GB1: Georg Buchwald vs Free Church (and Missouri Synod)

     Georg Buchwald (1859-1947) is a well-known name among Luther scholars. I ran into his name on occasion while researching Luther's writings. The Christian Cyclopedia says of him, that he was "Active in Luther research; edited materials for Weimar and Erlangen editions. [and] Luther's works." "Red Brick Parsonage" blog reports that he was 

"one of the foremost scholars on Luther’s works. It was he who rediscovered Georg Rörer’s transcripts of Luther’s sermons in 1893 in Jena, after their location had been unknown for nearly 300 years. He was the chief editor for Luther’s sermons for the Weimar edition of Luther’s works."

"Red Brick" only has praise for Buchwald's scholarship, making no comment on what church body he was in nor his theology. Even the old 1927 Concordia Cyclopedia had only praise for him. In 1886 Buchwald, according to Wikipedia, was "5th deacon" of the "royal high school in Zwickau". He was evidently a "Licentiate" there.

      In an essay of 1886, we find that Walther also had praise for Buchwald, reporting that he "had brought to light several Luther manuscripts he had found in the Zwickau Council Library and had put them into print". In the final paragraph of his essay Walther explained that Buchwald was "able to read old manuscripts", and that he was a "learned" scholar, abilities for which Walther was "not inclined to diminish, together with the associated merits".

      But unlike virtually all of today's reports about Buchwald, C. F. W. Walther knew this scholar/theologian better, for Buchwald had come out with an 18-page pamphlet attacking the Lutheran Free Church in Germany, which also attacked Walther and the (Old) Missouri Synod. Buchwald was a theologian of the Saxon State Church. (This series is a good follow up to my recent series on Pastor Hochstetter's defense against a State Church pastor.)

      I debated whether readers might loose interest if this essay was presented in an extended series of posts rather than in a single post with a few comments and only a download link to the whole translated essay. But as I kept reviewing it, I realized that it offered a masterful rebuttal not only against poor theology, but also improper logic. As we discover, Buchwald was a "Doctor of Philosophy", or Ph.D., and was quite intelligent. So we will need one such as Walther to sift through exactly what Buchwald was asserting in order to fully understand the spiritual aspects of the issues. —

      I do not need to give more background of the circumstances since Walther explains it well in the opening paragraphs below. — The following translation is from Lehre und Wehre, vol. 32 (1886), pp. 97-104, 129-144 [EN]:

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Latest Defense of the State Church against the Free Church.

[by C. F. W. Walther]

We have just received the following pamphlet:

State Church and Free Church [CHI]. Reply to Pastor O. Willkomm's "open letter to the 41 clergymen of the Zwickau Ephorate" by Lic. Dr. Georg Buchwald [DE Wikipedia; Red Brick Parsonage], deacon in Zwickau. Zwickau. Published by Gebr. Thost (R. Bräuninger). 1886 (18 pages in small folio).

 

This pamphlet has the following meaning. At the beginning of this year, a leaflet signed by 41 so-called clergymen of the Zwickau superintendency [ephorie] in Saxony appeared under the title "A word to our congregations", which contained a warning against the Methodist, Baptist and Irvingite sectarians who had broken into the state church congregations in that area. However, since the most important congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, which had left the Saxon state church, was located in the immediate vicinity of Zwickau, in Nieder-Planitz, the warning of those 41 clergymen also included the separated Lutherans as equal culprits alongside the aforementioned sectarians. 1) 

—————

1) See: Der Lutheraner of February 15, p. 29.

The latter prompted Pastor O. [Otto] Willkomm in Nieder-Planitz to address an "open missive" to the signatories of the leaflet in the organ of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Saxony and to have it published in pamphlet form; and it is this "open missive" against which the above-mentioned pamphlet State Church and Free Church is directed. The author of the pamphlet himself says in it that the "open missive" initially seemed to him "not to need a reply", but that since the missive [of Willkomm] had sold out so quickly and was soon published in a second edition, "the necessity of a reply" had finally arisen. <page 98> 

When the above pamphlet, State Church and Free Church, came into our hands and we saw Licentiate Buchwald named as the author on the title page, we opened it in the hope that it would at least shed a completely different light than that of the utterly deplorable "Word to Our Congregations". Since the aforementioned author had brought to light several Luther manuscripts he had found in the Zwickau Council Library and had put them into print, we expected from him at least more Lutheran understanding and Lutheran judgment on the questions in question than had hitherto come to light in the publications of the State Church. But how bitterly we were disappointed when we read Buchwald's pamphlet! There is nothing in it to discover any assertion of Lutheran principles. Words from Luther's writings are quoted here and there, but mostly in an underlying sense. The most important, decisive reasons contained in Willkomm's "missive" are not dealt with, and what is considered in it is almost regularly not faithfully presented.

To substantiate these accusations, we are permitted to excerpt the following from the text.

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      While today's Luther scholars and theologians only see in Buchwald his great Luther scholarship, Walther became "bitterly disappointed" in him. He was "disappointed" because he always held out hope for Germany's theology, that it would return to its former theological glory. This essay was written near the last year of his life so we may take it as Walther's warning to the younger teachers and leaders in the Missouri Synod to not be deceived by much of the scholarship coming out of Germany. This essay is as astute as it is passionate, for Buchwald was a smart man and deceptively misused logic to attempt to persuade "the faithful" in his State Church.

      It is to be regretted that the pamphlets of Dr. Buchwald and Pastor Otto Willkomm are not so easily obtained. But that did not matter so much to me for I know exactly the points that Buchwald made by Walther's defense against them. We will see that, as Walther progresses through his article. The essay continues in the next Part GB2. 

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

GB1: This post, Introduction; Georg Buchwald vs Free Church (and Missouri Synod)

GB2: The “theology prevailing at German universities”; Church separation

GB3: Proper church separation; State Church: no better if 100x better; idolizing Luther?

GB4: Luther’s Bible; doctrinal discipline, unity of doctrine; Röbbelen & canonicity of Revelation

GB5: The Confessions vs. the Bible? Divinely assured by God's Word alone? Baier's Compendium

GB6: Doctrinal unity within Free Church? Syncretism “kills love of truth”; pleases Holy Spirit or not?

GB7: Serious about Confessions; forced removal?; Backward theology? Yes!

GB8: Communion discipline; Ph.D’s “irrelevant conclusion”; certainty of absolution

GB9: Confession not forced, but needed; Luther & Köstlin vs Buchwald

GB10: Walther schools Buchwald on communion discipline; "broad-minded"?

GB11: Buchwald makes foolish opponents: "straw man" argument

GB12: Fusion of Church and State? Buchwald defends, Walther attacks; a “quick-witted” Ph.D.

GB13: Walther condemns State Church 10 ways: deprives of soul & salvation

GB14: Buchwald misuses Walther's lamentations; Free Church could be better?