LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

VDMA: Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum . . . the Word of the Lord remains forever.

Winter 2002 Issue

Volume XVI, Number 4

After Luther and Melanchthon comes Johannes Brenz, argues James M. Estes who here gives an overview of Brenz’s life, thought, numerous publications and tireless labors on behalf of establishing Lutheranism in Southwest Germany.  Among other publications, Estes has edited and translated Brenz in Godly Magistrates and Church Order: Johannes Brenz and the Establishment of the Lutheran Territorial Church in Germany 1524–1559 (Toronto, 2001).  He is Professor Emeritus of History at Victoria College, 73 Queen’s Park Crescent, Toronto M5S, 1K7, Canada.

This issue contains two essays on Lutherans in Slovakia.  What may appear to be a photo essay is in fact commentary on a painting, written by the artist herself, Janka Krivosová.  Her panoramic tableau of Slovakian national identity and some heroic religious leaders hangs in the Maly Kostol (Small Church) in the center of Bratislava.  Introduced and translated by Jonathan Sorum, Krivosová’s text was originally an illustrated pamphlet for visitors to the church, now with new photographs by Tomas Gulan.  Krivosová is co-author of a book on Protestant church buildings in Slovakia: Evanjelické Kostoly na Slovensku (Liptovsky Mikulás: Tranoscius, 2001), and lives at Za kasárnou 26, 831 07 Bratislava, Slovakia.

For Julius Filo, General Bishop of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia, the lesson of the Communist era is simple, and profound.  If the church only serves its own instead of reaching out, it dies the slow death envisioned by Communist policy.  Bishop Filo gave this talk as the Crumley Lecture at Roanoke College on March 14, 2002, but is normally at Generalny biskupsky urad, Palisady 48, 811 06 Bratislava, Slovakia.

Robert Kolb returns to our pages, and again to our series on Luther.  Previous “Luther on ... ” essays are becoming a Lutheran Quarterly Book from Eerdmans, edited by Timothy Wengert and including Kolb’s earlier essay “Luther on Two Kinds of Righteousness” (from Winter, 1999).  Here, in an essay originally published in German, Kolb probes the power of Luther’s theology of the cross.  One of the Directors of Lutheran Quarterly, Kolb is Missions Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Seminary, 801 DeMun Ave., St. Louis, MO 63105.

Leading off this issue’s strong battery of book reviews (Steven D. Paulson, Book Review Editor) is a review essay about the Lutheran church college, specifically about Robert Benne’s Quality with Soul, by Christopher M. Thomforde, President of St. Olaf College, 1520 St. Olaf Ave., Northfield, MN 55057-1098.