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| Format | Dissertation |
|---|---|
| Creator | Damm, John Silber |
| Title | The Growth and Decline of Lutheran Parochial Schools in the United States, 1638-1962. Dissertation |
| Dissertation Note (type -- academic institution) | Columbia University, New York |
| Date | 1963 |
| Extent of Work | 363 pp. |
| Abstract | This project is concerned with the growth and decline of the two major parochial school movements within the Lutheran church in the United Sates. The first movement began in the earliest colonial days and was carried on in the eastern colonies and states by several regional Lutheran synods and reached the high point of development in 1830, after which it declined steadily and ceased altogether by 1890. The second movement began with the arrival of the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri in 1839 and the formation of the Missouri Synod in 1847. The Missouri Synod school system flourished and continues to this present day. This project attempts to ascertain just why the schools of the older Lutheran bodies declined during those very decades of the nineteenth century when the Missouri Synod was active in establishing schools. The various factors which contributed to the schools growth and decline are discussed and viewed against the larger background of the doctrinal issues at stake in these two Lutheran groups. Comparatively little has been published about the Lutheran parochial school system. Most available accounts are of a general or incomplete nature. To gather together the pertinent material required research into primary sources such as the minutes and proceedings of the various Lutheran bodies, correspondence of church leaders, official periodicals and journals for lay and professional reading, and local congregational histories. To a large extent the material was written in the German language and, on that account, has not been readily available. Various factors contributed to the decline of the first Lutheran parochial school movement: lack of teachers and training institutions, meager financial support, immigration and language difficulties, and the rise of the common school. It is the thesis of this project that to be properly evaluated they must be viewed against the larger background of the doctrinal struggle that was taking place within the older Lutheran bodies in the United States, a struggle between the forces that sought to "Americanize" it and divest it of its unique confessional emphasis. The rapid decline of the parochial schools during this controversy indicates that there is a correlation between Lutheran confessional orthodoxy and maintenance of a parochial school system. The history of the early movement demonstrates that when the insistence upon purity of teaching and doctrine is not strong in a synodical organization, then parochial schools are not considered necessary. The development of the Missouri Synod parochial school system shows a direct correlation between a synod's insistence on the cultivation of its distinct identity and the conservation of its confessional position, and the expression of belief in and support for a parochial school system. |
| Notes | UMI, printed in 1988. Book, in MadCat. |
| Call Number | MKI LC574 D16 1963a; shelved with MKI dissertations |
| MKI Terms | Lutheran Church/ Lutherans/ Schools/ Education/ Colonial period |