From The Library Of Christian Classics, V18. Additional Editors Include John T. McNeill And Henry P. Van Dusen.

Martin Luther is often thought of as a world-shaking figure who defied papacy and empire to introduce a reformation in the teaching, worship, organization, and life of the church. Sometimes it is forgotten that he was also a pastor and shepherd of souls. Collected in this volume are Luther’s letters of spiritual counsel, which he offered to his contemporaries in the midst of sickness, death, persecution, imprisonment, famine, and political instability. For Luther, spiritual counsel was about establishing, nurturing, and strengthening faith. Freshly translated from the original German and Latin, these letters shed light on the fascinating relationship between his pastoral counsel and his theology. “Since spiritual direction is not the wholesale application of general principles, but the painstaking working out of spirituality in specific situations, the personal letter is one of its best expressions. Luther knew the holy gospel and the human heart, and the double knowledge is evident on the pages of these letters.”—Eugene H. Peterson, Regent College

In inclusive and contemporary translations, this volume introduces the reader to the rich complex of issues that Luther contributes to the history of spirituality

This new collection of essays edited by Kyle Strobel and Jamin Goggin offers an evangelical hermeneutic for reading the Christian spiritual classics. Addressing the why, what and how of reading these texts, these essays challenge us to find our own questions deepened by the church's long history of spiritual reflection.