Missourian! 6: Avid German response to America… and a mediator; Germany today?

      This continues from Part 5 and concludes the series "Missourian!" (Table of Contents in Part 1) — Walther's stirring 1872 series on the label "Missourian" sparked an enthusiastic response from Germany.  It was written by a contributor to one of the church newspapers that was less inclined to go along with the rationalism and unionism in that country.  He was "Licentiate" K. Stroebel, carrying a title that followed the ecclesiastical system in Germany at that time.  Stroebel has been quoted before on this blog regarding science and religion, but his short essay here calls out to his German countrymen to open their eyes to the pure Lutheranism growing in the New World.  But an editor of the journal, H.F.A. Guericke, could not leave Stroebel's fervent remarks for the "Missourians" without a mediating note.
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Stroebel’s original review in Zeitschrift für die gesammte lutherische Theologie und Kirche vol. 34 (1873), p. 688-690 here (DigiZeitschriften.de) and here (Google Books). Translation by BTL.

Miscellaneous.

[by Licentiate K. Stroebel]

I. “Galileans!” “Nazarene!” “Athanasians!” “Lutherans!” “Missourians!” What a content-rich, fruitful topic is tied to these names of abuse and honour! Recently Prof. Walther of St. Louis treated it in detail in a foreword to Der Lutheraner (No. 1. and 2., 1. and 15. October 1 and 15, 1872), and we may draw attention to the statements in question, because in any case they are respectable. If the “Missourians” have recently been turned into an odious keyword and cover, the last reason for this is by no means to be found in any particular peculiarity, but rather in something worthy of praise. … [[Stroebel quotes Walther’s entire final footnote on p. 10, column 3, see Part 5]] … The Missourians at least know with reliable precision what the fight against atheism, papism and unionism are about and what they are not about. This is already attested by the other contents of those two Foreword numbers: we mean especially the report about "the free, i.e. unbelieving, and God-denying congregation in Milwaukee”, — then the “Submission on Father Brockhagen's Schutt und Gerölle”, etc. — But above all this is attested by the careful and essentially ironic presentation about “the United-Evangelical Synod of the West” [see United Church of Christ article here] and the pastor belonging to it. Riedel, a gifted, serious and sincere man, who in his recent synodical sermon (characteristically titled: “Silent Voices of Ezekiel's Bone Field, A Sermon on Ezek. 37:1-14” Louisville, Ky. 1872), rolls out an unflattering picture of the real, American as well as European, state of the Union: in both parts of the world, the union does not appear as a Christian community ruled by the Holy Spirit and living faith, but as a vast field full of dead bones over which no breath of God blows. The accusers of the Missouri Synod could well learn a few things from this synodical sermon.  Most painfully Pastor Riedel misses in the doctrine and life of the entire Union that which the Missourian church possesses and on which it conclusively places the decisive accent. — But would she, out of blind devotion to her galvanized hobbyhorses, be disintegrated?… yet with true confessing fellow believers? — Well, think about it and say what you will; but — where there has been so far a breach between the Missourians and other Lutherans, it has acted in a far higher degree than the “Missourian” quirks.1)    Stroebel.

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footnote by
editor Guericke

1) Although the undersigned, as far as he is aware, essentially agrees with the writer of the above in full recognition of the Lutheran Missourians, he cannot identify the Missouri Synod and pure Lutheranism (as little as on the other side for instance also the latter and the Leipzig Allgemeine ev.-lutherische Kirchenzeitung) [ref. C.E. Luthardt]. Anyone who, with regard to the actual driving forces in the church struggles of the present time and their travail, has been struck with blindness in order to reconcile with the Missourians (in Der Lutheraner of 15 Dec. 15, 1872, page 45 [Archive here, German text; Walther against Germans mediating with Pope & Jesuits]) that the "Berliner Neue Evangel. Kirchenzeitung" judgment of “quite right”, i.e. absolute  condemnation, of the actual core of v. Gerlach's writing Kaiser und Papst (Emperor and Pope), which in this point (as little as for instance the Leipziger Kirchenzeitung, when it 1873 No. 2 pp. 19 by citing Gury's moral (as countless other authors would then not have to be banished from the German borders with 100fold rights!] justified the expulsion of the Jesuits, etc.) hardly addresses the fame of the simple clear Lutheran eye. Whether a fighter “dulled by the questions of time” can be found on this or that side should not be as easy to decide as one might think.. G. [Guericke, H. E. F. (editor)]

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      Although editor Prof. Guericke was considered a conservative Lutheran in Germany, yet a tone of apathy shows through his footnote to Stroebel's forthright judgment of true Lutheranism.  Guericke did not like Walther's strong stand against a spirit in Germany that would mediate with the Pope and the Jesuits, sworn enemies of the Gospel.

Germany today; America?
      So how are things today in Germany?  I asked a private correspondent in Germany (a layman) a question about that some time ago.  I had read a writing of Prof. Martin Scharlemann (~1970s?) in which he stated that he thought that German book publishers were pushing their writers of theology to not write things "distinctively Lutheran".  My German correspondent replied to this (giving me permission to quote him):

“In your e-mail you ask whether it was true of most German book publishers today to restrict the author to not say anything ‘distinctively Lutheran’. I don't know, ...

I would rather think that 

we don't have any distinct Lutheran authors anymore”.

I would add to his point about Germany another point about America, in the form of a question:

Are there any distinctly Missourian authors in America anymore?

As Stroebel would say "Well, think about it and say what you will…", it is amazing to me that Stroebel was even allowed to say what he did about Walther and the "Missourians", from… Germany.