Luther’s Works: Church & Ministry: Volumes 39-41 / May 01, 1970

Requires Accordance 10.4 or above.

Luther’s Works, a monumental translation project published jointly by Fortress Press and Concordia Publishing House in 1957, is singular in its value to church historians, Luther scholars, and Christians. This truly exquisite offering will put Luther’s Works at the command of a few keystrokes and provide the reader with a Luther resource unrivaled in accessibility and convenience. Luther’s Works is indispensable for studies of Luther and invaluable for preachers.

Volumes 31-54 of Luther’s Works include Luther’s Reformation writings and occasional pieces.

Volumes included in this module:

• Volume 39: Church and Ministry I (1970) – This volume includes two writings dealing with the plight of the common person who Luther felt had become a victim of the ecclesiastical establishment. These are followed by treatises taken from Luther’s literary feud with three staunch supporters of Rome: Augustine Alveld, Jerome Emser [the “Leipzig goat”], and Albrecht of Mainz. The final treatise contains Luther’s argument for congregational authority.
• Volume 40: Church and Ministry II (1958) – This volume in Luther’s Works contains writings of Luther directed for the most part against the fanatical front on the left. In denying the reality of the church, the validity and need of the office of the ministry, the fanatics relegate the sacraments to a secondary position, thus bypassing the Word as God’s means of communication to men.
• Volume 41: Church and Ministry III (1966) – Conflict between the church of Rome and the reformers reached its most violent peak in the five years before the Council of Trent in 1545, a council the pope had been delaying for years. Luther had not only given up hope for a “free, Christian council,” but had also come to the conclusion that the authority of such a council was limited to reaffirming the ancient faith of the apostles. This radical departure from Rome’s interpretation of its own authority forms the basis of Luther’s new doctrine of the church — and also of his advice to Protestant princes on the problems of ecclesiastical property. It is this doctrine of the church which is the theme of the three treatises written during this period and included in this volume.