# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1858_S289
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.

Jahrgang IV.          October 1858.          No. 10.

What Is Now Meant by the Further Development of the Doctrine
of the Lutheran Church?

     "What does Herr Professor Dr. Thomasius in Erlangen teach in the
second part of his Dogmatics concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the state of humiliation? An Open Letter from A. Brömel,
Superintendent of the Duchy of Lauenburg, Consistorial Assessor and
Professor. Schwerin, 1857. Published by the Stiller Court Bookshop." (47
pages, 8vo.) This is the title of a little work that no Lutheran preacher
should leave unread. Prof. Dr. Thomasius passes for the still most
faithful Lutheran professor of theology in Germany. It is therefore
without doubt highly important to become acquainted with the position he
takes toward the theology of the old Lutheran Church. One thereby arrives
at a judgment as to how far, on the part of our theologians by profession,
there has generally been a return to the old theology, and what is
therefore to be expected from them for the future of our church. Now
since it is precisely here that many preachers, who take the deepest
interest in the welfare of the church, lack the pecuniary means to procure
for themselves even the most necessary aids toward gaining insight into
the present state of things, we believe we are meeting many of our
readers halfway if we here give them a verbatim extract from the
excellent Brömel work referred to, which now follows. —

     As concerns your own reconstruction upon the ancient churchly dogma
of Christology, I must confess that I do not, for the present, see how
your attempt is to be regarded as an organic advance; and I take leave,
in what follows, to set out briefly for you my misgivings, as they have
come to me in reading your Dogmatics. You have, on p. 80 of the second
part of your Dogmatics, already assembled quite a body of literature by
those who agree with you. And that is, to be sure, a circle of
theologians who impress more by their quality than by their quantity.
That some of them have genuinely adopted your doctrine is certain. When,
to be sure, Kahnis, for instance, says in his Doctrine of the Holy
Spirit, p. 58: "The Johannine statement, 'the Word became flesh,' does
not express a taking-on or putting-on of human nature, but rather a

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