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Americanization of Karl August Rauschenbusch, 1816–1899*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
An interest in August Rauschenbusch may be motivated by the hope that perchance in the life of the father we could discover factors which would illuminate the social-gospel interests of his more famous son. The importance of Rauschenbusch in the early history of German Baptists in North America, particularly as founder and virtual head of the “German Department” of Rochester Theological Seminary for thirty-two years (1858–90), should alone, it could be urged, establish his significance for the religious history of that day. However, it is the primary and less ambitious purpose of this paper to place Rauschenbusch within the framework of the German and American religious situation of the mid-19th century on the basis, largely, of twenty-two of his unpublished letters and a smaller number addressed to him, running from April 12, 1845 to September 27, 1854. These were recently discovered in the archives of the Rhenish Missionary Institute, Wuppertal-Barmen, Germany.
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- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1955
References
1. These Glorious Years, The Centenary History of German Baptists of North America, 1843–1943 (Cleveland, n. d.): Ramaker, A. J., The German Baptists in North America (Cleveland, 1924)Google Scholar; Das Theologische Seminar der Deutschen Baptisten, Rochester, N. Y., 1852–1927 (1927). With the shift of German population to the West, with the dropping of the Word “German” and the removal from Rochester in 1949, the German Seminary (“Department”) continued as the North American Baptist Seminary at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, under the auspices of the North American Baptist General Conference.
2. Basic sources in addition to this correspondence (referred to as L. Cor.) include: Rauschenbusch, Walter, Leben und Wirken von August Rauschenbusch (Cleveland, 1901)Google Scholar, largely biographical and completed by his son with copious extracts from his Diary. Sharpe, D. R., in his Walter Rauschenbusch (New York, 1942), p. viii,Google Scholar refers to a “huge stack of material—letters, sermons, lectures, diares …” but I have not been able to ascertain the existence of any “Rauschenbuschiana” containing re plies to above letters or to locate the whereabouts of sources quoted in the Leben. Cf. general bibliographical references in Ramaker, Op. cit.
3. Similar studies may be suggested in the “Americanization” of contemporary German pioneers as Philip Schaff (Reformed, Swiss born, 1819–1893); Wm. Nast (Methodist, 1807–1899); Joseph Rieger (Evangelical United, 1811–1869); Ezra Keller (Lutheran, 1812–1848); J. Oertel (Episcopalian, 1823–1909). Others could be mentioned.
4. Leben, p 6 f.
5. His religious tutor at Elberfeld was the Lutheran Pastor K. A. Döring (1783- 1844) of the United Church. He also relates that while at Elberfeld he atteuded services in the “Unter Barmen” Church (Gemarker) where the Reformed spirit prevailed—approximating the Union point of view. Leben, 20 p. 146.
6. The vacillating nature of the Berlin struggle in its varied aspects is graphically recorded in the Diary beginning with entries on January 1 of the preceding year, which are recorded in Leben, pp. 68–80. The highly tense and emotional experience was followed by physical exhaustion and a nervous breakdown.
7. The new Pietism did not seriously inveigh against cards, theatre, dancing, smiling, jesting, smoking, pleasantries, laughing, even taking walks. Note classical remark of A. Menken (1768–1831) about enjoying nature with a cigar in the mouth.
8. Leben, p. 82 ff.; p. 106 f.
9. At the birth of his first son (1857) Rauschenbusch addressed a letter to his friend Joseph Rieger with the comment, “If you would show me a kindness, then pray … that God might bless my son, who has inherited from me nothing but sin, death and damnation, and permit him to inherit life and salvation in Christ so that he may not become a firebrand of hell (Hoellenbrand), toward which he already has all tendencies, thanks to his parents …” Mt. Sterling, Mo., May 6, 1857.
10. Where Pietism, favored by a benevolent State, was permitted freely to assert its independent and at times almost separatistic characteristics, as in Württemberg, a tremendous spiritual vitality developed.
11. At this point the Leben loses its autobiographical character as his son takes over the narrative, lamenting the fact that not much is known of the period between his resignation from the Altena church on May 13, 1845 and his sailing on July 5, 1846. Some of the gaps are filled by the Langeaberg correspondence, which describes not only the continuing tensions and struggles but also the gradual emergence of certain new insights and convictions which came to highest fruition in his American labors.
12. See my The German Church on the American Frontier (St. Louis, 1939), p. 7 ff.Google Scholar
13. Leben, p. 77 ff.
14. L. Cor., Elberfeld, April 29, 1846.
15. L. Cor., Farewell letter from Bremen, July 5, 1846 and first letter from New York, Sept. 7, 1846. Löhe's early emissaries had joined the Ohio and Michigan Synods but united in 1845 to establish the more rigidly confessionalistic, anti-unionistic theological seminary at Ft. Wayne, Ind. which opened in the following year with 16 students, mostly from Nenendettelsan, Bavaria. When Löbe's emissaries joined Missouri Synod the Seminary was taken over.
16. The revival in Vaud, Switzerland, originating with English Methodists, had led to the rise of conveaticles which were suppressed by the government. Following the revolution of 1845, 150 “separatists” and “sectarian” clergy, accused of “Methodism,” were dismissed—lending to the founding of “The Free Church of Vaud” in 1847. L. Cor. New York, 09 7, 1846.Google Scholar
17. L. Cor., Gravois, Mo., Oct. 22, 1846.
18. Ibid., Mt. Sterling, Mo., March 31, 1847.
19. Christliche Apologete, Cincinnati, March 3, 1848. Note further feudiags on this subject between W. Nast, C. F. Walther, F. Wyneken, P. Schaff, W. Schmidt referred to in Schneider, Op. cit., p. 379.
20. L. Cor., New York, 03 22, 1848.Google Scholar
21. A.H.M.S. Correspondence, J. Young, Quincy, Ill., 07 28, 1853.Google Scholar See Schneider Op. cit., p. 153, p. 238 ff.
22. L. Cor., Mt. Sterling, Mo., Aug. 6, 1847.
23. L. Cor., Mt. Sterling, Mo., April 8, 1850; Leben, p. 130 ff.
24. Ibid. Note also lengthy exposition of his theological views on the subject.
25. L. Cor., New York, 08 13, 1850.Google Scholar The last letter addressed to Langcnberg from America marks the beginning of a period of forty-nine years of active service in the German Baptist Church. The documentation for this period must be found in other sources, (particularly the German Baptist publication, Der Send bote), which require further scrutiny with respect to developments along lines indicated above.