Overview

"Wilhelm Loehe is one of the most significant nineteenth-century figures for North American church life and mission, whose influence continues into the present. Loehe is unique for joining together aspects of the Christian life often held to be antithetical: worship and mission, orthodoxy and pietism, evangelical proclamation and diakonia, and theological imagination and practical skill in administration. Already in the nineteenth century Loehe contributed a vital principle for advancing ecumenical understanding: the idea of ""open questions."" When the church confesses core teachings as one, there does not need to be agreement on all secondary matters in order to live together in church fellowship. This book explores Loehe's historical activity as a pastor, as a supporter of mission in North America, as an organizer (together with Friedrich Bauer) of theological education in North America, and as a founder of deaconess institutions in Neuendettelsau, Germany, that still exist today. The central themes represented by Loehe not only constitute a matrix that has significance for the church and its mission today but also constitute an agenda for the church of the future."

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9781532686573

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Nessan is a thorough and gifted scholar, whose grasp of Wilhelm Loehe is not just historic, but lived. Nessan embodies the Loehe legacy, describing its effectiveness for building communities of faith and service today. This book brings to life a tradition that endures and holds great promise for reforming the church and the world. --Louise Johnson, President, Wartburg Theological Seminary At a time when the struggles, missteps, fresh impulses, and contributions of missionaries and missiological thinkers of earlier times are relegated to quick summaries or tucked away in footnotes, it's gratifying that we have this solid and thorough analysis of the work and witness of Wilhelm Loehe. Dr. Neesan writes with the conviction that amidst the realities of our times, a rediscovery of his legacy will enliven and challenge our thinking as well as energize and kindle our praxis. --J. Jayakiran Sebastian, Dean and H. George Anderson Professor of Mission and Cultures, United Lutheran Seminary Using original sources, including archival material, Nessan looks at multiple aspects of Loehe's influence on mission, liturgy, and church life in nineteenth-century American Lutheranism. Students of Lutheran history and theology will welcome this well-crafted study of a remarkable pastor and missional leader and the legacy which he left in North America. --John T. Pless, Concordia Theological Seminary

Nessan is a thorough and gifted scholar, whose grasp of Wilhelm Loehe is not just historic, but lived. Nessan embodies the Loehe legacy, describing its effectiveness for building communities of faith and service today. This book brings to life a tradition that endures and holds great promise for reforming the church and the world. --Louise Johnson, President, Wartburg Theological Seminary At a time when the struggles, missteps, fresh impulses, and contributions of missionaries and missiological thinkers of earlier times are relegated to quick summaries or tucked away in footnotes, it's gratifying that we have this solid and thorough analysis of the work and witness of Wilhelm Loehe. Dr. Neesan writes with the conviction that amidst the realities of our times, a rediscovery of his legacy will enliven and challenge our thinking as well as energize and kindle our praxis. --J. Jayakiran Sebastian, Dean and H. George Anderson Professor of Mission and Cultures, United Lutheran Seminary Using original sources, including archival material, Nessan looks at multiple aspects of Loehe's influence on mission, liturgy, and church life in nineteenth-century American Lutheranism. Students of Lutheran history and theology will welcome this well-crafted study of a remarkable pastor and missional leader and the legacy which he left in North America. --John T. Pless, Concordia Theological Seminary This volume offers us the abundant harvest of Nessan's writing on the impact of Wilhelm Loehe's worship-centered, ecclesial, and missionary theology on Lutherans in North America. Here you will find readable, well-informed history, and illuminating theological discussion of Loehe and those who followed his lead. And more--you will see the impulses from Loehe for imagining the renewal of the church in its life and mission today. Nessan is a superb guide into this territory. --Thomas H. Schattauer, Professor of Liturgics and Dean of the Chapel, Wartburg Theological Seminary Wilhelm Loehe and North America is a must-read narrative of the origins of the Lutheran church in the Midwest. The book is a conversation--using primary sources with a keen hermeneutical eye--where we can dialogue with the protagonists about their struggles and hopes as they mirror many of ours today. --Francisco Javier Goitia Padilla, Program Director for Theological Formation, Seminaries and Schools, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Author Information

Craig L. Nessan is William D. Streng Professor for the Education and Renewal of the Church, Academic Dean, and Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. He is the author of Shalom Church (2010), Beyond Maintenance to Mission (2010), The Vitality of Liberation Theology (2012), and The Integrity of the Body of Christ (2016, with Arden Mahlberg).

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