# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1864_S287
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 287

Lutheran Communion formula, or the swearing-in of the clergy on the symbolical books, or of confession? If one has granted the one to the weak in faith, one will not be able to refuse the other without being inconsistent. Scripture says: Hold fast what thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Our crown is our old Lutheran faith and an honest, unstained conscience. That we mean to hold fast."

Vienna. Thus reports Münkel's Neues Zeitblatt of May 6: "The evangelical theological faculty at Vienna has recently undergone two new appointments, which we may regard as significant pointers. It is well known what kind of theology has ruled among the Protestants of Vienna, and how little prospect of improvement there seemed to be, especially under the present liberal regime of Herr von Schmerling. Meanwhile, he has before his eyes, in Hungary, an example of the precipitous path down which the church slides when a negating theology gets the reins into its hands. Toward the end of last year Sebering was installed as professor of practical theology, after having already held the chair as a substitute for nine months. Everything possible was set in motion against his appointment. Professors Lipsius and Roßkopf went in person to Minister von Schmerling about it; they understood toleration to mean that only men of their own stripe should be tolerated. Nevertheless Roßkopf himself had to induct Sebering (December 11), and he did so with a speech that breathed nothing but progress (away from the ground of the Bible) and sought to make it as clear as possible that Sebering's theology amounted to nothing. Sebering, pale and almost trembling at first, replied (according to the report of the Freimund) with a good confession. Not long after this a second call followed, which the Protest. K. Z. introduces with the words: 'Once again I have a piece of the passion-history of our local evangelical theological faculty to tell you.' The chair of Reformed doctrine has been filled with Lic. Böhl, until now a Privatdozent at Basel. His twelve Messianic Psalms were noticed some time ago in the Zeitblatt, and even if they are still further scholarly attempts in a field beset with crosses, they might well stand on a par with the achievements of the Viennese professors, and are in any case testimonies of a faithful belief. Now, this last point was enough to make him thoroughly distasteful to the professors, especially since so important a subject was to be assigned to him. It was felt still more bitterly that the theological faculty was not even consulted beforehand for its opinion — which might seem all the more superfluous, since that same faculty had already, on an earlier occasion, objected to this Böhl. When word came of the government's fateful decision, an attempt was made to have it reversed after all, by unanimously declaring that Böhl was altogether unfit for a professorship. The minister, however, got ahead of them, and the Emperor's confirmation of Böhl surprised them before they had even submitted their own resolution.

Church Conditions in Schleswig-Holstein. On this we read in Münkel's Neues Zeitblatt of June 10: Much complaint is made about the ecclesiastical condition of Schleswig, and the blame is laid on Danish administration, which is said to have driven people out of the church by its compulsory use of language. That is certainly not without foundation. Whole church congregations, indeed whole districts, are said to have been badly devastated by it in the past. This can, however, only hold true of the smaller German-speaking portion, and moreover we learn from a report in the N. Ev. K. Z. that the compulsion of language is not the only, nor even the primary, cause. Besides those who do not go to church for political reasons, there is also a large number who are politically indifferent. What has estranged these from the church? asks the correspondent, and answers: The irreligious tendency of the age, which has come to dominate almost everywhere. But this concerns only the cities. In this last war, complaint was made that the schools, rather than the churches, were fitted out as hospitals, on the ground that the former could be spared while the latter had to be kept in use. And why not? In Flensburg, with 19,000 inhabitants, all the churches are frighteningly empty Sunday after Sunday; in Schleswig they are almost completely empty. A pastor in E. related that on the last Sunday he had preached before four adults. Yet the pastors are almost without exception believing men. In Holstein it is somewhat better, but not much better. If one enters