For the Evangelical Lutheran Church everywhere

Essays on global lutheranism

For the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Lutheran Quarterly has created a timeline of Global Lutheranism.
  The timeline presents 10 key moments from each century since 1517, providing a total of 50 historical touchstones.
  Essays connected to each of the 50 topics can be accessed through the timeline or here.
  Lutheran Quarterly is proud to offer these essays gratis, for personal and educational use.

Please enjoy & share this new resource for "the Evangelical Lutheran Church everywhere." 
  For a timeline of Lutheran Quarterly itself, visit: 1984-1987, 1988-1996, 1997-2010 (bonus: classic 1999 promotional video), 2011-2016

Timeline of global Lutheranism

1517-1616
1. October 31, 1517: Luther's 95 Theses Appear
Essay: "Sources for and against the Posting of the Ninety-Five Theses" by Volker Leppin and Timothy J. Wengert, LQ 29 (2015)
2. August 29, 1518: Melanchthon in Wittenberg
Essay: "Luther and Melanchthon" by Heinz Scheible, LQ 4 (1990)
3. Spring 1525: War & Marriage
Essay: "Katharina von Bora: The Woman at Luther’s Side” by Martin Treu, LQ 13 (1999)
4. June 25, 1530: Augsburg Confession
Essay: “Reflections on Melanchthon as Theologian of the Augsburg Confession” by Eric Gritsch, LQ 12 (1998)
5. September 1534: German Bible
Essay: “Luther’s Translation of the Bible” by Birgit Stolt, LQ 28 (2014)
6. February 18, 1546: Death of Martin Luther
Text: “A Christian sermon over the body and at the funeral of the venerable Dr. Martin Luther, preached by Mr. Johann Bugenhagen Pomeranus, doctor and pastor of the church in Wittenberg,” translated by Kurt K. Hendel. Online at: http://luther.digitalscholarship.emory.edu/luther/luther_site/luther_frame.html.
7. September 25, 1555: The Peace of Augsburg
Essay: “Luther on the Role of Secular Authority in the Reformation” by James Estes, LQ 17 (2003)
8. Later 1500s: Reformations outside Germany
Essay: "Primus Truber (1508-1586), The Slovenian Luther” LQ 22 (2008)
9. June 25, 1580: Book of Concord
Essay: “The Preface of The Book of Concord as a Reflection of Sixteenth Century Confessional Development” by Irene Dingel, LQ 15 (Winter 2001)
10. 1599: Nicolai's Chorales
Essay: “Luther on Music” by Robin A. Leaver, LQ 20 (2006), 1-21.

1617-1716
11. Early 1600s: Rise of Lutheran Orthodoxy
Review Essay: "Lutheran Theology in Seventeenth-Century Germany" by Robert Kolb, LQ 20, (2006)
12. 1618: Outbreak of Thirty Years' War
Essay: "Sweden, the Elect Nation" by Bo Andersson, LQ 13 (1999)
13. 1620: Augsburg Confession into Czech
Essay: "Witnesses to the Lutheran Faith in Bratislava" by Janka Krivošová, LQ 16 (2002)
14. 1630: Baroque Lutheran Hymnody
Essay: "Celestial Harmony in Baroque Lutheran Writings" by Joyce Irwin, LQ 3 (1989)
15. 1637: Gerhard's 'Catholic Confession'
Essay: "Polemic and Dialogue in John's Gerhard's Confessio Catholica" by Bengt Hägglund, LQ 14 (2000)
16. 1648: Early Lutheran Attitudes toward Jews
Essay: "Early Lutheran Attitudes toward Jews" by Kenneth Anppold, LQ 20 (2006)
17. 1675: Spener's Pia Desideria and Pietism
Essay: "Philip Spener's Pia Desideria" by Timothy Maschke, LQ 6
18. 1678: Conflicts between Orthodoxy & Pietism
Essay: "Opera, Politics and REligion in Hamburg 1678-1715" by W. Gordon Marigold
19. 1696: Luther's Catechism in Algonquian
Essay: "The Swedish-Indian Catechism: Some Notes" by Isak Collijn, LQ 2 (1988)
20. August 1, 1714: A Lutheran King of England?
Essay: "Anglican Perceptions of Lutheranism in Early Hanoverian England" by Daniel L. Brunner, LQ 20 (2006)

1717-1816
21. May 1723: J.S. Bach Hired as Cantor in Leipzig
Essay: "Johann Sebastian Bach and the Lutheran Understanding of Music" by Robin Leaver, LQ 16 (2002)
22. Early 1700s: Pietism, Folk Religion, & Protest
Essay: "Swedish Pietism (1700-1727) as Resistance and Popular Religion" by Todd Green, LQ 21 (2007)
23. Dec 1733: First Indian Lutheran Pastor Ordained
Essay: "Lutheran Churches in Eighteenth-Century India" by P. Daniel Jeyaraj, LQ 17 (2003)
24. March 12, 1734: Salzburgers Land in Georgia
Essay: "Jewish Support of the Salzburg Lutheran Refugees in 1732-33" by Wolfgang Splitter, LQ 27 (2013)
25. 1739: Zinzendorf Visits West Indies
Essay: "Zinzendorf's 'Litany of the Wounds'" by Craig D. Atwood, LQ 11 (1997)
26. Aug 1748: Ministerium of Pennsylvania Founded
Essay: "The Ministerium of Pennsylvania, From 1748" by George E. Handley, LQ 10 (1996)
27. December 1784: Kant on Enlightenment
Essay: "Language and Reason in the Thought of Johann Georg Hamann" by James O'Flaherty, LQ 2 (1988)
28. April 1, 1789: First Speaker of US House
Essay: "The Muhlenbergs Become Americans" by Paul A. Baglyos, LQ 19 (2005)
29. 1799: Schleiermacher 'On Religion'
Essay: "Schleiermacher for Lutherans" by Christine Helmer, LQ 29 (2015)
30. Early 1800s: Women & the Hauge Movement
Essay: "The Role of Women in the Hauge Movement" by Inger Furseth, LQ 13 (1999)

1817-1916
31. October 31, 1817: Prussian Union Begins
Essay: "German 'Worship Wars' and the 1830 Anniversary of the Augsburg Confession" by Stan M. Landry, LQ 26 (2012)
32. 1832: Ordination of Jehu Jones
Essay: "Jehu Jones (1786-1852) The First African American Lutheran Minister" by Karl E Johnson & Joseph A. Romeo, LQ 10 (1996)
33. 1836: Deaconess Community in Kaiserswerth
Essay: "The Origins of Lutheran Deaconesses in America" by Frederick S. Weiser, LQ 13 (1999)
34. 1842: Lutheran Missionaries in Namibia
Essay: "Namibian Churches under Colonialism" by Shekutaamba Nambala, LQ 2 (1988)
35. April 26, 1847: Founding of Missouri Synod
Essay: "C.F.W. Walther, Interpreter of Luther on the American Frontier" by Robert Kolb, LQ 1 (1987)
36. 1861-1865: Civil War, Slavery, & Abolition
Essay: "Schmucker's Benevolence, from Republican Ideals to Civil War Realities" by Nancy Koester, LQ 9 (1990)
Essay: "Midwest Missionary Efforts of New York Abolitionists" by Paul P. Kuenning, LQ 4 (1990)
37. 1866: Malagasy Lutheran Church [Madagascar]
Book Review: Shepherds and Demons: A Study of Exorcism as Practiced and Understood by Shepherds in the Malagasy Lutheran Church
by Hans Austnaberg (Lang, 2008), reviewed by Mark Nyberg, LQ 24 (2010)
38. 1885: First Ordination of Batak Ministers
Review Essay: Abundant Harvest: Stories of Asian Lutherans, edited by Edmond Yee and Paul Rajashekar (Lutheran University Press, 2013), reviewed by James A. Bergquist and Paul V. Martinson, LQ 28 (2014) 
39. Later 1800s: Luther & the Liturgical Movement
Essay: "Luther as Mirror, Hammer, and 'Other' among Victorian Britons" by Bethany Kilcrease, LQ 24 (2010)
40. Early 1900s: German Lutherans in Australia
Essay: "Luther's Impact on the United States and Australia at the Turn of the Twentieth Century" by Hartmut Lehmann, LQ 28 (2014)

1917-2017
41. Early 1900s: Women's Missionary Groups
Essay: "Helen C. Frost's Missionary Images of the Inuquiq (Eskimos)" by Julieanna Frost, LQ 23 (2009)
42. 1925: Lutherans & the Ecumenical Movement
Essay: "Nathan Söderblom (1866-1931)" by Dietz Lange, LQ 29 (2015)
43. April 9, 1945: Martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Essay: "Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) as Confessor" by Richard Bliese, LQ 22 (2008)
44. 1947: Founding of Lutheran World Federation
Essay: "The Episcopal Ministry within the Apostolicity of the Church: A Lutheran Statement" by the Lutheran World Federation, LQ 18 (2004)
45. April 28, 1948: Female Ordination in Denmark
Essay: "Women as Clergymen in Denmark" by Hans Ollgaard, LQ [earlier series] 18 (1966)
46. 1958: Luther's Works in Spanish
Essay: "Luther in Spanish" by Nelson Rivera, LQ 30 (2016)
Essay: "Luther in Portuguese, in Brazil" by Ricardo W. Rieth, LQ 30 (2016)
47. 1950s and 1960s: Independent Churches
Essay: "The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, 1963-2013" by Godson S. Maanga, LQ 28 (2014)
48. June 1977: Apartheid as status confessionis
Essay: "From Colonialism to Nationalism in Namibia" by Shekutaamba Nambala, LQ 2 (1988)
49. Autumn 1989: Peaceful Prayer in Leipzig
Essay: "The Captivity of Our Church Today" by Tibor Fabiny, Jr., LQ 18 (2004)
50. October 31, 2017: Pope Francis Worships with Lutheran Leaders
Video: Lutheran-Catholic Commemoration of the Reformation
Essay: "Commemoration of the Reformation in Germany and Lund" by Theodor Dieter, LQ 31 (2017)

LQ Presents: The Reformation 500 Years Later, with Dr. Timothy Wengert [video]

timeline Photo gallery

Many images for the Timeline of Global Lutheranism come from online public domain sources. The ones below also accompany moments or articles in this feature. Photo credits below. All rights reserved.
Photo credits: Most pictures were taken by Dr. Martin Lohrmann, except for the the photo of the Jehu Jones marker, taken by Bishop Claire Burkat, and the picture of Elizabeth Facktuo and Helen Frost, excerpted from “Helen C. Frost’s Missionary Images of the Inuquiq (Eskimos)” by Julieanna Frost, LQ 23, 302. Images marked 'WTS' were taken by Dr. Lohrmann at Wartburg Seminary (Dubuque, Iowa), either from Wartburg's rare books room, Namibia Archives, or Papua New Guinea Museum. All images used by permission, all rights reserved.