Johnston, Paul I.

Anthology of the Sermons of J. Michael Reu Vol. One: Advent to Easter Cycle Sermons
1995 0-7734-9061-2
The Anthology of the Sermons of J. Michael Reu is the only resource exhaustively to collect and present all of Reu's English-language sermon outlines, sketches, and fully-developed sermons for the first time to enable scholars of American church history, Luther historians, Reformation scholars and church professionals to examine Reu's theological presuppositions and historical insights as he applied these to preaching. This definitive two-volume collection includes sermons for every Sunday of the church year and also for festival and special occasions, as well as major convention addresses translated for the first time from the German. The volumes are meticulously edited and standardized as to style, spelling, and format of the text, and are easy to use, with helpful lists and an index of published and manuscript sermon sources to identify quickly on sermon by Scripture text, date of origin, or location. Parish clergy will find here a wealth of ideas for opening the text of Scripture to a full and persuasive exegetical development from a theologian who was an acknowledged master of the homiletical art in the Lutheran Church. The sermons contain rich insights, and furnish the busy pastor with examples of how to make textual preaching vivid and applicable to everyday life. Still fresh and powerful in their examination of the human condition and Gospel comfort, these sermons by one of this century's best-known and most admired preachers in the confessional Lutheran tradition encourage and inspire by their directness, their scholarship, and by their deep pastoral concern. Historians will find the books of interest in identifying major themes in Reu's anthropology and sociology, while theologians will profit from the many clues Reu provides in these sermons as to the content and style the proclamation of the Word should assume, especially as it relates to the Small Catechism of Martin Luther. A number of sermons featured in the Anthology are from the Johann Michael Reu Collection, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, IA, and have never before been published; others were published previously in the periodical Kirkliche Zeitschrift, which Reu edited from 1904-1943.

Price: $259.95


Anthology of the Sermons of J. Michael Reu Vol. Two: Pentecost Cycle Sermons/Occasional Sermons
1995 0-7734-8970-3
The Anthology of the Sermons of J. Michael Reu is the only resource exhaustively to collect and present all of Reu's English-language sermon outlines, sketches, and fully-developed sermons for the first time to enable scholars of American church history, Luther historians, Reformation scholars and church professionals to examine Reu's theological presuppositions and historical insights as he applied these to preaching. This definitive two-volume collection includes sermons for every Sunday of the church year and also for festival and special occasions, as well as major convention addresses translated for the first time from the German. The volumes are meticulously edited and standardized as to style, spelling, and format of the text, and are easy to use, with helpful lists and an index of published and manuscript sermon sources to identify quickly on sermon by Scripture text, date of origin, or location. Parish clergy will find here a wealth of ideas for opening the text of Scripture to a full and persuasive exegetical development from a theologian who was an acknowledged master of the homiletical art in the Lutheran Church. The sermons contain rich insights, and furnish the busy pastor with examples of how to make textual preaching vivid and applicable to everyday life. Still fresh and powerful in their examination of the human condition and Gospel comfort, these sermons by one of this century's best-known and most admired preachers in the confessional Lutheran tradition encourage and inspire by their directness, their scholarship, and by their deep pastoral concern. Historians will find the books of interest in identifying major themes in Reu's anthropology and sociology, while theologians will profit from the many clues Reu provides in these sermons as to the content and style the proclamation of the Word should assume, especially as it relates to the Small Catechism of Martin Luther. A number of sermons featured in the Anthology are from the Johann Michael Reu Collection, Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, IA, and have never before been published; others were published previously in the periodical Kirkliche Zeitschrift, which Reu edited from 1904-1943.

Price: $279.95


Anthology of the Theological Writings of J. Michael Reu
1996 0-7734-8733-6
Here for the first time in English translation are the book reviews, articles, and never-before-published manuscripts from the Reu Collection in Dubuque which demonstrate his dependence on such theologians as J. C. K. von Hofmann, F. H. R. von Frank, and J. A. Bengel, as well as his further development of their paradigms. Reu's understanding of Heilsgeschichte as organizing principle for theology is given expression in the documents in this first-ever collection of his representative theological thought. It is the only resource which presents a selection of Reu's book reviews and writings on exegetical theology in English for the convenience of modern students and researchers. It also contains Reu's personal correspondence with Charles M. Jacobs of the United Lutheran Church in American relative to the doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures which shaped the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1940. Also included is an important study paper outlining Reu's position on the lodge and the church. Historians of Religion in American Life will find this collection a unique one-volume resource providing access to key elements in Reu's theological system. Acknowledged authorities in translation, headed by the late Dr. Fred Kramer of Springfield, IL, provide Reu's lucid prose in easy-to-follow translations which are faithful in every detail to the original text. Students of theology and parish clergy will be helped by Reu's insightful elaboration of the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions as they apply to life in a secularized society, and by his application of the Lutheran hermeneutic of Law and Gospel to theological issues confronting the church. Professors of theology from all traditions will be able to access the core understandings of one of America's most significant Lutheran theologians quickly and easily through the original source documents in this collection.

Price: $239.95