All Posts

The Fifth Sunday After Easter in the historic liturgical calendar of the Western Church focuses on prayer. It is the Sunday before Ascension Day, which is observed on the 40th day after Easter (see Acts 1:3). The Latin name of this Sunday is Rogate, which in English means, "pray!" The traditional gospel reading is John 16:23-30, which focuses on answered prayer to the Father in Christ's name. In 1537--after his return to Wittenberg from the meeting of Protestant princes at Sm

Praying for Good Government as Part of Our Daily Bread In 1 Timothy 2:1-2, the apostle Paul calls on the Church to pray and give thanks for all people, especially "for kings and all who are in authority," so that the Christians "may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence." In his Small Catechism--based on texts like 1 Timothy 2--Luther teaches that "good government," along with "pious and faithful magistrates," is part of our daily bread for which we p

The Holocaust and Luther On April 13/14, 2026, the state of Israel observes " Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day " to remember the death and heroic resistance during the 1930s and 1940s when over six million Jews were murdered by Germans and their allies. Eighty-one years after the end of the Second World War, we now live in an age when the Holocaust is denied or distorted in various way. Especially social media help spread this unjustified attack on a historical reality.

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, the last Sunday before Easter and therefore the beginning of Holy Week, which includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Last Sunday, many Christians heard the gospel account of how Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, Matthew 21:1-9 , combined with a reading from Paul's letter to the Philippians 2:5-11 . Coincidentally, last Saturday saw the third nationwide "No Kings" protest that gathered an estimated 8 million Americans across a wide politi

Elsewhere, I have written a post summarizing in a few paragraphs Luther's "theology of war," so to speak. You can read it here. In essence, Luther was neither a principled pacifist nor an uncritical advocate of war. Instead, he had a nuanced approach to this topic that was grounded in God's law nature, which is the law of love: Legitimate, or just, wars must be defensive. And they must be prudent. This simply means that war may only be waged to defend the lives and possession

Romans 13 is a key text of the Christian Scriptures. Romans 13 therefore plays an important role in the theology of Martin Luther. When you see a reference to "Romans 13," what comes to mind? Perhaps you're thinking about Christian partisans of whoever the current president is who use this text to silence any and all criticism of "the government" or at least of "their" president--as if the president is "the government." Depending on who those partisans are, they might advocat

Luther was not someone who categorically ruled out war. But he was someone who taught that only defensive wars are wars approved by God. And even those wars should be engaged in when it is prudent to do so. As America is once again engaged in a war, I find Luther's way of thinking about war very helpful to assess what is going on from a sound Christian perspective. That's why I thought it's good to unpack what Luther has to say on these important issues. Maybe you find Luther

On my way home from work, I listened to a thought-provoking podcast by Dr. Russell Moore on The Russell Moore Show. In the podcast , Dr. Moore discussed what war can do to our souls. So, instead of discussing the legality of the current war against Iran or its morality (Luther thoughts on the morality of war are summarized here ) or its political or strategic impacts, he honed in on what war does inside of us--not as soldiers in the field but as, for lack of a better term, sp

I just posted my book God's Masks on the doctrine of the two kingdoms as taught by Martin Luther in the documents sections of this site. Feel free to download and read it. This book summarizes my research on this highly important doctrine and its place in Luther's theology. The research summarized in this book will serve as the basis for future blog posts and discussions on what it means to be a Christian in the United States today. If you want to read the book but are not

Cover page of the 1534 print of Luther's 1533 lecture on Psalm 127. In 1533, Luther lectured on Psalm 127 as part of his academic lecture series on the so-called psalms of ascent, psalms 120 to 134. Some people may know this psalm. It begins with the words in the title of this blog post: "Unless the Lord builds the house," and then it continues with: "those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." These two verses set the

Many biographies of Luther have been published over the last five centuries. I continue to use Martin Brecht's three-volume biography that was written in the 1980s and that is available in English translation, even for free online borrowing at the Internet Archive . An interesting biographic topic is Luther's connection to "what came before"--a time typically known as the "Middle Ages" today--and how / when he became a "Lutheran." Put differently, a key question here is how