# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S857
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

272 PUBLICATION MATTERS

Dr. W. G. Polack was engaged in preparing, was altered with his
approval to include, instead of one work by a single author, a series
of scholarly monographs based upon close ‘study of source ma-’
terial, under the editorship of Dr. Polack. This arrangement will
permit a fuller treatment of the more important phases of the
history. Several manuscripts are now in the hands of Dr. Polack,
and early publication of one or two is probable, which would bring
them on the market well in advance of Synod’s Centennial. Your —
Board has been informed that the Centennial Committee of Synod
is making plans for the publication of a history of Synod which is
designed to be more popular in character,

Requests are frequently received for the translation of German '
Lutheran classics into English in order that these treasures might
be made available to the children who do not possess a working
knowledge of the language of the Fathers. Your Board would
report that a committee of the faculty of Concordia Seminary,
St. Louis, is now engaged in preparing a selection of German Lu-
theran classics for possible publication in the English.

The Devotional Booklet, initiated by this Board several years
ago, enjoys an ever-widening circle of readers. It is gratifying to
State that the English edition now exceeds 375,000 per issue, while
the German continues at about 26,000. From the many communi-
cations received it is apparent that these booklets are a source of
rich blessing, not only to the membership of our church body, but
to many other people as well. \

A brief study of the Synodical Handbook, in which the duties
of Boards and Committees are outlined, and a review of certain
resolutions adopted by Synod at its conventions, as well as the
expressed opinions and actions of such Boards and Committees,
prompts the Literature Board to direct attention to a situation
which is fraught with potential dangers of lack of proper integra-
tion of our literature, duplication of effort in initiating and produc-
ing the same, in addition to waste and misunderstanding.

To be specific. In the report of the Committee on Hymnology
and Liturgics to the convention at Fort Wayne, 1941 (see Proceed-
ings, p. 326), the statement is made that this Committee, on the
basis of a declaration of the Delegate Synod of 1929 “regards books
of devotion, prayer books, and the like, as belonging to the scope
of its work.” — From the report of the Board of Christian Education
to the Fort Wayne convention (see Proceedings, 1941, pp. 135 to
149) and from statements made by its Executive Secretary to the
Literature Board, it is apparent that this Board has under con-
sideration the publication of literature planned to cover a very
wide range, “from the cradle to the grave,” including not only
books and tracts in the interest of and for the schoolroom, but also