Krauth

In his introduction to Concordia Publishing House’s 2007 printing of Charles Porterfield Krauth’s The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology, Dr. Lawrence R. Rast Jr. cites an American Lutheran of the nineteenth century commenting on a German Lutheran immigrant. The American was shocked by the Orthodoxy of the German. He was taken back by the man’s insistence on an unconditional subscription to the unaltered Augsburg Confession, his belief in baptismal regeneration and the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, and his recommendation of private confession and absolution.# From the point of view of someone raised as an Orthodox Lutheran, the idea of a Lutheran who does not believe in baptismal regeneration or the real presence in the Lord’s Supper makes little sense. The question is then asked: How did American Lutheranism get to this point?
The American Lutherans had gone through a serious identity crisis during the early parts of the nineteenth century. One main concern was the transition from German to English. Rev. J. H. C. Helmuth (1745-1825), a pastor in the Pennsylvania Ministerium, feared that a departure from the German language would mean a departure from the religious language. After all, there were reports from Missionaries in Virginia who noticed that those who left the German language did indeed leave behind a religious life. Nevertheless, the English language was proving to be the inevitable transition. By 1807, the New York Ministerium took on English as its official language, and although German was retained in the Pennsylvania Ministerium their missionaries preached in English when they went to the Virginias and Ohio. Helmuth along others, fearing that the loss of German would mean extreme detriment for the Church, identified with the German speaking Reformed, and joint publications and hymnals were published between the Lutherans and Reformed.# On October 22, 1820, efforts for a General Synod began. The goal of this synod was meant as an advisory to the various ministeriums and synods in the United States. David A. Gustafson (1993) points out that the word “General” indicated no doctrinal standard; however, even with that lack of standard, there were still some who were afraid that it was too Lutheran.