A Summary of the Christian Faith

I recently finished reading part I of Henry Eeyster Jacobs’ A Summary of the Christian Faith, and it was excellent. There were so many times when I was forced to exclaim, “that is so awesome!!!” as I stumbled upon some beautiful passage concerning the faith. It was excellent. Here’s a great snippet from it:

“The proper theme of the pulpit is not philosophy, not literature, not ethical or economical or sociological theories, even for audiences of highly educated people, but the cross in its manifold relations and with its many lessons. He who abides close to the cross, will be sure to find hearers to whom his words will be like cold water to the parched tongue. All preaching that has been of permanent influence has been a preaching of the crucified Jesus, which, as will be seen below, is a preaching of Law as well as Gospel.” (Jacobs, A Summary of the Christian Faith).

One very interesting thing which I noticed in it is the Lutheran church’s willingness to confess the words of theologians from all traditions, provided that those theologians are confessing the truth. In his dogmatics text, Jacobs cites John Calvin multiple times when Calvin writes good and salutary on aspects of the faith. I found it very exciting and refreshing.