It’s Here, It’s Here, It’s HERE!!
WOOHOOOOOO!
My copy of the new Concordia: A Reader’s Edition Of The Book Of Concord just arrived this morning, and it sure is purty! 
It’s actually hard to believe that this volume only cost $20 (the introductory price through the end of this year; after that the MSRP of $29.99 kicks in, at which price it’s still a bargain!), as it is a gorgeous, solid, & well put-together book.
Concordia Publishing House (aka CPH) (the official publishing house of the LCMS) has done the Synod, indeed all of Christendom, a great service in the publishing of this book. Kudos to the Rev. Dr. Paul McCain (acting CEO of CPH [I pray that SP Kieschnick is moved beyond petty politics to formally approve/appoint McCain as permanent CEO, but that's a whole 'nother rant...] for this, and everything else he’s done at CPH!!
We are blessed to have such a resource as CPH at our disposal — one only need look at the ELCA’s publishing house (Augsburg-Fortress) to be reminded of how fortunate we are. While CPH is putting out new offerings like Concordia, A-F is countering with tripe like the Here We Stand Confirmation curriculum, wherein the Small Catechism is relegated to a mere 30 pages at the back (!?!) of the confirmand textbook! [Hat tip to Bunnie Diehl]
I encourage you to go and purchase many copies of Concordia. Even better, work with your pastor to coordinate a bulk purchase of them at church, perhaps even with an eye towards making a copy of Concordia a standard gift to your newly confirmed youth!
-ghp
Comments
5 Responses to “It’s Here, It’s Here, It’s HERE!!”
Leave a Reply
-
Analytics & Hosting
The Michaelmass issue of Gottesdienst has my review of “Concordia.” It is not what it appears to be (though, indeed it is purty — so was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil).
Confessional Lutherans should be very concerned.
Michael James Hill
Any possibility of getting a preview of the reasons why you seem to be warning folks off of Concordia? Even the most negative of the reviews I’ve read thus far haven’t gone so far as to compare it to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil…
-ghp
(This is a second attempt to answer ghp. The first ended with an error message that seemed to dump my answer.)
My review is 2500+ words long. I can’t repeat everything here. However, two points and one example can be briefly stated.
1)The editors have meddled with the text in unacceptable ways.
2)Claims are made for this edition which are patently false.
For example, this is not an English presentation of the 1580 Book of Concord. That edition did not have Luther’s exhortation to confession, this one does. Misrepresenting this to the laity can have serious repercussions for the beneficial practice of private confession.
I would be interested in seeing some of the reviews you refer to, ghp. Except for one liberal pastor with a poor understanding of the natural knowledge of God, most of what I have seen simply repeat what the marketing department of CPH is putting out — which is also a bad sign for confessional Lutherans.
Final point, I hope you can get a copy of Gottesdienst. There my critique is complete and thus more fair.
Thanks for the summary, Michael — I appreciate it.
Most of the reviews I’ve seen aren’t actually formal “reviews.” There’ve been a few messages on some of the email lists that I’m on (primarily the CAT41 lists), and the bulk of the discussion that I’ve seen has been over at Lutherquest. Granted, LQ isn’t the most objective of sites, but the discussions dealing with Concordia have been quite, shall we say, spirited.
Most of the objections that I’ve seen have been, IMO, mostly politically-driven, in that they were trying to further a particular agenda (e.g., the JF “review” to which I believe you were referring…).
I’ll certainly try to pick up a copy of Gottesdienst when it comes out (I must confess that I let my subscription drop last year…
Hopefully, Fr. Eckardt will see fit to let this useful review be posted on the ‘net.
Based on your review, how would you compare Concordia with the previous editions (Kolb/Wengert, Tappert, Triglotta) of the BoC? I’d be interested to hear/read your comments on that front.
Thanks again for the info, Michael!
-ghp
You are most welcome. For many reasons I appreciate having this time to discuss things theological.
In the review I do compare the English translations (Jacobs, Triglotta, Tappert, Kolb/Wengert) with … it should be McCain shouldn’t it. (It is not a thorough comparison, merely a historical introduction.) So let’s not call it Concordia — a name that LCMS has already overused in its educational system. Let’s call it McCain.
I do believe that when the Triglotta was published German was still the living language of the LCMS. (I know this is late in the history, but not that late.) And it shows in the English translation.
With each successive translation the English improves — along with our understanding the the original text. It is my understanding that a good critical text is not available until the publication of Tappert (lets just abbreviate it BKS). But with every step forward there are a couple of steps back until you get to Kolb/Wengert which has the most up to date scholarship behind it — and then politically correct English.
Bottom line, without going through all the arguments: I would prefer Tappert over McCain and Triglotta for a layman and the clergy are stuck with having to use all the English translations and as much German and Latin as they can muster.
No this is not a perfect world.