Martin Luther's Christmas Book [Paperback]

Martin Luther (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Martin Luther's conception of the Nativity found expression in sermon, song, and art. This beautiful new gift edition of a classic collection combines all three. In thirty compelling Christmas excerpts from his sermons, Luther vividly portrays the human realism of the Nativity: Mary's distress at giving birth with no midwife or water; Joseph's misgivings; the Wise Men's perplexity; and Herod's cunning. Throughout, Luther suggests the question: If we had lived in Bethlehem when Jesus was born, would we have believed that this newborn baby was God in human form? And he reminds us that keeping Christmas is a year-around mission of caring for those in need. Nine elegant illustrations by Luther's contemporaries-including four by noted engraver Albrecht Durer-capture timeless scenes from the Christmas story. And two of Luther's beautiful Christmas carols are included on the final pages of the book.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

About the Author

Renowned Reformation scholar Roland H. Bainton wrote the introduction, as well as translating and arranging this collection of Luther's sermons. Bainton was a professor of church history at Yale Divinity School for forty-two years and the author of numerous books about church history, including Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Augsburg Books (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806635770
• ISBN-13: 978-0806635774
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #791,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meditations on the Christmas Story, December 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Martin Luther's Christmas Book (Paperback)

This short book contains Martin Luther's insights into the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. The descriptions of the people of the story are concise yet complete. While the Christmas scriptures are familiar, Luther's commentary makes Mary, Joseph, Herod, the Wise Men and the shepherds come to life.

Each section begins with an illustration, four by Albrecht Durer.

This gem of a book can serve as a meditation guide for the Advent season. It is a worthwhile addition to the Christian's bookshelf.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Selection of Luther's Sermons and Contemporary Art, December 18, 2007

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Martin Luther's Christmas Book (Paperback)

`Martin Luther's Christmas Book', edited by Luther biographer, Roland H. Bainton, is a delightful assemblage of Luther's Christmas sermons, songs, and visual arts' collaborators' woodcuts, primarily from the great Medieval artist, Albrecht Durer.
When I purchased the book, I expected the sermons, was delighted by the artistry, and was really surprised by the music. It turns out that Luther wrote many more hymns than his famous `A Mighty Fortress', which is not too surprising, since his dedication to music in services was one of his greatest contributions to the Protestant church, if only through his influence on the world's greatest composer, Bach.
The selection of sermons is but a small sampling of Luther's enormous output, when you consider that he preached for about 30 years, often with three or four sermons a week. When you multiply the six weeks of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, this comes to over 200 sermons just for the Christmas season. Editor Bainton has selected for us the most interesting of all this material and joined it into seven (7) representative sermons for the Annunciation, the Visitation, Nativity, the Shepherds, Herod, the Wise Men, and Presentation.
These sermons should work well with modern thinking, primarily due to Luther's faithfulness to his most important doctrine, being true to the scriptures and only the scriptures. Bainton's introduction describes how Medieval traditions piled an enormous amount of speculation on top of the Christmas story. The scriptures, for example, don't even say there were only three wise men. This is inferred from the three gifts. And, the traditional three names don't appear in the Gospels either, so Luther never uses them. He even goes out of his way to point out that the scripture says nothing about the wise men being `kings' as the popular hymn would have it. Rather, they were simple `professors', probably of astrology, whose star was a conjunction of planets.
Luther even goes further than many modern preachers in pointing out from the pulpit that there are disagreements between the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
This is a great resource for any Christmas worship, especially in those churches which honor Luther's name. To the reviewer who said this is Luther's worst book, I must point out that the book contains barely 1/20 of what Luther wrote on Christmas, and any problems are probably more due to the editor than the Reformer.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Martin Luther's Christmas Book Should Be Read All Year Round, April 22, 2008

By 

Bonnie L. Abendschoen "Hootie" (York, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Martin Luther's Christmas Book (Paperback)

I found this book most humbling. Luther writes so profoundly well for the Christian from every walk of life. He explains "The Christmas Story.", i.e., the Birth of Christ as a way for us to enter into the Immaculate Inception, Birth, Flight as a way for us to understand why God Himself choose the low of the low and the lowly conditions in which the Babe was born, etc. into great thoughts about why God choose to do it this way and how we should respond. One of your reviewer's writes." What I have gotten out of Xmas ... mostly expensive, forgetable ..mass produced goods. How sad, he/she must have been asleep while reading this book. This person should read pgs. 58-60 over again and apply it to their life and Christmas and they would be so blessed in the ways we as Christians should live our lives daily.

I highly recommend this book to people of all Christian faith. It is a truly beautiful piece for the mind, for it is how we should all consider the Holy Scriptures and start to live them. Buy this book for your children, grandchildren and friends. Buy it for those who do not know Chirst, it is a powerful witness of God and what He did for us whom He loves so very much!
Signed: It's A Wonder!