RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Lutherans
The General Council, according to the latest statistics, embraces the following synods: The Ministerium of Pennsylvania (organized 1748), with 388 ministers. 554 congregations, 145,215 communicants; the Ministerium of New "York (1773), 150 ministers, 149 congregations, 65,000 communicants; Pittsburg Synod (1845), 138 ministers, 190 congregations, 31,392 communicants; English Distriot, Synod of. Ohio (1857), 49 ministers, 82 congregations, 14,245 communicants; Augustana Synod, Swedish (1860), 574 ministers, 1,052 congregations, 154,390 communicants; Canada Synod (1861), 38 ministers, 76 congregations, 12,096 communicants; Chicago Synod (1871), 40 ministers, 58 congregations, 5,981 communicants; English Synod of the North West (1891), 29 ministers, 34 congregations, 5,060 communicants; Manitoba Synod (1897), 18 ministers, 51 congregations, 4,000 communicants; Pacific Synod (1901), 13 ministers, 20 congregations, 1,313 communicants; New York and New England Synod (1902), 52 ministers, 56 congregations, 15,192 communicants; Nova Scotia Synod (1903), 8 ministers, 25 congregations, 2,545 communicants. Total: 1,497 ministers, 2,347 congregations, 456,429 communicants, with three theological seminaries, at Philadelphia, Rock Island, and Chicago, numbering 15 professors and 163 students; 7 colleges with 127 teachers and 2,107 students; 6 academies with 49 teachers and 902 students; 3 deaconess institutions, 12 orphans' homes, 8 asylums for the aged and infirm, 5 seamen's missions.
In addition to the synods that have thus far been treated, the following independent synods are to be mentioned: The Texas Synod, consisting of those members of the original Texas Synod who refused to unite with the Iowa Synod in 1895, numbering 15 ministers, 23 congregations, 2,200 communicants. Immanuel Synod, German, organized 1886, numbering 17 pastors, 11 congregations, 3,250 communicants.
The grand total of the Lutheran Church in North America shows: 8,052 ministers, 13,142 congregations, 2,012,536 communicants, with 24 theological seminaries, 96 professors, and 1,137 students; 39 colleges with 433 teachers and 7,535 students, 49 orphans' homes, 24 homes and asylums for the aged, 28 hospitals, 9 deaconess motherhouses. Of these there are in Canada 92,550 Lutherans (in Ontario 48,100, in Manitoba 16,550, in the Northwest Territories 12,100), where since 1891 they have increased 44.5 per cent.
The number of Lutherans in Central and South America is estimated at about half a million, in the Danish West Indies they are in connection with the State Church of Denmark, in South America they are partly supported by the Lutherische Gotteskasten in Germany, and partly under the supervision of the Prussian State Church and assisted by it. Adolph Spaeth.
The Lutheran Church, while largely augmenting its strength for many years by immigration, has not been indifferent to the demands of missionary effort in the United States. As usual, this effort began in sporadic forms. As early as 1836 Rev. Ezra Keller, sent out by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, had explored the territory now comprised in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, laying foundations for the present churches of that region. In 1837, Rev. Carl Friedrich Heyer reported to the General Synod that he had explored the entire Mississippi Valley and found places for, at least, fifty missionary pastors. But it was not until 1845 that the Home MissionA ary Society of the General Synod was organized. \ In the early fifties missionary aid was given to the
Indians in Michigan, and to a number of missionary points in Wisconsin and Canada. The New York Ministerium sent strong help to the establishment of the Mother Churches in Buffalo, Rochester, Utica, Syracuse, Lyons, and others in that State. The Ohio Synod was all missionary territory, and twenty pastors in this synod ministered to not less than 195 congregations. Between 1857 and 1859 the General Synod was supporting sixty-seven missionaries, while the district synods of New York and Allegheny had their independent work, rivaling that of the general body. Progress in Minnesota, under the aged Father Heyer, was particularly encouraging. In recent years the Pennsylvania and New York Synods have cooperated in the support of an immigrant mission at the port of New York and in the founding of an Emigrant House for the care of incoming Germans. The Lutheran Church at the present time is receiving and expending for home missions from three-quarters of a million to a million dollars a year. J. B. Clark.
Bibliography: Some of the principal literature is named in the text; that cited under the articles in this work to which cross-reference is made in the text is, much of it, pertinent, e.g., under Agenda; Augsburg Confession and its Apology; Formula of Concord; Luther; Melanchthon; and Philippists; for bibliographies cf. J. G. Morris, Bibliotheca Lutherana, Philadelphia, 1876; H. E. Jacobs, in American Church History Series, iv. pp. ix.-xvi.. New York, 1893. For statistics cf: Kirchliches Jahrbuch (published at Giitersloh), the Lutheran Church Annual, and Lutheran Year Book (annual). On the doctrines, besides the work of Jacobs on the Book of Coneord, cf.: Schaff, [Creeds, i. 220-253, ii. 1-189; C. P. Krauth, The Conservative Reformation and its Theology, Philadelphia, 1871; A. L. Richter, Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 16. J ahrhunderts, Leipsic, 1871; idem, Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts, ib. 1874; S. A. Holman
(ed.), Lectures on the Augsburg Confession, Philadelphia, 1888; H. Schmid, The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, 1889; The Distinctive Doctrines and Usages of the General Bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States, Philadelphia, 1893; S. Fritschel, Die U nterscheidungslehren der Synoden von Iowa und Missouri, Waverly, 1893; The Lutheran Church, her Communion and her Service, Philadelphia, 1906 (two sermons given as authoritative expositions of the doctrinal standpoint); L. Cristiani, Luther et le lutheranisme, Paris, 1908.
Foi the history of Lutherans consult: Nachrichten von den vereinigten deutschen ev.-lutherischen Gemeinden in Nord Amerika, absonderlich in Pennsylvanien. Mit einer Vorrede von D. Johann Ludewig Schulze, 2 vols., Halle, 1750- 1787, republication with notes begun by W. J. Mann, B. M. Schmucker, and W. Germann, Allentown, Pa., 1886, Eng. transl. begun by C. W. Schaeffer, Part I., Reading, Pa., 1882 (left incomplete); E. L. Hazelius, History of the American Lutheran Church, 1685-1842, Zanesville, Ohio, 1846; P. A. Stroebel, History df the Salzburgers, Baltimore, 1885; Clay, Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware, Philadelphia, 1858; D. H. Focht, The Churches Between the Mountains, Baltimore, 1862; C. W. Schaeffer, Early History of the Lutheran Church in America, Philadelphia, 1868; W. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. ix., New York, 1869; G. D. Bernheim, History of the German Settlements and of the Lutheran Church in North and South Carolina, Philadelphia, 1872; Schirmer, Historical Sketches of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Carolina, Charleston, 1875; J. G. Morris, Fifty Years in the Lutheran Ministry, Baltimore, 1878; W. Sihler, Lebenslauf, St. Louis, 1880 (autobiography); W. J. Mann, Life and Times of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Philadelphia, 1881; Schierenbeck, Lebensbeschreibungen von lutherischen Predigern in Amerika, Selinsgrove, Pa., 1881-83; Amerikanische Beleuchtung, Philadelphia, 1882; C. Hochstetter, Geschichte der Missouri Synode, Dresden, 1885; A. Spaeth, The General Council, Philadelphia, 1885; idem, Chas, Porter field Krauth, Memoir ? vol, i.r New York,
Lather's Two Catechisms Lutz, Samuel