Memories 10: Convention essays; Germany, Australia, missions; breakdown, racism?; “winged words”

      This continues from Part 9 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series by Prof. Ludwig Fürbringer of his personal memories of the departed Franz Pieper in the 1931 Der Lutheraner magazine. — This segment offers an extensive list of Pieper's major convention essays, something that he did not include in his "Dr. Pieper As Theologian" series.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

(page 299, col. 2)

Memories of Dr. Franz Pieper.

by Ludwig Fürbringer – [4.] (Part 10 of 16)

I have already emphasized in an earlier article of these memoirs that our blessed Dr. Pieper was also for a number of years President our Synod as the successor of blessed Dr. H. C. Schwan, who in previous decades had been preceded by the blessed Walther and Wyneken. So Pieper was the fourth president of our Synod, in the years 1899 to 1911. So the Synod once again combined the two offices, the teaching office at the Seminary and the Presidium of the Synod, for a time connected in the person of Walther.

Dr. Pieper was even, one can well say, the most well-known man in the synod, to whom was also given the greatest confidence. Not only had he been at the seminary for twenty-one years, training many pastors, but he had also always served as a speaker at the conventions of the various districts and at the general synod.

We would like to particularly remember these instructive lectures, [search ‘Pieper’ here]  whose objects we will perhaps communicate in full elsewhere, and of which many are printed by our publishing house. They will be a lasting treasure to those who have heard or read them. And I remember on this point that Dr. Pieper served especially in our Southern District with such lectures. This was probably due to the fact that

for a number of years he was a member of the Commission for Negro Mission (as well as of our Commission for Heathens) and on the occasion of the synodical meetings in New Orleans always had a look at the Negro mission. His doctrinal lectures at the delegate synod conventions, which he always worked out very carefully to concisely say as much as possible, are really a kind of Christian program and therefore more often published in special printings, sometimes even today. We only need to mention a few titles: “Our Position in Doctrine and Practice”, 1893. “Church and Church Government”, 1896. “The Church and God's Word”, 1899. “The Essence of Christianity”, 1902. “The Glory of Doctrine of the Church of the Reformation”, 1914. “The Reconciliation of Man with God", 1920 [sic: 1916 Southern Illinois; 1920 “Christianity as Religion of the Hereafter”]. “The Christian World View”, 1923. “The Difference between the Christian Religion and All Other Religions”, 1926. And his last presentation [1929], so to speak his farewell to our delegate synod, dealt with the theme “The Open Heaven.” He could truly not have selected a more beautiful topic.

While Dr. Pieper administered the presidency of the Synod, he was, of course, much used increasingly by the mounting business of the synod, not merely through travel, but in particular through negotiations and correspondence. And we, who worked beside him at the institution, increasingly recognized that the union of two such busy offices in one person was not feasible. This was finally reflected in his physical condition. Just as in 1894 and 1895 he had to cease his work for a long time due to nervous overexertion and exhaustion, this returned again towards the end of 1910, so that he could not attend the Synod of 1911 and nearly for two years his lectures had to be interrupted. But as before, this time a trip to Europe brought a good improvement for him, and it was a great joy for us all when he was able to return full force in the 1913-1914 school year and not only to hold his lectures (and now without interruption (page 300, col. 1) until his last illness), but also completed his major work, "The Christian Dogmatics," which appeared in three volumes from 1917 to 1924.

But his presidency of the synod and his European trips brought him into contact with other circles. He became acquainted with the Free Church [ELFK] from his own point of view, and as he had sometimes so often served them by letter, he retained a lively interest in them until the end. He also had a lively correspondence as president with the Australian Synod, and it was he who commissioned the late Professor A. L. Graebner in 1902 with a visit to Australia and New Zealand in order to provide advice and assistance to that sister synod in a difficult situation. Above all, he got to know the different areas of our Synod much better from his own point of view, visited officially all their institutions occasionally and was able to serve them so many times with his rich experience and his good judgment.

And those who heard him as president and representative of the synod at the individual district synods know how he was quite able to speak to the hearts of the delegates on both matters of doctrine and life, as well as the affairs of the Synod, as he did to make their giving for God's kingdom a pleasure without even any intrusion or compulsion. He was an Evangelical man through and through, and he knew not only theoretically, but also practically, that in Christianity one can really do everything alone through the Gospel, but also through the Gospel do all things. Some of his words went through the Synod like “winged words.”

- - - - - - - - - - - -  continued in Part 11  - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Nervous breakdown"?
      Fuerbringer uses the terms “overexertion” and “exhaustion” to describe certain times during Pieper's tenure where he needed a break to rest. However in Theodore Graebner's biography of Pieper, the term "nervous breakdown" was used. There is quite a difference in these descriptions and I believe Graebner was already steering the Missouri Synod to listen to other theologians besides Pieper, like himself, especially on matters that regarded church fellowship.

Missions and Franz Pieper
      Pieper was actively involved in mission efforts as Fürbringer mentions above.  This refutes the false impressions given by the later LC-MS theologians in their caustic remarks against Old Missouri.  The 1902 Der Lutheraner (p. 199) reported the following (translated):

"When the news came of the great famine that was raging in India three and two years ago, our circles also collected for the needy. But as our missionary area was scarcely affected by the distress at that time, 4600 rupees — about $1500.00 — were turned over to other missions in the distressed districts, and were accepted by them with much thanks. These sums were set aside for later emergencies on the instructions of the General Support Commission, to which this matter was entrusted by the venerable President Pieper."

Pieper and "racism"?
      A prominent teacher of Concordia Seminary in the 1960s and 1970s, Prof. Frederick Danker, used the word "racism" 9 times in his 1977 book No Room in the Brotherhood. This inflammatory term was used to create a "straw man" argument against the teaching of Old Missouri.  But we see that not only was Pieper, the president of the Seminary of the Old Missouri, not "racist", he promoted mission efforts among the black people – those referred to as Negroes at the time. – And who could forget Pieper's praise of a black woman in a New York congregation refuting a modernist preacher with the words "I knows Job never lied".

Pieper's convention essays
      Fürbringer's listing of Pieper's Synod essays was extensive but not complete.  And there are several essays that still cry out to be translated today, including:

1. 1890 Milwaukee: "The Gospel, or the Pure Doctrine of Justification, Is the Source of Proper Enthusiasm For All Work in the Kingdom of God.", and
2. 1899 Ft. Wayne "The Church and God's Word".

Concordia Publishing has never published Pieper's essays in English translation to any great extent.  At least Concordia Theological Seminary Press (sold at CTS-FW bookstore) made several of these available. The exception to this is the book What Is Christianity? and Other Essays that is surprisingly still sold by them, albeit only in "Print on Demand".

Pieper's “winged words”
      Although the following quotes from Pieper may not have been from essays to the Synod conventions, yet they are truly “winged words” in my heart for all time:

• “There are ... but two religions ... the religion of the Law, or of man’s own works, and the religion of the Gospel, or of faith in Christ” (Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. 10, 19)
• “All praise of Christ, of grace, and of the means of grace, without the right doctrine of justification, is nothing.” (Walther on Justification, Part 10a)
• “The Lutheran Confessions… teach the threefold universalism of the love of the Father, of the merit of Christ, and of the efficacious operation of the Holy Ghost” (Christian Dogmatics, vol. 2, p. 22)
• “We are theologically divided [with Germany] by a chasm so broad and deep that it can not be bridged. We hold the Holy Scriptures for God's infallible Word”. (see this blog on Delitzsch)
• “Heaven is Open” (The Open Heaven, p. 257)

Yes, heaven is not "For Rent" because "heaven is open" (2 Cor. 5:19). "Winged words" indeed! — In the next Part 11...