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German Language Use at Pennsylvanian Lutheran Seminaries

Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (LTSG) was founded in 1826 by Samuel Simon Schmucker, making it the oldest Lutheran Seminary in North America.Sitting atop a hill called Seminary Ridge, the seminary found itself in the middle of the Civil War when in July 1863 the opposing armies descended upon Gettysburg, and the campus was used as a key defensive point.The original seminary building was used as a lookout, and later as a field hospital for both Union and Confederate soldiers.Schmucker was a controversial figure within the Lutheran Church because of his radical theological positions, in particular his views on the Augsburg Confession.He was also a noted abolitionist.For 38 years he served as chairman of the faculty and professor of didactic theology.However, his pietist and puritan leanings caused controversies within the Church, giving rise to a conflict between Schmucker's "American Lutheranism" and the traditional theology of his colleagues.His opponents favored doctrinally based theology rooted in the Augsburg Confession, a summary of Christian faith following the Reformation that serves as the basis for Lutheranism.Still in the midst of the Civil War, Charles Porterfield Krauth, formerly a professor at Gettysburg, founded the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) in 1864.The new seminary sought to preserve a particular Lutheran identity and focus on instruction in German.At the time of its founding, the leaders of the new seminary-several of whom were trained by S.S. Schmucker at Gettysburg-took a leading role in promoting a specific type of confessionally-oriented Lutheranism.Debates about the authority and textual integrity of the Lutheran Confession, paired with societal issues rising
DOI: 10.17161/ygas.v57i.22614
Language: English
Subfield: History
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4401504336
FWCI:
Cites: 4
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Related to: 10