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8ohmuaker aahrlepff THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG The Lutheran Catechism. Its Translation into Eng lish (1886); English Translations of the Augsburg Confession (1887) ; The Organization of the Lutheran Congregation in the Early Lutheran Church in Amer ica (1887); The Lutheran Church in York, Pa. (1888). ADOLPH SPAETH.
BIBIdanHAPBY: A memorial by A. Spaeth appeared in the Lutheran Church Review for 1889. Consult further: H. E.
Jacobs, American Church History Series, vol. iv. passim, New York, 1893; A. Spaeth, Charles Porterfield Krauth, vo:. i., ib. 1898.SCHMUCKER, SAMUEL SIMON: Lutheran theologian; b. at Hagerstown, Md., Feb. 28, 1799; d. at Gettysburg, Pa., July 26, 1873. He studied at the academy at York, Pa., the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1817), and Princeton Theological Seminary. He was ordained by the synod of Maryland and Virginia in 1821, and served a parish in New Market, Va., and vicinity, up to the year 1826. When the General Synod, founded in 1821, established its theological seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., in 1825, he was called to the head of the institution and for four years was the only theological instructor. Subsequently Charles Philip Krauth and Charles Frederick Schaeffer (qq.v.) were associated with him. After nearly forty years of service he resigned in 1864. About 400 students received their training chiefly under his influence.
He was one of the most prolific writers of the American Lutheran Church, setting forth the standpoint which he represented as a teacher in the seminary, and endeavoring to disseminate its principles by a series of more or less popular writings, such as his Elements of Popular Theology (Andover, 1834, 9th ed., Philadelphia, 1860) ; Psychology, or Elements of a New System of Mental Philosophy (New York, 1842); The Lutheran Manual on Scriptural Principles (Philadelphia, 1855); The Lutheran Symbols, or Vindication of American Lutheranism. (Baltimore, 1856), and dissertations, sermons, and articles in The Lutheran Observer and The Evangelical Review. He was particularly interested in the problem of a union of all Protestant denominations. As early as 1838 he issued an appeal to the American churches, with a plan for a general union. Later he took a prominent part in the organization of the Evangelical Alliance and was present at the first meeting in London, 1846. His last production, The Unity of Christ's Church (New York, 1870) was devoted to its interests, written in view of its approaching convention in New York, 1873.
Dr. Schmucker, on the one side, exerted a decided and positive influence toward holding together and organizing the Lutheran Church in this country. At the same time, he occupied a position foreign to and actually destructive of the true spirit of Lutheranism, if the fundamental question of the confession and its historical continuity be considered. At the time when he began his active labors the Lutheran Church in this country was threatened with disintegration. German rationalism and English deism had affected the Lutherans, though not to the same extent as other Protestant denominations. In New York the Lutherans fraternized with Episcopalians, in Pennsylvania with the Reformed. The critical period of transition into the English
language had arrived. But there was no English Lutheran literature, and no seminary where pastors could be educated to preach the Lutheran faith in the English tongue. At this point young Schmuck er, with his unquestionable talent for organization and administration, put forth his most energetic efforts to secure for the Lutheran Church in America a continued existence and a respected place among the Protestant denominations of the country. The preservation of the General Synod, the founding of its educational institutions, the Theological Semi nary and Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, are owing chiefly to his self-sacrificing labors. And these institutions were meant to be of a conserva tive character, to construct and preserve Lutheran ism in America. But, on the other hand, his influ ence as professor of theology tended to unsettle and invalidate the historic confessional basis of the Lu theran Church. According to his conviction it was the vocation of the American Lutheran Church to free herself from all respect " for the authority of the fathers, whether they be Nicene or Ante-Nicene, Roman or Protestant." He strove to eliminate everything distinctively Lutheran and to substitute the basis of the Evangelical Alliance for the Augs burg Confession and Luther's Catechism. These tendencies culminated in the Definite Platform which he published anonymously in 1855. It claimed to be an " American Recension of the Augsburg Con fession," representing the standpoint of the General Synod. In this document twelve of the original twenty-one doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Con fession were changed, mutilated, or entirely omitted. The seven articles on abuses (XXII. to XXVIII.) were all omitted. Dr. Schmucker's theological standpoint may be characterized as a peculiar mixture of Puritanism, Pietism, and shallow ration alism. His Definite Platform was never formally adopted by the General Synod, though many prom inent men in it sympathized with its spirit. It rather paved the way to a reaction in favor of the Lutheran Confession. ADOLPH SPAETH. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Pennsylvania. College Book, ed. E. S. Brei denbach, Philadelphia, 1882; H. E. Jacobs, American Church History Series, vol. iv. passim, New York, 1893; A. Spaeth, Charles Porterheld Krauth, vol. i., ib. 1898.SCHNECKENBURGER, ahnek'en-burg"er, MATTHIAS: German Swiss Protestant; b. at Thalheim, near Tuttlingen (55 m. s.s.w. of Stuttgart), Jan. 17, 1804; d. at Bern June 13, 1848. He was educated at the universities of Tfibingen and Berlin, returning to the former university as theological lecturer in 1827. He became assistant pastor at Herrenberg, 1821, and professor of theology at the newly founded university of Bern in 1834, lecturing primarily on church history and systematic theology, and also on New-Testament exegesis. He also shared the chair in dogmatics with Gelpke and Lutz, his province being ecclesiastical dogmatics. Here he, essentially a Lutheran, had the delicate task of arranging his courses to meet the needs of Reformed students. He accordingly took as the basis of his lectures on dogmatics the second Helvetic Confession, comparing it with Lutheran the. ology and with modern dogmatic systems. At the same time, the Reformed atmosphere of Bern eXer-