-- Walther Library Staff

Dr. Dana Sutton, Professor of Classics at the University of California in Irvine has recently begun compiling this rich resource, "an analytic bibliography of Latin texts written during the Renaissance and later freely available to the general public on the Web (access-restricted sites are not included)."1 Here you will find a descriptive catalog of the original latin texts of Luther and other Lutheran writers, a link to the resource and a description of its file format. Ad fontes, amici!

You've just settled your library on the oak shelves of your study at your first parish, when you learn that the daughter of a member is into Eckankar. But you didn't study Eckankar in religious bodies class at the seminary! So, how do you learn about them — quickly!?! Well, you might reach for Mather and Nichols' Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, if you had thought to buy it before you left! Gospelcomm's Apologetics Index is there to help you! This site contains a wealth of news, articles, links and other information on religious cults, sects, movements, doctrines, new and alternative religions. The information compiled here is well-researched, complete with quotations from authorities within the group described and within the Christian apologetic and missions communities. There is both a search engine and an alphabetic approach for easy navigation. This site is a good place to begin your search for ways to witness to religious non-Christians.

Think of it as an electronic, spiritual agora. Beliefnet is a service that helps people pursue their own spiritual paths and converse with those of other religions and religious traditions. Columnists ranging from Colin Powell to Gary Bauer to John Shelby Spong to Starhawk write on a variety of topics. Members can exchange views, ask for prayer, search their sacred scriptures or locate a place of worship. This is a good place to see what folks committed to other faiths believe and maybe even do a little bit of witnessing.

The ECOLE Initiative is the place on the Internet to begin your research into the history of the Church before the Reformation. The site contains articles by philosophers, theologians and historians. A detailed timeline helps you place people, events and ideas in chronological context. A massive, online bibliography of primary sources leads you to texts and images from this period of the Church's history. Directories of email discussion groups and web sites help you discover new treasures. If you are taking classes in the history of the Church, this is a place you must visit.

In September of 2000, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued this declaration. In it, the Catholic Church states clearly that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone and that there is no Christian Church outside of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Read this controversial document by following this link.

In 1999, the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed an agreement which declared that Lutherans and Catholics agree on the doctrine of Justification in all but a few unimportant ways. As an officially adopted document of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, this work is the official teaching of that body. The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod and other conservative Lutheran church bodies have objected strongly to the content of this confession. Find out what the controversy is all about by reading it for yourself.

At the request of the President of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod, the faculties of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne prepared an evaluation of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. The reflections of both faculties are brought together in the electronic text. In addition, a summary of their positions on the documents and a series of study questions, authored by the LCMS' Commission on Theology and Church Relations rounds out the text. Read together with the Declaration, this text will help you understand the contemporary debate on Justification in Lutheran circles. Warning: The document is in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. If you do not already have the free reader on your system, you will need to download it. Get the Acrobat Plug-in.

You've read plenty of interpretations of history. Have you ever wondered if they were telling you the truth? Did you ever what to know the whole story? Now you can! The Internet Modern History Sourcebook catalogs primary sources of historic significance. This sourcebook contains texts from the Reformation era. Paul Halsall at Fordham University has designed this resource as a place for college professors and students to locate the key texts in history. Each entry is briefly annotated. So you're looking for something a wee bit more ancient? Visit the Fordham sourcebooks for other periods, places and subjects.

This annotated guide to theological resources on the Internet is a gateway to many resources useful to students of theology. Developed by a Catholic University for its community, this well-stocked list provides a wealth of resources which might be hard to find in any other way. Confessional Lutherans will find especially interesting the rich, well-stocked page on liturgical resources. An excellent place to look for specialized information, especially on topics related to the Early Church, Medieval Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1999, the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed an agreement which declared that Lutherans and Catholics agree on the doctrine of Justification in all but a few unimportant ways. As an officially adopted document of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, this work is the official teaching of that body. The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod and other conservative Lutheran church bodies have objected strongly to the content of this confession. Find out what the controversy is all about by reading it for yourself.

Finding primary sources on the Middle Ages can often be more difficult than finding a needle in a hay stack -- or a page on the World Wide Web. Labyrinth is designed to be both a storehouse of such texts and a gateway to resources for teaching about the Medieval period. In addition to texts, images and commentaries, this site also provides curricular material to assist professors in teaching about this important age of Church History.

Once a year, the Lutheran Historical Conference compiles a bibliography of articles, chapters in books, books, dissertations, theses and other items related to the history of Lutheranism in America. Arranged by year, this is an online version of the print resource.

This text archive collects texts by and about Martin Luther and other Lutherans. Project Wittenberg is sponsored by Concordia Theological Seminary and sited at CTS' website. This Project is the first step towards an online, electronic library for Lutheranism. The texts first appear at this site and in ASCII format. To view HTML versions of some of the documents, see Project Wittenberg's home page.

This electronic essay explores several themes in Luther's theology, including his ecclesiology, theology of the cross and the Larvae Dei (Mask of God). Short and to-the-point, they provide a place to begin in exploring Luther's views of this topics. The author, Dr. Anthony Steinbronn has served as a pastor, missionary and is an alumnus of Concordia Theological Seminary (STM 1991, D. Miss. 1997).