Memories 8: Christliche Dogmatik– simple, clear Scriptural truth; “this instrument of the Lutheran Church”

      This continues from Part 7 (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. — The background information on Pieper's Dogmatik is revealed in more detail in this segment. This is supplemental to what he said in his series "Dr. F. Pieper as Theologian" here and here.

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

(page 281, col. 2)

Memories of Dr. Franz Pieper.

by Ludwig Fürbringer – [3.] (Part 8 of 16)

And because, as I have just stated, he started from the only correct point of view, that the main task of a teacher is to teach and to delve deeper and deeper into the objects which he has to teach, he was also in a position to create such a thorough, immortal work, his three-volume Christliche Dogmatik [Christian Dogmatics].  Therefore I may perhaps remark here that in retrospect it seems to me a wise coincidence that he, who was also President of the Synod from 1899 to 1911, was then released from this office.

He had already published a booklet in 1898 [Die Lehre von Christi Werk] as a part of his dogmatics, but the many jobs that he had to provide as a president did not allow him to continue as he wished. However that changed when he could confine himself to his work at the institution; and we junior colleagues also saw to it that he was spared as much as possible with other work that was otherwise associated with a professorship here, such as reviewing manuscripts, etc., so that he could concentrate his time and energy on this great work. And the result of this efficient work in the years from 1917 to 1924, everyone within our church knows. I can cite many testimonies, but I want to leave it at two. Just today, as I am writing this, a member of our ministry, a city pastor, who was already active in office for over forty years, wrote in a letter to me:

“I am working through Dr. Pieper's Dogmatics for the fourth time.”  And the crown and the highest praise that must be accorded to this work is that it expresses the simple, clear Scriptural truth. This is also recognized in other circles. A teacher of dogmatics in Germany, not from our Free Church [ELFK-Oberursel], but close to us, who knows and uses Dr. Pieper’s Dogmatik, wrote a special letter to me and said in it: “Since I read the news of Professor Pieper's passing [Heimgang - “going home”], it was my intention to express from my heart my sympathy to you over the loss you and the Concordia Seminary have suffered through the death of this faithful and blessed scribe, who was a true theologian. But on his coffin you have been able to thank the Lord greatly for the rich blessing He has bestowed by this instrument of the Lutheran Church, and this restless worker had done his life's work, ‘come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.’ [Job 5:26]  In his writings he will live on, and they will continue his work, and I had hoped it would still be his to give a concise compendium of dogmatics that we so desperately need, but he probably did not find the time.

“a brief but comprehensive…
dogmatic”

Another one [J.T. Mueller, Christian Dogmatics, ] will be called upon to write the work of art in a linguistically acclaimed expression of a brief but comprehensive theological presentation of the orthodox Lutheran doctrine. God grant that this will happen soon!” Already in an earlier letter, during the lifetime of Dr. Pieper, the same writer had remarked: “It would be very much desirable to make a short dogmatic (page 283, col. 1) textbook that contained the scriptural confession of our church in all its parts. May it be that Dr. Pieper be given to write such and to give it to the church! This could greatly contribute to bringing about the true knowledge of the truth in the Lutheran Church.” I know that a few years ago Dr. Pieper thought of authoring such a compendium or short summary of the Christian doctrine. I had also communicated the above request to him, but unfortunately he did not get around to it.

- - - - - - - - - - - -  continued in Part 9  - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Fürbringer and Pieper both apparently knew of the need for a "brief" Dogmatics. I wonder whether Pieper was the one to ask John Theodore Mueller to do this work before he "went home". I would like to think that he did, but even so, Mueller surely knew of the need and carried out the “compendium” project.  I have been amazed at how popular my blog post with a download of Mueller's work became – it is nearly the most read of my blog posts.  Let me repeat again all the languages that Mueller's "abridged" work has been translated into from the original English:

Spanish, Swedish, French (2 versions), Finnish, Chinese, Latvian, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Zulu, and German.

Robert Kolb wrote a preface to the Latvian translation and charged Mueller-Pieper's work with using the "Aristotelian method" ("aristotelisko metodi") or a deductive method (p. 8).  This charge was made even though Pieper always based his theology solidly on the words of Holy Scripture and not on "theological deduction".  Kolb's charge is the same as that of the "faculty majority" of Concordia Seminary that staged the 1974 "Walkout".  To any Latvians reading this, you should know that Kolb's charge of "Aristotelian method" is false and that they should rather ignore Kolb's works and stick with Pieper and Mueller's Dogmatics.  The works of Robert Kolb (and many other questionable works) have so infiltrated the Lutheran Heritage Foundation that I wonder that Mueller-Pieper will not be translated into any more languages. If anyone in the world would like any one of the translations above but are unable to obtain it, let me know. — In the next Part 9...