LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

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

SUMMER 2003 Issue

Volume XVII, Number 2

Sometimes even a brief hymn can open a window into not only the author’s life and times but also the later history of the communities who sang it  “Children of the Heavenly Father” is Gracia Grindal’s point of entry into the prodigious career of the Swedish author Lina Sandell and into the complex dynamics of the Swedish-American immigrant communities who first sang her hymns in the new land, and then promptly forgot most of them.  Grindal (a translator, poet, and hymn-writer herself) has previously contributed to Lutheran Quarterly studies of hymnody as well as church journalism.  She teaches at Luther Seminary, 2481 Como Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108.

Some of the theologians forgotten by the end of the twentieth century may be returning with vigor at the beg inning of the twenty-first.In particular, the nineteenth-century giant, J.C.K. von Hofmann, is here re-appreciated by Matthew L. Becker for his insights into theological method, salvation history, and especially Christology which will be the subject of Becker’s second essay on von Hofmann.  Becker completed his dissertation on von Hofmann under David Tracy at the University of Chicago in 2001, and teaches at Concordia University, Division of Theology, 2811 N. E. Holman St., Portland, OR 97211-6099.

Because Martin Luther’s views on the role of the prince during the Reformation evolved considerably during the course of those tumultuous years, James M. Estes provides a chronological look at the subject in this issue’s installment of “Luther on....”  Previous such essays have now been collected into a book in our new series with Eerdmans, as edited by Timothy Wengert, namely, Harvesting Luther’s Reflections on Theology, Ethics and the Church.  Estes, who recently contributed to Lutheran Quarterly a major article on Johannes Brenz, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Toronto, can be reached at Victoria College, 73 Queen’s Park Crescent, Toronto M5S, 1K7, Canada.

Under the rubric of “Texts, for the Record,” Carolyn Schneider shares her annotated translation of Martin Luther’s Preface to Bugenhagen’s edition of the works of Athanasius, including their shared concern for the doctrine of the Trinity.  Schneider wrote her dissertation on the topic at Princeton Theological Seminary, and currently teaches at Texas Lutheran University, 1000 Court St., Seguin, Texas, 78155-5999.