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PNEUMA 38 (2016) 249–273
The Blumhardts in America
On the Reception and Significance of the Blumhardts for American Theology
Christian T. Collins Winn* Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota
Abstract
This essay, the first reception history of proto-Pentecostals Johann Christoph Blum- hardt and Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt in Anglo-American literature, charts three phases of reception of the Blumhardts in English-speaking circles. The first phase focused on the healing ministry of the elder Blumhardt, which took place primar- ily in the nineteenth century. The second phase began in the mid-twentieth century and was devoted especially to introducing the Blumhardts to English-speaking read- ers. It included attempts by theologians and ethicists to appropriate the Blumhardts for constructive theological purposes. The third phase, currently underway, is marked by scholarly assessment of the Blumhardts in their historical setting and by an effort to translate more of the Blumhardt corpus into English. The conclusion offers unsys- tematic interpretive observations culled from the reception history itself, with an eye to the future appropriation of the Blumhardts in the English-speaking world.
Keywords
Johann Christoph Blumhardt – Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt – healing movement – liberation theology – eschatology – Vernard Eller – Frank Macchia
* The present essay was originally offered as a plenary address at the 2014 conference, “‘Gerech-
tigkeit statt Wohltätigkeit’: Christoph Blumhardts gesellschaftspolitisches Erbe” in Bad Boll,
Germany. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Jörg Hübner for extending the invitation to speak at
the conference, which also saw the founding of the Blumhardt-Sozietät. I would like to thank
the manuscript reviewers who provided invaluable feedback as well as Donald Dayton and
Sara Misgen for comments on earlier drafts of the essay.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi: 10.1163/15700747-03803001
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Introduction
In a 1925 letter to Robert Lejeune, Leonhard Ragaz, the great Swiss Religious Socialist, described the readers of the important journal Neuen Wege—the magazine that Ragaz founded as a literary voice for Religious Socialism—as divided. The two readerships were divided with regard to the ways in which they each came to the issues raised in the journal. As he described it, one side “comes from the religious sector towards the social, the other coming from the social sector towards the religious.”1 According to Ragaz, the editorial mission of the magazine was to facilitate a synthesis that could speak to both of these perspectives.
There is no question that Ragaz had learned how to achieve such a desired synthesis by carefully attending to the witness of both father and son Blum- hardt. For those unfamiliar, Johann Christoph Blumhardt (1805–1880) and his son Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842–1919) were two Protestant pastors, deeply influenced by Württemberg Pietism and the nineteenth-century Er- weckungsbewegung (or Awakening Movement). The elder Blumhardt’s min- istry had begun with a purported case of demonic possession and was later followed by a ministry of healing wherein Blumhardt interpreted healing as signs of the in-breaking of the kingdom, signs that would ultimately find their fulfillment in a cosmic Pentecost or outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The elder Blumhardt’s eschatological interpretation of healing was then taken in a social direction by the younger Blumhardt, Christoph, who saw as a sign of the in- breaking kingdom the struggle for justice that was occurring among the work- ing classes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Scandalously, Christoph joined the Social Democratic Party in 1899 as an act of disciple- ship. Taken together, what one finds in the two Blumhardts is what Jürgen Moltmann describes as the “genuine worldliness, true humanness, simple nat- uralness, and the ‘wide space’ of the Spirit in the dawn of the Kingdom of God.”2
As Ragaz noted in his Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes in Blumhardt, Vater und Sohn—und weiter!, the Blumhardts’ life and message “will offend both the pious because it is so radical, and the radicals because it represents something which is foreign to them, yes, a fantastically demanding faith. But if they do not put the book aside after the first impression, and continue with it, then
1 Leonhard Ragaz in seinen Briefen, vol. 2, 1914–1932, ed. C. Ragaz, M. Mattmüller, and A. Rich
(Zurich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 1982), 304.
2 “The Hope for the Kingdom of God and Signs of Hope in the World,”Pneuma26, no. 1 (2004): 5.
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perhaps the pious may recognize that here the last word is spoken to their piety, and the free may realize that the greatest freedom is the freedom which is grounded in God.”3 In his estimation, the witness of the Blumhardts was significant because it pointed beyond the divided mind of modern Christianity. It was truly revolutionary because it called into question the categories and divisions that plagued the churches of his time.
Ragaz’s conviction regarding the Blumhardts continues to find significant resonance in the English-speaking world, where many of the divisions to which he pointed are still present. Interestingly, the Blumhardts have sometimes played an important role in attempts to heal such divisions. Likewise, they have also been put forward as models for ways of thinking about and practicing ecu- menical or even interreligious conversation and cooperation. The remarkably creative integrations to which their witness points—the spirit and the body; prayer and action; history and the kingdom of God; the particular person of Jesus Christ and the universal presence of the Spirit of God; the healing of the body and the healing of the body politic—all of these and many others, it is argued, are better able to do justice to the multifaceted truth of the gospel of God’s reign. The different communities that have been involved in receiving the Blumhardt witness illustrate the ecumenical possibilities of their thought.
I offer the following reception history of the Blumhardts in the English- speaking world to demonstrate such potentialities. The benefit of recounting this history is that it will enable us not only to see some of the ways in which the Blumhardts have historically been important for English-speaking circles, but also to point to elements that continue to make themtheologicallyrelevant. To repeat Ragaz’s conviction: what continues to make the Blumhardts relevant is their ability to think and speak beyond the divisions that often plague Christian communities. As Ragaz put it long ago, in their witness, “Something completely new rises up here which does not fit into any of the old patterns, and which fulfils in a surprising way the deepest longing of our times.”4
My essay is structured around the three phases of the reception of the Blumhardts in English-speaking circles. The first phase can be described as an early interest in the healing ministry of the elder Blumhardt, which occurred primarily in the nineteenth century, but which continues to exert an important influence today. The second phase began in the mid-twentieth century and was marked by the publication of primary sources as well as shorter secondary
3 Leonhard Ragaz, Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes in Blumhardt, Vater und Sohn—und weiter!
(Erlenbach: Rotapfel, 1925), 17–18.
4 Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes, 18.
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sources devoted especially to introducing the Blumhardts to English-speaking readers. This phase also included attempts by theologians and ethicists to appropriate the Blumhardts for constructive theological purposes. And finally a third wave, which is currently underway. This phase is marked by scholarly assessment of the Blumhardts in their historical setting and by an effort to translate more of the Blumhardt corpus into English. As an aside, though we are primarily concerned about developments in the United States, it is impossible for us to exclude some figures or events that have occurred elsewhere in the English-speaking world, and so we will include pertinent episodes that lay outside our focus, principally those in the British Isles.
In the conclusion to the essay I offer some unsystematic interpretive obser- vations culled from the reception history. Among these is included one of the essential characteristics of the history of Blumhardt reception in its second and third phase. I am speaking here of the coinherence of the witness of father and sonBlumhardt.As thehistorydemonstrates,this hasbeen asignificant element in the interpretation of the Blumhardts, but I also believe that seeing the father and son as a single, though differentiated, witness needs to be retained for the Blumhardts to have maximum effect in the English-speaking scene.
Over the years I have had several encounters with German colleagues who were surprised that I had ever heard of the Blumhardts, let alone studied them. But, as the reception history shows, the voice of the Blumhardts has been present in North American circles for quite some time. My hope is that the retrospective-prospective considerations offered in this essay will highlight the remarkable reach that the Blumhardts have already had. But I also hope to indicate some places in which the Blumhardts’ witness can make a construc- tive contribution going forward. Above all, however, I hope that the picture offered here furthers our understanding of the kingdom of God to which the Blumhardts themselves pointed, and reinvigorates in each of us, and in the church at large, a commitment to doing deeds of hope as we wait and hasten toward the coming of God’s reign.
The Late Nineteenth-Century Appropriation of the Elder Blumhardt
The reception history of the Blumhardts began as a decidedly transatlantic phenomenon. Though the elder Blumhardt’s first contact with the English- speaking world occurred as early as 1845 with the English translation of his Handbüchlein der Missionsgeschichte und Missionsgeographie by the Religious Tract Society in London, it was not until later that the events at Möttlingen and
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the subsequent healing ministry of the elder Blumhardt at Bad Boll became known. Evidence that the name of Blumhardt was beginning to spread at least by 1859 is found in the 1881 publicationPastor Blumhardt and His Work,5edited and published by Rev. William Guest in London. Though unremarkable in regard to illuminating the life of Blumhardt, this short work is nevertheless important because of the connections it reveals regarding the reception of Blumhardt in the English-speaking world.
A key moment of transmission appears to have been facilitated by Chris- tian Friedrich Spittler (1782–1867), the founder of the Pilgrim Mission at St. Chrischona, near Basel. In chapter two of the work, Guest indicates that Spit- tler shared the story of the MöttlingenKampf with a Christian assembly in 1859 in Ulster.6 This would have been during the Ulster revival, underway since the spring of 1859. Though we cannot know whether those to whom Spittler con- veyed the story of Blumhardt were supporters or critics of the Ulster revival, the content of Spittler’s account is similar to that of Zündel,7with only slight mod- ifications.8The elder Blumhardt’s reluctant entrapment in the mysterious case of Gottliebin Dittus, which eventually gave way to the confession “Jesus is vic- tor!”, and the later healing ministry of Blumhardt, focusing especially on prayer and the laying on of hands as the means through which God does works of healing, feature prominently in the account. In addition to Spittler, Guest pro- vides several other anecdotes from unnamed and undated sources, as well as the account of a visit to Bad Boll by the famous Scottish Evangelist Henry Drum- mond. The work also includes a preface written by Karl Blumhardt (1807–1883), brother of Johann Christoph Blumhardt, as well as a brief afterword by the edi- tor indicating that he had been in contact with Gustav Blumhardt (1815–1890), another sibling of the elder Blumhardt.
As noted, the picture that emerges of Blumhardt does not differ much from what we find in Zündel: a discussion of the earnestness of the young Blumhardt; a lengthy discussion of the events surrounding Gottliebin and Katharina Dit- tus; discussion of the subsequent revival; and finally characteristic remarks about the unpretentiousness, lack of formalism, and genuine freedom that
5 Rev. William Guest, Pastor Blumhardt and His Work (London: Morgan and Scott, 1881). 6 Ibid., 26–36.
7 I am referring here to the key biography of Blumhardt written by Friedrich Zündel and
originally published in 1880. See Friedrich Zündel, Pastor Johann Christoph Blumhardt: An
Account of His Life(Eugene,or: Cascade Books, 2010).
8 For a discussion of the debates surrounding the interpretation of the Ulster Revival of 1859,
see Andrew R. Holmes, “The Ulster Revival of 1859: Causes, Controversies and Consequences,”
Journal of Ecclesiastical History63, no. 3 (July 2012): 488–515.
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marked the ministry of the elder Blumhardt at Bad Boll. Notwithstanding the pedestrian character of this account, what the text does illuminate are the key contexts in which the elder Blumhardt’s ministry seemed to gain traction in the English-speaking world: transatlantic revivalist and faith-healing net- works.
For obvious reasons, Blumhardt appealed to revivalists and figures in the healing movement in the latter half of the nineteenth-century. Though it is impossible to know if the story shared by Spittler in 1859 made its way over to the United States, it should be noted that the Ulster revival was a transatlantic phenomenon, related in large measure to events in New York in 1857–1858. There is some indication that knowledge of Blumhardt’s ministry was already circulating in North American circles in the 1850s and 1860s,9but we can make a definite connection to North America by the 1880s, as the work of Reverend Guest became the basis for a book published in 1883 by R. Kelso Carter, a propo- nent of faith healing.10 Carter’s work was widely publicized by other members of the North American faith-healing movement, most notably W.E. Boardman and Charles Cullis.11Spittler’s account also made its way into A.J. Gordon’sThe Ministry of Healing,12 which was the most widely read work produced by the healing movement in the transatlantic English-speaking world.
In most of these contexts, the events at Möttlingen and Blumhardt’s later ministry were appealing because they were seen to provide evidence of healing. Blumhardt was often paired with Dorothea Trudel (1813–1862)—the great Swiss figure—as a calm practitioner of “faith healing,” presumably to be emulated.13 The accounts highlight the two-year process whereby Blumhardt arrived at the pinnacle moment of the Möttlingen Kampf as a proof that the events were neither forced nor forged. Blumhardt’s patient faith, persistence in prayer, and
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Donald W. Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism (Metuchen, nj: Scarecrow Press, 1987), 121.
Pastor Blumhardt, A Record of the Wonderful Spiritual and Physical Manifestations of God’s Power in Healing Souls and Bodies(Boston: Willard Tract Repository, 1883). For discussion of Carter and his place in faith-healing circles, see Dayton,Theological Roots of Pentecostal- ism, 129–131, 133.
Nancy A. Hardesty, Faith Cure: Divine Healing in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements (Peabody,ma: Hendrickson, 2003), 16–20.
A.J. Gordon, The Ministry of Healing (New York: The Christian Alliance Publishing Co., 1882), 158–162, 247–249.
Jörg Ohlemacher, “Evangelikalismus und Heiligungsbewegung im 19. Jahrhundert,” in Ulrich Gäbler, ed., Geschichte des Pietismus: Der Pietismus im neunzehnten und zwanzig- sten Jahrhundert (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000), 379–380.
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trust in the witness of Scripture all pointed to the fact that these events were the natural, matter-of-fact occurrences that were to be expected through a life of faithfulness.14
To be clear, whether the elder Blumhardt would have agreed with such appropriations of his work is not altogether clear. As recounted in Dieter Ising’s biography of Blumhardt, in 1859, the very same year in which Spittler con- veyed the story of Möttlingen and Bad Boll to auditors in Belfast, Blumhardt can be found at the annual conference of the Rhenish Mission Society dis- tancing himself from the revival movements occurring in Ireland, England, and the United States.15 Blumhardt’s concerns—which included the ministry of Dorothea Trudel, for whom he had sincere respect16—was what he felt was a lack of eschatological reserve. When healing or other signs of the Spirit are removed from their eschatological context so that they are no longer simply signs that point beyond themselves, they can then become confused with the arrival of the kingdom itself. In this confusion, manifestations as such effec- tively raise expectations about an imminent appearance of the kingdom; and when those expectations are not met, despair ensues. The younger Blumhardt shared his father’s assessment and even turned down a personal invitation by W.E. Boardman to attend the International Conference on Divine Healing and Holiness in London, on account of Boardman’s over-realized eschatol- ogy.17
ThefirstphaseofBlumhardt’sreceptionoccurredalmostexclusivelyinfaith- healing and revivalist contexts, a fact that, on the surface, doesn’t seem to point in an ecumenical direction. But this would only be a surface reading, as the faith-healing movement was an ecumenical and transatlantic phenomenon. Furthermore, the elder Blumhardt was more of a critical friend or friendly critic to such movements, a justified deduction given his criticisms of both faith healing and revivalism. In other words, Blumhardt was both an insider and an outsider in such circles, which is probably indicative of the integrative and independent nature of his thought.
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Hardesty, Faith Cure, 17.
See Dieter Ising, Johann Christoph Blumhardt, Life and Work: A New Biography (Eugene, or: Cascade Books, 2009), 346.
Ibid., 335–336, 420.
See Simeon Zahl, Pneumatology and Theology of the Cross in the Preaching of Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt: The Holy Spirit between Wittenberg and Azusa Street(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2010), 114.
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The Mid-Twentieth-Century Reception of the Blumhardts
Phase two of Blumhardt reception is by far the largest and most complex of the three described here. During this phase, which we will date from the late 1950s up into the 1980s, we see limited amounts of primary source materials appear in English translation for the first time. Understandably, and in con- trast to the first phase, there are initial attempts to grapple with the political- theological legacy of Christoph Blumhardt. In the process of mediation, major non-English-speaking theologians serve as conduits for the Blumhardts through translations of occasional pieces and other important theological writ- ings. At the same time, figures from within the evangelical orbit also play an important role in mediating and assimilating the radical theological insights of the younger Blumhardt.
We begin with the most important aspect of the second phase of Blumhardt reception in the English-speaking world: the appearance of primary source material in English. Though limited in comparison to the whole of the Blum- hardt corpus, this phase saw a considerable uptick in the availability of Blum- hardt materials in English. If we discount the few places in which English and American sources already quoted from Zündel, then it is Christoph Blumhardt, and not his father, who is the first to be translated into English.
The first source to appear was the 1963 Christoph Blumhardt and His Mes- sage,18 a translation of Robert Lejeune’s 1938 Christoph Blumhardt und seine Botschaft. This was the first of a series of translations of Blumhardt materials by the Bruderhof, the community begun in Germany in the early twentieth century by Eberhard Arnold (1883–1935).19 According to Arnold, as well as the Bruderhof community’s recently published statement of faith, the Blumhardts are one of the major extrabiblical inspirations for the common life practiced by the community.20 Accused of being communists, they were expelled from Germany by the Nazi state in 1937.21After some time in England and Paraguay, they eventually established a community in New York in the 1950s. Bruderhof members immediately set about translating Blumhardt materials into English
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Robert Lejeune, Christoph Blumhardt and His Message (Woodcrest, ny: The Plough Pub- lishing House, 1963).
For a discussion of the early history of the Bruderhof, see Markus Baum, Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof (Farmington,pa: The Plough Publishing House, 1998). Ibid., 146–148. See also Foundations of our Faith and Calling (Rifton, ny: The Plough Publishing House, 2012), 26–27.
See Emmy Barth, An Embassy Besieged: The Story of a Christian Community in Nazi Ger- many(Eugene,or: Cascade Books, 2010).
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for use in their community.22 The translation work of the community, which continues to this day, forms the basis for almost all of the Blumhardt materials available in English.
The 1963 source was quickly followed by translations of sermons and prayers by Christoph Blumhardt in 1969,231971,24and 1973.25English translations of the elder Blumhardt were inaugurated in 1970, with the appearance of Frank Bosh- old’s translation of Blumhardt’s Krankenheitsgeschichte der Gottliebin Dittus in Möttlingen, which details the events and physical symptoms of Dittus during the MöttlingenKampf.26This was followed by two small collections with mate- rials from both the elder and the younger Blumhardt, the first in 1976 titledNow is Eternity,27 and the second the 1980 publication Thoughts about Children.28 Also published in 1980 was Vernard Eller’s Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader.29 This source was a translation of selections from Leonhard Ragaz’s Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes in Blumhardt, Vater und Sohn—und weiter!30 The Eller and Boshold works are important in part because they represent a widening of the Blumhardt readership, as they were produced by publishers who were independent of the Bruderhof.31
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There may also have been some impetus for translating Blumhardt materials coming from a 1961 visit to Bad Boll and Möttlingen, during which time Bruderhof leaders established contact with living members of the Blumhardt and Dittus families.
Karl Barth and Christoph Blumhardt, Action in Waiting(Rifton,ny: The Plough Publishing House, 1969).
Christoph Blumhardt, Evening Prayers for Everyday of the Year (Rifton, ny: The Plough Publishing House, 1971).
Christoph Blumhardt, “Wait for the Lord,”Katallagete4, no. 6 (1973): 30–32.
Johann Christoph Blumhardt,Blumhardt’s Battle: A Conflict with Satan, trans. F.S. Boshold (New York: Thomas E. Lowe, Ltd., 1970). For the German original, see Johann Christoph Blumhardt, Der Kampf in Möttlingen, Texte, ed. P. Ernst and G. Schäfer (Göttingen: Van- denhoeck & Ruprecht, 1979).
Johann Christoph Blumhardt and Christoph F. Blumhardt,Now Is Eternity(Rifton,ny: The Plough Publishing House, 1976).
Johann Christoph Blumhardt and Christoph Blumhardt,Thoughts about Children(Rifton, ny: The Plough Publishing House, 1980).
Vernard Eller, Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader (Grand Rapids, mi: Wm B. Eerd- mans, 1980).
Ragaz, Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes in Blumhardt, Vater und Sohn—und weiter!. As an aside, it is important to note that even though Eller’s volume was published by Eerdmans, nevertheless,he drewon translationsdone bythe Bruderhof. Thus,the Boshold text represents the only Blumhardt source published in English that was not in some way connected to the Bruderhof. See Eller,Thy Kingdom Come, ix–2.
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These texts constitute the bulk of the Blumhardt materials that appeared during this phase. One thing that stands out immediately from this list is that the writings of Christoph receive more attention than those of his father. This is, in part, because of wider theological and political changes in the English- speaking world. I am thinking here of the fact that during the period we have called phase two, we also see the flowering of a variety of liberation and political theologies. At the risk of being overly reductionist, one could say that the liber- ation theologies of this period constituted some of the first robust attempts to reflect upon the political nature of the gospel in light of economic injustice and gender and racial oppression. Liberation theologians also sought, sometimes problematically, to give voice to the voiceless. At the same time, liberation and political theologies were also attempts to bring Christian theology into dia- logue with Marxist theory, to see where commonalities and differences lay, and to resource church communities as they sought to deal with complex and per- vasive issues of injustice.
In the midst of this, the younger Blumhardt’s role as an early exponent of “religious socialism” made him a natural figure to engage; and Blumhardt’s commitment to the gospel of the kingdom of God was also very attractive, as most forms of liberation and political theology contained a strong eschato- logical tinge. The sentiments expressed in this 1897 statement of Blumhardt resonated deeply with many in North American circles during this tumultuous period: “Today, God’s purpose expands world-wide. God’s kingdom goes into the alley, there where the poorest of the poor are, those rejected and despised. It expands into the heavens and into hell, as well as to all nations.”32Blumhardt’s willingness to identify the longing for justice that arose from the working classes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the work of the Spirit and the kingdom of God connected with the deepest intentions of most liberation theologians, even when they didn’t know Blumhardt’s work.33
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Christoph Blumhardt, Ansprachen, Predigten, Reden, Briefe: 1865–1917, vol. 2,1890–1906, ed. J. Harder (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchen Verlag, 1978), 84.
For instance, listen to these words of Gustavo Gutiérrez: “Jesus turned to the great pro- phetic tradition and taught that worship is authentic only when it is based on profound personal dispositions, on the creation of true brotherhood among men, and on real commitment to others, especially the most needy (cf., for example, Matt. 5:23–24; 25:31– 45). Jesus accompanied this criticism with a head-on opposition to the rich and powerful and a radical option for the poor; one’s attitude towards them determines the validity of all religious behavior; it is above all for them that the Son of Man has come” (A Theology of Liberation [Maryknoll, ny: Orbis Books, 1973], 228). Now, compare this to Blumhardt’s statements from 1901: “You all know that Jesus connected to the needs of the poor, the
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Though Blumhardt does not figure prominently in the writings of such the- ologians as Gustavo Gutiérrez, James Cone, or Rosemary Radford Ruether, nev- ertheless, his work does make it into the wider conversation. There are two important avenues through which Blumhardt was introduced into the con- versation: on the one hand was the work of Karl Barth and Jürgen Moltmann, and on the other hand such figures as the Church of the Brethren theologian Vernard Eller.
In the case of Barth, many of the key North American figures involved in discussions around liberation or political theology—such as Fredrick Herzog, Harvey Cox, Paul Lehmann, James Cone, Robert McAfee Brown, and so forth— often drew on Barth as a source of theological inspiration, even when they disagreed with him.34 As it turned out, most of the key sources in which Barth interacts with the Blumhardts were finally made available during this period. The late volumes of the Church Dogmatics, in which Barth engages at length with the Blumhardts,35the lengthy consideration of the elder Blumhardt in his lectures on nineteenth-century Protestant theology,36 and the shorter pieces from his early career were all finally translated into English during this period.37 Many of these sources also appeared as the intra-German debate regarding the theological significance of Barth’s commitment to socialism—sparked by the famous dissertation of Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt38—also became known in the English-speaking world.39
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suffering, the oppressed, to those who had lost their rights, the minorities and those who hungered for righteousness. He said that they hunger for bread. We want to say this to the glory of God today: He was the first actual warrior who fought for the life-needs of the innumerable masses, who were not fortunate enough to really satisfy their lives sustenance and to really gain their right to life” (Ansprachen, vol. 2, 271).
For a review of the criticisms of the Latin American theologians, see George Hunsinger, “Karl Barth and Liberation Theology,” in Hunsinger, Disruptive Grace: Studies in the Theol- ogy of Karl Barth(Grand Rapids,mi: Wm B. Eerdmans, 2000), 42–59.
See Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics iv/3.1 and iv/3.2, trans. G. Bromiley (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1962), 168–171, 173–180, 568–571, 892–893; and Barth, The Christian Life: Church Dogmaticsiv/4 Lecture Fragments(Grand Rapids,mi: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1981), 256–260. See Karl Barth, Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century (Valley Forge, pa: Judson Press, 1973), 643–653.
See Karl Barth, “Action in Waiting for the Kingdom of God,” in Karl Barth and Christoph Blumhardt, Action in Waiting, 19–45; and Barth, “Past and Future: Friedrich Naumann and Christoph Blumhardt,” in The Beginnings of Dialectic Theology, ed. James M. Robinson (Richmond,va: John Knox Press, 1968), 35–45.
Theologie und Sozialismus: Das Beispiel Karl Barths(Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1972). See George Hunsinger, ed., Karl Barth and Radical Politics (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976).
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Authors drawn to the more radical aspects of Barth’s theology, especially in regard to political theology or liberation motifs, were often introduced to the Blumhardts as one of the key sources for Barth’s own radicalism.40 Among a number of commentators, James Bentley can be singled out as exemplary in this regard. Bentley’s 1973 essay, “Karl Barth as a Christian Socialist,” highlights the connection between Barth and Christoph Blumhardt.41In a latter publica- tion, Bentley argued that what enabled Barth to affirm the political meaning of the gospel without allowing the gospel to be collapsed into a political program was the example of Christoph Blumhardt: “Blumhardt had been one to show him the possibility of a Christian social criticism that would open up a new place for and give fresh meaning to Christian social action.”42 Bentley eventu- ally supplemented his research on Barth with important essays on Blumhardt, as a religious socialist and a preacher of hope.43
In addition to the political-theological significance of the Blumhardts, there is also the importance of their eschatologically inflected Christology for Barth. Barth’s famous declaration that “If Christianity be not altogether thorough- going eschatology, there remains in it no relationship whatever with Christ” captures this well.44 Jesus is the kingdom; the kingdom is Jesus; with the appearing of Jesus on earth, the end has in fact dawned in the midst of his- tory, and something has been unleashed through his resurrection from the dead. Notwithstanding the differences between the early and late eschatology developed by Barth, there is clearly a sustained Blumhardtian influence.45 For
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This is point is illustrated quite well by Timothy Gorringe in his Karl Barth: Against Hegemony(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), esp. 288–290.
We should also note the role played by the dissertation of Hans Frei, “The Doctrine of Revelation in the Thought of Karl Barth, 1909 to 1922: The Nature of Barth’s Break with Liberalism” (PhD diss., Yale University, 1956), which highlighted the eschatology and approach to Scripture that Barth took over from the Blumhardts. Frei’s dissertation was especially important for the interpretation of Barth during this period.
James Bentley, “Karl Barth as a Christian Socialist,” Theology 76, no. 637 (July 1973): 349– 356.
James Bentley, Between Marx and Christ: The Dialogue in German-Speaking Europe, 1870– 1970(London: Verso, 1982), 68.
In addition to the chapter on Christoph Blumhardt in Bentley’s Between Marx and Christ (pp. 15–35), see also his “Christoph Blumhardt: Preacher of Hope,” Theology 78, no. 665 (November 1975): 577–582.
Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, 6th ed., trans. Edwyn Hoskyns (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 314.
See Christian T. Collins Winn, “Jesus is Victor!”: The Significance of the Blumhardts for the Theology of Karl Barth(Eugene,or: Pickwick Press, 2009), 155–284.
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readers of Barth, the impression that the Blumhardts were a key source of his eschatology was so strong, in fact, that even figures who had little direct expo- sure to the Blumhardts would often still claim them as an influence through Barth.46
Jürgen Moltmann—another key conduit by which the name of the Blum- hardts became more widely known—was even more directly involved in libera- tion theology discussions, and was also a leading figure in bringing eschatologi- calthemestotheforefrontofChristiantheologyduringthisperiod.Moltmann’s Theology of Hope is generally cited as a precursor to the liberation theology movement, and by the late 1960s Moltmann was, along with Johann Baptist Metz, a central voice in the development of “political theology,” a close rela- tive of liberation theology. Theology of Hope appeared in 1967 in English, with The Crucified God following in 1974 and The Church in the Power of the Spirit in 1977. In all of these, references to the Blumhardts appear scattered throughout, in relation to either eschatological or political theological themes. And though we would have to wait until our third phase for English-speaking readers to hear from Moltmann himself regarding how important the Blumhardts were for his theology,47nevertheless, commentators still managed to notice that the Blumhardts were a source of inspiration.48
In addition to the eschatological and political radicalism of Barth and Molt- mann, we should also include the voice of Eduard Thurneysen (1888–1974), Barth’s longtime friend, whose A Theology of Pastoral Care featured a promi- nent discussion of the Blumhardts.49 The inclusion of Thurneysen alongside Barth and Moltmann offers yet another indication of the ability of the Blum- hardts to make relevant contributions to varied disciplines.50 In Thurneysen’s case, the Blumhardts become exemplary models of pastoral care because of their holistic conception of the human person, their assumptions about the
46
47
48 49 50
This is the case with the so-called “Union School” of apocalyptic theology, among whom are included Paul Lehmann, J. Louis Martyn, Christopher Morse, Fleming Rutledge, and Beverly Gaventa. See Fleming Rutledge’s genealogy of the “Union School” of apoc- alyptic theology: http://ruminations.generousorthodoxy.org/2009/10/modest-proposal- apocalyptic-theology.htm.
This happened with the publication of his “The Hope for the Kingdom of God and Signs of Hope in the World.” See also Jürgen Moltmann, A Broad Place: An Autobiography (Minneapolis,mn: Fortress Press, 2008), 65, 78, and 97.
See Vernard Eller, “The Blumhardts,”Katallagete4, no. 6 (1973): 30.
Eduard Thurneysen, A Theology of Pastoral Care(Richmond,va: John Knox Press, 1962). For another example, see W.G. Bodamer, “The Life and Work of Johann Christoph Blum- hardt” (ThD diss., Princeton Theological Seminary, 1966).
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social and physical effects of sin, and the naturalness with which they per- formed their pastoral duties. Drawing on personal reminiscence, Thurneysen approvingly described Christoph Blumhardt’s pastoral practice, saying: “What Blumhardt’s conversation demonstrated was nothing less than the vigor, the openmindedness, and the sympathy whereby he accepted the human situa- tion, presented by the partner in conversation, and disentangled it in the light of his perception of Christ and his Word.”51
Barth, Thurneysen, and Moltmann were all important figures not only in calling attention to the Blumhardts as significant figures, but also because they were able to point to the central and relevant elements in the Blumhardts’ theology: the kingdom of God, a theology of hope, conceptions of human nature and salvation which can be described as holistic (concerned with soul, body, and society), as well as the work of the Holy Spirit.52
Alongside these more prominent voices were figures that can be described as within the evangelical orbit, though usually on the progressive side. Theolo- gians such as Donald Bloesch,53 Dale Brown,54 Donald Dayton,55 and Vernard Eller brought the Blumhardts to the attention of American readers, especially Evangelicals. Harvey Cox may also be included among these voices. Though written from a mainline Protestant perspective, his widely read work The Sec- ular City56 nevertheless had a significant impact on progressive Evangelicals57 and was decidedly influenced by the younger Blumhardt as mediated through Ragaz.58
Vernard Eller, in particular, deserves special mention here. A member of the Church of the Brethren founded by Alexander Mack and the Schwarzenau Brethren, Eller (1927–2007) can be described as a key figure in the reception of the Blumhardts in the English-speaking world. Not only did he oversee the
51 52
53 54
55
56 57 58
Ibid., 123.
This latter aspect was especially advanced through the doctoral dissertation of James Carroll Cox, Johann Christoph Blumhardt and the Work of the Holy Spirit (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1959) written under Karl Barth at Basel.
See, for example, hisThe Reform of the Church(Grand Rapids,mi: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1970). See his Understanding Pietism, rev. ed. (Nappanee, in: Evangel Publishing House, 1996). The original was published in 1976.
See his “The Revolutionary Message of Evangelical Christianity,” in Churches in Struggle: Liberation Theologies and Social Change in North America, ed. William K. Tabb (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1986), 211–222.
Harvey Cox,The Secular City(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1965).
Richard Quebedeaux,The Worldly Evangelicals(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978), 18–19. Harvey Cox, “Cox on His Critics,” in Daniel Callahan, ed., The Secular City Debate (New York: Macmillan, 1966), 86–88.
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publication of Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader, he saw to it that short sermons by Christoph Blumhardt were published in his denominational jour- nal Brethren Life and Thought,59 and in Katallagete,60 the civil rights-focused journal founded by the radical Southern Baptist activist Will Campbell. In addi- tion to these, Eller was responsible for publishing three different introductory essays on the Blumhardts, one in the widely read Christian Century maga- zine.61
Though sometimes marred by historical errors, Eller’s short articles nev- ertheless served to introduce the Blumhardts to wider circles. His historio- graphical strategy was to place both Blumhardts in the broader milieu of the theological revolution of the twentieth century. The Blumhardts function in some measure as background figures for the theological ferment of figures like Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Emil Brunner, and Moltmann, among others. At the same time, Eller also highlighted the neo-Pietist context that produced the two Blumhardts, especially the elder. Thus, Eller tied together the impor- tance of the two Blumhardts for dialectical theology, the radical social wit- ness of the younger Blumhardt, and the neo-Pietist and healing ministry of the elder Blumhardt in an attempt to create a threefold cord. His aim was to show how evangelical and pietistic forms of Christianity are productive of startlingly progressive political and theological agendas. He was seeking not only to bring mainline Protestants into contact with the evangelical pietism of the Blumhardts, but also to offer resources to contemporary progressive Evan- gelicals from within their own tradition.
In addition to the program of spiritual and theological ressourcement, Eller also harnessed elements of the younger Blumhardt’s political theology for his own program of Christian anarchy. Eller described Christian anarchy as the appropriate expression of radical discipleship, predicated on the victory of Christ over the “powers and principalities” of this world that, though defeated, continue to organize our social, political, economic, and religious life.62 In his book Christian Anarchy: Jesus’ Primacy over the Powers, Eller contrasted the “powers and principalities,” which can be characterized as heteronomous and
59
60 61
62
Christoph Blumhardt, “Behold, I Make All Things New!”Brethren Life and Thought15, no. 1 (Winter 1970): 43–48.
Blumhardt, “Wait for the Lord,” 30–32.
See “Who Are These Blumhardt Characters Anyhow?” The Christian Century 86, no. 41 (1969): 1274–1278; “Four Who Remember: Kierkegaard, the Blumhardts, Ellul, and Mug- geridge,”Katallagete3, no. 3 (1971): 6–12; and “The Blumhardts.”
See Vernard Eller,ChristianAnarchy:Jesus’PrimacyoverthePowers(Grand Rapids,mi: Wm B. Eerdmans, 1986), 5.
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death-dealing, with the power and reign of God, which is marked by God’s self- giving love as exemplified in Jesus Christ and which is now at work in the Chris- tian community through the power of the Spirit. The call of radical discipleship is to begin to live into the reign of God both individually and communally. To be sure, this was not a call to retreat from the public square; rather, it was a call to inhabit the public square, but under the direction of a fundamentally differ- ent kind of logic: the logic of God’s reign, which is characterized by abundance, peaceableness, and self-giving love, rather than by the logic of the “powers and principalities” that are marked by scarcity, violence, and death.
In this, Christoph Blumhardt and his reflections on the public and political claims of God’s kingdom are an important source for Eller. Arrayed alongside Søren Kierkegaard, Barth, Bonhoeffer, Jacques Ellul, and others, Blumhardt becomes a central figure in Eller’s eschatologically framed Christian political ethic of witness and protest.63 Of particular importance to Eller was the fact that Blumhardt joined the spd not so much because he was a party man, but because he was compelled to protest against the “powers and principalities” of his day and age. To this end, Eller emphasizes the critical solidarity of Blumhardt vis-à-vis thespd, quoting him as saying: “I am proud to stand before you as a man; and if politics cannot tolerate a human being as I am, then let politics be damned!”64 Blumhardt’s decision to join the spd and to serve in the Landtag was ostensibly motivated by his identification with the plight of the workers, but on an even deeper level it was an act of discipleship. What Eller found compelling in this was Blumhardt’s freedom to be engaged in the political problems of his day without succumbing to the logic of politics,65 a fact that was further demonstrated by his decision to step down from service in the Landtag. As we know, this decision was the result of a number of factors, including health and a chastened view of party politics, among others. For Eller, Blumhardt’s decision did not represent a repudiation of political engagement so much as a declaration of the relative and parabolic situation in which all human action finds itself in relation to the kingdom of God. Blumhardt had identified with Social Democracy for theological reasons—an identification that remained even after his retirement from politics—but he never allowed his theology or his hopes to be swallowed up or overidentified
63 64 65
Ibid., 169–219.
Ibid., 58. Eller does not provide the source of this quotation.
Needless to say, there are others who find this aspect of Blumhardt deeply problematic. See W.R. Ward, Theology, Sociology and Politics: The German Protestant Social Conscience 1890–1933(Berne: Peter Lang, 1979), 125–127.
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with a political program, for, as he noted in a letter to Howard Eugster-Züst: “At the end, it will finally be called the kingdom of God, not the Social Democratic kingdom.”66
In the second phase of the reception of the Blumhardts, we have noted the importance of the appearance of Blumhardt primary sources, as well as attempts to mediate and assimilate the eschatology and political theology of Christoph Blumhardt into the English-speaking world. Barth and Moltmann in translation and multiple materials produced by Vernard Eller and others were all essential in this process. It is worth highlighting here that these authors would have mediated the Blumhardts into different though sometimes over- lapping audiences. Eller, in particular, was important in the larger narrative of Blumhardt reception because he argued for holding the two Blumhardts together as a way of maximizing the ecumenical potential of the Blumhardtian witness. The final phase that we will describe below has been shaped largely by the trajectory developed by Eller, though with important caveats.
Blumhardt Reception at the Turn of the Century
If phase one was dominatedbythe reception of the healing ministry of the elder Blumhardt among revivalists and Holiness figures, and phase two by interest in the eschatology and political theology of the younger Blumhardt, then phase three can be described as marked especially by more extensive historical stud- ies that seek to surface the theological potential that the Blumhardts offer for dialogue in a number of different contexts. During this phase, which begins in the 1990s and continues to this day, there is also a significant attempt underway to bring more of the Blumhardt corpus into English.
The period is inaugurated with the 1993 publication of Frank Macchia’s seminal work,Spirituality and Social Liberation: The Message of the Blumhardts in the Light of Wuerttemberg Pietism.67Written under Jan Milic Lochman at the University of Basel, this work is significant for a number of different reasons.
First, Macchia historically contextualizes the two Blumhardts within the milieu of Württemberg Pietism. Macchia introduces English-speaking read- ers to lesser-known figures such as Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1752) and
66
67
Christoph Blumhardt,PolitikausderNachfölge.DerBriefwechselzwischenHowardEugster- Züst und Christoph Blumhardt, 1886–1919, ed. Louis Speker (Zurich: Gotthelf Verlag, 1984), 264.
Frank Macchia, Spirituality and Social Liberation: The Message of the Blumhardts in the Light of Wuerttemberg Pietism(Metuchen,nj: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1993).
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Friedrich Christoph Ötinger (1702–1782), as well as to virtually unknown figures from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Philipp Matthäus Hahn (1739–1790), Johann Michael Hahn (1758–1819), and Ludwig Hofacker (1798– 1828). In doing so he is able to sketch the creative and complex background out of which the Blumhardts arose.
Württemberg Pietists in the nineteenth century certainly shared many of the interests of other neo-Pietists such as August Tholuck or Johann Wichern, but there were also other abiding concerns, such as theosophy and other holistic forms of spirituality, eschatological themes such as the apokatastasis doctrine and the kingdom of God, the biblical realism of Johann Tobias Beck and others, the interest in physical healing and spiritual warfare, and the communal experiment in Christian communism at Kornthal.68 Though the Blumhardts, compelled by their experiences at Möttlingen and beyond, would rework these themes, nevertheless, Macchia offers one of the most nuanced portraits of the Blumhardts available, fully rooting them in the history that preceded them.
Second, the historical portrait offered by Macchia was also important for English-speaking readers because it showed just how radical and creative cer- tain strains of Pietism actually were. In North American circles Pietism has gen- erally been viewed as theologically conservative, individualistic, and politically quietist. Macchia’s portrayal helps to upend this assessment. Notwithstanding the ways in which certain Württemberg Pietists were indeed conservative, his account shows that the Pietism of this region was far more complex than the uninformed judgments of much of the English-speaking world. This is signifi- cant not only because it helps to correct historical and theological mispercep- tions, but also because the audience to whom Macchia was writing tended to come from more conservative circles.
His aim, like that of Vernard Eller and Donald Dayton in phase two, was to resource evangelical Christians with a vision of the gospel that was in keeping with the emphases of more traditional forms of Christianity, but which was also able to be more engaged in a liberative social witness. As he states it:
If Evangelicalism is to find its way beyond a gospel that is not sufficiently concerned with social liberation and healing, help must come from a movement that has struggled with many of the same tensions as those found within Evangelicalism but with greater success at integrating the spiritual and social dimensions of Christian commitment. As we have
68
For a discussion of these and other themes in Württemberg Pietism, see ibid., 6–60.
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seen, the Blumhardts, ministering within the context of Wuerttemberg Pietism, represent just such a movement. Eschatology, missions, revival, and novel fellowships for prayer and Bible study are all aspects of the religion of the Blumhardts in which various segments of Evangelicalism would feel more or less at home. The Blumhardts, however, applied the eschatological criterion to the spirituality and theology of the church in such a way as to encourage a Christian life that is equally responsive to both God and world.69
In short, within the traditional forms of Protestant Christianity to which Mac- chia was speaking—Pietism, Pentecostalism, Evangelicalism—there are re- sources for constructing a credible social witness that is able to do justice to Jesus’ call to proclaim liberation to the captives.
This leads to our third point, which is that Macchia treats the two Blum- hardts together. Though he does not pull back from identifying places in which the father and son differ, notably around issues such as pneumatology or the phenomenon of healing, nevertheless, he argues persuasively that both the elder and the younger Blumhardt should be interpreted as a single differen- tiated witness. Macchia supports this interpretive move with textual evidence adduced especially from the writings of the son and, importantly, it allows him to keep together the phenomenon of healing and social liberation as mani- festations of God’s in-breaking power that, though different, are nevertheless on a single continuum. Physical healing and social healing are both signs of God’s active engagement with the world, revealing God’s intentions not to forsake humanity or the earth, but to redeem, heal, transfigure, and recreate them.
And this leads to our final point: Macchia’s work is significant because in his person he represents the two worlds that we have noted were important in the reception of the Blumhardts up to this point—the revivalist faith-healing traditions and the traditions of liberation and political theology. In fact, he is a perfect illustration of precisely how these two worlds can be brought together and therefore offers some indication of the significance and potential that the Blumhardts’ witness can have for American theology going forward. Macchia is a Pentecostal theologian who teaches at a Pentecostal institution, but he has also been a regular contributor to the ecumenical conversations in the National Council of Churches. At the same time, having been significantly influenced by Moltmann, Jan Milic Lochman, and others, he also is deeply concerned with
69
Ibid., 158–159.
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helping Pentecostal theologians and ecclesial communities to develop their own social witness. In other words, he is deeply concerned to help Pentecostals and those circles which emphasize physical healing to see that they have a great deal in common with liberation theology, and vice versa.
In the conclusion to Spirituality and Social Liberation, Macchia points to the Blumhardts’ eschatology, with its synergistic understanding of divine and human agency; their theology of prayer and its intimate connection with ethics; and their holistic understanding of repentance and conversion, especially their notion of “conversion to the world,” as areas in which Pentecostals and Evangel- icals can learn a great deal from the Blumhardts.70 With the explosive growth of Pentecostalism in North American and around the world, it is fair to say that the Blumhardtian integration that Macchia seeks to embody has extraordinary potential for conversations across the globe.
A second key work is my book “Jesus is Victor!” The Significance of the Blum- hardts for the Theology of Karl Barth, which shares a great deal with Macchia. Published in 2009, the work was written as a dissertation under the guidance of Donald Dayton, who had also suggested the Blumhardts as a possible topic of study to Macchia. In my case, it was interest in dialectical theology, religious socialism, and an evangelical background that had moved Dayton to suggest the topic.
Following Macchia, I sought to show that the Württemberg tradition com- prised a key element in the Blumhardts’ theological imagination. I argued that this was the tradition in which both Blumhardts—especially the elder— were formed, but that under the spiritual and theological force of the Möttlin- gen Kampf, the later revival, and the subsequent history of Bad Boll, the two Blumhardts creatively reinterpreted what they had inherited. Thus their rela- tionship to the tradition could be described as one of critical freedom.71
I also followed Macchia in arguing that the two Blumhardts should be inter- preted together. I noted that many of the major theological themes found in the son are already present in the father, including concern with the embodied and social aspects of Christian faith,72though admittedly, the elder Blumhardt was no social radical. Nevertheless, I argued that the move from the elder to the younger Blumhardt does indeed produce a difference, but that this occurs
70 71 72
Ibid., 159–170.
“Jesus is Victor!” 68–75.
See Dieter Ising, “Der politische Blumhardt: Von der 1848er Revolution bis zum Deutsch- Französischen Krieg 1870/1871,”Blätter für württembergische Kirchengeschichte106 (2006): 39–52.
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within a broader similarity.73And so I described this as a movement “from the healing of the body, to the healing of the body politic.”
Finally, I also sought to show that a deep spirituality was at the roots of some of the most creative theological work of the twentieth century. Thus, I traced the Blumhardts’ influence on Karl Barth from his early career to the final volumes of the Church Dogmatics and then followed up with a short article, titled “‘Before Bloch there was Blumhardt’: A Thesis on the Origins of the Theology of Hope,”74 that sketched the influence of the Blumhardts on Jürgen Moltmann. In both of these, I share the basic assumption of Eller and Macchia, which is that central to the articulation of a progressive evangelical social witness and theology will be a careful reengagement with Pietism, especially the creative form that the Blumhardts themselves embodied.75
Another important study is Simeon Zahl’s 2010 workPneumatology and The- ology of the Cross in the Preaching of Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt: The Holy Spirit between Wittenberg and Azusa Street. In certain respects, Zahl’s work extends the basic trajectories developed by Macchia. Focused on Christoph Blumhardt, he seeks to exploit the ecumenical potential of the younger Blum- hardt by showing how his pneumatology and theological anthropology inte- grate key elements in the Lutheran and Pentecostal traditions. Through a care- ful exploration of the younger Blumhardt’s second period from 1888 to 1896— which falls under the watchword “Die, that Jesus may live”—Zahl outlines what he describes as the pessimistic elements of the younger Blumhardt’s anthropol- ogy.76Atthesametime,hepaysspecialattentiontothecategoryof“experience” and the role of the Spirit in mediating experiences of God.77
Significantly, Zahl’s argument is accomplished by deviating from Macchia’s assessment that the two Blumhardts should be interpreted together. Zahl com- pellingly maps a complex differentiation that characterizes the elder and youn- ger Blumhardt, which finds its crystallization in the younger Blumhardt’s “dy-
73 74
75
76
77
See Collins Winn, “Jesus is Victor!” 108–151, passim.
ChristianT.CollinsWinnandPeterGoodwinHeltzel,“‘BeforeBlochtherewasBlumhardt’: A Thesis on the Origins of the Theology of Hope,” Scottish Journal of Theology 62, no. 1 (2009): 26–39.
In regard to this point, see Roger E. Olson & Christian T. Collins Winn,Reclaiming Pietism: Retrieving an Evangelical Tradition(Grand Rapids,mi: Wm B. Eerdmans, 2015), and Chris- tian T. Collins Winn and John L. Drury, eds., Karl Barth and the Future of Evangelical The- ology(Eugene,or: Cascade Books, 2014).
See Zahl, Pneumatology and Theology of the Cross in the Preaching of Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, 31–60.
Ibid., 85–110, 149–152.
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namic complexification of Johann Christoph Blumhardt’s simpler eschatol- ogy.”78Exemplified above all in Christoph Blumhardt’sGedanken aus dem Reich Gottes, the innovation to which Zahl refers is Blumhardt’s development of an eschatological framework that is able to emphasize both the nearness of the kingdom and its delay, with an attendant stress on the relative importance of penultimate moments of the in-breaking of the kingdom that are neverthe- less overshadowed by the final goal, the ultimate arrival of the reign of God.79 In Zahl’s estimation, this development produces further important differences between the elder and younger Blumhardt in their respective anthropology, soteriology, and pneumatology,80all of which bring Christoph into closer prox- imity to Luther than his father was, making him far more useful for a Lutheran- Pentecostal dialogue around issues of pneumatology, regeneration, and the role of experience in the Christian life.
At the same time, however, Zahl notes that “[w]hether a given study of the Blumhardts’ theologies highlights their similarities or their differences is finally determined by what question is being asked of their theology,”81 highlighting that the differences between the elder and younger Blumhardt, though and real and important, are not absolute.82
In addition to Zahl’s work on the latent ecumenical potentialities in the younger Blumhardt, Macchia, Paul Chung, and I have each, separately, pub- lished essays on the younger Blumhardt’s potential for engaging non-Christian religious traditions.83 All three authors focus on Christoph Blumhardt’s cor- respondence with Richard Wilhelm,84 wherein Blumhardt offers some of his
78 79 80 81 82
83
84
Ibid., 68.
Ibid., 61–84.
For a succinct statement, see ibid., 152–155.
Ibid., 21.
For a similar admission regarding the deep continuity of the eschatology of both the elder and younger Blumhardt, see ibid., 153.
See Frank Macchia, “The Secular and the Religious Under the Shadow of the Cross: Impli- cations in Christoph Blumhardt’s Kingdom Spirituality for a Christian Response to World Religions,” in Religion in a Secular City: Essays in Honor of Harvey Cox, ed. Arvind Sharma (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2001), 59–77; Paul S. Chung,Christian Mission and a Diakonia of Reconciliation: A Global Reframing of Justification and Justice (Minneapolis, mn: Lutheran University Press, 2008), 116–133; and Christian T. Collins Winn, “Apocalyp- tic Pneumatology and the Holy Spirit in the Religions: The Contributions of Christoph Blumhardt,” in The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life: Historical, Interdisciplinary, and Renewal Perspectives, ed. Wolfgang Vondey (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 161–177. See Christoph Blumhardt,Christus in der Welt: Briefe an Richard Wilhelm, ed. Arthur Rich (Zurich: Zwingli Verlag, 1958).
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most forceful criticisms of Christian mission and the Christian churches, while also offering positive assessments of other religious traditions, notably Bud- dhism, Islam, and Confucianism. All three point to the political-theological dynamics at work in Blumhardt’s critique and affirmation, as well as the sig- nificance of the younger Blumhardt’s eschatology. The key difference lay in my articulation of what is describe as the apocalyptic structure of his pneumatol- ogy, which enables Blumhardt to offer both trenchant criticism and positive affirmation.85 As with Zahl, these works are in keeping with Macchia’s initial gesture toward harnessing the Blumhardts for ecumenical and integrative pur- poses. They differ from Zahl in that they do not stress the difference between father and son Blumhardt to accomplish their aims.
In addition to these, and a few other sources that we have not included here because of space,86we should also note the appearance of the Blumhardt Series, published jointly by Cascade Books and Plough Publishing. This series of
85 86
See Collins Winn, “ApocalypticPneumatologyand the Holy Spirit in the Religions,”171–173. Other texts from this phase that we have not dealt with include: Günter Krüger, “Johann Christoph Blumhardt: A Man for the Kingdom,” Covenant Quarterly 54, no. 4 (November 1996): 3–26; Jürgen Moltmann, “The Hope for the Kingdom of God and Signs of Hope in the World: The Relevance of Blumhardt’s Theology Today,”Pneuma26, no. 1 (Fall 2004): 4– 16; Dieter Ising, Johann Christoph Blumhardt, Life and Work: A New Biography(Eugene,or: Cascade Books, 2009); Frank Macchia, “Jesus is Victor: The Eschatology of the Blumhardts with Implications for Pentecostal Eschatologies,” in Perspectives in Pentecostal Eschatolo- gies, ed. Peter Althouse and Robby Waddell (Eugene, or: Pickwick Publications, 2010), 375–400; Simeon Zahl, “Rethinking ‘Enthusiasm’: Christoph Blumhardt on Discerning the Spirit,”International Journal of Systematic Theology 12, no. 3 (July 2010): 341–363; George Chang, “The Blumhardts’ Jesus Experience and the Kingdom of God,” Taiwan Journal of Theology 33 (2011): 45–82; Christian T. Collins Winn, “Groaning for the Kingdom of God: Spirituality, Social Justice and the Witness of the Blumhardts,” Journal of Spiritual Forma- tionandSoulCare6, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 56–75; and Mark R. Correll,ShepherdsoftheEmpire: Germany’s Conservative Protestant Leadership, 1888–1919(Minneapolis,mn: Fortress Press, 2014), 141–182.
In addition, more concerted attention was also paid to the Blumhardts in eschato- logical and ecclesiological works of scholars such as Donald Bloesch, Jürgen Moltmann, and Marva Dawn during this period. See Jürgen Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology(Minneapolis,mn: Fortress Press, 1996); Marva J. Dawn,Powers,Weakness,and the Tabernacling of God (Grand Rapids, mi: Wm B. Eerdmans, 2001); Donald G. Bloesch, The Church: Sacraments, Worship, Ministry, Mission(Downers Grove,il: InterVarsity Press, 2002); Donald G. Bloesch,The Last Things: Resurrection, Judgment, Glory(Downers Grove, il: InterVarsity Press, 2004); Jürgen Moltmann, Sun of Righteousness, Arise! God’s Future for Humanity and the Earth(Minneapolis,mn: Fortress Press, 2010); and Moltmann,Ethics of Hope(Minneapolis,mn: Fortress Press, 2012).
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English translations of Blumhardt texts was inaugurated in 2010 with the publi- cation of Friedrich Zündel’s Pastor Johann Christoph Blumhardt: An Account of His Life, which was followed by the 2013 appearance of Christoph Blumhardt’s The Gospel of God’s Reign.87 Coedited by Charles Moore of the Bruderhof and myself, the goal of the series is get as much of the Blumhardts’ oeuvre into English as possible because, as we say in the series introduction, it is our “con- viction that the Blumhardts’ witness continues to be relevant for the church and society today and [our] hope that the current series will give the Blum- hardts a broader hearing in the English-speaking world.”88 In addition to the two sources already published, four more are in various stages of production with an additional six to eight envisioned. In light of the large amount of Blumhardt material that will be appearing in the coming years, it is safe to con- jecture that we have only begun to scratch the surface of what the significance of the Blumhardts’ witness for American theology may be.
Conclusion
By way of a conclusion I want to offer three observations. First, in general, the significance of the Blumhardts for American theology is entirely in keep- ing with what has been said about them by figures in other contexts. As I noted in my introduction, Leonhard Ragaz had already called attention to the remarkable ways in which the Blumhardts’ message integrated elements in the Christian gospel that have not been easily combined. Eller, Macchia, Zahl, and I all labor under this assumption. The reception history itself is also demon- strative of this insight: Wildly different forms of Christianity, often with very different understandings of the relationship between piety and social witness, have nevertheless been united in their interest in the Blumhardts. Faith-healing Holiness and Pentecostal Christians, groups and movements inspired by radi- cal Anabaptist and other Free Church traditions, progressive Evangelicals, and mainline Protestants interested in liberation theology can all be found appeal- ing to the Blumhardts, though admittedly for different reasons.
Second, the component parts of the integrative vision to which most En- glish-language readers of the Blumhardts have been drawn include the fol-
87
88
Christoph Blumhardt, The Gospel of God’s Reign (Eugene, or: Cascade Books, 2014). This English volume is comprised of a translation of Vom Reich Gottes (Schlüchtern: Neuwerk, 1922) and Von der Nachfolge Jesu Christi (Berlin: Furche, 1923). For a discussion of the relationship of these texts, see the Introduction by Christian T. Collins Winn, xxvii–xxix. Ibid., xii.
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lowing: first, the holistic conceptions of ministry and healing developed by the elder Blumhardt as well as the linkage between prayer and action devel- oped by the father and extended by the son; second, the unique hope-filled eschatological insights developed by both father and son. Admittedly, there are important differences between the two Blumhardts in this regard, but they are united through important christological and pneumatological assumptions, as well as by a strong shared interest in the apokatastasis doctrine. And finally, English-language readers have been drawn to the radical political witness of the younger Blumhardt.
But it is not just what the Blumhardts believed, it was how they believed andexpressedtheirfaith.English-languagereadershaveoftenbeenasattracted to the way in which both Blumhardts expressed and held their faith as to the content of what they had to say. They are often hailed as nonsystematic pastoral thinkers who displayed an openness and irenicism toward others that many have found worthy of being emulated. Thus, they model a posture of hope but also of humility and openness that is especially important for fostering more inclusive forms of theology and community.
My final point is in regard to the coinherence of the witness of the father and the son. Notwithstanding the fact that early on the elder Blumhardt receives all of the attention, nevertheless, in general the two Blumhardts have been mediated to the English-speaking world as a single, though differentiated, phenomenon. This point, which is rooted in the reception history itself, is also significant as regards the future contributions that they can make to American theology. Taken together, the witness of both father and son has the potential to bring Christians concerned with a rich spirituality together with those concerned with social justice; to bring Christians who expect the miraculous in the form of provisional healing together with those who long for communities of provisional justice; to bring those who would emphasize the uniqueness of Christ together with those who discern that God might be at work in other religious traditions, and so forth. As Ragaz put it: “Something completely new rises up here which does not fit into any of the old patterns, and which fulfils in a surprising way the deepest longing of our times.”89 The witness of the Blumhardts has had and will continue to have significance for American theology—and not for American theology alone—insofar as it can fund a witness that is holistic and able to do justice to the multifaceted gospel of God’s reign. May it be so, and may we, under the gentle urging of the Spirit of God, wait and hasten toward God’s coming kingdom.
89
Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes, 18.
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