I think that a consideration of the historical issue of slavery is relevant for several reasons. Today marks the anniversary of the death of the great Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod theologian C.F.W. Walther. Walther has been very much extolled for his contributions to the development of the faith by Lutherans of varying ethnic traditions. I come from the Norwegian branch of the faith and Walther has always been praised particularly for his work on the distinction between law and gospel.
Walther was born in Germany and served out his career in Missouri a slave holding state. I think that it would be interesting to see what Walther and the Lutherans of his day had to say, if anything, about slavery. Clearly slavery was the dominant national problem of the Civil War era and beyond. Did the Lutheran theologians have anything to say about all of this?
Does the Lutheran teaching of the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms have anything to do with this issue of slavery?
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