# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S401
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

10. CHURCH LITERATURE AND PUBLICATIONS; PUBLIC RELATIONS
AND COMMUNICATIONS

(10-01)
Report of
Commission on Church Literature

From August 1967 through December 1968 the Syn-
od’s Commission on Church Literature reviewed 690
manuscripts and related projects. Out of this digest
200 manuscripts were recommended for publication.
From these. 171, including 18 audiovisual subjects,
reached the market.

Among the new issues are the first three volumes of
a new Concordia Bible Commentary: Luther for an
Ecumenical Age, edited by C. Meyer: six additional
volumes (total 30) of the Arch Books. a children’s Bible
story series with sales of more than five million to date:
81 new tracts with a first-year distribution of 2.8 mil-
lion through the Concordia Tract Mission: Fire from the
Throne, by A. Schulze, a volume applying Christian
theology to racial conflict: Changes in Family Life, by
A. Grams: and two filmstrip-records on the lodge issue.
Continuing publications include the Portals of Prayer
series, the Concordia Pulpit, the Christian Encounter
Series, and Luther’s Works. of which 36 of the projected
56 volumes are completed.

Opportunity with caution is the commission's by-
word. A new age, world affected, is feasting on inves-
tigation, ‘progress,’ discovery, and incredulity but
starving on hopelessness, lostness, and rebellion. The
vacuum created is big and growing. Not to abhor but
to fill the emptiness with sobriety. temperate judgment.
and a faith in Jesus Christ that will not shrink is the
commission's intention.

Consider, for example, the unprecedented skills re-
quired in these dynamic and technological times. So-
phisticated mechanisms such as the computer and su-
prasophisticated facts such as the right and wrong of
law and order call for daily adjustments. Even though
audiovisual machines and techniques have been around
since teaching began, the honed used of these Spirit-
given instruments is bursting on this age with stagger-
ing promise. It is not improbable that know-this, how-
to, and believe-that books, films, tapes, and records,
separate and in combination, and the very latest. EVR
(electronic video recording), may soon push present
TV viewing into museums alongside the stereoscope, the
phonograph, and the crystal set radio.

Much as one may wish it. the chances for things to
settle down appear dim. We must live in, if not enjoy.
a revolutionary world. Illusionary ideas set forth in
romantic illustrations and a puffy style are no longer
generally accepted. Artwork must be colorful and dif-
ferent. or it will be ignored. There is a thing abroad in
the world to “tell it like it is.’ This is a TV genera-
tion. Today the average American is 27.7 years old.

Into this scene the Systematics Committee of the
commission projects its thinking and plans. (Systemat-

401

ics is the discipline that systematizes theological knowl-
edge as an aid to study and presentation.) Just as the
modern musical crowd digs Johann Sebastian Bach in
a way heretofore unheard and unbelieved, so young,
modern students are reading theology as probably never
before. They should have available Der Christliche
Glaube (The Christian Faith). by W. Elert: or De Dua-
bus Naturis (The Two Natures of Christ), by the great
German theologian Chemnitz: or Glauben an Jesus?
(Believe on Christ?). by W. Kuenneth. Baptism, Lu-
ther’s ethics. original sin. and the preeminence of God
are current subjects discussed at length and in depth,
and manuscripts on all of them are in the hands of the
committee. Already on the market are The Gospel of
Baptism. by R. Jungkuntz: Justification of the Ungodly.
by W. Dantine: Evangelical — What Is It? by E. Kinder:
and Earth with Heaven. by R. Caemmercr. These books
are aimed at the very heart of a Pepsi generation.

Now look at the work of the Committee for Re-
search. In 1962 the Synod resolved to collect and pub-
lish the writings of Dr. C. F. W. Walther. There is pres-
ently a request to appropriate $7,000 for the first volume.
The matter of religion and science is as much aflame as
ever with both sides charging and countercharging.
What is the attitude of the Synod toward science? To
find the answer is hard in terms of time and money.
The committee is steering this study. An Evaluation of
Rock Strata and the Fossil Record. Project 92. received
an appropriation of $8,000 from the Synod’s Board of
Directors, and it should be interesting. But not any
less than Project 36. The Meaning of Providence to
Modern Man, a study learning about and reaching for
the mod man and woman,

Sometimes research projects exceed expectations.
Who would have thought that A Greek-English Lexicon
of the New Testament. by Drs. W. F. Arndt and F. W.
Gingrich, would have produced $40,000 in royalties for
the Synod? This work is being updated. On the other
hand, so-called “failures” are probably never failures
inasmuch as there is always a positive contribution to
the cumulative knowledge of the church. That each
study guided by the Committee for Research does not
come out in print is understandable.

As may be guessed. the people on the Christian Arts
Committee of the commission must work against the
They know how much art is “getting out of
yourself.” They feel the force of art. whether it be
a novel digging into people problems, a poem enun-
ciating an overlooked point. or a painting that speaks
without words. But so much in art goes unheeded.
Materialists usually consider art a fringe subject, ex-
cept. of course, the art dealers and connoisseurs who go
to the bank heavily laden. Publishing a book of poems
can be risky business. The committee recognizes good
poetry. but they also know how coldly the cash register
is staring over their shoulder. And yet the promotion

grain.