Augsburg Fortress Collection (18 titles)

Jewish Literature Between the Bible and the Mishnah 

This Libronix CD-ROM edition is based on the fully revised and expanded print edition in which Nickelsburg introduces the reader to the broad range of Jewish literature that is not part of either the Bible or the standard rabbinic works. This includes especially the Apocrypha (such as 1 Maccabees), the Pseudepigrapha (such as 1 Enoch), the Dead Sea Scrolls, the works of Josephus, and the works of Philo.

316 pages, 2005

 Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy

Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy is a monumental work by Walter Brueggemann that examines Old Testament theology in new and exciting ways. 

M. Daniel Carroll R., Professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary says, "From the immensely creative pen of Walter Brueggemann comes this provocative approach to Old Testament theology. This well-known scholar has been known for weaving his textual studies with insights from a variety of disciplines and for striving to make his work relevant to the pressing issues of modern life. This book is another exemplary model of those commitments."

800 pages, 2005 

Introduction to World Religions 

The substantially revised and updated print edition (that is included at no charge when you purchase the Libronix CD-ROM version) features maps, charts, and more than two hundred photographs, many in color. The electronic edition of Introduction to World Religions includes charts, but not maps or pictures.

In this book, an international group of expert scholars sympathetically discuss the world’s major religious traditions (including Buddhism, Baha’i, and Jainism) and new religious movements. The contributing editors include Diana L. Eck, Robert Kisala, Nicholas de Lange, Mikael Rothstein, Lamin O. Sanneh, Garry W. Trompf, and Linda Woodhead.

According to Thomas W. Goodhue, a reporter for The United Methodist Reporter Interactive, "...Introduction to World Religions is a stunning achievement: a sweeping survey of how humanity has experienced the divine in myriad ways, across the centuries and around the globe.  It is not the be-all and end-all of comparative religion, but it is a very good place to start."  He goes on to say that "..the concluding essays on religion in the modern world are themselves worth the book's price, offering succinct explorations of ways in which existentialism, postmodernism, and globalization are challenging religious traditions."

496 pages, 2005

(Please note that this title will ship with a hardcover edition rather than a paperback edition)

Introducing the Bible 

This volume is a wonderfully reader-friendly resource for the beginning student in the study of the Bible. It combines Drane's two informative and popular earlier works, Introducing the Old Testament and Introducing the New Testament into one comprehensive electronic title. Drane writes in an accessible style, and the print edition includes hundreds of illustrations—tables, charts, photos, maps, and line-drawings. The electronic edition includes most of the same illustrations, minus the photographs. The Libronix software offers not only the full text and links to the biblical references you'd expect, but also extensive additional study materials, such as chapter summaries, questions for review and discussion, and weblinks. This set of two introductions are a great asset to the library of all serious students of the Bible.

730 pages, 2005

Constructive Theology: A Contemporary Approach to Classical Themes 

Coordinated by Serene Jones of Yale Divinity School and Paul Lakeland of Fairfield University, fifty of North America's top teaching theologians (members of the Workgroup on Constructive Christian Theology) have devised a text that allows students to experience the deeper point of theological questions, to delve into the fractures and disagreements that figured in the development of traditional Christian doctrines, and to sample the diverse and conflicting theological voices that vie for allegiance today.

334 pages, 2005

Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings 

The best one-volume reader of Martin Luther's writings, this work has become the gold standard for use in seminary and college environments. It not only offers all of Luther's most influential, noted, and important writings in the modern translations from the American edition of Luther's Works but also includes excerpts of his sermons and letters that shed light on Luther's own religious and theological development.

This second edition augments the first with further autobiographical excerpts, Luther's Preface to Romans, some of his controversialist writings, and a selection of graphics from the period. The Libronix CD-ROM features the fully searchable text, a short biography of Luther, a historical timeline, links to Reformation-era graphics, links to biographies and pictures of key Reformation figures, a glossary of key theological terms, a research-paper guide, and introductions to each part of the volume.

491 pages, 2005

Introduction to the Hebrew Bible 

An accessible introduction to the Hebrew Bible making use of Logos' powerful and easy-to-use interface.

In the Journal of Hebrew Scripture, John Kaltner of Rhodes College says, "The thing that distinguishes [the Introduction to the Hebrew Bible] is its length, and the opportunity this affords the author to explore themes and issues that are typically given only cursory treatment in an introduction, if they are discussed at all. In this case at least, size matters, and it is the “add-ons” that make this book such a useful and valuable resource."

700 pages, 2004

The Old Testament Story: An Introduction 

The Old Testament Story: An Introduction is a solid and exciting guide for lower division courses in religious or public universities, and for adult learners anywhere. It is not an exhaustive commentary, but samples the unforgettable and timeless traditions of the Bible. It translates biblical scholarship for anyone who wants to know what the Bible meant then, and what it means now.

What kings were ruling? What wars were raging? What did prophets and midwives do in ancient Israel? Why did Hebrews tell creation stories like Adam and Eve and parables like Jonah? What dramatic roles do heroes like Samson, widows like Ruth, prophets like Elijah and teachers like the Wise Woman in Proverbs play in tradition? Where is the voice of the women in the male world of the Bible?

The Old Testament Story: An Introduction engages the Bible, not as a textbook in the theology of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam — or even in the American way of life, — but as an exquisite expression of the questions with which, eventually, every human being must struggle.

496 pages, 2003

Preaching from the Lectionary: An Exegetical Commentary 

In this rich and deeply informative resource, one of the most learned and insightful biblical scholars of our time provides an exegetical analysis of each lectionary passage from the Revised Common Lectionary and the Lectionary for Mass for each Sunday and major feasts in the three-year cycle.

Preceded by an essay on biblical preaching, Sloyan’s astute work attempts to achieve the “plain sense” (Luther) or “literal sense” (Aquinas) of each text, largely through modern historical-critical exegesis. He deftly situates each reading in its historical background and its liturgical setting, as well as within its larger scriptural world through multiple cross-references and allusions.

Usable within the whole range of lectionary traditions, Sloyan’s work includes the print edition and a Libronix CD-ROM with the fully searchable text and instant access to each biblical passage referenced. Those entrusted with the preaching task have an extremely valuable commentary made even more usable through the tools available on the Libronix CD-ROM.

400 pages, 2004

American Religious Traditions: The Shaping of Religion in the United States 

In this fully revised and enhanced edition of his Religion in the New World (Fortress Press, 1990), Wentz extends and deepens his successful account of the shaping of America’s diverse religious traditions. Using religious studies categories, such as myth, legend, symbol, and ritual, Wentz sketches the development and flowering of all the traditions—Native American, Reformed, Puritan, Roman Catholic, Restorationist—that proved decisive for American religion.

The book extensively treats indigenous American figures and movements, including women, Native Americans, and Mormons, as well as Asian, African, and Islamic traditions. It also includes more material on Transcendentalism and Unitarian Universalism, public religion, and contemporary American Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims.

454 pages, 2003

Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study 

Danker’s indispensable volume, available since 1993 in a revised and expanded edition, has served for forty years as the reliable guide for students and scholars to the foundational texts of biblical study: concordances, primary Hebrew and Greek texts, grammars and lexicons, Bible dictionaries and versions, commentaries, and a host of contextual tools for studying the world of the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This latest edition couples the Libronix CD-ROM with the complete text of the book.  This title (or previous print editions) is a recommended books at many theological libraries including Trinity International University, Hope College, Yale University Divinity School Library, Regent University, and many more.  

344 pages, 2003

The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction 

Along with an overview of the Hebrew Bible, including introductions to each book, Gottwald provides social analysis of ancient Israel and how these books fit into that society. His acute treatment of literary genres, social conflicts, and contemporary scholarship makes this an indispensable textbook and reference work.

From the preface:

"The study of the Hebrew Bible is in ferment and undergoing rapid change. This book attempts to orient the reader to a critical understanding of the Hebrew Bible and to the current state of biblical studies asd an intellectual and and sociocultural practice. It underlines the expanding range of choices in methods of biblical study now available, a range far wider than at any time in the long history of biblical interpretation."

736 pages, 2002

Palestine in the Time of Jesus: Social Structures and Social Conflicts 

Through a judicious use of the social sciences, Hanson and Oakman's enormously helpful volume explains in a readable way the primary social institutions and structures of ancient Palestine, with a view to how they are reflected in and shaped the early Jesus movement.

After an overview of social analysis and of the ancient Mediterranean worldview, the core of the book systematically presents major domains and institutions of family, politics, and economy, always with reference to specific biblical and other ancient texts. In a concluding chapter, the authors explore Palestine's religious institutions, especially Herod's Tmeple systems and Jesus' relation to it.

256 pages, 2002

A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introductions 

Until now, no single anthology of the most important documents of the sixteenth-century European Reformation has been available. Janz, a well-respected Reformation scholar, captures the energy and moment of that tumultuous time in this rich trove of nearly 100 carefully edited primary documents.

Formulated in such a way as to be usable in state university settings as well as religious ones, undergraduate and graduate, A Reformation Reader includes a range of sources, from the most frequently cited works to personal narratives and letters, comments on the social mores of the time, and some sermons.

396 pages, 2002

The Writings of the New Testament 

The completely revised and updated version of Johnson's very successful Introduction to the New Testament (1999) is now available! Johnson organizes his presentation in six major sections:

1. The Symbolic World of the New Testament
2. The Christian Experience
3. The Synoptic Tradition
4. Pauline Traditions
5. Other Canonical Witnesses
6. The Johannine Tradition

From the introduction to The Writings of the New Testament:

"This book serves as an introduction to the writings of the New Testament (NT). Its subject is a set of writings ordinarily found with another collection in the large anthology called the Bible. These writings came to birth in a specific time and place and were generated by specific causes. It may seem odd to think of the "birth" of literature, but the word is a reminder that what the reader now meets as an ancient text began as a living expressiion of living experienc, and entered the world with a still visible parentage."

694 pages, 2002

Christian Theology Set (two titles)

The Christian Theology Set consists of two books in paper - Hodgson and King's Christian Theology and the historical anthology, Readings in Christian Theology - accompanied by a Libronix CD-ROM that contains the entirety of these two volumes and many pedagogical features. Their compilation on CD-ROM contains primary texts of important classic and contemporary theologians; well-crafted topical essays that compare and contrast major historical contributions to each theological issue; and fresh reconstuctions of key theological themes in light of recent intellectual, social, and pedagogical challenges.

400 pages, 2002

The Book of Concord 

Now on Libronix CD-ROM, and with hyperlinks to the biblical text, this fresh translation of The Book of Concord takes into account new scholarship, changes in the English language, new knowledge of the history and theology of these documents, and a more technology-driven populace.

Commissioned in 1993, the print edition of this translation of The Book of Concord (which is the basis for the electronic version) brings a new generation of scholarship and sensitivities to bear on the foundational texts of Lutheran identity. The fifth English translation since 1851, the print edition succeeds that edited by Theodore Tappert published in 1959 by Muhlenburg Press.

(Please note that this title will only include the CD-ROM and will not include a print edition)