a journal for the history of Lutheranism in America
This autobiography of Ernst Henry Rolf was copied from the original manuscript by students of Prof Eduard Louis Arndt (1864-1929) at Concordia College, St. Paul, Minnesota. Prof Arndt served this college from 1897 to 1910. He then organized a mission society that sent him to China as the first Missouri Synod missionary to China. He arrived in Shanghai on February 25, 1913. In 1917 the Missouri Synod accepted responsibility for the work begun by this patriarch of the synod's China mission.
Today we can hardly even imagine the hardships and challenges that confronted pioneers in the 19th century as they opened the Midwest for settlement and established churches and schools in primitive circumstances. This article provides us with an insight into the life of one hardy pioneer whom the Spirit of God used to establish His church in the formative years of Lutheranism in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Minnesota.
The translator, Dr. Edward J. Arndt, a son of Missionary E. L. Arndt, is a faithful friend of the Concordia Historical Institute.
For several reasons we greatly appreciate the author's account of the German background of her ancestors. First, this article gives us significant insights into the Germany from which many of our ancestors emigrated during the early 19th century. Second, the background of the Buenger family described in these pages was rather typical of many of the early Lutheran pastors who came to America to minister to German immigrants.
Third, the Buenger family provided important leaders during the early years of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Saxon emigrant Johann Friedrich Buenger (1810-1882) was a founder of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church, St. Louis, and president of the Western District of the Missouri Synod from 1863 to 1875. But he probably is best known for his pastoral heart. He rightly can be remembered as being the “Father” of social ministry in the Missouri Synod as well as of the Synodical Conference's ministry with African Americans. In St. Louis he founded the Lutheran Hospital, an orphans home (Des Peres) and a home for the aged. Theodore Henry Carl Buenger, a nephew, was a founder in 1893 of what is now Concordia University, St. Paul, Minnesota.
The author is professor of history at the University of Missouri—St. Louis. She earned her Ph.D. in history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1955 and, as a historian, concentrates her research and writing on the economic history of medieval Venice. She is the wife of the Rev. Dr. George S. Robbert, professor emeritus of historical theology, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.
During the year 2000 the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil observes the centennial of its beginnings in 1900 as a “mission field” of the Missouri Synod. In this article Dr. Robert G. Huebner describes the early years of this church body, the obstacles it confronted, and the blessings of God who used fallible human beings for the accomplishment of His purposes.
The author, son of Pastor Gerhard and Ruth Tegeier Huebner, was born and raised in Argentina until his college and seminary years. After graduation from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 1952, Dr. Huebner served the Missouri Synod as missionary to Venezuela until 1971. After spending two years in study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, where he received the degree of License in Sacred Scripture (S.S.L.), the author was called by the Board for Mission Services of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod to teach Old Testament courses at Augsburg Lutheran Seminary, Mexico City, serving there from 1973 to 1981. From 1982 to his retirement in 1995, Dr. Huebner was a traveling professor, teaching and assisting pastors and laypersons active in ministry in Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, Bolivia, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. In retirement Dr. Huebner and his wife, Margarete Florence Boriack Huebner, reside in Colorado Springs.
This article, based on a background chapter from The Effects of the Participation of the Missouri Synod in the Military Chaplaincy during World War II on Its Subsequent History, a master of sacred theology thesis. The first part appeared in the winter 1999 issue of the Quarterly.
This part describes the World War II years, a period during which the American and Canadian people enjoyed a strong sense of unity, a mood that affected the churches as well as the nation as a whole. This sense of unity in the Missouri Synod was reflected in the strong support that it gave to the war effort in general and to the military ministry of the Synod in particular.
- Book Reviews
Editor: Dale E. Griffin
Managing Editor: Daniel Preus
Associate Editors: Ronald R. Feuerhahn, George J. Gude, Cameron A. MacKenzie
Editorial Committee: Albert H. Buelow, Ronald Feuerhahn, Jerzy Hauptmann, Marvin Huggins, Glenn Offermann, Timothy Quill, Leroy E. Vogel
Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, USPS: 127-940, is published quarterly. Subscriptions without membership in the Institute is available for $28 per year. Single copies $7.50 for any issue published during the past three years, and $3.00 for issues published prior to that time by Concordia Historical Institute, 801 DeMun Ave., St. Louis, MO 63105-3199. Shipping and handling extra for past copies. |
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