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 A HISTORY OF THE 
 AUGUSTANA LUTHERAN CHURCH 
 
 By 
 
 G. EVERETT ARDEN 
 
 AUGUSTANA PRESS 
 ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS 
 
AUGUSTANA HERITAGE 
 
 Copyright, 1963, by 
 AUGUSTANA BOOK CONCERN 
 
 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 62-22405 
 
 IT printed! 
 
 1!_IN USA- J 
 
 AUGUSTANA BOOK CONCERN 
 
 Printers and Binders 
 
 Rock Island, Illinois 
 
 1963 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 TO MY 
 FATHER AND MOTHER 
 
Pref 
 
 ace 
 
 Above the entrance of the library of the University of Colorado 
 at Boulder, there is this inscription: "He Who Knows Only 
 His Own Generation Remains Always a Child." To grow up 
 means to learn; all learning makes for growth and maturation. But 
 the historical discipline has a particular and special function in the 
 learning and growing process, for history provides the perspective 
 upon which mature understanding is predicated. It has been said 
 that a sense of history is to people what memory is to individuals; 
 indeed, it may be added that people without a sense and knowledge 
 of history are like individuals afflicted with amnesia; they know not 
 who they are, because they know not whence they have come. 
 
 Perhaps no nation has greater need of a historical awareness than 
 America, for America is a strange and wonderful synthesis of many 
 people, cultures, traditions, and faiths. To know something of these 
 components is to appreciate the richness of the synthesis. That is 
 why Carl Sandberg once exclaimed, "We've got to show those who 
 mold the future where things came from." 
 
 Like America, the Lutheran Church in this hemisphere is a syn- 
 thesis with numerous components. It is composed of many traditions 
 originally transplanted from Europe, and each possessing its own 
 unique character and particularity. Thus, American Lutheranism is 
 a synthesis the richness of which is understood and appreciated only 
 through some knowledge of its parts. 
 
 In the hope that the story of the Augustana Church would add a 
 significant dimension to an understanding and appreciation of the Lu- 
 theran Church in America, the Executive Council of the Augustana 
 Church decided in 1961 to publish a history of the Synod. The 
 writer was invited to undertake the task of preparing this study, with 
 the request that the project be completed by the time of the dissolu- 
 tion of the corporate existence of the Augustana Church. 
 
 To facilitate this demanding schedule the board of directors of 
 Augustana Theological Seminary granted the writer a leave of ab- 
 sence from teaching duties for two quarters during the school term of 
 
 vii 
 
Augustana Heritage viii 
 
 1961-1962, and engaged Dr. Robert Fischer and Dr. Johannes Knud- 
 sen of the Lutheran Seminary, Maywood, Illinois, to teach the histori- 
 cal courses at Augustana Seminary during the writer's sabbatical 
 leave. To the Seminary Board, to Dr. Karl E. Mattson and the Semi- 
 nary administration, and to Doctors Fischer and Knudsen, grateful 
 thanks are sincerely tendered. Indeed, one of the most gratifying as- 
 pects of this project has been the help, encouragement and ready co- 
 operation which has been so generously given by so many. 
 
 Though the author of this study assumes full responsibility for 
 every statement and conclusion in this historical account, he acknowl- 
 edges with appreciation the help and counsel which he has received 
 from many quarters. To the consulting committee, chosen by the Ex- 
 ecutive Council of the Church, composed of Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen, 
 president of the Augustana Church, Dr. Carl W. Segerhammar, vice- 
 president of the Augustana Church, Dr. D. Verner Swanson, for six- 
 teen years the secretary of the Augustana Church, and Dr. Robert Hol- 
 men, St. Paul, Minnesota, a special word of appreciation is due for 
 their help and guidance. To Dr. Birger Swenson, manager of Augus- 
 tana Book Concern, who did much to initiate the project and gave in- 
 valuable assistance at every point of the entire endeavor, and to Dr. 
 Victor E. Beck, secretary of literature of the Augustana Church, who 
 edited the manuscript and offered helpful comments and suggestions, 
 the writer is deeply indebted. He also acknowledges valued counsel 
 received from Dr. O. Fritiof Ander, professor of history, Augustana 
 College, and Dr. A. D. Mattson, professor at Augustana Seminary. To 
 his colleagues on the faculty of Augustana Seminary, whose work was 
 necessarily made heavier because of the writer's absence for two 
 quarters, to the library staff of Augustana Seminary, and to Pastor 
 Joel Lundeen, director of the Augustana archives, the writer expresses 
 sincere appreciation. Grateful thanks also go to Mrs. Einar Malmgren, 
 Rock Island, who as the typist of the manuscript managed on numer- 
 ous occasions to meet almost impossible deadlines with patience and 
 good humor. And finally to his own family, for their unfailing encour- 
 agement, and especially to his wife, Irene, who has diligently guarded 
 his writing hours from needless interruption and cheerfully borne the 
 pressures which a demanding time schedule has imposed upon the 
 home, the writer is humbly and deeply grateful. 
 
 The heritage of Augustana is but one of the tributaries of the 
 mainstream of American Lutheranism. As it reflects the grace and 
 mercy of Christ, the Lord of the Church, and the sacrificial devotion 
 
ix Preface 
 
 of men and women who would serve Him, it is perhaps a true symbol 
 of the whole Church. It may be the mission of such a symbol to foster 
 and encourage a greater and deeper sense of Christian unity to the 
 end that a more positive Christian witness may be given to the world, 
 and greater Christian tasks be undertaken on behalf of the world. 
 
 G. Everett Arden 
 
 Lutheran School of Theology, 
 Rock Island, Illinois, 
 Epiphany, 1963 
 
Tame of Contents 
 
 Chapter I Survey of a Century 1 
 
 Chapter II Seed Time 20 
 
 Chapter III Lutheran Versus Lutheran 44 
 
 Chapter IV Experiment in Co-operation 59 
 
 Chapter V A Church Is Founded 75 
 
 Chapter VI The Shaping of a Tradition 91 
 
 Chapter VII The Enterprise of Missions 115 
 
 Chapter VIII Quest for Fellowship 134 
 
 Chapter IX The Theological Crisis 160 
 
 Chapter X The Era of Adjustment 189 
 
 Chapter XI Marshalling the Resources 206 
 
 Chapter XII Americanization of Augustana 231 
 
 Chapter XIII Growth of Community 252 
 
 Chapter XIV The Contours of Community 283 
 
 Chapter XV The New Approach 326 
 
 Chapter XVI Augustana Social Action 359 
 
 Chapter XVII Destiny Fulfilled 379 
 
 Index 415 
 
 XI 
 
CHAPTER ONE 
 
 Survey of a Century 
 
 The Centennial Service — A Symbol 
 
 The Augustana Lutheran Church has experienced some memor- 
 able moments during its century of life and growth in America. 
 But perhaps no occasion has been more historically and sym- 
 bolically significant than the event which transpired in Rock Island, 
 Illinois, on Thursday evening, June 9, 1960. That night, in connec- 
 tion with the one hundred and first annual convention of the Church, 
 a great assembly of people filled the field house of the Rock Island 
 High School for the Centennial Service of the Augustana Church. 
 
 On the rostrum was the president of the Church together with 
 other officers and distinguished colleagues. Flanking them on either 
 side were men of eminence representing a broad spectrum of the 
 Christian community throughout the world. There was the Very 
 Reverend Gunnar Hultgren, primate of the Church of Sweden, ac- 
 companied by several of his own clergy. There were Dr. Carl Lund- 
 Quist, executive director of the Lutheran World Federation, Dr. Peng 
 Fu, president of the Lutheran Church of Hong Kong, Pastor Per 
 Overland from the Lutheran Church in Norway, Pastor Maurice 
 Sweeting, representing the Lutheran Church in France, Dr. Donald 
 F. Landwer, speaking for the National Council of Churches in the 
 U. S. A., Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, president of the United Lutheran 
 Church in America, Dr. Norman Menter, president of the National 
 Lutheran Council, Dr. Raymond Wargelin, president of the Finnish 
 Lutheran Church in America, and Dr. Alfred Jensen, president of 
 the American Evangelical Lutheran Church. Each of these leaders 
 had a place on the program, expressing the well-wishes of his own 
 constituency. And then, to make an already imposing occasion all 
 the more impressive, public acknowledgment was given of greetings 
 and felicitations received from the Honorable D wight D. Eisenhower, 
 President of the United States, and from twenty-seven state gov- 
 ernors and forty-seven United States Senators, as well as the presi- 
 dents of several American church bodies, including the Lutheran 
 Church — Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Covenant Church. 
 
Augustana Heritage 2 
 
 This was a moment of historical importance. It marked the end 
 of a full century of corporate existence for the Augustana Church, 
 calling attention to the abundant goodness of a gracious God who 
 had wonderfully blessed the work of His people. Moreover, it marked 
 the beginning of a second century which would undoubtedly witness 
 the demise of the Augustana Church as a separate and independent 
 body, as it even now prepared to incorporate itself in the larger 
 structure of the proposed Lutheran Church in America. 
 
 It was, however, even more profoundly a moment of deep sym- 
 bolical significance. The whole context of this assembly exemplified 
 what had happened to an immigrant church during the past one 
 hundred years. There was, for example, the assembly itself — a cross 
 section of middle class America. There were doubtless a few who 
 sat that evening in the field house who could claim the distinction 
 of being immigrants, and whose memories of church life in the old 
 country naturally led them to feel a strong kinship and loyalty 
 toward Augustana. But they were few indeed! The vast majority in 
 that audience were American born natives with only the vaguest 
 awareness of immigrant forefathers. And a considerable number had 
 family names that bespoke an ancestry which had no connection what- 
 ever with a Scandinavian background. This congregation was itself 
 a symbol of the breakdown and complete abandonment of an earlier 
 immigrant exclusiveness which conceived its mission to be directed 
 primarily to a Scandinavian constituency. The Church here assembled 
 was typically American, an integral part of the community, a fact to 
 which the political leaders of the land gave hearty testimony, includ- 
 ing governors, senators, and even the President of the United States 
 himself. 
 
 Moreover, the roll of distinguished guests gathered on the ros- 
 trum was significant. By both his genial presence and his spoken 
 words, the Archbishop of Sweden symbolized and expressed the 
 change of relationship which had slowly but steadily taken place dur- 
 ing the past century between the Church of Sweden and Augus- 
 tana. In an earlier day a former archbishop 1 had all but disowned 
 those of his countrymen who left the homeland to seek a better life 
 in the new world. And the little immigrant Church which those pio- 
 neers had founded in America for many years enjoyed but scant 
 sympathy and recognition from the Swedish hierarchy. Now, how- 
 ever, Augustana received, and with some pride accepted, the accolade 
 
 1 Henrik Reuterdahl (1795-1870), 
 
3 Survey of a Century 
 
 of "daughter church." Refreshing winds of mutuality, understand- 
 ing, and fellowship had been blowing across the broad Atlantic! And 
 from the spokesmen of the Lutheran World Federation, the World 
 Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches in the U. S. A., 
 the National Lutheran Council, and from sister synods came expres- 
 sions of fraternal good will, acclaiming the role of Augustana as an 
 active member of the world-wide family of Protestant Christianity. 
 Behind all such expressions lay the story of the pilgrimage of an im- 
 migrant church which had succeeded in establishing itself as a posi- 
 tive Christian force in the midst of the bewildering complexities of 
 a religiously pluralistic and competitive society. Fraternal relation- 
 ships had been formed at home and abroad within the framework 
 of an ecumenical spirit singularly free from sectarian exclusiveness. 
 
 And there was significance, too, in the absence of certain repre- 
 sentations which might well have been expected at the Centennial 
 Service. To be sure, there was a cordial greeting from the presi- 
 dent of the Missouri Synod who voiced the hope that total Lutheran 
 unity in America might some day eventuate on the basis of "solid 
 foundations." But from the ultra-right wing of Lutheranism there 
 was no representative and no word of felicitation. Augustana had 
 long ago determined that its future course should lie neither to the 
 right nor to the left, but as near the midstream of confessional Lu- 
 theranism as possible. 
 
 If the Centennial Service may, then, stand as a kind of sym- 
 bol of the transformation which has occurred within the Augustana 
 Church over the span of a century, it is appropriate to observe that 
 the outcome of any development is to a large extent determined by 
 the elements which were present at the beginning. The evolution of 
 any organism must be perceived in terms of the interplay between 
 the original components of the organism and the environment in 
 which it has existed. It is therefore both proper and necessary to 
 ask: What were the ingredients that characterized the little immi- 
 grant church that originated at Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, a cen- 
 tury ago? What was the nature of its legacy? What effects has the 
 American environment had upon this legacy? A brief survey of the 
 historical setting will help to provide a general framework and nec- 
 essary perspective for at least partial answers to such questions and 
 a better understanding of the unfolding story of Augustana in 
 America. 
 
Augustana Heritage 4 
 
 The European Background 
 
 The Augustana Lutheran Church has embodied and represented 
 the essentials of the Swedish tradition of the Lutheran Church in the 
 religious life of America. The roots of Augustana are deeply im- 
 bedded in the soil of Sweden, and though there may be some argu- 
 ment about whether or not Augustana may properly be called the 
 "daughter" of the Church of Sweden, there can be no argument or 
 doubt as to the vital relationship between the two and the signifi- 
 cant contributions which a Swedish heritage has made to Augustana 
 and, through it, to America. 
 
 At the time the Augustana Church was organized, the Swedish 
 realm was undergoing a profound change. Indeed, the nineteenth cen- 
 tury was a time of immense upheaval and transition for all of Scan- 
 dinavia. It marked the period of the modernization of Sweden and 
 her neighbors, when virtually the entire national life experienced a 
 transformation from a rural to an urbanized society. 2 
 
 Although the modernization of Sweden eventually touched the 
 total Swedish population, it was the lower, underprivileged rural 
 classes that first felt the pinch of national dislocation. The small 
 landholders, the crofters and farm day laborers had never enjoyed 
 either cultural and social status or economic security. For genera- 
 tions they had been compelled to accept an inferior station in Swed- 
 ish life. But when the new liberalism of the nineteenth century with 
 its broad program of reform began to sweep across the nation, it 
 awakened a new and deepened spirit of discontent and unrest among 
 the humble classes of the land. Indeed, the very climate of the times 
 stimulated in them a new self-consciousness and the resolve to seek 
 a future somewhere on earth where the right of self-determination 
 would be unrestricted by ancient custom and tradition. 3 
 
 At the same time as Sweden was being swept by cultural, poli- 
 tical, and economic upheavals, the people were also being deeply 
 stirred by religious revivals. In fact, revivalism may be said to have 
 been the spiritual phase of the movement for the renewal of Swed- 
 
 2 G. Everett Arden, The School of the Prophets, Rock Island, 111., 1960, Chap- 
 ters I-V, pp. 3-57. Eli F. Heckscher, Svenskt arbete och liv, Stockholm, 1942, 
 see Chapter V, "Det moderna Sveriges grundlaggning," pp. 167-272, and Chap- 
 ter VI, "Det stora genombrottet, pp. 273-356. A. A. Stromberg, A History of 
 Sweden, New York, 1931, Chapters XXIII and XXIV, pp. 616-679. 
 
 3 Ingvar Anderson, Sveriges historia, Stockholm, 1953, pp. 238ff. See also Emi- 
 grationsutredningen, Bilaga IX, pp. 26ff, and Bilaga VIII, pp. 31ff. F. Thor- 
 elius, Fbrsok till fullstandiga upplysningar om laseriet; till tjdnst for sanning- 
 ens vdnner, Stockholm, 1868, pp. llff. 
 
5 Survey of a Century 
 
 ish life, even though the earliest beginnings of revivalism antedate 
 the modernization of the nation. And there is little doubt that reli- 
 gion in nineteenth-century Sweden needed revival and renewal. The 
 National Church had absorbed elements of rationalism, secularism, 
 and formalism. By reason of its close political ties with the State, 
 the Church often found it difficult to maintain the kind of freedom 
 which would enable it to live close to the common people. Political 
 consideration, local as well as national, rather than the spiritual needs 
 of the people, frequently determined ecclesiastical attitudes and ac- 
 tion. The clergy, supported by 1 public taxation imposed by the State, 
 were so often preoccupied with the details of official record keeping 
 and government reports that they had little time for real pastoral 
 care. Furthermore, especially in the far-flung rural areas, the par- 
 ishes were so extensive and the distances so great that it was diffi- 
 cult for pastors to visit their people, or for the people to attend pub- 
 lic worship with any regularity. 4 
 
 It was in the midst of such circumstances that the revivals began. 
 Out in the rural districts humble folk would gather in their cottages 
 to read the Bible together, and to share the devotional writings of 
 the great Lutheran church fathers, Luther, Arndt, and others. They 
 would read the prayers and confessions from the liturgy of the 
 Church, and conclude by calling down the benediction of God upon 
 themselves, their pastor, and their church. It was a quiet movement 
 among the lay folk. Many parish pastors heartily approved these 
 cottage meetings. In the latter decades of the eighteenth century, 
 Moravian missionaries visited Sweden and succeeded in permeating 
 this type of Old Lutheranism with the quickening spirit of Pietism, 
 with its emphasis upon the emotional and subjective aspects of Chris- 
 tian experience and the ethical and moral demands of sanctification. 5 
 During the first half of the nineteenth century several outstand- 
 ing personalities appeared who gave new impetus to the religious 
 awakening. Henric Schartau (1757-1825), who for forty years was 
 pastor in the university city of Lund, exerted a widespread influ- 
 ence in southern and western Sweden. He was a staunch church- 
 man who opposed the emotional and subjective emphases in reli- 
 
 4 Hilding Pleijel, Herrnhutism i sydsverige, Lund, 1925, pp. 42ff. Nils Rodin, 
 Det Norrlandska nyldseriets uppkomst, Stockholm, 1942, preface and intro- 
 duction. See also Carl Edquist, Ldseriet i Skelleftebygden under 1800 talet, 
 Stockholm, 1917, pp. 9ff. John Holmgren, Norrlandslaseriet, Stockholm, 1948, 
 pp. 89ff. 
 
 5 F. Thorelius, op. cit., pp. 2fT. Allen Sandewall, "Herrnhutismens betydelse 
 for norrlandslaseriet," Kyrkohistorisk drsskrijt, 1948, p. 145. Ernst Newman, 
 Nordskanska vackelserorelser under 1800-talet, Stockholm, 1925, pp. 8ff, 73f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 6 
 
 gion, and stressed instead the role which man's mind and under- 
 standing must play in Christian life. He sought to educate his 
 people in Christian fundamentals by clear, expository sermons and 
 penetrating catechetical classes, while he fostered good churchman- 
 ship by careful use of the prescribed liturgical and ceremonial 
 forms. 6 
 
 Toward the close of Schartau's ministry a similar movement 
 began in the province of Smaland, led by two earnest pastors, Peter 
 Lorents Sellergren (1769-1843) and Pehr Nyman (1794-1856) . Though 
 each of these men labored independently of the other, they both 
 represented an extension of the Schartau revival. Each man, how- 
 ever, added his own stamp of genius to his work. Like Schartau, 
 their fundamental message had a strong note of the law, stressing 
 the moral demands of a holy God. But they differed from Schartau 
 in that they underlined the need for a personal experience of con- 
 version rather than an intellectual understanding of Christian doc- 
 trine. 7 
 
 While Sellergren and, Nyman were laboring in the southern and 
 central sections of the land, other revival fires were being ignited 
 far to the north in Swedish Lappland, near the Finnish border. The 
 leader here was the strange and eccentric pastor, Lars Levi Laesta- 
 dius (1800-1861). Although this movement developed some unusual 
 practices, such as ecstatic trances, lively dances, and public confes- 
 sion of individual sins, the main emphasis of Laestadius was upon 
 the moral regeneration of the people. Doctrinally and theologically, 
 Laestadius was a loyal Lutheran. Other revivals, led by men like 
 Jacob Otto Hoof, Frederick Gabriel Hedberg and Carl Johann Ny- 
 vall, were of more limited scope and significance, but served, never- 
 theless, to add to the nation-wide sweep of the movement. 8 
 
 Closely associated with revivalism was the Temperance Move- 
 ment and the Swedish Tract Society. The cause of temperance was 
 headed by Peter Wieselgren (1800-1877), for many years the Dean 
 
 6 Pleijel, op. cit., p. 264f. Gottfrid Billing, Henric Schartau, Minnesteckning, 
 Lund, 1914. Henri Hagglund, Henric Schartau till hundraarsminnet, Stock- 
 holm, 1912. Victor Sodergren, Henric Schartau och vastsvenskt kyrkoliv, 
 Uppsala, 1925. 
 
 7 For brief sketches of these religious leaders see, Korsblomman, 1878, "De 
 andliga rorelserna i Smaland," pp. 43ff. For the influence of the Swedish 
 revivalists upon Augustana leaders see, Nils Forsander, Lifsbilder, Rock Is- 
 land, 1915, pp. 9ff. 
 
 8 For a general survey of the revival movement in Sweden see E. J. Ekman, 
 lure missionens historia, first unabridged edition, 3 vols. Stockholm, 1896. 
 See also Nils Forsander, "Religious Thought and Movements of the Church 
 of Sweden during the 19th Century," Tidskrift, 1900, p. 32f. 
 
7 Survey of a Century 
 
 of the Cathedral in Gothenberg. In his own parish Wieselgren formed 
 a local temperance society pledged to total abstinence which became 
 the model for hundreds of similar societies throughout the land. 
 Traveling up and down Sweden, Wieselgren spent his best energies 
 for many years urging upon his countrymen the blessings and bene- 
 fits of sobriety and self-respect. In this national campaign he allied 
 himself and his cause with the evangelical revivals, for he saw tem- 
 perance as the moral concomitant of spiritual revival and Christian 
 commitment. The Tract Society enjoyed the support of virtually all 
 revival preachers, but no man gave it greater leadership than P. A. 
 Ahlberg (1823-1887) , able pastor and educator. He may be thought 
 of as the prime advocate and trainer of Swedish colportage. As the 
 head of the Fjellstedt school in Uppsala, and later the founder of his 
 own mission school at Ahlsborg, in the province of Smaland, he sought 
 to prepare men for evangelistic work in the church at home and 
 abroad, and encouraged a number of his students to join the pio- 
 neer ranks of the young Augustana Church in America. 9 
 
 Up until about 1820 there was no one man in Sweden who pro- 
 vided the kind of inspiring leadership which could pull all these 
 diverse revival movements together and give a cohesiveness and uni- 
 fied thrust to the movement as a whole. That year, however, such 
 a man appeared in the person of George Scott, an English Methodist 
 missionary who established his headquarters in Stockholm. Scott, 
 who learned to speak fluent Swedish, combined in his ministry an 
 interest in both revivalism and temperance, and traveled to all parts 
 of Sweden, speaking to great throngs of people, quickly becoming 
 the most prominent evangelist in the land. There soon gathered 
 around him practically all the outstanding revival preachers and tem- 
 perance advocates, and thus he succeeded in bringing a real sense of 
 unity into the entire evangelical movement. 
 
 Scott represented almost a traditional pietistic approach to reli- 
 gion. Though he was a Methodist, he did not seek to convert his 
 Swedish audiences to the Methodist viewpoint. He simply urged 
 upon his hearers the necessity of repentance for sin, faith in Jesus 
 Christ as savior, and a thoroughgoing amendment of life. He was 
 not so much interested in doctrine as in the sanctification of life. 
 Scott's church in Stockholm, the Bethlehem chapel, became the main 
 hub for revival and temperance activity and propaganda, and people 
 
 Sigfried Wieselgren, Peter Wieselgren: en levnadsteckning, Stockholm, 1900. 
 For a brief sketch of Ahlberg see Ekman, Inre missionens historia, pp. 348- 
 352, and Korsblomman, op. cit. 
 
Augustana Heritage 8 
 
 from near and far, representing all classes, flocked to Scott's head- 
 quarters to counsel with him about their spiritual needs. 10 
 
 One of those who sought Scott's guidance was a young, be- 
 wildered theological student from Uppsala University, who was 
 struggling to find peace with God and an answer to his religious 
 doubts. That young man was Carl Olof Rosenius (1816-1868). 
 Through the ministry of Scott, Rosenius was brought to spiritual 
 clarity and an unshakable faith in God and His Word. He soon be- 
 came the intimate friend and most trusted helper of Scott. When 
 Scott left Sweden and returned to England in 1842, his mantle of 
 leadership fell upon Rosenius, who was destined to become one of 
 the greatest religious leaders in the history of the Swedish people. 
 
 Like all the great revival preachers of his day Rosenius was 
 critical of the spiritual conditions existing in the National Church. 
 Indeed, he held the Church to be so worldly and indifferent that he 
 refused to be ordained into its ministry, and spent his life as a lay 
 evangelist. And yet he loved the Church and insisted that any re- 
 newal of Swedish religious life must come from within the Church, 
 and that separatism could only hinder and delay renewal. Further- 
 more, a revival of true Christian faith and life must be the result, 
 not of human effort, but of the power of the gospel. To bring the 
 gospel to bear upon the life of every individual and every commu- 
 nity, a new interest in the Bible must be awakened throughout the 
 land. For it is in the Bible that man discovers God's great mes- 
 sage of life and salvation through Jesus Christ. He who believes in 
 Jesus Christ and trusts in Him for the forgiveness of sins is saved 
 from the bondage of sin and is set free for service in God's king- 
 dom. Such service involves a concern for the spiritual and temporal 
 welfare of the neighbor and sanctifies every human relationship with 
 the loving spirit of Jesus. 11 
 
 The Christian life, Rosenius insisted, involves anguish and strug- 
 gle. The law plunges the sinner into despair and compels him to 
 seek release at the cross of Christ. But even so, the old sinful na- 
 ture is not dead, but must be curbed and denied in daily warfare 
 against all temptation. As long as such warfare continues, there re- 
 mains the assurance of the Holy Spirit's presence. But the struggle 
 
 I ° The most definitive work on the life, work and influence of George Scott is 
 
 Gunnar Westin, George Scott och harts verksamhet i Sverige, Stockholm, 1929. 
 
 II C. O. Rosenius, Pietisten, nytt och gammalt jran nadens rike, First ed., Stock- 
 holm, 1877, section entitled, "Den kristlige karleken," pp. 73ff. See also C. O. 
 Rosenius, The Believer Free from the Law," tr. Adolf Hult, Rock Island, HI., 
 1923. 
 
9 Survey of a Century 
 
 must be waged earnestly with no compromise. The pleasures and 
 standards of the world must be rejected, and obedience must be 
 given to the divine injunction, "You, therefore, must be perfect, as 
 your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). 12 
 
 Rosenius published a newspaper, Pietisten, which enjoyed a wide 
 circulation and gave the revival movement a clear voice which spoke 
 to the religious and spiritual needs of the whole nation. His mes- 
 sage was given the wings of song and music as Mrs. C. O. Berg, 
 under her maiden name of Lina Sandell, composed and published a 
 number of hymns which breathed the spirit of Rosenius and helped 
 spread his views among old and young. 
 
 And second in importance only to Rosenius himself was Peter 
 Fjellstedt (1802-1881), renowned preacher, writer, and linguist, who 
 has been called "The Passavant of Sweden," because of his work on 
 behalf of social and foreign missions. As an outspoken champion of 
 the evangelical revival, Fjellstedt conceived his mission to be that of 
 an educator of men and women who would devote their lives primar- 
 ily to the missionary cause. To this end he established the Fjellstedt 
 school, located first at Lund, then at Stockholm and finally at Uppsala, 
 where it continues its work today. No man in Sweden followed the 
 course of events in America relating to the Augustana Church with 
 greater interest and concern than Peter Fjellstedt. To him the people 
 of Augustana turned again and again for help and encouragement. 13 
 
 This line of development, beginning with Schartau and extending 
 through the ministry of Rosenius, may be said to mark the mainstream 
 of the evangelical revival in Sweden In many respects it was to the 
 Church of Sweden what puritanism in an earlier age had been to 
 the Church of England. Fundamentally, it represented Swedish dis- 
 sent, in the sense that it was critical of the established Church, 
 though not antichurch; it was generally opposed to the political con- 
 nection between Church and State; it was suspicious of the spiritual 
 life of much of the official clergy; it encouraged the exercise of religion 
 outside of official ecclesiastical supervision; it favored lay preaching 
 and evangelism; it was often, though not always, low church in its 
 freedom regarding the use of prescribed liturgical and ceremonial 
 
 12 Gustaf Brandt, C. O. Rosenii forkunnelse, Stockholm, 1918, pp. 208ff. C. O. 
 Rosenius, A Faithful Guide to Peace with God, Excerpts from the writings of 
 C. O. Rosenius, ed. Bishop N. J. Laache. Minneapolis, Minn., 1923. 
 
 13 For a brief sketch of Fjellstedt see Efcman, Inre missionens historia, op. cit., 
 pp. 299-325. For excerpts from his correspondence which reveal his interest 
 regarding Augustana see Emelia Ahnfelt-Laurin, Peter Fjellstedt, hans verk- 
 swnhet i fosterlandet mellan aren 1843-1881, Stockholm, 1881. 
 
Augustana Heritage 10 
 
 forms. It was Biblical and confessional, holding to the basic principles 
 and truths of historic Lutheranism, though the approach to religion 
 was, on the whole, pietistic in the sense that it was subjective rather 
 than objective, stressing the emotional aspects of a personal experience 
 of conversion; it was moralistic, indeed, often puritanical and legalistic, 
 in its insistense upon sanctification as corollary with justification in 
 terms of a disciplined self-denying amendment of life. It conceived, of 
 Christianity as praxis rather than as intellectual assent to dogma and 
 doctrine. But in all of this the mainstream of the evangelical move- 
 ment was not separatists. The outstanding leaders conceived their 
 mission to be the renewal of religion from within the Church, and they 
 decried any attempts to disrupt the life of the National Church through 
 schism or rupture. 
 
 Another significant feature of this mainstream tradition was its 
 singular lack of narrow sectarianism. This may well have been partly 
 due to the fact that the movement had been initiated by non-Luther- 
 ans in a Lutheran land, first by Moravians and then encouraged and 
 promoted by George Scott the Methodist from England, and Robert 
 Baird, the Presbyterian advocate of temperance from America. In 
 any event, whether we search the works of Schartau or Rosenius, or 
 any of their contemporaries who were seeking to renew the religious 
 life of Sweden, we seek almost in vain for the kind of religious exclu- 
 siveness which slams the door of Christian mutuality and fellowship 
 in the face of all but those who share the particular viewpoint of the 
 evangelist. The great Swedish revivalists did indeed seek to inculcate 
 a sound Biblical, confessionally grounded Lutheranism in the hearts 
 of their countrymen, but they did not thereby deny the name of Chris- 
 tian to all others but themselves. There was a kind of broadminded, 
 charitable tolerance among them, an ecumenical spirit, which recog- 
 nized and acknowledged the diversity of the Holy Spirit's gifts of 
 speech and insight. In fact, the revival movement was often so non- 
 sectarian that, on occasion, its detractors accused the leaders of theo- 
 logical obscurantism. Rosenius was especially assailed on this point. 
 
 By 1856 the mood and spirit of this mainstream of Swedish dis- 
 sent had crystallized to the extent that it was institutionalized in the 
 formation, that year, of the National Evangelical Foundation (Evan- 
 geliska Fosterlandsstiftelsen) . Under the auspices of this organization 
 over-all direction was given to the revival and temperance movement 
 throughout the land, devotional literature and portions of the Scrip- 
 tures were published and distributed, lay evangelists and colporteurs 
 were trained and sent out, and missionary projects of various kinds 
 
11 Survey of a Century 
 
 set in motion and given both moral and financial support. The goal 
 and purpose of the Foundation was, and has continued to be, the en- 
 couragement of a vital, personalized, practical kind of Christianity 
 within the Swedish Church and nation. As such, the Foundation has 
 looked upon itself as an arm of the National Church, supplementing 
 but not supplanting its work. It must be admitted, however, that this 
 arm has often functioned with singular independence from the body 
 of which it is intended to be a part. 14 
 
 But any movement with as much dynamic vitality as the revival 
 movement possessed was bound to develop pockets of radicalism. The 
 radical wing of Swedish dissent grew slowly. In the early decades of 
 the nineteenth century it appeared to be nothing more serious than 
 the left wing of the emerging revivals. But in time, as tension mount- 
 ed between the dissenters and the official Church, prophets arose who 
 not only criticised the lack of spiritual vitality in the Church, but who 
 attacked the doctrinal position of Lutheranism, particularly the doc- 
 trines of the Church and the sacraments. The radicals generally held 
 that the Church must be a "gathered society" of the converted and 
 saved and the sacraments must be administered by and reserved for 
 the converted worthy alone. Frequently, infant baptism was rejected 
 as lacking sufficient Scriptural warrant. Christian certainty was 
 grounded in a particular kind of emotional experience, and an ex- 
 treme puritanism regarding "worldly pleasures" was demanded. 15 
 
 By the fourth decade semi-independent societies began to ap- 
 pear, prayer chapels were erected, and religious services, including 
 Holy Communion, were held without benefit of the official clergy. 
 Thus, the radicals developed separatist tendencies. These people were 
 becoming convinced that the National Church was so secularized 
 and corrupt, and Lutheranism itself so untenable, that the only 
 way to safeguard and maintain true spirituality was to separate 
 and break away from a form of religion so unacceptable to "true 
 Christians." The first open rupture, however, did not occur until 1848, 
 when an independent congregation was organized in the Norrland vil- 
 lage of Lulea. From here it soon spread to other sections of the coun- 
 try. It was the separatist strain of Swedish dissent that created a fa- 
 vorable climate for the proselyting efforts of non-Lutherans in Sweden. 
 When Baptist, Methodist, and even Mormon missionaries appeared 
 
 14 B. Wadstrom, Ur minuet och dagboken, anteckningar jran aren 1848-1897, 
 Stockholm, 1897, 1889, I, pp. 251ff. See also Eskil Levander, Evangeliska 
 Fosterlandsstiftelsen genom 75 ax, Vols. I and II, Stockholm, 1931, I, p. 36f. 
 
 15 For a critical survey of Swedish separatism see Allan Sandewall, Separatis- 
 men i bvre Norrland, 1820-1855, Uppsala, 1952. 
 
Augustana Heritage 12 
 
 with their blasts against the Lutheran Church they found among the 
 separatists a ready and eager audience. To the far left separatism 
 developed extreme forms such as the Eric Jansonites who ultimately 
 shook the dust of "Babylon" from their sandals, immigrated to Amer- 
 ica and founded a communistic colony in Bishop Hill, Illinois. 16 
 
 Finally, it must be remembered that there were large numbers of 
 Swedish folk who remained relatively unmoved and untouched by 
 the winds of change and the clash of party strife. These were the hum- 
 ble, faithful flock who loved their Church as a child loves its mother. 
 Though they may have heard the revival preachers and listened to 
 the strange prophets who were abroad in the land, they remained loyal 
 to the old Church. They were not prepared to argue the fine points of 
 doctrine or take sides in debate; they were simply content to hear the 
 gospel preached as they had been accustomed, and to apply its pre- 
 cepts as best they could to the homely, banal, everyday problems of 
 life. There may have been aspects about the Church which did not 
 wholly satisfy them, but these were overlooked. The dearest and most 
 cherished memories they had were associated with the altar, the com- 
 munion rail, the baptismal font, the pulpit, and the quiet churchyard 
 of their parish church. Their earthly possessions were perhaps meager, 
 but among the household items most frequently used, besides the 
 blackened coffee pot, were the family Bible, the old Psalmbook, and 
 a postil or two of sermons. 17 
 
 Swedish Immigration 
 
 It was into this turbulent little country of Sweden that emigra- 
 tion reached a long arm and transferred hundreds of thousands of 
 Swedish nationals to the United States during the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. 18 And it is important for us to understand the relationship be- 
 tween the process of immigration and the history of the Augustana 
 
 16 Emil Herlenius, Erik-Jansismen i Sverige, Bidrag till svenska sektvasendets 
 historia, Uppsala, 1897, pp. 19ff. See also Michael A. Mikkelsen, The Bishop 
 Hill Colony; A religious communistic settlement in Henry County, Illinois, 
 Baltimore, 1892. 
 
 17 S. G. Hagglund, "Types of Piety in the Augustana Synod," Augustana Quar- 
 terly, December, 1928. 
 
 18 In the half-century from 1860 to 1910, Swedish emigration to the U. S. 
 totaled 933,958, including 523,920 men and 410,038 women, Emigrationsutred- 
 ningen, Bilaga XX, p. 114, Table 14. It must be remembered, however, that 
 neither Swedish nor American figures pertaining to Swedish emigration or 
 immigration are entirely accurate. Nor do the above figures indicate the num- 
 ber of Swedes who returned to Sweden. 
 
13 Survey of a Century 
 
 Church. And so the question arises: Who were these immigrants? 
 What section of the Swedish population did they represent? 
 
 The process of emigration was, in certain respects, selective. The 
 privileged classes of Swedish society, the culturally sophisticated, the 
 economically secure, and the politically powerful were content to stay 
 where they were They were, so to speak, the beneficiaries of the 
 status quo. It was those who felt the pinch of the current dislocations 
 and inequities that ventured to break the tender ties of home and 
 family and strike out across the vast ocean for the new world. Up 
 until 1880, the majority of Swedish emigrants were recruited from the 
 humbler, lower-class rural segments of the population, because it was 
 this part of the social structure which first felt the impact of national 
 change and transition, and for whom a change of environment seemed 
 most desirable. According to official government records, during the 
 latter half of the nineteenth century the rural districts of Sweden con- 
 tributed more than five and a half times as many emigrants as any 
 other social section. 19 For these farm folk the free land policy in the 
 United States held out a most attractive hope for a more secure and 
 abundant future. Thus, it was natural that they would seek to settle 
 in those regions where free land was most readily available, and where 
 geographical and climatic conditions were most favorable. This is the 
 reason that the swarming of the Swedes was concentrated in the up- 
 per Mississippi Valley, which therefore marks the section of the Unit- 
 ed States where the major events in the history of Augustana have oc- 
 curred. 
 
 The democratic social order which prevailed in America was also 
 an appealing attraction to the humble classes in Sweden who yearned 
 for an opportunity to exercise a greater measure of political and so- 
 cial freedom. In America there were no class distinctions, and every 
 man was at liberty to act as a free man and walk among his neighbors 
 as a peer and equal. 
 
 These two features of American life, free land and a democratic 
 order, were, accordingly, strong determining factors in drawing masses 
 of Swedish Nationals to the United States. The free land enabled them 
 to find economic security and avoid economic class stratification. The 
 democratic order permitted them to associate with and integrate into 
 the community without having to contend with inherited class dis- 
 
 19 Emigrationsutredningen, Bilaga IV, Tables 92-102. For an excellent biblio- 
 graphy concerning the various aspects of Swedish emigration to America and 
 the relationships of the immigrant to life in the new world see O. F. Ander, 
 The Cultural Heritage of the Swedish Immigrant, Rock Island, 1956. 
 
Augustana Heritage 14 
 
 tactions or restrictive class legislation, and so avoiding being forced 
 into political or racial minority groups. All of this enabled the immi- 
 grant to express his own genius and to maintain and develop his own 
 religious faith in his own way. 
 
 It should further be noted that the process of emigration was se- 
 lective, too, in the sense that the great preponderance of those who 
 responded to the appeal were young people in the best and most vig- 
 orous years of life. This was natural, since the sheer physical effort 
 involved in emigration, the trials and hazards of ocean travel, the ex- 
 posure to contagious diseases and contaminated food and water, and 
 the exertions required for the journey inland to the Midwest, usually 
 excluded the aged and the infirm. Furthermore, the old folks had 
 deeper roots in the homeland. Though poverty and uncertainty might 
 well be their lot, it seemed a lesser gamble to hold fast what little 
 they presently had than to risk the remaining years in an uncertain 
 venture so far away. The young people, however, faced the necessity 
 of striking down roots where there was a richer promise of reward 
 than the homeland seemed to offer. Then too, the prospect of adven- 
 ture, the challenge of a brighter tomorrow, the urge to pit themselves 
 against the odds, this was enough in itself to appeal to the vigorous 
 the strong, and the resourceful. Government records indicate that 
 during the years of greatest emigration there were about three and 
 a half times as many Swedish citizens between the ages of twenty and 
 thirty who left the homeland for the United States of America as in 
 any other age category. 20 
 
 When we think of the founders of Augustana, we so easily en- 
 visage a company of aged men and women tired and worn, from whom 
 time had drained away the best energies of life. On the contrary, 
 they were mostly young people, full of enthusiasm, willing to learn 
 the new ways of America, eager to pit their strength against the form- 
 idable forces of the frontier, and determined to carve for themselves 
 an honorable niche in the new world. They were not rich or wealthy 
 in worldly possessions, to be sure, but neither were they paupers, for 
 it took some substance to pay for ocean passage and the overland trip 
 to the west. Many may have been broke by the time they reached 
 their destination, but they depended for the future on their own re- 
 sources of strength, fortitude, and patience, undergirded by the help 
 
 20 Statistisk krsbok for Sverige, 1927, Tables 63 and 64. See also Emigrations- 
 utredningen, Bilaga IV, p. 51. John S. Lindberg, The Background of Swedish 
 Emigration to the U. S.; An Economic and Sociological Study in the Dynam- 
 ics of Migration, Minneapolis, 1930. 
 
15 Survey of a Century 
 
 of God. A hundred years ago there were no government doles or sub- 
 sidies to see a man through a lean year; he was expected to stand on 
 his own feet. 
 
 Among these thousands of Swedish immigrants, who were they 
 that responded to the appeal to organize in America a Swedish Lu- 
 theran Church? What elements did they represent and what spiritual 
 legacy did they embody? We need only remind ourselves that those 
 who were indifferent or hostile to religion would exclude themselves. 
 There were, unfortunately, many in this category. In many cases 
 church membership at home had been so nominal and tenuous that 
 it was easy to leave behind any religious interest which once might 
 have been professed. In other cases, there was open hostility to both 
 church and religion, since to many Swedes the Church represented a 
 reactionary institution which sided with the status quo and resisted 
 change, progress, and advancement. Such people preferred to find 
 their fellowship in the lodges and fraternal societies which flourished 
 everywhere in America. The separatists, likewise, were not likely to 
 be drawn to an institution which reminded them, all too keenly, of the 
 Church and the forms of religion which they had found unacceptable 
 at home. These either formed their own communions, such as the 
 Eric Janson colony at Bishop Hill, or they joined existing non-Lu- 
 theran denominations, especially the Methodist and Baptist churches. 
 
 The extent to which indifferentism and separatism had infected 
 the Swedes who came to America is reflected in the fact that in 1870 
 there were approximately 97,000 Swedish nationals in the United 
 States. Of this number the Augustana Church had succeeded in win- 
 ning only a little over 19,000. Although this was, by all odds, the larg- 
 est percentage of Swedish- Americans affiliated with any one organi- 
 zation in the new world, it is nevertheless an indication of the failure 
 of Augustana to attract more than a fraction of Swedish newcomers. 
 Such failure was due, in part no doubt, to the lack of adequate re- 
 sources of men and means. But the prevailing spirit of indifference, 
 hostility, and suspicion among large numbers of Swedish immigrants 
 made the task of recruitment all the more difficult and discouraging. 21 
 
 That leaves us with the right-wing dissenters and the flock of 
 faithful Old Lutherans, and it is indeed from among these that the 
 recruits for the Augustana Church in America were drawn. Old Lu- 
 
 21 Olga M. Wold, The History of the Augustana Church, 1860-1870, unpublished 
 Master's dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1927, pp. 6ff. See also George 
 M. Stephenson, "Hemlandet Letters," Yearbook of the Swedish Historical So- 
 ciety of America, 1922-'23, pp. 33-40. 
 
Augustana Heritage 16 
 
 theranism informed and impregnated with right-wing dissent was the 
 religious tradition, the spiritual legacy, of those who formed the rank 
 and file of the founders of Augustana and who determined its course 
 for the future. It was this spirit they breathed, these ideals they pro- 
 fessed, and this brand of religion they wished to transplant and pre- 
 serve in their new homeland. Lars Paul Esbjorn, pioneer and found- 
 ing father, and T. N. Hasselquist, patriarchal leader until his death in 
 1891, embodied this heritage and expressed it in their ministry. They 
 called to aid them in their American mission such men from Sweden 
 as shared their views and spirit. In this country they aligned them- 
 selves and their congregations with other Lutherans who seemed to 
 them to be of kindred heart and mind. 
 
 When such alignments were no longer compatible with the basic 
 premises of this Scandinavian tradition, the ties were broken and new 
 ones formed. Furthermore, the help and encouragement which Au- 
 gustana received from Sweden in the early, hard years came, not from 
 the official hierarchy of the established Church, but from hke-minded 
 Christian individuals, and from the institution of Swedish dissent, the 
 National Evangelical Foundation. Let it also be said that, if there has 
 been over the past century any single factor which has proven de- 
 cisive in the creation and maintenance of what might be called an 
 Augustana ethos, it is this tradition, this legacy that combines the 
 steady faith of Old Lutheranism with the activism and spontaneity of 
 right-wing Swedish dissent. 
 
 The American Environment 
 
 Regarding the molding pressures of the American environment 
 upon this tradition and spiritual legacy, H. Richard Niebuhr, in The 
 Social Sources of Denominationalism, 22 has pointed out that what free 
 land and a democratic order meant for the immigrants' economic and 
 political future in America, the principle of the separation of Church 
 and State meant for their religious future. 
 
 The Swedish immigrant came from a country in which Lutheran- 
 ism was established by law as the official religion of the realm, and 
 the Lutheran Church was protected and supported by the State. The 
 clergy of the National Church received their salaries by public taxa- 
 tion collected by the State, and every citizen, by reason of his citizen- 
 ship, was born into fellowship with the Church. 
 
 Here in America, however, the immigrant met a new, different 
 
 ■ 2 Reprint edition, Hamden, Conn., 1954, p. 201. 
 
17 Survey op a Century 
 
 and bewildering environment. Here no church enjoyed the privileges 
 of establishment, and every religion, and all churches, were both un- 
 protected and unmolested by the civil government. As a consequence, 
 every religious group in the country was free to maintain and de- 
 velop its own faith in its own way, but it must do so in a highly com- 
 petitive situation. Here every religious institution was strictly on its 
 own, since there were no guarantees undergirding its future well- 
 being. Each was free to poach on the precincts of another, proselyting 
 wherever possible, and gaining advantage over rival groups by what- 
 ever means the laws of the land and the restrictions of conscience 
 would allow. In some respects it must have seemed to many a new- 
 comer to these shores that he had suddenly been plunged into a kind 
 of religious jungle where survival depended upon the law of tooth and 
 claw. 
 
 In the history of Augustana three effects eventuate from this 
 free but highly competitive American environment. The first effect 
 was differentiation, that is the effort to distinguish, clarify, particular- 
 ize, and assert those elements in the religious tradition of these Swed- 
 ish-Americans that were characteristic of the group mind. Differenti- 
 ation, in this sense, makes for group self-consciousness and thus 
 guards against both fragmentation and easy assimilation; it insulates 
 and therefore isolates the group against disintegration, absorption, and 
 eventual extinction. Differentiation exposes and underlines that which 
 makes the group, at least in its own mind, distinctive, and which must, 
 therefore, be preserved in order to be transmitted. 
 
 In the following chapters, as the story of Augustana unfolds, the 
 process of differentiation will appear as a painful, disillusioning ex- 
 perience for the pioneer forefathers. It required a new appraisal of 
 basic premises, a deeper and more profound understanding of theo- 
 logical affirmations, a new appreciation of the dangers and difficulties 
 inherent in a pluralistic and free-church society, and a vigorous de- 
 fense against former friends and erstwhile allies. Indeed, it was the 
 need to differentiate their own religious tradition, in contrast to both 
 the prevailing non-Lutheran Reformed and sectarian majority, on the 
 one hand, and the theologically liberal Lutheranism of the General 
 Synod, on the other hand, which prompted and motivated the fathers 
 to establish the Augustana Church as an independent religious body 
 in America. 
 
 A second effect eventuating from the American situation has been 
 accommodation, that is, the process by which the Church had adjusted 
 to its environment, adapting its own life and tradition to the context 
 
Augustana Heritage 18 
 
 in which it must live and have its being. Neither individuals nor 
 churches exist in a vacuum; even the most rigid isolation can be but 
 partially successful. To say that accommodation has occurred within 
 a church body is simply to recognize that the group has lived in a 
 dynamic, growing situation in which the interplay with environment 
 is inevitable. 
 
 It is in the process of accommodation that the factors of change, 
 modification, and compromise become operative since environment is 
 never static, and the shifts of circumstances demand changes and mod- 
 ifications of old attitudes and programs, adoption of new viewpoints 
 and techniques, the creation of new strategies, and the establishment 
 of new and more effective agencies of propaganda and control. This 
 is imperative if an institution is to influence environment rather than 
 being dominated by it. 
 
 However, in the interplay between the dynamic factors of en- 
 vironment and the differentiated premises of a tradition, tensions will 
 inevitably arise which threaten disruption and schism. Perhaps the 
 most notable example of such tension was the crisis which developed 
 during the Waldenstrom controversy when Augustana was charged 
 with having become theologically unsound regarding the doctrine of 
 the atonement, hierarchical and authoritarian in polity, and too Amer- 
 icanized with respect to the Scandinavian heritage. The consequence 
 of this crisis was the defection of a large number of members and a 
 few congregations and the formation, in 1885, of the Swedish Mission 
 Covenant Church of America. 
 
 It is perhaps through the process of accommodation that Augus- 
 tana has matured. Over the past century it developed a profile with 
 distinct and positive lineaments as it continued a steady search for its 
 own place in American religious fife where it could thrive, serve, and 
 achieve. Confronted by a constantly changing and expanding com- 
 munity, it sought to remain faithful to the basic premises of its heri- 
 tage in the development of an over-all posture expressive of its genius, 
 while creating new methods, machinery, and service agencies com- 
 mensurate with community needs. 
 
 Through differentiation and accommodation the Augustana Church 
 has achieved identification. Identification in this sense means the es- 
 tablishment of ultimate relationships expressive of fundamental char- 
 acter. A free church in a free and competitive society is sooner or 
 later compelled to determine where it shall stand, what it shall rep- 
 resent, and with whom it shall be associated. The alternate choices 
 are, of course, numerous, but no church has ever been able to be all 
 
19 Survey of a Century 
 
 things to all men everywhere and forever. At various points along 
 the way there are forks in the road, and decisions must be made re- 
 garding which way to turn and where to proceed. And in the long 
 run a pattern of action will emerge which expresses and embodies, 
 even as it at the same time helps to mold, the very character and 
 spirit of those who exercise the choices. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Seed Time 
 
 The Swedish immigrants who came to America during the nine- 
 teenth century and founded a Lutheran Church in this country 
 were not blazing an entirely new trail. In reality they were fol- 
 lowing in the footsteps of earlier generations of Swedes who had pre- 
 ceded them to these shores. Except for the queer twists of history, 
 the story of the Augustana Church may well have had its first setting 
 in the early seventeenth century along the eastern seaboard instead 
 of in the mid-nineteenth century and the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 The Delaware Episode 
 
 It was in the month of March, 1638, that two Swedish ships, chart- 
 ered by a Swedish commercial company and loaded with people and 
 supplies, dropped anchor some two miles up the Delaware river and 
 sent scouting parties ashore to survey the area. Land on both sides 
 of the Delaware was purchased from friendly Indian chiefs, and on the 
 site where Wilmington, Delaware, is now located, the first Swedish 
 colony in America, Fort Christina, was established. With continued 
 immigration during the following years, the colony expanded until it 
 embraced Delaware and parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. They 
 called it New Sweden. Here, as in Old Sweden, the Lutheran Church 
 was given official recognition and support by the civil government. 
 Lutheran congregations were organized and a full parish program, 
 including worship according to the Swedish rite, was conducted. 
 
 To this colony came the first settled Lutheran pastor ever to labor 
 on American soil. His name was Reorus Torkillus, who labored faith- 
 fully from 1640 until his death three years later. His successor was 
 John Campanius, who is credited with the distinction of erecting the 
 first Lutheran church building in America, and of translating the first 
 book, Luther's Small Catechism, into the language of the American 
 Indian. 
 
 For one hundred and ninety-three years a succession of thirty- 
 five clergymen were sent out by the Church of Sweden to minister to 
 the colonists. The last of this intrepid band was the Rev. Nicholas 
 
 20 
 
21 Seed Time 
 
 Collin, who after serving the colony for almost a half century, died in 
 1831, at the age of eighty-seven years. 1 
 
 The Church of Sweden looked upon the church in the American 
 colony as an important mission abroad, and kept it under the closest 
 possible scrutiny and supervision. Instead of encouraging the colonial 
 church to stand on its own feet and develop its own resources, the 
 mother church insisted on exercising strict control over its American 
 outpost. Thus, the church along the Delaware continued to be almost 
 entirely dependent upon Sweden for help and encouragement. But 
 when first the Dutch and then the British took over the Swedish 
 colony, help from the homeland became increasingly difficult to obtain. 
 Finally, the congregations in New Sweden were faced with the alter- 
 natives of complete dissolution or finding help elsewhere. They chose 
 the latter course, and since the Episcopal Church was the official 
 church of the British colonies, and sustained cordial relations with the 
 Church of Sweden, the Swedish congregations, one by one, affiliated 
 with this denomination. Shortly after the death of Pastor Collin, the 
 last of the Lutheran congregations along the Delaware joined the 
 Episcopal fold. Two of the churches built by the Swedish Lutherans, 
 Holy Trinity in Wilmington, and Gloria Dei in South Philadelphia, are 
 still being used by present-day Episcopal congregations. 
 
 A period of only eighteen years separates the passing of the last 
 pastor of the Delaware Swedes and the arrival of the first pastor, L. P. 
 Esbjorn, who was associated with the new wave of Swedish immigra- 
 tion. But during these eighteen years the last vestiges of a Swedish 
 Lutheran tradition in America had virtually disappeared, and the new- 
 comers of the nineteenth century were compelled to begin their work 
 anew. The annals of Swedish Lutheranism in America would doubt- 
 less be far different, had Pastor Esbjorn and his colleagues been able 
 to connect their labors with an ongoing Swedish Lutheran Church in 
 America which reached back to the earliest days of the colonial period. 
 The big difference between these two episodes in the history of Swed- 
 ish-American Lutheranism is the contrast of relationship which the 
 hierarchy of the Church of Sweden sustained toward these American 
 ventures. The Delaware enterprise, which was a colonial undertaking, 
 was so closely linked to the mother church that it was never permitted 
 
 1 Otto Norberg, Svenska kyrkans mission vid Delaware i Nord Amerika, Stock- 
 holm, 1843. T. C. Clay, Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware, From Their 
 First Settlements in 1636 to the Present Time, 2nd Ed., Philadelphia, 1858. 
 See also Amandus Johnson, The Swedes in America, 1638-1900, Vol. I, Phil- 
 adelphia, 1914. Adolph Benson and Naboth Hedin, Swedes in America, 1638- 
 1938, New Haven, 1938. 
 
Augustana Heritage 22 
 
 to become a really indigenous operation in this country, and finally 
 withered away. The latter undertaking, which was an immigrant ven- 
 ture, was "unofficial," an independent affair, free from outside control, 
 and thus compelled to find its own resources and make its own way. 
 But this very freedom and independence became the matrix of future 
 permanence and stability. 
 
 Swedish Settlers of the Nineteenth Century 
 
 Though Swedish immigration to America dwindled to almost noth- 
 ing after New Sweden passed from Swedish control, nevertheless, 
 each year found a few Swedish nationals coming to this country. The 
 great migration, however, did not begin until about 1840. Among the 
 earlier arrivals who were already on hand to greet and direct the in- 
 coming masses were such men as the Hedstrom brothers, Olof G. and 
 Jonas J. They had been converted to the Methodist faith and began 
 their work as Methodist missionaries among Scandinavians in America 
 as early as 1833. For thirty years Olof Gustaf Hedstrom was pastor of 
 the "Bethel Ship," a schooner converted into a harbor mission in New 
 York City. He would meet the incoming ships, invite the bewildered 
 people to his mission, preach to them the comforting gospel according 
 to the Methodist viewpoint, and counsel them regarding conditions in 
 America. His brother Jonas settled in Victoria, Illinois, and labored 
 in these frontier regions as a traveling Methodist missionary. He re- 
 ported to his brother in New York the latest frontier news, keeping 
 him informed about the situation in the Midwest. These two men, 
 Olof and Jonas Hedstrom, were responsible, not only for winning many 
 Swedish immigrants for the Methodist cause, but also for directing the 
 mainstream of Swedish immigration into the upper Mississippi val- 
 ley. 2 
 
 Another early arrival was Gustaf Unonius, a clerk in the provin- 
 cial land office at Uppsala, who also became a notable figure among 
 Swedish-Americans. With his young bride and a few friends, he came 
 to America in 1841, and settled at Pine Lake, Wisconsin. Here he be- 
 came associated with the Episcopalians, joined their church, was or- 
 dained into the Episcopal ministry, and spent seventeen years as an 
 Episcopalian missionary among the Swedes. His congregation in Chi- 
 cago, Illinois, was the first Swedish Episcopal Church in the United 
 
 Eric Norelius, De svenska luterska forsamlingarnas och svenskarnes historia 
 i Amerika, Rock Island, Illinois, 1890, Vol. I, pp. 16-23. See also N. M. Lilje- 
 gren, N. O. Westergren and C. G. Wallenius, Svenska Metodismen i Amer- 
 ika, Chicago, 1895. 
 
23 Seed Time 
 
 States, and the center of his ministerial activities. Visiting Swedish 
 settlements in all parts of the Middle West, Unonius invited his coun- 
 trymen to join the Episcopal Church, claiming that the Episcopal 
 Church in America represented the best elements of the Lutheran 
 Church in Sweden without suffering from its faults and defects. ' 
 
 The first emigrant party of considerable size left Sweden in the 
 summer of 1846, led by the radical separatist, Eric Janson. Possessed 
 of an eccentric character and violent temperament, Janson abandoned 
 his farming in Uppland about 1840, and became a self-appointed lay 
 evangelist and an apostle of radical reform. In crude language and 
 scathing terms he denounced both the Government and the Church of 
 Sweden. He heaped scorn upon the writings of the church fathers held 
 in highest esteem, Luther, Arndt, Nohrborg, and Linderoth. He 
 claimed that God had given him a special revelation which superseded 
 all other truth, and only he was qualified to interpret the true message 
 of the Bible. Those who believed his message were instantly set free 
 from all sin and made perfect in God's eyes; all others were doomed 
 to hell. Janson's vitriolic attacks upon all constituted authority soon 
 brought him into trouble with the law, and he was hounded by the 
 police from place to place, finally escaping across the Norwegian border 
 disguised as a woman. Seeking refuge from his tormentors and perse- 
 cutors, Janson decided to gather his faithful flock and go to America. 
 His farewell address to his homeland expresses the pent-up bitterness 
 and hatred he felt toward those who dared to oppose him: 
 
 Merciful God, open the eyes of Sweden's king that he may see 
 how the devilish teachings of the clergy bring their hearers to the 
 damnation of hell. O Lord of all, lend to the Government light to 
 see the darkness that enshrouds the earth, as related in Isaiah 60, 
 and to see that the devil's preachers have caused darkness to 
 descend over a whole people. . . . Farewell, Sweden's princes and 
 powers that be, who soon enough, as recorded in God's Word, will 
 bite your tongues because of the woe that will overtake you. Fare- 
 well, ye ravenous wolves, who have brought Sweden's people to 
 the unfortunate state that they must pay several thousand riks- 
 daler to those who reject and banish those who have been faith- 
 ful to God's commandments. . . . But peace be unto those who 
 have received and do receive him in the name of a prophet. 4 
 
 A scouting party, headed by a certain Olof Olson, had been sent on 
 
 3 Gustaf Unonius, A Pioneer in Northwest America, 1841-1858, The memoirs of 
 Gustaf Unonius, tr. J. O. Backhand, Vol. I, Minneapolis, 1950. See also Nor- 
 elius, Ibid., pp. 2ff. 
 
 4 Afskedstal, till all Sveriges innewdnare, som joraktadt mig, den som Jesus 
 hafwer sdndt; eller forkastat det namnet Erik Jansson, Soderala, 1846. 
 
Augustana Heritage 24 
 
 ahead to prepare for the mass exodus of the Jansonites. Olson con- 
 ferred with Olof Hedstrom in New York who counseled him to bring 
 his party to Illinois. Thus it was that the Jansonite community settled 
 at Bishop Hill, only a short distance from Victoria, the headquarters 
 of Jonas Hedstrom. From 1846 to 1848 approximately fifteen hundred 
 people, fervent disciples of Janson, left the northern sections of Sweden 
 and came to their "new Jerusalem" on the prairies of Illinois. Among 
 the adherents of Janson were a number of families who had once been 
 members of Pastor Esbjorn's parish in Halsingland. When the Esbjorn 
 party arrived in New York a few years later, seeking a place to settle, 
 the choice of Andover, Illinois, was due, partly to the advice of 
 Hedstrom, and partly to Esbjorn's desire to win back into the Lutheran 
 fold those of his former members and friends who had abandoned their 
 Lutheran faith to follow the "prophet," because only a few miles separ- 
 ate Andover and Bishop Hill. 5 
 
 Of greater significance to the future Augustana Church was the 
 small immigrant party, headed by Peter Kassel, which set out from 
 Ostergotland in 1845, and found its way to Jefferson County in Iowa, 
 some forty-two miles west of Burlington. They settled in a rolling, 
 wooded section along the Skunk River and called their colony New 
 Sweden. The first couple of years were hard and lean, many of the orig- 
 inal settlers died of exposure and disease, while a few families moved 
 to Burlington. But the survivors persevered and steadily improved 
 their circumstances. They wrote to their friends and relatives back 
 home describing the rich soil, the salubrious climate, and the bright 
 hopes for the future. Soon others joined them, and the colony began to 
 enjoy a modest expansion. But they were in spiritual need. They had 
 neither church nor pastor, but gathered in their homes for quiet devo- 
 tional periods. One of their number, the community cobbler, Magnus 
 Hakanson, though he had no theological training, was a spiritually 
 minded man who was often called on to lead their cottage meetings. 
 In 1848 the little flock of lay folk urged Hakanson to become their spir- 
 itual leader and to function as their pastor. The humble shoemaker 
 demurred, but was finally persuaded to accept the charge. Although 
 no formal organization of the congregation occurred, the people looked 
 upon themselves as a genuine Lutheran congregation; their children 
 were baptized, their youth confirmed, the Lord's Supper was regularly 
 
 5 For a critical study of the Jansonite story and viewpoint see, Emil Herlenius, 
 Erik-Jansismens historia, Jonkoping, 1900. See also Eric Johnson and C. F. 
 Peterson, Svenskame i Illinois, historiska anteckningar, Chicago, 1889, pp. 
 22-54. See also, Norelius, op. cit., pp. 27ff., and Chapter III, pp. 61ff. Michael 
 Mikkelsen, op. cit. 
 
25 Seed Time 
 
 celebrated, and worship was conducted according to the Swedish rite. 
 Here was a functioning Lutheran parish in every important respect, 
 even though Hakanson did not receive an ecclesiastical license until 
 1850, when such recognition was granted to him by the Joint Synod of 
 Ohio. The community at New Sweden, Iowa, has been acknowledged 
 by the Augustana Church as its first and earliest parish, and the Con- 
 gregational Centennial of 1948 was celebrated in recognition of this 
 historic fact. 7 
 
 The simple, uncomplicated church life in this layman's venture at 
 New Sweden was not destined to enjoy peace and tranquility for very 
 long. Within a year after Hakanson assumed charge, proselyting mis- 
 sionaries began to appear on the scene. In the summer of 1849 Gustaf 
 Unonius made his way to New Sweden. He was highly critical of what 
 he found there. Hakanson's right to conduct worship and dispense the 
 sacraments without Episcopal sanction was attacked, and the legality of 
 a congregation functioning without a constitution and independent 
 of ecclesiastical ties was questioned. Both Hakanson and his people 
 were charged with sectarianism and separatism, and urged to turn 
 from their improper ways and become respectable Christians by 
 affiliating with the Episcopal Church. Such talk did little more than 
 spread confusion and dismay, and Hakanson thought seriously of re- 
 signing and leaving the community. 
 
 In the midst of these distractions a letter came from another mis- 
 sionary who promised to visit New Sweden and comfort the people 
 with the true gospel. Shortly thereafter Jonas Hedstrom appeared on 
 the scene, but far from comforting the little flock, he revealed himself 
 as a bitter enemy and critic of the Lutheran Church. He condemned 
 virtually all Lutheran practice, from infant baptism to the funeral rite, 
 including the liturgy and clerical vestments. 8 Confusion worse con- 
 founded now reigned in the settlement. Hakanson endeavored to with- 
 stand Hedstrom, but was no match for the fiery apostle of free Method- 
 ism. Several leading members of the colony, including Peter Kassel 
 himself, were drawn away from the Lutheran fold. Hakanson in deep 
 distress and discouragement, resigned his charge, but was urged to re- 
 main and become a Methodist. When Hakanson suggested that another 
 layman might serve them better, the people held a prayer meeting and, 
 asking God's guidance, drew lots, and the lot fell upon Hakanson. 
 
 6 Norelius, op. cit., pp. 87ff. 
 
 7 See President's Report, Synodical Minutes, 1948, pp. 16-35. 
 
 8 Norelius, op. cit, p. 89f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 26 
 
 Accepting this as a sign from God, the distracted Hakanson acceded to 
 the wishes of the people and agreed to remain, but his ministry was 
 now one of perplexed uncertainty. 9 
 
 But an even greater threat to the peace and unity of the colony 
 was soon to confront New Sweden. The Episcopalian onslaughts of 
 Unonius and the Methodist attacks of Hedstrom had been serious 
 enough, but these were mild invasions in comparison to the assaults 
 made by several Baptist missionaries who, one after another, visited 
 the settlement. Two of these Baptist spokesmen, Gustaf Palmquist and 
 F. O. Nilsson, were particularly effective in stirring up strife and win- 
 ning the confidence of a number of the colony leaders. The chief ques- 
 tion which these men raised was the validity of infant baptism. They 
 charged that this rite had no Scriptural basis, and that baptism is a 
 sign and testimony of conversion and faith, and therefore only "believ- 
 ers' baptism" is valid. They pressed their point with such vigor and 
 earnestness that the whole community was thrown into an uproar, and 
 many Lutherans accompanied the missionaries to the nearby river 
 where they were immersed and given "proper and Christian baptism 
 according to the Bible." Even Hakanson was momentarily carried 
 away by the zeal of the Baptist missionaries, and is said to have made 
 plans to be rebaptized. But through the help and encouragement of 
 faithful friends and brethren, he recovered his equanimity, and was 
 once more stabilized in the Lutheran faith. 10 
 
 Neither Hakanson nor his congregations ever forgot the lessons 
 they learned through these painful experiences. The American fron- 
 tier with its free, pluralistic, and competitive religious situation was 
 no friendly place for theological obscurantism. Congregational survival 
 depended upon confessional integrity, and such integrity necessitated 
 differentiation at exactly those points which distinguished one de- 
 nomination from another. The alternative was confusion, chaos, and 
 eventual dissolution. This lesson was becoming clear not only to 
 Hakanson and the New Sweden community, but also to all those who 
 were endeavoring to establish a Swedish Lutheran church on the broad 
 prairies of the Middle West a hundred years ago. 
 
 » Ibid., p. 92f. 
 
 10 Ibid., pp. 94ff. In a letter to Esbjorn, dated March 29, 1854, Hakanson bares 
 his soul, asking forgiveness of both God and man for permitting himself to 
 be carried away by the Baptists, acknowledging with humble gratitude the 
 enlightenment and clarification which both Hasselquist and Esbjorn had 
 given him regarding the Lutheran doctrine of baptism. 
 
27 Seed Time 
 
 The Advent of Lars Paul Esbjorn 
 
 By 1848 the "America fever" was running high in Old Sweden. 
 Friends and relatives who had left home and families sent letters 
 back home extolling, often in extravagant terms, the virtues of life 
 in the United States. Such letters were often published in the Swedish 
 press throughout the realm, and more and more people were beginning 
 to think about and discuss the possibilities of emigration. 11 As yet, 
 however, the movement was associated, both in the popular mind as 
 well as in official circles, with irresponsible adventurers and radical 
 malcontents. No person of official standing had yet been identified with 
 the migration. But in 1849 it was rumored that a Lutheran pastor, 
 well known in revival and temperance circles, was preparing to lead 
 a sizeable party, including a considerable part of his own congregation, 
 to the United States. The pastor was Lars Paul Esbjorn, a clergyman 
 in the Church of Sweden, who at the age of forty-one had established 
 himself as a preacher of ability and promise, and a leader in the evan- 
 gelical movement throughout the land. Esbjorn was born in 1808 of 
 humble parentage, and because of straightened financial circumstances 
 was unable to avail himself of the most thorough theological education 
 offered at Uppsala University, but took a shorter and more practical 
 course of theological studies. 12 He was ordained in 1832, and served 
 as assistant pastor from 1832 to 1835 at Ostervala, a large rural parish 
 in the northern section of the province of Uppland. From 1835 to 1849 
 he served as parish pastor in the factory town Oslattfors in Uppland 
 and as schoolteacher in the neighboring village of Hille. It was during 
 his years at Oslattfors that Esbjorn came under the influence of George 
 Scott, C. O. Rosenius, and Peter Wieselgren, and thereafter identified 
 himself as a champion of the cause of revivalism and temperance. 13 
 
 In many respects Esbjorn was a complex figure, whose personality 
 was characterized by strange contradictions. He loved people, but his 
 
 11 Typical specimens of "America Letters" are printed in Tidsskrift for Svensk 
 evangelisk lutersk kyrkohistoria i Nord Amerika och for teologiska och 
 kyrkliga frdgor, 1899, 1910, and in The Swedish-American Historical Society, 
 Year Book, 1905-1930. See also Gunnar Westin, Emigranterna och kyrkan. 
 Brev frdn och till svenskar i Amerika, 1849-1872. Stockholm, 1932. 
 
 12 The documents relating to Esbjorn's education at Uppsala University are in 
 the Provincial Archives at Uppsala. An examination of these documents by 
 the author in 1937 revealed that Esbjorn's theological training was designed 
 to meet the minimum requirements for ordination of that day. His highest 
 academic achievements were in the scientific rather than theological fields. 
 
 13 For a brief but excellent biographical sketch of Esbjorn see G. Westin, "Lars 
 P. Esbjorn," Svenskt biografiskt lexikon. See also, Eric Norelius' "Person- 
 liga hagkomster of L. P. Esbjorn," Tidskrift for svensk evangelisk-luthersk 
 kyrkohistoria i N. Amerika, 1899, pp. 361-366. Sam Ronnegard, Prairie Shep- 
 herd, tr. G. Everett Arden, Rock Island, 1952, pp. 13-68. 
 
Augustana Heritage 28 
 
 morose and suspicious nature tended to alienate his human relation- 
 ships. He had strong convictions, but the line separating conviction 
 from plain, unreasoning stubbornness was often hard to delineate. He 
 was not an intellectual, and yet had intellectual interests, particularly 
 in natural science. He dedicated his life to the gospel of peace between 
 God and man, but the peace which he sought to impart to others 
 seemed often to escape him during frequent periods of melancholy and 
 depression. He was shy and retiring in the presence of more command- 
 ing personalities, but a strong streak of egocentricity prevented him 
 from granting hearty co-operation to those who did not fully share 
 his viewpoint. After experiencing what he called his "conversion" 
 during a revival crusade in 1840, he became increasingly puritanical 
 in his conception of religion. Hounded by poverty, saddened by be- 
 reavements, disillusioned by disappointments and discouragements, 
 compelled by changing circumstances to revise drastically his basic 
 attitudes from theological broad-mindedness to rigid orthodoxy, from 
 advocacy of religious freedom to religious establishment, from sym- 
 pathy toward interdenominational fellowship and co-operation to an 
 almost bitter exclusiveness, Esbjorn appears in many respects as a 
 tragic figure. Yet his was a spirit of heroic proportions. In the long 
 perspective of history he indeed stands forth as a frail human being 
 with many of the faults, failings, and weaknesses to which human 
 flesh is heir. None-the-less, he became, under the guidance of God, 
 the chosen vessel called to found on American soil a new church, 
 and begin a new chapter in the saga of a Swedish Lutheran tradi- 
 tion in America. In this undertaking there is ample evidence of 
 courage, patience, faith, love, and forebearance on the part of Lars 
 Paul Esbjorn, the man who has been called the "Founder of the 
 Augustana Church." 14 
 
 News of the Esbjorn emigration plans caused a mild sensation in 
 Sweden. Some cheered, others hooted. Here is a real shepherd of 
 the common people who casts his lot with the underdog! What kind 
 of charlatan is this man who dares to drag his large family, wife and 
 six children, the youngest, twin sons, only six months old, clear 
 across the ocean? The man must be crazy! Esbjorn is a man of 
 courage and vision who will not forsake his countrymen across the 
 broad Atlantic! Esbjorn is an irresponsible adventurer who brazenly 
 entices his flock to forsake their beloved homeland! Esbjorn is a 
 
 14 Eric Norelius, intimate friend of Esbjorn, gives a critical sketch of Esbjorn in 
 De svenska luterska forsamlingarnas och svenskarnes historia i Amerika, 
 Vol. I, pp. 173-186. 
 
29 Seed Time 
 
 modern Moses who leads his people out of the land of bondage into 
 Canaan! Esbjbrn is a blind leader of the blind. 15 
 
 Though Esbjorn may have been something of a hero in the eyes 
 of those who yearned for a broader freedom and more secure fu- 
 ture, in the estimation of the ecclesiastical officials in particular he 
 was more like an irresponsible fanatic. When he applied for a leave 
 of absence from his Swedish charge, Archbishop Henrik Reuterdahl 
 took occasion to administer a rebuke by warning him about "restless 
 minds" which do not thrive within the church, and of "ambitions to 
 power which subdue the consciences and wills of other people." 16 
 Even some of Esbjorn's friends among the clergy tried to dissuade 
 him, as evidenced in a letter dated at Stromsbro, February 5, 1849, 
 in which the writer concludes that " (1) Your journey 5 is not of God; 
 (2) your motives in going to America are not entirely pure, and 
 that which is pure is not sufficiently valid and powerful for such an 
 undertaking; (3) the journey, on the whole, will be unsuccessful." 17 
 
 But Esbjorn was not to be dissuaded by either friend or foe. 
 Indeed he was greatly heartened and encouraged when the Swedish 
 Missionary Society voted to give him a travel grant of three hun- 
 dred riksdaler, and the Department of Ecclesiastical Affairs noti- 
 fied him that his request for a leave of absence had been granted 
 with the privilege of continuing his right of seniority in the Swed- 
 ish ministerium and the prerogative of resuming his service in the 
 Church of Sweden whenever he so desired. Thus, Esbjorn could 
 now go to America as a Swedish pastor in full possession of his 
 ministerial office, even though he must rely for financial support 
 upon whatever resources he could find in America. It was plainly 
 understood that this was a private venture and in no sense a project 
 of the Church of Sweden. The Swedish Church was naturally an 
 interested spectator on the sidelines, so to speak, but Esbjorn was 
 strictly "on his own." 
 
 On the evening of June 29, 1849, the freighter Cobden, slipped 
 out of the harbor of Gavle, carrying one hundred and forty-six pas- 
 sengers, including Esbjorn and his family. Sixty-eight days later the 
 little sailing vessel dropped anchor in the bustling harbor of New 
 York. 18 
 
 15 Ronnegard, op. tit, pp. 69ff. 
 
 16 Westin, Emigranterna och kyrkan, p. 37f. 
 
 17 Letter in the Esbjorn Collection, Augustana Archives, Rock Island. 
 
 18 An interesting account of the voyage is recorded in a daily diary which 
 Esbjorn kept and which is preserved in the Esbjorn Collection, Augustana 
 Archives, Rock Island. A translation of the diary is given in Augustana His- 
 torical Society Publications, Vol. V, pp. 12-34. 
 
Augustana Heritage 30 
 
 The brief stop of several days in New York was decisive for 
 the Esbjorn party. It was here that Esbjorn met his first great dis- 
 appointment, and here also the final destination of the immigrants 
 was determined. Olof Hedstrom and his Bethel Ship mission became 
 a kind of headquarters for the group. Through association in Swe- 
 den with George Scott, Esbjorn had become favorably disposed 
 toward Methodism, and undoubtedly had hopes of receiving financial 
 aid from this large and powerful American communion. Pastor Hed- 
 strom informed him that it would not be difficult to receive such 
 support, provided, however, that Esbjorn would renounce his Lu- 
 theran affiliation and become a Methodist. 
 
 For a man confronted by the enormous responsibilities which 
 now faced Esbjorn, Hedtsrom's proposal was undoubtedly a tempt- 
 ing offer, and Esbjorn is said to have wavered momentarily, but 
 through the encouragement of his wife, he decided to reject the 
 offer and take the consequences. 19 Esbjorn also conferred with 
 Robert Baird, the Presbyterian temperance leader who was well 
 known in Sweden. Would it be possible to receive financial assist- 
 ance from the American Home Missionary Society, controlled by a 
 Presbyterian-Congregationalist board of directors? He was told that, 
 "according to its own rules, it [the A. H. M. S.] could not support a 
 pastor who was not a member of some American Church which 
 could supervise his conduct, work and teachings." He would have 
 to seek for aid elsewhere. 
 
 In the meantime, a decision must also be made regarding the 
 specific location to which the party would now direct its steps. 
 Again, Hedstrom was helpful in pointing out the advantages of Illi- 
 nois and the Mississippi Valley. Several land agents in New York 
 were ready and eager to serve the immigrants. One agent pre- 
 sented a gaudily colored chart picturing an attractive layout of a 
 small city in Henry County, Illinois, called Andover. It depicted a 
 neat settlement on the broad banks of the deep-flowing Edwards 
 River, a tributary of the mighty Mississippi, with steamboats plying 
 to and fro from the Andover harbor. Even more significant was the 
 map showing the cross-country distance between Andover and Bishop 
 Hill, the site of the Jansonite colony, to be about twelve miles, and 
 the distance to Victoria, headquarters of Jonas Hedstrom, about six- 
 teen miles. The immigrants were interested, and the real estate 
 
 19 See Gustav Andreen, L. P. Esbjorn and the Pilgrim Fathers of 1849. Rock 
 Island, 1925. This is the only source which could be discovered to substan- 
 tiate this alleged episode. 
 
31 Seed Time 
 
 agent is said to have declared, "You may have the whole township 
 and money for your church building, if you make up your minds 
 quickly." They looked at one another. What a vision! A rich land 
 of milk and honey, a city on the river with steamboats and a church! 
 Andover it must be. 20 
 
 The journey inland was by steamer up the Hudson River to 
 Albany, then by boat through the Erie Canal to Buffalo, on to Cleve- 
 land, and through the Great Lakes to Chicago. Crowded and un- 
 sanitary facilities, coupled with a siege of the dreaded cholera, 
 turned the inland journey into a nightmare. Men, women, and chil- 
 dren died, one after another, and were hastily buried in the sand 
 banks along the route. Esbjorn's two infant sons were among the 
 casualties, the one having succumbed before the S.S. Cobden left 
 Sweden, the other along the route of the Great Lakes. In these days 
 of suffering and distress, Esbjorn doubtless heard again and again 
 the echo of those who had warned, "Your voyage is not of God." 
 "The journey will not be successful." 
 
 The Esbjorn party landed in Chicago on September 30, 1849, 
 after spending twenty days traveling from New York. In a letter 
 to the Swedish Home Missionary Society, Esbjorn described the ex- 
 perience in these words: 
 
 We arrived in Chicago on the morning of September 30. Here 
 several more were stricken and died in the cholera hospital, and 
 two days after having visited the hospital I also was stricken 
 with the same plague. I was certain that I would die, and thought 
 that the Good Shepherd now desired to call home His most 
 humble servant. But He had decided otherwise. Through the 
 efficient homeopathic physicians and the untiring prayers and 
 constant care of my dear wife, by the grace of God, the illness 
 was conquered. 21 
 
 It was not until October 24 that Esbjorn finally reached Andover. 
 The survivors of his party had preceded him and were already scat- 
 tered throughout the countryside. No doubt there was much re- 
 joicing when Pastor and people were reunited again. But there was 
 disappointment and perplexity, too! The vision which had seemed so 
 real in the land agent's office had vanished in the clearer light of 
 reality. The neat city on the agent's chart turned out to be in fact 
 only a tiny settlement of nondescript houses and shacks, while the 
 broad, deep-flowing Edwards River was in truth little more than a 
 small brook meandering through the hills and marshlands, but which 
 
 20 See Esbjorn letter, dated Chicago, 1860, Esbjorn Collection. 
 
 21 Quoted from Ronnegard, op. tit., p. 110. 
 
Augustana Heritage 32 
 
 nevertheless had proved difficult enough to cross without bridges. 
 The only steamboats which would ever traffic on that stream were 
 on the real estate map in New York! To many of the newcomers 
 Andover and its environs must have seemed a terribly desolate 
 place. But worst of all was the report that during Esbjorn's conva- 
 lescence in Chicago, Jonas Hedstrom, the Methodist missionary from 
 Victoria, had visited Andover and persauded a number of Esbjorn's 
 followers to forsake Andover and move to the Victoria community. 22 
 
 The Pioneer Years in Illinois 
 
 New parties of immigrants were steadily pouring into the area, 
 settling in Andover and the surrounding communities of Galesburg, 
 Moline, Knoxville, and Henderson. But the very first problem Es- 
 bjorn had to solve was economic. He had scant knowledge of other 
 Lutherans and resources for aid which might be tapped among them. 
 His own people were far too poverty stricken to provide for the sup- 
 port of a pastor and his family. There seemed to be only one possi- 
 bility, and that was to apply to the American Home Missionary So- 
 ciety, in spite of what Dr. Baird had told him in New York regarding 
 the rules and regulations of the Society. Dr. J. Blanchard, president 
 of Knox College in Galesburg, was a member of the Board of Di- 
 rectors of the Society and a man of considerable influence. Through 
 his kind offices Esbjorn's petition for aid reached the regional com- 
 mittee. This committee, consisting of three men, including Dr. 
 Blanchard, investigated Esbjorn's credentials and he was subjected 
 to a thorough examination regarding his faith and practice. With 
 reference to this experience Esbjorn later reported: 
 
 Ready to give to one and all a reason for the hope that is in 
 me, I related my own spiritual experiences and the chief points 
 of our Lutheran doctrine. Although the Association did not ap- 
 prove them all, especially our teaching about the sacraments, 
 election, and the possibility of the elect falling from grace, never- 
 theless, we agreed that I should "preach the gospel and ad- 
 minister the sacraments, and observe church practice, ceremonies, 
 and discipline as an Evangelical Lutheran servant of Christ." 23 
 
 22 Esbjorn's own account of his experiences as a frontier pastor is given in 
 "Berattelse om de Svenska Luterska forsamlingarnes i Norra Amerika upp- 
 komst och narvarande tillstand, framstalld vid Uppsala Erkestifts prestmote 
 den 14 Juni, 1865," Utdrag ur protocoll och handlingar rorande prestmotet i 
 Uppsala ar 1865. 
 
 23 Letter to Swedish Missionary Society, 1850, quoted by Ronnegard, op. cit, 
 p. 140. See also Norelius, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 125ff. 
 
33 Seed Time 
 
 On January 14, 1850, the Directors of the Society approved Es- 
 bjorn's petition for aid, granting him. an annual stipend of $300, 
 the appointment to take effect at the beginning of the next quarter, 
 after which Esbjorn would be subject to the regulation of the So- 
 ciety. Among the stipulations included in a special sheet of "Gen- 
 eral Instructions" were these: He must send to the Society each 
 quarter a summary report of his work for the previous period. Also, 
 4 'No one shall be received as a member of a congregation, or ad- 
 mitted to the Lord's Table, who can not give evidence of being born 
 anew." 24 To receive members by "prastbetyg" or transfer from the 
 Church of Sweden or through confirmation was unacceptable to the 
 Society. Esbjorn was to be allowed to function "as an Evangelical 
 Lutheran servant of Christ," to be sure, but he was expected to 
 conform to Reformed practice and act in accordance with the theo- 
 logical premises which had been developed in America during the 
 First and Second Great Awakenings, the chief architect of which was 
 the great New England divine, Jonathan Edwards. According to Ed- 
 ward's treatise, published in 1758, and titled, The Christian Doctrine 
 of Original Sin Defended, the sinner possesses some ability to obey 
 God's will, but this capacity is contravened by the evil and self- 
 willed impulses of the human heart. Therefore the heart must be 
 recreated, the natural will transformed, and the emotions purified 
 and refined. Such a change can occur only under the stern hammer 
 blows of the holy law of God which must be mercilessly applied 
 until the resisting human heart is crushed, the sinner hurled into 
 the abyss of despair, and turns finally in terror and repentance to 
 God. Such repentance leads eventually to a sense of release and 
 peace with God and true obedience to His precepts. This is the 
 essence of salvation. Such an experience must be so real, so grip- 
 ping, and so totally life-transforming that it can be dated by the very 
 day and hour it occurred. This is what the great American reviv- 
 alists in the Reformed camp meant by "the new birth." In such a 
 concept of Christianity the sacraments as means of grace are re- 
 placed by prayer, exhortation, and evangelistic techniques, and the 
 emotional experience of conversion is substituted for the promises of 
 God's Word as the ground and basis for Christian certainty. Liturgi- 
 
 24 The original documents containing Esbjorn's quarterly reports are in the 
 Archives of Chicago Theological Seminary, a Congregational institution ad- 
 jacent to the University of Chicago. Several of these reports are given in 
 Norelius, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 125ff. and in Augustana Historical Society Pub- 
 lications, VI. X, 1944, pp. llff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 34 
 
 cal forms and traditional usages are deemed to be hindrances to the 
 free working of the Spirit of God. 25 
 
 It is important to note, in this connection, that the subjectivism 
 which is intrinsic to this viewpoint is similar to that of the pietistic 
 revivals with which Esbjorn was familiar in Sweden. It is indubi- 
 table, however, that he did not yet possess sufficient theological per- 
 ceptiveness to recognize the synergistic implications in this American 
 frontier religion. His lack of a thorough theological training in Swe- 
 den, coupled with his present dire economic need, inclined him to 
 accept the stipulations of the Society with as few reservations and 
 questions as possible. But when he endeavored to be faithful to his 
 Lutheran conception of the church, on the one hand, and on the 
 other to put the Reformed principles into action and implement the 
 instructions given by the Society, he began to sense the tension be- 
 tween the two. Here, for example, were his countrymen, some of 
 them members of his former parish, scattered across the country- 
 side. They were Lutherans, born and reared in the church of the 
 homeland. Most of them had celebrated their departure from home 
 and family by attending Holy Communion on their last Sunday with 
 relatives and friends. But out here in the wild prairies of the Amer- 
 ican frontier they were to be denied the comfort of the Lord's Sup- 
 per, and excluded from church membership, until they could pro- 
 duce evidence of what the Americans called "genuine Christianity." 
 And we may be sure that Esbjorn's sense of frustration was not di- 
 minished when his employment by the American Home Missionary 
 Society was reported by the public press, and he soon found him- 
 self attacked and accused of being unfaithful to his ordination vow, 
 a follower of Calvin rather than Luther. 26 
 
 It was Gustaf Unonius who stepped forward as Esbjorn's most 
 severe critic. In personal correspondence and in the columns of the 
 Prairie Herald and the Chicago Daily JourTial, the two men waged a 
 bitter battle, accusing each other of ignorance, deception, and vin- 
 
 25 For critical analyses of Edwardian theology and the basic theological premises 
 of American frontier revivalism see Perry Miller, Jonathan Edwards, New 
 York, 1949. E. S. Gaustad, The Great Awakening in New England, New York, 
 1957. F. S. Foster, A Genetic History of New England Theology, Chicago, 
 1909. C. E. Cunningham, Timothy Dwight, New York, 1942. 
 
 26 Negotiations with Esbjorn were reported in The Home Missionary, published 
 by A. H. M. S., March, 1850. A critical letter from Unonius dated March 5, 
 1850, is preserved in the Esbjorn Collection. See also Kyrkohistorisk Arsskrijt, 
 Uppsala, 1945, p. 207. 
 
35 Seed Time 
 
 dictiveness. Indeed, the debate grew so acrimonious that Unonius 
 finally filed suit against Esbjorn for defamation of character. 27 
 
 About the same time as Esbjorn was waging war with Unonius 
 he was confronted by trouble on another front. Gustaf Palmquist, 
 former Lutheran and lay evangelist, invaded Esbjorn's field of labor. 
 Palmquist had been converted to Baptist views through the influ- 
 ence of another former Lutheran, Anders Wiberg. He accused Es- 
 bjorn and the Lutherans of teaching "the man-made doctrine of in- 
 fant baptism which is unscriptural," and of trying to establish a Lu- 
 theran Church in America which would be just as "narrow and 
 authoritarian as the Church of Sweden." Palmquist was an excellent 
 preacher and possessed a charming personality. He succeeded in win- 
 ning a number of people upon whom Esbjorn had depended for lead- 
 ership in his own mission, and on August 13, 1852, organized in Rock 
 Island, Illinois, the first Swedish Baptist congregation in America. 
 Esbjorn quickly recognized the danger which threatened from this 
 quarter, and the imperative need of meeting the threat on both theo- 
 logical and practical grounds. He published articles in the press, 
 preached sermons, and wrote numerous letters warning his country- 
 men of the "errors of the Baptist sect." Here again, as in his ex- 
 periences with the Methodists and the Episcopalians, the easy align- 
 ments among Christians which had seemed so natural in Sweden, 
 must be re-evaluated and reassessed in the light of the new cir- 
 cumstances of a free and competitive American situation. 28 
 
 Fortunately, however, all was not strife and discouragement. In 
 the midst of tribulation there was much for which to thank God. On 
 March 18, 1850, for example, the congregation at Andover was formally 
 organized with ten charter members, including Esbjorn and his wife. 
 A week later thirty-two additional names were added to the church 
 roll, 29 and reports were being received of Swedish settlements in other 
 communities, near and far. 
 
 Furthermore, Esbjorn's debate in the public press with Unonius 
 had brought him to the attention of other Lutherans in America. Dur- 
 ing the summer of 1850, Dr. W. A. Passavant of Pittsburgh and Dr. W. 
 
 27 See Prairie Herald, September 18, 1850, article by a R. C. H."; December 4, 
 1850, article by Esbjorn; Chicago Daily Journal, December 18, 1850, article by 
 Unonius; February 17, 1851, article by Esbjorn. Regarding the lawsuit see 
 Norelius, op. tit, I, p. 184f. 
 
 28 A brief sketch of the early rivalry between Esbjorn and Palmquist is given 
 in Norelius, I, op. tit., pp. 150ff. For the development and growth of the 
 Swedish Baptist Church in various sections of America see Frank Peterson, 
 Femtio ar. En Overblick, 1852-1902, Minneapolis, 1902. 
 
 29 See Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. X, pp. lOf. 
 
Augustana Heritage 36 
 
 M. Reynolds, president of Capital University at Columbus, Ohio, made 
 an inspection journey to the west to acquaint themselves with the work 
 being done among the Scandinavians. As a consequence of this trip, 
 Passavant inaugurated a promotional scheme for Esbjorn's mission 
 which he published in his newspaper, The Missionary. He proposed 
 financial aid through offerings to be received and given to needy Scan- 
 dinavian congregations, the endowment of a Scandinavian professor- 
 ship at some Lutheran educational institution for the purpose of train- 
 ing Scandinavian young men for the ministry, the calling of a Scandin- 
 avian missionary chaplain to be stationed in New York City, and the 
 organization of a Scandinavian synod. 30 
 
 Passavant also lent his good offices to arrangements which enabled 
 Esbjorn to travel to the eastern seaboard, giving him opportunity to 
 present in person his cause to fellow Lutherans. From April through 
 July, 1851, Esbjorn journeyed about 3,600 miles and gave addresses 
 at three different synodical conventions which happened to be in ses- 
 sion at the time, namely, Joint Synod of Ohio, Pittsburgh, and Pennsyl- 
 vania. Doors were opened to him in numerous congregations along the 
 way, giving him a chance to plead his cause before large crowds in 
 Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and elsewhere, 
 meeting many of the outstanding leaders in the eastern sections of the 
 land. His appeals elicited ready response. Offerings were received 
 and many individual gifts of money were presented to him. In the 
 course of this journey he met the celebrated singer, Jenny Lind, who 
 added the generous gift of $1500 to Esbjorn's missionary funds. Dur- 
 ing this excursion Esbjorn collected $2,268.85, and subsequent contrib- 
 utions raised this total to approximately $3,000. In a very real way this 
 sum may be said to have been the initial working capital of the Augus- 
 tana Lutheran Church, for with the help of this money the first church 
 buildings among the Swedes of the Midwest were erected at Andover, 
 New Sweden, and Moline. 31 
 
 Esbjorn's mission was further strengthened and encouraged in the 
 autumn of 1851 when he united his congregations with the Synod of 
 Northern Illinois. Recalling the isolation which had ultimately with- 
 ered the earlier work in Delaware, Esbjorn was convinced that the 
 future welfare of his work demanded the establishment of fruitful and 
 mutually helpful connections with other Lutherans in the land. 32 Sev- 
 
 30 The Missionary, July, 1850; The Lutheran Observer, October 25, 1850. 
 
 31 Report to A. H. M. S., July 22, 1851, Augustana Historical Society Publica- 
 tions, Vol. X, p. 15f. Norelius, I, op. cit., p. 148f. 
 
 32 See his "Berattelse," 1865, op. cit. 
 
37 Seed Time 
 
 eral alternatives were open to him. On the one hand, he could partici- 
 pate with Pastors A. C. Preus, H. A. Stub, and C. L. Clausen in the 
 formation of the Norwegian Synod in Wisconsin. 33 But the group was 
 known to be tinged with Grundtvigian and high church tendencies. 
 On the other hand, he could have joined some eastern synod, such as 
 the Joint Synod of Ohio, but distance would make co-operation and 
 communication difficult. 
 
 The most feasible plan was proposed by the Norwegian Pastor 
 Paul Anderson of Chicago, a Haugian pietist, who together with Pas- 
 tors Ole Andrewsen and O. T. Hatlestad had formed a small Norwegian 
 conference in 1850. 34 Andersen suggested that the Scandinavian con- 
 gregations join with the Americans and Germans of the area and es- 
 tablish a western synod in the upper Mississippi Valley. This sugges- 
 tion was favorably received, and after some preliminary negotiations 
 representatives of the Norwegian, German, and American congrega- 
 tions assembled at Cedarville, Stephenson County, Illinois, September 
 18, 1851, and organized the Synod of Northern Illinois, adopting a 
 constitution which committed the new association to the Augsburg 
 Confession as "mainly correct." Esbjorn and his congregations had 
 been invited to participate in these proceedings, but the Swedish pastor 
 and his delegate, E. M. Mankee, were delayed enroute and arrived at 
 the convention a day late. After an examination of their application, 
 the Swedish delegation was granted full membership in the association. 
 Esbjorn, however, was not satisfied with the doctrinal article in the 
 new constitution. He felt that the phrase "mainly correct" was vague 
 and ambiguous and made room for doctrinal compromise. He, there- 
 fore, requested that in the official minutes it be recorded that the 
 Swedish congregations were entering the association committed to the 
 conservative principle that "the symbolical books of the Lutheran 
 Church contain a correct summary and exposition of the divine Word, 
 wherefore we declare and adopt them as the foundation of our faith 
 and doctrine, next to the Holy Scriptures." 35 
 
 The action which Esbjorn took at Cedarville had two important 
 implications. In the first place, it involved the Swedish congregations 
 in a co-operative effort of immense significance, for the major respon- 
 
 33 This synod, popularly known as "The Norwegian Synod in Wisconsin," was 
 formally established after much debate and lengthy negotiations, January 7, 
 1851, at Rock Prairie, Wisconsin. See J. M. Rohne, Norwegian Lutheranism 
 up to 1872, New York, 1926, p. 114f. 
 
 34 Rohne, op. cit., pp. 100-104. See also Lutheran Observer, March 8, 1850, ar- 
 ticle by H. L. Dox. 
 
 35 Minutes of the First Session of the Synod of Northern Illinois, September 
 18-21, 1851, p. 5. 
 
Augustana Heritage 38 
 
 sibility of the new synod was the support of a training school for 
 Lutheran pastors which was being moved from Hillsboro to Springfield, 
 Illinois, and in the process having its name changed from "Hillsboro 
 College" to "Illinois State University." 36 Such a school was intended 
 to furnish religious leaders who were intimately acquainted with the 
 problems prevailing on the American frontier, and to provide training 
 suited to a frontier ministry. The success of such an educational ven- 
 ture would demand the greatest measure of mutuality and reciprocity 
 on the part of everyone concerned. Thus, this endeavor, and other 
 similar tasks undertaken by the Synod of Northern Illinois would exert 
 a centripetal force, pulling all constituent elements together and creat- 
 ing a union which might be more apparent than real. In the second 
 place, Esbjorn's action at Cedarville marked an important step in the 
 direction of the differentiation of the Swedish congregations in relation, 
 not to Methodists, Episcopalians, and Baptists, but to other Lutheran 
 traditions. Esbjorn's rejection of the phrase "mainly correct" and his 
 affirmation of the Lutheran symbols as "a correct summary and expo- 
 sition of the divine Word" was in fact a public disavowal of "American 
 Lutheranism" as advocated by Dr. S. S. Schmucker of Gettysburg 
 Seminary in Pennsylvania and his followers. What the positive conse- 
 quences of this stand would ultimately involve were not yet clear, to 
 be sure, but the negative aspects were apparent. How far to the right 
 the Swedes would be willing to go only time would tell, but confession- 
 ally they meant, at the very outset, to disassociate themselves from 
 left-wing Lutheranism in America, even though this was the very 
 label with which they had been tagged in Sweden. Esbjorn was be- 
 ginning to realize, however, that the label carried a different conno- 
 tation in America. Here it seemed to mean change by compromise; 
 there it had meant change by renewal. 
 
 Esbjorn's Co-laborers 
 
 The most encouraging development of Esbjorn's early years in 
 America, however, was doubtless the recruitment of several able and 
 consecrated colleagues from Sweden. As his field of labor expanded 
 and calls for pastoral care became more numerous and insistent, 
 Esbjorn communicated with his friends in Sweden, such as Fjellstedt, 
 Wieselgren, and others, urging them to find helpers who were willing 
 to come to America. Through the efforts of these men, several pastors 
 responded to the challenge of the mission field in America and became 
 
 Lutheran Observer, November 7, 1851, article by Francis Springer. 
 
39 Seed Time 
 
 Esbjorn's colaborers. The first to arrive was Tufve Nilsson Hassel- 
 quist. Born in the southern province of Skane, March 2, 1816, Hassel- 
 quist graduated from the University of Lund and was ordained in 1839. 
 For the next thirteen years he served as a pastor in the Church of 
 Sweden and distinguished himself as a preacher of unusual ability, a 
 strict Pietist, a friend of revivalism and temperance, and a critic of the 
 established church. 37 Through Dr. Fjellstedt, Hasselquist received a 
 call from the congregation in Galesburg, Illinois, which Esbjorn had 
 organized during the summer of 1851. Hasselquist arrived on the 
 scene in October, 1852 and, as one commentator has remarked, "if ever 
 there was 'a man for the place' it was Hasselquist." 38 A tall, powerfully 
 built man in the prime of life, by temperament and spirit admirably 
 suited to his calling as a leader of men, Hasselquist became the very 
 embodiment of the new church which he served. In contrast to Esbjorn, 
 Hasselquist was an "outgoing" personality to whom people naturally 
 gravitated, and whose wise and common-sense counsel they readily 
 accepted. 
 
 He was an indefatigable worker. While he served his own Gales- 
 burg congregation with outstanding success, he traveled far and wide 
 organizing numerous new congregations; in 1855 he founded the first 
 important Swedish-American newspaper, Det Ratta Hemlandet, and 
 edited the journel for many years; he was elected the first president 
 of the Augustana Synod in 1860 and filled that position for ten con- 
 secutive years, and after Esbjorn's return to Sweden in 1863, he was 
 called to head Auugustana College and Theological Seminary, a post 
 which he occupied until his death in 1891. 
 
 Hasselquist was an ecumenical spirit to whom the free church at- 
 mosphere of America was most congenial, and he was ready to grasp 
 the hand of friendship extended from any quarter. Liturgical forms 
 and ceremonies were not sacred to him, as he saw no threat to Luth- 
 eran doctrine if such forms were laid aside and his church co-operated 
 with other denominations. His basic viewpoint may be characterized 
 as that of a practical, low-church pietist, and through his extensive 
 and penetrating influence he stamped the genius of his own outlook 
 and spirit deeply and indelibly upon the Church he served. 39 
 
 37 Eric Norelius, T. N. Hasselquist, en levnadsteckning, Rock Island, no date, 
 pp. 15-20. See also O. F. Ander, T. N. Hasselquist, Rock Island, 1931, pp. 
 8-10. 
 
 38 George M. Stephenson, The Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration, Min- 
 neapolis, 1932, p. 168. 
 
 ™ Ibid., p. 167. 
 
Augustana Heritage 40 
 
 The second man to answer Esbjorn's macedonian call was Erland 
 Carlsson. Born in the province of Smaland, August 24, 1822, Carlsson 
 studied at the University of Lund and was ordained in 1849. Like 
 Esbjorn and Hasselquist, he identified himself with the revival and 
 temperance movements in Sweden and was looked upon by the eccle- 
 siastical authorities as a free church radical. When opportunities for 
 advancement were seemingly closed to him in the homeland, he ac- 
 cepted a call to the congregation in Chicago which came to him through 
 Dr. Fjellstedt. He arrived in Chicago during the summer of 1853. By 
 this time Chicago was becoming the hub of Swedish immigration into 
 the western territories. Thousands of Swedish nationals poured into 
 the city each year, most of them poor, bewildered, and in need of coun- 
 sel, and some sick and dying. To these newcomers the residence of 
 Pastor Carlsson was like a haven of refuge, and a constant stream of 
 humanity found its way to his doorstep. Carlsson served the Immanuel 
 Church in Chicago for twenty-two years, rendering invaluable service 
 to his church and countrymen as the chief immigrant guide among 
 Swedish Americans in the Midwest. 
 
 Carlsson's ministry was characterized by a more churchly temper 
 than that of either Esbjorn or Hasselquist. While his older colleagues 
 often bowed to the popular bias against liturgical forms and clerical 
 vestments, Carlsson ignored such prejudices, donned the ministerial 
 frock, bands, and pulpit cape, and conducted public worship according 
 to the Swedish rite. Although Carlsson was an able preacher, his 
 greatest gift was that of an administrator and practical businessman. 
 In the affairs of his own congregation, as well as in the expanding 
 work of the Augustana Church, the organizing genius of Carlsson was 
 clearly evident. The congregational constitution, for example, which 
 he drew up for the Immanuel Church, became the model for others, 
 and his plan for financial support of the burgeoning institutions of the 
 Church became part of the structure of the Augustana Synod. For 
 thirty years Carlsson shared with Hasselquist the role of "chief pilot" 
 of Augustana, and his name appears on the membership rolls of more 
 committees and delegations than any other individual of his time. 40 
 
 During the summer of 1856, two more recruits from the Swedish 
 
 *° Interesting sketches of Erland Carlsson are given in Norelius, I, op. tit., pp. 
 393-438. Korsbaneret, Rock Island, 1881, pp. 67-126. Nils Forsander, Lijs- 
 bilder, Rock Island, 1915, Part I. Jubel-Album tillegnadt Augustana Synoden, 
 ed. Swensson and Abrahamson, Chicago, 1893, pp. 41-46. See also Minnes- 
 skrift, illustreradt album utgifvet af svenska ev. lutherska Immanuelfor- 
 samlingen i Chicago . . ., Rock Island, 111., 1902. 
 
41 Seed Time 
 
 Ministerium joined Esbjorn in America, Jonas Swensson and Oloj 
 Christian Telemak Andren. Swensson was born in Smaland, August, 
 14, 1828, and completed his theological studies at Uppsala University. 
 His ordination occurred October 8, 1851. His parish service in Sweden 
 continued until 1856 when he received a call through Dr. Fjellstedt 
 from the congregation in Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania. His American 
 ministry began during the summer of 1856, serving congregations in 
 Sugar Grove and Jamestown, New York, until 1858, when he moved to 
 Andover, Illinois, as Esbjorn's successor in that parish. He was secre- 
 tary of the Synod for a number of years, and in 1870, when Hasselquist 
 requested to be relieved of the duties as synodical president, Swensson 
 was elected to succeed him, and filled the post until his death three 
 years later. Of the men who founded the Augustana Church, Swensson 
 was perhaps the least influenced by the revival movement in Sweden, 
 although his personal inclinations were undoubtedly more closely akin 
 to the spirit of the advocates of renewal and reform than to that of the 
 supporters of the status quo. That Swensson was considered a kindred 
 personality is evident in the very fact that Fjellstedt chose him as a 
 candidate for the call to Pennsylvania. By nature somewhat retiring, 
 Swensson suffered from frequent spells of deep melancholy, inner 
 anxiety, and physical illness, but his public ministry was marked by a 
 brilliant style of preaching, clear biblical exposition, and a tender pas- 
 toral care. 41 
 
 O. C. T. Andren, close friend of Swensson in Sweden, was born in 
 Skane, September 21, 1824, studied at Lund and was ordained just 
 before Christmas, 1847, at the age of twenty-three, after achieving high 
 commendation from his professors as a student of exceptional ability. 
 From 1848 to 1856 Andren served as assistant pastor in several Swed- 
 ish parishes, and was known as an earnest pietistic preacher. At the 
 suggestion of Dr. Fjellstedt, the congregation in Moline, Illinois, issued 
 the young clergyman a call to come to America and become their pas- 
 tor. He began his ministry in Moline, July 31, 1856, and quickly won 
 the confidence and high esteem of his congregation and his colleagues. 
 
 In 1860, Andren was sent to Sweden to solicit funds for the fledg- 
 ling Synod and to collect books for the library of the new theological 
 seminary. He was successful in both endeavors. Aided and encouraged 
 by Fjellstedt, Wieselgren, and the National Evangelical Foundation, 
 unexpected doors were opened to him in all parts of Sweden. From the 
 
 41 Norelius, I, op. cit, pp. 186-225; Jubel-Album, op. cit., pp. 48-52. 
 
Augustana Heritage 42 
 
 Royal Library of King Charles XV and from private sources, approxi- 
 mately five thousand volumes were donated and shipped to Chicago, 
 and by royal decree a nationwide offering was received for the benefit 
 of the new church in America which amounted to more than ten thou- 
 sand dollars. Because of failing health, Andren did not return to 
 America, but re-entered the service of the Swedish Church where he 
 remained until his death in 1870. 42 
 
 These five men, Esbjorn, Hasselquist, Carlsson, Swensson, and 
 Andren, who had received their theological training in the universities 
 of Uppsala and Lund, brought to their American mission the practical 
 wisdom and insight gained through the years of parish experience in 
 the Church of Sweden, and were the chief architects of the Augustana 
 Lutheran Church. Differing indeed in their individual endowments 
 and personal predilections, they nevertheless represented, embodied, 
 and expressed that tradition of warmhearted, personal and evangelical 
 piety which stemmed from the movement for religious and spiritual 
 renewal of the nineteenth century in Sweden. 
 
 Following their leadership were a number of men ordained by the 
 Synod of Northern Illinois after a probationary period of apprentice- 
 ship and training, the most outstanding of whom was Eric Norelius. He 
 was born October 26, 1833, in Halsingland, and came as an immigrant 
 youth to America in 1850. While yet in Sweden, Norelius had become 
 associated with the ultraconservative movement led by F. G. Hedberg. 
 At Esbjorn's suggestion he spent the years from 1851 to 1855 in study 
 at Capital University, Columbus, Ohio, an institution belonging to the 
 Joint Synod of Ohio, where he absorbed more of the conservative spirit. 
 Throughout his long and fruitful ministry, which began in the spring 
 of 1855 and continued until his death, March 15, 1916, Norelius may 
 be said to have represented the right wing of Swedish-American Lu- 
 theranism. He looked with approval upon all efforts to strengthen and 
 encourage strict confessionalism, and opposed endeavors which to him 
 seemed to tend in the direction of unionism, interdenominational toler- 
 ation or co-operation, and fellowship with Lutherans and others sus- 
 pected of theological liberalism. Norelius centered his greatest work 
 in Minnesota, but was also active in the general work of the Church. 
 
 For a sketch of Andren's life see, Norelius, I, op. cit., pp. 271-365. Jubel-Al- 
 bum, op. cit., pp. 46-48. O. N. Olson, Olof Christian Telemak Andren, Rock 
 Island, 1954. For details of Andren's mission to Sweden see Hemlandet, Au- 
 gust 29, 1860, June 19, 1861. Synodical Minutes, 1862, p. 14, 1864, p. 14. 
 
43 Seed Time 
 
 He was the only man the Augustana Church ever elected to serve two 
 separate terms as synodical president, 4 ' 5 and his monumental labors as 
 the first historian and archivist of the Augustana Synod has placed 
 succeeding generations deeply in his debt. 44 
 
 43 Dr. Norelius served his first term as president of the Synod from 1874 to 1881. 
 In 1899 he was again chosen as synodical president and continued in office 
 until 1911. 
 
 44 The most complete biography of Norelius is Emory Johnson, Eric Norelius, 
 Pioneer Midwest Pastor and Churchman, Rock Island, 1954. For a brief 
 sketch, characterizing the ministry of Norelius see Jubel-Album, op. cit., 
 pp. 52-54. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Lutheran Versus Lutheran 
 
 The Synod of Northern Illinois with which the Scandinavians 
 became associated in 1851 was a district synod of the federation 
 known as the General Synod which had been organized in 1820, 
 and by 1860 comprised approximately two thirds of all Lutherans in 
 America. Although the Synod of Northern Illinois was but a remote, 
 frontier outpost of Lutheranism in America a century ago, in a real 
 way it may be seen as a microcosm of both the General Synod itself 
 and of the Lutheran Church in this country in the sense that within 
 this district synod there existed very nearly the same differences of 
 opinion and variations of usage and practice as characterized the larger 
 scene. The tensions which aggravated the Lutheran Church elsewhere 
 existed also in the Synod of Northern Illinois. 
 
 Lutheran Nativism 
 
 In the first place, sociological factors were at work in terms of the 
 clash between an American religious nativism and immigrant Euro- 
 pean traditionalism. It will be recalled that in the political realm, the 
 incursion of vast immigrant masses, particularly Roman Catholics 
 from Ireland and southern Europe, into the Republic during the first 
 half of the nineteenth century brought into being the "Know-Nothing- 
 Party" which was pledged to protect America and American interests 
 from the potential threat of foreign domination which, it was feared, 
 would impose upon native-born Americans, and particularly American 
 Protestants, ideas, ideals, and modes of life alien to the spirit and tem- 
 per of America. American nativism which reached its political peak 
 in the "Know-Nothing-Party" was not limited, however, to the politi- 
 cal realm. It has appeared also in the cultural, economic, racial, and 
 religious phases of American life. 1 
 
 Nativism in the Lutheran Church emerged as an expression of 
 hostility on the part of the Americanized elements of the church to the 
 
 1 See W. D. Overdyke, The Know -Nothing Party in the South, Baton Rouge, 
 La., 1950, p. 2f. See also L. D. Scisco, Political Nativism in New York State, 
 New York, 1901, p. 16. Excellent studies of the impact of immigration upon 
 American society are, Marcus Lee Hansen, The Atlantic Migration, 1607- 
 1860, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1940. G. M. Stephenson, His- 
 tory of American Immigration, Ginn and Co., Boston, Mass., 1926. 
 
 44 
 
 
45 Lutheran Versus Lutheran 
 
 masses of Lutheran immigrants who refused to accept the American- 
 ized version of Lutheranism which they found in this country, and who 
 sought to recall their fellow believers to the traditional expressions 
 of faith and practice which were characteristically European. The ten- 
 sion at this point involved both doctrine and practice, and particularly 
 the peculiarly American usage known as "New Measures." "New 
 Measures" was a term and a concept which derived from the revival 
 techniques which the Reformed churches had developed during the 
 First and Second Great Awakenings, and which had been adopted by 
 many Lutherans through their participation in, and association with, 
 American revivalism. "New Measures" implied the use of new and 
 more effective ways and means of reaching unconverted people with 
 the gospel and turning them in repentance to God. It was assumed 
 that the raw and undisciplined life on the frontier demanded more than 
 the quiet preaching of the gospel and administering of the means of 
 grace. The process of conversion could not wait upon the slow and 
 deliberate pace of Christian nurture and education. Frontier revival- 
 ism was in a hurry, therefore the old means for spiritual renewal, Word 
 and sacrament, must make way for new measures in order to effect 
 a quicker transformation of life. "New Measures" therefore included 
 the exhorter, an evangelist who could picture the awful estate of the 
 lost sinner in such vivid terms as to arrest his attention. When the 
 sinner was brought to a state of deep spiritual concern, he was invited 
 to the anxious bench, usually a seat in front of the assembly where he 
 would be surrounded by a circle of converted brethren who would 
 "pray him through" to spiritual clarity and release. The camp meet- 
 ing and the protracted meeting were designed to bring crowds of sin- 
 ners together in order that they might be manipulated and ultimately 
 saved. The emotional explosion and physical phenomena which in- 
 variably accompanied these revival experiences were looked upon as 
 a visible and palpable visitation of the Holy Spirit, which thereafter 
 became the very ground for Christian certainty. Revival songs which 
 stressed the subjective side of religion were an important part of "New 
 Measures," and the testimonial session was designed to strengthen 
 the resolve of the saved and incite the penitence of the unsaved. In 
 this connection, it must be borne in mind that the technique of "New 
 Measures" was but the external manifestation and practical applica- 
 tion of Edwardean theology, to which reference has been made in the 
 preceding chapter. 2 
 
 2 Supra, page 33. For an interesting account of revivalism in America and 
 its attendant practices see William Warren Sweet, Revivalism in America, 
 Its Origin, Growth and Decline, New York, 1944. 
 
Augustana Heritage 46 
 
 The salutary effects which "new measures" revivalism often had 
 on hardened and calloused sinners, and, indeed upon whole communi- 
 ties, were often so apparent that many Lutherans, both pastors and 
 laymen, had become convinced that here was a mode of church activity 
 uniquely suited to an American environment, which Lutherans in this 
 new land must adopt. Accordingly, there were numerous congrega- 
 tions within the General Synod which used "New Measures" as a regu- 
 lar part of their parish programs and some of the most outstanding 
 leaders were gladly known as "new measure men." 3 
 
 In commenting upon "New Measures" in the Lutheran Church 
 in America, an outstanding student of this phase of our history has 
 declared: 
 
 What is known in the history of the Lutheran Church in this 
 country as the "New Measure Movement" was one phase of those 
 successive waves of "revivalistic fervor," attended with much fa- 
 naticism, that passed over this country at various times during the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. That it was an abnormal 
 and unhistorical importation from extra-Lutheran sources, that it 
 was an alien in our midst, will at this day hardly be denied. The 
 phrase, "New Measures," stood for a type and as representing a 
 system of religious activity which in some sections of the church 
 largely supplanted and antagonized methods which had been from 
 the very beginning of its life associated with the genius and de- 
 velopment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In the fourth and 
 fifth decades of the last century what was technically denominated 
 the "new measure movement" did not stand for a revival of reli- 
 gion in the best use of that word, but rather for certain extrava- 
 gances which seem to be inseparable from the introduction of cer- 
 tain revivalistic machinery ... it was associated with solemn tricks 
 for the sake of effect, decision displays at the bidding of the preach- 
 er, genuflections and prostrations in the aisle or around the altar, 
 noise and disorder, extravagance and rant, mechanical conversions, 
 justification by feeling rather than by faith, and encouragement 
 to all sorts of fanatical impressions. . . . Such measures were, in 
 those days, popular in all the leading churches of this country, 
 and it is not suprising that in that period of our weakness, with 
 very little literature of a genuinely Lutheran order in the English 
 language, and in view of some of the free-booting methods em- 
 ployed in the efforts to win Lutherans . . . and the strenuous insist- 
 ence that no one was a Christian unless he had gotten his religion 
 in this tumultuous way, many of our people were swept along with 
 the current until they found the catechism and all other historical 
 
 3 Among them Gottlieb Shober, secretary of the Synod of North Carolina, 
 George Lochman, president of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Benja- 
 min Kurtz, editor of the Lxitheran Observer. 
 
47 Lutheran Versus Lutheran 
 
 belongings of the Church supplanted by the "anxious bench" and 
 other human and mechanical revivalistic appliances. 4 
 
 In the Synod of Northern Illinois the contest between American nativ- 
 ism and European traditionalism pitted the Americans, led by Francis 
 Springer, against the Scandinavians, led by Esbjorn. To Esbjorn "New 
 Measures" represented a way of carrying on the work of the church 
 which was foreign to his background and training, even though he 
 had participated in the revival movements in Sweden. New Measures 
 involved spiritual renewal not by intensification of the application of 
 the means of grace, but by supplanting them by manipulation tech- 
 niques and the adoption of the presupposition that church member- 
 ship must be predicated upon a kind of puritanical "perfectionism" 
 based upon the evidence of an emotional "conversion experience" 
 rather than upon commitment to doctrine as set forth in the historic 
 confessions. 
 
 During the first year or two of their association with the Synod of 
 Northern Illinois, while they constituted a minority, the Scandinavians 
 posed no threat to the Americans. But as immigration to Illinois 
 brought new recruits to their ranks, they became increasingly aggres- 
 sive and demanded one change after another in order to make the 
 Synod conform to their conception of the church. In 1853 they suc- 
 ceeded in changing the doctrinal article of the synodical constitution 
 by striking out the words "mainly correct" as applied to the Augsburg 
 Confession, and the following year inserting the word "correct." At the 
 same time they managed to push through a resolution which altered 
 the basis upon which congregational membership was to be granted. 
 Instead of ascertaining whether or not a prospective member was prop- 
 erly "converted," as envisaged in New Measures, the resolution re- 
 quired doctrinal commitment by asking: "Do you acknowledge the 
 Bible as the only infallible rule of faith and practice and the Unaltered 
 Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism as containing a 
 correct summary of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian reli- 
 gion?" Finally, in 1856, the Scandinavians won a resounding victory 
 over the Americans when the Synod of Northern Illinois went on rec- 
 ord as being opposed to the Definite Platform of S. S. Schmucker, 
 which was a definitive blueprint of American Lutheranism, espousing 
 New Measures and a serious modification of traditional Lutheranism. 15 
 
 4 "The Genesis of the New Measure Movement in the Lutheran Church in this 
 Country," by Professor David H. Bauslin, The Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. XL, 
 July, 1910, pp. 360ff. 
 
 5 See Minutes of the Third Session of the Synod of Northern Illinois, October 
 13, 1853. Minutes of the Fourth Session of the Synod of Northern Illinois, 
 
Augustana Heritage 48 
 
 The mounting aggressiveness of the Scandinavians was virtually 
 a red flag of defiance to the Americans, and Francis Springer, who had 
 been president of the Synod of Northern Illinois for several years, 
 arose to do battle. Writing in the Evangelical Review 6 and the Luther- 
 an Observer 1 , he asserted that he was a staunch American and "a 
 pleader for the ascendancy of Americans in America — in church, state, 
 science, literature and everything else." He was not an American, said 
 he, "with European understanding, affections and will; not a Lutheran 
 with proclivities in the direction of Rome." He, to be sure, did not 
 wish to belittle those who disagreed with him, nor desire to cast asper- 
 ations upon the Scandinavian immigrants, but he demanded that "in 
 America they be Americans — at least so far as not to obtrude the im- 
 practicable and cumbrous churchliness of Europe upon the new and 
 nobler nationality to which they have fled." He lamented "the haughty 
 spirit" of the immigrant brethren which "shortens the decalogue and 
 lengthens the creed." The Synod of Northern Illinois was an American 
 institution intended to express a broad ecumenical spirit. The Scan- 
 dinavians, by imposing their European standards, had made it a nar- 
 row, sectarian fellowship in which none but "hyperorthodox symbol- 
 ists" could feel at home. Against such un-American pressures Francis 
 Springer felt compelled to protest. 8 
 
 Lutheran Nationalism 
 
 The tension between American nativism and European tradition- 
 alism, however, was only one of the disturbing factors in Illinois. 
 Nationalistic loyalties and cultural differences also proved to be bar- 
 riers across which co-operation and mutuality were difficult to achieve. 
 
 The Synod of Northern Illinois was comprised of Americans, 
 Germans, Norwegians, and Swedes. These groups were the heirs of 
 particular religious and cultural traditions which they cherished 
 and were reluctant, often for very practical reasons, to surrender. 
 This does not mean that the immigrant groups sought to preserve their 
 nationalistic traditions by encouraging a spirit of isolation and exclu- 
 siveness. On the contrary, it was generally acknowledged that an 
 eventual Americanization was both inevitable and wholesome, for 
 the children of the immigrants, reared in an American environment, 
 
 September 8, 1854. The Dixon meeting is reported in The Missionary, No- 
 vember 13, 1856. 
 
 6 July, 1859. 
 
 7 March 2, May 25 and June 8, 1859. 
 
 8 See comments by Norelius regarding the "New Measure" controversy in 
 Tidskrift for teologi, V, 1903, p. 197. 
 
 
49 Lutheran Versus Lutheran 
 
 would have little time or enthusiasm for the folkways of Europe. In 
 the meantime, however, the church must be concerned with the fathers 
 and mothers whose formative years had been spent in the old home- 
 land. Thus, the process of Americanization must be given time and 
 patience. Among the Swedes, Hasselquist was the most outspoken ad- 
 vocate of Americanization, while Esbjorn became increasingly critical 
 of the American situation. 9 To expect the immigrants to change over- 
 night, as Francis Springer seemed to demand, was unrealistic and un- 
 charitable. 
 
 Within a dozen years after the formation of the Synod of Northern 
 Illinois the tensions caused by nationalistic differences had become so 
 acute that some members of the association wanted to dissolve the syn- 
 od and organize the work among Lutherans along purely nationalistic 
 lines. Here again Francis Springer appeared as a spokesman for the 
 Americans and L. P. Esbjorn for the Scandinavians. The first over- 
 tures were made surreptitiously by both sides. Springer corresponded 
 secretly with his friends, proposing that, "we organize a new synod, to 
 be styled the English Lutheran Synod of Illinois, on the same basis as 
 that of the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod of the United States 
 of America . . . the territory which the new Synod will embrace will of 
 course, for the present, be the entire state of Illinois." 10 The motiva- 
 tion behind this proposal was "that the difference of language and na- 
 tionality is so great that union and co-operation are unpleasant and dif- 
 ficult . . . that we have four languages, that they are not understood 
 by all, and that it is not pleasant to sit and listen to what we do not 
 understand. . . . That there is such a difference in the education, man- 
 ners and customs of our different men and parties that it is difficult 
 and unpleasant to work together. . . . We could do more good if sepa- 
 rated — each party could then have its own way, and carry on its own 
 measures with more vigor. . . . Synods would be more pleasant if all 
 members used the same language, and were of one way of thinking. . . . 
 The differences in doctrinal views demand that we separate." 11 
 
 At a special meeting of the United Rock River and Mendota Con- 
 
 9 In an article in Hemlandet, June 22, 1858, Hasselquist urged his readers to 
 learn English by subscribing to American newspapers, for if the Swedish 
 Lutheran Church was to survive it would have to learn the language of the 
 land. In correspondence with Eric Norelius, Esbjorn reveals his growing dis- 
 satisfaction with American doctrine and methods. See letter to Norelius, An- 
 dover, March 7, 1857, Springfield, December 1859, and Andover, January 7, 
 1862, Norelius Collection, Augustana Archives, Rock Island. 
 
 10 See article by Harkey, The Olive Branch, February, 1860; Augustana His- 
 torical Society Publications, Vol. IX, pp. 96-103. 
 
 11 See Appeal, Ibid., pp. 76-82. 
 
Augustana Heritage 50 
 
 ferences of the Synod of Northern Illinois, held at Dixon, December 
 6-8, 1859, Springer was unmasked, his secret letters were made public, 
 and he was charged by Dr. Simon Harkey with sedition, seeking to 
 alienate the English congregations from the Synod and disrupt the 
 work which the association had undertaken. Under the leadership of 
 Professor Harkey, the convention resolved to approve the existing un- 
 ion of Lutherans and the confessional basis to which it was committed, 
 while it condemned all efforts to organize a new synod. After this de- 
 cisive defeat of the "American separatists," Harkey and eight other 
 leaders signed an appeal, which was published in the Olive Branch, 
 calling upon all ministers and congregations to reject all subversive 
 activity and to rally to the support of the Lutheran synods which now 
 united various Lutheran groups in the west in common tasks and mu- 
 tual help. 12 In their own defense the Springerites asserted that it was 
 the "highhanded and overbearing manner of the Scandinavians" which 
 was responsible for disunity in Illinois, and their angry charges in the 
 public press served only to further alienate the Scandinavians and 
 aggravate the breach of misunderstanding and suspicion. 13 
 
 Esbjbrn was both more cautious and devious than Springer. He took 
 very few friends into his confidence, but in his correspondence with 
 his intimate friend, Eric Norelius, he began broaching the subject of 
 independent work among the Scandinavians as early as the summer 
 of 1859. 14 
 
 Because of Esbjorn's relationship with Illinois State University, 
 first as a solicitor for funds for the Scandinavian professorship, and 
 later as the occupant of the professorial chair, he sustained a closer 
 and more intimate contact with his American brethren than any other 
 Scandinavian. He was therefore more subject to the cross winds of dis- 
 agreement and tension, and his sensitive and suspicious nature made it 
 all the easier for him to detect both real and imaginary evils in the 
 synodical union. His correspondence during 1859 indicates that there 
 was a good deal of talk among the Scandinavians regarding separation. 
 Finally, in a letter to Norelius, dated Springfield, January 26, 1860, 
 Esbjorn openly proposed that the Scandinavians take matters into their 
 own hands and, without asking for leave or permission from any quar- 
 
 12 The Appeal is given in full in Augustana Historical Society Publications, 
 Vol. IX, pp. 76-82. 
 
 13 See articles in Lutheran Observer, by Springer, March 2, 1860, by "Illinoian," 
 March 2, 1860, by "An Egyptian," February 3, 1860, and by E. Fair, March 23, 
 1860. 
 
 1 i Letter to Norelius, dated Center Ridge, Mercer Co., Illinois, July 28, 1859, in 
 Tidskrift for teologi, Vol. I, 1899, p. 307f. 
 
51 Lutheran Versus Lutheran 
 
 ter, simply announce their withdrawal from both the General Synod 
 and the Synod of Northern Illinois, and establish an entirely indepen- 
 dent Scandinavian association. 15 
 
 Esbjorn's caution in the matter of separation up to this time was dic- 
 tated by the differences of opinion among the Scandinavians them- 
 selves. Both Hasselquist and Erland Carlsson were content to remain 
 in the Synod of Northern Illinois, since that body was now committed 
 to the Augsburg Confession, and they did not wholly share Esbjorn's 
 suspicions of the Americans. 16 Any action that would cause a rupture 
 among the Scandinavians at this juncture would be disastrous, and 
 must be avoided at all costs. Therefore, Esbjorn must prepare his 
 strategy with care. His abrupt resignation from the professorship and 
 withdrawal from Springfield in March, 1860, was an unexpected turn 
 of events which neither Esbjorn nor his friends had foreseen. Never- 
 theless, it accomplished the purpose which had so long been premedi- 
 tated. 17 
 
 Old Lutherans and New Lutherans 
 
 Finally, the Synod of Northern Illinois was rent by the theological 
 disagreements which disturbed practically the entire Lutheran 
 Church in America during the middle decades of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. The theological controversy involved two burgeoning schools of 
 thought, the liberal, puritanical American Lutheranism, on the one 
 hand, and the rigidly conservative and fundamentalistic "Old Luther- 
 anism," on the other. The basic issue at stake was the authority and 
 normative character of the historic Lutheran confessions. 
 
 The national leader of the liberal American Lutherans was Samuel 
 Simon Schmucker, professor of theology at the Seminary in Gettys- 
 burg, Pennsylvania, and prominent member of the General Synod. 
 Schmucker was the product of a pietistic home where the ideals of 
 revivalism were warmly espoused, and of a theological training at 
 Princeton University under Reformed influences, both of which found 
 expression in his later life and teachings. As one of the architects of 
 the General Synod, Schmucker was deeply interested in fostering a 
 greater unity among Lutherans in America. But he was also vitally 
 concerned about promoting greater unity among Protestant Christians 
 
 15 Letter in Ibid., p. 314. 
 
 16 See Hasselquist's letter to Norelius, dated Galesburg, Illinois, April 18, 1859, 
 Norelius Collection, Augustana Archives. 
 
 17 A full account of the Scandinavian association with the Synod of Northern 
 Illinois is given in Norelius, op. tit., I, pp. 788-815. 
 
 UNIVERSITY VF 
 ILLINOIS LIBRARY 
 
Augustana Heritage 52 
 
 everywhere, and to this end he exerted great efforts on behalf of the 
 Evangelical Alliance, a world-wide association of Protestant denomin- 
 ations organized in London in 1846. 
 
 As Schmucker became increasingly acquainted with the ecumeni- 
 cal movement as expressed in the Evangelical Alliance, he was con- 
 vinced that Christian disunity throughout the world has developed be- 
 cause men have too narrowly interpreted the Scriptures, that they have 
 emphasized too heavily the particular and unique theological view- 
 point which distinguished their own denominational position. The 
 way, therefore, to overcome disunity and achieve greater Christian 
 concord is for Protestants to discover the broad areas of their agree- 
 ment and let the major emphasis fall there. Such areas of agreement 
 would constitute the theological fundamentals, which were to be con- 
 sidered as authoritative and normative for faith and practice while the 
 areas of theological disagreement, involving unique and particularistic 
 denominational emphases would constitute the nonfundametals, about 
 which there must be freedom and toleration. The classic definition of 
 "fundamental Christianity" was the ancient Apostles' Creed, and any 
 theological formulation by any denomination which was a substantive 
 addition to the doctrines expressed in the Apostolicum was nonfunda- 
 mental. Schmucker declared that the longer and more refined a con- 
 fessional statement becomes, the more exclusive will be its effect. 
 
 In a treatise which Schmucker read before the Synod of Western 
 Pennsylvania in 1840, entitled, "Portraiture of Lutheranism," he ap- 
 plied his basic premises to the Lutheran Church and suggested that if 
 the Lutheran Church in America were to become a part of a larger, 
 unified Christian community, it must suffer the following improve- 
 ments: (1) It must commit itself, not to the authority of church fathers, 
 including Luther, but "to the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but 
 the Bible." (2) The doctrine of the Presence of Christ in the Lord's 
 Supper is obsolete and must be rejected, for "there is no presence of 
 the glorified human nature of the Savior, either substantial or super- 
 natural in the Eucharist . . . bread and wine are merely symbolic rep- 
 resentations of the Savior's absent body, by which we are reminded of 
 his sufferings." (3) The Lutheran practice of confession in preparation 
 for Holy Communion is a Romish practice which ought to be relin- 
 quished. (4) A new systematic adjustment and treatment of Lutheran 
 doctrine should be undertaken to create a more harmonious and in- 
 tegrated doctrinal system in accord with modern knowledge. (5) The 
 advisory powers of the General Synod should be changed in favor of 
 a more rigid and authoritative form of polity. (6) All that should be 
 
53 Lutheran Versus Lutheran 
 
 required of a minister in terms of confessional subscription is the 
 pledge that "the Bible is God's Word and that the fundamental doc- 
 trines of the Bible are taught in a manner substantially (or mainly) 
 correct in the Augsburg Confession." 18 
 
 Schmucker's purpose in this presentation is evident. He was en- 
 deavoring to promote the interests of ecumenicity and was cultivating 
 the support of his own denomination. To insure this support it was 
 necessary to accomplish certain measures. First, he must discredit the 
 authority of those church fathers whose pronouncements had been the 
 cause of division. Secondly, it was necessary to repudiate those doc- 
 trines which were peculiar and distinctive of the Lutheran Church, 
 especially such as related to baptism and the Lord's Supper. In the 
 third place, he must establish a confessional norm, the basis of which 
 would be broad enough to include all shades of opinion. That norm 
 was to be the Bible, from which the common confessional symbol of 
 Christendom, the Apostles' Creed, had been derived. This confessional 
 symbol would be the point of union, for it was brief enough to avoid 
 formulations which would be too explicit, and long enough to include 
 the fundamental truths. In the fourth place, the Lutheran Church 
 must be inspired to lead the way in this great kingdom endeavor, even 
 as it had in breaking the tyranny of the papacy in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 One of Schmucker's most able and trusted lieutenants was his 
 brother-in-law, Samuel Sprecher, for twenty-five years the president 
 of Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio. Sprecher, who was a more 
 astute politician than Schmucker, insisted on the necessity of a positive 
 affirmation which would clearly define the position of the "new and 
 improved Lutheranism," and urged that a bold, forthright statement 
 be formulated setting forth the exact tenets of the "new theology" as 
 over against the traditional viewpoint of conservative Lutheranism. A 
 negative approach would prove inadequate; what was needed was a 
 positive declaration which would define the ground upon which the 
 opponents of conservatism stood, and which therefore would delineate 
 the battle front between the two camps. 19 
 
 Such a definitive declaration finally appeared in 1855, bearing the 
 title Definite Sy nodical Platform, and though there were no authors' 
 names attached to the forty-two-page brochure, it was later owned as 
 the creation of Schmucker, Sprecher, and Benjamin Kurtz, editor of 
 
 18 S. S. Schmucker, "Portraiture of Lutheranism" in The American Lutheran 
 Church, Historically, Doctrinally, and Practically Delineated, Philadelphia, 
 1852. 
 
 19 See Adolph Spaeth, Charles Porter field Krauth, I, New York, 1898, pp. 346ff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 54 
 
 the Lutheran Observer in Baltimore. This publication was indeed a 
 definite and clear declaration of faith and practice which was being 
 submitted to the General Synod and all district synods for adoption. 
 The Platform contained four planks: (1) A pledge to the Old and New 
 Testaments as the only infallible rule and guide of faith and practice. 
 
 (2) The Apostles' Creed. (3) The Nicene-Constantinoplitan Creed. 
 
 (4) An American Recension of the Augsburg Confession. The signifi- 
 cance of the Platform lies in its attitude toward the Augsburg Confes- 
 sion and the other confessional symbols of the Lutheran Church. The 
 Platform flatly rejected all the Lutheran confessions except the Augs- 
 burg Confession, and the Augustana was received with serious reser- 
 vations, for it was charged with a number of grave errors. These 
 errors were pointed out and corrected in an abridged, amended version 
 of the Augustana, called the American Recension. The Recension 
 rejects five alleged errors of the original, which were: (1) The approv- 
 al of the ceremonies of the Mass, that is, the Communion Service as 
 drafted by Luther (Article XXIV) . (2) The retention and commen- 
 dation of private confession (Article XI) . (3) The denial of the divine 
 obligation of the Sabbath (Article XXVIII) . (4) The doctrine of bap- 
 tismal regeneration (Article II) . (5) The doctrine of the Real Pres- 
 ence of Christ in the Eucharist (Article X) . These errors were cor- 
 rected in the American Recension because they represent practices 
 and beliefs of an earlier age "which have long since been regarded 
 by the great mass of our churches as unscriptural and the remnants 
 of Romish error." As a supplement to the regular preaching and teach- 
 ing of the Word and administration of the sacraments, the Lutheran 
 Church in America must adopt the more effective new measures 
 techniques of revivalism, and the traditional spirit of confessional ex- 
 clusiveness must give way to the more modern interpretation of Chris- 
 tianity which affords more freedom to the individual in both his wor- 
 ship and in the definition of his faith. In short, the Lutheran Church 
 must not be content to stand immovable on the confessional ground 
 of the sixteenth century, but must move forward with the times, will- 
 ing to become more free and liberal. In this way it would more nearly 
 approximate other Protestant churches in America, and unity could 
 be more quickly and easily achieved. This modification of faith and 
 practice Schmucker called American Lutheranism; it was this view- 
 point which was connoted by the phrase "mainly correct" as related 
 to the Augsburg Confession. 20 
 
 20 Definite Platform, Doctrinal and Disciplinarian, for Evangelical Lutheran 
 District Synods, Constructed in Accordance with the Principles of the Gen- 
 eral Synod, Philadelphia, 1855. 
 
 
55 Lutheran Versus Lutheran 
 
 In the Synod of Northern Illinois it was men like Francis Springer 
 who were the champions and advocates of Schmucker's American 
 Lutheranism. It was this kind of theology which, in their judgment, 
 was most suited to their environment and which must be made to pre- 
 vail in the Midwest. To this end they dedicated their untiring efforts. 
 
 Bitterly opposed to Schmucker and his American Lutheranism 
 were the staunchly conservative and orthodox Old Lutherans, who in- 
 sisted that the historic confessions of the sixteenth century were pure 
 and true expositions of Scripture and must therefore be literally ac- 
 cepted as definitive of Christian faith and practice. Just as the gospel, 
 said they, is not changed or altered by the exigencies of historical acci- 
 dent, so also the confessions are unaffected by the changing times. The 
 confessions must be accepted in letter and spirit without compromise or 
 revision, omission or addition, not in so far as they agree with Scrip- 
 ture, but because they agree with the Word of God. 
 
 The matrix of this viewpoint was the so-called Theology of Repris- 
 tination emanating out of Germany during the nineteenth century, 
 the chief spokesmen for which were August Vilmar, professor at the 
 University of Marburg, Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, professor at the 
 University of Berlin, and C. A. Capari, professor at the University of 
 Oslo, Norway. In reaction against the corroding effects of rationalism 
 and skepticism, these men were persuaded that religious and spiritual 
 renewal within Protestantism was predicated upon a recovery of the 
 true message of Scripture as it is presented in the Lutheran confes- 
 sional writings of the sixteenth century and interpreted by the Luther- 
 an theologians of the seventeenth century. In his treatise entitled Die 
 Theologie der Tatschen wider die Theologie der Rhetorik (A Theology 
 of Facts versus a Theology of Rhetoric) Vilmar defined the aim of the 
 Theology of Repristination thus: "Theology must know that she has 
 nothing new to say, nothing new to discover, but her task is to preserve 
 the spiritual treasure that has been given in Holy Scripture and re- 
 ceived by the church, in such form that it may be transmitted to future 
 servants of the church undiminished, certain, and in its most useful 
 form." 21 
 
 Vilmar 's meaning is clear. The confessions, as explicated by seven- 
 teenth-century Lutheran scholasticism, constitute the "most useful 
 form" of Scriptural truth, and must therefore be transmitted "undi- 
 minished, certain," that is to say, repristinated in terms of being re- 
 vived and restored as the norm of religious authority. Any endeavor 
 
 21 Quotation from J. L. Neve, A History of Christian Doctrine, Vol. II, Phila- 
 delphia, 1946, p. 129. 
 
Augustana Heritage 56 
 
 to read the confessions in the light of changing historical circumstances 
 and increasing human knowledge must be met with inflexible intran- 
 sigence, for any such endeavors must of necessity be corruptive of the 
 purity of the truth expressed in the confessions. Rigid conformity to 
 the letter is the only safeguard for the spirit of confessional truth. Be- 
 cause of its uncompromising reference to its own standards of truth 
 and its unwillingness to subject these standards to critical re-evaluation 
 the Theology of Repristination has been variously dubbed as "funda- 
 mentalistic orthodoxy" and "Lutheran fundamentalism." 
 
 The foremost exponents of the Theology of Repristination in 
 America during the nineteenth century were Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm 
 Walther, the unrivaled leader of the Missouri Lutherans, and J. A. A. 
 Grabau, founder of the Buffalo Synod in Ohio. Although these men 
 and their respective church bodies failed to agree on such points of 
 doctrine as the church and the ministry, they were equally committed 
 to a strict confessionalism, as evidenced in the doctrinal article of the 
 congregational constitutions adopted by each synod. The constitution 
 of the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Buffalo became a 
 model for the Buffalo Synod, the doctrinal article of which provided 
 that: 
 
 Sec. 2. This congregation holds itself to the pure doctrine of 
 the Holy Scripture, Old and New Testaments, as to the infallible 
 Word of the Living God and therefore as the only divine precept 
 and rule of faith and life for all its members. 
 
 Sec. 3. Inasmuch as the pure doctrine of the Holy Scripture 
 is set forth and contained in the confessions of the Lutheran 
 Church, namely; in the Apostolic, Nicene, Athanasian creeds, in 
 the U. A. (Unaltered Augsburg) Confession of the year 1530, its 
 Apology, the Smalcald Articles, both the Catechisms of Luther, 
 and the Formula of Concord, therefore the congregation adheres 
 to these confessions and holds itself thereunto as to the sum of 
 pure doctrine according to which all other writings must be 
 judged. 22 
 
 The constitution drawn up by Pastor Walther for the Trinity Lutheran 
 Church in St. Louis became a model for congregations in the Missouri 
 Synod. The doctrinal article stated that: 
 
 Sec. 3. In our congregations shall be recognized all the Canoni- 
 cal Books of the Old and New Testaments as God's revealed Word 
 and all the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church 
 as the extracted Form and Norm of the Word of God, according 
 to which, since these are taken out of God's Word, not only the 
 
 22 Quoted in Virgilius Ferm, The Crisis in American Lutheran Theology, New 
 York, 1927, p. 125. 
 
57 Lutheran Versus Lutheran 
 
 doctrines of our Church shall be held and examined but also all 
 occurring doctrinal and religious disputes shall be judged and reg- 
 ulated. These are: the three chief Symbols, the unaltered Augs- 
 burg Confession, the Apology to the same, the Smalcald Articles, 
 Dr. Luther's smaller and large Catechisms, the Formula of Con- 
 cord and the Visitation- Articles. 
 
 Sec. 4. No one may, moreover, become a member, still less an 
 official, of this congregation, nor have a share in the claims of a 
 parishioner, other than he who: (a) is baptized; (b) holds himself 
 to all the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments as to 
 the only divine precept and rule of faith and life, and (c) is ac- 
 quainted with, amidst indeed a present lack of knowledge of all 
 the above mentioned Symbolical Books, at least the Augsburg 
 Confession and the small Catechism of Luther, and holds himself 
 thereto. . . 
 
 Sec. 8. The incumbency in the congregation may be intrusted 
 only to such a preacher who holds himself to all the Canonical 
 Books of the Old and New Testaments, as the revealed Word of 
 God, and to all the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church derived therefrom, of which Section 3 has mentioned, 
 upon which the same, as well as the schoolmaster, is bound by his 
 calling. 23 
 The significance of men like Walther and Grabau lies not only in the 
 fact that they founded in America powerful centers of conservative 
 Lutheranism, but that through their preaching and writing they did 
 much to crystallize conservative opinion outside their own ranks. Eric 
 Norelius, for example, prepared a treatise in 1858, opposing the union- 
 istic tendencies of Hasselquist. This document reflects the same ar- 
 guments and line of reasoning which appear in Walther's diatribes. He 
 asserts, as Walther often did, that outward unity among Christians 
 can be had only if there is an inner unity of spirit, faith, and doctrine. 
 Apart from such inner unity there can be no peace. To maintain asso- 
 ciation with those whom we know to be in error is tantamount to 
 tempting God, even though such association is maintained in the hope 
 of bringing about the conversion of those who are in error. It is like 
 a rat who chews on a steel file and rejoices that the file is giving way 
 as she sees the filings drop to the ground, only to discover at last to 
 her sorrow that the filings were bits of her own broken teeth. 24 
 
 A growing confessional conservatism was especially marked in the 
 case of Esbjorn. His strife with Unonius, Hedstrom, and Palmquist 
 
 2 3 Ibid., p. 126. 
 
 24 See, The Augustana Quarterly, Vol. XII, 1933, pp. 368ff. The Missouri view- 
 point which Norelius particularly reiterates was enunciated by Walther in 
 his book, Die Stimme unserer Kirche in der Frage von Kirche und Amt, St. 
 Louis, 1852, pp. 103ff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 58 
 
 had driven him to a renewed study of the Lutheran confessions and a 
 clearer awareness of the theological differences separating the Luther- 
 an and Reformed traditions. 25 But his relationships with the Nor- 
 wegians of the Wisconsin Synod, led by Preus, Stub, and Clausen, 
 served to confront both Esbjorn and his Scandinavian colleagues 
 in the Synod of Northern Illinois with the challenge of conservatism 
 as perhaps nothing else did. The Wisconsin Lutherans were strong- 
 ly influenced by Walther and frequently published with approval 
 his articles and sermons in their newspaper, Kirkelzg Maanedstidende. 
 In the columns of this journal the Scandinavians in Illinois were 
 singled out for special attention and treatment. They were reminded, 
 again and again, that their association with the General Synod, through 
 membership in the district Synod of Northern Illinois, with its equiv- 
 ocal subscription to the Augsburg Confession as "mainly correct," 
 constituted nothing less than an outright denial of true Lutheran- 
 ism. 26 Esbjorn and his party were repeatedly urged to "come out 
 from among them," to purge themselves of all such "unionistic asso- 
 ciation," and to take an unqualified stand on the historic confessions 
 of the church. 
 
 A climax in these relationships was reached at a Conference be- 
 tween the Wisconsin Norwegians and the Scandinavians in Illinois, 
 held at Chicago, July 7-8, 1859, at which the issue of "unionism" was 
 clearly drawn. Each side confessed the sins of the other and very little 
 was accomplished to establish peace and harmony, and open conflict, 
 aired in the Lutheran press, was soon resumed. But the effect of this 
 face-to-face meeting was to drive home to Esbjorn and his colleagues 
 the imperative necessity of differentiating with no equivocation their 
 own theological position in contrast to that of "American Lutheran- 
 ism." There would indeed come a time when the Scandinavians would 
 also be faced with the issue of differentiating their tradition in contrast 
 to that of ultraconservatism, but at this juncture it was a question of 
 turning to the right or the left, and the Scandinavians in Illinois chose 
 the former course. 27 
 
 25 See Esbjorn's letters to Hasselquist and Norelius in Norelius, op. cit., pp. 
 143f. and 159f. 
 
 26 See issue of 1858, Vol. Ill, Number 6. 
 
 27 A. A. Stromberg, ''Early Efforts at Scandinavian Church Union in America," 
 Year-Book of The Swedish Historical Society of America, Vol. IX, 1923- 
 1924, p. 18. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Experiment in Co-operation 
 
 Christian education is intimately connected with the history of 
 the Augustana Lutheran Church. From beginning to end the edu- 
 cational theme may be seen, like a red thread in a tapestry, run- 
 ning through the whole story of the Church. It was the concern for 
 Christian education which led the Scandinavian Lutherans in the Mid- 
 dle West into their first co-operative efforts in America, and which pro- 
 vided the chief motivation for the establishment of an independent 
 church body. Indeed, the origin of the Augustana Church cannot be 
 properly understood apart from the story of the educational venture 
 which centered in Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 Illinois State University 
 
 All of the tensions which permeated the Synod of Northern Illinois 
 came into focus in connection with the co-operative effort related to 
 the "little school with the big name," Illinois State University. 
 
 This school had been founded in 1849 at Hillsboro, Illinois, by 
 the Synod of Illinois as a training center for pastors and teachers in 
 the Middle West. To give the school a more strategic location, it was 
 moved to Springfield in 1852 and its name changed from Hillsboro 
 College to Illinois State University. Joint ownership and support were 
 vested in the Synod of Illinois, which comprised the southern section 
 of the State, and the Synod of Northern Illinois, which extended from 
 the southern boundary of Warren County northward. Pastor Esbjorn 
 was elected a member of the first Board of Trustees in 1852. 1 
 
 No group in Illinois recognized more clearly the imperative need 
 of raising up an indigenous American ministry than the Scandinavians. 
 Esbjorn and his Swedish colleagues were haunted by the memory of 
 the dissolution which occurred among the Delaware congregations in 
 an earlier period because they depended too heavily for their spiritual 
 and religious resources upon the mother church in Europe. This must 
 not happen again. In their determination to furnish for themselves an 
 American ministry, Esbjorn and his friends had first looked to Capital 
 
 1 See report on "Illinois State University," The Missionary, October, 1852. 
 See also "An Important Letter, Lutherans read and ponder," Lutheran Ob- 
 server, March 19, 1852. 
 
 59 
 
Augustana Heritage 60 
 
 University at Columbus, Ohio, and had sent Eric Norelius to that 
 school to complete his studies in preparation for the ministry. But this 
 connection had not proven feasible. Thus it was that at a meeting of 
 the Mississippi Conference, held at Andover, December 1, 1854, the 
 Swedes decided henceforth to send their students to Illinois State 
 University, and to receive offerings in all congregations for the support 
 of the institution. 2 The Synod of Northern Illinois responded to this 
 action by voting to establish at the school a Scandinavian Professor- 
 ship for the special training of Scandinavian youth, and called Pastor 
 Esbjorn to be the financial solicitor for the new department. 3 
 
 The financial goal for an endowment for the professorship was 
 set at $10,000, and Esbjorn resigned his pastorate in Andover, setting 
 out immediately upon this formidable undertaking. Traveling from 
 settlement to settlement, interviewing innumerable people, collecting 
 fifty cents here and a dollar there, but rarely receiving as much as ten 
 dollars from any individual, he raised within a few months $2,147.50, of 
 which $870 was in cash. 4 Having visited most of the Swedish and Nor- 
 wegian communities, and suffering from ill health, Esbjorn asked to 
 be relieved of his duties as solicitor in the fall of 1856, and accepted a 
 call to the congregation at Princeton, Illinois. 5 
 
 While Esbjorn and the Scandinavians were busying themselves 
 with preparations for launching the professorship, the Americans in 
 the Synod of Northern Illinois were becoming apprehensive lest the ag- 
 gressive Scandinavians use the professorship as a means of gaining 
 control of the University and ultimately of the entire Synod. Hence, 
 Springer and his associates requested a special meeting of the Synod 
 to determine the specific nature and character of the new professor- 
 ship. This special meeting was held at Geneva, Illinois, May 8, 1856, 
 and since the Scandinavians and their conservative henchmen were in 
 the majority, it was decided: 
 
 1. That the Scandinavian Professorship to be established by this 
 Synod is to be a theological one . . . 
 
 2. That said Professor be required solemnly to promise to teach 
 according to the Word of God and the Augsburg Confession 
 before he should be installed into his office or be entitled to 
 the rights and privileges of such Professorship. 6 
 
 2 Minutes of the Mississippi Conference, translation in Augustana Historical 
 Society Publications, Vol. X, Rock Island, 1944, p. 99. 
 
 3 Minutes of the Synod of Northern Illinois, Waverly, Iowa, October, 1855. 
 
 4 A list of the donors appeared in Hemlandet, May 15 and 31, 1856. 
 " Ibid., Nov. 7, 1856. 
 
 6 Minutes of Synod of Northern Illinois, Geneva, Illinois, May 8-9, 1856. 
 
61 Experiment in Co-operation 
 
 This was precisely what the Springerites had feared. By making the 
 professorship at Springfield a theological chair, the incumbent would 
 be able to spread the virus of "symbolism" throughout the school and 
 thus infect the Synod with an ever-increasing number of men com- 
 mitted to a "Europeanized Lutheranism." 
 
 At the regularly scheduled convention of the Synod at Dixon, Illi- 
 nois, that same fall, the Americans sought to persuade the delegation 
 to rescind the action taken at Geneva, but were soundly beaten in the 
 voting. Indeed the convention not only gave final approval to the 
 theological character of the professorship, but resolved also to hand 
 over to the Scandinavians the responsibility for both the conduct and 
 support of the professorship. 7 The Scandinavians, who were now in 
 full control of this new educational post, appealed to their congrega- 
 tions with renewed vigor for the fullest measure of support, and at a 
 meeting of the United Scandinavian Conference, held at Rockford, 
 September 28, 29, 1857, nominated L. P. Esbjorn as Scandinavian pro- 
 fessor at Sprinfield. 8 The nomination was favorably acted upon by the 
 Synod of Northern Illinois, and concurrent action was also taken by 
 the Synod of Illinois and the University Board of Trustees. 9 
 
 Esbjorn accepted the call to become the Scandinavian Professor at 
 Springfield and agreed to "devote three fourths of the year at the in- 
 stitution, and if health permits, the other quarter as agent for the en- 
 dowment, and that he be allowed a salary of $700 a year as Professor 
 and $50 extra as agent, besides his traveling expenses." When the 
 school opened its doors for the new term in the fall of 1858, Esbjorn 
 was on hand to begin his career as theological mentor for Scandinavian 
 youth in the Midwest. 10 
 
 "The Babylonian Captivity" 
 
 By the time Esbjorn assumed his teaching post in Springfield in 
 the fall of 1858, he had been in America long enough to have acquired 
 a good command of the English language. Thus, he was able to com- 
 
 7 Minutes of the Synod of Northern Illinois, Dixon, Illinois, October 8-13, 1956. 
 
 8 Minutes of Chicago and Mississippi Conferences, Rockford, Illinois, Septem- 
 ber 28, 29, 1857, translated in Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. 
 X, pp. 126ff. 
 
 9 Minutes of the Synod of Northern Illinois, Cedarville, Illinois, September 28, 
 1857. Abstract of Proceedings of the Board of Trustees of Illinois State Uni- 
 versity, in Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. IX, p. 64f. See 
 also Minutes of meeting of United Scandinavian Conferences, Princeton, 
 Illinois, September 10-14, 1858, translated in Ibid., Vol. X, p. 144. 
 
 10 Minutes, Synod of Northern Illinois at its Eighth Annual Convention, held at 
 Mendota, Illinois, LaSalle County, September 14-20, 1858. 
 
Augustana Heritage 62 
 
 municate freely and fluently with both the English-speaking students 
 as well as with those who were limited to the Scandinavian languages. 
 His European studies had also given him considerable scientific com- 
 petence, especially in mathematics, chemistry, and astronomy. It was 
 natural, therefore, that the University administration would want to 
 make as broad use of his talents as possible. As a consequence, Esbjorn 
 was assigned to teach courses in chemistry, astronomy, and natural 
 philosophy, in addition to his courses in theology and the Scandinavian 
 languages. In fact, he soon discovered that the courses not specifically 
 related to theology demanded so much of his time and energy that 
 there was little opportunity to give proper attention to his major in- 
 terest. 11 
 
 At the end of the first school year Esbjorn reported to a meeting 
 of the United Scandinavian Conference in Geneseo, August, 1859, that 
 he had conducted eleven class hours a week in the "extra courses" 
 and had given only three hours a week to his "theological classes" in 
 catechetics, Jewish antiquities, and Greek New Testament. The 
 language courses in Swedish and Norwegian had been condensed into 
 another four hours and fitted into the weekly schedule as time and cir- 
 cumstances permitted. On Saturday afternoons special linguistic ex- 
 ercises were held with the students taking part in debates, declama- 
 tions, and the reading of essays with Esbjorn acting as judge and mod- 
 erator. 
 
 The devotional life of the Scandinavian students was cared for in 
 the following manner: 
 
 Both for edification and for practice, services with Swedish and 
 Norwegian sermons and simultaneous singing out of both hymnals, 
 using the same melody, have been held every Sunday afternoon, 
 likewise one evening each week a so-called prayer meeting. At 
 these devotional exercises the Scandinavian students have usually 
 served, and almost without exception in a true and edifying spirit. 
 After each service both pastor and comrades have presented such 
 remarks regarding the sermon as seemed necessary. In this con- 
 nection I cannot do otherwise than deplore the fact that no Scan- 
 dinavian Lutheran congregation is found in Springfield, which 
 could give the necessary festive and impressive tone to these 
 practice efforts and through mutual contact between congregation 
 and students support and develop the true Christian and Lutheran 
 spirit; also [I deplore] that opportunity for practical exercise in 
 catechising is lacking, as Luther's Catechism is not used in any 
 
 11 Report to the United Scandinavian Conference, Minutes of the meeting held 
 in Geneseo, Illinois, August 31-September 5, 1859, in Augustana Historical 
 Society Publications, Vol. X, pp. 162ff. 
 
 
63 Experiment in Co-operation 
 
 Sunday school in the city (with the exception perhaps of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran congregation) . 12 
 
 The latter portion of Esbjorn's report is especially interesting, since 
 it is in this section that the new professor is most sharply critical of 
 his position. He points out that the financial situation at the school 
 had been exceedingly trying. His own income had fallen far short of 
 the promised $700, with only $428 having been received. If such hap- 
 hazard support continues, says he, "it will not be possible for me to 
 continue to take care of the work, and to live with a large family in 
 such an expensive city as Springfield, and to purchase the many books 
 which are quite necessary in order that I may take care of my work 
 in a proper and active manner." Moreover, the whole Scandinavian 
 student body had been in extremely straitened circumstances — "they 
 have sometimes actually been in want. Had not considerable ingath- 
 erings for this purpose been made at the General Synod in Pittsburgh 
 it would have been quite impossible to carry them through." But sad- 
 der still was the unsatisfactory way the treasurer of the school had 
 handled the endowment funds for the professorship. An unsecured 
 loan had been made to a Mr. E. K. Ulrich of Springfield in the amount 
 of $456.70, and an additional sum of $253.96 had been left idle in the 
 treasurer's accounts without being invested so as to earn interest. Fur- 
 thermore, it is evident from the action taken by the Conference that 
 the Scandinavians were also dissatisfied with the type of theological 
 text books which the school expected Esbjorn to use. There was ap- 
 parently some suspicion that the Scandinavian students were being 
 subjected to the virus of liberal "American Lutheranism." Neverthe- 
 less, Esbjorn concludes his official report with a plea for continued 
 and greater support of the school and the professorship, saying, "We 
 have set our hands to the plough and we must not look back, if we 
 would conform to God's kingdom and through God's grace become the 
 means of making others conformable thereto." 13 
 
 The reaction of the United Conference to Esbjorn's first report is 
 noteworthy. In view of the dire financial need at Springfield, the Con- 
 ference resolved to redouble all efforts to gather more funds to allevi- 
 ate the distress. It then went on record to state that: 
 
 We are sorry to learn that more than one half of the time of our 
 Professor has been taken up in teaching other branches, foreign 
 to his duties as contemplated in his assignment, therefore, Re- 
 solved: 
 
 12 ibid., p. 163. 
 « Ibid., p. 164f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 64 
 
 1. That we respectfully but earnestly request the Trustees and 
 Faculty of said University, as well as our Professor, to see to it 
 that this is not done in the future. 
 
 2. That as in the language of the fundamental Resolution on 
 which said Professorship was established, "the Scandinavian Pro- 
 fessorship is a Theological one, and the object contemplated is to 
 qualify young men for the gospel ministry among our Scandina- 
 vian brethren." We therefore request that our Professor shall use 
 orthodox text books in Church History, Dogmatics, Symbolics and 
 Pastoral Theology in our Scandinavian languages, as long as the 
 wants of our churches require use of these languages. 14 
 
 Regarding the handling of the endowment funds for the professorship 
 the Conference had this to say, 
 
 The Committee finds with great regret that from the fund which 
 amounts to $1,382.40, $456.70 has been loaned out to Mr. E. K. 
 Ulrich of Springfield without corresponding legal security. Fur- 
 ther, the Committee finds that the treasurer holds $253.96 of the 
 same money, which at least since last winter is lying in the treas- 
 ury without earning interest, which cannot be regarded by the 
 Conference otherwise than as a misuse of the Scandinavian Pro- 
 fessorship fund. 15 
 In view of these circumstances the Conference resolved that: 
 
 Whereas the funds of our Scandinavian Professorship have 
 hitherto been delivered over to the Treasurer of Illinois State Uni- 
 versity, and whereas we are convinced that it is essential to our 
 success in this undertaking that this fund be left in the sole control 
 of a Committee of our own members, therefore, Resolved: 
 
 That a committee of three of our Scandinavian brethren be ap- 
 pointed to receive and have full control over the funds already 
 collected, and to be collected by us for the establishment and 
 maintenance of said Professorship, and that Synod be respectfully 
 requested to concur herein and appoint said committee. 16 
 The spirit of disillusionment and disenchantment pervades these re- 
 ports and actions. The Scandinavians felt compelled to protect their 
 interests which, in their judgment, were being threatened by antitheti- 
 cal forces in the Synod and the University. It is evident that the ten- 
 sions between liberals and conservatives, Schmuckerites and "symbol- 
 ists," between nativists and "foreigners," Americans and "European- 
 ized" immigrants, between differing cultural patterns, all of which 
 prevailed throughout Lutheranism in Illinois, were now coming into 
 sharper focus in terms of the irritations and aggravations connected 
 with the Springfield professorship. Within the relatively brief period 
 
 14 Ibid., p. 166. 
 is Ibid., p. 168. 
 ie ibid., p. 168. 
 
65 Experiment in Co-operation 
 
 of one school year, Esbjorn was beginning to feel uncomfortable and 
 he took pains to transmit his feelings and sentiments to his countrymen. 
 In this connection, it is most interesting to note that while Esbjorn 
 officially pleads for continued support of the professorship, and through 
 it, for the school itself, and the United Conference goes on record to 
 undergird the educational venture with more substantial aid, there is 
 already some quiet talk going on among at least a few Scandinavians 
 about pulling out of Springfield and establishing an independent school 
 somewhere else. Just where, when, and by whom this talk first started 
 cannot be accurately ascertained, but it is indubitable that Esbjorn was 
 the first to give clear voice to such sentiments. This is suggested by 
 several letters which Esbjorn wrote to Norelius. The first is dated 
 July 28, 1859, a month before the meeting of the United Conference 
 in Geneseo. In the final paragraph of this letter Esbjorn says, 
 
 The question of moving the Professorship seems to become in- 
 creasingly complicated as we think about it. When we meet at 
 our next Conference session we shall have to make further plans 
 in this matter. This much seems clear to me, that Chicago is the 
 only place to which we could think of moving. Neither Geneva 
 nor Princeton will do. 17 
 
 A second letter of Esbjorn to Norelius is dated October 26, 1859, about 
 two months after the Geneseo meeting. In this communication the 
 writer expresses a growing sense of futility and disillusionment as he 
 declares, 
 
 You are right We live here in a kind of Babylonian Captivity, 
 and no one feels it as deeply as I do. After being here only a few 
 weeks, my desire to get away increases, and I entertain — almost 
 against my will — plans about how we can establish our own school 
 in Chicago. During the past few days I have come to believe that 
 with a Scandinavian professor and an instructor in English, to- 
 gether with moderate use of older students as tutors, we should 
 be able to teach a group of Scandinavians in the Swedish church, 
 or in the basement of the Norwegian church in Chicago, especially 
 if we received a little help from the pastors of the city. (Swedish 
 and Norwegians, of course.) Thus, no special buildings would be 
 needed. What do you say about this? 18 
 
 A third letter, dated January 12, 1860, contains the following state- 
 ments: 
 
 You have doubtless heard through [O. C. T.] Andren of my 
 desire to move the whole department away from here. . . . My only 
 wish is that we might leave the "American brethren" to them- 
 
 17 See Tidskrift for Teologi, Vol. I, 1899, p. 308. 
 « Ibid., p. 308f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 66 
 
 selves, while they speculate about how to handle us. For my part, 
 I have had enough of their ravings. 19 
 
 Finally, on February 7, 1860, Esbjorn gives vent to his feelings about 
 the Americans, and speaks of his maturing plans for separation as 
 follows: 
 
 . . . during these years we have not had any particular fellow- 
 ship with the Americans except synodically, under which we and 
 our congregations have gone our own way, and they have gone 
 their way. And when we have sought closer union, we have found 
 that it will not work, and even less so since they openly 
 arise and with greater determination than ever seek to push us 
 aside .... Worst of all is the deplorable influence being exerted 
 here upon the piety and morals of our own youth. For that reason 
 alone it is impossible to keep our ministerial candidates in a 
 "mixed institution" among American youth who hold all kinds 
 of faiths or no faith at all. And concerning Americanization, there 
 is already too much of it here. For many it is already easier to 
 communicate in English than in Swedish or Norwegian. One and 
 a half year's experience has fully convinced me that all of the 
 Americanization required can be had in a small institution under 
 our own control with an English "tutor" .... Such a tutor . . . 
 could also teach other subjects. . . . With the help of the Scandi- 
 navian pastors in Chicago it would not be difficult to train a score 
 of young men. . . . You cannot imagine how I long for the meeting 
 of the Conference so that I can pour out my heart to the breth- 
 ren. . . . Just now a student came to visit me who has been here 
 a year and a half. . . . He said that if the (Scandinavian) students 
 are not taken from this place, they will become more like the 
 Americans than anything else. 20 
 
 The first school year at Springfield had been difficult for Esbjorn and 
 the Scandinavians. The second was destined to be even more distress- 
 ing. Just about the time school opened for the fall term, the Synod 
 of Northern Illinois met for its convention in Chicago. At this meeting 
 the ill will between the Springerites and the Scandinavians exploded 
 into open warfare, as the Americans sought to amend the synodical 
 constitution to make it conform once more to Schmucker's "American 
 Lutheranism." Failing in this attempt they asked permission to with- 
 draw from the Synod and form an all-English association free from 
 domination by "narrow symbolists." This request, too, was denied 
 them, and the debate became heated as charges and counter charges 
 filled the air. During the proceedings the thirty-one Scandinavian 
 delegates were subjected to the humiliating embarrassment of having 
 
 ™Ibid., p. I99f. 
 20 Ibid., p. 203f. 
 
67 Experiment in Co-operation 
 
 themselves pointed out as "a menace to true Lutheranism in Amer- 
 ica." 21 
 
 The sequel to the Chicago convention was the special meeting of 
 the Americans at Dixon, Illinois, in December, where Dr. Simon 
 Harkey, professor at Springfield, appeared as Springer's opponent and 
 a spokesman for the Scandinavians. To avoid an open rupture in the 
 Synod, however, Harkey proposed to recommend to the next synodical 
 convention the adoption of a constitutional preamble which would 
 acknowledge the existence of doctrinal differences in the Synod and 
 allow for variations of theological interpretation. The proposed pre- 
 amble stated that, 
 
 In adopting the . . . Constitution for the government of the Evan- 
 gelical Synod of Northern Illinois, and the co-operation of its 
 members in promoting the interests of our Church and the Re- 
 deemer's cause, it is well known and distinctly acknowledged 
 that there is not an entire agreement among the members of the 
 Synod on all minor points of doctrine and practice, but we guaran- 
 tee to each other the most perfect and full liberty of conscience 
 and freedom of speech and action without considering our portion 
 of the Synod pledged to all the doctrinal views of the other. 22 
 
 The news of Harkey's proposal regarding the preamble struck the 
 Scandinavians as an unwarranted compromise, a virtual sell-out to the 
 Americans, since such a preamble would in effect nullify the doctrinal 
 article which unequivocally committed the Synod to the Augsburg 
 Confession. Harkey and his intimate associate, Dr. William M. 
 Reynolds, president of Illinois State University, now appeared to the 
 Scandinavians as men who would purchase peace at any price, and 
 whose professions of confessional loyalty were mere lip service. 
 
 This revelation explained to Esbjorn the evasiveness which he 
 thought he had detected particularly in Reynolds from the very begin- 
 ning of his stay in Springfield. Reynolds was both president of the 
 school and pastor of the English Lutheran "college church" in Spring- 
 field. Reynolds had invited Esbjorn to become a member of the college 
 church, but Esbjorn had discovered that the congregational constitu- 
 tion omitted any reference to the Augsburg Confession, and he was 
 therefore unwilling to join until the congregation voted to accept the 
 Augsburg Confession and become a genuine Lutheran Church. Pastor 
 Reynolds repeatedly assured the Scandinavian Professor that the de- 
 sired change would soon be effected, but for some reason this action 
 was never taken. As a result, neither Esbjorn and his family nor the 
 
 21 Minutes, Synod of Northern Illinois, Chicago, September 7-13, 1859. 
 
 22 See Norelius, "Forklaringar" in Tidskrift for teologi, Vol. V, p. 196f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 68 
 
 majority of the Scandinavian students ever joined any local church 
 in Springfield. This served to create a spirit of mutual estrangement 
 between the president of the school and the Scandinavian members 
 of his official household. For his part, Esbjorn became increasingly dis- 
 satisfied with the type of church life which he observed at the college 
 church. The sermons were little more than moral discourses, little or 
 no attention being given to the great Christian doctrines of sin and 
 grace, justification through faith, sanctification through the Holy Spirit, 
 and so forth. Celebration of the Lord's Supper seemed to smack of 
 Reformed influences, and in general the congregational life seemed to 
 lack spiritual depth. On this account Esbjorn felt compelled to hold 
 private services of worship, even celebrating the Lord's Supper in his 
 own home, surrounded by his family and students. At such occasions 
 he warned his listeners of the dangers of false teachers and erroneous 
 doctrines to which they were exposed at the University and at the col- 
 lege church. 23 
 
 Meanwhile, the Mississippi Conference convened in Moline, Janu- 
 ary 11-15, 1860, and in the minutes for the first afternoon session this 
 cryptic entry is recorded, "A large part of the afternoon was spent in 
 discussion and deliberation concerning our position in the Lutheran 
 Church in America." 24 Neither Esbjorn nor Norelius attended this 
 meeting, but Norelius, who had intimate knowledge and firsthand in- 
 formation about the course of events, has this word of explanation, 
 
 Something was brewing here, but no one wished to or indeed 
 could yet make it plain. Neither Esbjorn nor any one in attendance 
 had any really clear notion just what ought to be done. At first 
 there was no thought of withdrawal from the Synod, but only that 
 the Scandinavian professorship should be removed from Spring- 
 field, and become the foundation for a Scandinavian theological 
 seminary. But unexpected developments occurred which no one 
 could have foreseen. 25 
 
 The Failure of An Experiment 
 
 The "unexpected developments" was the sudden resignation of Esbjorn 
 from Springfield and his abrupt removal to Chicago. This turn of 
 events was unexpected and sudden, however, only in the sense that it 
 occurred somewhat sooner and under different circumstances than had 
 
 23 See Article by Esbjorn, Hemlandet, August 1, 1860. 
 
 24 The complete Minutes of this meeting are given in Tidskrift for teologi, Vol. 
 I, 1898, pp. 120-123. 
 
 25 Tidskrift for teologi, Vol. V, 1903, p. 201. 
 
 
69 Experiment in Co-operation 
 
 been contemplated. The alienation between the Scandinavians and 
 Americans in the Synod of Northern Illinois was reflected in the grow- 
 ing estrangement between Esbjorn and the school administration, and 
 his action must be seen as a result and consequence rather than as a 
 cause. 
 
 Esbjorn's negative attitude toward existing relationships between 
 the Scandinavians and Americans, his ill-advised criticism of his facul- 
 ty colleagues in the presence of students, and his charges of heresy at 
 the institution, finally reached the ears of the school authorities. On 
 Friday morning, March 30, 1860, Dr. Reynolds called on Esbjorn at 
 his home and accused him of insubordination and a breach of trust, 
 threatening to "show him up" and make him "regret what he had said 
 to the students." Esbjorn interpreted this as a summons to discipline 
 him before the faculty and bring him to trial before the Synod; there- 
 fore, in the course of the heated exchange, Esbjorn resigned his posi- 
 tion then and there in order to "get out of reach of Reynolds." 26 The 
 following day he confirmed his action by sending a formal written re- 
 signation to the presidents of the Board of Trustees of the University, 
 the Synod of Northern Illinois, and the Synod of Illinois. 27 Meanwhile, 
 he called the Scandinavian students together in his home, informed 
 them of his resignation, distributed the money he had received for their 
 support, and advised them to sever their relationship with the school. 28 
 
 Esbjorn's resignation threw the school into an uproar. The au- 
 thorities tried vainly to negotiate with him, but the Scandinavian pro- 
 fessor was adamant. The die was cast and there was no turning back. 
 When Reynolds and Harkey pointed out that the University constitu- 
 tion required six months previous notice of an intention to resign, and 
 that to violate this provision was tantamount to breaking the profes- 
 sorial oath, Esbjorn justified himself by reminding them that this pro- 
 vision had been adopted in September, 1858, a year after his election 
 to the faculty, and constituted therefore ex post facto legislation, and 
 furthermore, his oath of allegiance had been given to the Augsburg 
 Confession and not to the University constitution. At an emergency 
 meeting of the Scandinavian students Dr. Reynolds pleaded with them 
 
 26 See Esbjorn's letter to Norelius, dated April 3, 1860, Tidskrift for teologi, 
 1898, Vol. I, p. 316. 
 
 27 A copy of the resignation in Esbjorn's own handwriting and entitled "A true 
 copy of my resignation of the Scandinavian Professorship in Illinois State 
 University" is preserved in the Esbjorn Collection, Augustana Archives, Rock 
 Island. 
 
 28 An account of these events is given in Hemlandet, August 1, 1860. See also 
 article "The Resignation of Prof. Esbjorn," Olive Branch, May, 1860, in Au- 
 gustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. IX, pp. 112ff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 70 
 
 to remain in school and finish their studies, but every man, except two, 
 indicated his readiness to follow his professor, sharing with him dis- 
 satisfaction with the school and the college church. 29 
 
 Within a few days Esbjorn had packed his belongings and with his 
 family had moved to Chicago, making his home temporarily with 
 Pastor Erland Carlsson. Of the twenty Scandinavian students at 
 Springfield, two remained at the school, one discontinued his studies, 
 and seventeen followed their professor to Chicago, where they were 
 lodged in the school house of the Swedish Lutheran Church. The Sun- 
 day school facilities of the Norwegian church were made available for 
 classrooms and study hall, and it was not long before the instruction 
 which had been interrupted at Springfield was resumed in Chicago. 30 
 
 The United Scandinavian Conference was scheduled to meet in 
 Chicago, April 23, 1860, and Esbjorn realized that the main business of 
 the convention would be concerned with the upheaval at Springfield. 
 He, therefore, used the intervening weeks to prepare his own defense 
 and to communicate with his friends urging them to instruct their 
 congregations to authorize the delegates to vote for withdrawal from 
 the Synod of Northern Illinois and the University, and the establish- 
 ment of an independent school under the sole control of the Scandi- 
 navians. 31 Doctors Harkey and Reynolds also demanded the right to be 
 heard and to present their side of the story. 32 
 
 Thus when the United Conference convened, the little Swedish 
 church on Superior Street where the business sessions were held, be- 
 came a virtual courtroom with the delegation acting as a jury to pass 
 judgment on the events which had transpired. Two whole days were 
 spent in listening to the evidence. Esbjorn presented a lengthy state- 
 ment, giving the reasons for his resignation, which may be summar- 
 ized as: 
 
 1. The "Reformed modes of expression" which characterized the 
 tone and spirit of the college church of which Dr. Reynolds was 
 pastor. 
 
 2. A teaching schedule which did not allow the Scandinavian 
 professor enough time for theological subjects. 
 
 3. Humiliation of the Scandinavian students at the hands of the 
 Americans, to the extent that the Scandinavians had felt compelled 
 
 
 29 See Hemlandet, op. cit. 
 
 30 See Erland Carlsson's account in Jubel-Album, p. 123f. 
 
 ai Letter to Norelius, April 2, 1860, in Tidskrift for teologi, 1903, Vol. V, p. 
 204, and to Hasselquist, April 2, 1860, in Hasselquist Collection, Augustana 
 Archives, Rock Island. 
 
 '■''- Harkey 's letter to Hasselquist, March 31, 1860, Hasselquist Collection, Augus- 
 tana Archives, Rock Island. 
 
71 Experiment in Co-operation 
 
 to seek permission to form their own Scandinavian student asso- 
 ciation, which, incidentally, had been denied them. 
 
 4. Misuse of provisions intended for Scandinavian students. 
 
 5. Misappropriation of funds specifically given by Scandinavian 
 congregations for the support of Scandinavian students. 
 
 6. The abridgment of full freedom for the Scandinavian profes- 
 sor to give spiritual counsel and exercise pastoral care and super- 
 vision over the Scandinavian students. 
 
 7. The conviction, after two years of experience, that "the at- 
 tempt at union and co-operation with those who are not in word 
 and deed fully devoted to the Lutheran Confessions must work 
 out in harm to us and to our congregations in regard to honest 
 piety and pure doctrine." 33 
 
 Doctors Harkey and Reynolds also had their day in court. They ve- 
 hemently protested both the alleged reasons for and the irresponsible 
 manner of Esbjorn's removal from Springfield, and sought to answer 
 some of the charges implicit and explicit in Esbjorn's statement. Their 
 arguments which they presented at that time, and those which subse- 
 quently appeared in the Lutheran press, may be summarized as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 1. Since the constitution of the University provided for a regular 
 and orderly process in connection with resignation of faculty and 
 staff, Esbjorn's abrupt and irregular action was both illegal and 
 revolutionary and did not reflect the spirit of Christian love. 
 
 2. The charge that Esbjorn's freedom to exercise spiritual care 
 and supervision over his students had been abridged was false, 
 and "originates in Prof. Esbjorn's suspicious nature and his want 
 of acquaintance with the manner of conducting literary institu- 
 tions in America." 
 
 3. The ostensible reasons the professor had given for his resigna- 
 tion were chiefly theological and doctrinal, but the real reasons 
 were "strongly personal" and reflected his lack of candor and 
 good will. 
 
 4. The complaint that the Scandinavians were being indoctrinated 
 with American Lutheran ideas was devoid of truth; on the con- 
 trary, the rights and privileges of the Scandinavian students at the 
 University were "as sacredly maintained as any others." 
 
 5. The Americans are said to have imposed their opinions upon 
 the Scandinavians in the Synod and the University. The exact op- 
 posite has actually occurred, since it was the Scandinavians who 
 insisted upon constitutional changes in the Synod of Northern Illi- 
 nois, the University, and the college church in Springfield which 
 would compel everyone to conform to their ideas, while the 
 Americans asked only for the privilege of maintaining their own 
 
 33 Esbjorn's statement is given in full in Axcgustana Historical Society Publica- 
 tions, Vol. X, pp. 185-188. 
 
Augustana Heritage 72 
 
 freedom of interpretation in theology and doctrine. 
 
 6. The Americans have been accused of being intolerant and pre- 
 sumptuous toward the Scandinavians. On the contrary, it has been 
 the Scandinavians who have been the most intolerant and critical 
 of the Americans, accusing them of heresy and false doctrine. 
 
 7. All gifts, monetary and otherwise, received by the University, 
 whether intended for general use or for the specific support of 
 the Scandinavians, have received the same careful attention and 
 handling. To accuse the school authorities of dishonesty is to in- 
 dulge in wild and irresponsible, indeed unchristian, slander. 
 
 8. The Americans have been charged with subversion. But it 
 was now clear that while maintaining an outward semblance of 
 unity, Pastor Esbjorn and some of his friends had surreptitiously 
 schemed and planned to undermine the unity of the Lutheran 
 Church in Illinois, and now asked for understanding and approval 
 of their violent and factious actions. 34 
 
 The Defection of the Scandinavians 
 
 After the Conference delegation had listened to the disputants and 
 received their reports, a special committee of seven was named to 
 weigh the evidence and recommend appropriate action. The committee 
 declared that "it cannot regard and treat Prof. Esbjorn's resignation as 
 a detached event, but as connected with, and the consequence of, the 
 weaknesses, which for some time have been found in our Synod." On 
 the basis of its investigation the committee submitted the following 
 resolutions which were unanimously adopted: 
 
 Since we are fully convinced that there is found in our Synod 
 a decided difference of opinion in [regard to] doctrine; and since 
 there is in reality a rupture instead of a union in the Synod and 
 since contentions and quarrels serve to diminish confidence, weak- 
 en our strength and prevent our progress; and since we are ex- 
 posed to the danger that at any time through a sufficient majority 
 of votes against us, a change in our doctrinal position may be 
 forced upon [the Synod]; and since it is our most holy duty to 
 protect and defend our confession of faith unpolluted both in our 
 congregations and in the teaching of theology which our students 
 receive, and in the influence which is exerted by those who shall 
 become the preachers and pastors in our congregations; and since 
 our experience clearly shows us that in these respects we have no 
 security in the connection in which we have hitherto stood, there- 
 fore, 
 
 34 The statements of Harkey and Reynolds are preserved in the Esbjorn Col- 
 lection, Augustana Archives, Rock Island. The articles in the Lutheran 
 press, pro and con, bearing upon the controversy are collected and published 
 in Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. IX, pp. 106-189. 
 
73 Experiment in Co-operation 
 
 Resolved: 
 
 1. That we approve of Prof. Esbjorn's resignation as our Scandi- 
 navian professor at Illinois State University, and that we give him 
 our sincere thanks for the zeal wherewith he has worked for, and 
 the faithfulness wherewith he has watched over, the welfare of 
 our congregations in his capacity as professor, and for the fatherly 
 care and kindness which he has shown our students; and that we 
 approve of the manner in which he has distributed the money 
 which he received for their support. 
 
 2. That we Scandinavian pastors and congregations, who have 
 hitherto been united with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of 
 Northern Illinois, herewith peacefully withdraw from our church- 
 ly union with said Synod, and that the officers of our Conference 
 respectfully inform the president of said Synod of this our with- 
 drawal. 
 
 3. That we hereby decide to meet on Tuesday the 5th of next 
 June in the Norwegian Ev. Lutheran Church in Clinton, Rock 
 County, Wisconsin, in order to organize a synod, and that a com- 
 mittee of three be appointed to work out a constitution, which is 
 to be presented at the said meeting for adoption. 
 
 On the basis of another committee report regarding the financial stand- 
 ing of the Scandinavian professorship, the following resolution was 
 adopted: 
 
 That a committee of four be appointed to prepare a plan regard- 
 ing our professorship and the establishment of our own school and 
 to report the said plan at the meeting already set for Clinton, Rock 
 County, Wisconsin. The committee consists of Prof. Esbjbrn, 
 Erland Carlsson, K. Langeland, and Ivar Lawson. 35 
 
 These actions taken at the Chicago convention by the United Scandi- 
 navian Conference were highly significant on several counts. In the 
 first place, such action constituted the denouement of those tensions 
 which had exerted centrifugal force within the Synod of Northern Illi- 
 nois from the very beginning. While it was the theological and doc- 
 trinal differences which received most attention and were ostensibly 
 the reef upon which unity was being shipwrecked, the underlying ten- 
 sions of nativism, nationalism, and cultural difference must be ac- 
 counted as important contributory factors which supported, aggra- 
 vated, and accentuated the theological and doctrinal issues. 
 
 In the second place, the resolution by the Scandinavians to with- 
 draw from the Synod of Northern Illinois was the signal for further 
 defections from the General Synod. Before the decade would come 
 
 35 Minutes kept at the meeting of the United Chicago, Mississippi and Minne- 
 sota Conferences in the Swedish Lutheran Church in Chicago, April 23-27, 
 1860, Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. X, pp. 179-188. 
 
Augustana Heritage 74 
 
 to a close, subsequent ruptures with the General Synod, for doctrinal 
 and political reasons, would reduce that parent body to a mere shadow 
 of its former size and strength. 
 
 In the third place, the Scandinavians by their withdrawal placed 
 themselves in an exposed position in both the Midwest as well as 
 throughout the Lutheran Church in America. Their erstwhile allies 
 in Illinois were now to become their critics and competitors, and much 
 of the good will and sympathy which had once been extended to them 
 by the Americanized Lutherans in the East had been alienated, and 
 very little help or encouragement could be henceforth expected from 
 those who had been branded by the Scandinavians as "pseudo- 
 Lutherans." 
 
 In the fourth place, the Scandinavians gave to their critics gratui- 
 tous grist for their mills. Those who had belabored the Scandinavians 
 on account of their "unionism," charging them with either blindness 
 or theological obscurantism, were now apparently proven to have been 
 right. Not only Walther in Missouri and the high-church Norwegians 
 in Wisconsin, but even the earlier opponents, Unonius the Episcopalian 
 and Hedstrom the Methodist, could now exclaim, "I told you so, but it 
 has taken you ten years to realize we were right in the first place." 
 
 And finally, it was by this action that the Scandinavians differen- 
 tiated their own position in America, creating thereby the inescapable 
 necessity of establishing their own independent institutions which 
 would enable them to express their own spiritual tradition and reli- 
 gious genius without being encumbered by inhibiting associations. In 
 so doing, however, they now faced the danger of insulating themselves 
 from those connections which would be most helpful and effective in 
 fostering a growing sense of community in relation to their American 
 environment. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A Church Is Founded 
 
 The year was 1860. James Buchanan was in the White House in 
 Washington, presiding over a nation tottering on the brink of civil 
 
 war. The Federal Union which had functioned under the constitu- 
 tion since 1789, was hanging in precarious balance as a hopelessly di- 
 vided Congress was locked in futile debate, led by Senator Jefferson 
 Davis of Mississippi, and Stephen A. Douglas, the "little giant" from 
 Illinois. Never had national discord been greater, or sectional bitter- 
 ness more pronounced. 
 
 On the surface the issue at stake was slavery, but the real and 
 basic causes for national discord were buried beneath the surface. 
 There was the question of states' rights versus Federal authority and 
 popular sovereignty. Where did the one end and the other begin? 
 There was the problem of a staple-crop agrarianism in competition with 
 a rapidly expanding industrial capitalism. There was the sectional 
 rivalry between a decaying southern aristocracy and a burgeoning 
 northern industrialism. There was the clash between the exponents 
 of compromise and the advocates of force. Finally, there were the yet 
 unresolved economic dislocations brought on by the financial panic of 
 1857 and the subsequent bitter quarrels over higher protective tariffs. 
 
 During the presidential campaign of 1860, the once powerful Dem- 
 ocratic Party was split by sectional jealousy and internal discord, while 
 the newly formed Republican Party carried their candidate, Abraham 
 Lincoln, to victory at the polls that fall. Four days after Lincoln's 
 election, South Carolina seceded from the Union, and by February 1, 
 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had 
 followed South Carolina out of the Union; eight days later the Confed- 
 erate States of America was formed at Montgomery, Alabama, with 
 Jefferson Davis as president and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia as 
 vice-president. On April 12, 1861, a southern brigade under General 
 Pierre Beauregard attacked Fort Sumter, and Civil War had begun. 1 
 
 It was in such a period of national chaos and catastrophe that the 
 Augustana Church had its beginning. It would be difficult indeed to 
 envisage a more difficult and inopportune time for the launching of a 
 
 1 Abell, Fleming, Levack, McAvoy, Mannion, A History of the United States, 
 New York, 1952, pp. 258-311. 
 
 75 
 
Augustana Heritage 76 
 
 new church. To establish a far-flung enterprise which demanded great 
 sacrifice and the closest possible co-operation would be a formidable 
 undertaking under the most favorable circumstances. But to do this 
 in a period of the greatest national emergency this country had ever 
 faced called for exceptional faith and courage. 
 
 It must not be assumed that the immigrants in the Midwest were 
 so isolated and insulated that they were untouched and untroubled by 
 the events which were transpiring in the nation. Through both the 
 written and spoken word the leaders of the Lutherans in the Missis- 
 sippi Valley were kept informed about current events. The columns of 
 Hemlandet, for example, were filled with discussions concerning the 
 political and economic issues of the day. 2 And when President Lincoln 
 called for young men to volunteer for military service the Scandina- 
 vians were not slow in responding. Many an immigrant home was des- 
 tined to mourn the loss of a loved one who had given his life for the 
 Union cause on the battlefields of the Civil War. Two of Esbjorn's 
 sons, Joseph and Paul, answered the call to colors, and Paul lost his 
 life on the battlefield near Lexington, Missouri. 3 In the light of existing 
 evidence, it is clear that the founders of the Augustana Church were 
 not unaware of the immense difficulties which confronted them as they 
 launched a new church in the nation's time of trouble. The concerns 
 which moved and motivated them, however, were more compelling 
 than their doubts and fears. And this raises the question: What were 
 the basic concerns which motivated the Scandinavians in taking such 
 a bold step. 
 
 Primary Motivations 
 
 In the first place, they were concerned about preserving and trans- 
 mitting their own unique religious and spiritual heritage. Ten years 
 on the American frontier had proven how difficult such a task could 
 be in a free-church society, and how easy it was to become the prey of 
 proselyters or the victim of innovators. Again and again the spiritual 
 leaders of these Scandinavian-Americans had been driven to an ago- 
 nizing reappraisal of their basic theological premises; to a restudy of 
 the confessional symbols of historic Lutheranism; to a reassessment of 
 the religious resources which had been bequeathed by the church of 
 the homeland, and which in an earlier day, they had so readily criti- 
 cised and taken for granted. In such a struggle and reassessment their 
 
 2 See Ander, op. cit., pp. 154-160. 
 
 3 Esbjorn's letter to Norelius, January 7, 1862, Tidskrijt for teologi, 1899, Vol. 
 I, p. 325. 
 
77 AChurchIsFounded 
 
 eyes had been opened, not all at once, to be sure, but little by little, 
 until they had finally come to a new appreciation and a fuller under- 
 standing of their own religious treasure. After a decade of association 
 with Americanized Lutheranism within the Synod of Northern Illinois, 
 they had become convinced that outward unity without inner harmony 
 and concord was an empty form which could be expected to exert only 
 corrosive and eroding effects upon the principles to which they were 
 committed. 4 
 
 The establishment of a new church was, therefore, a decisive act 
 of differentiation, by means of which the Scandinavians sought to as- 
 sert and distinguish those theological elements in their tradition which 
 had become characteristic of the group mind. It was an action through 
 which they meant to guard themselves against fragmentation, absorp- 
 tion, and eventual extinction. It was the means by which it would be- 
 come possible to preserve in order to transmit that which they held to 
 be their own distinctive religious legacy — a Swedish confessional 
 Lutheranism informed and permeated by the quickening spirit of Scan- 
 dinavian pietism. 
 
 The establishment of a new church body, however, was more than 
 an act of differentiation. It was also, and at the same time, an act oj 
 accommodation. Coming from lands where the Lutheran Church was 
 established by law and and the religious order regulated by ancient 
 custom and tradition, it took time for the Scandinavian immigrants to 
 learn how to conduct an effective church program in a pluralistic and 
 free-church society. How were congregations to be organized and 
 maintained? How were religious institutions to be operated? How 
 was an American ministry to be recruited and trained? How were 
 amicable relations with other church bodies to be established? These 
 were just a few of the important questions which confronted the 
 Scandinavians as they began their first work in the Middle West. 
 
 In ten years, however, they had learned their lessons well. They 
 had become acquainted with the manner of conducting church work 
 on the American scene, and the type of church polity most suited to a 
 democratic environment, and they modeled their institutional struc- 
 tures according to the patterns they had observed. Indeed, the asso- 
 ciation of the Scandinavians with their American brethren in the Syn- 
 od of Northern Illinois had a profound influence upon them in terms 
 
 4 Cf. Resolutions at meeting of United Scandinavian Conference, Chicago, April 
 23-27, 1860. Minutes of Conference, translated in Augustana Historical So- 
 ciety Publications, Vol. X, pp. 179ff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 78 
 
 of enabling them to accommodate themselves to an environment so 
 strangely different from that of their homeland. 
 
 Eric Norelius, who was personally involved in these developments, 
 and who can scarcely be accused of harboring an intense pro- American 
 bias, readily acknowledged the indebtedness of the Scandinavians to 
 their American associates. In the concluding section of the first volume 
 of his De svenska laterska forsamlingarnas och svenskarnas his- 
 toria i Amerika he declares: 
 
 As we cast a backward look over the connection of our pastors 
 and congregations with the Synod of Northern Illinois it may seem 
 at first glance to have been a mistake, and that it would have been 
 more advantageous to us if our pastors from the beginning had es- 
 tablished a Swedish synod. But they were not mature enough for 
 this step, and thus we may believe that it was God who, in the de- 
 veloping situation, guided our affairs toward a higher purpose. It 
 now appears that our union with the Synod of Northern Illinois 
 was in certain respects necessary in order to afford us the experi- 
 ences we needed for the establishment and development of our 
 Church in this country. It was through this association that we 
 learned a great deal about the organization and management of a 
 free church; moreover, we came to understand the significance of 
 the process of Anglicization and Americanization which confronted 
 us. Furthermore, through this association we were guided into the 
 mainstream of the general church life of Lutheranism in America, 
 and were thus spared from the likelihood of an unfortunate iso- 
 lationism. But above all, we were driven to a deeper appreciation 
 than ever before of our evangelical Lutheran confession, since 
 within the Synod of Northern Illinois we saw and experienced the 
 regrettable results of laxity in doctrine and practice, and the im- 
 possibility of united co-operation within such an association. Our 
 eyes were opened to the dangers confronting us; we awakened, 
 as it were, from a bad dream, and this, praise God, before our con- 
 gregations had become corrupted and gotten a taste for unsavory 
 food. To be sure, the dissolution of our connection with the Synod 
 of Northern Illinois occurred in an abrupt and revolutionary man- 
 ner, but it seems to me that even here we can perceive God's 
 guiding hand. If we had tried some other way, some of our pastors 
 and congregations would have perhaps remained in the Synod of 
 Northern Illinois. As matters now stand, we can count ourselves 
 most fortunate that we withdrew as one man, and that our little 
 flock was not rent asunder. 5 
 
 Briefly then, it may be said that in founding their new church the 
 Scandinavians at once differentiated their religious legacy, and in 
 structuring their new institutions accommodated themselves to the cir- 
 
 5 Norelius, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 814f. 
 
79 A Church Is Founded 
 
 cumstances of a free-church society in order to transmit effectively 
 that heritage to their constituents in an American environment. 
 
 There was a second basic motivation which impelled the Scandi- 
 navians to form their own independent church, namely, the preserva- 
 tion and strengthening of the bonds of unity among themselves. As we 
 have noted in previous references, the Scandinavians in the Synod of 
 Northern Illinois were composed of both Norwegians and Swedes, and 
 between them there existed a very real sense of mutuality and com- 
 radeship. Something was nevertheless lacking. Since the Swedes were 
 in the majority it was natural that the dominant leadership in the 
 United Scandinavian Conference would come from them, and that 
 major emphasis and attention would be given to problems and ques- 
 tions connected with the majority group. When a Scandinavian pro- 
 fessor was to be chosen for Illinois University, for example, it was a 
 Swede, L. P. Esbjorn, who received the appointment, and in the Scan- 
 dinavian language courses at the school, it was Swedish rather than 
 Norwegian which received greatest emphasis simply because the Swed- 
 ish students outnumbered their Norwegian brethren and the professor 
 was himself Swedish. Though the Norwegians were promised a teacher 
 of their own, a Norwegian professor was not added to the faculty until 
 several years later. 6 As a consequence the Norwegians had shown a 
 disturbing lack of interest and enthusiasm regarding the professorship 
 at Springfield, and seemed reluctant to give it their hearty support. As 
 the solicitor for the professorship endowment, Esbjorn had scant suc- 
 cess among the Norwegians. 7 How deep this Norwegian indifference 
 was no one could know, and there is no evidence that Esbjorn and his 
 colleagues feared a break in their relations with their Norwegian col- 
 leagues. 8 But they did realize that the bonds of union must be strength- 
 ened. By the establishment of their own church, they could co-operate 
 more closely together and mutually serve one another more effectively. 
 Indeed, in this connection, it must be observed that it was doubtless no 
 accident that the constituting convention of the Augustana Church 
 was held, not in some Swedish church, but in the Norwegian Lu- 
 theran church at Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin. 
 
 There was also a danger of disunity among the Swedes them- 
 
 6 August Weenaas to Paxton, Illinois, 1868. 
 
 7 Letter to Erland Carlsson, August 8, 1856, in Tidskrift for teologi, 1899, Vol. 
 I, p. 289. 
 
 8 There seems to have been greater danger of schism among the Norwegians 
 themselves since there was some disagreement in the Norwegian section of 
 the Synod regarding various church usages. Thus, a strengthening of unity 
 among the Norwegians themselves, as well as between the Norwegians and 
 Swedes, was highly desirable. 
 
Augustana Heritage 80 
 
 selves. Differences in personality, viewpoint, and temperament made 
 it difficult for Esbjorn and Hasselquist to co-operate together, and 
 neither man enjoyed the full confidence of the other. While Eric 
 Norelius gravitated toward Esbjorn, Erland Carlsson usually found 
 himself on the side of Hasselquist. Esbjbrn's break with Springfield 
 and his unqualified criticism of the Synod of Northern Illinois was ap- 
 plauded by Norelius, but was deplored by Hasselquist and Carlsson. 
 Neither of the latter entertained the bitter suspicions which Esbjorn 
 expressed regarding the dangers of "New Lutheranism." Although 
 Hasselquist was no "unionist" in the sense of being willing to compro- 
 mise or sacrifice his basic principles as a Lutheran, he had a spirit of 
 broad toleration far greater than Esbjorn, and openly expressed his 
 admiration for certain American Lutherans and counted many of them 
 among his best friends. 9 After the Synod of Northern Illinois amended 
 its constitution in 1854, affirming the Augsburg Confession as a "cor- 
 rect" exposition of Scriptural truth, both Hasselquist and Carlsson 
 were happy in this relationship and would have preferred to remain in 
 the association. 10 As for Erland Carlsson, there is little doubt about his 
 attitude toward the American brand of Lutheranism. In a letter to 
 Norelius, dated December 18, 1855, he declared, 
 
 None have yet dared to question the authority of the Sacred 
 Book. . . . The question is not if these doctrines have a foundation 
 in the Bible or not; but if we should retain the old confession with 
 its old teachings, or accept the new which conforms with the 
 truth. 11 
 
 While the broadmindedness of Hasselquist and Carlsson caused 
 Esbjorn no little concern and anxiety, the stubborn independence and 
 increasing provincialism of his best friend, Eric Norelius, was no less 
 a matter of some apprehension. Norelius had never been sympathetic 
 toward the Synod of Northern Illinois and was outspoken in his dis- 
 approval of it. 12 Moreover, after launching his missionary career in 
 Minnesota in 1856, he became increasingly convinced that the expand- 
 ing needs of the Swedes in that territory demanded the establishment 
 of a program of activity which would be centered where the needs 
 existed and adapted to the particular conditions which prevailed there. 
 He was persuaded that the needs in Minnesota could neither be under- 
 stood nor adequately met by a religious association centered in far- 
 
 9 Hemlandet, May 4, 1855; June 1, 1859. 
 
 10 Letter to Harkey, April 9, 1860, Hasselquist Collection, Augustana Archives. 
 
 11 Quoted by Ander, op. cit., p. 43f. 
 
 12 See his critical comments in his Historia, Vol. I, pp. 788ff. 
 
81 A Church Is Founded 
 
 distant Illinois. Commenting upon this situation a half century later, 
 
 Norelius declared, 
 
 At this time the spiritual needs of the Swedish people in this 
 country were nowhere as great as they were in Minnesota; the few 
 pastors were absolutely overwhelmed by the work, and it cannot 
 be denied that there was reason for feeling that both the Synod 
 [Northern Illinois] and the conference [Mississippi] dealt with us 
 as if we were stepchildren. To be sure, this may have been unin- 
 tentional; the fact remains, however, that because of the remote- 
 ness of the area the pioneer Minnesota settlements were regarded 
 as creatures of the Synod who must take things as they came. 13 
 
 Accordingly, Norelius launched a program of activity which he hoped 
 would eventually become self-sustaining. In 1857, he began the publi- 
 cation of a Swedish newspaper, Minnesota Posten, as a rival to Hassel- 
 quist's Hemlandet. This challenge to Hasselquist's journalistic leader- 
 ship lasted only long enough, however, to force Hasselquist to merge 
 his journal with that of Norelius with editorial offices in Chicago. 14 
 
 Meanwhile, "Father" C. F. Heyer and W. A. Passavant had pro- 
 posed the organization of an independent Minnesota Synod. They in- 
 vited Norelius to join the conservative Americans and Germans in such 
 a venture, and Norelius was strongly tempted to co-operate. When 
 these quiet negotiations among the Minnesota leaders became known 
 in Illinois, however, it caused dismay and alarm. Norelius was ad- 
 jured by his Swedish brethren to the south to give up all such 
 schemes and continue his connection with them in the Synod of North- 
 ern Illinois. 15 In order to soothe the restive Minnesotans, the Synod 
 of Northern Illinois at its convention in 1858 compromised with them 
 by granting permission for the formation of a Minnesota Conference 
 affiliated with the Synod. Thus the threatened schism was avoided. 10 
 In their fervent appeals to Norelius, the Swedes in Illinois emphasized 
 the imperative need of Scandinavian solidarity; disunity within their 
 own ranks would be disastrous for the future. And according to 
 Norelius' own admission, this was the argument which finally won the 
 day. 17 
 
 It was this same argument which buttressed, as nothing else did, 
 the proposal to establish an independent Scandinavian Lutheran 
 Church in which pastors and people with a common cultural and re- 
 
 13 Ibid., p. 848. 
 
 14 The Missionary, December 23, 1858; March 17, 1859. 
 
 15 Excerpts from letters in Norelius, op. cit., pp. 840ff. 
 
 16 Minutes of the Eighth Annual Convention of the Synod of Northern Illinois, 
 Mendota, LaSalle County, 111., September 15-20, 1858. 
 
 17 See his comments, op. cit., p. 848. 
 
Augustana Heritage 82 
 
 ligious background could find a new unity of strength and purpose in 
 service to God and their scattered countrymen in the new world. In 
 such a church sectional antagonisms could be overcome, and common 
 resources brought to bear upon the needs of people wherever they 
 might reside. Such a church would at once embody and deepen that 
 spiritual kinship which had originally created the bonds of fellowship 
 among the Scandinavians in the Mississippi Valley. 18 
 
 There was, however, a third and vitally important concern which 
 motivated the establishment of an independent Scandinavian Synod, 
 and that was the need for a more effective program of home missions. 
 
 Beginning about 1850, Scandinavian immigrants poured into the 
 country by the thousands each year. New settlements were constantly 
 springing up in all parts of the country, particularly in Illinois, Indiana, 
 Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, and 
 Pennsylvania. When these scattered settlers heard of the religious 
 work being done in Illinois, they sent urgent appeals for pastoral help. 
 The minutes of every meeting of the Mississippi and Chicago Confer- 
 ences record such appeals and reflect the growing concern which these 
 increasing demands awakened among the Scandinavian leaders in the 
 Synod of Northern Illinois. The very first minutes of the joint meeting 
 of the two Scandinavian Conferences, in 1854, indicate the great spir- 
 itual dearth among the people. It was acknowledged that in all too 
 many cases the new settlers were without any kind of spiritual care, 
 and that immigration was bringing "hundreds, if not thousands, of 
 people" to this country who were now compelled to get along "with- 
 out pastor or churches." 19 
 
 Year after year the story was the same: "The harvest is plenteous, 
 but the laborers are few." The Scandinavians sought to meet the need 
 by seeking to recruit pastors and evangelists from Sweden and Nor- 
 way, but without much success. In desperation they licensed a num- 
 ber of spiritually minded laymen and students, but were still far short 
 of meeting the demand. No over-all plan or strategy was devised for 
 carrying on home missions, but each pastor was expected to prosecute 
 the work in his own territory as he was able. Some parishes included 
 as many as a half dozen settlements and stretched over many miles of 
 difficult terrain. Numerous settlements had to be content with two or 
 
 18 The United Scandinavian Conference established January 4-9, 1854, had 
 been formed "because the Chicago and Mississippi Conferences have so much 
 in common." Minutes of Chicago-Mississippi Conference, Augustana Histor- 
 ical Society Publications, Vol. X, p. 90. 
 
 19 Minutes in Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. X, pp. 90fT. 
 
83 A Church Is FoundeI) 
 
 three pastoral visits a year, while others in more remote areas were 
 entirely unattended. Indeed, before the organization of the Augustana 
 Church, half of the Swedish settlements in Minnesota were without 
 pastoral leadership of any kind. When these melancholy conditions 
 were brought to the attention of the Synod of Northern Illinois from 
 time to time, the matter was usually disposed of by passing a few reso- 
 lutions, with no further action taken. But it was evident that if these 
 circumstances would be allowed to continue indefinitely, large masses 
 of Lutheran immigrants would ultimately be lost to the church. 20 
 
 The crying need of the hour was a Scandinavian federation with 
 both the authority and the will to move in upon this pressing problem 
 and give it the attention it deserved. The obvious answer was a new 
 and independent Scandinavian church, sensitive to the needs of its own 
 people, aware of the peculiar wants of immigrant settlers, and ready 
 and able to fashion a program of effective action. This was a task and 
 responsibility with enough challenge to transcend and dispel the differ- 
 ences which tended to divide the Scandinavians and to unite them in a 
 heroic undertaking in spite of the troubled times and their own doubts 
 and fears. 
 
 The Constituting Convention at Jefferson Prairie 
 
 Impelled by these basic concerns, the pastors and delegates repre- 
 senting the Scandinavian congregations formerly associated with the 
 Synod of Northern Illinois, gathered in the Norwegian Lutheran 
 church at Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, June 5-11, 1860, to implement 
 the decisions which had been made at the convention of the United 
 Scandinavian Conference in April. The small rural community of 
 Jefferson Prairie lay about five miles from the Clinton railroad station, 
 and the church in which the sessions were held was a plain, frame 
 building seating about three hundred people. The Rev. Ole Andrew- 
 son, a colaborer among the Norwegians with Paul Andersen of Chicago, 
 was the pastor. The official delegation included twenty-six pastors, of 
 whom seventeen were Swedish and nine Norwegian, and fifteen lay- 
 men, of whom nine were Swedish and six were Norwegian. They rep- 
 resented forty-nine congregations of which thirty-six were Swedish 
 and thirteen Norwegian, with a combined membership of 4,967. 21 
 
 The first session began at 3: 00 o'clock on the afternoon of June 5, 
 
 20 Norelius, op. tit, Vol. II, p. 39. 
 
 21 
 
 Protokoll hallet vid skandinaviska ev. lutherska Augustana synodens jbr- 
 sta mote i Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin, d. 5-11 Juni, 1860. Norelius, 
 op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 8-21. 
 
Augustana Heritage 84 
 
 with a service of worship conducted by Pastor T. N. Hasselquist. His 
 sermon was entitled, "Our Task, Our Peril and Our Victory," using 
 Revelation 2:1-7 as his text. After the service Pastor Hasselquist, 
 chairman of the United Scandinavian Conference, convened the first 
 business session. Following the roll call, a motion was made to organ- 
 ize a Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which was unani- 
 mously adopted. Election of officers followed, and Pastor Hasselquist 
 was chosen as the first president of the new synod, with Pastor O. J. 
 Hatlestad as the secretary and Mr. A. A. Klove as treasurer. At this 
 point the first business session adjourned and Pastor Paul Andersen 
 concluded the historic meeting with prayer. 
 
 The next morning, June 6, the convention reconvened at 9:00 
 o'clock to receive a report from a special committee which had drafted 
 a proposed constitution. The original committee consisted of Professor 
 Esbjorn, Pastor Paul Andersen, and a Mr. Andrew N. Testal. The 
 committee report to the convention bore only the names of Esbjorn 
 and Andersen, and Mr. Testal does not appear to have had much to do 
 with the report or to have been in attendance at Jefferson Prairie. In- 
 deed, a comment which appears in the minutes of the synodical con- 
 vention for 1870, indicates that most of the work on the proposed con- 
 stitution of 1860 had been done by Esbjorn. 22 An account of the con- 
 vention which appeared in Hemlandet, June 20, 1860, states that the 
 committee report was presented in English "for the sake of the future," 
 thereby suggesting that the organization of the new synod was not 
 merely an attempt to create an isolated, nationalistic block within the 
 Lutheran Church in America, but v/as rather an endeavor by the 
 Scandinavians to fashion an institutional framework within which they 
 could best express their own genius and serve their own people. 23 
 
 The proposed constitution was considered article by article, with 
 the discussion continuing all day on Wednesday, June 6, and the fol- 
 lowing forenoon, with final adoption during the afternoon session on 
 Thursday, June 7. 2 * The length of time given to this discussion re- 
 flects the importance which the convention attached to the matter. The 
 constitution must lay a strong and firm foundation for the new church; 
 it must clearly delineate and set forth the theological premises upon 
 
 ztProtokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, pp. 28-29. 
 
 23 The original document, entitled "Constitution of the Scandinavian Ev. Lu- 
 theran Augustana Synod in North America" and signed, "Respectfully sub- 
 mitted, L. P. Esbjorn, Paul Andersen," is preserved in Augustana Archives, 
 Rock Island. The Swedish version of the constitution appended to the Syn- 
 odical Minutes of 1860 is undoubtedly a translation of the English original. 
 
 24 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, op. tit. 
 
85 A Church Is Founded 
 
 which the new synod was to take its stand, and its organizational pro- 
 visions must furnish a structure which would enable the church to ac- 
 commodate itself to an American environment. 
 
 An examination of the constitution reveals that the framers of 
 this instrument borrowed from two sources. The over-all plan of or- 
 ganization and polity had been taken from the constitution of the 
 Synod of Northern Illinois. The Scandinavians had learned from their 
 American associates the type of religious framework which was best 
 suited to American conditions, and they wisely followed their lead. 
 Accordingly, the constitution provided for a representative form of 
 government in which the ultimate authority rested with the congrega- 
 tions. Though the Synod was intended to be more than merely an ad- 
 visory body, its legislative powers were tacitly limited to matters re- 
 ferred to it by congregations and conferences. The congregational pre- 
 rogative of independent action in practically all matters except doc- 
 trinal subscription was acknowledged. The functions of the president 
 were not to be the arbitrary power of a bishop, but those of a presiding 
 officer, a supervisor and counselor. The Synod itself was denned as 
 consisting of ordained ministers and regularly elected delegates from 
 affiliated congregations, while membership in the Synod was to be 
 granted only to those congregations which accepted the constitution 
 and made annual contributions to the synodical budget. Although the 
 constitution made provision for regional divisions in terms of confer- 
 ences and districts, no specific lines of demarcation were drawn regard- 
 ing the responsibilities, authority, and functions of such regional units 
 in relation to the Synod, except to say that they were to be "account- 
 able to it." In all of these respects the new constitution followed, al- 
 most word for word, the constitution of the Synod of Northern Illinois, 
 giving to the new church a cohesive organizational structure but with- 
 out rigid centralization. 
 
 In other respects there were marked differences. Article VI in 
 the constitution of the Synod of Northern Illinois provided for the 
 office of Licentiate, which granted laymen and students holding such 
 licenses "the power to perform all ministerial functions during the 
 time specified in this license." The new constitution made no provision 
 for such an office and thereby abolished it. It did, however, provide 
 for the licensing of catechists who were granted the right to serve 
 congregations as preachers and teachers "under the care of specified 
 ministers." 25 
 
 25 Chapter 8. During the subsequent years of its history the Augustana Church 
 made frequent use of the licensed lay preacher and teacher. These licensed 
 
Augustana Heritage 86 
 
 The most notable difference, however, between the constitution 
 adopted by the Scandinavians and that of the Synod of Northern Illi- 
 nois appeared in the doctrinal article. Here the source from which the 
 committee borrowed was the congregational constitution which had 
 been adopted by the United Scandinavian Conference in 1857. The 
 doctrinal article in the congregational constitution was reproduced 
 practically word for word, as follows: 
 
 Article II. As a Christian body in general, and particularly as 
 Evangelical Lutheran, this synod acknowledges that the holy 
 Scriptures, the revealed Word of God, are the only sufficient and 
 infallible rule and standard of faith and practice, and also retains 
 and confesses not only the three oldest symbols (the Apostolic, the 
 Nicene and the Athanasian) , but also the unaltered Augsburg 
 Confession as a short and correct summary of the principal Chris- 
 tian doctrines, understood as developed and explained in the other 
 Symbolical books of the Lutheran Church. This article shall never 
 be altered. 26 
 
 It is at this point that the new church clearly differentiates itself most 
 specifically in contrast to its former association, and takes its place 
 among the forces of conservative, confessional Lutheranism in Ameri- 
 ca. And as if to underscore this declaration, it adopted its unique name, 
 Augustana, the Latin designation for the Augsburg Confession, for it 
 was the theological premises enunciated in the Unaltered Augsburg 
 Confession to which the Synod was committed. It meant to make its 
 position unequivocal; it was to be a Lutheran church in the generic 
 and historical sense of that term, without addition or subtraction. 
 
 The constituting convention at Jefferson Prairie took two further 
 significant actions; it established a theological seminary, and it created 
 an agency for carrying on home missions. 
 
 In connection with the establishment of the seminary the conven- 
 tion adopted the following interesting resolution. 
 
 While our Scandinavian Professor, Rev. L. P. Esbjorn, has re- 
 linquished his services as such in Springfield, our professorship 
 has not thereby been discontinued, but only moved to our new 
 
 laymen rendered an important service to the church, and a number of them, 
 after serving a period of apprenticeship and satisfying minimum academic 
 requirements, were ordained into the Augustana ministry. Infra., p. 222. 
 26 A comparison of the constitutions of the Synod of Northern Illinois and the 
 Augustana Synod is given in an article by Conrad Bergendoff, "The Sources 
 of the Original Constitution of the Augustana Synod, 1860," in Augustana 
 Historical Society Publications, Vol. V, pp. 85-106. The congregational con- 
 stitution adopted by the United Scandinavian Conference in 1857 is given in 
 Norelius, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 826ff. For a survey of the constitutional changes 
 made by the Augustana Church, see A. D. Mattson, Polity of the Augustana 
 Lutheran Church, pp. 119fr. 
 
87 A Church Is Founded 
 
 school; we therefore name and designate herewith said L. P. 
 Esbjorn as Scandinavian and theological professor at Augustana 
 Seminary in Chicago. 27 
 
 This resolution makes it clear that the Scandinavians in no way con- 
 sidered Esbjorn's resignation to have abrogated or annulled the office 
 of Scandinavian professor, or affected their relationship to the office 
 itself. Esbjorn's action had merely disassociated the professorship from 
 the school at Springfield, and the new Synod was simply reaffirming 
 the office and adopting as its own the obligations which the Scandi- 
 navians had assumed when the professorship was first established in 
 1857. The seminary which was formed at Jefferson Prairie was not, 
 therefore, in fact a new institution, but was rather a continuation of 
 the educational venture which had begun actual operations in the fall 
 of 1858. This interpretation of the professorship, implicit in the resolu- 
 tion, was important because it gave the Scandinavians the right to lay 
 claim to the assets of the Springfield professorship. The collection of 
 these assets from Illinois State University involved the Augustana 
 Synod in protracted bickering with the Synod of Northern Illinois 
 which reflected little credit to either side. The matter was not resolved 
 until 1863, when the Synod finally agreed to accept an old mortgage on 
 the Swedish Lutheran Church in Chicago as full settlement and relin- 
 quish all further claims to the endowment funds. 28 
 
 The seminary constitution adopted at Jefferson Prairie provided 
 for an institution with two departments, the one preparatory, the other 
 theological. The program of the preparatory department would be de- 
 signed to train young men for teaching and for entrance into the sem- 
 inary. The theological curriculum would meet the requirements for 
 ordination, and would embrace two branches: a theoretical, including 
 language courses in Hebrew and Greek, Old and New Testament ex- 
 egesis, dogmatics, symbolics, and church history, and a practical, in- 
 cluding pastoral theology, homiletics, polity, and related subjects. 29 
 The faculty was to consist of three or more professors, of which one 
 was to be Swedish, one Norwegian and one English. 30 The school year 
 should cover a period of thirty-eight weeks, divided into two semesters 
 of sixteen and twenty-two weeks. 31 The Board of Directors should be 
 composed of four pastors and four laymen, elected by the Synod, who 
 
 " Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1860, p. 4. 
 
 28 Arden, op. cit., p. 113f . 
 
 29 Seminary Constitution, Art. III. The first seminary constitution is published 
 in Norelius, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 28-30. See also Appendix, Protokoll, 1869. 
 
 ™Ibid., Article IV. 
 31 Ibid., Article VIII. 
 
Augustana Heritage 88 
 
 were to be directly responsible to the Church for the conduct and man- 
 agement of the institution, and required to report all board activities at 
 each annual convention of Synod. 32 
 
 By establishing its own seminary the Augustana Synod sought to 
 insure both the purity and the perpetuation of its spiritual heritage. 
 Since the Synod reserved to itself the right of calling and dismissing 
 the seminary faculty, it could thereby exercise complete control over 
 the kind of men who would train its ministers. By so guarding the 
 training of its ministerium, the Synod could also make sure that the 
 religious tradition to which it was committed would be preserved for 
 future generations. Thus, the formation of the seminary constituted 
 a very real part of the differentiating and accommodating actions in- 
 volved in the establishment of the new church in America. 
 
 It is important also to note that the educational ideal envisaged in 
 the seminary project is much broader than was often encountered in 
 America of that day. In spite of the weakness and poverty, and the in- 
 sistent pressures for ministerial manpower, the fledgling synod was not 
 interested in founding merely a so-called "missions school," where the 
 training would be limited to a few months and to brief courses in bibli- 
 cal exegesis and homiletics. These Scandinavian immigrants placed a 
 premium upon a properly educated ministry, and they set their edu- 
 cational standards high, even though it meant fewer ministers, and a 
 longer and more expensive period of training. To be sure, the Synod 
 was compelled to license and ordain men who had not fulfilled the re- 
 quirements envisaged in the seminary curriculum, but these cases 
 were exceptions to the rule, and the ideal was never discarded, but 
 served always as a lodestar guiding the Church in its educational en- 
 deavors. 
 
 The major premise of this educational ideal was that religion and 
 theology must sustain a dynamic relationship to other branches of 
 human knowledge and experience. Thus, in the Scandinavian lands, 
 a broad education in the arts, humanities, and science was considered 
 a prerequisite for ministerial training, and theology itself was not an 
 isolated discipline, but was set within the framework of a university 
 curriculum which expressed and embodied a total culture. 
 
 In the case of Augustana Seminary, this university ideal found 
 expression in the establishment of two departments, a preparatory, 
 which laid the foundations for what ultimately became a full four-year 
 college course of study, and a theological, specifically designed to meet 
 
 32 Ibid., Article X. 
 
89 AChurchIsFounded 
 
 the needs of the pastoral calling. This reflects the influence of the 
 chief leaders of Augustana who themselves had enjoyed the advan- 
 tages of a university education and desired to transplant as much of 
 their total cultural heritage as possible. 
 
 It was this emphasis upon learning which motivated the Synod to 
 send Pastor O. C. T. Andren to Sweden in the fall of 1860 to beg for 
 books and money for the new school. The result of Andren's appeal 
 was a magnificent gift of some five thousand volumes, most of them 
 from the Royal Library of King Charles XV, and a nationwide collec- 
 tion of funds which totaled $10,846.45. Such was the gift of the mother- 
 land to the church and the school of her emigrant children. 33 
 
 With respect to home missions, the new synod took steps to place 
 this activity on a more systematic and orderly footing. Heretofore, 
 home missions had been haphazardly carried on by individual pastors 
 and congregations without a unified plan of action or strategic guidance 
 from any agency. At Jefferson Prairie the program of home missions 
 was seen as the most vital and compelling task confronting the Synod. 
 It was therefore resolved that: 
 
 1. A committee of three be established to have general charge 
 of the home mission work and report its activities to the annual 
 convention of the Synod. 
 
 2. That this committee be authorized to employ a traveling mis- 
 sionary, particularly for Minnesota, as soon as circumstances per- 
 mit. 
 
 3. That the synodical president appoint one of the brethren to 
 deliver a sermon on home missions at the next convention of 
 Synod. 34 
 
 This action established the first home mission agency of the Augustana 
 Church, the members of which were Pastors T. N. Hasselquist and O. 
 T. Hatlestad, and Mr. Ola Paulson. It was to be the duty of this central 
 committee to gather information regarding needy settlements and va- 
 cant congregations, to organize a program of widespread action and 
 collect funds for its prosecution, to recruit and send missionaries into 
 those areas where need was most compelling. This is to say that the 
 central committee was to formulate, supervise, and activate a program 
 for home missions which would utilize the slender resources of the 
 Synod to the best possible advantage. And at subsequent synodical 
 conventions the subject of home missions was to be kept before the 
 people by means of a special service devoted to this cause. 
 
 33 Monograph by O. N. Olson, Olof Christian Telemak Andren, Rock Island, 
 
 1954. See also Arden, op. tit., pp. 117-122. 
 s *Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1860, op. tit., p. 11. 
 
Augustana Heritage 90 
 
 The central committee continued to function for ten years, and 
 though not all its goals were realized, some solid achievements were 
 registered. Eric Norelius was called as traveling missionary to Min- 
 nesota and began his work in the fall of 1860. As needs arose, other 
 men were commissioned and sent to other sections of the land to min- 
 ister to their countrymen. Appeals for funds brought response from 
 congregations and individuals at home and abroad. The Swedish Na- 
 tional Evangelical Foundation (Fosterlandsstiftelsen) sent timely gifts 
 on several occasions during the decade. Thus, while the central home 
 mission committee was compelled to report its failure each year to win 
 more than a fraction of the immigrant masses, it did give to this vital 
 work of the Church much-needed guidance, a new stability, and a 
 sense of direction. 35 
 
 And so, in a time of national peril, in a day when prudence would 
 have counseled postponement, and fear and doubt would have fa- 
 vored inaction, a church was founded as a testimony to a faith that 
 was wiser than prudence and stronger than doubt and fear. They 
 called it Augustana. 
 
 85 Jubel-Album, op. cit., pp. 171-208. The Augustana Synod, 1860-1910, Rock 
 Island, 1910, pp. 73-88. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Shaping or a Tradition 
 
 The first decade or two constituted one of the most decisive periods 
 in the history of the Augustana Church. During this period the 
 foundations were laid upon which the Synod would henceforth 
 build, and the basic direction given for future development. Having 
 differentiated its broad and basic principles, the new church began to 
 take shape as it sought to structure its life and work according to the 
 environmental needs which it confronted. This shaping occurred in 
 terms of the way Augustana responded to a number of compelling 
 problems and needs. 
 
 The Civil War and the Indian Uprising 
 
 There was first of all the elemental problem of physical survival 
 in a time of war and national upheaval. The Augustana Church was 
 less than a year old when the first battles of the Civil War were fought, 
 and as conflict increased in intensity and scope life became more diffi- 
 cult and precarious for both individuals and institutions. To be sure, 
 the congregations of the Augustana Church were not located in those 
 geographical sections of the country where the battles were actually 
 fought, and the Scandinavians were, therefore, spared from the worst 
 horrors of the carnage, but the war demanded a toll of heavy sacrifice 
 from everyone. Like all wars in human history, the conflict between 
 North and South had a demoralizing effect on the people, both mater- 
 ially and spiritually. All available resources of men and means were 
 conscripted in the gigantic struggle. Money which would otherwise 
 have been contributed to the work of the church was siphoned off by 
 taxation for military purposes. Men in their best years who normally 
 would have been active in their congregations, or studying to prepare 
 for teaching or the ministry, were being drawn into the armed forces 
 until classrooms were nearly empty and the male population depleted 
 so that in some communities only small boys and old men remained. 1 
 Even more disturbing were the psychological and spiritual effects of 
 
 1 Norelius, op. tit, Vol. II, p. 143. Student enrollment in the Seminary totaled 
 sixteen during 1860-61; the following year it dwindled to twelve, and the 
 last year in Chicago it numbered only nine. Protokoll, 1861, p. 23; 1862, p. 
 21; 1863, p. 23. 
 
 91 
 
Augustana Heritage 92 
 
 the war. Hearts and minds were everywhere rilled with fear, anxiety, 
 and sorrow, as reports of battle casualties, victory, and defeat trickled 
 back to the home front. The war was the one absorbing topic of 
 thought and conversation. As always, the sinews of war were strength- 
 ened by hate and bitterness, and as more and more homes were touched 
 by hardship and bereavement, and Northern propaganda flooded the 
 country with lurid tales of Southern atrocities and brutality, the 
 Scandinavians shared with other Northerners the rising spirit of bitter 
 antipathy toward the "southern traitors." 2 This kind of climate was not 
 conducive to Christian progress or spiritual growth and development; 
 people were too preoccupied with the grim business of crushing the 
 enemy. The following excerpt from an official church report reflects 
 the difficulties which beset the Christian cause in this troubled time. 
 
 The great Civil War which now engulfs this country has taken 
 away so many of our men that our congregations are hard pressed 
 to provide for their spiritual needs. The war has had, and will cer- 
 tainly continue to have, a detrimental effect upon the progress of 
 Christianity. The hearts and minds of our people are constantly 
 filled with anxiety and thoughts about the war, how it progresses 
 and how it will end. The Lord no longer seems to be in this holo- 
 caust, but we hope and pray that He will finally appear in the still- 
 ness after the storm. The Lord chastens, but the people seem to 
 become all the more hardened. He speaks through the sword 
 and plague, but men will not listen. We trust, however, that He 
 shall graciously send the rain which will soften the hardhearted. 3 
 
 A further cause of suffering and distress was the Indian massacre of 
 1862 in Minnesota. For a number of years the Sioux tribes, concen- 
 trated in the Yellow Medicine reservation in the west-central section 
 of the territory, had been nursing a growing resentment against the 
 white settlers. By fraud and deceit the Indians had been tricked into 
 agreements which robbed them of their ancestral hunting grounds 
 without receiving fair and equitable recompense. Step by step the 
 whites had crowded the red man out of his homelands, taking from 
 him his fields, and even his livelihood, pushing him into an ever smaller 
 territory, hedging him about with laws and rules the Indian did not 
 want and could not understand. Growing more and more angry and 
 sullen as they watched the encroachments of the white man, the Sioux 
 
 2 The Scandinavians were for the most part staunch Republicans and support- 
 ers of Lincoln and his policies. The editorials and correspondence appear- 
 ing in Hemlandet during the war years reflect this pro-north and anti-slavery 
 sentiment in almost every issue. 
 
 3 Report by Rev. J. Person, secretary of the Minnesota Conference, 1862, 
 quoted by Norelius, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 145. 
 
93 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 tribes finally determined to drive their enemies from the territory west 
 of the Mississippi. 4 
 
 The Sioux hit the war path on August 17, 1862, striking settle- 
 ments first in Meeker county, Minnesota, then spreading their assaults 
 quickly they reached as far north as Kandiyohi county and southward 
 into the upper areas of Nicollet county. Hundreds of people, men, 
 women, and children, were killed, and some women and children were 
 taken captive. Churches, homes, houses, and barns were burned, crops 
 destroyed, and cattle dispersed or stolen. A number of border settle- 
 ments were completely wiped out, while others were partially de- 
 stroyed. Virtually the entire population in the stricken area was forced 
 to flee on foot across country, seeking shelter and help wherever it 
 could be found. Among the hapless victims were many who were mem- 
 bers of devastated Augustana congregations at West Lake, Norway 
 Lake, Eagle Lake, and elsewhere. 5 
 
 So at the very outset the Synod was harassed by vanishing re- 
 sources, spiritual lethargy, devastated congregations, fear, uncertainty, 
 and bitterness. But at the same time these very circumstances offered 
 a challenge for greater Christian witness through new opportunities 
 for service. In times like these it was not enough merely to continue 
 the regular work of established parishes and preaching stations. The 
 Civil War opened new and broadened gates of opportunity for service 
 to the churches of the North as the Federal Government encouraged 
 pastors and religious agencies to conduct worship and preaching serv- 
 ices in military camps, to visit military hospitals and prisons, and min- 
 ister to the sick, the wounded, the dying, and the imprisoned. 6 A num- 
 ber of Augustana pastors responded to this summons and brought the 
 ministry of the church to such military installations as were located in 
 their territories. 7 And as these parish pastors shared their experiences 
 with their people, they bade them pray for the men in service, and ask 
 God to bless and prosper the cause of freedom for which so many were 
 suffering and dying. Serious efforts were also made by many pastors 
 
 4 The Beginnings and Progress of Minnesota Conference, Edited by Committee, 
 Minneapolis, 1929, pp. 155-168. See also Emeroy Johnson, A Church is 
 Planted, Minneapolis, 1948, pp. 164-181. 
 
 5 Vivid accounts of the Indian uprising and the steps taken to alleviate the 
 suffering appeared in Hemlandet, August 27, September 3, 1862. See also 
 Protokoll, Minnesota konferensen, Oct. 8, 1862. Tidskrift, 1899, Vol. I, p. 171. 
 
 6 Olmstead, Clifton E., History of Religion in the United States, Englewood 
 Cliffs, N. J., 1960, Chapter 20, especially pages 390ff. 
 
 7 See letters in Norelius Collection, Augustana Archives, P. M. Gustafson, 
 dated February 10, 1863; John Johnson, September 15, 1863; C. A. Heden- 
 gren, September 15, 1864; N. O. Westergren, January 17, 1865; A. Erickson, 
 February 10, 1865. 
 
Augustana Heritage 94 
 
 to keep in touch through correspondence with members serving in the 
 Army, while the church paper, Hemlandet, was offered free to all Au- 
 gustana members in military service. Through the spoken and printed 
 word the people of the church were challenged to think seriously and 
 relevantly about the religious and spiritual implications of the stirring 
 events of the day. 8 
 
 Furthermore, when news of the Indian uprisings in western Min- 
 nesota reached other sections of the country, even though no appeal for 
 relief funds had been made, voluntary offerings began to pour into the 
 hands of Eric Norelius from congregations in Minnesota, Illinois, In- 
 diana, and Iowa. The Minnesota Conference elected a special relief 
 committee consisting of Norelius, Andrew Jackson, and Johan Johan- 
 son, to handle all relief funds and dispense aid to the refugees from the 
 Indian Massacres. Within a few months the committee had received 
 almost $750, and had extended aid to approximately seventy families. 
 At the same time plans were made and carried through to reorganize 
 the scattered congregations in the Indian territories and rebuild the 
 churches which had been destroyed. 9 
 
 Thus, the terrible war with its devastation of physical, moral, and 
 spiritual values, aggravated and intensified by the sufferings and hard- 
 ships caused by the Indian uprising, served nevertheless to awaken 
 among the Scandinavians a new and broader sense of community con- 
 sciousness and responsibility, a new and deepened appreciation of the 
 spiritual values involved in the political and social issues of the day, 
 and to create a dynamic opportunity to put faith into action in terms 
 of deeds of Christian love and charity. 10 In just such stretching of 
 nerves, mind, and muscle, in such vigorous activity, the fledgling synod 
 increased its strength, vitalized its life and, moving into hitherto un- 
 reached areas, it even promoted its numerical growth, while it broad- 
 ened its vision, deepened its understanding and reinforced its resolve 
 to meet the uncertain future with firm faith and bold deeds. 
 
 The Program of Christian Education 
 
 Closely linked with the problem of survival and growth was the 
 whole question of education. In the most practical way the future of 
 
 8 See, for example, the article in Hemlandet, February 15, 1865, which calls at- 
 tention to the prevailing materialism and sensuality of the age as the under- 
 lying evil which has brought the judgment of God upon the whole nation. 
 
 9 Hemlandet, November 5, 1862. See also Protokoll — Minnesota konferensen, 1862 
 in Tidskrift, Vol. I, 1899, p. 171. 
 
 10 Cf. Norelius, op. tit, Vol. II, p. 145f. 
 
95 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 the Synod was bound up with its educational program, since the com- 
 pelling need of an informed and loyal laity as well as an indigenous 
 American ministry could be met only by maintaining an adequate edu- 
 cational program at synodical, conference, and parish levels. 
 
 At the synodical level it was the theological seminary which was 
 principally at stake. After moving the seminary to Chicago it was soon 
 obvious that greater financial support and more adequate facilities 
 would have to be provided, if the school was to accomplish its intended 
 purpose. Many plans and proposals were discussed and debated. Fin- 
 ally, the plan which seemed most feasible was put forth by T. N. 
 Hasselquist and backed by Erland Carlsson. This plan envisaged the 
 founding of a great Scandinavian colony through the acquisition and 
 sale of land to new settlers, the profits from which would constitute an 
 endowment fund for the seminary to be located at the very center 
 of the new colony. The large tract of land necessary for this specu- 
 lative venture was to be purchased with the school funds already 
 collected in Sweden and America. 
 
 Several possible locations were considered, 11 but finally an offer 
 by the Illinois Central Railroad to sell to the seminary board one thou- 
 sand acres of choice land in the vicinity of Paxton, Illinois, for $6.00 
 per acre, with an option on an additional five thousand acres at $10.00 
 per acre, was accepted by the board and subsequently ratified by the 
 Synod at its convention in Chicago, June, 1863. 12 Thus, it was settled. 
 The seminary was to be moved from Chicago to Paxton before the 
 opening of the next school year. 13 
 
 The whole colonizing scheme, however, was bitterly opposed by 
 Esbjorn, who felt that Chicago was the logical place for the school and 
 that the colonization plan was a hazardous gamble for which the 
 pledged resources of the school ought never to be used. In a letter to 
 Norelius, dated May 27, 1862, he expressed his views in the following 
 words. 
 
 I become troubled when I think about this matter and realize 
 that everything we have done and all the money we have gathered 
 is going to be bungled and will go up in the smoke of wretched 
 land speculation. You brethren in Minnesota have burned your 
 fingers on such deals. Arise, then, as one man and say "No," an 
 eternal "No," to all speculation. Let those who so desire buy land 
 and establish colonies, build churches and parsonages. The modest 
 
 11 Grundy County, Iowa, Oconto, Wisconsin, near Green Bay, and Applington, 
 Iowa. 
 
 12 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1863, p. lOf. 
 
 13 Ibid., p. 11. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 96 
 
 gifts of well-meaning friends and the farthings of the poor folks 
 in Sweden have not been contributed for such purposes, but for 
 a ministerial seminary in Chicago. Mark that! We have no right 
 to use these funds for any other purpose, and least of all for specu- 
 lation. ... I feel that this is a breach of trust. Forgive me, but I 
 cannot restrain myself. I must sound the warning word of truth 
 and ask that you give it echo among those brethren who are will- 
 ing to listen. 14 
 
 Esbjorn's protests went unheeded as the Synod chose to follow the 
 leadership of Hasselquist and Erland Carlsson. As a consequence of 
 this apparent repudiation of his policies and his growing disenchant- 
 ment with a free-church society, augmented by ill-health and the be- 
 reavements suffered through the loss of several members of his fam- 
 ily, 15 Esbjorn began to grow homesick for Sweden and for the national 
 Church which he once so bitterly criticized. He was offended when the 
 Synod refused to hearken to his voice; he felt that he was being by- 
 passed in favor of younger men, and that his leadership, therefore, was 
 no longer essential. In a letter to Norelius, dated October 3, 1861, he 
 expresses his sentiments as follows: 
 
 My homesickness increases, and if God shows me the way, I 
 shall probably return again [to Sweden]. ... It seems to me that 
 God has used me, unworthy though I am, as a little pioneer out 
 here, and that He now no longer needs me, but can accomplish His 
 work here through others. The Lord is showing me now, as He 
 has before, that it is time for me to leave. Perhaps the experiences 
 I have gathered here may be of some use at home in the father- 
 land during the present critical conditions. 16 
 
 Professor Esbjorn requested the seminary board to grant him a leave 
 of absence from April to September, 1862, for the purpose of visiting 
 Sweden to campaign for the seminary and to seek re-entry into the 
 service of the Church of Sweden. 17 During his visit in Sweden, 1862, 
 Esbjorn traveled extensively, presenting the cause of the Augustana 
 Church and Seminary to large crowds in almost every part of the 
 country. Many congregations chose Esbjorn's visit as the opportune 
 time to receive the offering sanctioned by the King on behalf of Au- 
 gustana, and because of his gripping message about the needs in Amer- 
 
 14 Letter in Tidskrift, Vol. I, 1899, p. 329. See Ibid., for other similar communi- 
 cations, pp. 321, 327 and 329. 
 
 15 Esbjorn had suffered the loss of two wives and five children since embark- 
 ing upon his American ministry. 
 
 16 Ibid., p. 322. 
 
 17 Minutes, Board of Directors, Augustana Seminary, December 18, 1861. 
 
97 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 ica, these collections were undoubtedly often substantially larger than 
 they otherwise might have been. 
 
 Esbj bra's re-entry into the Church of Sweden was assured when 
 his application for the post of chief pastor in the parish of Ostervala in 
 Halsingland was approved by the authorities with the stipulation that, 
 he begin his service on May 1, 1864. Upon his return to America Pro- 
 fessor Esbj bra began to make preparations for his final leave-taking. 
 At the conclusion of the school year in the spring of 1863, he resigned, 
 and before the seminary moved its meager household to Paxton in the 
 late summer of 1863, the professor and his family were already on their 
 way back to Sweden, his fourteen-year ministry in America having 
 come to an end. Thus, at the very time the struggling school and synod 
 stood in greatest need of experienced leadership, L. P. Esbj bra, the 
 pioneer, for reasons which to him seemed good and sufficient, followed 
 the example of Pastor O. C. T. Andren in relinquishing his American 
 ministry for which he, as also in the case of Andren, professed a deep 
 love and concern, to resume a less arduous and more secure service in 
 the Church of the homeland. 18 
 
 Deprived thus of the services of its oldest and most experienced 
 leader and only theological professor, the Synod was compelled to se- 
 cure someone to take Esbj bra's place as head of the school. The hope 
 was that a competent theologian could be found in Sweden who would 
 be willing to come to America and lead the educational program. 19 In 
 the meantime the Synod turned to its president, T. N. Hasselquist, and 
 asked him to step temporarily into the breach "until a Scandinavian 
 professor can be secured." 20 When repeated efforts to engage a Swed- 
 ish theologian failed, Hasselquist was continued in office year after 
 year, without special board or synodical action. Indeed, it was not until 
 1875 that the Synod issued a formal call to Hasselquist as president 
 of Augustana College and Seminary. 21 
 
 As the universally esteemed president of the Synod from 1860 to 
 1870, and its chief theological mentor from 1863 until his death in 1891, 
 Hasselquist exerted a marked influence upon practically every area 
 of the Synod's life. It was he, beyond any other, who gave to the syn- 
 odical structure a strong centralized authority, and discouraged sec- 
 
 18 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1863, pp. 22ff. Pastor Esbjorn had served the 
 Ostervala parish as assistant pastor before coming to America. He continued 
 to serve this congregation until his death in 1870. He lies buried in the 
 Ostervala churchyard. 
 
 19 Minutes, Board of Directors, September 15, 1863. 
 
 20 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1863, p. 11. 
 
 21 See O. F. Ander, op. cit, p. 58. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 98 
 
 tional and conference particularism. In opposition to sectional leaders, 
 whether from Minnesota or elsewhere, Hasselquist upheld the ideal of 
 one synod, one school, one newspaper, one central government which 
 could co-ordinate the expanding activities of the Church and foster a 
 growing sense of unity among Scandinavian Americans. 22 
 
 No less pronounced was Hasselquist's influence upon the educa- 
 tional development of the Synod. Though he differed with Esbjorn on 
 many questions, he fully shared Esbjorn's educational ideal which in- 
 volved the recognition of the vital relationship between religion and 
 culture. Religion and theology must not be isolated from the rest of 
 human knowledge and experience, but must inform, and be informed 
 by, it, and education must be the handmaiden of this cross-fertiliza- 
 tion. 23 To this end the theological curriculum must be preceded by 
 "preparatory courses" in science, the humanities, and the practical 
 skills, in order that the clergy of the church may know not only the 
 gospel, but might also become intelligently aware of the world to which 
 the gospel is addressed. 24 Under Hasselquist's guidance the prepara- 
 tory department was steadily strengthened by the addition of more 
 courses and employment of competent instructors. 25 By 1869 the 
 "preacher factory" known as Augustana Seminary had been so trans- 
 formed that a revision of its original constitution had become neces- 
 sary. The new constitution of 1869 clearly indicates what had hap- 
 pened. Article III provided for an expanded institution composed of 
 three departments, (1) a pre-collegiate preparatory, (2) a four-year 
 collegiate, and (3) a two-year theological. Article IV stipulated that 
 matriculation in the theological was ordinarily to be predicated upon 
 satisfactory completion of courses offered in the preparatory and col- 
 legiate departments or acceptable equivalents thereof. 26 
 
 At the same time as the revised constitution was being laid be- 
 fore the Synod for adoption, the Board of Directors of the school was 
 applying to the Illinois State Legislature for a new charter. It is most 
 significant that in both the revised constitution and the new charter a 
 new name is given to the institution. Augustana Seminary now be- 
 
 22 Norelius, Hasselquist, op. cit., pp. 63ff . 
 
 23 See his dedicatory address at Augustana College, June 12, 1889, given in 
 Norelius, Hasselquist, pp. 266-272. 
 
 24 Augustana seminariets konstitution, Bilaga B, Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 
 1860. 
 
 25 A record of class schedules, dating back to 1862 is preserved in the archives 
 of Augustana College, Denkmann Library, Rock Island. 
 
 26 Revised Constitution of Augustana College and Theological Seminary, Pro- 
 tokoll, Augustana Synod, 1869. 
 
 
99 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 comes Augustana College and Theological Seminary. The meaning is 
 clear. These Scandinavians were determined to provide for them- 
 selves and their children an educational program which was inspired 
 by the university ideal of the homeland, patterned according to the 
 lines of a typical American college, and adapted to the needs of the 
 Church it was to serve. 27 
 
 Hasselquist exerted a telling influence not only upon the school, 
 but through the school upon the entire Synod. As the chief theologi- 
 cal professor of the Synod for twenty-eight years, he was privileged to 
 instruct the pastors who were being graduated and ordained each 
 year. These pastors bore the marks of their training and in turn im- 
 pressed their congregations accordingly. One pastor who took his 
 theological training under Hasselquist has charaterized his former 
 teacher thus: 
 
 He [Hasselquist] was not a catechist in the strict sense of the 
 term, and his strength as a theological teacher did not rest upon 
 his ability to impart to his students a systematic knowledge of dog- 
 matics, but rather upon his ability to instill in them something of 
 his own childlike and Scripture-centered faith. It will not be de- 
 nied that there was orderliness in his instruction, but at the same 
 time it cannot be maintained that his dogmatics or other lectures 
 constituted a well-rounded presentation. His theological instruc- 
 tion was not a cunningly devised dogmatic work of literary art, 
 but a natural outflow of his own living faith. His instruction was 
 biblically conservative, but by no means lifeless; he did not hold 
 blindly and stubbornly to certain dogmatic forms, but sought to 
 preserve the true content of his confessional heritage. Without 
 spending much time on dogmas or creeds he nevertheless under- 
 stood how to implant into the minds of his students a genuine 
 Lutheran orthodoxy. 28 
 
 The form which seemed to express more adequately both the character 
 and content of Hasselquist's "childlike and Scripture-centered faith" 
 was the systematic theology of the Norwegian theologian and evan- 
 gelist Gisle Johnson (1822-1894), who was to Norway during the 
 middle decades of the nineteenth century what Carl Olof Rosenius was 
 to Sweden — a herald bringing the quickening spirit of conservative 
 pietism to the national church. 29 It was Pastor August Weenaas, the 
 
 27 The "educational philosophy," if it can be so called, which motivated Hassel- 
 quist and his colleagues is reflected in the utterances connected with the 
 dedication festivities in Rock Island, 1875. See "Tillkannagivande," in Au- 
 gustana, August, 1875, p. 383f.; "Invigningshogtiden," Augustana, September, 
 1875, pp. 438-451: "Skol- och invigningsfesten i Rock Island, 1875," Ungdoms- 
 Viinnen, October 15, 1883. 
 
 28 Article by "A. R." in Norelius, op. cit, p. 313. 
 
 29 Nelson and Fevold, The Lutheran Church Among Norwegian Americans, 
 Minneapolis, 1960, Vol. I, pp. 32-45. 
 
Augustana Heritage 100 
 
 first full-time professor at Augustana Seminary who joined the faculty 
 at Paxton in 1868, who seems to have introduced Johnson's theological 
 system to Augustana. 30 Hasselquist is said to have been so impressed 
 with this system that he made a Swedish translation and used it in his 
 theological instruction. 31 
 
 The dogmatics of Gisle Johnson, in harmony with its basic pietism, 
 was subjectively oriented, beginning with a discussion on the nature 
 of Christian faith and then proceeding to explicate the content of such 
 faith. As might be expected from a pietistic theology, it tended to be 
 literalistic in its biblical interpretation and puritanical in its attitude 
 toward "the world," emphasizing the need for self-denial and disci- 
 pline, and the close connection between justification and salification. 
 It was a theology which also endeavored at every point to be faithful 
 to the historic confessions of the Lutheran Church. But above all, 
 Johnson's theology was practical in its application. As in the case of 
 Rosenius' viewpoint, the emphasis was consistently placed upon praxis 
 rather than theory. 32 
 
 This type of theology suited the taste and temperament of the 
 energetic Hasselquist for whom Christianity was a way of life rather 
 than a philosophy of life. 33 Indeed, it may be asserted that the John- 
 sonian theology suited the taste and temper of the Augustana Synod 
 generally, for it expressed in systematic terms the religious tradition 
 represented by this body. This was theologically the main bill of fare 
 upon which the Augustana ministerium was fed as long as Hasselquist 
 stood at the helm of the seminary. And although his successors chose 
 to approach the study of theology from different viewpoints than that 
 of Gisle Johnson, it may be said that Hasselquist has succeeded in cast- 
 ing his shadow over the theological nurture of the Augustana Church 
 throughout its entire history. This may be one of the reasons why the 
 Augustana Church over the years has developed a number of skillful 
 practical churchmen, but few outstanding theologians. 
 
 30 lbid. } footnote, p. 200. 
 
 31 August Weenaas, Livserindringer Fra Norge og AmeHka, Bergen, 1935, p. 
 118. Weenaas claims that without waiting for Johnson's permission Hassel- 
 quist translated and published Johnson's Dogmatics and thus it appeared in 
 Swedish before it came out in Norwegian. See also Forsander, Lifsbilder, 
 op. tit, p. 81. 
 
 32 Weenas, Livserindringer, op. tit., pp. 50-64: Nordisk teologisk uppslagsbok, 
 pp. 188-189. Einar Malland, Church Life in Norway, 1800-1850, trans. Harris 
 Kaasa, Minneapolis, 1957, pp. 35-36. See also Gisle Johnson, Dogmehistorien 
 og den Kristelige Etik, Kristiania, 1897, pp. 187-220. 
 
 33 See characterization of Hasselquist by "P. J. S." in Norelius, op. cit., pp. 
 324ff. 
 
101 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 Interest in education was not limited, however, to the synodical 
 level; regional loyalties also found expression in educational ventures. 
 During the first decade of its existence the Augustana Synod expanded 
 in numbers and territorial scope in spite of the difficult war years. The 
 confirmed membership of the Synod in 1860 was 5,507; by 1870 it to- 
 taled 19,355. The number of congregations for the same period in- 
 creased from 60 to 137, concentrated largely in Illinois and Minnesota, 
 but scattered also throughout the adjacent areas of Indiana, Wisconsin, 
 Michigan, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Dakota, New York, Mas- 
 sachusetts, and Pennsylvania. 34 To expedite the administration of syn- 
 odical affairs in these scattered areas the Synod created, as need arose, 
 regional jurisdictional units called conferences. 35 The original confer- 
 ence divisions, Mississippi and Chicago, were nationalistic, but sub- 
 sequent conferences were geographical and regional in character, in- 
 cluding the Minnesota Conference which was formed in 1858. In 1868 
 the Mississippi Conference petitioned the Synod for permission to di- 
 vide itself into eastern and western sections with the Mississippi River 
 as the dividing line. These two sections were to co-ordinate their work 
 by holding a joint convention once each year. This petition was granted 
 by the Synod. 36 At the synodical convention in 1870 the Augustana 
 Synod undertook a serious revision of its organizational structure. 
 New regional divisions were created and the boundaries defined by the 
 Synod. Thus, the congregations in the Eastern states were to consti- 
 tute the New York Conference. The congregations in Illinois, Indiana, 
 Michigan, and southern Wisconsin were to comprise the Illinois Con- 
 ference. The congregations located in Minnesota, Dakota, and north- 
 west Wisconsin were to make up the Minnesota Conference. Those in 
 Iowa were to constitute the Iowa Conference, and the Kansas Confer- 
 ence was to include the congregations in Kansas, Nebraska, and Mis- 
 souri. 37 
 
 ^Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1860, 1870, Kyrklig Statistik. See also Minutes 
 of the Augustana Lutheran Church, 1961, Augustana Church Statistics Ev- 
 ery Year since 1940, p. 770. 
 
 ^.Everett Arden » Hi s to ry of the Illinois Conference, Rock Island, 1953, pp. 
 18it. 
 
 56 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1868, p. 41. 
 
 ^Protokoll Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 41. As the Augustana Synod expanded 
 new conferences came into being as follows: The Nebraska Conference, or- 
 ganized m 1886; the Pacific Conference formed in 1888, and divided into the 
 Washington and California Conferences, 1893; the Washington Conference 
 was later renamed Columbia. The Superior Conference, 1910; the New Eng- 
 land Conference, 1912; the Red River Valley Conference, 1912; the Canada 
 ^ er ? nce ' 1913 ' and the Texas Conference, 1923. See A. D. Mattson, Polity 
 of the Augustana Lutheran Church, pp. 355ff. Jubel-Album, op. cit, pp. 87-120. 
 
Augustana Heritage 102 
 
 It was wholly natural that each conference, conscious of its own 
 regional needs, would develop a sense of loyalty and concern which 
 would seek to satisfy regional needs for the benefit of its residents. 
 This emergent regional self-consciousness expressed itself not only in 
 a growth of sectional independence which served as a counterpoise to 
 the centralizing tendencies within the Synod, but also in regional edu- 
 cational experiments. Eric Norelius, who uniquely embodied the in- 
 dependent regional spirit, gave voice to this educational urge in a re- 
 port to the Minnesota Conference in 1873 when he declared: 
 
 Unless a school is built and maintained in every state where a 
 considerable number of Swedish countrymen have settled the 
 young people will seek their education in the public institutions, 
 and the church will miss the opportunity of training them for the 
 church and the kingdom of God. One college in our widely scat- 
 tered Synod will not be enough for this purpose. 38 
 
 Norelius spoke for his countrymen in Minnesota who had been of- 
 fended by the synodical decision to move the seminary to Paxton. It 
 was difficult enough for Minnesota youth to travel to Chicago in order 
 to attend the synodical school. To reach the village of Paxton, a hun- 
 dred miles farther south, would be even more difficult. Furthermore, 
 the Minnesota constituency had been stung by the pre-emptory way 
 the synodical leaders had handled their suggestions for moving the 
 school to Minnesota, or at least closer to the center of Scandinavian 
 population in the Midwest. 39 
 
 Motivated, perhaps by both a sense of injured pride as well as 
 mounting sectional need, the Minnesota Conference at its convention 
 in East Union, 1862, resolved 
 
 That, since the need for teachers in our congregations is so 
 pressing that we can no longer bear it, it is hereby decided that 
 Brother Norelius be requested to assume the task of instructing 
 such young men as the congregations might send him. Brother 
 Norelius accepted this assignment. 40 
 
 In obedience to this resolution Norelius opened his home at Red Wing, 
 Minnesota, as a classroom in the autumn of 1862, and thus quietly 
 launched the Minnesota Elementar Laroverk, which was later moved 
 to Carver, Minnesota as Ansgar Academy, and in 1875 relocated 
 in St. Peter, Minnesota, as Gustavus Adolphus College. Whether or 
 
 38 Quoted by Emeroy Johnson, Eric Norelius, Pioneer Midwest Pastor and 
 Churchman, Rock Island, 1954, p. 127. 
 
 39 See Arden, School of the Prophets, op. cit., pp. 141ff. 
 
 40 Copy of Minutes in Tidskrift for Teologi, Vol. I, 1899, p. 171. 
 
103 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 not the people of Minnesota intended their new school to be a rival to 
 the synodical institution, some of the synodical leaders, and particu- 
 larly Hasselquist, looked upon it as such, and endeavored to discour- 
 age the venture. 41 But the people of Minnesota had no intention of 
 abandoning their school; on the contrary, they persuaded the Synod 
 to approve the Ldroverk at the synodical convention in 1863, with the 
 provision that it would become both "a training center for parish 
 teachers and a preparatory school for those who intended to enter the 
 seminary." 42 
 
 Although the launching of a school in Minnesota imposed upon the 
 people of that conference such staggering financial burdens that they 
 were unable for a number of years to contribute what they otherwise 
 would and could have to the synodical school, and thus worked a hard- 
 ship on that institution, and though the Minnesota school courted fi- 
 nancial disaster and was able to offer only a very limited education for 
 a number of years, it nevertheless proved that regional education was 
 possible. Thus, the experiment in Minnesota gave rise to what has been 
 called the "college mania" of the following decades. 43 
 
 When the people of Kansas witnessed what could be done in Min- 
 nesota, they set about making plans for the establishment of their own 
 sectional school. As a consequence, Bethany College was founded in 
 1881, under the leadership of Pastor Carl A. Swensson in Lindsborg, 
 Kansas. Swensson, a son of the pioneer Rev. Jonas Swensson, was a 
 richly gifted individual who in his brief lifetime of scarcely more than 
 forty-six years, distinguished himself as a great preacher, writer, and 
 educator. Known for many years as "America's most representative 
 Swede," he was the personal friend of Presidents McKinley and Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt, and took an active part in the political life of his own 
 State. His influence as a religious leader extended far beyond his own 
 synod, and he was honored by being elected first to the office of sec- 
 retary and then to the presidency of the General Council. This dy- 
 namic leader infected those around him with his own sense of enthusi- 
 asm and broad vision, and inspired them to sacrifice for the welfare 
 of the church and school in Kansas. 44 
 
 41 Conrad Peterson, Remember Thy Past, a History of Gustavus Adolphus Col- 
 lege, 1862-1952, St. Peter, 1952, pp. 14ff. See also Emeroy Johnson, Eric Nor- 
 elius, op. cit., pp. 102ff. 
 
 42 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1863, p. 13. 
 
 43 Stephenson, Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration, op. cit., p. 330f. 
 
 44 Korsbaneret, 1905, pp. 175-193. Prdirieblomman, 1903, pp. 76-86. 1913, pp. 
 105-119. Jubel-Album, 1893, op. cit., pp. 142-159. Emory K. Lindquist, Smoky 
 Valley People, A History of Lindsborg, Kansas, Lindsborg, Kansas, 1953, 
 pp. 86-107. 
 
Augustana Heritage 104 
 
 In 1883 the people of Nebraska launched their own Luther College 
 at Wahoo, Nebraska, and used the school as a lever to pry themselves 
 free from the Kansas Conference to form their own Nebraska Con- 
 ference. 45 Ten years later, during the jubilee year of 1893, after the 
 New York Conference had mustered enough strength and members to 
 chart an independent course for itself, it, too, launched a school as 
 Upsala College, opened its doors that autumn in the rented quarters of 
 the Swedish Lutheran Bethlehem Church in Brooklyn. A gift of land 
 brought the school to Kenilworth, New Jersey, in 1898, and in 1924 
 the institution found a permanent home in East Orange, New Jersey. 
 The leading spirit in this venture was Dr. Lars Herman Beck, president 
 of Upsala College from its inception until 1910. Under his able leader- 
 ship the new school weathered its early financial difficulties, recruited 
 a competant faculty and growing student body, and built its first school 
 buildings. 46 
 
 Although the "school mania" came near wrecking the entire edu- 
 cational program of the Augustana Church by saddling the people with 
 impossible financial obligations, it nevertheless served to spread educa- 
 tional opportunities to sections which the central synodical school was 
 not able to reach and serve in the days before rapid transportation. 
 Regional experimentation in education, even though it often proved a 
 failure, served also to promote a general interest and concern for edu- 
 cation throughout the Augustana Church through the competition 
 which it engendered among the conferences. It is perhaps true, how- 
 ever, that if the rather limited resources of the Synod could have been 
 more carefully and judiciously channeled into fewer but strategically 
 located educational institutions, the best interests of the Church un- 
 doubtedly would have been more adequately served. 
 
 To maintain throughout the Church a loyal and informed laity 
 
 45 The most adequate history of Luther College and the Nebraska Conference 
 is J. I. Dowie, Prairie Grass Dividing, Rock Island, 1959. See especially pages 
 87-195. See also Jubel-Album, op. cit., p. 159; My Church, 1933, pp. 120-126. 
 
 40 Korsbaneret, 1906, pp. 66-71; 1918, pp. 134-146. Prairieblomman, 1908, pp. 
 155-169. The Augustana Synod, A Brief Review of Its History, 1860-1910, 
 Rock Island, 1910, pp. 122ff. The "college mania" brought a number of edu- 
 cational institutions into being which enjoyed only brief existence, such as 
 Hope Academy, organized by the Red River Valley Conference in 1888; 
 Martin Luther College, formed by a group of Chicago pastors in 1893; North- 
 western College, established in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, 1900; Minnesota Col- 
 lege, begun in Minneapolis, 1904; Trinity College, founded in Round Rock, 
 Texas, 1906; Coeur d'Alene College, organized in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, 1907, 
 and North Star College, established in 1908 at Warren, Minnesota. Cf. Au- 
 gustana Synod, 1860-1910, op. cit., pp. 127-135. See also Norelius, Svenska 
 luterska fbrsamlingarnas, etc., Vol. II, op. cit., pp. 256-261. Jubel-Album, 
 op. cit., pp. 123-167. 
 
105 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 which would be willing and ready to shoulder the sacrifices and under- 
 take the responsibilities which the work of the new Synod required 
 demanded also an educational program at the parish level. The Au- 
 gustana Church met this need by the establishment of Sunday and pa- 
 rochial schools and a church press. As a matter of fact, the program 
 of parish education antedates the organization of the Synod and goes 
 back to the early days of the Mississippi Conference, as evidenced in 
 the following resolution which the conference passed in 1853: 
 
 Resolved: 
 
 3) That our congregations be kindly urged to establish Sunday 
 schools, singing classes according to Dean Dillner's system, and 
 Bible classes, — the latter can more easily and advantageously 
 be developed out of the Sunday schools. 
 
 4) That pastors zealously conduct catechetical instruction among 
 the youth, especially confirmation instruction, using Luther's 
 Small Catechism and such portions of the Large Catechism as 
 may seem most practicable; Spener's Catechism, also, is rec- 
 ommended for reading, though not for memorization. 47 
 
 Although there are no records extant which would indicate how dili- 
 gently the congregations sought to implement the conference resolu- 
 tions, the statistical report attached to the first minutes of the Synod 
 indicate a good deal of activity along this line. The report states that 
 within the 49 congregations comprising the Synod in 1860 there were 
 29 Sunday schools and 18 parochial schools, and that 15 congregations 
 maintained both Sunday and parochial schools. 48 
 
 In the first presidential report rendered to the Synod, Dr. Hassel- 
 quist declared: 
 
 A growing concern for the orderly and adequate instruction of 
 the children has been manifested throughout our congregations. 
 In the places which I have visited during the year I have had op- 
 portunity to conduct catechetical examinations, and I discovered 
 that the knowledge which had been imparted to the children was 
 very good, indeed, better than could have been expected under 
 existing circumstances. 49 
 By 1870 the number of congregations comprising the Synod had in- 
 creased to 142, which maintained 87 Sunday and 56 parochial schools, 
 
 47 Minutes of the Mississippi Conference, Moline Illinois, January 6-9, 1853, 
 translated in Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. X, p. 89. For a 
 discussion of the "Dillner System," referred to in resolution 3, see illustrated 
 article concerning Dillner and the psalmodikon by Dr. O. N. Olson, The Lu- 
 theran Companion, November 10, 1943, pp. 1256ff. 
 
 48 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, I860, Kyrklig statistik. 
 
 49 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1860, p. 5. 
 
Augustana Heritage 106 
 
 indicating that the ratio between congregations and schools had con- 
 tinued fairly constant throughout the decade. 50 
 
 Concern for parish education came rather naturally to the Scan- 
 dinavian immigrants, since public instruction in the homeland had 
 been the joint responsibility of the Church and the State, and courses 
 in religion, and particularly catechization, had been a part of the ele- 
 mentary training of every child. Here in America, however, because 
 of the separation of church and state, public school instruction offered 
 little or no religious training, and left this phase of education almost 
 entirely in the hands of the churches. 51 It was this situation which 
 made the Sunday school such a timely and, therefore, popular reli- 
 gious institution among practically all American churches except the 
 Roman Catholics. The Sunday school seemed to be ideally suited to a 
 free-church society which looked to the churches for religious nur- 
 ture. 52 This circumstance undoubtedly prompted the Scandinavian 
 congregations to adopt the Sunday school as a part of their parish pro- 
 gram. 
 
 In those areas where the public school had not yet been estab- 
 lished or where such school facilities were inadequate, or where com- 
 munity leaders, particularly the pastors, were opposed to the public 
 school because it excluded religious instruction, there the parochial 
 schools were established and flourished. There were some Augustana 
 pastors who inveighed against the "godless public schools," and en- 
 couraged their congregations to maintain competitive parochial schools; 
 however, in general the Scandinavian immigrants looked with favor 
 upon the public school as one of the great advantages offered by 
 America. 53 
 
 While the primary object of both Sunday and parochial schools 
 was religious instruction, some of the earliest parochial schools, such 
 as the one conducted by Eric Norelius in Chicago in 1854, were main- 
 tained for the purpose of instructing the immigrants in the essentials 
 of American usage, especially the English language, and the student 
 body, therefore, often included middle-aged adults as well as chil- 
 dren. 54 But when it became apparent that especially the young would 
 
 so Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, Kyrklig statistik. The term "parochial 
 school" generally means a school maintained by a parish during all or part 
 of the summer for instruction in the Swedish language and religious subjects, 
 especially Luther's Catechism. 
 
 51 cf. G. Everett Arden, "The American Conception of Church and State, The 
 Historical Development" Augustana Quarterly, Vol. 27, January, 1948. 
 
 5 - Olmstead, op. cit., pp. 290-292. 
 
 53 Stephenson, Religious Aspects, etc., op. cit., pp. 409ff. 
 
 B « Norelius, "Hagkomster fran. aret 1854," Korsbaneret, 1888, pp. 109-110. See 
 also Johnson, Norelius, op. cit., p. 31f. 
 
107 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 soon enough learn the language of the land without the aid of the 
 church, the parochial schools became the chief agencies for the preser- 
 vation of the Swedish language among the youth, and thus the unique 
 institution popularly known as "Swede school" came into being with 
 its term of activity usually limited to a few weeks during the summer. 
 The "Swede school," so familiar to practically every section of the Au- 
 gustana Church from the pioneer period until after World War I, was 
 usually taught by a student from one of the church colleges or the 
 seminary. The curriculum included the study of Swedish language 
 and literature, Bible history and Luther's Catechism. The main text 
 books were the "A B C book" and Luther's Small Catechism with ex- 
 planations. Classes were most often held in the basement of the 
 church, or in the nave; teaching facilities were minimal and standards 
 of achievement low. 55 
 
 The entire program of parish education, whether carried on in 
 Sunday or parochial schools, was climaxed in the course of instruction 
 preparatory to confirmation. It might indeed be somewhat difficult to 
 establish any direct relevance of some of the activity carried on in both 
 the Sunday and parochial schools to the objectives of the confirmation 
 course. 56 The educational concept of confirmation, however, as prac- 
 ticed in the Augustana Synod, derived from the historic usage in the 
 Scandinavian churches of Europe of making the course of instruction 
 preparatory to confirmation the capstone of the years of religious nur- 
 ture received in the home, the church, and the folk school. 57 Thus, in 
 Augustana, as in Norway and Sweden, this important program of edu- 
 cation was usually cared for by the pastor himself, with the conse- 
 
 55 Cf. Emmet E. Eklund, "Faith and Education," Centennial Essays, Rock Is- 
 land, 1960, pp. 76-80. 
 
 56 The Lutheran Church has always professed that the chief objective of con- 
 firmation instruction is preparation for a committed and informed member- 
 ship in the church. Too often in the period before World War I, the em- 
 phasis in Sunday and parochial school was chiefly upon orientation in Swed- 
 ish language and culture. Many Americanized children confessed in later 
 years that their early training in memorization of Bible passages, folk songs, 
 and Luther's Catechism in the Swedish tongue left them without any real 
 understanding of the great doctrinal truths held by the Lutheran Church — 
 nor indeed, with any deep appreciation for the Swedish they were compelled 
 to learn. "Svenkhetens bevarande," the perpetuation of Swedish culture, 
 was in some cases permitted to intrude also into the confirmation instruction, 
 in which cases the indoctrination was as much — or as little — Swedish as 
 Christian. This situation constituted for many years part of the language 
 problem in the Augustana Church. Cf. Stephenson, Religious Aspects, etc., 
 chapter XXX, "The Problem of Language," op. cit., pp. 458-476. 
 
 57 A resolution emphasizing the importance and significance of confirmation 
 was passed at a meeting of the Chicago- Mississippi Conference in Chicago, 
 January 4-9, 1854. See Auyustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. X, 
 p. 93. 
 
Augustana Heritage 108 
 
 quence that both the quality of instruction and the standards of 
 achievement were most often higher and more effective than the pre- 
 ceding programs had been. The pastor's training as a theologian and a 
 pedagogue were largely responsible for this higher level of instruction. 
 Moreover, the ordeal of a final public examination at the conclusion of 
 the course was ordinarily enough of a goad so that long and tedious 
 memorization was sufficiently mastered to win congregational approval 
 and acceptance into full communicant membership. 
 
 In order to give the program of parish education more effective 
 direction and leadership, the Synod in 1920 created the office of Syn- 
 odical Sunday School Secretary, and authorized the Board of Home 
 Missions to call a pastor to devote his full time to the important work. 
 The Board extended a call to the pastor at DeKalb, Illinois, Dr. George 
 A. Fahlund, who accepted and assumed office in 1921. The growing 
 awareness of the importance of parish education on the part of the 
 Augustana Church is reflected in the fact that in 1924 the Synod 
 created the Board of Christian Education and Literature, which was 
 charged with the task of supervising and encouraging the entire pro- 
 gram of parish education throughout the Augustana Church. The 
 Board of Christian Education and Literature was dissolved in 1943, 
 and The Board of Parish Education created. 58 The presidents of the 
 boards have been Dr. George A. Fahlund, Dr. Victor E. Beck, Dr. D. 
 Verner Swanson, Dr. John Helmer Olson, Dr. Frank Bonander, and 
 Pastor Marvin Raymond. Working under the direction of this Board, 
 Dr. Fahlund continued in office until 1930, when he resigned to accept 
 a call to the congregation in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During his term 
 of service, Dr. Fahlund headed the work of providing the Synod with 
 a new "graded system" of Sunday school lessons. 59 
 
 Dr. Fahlund was succeeded by Dr. J. Vincent Nordgren, who, at 
 the time of his call to the educational post, was pastor of the St. 
 John's congregation in Rock Island, Illinois. Dr. Nordgren began 
 his work in 1931. In 1934 the Synod changed the name of the office 
 to Director of Elementary Christian Education. In the person of the 
 new director, the Church found a man who brought to this educa- 
 tional task the personal endowments of pedagogical skill and crea- 
 tive imagination, as well as a wife whose abilities as a writer and 
 teacher proved an important resource for the Church. 
 
 58 See Minutes, 1943, p. 243. 
 
 59 See article by J. Vincent Nordgren, "Elementary Christian Education in the 
 Augustana Synod," in After Seventy-Five Years, op. cit., pp. 268ff. 
 
109 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 The first project which Dr. Nordgren was asked to undertake was 
 the preparation of a new course of Sunday school studies. The re- 
 sult was the creation of a series of courses beginning with the nurs- 
 ery department and extending through the high school age, and 
 known as The Word of Life Series. To introduce the new series, and 
 help Sunday school teachers to understand and effectively use the 
 new materials, Dr. Nordgren and his staff traveled throughout the 
 Church conducting Sunday school teacher's training programs, work- 
 shops, and institutes. And although the Word of Life Series did not 
 meet with universal approval throughout the Church, it proved to 
 be such an effective aid to parish education that it continued in use 
 until supplanted by the courses offered by the Long-Range Program. 
 
 As a supplement to the Word of Life Series, the Board of Chris- 
 tian Education and Literature sponsored the creation of another se- 
 ries of Sunday school courses known as The Christian Growth Se- 
 ries, which were prepared in co-operation with other Lutheran 
 Church bodies. 60 
 
 After having served for nearly seventeen years as director of 
 parish education, Dr. Nordgren submitted his resignation in 1947. 
 As his successor the board called Pastor Lael Westberg of Minne- 
 apolis, Minnesota, who began his work in the summer of 1948. Dr. 
 Westberg continued in office until 1962, when he resigned to ac- 
 cept a call to become the first pastor of the American congregation 
 in Stockholm, Sweden. During his period of service as director of 
 parish education, Westberg distinguished himself as an effective pro- 
 moter of an improved program of parish education, conducting semi- 
 nars, workshops, and institutes for Sunday school teachers in all parts 
 of the Church. 
 
 In 1955 the Board of Parish Education of the United Lutheran 
 Church invited the churches belonging to the National Lutheran 
 Council to co-operate in the preparation of a Long-Range Program 
 of Parish Education. This co-operative effort sought to pool the in- 
 sights, experiences, and resources of the participating bodies in the 
 creation of a program of parish education which would take into ac- 
 count the contemporary advances in both education and theology, and 
 provide the Lutheran Church with a more adequate and effective ap- 
 proach to its teaching ministry at the parish level than had hitherto 
 
 60 This co-operative endeavor included representatives from the Augustana 
 Church, the American Lutheran Church and the United Lutheran Church. 
 See Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1947, p. 36f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 110 
 
 been possible. In the various stages of preparation and field testing 
 of the Long-Range Program, the Augustana representatives, led by 
 Dr. Westberg, took an active part. Several Augustana people were 
 recruited for the permanent Long-Range staff. These included Dr. 
 Frank Bonander, Dr. Leroy Norquist, Pastor Paul Cornell, Sister Ger- 
 trude Hill, Miss Beverly Schultz, Miss Doris Smith, Miss Ruth Swan- 
 son, Pastor Fred Benson, Pastor Arvid Anderson, and Pastor James 
 Ckypool. 61 
 
 Offering the Lutheran Church in America a parish curriculum 
 which seeks thoroughly to ground people of all age groups in Bible 
 knowledge and basic Christian truth, the Long-Range Program builds 
 upon the foundations which were laid by the efforts of those who 
 earlier invested their lives in the task of fostering more adequate pro- 
 grams of parish education throughout the Lutheran Church. 
 
 The Educational Influence of the Church Press 
 
 If the concept of education may be given a broad interpretation, 
 the whole enterprise of a church press can also be considered as a part 
 of the educational activity of the church and ought to be seen in this 
 connection as a response of the church to the needs of the people which 
 helped to shape the Augustana tradition. 
 
 Long before the Synod itself was organized the leaders of the Scan- 
 dinavian immigrants in America recognized the need of providing their 
 scattered coutrymen in the new world with a type of literature which 
 would be educative in its effect; which would warn and admonish 
 against existing dangers, encourage and invite the newcomers to relate 
 themselves to existing groups of their own people, and in general orient 
 them in the new ways of American life. One of the very first endeavors 
 along this line was a small tract which Pastor L. P. Esbjorn prepared 
 and published in 1851, entitled "Valkomst-Helsning till den Svenska, 
 Norska och Danska Emigranten" (Greetings of Welcome to the Swed- 
 ish, Norwegian and Danish Immigrant) , 62 The purpose of this tract 
 was to counsel the Scandinavian newcomer regarding both spiritual 
 and temporal matters, and to inform him about the settlements which 
 were springing up in the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 In 1854, when the Baptist missionaries were threatening to disrupt 
 
 61 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1962, p. 268. 
 
 62 Printed by H. Ludvig Co., Vesey Street, New York, in an edition of 4,000 
 copies. See F. A. Johnson, "The Publishing Interests of the Augustana 
 Synod," The Augustana- Synod, 1860-1910, Rock Island, 1910, pp. 173-197. 
 
Ill The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 the work among the Lutherans, Esbjbrn prepared and published a 
 polemical tract entitled "Nagra enkla Fragor och Svar rorande Dopel- 
 sen" (Some simple Questions and Answers regarding Baptism). 63 
 The object of this brochure was to inform the reader regarding the 
 real points at issue in the doctrinal dispute between the Baptists and 
 the Lutherans, and to reinforce the doctrinal loyalty of Lutherans re- 
 garding infant baptism. 
 
 The same year, 1854, the United Scandinavian Conference, meet- 
 ing in Chicago, voted to print six hundred copies of the minutes in 
 each language, Swedish and Norwegian, so that the people throughout 
 the congregations might be informed regarding the joint activities of 
 the Chicago and Mississippi Conferences. 64 At the same meeting a cir- 
 cular letter was drawn up, on behalf of the pastors and congregations 
 associated with the conference and addressed to "their brethren in the 
 faith and countrymen, who live scattered here and there in the wide 
 plains of America." 65 This letter, which was meant to appear in sev- 
 eral newspapers throughout the country, called upon the scattered 
 Scandinavians to remain faithful to their religious heritage, to make 
 earnest efforts to provide for temporary spiritual care until ministers 
 could be supplied for them, and to inform the leaders in Illinois of 
 their whereabouts and present circumstances. 
 
 As the tide of immigration increased and new settlements and 
 new congregations came into being the need for a Swedish language 
 newspaper which could speak to this growing community in America 
 became imperative. Pastors Esbjorn, Hasselquist, and Erland Carlsson 
 were the initial promoters for the launching of a Scandinavian news- 
 paper, but it was Hasselquist who undertook the long journey to New 
 York to purchase a small printing machine which he installed in his 
 own home in Galesburg, and who assumed the editorship of the new 
 Swedish journal which bore the name Hemlandet, Det Gamla och det 
 Nya (The Homeland, the Old and the New) , 66 The first issue of this 
 semi-monthly politico-religious newspaper appeared January 3, 1855. 
 Regarding its significance a perceptive commentator has declared: 
 
 63 This pamphlet is said to have been financed by Pastor William A. Passavant 
 who was interested in helping the Scandinavian immigrants maintain their 
 strength and unity. 
 
 64 Minutes of Chicago-Mississippi Conference, Chicago, January 4-9, 1854, 
 translated in Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. X, pp. 90-97. 
 
 65 Translation of this circular letter at the conclusion of Minutes, Ibid., pp. 
 95ff. 
 
 66 C. A. S., "Augustana synodens forlaggareverksamhet," Jubel-Album, op. cit., 
 pp. 243-252. 
 
Augustana Heritage 112 
 
 Hemlandet became a welcome visitor in many homes. It served 
 as a bond of union among the Swedes, who, though separated by 
 hundreds of miles, still felt drawn toward one another by kindred 
 ties. It also became a means of communication between them and 
 the friends and kindred forever left behind in the dear old "home- 
 land." Again it served to instruct the newcomers in the political, 
 social, and religious questions of their "new homeland." . . . On 
 the great moral and political questions of the day — slavery, know- 
 nothingism, and temperance — Hemlandet gave no uncertain sound. 
 The most complicated questions were discussed by the editor in 
 that clear and simple style which was so peculiar to him. 67 
 
 In addition to Hemlandet, the little printing shop in Hasselquist's home 
 published about a dozen books and pamphlets within a few years after 
 its establishment, including an edition of Luther's Small Catechism, 
 the Augsburg Confession, a book about Luther, and a collection of 
 Ahnfelt's songs. These were distributed at low cost to the Scandina- 
 vian congregations. By 1856 Hemlandet had become primarily a politi- 
 cal journal, therefore Hasselquist began the publication of another 
 biweekly newspaper, Det Rdtta Hemlandet (The true Homeland), 
 which was devoted exclusively to religious subjects. Since Hasselquist 
 desired his countrymen to read both papers, he published them on al- 
 ternate weeks, giving the Swedes in America a weekly press. 68 
 
 During the next few years Hemlandet became increasingly de- 
 voted to political and social discussions, while Rdtta Hemlandet was 
 almost exclusively a devotional and theological journal. Thus, after 
 the Augustana Synod was organized, there was need for a paper which 
 would be an institutional organ, primarily concerned with the affairs 
 of the Synod. A church monthly called Augustana began publication, 
 October, 1868, edited by Dr. Hasselquist, which was combined a year 
 later with Rdtta Hemlandet, and called Rdtta Hemlandet och Augus- 
 tana. This was the parent journal which after 1889 bore the title Au- 
 gustana and continued to be published as the official Swedish organ of 
 the Augustana Church until it was discontinued in 1956 because of a 
 dwindling subscription list. 69 
 
 67 C. W. Foss, "The Swedish Lutheran Publication Society," Alumnus, Rock 
 Island, 1893, pp. 98-102. 
 
 68 E. W. Olson, "Augustana Book Concern: Publishers to the Augustana Synod. 
 History of its Activities since 1889, with Introductory Account of Earlier 
 Publishing Enterprises," Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. Ill, 
 pp. 3-80. See also, Minutes, Mississippi Conference, December, 1858, Augus- 
 tana Historical Society Publications, Vol. X, pp. 153ff. 
 
 69 See editorial in final issue of Augustana, December, 1956. See also Minutes 
 Augustana Lutheran Church, 1956, p. 360. The evolution of Augustana is 
 shown in a graph in Augustana Historical Society Publications, Vol. HI, p. 
 50. The English organ of the Synod, The Lutheran Companion evolved from 
 
113 The Shaping of a Tradition 
 
 The influence which Hasselquist and his colleagues exerted 
 through the press cannot be estimated. It is indubitable, however, that 
 the church press had an immense influence in molding and shaping the 
 character of Augustana. It was from the press of their church that the 
 Scandinavian immigrants learned their American politics and were 
 persuaded to throw their support to the Republican party; it was from 
 this press that they received instruction about the dangers of heresy 
 and proselyters in a free-church and pluralistic society; it was the 
 press that led the immigrants into the intricacies of theological debate 
 and brought about a new awareness of the uniqueness of Lutheran 
 doctrine; it was from the press that they were constantly admonished 
 to remain faithful to their religious heritage, and it was the press that 
 played a most important role in relating the scattered settlers to each 
 other. Furthermore, it was from the financial proceeds derived from 
 publishing activities that the Synod was able to keep the doors of its 
 college and seminary open in times of financial stress. Thus, in several 
 respects, the literary activities of the Synod constituted a part of the 
 educational program which helped shape the Augustana tradition. 70 
 
 The publication work of the Augustana Church has been carried 
 on by its own publishing house, the Augustana Book Concern, since 
 1889. The Augustana Book Concern was an indirect outgrowth of the 
 Swedish Lutheran Publication Society, formed in 1859 to take over 
 and co-ordinate the various publishing ventures which had emerged 
 among the Swedes. The Publication Society functioned until 1874, 
 when economic necessity forced the Synod to dispose of the bulk of 
 its publishing business to the private firm of Engberg and Holmberg 
 of Chicago. However, to carry on what remained of the synodical pub- 
 lishing activities, a stock company, the Augustana Book Concern was 
 formed in 1884, which became a synodical enterprise in 1889 under 
 the name Lutheran Augustana Book Concern. In 1903 the name was 
 changed to Augustana Book Concern, and this company, in 1917, 
 
 the combination of two journals, The Alumnus and The Observer, the former 
 published by the Alumni Association of Augustana College, and the latter by 
 the Augustana University Association, both being launched in 1892, and com- 
 bined in 1895 as The Alumnus. In 1907 the name was changed to The Young 
 Lutheran's Companion, and since 1911 the paper has borne the title The 
 Lutheran Companion. 
 70 For an analysis of the influence of the literary activities of the Synod see 
 especially Ander, Hasselquist, op. cit., Chapters II, pp. 24-39, and VIII-XII, 
 pp. 152-210. See also A. T. Lundholm, "The Printed Word," After Seventy- 
 Five Years, 1860-1935, A Jubilee Publication, Rock Island, 1935, pp. 137-146. 
 O. V. Holmgrain, Augustana Book Concern, Rock Island, 1914. E. W. Olson, 
 En Bokhandels historia, Rock Island, 1910. E. W. Olson, Fiftieth Anniversary, 
 Augustana Book Concern, 1884-1934, Rock Island, 1934. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 114 
 
 bought out Engberg and Holmberg, and henceforth constituted the one 
 and only publishing firm and book store of the Augustana Church. 
 Known as "the service station of the Augustana Church," the Augus- 
 tana Book Concern has rendered an invaluable service to the Chris- 
 tian cause by implementing the famous slogan coined by Dr. Birger 
 Swenson, genial manager of the Book Concern since 1945, "The print- 
 ed word also proclaims the gospel." 71 
 
 Since the literary output of the Synod constituted a virtual ex- 
 hibit of its life and growth, it became imperative that some arrange- 
 ments be made for collecting and preserving this material. It was Eric 
 Norelius who first assumed the responsibility of acting as synodical 
 archivist, collecting, preserving and, from time to time, publishing 
 items of historical interest. No central repository was established by 
 the Synod, however, until the new seminary library building was 
 erected in 1954, when a section of the second floor of the new struc- 
 ture was reserved as the synodical archives. Pastor Joel Lundeen of 
 Lindsborg, Kansas, was called as archivist and director of the semi- 
 nary library in 1955. When Pastor Lundeen assumed his new post 
 in 1958, after taking special training in library and archive adminis- 
 tration, the Church for the first time in its history had a central re- 
 pository and a trained archivist to care for this vital aspect of the 
 life of the Church. 72 
 
 71 The most recent history of the Augustana Book Concern is the excellent 
 study by Daniel Nystrom, A Ministry of Printing. History of the Publication 
 House of Augustana Lutheran Church, 1889-1962, Rock Island, 1962. 
 
 72 See Arden, School of the Prophets, op. cit., p. 258f. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Tne Enterprise or Missions 
 
 The Augustana Church began its life as a missionary undertaking, 
 and throughout its history has identified itself with the cause of 
 Christian missions. Indeed, it may be said that the shape of the 
 Augustana Church has in large measure been determined by its mis- 
 sion endeavors. While there have been some notable failures in this 
 part of the historical record, there have also been some solid achieve- 
 ments. It was in the period of its infancy that the Augustana Church 
 established its own missionary tradition by laying the foundations 
 upon which future generations were to build in the areas of social, 
 foreign, and home missions. 
 
 Establishment of Social Missions 
 
 Social missions, or as it was called in an earlier day, "inner 
 missions," seems to have been particularly dear to the Augustana 
 Church, and a truly remarkable record has been written in this 
 phase of Christian service. It has been pointed out that the Augustana 
 Church, whose membership in 1961 comprised only about seven per 
 cent of the Lutheran population of contemporary America, never- 
 theless owned, operated, and maintained fifteen per cent of the 
 approximately three hundred Lutheran institutions of mercy in the 
 United States, and of the charitable institutions in this country which 
 were properties of individual Lutheran bodies, no less than thirty per 
 cent were in the hands of the Augustana Church. 1 Indeed, the record 
 concerning social missions may with a good deal of justice be called 
 "Augustana's shining page." 
 
 The beginning of the record goes back to the years before the 
 Synod itself was organized. Two basic causes seem to have combined 
 to motivate the Scandinavian interest in social missions in the early 
 years. In the first place, the immigrants had been deeply moved by 
 the suffering they had experienced and witnessed in the course of 
 their migration to America from Europe. Through exposure, hunger, 
 
 iDr. Robert W. Holmen, "The Ministry of Mercy," Centennial Essays, Rock 
 Island, 1960, p. 244. 
 
 115 
 
Augustana Heritage 116 
 
 disease, and hardship whole immigrant parties had often been deci- 
 mated, parents had lost their children, and children their parents, 
 husbands and wives had been torn from each other, and relatives and 
 friends had suffered bereavement. The plight of orphan children was 
 particularly pitiful and tragic, since there were virtually no organized 
 public resources a hundred years ago to meet such human need. 2 And 
 in the second place, there was the inspiring personality of Pastor 
 William A. Passavant of Pittsburgh, who during the middle decades 
 of the nineteenth century was the outstanding exponent in America 
 for all kinds of Lutheran charitable enterprises. 3 He was a staunch 
 friend of the Scandinavians in the middlewest, had encouraged the 
 formation of an independent Scandinavian Synod, and after the 
 organization of the Augustana Synod, frequently attended synodical 
 sessions and was afforded the privilege of the floor. It was Passavant 
 who reminded the Scandinavians of the great need for welfare agencies, 
 and especially homes for children to meet the needs among their own 
 countrymen, as well as others. 4 
 
 In response to an obvious need which Passavant forcefully under- 
 scored, the Augustana Synod at its third annual convention, held in 
 Vasa, Minnesota, 1862, Resolved, 
 
 That the Synod admonishes all its congregations that wherever . 
 possible, an offering shall be received each year on Thanksgiving 
 Day, or at some other appropriate occasion, for the Orphan's 
 Home in Pittsburgh. 5 
 
 The following year after listening to an impressive appeal by Dr. 
 Passavant on behalf of orphaned children, the Synod voted to re- 
 emphasize the previous year's decision to receive a Thanksgiving offer- 
 ing for the Pittsburgh Orphanage, and also to purchase 120 acres 
 of land in the Paxton area for the founding of a Scandinavian or- 
 phanage. 6 At the next two annual conventions the "Children's Home 
 
 2 Norelius, De svenska luterska forsamlingarnas, etc., Vol. II, op. cit., p. 263f. 
 
 3 It was Passavant who brought to America the "inner mission" program of 
 Johann Wichern of Hamburg and the diaconate as developed by Theodore 
 Fliedner at Kaiserwerth-on-the-Rhine. Passavant founded hospitals in Mil- 
 waukee, Chicago and Jacksonville, Illinois, orphanages at Mt. Vernon, N. Y., 
 Germantown, Pa., and Boston, Mass., and established Deaconess Institutes 
 in Philadelphia and Baltimore. He is said to have raised more than a million 
 dollars for his Lutheran institutions of mercy. For an excellent biography 
 of Passavant see G. H. Gerberding, Life and Letters of W. A. Passavant, 
 Greenville, Pa., 1906. 
 
 4 See references to Passavant's appearance on the floor of synodical conven- 
 tions, Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1862, 1863, 1864. 
 
 5 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1862, p. 13. 
 
 6 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1863, p. 8. 
 
117 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 Committee" reported the collection of funds, and the purchase of 
 160 acres of land near Paxton for $3,520. 7 For some reason no build- 
 ings were erected on the proposed site for the orphanage, and by 
 1867, when talk of moving the seminary from Paxton had begun, 
 the Synod instructed the "Children's Home Committee" to sell its 
 Paxton holdings and arrange to move the proposed orphanage to 
 Andover or its vicinity. 8 The following year the Synod was informed 
 that a small house had been built on the outskirts of Berlin as a 
 temporary shelter for three orphaned boys who were now the wards 
 of the church. 9 A year later Pastor Jonas Swensson arranged the 
 purchase of an excellent 160-acre farm a mile southwest of Andover, 
 to which the children's home was moved and which became its per- 
 manent locale. 10 . Thus, by 1868 the Augustana Synod had launched 
 its first synodically sponsored institution of mercy. Even then, how- 
 ever, this was not the first venture in social missions undertaken 
 by Midwestern Scandinavians, for the Swedes in Minnesota had stolen 
 a march on the Synod, and under the leadership of Eric Norelius, had 
 again asserted the spirit of sectional rivalry. 
 
 Norelius had become personally acquainted with William A. Pas- 
 savant during the latter's visit to Minnesota in 1856, 11 and, like every- 
 one else, had been stimulated and inspired by this remarkable man. 
 Just when Norelius began planning to launch into social missions is 
 uncertain, but it is clear from the evidence that when he did take 
 the step in 1865, it was not nearly as casual or accidental as his 
 accounts of the matter seem to suggest. 12 As early as 1863, Norelius 
 was quietly gathering funds in Vasa "for a home for the destitute." 
 In 1864, the Minnesota Conference passed a resolution designating the 
 unexpended balance of the funds which Norelius had received for the 
 relief of the victims of the Indian uprisings as a fund "for a future 
 orphanage." And in the spring of 1865 it is evident from existing corre- 
 spondence that Norelius had invited a Mr. Charles Lindman of Chisago 
 Lake to take charge of a proposed children's home in Vasa, where no 
 such home as yet existed. 13 
 
 In the month of October, 1865, Norelius made a trip to St. Paul 
 
 iProtokoll, Augustana Synod, 1864, p. 8f.; 1865, p. 16. 
 8 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1867, p. 30f . 
 9 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1868, pp. 15ff. 
 
 10 Cf. Jubel-Album, op. tit., p. 214. 
 
 11 Emeroy Johnson, Eric Norelius, op. tit., pp. 18, 64. 
 
 12 See his account in Norelius, Svenska luterska forsamlingarnas, etc., Vol. 
 II, op tit, pp. 268ff. 
 
 13 For the above see Emeroy Johnson, Eric Norelius, op. tit., p. 36. 
 
Augustana Heritage 118 
 
 where he learned of the tragedy that had stricken the family of Mikola 
 Eric Erikson, recently arrived from Sweden. Both father and mother 
 had died within a few days of each other, leaving several destitute and 
 homeless children. Asked if he knew of some way to care for the un- 
 fortunate waifs, Norelius claimed to have heard a still, small voice 
 which seemed to command him, "Take them home with you." Where- 
 upon he brought them to his home in Red Wing and invited his con- 
 gregation to share in their care. A woman, Mrs. Brita Nilson, was 
 engaged as housemother, and she and the children were housed in 
 the basement of the Vasa Church, which served as the first Lutheran 
 orphanage in Minnesota, until a house was built, a year or two later, 
 on a plot of ground which Norelius purchased for his orphanage. 
 The home continued as an independent enterprise by Norelius until 
 1876 when the Minnesota Conference assumed responsibility for its 
 direction and support. 14 Thus, the Vasa Home for children actually 
 antedated the home in Illinois by about two and a half years, a fact 
 which seemed to give Pastor Norelius a good deal of satisfaction. 15 
 These two homes, the Vasa and Andover orphanages, were the first 
 in a long succession of such agencies which the Augustana Church 
 continued to establish during the next half century. From 1865 to 1917 
 fourteen institutions devoted to child care were founded. 16 
 
 The establishment of children's homes was merely the initial phase 
 of social missionary activity in the Augustana Church. As need arose, 
 the Church responded by founding hospitals, homes for the aged, 
 invalid homes, hospices, and immigrant and seamen's centers, each 
 of which has in a sense been an image of the Augustana ethos. 17 
 
 14 Norelius, op. cit., pp. 268ff.; J ub el- Album, op. tit., p. 219f. M. Wahlstrom, 
 "The Charitable Institutions of the Augustana Synod," The Augustana Synod, 
 1860-1910, op. tit, pp. 138-170. Emeroy Johnson, A Church Is Planted, op. tit, 
 pp. 338-342. Emil Lund, Minnesota Konferensens och dess Forsamlingars 
 Historia, Rock Island, 1926, pp. 185ff. J. A. Krantz, "Christian Service," The 
 Beginnings and Progress of the Minnesota Conference, Minneapolis, 1929, pp. 
 37-61. 
 
 15 See his account in Svenska luterska fbrsamlingarnas, etc., Vol. II, p. 269f., 
 where he contrasts the considerable preparations made for the Illinois insti- 
 tution with the simple and unpremeditated beginnings of the Vasa Home. 
 It is evident, however, that social missions were neither casual nor unpre- 
 meditated in Minnesota, but that Norelius and his friends had given the mat- 
 ter a good deal of previous thought and consideration. 
 
 1 8 In addition to the Vasa and Andover homes, similar institutions were estab- 
 lished at Mariadahl, Kansas, 1879; Stanton, Iowa, 1881; Jamestown, New York, 
 1886; Omaha, Nebraska, 1887; Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1896; Avon, Massa- 
 chusetts, 1907; Joliet, Illinois, 1915; St. Paul, Minnesota, 1915; Stromsberg, 
 Nebraska, 1916; Alexandria, Minnesota, 1916; Duluth, Minnesota, 1916; Chi- 
 cago, Illinois, 1917. Holmen, op. cit, p. 240. 
 
 17 Hospitals were established in St. Paul, Minnesota, 1882; Chicago, Illinois, 
 1884; Omaha, Nebraska, 1890; Kansas City, Missouri, 1906; Portland, Oregon, 
 
119 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 Development oj Foreign Missions 
 
 Although the Augustana Synod was eighteen years old before 
 a foreign missionary was recruited from its ranks, 18 the interest and 
 concern for this aspect of Christian work was part of the heritage 
 which the Scandinavian immigrants of the nineteenth century brought 
 with them from their homeland. The religious revivals which were 
 sweeping across Scandinavia during this period awakened a wide- 
 spread interest in the world mission of the church, and in most 
 parishes of Sweden and Norway where the new evangelical movement 
 took root missionary societies were organized which endeavored to 
 inform and inspire the people, as well as gather funds for carrying 
 on the work. Most of the leading churchmen and evangelists in Sweden 
 were strong supporters of foreign missions. 19 It is not surprising, 
 therefore, to find the Scandinavian immigrants in America giving a 
 good deal of attention to foreign missions even before they had organ- 
 ized themselves into an independent synod. Even a casual glance at 
 their early newspapers tells the story. After Hasselquist had launched 
 his Rdtta Hemlandet in 1856, he devoted considerable space in each 
 
 1912; Des Moines, Iowa, 1914; Moline, Illinois, 1916; Warren, Minnesota 1927- 
 Astoria Oregon 1927 and Ashland, Wisconsin, 1946. Homes for the Aged 
 were established in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1896; Omaha, Nebraska 1903- Chi- 
 
 S?° v^' ^ eS ? ta ' J 1 ? <)4; M ^ drid ' l0Wa ' 1907; Joliet > IUinois > 1908;' Brooklyn, 
 New York, 1908; Lindsborg, Kansas, 1911; Chicago, Illinois, 1911; Alexandria 
 Minnesota 1916; Marinette Wisconsin, 1917; Worcester, Massachusetts, 1920 
 Seattle Washington, 1920; Kansas City, Missouri, 1921; Grand Rapids, Mich- 
 gan, 1924; Duluth, Minnesota, 1930; Jamestown, New York 1930 Oak- 
 ISq' e alif0rn , ia 1 ' 1 19 | 5; + ^ an ^ at0 ' Minnesota, 1937; Middletown,' Connecticut, 
 1949; Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 1952, and Deland, Florida, 1957 Invalid 
 
 iSS eS A W f r n £ U u dG 1 in , S n t ;o Pa rf' Minnesota ' im ^d I960; Omaha, Nebraska, 
 1906; Axtel , Nebraska, 1913. Hospices have been located in Omaha and Ax- 
 tell, Nebraska; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; Denver 
 and Colorado Springs, Colorado; New York City; Vancouver, B. C, and Se- 
 attle, Washington. Seamen's Centers have been founded in New York 
 City, East Boston, Massachusetts, and Seattle, Washington. In connection 
 with social missions, Pastor E. A. Fogelstrom founded the female diaconate in 
 ?2™ eC Ji 0n T Wlth the , Immanuel Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning in 
 l»yu. Ine Immanuel Deaconess Institute in Omaha, comprises the most am- 
 bitious undertaking of the Augustana Church in the field of social missions 
 and includes a hospital, a deaconess home, an invalid home, a home for the 
 ?S» c 30 ™ welfare agency. See Minutes, Augustana Lutheran Church, 
 19bl, Statistics, pp. 552-570. See also Holmen, op. cit, pp. 236ff. Emil G. Chin- 
 lund, The Ministry of Mercy," After Seventy-five Years, op. cit., pp. 159- 
 
 18 ^' B - Carlson was ordained June 11, 1878, on a call from the Board of For- 
 eign Missions of the General Council to serve on the Rajahmundry field in 
 
 19 Bengt Sundkler, Svenska Missionssallskapet, 1835-1876, Uppsala, 1937, pp. 
 
Augustana Heritage 120 
 
 issue to the subject of missions. 20 By 1863 the name of the official organ 
 of the synod was changed to Det Rdtta Hemlandet och Missionsbladet 
 (The True Homeland and the Mission Blade), which reflects the 
 growing interest in missions within the newly organized Augustana 
 Church. The first issue of the renamed paper carried the following 
 announcement: 
 
 With the new year it will be the aim of Rdtta Hemlandet to 
 devote itself more seriously than ever to the cause of missions. 
 Doubtless many of its friends will appreciate this because they 
 love to hear about the struggles, difficulties, victories, and general 
 progress of the Kingdom of God throughout the world. 21 
 
 In the following years the development of a growing concern and 
 program for foreign missions within the Augustana Church was re- 
 flected in its press. From 1870 to 1873, and again from 1875 to 1877, 
 a separate journal called Missiondren (The Missionary) was pub- 
 lished, and even after this paper was merged with Augustana, in 1879, 
 the columns of Augustana publications gave substantial space to the 
 subject of foreign missions. 22 Thus, the Synod was laying a good 
 foundation for an active program in this area of Christian work. 
 
 The first action by the Synod on behalf of foreign missions was 
 taken at its second convention, held at Galesburg, Illinois, 1861, when . 
 the program was formally structured into the new church through 
 the creation of a synodical foreign mission board. In response to a 
 petition from the Chicago Conference requesting the Synod to en- 
 courage the world mission of the church, it was voted, 
 
 That a Committee for Foreign Missions be elected and that 
 this Committee shall encourage the work of foreign missions, and 
 shall receive contributions for this cause and expend them in 
 accordance with the stipulations of the congregations or private 
 donors, and lacking such stipulations, to send said contributions 
 to the Swedish or Norwegian Mission Society. 
 
 That the Committee be composed of Pastor Erland Carlsson, E. 
 Norelius, and Jon Swensson. 23 
 
 The Committee for Foreign Missions constituted the Synod's first 
 Board of Foreign Missions, and the report which it rendered to the 
 
 20 Dr. S. Hjalmar Swanson in his book Foundation for Tomorrow, Rock Island, 
 1960, p. 7, states that during 1856 Rdtta Hemlandet devoted ten per cent of 
 its space to foreign missions, and that beginning 1857 twenty-five per cent of 
 the space in the paper was henceforth given to various aspects of foreign 
 missions. 
 
 21 Rdtta Hemlandet och Missionsbladet, January, 1863, p. 11, Ibid., p. 8. 
 
 22 See E. W. Olson, Augustana Book Concern, op. tit, p. 50; Ibid., p. 8. 
 
 2 3 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1861, p. 27. 
 
 
121 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 Church in 1862 is both significant and interesting, since it not only is 
 the first of such reports in the history of the Augustana Church, but 
 gives evidence of the growing interest in foreign missions, as well 
 as the first beneficiaries of the program. The substance of the report 
 is the following: 
 
 During the year an appeal has been sent out to our congrega- 
 tions and pastors, which also appeared in the March 12 issue of 
 Hemlandet, to embrace the cause of missions with greater love 
 and sacrifice. The committee has been gratified to learn that the 
 majority of our congregations conduct missionary services. Some 
 have even begun to receive offerings, and as the treasurer's report 
 indicates, receipts for the year total $223.61, of which $201.61 
 has come from Swedish and $22.00 from Norwegian congregations. 
 In accordance with the stipulations of the Synod and the donors, 
 $100 has been sent to the Swedish Mission Society in Stockholm 
 to be used for the mission in India; $100 to the Hermansburg 
 Mission, and $3.25 has been expended for postage. The balance 
 in the treasury totals $20.36. . . . The Committee recommends that 
 a sermon on foreign missions be delivered at every synodical 
 convention. May the Lord awaken a true missionary spirit in us 
 in order that we and our congregations shall be quickened unto a 
 burning love and zeal for the advancement of God's kingdom. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 Erland Carlsson 
 Jon Swensson 
 E. Norelius 24 
 
 The Swedish Mission Society in Stockholm was the organization fa- 
 vored by the evangelical movement in Sweden and which, therefore, 
 commended itself to the Augustana Church. Its field was the Tamil 
 area in India. The Synod continued to send contributions to the 
 Swedish Society until 1867, after which funds were sent directly to 
 the Indian field until 1874. 25 After the National Evangelical Founda- 
 tion (Evangeliska Fosterlandsstiftelsen) entered the field of foreign 
 missions, initiating work in East Africa in 1866, the Augustana Synod 
 transferred its support for Swedish missions to this organization and 
 continued to contribute to its program for more than a quarter of a 
 century. 26 The Hermansburg Mission was sponsored by Pastor Claus 
 Harms of Hermansburg, Germany, and occupied a field in Natal, 
 India. Augustana contributed to this field until 1869. 27 The treasurer's 
 
 24 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1862, p. 10. 
 25 Swanson, op. cit., p. 9. 
 
 26 Thirl rv« lltt 
 
 26 Ibid., pp. llff, 
 
 27 Ibid., p. 9f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 122 
 
 report of 1865 indicates that a sum of $400 had been sent to the Nor- 
 wegian Mission Society, the organization in Norway backed by the 
 Haugeans and therefore supported by the Augustana Norwegians. Most 
 of the money for foreign missions raised among the Augustana Nor- 
 wegians seems to have been sent to this Society. 28 Thus the first foreign 
 mission endeavors of the Augustana Synod were directed toward the 
 support of these four European societies. 
 
 An important, and in some respects unfortunate, change of ad- 
 ministration of the foreign mission program occurred in 1866 when 
 the following resolutions were adopted: 
 
 That a mission's committee be established which shall take charge 
 of both home and foreign missions and that Synod shall desig- 
 nate from the committee membership the corresponding secretary 
 and the treasurer. 
 
 That all contributions, whether for home or foreign missions 
 be deposited in a single treasury to be known as the mission 
 treasury, and that half of these funds be used for home missions, 
 and half for foreign missions, unless otherwise specified. 29 
 
 As far as foreign missions is concerned, it was unfortunate that by 
 this action both home and foreign missions were brought under the 
 jurisdiction of one board. It must be recalled that this action was 
 taken just after the close of the Civil War when immigration from 
 Europe began to swell to tidal wave proportions, bringing hundreds 
 of thousands of Scandinavian immigrants into the Middle West. The 
 central mission board therefore found itself almost completely pre- 
 occupied with the enormous task of home missions — of sweeping as 
 many of these immigrant newcomers as possible into the Augustana 
 Church. The result was that foreign missions came to be treated 
 almost as an afterthought; at least, it was given secondary consider- 
 ation. 30 
 
 The perhaps unwitting subordination of foreign missions is evi- 
 dent in the constitution for the Board of Missions which the Synod 
 adopted in 1870. The constitution is primarily concerned with home 
 and social missions and gives specific directions regarding the prose- 
 cution of this phase of missions. However, there are only two brief 
 and wholly inadequate statements regarding foreign missions, and in 
 both cases the references are to "contributions for both home and 
 
 28 ProtokoU, Augustana Synod, 1865, p. 17; 1866, p. 39; 1867, p. 19; 1868, p. 12; 
 1869, p. 17. 
 
 29 ProtokoU, Augustana Synod, 1866, p. 39. 
 
 30 Swanson, op. cit., p. 13f. 
 
123 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 foreign missions." 31 The document gives no directives for launching 
 a synodically sponsored foreign mission project; it makes no pro- 
 vision for recruitment or training of foreign missionary personnel; 
 it has nothing to say about establishing specific foreign fields for the 
 Augustana Church, and it draws no blueprints for any kind of ex- 
 pression of foreign mission activity. In brief, foreign missions as en- 
 visaged in the constitution of 1870 and carried on under the central 
 board was literally consigned to a haphazard existence. The enter- 
 prise of foreign missions in the Augustana Synod was operated under 
 these conditions until 1923, when a separate Board of Foreign Missions 
 was finally created. 32 
 
 While the Synod's earliest efforts were expended in support of 
 European missionary societies, the hope was frequently expressed that 
 the Synod might establish its own independent program. But there 
 was considerable reluctance to strike out in this direction, and when 
 the Synod did seek independent outlets for its foreign missionary 
 impulses its early approaches seem to have been rather myopic, and 
 proved to be abortive. 
 
 The first timid step in the direction of an independent project 
 was inspired by Pastor P. A. Ahlberg, head of the mission school in 
 Ahlsborg, Sweden. He repeatedly urged the Synod to launch a pro- 
 gram of evangelization among the American Negroes. 33 At the synodical 
 convention at Carver, Minnesota, 1868, the Missions Committee re- 
 ported that, 
 
 Several letters have been received from Pastor P. Ahlberg re- 
 garding a mission among the emancipated Negroes in the southern 
 states. Pastor Ahlberg, who is deeply interested in such a mission 
 and has already some preparations for it, is desirous that said 
 mission shall be conducted in co-operation with the Augustana 
 Synod and therefore requests our reaction and counsel. 34 
 
 To this overture from Sweden the Synod is reported to have responded 
 "with great joy" and voted to begin training qualified young men for 
 this work and to gather funds for the undertaking, in the hope of 
 making Texas and Florida the fields of operation. 35 
 
 Some lively correspondence evidently passed between the Synod 
 
 3i Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 37f. 
 
 32 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1923, p. 97f. 
 
 33 Though the mission to the Negroes would center in the Southern States of 
 the U. S. A. it was considered as "foreign" missions and handled by the synod 
 under this classification. 
 
 34 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1868, p. 13. 
 
 35 Ibid., p. 14. 
 
Augustana Heritage 124 
 
 and Pastor Ahlberg during the next couple of years, and the Synod 
 actually invited Pastor Ahlberg himself to come to America and 
 enter the missionary service of the Synod. In 1875, however, the 
 Missions Committee reported that difficulties had arisen with the 
 consequence that neither Negro missions nor other alternative projects, 
 such as an Alaskan venture, had been undertaken. The report then 
 concludes by asking the Synod to consider carefully "whether the time 
 has yet arrived for initiating an independent mission among foreign 
 people as long as manpower is insufficient among us to meet the needs 
 of our own people, who after all are more congenial and receptive to 
 God's Word than any other people." With that report which virtually 
 invited the Church to do nothing, the enthusiasm for a mission to the 
 liberated Negroes evaporated and received at that time no more serious 
 synodical attention. 36 
 
 The second attempt to launch an independent "foreign mission" 
 project was also inspired not by the Church or its central board, 
 but by an individual pastor, and like the ill-fated Negro mission, did 
 not venture to go beyond the boundaries of the United States, and may 
 be said, as in the former case, to have been "foreign" missions only 
 in the sense that it was not directed toward Scandinavians. This 
 effort was initiated by Pastor Olof Olsson, who came to America from 
 Sweden in 1876 with a deep and earnest concern for the evangeliza- 
 tion of the American Indian. Indeed, it is said that interest in mission- 
 ary work among the American Indians was an important factor in 
 the decision of Olsson to come to this country. 37 On the basis of 
 Olsson's recommendations to Synod in 1876, 38 Pastor J. Telleen was 
 commissioned to inspect Indian Territory in the hope of establish- 
 ing an Augustana mission among the natives. Telleen's exploratory 
 trip through the Territory was reported to Synod in 1877. 39 On the 
 strength of Telleen's recommendations, Matthias Wahlstrom was or- 
 dained, 1879, on a call to become a missionary for the evangelization 
 of the American Indians. Difficulties with the governmental agencies, 
 the illness of Wahlstrom, and the lack of aggressive and co-ordinated 
 
 36 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1875, p. 22. By 1954, when St. Philip's Lutheran 
 Church, Oakland, California, was organized, Negro missions had become a 
 project under the jurisdiction of the Board of American Missions. 
 
 37 Emery Lindquist, op. cit., p. 54. For biographical sketches of Olsson see E. 
 W. Olson, Olof Olsson, The Man, His Work, and His Thought, Rock Island, 
 1941. Johannes Nyvall, "O. Olsson," Korsbaneret, 1901, pp. 142-166. 
 
 38 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1876, pp. 26-28. 
 
 39 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1877, pp. 17-19. A graphic account of this thrill- 
 packed journey is given in Jubel-Album, op. cit., pp. 195ff. 
 
 
125 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 efforts by the Mission Board combined to discourage the work, so that 
 after Wahlstrom's resignation in 1881, this project came to an end. 40 
 
 With the Indian mission ending in failure, the Synod in 1882, 
 turned to the Mormons in Utah, and especially to the Swedish converts 
 of Joseph Smith's heresy, who "have a greater demand on our sym- 
 pathies than the heathen, since their condition is in many respects 
 more pitiable than that of the real heathen." 41 The Synod authorized 
 the Utah mission and voted to transfer to this work the remaining 
 funds which had been received for the evangelization of the Indians. 42 
 The Utah mission turned out to be a very difficult and disappointing 
 field, but the Synod continued its work there as a "foreign" mission 
 until 1902 when it became a part of the Synod's home missions 
 program. 43 
 
 Having taken these first tentative steps, the Synod launched its 
 first overseas mission in 1888 when it initiated a mission in Persia 
 (Iran) which was begun by a Lutheran pastor, Knanishu Moratkhare, 
 who appealed to the Synod for help. The Synod continued to support 
 this enterprise until 1912, when because of difficulties on the field, 
 lack of continued interest at home and within the board, support was 
 summarily discontinued. A somewhat similar situation developed in 
 connection with the second overseas venture, when an Augustana 
 theological student, G. Sigfrid Swensson, persuaded the Synod to 
 begin work in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1898. This project was con- 
 tinued until 1918, when the Synod relinquished its work there and 
 turned it over to the newly formed United Lutheran Church in 
 America, since this body was carrying on the extensive Puerto Rican 
 mission inherited from the General Council. 44 
 
 A somewhat more encouraging chapter in the development of 
 a foreign mission program begins when the Augustana Synod became 
 a member of the General Council in 1870, and from that time co- 
 operated in supporting the Lutheran work among the Telegu people 
 in Rajahmundry, India. No great enthusiasm for this project was 
 evinced by the Synod until Pastor and Mrs. A. B. Carlson, products 
 of the Synod, entered the service of the Council as missionaries at 
 Rajahmundry in 1878. 45 Pastor Carlson did much to awaken a new 
 
 *o Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1881, p. 59. 
 
 41 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1882, p. 53f. 
 
 42 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1882, p. 61. 
 
 43 Cf. Norelius, op. cit., pp. 95-110. 
 
 44 Swanson, op. cit., pp. 18-24. 
 
 45 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1878, p. 49. Swanson, Our Missionary Pioneers, 
 op. cit, pp. 7-36. 
 
Augustana Heritage 126 
 
 zeal and interest for foreign missions in the Synod. Through personal 
 correspondence and articles in the church press, he appealed for greater 
 interest and support In one such appeal he declared, 
 
 Even though you should turn deaf ears to my pleading I shall 
 not cease to call, yea, if you muffle your ears, I will in the name 
 of my Savior place the written words before your eyes, presenting 
 to you as long as God permits me to live in this house of clay 
 the needs of these poor Hindus. I am not pleading my own cause 
 but the cause of my Lord and the poor heathen for whom His 
 blood was shed. 46 
 
 During the period from 1870 to 1918 while the Augustana Synod was 
 a part of the General Council, thirteen recruits, seven men and six 
 women, served as Augustana representatives on the Telegu field. 
 After 1918, the Augustana Church co-operated with the United Lu- 
 theran Church in America in continuing to support the work, sending 
 forth four men and nine women, and making annual financial contri- 
 butions to the field. 47 
 
 In any survey of the foreign missionary activities of the Augustana 
 Church it is evident that the Synod was not prepared to move as 
 rapidly and decisively in this field as in some of its other undertakings. 
 Here the early steps seem to have been somewhat hesitant, fumbling, 
 irresolute, and even disorganized in contrast to the vigorous approach 
 to home and social missions. And indeed, it may very well be that 
 just because the Synod was taking such bold action regarding mission 
 causes closer at hand, there was too little time, effort, and resources 
 remaining for the young church to give adequate attention to its 
 own world mission. It is evident too, that the real initiative for what 
 was being done came not from the official supervising agency, but 
 from venturesome individuals who goaded the Synod into action which 
 it seems to have been reluctant to take. 
 
 Nevertheless, though the early activity on behalf of foreign missions 
 might have been hesitant and fumbling, it was enough to awaken the 
 Synod to its obligations and opportunities as a responsible partner in 
 the evangelization of the non-Christian world. These early efforts 
 were, therefore, laying the foundations for the truly important work 
 which Augustana was to undertake during the twentieth century in 
 
 46 Augustana, 1880, p. 429, quoted by Swanson, Foundation jor Tomorrow, op. 
 cit., p. 37. 
 
 47 The story of the Telegu Mission and the part Augustana has had in this 
 project is given in Ibid., pp. 34-65. O. J. Johnson "Our Mission Abroad," 
 After Seventy-Five Years, op. cit., pp. 199-219. Peter Peterson, "The Mission- 
 ary Enterprise," The Augustana Synod, 1860-1910, op. cit., pp. 73-88. 
 
127 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 China, Africa, and elsewhere. The awareness of its world-wide obliga- 
 tions and opportunities, and the activities which therefrom eventuated, 
 constitute a part of those forces and factors which have given shape 
 to the Augustana tradition. 
 
 The Expansion of Home Missions 
 
 Of all the activities in which the Augustana Church engaged, 
 no single enterprise has had a more decisive role in shaping the 
 geography, the spirit and the structure of the Augustana Church than 
 the endeavor which has often been called "the chief task of the Synod," 
 and known by its earliest name as "Home Missions," and more recently, 
 "American Missions." When Dr. L. G. Abrahamson recorded the story 
 of "Hemmissionen" in the Jubilee Album of 1893, he defined home 
 missions in the terms by which it was both interpreted and imple- 
 mented for the first half-century of the Synod's existence. He declared 
 that home missions is "that activity which contemplates the ingathering 
 within the fold of our church our scattered countrymen through- 
 out this land." 48 It was only after the cessation of the great immigra- 
 tion, following World War I, that the Augustana Church began to 
 perceive that the definition was too narrow, and that Augustana home 
 missions must henceforth envisage the evangelization of the entire 
 community without being limited to particular social or nationalistic 
 categories. It is this larger concept of home missions which is implicit 
 in the term American Missions. In any event, the foundations for 
 American Missions in the Augustana tradition were laid in the days 
 when the enterprise was conceived and expressed in the narrower 
 sense of home missions. 
 
 The year that the Augustana Synod was founded, 1860, the national 
 census reported that there were 18,625 people of Swedish birth resid- 
 ing in the United States. That same year the Synod reported 3,747 
 Swedish communicants on its membership rolls, or 20.1 per cent of the 
 Swedish population in this country. Ten years later, in 1870, the 
 national census recorded 97,332 Swedish residents in the U. S. A., 
 while the Augustana Synod reported 16,376 Swedish communicants, 
 which amounted to 16.8 per cent of the total Swedish population. 49 
 
 48 Jubel- Album, op. tit, p. 172. 
 
 ™ juoei-Aioum, op. cit., p. l/z. 
 
 49 Figures and statistics taken from Olga W. M. Wold, The History of the Au- 
 gustana Synod, 1860-1870, op. tit., appendix, Table II, p. 109. See also Florence 
 Edith Janson, The Background of Swedish Immigration, 1840-1930, Chicago, 
 1931. Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1860, appendix, Kyrklig Statistik; 1870, 
 appendix, Kyrklig Statistik. 
 
Augustana Heritage 128 
 
 That means that in the first ten years of its existence the growth of 
 Augustana did not equal the percentage gain of the total Swedish 
 population in this country. In other words, the program of home 
 missions during the first decade was slightly less successful than 
 similar efforts had been among the Midwestern Scandinavians before 
 the Synod was organized. 
 
 It must be acknowledged, however, that even this achievement 
 was no small accomplishment, since the rate of immigration was steadily 
 increasing, the stream of immigrants scattered into widely separated 
 settlements, and the synodical resources of men and means were very 
 meager. 
 
 At the same time, however, the failure to win a larger percentage 
 of the newcomers must be attributed in part to the inefficient and un- 
 organized manner in which the Synod pursued home missions during 
 the first decade. It has been previously noted 50 that at the constituting 
 convention at Jefferson Prairie, in 1860, a central home mission com- 
 mittee consisting of three members was created, which was given 
 charge of the home mission cause. In the reports which this commit- 
 tee rendered in the following years, it is evident that very little cen- 
 tral direction was given to the program by this agency. It did, indeed, 
 give counsel when requested, and received and expended such contri- 
 butions as were sent in, but it did not formulate an over-all plan for 
 home missions. 
 
 The most important task of the central board seems to have been 
 that of discovering those fields which were too far distant to be served 
 by a settled parish pastor and to seek ministerial help for such 
 settlements. Accordingly, the central board sent out a few traveling 
 missionaries for whose support it was responsible. Among the ear- 
 liest of these traveling missionaries were Eric Norelius, P. A. Ced- 
 erstam, P. Carlson, C. A. Hedengren, P. Beckman, and S. G. Larson, 
 who rendered splendid service to the Church, often under appallingly 
 difficult and dangerous circumstances. 51 For the most part, however, 
 the work of home missions was done by settled parish pastors who 
 visited nearby settlements as they were able, and occasionally under- 
 took more extensive visitations. In general, however, home missions 
 during the first decade was carried on haphazardly without adequate 
 and well-conceived guidance and long-range planning and direction. 
 
 In the light of these circumstances, the almost anguished appeal 
 
 50 Supra, Chapter 5, p. 89. 
 
 51 See Norelius, De svenska luterska forsamlingarnas, etc., op. tit., Vol. II, 
 pp. 35-46. 
 
129 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 which President Hasselquist voiced in his annual report of 1869, be- 
 comes all the more meaningful. He said in part, 
 
 Think of it, brethren! Out of the fifty or sixty thousand Swedish 
 nationals who have emigrated, only about twenty thousand are 
 connected with us, and a few other thousand united with other 
 churches, which leaves a formidable remainder of some twenty to 
 thirty thousand countrymen who are being lost in worldliness, sin, 
 and unbelief. . . . Can anyone do for them what we can, we who 
 speak their language and who have been fed with the same spiritual 
 food, and therefore understand more intimately than others what 
 they have lost and what they need? No! Let us in God's name 
 redouble our zeal, our sacrifices, and above all else our prayers, 
 that the Lord of the harvest will send faithful laborers into his 
 harvest. The night is at hand. Woe unto us if our work is half 
 done. 52 
 
 The synodical convention of 1870, however, marks a turning point and 
 an important milestone in the development of Augustana home mis- 
 sions. At this time the entire program was subjected to a careful 
 scrutiny and revaluation. After an entire day's discussion and debate 
 a thorough revision of home missions' machinery was effected, as 
 the Synod adopted a constitution governing the work of missions. 
 This document is of such importance that the substantial provisions are 
 here given in full: 
 
 Acknowledging with humble gratitude the great mercy which 
 the Lord has shown toward us as a Church, and seeing with joy 
 and astonishment the immense fields lying open before us, we 
 feel now more than ever the need of a more zealous, embracing, 
 and united missionary activity within our Synod, and to the pro- 
 motion thereof the following regulations are adopted: 
 
 Article I 
 
 1. The missionary activities of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran 
 Augustana Synod shall be under the direction and control of a 
 mission committee elected by the Synod and known as the Central 
 Home Mission Board of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran 
 Augustana Synod. 
 
 2. The Board shall consist of four pastors and four laymen, 
 together with the president of the Synod as ex officio member . . . 
 
 3. It shall be the duty of this Board to see to it that our 
 widely scattered countrymen are provided with the preaching 
 of the Word and the administration of the sacraments and for 
 that purpose call and commission itinerant preachers, catechists, 
 
 52 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1869, p. 8. President Hasselquist's figures were 
 incorrect. At the time there were approximately 97,000 Swedish nationals in 
 the U. S. and communicant membership of the synod was 16,162. 
 
Augustana Heritage 130 
 
 and colporteurs, determine their salaries and field of labor and 
 receive and disburse funds for both home and foreign missions. 
 5. The Central Board shall present a written report to the 
 Synod at each convention, not only of funds received, but also 
 of the work as a whole. 
 
 Article II. 
 
 1. Each conference of the Synod shall constitute a mission 
 district. 
 
 2. The president of each conference shall represent the Central 
 Board and together with two pastors and two laymen elected 
 by the conference constitute the Conference Home Mission Board. 
 
 3. The conference shall hold mission meetings once a month or 
 as often as possible and for this purpose the conference may divide 
 its territory into several districts. Quarterly meetings, or at least 
 two meetings a year, shall be held by each conference. Missionary 
 addresses and services for edification shall be held at these meet- 
 ings, also discussions of theological, Christian, and practical sub- 
 jects, and the missionary activities within the district given careful 
 consideration. The itinerant preachers, catechists, and colporteurs 
 shall present written reports of their work at these meetings. 
 
 4. The mission board of each conference shall endeavor to 
 find suitable and qualified men and recommend them to the Central 
 Board, and if they are accepted, determine the nature of their 
 work and their field of labor, and exercise careful supervision 
 over their work and conduct. The president of the conference 
 shall give a written report at least each quarter to the Central 
 Board concerning the mission work and the general condition 
 in the district, together with a statement from the treasurer of 
 money collected and spent within the district. 
 
 5. Each conference shall not only endeavor to awaken within 
 its own congregations a true Christian spirit and zeal for missions, 
 but endeavor to introduce a regular system for the ingathering 
 of funds for the mission and other Christian benevolent institutions. 
 Money gathered for special purposes, such as education, orphan's 
 homes or hospitals shall be sent directly to the board involved, 
 but funds for missions, whether home or foreign, shall be sent 
 to the Central Board. The mission board of each conference shall, 
 however, have the right to use more or less of the home mission 
 funds which it collects on its own field. 
 
 Article III 
 
 1. Prayer services for missions shall be held in each congrega- 
 tion once a month, and under the leadership of the Conference 
 Mission Board a systematic program of benevolence shall be 
 introduced. 
 
 2. The church council in each congregation shall, as far as 
 possible, constitute the mission board of the congregation, and as 
 
131 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 such shall exert its power and influence to promote the cause of 
 missions by organizing sewing societies, gathering mission funds 
 and conducting prayer services for missions. 53 
 
 It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of this action taken 
 by the Synod in 1870. It was undoubtedly the most far-reaching re- 
 organization which the Synod had undertaken since its inception. The 
 entire administrative structure of the church was tightened and im- 
 proved, and though, as has been noted in connection with the dis- 
 cussion on foreign missions, not every department of activity profited 
 from this reorganization, it is indubitable that the general life of 
 the Synod, and particularly home missions, was greatly benefited. 
 Moreover, the conferences emerged with new significance, and thus 
 the very structure of the Synod was modified. 
 
 A number of specific changes must be noted. The Central Board 
 became a co-ordinating center for the entire program with specific 
 administrative and supervisory responsibilities in relation to both 
 the Synod and the conferences. In its portfolio the itinerant system was 
 of prime importance. Three itinerant missionaries were called into 
 service, P. A. Cederstam, Olof Olsson, and S. P. A. Lindahl. Olsson 
 did not accept his assignment, but the other two men undertook 
 extensive visitations, the former throughout Minnesota, the latter in 
 Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. Within a few years a sub- 
 stantial corps of itinerant pastors was pushing out the borders of the 
 Synod in all directions. Among these men the following were outstand- 
 ing figures, S. G. Larson, C. P. Rydholm, L. A. Hocanzon, J. Aus- 
 land, Peter Carlson, A. Andreen, and J. Telleen. 54 
 
 An even more important change was the new significance given 
 to the conferences as the active working arms of the Synod, thus 
 bringing the responsibility for home missions much closer to the 
 grass roots of the Church. It will be recalled that five conferences 
 
 53 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, pp. 37-43. 
 
 54 Fom f °£ exam P le ' Hi story of the California Conference, 1893-1952, Glendale, 
 1953. Emeroy Johnson, God Gave the Growth, The Story of the Lutheran 
 Minnesota Conference, 1858-1958, Minneapolis, 1958. C. F. Sandahl The Ne- 
 braska Conference of the Augustana Synod, Rock Island, 1931. Enoil Lund, 
 lowa-Konferensens av Augustana Synoden Historia, Rock Island, 1916. J. 
 ±jdor Larson History of the Red River Valley Conference, Blair, Nebraska, 
 
 • » Yr. ' Br ? dine ' "Augustana-synodens Hemmission och 'Church-Exten- 
 S 01 Jn-r ne n ^ Augustana Synoden, 1860-1910, Rock Island, 1910, pp. 
 +1 ^ VSlc l B " LAWSon * The New Y °rk Conference of the Augustana Lu- 
 
 theran Church, Its Place of Founding, Manuscript, 1952. E. Norelius, "Nybyg- 
 garelif Teckningar fran Minnesotas tidigare dagar," Prairieblomman, op. cit., 
 pp. 158-167. Alfred Bergin, "I Amerikas Dalarne, eller Svenskarne i och 
 omkring Cambridge, Minn.," Ibid., pp. 117-136. 
 
Augustana Heritage 132 
 
 with specific geographic boundaries were designated, namely, New 
 York, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas. 55 The new constitution 
 vested in these conferences the major concern for carrying on home 
 missions by specifying five areas of responsibility: (1) The confer- 
 ences were to promote within their boundaries an ongoing program 
 of missionary education, the purpose of which was to inform, in- 
 spire, and enlist the active support of the people in every congre- 
 gation. (2) The conferences were responsible for developing exist- 
 ing and new mission fields within their boundaries. Since conference 
 leaders had much more intimate and accurate knowledge of the new 
 settlements in their own territory, they could also more easily bring 
 local resources to bear upon existing needs without waiting for a 
 distant central committee to act. (3) The conferences were charged 
 with the responsibility of recruiting qualified men to act as mission- 
 aries, evangelists, and colporteurs, to recommend them to the Synod 
 for training and assign them their specific type of work and field of j 
 labor. (4) The conferences were expected to raise the necessary funds j 
 to support all phases of mission work and to undergird its expansion. l| 
 In the handling of such funds the conferences were granted sub- 
 stantial freedom from synodical control. 56 (5) The supervision and 
 jurisdiction of the over-all program of home missions in each confer- 
 ence was to rest with the conference itself. Indeed, each conference 
 was expcted to exercise ingenuity and imagination in developing ways 
 and means and its own strategy in the implementation of the aims and 
 purposes of home missions. Freedom to experiment and innovate 
 rested with each conference. 
 
 It is clear that under these new arrangements the conferences 
 would emerge with far greater significance than they had possessed 
 hitherto. The "chief task and responsibility of the Synod," namely, 
 home missions, was now placed squarely in the hands of the confer- 
 ences, while the Synod through the Central Board undertook responsi- 
 bility for areas which were not included in the territory of any exist- 
 ing conference. While the Synod did not hereby surrender that 
 authority which Hasselquist had so carefully nurtured through the I 
 years, the new conference authority which now came into being was 
 bound to eventuate, sooner or later, in a tension between Conference 
 and Synod. In a subsequent period this tension exploded in the so- | 
 called "constitutional debate." A further unfortunate result of the 
 
 55 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 34. See also above, Chapter VI, p. 101. 
 
 56 See resolution, Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1873, p. 37. 
 
Pastors at the 
 Constituting Convention, 
 Augustana Church 
 Jefferson Prairie, 
 Wisconsin, I860 
 
 pi 
 
 ^& 
 
 O. C. T. ANDREN 
 
 JONAS SWENSSON 
 
 HAKANSON ERLAND CARLSSON LARS PAUL ESBJ6RN 
 
 T. N. HASSELQUIST P. A. CEDERSTAM 
 
 ERIC NORELIUS 
 
 J. P. C. BOREN 
 
NORWEGIAN 
 
 LUTHERAN 
 
 CHURCH 
 
 Jefferson Prairie, 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Where Constituting 
 
 Convention was 
 
 held, June, 1860 
 
>>*mm^Am^^J^m^%f^l 
 
 MESSIAH LUTHERAN CHURCH 
 Marquette, Michigan. Dedicated, I960 
 
 
 ^^T 
 
 * 4 
 
 ■■■■■■ 
 
 ST. PAUL'S LUTHERAN CHURCH 
 Haney, British Columbia, Canada. Dedicated, 1961 
 
T. N. HASSELQUIST 
 1860-1870 
 
 JONAS SWENSSON 
 1870-1873 
 
 ERIC NORELIUS 
 1874-1881, 1899-1911 
 
 ERLAND CARLSSON 
 1881-1888 
 
 S. P. A. LINOAHL 
 1888-1891 
 
 P. J SVaRD 
 1891-1899 
 
 G. A. BRANDELLE 
 1918-1935 
 
 L. A. JOHNSTON 
 1911-1918 
 
The Presidents of the 
 Augustana Church 
 
 111 
 
 OSCAR A. BENSON 
 1951-1959 
 
 MALVIN H. LUNDEEN 
 1959-1962 
 
 P. O. BERSELL 
 1935-1951 
 
Karl E. Mattson 
 President, Augustana 
 Theological Seminary 
 1948-1962 
 
 LIBRARY AND CLASSROOM BUILDINGS 
 
 Augustana Theological Seminary 
 
 Rock Island, Illinois 
 
 
 Conrad E. Bergend 
 President 
 Augustana Collea 
 and Theologicc 
 Seminary 
 1935-1948 
 President 
 Augustana Colleg 
 1948-1962 
 
 Olof Olsson 
 President, 1891-1900 
 
 Gustav Andreen 
 President, 1901-1935 
 
 Augustana College and Theological Seminary, established in 
 1860, continued as a single synodical institution until 1948. 
 Separation of Augustana College and Augustana Theological 
 Seminary was finally approved at the Centennial convention, 
 1948. Henceforth the two schools operated as independent 
 institutions. 
 
T 
 
 ^V 
 
 ^Pt 
 
 * 
 
 W** 
 
 IliHIII 
 
 CENTENNIAL HALL— AUGUSTANA COLLEGE 
 Rock Island, Illinois 
 
 OUR CONFERENCE COLLEGES 
 
 NEW CHAPEL, GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE 
 St. Peter, Minnesota 
 
 C. W. SORENSEN 
 President, 
 
 Augustana College 
 1962- 
 

 HAHN PHYSICAL EDUCATION BUILDING 
 Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas 
 
 
 NEW RESIDENCE HALLS 
 Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey 
 
 SCIENCE HALL AND GYMNASIUM 
 Luther College, Wahoo, Nebraska 
 
133 The Enterprise of Missions 
 
 decentralization of synodical authority in the work of home missions 
 was the almost inevitable growth of sectionalism. Since the confer- 
 ences were charged with missionary responsibility for their own terri- 
 tories, they became increasingly aware of their own needs and corre- 
 spondingly indifferent to needs beyond their own borders. They tended 
 to keep for their own use funds raised among their own people, with 
 the result that the Central Board, dependent as it was upon contribu- 
 tions from the conferences, was often unable to meet the pressing 
 obligations or take advantage of missionary opportunities because of 
 lack of funds. The unfortunate expedient to which the Central Board 
 resorted was borrowing from the treasury of foreign missions, which 
 in turn only meant that foreign missions must suffer. 57 
 
 Whatever may be said for or against the reorganized plan of 
 home missions instituted in 1870, the fact remains that it proved so 
 successful in the following years that it continued in operation until 
 1939. Under the provisions of the plan and aided by increased immi- 
 gration, the greatest growth in the history of the Augustana Church 
 occurred. In the quarter of a century, between 1870 and 1895, the 
 communicant membership of the Synod increased more than fivefold, 
 which was the greatest per capita gain the Synod ever enjoyed. 58 
 
 In the development of its missions programs, social, foreign, and 
 home, the Augustana Church accommodated itself to its American 
 environment, adopting new attitudes, modifying traditional viewpoints, 
 creating new forms and strategies through which to express its life 
 and faith, in order to redeem, change, and transform its environ- 
 ment. But it should also be noted that such a process of accommoda- 
 tion affected the Synod by bringing it into closer conformity with the 
 Americanized version of institutionalized Christianity, thus helping 
 to give shape and form to this immigrant fellowship which was seeking 
 to serve God in the new world. 
 
 57 See for example Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1895, p. 35, where it is recorded 
 that the home mission treasury owed the foreign mission treasury $10,723.36, 
 whereupon the Synod declared the indebtedness cancelled! See also Proto- 
 koll, Augustana Synod, 1904, p. 62, where Epiphany offerings in the amount 
 of $2,453.14 are declared full restitution for indebtedness to foreign missions 
 amounting to more than $10,000. 
 
 58 Cf. Minutes, Augustana Lutheran Church, 1961, statistical table, p. 770. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Quest tor Fellowship 
 
 The response of the Augustana Synod to the needs and demands 
 of its environment constituted only a part of the process by which 
 the contours of the Synod were determined. Of no less signifi- 
 cance in the same process were the various relationships and associa- 
 tions which were established and developed both prior to and during 
 the early course of the Synod's history. These relationships both ex- 
 pressed and helped form many of the basic attitudes characteristic of 
 the Augustana ethos. 
 
 Affiliation with the Synod of Northern Illinois 
 
 The connection which the Scandinavian Conferences, Chicago 
 and Mississippi, formed with the Synod of Northern Illinois in 1851 
 may be said to have been a relationship of expediency in the sense 
 that its primary motivations were strictly pragmatic. The Scandina- 
 vians were obviously not drawn to the Synod of Northern Illinois 
 by any ties of a common language, culture, or custom. Nor did the 
 Scandinavians feel particularly close to the Synod of Northern Illinois 
 on confessional grounds, except in the broad sense that each professed 
 to be Lutheran, albeit the Lutheranism of the Synod was highly sus- 
 pect to men like Esbjorn. From available evidence it appears that 
 the Scandinavians sought membership in the Synod of Northern 
 Illinois because of the very practical benefits they hoped to reap from 
 such connections. It was expected, for example, that such a relation- 
 ship would do much to dispel the sense of lonely isolation which beset 
 the immigrants in the new world, and would enable them more quickly 
 to discover from these more Americanized associates ways and means 
 for a speedier adjustment to the bewildering ways of a free-church 
 society. Such an association could also be expected to open up new 
 avenues for help and support. Furthermore, by a pooling of resources, 
 tasks could be undertaken, such as educational and missionary projects, 
 which would be impossible to accomplish alone. Thus, it seemed expe- 
 dient for the Scandinavians to join the Synod of Northern Illinois and, 
 
 134 
 
 
135 QVEST POE FiUOWSHIP 
 
 as has already been pointed out,' within this association a substantial 
 part of the motivating hopes and expectations were actually realized 
 Even though the relationship lasted only a decade, it was a fruitful 
 experience in which, through differentiation and accommodation the 
 outlmes of the Augustana Synod began to emerge. 2 
 
 Swedish-Norwegian Relationships 
 The relationship which the Swedish and Norwegian elements in 
 toe Augustana Synod sustained toward each other constituted per- 
 haps an even more significant association, since it was not merely a 
 relationship of expedience but of kinship, lasting from 1854 to 1870 3 
 * rr h l Chicago-Mississippi Conference, or as it was also known 
 the United Scandinavian Conference, was composed of Swedes and 
 Norwegians committed to a low-church, pietistic type of conservative 
 Lutheranism, whose European backgrounds, especially in relation to 
 the revival movements in Scandinavia and present situation in Amer- 
 ica, were in many respects very similar. Between these Swedes and 
 Norwegians there existed a spirit of mutuality, understanding, and 
 sympathy which eventuated in organic union when both elements 
 joined to form the Augustana Synod in 1860. 
 
 wl 1 ™ !f° 1° 18?0 ^ SW6deS md N °™egians ^ed amicably 
 together within the one synodical household. Regarding this period of 
 association, Professor A. A. Stomberg has declared, 
 
 The Norwegian contingent in the Augustana Synod alwavs 
 maintained that they were given the most brotherly considerate 
 while members of the Synod, and they stated time and agafntha" 
 
 A s^udv oTthT^ t0 ffu ke ^ inSt their Swedish brethren 
 1870 ™„M 1 ^ 6S ^ 0f *? A "g usta « a Synod from 1860 to 
 
 1870 would also indicate that they filled a great number of nlaces 
 on committees and programs-quite nearly in proportion to heir 
 relative number in the Synod. 1 
 
 1 Supra, Chapter V, pp. lOOff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 136 
 
 The Augustana Norwegians, however, were only a minor group among 
 a number of contending and fiercely competing Norwegian religious 
 associations in America, while the Augustana Swedes did not suffer 
 from such fragmentation. It was, therefore, inevitable that the Swedish 
 section of the Augustana Synod would grow more rapidly than the 
 Norwegian, and that in time the Norwegian element would come to 
 feel that they were being overshadowed by the Swedes. It will also 
 be recalled that since the major Norwegian settlements were concen- 
 trated in Wisconsin and southern Minnesota, the relocation of the 
 Augustana Seminary in the remote village of Paxton, in 1863, was not 
 a popular move among the Norwegians. 
 
 Thus, there began to emerge slowly and quietly a sentiment among 
 the Augustana Norwegians favoring separation from the Swedes in 
 order thereby to be better able to cope with their own problems of 
 discipline and missionary demands. The final dissolution of the ties 
 that bound the Norwegians and Swedes together in the Augustana 
 Synod was reached through a series of events which may be said to 
 have started in 1866. 
 
 In April, 1866, President Hasselquist called a special session of 
 the Synod to deal with a serious problem which had arisen among 
 the Norwegians and involved especially Pastor C. J. P. Peterson, . 
 successor of Paul Andersen in Chicago. Peterson was charged by his 
 own congregation with schismatic and disorderly conduct. He was 
 accused of (1) insisting upon wearing the ministerial garb of the Nor- 
 wegian State Church, (2) using the ministerial handbook, liturgy, 
 and ceremonials of the Norwegian State Church, (3) leveling unjust 
 criticism against brother pastors, (4) disregarding the stipulations 
 of the congregational constitution, (5) dealing underhandedly in order 
 to accomplish his own purposes, (6) showing an unrepentant and 
 stubborn refusal to accept brotherly counsel and (7) being guilty of 
 insubordination toward the Synod. 5 The Synod sat as a virtual court of 
 review, and after hearing and weighing the evidence the Synod ex- 
 pelled Peterson from its ranks. 6 Peterson strenuously objected to these 
 "high-handed and unfair methods" of the Synod, and found a few 
 sympathizers among his Augustana countrymen. As a consequence, 
 Peterson was joined by two other Norwegian pastors, A. Estrem and 
 A. Jacobsen, who now left the Augustana Synod and were promptly 
 received into full ministerial standing by the anti-Augustana, high- 
 
 Protokoll, Augustana Synodens extra mote, den 24-27 April, 1866, pp. 13-15. 
 Ibid., p. 15. 
 
 
137 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 churchly Wisconsin Synod. Though this defection was not particularly 
 serious, it received a good deal of attention, mostly favorable, in Nor- 
 wegian circles, since it had ostensibly been motivated by nationalistic 
 loyalties which appealed to the rank and file Norwegian. 7 
 
 A further step toward independence for the Augustana Norwegians 
 was taken in 1866 when the Norwegians established their own news- 
 paper, Den Norske Lutheraner, for the purpose of more effectively 
 reaching their own countrymen with an organ using their native 
 tongue and devoted especially to those specific concerns which were 
 of greatest interest to Norwegians. Such a paper could — and did — 
 make a particular appeal to the spirit of Norwegian nationalism, and 
 in so doing aided and abetted the urge toward selfconsciousness and 
 separation from the Swedes. 8 
 
 The restlessness within the Norwegian section of the Synod gave the 
 Swedes some cause for anxiety, and though Hasselquist and his 
 colleagues sought to maintain the bonds of unity, there seems to have 
 been some talk even among the Swedes at the convention of 1867 
 about the advisability of encouraging a division of the Synod along 
 nationalistic lines, for the good of all concerned. 9 
 
 At the synodical convention of 1868 a long stride toward separa- 
 tion was taken when two resolutions were adopted, (1) to create a 
 separate fund for the Norwegian Professorship at Augustana Seminary 
 and place it under the sole jurisdiction of an all-Norwegian committee, 
 
 7 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1866, p. 20. An interesting and significant by- 
 product of this action was the violent theological controversy with the Wis- 
 consin Synod which resulted in clarification of Augustana 's position on a num- 
 ber of questions, including Sabbath observances, slavery, absolution, and lay 
 activity. See Protokoll, Ministerii forhandlingar, 1866, pp. 36-38. The state- 
 ment regarding lay activity was especially significant, since there was much 
 variation of interpretation among Lutherans regarding the meaning of Ar- 
 ticle XIV of the Augsburg Confession. Eric Norelius addressed this question 
 in a series of articles in Lutersk Kyrko-tidning (July 15, August 1, August 
 15, September 15, and December 15, 1872) taking the position that lay ac- 
 tivity must be guarded and carefully restricted in the church in order to 
 protect the congregations from fanatics and anarchists, which was an attitude 
 similar to Missouri and Wisconsin. This caution was approved by the Synod 
 in 1887 when it was resolved that theological students and other laymen could 
 serve only when approved by the congregations and the pastors, but could 
 not administer the sacraments, confirmation, marriage, or organize new con- 
 gregations on their own responsibility. Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1887, p. 
 22. Further reference to C. J. P. Peterson is given in Tidskrift for teologi, 
 1904, "Brev fran T. N. Hasselquist till O. C. T. Andren," and "Forklaringar," 
 pp. 65-76. 
 
 8 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1867, p. 5. Wold, op. tit., p. 59. 
 
 9 Weenaas makes such a statement in an article in Den Norske Lutheraner, 
 February 10, 1869, see footnote, Ibid., p. 26. See also Hasselquist's letter to 
 Jonas Swensson, dated Paxton, Illinois, April 25, 1868, Hasselquist Collection, 
 Augustana archives. 
 
Augustana Heritage 138 
 
 and (2) to select a committee of six Norwegians, three pastors and 
 three laymen, to consider ways and means of dividing the Synod along 
 nationalistic lines and the establishment of an independent Norwegian 
 Augustana Synod, and to report to the next convention of the Synod. 10 
 In the meantime through Pastor S. M. Krogness, a member of 
 the Augustana ministerium, the Synod had negotiated with Pastor 
 August Weenaas of Tromso, Norway, to come to America and take 
 over the Norwegian professorship at Augustana Seminary. 11 Weenaas 
 accepted the call and arrived in Paxton in time for the opening of 
 the school year in the autumn of 1868. He quickly became the leader 
 of the movement for separation. He later declared that he had not 
 been in America very long before he perceived that if the Augustana 
 Norwegians were ever to serve as a rallying point between the two 
 extremes of the Ellingians, on the one hand, and the high-church Wis- 
 consinites, on the other, there must be separation from the Swedes. 
 "For," said he, "the Augustana Synod had become a Swedish com- 
 munion with a Norwegian annex and, therefore, incapable of properly 
 understanding or effectively serving the best interests of the Nor- 
 wegian people in America." 12 In Den Norske Luiheraner Weenaas de- 
 fended separation in the following manner: 
 
 It should be emphasized from the beginning that the reason 
 is not to be found in any lack of harmony among the Norwegians 
 and Swedes, but the Norwegians have from the beginning been 
 in a minority, and the disproportion between the two groups is 
 constantly growing larger. Naturally, therefore, the Swedes will 
 continue to place more and more emphasis upon the Swedish 
 work. . . . The Augustana Synod people, since the leading men in 
 the Synod are Swedes, cannot fully understand our peculiar 
 Norwegian character and our ecclesiastical and national traditions 
 so well that they can guide us in proper channels. . . . Further- 
 more, the Synod is becoming too large, so that it is hard for any 
 one congregation to receive it for the annual convention. Busi- 
 ness matters have come to the fore in the meetings, which have 
 thus lost their original edifying character. The Synod is also 
 intending to join the new organization, the General Council; the 
 Norwegians are opposed to this, as they want to wait and see 
 what stand the General Council will take in doctrinal questions. 
 The Norwegians need a school of their own. In the sciences they 
 are compelled to use Swedish texts, which is a hindrance. They 
 do not want to offend the Swedes, but it is a fact that these have 
 
 ™ Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1868, pp. 37, 48f. 
 
 11 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1866, p. 37. Weenaas, Livserindringer, op. cit. 
 p. 98f. 
 
 12 Weenaas, op. cit, p. 119. 
 
139 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 a tendency to adopt too much of the spirit of the American college. 
 Their extensive courses in mathematics, philosophy, and all kinds 
 of philosophical sciences, serve to distract the thoughts and to 
 take time away from the more important theological studies. 13 
 
 Weenaas' criticism of the Americanized spirit of Augustana Seminary 
 reflects his insistence that the seminary ought to be a "mission 
 school," where the burden of emphasis would be laid upon Bible study 
 with a few practical courses in homiletics. His chief opponent in 
 this disagreement was Professor S. Harkey, who undoubtedly had the 
 backing of both Hasselquist and A. R. Cervin, his colleagues on the 
 faculty. 
 
 When the Synod met for its annual convention in Moline, June, 
 1869, the Norwegians, after due deliberation decided that the time 
 was not yet ripe for separation, and asked that the question be 
 deferred for another year. 14 They did request and were granted 
 synodical permission "to establish their own college and seminary 
 at any time or place they find convenient," and that a fair share of 
 the books in the library and funds in the professorship endowment 
 be turned over to the new institution. 15 In accordance with these 
 decisions the Norwegians, led by Weenaas, busied themselves and 
 shortly after the convention acquired a building in Marshall, Dane 
 County, Wisconsin, and prepared to launch their new school that fall 
 with August Weenaas as head of the institution. 16 
 
 By this time the Norwegians had moved so far toward separation 
 that it was virtually a foregone conclusion that the final break would 
 come at the next convention of the Synod. However, the Swedes were 
 careful not to add the slightest impetus to the move for separation 
 and, therefore, maintained a discreet silence. When the Synod met 
 for its convention at Andover, June, 1870, there was no hint of rupture 
 in the president's report by Dr. Hasselquist, who was visiting in Europe 
 at the time, nor in the report of the acting president, Pastor Jonas 
 Swensson. 17 Indeed, it was not until the fifth business session of the 
 convention, on the third day of the assembly, that the Norwegian 
 report concerning separation was brought to the floor of the con- 
 
 13 Article in Den Norske Lutheraner, entitled "What We Want," February 10, 
 
 1869, quoted by Sternberg, op. cit., p. 27f. 
 14 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1869, p. 20. 
 
 15 Ibid., p. 26. 
 
 16 Weenaas, op. cit., pp. 122ff. Rohne, op. cit, pp. 191-193. The stormy history 
 relating to Augsburg Seminary is given in A. Helland, Augsburg Seminar 
 Gjennem Femti Aar, 1869-1919, Minneapolis, 1920. 
 
 17 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, pp. 5-9. 
 
Augustana Heritage 140 
 
 vention. 18 The report recommended a division of the Augustana Synod 
 along nationalistic lines, and the formation of a Norwegian-Danish 
 Synod committed to the same confessional viewpoint as the parent 
 body. The new church was to sustain a relationship of cordial mutuality 
 and good will toward the Swedish Augustana Synod, and in places 
 where one synod already had a congregation, the members of the 
 other synod were to be urged to become members of it. The report was 
 presented by O. J. Hatlestad, who spoke with deep feeling regarding 
 the love and affection which the Norwegians felt toward their Swedish 
 brethren. Erland Carlsson responded on behalf of the Swedes and 
 bespoke God's blessing on the new church. 19 At this juncture, how- 
 ever, the delegates representing the Norwegian congregations in 
 Leland, Illinois, Newberg, Minnesota, Decorah, Iowa, Jefferson and 
 Yorkville, Wisconsin, and Chicago registered strong protests against 
 the division of the synod. Their sentiments were expressed in the 
 following communication submitted by representatives of the Norwegian 
 congregation in Chicago: 
 
 To the Venerable Augustana Synod 
 Fathers and Brethren in Christ 
 Grace and Peace! 
 
 Having learned with deep regret that there is a movement on 
 foot to divide the Augustana Synod, by withdrawal of the Nor- 
 wegian congregations and ministers from said Synod for the 
 purpose of forming a new Norwegian Synod; 
 
 Now therefore, deeming such a withdrawal at this time inexpedi- 
 ent and derogatory to the best interest both of the several indi- 
 vidual congregations connected with the said Augustana Synod, 
 and also to the church at large, We the undersigned, in our own 
 behalf and also in behalf of those with whom we are associated, 
 to wit; the Old Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chicago, 
 whose deacons and trustees we are, do hereby enter our most 
 solemn and earnest protest against such withdrawal; hoping that 
 the other Norwegian congregations, hitherto associated with us 
 in connection with said Synod, will heed this our protest, and 
 also to exculpate ourselves from any and all participation in said 
 movement to withdraw. Praying for divine guidance on your 
 deliberations and for heaven's richest blessings upon the church 
 at large, we are in the bonds of peace. 
 
 Yours, 
 Ivar Lawson Lewis Ivarson 
 
 A. Nelson Lewis Johnson 
 
 Jens Nelson G. Halvorsen 
 
 ™Ibid., p. 14. 
 
 1 9 Hemlandet, June 21, 1870. 
 
 2 ° Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 13. 
 
 Christian Fredrickson 
 
 2(1 
 
141 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 When the ballot was taken among the Norwegians the issue carried 
 by a vote of fifteen affirmative and eight negative. Pastors O. J. Hat- 
 lestad and Eric Norelius then addressed the Norwegians and urged 
 that if separation should occur at all, it ought by all means be by 
 the unanimous action of all the Norwegians in the Synod, so that unity 
 and harmony might abound. When the final vote was taken by the 
 entire assembly sixty-two ballots were affirmative and twelve were 
 negative. 21 Thereupon the Synod passed the following resolution: 
 
 Since a number of the congregations and pastors of the Nor- 
 wegian section of the Synod have registered a protest against 
 separation, the Synod must express its grief over the fact that 
 disunity has attended this matter, and kindly admonishes them 
 to unite with the proposed Norwegian-Danish Augustana Synod. 22 
 The Norwegians then withdrew to the old church (Jenny Lind 
 Chapel), where they proceeded to organize the Norwegian-Danish 
 Augustana Synod. 23 A final joint session between the Swedes and 
 Norwegians was held on Tuesday, June 21, and the synodical Minutes 
 record the event in the following poignant words: 
 
 The business session was now interrupted in order to make 
 room for a fraternal farewell between the Norwegian and Swedish 
 brethren. The Norwegian contingent had, after the division of 
 the Synod, held their sessions in the old church and had now 
 concluded their affairs. Before leaving they wished to bid fare- 
 well to their Swedish brethren. Pastor O. J. Hatlestad spoke some 
 appropriate parting words, thanking the Swedes for the love they 
 had extended to them. Pastor E. Carlsson and the president 24 
 responded and expressed best wishes to the new synod. On both 
 sides the fervent hope was voiced that, as hitherto we had been 
 united in love, so henceforth we might sustain toward each other 
 the relationship of sister synods. Dr. Passavant also added a few 
 appropriate words, after which this memorable hour was con- 
 cluded with prayer and the singing of psalm 124:4. With warm 
 handclasps and deep emotion the brethren departed, whereupon 
 the Synod resumed its deliberations. 25 
 Thus ended an important chapter in the history of Augustana. Associ- 
 
 21 Hemlandet, June 21, and 28, 1870. 
 
 22 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 15. 
 
 23 A few months later a dissident group in the new Norwegian-Danish Au- 
 gustana Synod met at St. Ansgar, Iowa, and organized a rival synod which 
 was given the name The Conference for the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church in America, with Rev. C. L. Clausen as president and Rev. 
 M. Eggen as secretary. These two rival groups from the Augustana Synod 
 continued independent existence until 1890, when they were absorbed into 
 the United Synod. See Rohne, op. cit., p. 192. Nelson and Fevold, op. cit., 
 Vol. I, pp. 191-238. 
 
 24 Jonas Swensson. 
 
 25 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 33f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 142 
 
 ation with the Norwegians had had important consequences for the 
 Synod. The Norwegians had strengthened the Synod, participating 
 in and contributing to every important project which the Synod had 
 undertaken during the first decade of its existence. Association with 
 the Norwegians had also compelled the Synod to think and act in 
 broader terms than would perhaps have been dictated by the needs 
 of only one immigrant group, for constant consideration had to be 
 given to the needs, desires, temperament, and even the prejudices 
 of the Norwegians as well as the Swedes, and thus there developed 
 a flexibility of thought and action which discouraged the growth of 
 isolationism, parochialism, and dogmatic exclusiveness. Furthermore, 
 the Norwegians had by their connection with the Synod unwittingly 
 drawn the Swedes into the doctrinal and practical controversies which 
 raged like a fever among the several competing groups of Norwegians 
 in America, thereby causing the Synod to become more acutely aware 
 of what was going on outside its own boundaries and, indeed, com- 
 pelling the Synod to give serious thought to its own theology and 
 practice, and to defend itself from its detractors. Finally, the associa- 
 tion of two different strains of immigrants, Swedes and Norwegians, 
 working within the framework of one institution, compelled the insti- 
 tution to occupy a sort of middle ground which laid it readily open 
 to the process of Americanization. As long as the Norwegians were 
 a part of the Augustana Synod, the Synod could not become either 
 too Swedish or too Norwegian, but must occupy a mediating position 
 in which the American influence would be effective since isolation 
 and insulation were neither possible nor desirable. 
 
 After the departure of the Norwegians, however, and the influx 
 of hundreds of thousands of new Swedish immigrants during the 
 last thirty years of the nineteenth century, the Augustana Synod 
 began to center its primary attention upon Swedish nationals, and 
 their needs, desires and welfare. In the process of this preoccupation 
 there developed a new Swedish temper in the Augustana Synod which 
 remained as a chief characteristic until the exigencies attendant upon 
 and following World War I created a new climate which encouraged a 
 definitely American orientation. 26 
 
 28 See O. F. Ander, "Some Factors in the Americanization of the Swedish Im- 
 migrant, 1850-1890," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, XXVI, 
 1933, pp. 136-150. O. F. Ander, "The Effects of the Immigration Law of 1924 
 upon a Minority Group," Annual Report of the American Historical Associa- 
 tion, 1942, pp. 343-352. O. A. Benson, "Problems in the Accommodation of 
 the Swede to American Culture," University of Pittsburgh Bulletin, XXX, 
 November, 1933, pp. 1-8. David Nyvall, "Den svenska nationalkaraktaren 
 och dess amerikanisering," Prairieblomman, 1903, op. cit., pp. 282-292. 
 
143 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 Membership in the General Council 
 
 It is significant that the convention of 1870 which witnessed the 
 separation of the Swedes and the Norwegians, and the dissolution 
 of this fraternal relationship which had endured for so many years, 
 was also the occasion for the establishment of another and broader rela- 
 tionship on the part of the Augustana Synod, namely, full member- 
 ship in the General Council. 
 
 The decision to join the General Council undoubtedly constitutes 
 one of the most decisive and important actions ever taken by the 
 Augustana Church. The decision was a deliberate and carefully con- 
 sidered move to identify the Synod with a particular type of Luther- 
 anism in America, in association with which the Augustana Synod 
 absorbed deep and abiding influences, and experienced a basic orienta- 
 tion which would go far in determining its ultimate direction and 
 perhaps even its final historical destiny. 
 
 The Lutheran federation known as the General Council had come 
 into being in 1866 as a counterpoise to the General Synod. The middle- 
 road, conservative Pennsylvania Ministerium had rebelled, together 
 with other Synods representing the Muhlenberg tradition, against the 
 latitudinarian theology and doctrinal laxity of the General Synod 
 and determined to form a new union of Lutherans. Accordingly, the 
 Ministerium issued an invitation to all Lutherans in the United States 
 and Canada adhering to the Unaltered Augsberg Confession to meet 
 in Reading, Pennsylvania, December 12-14, 1866, to form a new Lu- 
 theran association based on conservative principles. In response to 
 this invitation representatives from thirteen synods gathered at Read- 
 ing and took action to bring the General Council into being. 27 The 
 basic principles, upon which the Council was to be formed had been 
 promulgated in documentary form by Dr. Charles Porterfield Krauth 
 and entitled, "The Principles of Faith and Church Polity," which after 
 being carefully considered were adopted by the delegation. A brief 
 survey of Krauth's "Principles" will reveal the essentially conserva- 
 tive character of the new federation. 
 
 Regarding the faith of the church, the Krauth theses declared 
 that, 
 
 27 Proceedings of the Convention held by Representatives from Various Evan- 
 gelical Lutheran Synods in the United States and Canada, Accepting the Un- 
 altered Augsburg Confession, held at Reading, Pa., Dec. 12-14, A.D., 1866, 
 Pittsburgh, 1867. See also S. E. Ochsenford, "Causes Leading to the Organi- 
 zation of the General Council," Lutheran Church Review, V, 1886, pp. 217ft\ 
 
Augustana Heritage 144 
 
 the true unity of a particular church, in virtue of which men 
 are truly members of one and the same church, and by which 
 any church abides in the real identity, and is entitled to a con- 
 tinuation of her name, is unity in doctrine and faith and in the 
 sacraments, to wit: That she continues to teach and to set forth, 
 and that her true members embrace from the heart and use the 
 articles of faith and the sacraments as they were held and admin- 
 istered when the church came into distinctive being and received 
 a distinctive name. 28 
 
 The unifying "articles of faith" by which both individual members 
 and a whole church are identified are the general creeds which witness 
 to the generic unity of the Lutheran Church and the particular symbols 
 which witness to its own specific unity. 29 These symbols are useless, 
 however, unless they are "accepted in every statement of doctrine 
 in their own true, native, original and only sense. Those who set 
 them forth and subscribe to them must not only agree to use the 
 same words, but use and understand those words in one and the 
 same sense." 30 Thus, the theses endeavored to guard the Council against 
 those who, like Schmucker, might use the ancient nomenclature but 
 would impose their own interpretation. By declaring so specifically 
 that Lutherans are true Lutherans only when they "embrace from 
 the heart and use the articles of faith and the sacraments as they were 
 held and administered when the church came into distinctive being 
 and received a distinctive name," it was hoped that "improved" 
 versions of Luther anism would be discouraged. 
 
 The most unique confession, and the one by which the Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church was given its distinctive character, is the Unaltered 
 Augsburg Confession. 
 
 The acceptance of its doctrines . . . without equivocation or 
 mental reservation make and mark and identify that church which 
 alone in the true, original, historical, and honest sense of the 
 term is the Evangelical Lutheran Church. 31 
 
 This thesis points in the direction of those who would accept the 
 Augsburg Confession as "substantially true" or would, like Schmucker, 
 substitute an American Recension for the original. The next thesis 
 specifically states that "the only churches ... of any land which are 
 entitled to the name, Evangelical Lutheran, are those which sincerely 
 
 28 S. E. Ochsenford, Documentary History of the General Council of the Evan- 
 gelical Lutheran Church in North America, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 127. 
 
 29 Ibid., p. 137, Thesis III. 
 so Jbid. 
 
 31 Ibid., Thesis VI. 
 
145 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 hold and truthfully confess the doctrines of the Unaltered Augsburg 
 Confession. 32 
 
 In the measure that the Augsburg Confession is honestly accepted, 
 it will be found that it not only agrees with the canonical Scriptures, 
 but that there is an essential harmony between the Augustana and the 
 other confessions of the Lutheran Church, which are: the Apology 
 of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Catechisms 
 of Luther and the Formula of Concord, all of which are in "perfect 
 harmony of the one and same scriptural faith." Therefore, true Lu- 
 therans must give unqualified subscription to all of the Lutheran 
 confessional symbols. 33 
 
 Concerning "Ecclesiastical Power and Church Polity" the theses 
 proclaim that "all power in the church belongs primarily, properly, 
 and exclusively to our Lord Jesus Christ . . ." 34 But the power "for 
 the furtherance of the gospel" has been committed to the church 
 through the Word and the sacraments. This is derived power and 
 must never be used by the church to bind the consciences of men 
 except as she teaches the truths and commands of the Lord. 35 In her 
 teaching and in the application of her derived power, the church must 
 ever be guided by the Word of God, for it is "the absolute directory 
 of the will of Christ." Therefore the church 
 
 may set forth no article of faith which is not taught by the very 
 letter of God's Word, or derived by just and necessary infer- 
 ence from it, and her liberty concerns those things only which are 
 left free by the letter and spirit of God's Word. 36 
 
 By these propositions the Council would guard itself against ration- 
 alistic interpretations of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The power 
 which is committed to the church is exercised by local congregations. 
 A congregation comprises pastor and people. 37 A congregation has the 
 right to choose its own representatives, who have the right to enter 
 into compacts on behalf of the congregation. 38 When compacts have 
 been negotiated establishing a general body or council, such council 
 has no right to impose its will upon the congregation without the con- 
 sent of the congregations. And if the decisions of any general body 
 shall seem to be in conflict with the faith of its constituents, it is the 
 
 32 Ibid., p. 138, Thesis VII. 
 
 33 Ibid., p. 139, Thesis IX. 
 s *Ibid., Thesis I. 
 
 35 Ibid., Thesis II. 
 
 36 Ibid., Thesis III. 
 
 37 Ibid., Thesis IV. 
 
 38 Ibid., Thesis V and VI. 
 
Augustana Heritage 146 
 
 duty of the synods holding membership to take such steps as shall 
 be needed to prevent a compromise with error. 
 
 To this end it (the district synod) may withdraw itself from 
 relations which make it responsible for departure from the faith 
 of the gospel, or for an equivocal attitude toward it. Such steps 
 should not be taken on any but well-defined grounds of conscience, 
 not on mere suspicion, nor until prayerful, earnest, and repeated 
 efforts to correct the wrong have proved useless, and no remedy 
 remains but withdrawal. 39 
 
 This proposition declares the moral justification for withdrawal from 
 the General Synod. But in order to guard the Council against un- 
 warranted withdrawals, it was declared that such drastic steps are 
 to be taken only as a last resort. And to further safeguard the organiza- 
 tional structure of the Council it was pointed out that 
 
 the obligation under which congregations consent to place them- 
 selves . . . does not rest on any assumption that synods are in- 
 fallible, but on the supposition that the decisions have been so 
 guarded by wise constitutional provisions as to create a higher 
 moral probability of their being true and rightful than the deci- 
 sions in conflict with them, which may be made by single congrega- 
 tions or individuals. 40 
 
 It was also declared that 
 
 in the formation of a general body, the synods may know and 
 deal with each other only as synods. In such case, the official 
 record is to be accepted as evidence of the doctrinal position 
 of each synod, and of the principles for which alone the other 
 synods become responsible by connection with it. 41 
 
 Experience had taught the leaders of the Council that the official 
 pronouncements in documentary form of a church body must be 
 accepted as defining the position of that body, rather than the verbal 
 interpretations given by individuals or committees. Each synod was 
 to be judged entirely upon its own official subscription and not upon 
 the declaration of a man or a group of men. 
 
 These "Principles" constituted the fundamental basis upon which 
 the General Council was established. In contrast to the broad con- 
 fessional basis of the General Synod, the Council sought to safeguard 
 its existence by specifically narrowing its requirements for member- 
 ship. By so doing it sought to exclude the necessity of having to deal 
 
 39 Ibid., Thesis VHI. 
 
 40 Ibid., Thesis IX. 
 
 41 Ibid., Thesis X. 
 
147 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 with extremely disparate elements, and thereby to insure for itself 
 an inner harmony and unity which the older federation did not possess. 
 
 While it is clear that the General Council meant to be staunchly 
 conservative, it soon became evident, however, that it had no intention 
 of swinging to the far right and embracing the ultraconservatism of the 
 Missourians. The Council meant to find a mediating position between 
 the liberal "American Lutherans" and the fundamentalistic repristina- 
 tion theologians of the Walther type. This became apparent in the 
 long and bitter debate about the celebrated "four points" which con- 
 tinued to disturb the Council for almost a decade. The questions were 
 such as had been raised in the course of the quarrels and disputes 
 initiated by C. F. W. Walther, leader of the Missourians, and which 
 were agitating the minds of some of those who were present at the 
 first convention of the Council, held at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Novem- 
 ber, 1867. The "four points" involved, (1) chiliasm, the doctrine 
 of the millenial reign of Christ, (2) mixed communion and exchange 
 of pulpits, that is, who can properly receive communion at Lutheran 
 altars, and who may preach from Lutheran pulpits? (3) secret societies, 
 involving the exercise of church discipline toward those who are 
 members of lodges and other secret associations, (4) the character 
 of Council authority, was it "advisory" or legislative? 42 
 
 These questions were of such a vital nature that the Council 
 felt compelled to give its most careful consideration to the answers 
 demanded. Committees were elected and instructed to study the 
 points at issue and present their recommendations. These committees, 
 which were in reality, pohcy-determining groups, brought their re- 
 ports to the second convention of the Council, held at Pittsburgh, 
 1868. The reports were adopted and became the policy and official 
 attitude of the Council, and so of its constituent synods, regarding 
 these matters. 
 
 On the question of Chiliasm it was declared: 
 
 1. This Council firmly holds the doctrine of our Lord's coming 
 and the associated Articles touching the Last Things, as they 
 are set forth in the General Creeds and in the Augsburg Con- 
 fession, in that sense of them which has been undisputed among 
 all who have made a credible profession of unreserved acceptance 
 of the Lutheran faith. 
 
 42 Minutes of Proceedings of the First Convention of the General Council of 
 the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, held at Fort Wayne, Indiana, 
 November, 1867, Pittsburgh, 1867, pp. 12, 17. See also Ochsenford, Document- 
 ary History, op. cit., pp. 155, 161. 
 
Augustana Heritage 148 
 
 2. The General Council has neither had, nor would consent 
 to have, fellowship with any Synod which tolerates the "Jewish 
 opinions" or "chiliastic opinions" condemned in the XVII Article 
 of the Augsburg Confession. 
 
 3. The points on which our Confession has not been explicit, 
 or on which its testimony is not at present interpreted in precisely 
 the same way by persons equally unreserved and worthy of belief 
 in the profession of adherence to the Confession, would continue 
 to be the subject of calm, thorough, Scriptural and prayerful 
 investigation, until we shall see perfectly eye to eye both as regards 
 the teaching of God's Word and the testimony of our church. 43 
 
 The question regarding mixed communion received the following 
 treatment: 
 
 1. The principle of a discriminating as over against an indis- 
 criminate Communion is to be firmly maintained. Heretics and 
 fundamental errorists are to be excluded from the Lord's Table. 
 The responsibility of an unworthy approach to the Lord's Table 
 does not rest alone upon him who makes that approach, but also 
 upon him who invites it. 
 
 2. It is the right and duty of every pastor to make such exam- 
 ination as is necessary to determine the Scriptural fitness, in doc- 
 trine and life, of persons applying for admission to the com- 
 munion . . . 
 
 5. It is the judgment of our church, now as aforetime, that it 
 is "beyond all doubt whatever that there are many pious and 
 holy people in all churches which have not accorded and do not 
 yet accord in all respects with us, who walk in the simplicity 
 of their heart, not thoroughly understanding the points involved, 
 but in no respect approving the blasphemies which are uttered 
 against the Holy Supper, as it is dispensed and taught in our 
 churches according to the Institution and testament of Christ . . . 
 
 8. Our church confesses now, as aforetime, that the Holy 
 Church Universal is pre-eminently a fellowship whose internal 
 bond is faith and the Holy Ghost in the heart, and whose outward 
 token is "the pure word and the incorrupt sacraments." The 
 church is a communion of saints, to wit, the assembly of saints 
 who are in the fellowship of the same gospel or doctrine, and 
 of the same Holy Spirit, who renews, sanctifies, and governs their 
 hearts. 44 
 
 With reference to the question of proper use of Lutheran pulpits, the 
 following declaration was given: 
 
 1. The purity of the pulpit should be guarded with the most 
 conscientious care, and no man shall be admitted in our pulpits, 
 
 43 Ochsenford, Documentary History, op. cit., p. 208. 
 
 44 Ibid, p. 209f. 
 
 
 
149 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 whether of Lutheran name or any other, of whom there is just 
 reason to doubt whether he will preach the pure truth of God's 
 Word as taught in the Confessions of our Church. 
 
 2. Lutheran ministers may properly preach wherever there 
 is an opening in the pulpit of other churches, unless the circum- 
 stances imply, or seem to imply, a fellowship with error or schism, 
 or a restriction on the unreserved expression of the whole counsel 
 of God. 45 
 
 In the matter of exercising church discipline toward members of secret 
 
 societies, the following statement was adopted: 
 
 1. Though mere secrecy in association be not in itself immoral, 
 yet as it is so easily susceptible of abuse, and in its abuse may 
 work, as it has often worked, great mischief in family, church 
 and state, we earnestly beseech all good men to ponder the question 
 whether the benefits they believe to be connected with secret 
 societies might not be equally reached in modes not liable to the 
 same abuse. 
 
 2. Any and all societies for moral and religious ends which 
 do not rest on the supreme authority of God's Holy Word, as 
 contained in the Old and New Testaments — which do not recog- 
 nize our Lord Jesus Christ as true God and the only mediator 
 between God and man — which teach doctrines or have usages 
 or forms of worship condemned in God's Word and in the Con- 
 fessions of His church — which assume to themselves what God 
 has given to His church and its ministers — which require undefined 
 obligations to be assumed by oath, are unchristian, and we solemnly 
 warn our members, and ministers against all fellowship with or 
 connivance at associations which have this character. 
 
 3. All connections with infidel and immoral associations we 
 consider as requiring the exercise of prompt and decisive disci- 
 pline and after faithful and patient monition and teaching from 
 God's Word, the cutting off the persistent and obstinate offender 
 from communion of the church until he abandons them and shows 
 a true repentance. 46 
 
 The question of Council authority presented the least difficulty, 
 since it was affirmed that the only authority the Council possessed 
 must be delegated to it by its constituents; in all other areas it must 
 assume an advisory role. 47 
 
 Although these declarations committed the General Council to a 
 positively conservative position, they still were not sufficiently con- 
 servative, exclusive, and definitive to suit the taste of the ultraconser- 
 
 45 Ibid., p. 298f. 
 
 46 Ibid., p. 208. 
 
 47 Ibid., p. 104. 
 
Augustana Heritage 150 
 
 vatives. The ultraconservatives contended that it was not enough to 
 affirm principles of faith, but that it was equally necessary to agree 
 also on specific ecclesiastical practices accordant with such faith. In- 
 deed, there must be no "open end" in either faith or practice, but 
 all things must be precisely and explicitly stated, and practice must 
 be controlled by specific rules and regulations. Of all the questions 
 that proved difficult to solve, none caused more trouble than that of 
 altar and pulpit fellowship. The Council found it necessary to deliver 
 a number of pronouncements on this subject. At the Akron con- 
 vention, 1872, the Council adopted the following resolution: 
 
 1. The Rule is: Lutheran pulpits are for Lutheran ministers 
 only. Lutheran altars are for Lutheran communicants only. 
 
 2. The exceptions to the rule belong to the sphere of privilege, 
 not of right. 
 
 3. The determination of the exceptions is to be made in con- 
 sonance with these principles by the conscientious judgment of 
 pastors as the cases arise. 48 
 
 The ultraconservative faction demanded that no exceptions of any 
 kind be allowed, and requested the Council to reconsider the Akron 
 declaration. Resisting this kind of pressure which sought to push the 
 Council to the extreme right, the federation adopted the following 
 resolution at its convention in Galesburg, 1875, 
 
 The rule, which accords with the Word of God and with the 
 Confession of our Church, is "Lutheran pulpits for Lutheran 
 ministers only — Lutheran altars for Lutheran communicants 
 only." 49 
 This declaration, known as the Galesburg Rule, was used as an argu- 
 ment by the conservatives in an effort to persuade the Council to rule 
 for absolutely closed and restrictive communion. The question was 
 raised, year after year, until 1889, when the Council gave a final decla- 
 ration on the matter and refused further consideration. The declara- 
 tion reaffirmed the Akron statement, permitting exceptions to the rule 
 and leaving the matter to the discretion of the individual pastor. The 
 final statement was the following: 
 
 Inasmuch as the General Council has never annulled, rescinded, 
 or reconsidered the declarations made at Akron, Ohio, in the 
 year 1872, they still remain, in all their parts and provisions, 
 the action and rule of the General Council. All subsequent action 
 of the General Council is to be understood and interpreted ac- 
 
 « Ibid., p. 216. 
 49 Ibid., p. 217. 
 
151 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 cording to the principles there determined and settled. The true 
 purport and effect of the action at Galesburg was to add to the 
 declaration at Akron a statement of the source of the rule, and 
 that in all other respects that declaration in all its parts was 
 left unchanged. The present position of the General Council is 
 to be understood and interpreted in such a manner that neither 
 the amendment and further explanation at Galesburg, nor the 
 original action at Akron, be overlooked or ignored, both of which 
 remain in full force and mutually interpret and supplement one 
 another. 50 
 
 When it became apparent that the General Council did not intend to 
 permit itself to be pushed into the camp of the ultraconservatives, but 
 was determined to maintain a middle-ground position, those synods 
 representing the extreme right wing turned their backs upon it. 
 First to withdraw from further negotiations were the Missourians, 
 who parted company with the Council at the time of its initial forma- 
 tion. Then followed the Joint Synod of Ohio, the German Iowa Synod, 
 and finally the Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan Synods. 51 
 
 From the very beginning the Augustana Synod watched with keen 
 interest the development of the General Council. Hasselquist hailed 
 the formation of a conservative Lutheran federation and looked for- 
 ward to the time when the Augustana Synod would be a member. 52 
 He was not ready, however, to make unqualified commitments until 
 he saw just how far to the right the Council was prepared to go. 
 As long as there was a possibility that both the Missouri Synod 
 and the reactionary Norwegian Wisconsin Synod might join the Council 
 Hasselquist remained noncommittal, and found it convenient not to 
 attend the Council's first assembly in Reading, Pennsylvania. 53 It is 
 not without significance that Hasselquist did not begin his vigorous 
 campaign to bring Augustana into Council membership until after 
 Missouri and Wisconsin had repudiated the federation. 54 
 
 Membership in the General Council was not a popular subject in 
 all sections of the Augustana Synod. The Norwegians seem to have 
 opposed Council membership on both doctrinal and practical grounds, 
 holding that the disputes regarding the "four points" must first be 
 satisfactorily resolved. 55 Among the Swedes, too, there were some, 
 
 50 Ibid., p. 219f . 
 
 51 Wentz, op. tit., p. 241. 
 
 52 See C. A. Blomgren, '"The Union of the Augustana Synod with the Gen- 
 eral Council," The Augustana Synod, 1860-1910, op. cit., p. 222. 
 
 53 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1867, p. 7. See also Norelius, II, op. cit, p. 157. 
 
 54 For a discussion regarding Hasselquist's attitude in this matter see O. F. 
 Ander, Hasselquist, op. cit., pp. 108-115. 
 
 55 Stomberg, op. cit, p. 27f; Norelius, II, op. cit., p. 160f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 152 
 
 like Eric Norelius, who were reluctant to join any association with 
 Germans and Americans after the disastrous experiences with the 
 Synod of Northern Illinois. 50 Indeed, from the explanations given by 
 Norelius regarding Augustana's delay in joining the General Council, 
 it is evident that among both Swedes and Norwegians not only a 
 genuine concern for doctrine, but the spirit of nationalistic suspicion 
 and prejudice, played no small part in postponing Augustana's mem- 
 bership in the General Council. 57 
 
 In spite of such opposition, however, the Synod moved steadily 
 closer to association with the Council, as Hasselquist threw the con- 
 siderable weight of the synodical presidency and the even greater 
 weight of his own personal influence into the campaign to affiliate the 
 Synod with the Council. In his personal correspondence, in the columns 
 of Hemlandet, and in his annual reports to the church, he urged 
 participation in the federation. 58 Thus, even in the years before 
 Augustana was a member of the Council, Augustana representatives, 
 including Hasselquist, attended the conventions of the Council and 
 served on various committees and commissions. 59 
 
 The decisive step regarding membership in the Council was taken 
 by the Swedish contingent of the Augustana Synod at the Andover 
 convention, on June 21, 1870, just four days after the Norwegian 
 separation had occurred. The following report was presented for 
 synodical consideration: 
 
 To the Venerable Augustana Synod: 
 
 We the undersigned, have carried out the instruction given us 
 by the Synod to attend the meeting of the General Council held 
 last fall in the Swedish Lutheran Immanuel Church, Chicago, and 
 beg to report as follows: We have from its very inception rejoiced 
 at this new movement within the Lutheran Church. The General 
 Council has not only taken its stand wholly and unconditionally 
 on the confessional basis of the Lutheran Church, but it has also 
 called forth new activity, greater liberality, more interest in higher 
 education, greater zeal for organizing and maintaining new con- 
 gregations, and also a greater interest in foreign mission work, — 
 in brief, a greater zeal for home and foreign missions. All this 
 indicates that there is a new life-energy at work and that a new 
 day is dawning for our Lutheran Zion in this land. The committee 
 
 56 Norelius, II, op. cit., p. 160. See also Stephenson, op. cit., pp. 316fr. 
 
 " T See Norelius' explanation in op. cit., pp. 160-161. 
 
 r ' s Ander, op. cit., pp. 109-112. 
 
 M> Hasselquist was a member of the important committee to study and report 
 on the 'Tour Points" in 1868. See Minutes, General Council, 1868, pp. 22-25. 
 He served also on the "English Church Book Committee." See Minutes, Gen- 
 eral Council, 1869, pp. 5, 39. 
 
153 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 takes the liberty to propose that the Constitution of the General 
 Council be now adopted by the Synod and our union with the 
 Council be now fully established. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 Erland Carlsson 
 P. Colseth. 60 
 
 The minutes of the Synod record that the committee proposal was 
 favorably received, whereupon the constitution of the Council was 
 read, and each article approved, and finally the whole document was 
 ratified, and the union of the Augustana Synod with the General 
 Council thus consummated. 61 
 
 Council membership for the Augustana Synod, however, was not 
 without its difficulties and problems. It must be noted that the Augus- 
 tana Synod was the only member of the Council which was a national 
 institution rather than a "district synod" with jurisdiction limited 
 to restricted geographical areas. The Augustana Synod conceived of 
 its responsibility as transcending geographical and sectional limits, 
 stretching out to include any area where Scandinavian settlements 
 might be found. By 1870 it had its own theological seminary, its own 
 colleges, its own publishing concern, its own home and social missions 
 program, and its own version of "Manifest Destiny." As an institu- 
 tion with national ambitions, Augustana would not be likely to relin- 
 quish its responsibilities to some other organization less well equipped 
 to do its peculiar work among Scandinavian immigrants. Thus, the 
 Synod naturally resented and resisted what seemed to be attempts by 
 the Council to invade what appeared to the Synod to be its own 
 synodical prerogatives. 62 Furthermore, while there were no significant 
 doctrinal differences, there were differences of traditional viewpoint 
 and practice. The Swedes came out of a pietistic background and tended 
 to be puritanical, favoring, for example, total abstinence from liquor, 
 and looking somewhat askance at their beer-drinking German brethren. 
 The Swedes also favored more forthright disciplinary action against 
 lodge members, while the Council preferred "educational methods." 63 
 More serious, however, were the disagreements that grew out of 
 language and missionary differences. 
 
 At its convention at Akron, Ohio, 1872, the Council proposed the 
 
 60 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 27. 
 
 « Ibid. 
 
 62 For an interesting discussion of the tension between Augustana and the 
 Council see Norelius, "Some Practical Difficulties in the Evangelical Luther- 
 an General Council," Tidskrift, 1900, pp. 114-122. 
 
 r>3 Cf. Wentz, op. tit, p. 205. 
 
Augustana Heritage 154 
 
 establishment of a theological seminary in Chicago to serve its Mid- 
 western congregations, and invited the Augustana Synod to unite in 
 this undertaking. 64 In response to this overture the Augustana Synod 
 adopted the following resolution: 
 
 That the Synod hereby expresses its sincere gratification at 
 the measures taken to establish the proposed theological Seminary 
 in Chicago . . . That in view of our unusual situation caused by 
 the imminent removal of our school to Rock Island and the fact 
 that our sole theological professor, Dr. T. N. Hasselquist, is 
 absolutely needed in the college department, together with the 
 terms and requirements enunciated in our charter, therefore, the 
 Synod is not prepared at this time to move our theological depart- 
 ment to Chicago, as proposed by the General Council. 65 
 
 From this response it is evident that the Augustana Synod in 1873 
 did not regard an English-speaking Lutheran seminary located in 
 Chicago as a serious threat to its own institution which would be 
 situated in Rock Island, some 175 miles west of Chicago, and serving 
 a predominantly Swedish-speaking student body and church consti- 
 tuency. Thus, even Hasselquist the schoolman gave the Council's pro- 
 posal for a seminary in Chicago his hearty endorsement. 66 For financial 
 and other reasons, however, the Council did nothing tangible to im- 
 plement its proposals. As Augustana Seminary grew stronger and 
 began to prosper in Rock Island, and as the process of Americanization 
 made the use of the English language an increasingly common practice 
 both in the Synod and the school, the attitude of the Synod changed 
 with respect to the idea of a seminary in Chicago sponsored by the 
 Council. By 1885, the prospect of an English-speaking seminary in 
 Chicago loomed as a real threat to the Rock Island institution. This 
 threat was made more ominous by the prevailing spirit of sectional 
 rivalry which wanted to divorce the seminary from the college and 
 move the seminary away from Rock Island, preferably to Chicago. 67 
 The advocates of separation of college and seminary kept alive 
 the idea of some sort of combination of Augustana Seminary with the 
 proposed Chicago institution. At the synodical convention of 1887, 
 however, the opponents of separation won a temporary victory by 
 succeeding in having the following resolution adopted: 
 
 Whereas, our Synod owns a seminary so near Chicago, and 
 Whereas, the Synod has American elements well represented in 
 
 g 4 Minutes, General Council, 1872, p. 36. 
 
 65 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1873, p. 41f. 
 
 66 See his report in Ibid., p. 41. 
 
 67 Cf. Arden, School oi the Prophets, op. cit., pp. 200-205. 
 
155 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 said seminary, and 
 
 Whereas, the Synod considers that a seminary in Chicago, es- 
 tablished at least in part for the purpose of working among us 
 Swedes, would, under the circumstances, become an occasion of 
 dissension and disunity, therefore 
 
 Resolved, that the synod express its conviction that the General 
 Council ought not to establish a theological seminary in Chicago. 68 
 
 Just two years later, however, the advocates of separation persuaded 
 the Synod to propose to the General Council that the parcel of ground 
 in Chicago intended for the new seminary be donated to Augustana 
 as a site for its own possible future seminary. 69 
 
 The General Council graciously rejected this proposal and made 
 a counter proposal to donate two acres of ground for an Augustana 
 seminary, so that two separate seminaries might be established, side 
 by side, "where the future ministry of our English, German, and 
 Scandinavian churches may be educated together in the unity of 
 the common faith confessed and maintained by this body." 70 In the 
 meantime, Professor Revere F. Weidner, member of the Ministerium 
 of Pennsylvania, and an enthusiastic supporter of the Council, who 
 had taught theology at Augustana Seminary since 1882, was one of 
 the prime leaders in the move to separate the seminary from the college 
 and move it to Chicago. He agitated the issue at every opportunity, 
 and thus earned for himself the bitter opposition of Hasselquist and 
 other Augustana leaders. 71 When it was clear, however, that Augustana 
 was not ready to co-operate with the Council in the field of theological 
 education except on its own terms, the Council undertook the work 
 alone. Accordingly, on October 1, 1891, the doors of the Chicago Lu- 
 theran Theological Seminary opened, with Dr. Weidner as its first 
 president. 72 In the words of one commentator, "The birth of the Chicago 
 seminary was not an occasion for unmixed rejoicing in the Swedish 
 Lutheran household." 73 
 
 Another source of irritation between Augustana and the General 
 Council was the program of home missions as it related to the ques- 
 tion of ministering to English-speaking congregations on so-called 
 "Augustana territory." Here, as in the case of the Chicago Seminary, 
 the Augustana Synod welcomed Council action and co-operation as 
 
 es Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1887, p. 80. 
 
 69 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1889, p. 74. 
 
 70 Minutes, General Council, 1893, p. 53. 
 
 71 Norelius, Hasselquist, op. cit., pp. 279-281. 
 
 72 Ochsenford, op. cit., p. 284. 
 
 73 Stephenson, Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration, op. cit., p. 322. 
 
Augustana Heritage 156 
 
 long as it posed no threats to the Synod. As long as there was little or 
 no demand among the Scandinavians for an English-speaking ministry, 
 the Synod felt no compulsion for initiating such work and was glad 
 to turn over to others the task of providing religious services in the 
 English language. In the decade from 1870 to 1880 the Augustana 
 Synod had its hands full trying to meet the religious needs of increas- 
 ing numbers of Swedish immigrants, and sought the aid and encourage- 
 ment of the Council in caring for the needs of others in the Midwest. 74 
 
 By 1880, however, it was becoming apparent that English was 
 intruding into virtually all phases of the life and work of the Augustana 
 Church. In the spring of 1881, Dr. William Passavant made a trip to 
 Minnesota to survey the possibilities of beginning English Lutheran 
 mission work under the sponsorship of the General Council. As chair- 
 man of the committee on English Home Missions of the Council, he 
 reported later that year that unless English work be undertaken at 
 once in Minnesota and the upper Mississippi Valley, many Lutherans, 
 especially among the young people, would be lost to the Lutheran 
 Church through affiliation with English-speaking Reformed churches. 
 Upon Passavant's recommendation, the Home Mission Committee of 
 the General Council called Pastor George H. Trabert to serve as 
 missionary to the Northwest. 75 
 
 This was an action which aroused the fears and suspicions of some 
 Augustana leaders. In the opinion of the Augustana leaders, the English- 
 speaking congregations which Trabert would organize, would be 
 largely, though perhaps not entirely, recruited from Swedish popula- 
 tion and located on territory which Augustana considered its own 
 precincts. 76 Augustana insisted that all such new English-speaking 
 congregations ought to affiliate with Augustana. The Council sought 
 to conciliate the Synod by agreeing to a compromise at its convention 
 at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1882, where it was resolved, "That 
 where a mission congregation is organized out of material from exist- 
 ing churches in connection with the General Council, said mission 
 congregat ; on, together with its pastor, shall belong to the synod to 
 which the mother church belongs." 77 This so-called "Lancaster Com- 
 promise," served to mollify Augustana for the time being, even though 
 
 74 See the Home Missions reports, Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1872, 1874. Both 
 men and money were solicited from the Council to aid in the burgeoning 
 work of Midwestern home missions. 
 
 75 See George H. Trabert, English Lutheranism in the Northwest, Philadelphia, 
 1914, pp. 25-27. 
 
 76 See Emeroy Johnson, God Gave the Growth, op. cit., pp. 209-227. 
 
 77 Minutes, General Council, 1882, p. 41. 
 
157 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 it made no provision whatever for congregations which would be 
 recruited from the ranks of those who belonged to neither Augustana 
 nor any other Council affiliate. The Minnesota Conference was notably 
 lukewarm to the missionary endeavors of the Council. 78 By the end of 
 the decade, however, Trabert and his associates had organized nine 
 English-speaking congregations. In 1890 these congregations and their 
 pastors petitioned the Home Mission Committee of the General Council 
 for the privilege of forming a district synod of the Council. This 
 petition was granted, and in July, 1891, the Synod of the Northwest 
 was organized. 79 
 
 The establishment of the Synod of the Northwest, which covered 
 much of the territory occupied by the Minnesota Conference of the 
 Augustana Synod, had some important consequences for the Augustana 
 Church. 
 
 The majority opinion in the Synod undoubtedly held that the 
 organization of the Synod of the Northwest, founded without the 
 approval or consent of Augustana, was a virtual violation of the Lan- 
 caster compromise of 1882. Therefore, at its convention in Lindsborg, 
 Kansas, 1892, Augustana voted to withdraw from further joint home 
 mission endeavors with the General Council; henceforth the Synod 
 would conduct its own English home mission work. At the same con- 
 vention the Synod prudently voted to establish an English professor- 
 ship in theology at the seminary. 80 The relations between Augustana 
 and the Council were never again as cordial as had been the case 
 before the home mission squabble. Indeed, the Synod of the Northwest 
 was for many years a source of irritation, as rival congregations under 
 its jurisdiction were here and there established in close proximity 
 to existing Augustana churches. 81 The younger synod was also accused 
 of receiving Augustana members who were dissatisfied or under dis- 
 cipline because of lodge membership or some similar transgression. 
 This ill will, which was particularly potent in Minnesota, was un- 
 doubtedly a factor in Augustana's refusal to join with the General 
 Council in the merger of 1918 when the United Lutheran Church in 
 America was formed. 82 
 
 78 Emeroy Johnson, op. tit., p. 217f. 
 
 79 Minutes, Synod of the Northwest, 1891, pp. 3ff. 
 80 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1892, pp. 44ff. 
 
 81 A notable case occurred in Cannon Falls, Minn., which almost caused the 
 Synod to sever relations with the Council. See Emeroy Johnson, God Gave 
 the Growth, p. 222. 
 
 82 It is significant that the Minnesota delegation led the fight on the conven- 
 tion floor to defeat the move to join the General Council in the merger of 
 1918. See Augustana-synodens Referat, 1918, p. 146. 
 
Augustana Heritage 158 
 
 When Augustana congregations began to petition for dismission 
 from the Synod, as did the St. John's church, Minneapolis, in 1894, 
 and other newly organized congregations on Augustana territory 
 refused to join Augustana on the grounds that the Synod was "too 
 Swedish," the Synod was shaken out of its Swedish complacency and 
 compelled to rethink its approach to the younger, English-speaking 
 elements in the community. Accordingly, Augustana took its first 
 short steps in the direction of establishing English work among its 
 congregations by electing a committee at the convention in St. Peter, 
 Minnesota, 1894, and charged it with the task of preparing a plan 
 for future action. 83 The committee recommended that where necessary, 
 English work be combined with Swedish in local congregations, and 
 that an English conference be formed within the Synod. 84 No im- 
 mediate action, however, was taken on these recommendations. It was 
 not until 1898 that the Synod voted to grant local congregations and 
 conference mission boards the right to organize English congrega- 
 tions within the Synod. 85 And the organization of an "Association of 
 English Churches" within the Synod did not occur until 1908. Though 
 the use of the English language was no longer a novelty in the Augus- 
 tana Synod by that time, the "Association" rendered invaluable service 
 to the church by keeping constantly before the Synod the needs of 
 its English-speaking constituency. It was the Association that first 
 campaigned for an English-language literature for both old and young 
 in the Synod; the Association inspired and actively promoted the 
 preparation of the English liturgy and hymnal of 1925, and introduced 
 the Common Service into Augustana churches; it was the Associa- 
 tion which did more than perhaps any other one agency to create 
 a favorable climate throughout the Augustana Church for a normal 
 and peaceful transition from Swedish to English after the period of 
 World War I. The Association was dissolved in 1931. 86 
 
 Though Augustana's connection with the General Council from 
 1870 to 1918 was often beset with problems and difficulties, it was, 
 on the whole, a richly rewarding experience. It is significant that 
 affiliation with the Council was for the Augustana Synod a carefully 
 
 83 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1894, pp. 17, 25. 
 
 84 Ibid. 
 
 85 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1878, p. 18. 
 
 86 For a discussion of the "Association of English Churches" see Norelius, II, 
 op. cit., pp. 512-518. See also Julius Lincoln, "The Language Question," in 
 The Augustana Synod, 1860-1910, op. tit., pp. 198-212. I. O. Nothstein, "The 
 Language Transition," Augustana Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, pp. 209-223. Steph- 
 enson, Religious Aspects of Swedish Immigration, op. tit., pp. 458-476. 
 
 
159 Quest for Fellowship 
 
 considered, deliberate act of identification. The image which Augus- 
 tana had of the General Council in 1870 accorded with that type of 
 Lutheranism with which the Synod wished to identify itself. It was 
 in this particular stream of confessional Lutheranism it wished to 
 stand. It was by this label it desired to be known. As the Council 
 grew in understanding and maturity, clarifying its doctrinal, theological 
 and practical position, the Augustana Synod, as a participating con- 
 stituent, shared in such clarification and maturation; it assumed as 
 its own, in all important respects, whatever new ground the Council 
 came to occupy in the American context. In this sense the Augustana 
 Synod was privileged to broaden and deepen its own life and exper- 
 ience as it rubbed shoulders with other Lutherans, at home and abroad, 
 and indeed with religious forces in general in America. The Council 
 was a working partnership in which Augustana received perhaps 
 more than it was often willing to give. In the Council, Augustana 
 also discovered that branch of the Muhlenberg tradition with which 
 it could heartily join hands, and with which it could have fellowship 
 until the day that it would again identify itself with this tradition in 
 the new Lutheran Church in America. For it is notable that the 
 difficulties, the disagreements, and the dissolution of the Council rela- 
 tionship in 1918 were not predicated upon doctrinal, theological, or 
 creedal considerations, but upon practical and tactical grounds. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Theological Crisis 
 
 
 
 Hyper evangelicalism 
 
 To the little pioneer village of Swede Bend, in Hamilton County, 
 Iowa, there came in 1864, a young Swedish immigrant who, 
 
 although only twenty-seven years of age, may be said to have 
 embodied and symbolized a religious outlook and spirit which was 
 destined to have very grave consequences for the Augustana Synod. 
 The young man was Carl August Bjork, from the province of Smaland. 1 
 A shoemaker by trade, he had recently been released from military 
 duty in Sweden, and had come to America to find a better life for 
 himself, both economically and spiritually. 
 
 As a "Smalanning," Bjork might well be expected to exhibit the 
 proverbial eccentricities which were said to be characteristic of these 
 energetic, superstitious country folk. But Bjork represented, not so 
 much the local peculiarities of his home province as he symbolized the 
 hyperevangelicalism which was becoming characteristic of the non- 
 conformist wing of Swedish dissent all over Sweden, and which was 
 being imported into America via immigration. 
 
 These hyperevangelicals looked upon themselves as devout follow- 
 ers of C. O. Rosenius, and therefore professed allegiance to confessional 
 Lutheranism. They were not separatists — yet. 2 They had, however, 
 been growing increasingly restive under what they felt to be the 
 heavy yoke of clerical authority, lifeless traditionalism, and heavy- 
 handed institutionalism in the Church of Sweden. They wanted a 
 spiritual and religious freedom limited and circumscribed not by in- 
 stitutional forms and traditions, but by the Word of God alone. Institu- 
 tional sanctions meant much less to them than the warrant of faith 
 born in the personal experience of grace, and the illuminating power 
 of the Holy Spirit which enables even the most humble and unschooled 
 
 1 For brief biographical sketches of C. A. Bjork see, C. E. Backstrom, C. A. 
 Bjork: A Memorial Biography, Chicago, 1937. C. V. Bowman, Levnadsteck- 
 ning av C. A. Bjork, Chicago, 1934. Backstrom, Johnson and Dahlhielm, 
 Three Covenant Presidents, Chicago, 1945. 
 
 2 Cf. Axel Andersson, Svenska missionsforbundet, dess uppkomst och femtio- 
 ariga verksamhet, 3 vols., Stockholm, 1928, see especially I, pp. 9-96. 
 
 160 
 
161 The Theological Crisis 
 
 to interpret the truth of God. While the Church of Sweden sought 
 to awaken and sustain Christian faith and commitment through edu- 
 cation and nurture, the hyperevangelicals trusted in the efficacy of 
 revivalism and the conventicle, with emphasis upon "the experienc 
 of conversion." As a consequence of this emphasis, their conception 
 of the church was essentially Anabaptist, holding that the church 
 must be composed exclusively of "believers" (de troende), and re- 
 jecting as un-scriptural the state-church idea of a "folk-kyrka" embrac- 
 ing the entire community. There must be no admixture of "spiritual" 
 and "worldly" elements in the church, therefore the privileges of 
 church membership must be restricted to "pure Christians," "true 
 believers," and "spiritual people," like themselves. So in order both 
 to foster and guarantee the purity of their own fellowship, the hyper- 
 evangelicals tended to gravitate toward each other, forming ecclesiolae 
 in ecclesia — little churches within the church — small groups function- 
 ing as congregations within the congregation, meeting in their homes, 
 or elsewhere, to read, sing, study, and worship together for mutual 
 edification, inspiration, and instruction. When this occurred in parishes 
 which were served by pastors whose spirituality was suspect, the 
 practice arose of celebrating the Lord's Supper and administering bap- 
 tism at the hands of laymen, without benefit of clergy, and finally 
 these ultraspiritual non-conformists began building their own private 
 chapels and meeting houses. 3 As these groups of hyperspiritual folk 
 became more formally organized, they called themselves "Ansgar 
 Societies," for as St. Ansgar brought Christianity to the land of the 
 Vikings in the early Middle Ages, so they would revive true religion 
 among their countrymen. 4 Within the Ansgar Societies there was a 
 common imperative concern for what was called "the Christian 
 Mission," which meant, first of all, a zeal for soul winning, and 
 secondly, Christian service and charity. It was this interest and con- 
 cern which earned for the hyperevangelicals the name "Mission 
 Friends." 5 
 
 3 See article by "E. F. S." in Budbararen, December, 1869, pp. 205ff. Regard- 
 ing the practice of separate communion "E. F. S." declares, "Det synes oss, 
 som skulle de broder hvilka afhalla sig fran att ga till nattvarden inom 
 statskyrkan, gora sadant isynnerhet af tva skal. Det forsta ar att de tycka 
 sig bora emottaga sakramentet af en trogen lasare, det andra, att de icke arise 
 det ratt att taga det tillsammans med den stora otrogna hopen," pp. 205-206. 
 
 4 N. J. Nordstrom, De frikyrkliga och statskyrkoproblemet, Stockholm, 1922, 
 pp. 13, 16, 40. David Nyvall, The Swedish Covenanters, Chicago, 1930, pp. 
 20-35. 
 
 5 David Nyvall and Karl A. Olsson, The Evangelical Covenant Church, Chi- 
 cago, 1954, p. 39f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 162 
 
 When these "Mission Friends" came to America in the period be- 
 tween 1860-1880, they usually associated themselves with Augustana 
 congregations, because here they could hear Swedish sermons, sing 
 the beloved hymns and spiritual songs, and even participate in the 
 well-known Swedish liturgy. But they were not happy with the Augus- 
 tana Synod. It was not the sermons, nor the singing, nor even the 
 liturgy to which they objected. They objected to what they felt was 
 Augustana's preoccupation with its own institutional life and a lack 
 of actual zeal for the conversion of the unsaved, and also what they 
 felt was the state-church admixture of "spiritual" and "worldly" ele- 
 ments in Augustana congregations. Augustana did not seem to be 
 really prepared to administer the kind of church discipline (kyrkotukt) 
 which would separate the chaff from the grain. Indeed, these hyper- 
 evangelicals saw in the Augustana Synod little more than an extension 
 of the Church of Sweden with few of its virtues and many of its 
 faults. 6 
 
 It was with these "Mission Friends" that Carl August Bjork had 
 identified himself, and it was with this outlook and spirit that he 
 joined the Augustana congregation at Swede Bend, Iowa, in 1864, 
 and thus became a member of the flock of the former cobbler and lay- 
 preacher, Pastor Magnus Hakanson. Pastor Hakanson's field of labor 
 covered a very wide area, and therefore it was not possible for him to 
 visit Swede Bend every week. Thus, when he heard that the newly 
 arrived Bjork was conducting devotional services in the homes of the 
 people of Swede Bend, he was pleased and, recalling the early days in 
 New Sweden when he, the town cobbler and lay preacher, had tried to 
 minister to his friends and neighbors, he encouraged Bjork to con- 
 tinue the good work. 7 For almost three years Bjork ministered as a 
 lay preacher to his countrymen in Swede Bend with the good will 
 and encouragement of Pastor Hakanson. It is said that at these devo- 
 tional sessions Bjork would read a sermon from the pages of Pietisten, 
 the monthly publication of Rosenius. On Good Friday, 1867, however, 
 as Bjork was making preparations for a meeting with his neighbors, 
 one of his friends hid the copy of Pietisten from which Bjork intended 
 to read that day, in the hope that Bjork would preach a "regular 
 sermon." He rose to the occasion and preached extemporaneously 
 with such effectiveness that after the service the congregation decided 
 
 6 A. P. Nelson, Svenska Missicmsvannernas i Amerika Historia, Forsta Delen, 
 
 Minneapolis, 1906, p. 19f. 
 7 C. V. Bowman, Missionsvannema i Amerika, en aterblick pd deras uppkomst 
 
 och forsta verksamhetstid, Minneapolis, 1907, p. 31f. 
 
 
163 The Theological Crisis 
 
 that henceforth Bjork was to preach to them instead of reading an 
 article for their edification. Bjork acceded to this request and proved 
 to be such an effective preacher that the parish experienced a mild 
 revival. Within three years of his arrival in Iowa, Bjork found him- 
 self at the center of a religious circle which looked to him for leader- 
 ship, inspiration, and spiritual counsel. Thus, in this quiet and un- 
 spectacular way, without resort to theological training or ecclesiastical 
 ordination, the career of the first "Mission Friend" preacher in America 
 was launched. 8 
 
 If Hakanson or someone with similar sympathies had continued 
 to serve Swede Bend, the result of Bjork's ministry might have turned 
 out differently than it did. As it was, Hakanson concluded his min- 
 istry in Swede Bend early in 1867, and was succeeded by C. J. Malm- 
 berg, who first visited the parish as a theological student during the 
 summer of 1866, and following his ordination in 1867 was called as 
 the regular pastor to the Swede Bend parish. 9 It seems that Malm- 
 berg had an altogether different attitude than Hakanson toward Bjork 
 and the Mission Friends. In Malmberg's opinion they represented a 
 dangerous and schismatic influence, and to counteract such tendencies 
 Malmberg conducted a series of lectures on Lutheran orothodoxy in 
 the course of which hyperevangelicalism was branded as a delusion 
 and a heresy. When these measures failed to turn Bjork and his fol- 
 lowers from their errors, Malmberg imported several Augustana pas- 
 tors who helped him conduct a "consultation" with the Mission 
 Friends. 10 Far from reaching an agreement, both sides discovered 
 that the cleavage between them was widening. In the meantime, on 
 July 4, 1868, 11 the Bjork faction formed the "Mission Society" of 
 Swede Bend with the hope and intention that this free society would 
 serve to revive the Augustana congregation much as the Rosenians 
 in Sweden were enlivening the congregations of the Church of Swe- 
 den. 12 Bjork and his friends did not intend to separate from the Au- 
 gustana Church; they only wanted to revive, reform, and spiritualize 
 it in accordance with their own image of a true church. 13 However, 
 
 8 Ibid., p, 32. 
 
 vProtokall, Augustana Synod, 1867, Ministerii-Forhandlingar, p. 32. 
 
 10 Bowman, op. cit., p. 34. 
 
 11 It was undoubtedly more than a mere coincidence that the Mission Friends 
 chose Independence Day as the occasion for their own declaration of inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 12 Ibid., p. 34. 
 
 13 Axel Anderson, op. cit, II, pp. lOff. A characteristic attitude toward Augus- 
 tana on the part of the early Mission Friends was well expressed by Karl 
 Johan Nyvall in Min fader s testamente. En levnadsteckning av predikanten 
 och frikyrkomannen Karl Johan Nyvall, Chicago, 1924, pp. 311ff. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 164 
 
 the formation of an independent "Mission Society" proved to be a long 
 step toward the eventual establishment of an independent congrega- 
 tion. 14 
 
 Thus it was at Swede Bend, Iowa, under the leadership of C. A. 
 Bjdrk that the hyperevangelical spirit of Swedish nonconformity first 
 emerged as a distinct and independent movement among Swedish 
 Lutherans in America. From Swede Bend the movement spread to 
 other Iowa communities, as Bjork was joined by other like-minded 
 men, including Hans Blom, John Peterson, and A. W. Hedenchoug, in 
 promoting the cause and forming "Mission Societies," and eventually 
 independent congregations, in Des Moines, Sioux City, and Swede 
 Point, later called Madrid. 15 
 
 The situation in Iowa was by no means unique. This may be de- 
 duced from the fact that about the same time as the Mission Society 
 in Swede Bend was emerging, similar groups were taking shape else- 
 where, and for approximately the same reasons. In Galesburg, Illinois, 
 the First Lutheran Church, served for many years by T. N. Hassel- 
 quist, was composed of several strains of Swedish immigrants, includ- 
 ing free-church evangelicals. 16 Hasselquist had found it expedient dur- 
 ing his pastorate in Galesburg to make concessions to this element 
 in his unconventional and somewhat casual use of liturgical and other 
 traditional church forms and practices. 17 Hasselquist's successor in 
 Galesburg, Pastor A. W. Dahlsten, was of a different temperament. He 
 had neither time nor inclination to cater to the idiosyncracies of one 
 group or another, and conducted his ministry along traditional, con- 
 servative lines. At public worship he preached a conservative Lu- 
 theran theology, used the full Swedish liturgy in accordance with 
 the official rubrics, and dressed in the usual garb of the Swedish 
 clergyman. 18 Such clerical leadership was much too staid for the 
 hyperevangelicals, and before long there were rumblings of discontent 
 among them. Dahlsten tried to meet his opponents with arguments, 
 warnings, and admonitions, but without success. The leading spirit 
 of the opposition seems to have been a layman, who later became a 
 "mission preacher," S. W. Sundberg, who gathered the discontented 
 members of Pastor Dahlsten's flock together for special devotional 
 
 14 Nyvall and Olsson, op. tit., Chapter IV, pp. 39-55. 
 
 15 C. V. Bowman, op. tit., pp. 37-47. 
 
 16 E. W. Olson, A. Schon and M. J. Engberg, History of the Swedes of Illinois, 
 Chicago, 1908, pp. 593ff. 
 
 17 Ander, Hasselquist, op. tit., pp. 161-166. 
 
 18 Bowman, op. tit., pp. 94ff. 
 
165 The Theological Crisis 
 
 services in their homes. 19 It was Sundberg and his friends who per- 
 suaded the First Lutheran congregation in Galesburg to address the 
 following communication to the Synodical convention at Carver, 
 Minnesota, June 11-17, 1868: 
 
 1. Whereas this congregation, on a number of occasions, has 
 considered what reasons there might be for the exclusion of its 
 delegates from certain synodical sessions, a circumstance which 
 has caused great dissatisfaction, anxiety and sorrow, therefore, 
 we demand that our delegate be permitted to participate in all 
 sessions of the synod and ministerium. 
 
 2. And the congregation also makes known that no preacher 
 will be permitted to appear among us with any kind of special 
 ministerial vestments or ceremonies, since all such things are 
 destructive, causing trouble and grief of conscience. We are there- 
 fore content simply to hear God's Word. 20 
 
 To this communication the Augustana Synod made the following reply: 
 
 1. It is not true that any delegate has been excluded from 
 synodical sessions. The reason for restricting the sessions of the 
 ministerium to the clergy was given two years ago to the delegate 
 from Galesburg, as well as to delegates from other congregations, 
 and is simply this that, since the ministerium has the grave 
 responsibility of examining and ordaining ministerial candidates, 
 it is sometimes necessary to investigate such intimate and personal 
 experiences and circumstances as could hardly be done in a 
 public meeting. 
 
 2. The Synod deplores that a congregation, such as the one 
 in Galesburg, lays such heavy emphasis upon those external 
 matters which our confessions deem to be adiaphora and non- 
 essential. Furthermore, the Synod is not aware that any of its 
 Swedish pastors make use of "special ministerial vestments or 
 ceremonies," other than those which are in general use through- 
 out the Swedish Lutheran Church, and it expresses the hope 
 that none of its pastors will introduce any others. In the mean- 
 time the Synod reaffirms the resolution which was adopted at 
 the meeting in Chicago, June 26, 1863, as follows: 
 
 1. That the attention of our pastors and congregations is 
 directed to Article VII of the Augsburg Confession and Article 
 X of the Formula of Concord as constituting a correct confes- 
 sional interpretation of Romans 14, and also Article VII of the 
 congregational constitution which prescribes how questions like 
 this shall be handled. 
 
 2. While the Synod will unflinchingly preserve Christian 
 liberty in accordance with the confession of the Lutheran Church 
 which corresponds with God's Word, it is nevertheless of the 
 opinion that common usage in church practice and ceremonies 
 
 19 Ibid., p. 96. 
 
 20 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1868, p. 44. 
 
Augustana Heritage 166 
 
 is beneficial, and it does not approve the tendency to discard 
 the usages inherited from the fathers in favor of new practices 
 derived from Reformed sources; therefore the Synod desires 
 that the principles here expressed shall be carefully observed, 
 and that no unnecessary innovations be thoughtlessly brought 
 in, realizing that though the right to do many things does indeed 
 exist, not everything serves for improvement. 21 
 
 The official minutes of the synodical convention conclude this part 
 of the record with the following interesting entry: 
 
 Resolved that the president of synod and the secretary be re- 
 quested to visit the congregation in Galesburg at the earliest 
 possible opportunity and call their attention to the viewpoint of 
 the Synod in these matters. When this resolution was being con- 
 sidered a lively discussion arose during which several delegates 
 seriously expressed their censure regarding the present spirit of 
 laxity which will discard and repudiate everything which belongs 
 to good church order. 22 
 
 This exchange between the Galesburg dissenters and the Augustana 
 Synod is interesting, since it throws some light upon the basic attitudes 
 of each group. The protest from Galesburg, accusing the Synod, for 
 example, of excluding delegates from certain synodical sessions was 
 aimed at the practice of limiting the sessions of the ministerium to 
 pastors only. This practice was interpreted by the hyperevangelicals 
 as an unscriptural, indeed, a papally inspired distinction between clergy 
 and laity. They insisted that a true preacher and interpreter of God's 
 IWord, like the prophets of Israel, is not manufactured by ecclesiasti- 
 cal machinery, such as a theological seminary and synodical ordination, 
 but is motivated and illumined by the mysterious yet powerful in- 
 dwelling of the Holy Spirit of God who gives to whom He will the 
 wisdom and insight of the prophet of God. Such a man needs neither 
 the credentials of the theological seminary nor the ornate vestments 
 of a pretentious ecclesiastical office, for his credential is the truth 
 and his vestment the humility and integrity of a servant who has 
 been redeemed by grace and commissioned by divine power and love. 23 
 Thus the protest against limitation of representation at meetings 
 of the ministerium as well as the declaration against clerical vestments 
 was an action designed to test the Synod regarding its attitude toward 
 
 21 Ibid. 
 
 22 Ibid., p. 44f. The second sentence is a comment by the secretary. 
 
 23 For the Swedish bacground of this viewpoint see Allan Sandewall, Separatis- 
 men i Ovre Norrland, 1820-1855, Uppsala, 1952, pp. 254ff. See also Martin 
 Gidlund, Kyrka och vackelse inom Hdrndsands stift frdn 1840-talet till om- 
 kring 1880, Uppsala, 1955, pp. 184ff. 
 
167 The Theological Crisis 
 
 the lay ministry. It also sought to force the Synod to recognize and 
 acknowledge the complete legitimacy of the kind of lay ministry which 
 the evangelical movement had developed in Sweden and to which the 
 hyperevangelicals in this country were committed. 
 
 The responding resolution of Synod made it quite clear that the 
 Church had no intention of yielding to the nonconformists and de- 
 plored the attitude of the Galesburg congregation. Furthermore, by 
 reaffirming its previous action of 1863, the Synod assumed a negative 
 position toward all anticlericalism and stamped its approval upon the 
 traditional usages inherited from the Church of Sweden. This served 
 to clear the air; henceforth there need be no doubt where at least 
 a part of the line of cleavage lay between the hyperevangelicals and 
 the Augustana Synod. 
 
 In his annual report to the Synod, 1869, President Hasselquist 
 informed his hearers that in accordance with the Synod's instructions 
 he had visited the Galesburg congregation and notified the people 
 there regarding the Synod's action and viewpoint. But instead of heal- 
 ing the breach, an open break had occurred, with the dissenters leaving 
 the First Lutheran Church and forming their own Second Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church. Calling Charles Anderson, a Danish pastor, to serve 
 them, they affiliated with the Synod of Northern Illinois, and thus 
 with the General Synod. Hasselquist warned against the danger of 
 proselytism by the General Synod and declared, 
 
 When the pastor of the separatist congregation in Galesburg, 
 C. Anderson, upon instructions from the General Synod, now 
 seeks to visit our settlements and congregations, we all know 
 who he is and whose errands he runs. We shall therefore be pre- 
 pared to meet even this enemy of our Synod and are persuaded 
 that the Lord will preserve His truth among us. 24 
 
 While the leaven of hyperevangelicalism was making headway in Iowa 
 and Galesburg, it was also permeating the Swedish community in 
 Chicago. Indeed, Chicago soon became the most important center of 
 the movement in America, and the Immanuel Lutheran Church was 
 the matrix from which it developed. The Immanuel Church, of which 
 Erland Carlsson was pastor, was composed of about the same variety 
 of Swedish immigrants as those in the Galesburg congregation, in- 
 cluding a number of hyperevangelical Mission Friends. In 1865 a 
 mission society was formed in the Immanuel church under Carlsson's 
 leadership, but since the membership was not limited exclusively to 
 
 2 *Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1869, p. 6f. See also Bowman, op. cit., pp. 97ff. 
 Norelius, I, op. cit, p. 236f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 168 
 
 "pure Christians," it did not satisfy the hyperevangelicals. This ele- 
 ment continued to lay plans for a "genuine" mission society composed 
 only of "truly spiritually minded people." These plans were not realized, 
 however, until 1868, when a colporteur from Sweden, J. M. Sanngren, 
 came to Chicago and quickly became the leader of the Mission Friends 
 in the Immanuel Church. Although Carlsson maintained cordial rela- 
 tionships with Sanngren, hoping to keep the dissenters within the 
 fold of the Immanuel Church, the Mission Friends were determined 
 to form a new mission society of "spiritually minded believers." Accord- 
 ingly, on December 26, 1868, in the home of Martin Sundin, the Swedish 
 Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Association of Chicago was organized 
 with J. M. Sanngren as its spiritual advisor. 25 
 
 There seems to have been no thought, as yet, of separating from 
 the Immanuel congregation. Sanngren was often invited by Pastor 
 Carlsson to preach and conduct the morning and evening worship in 
 the Immanuel Church, and the Association was careful to arrange its 
 sessions so that there would be no conflict with worship services or 
 other scheduled meetings in the Immanuel congregation. 26 Erland 
 Carlsson, however, feared that increased independence would lead to 
 eventual separation, and he must have had mixed emotions as he par- 
 ticipated, January 25, 1869, in the dedication of the Mission chapel 
 which Sanngren and his followers had built on North Franklin Street. 27 
 In order to reach the vast immigrant masses in and around Chicago, 
 the Mission Society engaged C. J. Lindahl, brother of the outstanding 
 Augustana leader S. P. A. Lindahl, as a city missionary to work to- 
 gether with Pastor Carlsson and the staff of the Immanuel Church 
 in the great task of bringing the immigrants into relationship with the 
 church. Personal differences, however, between Carlsson and Lindahl 
 soon ended the relationship. 28 
 
 In July, 1869, the first general assembly of Mission Societies was 
 held in the Immanuel Church in Chicago. In attendance were delegates 
 from societies in Iowa and Illinois, as well as several Augustana pastors, 
 including Erland Carlsson, G. Peters, A. Huet, and others. Such mis- 
 sion leaders as C. A. Bjork from Swede Bend, Iowa, P. Undeen from 
 Rockford, J. Peterson from Geneseo, as well as J. M. Sanngren, had 
 charge of the proceedings. Discussions were conducted about various 
 
 25 A detailed account of the work in Chicago is given in Bowman, op. tit, pp. 
 48-74. See also Axel Anderson, II, op. tit, pp. 14ff. 
 
 26 Axel Anderson, op. tit, p. 15f. See also Nyvall and Olsson, op. tit., p. 42. 
 
 27 Bowman, op. tit., p. 55. 
 2 * Ibid., p. 56. 
 
169 The Theological Crisis 
 
 theological questions and practical tasks of Christian mission. In the 
 course of these discussions an Augustana pastor is said to have sub- 
 mitted the following question for discussion, "Since among our Swedish 
 people we have both churches and pastors, and the gospel is pro- 
 claimed in the spoken and written word, why do you therefore seek 
 to prove the necessity of a distinctive mission organization?" As a 
 counterthrust, a second question was suggested by a Mission Friend, 
 "What is the cause of the spiritual decadence which prevails among 
 our Swedish people, in spite of the fact that we have both churches 
 and pastors?" Such questions indicate the tension which existed between 
 the Augustana clergy and the hyperevangelicals. 29 As these questions 
 were discussed the tension mounted, and the criticism and censure 
 on each side against the other served only to increase the sense of 
 alienation. Erland Carlsson, as the spokesman for the Augustana clergy, 
 addressed a warning to the assembly, declaring that if the Mission 
 Association sent men into the field who would level irresponsible 
 criticism against the church, the doors of the Augustana churches 
 would soon be closed to all Association representatives. 30 
 
 Meanwhile, the increasing activities of the Mission Friends and 
 the outspoken anti-Augustana bias of some of their spokesmen was 
 being noted in Hemlandet and especially in Augustana, the latter journal 
 having been launched in 1868 for the primary purpose of being a 
 polemical instrument to defend the Augustana Synod against its de- 
 tractors. 31 Hasselquist, editor of Augustana, was particularly suspicious 
 of the motivations and loyalty of the Mission Friends, and seriously 
 questioned their legal right to send out evangelists and colporteurs 
 to work among the Swedish immigrants. To meet the charge of being 
 an illegal company with no right to engage in religious work, a special 
 business meeting was held by the Chicago Mission Association on 
 January 11, 1870, during which the Association was reorganized into 
 The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission Church of Chicago and 
 legally incorporated under the laws of the state of Illinois as a religious 
 institution entitled to engage in religious activity, including the licens- 
 ing of its agents. 32 By this action the act of separation was effected 
 and the Mission Friend movement in Chicago was now expressed and 
 embodied in an independent institution. This congregation quickly 
 
 29 Ibid., p. 59. 
 
 30 Ibid., p. 61. 
 
 31 Cf. Ander, op. tit., pp. 162ff. Bowman, op. cit., p. 65. 
 
 32 Axel Andersson, op. cit, p. 16. Diamond Jubilee Album, First Mission Cove- 
 nant Church of Chicago, edited by Joseph C. Danielson, Chicago, 1944, p. 7. 
 
Augustana Heritage 170 
 
 took a commanding position of leadership among the Mission Friends 
 in America, and assumed the responsibility of issuing clerical license 
 to the mission preachers and evangelists who were found to be 
 acceptable. 
 
 Though such licensed preachers could now legally discharge the 
 duties which properly belong to the clergy, it was not long before the 
 question arose whether such legal license met the biblical require- 
 ments for investment into the ministerial office. After a good deal of 
 discussion and study the leaders concluded that, according to biblical 
 precedent, the ministerial office could be bestowed only by the laying 
 on of hands by someone who already possessed the office. 33 To meet 
 this emergency the Mission Friends, many of whom had on previous 
 occasions spoken disparagingly of the need for ecclesiastical ordination, 
 now turned for help to Pastor Charles Anderson. He was the only 
 ordained pastor up to 1870 serving Swedish Lutheran congregations 
 outside the Augustana Synod, being the shepherd of the Second Lu- 
 theran Church in Galesburg and a member of the Synod of Northern 
 Illinois. 34 Through Anderson, the Synod of Northern Illinois was re- 
 quested to grant ordination to J. M. Sanngren, in order that he in 
 turn might ordain others into the ministry of the Mission Friends. 
 To this request the Synod of Northern Illinois acceded, authorizing 
 the ordination of Sanngren in his own mission chapel in Chicago by 
 a committee appointed by the president of the Synod. Thus, in the 
 fall of 1870, with Charles Anderson acting as the officiating minister, 
 Sanngren was ordained, the first preacher among the Mission Friends 
 in America to be thus consecrated. 35 Some time later Sanngren conse- 
 crated C. A. Bjork, and thus the Mission Friends settled the question 
 of "apostolic succession" and instituted their own independent 
 ministerium. 
 
 The establishment of an independent, legally incorporated Mission 
 congregation in Chicago gave the Mission Friend movement in the 
 
 33 C. V. Bowman, The Mission Covenant of America, Chicago, 1925, p. 47. 
 
 34 Charles Anderson, though Danish by birth, was thoroughly Americanized, 
 and was employed for a number of years by the General Synod to do mis- 
 sionary work among the Swedes, in an endeavor to win as many Swedish 
 Lutheran congregations as possible for the General Synod. Thus, Anderson 
 was looked upon as a dangerous enemy by Augustana leaders. 
 
 35 It has not been possible to establish an exact date for this ordination serv- 
 ice. According to information given the writer by the archivist at North 
 Park College, Chicago, Illinois, the original records of this meeting have been 
 lost. Sanngren's ordination was very unusual, since he was not being re- 
 ceived into the ministerium of the Synod of Northern Illinois, and therefore 
 not subject to its discipline. This was interpreted by Augustana as proof of 
 the proselyting intentions of the Synod of Northern Illinois. 
 
171 The Theological Crisis 
 
 United States a center which quickly became the chief base of opera- 
 tions for the promotion of unity, organization, and publicity among 
 the scattered groups of Swedish hyperevangelicals. It was to Chicago 
 that other Mission Friends looked for leadership. 36 Meanwhile, Pastor 
 Charles Anderson of Galesburg rendered the movement a significant 
 service by launching a new Swedish newspaper, Sions baner, in July, 
 1871, devoted to the defense and promotion of free church evangelical- 
 ism. 37 This newspaper was subsidized by the General Synod and was 
 published for the purpose of winning as many Mission Friends as 
 possible for the Synod of Northern Illinois and the General Synod. 38 
 It was, therefore, a sharp critic of the Augustana Synod and a warm 
 advocate of greater unity among all mission societies. Although Ander- 
 son's stubborn insistence on affiliating the Mission Friends with the 
 General Synod eventually alienated him from the movement, he and 
 his newspaper exerted in the early stages a widespread influence 
 among Swedish immigrants on behalf of the Mission Friends. 39 
 
 The encouraging impulses which emanated from the mission center 
 in Chicago, aided and abetted by the publicity provided by Sions ban- 
 er, did much to promote the emergence of mission societies elsewhere 
 among the Swedes. Thus, mission associations were organized in Rock- 
 ford, Princeton, Altona, Geneseo, Lockport, Joliet, Batavia, and Moline, 
 Illinois; in Lindsborg, Salina, McPherson, Topeka, and Osage City, 
 Kansas; in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Red Wing, Cannon Falls, Spring 
 Garden, Lake City, Dassel, Isanti, and Waseca, Minnesota. 40 In the 
 eastern sections of the country similar societies began to spring up 
 in New York City, Brooklyn, and Jamestown, New York; Campello, 
 Worcester, and Boston, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; New 
 Haven, Connecticut, and even as far north as New Sweden, Maine. 41 
 
 Although these societies of Mission Friends professed to be Lu- 
 theran in all essentials except their "perfectionist" conception of the 
 church, their rapid growth and frequent criticism of the growing 
 "institutionalism," "formalism" and "ecclesiastical authority" of the 
 Augustana Synod aroused both the fear and the wrath of Hasselquist 
 and other Augustana leaders. To the Augustana men the Mission 
 Friends no longer represented the kind of wholesome nonconformity 
 
 36 Bowman, The Mission Covenant, op. cit., p. 43f. 
 
 37 Bowman, Missionsvdnnerna i Amerika, op. cit., p. 105f. 
 
 38 Bowman, The Mission Covenant, op. cit., p. 63. 
 
 39 Bowman, Missionsvdnnerna i Amerika, op. cit, p. 106f. See also Stephenson, 
 op. cit., p, 271f. 
 
 40 Ibid., pp. 75-133. 
 
 41 A. P. Nelson, op. cit, pp. 30-67. 
 
Augustana Heritage 172 
 
 which was characteristic of Swedish Rosenianism; these people in 
 America were talking and acting like sectarians and schismatics. Thus 
 Hasselquist felt impelled to thunder at them in his annual report to 
 the Synod in 1868, 
 
 It cannot be denied that we have conclusive evidence these 
 days of belonging to an embattled fellowship. It almost seems 
 that never since the formation of our Synod, or even since the 
 establishment of our first congregation, have we been so sur- 
 rounded as we now are by enemies who unite in order to do us 
 harm. On the one hand are the increasingly militant forces of 
 unbelief, denial and ungodliness ... on the other hand stands a 
 kind of piety which in ignorance or deception would threaten us. 
 It is well known that the great spiritual awakenings in our home- 
 land during the last decades have not only borne much good 
 fruit, thank God, but as is regrettably often the case, much unripe, 
 bitter, and even poisonous fruit in the form of various sects which 
 violently attack the Lutheran Church which because of its loyalty 
 to its confessions and order blocks their way . . . some spiritual 
 leaders, who have sought to further their own ambitions, welfare 
 and opinions . . . are reported as having their countrymen in 
 America in mind, hoping to find a more fertile soil in this land 
 of freedom and sectarianism. 42 
 
 With the Augustana leaders taking an increasingly negative attitude 
 toward the whole Mission Friend movement, it was inevitable that 
 a similar sentiment would eventually arise among the rank and file 
 of Augustana clergy. And so, indeed, it did. Augustana pulpits were 
 denied to spokesmen for the Mission Friends, doors of Augustana 
 churches were closed to their meetings, and those who ventured to 
 distribute mission tracts and papers were often disciplined and some- 
 times expelled from membership. 43 This was a regrettable attitude 
 on the part of Augustana, since such rigid and negative reactions 
 served only to crystallize the opposition, aggravate the tensions, and 
 hasten the decision of local mission societies to separate from further 
 connection with Augustana, and to establish themselves as independent, 
 free congregations. Thus, by a gradual process of alienation the dis- 
 senting elements among the evangelical Swedes became separatists. 44 
 In order to achieve some semblance of unity among the separatist 
 
 42 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1868, p. 6f. 
 
 43 Cf. Stephenson, op. tit., p. 274f. 
 
 44 Halmar Sundquist, "The Mission Covenanters," Covenant Memories, Golden 
 Jubilee Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant, 1885-1935, Chicago, 1935, p. 
 54. See also Minnesskrift publicerad med anledning af svenska evangeliska 
 missionforbundets i Amerika tjugufemdrsjubileum i Chicago, 1885-1910, Min- 
 neapolis, 1910, p. 16. 
 
173 The Theological Crisis 
 
 congregations, the Chicago congregation called a conference of Mission 
 Friends to meet at Keokuk, Iowa, May, 1873, to discuss the feasibility 
 of forming a national association. At this conference it became obvious 
 that the Mission Friends were not all of the same mind. One group, 
 headed by Charles Anderson of Galesburg, held that the mission 
 congregations should unite to form a district synod of the General 
 Synod. From the point of view of church polity, this group repre- 
 sented the conservative element among the Mission Friends. At the 
 opposite end were the outright congregationalists, who were opposed 
 to any kind of federation of congregations, and believed that ecclesiasti- 
 cal organization was wrong in principle and inimical to spiritual life 
 in practice. Between these two extremes was a third party to which 
 the majority at Keokuk belonged. This group believed that some sort 
 of federation should be formed, but that it should be entirely free, 
 independent, and unaffiliated with any other group. 45 
 
 In the discussions and the voting at Keokuk, the majority "middle" 
 party carried the day, and succeeded in pushing through the necessary 
 legislation to organize The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission 
 Synod of America, incorporated under the laws of Iowa, and committed 
 to the following confessional affirmations, (1) The Word of God is 
 the only infallible rule of faith and conduct, (2) For the purpose of 
 interpretation the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds, are ac- 
 cepted, together with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession. 46 It is 
 important to note at this point that at this meeting in Keokuk the 
 Mission Synod looked upon itself as a Swedish Lutheran association, 
 committed to nearly the same confessional position as Augustana, and 
 differing primarily in the area of polity rather than theology. 
 
 The Anderson faction which was defeated at Keokuk did not, 
 however, cease its activities. Just a year later, May, 1874, these con- 
 servative Mission Friends met in Galesburg, Illinois, and founded 
 the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Ansgarius Synod in the United 
 States, adopting a constitution almost identical to that of the Mission 
 Synod, except that the Ansgarians decided to affiliate with the General 
 Synod. 47 The primary motivation for the formation of the Ansgarius 
 Synod was the need for co-operation and the support of a small 
 Mission school which Charles Anderson had established at Keokuk 
 
 45 Nyvall and Olsson, op. cit., p. 44f. Bowman, Missionsv tinner na i Amerika, op. 
 cit., pp. 137ff. Axel Andersson, op. cit., pp. 20ff. 
 
 46 For the complete text of the constitution of the Mission Synod see Bowman, 
 op. cit., pp. 141ff. 
 
 47 Bowman, op. cit., p. 236f. Andersson, op. cit., pp. 23ff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 174 
 
 
 in 1873, known as the Ansgarius Mission Institute, which two years 
 later was moved to Knoxville, Illinois, and the name changed to The 
 Swedish American Ansgarius College.* 8 
 
 In the meantime the third segment of Mission Friends, the con- 
 gregationalists, did not feel at home with either of the two existing 
 Mission synods, and continued to campaign for a strictly congrega- 
 tionalist polity among Mission Friends, permitting each local congre- 
 gation complete autonomy, with merely a steering committee to co- 
 ordinate the tasks which might need common endeavor. This branch 
 of Swedish dissent was concentrated largely in the eastern states, while 
 the supporters of the Mission and Ansgarius Synods were centered 
 for the most part in the Midwest. 49 It was the chief spokesman of the 
 congregationalist Mission Friends, J. G. Princell, who may be said 
 to have been the man who led the Mission Friends out of the Lu- 
 theran household in America. 
 
 The Waldenstrom Controversy 
 
 For the last several years of his ministry Carl Olof Rosenius, 
 the outstanding spiritual leader of the Swedish nation, had as one of 
 his closest associates, a brilliant young preacher, scholar, writer, and 
 evangelist, Paul Peter Waldenstrom. Born in the Norrland village of 
 Lulea, in 1838, Waldenstrom was raised in an environment which was 
 deeply affected by the evangelical revivals of his day. He graduated 
 from the university with honors, and was ordained into the ministerium 
 of the Church of Sweden, although he identified himself with the 
 revival movement which was critical of the Church of Sweden. 50 
 During his years of association with Rosenius, Waldenstrom was 
 known as a pietistic, though conservative and orthodox, Lutheran. 
 This reputation led the Augustana Synod in 1862, upon the recom- 
 mendation of L. P. Esbjbrn and friends in Sweden, to extend a call 
 to Waldenstrom to come to America and succeed Esbjorn as the theo- 
 
 48 Bowman, op. tit., pp. 226ff. 
 
 49 The best study of the congregational branch of the Mission Friend move- 
 ment in America is A. P. Nelson, Svenska Missionsvannemas i Amerika His- 
 toria, Minneapolis, Minn., 1906. For the above discussion see especially pages 
 9-67. 
 
 50 The most definitive work on the life and theology of Waldenstrom is the 
 study by William Bredberg, P. P. Waldenstroms verksamhet till 1878, Stock- 
 holm, 1948. This work was a doctoral dissertation presented at Uppsala Uni- 
 versity by the man who has been the president of the Covenant Theological 
 Seminary in Lidingo for a number of years. Another excellent biography of 
 Waldenstrom is N. P. Ollen, Paul Peter Waldenstrom: En levandsteckning, 
 Uppsala, 1927. 
 
175 The Theological Crisis 
 
 logical professor at Augustana Seminary. 51 Regarding this call, Walden- 
 strom at a later day had this to say: 
 
 It was in May, 1862, that I received the call, signed by Hassel- 
 quist, president of the Augustana Synod. From Professor Esbjbrn, 
 who had the call with him to Sweden, when he was on a visit, I 
 had a couple of letters in which he strongly urged that I accept 
 the call. C. O. Rosenius, in whom I had great confidence, also 
 urged me to accept. But when I told my father about the matter 
 he became very sad. Just a few months previously he had lost 
 his wife, my own beloved mother, and it had deeply depressed 
 him. He concluded his letter to me with these words: "My strength 
 is now broken; life is cheerless and heavy. The only happiness 
 I have left as a reward for my sacrifices on their behalf is the 
 comfort of my children. To be disappointed in this hope would 
 certainly prostrate your tired but loving father." This settled the 
 matter. 52 
 
 Having determined to cast his lot as a pastor in Sweden rather than 
 as an immigrant professor in America, Waldenstrom threw himself 
 into the work of evangelizing his homeland with gusto and energy, 
 traveling up and down the land preaching, lecturing, and exhorting. 
 In 1882 he authored a sensational little book entitled "Squire Adams- 
 son, or Where Do You Live?" 53 The book was a kind of abbreviated 
 Swedish version of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, telling in allegorical 
 form the story of the spiritual pilgrimage of Squire Adamsson. 
 Adamsson is introduced as a well-educated, prosperous, deeply reli- 
 gious business man, who has founded and endowed a missionary soci- 
 ety for work among the heathen, and in many other ways is active in 
 the work of the church. In every outward respect he is a pillar in his 
 community and highly esteemed as a model Christian citizen and 
 gentleman. Then one day a messenger named Moses arrives at the 
 Squire's door with a summons from the noble Justus Almight to pay 
 a long-standing note of 10,000 pounds, and when the Squire is unable 
 to raise the cash he is summarily thrown into debtor's prison. There 
 he languishes in shame and despair, until one day he is told that his 
 entire indebtedness has been paid by Immanuel Davidsson, son of 
 
 51 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1861, p. 30; Minutes, Board of Directors, Au- 
 gustana Seminary, July 17, December 18, 1861, December 10, 1862. A copy of 
 the call to Waldenstrom is preserved in Augustana Archives, Rock Island, 111. 
 
 52 P. Waldenstrom, Nya farder i Amerikas Forenta Stater, Stockholm, 1902, t>. 
 268. Ollen, op. tit., p. 4f. 
 
 53 Brukspatron Adamsson eller hvar bor du? Stockholm, 1864. This book first 
 appeared as a series of articles in Stads-Missionaren, Stockholm, begin- 
 ning Saturday, October 4, 1862, and running through the issue of November 
 22, 1862. 
 
Augustana Heritage 176 
 
 
 Justus Almight. From prison, Adamsson is taken to the beautiful city 
 of Forgiveness, where his name is changed to Abrahamson, and as a 
 new man with a new name the Squire continues his pilgrimage through 
 various perils and places until finally Immanuel Davidsson sends his 
 servant, Death, to bring the Squire at last to Mount Holiness. Every 
 Swede seemed to see himself in the person of the Squire, and both 
 the book and the author became the talk of the nation. 54 
 
 After the death of Rosenius in 1868, Waldenstrom became the 
 principal leader of the evangelical movement in Sweden, assuming 
 among his many other duties the editorship of the journal Pietisten. 
 For the first few years he gave every evidence of faithfully following 
 in the footsteps of his revered predecessor, with no hint of develop- 
 ing a viewpoint foreign to that of Rosenius. 55 Then without previous 
 warning, there appeared in the issue of September, 1872, of Pietisten, 
 a sermon from the pen of Waldenstrom for the Twentieth Sunday after ; 
 Trinity which exploded like a bombshell in Sweden. 56 In this sermon j 
 Waldenstrom set forth a theory of the atonement which was sharply 
 at variance with the orthodox position of the Lutheran Church, and 
 foreign to the piety and theology of Rosenius. 57 The text for the sermon 
 was Matthew 13:44-46, the parable of Jesus in which the kingdom , 
 of God is compared to a treasure hid in the field and a pearl of great 
 price. In discussing this parable Waldenstrom propounded his new : 
 conception of the atonement in five brief theses: 
 
 1. That man's fall into sin has occasioned no change in the 
 disposition of God. 
 
 2. That it was not God's wrath or vindictiveness toward man 
 after his fall that blocked the way of salvation. 
 
 3. That the change wrought by the fall into sin occurred only 
 in man, in the sense that man became sinful, and therefore sep- 
 arated from God. 
 
 4. That man therefore needed reconciliation but not for the 
 purpose of propitiating God so as to render Him merciful, but to 
 blot out and take away man's sin so as to render him righteous 
 again. 
 
 5. That Jesus Christ has accomplished this reconciliation. 58 
 
 54 Ernest Newman, Den waldenstromska, for sorting slar an i historisk belysning, 
 Stockholm, 1932, pp. 165ff. See also Bredberg, op. tit, pp. 123ff. Ollen, op. 
 cit., pp. 79ff. The study by Newman is an excellent analysis of the historical 
 antecedents of Waldenstrom's theology. 
 
 55 Newman, op. cit, p. 240. 
 
 56 Pietisten, September, 1872, Vol. 31, pp. 370n\ 
 
 57 Newman, op. cit., p. 240. 
 
 58 Pietisten, op. cit, p. 370. See also Eskil Levander, Evanyeliska Fosterlands- 
 stiftelsen genom 75 dr, 2 vols., Stockholm, 1931, I, p. lOOf. 
 
177 The Theological Crisis 
 
 The theology intrinsic to this viewpoint differs from historic Lu- 
 theranism at several points. It is new and different first in its concept 
 of God. Whereas the Lutheran confessions make a distinction be- 
 tween the holy and righteous justice of God and His redeeming love, 59 
 Waldenstrom rejected this distinction. For him, God is love — eternally 
 unchanging love, and nothing else. Though man may change and go 
 astray, God remains the same, pure and absolute love. Thus, God's love 
 and righteousness, are, per se, identical. In the second place, Walden- 
 strom proposed a new and different concept of Christ as Advocate 
 (stallforetradare) . Since Waldenstrom held that God is not angy with 
 the sinner, he asserted that there is no need for Christ to be man's ad- 
 vocate before God. On the contrary, it is God who needs someone to 
 remove man's sin, and therefore Christ becomes God's advocate to 
 man. Waldenstrom puts the matter thus: 
 
 When God gave His Son, it did not involve the necessity of 
 finding someone upon whom God could wreak His wrath and ven- 
 geance in order that He might again love the world. It involved, 
 rather, the finding of someone through whom He could rescue 
 man, His fallen child, whom He eternally loves because He is 
 love. Otherwise Christ would not be the world's Savior, but God's 
 Savior. Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ in His suffering and death 
 was not our Advocate to take away the wrath of God, but God's 
 Advocate to take away our sin ... In His exaltation He is indeed 
 our Advocate and our righteousness with the Father. 60 
 
 In the third place Waldenstrom's viewpoint involves a redefinition 
 of the act of atonement itself. Historic Lutheranism, and particularly 
 the Lutheran theology of nineteenth-century Sweden, leaned heavily 
 in the direction of the Anselmic idea of satisfaction, which points 
 the act of atonement toward both God and man, and in relation to 
 man maintains the objective character of the Christ-deed by em- 
 phasizing its forensic nature. In Waldenstrom's theology this is practi- 
 cally swept aside, as he limits the effect of the atonement to the subjec- 
 tive human experience, the removal of man's guilt and the trans- 
 formation of his disposition toward God. 61 
 
 When Waldenstrom was asked to set forth the essential difference 
 
 59 See Augsburg Confession, Article XX; Apology, Chapter II, Article IV, Chap- 
 ter III, Article VI; Smalkald Articles, Part III, Article XIII; Large Catechism, 
 Part I, The Ten Commandments; Formula of Concord, Chapter V, Law and 
 Gospel. 
 
 60 Pietisten, op. cit., p. 373. 
 
 61 For a brief but excellent critical analysis of Waldenstrom's viewpoint see G. 
 E. Beskow, Om Forsoningsnaden med anledning af Lektor P. Waldenstrom's 
 senaste skrifter, Stockholm, 1876, especially, pp. 37-52. 
 
Augustana Heritage 178 
 
 between his own conception of the atonement and the traditional 
 view of the church, he declared, 
 
 Let us picture a man who had ten sons, of whom all were lost 
 except one. The father says to the one son remaining at his side, 
 "My heart breaks with compassion for my lost children; go out 
 and rescue them for me. It will cost you your own life, but that 
 cannot be avoided." The son replies, "I will gladly obey you," 
 and so he goes forth and gives his own life to rescue his brethren. 
 
 Now let us picture another man who has ten sons, all of whom 
 are lost except one. To the one son remaining at his side he says, 
 "I earnestly desire the salvation of my lost sons, but I have been 
 dishonored and my righteousness violated. This must be restored. 
 Therefore, I will punish you to the extent that the sin of your 
 brethren deserves, in order that they thereby might be saved." 
 Thereupon, the Father punishes his obedient son as much as the 
 sins of his wayward sons deserve. And now he declares to his 
 straying sons, "Now the doors of my home are open to you, for 
 your brother has suffered the punishment you deserved." 62 
 
 Waldenstrom claimed to base his new theology on a very simple 
 principle, namely the question, "Where is it written?" "What does 
 Scripture say?" This question was predicated, of course, on the pre- 
 supposition that Scripture constitutes the only infallible divine revela- 
 tion and that it must, therefore, be the sole touchstone for every teach- 
 ing and doctrine. Waldenstrom confessed his own astonishment when 
 he first claimed to have discovered that the traditional orthodox 
 Lutheran doctrine of the atonement was untenable because it had no 
 Scriptural basis when examined in the light of the question, "Where 
 is it written?" 63 
 
 Three years later, in 1875, Waldenstrom exploded another theo- 
 logical bomb. An Uppsala student, Erik Rosengren, wrote him a letter, 
 pointing out that he could find no Scriptural warrant for the doctrine 
 that since the atonement had been accomplished once and for all in 
 the death of Christ, the condemned souls in hell were there with 
 their sins forgiven, but as a punishment for not having believed the 
 gospel and accepted forgiveness. "Where is it written?" asked Rosen- 
 gren. Acting upon his own principle of testing every doctrine by 
 Scripture proof, Waldenstrom began an intensive study of the Bible, 
 asking himself, "Dear God and Father, what if not even this is true?" 
 And, according to his own testimony, as he searched he reluctantly 
 was forced to conclude that not a single statement in Scripture spoke 
 
 fi2 Ollen, op. cit., p. 74. 
 63 Ollen, op. cit., p. 62f . 
 
179 The Theological Crisis 
 
 of the atonement as something once for all accomplished, but every- 
 where as an appeal to the faith and will of man. On the cross neither 
 God nor man was atoned, indeed, the cross was no atoning deed, and 
 the only connection between the cross and atonement is the faith in 
 God's love and mercy which the cross evokes in the heart of man, on 
 the basis of which man is forgiven. 64 It seemed to Waldenstrom that 
 in biblical usage, the concept of atonement means purification, and is 
 therefore inappropriate with respect to God, and inaccurate when 
 applied to unbelievers. 65 
 
 It is evident that Waldenstrom was being pushed by his own 
 oversimplified exegetical principle in directions which he never in- 
 tended or desired to go. To insist that every theological question must 
 be settled by the simple expedient of asking, "Where is it written?" 
 meant that the historical development of understanding and per- 
 spective, the growth of maturity and perception, all must be shoved 
 aside in favor of a grammatico-philological literalism which, even 
 though conscientiously applied, could not get rid of such ambiguities 
 in Scripture as Romans 8:3, Galatians 3:13, and Hebrews 9:12. To 
 let Scripture alone decide theological issues was not as simple as it 
 sounded, and to ask, "Where is it written?" did not always give un- 
 equivocal answers. 66 
 
 Meanwhile Waldenstrom was becoming increasingly critical of the 
 Church of Sweden, saying that the new life which the evangelical revi- 
 vals and his own new theology had awakened among the Swedish 
 people could not be contained in the dead and outmoded forms of 
 the State Church, but must find new modes and forms of expression 
 which were better fitted to the new and vital religious impulses. 67 It 
 is interesting to note, however, that though Waldenstrom had little 
 good to say about the State Church, he still insisted that spiritual 
 renewal must come from within the existing religious community, 
 and that separation was not the preferred means to revitalization. 
 Better, said he, that the people of God wait upon the guidance of 
 God and give the Holy Spirit a chance to do his work in his own 
 
 64 P. Waldenstrom, God Is Right, tr. J. G. Princell, Chicago, 1889, pp. 145-202. 
 This is an English version of the famous book which Waldenstrom published 
 in 1875 under the title, Herren dr from, in which the new theology of Wal- 
 denstrom was set forth in terms of a devotional commentary on Psalm XXV. 
 The section cited here comprises the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and four- 
 teenth meditations on verse 11, "Pardon mine iniquity." See also Ollen, op. 
 tit., pp. 75ff. Nyvall and Olsson, op. cit., p. 33f. Newman, op. cit., pp. 290ff. 
 
 65 Nyvall and Olsson, p. 33f. 
 
 66 Cf . Bredberg, op. cit., p. 218. 
 " Ibid., p. 296f. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 180 
 
 way, as did Luther, than rise up like the fanatics and schismatics of 
 the Reformation era, trying to take the work of God into their own 
 violent hands. 68 
 
 And what effect did Waldenstrom's new theology have in Sweden? 
 It opened the floodgates of controversy and debate. In the universities 
 and the cottages of peasants, in the halls of Parliament and out on the 
 street corners, among the educated and the simple, the high and low, 
 rich and poor, in the state church and in free-church circles, every- 
 one seemed to be discussing Waldenstrom's new teachings, taking 
 sides for or against him. The public and church press was also filled 
 with articles pro and con, enlisting the efforts of some of the most 
 able men of the day, including Gottfrid Billing, G. E. Beskow, P. P. 
 Welinder, A. F. Beckman, L. L. Landgren, and Erik Nystrom. As 
 the debate continued and the heat grew more intense, both sides 
 were guilty of both overstatements and a lack of charity. 69 
 
 While the great religious debate was at its height in 1876-1878, 
 the leaders of Swedish dissent held a series of institutes in Stockholm ' 
 for the purpose of achieving doctrinal clarity and unity of mind within * 
 the movement and, if possible, putting an end to the nationwide dis- | 
 pute. The first of these institutes, convened August 15-18, 1876, in 
 Stockholm's Bethlehem Chapel, where Rosenius once held forth, proved 
 to be of decisive importance. Gathered for this institute and rally were 
 representatives of virtually the entire spectrum of Swedish dissent. 
 The program consisted mainly of a series of presentations followed 
 by free discussion of the main questions of doctrinal disagreement, 
 including the doctrine of the atonement. In the course of this convoca- 
 tion it became clear that two dynamic streams of religious impulse 
 were meeting and finding each other singularly compatible. Here, on 
 the one hand was Swedish dissent which had been growing increasingly 
 restive in association with the Church of Sweden, but had not yet 
 found a sufficient motivation for separation. On the other hand, Walden- 
 strom's new theology was like a voice crying in the wilderness; it 
 was a cause searching for a standard-bearer, someone who would 
 adopt it. Here at the institute in Stockholm, 1876, these two develop- 
 ments met and coalesced, each becoming identified with the other. 
 Henceforth, that segment of Swedish dissent which had been associ- 
 ated with the State Church but was now rapidly moving toward 
 separation, had a clearly articulated theology, a distinctive philosophy; 
 it had a standpunkt, that is, a platform or viewpoint. And, though P. P. 
 
 Ibid., p. 297f. 
 
 Axel Andersson, op. tit., I, pp. 42ff. 
 
181 The Theological Crisis 
 
 Waldenstrom himself was no separatist, the neoevangelicalism which 
 he authored had now found a standard-bearer, a group mind which 
 sought to express, embody, and propagate this viewpoint. The new 
 theology which could not claim the national church as its home, found 
 its anchorage here among the dissenters and gave them a new raison 
 d'etre. 70 
 
 Because of his "new theology" and his disregard for ecclesiastical 
 regulations governing unauthorized celebrations of the Lord's Supper, 
 Waldenstrom first lost his standing in the National Evangelical Founda- 
 tion, (Fosterlandsstiftelsen) and after being rebuked by the authorities 
 of the Church of Sweden, he resigned his ministry in the State 
 Church. 71 
 
 In the meantime, the leaders of the dissenters continued to hold 
 their institutes. At one of these meetings in the summer of 1878, the 
 whole question of the future relationship of the free-church move-- 
 ment to the national church was aired, and careful consideration 
 given to the advisability of establishing some sort of religious activity, 
 including missions and the training of evangelists and teachers, in- 
 dependent of state-church auspices and jurisdiction. The outcome of 
 these deliberations was the formation, on August 2, 1878, in Stock- 
 holm, of the Swedish Mission Covenant as a separate, independent 
 religious body in Sweden. 72 In this act of separation P. P. Waldenstrom 
 did not participate, but his theology had given the movement its 
 platform and charter, its standpunkt. Now the movement reached out 
 and claimed Waldenstrom as its most illustrious member, and he 
 soon became its foremost teacher, spokesman, and apologist. 73 
 
 Waldenstrom's Theology Comes to America 
 
 In practically every phase of its development, the so-called 
 "Mission-Friend movement" in America was informed and indirectly 
 guided by the developments within the parent movement in Sweden. 
 The hyperevangelicals in this country sought to walk in the footsteps 
 of the trail blazers in the old country, and to do for the Christian 
 cause in America what Rosenius and his followers were thought to 
 have accomplished in Sweden. 74 Thus, it was almost inevitable that 
 
 70 See Bredberg's discussion on this development, op. cit., pp. 238ff. 
 
 71 Ibid., p. 328f. 
 
 72 Axel Andersson, op. cit., pp. 90ff. 
 ™Ibid., pp. 92-96. 
 
 74 See Theodore W. Anderson, "Covenant Principles," in Covenant Memories, 
 1885-1935, op. cit., pp. 7-15. See also David Nyvall, "Covenant Ideals," in 
 The Swedish Covenanters, op. cit., pp. 108-137. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 182 
 
 what happened among the Mission Friends in Sweden would sooner 
 or later have important repercussions among their counterparts in 
 America. 75 When, therefore, the Swedish Covenanters not only organ- 
 ized themselves in 1878 into an independent Swedish denomination, 
 but adopted the Waldenstrom theology as its standpunkt, as distinct 
 from that of the Swedish Lutheran tradition, it was only a matter 
 of time until similar developments would begin to affect the Mission 
 Friends in America. 
 
 The individual who is said to have been the first Mission Friend 
 in America publicly to expound the views of Waldenstrom was a 
 product of the Augustana Synod and a member of its ministerium. 
 His name was Johann Gustav PrincelU 6 Born in Smaland, 1845, Johann 
 Gustav came to America with his parents, Magnus and Maria Gumme- 
 son, in 1856. The family lived for a while in Chicago and then settled 
 for a number of years near Princeton, Illinois, from which place Johann 
 Gustav took his American name." During the years in Princeton the 
 youth showed himself to be an uncommonly gifted lad, and was en- 
 couraged by his pastor and parents to prepare himself for the Lu- 
 theran ministry. Accordingly, in 1862, Johann Gustav left his parental 
 home in Princeton and enrolled as a student at Augustana Theological 
 Seminary in Chicago. 78 Here he became an active member of the Im- 
 manuel Lutheran congregation and a close friend and helper of Pastor 
 Erland Carlsson. When the seminary was moved to Paxton, 1863, 
 Princell was among the students who followed along to the new 
 location, where he continued his studies until 1867. For the next three 
 years Princell lived in Chicago, employed in the office of Hemlandet, 
 busying himself also as the superintendent of the Immanuel Lu- 
 theran Sunday school, and as an occasional preacher when called 
 upon by Pastor Carlsson. During this time he was called to be presi- 
 dent of Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, 79 but chose instead 
 
 75 Practically all the historical narratives and biographical sketches which deal 
 with the events and personalities involved in this episode, make reference to 
 the close affinity which existed between the Mission Friends in Sweden and 
 America and the consequent impact which Swedish developments therefore 
 made upon the movement in America. 
 
 76 David Nyvall credits Princell with this "first," declaring that he "was prob- 
 ably the first Mission Friend in America openly to preach the atonement 
 taught by Waldenstrom." See David Nyvall, op. cit., p. 59. 
 
 77 The Gummeson family, who Americanized their name to Gunnerson, moved 
 from Princeton to Paxton, 1865, and from Paxton to Assaria, Kansas in 1868. 
 
 78 An interesting and perhaps the most complete though uncritical biographical 
 study of Princell was written by his wife, Josephine Princell, J. G. Princells 
 levnadsminnen, Chicago, 1916. The story of the early life of Princell is given 
 in Chapter I, pp. 7-20. 
 
 79 Ibid., p. 16. 
 
 
183 The Theological, Crisis 
 
 to enroll for further studies at the old University of Chicago. From 
 1870 to 1872 Princell studied at the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia, 
 preaching on week ends and during vacation periods to Swedish 
 settlements in Philadelphia, and Campello and Boston, Massachusetts. 
 Taking the full theological course at Philadelphia in two years, Princell 
 graduated from the seminary in 1872, and was ordained by the Penn- 
 sylvania Synod shortly thereafter on a call to the Swedish Lutheran 
 Gustavus Adolphus congregation in New York. 80 The Gustavus Adol- 
 phus congregation had been organized in 1865 by Pastor A. Hult, but 
 had withdrawn from the Augustana Synod in connection with the 
 suspension of its first resident pastor, Karl Karleen, in 1867, on charges 
 of heresy. 81 After having severed its connection with the Augustana 
 Synod, the Gustavus Adolphus congregation petitioned the Church of 
 Sweden to be permitted to affiliate with it. This petition was granted 
 and from 1868 to 1872 Pastor Axel Waetter, a member of the Swedish 
 ministerium, served the congregation. Upon his resignation and return 
 to Sweden, the congregation issued a call to J. G. Princell to become 
 the shepherd. Thus, though Princell joined the Augustana Synod 
 shortly after his ordination, the congregation he served was officially 
 connected with the Church of Sweden and, therefore, not under the 
 jurisdiction of the Augustana Synod. 82 
 
 Though Princell during his years in Chicago and Philadelphia 
 seemed to thrive best among the Mission Friends, sharing their warm- 
 hearted spirit and piety, there is no evidence prior to 1874 that he 
 was anything but a loyal, low-church Lutheran in spirit and practice. 
 When, however, the books of Waldenstrom began to appear in America, 
 about 1874, Princell obtained copies of these much-discussed writings, 
 and diligently studied them with his customary eagerness. 83 
 
 By 1876 Princell had become a convert to the Waldenstrom view- 
 point, and began preaching his new convictions to his people. He also 
 organized within his congregation a fellowship of "true believers" 
 and "pure Christians" and sent these followers as missionaries to 
 various parts of the city to preach, teach, and distribute religious 
 literature. For their own edification this holy group under Princell's 
 
 80 Ibid., pp. 22ff . 
 
 81 Pastor Karleen is said to have left the Lutheran Church and entered the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 82 For a brief but excellent historical sketch of the Gustavus Adolphus congre- 
 gation in New York see V. Berger, "Gustaf Adolfs-Forsamlingens Historia, 
 1865-1915" in anniversary edition of Brejduvan, Rock Island, Illinois and New 
 York, N. Y., 1915, Augustana Archives, Rock Island. 
 
 83 Josephine Princell, op. tit, p. 30f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 184 
 
 leadership met in the homes of one another for Bible reading, prayer, 
 and discussion. 84 
 
 With the encouragement of his band of "true believers," Princell 
 set himself to the task of reforming the Gustavus Adolphus congrega- 
 tion to make it conform to the ideals of the "new theology." Thus, 
 he sought to restrict the Lord's Supper to those who could show gen- 
 uine evidence of a true conversion experience. He also endeavored to 
 limit the membership in the church to "true Christians." The so-called 
 Galesburg Rule, "Lutheran pulpits are for Lutheran pastors, and Lu- 
 theran altars are for Lutheran communicants only," was much too 
 rigid for Princell and he, therefore, disregarded it on the premise that 
 not all Lutheran pastors are worthy to proclaim the gospel and not 
 all Lutheran communicants are worthy to receive the Lord's Supper; 
 nor are all non-Lutherans unworthy to preach and receive the sacra- 
 ment. 85 As a result of Princell's efforts to institute his reforms, a 
 serious controversy arose which split the Gustavus Adolphus con- 
 gregation into two warring camps, those who favored Princell versus 
 those who opposed him. Since the issues involved not only serious 
 changes in traditional church usage and practice, but involved also 
 grave modification of doctrine, the trouble in the Gustavus Adolphus 
 congregation could not escape the attention of the leaders of the 
 Augustana Synod. To be sure, the Synod had no jurisdiction over 
 the congregation, but it did have jurisdiction over Princell as a member 
 of the synodical ministerium. 86 Rumors of Princell's words and deeds 
 brought the following letter from the president of the Augustana Synod, 
 
 January, 1878 
 H. H. Pastor J. G. Princell 
 New York City 
 Dear Brother: 
 
 At our last synodical convention I was instructed to write to 
 you, and on account of your absence from the meeting, your 
 neglect to ask for an excuse from said meeting and your failure 
 to send in your annual report regarding your work, to call your 
 attention to Chap. 1, Article 8 of the synodical constitution and 
 bring you a fraternal reminder that you are expected to obey 
 these regulations as long as they are in effect. Furthermore, on 
 the basis of factual information I have received, I must kindly 
 request you to give an explanation regarding our very confessions. 
 It seems that you are not in agreement with the position of the 
 
 « 4 Ibid., pp. 33ff. 
 * 5 Ibid., p. 41. 
 8G Ibid., p. 38f. 
 
185 The Theological Crisis 
 
 Synod on the doctrine of the atonement, nor on the question of 
 relationships with other denominations. The viewpoint of the 
 Synod in both of these matters has been explicitly expressed 
 and, since an unequivocal assent to this position is a condition for 
 synodical membership, any deviation from said position must be 
 considered as a breach of trust. I hope that you will kindly give 
 me your explanation of the foregoing at your very earliest 
 opportunity. 
 
 Fraternally, 
 
 E. Norelius 
 
 President of the Augustana Synod. 87 
 
 Princell showed his contempt for synodical authority by ignoring the 
 communication from President Norelius. 88 When, however, the Synod 
 assembled for its annual convention in Princeton, Illinois, June 15-24, 
 1878, Princell was on hand. His case was brought before the minister- 
 ium by President Norelius, and Princell was asked to account for 
 his words and deeds in writing. 89 The document which Princell handed 
 to the ministerium on the forenoon of June 22, 1878, indicated with- 
 out equivocation that he held theological views identical to those of 
 Waldenstrom and at variance with the Lutheran position, and that 
 he had sought to reform his congregation in conformity with the "new 
 theology." 90 Upon recommendation by a special committee, appointed 
 to give PrincelTs statement careful consideration and study, the min- 
 isterium voted that, 
 
 Since Pastor Princell by the spoken and written word has 
 publicly denied the biblical and Lutheran doctrines concerning 
 atonement and justification, but has requested time for reconsidera- 
 tion of his viewpoint, therefore, resolved, that Pastor J. G. Princell 
 be suspended from the holy office of the ministry until he publicly 
 acknowledges his errors." 91 
 
 In as much as the Gustavus Adolphus congregation was not under 
 the jurisdiction of the Synod, PrincelTs suspension did not of itself 
 sever his connection as pastor of his church. But the synodical action 
 did strengthen the hands of those in the Gustavus Adolphus congre- 
 gation who were opposed to the theology and the reforms which Princell 
 sought to impose on them. The relationship between pastor and con- 
 gregation steadily deteriorated until Princell found it expedient to 
 
 87 Ibid., p. 42. 
 
 88 Ibid., p. 43. Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1878, p. 52. 
 
 89 Protokoll, op. tit, p. 52f . 
 
 90 A copy of PrincelTs statement to the ministerium is given in Ibid., 1878, p. 
 53f., and in Princell, op. tit., p. 45f. 
 
 91 Protokoll, op. cit, p. 57. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 186 
 
 resign, which he did in February, 1879. 92 As Princell withdrew from 
 the Gustavus Adolphus congregation, and by this act also severed 
 his connection with the Lutheran Church, he took with him a consid- 
 erable number of former members of the congregation. 93 Within a 
 few weeks after their withdrawal from the Lutheran fold, Princell 
 and his followers founded the independent Bethesda Mission Con- 
 gregation. 9 * 
 
 By this time, however, Princell no longer stood alone in America 
 as the public exponent of Waldenstrom's "new theology." From the 
 ranks of the Mission Friends in all sections of the land, as well as 
 newcomers from Sweden, men stepped forward to urge the views of 
 Waldenstrom. Perhaps the most effective preacher among these was 
 E. August Skogsbergh, who had immigrated in 1876 on a call from 
 the Chicago Mission congregation and who soon earned for himself 
 the well-deserved title of the "Swedish Moody." 95 
 
 As the tide of Waldenstrom propaganda rose, so also did the 
 tension between the Augustana Synod and the Mission Friends. The 
 publications of the Mission Friends, Sions baner, Chicago-Bladet, and 
 Missionsvannen were filled with articles highly critical of the Augus- 
 tana Synod and its religious leaders, while such Augustana journals as 
 Hemlandet, Augustana, and Skaffaren attacked the Mission Friends 
 personally, as well as their theology and practice, charging them with 
 gross heresy, error and waywardness. 96 
 
 Among the Augustana pastors who arose to defend the Synod 
 and attack the defectors none was more effective than Olof Olsson. 
 Olsson possessed perhaps the most discriminating mind in the Augus- 
 tana ministerium, and as early as 1874 he was warning the Synod of 
 the dangers inherent in Waldenstrom's new theology. 97 In a Reforma- 
 tion Day address, given at Augustana College, November 1, 1878, 
 entitled, "The Reformation and Socinianism," Olsson gave a pene- 
 trating analysis of Waldenstrom's theology and drew the conclusion 
 that it was but a reappearance of the old Socinian heresy of the six- 
 teenth century. 98 
 
 92 Princell, op. cit., p. 70. 
 
 93 Ibid., p. 73. 
 
 94 A. P. Nelson, op. tit., p. 49f. 
 
 95 E. August Skogsbergh, Minnen och upplevelser, Minneapolis, no date, pp. 
 149ff. See also Bowman, Missionsvdnnerna i Amerika, op. cit., pp. 201-225. 
 
 96 Virtually every issue of these publications between the years 1877-1879 con- 
 tain controversial and polemical material, some of it personal and acrimoni- 
 ous. 
 
 9 " See Augustana, No. 10, 1874, pp. 225ff. Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1874, p?. 
 
 17 and 45. See also Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1875, p. 49f. 
 98 O. Olsson, Samlande Skrifter III, Rock Island, 1912, pp. 9-36. 
 
187 The Theological Crisis 
 
 By the time that Princell and the Augustana Synod parted com- 
 pany, the Waldenstrom theology had become the common property 
 of practically the entire Mission Friend movement in America, for 
 the American hyperevangelicals looked upon Waldenstrom as their 
 spokesman and great spiritual leader, just as their Swedish brethren 
 did. As in Sweden, so here in America, the Mission Friends became 
 the standard-bearers of Waldenstrom's viewpoint, and they eagerly 
 made the "new theology" their standpunkt. With this development 
 the complete rupture between Augustana and the Mission Friends 
 needed only to be formalized in the creation of a new and separate 
 organization. This step was taken in Chicago, February 18-25, 1885, 
 when the Mission Synod and the Ansgarius Synod voted to merge 
 and form the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant of America, with 
 C. A. Bjork, onetime lay pastor in Swede Bend, Iowa, as the first 
 president." The confessional article in the constitution which was 
 adopted at this historic gathering omits all reference to the Augsburg 
 Confession, and merely commits the new denomination to "the Word 
 of God, the holy books of the Old and New Testaments, as the only 
 perfect rule for faith, creed, and conduct." 100 It is thus clear that the 
 Mission Friends were no longer Lutherans, nor did they profess or 
 wish to be known as such. They now had their own independent 
 church organization with its own distinctive theological viewpoint. 
 The separation from the Augustana Synod was complete, and in the 
 course of the rupture Augustana had suffered substantial numerical 
 losses, but had clarified its own doctrinal position. By the time that 
 Waldenstrom's theology invaded the ranks of the Mission Friends, 
 the possibilities for rapprochement between Augustana and th<* bvr>^- 
 evangelicals had perhaps passed. The Synod had been too rigid in its 
 insistence upon institutional conformity, and the hyperevangelicals had 
 been too eager to assert and insist on "freedom." But once the hyper- 
 evangelical movement had absorbed theological viewpoints which con- 
 tradicted or seriously modified the historic confessional position of the 
 Lutheran Church the die was cast. For the Augustana Synod to yield 
 to the opposition at this point would involve a compromise of integrity. 
 Separation was inevitable. 
 
 When the Mission Covenant was organized in 1885, it comprised 
 forty-nine congregations, most of which had been drawn from Augus- 
 tana. At the same time, other Mission Friends who did not join the 
 
 99 C. V. Bowman, The Mission Covenant of America, op. cit., pp. 133-149. 
 700 Ibid., p. 145. 
 
Augustana Heritage 188 
 
 Covenant included, first, the congregations which became known as 
 the Mission Free Church, who looked to J. G. Princell as their great 
 leader. 101 This segment of Mission Friends numbered in 1885 seven- 
 teen congregations, composed for the most part of former Augustana 
 members. In the second place, there were the Swedish Congrega- 
 tionalist churches which numbered less than a half dozen in 1885, 
 but counted among their number scores of former Augustana people. 102 
 
 The events connected with the emergence of the Mission Friend 
 movement in America constituted the greatest crisis ever faced by the 
 Augustana Church. This experience had both a deleterious as well as 
 a salutary effect upon the Synod. It was deleterious in the sense that 
 many former members who were earnest Christians were lost to the 
 Synod, and their departure was a weakening of Augustana strength. 
 It was deleterious also in that it created bitterness and resentment 
 in the ranks of Swedish-Americans which took a couple of genera- 
 tions to overcome. It was deleterious, too, in that it provided the 
 enemies of the church an opportunity to ridicule and deride the church 
 of Christ, pointing to "the disciples of the Prince of Peace who fly 
 at each other's throats." 
 
 The crisis may be said to have had salutary effects in that it 
 served to clarify the theology of the Augustana Church at those points 
 where historic Lutheranism was being challenged, and thus deepened 
 the confessional self -consciousness of the Synod. The controversy also 
 served to purge the Synod of dissident elements, thus making for 
 greater ultimate unity and conformity. Finally, it served to aid in the 
 delineation of the position which Augustana would occupy in the 
 American Lutheran household, that of being neither "high" nor "low," 
 but somewhere in between. 103 
 
 
 ioi This loosely -federated association was incorporated under the laws of Min- 
 nesota in 1908 as The Swedish Evangelical Free Church. _ 
 
 102 Ibid., p. 212. It must be noted that a considerable number of Mission Friends 
 had joined the Mission societies without affiliating with Augustana congre- 
 gations. Nevertheless, the great bulk of Mission Friends in the earliest con- 
 gregations in America had been recruited from the Augustana Synod. 
 
 103 The most recent account of the Mission Friends in America is the study by 
 Karl A. Olsson, By One Spirit, A History of the Evangelical Covenant 
 Church of America, Chicago, 1962. This study was not yet available when 
 the foregoing chapter was written, but appeared after the present work was 
 in the process of publication. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 Mark Twain called it the "Gilded Age," while Edwin Lawrence 
 Godkin, editor of the Nation, claimed that it was an era with a 
 "chromo civilization." That is what American life in the last 
 quarter of the nineteenth century — and we might add the first decade of 
 the twentieth — looked like to some of its more thoughtful critics. And 
 in some respects they were right, for it was a time when the surface of 
 the American scene wore a shabby, tawdry glitter. There were, for 
 example, the newly rich tycoons of industry who had clawed and slugged 
 their way to the top over the broken backs of their competitors: John 
 D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, 
 Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, and James Fisk. There was the sleazy 
 tribe of big-time politicians who made an art of looting the public 
 treasuries, while unctuously proclaiming themselves as humble ser- 
 vants of the public, "Boss" William Marcy Tweed, Fernando Wood, 
 G. Oakley Hall, Roscoe Conkling, Senators Pomeroy and Cameron, 
 and James G. Blaine. There were the czars of "yellow journalism," 
 William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, who for the sake of in- 
 creased circulation, managed to get the United States embroiled in 
 a shooting war with Spain. And then there was P. T. Barnum, the 
 circus man, who has been described as "a vulgar, greasy genius, pure 
 brass without any gilding, yet in picturesque and capable effrontery 
 the very embodiment of the age." 1 
 
 Underneath this gilded surface, however, the currents of vigor 
 and strength were running deep and swift. There was a new mood 
 of maturity abroad in the land. A vast industrial-urban complex was 
 taking shape, and its parts were linked together by rapid railroad 
 transportation and instant telegraph communications. Electricity was 
 steadily becoming a great new source of power, and the Duryea brothers 
 had succeeded in putting together their first sputtering gasoline "horse- 
 less carriage." Free public education was rapidly becoming a universal 
 privilege across the land, and through the financial help of the Car- 
 
 1 L. V. Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought, 3 vols., New York, 
 1930, III, p. 12. 
 
 189 
 
Augustana Heritage 190 
 
 negie Foundation, public libraries were springing up like mushrooms 
 in all parts of the country. Henry Hobson Richardson and Louis H. 
 Sullivan were rebuilding the face of America with their new func- 
 tional architectural innovations for private and public buildings. Mark 
 Twain, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Sid- 
 ney Lanier, William Dean Howells, Joel Chandler Harris, and Eugene 
 Field were bringing new honors to the field of American literature, 
 while Thomas Eakins, George Inness, Winslow Holmes, Albert Ryder, 
 John La Farge, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens were adding laurels 
 to America's contribution to the world of painting and sculpture. Under 
 Grover Cleveland the federal government was developing a new sense 
 of conscience and moral responsibility, and the notorious "spoils sys- 
 tem" began to make way for the merit system under civil service. 
 The American labor movement was successfully challenging the right 
 of capital to exploit human resources with the same disregard for 
 decency with which it had despoiled so much of the nation's natural 
 resources. And the young Republic was flexing its growing muscles, 
 taking its first tentative steps onto the wide stage of world affairs 
 in the role of a youthful, vigorous, though as yet untried, leader in 
 the world community. Gilded or not, this was an age when life in the 
 United States was being transformed from top to bottom, and when 
 to stay in the swim of things required the kind of resourceful flexi- 
 bility which could and would adjust to meet the exigencies of a fluid 
 and dynamic situation. 2 
 
 Augustana in a Changing Environment 
 
 What was happening to the nation at large in terms of maturation, 
 growth, and expansion, was also happening to the Augustana Synod. 
 Augustana was being confronted with the same need to adjust to 
 new circumstances as other segments of America faced. While the 
 population of the United States from 1880 to 1910 increased approxi- 
 mately 83 per cent, 3 the confirmed membership of the Augustana 
 Synod over the same period increased more than 310 per cent. 4 A 
 correspondingly broad geographical expansion of the Synod is re- 
 flected in the fact that by 1910 the annual synodical conventions, which 
 
 2 For an excellent survey of the period see Richard Current, T. Harry Williams 
 and Frank Freidel, American History, A Survey, New York, 1961, pp. 469- 
 610. 
 
 3 From 50,155,783 to 91,972,266, Ibid., pp. 904-905. 
 
 4 From 41,976 to 172,239, Augustana Church Statistics, 1860-1960, Augustana 
 Annual, 1962, p. 132. 
 
191 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 required substantial congregational resources and building facilities, 
 had convened as far east as New Britain, Connecticut, as far west as 
 Denver, Colorado, and as far north as Red Wing, Minnesota. 5 This 
 growth and expansion were chiefly due to two factors, namely, the 
 effectiveness of the home missions program which had been inaugur- 
 ated in 1870, and the immense influx of Swedish immigrants during 
 these decades. It should be noted in this connection that of the 
 1,300,000 Swedish nationals who came to the United States between 
 1830 and 1930, no less than 69 per cent arrived in the thirty-year 
 period between 1880 and 1910. 6 
 
 This means that an unprecedented opportunity and a correspond- 
 ingly heavy responsibility rested upon the Augustana Synod to win 
 these thousands of Swedish immigrants, most of whom were already 
 baptized and confirmed Lutherans, for the Lutheran Church in 
 America. Virtually every report of the synodical president and of 
 the committee for home missions during this period attests to the 
 Synod's awareness of this unparalleled task and opportunity, and it 
 was repeatedly acknowledged by synodical leaders that to win the 
 immigrant masses was the Synod's chief responsibility. 7 
 
 By 1880-1890, however, Augustana was not only an immigrant 
 church. Its constituency now included the children, even the grand- 
 children, of the pioneer founders. This younger generation symbol- 
 ized the fact that the Augustana Church was no longer a "new- 
 comer" to America; it had by this time been a part of the American 
 scene long enough to experience within its own ranks the changing, 
 maturing process of the times. Thus, even while the Synod continued 
 to busy itself with the incoming immigrants, it sought also to adjust 
 to the needs and requirements of a new milieu. Such adjustment in- 
 
 5 See Synodical Minutes for the years 1906, 1907 and 1909. 
 
 6 Oscar A. Benson, Problems in the Accommodation of the Swede to Ameri- 
 can Culture, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1933, 
 p. 31f . 
 
 7 Typical of the utterances in the synodical reports are the following from 1880. 
 "Masses of immigrants are reaching our shores and increasing our mission- 
 ary tasks. What we therefore require are more pastors who can and will go 
 forth with the gospel, sacrifice, and labor as faithful soldiers for Christ. The 
 fulfillment of this task in ever greater measure I would heartily commend to 
 the Synod's attention." President Eric Norelius, Protokoll, 1880, p. 15. "Im- 
 migrants in ever greater numbers are arriving in America from the homeland, 
 and it has been our duty and blessed responsibility to extend to them coun- 
 sel, help and guidance in both spiritual and temporal matters. . . . The com- 
 mittee is of the opinion that much more needs to be done for these immi- 
 grant masses, and that the Synod ought to devise ways and means which will 
 enable the committee to meet more adequately the needs of the immigrants." 
 Committee report, Ibid., p. 63. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 192 
 
 volved both the revision of institutional structures, usages and practices, 
 as well as the creation of new agencies of service. 
 
 Revision of Institutional Structure 
 
 The encouraging growth and expansion which the Synod had en- 
 joyed since its inception was cause for rejoicing. But it was also cause 
 for grave apprehension, since the very increase in geographical and 
 numerical size carried with it some real dangers which had to be 
 adequately dealt with if the Synod was to continue to prosper. 
 Chief among such dangers was the unrestrained growth of parochial- 
 ism which if unchecked would eventuate in disunity. Parochialism, or 
 sectionalism, had been on the increase for a number of years, but it was 
 not until 1888 that the practical and clear-sighted Erland Carlsson ' 
 pointed out the danger and suggested its essential cause and remedy. 
 In his last presidential report he declared, 
 
 Local and parochial interests, competing literary ventures, in- , 
 deed, our several schools with their imperative needs and great 
 demands — all threaten our inner unity, tend to chill our Christian 
 comradeship, and unless remedies are applied, will destroy those 
 bonds which hitherto have held us together and contributed to 
 the progress of our work for the Lord and his kingdom. . . . It ] 
 would be truly deplorable if our mutual trust and fraternal love 
 should be destroyed and replaced among us by suspicion, fault- 
 finding, slander, jealousy and quarrelsomeness. And there is 
 danger that this will actually occur if each and everyone persists 
 in being concerned only about his own best interests, his own 
 local ambitions, his own conference, his own mission field, his 
 own school, and his own publications. If such a spirit is permitted 
 to prevail among us, it will not only extinguish our feelings of 
 mutual love, but will split us asunder, take from us God's bless- 
 ing, and injure our work. . . . The chief reason for this regret- 
 table situation ... is to be found in our outdated constitutional 
 arrangements. . . . That our constitutional structure is altogether 
 too loose and indefinite will doubtless be acknowledged by all. . . . 
 Many among us think that the Synod should be merely an ad- 
 visory body without any legislative power or authority. Under 
 such circumstances everyone may individually do as he pleases 
 with the decisions of Synod. Individualism has altogether too large 
 a place among us. . . . In politics we are nearly all Republicans, 
 desiring a strong centralized federal authority; but in the affairs 
 of the church we have unwittingly become Democrats, desiring 
 a weak decentralized synodical authority, having been unduly 
 influenced by "state's rights" notions. . . . Behold, how we have 
 acted; each one wants to do missionary work by himself, build 
 
 
193 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 his own schools, and publish his own newspapers and journals. 
 May the Lord lead our Synod in upon the golden middle way in 
 the matter of our constitutional structure, so that we neither 
 shipwreck on the Scylla of dictatorship or the Charybdis of selfish 
 parochialism. . . . United we stand, divided we fall. 8 
 
 Behind these remarks of President Carlsson there lay a long-standing 
 disagreement within Augustana regarding the relationship of the Synod 
 to its various parts. The synodical constitution which was adopted 
 in 1860 specified that the Synod consisted of the ordained pastors and 
 the lay delegates representing the congregations of the Synod. Thus, 
 the constitutive factors of Synod were limited to pastors and lay 
 delegates. 9 Since the pastors were obliged to attend every synodical 
 convention, year after year, while the lay delegation would change 
 from year to year, the pastors would be enabled to exercise a very 
 tight control over the affairs of the church. In such a situation the 
 desires of the congregations might be overlooked. This apparent dis- 
 regard of the prerogatives and rights of the congregations, as such, 
 and the heavy emphasis upon the ministerial office, seems to have 
 awakened a reaction, for in 1878 a revised constitution was proposed 
 which stated that "the Synod shall consist of all the congregations 
 regularly connected with it, and at the synodical conventions shall be 
 represented by the pastor and one elected delegate from each congre- 
 gation." 10 This proposal was adopted at the convention in Chicago. 11 
 
 With the adoption of this proposal the pendulum had swung to the 
 opposite extreme, relegating the ministerial office to a delegatory 
 status only, while making the congregation, as such, the constitutive 
 element of the Synod. This was tantamount to outright Congregation- 
 alism wherein the congregation and the church became virtually syn- 
 onymous terms. Though the founding fathers envisaged a polity which 
 had congregationalist aspects, in the sense that synodical power and 
 authority were delegated to it by the congregations, it is indubitable 
 that an outright Congregationalism did not reflect their concept of a 
 suitable polity. 12 
 
 Denning the Synod in congregationalist terms did not prove ac- 
 ceptable. At the convention in Des Moines, Iowa, 1880, the Synodical 
 
 8 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1880, pp. 20ff . 
 
 9 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1860, p. 17. 
 
 10 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1878, appendix, "Forslag till Konstitution," Chap. 
 1, Article 3. 
 
 "Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1879, p. 60. 
 
 12 See historical review by L. G. Abrahamson in Jubel- Album, op. tit, p 64 
 See also article by Conrad Emil Lindberg, "Augustana- synodens forfattning- 
 ar, Minnesskrift, Augustana Synoden, 1860-1910, op. tit., pp. 70ff 
 

 Augustana Heritage 194 
 
 Council proposed that the Synod "shall consist of all the conferences 
 which are connected with it." 13 This proposal represented the thinking 
 of men like Peter Sjoblom of Minnesota, who vigorously advocated 
 strong conferences and a weak synod, and who, like Norelius, was 
 afraid that a strong central synodical authority would inevitably lead 
 to bureaucracy. 14 The man who withstood all efforts to weaken the 
 Synod or decentralize church authority was T. N. Hasselquist. He 
 believed that the future well-being of the Augustana Synod required 
 a strong, integrating synodical center which could pull the disparate 
 parts of the church together and make them work in harmony and 
 unity. It was largely through his efforts that the pro-conference fac- 
 tion of Sjoblom was defeated at the convention of 1880. 15 
 
 The controversy came to a climax in 1881-1882, when Sjoblom 
 hatched a plot to lead a rebellion against synodical authorities. He 
 had visions of taking the Minnesota Conference out of the Augustana 
 Synod and of establishing instead an independent Minnesota Synod 
 with its own college and theological seminary, its own independent 
 publishing concern, and its own institutions of mercy. 16 These plans, 
 however, were too radical for the erstwhile allies of Sjoblom, par- 
 ticularly Cederstam and Norelius, who withdrew their support and 
 left the field of battle to Sjoblom alone. 17 To take on Hasselquist and 
 his henchmen singlehandedly was too much even for Peter Sjoblom. • 
 When, therefore, Hasselquist offered the olive branch of reconciliation, 
 Sjoblom grasped it and promised to try to live in peace with those 
 who did not see the Synod in "the same colors" as he did. 18 
 
 The threatened rupture of the Synod was averted, but the funda- 
 mental problem of the relationship of the Synod to conferences and 
 congregations remained. So the pot of controversy continued to boil 
 merrily through the years until 1890 when two different constitutional 
 proposals were made. Proposal number one provided that, 
 
 ^Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1880, p. 69. 
 
 14 See letter from P. Sjoblom to E. Norelius, September 6, 1876, Norelius Col- 
 lection, Augustana Archives, and letter from Norelius to Hasselquist, Feb- 
 ruary 29, 1876, Hasselquist Collection, Augustana Archives. 
 
 15 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1880, p. 69f. For Hasselquist's approach to the 
 problem see for example, Augustana, 1876, No. 8. Augustana och Mission- 
 dren, July 27, 1881. Letter from Hasselquist to Norelius, March 22, 1879, Nor- 
 elius Collection, Augustana Archives. 
 
 1 9 Letter from P. A. Cederstam to Hasselquist, April 3, 1882, Hasselquist Col- 
 lection, Augustana Archives. P. A. Cederstam to E. Norelius, April 4, 1882, 
 Norelius Collection, Augustana Archives. 
 
 17 Letter from Erland Carlsson to Norelius, October, 1882, Norelius Collection, 
 Augustana Archives. 
 
 18 Letter from P. Sjoblom to Hasselquist, May 12, 1883, Hasselquist Collection. 
 
195 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 This Synod shall consist of all ordained pastors and all con- 
 gregations which are regularly connected with the same, and shall 
 be represented at synodical conventions by elected delegates. 19 
 
 Constitutional proposal number two provided that, 
 
 This Synod shall consist of all those district synods which are 
 regularly connected with the same, and shall be represented at 
 the synodical conventions by the presidents of the district synods, 
 together with one pastor and one layman from every twenty-five 
 congregations, excepting the theological faculty and the officers 
 of synod. 20 
 
 With reference to the two constitutional proposals President S. P. 
 A. Lindahl in his annual report to the church in 1890 had this to say, 
 
 The question of a new constitution seems to have been brought 
 one step nearer solution. The two essentially opposite proposals 
 which will come before this assembly will force the Synod to ex- 
 press itself clearly in this important matter. It must decide whether 
 it earnestly intends to preserve and maintain the synodical unity 
 or divide itself into several synods. We are all aware that a 
 judicious solution to this problem is of immense importance. 21 
 
 Even a quick glance at these two constitutional proposals reveals that 
 the first one represented the procentralization faction which would 
 not change the essential features of the existing synodical structure 
 except to strengthen it and clarify its relationships. It is also evident 
 that the second proposal expressed the sentiments of the anticentraliza- 
 tion forces. This plan would radically alter the basic structure of the 
 Synod and transform the conferences into semi-independent district 
 synods, exercising the real power and authority in the Church, while 
 the central synod would thereby be reduced to an advisory and con- 
 sultative status. 
 
 The Synod was not ready at the convention in Jamestown, New 
 York, 1890, to make a final choice between the two proposals; it 
 elected a study committee instead. 22 Indeed, it was not until 1893 that 
 a decision was made. That year at Rock Island, Illinois, the Synod 
 adopted a slightly revised version of proposal number one, and one 
 of the members of the revision and sponsoring committee was none 
 other than the veteran campaigner for "states' rights," Peter Sjoblom. 23 
 This action was ratified at the convention in St. Peter, Minnesota, 
 
 19 The proposed constitutions are given in full in Augustana, May 8, 1890 pp. 
 10-11,14-15. 
 
 20 Ibid., p. 10. 
 
 21 Rejerat, Augustana Synod, 1890, p. 18; Augustana, June 26, 1890, p. 3. 
 
 a2 Augustana, June 26, 1890. 
 
 23 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1893, p. 82. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 196 
 
 1894, thus clarifying an issue which had distracted the Synod for 
 many years. 24 
 
 The new constitution defined the Synod as consisting of pastors 
 and congregations in regular connection with the same, indicating that 
 the ministerial office, like the congregation, is divinely instituted; the 
 office is not a mere junction created by the congregation; nor is the 
 church the creation of the ministerial office. Neither the church nor 
 office have priority over the other, but together constitute the divine 
 institution ordained by Christ. 25 Congregations within a given territory 
 shall comprise the conference unit; the number and boundaries of 
 conferences to be determined by the Synod, each conference being 
 represented at synodical conventions by an equal , number of clerical 
 and lay delegates, the number not to exceed two delegates, one cler- 
 ical and one lay, for every fifteen hundred communicants or a larger 
 fraction thereof. These delegates, together with the members of the 
 Synodical Council, 26 the officers of Synod, the theological faculty, the 
 president of Augustana College and Theological Seminary, a delegate 
 from each of the boards of directors of the different departments of 
 activity under synodical control and duly incorporated, together with 
 a delegate from each of the boards of directors of the conference in- 
 stitutions of learning, were to constitute the voting members of Syn- 
 od at annual conventions. 27 
 
 Of this constitution a perceptive commentator has declared, 
 
 In these vigorous strokes of the pen the Synod emerges from 
 whatever may have been uncertain in the polity of past years. 
 The mutual relations between the pastor and the congregation, their 
 relation to the Synod and the conference, the relation of the respec- 
 tive conferences to each other and to the Synod, and the position 
 of the institutions of learning are hereby established, giving 
 marked prominence to the ministerial office. 28 
 
 24 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1894, p. 30. 
 
 25 A. D. Mattson, Polity of the Augustana Synod, op. cit., p. 94. 
 
 26 The Synodical Council was first created in 1879, consisting of the president 
 and vice-president of the Synod and one clerical and one lay delegate from 
 each conference. The new constitution provided that the Synodical Council 
 should comprise the president and vice-president of the Synod, the presidents 
 of the conferences, and one elected delegate from each Conference. Ibid., p. 
 95. 
 
 27 See "Konstitution for den Evanglisk-Lutherska Augustana Synoden i Norra 
 Amerika," Referat, Augustana Synod, 1893, pp. 82-89. 
 
 28 Martin T. Englund, "Church Polity of the Augustana Synod," The Augus- 
 tana Synod, 1860-1910, op. cit., p. 61. An excellent analysis of the theological 
 principles expressed in the constitution of 1894 is given in C. E. Lindberg, 
 "Augustana-synodens forfattningar," Minnesskrift, Augustana Synoden, 1860- 
 1910, op. cit, pp. 70ff. 
 
197 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 Although the adoption of the new constitution did not silence all 
 anticentralization sentiment, nor purge all parochialism from the 
 Synod, 29 it did provide the Augustana Church with a structure so well 
 suited to its American environment that the basic principles here 
 affirmed have never needed to be discarded or seriously modified. 
 
 Changes in the Cultus 
 
 As there was need for change and revision in the polity of the 
 Augustana Church, so also was there need for changes in the worship 
 life of the church, in that broad area called the cultus. This is evident 
 from the comments made by one of the pioneer pastors, Eric Norelius, 
 who was an eyewitness and active participant in the life of the church 
 during the earliest days of the Synod. Speaking of the church build- 
 ings erected by the first Swedish settlers he says, 
 
 That our Swedish immigrants would erect small, simple, and 
 inexpensive churches in the early days could well be expected; 
 but that they would deliberately make them so uncommonly ugly 
 and uncomfortable in so many respects is a cause for downright 
 amazement. . . . What influenced the immigrants more than any- 
 thing else to erect prosaic and ugly church buildings was the fact 
 that they were surrounded by American denominations whose 
 churches were prosaic and ugly. The Puritan spirit prevailing 
 so strongly in these churches completely dominated the archi- 
 tectural style of the times, and demanded that a church should be 
 an oblong structure like a huge "shoe box," with oblong windows 
 and a flat ceiling. On the back wall there must be a platform 
 across the whole room on which the pulpit was placed with both 
 sides open like a "saloon bar," with steps leading to it, and a bench 
 against the wall behind it. When several preachers were present 
 they would crowd in on this bench. . . . This was the church 
 architecture of Puritanism, and the Swedish immigrants copied 
 these patterns, and chanced thereby to create genuine ecclesiastical 
 monstrosities. They, nevertheless, felt that something was lacking, 
 and they began surreptitiously to bring in altar rails, and a sort 
 of table altar placed in front of the pulpit. But it took a good long 
 while before they built towers on their churches, and even longer 
 before they dared to peak the tower with a cross. You might 
 know they did not want to be considered Roman Catholics! 30 
 
 It is interesting to note from Dr. Norelius' description the central 
 
 29 The agitation for separation of Augustana College and Augustana Theologi- 
 cal Seminary was in part inspired by and an expression of the spirit of pa- 
 rochialism and sectionalism. 
 
 30 Eric Norelius, De svenska forsamlingarnas . . . i Amerika, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 
 251f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 198 
 
 place given to the pulpit in the early pioneer churches, not only 
 theoretically, but actually and physically. The pulpit was generally 
 placed in the very center of the platform, the focal point of the room, 
 with an inconspicuous table altar placed on the floor level, at the foot 
 of the pulpit. These features, including the "shoe-box" proportions, 
 flat ceiling and "towerless" exterior, characterized the little chapel at 
 Andover, later known as the "Jenny Lind chapel," as well as other 
 early churches, if we may judge from early photographs of these 
 buildings. 
 
 Perhaps these "prosaic and ugly" church buildings denoted not 
 only American, but free-church Swedish influence as well. Photo- 
 graphs of the early "Ansgar chapels" scattered throughout the country- 
 side in Sweden, and indeed Rosenius' own church in Stockholm, the 
 Bethlehem chapel, exhibit a number of these same characteristics — 
 oblong buildings without towers, the interior of which was designed 
 for meetings rather than for worship, with a platform at one end 
 and a speaker's pulpit in the center of the platform. These free-church 
 chapels had at least this in common with the Puritan tradition, that ,i 
 the exposition of the Word, the office of preaching, was pre-eminent, ' 
 and the pulpit therefore overshadowed the altar. Thus, the early 
 pioneers were imitating the free-church models they had seen in their , 
 homeland, and therefore did not radically differ from the Puritan and 
 Reformed tradition in their notion of a functional church design. 
 
 When these early, small chapels began to be replaced by more 
 imposing edifices, the American influence of the "Gilded Age" be- ' 
 came more apparent. Whether it was the Andover church, in Andover, 
 Illinois, the Immanuel church in Chicago, the First church in Rock- 
 ford, the Augustana church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, or the Augus- 
 tana church in Denver, Colorado, a somewhat characteristic type of 
 church building emerged with a nave more nearly square than oblong, 
 with a flat rather than a vaulted ceiling, and a high platform at the 
 far end of the room, at the front center of which stood the pulpit, 
 with a small, inconspicuous altar below on the floor level. Behind the 
 pulpit, on a still higher level, was the choir loft, backed by a huge 
 rank of gilded organ pipes, most of which were silent dummies. The 
 wooden pillar supports, the proscenium, the altar rail, as well as altar 
 and pulpit were frequently painted to simulate expensive Italian 
 marble, while the walls were decorated with pious inscriptions and 
 realistic figures and symbols. Choir loft, pulpit, and pew were arranged 
 to give the singers, the preacher and the "audience" a clear, unob- 
 
 
199 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 structed view of each other, for the place was designed as an assembly 
 hall where to be able to "enjoy" was predicated on being able to hear 
 and see, even if it became necessary to build a gallery or balcony 
 encircling two thirds of the wall space of the nave. The exteriors were 
 often astonishing exhibitions of the brick layer's art, with intricate 
 and interesting patterns executed with two, or even three different 
 colors of brick or stone. 
 
 Perhaps such church buildings left a good deal to be desired in 
 terms of good taste and historic continuity, but they represented the 
 earnest efforts of a people whose immigrant and pioneer days did not 
 lie very far behind them. They provided places of worship which met 
 the religious demands and the spiritual needs of both old and young 
 who were beginning to participate in the swiftly changing life of 
 their community. 
 
 The services of public worship which were conducted in these 
 Augustana churches looked back to the liturgical traditions of Sweden. 
 The official Handbok and Psalmbok of the Church of Sweden were 
 used by the Swedish pastors and congregations of the Augustana Synod 
 from the beginning, adapting the Swedish Orders to the American 
 situation wherever necessary. There was very little disposition to 
 change the liturgical usages, and Augustana for a number of years 
 was content to follow the lead of the Swedish Church, making only 
 such changes as were first made and approved in the homeland. 31 
 There was apparently, however, a feeling that Augustana ought to 
 prepare a church book more nearly suited to its own American needs. 
 Thus, from 1870 to 1895, the subject of an Augustana church book 
 was discussed at practically every synodical convention; resolutions 
 were passed, committees elected, reports were given, and proposals 
 of various kinds were presented and debated. 32 Except for recommend- 
 ing that the Church Book of the General Council be used in those 
 congregations which employed the English language, 33 nothing of major 
 importance was accomplished until 1885 when the Enander-Bohman 
 Publishing Company of Chicago on their own initiative issued a Swed- 
 ish Church Book, and also an English translation, which included the 
 changes and revisions which the Synod up to that time had made in 
 
 ^For example, in 1863 (Protokoll, 1863, p. 15) the Synod adopted the new 
 series of preaching texts which had been previously prepared and introduced 
 in Sweden, and in 1869, the Synod voted to bring its Handbook up-to-date by 
 incorporating in it the changes and revisions adopted by the Swedish Church. 
 
 32 The term Church Book means a manual which includes Order for Worship 
 and ministerial acts. 
 
 33 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1871, p. 21; 1880, p. 74. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 200 
 
 the Swedish rite. 34 That this book did not meet the demands of the 
 Church is evident from the fact that the subject of a church book 
 continued to agitate the councils of the church. 
 
 In 1895, however, the Church Book Committee reported that a 
 new liturgical manual had been adopted the previous year by the 
 Church of Sweden, and recommended that the Synod publish a re- 
 vised version of this new Swedish Church Book for use in Augus- 
 tana congregations, being guided in its preparation by the liturgical 
 usages given in the Church Book of the General Council. 35 This rec- 
 ommendation received favorable action and the committee was re- 
 quested to include in the new Church Book an Order for Morning 
 Worship with Holy Communion, an Order for Morning Worship 
 without Holy Communion, an Order for Holy Communion without 
 Morning Worship, an Order for Vespers or Occasional Worship, and 
 an Order for Baptism. This book was to be ready for use throughout 
 the congregations by Advent Sunday, 1895. 3G At the Omaha conven- 
 tion, 1896, the committee reported that the new Church Book had 
 been published, giving the Augustana Synod, for the first time, a , 
 liturgical manual which was essentially its own. 37 
 
 No sooner was the Church Book of 1895 completed than the com- 
 mittee was requested to prepare an English translation to be used in 
 the English-speaking sections of the Synod. 38 By 1905 the Committee 
 had completed this task, and the Augustana Church now had excel- 
 lent liturgical manuals in both Swedish and English. This Church : 
 Book met the needs of the Synod so well that it served the church 
 for a quarter of a century without substantial changes or modifications. { 
 
 While the liturgical usages of Augustana were undergoing change 
 and revision, a similar process was at work in the music of the church. 
 The Swedish Psalmbok of 1819 had been in use throughout the Swed- 
 ish congregations of the Synod since the beginning. 39 By 1874, how- 
 ever, there was a felt need for a new hymnal, and accordingly that 
 year a Psalmbok committee was elected, consisting of T. N. Hassel- 
 quist, J. Ausland and Th. Winquist. 40 The following year this com- 
 mittee presented to Synod one of the most perceptive and penetrating 
 
 34 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1887, p. 77; 1878, p. 76; Augustana, 1887, Number 
 
 11. Ander, Hasselquist, op. cit., p. 183. E. W. Olson, op. cit., p. 152. 
 »« Referat, Augustana Synod, 1895, p. 68f. 
 se Ibid., p. 70. 
 
 3 " Referat, Augustana Synod, 1896, p. 66f. 
 38 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1898, p. 80. 
 wprotokoll, Augustana Synod, 1863, p. 28; 1875, p. 35. 
 40 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1874, pp. 44if. 
 
 
201 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 analyses of the place and significance of congregational music in the 
 life of the church ever heard by an Augustana delegation. The report 
 spelled out in both theoretical and practical terms what an adequate 
 hymnal ought to be like. The report reflects the style and thought of 
 Hasselquist, and if the report is indeed from his pen, the venerable 
 Father rarely, if ever, excelled this piece of writing. 41 
 
 The committee, waiting for a new Psalmbok to be issued in Sweden, 
 did little more for the next few years than continue its study of the 
 subject. In 1878, however, it was reported to the church that the in- 
 dependent publishing firm of Engberg and Holmberg of Chicago were 
 ready to issue a revised version of the Swedish hymnal of 1819 with 
 such emendations as were necessary to make it suitable for American 
 use. 42 This book was published and adopted the following year by 
 Augustana and commended to the congregations. 43 Although there was 
 some discussion of a new hymnal at synodical conventions from year 
 to year, the Engberg-Holmberg edition was reissued several times and 
 continued to be the Psalmbok of the Synod until 1923. 
 
 A song book, to be used at informal services and devotional gather- 
 ings, containing a substantial collection of the evangelistic hymns and 
 songs from the evangelical revivals of Sweden was published in 1891, 
 under the title of Hemlandssanger, and enjoyed wide popularity 
 as long as Swedish services were held in Augustana churches. 44 And 
 to meet the demands of the English-speaking constituency, the theo- 
 logical faculty was commissioned, in 1895 to prepare an English 
 hymnal. 45 This book was published in 1899, and a companion music 
 edition appeared in 1901. 46 Nor were the musical needs of the children 
 forgotten, as the church published a Sunday School Song Book in 
 1884, which was revised and enlarged in 1903. 47 
 
 The greatest change in the music of the Augustana Church dur- 
 ing the period of adjustment, however, occurred in the quality of the 
 music in the average congregation. The improvement in musical quality 
 was chiefly due, undoubtedly, to the increased use of more adequate 
 instrumental leadership. The earliest churches had either a small, 
 wheezy melodeon to lead the congregational singing or no instrument 
 
 41 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1875, pp. 34-36. 
 42 Protokol, Augustana Synod, 1878, p. 39. 
 
 43 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1878, p. 39; 1879, p. 531 Beginning in 1884 the 
 synodical minutes are called Rejerat. 
 
 44 Rejerat, Augustana Synod, 1892, p. lOlf. 
 
 45 Rejerat, Augustana Synod, 1895, p. 72. 
 
 46 Rejerat, Augustana Synod, 1899, p. 35f ; 1902, p. 86. 
 
 47 Rejerat, Augustana Synod, 1884, p. 41; 1900, p. 89; 1903, p. 104. 
 
Augustana Heritage 202 
 
 at all. Where there was no accompanying instrument the pastor or some 
 musically apt layman would often act as the cantor of the congrega- 
 tion, lining out the hymn tunes and leading in the liturgical responses. 
 As the early, hard, lean years were supplanted by better times, and 
 a measure of prosperity displaced the pinch of poverty, the new church 
 buildings which were replacing the pioneer chapels were usually 
 equipped either with good quality reed organs, or in the larger con- 
 gregations, with pipe organs. As these instruments were installed in 
 the parish churches, young people were inspired and encouraged to 
 learn to play them. Indeed, it was not too unusual to find an Augus- 
 tana parish before the turn of the century, where there was not 
 only an organ in the church, but a parish choir, a parish band, and 
 not infrequently a parish orchestra. Though the musical renditions of 
 such groups may not have been brilliant exhibitions of training and 
 technique, they nevertheless symbolized the growth in the Synod of 
 a measure of culture and refinement which reflected and bespoke the 
 great change which was occurring since the days of the founding 
 fathers. 48 
 
 It was time, too, for revising and bringing up-to-date the basic 
 educational tools of the church, its primary textbooks and literary 
 aids. The chief religious educational text among Scandinavian Lu- 
 therans has historically been Luther's Small Catechism, supplemented 
 by the Large Catechism. These confessional symbols of Lutheranism 
 have been the basic tools for Christian instruction among Scandina- 
 vians since the days of the Reformation. 49 One of the very first books 
 to come off the press of T. N. Hasselquist's Swedish printing shop in 
 Galesburg in the summer of 1855 was a reprint of Dr. Peter Fjell- 
 stedt's version of Luther's Small Catechism. 50 This book was used 
 by the earliest Swedish pastors and congregations to instruct the 
 young in the fundamentals of the faith. The first convention of the 
 Augustana Church, 1860, adopted a resolution urging the catechiza- 
 tion of the youth each week, 51 and two years later, 1862, a special 
 catechism committee was elected to prepare and publish a new ver- 
 sion of Luther's Catechism with Bible proof texts for each explana- 
 tion. 52 The committee prepared the proof text editions and circulated 
 
 
 48 Carl L. Nelson, The Sacred and Secular Music of the Swedish Settlers in the 
 Mid-west, 1841-1917, Doctoral Dissertation, New York University, 1950, Ms. 
 
 49 J. A. Hallgren, Den Svenska elementarundervisningens historia, Stockholm, 
 1877, pp. 37ff. 
 
 50 E. W. Olson, Augustana Book Concern . . ., op. cit, p. 4f. 
 « Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1860, p. 13. 
 
 62 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1862, p. 13. 
 
 
203 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 the manuscript among the pastors for comments and criticism, 53 but 
 it was not until 1868 that this edition appeared in print. 54 
 
 It was felt, however, that to append a few proof texts to the 
 catechetical text was not enough. What was needed, declared Presi- 
 dent Jonas Swensson in his annual report, 1873, was a more unified, 
 systematized and linguistically up-to-date version of the catechism, 
 and since the mother church in Sweden did not seem ready to act in 
 the matter, it behooved the Synod to set to work to create its own 
 updated version of the catechism. 55 Accordingly, a special catechism 
 committee consisting of T. N. Hasselquist, Jonas Swensson, Erland 
 Carlsson, Olof Olsson, Eric Norelius and J. Ausland, was selected 
 to prepare a new version of the catechism. 56 This distinguished com- 
 mittee worked diligently until 1879 before it was ready to make a 
 final proposal. The entire catechetical text had been reworked, con- 
 paring various versions, changing, revising, deleting and adding phrases, 
 paragraphs, and whole sections, until the committee was convinced 
 that the final draft spoke the language of children and not of erudite 
 theologians. The result of these labors was a version of the catechism 
 which admirably suited the educational needs of that day. In simple 
 but well-chosen Swedish, with a readable style, the explanations set 
 forth in the language of youth the great truths of the Lutheran 
 Church. The book was published in 1879 and quickly became a best 
 seller. 57 Indeed, it became the most widely used publication issued 
 by the Augustana press, with 250,000 copies having been sold by 
 1910. 58 A slightly revised version and an English translation of this 
 textbook were published by the Synod in 1902. 59 In the average 
 Augustana congregation of this period the catechism was the primary 
 center around which the entire parish educational program revolved, 
 and confirmation with its introduction into adult church member- 
 ship was predicated upon an assumed mastery of the entire text of the 
 Small Catechism. The copyright of the Augustana version of the cate- 
 chism was made the property of Augustana College and Theological 
 Seminary, and the substantial profits realized from the sales of this 
 textbook became a financial boon to the institution for many years. 60 
 
 53 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1864, p. 19f. 
 
 54 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1868, p. 15. 
 
 55 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1873, p. 8f. 
 
 56 Ibid., p. 46. 
 
 57 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1879, p. 19f ; 1880, p. 71. 
 
 58 O. V. Holmgrain, "Augustana-synodens forlagsverksamhet," Minnesskrift 
 Augustana Synoden, 1860-1910, op. tit., p. 300. 
 
 59 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1901, p. 87; 1902, p. 13. 
 
 60 Holmgrain, op. tit., p. 300. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 204 
 
 Second only to the catechism as a principal educational tool was 
 the Bible history textbook. In the early years of the Synod Barih's 
 Bible History had been in general use throughout the congregations. 61 
 In 1884 it was reported to the Synod that Pastor A. Hult had pre- 
 pared a new Bible history which he wished to present to the Synod 
 for possible use throughout the congregations. 62 A special committee 
 was elected to revise, amend, and improve the study in preparation 
 for publication. 63 The committee worked at this task until 1887, when 
 it was announced that at last Augustana had its own Bible history 
 textbook. 64 To make this excellent little textbook available to the 
 growing number of children who preferred English, the Synod decided 
 in 1893 to translate the book into English, 65 but this work was not 
 completed until 1899. 66 
 
 How well the little Bible history met and satisfied the educa- 
 tional needs of the Church at this point may be judged from the fact 
 that for forty years this book was the companion piece to the cat- 
 echism, a primary educational tool of the Augustana Church. 
 
 Literary aids in the form of Sunday school papers designed for 
 the devotional reading of children and youth came into being in this 
 period as a supplement to the basic educational tools of the Augustana 
 Church. A beginning in this field of activity had been made some- 
 what earlier when a little sheet called Barnvannen made its appear- 
 ance in 1872 under the private sponsorship of two pastors Anders 
 Hult and J. G. Princell. 67 Four years later, in 1876, the Synod took 
 official notice of the publication and recommended it to all pastors 
 and congregations. 68 
 
 It was not until 1886, however, that a children's devotional 
 paper began to get anything like synod-wide circulation. In that year 
 a new paper, Barnens Tidning, was published as a semi-official Sun- 
 day school paper, edited by S. P. A. Lindahl and H. P. Quist. The 
 venture proved successful, and in 1889 it absorbed the earlier 
 Barnvannen. This enlarged Sunday school paper enjoyed a subscrip- 
 tion list which virtually covered the Synod. 69 
 
 si Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1862, p. 13. C. G. Barth, Biblisk historia, Eng- 
 
 berg-Holmberg, Chicago, 1886. 
 r > 2 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1884, p. 30. 
 as Ibid., p. 61; 1886, p. 68. 
 fi4 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1887, p. 74. 
 « 5 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1893, p. 74. 
 fifi Referat, Augustana Synod, 1899, pp. 62, 69f. 
 67 E. W. Olson, Awgustana Book Concern . . ., op. cit., p. 15. 
 gs Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1876, p. 48. 
 69 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1890, p. 71. Lindahl's annual report from the 
 
205 The Era of Adjustment 
 
 To promote and encourage the publication and dissemination 
 of Christian literature for children and youth, an interested group 
 of young people, including several members of the faculty of Augus- 
 tana College and Theological Seminary, formed a society in Rock 
 Island in 1877 which called itself Ungdomens Vdnner (The Friends of 
 Youth) which was reorganized in 1883 as the Augustana Tract Society. 
 Under the auspices of this group a definite impetus was given to the 
 production of literature aimed at winning the young for the cause 
 of Christ. Devotional papers and tracts in both Swedish and English 
 were published and spread throughout the Church through the efforts 
 of this organization, which sought in this way to meet the needs of 
 the day. 70 
 
 Book Concern states that each issue of Barnen's Tidning numbered 25,000 
 copies, and was thus the largest selling item of the publishing house. 
 70 E. W. Olson, op. tit., p. 15f . 
 

 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 Creation of New Service Agencies 
 
 An inevitable and integral part of an institution's growth and 
 maturity is the emergence within its corporate life of certain 
 specific categories of need, the development of areas of life 
 which demand their own media of expression, control, and promotion. 
 With respect to the Augustana Church the period of adjustment wit- 
 nessed the emergence of just such needs and the demands for corre- 
 sponding media within the framework of the Synod. 
 
 Organizing the Youth 
 
 Aside from the eleemosynary projects, the first demand for a 
 special agency to minister to the changing needs of a specific seg- 
 ment of the Augustana Synod came from the youth of the church. 
 
 The oft-mentioned "youth problem" does not seem to have dis- 
 turbed the Augustana Synod very deeply during the first decade of 
 its existence. Very few references to the youth of the church appear 
 in the official records of the Synod, the church press, or the personal 
 correspondence of church leaders in the early years. 1 
 
 There may be several reasons for this synodical silence regard- 
 ing the "youth problem," but part of the reason was undoubtedly 
 the simple fact that in the very earliest period the synod's second 
 generation was busy growing up, and posed no problem except that 
 of requiring facilities and means for proper religious education, at 
 home, at school, and in the church. But as these children began to 
 reach young adulthood, they required new attention and their needs 
 demanded a fresh concern on the part of the Synod. These young 
 people represented the church of the future; to keep them vitally 
 connected with the church and faithful to the Lord was a task and 
 responsibility second to none. It is significant, however, that the youth 
 movement in the Augustana Church was not initiated by the Synod, 
 
 1 Cf. Adolf Hult, "Augustana-synodens Ungdomsforeningar," Minnesskrift. Au- 
 gustana Synoden, 1860-1910, op. cit, p. 394. 
 
 206 
 
 
207 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 but had its genesis in local congregations long before the Synod itself 
 was ready to act on behalf of its youth. 2 
 
 The earliest attempt to organize the young people into a special 
 group and provide for them a program of activity which would meet 
 both their spiritual and social needs seems to have been launched 
 by a young theological student, John Teleen, in 1872 while serving the 
 congregation in Des Moines, Iowa. 3 The second endeavor to meet the 
 needs of the youth of the church was made by Dr. Olof Olsson about 
 1874 in his congregation at Free Mount, Kansas. The constitution 
 which Dr. Olsson drew up for his Young People's Society is of interest, 
 since it expresses the chief purposes which motivated the youth move- 
 ment throughout the church. According to the constitution of the 
 Free Mount Ynglinga jbreningen, the purposes of the organization 
 were to provide opportunity for edification and encouragement in 
 moral living, education in religious and cultural subjects, and social 
 contact between Christian young men and women in an atmosphere 
 which would accord with Christian principles. 4 
 
 The Young People's Society, however, which became a sort of 
 model for others was the one which was organized in May, 1877, at 
 Moline, Illinois. This group had the help and encouragement of several 
 faculty members of Augustana College and Theological Seminary, 
 notably, Dr. Olof Olsson, who was made an honorary member of 
 the society. An annual program of activity was launched which in- 
 cluded the establishment of a parish library and financial assistance 
 to the local congregation and Augustana College and Seminary. By 
 1890 this society had gathered a library of over five hundred volumes 
 and had raised $3,951.10 for various worthy causes. 5 
 
 The Young People's Society of Andover, Illinois, which was 
 formed July 8, 1880, had the unusual distinction of being the first 
 organization for the youth of the Church which permitted women 
 to become full-fledged members. This memorable bit of history be- 
 comes more easily understood when it is recalled that the moving, 
 guiding spirit behind this Andover enterprise was the dynamic 
 daughter of Dr. Erland Carlsson, pastor of the Andover congregation 
 
 2 Victor E. Beck, "Our Luther League," After Seventy-Five Years, op. tit., pp. 
 255ff. 
 
 3 Articles by John Teleen, Young Lutheran Companion, February 9, March 2, 
 1907. 
 
 4 Martin E. Carlson, Youth March, A History of the Augustana Synod Luther 
 League, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1947, p. 18. Pamphlet entitled Forward in 
 Faith published by Augustana Synod Luther League. 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 20. 
 
Augustana Heritage 208 
 
 at the time. Miss Emmy Carlsson, the directing and organizing genius 
 of the Young People's Society at Andover, made ample room for her- 
 self and her sisters in the affairs of this new organization, and from 
 the very beginning the women were well represented not only in 
 the membership rolls but also in all other phases of activity. Miss 
 Emmy later married Pastor Carl A. Evald, minister of Erland Carlsson's 
 former Immanuel Church in Chicago. Well known throughout the 
 Synod as "Emmy Evald," she became the most distinguished woman 
 in the annals of the Augustana Church as the leader of the Woman's 
 Missionary Society. 6 
 
 With these examples to inspire them, the young people in other 
 congregations throughout the Synod began forming similar organiza- 
 tions. Societies sprang up in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, 
 Pontiac, Rhode Island, Denver, Colorado, Albert City, Iowa, and 
 Geneva, Illinois. But this development met some opposition. There 
 were some among both the clergy and laity in the Synod who looked 
 with distrust and suspicion upon young people's societies. The fear 
 was voiced that such associations might very well develop separatists 
 tendencies and draw the young people away from the church. Further- 
 more, it was possible, said some, that these societies could easily de- 
 generate into mere social clubs to the spiritual detriment of all who 
 belonged to them. 7 In spite of such opposition and discouragement, 
 the youth of the church continued to band together and form their 
 own association. 
 
 The idea of federating the local youth societies into a more com- 
 prehensive organization came from New York City where in 1888, 
 Pastor E. F. Mohldenke, minister of St. Peter's German Lutheran 
 Church, organized the Central Association of Lutheran Young Peo- 
 ple's Associations of the City of New York. The aim and purpose 
 of this association was "to further the growth of the Lutheran Church, 
 enhance the intellectual improvement of its members, and promote 
 a spirit of friendly intercourse among them. 8 To aid in the realization 
 of these aims the Association began the publication of a paper called 
 The Luther League Review, which was the first use of the term Luther 
 League in connection with the youth movement. The idea of strength- 
 ening the cause by federation spread, and in 1893 the New York State 
 Luther League was formed. The regional federations of Luther Leagues 
 
 6 Adolf Hult, Minnesskrift, op. cit, p. 396f. Carlson, op. cit., p. 20f. 
 
 7 S. G. Ohman, "Ungdomsforeningarna i Augustana-synodens forsamlingar," 
 Korsbaneret, 1900, pp. 61ff. 
 
 8 Carlson, op. cit, p. 12. 
 
209 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 suggested a national federation. This final and logical step was taken 
 in 1895 when representatives from twenty states and the District of 
 Columbia met in Pittsburgh and formed the Luther League of America, 
 a national organization which selected Luther's coat of arms as its 
 official emblem and as its motto the phrase, "Of the church, by the 
 church, and for the church." 9 
 
 It was not long before a number of Young People's Societies of 
 the Augustana Synod enrolled as members of the Luther League of 
 America, and thus launched the Luther League idea in the Synod. 
 Soon local societies were beginning to call themselves the Luther 
 League. 10 The period from 1885 to 1890 saw many of the local Luther 
 Leagues banding themselves into District Leagues, and thus paving 
 the way for the formation of the conference Luther Leagues. 
 
 It was the Kansas Conference which took the lead in federating 
 the Luther League within its boundaries into the first Conference 
 Luther League in the Augustana Church. This occurred October 17, 
 1903, in the Trinity Lutheran Church at Topeka, Kansas. Two years 
 later, October, 1905, the Iowa Conference Luther League was formed, 
 followed by Illinois Conference League, 1908, the Nebraska Conference 
 League, 1909, and the California Conference League, 1910 . n 
 
 As the number of conference Luther Leagues increased, the next 
 logical step was the formation of a national federation. At the synodical 
 convention in Stanton, Iowa, 1905, the first tentative steps were 
 taken in this direction, as a committee was selected to draw up plans 
 for such an organization. 12 The committee worked for two years 
 before it felt ready to bring its report to the convention floor of the 
 Synod. 13 At the convention held in New Britain, Connecticut, June 
 13-19, 1907, the committee presented the following recommendations: 
 
 1. That Luther Leagues be organized in all congregations of the 
 Augustana Synod. 
 
 2. That local Luther Leagues be federated into District Leagues, 
 and District Leagues into Conference Leagues in every Con- 
 ference of the Synod. 
 
 9 Ibid., p. 12f. 
 
 10 Adolf Hult, op. cit, p. 407. 
 
 11 Carlson, op. cit., p. 29f. The remaining Conference Luther Leagues were or- 
 ganized in the following order: Minnesota, 1911; New England, 1916; New 
 York, 1920; Superior, 1927; Columbia, 1927; Red River Valley, 1931; Canada, 
 1940. Texas, which in 1903 was a part of the Kansas Conference, dates its 
 conference Luther League from the Topeka meeting in 1903. 
 
 12 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1905, p. 23f. 
 
 13 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1906, p. 148f. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 210 
 
 3. That the Conference Luther Leagues be federated into a 
 synodical League. 
 
 4. That the Synodical Luther League affiliate with the National 
 Luther League of America. 
 
 5. That each Conference recognize the constitutions of the local, 
 district and Conference Luther Leagues, and that the Synod 
 recognize the constitutions of the Conference and synodical 
 Luther Leagues. 
 
 6. That the "Luther League Topics" suggested by the National 
 Luther League of America be followed by the Leagues in the 
 Augustana Church. 14 
 
 But the Synod was not yet ready to give its unqualified endorse- 
 ment to a youth movement about which some people in the Church 
 seemed to have serious reservations. Therefore, for a couple of years 
 the Synod handled the Luther League reports rather gingerly, send- ' 
 ing them back to committee for further study. 15 It was not until 1910 
 that the Synod approved a proposed constitution for a synodical Luther 
 League, and voted to authorize Professor Frank Nelson "to effect the 
 organization of a synodical Luther League and report the matter • 
 to the secretary of the Synod." 16 In accordance with this synodical 
 decision, a convention of Luther League delegates, including eighteen 
 pastors and eighteen laymen from eight states, representing five Con- 
 ferences, assembled in the Swedish Lutheran Bethlehem Church, ; 
 Chicago, December 2-4, 1910, and organized the Luther League of the 
 Augustana Synod. 17 
 
 With the formation of the Synodical Luther League the Augus- 
 tana Church had by no means solved all the problems connected with 
 the spiritual, social, and intellectual needs of youth in relationship 
 with the Church. But the Synod had accommodated and adjusted 
 both its thinking and its institutional structure to include the youth 
 of the Church as a special segment of its population having special 
 needs which demanded particular attention and concern. Thus, by 
 1910 a foundation had been laid for a specialized ministry to youth; 
 upon that foundation the Augustana Church would be enabled to build 
 a strong and effective program of education, service, and recruit- 
 ment related to its youth. 
 
 14 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1907, pp. 15 Iff. 
 
 ™ Referat, Augustana Synod, 1908, pp. 159ff.; 1909, p. 149. 
 
 16 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1910, pp. 199ff. 
 
 17 Carlson, op. cit., p. 49f. 
 
211 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 The Recruitment of Women 
 
 While the youth of the Church were creating an agency through 
 which they might more adequately express themselves, the women 
 of the Church were beginning to think along the same lines. Need- 
 less to say, women have always been active in the work of God's 
 kingdom, and there is no period in the annals of Augustana when 
 this is not true. From the earliest pioneer days, the wives and mothers 
 of the immigrants were in the forefront of the work of the Church, 
 quietly undergirding the cause of Christ by their prayers, toil, and 
 sacrificial giving. 18 It seems to have been taken for granted that when- 
 ever some need or problem arose in a congregation, the women would 
 be there to apply themselves to its solution by whatever manner 
 and means the circumstances called for. But there was no attempt 
 to organize the women, to direct their energies and interest toward 
 specific goals and purposes. After the passing of the pioneer period, 
 however, with its grinding poverty and back-breaking toil, and the 
 coming of better times and a rising standard of living, the women 
 of the church began to sense the need for some more specific means 
 of expressing their Christian faith and concern, and for an appropriate 
 outlet for their Christian energy and interest. All that was needed 
 was a leader with vision, enthusiasm, and courage. Such a person 
 was Emmy Evald, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Erland Carlsson, and 
 wife of Carl A. Evald, pastor of the Immanuel Church, Chicago. 
 
 Here was a remarkable woman. Early in life she seems to have 
 come to the conviction that the most appropriate outlet for the 
 feminine energies in the Synod, and the most timely and worthy goal 
 for women's interest and labor, was Christian missions. Thus, a 
 women's missionary agency in the Church would constitute not only 
 a great religious resource, but also a most suitable medium through 
 which the women of the Church could express their Christian faith 
 and love. Accordingly, she organized one adult and two junior mis- 
 sionary groups in the Immanuel congregation. 19 The success of this 
 local endeavor convinced her of the feasibility of a synod-wide agency 
 which would enlist the combined strength of the women of the Church 
 on behalf of missions. 
 
 The first tentative plans were laid by Mrs. Evald and a few close 
 friends at the synodical convention in 1891. The following year, June 
 
 18 Charlotte Odman, "Noble Women Stood Behind Them," Lutheran Companion, 
 June 1, 1960, pp. 29ff. 
 
 19 Emmy Evald, "Remember How God Led Us Fifty Years," These Fifty Years, 
 1892-1942, Chicago, 1942, p. 5. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 212 
 
 1892, when the Synod assembled at Lindsborg, Kansas, some fifty 
 women from various parts of the Church met in the parsonage of Dr. 
 and Mrs. C. A. Swensson, and under Mrs. Evald's leadership organ- 
 ized the Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society of the Augus- 
 tana Synod, with the following officers, president, Mrs. Emmy Evald, 
 Chicago, Illinois; recording secretary, Mrs. Alma Swensson, Linds- 
 borg, Kansas; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Maria Enstam, New Haven, 
 Connecticut; treasurer, Mrs. Ida Sannquist, Lindsborg, Kansas. The 
 charter membership roll numbered forty-eight women, representing 
 virtually every section of the Synod. 20 This new society adopted the 
 following resolutions: 
 
 1. That present organizations of women within our congregations 
 be urged to join this society and to send their contributions 
 to our treasurer and that congregations that lack societies be 
 urged to organize such. 
 
 2. That a vice-president be appointed in each conference to work 
 for the success of the cause within her territory. 
 
 3. That the vice-president request the president of each mission 
 district of the Synod to appoint a woman for the special pur- 
 pose of working for the society's welfare. 
 
 4. That every person that gives fifty cents or more annually be- 
 comes a member of the society. 
 
 5. That the officers form a committee to arrange next year's 
 meeting. 21 
 
 These resolutions were presented to the synodical convention with 
 a request that they be approved. The Synod responded as follows: 
 
 Since missions is the greatest and most important activity of 
 the church of Christ, and since we as Lutheran Christians, in grate- 
 ful acknowledgement of the abundant grace that God has shown 
 us as individuals and as a church, feel it to be our duty, in every 
 way possible, to take part in the work of missions, and since the 
 needs on the home and foreign fields are so great that we must 
 make use of all our resources to fill them; and since the women 
 have always taken an active part in extending the Kingdom of 
 Christ; and since at this meeting, 50 women, from widely scat- 
 tered places in our church, have gathered and in prayer to God 
 unanimously decided to establish an Evangelical Lutheran Wo- 
 man's Society which has as the object of its activity the further- 
 ing of our home and foreign mission work; 
 
 20 Emmy Evald, "History of the Woman's Missionary Society," Survey of 
 Thirty-five Years Activities, Woman's Missionary Society Augustana Luther- 
 an Church, America, Chicago, 1927, pp. 3ff. 
 
 21 Historical Document, Minutes of the Organization Meeting of The Woman's 
 Missionary Society of Augustana Synod, These Fifty Years, op. cit., p. 21. 
 
 
213 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 Therefore be it resolved: 
 
 1. That the Synod express its joy over this society and grants 
 to it its undivided approval; 
 
 2. That the Synod commends it to its pastors and congregations 
 for the receiving of all encouragement and support that is 
 due it. 22 
 
 With synodical approval to give it prestige and standing throughout 
 the Church, the Woman's Missionary Society now set out to write 
 one of the greatest success stories in the history of the Augustana 
 Church. No agency of the Synod, indeed, not even the Synod itself, 
 was more ably organized or competently managed than the Woman's 
 Missionary Society. But beyond its organizational efficiency, the 
 Society, in contrast to some other agencies of the Synod, had a crystal- 
 clear conception of its purpose; it knew why it existed, its raison d'etre 
 was unambiguous. This important fact gave the Society both cohesive- 
 ness and drive. It fostered a keen self-consciousness, a powerful sense 
 of mission, and put meaning and direction into every phase of its 
 activity. With remarkable ingenuity and imaginative resourcefulness 
 it set out to recruit members, raise money, and formulate a multi- 
 pronged program of service. By 1895 a sum of $6,000 had been raised 
 for home and foreign missions, and the membership numbered ap- 
 proximately two hundred. 23 A decade later, in 1906, the first issue 
 of Mission Tidings came off the press. It indicated that the member- 
 ship had reached more than five hundred, and a resume of the treas- 
 urer's reports indicated clearly the magnitude and increasing scope 
 of the Society's activities since its inception in 1892. 
 
 Home Mission contribution $ 9,000.00 
 
 Utah Mission 700.00 
 
 Jewish Mission 200.00 
 
 Immigrant Mission 150.00 
 
 Puerto Rico Mission 1,500.00 
 
 Conference Mission 400.00 
 
 Foreign Mission 4,500.00 
 
 Famine Relief, India 1,500.00 
 
 Hospital Site, India 2,000.00 
 
 Hospital Fund, India 4,000.00 
 
 Betty Nilsson, (Medical tuition) 300.00 
 
 Grand Total Contributions $ 24,250.00 24 
 
 22 Ibid., p. 21. 
 
 23 Augustana- synodens kvinnornas hem- och hednamissionsforenings siljver 
 jubileum, Kalevder V, p. 30. 
 
 2 * These Fifty Years, op. tit., p. 28. 
 
Augustana Heritage 214 
 
 When the Society celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1917, 
 its membership had reached 14,000. It was supporting and maintain- 
 ing doctors, teachers, missionaries, nurses, and evangelists on far-flung 
 mission fields; boys and girls in China, India, and Puerto Rico were 
 attending school on scholarships supplied by the Society. Hospitals 
 and dispensaries had been built and were maintained in Rajahmundry, 
 India, and Honanfu, China. An expanded program of activities was 
 being planned for the near future which included a new high school 
 for girls in China, a home for widows, a hospice for women evangel- 
 ists, a dispensary, and a chapel, all for India. And within a few years 
 the Society would encourage the Augustana Church to begin its own 
 work in Africa. 25 A summary statement of projects and contributions 
 covering the twenty-five years since its inception was rendered at 
 the Jubilee convention of the Society giving an indication of the far- 
 ranging program and the substantial support it received: 
 
 Contributions to Home Missions $ 65,294.09 
 
 Contributions to India Missions 46,908.47 
 
 Contributions to China Mission 17,700.75 
 
 Contributions to Puerto Rico, Mission 10,625.15 
 
 Contributions to Inner Mission 4,427.45 
 
 Contributions to Africa, Jewish, Persian Missions. . . . 761.17 
 
 Patron and Protege Program 3,290.44 
 
 Miscellaneous Contributions 175.22 
 
 Promotion of Missions 17,077.36 
 
 Grand Total Contributions $166,260.10 
 
 Cash on Hand 26,022.06 
 
 Total $192,282.16 26 
 
 Although the Woman's Missionary Society was the largest and most 
 extensive undertaking of the women of the Augustana Church, it was, 
 
 
 25 The long- delayed decision which the Augustana Church finally made in 1905 
 to find its own field in China was indubitably due in no small part to the hope 
 and expectation that the Woman's Missionary Society would undergird the 
 work there with its powerful resources. And again, in 1917, when the Synod 
 decided to begin its own program in Africa, this decision was supported by 
 the knowledge that much help and encouragement would be forthcoming 
 from the women of the Church. In these expectations the Church was not 
 disappointed, for though the Woman's Missionary Society insisted at all 
 times on running its own business in its own way and expected synodical au- 
 thorities to keep hands off, the Society proved to be an indispensable helper 
 wherever the needs of missions, at home or abroad, were voiced. See S. G. 
 Hagglund, "The Woman's Missionary Society," After Seventy-five Years, 
 op. cit., pp. 226ff. O. J. Johnson, "Our Missions Abroad," Ibid., pp. 199ff. 
 See also Swanson, Foundation for Tomorrow, op. cit. 
 
 26 Silfver jubileum, Kalender V, op. cit., p. 15. 
 
215 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 nevertheless, not the only means through which Augustana women 
 sought to express their faith and serve their church. They also re- 
 sponded to the call and challenge of the jemale diaconate. 
 
 It was the Rev. Erik Alfred Fogelstrom, pastor of the Immanuel 
 Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska for many years, whom God 
 used to issue the invitation to women to enroll in the Lutheran diaco- 
 nate. Inspired by the examples of Theodore Fliedner, who had estab- 
 lished a training center for the Christian diaconate at Kaiserswerth, 
 Germany, and W. A. Passavant, who had brought the diaconate to the 
 German churches of America, Fogelstrom came to feel that God was 
 calling him to pioneer a similar work in the Augustana Church. This 
 vision became Fogelstrom's "grand obsession," and he exerted every 
 energy to realize this goal. 27 
 
 While the diaconate is more than a nursing service, a hospital 
 furnishes the most appropriate context for its functioning, and there- 
 fore Fogelstrom was determined that a hospital must be founded as 
 a base of operations for the diaconate. Accordingly, he organized, in 
 January 1889, The Evangelical Immanuel Association jor Works of 
 Mercy with a board of trustees composed of wealthy citizens of Omaha 
 who were interested in providing the city with a Protestant hospital 
 since the one existing hospital in Omaha belonged to the Roman 
 Catholic Church. 28 Fogelstrom promised the Association that when a 
 hospital would be built, there would be deaconesses on hand to serve 
 the sick. A sum of $25,000 was soon subscribed locally, and plans for 
 the new hospital were being drawn; but how would Fogelstrom re- 
 deem his promise regarding deaconesses? Where were they to be 
 had? As if in direct answer to Fogelstrom's prayers, a young woman 
 from his own Immanuel congregation, Bothilda Swensson, volunteered 
 to enter the diaconate. In 1887 she was sent to the deaconess training 
 center in Philadelphia, and in 1889 went to Sweden to complete her 
 course of study. On April 19, 1891, having returned to Omaha, Bot- 
 hilda Swensson was consecrated as the first deaconess in the Augus- 
 tana Church. During the summer of 1888 four additional young wo- 
 men applied for entrance and were sent to Philadelphia to begin their 
 studies. 29 
 
 Pastor Fogelstrom had entertained the fervent hope that the 
 Augustana Synod would take over the diaconate project, as well as 
 
 27 E. A. Fogelstrom, "Historik over Immanuel Hospital and Deaconess Institute, 
 fran dess forsta borjan," Dorkas, 1893, pp. 83ff. 
 
 28 F. N. Swanberg, "Pastor Erik Alfred Fogelstrom," Korsbaneret, 1911, p. 136. 
 
 29 Fogelstrom, op. cit., p. 91. 
 
Augustana Heritage 216 
 
 the hospital. To this end he reported his activities to the synodical 
 convention at Jamestown, New York, in 1890. To Fogelstrom's report 
 the Synod gave the following response: 
 
 Because of our extensive missionary obligations, our sacrifices 
 for our schools, colleges, children's homes, and other charitable 
 institutions, the Augustana Synod cannot undertake the new 
 enterprise of the diaconate. Nevertheless the Synod rejoices that 
 Pastor Fogelstrom has initiated the diaconate in Omaha, Nebras- 
 ka, and bespeaks upon this project the blessing of God. 
 Resolved, That the Synod shall elect a committee of five to co- 
 operate with Pastor Fogelstrom in organizing the work of the 
 diaconate. 30 
 
 Though the Synod had not adopted his project, it had encouraged 
 the work, even though there were some who had vigorously opposed 
 the entire venture. 31 Encouraged by his friends and supporters, Fogel- 
 strom pushed ahead; a sizable plot of ground was purchased for $8,000 
 in the northwest section of Omaha, and the hospital building was soon 
 under construction. On December 20, 1890, the Immanuel Hospital 
 in Omaha, the headquarters of the diaconate in the Augustana Church, 
 opened its doors. 32 
 
 Adjacent to the hospital a home for deaconesses was erected in 
 1891, and in April 1892, The Immanuel Deaconess Association was 
 formed, the purpose of which was to "foster, train and send out dea- 
 conesses," and to promote the cause of the diaconate by enlisting 
 interest and support. 33 The same year, a request for deaconess help 
 came from the Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. Sister Fredina 
 Peterson was sent to St. Paul to head the nursing program on the 
 condition that her relationship with the Mother House be kept in- 
 violate. 34 Other "stations" served by the deaconesses, such as congre- 
 gations and charitable institutions throughout the Church, were added 
 to the list of beneficiaries of the Mother House in Omaha. Thus grad- 
 ually the diaconate became known in the Augustana Church, and the 
 sisters in their trim uniforms no longer created quite as great a stir 
 of wonderment wherever they appeared. 35 In the meantime, the work 
 at Bethesda Hospital, St. Paul, and the demand for more deaconess 
 help grew to such proportions that Omaha could not supply the de- 
 
 
 30 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1890, p. 26f., Resolution 8. 
 
 31 Fogelstrom, op. tit., p. 92. 
 
 32 Ibid., p. 95f. 
 
 33 Ibid., p. 107f ; p. 119f . 
 
 34 Ibid., p. 116f. 
 
 35 P. M. Lindberg, "Augustana-synodens diakonissanstalter och sjukhus," Min*- 
 nesskrift, op. tit, p. 238f. 
 
217 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 mand. Thus, the Minnesota Conference decided in 1902 to establish 
 at Bethesda Hospital a second deaconess training center within the 
 Augustana Church, in the hope that more young women in the Minne- 
 sota area could then be recruited for this vital service. 36 Therefore, 
 while the Minnesota Conference took over the diaconate in Minnesota, 
 the work in Omaha continued to be the private enterprise of Fogel- 
 strdm, with most of the cares and problems resting on his shoulders. 
 
 In the continuing hope that the Synod could be persuaded to adopt 
 the whole program at Omaha, Fogelstrom repeatedly offered to turn 
 the entire project over to the Church, if the Synod would guarantee 
 its continuance. Year after year, however, the Synod rejected the offer 
 with thanks to Fogelstrom for his work. 37 Finally, in 1903, after a 
 lengthy study had been given to the entire matter, the Synod voted 
 to accept the Omaha institution, and with it the diaconate program. 38 
 The following year at the Lindsborg convention Articles of Incor- 
 poration of the Immanuel Deaconess Institute and a Constitution for 
 Immanuel Deaconess Institute were adopted. 39 Thus after fourteen 
 years the diaconate finally came under the jurisdiction of the Augus- 
 tana Synod, and was henceforth officially recognized as part of the 
 program of the whole Synod. When the Augustana Church celebrated 
 its Golden Jubilee in 1910, the deaconess corps at Omaha numbered 
 forty-three members, while a total of twenty-four were enrolled in 
 the corps at St. Paul. 40 
 
 Although the number of deaconesses was never large — not nearly 
 enough to satisfy the demand for their services — this corps of dedicated, 
 unsalaried women made possible the establishment and maintenance of 
 the greatest single institution of mercy in the Augustana Church, the 
 Deaconess Institute at Omaha, with its hospital, its children's, invalid 
 and old folks' homes. Moreover, they served in the letter and spirit 
 of the constitution which denned a deaconess as "a servant of the 
 Christian Church through tending and caring for the sick, the indigent, 
 the imprisoned, and the little children. In this calling she is a servant 
 of the Lord, and for His sake, a servant of the helpless, and of her 
 fellow sisters in love." 41 
 
 ™ Ibid., pp. 241ff. 
 
 37 Fogelstrom's repeated appeals to Synod are recorded in the synodical min- 
 utes: 1894, p. 82f.; 1896, p. 67f.; 1901, p. 138f.; 1902, pp. 128ff. f and 1903, pp. 
 97ff. 
 
 38 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1903, pp. 97ff. 
 
 39 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1904, pp. 95ff. 
 
 40 Lindberg, op. cit., pp. 238, 244. 
 
 41 Constitution, Article VIII, Referat, Augustana Synod, 1904, p. 115. For a 
 brief but excellent sketch covering the first fifty years of activity in the work 
 
Augustana Heritage 218 
 
 Reorganization of the Pension and Aid Fund 
 
 In 1865 the first death of an Augustana pastor, J. P. C. Boreen, 
 occurred. This event confronted the Synod for the first time with 
 the problem of providing a measure of relief for the survivors of a 
 deceased pastor, whose small salary was inadequate to insure their 
 future security. 42 A committee was chosen to formulate recommenda- 
 tions for the establishment of a synodical aid fund for pastor's widows. 43 
 It was two years before the committee was ready to submit recom- 
 mendations to the Synod. When it reported in 1867, the committee 
 suggested that each pastor in the Synod should contribute one per 
 cent of his salary to the fund, and congregations should give what 
 they were able each year. 44 At the convention in Moline, Illinois, 
 1869, the Synod voted to add the aged and disabled pastors as bene- 
 ficiaries of the program. 45 
 
 Thus, from the earliest years, the Augustana Church sought to 
 provide a measure of aid to needy pastors' families. The affairs of the 
 aid program were in a precarious state during these early years. In- 
 deed, so little interest and support was given to it that in 1875 the 
 Synod voted to wash its hands of the whole business, and turn the 
 responsibility of caring for needy pastors' families over to the several 
 conferences. 46 This unfortunate decision was revoked in 1878, when 
 the Synod again assumed the responsibility for the aid program. 47 
 
 Though several attempts were made to place the pension and aid 
 
 of the Augustana diaconate, see Daniel Nystrom, "Augustana's Kaiserswerth," 
 My Church, 1936, pp. 43-62. The recruitment of deaconess candidates has con- 
 tinually been a major problem. During the entire history of the movement 
 in the Augustana Church, the average enrollment of new candidates has only 
 been 3.4 a year. See Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1958, p. 282. The difficulty 
 of recruitment, coupled with the rapid rise in the cost of deaconess training 
 and the expanding opportunities for the employment of women in other areas 
 of activity, has contributed in the past thirty years to a steady decline in the 
 Augustana diaconate. In 1930 the Bethesda Deaconess Home in St. Paul was 
 discontinued and the half dozen remaining deaconesses transferred to Omaha. 
 From that time the two remaining deaconess organizations have both been 
 located in Nebraska, one at Axtell, in connection with Bethphage Mission, 
 the other at Omaha. In the light of current developments in the Church, 
 the Synod adopted in 1958 the recommendations of a special study com- 
 mittee which provided for a drastic revision of the deaconess program, dis- 
 continuing the "motherhouse system," and broadening the concept of the 
 diaconate to include both male and female church vocations. The report is 
 given in Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1958, pp. 279-300. 
 
 42 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1865, p. 5. 
 
 « Ibid., p. 13. 
 
 44 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1867, p. 12. 
 
 45 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1869, p. 41. 
 
 46 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1875, p. 32. 
 4 " Protokoll, 1878, p. 38. 
 
219 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 on a sound footing, it was not until 1892 that a thorough overhauling 
 of the entire project was finally undertaken. At the convention at 
 Lindsborg, Kansas, 1892, new rules for the administration of this 
 agency were adopted which provided that each pastor was to con- 
 tribute one fourth of one per cent of his salary annually. Each con- 
 gregation was to receive an annual offering for the fund. At the death 
 of any pastor, all other pastors were to contribute one fourth of one 
 per cent of their salaries and each congregation was to receive a 
 special offering. The new rules stipulated that each pastor must fulfill 
 his obligation to the fund, if he or his survivors were to benefit. The 
 benefits were to be $5.00 per week to disabled pastors, $2.50 per week 
 to pastors' widows, and $1.00 per week for the support of each minor 
 child under sixteen years of age. No family was to receive more than 
 $7.50 per week. If a widow remarried, she was to receive no more aid. 
 And aid was to be given only where real need existed. 48 
 
 On the basis of several years' experience, the rules of 1892 were 
 revised in 1898 to provide that each pastor was to contribute an 
 annual sum of $5.00, and at the death of any pastor, all other pastors 
 were to contribute $1.50 as a death benefit to the widow. 49 In 1900 
 the agency was incorporated as The Augustana Ministerial Aid Fund, 
 and the rules and by-laws of the Fund were translated into English in 
 1913. 50 
 
 In order to strengthen this important agency and give it greater 
 financial stability, the Synod at its Minneapolis convention in 1915, 
 passed the following resolution: 
 
 That the Synod adopt as its goal for the next five years an in- 
 gathering for the Pension and Aid Fund, and that a committee 
 of laymen be elected to supervise this ingathering; that the several 
 conferences of the Augustana Synod be instructed to elect one 
 layman for every two thousand communicant members as a mem- 
 ber of the layman's committee to raise $500,000 for the Ministerial 
 Pension and Aid Fund, and that the committee be authorized to 
 elect ten members at large. 51 
 
 The laymen of the church took up this challenge and labored at the 
 project until 1922 when they reported to Synod that the half -million 
 dollars had been raised and the full amount handed over to the Board 
 of the Pension Fund. 52 
 
 48 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1892, pp. 75ff. 
 iQ Referat, Augustana Synod, 1898, p. 81. 
 
 50 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1900, p. 63f.; 1913, p. 133f. 
 
 51 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1915, p. 150. 
 
 52 Titus A. Conrad, "The Augustana Pension and Aid Fund," After Seventy- 
 Five Years, 1860-1935, op. cit, pp. 177ff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 220 
 
 Quite as significant as the huge sum of money which was gathered 
 for the Pension Fund was the effect which this common effort had 
 upon the laymen of the Augustana Church. Working together for a 
 great common purpose, the laymen from various sections of the Church 
 discovered a new unity as they were drawn together in this labor 
 for the Church. This fact suggested to them the value of forming a 
 permanent men's organization within the Augustana Church through 
 which the men might express themselves and in unity serve the 
 Christian cause. The initiative seems to have been taken by the men 
 of the Iowa Conference where, in the spring of 1919, the Augustana 
 Lutheran Brotherhood of the Iowa Conference was organized. This 
 group petitioned the Synod that year to take action looking toward 
 the formation of a synod-wide men's organization. The Synod respond- 
 ed by adopting a resolution declaring that 
 
 The Augustana Synod favors the organization of a synodical 
 Brotherhood and that a committee be appointed to initiate and 
 work out plans for such an organization and that the president 
 of the Synod be ex-officio a member of the committee. 53 
 
 It took three years, however, before plans were perfected for the 
 establishment of a Synodical Brotherhood. At the convention in St. 
 Paul, Minnesota, 1922, the committee recommended that the Synod 
 sanction the forming of a national men's organization. To this recom- 
 mendation the Synod acceded and resolved that "the Synod, advises 
 the organization of a Brotherhood and also approves the proposed 
 constitution." 54 An organization committee was elected, composed of 
 representatives from each Conference, which met at once and effected 
 a Brotherhood organization with a full staff of officers. 55 
 
 Thus, the numerous local and several conference men's organiza- 
 tions throughout the Augustana Church were federated into a larger, 
 more purposeful unity. The goals for which the new agency was to 
 strive were set forth in Article II of the Brotherhood constitution, 
 declaring that it was the purpose of this organization to promote: 
 
 1. The unity of the men of the Augustana Synod. 
 
 2. The spiritual and material welfare and activities of the Augus- 
 tana Synod. 
 
 3. An appreciation of the privileges and obligations of church 
 membership. 
 
 53 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1919, p. 155. 
 
 54 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1922, pp. 190ff. 
 
 55 John A. Christianson, "The Augustana Brotherhood," After Seventy-Five 
 Years, 1860-1935, op. cit, pp. 244ff. 
 
221 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 4. A clear conception of Christian stewardship. 
 
 5. Efforts to interest and support young men in the preparation 
 for the office of the Holy Ministry, and to sustain the pastor 
 in carrying on his work. 
 
 6. The development of the educational and charitable institu- 
 tion within the Augustana Synod. 
 
 7. The affiliation when desirable with other Lutheran organiza- 
 tions in furthering projects of common interest to the Lu- 
 theran Church at large. 
 
 8. Such other undertakings as may from time to time be sponsored 
 by the Augustana Synod. 56 
 
 The formation of the Brotherhood may be said to have marked the 
 last and somewhat tardy stages of the period of transition and adjust- 
 ment. By the time the Brotherhood came into being the major need 
 was not new service agencies in the church, but new and more ade- 
 quate ways and means of applying the resources of the various reli- 
 gious agencies to the burgeoning needs of a new era. Nevertheless, 
 the formation of the Brotherhood completed an important phase of 
 development in the Augustana Church. Henceforth, all of the con- 
 stituent elements of the Synod, men, women and youth, would be 
 enabled to witness and serve through the medium of their own par- 
 ticular agency. 
 
 The Role of the Augustana Layman 
 
 The activity of the Augustana layman in connection with the 
 financial campaign for the Pension Fund is symbolic of the important 
 part which laymen have taken in the affairs of the Augustana Church 
 from the very beginning. To be sure, the story of Augustana cannot 
 be identified or interpreted primarily as a lay movement; the reins 
 of leadership since the early days of Esbjorn and Hasselquist have 
 been firmly held by the clergy. Nevertheless, in every period of its 
 development the Augustana Church has been enriched and strength- 
 ened through the service rendered by laymen. 
 
 In the pioneer period the initiative in getting religious work 
 started and congregations organized in the scattered settlements was 
 often taken by laymen. The reports of the traveling missionaries sent 
 out by the Synod testify to the encouragement and invaluable help 
 which was given by these pious lay folk who hungered for the Bread 
 of Life. Indeed, it may be said that virtually every congregation in 
 
 Ibid., p. 251. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 222 
 
 the Augustana Church records the all-but-forgotten names of lay 
 folk whose unselfish devotion and sacrificial spirit were the earthly 
 means through which God worked to establish his Church in that 
 community. 
 
 Laymen have not only served as ministerial helpers, however. They 
 have often been licensed by the Synod as preachers and evangelists 
 with quasiministerial standing. While the Augustana Church has not 
 made use of lay preachers to the extent that some other church bodies 
 have, and while the Augustana clergy has traditionally exercised care- 
 ful supervision over this practice, the Synod has utilized lay preachers 
 throughout its history simply to meet a very real need. For the lay 
 preacher may be said to symbolize two important aspects of Augus- 
 tana history, namely, the perennial shortage of ordained men, and 
 the readiness of laymen to serve their church. 
 
 The Synod, to be sure, sought until 1932 to relieve the pressure of 
 ministerial shortage by permitting older and more mature men to 
 register at the Seminary for a so-called "minimum course" and to be 
 subsequently ordained as "hospitants." But even so the Synod found 
 it necessary to call upon laymen for help and send them forth with a 
 license to preach and teach. 57 
 
 Though the use of lay preachers, and indeed, the ordination of 
 "hospitants," were looked upon as "emergency measures," the Synod 
 chose this course of action in preference to ignoring the religious 
 plight of congregations which could not obtain ministerial help. A 
 considerable number of Augustana congregations owe their very exis- 
 tence to the humble ministry of lay preachers who served the Church 
 often for meager remuneration and under difficult circumstances. 
 
 In the general work of the Church lay participation has also pre- 
 vailed from the very beginning. The polity of the Augustana Church 
 and its conferences, as delineated in the various constitutions under 
 which the Synod has functioned, has provided for equal lay and 
 clerical representation. 58 This means that in the affairs of the Augus- 
 tana Church and its conferences, at the annual conventions, on official 
 boards, commissions and committees, the laity of the Church has had 
 a voice in establishing policy and in developing and implementing 
 
 57 See Arden, School of the Prophets, op. cit., 192ff. The "minimum course" 
 did not require graduation from college as a seminary entrance requirement, 
 and also omitted courses in Greek and Hebrew. "Hospitants" were those who 
 fulfilled only the minimum requirements for seminary graduation and ordi- 
 nation. 
 
 58 See Constitutions, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1860, p. 16f.; 1879, p. 60f.; 1894, 
 p. 82f.; 1921, p. 153f.; 1948, p. 356f. 
 
223 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 programs of activity. The four service agencies in which laymen have 
 been particularly active have been Augustana Churchmen, Steward- 
 ship and Finance, Audio- Visual, and Church Architecture. 59 
 
 In no single area of the church's life have laymen had a greater 
 share or rendered a more significant service than in the field of 
 Christian higher education. Except for the dedicated services of devoted 
 laymen not a single educational institution under Augustana sponsor- 
 ship would have been possible. In addition to all the unknown lay 
 folk who have contributed generously, and often sacrificially, to found 
 and maintain the church-related colleges, Augustana gratefully recalls 
 the names of many outstanding lay people who served as faculty, staff 
 and board members. The honor roll of Augustana College would in- 
 clude the names of A. O. Bersell, A. W. Williamson, Joshua Lindahl, 
 J. A. Udden, C. L. Esbjorn, Andrew Kempe, Olof Grafstrom, Edla 
 Lund, W. E. Cederberg, I. M. Anderson, Claude W. Foss, J. P. Mag- 
 nusson, Carl Fryxell, Linus Kling, and Mrs. K. T. Anderson. 60 The 
 honor roll of Gustavus Adolphus College would bear the names of 
 Edwin J. Vickner, E. C. Carlton, Conrad Peterson, Inez Rundstrom, 
 J. A. Edquist and C. E. Sjostrand as outstanding faculty and staff 
 members, while honored board members would include Henry M. 
 Benson, Sr., Roy A. Hendrickson, H. P. Linner, and Carl Jackson. 
 On the roll of honor of Bethany College the following names would 
 be inscribed, Hagbard Brase, Birger Sandzen, Walter Fahrer, Anna 
 Carlson, Emil A. Deere and J. E. Wallin. 61 The honor roll of Upsala 
 College would enshrine the names of Frans A. Erickson and Karl J. 
 Olson as outstanding faculty and staff members, while a list of note- 
 worthy board members would include the names of Clarence J. Ander- 
 son and Dr. Roy W. Johnson. The honor roll of Luther College, Wahoo, 
 
 59 Significant leadership has been given to the Augustana Churchmen, former- 
 ly knowns as the Augustana Brotherhood, by Judge Eskil C. Carlson, Mr. 
 John A. Christianson, Dr. J. A. Christenson, Mr. Arthur E. Wanfelt, Mr. N. 
 A. Nelson, and Mr. K. T. Anderson. Mr. Carl H. Jacobson was executive 
 secretary of Augustana Lutheran Churchmen from 1957 to 1962. In the De- 
 partment of Stewardship and Finance, Mr. Otto Leonardson began his serv- 
 ices as a staff member in 1928, and Mr. Sam Edwins in 1955. Mr. Bruce Sif- 
 ford, his son Roger, and Mr. Paul Wychor have staffed the Department of 
 Audio-Visual Service for most of its fifteen-year history. The Department of 
 Church Architecture and Building Finance has been ably served by Mr. E. F. 
 MacMillen, Mr. Gordon Storaasli and Mr. Milton A. Hallet. 
 
 60 Dr. Gustav Andreen, who succeeded Dr. Olof Olsson as president of Augus- 
 tana College and Theological eminary, served in that capacity as a layman 
 from 1901 to 1905. He was ordained in 1905. In 1962 a layman, Clarence 
 Woodrow Sorensen, was called to succeed The Rev. Conrad Bergendoff as 
 president of Augustana College. 
 
 61 Two laymen, Emory K. Lindquist and Robert Mortvedt, have occupied the 
 president's office at Bethany in recent years. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 224 
 
 Nebraska, would record the names of S. M. Hill, ordained in 1917, 
 after many years as a lay preacher, Julius and Augusta Flodman, N. 
 P. Hult, John Erickson and S. O. Johnson. These members of Augus- 
 tana laity, and others like them, have made Augustana higher edu- 
 cation possible. 
 
 Closely related to education has been the "Boys' Work Program," 
 which was initiated by laymen and sponsored by the synodical men's 
 organization, the Augustana Brotherhood and Churchmen. In 1926 
 the Brotherhood selected one of its most able members, Mr. Eskil C. 
 Carlson, an attorney and former municipal judge of Des Moines, 
 Iowa, to work out a program which the Brotherhood could sponsor 
 on behalf of boys. 62 To help him in this assignment Mr. Carlson chose 
 a committee of two laymen, Mr. Oscar W. Sjogren, professor at the 
 University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and Mr. C. W. Erlandson, secretary 
 of the Y.M.C.A. at St. Paul, Minnesota, and two pastors, Rev. Joshua 
 Oden of Chicago and Rev. Victor E. Beck of Fort Dodge, Iowa. 63 This 
 committee drew up a plan called "The Christian Citizenship Program," 
 based upon a similar program of the Y.M.C.A. The plan provided for 
 a three-fold division of activities according to age groups. "The Friend- 
 ly Indians" was geared to boys under 12 years of age; "Pioneers" was 
 meant for boys between the ages of 12 to 15 years, and "Comrades" 
 for youth 15 to 18 years of age. The purpose of this threefold pro- 
 gram was to provide wholesome, character-building activity for boys, 
 supervised and controlled by the church, and directed toward defin- 
 itely Christian goals and values. 64 
 
 The Augustana Brotherhood approved "The Christian Citizen- 
 ship Program" and pledged moral and financial backing. Local brother- 
 hoods were urged to organize a Boys' Program in their own parish, 
 and for a while enthusiasm ran high in favor of this kind of boys' 
 activity, with a number of local chapters being started. On the whole, 
 however, "The Christian Citizenship Program" cannot be said to have 
 received universal acceptance throughout the Augustana Church. In- 
 stead, the Boy Scout program, with a strong church orientation, began 
 about 1930 to find increasing favor among Augustana congregations. 
 Since the Brotherhood and its Boys' Committee were interested in 
 promoting any constructive, church-centered activity for boys which 
 
 62 See letter from Carlson to Pastor Victor E. Beck, July 12, 1926, File on Boys' 
 Work, Library of Dr. Victor E. Beck. 
 
 6 3 See letter to committee, October 25, 1926, File, op. cit. 
 
 64 In an article entitled "A Boys' Program of the Lutheran Brotherhood," which 
 appeared in the Lutheran Companion, October 8, 1932, Judge Carlson de- 
 scribed the activities and purposes of the program. 
 
225 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 found general favor, a gradual transition to the scouting program 
 eventuated. 65 The transition from "The Christian Citizenship Program" 
 to the Boy Scout program was guided and directed by the Boys' 
 Work Committee which prepared suitable program materials and tech- 
 niques for a smooth transition and for a more widespread adoption of 
 the Boy Scout program throughout the Church. By 1940 this program 
 had become the chief boys' program of the Brotherhood and of the 
 Augustana Church. 
 
 Although the work with boys had been initiated by laymen and 
 continued under the sponsorship of the Brotherhood, the clergy of 
 the Augustana Church also gave its co-operation and endorsement. 
 From 1933 to 1940, Dr. Victor E. Beck was chairman of the Boys' 
 Committee, guiding the program in its transition period. Dr. Beck was 
 succeeded by another Augustana clergyman, Pastor Frans A. Victor- 
 son, who headed the work from 1940 until the merger in 1962, and dis- 
 tinguished himself as a leader in the church-related Scouting pro- 
 gram both in his own Church and on the national level. Pastor Victor- 
 son has served as national chaplain at two nation-wide scout Jam- 
 borees, 66 and has prepared program material for the Pro Deo et Patria 
 and Lamb awards. The extent to which the Boys' Work program has 
 been accepted in the Augustana Church is reflected in the fact that 
 by 1960 approximately one out of every three Augustana congrega- 
 tions sponsored a Boy Scout troop, and in the year 1961-1962, the 
 highest award of scouting, Pro Deo et Patria, in recognition of out- 
 standing service to church and high achievement in Sunday school 
 and public school, was granted to 169 sons of Augustana. The Lamb 
 award, given to adults in recognition for outstanding service to youth, 
 was presented to four men. 67 
 
 One of the most significant assignments, however, which the 
 Augustana Church has ever given to its laity was initiated in 1946, 
 when the Synod revised its practice of issuing calls to candidates for 
 ordination. A special Committee on Examination and Placement of 
 Candidates jor Ordination was created that year, composed of the 
 clerical synodical officers, the conference presidents, the theological 
 faculty, and six members-at-large, including three pastors and three 
 laymen elected by the Synod for four-year terms. 68 Since 1946 this 
 
 65 Girl Scouting has also been approved by the church, but has not received 
 as great popular support as the Boy Scout program. 
 
 66 Lutheran Chaplain General in the 1950 Jamboree at Valley Forge, and Prot- 
 estant Chaplain General in 1957 at Valley Forge. 
 
 67 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1962, p. 356. 
 
 68 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1946, p. 338f 
 

 Augustana Heritage 226 
 
 committee has held colloquium with every individual applying for 
 ordination into the Augustana Church, thus carefully screening the 
 applicants for ordination and reception into the Augustana ministerium, 
 and thereupon placing those who are accepted in their first field of 
 service. Not only is this practice an unusual demonstration of demo- 
 cratic procedure in a Church of long ecclesiastical tradition; it is also 
 a dramatic evidence of the important place which the layman has 
 occupied in the Augustana Church, sharing with the ministerium 
 the great responsibility of exercising the prerogative of determining 
 who may be ordained, as well as deciding where each new pastor shall 
 first serve the Church. 
 
 Finally, The Augustana layman has played an important part in 
 the development of an ecumenical mood and spirit within the Synod. 
 Indeed, it may be asserted that the most insistent pressures for Chris- 
 tian unity have come from the laity rather than the clergy of the 
 Synod. As the people of the Augustana Church gradually shed their 
 earlier immigrant spirit and attitudes and integrated with their Amer- 
 ican neighbors in the communities where they lived and worked, they 
 discarded the old spirit of isolation and demanded of their church an 
 increasing measure of community consciousness and leadership. It 
 was the layman, rather than the clergyman, who first became impatient 
 with the extravagance in terms of both men and means which the 
 competitiveness of disunity and isolationism involved. The theological 
 particularism which often seemed important to the theologically trained 
 clergyman, did not appear to be important enough to stand as a barrier 
 to a spirit of mutuality and co-operation in the estimation of the 
 more practical layman. It is important to note that the first constitu- 
 tion adopted by the Augustana Brotherhood in 1922, explicitly stated 
 that one of the fundamental purposes of the synodical organization 
 for men was the promotion of "the affiliation when desirable with other 
 Lutheran organizations in furthering projects of common interest to 
 the Lutheran Church at large." 69 Each time the Synod decided to 
 take steps in the direction of Christian unity and co-operation, it has 
 found its laymen ready to assist and participate. 
 
 At the time of the final consolidation of the Augustana Church 
 into the Lutheran Church in America in 1962, laymen were sub- 
 stantially represented on the various committees and commissions 
 through which the Augustana Church expressed its ecumenical con- 
 cern. Two of the four Augustana councilors in the National Lutheran 
 
 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1926, pp. 281-283, revised edition. 
 
227 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 Council were laymen, one of whom also served as the secretary of 
 the Council and therefore as a member of its executive committee. 70 
 The Commission on Ecumenical Relations, composed of thirteen mem- 
 bers, who also served as the Augustana representative on the Joint 
 Commission on Lutheran Unity, included four laymen. 71 Among the 
 twenty-four members representing the Augustana Church in the Na- 
 tional Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., seven were from 
 the laity. 72 
 
 Thus, it is evident that throughout the history of the Augus- 
 tana Church the layman has been no mere spectator. He has been an 
 active, fully responsible participant in every phase of the work of 
 his Church. He has fully matched the devotion and sacrificial spirit of 
 his pastor, and not infrequently has led the way in bold, imaginative 
 action. Whatever, therefore, may have been the accomplishments of 
 the Augustana Church, pastor and layman share equally the credit. 
 By the same token, equal responsibility must be shared for whatever 
 may have been the failures and shortcomings of Augustana. 
 
 The Jubilee of 1910 
 
 If a single event may be described as a moment of transition, 
 when one era comes to an end and another begins, when one period 
 glides, so to speak, over into a distinctly different epoch, such a mo- 
 ment was the Jubilee of 1910. 
 
 The Augustana Church was fifty years old that year, and the 
 celebration held on the campus of Augustana College and Theological 
 Seminary in Rock Island, Illinois, was in some respects the most un- 
 forgettable event in the history of the Synod. It was unforgettable be- 
 cause the whole mood, while mindful of the past, was so thoroughly 
 forward looking. The dominant keynote might be expressed in the 
 phrase, "The past is prologue." It was unforgettable because the 
 pioneer past with its hardships and sufferings was still near enough 
 at hand to make the contrast with the abundant present dramatically 
 
 70 The laymen were Mr. Harold LeVander, South St. Paul, Minnesota, and Dr. 
 Robert Holmen, St. Paul, Minnesota. Mr. LeVander was secretary of the 
 Council. Augustana Annual, 1962, p. 148. 
 
 71 The laymen on this important commission were, Mr. Wallace Anderson, 
 Cranston, R. I., Dr. Robert Holmen, St. Paul, Minnesota, Dr. C. W. Sorensen, 
 Rock Island, Illinois, and Attorney S. T. Anderson, Denver, Colorado, Ibid, 
 p. 149. 
 
 72 Lay representatives were Mr. Bruce Johnson, Mr. Carl Jacobson, Mr. Sam 
 Edwins, Mr. Carl A. Swenson, Mrs. Bernard Spong, Mrs. Carl W. Seger- 
 hammar and Miss Janice Bowman, Ibid., p. 149. 
 
Augustana Heritage 228 
 
 real. It was unforgettable because the Augustana Synod had not yet 
 learned to take its blessings for granted, but beheld the goodness of 
 God with the starry-eyed wonder of children. 
 
 And what wonders God had wrought in a half century! In 1860 
 the Swedish section of the Augustana Synod had been composed of 
 seventeen pastors and thirty-six congregations with a total member- 
 ship of 3,747. 73 A half century later this mustard seed had grown to a 
 widespread community numbering 625 pastors who served 1,124 con- 
 gregations with a communicant membership of 166,983. The Synod 
 operated ten schools with a total student enrollment of 3,153. It had 
 established and was mamtaining eight children's homes, three hospitals, 
 two deaconess centers, two immigrant homes, five homes for the aged, 
 five hospices for young women, and one inner mission home. A home 
 missions program was being carried out which reached into thirty- 
 one states, Alaska, and three Canadian provinces. A foreign missions 
 enterprise maintained a full score of missionaries in India, China, 
 and Puerto Rico. All of this Christian activity had demanded a financial 
 budget for the previous year of $1,767,204. The Synod had come a 
 long way in fifty years, and the Jubilee was an occasion of joy and 
 thanksgiving. 74 
 
 To seat the 391 clerical and 310 lay delegates registered for the 
 convention, 75 together with the hundreds of visitors who poured into 
 Rock Island by special trains from Minnesota and Kansas, a large, 
 wooden temporary hall had been erected in "Ericson Park," just 
 across Seventh avenue, north of Old Main. In this spacious, oven- 
 like building, with its row upon row of hard, uncomfortable wooden 
 seats, the convention and festival sections were held for ten consec- 
 utive days. The chief host, general handy man, official greeter and 
 genial master of ceremonies, and the man who seemed to be all over 
 the place at once, was the president of Augustana College and Theo- 
 logical Seminary, Dr. Gustav Andreen. Never had Augustana enter- 
 tained a more distinguished company of guests. Most impressive was 
 the short and stocky Bishop of Visby, Commander of the Order of the 
 North Star with the Great Cross, Doctor of Theology, Philosophy, and 
 Jurisprudence, Knut Henning Gezelius von Scheele, representing 
 His Royal Majesty, King Oscar II, and the Church of Sweden; the Very 
 Reverend Pehr Pehrson of Gothenburg, secretary of the Swedish 
 
 73 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1860, Kyrklig statistik. 
 
 74 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1910, Kyrklig statistik, Appendix. 
 
 75 The convention of 1910 allowed plenary representation, one pastor and one 
 layman from each congregation. 
 
229 Marshalling the Resources 
 
 Ministerium and representing the clergy of the Swedish Church; the 
 Rev. Efraim Rang, representing the National Evangelical Foundation 
 (Evangeliska Fosterlandsstiftelsen) ; the Honorable Adolph O. Eber- 
 hart, governor of Minnesota; Dr. Theodore E. Schmauk, President and 
 representative of the General Council; Dr. Henry E. Jacobs, repre- 
 senting the Lutheran Synods of the eastern section of U.S.A.; Dr. J. 
 K. Nikander, President and representative of the Suomi Synod; Dr. 
 H. G. Stub, vice-president and representative of the Norwegian Synod; 
 the Rev. Gerhard Rasmussen, representing the United Norwegian 
 Synod; the Rev. L. Harrisville, representing the Norwegian Hauge 
 Synod; Professor P. S. Vig, representing the Danish Lutheran Church; 
 Dr. F. Richter, President and representative of the German Iowa Synod; 
 Dr. G. Theodore Benze, President of Thiel College and representing 
 the Pittsburgh Synod; the Rev. A. H. Arbaugh, President and repre- 
 sentative of the Chicago Synod; the Rev. Albert J. Reichart, Presi- 
 dent and representative of the Synod of the Northwest, and Dr. W. H. 
 Blancke, representing the General Synod. 76 
 
 Scores of greetings, well-wishes, and felicitations were received 
 from Europe and America, including communications from His Majesty, 
 Oscar II, King of Sweden, and the Honorable William Howard Taft, 
 President of the United States. Virtually all of these greetings took 
 note of the progress of the past and voiced the confident hope that an 
 even greater future lay ahead. This theme of confidence in God's guid- 
 ance in the future ran like a red thread through most of the speeches, 
 sermons, and addresses that were given. 77 
 
 It was apparent, however, that whatever the future might hold, 
 the destinies of the Synod must be given over to younger hands than 
 those which had guided its affairs in the past. In the years immediate- 
 ly preceding the Jubilee a dramatic change in leadership had taken 
 place, as one by one the pioneers had stepped out of the line of march. 
 Dr. Matthias Wahlstrom, president of Gustavus Adolphus College, had 
 retired in 1904; that same year the Synod had been shocked by the 
 sudden and unexpected death of Dr. Carl A. Swensson, president of 
 Bethany College; Dr. L. H. Beck, the founding father of Upsala Col- 
 lege, resigned in 1910; and the untimely passing of the great Olof 
 Olsson in 1900 was still a fresh memory in the minds of many. 
 
 But the Jubilee itself furnished the most dramatic symbol of the 
 passing of the old and the challenge to the young. It happened on the 
 
 ™Referat, Augustana Synod, 1910, guest list, p. 26. 
 
 77 A number of these addresses are given in full in Minnen frdn jubelfesten, 
 1910, Augustana Book Concern, Rock Island, 1910. 
 
Augustana Heritage 230 
 
 evening of the very first day of the Jubilee, the exact anniversary date 
 of the founding of the Synod, June 5. It was Sunday evening and the 
 session was dedicated to "Augustana Pioneers," a service honoring the 
 past. 
 
 In the presence of the vast audience gathered in Jubilee Hall, the 
 oldest members in attendance assembled on the broad platform. Dr. 
 Andreen was in charge of the program and spoke of the sacrificial labors 
 of the founding fathers and mothers. Then Dr. Nils Forsander, the 
 oldest individual to have served as the synodical secretary, arose and 
 called the names of all those who were present at the constituting con- 
 vention a half century earlier, June 5, 1860, in Jefferson Prairie, Wis- 
 consin. The scene that followed has been described by an eye-witness 
 as follows: 
 
 As the great audience sat in breathless silence the roll call 
 began. Name after name was called without a response being 
 heard. It was well-nigh impossible to escape the impression that 
 each name was being borne upward, higher and higher, until 
 it reached another listening multitude — "the great white flock" — 
 and up there a jubilant — but for us unheard — response was given — 
 "Yes! Yes! We are with you!" It is difficult to say which was the 
 more gripping, the silence after each name was called or the 
 three responses — only three — which were given by the sole sur- 
 vivors, Dr. Eric Norelius, Dr. Peters, and Mr. Erlander from 
 Rockford. . . . Then Dr. Norelius, president of the Church and 
 one of the pioneer founders, led the other two forward to the 
 front of the platform, and the entire assembly rose like one man 
 to its feet in a spontaneous gesture of honor and love. And then 
 Dr. Norelius spoke: "Here before you stands what is left of the 
 first Synod. Pastor Peters, he is blind and cannot see any of you 
 in the vast congregation. And here is Mr. Erlander, he is deaf and 
 cannot hear a single word of this great jubilee celebration. And 
 here I stand, apparently well preserved, but aware that the end 
 is not far off." Under the deepest emotion the congregation began 
 to sing the old hymn, 
 
 "The Mountains may fall 
 And the hills be removed 
 But my steadfast love 
 Remaineth forever." 78 
 
 
 78 Gustav Andreen, "Ekon fran jubelfesten," Prairieblomman, 1911, Rock Is- 
 land, pp. 152ff. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Americanization or Augustana 
 
 The Augustana Synod met for its fifty-second annual convention, 
 June 14-20, 1911, in the city of Duluth, Minnesota, and it proved 
 to be a memorable occasion. First of all, Duluth was farther 
 north than any other city in which the Synod had hitherto assem- 
 bled. And the delegates enjoyed the unique experience of bundling 
 up against the chilling breezes blowing off Lake Superior, while 
 reading in the newspapers the reports of stifling heat in Chicago, 
 Omaha, and Lindsborg. Moreover, the delegates would not soon for- 
 get the impressive sight of cargo ships coming in and out of the 
 Great Lakes port of Duluth-Superior, loaded with iron ore from the 
 Mesabi range, and bound for the steel furnaces of Gary and Pitts- 
 burgh. 1 
 
 The experience, however, which most of the delegates would 
 doubtless remember longer and more vividly than any other occurred 
 on the afternoon of the first day of the business sessions. It was the 
 moment, following the election of new synodical officers, when the 
 venerable Dr. Eric Norelius, president of the Synod since 1899, and 
 now at the age of seventy-eight, the last living link with the pio- 
 neer past,, handed the gavel of the president's office to his successor, 
 Dr. Lawrence A. Johnston, who would serve in this office until his 
 death in 1918. 
 
 Because of his wife's critical illness and his own indisposition, Dr. 
 Norelius asked to be excused from the remainder of the convention 
 sessions so that he could return home. As he bade farewell to the 
 delegation, bespoke God's blessings upon his younger successor in 
 office, and then slowly left the assembly, the delegates were aware 
 that they were witnessing a historic moment — the passing of an old 
 order and the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Au- 
 gustana Synod. The departure of Dr. Norelius led the editor of Au- 
 gustana, Dr. L. G. Abrahamson, to observe: 
 
 What immense changes these last years have wrought among 
 us! None of the pioneer fathers are longer with us. ... It is 
 
 1 Augustana, June 22, 1911. 
 231 
 
Augustana Heritage 232 
 
 certain that the Synod has entered a new and important period 
 of development. . . . The sons of the pioneers are being chal- 
 lenged to prove their mettle, and to show how well they have 
 preserved the precious heritage they have received from faithful 
 parents. 2 
 
 The changes in synodical personnel to which the editor of Augus- 
 tana called attention were indeed noteworthy. But they were only 
 signs and symbols of a deeper, more subtle, but nonetheless signifi- 
 cant change in the temper and mold of the Augustana Synod which 
 was taking place and would continue to develop, due to the process 
 known as Americanization. And the real challenge to the new gen- 
 eration was whether or not the faith of the fathers could endure and 
 retain its essential lineaments while subjected to the strain of cultural 
 and intellectual transposition. 
 
 The Meaning of Americanization 
 
 The term "Americanization" has been given a wide variety of 
 definitions. Some have seen it as the process by which American , 
 patterns of thought and action have been imposed upon immigrants 
 in this country. Others have seen it as the assimilation of the Ameri- 
 can ethos by newcomers to these shores; while still others have 
 thought of Americanization as in some sense a process of accultura- 
 tion in which through mutual cross-fertilization, the immigrant and 
 American cultural traditions have produced a new cultural synthesis 
 which is at once both like and unlike the old. 3 While these defi- 
 nitions may indeed describe some phases or aspects of the Ameri- 
 canization of the Augustana Synod, perhaps it is sufficient to define 
 the process simply as the way in which the Synod yielded to in- 
 ternal and external pressures to divest itself of many of its essen- 
 tially Swedish characteristics in becoming an indigenous American 
 institution. 
 
 In the light of this broad definition of Americanization, it is evi- 
 dent that the process cannot be limited to any single period or era 
 in the Synod's history. From the earliest beginnings the Americani- 
 zation of the Augustana Church has been an almost continuous de- 
 
 2 Augustana, June 29, 1911. 
 
 3 The various phases of Americanization in relation to the Swedish immigrant 
 are discussed in two unpublished doctoral dissertations: Oscar A. Benson, 
 Problems in the Accommodation of the Swede to American Culture, op. tit., 
 Gene Jessie Lund, The Americanization of the Augustana Lutheran Church, 
 Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, 1954. 
 
233 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 velopment. There have, however, been times when the process has 
 been more pronounced than at others. 
 
 During the first half-century of the history of the Synod there 
 were a number of readily apparent factors which encouraged the 
 process of Americanization. In the first place, the physical fact of 
 being transplanted from a European situation to an American en- 
 vironment, from a state church with its old, cherished and conserva- 
 tive traditions, to a free, pluralistic, and competitive society with 
 almost no religious traditions, demanded a considerable adjustment. 
 Both pastors and laymen in the early years soon discovered that 
 the voluntary principle in America made church work here a far 
 different enterprise from the one they were accustomed to in Swe- 
 den. Their new environment, moreover, demanded quick accommo- 
 dation, and thus the direction of adjustment was toward conformity 
 to American practice. 
 
 In the second place, the early leaders of Augustana were not iso- 
 lationists, hoping to insulate their people against American influences 
 so as to perpetuate a Swedish ethos, or repristinate the Swedish 
 Church on American soil. Indeed, L. P. Esbjorn, T. N. Hasselquist, 
 Erland Carlsson, and Eric Norelius were unanimous in their convic- 
 tion that the Swedish people ought to identify themselves with their 
 new American home, to become good and loyal American citizens, 
 and that Swedish usage, language, and custom must not become ends 
 in themselves, but must be merely the means for more effective 
 recruitment and retention of Scandinavians as members of the Lu- 
 theran Church in America. 4 
 
 In the third place, the various relationships and associations 
 which the early pastors and their congregations established with ex- 
 isting American groups helped them to accommodate to American us- 
 age, thought, and action. For example, the association of Esbjorn and 
 Hasselquist with the American Home Missionary Society brought 
 them their first specific instructions regarding the conduct of church 
 work on the American frontier. Such instructions constituted the 
 earliest orientation and guidance in American church usage which 
 the Swedish immigrants received. The association of the Scandina- 
 vians with the Synod of Northern Illinois was a further and most 
 fruitful introduction of the Swedes to the ways of an American 
 
 4 See Hasselquist in Hemlandet, June 22, 1858; letter from Hasselquist to J. 
 A. Seiss, June 29, 1861, Hasselquist Collection, Augustana Archives; letter 
 from Esbjorn to Norelius, Chicago, May 22, 1863 in Tidskrift, 1899, p. 337f. 
 See also Stephenson, op. cit., p. 423. Ander, Hasselquist, op. cit., pp. 228ff. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 234 
 
 church. Here they learned much concerning both parliamentary pro- 
 cedures and polity structure. 5 An even broader contact with Ameri- 
 can life and thought was opened to the pastors and people of the 
 Augustana Synod when they affiliated with the General Council. 
 Within this fellowship Augustana not only identified itself with the 
 median school of Lutheranism in America, 6 but it also became a 
 working partner with the oldest and most Americanized branch of 
 the Lutheran Church in this country, namely, the churches of the 
 Muhlenberg tradition. Through this association the Synod received 
 deep and permanent influences in various phases of its life and 
 work: in its experience of worship through use of the General Coun- 
 cil's English Hymnal and Service Book; in its home missions pro- 
 gram through co-operation in English missions, and in foreign mis- 
 sions by learning the ways and means of conducting overseas mis- ■ 
 sions by participating in the foreign program of the Council. 7 
 
 At the level of the individual members of the Synod, the process 
 of Americanization was apparent from the very earliest years. Indeed, 
 it may be said that Americanization was already under way when the 
 would-be immigrant began to dream about America, and laid his plans 
 for leaving the old homeland. And after arriving on these shores he 
 quickly followed the old maxim, "When in Rome do as the Romans do." 
 The Swede was eager to pick up American manners and adopt Ameri- 
 can customs. In fact, sociological studies have generally agreed that 
 the Swedish immigrant has been one of the most easily assimilated 
 segments of the immigrant population in the United States. "Not at 
 all inclined to establish permanent colonies isolated from other groups, 
 the Swedes have very rapidly submerged their peculiar traits and have 
 adopted the customs and attitudes of those about them with remark- 
 able eagerness." 8 As he associated with neighbors and friends in the 
 "American melting pot," the Swede adjusted so readily to his new en- 
 vironment that he often claimed to have forgotten his old mother 
 tongue before he had learned to speak English, and as a consequence 
 his speech was often a curious, almost unintelligible mixture of Swed- 
 ish and English, popularly known as "rotviilska." He also intermarried 
 with those of different cultural backgrounds. In such unions, the 
 uniquely Swedish traditions and customs usually receded into the 
 background or were forgotten altogether. And when the children of 
 
 5 Norelius, De svenska luterska forsamlingarnas, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 814f. 
 « Supra, Chapter VIII, p. 143f. 
 
 7 See essay by C. A. Blomgren, "The Union of the Augustana Synod with the 
 General Council," The Augustana Synod, 1860-1910, op. cit., pp. 215ff. 
 
 8 Oscar A. Benson, op. cit., p. 111. 
 
235 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 the immigrants enrolled in the American public schools, learning to 
 think, speak, and act like Americans, they brought their influence to 
 bear upon their homes and families. 9 
 
 Thus, from the very earliest beginnings of the Augustana Synod, 
 the process of Americanization may be said to have been operative. 
 The era, however, in which it became most pronounced and acceler- 
 ated, and its effects most apparent, was the period of approximately a 
 decade and a half, from about 1910 to 1925. When the aged Norelius 
 at the Duluth convention in 1911 stepped down from the presidency 
 and made room for his successor, Dr. Lawrence Albert Johnston, his 
 departure from synodical leadership symbolized the development that 
 was taking place. Johnston was himself a representative of the new 
 era; he was the first president of the Augustana Synod to be born in 
 America. Henceforth, the office of synodical president would never 
 again be held by a man born in Sweden. Johnston, a native of Sugar 
 Grove, Pennsylvania, and a product of American schools, had reached 
 the age of fifty-five years when he was elected to the presidency of the 
 Church. Though highly regarded for his fine Christian character and 
 dignified demeanor, he was not a great leader nor a strong administra- 
 tor, and his election seems to have been due in no small measure to 
 his ability to express himself fluently in both Swedish and English. 
 As president of the Synod he could represent all factions of the Synod 
 in this period of transition. 10 
 
 It is important to note at this point that the increased tempo of 
 Americanization during the seven years of Johnston's administration 
 coincided with the decrease of immigration for the same period. This 
 suggests that as long as the Synod was being regularly supplied with 
 fresh transfusions of Swedish blood through immigration, the process 
 of Americanization was held in check. But when immigration began 
 to diminish, the effects of Americanization increased proportionately. 
 
 There were a number of reasons for the decrease of immigration. 
 By 1900-1905 the industrialization of Sweden had reached the point 
 where gainful employment in the burgeoning cities of Sweden could 
 be found without much difficulty. Thus, the earlier economic motiva- 
 
 9 Stephenson, op. cit., p. 425. For a discussion of the problem of estrangement 
 between immigrant parents and Americanized children see M. L. Hanson, 
 "The Problem of the Third Generation Immigrant," Augustana Historical So- 
 ciety Publications, Vol. VIII, Part I, Rock Island, Illinois, 1938. 
 
 10 In the biographical sketches of L. A. Johnston given by his contemporaries, 
 his bilingual abilities are stressed. Korsbaneret, 1919, pp. 157-165; Augus- 
 tana, June 29, 1911; Augustana, June 20, 1918; Lutheran Companion, June 
 22, 1918. 
 
Augustana Heritage 236 
 
 tion for emigrating was less compelling than in an earlier day. 11 At 
 the same time public opinion as well as the government of Sweden 
 were beginning to take vigorous steps to discourage emigration and 
 encourage Swedish citizens to remain at home and make their contri- 
 bution to the building of a better modern Sweden. To this end the 
 government undertook a thorough-going study of all phases of emigra- 
 tion and immigration, so that action might be based on knowledge and 
 fact instead of guesswork and prejudices. The results of this great 
 project was the publication of the Emigrationsutredningen, edited by 
 Gustaf Sundberg between the years 1908-1913 12 A more popular proj- 
 ect originated in the city of Gothenburg in 1903, when a group of pa- 
 triotic and public-spirited citizens laid the ground work for the forma- 
 tion of the National Society Opposed to Emigration (Nationalforen- 
 ingen mot emigrationen) , which was formally established in 1907, 
 operating under a charter approved by the government and supported 
 by a government grant. 13 
 
 Those who sought to discourage emigration exerted every effort 
 to paint a picture of America in the darkest possible colors. It was 
 asserted that the United States was no longer the land of unbounded 
 opportunity. Stories were told and printed in the newspapers about 
 Swedish emigrants who had left Sweden in high hopes, only to find in 
 the United States a life of poverty, suffering, hardship, and disillusion- 
 ment. The American panic of 1907 gave the antiemigration forces 
 ample grist for their mills, and they gleefully pointed to the thousands 
 of Americans who were out of work, and repeated with embellish- 
 ments tales of hunger, homelessness, and illness alleged to prevail in 
 the large industrial centers of America. 14 
 
 Due not to one, but to a combination of circumstances in both 
 Sweden and America, the stream of immigration which reached a 
 twentieth-century high of 43,487 in 1903, declined sharply thereafter, 
 so that by 1908 it had dropped to 8,466, and by 1915 to a little more 
 
 11 Emigrationsutredningen, Bilaga IV, pp. 122ff., see especially Table 34. 
 
 12 Emigrationsutredningen includes twenty-one volumes and is the most com- 
 prehensive study ever made of Swedish emigration and immigration. 
 
 13 Thedor Miigge, Nationalforeningen mot emigrationen. Program 1907-1915; 
 Stadgar 1907-1915, Stockholm, 1907-1917. Adrian Molin, Nagra ord om na- 
 tionalforeningen mot emigraticmen-sallskapet hem i Sverige, Stockholm, 
 1932. Henry von Kraemer, Ett ord till amerikajararen. Flygblad utgifvet av 
 Nationalforeningen mot emigration, Stockholm, 1909. 
 
 14 See for example T. W. Schonberg, Sanningen am Amerika, Stockholm, 1909; 
 Henry von Kraemer, op. cit. 
 
237 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 than 2,500. During the years of World War I, 1917-1918, immigration 
 to the United States was virtually halted. 15 
 
 After the war, the Congress of the United States bowed to pres- 
 sure from union labor forces which feared the competition of cheap 
 labor from new immigration. Accordingly, in the spring of 1921, Con- 
 gress passed an emergency immigration act, setting up a quota system: 
 immigrants from any country could not exceed three per cent of the 
 number of persons of their nationality residing in the United States 
 in 1910. Although this action decreased the incoming number of im- 
 migrants by about two thirds, the pressure groups were still not sat- 
 isfied. Thus, Congress in 1924 enacted the National Origins Act, which 
 not only banned the people of East Asia entirely, but set a quota of 
 two per cent for Europe on the basis of the census of 1890. 16 The quota 
 law of 1924 reduced Sweden's annual immigrant allotment to 9,561, 
 and in 1929 further restrictive legislation was enacted which cut this 
 allotment to 3,000. 17 
 
 The decrease in immigration was involved in the process of 
 Americanization of the Augustana Synod in several respects. In the 
 first place, it encouraged a broader sense of community. It must 
 be borne in mind that the Synod had from the very beginning con- 
 ceived its chief task and responsibility to be that of winning for the 
 Church the great masses of incoming Swedish immigrants. During 
 the period when these immigrants were entering the United States 
 by the tens of thousands each year, year after year, Augustana 
 faced a staggering task which demanded all its available resources 
 and energies. But when the stream of immigration was reduced to 
 a mere trickle, the Synod began to look beyond the shrinking circle 
 of Swedish immigrants, and became increasingly aware of a larger 
 community mission field. It began to address its message to others 
 besides the immigrants. As a result, here and there on the member- 
 ship rolls of local congregations, names began to appear which ob- 
 viously had no previous connection with a Scandinavian heritage. 
 Indeed, the annual reports from the English Association of Churches 
 often stressed the fact that the encouraging growth of the Asso- 
 ciation was due in part to the broader outreach of the Church into 
 the non-Scandinavian elements of the community. Such accessions 
 
 15 Emigrationsutredningen, Bilaga IV, p. 124f. See especially Table 35. Oscar 
 A. Benson, op. cit., pp. 31ff. See especially chart, p. 33. 
 
 16 Current, Williams and Freidel, American History, A Survey, op. cit., p. 700. 
 
 17 Florence E. Janson, The Background of Swedish Immigration, Chicago, 1931, 
 p. 12. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 238 
 
 in themselves, coupled with the growth of a larger community con- 
 sciousness, were a part of the process Americanization. 18 
 
 The decrease of immigration was involved in the Americaniza- 
 tion of the Augustana Synod also in the sense that it encouraged 
 and accelerated the Anglicization of the Synod. Since the Swedish 
 language was a primary tool in the work among the immigrants, a con- 
 stant inflow of immigration demanded its continued use. When immi- 
 gration was drastically reduced, and the need and demand for Swedish 
 was somewhat less inperative, the process of Anglicization was corres- 
 pondingly encouraged. 
 
 The Language Transition 
 
 To be sure, Americanization involved more than the change in the 
 use of language, but the use of English was indubitably an important 
 barometer of the process. The increased use of the English language 
 was perhaps the chief factor in the process of Americanization. "As 
 long as Augustana congregations retained the Swedish language, the 
 Synod retained its predominantly old-world character and outlook. 
 But as soon as the English language was adopted by pastors and con- 
 gregations, the process of Americanization was completed almost over- 
 night." 19 
 
 One of the foremost leaders in the struggle for greater use of Eng- 
 lish in the Augustana Church, Dr. I. O. Nothstein, has declared that 
 although the period from 1910 to 1925 witnessed the triumph of English 
 over the Swedish language throughout the Synod, English was being 
 used in the very earliest days of the Church. In his essay entitled, The 
 Language Transition in the Augustana Synod, 2(x Dr. Nothstein points 
 out that the founding fathers of the Augustana Synod plainly recog- 
 nized that, although it was necessary to use the Swedish language 
 among the immigrants, in the long run the use of Swedish in the Lu- 
 theran Church in America was a passing phase which belonged to the 
 immigrant era. They sought, therefore, to prepare their people for the 
 transition from Swedish to English. Esbjorn, for example, used English 
 in the earliest Sunday schools he established, and even conducted fre- 
 quent services of worship in English on Sunday afternoons, "not only 
 
 18 See for example the report of F. O. Hanson, Referat, Augustana Synod, 1913, 
 pp. 23ff. See also the essay by Peter Peterson, "Our Missions at Home," 
 After Seventy-Five Years, op. cit., pp. 194ff. 
 
 19 Gene J. Lund, op. cit., p. 159. 
 
 20 The Augustana Quarterly, Vol. 24, 1945, pp. 209-223, 327-346. The author is 
 indebted to Dr. Nothstein's excellent essay for much of the material in this 
 section. 
 
239 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 in order to be useful to the Americans . . . but also with a view of mak- 
 ing my countrymen more acquainted with the English language." 21 
 Pastors Erland Carlsson, T. N. Hasselquist, and Jonas Swensson also 
 encouraged the use of English in their Sunday schools, young people's 
 groups and confirmation classes, and conducted English services of 
 worship whenever there seemed to be a need or demand for them. 
 After the close of the Civil War, however, and the subsequent steep 
 rise in Swedish immigration coupled with the separation of the Nor- 
 wegians from the Synod in 1870, which left the Swedes to themselves, 
 a change occurred. The earlier urge to Americanize seems to have 
 been dissipated, and the Synod became very much a Swedish institu- 
 tion. In its preoccupation with the Swedish-speaking immigrants, the 
 Synod forgot to provide adequately for its own rising younger genera- 
 tion. The result was that children were attracted to American Sunday 
 schools of other denominations, and English-speaking young people 
 began to withdraw from Augustana and establish connections with 
 non-Lutheran churches. 22 Indeed, the Congregational Church is re- 
 ported to have spent money to establish English-speaking Sunday 
 schools in strong Lutheran centers in order to win the disgruntled 
 Lutheran children and youth. And some Reformed pastors went so 
 far as to organize confirmation classes for Lutheran youth in their own 
 churches, inviting parents to send their children to these classes for 
 their confirmation instruction in a language they could more readily 
 understand. 23 Through such circumstances many were ultimately lost 
 to the Lutheran Church. The Synod seems to have accepted these 
 loses with a strange equanimity. Apparently, it was taken for granted 
 that those who insisted on getting their religion in an English dress 
 could be expected, — indeed, were welcome — to go elsewhere. 
 
 The "language question" did not become a "language problem" 
 for the Augustana Synod until the Synod found itself in competition 
 with other Lutheran groups who succeeded in making such serious 
 encroachments upon Augustana membership and territory that the 
 Synod was finally shaken out of its Swedish complacency. 
 
 Both the General Synod and the General Council were committed 
 to English home missions in the Midwest. It was the General Council 
 which first confronted the Augustana Synod with a challenge which 
 could not be ignored. This occurred when the Council, under the 
 
 21 Esbjorn's report to American Home Missionary Society, June, 1852, Ibid., 
 p. 209. 
 
 22 Ibid., p. 210f. 
 
 23 Ibid., p. 215. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 240 
 
 guidance of Dr. W. A. Passavant, decided to initiate English missions 
 in Minnesota in 1881, and the following year sent Pastor George Tra- 
 bert into the territory. Two years later, July, 1884, a second English 
 missionary, Pastor A. J. D. Haupt, was engaged by the Council and 
 joined Trabert in Minnesota. With consummate tact these two men 
 worked in close co-operation with the Minnesota Conference in the 
 establishment of English congregations. Indeed, both Trabert and 
 Haupt, in order to maintain the best possible relationships with the 
 Swedes, joined the Augustana Synod, although their salaries were 
 paid by the Council. 24 On the basis of the "Lancaster Compromise," 25 
 it was assumed by both Augustana and the Council that the new Eng- 
 lish congregations formed on so-called "Augustana territory," would 
 become members of the Augustana Synod. The first two English con- 
 gregations organized under General Council auspices, St. John's in 
 Minneapolis which was formed in 1883, and Luther Memorial in St. 
 Paul, formed later the same year, did join the Synod through affiliation 
 with the Minnesota Conference. 26 As long as the General Council was 
 willing to furnish the men to carry on the work, and supply the bulk 
 of the funds for their support, while the congregations they organized 
 would affiliate with Augustana, the Minnesota Conference and the 
 Synod were happy to see the English missions of the Council succeed, 
 and extended their good will to the missionaries. When, however, the 
 new English congregations which were organized during the next sev- 
 eral years in West St. Paul, Duluth, Fargo, North Dakota, and Milwau- 
 kee, Wisconsin, refused to join the Minnesota Conference because they 
 felt that Augustana was altogether too Swedish, the Augustana atti- 
 tude changed to apprehension and suspicion. This attitude was in- 
 creased and deepened in the spring of 1890 when missionary Haupt 
 notified the Minnesota Conference that the Memorial Church in St. 
 Paul wished to withdraw from the Augustana Synod. 27 When the Gen- 
 eral Council proceeded to form the rival Synod of the Northwest, in 
 1891 28 and went on to establish the new English-speaking theological 
 seminary in Chicago as a rival to the school in Rock Island the same 
 year, 29 the Augustana Synod was finally awakened to the need for a 
 
 24 Trabert, English Lutheranism in the Northwest, op. cit., pp. 58ff. See also 
 
 Emeroy Johnson, God Gave the Growth, op. cit., pp. 209fr. 
 2 * Supra, Chapter VIII, p. 156. 
 2(5 Referat, Minnesota Conference 1884, p. 22. 
 
 27 Trabert, op. cit., pp. lllff. 
 
 28 Supra,, Chapter VIII, p. 157. 
 
 29 Supra, Chapter VTO, p. 155. 
 
241 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 new approach to the "language question" which had now become a 
 "problem." 
 
 The awakening of Augustana to the demand for more English was 
 by no means a sudden experience. It was a somewhat gradual process 
 which took several years. In the meantime, there were a few stalwart 
 spirits in the Synod, like Pastor John Telleen, who championed the 
 cause of English especially for the sake of the young. Traveling far 
 and wide as a home missionary for the Augustana Synod, establishing 
 new congregations in such distant places as Denver, Colorado; San 
 Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Kingsburg, and Templeton, Califor- 
 nia, Telleen was in the truest sense of the word a pioneer for English 
 work in the Augustana Synod. Dr. G. A. Brandelle, onetime president 
 of the Synod, said of Pastor Telleen, 
 
 At the time of his ordination in 1872, he was the only one of the 
 seventy-three clergymen of the Augustana Synod who could speak 
 the English language satisfactorily, fluently, and forcibly ... for 
 a long term of years he was easily the most popular pulpiteer in 
 the Synod. 30 
 
 The majority opinion in the Synod for many years, however, seemed to 
 favor the position taken by Dr. J. A. Enander, editor of Hemlandet. 
 He was passionately pro-Swedish, and strongly opposed to the use of 
 English in Augustana congregations. As "the most Swedish Swede in 
 America," he expended his best energies to encourage the preserva- 
 tion of Swedish language and culture, and to discourage the further 
 spread of such an "inadequate medium of religious communication" as 
 the English tongue. And to the influence of Enander and others of his 
 temperament the reluctance and tardiness of the Synod's awakening 
 may in some degree be attributed. 31 
 
 In spite of opposition and indifference, the demand for English 
 was on the increase. Reports from conference presidents made fre- 
 quent reference to pressures for English being exerted on local con- 
 gregations. 32 And at the convention of the Minnesota Conference in 
 1894, Dr. Eric Norelius summarized the "language problem" by re- 
 minding his people that the question which demanded solution was 
 not "whether or not we shall make use of the English language," but 
 rather, "Shall we permit English Lutheran Synods to take over the 
 English work among us, or shall we do this ourselves and try to re- 
 
 30 Biographical sketch of Telleen, My Church, Vol. XX, 1934, pp. llOff. 
 
 31 Nothstein, op. tit., note p. 222. 
 
 32 Referat, Illinois Conference, 1893, p. 12. Referat, Minnesota Conference, 1897, 
 p. 12. Referat, Iowa Conference, 1900, p. 10. Referat, Superior Conference, 
 1913, p. 18. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 242 
 
 tain the generation now growing up in our conference and Synod." 33 
 While the English missions of the General Council were posing a 
 threat to the Augustana Synod, particularly in Minnesota, the English 
 missions of the General Synod were doing very much the same thing 
 elsewhere in the Church. In Ottumwa, Iowa, for example, the Augus- 
 tana Synod had been carrying on a growing work since the days of the 
 pioneers, organizing an Augustana congregation in that community in 
 1871. This was considered Augustana territory, and the synodical 
 leaders held that no Lutheran body ought to begin a rival work without 
 careful consultation with the local Augustana congregation and the 
 officials of the Iowa Conference. Since the General Synod, however, 
 had been doing missionary work in the Midwest for a half century it 
 felt that it had prior claims to the area and needed no one's permission 
 to start church work wherever it was deemed necessary. Thus, the 
 General Synod established an English Lutheran congregation in Ot- 
 tumwa about 1911 without consulting with anyone from Augustana. 
 The vehement protests of the Augustana pastor in Ottumwa, Rev. O. 
 A. Henry, were of no avail, and the president of the Augustana Synod 
 could do little more than refer the case to the Board of Arbitration of 
 the General Synod. But this agency had scant patience with the terri- 
 torial claims of the Augustana Synod whose primary concern was said 
 to be with the Swedish immigrants in the country. 34 
 
 What was occurring in Iowa, was being re-enacted in Seattle, 
 Washington, where the Augustana Synod had established the Geth- 
 semane congregation in 1885. Although Seattle and the Pacific north- 
 west was not regarded in Augustana circles with quite the same pro- 
 prietary sentiments as Iowa and the Midwest, it was nevertheless 
 considered Augustana territory to the extent that the establishment of 
 other Lutheran missions ought to be undertaken only after consulta- 
 tion with Augustana. As in Ottumwa, so also in Seattle, the General 
 Synod began an English mission on the assumption that the Augustana 
 Synod was "the Lutheran Church for the Swedes." Here again, the 
 local Augustana pastor, Rev. C. E. Frisk, sent protests to the president 
 of the Augustana Synod, but without achieving any results. 35 
 
 33 Referat, Minnesota Conference, 1894, p. 14, quoted by Lund, op. cit., p. 165. 
 
 34 See letter from O. A. Henry to L. A. Johnston, March 15, 1912, L. A. John- 
 ston Collection, Augustana Archives. Letter from W. D. C. Keiter, presi- 
 dent of the Board of Arbitration, General Synod, Allentown, Pa., April 10, 
 1912, L. A. Johnston Collection, Augustana Archives. For a similar situa- 
 tion which developed in Des Moines, Iowa, see Referat, Iowa Conference, 
 1909, p. 25. 
 
 s* See letter from C. E. Frisk to L. A. Johnston, October 15, 1912, L. A. John- 
 ston Collection, Augustana Archives. 
 
243 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 And so the pressure was on. Forces both outside and inside the 
 Augustana Synod were compelling the church to awaken to the need 
 for some kind of action which would, so to speak, legitimatize and give 
 direction to English missions within the Augustana Synod. 
 
 It was not until the Asociation of English Churches was formed in 
 1908, however, that the Synod may be said officially to have taken a 
 really decisive step in acknowledging and guiding the increasing de- 
 mand for more English. 36 Though the Synod refused to grant the 
 Association the status of a conference, for fear that an English confer- 
 ence in the Synod might develop separatistic tendencies, it did sanction 
 the Association as a consultative agency, without legislative powers. 
 As such, the Association provided the English congregations in the 
 Synod with an important and valuable means for the adjudication of 
 their common problems, and a medium through which they could ad- 
 dress themselves with one voice to the Synod and press for such action 
 as they deemed advisable. 37 
 
 Preliminary to the organization of the Association of English 
 Churches, a questionnaire was sent to all pastors of the Synod asking 
 for information concerning the extent to which the English language 
 was being used in their parishes. Out of the 1,049 congregations, replies 
 were received from 168, and though this was but a fraction of the 
 whole, it represented a fair cross section of the Synod, and therefore 
 the responses reflected the situation prevailing in the Synod at the 
 time. The survey revealed the following interesting information: 
 
 44 congregations reported no English work at all. 
 
 49 congregations had some English work, but no English worship 
 services. 
 
 42 congregations conducted English services on one Sunday eve- 
 ning a month. 
 
 18 congregations conducted English services on two Sunday eve- 
 nings a month. 
 3 congregations conducted English services on three Sunday 
 evenings a month. 
 
 12 congregations conducted English services every Sunday eve- 
 ning. 
 
 In the 168 responding congregations, 563 children had been con- 
 firmed in English, and 3,142 children had received English instruc- 
 tion in Sunday school during 1908. On the basis of the survey, it 
 was estimated that out of a total of 69,510 children enrolled in Au- 
 gustana Sunday schools in 1908, 20,012 had received some English 
 
 36 Supra, Chapter VIII, p. 158. 
 37 Nothstein, op. tit, p. 332. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 244 
 
 instruction in the Sunday school; and out of a total of 7,646 con- 
 firmations in 1908, 3,586 children had been confirmed in English. 38 
 
 Thus it was obvious that by 1908 the process of Anglicization was well 
 under way in the parishes of the Synod. But in the next few years the 
 process would be sharply accelerated. This increasing Anglicization 
 of the Synod is clearly revealed in a survey of the highlights taken from 
 the annual reports submitted to the Synod by the Association of Eng- 
 lish Churches. According to these reports the following developments 
 mark the path of progress: 
 
 In 1910 the Synod granted the Association full representation 
 on the Synodical Council, resolved to pay the traveling expenses 
 of the Association's executive committee to one Council meeting, 
 ordered an abstract of the synodical minutes to be printed in Eng- 
 lish, and ordered that an English recording secretary for the Synod 
 be elected. The Synod also urged all the conferences to publish 
 English abstracts of their minutes. 39 
 
 At the convention in 1911, the Synod, in response to a petition 
 from the Association, resolved to call an English field secretary 
 and authorized a synod-wide offering to pay for the new office. 
 The Synod also urged the various conferences "to see to it that 
 congregations be organized in places where the needs of our peo- 
 ple can best be met by means of the English language." The first 
 English field secretary, Pastor F. O. Hanson, was called and began 
 his work in 1912. 40 
 
 In 1914 the Synod acknowledged the increased use of English 
 by adopting the following resolution: "At the same time as the 
 Synod is concerned for the preservation of the Swedish language, 
 customs, and culture in connection with our work as a church, 
 yet it is conscious of the fact that the number of those for whom 
 English must be the language of worship is constantly increasing, 
 and thanks God for the progress which the English work is win- 
 ning and for the fruits which it has already borne." 41 
 
 By 1915 the English work of the Synod had grown to such pro- 
 portions that the Synodical Board of Home Missions called a sec- 
 ond English field secretary, Pastor P. N. Sjogren who began his 
 work in May, 1915. The Synod resolved that, "It is a cause for 
 thanksgiving and praise to God that our Synod's English work, 
 for which we now have two field secretaries, has been carried on 
 with power and success in no less than fourteen states, and in 
 thirty-eight congregations." 42 
 
 *s ibid., p. 334. 
 
 3 9 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1910, pp. 174f. 
 
 40 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1911, p. 153f. Referat, Augustana Synod, 1913, 
 pp. 23ff. 
 
 41 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1914, Resolution 18, p. 34. 
 
 42 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1915, pp. 37, 79. For a detailed discussion of the 
 survey see Nothstein, op. cit., p. 336f. 
 
Pioneer 
 
 Foreign 
 
 itiionaries 
 
 xecutive 
 
 i 'ctors of 
 
 Foreign 
 
 Missions 
 
 S. HJALMAR SWANSON 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1939-1955 
 
 M. A. HAMMARBERG 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1955-1961 
 
 RUDOLPH BURKE 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1961-1962 
 
 STUDENT BODY AND CLASS ROOM BUILDING 
 Ruruma Girls School, Tanganyika, Africa 
 
 % 
 
 *^ -k 
 
 ********** 
 
 ,ni 
 
 "AM* 
 
 *W «* . .1 
 
 ** «* * 
 
CHURCH AT IAMBI 
 
 MISSION STATION 
 
 Tanganyika, East Africa 
 
 • 
 
 
 A STREET MEETING IN 
 
 CHINA 
 
 Mrs. Herbert Zimmerman 
 
 calls people together 
 
 with her accordion. 
 
LAYING THE CORNERSTONE 
 Lutheran Church, Rivera, Uruguay 
 
 \ • 
 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH AND BOOK STORE 
 Hong Kong 
 
 FIRST ORGANIZED LUTHERAN CHURCH 
 Kaoshsuing, Taiwan 
 
Augustana 
 Churchmen 
 
 JULIUS LINCOLN 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1925-1928 
 
 C. OSCAR LEONARDSON 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1945-1957 
 
 CARL H. JACOBSON 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1957-1962 
 
 American 
 Missions 
 
 S. E. ENGSTROM 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1939-1954 
 
 THEODORE E. MATSON 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1954-1962 
 
 OTTO LEONARDSON 
 
 Director of Stewardship 
 
 1928-1943 
 
 Director of Finance 
 
 1943-1952 
 
 T. A. GUSTAFSON 
 
 Director of Stewardship 
 
 1943-1949 
 
 MARTIN E. CARLSON 
 
 Director of Stewardship 
 
 1949-1952 
 
 Director of Finance 
 
 1955-1962 
 
 / 
 
 J. BRUCE SIFFORD 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1947-1959 
 
 K. ROGER SIFFORD 
 
 Executive Director 
 
 1959-1962 
 
 Department of 
 Finance 
 
 Audio-Visual 
 Service 
 
FIRST HOME OF 
 
 AUGUSTANA 
 
 BOOK CONCERN 
 
 Rock Island, Illinois 
 
 A. G. ANDERSON 
 
 Manager of 
 
 Augustana 
 
 Book Concern 
 
 1889-1927 
 
 > 
 
 f I Fl ti 
 
 I 
 
 aSMU ° n ™ rnucfUL. 
 
 Ill 
 
 v 
 
 M 
 
 & - 
 
 J. G. YOUNGQUIST 
 
 Manager of Augustana 
 
 Book Concern, 1927-1944 
 
 PRESENT HOME OF 
 
 AUGUSTANA BOOK CONCERN 
 
 Rock Island, Illinois 
 
 Publication Work of the Synod 
 
 ^p 
 
 BIRGER SWENSON 
 Manager of Augustona 
 Book Concern, 1944-1962 
 
T. N. HASSELQUIST 
 Editor of "Hemlandet" 
 1855-1889 
 
 ERIC NORELIUS 
 Editor and Historian 
 
 S. P. A. LINDAHL 
 
 Editor of "Augustona' 
 
 1890-1908 
 
 Editors of Church Publications 
 
 L. G. ABRAHAMSON 
 Editor of "Augustana 
 1908-1939 
 
 CARL J. BENGSTON 
 
 Editor of 
 
 Lutheran Companion' 
 
 1915-1933 
 
 A. T. LUNDHOLM 
 
 Editor of "Augustana' 
 
 1940-1956 
 
 E. E RYDEN 
 
 Editor of 
 
 'Lutheran Companion' 
 
 1934-1961 
 
 PAUL E. GUSTAFSON 
 
 Editor of 
 'Lutheran Companion' 
 
 1961-1962 
 
245 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 While the Association of English Churches was continuing to hold up 
 the English work before the eyes of the Synod and thus promote the 
 cause throughout the Church, the Lutheran Companion, edited by C. 
 J. Sodergren, and aided by Professor I. M. Anderson, C. A. Wendell," 
 and C. O. Lundquist, all of whom were committed to the English cause,' 
 became the voice of English Lutheranism in the Synod. Again and 
 again the Companion gave vent to the impatience which the English 
 advocates felt toward the reluctance of the Synod to make the transi- 
 tion from Swedish to English. It exerted considerable pressure to has- 
 ten the change. In the issue of July 15, 1911, the Companion editorial- 
 ized in the following vein: 
 
 No one wishes to rob the old folks of the Swedish In aU our 
 
 Swedish congregations the old folks are welcome, and will be for 
 years to come, to half of the services, and that the better half— 
 the Sunday morning service. And no Christian will starve to death 
 
 on this and a weekday meeting But if we are considerate 
 
 toward the old people and respect their admitted rights, we should 
 also be equally careful not to refuse to give our young people their 
 spiritual support We should be as concerned about their spiritual 
 welfare . To have English services only once a month, or even 
 EST A f Tt y e 7 enin f is alm °st worse than nothing. It 
 hurts the Swedish and is of no conserving value to the English 
 element. It is merely a poor excuse. ... This plausible (?) selfish- 
 ness which makes a language an end instead of a means is not a 
 good conservative policy if our Synod is to live. ... It will not do 
 to sacrifice souls on the altar of nationality. Our congregations 
 have a for higher calling than to be a mere "Naffif^ 
 
 Again in the issue of August 30, 1913, the Lutheran Companion had the 
 following to say about the "language problem: " 
 
 Dear old Swedish language! We all love it-but some of us 
 
 wW ±A-U e feel f ,° r V f 1 ?! ° f i° yalt y and res P ect akin to 
 what good children naturally feel for their parents. Nevertheless 
 a new generation, born and reared far from the doughty little 
 kingdom which once was the land of our fathers, is prone to con- 
 form to the customs of the country in which it finds itself, and to 
 speak the language which is generally employed as a medium for 
 the expression of thought. The children, the young people (and 
 ever so many old people), almost invariably use the Enghsh 
 knguage in ordinary conversation. ... God wants all to be saved 
 Why not tell His message in as natural and intelligible a manner 
 as possible; in Swedish to those who think in Swedish, in Enghsh 
 to those who think in English. . . . What would we suggest? That 
 our ch ildren be taught Christianity largely by means of the Eng- 
 43 Vol. XIX, No. 28, p. 1. 
 
246 
 Augustana Heritage 
 
 lish language ^^SS^SSSffti ^ Jftl 
 
 Kr IS W?A 15? 5 without Swedish. And if 
 
 prove to stand in the way of Chris X P Vdfd to theLatin go and 
 we have no choice but to do as Luto dad. M ttaL-tt g^ 
 insist on using German in ttie ww™**' ^ word of God is 
 
 They are of «"« ^ ue . ^ r E£r^ TnoT'Swedish; Baptism and 
 not Swedish; the Church o i CW is not bwe , v ^ 
 the Lord's Supper are not Swedish Nor are any 
 Enghsh. It is not a matter of language. . . . 
 
 The Influence of World War I 
 t 1Q17 1Q18 an event occurred which gave immense impetus to 
 
 ,„„gu,, was br»ded . "J-^"" »Jj /S™t.d cm- 
 
 "~ «"• iSS?-!-^ • s — ** 
 
 "ft! ,h.!r ri,»rch.s and .tthoola with y.How paint a. . wantrng 
 
 « Vol. XXI, N. 35, p. 6. 
 
 "Ibid., p. 1. rt-omtk on cit p. 225. Instances of Americani- 
 
 46 C f. Johnson, God Gave the n G ™f;Ze™us during World War I. In sev- 
 
 zation by force and ««« "arSon, Director of the Council of 
 
 eial communications tp.GrMvenor ».^ ^ executive secretary 
 
 5«Sff JSKA^.S-r of cases where would-he 
 
247 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 such hardships, it may nevertheless be said that one of the few 
 benefits of the period of 1917-1918 was the powerful impetus which 
 it gave to the quick and relatively easy transition which many na- 
 tionalistic groups in America, including the Augustana Synod, made 
 to the English language. For Augustana the transition was so com- 
 plete that in his report to the Synod in 1921, Dr. G. A. Brandelle 
 felt obliged to suggest that in the rapid Anglicization of the Synod, 
 "one or two congregations should be kept in the large cities as ex- 
 clusively Swedish churches" to which the Swedish-speaking immi- 
 grants and visitors could go. 47 
 
 The war of 1917-1918 did more than hasten the Anglicization of 
 the Synod. It also fostered a spirit of American patriotism and na- 
 tional self-consciousness which infected virtually every section of the 
 country and all levels of American society, including Augustana. 
 President Wilson and other national leaders persuaded the people 
 that America was waging war "to make the world safe for democ- 
 racy." The war was interpreted idealistically as a great crusade to 
 rid the world of tyranny, and the effort demanded and merited the 
 kind of national unity and sacrifice that included the entire popula- 
 tion. There were no longer any "hyphenated Americans." Every loyal 
 citizen was an American, whether he came to these shores recently 
 or counted his forbears among the earliest pioneers. Every patriotic 
 American had an image of himself as being a part of the mind and 
 muscle of "Uncle Sam." In this time of national crisis the loyalties 
 connected with a former homeland became secondary to the greater 
 and more immediate loyalty which the new homeland craved from 
 its subjects. In the Augustana Synod the church press as well as 
 parish pulpits often became forums for political discussion and ex- 
 hortations to loyalty and faithfulness to American ideals. The Lu- 
 theran Companion was particularly vocal on current issues, and nearly 
 every issue during the war years carried some story or article de- 
 signed to create a "pro-American" spirit. The Augustana was more 
 conservative and reticent but it, too, was thoroughly committed to 
 the American cause. 48 
 
 "patriots" resorted to gangland tactics to force Lutheran pastors to use 
 English exclusively. Copies of communications in Brandelle Collection, Au- 
 gustana Archives. 
 
 47 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1921, p. 17. 
 
 48 The columns of the Lutheran Companion were filled with articles and pic- 
 tures of war and politics, of which the following issues are but a few typi- 
 cal instances: January 26, 1918, February 9, 1918, February 16, 1918, March 
 9, 1918, May 5, 1918, June 1, 1918, August 31, 1918. Every month advertise- 
 ments appeared in the Companion urging readers to "invest all you possibly 
 
Augustana Heritage 248 
 
 The war years also encouraged Americanization in the Synod by 
 providing pastors and people with unusual opportunities for commu- 
 nity service. The Augustana Synod gave its fullest support to the 
 united Lutheran effort to provide a Christian ministry to the mili- 
 tary services through supplying its quota of camp pastors and chap- 
 lains. When the National Lutheran Commission for Soldiers' and 
 Sailors' Welfare was formed in October, 1917, as an emergency or- 
 ganization to minister to men in Armed Service, the Augustana Syn- 
 od gave its fullest co-operation. Through this agency, the Synod con- 
 tributed to a vast and complex program of spiritual and physical 
 care which reached from the military training camps in this coun- 
 try to the trenches, hospitals, and service stations on the battle 
 fields of Europe. And after the war was over, when it was found 
 that millions of men, women, and children in war-torn Europe were 
 dying of hunger, disease, and exposure, the Augustana Synod joined 
 other Lutheran bodies which through the Commission contributed 
 substantial sums of money, thousands of pounds of food and cloth- 
 ing, as well as medicines and other necessities for the relief of the 
 war victims. In these common endeavors the Synod lost whatever 
 sense of isolation and strangeness it might formerly have felt in 
 America. The people of Augustana had learned to think of them- 
 selves as Americans, and their Church as an integral and indigenous 
 part of the national life. 49 
 
 In the years immediately following the war, the Anglicization 
 and Americanization of the Synod continued, so that in 1923 the 
 president of the Association of English Churches could report that 
 on the basis of a recent survey it had been discovered that the num- 
 ber of non-Swedish members of the Synod had greatly increased, 
 and that whereas the growth of the Synod as a whole in the past 
 year had been 1.1 per cent, the English churches had enjoyed a 
 membership increase of 19 per cent. In 1924, the Synod resolved 
 that henceforth its annual Minutes would be printed only in Eng- 
 lish. At the same convention, the first class of ministerial candidates 
 was ordained in the language of the land. The following year, 1925, 
 the Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Superior, and Cali- 
 fornia Conferences reported to the Synod that their meetings, and 
 
 can in Liberty Bonds." Though articles regarding the war effort were less 
 frequent in Augustana, the following issues carried typical utterances: Feb- 
 ruary 21, 1918, April 18, 1918, June 27, 1918 and August 1, 1918. Advertise- 
 ments for Liberty Bonds were less frequent than in the Companion. 
 49 Cf. Essay by P. Arthur Johnson, ''National and International Relationships 
 of the Augustana Synod." After Seventy-Five Years, op. tit., pp. 83ff. 
 
249 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 most of their parish work, were being conducted in the English lan- 
 guage. At the same convention, the Synod adopted for the first time 
 its own English Hymnal and Service Book for use throughout the 
 congregations. Thus, with the Augustana Synod now carrying on its 
 official business, conducting most of its parish programs, and ex- 
 pressing its worship life almost entirely, in the English language, 
 the process of Anglicization, and with it the Americanization of the 
 Synod, may be said to have become an accomplished fact. 50 
 
 Americanization and the Faith of Augustana 
 
 In this significant cultural and intellectual transposition, which 
 began as a quiet leaven in the early years, but which gathered 
 steady momentum, so that from 1910 to about 1925 it swept like a 
 storm through the Synod, how had the faith of the Augustana Syn- 
 od fared? After the process of Anglicization and Americanization had 
 left its marks upon so much of the life of the Augustana Synod, 
 was the faith, the theological and confessional position of the found- 
 ing fathers, still the standpunkt of the children of the new age? Since 
 no survey or definitive study was undertaken to elicit accurate an- 
 swers to such questions, any conclusions that may now be drawn 
 must be general in nature, and based upon broad premises. 
 
 The first broad premise is that Augustana, in common with any 
 institution, has, in general, reflected the thought of its influential 
 teachers. The most influential teacher in the Synod after the death 
 of Hasselquist and Olof Olsson, was undoubtedly Dr. Conrad Emil 
 Lindberg, who taught systematic theology and symbolics at Augus- 
 tana Seminary from 1890 until his death in 1930. Dr. Lindberg was 
 a conservative Lutheran, who saw the theology of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury through the spectacles of the seventeenth-century Lutheran or- 
 thodox scholastics. But his own personal piety also reflected the in- 
 fluence of Carl Olof Rosenius. It was this man who set the funda- 
 mental pattern of thought for the clergy, and through them for the 
 laity, of the Augustana Synod for forty years. Though keenly aware 
 of the changing thought forms and approaches to theology charac- 
 teristic of the various theologians of his day, it is doubtful if Dr. 
 Lindberg seriously altered or drastically modified his basic and fun- 
 damental position during his years as a theological professor. He 
 was, to be sure, deeply interested in the controversies stirred up 
 
 50 For a more detailed account of the post-war years, see Nothstein, op. c'lt., 
 p. 340f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 250 
 
 by the higher and lower critics, but personally took relatively little 
 part in the debates. 51 This he left to his two colleagues on the theo- 
 logical faculty, Dr. S. G. Youngert and Dr. C. J. Sodergren. 
 
 These men did not share the fears of Dr. Alfred Bergin who 
 once declared that "modern biblical criticism is not at home within 
 our Synod. . . . The Augustana Synod can and will escape the mod- 
 ernist conflicts if we remain faithful to God's Word." 52 Youngert and 
 Sodergren sought to point out the positive contributions of both higher 
 and lower criticism, but they interpreted the critical schools in har- 
 mony with such conservative European theologians as Theodore Zahn 
 and Adolf Kolmodin. While Youngert held, for example, that the 
 source of the four written Gospels was an oral gospel, he also be- 
 lieved that Moses wrote all the books attributed to him in the ca- 
 nonical tradition, with the exception of the last chapter of Deuter- 
 onomy. Sodergren, however, took a more critical view of the Bible, 
 and taught that there are discrepancies in the biblical text, but firmly 
 contended for what he called "the plenary inspiration of the Bible," 
 which is to say, that the Bible is to be received as the inspired 
 word of God, and therefore normative for faith and practice, but 
 without making commitment to any particular theory of inspiration. 
 Regarding the teaching concerning the sacraments, all members of 
 the theological faculty were faithful exponents of the historic Lu- 
 theran confessions, maintaining baptismal regeneration, and Christ's 
 presence in the Eucharist. 53 The available sermons and addresses 
 which reflect the kind of preaching the people of the Augustana 
 Synod were listening to during and at the close of the period under 
 consideration, indicate that there was perhaps a more vivid sense of 
 the "existential," because of the climactic world events, and there- 
 fore a somewhat more deliberate effort to make preaching relevant 
 to the great problems of the day. Nevertheless, the available evi- 
 dence also suggests that theologically and doctrinally the great fun- 
 damental truths for which the pioneer forefathers of Augustana had 
 contended had been maintained in the period of cultural and intel- 
 lectual transposition. 
 
 This conclusion is supported by a second broad premise, which 
 is that the theology of a Church is reflected in the cult life of the 
 
 51 Karl E. Mattson, "The Theology of the Augustana Lutheran Church," Cen- 
 tennial Essays, op. cit, p. 46f. , TV 1ftA _ 
 
 52 "Den destruktiva bibelkritiken," Tidskrift for teologi, Vol. IX, 1907, pp. 
 
 135ff. , „ . , „ 
 
 53 Cf. Eric H. Wahlstrom, "The Means of Grace," Centennial Essays, op. cit., 
 
 pp. 51ff. 
 
 
 
251 Americanization of Augustana 
 
 people, and any serious modification of basic theology will be ex- 
 pressed in corresponding changes in cult patterns. In this connection, 
 it is instructive to note that the Order of Service which the new 
 English Hymnal and Service Book of 1925 provided was an English 
 adaptation of the Swedish Order of 1923. Though the Augustana 
 English liturgy of 1925 involved a number of changes from the old 
 Augustana Swedish Order of 1905, the liturgy for the chief service 
 including Holy Communion had no substantive changes which were 
 expressive of fundamental theological modifications. Thus, it may be 
 said that though the Augustana Synod, after 1925, worshiped and 
 expressed itself in the English language, the faith it held was basi- 
 cally the faith of the founding fathers. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Growth of Community 
 
 h~plHE American nation emerged from World War I with a new 
 sense of community. The gigantic mobilization of human and 
 material resources for the war effort had given the entire land a 
 common cause which had demanded a common sacrifice and a common 
 loyalty, which in turn created a broader and deeper spirit of national 
 unity than the country had known since the days before the Civil War. 
 The 112,000 Americans who were killed in action, and the 237,000 
 Americans who were wounded, came from every section of the coun- 
 try and from all segments of the social scale, including Boston Blue- 
 bloods and Kentucky hillbillies. The meatless, wheatless, sweetless, 
 and heatless days imposed by the Food and Fuel Administrations were 
 burdens which were borne by young and old, rich and poor, country 
 and city dweller, alike. Liberty bonds were purchased from border to 
 border and coast to coast, frequently by those who had to borrow the 
 money to pay for them. Massive shifts in the population had served 
 to dissipate the traditional sectionalism and parochial loyalties and en- 
 gender a broader sense of American nationalism. 1 
 
 The new sense of community reached, however, beyond American 
 borders. During the war years the United States had almost unwit- 
 tingly become the "good Samaritan" to other nations of the world. 
 Under the inspiring leadership of Herbert Hoover, thousands of tons 
 of food and clothing were collected and shipped to Europe to relieve 
 the sufferings attendant upon the war. The entire country of Belgium 
 was literally saved from starvation by American aid, while thousands 
 of men, women, and children in France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and 
 Armenia were given medicine, food, and clothing, and thus provided 
 with a new chance for survival. By responding to the numerous ap- 
 peals for help from suffering people in many parts of the world, 
 America discovered a new dimension of community concern which was 
 worldwide. Thus, the World War, though brutalizing in many of its 
 
 1 Olmstead, op. cit, pp. 495-514. Current, Williams and Freidel, op. cit, pp. 
 660-679. Wentz, op. cit., pp. 251ff. Abell, Fleming, Levack, McAvoy and 
 Mannion, op. cit., pp. 480-499. 
 
 252 
 
253 Growth of Community 
 
 effects, did generate a new spirit of community consciousness which 
 transcended national boundaries and possessed a world-wide scope. 2 
 
 Augustana and The Developing Sense of Community 
 
 While all of America participated to some extent in the develop- 
 ment of this new consciousness of community, no segment of Ameri- 
 can society responded more eagerly to its challenge or expressed and 
 embodied its ideals more vigorously than the American churches. 
 Whether it was the sale of liberty bonds or the collection of food and 
 clothing for European relief, the religious forces of America took the 
 lead and got the job done. And among them was the Augustana 
 Synod. 
 
 During this period the Synod enjoyed the good fortune of having 
 a capable man at the helm who was in complete sympathy with the 
 trend of the times. Gustaf Albert Brandelle, president of the Augus- 
 tana Synod from 1918 until the fall of 1935, was an advocate of ecu- 
 menism. He led the Synod through the transition "from the older Au- 
 gustana, suspicious in its dealings with non-Lutheran church bodies 
 and cautious in relations with Lutheran synods in America, to a Synod 
 friendly in its attitudes toward other Protestants and active in fur- 
 thering co-operation within Lutheranism." 3 As vice president of the 
 Synod, he presided over the synodical convention in Minneapolis, 
 1918, when the Augustana Church made its historic decision not to 
 join the United Lutheran Church in America. 4 " 
 
 Formation of the United Lutheran Church 
 
 For more than a quarter of a century the three great Luther- 
 an federations in America, the General Synod, the General Coun- 
 cil and the United Synod of the South, had been moving steadily 
 closer together. The three bodies had resolved their theological differ- 
 ences and had undertaken a number of co-operative endeavors, in- 
 cluding home and foreign missions, and the creation of the Common 
 Service Book for public worship. By the second decade of the twen- 
 tieth century, the relations between the three bodies had become so 
 cordial that eventual organic union was almost taken for granted and 
 
 2 W. W. Sweet, The Story of Religion in America, New York, 1939, pp. 551- 
 597. W. E. Garrison, The March of Faith, New York, 1933, Chapters XVI- 
 XIX. Gaius Glenn Atkins, Religion in Our Times, New York, 1932, pp. llOff. 
 
 3 C. Bergendoff, Centennial Essays, op. cit., p. 102. 
 
 4 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1918, p. 145f. The courage of Brandelle's leader- 
 ship is evident in this episode. 
 
Augustana Heritage 254 
 
 awaited only the right moment. 5 The precipitating occasion was the 
 Quadri-Centennial of the Reformation in 1917. Plans for a worthy cel- 
 ebration of this notable anniversary had been under way for a number 
 of years. A Joint Committee on the celebration of the Quadri-Cen- 
 tennial of the Reformation, representing the three bodies was organ- 
 ized in 1914, and established headquarters in Philadelphia. In April, 
 1917, a number of members of this Joint Committee formulated the 
 following resolution which was referred to the presidents of the three 
 church bodies for action: 
 
 Believing that the time has come for a more complete organiza- 
 tion of the Lutheran Church in this country, we propose that the 
 General Synod, the General Council and the United Synod of the 
 South, together with all other bodies who are one with us in our 
 Lutheran faith be united as soon as possible in one general or- 
 ganization to be known as The United Lutheran Church in 
 America. 6 
 
 The three presidents responded to this overture by appointing a com- 
 mittee to draft a constitution for a United Church to be submitted to 
 the general bodies. By November, 1917, the three general bodies had 
 approved the proposed constitution, and the matter was then submitted 
 to the forty-six district synods constituting the three federations. From 
 the fall of 1917 until the synodical convention in Minneapolis, June 
 5-11, 1918, the Augustana Church, as a district synod of the General 
 Council, wrestled with the question whether or not to join the mer- 
 ger. 7 The columns of both the synodical papers, Augustana and the 
 Lutheran Companion, were filled with articles from pastors and lay- 
 men for and against the merger. Although the editors of both papers 
 sought to maintain a neutral policy and present both sides of the ques- 
 tion, it is evident that the Swedish Augustana was lukewarm toward 
 the merger, while the Lutheran Companion, speaking for the more 
 Americanized elements in the Synod, was enthusiastic in its support 
 of the merger and urged Augustana to join the new church body. This 
 difference in the attitude of the two official newspapers of the Synod 
 reflected the differences of attitude within the Synod itself toward the 
 General Council and, indeed, toward the very idea of federation. The 
 conservative Swedish segments favored for the most part, an indepen- 
 dent policy, and could not forget the pressures put upon them by the 
 English missions of the General Council. This antipathy toward the 
 
 5 Wentz, Basic History of the Lutheran Church in America, op. cit., pp. 279ff. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 282. 
 
 7 See editorial "Did the Merger Receive a Fair Show in Minneapolis?" Lu- 
 theran Companion, July 6, 1918, pp. 333ff. 
 
255 Growth of Community 
 
 Council was particularly strong in the Minnesota Conference, although 
 it was by no means limited to that area. 8 In the public press, however, 
 somewhat less provincial reasons were given for opposing the merger. 
 The opponents of merger quoted with approval the charge which Dr. 
 F. Richter, president of the Iowa Synod, made to the effect that any 
 merger with the General Synod would mean unionism with the dis- 
 credited "American Lutheranism" of S. S. Schmucker. 9 Similarly, 
 Professor R. C. Lenski of the Joint Synod of Ohio opposed the merger 
 because he claimed that Dr. V. G. A. Tressler, president of the General 
 Synod, was a member of the Knight Templars, one of the higher Ma- 
 sonic orders. He asserted, therefore, that to become a party to the pro- 
 posed merger was tantamount to condoning lodgery. This charge was 
 also echoed in the anti-merger camp of Augustana. 10 An article signed 
 by "K. B." which appeared in Augustana, opposed the merger on the 
 grounds that after the cessation of war hostilities, the Augustana Synod 
 could well expect a great new influx of Swedish immigrants. An in- 
 dependent, Swedish-speaking Augustana Synod would be better able 
 to meet the needs of these newcomers and attract them into the Lu- 
 theran fold than a Synod "swallowed up in a huge, new federation." 11 
 A layman from Nebraska opposed the merger because he felt that the 
 Lutherans in the other church bodies were not sufficiently spiritual, 
 and claimed to prove his point by reminding his readers of the fact 
 that German people were known by everyone to like their "beer and 
 schnapps." 12 
 
 In contrast to these sentiments, strong, vigorous, and vocal sup- 
 port for the merger was being given by the somewhat less staid, 
 younger, English-speaking elements in the Synod. They saw the mer- 
 ger as offering the best possibility for bringing the Augustana Church 
 more quickly and directly into the center of American life and cul- 
 ture. 
 
 The acknowledged leader of this section of the Augustana Synod 
 was the Synod's president, Dr. Brandelle. 13 In spite of the widespread 
 
 8 Stephenson, op. cit., p. 320. The outstanding example of Swedish antipathy 
 to merger, and the document which best summarizes the synodical deter- 
 mination to maintain synodical independence on nationalistic grounds is S. 
 G. Ohman, Auyustanasynodens sjalfstdndighetsfdrklaring, Worcester, Mass. 
 1918. 
 
 9 Lutheran Companion, January 12, 1918, p. 18. 
 
 10 See article by J. P. Leaf, "I foreningsfragan," Augustana, June 13, 1918, 
 p. 386. 
 
 ^Augustana, January 24, 1918, p. 57. 
 
 12 Alf. B. Olson, Lutheran Companion, March 30, 1918, p. 160f. 
 
 13 For an estimate of Dr. Brandelle's leadership in this area of activity, see 
 Gustav Andreen, "Gustaf Albert Brandelle," My Church, Vol. XXII, 1936, 
 
Augustana Heritage 256 
 
 opposition to the merger which he knew to be prevailing throughout 
 the Synod, and courting disfavor and personal unpopularity for his 
 stand, Brandelle nevertheless led the battle for merger. In his annual 
 report to the Minneapolis convention, 1918, he declared: 
 
 The purpose of this merger is not to hinder the activity of this 
 or any other synod. It does not involve in any degree the extirpa- 
 tion of any synod or any foreign language. For a long time the 
 need for greater Lutheran unity in our country has been apparent, 
 and in our present circumstances it has become particularly im- 
 perative. It is not possible just now to unite all Lutheran synods 
 in the land in a single whole, but if that shall ever occur, there 
 must be a beginning at some point, and that starting point has 
 been given in the merger proposal which is before us. If this 
 merger will be consummated, other synods from time to time will 
 come with us. Those who are along from the beginning will be 
 privileged to have a part in arranging the organization, while those 
 who dally and come in later will have to accept what is offered. 
 It is my honest and earnest desire that the Augustana Synod, 
 which participated in the establishment of the General Council 
 over fifty years ago, will also participate in the establishment of 
 the United Lutheran Church, which beyond all other Lutheran 
 organizations in this country will be the Lutheran Church of the 
 future in the entire nation. 14 
 
 In addition to Brandelle's plea, four representatives from the General 
 Council, Dr. H. E. Jacobs, Dr. H. A. Waller, Dr. W. D. C. Keiter, and 
 Mr. E. Clarence Miller were in attendance at the Minneapolis conven- 
 tion and added their voices in urging Augustana to become a part of 
 the merger. But there was a combination of causes working together 
 to frustrate these designs: a nationalistic loyalty to the Swedish tradi- 
 tion; a reaction against union resulting from the unpleasant experi- 
 ences which competition with the English missions of the General 
 Council had engendered, especially in Minnesota; a conviction that the 
 time had not yet come when the Augustana Synod could divert its 
 chief attention in home missions from the Swedish immigrants, and 
 that the Synod could best meet immigrant needs as an independent 
 synod; the belief that the safest and most promising way to achieve a 
 broad and true Lutheran unity in America was by taking one step at 
 a time, beginning with a federation wherein the existing synods would 
 preserve their corporate identity, and work toward eventual organic 
 union. 
 
 pp 17-27. E. E. Ryden, "A Tribute to Dr. Brandelle." My Church, XXI, pp. 
 75ff. 
 ^Referat, Augustana Synod, 1918, p. 24. 
 
257 Growth of Community 
 
 When it became evident in the debate at the Minneapolis con- 
 vention that for one or more of the above reasons the majority was 
 ready to reject out of hand the whole idea of merger, the following 
 "compromise resolution" was offered by Pastor C. R. Swanson, presi- 
 dent of the Columbia Conference, 
 
 Resolved that the Augustana Synod does not at this time see 
 its way clear to enter the proposed merger of the United Lu- 
 theran Church in America, but declares itself in favor of a con- 
 federation of Lutheran church bodies in North America. 15 
 This resolution was adopted by an almost unanimous vote. And at 
 a later session during the convention this action was supplemented 
 by adopting the following resolution: 
 
 Whereas, the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod has de- 
 cided not to join the proposed merger of the General Synod, 
 the General Council and the United Synod South, and 
 
 Whereas, the relation on the part of the synods belonging to 
 the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North 
 America, appears to be of such a nature that the joining of the 
 merger on the part of the General Council of the Evangelical Lu- 
 theran Church in North America carries with it all the synods 
 belonging to the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church in North America, in which event also the Evangelical 
 Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America would become a 
 party to the merger; therefore be it 
 
 Resolved: 
 
 1. That the Synod do now proceed to dissolve its connection 
 with the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church 
 in North America. 
 
 2. That the Synod respectfully requests of the General Council 
 of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America the 
 privilege to withdraw from the General Council of the Evan- 
 gelical Lutheran Church in North America at its next meet- 
 ing. 
 
 3. That the synodical Board of Missions is hereby directed to 
 formulate ways and means for continuing our common work 
 with the other synods of the General Council and that the 
 Board report its action to the Synod as soon as possible. 16 
 
 When the General Council met for its thirty-sixth convention in Holy 
 Trinity Church, New York City, November 12-15, 1918, it responded 
 to the Augustana request for dismissal by adopting the following: 
 
 15 
 
 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1918, p. 146. See also the report of these pro- 
 ceedings in Lutheran Companion, June 22, 1918, p. 110. 
 16 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1918, p. 146. See also Referat, Augustana Synod, 
 1919, p. 24. The "common work" included foreign missions and campus min- 
 istry to students. 
 
Augustana Heritage 258 
 
 Whereas, the Augustana Synod after fifty years' identification 
 with the General Council, and active co-operation in its work, 
 has formally notified the General Council of its desire and in- 
 tention to withdraw; and 
 
 Whereas, the reason assigned for such withdrawal is the union 
 of other Synods of the General Council in the United Lutheran 
 Church of America; and 
 
 Whereas, the founders of the Augustana Synod, even prior to 
 the formation of the General Council, earnestly co-operated with 
 those who founded that body in the clear confession, maintenance, 
 and defense of the confessional position for which the General 
 Council has always stood, and in the efforts to give such posi- 
 tion that wide recognition which it today has attained; and 
 
 Whereas, the General Council remembers with thankfulness 
 the devoted lives and services of Doctors Hasselquist, Olsson, and 
 Esbjorn, Jonas Swensson, Drs. Carlsson and Norelius, and other 
 fathers of the Augustana Synod, and the efficiency of Drs. Carl 
 Swensson and Ranseen as presidents of the General Council, 
 Therefore, be it Resolved — 
 
 That we record with great satisfaction the fact that the Augus- 
 tana Synod so long in unity of faith with the General Council 
 does not withdraw because of any differences in faith and prac- 
 tice; 
 
 That we remember with gratitude the saintly lives and the 
 noble examples of the fathers of the Augustana Synod; 
 
 That we express our deepest regret that the Augustana Synod 
 could not see its way clear at this time to remain with the Gen- 
 eral Council and enter with it into The United Lutheran Church; 
 
 That we appreciate the desire of the Augustana Synod to co- 
 operate with The United Lutheran Church in educational and 
 missionary work, especially Foreign Mission work, to which the 
 Augustana Synod has furnished so many laborers and given such 
 full measure of devotion for many years; 
 
 That we express the hope that the Augustana Synod may soon 
 determine to enter into organic union with The United Lutheran 
 Church and aid in the formation of one American Lutheran 
 Church; 
 
 That these resolutions be spread upon our minutes, published 
 in our church papers, and transmitted to the President of the 
 Augustana Synod. 17 
 
 With this action the connection between the Augustana Synod and 
 the General Council was formally dissolved, and the Swedes had, 
 for the second time, severed their ties with the Muhlenberg tradi- 
 
 
 17 Minutes of the Thirty-sixth Convention of the General Council of the Evan- 
 gelical Lutheran Church in North America, New York City, November 12- 
 15, 1918, p. lOf. 
 
259 Growth of Community 
 
 tion. 18 Augustana's withdrawal was assailed by some of its critics 
 as being the result of the domination of "reactionaries." 19 Others 
 charged that Augustana was guilty of "un-American and un-Lu- 
 theran action," and of having "subordinated the unity of faith to 
 the unity of race" because it was honeycombed with "provincial- 
 ism" and "narrow nationalism." 20 
 
 Spokesmen for Augustana defended the Synod against such at- 
 tacks by admitting that there was indeed a measure of Swedish 
 loyalty in the Synod, for which very few were ready to apologize, 
 but such loyalty was not a primary motivation in Augustana's re- 
 fusal to merge. The chief reason for Augustana's insistence on main- 
 taining its corporate existence was that the continuing work of im- 
 migrant home missions was still great enough to demand an inde- 
 pendent organization for its prosecution. Upon this basic premise the 
 Synod argued for the formation of some kind of federation as a more 
 acceptable step toward the kind of true unity out of which organic 
 consolidation could ultimately eventuate. Organic merger at this junc- 
 ture was, at least for Augustana, premature. The Augustana apolo- 
 gists asked that the Synod's withdrawal from the Council and from 
 the merger with the United Lutheran Church be given sympathetic 
 consideration from these premises. 21 
 
 Although the Augustana Synod for reasons which it deemed 
 good and sufficient, refused to become a part of the new United 
 Lutheran Church in America, the formation of that body in 1918 
 was in itself a manifestation of the growing sense of unity and com- 
 munity among Lutherans in America. While remaining outside the 
 organization of the United Lutheran Church, Augustana established 
 working agreements with the new body which enabled the Synod 
 to continue the missionary activities initiated while still connected 
 with the General Council. These activities included the work on the 
 
 18 The rupture with the General Synod in 1860, constituted the first break. 
 The General Council included, to be sure, elements which did not stem from 
 the labors of Muhlenberg, but the greater part of the General Council was 
 comprised of district synods which, like Pennsylvania and New York, looked 
 back to Muhlenberg origins. 
 
 19 Quotation from "G. H. T.," in The Lutheran, Lutheran Companion, July 6, 
 1918, p. 333f. 
 
 20 See article titled "The Progress of the Merger" in The Lutheran, June 20, 
 1918. See also article titled "The Merger" in Lutheran Companion, July 
 6, 1918. 
 
 21 See for example article by Adolf Hult, titled "Augustana's Idealism in Her 
 Federation Action," Lutheran Companion, August 31, 1918, pp. 443-445. See 
 also editorials in Augustana, November 28, 1918, p. 772f.; February 20, 1919, 
 p. 120. 
 
Augustana Heritage 260 
 
 foreign field in India, and the campus ministry to Lutheran students 
 here at home. In both these areas Augustana and the United Lu- 
 theran Church became working partners. 22 
 
 The principle of federation instead of organic union must be seen 
 as constituting a basic conviction of the Augustana Synod in 1918 
 rather than mere loose talk behind which narrow Swedish provin- 
 cialism sought to hide. This is attested by the readiness with which 
 Augustana co-operated in the formation of the National Lutheran 
 Council. To be sure, the National Lutheran Council did not turn 
 out to be a federation, in the strict sense of the word; it is rather a 
 co-operative agency. But by bringing a number of independent 
 bodies together in a co-operative coalition which enabled the con- 
 stituents to undertake vast programs of common endeavors, the Na- 
 tional Lutheran Council has served the purposes of a federation. In 
 the creation of the Council, and in bringing the Augustana Synod 
 into the center of its activities, G. A. Brandelle played a leading 
 role. 23 
 
 ; 
 
 Formation of the National Lutheran Council 
 
 The National Lutheran Council, a coalition of Lutheran bodies 
 which cut across cultural and nationalistic lines, expressed and em- . 
 bodied the new sense of community within the Lutheran household 
 in 1918. Its origins, however, were neither sudden nor fortuitous. 
 The begiiining of the National Lutheran Council may be said to 
 have two main tap roots; the one in the preparations for the ob- 
 servance of the Quadri-Centennial of the Reformation in 1917, and 
 the other in the exigencies of World War I. 24 
 
 In 1916, a year before the Quadricentennial, a representative group 
 of Lutherans in New York formed The Lutheran Society, for the pur- 
 
 22 Swanson Foundation for Tomorrow, op. cit., pp. 54ff. Minutes of the First 
 Convention of the United Lutheran Church in America, 1918, p. 50. Referat, 
 Augustana Synod, 1919, p. 58. 
 
 23 For an interesting defense of his leadership in bringing Augustana into the 
 N. L. C. see Brandelle's reply to an attack on the N. L. C. by C. J. Soder- 
 gren, in Augustana, March 20, 1919, p. 182f. Sodergren wrote a caustic ar- 
 ticle denouncing the N. L. C. as "a new merger." In view of the Synod's 
 recent refusal to merge with the U. L. C. A., Sodergren charged that Bran- 
 delle had acted deviously, "going behind the back of the Synod" to bring 
 Augustana into the N. L. C. In an equally caustic article, Augustana, April 
 3, 1919, p. 223, Brandelle categorically denied Sodergren's charges, and ac- 
 cused him of a lack of candor and of being a peevish, self-appointed judge 
 in matters of which he had little knowledge. 
 
 24 For a detailed account of the formation of the National Lutheran Council 
 see Osborne Hauge, Lutherans Working Together, New York, n. d., pp. 23-37. 
 
 
261 Growth of Community 
 
 pose of promoting and publicizing the forthcoming Reformation fes- 
 tivities. This agency was directed by the Rev. O. H. Pannkoke. The 
 Quadricentennial awakened a new Lutheran self-consciousness, and 
 brought Lutherans together clear across the land. The publicity So- 
 ciety was so successful in the undertakings that after the Reformation 
 celebration it was continued as a permanent Lutheran agency and its 
 name changed to The Lutheran Bureau. The Bureau was described 
 by its director as an agency "of information to Lutherans and Lutheran 
 churches about their Church, and about things of interest to their 
 Church and to their work. It is a bureau of information for the world 
 at large about the Lutheran Church, its history, its activities, its 
 achievements." 25 In accomplishing its purpose the Lutheran Bureau 
 did much to create a favorable climate for the emergence of closer ties 
 among Lutherans in America and thus contributed to the laying of 
 the foundation for the National Lutheran Council. 
 
 During World War I, virtually all Lutheran bodies in America 
 participated in the support of a service agency which was organized in 
 October, 1917, for the purpose of ministering to the spiritual welfare 
 of men in the armed services of the United States. This agency was 
 The National Lutheran Commission jor Soldiers' and Sailors' Wel- 
 fare. 26 The Commission employed 150 camp pastors, aided in the re- 
 cruitment and equipping of 89 army and 11 navy chaplains, maintained 
 30 service centers at home and in Europe, ministered to the sick and 
 dying in some 60 hospitals, and sent a team of commissioners to France 
 to help the French Lutheran Church and to serve the needs of Ameri- 
 can soldiers at the front and at rest centers. 27 The European commis- 
 sioners received numerous urgent appeals from many countries plead- 
 ing for financial, physical, and moral help. These appeals were trans- 
 mitted to the people in America and served to awaken a new aware- 
 ness of the immense human needs which the war created in Europe. 
 At home, the rapidly expanding industrial areas contingent upon the 
 war effort brought together new concentrations of people, and created 
 social, economic and religious problems which called for urgent solu- 
 tion. Circumstances such as these combined to impel Lutheran lead- 
 ers to give new and more serious thought to the imperative need for 
 some kind of a permanent Lutheran agency which could provide the 
 
 25 Ibid., p. 24. 
 
 26 Ibid., p. 24f. The Augustana Synod was represented on the Commission by 
 Dr. C. A. Blomgren, and the Rev. C. E. Hoffsten functioned for some time as 
 a field secretary. See report of Second Annual Meeting National Lutheran 
 Commission for Soldiers' and Sailors' Welfare, October 16, 1918, New York. 
 
 27 Wentz, op. cit., p. 302. 
 
Augustana Heritage 262 
 
 framework within which Lutheran bodies could continue, and even 
 expand, their co-operative endeavors. 28 
 
 Without waiting for official action by their respective church 
 bodies, the presidents of those Synods which had co-operated in the 
 National Lutheran Commission met in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 
 17, 1918, and formulated plans for the creation of "a national council 
 or committee of the Lutheran Church." A second preliminary session 
 was held on August 1, 1918, at Pittsburgh, where plans were drawn 
 up for a constituting convention to be held at the Auditorium Hotel, 
 Chicago, Illinois, September 6, 1918. In all of these preliminary plan- 
 ning sessions Dr. G. A. Brandelle, representing the Augustana Synod, 
 took an active part. 29 Thirty men, representing eight Lutheran bodies 
 and the National Lutheran Commission, gathered in Chicago for the 
 session at the Auditorium Hotel. The Augustana Synod was repre- 
 sented by two clergymen, Drs. Brandelle and Peter Peterson, and two 
 laymen, Mr. N. A. Nelson and Mr. C. J. Appell. 30 The new organiza- 
 tion that was formed at Chicago was called The National Lutheran 
 Council. The first officers were: President, Dr. H. G. Stub, president 
 of the Norwegian Lutheran Church; Vice-President Mr. John L. Zim- 
 merman, of the General Synod; Secretary, Dr. Lauritz Larsen, of the 
 Norwegian Lutheran Church; Treasurer, Mr. E. F. Eilert who repre- 
 sented the National Lutheran Commission. In addition to these of- 
 ficers, the following men were chosen to serve as members of the ex- 
 ecutive committee of the Council, Dr. F. H. Knubel, president of the 
 National Lutheran Commission, and soon to be elected the first presi- 
 dent of the United Lutheran Church; Dr. C. H. L. Schuette of the 
 Joint Synod of Ohio; Dr. G. A. Brandelle, president of the Augustana 
 Synod, and Dr. H. A. Waller of the General Council. 31 The objec- 
 tives of the new Council were stated to be: 
 
 28 Resolutions to synodical presidents from National Association of Lutheran 
 Editors, dated Waverly, Iowa, July 9, 1918, urging the presidents to take the 
 initiative in the formation of a new Lutheran federation in America, signed 
 by E. H. Treusch, document in Brandelle Collection, Augustana Archives. 
 See also Hauge, op. cit., p. 27f. 
 
 29 Minutes of these sessions are preserved in the Brandelle Collection, Augus- 
 tana Archives. 
 
 30 Minutes of the First Meeting, National Lutheran Council, Brandelle Col- 
 lection. The general bodies represented were: The Augustana Synod, The 
 General Synod, The General Council, The Joint Synod of Ohio, the Synod of 
 Iowa, The Norwegian Lutheran Church, The Norwegian Lutheran Free 
 Church and the Danish Lutheran Church. 
 
 31 Minutes of the First Meeting of the National Lutheran Council, Brandelle 
 Collection. Other men who played a prominent part in the early history of 
 N. L. C. were: V. G. A. Tressler, T. E. Schmauk, C. M. Jacobs, F. Richter, 
 M. Fritschel, L. W. Boe, George Sverdrup, W. C. Keiter, J. Siebert, G. K. 
 
263 Growth of Community 
 
 1. To speak for the Lutheran Church and give publicity to its utter- 
 ances on all matters which require an expression of the common con- 
 viction and sentiment of the Church. 2. To be the representative of 
 the Lutheran Church in America in its attitude toward or relation to, 
 organized bodies outside itself, including national and state govern- 
 ments. 3. To bring to the attention of the participating bodies all such 
 matters as require common utterances or action. 4. To further the 
 work of recognized agencies of the Church that deal with problems 
 arising out of war or other emergencies; to co-ordinate, harmonize, 
 and unify their activities; and to create new agencies to meet circum- 
 stances which require common action. 5. To co-ordinate the activities 
 of the Church and its agencies for the solution of new problems which 
 affect the religious life and consciousness of the people, e. g., social, 
 economic, and educational conditions. 6. To foster true Christian loy- 
 alty to the state; and to labor for the maintenance of a right relation 
 between Church and state as distinct, divine institutions. 7. To pro- 
 mote the gathering and publication of true and uniform statistical in- 
 formation concerning the Lutheran Church in America. 8. To under- 
 take such additional work as the participating bodies prescribe, with- 
 out any interference on the Council's part, in any way, in the internal 
 life and affairs of the participating bodies. 32 
 
 After its formation in 1918, the National Lutheran Council 
 launched a broad program of home missions in the industrial centers 
 of America; it undertook a nationwide publicity campaign to aid in 
 the prosecution of home and foreign missions, and it established a 
 bureau for gathering and publishing statistical information concerning 
 the Lutheran Church in America. 33 During the first decade of its ex- 
 istence, however, the most important work of the Council centered in 
 its program of European relief and reconstruction. Five commission- 
 ers were appointed to go to Europe and ascertain the needs there. 34 
 
 Rubrecht, J. Stump, John Morehead, G. L. Kieffer, W. H. Greever, O. Mees, 
 H. E. Eilert, E. H. Rausch, J. Kildsig, G. T. Rygh, S. G. Youngert, G. A. 
 Fandrey, and F. M. Riter. 
 
 32 Wentz, op. tit, p. 303f. The purposes of the Council are given under Ar- 
 ticle II, Regulations Governing the National Lutheran Council, Minutes, op. 
 tit., pp. 2fr. 
 
 33 Hauge, op. tit, pp. 38ff. 
 
 34 The five commissioners were: Dr. John A. Morehead, president of Roanoke 
 College, Professor Sven G. Youngert, Augustana Seminary, Rock Island; 
 Rev. Gustav A. Fandrey of Chicago, Rev. H. J. Schuh of Ana, Ohio, and 
 Rev. George T. Rygh of Columbus, S. C. These five co-operated with the 
 three representatives of the National Lutheran Commission who were al- 
 ready working in France, M. F. M. Riter, Dr. Charles J. Smith, and Pro- 
 fessor M. J. Stolee. Ibid., p. 43. 
 
Augustana Heritage 264 
 
 At the same time an appeal for $500,000 was made to the churches. 
 The response was so great that $600,000 was given, and gifts large and 
 small, continued to flow into the treasury of the Council. By Septem- 
 ber, 1921, the Council had distributed more than $1,250,000 in finan- 
 cial aid, together with food and clothing worth twice that amount. 
 This aid was given to suffering people in seventeen European coun- 
 tries, although most of it went to Lutherans in France, Germany, Po- 
 land, and Czechoslovakia. In the first ten years of its existence, the 
 National Lutheran Council expended nearly $8,000,000 for European 
 relief. 35 
 
 The major premise upon which this remarkable enterprise in Lu- 
 theran co-operation was predicated was the avowed principle that all 
 co-operative work within the framework of the National Lutheran 
 Council must be limited to external matters only. Res externae was 
 the oft-repeated phrase which was used to identify the legitimate 
 areas of Council co-operation, in contrast to res intemae, internal 
 matters, over which the Council was to have nothing whatever to say. 
 This principle of limitation reflected the suspicions which some mem- 
 bers of the Council entertained toward other members. The tension 
 involved especially the relationship between the Norwegian Lutheran 
 Church of America and the United Lutheran Church in America both 
 of which had been recently formed. 36 The Norwegians led by Dr. H. 
 G. Stub, were suspicious of the doctrinal integrity of those elements 
 in the United Lutheran Church which represented the tradition of the 
 old General Synod. In the theological debates and discussions which 
 had taken place over the past quarter of a century, the Norwegians, 
 with a few notable exceptions, 37 had followed the leadership of the 
 Missouri Synod and had identified themselves with repristination con- 
 fessionalism. They tended to share the Missouri spirit of exclusive- 
 ness, and to insist, as Missouri did, upon extraconfessional refine- 
 ments of doctrine as well as uniformity in church practice. The Nor- 
 wegians, therefore, looked upon themselves as in some sense "more 
 Lutheran" than the United Lutheran Church, and in any dealings 
 with the U. L. C. A. wished to guard themselves against unionism, 
 that is, fellowship without a common faith. 38 
 
 35 Wentz, op. cit., p. 307f. 
 
 36 In June, 1917 the United Norwegian Lutheran Church, the Hauge Synod and 
 the Norwegian Synod merged to form the Norwegian Lutheran Church of 
 America. The United Lutheran Church in America was organized Novem- 
 ber 14-18, 1918. 
 
 37 Examples of such exceptions were George Sverdrup, T. N. Kildahl, and E. 
 K. Johnsen. 
 
 38 An analysis of the Norwegian position as related to Missouri, on the one 
 
265 Growth of Community 
 
 As the constituent bodies of the National Lutheran Council 
 worked together on large and important tasks it became clear that it 
 is virtually impossible to separate res externae from res internae, 
 that Life and Work cannot be neatly isolated from Faith and Order. 
 This difficulty reached a climax in connection with the Council's home 
 missions program in wartime industrial centers. This task was seen 
 as such an ambitious undertaking that it was deemed most advanta- 
 geous for the Council to work out a program of action in co-operation 
 with the various home mission boards represented in the Council's 
 membership. 39 Accordingly, the executive committee of the Council 
 met with representatives of the home mission boards at Columbus, 
 Ohio, December 10, 1918. At this Home Mission Conference it was 
 decided that the Council be requested to take up the work of home 
 missions in government-controlled industrial centers, "provided, how- 
 ever, that it be the understanding that the work is to be turned over 
 to the proper home mission boards as soon as it is found practicable." 40 
 To avoid overlapping, duplication, and wasteful competition in the 
 whole area of Lutheran home missions, the question was raised re- 
 garding the possibility of creating a permanent agency in the Council 
 for the co-ordination of home mission efforts among those belonging 
 to the Council. Dr. Stub declared however, that a permanent home 
 mission council would hardly be possible "until the various synods 
 are willing to recognize each other as brethren in the faith. 41 In re- 
 sponse to the Norwegians' insistence for doctrinal clarification, the 
 following resolution was adopted: 
 
 Resolved, That we petition the National Lutheran Council to 
 request all presidents of the various Synods represented in it, or 
 that may be willing to co-operate, to appoint one or more mem- 
 bers of their respective bodies, who shall constitute a joint com- 
 mittee to confer on questions of doctrine and practice with a view 
 to the co-ordination of their home mission and other work. 42 
 
 In accordance with this resolution the Joint Committee on Doctrine 
 and Practice of the National Lutheran Council was created, and held 
 its first meeting at the LaSalle Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, March 11-13, 
 1919. A second meeting of this committee was held at the Edgewater 
 
 hand, and to the U. L. C. A., on the other, is presented in E. Clifford Nelson, 
 The Lutheran Church Among Norwegian- Americans, op. tit., Vol. II, pp. 
 287fT. 
 
 39 Annual Report of the National Lutheran Council, November 6, 1919, p. 13f. 
 
 40 Minutes of Home Mission Conference, Columbus, Ohio, December 10, 1918, 
 p. 3, Brandelle Collection, 
 
 41 Ibid., p. 4. 
 
 42 Ibid., p. 4, 
 

 Augustana Heritage 266 
 
 Beach Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, January 26-28, 1920. These meetings 
 are historically significant since they provided the occasion for the ar- 
 ticulation of two distinct theological viewpoints which hitherto had 
 not been clearly accented, but which became characteristic of the two 
 dominant schools of thought in the National Lutheran Council and 
 exerted a profound influence upon future developments within that 
 body. At the meeting in 1919, the Augustana Synod was represented 
 by Dr. G. A. Brandelle, Dr. S. G. Youngert, and Dr. O. J. Johnson. 43 
 At the meeting in 1920, the Augustana representatives were Drs. 
 Brandelle and Youngert. 44 
 
 In preparation for the first meeting of the Joint Committee on 
 Doctrine and Practice, the committee of presidents had decided to ask 
 Dr. H. E. Jacobs of the United Lutheran Church, Dr. C. H. L. Schuet- 
 te of the Joint Synod of Ohio, Dr. F. Richter of the Iowa Synod, and 
 Dr. H. G. Stub of the Norwegian Lutheran Church "to prepare papers 
 on the questions to be discussed from the point of view of their re- 
 spective church bodies," and Dr. Frederick Knubel, president of the 
 United Lutheran Church, had been requested to prepare a paper on 
 the subject "The Essentials of a Catholic Spirit." 45 
 
 The paper by Stub, which was made the basis for discussion at 
 the first meeting of the Joint Committee, delineated the Norwegian 
 position, with which especially the Ohio and Iowa Synods evidenced 
 a strong sympathy. 46 The papers of Knubel and Jacobs enunciated 
 the theological principles to which the United Lutheran Church was 
 committed and constituted the primary subject matter of the second 
 meeting of the Joint Commission. 47 
 
 In his presentation Dr. Stub declared that the churches co-oper- 
 ating in the National Lutheran Council had been "thrown together" 
 by the exigencies of the World War, but that this emergency associa- 
 tion could make no claim "to be a body of men who had the right to 
 
 4 3 Minutes of the Joint Committee on Doctrine and Practice of the Lutheran 
 bodies associated in the National Lutheran Council, Chicago, Illinois, March 
 11-13, 1919, p. 1. 
 
 44 Minutes, Joint Conference on Doctrine and Practices, Chicago, Illinois, Jan- 
 uary 27-28, 1920, p. 1. 
 
 4-°Ibid., p. 2. 
 
 46 This sympathy was based not only upon the fact that Ohio and Iowa shared 
 in general the doctrinal viewpoint of the Norwegians, but also upon their 
 antipathy toward the U. L. C. A. because of suspicions regarding the laxity 
 of the old General Synod in theology and practice. See Fred W. Meuser, 
 The Formation of the American Lutheran Church, Columbus, Ohio, 1958, 
 pp. 149ff. 
 
 47 See Minutes for the two meetings of the Joint Commission on Doctrine and 
 Practice. 
 
267 Growth of Community 
 
 declare that the Lutheran bodies taking part, thereby had become one 
 in faith and practice and therefore now at once could unite in perma- 
 nent church work and co-ordination and co-operation in home and 
 foreign mission work." 48 Before any serious consideration could be 
 given to permanent co-operation and the establishment of real fellow- 
 ship among the member bodies of the National Lutheran Council, it 
 was imperative for them to agree regarding the following doctrines 
 which had been the subjects of debate among Lutherans in America: 
 
 1. In regard to the work of Christ, redemption and reconcilia- 
 tion. 
 
 2. In regard to the gospel. 
 
 3. In regard to absolution. 
 
 4. In regard to Holy Baptism and the gospel. 
 
 5. In regard to justification. 
 
 6. In regard to faith. 
 
 7. In regard to conversion and repentance. 
 
 8. In regard to election. 49 
 
 Furthermore, said Dr. Stub, there must be agreement regarding 
 practice, including strict application of the Galesburg Rule, Luther- 
 an pulpits for Lutheran pastors only, Lutheran altars for Lutheran 
 communicants only, and the rigid exclusion of all forms of lodgery 
 from the church. This statement by Dr. Stub regarding the princi- 
 ples of faith and practice became known as The Chicago Theses. 50 
 
 Although the representatives of the United Lutheran Church 
 seem to have been less than enthusiastic about both the spirit and 
 content of Dr. Stub's presentation, they signified their willingness to 
 subscribe to the statement as a whole in order to submit it for con- 
 sideration to the respective Synods of the Council. 51 
 
 When the Joint Commission met for its second assembly in Chi- 
 cago, January 27-28, 1920, it was Dr. Knubel's paper on "The Es- 
 sentials of a Catholic Spirit" which was the major topic for discus- 
 
 48 Minutes of the Joint Committee on Doctrine and Practice, Chicago, March 
 11-13, 1919, op. tit, p. 6. 
 
 49 Ibid., pp. 7-9. 
 
 50 Ibid., p. 9. 
 
 51 Ibid., p. 20. Dr. Knubel is said to have been unhappy about the first meeting 
 of the Joint Committee. He felt that the proceedings had given the impres- 
 sion that the United Lutheran Church must persuade other Council mem- 
 bers of its confessional integrity. Writing to Stub, Knubel declared, "We 
 are not on trial as Lutherans, and do not propose that we shall be on trial," 
 and in a communication to Dr. T. E. Schmauk, Knubel stated that the rep- 
 resentatives of the Joint Synod of Ohio had been particularly offensive in 
 their attitude of hostility toward the U. L. C. A. See Nelson, The Lutheran 
 Church Among Norwegian- Americans, op. cit., footnote 30, p. 295. 
 
Augustana Heritage 268 
 
 sion. The report on this paper, presented by Dr. Charles M. Jacobs, 
 was divided into five parts, and set forth the basic principles which 
 in the author's opinion ought to characterize the attitude and ap- 
 proach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church regarding inter-Luther- 
 an relations, organic union among Protestant churches, co-operative 
 movements and false teachings. 52 Part One, entitled, "Concerning 
 the Catholic Spirit in the Church," declared that the essence of the 
 Churches' catholicity is exhibited in the marks which distinguished it, 
 namely, that it is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. Such a Church 
 expresses its true nature by: 
 
 1. Professing faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 
 
 2. Preaching the word of God and administering the sacra- 
 ments so that faith is created by the Holy Spirit in human 
 hearts and minds. 
 
 3. Performing works of serving love. 
 
 4. Creating a proper organization for these purposes. 
 
 5. Attempting to secure universal assent to its conception of 
 Christian truth through a constant Christian witness. 53 
 
 The second section, dealing with relationships between groups of 
 Christians each bearing the name of Church declared that such re- 
 lationships must be defined in a spirit of catholicity. 
 Moved by that spirit, a Church will: 
 
 1. Seek to secure agreement with others in matters of doctrine, 
 by declaring unequivocally what it believes concerning 
 Christ and his gospel, and by endeavoring to show that it 
 has placed the true interpretation upon that gospel. 
 
 2. Approach others without hostility, jealousy, suspicion, or 
 pride, in the sincere and humble desire to render Christian 
 service and with a genuine willingness to receive benefits in 
 return. 
 
 3. Grant cordial recognition to all agreements which are discov- 
 ered between its own interpretation of the gospel and that 
 which others hold. 
 
 4. Seek to co-operate with others in works of serving love ac- 
 cording to the teaching of Jesus in Mark 9:39f. 54 
 
 The third section, "Concerning the Relation of the Evangelical Luther- 
 an Bodies to One Another," was a polite but firm rejection of the ex- 
 clusiveness which characterized the traditional attitude of right-wing 
 Lutheranism. The statement declared that, 
 
 52 Report of sub- committee, Minutes of the Joint Conference on Doctrine and 
 Practices, January 27-28, 1920, op. cit, pp. 2-17. 
 
 53 Ibid., pp. 1-7. 
 s 4 Ibid., p. 8f. 
 
269 Growth of Community 
 
 The Evangelical Lutheran Church Bodies represented in this 
 conference recognize it as a fact that each of them subscribes to 
 those Confessions of Faith which have always been, and still are, 
 regarded as true standards of Evangelical Lutheran doctrine. No 
 one of these Bodies has any reason to believe that any other sub- 
 scribes to this Confession insincerely, or teaches any other doc- 
 trine than that set forth therein. We therefore declare that each 
 of these bodies is in unity of the Lutheran faith with every other, 
 and that these bodies together do form one Church, according to 
 the principles set forth in the Augsburg Confession, Article VII, 
 "To the unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the 
 doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments." 55 
 
 Section Four, "Concerning the Organic Union of Protestant Church- 
 es," declaring that until a more complete unity is attained among 
 Protestants than now exists, the Evangelical Lutheran Church is duty 
 bound to maintain a separate identity as a witness to the truth which 
 it affirms. 56 
 
 The final section set forth the principle that co-operation could be 
 given only when such activity did not involve, or seem to involve, a 
 surrender or compromise of the evangelical faith; moreover, in view 
 of the prevalence of doctrines which are subversive of Christian faith, 
 clergy and congregations are solemnly warned against all God-de- 
 nying, faith-destroying forces. 57 
 
 These were the principal affirmations of the Knubel-Jacobs 
 Theses. Here was a theological viewpoint which staked out, so to 
 speak, a new Lutheran position. It was confessional in every sense of 
 the word, in that it subscribed, without reservation, to all the historic 
 symbols of the Lutheran Church, without making distinctions be- 
 tween fundamental or nonfundamental doctrine, or quibbling about 
 the degrees to which the confessions expressed the truth of the gospel. 
 In this respect the Knubel-Jacobs statement was conservatively Lu- 
 theran. But it was a conservatism which sought, in the first place, to 
 recognize and take into account the increased knowledge and under- 
 standing which theological scholarship had won since the time of the 
 Reformation. In the second place, it was a conservatism which in- 
 sisted upon distinguishing between biblically revealed doctrine, on the 
 one hand, and theological refinements of such doctrines, on the other. 
 The former were to be accepted as normative and binding, the latter 
 were not. In the third place, this was a Lutheran confessional con- 
 
 1 Ibid., p. 9f. 
 1 Ibid., p. 10f . 
 Ibid., pp. 12-17. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 270 
 
 servatism which emphasized the catholicity of spirit which, it insisted, 
 must characterize the mind and temper of the one, holy, catholic, and 
 apostolic Church. This emphasis upon catholicity bequeathed to this 
 viewpoint an ecumenical cast and tone which contrasted sharply with 
 the exclusiveness and the fundamentalistic conservatism of the Nor- 
 wegians and their allies. Thus, the "Knubel-Jacobs Theses" may be 
 said to articulate an ecumenical confessionalism. 58 
 
 Against the "ecumenical confessionalism" of the United Lutheran 
 Church representatives, Dr. Stub raised his voice in protest. He re- 
 fused to identify himself with this brand of Lutheranism and justified 
 his opposition on the following grounds: 
 
 1. The Knubel-Jacobs Theses were too lengthy and involved. 
 Dr. Stub's own "Chicago Theses" were brief and simple, and 
 therefore better suited as a confessional statement. 
 
 2. The Missouri Synod, through its official paper, Lehre and 
 Wehre, had approved the "Chicago Theses" of Stub, and such 
 endorsement served as a public testimony to the genuinely 
 Lutheran character of the Theses, giving hope for further 
 Lutheran unity. 
 
 3. The Knubel-Jacobs Theses did not give a sufficiently clear 
 witness to such doctrines as the Trinity, the Scriptures as the 
 inspired and inerrant Word of God, the Real Presence in the 
 Supper. At least, the language employed by Knubel-Jacobs 
 was not the traditional phraseology. The implication seems to 
 have been that unorthodox terminology merely masked un- 
 orthodox theology. 
 
 4. The emphasis upon catholicity was contrary to the Articles 
 of Union of the Norwegian Church, in that the Norwegians 
 were committed to a policy of exclusiveness in relation to 
 those with whom they differed in doctrine or practice. The 
 ecumenical spirit of the Knubel-Jacobs Theses were said to 
 point in the direction of "unionism." 59 
 
 Thus, both in his own "Chicago Theses," and in his remarks connected 
 with the discussion of the "Knubel-Jacobs Theses," H. G. Stub artic- 
 ulated the viewpoint in the National Lutheran Council which repre- 
 sented a close alliance with repristination confessionalism. It was a 
 viewpoint which insisted upon a spirit of exclusiveness in relation to 
 
 58 It has been pointed out that this ecumenical confessionalism was, in part, 
 the result of the Erlangen theology, through the influence of Charles M. 
 Jacobs. See Nelson, op. cit., note 31, p. 295. According to Dr. Theodore Tap- 
 pert, professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, the theology 
 emanating from Sweden, particularly as expressed in Nathan Soderblom's 
 viewpoint, had exerted a similar influence upon east coast Lutheranism. 
 Interview with Dr. Tappert. 
 
 59 Minutes of Joint Conference on Doctrine and Practice, January 27-28, 1920, 
 pp. 18ff. 
 
271 Growth of Community 
 
 all who differed, whether they be Lutherans or non-Lutherans; it 
 affirmed not only the historic Lutheran confessions, but Missourilike, 
 insisted upon agreement in extraconfessional refinements of doctrines; 
 and it demanded virtually complete uniformity in church practice. 
 Thus, because it insisted upon a restricted frame of reference regard- 
 ing doctrinal formulation, and was highly selective in the establish- 
 ment of relationships, this viewpoint may be called exclusive confes- 
 sionalism, in contradistinction to the ecumenical confessionalism of 
 Knubel- Jacobs . 
 
 With these two points of view now drawn out into the open, the 
 lines of cleavage within the National Lutheran Council were clear. 
 After some quiet negotiations among the members of the Joint Com- 
 mittee served to draw the opposing camps no closer together, the com- 
 mittee of presidents, sometime during the spring of 1920, decided to 
 "abandon the conference on doctrine and practice for the present." 60 
 With this decision, the efforts to unify the National Lutheran Council 
 came to an end. Henceforth, the Council was an association of Lu- 
 therans divided into two distinct and self-conscious parties, working 
 and living together under a somewhat uneasy truce. 
 
 The "Chicago Theses" of Stub, for some unknown reason, were 
 not submitted for approval to the convention of the Norwegian Lu- 
 theran Church, and therefore were not adopted by that body. The 
 "Knubel-Jacobs Theses," however, became the basis for the famous 
 Washington Declaration of the United Lutheran Church, adopted at 
 the second biennial convention of that body in Washington, D. C, 
 October 19-27, 1920. The Washington Declaration, in the spirit of the 
 "Knubel-Jacobs Theses," enunciated the basic policies of the Church 
 on language usage, relations with other Lutheran bodies, co-operation 
 among Protestants in general and, by implication, expressed the mind 
 of the Church on pulpit and altar fellowship and secret societies. In- 
 deed, it may be said that the Washington Declaration was an exten- 
 sion of the "Knubel-Jacobs Theses," outlining basic principles con- 
 cerning both the external and internal life of the United Lutheran 
 Church. 61 
 
 Furthermore, when the United Lutheran Church, at its eleventh 
 biennial convention in Baltimore, Maryland, October, 1938, was moved 
 to express its position regarding the doctrine of the Word, it did so by 
 
 60 Minutes of the Second Biennial Convention of the United Lutheran Church 
 in America, Washington, D. C, October 19-27, 1920, p. 85. 
 
 61 See Charles M. Jacobs, "The Washington Declaration: An Interpretation," 
 The Lutheran Church Review, January 1921, pp. 1-21. See also Wentz, op. 
 cit., p. 286. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 272 
 
 adopting a statement on "The Word of God and the Scriptures," 
 known as The Baltimore Declaration. In this statement the Church 
 set forth its interpretation of this central Lutheran doctrine in the 
 same spirit, and based upon the same general principles which were 
 expressed in both the original "Knubel-Jacobs Theses," and the Wash- 
 ington Declaration of 1920. Thus, the United Lutheran Church con- 
 tinued to affirm an "ecumenical confessionalism." 62 
 
 The Augustana Synod had virtually no part in the promulgation 
 of the dual viewpoint which henceforth characterized the Council. Dr. 
 Brandelle, the leading representative of Augustana in the affairs of 
 the Council, was not a theologian, but a man of practical affairs. His 
 interest in the Council was chiefly motivated by his concern for the 
 practical benefits to be derived from co-operative endeavors. 63 Dr. S. 
 G. Youngert, who also represented the Synod in the early years of 
 the Council, was a man whose theological interest and training would 
 have enabled him to participate in the discussion. 64 But when the the- ] 
 ological lines were being drawn in the Council, Dr. Youngert was in 
 Europe as a member of the Relief and Rehabilitation Committee, and 
 therefore had neither the time nor opportunity to inject himself into 
 the debate. 65 Dr. O. J. Johnson, the third Augustana representative 
 at the first assembly of the Joint Committee on Doctrine and Practice, 
 did not take an active part in subsequent developments of the Coun- 
 cil. 
 
 Indeed, it may be said that for approximately the first ten years of 
 the existence of the National Lutheran Council, the Augustana Synod 
 occupied a somewhat neutral position in relation to the two view- 
 points which divided the Council. It was wholly committed neither 
 to one side or the other, yet, at various points, was sympathetic to 
 both. For example, on the one hand, the historical background of 
 Augustana, with its legacy of Rosenian toleration, 66 its long associa- 
 tion with the General Council in important common endeavors, and 
 the fact that the Swedish Lutherans had not experienced the severe 
 
 B2 Cf. "A Symposium on the Baltimore Declaration," Lutheran Church Quar- 
 terly, Vol. 12, 1939, pp. 278-302. 
 
 03 See his appeal to the Synod for ratification of plans for the establishment 
 of the Council, Referat, Augustana Synod, 1919, p. 25f. See also Andreen's 
 estimate of Brandelle's practical churchmanship in My Church, Vol. XXII, 
 op. tit., p. 25. 
 
 04 Dr. Youngert had been professor of Biblical Introduction and Greek New 
 Testament Exegesis at Augustana Theological Seminary since 1901. 
 
 65 Hauge, op. tit., p. 43. See also Minutes of the Executive Committee of the. 
 National Lutheran Council, Brandelle Collection, Augustana Archives. 
 
 66 Supra, Chapter I, p. 12. 
 
273 Growth of Community 
 
 fragmentation through theological controversy which had plagued both 
 the Germans and Norwegians, tended to make Augustana somewhat 
 insensitive to the rigid exclusiveness of the Norwegians and their al- 
 lies. On the other hand, Augustana had voted for the Galesburg Rule 
 when it was adopted by the General Council in 1875 67 and had en- 
 deavored to guard its pulpits and altars against those whose theology 
 was unacceptable, for to depart from "the rule" was considered to be 
 at least in some measure a denial of the true faith. 68 Similarly, regard- 
 ing the question of lodgery, the Augustana Synod took its place among 
 those who opposed "secret societies." Indeed, even from the early 
 days of Esbjorn and Hasselquist, Augustana had warned its people 
 against such associations. 69 And in 1894, the Synod specified what it 
 meant by "secret societies" by declaring that 
 
 secret societies are those bound by oath, or which, on admittance 
 of members, require promises akin to an oath; have religious cer- 
 emonies, but deny the fundamental truths of Christianity, espe- 
 cially the doctrine of the Trinity, and the person and work of 
 Christ. 70 
 
 Against all such societies the Synod expressed unqualified opposition. 
 Thus, the conservative practice advocated by the Norwegians struck 
 a responsive chord in Augustana hearts, while the liberal practices in 
 some sections of the United Lutheran Church were correspondingly 
 repulsive to Augustana. 
 
 To assert, however, that Augustana occupied a relatively neutral 
 position, and was not wholly committed to either the "exclusive con- 
 fessionalism" of the Norwegians, on the one hand, or the "ecumenical 
 confessionalism" of the United Lutheran Church, on the other, must 
 not be understood to mean that Augustana stood exactly in the middle 
 and neatly balanced one viewpoint off against the other. Indeed, for 
 approximately the first twenty years of its association with the Na- 
 tional Lutheran Council, the dominant sympathies of the Augustana 
 Synod were undoubtedly on the side of the Norwegians and their ul- 
 traconservatism. These sympathies were expressed in Augustana's 
 participation in the steps leading to, and acceptance of membership 
 in, the American Lutheran Conference. 
 
 67 Protokoll, Augustana Synod, 1875, pp. 13, 49, 51, 52. 
 
 68 Cf. Mattson, Polity, op. cit., p. 239. 
 
 69 Cf. Ander, Hasselquist, op. cit, pp. 202-203, 205-206. 
 
 70 Referat, Augustana Synod, 1894, p. 76. 
 
Augustana Heritage 274 
 
 The Formation of the American Lutheran Conference 
 
 The National Lutheran Council provided a significant forum in 
 which Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and German Lutherans became 
 acquainted with each other. Such acquaintance awakened the desire 
 among these Lutherans for closer formal ties with each other. 71 In 
 1920 the Joint Synod of Ohio initiated plans for bringing together the 
 Norwegians and the Swedes with their own Church for the purpose of 
 discussing closer fellowship of faith and practice. 72 Augustana re- 
 sponded to this overture at its convention in Chicago, 1921, by elect- 
 ing Dr. G. A. Brandelle to head a committee to negotiate with Ohio. 73 
 Nothing, however, came of these first efforts, and the project for great- 
 er Lutheran unity was stalled until Dr. C. C. Hein succeeded Dr. C. H. 
 L. Schuette, in 1924, as the new president of the Joint Synod of Ohio. 
 Dr. Hein was the outspoken advocate of unity among "orthodox Lu- 
 therans" in America, and had been an active promoter of rapproche- 
 ment between his own Church and the Missouri Synod. 74 Since both 
 Hein and H. G. Stub of the Norwegian Lutheran Church were pro- 
 Missourian in their theological outlook, they co-operated in laying 
 plans for a possible rapprochement of their two Synods as a possible 
 first step toward the union of "orthodox Lutheranism." 75 In these 
 early plans for closer ties among "orthodox Lutherans," the Augus- 
 tana Synod was not included, chiefly because the Ohio Synod ques- j 
 tioned the orthodoxy of Augustana. This suspicion derived from the 
 cordial reception Augustana had given to Archbishop Nathan Soder- 
 blom of Sweden during his visit to America in 1923. Soderblom was 
 looked upon by the ultraconservatives in America as a radical liberal 
 who was more interested in comparative religion than confessional 
 Lutheranism. 76 Soderblom had dedicated the new Seminary build- 
 ings in Rock Island, assisted in the installation of the re-elected syn- 
 odical president, Dr. Brandelle, preached in numerous Augustana 
 churches, and received an enthusiastic reception wherever he ap- 
 
 71 H. G. Stub, G. A. Brandelle, and C. H. L. Schuette met in Chicago, July, 
 1919, to discuss the possibilities of closer synodical relationships, and from 
 various districts of the several Synods came resolutions urging the leaders to 
 initiate steps leading to greater Lutheran unity. See Meuser, op. cit, p. 236f. 
 
 « /bid., p. 237. 
 
 73 Rejerat, Augustana Synod, 1921, p. 176. 
 
 7 * Ibid., p. 237. 
 
 75 Regarding the pro-Missouri viewpoint of Stub and Hein see Nelson, op. tit, 
 footnote, p. 303. The preliminary negotiations between the two leaders is 
 given in Meuser, op. cit, p. 237. 
 
 76 For the attitude of the Ohio Synod toward Soderblom, reflecting also the 
 viewpoint of its allies, see Meuser, op. cit., p. 243. 
 
275 Growth of Community 
 
 peared in the Synod. His invitation to participate in the forthcoming 
 Stockholm Conference on Life and Work was readily accepted by 
 Augustana. 77 Such hobnobbing with the primate of the Swedish 
 Church was, in the eyes of America's ultraconservative Lutherans, 
 "guilt by association," and placed Augustana in a compromising po- 
 sition. Suspicions of Augustana's orthodoxy were also based upon 
 the Synod's continued co-operation with the United Lutheran Church 
 on the foreign field of Rajahmundry, India, and in Lutheran Student 
 Service here at home. 78 
 
 When H. G. Stub retired from the presidency of the Norwegian 
 Church in 1925, and was succeeded by Dr. J. A. Aasgaard, Hein im- 
 mediately invited the new Norwegian leader to attend a conference 
 to be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for the purpose of discussing 
 the doctrinal basis for closer fellowship between the Joint Synod of 
 Ohio, the Iowa Synod, the Buffalo Synod, and the Norwegian Luther- 
 an Church. 79 The purpose of such an alignment was to be the crea- 
 tion, within the National Lutheran Council, of a conservative coun- 
 terpoise to the alleged "liberal" and "modernist" United Lutheran 
 Church. 80 Such a counterpoise was deemed necessary in order to 
 effect "a defensive alliance . . . for the purpose of protecting its mem- 
 bers against possible aggression by the United Lutheran Church and 
 the Synodical Conference." 81 
 
 The colloquy in Minneapolis was held November 18, 1925, and 
 proved to be an exceedingly important occasion. By common consent 
 the "Chicago Theses" which Dr. Stub had formulated in 1919 were 
 made the basis for the discussion. To the original "Theses," both Dr. 
 Stub and Dr. Hein had appended additional theses concerning the in- 
 spiration of Scripture, church fellowship, and secret societies, in the 
 hope of winning the approval of Missouri, and of more clearly specify- 
 ing the areas of their opposition to the "ecumenical confessionalism" 
 of the United Lutheran Church. 82 
 
 The outcome of the Minneapolis colloquy was the promulgation 
 of a document known as the "Minneapolis Theses," which constituted 
 the theological consensus of the delegates and formed the platform 
 upon the basis of which it was hoped a new Lutheran unity might be 
 
 77 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1924, p. 194. 
 
 78 Meuser, op. tit., p. 243. 
 
 79 Nelson, op. tit., p. 303f. 
 
 80 See correspondence between H. G. Stub and C. C. Hein, Meuser, op. tit., p. 
 237. 
 
 81 Wentz, op. tit, p. 321. 
 
 82 For an account of the Minneapolis colloquy see Meuser, op. tit., pp. 235ff. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 276 
 
 established. The "Minneapolis Theses" were virtually an elaboration 
 and extension of the old "Chicago Theses" of Dr. Stub, and expressed 
 the same "exclusive confessionalism" which the "Chicago Theses" 
 enunciated. Regarding Scripture, the "Minneapolis Theses" declared 
 the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments to be the "divinely 
 inspired, revealed, and inerrant Word of God," and the norm of faith 
 and practice. The term "inerrant" pointed in the direction of the 
 doctrine of verbal inspiration and the denial of any error whatever in 
 the biblical text. With reference to the Lutheran Confession, subscrip- 
 tion was given to all the historic symbols of the Lutheran Church, 
 "not insofar as, but because they are the presentation and explanation 
 of the pure doctrine of the Word of God." On the subject of Church 
 Fellowship, the "Theses" declared that co-operation "in the essential 
 work of the Church presupposes unanimity in pure doctrine," and that 
 where such unanimity is lacking, co-operation becomes "unionism," 
 which is defined as "pretense of union which does not exist." There- 
 fore Lutheran fellowship must be exclusive and strictly practiced in the 
 spirit of the Galesburg Rule, rigorously rejecting all "unionism and 
 syncretism." With respect to the Lodge Question, the "Theses" held 
 that lodgery is a sin, and that no Lutheran Synod shall "tolerate pas- 
 tors who have affiliated themselves with any anti-Christian society," 
 and that all persons who are lodge members shall be urged to sever 
 their connections with such organizations. 83 
 
 The articles on Church Fellowship and the Lodge Question were 
 specifically aimed at the United Lutheran Church, and intended to 
 draw a sharp line between the alleged "unionism" of the U.L.C.A., to- 
 gether with its toleration of lodge members, and the exclusivism and 
 antilodgery of the pro-Missourian party. 84 
 
 Having come to unanimous theological agreement on the basis of 
 subscription to the "Minneapolis Theses," the four synods consented 
 
 83 Agreement of Representatives of the Iowa, Ohio, and Buffalo Synods and 
 the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (The Minneapolis Theses), 
 Journal of the American Lutheran Conference, January, 1941, pp. 13ff. 
 
 84 The charge of unionism against U. L. C. A. was substantiated by pointing 
 out that Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick had been invited in 1925 to preach in 
 a U. L. C. A. church in Dayton, Ohio, and in the chapel at Wittenberg Col- 
 lege. The participation of U. L. C. A. in the affairs of the Federal Council 
 of Churches of Christ in America, and in the ecumenical conferences at 
 Stockholm and Lausanne, were said to be further evidences of "unionism." 
 The most notorious example of lodgery in the U. L. C. A. but "by no means 
 the only one," was Dr. V. G. A. Tressler, former president of the General 
 Synod, and professor of New Testament studies at Hamma Divinity School, 
 who was a high ranking Mason. For the attitude of the Ohio and Iowa 
 Synods toward U. L. C. A. see Meuser, op. tit., pp. 151, 233. 
 
277 Growth of Community 
 
 to extend altar and pulpit fellowship to each other. 85 It had been the 
 hope of the leaders of this coalition, however, to enlist all of the mem- 
 bers of the National Lutheran Council except the United Lutheran 
 Church. To this end the Minneapolis colloquy moved to invite Au- 
 gustana, the United Danish Church, and the Lutheran Free Church 
 to join the ranks of those who subscribed to the "Minneapolis Theses." 
 Dr. Hein was reported to have had serious misgivings about the ortho- 
 doxy of the Augustana Synod on the basis of "guilt by association" 
 with both the United Lutheran Church and the National Church of 
 Sweden, but was persuaded by Dr. Aasgaard to approve the invitation 
 to Augustana. 86 On March 27, 1929, Dr. G. A. Brandelle and Dr. Hein 
 had a private meeting during which the president of the Augustana 
 Synod assured Dr. Hein that the relationship between Archbishop 
 Soderblom and Augustana had been initiated by the archbishop and 
 not by Augustana. Furthermore, Dr. Hein was given to understand 
 that Augustana's reception of the distinguished guest from Sweden 
 was a gesture of courtesy rather than an indication of agreement with 
 Swedish faith and practice. Brandelle signified his own endorsement 
 of the "Minneapolis Theses," and promised to recommend the docu- 
 ment to the Synod for adoption, and thus to lead Augustana into active 
 participation with this conservative coalition. 87 
 
 At the synodical convention, held in Rockford, Illinois, June, 1920, 
 Dr. C. C. Hein was present and addressed the delegation, suggesting the 
 creation of a special committee to negotiate with the Joint Synod of 
 Ohio regarding altar and pulpit fellowship. This suggestion was ac- 
 cepted, and the special committee chosen to represent Augustana in 
 these negotiations included the following: Dr. G. A. Brandelle, Dr. P. 
 O. Bersell, Dr. C. F. Sandahl, and Dr. S. J. Sebelius. 88 On October 7, 
 1929, this Augustana committee met with representatives of the Joint 
 Synod of Ohio and the Iowa Synod at Hotel Bismarck, Chicago, Illinois. 
 By mutual consent the "Minneapolis Theses" were made the basis for 
 the discussions, and the document was considered paragraph by para- 
 graph, point by point. The Augustana committee found the "Theses" 
 so completely acceptable that no changes or revisions were deemed 
 
 85 Meuser, op. cit., p. 241f. 
 
 86 Nelson, op. tit., p. 305. 
 
 87 For the Brandelle-Hein meeting see Meuser, op. cit, p. 243. The defensive 
 and almost apologetic attitude of Brandelle in his meeting with Hein re- 
 garding Augustana's relationship to Soderblom is in sharp contrast with the 
 hearty and enthusiastic spirit with which he announced the archbishop's 
 impending visit in his annual message to the Synod in 1923. See Minutes, 
 Augustana Synod, 1923, p. 26. 
 
 88 Ibid., p. 221. 
 
Augustana Heritage 278 
 
 necessary, and "it was resolved that the presidents of the synods here 
 represented be asked to present this agreement (for pulpit and altar 
 fellowship on the basis of the Minneapolis Theses) to their respective 
 synods for adoption. 89 
 
 The convention in 1929 which created the Committee on Pulpit 
 and Altar Fellowship, also authorized the formation of a Committee 
 on Church Unity which was requested to "confer with similar com- 
 missions of other general Lutheran bodies of America. " 90 This com- 
 mittee was composed of Dr. G. A. Brandelle, Dr. P. A. Mattson and 
 Dr. Abel Ahlquist, and laymen John A. Christenson of Chicago and 
 Adolph F. Johnson of Jamestown, N. Y. 
 
 This committee met with representatives of the Norwegian Lu- 
 theran Church, Joint Synod of Ohio, Lutheran Free Church, Iowa 
 Synod, and the United Danish Church "for the purpose of discussing 
 the question of closer fellowship among these synods." It was at this 
 meeting that the decision to invite Augustana to unite with the "ex- 
 clusive confessional" party in the National Lutheran Council was im- 
 plemented. The committee reported its action as follows: 
 
 After a comprehensive study of the situation, the proposition 
 was made that these church bodies together with the Augustana 
 Synod organize themselves into a church federation to be known 
 as the American Lutheran Conference, the objective to be that of 
 closer co-operation of these bodies in activities common to them, 
 each body the while to retain its own corporate existence and in- 
 dependence as at present. The proposal was unanimously adopt- 
 ed. 91 
 
 Thus, when the Augustana Synod met for its convention in 1930, it con- 
 sidered two separate reports, one from the Committee on Pulpit and 
 Altar Fellowship, the other from the Committee on Church Unity, both 
 of which endorsed the "Minneapolis Theses" and recommended that 
 the Synod join forces with the signers of that document to form a new 
 Lutheran coalition in America. On the basis of such recommendations 
 the Synod took the following action: 
 
 Resolved: That . . . the Augustana Synod enter into pulpit and 
 altar fellowship with the Joint Synod of Ohio. Resolved: That we 
 as a Synod join with the American Lutheran Conference, to go into 
 effect when three or more of the following groups unite, namely, 
 The Norwegian Lutheran Church, The Joint Synod of Ohio, The 
 
 
 89 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1930, p. 225. 
 
 90 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1929, pp. 31, 223. 
 
 91 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1930, p. 225. 
 
279 Growth of Community 
 
 Lutheran Free Church, The Iowa Synod, The United Danish 
 Church, and the Buffalo Synod. 
 
 We also heartily endorse the proposed constitution and by-laws 
 of the American Lutheran Conference. 92 
 
 That this action by the Augustana Synod reflected the strongly con- 
 servative sympathies within its boundaries is undeniable. It is doubt- 
 ful, however, that there was any deep or clear understanding among 
 either the leaders or the rank and file of Augustana members regard- 
 ing the fundamental theological issues involved in this alliance. In- 
 deed, Augustana's concern at this point for Lutheran unity seems to 
 have been chiefly a response to the mood of the times on the part 
 of a religious and social group which, in the process of becoming 
 Americanized, was achieving a new and exhilarating sense of commun- 
 ity. This was a value which it deemed at once both spiritual and prac- 
 tical, in which it wished to participate. This is suggested by the fact 
 that at the same time as the Augustana Committee on Church Unity 
 was negotiating with the "exclusive confessionalists" and joining them 
 in the formation of The American Lutheran Conference, designed as a 
 counterpoise against the United Lutheran Church, it was also, with 
 synodical approval, negotiating with the United Lutheran Church. 
 
 According to the report of the Committee on Church Unity, this 
 committee met with a similar group from the United Lutheran Church 
 in New York City, on January 17, 1930, and "after a full, frank and 
 fair discussion of the question," every person participating, the follow- 
 ing resolutions were passed without a dissenting vote: 
 
 Whereas we believe that the next step toward that more com- 
 plete bringing together of all the General Lutheran Bodies in 
 America, which so many dearly long for, should be a closer union 
 of the Augustana Synod and the United Lutheran Church in 
 America, be it 
 
 Resolved, that we, in joint session of the Commissions on Luth- 
 eran Church Unity of the Augustana Synod and of the United 
 Lutheran Church in America, look with favor upon any measure 
 that looks toward and may help forward such closer union or co- 
 operation between these two bodies as may upon further study 
 seem feasible. 93 
 
 At a second meeting of the representatives of Augustana and the 
 United Lutheran Church regarding Church Unity, held in Chicago, 
 Illinois, April 8, 1930, the question arose whether the ultimate objective 
 
 92 Ibid., p. 233. This action is also reported in Journal of Theology oj the 
 American Lutheran Conference, January, 1941, p. 22. 
 
 93 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1930, p. 226. 
 
Augustana Heritage 280 
 
 of the negotiations should be "methods of closer co-operation" or "or- 
 ganic union of the two bodies." 1 ' 4 When this question was laid before 
 the Synod, the Church responded by declaring that "The Synod desires 
 that the committee should concern itself in the main with methods of 
 closer co-operation of the Augustana Synod and the United Lutheran 
 Church." 95 The negotiations between Augustana and the United Lu- 
 theran Church encountered only one really serious difficulty, and that 
 was the lodge question. In this area of church practice Augustana 
 opposed the tolerant policy of the United Lutheran Church. It was 
 chiefly to this difference between the two bodies that Dr. P. O. Bersell 
 referred in a speech he made on the convention floor when he ex- 
 pressed the opinion that if Augustana were to join the United Luther- 
 an Church, the latter would soon have "a bad case of indigestion." 96 
 In spite of this disagreement in church practice, the Augustana Synod 
 desired to continue to explore the possibilities for greater co-operation 
 and fellowship with the United Lutheran Church. 
 
 In view of Augustana's decision to join the American Lutheran 
 Conference, its determination to continue negotiations with the United 
 Lutheran Church must not be understood as evidence of either incon- 
 sistency or insincerity. The endeavor to face, as it were, in two direc- 
 tions at once, was perhaps ingenuous and naive, but even in these early 
 stages of inter-Lutheran relationships, Augustana assayed the role of 
 intermediary, hoping to become a bridge across which rapprochement 
 between "exclusive confessionalism" and "ecumenical confessionalism" 
 might be achieved. 97 
 
 On October 29-30, 1930, representatives of the Augustana Synod, 
 the Iowa Synod, the Buffalo Synod, the Lutheran Free Church, the 
 United Danish Church, and the Norwegian Lutheran Church, assem- 
 bled in the Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and or- 
 ganized the American Lutheran Conference. 98 The purposes of the 
 new federation, as stated in its constitution were two-fold: 
 
 1. Mutual counsel concerning faith, life and work of the church. 
 
 2. Co-operation in matters of common interest and responsibility, 
 such as 
 
 a) Allocation of work in home missions fields. 
 
 9 * Ibid., p. 226. 
 »» Ibid., p. 233. 
 
 96 Interview with Dr. P. O. Bersell. 
 
 97 Letter from P. O. Bersell, February 26, 1962, 
 
 98 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1931, p. 23. 
 
281 Growth of Community 
 
 b) Elementary and higher Christian education. 
 
 c) Inner mission work (Christian Social Service) 
 
 d) Student service in State Schools and Universities. 
 
 e) Foreign Missions and other missionary activities. 
 
 f) Joint publication of Christian literature. 
 
 g) Periodic exchange of theological professors at the theolog- 
 ical seminaries. 
 
 h) Such other interests as from time to time may call for con- 
 sideration." 
 
 Commissions were appointed by the Executive Committee to handle 
 the various areas of responsibility. These commissions reported to the 
 biennial conventions of the Conference. The Conference, however, did 
 not find it possible to enter all the fields of activity outlined in the con- 
 stitution, but did undertake a number of significant endeavors. Per- 
 haps the most important work of the Conference was its service to 
 Lutheran students in state schools and universities. In 1939, Pastor 
 Fredrik A. Schiotz was called as full-time director of the Department 
 of Student Service. During his first two years in office he traveled 
 95,632 miles and visited 204 college, university, and seminary campuses. 
 Working wherever possible with L. S. A. A. groups, making contact 
 with students through local congregations, and spending approximately 
 $5,000 a year in "grants-in-aid" to strengthen student work in centers 
 of heavy Lutheran student population, the Student Service of the 
 American Lutheran Conference rendered invaluable help in keeping 
 young men and women vitally related to the church. 100 The annual 
 inter-Lutheran seminars and preaching missions provided valuable 
 opportunities for the exchange of ideas, and a broadened acquaint- 
 anceship across nationalistic and synodical lines. In 1936 the Confer- 
 ence began publication of a theological journal which became an ef- 
 fective organ for the enunciation of the ideals and objectives of the 
 Conference. 101 The Conference Commission on Social Relations insti- 
 tuted a number of fruitful studies which were aimed at helping the 
 Lutheran Church in America become more acutely aware of the so- 
 cial implications of the gospel. The Commission on Parish Education 
 created new interest and concern for a more effective program of re- 
 ligious education instruction in the church and home, while a series 
 
 99 Constitution and By-Laws of the American Lutheran Conference, Journal of 
 Theology of the American Lutheran Conference, January, 1941, p. 25. 
 
 100 Report of Director of Student Service, Fredrik A. Schiotz, Proceedings of 
 the Fifth Biennial Convention of the American Lutheran Conference, Min- 
 neapolis, Minnesota, November 13-15, 1940. 
 
 101 From 1936 to 1944 the journal was known as Journal of Theology of the 
 American Lutheran Conference, after 1944 it was called The Lutheran Out- 
 look. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 282 
 
 of mass meetings of Lutheran youth in metropolitan areas were a 
 source of religious inspiration to thousands of young men and women 
 across the land. 102 But perhaps the greatest benefit which the Amer- 
 ican Lutheran Conference bequeathed to Lutheranism in America 
 was the impulse it gave to Lutheran unity. F. W. Meuser has pointed 
 out that never before in the history of the Lutheran Church in Amer- 
 ica had groups of such variety of language, history, custom, liturgy, 
 piety, and polity been so closely drawn together. 103 For a period of 
 twenty-four years the Conference engaged these disparate elements in 
 a co-operating fellowship which laid much of the groundwork for a 
 new sense of Lutheran community, out of which important organic 
 mergers eventuated. 104 
 
 102 See Reports of the Commissions in the Minutes of the American Lutheran 
 Conference, especially for the anniversary years 1940 and 1950. 
 
 103 Meuser, op. cit, p. 249. 
 
 104 T/he American Lutheran Conference provided the framework within which 
 the bodies were first drawn together which finally formed the TALC merger 
 in 1960. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 The Contours or Community 
 
 Although the benefits of membership in the American Luther- 
 an Conference may have been many and real, the Augustana 
 Synod became increasingly restive in this association. In 1940, 
 the president of the Augustana Church, Dr. P. O. Bersell, verbalized 
 this Augustana dissatisfaction by pointing to three weaknesses which 
 characterized the federation. 
 
 The first weakness, he declared, is that our fellowship has been 
 more exclusive than inclusive. After ten years our family has not 
 grown. . . . The movement to implement the American Lutheran 
 Conference for action in the promotion of a greater Lutheran 
 unity has failed so far. . . . The second weakness is that our organ- 
 ization produces little growth in numbers and strength. . . . The 
 third weakness is that the spirit of our fellowship has not yet 
 reached the broad bases of our church life. The majority of our 
 people know little or nothing about the Conference. 1 
 
 Though Dr. Bersell's criticism of the American Lutheran Conference 
 in 1940 dealt largely with res extemae, this critique of externals was 
 a symptom of a deeper and more serious dissatisfaction which had 
 grown up within the Augustana Synod during the past several years. 
 By 1940 Augustana was becoming aware of a new theological climate, 
 the emergence of a type of theological outlook which was essentially 
 incompatible with the "exclusive confessionalism" espoused by the 
 American Lutheran Conference. This new theological orientation may 
 be said to have its beginnings in the Synod about 1931-1932, although 
 its rootage may go back a few years earlier. The center of its articu- 
 lation was Augustana Theological Seminary. 
 
 Emergence of the New Outlook 
 
 The death of Dean Conrad Emil Lindberg in the summer of 1930 
 was the signal for change. Dr. Lindberg had been the head of the the- 
 ological faculty since 1900, and had served his Church with great dis- 
 
 1 P. O. Bersell, "Ten Years of Fellowship in the American Lutheran Confer- 
 ence." Proceedings of the Fifth Biennial Convention . . . American Luther- 
 an Conference, op. cit. 
 
 283 
 

 Augustana Heritage 284 
 
 tinction. But during the last years of his life it was apparent that the 
 theological seminary needed both new leadership and a new policy in 
 the choice of instructors, so that professorial competence would be 
 measured chiefly by excellence of academic training and achievement 
 rather than by personal popularity or experience in church adminis- 
 tration. 2 When the Board of Directors seemed hesitant to move bold- 
 ly and decisively for the improvement of the institution, the seminary 
 students virtually took matters into their own hands and demanded 
 action. 3 As a consequence of pressure from both inside and outside 
 the theological seminary, four professors were relieved of their re- 
 sponsibilities at the end of the school year, 1930-1931, and were re- 
 placed by a new corps of teachers. 4 
 
 The new corps of seminary professors included Conrad E. Berg- 
 endoff of Chicago, called as the new Dean of the Seminary and pro- 
 fessor of systematic theology. Bergendoff had received part of his the- 
 ological training at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadel- 
 phia, an institution founded by the General Council, and after the 
 merger of 1918, under synodical control within the United Lutheran 
 Church. He earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago, 
 specializing in theological developments in Sweden. Alvin D. Matt- 
 son, professor of Christianity at Augustana College, was called to the 
 Seminary as professor of Christian ethics and sociology. During grad- 
 uate study at Yale University, Mattson had come under the influence 
 of Professor Douglas Clyde Macintosh, Dwight professor of theology 
 and philosophy of religion at Yale, who called himself a "critical mon- 
 ist," and insisted that evangelical Christian faith must take into ac- 
 
 2 Dr. George M. Stephenson has pointed out that from 1900 to 1930, with one 
 exception, no professor in the seminary possessed a bona fide Ph.D. degree, 
 and that none had a distinguished book of research to his credit. The Synod 
 was generally satisfied to elect to the theological faculty, pastors who had 
 distinguished themselves as popular preachers or competent administrators 
 of church affairs, but who could lay no claim to scholarly achievement. 
 "Religious Aspects . . . Immigration, op. cit., p. 342. 
 
 3 Student action included appeals to pastors, petitions to the Board of Direc- 
 tors and the synodical officers, as well as pressure on the faculty. 
 
 4 See Minutes of the Board of Directors, Augustana College and Theological 
 Seminary, August 6, 1930, February 25, 1931, June 2, 1931. The writer was 
 a student at Augustana Seminary when the upheaval of 1930-31 and the 
 change of instructors, 1931-32, occurred. Dr. S. G. Youngert moved to Wal- 
 tham, Massachusetts, and was recalled for an interim period of teaching in 
 1936; Dr. O. N. Olson accepted a call to First Lutheran, Berwyn, 111., Dr. A. 
 T. Lundholm became pastor of the Lutheran congregation in Braham, Min- 
 nesota; and Professor John P. Milton accepted a call to the First Lutheran 
 Church, St. Paul, Minnesota. Disagreement between the Board and Professor 
 Milton regarding contractual stipulations led to his retirement from the 
 Seminary. See Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1931, pp. 57, 59. 
 
285 The Contours of Community 
 
 count the conclusions of critical scholarship in all phases of man's 
 quest for knowledge, and that the church must become more keenly 
 aware and deeply concerned about the social implications of the Chris- 
 tian gospel. A third member of the new team was Eric H. Wahlstrom, 
 who had pursued graduate studies at Yale and Chicago in the field of 
 New Testament language and literature. In the course of his studies 
 he developed a special interest in the trends which characterized mod- 
 ern Swedish theology, with particular emphasis upon the so-called 
 Lundensian school. The fourth member of the new staff was Carl A. 
 Anderson, who had taken graduate work at the Universities of Wis- 
 consin and Chicago in the field of Old Testament language and litera- 
 ture. A contemporary of these four men was Hjalmar W. Johnson, a 
 scholar who spent a number of years as a teacher of philosophy and 
 religion at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minnesota, and Au- 
 gustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, before being called to the semi- 
 nary in 1944 as professor of the history and philosophy of religion. 
 Johnson earned both the B.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Yale University, 
 where he was strengthened in his conviction that there need be no 
 ultimate clash between true scholarship and the essentials of evangel- 
 ical Christian faith. 
 
 When these men began their work as the new intellectual leaders 
 of the Augustana Synod, the climate into which they entered had been 
 at least partially prepared for them by such independent and uncon- 
 ventional thinkers as Claus A. Wendell and C. J. Sodergren. 5 
 
 For many years Wendell and Sodergren had been the gadflies of 
 the Synod, heckling its comfortable traditionalism, and inviting both 
 clergy and laity to think and to become aware of the religious cur- 
 rents of the day. As early as 1914 Dr. Sodergren had shocked some 
 of his more conservative brethren by editorializing in the Lutheran 
 Companion regarding the theory of evolution in the following words: 
 
 The time has arrived, it appears, for someone to say that the 
 theory of evolution is not necessarily atheistic, and that it might 
 be quite consistent with the Bible and with a Christian belief in 
 God as the Creator of heaven and earth. 6 
 
 In 1925 Sodergren published a book entitled, Fundamentalists and 
 Modernists, in which he pleaded for an evangelical confessionalism 
 which would repudiate the wooden literalism of the fundamentalists 
 
 5 Wendell was for many years pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, 
 adjacent to the campus of the University of Minnesota and C. J. Sodergren 
 taught in the Seminary from 1912 to 1920, after which he spent a number of 
 years on the teaching staff of the Lutheran Bible Institute, Minneapolis. 
 
 6 Lutheran Companion, December 26, 1914. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 286 
 
 as well as the Christ-denying liberalism of the modernists. He called 
 for a Christianity which would seek to be relevant to its own day by 
 becoming informed through both devotional and scholarly investiga- 
 tion. 7 Not long afterward he wrote another book which included two 
 challenging essays entitled, Is the Bible Alive? and Is Jesus God? 
 This little book of 130 pages began with an attack on the theory of the 
 verbal inspiration of the Bible, suggesting that to disregard the marks 
 of humanity in the written Word is to tend toward docetism. He 
 pointed out that those who make the theory of verbal inspiration a 
 tenet of faith cannot call upon the Lutheran confessions for support, 
 for the confessions posit no such doctrine. An informed evangelical 
 understanding of both Christ and the Bible, declared Sodergren, must 
 take into account the reality of the divine-human dimension of God's 
 revelation. 8 
 
 In 1923 Wendell published a much discussed book, entitled, The 
 Larger Vision, in which he pleaded for a Christian approach not only 
 to the theory of evolution, but also to other scientific conclusions which 
 were based on careful investigation and demonstrable facts. Wendell 
 declared that the truth which the scientists investigate derives from the 
 same divine source which has given the world the eternal truth re- 
 garding Christ and His salvation. 9 In 1930 Wendell contributed a 
 chapter to the symposium edited by Vergilius Ferm, 10 and entitled 
 What Is Lutheranism? In his answer to this question Wendell sum- 
 marized his viewpoint in the following paragraph: 
 
 Lutheranism then we should say, means three things: (1) It 
 means adherence to the Confessions comprising the Book of Con- 
 cord, not as so many cement walls for man's incarceration but as 
 a witness to the faith of the fathers and a guide to their followers. 
 (2) Faith in the Holy Scriptures, not as a fetish on the one hand 
 nor a mere human document on the other, nor as an arsenal of 
 theological polemics, nor as a textbook of history and natural sci- 
 ence, but as the inspired Word of God whose purposes it is to 
 make us wise unto salvation; and (3) Above all else, faith in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, not as a mere reformer or teacher or "pattern 
 for young men," but as the Redeemer of the world and the ever- 
 lasting Rock upon which the church is built. 11 
 
 7 C. J. Sodergren, Fundamentalists and Modernists, Rock Island, 1925. 
 
 8 C. J. Sodergren, Is the Bible Alive? Is Jesus God? Rock Island, n. d. 
 9 C. A. Wendell, The Larger Vision, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1925. 
 
 10 Vergilius Ferm was ordained by the Augustana Synod in 1919, but spent the 
 greater part of his career as professor of philosophy at the College of Woos- 
 ter, Wooster, Ohio. His essential religious viewpoint, set forth in the final 
 chapter of the symposium, is very similar to that of Wendell. 
 
 11 What Is Lutheranism? A Symposium in Interpretation, edited by Vergilius 
 Ferm, New York, 1930, p. 242. 
 
287 The Contours of Community 
 
 Wendell's searching critique of the position of the ultraconservatives 
 brought down upon his head the censure of many of his conservative 
 brethren. The editor of Augustana, by leveling a scathing attack on 
 Ferm, indirectly rebuked Wendell in an editorial review of the book. 12 
 In the Bible Banner, journal of the Lutheran Bible Institute, Dr. Adolf 
 Hult, professor at Augustana Seminary, and Dr. Samuel Miller, head 
 of the Institute, expressed unqualified disapproval of the sentiments 
 put forth by Wendell and Ferm, and Miller asked for their expulsion 
 from the Synod on the grounds of heresy. 13 
 
 After the Augustana Synod joined the American Lutheran Con- 
 ference, and by so doing espoused the "Minneapolis Theses" and the 
 "exclusive confessionalism" which the theses enunciated, the earliest 
 voices to be raised in serious protest to this viewpoint were those of 
 C. J. Sodergren and C. A. Wendell. Writing in The Augustana Quar- 
 terly, in 1937, Dr. Sodergren declared: 
 
 In spite of appearance to the contrary, the present generation 
 is deeply religious; but its spirit fails to find in the old forms the 
 body in which it can dwell. But the reply to this prayer for the 
 means of a daring adventure in faith — the reply of the established 
 order — is only an exaggerated emphasis of the latter, of external 
 observances, and of the old status quo. . . . While the priests of 
 yesterday are looking backward to the past and laboring to con- 
 serve its values, the prophets of tomorrow are facing the future 
 and trying to give direction to movements of today. 14 
 
 When the Augustana Synod, at its convention in Omaha, Nebraska, 
 June, 1937 censured and threatened to discipline a few clergymen who 
 were said to have given insufficient attention to the "Minneapolis 
 Theses" and inadequate obedience to the Galesburg Rule, Wendell's 
 ire was raised. 15 He went home and wrote a stinging article entitled 
 "Whither Augustana?" which appeared in the Lutheran Companion, 
 and which expressed the author's impatience with confessional rigid- 
 ity. He declared: 
 
 Orthodoxy is good. It means adherence to the truth, and no 
 sane man would willingly surrender that. But orthodoxy without 
 love is dangerous. It provides fertile soil for bigotry, hatred, spir- 
 itual pride, self-conceit, and a score of other evils which hide the 
 Holy One from the eyes of the world. It turns men into merci- 
 
 12 See Augustana, July 17, 1930, p. 475. 
 
 13 Bible Banner, August, 1930, pp. 9-10, 10-12. 
 
 14 C. J. Sodergren, "The Dawn," The Augustana Quarterly, Vol. XVI, 1937, pp. 
 147ff. 
 
 15 See Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1937, President's report, p. 20, and Resolu- 
 tions, p. 39. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 288 
 
 less heresy hunters, the most contemptible vermin on earth. It 
 aligns us with the scribes and pharisees, the priests and high 
 priests of the time of Jesus. Nobody ever questioned their ortho- 
 doxy, but because it was loveless, it blinded them to His divinity 
 and made it easy for them to spike Him to a cross. We are not wor- 
 ried about the trumpet calls to orthodoxy which for some reason 
 have begun to blare among us lately, but we do fear that the 
 blare may drown out in our hearts the still small voice which 
 prays for unity and peace and love among all Christ's disciples. 16 
 
 The kind of informed and ecumenical Lutheranism represented by 
 Sodergren and Wendell was essentially the outlook espoused by the 
 new intellectual leadership of the Synod. Not long after being 
 launched on their teaching careers, Bergendoff, Mattson, Wahlstrom, 
 Johnson, and Anderson began to express in their classrooms and in 
 the public press a viewpoint which in a singular manner they seemed 
 to share, and which contrasted at many points with the prevailing "ex- 
 clusive confessionalism," while it conformed in various important 
 ways with "ecumenical confessionalism." 17 
 
 It should be noted that the new theological outlook 18 was not 
 "repristination theology," in the sense that it did not seek simply to 
 reproduce a seventeenth-century interpretation of sixteenth-century 
 doctrine. And yet the new outlook was conservatively confessional in 
 the sense that it made the Word of God normative for faith and prac- 
 tice, and accepted the historic symbols of the Lutheran Church as cor- 
 rect and faithful expositions of God's Word. Its conception, however, 
 of what makes Scripture the Word of God differed markedly from 
 the viewpoint implicit in the "Minneapolis Theses." While affirming 
 the doctrine of the divine inspiration of Scripture, Augustana's new 
 outlook repudiated the theory of verbal inspiration, and refused to 
 acknowledge that either this formulation or any other theological 
 formulae were necessarily synonymous with biblical revelation. The 
 new outlook also repudiated the Missourian insistence that Lutheran 
 unity must be achieved on the basis of a common acceptance of cer- 
 tain theological refinements added to the historic confessions, and 
 on strict uniformity in church practice. There remained, however, in 
 
 16 Lutheran Companion, September 2, 1937. 
 
 1 7 While Bergendoff, Mattson, Wahlstrom, and Anderson spoke to the Church 
 from the vantage point of theological professors, H. W. Johnson made his 
 earlier contributions to the development of a new climate in the Synod as 
 professor of Christianity and philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College, 1925- 
 1932, and at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, 1932-1934, 1936-1944. 
 
 18 The outlook was "new" only in the sense that it represented a new develop- 
 ment in the Augustana Synod. 
 
289 The Contours of Community 
 
 the new outlook a certain Rosenian piety which insisted that Chris- 
 tian faith is more than intellectual assent to doctrinal formulation, 
 that it is above all else the experience of the redeeming grace of God 
 in Christ. 19 Indeed, like the Swedish heritage which deeply under- 
 girded it, there was about the new Augustana outlook a breadth and 
 amplitude which sought to discover larger dimensions of God's truth 
 both in the witness of other Christians as well as in the critical disci- 
 plines of scholarship. These various characteristics are clearly artic- 
 ulated in the writings of the new theological mentors of the Augus- 
 tana Church. 
 
 Architects of the New Outlook 
 
 Beginning about 1937, these writings appear with increasing fre- 
 quency and were addressed to both the clergy and the laity of the 
 Church. In The Augustana Quarterly for the first quarter of 1937, 
 Bergendoff published an article entitled, "The Communion of Saints — 
 A Lutheran Viewpoint," in which he is critical of the narrow way in 
 which the Lutheran Church in general, and the Lutherans in America 
 in particular, have interpreted the concept of communio sanctorum. 
 The article suggests that the unity among Christians for which Christ 
 prayed, and for which Lutherans profess to pray, cannot be realized 
 by giving the concept of the communion of saints a sectarian interpre- 
 tation that is to say, making it chiefly exclusive. 20 Later that year 
 Bergendoff had another article in the same journal in which he dis- 
 cussed the relationship between the American Lutheran Conference 
 and the United Lutheran Church in America. This article was one of 
 the earliest attempts to find an acceptable basis for rapprochement 
 between the two opposing schools of thought in the National Luther- 
 an Council. 21 In comparing the confessional articles of the two groups, 
 Bergendoff claimed to find insufficient grounds for separation, but ad- 
 mits that wide divergences exist in the area of church practice. But 
 the author's impatience with traditional exclusiveness is clearly evi- 
 dent in the article. 22 
 
 19 Every student at Augustana Seminary since 1932 is familiar with the oft- 
 repeated phrase in the course on Christian Ethics, "God is not to be found 
 at the end of a logical syllogism." 
 
 20 Conrad Bergendoff, "The Communion of Saints — A Lutheran Viewpoint," 
 The Augustana Quarterly, Vol. XVI, 1937, pp. 3ff. 
 
 21 Conrad Bergendoff, "The Relationship Between The American Lutheran 
 Conference and the United Lutheran Church in America," Augustana Quar- 
 terly, Vol. XVI, 1937, pp. 318ff. 
 
 22 In view of the sharp contrast between the "Minneapolis Theses" and the 
 
Augustana Heritage 290 
 
 Furthermore, when Bergendoff returned home after attending 
 the ecumenical conferences on "Life and Work" and "Faith and Or- 
 der," in Oxford, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland, he reported his 
 experiences to the entire Synod through columns of the Lutheran 
 Companion. 23 Seeking to inform the Augustana constituency regard- 
 ing the ecumenical movement, and interpret to them its essential 
 character, aims, and purposes, Bergendoff pleaded for an increase of 
 the ecumenical spirit throughout the Synod and greater synodical 
 participation in the ecumenical program. Striking out at sectarian 
 exclusiveness, he declared, 
 
 No one part of the church is asked to compromise in the least 
 on the position it holds in its faith or principles. There is a com- 
 mon recognition that the church of Jesus Christ is greater than 
 any one part of the church, and that the Body of Christ has many 
 members. Here is an opportunity for each church to testify to the 
 truth that is hers, and to contribute to the purifying, the strength- 
 ening, the encouragement of the whole. 24 
 
 One of the clearest and most forthright statements of Augustana's new 
 outlook was presented by Bergendoff in an article in the Lutheran 
 Companion, under title, "Here We Stand." Addressed as an open 
 letter to the clergy of the Missouri Synod, it set forth the chief points 
 of difference between Missouri and the emerging viewpoint of Augus- 
 tana. Regarding the doctrine of election, the author declared that any 
 "neat" explanation, such as C. F. W. Walther had expounded, "Does 
 not explain but only confuses." A doctrine which is open to so much 
 question must not become a cause for disunity among Lutherans. On 
 the question of biblical inspiration, Bergendoff declared that "Augus- 
 tana is not one whit behind the Missouri Synod in saying that the Bible 
 is the Word of God. But we have not officially formulated a real theory 
 
 "Knubel- Jacobs Theses" on a number of important points, not least the 
 matter of inspiration of Scripture, it is difficult to understand BergendofFs 
 statement in the article that "No disagreement is perceptible between the 
 doctrinal positions of the two bodies," p. 319; and "As far as doctrine is con- 
 cerned the two bodies may be considered as united in faith," p. 321. 
 
 3 By 1937 the Lutheran Companion was being sent to every section, if not to 
 every congregation, of the Augustana Synod. 
 
 14 Article, "Two World Conventions," Lutheran Companion, August 5, 1937. 
 The Oxford-Edinburgh Conferences were also well reported by Pastor Clif- 
 ford A. Nelson, Dr. E. E. Ryden, and others, all of whom sought to bring the 
 modern ecumenical movement to the attention of the Augustana Synod, with 
 the full approval of the synodical administration. See Lutheran Companion;, 
 August 26, 1937, September 16, 1937, September 23, 1937. For BergendofFs 
 statement to the Federal Council of Churches regarding his proposal for a 
 unity in which Lutherans can participate, see "What Kind of Unity," Lu- 
 theran Companion, March 2, 1939. 
 
291 The Contours of Community 
 
 of inspiration." It was on the question of fellowship, however, that 
 Bergendoff most sharply rebuked the sectarian spirit of Missouri. He 
 said, 
 
 I question the method of attaining fellowship which consists in 
 one party offering a document to the other to be signed on the 
 dotted line. Indeed, it is my contention that we are to meet each 
 other as Lutherans, and not as suppliants asking for the right to 
 be called Lutheran by others who have decided what Lutheranism 
 is. ... I believe I speak truly when I say that many Lutherans in 
 America do not accept the Missouri Synod as a judge of their faith 
 or of their Lutheranism. You treat us as nonLutherans. We re- 
 sent it. . . . Insistent as the Synod has always been on the faith- 
 fulness of the church to her confessions, Augustana has wanted 
 fellowship with other Lutherans in this country who also accept 
 those confessions as basic to their ministry. . . . Some of the things 
 which are said by the Missouri Synod spokesmen regarding the 
 Church of Sweden are neither true nor charitable. . . . When there- 
 fore you hear it claimed that Augustana is too friendly with the 
 Church of Sweden for fellowship with the Missouri Synod, I would 
 ask you to remember that someone is not clear in his thinking and 
 is asking us to commit a violation of the commandment which bids 
 us honor father and mother, if he asks us to forsake connection 
 with that church. There are men in Sweden with whom we have 
 no theological sympathy, but there are many more men of high 
 and low position whom we consider among the finest examples 
 of Lutheranism in the world today. 25 
 
 A few years later, Bergendoff published a book bearing the title, 
 Christ as Authority. This study reflects the rich contributions which 
 Swedish theology had made to the religious thought of the author, and 
 the following lines indicate his concern for the emergence among all 
 Lutherans of a sound "ecumenical confessionalism": 
 
 I am not asking for any compromise of anyone's convictions. 
 Nor do I demand that any shall change the faith they hold to as 
 dearer than life itself. But I am saying that having confessed our 
 faith is not enough. And if our faith has isolated us from other 
 Christians, we are far indeed from the fulness of God. ... If it is 
 a sin of omission not to bear witness to the Christ who has saved 
 us, then it is also a sin of omission for churches not to bear witness 
 before the world that they have but one church. 26 
 
 25 Conrad Bergendoff, "Here We Stand," Lutheran Companion, March 30, 1939. 
 
 26 Conrad Bergendoff, Christ as Authority, Rock Island, 1947, p. 137. This same 
 ecumenical emphasis is reiterated in the Hoover Lectures which Bergendoff 
 delivered in 1953, and in which he declared "Christians have no scriptural 
 right to deny the name of fellow Christian to those who bear witness to 
 Christ as their Lord and Savior. The love that we owe the household of 
 faith cannot be confined within the walls of that room which we occupy in 
 the household." Conrad Bergendoff, The One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, 
 

 Augustana Heritage 292 
 
 While Bergendoff may be said to represent the ecumenical emphasis in 
 the new outlook which was being urged upon the Augustana Synod, 
 each of his colleagues was making his own contribution. In 1938, 
 A. D. Mattson published his Christian Ethics which was widely hailed 
 as a significant and important work in this field of theological study. 27 
 In the preface the author states that the book was "based upon lecture 
 notes which have accumulated over a period of years in connection 
 with work in the classroom." Which is to say that the book reflected 
 what Mattson had been saying for several years in college and seminary 
 classrooms as well as in public lectures. 
 
 Although the study is significant as an expression of the growth 
 and development of liberal social thought and ideas among Lutherans 
 in America, this is not the point of affinity between A. D. Mattson and 
 his colleagues in the college and seminary. The study, with respect to 
 the new Augustana outlook, was significant because of what it said 
 regarding certain disputed theological doctrines, particularly the doc- 
 trine of the inspiration of Scripture. Mattson defined inspiration as ; 
 "the quickening of man's powers by the Spirit of God." 28 This must • 
 not be understood to mean that God has dictated the forms of speech 
 and language, nor chosen specific words, phrases or sentences which 
 constituted the original text of Scripture. He has moved spiritually 
 sensitive and discerning individuals to give utterance, in their own ; 
 way and in their own words, to their understanding of God and his 
 will, and such utterances will bear the marks of both divinity and hu- 
 manity. 29 On the basis of this concept of inspiration, Mattson rejected 
 the doctrine of verbal inspiration in the following words: 
 
 The Bible nowhere claims verbal inspiration for itself, the facts 
 do not substantiate the theory, and if we analyze the implications 
 of the theory, it robs us of any certainty we may have as to the in- 
 spiration of the Bible. The Spirit of God quickened and guided 
 human souls and thus inspired the Scriptures, but this does not 
 
 Rock Island, Illinois, 1954, p. 89. For his distinction between "unionism" and 
 true Christian unity see Bergendoff's Holman lecture, given at Gettysburg, 
 Pennsylvania, May 10, 1939, entitled, "The True Unity of the Church," The 
 Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. XII, July, 1939, pp. 257ff. 
 
 27 A. D. Mattson, Christian Ethics, Rock Island, Illinois, 1938. Of this book 
 Luther A. Weigle, Dean of Yale Divinity School said, "I am greatly pleased 
 with this book. . . . The author has done a valiant service on the Christian 
 side of the battle between Christian faith and paganism." Professor Nils F. 
 S. Ferre of Andover Newton Theological School declared, "Next semester I 
 am going to depart from my custom and require every one of the sixty- 
 four students in my class to read Christian Ethics by A. D. Mattson." Favor- 
 able reviews also appeared in the church press. 
 
 28 Ibid., p. 95. 
 
 29 See Mattson's discussion on "The Nature of Revelation," pp. 86ff. 
 
293 The Contours of Community 
 
 imply verbal dictation or inspiration with respect to exact words. 
 
 Neither does it insure freedom from errors of memory, accuracy 
 
 of historical detail, or scientific fact. When the Holy Spirit led men 
 
 to receive a revelation, He gave all the inspiration necessary, and 
 
 under all circumstances we shall have to be content with what 
 
 He has done. 30 
 
 In his exegetical Bible courses in the college and seminary, Mattson 
 
 also reflected his differences with "exclusive confessionalism," as he 
 
 sought to take into account not only the investigations of the higher 
 
 and lower critics, but the conclusions of scholarship in other fields of 
 
 study as these might impinge upon the Christian faith. 31 
 
 Eric H. Wahlstrom made his contribution to the new outlook as a 
 New Testament scholar, and had, therefore, a special interest in fos- 
 tering in the Synod what seemed to him an acceptable conception of 
 the Word of God. Any discussion of the Word of God inevitably in- 
 volves the question of the relationship of Scriptures to revelation, and 
 this leads to a consideration of the question of inspiration. Wahlstrom 
 held that to get the right answers in the vital matter of religion, one 
 must ask the right questions. "A wrong question," said he, "will elicit 
 the wrong answer." 32 To ask, "Is every word of the Bible inspired, or 
 are only certain portions of it inspired?" is to pose the wrong kind of 
 question, since it leaves room for no acceptable alternatives. The cor- 
 rect formulation regarding the inspiration of Scripture is, "Does the 
 living God speak to men in the present through the whole of sacred 
 Scripture?" 33 To such a question Christian faith can give a clear and 
 unequivocal affirmative answer. But to speak of "the whole Bible" as 
 being God's Word does not mean that every word or every part is of 
 equal significance. Depending upon circumstances, one part of the 
 Bible becomes God's compelling word of truth and revelation at one 
 time, and some other at another. Thus, the whole Bible can and does 
 speak to men in various and sundry circumstances of life. When the 
 Bible is viewed from this angle, Scripture becomes "the living and con- 
 temporaneous Word of God; the believer is freed from the tyranny of 
 literalism, and the Word becomes a dynamic and personal message 
 from the living God. 34 God speaks in and through the entire Bible, 
 and yet the entire Bible bears upon each page the imprint of the human 
 
 30 Ibid., p. 98. 
 
 31 In his lectures and writings he sought to point out the relevance of the gos- 
 pel to both science and the ethical challenge of communism. 
 
 32 Eric H. Wahlstrom, "The Word of God," The Augustana Quarterly, Vol. 
 XXVII, January, 1940, pp. 14ff. 
 
 33 Ibid., p. 17. 
 
 34 Ibid., p. 18f. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 294 
 
 instrument through whom God has chosen to make himself known to 
 man. As in the Incarnation, God chooses always to leave inviolate the 
 means of His grace. Thus, as the humanity of Christ was a real and 
 true humanity, so also the writers of the sacred text were men who 
 used their abilities to state in their own way their experience and un- 
 derstanding of God. This is true not only of the writers of the auto- 
 graphs, but of all copies and versions, for God speaks just as effectively 
 through the copies as though the original texts. 35 
 
 It is this insight which illumines Wahlstrom's discussion of the 
 means of grace and the church. He insists that any tendency to apoth- 
 eosize the Scriptures, the church or the sacraments so as to lose sight 
 of or deny the earthly or human elements involved therein, is to mis- 
 interpret and misunderstand both God's Word and His activity. 36 It is 
 in the light of this premise that Wahlstrom's book, The New Life in 
 Christ, must be understood. Paul uses the experiences of everyday 
 Jewish and Roman life to present the gospel of salvation in Christ, i 
 These figures of speech, full of the earth whence they derive, nonethe- 
 less carry the proposed revelation of the living God, and point to the 
 Christian way of life with its "otherworldly" standards. 37 
 
 Hjalmar W. Johnson, in a bold move, laid the issue of the inspira- 
 tion of Scripture on the very doorstep of the American Lutheran Con- 
 ference by publishing an article in the Journal of The American Lu- 
 theran Conference for 1939 entitled "Some Thoughts on Inspiration." 
 Johnson candidly ventilated both the pros and the cons regarding the 
 theory of verbal inspiration. But he minced no words in setting forth 
 his own views in the matter, as he declared, 
 
 Whether or not all Lutheran ministers are actually Lutheran 
 in their understanding and personal acceptance of the fact that 
 the Lutheran Church does not officially teach the verbal inspira- 
 tion theory and does not officially teach any other man-made 
 theory of inspiration is a question which merits consideration. 
 Are there Lutheran ministers who sincerely believe that the gen- 
 uinely Lutheran position in the subject of inspiration is too liberal? 
 You sometimes hear conscientious Lutheran pastors make the 
 statement that unless you accept the verbal inspiration theory 
 you are not a consistent Lutheran. What can be done to help such 
 brethren realize that such statements are by no means a defense 
 of Lutheranism, but on the contrary constitute a lapse from it? . . . 
 
 35 Ibid., p. 19. 
 
 36 This presupposition underlies Wahlstrom's discussion in his The Church 
 and the Means of Grace, Chicago, Illinois, 1949, pp. 31ff. See also "The Na- 
 ture of the Church," The Augustana Quarterly, Vol. XIX, 1940, pp. 117ff. 
 
 37 Eric H. Wahlstrom, The New Life in Christ, Philadelphia, 1950, especially 
 chapters II-V. 
 
295 The Contours of Community 
 
 It is because of her doctrine that the Bible is a means of grace, 
 but is not the grace itself that the genuinely Lutheran Church 
 may not justly be accused of Bibliolatry. She highly exalts the 
 means and yet definitely subordinates the means to the grace. We 
 must not fail to understand the Lutheran distinction between the 
 grace and the means of grace. 38 
 
 This was a challenge which the conservative editor of the Journal, Dr. 
 J. A. Dell, could not ignore. Therefore, at the conclusion of Dr. John- 
 son's article, he appended an "Addendum," which was almost half the 
 length of Dr. Johnson's original article. In this Addendum Dr. Dell 
 took Johnson to task for questioning the validity of the theory of ver- 
 bal inspiration. "Verbal inspiration and inspiration are the same 
 thing," cried Dr. Dell. "If the Bible is inspired it is verbally inspired. 
 If it is not verbally inspired, it is not inspired at all." 39 After voicing 
 the dark suspicion that Dr. Johnson also harbored notions in sympathy 
 with "the theory of evolution," Editor Dell concluded the Addendum 
 by declaring, 
 
 I could say a great deal more, but I desist. The article by Dr. 
 Johnson is being printed because pressure was brought to bear by 
 his brethren (sic) . But I could not let it go as an expression of the 
 faith of the American Lutheran Conference. I could not pass by 
 without challenging the condescending statement that brethren 
 who believe in verbal inspiration — who believe, in other words, 
 that the Bible is a reliable record of revealed truth — should be cor- 
 rected in their Lutheranism. 40 
 
 It is not without significance that a theologian who had so openly and 
 forthrightly challenged one of the basic premises of "exclusive con- 
 fessionalism" in 1939, was called to a professorship at Augustana The- 
 ological Seminary in 1944. When Dr. Johnson was officially installed 
 as permanent professor of the history and philosophy of religion in 
 1947, his inaugural address was entitled, "The Realism of Faith." This 
 address affirmed the same principles, expressed the same suspicions of 
 dogmatism of forms and theories, and reflected the same basic theologi- 
 cal outlook which Johnson set forth in his article in the Journal a 
 number of years earlier. 41 
 
 Carl A. Anderson, who also participated to some extent in giving 
 shape to the new outlook, was perhaps the most conservative member 
 
 38 Hjalmar W. Johnson, "Some Thoughts on Inspiration," Journal of the Amer- 
 ican Lutheran Conference, Vol. 4, May, 1939, pp. 11-32. 
 
 39 7bid., p. 34. 
 
 40 Ibid., p. 40. 
 
 41 Hjalmar W. Johnson, "The Realism of Faith," The Augustana Quarterly, 
 Vol. XXVII, January, 1948, pp. 3-13. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 296 
 
 of the team of theological leaders in the Synod, and his contributions 
 to the new development were given through his work in the seminary 
 classroom and through lectures delivered throughout the Church on 
 various aspects of the Old Testament. Anderson's basic approach to 
 Scripture, his respect for critical Biblical scholarship, and his ecumeni- 
 cal spirit, identified him with the new school of theological thought in 
 the Synod. 
 
 As the theological leaders of the Synod continued to articulate 
 their viewpoint, others joined their ranks. Before his term of office 
 was concluded in 1935, President Brandelle had become disillusioned 
 with the exclusivism of the archconservatives, due largely to his con- 
 flict with Dr. F. Pfotenhauer, president of the Missouri Synod. Dr. 
 Pfotenhauer severely criticized the American Lutheran Conference 
 for permitting the Augustana Synod to become a member of the fed- 
 eration. Augustana, he claimed, was guilty of doctrinal laxity in its 
 association with the Church of Sweden, and of undisciplined unionism 
 in its association with Reformed Church in America. 42 To this public 
 accusation Brandelle responded by challenging Pfotenhauer to prove 
 his allegations. In consequence of this exchange, an acrimonious cor- 
 respondence ensued between the two men which alienated Brandelle 
 and encouraged him to look with new favor upon the opponents of 
 "exclusive Lutheranism." 43 
 
 Furthermore, Dr. E. E. Ryden, who was president of the American 
 Lutheran Conference for several years, exerted a marked influence 
 both by his own personal involvement, as well as by his editorial pol- 
 icy in the Lutheran Companion, on behalf of the growth of an ecu- 
 menical spirit in the Augustana Synod. 44 Dr. Ryden represented the 
 Augustana Synod at a number of national and international Christian 
 assemblies, participated in numerous ecumenical and co-operative en- 
 deavors, and thus by his own example promoted the growth of com- 
 munity in his own church. He also established an editorial policy for 
 the Lutheran Companion which reflected his own ecumenical interest. 
 The development of inter-Lutheran conversations, co-operative en- 
 deavors and alignments in the United States, as well as the various 
 activities of the International Missionary Council, the Faith and Or- 
 der and Life and Work movements, were fully reported to the people 
 
 42 See The Lutheran Witness, October 14, 1930, p. 342. 
 
 43 See Brandelle-Pfotenhauer correspondence, Brandelle Collection, Augus- 
 tana Archives. 
 
 44 Dr. Ryden was editor of the Lutheran Companion from 1934 until 1961. He 
 was also the editor of the Lutheran Outlook, journal of the American Luther- 
 an Conference from 1943 to 1947. 
 
297 The Contours of Community 
 
 of Augustana through the Lutheran Companion. Thus, the Lutheran 
 Companion and its editor made a substantial contribution to the emer- 
 gence of a climate throughout the Synod which was conducive and 
 congenial toward the new outlook. 
 
 It is important, at this point, to recognize that it was chiefly the 
 emergence of the new outlook, the new theological stance, of the Au- 
 gustana Synod, which undergirded and basically motivated the grow- 
 ing dissatisfaction which the Synod felt in its association with the 
 American Lutheran Conference. Indeed, the dissolution of the Con- 
 ference in 1954, though due to several causes, may be attributed in 
 part to the theological differences which underlay most of the other 
 disagreements which divided the Conference. 45 Nevertheless, it is 
 equally important to perceive that the new outlook was fundamentally 
 an ecumenical point of view, that is to say, a confessionalism with a 
 deep sense of Christian community which found it difficult to thrive 
 in an atmosphere of exclusivism which not only sought to isolate Lu- 
 therans from non-Lutherans, but which divided Lutherans from each 
 other. Among the various schools of Lutheran thought in America 
 which came closest to resembling in content and spirit the new Au- 
 gustana outlook was the "ecumenical confessionalism" enunciated in 
 the Knuble-Jacobs Theses of 1919, and elaborated and explicated in 
 the Washington Declaration of 1922, and espoused as the official the- 
 ological position of the United Lutheran Church in America. When, 
 therefore, the Augustana Synod was confronted in 1952 with the ne- 
 cessity of choosing whether to align itself with the proponents of "ex- 
 clusive confessionalism" or the advocates of "ecumenical confession- 
 alism," it chose the latter course, and thus determined its ultimate 
 destiny. Thus, in some degree, the emergence of the new outlook may 
 be seen as one of the very most important developments in the his- 
 tory of the Augustana Church. 
 
 The Community of World Lutheranism 
 
 The developing sense of community in the Augustana Synod was 
 not limited to association with other Lutheran bodies in America. It 
 embraced, as well, the establishment of new and vital bonds of fel- 
 lowship with Lutherans in other parts of the world. 
 
 Shortly after the end of World War I, the National Lutheran 
 Council suggested to the General Evangelical Lutheran Conference 
 
 45 Such disagreements would include home mission co-operation, recognition of 
 rights of territorial preemption, and attitude toward the National Lutheran 
 Council. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 298 
 
 of Europe, 46 and the smaller German Lutheran League 47 that in order 
 to strengthen international Lutheranism a world convention of Lu- 
 therans ought to be held. 48 This suggestion was met with approval in 
 both Europe and America, with the result that the first all-Lutheran 
 conference was held in Eisenach, Germany, August 19-26, 1923. One 
 hundred and fifty-one delegates, representing 65,000,000 Lutherans 
 from twenty-two nations were present. Among them were Dr. G. A. 
 Brandelle, Dr. S. J. Sebelius, and Dr. Mauritz Stolpe. 49 During the 
 sessions at Eisenach, Lutherans from the four corners of the earth 
 discovered a new sense of community among themselves in both faith 
 and practice. In summarizing his impressions of the convention, Dr. 
 Abdel Ross Wentz, in his closing address to the assembly, declared, 
 
 The first Ecumenical Council of the Lutheran Church has been 
 a success. In the number of those who accepted the invitation to 
 attend the convention, in the high degree of unanimity with which 
 the appointed delegates were permitted to be present in person, 
 in the devout spirit that characterized our success of worship, in 
 the high grade of scholarship and churchmanship that character- 
 ized the prepared addresses of the convention, in the many per- 
 sonal contacts that were formed and in the general spirit of 
 brotherly love and Christian fellowship that prevailed through- 
 out . . . the first Ecumenical Council of the Lutheran Church has 
 been a distinct success. 50 
 
 The Lutheran unity discovered at Eisenach was concretely expressed 
 in the formation of the Lutheran World Convention, and in the issu- 
 ance by the delegation of a statement on common faith and practice. 
 The statement declared that, 
 
 The Lutheran World Convention acknowledges the Holy Scrip- 
 ture of the Old and New Testaments as the only source and the 
 infallible norm of all church teaching and practice, and sees in 
 
 46 The European Conference was comprised mainly of representatives from the 
 German state churches, but included also representation from Sweden, Den- 
 mark, Norway, and other states. 
 
 47 Lutherische Bund, organized 1907 by the so-called"orthodox party" which 
 withdrew from the G. E. L. C. because of doctrinal and practical disagree- 
 ments. 
 
 48 Hauge, op. tit., p. 49; Wentz, op. tit., p. 338. 
 
 49 Minutes, Addresses and Discussions, The Lutheran World Convention, Eisen- 
 ach, Germany, August 19-26, 1923, Philadelphia, 1923, Roll of representatives, 
 pp. 16-19. See also Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1923, p. 169. 
 
 50 Minutes . . . The Lutheran World Convention, Eisenach, Germany, 1923, op. 
 cit., p. 176. See also E. Theodore Bachmann, Epic of Faith, The Background 
 of the Second Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation, New York, 1952, 
 pp. 11-14. 
 
299 The Contours of Community 
 
 the Lutheran Confessions, especially the Unaltered Augsburg 
 Confession, a pure exposition of the Word of God. 51 
 
 The Augustana delegation found the cordial international climate 
 among Lutherans gathered at Eisenach congenial to their own taste 
 and spirit. The Convention represented to them an area of fellowship 
 which the Synod should enter wholeheartedly. This attitude is clear- 
 ly reflected in the enthusiastic reports which they sent to the people 
 back home through the columns of the church press. 52 
 
 The Lutheran World Convention met for its second assembly in 
 Copenhagen, Denmark, June 26 to July 4, 1929, at which there were 
 one hundred and forty-nine delegates present, representing forty- 
 three Lutheran bodies from twenty-one countries. The Augustana 
 Synod was officially represented by four delegates, two accredited 
 press representatives, and six registered visitors, a total of twelve 
 men, some of whom were accompanied by their wives. 53 
 
 Much of the work for European relief and rehabilitation was be^ 
 ing assumed by agencies under the Lutheran World Convention. It 
 was apparent, however, that the varied and often complicated tasks at 
 hand required an international organization more effectively struc- 
 tured to meet these obligations than the Convention was proving to 
 be. Thus, the executive committee suggested the inauguration of 
 plans looking toward the revision of the existing Convention. 54 The 
 third assembly of the Lutheran World Convention met in Paris, Oc- 
 tober 13-21, 1935. This assembly was designed as a "working conven- 
 tion" with a limited representation. Nevertheless, the Augustana 
 Synod was represented at Paris by Dr. G. A. Brandelle and Dr. E. E. 
 Ryden. 55 Both men reported their activities and the program of the 
 
 51 Minutes . . . The Lutheran World Convention, Eisenach, Germany, op. cit., 
 p. 15. 
 
 52 See for example, the article by Dr. Sebelius in The Lutheran Companion, 
 October 6, 1923. See also Lutheran Companion, June 30 and October 6, 
 1923; Augustana, September 30, 1923. 
 
 53 The delegates were Dr. G. A. Brandelle, Senator Henry N. Benson, St. Peter, 
 Minnesota, Dr. A. T. Ekblad, Superior, Wisconsin, and Dr. O. N. Olson, Rock 
 Island, 111. Dr. L. G. Abrahamson and Dr. G. A. Andreen represented the 
 press, and registered visitors included Pastors J. A. Eckstrom, J. E. Ryd- 
 beck, J. A. O. Landin, Gunnar Goranson, A. T. Bergquist, and Axel Berg. 
 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1929, p. 226. Augustana, August 8, 1929. Lu- 
 theran Companion, July 20, August 3, 17, 31, September 7, 1929. See also 
 Minutes, Addresses and Discussions, the Second Lutheran World Conven- 
 tion, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 26-July 4, 1929, Philadelphia, 1930. Roll of 
 Delegates, pp. 25-29. 
 
 54 See "Report of the Executive Committee," Minutes . . . The Second Lutheran 
 World Convention, op. cit., pp. 159ff. 
 
 55 Lutherischer Weltkonvent, Paris, MCMXXXV, Berlin, MCMXXXIX, Liste 
 der Delegierten, p. 171. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 300 
 
 convention to the people back home through the press. These reports 
 not only chronicled the events that were transpiring, but also called 
 upon the people of the Augustana Church to identify themselves with 
 those who were willing and ready to sacrifice, work, and pray for the 
 alleviation of human suffering and the furtherance of Christian — and 
 particularly Lutheran — unity. 50 
 
 The fourth assembly of the Lutheran World Convention was 
 scheduled to meet in Philadelphia, in 1940. But in 1939 the outbreak 
 of World War II cancelled these plans. In the terrible years of the 
 war, the Lutheran churches of the free world were confronted with 
 unprecedented needs and demands. Orphaned missions, millions of 
 homeless refugees, multitudes of naked and starving victims, devas- 
 tated cities with bombed churches, scattered congregations and sick, 
 distracted people, were just a few of the pressing problems which de- 
 manded immediate and decisive action. In this new and greater emer- 
 gency the experiences gained through participation in the program 
 of the Lutheran World Convention proved invaluable. But it was 
 evident, too, that for the kind of long-range program which was need- . 
 ed, there must be a world-wide Lutheran federation which would be ' 
 more closely geared to the current responsibilities than the World 
 Convention had been. 57 Accordingly, a constitution which created 
 The Lutheran World Federation was adopted at the assembly in Lund, 
 Sweden, 1947, bringing into being a new international organization. 58 
 This new body included five national committees for over-all co-or- 
 dination, fifteen national study groups to ascertain what and where 
 needs existed, fifteen special commissions to devise ways and means 
 of meeting the needs, five service departments, including world mis- 
 sions, refugee services, inter-church aid, publication work, and infor- 
 mation service. The entire program was under the direction of an 
 executive director, whose board of directors was an executive com- 
 mittee elected by the Assembly itself. The first man to be named to 
 the important post of executive director was an American pastor, a 
 member of the American Lutheran Church, Dr. S. C. Michelf elder of 
 Toledo, Ohio. 59 The Augustana Church was represented at Lund by 
 
 56 Lutheran Companion, November 2, 9, 16, 30, 1935; Augustana, November 7, 
 14, 1935. 
 
 57 Proceedings of the Lutheran World Federation Assembly, Lund, Sweden, 
 June 30-July 6, 1947, Philadelphia, 1948. Report of the Executive Secretary, 
 pp. 35ff. 
 
 ■>*Ibid., pp. 15-21. 
 
 59 Michelf elder had represented the National Lutheran Council in Europe, with 
 an office in Geneva, since 1945, and had headed the work of gathering and 
 dispensing money, food and clothing for European relief. See Epic of Faith, 
 op. cit., Chapter IV. 
 
301 The Contours of Community 
 
 the following delegates, Dr. P. O. Bersell, Dr. Oscar A. Benson, Dr. 
 Conrad Bergendoff, Dr. Clifford A. Nelson, and Dr. Wilton E. Berg- 
 strand. In addition there were some twenty or more registered visi- 
 tors from Augustana. 60 The keynote of the Lund Assembly was most 
 effectively sounded by Dr. Ralph H. Long, executive secretary of the 
 National Lutheran Council, who declared, 
 
 This is our day of grace, our great opportunity. Our task today 
 is to arise and to stand together as brethren of a common faith. 
 We must preserve the faith and fellowship of Lutherans around 
 the world. We must strengthen the hearts and hands of our breth- 
 ren who are sorely afflicted. We must carry on all the work that 
 is under the banner of the Church of the Reformation on the 
 world-wide fields of missionary endeavor. We must join hands 
 with our Christian brothers in other evangelical churches to bring 
 healing to all the world. This is our task. 61 
 
 To this kind of challenge the Augustana Synod responded affirmative- 
 ly by subscribing to the proposed constitution of the new Federation 
 through the signature of its synodical president, Dr. P. O. Bersell, and 
 thus becoming one of the charter members of The Lutheran World 
 Federation. 62 The Assembly also elected two Augustana men to im- 
 portant posts in the Federation. Dr. S. E. Engstrom, executive direc- 
 tor of American Missions for the Augustana Church, was elected to 
 serve on the Commission for Evangelism and Stewardship, and Dr. 
 Carl E. Lund-Quist was named to head the Federation's Press Com- 
 mittee and to serve as a member of the Committee on Reconstruc- 
 tion. 63 Through voluminous reports in the Augustana press the peo- 
 ple of the Synod were kept informed regarding the Lund Assembly, 
 and no effort was spared to interpret the meaning and significance of 
 the events that transpired. 64 
 
 The second assembly of The Lutheran World Federation was held 
 in Hannover Germany, July 25-August 3, 1952. The president of the 
 Augustana Church, Dr. Oscar A. Benson, headed a delegation which 
 included, Mrs. John S. Benson, Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, Dr. P. O. Ber- 
 sell, Dr. S. E. Engstrom, Dr. Melvin Hammarberg, Dr. Emory Lind- 
 
 60 Proceedings of The Lutheran World Federation Assembly, Lund, Sweden, 
 op. cit., List of Delegates, pp. 163-169, List of visitors, pp. 172-182. 
 
 61 Proceedings . . . L. W. F. Assembly, Lund, Sweden, op. cit, p. 139. 
 
 62 A copy of the constitution with a photostatic reproduction of the signature, 
 as well as a snapshot of Dr. P. O. Bersell signing his name to the new con- 
 stitution on behalf of Augustana, are given in Ibid., pp. 19 and 60. 
 
 63 Ibid., pp. 159, 160 and 161. 
 
 64 Augustana, July 28, August 4, 11, 18, 1947; Lutheran Companion, July 16. 
 23, 30, August 6, 13. 27 and September 17, 1947. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 302 
 
 quist, and Dr. Carl W. Segerhammar. 65 No previous world gathering of 
 Lutherans had witnessed as strong American leadership as was evi- 
 dent at Hannover, and in this regard Augustana made notable con- 
 tributions. The new executive secretary for the Federation was a 
 member of the Augustana ministerium, Dr. Carl E. Lund-Quist, who 
 was named by the executive committee to this important post in world 
 Lutheranism after the death of Dr. Michelfelder in the autumn of 
 1951. Dr. Oscar A. Benson was chosen as a member of the executive 
 committee, Dr. P. O. Bersell was made a member of the business com- 
 mittee, and Dr. S. E. Engstrom was named as chairman of the nom- 
 inating committee. 66 Again the Augustana press did an outstanding 
 job in bringing to the people of the Synod a complete and interpreta- 
 tive report of the Assembly. 67 
 
 In view of the ecumenical nurture which the people of Augus- 
 tana had been receiving since 1923, it was no wonder that a consider- 
 able number of Augustana folk took advantage of the opportunity of 
 witnessing a world convention of the Lutheran Church when the Lu- 
 theran World Federation convened in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Au- 
 gust 15-25, 1957, for the third assembly. At this convention the Synod 
 was represented by a delegation of eight members, headed by the 
 president of the Church, Dr. Oscar A. Benson, and including Dr. Con- 
 rad Bergendoff, Dr. Robert Holmen, Dr. Karl E. Mattson, Dr. O. Karl 
 Olander, Pastor Carl Sodergren, Dr. Lael Westberg, and Miss Evelyn 
 Stark. The list of official visitors numbered six, including Dr. Malvin 
 H. Lundeen, Dr. J. Sabin Swenson, Dr. Wendell Lund, Dr. Robert 
 Mortvedt, Pastor Raymond Hedberg, and Mr. L. Milo Matson. 68 The 
 Federation honored the Augustana Synod by re-electing Dr. Benson 
 to a five-year term as a member of the executive committee, and Dr. 
 Carl E. Lund-Quist was returned to office as the Federation's execu- 
 tive secretary. Though the Augustana press gave the people of the 
 Synod full reports on the great Minneapolis conclave, a good many 
 Augustana folk made the journey to Minneapolis to see with their 
 own eyes the historic sight of a world church gathered in solemn as- 
 sembly. 69 
 
 65 The Augustana contingent included also alternate delegates, Dr. O. V. An- 
 derson, Dr. Victor E. Beck, Dr. Gustav Carlberg, Dr. Thorsten Gustafson, 
 Dr. Conrad Hoyer, and Dr. T. E. Matson, and a group of official visitors 
 numbering fifteen. Proceedings of the Second Assembly of the Lutheran 
 World Federation, Hannover, Germany, July 25-August 3, 1952, pp. 179-198. 
 
 66 Ibid., List of L. W. F. officers and committee members, pp 175-177. 
 
 67 Lutheran Companion, September 3, 10, 24, 1952; Augustana, August 11, Sep- 
 tember 8, 1952. 
 
 ™ Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1957, p. 105. 
 
303 The Contours of Community 
 
 The Ecumenical Community 
 
 Perhaps the most dramatic evidence of the developing sense of 
 community within the Augustana Synod is exhibited in the relation- 
 ship of the Synod to the modern ecumenical movement. 
 
 As a consequence of new and powerful ecumenical impulses which 
 emerged at the International Christian Conference at Edinburgh, 
 Scotland, 1910, the Protestant Episcopal Church, which had taken a 
 leading role at Edinburgh issued an invitation to virtually all Prot- 
 estant groups in western Christendom to unite in a World Conference 
 on Faith and Order. Such an invitation, dated, Boston, Massachusetts, 
 April 4, 1911, and signed by Robert H. Gardiner, secretary of the Epis- 
 copal Commission on Faith and Order, was sent to Dr. Eric Norelius, 
 president of the Augustana Synod. The curt reply which Norelius 
 gave to this invitation left little doubt that both Norelius and his 
 Church had slight interest in any talk about unity movements across 
 denominational lines. Norelius' letter was as follows: 
 
 Vasa, Minnesota 
 April 11, 1911 
 
 Robert Gardiner 
 
 Secretary, World Conference on Faith and Order 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 Your communication of April 4th in regard to matters of your 
 committee received. In reply to your inquiries, will say that the 
 Augustana Synod of the Ev. Luth. Church in America, has no 
 committee authorized to deal with any question in regard to the 
 unity of different churches and I am sure that the Synod will not 
 appoint any such committee. We certainly believe in Christian 
 unity, and there has always been such a unity among true Chris- 
 tians and there will always continue to be such a union; but an 
 outward union of different churches on a platform such as is pro- 
 posed by the Episcopal Commission we consider to be futile and 
 no union at all. Nevertheless, we shall always continue to pray 
 for true Christian union and to preach the whole council [sic] of 
 God unto salvation. 
 Yours very respectfully, 
 E. Norelius 70 
 
 69 Lutheran Companion, June 19, August 7, 14, September 4, 11, 18, 25, 1957. 
 Augustana was published as a monthly paper during 1956; the final number 
 was issued December, 1956. See also Proceedings oj the Third Assembly oj 
 the Lutheran World Federation, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 15-25, 1957. 
 
 70 Full text of Gardiner-Norelius correspondence in Referat, Augustana Synod, 
 1911, p. 36f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 304 
 
 In sharp contrast to the isolationist spirit of 1911 was the cordial 
 temper of G. A. Brandelle and the receptive spirit of the Augustana 
 Synod in 1924, when an invitation was received from Nathan Soder- 
 blom, archbishop of Sweden, to participate in the World Conference 
 on Life and Work, scheduled to meet in Stockholm, August 19-30, 
 1925. Dr. Brandelle communicated to the archbishop his own and the 
 Synod's enthusiastic readiness to take part in the forthcoming Confer- 
 ence, and Soderblom invited Dr. and Mrs. Brandelle to be his personal 
 guests during the Conference. 71 
 
 To be sure, an invitation to the Augustana Synod from Sweden's 
 archbishop to participate in the ecumenical movement was quite a 
 different matter than a similar invitation from the Episcopalians with 
 whom the Augustana Synod on several occasions had experienced 
 some difficulties. This fact may have had some effect in inclining the 
 Synod in 1924 to regard the ecumenical movement more favorably 
 than was the case in 1911. The reasons, however, for the contrast in 
 attitude between Norelius and Brandelle undoubtedly go deeper than ; 
 mere nationalistic prejudice. Between 1911 and 1924 World War I had 
 destroyed the comfortable, stable world of earlier years. Problems of 
 gigantic scope compelled Christian forces to pool their resources and 
 close their ranks. Furthermore, by 1924 the Augustana Sjmod had 
 emerged from its traditional position of nationalistic isolation, and ; 
 had become an Americanized institution, sensitive to the world in 
 which it lived, and eager to participate in the developments that were 
 shaping the life of that day. And, finally, synodical leadership had 
 become sympathetic to the major objectives of the ecumenical move- 
 ment and sought to guide the Synod into ecumenical pathways. 
 
 Accordingly, when the Stockholm Conference opened in mid- 
 August, 1925, the Augustana Synod was represented by the president, 
 G. A. Brandelle and Pastor G. Rast of Litchfield, Minnesota. 72 There 
 were those in the Synod, however, who expressed grave apprehen- 
 sion about the Conference. A member of the theological faculty in 
 Rock Island, for example, solemnly warned the Synod that entangle- 
 ment with the ecumenical movement was so dangerous that "our Lu- 
 
 71 The Brandelle -Soderblom correspondence is preserved in the Brandelle Col- 
 lection, Augustana Archives. For synodical action see Minutes, Augustana 
 Synod, 1924, p. 194; 1925, p. 168. For a brief Swedish account of the develop- 
 ment of cordial relations between the Augustana Synod and Nathan Soder- 
 blom see Nils Karlstrom, Kristna samfdrstdndsstrdvanden under v'drldskriget, 
 1914-1918, Stockholm, 1947, pp. 259ff. 
 
 72 G. K. A. Bell, The Stockholm Conference, 1925, London, 1925, List of dele- 
 gates, p. 22. 
 
305 The Contours of Community 
 
 theran faith is threatened," and he candidly identified himself "with 
 those who are afraid to enter into close fellowship with people whose 
 religious views and aims are suspicious to say the least. . . . There are 
 those who fear that the Stockholm Conference is but a step in the 
 direction of an ecumenical council on Faith and Order. If that be 
 so . . . then let us pray God night and day that at least the Lutheran 
 Church in America will have nothing to do with it." 73 This negative 
 attitude was sharply countered by the editor of the Swedish Augus- 
 tana, Dr. L. G. Abrahamson, who called upon the Synod to pray for 
 the success of the Conference, and for all similar efforts to Christianize 
 the existing social order. 74 
 
 Augustana was not represented at the First World Conference on 
 Faith and Order which met at Lausanne, Switzerland, August 3-21, 
 1927. 75 When, however, the Second World Conference on Faith and 
 Order convened in Edinburgh, Scotland, August 3-18, 1937, as a se- 
 quel to the Second World Conference on Life and Work, which met 
 in Oxford, England, July 12-26, 1937, the Augustana Synod was rep- 
 resented at both assemblies by the following delegates: at Oxford, 
 Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, Dr. Clifford A. Nelson with Pastor Wilbert E. 
 Benson as alternate; at Edinburgh, Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, Dr. Alfred 
 Bergin, Dr. Clifford A. Nelson, with Dr. Leonard Kendall, Pastor 
 Wilbert E. Benson, and Professor Theodor LeVander as alternates. 76 
 At Oxford Dr. Bergendoff was a member of section IV which dealt 
 with "The Church and Education," and Dr. Clifford A. Nelson served 
 as a member of section II, which considered the subject, "Church and 
 State." 77 At Edinburgh, Dr. Bergendoff was a member of Section II, 
 which gave consideration to the topic, "The Church of Christ and the 
 Word of God," and Dr. Nelson was a member of Section IV, which 
 had for its topic "The Church's Unity in Life and Worship." 78 Thus, 
 it was at Oxford and Edinburgh, 1937, that the Augustana Church 
 identified itself with the mainstream of the modern ecumenical move- 
 ment, including both Life and Work as well as Faith and Order. In 
 
 73 Professor S. J. Sebelius, Lutheran Companion, August 8, 1925. 
 
 74 Augustana, September 17, 1925, editorial by L. G. A. 
 
 75 Proceedings of the World Conference on Faith and Order, Lausanne, Au- 
 gust 3-21, 1927. New York, 1927, list of churches represented at Lausanne, 
 pp. 527-530, List of delegates, pp. 508-526. 
 
 76 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1937, p. 33f. See also, Leonard Hodgson, The 
 Second World Conference on Faith and Order, Edinburgh, August 3-18, 1937, 
 London; 1938, Appendix III, pp. 290-305. J. H. Oldham, The Oxford Confer- 
 ence, Official Report, New York, 1937, Appendix F, pp. 283-290. 
 
 77 J. H. Oldham, op. cit., pp. 284, 287. 
 
 78 Hodgson, op. cit., pp. 308, 309 
 
Augustana Heritage 306 
 
 their reports to the Augustana Synod, through the columns of Au- 
 gustana and the Lutheran Companion, the delegates provided the kind 
 of information and orientation which fostered a broadening sense of 
 Christian community throughout the Synod. 79 
 
 After World War II, when the three tributaries of the modern 
 ecumenical movement, the International Missionary Council, the Life 
 and Work movement, and the Faith and Order movement, united at 
 the Amsterdam Assembly, August 22-September 4, 1948, to form the 
 World Council of Churches, the Augustana Church was represented 
 and took an active part in the developments. 80 The Augustana dele- 
 gation to Amsterdam was headed by the president of the Church, Dr. 
 P. O. Bersell, and included Prof. N. A. Nilson, with Dr. E. E. Ryden 
 and Professor Theodor LeVander as alternates. Accredited visitors 
 from Augustana included Mrs. Daniel Martin and Mr. Otto Leonard- 
 son. 81 It was with a deep sense of satisfaction that the people of the 
 Augustana Church learned through the press that the World Council j 
 had honored the Synod by electing Dr. Bersell to membership on the 
 executive committee, and had appointed him to serve also on the cre- 
 dentials committee. 82 Indeed, the people back home were told not 
 only of the highlights, but the whole program of the Assembly was 
 expertly reported in the Augustana press, and in greater detail than 
 any previous ecumenical gathering. 83 
 
 Between the first and second assemblies of the World Council, the 
 Third World Conference on Faith and Order was held in Lund, Swe- I 
 den, August 15-21, 1952. To this conference which was aimed at dis- 
 
 79 See for example Bergendoff's analytical discussion of the ecumenical move- 
 ment in two articles in the Lutheran Companion, August 5 and 26, 1937. For 
 other excellent reports by Dr. C. A. Nelson, Prof. LeVander and others, see 
 Lutheran Companion, September 2, 16, 23, 30, 1937. Augustana, August 17, 
 September 14, 1937. 
 
 80 The First Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Amsterdam, Holland, 
 August 22-September 4, 1948, ed. W. A. Visser 't Hooft, New York, 1949, 
 Appendix II, p. 233. 
 
 81 Unofficial visitors included Mrs. Otto Leonardson, Mrs. E. E. Ryden, Miss 
 Alva Magnusson, Mrs. N. A. Nilson, Mrs. P. O. Bersell, Dr. Wilton E. Berg- 
 strand, Dr. Ernest A. Lack, Pastor Daniel T. Martin, and Dr. Otto Bostrom, 
 see Augustana, October 18, 1948. See also Ibid., Appendix III, p. 245. 
 
 82 The First Assembly of the World Council of Churches . . . Amsterdam, op. 
 cit, p. 224. Lutheran Companion, September 22, 1948. 
 
 83 Lutheran Companion, August 4, 11, 18, September 1, 15, 22, 29, October 13, 
 1948. Augustana, August 23, September 27, October 11, 18, 1948. A particu- 
 larly interesting and informative report of the meaning and significance of 
 the Amsterdam Assembly and the new World Council of Churches was given 
 by Dr. P. O. Bersell in Augustana, October 18, 1948. See also Swedish trans- 
 lation of article by Conrad Bergendoff, "Westphalia to Amsterdam," which 
 first appeared in The Christian Century for August 11, 1948, in Augustana, 
 August 23, 1948. 
 
307 The Contours of Community 
 
 covering deeper insights into the nature and mission of the church, 
 the Augustana Church sent two of its most able theologians, Dr. Con- 
 rad Bergendoff and Dr. Eric H. Wahlstrom. 84 The Second Assembly 
 of the World Council of Churches, which met in Evanston, Illinois, 
 Augustana 15-31, 1954, however, saw the Augustana Synod repre- 
 sented by a delegation of four, headed by the president of the Church, 
 Dr. Oscar A. Benson, and including Dr. P. O. Bersell and two laymen, 
 Dr. Wendell Lund and Mr. Solomon Eliufoo. 85 For the first time the 
 younger churches of the Augustana mission field were represented at 
 a world council, in the person of Mr. Eliufoo, a native from Tangan- 
 yika, East Africa. For the first time, too, the people of the Synod 
 could drive to an American city and see for themselves the pageantry 
 of a world conclave, and sense something of the drama of a Christian 
 community which transcends all human boundaries. Scores of Au- 
 gustana folk from near and far were seen in Evanston during the days 
 of the great assembly. 86 
 
 The Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which 
 met in New Delhi, India, November 19-December 6, 1961, provided 
 the Augustana Church with its last opportunity to participate as an 
 independent church body in the affairs of the ecumenical movement. 
 Before another Assembly would convene, the Augustana Church 
 would have given up its corporate identity to become a part of the 
 new Lutheran Church in America. As its last representatives to a 
 world assembly the Church sent a delegation headed by its president, 
 Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen, together with Dr. P. O. Bersell and Dr. C. 
 W. Sorensen. 87 In making his announcement to the synodical conven- 
 tion regarding the Assembly at New Delhi, Dr. Lundeen declared, 
 
 It is hoped that there will be general participation in the As- 
 sembly emphasis by our pastors and people as use is made in our 
 congregations of the prepared study booklet, "Jesus Christ, the 
 Light of the World," a copy of which has been sent to each of our 
 pastors. 88 
 
 84 The Third World Conference on Faith and Order, Lund, Sweden, August 
 15-21, 1952, ed. O. S. Tomkins, London, 1953, Appendix 2, p. 331. 
 
 85 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1954, p. 104. See also The Evanston Report. The 
 Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Evanston, Illinois, Au- 
 gust 15-31, 1954, New York, 1955, ed. W. A. Visser't Hooft, list of those 
 present, p. 274. 
 
 86 Lutheran Companion, August 11, 18, September 1, 8, 15, 22, 1954. Augustana, 
 August 23, September 20, October 4, 1954. 
 
 87 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1961, p. 518. 
 
 88 Ibid., p. 519. 
 
Augustana Heritage 308 
 
 At the conclusion of the New Delhi Assembly, when the Lutheran 
 Companion published the "Message from the World Council of 
 Churches," Dr. Lundeen appended a special appeal thereto, urging 
 every Augustana member "to read this message thoughtfully." He 
 then went on to say, 
 
 May I ask also — that each pastor take time in the worship serv- 
 ice next following publication of this message — to read the mes- 
 sage to his congregation. There is much food for thought here 89 
 
 The spirit of Christian community to which both the Augustana Lu- 
 theran Church and the World Council of Churches were committed 
 was well expressed in one paragraph of the New Delhi Message: 
 
 We must together seek the fulness of Christian unity. We need 
 for this purpose every member of the Christian family, of Eastern 
 and Western tradition, ancient Churches and younger Churches, 
 men and women, young and old, of every race and nation. Our 
 brethren in Christ are given to us, not chosen by us. In some 
 things our convictions do not permit us to act together, but we I 
 have made progress here in giving content to the unity we seek. 
 Let us everywhere find out the things which we can do together; 
 and faithfully do them praying and working always for that fuller 
 unity which Christ wills for His Church. 90 
 
 • 
 The Community of the National Council of Churches 
 
 Wednesday, June 7, 1950, was a notable day in the annals of the 
 Augustana Church. The ninety-first annual convention of the Synod 
 was meeting in the Augustana Church, Washington, D. C. At the af- 
 ternoon session the Honorable Harry S. Truman, President of the 
 United States, appeared before the delegation and brought a personal 
 word of greeting and encouragement to the people of the Augustana 
 Church. This was the first and only time in the history of Augustana 
 that the Chief Executive of the nation would attend a convention of 
 the Augustana Lutheran Church. The fact that the President was 
 there, gave evidence of a mutual sense of community between the Au- 
 gustana Church and its American environment. 91 The day of the 
 President's visit witnessed another historic moment in Augustana's 
 community relationships, as the Synod voted to accept membership in 
 the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of 
 
 89 Lutheran Companion, December 27, 1961. 
 
 90 Ibid., p. 3. 
 
 91 The text of Mr. Truman's message to the Synod is given in the Lutheran 
 Companion, June 28, 1950, p. 2f. 
 
309 The Contours of Community 
 
 America. As the editor of the Lutheran Companion pointed out in 
 his report of this history-making decision, "Acceptance of member- 
 ship in the National Council of Churches was a definite break with 
 American Lutheran tradition. It was the first time since Lutheranism 
 came to America more than 300 years ago that a Lutheran body had 
 voted to become a full member of a national inter-church organiza- 
 tion" (Italics added). 92 
 
 Affiliation with the National Council of Churches on the part of 
 Augustana was not a precipitous action. The Synod had given very 
 careful consideration to the matter of interdenominational relation- 
 ships. In his annual report to the Synod in 1945, Dr. Bersell declared, 
 
 We are associated with a number of interdenominational agen- 
 cies in the field of foreign missions, home missions, parish and 
 higher education, stewardship, eleemosynary institutions, etc. I 
 believe that the time has come for our Synod to take under seri- 
 ous consideration the question of its relationship to the Federal 
 Council. The voice of Lutheranism must be heard in the general 
 councils of evangelical Christians in this land and throughout the 
 world. This voice will be welcomed and it will be heard. 93 
 
 In response to Dr. BerselTs call for the establishment of broader Amer- 
 ican community ties, the Synod resolved that, 
 
 We believe the time has come when the voice of Lutheranism 
 should be heard in the councils of the evangelical church in this 
 land. We, therefore, memorialize the National Lutheran Council 
 to take steps to establish a consultative relationship with the Fed- 
 eral Council of Churches of Christ in America, and express our- 
 selves as a Synod ready to enter into such a relationship. 94 
 
 Since plans were under way to revise the structure of the Federal 
 Council of Churches, and since there was some disagreement in the 
 National Lutheran Council regarding the advisability of joining the 
 Federal Council, action on the part of the Augustana Synod was de- 
 ferred. In the meantime, however, a special committee, consisting of 
 Dr. P. O. Bersell, Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, and Dr. O. O. Gustafson, 
 was elected to make a study regarding the various aspects of relating 
 the Synod to the projected National Council of Churches. This com- 
 mittee reported to the Synod on Wednesday, June 7, 1950, the day of 
 
 92 E. E. Ryden in Lutheran Companion, June 28, 1950, p. 4. 
 
 93 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1945, p. 15. The specific interdenominational 
 agencies with which Augustana was associated were: the Foreign Missions 
 Conference of North America, the Home Missions Council of North Ameri- 
 ca, the International Council of Religious Education, and the United Stew- 
 ardship Council. 
 
 94 Ibid., p. 31. 
 
Augustana Heritage 310 
 
 President Truman's visit to the convention, and recommended that, 
 on the basis of the proposed constitution of the National Council, the 
 Augustana Church should accept membership in the new body which 
 was being planned. To this recommendation the Synod responded by 
 adopting the following: 
 
 Resolved that: 
 
 Assenting to the Preamble of the projected National Council 
 of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and de- 
 sirous of continuing relationships which our church has already 
 enjoyed in agencies now merging in the new Council, the Augus- 
 tana Lutheran Church join this Council on the understanding 
 that the constitution and amendments in substance be adopted as 
 recommended by the Planning Committee to the constituting 
 convention in November, 1950. 95 
 
 The constituting convention of the National Council of Churches 
 was held in Cleveland, Ohio, November 28-December 2, 1950. As the 
 Preamble of the constitution of the Council affirms, the new body 
 seeks to express a new Christian unity in America, a new and broad- 
 er sense of interdenominational community in this nation, by combin- 
 ing, co-ordinating and expanding, for the benefit of its constituents, 
 and so of all people, the aims and functions of the following existing 
 agencies: The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, the 
 Foreign Mission Conference of North America, the Home Mission 
 Council of North America, the International Council of Religious Ed- 
 ucation, the Missionary Education Movement of the United States and 
 Canada, the National Protestant Council on Higher Education, the 
 United Council of Church Women, and the United Stewardship Coun- 
 cil. In addition, the following agencies also merged their activities 
 with the Council, Church World Service, Interseminary Movement, 
 Protestant Film Commission, and the Protestant Radio Commission. 96 
 The Augustana Church was represented at the Cleveland conven- 
 tion by ten delegates, and an equal number of alternates. 97 The serv- 
 ice of worship which opened the convention, and which was held in 
 
 95 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1950, pp. 359-369. 
 
 90 Christian Faith In Action, Commemorative Volume, The Founding of the 
 National Council of Christ in the United States of America, Cleveland, Ohio, 
 November 25-December 2, 1950, New York, 1951, ed. R. W. Barstow and Com- 
 mittee, Constitution of N.C.C.C.U.S.A., p. 265, and p. 43f. 
 
 97 The delegates were: P. O. Bersell, Conrad Bergendoff, Mrs. John S. Benson, 
 Rudolph Burke, S. E. Engstrom, Emory Lindquist, Richard B. Pearson, S. 
 H. Swanson, Emil Swenson, Lael H. Westberg. The alternates were: Victor 
 E. Beck, C. O. Bengtson, Oscar A. Benson, Mrs. Leslie A. Carlson, Martin E. 
 Carlson, Mrs. Walter Ekelund, Eskil G. Englund, R. L. Fredstrom, T. A. Gus- 
 tafson, and George Hall, Ibid., p. 160f. 
 
311 The Contours of Community 
 
 the Cleveland Public Auditorium, was conducted by Dr. P. O. Bersell, 
 with Dr. Ralph W. Sockman of New York, preaching the sermon. 98 
 At the first business session, on the morning of November 29, 1950, 
 Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, presiding officer of the convention, called 
 upon the respective delegations to arise and signify their authoriza- 
 tion for their representatives to sign the official documents constitut- 
 ing the Council. The vote of the Augustana delegation was unani- 
 mously in the affirmative." And then, one by one, twenty-nine church 
 officials, presidents, bishops, and superintendents affixed their signa- 
 tures to the constituting documents as the names of their denomina- 
 tions were called. When Dr. P. O. Bersell, as president of the Augus- 
 tana Church, placed his signature on the documents at Cleveland, he 
 thereby associated the Augustana Church with the greatest interde- 
 nominational community of American Christians in the history of the 
 Republic. The Council, as then constituted, comprised twenty-five 
 Protestant and four Eastern Orthodox communions, representing ap- 
 proximately 31,000,000 souls. Its work reaches into virtually every 
 American community and touches most of the countries of the earth. 100 
 
 The Bible School Movement as Expressive of Lutheran Community 
 
 One of the most unique, though perhaps less spectacular, expres- 
 sions of a growing sense of community in the Augustana Church was 
 connected with the emergence of the Bible School Movement. 
 
 The institution known in America as the Bible school has its pro- 
 totype in Europe. The great evangelical revivals which swept through 
 the British Isles, Scandinavia, and the Continent during the eighteenth 
 and nineteenth centuries emphasized both the need and the responsi- 
 bility of dedicated laymen to help spread the good news of salvation in 
 Jesus Christ. To prepare lay people for such service in the church, 
 "lay schools" or "Mission schools" were established which offered brief 
 but concentrated courses in Bible study and practical methods of col- 
 portage. In the Scandinavian lands, particularly in Sweden and Nor- 
 way, a number of such "Mission schools" were founded which ren- 
 dered significant service to the home and foreign missionary programs 
 of the national church. 101 When the Bible School was transplanted 
 
 98 Ibid., p. 217f . 
 
 99 Ibid., pp. 219, 238. 
 
 100 For an excellent account of the Cleveland convention see article by Philip 
 A. Johnson, "National Council Is Born," Lutheran Companion, December 13, 
 1950. 
 
 101 The Fjellstedt School in Uppsala, the Ahlberg School in Ahlsborg, and the 
 
Augustana Heritage 312 
 
 to America as a consequence of the revival movements in this country, 
 it represented a theory of education which contrasted with that of the 
 American liberal arts program. The characteristic difference between 
 a Bible institute or school and a liberal arts college is essentially a 
 difference in educational philosophy. The Bible school traditionally 
 tends to conceive of education in terms of vocational training and dog- 
 matic indoctrination. The liberal arts college thinks of education as a 
 process of growth in the capacity for well-informed critical thought 
 achieved through the disciplines of the liberal arts. 
 
 In the years before World War I, a number of non-Lutheran Bi- 
 ble schools had been founded in America, some claiming to offer a full 
 theological course of training for ministers, but most of them appeal- 
 ing chiefly to lay workers in the church. Among the best known of 
 such institutions were the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois, the 
 Nyack Bible Institute, Nyack, New York, the Biblical Seminary, 
 founded by W. W. White, New York City, and the Biblical Institute 
 of Los Angeles, in California. 102 During and after the war years, many 
 earnest, spiritually-minded Lutheran young men and women, seeking 
 personal religious clarification as well as some practical training for 
 possible service in the church, were enrolling in these non-Lutheran 
 institutions. 103 
 
 The idea of providing Lutheran Bible schools for Lutheran Bible 
 students seems to have arisen in the minds of a number of people about 
 the same time. The earliest attempt, however, to implement such a 
 notion in the Augustana Church was made in Chicago where a group 
 of pastors in the southern Chicago district began planning for a Bible 
 school in January, 1918. These plans materialized in September, 1918, 
 when The Lutheran Bible Institute oj the Southern Chicago District 
 conducted its first class in the chapel of the Augustana Home for the 
 Aged, 74th and Stony Island Avenue. Classes met on the second and 
 
 Mission Institute in Stavanger were outstanding examples of this type of 
 institution. It was this kind of school the Norwegian professor, August 
 Weenaas, wished to make of Augustana Seminary when he joined the Au- 
 gustana faculty in Paxton, 1868. 
 
 102 Terrelle B. Crum, "Bible Institutes and Colleges," Twentieth Century En- 
 cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1955, p. 131. 
 Jay R. Calhoun, "By These Paths: Avenues of Pre -Theological Study," 
 Encounter, Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring, 1957, pp. 174-181. 
 
 103 Article by Annette Elmquist, (Mrs. George N. Anderson), Augustana, 
 January 30, 1919. Miss Elmquist had spent a year in such a non-Lutheran 
 Bible School. In a letter, dated April 4, 1962, Dr. Samuel M. Miller stated, 
 "Reformed Bible schools were attracting Lutheran young people who want- 
 ed to specialize in Bible Study; there was no Lutheran school for them to 
 go to. Religious courses in Lutheran colleges did not answer the needs." 
 
313 The Contours of Community 
 
 fourth Monday evenings of each month from September through the 
 following May, with neighboring pastors lecturing on various books 
 of the Bible. These Bible courses were "practical expositions designed 
 for busy laymen and not for learned theologians." The superficial na- 
 ture of the instruction which was often given is indicated by the fact 
 that some of the lecture series were said to cover an entire book of the 
 Bible in three hours. 104 This type of Bible study apparently did not 
 adequately meet the demands of the day, for within a couple of years 
 the enterprise was abandoned. 
 
 While the Chicago venture was getting under way, a similar, but 
 much more ambitious, program was being planned in Minneapolis- 
 Saint Paul, Minnesota. A number of Augustana pastors and lay people 
 became interested in the establishment of a Bible school which would 
 serve the Lutherans, young and old, in the Twin City area. 105 The 
 leaders of the movement included Miss Annette Elmquist of St. Paul, 
 her future husband, George N. Anderson, pastor of First Lutheran 
 Church, St. Paul, Roy F. Thelander, pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran 
 Church, St. Paul, Samuel M. Miller, pastor of Messiah Lutheran 
 Church, Minneapolis, and Claus A. Wendell, pastor of Grace Lutheran 
 Church, Minneapolis. A public meeting was held in the late summer 
 of 1918, at which the Lutheran Bible Institute Association was formed 
 for the purpose of owning and controlling a Lutheran Bible Insti- 
 tute. 106 
 
 The Association represented very nearly a cross section of Luth- 
 eranism in the Twin Cities, which was precisely what the planning 
 committee had intended. Although the initiative for the Bible School 
 project had been taken by a group of Augustana people, it was intended 
 from the very beginning that the school must be an inter-Lutheran 
 enterprise. It was to be a "free-standing institution," independent of 
 the control of any one church body, belonging to all Lutherans alike, 
 and serving all Lutheran churches equally. The original plan envis- 
 aged a venture which would express the spirit of Lutheran community 
 and mutuality at the deepest levels of Biblical faith and action. There- 
 fore, every effort was made to involve as comprehensive a section of 
 
 104 For a description of this venture see article by C. Emil Bergquist, Luther- 
 an Companion, March 15, 1919. 
 
 105 Lutheran Companion, January 18; February 1, 22; May 17, July 26, August 
 16, 1919. 
 
 106 The official organ of L. B. I. is The Bible Banner, which carried historical 
 accounts of the origins of the institution in the issues of January, 1920, 
 and September, 1924. Numerous references to L. B. I. appear in The Lu- 
 theran Companion for 1919. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 314 
 
 Lutheranism in the venture as possible. The representative make-up 
 of the Association was the first decisive step in this direction. 107 
 
 The Association elected a board of directors, and the board called 
 Dr. Samuel M. Miller to be the first Dean of the Institute, and ap- 
 pointed the first faculty. 108 The board, administration, and faculty de- 
 vised an academic program and arranged for various courses of study. 
 The academic program was divided into several departments: the day 
 school, operating five days a week for thirty weeks each year, requir- 
 ing full time student residence; evening school, conducted at the In- 
 stitute and in outlying centers, on certain evenings each week for speci- 
 fied periods; summer school, usually held at a summer camp for five 
 weeks; Bible conferences, held in congregations throughout the coun- 
 try; correspondence courses offered in selected areas of Bible study, 
 and the publication of devotional literature. 109 
 
 The Lutheran Bible Institute in Minneapolis began to function on 
 September 16, 1919. For the first year the work was carried on in the 
 basement quarters of the First Lutheran Church, St. Paul, with an en- 
 rollment of twenty-nine students. After the first year the institution • 
 conducted its program in a building rented from Luther Theological 
 Seminary. It continued in this location until it moved into its own 
 building, almost ten years later. 110 As the new Institute began to take 
 shape, the board of directors, the faculty, as well as the student body, 
 like the Association itself, represented a cross section of Lutheranism 
 in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Friends of the Institute, who sup- 
 ported the school with their prayers and their means likewise repre- 
 sented virtually all Lutheran bodies of the section. Thus, the Lutheran 
 Bible Institute, from the very outset, was a unique embodiment of 
 community. This characteristic continued to prevail also in the 
 branches which were established by the parent school in Los An- 
 geles, 111 Seattle, 112 and Teaneck, New Jersey. 113 
 
 107 Interview with Dr. Samuel M. Miller, April 21, 1962. Dr. Miller empha- 
 sizes the inter-Lutheran character of the Bible Institute as constituting a 
 basic characteristic. From the beginning, he declares, L. B. I. has sought 
 to be representative of conservative Lutheranism in America, deriving its 
 support from, making its appeal to, and seeking to serve virtually all sec- 
 tions of the Lutheran Church in America. The broad representation of 
 midwestern Lutheranism in the personnel of L. B. I. is given in an article, 
 "The Present Personnel of the Lutheran Bible Institute," The Bible Ban- 
 ner, January, 1924. 
 
 108 Dr. Samuel Miller served as Dean of L. B. I. from 1919 to 1931, and again 
 from 1935 to 1945. 
 
 109 TJie Bible Banner, September, 1924. 
 
 110 Ibid., January, 1920; September, 1924. 
 
 111 The California Lutheran Bible School. 
 
 112 The Lutheran Bible Institute of Seattle. 
 
 113 Lutheran Bible Institute of Teaneck, N. J. 
 
315 The Contours of Community 
 
 The Bible school movement has significance in the history of the 
 Augustana Church, however, for more reasons than that it has repre- 
 sented a co-operative endeavor with other Lutherans as an evidence 
 of the spirit of Lutheran community. The Lutheran Bible Institute 
 has stimulated the reading and the study of Scripture and has thus 
 caused the lives of many people to be enriched by new religious in- 
 sight, greater spiritual maturity, and deeper Christian commitment. 11 * 
 Through its ministry, the Lutheran Bible Institute has also awakened 
 in many men and women a desire to enlist in full-time religious serv- 
 ice. Many pastors in the Augustana ministerium can testify that their 
 first serious thoughts regarding the ministry were awakened through 
 contact with the Lutheran Bible Institute. Many missionaries and 
 evangelists, both men and women, on the foreign mission fields can do 
 likewise. Parish workers and deaconesses, too, have been inspired to 
 devote their entire lives to the service of the church through the min- 
 istry of the Institute. Thus the Bible school has played an important 
 role as a recruitment agency for full-time church workers. Further- 
 more, the Lutheran Bible Institute has recruited and trained signifi- 
 cant numbers of lay people and sent them out as colporteurs and teach- 
 ers into areas of the United States and Canada where there are neither 
 Sunday Schools nor churches. Thus, the Institute has fulfilled an im- 
 portant function as an evangelizing agency in the church. 
 
 The Bible school has also assumed a somewhat controversial role 
 as the critic of the church. This critical function has derived from the 
 image which the Bible Institute seems to have had of itself. It has 
 looked upon itself as an interior resource of renewal. That is to say, 
 the Bible school has conceived of its place and function as being within 
 the church, and not as an entity operating outside of or tangent to the 
 church. Like the Rosenian movement in the Church of Sweden, The 
 Bible Institute has insisted that it exists for the renewal of the spiritual 
 life of the church, but that such renewal must occur within the struc- 
 tured life and activity of the existing ecclesiastical community, and 
 not through separatistic withdrawal and isolation. 115 Dedicated to the 
 simple task of teaching the Bible, so that its message might be made 
 more widely known and deeply understood, and insisting that the faith 
 
 114 The columns of The Bible Banner carry frequent communications from in- 
 dividuals who express gratitude for the deepening of their own spiritual 
 life through the renewal of interest in Scripture inspired by the ministry 
 of L. B. I. See for example Bible Banner, May, 1920, p. 4; November, 1922, 
 p. 5; October, 1926, p. 14f. Lutheran Companion, February 22, 1919. 
 
 115 Interview with Dr. S. M. Miller, April 21, 1962. See article by S. M. Miller, 
 "Are We Lutheran?", Bible Banner, July, 1921. Article by Annette Elm- 
 quist, "The Lutheran Bible Institute," Augustana, January 30, 1919. 
 
Augustana Heritage 316 
 
 and practice of the church, including both clergy and laity, must con- 
 form to this message, it was perhaps inevitable that the Bible school 
 would sooner or later emerge as the church's critic. Indeed, the in- 
 sistence of the founders of the Lutheran Bible Institute upon main- 
 taining a "free-standing institution" was perhaps partially motivated 
 by the desire for sufficient freedom to enable the school to observe 
 and comment without fear of ecclesiastical muzzling. 
 
 The prerogative of a critic of the faith and practice of the church 
 has been expressed by the Lutheran Bible Institute, generally speak- 
 ing, from the premises of a fundamentalistic Lutheran orthodoxy. This 
 is not to say that every pronouncement or every individual associated 
 with the Lutheran Bible Institute can be thus classified. What must 
 be said, however, is that the general stance taken by the leadership of 
 the Institute and enunciated in the columns of the official organ of the 
 school, The Bible Banner, has usually been that of fundamentalistic 
 Lutheran orthodoxy. 
 
 This prevailing temper is exhibited at a number of points. The 
 conception of the Bible which The Bible Banner enunciates may be 
 said to be fundamentalistic in the sense that, although the journal ap- 
 pears to be cautious in stating its position, it quotes with approval 
 those who contend for the theory of verbal inspiration. 116 The schools 
 of higher and lower Biblical criticism are usually treated with scant 
 sympathy. For example, Dr. O. N. Olson, for a number of years the 
 president of the Iowa Conference, and a teacher in the theological sem- 
 inary from 1928 to 1931, wrote a Bible Study Quarterly in 1926, in 
 which he referred approvingly to the theory of a dual authorship of 
 the prophecy of Isaiah. The editor of The Bible Banner published a 
 series of articles which reproached Dr. Olson for his liberal views and 
 called upon the Church to protect its youth from "modernist interpre- 
 tations" of Scripture. 117 This fundamentalistic approach to Scripture 
 also impelled The Bible Banner to voice its opposition to the theory 
 of evolution, since this idea was said to contradict the Biblical account 
 of creation. Indeed, evolution and communism were associated as twin 
 evils against which Christians must be on guard. 118 
 
 116 See articles, "The Book That God Wrote," The Bible Banner, June, 1925, 
 and "Is the Bible Uninspired," The Bible Banner, June, 1925. 
 
 H7 The Bible Banner, February, March, 1926; September, 1927. Dr. Adolf 
 Hult, professor at Augustana Seminary, made an intemperate attack upon 
 Olson protesting the "crashings and clashings" of the "dunderheadedness 
 and self-complacency" of liberal theologians. Dean Miller was more gra- 
 cious but no less opposed to Biblical criticism which seemed to "undermine 
 the authority of Scripture." 
 
 us The Bible Banner, May, 1923; January, 1926. 
 
317 The Contours of Community 
 
 Ecumenism was another peril against which the Bible Institute 
 warned its students and friends. When the first World Conference on 
 Life and Work was to meet in Stockholm, 1925, The Bible Banner 
 launched an attack upon Archbishop Soderblom and the World Con- 
 ference which reflects very little understanding of the modern ecumen- 
 ical movement. The leader of the assault was Dr. Adolf Hult, who de- 
 clared, 
 
 Hallesby, Soderblom's mightiest opponent in the Scandinavian 
 lands, said during his visit that he deemed Soderblom the most 
 dangerous man in the Lutheran Church. I told Hallesby person- 
 ally that such was since years my own conviction . . . the press 
 of our Synod stands alone in praise of Soderblom . . . shall our 
 Synod be the door to rationalism in the American Lutheran 
 Church. . . . God awaken us in time! 119 
 
 On the same subject the editor of The Bible Banner declared, 
 
 When we were invited to attend a reception for the archbishop 
 and say something about the Lutheran Bible School, we could 
 not for conscience' sake do so. Even though it could be explained 
 that we would not thereby have been approving his message, yet 
 we do desire that our position be perfectly clear ... all the liber- 
 als plead for love and co-operation, but God's Word says in 2 
 John 10, "If any one cometh to you and bringeth not this teaching, 
 receive him not into your house, and give him no greeting; for he 
 that giveth him greeting partaketh in the evil work." 120 
 
 According to the spokesmen for the Lutheran Bible Institute, 
 Archbishop Soderblom was unacceptable because he was theologically 
 "liberal," and the Stockholm Conference was a mistake because "such 
 conferences call forth only confusion and draw off thousands of work- 
 ers from the fields of the Spirit into bypaths." 121 Any attempt to 
 Christianize the social order of the world by promoting conferences 
 for study and discussion was doomed to failure, for "true Christian- 
 izing can never be achieved by any shorter or easier road than that of 
 personal conversion." 122 On the subject of ecumenical Conferences 
 Dr. Hult declared, 
 
 Theologians may have license to cut the Word to pieces and 
 then orate beautifully about heart-unity and organization-unity, 
 with themselves as grand lords of a great external establishment, 
 maintained in pomp by the sweat of the poor and struggling com- 
 
 119 See Hult's article ''Soderblom a Temptation to the Augustana Synod," The 
 Bible Banner, January, 1924. 
 
 120 The Bible Banner, "Visitors from Europe," November, 1923. 
 121 TJie Bible Banner, June, 1925. 
 
 122 The Bible Banner, September, 1925. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 318 
 
 moners of our sordid human life . . . but if the present day eccles- 
 iastics of organization-unity of the church had a true conception 
 of the New Testament word, they would not write, speak, argue, 
 labor as they do for a unionistic church which scraps the witness 
 of "the whole counsel of God." . . . External division is no great 
 worriment except for aspiring churchmen infected with Romanis- 
 tic ideas of a massive establishment. 123 
 
 While the Lutheran Bible Institute undertook to chide the entire Au- 
 gustana Synod for its participation in the ecumenical movement, and 
 sought to discredit the archbishop of the Church of Sweden, it also 
 kept a watchful eye, in the spirit of C. F. W. Walther, 124 on the con- 
 duct of individual churchmen, hailing those whom it deemed to be 
 lax in doctrine or practice before its own judgment seat. Thus, in the 
 issue of December, 1929, an article appeared in The Bible Banner un- 
 der the caption, "Sad Example of Unionism." 125 The article called 
 attention to an item clipped from a Boston newspaper which stated 
 that the Reverend Dr. S. G. Hagglund, president of the New England 
 Conference of the Augustana Church, had appeared on the platform 
 and pronounced the benediction at a community Thanksgiving serv- 
 ice in Boston, where the preacher had been a Jewish rabbi. Ten dif- 
 ferent denominations were said to have been represented at the serv- 
 ice. The Bible Banner branded this act of participation by a Lutheran 
 clergyman inexcusable "unionism," demanding that an immediate 
 halt be called regarding such lax practices. In subsequent issues of 
 The Bible Banner, Dr. Hagglund sought to defend his action, point- 
 ing out that to pronounce the benediction in the name of the Triune 
 God was not a compromise of the Christian faith but is a testimony to 
 it; the editor of The Bible Banner, however, dismissed the argument 
 by calling it a "mixing of the worship of Belial and Christ." 126 Calling 
 upon Dr. Hagglund to repent of his error and turn from his unortho- 
 dox ways, The Bible Banner declared, 
 
 It is a dangerous time in which we live, and we cannot but ex- 
 press our hope and our prayer that God will grant the leaders of 
 our church the grace to fight manfully against the introduction 
 of the leaven of the Saducees of liberalism into the life and prac- 
 tice of our church. 127 
 
 123 Adolf Hult, "What Church Unity Did Christ Advocate?", The Bible Ban- 
 ner, November, 1925. 
 
 124 Walther's viewpoint was often approved in the columns of The Bible Ban- 
 ner. 
 
 125 The Bible Banner, December, 1929, p. 13. 
 
 126 The Bible Banner, February, March, May, 1928. 
 
 127 The Bible Banner, March, 1928. 
 
319 The Contours of Community 
 
 A strain of fundamentalistic Puritanism is also evident in the social 
 attitudes expressed in The Bible Banner. Moving pictures are viewed 
 with suspicion, because they so often portray the sordidness of a 
 "worldly life." 128 In an article entitled "Shocking," a Bible school 
 faculty member uses The Bible Banner to call attention to the evil 
 of short skirts and cosmetics, warning the young women of the church 
 to guard against the corroding evils of a lax moral order. 129 In a long 
 article, the ebullient Dr. Adolf Hult asked, "Do Christians Need the 
 Card Table?" The author was certain they did not, and cited the 
 success stories of Hasselquist, Olsson, C. A. Swensson and others to 
 prove his point. 130 
 
 Because of its outspoken criticism of what it deemed unaccepta- 
 ble Lutheranism, the Bible Institute won for itself both friends and 
 foes in the Augustana Church. There were those who felt that the 
 spiritual health of the Church needed a voice which would constantly 
 remind both clergy and lay people of the obligation to remain "faith- 
 ful to the Word of God." There were others who were offended by 
 what they called the school's "holier than thou" attitude, and who 
 claimed to see a strain of Pelagianism in the teachings of the Insti- 
 tute. 131 On the whole, however, cordial relationships have existed be- 
 tween the Lutheran Bible Institute and the Augustana Lutheran 
 Church. This is evident in the large number of students which the 
 Institute has recruited from the Augustana Church, and the percent- 
 age of faculty members who are Augustana men. 
 
 The New Service Book and Hymnal 
 
 The new Service Book and Hymnal which was introduced in the 
 Augustana Church in 1957 and 1958, was at once both a consequence 
 and a matrix of Lutheran community. 
 
 So far as the emergence of this common project is historically 
 related to the Augustana Lutheran Church, it may be said to have its 
 origin in the American Lutheran Conference. It was at the second 
 biennial convention of the Conference, held in Des Moines, Iowa, No- 
 vember, 1934, that the question was raised of creating a common book 
 
 128 The Bible Banner, March, 1927. 
 
 129 The Bible Banner, July, 1927. 
 
 130 The Bible Banner, August, 1927. Dr. Hult acknowledged that his writings 
 were not always acceptable to the editors of the Lutheran Companion and 
 Augustana: his viewpoint seems to have coincided, however, with that of 
 L. B. I., and he was a frequent contributor to the pages of The Bible Ban- 
 ner. 
 
 131 Letter from Dr. Samuel M. Miller, April 4, 1962. 
 

 Augustana Heritage 320 
 
 of worship for the Lutheran Church in America. As a consequence of 
 the discussion over this question, the following resolution was adopted: 
 
 That a committee consisting of one member from each constit- 
 uent body be appointed by the executive committee for the pur- 
 pose of studying the feasibility of a common liturgy for the Lu- 
 theran Church in America and that said committee be author- 
 ized and directed to contact other Lutheran bodies with a view of 
 obtaining their co-operation in this endeavor. 132 
 
 The Commission on a Common Liturgy of the American Lutheran 
 Conference, which came into being by appointment the following year, 
 did not consult with other Lutheran bodies outside the Conference, 
 but did give serious study and consideration to the production not 
 only of a common liturgy, but a common hymnal as well. From these 
 studies there emerged a recommendation which was presented to the 
 seventh biennial convention of the American Lutheran Conference, 
 as follows: 
 
 The commission believes that plans should be laid and set in 
 motion as soon as possible looking toward a joint Lutheran Hym- 
 nal and Liturgy. The work of revision now carried on in the var- 
 ious synods should not be a hindrance but rather an aid to the 
 eventual publication of such a Hymnal and Liturgy. 133 
 
 This resolution called attention to the strategic importance of taking 
 decisive action in this matter, since a number of Lutheran bodies were 
 at that time busy revising their own books of worship. The Augus- 
 tana Synod had appointed a Committee on the Revision of the Hym- 
 nal as early as 1936, and that Committee had been at work for several 
 years. 134 The United Lutheran Church had been at work revising 
 its Common Service Book since 1938, and in 1942 the American Lu- 
 theran Church had appointed a committee to "make a study of the 
 hymnal looking toward possible revision." 135 As these separate com- 
 mittees on revision busied themselves with their tasks, there was talk 
 among all of them about the advisability of broadening the under- 
 taking to include the creation of a truly common book of worship for 
 Lutherans in America. The idea seems to have taken root in a num- 
 ber of Lutheran groups at about the same time. The year 1944 found 
 
 132 Minutes of the Second Biennial Convention of the American Lutheran Con- 
 ference, Des Moines, Iowa, November 14-16, 1934, p. 19. 
 
 133 Minutes of the Seventh Biennial Convention of the American Lutheran 
 Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 15-17, 1944, p. 50. 
 
 134 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1936, p. 187. 
 
 135 E. E. Ryden, "The Common Hymnal," The Lutheran Quarterly, August, 
 1950, p. 270f. 
 
321 The Contours of Community 
 
 three different Lutheran bodies making independent decisions, all 
 pointing in the same direction. At its St. Paul Convention, June 7-11, 
 1944, the Augustana Church received the report of the Commission on 
 Liturgical Theory and Practice regarding proposed changes in the 
 Orders for Baptism and Confirmation, and then resolved: 
 
 That in view of the eventual union of the Lutheran Bodies of 
 America, we urge our Commission to work with similar com- 
 missions of other Lutheran Church Bodies so that a common serv- 
 ice may be evolved containing contributions from the liturgies of 
 the various Bodies. 136 
 
 In October of the same year, the board of directors of the Augustana 
 Book Concern requested Dr. P. O. Bersell, president of the Augus- 
 tana Church, and at that time also president of the National Lutheran 
 Council, to use his good offices 
 
 To inaugurate and prosecute action for the acceptance, develop- 
 ment, and publication of a common church hymnal by the various 
 Lutheran bodies as an agent in making more efficient the stew- 
 ardship of church funds and the cultivation of closer unity among 
 Lutherans. 137 
 
 While Augustana was taking this action, the American Lutheran 
 Church, meeting for its biennial convention in Sandusky, Ohio, Oc- 
 tober, 1944, commended its Hymnal Revision Committee "for ap- 
 proaching other bodies on the matter of hymnal study and revision. 138 
 Simultaneously, but entirely independent of the actions by other Lu- 
 theran groups, the United Lutheran Church, meeting for its fourteenth 
 convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, expressed similar sentiments 
 as it authorized its Common Service Book Committee to continue 
 working on a revision, "and in so doing, to seek the fullest possible 
 co-operation with other Lutheran bodies in the hope of producing as 
 nearly as possible, a common Lutheran hymnal in America." 139 
 
 It was the Common Service Book Committee of the United Lu- 
 theran Church which took the initiative and set in motion the project 
 which would realize the dream which seemed to be in the minds of 
 so many Lutherans. The Common Service Book Committee, through 
 its chairman, Dr. Luther Reed, issued an invitation for an exploratory 
 conference to be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 19-21, 1945. 
 
 136 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1944, p. 284. 
 137 Ryden, op. tit., p. 272. 
 
 138 Minutes of the Eighth Convention of the American Lutheran Church, San- 
 dusky, Ohio, October 9-14, 1944, p. 277. 
 
 139 Minutes of the Fourteenth Biennial Convention of the United Lutheran 
 Church in America, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 11-17, 1944, p. 436. 
 
Augustana Heritage 322 
 
 Twelve men, representing the Augustana Church, the American Lu- 
 theran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the United Lu- 
 theran Church, responded to this invitation. 140 This meeting proved to 
 be of historic significance, for it marked the beginning of a new and 
 important step in the history of Lutheran unity and co-operation. 
 During the deliberations in Pittsburgh it was discovered that there 
 already existed broad areas of common liturgical and hymnological 
 usage. A surprisingly large number of hymns were common property 
 in all the traditions represented around the conference table. Opti- 
 mism and enthusiasm gripped the men who attended the Pittsburgh 
 sessions. Accordingly, two more meetings were held in Pittsburgh 
 within a few months, with remarkable unanimity of spirit and much 
 progress reported. At the third of these Pittsburgh conferences, held 
 at Hotel Henry, October 26, 1945, Dr. E. E. Ryden, representing the 
 Augustana Church, called attention to the resolution which the Au- 
 gustana Synod had adopted in St. Paul, in 1944, to the effect that ef- 
 forts should be made to provide both a common hymnal and a com- 
 mon liturgy for the Lutheran Church in America. This proposal 
 evoked a spirited discussion, pro and con. The representatives from 
 the United Lutheran Church were fearful lest endeavors to achieve 
 a common liturgy would hinder the present efforts to create a com- 
 mon hymnal, and would perhaps create confusion among those who 
 were now using the Common Service. The majority felt, however, 
 that to have both a common hymnal and a common liturgy was such , 
 a highly desirable goal that some risk was justifiable. Hence, the con- 
 ference adopted the following resolution: 
 
 In response to the suggestion of the Augustana Synod urging 
 a study of the question of a Common Lutheran Liturgy, and in 
 view of a resolution adopted by the United Lutheran Church in 
 America and the American Lutheran Church evidencing a desire 
 for closer co-operation between the various groups in hymnologi- 
 cal studies and other related subjects, the Conferences on a Com- 
 mon Lutheran Hymnal recommends that the presidents of the 
 various Lutheran bodies be asked to appoint representatives on 
 a joint commission similar to this one, who shall consider such 
 liturgical matters as shall be presented to them in the hope of 
 achieving common practice throughout the Church. 141 
 
 In response to this resolution the presidents of the co-operating 
 churches appointed representatives to confer together for the purpose 
 
 140 xhe Augustana representatives were Dr. E. E. Ryden and Dr. C. A. Wen- 
 dell. 
 
 141 Ryden, op. tit, p. 275. 
 
323 The Contours of Community 
 
 of exploring the possibilities of creating a common liturgy for the Lu- 
 theran Church in America. These representatives assembled in Chi- 
 cago, February 25, 1946, and organized the Joint Commission on a 
 Common Liturgy. Henceforth, there were two separate joint com- 
 missions, the one working on a common hymnal, the other on a com- 
 mon liturgy. 142 Busy with their separate but closely related tasks, the 
 two Joint Commissions continued their efforts, and were gratified to 
 welcome representatives from the Lutheran Free Church, the United 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Suomi Synod, so that after 
 1945, all of the constituent bodies of the National Lutheran Council 
 were represented on both Joint Commissions. The work of the two 
 commissions was co-ordinated through the office of the general chair- 
 man, Dr. Luther D. Reed, who presided over both commissions, guid- 
 ing their work and keeping each group informed about the progress 
 of the other, and from time to time calling both commissions to meet 
 together. Similarly, the chairman of the music committee of both 
 commissions, Dr. E. T. Horn, III, sought to co-ordinate this phase of 
 activity. 
 
 By 1948 the work of both Joint Commissions had progressed far 
 enough so that an extensive report could be made to the participating 
 churches. The Joint Commission on the Liturgy reported to the Au- 
 gustana Church through the Augustana Commission on Liturgical 
 Theory and Practice, while the Joint Commission on the Hymnal re- 
 ported through the Augustana Committee on Revision of the Hymnal. 
 At its convention in 1948, the Augustana Church approved the reports 
 of the Joint Commission and authorized continuation of the proj- 
 ects. 143 
 
 The Joint Commissions continued their efforts toward the crea- 
 tion of a hymnal which would be "a new work, not simply a confla- 
 tion of existing hymnals," and a liturgy which would be, not merely a 
 hodgepodge compilation of various liturgical items borrowed from par- 
 ticipating traditions, but a true and unified synthesis of the rich life of 
 worship represented by the Lutheran Church in America. There was 
 both agreement and disagreement, forbearance and impatience, but 
 above all, there was progress. The members of the Joint Commissions 
 learned from each other, even as they witnessed to one another. 
 Finally, by 1957, the main work was done. A hymnal containing six 
 hundred and two hymns, and representing, perhaps, the finest collec- 
 tion of Christian hymnody ever to be produced by the Lutheran 
 
 142 Cf. L. D. Reed, The Lutheran Liturgy, Muhlenberg Press, 1947, pp. 205ff. 
 
 143 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1948, pp. 340, 392f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 324 
 
 Church in America, was being put through the press. A liturgy 
 which was rooted in the "developed worship of the ancient and med- 
 ieval Christian Church, both East and West, and grounded on the 
 historic German, Scandinavian, and American uses of the post-Refor- 
 mation centuries" and furnished with three musical settings, was com- 
 pleted. The new Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church 
 in America was ready for introduction into the congregations of the 
 eight participating bodies. 144 
 
 In preparation for the introduction of the new book, a Lutheran 
 Worship Seminar was held, November 6-7, 1957, in the Immanuel 
 Lutheran Church, Chicago, one of the historic congregations of the 
 Augustana Lutheran Church. Some two hundred and fifty Lutheran 
 pastors, organists, and choir directors from all parts of the United 
 States and Canada, representing all eight bodies of the National Lu- 
 theran Council, were in attendance. They had come to learn from the 
 members of the Joint Commission the story of the new Service Book 
 and Hymnal, to discover the richness of its contents, to hear the lit- 
 urgy properly rendered, and to lay plans for the introduction of the 
 new book of worship into every section of the Church. At the con- 
 cluding session of the Seminar, the general chairman, Dr. Reed, ad- 
 dressed the assembly. He reminded his audience that the seminar in 
 Chicago, with its broad Lutheran representation, as well as the new 
 Service Book and Hymnal, were outstanding expressions of Lutheran 
 community. He said, in part: 
 
 This meeting marks the culmination of years of intensive effort. 
 As we have worked together, we have in reality been the Church, 
 for we have been broadly representative of eight different groups 
 from all parts of America. ... I have been greatly impressed by 
 the vast potential of the assembly. A conference like this is a 
 great achievement. 145 
 
 The new Service Book and Hymnal did not suit the taste of everyone 
 in the Augustana Church as it was introduced into congregational 
 use, as attested by critical letters to the editor of the Lutheran Com- 
 
 144 For the descriptive quotations given above see Preface and Introduction, 
 Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church in America, p. Vlf., and 
 pp. 285-287. 
 
 145 Editorial, The Lutheran Companion, December 4, 1957. Articles explain- 
 ing and interpreting the new liturgy and hymnal are in the Lutheran Com- 
 panion, November 6, December 18, 1957, January 15, March 19, 26, April 16, 
 23, 30, May 28, June 18, July 2, August 27, November 5, 1958. The Luther- 
 an Quarterly, August, November, 1950; May, November, 1952; February, 
 May, 1953. 
 
325 The Contours of Community 
 
 panion, 146 expressing dissatisfaction about some feature of the new 
 book. Nevertheless, in general, the new Service Book and Hymnal 
 was received with appreciation by most of the pastors and congre- 
 gations of the Augustana Lutheran Church. At a meeting of the Au- 
 gustana Commission on Worship, November, 1961, it was reported 
 that approximately ninety per cent of the congregations of the Augus- 
 tana Church were using the new book. 147 
 
 146 See for example the Lutheran Companion, September 3, 1958, May 27, July 
 22, September 23, October 14, 1959. 
 
 147 Minutes of the Augustana Commission on Worship, Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- 
 vania, October 16-17, 1961. Members representing the Augustana Lutheran 
 Church who have served on the Joint Commission of the Hymnal are: Dr. 
 E. E. Ryden, Dr. C. J. Sodergren, Dr. C. A. Wendell, Mrs. Paul Esping, Prof. 
 Brynolf Lundholm, Dr. E. W. Olson, and Dr. Clifford A. Nelson. Augus- 
 tana members on the Joint Commission of the Liturgy have been: Dr. Con- 
 rad Bergendoff, Dr. O. N. Olson, Dr. Otto Bostrom, and Dr. G. Everett 
 Arden. 
 
CHAP R XV 
 
 The New Approach 
 
 National Boom and Bust 
 
 The high flying prosperity in the United States which followed 
 World War I came to a grinding halt with the stock market 
 crash of October 29, 1929. Panic gripped the whole country as 
 banks closed, railroads went into receivership, giant industrial con- 
 cerns declared bankruptcy, farmers and homeowners were dispos- 
 sessed, and an estimated 12,000,000 men and women were thrown out 
 of work. Ruin and actual hunger haunted not only the tenant and the 
 share cropper, but virtually every section of the land, and every seg- 
 ment of society. 1 
 
 President Herbert Hoover called upon Congress to make provi- 
 sion for large-scale construction of public works to put capital and 
 labor into action again; he established the Reconstruction Finance 
 Corporation, which placed federal credit at the disposal of banks, in- 
 surance companies, and other business concerns, and he formed the 
 Federal Home Loan Bank Board to aid people facing mortgage fore- 
 closure. When the time came for the presidential election of 1932, 
 Herbert Hoover and his Republican party were deeply engaged in 
 wrestling with the depression, and popular criticism of Hoover was 
 not to the effect that he was doing nothing, but that he was not doing 
 enough to get the wheels of the American economy moving once 
 more. 
 
 The Democratic party in American politics has been historically 
 committed to the Jeffersonian principle that "the less government the 
 better," and Democratic leaders in 1932 gave no indication that they 
 intended to change this policy. Nevertheless, the American electorate, 
 either in desperation or in the conviction that the Democrats would do 
 more than Hoover and the Republicans, swept the Democratic can- 
 didate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt into the White House with a plur- 
 ality of 22,800,000 votes for Roosevelt as against 15,700,000 votes for 
 
 1 S. E. Morrison and H. S. Commager, The Growth of the American Repub- 
 lic, New York, 1942, 2 vols., II, Chapter XXII, pp. 515-548. 
 
 326 
 
327 TheNewApproach 
 
 Hoover; and with Roosevelt's victory the Democratic party also won 
 a majority in Congress. 2 
 
 The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency of the 
 United States marks an important turning point in the history of po- 
 litical thought in America. Up to this time political liberalism in 
 America had been committed to the principle of a minimum of gov- 
 ermental interference in the exercise of free enterprise. In the panic 
 of 1929-1932 a revolution occurred in the basic American attitude to- 
 ward government. "Liberalism" was now associated with the demand 
 for more governmental interference in the national economy. Federal 
 regulation of free enterprise now became the battle cry of the liberals. 
 President Roosevelt interpreted his own election and the unprece- 
 dented Democratic majorities in Congress as a mandate from the peo- 
 ple to "interfere" with the national economy wherever it was thought 
 necessary to relieve human distress. Accordingly, Mr. Roosevelt in- 
 augurated his "liberal" policies which he called "The New Deal for 
 America." The components of the New Deal were (1) Federal control 
 over banking and currency; (2) Federal credit to property owners 
 and business firms in financial difficulty; (3) Federal relief to farm- 
 ers; (4) Federal regulation and stimulation of business enterprises; 
 (5) the establishment of new regulations, involving Federal super- 
 vision of collective bargaining for organized labor, and (6) Federal 
 guarantee of social security for restricted groups of people against the 
 hazards of dependency, unemployment, poverty, and old age. 3 
 
 With the inauguration of the New Deal, political thought in 
 America parted company with the nineteenth-century conception of a 
 laissez faire state. Roosevelt had launched the United States upon a 
 vast experiment of state capitalism, in which the Federal Government 
 was no longer a passive co-ordinating agency. It was now to be an 
 aggressive, initiating power, ready and eager to assume increasingly 
 larger areas of responsibility for the public welfare. That this new 
 conception of the role and function of government met an affirmative 
 response on the part of the American public is attested by the fact 
 that Roosevelt was returned to the White House in 1936, 1940 and 
 1944, and the Republican party adopted into its own program, one by 
 one, many of the measures of the New Deal. 
 
 2 Charles and Mary Beard, A Basic History of the United States, Philadelphia, 
 1944, p. 455. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 456. See also Louis M. Hacker, The Shaping of the American Tra- 
 dition, New York, 1947, 2 vols., II, part 10, pp. 1125-1240. 
 
Augustana Heritage 328 
 
 The New Approach in Augustana 
 
 In the era which followed World War I, there were a number of 
 striking similarities between developments within the Augustana 
 Synod and the nation at large. In the period from 1915 to 1925, for 
 example, the Augustana Church shared fully in the unprecedented 
 prosperity of the land. During these years the confirmed membership 
 increased by 18.3 per cent, property investments grew by 83.3 per 
 cent, and total contributions advanced by 140.7 per cent as the per 
 capita giving per year increased from $11.99 to $24.43. 4 
 
 During this period, too, the Augustana Church was operating un- 
 der a laissez faire synodical program which had been initiated during 
 the nineteenth century and had undergone but slight basic revision 
 since 1870. The synodical structure established in 1870 had affirmed 
 the idea that "the less centralized government the better," even though 
 Hasselquist had fought for greater centralized authority. Since 1870 
 the essential responsibility for carrying on home missions, social mis- 
 sions, evangelization, and other basic church work was vested in the 
 several conferences, and by them turned over to the local congrega- 
 tion. From 1870 to the Great Depression the principle of decentraliza- 
 tion seemed to be working successfully enough. Indeed, the Synod 
 was so decentralized that there was actually no synodical headquar- 
 ters, except in the home of the presidential incumbent. During the 
 regime of G. A. Brandelle, the office of president was centered in the 
 pigeon holes of Dr. Brandelle's old-fashioned upright office desk in 
 one corner of his living room in Rock Island, and carried on without 
 benefit of full-time secretarial help. It was a method of administration 
 which looked back to the quaint days of the horse and buggy, and some 
 of the Synod's old-timers saw no good reason for changing it. 5 
 
 Then there was the devastating effect of the Great Depression. 
 While the nation as a whole wallowed in the slough of fear and un- 
 certainty, the Augustana Church also felt the adverse effects of the 
 depression and its psychology of apprehension. Between 1930 and 
 1935 the Augustana Church suffered a drastic cut in all phases of its 
 financial support, as per capita giving in the Synod sank from an av- 
 erage of $22.13 in 1930 to an average of $13.82 in 1935. As a result 
 curtailment in all phases of its activities, at home and abroad, was the 
 
 4 Confirmed membership increased from 187,834 to 222,153; property holdings 
 increased from $12,073,053 to $22,140,192; total contributions rose from 
 $2,207,704 to $5,315,305. Augustana Synod Statistics, Every Five Years, 
 1860-1940, Every Year Since 1940, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1961, p. 770. 
 
 ■ Letter from P. O. Bersell, February 26, 1962. 
 
329 The New Approach 
 
 order of the day throughout the Augustana Church during these lean 
 years. 6 The confidence of former years which impelled the Church to 
 make bold plans and take vigorous action to realize such plans was 
 now replaced by a spirit of timidity, fear and, uncertainty. Instead 
 of bold action there was prudential caution. The momentum of the 
 past busy, prosperous years slowed, until it seemed that the Synod 
 was resting on dead center. 7 
 
 And to compound the difficulty, the leadership of the Synod had 
 grown old and tired. Dr. G. A. Brandelle was sixty-eight years old 
 when the depression struck the country in 1929. He had been a mem- 
 ber of the Augustana ministerium for forty-five years, and had oc- 
 cupied the president's chair since the death of Dr. L. A. Johnston in 
 1918. Over the many years he had served his Church with unremit- 
 ting toil, traveling more than any of his predecessors in office, both 
 at home and abroad. Though he was still a rather vigorous man for 
 his years, he no longer possessed either the physical stamina or the 
 mental resourcefulness to deal adequately with the numerous new 
 problems which now confronted the Augustana Synod. Those who 
 were critical of the "grand old man of Augustana" were not saying 
 that he was doing nothing to relieve the distress of the Church, but 
 that he was not doing enough, or even the right things on a scale com- 
 mensurate with the Church's problems. 8 
 
 It was under such circumstances that the Augustana Synod met 
 in Rock Island, Illinois, June 5-10, 1935, to celebrate its Diamond 
 Jubilee. Two of its most prominent sons, Gustaf Albert Brandelle, 
 president of the Synod, and Gustav Albert Andreen, president of Au- 
 gustana College and Theological Seminary, had reached the age of 
 retirement. As the successor to Dr. Andreen, the Synod elected Dr. 
 Conrad Bergendoff, who had been serving as the dean of the Theo- 
 logical Seminary since 1931. As its new president the Synod chose 
 Dr. Petrus Olof Bersell, a man fifty-three years old, who had distin- 
 guished himself as an energetic churchman and a competent admin- 
 istrator while serving as the pastor of the First Lutheran Church in 
 Ottumwa, Iowa, and the president of the Iowa Conference. 9 The of- 
 
 6 See President's Report, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1933, pp. 10-24. 
 
 7 The synodical minutes for the years 1930-1937 exhibit this timid caution as 
 it is reported, time and again, that the Synod decided to postpone action 
 on various proposals and projects "until a more favorable time." 
 
 8 See "Report of Committee on Church Extension and Home Mission," signed 
 by Peter Peterson, P. O. Bersell, F. O. Hanson, A. R. Johnson, and Otto 
 Leonardson, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1934, p. 89f.; 1935, pp. 84ff. 
 
 9 See article, "New Leaders to Take Reins," Lutheran Companion, June 
 
Augustana Heritage 330 
 
 ficial installation of Dr. Bersell as the new synodical president oc- 
 curred in Ottumwa, Iowa, October 2, 1935. On that occasion Bersell 
 enunciated the broad principles which were to guide his long and sig- 
 nificant administration. He declared, 
 
 Externally, changing times will demand changes. . . . But may 
 God make us loyal and zealous to preserve piously that for which 
 our fathers labored so sacrificially and fought so valiantly. . . . 
 There is something distinctive about the Augustana Synod, even 
 in the family of Lutheran Churches in America, which we do 
 well to cherish not merely as an heirloom, but as a vital factor in 
 determining the spirit of the future Lutheran Church in Amer- 
 ica. ... It is my earnest desire to sustain and strengthen the bonds 
 of affection between us and the Lutheran Church in the land of 
 our forefathers. . . . We look forward with joy to the day, though 
 it still be far away, when even outwardly we shall be one with 
 the other Lutherans in America. . . . There must not be, there will 
 not be, as far as the Augustana Synod is concerned, any union 
 until there be real church unity in faith and practice. . . . Our 
 home missionary program must be enlarged in scope so that un- 
 der God we do enter in through the doors of opportunity to min- 
 ister to the unchurched and unsaved millions of souls in Amer- 
 ica. 10 
 
 The initial task which confronted the new president of the Church 
 was to move the Synod, so to speak, off dead center; to give it a new 
 momentum and direction, to dissipate the enervating depression psy- 
 chology, and to inspire pastors and congregations once more to begin 
 to plan and act boldly for the future. To realize these objectives, Dr. 
 Bersell inaugurated within a few years of his election, a multiphased 
 program which was so effective in its influence and far-reaching in its 
 consequences that it may justly be called a New Approach, a sort of 
 new deal for the Augustana Church. This New Approach, however, 
 was not predicated upon, or derived from, an abstract set of bright 
 and shining theories conceived by armchair churchmen. The compon- 
 ents of the program comprised practical measures devised by expe- 
 rienced churchmen to meet specific needs in the Church as they arose. 
 Upon being asked if he came to the president's office with an over- 
 all master plan for the Synod, Dr. Bersell has stated that, 
 
 I must admit that I never had any detailed blueprint or master 
 plan of organization, although I did have a general idea of struc- 
 
 15, 1935; excellent historical sketches and analysis of Augustana history 
 are given in Augustana, June 6, 13 and 20, 1935. 
 10 "Message of the New President/' the Lutheran Companion, October 5, 
 1935. This was a remarkably accurate statement of policy and program 
 which characterized Bersell's entire term of office. 
 
331 The New Approach 
 
 ture based very largely on the objectives sought and the pattern 
 set by other organizations. We took on problems, one at a time, 
 and learned by the trial-and-error experience. Every department 
 had to be organized (a) for effective work, (b) for harmonious 
 collaboration with the executive office of the Church and other 
 departments, (c) for service to the entire Church, in close co- 
 operation with the Conferences. 11 
 
 The New Approach in Augustana may be said to have been launched 
 with the establishment of synodical headquarters in Minneapolis, Min- 
 nesota. Prior to this time there had been no synodical headquarters 
 in the sense that the Synod maintained a permanent establishment as 
 an administrative center. Indeed, since the Synod had never been in- 
 corporated, it could not legally own property in its own name. The 
 president was free to live anywhere he chose, and Dr. Bersell chose 
 to make his home in Minneapolis. Regarding this choice he has stated 
 that, 
 
 Minneapolis was chosen for many reasons, among them: 
 
 a, Its central and convenient location in the greatest concentra- 
 tion of churches and membership. 
 
 b, In that day there was a strong movement in the direction of a 
 union with churches that had a predominant Scandinavian and 
 Middle Western heritage and tradition, as evidenced by the pre- 
 vious organization of the American Lutheran Conference. 
 
 c, Up to that time the Minnesota Conference suffered somewhat 
 from a "hangover" of the patriarchal "Minnesota Spirit." Wheth- 
 er deserved or not, the Conference had the reputation of being 
 somewhat insurgent and independent in relation to Synod. There- 
 fore, it was my considered opinion that it would be good for the 
 common cause to establish my office in Minneapolis. 12 
 
 For the first few years the synodical offices were housed in the head- 
 quarters building of the Minnesota Conference at 415 Harvard Street, 
 S. E., Minneapolis. This building was sold to the University of Min- 
 nesota in 1945, and through fortunate negotiations, arrangements were 
 made for a joint purchase the same year by the Synod and the Min- 
 nesota Conference of a splendid building at 2445 Park Avenue in Min- 
 neapolis. The purchase price of the new headquarters complex was 
 realized from the sale of the old Minnesota Conference property and 
 from private contributions. Thus, the headquarters property was not 
 financed by the use of synodical funds. It was, however, necessary to 
 incorporate the Synod, so that it could legally hold its own property. 
 
 11 Letter from P. O. Bersell, February 26, 1962. 
 
 12 Letter from P. O. Bersell, February 26, 1962. 
 
Augustana Heritage 332 
 
 The purchase price of the building and grounds at 2445 Park Avenue 
 amounted to $35,000, of which $17,000 represented the equity of the 
 Minnesota Conference. Hence, by mutual agreement between the 
 synodical administration and the executive committee of the Minne- 
 sota Conference, a suite of offices on the second floor of the building 
 was designated as the permanent headquarters of the Minnesota Con- 
 ference, while the synodical administration and its various agencies 
 occupied the rest of the space. 13 
 
 Concerning this transaction, Dr. Bersell has stated, 
 
 When opportunity came to buy the present building on Park 
 Avenue for $35,000, we discovered that this money was recover- 
 able from conditional donations to Minnesota College by Minne- 
 sota citizens. . . . We needed $30,000 to remodel and refurbish the 
 building for office purposes. This money we solicited and received 
 from individuals from all parts of the Church. Thus, the head- 
 quarters property was acquired without cost to the Church itself. 
 It was at this time that the Synod was incorporated so as to own 
 property. 14 
 
 The second step in the New Approach in Augustana was the develop- 
 ment of an administrative technique which became characteristic of 
 the Bersell administration. This was the technique of increasing the 
 efficiency of a department or agency by concentrating the chief ad- 
 ministrative responsibilities in the hands of an executive director or 
 secretary who would implement the policies and programs outlined 
 by a supervisory board, commission or committee. Such an arrange- 
 ment tended to streamline the administrative structure of the Synod, 
 to pinpoint responsibility, and to simplify the task of maintaining liai- 
 son between the department and the synodical administration. 
 
 The first department in the Augustana Church to initiate this type 
 of administration was the Board of Foreign Missions. Prior to 1937, 
 foreign missions had been administered by a board whose policies and 
 programs were implemented by the chairman and corresponding sec- 
 retary of the board. These officers were busy pastors and laymen who 
 could give only a small part of their time to the administration of for- 
 eign missions. Some of the administrative duties had, from time to 
 time, been delegated to a "field secretary," but his main business was 
 to act as the promotional officer throughout the Synod on behalf of 
 the board. In 1937, however, the Synod authorized the board to em- 
 ploy a full-time executive director of foreign missions. 15 A call was 
 
 13 Minutes, Minnesota Conference, 1946, p. 45. 
 
 14 Letter from P. O. Bersell, February 26, 1962. 
 13 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1937, p. 152. 
 
333 The New Approach 
 
 issued to Pastor Hjalmar S. Swanson, Jamestown, New York, who ac- 
 cepted and was installed as the first full-time executive director of 
 Augustana Foreign Missions, at the synodical convention in Linds- 
 borg, Kansas, June 16, 1939. 16 Less than two months after Swanson 
 assumed his new office World War II broke out and plunged the world 
 into a period of extreme crisis. The effectiveness with which the ex- 
 ecutive director of Augustana foreign missions guided the program 
 during the difficulties of the war period attested to the efficiency of a 
 centralized, co-ordinated type of administration. 
 
 The next step in the new approach may be said to have been the 
 inauguration of a new home mission program. "This plan," says Dr. 
 Bersell, "was not concocted in a hurry. In fact, its period of gestation 
 was ten years." 17 The origins of the plan go back to actions taken by 
 the Iowa Conference in 1928, while Dr. Bersell was president of that 
 body, asking the Synod to establish a synodical church extension fund 
 which would pool the resources of the various conferences and thus 
 serve to strengthen and co-ordinate, under synodical jurisdiction, the 
 financial program of home missions. 18 Hitherto the Synod had super- 
 vised only three outlying "Mission districts," while the thirteen con- 
 ferences were practically autonomous in the administration of home 
 missions within their own borders. 
 
 The Synod received the petition from Iowa with favor and ap- 
 pointed a committee to take the matter under consideration. This 
 committee, of which Dr. Bersell was a member, 19 continued to meet 
 year after year, from 1928 until 1935, in an endeavor to devise a home 
 mission plan and program which would adequately meet the needs of 
 the Church. 20 Finally, at the Jubilee convention at Rock Island, 1935, 21 
 the committee was ready to present the results of its long and careful 
 study, namely, the new Home Mission Plan, which in several respects 
 represented new thinking in the Synod and a radical departure from 
 the old order. 22 
 
 In the first place, the Plan in general envisaged a new concentra- 
 
 16 Swanson, Foundation for Tomorrow, op. cit., p. 310. Minutes, Augustana 
 Synod, 1939, pp. 150, 290. 
 
 17 Letter from P. O. Bersell, February 26, 1962. 
 
 18 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1928, p. 201. 
 
 19 See previous reference to this committee, supra, p. 329, footnote 8. 
 
 20 See Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1929, p. 209; 1930, p. 123; 1931, p. 1091; 1932, 
 p. 220f.; 1933, p. 881; 1934, p. 891; 1935, p. 841 
 
 21 This was the convention at which Dr. Bersell was elected president of the 
 Augustana Synod. 
 
 22 "Plan for the Consolidation of the Home Mission and Church Extension 
 Work in the Augustana Synod," Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1935, pp. 84- 
 
Augustana Heritage 334 
 
 tion of power and authority in the synodical administration, in terms 
 of centralizing the essential responsibility for home missions in a syn- 
 odical home mission board, under whose jurisdiction an executive di- 
 rector and a corps of regional directors would work to implement the 
 program devised and authorized by the board. In the second place, 
 the conference boards of home missions were relieved of their auto- 
 nomous status and independence of action, and given merely an ad- 
 visory role. It should be noted that this arrangement involved a radi- 
 cal reorientation of the practice which had obtained in the Synod since 
 1870. The new plan tacitly affirmed the principle of synodical, that is, 
 centralized, authority, in contrast to the older practice of conference, 
 that is, decentralized, authority. To be sure, the advocates of the new 
 Home Mission Plan did not openly assert the supremacy of Synod 
 over conference, for to have done so would have spelled almost cer- 
 tain defeat for the Plan. The Plan was promoted simply on the 
 grounds of greater efficiency to meet increased needs. Even so, many 
 pastors and congregations seemed to sense the tension between Synod 
 and conference, and were not enthusiastic about the propects of a con- 
 centration of synodical power. Of this matter Dr. Bersell has stated, 
 
 I sensed (at the convention of 1935) that our Plan was doomed 
 to defeat. Hence I pleaded to postpone action for one more year 
 to give the new administration time to size up the situation. 23 
 
 Indeed, the Synod was so wary of the new plan that again at the con- 
 vention in 1936 no definite action could be taken except to authorize 
 a referendum of the conferences on the question. 24 In connection with 
 preparations for the referendum, Dr. Bersell visited every conference 
 in person and pleaded for the Plan. When the referendum was com- 
 pleted all but two of the conferences had given their approval, and on 
 the basis of this approval the Synod, at its convention in 1937, reg- 
 istered its endorsement. 25 The following year the Synod approved the 
 new Central Board of Home Missions, composed of one pastor and one 
 layman from each of the thirteen conferences, and two representa- 
 tives of the Women's Missionary Society. 26 This new board began its 
 operations January 1, 1939, having called Pastor Sigfrid E. Engstrom 
 as the first executive director of Augustana Home Missions and the 
 following regional directors, Pastor G. A. Danielson for the Illinois, 
 Iowa, and Superior Conferences, Pastor C. G. Anderson for the Min- 
 
 23 Letter from P. O. Bersell, op. tit. 
 2 4 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1936, p. 121. 
 2 ^ Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1937, p. 127f. 
 -« Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1938, pp. 122fr. 
 
335 TheNewApproach 
 
 nesota and Red River Valley Conferences, Pastor Leslie A. F. Carl- 
 son for the Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas Conferences, Pastor Henry 
 J. Hokanson for the New York and New England Conferences, Pastor 
 C. R. Swanson for the Columbia Conference, Pastor J. Herman Ols- 
 son for the California Conference, and Pastor Anton A. Nelson for the 
 Canada Conference. 27 
 
 Within two years the effectiveness of the new Home Mission Plan 
 was clearly evident. According to an evaluation given by the presi- 
 dent of the Church in 1941, the New Plan had by that time served to 
 give the Augustana Church a new drive and momentum. The Synod 
 could no longer be said to be resting on dead center; there existed 
 now a new sense of purposeful, carefully directed activity. Further- 
 more, this new activity, centering in home missions and giving to this 
 work a new emphasis and importance, served to make the entire 
 Synod more keenly conscious of this phase of Christian responsibility 
 than it had been for many decades. This new awareness brought 
 substantially greater financial support to this cause, and through the 
 Central Board these increased funds were judiciously and strategically 
 administered so as to avoid waste, duplication and unprofitable in- 
 vestments. Every petition for financial aid from dependent congre- 
 gations, for example, was given careful scrutiny, and each application 
 was classified on the basis of its future potential. Arrangements were 
 made to weed out chronic dependents and to help beneficiaries to be- 
 come self-sustaining. Where needless competitive missions had been 
 carried on in some communities, congregations were requested to 
 merge their operations in the interests of conserving money and man- 
 power. Careful surveys of potential new fields were made, and when 
 the Board felt that future potential warranted it, new missions were 
 established and financially undergirded until they became self-sus- 
 taining. By such careful review and investigation the entire program 
 of synodical home missions was given a long-range dimension which 
 enabled the Church to chart its course in this field with much more 
 wisdom and insight than had ever been done before. And finally, the 
 New Plan brought the Augustana Synod into intimate contact with 
 the home mission programs and procedures of other Lutheran and 
 Protestant bodies. This enabled the Synod to plan its work in co- 
 operation with other churches, and to share and learn in association 
 with others. 28 
 
 27 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1939, pp. 128ff. 
 
 28 See P. O. Bersell, "Synodical Home Missions a Reality," My Church, 1941, 
 pp. 75-91. The structure of the Home Mission Plan is given on page 84, and 
 a map of the Home Mission areas appears on page 88. 
 
Augustana Heritage 336 
 
 In 1949 the Board of Home Missions became the Board of Ameri- 
 can Missions by the amendment of the by-laws and the articles of in- 
 corporation of the Board of Home Missions of the Synod. 29 This was 
 done to bring the home missions program of the Augustana Church, 
 both as to name as well as organizational structure, more closely in 
 line with similar Lutheran operations in America. In 1950, the Church 
 placed Evangelism under the jurisdiction of the Board of American 
 Missions and authorized the calling of a director of evangelism. Pastor 
 William Berg of Rock Island, Illinois, received and accepted the call 
 and continued to occupy this position until the merger in 1962. To 
 assist Dr. Berg in the department of Evangelism, the board called Pas- 
 tors Reynold N. Johnson, Martin Lingwall, and Willis F. Erickson. 
 Part-time assistance was also given for several years by Dr. Samuel 
 M. Miller. 
 
 Upon the untimely death of Dr. S. E. Engstrom, April 28, 1955, the 
 Church called as his successor a former regional director, Dr. Theo- 
 dore E. Matson, who was then pastor of the Ebenezer Lutheran Church 
 in Chicago. 30 Dr. Matson continued in this position until the Augus- 
 tana Church merged its operations in the Lutheran Church in Ameri- 
 ca, in 1962. In his final report to the Augustana Church, at Detroit, 
 June, 1962, Dr. Matson gave a brief summary of the work of the Board 
 of American Missions since the New Plan went into operation in 1939. 
 Dr. Matson stated: 
 
 When the Board of American Missions was established, 434 of 
 the 1,198 congregations of our Church were receiving financial aid. 
 The Church Extension Fund principal totaled $170,159.87. The 
 budget for 1939 was $217,000, which represented approximately 
 the sum of the home mission budgets of the 13 conferences and the 
 Synodical Home Mission Board, charged with the responsibility 
 of aiding and directing the work of the 3 mission districts. The 
 total budget for the Board's first year of operation was $217,000. 
 For 1962, the budget is $1,053,000. 
 
 Of the 257 congregations organized since 1939, 148 are self- 
 sustaining. The aid given the 148 congregations that have become 
 self-sustaining totaled $1,632,009, an average of $11,027 per con- 
 gregation. Aid to all congregations organized amounted to 
 $3,321,246. Total aid given to all congregations — new and old — 
 amounted to $5,596,981, representing in excess of 700 congrega- 
 tions. 
 
 The Church Extension Fund principal increased from 
 $170,159.87 to $2,776,316 The loans granted by the Church Ex- 
 
 2 9 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1949, pp. 191-200. 
 
 30 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1955, pp. 227ff. 
 
337 The New Approach 
 
 tension Fund total over $10,400,000. In addition, more than 
 $1,000,000 has been granted in loans from the Church Building 
 Loan Fund. There were 1,198 congregations in our Church as of 
 January 1, 1939. Due to mergers, dissolutions, and transfers of 
 congregations, the net increase in number of congregations as of 
 January 1, 1962, was only 80, making the present total 1,278. To 
 provide the Board of American and World Missions with income, 
 over and above church budget appropriations, an annual Augus- 
 tana Mission Advance offering was authorized by the Church at 
 its convention in 1948. As of December 31, 1961, these offerings 
 totaled $4,976,330, of which the Board of American Missions re- 
 ceived $2,307,131. To increase the loaning ability of the board, 
 the Church authorized the Mission Builder program in 1952. The 
 sale of Mission Development Certificates was inaugurated in 1959. 
 Mission Builder loans to congregations have totaled $2,008,000. 
 Additional commitments total $245,000. Individuals, congrega- 
 tions, boards, and agencies have purchased Mission Development 
 Certificates in the amount of $1,645,500. In order to assist congre- 
 gations in building their second unit and/or church proper, the 
 board established the Church Building Loan Fund. Loans from 
 the Pension and Aid Fund, from college endowments, and other in- 
 stitutions, total to date $1,027,000. To date, 25 congregations have 
 been assisted. 
 
 The Augustana Lutheran Church Women (formerly the Wom- 
 en's Missionary Society) has through the years contributed a total 
 of $1,847,634 to support the American Mission program. 31 
 
 A further step in the New Approach in Augustana was the creation 
 and reorganization of a number of service departments or agencies 
 which were structured along the same general lines and based upon 
 the same general principles as the department of home missions. In 
 this respect it may be said that the new Home Mission Plan established 
 an important structural pattern for the synodical organizations of the 
 Church. 
 
 Among the service agencies to receive early attention by the Bersell 
 administration was that of stewardship and finance. Prior to 1927, the 
 Augustana Church had operated without a synodical budget, in the 
 sense that no co-ordinated attempt was made each year to relate the 
 Synod's income to the financial needs of the Synod's beneficiaries. 
 Though congregations and conferences were indeed urged to do their 
 best to undergird the Church with adequate financial resources, no 
 central agency had the responsibility of ascertaining the total finan- 
 cial needs of the Church for each year and then devising ways and 
 means of meeting them. In 1927, however, the Synod adopted a budget 
 
 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1962, p. 197f . 
 
Augustana Heritage 338 
 
 system and elected a synodical finance committee consisting of two 
 pastors and three laymen "to prepare, submit and recommend to the 
 synodical council a detailed budget for all the finances of the Synod 
 together with apportionments on the Conferences and Mission Dis- 
 tricts, and to arrange for the collection and distribution to various syn- 
 odical institutions." 32 
 
 To assist the Finance Committee in its work, the Synod also re- 
 solved to elect "a secretary of stewardship ... he shall be the executive 
 secretary of the finance committee, and it shall be also his duty to pre- 
 sent the cause of Christian stewardship, the proportionate giving, the 
 needs of the synodical budget, and such other duties as shall be pre- 
 scribed throughout the Synod by the finance committee." 33 
 
 The chairman of the first synodical Finance Committee was Dr. 
 P. O. Bersell. Other members were Pastor O. J. Arthur, Judge Eskil 
 C. Carlson, Mr. Carl H. Swanson, and Mr. John H. Christianson. 34 The 
 first stewardship secretary was Mr. Otto Leonardson, an outstanding 
 layman of the Synod, who began his work July 1, 1928. From the very 
 outset he visited the conferences and met with their executive boards 
 and officers, and called also on the beneficiary institutions of the Synod. 
 He directed the first synod-wide Every Member Canvass in the fall of 
 1928. He edited and distributed a large number of stewardship tracts, 
 and regularly wrote a stewardship column for the Lutheran Com- 
 panion. Thus, after 1928, the finances of the Synod were managed by 
 a central synodical committee which established fiscal policy, ascer- 
 tained beneficiary needs, made the necessary allocations upon confer- 
 ences and mission districts, and through the office of the stewardship 
 secretary carried on a program of stewardship education. 35 
 
 No sooner had the fiscal program of the Synod been placed on this 
 new and more businesslike basis, however, than the great depression 
 struck the country, and the per capita giving in the Augustana Synod 
 declined from an average of $22.13 in 1930 to an average of $13.82 in 
 1935, and total contributions decreased from $5,187,062 to $3,448,003 
 for the same period. 36 At the same time as financial support was show- 
 ing alarming decline, the needs of the Church, and particularly the 
 program of home missions after 1939 and overseas missions during and 
 
 a2 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1927, p. 181. 
 
 33 Ibid., p. 18. 
 
 3 4 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1928, pp. 36-44. 
 
 35 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1928, pp. 37-40. 
 
 36 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1960, Augustana Church Statistics, p. 833. 
 
339 The New Approach 
 
 after World War II, were making greater demands than ever before. 37 
 It was to meet this imperative need for greater financial support of the 
 Church's program that the synodical administration turned its special 
 attention to the department of finance to devise ways and means of 
 strengthening its work in the Synod. To this end the department of 
 finance was reorganized in 1942; a Commission on Stewardship Educa- 
 tion was created which was to exercise jurisdiction and devise new 
 ways and means of making the program of stewardship education more 
 effective in the congregations of the Synod. Mr. Leonardson was 
 named as Director of Finance in 1943, and Pastor Thorsten Gustafson 
 was chosen as Director of Stewardship. 38 The essential task of the Di- 
 rector of Finance was to draw up a synodical budget which would real- 
 istically meet the needs of all beneficiaries and make an equitable dis- 
 tribution of this budget upon the various conferences. The Director 
 of Stewardship had the responsibility of motivating the budget, inter- 
 preting its meaning and significance to the congregations so that the 
 allocations would be accepted and paid. This division of labor and re- 
 sponsibility would give to each office both the necessary time and a 
 clear-cut definition of responsibility which would enable the secretar- 
 ies to do a more effective job. 39 The effectiveness with which the reor- 
 ganized department of finance with its program of stewardship educa- 
 tion functioned is eloquently reflected in the fact that after 1942 the 
 per capita giving in the Synod took a sharp upward swing, from an av- 
 erage of $19.68 in 1942 to an average of $23.90 in 1943. The upward 
 climb continued year after year so that by 1960 the average per capita 
 contribution per year in the Augustana Church reached $80.88. 4 ° 
 
 37 The budget for home missions in 1935 was $186,495, in 1940 it was $228,170, 
 and by 1944 had risen to $413,770. Similar pressure for increased support 
 came from overseas missions, whose budget in 1935 was $70,370, in 1940 
 it was $133,966, and in 1944 had risen to $311,189. Ibid., p. 833. 
 
 38 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1942, p. 281f.; 1943, p. 286f. The members of 
 the original Commission on Stewardship Education were: Dr. Oscar A. 
 Benson, chairman; Pastor Emmer Engberg, Pastor Richard B. Pearson, Mr. 
 A. B. Strom, Professor Emory Lindquist, and Mr. E. R. Jacobson. Mr. 
 Otto Leonardson and Pastor Richard Pearson served longer than any of 
 their colleagues in the departments of finance and stewardship, spending ap- 
 proximately fifteen years in this important work. 
 
 39 Mr. Leonardson continued to serve as director of finance until his retire- 
 ment in 1952. Pastor Thorsten Gustafson resigned as director of steward- 
 ship in 1949 to become president of the New York Conference. He was suc- 
 ceeded by Pastor Martin E. Carlson who served in this capacity from 1949 
 to 1955, when he became director of finance, a position which he continued 
 to hold until the Augustana merger in 1962. He was succeeded, as secretary 
 of stewardship, in 1955, by Mr. Sam Edwins who continued in this position 
 until the merger. 
 
 40 See Augustana Church Statistics, Every Five Years, 1860-1940, Every year 
 since 1940, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1960, p. 770. 
 
Augustana Heritage 340 
 
 There was, however, another important reason for the interest of 
 the Bersell administration in the financial agencies of the Augustana 
 Synod. The administration wished to integrate the work of the de- 
 partments of Finance and Stewardship with the contemplated Centen- 
 nial Appeal. It was felt that such integration would prove mutually 
 helpful and rewarding, since the Appeal program could make use of the 
 existing facilities of the Finance and Stewardship departments, and 
 these departments would be enriched by the spiritual impact of the 
 appeal. 41 At the synodical convention, held in Rock Island, Illinois, 
 June 1940, President Bersell called attention to the fact that in 1948 
 the Synod would celebrate the centennial of the beginning of congre- 
 gational work in New Sweden, Iowa, and two years later, 1950, would 
 observe the founding of the congregation in Andover, Illinois. He pro- 
 posed that preparations begin immediately to mark officially these his- 
 toric events by (a) "gathering during the next five years throughout 
 the Synod a sum of money that would be a real thank offering to God, 
 and a real help to the onward march of the Church," and (b) "to set 
 in motion a spiritual advance looking to the winning of souls for the 
 Kingdom that may be added to our household of faith as living mem- 
 bers of the Body of Christ." 42 A special centennial committee was 
 elected to arrange for these preparations. 43 After a careful study of 
 the financial needs of the Synod and the conferences with reference to 
 institutional indebtedness, building and endowment needs and susten- 
 tation funds, the committee recommended to the Synod in 1941 that a 
 Centennial Offering be received over the next several years in the 
 amount of $1,250,000, and that at the same time an intensive evangelism 
 effort be made to win new members for Christ's kingdom. The Synod 
 approved these proposals, and thus set in motion one of the most am- 
 bitious projects the Synod had ever undertaken. 44 By synodical action 
 the year 1948 was designated as the Centennial Year. 45 Dr. Knut E. 
 Erickson, comptroller of Augustana College and Theological Seminary, 
 was chosen as the centennial director who was to head the Centennial 
 Appeal. A special Commission on Life and Growth was also chosen to 
 lead the Synod in a deepening experience of gratitude, commitment and 
 
 41 Interview with Dr. P. O. Bersell, May 29, 1962. 
 
 42 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1940, p. 233. 
 
 43 The members of the committee were, Dr. Oscar A. Benson, Dr. Oscar O. 
 Gustafson, Judge Eskil C. Carlson, Mr. Einar G. Carlson, and Mr. Birger 
 Swenson. Mr. Carl H. Swanson, Dr. Emil Swenson, and Dr. D. Verner Swan- 
 son were later additions to the committee. 
 
 44 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1941, pp. 254-259. 
 « Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1942, p. 238. 
 
341 The New Approach 
 
 evangelism. 46 Although much of the work of the financial campaign 
 fell on the shoulders of the director of the appeal, Dr. Knut Erickson, 
 his work was facilitated by the close co-operation between his office 
 and the synodical agencies of finance and stewardship. A five-year plan 
 leading up to the centennial year was adopted as follows: 1944, Home 
 Missions; 1945, Foreign Missions; 1946, Parish Education and Higher 
 Education; 1947, Works of Mercy; 1948, the Local Congregation. The 
 response of the people of the Augustana Church to the Centennial 
 Appeal was indeed memorable, for while the spiritual impact cannot 
 be accurately assessed, the Centennial Thank Offering by convention 
 time, 1948, totaled no less than $2,181,776.53. 47 
 
 Another service agency of the Synod which was reorganized and 
 strengthened as a centralized department of the Church was that of 
 Youth Activities. Although the Synodical Luther League had endeav- 
 ored to serve the youth of the Church by providing program helps, 
 conducting youth camps and regional rallies, as well as publishing de- 
 votional material suitable for Luther Leaguers, the Synod had long 
 felt that the age group to which the Luther League addressed itself was 
 too limited. There was need to enlarge the scope of the Church's work 
 with its young people in order that there might be fewer losses among 
 those below the age of thirty, and that returning service men and wom- 
 en might be aided in reorienting themselves into the life of home parish. 
 It was the conviction of many, including the Bersell administration, 
 that a strongly centralized synodical agency could accomplish this task 
 more readily than the various conferences. Accordingly, at its con- 
 vention in 1944, the Synod instructed the president of the Church to 
 appoint a committee to study the advisability of establishing a Youth 
 Commission "for the purpose of promoting and co-ordinating all youth 
 activities in the Augustana Church." 48 The committee reported to the 
 synodical convention in 1945, and recommended the creation of a 
 Board of Youth Activities of the Augustana Synod, which would be 
 charged with the general supervision, promotion, and correlation of all 
 activities for youth sponsored by the Augustana Church, from the 
 time of confirmation to the age of thirty, in order that young people 
 might be conserved for the Church and for Christian service. This 
 
 46 Members of the committee were Pastor Wilton Bergstrand, Pastor S. E. Eng- 
 strom, Pastor J. Vincent Nordgren, Pastor S. Hjalmar Swanson, and Mr. 
 Otto Leonardson. Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1942, pp. 284-287. 
 
 47 See president's report, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1948, pp. 19ff. 
 
 48 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1944, p. 266. The committee consisted of Dr. 
 Joshua Oden, Mrs. Clarence T. Nelson, Pastor Wilton Bergstrand, Pastor Theo- 
 dore Palmer, Pastor J. Helmer Olson, and Pastor J. Vincent Nordgren, with 
 the president of the Church acting as an advisory member. 
 
Augustana Heritage 342 
 
 board was to serve in an advisory capacity also to the Board of Parish 
 Education, and was to consist of six members, three lay people and 
 three pastors elected by Synod, with the synodical president, and the 
 president of the Synodical Luther League as ex officio members. 49 The 
 new board was to employ a synodical youth director who would imple- 
 ment the program outlined by the board and guide the activities of the 
 Synodical Luther League. The choice of a director of youth fell upon 
 the executive director of the Augustana Synod Luther League, Pastor 
 Wilton E. Bergstrand, who henceforth combined in his office both the 
 program of the Synodical League as well as the broader activities en- 
 visaged by the Board of Youth Activities. 50 Pastor Bergstrand, ably 
 assisted by his sister, Lorraine Bergstrand, headed the synodical youth 
 program from 1946 until the Detroit merger in 1962. 
 
 In reorganizing the service agency which ministered to Augustana 
 youth by broadening its scope of concern and strengthening its cen- 
 tralized structure by combining the Luther League program with that 
 of the central Board of Youth Activities, the Synod undoubtedly suc- 
 ceeded in extending a meaningful ministry to a larger number of its 
 younger constituency than was possible under the former arrangement. 
 But it must also be noted that, like the other centralized agencies, the 
 Youth Board unwittingly tended to foster throughout the Church an 
 increasing dependence upon "the leaders in Minneapolis." 
 
 A new synodical service agency came into being in 1946, when the 
 Synod approved the expansion of the activities of the Augustana Film 
 Service which had been created in 1945 by action of the Executive 
 Council of the Church. 51 At the Duluth convention in 1946, President 
 Bersell called attention to the fact that "there is throughout the Church 
 an increasing demand for audio visual materials," and to meet that de- 
 mand the Augustana Visual Aids Association was being formed. This 
 association, said the president, would co-ordinate the audio-visual 
 needs, as far as possible, of all departments and agencies of the Synod, 
 and seek to provide adequate materials to meet such needs. The Asso- 
 ciation was composed of the president of the Church and one elected 
 representative from the departments of Parish Education, Home Mis- 
 sions, Foreign Missions, Youth Activities, Stewardship and Finance, 
 
 49 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1945, "Report on Proposed Board of Youth 
 Activities," p. 321. Members of the first Board were Pastors Rudolph 
 Burke, Melvin A. Hammerberg and Arthur I. Anderson, and Mr. Lloyd 
 Schwiebert, Mrs. Clarence T. Nelson, and Mr. Doniver Lund. 
 
 50 See Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1946, Report of Board of Youth Activities," 
 pp. 109-116, and "Report of Augustana Synod Luther League," pp. 268- 
 273. 
 
 51 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1945, p. 27. 
 
343 The New Approach 
 
 Augustana Book Concern, "and other synodical boards which desire to 
 become members." 52 These plans were approved by the convention, 53 
 and the department of Audio-Visual Service, under the direction of 
 the Augustana Visual Aids Association began operations January 1, 
 1947, with two trained technicians in charge of the work, Mr. Bruce 
 Sifford, assisted by Mr. Warren Holmen. The constitution under which 
 the new agency functioned stated that the object of the Audio- Visual 
 Service was 
 
 1. To prepare audio- visual material on the work of the Augus- 
 tana Church. 
 
 2. To encourage the proper use of available audio-visual aids 
 throughout the Church. 
 
 3. To assist in the general publicity program of the Church. 54 
 
 The financial support of the Audio-Visual Service was drawn from the 
 budgets of those agencies which made use of its facilities. By 1952, 
 Audio-Visual Service had demonstrated its usefulness by preparing 
 a number of film strips on a variety of subjects, assembled a selected 
 film library, established a film rental and distribution center which was 
 widely used throughout the Synod, and was conducting audio-visual 
 workshops to teach pastors and teachers audio-visual techniques. At 
 the same time it had become evident that the Association was an 
 unwieldy administrative arrangement. Hence, the Synod in 1951 ap- 
 proved the creation of a Board of Audio-Visual Service, composed 
 of five members "of whom not more than three shall be pastors." 53 
 At the same convention in 1952, the Audio- Visual Service also pe- 
 titioned the Synod to be placed on the regular budget of the Church. 
 This petition was approved, and thus the agency became fully and 
 completely a synodically controlled and financed agency. Since the 
 synodical budget was prepared two years in advance, it was not until 
 1954 that Audio- Visual Service became a full-fledged beneficiary of 
 the synodical budget. 56 
 
 In addition to giving the Church a new and effective teaching aid, 
 the Audio-Visual Service became an immensely effective instrument 
 of publicity for the Synod and its work. It provided a specialized and 
 highly technical channel through which information regarding the 
 Synod was funneled to the various news media of the country, and 
 through which information concerning other religious groups and ac- 
 tivities was made known to the congregations of the Synod. Thus, 
 
 52 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1946, p. 20. 
 ™Ibid., p. 36. 
 
 54 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1947, p. 307f. 
 
 55 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1952, p. 316. 
 
 56 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1952, pp. 311-316, and budget item, p. 
 
Augustana Heritage 344 
 
 while serving the people throughout the Augustana Church, the Au- 
 dio-Visual Service became also an important arm of the synodical ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Another central agency which was established as a part of Au- 
 gustana's New Approach was the Commission on Church Architec- 
 ture, which came into being by action of the Church at the convention 
 in Jamestown, New York, 1942. The suggestion for such a depart- 
 ment within the administrative structure of the Synod came from the 
 executive director of Home Missions, who reminded the Church in his 
 annual report in 1942, that the increasing tempo of home missions in- 
 volving the establishment of new congregations and the erection of 
 new church buildings demanded some kind of central agency which 
 could give expert architectural and financial advice to those who 
 sought such help. 57 Accordingly, the Synod authorized the establish- 
 ment of the Commission on Church Architecture, "composed of five 
 members appointed by the executive committee of the Synod, and 
 that the department directors of home missions and parish education 
 be represented in an advisory capacity on the commission." 58 
 
 Within a few years it became evident that both new as well as old 
 established congregations were turning to the Commission for help, 
 not only to plan new building projects, but, in a surprising number of 
 cases, to arrange fund-raising campaigns for building and renovation 
 programs. The question of the relationship of the Commission on Ar- 
 chitecture to fund raising was the subject of careful study for several 
 years. 59 Finally, at the synodical convention in Washington, D. C, 
 1950, the Church resolved, 
 
 1. That we express our opinion that the Commission on Church 
 Architecture should be reconstituted as a subcommittee un- 
 der the Board of Finance . . . 
 
 2. That a full-time executive be employed to perform the fol- 
 lowing services: 
 
 a. Serve the congregation as consultant with the committee 
 in reviewing proposed building plans. 
 
 b. Prepare literature, audio- visual aids, "Pattern plans" for 
 small churches, sample publicity folders, etc. 
 
 c. Make services and material available for a fee, for limited 
 periods, to congregations planning building and financing 
 programs. 
 
 57 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1942, p. 122. 
 
 ™lbid, p. 140. The members of the original commission were: Pastors Clif- 
 ford A. Nelson, Verner A. Granquist, O. V. Anderson, and Messrs. Elmer L. 
 Edmund and Carl Lof. 
 
 59 See reports, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1948, p. 339; 1949, p. 311. 
 
345 The New Approach 
 
 d. Give guidance in entire program of financing involved in 
 a building project. 
 
 e. Represent the Church under guidance of the Board of 
 Finance in solicitation of "larger gifts" for all causes, in- 
 cluding the Church Extension Fund, which is of such stra- 
 tegic concern to building financing. 
 
 f. Perform such other duties as may be assigned to him 
 from time to time by the Board of Finance. 60 
 
 The decision to employ a full-time executive director for the depart- 
 ment of church architecture was due to the fact that the work of this 
 agency had become so heavy by 1950 that it was no longer possible 
 for a commission composed of busy pastors and laymen to meet the 
 demands laid upon them. On February 6, 1951, the Commission on 
 Church Architecture turned over to the new Committee on Church 
 Architecture and Building Finance, its assets, materials, and files and 
 declared itself dissolved, and the new agency took over the opera- 
 tion. 61 Pastor Carl H. Sandgren was employed as the executive di- 
 rector of the department, and continued in this position until the mer- 
 ger of the Augustana Church. 62 
 
 Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the New Approach in 
 the Augustana Church was the separation of Augustana College and 
 Augustana Theological Seminary which occurred in 1948. This epi- 
 sode stirred the temper and emotions of the entire Synod as nothing 
 else had done, perhaps, since the Waldenstrom controversy in the pre- 
 ceding century. In the heat of the debate words were spoken, accusa- 
 tions were made, threats were hurled, and pressures were exerted 
 which caused rifts and wounds which will remain as long as some of 
 the active participants are among the living. A number of factors 
 were involved. In the first place, the question of separation had be- 
 come an emotional issue in the long-drawn contest between sectional- 
 ism and centralization which had intermittently stirred the Church 
 since the days of Hasselquist. 
 
 Within this aspect of the question there were honest differences 
 of informed opinion regarding the relationship which ought to exist 
 between the various schools of the Church and their supporting con- 
 stituencies. On the one hand, there were those who felt that all col- 
 leges should be owned and supported by the Synod, while others felt 
 that no college should be synodically controlled. On the other hand, 
 
 60 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1950, p. 300. 
 
 61 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1951, p. 310. 
 
 62 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1952, p. 71f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 346 
 
 there were sectional jealousies and petty loyalties masquerading as 
 convictions of principle which counted misinformed stubbornness to 
 be courage and strength. In the second place, there were differences 
 of viewpoint regarding the educational philosophy which ought prop- 
 erly to apply to the program of higher education in the Church. Re- 
 garding this question there were some who held that the college and 
 seminary ought not to be separated because the combined institution, 
 "Augustana College and Theological Seminary," at least approxi- 
 mated the educational ideal of the founding fathers. It was alleged 
 that the fathers envisaged a school in which the study of theology 
 would be set, as in the great universities of Europe, in the context 
 not of isolation from, but of association with, the other academic dis- 
 ciplines of a college curriculum. The names of Esbjorn, Hasselquist 
 and Olof Olsson were called upon to sanctify this viewpoint. 
 
 Although there were perhaps very few who were ready to reject 
 out of hand this high ideal of Christian education, there were many 
 who asked the idealists to face realistically the actual situation which 
 had developed at "Augustana College and Theological Seminary." 
 Over the years the college department had outgrown the seminary 
 department to the extent that the seminary was completely overshad- 
 owed and pushed into the background, both as to numbers and as to 
 demands for new resources and greater support. Consequently, the 
 time, energy, and concern of the board of directors were necessarily 
 given mostly to the college, and the seminary, so it was alleged, must 
 be content with remnants of attention. It was claimed that something 
 of the same thing prevailed regarding financial and other resources. 
 Much of what might otherwise have accrued to the theological semi- 
 nary was of necessity being apportioned to the maintenance of the 
 growing and expanding college. It was not that the college was get- 
 ting too much, but that the seminary was getting too little. It was said 
 that as a combined institution, neither the college nor the seminary 
 was free to plead its own cause before the public. In the third place, 
 the question of separation pitted the advocates of change against the 
 proponents of the status quo. It is doubtful if there were many — or 
 any — in the Augustana Church who advocated change simply or chief- 
 ly for the sake of change. Those who sought to alter the established 
 order of things at least claimed for their viewpoint reasonable motiva- 
 tions. But there were doubtless some Augustana folk who objected to 
 change simply because they liked the comfortable feeling of things as 
 they were. 
 
 The status quo is the familiar way of life, and those who are not 
 
347 The New Approach 
 
 being hurt by it, or whose personal ambitions are not frustrated by its 
 continuance, are not likely to be enthusiastic about exchanging what 
 they know for that which is unknown and unfamiliar. Furthermore, 
 in the church, where change is so often viewed with suspicion and the 
 status quo is so frequently interpreted as synonymous with God's will, 
 and identified with that which is right and true, any effort to modify 
 the status quo will invariably evoke opposition. To the proponents of 
 the status quo in Augustana there was something dear and cherished 
 — almost sacred — about the combination of "Augustana College and 
 Theological Seminary." Hallowed names and precious memories were 
 intimately associated with that combination. To tear college and semi- 
 nary apart seemed to many to be almost an act of desecration. 
 
 Finally, there was the clash between vested interests. The admin- 
 istration of "Augustana College and Theological Seminary" consti- 
 tuted a vested interest, on the one hand, and the administration of the 
 Augustana Synod comprised the vested interest, on the other. Both 
 of these interests may be said to have been "vested" in the sense that 
 each had, so to speak, a particular stake in the outcome of the con- 
 test. The administration of the "College and Seminary" wished to 
 preserve what it considered to be the historical integrity of the insti- 
 tution. Whatever anyone might be saying regarding the inequity of 
 attention and resources between college and seminary must be tem- 
 pered by and understood in the light of the realities of the actual sit- 
 uation and the ultimate benefits accruing to both departments of the 
 school because of their association with each other. The administra- 
 tion sought to clinch the argument by citing the past presidents of the 
 school as being of the same opinion. 
 
 In this connection it is both interesting and significant to note that 
 at no time in the history of the Augustana Church, as the protracted 
 debate dragged through the years regarding separation of college and 
 seminary, has the suggestion for separation ever been espoused by the 
 central administration of the school. The presidents of "Augustana 
 College and Theological Seminary" have been in singular agreement 
 about maintaining the college and seminary as one corporate institu- 
 tion. This agreement must be seen, not as some esoteric or higher 
 wisdom or deeper insight given only to educational administrators, 
 but rather as the very natural reluctance on the part of a vested in- 
 terest to surrender any area of its inherited prerogatives. It has been 
 charged that this reluctance was an expression of personal ambition, 
 unwarranted selfishness, and reactionary stubbornness. And it would 
 be strange, indeed, if some measure of these human traits were not to 
 
Augustana Heritage 348 
 
 be found in the attitudes of even Christian educators, as among other 
 mortals. But it must also be recognized that the administration of any 
 institution, educational or otherwise, which is not jealous of its pre- 
 rogatives, and looks not upon these prerogatives as being vitally con- 
 nected with the welfare of the institution, is not worthy of its trust. 
 
 The synodical administration, for its part, approached the prob- 
 lem of separation of college and seminary with an altogether different 
 set of presuppositions and concerns. The Bersell regime cannot be 
 said to have been primarily motivated by philosophy or theory. In- 
 deed, it was characteristic of the New Approach that it inaugurated 
 programs first and then sought to develop a theology or a philosophy 
 to justify them. The leaders of the New Approach were activists and 
 realists, and this basic posture determined their attitude toward the 
 separation of the college and seminary. To the synodical administra- 
 tion there was one aspect of the college and seminary problem which 
 stood out beyond all others, namely, that the present arrangements 
 had been for many years — and continued to be — the cause of discord, 
 disunity, and sectional friction throughout the Synod. Such discord 
 and disunity constituted a serious internal problem for Augustana in 
 view of the accelerated program of activity which the New Approach 
 envisaged for the Church. 
 
 Although the Synod had spoken to the problem numerous times 
 in the past, and always in terms of approving the continuation of the 
 combination of college and seminary, nevertheless, the problem would 
 not die, but kept reappearing again and again, disturbing the tran- 
 quillity and concord of the Church. Now it seemed, however, that the 
 majority would approve separation, even though a minority would be 
 offended by such a divorce. Hence, the synodical leaders grasped what 
 appeared to be a propitious moment in the history of the Augustana 
 Church to solve a long-standing problem, and thus take a long step 
 toward the establishment of a new era of synodical unity, peace, and 
 good will. On this matter Dr. Bersell has stated that, 
 
 The number of conferences, to whom was delegated consider- 
 able autonomy, grew from three to thirteen. With this growth, 
 local and territorial interests naturally came to the fore. . . . One 
 by one these issues have been resolved. Strangely, the most di- 
 visive of these issues had to do with unity; that is, the union of 
 Augustana College and Theological Seminary, as the common 
 institution of learning for an undivided church. This was also the 
 last major internal issue to be resolved. 63 
 
 63 P. O. Bersell, "Notes on the Separation of Augustana College and Theo- 
 
349 The New Approach 
 
 The events leading to the "great divorce" of 1948 go back to the early- 
 days of the Synod. Augustana Seminary and College was established 
 in 1860 as a school belonging to the entire Augustana Church, and to 
 its support every congregation was expected to contribute. But in 
 1862 the Minnesota Conference organized its own regional school, in 
 1881 the Kansas Conference did likewise, the Nebraska Conference 
 established its school in 1883, and the eastern section of the Synod 
 organized a college in 1893. 64 As each of these schools was formed, 
 the loyalty, interest, and financial support of that section which the 
 school was intended to serve were channeled in its direction. This 
 sectional loyalty and concern for the welfare of conference schools 
 raised the question of the relationship which these sections ought to 
 sustain toward Augustana College. Was it fair to require those who 
 were supporting their own conference schools to be liable also for the 
 support of Augustana College? This seemed like "double taxation" 
 to many. The prevailing sentiment in Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, 
 and elsewhere seemed to be in favor of making Augustana College an 
 Illinois Conference institution, while the Theological Seminary would 
 be retained as the one and only educational institution maintained and 
 supported by the entire Synod. 65 
 
 The question of regional support for Augustana College was also 
 connected with the deeper problem of the relationship of the confer- 
 ences to the Synod. It involved the tension between the forces of cen- 
 tralization versus decentralization. Conference particularism, coupled 
 with economic need and sectional loyalty, conspired to create a senti- 
 ment in favor of the separation of Augustana College and Seminary. 
 This sentiment remained little more than a "riimbling in the hustings" 
 until 1886, when for the first time the question of separation of college 
 and seminary was brought to the floor of the Synod. 66 In accordance 
 
 logical Seminary," Manuscript, November 10, 1961. The main arguments on 
 both sides of the question of the separation of Augustana College and 
 Seminary are expressed in a series of articles in the Augustana press as 
 follows: the Lutheran Companion, March 27, April 3, 10, 17, 1946; April 2, 
 June 4, 25, July 9, 1947. Augustana, April 1, 22, July 22, 1946; July 21, 
 1947. The two articles which most adequately express and summarize the 
 contending viewpoints are: "A Divorce in 1948?", by Conrad Bergendoff, 
 the Lutheran Companion, April 3, 1946; "Augustana College and Theo- 
 logical Seminary," by C. J. Sodergren, the Lutheran Companion, April 17, 
 1946. 
 
 64 Other schools were organized in the Synod but Gustavus Adolphus Col- 
 lege, St. Peter, Minnesota, Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, Luther 
 College, Wahoo, Nebraska, and Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey, 
 survived. 
 
 65 Arden, The School of the Prophets, op. cit, p. 200f 
 MReferat, Augustana Synod, 1886, pp. 20-46. 
 
Augustana Heritage 350 
 
 with President Erland Carlsson's suggestion, a special committee, com- 
 posed of representatives of every conference and every institution of 
 the Synod, was selected and charged with the task of finding a solution 
 to the problem. This committee of thirty-seven men, which included 
 the most competent leaders among both pastors and laymen, met in 
 Rock Island, August 24, 1886, with Erland Carlsson presiding. The 
 committee's report was given at the synodical convention in 1887, and 
 included the following resolutions: 
 
 1. That Augustana College continue to be the common institu- 
 tion of the Synod and that our theological seminary remain for- 
 ever (for evardeliga tider) the Synod's common institution for the 
 training of its pastors, and that no conference or section of the 
 Synod shall be permitted to establish or operate a theological 
 seminary. 
 
 2. That conferences which support their own institutions of high- 
 er learning shall pay 12 % cents of the 25 cents apportionment to 
 the common institution in Rock Island. . . 
 
 4. That a committee be appointed to prepare a curriculum for 
 all the colleges and academies of the Church and report to the 
 next synodical convention. 67 
 
 The report of the committee was adopted. 68 It was thought that the 
 question of separation had now been settled once and for all. But the 
 rumblings persisted, and on several occasions the president of the Syn- 
 od felt obliged to address himself to this undercurrent of discontent as 
 he gave his annual report to Synod. 69 The invitation by the General 
 Council to merge Augustana Seminary with the proposed German 
 Seminary in Chicago, which continued to exercise the Synod from 
 1872 to 1891, also helped to keep the issue of separation alive. 70 
 
 The matter did not again become the subject of public debate at a 
 synodical convention, however, until 1926, when the question regarding 
 the increase in apportionments to Augustana College and Seminary 
 eventuated in a resolution to the effect that 
 
 Augustana College be separated from Augustana Theological 
 Seminary as to property, funds, management and control, and Au- 
 gustana Theological Seminary and Augustana College be placed 
 under separate boards, providing the three Conferences, Illinois, 
 Iowa and Superior, are willing to take over Augustana College. 71 
 
 ■» Referat, Augustana Synod, 1887, p. 35f. 
 e8 Ibid., p. 36. 
 
 69 See for example, President's Report by S. P. A. Lindahl, Referat, 1890, p. 
 9-21; by P. J. Sward, Referat, 1894, pp. 15-24. 
 
 70 See Arden, op. tit., pp. 203-205. 
 
 7i Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1926, p. 63. 
 
351 TheNewApproach 
 
 When this proposal reached the three central conferences, they each 
 in turn declined the "take over," which meant that the status of the 
 college and seminary remained unchanged. 72 Here the matter rested 
 until 1930, when the Kansas Conference, struggling during the great 
 depression to keep the doors open at Bethany College, petitioned the 
 Synod 
 
 1. That steps be taken that Augustana Theological Seminary be 
 maintained as a separate and independent institution from Augus- 
 tana College. 
 
 2. That a separate board be elected by the Synod, and that the 
 members of this board be elected in such a manner as to give the 
 different parts of the Synod, as far as possible, equal representa- 
 tion. 
 
 3. That a just division of funds and property now available . . . 
 be made and transferred to the Seminary. 
 
 4. That a special committee be elected to prepare a constitution 
 for Augustana Theological Seminary, and report to the synodical 
 convention in 1931. 73 
 
 The petition from Kansas was referred to the General Board of Edu- 
 cation of the Synod, which took two years to prepare its report. At the 
 Fargo convention in 1932, the Board recommended that "Augustana 
 Theological Seminary be neither separated from Augustana College 
 nor governed by a separate Board." It placed before the Synod, in- 
 stead, two alternative proposals. 
 
 1. That the funds of the seminary and college departments not 
 already allocated be distributed as follows: 
 
 a, The sum realized from the sale of the Paxton farm ($50,000) 
 shall be divided into three equal parts two parts of which 
 shall be allocated to the collegiate department and one part 
 to the seminary. 
 
 b, In allocating the Jubilee Fund the sum of 20 cents per com- 
 municant member, using the statistics of 1909, shall be al- 
 located to the seminary and the remainder to the college de- 
 partment. 
 
 2. a, That Augustana Theological Seminary be incorporated as a 
 
 separate institution and that a portion of the present 
 grounds of Augustana College and Theological Seminary, 
 and especially that portion containing the present seminary 
 buildings, with a large adjoining space of ground, be deeded 
 over to the Augustana Theological Seminary corporation, 
 b, That a separate board for Augustana Theological Seminary 
 be elected by the Synod. 
 
 12 Minutes, Illinois Conference, 1927, p. 139; Iowa Conference, 1927, p. 98; 
 
 Superior Conference, 1927, p. 55. 
 73 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1930, p. 96. 
 
Augustana Heritage 352 
 
 c, That said board shall consist of eight members, five clergy- 
 men and three laymen, together with the president of the 
 Synod, as ex officio member. 
 
 d, That funds not already allocated be distributed as in plan 
 one. 74 
 
 In response to this report the Synod resolved to accept the recommen- 
 dation of the board with respect to the division of property and funds. 
 Regarding the relocation of the seminary, a special Seminary Commis- 
 sion was chosen "to make a thorough survey and investigation of the 
 question of the eventual permanent location of the theological semin- 
 ary." The members chosen by the Church for this commission were: 
 Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, who at that time was dean of the seminary, 
 Dr. C. J. Sodergren, Dr. D. Verner Swanson, Mr. John Christianson, 
 and Judge Eskil C. Carlson. The report of this special commission is 
 an interesting and significant document for, whatever may have been 
 the personal viewpoint of the individual members (and there is no 
 dissenting opinion attached) , the report of the commission is unam- 
 biguous in what it recommends, and since it was signed by every mem- 
 ber of the commission, it ostensibly reflected the present conviction 
 and judgment of every member. After careful study and deliberation 
 the commission concluded: 
 
 1. Awaiting possible and probable developments in the field of 
 theological education within the Lutheran Church in America we 
 propose the following enunciation of a policy for the future; 
 
 a, That Augustana Theological Seminary be moved. 
 
 b, That it be moved to Chicago or its vicinity. 
 
 2. To facilitate the achieving of such a program we propose that 
 the Synod elect a permanent committee to consider ways and 
 means for the eventual removal of the seminary. 
 
 3. That for the immediate future your Commission recommends 
 the following: 
 
 a, In order to avoid confusion in the reports, and in order to 
 prevent any possible discrimination in favor of either col- 
 lege or seminary, a complete and actual separation of the 
 funds and assets of the seminary from those of the college 
 should be effected upon a fair and equitable basis. . . 
 
 b, We propose that the scope of authority of the present Sem- 
 inary Committee of the Board be widened to that of an ex- 
 ecutive committee to function on behalf of the seminary. 
 This seminary committee would be charged with the con- 
 trol of the seminary, under the general control of the board. 
 
 e, We advocate further the establishment of the office of sem- 
 inary manager. The incumbent of this office should handle 
 
 7 * Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1932, p. 841 
 
353 The New Approach 
 
 the income and expenditures of the seminary, he should be 
 in general charge of the seminary grounds and buildings and 
 should be under the immediate jurisdiction of the seminary 
 executive committee. . . . Among his duties would be that 
 of seeking increased funds for the seminary within and out- 
 side the Synod. 75 
 
 When this report came to the floor of the Synod and the delegation 
 was asked to vote on the proposition that Augustana Seminary be 
 moved, the motion was defeated by a vote of 125 to 110, while the 
 proposition that the funds and assets be separated was carried. 70 It 
 must be noted at this point that the proposal to move the seminary out 
 of Rock Island was defeated by only fifteen votes, which indicated that 
 the Church was very nearly evenly divided on the question, and that 
 sentiment for removal had been growing over the years. The vote is 
 particularly significant when it is recalled that the vote was taken at 
 a time when both the nation and the church were gripped by depres- 
 sion psychology, and the prospect of providing new facilities for the 
 seminary must have seemed particularly grim. But the fact that in 
 spite of the prevailing depression, nearly half of the voting delegation 
 at the convention of 1933 approved the removal of the seminary from 
 Rock Island meant that even though the proposal had been defeated 
 for the time being, the Church had not yet spoken the final word in 
 this matter. 
 
 No further action was taken by the Church regarding "Augustana 
 College and Theological Seminary" until 1944, when it was proposed 
 that the constitution of the institution should be brought up to date so 
 as to incorporate those changes in administration and practice which 
 had been adopted by the Church, and which, as far as it concerned 
 the seminary, involved the office of dean, the seminary committee of 
 the board as a permanent standing committee, and the four-year theo- 
 logical program including the intern year. 77 
 
 In the process of considering the revised constitution, the Synod 
 also decided at its convention in 1945 that 
 
 The executive committee of the Synod and two additional mem- 
 bers, elected by the Synod, make a study of the support and con- 
 trol of Augustana College by the Illinois, Iowa, and Superior Con- 
 ferences in consultation with representatives of said conferences, 
 and submit their findings and recommendations to the next con- 
 
 75 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1933, pp. 69-77. 
 
 76 Ibid., p. 78. 
 
 17 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1944, pp. 89-94. 
 
Augustana Heritage 354 
 
 vention of the Synod, subject to previous consideration and action 
 by the three conferences. 78 
 
 The personnel of this committee was: For the Synod: Dr. P. O. Bersell, 
 Dr. Oscar A. Benson, Dr. D. Verner Swanson, Dr. O. O. Gustafson, 
 Mr. Harold Smith, and Mr. Harold LeVander. 
 
 For the Illinois Conference: Dr. C. O. Bengtson, Dr. J. A. S. 
 Landin, Mr. E. W. Swanberg, Mr. Tage Joranson, and Mr. Arthur 
 Larson. For the Iowa Conference: Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen, Pastor C. 
 P. Everett, Mr. F. F. Peel, and Judge Eskil Carlson. For the Superior 
 Conference: Dr. William Siegel and Pastor T. E. Johnstone. 
 
 The personnel of this committee is interesting and significant, 
 since it represents most of the outstanding leaders associated with the 
 New Approach in the Augustana Church. It is from this point in the 
 negotiations that the initiative is being taken by the synodical adminis- 
 tration to deal decisively with the question of separation. And the 
 manner of dealing is revealed in the following excerpt from President 
 Bersell's annual report of 1946, 
 
 There should be synod-wide support of Christian higher educa- 
 tion. I dare say that it should be fairly well equalized over the 
 various parts of our Synod. To accomplish this, greater power 
 should be given to the Commission on Christian Higher Education 
 as a co-ordinating agency so that a synod-wide program may be 
 worked out. This suggestion positively does not carry with it any 
 intention to eliminate local or conference management of our col- 
 leges. In fact, it is my considered opinion that we will never get 
 very far in the solution of this whole problem until Augustana 
 College is given the same status as the other colleges under con- 
 ference ownership and management. 79 
 
 The committee elected in 1945, led by Dr. Bersell, reported at the 
 convention in 1946, that a consultative meeting had been held in Chi- 
 cago, December 13, 1945, with representatives of the school and con- 
 ferences in attendance. Regarding this meeting it was reported that 
 
 The consensus of the meeting was that the present arrangement 
 is not satisfactory, and that something should be done to remedy 
 the situation so as to eliminate the anomalous relationship of Au- 
 gustana College to the Synod on the one hand and the confer- 
 ences on the other which fails to foster a sense of immediate re- 
 sponsibility and promotes friction with other conferences owning 
 and supporting their own colleges. 80 
 
 78 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1945, p. 132. 
 
 79 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1946, p. 18. 
 
 80 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1946, p. 98. 
 
355 The New Approach 
 
 The following proposals of the committee were adopted by the 
 Synod: 
 
 1. That the suggested plan of a divided board for Augustana 
 College and Theological Seminary be rejected as impractica- 
 ble. 
 
 2. That Augustana College and Theological Seminary be divided 
 into separate legal entities. 
 
 3. That Synod shall continue to own, control, support, and op- 
 erate the Augustana Theological Seminary. 
 
 4. That the Illinois, Iowa, and Superior Conferences be request- 
 ed to declare willingness to assume the ownership, control, 
 support, and operation of Augustana College. 
 
 5. That a committee of eleven be elected to study the mechanics, 
 legal problems, and constitutional changes involved and re- 
 port to the 1947 conventions of the three conferences and 
 synod. 81 
 
 When the Synod met in Kansas City, Missouri, for the convention in 
 1947, the "committee of eleven" presented its report, accompanied by 
 all the legal documents necessary for adoption to complete the sepa- 
 ration of the college and seminary, including a constitution for the 
 seminary. All of these documents were approved by the Synod. The 
 committee reported that two of the three conferences had rejected the 
 offer of Synod to assume ownership and full control of Augustana 
 College. Therefore, it was resolved that the three conferences assume 
 responsibility for the financial support of Augustana College and that 
 the members of the board of directors be nominated by the three 
 conferences and elected by the Synod. It was also resolved to transfer 
 the institution's Illinois state charter, dated February 16, 1865, to Au- 
 gustana College, and to incorporate Augustana Theological Seminary 
 under a new charter, with a board of twelve members, plus the pres- 
 ident of the Church as ex officio member. The synodical constitution 
 was also properly amended to provide for these changes by a vote of 
 268 ayes and 112 nays. Boards of directors were also elected for Au- 
 gustana College, and for Augustana Theological Seminary. 82 When, 
 in accordance with the action of Synod, the Secretary of State of the 
 State of Illinois, Mr. Edward J. Barrett, on July 12, 1947, affixed his 
 signature to the new Articles of Incorporation of Augustana Theo- 
 logical Seminary, thereby making that institution a completely sep- 
 arate and independent legal entity, the solution to the "College and 
 Seminary question" had been finally achieved. 
 
 81 P. O. Bersell, "Notes on the Separation, etc., op. cit., see also Minutes, 
 Augustana Synod, 1946, pp. 97-106. 
 
 82 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1947, pp. 90-121. 
 
Augustana Heritage 356 
 
 The battle was not quite finished, however. The next year, 1948, 
 when because of the centennial celebrations, there was a plenary rep- 
 resentation at the annual convention of the Church, the opponents of 
 separation asked that the matter of separation be reconsidered and be 
 decided at the plenary convention by secret ballot. A motion to re- 
 scind the actions of the two previous synodical assemblies was put to 
 the vote, requiring a two-thirds majority to carry. When the votes 
 were counted the tellers announced that the motion had been lost, 
 with 424 ayes and 493 nays. Thereupon the Synod adopted a final re- 
 port of the committee on separation, and fixed the date of August 31, 
 1948 as the date for separation of the college and seminary. Upon 
 nomination of the board, Pastor Karl E. Mattson, president of the 
 New England Conference, was elected president of the seminary. 83 
 
 Augustana Mission Advance 
 
 One of the most amazingly successful projects which was initiated 
 under the jurisdiction of the New Approach was the program called 
 Augustana Mission Advance. This venture was launched in 1949 in 
 order to enable the Church to take advantage of the unprecedented 
 opportunities to expand its work at home and abroad by raising large 
 supplementary funds for missions above and beyond the usual con- 
 tributions and regular budget allocations. Augustana leaders looked 
 upon missions as more than a holding operation — it must be a grow- 
 ing and expansive enterprise. Accordingly, the Boards of Home Mis- 
 sions, Foreign Missions and Finance pooled their efforts to set in mo- 
 tion the program of Augustana Mission Advance. 84 By word of mouth, 
 through the church press, and by means of specially prepared promo- 
 tional materials, the three boards combined their efforts to prepare 
 the Synod for the first appeal which was scheduled for the Epiphany 
 season, 1949. The people of Augustana were asked to respond to this 
 unified appeal for missions in a manner and spirit worthy of the op- 
 portunities which confronted the Church. 
 
 The response to the first appeal for funds was somewhat disap- 
 pointing. Augustana Mission Advance had been compelled to share 
 its place with a number of other appeals, with the result that only 
 sixty per cent of the congregations in the Synod responded. But those 
 
 83 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1948, p. 115. 
 
 84 A report of the organization of A.M.A., personnel of officers and commit- 
 tees, program and procedures, is given in Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1949, 
 p. 228f. 
 
S. A. LINDHOLM 
 Director, 1911-1927 
 
 Pension and Aid 
 
 ■ 
 
 O. T. ENGQUIST 
 Director, 1935-1956 
 
 L. EDWIN WANG 
 Director, 1956-1962 
 
i 
 
 M 
 
 vO 
 
 The Jubilee of 1910 
 
 fi 
 
 Jubilee Hall as seen from the entrance to Augustai 
 College 
 
 <!& 
 
 Bishop and Lady von Scheele, represent- 
 ing the King of Sweden. 
 
 ;-8v- - 
 
 -~ -^^^^ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 1 ^5 
 
 
 Distinguished guests at the Jubilee, 1910 
 
 1. Bishop von Scheele 
 
 2. Governor Eberhart of Minnesota 
 
 3. Dr. Eric Norelius ) .. . 
 
 4 Pastor G Peters l The on 'y ™ree still living who attended 
 
 5. Mr. John Erlander j Constituting Convention, 1860 
 
MONUMENT AT JEFFERSON PRAIRIE, WISCONSIN 
 Dr. Carl Scgcrhammar, Vice President 
 Archbishop Gunnar Hultgrcn, Uppsala, Sweden 
 Dr. Malvin H. Lundcen, President of Augustana 
 Church 
 
V 
 
 SIGNING THE MERGER DOCUMENTS 
 Left to right, Seated, the Rev. Dr. Franklin 
 Clark Fry; the Rev. Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen; 
 thc Rev. A. B. Farstrup and the Rev. Dr. 
 Raymond Wargelin. Standing arc the Rev. 
 Dr. George F. Harkins; the Rev. D. Verner 
 Swanson; the Rev. W. R. Garrcd and the Rev. 
 Philip A. R. Antilla 
 
 THE 
 
 DETROIT CONVENTION 
 
 1962 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 ■7! 
 
 A ' * 
 
 "I 
 
 FIRST COMMUNION SERVICE 
 Lutheran Church in America 
 
357 The New Approach 
 
 who did contribute to the appeal raised a total of $142,232.50. 85 In 
 making their report of this first appeal of Augustana Mission Ad- 
 vance to the Church, the leaders in charge of the project were opti- 
 mistic about the future, and confident that as the Church became more 
 keenly aware of the needs and opportunities in the area of missions, 
 the future response to the appeals of Augustana Mission Advance 
 would be much greater. In this hope and expectation they were not 
 disappointed. The Augustana Mission Advance continued each year, 
 from 1949 through 1962, to present the cause of missions and ask for 
 supplementary funds. A special emphasis was given to missions dur- 
 ing 1954, which was known as Advance for Christ, which extended 
 through 1955. During the period of thirteen years of missionary ap- 
 peal, each of the two succeeding sy nodical administrations 86 gave this 
 project every possible encouragement. The people of the Augustana 
 Church responded to the appeals of Augustana Mission Advance by 
 contributing a total of $2,246,854.21. The response to Advance for 
 Christ amounted to $2,463,362.36. This means that from 1949 through 
 1962 the people of the Augustana Lutheran Church raised the sum of 
 $4,710,216.57 for missionary purposes above and beyond the regular 
 budgetary allocations. 87 In his final report to the Church, the chair- 
 man of Augustana Mission Advance, Dr. William J. Siegel of Minne- 
 apolis, stated, 
 
 The primary object in the establishment of Augustana Mission 
 Advance was to provide additional funds for both our Boards of 
 American and World Missions to carry out their missionary wit- 
 ness on behalf of our Augustana Church. Approximately five 
 million dollars have been contributed for missions through Au- 
 gustana Mission Advance and Advance for Christ. . . . About 
 $1,509,000 have been placed in the Church Extension Fund, which 
 now totals more than two and a half million dollars. During these 
 thirteen years the Board of World Missions has expanded its 
 work into several new areas. These include Japan, Hong Kong, 
 Taiwan, South America, and Borneo. In addition, many more 
 missionaries have been added to our principal field in Tangan- 
 yika, East Africa. The extensive educational activity carried on 
 by the Augustana Mission Advance Committee during these years 
 is difficult to evaluate in figures, but should not be underestimat- 
 ed. The money that has been contributed as well as the increas- 
 
 85 See report of the chairman and treasurer of A.M.A., Minutes, Augustana 
 Synod, 1950, p. 237f. 
 
 86 The administration of Dr. Oscar A. Benson, 1951-1959, and Dr. Malvin H. 
 Lundeen, 1959-1962. 
 
 87 For the figures for each year see reports of the chairman of A.M.A. in the 
 annual Minutes of the Augustana Lutheran Church, 1949-1962. 
 
Augustana Heritage 358 
 
 ing number of men and women who volunteer for missionary 
 work at home and abroad is indicative of growing missionary in- 
 terest. This interest would never come into being without mis- 
 sionary information. It also seems to me that the Augustana Mis- 
 sion Advance activity has participated in giving Augustana a new 
 sense of the oneness of our mission work. Today we realize more 
 than ever before that American and World Missions is one task. 
 Never, I believe, has there been such a sense of partnership be- 
 tween both boards as we have today. 88 
 
 88 Annual Reports, 1962, Augustana Lutheran Church, p. 203. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Augustana Social Action 
 
 The Emergence of a New Social Conscience 
 
 Parallel to and associated with the development of the New 
 Approach in the Augustana Church was the emergence of a new 
 
 social consciousness. This is not to suggest that prior to the third 
 decade of the twentieth century the Augustana Church had no social 
 conscience. Indeed, a vital part of the Synod's Swedish heritage was 
 the code of ethics and morality which had been bequeathed by Pietism, 
 and was emphasized as the barometer of the sanctified life. It was 
 a code that tended to cast the Christian life in a legalistic mold, as 
 it inveighed against immorality, drunkenness, dancing, card playing, 
 and the desecration of the Sabbath. From the beginning Augustana took 
 this code seriously. This is attested by the fact that the early synodical 
 minutes not only report numerous cases of church discipline involving 
 both pastors and laymen, but contain also many references in presi- 
 dential reports and committee resolutions to the social order, to its 
 evils and temptations against which all Christians must be on guard, 
 and to the Christian's responsibility to act as a good citizen of the 
 republic. 1 
 
 With respect to the Church's direct responsibility to become 
 involved in the Christianization of the social order, it must be said, 
 however, that for the first three quarters of its existence, the Augus- 
 tana Church exhibited the same spirit of quietism which has charac- 
 terized so much of Lutheran history both in Europe and in America. 
 Reasons for this quietistic spirit in Augustana lie near at hand. In 
 the first place, it must be recalled that for approximately the first 
 sixty years of its life, Augustana was predominantly an immigrant 
 church, preoccupied with the immense task of ministering to masses 
 of incoming immigrants. As long as this pattern prevailed the Synod 
 
 1 For a brief study of code morality in the Augustana Church see article by 
 Emmer Engberg, Centennial Essays, Rock Island, Illinois, 1960, pp. 122n\ 
 According to Hasselquist and his colleagues, good citizenship included op- 
 position to the institution of slavery. Most Swedes in America shared 
 Hasselquist's antislavery sentiments and were staunch supporters of the 
 Union cause. See, Ander, Hasselquist, op. cit., p. 152f. 
 
 359 
 
Augustana Heritage 360 
 
 was isolated, both by choice and by circumstance, from many of the 
 pervasive American influences which, like the social gospel, might 
 otherwise have invaded the thinking and practice of the Synod. In 
 the second place, until the process of Americanization had reshaped 
 basic Augustana attitudes, the Synod stood aloof from the ecumenical 
 movement with its powerful social concern. After the Synod's par- 
 ticipation in the Stockholm Conference on Life and Work in 1925, 
 however, social reorientation was marked and rapid. In the third place, 
 the most challenging social problems resulted first from urban situa- 
 tions. As long as the Augustana Church remained largely a rural 
 synod, it was neither ready nor equipped to handle the acutely unique 
 social problems posed by an urban society. Finally, quietism in the 
 Augustana Church, as in Lutheranism generally, has theological mo- 
 tivations. It has often been pointed out that the Lutheran doctrine of 
 the two realms has tended to inhibit Lutheran social responsibility. 
 According to this doctrine a sharp distinction is made between the 
 function and task of the Church in the spiritual realm and that of 
 the State in the secular or temporal realm. Both Church and State are 
 expressions of God's will. The State is to establish justice and main- 
 tain order, guided by reason; the Church is to preach the gospel and 
 administer the sacraments, guided by revelation. Neither must invade 
 the precincts of the other. Thus, the proper way to deal with social 
 problems is for the Church to concentrate on the task of preaching 
 and of sacramental administration, since the transformation of society 
 can only be accomplished by transforming individuals. Therefore, 
 the Church must not become entangled in political questions, or too 
 directly involved in social issues. In addition to the doctrine of the 
 two realms, it may also be said that its confessional tradition has 
 tended to make the entire Lutheran Church, including Augustana, 
 somewhat tardy in adapting to the complexities of an American en- 
 vironment. The process of reinterpreting the Lutheran Confessions 
 of the sixteenth century in the light of twentieth-century needs has 
 required both time and patience. 2 
 
 About 1935, however, there began to emerge within the Augus- 
 tana Church a new and livelier social awareness and concern. This 
 
 For an excellent study of the development of social consciousness in the 
 Lutheran Church in America, with special reference to the Augustana 
 Synod, see Robert Lowell Anderson, The Awakening Social Consciousness 
 of the Lutheran Church in America Since World War I, with Special 
 Reference to the Augustana Lutheran Church. Unpublished Master's dis- 
 sertation Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1959. Copy in the library 
 of the Lutheran School of Theology, Rock Island Campus. 
 
361 Augustana Social Action 
 
 new social consciousness may be briefly described as a clearer recogni- 
 tion by the Synod that the Christian Church is a part of the society 
 in which it exists, and that a part of its calling under God is to bear 
 a corporate witness to the problems of society even while it uses 
 its corporate influence to see that, in so far as possible, the will of 
 God is done in all areas and relationships of human life. 
 
 This new attitude undoubtedly gradually evolved from several 
 sources. There was, first of all, the effect of the process of Ameri- 
 canization, by which the walls of isolation were broken down and 
 Augustana was drawn more intimately into the context of American 
 community life. This served to engender within the Synod a new 
 and keener awareness of the social problems in American society. 
 Furthermore, as Augustana began to participate in the ecumenical 
 movement and discovered the strong social emphasis of the Life and 
 Work Movement, the Synod was confronted with a new dimension 
 of community responsibility to which it sought to respond. Then too, 
 there was the great depression which compelled all Americans to 
 take a new and more careful look at political and social issues. 3 The 
 Synod's new social outlook found its deepest and most profound moti- 
 vation, however, in the theological reorientation which eventuated 
 through the new Luther studies in both Europe and America. The 
 Luther renaissance in Sweden was particularly significant for 
 Augustana. 
 
 Led by such eminent Swedish scholars as Einar Billing, Nathan 
 Soderblom, Gustaf Aulen, Ragnar Bring, Gustaf Wingren, Gustaf 
 Tornell, Herbert Olsson, and Anders Nygren, fruitful investigations 
 into Luther's theology yielded new insight into the meaning and 
 relevance of the Reformation for the twentieth century, and partic- 
 ularly in the area of social responsibility. The Swedish theologians, 
 together with other European and American scholars, came to the 
 conclusion that quietism has misunderstood and, therefore, misrepre- 
 sented the real meaning of Luther's ethic, and that a correct and true 
 understanding of Luther's thought will reveal that his doctrine of 
 the two realms does not exclude but rather includes the secular and 
 temporal realm within the scope of God's redeeming and sanctifying 
 grace. The Christian community is called to be the effective instru- 
 ment through which divine grace is brought to bear on society. 4 
 
 s Ibid., pp. 183ff. 
 
 4 Howard Hong, "Liberalism and Lutheran Reconstruction, 1914 — " in Har- 
 old Letts, ed., The Lutheran Heritage, Vol. II, Christian Social Responsibili- 
 ty. Philadelphia, 1957, pp. 45ff. See also Martin J. Heinecken, "Luther and 
 
Augustana Heritage 362 
 
 These important Luther studies elicited a flood of literature in 
 America, and some important writings in this field came from Augus- 
 tana scholars. Dr. A. D. Mattson, professor at Augustana Seminary, 
 was particularly active in promoting the new social consciousness 
 within the Synod. Working from Lutheran theological premises, Matt- 
 son sought to reinterpret the earlier "social gospel" so as to bring it 
 into harmony with Lutheran doctrine and make its principles opera- 
 tive within Lutheran circles. In numerous articles in the church press, 
 in his classes at the seminary, and particularly through the publication 
 of two books, Christian Ethics* and Christian Social Consciousness, 6 
 Mattson pleaded for a greater sense of social concern within the Chris- 
 tian Church, and specifically within the Augustana Synod. Dr. Edgar 
 M. Carlson, who in 1944 became president of Gustavus Adolphus 
 College, St. Peter, Minnesota, also made significant contributions to 
 the new social outlook by writing a number of perceptive articles for 
 the church press 7 and the publication of two important books, The 
 Reinterpretation of Luther 8 and The Church and the Public Conscience. 9 
 The former volume was received not only by the Augustana Church 
 but by an American public generally as a valuable introduction to and 
 excellent analysis of, the Luther renaissance in Sweden, with par- 
 ticular reference to the so-called Lundensian theology. Carlson's Luther 
 study interpreted to American readers the new theological insights 
 which derived from "motif research," a part of which emphasized the 
 necessity for greater Christian social action. Other scholars in the 
 Augustana Church aided and encouraged the new social outlook. Con- 
 rad Bergendoff, C. G. Carlfelt, Paul Andreen, Oscar A. Benson, I. O. 
 Nothstein, William Siegel, Karl E. Mattson, and A. F. Schersten were 
 the most frequent, but by no means the only, contributors of numer- 
 ous articles and book reviews on various phases of social issues which 
 appeared in almost every issue of the Augustana Quarterly and the 
 Lutheran Companion from 1930 to 1950. 10 
 
 There were others too, who in their own way encouraged the 
 new social attitude in the Synod. Judge Luther W. Youngdahl, former 
 
 the 'Orders of Creation' in Relation to a Doctrine of Work and Vocation," 
 Lutheran Quarterly, IV, November, 1952, p. 397f. 
 
 5 Rock Island, Illinois, 1947. 
 
 6 Rock Island, Illinois, 1953. 
 
 7 "Can the State Be Christian?" Augustana Quarterly, XXVI, 1947, pp. 51-59. 
 "The Prophetic Interpretation of History," Augustana Quarterly, XVIII, 1939, 
 pp. 322-332. 
 
 8 Philadelphia, 1948. 
 
 9 Philadelphia, 1956. 
 
 10 Anderson, op. tit., p. 204. 
 
363 Augustana Social Action 
 
 governor of Minnesota, who was appointed to the Federal bench by 
 President Harry Truman, distinguished himself as a leader whose 
 political views and actions were motivated and informed by Christian 
 principles. As a state governor, his liberal program included hospital 
 reform, a state-wide survey to learn how many displaced persons 
 his state could settle and support, and a broad program of social 
 welfare. As a Federal judge he received national attention for his 
 open support of civil liberties while trying the famous Lattimore case. 
 As an active Augustana churchman, Judge Youngdahl has frequently 
 addressed such groups as youth conventions, college and seminary 
 convocations, seminar conferences of both laymen and pastors, in the 
 interests of greater Christian social action. His social philosophy has 
 frequently been expressed in the church press through articles and 
 papers on current social issues. Judge Youngdahl's successors in the 
 governor's mansion in St. Paul, the Honorable C. Elmer Anderson 
 and Orville Freeman, both members of the Augustana Church, have 
 also been known for their strong support of Christian social action. 11 
 
 The growth of a deeper sense of social responsibility has also been 
 fostered by the successful interracial parish programs, such as those 
 in the Salem Lutheran Church on Chicago's south side, under the 
 ministry of Pastor Philip Johnson, in the Augustana congregation, 
 Houston, Texas, led by Pastor Paul Seastrand, and in the Gustavus 
 Adolphus Church, New York, where Pastor Glen Pierson has been 
 the shepherd. Similarly, when Augustana pastors, Bernard Spong, of 
 Gary, Indiana, and Charles Bergstrom, of Springfield, Massachusetts, 
 led their communities in a campaign against civic vice and corruption, 
 the nation, as well as the Augustana Church, took new cognizance 
 of the role which the Christian church can play in strengthening the 
 forces of decency and righteousness. 
 
 Three prominent Augustana laymen, one a doctor and two of them 
 attorneys, deserve mention for their work in stimulating a greater 
 social concern in the Augustana Church. Dr. Robert Holmen, St. Paul, 
 Minnesota, the physician, and Dr. Wendell Lund, Washington, D.C., 
 and Mr. Harold LeVander, South St. Paul, Minnesota, the attorneys, 
 have written and spoken extensively on behalf of Augustana social 
 action. They have served the general work of the Church through 
 membership on various committees and commissions. By the policies 
 they have advocated, and by their own personal influence they have 
 
 11 Anderson, op. cit, p. 144f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 364 
 
 sought to guide the Augustana Church in the direction of a greater 
 social consciouness. 12 
 
 Thus, through the combination of historical circumstances and 
 the personal influence of outstanding church leaders, including both 
 pastors and laymen, the earlier quietism which characterized the 
 social attitude of the Augustana Church gave way to a new and deeper 
 social conscience. It was within this context that the Minnesota Con- 
 ference in 1936 petitioned the Augustana Church to create an agency 
 to study and define the Synod's position on war and the liquor prob- 
 lem. At the synodical convention in 1937, the study committee which 
 had been appointed the preceding year, was reconstituted, in accord- 
 ance with its own recommendation, as the Synod's first Commission 
 on Morals and Social Problems, consisting of six members elected by 
 the Church, with the synodical president as the seventh and ex officio 
 member. The scope of the Commission's task was broadened to include 
 not only the issue of war and the liquor problem, but also the family, 
 marriage and divorce, birth control, use of leisure time and amuse- 
 ments, gambling, stewardship, crime and kindred problems. 13 This 
 action by the Synod led to the subsequent establishment of similar 
 commissions and committees in several of the thirteen conferences of 
 the Church. 14 In 1957 the name of the Commission on Morals and So- 
 cial Problems was changed to Commission on Social Action, though the 
 function and responsibility of the Commission remained exactly what 
 it had previously been. 15 
 
 Through the work of the synodical Commission, and the analogous 
 conference agencies, the social consciousness of the Augustana Church 
 matured. The social pronouncements which the Church was encouraged 
 by these agencies to make, constitute a most important and historically 
 significant expression of the modern ethos of the Augustana Church. 
 
 12 See Lutheran Companion, May 14, 1942, pp. 622-625; January 15, 1942, pp. 
 
 40-41, 80-81; September 17, 1958, p. 8f. 
 is Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1937, p. 238. 
 
 1 4 By 1947, ten years after creation of the Synodical Commission, the follow- 
 ing conferences had permanent committees on social action, California, 1947, 
 p. 51; Illinois, 1947, p. 95f.: Iowa, 1947, p. 103f.; Kansas, 1947, p. 48; Minnesota, 
 1947, p. 48f.; Nebraska, 1947, p. 91f. 
 
 15 Many pastors and laymen have served on the Synodical Commission on 
 Morals and Social Problems and its successor the Commission on Social Ac- 
 tion. Only one member, however, has the distinction of having served with- 
 out interruption as a member and the chairman of this agency since the for- 
 mation in 1937, namely, Dr. A. D. Mattson of the seminary faculty. 
 
365 Augustana Social Action 
 
 The Social Pronouncements of Augustana 16 
 
 Church and State 
 
 Prompted by the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution, 
 setting forth the principle of the separation of Church and State, the 
 Augustana Church has recognized that both Church and State has its 
 own separate and distinctive function, and that neither must be per- 
 mitted to invade the precincts of the other. On this basic premise 
 the Church has protested every attempt to appoint an American 
 ambassador to the Vatican, or to use public funds for the benefit of 
 parochial schools. 17 The principle of separation of Church and State, 
 however does not involve political indifference or apathy regarding 
 civic affairs. As citizens of the state, members of the church should be 
 concerned with the affairs of government, participate in civic programs, 
 and thus bring their Christian witness to bear upon politics and com- 
 munity endeavors at all levels. Christians who are qualified should 
 also be encouraged to seek public office. 18 
 
 Communism 
 
 In 1947 the Augustana Church adopted a resolution which warned 
 of the dangers of Marxian Communism which "involves a material- 
 istic interpretation of life which excludes God, as the ultimate ruler 
 of history." Members of the Church were urged to "fight the aggres- 
 sive propaganda of this philosophy of life by a wholehearted applica- 
 tion of our Christian faith to the social maladjustments of our time." 19 
 This resolution reflects the Church's growing awareness of Com- 
 munism as a secularized religion, and the resolution is significant 
 as an affirmation by the Augustana Church that the proper way to 
 fight Communism is not by adopting its tyrannical methods, as extrem- 
 ists on both the left and right tend to do, but to apply Christianity 
 in our modern world in such a way as to eliminate the social and 
 political injustices which constitute the seed beds in which Communism 
 thrives. This was also the essential intent of the resolutions adopted 
 by the Synod in 1950 and 1954, calling for exposure of all forces in 
 
 16 The significant resolutions of the Augustana Church during the period 1937- 
 1956 have been compiled and published in a booklet entitled, Social Pro- 
 nouncements of the Augustana Lutheran Church and Its Conferences, Rock 
 Island, Illinois, 1956. Subsequent actions by the Church are also included in 
 the discussion which follows. 
 
 17 Minutes, Augustana, Synod, 1952, p. 379. 
 
 18 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1958, p. 215. 
 
 19 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1947, p. 328. 
 
Augustana Heritage 366 
 
 the nation who would subvert American freedom either by destroy- 
 ing the judicial order based on law, 20 or by "abandonment of accepted 
 orderly methods of investigation, the misdirection of legislative inquiry 
 to propaganda ends, and the usurpation of constitutional safeguards 
 resulting in the violation of the rights of the accused." 21 The latter 
 reference reflects the reaction of Augustana to the McCarthy investi- 
 gations. 
 
 Dancing 
 
 As the heirs of a pietistic tradition, the rank and file of Augus- 
 tana clergy and laity traditionally looked upon dancing as an evil 
 which true Christians must eschew. Though there were from time to 
 time feeble efforts to change this position, the Church maintained 
 an attitude of uncompromising opposition to dancing until after World 
 War II. During the war, when military units occupied the campuses 
 of the church colleges, dances were sponsored on school property by 
 the military as a part of the regular recreational program. Though 
 this provoked some opposition in the Church, dancing on the campus 
 of church-related colleges was gradually accepted. When the Augus- 
 tana Church issued its manifesto on dancing in 1950, it sought to steer 
 a middle course between those who were still uncompromisingly op- 
 posed to the dance and those who were either indifferent or favored 
 church sponsorship of such recreation. Thus, the Church through the 
 Commission worded the resolution so as not to condemn those who 
 approve the dance while it avoided giving sanction to a practice 
 about which many sincere members have scruples. The question of 
 dancing was left to the conscience of each individual and to the 
 judgment of the several college administrations. The Church warned, 
 however, that if dancing was to be a part of college student activities, 
 it "shall be so supervised that it does not reflect adversely on the 
 standards of the Church and school." The resolution on dancing con- 
 cluded with the statement: "Lastly, we call upon the members of 
 our Church, old and young, to join in fervent prayer for the realiza- 
 tion of the kingdom of God among us. The problem of dancing is 
 but one of the symptoms of the inroads of secularism upon the Church. 
 There are greater, more fundamental problems." 22 
 
 20 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1950, pp. 320-323. 
 
 21 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1954, p. 231. 
 
 22 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1950, pp. 321-323. 
 
367 Augustana Social Action 
 
 Gambling 
 
 The most important statement of the Augustana Church on the 
 subject of gambling was issued in 1938, when the Church through 
 its Commission denned the evil character of gambling by quoting the 
 famous dictum of Herbert Spencer to the effect that gambling is "a 
 kind of action by which pleasure is obtained at the cost of pain to 
 another. The happiness of the winner implies the misery of the loser. 
 This kind of action is, therefore, anti-social, it sears the sympathies, 
 cultivates a hard egoism, and so produces a general deterioration of 
 character. It is a habit intrinsically savage." The statement goes on to 
 assert that gambling "is an attempt to get property without paying 
 the price for it. It is robbery by mutual consent, just as dueling is 
 murder by mutual consent. ... It is a sin that cuts across and ignores 
 the will of God by removing the acquisition of wealth from the realm 
 of reason and conscience." On the basis of this definition, the Church 
 forbade the use of raffles, lotteries and all other games of chance in 
 the congregations of the Synod, and urged "concerted and vigorous 
 action against all further efforts to legalize any form of gambling, 
 whether on the part of city, state, or national government." 23 Similar 
 action was taken by several of the conferences. 24 
 
 The anti-gambling action reflects the growing alarm in the Augus- 
 tana Church regarding the increasing prevalence of gambling in Ameri- 
 can society, and particularly the sanctiflcation of gambling by certain 
 religious groups who employed gambling as a means of raising money 
 for religious purposes. The Augustana resolution was predicated on 
 the premise that the end does not justify the means. 25 
 
 Labor 
 
 In the wake of the bloody riots which attended the railroad 
 strike of 1887 which broke out when the major railroads east of the 
 Mississippi instituted a sudden wage cut of ten per cent, the Augustana 
 Church at its annual convention in Chicago that year adopted the 
 following resolution: 
 
 Regarding the anarchistic, socialistic, and related labor up- 
 heavals, we as an evangelical Lutheran Church body affirm the 
 principle that the individual's Christian social and political free- 
 
 23 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1938, p. 223f. 
 
 24 See Minutes, New York Conference, 1952, p. 38. Minutes, Kansas Confer- 
 ference, 1954, p. 94. 
 
 25 Interview, A. D. Mattson, October 12, 1962. 
 
Augustana Heritage 368 
 
 dom is one of the most precious rights of every person, which we 
 deem it our duty to protect and defend with all legitimate means; 
 and therefore, we earnestly warn our members against member- 
 ship in or support of all such organizations, whatever their name 
 may be, which oppress their fellow men by deciding under what 
 conditions they shall be permitted to work, or buy or sell. 26 
 
 The opposition to organized labor which is reflected in this resolu- 
 tion was an attitude which the Augustana Church shared with virtually 
 all Protestant churches of that period. It was a time when Protestantism 
 in America presented a massive, almost unbroken front in its defense 
 of the social status quo. The outbreak of large-scale labor warfare 
 seemed to many to be explainable only in terms of human depravity. 
 Some of America's most prominent preachers and evangelists therefore 
 advocated repression of "the rabble" by the sternest measures. 27 
 
 As the industrialization of the nation continued to develop, how- 
 ever, labor and capital began to recognize more clearly their need of 
 each other. At the same time insistent voices inside and outside the 
 American churches were calling for labor reforms for the benefit 
 of the working man, and the labor movement itself was maturing and 
 becoming a more responsible social force. Thus, the earlier opposition 
 and suspicion regarding labor unions gradually diminished. 28 A liber- 
 alizing social philosophy began to assert itself, emphasizing the right of 
 the laboring man to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining. 
 It made its most effective impact upon the churches, including Augus- 
 tana, through the emerging ecumenical movement. For example, the 
 Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, organized in 1908, 
 promulgated a Social Creed which called for equal rights and com- 
 plete justice for all men in all stations of life; for the abolition of child 
 labor; for adequate regulation of all conditions of labor; for the 
 right of all men to the opportunity of self -maintenance; for the welfare 
 and protection of all workers from hazards of occupational accidents, 
 unemployment, illness, and old age; for the right of employers and 
 employees alike to organize for collective bargaining and social action; 
 for adequate compensation for work, and for conciliation and arbitra- 
 tion in labor disputes. 29 In 1937, the World Conference on Life and 
 
 26 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1887, p. 22. 
 
 27 See Henry F. May, Protestant Churches and Industrial America, New York, 
 1949, pp. 91ff. See also A. D. Mattson, Christian Social Consciousness, Rock 
 Island, Illinois, 1953, pp. 190-195. 
 
 28 May, op. cit., pp. 102-111. 
 
 29 W. W. Sweet, The Story of Religion in America, rev. ed., op. cit., p. 549f. 
 See also Mattson, Christian Social Consciousness, op. cit., p. 160f. 
 
369 Augustana Social Action 
 
 Work, which met in Oxford, England, with representatives from most 
 of the Protestant churches of the world, adopted a similar statement 
 which affirmed the right of labor for collective bargaining by repre- 
 sentatives of its own choosing. 30 And in 1938, the American Lutheran 
 Conference, of which Augustana was a member, adopted a resolution 
 which supported labor's right to organize and bargain. 
 
 The Augustana Church shared in the growing sympathy toward 
 organized labor. After deliberating on the matter for two years, the 
 Synod in 1939 adopted a resolution which gave unequivocal endorse- 
 ment to the responsible labor movement in America, and enunciated 
 the Christian principles upon which endorsement was predicated. 
 The resolution stated, in part, that 
 
 1. We endorse the stand taken by the Oxford Conference on 
 Life and Work, that "labor has intrinsic worth and dignity, since 
 it is designed by God for man's welfare. The duty and right of 
 man to work should therefore alike be emphasized. In the indus- 
 trial process labor should never be considered a mere commodity. 
 In their daily work men should be able to recognize and fulfill 
 a Christian vocation. The working man ... is entitled to a living 
 wage, wholesome surroundings, and a recognized voice in the deci- 
 sions which affect his welfare as a worker." 
 
 2. That the Synod stands for the right of the employee and 
 employer to organize for collective bargaining; the safeguarding 
 of all workers from harmful conditions of labor and occupational 
 injury and disease . . . and for the abolition of child labor. 
 
 3. That we stand for release from work at least one day in 
 seven, and a reasonable work week commensurate with the pro- 
 ductivity of industry and the physical and spiritual wellbeing of 
 the laborer . . . 
 
 4. That we also emphasize that it is the responsibility of the 
 worker and employer to work for the public good and not to abuse 
 their power by trespassing upon the legitimate rights of others . . . 31 
 
 To this basic affirmation regarding labor, the Augustana Church at 
 its convention in 1954 added the following resolution: 
 
 That the Church memorialize all its institutions to observe the 
 principle adopted by our Church, and all major church denomina- 
 tions, of recognizing the right of labor to bargain collectively 
 through representation of their own choosing. 32 
 
 By these pronouncements the Augustana Church has given clear and 
 unequivocal evidence of its interest and concern regarding organized 
 labor as a legitimate instrumentality for the promotion of social justice. 
 
 30 Mattson, op. cit., p. 201f. 
 
 31 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1939, p. 264. 
 
 32 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1954, p. 228. 
 
Augustana Heritage 370 
 
 Liquor 
 
 Over the years the Augustana Church has given more attention 
 to the question of the use of liquor than to any other social problem. 
 From the earliest years of the Synod, warnings were issued to the 
 people concerning the evils of strong drink. As early as 1875 the Church 
 cautioned its members about even a moderate use of liquor because it 
 might lead to excess. In 1880 the Women's Christian Temperance 
 Union asked the Synod to state its position on the question of temper- 
 ance. The Synod replied: 
 
 We hold that God's Word teaches the duty of strict and careful 
 temperance. We hold that it is the duty of the Christian Church 
 to see that all her members lead strictly sober lives and to disci- 
 pline them for intemperance arising from the use of intoxicating 
 liquors. 
 
 We have a rule that our pastors shall preach at least once a 
 year on the duty of temperance . . , 33 
 
 Since that time the Synod has adopted numerous resolutions express- 
 ing its opposition to the use of liquor and its support of temperance. 34 
 At the synodical conventions held in 1904 and 1909, the Church adopted 
 resolutions in support of the Anti-saloon League, and called not only 
 for temperance but for total abstinence from the use of liquor. 35 
 
 The Commission on Morals and Social Problems promulgated a 
 statement on liquor which the Synod adopted in 1938, and which un- 
 doubtedly constitutes the most significant pronouncement ever made 
 by the Augustana Church on this question. The statement affirms that, 
 "The Augustana Synod has always recognized the liquor traffic as a 
 destroyer of souls and therefore, as an enemy of the church. The 
 Synod has been justified in this attitude, because the liquor traffic 
 challenges the church with grave social problems in its heartless waste 
 of human resources and human life." 
 
 The grave social problems include highway and other accidents 
 caused by intoxication, the physical damage to the human body, the 
 reduction of family income and consequent lowering of the standard 
 of living and disruption of family life, the degrading of moral and 
 spiritual values, the increase in crime and delinquency and conse- 
 quent rise in the cost of crime prevention and rehabilitation. The 
 
 33 A. D. Mattson, Polity of the Augustana Synod, op. cit, p. 308f. 
 
 34 See Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1882, p. 79; 1888, p. 81; 1889, p. 83; 1890, p. 81; 
 1904, p. 127; 1909, p. 156, 157; 1914, p. 32; 1917, p. 167; 1919, p. 159; 1924, p. 
 28, 1926, p. 32; 1930, p. 45; 1934, p. 26. 
 
 35 See Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1904, p. 127; 1909, p. 156. 
 
371 Augustana Social Action 
 
 Synod therefore resolved to urge pastors and people to inaugurate a 
 well-planned, informative educational program throughout the Church 
 and local communities, based on the teachings of God's Word and 
 taking into account the accumulation of scientific knowledge regarding 
 the harmful effects of the use of liquor. 36 
 
 Important action was again taken in 1956 when the Synod adopted 
 a resolution which recognized the alarming rise of alcoholism in the 
 nation. The Church protested the widespread use of all advertising 
 media by the liquor interests to encourage greater national consump- 
 tion of liquor. The resolution also acknowledged the effective program 
 of rehabilitation carried on by Alcoholics Anonymous. In its endorse- 
 ment of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Church urged that "we encourage 
 our pastors and members to acquaint themselves with the help of 
 Alcoholics Anonymous and refer alcoholics to local chapters. We urge 
 our congregations to make available their facilities for local chapters 
 of Alcoholics Anonymous to hold their meetings . . , 37 
 
 Marriage and Divorce 
 
 The Augustana Church has often given consideration to questions 
 relating to marriage and divorce. 38 In its pronouncements upon these 
 questions, the Synod has reflected its pietistic background. This 
 is most clearly evident in the legalistic manner with which it has 
 handled the problem of divorce. Prior to 1906, the Synod recognized 
 only one legitimate cause for divorce, namely adultery, and took the 
 position that divorced persons should not remarry. 39 
 
 At its convention in 1906, the Synod adopted the Theses on Mar- 
 riage and its Relation to Divorce promulgated by the General Council. 
 This statement recognized two legitimate grounds for divorce, adultery 
 and wilful desertion, and affirmed the right of the innocent party to 
 remarry. 40 By adopting the Theses, however, the Synod did not alter 
 its basic attitude and approach, it merely broadened the base of its 
 premises. Again, when the Augustana Church spoke to the problem 
 of divorce in 1923, declaring that it favored "the enactment of uniform 
 marriage and divorce laws by the constituted authorities of the land," 
 it was still seeking a solution in human relationships by way of law. 
 
 36 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1938, p. 224f. 
 
 37 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1956, p. 386f. 
 
 38 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 34; 1877, p. 47; 1880, p. 85; 1906, pp. 142- 
 145; 1923, p. 174; 1925, pp. 168ff.; 1939, p. 264. 
 
 39 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1870, p. 47; 1880, p. 85. 
 
 40 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1906, pp. 142-145. 
 
Augustana Heritage 372 
 
 This legalism appears also in a resolution adopted in 1925, which de- 
 clared that "marriage cannot be annulled or dissolved except by death, 
 adultery or fornication, or malicious and permanent desertion." 41 
 
 Upon the recommendation of the Commission on Morals and Social 
 Problems, the Synod at its convention in 1939 took a new and more 
 evangelical approach to the question of marriage and divorce. The 
 resolution which was adopted that year stated that, in view of the 
 rising divorce rate, a new emphasis should be given throughout the 
 Church to the sanctity of the marriage relationship. Therefore, "recog- 
 nizing the home as a basic institution for the welfare of human society, 
 the Synod urges its pastors and educators to carry on an educational 
 program with respect to the marriage relationship and its significance. 
 . . . Whenever divorce occurs it is the result of sin. We urge our 
 members to seek the counsel and mediation of their pastors before 
 resorting to divorce to the end that every possible influence may be 
 exerted to prevent marriage from becoming a failure. When, because 
 of the hardness of men's hearts, divorce has taken place, it is the duty 
 of the Church to exercise its disciplinary powers according to the 
 congregational constitution, in the interest of the temporal and spiritual 
 welfare of the individuals concerned." 
 
 In this resolution the Augustana Church is seeking to deal with 
 the question of marriage and divorce within a new frame of refer- 
 ence. Its basic approach is by way of education, illumination, and 
 pastoral counseling. This does not imply, however, that henceforth the 
 Church will no longer seek to regulate its practice in this area of its 
 responsibility. It means that legalistic considerations have become sec- 
 ondary. The resolution concludes by stating that "the Synod forbids 
 its pastors to officiate at a marriage of persons concerning whom they 
 do not have a satisfactory assurance that they accept and have a 
 sincere purpose to abide by the Christian ideal of marriage." Further- 
 more, in a tacit acknowledgement that marriage is also a civil trans- 
 action, the resolution approves of "uniform marriage and divorce 
 laws for the nation, requiring among other matters a medical certifi- 
 cate for marriage and providing for a period of at least five days 
 between the application for a license and marriage. 42 
 
 The last action in relation to this question which the Augustana 
 Church took was the adoption in 1956 of a resolution which warned 
 against "mixed marriages." Whereas inter-faith marriages often involve 
 
 41 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1925, pp. 168ff. 
 
 42 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1939, p. 264. 
 
373 Augustana Social Action 
 
 a compromise of the faith, and frequently result in marital unhappi- 
 ness and disruption of normal home life, the Synod warned its peo- 
 ple against * 'mixed marriages," and urged the inauguration of a pro- 
 gram of education and pastoral counseling. 43 
 
 Race Relations 
 
 Since the Augustana Church has had few congregations in the 
 South, outside Texas, the major problems and tensions attendant upon 
 racial differences in America have not been as acute as in some other 
 religious bodies. There have indeed been a number of instances when 
 local congregations have been confronted with difficulties encountered 
 in the process of integration. The Synod in general, however, has not 
 been particularly harassed by racial tension. 
 
 The Augustana Church has, nevertheless, been aware of its re- 
 sponsibility as a religious force in the American community to lend 
 its best support to the easing of racial tensions and the solution of 
 racial problems. The action which the Synod took in 1948 is clear 
 evidence of this awareness. The resolution adopted that year was 
 first initiated by the Committee on Social Trends of the National 
 Lutheran Council, and submitted to Augustana and other Council 
 members for consideration. After almost no debate, the following state- 
 ment was adopted: 
 
 Whereas God is the Creator and Father of all races, and all 
 races have a common origin and hence common human qualities, 
 and 
 
 Whereas the Christian ethic demands mutual good will, justice 
 and co-operation among all racial groups and appreciation and 
 respect for human personality in every racial group, 
 
 Be it resolved: 
 
 That the Augustana Synod condemn all forms of racial prej- 
 udice and discrimination and urge the promotion of equal rights 
 and opportunities in reference to cultural, social, economic, civic, 
 and religious matters. 44 
 
 The basic policy articulated in the resolution of 1948 was given further 
 emphasis and support in 1956 when the Synod adopted a more elabo- 
 rate statement which specified a number of areas in which members 
 of the Synod should express their sense of Christian brotherhood. 
 Members are urged to "discourage any activity in their communities 
 
 « Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1956, p. 384. 
 "Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1948, p. 341. 
 
Augustana Heritage 374 
 
 which would seek to circumvent orderly judicial procedures in the 
 implementation of the Supreme Court decision regarding segregation," 
 while they are encouraged "to oppose all forms of racial discrimina- 
 tion" in housing, employment, public assembly, public transportation, 
 or schools. Congregations are urged to "include all unchurched per- 
 sons in their communities in their programs of evangelism without 
 discrimination as to race, color or national origin," and those congre- 
 gations which have continued to minister to their communities in 
 spite of major population shifts are commended. Members of inte- 
 grated congregations who wish membership transfer on grounds of 
 racial discrimination are urged "to examine their consciences in the 
 light of Holy Scriptures, and in the doctrines and decisions of the 
 Church, specifically that God has created all men in His image, that 
 Jesus Christ has given His life for the salvation of all men, that the 
 Holy Spirit would call men into the fellowship of the Church." 45 
 
 Responsible Parenthood 
 
 The accelerated growth of the world's population, especially in 
 the underdeveloped areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, has 
 posed a social problem which must be solved, to a large degree, at 
 the religious level. The questions of birth, family, and parenthood are 
 inescapably related to man's religious instincts. Thus, the question 
 of birth control in an exploding world population has compelled the 
 Christian churches of the world to speak to the issue, to take a stand, 
 and give leadership in an area which has been called "the world's 
 most neglected social problem." 
 
 In the past quarter of a century most of the major denominations 
 of Christendom have given the question of planned parenthood new 
 and closer attention. 46 So far as Protestantism is concerned, the most 
 advanced leadership has come from the Anglican Church. Since World 
 War II, this communion has taken the lead in the reformation of the 
 traditional view of the relation of parenthood to the other purposes 
 of marriage. 47 
 
 In America, the Augustana Church in 1954, adopted a resolu- 
 tion on Responsible Parenthood which the Commission on Morals and 
 
 45 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1956, p. 386f. 
 
 46 For the most adequate and recent study of this development see Richard 
 M. Fagley, The Population Explosion and Christian Responsibility, New 
 York, 1960, especially pp. 160-223. 
 
 ^Ibid., Chapter XIII, pp. 189ff. 
 
375 Augustana Social Action 
 
 Social Problems had composed, based upon statements prepared by the 
 Commission on Social Relations of the American Lutheran Confer- 
 ence. This Augustana resolution was hailed as a significant contribu- 
 tion, offering not only a new norm of excellence for the churches of 
 the Lutheran tradition, but suggesting also a new approach to the 
 problem for American Protestantism in general. Indeed, at the meet- 
 ing of an international study group to consider "Responsible Parent- 
 hood and the Population Problem," convened at the instance of officers 
 of the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary 
 Council, at Mansfield College, Oxford, England, April 12-15, 1959, the 
 statement of the Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church in 1958 
 and the resolution of 1954 of the Augustana Lutheran Church in 
 America were quoted and referred to as the most mature and help- 
 ful expressions yet made regarding the relationship of religion and the 
 churches to the problem of planned parenthood and the world's popu- 
 lation explosion. 48 
 
 The Augustana pronouncement of 1954 emphasizes the right of 
 every child to love, care, and nurture, and any decision to space 
 births must be predicated upon this right. The two key paragraphs 
 of the Augustana statement on Responsible Parenthood are: 
 
 So long as it causes no harm to those involved, either immedi- 
 ately or over an extended period, none of the methods for con- 
 trolling the number and spacing of the births of children has any 
 special moral merit or demerit. It is the spirit in which the means 
 is used, rather than whether it is "natural" or "artificial," which 
 defines its "rightness" or "wrongness." "Whatever ye do, do all 
 to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31) is a principle pertinent to the 
 use of the God-given reproductive power. . . . An unrestrained 
 production of children without realistic regard to God-given 
 responsibilities involved in bringing children up "in the disci- 
 pline and instruction of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4) may be as 
 sinful and as selfish an indulgence of the lusts of the flesh as is 
 the complete avoidance of parenthood. God does not expect a 
 couple to produce offspring at the maximum biological capacity. 
 The power to reproduce is His blessing, not a penalty upon the 
 sexual relationship in marriage. 49 
 
 Social Security 
 
 When the Social Security Act was adopted by the Congress of 
 the United States in 1935, there was a good deal of sentiment in the 
 
 48 Interview with Dr. A. D. Mattson, October 12, 1962. Dr. Mattson attended 
 the meeting in Oxford, England. 
 
 49 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1954, pp. 229ff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 376 
 
 nation which, on the basis of the principle of the separation of Church 
 and State, opposed the inclusion of ministers as beneficiaries. It was 
 obvious, however, that ministers of religion constituted a segment of 
 the population which needed the kind of help Social Security was 
 designed to give. A considerable number of clergymen have served 
 parishes in which the salary was not high enough to enable the pastor 
 to set aside a sufficient competence to meet the needs of his retirement 
 years. The result has been that too often retired ministers have suf- 
 fered actual want and hardship. 
 
 The Augustana Church was one of the religious bodies in the 
 nation which sought to have the Social Security Act amended so as 
 to include ministers under its provisions. Working through its own 
 Commission and through the channels of the National Lutheran 
 Council, the Synod urged "members of the Congress of the United 
 States to amend further the Social Security Act of 1935 so as to make 
 citizens who are ministers of religion eligible, without reservation, 
 as beneficiaries of Social Security provisions." 50 
 
 In 1954 the Congress amended the Social Security Act so as to 
 include any minister of religion who elects to become a beneficiary. 
 This amendment became effective in 1955. Thereupon, the Synod urged 
 its pastors to take advantage of this provision and to make applica- 
 tion for Social Security benefits. All but a very few followed the counsel 
 and enrolled under the amended provision as beneficiaries of Social 
 Security. 
 
 Traffic Safety 
 
 At the Seattle convention in 1961, the Augustana Church took 
 official recognition of the fact that driving an automobile involves 
 moral responsibility. A resolution was adopted which stated that: 
 
 Whereas, for the past few years 38,000 persons have been killed 
 each year on our highways and streets, and millions have been 
 injured, many of them permanently, and 
 
 Whereas, automobile driving presents an opportunity to make 
 personal application of religion in a daily activity . . . 
 
 Therefore be it resolved that the Augustana Church urge its 
 constituency to remember at all times, 
 
 a) The sacredness of life, 
 
 b) The responsibility of the Christian to observe all laws and 
 regulations established to insure the greatest good and freedom 
 for the greatest number of citizens, and 
 
 50 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1952, p. 379. 
 
377 Augustana Social Action 
 
 c) The obligation of pastors and people alike by precept and 
 example to emphasize thoughtful concern in the support of efforts 
 of national, state, and local safety organizations. 51 
 
 War and Peace 
 
 The most significant statement which the Augustana Church ever 
 issued on the question of War and Peace was promulgated at the 
 synodical convention in 1939, when the world was trembling on the 
 brink of World War II. The statement approved the declaration of 
 the Oxford Conference which affirmed that, 
 
 Wars, the occasion of war, and all situations which conceal 
 the fact of conflict under the guise of outward peace are marks 
 of a world to which the church is charged to proclaim the gospel 
 of redemption. War involves compulsory enmity, diabolical out- 
 rage against human personality, and wanton distortion of truth. 
 War is a particular demonstration of the power of sin in the world, 
 and a defiance of the righteousness of God as revealed in Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified. No justification of war must be allowed 
 to minimize or conceal this fact. 52 
 
 On the basis of such a definition of war, the Synod registered its un- 
 qualified opposition to war as an acceptable means of settling inter- 
 national difference. At the same time it opposed "the sale of all muni- 
 tions, materials, and implements of war to all aggressor nations, engaged 
 in declared or undeclared war," for the Church holds that "the teach- 
 ings of Jesus give no sanction to war but enjoin peace." 
 
 After the United States became involved in World War II, the 
 Synod resolved that, "We reaffirm our love and loyalty to our country 
 and our willingness to give our lives in its service. . . . We are aware 
 of our obligation as a Church to bring the message of faith, hope, 
 and courage to all men. . . . The Synod urges its members to remain 
 loyal to Christ, to be on guard lest the sanction of the Church be 
 given to anything which is contrary to the spirit of Christ." 53 
 
 This cautious attitude in time of war reflects the disillusionment 
 which the Augustana Church and its people felt regarding war. The 
 support which was given came from a penitent people, rather than 
 from a nation mad with war hysteria. After the conclusion of the 
 World War II, the Synod urged the United States Government to 
 seek for a real and lasting peace based upon Christian principles 
 
 51 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1961, p. 222. 
 
 52 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1939, p. 266. 
 
 53 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1942, p. 233. 
 
Augustana Heritage 378 
 
 rather than upon the delicate balance of power politics. It opposed 
 universal military training and the establishment of missile bases over- 
 seas, and urged that the United Nations become the forum for the 
 equitable adjudication of international differences. 54 
 
 On the eve of World War II, the Synod adopted a resolution which 
 stated that 
 
 The Lutheran Augustana Synod recognizes the authority of 
 properly constituted government. . . . We believe the Govern- 
 ment should not violate the Christian conscience by seeking to 
 compel conscientious objectors to engage in combatant military 
 service. We ask exemption from all forms of combatant military 
 service for all conscientious objectors who may be members of the 
 Augustana Synod. 55 
 
 This expression of support for the conscientious objector expresses 
 the concern of the Church for the freedom of every citizen from coer- 
 cion which would compel an individual to violate his Christian con- 
 victions. It may be said, however, that though the resolution itself 
 is laudable, it would have been given more substance and significance, 
 if the Augustana Church would have done more to support the con- 
 scientious objectors who served their country in various noncombatant 
 positions during and after the hostilities. 
 
 In spite of the numerous social pronouncements of the Augustana 
 Church, the Synod cannot be said to have retreated from the funda- 
 mental premise that the chief task of the Christian Church in the 
 world is the proclamation of the gospel and the bringing of individuals 
 to a living faith in Jesus Christ. The Augustana Church has never 
 repudiated the traditional Lutheran position that society cannot be 
 saved until individuals become Christian. Nevertheless, within the 
 framework of this fundamental theological position, a significant de- 
 velopment of social consciousness has occurred within the Augustana 
 Church, particularly during the last twenty-five years of its corporate 
 existence. 
 
 54 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1946, p. 297f. 
 5-5 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1941, p. 234. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 \\/ / 0RLD War II, with its unparalleled violence and destruction, 
 \X/ its cruelty and oppression causing unprecedented human suffer- 
 ing and want, emphasized as nothing else could the urgent 
 need for Christian unity throughout the world. Furthermore, the 
 great postwar Christian world assemblies, the Lutheran World Federa- 
 tion meeting in Lund, Sweden, the International Youth Conference 
 in Oslo, Norway, the World Sunday School Association in Birming- 
 ham, England, all convening during the summer of 1947, together with 
 the Amsterdam assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1948, 
 calling for Christian service and sacrifice in a spirit of brotherhood, 
 underscored the urgency of Christian unity. Indeed, it may be said 
 that unity was a chief topic of conversation among Christians through- 
 out the world in the postwar era. Lutherans in America shared this 
 concern, and recognizing that Christian unity involved Lutheran unity, 
 set about finding ways and means to achieve it. 1 
 
 The year 1948 was decisive. At the synodical convention in Rock 
 Island, the Kansas Conference presented a petition which set in 
 motion a new impulse toward Lutheran unity. Calling attention to the 
 fact that "the subject of Lutheran unity is at this time a matter of 
 universal interest and concern within the Lutheran Church in America," 
 the Conference memorialized the Synod 
 
 to declare itself in favor of the organic union of the constituent 
 bodies of the National Lutheran Council. That the Synod initiate 
 action asking other synodical bodies of the National Lutheran 
 Council to approve organic union of the participating bodies. 
 
 That in the event favorable action shall be taken by any or 
 all of the participating bodies, the Augustana Synod work with 
 the other bodies in the formulation and preparation of such 
 details as shall be necessary to effect and accomplish organic 
 union. 2 
 
 1 For an expression of this concern from a layman's viewpoint see Algot J. 
 Bowman, "Lutheran Unity from a Layman's Viewpoint," The Lutheran Out- 
 look, May, 1949, pp. 141ff. 
 
 2 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1948, p. 406. 
 
 379 
 
Augustana Heritage 380 
 
 In his annual message to the Church, at the same convention, the 
 president of the Synod, Dr. P. O. Bersell, also called attention to the 
 urgency of Lutheran unity. In so doing he enunciated a viewpoint 
 which may be said to have virtually become a principle for the 
 Augustana Church in its strivings for Lutheran unity. In his state- 
 ment Dr. Bersell declared, 
 
 New voices are being raised louder and more insistent than 
 ever before for Lutheran unity in our land. Many leaders are 
 saying that the day of action is here. Needless to say, the Augus- 
 tana Synod responds favorably to this urge. ... I will frankly 
 state my personal opinion in the matter. I favor Lutheran Church 
 Unity even to the extent of organic union at the very earliest 
 moment provided that it is not a union of minor parts but repre- 
 sents as near a total merger as can be accomplished. I see no gain 
 in an organic union of the bodies of the American Lutheran Con- 
 ference for the reason that this will in my opinion create a new 
 bloc of Lutheranism over against the two other blocs of almost 
 equal size which would obviously hinder the ultimate union of 
 these bodies. By the same token I would not be in favor of a 
 merger with the other bodies of Scandinavian origin nor with 
 the United Lutheran Church in America. When the Augustana 
 Synod gives up its life as a corporate body to merge with other 
 Lutherans, may it be a part of the accomplishment of the merger 
 of at least two thirds of the Lutherans in America (Italics added). 
 Then I would also see the ultimate possibility of a total union 
 with the other third in God's good time. 3 
 
 In response to these promptings from the president and from the 
 Kansas Conference, the Synod declared itself 
 
 to be in favor of the organic union of the participating bodies 
 of the National Lutheran Council together with any other Lu- 
 theran groups which may desire to join such a union with federa- 
 tion as an intermediate step, if necessary, and be it further resolved 
 the the Executive Council be requested to initiate action on be- 
 half of the Church looking toward such union. 4 
 
 That fall the American Lutheran Conference met in Detroit, Michi- 
 gan, November 10-12, and adopted resolutions urging Lutheran unity 
 and calling for an all-Lutheran free convocation to be conducted under 
 the auspices of the National Lutheran Council for the purpose of ex- 
 ploring the grounds for action looking toward unity. 5 At a post- 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 28. 
 
 4 Ibid., p. 406. 
 
 5 Report of the American Lutheran Conference Convention, Detroit, Michigan, 
 November 10-12, 1948, p. 57f. 
 
381 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 convention meeting of the presidents of the Churches belonging to 
 the American Lutheran Conference, it was decided to petition the 
 National Lutheran Council to call a "free conference of Lutherans" 
 to discuss the question of unity, and that a meeting of National Lu- 
 theran Council representatives be held at Augustana headquarters 
 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 4, 1949, and that on the following 
 day, January 5, 1949, a meeting of the presidents belonging to the 
 American Lutheran Conference be held in the headquarters of the 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. 6 
 
 The petitions for a series of "free conferences" were never pre- 
 sented to the National Lutheran Council, with the result that none 
 were held under Council auspices. The scheduled meetings of January 
 4 and 5, 1949, however, were convened, and proved to be of decisive 
 importance for the future of Lutheran unity in America. In response 
 to an invitation from Augustana, issued by the Executive Council 
 through the president of the Church, representatives of all bodies 
 belonging to the National Lutheran Council, convened at Augustana 
 headquarters, January 4, 1949. Since there were thirty-four men in 
 attendance, this group was henceforth known as "The Committee of 
 Thirty-four." 7 
 
 Dr. Bersell, as the convener of the meeting, acted as presiding 
 officer, and presented a proposal containing two alternatives: (1) 
 the organic merger of the bodies associated with the National Lu- 
 theran Council, or (2) federation of the National Lutheran Council 
 as an intermediate step looking to eventual complete merger. In the 
 discussion which this proposition evoked, Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, 
 
 6 The American Lutheran Conference presidents were, P. O. Bersell, Augus- 
 tana; T. O. Burntvedt, Lutheran Free Church; N. C. Carlsen, United Evan- 
 gelical Lutheran Church (Danish); Emanuel Poppen, American Lutheran 
 Church; and J. A. Aasgaard, Evangelical Lutheran Church (Norwegian). 
 The meetings of the presidents, January 4 and 5, 1949, generated some tension 
 and misunderstanding. Dr. Bersell seemed anxious that the meeting he was 
 to call, involving representatives of the National Lutheran Council, have 
 precedence over the meeting, Dr. N. C. Carlsen was to convene, involving 
 representatives from the American Lutheran Conference only. The Norwe- 
 gians (ELC) and Danes (UELC) were suspicious of Augustana's motives; 
 they did not share Augustana's pro-U.L.C.A. sentiments. Carlsen agreed re- 
 luctantly that the meeting at Augustana headquarters should occur first. 
 Interview with P. O. Bersell, May 21, 1962. See also E. C. Nelson, op. cit., 
 p. 316. 
 
 7 For the action initiating this meeting see report of the Executive Council, 
 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1949, p. 56, and president's report, Ibid., p. 40. 
 The Augustana delegation at the meetings January 4 and 5, 1949, were: Dr. 
 P. O. Bersell, Dr. Oscar A. Benson, Dr. Emil Swenson, Dr. E. E. Ryden, and 
 the Minnesota Governor, Luther D. Youngdahl. Ibid., p. 55. 
 
Augustana Heritage 382 
 
 president of the United Lutheran Church, argued forcefully for "a 
 church with strong federative aspects," and declared, 
 
 We are willing to enter into organic union with any or all Lu- 
 theran groups, or to take any steps leading thereto. 8 
 
 The delegations representing the Augustana Church and the Ameri- 
 can Lutheran Church echoed Dr. Fry's sentiments. Dr. H. F. Schuh, 
 representing the American Lutheran Church pleaded for decisive 
 action and asked, 
 
 What are we waiting for? We are already co-operating here 
 at home and in all parts of the world. Is there some valid reason 
 why we can't work together in foreign missions, home missions, 
 education, pensions, and publications? 
 
 The Augustana delegates made it clear that their Church was pre- 
 pared to go the whole way to organic union, provided a majority of 
 the Lutheran groups would join such a move. Augustana insisted 
 that if a federated church was to be formed, however, it must be 
 soundly structured and given legislative authority, so that it could 
 function as something more than a debating society. Dr. Oscar A. 
 Benson contended that the chief obstacle to Lutheran unity was the 
 "vested interests." "Our difficulties," he declared, "are largely psycho- 
 logical. We have our rational moments, but we find it difficult to 
 reconcile our reason with our emotional attitudes." After a full day 
 of discussion, Dr. Emmanuel Poppen of the American Lutheran Church 
 offered the following resolution, 
 
 Resolved, that it is the sense of this group that closer organiza- 
 tional affiliation of the participating bodies of the National Lu- 
 theran Council is desirable and should be sought by all proper 
 means. 9 
 
 When this resolution was put to a vote by secret ballot, it was dis- 
 covered that every representative of the eight bodies had voted in 
 favor of the proposition. By a unanimous vote the assembly had ap- 
 proved Lutheran unity within the framework of the National Lu- 
 theran Council. It was to this goal that the Augustana Church was 
 committed. The assembly thereupon adopted a resolution creating 
 "a committee of fifteen" to prepare "a structural plan for the proposed 
 organization and report in the fall to a plenary session of the "Com- 
 
 8 The meeting in full reported by Dr. Ryden in an editorial appearing in the 
 Lutheran Companion, January 19, 1949. 
 
 9 Lutheran Companion, op. cit., p. 7f. This meeting is also reported in The 
 Lutheran Outlook, February, 1949, p. 55f. 
 
383 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 mittee of Thirty-four." 10 What the Minutes of this historic meeting 
 do not record, however, is the fact that though the vote on the unity 
 proposal was unanimous, two of the delegations voiced objections to 
 the proposition. President N. C, Carlsen of the United Evangelical Lu- 
 theran Church declared that his Church would hesitate in joining 
 the proposed merger because of its suspicions of the laxity in doctrine 
 and practice of the United Lutheran Church. Dr. T. F. Gullixson, 
 speaking for the Evangelical Lutheran Church voiced similar objec- 
 tions, declaring that any contemplated Lutheran union must be firmly 
 based on doctrinal agreements, and his Church was not satisfied 
 that the United Lutheran Church was sufficiently orthodox in its 
 conception of Scripture. 11 
 
 On April 26-27, 1949, the "Subcommittee of Fifteen," representing 
 the "Committee of Thirty-four," met in Chicago and drew up a struc- 
 tural plan which proposed that (1) the parent committee request 
 the Churches of the National Lutheran Council to take action on 
 organic union, and (2) pending consummation of the same, a Na- 
 tional Lutheran Federation be established. When the "Committee 
 of Thirty-four" met in Chicago, September 27, 1949, the report of 
 the subcommittee "was adopted in part and the balance . . . was 
 referred . . . for further consideration." There was not yet sufficient 
 unanimity in the "Committee of Thirty-four" to actualize merger 
 negotiations within the framework of the National Lutheran Council. 12 
 
 While the "Committee of Thirty-four" had been busily engaged 
 making plans for achieving unity within the framework of the Na- 
 tional Lutheran Council, however, another development was taking 
 place. Quiet talks had been going on behind the scenes for some 
 time between the Norwegians of the Evangelical Lutheran Church 
 and the Danes of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church, seeking 
 ways and means of establishing a smaller union of Lutherans than 
 that of the National Lutheran Council. This effort was in harmony 
 with a resolution adopted by the representatives of the American Lu- 
 theran Conference at their meeting, January 5, 1949, under the chair- 
 manship of Dr. N. C. Carlsen, which affirmed the principle that while 
 every effort ought to be made to achieve as broad a union of Lutherans 
 
 10 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1950, p. 396f. 
 
 11 Professor Joseph Sittler of the Lutheran Seminary in Maywood had recently 
 published a book, The Doctrine of the Word (Philadelphia, Muhlenberg 
 Press, 1948), which was critical of the theory of verbal inspiration. See E. C. 
 Nelson, op. cit, p. 318. 
 
 12 "Communication from the Lutheran Unity Committees," Minutes, Augus- 
 tana Synod, 1959, pp. 369ff. 
 
Augustana Heritage 384 
 
 as possible, there ought to be no objection to lesser approaches to unity 
 within the American Lutheran Conference. 13 These quiet negotiations 
 resulted in a meeting, September 16, 1949, just eleven days prior to the 
 meeting of the ''Committee of Thirty-four," attended by representa- 
 tives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the United Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church, and the American Lutheran Church, at which Dr. 
 T. F. Gullixson presented a resolution proposing a merger of the three 
 bodies. 14 As a consequence of this action, representatives from each 
 of the three Churches, officially constituted as the Joint Committee 
 on Union, assembled in Chicago, November 25, 1949, and adopted a 
 comprehensive statement known as the Resolutions of the Joint Com- 
 mittee on Union, which proposed a union of the American Lutheran 
 Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the United Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church "as a step in the unfolding unification of the Lu- 
 theran Churches in America," on the basis of their agreement con- 
 cerning the "Minneapolis Theses with the eight paragraphs of the 
 Chicago Theses of 1919." 15 Although Dr. Carlsen was eager to lead 
 his Synod into a merger with the much larger aggressive Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church, his Danish colleagues feared that their small Church 
 would be completely overwhelmed by the Norwegians. They asked, 
 therefore, that in the pending merger negotiations two more bodies 
 of the American Lutheran Conference be invited to enter the negotia- 
 tions. 16 Accordingly, invitations from the Joint Committee on Union 
 were extended to the Lutheran Free Church and the Augustana 
 Synod. 17 
 
 At its convention in Washington, D.C., June, 1950, the Augustana 
 Church instructed the Executive Council to "name a committee on 
 Lutheran unity to make a thorough study of the whole problem of 
 unity in the light of the decisions which will be reached by the various 
 bodies this year." In constituting the new Augustana Committee on 
 Lutheran Unity, the Executive Council chose the following: Dr. P. 
 O. Bersell, Dr. Oscar A. Benson, Dr. D. Verner Swanson, Dr. E. E. 
 Ryden, Dr. Karl E. Mattson, Dr. Edgar Carlson, Mr. H. A. Smith, 
 Mr. Adolph Hanson, and Dr. Emory Lindquist, with Dr. Reuben K. 
 
 13 E. C. Nelson, op. cit., p. 318. 
 " Ibid., p. 319. 
 
 15 Report of the Committee on Lutheran Unity," Minutes, Augustana Synod, 
 1951, p. 348f. 
 
 16 E. C. Nelson, op. tit., p. 316. 
 
 17 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1951, p. 350. 
 
385 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 Youngdahl, Dr. T. A. Gustafson, and Dr. Holger Kilander as 
 alternates. 18 
 
 On April 17, 1951, the Augustana Committee on Lutheran Unity 
 met in Chicago, Illinois, with the Joint Committee on Union. On the 
 day previous to this assembly, the Augustana Committee had met by 
 itself and reviewed the entire course of events regarding unity nego- 
 tiations. At that meeting, the chairman, Dr. Bersell, reiterated the 
 principle he had enunciated on many previous occasions, namely, that 
 "when the Augustana Synod gives up its corporate life to merge with 
 other Lutherans, it shall be as a part of a 'majority merger,' which 
 shall include as large a segment of the Lutheran Church in America 
 as possible. The Augustana Church is not interested in the creation 
 of any more Lutheran power blocs." To this principle the Augustana 
 delegation gave unanimous approval. 19 The next day when the Augus- 
 tana Committee met with the Joint Committee on Union, the Augus- 
 tana delegation was requested to answer two questions: 
 
 1. Are you willing to recommend to your church body the 
 Plan drawn up by the Joint Committee on Union and approved 
 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the American Lutheran 
 Church, and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church? 
 
 2. If so, in what way can you participate in the preliminary 
 study, conferences and committee work before your church con- 
 vention assembles? 20 
 
 At this point the Augustana delegation withdrew for a caucus, and 
 after careful consideration of the questions, prepared and submitted 
 to the Joint Committee the following statement: 
 The Augustana Committee has agreed to the following procedure: 
 
 1. To seek a further mandate from our Church in regard to 
 continuing the study and exploration of the proposed merger in 
 conformity with the pattern proposed by the Joint Committee 
 on Union. 
 
 2. To propose to our Church at its 1951 synod that it place 
 on the agenda of the 1952 synod the question of the possibility 
 and advisability of our participation as a Church in the proposed 
 merger of the American Conference bodies. 
 
 3. To accept consultative relationship with the Joint Committee 
 until our Church has given definite direction in the matter. 21 
 
 18 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1951, p. 348. The number nine was agreed upon 
 because this was the number elected to similar committees by the other 
 church bodies. 
 
 "Interview with Dr. P. O. Bersell, May 21, 1962. 
 
 20 "Report of the Committee on Lutheran Unity," Minutes, Augustana Synod, 
 1951, p. 350. 
 
 21 Ibid., p. 351. 
 
Augustana Heritage 386 
 
 The proposals of the Augustana Committee were accepted and ap- 
 proved by the Joint Committee on Union, and six members of the 
 Augustana delegation were given committee assignments. 22 The actions 
 by the Augustana Committee were endorsed by the Synod at its 
 convention in 1951, at which time the Synod declared: 
 
 We reiterate our desire for unity which would include all 
 bodies of the National Lutheran Council, and instruct our Com- 
 mittee on Lutheran Unity, in addition to the discussions on the 
 American Lutheran Conference level, to hold discussions with 
 other bodies of the National Lutheran Council, and include results 
 of such discussions in its report to the Church next year. 23 
 
 In accordance with these instructions the Committee on Lutheran 
 Unity held a series of meetings prior to and in preparation for the 
 synodical convention in 1952. On February 13, 1952, the Committee 
 met with the Joint Committee on Union in Chicago. At this assembly 
 the Joint Committee submitted its "United Testimony on Faith and 
 Life," and asked the Augustana delegation to endorse it. This notable 
 document was actually an interpretation of Lutheran faith and practice 
 from the viewpoint of "exclusive confessionalism." It affirmed the 
 kind of theology and usage advocated in the "Chicago Theses" of 
 1919, promulgated by the late Dr. Stub, and elaborated in the "Minne- 
 apolis Theses" of 1925. Strange to say, the Augustana Committee on 
 Lutheran Unity gave the document their "unanimous approval." 24 
 
 On March 6, 1952, the Augustana Committee on Lutheran Unity 
 conducted a series of successive consultations with representatives of 
 Churches not included in the contemplated American Lutheran Con- 
 ference merger. In each of the three sessions, Dr. Oscar A. Benson, 
 president of the Augustana Church, presided and explained to the 
 visitors the prospects, hopes, and alternatives as seen from the view- 
 point of Augustana. The guests were asked to express their views on 
 all phases of the current negotiations. The first session was with repre- 
 sentatives of the Suomi Synod, who expressed a preference for unity 
 which would include the entire National Lutheran Council. The Suomi 
 delegation also felt that until such larger negotiations could be achieved 
 the Augustana Church could render the cause of Lutheran unity its 
 
 22 ibid., p. 351. 
 
 23 ibid., p. 351. 
 
 24 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1952, p. 356f. The complete text of the "United 
 Testimony of Faith and life" is given in the Synodical Minutes, 1952, pp. 
 359-371, together with the names of the Augustana committee members who 
 subscribed to it. The full text of the "Minneapolis Theses" is given, Ibid., 
 pp. 371-375. 
 
387 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 greatest service by foregoing immediate merger and retaining its 
 corporate identity. The second session was held with representatives 
 of the Danish American Evangelical Lutheran Church. Dr. Alfred 
 Jensen, chairman of the Danish delegation, reminded the assembly 
 that his Church had voted in 1950 to enter into unity negotiations with 
 all the bodies of the National Lutheran Council, and had approved 
 the plan of federation as an intermediate step. These decisions, said 
 Dr. Jensen, still reflected the sentiments of his Church. The Danes 
 also stated it as their conviction that the Augustana Church could 
 perform its greatest service to the cause of Lutheran unity by retain- 
 ing its corporate identity until all the Churches of the National Lu- 
 theran Council could form one Church. The third consultative session 
 was held with the Special Committee on Relations with American Lu- 
 theran Church Bodies of the United Lutheran Church in America. 
 Dr. Franklin Clark Fry acted as the chief spokesman for his delega- 
 tion, and stated that the United Lutheran Church wanted it plainly 
 understood that it in no way wished to hinder or obstruct any negotia- 
 tions Augustana might wish to carry on with members of the Ameri- 
 can Lutheran Conference. This was strictly Augustana's own affair. 
 But Dr. Fry was equally emphatic in expressing the deep regret of the 
 members of the United Lutheran Church that they were not included, 
 but entirely ignored, in the conversations carried on by the American 
 Lutheran Conference. The United Lutheran Church, said Dr. Fry, 
 would be willing to scrap its present organization and constitution and 
 form an altogether new Church with Augustana or any other Lu- 
 theran group willing to enter such a merger. 25 
 
 The Augustana Committee on Lutheran Unity met again in 
 Chicago, April 17, 1952, and on the basis of the information elicited 
 in the consultative sessions, formulated the following statement for 
 submission to the Synod at its forthcoming annual convention: 
 
 On the basis of our consultative participation in the merger 
 negotiations now being carried on by the constituent bodies of 
 the American Lutheran Conference and our discussions with the 
 United Lutheran Church in America, the Danish Evangelical Lu- 
 theran Church, and the Suomi Synod, and 
 
 In view of the fact that these negotiations and discussions reveal 
 no valid barrier to complete organizational union of the constituent 
 bodies of the National Lutheran Council, and 
 
 25 These consultative sessions are recorded in the annual report of the Com- 
 mittee on Lutheran Unity, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1952, p. 357. 
 
Augustana Heritage 388 
 
 In compliance with the instructions given by the Augustana 
 Lutheran Church in 1950 and 1951, The Committee on Lutheran 
 Unity submits the following recommendations: 
 
 1. We reaffirm our position "that our Church has always 
 been genuinely interested in every move that would promote 
 true unity in the Lutheran household of faith" and "that we are 
 primarily interested at the present time in the consummation 
 of a closer organizational affiliation of all the bodies participating 
 in the National Lutheran Council." 
 
 2. We express the desire to maintain our friendly relations 
 with the bodies of the American Lutheran Conference, and with 
 the other Lutheran general bodies in America. 
 
 3. We authorize the Executive Council of the Church to select 
 a Committee on Lutheran Unity, consisting of nine regular mem- 
 bers and alternates as deemed necessary. 
 
 4. We instruct this Committee as follows: 
 
 a. To represent our Church in Lutheran Unity discussions. 
 
 b. To request the other general bodies in the American Lu- 
 theran Conference and the Joint Union Committee to invite the 
 other general bodies of the National Lutheran Council to par- 
 ticipate in future discussions of Lutheran unity. 
 
 c. To continue participation in any Lutheran unity dis- 
 cussions which 
 
 1) Include all general bodies of the National Lutheran 
 Council desiring to participate. 
 
 2) Include the whole subject of ecumenical relations. 
 
 d. To initiate or help initiate new unity discussions which 
 will be open to all general bodies of the National Lutheran 
 Council desiring to participate, in the event the Joint Union 
 Committee cannot continue negotiations as indicated above. 26 
 
 The ninety-third annual convention of the Augustana Lutheran Church 
 was held at the First Lutheran Church, Des Moines, Iowa, June 10-15, 
 1952. The entire Augustana Synod had been alerted through its church 
 press that the main issue to be decided at Des Moines was Lutheran 
 Unity. 27 It was essential that the delegates who were to vote on the 
 issue should understand that there were a number of important ques- 
 tions involved in the issue of Lutheran unity. There was the theo- 
 logical question: Does the "United Testimony on Faith and Life," 
 based as it is upon the "Chicago Theses" and the "Minneapolis Theses," 
 and promulgated by the Joint Commission on Unity of the American 
 Lutheran Conference, truly express the mind and spirit of the Augus- 
 
 26 Addendum to Report of Committee on Lutheran Unity, Minutes, Augus- 
 tana Synod, 1952, p. 358. 
 
 27 See Lutheran Companion, April 2. 9; May 21, 1952. 
 
389 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 tana Church? There was the ecumenical question: Is the "exclusive 
 confessionalism" affirmed by the proposed American Lutheran Con- 
 ference merger compatible with the ecumenical spirit and practice of 
 the Augustana Church? Augustana was one of the first Lutheran 
 bodies in America to establish membership in the World Council 
 of Churches and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the 
 U.S.A. Would these ecumenical relationships be jeopardized in a 
 merger with the American Lutheran Conference group? There was 
 the historical question: What are Augustana's historical ties? Which 
 relationships and associations in the past seem to have created a natural 
 spirit of kinship between Augustana and its Lutheran neighbors in 
 America? There were the practical questions: In what relationship 
 will the Augustana Church feel most at home? Where can it best and 
 most effectively serve the Lord of the Church? Where can it realize 
 its ideal of Lutheran unity in greatest measure? In helping the Augus- 
 tana people find answers to such questions, a series of two lengthy 
 articles, entitled, "Lutheran Unity Is Desirable," by Dr. S. E. Eng- 
 strom, appearing in the Lutheran Companion, were particularly point- 
 ed and illuminating. Dr. Engstrom could not be accused of being a 
 foe of the American Lutheran Conference, for he had been active in 
 its affairs, and at its biennial convention, November 12-13, 1952, in 
 Minneapolis, the American Lutheran Conference elected him as its 
 president. 28 Nevertheless, Dr. Engstrom pleaded with the Augustana 
 Church to turn away from union with the American Lutheran Con- 
 ference group and work for the larger merger of all churches affiliated 
 with the National Lutheran Council. And if that were found to be 
 impossible, said Dr. Engstrom, the Augustana Church should then 
 begin negotiations with the United Lutheran Church in America, 
 looking toward merger with that body. Engstrom declared that the 
 historical ties and the natural affinities of faith and practice of the 
 Augustana Church were not exclusive but ecumenical, and therefore 
 were inclined in the direction of the United Lutheran Church rather 
 than toward the American Lutheran Conference. In any merger with 
 the American Lutheran Conference group, warned Engstrom, Augus- 
 tana could hardly expect to retain its ecumenical relationships with 
 the World Council of Churches or the National Council of Churches, 
 since the American Lutheran Conference merger was not sympathetic 
 to the ecumenical movement. The real work of Lutheranism in America, 
 
 28 American Lutheran Conference Convention Report, Eleventh Biennial Con- 
 vention, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 12-13, 1952, p. 13. 
 
Augustana Heritage 390 
 
 said Dr. Engstrom, had been done in the past not by the debating 
 society known as the American Lutheran Conference, but by the 
 National Lutheran Council. Within the broad fellowship of the Na- 
 tional Lutheran Council real Lutheran unity for the future must be 
 found. 29 
 
 Equally persuasive voices were raised on the other side of the 
 issue. No one in the Augustana Church spoke more effectively on 
 behalf of the American Lutheran Conference merger than did Dr. E. 
 E. Ryden, the editor of the Lutheran Companion. Commenting favor- 
 ably upon the proposals set forth by the Joint Union Committee, in- 
 cluding the "United Testimony on Faith and Life," Dr. Ryden declared: 
 
 The Lutheran Church bodies making up the American Lutheran 
 Conference have now walked and worked together for a period 
 of more than twenty years. They have learned to know one 
 another both as to doctrine and as to manner of life . . . Through 
 closer acquaintance and deepening fellowship they have found 
 that the common roots of their faith in the Holy Scriptures and 
 in the Lutheran Confessions have given them a common life in 
 communion with the One Lord and Savior. Their loyalty to the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ, their Lutheran heritage, and the need of 
 the world seem to call for further exploration of the possibilities 
 of closer fellowship, greater understanding, and closer organiza- 
 tional co-operation or union. 30 
 
 Thus, it may be said that the delegates who assembled in Des Moines 
 were aware of the issues, and realized that the action taken at the 
 convention would likely have far-reaching consequences. 
 
 At the Des Moines convention, the subject of Lutheran unity 
 was scheduled for debate on Friday afternoon, June 13. Just a few 
 days previous to this hour, the Evangelical Lutheran Church at its 
 biennial convention in Minneapolis had gone on record favoring a 
 five-way merger of the bodies associated with the American Lu- 
 theran Conference, including Augustana. There were a number of 
 
 29 See Lutheran Companion, April 2, 9, 1952. 
 
 30 Editorial, the Lutheran Companion, February 27, 1952. Dr. Ryden editor- 
 ialized again in favor of the American Lutheran Conference merger in the 
 issue of March 26, 1952, declaring that "It should be a matter of real thanks- 
 giving . . . that there are no differences in the doctrinal positions held by 
 the five bodies." For further evidence of Augustana sentiment in favor of 
 the American Lutheran Conference merger see Petition from St. John's 
 Lutheran Church, Bloomington, Illinois, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1952, 
 p. 376. Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen has also stated "There were those who 
 felt that Augustana made a mistake in separating itself from the merger 
 negotiations which resulted in the American Lutheran Church. There were 
 those who had questions about the advisability of merging with the U. L. 
 C. A." Letter, May 4, 1962. 
 
391 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 Augustana people in the crowded sanctuary of First Church, Des 
 Moines, that Friday afternoon who wanted Augustana to cast a similar 
 vote and join the Norwegians in the formation of a new Lutheran 
 Church of some 2,200,000 baptized members. There were other dele- 
 gates at the convention who were equally convinced that to enter a 
 merger with the group representing the American Lutheran Con- 
 ference would be a mistake, and hoped to see the National Lutheran 
 Council as the broader framework of merger negotiations. There were 
 also those who were loath to see Augustana enter any kind of merger. 
 An eyewitness account of the proceedings that day states that "a feel- 
 ing of suppressed excitement pervaded the church assembly as the 
 hour approached for the discussion of Lutheran unity. Delegates and 
 visitors leaned forward in their pews to listen to every word that was 
 spoken." 31 The Augustana Committee on Lutheran unity presented 
 the recommendations which had been formulated at the Chicago meet- 
 ing in April. These resolutions bore the endorsement of the Execu- 
 tive Council of the Church, which also added its approval of the 
 "United Testimony on Faith and Life." Of the many who addressed 
 the Des Moines convention on various phases of the merger ques- 
 tion, none spoke more positively or perceptively to the real issues at 
 hand than did Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, president of Augustana Col- 
 lege. Objecting to the "United Testimony on Faith and Life" as a basis 
 for negotiating Lutheran unity, Bergendoff declared, 
 
 The doctrinal position of our Augustana Church is clearly stated 
 in our constitution. It is a fallacy of unity negotiations that we 
 have to prove that we are Lutherans. We are not becoming Lu- 
 therans; we are Lutherans. We are never going to get anywhere 
 in any unity negotiations if we must rewrite the confessional 
 books of the Lutheran Church. What we must try to do is to get 
 Lutherans to recognize Lutherans. Unity is not made; it is 
 acknowledged. 32 
 
 Furthermore, said Bergendoff, the "United Testimony on Faith and 
 Life" does not reach the level — either in content or form — that might 
 be expected of such a statement. It presents as a basis for union a 
 theology which stresses the doctrine of sanctification rather than 
 justification, and therefore misses the mark of the real genius of Lu- 
 theran theology. This, Bergendoff claimed, was hardly the kind of 
 document which ought to be seriously proposed as a substitute for 
 the historic Augsburg Confession as a negotiating basis of Lutheran 
 
 31 E. E. Ryden, "A Hopeful Church Faces World Task," Lutheran Companion, 
 July 16, 1952, pp. 1ft. 
 
 32 Ibid., p. 9. 
 
Augustana Heritage 392 
 
 unity. 33 He also voiced the sentiments of the majority of his hearers 
 regarding the exclusiveness of the American Lutheran Conference 
 merger when he declared, 
 
 To be brutally frank, the United Lutheran Church is left out 
 purposely. How can we have union with one of the greatest Lu- 
 theran bodies in our country ignored? I believe in a unity that 
 will bring together more Lutherans. There is no vision or courage 
 or daring in the five-way proposal, and we believe so strongly 
 in the union of the entire Lutheran Church that we would prefer 
 to wait longer for the real thing than to accept something less. 34 
 
 These sentiments of the speaker were fortified and underscored by 
 communications from the Columbia, Red River Valley and New Eng- 
 land Conferences, memorializing the Synod not to accept an exclusive 
 merger, but to continue striving for Lutheran unity which would in- 
 clude the entire National Lutheran Council, or at least, the United Lu- 
 theran Church in America. 35 The prevailing sentiment of the conven- 
 tion may be judged by the fact that, according to the testimony of an 
 interested visitor, during the ninety minutes of discussion on Lutheran 
 merger which occurred on Friday afternoon, June 13, eleven speakers 
 addressed the convention, and "nine of these men gave unqualified en- 
 dorsement to the basal proposition that the Augustana Lutheran 
 Church's thirst for unity will not be satisfied by a union that is limited 
 to the Churches in the American Lutheran Conference." 36 
 
 That the Synod was not quite as bold as some of its leaders is 
 attested by the fact that when the unity discussion resumed on Sat- 
 urday morning, June 14, the delegation, which on Friday had refused 
 to approve the "United Testimony on Faith and Life" was warned 
 by a spokesman for the American Lutheran Conference merger that 
 this refusal to adopt said statement might be misinterpreted in some 
 Lutheran circles. As a result the convention adopted the following 
 pale substitute: 
 
 While the Augustana Lutheran Church traditionally has taken 
 the position that adherence to the historic Confessions of the Lu- 
 theran Church is sufficient for Lutheran unity and that no addi- 
 
 33 See Edward W. Schramm, "Augustana Wants Total Lutheran Unity," in 
 The Lutheran Standard, reprinted in Ibid., p. 15f. 
 
 34 Ibid., p. 9. 
 
 35 Minues, Augustana Synod, 1952, p. 375. 
 
 36 The comment was written by Dr. Edward W. Schramm, member of the 
 American Lutheran Church and editor of The Lutheran Standard, who to- 
 gether with Dr. O. G. Malmin, editor of the Lutheran Herald, official week- 
 ly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, were interested visitors at the Des 
 Moines convention. See Lutheran Companion, July 16, 1952, p. 15. 
 
393 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 tional doctrinal statements are needed, we nevertheless declare 
 ourselves to be in substantial agreement with the statement en- 
 titled, "United Testimony on Faith and Life." We suggest, how- 
 ever, that in the event this document is considered in broader 
 unity discussions, it should be further studied and refined. 37 
 
 When the discussions on Lutheran unity were finally concluded, 
 the Synod passed the following resolutions: 
 
 1. We reaffirm our position "that our Church has always been 
 genuinely interested in every move that would promote true unity 
 in the Lutheran household of faith." 
 
 Therefore, it is our fervent hope and prayer that the present 
 divisions in our Lutheran Church may by the grace of God be 
 overcome, and that a closer organizational affiliation of all gen- 
 eral Lutheran bodies in America may soon be effected. 
 
 2. We express our desire to maintain friendly relations with 
 the bodies of the American Lutheran Conference, and with all 
 other Lutheran general bodies in America. 
 
 3. We authorize the Executive Council of the Church to select 
 a committee on Lutheran unity, consisting of nine regular mem- 
 bers and alternates as deemed necessary to represent our Church 
 in Lutheran unity discussions. 
 
 4. The Augustana Lutheran Church expresses itself as being 
 unwilling to continue in unity discussions which are not open 
 to all Lutheran general bodies and which do not include the 
 consideration of the subject of ecumenical relations. (Italics added) . 
 
 5. We instruct our Commission on Lutheran Unity to request 
 the other general bodies in American Lutheran Conference and 
 the Joint Union Committee to invite all other Lutheran general 
 bodies to participate in further negotiations to achieve Lutheran 
 unity and to include in such discussion the subject of ecumenical 
 relations. 38 
 
 After this action had been taken, one commentator summarized the 
 meaning of what had taken place in the terse comment that, 
 
 What all this amounts to is that the Augustana Lutheran Church 
 is definitely and emphatically interested in Lutheran union — 
 on the broadest possible base — but is definitely not interested 
 in a merger that is limited to the five Churches in the American 
 Lutheran Conference. 39 
 
 By its action at Des Moines, the Augustana Church put the matter 
 of continued negotiations squarely up to the American Lutheran Con- 
 
 37 Ibid., p. 9. This substitute is a prime example of ecclesiastical equivoca- 
 tion which does and does not take a definite position on a clear cut issue. 
 ss Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1952, p. 374f. 
 39 Edward W. Schramm, op. tit., p. 15. 
 
Augustana Heritage 394 
 
 ference group. Now it was Augustana's turn to ask the questions, 
 and the two basic questions to which the Joint Committee on Union 
 must reply were: 
 
 1. Are you willing to broaden the negotiations for merger to 
 include all other Lutheran general bodies affiliated with the Na- 
 tional Lutheran Council? 
 
 2. Are you willing to include in merger discussions the whole 
 subject of ecumenical relations? 
 
 The answers to these two questions would determine the direction 
 Augustana would take in future negotiations regarding Lutheran 
 unity. In compliance with synodical instructions, the Executive Council 
 chose a new Committee on Lutheran Unity to represent Augustana 
 on all subsequent unity negotiations. 40 
 
 On November 10, 1952, a meeting was held in Minneapolis, Minne- 
 sota, which brought together the "Committee of Forty-five," consist- 
 ing of nine men from each of the following churches, Augustana Lu- 
 theran Church, American Lutheran Church, Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church, United Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the Lutheran Free 
 Church. The presidents of the five Churches reported the action their 
 respective Churches had taken on the subject of unity. On behalf of 
 the Augustana Church, Dr. Oscar A. Benson, president of the Synod 
 and chairman of the Augustana delegation, read the resolutions which 
 had been adopted at Des Moines, and which involved the two basic 
 questions, which Augustana was asking. Following the presidents' 
 reports, the delegations representing Augustana and the Lutheran 
 Free Church were excused for a recess period while the "Committee 
 of Twenty-seven," now functioning for the Joint Committee on Union, 
 took action regarding the status of the Augustana and Free Church 
 committees. 41 
 
 When the "Committee of Forty-five" reconvened, the "Committee 
 of Twenty-seven" presented the following resolutions which consti- 
 tuted their reply to the questions Augustana had asked, 
 
 Whereas The Augustana Lutheran Church has requested the 
 Joint Union Committee "to invite all other Lutheran General 
 
 40 The members were: Dr. Oscar A. Benson, chairman; Dr. Malvin H. Lun- 
 deen, vice-chairman, Dr. Emory Lindquist, Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, Dr. 
 Edgar M. Carlson, Dr. S. E. Engstrom, Dr. Karl E. Mattson, Dr. D. Verner 
 Swanson, and Mr. Adolph Hanson, with Mr. C. Elmer Anderson, Mr. H. F. 
 Kilander, Dr. Thorsten Gustafson and Dr. Reuben Youngdahl as alternates. 
 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1953, p. 340. 
 
 41 Report of Committee on Lutheran Unity, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1953, 
 p. 340f. 
 
395 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 Bodies to participate in further negotiations to achieve Lutheran 
 unity, and to include in such discussions the subject of Ecumenical 
 relations," and 
 
 Whereas the Augustana Lutheran Church in convention as- 
 sembled has expressed itself as "being unwilling to continue in 
 unity discussions which are not open to all Lutheran General 
 Bodies," and 
 
 Whereas the Committee of Nine of the three bodies originally 
 negotiating merger are without authority from their respective 
 church bodies to include all other Lutheran bodies in said nego- 
 tiations, 
 
 Be It Resolved that the Committee of Twenty-seven express 
 its deep regret over the situation which has developed by the 
 decisions of the Augustana Lutheran Church 
 
 Be It Further Resolved that the Committee of Twenty-seven 
 reiterate its cordial invitation to the Augustana Lutheran Church 
 to participate in the present plans toward a merger of all the 
 American Lutheran Conference Churches. 
 
 Be It Further Resolved that the Committee of Twenty-seven 
 give assurance that its agenda will continue to be open for all 
 pertinent discussions in preparation for the proposed merger in- 
 cluding the subject of ecumenical relations. 42 
 
 Thereupon Dr. Benson rose and addressed the assembly, making it 
 clear that the reply of the Committee of Twenty-seven was not satis- 
 factory to Augustana. He said, 
 
 This action marks something of a milestone in the history of 
 the Lutheran Church in America. Whether wise or otherwise, 
 only time will tell. 
 
 We deeply appreciate the forthrightness of your statement and 
 think we understand its implications. We appreciate the very fine 
 fellowship we have had in the Committee of Forty-five, and the 
 generous invitation to come into the merger negotiations. Bound 
 as we are by the decisions of our Church, we really have only 
 one door through which we go, and we shall do that as graciously 
 as we can. 
 
 I assure you that we shall not lose one iota of our interest in 
 a strong united Lutheran Church in America and for a strong 
 Evangelical Protestant Church which shall not be vitiated by the 
 spirit of modernism, as we want to make our contributions to both. 
 It is of the utmost importance that the Lutheran Church make 
 its influence felt to this end. 
 
 While we may no longer be able to negotiate with you, we 
 shall still cherish the same cordial feeling toward you and shall 
 co-operate with you in every way. We are glad that instead of 
 
 ^IbidL, p. 341f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 396 
 
 temporizing you have stated your position so very clearly and 
 succinctly . . . 
 
 We thank you very much for these resolutions, for they have 
 helped to clear the atmosphere . . . 
 
 That is our valedictory at the moment. I suggest we be per- 
 mitted to be excused so that you may go on with the work that 
 is so important, and which, I pray God, may mean much for the 
 days that lie ahead. 43 
 
 At this point Dr. Benson was asked about the possibility of having 
 Augustana continue in the five-way merger negotiations, to which 
 he replied, 
 
 We are extremely grateful for the gracious invitation to con- 
 tinue, even though you must have realized that under the restric- 
 tions placed upon us by our Church we cannot accept the invita- 
 tion. If and when our Church shall decide differently, we shall 
 be at the service of the Church. We shall report to the Church 
 what you have said. 44 
 
 The Augustana delegation also pointed out that the reply which the 
 Committee of Twenty-seven had given to the question of ecumenical 
 relations was unsatisfactory. In the light of the answers which had 
 been given to the two basic questions raised by Augustana, it was 
 obvious, said the Augustana committee, that Augustana could no 
 longer continue as a part of the "Committee of Forty-five," and 
 that all negotiations with the American Lutheran Conference would 
 now terminate. In reporting this meeting to the Augustana public, 
 the editor of the Lutheran Companion declared. 
 
 It was a solemn moment, and every one present sensed its 
 significance as the Augustana representatives arose and walked 
 quietly from the conference chamber while the other committee 
 members sat in silence. A chapter in Lutheran unity strivings 
 in America had come to a close. 45 
 
 The termination of merger negotiations between Augustana and the 
 Joint Committee on Union had important indirect consequences for the 
 American Lutheran Conference. For a number of years the National 
 Lutheran Council had been steadily increasing the orbit of its re- 
 sponsibilities and activities, absorbing many of the functions which 
 
 *s Ibid., p. 342. 
 
 44 Ibid., p. 343. 
 
 45 Editorial, Lutheran Companion, November 26, 1952. The consultations were 
 so brief and concluded so quickly that Dr. P. O. Bersell, who was de- 
 layed enroute to the meeting, is said to have arrived at the council cham- 
 bers just in time to join his Augustana colleagues in their historic with- 
 drawal. 
 
397 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 the American Lutheran Conference had assumed or intended to as- 
 sume. 46 From approximately 1950 it was evident to most of the con- 
 stitutent bodies of the Conference that it had fulfilled its major purposes, 
 and that the time would soon come for the dissolution of the American 
 Lutheran Conference. As long, however, as the Conference constituted 
 an important framework within which unity negotiations were taking 
 place, the continued existence of the Conference was justified. But 
 when the negotiations among the churches represented in the Joint 
 Committee on Union had progressed so far as to render the frame- 
 work of the Conference no longer essential, and the negotiations be- 
 tween Augustana and the Joint Commission on Union were terminated, 
 a strong bond holding the Conference together was broken. 47 After 
 having given the matter careful consideration during the biennium 
 of 1952-1954, the executive committee, representing all of the con- 
 stituent bodies of the Conference voted unanimously to dissolve the 
 American Lutheran Conference. Accordingly, the final convention of 
 the Conference was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 10, 
 1954, with Dr. S. E. Engstrom presiding. After reviewing the accom- 
 plishments of the association during its history of twenty-four years, 
 receiving the reports of the various committees and commissions, and 
 disposing of the Conference assets, the delegation adopted a motion 
 to dissolve, whereupon Dr. Engstrom declared the American Lu- 
 theran Conference dissolved. Immediately following the conclusion 
 of the Conference convention, a two-day "free Lutheran conference" 
 was held, November 11-12, 1954, for the purpose and in the hope that 
 further impulses toward Lutheran unity might be stimulated. Though 
 the two-day session afforded pleasant fellowship and interesting ex- 
 change of ideas, no new doors were opened to further or broaden Lu- 
 theran unity. 48 Henceforth, the Augustana Church went its own way in 
 its striving for Lutheran unity, while the Joint Committee on Unity, 
 the Committee of Twenty-seven as it was sometimes called, took 
 another pathway toward Lutheran unity. 
 
 Under the synodical administration of Dr. Oscar A. Benson, the 
 structure of unity activities of the Augustana Church was reorganized 
 
 46 See Report of President, Minutes, American Lutheran Conference Con- 
 cluding Biennial Convention, Minneapolis, Minn., November 10, 1954. 
 
 47 Although it is undoubtedly true, as Dr. Engstrom declared in his first pres- 
 ident's report, that the dissolution of the American Lutheran Conference 
 was not caused by the termination of merger negotiations, this development 
 unquestionably served to precipitate action for dissolution. 
 
 * 8 Ibid., p. 17. See also Lutheran Companion, December 1, 1954, p. 7. 
 
Augustana Heritage 398 
 
 and a new program of unity negotiations was launched. 49 The Com- 
 mittee on Lutheran Unity became the Commission on Ecumenical 
 Relations, with a set of "Rules of Procedure" and definite functions 
 and responsibilities as part of its portfolio. 50 There were four specific 
 responsibilities given to the Commission on Ecumenical Relations: (1) 
 To report annually to the Church all ecumenical developments and 
 make recommendations for church action, (2) To serve as a study 
 group in the area of ecumenical relations, (3) To consider problems 
 connected with church representation in connection with ecumenical 
 relations and advise the Church in such matters, (4) To give the 
 Church guidance in the area of ecumenical relations. 
 
 The Commission on Ecumenical Relations sought a new approach 
 to the whole question of Lutheran unity. At a meeting of the com- 
 mission, November 15, 1954, after long and serious deliberation and 
 careful study of the mandates given by the Church, the following 
 motion was adopted, 
 
 That the Commission on Ecumenical Relations of the Augustana 
 Lutheran Church invite the various Lutheran bodies, through 
 their appropriate committees, to confer with it on the question 
 of what constitutes essential conditions of Lutheran unity in 
 America. It is desired especially to consider: Conditions neces- 
 sary for pulpit and altar fellowship; and the relationship of pulpit 
 and altar fellowship to organizational unity. 51 
 
 From this invitation there eventuated a series of discussions which 
 were held in Chicago, March 28, 1955, with delegates from three differ- 
 ent Lutheran groups, including the Missouri Synod, the United Lu- 
 theran Church in America, and the Joint Union Committee, some- 
 times known as The Committee of Twenty-seven. 52 The discussions 
 with the Missouri delegation and the Joint Union Committee were 
 cordial and pleasant, but elicited negative replies to the question, 
 "Does your church body have any plan for union embracing all 
 American Lutherans if all were agreeable to closer ties?" 53 During 
 
 49 Dr. Oscar A. Benson was elected to succeed Dr. P. O. Bersell, as president 
 of the Augustana Church, at the synodical convention in 1951. 
 
 50 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1954, p. 433f. 
 
 51 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1955, p. 440. 
 
 52 Minutes of the Meeting of the Commission on Ecumenical Relations held 
 on Monday, March 28, Union League Club, Chicago, Illinois. See also the 
 Lutheran Companion, April 13, 1955, pp. 6-10. 
 
 53 See report of this meeting, the Lutheran Companion^ op. cit., p. 9. The 
 Augustana Commission had formulated a list of seven questions which 
 were used as the basis for the discussion with the various Lutheran bodies. 
 They were: 1. With what Lutheran bodies does your body have pulpit and 
 
399 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 the discussion with the delegation from the United Lutheran Church, 
 however, the president of that body, Dr. Franklin Clark Fry, requested 
 permission to read a statement. This statement proved to be the key 
 which unlocked the door to a new chapter in Lutheran unity negotia- 
 tions. Dr. Fry began by reviewing the links which had bound Augus- 
 tana and the United Lutheran Church together. He went on to point 
 out that the "agreements of our churches are broad and deep. In all 
 essentials we are already one." He listed five essential points of con- 
 sensus between the two bodies, (1) subscription ex anima to the 
 historic Lutheran Confessions, (2) no further definitions of doctrine, 
 and addition to the historic confessions, are demanded by either 
 Church for Lutheran unity, (3) both Churches affirm an ecumenical 
 rather than an exclusive Lutheranism, (4) both Churches maintain 
 and encourage broad ecumenical relationships, (5) both Churches 
 practice a large degree of local and regional autonomy. On the basis 
 of this acknowledged unity, Dr. Fry concluded his statement with 
 the following paragraph, 
 
 In behalf of the United Lutheran Church in America which 
 has declared "its desire to merge with any or all" Lutherans 
 in America, and has authorized this commission "to participate 
 in drafting a constitution and in devising such organizational pro- 
 cedures as may seem wise in effecting union," we respectfully invite 
 the Augustana Lutheran Church to appoint a commission of 
 equal members to meet with us for that purpose and to join with 
 us in issuing invitations to all other Lutheran bodies to appoint 
 like commissions. May the blessing of God our Savior rest upon 
 this endeavor to reveal openly the unity which we have already 
 received as His precious gift. 
 
 To strengthen his case, Dr. Fry presented a second document which 
 
 altar fellowship? 2. Are you now engaged in conversations with any Lu- 
 theran groups looking toward such fellowship? 3. What prevents such 
 fellowship between your body and those with whom no such fellowship 
 exists? 4. Would you agree that altar and pulpit fellowship is important 
 in itself apart from relationships of organization? 5. Does your body have 
 any plan of union embracing all American Lutherans if all were agreeable 
 to closer ties? 6. Do you feel that your doctrine of the Church differs on 
 essential points from the doctrines held by other American Lutheran bod- 
 ies? 7. Recalling the tedious, complicated but eventually successful nego- 
 tiations between 1555 and 1580, which produced the Book of Concord, would 
 your body be willing to appoint representatives to join with all other Lu- 
 theran bodies willing to appoint such representatives to study the prob- 
 lem of Lutheran relationships in America? This commission would report 
 its findings to each body in matters of theology and church polity. See 
 Minutes, Commission on Ecumenical Relations, March 28, 1955. 
 
Augustana Heritage 400 
 
 was in the form of an exhibit of related documents of the two Churches 
 showing the close similarity of faith and practice of the two. 54 
 
 This was a significant moment. For seven years the Augustana 
 Church had pursued an aggressive course looking toward the goal 
 of a Lutheran consolidation of the largest possible dimensions. Con- 
 siderable time and effort had been given to the accomplishment of 
 such a goal by seeking a rapprochement between the contending 
 wings in the National Lutheran Council. Such efforts, however, had 
 proven abortive. But now the United Lutheran Church was grasp- 
 ing the outstretched hand of Augustana and suggesting that with- 
 out further delay the two principal advocates of ecumenical confes- 
 sionalism in America join forces to initiate new unity negotiations. 
 That the invitation of the United Lutheran Church was sincerely 
 welcomed by the Augustana Synod is evidenced by the fact that 
 before the synodical convention assembled in St. Paul, June, 1955, no 
 less than ten of the thirteen conferences of the Synod had sent in 
 petitions memorializing the Augustana Church to accept the invita- 
 tion of the United Lutheran Church and thus set in motion a new 
 impulse in America for Lutheran union. With this overwhelming 
 sentiment to encourage decisive synodical action, the Church in con- 
 vention assembled responded to the United Lutheran overture by 
 adopting the following resolutions: 
 
 Whereas the Special Committee on relations to American Lu- 
 theran Church bodies of the United Lutheran Church in America 
 has presented a proposal for Lutheran merger discussions, and 
 
 Whereas this proposal includes the basic principles enunciated 
 by our Church at the Synod held in 1950, 1952 and 1954, 
 
 Therefore be it resolved that 
 
 a. The Church accept the proposal of the United Lutheran 
 Church in America to join with it in extending invitations to 
 all Lutheran Church bodies to participate in merger discussions 
 looking toward organic union and pray earnestly that this invita- 
 tion may receive general acceptance. 
 
 b. The Church authorize the Commission on Ecumenical Re- 
 lations to enter into conversations looking toward organic union 
 with the United Lutheran Church in America, and any other 
 Lutheran Church bodies accepting the invitation extended. 
 
 c. Should any Lutheran Church body be unable at present to 
 participate in such negotiations, the Commission on Ecumenical 
 Relations be urged to seek ways and means of keeping open the 
 channels of communication for continuing conversations with 
 
 >* Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1955, p. 440f. See also the Lutheran Companion, 
 April 13, 1955. 
 
401 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 that body in the hope that ultimately total Lutheran unity might 
 be achieved. 55 
 
 Having accepted the invitation to join the United Lutheran Church 
 in a new endeavor on behalf of Lutheran unity, the Synod reorganized 
 the Commission on Ecumenical Relations, increasing its size from 
 nine to thirteen members with the president, vice-president and secre- 
 tary of the Church as ex officio members, and the remaining ten 
 members composed of four laymen and six pastors. 56 This Commission 
 met with a similar group from the United Lutheran Church at the 
 Union League Club in Chicago, December 16, 1955, and issued the 
 following joint invitation to fourteen Lutheran Church bodies. 57 
 
 In gratitude to God for the unity in the gospel that He has 
 given to the Lutherans in America, and in the conviction that 
 this unity ought now manifest itself in the organic union of our 
 separate Church bodies, The United Lutheran Church in America, 
 and The Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church respectfully 
 invite your honorable Church body to designate duly authorized 
 representatives to meet with the commissioners of our two 
 churches, and with similarly empowered representatives of other 
 Lutheran Church bodies, to consider such organic union as will 
 give real evidence of our unity in the faith, and to proceed to 
 draft a constitution and devise organizational procedures ... to 
 effect union. 
 
 For the United Lutheran Church in America, 
 Franklin Clark Fry, President 
 
 For the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
 Oscar A. Benson, President 58 
 
 When this invitation was made public it received a mixed response. 
 A number of bodies chose to ignore it, others gave negative response, 
 but the Churches represented in the Joint Committee on Union greeted 
 the invitation from Augustana and the United Lutheran Church with 
 misgivings and some resentment. There were those among them who 
 interpreted the invitation as a deliberate effort to ' 'meddle' ' in the 
 current merger negotiations of the Joint Committee on Union in 
 the hope of breaking open the American Lutheran Conference merger 
 
 55 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1955, p. 445f. 
 
 56 Ibid., p. 446. 
 
 57 The invitation was sent to: American Ev. Lutheran Church, American Lu- 
 theran Church, Church of the Lutheran Brethren, Eielsen Synod, Finnish 
 Apostolic Lutheran Church, Joint Synod of Wisconsin, National Ev. Luther- 
 an Church, Norwegian Synod of the A.E.L.C, Slovak Ev. Lutheran Church, 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church, Suomi Synod, Missouri Synod, Lutheran 
 Free Church, and United Ev. Lutheran Church. See Minutes, Augustana 
 Synod, 1958, p. 460f. 
 
 58 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1956, p. 426. 
 
Augustana Heritage 402 
 
 to less exclusive and broader participation. 59 To answer such charges 
 the Augustana and United Lutheran Commissions issued a joint state- 
 ment explaining the motivations behind the invitation. The statement 
 affirmed the principle that Lutheran unity in America already exists 
 and all those who recognize and acknowledge the fact are simply 
 given the opportunity through the invitation to join with other like- 
 minded Lutherans to seek ways and means of giving form and sub- 
 stance to the existing unity. 60 
 
 Replying affirmatively to the joint invitation were the American 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Danish), and the Finnish Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church of America (Suomi). On December 12, 1956, dele- 
 gations representing these two bodies met with representatives of 
 Augustana and the United Lutheran Church at the Conrad Hilton 
 Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, and formed the Joint Commission on Lu- 
 theran Unity, popularly known as J.C.L.U. 61 The Joint Commission 
 on Lutheran Unity elected Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen, vice-president 
 of the Augustana Church, as permanent chairman, with Dr. Ray- 
 mond W. Wargelin, president of the Suomi Synod, as vice-chairman, 
 Dr. Carl Rasmussen of the United Lutheran Church as secretary, and 
 Dr. Johannes Knudsen, of the American Evangelical Lutheran Church 
 as treasurer. A Steering Committtee, a Committee on Doctrine and 
 Living Tradition, a Committee on Patterns of Organization, with two 
 sub-committees, Geographical Boundaries, and Powers and Functions, 
 were formed and assignments made. Considerable time was spent in 
 the presentation of declarations of doctrine and practice on behalf 
 of the four church bodies. Having received these "get-acquainted" 
 presentations, Dr. Fry offered the following resolution, 
 
 After hearing the reading and interpretation of the doctrinal 
 statements of the four churches here represented, the Joint Com- 
 mission rejoices to note that we have among us sufficient ground 
 of agreement in the common confession of our faith as witnessed 
 
 59 These suspicions were increased by Augustana's refusal to re-enter nego- 
 tiations with the Joint Committee on Union, as well as the Augustana de- 
 cision to defer the establishment of an Inter-Lutheran Commission on 
 Theological Study. 
 
 co See report of Commission on Ecumenical Relations, Minutes, Augustana 
 Synod, 1956, p. 427. See also Minutes of the meeting of the Commission on 
 Ecumenical Relations of the Augustana Lutheran Church, held at church 
 headquarters, Minneapolis, Minn., Monday, May 7, 1956. 
 
 G1 The Augustana Commissioners were: Dr. Oscar A. Benson, Mr. Wallace 
 Anderson, Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, Dr. Lloyd Burke, Dr. Edgar M. Carlson, 
 Dr. Thorsten A. Gustafson, Dr. Robert W. Holmen, Dr. Malvin H. Lun- 
 deen, Dr. Karl E. Mattson, Dr. D. Verner Swanson, Dr. P. O. Bersell, Dr. 
 Lyman Brink, Dr. C. W. Sorensen. 
 
403 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 by the Lutheran Confession, to justify further procedure in seek- 
 ing for a basis for the organic union of our churches, including 
 the formulation of a proposed constitution for a united church 
 having in it articles on doctrine and practical matters of organiza- 
 tion. 62 
 
 With the adoption of this resolution it may be said that the Augus- 
 tana Church through its Commission on Ecumenical Relations, now set 
 its face resolutely toward the goal of organic union with the churches 
 engaged in the current negotiations. It was apparent, however, that 
 the contemplated merger represented, so far as Augustana was con- 
 cerned, an even greater compromise with its stated principle of Lu- 
 theran unity, than did the proposed merger of the American Lutheran 
 Conference group. Indeed, the union contemplated by the American 
 Lutheran Conference envisaged a five-way merger, while J.C.L.U. 
 involved, for the time being at least, only four churches. There were 
 voices both inside as well as outside the Augustana Church that were 
 quick to point out this obvious inconsistency on the part of the 
 Augustana Church. There were some striking circumstances, how- 
 ever, which seemed to justify the current union efforts even though 
 J.C.L.U. would never eventuate in more than a four-way consolida- 
 tion. In the first place, the invitation which had resulted in the forma- 
 tion of J.C.L.U. was inclusive and not exclusive. The invitation had 
 been extended to every Lutheran body in America, and those who 
 were not involved in J.C.L.U. were absent through their own choice. 63 
 Furthermore, the contemplated consolidation acknowledged and ac- 
 cepted the various ecumenical relationships which the participants 
 had established for themselves and which they intended to continue 
 in whatever merger might eventuate. Finally, and perhaps most im- 
 portant of all, was the fact that the negotiations within the frame- 
 work of J.C.L.U. were not predicated upon subscription to some re- 
 fined definition of doctrine in addition to the historic confessions of 
 the Lutheran Church. An open and unequivocal subscription to the 
 historic confessional symbols of the Lutheran Church was to be 
 accepted as sufficient evidence of a true and acceptable Lutheranism. 
 Thus, when those who for one reason or another were opposed to the 
 merger with the United Lutheran Church and charged Augustana with 
 
 62 Minutes of the Joint Commission on Lutheran Unity, December 12, 13, 1966. 
 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1957, p. 456f. Article by E. E. Ryden, "A Hope- 
 ful Unity Conference," the Lutheran Companion, January 2, 1957. 
 
 63 See for example, communication from the Joint Union Committee declining 
 the invitation to participate, as well as other negative replies in Minutes of 
 the Joint Commission on Lutheran Unity, December 12, 13, 1956, p. lOf. 
 
Augustana Heritage 404 
 
 inconsistency and even insincerity in rejecting the five- way union 
 of T.A.L.C. in favor of a four-way merger of J.C.L.U., Dr. Benson, 
 president of the Augustana Church, defended the Synod for thus 
 "changing its mind" on these grounds. 64 
 
 That Augustana had not abandoned its oft-repeated principle 
 for a comprehensive Lutheran union, and was concerned to broaden 
 the base of participation in J.C.L.U., and thus realize its fundamental 
 ideal of "larger consolidation" was evident from the very beginning 
 of the negotiations. At the first meeting of the Joint Committee on 
 Lutheran Unity, held December 12-13, 1956, the Augustana delega- 
 tion reminded the assembly of the resolution which Augustana had 
 adopted at its convention in 1955, to the effect that all lines of com- 
 munication should be kept constantly open for continued conversa- 
 tions with all uncommitted Lutheran bodies in the hope that all such 
 might eventually be included in the negotiations. 65 In compliance 
 with this mandate the Augustana delegation on J.C.L.U. offered the 
 following resolution, 
 
 We request the Joint meeting in session December 12 and 13 
 to take such action as will provide opportunity to meet with the 
 Joint Union Committee of the A.L.C., E.L.C., and U.E.L.C. 
 merger, for the purpose of discussing bases and possible plans 
 for closer co-operation between all Lutheran Church bodies in 
 America. As well do we request that action be taken to keep 
 the lines of communication open between our joint group and 
 other Lutheran bodies which declined the invitation to join in 
 the present negotiations. 
 
 This resolution was referred to the Steering Committee for study 
 with instruction to report to the next meeting of the Joint Commis- 
 sion. 66 Nothing more was heard regarding this action, however, until 
 the meeting of J.C.L.U. on March 20, 1958, when the Steering Com- 
 mittee presented a special report on the subject of "open channels" 
 as follows: 
 
 As we, the members of the Joint Commission on Lutheran 
 Unity, eagerly pursue negotiations for the merger of our four 
 bodies into one church, and as we rejoice in the progress thus 
 far, we earnestly desire to declare once again our commitment 
 to the hope for a more comprehensive organic union of Lutheran 
 bodies on this continent when the present ongoing merger nego- 
 
 64 See President's Annual Report, Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1955, p. 96. 
 
 65 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1955, p. 446. 
 
 ee Minutes of the Joint Commission on Lutheran Unity, December 12, 13, 1956, 
 p. 17f. Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1958, p. 463. 
 
405 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 tiations have been consummated. We respectfully invite all our 
 sister Lutheran bodies who share this fervent hope to meet with 
 us and to that end now authorize our steering committee to issue 
 such an invitation at a time that it deems appropriate. 67 
 
 Apparently, the Steering Committee was unable to find any time be- 
 tween the adoption of this resolution and the final merger in 1962 
 which it deemed "appropriate" to extend or renew invitations to 
 other Lutheran Church bodies to enter the consolidation negotiations, 
 for this is the last time in the official minutes of JCLU that such 
 action is taken. When questioned on this point, the president of the 
 Augustana Church, and chairman of JCLU, Dr. Malvin H .Lun- 
 deen stated, 
 
 The JCLU did not consider that it was responsible for issuing 
 any additional invitations to anyone, once the original invitation 
 had been issued and answered. It was clearly indicated that the 
 doors were open. The JCLU expressed itself as willing to 
 stop all of its own negotiations and start anew if necessary, to 
 enlarge the number of church bodies negotiating. 68 
 
 That the Augustana Church accepted with real reluctance the com- 
 promise of an oft-repeated principle of Lutheran unity may be inferred 
 from the fact that the Augustana Commission on Ecumenical Rela- 
 tions felt it necessary to make special mention of the "principle of 
 comprehension" in a special report regarding JCLU to the sy nodical 
 convention in 1959. In this report the Commission stated that the 
 proposed four- way merger "is not the immediate realization of the 
 dreams of total union that Augustana has envisioned." Nevertheless 
 it was "by all odds the greatest achievement that can be hoped for 
 at the present time." Then as if to reassure the Church, these signi- 
 ficant lines were added, 
 
 The new Church body will not be exclusive in spirit. It will 
 be ready at any time to merge with any or all of the other Lu- 
 theran Churches. It will be ecumenical in spirit and polity. . . . 
 Augustana's hope for organic union of all Lutheran groups in 
 America will eventually be realized. We are on our way. The goal 
 will be reached in God's good time. 69 
 
 67 Minutes of the Joint Commission on Lutheran Unity, March 20, 1958, p. 72. 
 
 68 Letter from Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen, May 4, 1962. In the light of Dr. Lun- 
 deen's statement, the resolution to "authorize our steering committee to 
 issue such an invitation" seems to have very little meaning. 
 
 69 See "On Threshold of Union," editorial, the Lutheran Companion, July 
 15, 1959. 
 
Augustana Heritage 406 
 
 By 1960 the Joint Commission on Lutheran Unity had devised the 
 basic and essential documents which provided for the organizational 
 structure of the new Church. At the Centennial convention of the 
 Augustana Church, held in Rock Island, Illinois, June 6-12, 1960, the 
 Augustana Commission on Ecumenical Relations presented the docu- 
 ments prepared by JCLU for submission to the four church bodies 
 for action. These documents included the Resolution on Merger, 
 with the Agreement of Consolidation, the Constitution of the new 
 Church, the accompanying by-laws, the approved constitution for syn- 
 ods of the new Church, and the approved constitution for congrega- 
 tions of the new Church. 70 
 
 The proposed constitution provided that the name of the new 
 Church was to be the Lutheran Church in America. The second article 
 of the constitution, entitled, "Confession of Faith," provided for the 
 confessional basis upon which the Lutheran Church in America was 
 to be founded. This most significant article, given in full, is as follows, 
 
 Section 1. This church confesses Jesus Christ as Lord of the 
 Church. The Holy Spirit creates and sustains the Church through 
 the Gospel and thereby unites believers with their Lord and with 
 one another in the fellowship of faith. 
 
 Section 2. This church holds that the Gospel is the revelation 
 of God's sovereign will and saving grace in Jesus Christ. In Him, 
 the Word Incarnate, God imparts Himself to man. 
 
 Section 3. This church acknowledges the Holy Scriptures as 
 the norm for the faith and life of the Church. The Holy Scrip- 
 tures are the divinely inspired record of God's redemptive act 
 in Christ, for which the Old Testament prepared the way and 
 which the New Testament proclaims. In the continuation of this 
 proclamation in the Church, God still speaks through the Holy 
 Scriptures and realizes His redemptive purpose generation after 
 generation. 
 
 Section 4. This church accepts the Apostles', the Nicene, and 
 the Athanasian creeds as true declarations of the faith of the 
 church. 
 
 Section 5. This church accepts the Unaltered Augsburg Con- 
 fession and Luther's Small Catechism as true witnesses to the 
 Gospel, and acknowledges as one with it in faith and doctrine 
 all churches that likewise accept the teachings of these symbols. 
 
 Section 6. This church accepts the other symbolical books of 
 the evangelical Lutheran Church, the Apology of the Augsburg 
 Confession, the Smalcald Articles, Luther's Large Catechism, and 
 the Formula of Concord as further valid interpretations of the 
 confessions of the church. 
 
 70 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1960, pp. 423ff. 
 
407 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 Section 7. This church affirms that the Gospel transmitted by 
 the Holy Scripture, to which the creeds and confessions bear 
 witness, is the true treasure of the Church, the substance of its 
 proclamations, and the basis of its unity and continuity. The Holy 
 Spirit uses the proclamation of the Gospel and the administration 
 of the Sacraments to create and sustain faith and fellowship. As 
 this occurs, the Church fulfills its divine mission and purpose. 71 
 
 Section 5 of this confessional article is of utmost importance, since it 
 exhibits a very unusual development in the history of the Lutheran 
 Church in America. In almost all cases where Lutheran unity had 
 hitherto been achieved, it had required long and tedious hours of 
 argument and haggling over words, phrases and nuances of meaning, as 
 Lutherans sought to guarantee the orthodoxy of one another by bind- 
 ing each other to specific and often narrowly conceived interpreta- 
 tions of the doctrines set forth in the historic confessions of the 
 Church. In the doctrinal article of the proposed constitution of the 
 Lutheran Church in America, however, Christian unity and brother- 
 hood among Lutherans is recognized and acknowledged as being 
 based and predicated upon a sincere subscription to the historic Lu- 
 theran confessions themselves, rather than upon some extra inter- 
 pretation of the confessions. Furthermore, the doctrinal article affirms 
 the Holy Scriptures as "the divinely inspired record of God's redemp- 
 tive act in Christ," through which "God still speaks" and "realizes 
 His redemptive purpose generation after generation." In complete 
 harmony with the spirit of the confessional symbols, there is here no 
 attempt to make some "theory of inspiration" the sine qua non of 
 unity. In these respects the unity documents of the Lutheran Church 
 in America marked a real advance over the usual procedures which 
 had prevailed in the history of Lutheran unity endeavors in America. 
 
 Those in the Augustana Church who feared that the tradition and 
 influence of Augustana might be entirely swallowed up and over- 
 whelmed by the United Lutheran Church, were gratified to note as 
 they studied the submitted documents that the influence of the Augus- 
 tana Church was to be seen in much that was being planned for the 
 new Church. In the first place, Augustana's position on the lodge ques- 
 tion was a factor in bringing about the provision in the documents 
 which was designed to keep newly ordained or newly transferred 
 pastors out of lodge, and to discourage lodge membership generally. 
 In the second place, the plan for American Missions in the Lutheran 
 
 Ibid., p. 438f. 
 
Augustana Heritage 408 
 
 Church in America, like the program developed in the Augustana 
 Church, provided for a unified approach to this aspect of church activity. 
 Furthermore, the influence of Augustana was evident also in the 
 polity of the new Church. While the United Lutheran Church may be 
 said to have been the creation of its constituent synods, in the sense 
 that the synods brought the national church into existence, the synods 
 of the Lutheran Church in America are the creation of the national 
 church, just as the thirteen conferences of the Augustana Synod were 
 the creation of the Synod itself. The thirty synods of the new Church 
 sustain very nearly the same relation to the national body as did the 
 Augustana conferences to the Augustana Synod. Again, in the area 
 of theological education and control the documents indicated that 
 the new Church would bear marks of Augustana influence. While the 
 desire of Augustana to vest complete control over theological educa- 
 tion in the national body, and so avoid unwholesome interseminary 
 competition and variation in theological training standards, did not 
 materialize, the documents provided for a single national board re- 
 sponsible for theological education. In addition, on the board of each 
 seminary of the new Church provision was made for a mutually agreed 
 upon percentage, from twenty to forty per cent, of the total number 
 of trustees who shall be elected by the supporting synod or synods 
 on nomination by the Board of Theological Education (By-laws, Sec- 
 tion X, G, 5) . In this way the national church will be enabled to make 
 its voice heard in the decisions of each seminary board. Further, on 
 the examining committee of each synod a given number (four on a 
 committee of ten, and two on a committee of five) shall be designated 
 by the Executive Council of the national church (synodical constitu- 
 tion, Article VII, section 2). Thus, the national church will have a 
 voice in the examination and approval of candidates for the ministry. 72 
 
 Wednesday, June 8, 1960, had been set aside in the Centennial 
 convention program for a thorough discussion of the merger ques- 
 tion. Augustana's action was regarded as a crucial test inasmuch as it 
 was the first of the merging bodies to convene that year, and its action 
 on the merger question could very well determine the success or 
 failure of the whole JCLU enterprise. During the debate a sixteen- 
 page brochure prepared and circulated by four young pastors, 73 was 
 introduced which urged the Synod to withhold approval of the merger 
 
 72 Letter from Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen, May 4, 1962. 
 
 73 Thomas Basich, Richard Bingea, Merle Carlson, and Lavern Grose. 
 
409 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 documents until a number of issues could be renegotiated. 74 Dr. Lun- 
 deen, presiding for the first time as the new president of the Augustana 
 Church, and facing some two thousand delegates, 75 gave all sides 
 ample opportunity to be heard, and sought to answer every question 
 that was raised. About four o'clock in the afternoon the convention 
 signified its readiness to vote on the merger question. After prayer 
 was offered for divine guidance, Dr. Lundeen called out, "All those 
 in favor of the resolution will signify by saying Aye." Back from the 
 vast assembly came a thunderous "Aye." "All opposed will say "No," 
 said the president. A few voices responded with a somewhat timorous 
 "No." "The ayes have it," announced the president. And thus, one 
 hundred years to the very day from the time the founding fathers at 
 Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, had adopted a constitution and founded 
 the Augustana Lutheran Church, this Church had voted to become 
 a part of a larger Lutheran fellowship in America. 76 
 
 Though this vote was overwhelmingly decisive, it was not final. 
 Ratification must be given first by the thirteen conferences, and then 
 final approval at the next annual convention of the Synod by a two- 
 thirds majority, in order to confirm and complete merger action. All 
 thirteen conferences by a majority vote in each case, approved the 
 merger. Accordingly, when the Church convened in Seattle, Washing- 
 ton, June 12-18, 1961, for its one hundred-second annual convention, the 
 question of consolidation was again put to a vote. This occurred on 
 Friday, June 16. The registered total delegation at the convention 
 numbered 590. The vote on the merger was 495 to 21 in favor of 
 consolidation, or 151 votes more than the required two-thirds major- 
 ity. Thus, the final step had been taken in the procedure to certify 
 the merger. 77 
 
 At no point was the action being taken by the Augustana Church 
 more dramatically symbolized than at Augustana Theological Sem- 
 inary. During its entire history the Augustana Church has had only 
 one theological seminary; it was organized at the same time as the 
 
 74 The issues called into question were: executive council representation, 
 executive powers, theological education, the pension plan, and the location 
 of national headquarters. 
 
 75 Plenary representation, was allowed at the centennial convention. 
 
 76 Two excellent articles reflecting the drama of the merger actions at the 
 Centennial convention are given by the editor, Dr. E. E. Ryden in The Lu- 
 theran Companion, "Merger Issue Stirs Synod," June 22, 1960, "Vote to 
 Create New Church," June 29, 1960. 
 
 77 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1961, pp. 431-506. See also "Augustana's 102nd 
 Synod," the Lutheran Companion, July 5, 1961. 
 
Augustana Heritage 410 
 
 Augustana Synod was founded. The seminary has been the only in- 
 stitution owned, operated, and maintained by the Augustana Church 
 for the entire period of the Synod's history; thus the seminary and 
 the Synod developed side by side for one hundred-two years. If any 
 institution may be said to have embodied and exemplified the spirit 
 and temper of the Augustana Church, it was doubtless the theological 
 seminary. And in the merger the seminary was destined to symbolize 
 the consolidation in relation to the Augustana Church, in the sense 
 that as the Augustana Lutheran Church gave up its corporate exis- 
 ence and became part of the Lutheran Church in America, so at the 
 same time Augustana Theological Seminary gave up its corporate 
 identity and became part of a consolidation of four theological schools, 
 one from each of the merging bodies, which would form The Lu- 
 theran School of Theology at Chicago. 18 
 
 Augustana had more to bring to the new Church, however, than 
 its theological seminary. In his final message to the Synod, Presi- 
 dent Lundeen declared: 
 
 Our contribution to the Lutheran Church in America will be 
 1,354 pastors plus 46 ordinands; our 1,269 congregations with their 
 629,547 baptized members of whom 423,673 are confirmed, with 
 their Sunday school and Bible class enrollment of over 193,000, 
 with some 26,000 teachers and officers; with their land, buildings, 
 and equipment valued at $173,311,966; of $8,004,916 for missions 
 and benevolences and $29,958,189 for local purposes. With con- 
 tributions during 1961 a total of $37,863,105, and a per capita of 
 $89.36. Further, we will come into the Pension Fund of the L.C.A. 
 with our assets of better than $11,000,000. In addition we will 
 provide for the new church, social missions and educational in- 
 stitutions with a value of at least $78,092,072.19. . . . Among other 
 resources . . . there is the resource of our confessional position . . . 
 Our very name "Augustana," the significance of which some of 
 us perhaps have not always fully appreciated, has pointed to our 
 firm yet not rigidly biased adherence to the "Confessio Augustana" 
 or Augsburg Confession. . . . We have an inheritance which we 
 bring with us into the new church, an emphasis upon the need 
 for personal experience and expression of the redeeming grace 
 of God in Christ. 79 
 
 78 Official Documents of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. See 
 especially Section IV, action by Board of Directors. The four theological 
 seminaries were: Augustana Seminary, Maywood Seminary (U. L. C. A), 
 Suomi Seminary (Suomi), and Grand View Seminary (A. E. L. C). 
 
 79 Minutes, Augustana Synod, 1962, pp. 104ff. 
 
411 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 The Detroit Convention 
 The consummation of the story of Augustana Lutheran Church 
 occurred June 25-27, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan, as the Church met 
 for its one hundred-third and final convention. Some six hundred 
 delegates from all parts of the United States and Canada assembled 
 in Detroit's Cobo Hall for the historic event. Beginning on Monday 
 afternoon, June 25, with a pastor's and layman's conference, the con- 
 vention was formally called to order following the opening service of 
 worship on Monday evening. At the business sessions, Tuesday and 
 Wednesday, June 26 and 27, the delegates listened to the concluding 
 reports from the Church, its officers, institutions, agencies, boards, 
 commissions and committees; they witnessed some dramatic moments 
 as the Synod expressed its appreciation to faithful leaders; they joined 
 in thanksgiving to God for having been privileged to share in the 
 goodly heritage that was Augustana; they looked forward with anti- 
 cipation to the formation of the new Lutheran Church in America. 
 In many ways it was a strange and wonderful convention — an extra- 
 ordinary experience of sensing both the passing and the making of 
 history. The final hour of the convention was perhaps symbolic of 
 the deepest and best in the life of the Augustana Lutheran Church — 
 a festive service of worship at which forty-five young men were or- 
 dained into the holy ministry of Christ's church, and sent forth to 
 be His witnesses on earth. When the ordinands circling the altar 
 sang their class song, 
 
 "Lead on, O King eternal 
 The day of march has come," 
 
 it was as if the vast assembly in Ford Auditorium was hearing a 
 trumpet call to new life and broader service. Then finally, as the presi- 
 dent of the Church pronounced the benediction, the long moment of 
 silence which followed seemed almost like a mystic echo of a great 
 "Amen" sounding down a century of years from the fathers and moth- 
 ers who had laid the foundations of Augustana through sacrifice, toil 
 and prayer, and now beckoned their children to go forward. 
 
 On Thursday morning, June 28, more than 7,500 Lutherans as- 
 sembled in the vast Arena of Cobo Hall. Promptly at nine o'clock, 
 Dr. Malvin H. Lundeen, presiding officer of the constituting convention 
 of the new Church, called the assembly to prayer. A few moments 
 
Augustana Heritage 412 
 
 later the president of each of the uniting bodies stepped to a micro- 
 phone on the platform and read identical statements affirming the 
 consolidating action of his Church. so The statements having been con- 
 cluded the chairman declared the Lutheran Church in America duly 
 constituted. Thus, in less than ten minutes after the opening of the 
 morning session, the new Church had come into being. To symbolize 
 this historic event a dramatic production entitled, "That Men May 
 Live," was presented. The production reached a climax as four acolytes 
 lighted four huge candles which were then slowly pushed together 
 to form one giant taper, the four separate flames becoming one. At 
 the service of Holy Communion which followed immediately, some 
 5,000 people came forward to receive the sacrament at the hands of 
 forty officiating pastors. Thus, the Augustana Lutheran Church, which 
 was begotten in prayer and worship at Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, 
 1860, ended its corporate existence in worship and prayer at Detroit, 
 Michigan, 1962. In prayer and worship it entered into a larger fellow- 
 ship to become part of the Lutheran Church in America. 
 
 Now, to be sure, the consolidation at Detroit, June, 1962, was 
 only a partial fulfillment of the ideal of Lutheran unity which the 
 Augustana Church had so often affirmed, and for which it had prayed 
 and labored. Indeed, it may be said that the joy at Detroit was tem- 
 pered and sobered by the realization of this fact. None the less, there 
 was the firm conviction that even this compromise of a cherished 
 principle and ideal was an act of obedience to the will of God. For 
 at Detroit, and in all the long negotiations leading up to Detroit, 
 there was the implicit, and oft-expressed, hope that even as the four 
 streams of living tradition were now consolidating to form a new 
 and greater and stronger current of Lutheranism, so in God's own 
 good time, the new Lutheran Church in America would itself become 
 a tributary in the formation of an even greater and more inclusive 
 Lutheran Church in the western hemisphere. 
 
 It was in this hope and conviction that the Augustana Church 
 laid down its life to enter the larger fellowship. For as the grain of 
 wheat dies in order to bear fruit, so the Augustana Church gave 
 up its corporate existence in order that the heritage which it embodied 
 and expressed may, by God's infinite grace, enrich and be enriched 
 
 80 The presidents were: A. Einar Farstrup, American Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church, Malvin H. Lundeen, Augustana Lutheran Church, Raymond War- 
 gelin, Suomi Synod, and Franklin Clark Fry, United Lutheran Church. 
 
413 Destiny Fulfilled 
 
 by that enlarging Community which under God shall some day 
 include all Lutherans in America and Canada in one great house- 
 hold of faith. 
 
 Remember, O Lord, Thy Church, to deliver her from all evil 
 
 and to perfect her in Thy love; and gather her together from the 
 
 four winds, sanctified for Thy Kingdom which Thou didst prepare 
 
 for her; for Thine is the power and the glory for ever . . . Amen 
 
 (From the Eucharistic Prayer of the Didache) 
 
w 
 
 ex 
 
 Aasgaard, J. A., 275 
 
 Abrahamson, L. G., 40n, 231, 299n, 305 
 
 Accommodation, 17f., 77, 88 
 
 Advance for Christ, 357 
 
 Ahlberg, P. A., 7, 123f. 
 
 Ahlquist, Abel, 278 
 
 Ahnfelt-Laurin, Emelia, 9n 
 
 Akron declaration, 150 
 
 Altar fellowship, 148 
 
 America fever, 27 
 
 Americanization, 78, 232ff. 
 
 American Home Missionary Society, 30, 
 
 32, 233 
 American Lutheranism, 51ff, 54, 63, 66, 
 
 255 
 American Lutheran Conference, 274ff, 
 
 280f, 283, 296, 369, 380f. 
 American Lutheran Church, 382, 394 
 Ander, O. F., 13n, 39n, 80n, 142n 
 Andersen, Paul, 83f. 
 Anderson, A. G., Picture section 
 Anderson, Arthur I., 342n. 
 Anderson, Arvid, 110 
 Anderson, C. Elmer, 363 
 Anderson, Carl A., 285, 288, 295f. 
 Anderson, Charles, 167, 170, 173 
 Anderson, C. G., 334 
 Anderson, Clarence J., 223 
 Anderson, George N., 313 
 Anderson, I. M., 223, 245 
 Anderson, Ingvar, 4n. 
 Anderson, K. T., 223n. 
 Anderson, K. T., Mrs., 223 
 Anderson, O. V., 302n, 344n. 
 Anderson, Robert Lowell, 360n 
 Anderson, S. T., 227n. 
 Anderson, Wallace, 227n. 
 Andover, Illinois, 24, 30f., 60 
 Andreen, A., 131 
 
 Andreen, Gustav, 223n, 228, 299n, 329 
 Andreen, Paul, 362 
 Andrewsen, Ole, 83 
 Andren, O. C. T., 41f., 65, 89, 97 
 Anglicization, 238, 246 
 Ansgar Academy, 102 
 
 Ansgar societies, 161 
 
 Ansgarius Mission Institute, 174 
 
 Appell, C. J., 262 
 
 Arbaugh, A. H., 229 
 
 Archives, 114 
 
 Arden, G. Everett, 4n, 222n 
 
 Arndt, Johan, 5, 23 
 
 Arthur, O. J., 338 
 
 Association of English Churches, 158, 
 
 243 
 Atonement, doctrine of, 176f. 
 Audio -Visual Service, See Board of 
 
 Audio-Visual Service 
 Augsburg Confession, 54f, 60, 69, 80, 112, 
 
 137n, 143, 165 
 
 American Recension of, 54f, 144 
 
 Augustana (newspaper) 112, 169, 186, 
 
 232, 254f., 287, 306 
 Augustana Book Concern, 113f. 
 Augustana College, 223 
 Augustana College and Theological 
 
 Seminary, 39, 97ff., 196, 203, 207, 227 
 
 Separation of, 345ff . 
 
 Augustana Film Service, 342 
 Augustana Lutheran Churchmen, See 
 
 Lutheran Brotherhood 
 Augustana Lutheran Church Women 
 
 See Woman's Missionary Society 
 Augustana Ministerial Aid Fund, 219 
 Augustana Mission Advance, 356ff. 
 Augustana Quarterly, 289 
 Augustana Social Action, 359ff. 
 Augustana Theological Seminary, 88, 
 
 154 
 Augustana Visual Aids Association, 342 
 Aulen, Gustaf, 361 
 Ausland, J., 131, 200, 213 
 
 Babylonian Captivity, 61ff, 65 
 Backlund, J. O., 23n 
 Baird, Robert, 10, 32 
 Baltimore Declaration, 272 
 Bauslin, David, 47n 
 Barnens Tidning, 204 
 Barnum, P. T., 189 
 
 415 
 
Augustana Heritage 
 
 416 
 
 Barnvannen, 204 
 
 Barth's Bible History, 204 
 
 Beauregard, Pierre, 75 
 
 Beck, L. H., 104, 229 
 
 Beck, Victor E., 108, 207n, 224, 225, 
 
 302n, 310n 
 Beckman, A. F., 180 
 Beckman, Peter, 128 
 Bengtson, C. O., 310n, 354 
 Benson, Adolph, 21n 
 Benson, Fred, 110 
 Benson, Henry N., 223, 299n 
 Benson, John S., Mrs., 310n. 
 Benson, Oscar A., 142n, 232n, 301n, 307, 
 
 310n, 339n, 340n, 354, 362, 382, 384, 
 
 394, 397 
 Benson, Wilbert E., 305 
 Benze, G. T., 229 
 Berg, Axel, 229n 
 Berg, William, 336 
 Bergendoff, Conrad, E., 86n, 223n, 284, 
 
 288n, 289ff., 301f., 305, 307, 309, 310n, 
 
 329, 352, 362, 391 
 Bergin, Alfred, 131n, 250, 305 
 Bergquist, A. T., 299n 
 Bergstrand, Lorraine, 342 
 Bergstrand, Wilton, 301, 341n, 342f. 
 Bergstrom, Charles, 363 
 BerseU, A. O. 223 
 Bersell, P. O., 277, 280, 301, 306f., 309, 
 
 310n, 311, 329ff., 338, 354, 380f., 384 
 Beskow, G. E., 180 
 Bethany College, 103, 223 
 Bible Banner, 287, 316f. 
 Bible School movement, 311f. 
 Billing Einar, 361 
 Billing, Gottfrid, 180 
 Bishop Hill, Illinois, 12, 15, 24 
 Bjork, Carl A., 160, 170 
 Blaine, James G., 189 
 Blanchard, J., 32 
 Blancke, W. H., 229 
 Blom, Hans, 164 
 Blomgren, C. A., 261n, 234n 
 Board of Audio -Visual Service, 343 
 See Department of Audio-Visual 
 
 Service 
 Board of Foreign Missions, 120, 123 
 Board of Parish Education, 342 
 
 Board of Youth Activities, 341 
 
 Bonander, Frank, 108 
 
 Bowman, Algot J., 379n 
 
 Bowman, Janice, 227n. 
 
 Boy's Work Program, 224ff. 
 
 Brandelle, Gustaf Albert, 241, 247, 253f., 
 
 260, 262f., 266, 272, 278f., 296, 298f., 304, 
 
 328f. 
 Brandt, Gustaf, 9n 
 Brase, Hagbard, 223 
 Bring, Ragnar, 361 
 Brodine, P. J., 131n. 
 Buchanan, James, 75 
 Buffalo Synod, 56 
 Burke, Rudolph, 310n, 342n 
 
 Cameron, Senator, 189 
 
 Campanius, John, 20 
 
 Capital University, 59f. 
 
 Carlsen, N. C, 383 
 
 Carlson, A. B., 119n, 125 
 
 Carlson, Anna, 223 
 
 Carlson, Edgar M., 362, 384 
 
 Carlson, Einar G., 340n 
 
 Carlsson, Erland, 40f., 51, 70, 73, 80, 95f., 
 Ill, 140f., 153, 167f., 182, 203, 207, 233, 
 239 
 
 Carlson, Leslie A., Mrs., 310n 
 
 Carlson, Martin K, 207n, 310n, 339n 
 
 Carlson, Peter, 128, 131 
 
 Carlberg, Gustav, 302n 
 
 Carlfelt, C. G., 362 
 
 Carlton, E. C, 223 
 
 Carnegie, Andrew, 189 
 
 Caspari, C. A., 55 
 
 Catechism, 20, 107, 112, 203 
 
 Cederberg, W. E., 223 
 
 Cederstam, P. A., 128, 194 
 
 Centennial 
 
 Congregational, 25, 340f. 
 
 Thankoff ering, 341f . 
 
 Synodical, 1, 408f. 
 
 Charles XV, King, 89 
 
 Chicago Bladet, 186 
 
 Chicago Conference, 82, 120 
 
 Chicago Daily Journal, 34 
 
 Chicago Lutheran Seminary, 155 
 
 Chicago-Mississippi Conference, 135 
 
 See also United Scandinavian Con- 
 ference 
 
417 
 
 Index 
 
 Chicago Theses, 267, 271, 386, 388 
 
 Children's homes, 1161, 118, 118n 
 
 Chiliasm, 147f. 
 
 Christenson, J. A., 223n, 278 
 
 Christian Growth Series, 109 
 
 Christianson, John A., 223n 
 
 Christianson, John H., 338, 352 
 
 Church and State, 365 
 
 Church Book, (General Council) 200 
 
 Church Book Committee, 200 
 
 Church Extension Fund, 336f. 
 
 Church of Sweden, 4, 5, 165, 180, 200 
 
 Civil War, 75f., 91fT. 
 
 Clausen, C. L. 141 
 
 Clay, T. O, 21n 
 
 Claypool, James, 110 
 
 Colseth, P., 153 
 
 Collin, Nicholas, 21 
 
 Commission on Church Architecture, 
 344 
 
 Commission on Church Architecture 
 and Building Finance, 345 
 
 Commission on Ecumenical Relations, 
 227, 398f. 
 
 Commission on Life and Growth, 340 
 
 Commission on Morals and Social 
 Problems, 364 
 
 Commission on Social Action, 364 
 
 Commission on Stewardship Education, 
 339 
 
 Commission on Worship, 352n 
 
 Committee of Forty-five, 394f., 396 
 
 Committee of Thirty-four, 383ff. 
 
 Committee of Twenty-seven, 394ff. 
 
 Committee on Church Unity, 278 
 
 Committee on Examination and Place- 
 ment, 225 
 
 Committee on Lutheran Unity, 384ff. 
 
 Committee on Pulpit and Altar Fellow- 
 ship, 278 
 
 Communism, 365 
 
 Common Service Book and Committee, 
 321 
 
 Conkling, Roscoe, 189 
 
 Cornell, Paul, 110 
 
 Dahlsten, A. W., 
 Dancing, 366 
 
 164 
 
 Danielson, G. A., 334 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, 75 
 
 Deere, Emil A., 223 
 
 Definite Synodical Platform, 47, 53 
 
 Delaware episode, 20f. 
 
 Den Norske Lutheraner, 137, 138 
 
 Department of Audio-Visual Service, 
 223n 
 
 Department of Church Architecture 
 and Building Finance, 223n 
 
 Department of Stewardship and Fi- 
 nance, 223n 
 
 Detroit convention, 1962, 411ff. 
 
 Differentiation, 17, 77, 88 
 
 Director of Finance, 339 
 
 Director of Stewardship, 339 
 
 Douglas, Stephen, 75 
 
 Drew, Daniel, 189 
 
 Duryea, Brothers, 189 
 
 Eberhart, Adolph O., 229 
 
 Eckstrom, J. A., 299n 
 
 Ecumenical confessionalism, 270f., 275, 
 
 297 
 Ecumenical movement 
 Faith and Order, 265, 296, 303, 305, 
 
 306 
 Life and Work, 265, 296, 304, 305, 
 
 360, 368f. 
 International Missionary Council, 
 
 296 
 Edmund, Elmer L., 344n 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 33 
 Edquist, Carl, 5n 
 Edquist, J. A., 223 
 Edwins, Sam, 223n, 227n 
 Eggen, M., 141 
 Eilert, E. F., 262 
 Eisenhower, Dwight, 1 
 Ekblad, A. T., 299n 
 Ekelund, Walter, Mrs., 310n 
 Elmquist, Annette, 313 
 Eliufoo, Solomon, 307 
 Emigrationsutredningen, 4n, 12n, 14n, 
 
 236 
 Enander-Bohman, 199 
 Enander, J. A., 241 
 Engberg, Emmer, 339n 
 Engberg-Holmberg, 113, 201 
 
Augustana Heritage 
 
 418 
 
 English Hymnal, 201, 251 
 
 English Synod of Illinois, 49 
 
 Englund, Eskil, 310n 
 
 Engstrom, S. E., 301f., 310n, 334, 341n, 
 
 389f., 397f. 
 Enstam, Maria, 212 
 Erickson, Frans A., 223 
 Erickson, John, 224 
 Erickson, Knut E., 340f. 
 Erickson, Willis F., 336 
 Erlangen theology, 270n 
 Esbjorn, C. L., 223 
 Esbjorn, Joseph and Paul, 76 
 Esbjorn, Lars P., 16, 21, 24, 27-38, 49fi\, 
 
 59, 60f., 621, 65f., 67f, 69f, 71, 73, 79ff., 
 
 95, 96, 174 
 Essentials of a Catholic Spirit, 266f. 
 Estrem, A., 136 
 Evald, Carl A., 208 
 Evald, Emmy Carlsson, 208, 211f. 
 Evangelical Covenant Church, 1, 18, 
 
 161n 
 Evangelical Immanuel Association for 
 
 Works of Mercy, 215 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church, 268f., 
 
 384, 394 
 Evangelical Review, 48 
 Evangelism, 336 
 
 Director of, 336 
 
 Every Member Canvass, 338 
 
 Everett, C. P., 354 
 
 Exclusive confessionalism, 271, 389 
 
 Fahlund, George, 108 
 
 Fahrer, Walter, 223 
 
 Federal Council of Churches of Christ 
 
 in America, 368 
 Federal Home Loan Bank Board, 326 
 Ferm, Vergilius, 56n, 286 
 Finance Committee, (first synodical), 
 
 338f. 
 Fisk, James, 189 
 Fjellstedt, Peter, 9, 39 
 Flodman, Julius and Augusta, 224 
 Fogelstrom, E. A., 215ff. 
 Forsander, Nils, 40n, 230 
 Fort Sumpter, 75 
 Foss, Claude W., 223 
 Fredstrom, R. L., 310n 
 
 Freeman, Orville, 363 
 Frisk, C. E., 242 
 Fryxell, Carl, 223 
 Fundamentahsts, 285 
 Fry, Franklin Clark, 1, 311, 381f., 387, 
 399, 402 
 
 Galesburg Rule, 150, 184, 267 
 
 Gambling, 367 
 
 Gardiner, Robert H., 303 
 
 General Council, 103, 125, 143ff., 199, 
 
 234, 239, 240, 242, 254, 257f., 284, 297 
 General Synod, 46, 49, 51f., 63, 73, 239, 
 
 242, 255 
 German Luther League, 298 
 Gidlund, Martin, 166n 
 Godkin, Edward Lawrence, 189 
 Goranson, Gunnar, 299n 
 Gould, Jay, 189 
 Grabau, J. A. A., 55 
 Grafstrom, Olof, 223 
 Granquist, Verner, A., 344n 
 Great Depression, 328f. 
 Gullixson, T. F., 383f. 
 Gummeson (Gunnerson), 182 
 Gustafson, O. O., 309, 340n, 354 
 Gustafson, Thorsten, 302n, 310n, 339, 
 
 385 
 Gustavus Adolphus College, 102, 182, 
 
 223, 229 
 
 Hall, George, 310n 
 
 Hall, G. Oakley, 189 
 
 Hallet, Milton, 223n 
 
 Hammarberg, Melvin, 301, 342n 
 
 Handbook, 199 
 
 Hanson, Adolph, 384 
 
 Hanson, F. O., 244 
 
 Hansen, Marcus Lee, 44n, 235n 
 
 Harkey, Simon, 49n, 50, 67, 69, 70, 71, 
 
 139 
 Harms, Claus, 121 
 Harrisville, L., 229 
 Hasselquist, T. N., 16, 39ff, 51, 57, 80f., 
 
 84f., 89, 95, 96, 971, 99, 100, 105, 111, 
 
 113, 139, 155, 164, 200, 201, 203, 233, 
 
 239, 249 
 Hatlestad, O. J., 84, 89, 140, 141 
 Haupt, A. J., 240 
 Hearst, William Randolph, 189 
 
419 
 
 Index 
 
 Heckscher, Eli, F., 4n 
 
 Hedberg, F. G., 6 
 
 Hedberg, Raymond, 302 
 
 Hedengren, C. A., 128 
 
 Hedenschoug, A. W., 164 
 
 Hedin, Naboth, 21n 
 
 Hedstrom, Jonas J., 22, 24, 32, 57 
 
 Hedstrom, Olof G., 22, 24, 30 
 
 Hein, C. C, 224ff. 
 
 Hemlandet, 39, 81, 84, 94, 111, 112, 119, 
 
 169, 182, 241 
 Hemlandssanger, 201 
 Hendrickson, Roy A., 223 
 Hengstenberg, E. W., 55 
 Henry, A. O., 242 
 Herlenius, Emil, 12n, 24n 
 Heyer, C. F., 81 
 Hill, Gertrude, 110 
 Hill, S. M., 223 
 Hille, 27 
 
 Hillsboro College, 59 
 Hocanzon, L. A., 131 
 Hoffsten, C. K, 261n 
 Hokenson, Henry, 335 
 Holmen, Robert, W., 115n, 227n, 302, 363 
 Holmen, Warren, 343 
 Holmgren, John, 5n 
 Home Missions Conference, 265 
 Homes for Aged, 119n 
 Homes for Invalids, 119n 
 Hoof, Jacob Otto, 6 
 Hoover, Herbert, 326 
 Hospices, 119n 
 Hospitals, 119n 
 Hoyer, Conrad, 302n 
 Huet, A., 168 
 Hult, A, 183, 204 
 Hult, Adolf, 8n, 287, 317f. 
 Hult, P., 224 
 Hultgren, Gunnar, 1 
 Hyperevangelism, 160ff. 
 Hakanson, Magnus, 24fL, 162f. 
 Hagglund, S. G., 12n, 318 
 
 Identification, 18f., 159 
 Illinois Central Railroad, 95 
 Illinois Conference, 101, 248 
 Illinois State University, 38, 50, 59, 60, 
 64, 67, 73, 79 
 
 Immanuel Deaconess Association, 216f. 
 Immanuel Hospital, 216 
 Immigration, Swedish, 12ff. 
 International Youth Conference, 379 
 Iowa Conference, 101, 248 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 94 
 
 Jackson, Carl, 223 
 
 Jacobs, Charles M., 268f. 
 
 Jacobs, Henry E., 229, 256, 266 
 
 Jacobson, Carl H., 223n, 227n 
 
 Jacobson, E. R., 339n 
 
 Janson, Eric, 12, 15, 23, 24 
 
 Janson, Florence K, 127 
 
 Jefferson Prairie, Wisconsin, 2, 79, 83, 
 128 
 
 Jensen, Alfred, 387 
 
 Johansen, Johan, 94 
 
 Johnson, Adolph, 278 
 
 Johnson, Amandus, 21n 
 
 Johnson, Bruce, 227n 
 
 Johnson, Emeroy, 43n, 118n, 157n 
 
 Johnson, Eric, 24n 
 
 Johnson, Gisle, 100 
 
 Johnson, Hjalmar W., 285, 288, 294f. 
 
 Johnson, O. J., 214n, 266, 272 
 
 Johnson, Philip, 363 
 
 Johnson, Roy W., 223 
 
 Johnson, Reynold N., 336 
 
 Johnson, S. O., 224 
 
 Johnstone, Lawrence A., 231, 235, 329ff. 
 
 Johnston, Theodore, E., 354 
 
 Joint Commission on Common Liturgy 
 and Hymnal, 323ff. 
 
 Joint Commission on Hymnal and 
 Liturgy, 325n 
 
 Joint Commission on Lutheran Unity, 
 JCLU, 402ff. 
 
 Joint Committee on Doctrine and Prac- 
 tice, 265, 272 
 
 Joint Committee on Union, 384f., 394 
 401 
 
 Joint Synod of Ohio, 25 
 
 Joranson, Tage, 354 
 
 Jubilee, 1910, 227ff. 
 
 Karleen, Karl, 183 
 Kassel, Peter, 24, 25 
 Keiter, W. D. C, 256 
 
Augustana Heritage 
 
 420 
 
 Kempe, Andrew, 223 
 Kendall, Leonard, 305 
 Kilander, Holger, 385 
 Kirkelig Maanedstidende, 58 
 Kling, Linus, 223 
 Klove, A. A., 84 
 Know-Nothing Party, 44 
 Kolmodin, Adolf, 250 
 Knubel, F. H., 262, 266f. 
 Knubel-Jacobs Theses, 269f., 297 
 Knudsen, Johannes, 402 
 Krogness, S. M., 138 
 Kurtz, Benjamin, 53 
 
 Labor, 367 
 
 Laestadius, Lars L., 6 
 
 Lancaster Compromise, 156, 240 
 
 Landin, J. A. S., 299n, 354 
 
 Landwer, Donald F., 1 
 
 Langeland, K, 73 
 
 Landgren, L. L., 180 
 
 Larsen, Lauritz, 262 
 
 Larson, Arthur, 354 
 
 Larson, Edor, 131n 
 
 Larson, S. G., 128, 131 
 
 Lawson, Evald, 131n 
 
 Lawson, Ivar, 73 
 
 Layman, Role of, 221ff. 
 
 Lenski, R. C, 255 
 
 Leonardson, C. Oscar, Picture Section 
 
 Leonardson, Otto, 223, 306, 338f. 
 
 Levander, Eskil, lln 
 
 LeVander, Harold, 227, 354, 363 
 
 LeVander, Theodor, 305f. 
 
 Liljegren, N. M., 22n 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 75f. 
 
 Lincoln, Julius, 158n 
 
 Lind, Jenny, 36, 198 
 
 Lindahl, C. J., 168 
 
 Lindahl, S. P. A., 131, 168, 195, 204 
 
 Lindahl, Joshua, 223 
 
 Lindberg, Conrad Emil, 2491, 283f. 
 
 Lindberg, John S., 14n 
 
 Lindberg, P. M., 216n 
 
 Lindholm, S. A., Picture Section 
 
 Lindman, Charles, 117 
 
 Lindquist, Emory, 223n, 301f., 310n 
 
 339n, 384 
 Lingwall, Martin, 336 
 
 Linner, H. P., 223 
 
 Liquor, 370 
 
 Lodges, 149 
 
 Lof, Carl, 344 
 
 Long, Ralph, 301 
 
 Lulea, 11 
 
 Lund, Doniver, 342n 
 
 Lund, Edla, 223 
 
 Lund, Emil, 131n 
 
 Lund, Gene J., 232n 
 
 Lund, Wendell, 302, 307, 363 
 
 Lundeen, Joel, 114 
 
 Lundeen, Malvin H., 302, 307, 354, 405, 
 409, 411 
 
 Lund-Quist, Carl, 1, 301f. 
 
 Lundquist, C. O., 245 
 
 Lund, Sweden, 5 
 
 Lund University, 40, 42 
 
 Lutheran Bible Institute, 314fT. 
 
 Lutheran Brotherhood, 220fl\ 
 
 Lutheran Church in America, 2, 68, 74, 
 226, 307, 406 
 
 Lutheran Companion, 254, 285, 287, 296, 
 306 
 
 Lutheran Free Church, 384, 394 
 
 Lutheran Observer, 48, 54 
 
 Lutheran School of Theology at Chica- 
 go, 410 
 
 Lutheran unity, 379ff. 
 
 Lutheran World Convention, 298f. 
 
 Lutheran World Federation, 2, 300ff., 
 379 
 
 Luther College, 104, 223 
 
 Luther League, 208ff., 341 
 
 Luther League Conference, 209 
 
 Luther League Review, 208 
 
 Luther, Martin, 5, 23 
 
 Lutersk kyrko-tidning, 137n 
 
 Mac Millan, E. F., 223n 
 Magnusson, J. P., 223 
 Malmberg, C. A., 163 
 Matson, Milo, 302 
 Matson, Theodore E., 302n, 336 
 Mattson, Alvin D., 86n, 284, 288, 362 
 Mattson, Karl E., 302, 356, 362, 384 
 Mattson, P. A., 278 
 Marriage and Divorce, 371 
 Martin, Daniel, Mrs., 306 
 McKinley, William, 103 
 
421 
 
 Index 
 
 Menter, Norman, 1 
 
 Meuser, Fred W., 266n, 274n 
 
 Michelfelder, S. C, 300 
 
 Mikkelsen, Michael, 12n 
 
 MiUer, E. Clarence, 256 
 
 Miller, Samuel M., 287, 313f., 336 
 
 Minneapolis Theses, 275ff., 288, 384, 386, 
 388 
 
 Minnesota Conference, 81, 101, 102, 118, 
 157, 194, 240, 248 
 
 Minnesota Elementar Laroverk, 102 
 
 Minnesota posten, 81 
 
 Minnesota Synod, 81 
 
 Mission Free Church, 188 
 
 Mission Friends, 161ff., 181ff. 
 
 See also Evangelical Covenant 
 
 Church 
 
 Missions 
 
 Board of American, 336 
 
 Central Board, 129ff ., 332f. 
 
 English Home, 156f. 
 
 Foreign, 119ff. 
 
 Home (American), 127ff. 
 
 Indian, 124f. 
 
 Mormon, 125 
 
 Negro, 123f. 
 
 Puerto Rico, 125 
 
 Social, 115f. 
 
 See also Augustana Mission Ad- 
 vance 
 
 Missions bladet, 120 
 
 Mission Society, 163ff. 
 
 Missionsvannen, 186 
 
 Mission Tidings, 213 
 
 Missiondren, 120 
 
 Mississippi Conference, 60, 68, 82, 94, 
 105 
 
 Missouri Synod, 1, 2, 147, 290 
 
 Mixed Communion, 148 
 
 Modernists, 285 
 
 Mohldenke, E. F., 208 
 
 Moratkhare, Knanishu, 125 
 
 Moravians, 5, 10 
 
 Mortvedt, Robert, 223n, 302 
 
 National Council of Churches, 2, 227, 
 
 308ff , 389 
 National Evangelical Foundation, 10, 16, 
 
 90, 121, 181, 229 
 
 (Evangeliska Fosterlandsstiftelsen) 
 
 National Lutheran Commission for Sol- 
 diers and Sailors, 248, 261, 262 
 
 National Lutheran Council, 226, 260ff., 
 379 
 
 National Origins Act, 237 
 
 National Society Opposed to Emigra- 
 tion, 236 
 
 Nativism, American, 44f. 
 
 Nelson, Anton A., 335 
 
 Nelson, Mrs. Clarence T., 341n 
 
 Nelson, Clifford A., 301, 305, 344n 
 
 Nelson, Frank, 210 
 
 Nelson, N. A., 223n, 262 
 
 New Approach, 328ff. 
 
 New Deal, 327f. 
 
 Newman, Ernst, 5n 
 
 New Measures, 45f. 
 
 New Service Book and Hymnal, 319ff. 
 
 New Sweden, Delaware, 20 
 
 New Sweden, Iowa, 24, 340 
 
 Niebuhr, H. Richard, 16 
 
 Nikander, J. A., 229 
 
 Nilson, Brita, 118 
 
 Nilson, N. A., 306 
 
 Nilsson, F. O., 26 
 
 Norberg, Otto, 21n 
 
 Nordgren, J. Vincent, 108, 341n 
 
 Norelius, Eric, 22n, 39n, 40n, 42f., 50f., 
 60, 65, 68, 78, 80f., 90, 94, 95, 102, 106, 
 1171, 128, 194, 197, 203, 230f., 233, 235, 
 241, 303 
 
 Norquist, N. Leroy, 110 
 
 Norwegians, 
 
 Augustana, 136f. 
 
 Church, 65, 73 
 
 Illinois, 79 
 
 Missionary Society, 122 
 
 Norwegian -Danish Synod, 140, 141 
 
 Wisconsin Synod, 58 
 
 Nothstein, I. O., 158n, 238, 362 
 
 Nygren, Anders, 361 
 
 Nyman, Per, 6 
 
 Nystrom, Eric, 180 
 
 Nyvall, C. J., 6 
 
 Nyvall, David, 142n, 161n 
 
 Ochsenford, S. E., 143n, 144n 
 Oden, Joshua, 341n 
 
Augustana Heritage 
 
 422 
 
 Olive Branch, 49n, 50 
 
 Olander, O. Karl, 302 
 
 Old Lutheranism, 5, 15, 16, 51ff. 
 
 Olson, E. W., 124n, 164n 
 
 Olson, John Helmer, 108, 341n 
 
 Olson, Karl J., 223 
 
 Olson, O. N., 42n, 89n 
 
 Olsson, J. Herman, 335 
 
 Olsson, Herbert, 361 
 
 Olsson, Karl A., 161n, 188n 
 
 Olsson, Olof, 124, 186, 203, 207, 223n 
 
 229, 249 
 Oscar n, King, 228 
 Oslattfors, 27 
 Overland, Per, 1 
 
 Palmer, Theodore K, 341n 
 
 Palmquist, Gustaf, 26, 35, 57 
 
 Parish, Education, 109f. 
 
 Parochialism, 192 
 
 Passavant, W. A., 35f., 81, 116f., 141, 
 
 156, 240 
 Paulsen, Ola, 89 
 Paxton, Illinois, 95, 100, 116 
 Pearson, Richard B., 310n, 339n 
 Peel, F. F., 254 
 Pehrson, Pehr, 228 
 Peng Fu, 1 
 
 Pension and Aid Fund, 218ff. 
 Peters, G., 168, 230 
 Peterson, C. F., 24n 
 Peterson, C. J. P., 136, 137n 
 Peterson, Conrad, 223 
 Peterson, Fredina, 216 
 Peterson, John, 164 
 Peterson, Peter, 126n, 262 
 Pfotenhauer, F., 296 
 Pierson, Glen, 363 
 Pietism, 5f. 
 Pietisten, 9, 162, 176 
 Pleijel, Hilding, 5n 
 Pomeroy, Senator, 189 
 Poppen, Emmanuel, 382 
 Prairie Herald, 34 
 Princell, J. G., 174, 182ff, 204 
 Pro Deo et Patria, 225 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, 303 
 Psalmbook, 199 
 Pulitzer, Joseph, 189 
 
 Pulpit fellowship, 148 
 Puritanism, 197, 198 
 
 Quist, H. P., 204 
 
 Race relations, 373 
 
 Rang, Ephraim, 229 
 
 Rasmussen, Carl, 402 
 
 Rasmussen, Gerhard, 229 
 
 Rast, G., 304 
 
 Raymond, Marvin, 108 
 
 Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 
 
 326 
 Reichart, A. J., 229 
 Repristination theology, 55f., 264, 270, 
 
 288 
 Republican party, 75f., 113, 192 
 Res externae, 264 
 Res internae, 264 
 Responsible parenthood, 374f. 
 Reuterdahl, Henrik, 2n 
 Reynolds, William N., 36, 67, 69, 70, 71 
 Richter, F., 229, 225, 266 
 Rodin, Nils, 5n 
 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 326f. 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 103 
 Rosenius, Carl Olof, 8, 10, 27, 99, 100, 
 
 160, 174, 198, 249 
 Rundstrom, Inez, 223 
 Rydbeck, J. E., 299n 
 Ryden, E. E., 290n, 296, 299, 306, 384, 
 
 390f. 
 Rydholm, C. P., 131 
 Ronnegard, Sam, 27n 
 
 Sandahl, C. F., 131n, 277 
 
 Sandewall, Allen, 5n, lln, 166n 
 
 Sandgren, Carl H., 345 
 
 Sandzen, Birger, 223 
 
 Sanngren, J. M., 168, 170 
 
 Sannquist, Ida, 212 
 
 Scandinavian professorship, 60, 64 
 
 Scandinavian Theological Seminary, 68 
 
 Schartau, Henric, 5, 6, 10 
 
 Scheele, K. H. G. von, 228 
 
 Schersten, A. F., 362 
 
 Schmauck, T. E., 229 
 
 Schmucker, S. S., 38, 47, 52ff, 144, 255 
 
 Schuette, C. H. L., 262, 266 
 
423 
 
 Index 
 
 Schuh, H. F., 382 
 Schultz, Beverly, 110 
 Schwiebert, Lloyd, 342n 
 Scott, George, 7, 10, 27 
 Scouting, 
 
 Boy, 225 
 
 Girl, 225n 
 
 Seamen's center, 119n 
 
 Seastrand, Paul, 363 
 
 Sebelius, S. J., 277, 298 
 
 Secret Societies, 149 
 
 Segerhammar, Carl W., 302 
 
 Segerhammar, Carl W., Mrs., 227n 
 
 Sellergren, Lorentz, 6 
 
 Siegel, William, 354, 357, 362 
 
 Sifford, Bruce, 343 
 
 Sifford, Roger, 223n 
 
 Sions baner, 171, 186 
 
 Sisco, L. D., 44n 
 
 Sjoblom, Peter, 194, 195 
 
 Sjogren, P. N., 244 
 
 Sjostrand, C. E., 223 
 
 Skatfaren, 186 
 
 Skogsbergh, E. A., 186 
 
 Smith, Doris, 110 
 
 Smith, Harold A., 354, 384 
 
 Social Creed, 368 
 
 Social Security, 375f. 
 
 Social Missions, 115ff. 
 
 Sockman, Ralph W., 311 
 
 Sodergren, Carl, 302 
 
 Sodergren, C. J., 245, 250, 285, 287, 352 
 
 Sorensen, C. W., 223n, 227n, 307 
 
 Spaeth, Adolph, 53n 
 
 Spong, Bernard, 363 
 
 Spong, Bernard, Mrs., 227n 
 
 Sprecher, Samuel, 53 
 
 Springer, Francis, 48f. 
 
 Squire Adamsson, 175 
 
 Stark, Evelyn, 302 
 
 Stephens, Alexander, 75 
 
 Stephenson, George M., 15n, 39n, 44n, 
 
 155n, 158n 
 Stolpe, Mauritz, 298 
 Stomberg, A. A., 135 
 Strom, A. B., 339n 
 
 Stub, H. G., 229, 262, 265, 266f., 275, 386 
 Storaasli, Gordon, 223n 
 Subcommittee of Fifteen, 383f. 
 
 Sunday School Songbook, 201 
 
 Sundberg, S. W., 164f., 236 
 
 Sundin, Martin, 168 
 
 Sundkler, Bengt, 119n 
 
 Sundquist, Hjalmar, 172n 
 
 Swanberg, E. W., 354 
 
 Swanson, Carl H., 338, 338n 
 
 Swanson, C. R., 257, 335 
 
 Swanson, D. Verner, 108, 340n, 352, 
 
 354, 384 
 Swanson, Ruth, 110 
 Swanson, S. Hjalmar, 120n, 310n, 333, 
 
 341n 
 Swedish Church life, 4ff. 
 
 See Church of Sweden 
 
 Swedish Church Book, 199, 200, 201 
 Swedish Episcopal Church, 22 
 Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Ansgar- 
 
 ius Synod in U. S., 173 
 Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission- 
 ary Association of Chicago, 168 
 Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission 
 
 Church of Chicago, 169 
 Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Mission 
 
 Synod of America, 173 
 Swedish Mission Covenant, 181 
 Swedish Mission Covenant, American, 
 
 187 
 Swedish Mission Society, 121 
 Swedish Psalmbok, 200, 201 
 Swedish Tract Society, 6, 7 
 Sweet, W. W., 45n 
 Sweeting, Maurice, 1 
 Swenson, Birger, 114, 340n 
 Swenson, Carl A., 227n 
 Swenson, Emil, 310n, 340n 
 Swenson, J. Sabin, 302 
 Swensson, Alma, 212 
 Swensson, Bothilda, 215f. 
 Swensson, Carl A., 40n, 103, 229 
 Swensson, G. Sigfrid, 125 
 Swensson, Jonas, 41, 103, 117, 139, 203, 
 
 239 
 Synodical Board of Home Missions, 244 
 Synodical Council, 196, 244 
 Synodical headquarters, 331f. 
 Synodical Sunday School Secretary, 
 
 108 
 Synod of Illinois, 61, 69 
 
Augustana Heritage 
 
 424 
 
 Synod of Northern Illinois, 36f., 44ff., 
 51f., 60, 61, 66, 67, 70, 73, 77, 80, 82, 
 85, 134fT., 170, 233 
 Synod of the Northwest, 157, 240 
 Soderblom, Nathan, 274f., 304, 317, 361 
 
 Taft, William Howard, 229 
 
 TALC, 404 
 
 Telleen, John, 124, 131, 207, 241 
 
 Temperance, 6 
 
 Tested, A. H., 84 
 
 Thelander, Roy F., 313 
 
 Theses on Marriage and its Relation to 
 
 Divorce, 371 
 Thorelius, F., 4n, 5n 
 Torkillus, Reorus, 20 
 Tornell, Gustaf, 361 
 Trabert, George, 240 
 Tressler, V. G. A., 225 
 Traffic safety, 376 
 Truman, Harry, 308 
 Twain, William Marcy, 189 
 Twain, Mark, 189 
 
 Udden, J. A., 223 
 
 Ulrich, E. K., 63, 64 
 
 Undeen, P., 168 
 
 United Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
 
 383f., 394 
 
 United Lutheran Church in America, 
 125, 157, 253ff., 264, 283, 284, 399ff. 
 
 United Rock River and Mendota Con- 
 ferences, 49 
 
 United Scandinavian Conferences, 61, 
 62, 65, 70, 73, 79, 82n, 86, 111, 
 
 United Testimony on Faith and Life, 
 386, 388, 391 
 
 Unonius, Gustaf, 22, 57 
 
 Uppsala University, 8, 27, 42 
 
 Upsala College, 104, 223, 229 
 
 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 189 
 Vickner, Edwin J., 223 
 Victoria, Illinois, 22, 32 
 Victorson, Frans, 225 
 Vig, P. S., 229 
 Vilmar, August, 55 
 
 Wadstrom, B., lln 
 
 Wahlstrom, Eric H., 285, 288, 293f., 307 
 
 Wahlstrom, M., 118n, 124, 229 
 
 Waldenstrom, P. P., 18, 174ff. 
 
 Waller, H. A., 256, 262 
 
 Wallenius, C. J., 22n 
 
 Wallin, J. E., 223 
 
 Walther, C. F. W., 55f., 74, 147, 290 
 
 Wanfelt, Arthur E., 223n 
 
 War and Peace, 377f. 
 
 Washington declaration, 271 
 
 Wargelin, Raymond, 1, 402 
 
 Weenaas, August, 79, 99, 137n, 138 
 
 Weidner, F. Revere, 155 
 
 Welinder, P. P., 180 
 
 Wendell, Claus A., 245, 285, 287, 313 
 
 Wentz, Abdel Ross, 298 
 
 Westberg, Lael, 109, 302, 310n 
 
 Westergren, N. O., 22n 
 
 Westin, Gunnar, 8n, 27n 
 
 Wiberg, Anders, 35 
 
 Wieselgren, Peter, 6, 27 
 
 Wieselgren, Sigfrid, 7n 
 
 Wilson, Woodrow, 247 
 
 WUliamson, A W., 223 
 
 Wingren, Gustaf, 361 
 
 Winquist, Thomas, 200 
 
 Wold, Olga M., 15n., 127n 
 
 Wood, Fernando, 189 
 
 World Council of Churches, 2, 307, 379, 
 
 389 
 World Sunday School Associated 379 
 World War II, 339, 379 
 
 Youngdahl, Luther W., 362 
 Youngdahl, Reuben K., 384f. 
 Youngert, S. G., 250, 263n, 266, 272 
 Young People's Society, 207 
 Youngquist, J. G., Picture Section 
 Youth Program, 206fr. 
 Yngliga fbreningen, 206 
 See Luther League 
 
 Zimmerman, John L., 262 
 
 Ohman, S. G., 208n 
 Ostervala, 27, 97