Monthly Archives: August 2018
Rhonda Chandler
Filed under New Release
Church Year Calendar
Many thanks to Rev. Andrew Richard for telling me about his latest resource: a church year calendar!
Filed under Uncategorized
Motivation
I don’t know whether book clubs bring out the best in me or the worst. The book selections can be so . . . dark! I mean, I’m not some chipper girl who only reads sickly sweet stuff! O contraire, mon frere! But the Christless imagination goes in some terribly depressing places!
Filed under Uncategorized
Misc.
I’ve mentioned a number of times that I intend to self-publish a collection of my poetry. Yesterday I played around on Amazon’s CreateSpace website with some good results.
As is regretfully all too common, I’m feeling conflicted about several aspects of it. Sigh.
But, my friends, we are Lutheran. We are readers, and we are writers. We cannot stop at every conflict, especially those confined to feelings.
Say a prayer for me, folks. Please? Do I know what I’m doing? Are my pieces worth this?
Anyway, so far CreateSpace has been easy to navigate. Most of my tweaking has been entirely in content, so that’s a positive sign for the software & process.
Filed under Uncategorized
Breaking the Silence
Today I get to share a heartwarming, informative podcast episode titled “Breaking the Silence.” Do you know Mike Rowe’s That’s How I Heard It Series? It’s pretty new to me, but my husband’s been listening to quite a few episodes lately. This one in particular caught my attention.
Filed under Poetry
Forever Launch Team
I have met some great Lutheran authors in the last five years or so, one of whom is Vanessa Rasanen. I recently read a pre-release copy of her first novel, Soldier On (Releasing Fall 2018), and thoroughly enjoyed it. Anyway, she is currently offering an opportunity to apply for her “Forever Launch Team.”
Filed under Books to Purchase, Marketing
Great Ad
I got a great ad in my email box this week. It read:
Branch out this fall. Read a new fiction series. Start a book club. Write your own book. What will you try this fall?
My hat is off to CPH, because those are GREAT suggestions followed with a GREAT question!
Woo hoo!
Branch out. I’m serious. Read and write. What all can you try?! 🙂
I also like to think that means CPH intends to continue publishing fiction novels. Yay, yay, yay!
Ahem, that means, “Lutherans, submit!”
Filed under Uncategorized
Nightrage Rising
Filed under Reviews
Coloring Liturgy
AND, if your kids love to draw, you should be sure to download Draw the Liturgy, too, by the folks at According to Your Word. 🙂
Filed under Uncategorized
Theological Poets
Peter Leithart once said in an issue of Credenda/ Agenda: “We are devotees of the Word, people of the book. Yet we can’t write stories or poetry. This is a scandal.” It is a scandal! And, while stories get some attention, poetry rarely does. So I’d like to take this opportunity to call to mind theological poets ranging through history up to the times of the mid-20th century. Let’s read them, learn from them, and develop our own! Then I’ll also have lists of Lutheran poets, poetry by Martin Luther, and various other things. 🙂
I update this page as follows & in this order:
- Theological Poets through the Mid-20th Century (Christian, non-Lutheran, good to know)
- Past Lutheran Poets & Hymnists
- Living Lutheran Poets
- Poetry Books (Mostly Lutheran but also some Christian collections)
- Martin Luther poetry I found online
Feel free to tell me about more!!!!! Especially if it’s Lutheran!!!
Theological Poets through the Mid-20th Century
(A Lutheran-Specific List follows)
- William Langland (14th-century Englishman!)
- Dante Alighieri (Italian)
- John Donne
- George Herbert
- Henry Vaughan (Welsh)
- John Milton
- Thomas Traherne
- Gerard Manley Hopkins
- Francis Thompson
- Jacobus Revius (Dutch)
- TS Eliot
- Anne Bradstreet
- Christina Rossetti
- GK Chesterton
- RS Thomas
Past Lutheran Poets & Hymnists
(A great many of these are hymnwriters and hymns qualify as theological poetry. Not all, however, wrote explicitly religious poetry.)
- Lazarus Spengler (1479-1534)
- Martin Luther (1483-1546)
- Paul Speratus (1484-1551) (Helped Luther create the First Lutheran hymnal in 1524)
- Wolfgang Dachstein (1487-1553)
- Johann Kolross (1487-1560)
- Justus Jonas (sometimes the Elder) (1493-1555)
- Johann Walter (Latin? German? 1496-1570)
- Adam Reusner? (1496-1575 or 1572 or 1582) (German mystic, hymn-writer, poet, who studied with Luther, Melanchthon, and Justus Jonus)
- Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) wrote a few hymn replacements for saint’s days
- Elisabeth Cruciger (1500-1535)
- Paul Eber (1511-1569) (German)
- Johannes Gigas (1514-1581) (German) (Lived in Thuringia and then Poland)
- Georg Fabricius (1516-1571) (German, Latin)
- Ludwig Helmbold (also Heimbold) (1532-1598)
- Bartholomaus Ringwaldt (1532-1599)
- Martin Schalling the Younger (1532-1608)
- Christian Schesaeus (1535-1585) (Latin) (Transylvanian Saxon from Romania!)
- Hemminki of Masku (1550-1619) (Finnish, also did translation work)
- Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608)
- Martin Behm (1557-1622) (German)
- Valerius Herberger (1562-1627) (A prolific writer, but with only one hymn, Valet will ich dir geben)
- Melchior Teschner (1584-1635)
- Johann Heermann (I believe he wrote in Latin & German. 1585-1647)
- Martin Rinkart (or Rinckart) (1586-1649)
- Johann Matthaus Meyfart (1590-1642) (German)
- Paul Stockmann (also Paulus) (1603-1636) (Swedish? Danish? German)
- Simon Dach (1605-1659) (Latin, Greek, and German) (Prussian)
- Christian Keymann (1607-1662) (German)
- Johann von Rist (1607-1667) (German, dramatist best known for his hymns)
- Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676)
- Paul Fleming (1609-1640) (German, one of “the Silesian poets” or of “the Silesian school”)
- Michael Franck (1609-1667) (German)
- Hallgrímur Pétirsson (1614-1674) (“The Icelandic Paul Gerhardt”)
- Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664) (German & Latin)
- Johann Franck (or Frank) (1618-1677) (German) (Influenced by the Silesian School and Simon Dach)
- Georg Neumark (1621-1681) (German)
- Gottfried Wilhelm Sacer (1635-1699)
- Balthasar Kindermann (1636-1706) (German)
- Henrietta Catharina, Baroness von Gersdorff (1648-1726) (German and Latin verse)
- Johann Heinrich Ernesti (Latin? German? 1652-1729)
- Christian Heinrich Postel (1658-1705) (German)
- Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872) (Danish, wrote during the Danish Golden Age)
- John Rudolph Sutermeister (1803-1826) (English)
- Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877) (Finnish)
- N. Samuel ஞா.சாமுவேல் of Tranquebar (1850-1927) (One of the “triumvirate of Tamil Christian poets, he also put German hymns into Tamil meter)
- Anna Hoppe (1889-1941) (English/WELS?)
- Kristian Osvald Viderø (1906-1991) (Faroese, which is a language spoken on the Faroe Islands and in places in Denmark)
- Martin Franzmann (1907-1976) (English/LCMS)
- Jarosalv Vajda (1919-2008) (English/Translation work also)
- Herman Stuempfle (1923-2007) (English/ELCA)
- Henry L Lettermann (1932-1996) (English/LCMS)
Living Lutheran Poets
- Robin D. Fish
- Kathryn Ann Hill
- Alan Kornacki
- Robert Mayes
- Me! Mary J Moerbe
- Tanner Olson
- Mark Preus
- Kurt E. Reinhardt (LCC)
- Andrew Richard
- Ray Spitzenberger
- Stephen Starke
- You? 🙂
I haven’t read all of them, but you can also go here and scroll down to see a list of Lutheran poets & hymnists. I just haven’t read them all to know whether they are especially theological.
Poetry Books & Collections
Lutheran Poetry Books or Related Topics*
- Anna Hoppe
- Martin Franzmann
- Technically prayers, but I’m going to list this anyway: Pray for Joy
- Henry L. Lettermann
- Jaroslav Vajda
- Stephen Starke
- O Sing of Christ: The Hymns of Stephen P. Starke , Volume 1
- O Sing of Christ, Volume 2
- Kathryn Ann Hill (Follow this link and you’ll see how to order each)
- Rich in Grace: The Bible of the Poor for 21st Century Christians (ALPB, 2007)
- To You It Has Been Given (Lutheran Legacy, 2011)
- A Verse Vigil and Selected Poems
- The Song of Daniel and Selected Poems
- Now God is Flesh: Poems and Pictures for Christmastide
- The Holiest of Seasons: Poems and Pictures for Passiontide and Easter
- Kurt E. Reinhardt
- Robin D. Fish
- NFS Grundtvig
- Living Wellsprings: The Hymns, Songs, and Poems of N.F.S. Grundtvig. I think he got a bit more orthodox later in life?
- Dorothy Hamann (maybe Lutheran? I think so?)
- Alan Kornacki
- Me! Mary J Moerbe
- Ray Spitzenberger
- Tanner Olson (This one’s brand new to me!)
- Margo T. Rose:
- Esther A Schumann (published by the South Wisconsin District Office of the LCMS, 1977)
Lutheran Poetry Collections
- Simil: Lutheran Voices in Poetry, ed. by Mark Patrick Odland
Lutheran Dissertations or Papers
- Adriane Dorr Heins: To Write a Verse or Two: An Analysis of Lutheran Doctrine in the Poetry of George Herbert
- Anna Linton, Poetry and Parental Bereavement in Early Modern Lutheran Germany (I haven’t seen but it sounds interesting)
- Bernd Wannenwetsch, Who Am I? Bonhoeffer’s Theology Through His Poetry
Modern Christian Poetry Collections to Consider
- A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century
- The Soul in Paraphrase: A Treasury of Classic Devotional Poetry
- The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord by Roman Catholic Anthony Esolen
Also, for your reading pleasure, check out Dream of the Rood. Rood, in this context, is another way to say crucifix.
* By all means, check the authors listed above for published books of poetry. Otherwise, some of these Lutheran poetic finds are pretty pricey. You might want to Interlibrary loan!
Martin Luther’s Poetry
Look at this great find from www.poemhunter.com! Copied exactly from the Martin Luther page.
Care to bring more to my attention? Please do so! Let’s get a great big list of theological poets all in one place so we can bookmark it and check these poets out at our leisure!