Why are you Lutheran? It's a valid question in this modern age of denominations, distinctions, and choices.

Being Lutheran Today: A Laypersons Guide to Our History, Belief and Practice will help the reader understand what Lutherans believe about the basics of the Christian faith. In easy to read language, you are given a historical perspective of the core beliefs of those who count themselves as Lutherans. The book sets forth the tenets of Lutheran doctrine; what Lutherans generally believe in practice; how to read the Bible; what the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion are about for Lutherans; the basics of Lutheran worship and the faith of the church expressed in the Apostles Creed.

The author understands spirituality to be the attitudes, convictions, and practices that give a definite shape to religious faith. Further, he asserts that spirituality is experiential and practical, for it concerns the specific forms by which faith is expressed and nurtured.The book describes the special emphases of Lutheran spirituality and recommends practices that nurture a vital spirituality. After an introductory chapter on the contemporary context, each of the seven chapters explores a major theme of Lutheran spirituality. A final chapter speculates on the future of Lutheran spirituality. Each chapter includes questions for reflection and group and individual practices. An appendix gives suggestions for group use.

I. Change and Movements in American Lutheranism American Lutherans Yesterday and Today Mark Noll The Curious Case of the Missouri Synod Mary Todd The Lutheran Left: From Movement to Church Commitment Maria Erling Word Alone and the Future of Lutheran Denominationalism Mark Granquist The Evangelical Catholics: Seeking Tradition and Unity in a Pluralistic Church Richard Cimino Goliaths in Our Midst: Megachurches in the ELCA Scott Thumma and Jim Petersen Lutheran Charismatics Renewal or Schism? Robert Longman II. Trends and Issues in American Lutheranism Pastors in the Two Kingdoms: The Social Theology of Lutheran Clergy Jeff Walz, Steve Montreal, and Dan Hofrenning North American Lutheranism and the New Ethnics Mark Granquist Multiculturalism and the Dilution of Lutheran Identity Alvin J. Schmidt Integrity and Fragmentation: Can the Lutheran Center Hold? Robert Benne Loose Bonds, Emerging Commitments: The Lives and Faith of Lutheran Youth Eugene C. Roehlkepartain.

Martin Luther with preached and written word unleashed the unconditional and uncompromising gospel of God's love for sinners in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. He exposed both man's lost condition and Christ's unfathomable love with unrelenting persistence and unmistakable clarity. Bound in sin, only Christ could set the sinner free, and Luther held Christ before his students, hearers, and readers. That message marked and formed his students and coworkers, and yet after his death bitter disputes broke out about some of the most central aspects of his theology. Debates cut to the very heart of the Reformation, and this while its future hung precariously in the balance. An Uncompromising Gospel highlights Luther's key theological teachings, details the controversies that broke out over them after his death, and provides important lessons for our own day, as Christians still struggle to grasp and hold forth the love of Christ for sinners dead in trespasses and sins. As Lutheranism in specific and Christianity as a whole struggle to find and articulate their identity in challenging times yet once again, An Uncompromising Gospel provides helpful reminders about what the chief task and message of the church are and ought to be as it presses forward in God's grace and with the good news of Christ Jesus.

This book gives today's Lutherans a sense of heritage, identity and continuity, a sense of self-understanding. Readers will see themselves as part of a family. They can identify with the struggles, hopes, and frustrations of wave after wave of immigrants adapting to the strange new world of America and at the same time trying to preserve all they had known and loved and brought with them from the homeland. The genius of the entire volume is that it points beyond family memories to an ongoing and continuing life of which we and our children are a living part. Contributors: Theodore G. Tappert, Eugene Fevold, Fred W. Meuser, H. George Anderson, August R. Suelflow, and E. Clifford Nelson.