Growing Up Lutheran [Abridged][Audiobook] (Audio CD)

~ Suzanne Johnson Nelson (Author), (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Humor of 1998 -- Minnesota Center for the Book --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Description

Read by the authors.

If you search for the word "coffee" in the Bible, if you're pretty sure that all the pairs of animals in Noah's Ark were married, and if you know that Heaven is up and Hell is down, you'll love Growing Up Lutheran. If the Lutherans you know seem rather, er, mysterious, it will do you good.

Combining their own memories with those of other Lutherans who grew up in the 1940s through the 1960s, Janet and Suzann have written a delightful expose of what it means to be Lutheran and how it's done. Endearing, often hilarious stories shine a light on Lutheran life from baptism ("And His Name Shall Be Called Gilman Einar Stedje") to death ("He Is Not Gone, He Is Only Away"). In between, you'll learn about Sunday School, Christmas pageants (a.k.a. "bathrobe pageants"), Bible Camp, Confirmation, and Lutheran weddings. You'll get the inside scoop on the Lutheran Church Basement Women ("a special species of people"), lutefisk suppers, pew protocol, church architecture, and much more.

In the words of the authors, Growing Up Lutheran is "a mixture of ingredients that we had on hand, generously salted…. With gentle humor, and lightly peppered…with quite a few hot granules of Lutheran theology." This is most certainly true.

Abridged; 3 hours on 2 cassettes or 3 CDs.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Highbridge Audio; Abridged edition (June 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565119983
• ISBN-13: 978-1565119987
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,726,700 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GROWING UP LUTHERAN, November 30, 1999

By	HARRY JUECH (Milwauke, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Up Lutheran: What Does This Mean? (Paperback)

This is a must read for anyone who grew up in the Lutheran Church anytime from 1940-1970. The Authors Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann (Johnson) Nelson must have walked the walk. I grew up in this period and eveything that they report is the absolute truth. I stayed in the Church mainly because of the Walther League. I went to the Conventions and eventually met my wife and we have ben happily married for 48 years. I still Usher in Church every Sunday, I plan on contacting the authors to effect a possible sequel.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is most certainly true!, April 19, 1999

By	Andrea Hakari (the Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Up Lutheran: What Does This Mean? (Paperback)

Even though I'm a couple years too late for this book, what the authors describe and write about is "most certainly true." If you grew up in an established Scandinavian or German Lutheran congregation, you'll identify with most, if not all, of this book, from your cradle roll days up until the time you're eligible to either serve at funerals or sit in the parking lot waiting for your wife to finish serving at a funeral. Highly recommended!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Didn't . . ., June 27, 2001

By	Nancy Osbun (Fort Wayne, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Up Lutheran: What Does This Mean? (Paperback)

. . . grow up Lutheran and in the Midwest, you may not appreciate the total humor of this book, but it's still a delightfully witty, tongue-in-cheek commentary on a by-gone era. Once started, I couldn't put it down, because it called up a flood of memories, everything from Sunday School pins to Mother-Daughter banquets to cemetary upkeep. It was MY life they were talking about. For those of you who did (grow up Lutheran in the Midwest), it a journey back into time; for those of you who didn't, it's an education about a whole bunch of us who sit quietly here in the Midwest doing what come naturally.