1. Experience, all chronicles, and the Holy Scriptures as well, teach us this truth: the less law, the more justice; the fewer commandments, the more good works. No well-regulated community ever existed long if at all, where there were many laws. Therefore, before the ancient law of Moses, the patriarchs of old had no prescribed [...]
Augustine (354-430): “Having now to the best of my ability, and as I think sufficiently, replied to the reasonings of this author, if I be asked what is my own opinion in this matter, I answer, after carefully pondering the question, that in the Gospels and Epistles, and the entire collection of books for our [...]
VERSE 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness. If we carefully weigh the words of the Apostle we perceive that he does not speak of doctrinal faults and errors, but of much lesser faults by which a person is [...]
Ver. 22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. For having some great conceit of themselves, and not enduring to go the way which God had commanded them, they were plunged into the reasonings of senselessness (1 manuscript διανοίας). And then to show and give in outline, what a rueful surge it was, and [...]
Ambrose (c. 339-97): “Thus I do not have the wherewithal to enable me to glory in my own works, I do not have the wherewithal to boast of myself, and so I will glory in Christ. I will not glory because I have been redeemed. I will not glory because I am free of sins, [...]
Romans I. 26, 27 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one towards another. All these affections then were vile, but [...]
Cyril of Alexandria (412-444): “Seeing then that the law condemned sinners and sometimes imposed the supreme penalty on those who disregarded it and was in no way merciful, how was the appointment of a truly compassionate and merciful high priest not necessary for those on earth; one who would abrogate the curse, check the legal [...]
Ambrosiaster (fl. c. 366-384), on Rom. 1:11: “For the mercy of God had been given for this reason, that they should cease from the works of the law, as I have often said, because God, taking pity on our weaknesses, decreed that the human race would be saved by faith alone, along with the natural [...]
They said that he who adhered to faith alone was cursed; but he, Paul, shows that he who adhered to faith alone is blessed. (First Corinthians, Homily 20, PG 61.164) For you believe the faith; why then do you add other things, as if faith were not sufficient to justify? You make yourselves captive, and [...]
Marius Victorinus (born ca. 280) on Justification Every mystery which is enacted by our Lord Jesus Christ asks only for faith. The mystery was enacted at that time for our sake and aimed at our resurrection and liberation, should we have faith in the mystery of Christ and in Christ. For the patriarchs prefigured and [...]
Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus, the leading scholar of the northern Renaissance most well known for his work involving the Greek New Testament and the Church Fathers, died this day (July 12) in 1536 in Basel, Switzerland. Erasmus is best known in the Lutheran world for his argument with Luther over the power, or lack thereof, [...]
Mathetes to Diognetus: “He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal. For [...]
Via ANF: Vol. I, The Apostolic Fathers, First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Chapter 32. “Whosoever will candidly consider each particular, will recognize the greatness of the gifts which were given by him. For from him have sprung the priests and all the Levites who minister at the altar of God. From him also [...]
On this day (June 30) in 1523 “Flung to the Heedless Winds” was written by Martin Luther to commemorate the martyrdom of two young Augustinian monks, Heinrich Voes and Johann Esch, who were burned at the stake in Brussels. Voes and Esch had been condemned to death after examination by the Cologne Inquisitor, Jacob von [...]
On this day (June 25) 480 years ago, the confession of the Lutheran reformers was read before the emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. From the “Commemorations Biographies” of the Lutheran Service Book (LCMS Commission on Worship): The Augsburg Confession, the principal doctrinal statement of the theology of Martin Luther and the Lutheran [...]
It was on this day in the year 64 the Roman Emperor Nero (AD 37–68) first began persecuting Christians. The persecution began after a fire erupted in Rome and burned much of the city over the course of five days. Several legends have spread about the course of events. The historian Tacitus, who was only [...]
Norwegian composer Edvard H. Grieg, known as “the Chopin of the North,” was born on this day (June 15) in 1843 at Bergen, Norway (d. September 4 1907, Bergen, Norway). “His music came from the depths of rural Norway, where the quick and resonant tones of the Hardanger fiddle met his ear, and the Hardangerfjord’s [...]
Here is a hymn from Johann Hertzog, who was born on this day in Dresden in 1647 (d. March 21, 1699). In mercy, Lord, remember me, Through all the hours of night, And grant to me most graciously The safeguard of Thy might. With cheerful heart I close mine eyes, Since Thou wilt not remove; [...]
Cyril of Jerusalem, via his Catechetical Lectures, iv. 33-37, from about A.D. 350. The English translation and notes are by Edward H. Gifford, from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, second series, vol. 7 (1894), pp. 26-8. Of the Divine Scriptures 33. Now these the divinely-inspired Scriptures of [...]
Today (May 18) is the anniversary of the issuance of the Edict of Milan by Constantine in 313, the second of those known as the edicts of toleration: Edict of Toleration by Galerius – 311 A. D. (Ch. 34.) Among other arrangements which we are always accustomed to make for the prosperity and welfare of [...]
by C. H. Dodd Among the religions of the world there are, I suppose, few which have no ethical content at all. Religions which we regard as primitive sometimes surprise us by the comparative elevation of the moral ideas which they contain. At the same time, there are religions, and some of them among the [...]
Via Hermann Sasse’s Luther’s Legacy to Christianity, this essay first appeared in the Jahrbuch des Martin Luther Bundes, 1946, pp. 38-42. It was written for the 400th anniversary of the Reformer’s death. The essay was republished in Lutherische Blätter, vol. 19, no. 90 (August 1967), and is translated by Matthew Harrison. In the early morning [...]
This chorale is based upon the original Latin Easter sequence Victimae paschali / laudes immolent Christiani, [see: Wipo: Easter sequence (c1040)] the origin of which can be traced back to Wipo of Burgundy (c. 990 until after 1048), dated c. 1040, and which was then later, in the 12th century transformed into a Leise. During [...]
Anna Laetitia Waring, daughter of Elijah Waring, and niece of Samuel Miller Waring, was born on this day (April 19) at Neith, Glamorganshire, in 1820. In 1850 she published her Hymns and Meditations, by A. L. W., a small book of 19 hymns. The 4th edition was published in 1854. The 10th edition, 1863, is [...]
by Geir Kjetsaa, University of Oslo “I came from a pious Russian family. From my earliest childhood I remember the love of my parents. In our family we knew the Gospel almost from the cradle. ” (1) Scholars wishing to study the influence of other writers upon Dostoevsky are immediately confronted with numerous difficulties. Most [...]
It was on this day (April 10) in 1521 that the first edition of Philipp Melanchthon’s (1497–1560) Loci Communes Theologici (Common Places in Theology) was published. The following theses have been extraced from the Loci, beginning with the conclusion of the chapter heading entitled “Love & Hope.” Luther once remarked that “Next to Holy Scripture, [...]
Holbein’s painting, “Christ Taken Down From the Cross,” inspired this description taken from Fyoder Doestoevsky’s The Idiot. A copy of the painting hanging in Rogozhin’s house is first mentioned in an exchange between him and Prince Myshkin over its effect on their faith. The impression the original made on Dostoyevsky’s is more fully told in the Foreword. [...]
American poet Robert Frost, lauded for his depictions of New England rural life, his poetic use of American colloquial speech, and his realistic portrayals of ordinary people, was born this day in 1874. While he is not generally regarded to be a Christian poet, it appears some of the elements of his being pulled back [...]
Weekends with Bach Johann Sebastian Bach, famed German Lutheran musician and composer, was born on this day (March 21) in 1685 in Eisenach, Germany (d. July 28 1750). Learn more about his life and works at the JS Bach Home Page Here is Bach’s Oster-Oratorium, BWV 249, performed by Collegium Vocale, Gent, with Philippe Herreweghe [...]
Via Issues Etc., originally printed in The Lutheran Witness, vol. 117, no. 7, 1998. Martin Luther on Preaching: Promises and Problems of the Sermon as a Source of Reformation History and as an Instrument of the Reformation by Patrick Ferry The effort to disseminate the tenets of the Reformation to the common folk was no [...]
One of the few writings that have survived from the corpus of Melito (d. 190), overseer of the church in Sardis, is a sermon on Exodus 12 typologically connecting the Jewish Passover to the passion and crucifixion of Christ. In addition, Melito addresses the issue of Jewish-Christian relations, and the manner in which the Passover [...]
Today (March 12) is the 203rd birthday of German Lutheran pastor and hymn writer Paul Gerhardt, born in 1607 at Graefenhaynichen, between Halle and Wittenberg (d. May 27 1676). Gerhardt is widely regarded as one of the greatest hymn writers in the German language, whose influence is still shown by inclusion of his music in [...]
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor and architect, was born on this day in 1475 in Caprese, Italy (d. February 18 1564). While he is known most famously for his works of art, he was also an author of several poems. TO THE SUPREME BEING The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed, If [...]
