not simply theological categories for scholars to debate or historians to recount. They're the lived experience of the faithful from the first believers, to big thinkers like Augustine and Luther, to people in the pews, at the supper table, in their careers, and at their deathbeds throughout the ages.

The tools in this kit continually point to Jesus as the one who promises mercy and abundant life -- and who has the power to deliver them. This is a word for those who've not yet heard it and for those who desperately need to hear it again.

The white racist has ruled the world for a long time, and the crises we are undergoing now are involved with the fact that the habits of power are not only extremely hard to lose; they are as tenacious as some incurable disease. - James Baldwin

In this heart-wrenching yet stubbornly hopeful narrative, Evangelical Lutheran pastor Kenneth Wheeler exposes white supremacy as America's greatest threat. Transcending the boundaries of memoir, scholarship, theology, and sharp political critique, Pastor Wheeler takes readers on his own seven-decade-long journey that lays bare the terror of being Black in America. From his childhood in Jackson, Mississippi under the trauma of Jim Crow segregation to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Wheeler steadily holds a mirror up to a nation drowning in a rising tide of white supremacy.

This is a come-to-Jesus book in every sense of that phrase. Grounded in scripture and engaging in scholarly conversation with voices such as Isabel Wilkerson and James Cone, Wheeler demonstrates how the wound of white supremacy fundamentally diminishes all of our humanity.

US: The Resurrection of American Terror offers a deeply vulnerable and piercing portrait of the human toll of white supremacy and points to the Cross as a place of hope and reconciliation. This is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the toxic and deadly interplay between anti-Blackness, nationalism, and Christianity in America.

Intentionally resistant to providing cheap answers or an easy blueprint for the way forward, Wheeler instead uses his prophetic voice to call on white Christians in particular to engage in the deeply personal yet collective work of facing ourselves in order to turn away from who we have become. It is only from this place of seeing who we are, he argues, that we can hope to reclaim the fullness of our humanity and embrace what it means to be people created in the image of God.

There are some things if you are white in America that you will never have to think about, worry about, or have fears about. This is the power and privilege of white supremacy. - Rev. Kenneth W. Wheeler