Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther

Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther

Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther (often CFW Walther; born October 25, 1811 in Langenchursdorf , Saxony , † May 7, 1887 in St. Louis , Missouri , USA ) was a German-American Lutheran theologian .

Life

Walther was the eighth of twelve children of pastor Gottlob Heinrich Walther and his wife Johanna Wilhelmina, née Zschenderlein. At first he was tutored by his father, later at the Hohenstein School and the Latin School in Schneeberg , which he graduated in 1829.

Walther then studied theology in Leipzig . Due to illness he had to interrupt his studies for six months and during this time he dealt intensively with the writings and theology of Martin Luther . This Luther study established his conviction that only a commitment to the Holy Scriptures , the confessional writings and a strong confessionalism would bring salvation. With this conviction he stood in contradiction to the prevailing theological rationalism and the Union aspirations of his time.

After his first theological exam, Walther worked from 1833 to 1837 as a tutor for the Loeber family in Kahla . On January 15, 1837 he was ordained in the parish "To the good shepherd" in Bräunsdorf . As during his studies, he soon came into conflict with the state and ecclesiastical authorities of the Kingdom of Saxony due to his theological convictions .

After getting to know Martin Stephan , the preacher of the Dresden exiles community , Walther came to the conviction that in the rationalist state and the church that had come under the influence of liberal theology he could no longer carry out his pastoral service as he could Understanding of ordination vows corresponded. When Martin Stephan his followers to emigrate summoned to America, he was succeeded Walther in a group of about 800 Saxon Lutherans, on 5 emigrant ships from Bremen to New Orleans was leaving (the smallest ship "Amalia" sank with 51 immigrants in a storm). Walther traveled on November 18, 1838 with Stephan in the fifth and last group of 181 exiles on the last ship “Olbers”, “to liberate Orthodox Lutheranism in America”.

On January 21, 1839, the "Olbers" arrived with Stephan and Walther in New Orleans. Martin Stephan had himself proclaimed Bishop of the Apostolic Lutheran Episcopal Church in Stephansburg during the crossing . The entire group of now around 700 exiles traveled on to Missouri . Walther initially looked after the community in Perry County , which had been founded by German Old Lutherans from Prussia . On September 21, 1841 he married Emilie Buenger (* 1812; † 1885). Between 1842 and 1852 this marriage had six children.

After Bishop Martin Stephan had been removed from his offices on charges of financial infidelity and fornication, Walther took over the management of the Saxon emigrant group. In 1847 he founded the Missouri Synod and was elected President from 1847 to 1850 and from 1864 to 1878. He also became the founder of a preparatory college that became the Concordia Seminary . From 1850 to 1857 he taught theology here . In 1853 he founded the St. Louis Lutheran Bible Society .

Walter's home in St. Louis

He also took part in the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church (ELFK) founded in his Saxon homeland in 1876 . Friedrich Ruhland , the first president of the ELCF, had been trained in the Missouri Synod.

In 1855, the Georg August University of Göttingen offered Walther an honorary doctorate, which he rejected. However, in 1878 he accepted an honorary doctorate from Capital University in Columbus , Ohio . For nearly 46 years he was pastor of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod in St. Louis.

Through the magazine "Der Lutheraner" founded in 1844, Walther brought together many conservative Lutherans from the Midwest . Further writings of Walther emerged due to controversial theological discussions mainly with other Lutherans (e.g. Wilhelm Löhe ). The understanding of Scripture and Walther's writings on biblical studies, Protestant church confessions and post-Reformation-scholastic theology shape the self-image of the Missouri Synod, to which around a third of American Lutherans now belong. This spiritual fatherhood has brought Walther the name " Luther America".

Walther died in 1887. A mausoleum was built for him in Concordia Cemetery , where he is buried . May 7th on the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod calendar .

Works

• The voice of our church on the question of church and office . 1852, archive.org
• The right shape of an Evangelical Lutheran local church independent of the state . A. Wiebusch et al. Son, St. Louis 1864, archive.org
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church, the true visible Church of God on earth . Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis 1867, 1891, archive.org
• American Lutheran Gospel Postil: Sermons on the evangelical pericopes of the church year . Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis 1870, 1871, 1876, archive.org
• American Lutheran Pastoral Theology . 1876, archive.org
• Johann Wilhelm Baier (Ed.): Compendium Theologiae Positivae . 1877 (Volume 1  - Internet Archive ; 3 )
• Law and gospel . (1878) Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis 1893, archive.org
• The Right Differentiation between Law and Gospel (1884–1885, English) . Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis 1929

literature

• Christoph Barnbrock: The sermons of CFW Walther in the context of German emigrant communities in the USA. Backgrounds - analyzes - perspectives . Writings on Practical Theology, Volume 2. Verlag Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-8300-0812-0 .
• Christoph Barnbrock: Unequal partners. FCD Wyneken (1810–1876) and CFW Walther (1811–1887) in their own way . In: Lutheran Theology and Church 4/2011
• Arthur H. Drevlow, John M. Drickamer, Glenn E. Reichwald (Eds.): CFW Walther. The American Luther . Walther Press, Mankato (Minnesota) 1987
• WG Polack: The Story of CFW Walther . Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis 1935, 1973
• Lewis William Spitz Sr .: The Life of Dr. CFW Walther . Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis 1973, 1961
• DH Steffens: Doctor Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther . Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia 1917
• Renate Schönfuß-Krause: A Saxon became the “Luther of America” - 665 Saxon Lutherans emigrated from Dresden to North America . In: die Radeberger , No. 43, October 27, 2017; Archive “die Radeberger”, edition 43/2017 (PDF) accessed on January 13, 2018.
• Renate Schönfuß-Krause: Spook in the Rödertal or the rescue of poor souls from (before) purgatory… . In: die radeberger , ed. 44 to 48/2016 ( digitized version )
• Daniel Schwenzer:  Walther, Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 18, Bautz, Herzberg 2001, ISBN 3-88309-086-7 , Sp. 1472-1476.
• Renate Schönfuß-Krause: Addiction to the cross became curse of the cross (t). The emigration of Saxon Old Lutherans - between utopia and reality. Part I . In: Altenburg History and House Calendar 2018 . E. Reinhold Verlag, Altenburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-95755-033-0 .
• Chr. Hochstetter: The History of the Evangelical Lutheran Missouri Synod in North America . Heinrich J. Naumann, Dresden 1885.
• Walther, Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 6 : Sunderland - Zurita . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1889, p. 377 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

Commons : Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ May 7th in the ecumenical dictionary of saints