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Embracing Your Lutheran Identity
Embracing Your Lutheran Identity uncovers inspiring stories and characters from church history with whom you share an identity. Writing not as a scholar, pundit, or apologist, but as a teacher, Gene Edward Veith Jr. guides you through the Holy Spirit's work from the early church, through the Reformation, and into Lutheranism today through engaging accounts, modern parallels, and thought-provoking questions. Individually or as a group, come discover (or rediscover) the heritage from whence you came; persecutions, martyrdoms, villains, battles, heroes, lore, and all.
320 pages, Paperback
First published August 27, 2024
21 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
About the author
Gene Edward Veith Jr.
45 books185 followersGene Edward Veith Jr., is the Culture Editor of WORLD MAGAZINE. He was formerly Professor of English at Concordia University Wisconsin, where he has also served as Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. He is the author of numerous books, including Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals, and God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life.
Postmodern Times received a Christianity Today Book Award as one of the top 25 religious books of 1994. He was named Concordia's Adult Learning Teacher of the Year in 1993 and received the Faculty Laureate Award as outstanding faculty member in 1994. He was a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation in 1994-1995 and is a Senior Fellow with the Capital Research Center. He was given the layman’s 2002 Robert D. Preus Award by the Association of Confessional Lutherans as “Confessional Lutheran of the Year.”
Dr. Veith was born in Oklahoma in 1951. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1973 and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1979. He has taught at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and was a Visiting Professor at Wheaton College in Illinois. He was also a Visiting Lecturer at the Estonian Institute of Humanities in Tallinn, Estonia. He and his wife Jackquelyn have three grown children and live in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Postmodern Times received a Christianity Today Book Award as one of the top 25 religious books of 1994. He was named Concordia's Adult Learning Teacher of the Year in 1993 and received the Faculty Laureate Award as outstanding faculty member in 1994. He was a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation in 1994-1995 and is a Senior Fellow with the Capital Research Center. He was given the layman’s 2002 Robert D. Preus Award by the Association of Confessional Lutherans as “Confessional Lutheran of the Year.”
Dr. Veith was born in Oklahoma in 1951. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1973 and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1979. He has taught at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and was a Visiting Professor at Wheaton College in Illinois. He was also a Visiting Lecturer at the Estonian Institute of Humanities in Tallinn, Estonia. He and his wife Jackquelyn have three grown children and live in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 20, 2025
Why is embracing your Lutheran Identify important? After reading a book promising to answer this question, I expected to understand the reasoning behind its conclusion—even if I might not agree with it.
While the book discusses the Lutheran group identity, it fails to address its actual title, ‘Embracing Your Lutheran Identity.’ Instead of exploring the concept of ‘embracing,’ Veith focuses on presenting historical facts interspersed with his opinions on other denominations.
Strengths of the Book
1. It provides interesting insights into church history as a whole.
2. It offers some engaging details about Lutheran history, though none are particularly transformative.
General Weaknesses
1. A lack of sources to support the details provided.
2. Weak editorial work, including frequent incorrect phrasing and sentences that often start with "But" or "And."
3. The absence of explanations for why the points being made are significant.
4. The use of the fallacy of alleged certainty in conclusions, along with numerous assumptions embedded in the questions posed.
Weakness 1
From an academic standpoint, I expected a more rigorous approach. Despite Veith's background as a professor, the book includes many interesting or highly specific facts and statistics that lack proper citations. In an academic setting, such omissions would likely result in a lower grade. While some items were cited, the majority—particularly those towards the end of the book, such as percentages of different denominational groups—were not.
Weakness 2
There was an abundance of sentences starting with "but" or "and." Mid-sentence thoughts were frequently broken into smaller fragments, disrupting the flow and making the author's ideas difficult to follow. Conversely, other sentences were overly long and convoluted, making their purpose or objective unclear.
Weakness 3
As noted in the opening paragraph, the book fails to explain why its points are significant. It does not create any sense of urgency for the reader to take its arguments to heart. Even when the concluding statements in a section are accurate, their importance is not addressed. Since the book focuses on identity, providing a compelling "why" is essential.
Weakness 4
There is a lack of argument or reasoning behind the conclusions drawn. For example, when discussing problematic church behaviors, Veith states, “Some is more problematic, such as preaching sermons that give 'biblical tips for successful living,' as opposed to preaching the Law and Gospel” (pg. 294). Veith does not explain why this is problematic; he simply presents it as a fact. While Lutheran theology may view preaching "biblical tips for successful living" as an issue, asserting it without further explanation does not make it inherently true. This is an example of the fallacy of alleged certainty, or assuming the conclusion.
Each section includes questions intended to help readers engage more deeply with the material. However, two issues arise. First, many of the questions contain underlying assumptions. For instance, question four on page 256 assumes, “they conserve very little...” and then asks, “What’s the problem with that?” As a reader, I am essentially forced to agree with the assumption, even if I believe the opposite. This is just one example of many questions that carry such assumptions. As a result, I often left these questions unanswered.
Secondly, many of the questions seemed disconnected from the content of the section. They felt more like an afterthought rather than a tool to deepen understanding of the chapter. This reminded me of college homework assignments that were unrelated to the main material.
However, the author states in the introduction that the questions aren't meant to have right or wrong answers and are not a test to determine whether you've read the material. Despite this, many of the questions carry assumptions that give the impression there is a correct answer. Even though the author encourages discussing answers with those who have different perspectives, it becomes difficult to engage with the questions when the assumptions themselves are problematic.
Personal Reflection
On a more personal note, I found the author’s tone towards other Christian denominations to be offensive, especially towards the end of the book. I found the book more draining than encouraging when it came to exploring what it means to “embrace my Lutheran identity.” More importantly, I don't feel that it addresses the significance of a Christian identity as a whole. Whether intentional or not, the author conveyed the idea that a Lutheran identity supersedes the identity that Christ has given us, without explaining why I should embrace it.
Conclusion
This book ultimately fails to fulfill its promise by neglecting to explain the importance of embracing a Lutheran identity. Instead, it focuses on historical facts, editorial inconsistencies, and unsupported arguments, leaving readers with more questions than answers. While it offers occasional insights into church history, it does not provide a compelling reason to embrace Lutheran identity—or even clarify what that identity entails. A more fitting title, such as A Historical Overview of Lutheran Identity , would better reflect the book's content, as it neither addresses the significance of embracing this identity nor offers convincing reasons to do so.
While the book discusses the Lutheran group identity, it fails to address its actual title, ‘Embracing Your Lutheran Identity.’ Instead of exploring the concept of ‘embracing,’ Veith focuses on presenting historical facts interspersed with his opinions on other denominations.
Strengths of the Book
1. It provides interesting insights into church history as a whole.
2. It offers some engaging details about Lutheran history, though none are particularly transformative.
General Weaknesses
1. A lack of sources to support the details provided.
2. Weak editorial work, including frequent incorrect phrasing and sentences that often start with "But" or "And."
3. The absence of explanations for why the points being made are significant.
4. The use of the fallacy of alleged certainty in conclusions, along with numerous assumptions embedded in the questions posed.
Weakness 1
From an academic standpoint, I expected a more rigorous approach. Despite Veith's background as a professor, the book includes many interesting or highly specific facts and statistics that lack proper citations. In an academic setting, such omissions would likely result in a lower grade. While some items were cited, the majority—particularly those towards the end of the book, such as percentages of different denominational groups—were not.
Weakness 2
There was an abundance of sentences starting with "but" or "and." Mid-sentence thoughts were frequently broken into smaller fragments, disrupting the flow and making the author's ideas difficult to follow. Conversely, other sentences were overly long and convoluted, making their purpose or objective unclear.
Weakness 3
As noted in the opening paragraph, the book fails to explain why its points are significant. It does not create any sense of urgency for the reader to take its arguments to heart. Even when the concluding statements in a section are accurate, their importance is not addressed. Since the book focuses on identity, providing a compelling "why" is essential.
Weakness 4
There is a lack of argument or reasoning behind the conclusions drawn. For example, when discussing problematic church behaviors, Veith states, “Some is more problematic, such as preaching sermons that give 'biblical tips for successful living,' as opposed to preaching the Law and Gospel” (pg. 294). Veith does not explain why this is problematic; he simply presents it as a fact. While Lutheran theology may view preaching "biblical tips for successful living" as an issue, asserting it without further explanation does not make it inherently true. This is an example of the fallacy of alleged certainty, or assuming the conclusion.
Each section includes questions intended to help readers engage more deeply with the material. However, two issues arise. First, many of the questions contain underlying assumptions. For instance, question four on page 256 assumes, “they conserve very little...” and then asks, “What’s the problem with that?” As a reader, I am essentially forced to agree with the assumption, even if I believe the opposite. This is just one example of many questions that carry such assumptions. As a result, I often left these questions unanswered.
Secondly, many of the questions seemed disconnected from the content of the section. They felt more like an afterthought rather than a tool to deepen understanding of the chapter. This reminded me of college homework assignments that were unrelated to the main material.
However, the author states in the introduction that the questions aren't meant to have right or wrong answers and are not a test to determine whether you've read the material. Despite this, many of the questions carry assumptions that give the impression there is a correct answer. Even though the author encourages discussing answers with those who have different perspectives, it becomes difficult to engage with the questions when the assumptions themselves are problematic.
Personal Reflection
On a more personal note, I found the author’s tone towards other Christian denominations to be offensive, especially towards the end of the book. I found the book more draining than encouraging when it came to exploring what it means to “embrace my Lutheran identity.” More importantly, I don't feel that it addresses the significance of a Christian identity as a whole. Whether intentional or not, the author conveyed the idea that a Lutheran identity supersedes the identity that Christ has given us, without explaining why I should embrace it.
Conclusion
This book ultimately fails to fulfill its promise by neglecting to explain the importance of embracing a Lutheran identity. Instead, it focuses on historical facts, editorial inconsistencies, and unsupported arguments, leaving readers with more questions than answers. While it offers occasional insights into church history, it does not provide a compelling reason to embrace Lutheran identity—or even clarify what that identity entails. A more fitting title, such as A Historical Overview of Lutheran Identity , would better reflect the book's content, as it neither addresses the significance of embracing this identity nor offers convincing reasons to do so.
October 8, 2024
A phenomenal book! Encouraging, thought-provoking, educational, and inspirational. I learned so much from this book and am eager to share it with others. If you want to know more about the history of Christianity, the truth of the reformation and events unfolding from it, and how important sound doctrine is, as well as holding fast to it despite cultural changes and strong dissenters, this is the book for you.
http://madelynrosecraig.com/2024/10/0...
http://madelynrosecraig.com/2024/10/0...
November 25, 2024
I don't normally read books like this, so it WAS a bit dry for me. Can't bring myself to give it less than five stars just because I prefer rom coms! 😂 Helpful history of the Lutheran church and how we got to where we are today. Didn't realize that Africa has the fastest-growing population of Lutherans!
February 7, 2025
My rating is what it is mostly due to a fault of research on my end. For whatever reason, I expected this book to be very different from what it actually is. It is a very worthwhile book outlining a lot of history and I am glad I read it, but I can't help but feel it didn't quite live up to my made up expectations for it. I was happy to see the suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, and I look forward to eventually exploring some of those suggestions.
October 4, 2024
Well written and engaging. Veith does an admirable job of tracing the history of Lutheranism, with a focus on confessional Lutheranism (LCMS). I thought I knew much about my church. But after reading this book, I know so much more. One of the best books I read this year.
March 1, 2025
What a fabulous book. It is carefully researched so readable. Although the main focus is on the Lutheran church it teaches well church history. Any Christian could benefit from reviewing. Highly recommended
May 1, 2025
You will understand your faith
An outstanding survey of Lutheranism, I'm glad I read it it was a great review and put some things in a context id never thought of . Highly recommend
An outstanding survey of Lutheranism, I'm glad I read it it was a great review and put some things in a context id never thought of . Highly recommend
October 21, 2024
Doing a group Bible study. Loving the discussion.
July 26, 2025
Kindle.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews