Lutheranism in America was in disarray one hundred seventy-five years ago. That surprised few people at the time. The Lutheran Confessions were nearly forgotten under the twin theologies of rationalism and pietism. Rationalism insisted that the supernatural is not real, only things which can be observed with the senses are real. It downplayed the role of God in the world and sought to promote morality. Pietism focused on a personal relationship with Jesus, a true conversion to Christian faith, a focus on heart religion and promoted strict religious standards. Both turned sacraments into symbols and downplayed doctrine. Eastern Lutheran Churches by and large sought to be “American” Lutherans, adopting the theology and practices of the revivalist religion of the frontier.
Beginning in the early 1840s, the stream of German immigrants turned into a flood. American Lutheran Churches had transitioned to English language and did not have more than a few pastors that could care for them. Very few pastors came with the immigrants. Several denominations, such as the Methodist, sought to fill the gap by evangelizing them.
Friedrich Wyneken had just returned from a successful trip to recruit pastors for the American frontier. They began almost immediately to make their way across the Atlantic. Having become committed to return to Confessional Lutheran theology and to bring his congregations along with him, he found himself in an extended conflict with people committed to pietist practice.
In Germany, Wilhelm Löhe and his friends began to raise money and recruit candidates for pastoral ministry in America. He tried to form a relationship with the existing Ohio Synod and its seminary in Columbus, Ohio, which was not going well. Full of energy, he also became convinced to form a Christian community that would establish a colony in Michigan to witness to the Chippewa Indians. The effort resulted in the Franconian colonies of the Saginaw Valley, the best known being Frankenmuth.
In Perry County Missouri and St. Louis, a confessional Saxon Lutheran Utopian community emerged from a harrowing sexual abuse scandal, which resulted in the expulsion of the charismatic bishop Martin Stephan. Under the leadership of C. F. W. Walther, they had begun to heal and wondered if they were alone as confessional Lutherans in America.
At the considerable financial sacrifice of Walther’s Trinity Congregation in St. Louis, Walther began to publish a newspaper, Der Lutheraner (The Lutheran) on September 7, 1844. The hope was to explain Lutheran theology to the German American immigrants in the United States. The paper succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Der Lutheraner would help scattered Lutherans organize a new fellowship — a synod — of confessional churches– now known as the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.
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I would not call it a utopian community. They were trying to avoid a dystopian future.
It was a Utopian community in the 19th Century sense of that word. Founded by a charismatic leader, to whom they gave unquestioned obedience, they withhdrew from a world that was persecuting them to establish a Christian community made up of only true believers, convinced they could establish an ideal world. The only saving grace was their theology was orthodox. The Franconian foundations were similar, sans the cultic leader and that they were less sinful than others. The confessional community in Germany thought of them as a cult and, when Stephan was on the other side of the Mississippi, Walther et al. agreed with them. Hence, Utopian community. The problem with ευτοπια is it is ουτοπια.