Gustav Adolf Felix Theodor Hoenecke

Background

Gustav Adolf Theodor Felix Hoenecke was born on February 25, 1835 in n Brandenburg, fifty miles southwest of Berlin, Germany. He was the son of Wilhelm and Amelia Hoenecke.

Education

Hoenecke graduated from the Brandenburg Gymnasium, studied theology at Halle, and became a tutor in Bern, Switzerland.

Career

Hoenecke was ordained on November 18, 1862, and sent by the Berlin Missionary Society to Wisconsin, where he began work at Farmington, near Watertown, in 1863. In 1866 he was made professor and director of the theological seminary of the Wisconsin Synod at Watertown, but in 1870, when the school was combined with Concordia Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Hoenecke declined, on a plea of poor health, the call to St. Louis. Instead, he accepted a call to St. Matthew's Church, Milwaukee. In 1878 the Wisconsin seminary was brought back and located at Milwaukee, chiefly to permit the pastor of St. Matthew's to serve as director and professor of homiletics and dogmatics.

In 1890 he resigned from St. Matthew's, and on September 17, 1893, the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary, as it was called, moved into its permanent quarters at Wauwatosa, a suburb of Milwaukee. This seminary was but the lengthened shadow of its great president and professor. For the general reader he issued the Gemeindeblatt, and in 1903 he founded the Theologische Quartalschrift in which appeared his numerous articles and the sermon outlines later republished as Predigt-Entwurfe uber die Altkirchlichen Evangelien und Episteln nebst einigen Freitexten (1907). The only other book issued during his lifetime was the sermon collection, Wenn ich nur Dich habe. His sons, Walter and Otto, edited at the request of the Wisconsin Synod his lenten meditations, Ein Lammlein Geht und Tragt die Schuld: Zwei Reihen Passionspredigten (1910), and his great Dogmatik.

Confronted by the question of what affiliations his synod should make, Hoenecke returned to the study of the old dogmaticians and became conservative in his views. This influence was soon felt at the seminary, and in protest against unionism the Wisconsin Synod severed its connections with the Berlin and Langenberg mission societies. Hoenecke ably disputed the "open questions" of the Iowa Synod, though he sided with Iowa in its dispute with the General Council concerning the "four points" (chiliasm, mixed communion, pulpit fellowship, and secret societies). With the Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Norwegian synods the Wisconsin Synod formed the Synodical Conference in 1872. When the Ohio Synod and the Norwegians withdrew in 1882, Wisconsin remained in the Conference, largely through Hoenecke's noble devotion to principle.

Achievements

• Hoenecke is remembered as a prominent clergyman and theologian. As a preacher and homiletician he ranks high. As a churchman Hoenecke showed marked ability. His lectures and sermons were brilliant and stirring expositions of the Gospel. His most famous and important work was the Evangelische Luterische Dogmatik (Evangelical Lutheran Dogmatics). This four-volume work goes step by step through Christian doctrine and is still considered one of the greatest contributions to Confessional Lutheranism from our Wisconsin Synod. Hoenecke also published several sermon books. Several of these books are available in the MLC library in both English and German. They include Glorified in his Passion, A Lamb goes Uncomplaining Forth and Wenn Ich Nur Dich Habe. He also was a regular contributor to the Gemeinde-Blatt and the Quartalschrift.

Religion

As theologian and dogmatician Hoenecke showed a high-minded conservatism. At a time when furious doctrinal battles were raging on all fronts, he stressed a positive love of truth, saying that the rest would take care of itself. He disapproved of the bitter journalism of the day, and over against the citation-theology then in vogue he placed his clear Gospel proofs. On this basis, also, was his Dogmatik written.

In the internal affairs of his synod he always took a lively interest, and his opinion was sought on all important problems of the church, though he kept himself modestly in the background so that the proper officials could act without restraint.

Connections

In 1865 Hoenecke married Mathilda Hess, the daughter of the Reverend Rudolf Hess of Hochstetten, Canton Bern, Switzerland.

Father:

Wilhelm Hoenecke

Mother:

Amelia Hoenecke

Son:

Walter Hoenecke

Son:

Otto Hoenecke

References

• Schweden unter Gustav II. Adolf im Dreißigjährigen Krieg: Motive und Kriegsziele (German Edition)
• Gustav Adolf. Der Löwe aus Mitternacht