Benefits
- It is free.
- Unlike the CPH version, this translation retains the emphasis of certain words and phrases, and Pieper made frequent use of this, perhaps even more so than Walther. The emphasis in the German printing was by "sperrdruck" or spaced lettering, while this translation uses underlining.
- All references to Luther's works are hyperlinked to the exact page of the new English machine translations of the St. Louis Edition (St. L.) on the Internet Archive. Those that want the CPH American Edition will have to go to Steve Born's cross-reference web page or CPH's own listings and the Aland cross reference. The St. Louis Edition is still the most complete edition.
- Most references to external works of German and American theologians have been hyperlinked to the page number of the original work. These works are past their copyright and so are immediately available in HathiTrust, Google Books, or the Internet Archive. Exceptions to this were the more difficult ones to locate — the older theologians, Quenstedt, Calov, Walch, Damascenus, etc. On very rare occasions, corrections were made. (Every attempt was made to locate the proper edition of the works of certain German theologians, but Pieper did not always specify this.)
- Although all Latin and Greek text is retained, not all of these are translated. In the case of longer Latin passages, I provided a link to immediately translate them in Google's Latin/Greek translator. Old Missouri Synod pastors had a good working knowledge of Latin and the Biblical languages.
- Of course, all text is included and there is no paraphrasing or amending of Pieper's work, unlike the 1950s CPH version. This is useful for those who own the CPH copy to compare with the original to see where there are slight differences or omissions. I have tried to identify the major omissions with green highlighting. (See note at bottom.)
- All quotes from the Lutheran Confessions are taken from the Triglotta of 1921, to the exact page. Sometimes links were provided to the old archived BookOfConcord.org [last date of old version]. Pieper quotes from the German edition, while I have mostly used the English translation. In a few cases I presented a translation from the original German.
- All references to articles in Lehre und Wehre link to the new English machine translations. This allows an immediate English voice for not only Pieper, but also Walther and others. For example, page 590 references Walther's article against the synergism of his time.
- Navigational hyperlinks (^) enable the user to jump to section headings or to the Table of Contents. Each page header contains a link (>) to the original page in Internet Archive or Google Books for ease of comparison. Links were also provided about every 10 pages to the 1951 CPH English edition available for 1-hour renewable borrowing periods from the Internet Archive. Many of the Table of Contents items were also linked to the 1951 edition.
1951 CPH translation comparison:
- Not all material from the original German was retained, although most is. The translators in many cases paraphrased Pieper's wording, in a few cases adding or subtracting small amounts of content. Of course, the work of Profs. Albrecht, Engelder and Mueller is still authoritative.
- Proper English translations of extended Latin and Greek texts are provided in most cases instead of the original language. My links to "Google Translate" will not be as authoritative as their translations, although Google Translate's Latin translations seem surprisingly good.
Notes:
- Capitalization: Some words were left uncapitalized because of the work involved, e.g. "gospel", "word", "law", "scripture", "his", "he", "person", "apostle", etc.
- Text: The DeepL "Translate files" app would sometimes not carry forward the exact Latin and Greek text from the original file, sometimes dropping words, sometimes duplicating them. I attempted to correct this but surely some errors remain. The original publication on Internet Archive/Google Books, and the original German text file, should be consulted to verify the exact Latin and Greek text. For immediate comparison, each page has a link to the original published page.
Two months in the making, one may now access this new English translation
How does it compare to the original German publication? Take a look at page 17:
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| Christliche Dogmatik II, 17 (DE) ——————— Christliche Dogmatik II, 17 (EN) |
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Rev. Boisclair's translation
As mentioned previously, the CPH editions of the 1950s omitted certain portions from the German original. One of the major omissions in this volume was the severe abridgement of the "Crypto-Kenotic Controversy" concerning Christology. Although this omission is restored in the above translation, I have been allowed to present a professional translation of this section, pp. 337-358, by Rev. David R. Boisclair. His capabilities in this translation work gives greater utility to this overlooked, somewhat difficult portion. Why Concordia Publishing House and translators Drs. Engelder and/or Mueller chose to omit this section is not known. Pieper stated in his Foreword, that "Lutheran Church of America lives in a Reformed environment" and so a full treatment of Biblical Christology is surely important for Lutherans. Thanks to Rev. Boisclair for his work on this. The 14-page PDF file may be downloaded >> HERE <<.
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It is hoped that this work will also be completed for volumes 1 and 3 in the future. The work is extensive. — It is to be regretted that I could not produce a more professional translation. But even with its substantial drawbacks, it still amazes me how useful it actually is. — This work of Pieper, of "The Twentieth Century Luther", remains to this day the greatest published Dogmatics. May this new translation aid many in their use of it. Soli Deo Gloria!
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