American Lutheranism

American Lutheranism, by
Friedrich Bente

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Title: American Lutheranism Volume 1: Early History of American
Lutheranism and The Tennessee Synod
Author: Friedrich Bente
Release Date: March 30, 2007 [EBook #20941]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AMERICAN LUTHERANISM ***

Produced by (Rev.) Kurt A. T. Bodling Concordia Senior College,
Class of 1976

AMERICAN LUTHERANISM
Volume I Early History of American Lutheranism and The Tennessee

Synod By F. BENTE St. Louis, Mo. CONCORDIA PUBLISHING
HOUSE 1919
PREFACE. Essentially, Christianity is the special divine faith in the
truth revealed by the Bible that we are saved, not by our own efforts,
works, or merits, but alone by the pure and unmerited grace of God,
secured by Christ Jesus and freely offered in the Gospel. And the
Christian Church is the sum total of all those who truly believe, and
therefore confess and propagate this truth of the Gospel.
Accordingly, the history of Christianity and of the Christian Church is
essentially the record concerning this truth, viz., how, when, where, by
whom, with what success and consistency, etc., it has been proclaimed,
received, rejected, opposed, defended, corrupted, and restored again to
its original purity.
Lutheranism is not Christianity plus several ideas or modifications of
ideas added by Luther, but simply Christianity, consistent Christianity,
neither more nor less. And the Lutheran Church is not a new growth,
but merely the restoration of the original Christian Church with its
apostolic, pure confession of the only saving Christian truth and faith.
The history of Lutheranism and of the Lutheran Church, therefore, is
essentially the story concerning the old Christian truth, restored by
Luther, viz., how, by whom, where, when, etc., this truth was
promulgated, embraced, rejected, condemned, defended, corrupted, and
restored again to pristine purity.
As for American Lutheranism, it is not a specific brand of Lutheranism,
but simply Lutheranism in America; for doctrinally Lutheranism, like
Christianity, with which it is identical, is the same the world over.
Neither is the American Lutheran Church a distinct species or variety
of the Lutheran Church, but merely the Lutheran Church in America.
The modified Lutheranism advocated during the middle of the
nineteenth century as "American Lutheranism" was a misnomer, for in
reality it was neither American nor Lutheran, but a sectarian corruption
of both.

Hence, also, the history of American Lutheranism is but the record of
how the Christian truth, restored by Luther, was preached and accepted,
opposed and defended, corrupted and restored, in our country, at
various times, by various men, in various synods and congregations.
In the history of American Lutheranism four names are of special
significance: Muhlenberg, Schmucker, Walther, Krauth.
H. M. Muhlenberg endeavored to transplant to America the modified
Lutheranism of the Halle Pietists. S. S. Schmucker's ambition was to
transmogrify the Lutheran Church into an essentially unionistic
Reformed body. C. F. Walther labored most earnestly and consistently
to purge American Lutheranism of its foreign elements, and to restore
the American Lutheran Church to its original purity, in doctrine as well
as in practise. In a similar spirit Charles Porterfield Krauth devoted his
efforts to revive confessional Lutheranism within the English portion of
our Church.
The first volume of our presentation of American Lutheranism deals
with the early history of Lutheranism in America. The second, which
appeared first, presents the history of the synods which in 1918 merged
into the United Lutheran Church: the General Synod, the General
Council, and the United Synod in the South. The third deals with the
history of the Ohio, Iowa, Buffalo, and the Scandinavian synods, and,
Deo volente, will go to press as soon as Concordia Publishing House
will be ready for it. In the fourth volume we purpose to present the
history and doctrinal position of the Missouri, Wisconsin, and other
synods connected with the Synodical Conference.
As appears from the two volumes now in the market, our chief object is
to record the principal facts regarding the doctrinal position occupied at
various times, either by the different American Lutheran bodies
themselves or by some of their representative men, such comment only
being added as we deemed indispensable. We have everywhere
indicated our sources, primary as well as secondary, in order to
facilitate what we desire, viz., to hold us to strict accountability.
Brackets found in passages cited contain additions, comments,
corrections, etc., of our own, not of the respective authors quoted.

As collateral reading, especially to pages 1 to 147 of Vol. I, we
urgently recommend