The Arthur Carl Piepkorn Center for Evangelical Catholicity

Important News

THE ADDRESS OF THE ACP CENTER IS NOW 35 SHERWOOD ST, MANSFIELD, CT, 06268-2290. THE FORMER ADDRESS MAY APPEAR SOMEWHERE ON THE WEBSITE. IGNORE IT. Also for awhile my zip code contained a typo. 06268-2290 is correct.
The price of the Volume 2 paperback (formerly $22.00) has been LOWERED:
For seminarians and ministers in the first two years of ministry it is $5.00 Postpaid with a computer searchable PDF of the book that acts like an index. The $5.00 is basically S&H to keep people from asking for a free copy and never looking at it.
For others it is $9.00 Postpaid with a computer searchable PDF of the book that acts like an index.
See ORDERING INFORMATION for details.

I have now sold or given away more than half of the copies of volume 2 that were printed. It will eventually sell out, so if you want a printed copy, now is the time to order.

These documents are available gratis by email attachment. Many more will be added.

Copyright information and Instructions on the use of the CD.
A copy of Volume 2.
“The Legendary, Beloved Arthur Carl Piepkorn.” Compiled by Philip James Secker.
“The Celebrant’s Self-Communion.”
“The Architectural Requirements of the Lutheran Cultus.” See description below.
“What Happens after Death According to Lutheran Hymns.” by Philip James Secker. See description below.
“A Partially Annotated Bibliography of the Personal and Professional Writings of Arthur Carl Piepkorn.” By Philip James Secker. 55+ pages.
“Valid Celebrations” of Holy Communion.
“A Glossary of Foreign Terms in Volumes 1 and 2 of Piepkorn’s Selected Writings.” By Philip James Secker, Donald Veitengruber and other volunteers.
An Errata for Volume 1 of Piepkorn’s Selected Writings.” By Philip James Secker, Donald Veitengruber and other volunteers.
“Arthur Carl Piepkorn on the ‘Schism of Authority’ in Lutheranism.” By Philip James Secker. Presented at the 42nd Annual Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions” at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, 2/2009. See description below.
Suggested Readings in Volume 2 of Piepkorn’s Selected Writings.” By Philip James Secker.

I HAVE DONE A LOT OF WORK ON VOLUMES 3 & 4 WHICH WILL APPEAR ON PIEPKORN.ORG FOR FREE DOWNLOADING. BECAUSE I WILL BE POSTING THEM THERE I WILL BE ABLE TO INCLUDE MANY ARTICLES THAT WOULD NOT FIT IN A BOOK. Because I will be posting them as stand alone articles on Piepkorn.org rather than in a book, I will have to edit the footnotes because I will no longer be able to cite cross references within a book. I have one article done and hope to post it soon. Its title is “THE CATHOLICITY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH” from 1952. I got distracted by our 2016 move and don’t think I ever did that. This is Jan 18, 2022. I hope to post ACP’s “THE CONDUCT OF THE SERVICE” 1995 soon.

THESE WILL BE POSTED ON PIEPKORN.ORG IF THEY ARE NOT ALEADY THERE AND THE LINKS WORK. I KNOW THAT SOME DO NOT.

The Architectural Requirements of the Lutheran Cultus, by Arthur Carl Piepkorn. I have added an introduction, footnotes, an index and a quiz that can be used with lay people. We have freedom with regard to things that are neither commanded nor forbidden by God, but that freedom is not absolute and by subscribing to the Book of Concord, we have accepted three limitations on it. Pastors, building committees and lay people should be familiar with what is in this monograph before they build new churches or make any changes to the architecture and furnishings of their churches. “Cultus” is not a reference to a cult, but to things like altars, candles, vestments, Holy Communion vessels, pews, artwork, etc.

“WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH According to Lutheran Hymns,” by Philip James Secker. This document was inspired by Arthur Carl Piepkorn. Although I cite primarily hymns from the LSB, I looked at all that apply in TLH, SBH, LBW, LW and ELW. I expected many to say that at death believers go immediately to heaven in the full sense of the word (other than not having a resurrection body), but I found only one hymn text in all of those hymnals that says that, and I consider it an aberration since its author has also written a hymn that refers to an intermediate state between death and heaven in the full sense. The rest of the hymns either refer to an intermediate state, imply the existence of one, or do not rule one out.

The following document is now available at media.ctsfw.edu: “Arthur Carl Piepkorn on the ‘Schism of Authority’ in Lutheranism.” The Director delivered it at the 42nd Annual Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions” at Concordia Seminary, Fort Wayne, on January 21, 2009. The schism is between the Sacred Scriptures interpreted according to the Lutheran Symbolical Books and biblicism, which Piepkorn defines as direct appeals to personal interpretations of the Bible (see Volume 2, pp, 84-85). Those interpretations may be correct or incorrect. That is not the issue. The issue is that they cannot be made binding on consciences if they have no warrant in the Lutheran Symbolical Books. For more information, see under Current News.

My Arthur Carl Piepkorn Bibliography is also available at media.ctsfw.edu.

WOMEN’S ORDINATION: In his article “Correspondence: The Gospel and All its Articles” in Volume 2 (pages 275-81) Piepkorn stated that he was “tempted” to say that “the ordination of women” is “a humanly instituted ceremony.” This does NOT mean that he approved of the ordination of women. He did not, but actively opposed it in a number of different ways. I will make available gratis to any one who wants an article I wrote to prove that. He said that like the wearing of veils, it is “a humanly instituted ceremony.” I am pressed for time right now, but he told a right-of-center pastor whose name I know but cannot recall at this minute that it would lead to problems and they would be “sexual” in nature. Of course, that is what happened.

The Center Director has made six 5-6 hour PowerPoint presentations on Piepkorn and his theology to five different chapters of the Society for the Holy Trinity (NYC Metropolitan, New England twice, California, Florida and Upper New York) and has invitations to four more chapters, though no dates for them have been set as of June 2012. He has made presentations about Piepkorn at many Circuit and other pastoral conferences. He travels from CT to San Diego 3-4 times a year and can easily stop off somewhere to make a presentation of any length for his expenses plus a $200 honorarium.

“THE MOST BRILLIANT THEOLOGIAN I HAVE EVER MET.“
Fr. Raymond Brown, S.S. on Piepkorn

John H. Elliot related the following in a December 2008 email to the ACP Center Director: “Piepkorn was admired by all, as you know. Fr. Ray Brown, my old friend and an ardent admirer of Piepkorn, knew him as a fellow member of the RC-Lutheran Dialogues. Ray considered him—these are his words—“the most brilliant theologian he had ever met.” And Ray had met most of the biggies in his life.

Quite a tribute to Arthur Carl.

VOLUME 2 OF PIEPKORN’S SELECTED WRITINGS

You can PREVIEW and do a limited number of COMPUTERIZED SEARCHES
with concordance-like results of:

THE SACRED SCRIPTURES AND THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS Volume 2, of the Selected Writings of Arthur Carl Piepkorn CEC Press: 2007
Foreword by Robert Kolb
Edited and introduced by Philip J. Secker
Mansfield CT: CEC Press, June 2007.
xlviii + 313 pages = 361 pages. 1000 copies printed.
See above for pricing and discounts.

For search instructions see the “Vol 2: Computerized Searchs” page.

There are many reasons why it is better to read Volume 2 before you read Volume 1:

One needs to know how our Church views the Sacred Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions before looking at specific doctrines.
Volume 2 has a more complete biography of Piepkorn and a more extensive introduction.
All foreign language in the text and important foreign language in the notes has been translated.
An errata (available free from me by email attachment) is essential to read Volume 1. None is needed for volume 2 as the few typos in it can all be figured out.

Where Volume 2 is Available

AS OF JANUARY 2010, VOLUME 2 IS IN 36 LIBRARIES:

14 Overseas Libraries: Australia (Loehe Seminary*; Moore Theological College and Seminary), Canada (St. Catharines; and Saskatoon), China (Hong Kong)*, Germany, India (5 libraries)*, Norway*, Sweden* and Tanzania*.
13 U.S. Seminary Libraries & Archives:
2 LCMS: St. Louis (2 copies); Fort Wayne (2 copies);
7 ELCA: Chicago, Columbia, Columbus, Philadelphia, St. Paul, Wartburg, ELCA Archives*
1 ELS: Bethany, Mankato
3 OTHER: Dallas TS, Fuller TS, Union TS (NYC)
6 College and University Libraries:
Concordia University in Irvine and in Mequon; Valparaiso University; St. Louis University, St. Anselm College*, Library of Congress
Three libraries cannot be identified since they ordered through library services companies.

I sent free copies to many pastors and libraries in third world countries.

*=Donated by the ACP Center. If you want to donate one to your alma mater, contact the Center.

BOOKSTORES that carry it: Concordia Seminary, St Louis, and Concordia Seminary, Fort Wayne, stock it regularly; Concordia University, Bronxville; and Concordia St. Catherines, Canada, have sold it but may not have it in stock.

IT IS OR HAS BEEN USED AS A REQUIRED TEXTBOOK IN FOUR SEMINARY COURSES AT: Concordia University, Bronxville; Concordia Seminary, St. Louis; and Concordia Seminary, St. Cathariens, Canada (four times).

SEMINARIANS and OTHER STUDENTS: If your bookstore does not carry Volume 2 of Piepkorn’s writings, see the special Seminarians and students’ discount on the “Vol 2: Ordering Information” page.

How Can You Help?

Pr. Heath C. Curtis has recruited about a dozen volunteer pastors and seminarians to type out Piepkorn documents that do not lend themselves to optical character recognition software because the original is a typescript or a printed document that that was poorly printed or has a lot of underlining. Contact me if you want to assist. You may choose a topic or even a specific document and I will send you a graphics image PDF to work from. You can view it in one window and type in another. You can choose Easy, Medium, or Hard documents. The Rev. Don Veitengruber and Deacon Joseph Morrison are also typing documents.

When Will Volumes 3 and 4 be Out?

SEE ABOVE ON THIS.

The question most asked of me with regard to the Arthur Carl Piepkorn Center is “When will volumes 3 and 4 will be out?” I found that putting out volume 2 took an enormous amount of time, effort and expense. The cost just for formatting, printing, ISBN number, copyright permissions, and three ads came to $7,700.00 for 1,000 copies. That is without anything for many trips to the archives in Elk Grove Village,IL, thousands of photocopies there at 25 cents a page, specialized computer hard-and software, office expenses, and hundreds of hours of labor. The result was a printed book that can’t be computer searched, and has no index (useful indexes are time intensive projects even with a computer). Fortunately I have a good place to store the copies until they sell out, which they eventually will. I have taken in about $11,000 in sales as of June 2015. My major efforts now are adding digitized copies of articles by and about Piepkorn to the CD that contains Volume 2. Then I plan to put volume 3 on a CD. Doing these things will require copyright permission, which can be expensive. At first I will introduce the articles but not do extensive editing. The volunteers (above) are helping greatly with getting the documents that optical character scanning does not work with (carbon copies, handwritten documents, poorly printed or heavily marked up documents, etc.

How to Stay Informed

The most common request I get is to be added to the Center emailing list. When I got a new laptop the list was not imported. I have it on my old laptop but have not tried to use it and have not sent out an email for over a year. I have a new but incomplete list on my current laptop. The best way to keep in touch with Center news is the CURRENT NEWS section of http://www.Piepkorn.org.