The Lutheran History Podcast

Today we welcome back Pastor Beibert to discuss his research and presentation on Luther at Worms in 1521, one of the most iconic and significant events in the history of the Church.

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• About the Host
  • Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German emphasis. From there went on to graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2018.
    Ben loves all things history and enjoys traveling. A descendant of over a dozen Lutheran pastors, Ben has an interest in his family roots, especially 19th-century Lutheranism, and has written several papers and journal articles on the topic. His 2018 thesis on Wyneken won the John Harrison Ness award and the Abdel Ross Wentz prize. He is also the recipient of two awards of commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute.
    Ben is currently a doctoral student in historical theology through Concordia Seminary's reduced residency program in St. Louis.

Image FCD Wyneken in old age
Wielding the Sword of the Spirit recounts the history surrounding the doctrine and practice of church fellowship in the Missouri Synod, especially under the leadership of Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther.
Volume One of this two-part history covers the years from the Saxon immigration to Missouri in 1838-1839 until 1867, just before the founding of the General Council. Not only does it chart the history of the Missourians' doctrine and practice of church fellowship during their first thirty years in America, it also provides an in-depth account of how they came to the positions they held on important matters of theology. It details their burgeoning fellowship relationships with the Buffalo Synod's Johannes Grabau and the patron of the Missouri and Iowa Synods, Pastor Wilhelm Loehe, in the 1840s and 1850s and their eventual split with both due to different positions on church and ministry, confessional subscription, open questions, chiliasm, and evangelical pastoral practice. It also highlights the central role Walther played in promoting a Lutheran confessional consciousness among the American Lutherans of his day--especially his single-minded emphasis on the objective nature of justification--Finally, it presents a clear recounting and analysis of why, under God, the Missouri Synod experienced an exponential growth--and developed a vigorous esprit de corps.
Wielding the Sword of the Spirit highlights how these early Missourians maintained a firm grip on the teachings of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions while also carefully distinguishing between weak Christians, who lacked proper insight and instruction, and stubborn errorists, who denied the clear teachings of Scripture against better knowledge. When carefully considered in their historical context, Walther and his colleagues modeled a faithful and evangelical doctrine and practice of church fellowship that followed in the footsteps of Jesus, St. Paul, and Martin Luther. They wielded the sword of the Spirit vigorously and evangelically, while also striving to do their very best to "keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace"

Peter M. Prange serves as an associate pastor at New Life Ev. Lutheran Church in Kenosha and Somers, Wis. He is a 1998 graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon, Wis. He has researched and written extens

Support the show

• Confessional Languages Scholarship
• Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers)
• Facebook
• Website
• Interview Request Form
• email: [email protected]
• About the Host
  • Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German emphasis. From there went on to graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2018.
    Ben loves all things history and enjoys traveling. A descendant of over a dozen Lutheran pastors, Ben has an interest in his family roots, especially 19th-century Lutheranism, and has written several papers and journal articles on the topic. His 2018 thesis on Wyneken won the John Harrison Ness award and the Abdel Ross Wentz prize. He is also the recipient of two awards of commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute.
    Ben is currently a doctoral student in historical theology through Concordia Seminary's reduced residency program in St. Louis.

Music has always been a big part of Christianity, and especially Lutheranism ever since the Reformation. If I were to ask Lutherans to name Lutheran composers, Martin Luther would probably be on that list. In the intro to The Lutheran Podcast, I remarked how Lutheran composers like J.S. Bach are still popular centuries after their deaths. Did you know that Bach still gets over 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify? Another Lutheran composer, who falls on the timeline between Luther and Bach was rather popular in his own day, and still registers a respectable 800,000 listeners on Spotify. Today we’ll talk about Michael Praetorius. Today, February 15, just so happens to the be 400th anniversary of his death.
Here are three albums that would make for a great introduction to Praetorius:

https://www.amazon.com/Praetorius-Christmette-Gabrieli-Consort-Players/dp/B00DNVIVHC/

https://www.amazon.com/Praetorius-Polyhymnia-Caduceatrix-Panegyrica-Christmas/dp/B0000029VM/

https://www.amazon.com/Dances-Terpsichore-1612-Philip-Pickett/dp/B000SNUI4W/

And here is a link to a Praetorius concert you can watch for free (Praetorius dances):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWYIY3icUg

Link to Heaven is my Fatherland on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1532684312/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Lutheran History Shop

Support the show

• Confessional Languages Scholarship
• Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers)
• Facebook
• Website
• Interview Request Form
• email: [email protected]
• About the Host
  • Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German emphasis. From there went on to graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2018.
    Ben loves all things history and enjoys traveling. A descendant of over a dozen Lutheran pastors, Ben has an interest in his family roots, especially 19th-century Lutheranism, and has written several papers and journal articles on the topic. His 2018 thesis on Wyneken won the John Harrison Ness award and the Abdel Ross Wentz prize. He is also the recipient of two awards of commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute.
    Ben is currently a doctoral student in historical theology through Concordia Seminary's reduced residency program in St. Louis.

Pastor Borrasso’s presentation on the 2019 decision to close Concordia, Selma and other historically Black Lutheran institutions at the 2020 Lutheran Historical Conference could hardly be called disinterested history! He examined the history of Black ministry in the LC-MS and identified a pattern and foundation that has very real implications for the present and very recent past. He offered a critique of current leadership and actions. Meanwhile, the purpose of TLHP is to examine Lutheran History, without diving headfirst into discussion of current events, issues, and controversy. However, many would argue that the study of history should not be an end itself. While we will focus today primarily on the history of Black educational institutions in the LC-MS, we will not ignore Pastor Borrasso’s opinions on how that history impacts the present. For today’s episode, I asked my friend, Pastor Scott Henrich, who researched and wrote a thesis on Race and the Lutheran Pastor, to offer some feedback and suggestions for today’s conversation. You can read Scott’s thesis via the WLS essay file online.

Guest introduction: Our guest today, Pastor Matt Borrasso, was born and raised in the Chicago area where was baptized and received a Lutheran education in his childhood years. He has received degrees from Concordia University, Chicago, Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, United Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg PA, and has recently begun his PhD. work at the University of Birmingham in the UK. Among his works is the book The Art of Exegesis: An Analysis of the Life and Work of Martin Hans Franzmann published by Wipf & Stock in Eugene, Oregon. Pastor Borrasso is currently the pastor at Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church in Parkton, Maryland where he lives with his wife, Holly, and two children.
For Reference:
LCMS Convention Concordia College Alabama’s Closure Session: “July 24 2019 - Afternoon Session Part 1” YouTube video, 2:59:57–3:01:31, posted by The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, July 29, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtWq-NUChZ4&list=PLDu0iVoFL_d4CTqtlAVoHU

Support the show

• Confessional Languages Scholarship
• Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers)
• Facebook
• Website
• Interview Request Form
• email: [email protected]
• About the Host
  • Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German emphasis. From there went on to graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2018.
    Ben loves all things history and enjoys traveling. A descendant of over a dozen Lutheran pastors, Ben has an interest in his family roots, especially 19th-century Lutheranism, and has written several papers and journal articles on the topic. His 2018 thesis on Wyneken won the John Harrison Ness award and the Abdel Ross Wentz prize. He is also the recipient of two awards of commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute.
    Ben is currently a doctoral student in historical theology through Concordia Seminary's reduced residency program in St. Louis.

Image U.V. Koren
“How is our America doing?” That is the poignant question that C.F.W. Walther (1811 1887), the President of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, asks in his Synod’s theological journal, “Lehre und Wehre” in 1863. In a series of articles written in the Spring of that year, on the eve of the Civil War, Walther addressed topics such as slavery, abolitionism, the nature of America as having been founded on “Enlightenment” principles, as well as how Lutherans can remain faithful to God’s Word in the face of fiery political debates in a democratic context. Of course, Walther was grappling with a much broader question that endures to this day among Lutherans living in America, and that is, what does it mean to be both an “American” and a “Lutheran”?
Rev. Andrew Soule discusses the views of Clausen, Koren, and Walther.

Support the show

• Confessional Languages Scholarship
• Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers)
• Facebook
• Website
• Interview Request Form
• email: [email protected]
• About the Host
  • Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German emphasis. From there went on to graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2018.
    Ben loves all things history and enjoys traveling. A descendant of over a dozen Lutheran pastors, Ben has an interest in his family roots, especially 19th-century Lutheranism, and has written several papers and journal articles on the topic. His 2018 thesis on Wyneken won the John Harrison Ness award and the Abdel Ross Wentz prize. He is also the recipient of two awards of commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute.
    Ben is currently a doctoral student in historical theology through Concordia Seminary's reduced residency program in St. Louis.