Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions

by Paul Timothy McCain

This digital edition presents all the official texts of the Book of Concord, plus three appendixes of historic Lutheran writings, a "Book of Concord Reading Guide," a Scripture index, and a subject index. Nothing is more important than clearly confessing and bearing witness to the truths of God's Holy Word which reveal the glorious Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what the Book of Concord is all about. This edition of the Lutheran Confessions will instruct, inspire and educate all who use it and help them learn what it means to be, and to remain, a genuinely confessing Lutheran Christian. For this eBook edition, we have presented just the text of the Book of Concord, plus the reading guide, Scripture index, and subject index from the second edition of  The Lutheran Confessions.  

Genres: Theology, Reference, Religion, Christian

1054 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2009

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't have a lot to say about this book. It was my second time through it, reading it over the course of three months with a group of people at my Lutheran church. Truth be told, it's a slog. But it's a good slog, full of good information and teaching, especially for someone who has only been Lutheran for not quite three years. There are writings by Martin Luther, himself, along with Philip Melanchthon and others. There is a lot of repetition, though, and a lot of taking a many, many words to say something that could have been said in fewer words.

There is also some quite amusing name-calling directed at the Catholic authorities in parts of it.

Basically, though, this book goes through the basic doctrines of the Lutheran church, via several different documents. It begins with the three basic creeds, Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, and the Creed of Athanasius. It goes from there to the Augsburg Confession, The Smalcald Articles, Luther's Small and Large Catechisms, and finishes out with the Formula of Concord. Well over 900 pages of Lutheran doctrine.

Ideally, this book is not for reading from cover to cover, but is probably best used as a reference tool. But I'm glad to have read it a couple of times, now. There were definitely parts of it that hit me different this time through, as the first time, I had only been part of the church for a few months. And this time, I had recently had a sort of "revival" in my own spiritual life, so there were parts that were much more meaningful to me, especially Luther's explanations of the Apostles' Creed.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in doctrine and theology of the Lutheran Church, or, perhaps just interested in the history of the protestant church in general.

[Dan Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is at a central read for anyone who calls themselves a Lutheran.

It has been a goal of mine for several years to read through the foundational confessional documents of the lutheran church. But to be honest reading through the document can be very difficult, but in this audio version it was much simpler and easier to understand and comprehend the key facets of faith that the lutheran church has has used as their foundation over the last 500 years. If you truly want to know what what and why we believe what we do you must read this work.

[Andrew McHenry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a vast collection of writings that express the doctrinal core of historical Lutheranism. It's a bit dogmatic and over-systematized at times, but it is on the whole a very sound and well-reasoned expression of the Christian faith.

[David Mcelroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Close 4 out of 5 stars

The Kindle edition of "The Readers Edition of the Book of Concord" has every thing the print edition does except a properly executed job of editing. I hope CPH comes out with a corrected update at some point that gets rid of the typographical errors, duplicated postings and omitted passages. Otherwise it is a convenient form to carry for reading and quick reference.

[Heather Teilborg · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice to have a digital copy with me for reading whenever