That Divine and Most Excellent Gift

This posthumous compilation of writing by beloved scholar, teacher, and musician Mark P. Bangert explores how, in addition to his other contributions, Martin Luther expressed a theological valuation of music that can inspire and inform today's understanding and use of music, especially in Christian worship. Luther's preface to Symphoniae iucundae ("Delightful Symphonies," 1538) presents the clearest explication of this theology. At the time of his death, Bangert had composed core components of a book on Luther's preface. Drawing on this work and other writings by Bangert on Luther and music, Martin Seltz has edited a collection that pays tribute both to Luther's theology and to Bangert's important body of scholarship.

Mark P. Bangert (1938-2023) was John H. Tietjen Professor of Worship and Church Music emeritus at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, having previously taught at Christ Seminary-Seminex and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Bangert served on drafting committees for Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Occasional Services (1982). In addition to promoting ethnic church music, growing out of his work with the Lutheran World Federation's Study Team on Worship and Culture, he authored studies related to theological Bach research.

Martin A. Seltz, retired pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, served as vice president and publisher for congregational resources at Augsburg Fortress Publishers, where his work included leading the publication of the Evangelical Lutheran Worship family of resources.