This is a special episode of a presentation I prepared for the Society of German American Studies symposium in April in Milwaukee. -- The year 2025 marks the 175th anniversary of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Originally established in the Milwaukee area as the Die erste deutsch. evang.-luth. Synode von Wisconsin , this German immigrant ecclesiastical organization, immediately needed printed materials in its native language that would serve the needs of its people in a new geographic ...
Jun 06, 2025•36 min•Season 5Ep. 15
In this WELS 175th episode, we talk with Joel Otto, the anniversary committee chairman, about the pictorial history book Christ Through Us , which he co-authored with John Braun. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About the Host Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with...
May 02, 2025•23 min•Season 5Ep. 14
In this WELS 175th episode, we talk with Joel Otto, the anniversary committee chairman, about what WELS worship has looked like in the past and how it has changed. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About the Host Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German empha...
Apr 05, 2025•40 min•Season 5Ep. 13
image: Adolph Hoenecke from the host's family photo collection. In this WELS 175th episode, we talk with Prof. James Danell who teaches German at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, MN, about Adolph Hoenecke, who taught for many decades at the Wisconsin Synod's Seminary. Prof. Danell speaks in this episode about his significant influence on the spirit and theology of the Wisconsin Synod. Not only does Danell teach the German language, but his advanced classes read through German Lutheran materials...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 5Ep. 12
This is part of a longer conversation I had with Prof. James Danell about the imperative need for scholars who know German to do Lutheran history. You can support the Confessional Language Scholarship at MLC to encourage this endeavor here. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About the Host Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 gr...
Feb 07, 2025•23 min•Season 5Ep. 11
This is a cross-over episode with The Shepherd's Study Podcast , where I was a guest of Jared Natsis and Phil Moldenhauer. We talked about the content and merits of the book Brand Luther which came out shortly before the Reformation 500th anniversary. The Shepherd’s Study podcast is produced by Grow in Grace to help pastors grow in the art and practice of pastoral ministry. Each episode features Lutheran pastors discussing a book that is salient to their work. The views, thoughts, and opinions e...
Jan 28, 2025•43 min•Season 5Ep. 10
In this episode, we talk with Peter Prange about the third volume in his series, Wielding the Sword of the Spirit, in which he gets into the details and nuances of the Election Controversy that rocked the Synodical Conference. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About the Host Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Ma...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 9
In this WELS 175th episode, Tim Grundmeier and I talk about who Johannes Muehlhaeuser was, Christmas trees, and the founding of the Wisconsin Synod. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About the Host Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German emphasis. From there...
Dec 20, 2024•48 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Image: JP Koehler at Wauwatosa Seminary, candid photo taken by a student. While going through some old boxes in my grandfather's basement, I stumbled upon something truly remarkable: my great-grandfather’s diary. He was a student at the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary from 1910 to 1912 and had the unique opportunity to learn from the famous Wauwatosa theologians of that era. As you can imagine, this diary could be a treasure trove of insights into the life of a seminary student over a century ago. B...
Dec 11, 2024•2 min
Link to the service and hymns: https://trinitylutheransd.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Reformation-Hymn-Festival-2024.pdf The first evangelical hymnal—which in retrospect we can also call the first Lutheran hymnal—rolled off the presses around the middle of January 1524. But interestingly, it did not roll off the presses in Wittenberg, even though the title page gave that impression, or even at Luther’s instigation. It was printed by Jobst Gutknecht in Nuremberg, well over 200 miles to the sout...
Dec 06, 2024•59 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Timothy Plichta is a WELS homeschooled high school student living in Germantown, WI. He loves Lutheran history in general and is especially enthralled with anything related to the CELC. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About the Host Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Ar...
Nov 01, 2024•34 min•Season 5Ep. 6
This episode is a fuller version of my presentation given at the 2024 Lutheran Historical Conference in Baltimore. Link to the full video of this episode . One church historian observed that “ It would require pages and pages to report Wyneken's work during his pastorate [in Baltimore].” This episode will examine one specific topic- how Wyneken contested for a genuine Lutheran identity and practice in the following arenas in Baltimore: 2nd German Evangelical Lutheran Church Evangelical Lutheran ...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Image: Johannes Bugenhagen During the Reformation Martin Luther restored many Christian teachings to its proper biblical understanding. One of the men who worked with Luther in communicating those teachings was Johannes Bugenhagen. This episode explores one specific way Bugenhagen communicated the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms in The Christian Order of the Honorable City of Braunschweig . His answer to the question is especially evident in the section of this Kirchenordnung that deals with relief...
Oct 04, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Image U.V. Koren “How is our America doing?” That is the poignant question that C.F.W. Walther (1811 1887), the President of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, asks in his Synod’s theological journal, “Lehre und Wehre” in 1863. In a series of articles written in the Spring of that year, on the eve of the Civil War, Walther addressed topics such as slavery, abolitionism, the nature of America as having been founded on “Enlightenment” principles, as well as how Lutherans can remain faithful to God’s W...
Sep 20, 2024•53 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Image: city of Brunswick (Braunschweig) in the 16th century In Becoming Lutheran , Dr. John Maxfield discusses several key aspects of Lutheran culture that shape the identity and practice of Lutherans as the Reformation grew and developed outside of the center of Wittenberg. The story of Brunswick engages with Reformation historiography in a way that takes genuine religious convictions seriously as pamphlets and preaching spread the Gospel to every level of society. Support the show Confessional...
Sep 06, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 5Ep. 2
We welcome back Pastor Scott Henrich, a WELS pastor serving in Knoxville, Tennessee. His experiences reading historic Lutheran sermons inspired him to research Lutheranism's homiletical heritage in a way that may challenge some contemporary assumptions about the historic perception of Lutheran preaching. ( See TLHP 39 ) You can contact him here: scottwhenrich@gmail.com Today he offers further thoughts and research after studying Walther's Pastoral Theology . "While C. F. W. Walther needs no intr...
Aug 16, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Heather R. Darsie lives in the United States. She has a Bachelor of Arts in German Languages and Literature, and a Juris Doctorate. During her time at university, she had the privilege of studying in Costa Rica and France, with visits to Germany and other countries. Ms. Darsie first became interested in the Renaissance time period when she read a biography about Elizabeth I of England. She found Elizabeth I to be very inspiring and her world to be both foreign and familiar. Ms. Darsie has spent ...
May 03, 2024•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 9
Image: Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Younger " Wittenberg Uses of Law and Gospel" Our guest today Dr. Robert A. Kolb is a professor emeritus of Systematic Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. See the emeritus faculty page at Concordia Lutheran Seminary: Kolb retired in 2009 after 16 years of distinguished service as missions professor of Systematic Theology and Concordia Lutheran Seminary in St. Louis. Before joining the Seminary, he served as director of the Center for Reformation Re...
Apr 05, 2024•54 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Image: Wittenberg c. 1530 from the host's personal collection. In May 1536 several prominent Reformed reformers traveled to Wittenberg to confess their understanding of what is received in the sacrament of Holy Communion and who receives it. Luther, Melancthon, and other Lutheran reformers readily signed on in agreement concerning this contentious doctrine. This was seen as a significant breakthrough and a celebrated establishment of fellowship and would later directly influence the Formula of C...
Mar 01, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 7
In this episode, translator Michael Holmen takes us through J. W. F. Höfling's How the Lutheran Church is Constituted (Grundsätze evangelisch-lutherischer Kirchenverfassung). In his book Höfling describes how the Lutheran church should be constituted according to the principles given in the Lutheran Confessions and in Martin Luther's writings. Höfling sees the teachings of church and ministry in the Lutheran church as being very different from what the Roman Catholic church teaches. In the wake ...
Feb 02, 2024•55 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Image: Carl and Gottlieb Damler. These brothers immigrated to Manitowoc County, WI from the principality of Lippe-Detmold in the early 1850s. Although confirmed Reformed, they worshiped first in a union congregation, but then joined the Lutheran church under the leadership of Pastor Koehler. Carl is the host's g-g-g-grandfather. Our returning guest, Pastor Peter Prange, provides a detailed account of the formation and confessional maturation of the Wisconsin Synod, which finally led to its compl...
Jan 05, 2024•55 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Image: Right wing of the Altar Triptych in St. Peter und Paul, Weimar by Cranach - Lutheran princes of the House of Wettin in worship Worship of the triune God has always stood at the center of the Christian life. That was certainly the case during the sixteenth-century Reformation as well. Yet amid tremendous social and theological upheaval, the church had to renew its understanding of what it means to worship God. In this episode, Reformed Reformation scholar Karin Maag takes us inside the wor...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Image: The Account of How Two Men of the Augustinian Order Were Martyred in Brussels in Brabant for the Sake of the Gospel (Erfurt, 1523) Five hundred years ago, on July 1, 1523, two observant Augustinian monks from Antwerp, Hendrik Voes and Jan van den Esschen, were degraded, condemned, and burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in the Grand Plaza of Brussels, today an UNESCO World Heritage Site. These monks were adherents of Luther’s Reformation doctrine, making them the first Luthe...
Nov 03, 2023•57 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Image:Johann Gerhard In this episode, our guest Rev. Caauwe gives a detailed overview of various forms of Lutheran devotional piety developed in the 16th and 17th centuries as well as a discussion on how that devotional heritage has been transferred through the generations. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About the...
Oct 06, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 4Ep. 2
(Image: Synodical Conference founders from Lutherans in All Lands, 1896) Dr. C.F.W. Walther worked tirelessly to realize his dream of a Lutheran Zion in North America that would combine and coordinate ministry efforts of faithful Lutherans in the United States and Canada to proclaim the gospel primarily in German, English, and Norwegian. He took center stage in the history of the doctrine and practice of church fellowship among those Lutherans who organized the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Con...
Sep 01, 2023•58 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Listen to this tribute to Alaska's Lutheran history as I prepare to say goodbye to the wonderful 49th state with deep and unique Lutheran roots! Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About the Host Benjamin Phelps is a 2014 graduate from Martin Luther College with a Bachelor of Arts with a German emphasis. From there wen...
May 05, 2023•47 min
"For Midwestern Lutheran synods, the 20th century was especially dramatic and even traumatic. ..In his article, Dr. Braun describes some of the tensions within two predominantly Midwestern Lutheran bodies, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), as these Lutherans struggled to adapt to change without sacrificing eternal truths and treasured traditions. " [Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly 79, 3 (Fall), 180-194] Dr. Mark Braun is a for...
Apr 21, 2023•43 min
Image: Reinhold L. Pieper (1850-1920) Isaac Johnson graduated from Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI with a degree in Latin in 2011 and attended Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN. During his time at seminary he spent two years studying at the Lutheran theological seminary (Evangelisch-Lutherische Hochschule) in Oberursel, Germany. He was ordained in 2016 and was called to serve Risen Christ Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa. He now serves New Hope Lutheran Church, a mission cong...
Mar 25, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Image: Three generations of Franks and Kerlers in Greenfield 1889. "I prefer America," one German Lutheran immigrant wrote. Letters of German Lutheran immigrants in 19th century America give under-analyzed perspectives of lay members and their views of church establishment and denominational selection. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhisto...
Feb 17, 2023•1 hr 7 min
Image: Regina, Veronica and Frank Kerler "I prefer America," one German Lutheran immigrant wrote. Letters of German Lutheran immigrants in 19th century America give under-analyzed perspectives of lay members and their views of church establishment and denominational selection. Support the show Confessional Languages Scholarship Youtube ( even more behind-the-scenes videos available for certain patron tiers) Facebook Website Interview Request Form email: thelutheranhistorypodcast@gmail.com About ...
Jan 27, 2023•1 hr 7 min
