Beale Melanchthon Schmucker (August 26, 1827 – October 15, 1888) was an American

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

leader,

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

scholar and historian.

Biography

The Rev. Beale M. Schmucker, D.D. was born in

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

, the son of German-American Lutheran pastor and theologian

Samuel Simon Schmucker Samuel Simon Schmucker (February 28, 1799 – July 26, 1873) was a German-American Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was integral to the founding of the Lutheran church body known as the General Synod, as well as the oldest continuously operatin ...

and Mary Catherine Steenbergen. He was graduated from

Pennsylvania College Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. ...

during 1844. In 1847, Schmucker was a graduate of the

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Gettysburg Seminary) was a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was one of seven ELCA seminaries, one of the three seminaries in the Eastern ...

. Schmucker served as Secretary of the Alumni Association of Philadelphia Lutheran Seminary at the time of his death in 1888. In 1870 he received the degree of

D.D. A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Schmucker was the pastor of Lutheran churches in

Martinsburg, Virginia Martinsburg is a city in and the seat of Berkeley County, West Virginia, in the tip of the state's Eastern Panhandle region in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Its population was 18,835 in the 2021 census estimate, making it the largest city in the Ea ...

and

Shepherdstown, Virginia Shepherdstown is a town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, located in the lower Shenandoah Valley along the Potomac River. Home to Shepherd University, the town's population was 1,734 at the time of the 2010 census. History 18t ...

, 1847–51;

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United ...

, 1852;

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river tha ...

, 1862;

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...

, 1867; and

Pottstown, Pennsylvania Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the incorporation as a borough in 1815. In 1888 ...

, 1881–88. Schmucker collaborated with A. T. Geissenhainer on ''A Liturgy for the Use of the Evangelical Lutheran Church''. In particular, Schmucker worked to revive historic liturgical practice. His knowledge of details in matters pertaining to the order of service, especially of the Lutheran Church of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was unusually extensive and accurate.''The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge'' ( by

Philip Schaff Philip Schaff (January 1, 1819 – October 20, 1893) was a Swiss-born, German-educated Protestant theologian and ecclesiastical historian, who spent most of his adult life living and teaching in the United States. Biography Schaff was born ...

Page 253. 3rd edition. 1891) http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc10/htm-old/0271=253.htm

Selected works

*''The First Pennsylvania Liturgy, Adopted in 1748'' (1882) *''The Early History of the Tulpehocken Churches'' (1882) *''The Lutheran Church in Pottstown'' (1882) *''The Lutheran Church in Frederick, Maryland'' (in Quarterly Review, 1883) *''The Lutheran Church in the City of New York during the First Century of its History'' (in Church Review, 1884–85) *''The Organization of the Congregation in the Early Lutheran Churches in America'' (1887) *''A Liturgy for the Use of the Evangelical Lutheran Church''(1888) He was co-editor of the ''Hallesche Nachrichten'' (Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Halle,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, vol. i., 1884; English ed., Reading, Pennsylvania, vol. i., 1882), which is the primary source of information concerning the early history of the Lutheran Church in the United States. Schmucker also edited: * ''Liturgy of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania'' (Philadelphia, 1860) * ''Collection of Hymns of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania'' (1865) * ''Church-Book of the General Council'' (1868) * ''Ministerial Acts of the General Council'' (1887). He published numerous articles on doctrinal, historical, and liturgical subjects, of which many have been republished separately in pamphlet-form.

References

Other sources

*Gross, Ernie. ''This Day In Religion''. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishing, 1999. .

External links

Schmucker, Beale Melanchthon
from

Christian Cyclopedia ''Christian Cyclopedia'' (originally ''Lutheran Cyclopedia'') is a one-volume compendium of theological data, ranging from ancient figures to contemporary events. It is published by Concordia Publishing House as an update to the Concordia Cycloped ...

Schmucker, Beal Melanchthon
from Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmucker, Beale Melanchthon 1827 births 1888 deaths 19th-century American Lutheran clergy Liturgists Lutheran liturgy and worship People from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania alumni Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia alumni 19th-century Lutheran theologians