Alberto L. Garcia and John A. Nunes

Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017. 188 pages. $22.00.

Reviewed by Rev. Dien Ashley Taylor, Ph.D. Pastor, Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church, The Bronx, New York. First Vice-President, LCMS Atlantic District. on 02/05/2018

Poetically passionate and potently provocative, Garcia and Nunes repeal the disingenuous, disintegrated, and disembodied stereotypical status quo that justifies poisonous Protestant passivity. They peel open the Scriptures, the Concordia, and Luther himself to position a prayerful people for experiencing and proclaiming justification through Christ with all its soteriological implications. Motivating martyria by the margins, championing koinonia with the margins, and dedicated to diakonia’s discombobulation from the margins, the Western tidiness of doctrinal predictability is unbound by the gospel itself. This happens as unfinished chapters of evangelical catholic theology are completed while spurious standards of racist subjugation and slavish subordination are rejected for the sake of promulgating the divine freedom, justice, truth and love that characterize our life in Christ. Creatively disruptive with personal examples and stirring stories of unsung heroes supported by footnotes, a discussion guide, and indices, Wittenberg Meets the World prophetically advocates needed repentance, reformation, and renewal in the Church.