Author Schmucker Samuel Simon

t Princeton Theological Seminary, and was ordained a Lutheran minister (1820). In 1820 he helped to establish the General Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, one of the first organizations of the American Lutheran church. From 1826 to 1864 he served as professor of didactic theology and chairman of the faculty in Gettysburg Seminary, of which he was one of the founders. Schmucker Hall on the campus was named in his honor. During the Battle of Gettysburg, Schmucker's house was used as a field hospital for soldiers of both armies. He was never compensated for the damages incurred. His publication of 1838 prepared the way for the formation of the Evangelical Alliance, which was formed in Freemason's Hall, London, August 19–23, 1846. The American branch was organized in 1867. He was the leader of the low-church Lutheran party who were connected with the General Synod and was better known outside of his communion than any other Lutheran minister. Amongst his numerous publications are: Schmucker is buried in Evergreen Cemetery (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania). Schmucker was a very controversial theologian that Confessional Lutherans viewed as a threat to American Lutheranism. They did not believe he was actually a Lutheran, but rather, a Reformed theologian[1] working to destroy American Lutheranism from the inside through absorbing it into a union with non-Lutheran American Protestants.[2] His plan to discard the Augsburg Confession as a declaration of Lutheran belief in favor of a mutilated confession compatible with Reformed theology alienated him from former allies.[1] He published this altered confession anonymously, but it failed to pass even within his own church body.[3] Because Schmucker denied the Real Presence in the Lord's Supper, he is categorically placed in the "Un-Lutheran" camp by Charles Porterfield Krauth. Schmucker wrote, "worthy communicants, in this ordinance, by faith spiritually feed on the body and blood of the Redeemer, thus holding communion or fellowship with Him.".[4] This demonstrates Schmucker held to the Calvinist spiritual explanation of the Lord's Supper rather than the Lutheran teaching of Sacramental Union.[5] The Schaff Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious knowledge states his theological position was a mix of "Puritanism, Pietism, and shallow Rationalism" rather than Lutheranism.[3]