Walther: Communism and Socialism–a re-translation; labor unrest then, now racial; History restored (Part 1)

        This begins a series of blog posts to present a new English translation of C.F.W. Walther's addresses published in 1878.  That this topic is important in 2020 needs no justification. I am doing this for several reasons as explained below. I would give it a lengthy subtitle using the following from his concluding section:

"So let every Christian, if he still allows himself to be warned, be seriously warned against the agitations of the Socialists and Communists."

Politics or Religion?

      It may be wondered that in delivering these addresses, Walther was getting involved in political matters, not spiritual.  But that is not true.  There are indeed matters that may seem political, but it is only in a tangential way. To give a short quote from page 7, Walther flatly states:

“Politics does not concern us theologians at all; … It is not our office and calling.”

That the later publishers of a "revised English translation" in 1947 and 1964 may have begun to mix some politics into this writing cannot be ruled out, and that might explain why the currently available version does not contain the above statement.  More will be explained elsewhere. I wonder that the editor of either "Hope Publicity Bureau" or "Lutheran Research Society" showed some weakness by pushing Walther's addresses somewhat into the political sphere, while Walther's intent was only to address the matters touching on Religion.— There will be scholars of history who will, to some degree, differ from Walther regarding the motives behind these dual menaces.  That is to be expected, for the world does not understand the heart of Communism and Socialism.  At their core, they are about spiritual matters, not political.

Re-translation, not re-publication

      In 1878, the publishing house for the Old (German) Missouri Synod printed four addresses, or lectures, in the German language, that President C. F. W. Walther delivered at the request of his Lutheran congregation in St. Louis. I recall reading a translation of these lectures many years ago and realized that they presented the definitive history for Christians regarding the threat of Communism and Socialism.

       Background information on the history of translations may be found in the prefaces to the 1947 reprint published by "The Lutheran Research Society" in Detroit, an organization which has likely disappeared long ago.  Currently there are several copies of this text available online: CTS-FW Media has a scanned copy of the 1947 printed pamphlet (but missing pages 30-31) [2020-10-19: correct copy now on Internet Archive]; more recently Steadfast Lutherans blog has it (PDF); Intrepid Lutherans has it.  These all appear to have used the same source material to provide their copy.  But after reading this translation again and seeing how important the information was, I wondered if the first translation, done in 1879 and republished in 1947 with revisions, included all of Walther's narrative or not.  So I thought to re-translate the original German publication to find out. I was surprised to find that some portions were omitted in certain translation(s), but it is not known if these omissions were made in the original 1879 translation by "D. Simon".  The discovery of these omissions made me even more glad that I proceeded with this re-translation. These omissions are identified and fully restored in what follows and will be pointed out in due course. — Additional benefits of this re-translation include: (1) Walther's emphasized words and phrases are indicated with underlining, (2) dozens of hyperlinks are added for reference because of the extensive array of historical people and events introduced, (3) links are added for ease of navigation, (4) Bible verses are identified and hyperlinked, and (5) notations in red showing the corresponding 1947 page number are included. 

History restored, in two ways

      What is generally not so well understood among the population is what is the basis of today's unrest in America and the world. A proper history by a truly Christian teacher is greatly needed to rightly understand this kind of unrest which it has occurred repeatedly in the past, since the beginning of time. As I reviewed Walther's historical events in Wikipedia, it became apparent that what purports to be "objective" history today has in reality added subjective judgments mixed in, judgments that sometimes completely miss the heart of the matter, or even overturn it.  It was not uncommon to find reports attempting to mitigate the heinous nature of some of the actions of certain people and thus obliquely justifying violence and the use of force.  One thing is certain – Walther's history will not be accepted for use by The History Channel or even by Wikipedia because it would be considered to be un-objective.  It will not be promoted by today's LC-MS, even if a few of their pastors do. Dare I suggest that it would not have been promoted in the LC-MS even in 1947?

      The second way Walther restores true history is found in the portions which have been omitted in the currently available English translations (CTS-FW).  Suffice to say that the LCMS does not actually subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions (or Martin Luther) which firmly teaches that the Pope in Rome is the very Antichrist.  Surprisingly we will see evidence of this aberration even in 1947.

——————

      Because Walther presents such a profusion of historical events and people in such a short narrative, I was interested to learn more of the details of these that Walther had to omit for the sake of brevity.  Wikipedia was a great help in providing some of the details. But the German Lutherans at that time in 1878 were much closer to some of these events that were going on in the world in the 19th century – the 1848 uprising in Germany, the horrific events of the French Revolution, etc. So German Americans may not have needed the details because they were already aware of them.  But today, we seem far removed from them, at least it would seem so… until the events of June 2020 and afterwards in America.  Now we are living through this "history"… again. — Now we begin a fresh translation of the most authoritative history ever given of the menaces of Communism and Socialism. The "Preface" below aptly uses the term "a burning issue."

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Translation of Walther's 1878 Communismus und Socialismus by BackToLuther primarily using DeepL online translation service; highlighting and bolding are my emphases, red text within square brackets [] in are my comments, underlining is Walther's emphasis.

Preface.

Although the undersigned [Walther] only reluctantly complied with the urgent request of the local Lutheran congregation to have printed what he freely presented to them on the specific occasion of four evening meetings on Socialism and Communism, and were stenographically recorded, the editor hopes that the indulgent and impartial reader will excuse the unavoidable deficiencies that adhere to the form of these pages by the nature of their origin and, for the sake of these deficiencies, will not reject the truth represented therein without examination. May what is presented here, in which the special circumstances of the aforementioned congregation were the decisive factor, serve as a basis for making wider circles aware of a question that is also becoming more and more a burning issue for Christians, and for more thorough and all-round answers to it from Scripture, reason and history, so that those who are given more leisure than the

Publisher.

St. Louis, Mo.  March 1878.

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      Since these addresses were probably held in the church building proper, I would suggest that we think of ourselves now also sitting in a pew as we begin this journey. Find an open pew, take a seat, and let us sit at the feet of the American Luther and receive the great history and lessons for Christians, even reasonable people.

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Part 1: Intro: Politics or Religion?; Re-translation, not re-publication; History restored; "Preface"

Part 2: Prologue 1– Two causes for lectures: newspapers, labor unions; omitted section restored

Part 3: Prologue 2– no personal property?; Unions–preschool for Socialism; Karl Marx in England

Part 4: Reason, Nature, Experience 1: Men are not equal

Part 5: RNE2: Men are selfish by nature; Fourier's Phalanxes

Part 6: RNE3: Happiness not in earthly things, only in Word of God;“Johann the Soap Boiler”; against unjust rich and Socialists

Part 7: RNE4: Communists never achieved goal, only misery; Spartans, Pythagoras, Plato, Essenes, Catholics, peasants

Part 8: RNE5: Luther on oppressors; Münster; French Revolutions: 1st & 2nd

Part 9: RNE6: French uprising 1839; Saint-Simonianism; 1848 Revolution; "Young Germany", Weitling; "We aren't united now."

Part 10: RNE7: Paris Commune, Fourier, Icarians, Proudhon, Lecomte, Blanqui: "Achieved nothing"

Part 11: X†1: Christianity? Bible misused: Gen. 1:26-29 – Remember Cain and Abel

Part 12: X†2: No Personal Property, no peace & unity; man’s love for freedom, independence

Part 13: X†3: No Personal Property, No incentive, no justice

Part 14: X†4: Common property at Jerusalem congregation (Acts 4:32-38)

Part 15: X†5: Rich Young Man (Matt. 19:16-25); Vineyard Workers (Matt. 20:1–16)

Part 16: X†6: Contrary to: personal property, government power of sword, marriage, sin, etc.; 7th, 5th, 6th Commandments

Part 17-IIIa: Church hinders? Papacy, Crusades, Protestant State Churches— Walther uncensored

Part 18-IIIb: : Hinders? Dark history not of true Church; Tyrants not Christians; the tyrant, the Pope

Part 19-IIIc: : Blaming Church for class relations an injustice; Christianity changes hearts, so relations, also "race relations"

Part 20: Conclusion: mirage to deceived wanderer – be warned; One has come from over there