This updated edition presents a thoughtful look at the role of the Lutheran Confessions among the various Lutheran church bodies in North America, including a new chapter on how the Confessions are interpreted and applied and a timeline of American Lutheranism. This book explains and interprets the history of Lutheran confession in America during the past two centuries and explores how Lutherans have grappled with the theological heritage of their confessional writings within an American cultural setting. It examines models Lutherans have used to allow their confessional documents to speak to the contemporary scene. An awareness of this history should help Lutheransfind their identity in the spiritual pluralism of today provide direction for navigating "through the various winds and storms of contemporary ideologies, theologies, and relativisms of post-modernity" help prevent absorption by the alluring cultural currents that wreak havoc with identity and with Christianity in any form