Kleckley, Russell C.

Russell C. Kieckley is Associate Professor of Religion at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received his Doctor of Theology degree in Systematic Theology from Ludwig-Maximilians Universität (University of Munich) in Munich, Germany.

THE LETTERS OF JOHANN MARTIN BOLTZIUS, LUTHERAN PASTOR IN EBENEZER, GEORGIA German Pietism in Colonial America, 1733-1765 (Two Book Set)

2009 0-7734-4759-8
These letters, most previously unavailable, illustrate the regular correspondence of Johann Martin Boltzius with supporters and benefactors in Europe. The volume will interest scholars of religion, social historians, and cultural studies.

In his regular correspondence with supporters and benefactors in Europe, Johann Martin Boltzius, the principal pastor and leader of the Salzburger exiles who settled in the community of Ebenezer in colonial Georgia, provided commentary and insight on religious, economic, political and social matters that extended beyond Ebenezer to include the rest of Georgia, the religious life of other religious communities in the American South and in Pennsylvania. In response to letters from England and Germany, Boltzius also commented on circumstances in Europe, including the Seven Years War and the mission work of the Halle Orphan House, founded by the German Pietist, August Hermann Francke and a primary sponsor of the Boltzius and Ebenezer. These letters report news and impressions concerning a number of leading religious and political figures known to Boltzius in the American colonial context, including James Oglethorpe, John Wesley, Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, and Henry Meichior Muhlenberg. Boltzius also offers commentary on slavery, mission work among Native Americans, The War of Jenkin’s Ear and the French and Indian War, and most significantly, on the particular circumstances of Ebenezer as an immigrant community.