(No doctrine differentiates Confessional Lutherans from th...)
No doctrine differentiates Confessional Lutherans from the broader Protestant world more than the conviction that regeneration comes through baptism. This volume consists of two treatises by Charles Porterfield Krauth on the subject. The fist work is "Infant Baptism and Infant Salvation in the Calvinistic System." Through an extensive look at Reformed divines, Charles Krauth demonstrates that Reformed theology has no grounds for assurance that one's baptized children are saved. He shows that the Reformed tradition has a consistent belief in infant damnation, whereas the Lutheran reformation gives assurance to parents of baptized children. The second treatise, "Baptism: The Doctrine Set Forth in Holy Scripture and Taught in the Evangelical Lutheran Church," is a systematic study of the Lutheran view of baptism in contrast to other perspectives.
Infant Baptism and Infant Salvation in the Calvinistic System
(Krauth, a prominent American Luthern minister and theolog...)
Krauth, a prominent American Luthern minister and theologian penned Infant Baptism and Infant Salvation in the Calvinistic System as a response to arguments on the issue found in Charles Hodge's systematic theology.
The short book uses primarily source material from prominent reformed leaders such as Calvin, Heidegger, Chamier, Molinaeus, Zanchius, as well as the Westminster and other reformed confessions.
The book, while arguing for infant baptism as the only way to assurance of salvation for infants, young children, and those with mental disabilities, is very fair in its treament of the Calvinistic view. It is packed with food for though for anyone interested in the topic.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.
Charles Porterfield Krauth was an American Lutheran clergyman, theologian, educator, and author. He was a leading figure in the revival of the Lutheran Confessions.
Background
Charles Porterfield Krauth was born on March 17, 1823 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, United States. His mother, Catharine Susan Heiskell, was of English descent, a member of a family of culture and prominence. His father, Charles Philip Krauth, of German and French ancestry two generations removed, was one of Lutheran America's brilliant leaders of that century.
Education
At the age of sixteen, he graduated from the college over which his father presided and two years later (1841) from the seminary. One of his teachers was the great champion of liberal Lutheranism in America, Samuel Simon Schmucker, against whose theological views the pupil was later to set up a school.
Career
While still in his teens he was licensed and ordained (1842) to the Lutheran ministry. One could hardly say that his pastoral ministry was especially eventful. His parishes at Canton and Baltimore, Shepherdstown and Martinsburg, were small; his quiet ministry in Winchester, he regarded as the happiest period of his life (1848 - 55); then followed pastorates of increasing responsibilities in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The seclusion of his study, meanwhile, brought to his pulpit and pen messages of increasing power; it became evident that through his rigorous and systematic study he was marked for theological and ecclesiastical leadership.
Through the repeated admonitions of his father, Krauth had entered upon an intensive study of German theological literature, especially the earlier dogmaticians together with the confessional books themselves. In time he became convinced that an unequivocal stand upon the confessional standards was the sine qua non of Lutheranism. When the crisis came to a head in the so-called Platform controversy in the fifties, and later, when a native Lutheranism protested against a European, the leading figures in opposite camps were S. S. Schmucker and Krauth. Through his support of and contributions to the Evangelical Review, a journal set up to counteract the more radical influence of Kurtz's Lutheran Observer, as well as other literary expressions, through his recognized ability as a public debater of unusual strength both in logical argumentation and skilled diplomacy, through a growing recognition of his knowledge and successful executive leadership, he soon stood above his fellow ministers and won from them an unquestioned place of leadership. In the heat of controversy, questions of debate were with him kept separate from those of personal friendship; he was able to win and keep the admiration of his opponents. Conservative Lutheranism in America has hardly had since his day a champion of its cause to match him.
As editor-in-chief of Lutheran and Missionary (1861 - 67) he wielded tremendous influence for his cause. As first professor of "systematic divinity" in the newly formed theological seminary (1864) at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia (established in opposition to that of Gettysburg), over a period of nearly two decades, and by the product of his prolific pen, especially by that collection of papers published under the title, The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology (1871), his magnum opus, he set the stamp of his own theology upon a whole generation and more of American Lutheran ministers. He was consulted upon matters not only of doctrine but those of polity, liturgical art, and practice. The conservative character of the General Council (organized, 1867, in opposition to the General Synod) was in reality the child after his own heart.
Two notable voyages took him away from the tasks set up by a self-imposed rigorous discipline and routine, in 1852-53 to St. Thomas and Santa Cruz where he came into close fellowship with Protestant communions other than his own; and, in 1880, through the generous provision of friends, he made a hurried visit in Europe collecting material for a contemplated biography of Luther.
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
Religion
In the early years of his career he openly defended the rather broad platform of the General Synod which had declared that "the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God are taught in a manner substantially correct in the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession. " His reaction against such a platform in favor of a return to a close allegiance to the symbolical books of an older European Lutheranism can be traced to the influence which the Great Immigration, bringing with it many conservative German Lutherans to America, had in bringing to light an almost unknown tradition among native Lutherans.
Interests
Surrounded by an academic environment, he developed early in life studious habits and a taste for books and learning which culminated in a library of some fifteen thousand carefully selected and rare books, notably of the kind "out of which other books are made. "
Connections
Krauth was twice married: in 1844 to Susan Reynolds and in 1855 to Virginia Baker.