Walther's Licht des Lebens, new English translated book on Amazon

683 pages, only $15.33 + Ship

      It has come to my attention by a correspondent that a new book has come out on Amazon recently, a book "Independently published", that offers an English translation of one of the two remaining untranslated sermon books of C. F. W. Walther: Light of Life (Licht des Lebens).  Although it is not from Concordia Publishing House, it adds to the list of C. F. W. Walther's sermon books that are now available in English, including the books made available on my blog: Year of Grace and Epistle Sermons (also CPH here)  Of the two remaining books, this is the greater one, similar to the previously published major books of sermons. (The remaining one is Predigtenwürfe). 

      The original German book was 688 pages, while this translation is 683 pages — a large book! And for those, like me, that look for a budget price, this book is offered, at least for now, for the incredible price of only $15.33 + shipping! This is surely at cost for now.  Hopefully others will obtain this book and make its availability known.

      How was it translated?  One wonders that it was made with the aid of machine translation, but a review of the few available sample pages of the first sermon reveal that it holds great promise for salutary use.  One could wish that Walther's emphasized words were carried forward into this translation, but that seems not available… yet.

      How may one recommend this book?  Two ways: 

1. the back cover states “Walther masterfully balances the portrayal of the law's demands and the grace found in the gospel”; and 
2. as already highlighted in my blog post of 6 years ago, Walther's incomparable expression of the Gospel message is presented strikingly also in this volume (p. 589 in the new book):

“The Gospel is, therefore, really nothing more than a letter from God to the whole world in which he tells it that its sins are paid and forgiven; nothing other than a receipt, which is to be handed over to all sinners, which in it is written: God is paid-up by the death of his Son; the debts of all sinners are paid.”

In other words, the Gospel is not a bill or an invoice demanding payment, but a receipt for the payment already made! Pure gold! And to the extent that this translation is faithful to Walther's text and meaning, it too is pure gold.  May it bring "understanding, comfort, and eternal joy" for those reading it.