Carl Hugo and Mary Gutsche and the "German" Baptists of the Eastern Cape

H. Haus

Description

In 1859 the British "imported" 445 German settler families to strengthen the colonial borders in British Kaffraria (now Eastern Cape) in South Africa. Three of these settler families were Baptists, they evangelized their fellow Germans and anyone else they met. In 1867 Johann Gerhard Oncken of Hamburg, the founder of the Baptist Churches in Continental Europe, sent Hugo Gutsche to take care of the new Baptist community there and evangelize the native population. The author of this book, Fritz Haus, the last of Gutsche's German successors, wrote his PhD on the life and work of Hugo Gutsche, graduating from the University of Stellenbosch at the age of 80. Haus describes his ministry to White and Black over half a century and he does not forget Mrs Mary Gutsche, whom her husband called his "co-pastor."

Informations

• Publié par: Luviri Press
• Date de parution: 13 décembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9789996060298
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

In 1859 the Bri�sh "imported" 445 German seler families to strengthen the colonial borders in Bri�sh Kaffraria (now Eastern Cape) in South Africa. Three of these seler families were Bap �sts, they evangelized their fellow Germans and anyone else they met. In 1867 Johann Gerhard Oncken of Hamburg, the founder of the Bap�st Churches in Con�nental Europe, sent Hugo Gutsche to take care of the new Bap�st community there and evangelize the na�ve popula�on. Fritz Haus, the last of Gutsche's German successors, wrote his PhD on the life and work of Hugo Gutsche, gradua�ng from the University of Stel lenbosch at the age of 80. Haus describes his ministry to White and Black over half a century and he does not forget Mrs Mary Gutsche, whom her husband called his "co-pastor."

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Carl Hugo and Mary Gutsche Carl Hugo Gutsche and t "German" Bap�sts of the Eastern Cape

Fritz H. Haus

Fritz H. Haus

Carl Hugo and Mary Gutsche

Copyright 2019 Luviri Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any from or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the publishers. Published by Luviri Press P/Bag 201 Luwinga Mzuzu 2 ISBN 978-99960-60-28-1 eISBN 978-99960-60-29-8 Luviri Press is represented outside Malawi by: African Books Collective Oxford ([e-mail]) Editorial assistance: Marvin Esau www.africanbookscollective.com

Carl Hugo and Mary Gutsche and the "German" Baptists of the Eastern Cape

Fritz H. Haus Luviri Press Mzuzu 2019

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Contents Editor's Preface 8 Introduction 17 Oncken's Baptist Policies and Principles in Germany 23 On the Identification of Baptists and Anabaptists 28 Three Aspects of Colonialism 34 Chapter 1: The First 24 Years in Germany (1843 - 1867) 45 Childhood and Youth 47 The University of Halle 49 His Conversion and the Halle Baptist Church 61 Johann Gerhard Oncken and his Continental Baptist Churches 66 Pharmacist and Baptist Preacher and Oncken's Assistant 72 Departure for the South African Mission Field 80 Chapter 2: The German Settlers of 1858 and the Frankfurt Baptist Church 86 German Legionaries (1857) and Civilian Settler Families (1858/59) 87 Untold Privations, Sufferings and Anxieties 95 Carsten Langhein and his first Converts 102 An Anabaptist Revolt in Kaffraria? 107 Chapter 3: His Lifework with the Whole of South Africa as his Parish (1867 - 1896) 112 A Jubilant Welcome 113 A Huge and Vital Building Programme 126 Helpers Urgently Needed: Peter Riemer and Martin Schmidt 131 Formation of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa in 1877 136 Gutsche as Missionary 140 John Adams, the First "Indigenous Baptist Missionary" 149 Founding of the South African Baptist Missionary Society 151 5

The United Missionary Conferences 155 Andrew Murray the Younger 160 Christian Population of Cape Colony 163 Territorial and Institutional Expansion of Baptist Missions 166 Gutsche as Educator 169 th Chapter 4: End of the Pioneer Period and the Beginning of the 20 Century (1896 - 1905) 178 Gutsche and his Family 179 Increasing Health Problems 186 Division into Bethany and Emmanuel 191 Travels and Ministries beyond Kaffraria 198 Chapter 5: The Autumn of his Life (1906 - 1926) 206 Golden Wedding and 50th Anniversary of his Ordination 206 Retirement and Failing Strength 212 The Gutsche Memorial Hall and Mary's Death (1925) 214 The Home Call of Carl Hugo Gutsche (1926) 217 Chapter 6: Gutsche's Principles, Attitudes and Teachings 221 Baptist Confession and Constitution 224 Church Discipline and Code of Conduct 227 His Cultural, Social and Moral Concerns 231 His Sermons: Gutsche as Preacher and Teacher 233 Chapter 7: Conclusions 243 The Supreme and Final Authority of Scripture 246 The Traditional Evangelical Reformed Theology 247 Christ's Spirit of Love and Forgiveness 253 Missionary Work among the Blacks 258 Church Discipline and Holy Living 261

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Closing Remarks 262 SUPPLEMENTARY SECTION 269 #1: August Peinke' s Testimony 269 #2: Original German letter from J.G. Oncken to Frankfurt 275 #3: Original letter from Elder Gernetzky 276 #4: Original letter of Louis Preuss 277 #5: Travel account to Johannesburg and Sugarloaf Oct 1889 to Jan 1890 278 #6: Gutsche's open letter concerning A.B.K Odendaal Help 285 #7: Hugo Gutsche's Presidential Address "The Unity and Peculiar Formation of the German Baptist Churches" 287 #8: Objection to Liquor Licence for Breidbach Hotel and discontinuing of sellingAma Tombato Natives 289 #9: Gutsche's Sermon 'Just say the Word' 291 Bibliography 294 Primary Sources 294 Newspapers, Magazines, Articles etc 296 Books on the Emergence and Doctrinal Position of the Anabaptists or Free Churches, the Left Wing of the Reformation 296 Unpublished 298 Published 298 IndexFehler! Textmarke nicht definiert.

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Editor's Preface I am a German passport holder who has been in Malawi since 1992, teaching Church History and Missiology first in Zomba at Chancellor College of the University of Malawi and then at Mzuzu University. In both universities my main occupation was to run the postgraduate programme in Theology and Religious Studies. And my hobby and passion has been to publish, first with Kachere Series, then with Mzuni Press and Luviri Press. Since 2007 I have been also a member of EBM International, and things came together when I met our General Secretary Christoph Haus who told us at a meeting that he was on his way to South Africa, among other things, to take care of the papers his uncle Fritz Haus had left after his death, and he also told us that his uncle had completed his PhD at the age of 80. Fritz Haus was the last in a line of German Baptist pastors who had been sent from Germany (in 1950) to serve the German Baptist Churches in South Africa, and he had written his thesis on the life of the very first of these German Baptist pastors who had come to serve in South Africa, Hugo Gutsche who arrived in King William's Town in what was then British Kaffraria in 1867 with his wife Mary, née Lange. Being a church historian, a researcher and a publisher, I was attracted to the thesis, and Christoph Haus sent me his copy from Germany. When Daniel Neumann, the then EBMI voluntary assistant here in Mzuzu, had scanned it, I read it and realized very soon that this dissertation was based on solid primary research and had made a good contribution to knowledge, and therefore it deserved to be published. With this conviction I took up the task of transforming the thesis into a book. In editing the dissertation as a book I followed these principles: 1. I read the text as the text editor, and wherever I found little improve- ments in the flow of the text, in sentence structure and even a rare typing error, I made these changes, assuming that the author would have approved them. 2. Fritz Haus chose for his thesis a bracket reference style. I do not like this, because the highly abbreviated references do not make easy sense to the reader, therefore in this book there are footnote references,

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each giving clear information on the source used or the publication referred to. 3. I have shortened and/or rephrased many of the headings, changing them from thesis style to book style. 4. I have consciously not made any changes in the setup of the thesis. 5. Wherever I felt that I should add something in a footnote, this is preceded by an asterisk (*), and if a new entry has been included in the bibliography, the asterisk is found at the end. 6. The author has the habit to emphasize specific words, sentences and paragraphs by using bold type face. For paragraphs and sentences I mostly ignored the bold face, and where I wanted to retain the emphasis, I have used italics. 7. The same applies to his habit of writing important words or names in all caps, which I have rarely retained, but in important cases I have expressed the emphasis by italics. I felt that the dissertation should be published as a contribution to knowledge, in this case to the (still incomplete) history of the South African Baptists. This alone would warrant this publication, but I value this book also as a contribution to the academic discourse on the writing of South African Baptist history in the post-apartheid era. Here his dialogue partner is Louise Kretzschmar with her 1992 Doctoral Thesis on 1 "The Privatization of the Christian Faith among South African Baptists." There she argues: "The German Baptist settlers and their privatized theology and Euro- centric approach did not enable them to resist the temptation to conform with, and benefit from, colonialism ... this conformity with colonialism meant that the Baptist witness in South Africa was, from 2 the outset, encapsulated within the confines of white self-interest." With this Fritz Haus disagrees, quietly and stringently. He feels that she may have had too little access to the primary sources, and, more seriously, that she tries to apply the valuable insights of her generation 1  Louise Kretzschmar, The Privatization of the Christian Faith amongst South African Baptists, with particular reference to its nature, extent, causes and consequences. PhD, University of Cape Town. - *This was later published as: Louise Kretzschmar,Privatization of the Christian Faith: Mission, Social Ethics and the South African Baptists, Legon: Legon Theological Studies Series, 1998. 2  Ibid. p. 157. 9