THE ATTACK ON THE REV. LUTHER A. GOTWALD

In investigating something else, I fell into the story of Pastor Luther Alexander Gotwald.*  He came from a family of devoted pastors who served the Lutheran church with dedication and honor. Born in 1833 Adams County, Pennsylvania, he was baptized by that famous cleric Samuel Simon Schmucker, about whom more later. He was ordained in 1859 and faithfully served churches in Pennsylvania and Ohio before being elected Professor of Practical and Historical Theology at Wittenberg Theological Seminary in Springfield, Ohio in 1888. Five years later charges were brought by Alexander Gebhart, Joseph Gebhart, and Ernst E. Baker that Pastor Gotwald was disqualified to be a professor at Wittenberg College.

The  first charge sets the basic issue. “His Dominant Attitude has been that of opposition to the Type of Lutheranism that dictated the establishment of Wittenberg College.” Essentially they complained that he wasn’t teaching the way they thought he should be teaching. If you find that pretty vague, so did the board of directors who wanted more specifics. Those making the charges refused to make any specifics.

We can understand what this was all about by reading the sixth charge that Pastor Gotwald was trying to change the spirit and doctrinal position of Wittenberg College “which does not make the Augsburg Confession binding as test of doctrine beyond its ‘exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the Divine Word and of the faith of our Church founded upon that Word,’ in favor of the exclusive Type of Lutheranism characteristic of the General Council, which makes all the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession fundamental.” The Augsburg Confession is the central statement of faith of Lutherans (after the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds). So the charge was that Dr. Gotwald was just too Lutheran to be teaching at this Lutheran Institution.

The Trial of Luther A. Gotwald was one more incident in a long battle over the Americanization of Lutheranism. Lutherans struggled over the transition to English from their native Swedish and German. A good number of Lutherans became Episcopalians when the Lutheran churches didn’t make the transition quickly enough. Beyond language, however, serious questions were raised about theology and worship. Lutherans held to beliefs and practices that were different from those of their Calvinist and Methodist neighbors. Should Lutherans be more like their neighbors in order to be more American?

Into the debate came the Rev. Samuel Simon Schmucker. As a young man he worked to maintain the General Synod of the Lutheran Churches in America. He worked for the establishment of the first Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg and became its first professor in 1826. He wrote the oath of office for professors which affirmed the Augsburg Confession. And then the ground shifted under him. New Lutheran immigrants questioned how Lutheran the Lutherans already in America were. American pastors studying in Europe came back with a more Confessional view of Lutheranism. Schmucker and associates like his brother-in-law Samuel Sprecher, President of Wittenberg College, and Benjamin Kurtz, editor of the Lutheran Observer were appalled by the conservative direction of Lutheranism. They wanted a Lutheranism that was pretty much like other forms of American Protestantism. They didn’t like the distinctive positions of the Confessions one bit.

Battle was engaged. Wittenberg College in Springfield Ohio was founded in 1845 in large part as a rejection of the pro-confessional stance of the German Theological Seminary of the Ohio Synod. In 1855 Dr. Schmucker anonymously issued the Definite Synodical Platform as a basis for Lutheran belief. It maintained the Augsburg Confession as a statement of faith as long as certain “errors” contained in the Confession were rejected. These supposed errors were: “1. Approval of the Ceremonies of the Mass; 2. Private Confession and Absolution; 3. Denial of the Divine Obligation of the Christian Sabbath; 4. Baptismal Regeneration; 5. The Real Presence of the Body and Blood of the Savior in the Eucharist.”  In short, Schmucker thought the Lutheran Reformers had gotten Lutheranism wrong, and he proposed to straighten it out.   

Schmucker’s proposal caused a firestorm. In 1866 the Pennsylvania Ministerium withdrew from the General Synod and the next year became a leading force in the creation of the General Council. Although the General Synod never adopted Schmucker’s proposals, the constituent synods tended to lean toward the Schmucker-Sprecher-Kurtz form of American Lutheranism. The rival General Council embraced a far more Confessional approach.

All of this set the stage for the Trial of Luther Gotwald before the board of directors of Wittenberg College. For a year various attacks were made on Gotwald. The motivation for the attacks may not have been purely theological. Personal resentments and professional jealousies were woven into dynamics at work. One of the accusers Ernest Baker eventually left the Lutheran Church altogether. The Board of Directors was unable to find enough specifics in the charges to try the case and asked the accusers to clarify their position. They refused to do so. The Board tried to get beneath the accusations. They asked the accusers to call witnesses. They refused. In the end Gotwald was acquitted of all charges. After the trial Luther Gotwald published Trial of Luther Gotwald, D.D. in which he defended himself against the charges that had been made against him. In essence he held that there was no difference between the theological basis of the General Synod and the General Council as concerned the Augsburg Confession. History would prove him correct as in 1918 the General Synod, General Council and United Synod of the South would merge to form the United Lutheran Church in America.

So Dr. Gotwald was rightly vindicated, but it is far from clear that Confessional Lutheranism will survive in the successor to the General Synod and General Council: the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Thirty-five years ago when I was a seminarian, I mentioned the Lutheran Confessions to my teaching parish supervisor. His response was that they should have been thrown into the trash can long ago. I am afraid that is a common attitude within the ELCA today. Although only a few may say aloud that they reject the Lutheran Confessions, many more reject them in practice without saying so.  I recall the chilly reception the proposers of the 9.5 Theses received when they raised concerns about a Confessional Crisis in the ELCA with The-Powers-That-Be.

I doubt that anybody will be tried on charges that they are too Confessional (or too Lutheran). To do that would be to face the same problem as the accusers of Luther Gotwald–being specific about charges. Nobody wants to take an anti-Confessional stance officially. No, the approach will be much more subtle. Anyone who is too obviously an advocate of the Lutheran Confession will not be appointed to national or synodical committees. They will be unlikely to be called to faculty positions at a seminary or perhaps if they are, their application for tenure will be denied. Candidates for ministry who express too strongly an opinion supporting the Confessions may be sent for counseling because of their rigidity. Noisy advocates of the Confessions may discover a difficulty in being placed on call lists. And there is always the approach of not having an application for being on leave from call approved resulting in immediate removal from the roster. Impossible? I have seen all of these things happen.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial” (Luke 22:46). Why, Lutheran Church, are you sleeping? Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Wayne


*Luther A. Gotwald was the brother of William H. Gotwald who started the Lutheran Church in Martin, Florida.



13765