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John Christopher Kunze | |
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John Christopher Kunze (August 4, 1744 – July 24, 1807) was an American Lutheran minister, educator, author and theologian.
Kunze was born in Artern, a town in the Kyffhäuserkreis district of the Electorate of Saxony, to Jahn Godfried Kunze, a farmer and innkeeper. In 1758, when his parents died, Kunze began studying at the orphanage in Halle, Germany. He received his classical training in the gymnasia at Rossleben and Merseburg, and then attended the University of Leipzig where he studied history, philosophy and theology. He worked as a teacher and an orphanage inspector before becoming ordained as a Lutheran minister. [1] [2]
In 1770, Kunze emigrated to Colonial America to serve as second pastor at St. Michael's and Zion Lutheran churches in Philadelphia. In 1771, he married Margaretta Henrietta (1751–1831), daughter of Rev. Henry Muhlenberg . Kunze was an active and passionate educator and was a strong advocate for teaching the English language to his fellow German immigrants and Lutheran pastors. As a part of this mission, Kunze began a pre-theological school in Philadelphia in 1773. [2]
In 1779, he succeeded Muhlenberg as pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, becoming the senior Lutheran minister in Philadelphia and an ex officio member of the board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1780, he stepped down from the board to become the professor of German and Hebrew languages.
At the university, he and a fellow German Lutheran pastor, Justus Henry Christian Helmuth, tried unsuccessfully to establish a German language college within the university. [3] While at the university, Kunze set foundations for what later developed into the field of "Semitics", including the study of Hebrew and Arabic. [4] The university conferred the Master of Arts degree on him in 1780, and the Doctor of Divinity degree in 1783. [1]
In 1784, Kunze accepted a position at Trinity and Christ Church, a newly formed congregation in New York City, and also became Professor of Oriental Languages at Columbia College. That same year, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. In 1785, Kunze served as an official translator for the United States Congress. Kunze was fluent in five languages and had also studied medicine, astronomy, and numismatics. [5]
In 1795, he published Hymn and Prayer Book, for the Use of such Lutheran Churches as use the English Language, the first Lutheran hymn book in the English language. [1] [2] He also translated Luther's Small Catechism into English. [3]
With the death of John Christopher Hartwick in 1796, Kunze became the founding director of Hartwick Seminary. As a steward of Hartwick's estate, Kunze worked to establish a Lutheran seminary in America. Kunze had been Hartwick's personal choice as director of the seminary. Prominent political and religious leaders Jeremiah Van Rensselaer and Frederick Muhlenberg convinced Kunze to direct the seminary and teach theology at his home in New York City. In 1816, the New York State Legislature incorporated the new school—the first Lutheran seminary in America—as a classical academy and theological seminary, in the town of Hartwick, New York. [6]
In addition to his work as an educator, Kunze had a talent for bringing people together by creating scholarly and cultural organizations. Kunze helped create the Society for Useful Knowledge and he founded the German Society of New York with Baron Friedrich von Steuben. He also helped form the Ministerium of New York, an organization of local Lutheran ministers, and served as its president until his death on July 24, 1807. [2] He is buried at the Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg was an American minister and politician who was the first Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and the first Dean of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Federalist party, he was delegate to the Pennsylvania state constitutional convention and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and a Lutheran pastor by profession, Muhlenberg was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania. His home, known as The Speaker's House, is now a museum and is currently undergoing restoration to restore its appearance during Muhlenberg's occupancy.
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, was a German Lutheran pastor sent to North America as a missionary, requested by Pennsylvania colonists.
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was an American clergyman, Continental Army soldier during the American Revolutionary War, and political figure in the newly independent United States. A Lutheran minister, he served in the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate from Pennsylvania.
Friedrich Conrad Dietrich Wyneken was a missionary pastor in the United States. He also served for fourteen years as the second president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, and helped found Concordia Theological Seminary.
John Christopher Hartwick was an American Lutheran minister in Colonial America and founder of Hartwick College.
The Lutheran Church in America (LCA) was an American and Canadian Lutheran church body that existed from 1962 to 1987. It was headquartered in New York City and its publishing house was Fortress Press.
Theodore Emanuel Schmauk, D.D., LL.D. was an American Lutheran minister, educator, author and Church theologian.
Charles Porterfield Krauth was a pastor, theologian and educator in the Lutheran branch of Christianity. He is a leading figure in the revival of the Lutheran Confessions connected to Neo-Lutheranism in the United States.
Matthias Loy was an American Lutheran theologian in the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio. Loy was a prominent pastor, editor, author and hymnist who served as president of Capital University, Columbus, Ohio.
The Pennsylvania Ministerium was the first Lutheran church body in North America. With the encouragement of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711–1787), the Ministerium was founded at a Church Conference of Lutheran clergy on August 26, 1748. The group was known as the "German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of North America" until 1792, when it adopted the name "German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States".
Benjamin Kurtz was a German-American Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was part of the revivalist movement of the Lutheran Church in the 19th century, ran the Lutheran faith-based newspaper Lutheran Observer, founded the Lutheran faith-based Missionary Institute in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and assisted in the founding of the Gettysburg Seminary.
Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg (1818–1901) was an American educator and Lutheran clergyman, who served as President of Muhlenberg College, and as Greek language and literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States, commonly known as the Joint Synod of Ohio or the Ohio Synod, was a German-language Lutheran denomination whose congregations were originally located primarily in the U.S. state of Ohio, later expanding to most parts of the United States. The synod was formed on September 14, 1818, and adopted the name Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States by about 1850. It used that name or slight variants until it merged with the Iowa Synod and the Buffalo Synod in 1930 to form the first American Lutheran Church (ALC), 1930–1960.
David Frederick Schaeffer was a Lutheran clergyman of the United States.
Charles Frederick Schaeffer was a Lutheran clergyman of the United States.
Justus Christian Henry Helmuth was a German-American Lutheran clergyman.
Edward Frederick Moldenke was a Lutheran theologian and missionary who worked in Prussia and the United States.
Philip Frederick Mayer was a United States Lutheran clergyman.
St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Church is a historic church building in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia, just north of the Germantown neighborhood. The congregation was founded sometime before 1728 and three successive church buildings have occupied the same location since that time. The church was closed in 2016.
The New York Ministerium, also known as the Ministerium of New York, was an early Lutheran synod founded in 1786 in the U.S. state of New York. Throughout its history there were theological controversies that led to congregations withdrawing from it to form new synods. In 1917, it became part of the United Lutheran Church in America, which is one of the predecessor bodies of today's Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
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