Tuesday, February 21, 2023

It is the 21st of February, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Happy Tuesday- one note and then one free thing. The note: on a recent show on Jehovah’s Witnesses, I stated that there were 8 million in the US- listener Craig pointed out that it seemed high, and it was- 8 million in the world, a million and a half or so in America today.

And, just because it just is: nobody needs to know if you don’t really know what those two dots above letters in German mean that the vowel with the umlaut is hiding an e. You can add an “e” after that vowel, and then when you say the vowel+e make an “o” shape with your mouth.

And you know who had an umlaut in his name: Johann Konrad Wilhelm Loehe- or just, Wilhelm Loehe. Despite a rather provincial life, he was a giant in international Lutheranism, spent mostly in a Bavarian village he wasn’t too keen on- let’s tell his story.

Loehe was born on this day- the 21st of February in 1808 to Johann and Maria- of 13 children, 6 survived, Wilhelm, a brother, and five sisters. IN 1816 Johann died, leaving Maria a widow with six kids. Despite her need for assistance in finding work, she encouraged Wilhelm to follow his heart into the ministry.

He would study at Erlangen- studying theology under professors both Lutheran and Reformed, and was particularly attracted to Christian Krafft, a Reformed professor and part of a group seeking revival. Wilhelm’s studies would lead him into dogmatics- where he would read systematic theologies and confessions of Faith. Here he committed (or recommitted) himself to the Lutheran heritage.  

He would be ordained in 1831, although his ordaining committee was unhappy with what they perceived as a sermon  “too mystical,” while supporters of Loehe’s suggest it was nothing more than an explanation of Justification, according to Paul.  From 1831 to 1837, he would serve in various capacities in the church- none matching his dream positions in the church. In 1837 Wilhelm married Helen Andreae and was made pastor in Neuendettelsau Bavaria.

He figured Neuendettelsau would be a temporary stay and thought it was a dump- he didn’t know then that he would never leave- he could do international work from his desk in a tiny Bavarian village.  

The couple would have four children before Helen died suddenly in 1843 at the age of 24. Wilhelm would raise the children, with help, from then on- another reason he never made the transatlantic journeys that so many Lutherans seemed to go on in recent years.

But Loehe heard through missionary periodicals that Lutherans in America were underfunded, understaffed, and in danger of being assimilated. Loehe would arrange to send money and begin sending ministers he helped train in his distinctly Lutheran theology but relatively ecumenical spirit.

By the mid-1840s, Loehe’s men in North America had come together with the Saxon emigrants headed by C.F.W. Walther to form what is today the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and, in 1846, to found a Lutheran seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Walther and Loehe did not see eye-to-eye on everything, and Wilhelm’s trained men would leave Fort Wayne and found Wartburg College. Lowe’s would send pastors not only to America but to Brazil, Ukraine, and Australia.  

By 1853 he turned his eyes closer to home and the place of women in the church. He thought women were being under-appreciated and underutilized- his female Diaconate program was the first of his kind, and his church would house the first deaconess motherhouse there in Neuendettelsau.

So- despite the tragedy of losing his father and young wife. Despite being marginalized into a small church on account of disagreeing with the powers that be, despite rarely leaving his Bavarian homeland helped establish American and then global Lutheranism in the 19th centricity. Wilhelm Loehe was born on this day- the 21st of February in 1808- he died in 1872 at the age of 63.

The last word for today comes from Romans 11:

I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? 4 And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 21st of February 2023 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man known for drawing umlauts over other people's names- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man… dang it, he did it to me here. I’m Dän vän Voörhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.