The Art of Exegesis: An Analysis of the Life and Work of Martin Hans Franzmann

Although he loomed large during his lifetime Martin Hans Franzmann has faded away in the minds of American Lutherans. Memories of him typically orbit around an appreciation for his hymnody. He was however more than a hymn writer. To only understand or appreciate his hymns is to only understand or appreciate a part of him. This book seeks to shine a light on a brilliant and gifted poet of the church by unpacking and analyzing his life and work. In so doing it is hoped that he will loom large once again. Franzmanns hymns have endured for a reason namely because he was singularly focused on teaching people to hear the voice of God in the text of the Scriptures. While Martin Luther was the one to state that the Scriptures do not belong to anyone except God alone it was Martin Franzmann who applied this truth with his doxological approach to interpreting them. In this book rising Lutheran scholar Matthew Borrasso masterfully explicates how this respected seminary professor who also possessed the heart of a poet came to regard the exegesis of biblical texts as more of an art than a science. In the process he succeeds in shedding additional light on related twentieth-century conflicts over the Bible that swept through not only the Wisconsin Lutheran Synod in which Franzmann was reared and the Missouri Synod he tried to save from schism but most all of American Protestantism. --Jon Diefenthaler LCMS District President Emeritus and adjunct professor at Concordia Seminary St. Louis Matthew E. Borrasso is the pastor of Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church in Parkton Maryland. He has a BA from Concordia University Chicago (2008) a MACM from Northern Seminary (2012) a MDiv from Concordia Seminary (2014) and an STM from United Lutheran Seminary (2018).