2: Pieper's Last Book, 50 years later: Augsburg Confession (1930), Part 2 of 3

      This continues from Part 1 which introduced Franz Pieper's first book, a history and explanation of the Augsburg Confession. This book was updated and reissued 50 years later, in 1930, for the 400th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession.  This became Pieper's last book.  As I did in the Part 1, I will be publishing an English translation of this 1930 edition later.  But first, I would highlight again the importance of it. 

      In the year 2027, the Formula of Concord will celebrate its 450th anniversary.  Three years later, in 2030, the Augsburg Confession will be 500 years old.  But 150 years ago these documents were not so well known or celebrated in America.  With two books, Walther's in 1877 and Pieper's in 1880, America saw the Lutheran Church firmly planted:

Walther:  Formula of Concord (1877)       ●          Pieper:  Augsburg Confession (1880)

      Although Pieper's full "Foreword" will be presented in Part 3, I would highlight portions of it in this blog post to familiarize the reader with this book and its background (translation by BTL using DeepL):

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Foreword. 

Pieper – Augsburg Confession reprint

This is the reprint of a small paper written by the undersigned fifty years ago to celebrate the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession. The reprint was in no way initiated by me. Our publishing house informed me: "The committee for the four hundred year jubilee celebration of the Augustana suggests to us the idea of offering your work of 1880 to our audience again as a jubilee gift". I believed that I should refuse my consent. I still remembered that already fifty years ago I did not really like the writing. It had to be written in a hurry due to circumstances, and I thought that it did not do justice to the great cause. Now, a few days ago, I was advised to leave it to other people to judge whether the writing of fifty years ago could still be of service today. So the booklet may go out again.

Fifty years ago, our publishing house wanted the book to correspond as closely as possible to Dr. Walther's [Formula of Concord] Core and Star [Kern und Stern] in terms of scope and arrangement of the material. Three years earlier, in 1877, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the completion of the Formula of Concord, Walther had published the small book Der Concordienformel Kern und Stern. He did this on behalf of the Synodal Conference. …

Three years later (1880), when it was a question of writing a small book on the Augsburg Confession for our Lutheran Christian people, our publishing house and also one of my colleagues wanted me to design my book in such a way that it resembled [Walther's book] "Kern und Stern" in terms of number of pages and external layout. I have complied with this wish. In the preceding historical introduction, I tried to show how, after the ghastly darkness under the papacy, the glorious light came to shine upon us from the Augsburg Confession. Spalatin said of the day on which this glorious confession of the entire Christian doctrine was presented before all of Germany, indeed before the whole world: "That was a day on which one of the greatest works that ever happened on earth took place, a day on which a confession in Latin and German, written with divine Scripture at the bottom and with such glimpses, was read out, the like of which had not been seen in a thousand years, indeed while the world stood.” … In the Augsburg Confession the whole Christian doctrine and also the right form of a Christian life, as it comes from the Gospel, is set forth and taught and known before all the world. Luther rejoices on the occasion of the day of Augsburg: "I am only glad to live in a time when Christ has been publicly proclaimed by so many dear confessors in such a respectable assembly and through this glorious confession, and the saying has come true: 'I speak of thy testimonies before "kings.”’” [Psalm 119:46] … this symbol corresponds exactly to the Holy Scriptures in all the doctrines presented, and, on the other hand, the Christians of our time are still threatened by the same false doctrines of the Papal Church and the various sects. …

As for the historical introduction to the booklet, it was not intended to present a complete history of the great period from Worms to Augsburg. It was also refrained from going into side issues in which the reports from that time do not completely agree. The purpose of the introduction was to group such events "that let us look into the heart of the great confessors, into their struggle and victory". …

As for the second part of this small writing, the doctrinal part, first the text of the Augsburg Confession is printed in full. In the short notes added to the individual articles, the statement of the confession and the scriptural basis for it are pointed out; then it is recalled which heresies also of our time contradict the scriptural confession of Augsburg. Here the temptation was obvious to add more details and names from more recent times in the reprint. We refrained from this in order not to give the booklet the form of a small "comparative symbolism". If you want to know more names of false teachers of recent and latest times, we refer you to Guenther's Popular Symbolics, which has been continued by Dr. L. Fuerbringer up to our time. …

We conclude this preface to the reprint with a few words from the “Foreword” of 1880: “We also confess the confession delivered on June 25, 1530 as our confession, because [page 7] we have recognized this confession as agreeing with the Word of God. …” God grant in grace that with sincere thanks to Him who has given this glorious Confession to our church, we may celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in a proper manner!

St. Louis, Mo, Feb. 11, 1930.

F. Pieper.

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The full English translation of “Pieper's Last Book” will be presented in the concluding Part 3…