Thursday, April 27, 2023

It is the 27th of April, 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Ok- stay with me here- because I want to introduce you to a man- living in the 1700s who was a German Lutheran turned Moravian who would eventually liven London and the colony of Georgia. He would have perhaps the greatest influence on the emerging Methodists and then be a central figure win the founding of both Bethlehem and Nazareth (in Pennsylvania, that is).

Ok- so, do you remember the Moravians? These were Christians, like Protestants, but came out of the movement begun by Jan Huss in Bohemia the century before the Reformation. These Christians, also called the Unitas Fratrem or the United Brethren, were chased from Eastern Europe, where they were given refuge on the estate of the Lutheran Pietist Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf.

So- Moravians with Lutheran Pietist leanings (these are Lutherans who emphasize the affective side of faith) in Germany. Enter Peter Boehler, a man that has been passed down in famous anecdotes but not thoroughly studied until last century when his personal letters and other artifacts were collected and translated. Peter Böhler was born in 1712 in Frankurt-Am-Main (that’s the big Frankfurt) to Antoniette and John Conrad Boehler. He initially studied medicine but turned towards the possible chagrin of his father. He would go to the University of Jena, where he was shocked at the immorality of his fellow classmates. This leads him to join a group of Moravians studying at the University.  He would become a Lutheran minister, but of the pietists variety and friendly with Zinzendorf from 1732. In 1735 he spent time at Zinzendorf’s estate and learned that the Moravians were not going to be welcomed by the Lutheran ministerium. Zinzendorf would ordain Boehler in the Moravian church and give him the charge to learn English to become a leader in English-speaking countries. Boehler would move to London where in 1738, he would meet John and Charles, Wesley- then of the small Anglican sect called, derisively, the Methodists. When Boehler’s English wasn’t quite up to par, and the Wesleys didn’t have German, they would converse in Latin.

The Archbishop of Canterbury at the time was a broad church Anglican and permitted Anglicans to work with Moravians, especially in missionary endeavors in the colonies. Peter and the Wesleys would travel together to the colonies, where they would work in the Carolinas and in the new Georgia with James Oglethorpe.

It was on a transatlantic Trip that Boehler and the Wesleys would debate theology. Boehler would emphasize the doctrine of Justification by grace alone through faith alone on account of Christ alone and argued that the Wesleys' doctrine put too much emphasis on their own works and merit. This greatly troubled John, who would eventually write in his diary that, after debating Boehler, he had come around to his position and believed in a “justifying, saving faith; a full reliance on the blood of Christ shed for me; a trust in him as my Christ, as my sole justification, sanctification, and redemption.” The following year John would be at a house meeting on Aldersgate where he would hear from Luther’s preface to the book of Romans and have his heart “strangely warmed.”

It was also a discussion of Moravian hymns and a Moravian hymnbook which would inspire Charles Wesley to borrow turns of phrase and titles for his own hymns- one such Moravian hymn would become Charles’ “O for A Thousand Tongue’s To Sing.”

Boehler would continue to work in Georgia until they refused to take part in the war with the Spanish and were banished. They would find refuge in William Penn’s colony, and Boehler would help settle Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (where Bach’s Mass in B Minor would be performed for the first time in the US- it is home to Bethlehem Steel and Johnathan Taylor Thomas- that’s JTT the voice of Simba and 90’s teen heartthrob). He would also help found Nazareth, Pennsylvania (Home of the Andretti racing dynasty and referenced in The Band’s song “The Weight”).

So- a former German Moravian would, through his transatlantic mission, help the English Methodists adopt Lutheran theology. The story of the Methodists would evolve and adopt other ideas, but the story of the Wesleys and the Reformation goes back to a chance encounter with Peter Boehler, a man who would die on this the 27th of April in 1775. Born in 1712, he was 62 years old.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- from 1 Peter:

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 27th of April 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. 

The show is produced by a man “pulled into Nazareth, feeling ‘bout half past dead”- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man with a tip for you- check out Aretha Franklin’s cover of The Weight by the Band- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.