Halle Pastors, German Settlers, and Lutheran Congregations in North America. Critical Edition und Scholarly Exploration of Letters and Journals, 1740-1820

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Müller-Bahlke
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2017 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 387960886

Volumes 1 and 2, which are to be published, result from an DFG-funded project entitled "Halle Pastors, German Settlers, and Lutheran Congregations in North America: Critical Edition and Scholarly Exploration of Letters and Journals, 1740-1820". This project aims to publish an eight-volume, commented collection of source material. Volume 1 contains 2 curricula vitae and 11 journals of 2 pastors, dating from 1744 to 1758. Volume 2 includes 14 curricula vitae and 19 journals of 10 pastors, dating from 1746-1784. Most of the sources presented have never been published. Extracts from some of the journals appeared, heavily edited tough, in contemporary missionary and edifying literature. Up to now, there does not exist any edition that is completely annotated, gives numerous cross references, provides detailed indices and is highly faithful to the original wording of the sources.The two volume are of particular value to scholarship in several respects:1. The curricula vitae teil much about the pastors' family and social background. They reveal the cardinal significance that personal relations and informal as much as institutional networks of sponsorship had for a candidate's taking up studies of divinity, entering the ministry, and finally being called to pastoral service overseas.2. The curricula vitae allow intriguing insights into the writers' religious beliefs, innermost feelings, and personal thoughts, into their self-perception, and into their way of handling their own weaknesses and the constant struggles between the certainties of faith and religious doubts. Many such biographical resumes read like personal sketches reflecting an ongoing conflict between the authors's own standards and abilities on the one hand and God's commandments and their superiors' expectations on the other.3. The journals provide multi-facetted insights not only into congregational issues but also into real life in eighteenth-century North America, contrasting it with the conditions in Germany and Europe, which were entirely different. In addition to regular ministerial acts, there are plenty of comments and reflections on other denominations and non-Christian persuasions, on current events in politics and society, or on recent developments in science and culture.4.Usually integrated into the journals, travelogs impressively describe the circumstances and difficulties of traveling on land or at sea prior to the age of steam engines and railways. Besides furnishing indidual observations of the country and its people, of nature and environment, they illustrate how carefully any dispatch of preachers had to be planned and arranged for in advance, and the many dangers the pastors faced on their way to America.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants