Koren — an Unsuspecting “American Luther” the Emmaus Conference at Parkland Lutheran Church, Tacoma, WA Mark Degarmeaux 27 April 2017
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Ulrik Vilhelm Koren — An Unsuspecting “American Luther” The Emmaus Conference at Parkland Lutheran Church, Tacoma, WA Mark DeGarmeaux 27 April 2017 Prelude Imagine crossing the frozen Mississippi River on foot in late December. A man is walking ahead with a stick to see that the ice is stable. Your wife is riding in a wagon that you and this man are pulling with your own human strength.1 This was how Ulrik Vilhelm Koren came to Iowa in 1853. It gives us a sense of his character, determination, and commitment to serve the Norwegian Lutheran people in America. Koren was born in 1826 in Bergen, Norway. Western Norway was, and still is, somewhat more conservative than other parts of the country. While most of the state-church pastors were Rationalists at that time, Christianity in Bergen and Western Norway was more traditional and orthodox, although somewhat affected by the Pietism of Hans Nielsen Hauge. Koren writes of this in his “Recollections.” In 1837 I went to Latin school. We had happy times there, especially in the first half of my attend- ance, while we still held on to the old building with memories all the way from the days of Gjeble Pederssøn (the Reformation). It is a known fact that we got a certain character under Sagen’s in- fluence. But neither he nor any of our other teachers was a Gamaliel at whose feet we could sit in a spiritual sense. The clergy of the city at that time were of two kinds. Some were Rationalists. Others were of the Hersleb-Stenersen type. (UVK 4: 14)2 Hersleb and Stenersen were founders and, at first, the only members of the theological fac- ulty at the new University of Christiania [Oslo] around 1813. They were mostly orthodox, some- what but not completely influenced by Grundtvig. Their view of Scripture was higher than Grundtvig’s. Koren further describes the religious milieu of his youth: 1 You can read more about the Korens’ journey to America and their early years in the Diary of Elisabeth Koren, and “Rec- ollections” in U. V. Koren’s Works, Volume 4. 2 The abbreviation UVK will be used for U. V. Koren’s Works. - 1 - In the Bergen diocese, Rationalism had not been able to encroach as strongly as in the dio- ceses of Christiansand and Akershus, for example. Bishop J. N. Brun’s powerful and commanding voice had prevented that.3 So they had been able to keep Kingo’s hymnbook, or (in some places) Guldberg’s. In my childhood and adolescence there was little of public testimony that could bring about awakening in respect to Christianity. For my confirmation, I was prepared by an otherwise very well-meaning Rationalist pastor. In the church [during my catechization], I was asked what kind of blood a fish has. The fact that it was “red and cold” was a testimony to God’s wisdom, and then came the next boy. … The Haugianers, of which there were not a few in Bergen, caused antagonism by their separa- tism and judgmental attitude. An outsider had little opportunity to get to know their good aspects. It wasn’t understood that the Christianity of the state church essentially gave occasion and tempta- tion to separatism. Yet I was fortunate to observe in my own closest relatives a daily testimony of what it was to be a Christian—through the continual use of God’s Word and prayer and directing all things to God—and that was particularly of a true old-Lutheran color. (UVK 4: 11-12) At the University of Christiania and in church in Oslo, Koren learned from men like Gisle Johnson, Carl Paul Caspari, and Wilhelm Wexels.4 These men promoted orthodox Confessional Lutheranism that emanated from the University of Leipzig. Their influence was brought to America with the immigrant pastors who studied under them, such as Ottesen, Koren, and Preus. I was influenced little by the theological teachers, until Gisle Johnsen and C. P. Caspari began to hold lectures. In church circles there was only one more excellent man, W. A. Wexels. Little by little, a group interested in Christian matters began to gather around him. When I came to the Uni- versity, the city’s two churches (Our Savior’s and Garnison’s Church) stood almost empty. Seven or eight years later Our Savior’s was generally well filled when Wexels preached. One might won- der what it was that brought Wexels such a flock of listeners. His voice was jarring, his delivery anything but attractive. He didn’t use eloquence. He read his sermons, used no gestures, and hardly looked around while he was speaking. It must have been the deep sincerity which radiated from him that drew the listeners, and even more, that the Word he proclaimed was the old Gospel. (UVK 4: 13) It may surprise us, but Koren also gives credit to Søren Kierkegaard. Koren recognized that Kierkegaard did not give the substance and foundation of faith, but offered a way to distinguish Christianity from the secular world. Perhaps in modern terms, we might say that Koren credits Kierkegaard with helping him to use critical thinking and to critique the status quo. 3 Some of Johan Nordal Brun’s hymns are known to us: How Blest Are They That Hear God’s Word; Our Lord and God, O Bless This Day; In Heav’n Is Joy and Gladness (ELH 586, 514, 482). 4 Caspari was a German of Jewish heritage, studied under Delitzsch and Hengstenberg in Berlin, and converted to Christian- ity. Johnson urged him to apply for a position to teach theology in Oslo. Johnson and Caspari founded mission societies, estab- lished theological journals, and translated the Book of Concord into Norwegian, and produced a new translation of the Bible into Norwegian. Caspari was a polemicist against Grundtvigianism, the idea that the Apostles’ Creed is older than the New Testa- ment. - 2 - An insight into the difference between Christianity and the essence of the world. An eye open to all kinds of “shams,” all humbug. Through this, a critical attitude toward all pretended Christi- anity both in oneself and in others. Unconditional respect for God’s Word and submission to it. … S. Kierkegaard didn’t bring us the distinct, positive content of faith. As an example, I can re- fer to the fact that my most trusted friend and I, both disciples of Kierkegaard, came to take com- pletely different paths: he read Grundtvig and became a Grundtvigian; I read Luther and became a “Lutheran.” (“With Luther there is never nonsense,” Kierkegaard had said.) Although troubled that my friend was a follower of Grundtvig, yet I always had to look up to him as a more pious and better Christian than I. (UVK 4: 14-15) Koren was an avid reader. In his writings we can find references to or quotations from con- temporary theological and devotional journals of various kinds, as well as from early Christian writers,5 from Martin Luther and other early Lutheran theologians,6 as well as Jesper Brochmand and other theologians and writers,7 not well known outside of Scandinavia. He also quotes Eng- lish theologians and authors such as Spurgeon and Tennyson. Colleagues In America, Koren found like-minded preachers in Jacob Aall Ottesen and Herman Amberg Preus. These Norwegian leaders in the Midwest also searched among Lutherans in other parts of the United States and found men like C. F. W. Walther8 of the Missouri Synod, Charles Porter- field Krauth of the General Council, and Henry Jacobs9 of the Pennsylvania Ministerium. 5 Ignatius, Chrysostom, Augustine, Bernard. 6 Martin Chemnitz, Nicolaus Selnecker, Johann Gerhard, and Johannes Quenstedt. 7 From Koren’s letters we also see that he lived at a time of many important and influential people and families: Archer, Aschehoug, Cappelen, Kierkegaard, and Hans Christian Andersen. He may have even been a pallbearer for the writer Wergeland. 8 There are untranslated letters between Walther and Koren, both in the archives of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, and at Concordia Historical Institute in St. Louis, Missouri. In a letter Walther addressed Koren with this greeting: “Honored and dearly-loved in the Lord, Brother and Friend Koren!” (Verehrbar und in dem Herrn inniggeliebter Bruder und Freund Koren!) 9 Several years ago, Pastor David Jay Webber directed me to information from the Memoirs of Henry Eyster Jacobs. [1871] “Shortly after I received through Rev. R[einhold]. Adelberg, a formal call to a Professorship of English in North Western University—the college of the Wisconsin Synod at Watertown, Wis. To accept this call would have brought me into affiliation with the Missouri Synod.” (Memoirs of Henry Eyster Jacobs, Volume II [1938], p. 147) [1876] “I am not absolutely sure of the time—it may have been a year later—I took from the Post Office a communication in a large envelope. On opening it, the first words read were: ‘In the Name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ There followed a call, signed by the officers of the old Norwegian Synod, to the English Professorship in ‘Luther College,’ Deco- rah, Iowa. My name had been submitted to their congregations, and they had elected me. A letter explained that this was the first step toward the founding of a theological department in their college. Prof. F[riedrich]. A. Schmidt was then a colleague of Dr. Walther at St. Louis. All their students were sent there. If I would accept, the plan was to bring Prof. Schmidt to Decorah, and - 3 - Much has been said about the effect which our connection with the Missourians has had on the Norwegian Synod.