Lutheranism Lite. Not bad if you have no interest in serious study

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	• Lutheran Questions, Lutheran Answers: Exploring Christian Faith Martin E. Marty Augsburg Books, 2007 - 159 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Great Book in a Small Package

Lutheran Questions, Lutheran Answers: Exploring Christian Faith

This book covers A-Z when exploring the Lutheran Faith through the eyes of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). Very easy to read and understand, this book answers most questions and then some anyone would ask about how this church believes. Of course, not everyone is going to believe everything exactly the same, but if your beliefs match well, the ELCA might be for you. Dr. Marty adds quite a bit of humor along the way so that the reading is fun too. Hope everyone enjoys it, like I did.

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Good book

Some people of very conservative leaning are unhappy with this book, because Martin Marty is not Missouri Synod. Nothing in this book ought to offend any reasonably open-minded Christian. And I say this objectively as one converting from the UMC to the Catholic Church. This book is an excellent basic introduction to Lutheran thought by one of the great living Lutheran theologians. If you like this book, check out Marty's contributions to The Christian Century magazine.

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Lutheranism Lite. Not bad if you have no interest in serious study

`On Being Lutheran, Reflections on Church, Theology, and Faith' by the late Timothy F. Lull, former professor of Systematic Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and `Lutheran Questions, Lutheran Answers, Exploring Christian Faith' by the popularly known writer and Lutheran professor of religious history are both written for the Lutheran laity. And, while they both strongly reinforce what I've always seen as the most attractive aspects of the Lutheran faith, they approach it in very different ways.
The heart of Lutheranism, in my mind, is a critical appreciation of the 66 canonical books of the Protestant Bible, holding a reading of these as the fountainhead of all our beliefs regarding God, Jesus, and all the theology which has grown up under the Christian name over the last 2000 years. The important word here is `critical'. Luther lead the way in highlighting the fact that some canonical books, such as Paul's epistles to the Romans and Galatians, the Gospel of John, Isaiah, and the Book of Psalms were more important than, for example, the epistle of James and the book of Revelations. Both authors reinforce this, without going into a lot of detail regarding Luther's actual writings or in taking up issues with Biblical interpretation. This, they leave to the thousands of scholarly books on Biblical exegesis.
Professor Lull's primary emphasis is on the very practical issues of the confession(s) recognized by the newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). In fact, the book is a compilation of articles Professor Lull wrote for `The Lutheran' magazine shortly after the merger of the several Lutheran organizations, thereby creating the ELCA, the fifth largest organized denomination in the country. Thus, each of the good doctor's short chapters in the first part of the book is an explanation of articles in the ELCA confession of faith. And, of course, `confessions' are a big thing for Lutherans, as the founding doctrine of what would become the Lutheran church at the dawn of the Reformation is the `Augsburg Confession', written by Philip Melanchthon, a theologian and close associate and colleague of Luther's at Wittenberg. This is the keystone of `The Book of Concord', the ultimate authority, short of the scriptures themselves, of Lutheran orthodoxy. As such, the little book takes on something of a legalistic tone, and one finds oneself spending more time reading about church organization and promise than about theology. But then, that's really the title of the book. It deals with what one signs up to when they get their Lutheran confirmation in an ELCA church. So, if you are really interested in the underpinnings of ELCA doctrines and policies, this is the book for you.
Professor Marty's many `question and answer' style chapters are far closer to the gospel sources than they are to LUTHERAN issues, although the text certainly reads the Bible with Martin Luther looking over his shoulder. Therefore, Marty's book is far more useful to someone, say a person considering entering a Lutheran church from some other denomination. All the answers are in an easy tone, worthy of a writer who has penned over 50 books on Christian subjects. Where Marty raises issues with me is when he states that the book may serve as a guide for an adult study group. On the face of it, the question and page to two page answer seems just right for such a purpose, but there is one problem to my mind. This is the fact that it seems to me that the immensely knowledgeable Professor Marty wrote this book `on the fly' or `off the top of his head', based on his broad range of knowledge stored away in his own memory. The primary symptom I see for this is the number of references to works such as `some author has written...' without going to the trouble of telling us who this author is, and what the name of his book is. A second symptom is the fact that there are very few direct references to scripture, even though most of the book deals with topics taken straight from the New Testament. A third symptom is that there is little or no reference to the works of Luther and his colleagues in grounding explanations for, for example, why Protestants have only two sacraments while Catholics have seven. I only bring these up because of the claim that the book is a good source for study. The book is a very good stand-in for `Lutheranism for Dummies', but I would think twice about using it as a basis for study, unless one took it upon oneself to track down all the sources oneself.
On the other hand, Professor Lull's book is an excellent basis for a Lutheran study group, as long as the topic of study is modern Lutheran doctrines. Each short chapter ends with two or three short questions, which provide excellent material to engage the study group participants.
Both books are very good, and Professor Marty's book is quite readable, and both, I am happy to say, reinforce my choice of the Lutheran faith. They are excellent if you want to know about Lutheranism but have no wish to read Luther or modern works on Lutheran theology.

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Lutherans often have questions about Lutheran theology and beliefs that are basic to the Christian faith itself. Featuring a unique question-and-answer format, Lutheran Questions, Lutheran Answers is an accessible and concise treatment that provides the most frequently asked questions on important topics and brief but complete answers from a distinguished Lutheran historian and theologian.

Contents include questions and answers about:
Lutheran History and Heritage
Bible
God
Jesus Christ
Humanity
Holy Spirit
Salvation
Church
Worship
Sacraments
Christian Life
Reign of God
Polity

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