Dear Friends,
I am delighted to inform you that Concordia Publishing House will release Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal <http://www.cph.org/p-18350-natural-law-a-lutheran-reappraisal.aspx?SearchTerm=natural%20law> in January, 2011. At 302 pages, this unique book includes 15 essays on this almost-forgotten topic by American and German theologians, who represent five different Lutheran church bodies. Helpful study questions for each essay and indices to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions contained in the Book of Concord (1580/4) make this book a great resource.
If you would like to receive a PDF sampler of Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal for a possible review, simply respond by return e-mail.
Foreword by:
J. Daryl Charles, Director and Senior Fellow of the Bryan Institute for Critical Thought & Practice/Professor of Theology and Christian Thought, coauthor of War, Peace, and Christianity: Questions and Answers from a Just War Perspective (with Timothy J. Demy), and author of Retrieving the Natural Law: A Return to Moral First Things.
Essays include:
A Lutheran Affirmation of Natural Law, by Carl E. Braaten (ELCA)
Natural Law and the Lutheran Confessions, by Roland Ziegler (LCMS)
Natural Law and the Orders of Creation, by Armin Wenz (SELK)
Natural Law and the ELCA, by Marianne Howard Yoder and J. Larry Yoder, STS (NALC)
The Natural Law of the Family, by Ryan C. MacPherson (ELS)
According to Nature, Adiaphora, and Ordination, by Albert B. Collver, III (LCMS)
and much more!
Here is what others are saying:
God's law is written in two ways and two places: Not only in the words of revelation, but in our being, for we are made in God's image. For a long time, many Christians neglected or even denied this insight because of the mistaken idea that if the image of God can be obscured by sin, then for all practical purposes there is no natural law. How ironic, and how deadly to our common witness, that this common ground among all human beings, this universal prologue to the gospel, should have become a battle ground among Christians themselves. Catholic myself, I rejoice to see the rekindling of reflection on natural law among Lutherans, and I look forward to many interesting conversations.
J. Budziszewski
Professor of Government and Philosophy
University of Texas at Austin
Natural law was a common idea among the Reformers and their heirs. There has been some fledgling reconsideration of this heritage in recent years in my own Reformed tradition, and it is very encouraging to see similar discussions taking place among Lutherans. Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal helpfully wrestles with natural law from various historical and theological angles and also explores its relevance for several important social and ecclesiastical controversies of the present day. These essays on natural law—some enthusiastic, some cautious, others skeptical—are a wonderful contribution to the literature and should help to stimulate important conversations about this perennial issue for years to come.
David VanDrunen
Robert B. Strimple Professor of Systematic
Theology and Christian Ethics
Westminster Seminary California
As a Catholic, I found it fascinating to read these fine essays and “listen in” on a conversation about natural law conducted by an outstanding group of Lutheran scholars. The authors consider such topics as whether there really is a natural human capacity to identify and affirm valid moral norms, and whether belief in a moral law accessible to unaided reason is compatible with an acknowledgment of the devastating impact of sin on the human intellect as well as the human will. Lutherans will benefit from reading these essays, but so will everybody else.
Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence
Princeton University
Sincerely yours, and wishing you God's blessings for the holiday season,
Rev. Robert C. Baker
Senior Editor, Adult Bible Studies
General Editor, Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal (CPH, January, 2011)
robert.baker@cph.org
314.268.1043
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