A new volume from Synoptic Text Information Services takes up a question the Seminex literature has raised for fifty years and never finished asking. Synoptic Text Information Services, Inc. is pleased to announce the publication of Atonement in Seminex: Case Study of Robert W. Bertram, by T. R. Halvorson. Everyone who has read about the 1974 walkout at Concordia Seminary knows the issues: the inspiration of Scripture, historical criticism, the confessional principle of church fellowship, and Gospel Reductionism. Fewer have noticed a claim that keeps surfacing at the edges of that literature. Kurt Marquart said that von Hofmann’s Law and…

Now Available: Vicarious Satisfaction in the Lutheran Confessions and Orthodoxy A charge that has been made for a century and a half, tested against the Book of Concord one proposition at a time. Vicarious Satisfaction in the Lutheran Confessions and Orthodoxy, by T. R. Halvorson, is now available in paperback from Amazon. Anyone who has spent time in Lutheran theological conversation has heard the charges. Orthodoxy got substitution wrong. Orthodoxy got satisfaction wrong. The dogmaticians of the seventeenth century are too legal, too juridical, and what they built is a scholastic framework laid over a simpler Gospel. The Confessions, it…

We are pleased to announce the release of the Kindle eReader Edition of The Hollaz Legacy: Lutheran Atonement Facing Rationalism and Pietism, a landmark volume in English-language Lutheran theological scholarship that brings together two centuries of Pomeranian Lutheran witness in a single, carefully edited collection. Purchase The Hollaz Legacy here A Recovery Long Overdue The name Hollaz is not unknown to students of Lutheran theology. Robert Preus called David Hollaz the Elder’s Acroamatic Theological Examination “the last great orthodox dogmatics,” and Wilhelm Löhe — the great nineteenth-century confessional Lutheran — credited it alongside Luther’s own writings with forming his Lutheran convictions. Francis Pieper and…

We are pleased to announce the release of The Hollaz Legacy: Lutheran Atonement Facing Rationalism and Pietism, a landmark volume in English-language Lutheran theological scholarship that brings together two centuries of Pomeranian Lutheran witness in a single, carefully edited collection. Purchase The Hollaz Legacy here A Recovery Long Overdue The name Hollaz is not unknown to students of Lutheran theology. Robert Preus called David Hollaz the Elder's Acroamatic Theological Examination "the last great orthodox dogmatics," and Wilhelm Löhe — the great nineteenth-century confessional Lutheran — credited it alongside Luther's own writings with forming his Lutheran convictions. Francis Pieper and C.…

SynopticText™ releases an audio book edition of Vicarious Satisfaction in Lutheran Catechisms, Confessions, and Hymns. The title is available on Amazon. The audio book has been created using the beta version of Virtual Voice, which narrates the Kindle Edition of the title with a computer-generated narration. Visit the Amazon page to hear a sample. Amazon says, “Audible audiobooks with virtual voice are currently a beta offering, and there are some known issues, which may change throughout the beta.” As part of the beta program, SynopticText™ will be giving feedback on the quality of Virtual Voice. We have noticed a few…

Synoptic Text Information Services has released the fourth title in the Atonement in Confessional Lutheran Theology series. The new title is Atonement in Confessional Lutheran Theology: Harnack, Thomasius, and Philippi. The atonement theory of Johannes von Hofmann has left a mark on Lutheran theology that persists to this day. He rejected vicarious satisfaction and replaced it with a historical, dispensational theory of Heilsgeschicte (salvation history). Hofmann claimed to follow Luther better than his opponents and the whole Lutheran tradition since Luther’s death. He invoked the tactic of “Luther against the Lutherans.” Similarly, he claimed to represent the Lutheran confessions more…