Rev. Dr. Eric Gritsch

Rev Dr. Eric W. Gritsch is Emeritus Professor  of Church History,  Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary where he also directed the Institute for Luther Studies.  A native of Austria, he experienced firsthand the reign of Adolf Hitler and the tyranny of Communism; he came to the United States in 1954.  He received his Ph.D. from Yale University and is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  He has taught at Wellesley College, the Catholic University of America, California Lutheran University, the Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, and in the Dr. Eric W. Gritsch Chair at the Melanchthon Institute in Houston, TX.

What is my interest in Eric Gritsch? Currently, his review and insight into the 2003 movie LUTHER; as well as his book “The Wit of Martin Luther”. Both of which I find to be enlightening and highly interesting. I anticipate finding more treasures from Gritsch’s work.
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Reviews of Luther Movie by Seminary Faculty

Reviews of the movie LUTHER (2003) from faculty of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. Original comments here: http://www.ltsg.edu/luthercolloquy/themovie.htm

Overall, they feel the movie to be an “ok” introduction to Luther, but absent in relaying the power and drama of Luther’s historical personality. They find the Luther movie to be “nice”.

I have also seen the Luther film. I liked it, but I am not so deep in the facts and history of Luther to know the difference. So I defer to more learned minds…

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Martin Luther – O Lord, Look Down From Heaven, Behold

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcqCvDUackg

From Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth page 26-27:
A paraphrase of Psalm 12, this hymn was written in 1523, the same time as many of Luther’s other psalm-hymns. It was published in the first Lutheran hymnal, Achtliederbuch, of 1524. Luther’s version of the psalm reflects much of his own experience in the early days of the Reformation. Though several different tunes were used for this text with various levels of success, the present tune dates from 1524 and is possibly by Luther himself.

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Martin Luther – If God Were Not Beside Us Now

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsMnZO8b2_Y

IF GOD WERE NOT BESIDE US NOW – By Martin Luther 1524

From Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth page 17-18:
Luther’s friend Justus Jonas in 1524 wrote an eight-stanza paraphrase of Psalm 124. In contrast to the smooth-flowing style of Jonas, Luther also undertook the paraphrasing of the same psalm, his being shorter, more rugged, and closer to the text of the psalm. After Luther’s version was published in Walter’s Wittenberg hymnal of 1524, both his and Jonas’ paraphrases were included in early Lutheran hymnals. Walter’s tune is the one most associated with this text.

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Martin Luther Lyrics – A New Song Shall Now Be Begun

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st6gRfIr86Y

“A New Song Shall Now Be Begun” – Composed by Martin Luther 1523
From Martin Luther: Hymns, Ballads, Chants, Truth page 8-13:

On July 1, 1523, the infant Reformation saw executed in the Brussels market place Heinrich Voes and Johann Esch, two Belgian Augustinian monks and followers of Luther. Since wandering minstrels and their ballads served as the mass media of the day, Luther wrote this first hymn of the Reformation as a ballad recounting the martyrdom of these witnesses. First appearing in 1523 in broadsheet for, it, along with Luther’s tune, was published in Johann Walter’s 1524 Wittenberg hymnal.

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