Wilhelm Löhe und Bildung/Wilhelm Loehe and Christian Formation ed. by Jacob Corzine (review)

Wilhelm Loehe, a nineteenth-century Bavarian Lutheran pastor, was a standout in developing a strong parish catechetical program which focused on sacramental piety, individual confession and forgiveness, and daily prayer. He also trained deaconesses who would serve hospitals, parishes, and schools, and missionaries who evangelized in North America and other mission fields. This volume presents fifteen papers originally delivered in July 2014 at the Fourth Loehe Theological Conference in Neuendettelsau, Germany. They deal with Loehe's philosophy of and methods for Christian formation of laity, deaconesses, and missionaries. Given the fact that many contemporary Christians advocate the need to recover discipleship, these essays are most welcome. Seven essays are in German and eight in English. This review highlights some of the most important points.

For Wolfhart Schlichting, Loehe's sacramental piety indissolubly intertwines doctrine and life, theology, and spiritual formation (7). Specifically, Holy Communion offers not only forgiveness of sins, but also empowerment for Christian living since it conveys the mystical union of the believer with Christ, a "blessed communion" of the believer with God (18). As David Saar puts it in his essay: "Not only does the Sacrament benefit the body and soul of the communicant, but in eating the body and blood of Christ, the communicant receives not only Christ's body, but also his soul … this encourages the formation of a sacramental piety by linking an aspect of Christ: his soul, his body, his wounded side, and his passion to the communicant" (102–3). In regard to worthy reception of the sacrament, Jacob Corzine shows that for Loehe confession prepares one for this "blessed communion" because in it sinners come clean and own up to their sin (124).

Given his high valuation of the Supper, Loehe naturally prioritizes public worship. He desired that laity know the liturgy from the inside out. Thomas Schattauer shows how Loehe's Laienagenda, an abbreviated summary of the worship service, helps laity to understand and participate in the worship service (54). Indeed, in contrast to both Rationalism and Pietism, Loehe's Agenda, his formulation of the worship service, based on traditional Lutheran and ancient settings, pre sents the worship service as centered on both word and sacrament (55).

Rudolf Keller describes how Loehe's catechetical aid "Haus-, Schul- und Kirchenbuch," which reprints Luther's Small Catechism along with Loehe's explanations, and with psalms arranged for singing, was designed to assist families, both in Germany and abroad, to learn the faith. Similarly, John Pless shows how Loehe's prayer manual, Seed Grains of Prayer, seeks to sanctify all of time and life since the prayers are so encompassing of the week and the church year (134f.)

Australian theologian Jeff Silcock discusses how Loehe influenced Australian Lutheran spiritual life indirectly through the work of Hermann Sasse. Sasse had read Loehe's Three Books on the Church in the late 1920s while on sabbatical in the USA, and through that book was converted to an orthodox Lutheran position. Silcock appreciates that the Loehe tradition refuses to split intellect and emotion, head and heart (62). In an era where more Australians (and others) "love Jesus" but dislike the church ("churchless Christianity," as he calls it), Silcock notes just how much we need community if our faith is to stay alive (65).

Matthias Honold and Judith Böttner each describe deaconess training in Neuendettelsau which often accepted women from the educated classes (and not just from the underclass) and trained them for public service and thereby fostered Loehe's spiritual ideals more widely (170). Craig Nessan analyzes the dogmatics texts used at the mission training school in Neuendettelsau showing that they not only exhibited Lutheran confessional orthodoxy but also took stands important in the nineteenth-century, especially arguing for "open questions" and the anticipation of a "greater perfection" for a future Lutheranism.

At first glance, Loehe might not seem relevant for contemporary Christianity, but when his quest for a vital practice...