Hoenecke 5: Walther highlights; praise for Hönecke

[2018-01-27: added information in red text below]
       This concludes from Part 4 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series repristinating the praise of the fathers of the Synodical Conference, especially Adolf Hoenecke.
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      This last portion of the quote from Adolf Hoenecke shows especially why Franz Pieper called Hoenecke a “true theologian”.  Hoenecke sums up the greatest features of the theology of C.F.W. Walther:

Extract from Franz Pieper's Christliche Dogmatik, vol. 1, pp. 206, 208-211; translation by BackToLuther, not  from Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1, pp. 171 n230, 173-174. Bolding is mine.  

—————— (concluded from Part 4) —————— 

The Scripture was for Walther God's Word and nothing else.  He could not be shaken from the doctrine of Inspiration of the old-church. This is what Rohnert [Wilhelm Rohnert, 1837-1908] praises in him, that in the last decades he probably was the most emphatic one for the old dogmatic verbal inspiration. (Dogmatik der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, p. 105  [German text]) Walther held fast to the inspiration of the Scriptures, because he saw that if here one in the least way gave in, one would give up that Scripture alone is the source and norm of theology.

“Open questions” are not recognized by Walther as the Iowa Synod does. It is not required that the symbolical books treat a doctrine to make it a doctrine of the church. The confessions make no new doctrines of the church, but only represent them.  Scripture is the decisive factor.  Therefore, the Bible's teaching is also the doctrine of the church, although it has not yet been dealt with in the symbols. (Lehre and Wehre 14, 133 ff.) Walther, however, highly esteemed the confessions. Everywhere he draws on them in his writings and, in addition, the statements of the true Lutheran teachers. But his theology is not, in the bad sense, a theology of repristination, as the modern theologians over in the old country label it; for with him it is not the old dogmaticians or the Symbols [Confessions] that tip the scales, but Holy Scripture. [see Hochstetter’s testimony]

As a Scripture theologian, he had no special doctrines which he has preferred to treat, but it has been the case that he was forced to treat a number of doctrines a great deal and worked through them vigorously:

the doctrines of the Church and Ministry over against the Buffalo Synod, the doctrines of Election and Conversion against the Ohio and Iowa Synods, the doctrine of justification and reconciliation against the Erlangen theology and sectarianism of this land.”

= = = = = =  End of quote from Hoenecke  = = = = = = =

      In Hoenecke's itemization of all the distinguishing teachings of Walther, I was reminded of Franz Pieper's series of essays "C.F.W. Walther as Theologian".  I wonder that Hoenecke, to a certain extent, used Pieper's highlights from this series as he gave his own assessments.  So to help readers (like myself!) review again the corresponding highlights between Hoenecke's highlights above and Pieper's essays, here is a listing with hyperlinks:

• “Scientific" Theology -- see this blog post, Part 5.
• Verbal Inspiration -- see this blog post, Part 3a.
• “Open Questions” -- See this blog post Part 3b in the “Open Questions" essay.  See this blog post, Item #9 for full info on where to read Walther's essay (free and otherwise) “The False Arguments for the Modern Theory of Open Questions”. 
• Confessionalism -- see this blog post Part 3b in the “Open Questions" essay
• Church and Ministry -- See these blog posts: Part 6, Part 7. When I re-read Hoenecke's agreement with Walther on “Church and Ministry”, I had to marvel at the attempts by later Wisconsin theologians to break this unity of doctrine. (See Pieper CD 1, pp. 174-175) 
• Election of Grace -- See these blog posts, Parts 15, 16, 17, 18. Also Brief Statement, §§ 35-40
• Conversion: -- See these blog posts: Part 13a, Part 14.
• Justification -- See these blog posts, Parts 10, 11, 12. 

       What is immediately apparent by the above listing is the agreement Hoenecke would have with the (old) Missouri Synod's Brief Statement of 1932.  But I could find only one reference to it in today's Wisconsin Synod's public “What We Believe” section – in the “Statement on the Antichrist”.  Perhaps I am mistaken, but I believe that in past years, the WELS was much more frequent in citing the Brief Statement. [2018-01-27: In 1953, a WELS committee warned the LC-MS "... the Synodical Conference in convention assembled to request the Missouri Synod to repeal the Common Confession and to return to the clarity and decisiveness in setting forth the Scriptural and historical doctrinal position of the Synodical Conference for which the Brief Statement sets an excellent precedent." Proceedings of the Forty-Second Regular Convention of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (1953), 157 -- see this essay, p. 319, n 75]

      What would Walther's counsel be for today's Wisconsin Synod?  It would be the same as to his own Missouri Synod in his 1860 Letter from Zurich (CTM  vol. 61; digitized text doc here, p. 654-655):

“This principle [Rom. 12:6 ‘analogy or measure of faith’] is [not] properly made use of when everyone wants to find everything that is in the Bible by himself and does not want to accept, as a pupil, the mined treasures of Scriptural doctrine from those granted the gift of Scriptural interpretation in high measure.”

Walther would have in mind not only Martin Luther, but also the Lutheran dogmatists of Lutheran Orthodoxy, and... his fellow leader in the Synodical Conference, Adolf Hoenecke – not the later J.P. Koehler who would throw all the above out with his misuse of “exegesis”.

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      I conclude this series with Pieper's final assessment of his mentor Adolf Hoenecke:

“In this account of Walther, 

Hönecke describes himself 

as a [true] theologian at the same time, 

as is apparent from the attached judgments.”

                                                 — Dr. Franz Pieper

Hoenecke 4: Theology vs “theologizing”; new books, new “Lutheran tradition”

[2019-08-04: link fixed; 2018-01-06: small addition in red below]
      This continues from Part 3 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series repristinating the praise of the fathers of the Synodical Conference, especially Adolf Hoenecke.
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      Now Prof. Hoenecke drives home not only how bad the theological conditions were "over there" in Germany, but also then highlights the strengths of the Evangelical Lutheran Church according to Luther's Reformation:

Extract from Franz Pieper's Christliche Dogmatik, vol. 1, pp. 206, 208-211; translation by BackToLuther, not  from Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1, pp. 171 n230, 173-174. Bolding is mine.  Green highlighted portions were not in the English versions, but were restored from the German and translated for the first time.

—————— (cont'd from Part 3) ——————

The only cognitive principle of theology for Walther is the Scriptures. What is not from Scripture does not belong in theology. “No less do we agree,” he writes, “therefore also with Johann Gerhard: the only principle of theology is the Word of God, therefore what is not revealed in God's Word is not theological.” He therefore rejected absolutely all theologizing on the basis of enlightened reason. (L. u. W. 21, 225 ff.) “All such apologetics,” he says, “we hate with all our heart, for it presupposes that there is something more certain than the Word of God, from which more certainty one can by way of discursive thinking [see #2 here] derive the mysterious content of revelation.” (Lehre and Wehre 34, 326; see this blog post, search ‘With our whole heart’; ref. L. u. W. 21, pg 41; Editorials from Lehre und Wehre, p. 135] While the modern confessional theologians over there define theology as the “ecclesiastical science of Christianity”

"habitus practicus"

(so Luthardt, Komp., S. 2, under “I. Begriff der Dogmatik”) and speak of their “family relationship to philosophy”, (so Öttingen, Dogmatik I, 411). Walther describes what is considered to be a primitive point of view in Oettingen, (Öttingen, Dogmatik I, 411) with Chemnitz and the other ancients as a habitus practicus. He says, ‘The purpose of the ministry is also the purpose of theology. But this is true faith, the knowledge of the truth of godliness, and finally eternal life.’ (Lehre and Wehre, 14, 73; German text)

A theologian, according to Walther, becomes one only through the Holy Spirit out of the Word of God. A true theologian is only one who is born again by the Spirit through the Word. In his edition of Baier (vol. I, p. 69) [2019-08-04 link fixed] [Lutherus – text]  he mentions Luther's words: “A doctor of Holy Scripture cannot be made by anybody, but only by the Holy Spirit from heaven, as Christ says, John 6:45.” From the Word – the theologian, and what he works with, is again the Word.

- - - - - - -  Continued in Part 5  - - - - - - -

      I have to keep reminding myself at times while reading the above that it is not just from Walther himself, nor is it from Franz Pieper, rather it is from… Adolf Hoenecke, father of the Wisconsin Synod.

Dogmatics / Systematics textbooks of today   

      Before I proceed, I have discovered with joy that Concordia Publishing House (CPH) has now introduced a new version of the Index (old volume 4) to Pieper's Christian Dogmatics in a “Print on Demand” format (probably paperback).  I have updated my previous blog post notice announcing the demise of this Index.  Although this is welcome news, one wonders that CPH will convert the entire series to this format.  After all, they have now replaced it with something new…  and we see an application for what Hoenecke teaches above.  

       So, what's new?  This...

<<<<============

      CPH has recently released a book series to replace Franz Pieper's Christian Dogmatics, entitled Confessing the Gospel: A Lutheran Approach to Systematic Theology, a 2 Volume Set.   

They would be pleased to have also the Wisconsin Synod (WELS) replace Hoenecke's  Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics (and ELS) so that they too would be “modern”. 

      One does not have to purchase CPH's “new improved” dogmatics (or systematics) book to evaluate it, for the extensive “Look Inside” file provides ample material for this.  I may publish a more extensive word usage study in the future, but I would invite the reader to do a word search using “Lutheran tradition” in the “Look Inside” file.  Go ahead, I'll wait …………

What did you find?  I found 7 instances where the writer(s) used this term, just in this “Look Inside” excerpt.  By comparison, Franz Pieper never used this “Lutheran tradition” term in his Christian Dogmatics books, neither did Walther in his writings, neither do the Lutheran Confessions or the Lutheran dogmatists, also not in Hoenecke's Ev.-Luth. Dogmatics.  And what does a Google search return as a meaning of “tradition”?:
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tra·di·tion

trəˈdiSH(ə)n/

noun

1. • 
     

     
     
   • 
     
2. 2.

   THEOLOGY

   a doctrine believed to have divine authority though not in the scriptures, in particular.

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      So Google's short answer indicates that the LC–MS teachers’ identification with the term “Lutheran tradition” clearly shows that they have established their “Lutheran theology” as NOT Scriptural, but their “divine authority” is rather “tradition”.  So...

The LC–MS “Lutheran tradition” is not based on Holy Scripture.

Their own terminology proves it.  (There are many other terms that can be used to show this... too many for this blog post.) —  In the next Part 5…

Hoenecke 3: his training; his praise of Walther

[2024-09-17: updated link to CPH's Editorials book of Walther; 2017-12-30: added note at bottom]
      This continues from Part 2 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series repristinating the praise of the fathers of the Synodical Conference, especially Adolf Hoenecke.
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      Now Pieper continues with his own assessment of Hoenecke in relation to Walther, starting off with a BANG! ... making a statement that irritates almost all of today's church historians.  Then, after more biographical details, we hear the words of Hoenecke himself on… C.F.W. Walther.

Extract from Franz Pieper's Christliche Dogmatik, vol. 1, pp. 206, 208-211; translation by BackToLuther, not  from Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1, pp. 171 n230, 173-174. Bolding is mine.  Green highlighted portions were not in the English versions, were restored from the German and translated for the first time.

—————— (cont'd from Part 2) ——————

We find no doctrinal difference between Walther and Hönecke, wherein we rightly see again a testimony of the unifying power of the Word of God. Like the fathers of the Missouri Synod among themselves, Walther and Hönecke were strongly distinct and different characters. They also came from different ecclesiastical backgrounds.

Hönecke studied theology in Halle under Hupfeld, Julius Müller and Tholuck, at a time when in Halle the rule of rationalism was already broken. Hönecke says in his dogmatics of Tholuck: “Tholuck has pointed the way of life to many of his students, but he was grudging toward them if they went on stricter confessional paths as the author of this dogmatics, but he always adored him as a man. He had much to be thankful for.” Hönecke came to the United States in 1863, twenty-four years after the immigration of the Saxons, as ambassador of the Berlin Missionary Society, in order to work in the church care of immigrant Germans. He became a member of the Wisconsin Synod and soon her theological leader, as already reported by Prof. Schaller's words above.

It is probably appropriate here to point out that Hönecke in his Dogmatik (I, 320 ff. [pp. 320-323; English ed. pp. 347-349]) also describes Walther as a theologian. In this account of Walther, Hönecke describes himself as a theologian at the same time, as is apparent from the attached judgments. He says about Walther:

“Carl F. W. Walther was a Scripture theologian. [Cf. the article Walther als Theologe by Dr. Francis Pieper in Lehre und Wehre, 34, 5 ff – sic! Page # incorrect in Hoenecke’s original book, p. 97 passim or see this blog post for reference, esp. here, Part 3..]

What Kattenbusch,[* see note below] the follower of Ritschl, (Von Schleiermacher zu Ritschl, p. 3) points out as Walther's weakness, that he once again set the watchword for dogmatics: “Only loci!” since it is the signature of revelation that we learn only unconnected pieces from God’s mysteries, that must be credited as praise for Walther. He thereby joins the ranks of genuine Lutheran theologians, while the so-called ‘confessional’ theologians over there, as they seek actual systems, are under the influence of Schleiermacher (pic), as Kattenbusch also explains. Creating systems to harmonize seemingly contradictory doctrines is, according to Walther, not the task of the theologian. On the contrary, he considers all building of systems to be harmful and not gain in theology; it does not bring deepening but only dissolution of the doctrines. He agrees with the words of Luther: “If it is to be harmonized, so shall we not keep one article of faith.” Just as little he considers the task of the theologian to be systematizing and harmonizing doctrines, so also what the moderns want so much, reconciling Scripture and Science, faith and knowledge. Thereby Scripture and faith must suffer according to him.

For all his respect for real science (Lehre and Wehre, Vol. 21, Foreword,), scientific theology in the sense of the moderns is something foreign to him.

Science should serve in theology only as a maid; if she wants to be more, she has to go out. It already corrupts Scripture theology when one means to help the written Word with scientific proof.

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The Theologians of America

      When I first read Pieper's statement that the theology of Hoenecke and Walther was the same, I did not think much about it.  But after reading the onslaught of judgments by many historians to the contrary, this statement takes on major significance.  For Pieper shows a basis for his assertion from Hoenecke's own words which leaves all other judgments to the contrary suspect at best, deceptive at worst.  Here Pieper rubs our nose in Hoenecke's published exact words of highest praise for Walther's stand against a world of theologians going astray. 

      Hoenecke also adds his name to those defending against the encroachment of Science into theology.  We have seen in a previous blog how Prof. John Schaller followed Hoenecke's lead by defending against a “Science” that would lead Christians away from their faith.  And Hoenecke refers to Walther's great essay that later was translated into English under the title “Are We Guilty of Despising Scholarship?” in Selected Writings of C.F.W. Walther - Editorials from "Lehre Und Wehre", p. 122-142. (Lehre and Wehre, Vol. 21, Foreword, p. 1-13, 33-42, 65-80 (1875). (see also this blog)

      Here, Wisconsin Synod, here is the greatest tribute ever paid to the theology of your Hoenecke, by... Franz Pieper.  —  In the next Part 4…
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[2017-12-30: A.C. Piepkorn makes use of the German theologian Kattenbusch in his essay "Walther and the Lutheran Symbols" (CTM, October 1961, vol. 10, p. 610; digital text here).  Piepkorn apparently agreed with Kattenbusch who attacked Lutheran Orthodoxy, thinking they stressed Holy Scripture too much over the Lutheran Confessions.]

Hoenecke 2: Schaller's intro

      This continues from Part 1 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series repristinating the praise of the fathers of the Synodical Conference, especially Adolf Hoenecke.
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      It does not matter what Franz Pieper wrote, whether he was attacking errors of opponents or refraining from publicly attacking brethren in the Synodical Conference, today's “historians” either criticize or question Franz Pieper writings.  Whether Rev. Todd Peperkorn (p. 309) or Prof. Charles Arand or others of the LC-MS, or writers for Concordia Historical Institute, or modern historians within today's WELS, Franz Pieper is now almost universally discounted and disdained.  His Dogmatics is being phased out, eliminated.  But Pieper also gave the highest praise ever for fellow leaders of the Synodical Conference.  In his Christliche Dogmatik, he could not resist giving substantial space to show just how glorious the true unity of the Spirit was by republishing portions from Hoenecke's Dogmatik (see Part 1 for ref.).
      Now I begin my "repristination" of the fathers. As I studied carefully the original German texts and compared them to the available English translations, I discovered that several portions had been omitted by previous translators and so I decided not to copy the existing English translations but would publish my own translation with the missing portions restored.  Again, the following is the full uncut text from Pieper's original. — In this Part 1, Pieper lets Prof./President John Schaller introduce his subject.

From Franz Pieper's Christliche Dogmatik, vol. 1, pp. 206, 208-211; translation by BackToLuther, not  from Christian Dogmatics, vol. 1, pp. 171 n230, 173-174. Green highlighted portions were not in the English versions and were restored from the German and translated for the first time.

————————————

As far as Hönecke's influence on the Wisconsin Synod is concerned, he is described by Prof. J. Schaller († 1920) as the man through whom the Wisconsin Synod came to a clear doctrinal position.

Prof. John Schaller
Hoenecke's historian

Schaller says, “It was then (when the Wisconsin Synod still belonged to the  General Council) that the Wisconsin Synod should be provided with an unequivocal doctrinal position and clarify its relationship with other American church bodies as well as with the German Church. At that time it belonged to the General Council, which in its commitment to Lutheran doctrine was much more resolute than the General Synod, but because of its unionist practice it displeased the resolute Lutherans who belonged to the Wisconsin Synod. On the other side was the Missouri Synod, with its unequivocal commitment to the Symbolic books of the Lutheran Church and its firm testimony against those who did not take the Lutheran Confession seriously in practice. At the proceedings, which concerned the question of confession, the young pastor Hönecke was active and soon also took a decisive part. For he had thrown himself into the study of the old Lutheran dogmatists and quickly not only gained a thorough acquaintance with their doctrinal position, but also gained the conviction that any unionistic fraternization not only denies the Lutheran Confessions but also the Gospel itself. His influence contributed greatly to the dissociation of the Wisconsin Synod from the General Council, and he made a strong stand when negotiations with the Missouri Synod were concluded in 1868, which resulted in the mutual recognition of the two bodies. That is why he is also one of those who deserves to be kept in good memory as the founder of the Synodical Conference, which was created in 1870 [sic - 1872].” (In the Foreword of Hoenecke’s Dogmatik, p. IX f; English translation Ev.-Lutheran Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. xix, NPH preface)

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      It is striking how Schaller highlights the fact that Hoenecke had “thrown himself into the study of the old Lutheran dogmatists”, an activity of Walther that typically draws scorn from some against him, indeed an activity that is ridiculed by… J.P. Koehler.  Koehler actually attempts to set the Lutheran dogmaticians against a true exegesis of Holy Scripture (History, p. 216).  This omitted portion is NOT publicized by today's WELS teachers who publicly raise the study of “exegesis” as superior over the field of “dogmatics” (ref. their Wauwatosa Theology book series).  Perhaps as an oversight, the English translation of Hoenecke's Dogmatik v. 1 by James Langebartels also does not even contain this portion. [2018-01-12: see this 1978 CTQ essay by Henry P. Hamann Jr. for examples of misuse of "exegesis".]
      Some other modern historians may point out that Franz Pieper never mentions in his Dogmatik the names of the other Wisconsin theologians of the so-called “Wauwatosa Theology”.  It is evident to me that Franz Pieper's hope for the future of the Wisconsin Synod lay not with his brother August, certainly not with J.P. Koehler, but with John Schaller.  He is the one that F. Pieper honored by quoting him. —  In the next Part 3, ...