The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz
As I read through my regular blogs of Lutheran pastors I was delighted to find Pastor Paul T McCain write about The Hammer of God. I read this book about a year ago and it was amazing!
The Hammer of God was written by Bo Giertz, a Swedish pastor. It is a fictional and theological book that shows the power of God’s Word over spiritual deadness, rationalism, pietism, and liberalism.
The story is set within the parish of Odesjo over a period that reaches from the late 18th century to the middle of the 20th century. The book clearly illustrates the constancy of the Gospel over and against the the rationalism of the Enlightenment, the subjectivity of Pietism, and the relativism of Liberalism. It’s Law and Gospel!!
It’s really three stories in one:
- The Hammer of God
- Jesus Only
- On This Rock
The title of the book, The Hammer of God, is based on Jeremiah 23:29, “Is not my word like a fire? Says the Lord. And like a hammer that breaks the rock into pieces?”
There’s a study guide at Concordia Fort Wayne:
