LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

THREINEN: FRIEDRICH MICHAEL ZIEGENHAGEN 71
episcopate; the Halle Pietists saw unity being achieved through common
spiritual renewal.)
The second such activity involved participation in the Danish-Halle
mission effort in East India. In contrast to North America, the India mission
began in Danish territory where the SPG had no spiritual responsibility. On
top of that, mission work in India had a strong educational aspect to it. Thus,
it was the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) which
became involved. In contrast to the SPG, which had a royal charter and was
dominated by clergy, the SPCK was not chartered and had a considerably
more inclusive membership. Indeed, the largest number of SPCK members,
by far, fell into the category of “corresponding members” who were not
necessarily Anglican and often were not English; Francke, for example,
became a corresponding member two months after the SPCK was formed.
The responsibility of corresponding members was to disperse SPCK
literature and ideas, and to provide information to the SPCK on various
educational and missionary projects throughout the world. The much smaller
number of “subscribing (or residing) members”, 53 who were responsible for
gathering the funds and controlling the direction of the SPCK, were
generally all Anglicans and most of them were laymen.
Although he did not fit the pattern, Boehm gained acceptance into this
latter influential inner circle of the SPCK. Indeed, within the small number
of the subscribing members, an even smaller number (sometimes less than a
dozen) regularly attended meetings and made most of the decisions. By his
regular attendance and active interest, even on occasion chairing meetings of
the SPCK, Boehm was able to dominate the direction of the Society. 54 It was
especially Boehm’s publication in 1709 of his translations of missionary
letters from East India which brought Boehm into the mainstream of SPCK
activity. Thus, the English entered into co-operation not only with Halle but
also with representatives of the Danish government.
The financial support of the English came at a most opportune time. The
initial impulse for the mission had come from King Frederick IV of
Denmark who was concerned that missionary activity be undertaken in his
Danish possession of Tranquebar in India. When the king was unable to find
Danish clergy to go as missionaries, two Germans, both with previous Halle
connections—Heinrich Pluetschau and Bartholomeus Ziegenbalg—had been
recruited to go to India under Royal Danish auspices. But when the two
Pietists appeared before the orthodox Lutheran bishop in Copenhagen to be
examined for ordination, it took the king’s intervention to have the bishop
ordain them. Then, when they arrived in the mission field in July 1706 and
had established a congregation through catechetical instruction, the orthodox
53 80, compared to the 370 corresponding members in 1712.
54 Brunner 27.