Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod (1820–1920), commonly known as just the Tennessee Synod, was a
Lutheran church 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 ...
body known for its staunch adherence to the
Augsburg Confession The Augsburg Confession, also known as the Augustan Confession or the Augustana from its Latin name, ''Confessio Augustana'', is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Re ...
and commitment to confessional Lutheranism. The synod began with six ministers in 1820 and had forty by 1919, plus ten students and candidates for ministry. It merged into the United Synod of North Carolina in 1920.


History

Most of the synod's congregations were in western
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
and eastern
Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
until 1860, when the congregations in Tennessee, under the leadership of Abel J. Brown, formed the
Evangelical Lutheran Holston Synod Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual experi ...
. However the Tennessee Synod kept its name, and so after 1860, it had congregations in
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, North and South Carolina, and
Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
, but none in Tennessee. In 1886 the Tennessee Synod (along with the Holston Synod and other southern synods) joined the
United Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South The United Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South, or simply United Synod of the South, was a historical Lutheran denomination in the southeastern United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1863, during the ...
, paving the way for the Tennessee Synod's merger into the United Synod of North Carolina in 1920, which ended the Tennessee Synod's history as a separate body. The Tennessee Synod is probably best known for producing the first English translation of the ''
Book of Concord ''The Book of Concord'' (1580) or ''Concordia'' (often referred to as the ''Lutheran Confessions'') is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since t ...
'' (the confessions of the Lutheran church), published in 1851 by the Henkel Press of
New Market, Virginia New Market is a town in Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. Founded as a small crossroads trading town in the Shenandoah Valley, it has a population of 2,146 as of the most recent 2010 U.S. census. The north–south U.S. 11 and the east†...
. In addition, though not widely known, the Tennessee Synod helped found
Lenoir–Rhyne University Lenoir–Rhyne University is a private Lutheran university in Hickory, North Carolina. Founded in 1891, the university is affiliated with the North Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Academics The university i ...
in
Hickory, North Carolina Hickory is a city located primarily in Catawba County, with formal boundaries extending into Burke and Caldwell counties. The city lies in the U.S. state of North Carolina. At the time of the 2020 census, Hickory's population was 43,490. Hickor ...
, a private, four-year liberal arts college. The first president of the university, Robert Anderson Yoder, was the Tennessee Synod's first student beneficiary of scholarship funds.


Theology

The Tennessee Synod's defining characteristic was its confessionalism. The synod's ministers were labeled "Henkelites" and lambasted by their opponents. "Henkelites" is a reference to the fact that
Paul Henkel Paul Henkel (December 15, 1754 – November 27, 1825) was a native of North Carolina who became an itinerant evangelist for the Lutheran Church in the eastern United States. He was born in Rowan County, North Carolina, in 1754. His family moved ...
and his sons were synod leaders and printer of all synod materials, so the Henkel name was well known. They had a strict standard of Lutheran orthodoxy which kept them from joining with other Lutherans in surrounding states for several generations, but the number of churches in Virginia and North and South Carolina grew in later decades as the body developed into more general Lutheranism. The churches were chiefly rural and small, with many just being established and built in this period. They were especially opposed to the
General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly (Church of England), Church Assembly, is t ...
(see Bente below). In a tribute to their confessional character, C. F. W. Walther in ''Der Lutheraner'' of January, 1849 stated "… this Synod belongs to the small number of those who are determined not only to be called Lutherans, but also to be and to remain Lutherans." But unity was never established with the
Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The LC ...
(LCMS) due to geographic and linguistic separation, the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, and the Tennessee Synod's drift toward union with the more latitudinarian North Carolina synod in the 1880s. However, the Tennessee Synod's English (Evangelical) Lutheran Conference of Missouri applied for admission to the LCMS as a district in 1887, but was advised by Walther to instead form a separate English-language synod. The resulting English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States eventually merged into the LCMS as its English District in 1911. The constitution of the United Synod of the South was variously interpreted by member synods who took differing stands on the Four Points during the 1890s, and the conservative position originally held by the Tennessee Synod was first given several exceptions and finally abandoned altogether with the 1920 merger.


Footnotes


Bibliography

Pro-Henkelite: * ''This includes the annual convention minutes until the mid-1880s''. * pp
148-237
* pp
228-243
Anti-Henkelite (these three books talk about the first decades of the Synod only): * pp
215-226
* pp
149-152222281
* pp
440-445485-488
Neutral * * * *


External links

* * * {{cite book , url=http://dl.dropbox.com/u/586264/West2010AbelJBrown.pdf , title=Abel J. Brown: Appalachian Lutheran Pastor, Educator, and Scholar An Introduction and Proposed Course of Further Study , first=Aaron , last=West , date=December 8, 2009 , publisher=
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (WLS) is a post-secondary school that trains men to become pastors for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). It is located in Mequon, Wisconsin. The campus consists of 22 buildings, including a library tha ...
, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009131027/http://dl.dropbox.com/u/586264/West2010AbelJBrown.pdf , archive-date=2011-10-09 Book of Concord Evangelical Lutheran Church in America predecessor churches Religious organizations established in 1820 1820 establishments in the United States Lutheran denominations in North America Lutheran denominations established in the 19th century