AG1a: 1873 Western: Walther's 'All Glory to God' Essays (Part 1)

   As I have done with Franz Pieper's convention essays recently, I am providing my own translations of Walther's essays that have already been translated and published by Concordia Publishing House. I am targeting Walther's series entitled 

"Only Through the Doctrine of the Lutheran Church is 

All Glory Given to God Alone",

in which there were 11 essays presented to the Western District from 1873 through 1886. The CPH versions were spread across 2 books: 1) Convention Essays (1981) and 2) Walther's Works: All Glory to God (2016)

      Why is this being done? For several reasons:

1. To make these essays available to the public free of charge so that no one is deprived of Walther's extensive teaching.
2. To restore portions omitted due to "space limitations", especially for years 1873-1876.
3. To correct any missing emphasis of wording.
4. To offer hyperlinks for navigation and references.
5. Allow immediate online linking to references in Walther's writings.

Walther outlined 12 points that he intended to cover in this series. Following each point, I identify in red what year it was addressed:

1. of the Word of God; [1873 Western Dist.]

2. the cause of sin, death, hell and damnation; [1873 Western Dist.]

3. of divine providence; [1873 Western Dist.; Thesis III, no. 2 deals with Election]

4. of the general will of God's grace; [1874 Western Dist.]

5. of the reconciliation and redemption of the human race; [1874 Western Dist.]

6. the justification of the sinner by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ without merit of works; [1875 Western Dist.]

7. the necessity of regeneration and sanctification; [1875 Western Dist.]

8. the foundation, validity, power and immutability of the means of grace; [1876 Western Dist.]

9. of conversion; [1876 Western Dist.]

10. of the invocation and worship of God; [1882 Western Dist.]

11. obedience to men in matters of faith and conscience; [1883, 1885, 1886 Western Dist.]

12. the election of grace. [1877, 1879, 1880 Western Dist.]

As one reviews this list, we notice that Point 12, Election of Grace, was pulled up to go ahead of points 10 and 11. This was because of the urgency of the great controversy on this doctrine.

      In this first of 11 essays, it should be noted that although most historians report that Walther first addressed the Election Controversy beginning in 1877, Walther already wrote about it in 1873. So we can see the beginning of the build up in the great controversy at this earlier date. — This segment is covered in the official report on pages 26-41. We introduce this essay by presenting some extracts:

Notable Quotes:

Thesis I: On Religion in general:

26-27: Religion "deals with the relationship of man to God.… the word used for it in Scripture is "religion" (Gottesdienst) (in Greek: ϑρησχεία)."

29: "the Christian religion is the true religion, because it alone gives all glory to God"

30: Atheists "do not even have what the pagans have."

30: "our intention to argue only with those who admit the existence of a God"

30: "The sects say: 'We give God the glory; but you must work out your salvation, pray, fight, wrestle'"

Thesis II: On the True Visible Church

31: "the only true church is the one that gives glory to God alone through all its teachings"

31: "the church differs from the state in that it is united by religion, while the state is united by the needs of this life"

32: All glory to God means "…that man is less than nothing; who brings man to fall down before God"

32: Luther complained "that it was becoming so difficult for him to… apply 'by faith alone'."

33: "Alas, it is not easy to give God the glory. It costs great struggles…"

34-35: "That is why Luther…repeated the first commandment in every commandment: "'We should fear and love God'…"

36: "…God's honor is diminished by the slightest false teaching"

Thesis III: Evidence from our forefathers

38: Luther: "the world becomes hostile to us precisely because we give all glory and praise to God and leave nothing to the world."

38-39: Ancient Fathers: "It is not the suffering that makes the martyr, but the cause of the suffering."

39: "'Alas,' said the enemies [of Luther], 'he puts all good works to shame, is an enemy of piety, says that God does everything.'"

40: "anyone who knows that a doctrine is the Word of God starts a war with the whole world."

41: Kromayer: "…the Lutheran religion… relates everything to God's glory"

41: "Methodist Nast claims to have penetrated to perfect sanctification…that he has given up smoking"

In the next blog post Part AG1b, we cover a section that gave me much encouragement: Of the Word of God.

- - - - - - - - - - -  Table of Contents  (Western District, "All Glory to God"  series  - - - - - - - - - - - - 

      At the beginning of Thesis III, Walther reveals the doctrines that he would eventually cover in the next 13 years under this Thesis, through a total of 11 essays presented to the Western District. I plan to follow Walther's original plan rather than strictly in chronological order. See the following, noting that "AG signifies "All Glory":

AG1a: This introduction, 1873 Western District: Theses I, II, and Thesis III partial

   AG1b: 1873: Lutheran Doctrine: The Word of God, Hermeneutics short course (put Bible in the furnace?)

     Excursus: Walther on the Apocrypha: "bad crumbs"

   AG1c: 1873: The cause of sin, death, hell and damnation (also Predestination, Election); "banging heads"

   AG1d: 1873: Divine Providence (Thesis III, 3); full download

AG2a: 1874: The General Will of God's Grace  (Christianity not like Philosophy)

   AG2b: 1874: Reconciliation, Redemption of Human Race, "Crown of all Christian Doctrine"

AG3a: 1875: The Justification of the Sinner

   AG3b: 1875: The Necessity of Regeneration and Sanctification

   AG3c: 1875: Good Works; full download

AG4a:  1876: Means of Grace, their Foundation, Validity

   AG4b: 1876 Means of Grace: Validity and Power; "better not to have a pastor…?"

   AG4c: 1876: Means of Grace, their Immutability; Conversion, Antichrist

AG5: 1877 The Election of Grace I

AG6: 1879 The Election of Grace II: The proper use of Election of Grace

AG7: 1880 The Election of Grace III: Justification; against synergism

   AG7a: 1880 Pastoral Conference (Election vs Justification: no analogy; unspeakable damage)

   AG7b: 1881 Pastoral Conference: confusing a simple issue

   AG7c: 1868 Northern, Siegbert Becker, Brenner, Wohlrabe, Eckhardt, G. Fritschel, Roy Suelflow, Kolb, MacKenzie

   AG7d:  MacKenzie's "second error in Walther's citing of Luther"

AG8a: 1882: Invocation and Worship of God (Prayer I)– what it is and is not

   AG8b: Saints worship, Christ robbed; Person of Christ; the cross, a "magic charm" (Prayer II)

   AG8c: Evangelical aspect to Prayer; against Pietism (Prayer III)

AG9a: 1883, Obedience to Men (or Worldly Authorities I, Churchly Authorities)

   AG9b: 1883, Churchly Authorities: governing bodies, preachers; with download

AG10a: 1885, Worldly Authorities II: Secular Authorities (part 1): obey, and disobey

   AG10b: Secular Authorities, part 2 (Jesuits, French Dragonnades)

     Excursus 1: Walther on Jesuit expulsion from… Catholic lands

AG11a: 1886: Worldly Authorities III, Household Authority (part 1, Parental); "children only toys"

   AG11b: Theses II  (Women, wives) and Thesis III Household servants (Paternal)

     Excursus 2A: Jesuit constitution in "black letter" (Walther's warning vs AI gods)

     Excursus 2B: Grok's & Britannica's reports on suppression of the Jesuits by a Pope

AG12: Walther's All Glory to God book, 11 essays in one BTL book 

Memories 5: trained in Dogmatics by Walther; Greek & Latin: "like water"; captivating Pieper- Pastoral Conferences 1880/81

      This continues from Part 4 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series by Prof. Ludwig Fürbringer of his personal memories of the departed Franz Pieper in the 1931 Der Lutheraner magazine. — Pieper is now looming larger – much larger – for the future of the Missouri Synod…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

(page 266, col. 1)

Memories of Dr. Franz Pieper.

by Ludwig Fürbringer – [2.] (Part 5 of 16)

In the autumn of 1878, the newly appointed professor of our St Louis seminary arrived here and was received with great pleasure. In the Der Lutheraner of October,  15 [p. 156] the blessed Professor M[artin] Günther, then editor of the paper, reports: “On October 1, our Concordia was filled with joy.  On the morning of this day, the newly elected Professor of Theology, Pastor Fr[anz] Pieper from Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Bell ringing soon announced his happy arrival, and there was a welcoming ceremony in the auditorium, which was opened and closed with song. The long-awaited one was warmly welcomed by the teachers as a new colleague, by the students as a teacher.”

Professor Pieper was particularly, as already indicated in the previous article, called for Dogmatics so that just one with younger strength was trained in this field under Dr. Walther while he was still strong,  even now at sixty-seven years old. And so Pieper would probably become his successor. That was a very wise thought of those who had to manage these things. What a splendid gift and excellent strength the synod had received, who then served our institute for fifty-three years and after Walther's death in May 1887 also took over his main subjects at seminary: Dogmatics and Pastoral Theology. It will always be the right thing for all our educational institutions to provide for men of advanced age to have middle-aged and younger ones to work under them. I have observed more than once that the capacity of an institution has been going down for several years because this has not been observed and carried out in due time. And it is also an advantage to provide in this way some continuity in an institution.

But at first Walther was still in full force, and the young, newly-elected professor had other subjects to teach. Although he would always organize a dogmatic Repetitorium (repetition) [de.Wikipedia: the repetition of knowledge, usually to pass an exam] with the uppermost seminary class, Pieper’s main strength in those early years related to other subjects. Thus, in the years when I became his student, in the lowest seminary class he presented the Gospel of John and taught in hermeneutics, and in the middle seminary class he presented the Letter to the Romans and selected Psalms.

In the dogmatic Repetitorium which he directed, he proceeded, as far as I remember, in various ways; partly he discussed important dogmatic objects with the members of the class; in part he read with them selected passages from the famous, excellent work against the papacy, the “Examination of the Council of Trent” by Martin Chemnitz, the “second Martin” of our church. Pieper was still a young man when I entered the seminary in 1882, and I know that some in the preceding classes were older than their teacher, and he knew with youthful enthusiasm, which remained until his advanced age, to recite the objects and to warm our hearts for theology. I remember especially how he made an impression on me and others in my class in the first few weeks by his mastery of the basic Greek text of the New Testament, again a well-known ability that could be perceived in him throughout his life. He might begin an the exposition of the Bible text perhaps with a sentence in German, but then completed it, without looking at the text, in the words of the Greek original.

Therefore, it was also later written by students of the seminary to the students at our colleges that the professors in St. Louis spoke Greek and Latin fluently like (page 266, col. 2) water, which was especially true of Pieper and Stöckhardt. Pieper used Latin indeed for years, as did Walther before him, for certain sections of Dogmatics. And Stöckhardt demanded of us students to translate from the basic Hebrew and Greek text into Latin, an exercise for which I am still grateful today and owe much.

This made a special impression on probably the oldest Lutheran pastor of our country a few years ago. Dr. G. U. Wenner of New York, who visited our seminary and the Holy Cross Church during a church meeting in St Louis, was quite taken by Dr. Pieper in his lectures. And on his return to New York, he read a paper for his conference of the United Lutheran Church [see #15.] on the Lutheran Church in St Louis, also writing down Dr. Pieper's two short sentences on what Lutheranism actually is. [see also Wenner’s book The Lutherans of New York by George Unangst Wenner, search "Missouri"]

When Professor Pieper entered his work in St Louis, as the readers of our church papers know, the heavy, hot doctrinal dispute about the doctrine of the election of grace began, and it was granted to the young teacher to step immediately into the front row of fighters from the very beginning. One can say that Walther, Stöckhardt and Pieper led the main battle in those years. And from the very beginning, in Pieper's oral and written exposition, the quality which distinguished him in all his long teaching—the clear, simple, definite, fixed exposition of the Christian doctrine, especially of the doctrine of grace— came to light.

When I heard and saw Pieper for the first time, I was still a Secondary at Fort Wayne. The memorable synod of 1881 with the adjoining Pastoral Conference met in the old St. Paul's Church. [see this blog] It still stands before my soul quite vividly, how in this great, extremely excited and attentive assembly, Walther, Stöckhardt and others spoke from our synod.  But also our opponents at that time, formerly from our own synod, came to speak. Us college students at that time did not understand too much of these things, but always the whole appearance, the whole presentation of Pieper captivated and we were glad to get him once as a teacher. How skillfully he knew how to wield the pen then, as in the years of Lehre und Wehre, especially from 1881 on, and actually then to his blessed death. It  is commonly known in our synod and far beyond its borders how one article after another was carried out to testify and defend the biblical-Lutheran truth.

- - - - - - - - - - - -  continued in Part 6  - - - - - - - - - - - - -

      Fürbringer praises the process of training the young men while the "men of advanced age" are still able to provide this, and thus promoting "continuity".  This is certainly praiseworthy.  But did Fürbringer miss here an opportunity to also point out the importance of maintaining and passing on the Synod's orthodoxy, i.e. the "doctrine pure"?

      The proceedings of the Pastoral Conference of 1881 mentioned above has been translated into English and published in the recently released CPH book Walther's Works: Predestination.  This book also has the earlier 1880 Pastoral Conference proceedings as well (Chapter 2).  These 2 translations are perhaps the greatest new material that the CPH "Walther's Works" series has produced.  Almost all of the previous material was only a republishing of works already published before. I had these 2 items on my list of projects to be translated by myself given their immense importance in the great controversy of American Lutheranism,. I knew 20 years ago when I had them machine translated that these conferences were a display of the greatness of the "Missourians" when their teachers gave an impassioned plea to their opponents within the synod. So I was shocked to find that CPH had actually produced major new translations for this series.  Although this volume of "Walther's Works" is relatively small, it's price is worth every penny because of these two conference reports.  They show the great teachers of Missouri at their finest, defending not only "predestination", but also the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification. I hope to produce a future blog post on the rich material in these.  For German speaking readers, these books are available at Archive.org:1880 here, and 1881 here). I have also prepared full OCR German text documents with hyperlinks: 1880 here, 1881 here. — In the next Part 6, among other things, we will see a list of Pieper's great essays to the Synod.

Dogmatik keyed to Walther's Pastoral Theology, #1 (Pless: shallow pastoral theology); Part A: series on CD refs

[2017-04-02: added Table of Contents below for series on References in Christliche Dogmatik]
      This is Part 1 in a series of blog posts related to the new 2017 Concordia Publishing House edition of Walther's Pastoral Theology.  See bottom of this blog post for the current Table of Contents to this series. [Note: this is also Part A of a series on Christliche Dogmatik references to Old Missouri -- Part A. See Table of Contents at bottom of this post.]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

       I have been pressed to present the following cross-reference table due to published attacks by LCMS leaders on both Dr. John Drickamer's edition of Walther's Pastoral Theology and its publisher Pastor Herman Otten's Lutheran New/Christian News.  This has been occasioned by the release of the new 2017 edition.  These attacks are reported by Pastor Otten in his February 13, 2017 issue of Christian News newspaper and are most shameful.  This blog has rebuked Pastor Otten in past blog posts, especially regarding the Doctrine of Justification.  But some of his defenses against the errors of Prof. Jeffrey Kloha on the Doctrine of Scripture have been appreciated!  And now an attack by Prof. John T. Pless on Dr. Drickamer's edition is rather ironic, as Pless would use Wilhelm Loehe as a "corrective to Walther's understanding of the office (of Ministry)".

———————————————

      Before I comment further, I present below a table of the complete listing of all of Franz Pieper's numerous references to Walther's Pastoraltheologie in the 3 volumes of his Christliche Dogmatik / Christian Dogmatics. Pieper made heavy use of Walther in his Dogmatics as I stated in an earlier blog. The English edition of Pieper was, and is, perhaps the best way to learn the pastoral theology of C.F.W. Walther. And with the release of the 2017 full translation of Walther's work, I wanted to fully cross-reference it to Pieper's great work.  But this table cross references to not only the German edition and the new English 2017 edition, it is also keyed to the three intervening versions.  These include the 2 versions of Prof. J.H.C. Fritz published by Concordia in 1932 and 1945, and Dr. John Drickamer's 1995 edition.  The introduction to CPH's latest publishing strangely makes no mention of Fritz's editions.  These were the only versions available up until 1995 when Drickamer's translation appeared.  Fritz's editions were helpful, especially for the newly transformed LCMS as it dropped its German language heritage.  But I have also found them less satisfying than the original by Walther, for Walther is more capable of speaking to the heart.  Indeed I consider Fritz's editions somewhat inferior as Fritz gave only a marginal amount of direct translation and paraphrasing of Walther's original German.   I will comment further on these later. — Now I present a cross-reference table between Pieper and Walther with hyperlinks to all but the copyrighted editions of Pastoral Theology.  Now the reader will be enabled by a simple click to directly access these other works.  I have even included links to the English edition of Pieper's Dogmatics through the "snippet" view in Google Books (unless CPH prevents this later).

Christian Dogmatics  ===>>>  1897 German  —––– 1932 Fritz ––—–— 1945 Fritz ——– 1995 Drickamer ——— 2017 CPH

(This document may be accessed directly >> here <<.)

(This document may be accessed directly >> here <<.)

An added benefit of this table is the last column of brief notes for quick reference on each line's subject matter.  These notes makes it useful to track down specific topics, e.g. "Law & Gospel" or "Absolution". —  If one scrolls down the above table to volume 3 of Pieper's Dogmatik, (3:307n1047), I make note of what appears to be an inadvertent error of omission in the CPH 2017 edition. It seems that 2 footnotes in the German language edition p. 111 are missing (marked * and **).  I was surprised to find these as this work appears to be well done for completeness.  But I wonder how many other errors there may be in this edition... perhaps few if any.

————————————————————

Prof. John T. Pless

      But to comment further, it was reported in Pastor Otten's Christian News of Feb. 13 p. 9 that Prof. Pless stated the following on his Facebook page:

"The CN edition [Drickamer's] is a very poor substitute. The translation is inadequate and significant sections are omitted.  Get the new edition." – John T. Pless

If Prof. Pless was truly interested in the wealth of Walther's teaching to be made available, he would have rather complimented Drickamer... he would have rather spearheaded the effort for the full translation many years ago!  I want to repeat Prof. Pless's words of “celebration” of Walther in 2011 (emphases mine):

“... Löhe's legacy have been retrieved in LCMS efforts to broaden ecumenical perspective, deepen pastoral theology, enrich liturgical life, give shape to an authentically Lutheran missiology, enhance the place of the female diaconate, sustain the church's corporate life of mercy, or to provide what is seen as a corrective to Walther's understanding of the office” –  John T. Pless

These are Prof. Pless's own words to “celebrate” Walther.  It should be noted that Pless also stated that this new CPH 2017 edition will be “required text for my Advanced Pastoral Theology class.”  With the above quote from 2011, it is a foregone conclusion that Prof. Pless will require other textbooks than Walther's book as a “corrective” to it.  According to Pless, Walther had a flat ecumenical perspective, shallow pastoral theology, poor liturgical life, flat Lutheran missiology, lack of giving place to female diaconates, unsustained corporate life of mercy, and flawed understanding of the office of ministry!  Which does the reader think Prof. Pless prefers in matters of “pastoral theology”: Wilhelm Loehe or C.F.W. Walther? And why would Prof. Pless now on his Facebook page proclaim that Walther's Pastoral Theology will be required for his students?  Could it not be to target Walther's weaknesses needing the “corrective” of Loehe?  Could it possibly be to cover his judgments of Walther with a facade of respect? — Pless and his defenders may plead that my criticism goes too far.  Let them, for Pless's own words condemn himself.
      Now see, Prof. Pless, I did not put my blog's name in the above cross-reference table so that you can have your students link directly to the Google Doc for your "Advanced Pastoral Theology" class without fear of promoting this blog.  But sorry, I did not cross-reference Walther's Pastoral Theology to any of Loehe's works.  You will have to do that yourself in order to "deepen" Walther's pastoral theology.

      In the next Part 2, the shameful treatment of Dr. Drickamer is brought out with more details.  Even Pastor Otten's defense of Drickamer could have been stronger...
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Table of Contents  on Pastoral Theology - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Part 1 - Introduction; Table of Cross-references; Prof. Pless's criticisms of Drickamer &Walther
Part 2 - Defense of Dr. John Drickamer and his 1995 translated edition (still useful!)
Part 3 - Prof. J.H.C. Fritz's 1932 & 1945 editions & unionsm; also 1990 Mueller-Kraus edition
Part 4 - Corrections for new 2017 CPH edition; C.S. Meyer's judgment of Walther; old Ohio Synod request

Added 2017-04-02:
= = = = = = =   Table of Contents on Christliche Dogmatik References to Old Missouri   = = = = = = = =
Part A – this post -- Walther's Pastoral Theology
Part B – Lehre und Wehre - Walther's essays and other essays
Part C – Der Lutheraner articles (including DL Table of Contents)
Part D – Convention essays: old Missouri Synod, Synodical Conference
Part E – Walther's books, old Missouri books (Kirche und Amt, etc.) and lectures: Stoeckhardt books
Part F – Baier-Walther Compendium Theologiae Positivae

Walther's Works: Church Fellowship, Pastoral Theology; new cross-reference, new availability

[2025-02-22: updated links; 2024-08-31: added links to English text for 1870 Western and 1872 English Conf.; 2024-08-25: added new links to new uploads of CPH books to Internet Archive, now making almost all material from this volume available for free to view; fixed broken links; added highlighted source to #12] 

      I have blogged previously in 2014 about one of the releases of Concordia Publishing House's Walther's Works series – Church Fellowship.  That included a cross reference to the original German language source material.  However I want to present a more complete cross-reference which includes the already existing English translations that were used for this publication.   This is for anyone who already owns the previous publications (like me) or who is contemplating purchasing the 2 older works still available – Selected Writings and At Home in the House….   As publisher Paul McCain put it to me:

…a new set of Walther's works, pulling together all the previously different formats, shapes, sizes, into a consistent set of books. "Essays for the Church" will be included in this new series. 

So this publication is largely only a re-ordering, a new "pulling together" of previous publications, not presenting original material.  (Matthew Harrison did present some new translations for his book…)  Here are the books partially used as sources for this newer publication:

• Editorials from “Lehre und Wehre” hereafter abbreviated “Editorials” (update 2025-02-22)
• Essays for the Church, vols. 1 and 2
• Free English Lutheran Conference, 1872
• Concordia Theological Monthly or CTM
• At Home in the House of My Fathers by Matthew Harrison (update 2025-02-22)

Contents

1. Subscribing to the Whole Book of Concord, 1857     p. 1

[LuW 3, No . 1, Jan . 1857, pp. 1-4; Editorials p. 39]

2. Taking the Confessions Seriously, 1858     p. 5

[Editorials p. 43]

3. Answer to the Question “Why Should Our Pastors, Teachers, and Professors Subscribe Unconditionally to the Symbolical Writings of Our Church?,” 1858     p. 11

[Western District Convention in 1858; also in Tappert, Lutheran Confessional Theology in America 1840-1880, pgs 55-77; Concordia Theological Monthly, vol. 18 1947 – p. 241-253, Guebert translation; At Home in the House of my Fathers, pgs 120-137]

4. On Doctrinal Development, 1859      p. 29

[Editorials p. 49]

5. On Church Language, 1859 [LuW vol. 5, pp. 65-71]     p. 43

[Editorials p. 62]

6. Do We Draw the Lines of Fellowship Too Narrowly?, 1860     p. 55

[Editorials p. 74]

7. The Missouri Synod’s Adherence to the Lutheran Confessions, 1866     p. 75

[Editorials p. 115; Opening Address at the Convention of the 1866 General Synod, LuW 1867 pp. 1-8]

8. On Syncretism, 1868     p. 81

[Concordia Theological Monthly, vol. 17 1946  – pgs 481-498, Guebert translation]

[reprinted in Concordia Journal June 1975]

9. The False Arguments for the Modern Theory of Open Questions, 1868     p. 95

[Concordia Theological Monthly, vol. 10 1939  – pp. 254 ff.

(254-262, 351-357, 415-420, 507-513, 587-595, 656-666, 752-759, 827-834)]

10. Theses on the Modern Theory of Open Questions, 1868     p. 141

[Original  – translated by Benjamin T. G. Mayes from LuW 14, p. 318-9]

11. Communion Fellowship, 1870     p. 145

[Western District Convention, 1870; Theses on communion fellowship with those who believe differently, L. White, 1980; Essays For The Church, vol. 1, pp. 202-228; English text]

12. Summary of Christian Doctrine, Sixteen Theses, 1872     p. 193

[Free English Lutheran Conference, 1872; Essays For The Church, vol. 1, pp. 229-243; English text]

13. On the Three Hundredth Anniversary of the Formula of Concord, 1877     p. 217

[Editorials p. 143]

14. Duties of an Evangelical Lutheran Synod, 1879     p. 237

[Iowa District Convention 1879; Essays For The Church, vol. 2, pgs 6-63; available in pamphlet format from CPH HERE]

15. The Only Source of Doctrine, 1882     p. 337

[Editorials p. 164]

16. Church Fathers and Doctrine, 1884     p. 351

[Synodical Conference 1884; Essays For The Church, vol. 2, pgs 67-101]

Scripture Index     p. 413

——————————

      The introductions to the essays taken from Essays For The Church (from 1992) are repeated verbatim, presumably all having been written by Prof. Charles Arand. But Charles Arand seems not to be contributing anything involved with C.F.W. Walther’s writings in recent times.  —  One of the benefits of purchasing this book is the Scripture Index, something that was not available before in previous publications.

      There is one minor exception in this book – it is by Benjamin T. G. Mayes and his two page original translation of item # 10.  I don't think there is any newly translated material in this year's book All Glory to God.  I also hope to publish a cross reference for it soon.  At least these 2 books bring back some of those essays that became extinct when CPH quit selling the 2 volume Essays for the Church books.  —  One can hope the next release of Walther's Works will have more value in original translation work, not just re-publication of previously translated works.  There still is a large amount of Walther's writings that remains untranslated.

 

      The next release of Walther's Works from CPH, Walther's Pastoral Theology, is now available for pre-release purchase ("Estimated 01/31/2017. Subject to change").   This was delayed 1 year — the confusion caused by this delay is even evident in WorldCat which today lists a 2016 version as being available at the Library of Congress!  This book was apparently prematurely announced and then delayed.  But the long delay would seem to be nearly over as CPH is even offering a $10 discount so that the book is sale priced for only $29.99.  This is an eagerly awaited translation – I have had several correspondences about it – and it is well worth a purchase for not only pastors and teachers, but also all Christians.