Confessional Lutheran theology, hagiography, philosophy, music, culture, sports, education,
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02 January 2016
+ Wilhelm Loehe, Pastor and Theologian +
2 January AD 1872
Christened Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe, he established a reputation already as a young pastor for being "too" theologically conservative and "too" politically progressive. This led to his being moved to at least twelve positions until he received his own parish in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria in 1837. Beginning his career with difficulty, he accomplished much from such a small place. Even though he had aspirations of a more prominent position in a major city, church and government officials never allowed that to pass.
The Catholic king of Bavaria was de facto leader of the Lutheran Church. His main desire was to keep the churches from becoming places of political unrest. Thus arose strict restrictions, such as an assembly of more than five people needing a police permit. He prohibited mission circles and other "subversive enterprises," thus relegating church activities to not much more than Sunday services only.
In 1840, Loehe read a newspaper account from America by Pastor Friedrich Wyneken. It told of German emigrants not having church or pastoral care — nobody could baptize their children, teach, visit the sick, or bury the dead. Pastor Loehe felt compelled to aid the German Lutherans in America and published an article in a church periodical asking for help. Beginning in the spring of 1841, several young men responded to Loehe's letter, expressing the desire help the settlers with their own skills and occupations. In the summer of 1842 he sent them to America at his own expense. He called them Nothelfer ("helpers in need") or "auxiliary saints", and trained them to be "emergency pastors."
Even while he had no theologians to assist his plans, Loehe published a map entitled "Overview for the German Lutheran Mission Work in the United States." It illustrated a system he developed for advancing pastoral care and outreach among German speakers in the United States. More young men followed and by his death, at least 185 came to America. Loehe paid for many of them himself and was always trying to raise money.
After only six years of marriage, Loehe's wife died, leaving him to raise their four children alone. Even among such hardships, his dreams remained clear and his desire to serve the Lord strong. Indeed, recent years have brought recognition for his farsightedness. This contrasts sharply with the handed-down opinions of many contemporaries who, while recognizing him as a founder of social institutions and mission education in Neuendettelsau, regarded him as divisive, narrow-minded, or combative. Changes in attitude began taking place especially after 1985, when several thousand of his letters were published, many previously unknown to scholars in Germany.
Seeking to support and strengthen missions and pastoral ministry in the United States, Loehe established a large parish cooperative throughout Germany. As support grew, he could publish his 1845 "Letter from the Home Country to the German Lutheran Emigrants" which 946 people, including 350 theologians, signed.
With the home churches finally behind him, he could at last send pastors! Loehe saw to the training of twenty-two pastors for work in America. Due in large part to his direct influence a seminary was established in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1846 as well as a teachers' institute in Saginaw, Michigan. Some of the men he sent to the U.S. helped to establish The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. Today, two LCMS seminaries, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri continue equipping and forming men to send out into the Savior's harvest fields.
Besides his interest in the United States, Loehe also assisted in training and sending pastors to care for emigrants in Brazil and Australia, both of which still have relatively small but vital Lutheran populations. He will continue to be remembered for his confessional integrity and his interest in liturgy and catechetics. He also never forgot the physical needs of those less fortunate and his works of Christian charity include the establishment of a deaconess training house, homes for the aged, an asylum for the mentally ill, and other caring institutions.
Please see Loehe etexts translated through Project Wittenberg for his Sonntagsblatt Appeal, his 1842 Instructions of Adam Ernst and Georg Burger, a letter from C.F.W. Walther to Loehe About the Fort Wayne Seminary, and Loehe's Report of Walther's and Wyneken's Visit.
Suggested Lection
Psalm 46
Isaiah 55:6-11
Romans 10:5-17
John 15:1-11
Collect
O Lord God, heavenly Father, we pray that, as You led Wilhelm Loehe to establish and support Lutheran missions and ministry in the New World, so You would continue to raise up faithful Lutheran pastors and missionaries that the Gospel might be proclaimed in its truth and purity, the Sacraments rightly administered, believers ministered to, and unbelievers converted by Your saving Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives and reigns with You and Your Son Jesus Christ, one God, now and forever.
Christened Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe, he established a reputation already as a young pastor for being "too" theologically conservative and "too" politically progressive. This led to his being moved to at least twelve positions until he received his own parish in Neuendettelsau, Bavaria in 1837. Beginning his career with difficulty, he accomplished much from such a small place. Even though he had aspirations of a more prominent position in a major city, church and government officials never allowed that to pass.The Catholic king of Bavaria was de facto leader of the Lutheran Church. His main desire was to keep the churches from becoming places of political unrest. Thus arose strict restrictions, such as an assembly of more than five people needing a police permit. He prohibited mission circles and other "subversive enterprises," thus relegating church activities to not much more than Sunday services only.
In 1840, Loehe read a newspaper account from America by Pastor Friedrich Wyneken. It told of German emigrants not having church or pastoral care — nobody could baptize their children, teach, visit the sick, or bury the dead. Pastor Loehe felt compelled to aid the German Lutherans in America and published an article in a church periodical asking for help. Beginning in the spring of 1841, several young men responded to Loehe's letter, expressing the desire help the settlers with their own skills and occupations. In the summer of 1842 he sent them to America at his own expense. He called them Nothelfer ("helpers in need") or "auxiliary saints", and trained them to be "emergency pastors."
After only six years of marriage, Loehe's wife died, leaving him to raise their four children alone. Even among such hardships, his dreams remained clear and his desire to serve the Lord strong. Indeed, recent years have brought recognition for his farsightedness. This contrasts sharply with the handed-down opinions of many contemporaries who, while recognizing him as a founder of social institutions and mission education in Neuendettelsau, regarded him as divisive, narrow-minded, or combative. Changes in attitude began taking place especially after 1985, when several thousand of his letters were published, many previously unknown to scholars in Germany.
Seeking to support and strengthen missions and pastoral ministry in the United States, Loehe established a large parish cooperative throughout Germany. As support grew, he could publish his 1845 "Letter from the Home Country to the German Lutheran Emigrants" which 946 people, including 350 theologians, signed.
With the home churches finally behind him, he could at last send pastors! Loehe saw to the training of twenty-two pastors for work in America. Due in large part to his direct influence a seminary was established in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1846 as well as a teachers' institute in Saginaw, Michigan. Some of the men he sent to the U.S. helped to establish The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod. Today, two LCMS seminaries, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri continue equipping and forming men to send out into the Savior's harvest fields.
Besides his interest in the United States, Loehe also assisted in training and sending pastors to care for emigrants in Brazil and Australia, both of which still have relatively small but vital Lutheran populations. He will continue to be remembered for his confessional integrity and his interest in liturgy and catechetics. He also never forgot the physical needs of those less fortunate and his works of Christian charity include the establishment of a deaconess training house, homes for the aged, an asylum for the mentally ill, and other caring institutions.
Please see Loehe etexts translated through Project Wittenberg for his Sonntagsblatt Appeal, his 1842 Instructions of Adam Ernst and Georg Burger, a letter from C.F.W. Walther to Loehe About the Fort Wayne Seminary, and Loehe's Report of Walther's and Wyneken's Visit.
Suggested Lection
Psalm 46
Isaiah 55:6-11
Romans 10:5-17
John 15:1-11
Collect
O Lord God, heavenly Father, we pray that, as You led Wilhelm Loehe to establish and support Lutheran missions and ministry in the New World, so You would continue to raise up faithful Lutheran pastors and missionaries that the Gospel might be proclaimed in its truth and purity, the Sacraments rightly administered, believers ministered to, and unbelievers converted by Your saving Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives and reigns with You and Your Son Jesus Christ, one God, now and forever.
Labels: american history, biography, commemoration, hagiography, lcms, loehe, lutheranism, missouri synod, walther, wyneken
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Contrary to C.F.W. Walther’s Kirche und Amt on the understanding of the doctrine of church and ministry, which was accepted by almost all of his Sendlinge, Wilhelm Loehe held a non-Lutheran view:
"Everywhere in the New Testament we see that the holy office begets the Churches, never that the office is merely a transfer of congregational rights and plenary powers, that the Churches confer the office. The office stands in the midst of the Church like a fruitful tree that has its seed in itself. As long as the examination and ordination remains in the hands of the Presbyterium (the pastors), it is right, and can be maintained that it completes itself and propagates itself from person to person, from generation to generation. Those who hold it pass it along, and he to whom its incumbents transfer it holds it as from God. … The office is a stream of blessing that pours itself from the apostles upon their disciples, and from these onward into future times." (Aphorismen über die neutestamentlichen Ämter [1849], p. 71; quoted in C. A. Hay, “Article V: The Office of the Ministry,” Lectures on the Augsburg Confession [Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1888], pp. 172-73)
Later Loehe did admit that the position of Walther and the Missouri Synod was congruent with that of Martin Luther and the Lutheran Confessions:
"The sad experiences which the former Stephanites [the Missourians] had with their hierarch, [Martin] Stephan, have made their hearts very receptive to the doctrine of the ministry held by Luther and subsequent theologians, a teaching also reflected in the Lutheran Symbols, especially since this doctrine not only commends itself highly to the Christian mind but also seems made to order for American circumstances. Conversely, some of us were led by experiences of an opposite and different nature to have an eye for a different conception of ministry and church, a conception which was present already at the time of the Reformation in the church of the Reformers and had been recommended particularly in some parts of southern Germany. Where it differs from the specific-Lutheran and Lutheran-theological course (Richtung), it seems to commend itself by virtue of a more artless attachment to Holy Scripture and antiquity and by greater truth in practice." (Kirchliche Nachrichten aus und über Nord-Amerika, No. 8 [1859]; quoted in C. F. W. Walther, “Do We Draw the Lines of Fellowship Too Narrowly?”, Editorials From “Lehre und Wehre” [Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1981], pp. 75-76)
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"Everywhere in the New Testament we see that the holy office begets the Churches, never that the office is merely a transfer of congregational rights and plenary powers, that the Churches confer the office. The office stands in the midst of the Church like a fruitful tree that has its seed in itself. As long as the examination and ordination remains in the hands of the Presbyterium (the pastors), it is right, and can be maintained that it completes itself and propagates itself from person to person, from generation to generation. Those who hold it pass it along, and he to whom its incumbents transfer it holds it as from God. … The office is a stream of blessing that pours itself from the apostles upon their disciples, and from these onward into future times." (Aphorismen über die neutestamentlichen Ämter [1849], p. 71; quoted in C. A. Hay, “Article V: The Office of the Ministry,” Lectures on the Augsburg Confession [Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1888], pp. 172-73)
Later Loehe did admit that the position of Walther and the Missouri Synod was congruent with that of Martin Luther and the Lutheran Confessions:
"The sad experiences which the former Stephanites [the Missourians] had with their hierarch, [Martin] Stephan, have made their hearts very receptive to the doctrine of the ministry held by Luther and subsequent theologians, a teaching also reflected in the Lutheran Symbols, especially since this doctrine not only commends itself highly to the Christian mind but also seems made to order for American circumstances. Conversely, some of us were led by experiences of an opposite and different nature to have an eye for a different conception of ministry and church, a conception which was present already at the time of the Reformation in the church of the Reformers and had been recommended particularly in some parts of southern Germany. Where it differs from the specific-Lutheran and Lutheran-theological course (Richtung), it seems to commend itself by virtue of a more artless attachment to Holy Scripture and antiquity and by greater truth in practice." (Kirchliche Nachrichten aus und über Nord-Amerika, No. 8 [1859]; quoted in C. F. W. Walther, “Do We Draw the Lines of Fellowship Too Narrowly?”, Editorials From “Lehre und Wehre” [Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1981], pp. 75-76)
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