author
Joseph Augustus Seiss
1823–1904
A 19th-century Lutheran preacher and prolific religious writer, he became known for vivid sermons, hymn work, and books that ranged from church teaching to biblical prophecy. His writing helped shape American Lutheran life while also drawing readers interested in the more speculative religious ideas of his era.
1 Audiobook
Luther and the Reformation: The Life-Springs of Our Liberties
by Joseph Augustus Seiss
About the author
Born in Maryland in 1823, Joseph Augustus Seiss was raised in a Moravian family and later became a Lutheran minister. He studied at Pennsylvania College in Gettysburg and pursued much of his theological training through private study before entering the ministry.
Seiss served congregations in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, including a long pastorate at St. John's Lutheran Church in Philadelphia. He was known as an eloquent preacher, an editor, a hymn translator, and a remarkably productive author whose work reached well beyond the pulpit.
Today he is often remembered for the range of his religious writing. Alongside more mainstream Lutheran and devotional works, he also wrote on prophecy, dispensational themes, and pyramidology, which gave his books a distinctive place in 19th-century American religious literature.