New CPH book: Old Missouri Homiletics comes to light in 2025

     I have recently discovered that Concordia Publishing has a "New Release" book this year that quite surprised me: Evangelical Lutheran Homiletics by Prof. Reinhold Pieper, translated by Pastor Isaac Johnson. I had reported on Johnson's work in a 2023 blog post. But I did not think that CPH would be the one to publish his work because old Missouri writings are still not highly regarded in today's LC–MS or by CPH. But there it is, all 512 pages of it! 

      But CPH's (and LC–MS's) ambivalence towards this book is yet noticeable. New  books of this caliber typically receive "Praise for…" remarks by notable theologians and scholars. For example another "New Release" book, Life under the Cross: A Biography of the Reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus by Wade Johnston (a writer for the 1517 organization), received two "Praise for…" comments. But one looks in vain for CPH sponsored "Praise" for this important book on Homiletics from the old Missouri Synod. Why? (It was a relief to find that Pres. Matthew Harrison did not write the Foreword as he did for last year's Rediscovering the Issues book.)

      What I hoped for when reading the "Look Inside" file was a better translation than my machine translation. But I was stunned to read not only a fine Foreword by Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz, but a very detailed (29 pages!) history of the life of Reinhold Pieper and the influential Pieper brothers, Franz and August. This is perhaps the greatest history of the Piepers every written. I learned a lot. It surprises me that all the prefacing articles are available for free in the "Look Inside" file. 

      But the "Look Inside" file surprisingly contains no translated text from Pieper's work, surely an oversight by CPH. However one can read a sampling of the translation in the "Read Sample" file on Amazon. And there I was impressed with Johnson's translation compared to my 2023 machine translation. 

    Pastor Johnson has obviously poured a lot of effort and love into this project, surprisingly so. I wonder that Dr. Koontz put him up to it. This would be a serious book for pastors and seminary students to be used throughout their career as preachers. It is not a glib, witty book, like for example last year's homiletics book by LC–MS "Gottesdienst" theologian Heath Curtis, but brings forward the best of Lutheran teaching to today on preaching. And although all the prefacing articles are available for free in the "Look Inside" file, yet it would be well worth the price of $65 especially in a printed version because serious students could make use of the margins to make their own notes. And of course the translation is superior to any machine translation.

      May this book receive the attention it deserves, for the preaching of God's Word, and to the glory of His grace. Amen!