V. MODERNQUESTIONSOF BIBLICALHERMENEUTICS
16. Teaching History through Preaching
Some Patterns of Historical Interpretation in the Sermons of the Lutheran Pastor Heinrich Friihlich (1826-l 881)
Klaus Friihlich
Translated by Johanna Froehlich Swartzentruber
Thus, histories and tales contain all manner of laws, art, good counsel, warning, threat, intimidation, comfort, a@mation, instruction, caution, wisdoq prudence along with all the virtues, flowing as from a living spring. That is, histories are nothing other than an indication, memorial and sign of God’s works and judgments; how he sustains, governs, hinders, promotes, punishes and honors the world and human beings in particular; according to what each one deserves -good or evil.
- Martin Luther’
1. From Luther’s preface to “Historia Galeatii Capellae” (1538), in D. Martin Luthers Werke WA, 50:83ff.
My thanks are due to Princeton Theological Seminary, and to the chairmen of the symposium, Mark Burrows and Paul Rorem. My wife and I were honored to be invited as representatives of the Froehlich family f;om Germany. 1 would like to dedicate this essay to Princeton Seminary and all its scholars, who represent the expertise, collegial spirit, and generous hospitality which we so abundantly experienced in Princeton.
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In every piece of memory there lies a bit of salvation.
- J&n Riben
I
The idea for this study originated during the symposium which was held at Princeton Theological Seminary in May 1990 on the occasion of the 60th birthday of my brother, Karlfried Froehlich. As I read the lecture texts and attempted to follow the wide-ranging discussions as well as my status as a theological layman and my limited command of the language would allow, the question arose in my mind as to what sense of history - what particular historical understanding - was presupposed by the examples of biblical interpretation being analyzed and by the various positions repre- sented in the discussions. This is not a new question, and answers were not lacking in the contributions to the symposium: it was, after all, dedicated to the history of biblical interpretation - and the experts in this field know all too well that they are not dealing in eternal truths but in historical contingencies.
This is the question I propose to deal with here, but in a narrower, more specific framework. I will examine how historical elements are used in the articulation of the religious consciousness of a particular time and place, and how their form and content is shaped by this context. In other words, how is historical consciousness structured and how does it function in the religious interpretation of a given cultural framework? The material I will discuss bears directly on the topic of the symposium, and has a personal significance for Karlfried Froehlich. Its genre locates it in the field of biblical interpretation: sermons from the second half of the nineteenth century, which present themselves as proclamation of the Word of God and upon formal examination reveal themselves as practical biblical interpreta- tion. A personal link to the symposium’s honoree exists because these sermons were held at weekly services from 1860 to 1865 by Karlfried’s great-grandfather Heinrich Friihlich during his years as pastor of the Lutheran diaconal convent in Dresden.3
2. Jorn Riisen, Zeit und Sinn. Strategien historischen Denkens (Frankfurt, 1990), 12.
3. The texts of thirty sermons by Heinrich Friihlkh are extant in the Frohlich family archives in Bochum. Their length varies from 6 to 17 manuscript pages. With the exception of two sermons, they are numbered sequentially as part of a much more extensive collection, the rest of which is lost. (Cf. the index of the extant numbers in the Appendix, pp. 287-90 below.) The last sermon, preserved separately and dated September 5, 1880, seems to be the only one in Heinrich Frohlich’s own hand. The rest are all in a single hand, with the exception
TEACHING HISTORY THROUGH PREACHING 265
The methods of this study may differ in some respects from those of a theological analysis, though I do not think they are far from those which a church historian might employ. I will not, however, be searching for theological or church-historical connections in a narrow sense; rather, I will seek to interpret these sermons from the standpoint of the history of mentalit& as an expression of a consciousness in which the historical imagination is mobilized to make sense of the demands of contemporary life and to guide listeners in their response to these demands. I will seek to identify the passages in which the preacher presents the events of the past and explains their significance for the present and future life of believ- ers. For that is what historical thought consists of: it presents past occur- rences as part of a temporal context, so that one’s own present gains a meaningful place in a historical framework, and a future within certain parameters can be expected. “Historical thought makes sense of time. It makes [historical] contingencies conform to [contemporary] action.“4
In this respect, any biblical interpretation, being a statement about texts from the past, contains at least elements of historical thought where the significance of these historical texts for the present and future is indicated.
Such passages are not difficult to find in the sermons under discussion: they are the points at which events in the past are discussed in the form of a story (narration) which is structured according to explicit or implicit criteria of meaning.5 Merely pointing out these formal structures, however, does not answer the question as to their actual function in the given cultural context.
The practical nature of these sermons-or, to put it another way, their exemplification of a mentalit& - becomes tangible only when they are un- derstood as the specific expression of the desire of the pastor and his
of a few passages in 53. A few of the manuscripts are signed with the initials G.Z. (?) In a personal footnote to 6 the writer reveals his identity as a confirmand of the year 1821, from which a birthdate of ca. 1807 can be postulated. It seems probable that the documentation of the sermons was discontinued in 1865 because “G.Z.” was no longer available.
4. Riisen, Zeit und Sinn, 11. For a historical theory cf. also idem, Historische Vernunft.
Grundztige einer Historik I: Die Grundlagen der Geschichtswissenschaft (Gottingen, 1983);
idem, Lebendige Geschichte. Grundziige einer Historik ZZZ: Formen und Funkfionen des historischen Wssens (Gottingen, 1989).
5. Historical passages are distinguished from dogmatic and other systematic or specula- tive utterances by their narrative structure. Historical thinking is articulated in the form of narrative tales in which real or supposedly real events of the past are located in a meaningful temporal structure (cf. Hans Michael Baumgartner, “Narrativitat,” in Handbuch der Geschichts- did&& ed. Klaus Bergman et al., 3d ed. [Dusseldorf, 19851, 146-49). With reference to the structures of meaning, Riisen differentiates between four types of historical narrative: the traditional, the exemplary, the critical, and the generic. Cf. in detail Jam Rtisen, Die vier Typen des historischen Erziihlens (1983), repr. in Zeit und Sinn, 153-230. In what follows, I will use this typology to classify the patterns of historical interpretation used in the sermons.
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congregation to place their concrete historical situation into a larger context.
To clarify this idea, I would like to introduce the concept of “piety,” well known in the fields of the history and psychology of religions. What I mean by piety is that extremely subjective mental structure which encompasses knowledge and behavior and according to which all the circumstances and demands of a given life are interpreted in the light of the relationship between God and humankind. In the words of Schleiermacher, it is “the consciousness of being absolutely dependent, or, which is the same thing, of being in relation with God.“6 A “pious” or “religious” mentality, then, seeks to answer the central question of life - namely, how one is to live justly in one’s own time - by reflecting on the current status of one’s relationship to God. Articula- tions of this mindset abound in the sermons of Heinrich Friihlich: for example, interpreting disturbing trends - such as the growing number of illegitimate births - as calls to repentance, or warning against “visual lust, fleshly lust, and vain comportment” in the light of the younger generation’s appetite for pleasure. The historic dimension is apparent not only in the constant references to biblical stories, the early church, the Reformation, and Luther’s teaching on justification, but also in the expression of very concrete eschatological expectations.
The sermons of Heinrich Friihlich are particularly suited for the analysis of mentah?, described above, for several reasons. First, they are not “model” sermons, written to impress the general public; and they do not, as far as I can judge, exhibit any significant theological or homiletical originality. That is their greatest advantage, for they may safely be taken as testimony for the weekly Sunday practice of a Lutheran preacher in Saxony during the second half of the 19th century. Second, they were prepared with exceptional care and documented in detail, which makes their methodical analysis considerably easier. Third, we have some knowl- edge of the circumstances under which they were composed. To clarify this context (and also as a personal historical footnote), I will begin with a summary of the life and work of Heinrich Frohlich, to the extent that it seems relevant to the issue at hand.
From 1856 until his premature death in 1881, Heinrich Friihlich was pastor and rector of the diaconal convent and its adjunct institutions in Dresden.’ He had been born in 6. Friedrich Schleiermacher, The Chris&m Faith, 2 ~01s. (New York: Harper, 1963), 1:12, heading for sec. 4. Cf. the summary in H. R. G. Gunther, “Frommigkeit,” RGG, 3d ed. (1958), 2:1158-63.
7. Unfortunately, the archive of the diaconal convent was completely destroyed by fire in the bombing of Dresden on Feb. 12 and 13, 1945. Besides the sermons, no further personal documentation is extant in the family archives. Thus we are completely dependent upon the
Kamenz, where his father served in the military, in 1826. As a Saxon soldier, Heinrich’s father fought in several of Napoleon’s campaigns, including the fateful battle of Leipzig in 1813: this became something of a family legend for succeeding generations.8 After his discharge in 1829 he made a modest living in various parts of Saxony as a franchised collector of crown tolls. His son Heinrich was the first of the family who had an opportunity to move up into the educated upper classes through his study of theology - a situation not uncommon in 19th-century Europe. He founded a dynasty of Saxon theologians spanning four generations of the Frohlich family, all of whom -with the exception of Karlfried, the last in the succession - held posts as pastors in parishes of the Lutheran church in Saxony.
As a theologian, Heinrich Friihlich was marked by the German revival movement in its Lutheran form. During his studies at Leipzig he was deeply influenced by Adolf von Harless; until the end of his life, his sermons exhibit a lively antirationalistic and literabstic streak and place great emphasis on the confessional books of the Reforma- tion. After a few years as a private tutor, Frohlich was called to Dresden in 1853 by Count Detlef von Einsiedel to become Secretary of the Saxon Central Bible Society.
His call to the diaconal convent in 1856 was probably also due to the recommendation of Einsiedel; the position meant his promotion to the offtcially recognized duties of pastor and hospital chaplain. The scope of Friihlich’s pastoral work is fully encompassed by this description. He was working in the area of Christian charitable activity as it was beginning to be defined within the Saxon state church at that time through the institutions of its so-called Internal Mission branch. In organizing the work of this institution, Friihlich looked especially to Theodor Eliedner and his institutions at Kaiser- swerth.9 For guidance in pedagogical and theological matters, Friihlich turned to Wil- helm Lithe, the founder of Neuendettelsau, who is supposed to have said of him: “What I had intended, Frijhlich has executed.“10
Although Friihlich never expanded his sphere of influence beyond the confines of the church and its various institutions, and took special care to keep his distance from such “worldly matters” as the politics of the time, he was-due to his advan- published material for our information: Gustav Molwitz, Kirchenrut P Joh. Karl Heinrich Ftiihlich, Rector der ev.-l&h. Diukonissen-Anstult zu Dresden. Ein Lebensbild (Dresden, repr.
from “Phiibe,” 1882); idem, Zur Erinnerung an Kirchenruth l? Joh. Karl Heinz. Friihlich (Leipzig, 1881; repr. from “Pilger in Sachsen”); Jubiliiums-Bericht der evangelisch-lutherischen Diakonissenanstalt zu Dresden, given by Pastor G. Molwitz, Dresden (1894).
‘8. Cf. Molwitz, Lebensbilri, 4. Heinrich’s father is presented here as having partici- pated in the “wars of liberation” and to have distinguished himself in the battle of Leipzig by his “bravery and courage.” Molwitz is suggesting that Heinrich’s father played a part in liberating his fatherland from foreign tyranny; what he fails to mention is that as a Saxon soldier, Heinrich’s father most certainly would have fought on the side of Napoleon - the enemy side to anyone with patriotic inclinations!
9. The founding of the Dresden house had already had Fliedner’s support; he had sent two of his sisters from Kaiserswerth there. Before taking office, Frohlich paid him a visit to gather information; afterward, he asked Fliedner for the hand of Kedwig von Zedhvitz, a young Sister of Kaiserswerth, to become his wife and the head of the Dresden house. They were married in 1857, and the pastor’s wife fulfilled the office of house manager until 1884.
10. Molwitz, Lebensbild, 32.
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tageous connections - firmly ensconced in those influential Saxon circles whose re- ligious revivalism and political reactionism were paired with a markedly conservative social agenda.” Frohlich’s sermons are permeated with the sentiments of this position, which saw in the liberal and revolutionary currents of its time nothing but the interfer- ence of vainglorious Reason in the God-given order. His management of the convent shows the same consistency. Upon taking office, he and the Count von Einsiedel immediately transferred the responsibility for its administration from the committee of women which had been in charge to a board “made up of men.” The women’s committee continued to exist, its jurisdiction limited to “those responsibilities with respect to the convent which are particular to the calling of women.“12 The convent’scleric was an ex-officio member of the board and functioned as a sort of superintendent or general manager; he thus united in his person both spiritual and secular power over the entire institution.
It must be admitted that the patriarchal regime which Heinrich Frijhlich headed during his twenty-five years in office turned out to be extremely successful in both spheres. Under his leadership the mother house and its hospice were expanded several times and a number of daughter institutions were acquired and integrated; moreover, the field of activity of the sisters trained at the convent was considerably enlarged.
Besides caring for patients in hospitals, they became parish nurses and set up “Bethesda houses” to care for those with wasting diseases, cripples, the mentally ill, and epileptics;
they also ran “Magdalen sanctuaries” for the rehabilitation of homeless girls, and craft or homemaking schools for daughters of poorer families as well as day-care centers and other facilities. During Frohlich’s years in office, thirty-four permanent and sixty- nine temporary stations were set up. The Dresden convent sent its sisters to places far beyond Saxony: to Prussia and the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire, and even to Finland and St. Petersburg. The number of sisters trained in the house increased from 22 in 1856 to 216 in 1881.13
Even more than for his administrative feats, Friihlich, “hard-working and over- worked,“14 was admired for his spiritual leadership. The lasting Lutheran bent of the Dresden institute as well as the grounding of its diaconal work in God’s Word and the life of the Church are ascribed to his influence.15 The work of the house was supported 11. This is true especially of the Count von Einsiedel, who until the revolution in 1830 had been Prime Minister and chief consultant to the king; since that time he had been considered the leader of the reactionary movement in Saxony. For his pivotal role in the revival movement, see Karl Hennig, Die sachsische Erweckungsbewegung im Anfange des 19. Jahrhunderrs. (Phil. diss., Leipzig, 1929), 150-62. Molwitz describes the close relation- ship with the diaconal house in Lebensbild 14-u).
12. Cited in Jubiliiums-Bericht, 34.
13. Ibid., 225ff., 135.
14. From the memorial to “the honorable fathers of our diaconal work, who rest in God,” on the occasion of the anniversary of the institution at Kaiserswerth in 1886, cited in Kleine Chronik des Diakonissen-Mutterhauses in Dresden, 1886, 3rd quarter, p. 3.
15. See Paul Drews, Das kirchliche Leben der Evangel&h-Lutherischen Landeskirche des Konigreichs Sachsen (Bibingen/Leipzig, 1902), 114; Franz Blanckmeister, Siichsische Kirchengeschichte, 2d ed. (Dresden, 1906) 425; and finally the memorial article in Der Sonntag. Gemeindeblatt der Evangelisch-lutherischen Landeskirche Sachsen, vol. 16, no. 18 (March 26, 1961).
TEACHING HISTORY THROUGH PREACHING 2 6 9
by three pillars: a communal life under a Christian patriarchy which created a com- fortable, familial atmosphere through nursing instruction, constant pastoral dialogue both at home and with daughter institutions, and the rhythm of common work - and which also guaranteed a large measure of spiritual and social control; a program of Bible study consisting of weekly sessions of Bible discussion according to Spener’s model; and, at its center, the liturgical cycle of worship services determined by the church year, to which Friihlich devoted particular attention.lhThe heart of these services was the sermon, understood quite literally by the pastor as the proclamation of the “pure and unadulterated Word of God,” and presented accordingly. Through his sermons which Sunday after Sunday drew large numbers of worshipers from the town and the more distant villages into the small diaconal church, dedicated in 1857, Frohlich can be said to have formed a parish - though as an offshoot of a charitable organization the diaconal institute was never offtcially recognized as such. His sermons, moreover, were the main channel by which the diaconal house communicated with the general public.
We will now examine these sermons in detail by considering the general question of the concept of history they exhibit and the more specific question of their mentalit&. Here we shall consider: (1) to what extent the sermons can be called texts about history, and what patterns of historical interpretation predominate (“historical preaching as instruction in the Christian life”); (2) how the sermons perceive contemporary experience and integrate it into an assumed historical pattern (“preaching history as response to the crisis of modernization”).
If Paul Drews’s characterization of a Saxon way of preaching is accurate,17 Heinrich Frijhlich was a Saxon preacher par excellence. All of his sermons distinguish themselves through their strict adherence to proper homiletic form.
An mrdium is almost always present; the reading of the text, which is always from Scripture, follows. A transitus leads into the topic of the sermon and to thepropositio of its parts. In the interpretation, the analytic-synthetic method predominates; the topic flows directly from the text and is covered systemati- cally, point by point. The main themes deal with the central teachings of the evangelical faith: sin and redemption, the person of Christ, and his work of
16. Besides many orders for the liturgy, Frohlich compiled a hymnal especially for the diaconal convent, based on Roller’s hymnal of 1830; in its last edition it included 1,858 hymns. See Christliches Gesangbuch. Eine Sammlung evangelischer Kernlieder und geistficher Gesiinge, ed. H. Frohlich, P. Dresden (1878).
17. Drews, Kirchfiche Leben, 165-71.