suggested readings for ben

A gentleman by the name of Ben has kindly commented on my blogpost dealing with SELK Bishop Voigt’s Christmas greeting to his Church, getting into the huge—and, among North American Lutherans, hitherto mainly unaddressed—topic of Episcopacy.

Any discussion of Episcopacy within Lutheran circles on this continent should fitly be prefaced by a setting forth and immersion into the treatment of this topic by the first and second generation of Lutheran Fathers. Once this needed background has been filled in, no better contemporary discussion of the issue will be found than the article recently published in the Canadian Lutheran Theological Review by my good friend Bishop Juhana Pohjola. Bishop Pohjola’s magisterial treatment can be found here: LTR 37.pdf - Google Drive A surf to the website of the St Catharines seminary may render possible the download of just Bishop Pohjola’s article rather than of the whole 2025 issue.

I register a certain amazement that, despite the slender resources at his disposal, Dr Winger continues to publish a regular theological journal whose content strikes this expatriate Canadian as more than equal to that found in its sister and competitor publications. CLTS has historically punched above its weight.

An historical starting point for this whole discussion can be found in CLTS’s publication of the last Faculty Opinion (Gutachten) signed by Dr Luther before his death The Wittenberg Reformation of 1545 shows how the Reformer and his colleagues understood the Augsburg Confession and wanted it implemented. The translation published in 2016 is accompanied by Tom Winger’s rich study of ecclesiology, which focuses on the Household of God in the Epistle to the Ephesians. The book is available for purchase on Lulu: Shop the Independent Bookstore | Lulu

My first literary foray into this topic took the form of my contribution to the festschrift in honour of Dr Kleinig. Meanwhile, Dr Winger ventured deeper into this area in the essay he contributed to the festschrift in honour of Bishop Voigt.

Everyone do the reading, and then let’s have a seminar, over which Dr Winger might be happy to preside.