“A Peculiar Beat: St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Decatur, Illinois: A
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“A Peculiar Beat: St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Decatur, Illinois: A Microcosm of ‘Traditioned Innovation’ and Adaptive Change in American Protestantism” by Robert Michael Browning A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Public History Middle Tennessee State University May 2017 Thesis Committee Dr. Andrew Polk, Chair Dr. Kristine M. McCusker ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Andrew Polk and Dr. Kristine McCusker for their advice in researching and writing this thesis on religion and music in American culture. I would also like to thank my Public History graduate program advisor Dr. Rebecca Conard for conveying the importance of public history in public consciousness. ii ABSTRACT Since World War II the historiography of American Protestantism has identified two simple categories of Protestants: liberal mainline and conservative evangelical. However, social changes in American Protestantism, especially since the 1960s, reflect not only evidence of amalgamation of Protestantism in America but also the need to identify a category of Protestants that no longer fits the dominant dichotomy. I argue for at least a “third category” of American Protestants, which I term “traditionalist innovators.” These college-educated evangelicals have held to traditional biblical theology but have been willing to innovate in the use of modern technology, music, and intellectual/academic pursuits. To make this case, I apply the work of both American religious historians and ethnomusicologists to a case study of a midsized industrial city in the Midwest and one of its Lutheran-Missouri Synod churches to exhibit, in microcosm, the adaptations of American evangelicals that have produced traditionalist innovators over time. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER ONE: THE NEED FOR A NEW CATEGORY IN AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM. 1 Defining Conservative Evangelical and Mainline Liberal. 7 Secularism and Revivalism. 14 History of American Protestantism as “Traditioned Innovation”. 22 “Traditioned Innovation” Through Music. 49 Conclusion . 58 CHAPTER TWO: AGITATION, AMALGAMATION AND GROWTH OF ST. PAUL’S LUTHERAN CHURCH, 1829-2015. 63 A Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America. 67 “Book of Memories”: German Lutheranism in Decatur, Illinois. 79 New Music with a “Peculiar Beat”. 96 Epilogue. 114 CHAPTER THREE: FUNCTIONALISM IN CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC: THE APPLICATION OF “TRADITIONED INNOVATION”. 117 Functionalism in Music . 120 St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and CCM. 138 Conclusion. 149 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 155 APPENDICES. 162 APPENDIX A: DECATUR HISTORICAL POPULATION GROWTH/DECLINE (1860-1950). 163 APPENDIX B: DECATUR, ILLINOIS LUTHERAN CHURCHES MISSOURI SYNOD. 165 APPENDIX C: DECATUR LUTHERAN CHURCHES (1964). 166 iv 1 CHAPTER ONE: THE NEED FOR A NEW CATEGORY IN AMERICAN PROTESTANTISM In his classic on the development of American Protestantism, The Lively Experiment, religious historian Sidney Mead lamented the dichotomous nature of American religion in a democracy with religious freedom—conservative fundamentalism and liberal modernism had no in between. In fact, Mead seemed to speak for the reasonableness of the moderate middle when he suggested, “If the theology of the fundamentalists was archaic and anachronistic, that of the liberals was secularized innocuous.” That was 1963 when conservatives argued that Christianity’s survival depended on maintaining its historical identity, including fears America was drifting from Judeo-Christian roots, and liberals countered it must adapt to pluralistic modernism. Both may have been right, but Mead contended “both were wrong in failing to recognize the validity of the other’s view point.”1 Since World War II the historiography of American Protestantism has essentially identified two simple categories in the Protestant dichotomy: liberal mainline and conservative evangelical. But there has long been, especially since the postwar period, a third category of college-educated evangelicals who roughly correspond to the non- denominational Protestants referenced by some scholars, but are more accurately described as “traditionalist innovators.” These Protestants hold to traditional theology but are willing to innovate in modern technology, music, and intellectual/academic pursuits. 1 Sidney E. Mead, The Lively Experiment: The Shaping of Christianity in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 186. 2 To make this argument, I will utilize a community study of a multi-ethnic, midsized industrial city in the Midwest and one of its Lutheran-Missouri Synod (LCMS) churches to exhibit, in microcosm, the adaptations of American evangelicals and some mainline Protestants that have produced these traditionalist innovators. Recognizing the relationship between traditionalism and liberalizing higher education among these Protestants reveals not only the elasticity of American Protestantism, but also ways Protestants historically adapted to cultural changes through innovative speaking styles, camp meetings, sentimental publishing, and in the last several decades, experiential worship styles. Arguing that sentimentality has triumphed over belief and doctrine in broader contemporary American evangelicalism, Todd Brenneman suggested in Homespun Gospel (2014) that new research “must continue to move beyond the focus solely on what evangelicals believe” to how some Protestants practice religion. In other words, emotion is a key avenue to developing new historiography. New music and contemporary worship practices could, under Brenneman’s definition, more easily be incorporated into 2 a contemporary Protestantism better understood through emotions. 2 Todd M. Brenneman, Homespun Gospel: The Triumph of Sentimentality in Contemporary American Evangelicalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 157-161; See also John Corrigan, Business of the Heart: Religion and Emotion in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2002); Lynn Neal, Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspiration Fiction (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006). 3 Protestant history has demonstrated that the mind and heart are not alike. Mark Noll noted that French theologian John Calvin himself struggled with reconciling the emotional and intellectual aspects of faith. Noll explained Calvin’s approach this way: . Calvin worked to instruct the mind and inspire the heart together. (However, Calvin’s theology was not intellectualist; he believed that the Spirit must change the heart before the mind would accept the Gospel.) Calvin believed that the Spirit enabled nonbelievers to understand the workings of nature and human relationships in the world. .Calvin championed learning in the home, he broadened the scope of education for the young people of Geneva, and he founded an academy . university.3 It is on this focus—the heart and mind of Protestantism—that helps explain the history of revivalism-fundamentalism and scientific modernism in America and more specifically our study of the local history of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Decatur, Illinois. Despite a long history of traditional liturgy, the mainline church decided in the mid-1990s to introduce contemporary worship with acoustic instruments. Using St. Paul’s Lutheran Church as a microhistory is useful because prior to this point the church was a traditional LCMS body before undergoing adaptation in ritual activity and architecture while maintaining long-held conservative theology, including biblical inerrancy and the sanctity of marriage. I will argue that some theologically conservative LCMS churches with innovative worship style and music fit as traditionalists innovators. The adapting focus is more on emotive, experiential worship activity than belief. Willingness to change worship style, 3 Mark A Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994), 37; See also Susan E. Schreiner, The Theater of His Glory: Nature and the Natural Order in the Thought of John Calvin (Durham, NC: Labyrinth Press, 1991). 4 not theology, contradicts the accepted linear historical and historiographical narrative of progression from the characterized uneducated fundamentalists to evangelical then to liberal mainline Protestant and secularist. Furthermore, the transition reflected in experiential worship style grew out of innovation and social change of the 1960s folk and rock music era that produced Jesus music and the Jesus movement. Stephen Prothero’s American Jesus credits the Jesus movement with altering American Protestantism, or at least successful churches, in attracting membership. This cultural change, or what should be observed in my view as traditioned innovation, is an indication of the adaptability of evangelical Protestantism within a changing culture. Thus, contemporary sentimental worship is more than simple emotionalism but draws from doctrinal tradition and belief as the basis for traditioned innovation.4 Following a brief introduction of traditioned innovation, functionalism and social change theory, Chapter 1 will distinguish liberal mainline and conservative evangelical Protestantism and introduce “traditionalist innovators” as a third category of American Protestantism. Understanding traditioned innovation requires an historical overview of revivalism-fundamentalism, evangelicalism and modernism in America, the post-World War II restructuring of American religion identified by Robert Wuthnow that witnessed a decline of denominationalism amid polarization, and finally the influence of higher