Fellowship of the Volk

In his contribution to Church, Identity, and Change, David Carlson offers an honest assessment of the entanglement of Lutheran Eucharistic theology with German Ethnicity. 

Friedrich Wyneken, “a key architect of confessional Lutheranism in America” (266), came to American intent on preserving Lutheran fellowship. As he understood it, “fellowship . . . was both ethnically German and doctrinally Lutheran” (268). This, more than opposition to revivalism, determined his agenda. Through Wyneken and others, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod developed liturgical forms that provided “a way of distinguishing the German Lutheran church form its sectarian rivals.” 

Though Lutheran identity has waned over the years, “German heritage still remains a nostalgic point of reference for many contemporary Lutherans. . . . This is a heritage which originated in and continues a singular mission to preserve that which is uniquely Lutheran. This is the heritage which spawned and continues to champion close(d) communion” (272).

This, Carlson says, is critical to grasping the character of contemporary battles about “open communion” in the LCMS: “It matters whether communion practice emerged as part of liturgical practice intended to demarcate German Lutheran ethnic identity, or whether traditional communion practice is central to the Lutheran confessional understanding of the sacrament” (269).