Remembering our leaders: Dr. Adolf Hoenecke
For more than 40 years, Dr. Adolf Hoenecke was our synod's spiritual leader. Through his work our synod found its way to biblical, confessional Lutheranism.
Author: James C. Danell, Jr.
A century ago, the readers of the Gemeindeblatt, the first version of Forward in Christ, received the following news, “A heavy blow has struck our synod. After a short illness, it has pleased the Lord of life and death to call our dear, longtime Professor, Dr. A. Hoenecke, from time into eternity.” Of course, it was in German. At the time we were still a German-speaking church body.
For more than 40 years, Dr. Hoenecke was our synod’s spiritual leader. When the synod was only 13 years old and still drifting doctrinally, the Lord of the church sent us a theologian. At the time he was only 28 years old, but through his work our synod found its way to biblical, confessional Lutheranism.
God makes Hoenecke a Christian theologian
Adolf Hoenecke was born on Feb. 25, 1835, about 60 miles southwest of Berlin, Germany. Neither his family nor his country was very religious. After finishing high school, he had absolutely no idea what he wanted to do. But a chance meeting changed his life and set in motion events that would bring great blessing to our synod. Hoenecke was a frail young man. While at the home of a friend, the music director from his school pointed to a healthy-looking pastor and said, “Look Adolf! Become a pastor and you will have it good.” That was enough for Hoenecke. He enrolled at the University of Halle to study theology.
While at Halle, the young Hoenecke met Dr. August Tholuck. Dr. Tholuck did many things for his young student. The most important, however, was that he told Hoenecke about his Savior Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit used the gospel witness of this professor to make Hoenecke a Christian.
Other things during these college years brought Hoenecke to our synod. One was his extreme poverty. Hoenecke had to pay for his own education. He did it by participating in academic competitions to win meals and by taking charity from Dr. Tholuck. After finishing his undergraduate studies, Tholuck wanted Hoenecke to become a university professor. That, however, required further education and money! Adolf couldn’t bring himself to do it. Three years of begging had been enough.
But training doesn’t only come from university study. Hoenecke needed more training in confessional Lutheranism. Since the Prussian state church had more pastors than it needed, Hoenecke moved to Switzerland where he became a private tutor. There Hoenecke had time to immerse himself in a continued study of Holy Scripture and Lutheran doctrine. As he studied on his own, the Holy Spirit turned Hoenecke into a university-trained, confessional Lutheran theologian, who knew the biblical languages, Latin, and the dogmaticians (teachers of doctrine).
God brings Hoenecke to America
In 1863 the Holy Spirit called Hoenecke to the Wisconsin Synod through the Prussian state church’s call for missionaries to America. Hoenecke was assigned to a tiny congregation a few miles south of Watertown, Wis. Again, Hoenecke had time. He continued his intensive study of Scripture and confessional Lutheran theology.
Serving the congregation in Wisconsin also brought Hoenecke into regular contact with our synod’s president, Pastor Johannes Bading. President Bading immediately recognized Hoenecke’s gifts, and in 1864 Hoenecke was elected secretary of the Wisconsin Synod.
God makes Hoenecke a leader
Hoenecke’s first leadership task was difficult. Since its founding, the Wisconsin Synod had been heavily involved with mission societies in Germany that were often Lutheran in name only. These societies supplied the synod’s congregations with almost all their pastors and much of the money needed to operate a church body. But the doctrinal position of these mission societies created tension. Should the synod continue to depend on the money and manpower supplied by the mission societies or make it clear that it could not accept the watered-down theology? The synod knew it had to give a clear biblical confession and cut all ties to these groups. It asked Hoenecke to handle the difficult correspondence.
Two years later, Hoenecke, at 31 years of age, became a professor of theology at our young seminary. Beginning in 1866 and for 33 of the next 41 years, Hoenecke taught dogmatics to 80 percent of all the pastors entering the public ministry of the synod. During those years Hoenecke also trained pastors in preaching, pastoral theology, and proper Bible interpretation. The laypeople of our synod received training in Bible doctrine from Hoenecke as well, since he also served as the editor of the synod’s newspaper. In addition, Hoenecke served the synod through the doctrinal essays he presented at the majority of the yearly synod conventions between 1869 and 1878.
But his contribution did not end there. His influence was evident in the doctrinal issues that arose with other synods. In 1867 prominent members of the Iowa Synod suggested that some points of Bible doctrine should be left as questions open to different opinions. “They would have bagged us as adherents to their position . . . ,” one biographer wrote, “if Hoenecke, together with a few pastors, had not stepped in to oppose them very politely but resolutely and victoriously.”
During those same years Hoenecke continued to guide the synod to a clear, biblical doctrine and practice in matters of church fellowship. The newly forming General Council was a group of confessionally minded Lutherans in the eastern third of the United States. Their printed public confession seemed promising, but it was not being carried out in practice. Instead of joining the General Council, Hoenecke led the synod into membership in the Synodical Conference, a fellowship of confessional Lutherans whose doctrine and practice were biblical.
God makes Hoenecke reliable in controversy
Early on, however, some may have doubted the move toward the Synodical Conference. A doctrinal controversy soon erupted among the members of the conference. It was called the election controversy, and at stake was the central biblical truth of salvation by grace. At its 1882 convention, our synod needed to take a doctrinal stand. It called on its teacher, Professor Hoenecke. Clearly, simply, and succinctly he presented what the Bible taught about election. Looking back, a later seminary professor said, “Humanly speaking, our synod might well have been torn apart if Hoenecke’s theology—not outwardly dazzling, but strong because it was Lutheran to the core—had not held us together.”
Some 20 years later the groups involved in the original election controversy would take up the question again. Once more it would be Hoenecke who would help the Wisconsin Synod see that the basic problem was one of proper Bible interpretation. Through a series of articles in the seminary’s new theological journal, the Theologische Quartalschrift, Hoenecke laid out the biblical principles of Scripture interpretation that helped guide our synod in the doctrinal struggles that followed his death on Jan. 3, 1908.
As we remember the life and work of Dr. Adolf Hoenecke, we do so with gratitude to the Lord of the church for his gifts and his guidance these many years.
James Danell, a professor at Martin Luther College, New Ulm, Minnesota, is a member at St. John, New Ulm, Minnesota.
Feb. 25, 1835 — Born 60 miles south of Berlin, Germany
1863 — Came to Wisconsin to serve as a pastor just south of Watertown
1864 — Elected secretary of the Wisconsin Synod
1866 — Became professor of theology at the synod’s seminary
1867–1908 — Helped guide the synod through various doctrinal controversies
Jan. 3, 1908 — Died in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
Want to read more on Hoenecke’s biblical teachings? All four volumes of Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics are now complete and available through Northwestern Publishing House, www.nph.net.
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GJ - A layman reminded me to look up this article. As it was loading, I thought about the chance of NPH being renamed Forward Lutherans in Publishing, so FLIP could rhyme with FIC.
Halle was the center of Pietism in Germany. There might be a few exceptions, but the Lutherans groups established in America were grounded in Pietism. The Muhlenberg tradition (General Synod, General Council, ULCA) came from Halle University. The Scandinavians (except the Happy Danes) were Pietists. Walther was converted by a Pietist and moved in Pietist circles in Berlin before coming over with Bishop Stephan.
The double-justification formula--so lovingly promoted by the Synodical Conference--was coined by George Christian Knapp before Walther was vomited on the shores of the Mississippi River. Knapp lectured for years, published his lectures in German, which were translated into English, 1831, and used extensively in America for 60 years plus.
More will be published on this in the next year or so.
I would like to thank FIC for offering an article on a respected theologian. Doubtless many readers would rather learn about a founder of WELS than a Latte
