Book Reviews

As we enter Holy Week, we explore a creative form of book reviewing used by ELCA Pastor Matthew Best who has transformed his book review into blog posts reflecting on each day in Holy Week. The book inspiring his reflections is Jason Porterfield’s Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Wages Peace Throughout Holy Week.  He posted […]

[1] Let me begin by underscoring that this is a book to be bought and read. Mary Streufert is the Director for Justice for Women, ELCA at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In this volume she calls for “multigendered language and images for God … unhinging Christian language for God from almost entirely masculine […]

 [1] As we are launched into the Anthropocene era—the proposed new geologic period defined by climactic changes and mass extinction brought on by humans—Dianne Rayson takes us through an analysis of this event through the lens of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings. She asks if the theology and ethics of the young pastor Bonhoeffer that were formed […]

[1] Our first book review addresses the power and nature of sermons at times of mass shootings and other national traumas. Chaplain (Colonel–Retired) Ken Sampson reviews When Sorrow Comes—The Power of Sermons from Pearl Harbor to Black Lives Matter.  The book takes a fascinating historical journey through the types of sermons preached at various times […]

[1] As society grapples with growing polarization, one might ask: where is the church in this conversation? Robin W. Lovin, Professor Emeritus of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University addresses this question in his latest book, What Do We Do When Nobody is Listening? Leading the Church in a Polarized Society. His thesis […]

“The power of the pulpit lies not in taking a specific position but in providing a vocabulary, ways of thinking, and challenges to the governmentality of the contemporary state,” (p. 336).   [1] Immediately after the Pulse nightclub violence, Orlando, Florida, 12 June 2016, where 49 individuals were killed and 53 injured, I jotted notes […]

[1] Miikka Roukanen, professor at Nanjing Theological Seminary, argues that Luther’s account of God’s creation of faith in the believer, and subsequent justification and sanctification, is fully Trinitarian in nature.  I want to be clear from the outset that this review cannot do justice to the carefully grounded, and intricate arguments made in the book. […]

[1] Christine Helmer’s book How Luther Became the Reformer is not a typical history of Martin Luther. At its core, the book is an examination of historical interpretations of Luther. [2] Helmer is a professor of the Humanities and German at Northwestern University. Her areas of study include Martin Luther, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and the Luther […]

This past Pentecost, my pastor announced the imminent transformation of the world, with the elimination of all oppression.  I’d call it “skylight” hope—the light that comes from above, into the domes of our minds, reminding us of God’s ultimate sovereignty over history.  Biblically, it is rooted in the Magnificat and in the “new heaven and […]

”Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’” (Genesis 18:11-12) Sarah needed to read this book. So do you, if you are […]