Lutheran Study Bible

It's here! The New Lutheran Study Bible published by Augsburg Fortress.

I got mine a few days ago and have had a chance to look through it and I'm really liking what I've seen so far. It's a nice powder blue color. Who says bibles have to be black? It's got a lot of good scholarly, but accessible articles and introductions. It has side notes that deal with context, history, and artifacts, bible concepts, Lutheran perspectives and Faith Reflection questions.

Speaking of Lutheran insights, there's a whole section on how Lutherans read the bible, and how Martin Luther viewed the bible. I think it's important Lutherans understand that we are not fundamentalists and there is a "Lutheran" way of interpreting the bible.

I pre-ordered 20 for my congregation because it meant a substantial discount and now I am really looking forward to getting these bibles into the hands of my folk. This is going to be so nice after having to deal with people bringing up some off the wall point brought up in some fundamentalist "study bible".

I really hope this will deal with the disconnect between what pastors are learning in seminary and what gets to the folk in the pew. Don't get me wrong, this is the pastor's responsibility and many of us have fallen down on the job with the excuse that "people can't handle it" or "this will hurt their faith" Nonsense. I've been bringing solid bible scholarship to my bible studies here in the midwest and people can handle it. Mostly what is shocking to them is "How come we never heard this before?" How come indeed?