Produced by (Rev.) Kurt A. T. Bodling Concordia Senior
College, Class of 1976
PREFACE.Essentially, Christianity is the special divine faith in the truthrevealed 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 byChrist Jesus and freely offered in the Gospel. And the Christian Churchis the sum total of all those who truly believe, and therefore confessand propagate this truth of the Gospel.
Accordingly, the history of Christianity and of the Christian Churchis essentially the record concerning this truth, viz., how, when,where, by whom, with what success and consistency, etc., it has beenproclaimed, received, rejected, opposed, defended, corrupted, andrestored again to its original purity.
Lutheranism is not Christianity plus several ideas or modificationsof ideas added by Luther, but simply Christianity, consistentChristianity, neither more nor less. And the Lutheran Church is not anew growth, but merely the restoration of the original Christian Churchwith its apostolic, pure confession of the only saving Christian truthand faith.
The history of Lutheranism and of the Lutheran Church, therefore, isessentially the story concerning the old Christian truth, restored byLuther, viz., how, by whom, where, when, etc., this truth waspromulgated, embraced, rejected, condemned, defended, corrupted, andrestored again to pristine purity.
As for American Lutheranism, it is not a specific brand of Lutheranism,but simply Lutheranism in America; for doctrinally Lutheranism, likeChristianity, with which it is identical, is the same the world over.Neither is the American Lutheran Church a distinct species or variety ofthe Lutheran Church, but merely the Lutheran Church in America.
The modified Lutheranism advocated during the middle of the nineteenthcentury as "American Lutheranism" was a misnomer, for in reality it wasneither American nor Lutheran, but a sectarian corruption of both.
Hence, also, the history of American Lutheranism is but the record ofhow the Christian truth, restored by Luther, was preached and accepted,opposed and defended, corrupted and restored, in our country, at varioustimes, by various men, in various synods and congregations.
In the history of American Lutheranism four names are of specialsignificance: Muhlenberg, Schmucker, Walther, Krauth.
H. M. Muhlenberg endeavored to transplant to America the modifiedLutheranism of the Halle Pietists. S. S. Schmucker's ambition was totransmogrify the Lutheran Church into an essentially unionistic Reformedbody. C. F. Walther labored most earnestly and consistently to purgeAmerican Lutheranism of its foreign elements, and to restore theAmerican Lutheran Church to its original purity, in doctrine as well asin practise. In a similar spirit Charles Porterfield Krauth devoted hisefforts to revive confessional Lutheranism within the English portionof our Church.
The first volume of our presentation of American Lutheranism dealswith the early history of Lutheranism in America. The second, whichappeared first, presents the history of the synods which in 1918 mergedinto the United Lutheran Church: the General Synod, the General Council,and the United Synod in the South. The third deals with the history oft