Evangelisk-lutherske kirker

About this VolumeThis volume contains theses that Martin Luther drafted (sometimes with the help of his colleague Philip Melanchthon) and the records of Luther's prefatory orations and the arguments made by Luther and his students and colleagues in the university disputations over which he presided between 1537 and 1545.These disputations offer Luther's extended systematic exploration of the central doctrines of Christian theology, drawn from his mature reflection on the Bible, the medieval theological tradition, and the church fathers, in dialogue and debate with his contemporary opponents. They are an invaluable resource for students of Luther, historians of the Reformation, and contemporary theologians.About the SeriesThoroughly researched and faithfully translated, the Luther's Works series consists of Martin Luther's Bible commentaries, sermons, prefaces, postils, disputations, and letters-translated and published in English for the first time.

Luther's Works: The American Edition, published by Concordia and Fortress Press between 1955 and 1986, comprises fifty-five volumes. These are a selection representing only about a third of Luther's works in the Latin and German of the standard Weimar Edition, not including the German Bible.On October 22, 1512, the faculty of the still newborn University of Wittenberg welcomed an ominous new colleague to its body. Martin Luther was taken under the wing of none other than the vicar general of the German Augustinian order: Johann von Staupitz. Luther quickly advanced in honor and prestige. Once settled down and committed to university life, Luther took up his new lifework with enthusiasm. Before a year had passed, the Chronicle of Johann Oldecorp recorded: "At this same time [1513] M. Luther began to lecture on the Psalter of David. He was very busy with this and had many hearers." The lectures were indeed given in the traditional fashion, but there was something new in them nevertheless, something that was talked about then and that drew "many hearers."Even the modern reader of Luther's notes for these lectures can hardly escape noticing that the message, compared with that of other contemporary lectures, reveals greater individual involvement in the message being expounded. The prime emphasis is constantly on Christ as the center of the whole Psalter. The lecturer is dealing not with idle academic definitions but with the issues of life and salvation that affect the speaker and hearer directly and personally. This is where Luther's theology begins, and so these First Lectures on the Psalms (1-75) are often called initia theologiae Lutheri.

Martin Luther has been the subject of hundreds of biographies in the last five hundred years, stretching back to his own autobiographical efforts, which were quickly supplemented by his colleagues, friends, and students as they sought to reflect on the significance of his life and teaching.This collection of seven biographical writings on the reformer features some of the earliest written sources on Luther's life, available for the first time in English. Written by those closest to him, these are accurate and direct accounts of Martin Luther's life and his impact on the world.

About this VolumeMartin Luther arrived in Wittenberg as an Augustinian friar and scholar, and his primary call was to the university. Yet from 1514 onward, he was also called by the Wittenberg town council to preach in the parish church, and periodically he was invited to preach in the Castle Church. Upon his return from the Wartburg in 1522, and for the next decade, Luther's preaching-more than 1,000 sermons-was a central means of organizing and directing reform in Wittenberg. The sermons also served to extend his voice beyond Saxony, as Luther's words from the pulpit were copied down and printed in Wittenberg and across Germany. The present volume offers a selection of Luther's sermons from this exceptionally fruitful and important period of his preaching.Luther used his sermons to inculcate the basic structures of Christian doctrine and life: the distinction between Law and Gospel and the use of Christian freedom and love for the neighbor. Unlike Karlstadt, Luther urged Christians who had been set free by the Gospel to show love for the weak in making changes. His sermons in these years particularly apply these principles to the administration of the Lord's Supper and the remembrance of the saints. In addition to instruction in Christian doctrine from the pulpit over the course of the 1520s, Luther also sought to teach the Wittenberg congregation to understand and appreciate the "estate of marriage" and the "temporal sword" as God's own appointed order for human life in the world. Luther extolled God's institution and blessing of marriage and emphasized His forgiveness which covered any sin that might remain in the flesh therein while defending the regrettable possibility of divorce under certain circumstances.About the SeriesThe 28 planned volumes are intended to reflect both modern and sixteenth-century interests and to expand the coverage of genres underrepresented in the existing volumes of Luther's Works, such as Luther's sermons and disputations. The primary basis for the translation is the comprehensive Weimar edition.

Luther's Works: The American Edition, published by Concordia and Fortress Press between 1955 and 1986, comprises fifty-five volumes. These are a selection representing only about a third of Luther's works in the Latin and German of the standard Weimar Edition, not including the German Bible.From Luther's thorough-going expositions of Psalms 68, 82, 90, 101, 110, 111, and 112 it is evident at once that the Reformer had a keen insight into secular and ecclesiastical affairs as they existed in his time. But it is no less apparent that his understanding and his statements had a prophetic quality-a quality which, among other characteristics, makes his commentaries altogether timeless in their significance. "The commentaries in the present volume," writes editor Jaroslav Pelikan, "like those in Volume 12, are derived principally from Luther's classroom and from his pulpit; but they do not all owe their origin to his activity as a professor and a preacher. This collection of commentaries also provides some insight into Luther's work as an author." From explication of the religious and moral life of his day to the elucidation of differences between Jewish and Protestant interpretations of Psalm 111, Luther's literary breadth and depth provide the reader with an unrivaled uniqueness of commentary on these Psalms.