Walther Sainthood Project, Second Installment

In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephan’s Journey

By Philip G. Stephan (born 1935), New York: Lexington Books, 2008.

http://www.amazon.com/Pursuit-Religious-Freedom-Stephans-Journey/dp/0739124420

My citations will be In Pursuit of Religious Freedom, instead of Stephan, to avoid confusion, since the author is a descendant of the bishop.

Join me in presenting a case for--or against--CFW Walther as the official saint of Olde Synodical Conference, a symbol of Lutheran orthodoxy, standing athwart the crossroads of church history and

Myth: CFW Walther came to America as an orthodox Lutheran pastor.

Facts: 


Walther came to Stephan from a circle of Pietists, whose leader had them doing works of contrition that were literally killing Ferdy in his devotion. Stephan saved Walther's life, as our hero attested, by turning him away from such fanaticism.


Stephan came from Pietism and enhanced the Pietism of the congregation he served in Dresden. The congregation was founded by Pietists and Stephan came from the same tradition of Pietism, whose main attribute is the conventicle or cell group.

Stephan served a congregation for one year, refused a position as the court preacher, and accepted the call to St. John in Dresden, perhaps because the parish developed through the Bohemian Brethren after the edict in 1624. IPRF, p. 39..

He married Julia Haberfeld in 1810. Her family was from St. John, Dresden. IPRF, p. 39f.

The congregation was formed by those not allowed to go back to their territory, IPRF, p. 45. Outside the city walls of Dresden. Services in German and in Czech. Church destroyed by the saturation bombing of Dresden in WWII.

The congregation had a number of conventicle meetings during the week, IPRF, p. 45.

“The roots of these special practices lay in Philip Spener’s pietism that developed especially within the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren Church.” IPRF, p. 46.

“Count von Zinzendorf, who had allowed the Moravian refugees to build a villa on his estates, led the “awakening” aspect of pietism and profoundly affected its tradition. It has an especially marked influenced in the rise of the Moravian Brethren Church Their evangelical work spread from Herrnhut, a town seventy miles from Dresden.” IPRF, p. 46.

“The practice of midweek prayers and study had continued for a century and a half until Stephan became pastor. He gladly and readily continued in this pietistic spirit, for this was his rearing, training, and spiritual lifeblood. He drew on his own ancestral roots so similar to those of the congregation.

When he facilitated these  gatherings he was really in his element. It was here that  the people who attended these meetings had access to the person of Martin Stephan. He was at his relaxed best in these groups.” IPRF, p. 46f.