Most Certainly True: Lutheran History at a Glance: 75 Stories About Lutherans Since 1517 ed. by Mark Granquist (review)

This collection of historical snapshots into the story of Lutheranism began as a series of articles for the Metro Lutheran newspaper in 2009. The plan was to publish one column monthly, culminating in ninety-five stories by October 2017. Unfortunately, this nod to the Reformation anniversary would remain incomplete, as the newspaper ceased publication in 2014, with fifty-four columns published. With his fellow authors, Mark Granquist, editor and lead author of this collection, brought the stories to a round seventy-five for this publication. The result is an enjoyable sprint through global Lutheran history in episode form.

Presented in loose chronological order, the columns take readers through Luther's Ninety-Five Theses to the recent offshoots of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, like the North American Lutheran Church. The collection nicely balances stories about individuals and institutions. The pieces are brief, with most only slightly longer than this review, and conversational in tone. While not encumbered with scholarly apparatus, the pieces are historically reliable. Granquist does the bulk of the writing, with contributions from other historians, such as Mary Jane Haemig and L. DeAne Lagerquist, and Metro Lutheran writers, like Michael Sherer.

Scholars will find in this collection many familiar stories carefully condensed in approachable prose. We revisit the role of Philip Melanchthon, the struggles that brought forth the Formula of Concord, the rise of Pietism, the influence of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the strident work of C.F.W. Walther, and the controversial thought of Samuel Simon Schmucker. Lay readers may recognize only a few of these—and fewer of the more obscure stories—but the articles helpfully stress which ones are historically crucial, which are representative of larger themes, and which are color. Some take a mournful tone, like the stories of Daniel Payne and Jehu Jones, the first African Americans ordained by Lutherans in the United States. Both men fade from Lutheran history before their work was complete. Some stories are told to inspire, like the tale of Father Adam Keefer, who in the mid-nineteenth century twice walked five hundred miles round trip from Toronto to Pennsylvania in his attempts to find a pastor for his congregation.

Although no thesis governs these pieces, historical interpretation is present. For instance, Granquist argues that the "clash" of Norwegian ministers Elling Eielsen and J.W.C. Dietrichson—which devolved into one pulling the other's beard—reveals more than a personal squabble. They were "important figures in Norwegian-American Lutheranism, as each of them symbolically defined both the parameters and limits of this movement" (96), navigating Old–World forces of Pietism and formalism transplanted to North America.

Lutheranism is a global movement, and this collection intentionally includes stories about Lutherans outside Europe and North America. The best of these give voice to the Lutheran expressions of indigenous peoples, like the column on Lutherans in Indonesia. Many of these, however, emphasize the Western missionaries who planted or nourished these faith communities. These missionaries have important stories, but the contributors could have done more to stress the agency of non-Westerners.

This collection should be especially useful to pastors and church reading groups wanting to spark appreciation for the heritage of Lutheranism and its breadth of experience. With the current interest in ancestry, many North American readers will be intrigued and amused to read tales of their spiritual (and ethnic) forebears. The book would be even more useful if it included a fuller bibliography or suggested readings with each article. Perhaps with twenty more stories to tell, the collection would have included other impor tant topics, like Lutheran youth ministry, Bach, or Lutheran thinkers who had major influence outside Lutheranism, like Kant and Bonhoeffer. Scholars may also be uncomfortable with the occasional hagiographic note, as with Father Heyer, who serves as an example of Christian servants who "jump in without any thought of themselves" (65). But since...