Brunn's Memoirs, in English; Lochner on Loehe's downfall (Part 2 of 2)

     This concludes from Part 1 in a short series presenting biographies and the theology of Pastor Friedrich Brunn of Germany. — Because the life of Friedrich Brunn was of such great interest after reading the summaries of the 2 grandsons, I decided to prepare the German text of his autobiography, Mitteilungen aus meinem Leben (Memoirs of My Life), for machine translation into English, and then polish it for better quality. I spent close to a week doing this work. I wanted to know more about several points: 

1. Brunn's relationship and his judgments of the other German pastor/theologian who originally had close ties to the old Missouri Synod, Wilhelm Loehe. How did he deal with the Romanizing weaknesses of the later Loehe? Did he just ignore Loehe's false teachings, or did he defend against it? Would he agree with the LC–MS labeling of Loehe as the "co-founder" of the LC-MS? The grandsons' biographies did not go into detail on the problems that developed in Wilhelm Loehe's theology and practice. — 
2. Did Brunn go into detail regarding the difference between the Reformed and Lutheran doctrines?
3. Did Brunn gain his orthodoxy from Walther and the Missourians, or did he get his spiritual footing independently, before he met the Missourians? 

The grandsons's biographies were of course limited, to be reader friendly, for those wanting a good overview. They had not have the space to cover the above issues in great detail, but these matters are covered in Brunn's autobiography. Before I present my full translation, I have extracted the following

Notable excerpts:

p. 53: "also a false superimposition of the doctrine of the holy sacraments, according to which the sacraments have an effect even without personal believing acceptance of sacramental grace… these false Romanizing concepts…"

58: "Harless's advice to convert to the Lutheran Church"

74: "our state government…now had a free hand to resume the earlier war of extermination against us" 

83: "March Revolution of 1848"

106: "On October 13 [1848], we celebrated one of our most beautiful festivals in Steeden. Pastor Loehe from Bavaria had promised to visit us, and a number of Prussian ministers came with him; … the first conference of Lutheran theologians gathered in the otherwise so lonely Steeden parsonage"

119: "But Loehe's whole school of thought …had always been less focused on clear and firm foundations in pure Lutheran doctrine, but rather on church ideals in which liturgy, discipline and the constitution of the church were of paramount importance to him"

122: "in America had it already flared up between the Missouri and Buffalo Synods, and the Missourians had already sent two delegates over to Germany in 1851 to come to an understanding with Pastor Loehe, who at that time was particularly supportive of the American Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, this had the consequence that from then on Loehe and the Missourians became completely estranged and became more and more entrenched in his peculiar ecclesiastical direction."

123: "When Professor Dr. Walther visited me in Steeden in the summer of 1860, I was already in full agreement and communion of spirit with him before any personal or written contact had taken place between him and me. It was only as a result of this unity that he found in me that he suggested to me the idea of founding the Steeden Institute." [Brunn did not learn these things from Walther, he learned these doctrines from the Bible, and the Lutheran Confessions.]

125: "it was especially the doctrines of church and ministry, as well as the power of the keys, around which the theological struggle of that time revolved and about which I already then came to full clarity, in contrast to the Romanizing errors of our time."

129: "It was also of great and decisive importance for my entire theological development, as I had it in those 1850s, that the doctrine of justification was at the center of all my knowledge from the very beginning."

133: "Professor Crämer asked me to take Loehe's place in helping them to recruit students in Germany for their seminary." [Crämer had previously consulted with Loehe.]

134:: "the little paper I [Brunn] wrote at that time on the sacred ministry of preaching… [Loehe] 'regretted that Pastor Brunn was building his faith on Lutheran doctrines of men; in this way Lutheranism would come to nothing.'… reveals how far one [Loehe] was not only from truly Lutheran doctrine, but also from a faithful Lutheran confessional ecclesiastical position in general."

154: "for a long time we in Nassau also shared the various prejudices against the Missouri Synod "

155: "It was only when Professor Walther visited Germany and Steeden in 1860 that the matter came to a decision.… my entire harmony with the Missouri Synod in faith and doctrine"

168-9: "the existence of a special missionary institution for the Missouri Synod in Germany, …contributed not a little to making the name of the Missouri Synod more and more known in Germany."

194: "the Chief Consistorial President von Harless [in Bavaria] attempted to gradually restore the ordinances of the old Lutheran Church in liturgy, confession and so on." [This was also Loehe's strength, so why do the supporters of Loehe, such as Pres. Harrison and Lieberg, not also praise Harless, but instead criticize him?]

198-9: "is well known, there had been a time when Loehe had begun to speak out strongly against the corruption of the State Church and mixed communion, but after that Loehe had stopped this whole struggle and began to instruct those associated with him… to partake of Holy Communion themselves"

204: "Towards the end of 1875 I received a letter from some East Indian missionaries who were in the service of the Leipzig Lutheran Mission: Schäffer, Zorn, Willkomm, Zucker and Gruber.… [they] had come to the realization of pure and clear Lutheran doctrine"

228: "we were not Professor Walther's disciples, but that we had already had our doctrine of the election of grace before there was any talk of a dispute about it." [Again, Brunn did not learn this doctrine from the Missourians, he learned it from the Bible, and the Lutheran Confessions, just as Walther did.]

246: "Pastor Loehe in Bavaria, Professor Vilmar in Hesse… have remained in the entanglements and corruptions of the national church"

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      In today's LC–MS there is much praise for Old Missouri Pastor Friedrich Lochner († 1902), especially because of his expertise with all things ceremonial and liturgical. The organization "Gottesdienst" and Pres. Matthew Harrison have appreciated that side of Lochner.  But what did the aging Lochner say about the two 19th century pastors in Germany most responsible for sending students to the Missouri Synod seminaries? We find the answer to that in an essay he wrote in 1892, Der Lutheraner, vol. 48 (1892), p. 4 [EN]:

“It is well known that after the unfortunate but necessary termination of our relationship with Pastor Loehe, the faithful Pastor Brunn in Steeden, Nassau, has rendered great service to our practical institution and thus to the local orthodox church for a long number of years through the training and sending of pupils.”

In his final years, Lochner praised "faithful Pastor Brunn" over Pastor Loehe. Would he agree with Harrison's labeling of Loehe as a "co-founder" of the Missouri Synod along with Walther? (I don't think so.)

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Now I present the full English translation, with added hyperlinks:

The above file may be viewed and downloaded >> here <<, a version w/o highlighting HERE; PDF version on the Internet Archive HERE.

      I learned so much about the German Church from this book that I did not fully understand before. Any Christian wanting to learn of the developments of the German Church of the 19th century, and the formation of the Lutheran Free Churches, would also benefit. But along with the history, Brunn wants us to understand Christian doctrine, and he takes considerable time giving his readers doctrinal instruction. 

Soli Deo Gloria – SDG!

 

“If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death”. John 8:51

Friedrich Brunn (1819-1895)