Martin Luther's Christmas Book | 
 enlarge | Author: Martin Luther
Creator: Roland H. Bainton
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $10.99
Buy New: $9.86
You Save: $1.13 (10%)
New (15) Used (12) from $5.00
Rating:  5 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 72
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.8 x 0.3
ISBN: 0806635770
Dewey Decimal Number: 252.615
EAN: 9780806635774
Publication Date: September 1, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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Condition: Brand new! Outstanding condition! Clean, tight, and crisp!
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Martin Luther's Christmas Book Should Be Read All Year Round April 22, 2008
Bonnie L. Abendschoen (York, PA)
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!
Delightful Selection of Luther's Sermons and Contemporary Art December 18, 2007
B. Marold (Bethlehem, PA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
`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.
Have yourself a Martin Luther Christmas September 22, 2007
Terry D. Shorter (Oklahoma City, OK USA)
This great theologian has written a wonderful, informative and soul-stirring book on the Christmas Season.
 Luther's Worst July 24, 2007
Joseph Adams (Stockholm, Sweden, EUR)
1 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is easily Martin Luther's worst book, as he creates a warm and fuzzy, sappty atmosphere. To me, that is selling out. Realizing his mistake, he rebounded with his Easter book, a collection of sermons. That's where we get Xmas from is Martin Luther. What have I gotten out of Xmas? Mostl;y forgettable "expensive" mass produced goods most of which I no longer have that they wanted everyone to be able to afford. These kids of the modern age dropped the ball on Lutheran- they were all supposedly baoptized and here they are stealing and doing poorly in school. Martin Luther hated its own pastors for encouraging a poor attitude amongst its confirmation students. Those who don't celebrate Xmas want people to feel bad for them. And if all they do is steal other people's presents, you have got to wake up and realize it's a testament of faith and not to support a lousy attitude. If the only time they get somethiong new is on Xmas, including clothes, that's why the economy is so bad. Realistically, Xmas is a time to get someone in your family to buy you that thing you want but can't quite afford or is to find, or to encourage kids to be kids by playing with toys. It's the parents' responsibility to get presents regardless of poor behavour to shape up their poor lie, cheat steal attitude. Amen.
Meditations on the Christmas Story December 12, 1999
26 out of 27 found this review helpful
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.
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