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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Luther's Small Catechism

After looking on the Internet for the Luther's Small Catechism in German, I found a nicely formatted one at the SELK website using a 1986 edition of Luther with modern German. Unfortunately, it didn't include the two Appendices. After more looking, I was unable to find a complete catechism on the Internet (I suppose there is one out there somewhere, but to wade through thousands of hits gets tiring after a while). I thought: ,,Perhaps some Synodical resources have the German version online." Nope, I couldn't find a single hit. The closest I got was on the Concordia Ft. Wayne Seminary site. It appeared to be from the Triglotta, but as I looked at it, there were differences in the text that did not match my big green book. Btw, the Triglotta is an awesome resource, and the English texts are now in the public domain. Anyway, even Concordia Ft. Wayne excised the two Appendices from their online resource.

I am disappointed that there is no Synodical resource that allows you to access the Small Catechism in German. Yes, there were plenty of resources for Luther in English, but not German. 'Tis a sad, sad state of affairs.

Why did I diligently search for Luther's Small Catechism in German? One of my Sunday School students wants to learn German, and we have been doing a little bit each week. A German catechism would be a great resource for him.

So I buckled down and typed in the whole thing from my Triglotta (Taking that typing class in high school is one of the most practical classes I had during those years!). It would have been much easier and quicker to scan it in, but scanners (at least my scanner) don't read the fancy German script very well and output a bunch of gibberish. I should see what I can do about linking the German to a website, but for now I will post the parts here.

3 comments:

charles said...

I have ben looking for the same German edition to send to a dear friend in Berlin, but like you, I have3 had no positive results.

passatdoc said...

Das ist gewißlich wahr....


http://www.ekd.de/bekenntnisse/45662.html

passatdoc said...

PS the above link is the online version for the Evangelische Kirche Deutschlands. LCMS and WELS German-Americans might have issues with it, but it would be acceptable to ELCA members.