Welcome to Treasures from the Lutheran Church!
Beautiful doctrine begets a beautiful life. Our early Lutheran fathers knew this. Because Lutheran theology does not exist unto itself as an abstraction for academics in the classroom, but rather confers a spirituality that permeates and forms every aspect of Christian life, the fathers of our Church expended so much of their energies and talents composing the most beautiful and edifying materials for Christian homes by way of prayerbooks, hymns, meditations, poetry, collections of sermons, and other resources.
This community exists to support and enjoy translations from this spiritual treasure trove of the Lutheran German and Latin devotional tradition into English.
Subscribe to receive our weekly devotional and all archived issues.
Subscription Benefits and Access
I have so many fun plans and ideas for this community, but to begin with, here’s an idea of the unique content — never before available in English — that you can except to regularly receive in return for your support:
Prayers from the Lutheran Fathers
Prayer is essential to the Christian life, and many Lutherans over the ages have penned books of heartfelt prayers pertaining to the life and liturgy of the Church, the Scriptures, the Sacraments, and daily life. Each week you'll receive a new prayer translated from various sources. Initially, I will be translating prayers from two prayerbooks of Esaias Heidenreich (1532–1589). Over time, we will develop an incredible comprehensive treasury of prayer.
Passion Meditations
The blessed cross of Christ is greatest revelation of God and the heartbeat of Lutheran theology and its devotional literature. A regular staple of the material translated here will be devoted to the passion. This material will include prayers by Esaias Heidenreich at first, with plans to include hymns, sermons, and other devotional material later on.
Hymns
Hymnody is another great achievement of the Lutheran Reformation. Lutherans wrote so many hymns intended for use in the household and dedicated to every topic imaginable, such as the Catechism, Christ’s passion, biblical stories, and so on. You will regularly receive translations of hymns according to the meter of well-known Lutheran hymns. We will begin with some catechetical hymns by Johann Rist (1607–1667).
Biblical Devotional Material
Just as Luther translated the Bible so that it could be heard, read, and understood by all Christians, so also has our tradition left behind many resources for learning and studying the Scriptures. The first resource I’m bringing to you is a brief overview of books of the Bible written by Johannes Brenz (1499–1570), to be released regularly section-by-section.
Apocryphal Devotional Material
I’m especially excited about this part! Believe it or not, Luther translated the Apocrypha, and our tradition has received the Apocrypha, not as Scripture like the Old or New Testaments, but as important devotional texts from antiquity. To begin to reconnect ourselves with these important texts, I will begin by translating sermons from Valerius Herberger (1562–1627) on Sirach, also known as Ecclesiasticus.
Summary
We will figure things out as we go along, but you can expect to receive material from me weekly. The size of our community will have a bearing on our pace, but at the very least, the weekly material will focus upon prayers, with other material such as hymns, biblical expositions, and apocryphal devotions released at different intervals. I’ll also include some translations from previous weeks with the new material each week. The longer our community exists, the more material you’ll have on a weekly basis.
Who Am I and Why Am I Doing This?
I'm Dylan Smith, a current PhD student in Austin, Texas, and a recent graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary (M.Div. 2022 and S.T.M. 2023). I study the Old Testament, the Ancient Near East, Second Temple Judaism, and Semitic languages, though I’ve long been interested in the world of Lutheran devotional literature ever since writing an undergraduate thesis on the hymnic meditations of Johann Rist on Christ’s passion.
For years I’ve been wanting to join those who make the gems of our devotional tradition available, but with full-time graduate studies, several part-time jobs, and the financial pressures of supporting a family, I’ve never been able to justify taking the time to do it. But I realized Substack may offer a way. On this crowdfunding platform, we can begin to make material available to an interested community in a manner that fosters patient reflection and meditation while being manageable with my other obligations and pressures.
Your subscription not only grants you regular access to these treasures form our tradition, but you are supporting the translation of these important works into English for others, not to mention its benefits for me, as I seek to find edifying work during my studies. Thank you!
To lay the foundation for fruitful devotion, we borrow the prayer that begins Valerius Herberger’s sermons on Sirach:
Be present, O Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, unto the glory of Thy Name, and the edification of Thy Church, Amen!
