Professor Jaroslav Pelikan

[Till]

Does anyone know which Lutheran Church Professor Jaroslav Pelikan belonged to? And why did he convert to the Orthodox church towards the end of his life?

Many thanks,
Till

[Xpycoctomos]

I am pretty sure he was ELCA, although given his conversion to the Orthodox Church and his many books written about Church history and doctrine (pre-official conversion) he was quite conservative in both liturgy and doctrine.

Although I could speculate as to why, I don't think I could help but be biased in my response. If I find any statement from him, I will link it here.

Xpy

[Xpycoctomos]

For most of his life Pelikan belonged to the Lutheran Church, and he was ordained a pastor therein, but in 1998 he and his wife Sylvia were received into the Orthodox Church in America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Church_in_America) in St Vladimir’s Seminary Chapel. Members of Pelikan’s family remember him saying that he had not as much converted to Orthodoxy as "returned to it, peeling back the layers of my own belief to reveal the Orthodoxy that was always there."[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaroslav_Pelikan#cite_note-0)
[1] George, Timothy (Summer 2006). "Delighted by doctrine". Christian History & Biography (91): 43–45. Christianity Today International.

Maybe that article referenced at the end of the above quote might give you better insight if you can search it down in a local library. (??)

I called a friend of mine who was an avid reader of him and admirer of his work even when he was Lutheran (which was when most of his most famous works were written if I am not mistaken) and he told me that Pelikan when asked said that he didn't wish to speak of it too much so as not to hurt the feelings of his close friends and former collegues. Apparently he has mentioned (pehaps in Lectures given at St Vlad's Seminary, my friend thought that's where he had heard it) that he became convinced of the visibile Church concept as held by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches but was not convinced of the RCC claims of the Papacy.

But the point is that it seems that he preferred not to speak about it much but to keep it a very private matter between him, his family and God.

Hope that kind of helps.

[Till]

Thanks Xpycoctomos!

It is honouring to Professor Pelikan that he did not want to publicly confront his former church and colleagues. Still it would be of interest to know more ...

I wonder how he accepted the Orthodox pratice of continuously praying for the deceased and asking the saints for intercession. Do all Orthodox belivers pratice this?

[DaRev]

I am pretty sure he was ELCA,

He was LCMS. He was a professor at CTS in Fort Wayne until 1953.

[Xpycoctomos]

Thanks Xpycoctomos!

It is honouring to Professor Pelikan that he did not want to publicly confront his former church and colleagues. Still it would be of interest to know more ...

I wonder how he accepted the Orthodox pratice of continuously praying for the deceased and asking the saints for intercession. Do all Orthodox belivers pratice this?

Yes.

[Xpycoctomos]

It seems he was, near the end of his Lutheran road, a member of the ELCA, although it seems that he was certainly a member of the LCMS at one time two (as he did study at Concordia). Perhaps this was at a time before the ELCA formed and when all of these parishes were of one Synod???

from this website:

When he joined the Orthodox Church in America in 1998, Pelikan wrote to his former ELCA congregation, Bethesda Lutheran in New Haven, that the move was a “logical culmination of a development in my mind and spirit that has been going on for decades.”


Also, it seems he was a professor for a time at Valparaiso as well as Concordia. I am not sure the reason for the shift. It may have just been that his parish was part of the ELCA movement when it formed and he just stayed there. I have no clue. Surely you know the history of why and how and when these various Synods formed so perhaps you could shed light on this.

From his conservatism though, my guess is that at heart he was LCMS more than mainstream ELCA. I could be totally wrong on that.

Xpy

[DaRev]

This is speculation, but it could be that his congregation was one of the ones that left the LCMS after the Seminex walk-out and formed the AELC, one of the three church bodies that merged forming the ELCA in 1987.

Oh, and I made a boo boo before. CTS was in Springfield, IL when he taught there.

[IowaLutheran]

Yes - he was originally LCMS, and then ELCA before eventually converting to Orthodoxy.

He refused to talk publicly about his conversion, but there are a couple of quips he made that are in articles I have found on the internet previously.

He is quoted as saying that when the LCMS became Baptist, and the ELCA became Methodist, he became Orthodox.

He was also quoted as saying, metaphorically, that he could only circle the airport so many times before landing.

[seajoy]

He is quoted as saying that when the LCMS became Baptist, and the ELCA became Methodist, he became Orthodox.
Too bad he didn't try out the WELS before going to the extreme and converting to EO, if he wasn't happy with the other two.

[IowaLutheran]

Here's the quote from the article I was thinking of:


http://www.orthodox-church.info/eureka/asp/becomingorthodox.asp



Most stunning perhaps was, in 1996, the conversion of Jaroslav Pelikan, Yale University's celebrated church historian and Luther scholar. Here is a man who has co-edited 22 of the 55 volumes of Luther's Works in English, and then late in life he "moved East," as some theologians like to say.


"I was the Lutheran with the greatest knowledge of the Orthodox Church," Pelikan reportedly quipped, "and now I am the Orthodox with the greatest knowledge of Luther."
He is has also been quoted as saying, "When the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod became Baptist, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America became Methodist, I became Orthodox."
Presumably, his implication was that the former two denominations were on the verge of losing their doctrinal clarity.
But he does not talk to the media about this move that exemplifies a trend of sorts among some Protestants and Roman Catholics.
"I have received hundreds of requests for interviews and decided not to respond to any of them," he told UPI Tuesday.
Some former associates say that he simply does not wish to hurt his former Lutheran coreligionists. But a ranking Orthodox cleric gave a clue: "Pelikan said he joined us after he had read a work on the Cappadocian Fathers for a fifth time in the original Greek."
The Cappadocian Fathers were St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. Gregory of Nyssa, three brilliant leaders of philosophical Christian orthodoxy in the late 4th century.

[RadMan]

From Wohlrabe's "Doctrinal integrity and outreach within LCMS"

Dr. Richard Caemmerer, a signer of “A Statement of the 44,” was professor of homiletics at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, from 1940 to 1974. In 1947, Caemmerer published “The Melanchthonian Blight,” in the Concordia Theological Monthly. Here he traced what was described as the wane of vitality in Lutheranism, attributing it to a “Melanchthonian” 126 approach to theology, which he described as the “intellectualization of the Christian religion.” Caemmerer held that the church must strive to overcome intellectualism by emphasizing the “evangelical” character of its ministry.127
While Caemmerer did not provide a substitute for intellectualism beyond advocating a Gospel-centered ministry, Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan, another Concordia Seminary professor, built on Caemmerer’s thesis in his book From Luther to Kierkegaard, published in 1950. Pelikan accepted the existential philosophy of Kierkegaard and called into question the third use of the Law.128 This was based, in part, on overemphasizing the views of the “young” Luther, as noted by Scott Murray in his recent book, Law, Life, and the Living God:
Pelikan and other theologians associated with the Valparaiso school joined their suspicion of reason in theology with their denial of the validity of an objective and eternally valid moral law of God. This excessive suspicion of reason was based on an overemphasis on the “young” Luther’s rejection of Aristotelian philosophy. Gerrish and later Luther interpreters revised this view because they researched more in the work of the later or more “mature” Luther.

Jaroslav Pelikan, From Luther to Kierkegaard (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950). Murray, pp. 50-53. The third use of the Law is the didactic or teaching aspect of the Law for Christians. It teaches those who have been brought to faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, which the Holy Spirit has worked through the Gospel, what should and should not be done to lead a God-pleasing life. It serves as a guide. However, the power to live according to the Law comes from the Gospel. Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1991), p. 95.

[Melethiel]

Too bad he didn't try out the WELS before going to the extreme and converting to EO, if he wasn't happy with the other two.
If he went to the EO, he probably didn't agree with the WELS' take on the Office of the Ministry.

[seajoy]

If he went to the EO, he probably didn't agree with the WELS' take on the Office of the Ministry.
yah...sounds like he didn't like Lutheranism in general. He probably never felt comfortable with it. To call the LCMS, Baptist, is pretty much "out there".

[Melethiel]

Oh, not really...I've complained about the same thing (Lutherans acting like they're Baptists or Methodists) many many times myself. In fact, that's why I don't attend either of the LCMS churches in town.

[DaRev]

Oh, not really...I've complained about the same thing (Lutherans acting like they're Baptists or Methodists) many many times myself. In fact, that's why I don't attend either of the LCMS churches in town.

And that's a real shame. It's too bad that the unorthodoxy of some LCMS congregations have driven people to the heterodoxy of the ELCA in search of some "orthodoxy". It's like settling for false teaching for the sake of the liturgy. Hopefully some day someone in synod leadership will wake up and open their eyes.

[seajoy]

Oh, not really...I've complained about the same thing (Lutherans acting like they're Baptists or Methodists) many many times myself. In fact, that's why I don't attend either of the LCMS churches in town.
Maybe I'm just used to the LCMS churches in the midwest. :)

[Melethiel]

And that's a real shame. It's too bad that the unorthodoxy of some LCMS congregations have driven people to the heterodoxy of the ELCA in search of some "orthodoxy". It's like settling for false teaching for the sake of the liturgy. Hopefully some day someone in synod leadership will wake up and open their eyes.
I've actually been attending a WELS church the last several weeks. I won't go into details, but I have a line that got crossed, and while I do have some problems with the WELS as well, there wasn't much of a choice.

[seajoy]

I've actually been attending a WELS church the last several weeks. I won't go into details, but I have a line that got crossed, and while I do have some problems with the WELS as well, there wasn't much of a choice.
Sheeesh, Mel, don't leave us hangin'......you have piqued my interest now. What, pray tell, are the WELS doing in the southeast that made them cross your line. :scratch: :) Or did you mean a line was crossed by your ELCA church??? *either too much coffee this morning for me, or not enough* :doh:

[Melethiel]

Sheeesh, Mel, don't leave us hangin'......you have piqued my interest now. What, pray tell, are the WELS doing in the southeast that made them cross your line. :scratch: :) Or did you mean a line was crossed by your ELCA church??? *either too much coffee this morning for me, or not enough* :doh:
the latter.

[Till]

Thank you IL and RM, very interesting articles.

Still trying to understand the attraction that EO has on many people. I only came back home from Eastern Europe Monday. The cultural difference between Western Europe - whether Catholic or Protestant - and Orthodox Eastern Europe is so huge. And the US is even more different culturally. I do not understand how Americans can become Orthodox. How can they understand Orthodoxy? Strange. I also do not understand how anyone can convert from a church of the Reformation to EO with its extra-biblical traditions. What do they get in EO that they cannot get in Lutheranism or Anglicanism?




Caemmerer held that the church must strive to overcome intellectualism by emphasizing the “evangelical” character of its ministry.

What did he mean by "evangelical" character?

[Tetzel]

Technically wasn't he in Selc first? I seem to recall reading about his ancestors being presidents of that church body?

[Xpycoctomos]

What is Selc?

[seajoy]

I do not understand how Americans can become Orthodox. How can they understand Orthodoxy? Strange. I also do not understand how anyone can convert from a church of the Reformation to EO with its extra-biblical traditions. What do they get in EO that they cannot get in Lutheranism or Anglicanism
Praying to Mary and the saints, I guess. And a whole lotta High Church.

[Tetzel]

SELC is, since 1971 a subdistrict of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS).
It was founded in a coal mining town in 1902 in Pennsylvania as Slovenská evanjelická celocirkev augsburgského vyznania v Spojenych štátoch amerických, later Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SELC

[DaRev]

The SELC is not a "subdistrict". It is a non-geographic district (like the English District) of the LCMS. It was originally the Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Church until the 1950's when it was changed to the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches.

It is quite likely that Pelikan was SELC. SELC pastors were trained at Concordia St. Louis which is where he received his MDiv.

[Melethiel]

Praying to Mary and the saints, I guess. And a whole lotta High Church.
Mmm, incense and candles...

[RadMan]

What did he mean by "evangelical" character?Our original name for LCMS had "Evangelical Lutheran" church in it. Many of the more progressive advocates wanted to retain it as "Lutheran Evangelical" with emphasis on evangelical. This was just part of the agenda that people like Cammerer and others wanted to emphasize. It also was the inception of higher-critical form people like Pelikan. Outreach over doctrine.

[DaRev]

"Evangelical Catholic" was the original name of the "Lutheran" Church. It denotes the "evangelium" which means "Gospel". The word 'evangelical' has been hijacked by Reformed protestants over the years and so no longer carries the original connotation.

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Oh, not really...I've complained about the same thing (Lutherans acting like they're Baptists or Methodists) many many times myself. In fact, that's why I don't attend either of the LCMS churches in town.

Got some of those in our congregation, less than we did, congregation is also smaller now!

[ByzantineDixie]

From the essay, A Personal Memoir: Fragments of a Scholar’s Autobiography (http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/pelikan/pelikan-personalmemoir.shtml), Pelikan writes:

[The Spirit of Eastern Christianity (600 – 1700) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226653730/104-2302744-8853563?v=glance&n=283155)] was one in a series of books over several decades by means of which, I may quote myself again, “while others were reading their was into Orthodoxy, I wrote my way into Orthodoxy.”…

After all of these hundreds of published pages it may have been something of a shock, but I cannot believe that it came to anyone as a surprise, when, on the Feast Day of the Annunciation to the Theotokos (25 March) in 1998, I was received by chrismation into the sacramental fellowship of the Orthodox Church in America. As I said to my friend and father in Christ, His Beatitude Metropolitan Theodosius, who chrismated me, “any airplane that circled the airport for that long before landing would have run out of gas.” Quoting more broadly than it’s originally meaning the commandment “Everyone should remain in the state in which he was called” (1 Cor. 7.20), I had long been resisting the ecclesiastical conclusion to which the force of my ideas and beliefs was increasingly pressing me. Meanwhile, the Lutheran Church in America, in a series of moves that I had begun to limn, however dimly in an essay that was published in the The Christian Century in 1963, was becoming, to use the terminology of that essay, less and less of a “confession” and more and more of a “denomination.” Thus we were, as Yogi Berra might have put it, “headed on a collision course by moving in opposite directions.”

[DaRev]

What does this have to do with the OP?

[Till]

What does this have to do with the OP?

A lot! The OP consisted of TWO questions:


1. Does anyone know which Lutheran Church Professor Jaroslav Pelikan belonged to?
2. And why did he convert to the Orthodox church towards the end of his life?


So thank you very much ByzantineDixie for this quote which contains a lot of info as to the question why Pelikan converted. It acutally seems as that his conversion was not a turning away from Lutheranism but more a turning towards Orthodox to which he obviously felt himself as belonging even before the actual conversion. His quoting of “Everyone should remain in the state in which he was called” and the picture of the airplane coming "home" to the airport, clearly points to that.

Still I wonder which ideas and beliefs he meant when saying:"I had long been resisting the ecclesiastical conclusion to which the force of my ideas and beliefs was increasingly pressing me." If I understand EO theology correctly - and I most likely do not! So please correct me. - it is - in the same way as RC and most so-called Evangelicals are - confusing and mixing justification and sanctificaion. As I understand it, for EO Theosis is salvation. How can someone who has feasted on Luther's writing and the Lutheran doctrine of Justification of the ungodly by Faith, so intensively as Pelikan did, turn away from that?

[ByzantineDixie]

Pelikan is a huge interest of mine. I, too, wanted to understand the complete rationale for his conversion...but in the end I was only able to find bits and pieces.

Here is another interesting story regarding his appreciation for tradition which I suspect was another draw for him to EO:

Another family story locates the origin of his passion for tradition and its transmission early in his life. As a teenager, he had to decide whether his vocation was as scholar or concert pianist. One day at home in Chicago he was practicing a Beethoven sonata. A guest of the Pelikans was Jan Masaryk—son of Tomas Masaryk, the first president of Czechhoslovakia, and Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk, an American pianist who had met Tomas when she went to Europe to study piano with Franz Liszt. Suddenly Jan Masaryk shouted, “No, that should be an F-natural!” “But right here in the score it’s an F-sharp.” “That’s wrong. I heard from my mother that there’s a mistake in the printed score, and she heard it from her teacher, Liszt, who heard it from his teacher Carl Czerny, who heard it from his teacher, Beethoven.”

From Valerie Hotchkiss and Patrick Henry in Editor’s Preface to the book, Orthodoxy and Western Culture (http://www.light-n-life.com/shopping/order_product.asp?ProductNum=ORTH195)


Still I wonder which ideas and beliefs he meant when saying:"I had long been resisting the ecclesiastical conclusion to which the force of my ideas and beliefs was increasingly pressing me." If I understand EO theology correctly - and I most likely do not! So please correct me. - it is - in the same way as RC and most so-called Evangelicals are - confusing and mixing justification and sanctificaion. As I understand it, for EO Theosis is salvation. How can someone who has feasted on Luther's writing and the Lutheran doctrine of Justification of the ungodly by Faith, so intensively as Pelikan did, turn away from that?

:) Well, I would first suggest that people who convert to something other than Lutheranism wouldn't admit they are "confusing and mixing justification and sanctification." Although...it would definitely not be a mistake to suggest the Orthodox do not hold sanctification and justification in such stark distinction. And that is because of how we view salvation, as you suggest.

It is true that salvation is a broader term in Orthodoxy that it seems to be in the West. Salvation isn't only a matter of being saved from an eternity in hell but also a matter of theosis, becoming more and more like Christ, restoring the likeness lost in the fall.

Let me know if I have posted inappropriately.

[Till]

It is true that salvation is a broader term in Orthodoxy that it seems to be in the West. Salvation isn't only a matter of being saved from an eternity in hell but also a matter of theosis, becoming more and more like Christ, restoring the likeness lost in the fall.



Most certainly the purpose of salvation is also for Lutheranism to become like Christ in the future glorification and then spend eternity in communion with God. Not just not in hell.

But the problem that I am having with the concepts of not just EO but also RC and also the wider "Evangelical" world with its focus on "Christian lifestyle" is that it seems to require some level of santification for salvation to be effective. And I always ask myself: How holy do we have to be then to be acceptable to God? And have I reached that necessary level of holiness?

The answer of course is: No, I have not reached it but am rather quite a failure as a Christian. Therefore I delight and take comfort in the Lutheran doctrine of Christ's righteousness being counted as our righteousness. Not as an excuse but as the only hope I can have to ever be acceptable in the eyes of God.

[ByzantineDixie]

And I always ask myself: How holy do we have to be then to be acceptable to God? And have I reached that necessary level of holiness?


Which is why we are all dependent upon the mercy of our God, who is good and loves mankind.

I'd love to explain how works fit into the life of a Christian from an Orthodox perspective but this is probably not the place...so I'll exit the conversation now.

(:wave: Bye to my friends at TCL...Jim, so glad to read you are doing better. :crosseo:)