# Book Reviews - Link: https://www.ctsfw.edu/theological-resources/publications/book-reviews/ - Published: 2025-10-08T23:13:58-04:00 - Author: Stephen Bornheimer # Book Reviews Search book reviews 172 reviews ![Grounded Theology in the Hebrew Bible: Exploring the Cultural Context That Formed Ancient Israel](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Grounded-Theology- 200x300.jpg) ### Grounded Theology in the Hebrew Bible: Exploring the Cultural Context That Formed Ancient Israel Elizabeth Backfish and Cynthai Shafer-Elliot Reviewed by Jacob Hercamp on October 1, 2026 Shafer-Elliot, a respected archaeologist, and Elizabeth Backfish, a Hebrew Bible scholar, work through cultural material evidence to “ground” or establish the practice of the theologies found within the Hebrew Bible (219). Shafer-Elliot begins each chapter “Looking Down,” introducing archaeological evidence… Read full review ![The Resurrection Changes Everything: Essays in Honor of the Rev. Dr. Herbert C. Mueller](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/The-Resurrection-Changes- Everything-200x300.jpg) ### The Resurrection Changes Everything: Essays in Honor of the Rev. Dr. Herbert C. Mueller Randy K. Asburry Reviewed by Gary Zieroth on September 1, 2026 I had several opportunities to know “Herb” Mueller personally with my many trips to LCMS headquarters in St. Louis and lunch together after a colloquy committee meeting in Ohio. A true pastor-at-heart, scholar and churchman, he served as the first… Read full review ![A History of the Dissolution of Ancient Liturgical Forms in the Lutheran Church of Germany](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/A-History-of-the-Dissolution- of-the-Ancient-Liturgical-Forms-2-200x300.jpg) ### A History of the Dissolution of Ancient Liturgical Forms in the Lutheran Church of Germany Paul Graff Reviewed by Mark Braden on August 3, 2026 The volume at hand is in fact two volumes bound as one, the first being Geschichte der Auflösung der alten gottesdienstlichen Formen in der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands bis zum Eintritt der Aufklärung und des Rationalismus (A History of the Dissolution… Read full review ![40 Questions about the Text and Canon of the New Testament](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/40_Questions_About_The_Text_and_Canon_of_the_New_Testament- 200x300.jpg) ### 40 Questions about the Text and Canon of the New Testament Charles L. Quarles and L. Scott Kellum Reviewed by Zelwyn Heide on July 1, 2026 The 40 Questions series, published by Kregel Academic, seeks to discuss complex topics in a popular style. Like all entries in the series, each chapter includes a number of discussion questions at the end, showing that it is intended for… Read full review ![Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Life_Under_The_Cross-200x300.jpg) ### Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus Wade Johnston Reviewed by Brandon W. Koble on June 1, 2026 Wade Johnston’s Life Under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus offers a succinct and accessible introduction to one of Lutheranism’s most complex and often-misunderstood figures. Johnston succeeds in presenting Flacius not merely as a contentious polemicist,… Read full review ![Concordia: The 1580 Dresden Book of Concord in English](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Concordia_The_1580_Dresden_Book_of_Concord_in_English- 200x300.jpg) ### Concordia: The 1580 Dresden Book of Concord in English Smalkald Press Reviewed by Benjamin T. G. Mayes on May 1, 2026 A new translation of the Book of Concord is a chance for the Lutheran Church to pause and consider what her confessions are. The new, anonymously translated and edited Concordia . . . DRESDEN, 1580 presents a translation of the… Read full review ![The Joy of Eternal Life](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/The_Joy_of_Eternal_Life- 200x300.jpg) ### The Joy of Eternal Life Philipp Nicolai Reviewed by Steven Cholak on April 10, 2026 In the face of the plague’s extreme suffering, Philipp Nicolai provides a beacon of hope in this small and quick resource for clergy and laity alike. The Joy of Eternal Life was written by the great Lutheran hymn writer for… Read full review ![Lamentations](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Lamentations_Concordia_Commentary- 200x300.jpg) ### Lamentations R. Reed Lessing Reviewed by Steven C. Briel on April 10, 2026 For Christians suffering inexpressible anguish over problems or disasters in life which seem insurmountable and perplexing, the opening word of this inspired book( which also serves as the book’s title in Hebrew) vividly expresses their desperate cry: אֵיכָ֣ה, ‘eykah, “how… Read full review ![Atonement in Confessional Lutheran Theology: Franz Pieper.](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Atonement_in_Confessional_Lutheran_Theology_Franz_Pieper- 200x300.jpg) ### Atonement in Confessional Lutheran Theology: Franz Pieper. Translated by Susanne Russell, John Theodore Mueller & T.R. Halvorson Reviewed by Paul Strawn on April 10, 2026 This work is a compilation of three works of the Lutheran systematician Francis Pieper (1852–1931) on the atonement of Christ: 1) Pieper’s lecture notes on the pertinent section of Johann Wilhelm Baier’s (1647–1695) Compendium Theologiae Positivae, which Pieper himself had… Read full review ![Faithful and Flourishing: Strategies for Leading Your Christian School with Excellence]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Faithful_And_Flourishing-200x300. jpg) ### Faithful and Flourishing: Strategies for Leading Your Christian School with Excellence Bernard Bull Reviewed by Ryan L. Loeslie on April 10, 2026 Bernard Bull’s Faithful and Flourishing is the product of a pious Lutheran educator who has spent decades in the trenches. Bull’s thesis is clear: faithful and flourishing Christian schools will be focused on their mission, intentional in execution, and focused… Read full review ![AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep: Leading and Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/AI_Shepherds_and_Electric_Sheep- 200x300.jpg) ### AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep: Leading and Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Sean O’Callaghan and Paul A. Hoffman Reviewed by Adam Hiles on April 10, 2026 No one is startled to discover that the world of one’s youth differs markedly from the present. Yet the velocity and character of change in the past few years—driven by the sudden integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into nearly every… Read full review ![Sound Theology: Pipe Organ Power Plays among Protestants, Pulpits, Professors, and Peers](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Sound_Theology_Pipe_Organ_Power_Plays_among_Protestants_Pulpits_Professors_and_Peers- 200x300.jpg) ### Sound Theology: Pipe Organ Power Plays among Protestants, Pulpits, Professors, and Peers Randall Dean Engle Reviewed by Paul J. Grime on April 10, 2026 Most anyone who has studied Reformation history is aware of the restrictions that John Calvin and others in the Reformed communion placed on the role of music in the church. Unlike the Lutheran reformers, who drew on a wide range… Read full review ![A New Song We Now Begin: Celebrating the Half Millennium of Lutheran Hymnals 1524– 2024](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/A_New_Song_We_Now_Begin-200x300. jpg) ### A New Song We Now Begin: Celebrating the Half Millennium of Lutheran Hymnals 1524–2024 Robin A. Leaver Reviewed by Matthew Machemer on April 9, 2026 There are many reasons for the proliferation of Luther’s theology in 16th-century Europe. Certainly his own writings, translations, and liturgical reforms played a significant role in this phenomenon. No less significant, however, was Luther’s advocacy for hymnal production. Beginning with… Read full review ![40 Questions about the Atonement](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/ 04/40_Questions_About_The_Atonement-200x300.jpg) ### 40 Questions about the Atonement Channing Crisler Reviewed by Jack D. Kilcrease on April 1, 2026 40 Questions about the Atonement is one of many works within the 40 Questions series published by Kregel Academic. As such, the goal of the work (like others in the series) is to provide a succinct introduction to the given… Read full review ![A Disputation on Holy Scripture](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/ 03/A_Disputation_on_Holy_Christian_v1-200x300.jpg) ### A Disputation on Holy Scripture William Whitaker Reviewed by Steven R. J. Parks on March 1, 2026 Among the many issues historically separating Protestantism from Roman Catholicism is the doctrine of sola Scriptura. While much ink was spilled on this topic in the sixteenth century, few works were as impactful as the Anglican divine William Whitaker’s( 1548–1595)… Read full review ![Shepherding the Flock of God: A Festschrift in Honour of Andrew K. Pfeiffer](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Shepherdig_the_Flock_of_God-200x300.jpg) ### Shepherding the Flock of God: A Festschrift in Honour of Andrew K. Pfeiffer Joshua Pfeiffer and Thomas Pietsch Reviewed by Michael Hauser on February 1, 2026 This book is a collection of essays divided into three sections that pick up the major themes of Dr. Pfeiffer’s life and work: Pastor and Parish, Word and Church, and Cross-Cultural Mission. Its strength lies in the very nature of… Read full review ![(Dis)ordered: Lies About Human Nature and the Truth That Sets Us Free.](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/DisOrdered_Lies_about_Human_Nature_and_the_Truth_That_Sets_Us_Free- 200x300.jpg) ### (Dis)ordered: Lies About Human Nature and the Truth That Sets Us Free. Christopher S. Esget Reviewed by Todd A. Peperkorn on January 12, 2026 There are many books out there that try to present a Grand Unified Theory of Everything. Something about books that have a sweep of history to them is inherently appealing. It tries to make sense of the senseless. This is… Read full review ![Remarriage in Early Christianity](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/ 01/Remarriage_in_Early_Christianity-200x300.jpg) ### Remarriage in Early Christianity A. Andrew Das Reviewed by Benjamin T. G. Mayes on January 12, 2026 Divorce and remarriage are perennial problems for Christians. People know that divorce is wrong, but they do it anyway. Every generation brings forth books and articles dealing with whether and when divorce and remarriage are permitted according to Scripture. Throughout… Read full review ![Useful Hymns: for Worship, Prayer, and Instruction in the Lutheran Church, School, and Home](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Useful_Hymns_for_worship_prayer_and- instruction_in_the_Lutheran_church_school_and_home-200x300.jpg) ### Useful Hymns: for Worship, Prayer, and Instruction in the Lutheran Church, School, and Home R. D. Fish Reviewed by Thomas E. Lock on January 12, 2026 Music to glorify God for all his works is a wonder both to hear and to perform. Music set to solid hymn texts takes that artistry to a higher level. Without faithful and well-crafted hymn texts such height is unattainable.… Read full review ![The Great Works of God: or Jesus, The Heart and Center of Scripture—Part Seven: The Mysteries of Christ in the Book of Leviticus](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2026/01/The_Great_Works_of_God_Part_Seven-200x300.jpg) ### The Great Works of God: or Jesus, The Heart and Center of Scripture—Part Seven: The Mysteries of Christ in the Book of Leviticus Valerius Herberger Reviewed by Geoffrey R. Boyle on January 12, 2026 Consolation in the name of Jesus—that’s what Valerius Herberger delivers in Part Seven of his meditations on Scripture. Much like Augustine’s Confessions, this devotional commentary teaches and exhorts, convicts and comforts the Christian through a running prayer to the Father,… Read full review ![The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church: An Intellectual and Theological History](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2026/01/The_Reformation_as_Renewal-200x300.jpg) ### The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church: An Intellectual and Theological History Matthew Barrett Reviewed by Martin R. Noland on January 12, 2026 This book is a lengthy overview of the Reformation period, starting with medieval monasticism in the fifth century and ending with the Council of Trent in 1563. The pre-Reformation material follows the trend in recent Reformation textbooks that provide the… Read full review ![The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2026/01/The_Incarnate_Christ_and_His_Critics-200x300.jpg) ### The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski Reviewed by Charles A. Gieschen on January 9, 2026 This tome is an extensive defense of the deity of Jesus Christ as presented in the Scriptures. The authors previously collaborated in 2007 to write Putting Jesus in His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ (Grand Rapids: Kregel).… Read full review ![Vicarious Satisfaction in Lutheran Catechisms, Confessions, and Hymns](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Vicarious_Satisfaction-200x300.jpg) ### Vicarious Satisfaction in Lutheran Catechisms, Confessions, and Hymns T. R. Halvorson Reviewed by Burnell F. Eckardt on January 1, 2026 In recent years, T. R. Halvorson has been tirelessly working to support the doctrine of the vicarious satisfaction. Scholars who deny it—Gerhard Forde, Steven Paulson, and others—have been making inroads among confessional Lutherans in places we would least expect them.… Read full review ![The Venerable and Adorable Eucharist: A Study of the Lutheran Doctrine of the Lord's Supper in the 1500s](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/HardtTheVenerableandAdorableEucharist- 200x300.jpg) ### The Venerable and Adorable Eucharist: A Study of the Lutheran Doctrine of the Lord's Supper in the 1500s Tom Hardt Reviewed by Joseph Greenmyer on December 1, 2025 Dr. John Stephenson describes The Venerable and Adorable Eucharist by Tom G.A. Hardt as an “intellectual marathon” (xiv). His description is apt. While any survey of historical theology risks antiquarianism and generalization, Hardt does not take the challenge lying down.… Read full review ![On the End of the World and On Hell](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Gerhard_OnTheEndofTheWorldandHell-200x300.jpg) ### On the End of the World and On Hell Johann Gerhard Reviewed by Martin R. Noland on November 1, 2025 In a previous book review, I have given an overview of the Gerhard dogmatics published so far in English from 2002 to 2020 by the editors and staff at Concordia Publishing House. The topics in the present volume are from… Read full review ![The Widening of God's Mercy: Sexuality within the Biblical Story](https://www. ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Widening-of-Gods-Mercy-Hays-200x300.jpg) ### The Widening of God's Mercy: Sexuality within the Biblical Story Christopher Hays and Richard Hays Reviewed by David P. Scaer on October 24, 2025 Richard B. Hays, a favorite mainstream New Testament scholar among conservative- leaning biblical students, including the undersigned, now argues that members of the LGBTQ community can find a place in the church alongside those who oppose their way of life. There… Read full review ![The Apostles’ Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp- content/uploads/2025/11/Myers_ApostlesCreed-200x300.jpg) ### The Apostles’ Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism Ben Myers Reviewed by Adam C. Koontz on October 1, 2025 Repetition is essential for depth. Without returning to once-learned things, we may never truly know them. Liturgical churches may take this for granted and, like Esau, spurn their birthright, but Lexham Press’s Christian Essential series is a beautifully designed set… Read full review ![Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Hylen_FindingPhoebe-1-200x300.jpg) ### Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like Susan E. Hylen Reviewed by John G. Nordling on August 25, 2025 Two tantalizing verses toward the end of Romans raise many questions about the role of women in the early congregations. There Paul commends “our sister Phoebe, a servant [Greek: diakonon] of the church at Cenchreae,” and urges the congregation to… Read full review ![Dienst an der Kirche durch Wort und Sakrament: Theologie und Kirche in konfessioneller und ökumenischer Verantwortung](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ KlanSchatzel_DienstAnDerKircheDurchWortUndSakrament-200x300.jpg) ### Dienst an der Kirche durch Wort und Sakrament: Theologie und Kirche in konfessioneller und ökumenischer Verantwortung Edited by Werner Klän und Michael Schätzel Reviewed by Berett J. Steffen on August 25, 2025 I am the God who saves them all! So do not fear to heed my call; I am at work in what you do: My wounded hand serves them through you. This is the final stanza of the hymn “‘I… Read full review ![The English District Saga: A Niche in the History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America, 2nd ed.](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/Stechholz_TheEnglishDistrictSaga-1-200x300.jpg) ### The English District Saga: A Niche in the History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America, 2nd ed. David P. Stechholz Reviewed by David P. Scaer on August 22, 2025 When acculturation has become a byword in how a church looks to the future, it can be overlooked that pastors in the then-German-speaking Missouri Synod (then Die Deutsche Evangelisch-Lutherische Synode von Missouri, Ohio und an-dern Staaten) gave attention to preaching… Read full review ![The Word from the Beginning: The Person and Work of Jesus in the Gospel of John]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Schuchard_TheWordFromTheBeginning- 1-200x300.jpg) ### The Word from the Beginning: The Person and Work of Jesus in the Gospel of John Bruce G. Schuchard Reviewed by Justin Kane on August 22, 2025 Bruce G. Schuchard retells the Gospel of John as a modern evangelist weaving his insightful comments into the Gospel’s narrative warp. Exegetical gems further enrich the Gospel’s rich tapestry. The Word is the central focus and dominant theme of the… Read full review ![Deliver Us: God’s Rescue Story in Exodus](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Lessing_DeliverUs-1-200x300.jpg) ### Deliver Us: God’s Rescue Story in Exodus R. Reed Lessing Reviewed by Kevin Golden on August 22, 2025 Over the past fifteen years, Reed Lessing has served the church well with numerous books, especially volumes in the Concordia Commentary series, whose primary readership has been pastors and seminarians. Lessing’s latest work, Deliver Us, is cut from a different… Read full review ![Church Music: For the Care of Souls](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Magness_ChurchMusicForTheCareOfSouls-1-200x300.jpg) ### Church Music: For the Care of Souls Philip Magness Reviewed by Kevin Hildebrand on August 22, 2025 Whenever any new book is published, it can be beneficial to question why another volume on the given topic is needed. Works abound on church-music history and performance practice. However, very few books in this discipline focus on congregational singing.… Read full review ![Serpents in the Classroom: The Poisoning of Modern Education and How the Church Can Cure It](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Korcok_SerpentsInTheClassroom- 1-200x300.jpg) ### Serpents in the Classroom: The Poisoning of Modern Education and How the Church Can Cure It Thomas Korcok Reviewed by Shawn Barnett on August 22, 2025 At the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, an exhibition by Missouri Synod schools was given a gold award. The synod’s chief theological organ, Lehre und Wehre, boasted of the endorsement, thumbing its nose at secular critics and citing the… Read full review ![Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/Thompson_Jingjiao-1-200x300.jpg) ### Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China Glen L. Thompson Reviewed by Benjamin T. G. Mayes on August 22, 2025 Myths about the church in China abound. Many think Christianity there is a recent phenomenon, influenced mainly by Neo-Evangelicals and Pentecostals, with a tenuous history reaching back to Protestant missions in the nineteenth century. Others might remember the work of… Read full review ![A Complete Guide to Christian Symbols](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Riojas_ACompleteGuidetoChristianSymbols-200x300.jpg) ### A Complete Guide to Christian Symbols Edward Riojas Reviewed by John Hrehov on August 22, 2025 The Bible is replete with striking visual images: the parting of the Red Sea, Jonah and the great fish, five loaves of bread and two fishes. As author Edward Riojas states in the introduction, “When Jesus Christ taught, He often… Read full review ![Nailed! Moral Injury: A Response from the Cross of Christ for the Combat Veteran]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/schreiber_nailed_moral_injury-200x300. jpg) ### Nailed! Moral Injury: A Response from the Cross of Christ for the Combat Veteran Mark J. Schreiber Reviewed by David P. Scaer on January 25, 2024 In his published and easy-to-read seminary PhD dissertation, lifelong and now retired Navy chaplain, CTS alumnus Captain Mark J. Schreiber brings together the experiences of wounded veterans from the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Iraq Wars. Christians who serve in… Read full review ![Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations and Contemporary Applications](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/pless_vogel_luthers_large_catechism_with_annotations_and_contemporary_applications- 230x300.jpg) ### Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations and Contemporary Applications John T. Pless and Larry M. Vogel, eds. Reviewed by Joshua C. Miller on May 21, 2023 Hermann Sasse lamented in 1948 that world Lutheranism needed confessional renewal, in which the pastors and people committed themselves to serious study and application of the Lutheran Confessions, beginning with Luther’s Large Catechism.[1] The same is true today in The… Read full review ![One Lord, Two Hands?: Essays on the Theology of the Two Kingdoms](https://www. ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/one-lord-two-hands-200x300.jpg) ### One Lord, Two Hands?: Essays on the Theology of the Two Kingdoms Matthew C. Harrison and John T. Pless, eds. Reviewed by Armin Wenz on March 4, 2023 “The man who considers something to be necessary which appears to others to be of little help, or even to be pernicious, does not hesitate to repeat the necessary teaching and is ready to make clear its necessity by summing… Read full review ![Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Services](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/companion-to-the-services-201x300.jpg) ### Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Services Paul J. Grime, ed. Reviewed by Todd A. Peperkorn on March 3, 2023 Are the “worship wars” of the 1980s and 1990s over, or have they gone underground? Regardless of how you answer that question, the publication of LSB: Companion to the Services marks a turning point in the worship history of the… Read full review ![Christianity and Modern Medicine: Foundations for Bioethics](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Christianity-and-Modern-Medicine-194x300.jpg) ### Christianity and Modern Medicine: Foundations for Bioethics Mark Wesley Foreman and Lindsay C. Leonard, eds. Reviewed by Scott Stiegemeyer on March 1, 2023 Theological anthropology is the church’s battleground of our time. A disordered view of the body is at the root of many of our problems today. Transgender ideology, genetic engineering, abortion, and feminist philosophy are all depictions of distorted anthropology. Bioethics… Read full review ![Himnario Luterano](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/himnario-luterano- 200x300.jpg) ### Himnario Luterano Editorial de La Iglesia Luterana Confesional de Chile Reviewed by Geoffrey R. Boyle on February 27, 2023 La iglesia cristiana es litúrgica. So begins the much-needed and greatly awaited Himnario Luterano (HL). The liturgical church lives by the word of God—receiving his gifts and saying back to him what he first says to us. Psalms, hymns, and… Read full review ![How the Church Fathers Read the Bible: A Short Introduction](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/HowTheChurchFathersReadTheBible-1-200x300.jpg) ### How the Church Fathers Read the Bible: A Short Introduction Gerald Bray Reviewed by Josef Muench on October 10, 2022 Gerald Bray, the editor of multiple volumes in the Ancient Christian Commentary Series, is eminently qualified to write an introduction to patristic hermeneutics. Bray’s pedigree aside, Lutheran interest in this book is piqued by his observation that we owe the… Read full review ![Provoking Proverbs: Wisdom and the Ten Commandments](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp- content/uploads/2025/11/provoking-proverbs-200x300.jpg) ### Provoking Proverbs: Wisdom and the Ten Commandments David Lawrence Coe Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on September 23, 2022 Many have recognized that the Psalms in all their rugged beauty are more relevant than ever. But the wisdom literature seems to lag behind in popularity. The Sermon on the Mount is too often treated as a kind of unattainable… Read full review ![Messianic High Christology: New Testament Variants of Second Temple Judaism](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Messianic-High-Christology-200x300.jpg) ### Messianic High Christology: New Testament Variants of Second Temple Judaism Ruben A. Bühner Reviewed by Christopher Maronde on September 12, 2022 It is of course no secret that our knowledge of so-called “Second Temple Judaism” has exploded in the last century. Not only the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls but also increased attention to other contemporary documents has increased our… Read full review ![Luther’s Rome, Rome’s Luther: How the City Shaped the Reformer](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Luthers-rome-200x300.jpg) ### Luther’s Rome, Rome’s Luther: How the City Shaped the Reformer Carl P. E. Springer Reviewed by John G. Nordling on August 26, 2022 Sometime during his late twenties, Martin Luther traveled to Rome as a pilgrim from Germany and, after spending some four weeks there, returned home (1). Specific details as to what year the trip happened, which route he followed there and… Read full review ![Luke-Acts in Modern Interpretation](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/Luke-ActsInModernInterpretation-1-200x300.jpg) ### Luke-Acts in Modern Interpretation Stanley E. Porter and Ron C. Fay, eds. Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on August 26, 2022 The confessional church’s relationship with the academy is increasingly tenuous. Attend the convention of the Society of Biblical Literature, and you will have to look long and hard for sessions that bear the mark of true Christianity. Identity politics is… Read full review ![Bright Valley of Love: The True Story of a Handicapped Child Who Finds a Haven of Love in the Nightmare of Nazi Germany](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/BrightValleyOfLove-1-200x300.jpg) ### Bright Valley of Love: The True Story of a Handicapped Child Who Finds a Haven of Love in the Nightmare of Nazi Germany Edna Hong Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on August 26, 2022 The book’s idyllic title seems undermined by its jarring subtitle. What is it that makes for a wonderful life, a life well lived? What do we prize? Many would list health and happiness, a good home with parents who care,… Read full review ![A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, Volume 3](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ACommentaryOnTheNewTestament-1-200x300. jpg) ### A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, Volume 3 Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck Reviewed by Chris Durham on August 7, 2022 This commentary is the third installment in the translation project of the monumental Kommentar of Strack-Billerbeck, edited by Jacob Cerone. The original project, developed by German scholars Hermann Strack and Rev. Paul Billerbeck, was published almost a century ago (1922–1928).… Read full review ![Pastor Craft: Essays & Sermons](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/Pastor-Craft-209x300.jpg) ### Pastor Craft: Essays & Sermons John T. Pless Reviewed by Jason D. Lane on March 23, 2022 Pastors who care for souls are in constant need of refining their craft. That craft is more specific than “continuing education.” Surely, pastors need to grow in their knowledge of God’s word and sound doctrine, just as surely as they… Read full review ![Reading German for Theological Studies: A Grammar and Reader](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Reading-German-for-Theological-Studies-224x300.jpg) ### Reading German for Theological Studies: A Grammar and Reader Carolyn Roberts Thompson Reviewed by Benjamin T. G. Mayes on March 11, 2022 This is a textbook that leads the student who already knows a language like Greek to reading twentieth-century academic German theology. The author is an adjunct professor at Abilene Christian University (Abilene, Texas). The preface and “How to Get the… Read full review ![Faith Misused: Why Christianity Is Not Just Another Religion](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Faith-Misused-206x300.jpg) ### Faith Misused: Why Christianity Is Not Just Another Religion Alvin J. Schmidt Reviewed by David P. Scaer on March 8, 2022 For a faithless generation, the word faith has become part of the general vocabulary. Even those who have very little use for God can say “I am praying for you” and “ keep the faith” with perhaps no more meaning than… Read full review ![Philologia Sacra und Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift: Studien zum Werk des lutherischen Barocktheologen Salomon Glassius (1593–1656)](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/philologia-sacra-203x300.jpg) ### Philologia Sacra und Auslegung der Heiligen Schrift: Studien zum Werk des lutherischen Barocktheologen Salomon Glassius (1593–1656) Armin Wenz Reviewed by Jason D. Lane on March 1, 2022 In this thorough and instructive monograph, Armin Wenz examines and analyzes the works of Salomon Glassius and demonstrates his enduring contributions to the field of biblical hermeneutics. The book is the fruit of Wenz’s decade-long research project under Johann Anselm… Read full review ![A Harvest of Lutheran Dogmatics and Ethics: The Life and Work of Twelve Theologians 1960–2020](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/AHarvestOfLutheranDogmaticsAndEthics- 1-200x300.jpg) ### A Harvest of Lutheran Dogmatics and Ethics: The Life and Work of Twelve Theologians 1960–2020 Edited by Carl E. Braaten Reviewed by David P. Scaer on March 1, 2022 Established to bring the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) into the American religious mainstream, the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau (ALPB) fosters views that are more common in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) than in the LCMS. Irreconcilable are the… Read full review ![Debating the Sacraments: Print and Authority in the Early Reformation](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Debating-the-Sacraments-197x300.jpg) ### Debating the Sacraments: Print and Authority in the Early Reformation Amy Nelson Burnett Reviewed by John A. Maxfield on November 5, 2021 Three generations of Missouri Synod pastors and theologians have been shaped in their understanding of the Reformation controversy over the Lord’s Supper by the now-classic study This Is My Body: Luther’s Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of… Read full review ![A History of Evangelism in North America](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/History-of-Evangelism_Johnston-195x300.jpeg) ### A History of Evangelism in North America Thomas P. Johnston Reviewed by Adam C. Koontz on November 3, 2021 These are histories, not a history. The scope of this volume of essays by various Southern Baptist professors of evangelism is the entirety of America’s history, not Canada’s or Mexico’s, so titles can be misleading. Why would a Lutheran read… Read full review ![Sites of the Ascetic Self: John Cassian and Christian Ethical Formation](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Sites-of-the-ascetic-self-200x300.jpg) ### Sites of the Ascetic Self: John Cassian and Christian Ethical Formation Niki Kasumi Clements Reviewed by Gifford A. Grobien on May 25, 2021 Challenging both notions of a naturally unified self and of a dichotomist anthropology pitting interiority against exteriority, Clements argues for a personal “self” as the disciplined integration of several “sites” of human consciousness and experience: the mind, affections, body, and… Read full review ![Catechetics: Fixing Confirmation](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/Catechetics_Fixing-Confirmation-200x300.jpg) ### Catechetics: Fixing Confirmation Lincoln Winter Reviewed by Paul Deterding on May 18, 2021 In this work, Pastor Lincoln Winter offers both a history and an analysis of catechesis in the Lutheran Church and, to a lesser extent, a history and analysis of confirmation. He emphasizes that even though the term confirmation has often… Read full review ![Paul & the Power of Grace](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Paul- and-the-Power-of-Grace-scaled-1-200x300.jpg) ### Paul & the Power of Grace John M. Barclay Reviewed by Paul Deterding on May 18, 2021 John M. G. Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University, England, presents this volume as both a compendium of and a further elaboration of his earlier work, Paul and the Gift (2015). He focuses not simply on the Greek… Read full review ![Luther's Works: Sermons III](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ AE-Sermons-III-1-197x300.jpg) ### Luther's Works: Sermons III Edited by Benjamin T.G. Mayes Reviewed by Korey D. Maas on March 11, 2021 The “new series” of Luther’s Works—which, when complete, will have added another twenty volumes to the original fifty-five of the now classic American Edition—continues to be a great boon to students of Luther, both academic and pastoral. Volume 56, the… Read full review ![The Lord’s Service: A Ritual Analysis of the Order, Function, and Purpose of the Daily Divine Service in the Pentateuch](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/The-Lords-Service-200x300.jpg) ### The Lord’s Service: A Ritual Analysis of the Order, Function, and Purpose of the Daily Divine Service in the Pentateuch Robert D. Macina Reviewed by Arthur A. Just on March 11, 2021 One of the most unexpectedly delightful courses I took in graduate school in the early 1980s was titled Anthropology of Ritual Behavior. It was part of the liturgy curriculum, taught by an esteemed liturgiologist who opened our minds to how… Read full review ![Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters](https://www. ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Irreversible-Damage-199x300.jpg) ### Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters Abigail Shrier Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on February 15, 2021 The social landscape is shifting in ways that many could not have imagined, and it is happening at record speed. Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage, opened up the floodgates. What was previously a cultural… Read full review ![The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/Rise-and-Triumph-200x300.jpg) ### The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution Carl R. Trueman Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on February 15, 2021 “I am a woman trapped in a man’s body.” Our grandparents would have no idea what such words could mean. Even a generation ago, it would have been thought the height of lunacy, a mental disorder, or a cry for… Read full review ![Faith in the Shadow of a Pandemic](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/Faith-in-the-Shadow-of-the-Pandemic-209x300.jpg) ### Faith in the Shadow of a Pandemic John T. Pless and Jacob Corzine Reviewed by Michael Wenz on December 14, 2020 The year 2020 cast a long shadow not just over the world, but also over the church and the lives of many Christians. Faith in Jesus Christ is called for and needs to be strengthened. This short book aims at… Read full review ![Chrysostom’s Devil: Demons, the Will, and Virtue in Patristic Soteriology](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Chrysostoms-Devil-smallest-200x300.jpg) ### Chrysostom’s Devil: Demons, the Will, and Virtue in Patristic Soteriology Samantha L. Miller Reviewed by Eamonn Ferguson on September 17, 2020 Samantha Miller’s work is a commendable piece of scholarship examining a facet of Christianity often overlooked. In Chrysostom’s Devil, Miller examines Christian demonology through the lens of St. John Chrysostom, drawing upon an extensive list of his writings to apply… Read full review ![Preaching the Word with John Chrysostom](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Preaching-the-Word-with-John-Chrysostom-smallest-188x300.jpg) ### Preaching the Word with John Chrysostom Gerald Bray Reviewed by Theodore Hoham on September 13, 2020 One of the (many) wonderful things about John Chrysostom’s preaching is its inherent accessibility. The “mouth of gold” was so named for his preaching ability, and if you find yourself reading Chrysostom chances are you’re reading a sermon. He avoids… Read full review ![Apologetics at the Cross: An Introduction for Christian Witness](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Apologetics-at-the-Cross-smallest-243x300.jpg) ### Apologetics at the Cross: An Introduction for Christian Witness Joshua D. Chatraw and Mark D. Allen Reviewed by Don C. Wiley on September 8, 2020 As the subtitle indicates, Apologetics at the Cross is intended as an introduction to apologetics. The book integrates a variety of disciplines and seeks to provide“ a biblical, historical, philosophical, theological, and practical vision for offering an appeal for Christianity… Read full review ![Transubstantiation: Theology, History, and Christian Unity](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Transubstantiation-200x300.jpg) ### Transubstantiation: Theology, History, and Christian Unity Brett Salkeld Reviewed by Justin D. Kane on September 3, 2020 “Inconceivable!” blurted Vizzini. Puzzled, Inigo replied, “You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.” This brief dialogue from The Princess Bride parodies the vexing problem that for the past forty years has prevented… Read full review ![The Scroll of Isaiah: Its Unity, Structure, and Message](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Scroll-of-Isaiah-2.jpg) ### The Scroll of Isaiah: Its Unity, Structure, and Message Seth Erlandsson Reviewed by Ryan Tietz on September 2, 2020 Attempting to write a brief commentary on Isaiah is a very challenging task. The author provides many familiar understandings of the Book of Isaiah and as such breaks no new ground. He also presents a helpful summary of the arguments… Read full review ![Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Christ-and-Calamity-smallest-176x300.jpg) ### Christ and Calamity: Grace and Gratitude in the Darkest Valley Harold L. Senkbeil Reviewed by Gregory P. Schulz on September 1, 2020 Many of us can name a seminary professor whose impact on our ministry is truly enduring. For example, the Sunday of the week I began writing this review, the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, I heard a friend preaching on Luke… Read full review ![Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why We Need Our Past to Have a Future]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Theological-Retrieval-for-Evangelicals- smallest-200x300.jpg) ### Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why We Need Our Past to Have a Future Gavin Ortlund Reviewed by Samuel Wirgau on September 1, 2020 In his work, Gavin Ortlund makes the case for the use of theological retrieval, the reading and implementing of patristic and medieval theology from various fathers of the church, among evangelical Christians. He appears to have in mind specifically modern… Read full review ![The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament within Its Cultural Contexts](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/New-Testament-in-Antiquity- smallest-245x300.jpg) ### The New Testament in Antiquity: A Survey of the New Testament within Its Cultural Contexts Gary M. Burge and Gene L. Green Reviewed by Adam C. Koontz on August 18, 2020 This reworked and expanded edition of a popular textbook is worth your attention but not your approbation. Any Bible student of any level of expertise can profit from the accumulated geographic, cultural, and historical knowledge between this book’s covers. How… Read full review ![Humor in the Gospels: A Sourcebook for the Study of Humor in the New Testament, 1863–2014](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Humor-in-the-Gospels- retry-200x300.jpg) ### Humor in the Gospels: A Sourcebook for the Study of Humor in the New Testament, 1863–2014 Terri Bednarz Reviewed by John G. Nordling on August 15, 2020 Perceptive readers of the canonical Gospels have long recognized that Jesus can be cuttingly funny—or at least ironic—at times, but upon which particular image of Jesus does the humor depend? Jesus as an eschatological figure? A prophet for the peasants?… Read full review ![Apostolic Agenda: The Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul to Titus and Philemon]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Balduin-Apostolic-Agenda-smallest- 200x300.jpg) ### Apostolic Agenda: The Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul to Titus and Philemon Friedrich Balduin Reviewed by John G. Nordling on August 13, 2020 Apostolic Agenda: The Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul to Titus and Philemon is the first full work of the Lutheran casuist Friedrich Balduin (AD 1575–1627) to be translated into English by two Lutheran pastors at home in the Latin… Read full review ![Church as Fullness in All Things: Recasting Lutheran Ecclesiology in an Ecumenical Context](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Church-as-Fullness-smallest- 189x300.jpg) ### Church as Fullness in All Things: Recasting Lutheran Ecclesiology in an Ecumenical Context Edited by Jonathan Mumme, Richard J. Serina Jr., and Mark W. Birkholz Reviewed by Martin R. Noland on August 3, 2020 There are really two distinct parts to this collection of essays. The first part considers the church from the standpoint of doctrinal, exegetical, historical, and practical perspectives. The second part, headed “Section IV,” offers essays by Roman Catholic, Anglican, and… Read full review ![Hearing John’s Voice: Insights for Teaching and Preaching](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Hearing-Johns-Voice-smallest-200x300.jpg) ### Hearing John’s Voice: Insights for Teaching and Preaching M. Eugene Boring Reviewed by Daniel Olson on July 28, 2020 Beginning with the end in mind, or beginning at the end. There are certainly plenty of situations where that is a good approach. Eugene Boring believes that it is a good approach to the writings of John, and even all… Read full review ![Long Live Latin: The Pleasures of a Useless Language](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp- content/uploads/2025/11/Long-Live-Latin-196x300.jpg) ### Long Live Latin: The Pleasures of a Useless Language Nicola Gardini Reviewed by John G. Nordling on July 28, 2020 Nicola Gardini is a professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford and no mean Latinist. He got started in Latin in middle school in 1977( the very year it was deleted from the required curriculum) and… Read full review ![Mark 8:27–16:20](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Voelz-Mark-8- 16-215x300.jpg) ### Mark 8:27–16:20 James W. Voelz and Christopher W. Mitchell Reviewed by John G. Nordling on July 17, 2020 In response to a request to write a review—“with a special focus on the Greek”— on the second volume of Voelz’s commentary on Mark,[1] I read the introduction of the first volume with its exhaustive emphasis on grammar and linguistic features.… Read full review ![Nikolaus von Amsdorf: Champion of Martin Luther’s Reformation](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Nikolaus-von-Amsdorf-200x300.jpg) ### Nikolaus von Amsdorf: Champion of Martin Luther’s Reformation Robert Kolb Reviewed by Mark A. Loest on June 29, 2020 With the publication of Robert Kolb’s Nikolaus von Amsdorf: Champion of Martin Luther’s Reformation, Concordia Publishing House adds yet another significant biography to its impressive collection on Reformation figures. Amsdorf, who was a member of Dr. Martin Luther’s inner circle… Read full review ![The Lord Is One: Reclaiming Divine Simplicity](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/The-Lord-is-One-188x300.jpg) ### The Lord Is One: Reclaiming Divine Simplicity Edited by Joseph Minich and Onsi A. Kamel Reviewed by Carlton Andersen on June 16, 2020 The past two decades have seen a renewal of traditional Christian teaching on the attributes of God. The Lord Is One: Reclaiming Divine Simplicity is part of that renewal. It seeks to argue for the cogency and necessity of the… Read full review ![The Surprise of Reconciliation in the Catholic Tradition](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Surprise-of-Reconciliation-200x300.jpg) ### The Surprise of Reconciliation in the Catholic Tradition Edited by J. J. Carney and Laurie Johnston Reviewed by James Douthwaite on June 13, 2020 Social reconciliation has become a focus of modern Roman Catholic theology, especially with the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Francis. This is part of the “horizontal” aspect of reconciliation that begins with the vertical—the reconciliation of… Read full review ![Luther at Leipzig: Martin Luther, the Leipzig Debate, and the Sixteenth-Century Reformations](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Luther-at-Leipzig- 199x300.jpg) ### Luther at Leipzig: Martin Luther, the Leipzig Debate, and the Sixteenth-Century Reformations Edited by Mickey L. Mattox, Richard J. Serina Jr., and Jonathan Mumme Reviewed by Cameron A. MacKenzie on June 8, 2020 Historians love anniversaries—at least I do. Not only do they elicit opportunities for speaking and preaching, but they also produce scholarship. And the book at hand represents scholarship of the highest quality, occasioned by the five-hundredth anniversary of the Leipzig… Read full review ![The Theology of the Cross: Reflections on His Cross and Ours](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Theology-of-the-Cross-Deutschlander-195x300.jpg) ### The Theology of the Cross: Reflections on His Cross and Ours Daniel M. Deutschlander Reviewed by David P. Scaer on May 29, 2020 The phrase “theology of the cross” came into prominence through Gerhard Forde’s contribution to the 1984 Braaten-Jenson Christian Dogmatics with his redefinition that the “atonement occurs when God succeeds in getting through to us who live under wrath and law.… Read full review ![Essays: Confessional and Doctrinal and Essays: Historical and Historic](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Marquardt-Essays-200x300.jpg) ### Essays: Confessional and Doctrinal and Essays: Historical and Historic Kurt E. Marquart Reviewed by David P. Scaer on May 29, 2020 Marquart began defending confessional Lutheran theology in his St. Louis seminary student days in 1954. Until his death in 2006, he was one of the most notable figures in the theological life of the LCMS. Well known is his Anatomy… Read full review ![The Christian Doctrine of Humanity: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Christian-doctrine-humanity-200x300.jpg) ### The Christian Doctrine of Humanity: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics Oliver D. Crisp and Fred Sanders, eds. Reviewed by Jonathan G. Lange on April 1, 2020 This volume is the sixth in a series titled Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics. It consists of 12 essays from the January 2018 Los Angeles Theology Conference organized by Fuller Theological Seminary and published by Zondervan Academic. While this is a… Read full review ![Interpreting the Old Testament Theologically: Essays in Honor of Willem A. VanGemeren]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Interpreting-OT-resize-200x300. jpg) ### Interpreting the Old Testament Theologically: Essays in Honor of Willem A. VanGemeren Andrew T. Abernathy, ed. Reviewed by Ryan M. Tietz on April 1, 2020 Throughout his significant academic career, Willem VanGemeren exemplified an approach to Old Testament exegesis that constantly sought to read texts within their broader canonical context. As both a prolific writer and teacher, VanGemeren left an important legacy for the broader… Read full review ![The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/Magness_ChurchMusicForTheCareOfSouls-1-200x300.jpg) ### The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor's Heart Harold L. Senkbeil Reviewed by Joel G. Koepp on April 1, 2020 This engaging work is a necessary read for any member of the body of Christ. It is a deep well of living water for both clergy and laity alike. Writing from a pastor’s heart, Senkbeil plumbs the depths and living… Read full review ![Sunday Comes Every Week: Daily Habits for the Busy Preacher](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/sunday-cover-1-188x300.jpg) ### Sunday Comes Every Week: Daily Habits for the Busy Preacher Frank G. Honeycutt Reviewed by Gary W. Zieroth on April 1, 2020 This book was written primarily for recent seminary graduates who need to help their congregations understand the primary role of the pastor as the preacher of the word. Frank Honeycutt, a retired ELCA pastor with more than thirty years’ experience… Read full review ![Mimesis in the Johannine Literature](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/mimesis-200x300.jpg) ### Mimesis in the Johannine Literature Cornelis Bennema Reviewed by William C. Weinrich on April 1, 2020 Recent academic scholarship on the Gospel of John has been hesitant, even resistant, to the idea that this Gospel has an ethic, that is, that this Gospel gives an account of a way or manner of life that is true… Read full review ![Jesus the Priest](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/jesus-the-priest- 189x300.jpg) ### Jesus the Priest Nicholas Perrin Reviewed by Adam Koontz on April 1, 2020 If Jesus is a prophet, a priest, and a king, which of those offices is most important? This second in a planned trilogy of books expands on Perrin’s 2010 Jesus the Temple in centering the identity of Jesus on his… Read full review ![The Doctrine of Atonement: From Luther to Forde](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/atonement-200x300.jpg) ### The Doctrine of Atonement: From Luther to Forde Jack D. Kilcrease Reviewed by David P. Scaer on April 1, 2020 Gerhard Forde’s writings are found on the shelves of some LCMS pastors. Critiquing Forde’s doctrines of the law and the atonement is Jack Kilcrease, a member of the synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations. Customarily when Lutherans speak of… Read full review ![On Good Works](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/on-good-works- 199x300.jpg) ### On Good Works Johann Gerhard; edited by Joshua J. Hayes, Benjamin T. G. Mayes, and Aaron Jensen; translated by Richard J. Dinda. Reviewed by Gifford A. Grobien on April 1, 2020 The publication of On Good Works is the thirteenth in the current series from CPH, a series that continues to exemplify high-quality translations, editorial helps, and physical products. In addition, this volume is of particular interest because of its extensive… Read full review ![The Art of Exegesis: An Analysis of the Life and Work of Martin Hans Franzmann]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/exegesis-art-200x300.jpg) ### The Art of Exegesis: An Analysis of the Life and Work of Martin Hans Franzmann Matthew E. Borrasso Reviewed by David P. Scaer on September 18, 2019 Today Franzmann is more likely to be known to Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) pastors and congregations for his six hymns in the Lutheran Service Book. His “Thy Strong Word” has found its way into other hymnals and his translation of… Read full review ![A Christian Guide to Mental Illness: Helping Christians Obtain Treatment for Mental Illness (Volume 2)](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Christian-guide- 205x300.jpg) ### A Christian Guide to Mental Illness: Helping Christians Obtain Treatment for Mental Illness (Volume 2) Stephen M. Saunders Reviewed by Joel G. Koepp on September 18, 2019 In this second volume, Dr. Saunders treats the topics from how to approach one you may think has a mental illness who is not being treated, through the areas of how and when to make referrals. The first volume covered… Read full review ![Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ethics.jpeg) ### Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning Wayne Grudem Reviewed by Gifford A. Grobien on September 18, 2019 Wayne Grudem, Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary, is no stranger to the field of ethics, having written books previously on political theology and economic ethics. Christian Ethics, however, is his first comprehensive offering in the… Read full review ![Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/human-rites-195x300.jpg) ### Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, and Sacraments Dru Johnson Reviewed by Geoffrey R. Boyle on September 18, 2019 Ours is a ritual-eat-ritual-world and it is not always clear who we can trust to shape our habits and lives. Human Rites, by Dru Johnson, is a common-sense argument about why thinking about ritual is important. As far as it… Read full review ![Preaching Romans: Four Perspectives](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/preaching-romans-200x300.jpg) ### Preaching Romans: Four Perspectives Scot McKnight and Joseph B. Modica, editors Reviewed by Daniel Olson on September 18, 2019 The preacher who uses the three year series will have ample opportunity to preach from Romans during Series A. It is during the Series A cycle that Romans occurs the most frequently in the pericopes. Those who use the one… Read full review ![Living in the Kingdom of God: A Biblical Theology for the Life of the Church]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/kingdom-200x300.jpg) ### Living in the Kingdom of God: A Biblical Theology for the Life of the Church Sigurd Grindheim Reviewed by E. Anthony Sikora on September 18, 2019 As the reader will note, there is no shortage of published material regarding the“ kingdom of God.” One can easily find piles of books on the topic with each author highlighting a particular aspect of the kingdom of God using… Read full review ![Prayerbook of Christ: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christological Interpretation of the Psalms](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/prayerbook-189x300.jpg) ### Prayerbook of Christ: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christological Interpretation of the Psalms Brad Pribbenow Reviewed by Daniel J. Feusse on September 18, 2019 In Brad Pribbenow’s own words, “the focus of this book is on the Christological interpretation of the Psalms as formed and practiced by Dietrich Bonhoeffer” (181); and yet, it is so much more. Pribbenow’s work begins with a broad historical… Read full review ![Confessing the Gospel: A Lutheran Approach to Systematic Theology (2 Volumes)]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/confessing-the-gospel-198x300.jpg) ### Confessing the Gospel: A Lutheran Approach to Systematic Theology (2 Volumes) Samuel H. Nafzger, John F. Johnson, David A. Lumpp, and Howard W. Tepker, editors Reviewed by David P. Scaer on September 18, 2019 An introduction in the first volume of Confessing the Gospel explains how this two-volume dogmatics will follow the building-block approach, a method resembling how encyclopedias are arranged according to topics and then further divided into sub-topics each with a different… Read full review ![The Doctrine on Which the Church Stands or Falls: Justification in Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Pastoral Perspective](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/doctrine_justification-199x300.jpg) ### The Doctrine on Which the Church Stands or Falls: Justification in Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Pastoral Perspective Matthew Barrett, ed. Reviewed by Martin R. Noland on September 18, 2019 As the title of this book alludes, it covers the doctrine of justification from the perspectives of the four-fold division of theology. There are twenty-six chapters by twenty-six authors. All but one has an earned doctorate and the exception is… Read full review ![A Redemptive Theology of Art: Restoring Godly Aesthetics to Doctrine and Culture]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/covington-art-200x300.jpg) ### A Redemptive Theology of Art: Restoring Godly Aesthetics to Doctrine and Culture David A. Covington Reviewed by Eamonn M. Ferguson on June 7, 2019 Anthony Esolen speaks truth when he laments that modern Christians “are starved for beauty.”[1] David Covington concurs, and in his work A Redemptive Theology of Art seeks to offer his proposed solution to the current drought. He seeks to address… Read full review ![Bach and the Counterpoint of Religion](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/bach-counterpoint-210x300.jpg) ### Bach and the Counterpoint of Religion Edited by Robin A. Leaver Reviewed by Kevin Hildebrand on June 7, 2019 A couple caveats are in order regarding this book. First, it is organized as a collection of seven essays with topics directly or indirectly related to the life, work, and influence of the great Lutheran kantor, Johann Sebastian Bach. The… Read full review ![God’s Two Words: Law and Gospel in the Lutheran and Reformed Traditions](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/gods-two-words-200x300.jpg) ### God’s Two Words: Law and Gospel in the Lutheran and Reformed Traditions Edited by Jonathan A. Linebaugh Reviewed by Martin R. Noland on June 7, 2019 This book is a series of ten essays resulting from a conference of Lutheran and Reformed theologians held in Birmingham, Alabama, July 2016. On the Lutheran side are names familiar to the readers of CTQ: Piotr Malysz, Charles Arand, Steven… Read full review ![Being Human: Bodies, Minds, Persons](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Williams-being-human-195x300.jpg) ### Being Human: Bodies, Minds, Persons Rowan Williams Reviewed by Scott Stiegmeyer on June 7, 2019 At a time when transhumanist philosophy is challenging human definitions, when secularists declare that men and women are nothing more than material composites, and when society celebrates bodily confusion, it is imperative for the church to reflect deeply on the… Read full review ![The Saving Truth: Doctrine for Lay People](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/marquart-saving-doctrine-209x300.jpg) ### The Saving Truth: Doctrine for Lay People Kurt E. Marquart, edited by Ken Schurb and Robert Paul Reviewed by David P. Scaer on June 7, 2019 Few men have had as much influence on the theology of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod as Kurt Marquart. It is difficult for those who knew him to comprehend that so many years have passed since his passing in September, 2006.… Read full review ![Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/boersma-seeing-god-199x300.jpg) ### Seeing God: The Beatific Vision in Christian Tradition Hans Boersma Reviewed by William C. Weinrich on June 7, 2019 Hans Boersma, best known for his advocacy of Christian Platonism as the necessary fundament for a Christian ontology, has in Seeing God given us a tour de force on the topic of the beatific vision as the telos of human… Read full review ![Johann Gerhard (1582–1637) and the Conceptualization of Theologia at the Threshold of the “Age of Orthodoxy:” The Making of a Theologian](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp- content/uploads/2025/11/gerhard-conceptualization-193x300.jpg) ### Johann Gerhard (1582–1637) and the Conceptualization of Theologia at the Threshold of the “Age of Orthodoxy:” The Making of a Theologian Glenn K. Fluegge Reviewed by Jack D. Kilcrease on June 7, 2019 The Lutheran concept of theology as a “practical habit” has been extremely important from the age of Lutheran Orthodoxy up to the present. In Johann Gerhard (1582–1637) and the Conceptualization of Theologia at the Threshold of the “Age of Orthodoxy,”… Read full review ![Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/Surviving-the-Storms-Scaer--205x300.jpg) ### Surviving the Storms: Memoirs of David P. Scaer David Scaer Reviewed by Martin R. Noland on June 7, 2019 Memoirs differ from autobiographies in that the former tends to focus less on the self and more on other persons. Readers looking for something like Augustine’s Confessions( i.e., an introspective account) will have to look elsewhere. Scaer’s memoirs are, to… Read full review ![Luther and the Reformation of the Later Middle Ages](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp- content/uploads/2025/11/LutherandtheReformationoftheLaterMiddleAges-1-200x300.jpg) ### Luther and the Reformation of the Later Middle Ages Eric Leland Saak Reviewed by Cameron MacKenzie on June 7, 2019 Did you know that there was a reformation before the Reformation? Well, there was and it was characterized by sharp criticism of corrupt clergy, efforts at returning the monastic orders to the ideal of their founders, new forms of lay… Read full review ![Luther’s Works: Companion Volume (Sixteenth-Century Biographies of Martin Luther)]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/lw-200x300.jpg) ### Luther’s Works: Companion Volume (Sixteenth-Century Biographies of Martin Luther) Edited by Christopher Boyd Brown Reviewed by John A. Maxfield on June 7, 2019 This thick volume presents in English six biographies of Martin Luther from the sixteenth century, of varying length and disparate genres, and a brief preface authored by Luther himself for a catalog of his writings up to that time, published… Read full review ![Early Christian Readings of Genesis One: Patristic Exegesis and Literal Interpretation]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/genesis-1-200x300.jpg) ### Early Christian Readings of Genesis One: Patristic Exegesis and Literal Interpretation Craig D. Allert Reviewed by James G. Bushur on June 7, 2019 For the last century or so, Christians have engaged in a debate concerning the proper response to various scientific theories about the origins of the universe and the nature of life itself. One point of ongoing contention is the length… Read full review ![Luther's Christological Legacy: Christocentrism and the Chalcedonian Tradition]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/luther-and-chalcedon-189x300.jpg) ### Luther's Christological Legacy: Christocentrism and the Chalcedonian Tradition Johannes Zachhuber Reviewed by Aaron Moldenhauer on December 13, 2018 Commemorating the 2017 Reformation anniversary, Marquette University invited Johannes Zachhuber of Oxford to speak on Martin Luther for its annual Père Marquette lecture. Zachhuber, a Lutheran, noted the invitation to speak on Luther at a Jesuit university as a sign… Read full review ![Martin Luther and the Enduring Word of God: The Wittenberg School and Its Scripture- Centered Proclamation](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/luther-kolb- 200x300.jpg) ### Martin Luther and the Enduring Word of God: The Wittenberg School and Its Scripture-Centered Proclamation Robert Kolb Reviewed by Benjamin T. G. Mayes on November 23, 2018 Robert Kolb is the American master of all things Lutheran in the 16th century, the unofficial “dean” of Luther studies. In this volume he sets forth a comprehensive look at the biblical exegesis of Luther, his Wittenberg colleagues, and their… Read full review ![Old Testament Wisdom Literature: A Theological Introduction](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/OT-Wisdom-200x300.jpg) ### Old Testament Wisdom Literature: A Theological Introduction Craig G. Bartholomew and Ryan P. O'Dowd Reviewed by Walter R. Steele on November 7, 2018 Torah, the Law of Moses, expresses the will of God. Wisdom guides the believer in how to live it. The two are intimately connected. That understanding undergirds Bartholomew and O’Dowd’s thesis. Wisdom and Torah go hand in hand. The focus… Read full review ![The Beauty of the Lord: Theology as Aesthetics](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/beauty-200x300.jpg) ### The Beauty of the Lord: Theology as Aesthetics Jonathan King Reviewed by Wade M. Bellesbach on October 30, 2018 Significant contributions have been made in recent decades to the relationship between theology and the topic of beauty (theological aesthetics). Jonathan King’s The Beauty of the Lord: Theology as Aesthetics continues this rich field of study. However, what is of… Read full review ![Embracing Godly Character: The Christian Community’s Response to a Godless Culture]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/embracing-200x300.jpg) ### Embracing Godly Character: The Christian Community’s Response to a Godless Culture Kenneth Kremer Reviewed by Daniel Burfiend on October 29, 2018 In a relatively short book, Kenneth Kremer articulates some of the problems with secular culture, gives a succinct definition of godly character, and explains how such character exists. Kremer defines character as identity plus performance (in that order) and repeats… Read full review ![From Topic to Thesis: A Guide to Theological Research](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp- content/uploads/2025/11/topic-thesis-182x300.jpg) ### From Topic to Thesis: A Guide to Theological Research Michael Kibbe Reviewed by Gifford A. Grobien on October 23, 2018 Kibbe, in From Topic to Thesis: A Guide to Theological Research, offers a rare combination of clarity, accessibility, and methodological insight to help the intermediate researcher in theology. His guidance is helpful not only for those in formal study, but… Read full review ![Faith That Sees Through the Culture](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/faith-culture-206x300.jpg) ### Faith That Sees Through the Culture Alfonso Espinosa Reviewed by Grant A. Knepper, Pastor, Zion Lutheran Church, Hillsboro, Oregon on October 1, 2018 With Faith That Sees Through The Culture, Espinosa has supplied the church with an excellent resource for use in group study. The book is designed to be taught and discussed with other people rather than just read and contemplated by… Read full review ![Remember the Poor: How the Earliest Christians Cared for the Needy](https://www. ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/remembering-the-poor-199x300.jpg) ### Remember the Poor: How the Earliest Christians Cared for the Needy Matthew C. Harrison Reviewed by Paul E. Deterding on September 6, 2018 This study of the collection orchestrated by the apostle Paul for the Christians in Jerusalem is essentially a paper which President Matthew Harrison wrote about a decade earlier for a PhD course at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. The work is… Read full review ![Our Way Home: A Journey through the Lord’s Prayer](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/OurWayHome-1-200x300.jpg) ### Our Way Home: A Journey through the Lord’s Prayer Daniel E. Paavola Reviewed by Dan Feusse on August 31, 2018 In Our Way Home, Daniel E. Paavola indeed takes the reader on a journey through the Lord’s Prayer, petition by petition. He makes abundant use of storytelling and picture language which is both engaging and, at times, what one might term… Read full review ![Thank, Praise, Serve, and Obey: Recover the Joys of Piety](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ThankPraiseServeObey-1-200x300.jpg) ### Thank, Praise, Serve, and Obey: Recover the Joys of Piety William Chancellor Weedon Reviewed by E. Anthony Sikora on August 31, 2018 Thank, Praise, Serve, and Obey is a welcomed primer on faithful, biblical piety in a world immersed in isolated spirituality. “This is a book on piety and specifically posits that piety as a good thing” (VII). As our western culture… Read full review ![A Flame in the Dark: A Novel about Luther’s Reformation](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/AFlameInTheDark-1-200x300.jpg) ### A Flame in the Dark: A Novel about Luther’s Reformation Sarah Baughman Reviewed by Mary J. Moerbe on August 31, 2018 People read historical fiction to better understand history, humanity, and the influence of ideas. Within this context, A Flame in the Dark is an asset and accomplishment. A Flame in the Dark follows a fictional Wittenberg student, his sister, and… Read full review ![Beyond Indulgences: Luther’s Reform of Late Medieval Piety, 1518–1520](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/byond-indulgences-185x300.jpg) ### Beyond Indulgences: Luther’s Reform of Late Medieval Piety, 1518–1520 Anna Marie Johnson Reviewed by John A. Maxfield on August 31, 2018 This fine study evaluates Luther’s theological development and his early advocacy of reform in the critical years of 1518–1520 through analysis of twenty-five pastoral writings written in the wake of the Ninety-Five Theses and in the midst of the controversy… Read full review ![John Frederick the Magnanimous: Defender of Martin Luther and Hero of the Reformation]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/johnfred-200x300.jpg) ### John Frederick the Magnanimous: Defender of Martin Luther and Hero of the Reformation Georg Mentz Reviewed by Cameron A. MacKenzie on August 28, 2018 I am glad that Concordia Publishing House has decided to translate and publish this work. The original German edition is difficult to access and, of course, takes more time and effort to read than does the English. This is just… Read full review ![Succinct and Select Theological Aphorisms in Twenty-Three Chapters Containing the Core of all Theology Drafted and Adapted for Use in Scholastic Disputations ( 1611)](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/aphorisms-195x300.jpg) ### Succinct and Select Theological Aphorisms in Twenty-Three Chapters Containing the Core of all Theology Drafted and Adapted for Use in Scholastic Disputations (1611) Johann Gerhard. Translated by Paul A. Rydecki Reviewed by Benjamin T. G. Mayes on August 21, 2018 Johann Gerhard (1582–1637) was called to be a pastor and church superintendent in 1606, and in 1607 he began to preside at monthly disputations in Coburg with pastors and teachers of his district on the common topics (loci communes) of… Read full review ![The Reformation](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/TheReformation- 300x232.jpg) ### The Reformation Cameron A. MacKenzie Reviewed by Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller, Hope Lutheran Church, Aurora, Colorado on August 21, 2018 Dr. MacKenzie has given the Church of the Reformation a great gift with his recent work, The Reformation. The 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of the Ninety- Five Theses had no shortage of commemorative publications, but this history stands head… Read full review ![1 Kings 1–11](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/1Kings1-11-1-200x300. jpg) ### 1 Kings 1–11 Walter Maier III Reviewed by Kevin Golden on August 21, 2018 Maier’s treatment of 1 Kings 1–11 is part of the ongoing Concordia Commentary series. As such, it continues the series’ great strength in giving attention to the original text via textual notes followed by commentary. Pastors will be greatly served… Read full review ![Psalms of the Faithful: Luther’s Early Reading of the Psalter in Canonical Context]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/psalms-for-faithful-200x300.jpg) ### Psalms of the Faithful: Luther’s Early Reading of the Psalter in Canonical Context Brian T. German Reviewed by Jeffrey H. Pulse on August 21, 2018 In Psalms of the Faithful, German explores Luther’s approach and reading of various Psalms with an eye for the final form and canonical context, as opposed to a focus simply upon the historical development and isagogical statistics. This approach is… Read full review ![The Unholy Trinity: Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Unholy-Trinity-200x300.jpg) ### The Unholy Trinity: Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender Matt Walsh Reviewed by Craig Meissner on August 21, 2018 Matt Walsh, conservative and columnist for TheBlaze, here offers his debut book excoriating the politically correct/ liberal/ progressive/ secularist/ relativist positions on critical social issues of our day. Humorously satirical yet earnest, he exposes the sheer inconsistency and insanity of… Read full review ![God and Government: Martin Luther’s Political Thought](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp- content/uploads/2025/11/GodAndGovernment-1-200x300.jpg) ### God and Government: Martin Luther’s Political Thought Jarrett A. Carty Reviewed by Martin R. Noland on July 31, 2018 Jarrett Carty has previously published an anthology of Luther’s political writings titled Divine Kingdom, Holy Order: The Political Writings of Martin Luther (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2012).  He announces in his front matter (xiii) that the present book, God… Read full review ![Infants and Children in the Church: Five Views on Theology and Ministry](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/infants-and-children-in-the-church-200x300. jpg) ### Infants and Children in the Church: Five Views on Theology and Ministry Edited by Adam Harwood and Kevin E. Lawson Reviewed by Jonathan Lange on July 31, 2018 Our world is increasingly hostile not only to Christianity but to any notion of transcendence whatsoever. In such a climate, we are constantly tempted to pursue unity by glossing over precise definitions and dogmatic framework. Joint statements are easier to… Read full review ![Retrieving Eternal Generation](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ retrieving-eternal-generation-200x300.jpg) ### Retrieving Eternal Generation Edited by Fred Sanders and Scott R. Swain Reviewed by Rev. Christopher J. Neuendorf, Pastor, Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church, Davenport, Iowa on July 31, 2018 It is perhaps an indictment of my own unfamiliarity with current Evangelical theology that I did not realize that the doctrine of eternal generation was in need of retrieval. The doctrine has, in fact, been challenged not only by liberal… Read full review ![Religion: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/religion-198x300.png) ### Religion: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters Christian Smith Reviewed by Gene Edward Veith on July 31, 2018 Christian Smith, the Notre Dame sociologist who gave us the term “moral therapeutic deism,” has written a groundbreaking contribution to the sociology of religion, setting the parameters of the field in a more rigorous and less reductionistic way. Contrary to… Read full review ![Proverbs](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Proverbs-195x300.jpg) ### Proverbs Ryan P. O’Dowd. Edited by Tremper Longman III and Scot McKnight Reviewed by Chad. D. Trouten on July 24, 2018 O’Dowd’s commentary on Proverbs meets its goal “of expositing the Old Testament in its original setting and also from a New Testament perspective” (14). Each chapter has three parts: “Listen to the Story” (presenting the NIV 2011 text and connections… Read full review ![The Task of Dogmatics: Explorations in Theological Method](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Task-of-Dogmatics-300x300.jpg) ### The Task of Dogmatics: Explorations in Theological Method Oliver D. Crisp and Fred Sanders Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Martin R. Noland Grace Lutheran Church San Mateo, California on July 24, 2018 This book is the fifth in a series of proceedings from the Los Angeles Theology Conference (LATC). Lutheran pastors and Lutheran theologians who wonder “What are the Evangelical and Reformed theologians doing these days?” could find that question answered by… Read full review ![The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Mind-of-the-Spirit-200x300.jpg) ### The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking Craig S. Keener Reviewed by Jon S. Bruss on July 24, 2018 The canonical context of the NT makes sense of even the most basic teachings of the NT, such as Peter’s confession (Mt 16:16) and the drum beat of “in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15). Never mind the more… Read full review ![Changing World, Changeless Christ: The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 1914– 2014](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Changing-World-Changeless- Christ-200x300.jpg) ### Changing World, Changeless Christ: The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 1914–2014 Richard O. Johnson Reviewed by David P. Scaer on July 24, 2018 Sooner or later any church has its para-ecclesiastical groups address concerns not addressed through the established channels. The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau (ALPB) was founded when the mostly German speaking Missouri Synod was breaking into the twentieth century. At its… Read full review ![When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/When-Harry-Became-Sally-202x300.jpg) ### When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment Ryan T. Anderson Reviewed by Peter Scaer on July 24, 2018 If Rip Van Winkle were to wake up today from a twenty year sleep he would find the world unrecognizable. The technological advances boggle the mind. Our phones seem smarter than we are. But such changes pale in comparison to… Read full review ![Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Esolen-Life-Under-Compulsion-195x300.jpg) ### Life Under Compulsion: Ten Ways to Destroy the Humanity of Your Child Anthony Esolen Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on April 16, 2018 We know the times are changing. Too many of our own people no longer know even the basics of the biblical story. The public schools are increasingly hostile to the Christian faith. Christianity is not only marginalized, but under attack.… Read full review ![Emil Brunner: A Reappraisal](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ McGrath-Emil-Brunner-197x300.jpg) ### Emil Brunner: A Reappraisal Alister E. McGrath Reviewed by John T. Pless on April 16, 2018 Emil Brunner (1889­–1966) was a Swiss theologian whose contributions are read in the light of and are overshadowed by his more famous contemporary, Karl Barth (1886– 1968). In this book, the ever prolific historical theologian, Alister McGrath seeks to gain a… Read full review ![The Word Does Everything: Key Concepts of Luther on Testament, Scripture, Vocation, Cross, and Worm. Also on Method and on Catholicism: Collection of Essays](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Hagen-Word-Does-Everything-200x300.jpg) ### The Word Does Everything: Key Concepts of Luther on Testament, Scripture, Vocation, Cross, and Worm. Also on Method and on Catholicism: Collection of Essays Kenneth Hagen Reviewed by John A. Maxfield on April 16, 2018 Kenneth Hagen (1936–2014) was a prolific scholar of Luther’s thought who combined vigorous study of Luther’s writings and other primary texts in their original languages with clear analysis (frequently very critical of modern scholarship and its assumptions) and a creative… Read full review ![A Defense of the Lutheran Faith](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/Montgomery-Defense-of-the-Lutheran-Faith-195x300.jpg) ### A Defense of the Lutheran Faith H.G. Masius. Edited, translated, and annotated by John Warwick Montgomery Reviewed by John E. Hill on April 16, 2018 John Warwick Montgomery has provided a service in translating this theological apologetic from the end of the seventeenth century in Paris. The author, H. G. Masius, was a Danish Lutheran theologian who was appointed chaplain to the Danish embassy in… Read full review ![The Way of Concord: From Historic Text to Contemporary Witness](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Kolb-Way-of-Concord-203x300.jpg) ### The Way of Concord: From Historic Text to Contemporary Witness Robert Kolb and Charles P. Arand Reviewed by Marcus Williams on April 16, 2018 In The Way of Concord, Robert Kolb navigates through the political and ecclesial history that lies behind the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He spares no detail as to the occasions, conflicts, persons involved, etc., of each document contained… Read full review ![Christological Anthropology in Historical Perspective: Ancient and Contemporary Approaches to Theological Anthropology](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Cortez-Christological-Anthropology-200x300.jpg) ### Christological Anthropology in Historical Perspective: Ancient and Contemporary Approaches to Theological Anthropology Marc Cortez Reviewed by Carlton Andersen on April 16, 2018 Lutheran theologian Hans Schwarz once commented that one difficulty in dealing with theological anthropology is that the subject can cover an unwieldy number of themes. In Christological Anthropology in Historical Perspective, Marc Cortez tries to narrow the field by focusing… Read full review ![Lutherans in America: A New History](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Granquist-Lutherans-in-America-200x300.jpg) ### Lutherans in America: A New History Mark Granquist Reviewed by Rev. Paul Gregory Alms, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Catawba, NC on April 16, 2018 In this volume, Mark Granquist, professor of Church History at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, aims to tell the story of Lutherans in America from the ground up. While he admits he must detail the narrative of “denominational structures,… Read full review ![Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries?](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/WhyOnEarthDidAnyoneBecomeAChristian-1-200x300. jpg) ### Why on Earth Did Anyone Become a Christian in the First Three Centuries? Larry W. Hurtado Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on April 16, 2018 Many have described the rise of Christianity and the factors that made possible its relatively rapid and widespread growth. But Hurtado’s work, based on a series of lectures offered at Marquette University, moves from the macro to the micro level,… Read full review ![The Gospel According to St. Luke: Pillar New Testament Commentary Series](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/TheGospelAccordingToLuke-1-200x300.jpg) ### The Gospel According to St. Luke: Pillar New Testament Commentary Series James R. Edwards Reviewed by Rev. Paul L. Beisel, Immanuel Lutheran Church, Iowa Falls, IA on April 16, 2018 In this commentary, James R. Edwards (the Bruner-Welch Professor of Theology at Whitworth University, Spokane, Washington) challenges the traditional view that Luke is the Gospel for the Greeks, citing “repeated reliance on Hebraisms in its construction” (10). For Edwards, “the… Read full review ![Discovering Romans: Content, Interpretation, Reception](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Thiselton-Discovering-Romans-200x300.jpg) ### Discovering Romans: Content, Interpretation, Reception Anthony C. Thiselton Reviewed by Justin D. Kane on April 16, 2018 Discovering Romans is the third volume to appear in the Discovering Biblical Texts: Content, Interpretation, Reception series providing “comprehensive, up-to-date and student-friendly introductions to the books of the Bible.” The book’s twenty five chapters are divided between introduction (chapters 1–6,… Read full review ![Ad Fontes Witebergenses: Select Proceedings of Lutheranism and the Classics III: Lutherans Read History](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Ad-Fontes- Witebergenses-194x300.jpg) ### Ad Fontes Witebergenses: Select Proceedings of Lutheranism and the Classics III: Lutherans Read History Edited by James A. Kellerman, E.J. Hutchinson, and Joshua J. Hayes Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on April 16, 2018 A number of years ago, John Nordling, a trained classicist and New Testament exegete, had a dream. Nordling’s academic career has been devoted to reinvigorating the study of the classics within Lutheran circles. Long an advocate for the study of… Read full review ![A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Thomas-Manifesto-200x300.jpg) ### A Manifesto for Theological Interpretation Edited by Craig G. Bartholomew and Heath A. Thomas Reviewed by Jacob Hercamp on February 6, 2018 This book is an intriguing read for anyone who enjoys exegetical theo­logy, especially the field of hermeneutics. Theological Interpretation is offered as the most ancient of hermeneutics, and the contributions to this book hold theological interpretation as the best way… Read full review ![Gregory the Great: Ascetic, Pastor, and First Man of Rome](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Demacopoulos-Gregory-the-Great-200x300.jpg) ### Gregory the Great: Ascetic, Pastor, and First Man of Rome George E. Demacopoulos Reviewed by James G. Bushur on February 6, 2018 Contemporary studies of patristic theology focus on the intellectual contributions of ancient theologians. Lost in this emphasis on intellectual proficiency is the practical dimension of pastoral care and spiritual life. The biography of Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome from… Read full review ![Doctor of Souls: The Art of Pastoral Theology](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/Schuetze-Doctor-of-Souls-300x300.jpg) ### Doctor of Souls: The Art of Pastoral Theology John D. Schuetze Reviewed by Gary W. Zieroth on February 6, 2018 The last time Northwestern Publishing House produced a practical volume on pastoral ministry was back in 1974 with the familiar The Shepherd Under Christ written by John Schuetze’s father Armin and fellow Wisconsin Seminary professor Irwin Habeck. This new volume,… Read full review ![Lives & Writings of the Great Fathers of the Lutheran Church](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Schmeling-Lives-200x300.jpg) ### Lives & Writings of the Great Fathers of the Lutheran Church Edited by Timothy Schmeling Reviewed by Rev. Martin R. Noland. Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, San Mateo, CA on February 6, 2018 This excellent book is a real treat for all lovers of Lutheran orthodoxy. The average Lutheran pastor has had little in the way of resources about this topic prior to this publication. Now he can find everything he might want… Read full review ![The Whole Church Sings: Congregational Singing in Luther’s Wittenberg](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/TheWholeChurchSings-200x300.jpg) ### The Whole Church Sings: Congregational Singing in Luther’s Wittenberg Robin A. Leaver Reviewed by Burnell F Eckardt on February 6, 2018 The impetus for the writing of this book seems to have been a desire to demonstrate that congregational singing in Wittenberg was not an afterthought of the Reformation, notwithstanding the claims of other scholars to the contrary. Those claims are… Read full review ![Reformation 500: The Enduring Relevance of the Lutheran Reformation](https://www. ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Reformation-500-205x300.jpg) ### Reformation 500: The Enduring Relevance of the Lutheran Reformation Edited by Curtis Jahn Reviewed by Rev. Zelwyn Heide. Pastor, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grassy Butte, ND on February 6, 2018 Reformation 500 is a collection of essays devoted to demonstrating that the Reformation is not merely a historical phenomenon, but a continuing influence shaping the Lutheran church even in the present day. Produced by the Wisconsin Synod, it is primarily… Read full review ![Sexual Morality in a Christless World](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/Rueger-Sexual-Morality-200x300.jpg) ### Sexual Morality in a Christless World Matthew Rueger Reviewed by Jonathan Lange on February 6, 2018 Matthew Rueger has provided the Missouri Synod with a solidly Lutheran resource for the parish. With a doctorate in his subject matter, he is thoroughly conversant with the scholarly literature. He brings to the table the practical knowledge of a… Read full review ![1 Samuel: Concordia Commentary Series](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/1-Samuel-Concordia-209x300.jpg) ### 1 Samuel: Concordia Commentary Series Andrew E. Steinmann Reviewed by Peter Gregory on February 6, 2018 Andrew Steinmann has written a commentary of 1 Samuel for the Concordia Commentary Series that is rich in grammatical notes, well informed by his own previous exegetical work and study of biblical chronology, and faithful to the Lutheran confessions. A… Read full review ![Becoming Human Again: The Theological Life of Gustaf Wingren](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Kristensson-Becoming-Human-198x300.jpg) ### Becoming Human Again: The Theological Life of Gustaf Wingren Bengt Kristensson Uggla, trans. Daniel M. Olson Reviewed by John T. Pless on February 6, 2018 Gustaf Wingren (1910–2000) was surely one of the best known, most creative and influential theologians in twentieth century Sweden. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for his 1942 book, Luther on Vocation and The Living Word published in… Read full review ![On Secular Governance: Lutheran Perspectives on Contemporary Legal Issues](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/OnSecularGovernance-1-200x300.jpg) ### On Secular Governance: Lutheran Perspectives on Contemporary Legal Issues Edited by Ronald W. Duty and Marie A. Failinger Reviewed by Richard T. Nuffer on February 6, 2018 This book is an anthology of fifteen essays written by fifteen different authors, all of which strive to address contemporary legal issues as the book title would suggest. However, with few exceptions they primarily address sociological issues in the United… Read full review ![The Wittenberg Reformation (1545)](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/ 11/Melanchthon-Reformation-199x300.jpg) ### The Wittenberg Reformation (1545) Philipp Melanchthon. Translated by John R. Stephenson. (With "The Household of God: Observations on 'Church' in the New Testament and the City of Ephesus." By Thomas M. Winger) Reviewed by Mark A. Loest on February 6, 2018 In 1545, Charles V requested a report on the Reformation. This is the first English translation of the response written by Philipp Melanchthon, which is essentially both a commentary on the Augsburg Confession and a description of how the Reformation… Read full review ![Time and the Word: Figural Reading of the Christian Scriptures](https://www.ctsfw. edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Radner-Time-200x300.jpg) ### Time and the Word: Figural Reading of the Christian Scriptures Ephraim Radner Reviewed by Geoffrey R. Boyle on February 6, 2018 This is a book about divine providence and the Christian life formed under the word of God. The image on the cover—The Ancient of Days by William Blake—beautifully illustrates what Radner does with his words: setting all things within the… Read full review ![Interpreting Old Testament Wisdom Literature](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/Wilson-OT-Wisdom-200x300.jpg) ### Interpreting Old Testament Wisdom Literature Edited by David G. Firth and Lindsay Wilson Reviewed by Dr. Walter R. Steele. Resurrection Lutheran Church, Quartz Hill, CA on February 6, 2018 This collection of eleven essays by Old Testament scholars focuses on Old Testament wisdom books and wisdom concepts drawn from them. An introductory essay provides an overview of the current status of the field. Part Two reviews current issues in… Read full review ![Wittenberg Meets the World: Reimagining the Reformation on the Margins](https:// www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/WittenbergMeetsTheWorld-1-200x300.jpg) ### Wittenberg Meets the World: Reimagining the Reformation on the Margins Alberto L. Garcia and John A. Nunes Reviewed by Dien Ashley Taylor on February 5, 2018 Poetically passionate and potently provocative, Garcia and Nunes repeal the disingenuous, disintegrated, and disembodied stereotypical status quo that justifies poisonous Protestant passivity. They peel open the Scriptures, the Concordia, and Luther himself to position a prayerful people for experiencing and… Read full review ![On the Law. Theological Commonplaces: XV–XVI](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/Gerhard-Law-200x300.jpg) ### On the Law. Theological Commonplaces: XV–XVI Johann Gerhard, ed. Benjamin T. G. Mayes and Joshua J. Hayes, trans. Richard Dinda Reviewed by Gifford A. Grobien on February 5, 2018 In a contemporary setting in which the very meaning of “law” varies widely, even among theologians, whether as the natural law, the eternal divine law, God’s condemning legislation, works of love, or even human edicts, this new publication in English… Read full review ![Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Second Edition)]( https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Bauckham-Jesus-and-Eyewitnesses- 203x300.jpg) ### Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Second Edition) Richard Bauckham Reviewed by Peter J. Scaer on February 5, 2018 “We worship the Christ of faith, not the Jesus of history.” “The Gospel accounts, written years after the fact, are not reliable historical sources.” “The gospel stories are the result of a kind of Telephone game, in which a story,… Read full review ![A Christian Guide to Mental Illness, Volume 1: Recognizing Mental Illness in the Church and School](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Saunders-Mental- Illness-1-205x300.jpg) ### A Christian Guide to Mental Illness, Volume 1: Recognizing Mental Illness in the Church and School Stephen M. Saunders Reviewed by Gary W. Zieroth on February 5, 2018 Pastors often wonder what to do when a church member appears to have a mental illness or a mental health problem. Saunders, a Christian professor of psychology, helps church workers identify and understand mental illness. Saunders notes that “about one… Read full review ![Obadiah: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/Obadiah-Zondervan-227x300.jpg) ### Obadiah: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible Ed. by Daniel I. Block Reviewed by Brian T. Crane on January 29, 2018 According to Dr. Daniel Block, the author of the Obadiah commentary and the general editor of this commentary series, the goal of this series is “to help readers of the Scriptures hear the messages that the human and divine authors… Read full review ![Studies in Paul’s Letter to the Philippians](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2025/11/phil-201x300.jpg) ### Studies in Paul’s Letter to the Philippians Hans Dieter Betz Reviewed by John G. Nordling on January 1, 2018 “Studies” means that the seven chapters contained here do not present another full commentary on the letter, but supplement preexisting scholarship. Betz supposes that Philippians is the “most difficult” of Paul’s letters to interpret (v), and most chapters shed light… Read full review ![A Syntax Guide for Readers of the Greek New Testament.](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/ASyntaxGuideForReadersOfTheGreekNewTestament-200x300. jpg) ### A Syntax Guide for Readers of the Greek New Testament. Charles Lee Irons Reviewed by James Mayland on November 13, 2017 Charles Irons’ book is another one of many resources available to help guide both clergy and layperson alike as they read the Greek New Testament. His book is not intended to replace existing books, but to supplement these tools by… Read full review ![An Introduction to Biblical Ethics.](https://www.ctsfw.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/11/AnIntroductiontoBiblicalEthics-1-200x300.jpg) ### An Introduction to Biblical Ethics. David W. Jones. Reviewed by Gifford A. Grobien on November 13, 2017 Jones’ approach to biblical ethics is oriented around the divine law. In Jones’ introductory chapter, he addresses distinctives of biblical ethics, including the depravity of fallen man, morality as a fruit of justification, and the significance of assigning moral praise… Read full review ![The Nazi Spy Pastor: Carl Krepper and the War in America.](https://www.ctsfw.edu/ wp-content/uploads/2025/11/TheNaziSpyPastor-200x300.jpg) ### The Nazi Spy Pastor: Carl Krepper and the War in America. J. Francis Watson. Reviewed by Roy Axel Coats on October 23, 2017 This book presents what facts we have about the life of a Lutheran pastor who became a Nazi spy. Born in Germany in 1884, Carl Krepper studied at the Ebenezer Seminary, also known as the Kropp Seminary, in order to… Read full review