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No one can deny the immense challenge of preaching to any generation, including our own. For help in meeting that challenge, here are some books to consider.

First, don’t overlook By Faith Alone: Essays on Justification in Honor of Gerhard O. Forde edited by Joseph A. Burgess and Marc Kolden (Eerdmans, 2004, $45, hardcover). This collection of lively and profound essays written by twenty theologians from seven countries is a very helpful resource for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the “chief article” of the Christian faith.

Roy A. Harrisville’s essay, “The Eschatological Significance of Justification for Preaching,” itself is worth the price of the book — especially if your Lutheran preaching or teaching well is running dry.

Some of this collection of essays look at the substance, role, and influence of the doctrine in the Protestant Reformation, some probe the importance of the doctrine today, and some discuss ecumenical issues.

There is more help in Preaching from the Lectionary: An Exegetical Commentary by Gerard S. Sloyan, with CD-Rom (Fortress, 2004, $40). The author accomplishes what he promises in his preface: “Preaching from the lectionary readings is a long and venerable tradition. But every pastor who does it regularly knows that it is difficult to bring something fresh to sermons year after year.

“This resource is structured to aid the pastor in identifying the central issues, struggling with difficult elements, and suggesting new insights in the lectionary passages. The searchability of the CD-Rom also enables the reader to do keyword and biblical passage searches when looking for related topics” (p. xvii).

The book’s primary principle is that Scripture is to be interpreted by Scripture. And the CD-Rom provides the fully searchable text, notetaking, bookmarking, and NRSV-linked citations.

Those of you who preach no doubt will agree with author Michael J. Quicke when he writes “Preaching every week — it’s a killer. ”He has written a helpful book titled 360 Degree Preaching: Hearing, Speaking, and Living the Word (Baker Academic, 2004, $16.99).

This helpful book offers some vital principles for biblical preaching and focuses on preaching practice, or as he puts it, “joining in the preaching swim.”

Did you know that Martin Luther “probably preached on The Lord’s Prayer more than anyone else known to us?” The Lord’s Prayer: A Text in Tradition by Kenneth W. Stevenson (Fortress, 2004, $22) is a fascinating historical survey of the use and interpretation of The Lord’s Prayer through the ages. As the author suggests, “What I hope will emerge from this study ... is a conviction that the Lord’s Prayer, so far from being fixed in stone, is a living text which keeps finding new climates and new terrain in order to be the ‘prayer of the Lord’ — in any age” (p. ix).

If you preach, teach, sing, pray The Lord’s Prayer, you will find this book a fascinating, fulfilling resource.

Another exceptional resource for preachers and teachers is Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (with CD-Rom) by John J. Collins (Fortress, 2004, $49). Carol Newsom, professor of Old Testament, Chandler School of Theology, comments that “using Collins’ textbook is like team-teaching with a master teacher.”

According to the author, “It is intended as a book for those who are beginning serious study rather than for experts. It is meant to be ecumenical, in the sense that it does not seek to impose any particular theological perspective, but to provide information and raise questions that should be relevant to any student” (p. ix).

How about a book for seekers, for teachers, for anyone who puzzles over what a Christian life is in our stressful age? Read A World According to God: Practices for Putting Faith at the Center of Your Life, by Martha Ellen Stortz, with a foreword by Ron Hansen (Jossey-Bass, 2004, $21.95).

Stortz helps us understand what Christian practices are by sharing the Christian story through Scripture and the lives of ordinary people. This beautifully written, theologically sound book would be great for small-group reading and discussion.

While thinking about Christian life in these times, consider The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation, by Barbara R. Rossing (Westview Press, 2004, $24).

According to Rossing, “Revelation is not a book written to inspire fear or terror. But it is definitely written to increase a sense of urgency for our world. It is an apocalyptic wake-up call for each of us, precisely because there is hope for us and for our world.... Revelation teaches us a way of life that is ‘Lamb power’—the power of nonviolent love to change the world” (p. 170).

Rossing has supplied the antidote for the current fever for “endtime” theology.

For more on the Christian way of life, and for hearing Mark again, read Reading Mark, Engaging the Gospel by David Rhoads (Fortress, 2004, $20). Rhoads helps the reader hear Mark through the use of narrative and social analyses. Rhoads has long been on a journey with the Gospel of Mark. Join the journey and participate in an ongoing conversation, because “It is essential that reflection on the ethics of reading become an integral part of our relationship with scripture. Otherwise, we risk making the text say what we want it to say and then appropriating it naively in ways that are harmful to others” (p. 219).

As we all have experienced, Christians don’t always agree on their understanding of the Christian way of life. How can we disagree and be one body? Get a group together and discuss Many Members Yet One Body: Committed Same-Gender Relationships and the Mission of the Church by Craig L. Nessan (Augsburg Fortress, 2004, $9.95).

Listen to the author: "In this book I am committed to offering my best understanding of the biblical witness and my most thorough reasoning about the particular questions before us. What I have discovered, however, is that our discussion of this particular issue has as much to do with ecclesiology as it does with sexuality.

“As we enter into pointed debate about an issue so hotly contested, we are challenged to examine our core commitments about the nature of the church. What does it mean to be church together with people with whom I vehemently disagree? What suffices as the basis for the unity of the church? How much difference of opinion is permissible before we have betrayed the truth?” (p. 5)

Also worth reading is Priests: A Calling in Crisis by Andrew M. Greeley (University of Chicago, 2004, $19). This book is an insider’s look at American priests today. Greeley warns, “In the worst-case scenario, the Catholic Church in the United States may suffer the fate of St. Augustine’s diocese of Hippo in North Africa. It may go down the drain, but not because of attacking infidels, not because of celibacy or homosexuality or sexual abuse, not because of secularism and materialism, but because of incompetence, stupidity, and clerical culture — all enemies from within.

“The cure? Clergy at all levels from the Pope down to the lowliest parish curate must be quiet and listen. And listen. And listen” (p. 151).

Carl E. Linder is interim book review editor for Lutheran Partners magazine. He served as the magazine’s editor from 1987 to 2002.