LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary
LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary
LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary
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58 <strong>LUTHERAN</strong> <strong>THEOLOGICAL</strong> <strong>REVIEW</strong> XII<br />
It is also not that there is a lack of information on Ziegenhagen. The<br />
hundreds of hand-written letters in the archives of the Francke Foundations<br />
in Halle, which originated from the pen of Ziegenhagen and were sent to a<br />
variety of individuals, have been used selectively by almost everyone who<br />
has written about Halle Pietism. The trouble is that, while many of these<br />
letters have been used by researchers, no one has bothered to systematically<br />
bring together the information which these letters contain about the man and<br />
his work.<br />
The interest of this writer in Ziegenhagen was sparked by Ziegenhagen’s<br />
role in the history of <strong>Lutheran</strong>ism in Canada. When the earliest <strong>Lutheran</strong><br />
congregations in Canada—in Halifax, Nova Scotia—tried to find a pastor to<br />
serve them, they looked first to Ziegenhagen and the other German <strong>Lutheran</strong><br />
pastors in London, their immediate place of origin in the old world. Later<br />
when Germans also came from Germany and settled in Lunenburg, they<br />
continued to look to Ziegenhagen to be their connection with Halle,<br />
Germany. As Muhlenberg was attempting to satisfy the need for pastors<br />
among the German <strong>Lutheran</strong>s in America, he also looked to Ziegenhagen to<br />
be the middleman in providing such manpower support. And there were any<br />
number of other situations in which Ziegenhagen, strategically situated in<br />
London, England, played a significant role.<br />
Thus, this writer spent a four and a half month sabbatical leave in Halle in<br />
the fall of 1999 researching Pietism with the person and work of<br />
Ziegenhagen as the focus. While a great wealth of secondary background<br />
material, an overview of the Ziegenhagen correspondence, and a detailed<br />
examination of the letters which he wrote from Hanover prior to coming to<br />
England was gained, the project is still not complete. A carefully<br />
examination of the more than three hundred letters which he wrote from<br />
London, as well as the archives of the SPCK in England, still need to be<br />
made to see what they will add to what can be known of the life and work of<br />
Ziegenhagen. This paper represents a report of the study thus far.<br />
I<br />
The one big problem in preparing a study of Ziegenhagen’s life and work is<br />
that there appears on the surface to be very little concrete information about<br />
his parental family and early life. This is a problem which was already<br />
recognized by those who knew him during his lifetime. Gottlieb Anastasius<br />
Freylinghausen, who prepared a brief biography on “the life and character”<br />
of Ziegenhagen for the readers of the Halle mission publication immediately<br />
after Ziegenhagen’s death, bemoaned the fact that he was unable to find any