Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1239414 in Books
• Published on: 1987-05-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 366 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, German (translation)

Customer Reviews

A Compendium of Quotations on Church and Ministry
This is a valuable book for studying the doctrine of Church and Ministry. In separate halves of the book, Walther lays out the doctrines of church and ministry in a thesis-by-thesis style, with each thesis consisting of proof from 1) Scripture 2) The Lutheran Confessions 3) Luther and other Lutheran theologians, such as Chemnitz, Melanchthon, Gerhard, and dozens of others from that period and later; and 4) from other ancient church fathers, such as Augustine, Irenaeus, etc. While it may not be the most dynamic prose, the writing is very straightforward, and especially the lengthy quotations from Luther and Chemnitz are very instructive and helpful.

Some of the downsides of the book are that Walther does not give much intervening commentary or explanation on the quotations--there is very little material in the book that is not a quotation. This sometimes leaves you a little unclear on how Walther himself reconciled some of the apparent discrepancies between quotations on similar matters. One example is on the issue of whether a head of the household should conduct family communion. But by in large, the book is very well organized, and I learned a great deal about what the Reformers taught about the role of the pastor in the church and various controversial matters concerning both. The Lutheran theologians amply show how the doctrines presented are in harmony with and flow from the Scriptures. Altogether this is essential reading on the topic, and well-worth the time spent reading it.

Very popular lately
This is pretty standard stuff on what the church is and the place of the ministry in relation to the place of all believers in Christ. It reads like a lot of other dogmatic treatments on these things and echoes what one finds in the Small Catechism. There is not much new ground here. It has become popular in recent years because of controversies within the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod over the roles of pastors and laity. It is a necessary historical and biblical benchmark, but it is not very exciting reading. I bought a copy for a presentation I had to make, but I also found it very easy to give it away later.