WIC1: Pieper's "What Is Christianity?", new translation (1902 Synod essay) (Part 1 of 8)

    Recently I was contacted by a reader who found edification in one of Franz Pieper's great convention essays – "What Is Christianity?".  I have blogged about the 1933 CPH book What Is Christianity? And Other Essays 13 years ago on this blog post, and 8 years ago on this blog post. It was one of the first books that I dug into as I searched for "more treasures" than I knew existed from the old German Missouri Synod. How wonderful it was for me that the great essays were not only translated into English but were assembled into a substantial book. The book may still be in copyright, but that would only apply to the translation. Although Repristination Press evidently sold a reprint of this book in 1997, they no longer list it in their offerings. So I decided to do with these six essays what I have done with all the other untranslated writings – provide my own free translation so that no one may be hindered by the price of this book after nearly 100 years. The first will be the above mentioned essay. — There are other advantages to my translation in that the original translator, Prof. J. T. Mueller, did not generally carry forward the emphasis of many words in Pieper's original German. These are crucial in getting the full impact of Pieper's meaning. In some places Mueller paraphrased and occasionally added or subtracted from the original.

      While translator Mueller changed Pieper's title, I have translated the original German title that Pieper used, "Das Wesen des Christentums" → "The Essence of Christianity".

Notable Quotes:

24: "The Berlin professor … Harnack's doctrine is briefly this: Christ is not God"

26: "those people who want to come to God through their morality or through their works… the Scripture says Gal. 5:4: 'ye are fallen from grace'"

30: "In short, to be justified by one's own works is the characteristic of blind paganism; to be saved by faith in Christ without one's own works is the characteristic of Christianity."

33-34: Harnack "instructs people that they should only imagine God as Father, bypassing Christ"

36: "a heavenly mindedness…is not instilled in a person… by moral instruction nor by culture and learning"

37: "Faith in Christ comes first, and good works come second."

I refer the reader to my 2012 blog post for other comments to interest the reader enough to take the time to read this 15-page essay. 

      The following translation contains hyperlinks for navigation and references. Now I present my full English translated version of the essay as first published in German in 1902:

For a non-highlighted version, reformatted to 8-1/2" x 11" page, click >> here <<. German text file here; 

 

At the end of this project, I will combine all essays into a single file so that one may have essentially the same material in digital format as CPH's printed book. — In the next Part WIC2…

- - - - - - - - - - - -  Table of Contents  - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Part 1: “What Is Christianity?” (or "The Essence of Christianity."; 1902, Synod) (This blog post)

Part 2: “The Christian World View” (or "The Right Worldview"; 1923, Synod)

Part 3a: “The Reconciliation of Man With God” (1916, Southern Illinois District; L. u. W. 1921, p. 289 ff.)

   Part 3b: conclusion of "Notable Quotes", then full translation

Part 4a: “Layman's Movement: Proclamation of the Word (Thesis 1)” (1913, Southern Ill. District)

   Part 4b: Pieper's 8 questions to examine lay Christians

   Part 4c: Women and the "Lay Movement" (Klemet Preus's report)

   Part 4d: Lay Movement: Financial matters (Theses 1 & 2)

   Part 4e: Lay movement and the Christian walk (Thesis 3); full translation with download

Part 5: The Holy Scripture ("The Holy Bible"; 1921 S. Illinois); "entire world…our enemies"

Part 6: “The Open Heaven” (1929, Synod); Walther "remains firm, like steel and diamond"

Appendix Part 7: "Christianity as a Hereafter Religion" (1920 Synod, LuW 67 p. 1 ff.)

Part 8: Full book of essays