Memories of Dr. Franz Pieper by L. Fürbringer (#1), on Pieper anniversary: † June 3, 1931

Prof. Ludwig Fürbringer

      Today marks the 88th anniversary of the "home going" of Dr. Franz Pieper.  To commemorate this, I would begin a series of blogs publishing my translation of Prof. Ludwig Fürbringer's string of articles on his personal memories of Pieper.  The subject matter is more wide ranging than what he covered separately in his series "Dr. Franz Pieper as Theologian".  I have already published small portions of this series elsewhere (here and here) and so I will not repeat the portion that I included in the series on "Copernicanism".  Otherwise most of this series will be first published here in English. —  Some of this material may only be of interest to historians as Fürbringer writes of individuals apart from Pieper, but most of the material touches on spiritual matters of importance to all Christians.  We now begin our journey with Dr. Fürbringer to learn more of the man, Franz Pieper – "The Twentieth Century Luther". 

Translation by BackToLuther; highlighting is mine; hyperlinks added. Text extracted from Der Lutheraner, vol. 87 (1931), p. 250-252.

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(page 250, col. 2)

Memories of Dr. Franz Pieper.

by Ludwig Fürbringer – [1.]

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As we already said in the number of Der Lutheraner in which the blessed passing [Heimgang, “home going”]  of our faithful and much-beloved Dr. Pieper was announced, we now send to the valued readers of this paper some memories of his long and richly blessed life. A number of district synods which gathered in June have already duly given thought of him in one way or another: in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana, Michigan, Ontario, and Manitoba and Saskatchewan districts, as today's number announces at other places.  In the Colorado district meeting I had to represent the President of the Synod. I was allowed there to report after the last segment, where Dr. L. Wessel spoke on the royal office of Christ and his kingdom of honor and glory, something about the last weeks and the blessed passing of our teacher. Certainly some pastors and congregations have commemorated the departed teacher in their services without any further reason. And the Western District has especially recommended to their congregations to hold a memorial service as Pieper was a member of this district for fifty-three years.  In our Concordia Theological Monthly, in one of the upcoming numbers, Dr. Pieper’s importance as a theologian and churchman in a German and English article will be appreciated. A popular biography is in preparation.

Therefore, the following memories, as I would like to present at this point, will now be kept very personal. So I will describe as best I can the man who was first my esteemed teacher, who I then joined at his side as a younger colleague, and who together with me almost thirty-eight (page 251, col. 1) years, was allowed to labor at our seminary.

= = = = = = = = =  continued in Part 2  = = = = = = = = =

Part 2 was published under my series on Copernicanism here and so will not be repeated here.  It covers Pieper's early life in Germany and his acquaintance with the Lisco-Knak affair. —  Fürbringer's series spanned 6 issues of Der Lutheraner.  My series will split this into even more sections.  This adds to the earlier series "Dr. Franz Pieper as Theologian" and "Pieper's Sermons"
      There was another series written about this same time by Prof. W.H.T. Dau: "Dr. Francis Pieper the Churchman" and is available from CTS-FW here (formatted text here). However I have not highlighted Prof. Dau's works, even though written in English, as they show more of the tendency toward what the Missouri Synod transformed into, the LC-MS. Although Ludwig Fürbringer exhibited some of these same tendencies, yet he offered a better testimony to Pieper's greatness as a theologian. — In the following Part 3…

= = = = = = = = = = = = = =  Table of Contents  = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Part 1 – This blog with introduction; personal memories of Fürbringer
Part 2 – Birth place, Pomerania; near to Pastor Gustav Knak (from Copernicanism series)
Part 3 – Early training, language proficiency, especially Latin
Part 4 – Concordia student; pastor Wisc; Walther's recommendation: Concordia professor; August Pieper
Part 5 – trained in Dogmatics by Walther; Greek & Latin: "like water"; captivating Pieper-Conferences 1880/81
Part 6 – Pieper’s essays; 1st Brief Statement; Fürbringer called to faculty; relations with WELS
Part 7 – Fürbringer- new Prof.: “learned constantly”; "translated justification into daily life"
Part 8 – Christliche Dogmatik – the simple, clear Scriptural truth; “this instrument of the Lutheran Church”
Part 9 – Pieper’s great knowledge; humorous; Navy league; Vatican ‘For Rent’?; Pelikan, Lueking, Danker
Part 10 – Convention essays; Germany, Australia, missions; breakdown, racism?; “winged words”
Part 11 – Joyful- “lay the heart… on doctrine of justification” (not psychology)
Part 12 – Congregations, congregational schools; C.C. Schmidt, model preacher
Part 13 – Anniversaries- Professor- 25th & 50th (1903/1928); Chinese congratulate, but Th. Graebner?
Part 14 – Pieper "now grown old", "thought of written word"; not lonely
Part 15 – Last Words (again); Open Heaven; Albrecht Ritschl's deathbed conversion
Part 16 – How did Pieper die?; “this was not death”; sola gratia; Copernicus… again?