Notes
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Lutheran Quarterly Books
Close behind the two Lutheran Quarterly Books from late 2018, namely, Gordon Jensen’s The Wittenberg Concord and Steven Paulson’s Luther’s Outlaw God, vol. 1: Hiddenness, Evil, and Predestination, Fortress Press is bringing out several more. In 2019, besides the continuation of Paulson’s trilogy with Luther’s Outlaw God, vol. 2: God Hidden in the Cross, look for The Essential Forde, a definitive collection of Gerhard Forde’s work on law and gospel, edited by Paulson, Mark Mattes, and Nicholas Hopman. Oswald Bayer, Timothy Wengert, and more. Paulson should expand the series further in 2020.
This familiar logo stems from the long and general use of Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum, from Isaiah 40 and 1 Peter 1, as every Table of Contents repeats and as Christian Herrmann has in this issue documented in some sixteenth-century books. The initials can vary (such as VDMIAE), and the media also vary (books, flags, badges, coins, even cannons), but the square design on our pages is original with Lutheran Quarterly, new series, and should not be used without permission from the managing editor Virgil Thompson, vftonlummi@gmail.com.
Oportet Semper Ecclesiam Eruditam
Across our back cover runs Melanchthon’s stern caution to the church (Corpus Reformatorum 25, 795). Other voices may advise “keeping it simple,” but Lutheran Quarterly stands for a learned foundation for the church’s mission. Oportet semper ecclesiam eruditam, warned Melanchthon, aut est valde squalide. “The church must always be learned, or it will be exceedingly foul.” Simplification has its pedagogical place, but always “dumbing down” demeans the gospel of the church. [End Page 98]
The ALPB’s Loose Screw
Publications have their own histories, and when a sponsoring body turns 100 years old, attention should be paid. The history of the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, publisher of Lutheran Forum, the Forum Letter, and numerous pamphlets and books, parallels that of North American Lutheranism for a century now. The first half of their work in this span was primarily about the Missouri Synod and the second half has been a mirror of the whole picture of American Lutheranism, for better or worse. Forum Letter editor Richard O. Johnson has scoured multiple archives and ALPB publications to write an engaging centennial history: Changing World, Changeless Christ. Major events and people (think mergers, schism, and Richard John Neuhaus) are all here reviewed from this one publishing perspective, but small moments too. Early on, a pastor wrote to the New York ALPB office about a screw missing from his lectern, a type hard to find. He enclosed a sample, with a plea: might one of those big New York stores have such a screw?
Richard O. Johnson, Changing World, Changeless Christ: The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 1914–2014 (Delhi, New York: ALPB Books, 2018), 24.
Oliver K. Olson’s Second Flacius Volume
On May 3, 2019, Lutheran Quarterly Inc. will host a dinner tribute to Oliver K. Olson, the founding editor who is now President Emeritus. Featured that evening is the publication of volume two of Olson’s magnum opus on Flacius Illyricus: namely, Matthias Flacius and His Defense of Luther’s Reform. [End Page 99]
