Electronic Luther
Luther's Works on CD-ROM. Version 1.0. Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann. Fortress/Concordia, $179.00.
My library boasts seven linear feet of red-bound volumes of Luther's Works, American Edition (LW) plus the Theodore Tappert version of the Book of Concord. This 56-book collection was assembled at the rate of a book a month on a graduate student's income in the early 1970s. To replace these volumes today would cost more than $1,500 in hard copy, but only $179 (introductory price until May 1) in a shiny CD-ROM.
The LW is a monumental resource. The selections are intelligently chosen from the more than 110 volumes of the Weimar Ausgabe (WA), the critical edition of Luther's works. The translations are reliable and fluid. The introductions, though often brief, are useful and a few are superb--Gottfried Krodel's introduction and annotations to a selection of Luther's letters adds significantly to the commentary in the WA itself. If you are not professionally obliged to use the WA, the LW is the collection of choice. Though the Tappert volume has been superseded by the Kolb and Wengert version of 2000, it remains a useful addition to the CD-ROM. Jaroslav Pelikan's Companion Volume to LW is not included, but the KJV of the Bible and Apocrypha are.
