As a founding father of Lutheran churches in America, Wilhelm Loehe is a link between today’s pastors and the wisdom that the Church has gained from centuries of studying God’s Word and applying the Means of Grace to people. His book The Pastor, translated into English for the first time, is now available through Concordia Publishing House.

Throughout The Pastor, Loehe explains the “how” and “why” of a pastor’s duties in the “one holy catholic and apostolic church.” He clarifies not just Lutheran pastoral practice in the nineteenth century, but also what it means to apply the Means of Grace to God’s people in the twenty-first century, in harmony with the Church of all ages.

“Loehe’s The Pastor is of great benefit, especially for Lutheran pastors today. Loehe, a German Lutheran living in the 1800s, was an expert in the pastoral and devotional literature of Lutheranism and of the Early Church. He brings forth these old treasures in this, his pastoral theology, and by doing so he opens a door to areas of divine wisdom that most modern pastors do not even know exist. From pastoral formation to Lutheran ‘ascetic literature’ to Lutheran casuistry (solving difficult issues, cases of conscience) to worship and preaching, the old words of Wilhelm Loehe are new and contemporary to us.”

—Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

This practical resource for Protestant clergy is written from a Lutheran standpoint and features these useful topics:

  • Pastoral practice and ethics
  • Homiletics
  • Catechesis
  • Liturgics
  • Pastoral care and counseling

To request a review copy of The Pastor, please contact Lindsey Martie, public relations, at 314-268-1303 or Lindsey.Martie@cph.org. Visit cph.org/pastor to learn more.

About the author

Wilhelm Loehe (1808–1872), a Lutheran pastor in Germany, was the main founder of the Missouri Synod’s seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He sent many missionaries to America in the nineteenth century. These missionaries helped form the Missouri Synod and the Iowa Synod (now part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).