I have had occasion to again take up the (mostly) wonderful 1959 book from CPH
What Luther Says, and have reviewed again this work of editor Ewald Plass. Although Plass
in another work from 1946 (
This Is Luther) inexplicably gave far too much credence to modern psychology, yet in this later work he put together a massive compilation of excerpts from Luther's writings on 183 topics. Before the
American Edition of Luther's Works, there was
What Luther Says. But what really makes this work stand out is how Plass lets the real Luther come through. Yet even more than this, Plass also made Luther's teaching his own when he stated (
p. 705):
“FAITH, then, in no sense makes, it merely takes,
the forgiveness,
which is a finished fact even before its apprehension by the individual.”
– Ewald Plass
That is essentially restating the teaching of the
Lutheran
Doctrine of
Justification, or
Objective Justification., or
Christian teaching. Would to God that today's LC-MS teachers could speak like Plass (and Luther).
When I noticed the price on Amazon of only $42.82, I was amazed at how low the price was. This book is actually 3 large books combined into one
massive book – 1667 pages! One shortcoming is that there is no Index of words. Another shortcoming, pointed out by some
comments on Amazon, is that the latest edition did not update the references to the
American Edition of Luther's Works. All references are only to Weimar, Erlangen, or St. Louis editions. If I get the time, I may tackle that shortcoming to some extent (with the help of
Steve Born's cross-reference -
here). — I may continue with more choice excerpts from this massive book between other larger projects. Especially the topics of “Bible” and “Justification” are worth the price and establish the
real Luther, THE Reformer. Yes, I would say by reading this book you can go Back To Luther.
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