Lutherans in America

A New History

Mark A. Granquist, Mark Granquist

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781451472288
• eBook ISBN: 9781451494297
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

The story of Lutherans in America is one of mutual influence. From the first small groups of Lutherans to arrive in the colonies, to the large immigrations to the rich heartland of a growing nation, Lutherans have influenced, and been influenced by, America.

In this lively and engaging new history, Granquist brings to light not only the varied and fascinating institutions that Lutherans founded and sustained but the people that lived within them. The result is a generous, human history that tells a complete story—not only about politics and policies but also the piety and the practical experiences of the Lutheran men and women who lived and worked in the American context.

Bringing the story all the way to the present day and complemented with new charts, maps, images, and sidebars, Granquist ably covers the full range of Lutheran expressions, bringing order and clarity to a complex and vibrant tradition.

Excursus 1

Rasmus Jensen and Danish Exploration

He thought he was going to India. He wasn’t even supposed to be in North America, but he ended up dying there, and never did make it to Asia. But one thing makes us remember the name of Rasmus Jensen, that he was the very first Lutheran pastor in North America.

In the seventeenth century, all the European nations were establishing trading posts in Asia, and King Christian IV of Denmark wanted to do so as well. So, in 1619, the king sent out two expeditions to India. One traveled the usual route around the southern tip of Africa and established a Danish colony in India. The other, under the command of an adventurer and explorer, Jens Munk, went the other way, trying to force its way through the legendary Northwest Passage. It was believed back then that you could sail between Greenland and Canada, across the Arctic and into the Pacific, in a shortcut to the riches of India, China, and Japan.

Among his crew, Munk was assigned a young Lutheran pastor named Rasmus Jensen. Jensen had studied at the University of Copenhagen and was appointed by the king to be a “Ship Pastor to the East Indies,” in charge of the spiritual life and condition of the expedition itself, and to the Danish colony in India once he had arrived. He was promised a salary of one hundred dollars a year.

The Munk expedition through the Northwest Passage was neither the first nor the last of such attempts, but it did share one thing in common with many others: it ended in tragedy. Munk’s ships sailed into the Canadian Arctic regions in the summer of 1619, entering Hudson Bay in August. But despite their constant attempts to do so, they could not find a suitable water route to the riches of Asia. In late September, with the Arctic winter quickly upon them, Munk made the fateful decision to spend the winter in Hudson Bay, hoping to find the fabled route west in the next spring. They moored their ships near the present town of Churchill, Manitoba.

Initially, the winter was not too bad. The holidays of the Christian year were regularly celebrated, including St. Martin’s Day on November 10, in honor of the fourth-century saint and his namesake, Martin Luther. At Christmas, Pastor Jensen celebrated the customary religious services in the traditional liturgy of the Church of Denmark. Captain Munk recorded the following entry: “The Holy Christmas Day was celebrated in customary Christian fashion. We had a sermon and Communion; and our offerings to the minister after the sermon were according to our means.”^[1] Since they did not have money, they gave Pastor Jenson white fox skins.

Those fox skins came just in time, as the winter suddenly turned frigid with the New Year. The expedition was short on food and supplies, and their health began to decline rapidly. Before Christmas, Pastor Jensen had already presided over the funerals of two crew members, a boatswain and the ship’s surgeon. For the funeral of the surgeon, they had to wait two days for the cold to let up, and even then Pastor Jensen had to abbreviate the service, as the cold was so bitter.

After Christmas, Pastor Jensen became so weak from poor food and illness that he, like the rest of the crew, could barely survive. By January 23, Pastor Jensen was confined to his bed, and the log records, “. . . the minister sat up in his berth and preached to the crew, which was his last sermon in this world.” Munk later recorded on February 20, 1620, “. . . toward evening the Rev. Rasmus Jensen died after having been sick for some time.”^[2] Thus ended the career of the first Lutheran pastor in North America. Munk and only two other men survived that brutal winter, and made their way back to Denmark.

Believing that he been called to India, Pastor Jensen found himself instead stranded in the harsh winter of the Canadian Arctic. He ministered faithfully to the crew for as long as he was able, leading worship and celebrating the sacraments, and even preaching from his sickbed, until he could no longer do so. He was buried in an unmarked grave on a foreign shore far from home, the first of many brave Lutheran pastors to serve in this New World.

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1. Captain Jens Munk, “Navigato Septentrionalis” (1624), quoted in Carl R. Cronmiller, A History of the Lutheran Church in Canada, vol. 1 (N.p.: Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Canada, 1961), 16.↵
   
2. Ibid, p. 16.↵
   

2

Beginnings, 1619–1720

The Transition to Colonial America

Lutheran beginnings in America were generally a byproduct of seventeenth-century exploration and economic adventure by European individuals and government-sanctioned groups. As Europeans looked to the west, they saw opportunity and adventure in the “unsettled” lands of North America, and they sought to make their fortunes there. Although initially they focused mainly on trading and fishing expeditions, it soon became clear that permanent European settlements in America were needed to sustain and further prosecute the economic ventures that had already begun. These initial colonial trading centers slowly evolved into full-fledged settlements; though they were still colonies dependent on trade with European countries, they gained in permanency and economic vitality as the century progressed.

As a part of the European exploration and settlement of America, colonists brought with them the religious traditions, practices, and attitudes of western European Christendom. Although the settlement of America was not primarily driven by religious considerations—and indeed, at times immigrants to America rejoiced in being freed from the religious considerations of their former continent—in the main these were people whose lives were deeply influenced by a millennium of Christian traditions in Europe, and so they transplanted these strongly held traditions into their new American settlements. But it was not a simple matter of transferring religious traditions from one continent to another, as the new situations of colonial America profoundly affected and reshaped how Christianity would be organized and practiced in the New World. Lutherans brought with them the beliefs and practices of various Lutheran regions of northern and western Europe, but had to integrate these different Lutheran traditions into a new land predominantly shaped by Reformed and Anglican Protestantism, by voluntarily formed religious communities, and by an increasingly pluralistic religious environment. The religious realities of the New World both challenged and transformed Lutheran tradition and practice, eventually forming an authentically American Lutheranism.

With French Roman Catholic settlements to the north in Canada, and Spanish Roman Catholic settlements to the south in Florida and the Caribbean, European Protestants concentrated their colonization on the eastern coast of North America, stretching from the Maritime provinces in Canada to the southern colony of Georgia. Unlike the Catholic settlements, however, the Protestant colonies were settled by distinct groups of people from various European countries, primarily England, but also by companies from Holland, Sweden, and Denmark. Initially, these groups were commercial ventures, economic “companies” such as the Dutch West India Company, but closely sponsored by their various Protestant states. Eventually, these commercial settlements would be absorbed into the larger imperial adventures of the English state, sometimes by force. But these various colonial ventures were distinct enough to ensure that the English colonies along the Atlantic would differ from one another in significant ways, including different religious profiles.

Beginning with the Virginia Company in 1607, royally chartered colonies were established from Virginia to Georgia. Being closely linked to the government in England, these colonies all had an established, state-supported Anglican Church, at least on paper. Outside of Virginia, these establishments were generally nominal. Because of the weakness of the colonial governments, and the fact that there were no resident bishops in the colonies, the actual funding and management of these Anglican parishes was largely dependent on the local large landowners such as George Washington. In the colonies of New England to the north, the Puritan settlers (Plymouth Plantation in 1620 and the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1630) opted for a different kind of established church, a congregational church that was organized along Calvinist lines, as a model to show old England what a realized Puritan commonwealth could be. But royal or Puritan, the establishments in these colonies made no room for religious dissent or differences, and heterodox individuals and groups were not welcomed. In the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (New York and New Jersey), and the Swedish colony of New Sweden (along the Delaware River), the Dutch Reformed and Swedish Lutheran churches, respectively, were singularly established, although both colonies were short-lived.

Despite the general failure in forming viable state-supported established churches in the English colonies, the vision of religious establishment died hard. Religious uniformity in society was seen as a desirable and necessary thing, and, given the religious conflict and warfare in England and on the European continent during the seventeenth century, it is plain to see why this attitude persisted. Religious diversity within a state was widely seen as leading to social destruction, and there were many examples to back up this viewpoint. In only two of the English colonies—Baptist Rhode Island and Quaker Pennsylvania—was there any sort of official religious toleration. For these two religious groups, any form of state-enforced religious conformity was seen as detrimental to “true religion,” and they wished for religious organization free from the meddling of the state. Given this attitude, it is clear why religious minorities from Europe were attracted to these colonies, and especially to Pennsylvania (it also did not hurt that Pennsylvania had some of the richest farmland along the Atlantic coast).

Yet, even the seventeenth-century preference for religious establishments could not make religious uniformity practical in the American colonies. Most of the religious establishments (outside of New England and Virginia) were weak or nonexistent, or, like the Dutch and Swedish versions, went out of existence rather quickly. The overarching need in colonial America was for labor (free, indentured, or enslaved), leading employers not to be overly concerned about their workers’ religious commitments. As well, the American colonies were rather minimally organized, and there was not nearly enough coercive power to keep religious societies uniform or to expel religious minorities. Puritans in Massachusetts tried to keep out the Quakers, and royal sheriffs in Virginia attempted to expel Baptist and Presbyterian preachers, but with little success. Practical realities resulted in de facto pluralism in many American colonies, which, when combined with the later eighteenth-century Enlightenment views about religious toleration, led to the First Amendment declarations of religious liberty in the U.S. Constitution.

The actual practice and organization of local religious life was often quite removed from the distant ideals of establishment. In most cases, if individuals or groups wanted to establish religious congregations in their area, the initiative was solely up to them. They needed to organize a congregation, erect a building, call and pay a pastor, and operate it on their own—essentially, the standard idea of American religious voluntarism. There were very few European pastors in the seventeenth-century American colonies, and they often had to serve multiple congregations in harsh conditions, with very little support. Even by the beginning of the American Revolution in 1776, organized religion was still very weak, with fewer than 20 percent of colonists reckoned as church members. This was partially due to the lack of congregations and pastors, but it also perhaps owed something to those who wished to be free of organized religion altogether and found in the American situation the ability to realize this goal.

Religious minorities such as the Lutherans did not have religious establishment or state support as an option. For these colonists, the only religious organizations that they could form would be voluntary, and they would often have to struggle with Dutch or English authorities to be allowed to practice their religious traditions at all. Poverty and isolation meant that forming and sustaining congregations was difficult, and that precious resources and great patience were necessary. Usually, scattered Lutherans initially gathered in homes for lay-led religious services, singing hymns and reading the Bible, along with the reading aloud of printed sermons, usually from Luther or from devotional books. Occasionally, a Lutheran pastor visited them, traveling great distances to provide confession and absolution, Holy Communion, and other ministerial acts, such as baptisms and weddings.

If a particular group grew large enough, they might form a congregation, erect a church building, and attempt to find a resident pastor. This generally entailed a lengthy process of writing to Lutheran officials in Europe and waiting (often for years) for a pastor to be sent to them. Even when European Lutheran pastors were sent to the American colonies, they were usually unprepared for their new ministry situation, and many could not adjust to the physical demands of colonial life. Even more, many pastors were unable to deal with the new realities of voluntary religious life and the fact that laypeople now had a new sense of power and ownership for their hard-wrought congregations. Conflicts between pastors and congregations were frequent, and pastors often complained about a lack of support from their flock.

The basic outline of religion in America formed during the colonial period, and because of the twin aspects of voluntary religion and religious pluralism (both pragmatic and idealistic), a religious culture much different from that of Europe developed. From these two elements emerged a basic pattern of religious life that was based roughly on Free-Church models of European dissenters, as opposed to the various state churches. In this pattern, the local congregation was the core of identity, with individuals voluntarily associating themselves with it as they chose. Of course, this was mitigated by local social dynamics and patterns of familial and ethnic bonds. European Lutherans immigrated and settled together, and their use of languages other than English often caused them to seek ethnic religious organizations, but these bonds worked only so long before eroding under the freedom of American religion. The lack of an established state church, which, for better or worse, provided in Europe a stable context for the practice of religion, meant that the religious dynamic in colonial America would be much more fluid and confusing.

As it worked out in reality, Lutherans had to make major adjustments, not so much in their theology but in their practice of religion and in the forms of organization that they developed to support that practice. The basic pattern of voluntary Free-Church congregationalism, with its stress on membership, meant a dramatic shift in how individual Lutherans related to each other, to their congregations, and to their pastors. The transition to a membership model was difficult because of its stress on personal initiative; one was not instantly defined by a given religious identity (provided by birth and citizenship), but had to decide in an active way what one’s religious identity would be (or not be!). Ethnic and family ties were still quite influential in these decisions, but over time the power of these bonds could be eroded and new identities formed or assumed. Some of those who remained Lutheran pro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• List of Images
• Credits
• Introduction
• The European Background to American Lutheranism
• Excursus 1
• Beginnings, 1619–1720
• Excursus 2
• Early Colonial Developments, 1720–1748
• Excursus 3
• Establishment of Eastern Lutheranism, 1748–1781
• Excursus 4
• Lutherans in a New Nation, 1781–1820
• Excursus 5
• Expansion and Conflict, 1820–1855
• Excursus 6
• Maps and Images
• Mass Immigration, 1855–1888
• Excursus 7
• Structuring an American Lutheranism, 1888–1918
• Excursus 8
• Becoming Americans, 1918–1940
• Excursus 9
• Lutherans in War and Peace, 1940–1965
• Excursus 10
• Turmoil, Change, and Consolidation, 1965–1988
• Excursus 11
• Uncertain Present, Uneasy Future, 1988–2013
• Excursus 12
• Epilogue
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Selected Annotated Bibliography
• Index