Notes

Words without End

We approach the divine by arguing about his writings. What we catch with words may seem merely more words. But, as that holy text the Gospel of John insists, in the beginning was the word, so maybe it should be no surprise to find more words at the middle and even at the end. It may be words all the way down, words without end, amen.

Adam Gopnik, "Sacred Arts," The New Yorker, January 28, 2019, 75.

O. K. Olson's Banquet and Endowment Fund

At a banquet on May 3, 2019, Lutheran Quarterly honored founding editor Oliver K. Olson as he stepped down as President of the Board of Directors. The Board has named him President Emeritus and created an endowment fund in his name specifically to support the work of editing LQ. Naming the goal of $30,000 to be raised over 2019 and 2020, the Board also announced that $22,000 has already been given or pledged. The banquet, attended by Olson's family and friends including diverse LQ personnel, featured greetings from far (Kenya, Japan, Wolfenbüttel, and Oswald Bayer in Germany) and near (emcee Bob Kolb, Skip Sundberg, Paul Rorem, and Bud Thompson) along with new LQ Board President Larry Rast as well as ample and apt comments from the guest of honor. Those in attendance were given copies of books that Olson has edited as well as the first issue of LQ's new series in 1987 and the 1997 "Festschrift" issue authored by his students. And, they were all invited to sign up for a free copy of Oliver's forthcoming second Flacius volume, Matthias Flacius and His Defense of Luther's Reform, courtesy of Lutheran Press.

If you wish to pledge or contribute to this special Olson Endowment Fund (and receive any of these gift publications), contact Managing Editor Bud Thompson, vftonlummi@gmail.com or 2752 N. Nugent Road, Lummi Island, WA 98262.

LQ Books

Recent months have seen major publications of Lutheran Quarterly Books. In July Fortress Press brought out The Essential Forde: Distinguishing Law and Gospel, edited by Nicholas Hopman, Mark Mattes, and Steven D. Paulson. September saw the second in Paulson's trilogy: Luther's Outlaw God, Volume 2, Hidden in the Cross.

Soon to follow in 2020 are three more tomes: Paulson's third and culminating volume, Timothy Wengert's The Augsburg Confession in Parish Life and Faith, and an updated version of John Doberstein's classic Minister's Prayer Book, edited by Wengert, with Mary Jane Haemig, Chris Halvorson, and Robert Harrell. For more, see www.fortresspress.com/projects/lutheran-quarterly-books.

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.