Only A Book!

"Look at this" said Armin, the librarian at Augstana Holschule, "it's a book written by Martin Luther and published during his life."   We stood together huddled in the rare book room of the seminary library. Armin, myself, the seminary pastor Susanne, and two students--one from Germany and one from Wisconsin.

It was a pretty cool space. The library was designed to float out into the landscape of trees and grass. The rare book room was small, maybe 150 square feet.  We looked carefully at a picture that was most certainly controversial in its day. Martin Luther even wrote his own introduction. He commented that his words were  of little value, how could they be valued,  but then, on the next page he acknowledged his own celebrity and thought why not me...after all they published the church fathers!

Oh well, it was fun to touch the book, see it's cover,  and realize it was printed in the 1500's.