Happy New Year to you all! Well, I am hoping you are ready for some news from our corner – we are currently preparing to publish another title in the Doing Theology series. Yes, Lutheran Theology by Steven D. Paulson is currently being worked on and all seems to be going according to the schedule. This book will be published pretty soon – on the 5th of March 2010 in the UK. Readers in the US will have to wait a little bit longer, until the 4th of May 2011.
I have received some good endorsements from Mark Mattes, John T. Pless and Robert Kolb and thought I’d share these with you:
‘Unwilling to neutralize the core Lutheran teaching that God is in the business of killing off sinners just so that new beings might rise in faith, Paulson holds the wider Lutheran tradition accountable to Luther’s own unique distinction of the law as accusation and the gospel as promise. Here we learn much of the Lutheran tradition—Paulson himself writes in the grand style of theological loci, approaching doctrine as outlined from Paul’s argument in Romans. Paulson’s approach to faith has an inerasable edge—if theology is to avoid being pointless, it must be for proclamation. Here is a theology beholden to God’s word that does what it says and says what it does—finally remaking humanity out of the nothingness of sin and death.’ – Mark Mattes, Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Department of Religion, Grand View University, Iowa, USA.
‘Martin Luther did not so much set out to reform the church as he did to reform preaching. Steven Paulson gets to the heart of Lutheranism-not as a denomination nor as a movement-but as the preaching of Christ crucified for the justification of sinners. Tracing the trajectory of Luther’s preaching in subsequent centuries, noting how it bumps up against attempts to domesticate its assertiveness or ground its doctrine according to one worldview or another, Paulson is persistent in following Luther’s own evangelical logic in making the necessary distinction between law and gospel, God hidden and God revealed to provide contemporary readers with a vigorous introduction to the loci of Lutheran theology. With the epistle to the Romans as his framework, Paulson deftly gives an account of Luther’s confession of Jesus Christ and with precision and literary craftsmanship identifies the use (and misuse) of this theology in the church which bears his name.’ - John T. Pless, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Mission, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA.
‘Looking over Martin Luther’s shoulder as he studies the Scriptures and into his heart as it hosts the battle between Satan’s deception and doubt and the Holy’s Spirit’s truth and trust, Paulson plunges into the depths of Luther’s way of thinking. He penetrates the Wittenberg reformer’s intricate yet simple address of the realities of human experience with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Throughout he engages other representatives of Lutheran culture and tradition, critically and perceptively, as they repeated or departed from Luther’s insights. This volume aids twenty-first century readers in reaping a rich harvest from his insight for the proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in our day.’ - Robert Kolb, Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, USA.
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