EC1: Suelflow’s “years of effort” restored: Walther’s early essays (Part EC1 of 15)

      I discovered recently that there is some old unfinished business regarding the contents of the second volume of Concordia Publishing House's (CPH) English translations of "Walther's Work's", All Glory to God. I had provided, in a 2016 blog post, a listing of the sources used for the first volume, Church Fellowship. Now, 8 years later, I am returning to this complex project of cross-referencing the newer re-published works to the older ones. That led me to discover a disturbing fact.

      The original 1992 2-volume series Essays for the Church, the legacy of August Suelflow, Director of Concordia Historical Institute († 1999), had the following front covers as previously reported 12 years ago: 

Essays for the Church (CPH 1992)
Volume I                                      Volume II
Essays from 1857-1879                Essays from 1877-1886

What is notable about the CPH republishing of the 1992 series is that Essays Volume II was almost completely republished in Church Fellowship (CPH 2015) and All Glory to God (CPH 2016),

while Essays Volume I remains mostly unavailable and out-of-print. And with no announcements from CPH or Concordia Historical Institute (CHI) about any further work being done for "Walther's Works", it appears they have abandoned these missing essays. Of the 17 essays in Volume I, only 3 were re-published. These are in Walther's Works: Church Fellowship (CF). The following is a listing of these 3 available essays from Essays Volume I. The red text indicates the page numbers where the essay was re-published in Church Fellowship:

* Confessional Subscription—Western District, 1858 p. 19-29 [CF p. 11-28] [EC3]

* Communion Fellowship—Western District, 1870 p. 202-228 [CF p. 145-192] [Also available from CTS-FW bookstore for $3.99]

* Sixteen Theses—English District, 1872 p. 229-243 [CF p. 193-216]

On the right is an image of the "Contents" page: ——>

      So what has happened with the remaining 14 essays in Volume I? Below is a listing of these missing essays as shown on the "Contents" page:

Gerhard on Baptism—Synod, 1857 Essays I, p. 15-18 [EC2]

Justification — Western District, 1859 p. 30-63. [EC4]

Church and State—Western District 1862 p. 64-68 This essay was erroneously identified as Walther's but was actually delivered by District Pres. J. G. Schaller and so I have not included it. But Walther's essay was published separately as Die rechte Gestalt…. or The Proper Form of an Evangelical Lutheran Local Congregation Independent of the State. I am publishing a new English translation of this complete book, not an abridgement. [EC4a]

Calling a Pastor—Synod, 1863 p. 69-87 [EC5]  

The True Visible Church:

Theses I—III, Synodical, 1866 p. 88-104 [EC6]

Theses III—VI, Western District, 1867 p. 104-125 [EC7]

Theses VI-X, Central District, 1867 p. 125-144 [EC8]

Theses XI—XIII,. Eastern District, 1867. p. 145-160 [EC9]

Theses XVII—XVIII A, Western District, 1868 p. 160-170 [EC10]

Thesis XVIII A-C, Central District, 1868 p. 170-178 [EC11]

Thesis XVIII C-D, Eastern District, 1868 p. 179-190 [EC12]

Thesis XVIII D, Adiaphora, Central District, 1871 p. 190-201 [EC13]

Conversion—Northern District, 1873 p. 244-263 [EC14]

Certainty of Salvation—Illinois District, 1879 p. 264-297 [EC15]

As I reviewed again the content of these essays, I was amazed that so much of the material that CHI Director August Suelflow worked so hard to get translated has been apparently abandoned. Just how much work and desire went into the 1992 translations of Walther convention essays?  Listen to Director Suelflow's "Introduction" (Essays Volume I, p. 13):

Immediately after the six [CPH] English volumes appeared [© 1981], the undersigned enlisted several men to complete translating the convention essays. All of them have now been completed after years of effort. Some of the early translators were Herbert Richter (four essays), Fred Kramer (three), Alex Guebert (with Theo­dore Tappert), Robert Smith, Lawrence White, and Jim Ware (one each), for a total of 11. (Reinhold Stallmann later also did one.) Unfortunately, some of the earlier translators were unable to continue. At that time the undersigned contacted his old friend, the Rev. Everette W. Meier, in a letter of 28 March 1985 and hesitantly asked: 

“Are you interested in doing more translation work? For the Walther anniversaries (the 175th of birth in October 1986 and centennial of death in May 1987) I hope that we could translate as much as possible of the Walther literature which consists largely of convention essays.. . . If you are interested in translating some, please let me know. There still is extremely much to be done.” 

Pastor Meier immediately jumped at the opportunity. Just at that time he suffered from ill health and retired from the active ministry. This presented a fortuitous opportunity to have Pastor Meier translate large segments of the Walther essays. In these two volumes he translated half of the essays. 

It was our fervent hope that, even if all these translated essays could not be published immediately, at least the English version could be made available to those who were especially interested. Accordingly, over a number of years the undersigned accumulated these essays at Concordia Historical Institute until such a day when they could be published. 

When Pastor Meier’s work was completed, Con­cordia Publishing House was persuaded that it could serve the church best by issuing the essays in print. Excellent support for publication came from several sources, such as Dr. Will Sohns, president of the Wyoming District; Dr. J. A. O. Preus, former president of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod; Dr. Karl L. Barth, president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis; and Dr. Ralph A. Bohlmann, current president of the Synod.

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One may note the Synod-wide lack of enthusiasm for Suelflow's endeavors. He had to work hard to accomplish the work of translation. Admittedly, the work was a large project, but so is the work for John Gerhard's Theological Commonplaces. That lack of enthusiasm for Walther has only increased today. Suelflow's project had the endorsement of 3 Synod presidents, so why does President Matthew Harrison not support at least the re-publishing of the remaining major convention essays that have already been translated?  Why indeed…

      These essays are about to come alive again — but before that, a quote from the magazine Christianity Today on the earlier 1983 CPH 6-volume series, in the next Part EC1a.

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

EC1: This intro; Suelflow's “years of effort” restored; 3 essays given abbreviated coverage: "Gerhard on Baptism", "Justification", and "Church and State",

EC1a: Christianity Today comments on Walther's writings

EC2: "Gerhard on Baptism" — faith in Baptism (Synod 1857)

EC3: "Confessional Subscription" by C. F. W. Walther (once more) (Western 1858)

EC4: Justification — LDJ essay revisited (Western District 1859) (LDJ)

EC4a: Walther's The Proper Form of an Evangelical Lutheran Local Congregation Independent of the State (Western 1862)

EC5: Calling a Pastor by a congregation (Synod 1863)

EC6: TVC: Church in the proper sense; Synod astonished (1866 Missouri)

EC7: TVC: Church in proper, improper sense; Hypocrites; Heretics, schismatics and sects (Western District, 1867)

EC8: TVC: Greatest righteous separation: the Lutheran Church; ceremonies (Central District 1867)

EC9: TVC: Christianity gathered spiritually; Antichrist; hermeneutics (Eastern 1867) (Hrm04)

EC10: TVC: Hermeneutics; Justification; plus the Antichrist (Western 1868) (RWD) (Hrm05)

EC11: TVC: Justification, Law & Gospel, Hermeneutics (Central District 1868)

EC12: TVC: Fundamental, non-fundamental doctrines; Copernicanism; Jews; Adiaphora (Eastern 1868)

EC13: TVC: Adiaphora — Central 1871

EC14: Conversion—Northern District, 1873

EC15: Certainty of Salvation—Illinois District, 1879