Letters to Lutheran Pastors - Volume 1 (ebook Edition)

Sasse’s letters direct the church to Christ’s Word and Sacraments as the source of her life and unity.

Written between 1948 and 1951, the letters and essays collected in Letters to Lutheran Pastors: Volume 1 address the challenges facing Lutheran churches in the years following World War II. Writing from the upheaval of postwar Europe and his own transition to Australia, Sasse evaluates questions of church fellowship, doctrine, worship, and ecclesiastical organization in light of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions.

In this volume, Sasse explores:

• The church’s life in the Gospel, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper
• Church fellowship, church union, and confessional fidelity
• The authority and inspiration of Holy Scripture
• The pastoral office, the local congregation, and Christian worship
• Historical lessons from the Reformation, the Lutheran Awakening, and the German church struggle

Combining historical analysis with pastoral and theological reflection, Sasse challenges efforts to seek unity through institutional arrangements that leave doctrinal differences unresolved. Again and again, he points pastors and congregations to the means of grace through which Christ gathers, preserves, and strengthens His church.

Edited and translated by Matthew C. Harrison, this volume provides pastors, seminarians, theologians, and students of Lutheran history with a significant collection of Sasse’s early reflections on the church, its confession, and its life under the authority of God’s Word.