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Most people have either never heard of Wilhelm Löhe or if they have they do not know much about him. They are not alone. I would venture to say that since World War I Löhe was largely forgotten until the 1960s when James Schaaf wrote his doctoral dissertation and wrote a series of journal articles on him. However Löhe was almost as quickly forgotten. Since the mid-1980s there has been something of a resurgence of interest in Löhe, but still he remains an obscure, shadowy figure in Lutheran history.

It should not be so. The reception of Löhe is that his theology is largely either that of the nineteenth century Erlangen School or a repristinated reception of Lutheran Orthodoxy. Both of these interpretations are m~e only in so far as they rmslead. At important points in his theology Löhe departs from Lutheran Orthodoxy and from the Erlangen school. His theology, as I will show this afternoon, is creative and innovative.

Biographical Background

Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe was born 21 February 1808; he died nearly sixty-four years later in the farming village of Neuendettelsau on 2 January 1872 having spent the greatest part of his life (more than thirty-four years) there. His upbringing in Fürth was partly typical for a middle class home at that time, but partly atypical.¹ The faith and the piety of the Löhe family was, in contrast to the prevailing Enlightenment faith, was influenced by sixteenth century Lutheran Orthodoxy as well as seventeenth century Pietism.² Löhe's father died while he was still young but Löhe's mother was firm in her conviction that he should have the opportunity to study theology, so following his studies at Melanchthon-Gymnasium in nearby Nuremberg, Löhe went to Erlangen where he began theological studies in winter semester 1826/7. In Erlangen he came into contact with Christian Krafft and the wntings of David Hollaz. Krafft, a Reformed professor, introduced Löhe to "Erweckungstheologie" (Theology of Awakening or Revival Theology).³ He was not so much influenced by Krafft's thinking as his intellect or spint.⁴ It was Krafft who inspired Löhe to read into dogmatic theology more deeply. Löhe's studies in dogmatics led him to the wntings of David Hollaz, the last great dogmatician of Lutheran Orthodoxy. Hollaz, a professor of dogmatic theology in the eighteenth century, impressed upon the young theology student a deep appreciation for the Lutheran faith.⁵ Löhe heard lectures for one semester (summer semester 1828) in Berlin--at that time the most prestigious theology faculty in Germany. He heard lectures from Hegel as well as Schleiermacher. Hegel failed to impress him.⁶ Schleiermacher, on the other hand, impressed him, although not as theologian, but rather as a preacher.

Löhe completed his theology studies and passed his theological examinations in 1830 and was ordained on July 25, 1831 in Ansbach. In preparation for his ordination he read the confessional writings, in particular the Augsburg Confession. The consequence of his reading was that he decided that the Scriptures were properly understood in the confessions.⁷ He could, in good conscience, be ordained a pastor and teacher of the Lutheran church. Löhe's ordination was significant for another reason. Löhe always had a strong evangelical sense of mission. As a student at the university he organized a rmssion society and distributed religious tracts.⁸ On the day of his ordination he prayed that he would receive a sign, a word, from the mouth of God. He opened his Bible and three times he was confronted with the commissioning text in Isa 6:8-10 which speaks of going out to the people with a message that they will not hear. Löhe responded, "Here I am, Lord, send me."⁹ This sense of service in the work of mission and proclamation was a predominant motif in Löhe's own piety and in what he asked of others.

Later that year (October 1831 to be exact) he began his internship in Kirchenlamitz (not far from the present border of the Czech Republic). Already he was an accomplished preacher who drew unusually large audiences, but his biblical and confessional radicalism also found enemies. In 1834 he was recalled on account of his conflicts with more "sober" parishioners and colleagues and overseers.¹⁰ Löhe must have recognized that the force of his personality and the severity of his theology would always be a source of conflict. He wrote, "So geht's mir--so wird mir's gehen. Ich bin ein Messer, and wer 1äßt sich gern schneiden?"¹¹ Because at that time there were more pastors available than congregations able to call them, Löhe had difficulty finding a parish before receiving and taking a call to Neuendettelsau where he began his ministry on August 1, 1837. Löhe tried repeatedly to obtain positions in larger cities but was rebuffed on each occasion.

While he was in Nuremberg, Löhe met Helene Andreae, a confirmation student. Three years later on the sixth anniversary of his ordination, one week before taking up his position in Neuendettelsau, he married his former confirmation student. They had four children. Six years after they were married Löhe's wife died suddenly, leaving him to raise his children alone except for the assistance of his sister who came to live in the parsonage with him.¹²

In Neuendettelsau Löhe did not retire to the life of a quiet, sedate, unassuming life of a country pastor. That would have been easy, but it was not his way. Löhe was truly a gifted and dedicated pastor. Löhe placed high value on preaching, instruction and pastoral care. He put much energy into his sermons, writing them all out. It was only later in his life that he resorted to relying on outlines or preaching extemporaneously. Dedicating himself to an intensive study of liturgy, he slowly but certainly transformed worship life at Neuendettelsau.¹³ He held pastoral care and visitation in high regard and he prayed with and for his panshioners.¹⁴ In 1840 he read an appeal for help in North Amenca. The Lutheran church there was in desperate need of pastors and others willing to serve the German emigrants there. Almost immediately Löhe wrote an article which generated a missionary enthusiasm which he had not foreseen. Löhe was flooded with donations. This was the beginning of Löhe 's missionary activity.

At first Löhe and his colleague Wucherer did not know what to do with the money which they received for the "German mission in North America." The problem was soon solved though by the appearance of a volunteer, Adam Ernst. Löhe decided to train Ernst in the basics of theology and a general education so that Ernst could serve as a school teacher. Soon after, Ernst was joined in his instruction by another volunteer, Georg Burger. These two men were instructed and in 1842 the two men were commissioned for missionary service in North America.

During the course of Löhe's life he established relationships with the Ohio Synod, then with the Missouri Synod and later the Iowa Synod. He was also closely related with seminaries in Columbus, Ohio; Saginaw, Michigan; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Wartburg Seminary in Iowa.

Löhe was not merely about missions though. He was also a central player in the confessional struggles in Bavaria in the 1840s and 1850s. He wrote almost unceasingly on issues of confessionalism. The first and most important of these is Drei Bücher von der Kirche which was published in 1845 to a warm reception. In it he argued that the Reformation is "complete in doctrine but it is incomplete in the consequences of doctrine."¹⁵ Three years later he wrote Entwurf eines Katechismus des apostolischen Lebens in which he began to move away from the center of the mainstream of the church (not that he ever was particularly close to the center) as well as Aphorismen über die neutestamentlichen Ämter und ihr Verhältnis zur Gemeinde. These publications signaled the beginning of his difficulties with the state church.

Löhe was uneasy about the close relationship between the church and the state, calling the relationship between throne and altar an "unhappy mismarriage" which ought to be annulled, and that "what God has not joined, goes in opposite directions."¹⁶ He petitioned the Bavanan state church several times in the years following the Revolution of 1848 protesting the union of the Lutheran church with the Reformed church. He even toyed with the idea of leaving the church and joining forces with the burgeoning Lutheran free churches.¹⁷ Indeed if Adolf von Harless had not been named as head of the Bavarian Lutheran Church, Löhe might well have left the Landeskirche.¹⁸

In the final decade of his life, Löhe focused his attention to a quiet reformation and renewal of the church by establishing diaconal orders or associations. Already in 1849 he was instrumental in the founding of a missionary society, the Gesellschaft für innere Mission im Sinne der Lutherischen Kirche, and, four years later the founding of a female diaconate, the Lutherischer Verein für weibliche Diakonie which consecrated its motherhouse a year later in 1854 in Neuendettelsau. These two societies had the aim of quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) reforming and renewing the Lutheran church in Bavaria.¹⁹ The women's diaconate had a two-fold aim. Its more specific aim was for the awakening and formation of a sense of service to those who were suffenng among the Lutheran population in Bavaria, particularly among women.²⁰ Its second and broader aim--and one might say its more subversive aim--was the continuing formation of the "apostolic-episcopa1 church."²¹ Its life was organized around service and worship, specifically Lutheran worship. This emphasis on I,utheran worship points to one of the reasons, if not the primary reason, that Löhe formed yet another diaconal association. He felt that the associations which were active at that time (such as that established by Wichern in Hamburg) were not sufficiently confessional and therefore were given to unionistic tendencies. Despite his earnest efforts to develop "apostolic" communities (notably the communities in Michigan) Löhe did not succeed. He died in 1872 a disappointed man whose (he felt) goals for the Bavarian church had not been adequately realized.

Ecclesiology

Löhe and his theology have often been characterized as a mere reception of Lutheran orthodoxy. That might be true if one examines only his theology in terms of his expression of the classical loci of theology (e.g. christology and soteriology). However this assessment is short of the mark when one begins to examine his ecclesiology especially as it is presented in his occasional writings. His suggestion in Vorschlag zu einem Lutherischen Verein für apostolisches Leben for the formation of core groups which would model authentic Christian (apostolic) life recalls the ecclesiola ("little churches) of the Pietists.²² To be sure, Lutheran orthodoxy was probably primary in the formation of Löhe's theology, but it is most certainly not the only influence. Pietism plays an important role as well. Hebart rightly concludes that Löhe is "one of the most onginal thinkers in Lutheranism."²³ Löhe's theology was not simply a mere reception and repristination of Lutheran Orthodoxy or of Pietism or indeed of any other theological school. He combined and borrowed what was necessary and useful for the building up of the church. This mixing was always creative and always fresh. His ecclesiology is an attempt to synthesize the ecclesiologies of the Lutheran confessions and the New Testament.

Löhe was, above all, a theologian of and for the church. He was interested in what lifted up the church. The church, he asserted, was the body of Christ. Because Christians are about proclaiming Christ, they are necessarily also about proclaiming Christ's body, the church.

Löhe, following the confessions, asserted that Christ is proclaimed through two media: the (apostolic) Word and the sacraments. These two media correspond to the marks of the church.²⁴ These marks are most apparent in the life of the church in its worship. Word and sacrament are clearly integral to Löhe's theology.

In many respects the Word is the more important of the two marks. It defines the mission and ministry and life of the church. There is an intimate relationship between the church and the Word. The Word is at the center of the Church, the church gathers around the Word.

The Word is, for Löhe, the apostolic Word. That is, the Word is that Word received by and through the apostles: "The apostolic Word is that Word contained in the Scnptures, it contains everything necessary and more besides."²⁵ Ultimately the New Testament witness is authoritative--its authority surpasses that of the Lutheran confessions.

That the authority of the scnptures exceeds that of the Lutheran confessions--or indeed the confessional statements of any denomination is clear when one considers Löhe's understanding of the role and function of a confessional statement. He argues that anybody can test (judge?) the truth of a confession by comparing it to scripture, to the apostolic Word.²⁶ The role of the confessions is merely to explicate or interpret the apostolic Word. By no means should a confession expand or add on to the Word. The apostolic Word, that doctrine received from the apostles, is complete and sufficient in and of itself. Consequently the apostolic Word stands at the centre of the church.

Apostolic succession and unity have nothing to do with church order and organization. They have to do with a unity in doctrine and a succession of doctrine. But this unity and succession having nothing to do with the order and organization of a church.²⁷ Apostolic succession refers to a succession of doctrine. In this sense apostolic succession is understood as the process by which doctrine arises and arose out of the writings, the theological reflections, of the early church following the death and resurrection of Christ. In the development of the Lutheran confessions, the Reformers declared their adherence to the scriptures in the principle of sola scriptura.²⁸ The Reformers declared their adherence to the doctrine (the Word proclaimed!) enunciated by the apostles, whose Word is contained in the scnptures.²⁹ To unite with this doctrine, to adllere to it, is to unite with the apostles. This is apostolic unity.

This conception of apostolic unity and succession hints at the power of the apostolic Word. If the Word can unite believers across time and space, it can also give birth to a congregation. Its power is separate from any human mediation (such as a teaching magistenum) and from tradition. The church's strength and authority is derived from the power (and the truth) of the apostolic Word. The Word is clear enough and simple enough that a magisterium of some sort is necessary to determine the content of the common (apostolic) faith: "It is ludicrous that a man who is just as human and no better than anyone else is supposed to be the repository of all the wisdom of the apostles."³⁰ The Word is as clear as a beacon on a hill in a dark night. As Löhe put it, "the scriptures are ... clearer than the word of a human."³¹ The apostolic Word is clear and intelligible. It is, by itself, sufficiently clear and intelligible that it is possible for one to come to faith by reading the Word and taking it to heart.

This appropriation or reception of the Word is what drives a person to faith and to the church. The Word points out the human need for community as well as the place and the person where that need is filled. The person is Jesus Christ; the place is the church. Humans are called to dwell in the community of the Word and to experience that community at the altar. The community gathered at the altar is a union not only of the individuals gathered around that altar but also with Christ whose very body and blood are received at the Lord's Supper.³² The Word necessarily leads to the community one needs and only expenences in the sacrament of the altar.

The sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, are the other marks of the church according to Löhe. The Lord's Supper preserves community and fellowship. At the Lord's table the congregation gathers having acknowledged that they are individually sinners and that they stand separated from one another and from God. In the Lord's Supper, the congregation asks God to fulfill the promise to unite them in Jesus' body and blood. In a sense, the union effected at the altar is not unlike a marriage. It is a marriage between heaven and earth, divinity and humanity, and Christ and his bride, the church.

The Lord's Supper thus not only effects a union between humanity and God, but also between each member of the church. The believers who have acknowledged that they stand separated fiom one another though they need communion with one another do, in fact, achieve this communion with one another in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. The believers who have acknowledged that they stand separated from God though they need communion with God do, in fact, achieve this most needed communion with God in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. All are equal. All receive an equal amount of grace sufficient to reconciie them to one another and to God. Each is a sinner, each is a saint. A radical equality before Christ and before one another has been established.

This reconciliation, this union, with Christ is so essential and important to the Christian life that Löhe believes that the Lord's Supper ought to be frequently and regularly celebrated. Baptism, unlike the Lord's Supper, is celebrated once. The sinner dies, and rises again to new life--a saint. In baptism a person is claimed by God. Once is sufficient. But the sacrament of the altar is different. One always needs to be reunited with Christ and other believers. This union needs to be repeated over and over again so that the Christian can be nourished: "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Dt 8:3, Mt 4:4). The Word of grace, redemption and reconciliation is received in the Lord's Supper. This Word ought to be received frequently and regularly.

The union that is achieved in Holy Communion points to another important aspect of Löhe's theology of the Lord's Supper. How could one be certain of the solidarity of the altar community? How could one be certain of the unity of the community? This question leads full circle to the apostolic Word. Löhe decided that it was necessary to ensure the authenticity of each of the communicants' faith as best as possible. To commune together, the communicants had to be united in the apostolic doctrine. And this unity needed to be visible in fraternal love, in friendship, and in blissful common living.³³ The external, visible signs of apostolic unity reveal the invisible church.

Word and sacrament belong together. In Löhe's theology, they form an inseparable core. Around them the church is formed, preserved and nurtured. The apostolic Word is the basis, the fiber, but the sacraments are the vessel by which the believer--indeed the entire church--is nourished and sustained.

Löhe's vision of the church is one that stands alone in the nineteenth century and anticipates developments in the twentieth century. The twentieth century has rediscovered the notion of the church as the body of Christ. Löhe was there first. In the twentieth century there has been a rediscovery of the rich liturgical tradition of the church. Again Löhe was there first. There is little in his background to suggest such creativity and innovation in his theology and yet it is there. It is likely his passion for the church in its concrete form--the congregation--which led him to these key concepts which are so widely accepted today that one can barely imagine that they were radical ideas when Löhe proposed them. Radical is a fitting adjective. Löhe's ideas were innovative and creative precisely in the fact that he went back to the early church and the New Testament for support and insight. It was in the richness of the tradition that he found a creative fount for the life of the church.

1 - For a detailed account of Löhe's life until he went to Neuendettelsau, see Adolf Schwammberger, "Der junge Löhe," in Wilhelm Löhe -- Anstöße für die Zeit, ed. Friedrich Wilhelm Kantzenbach (Neuendettelsau: Freimund-Verlag, 1972), 13-36.

2 - Hans Kreßel, Wilhem Löhe, der lutherische Christenmensch: ein Charakterbild. (Berlin: Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 1960), 15, reports that Löhe's maternal grandfather, Gürtler Walthelm, was active in a Moravian (Herrnhuter Brüdergemeinde) congregation in Fürth. Friedrich Wilhelm Kantzenbach, "Wilhelm Löhe (1808-1872)," in Klassiker der Theologie, ed. by Heinrich Fries and Georg Kretschmar, vol. 2 (Munich: Verlag C.H. Beck, 1983), 176; notes that Löhe's parents were pious people who read Lutheran devotional literature and for whom Sunday worship attendance was a given. Löhe himself reports in Deinzer, I: 7-8, that he and his siblings went to church and received the sacrament regularly, additionally daily prayer and readings from the Bible, Luther's writings and other devotional sources were a integral part of their spintual life.

3 - Krafft also influenced many other thinkers in the Erlangen School most notably Harless and Hoffmann.

4 - K.G. Steck, "Krafft, Christian" in RGG³ (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck, 1957-65), 4: 30. Löhe, after heanng Kraft lecture on dogmatics, wrote to his sister: "Nach einem solchen Kampf und solchen Erfahrungen im geistlichen Leben muß man Dogmatik lesen. Diese anderen glaubenslosen Professoren -- ich habe keinen Begriff mehr, wie die noch Dogmatik lesen können. Wer so geführt worden ist, den will ich hören, der redet, was er erfahren hat und so auch am gewissesten weiß." Deinzer, I: 266 also cited in "Brief an Dorothea Schröder" (14 November 1827), GW I: 261; see also Deinzer, I: 58; "Brief an E. Huschke" (6 December 1836), GW I: 480. Krafft's influence extended not only to Löhe. Georg Merz, Das bayerische Luthertum (Munich: Verlag des Evangelischen Presseverbandes für Bayern, 1955), 20 and 22, names Krafft as "the leader of the young generation" in Erlangen.

5 - Hans Kressel, Wilhelm Löhe als Prediger (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 1929), 25; and ibid., Wilhelm Löhe: Ein Lebensbild (Erlangen and Rothenburg o.d. Tauber: Martin Luther-Verlag, 1954), 13.

6 - In a August 8 entry in his journal Löhe wrote that he visited a lecture of Hegel's in which he understood nothing and in which there was nothing to understand. Deinzer, I: 71.

7 - Deinzer, I: 103-4. See also Müller, "Wilhelm Löhe," 75.

8 - James L. Schaaf, Introduction to Three Books nboul the Church, by Wilhelm Löhe Philadelphia: Foihess Press, 1969), 5 n. 13.

9 - Deinzer, I: 109.

10 - In its report the Consistorium said that Löhe was a very captivating man, but his understanding of worldly matters, his social skills, were lacking (Deinzer, I: 154).

11 - Deinzer, I: 177. "So it goes and so it will go with me. I am a knife and who gladly permits him or herself to be cut?"

12 - The impact of the death of Löhe's beloved Helene cannot be underestimated. Her death spurred Löhe to wnte Three Books about the Church. And as late as 1859 he published a book of prayers (Hausbedarf christlicher Gebete) which included this "Prayer of a Father Whose Wife Died in Childbirth": "O living God and Comforter of those who mourn, I have lost my dearest treasure on earth in childbirth. You have torn a rib and a piece of my heart from me. It is, however, your good will, Lord my God. You gave her to me and let her be with me for a short time and now she has heen taken out of this misery back to you, because she knew and called upon your Son. Comfort me, a sad, miserable widower and help carry this pain and raise my children and send a holy glimpse that I and my children can come together before you and in a new joy and eternal love, which you plant in all marital love and can make all suffering eternal joy and goodwill. We praise you in eternity. Amen." See Hausbedarf christlicher Gebete CW VII/2: 103.

13 - For a description of Löhe's ministry in Neuendettelsau see Kenneth Frederick Korby, "The Theology of Pastoral Care in Wilhelm Löhe with Special Attention to the Function of the Liturgy and the Laity" (Th.D. diss., Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology, 1976), 132-45, esp. 132-36.

14 - Hans Kressel, Wilhelm Löhe als Katechet und als Seelsorger (Neuendettelsau: Freimund-Verlag, 1955), 79, states that Löhe had an extraordinary charismatic gift of healing through prayer and the laying on of hands. Accounts of such healing are in Deinzer, II: 201-13. Eduard Thurneysen, Die Lehre von der Seelsorge (Munich: Christian Kaiser Verlag, 1948), 299, nearly a century after the pubiication of Löhe's opus on pastoral care, Der evangelische Geistliche, asserted that it is "to be considered still a standard work."  

15 - James L. Schaaf has done a fine translation of Drei Bücher. The quote is from Wilhelm Löhe, Three Books About the Church, trans., ed. and with an intro. by James L. Schaaf (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 152; hereafter Three Books.

16 - Aphorismen über die neutestamentlichen Änter und ihr Verhältnis zur Gemeinde, GW V/1: 320, hereafter Aphorismen.

17 - Gerhard Müller, "Die Erlanger Tneologische Fakultät und Wilhelm Löhe im Jahr 1849," in Dem Wort Gehorsam. Landesbischof D. Hermann Dietzfelbinger DD. zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Wilhelm Andersen, et al (München: Claudius Verlag, 1973), 242-54, esp. pp. 247 and 254, provides a helpful account of the role of the theology faculty at Erlangen (especially Johann Christian Konrad Hoffman and Gottfried Thomasius) when, in 1849, Löhe was threatening to leave the Landeskirche. Friedrich Wilhelm Kantzenbach, "Die 'befreundeten Gegner': Ekklesiologische Konzepte rund um Wilhelm Löhe," Zeitschrift für bayerische Kirchengeschichte 44 (1975), 114-42, provides a detailed examination of the events and especially the personalities involved in this church-state struggle in these years.

18 - Herbert Krimm, "Wilhelm Löhe und Johann Hinrich Wichern: Vergleichende Betrachtung anläßlich der 150. Wiederkehr ihrer Geburtstage," in Diakonie der Kirche, Herbert Krimm, Walter Künneth and B. Dyroff (Nürnberg: Landesverband der inneren Mission in Bayern, 1958), 18. Wolfgang Trillhaas, "Wilhelm Löhe -- ein unbürgerlicher Christ," Zeitwende (Hamburg) 25 (1954): 379, states that Löhe forced the ouster of Harless' predecessor, thus paving the way for the appointment of Harless and guaranteeing that Harless had the freedom to institute much needed reforms in the Bavarian church.

19 - Anne Stempel-de Fallois argues persuasively that the impulses for Löhe's interest in diaconal ministry stem from his early association with the Awakening movement (above all through Christian Krafft) and Pietism. Re: the impact of the Awakening movement and its fheology see Anne Stempel-de Fallois, "Die Anfänge von Wilhelm Löhes missionarisch-diakonischem Wirken im Bannkreis von Erweckungsbewegung und Konfessionalisierung (1826-1837)," Pietismus und Neuzeit 23 (1997), 40-5; re: the impact of Pietism through his reading Spener's Pia desideria see Stempel-de Fallois, 47-8.

20 - Stählin, 583.

21 - Deinzer, III: 327.

22 - Sihvonen, "Wer sein will, der muß werden," Homiletisch-Liturgisches Korresponrlenzblatt, n.s. 13 (1995-96): 455; also Kantzenbach, "Die 'befreundeten Gegner'," 142.

23 - Hebart, 8.

24 - Like the Reformers, Löhe rejected the classical notae ecclesiae (one, holy, catholic, and apostolic).

25 - Löhe, Three Books, 76.

26 - Löhe, Three Books, 61-2.

27 - Löhe finds even this claim of lineage to an apostle to be dubious in the case of the Roman Catholic church and suggests that the Lutheran church in certain tenitones has a claim just as strong as that of the Romans in the Roman sense of apostolic succession and unity. He writes: "Where .... is a primacy of Rome in the presently fashionable sense to be found?" (Three Books, 134). Concerning the equally valid Lutheran claim to an apostolic succession of the episcopate Löhe writes in an apparent reference to the Church of Sweden: "There are even Lutheran lands in which, if one considered it important, one could easily demonstrate a succession with no more gaps in a way that perhaps no other church which values its successiun so highly does"( Three Books, 136). For more on this see Three Books, 131-40 passim, esp. 132-4.

28 - Löhe stated that the Reformation was not about going forward but rather about returning the church to its roots: "namely the Word." Löhe, "Predigt über Jer. 3,12, D.D.p.Trin. XXIII. 1834. Reformationsfest (2. Nov.)" GW VI/1: 179-80; and Three Books, 150.

29 - Löhe, Three Books, 78.

30 - Löhe, Three Books, 77. Löhe seemingly contradicts himself later when he describes the pastoral office as a teaching office responsible for preserving the purity of the faith. See Aphorismen, GW V/1: 290.

31 - Löhe, "Kirchliche Briefe," GW V/2: 859.

32 -William Löhe, Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith, 3rd ed., ed. J. Deinzer, trans. F.C. Longaker with an intro. by Edward T. Horn (Newport, KY: n.p., 1902; reprint, Fort Wayne, IN: Repristination Press, 1995), xiv-xv (page reierences are to repnnt edition); hereafter Liturgy. See also David C. Ratke, "Confession and Mission, Word and Sacrament: The Ecclesial Theology of Wilhelm Löhe," Dr. Phil. diss., Universität Regensburg, 1998.

33 - Löhe, Zuruf aus der Heimat an die deutsch-lutherische Kirche Nordamerikas, GW IV: 82.