Halle Pastors, German Settlers, and Lutheran Congregations in North America. Critical Edition und Scholarly Exploration of Letters and Journals, 1740-1820

即将出版的第1卷和第2卷是由一个名为“北美哈雷牧师，德国定居者和路德教会：1740-1820年信件和期刊的关键版和学术探索”的dfg资助的项目产生的。这个项目的目的是出版一个八卷，评论收集的原始材料。卷1包含2个简历和11个期刊的牧师，从1744年至1758年。卷2包括14个简历和19期刊的10个牧师，从1746年至1784年。大多数资料来源从未发表过。一些日记的摘录，经过严格的编辑，出现在当代传教士和教化文学作品中。到目前为止，没有一个版本是完全注释的，给出了大量的交叉参考，提供了详细的索引，并高度忠实于原始文字。这两卷在几个方面对学术有特别的价值：1。这份简历充分说明了牧师的家庭和社会背景。它们揭示了个人关系和非正式的机构赞助网络对候选人学习神学，进入牧师部门，最终被召唤到海外牧师服务的重要意义。通过简历，我们可以深入了解作者的宗教信仰、内心深处的感受和个人思想，了解他们的自我认知，了解他们如何处理自己的弱点，以及在信仰的确定性和宗教怀疑之间不断斗争的方式。许多这样的传记简历读起来就像个人的草图，反映了作者自己的标准和能力与上帝的诫命和上级的期望之间持续不断的冲突。这些期刊提供了多方面的见解，不仅对教会问题，而且对十八世纪北美的现实生活，对比德国和欧洲的情况，这是完全不同的。除了定期的牧师活动外，还有很多关于其他教派和非基督教信仰的评论和反思，关于当前政治和社会事件，或者关于科学和文化的最新发展。游记通常被收录在期刊中，令人印象深刻地描述了在蒸汽机和铁路时代之前在陆地或海上旅行的环境和困难。除了提供对这个国家及其人民、自然和环境的个人观察外，他们还说明了任何派遣牧师的计划和安排都是多么仔细，以及牧师在前往美国的途中面临的许多危险。

Volumes 1 and 2, which are to be published, result from an DFG-funded project entitled "Halle Pastors, German Settlers, and Lutheran Congregations in North America: Critical Edition and Scholarly Exploration of Letters and Journals, 1740-1820". This project aims to publish an eight-volume, commented collection of source material. Volume 1 contains 2 curricula vitae and 11 journals of 2 pastors, dating from 1744 to 1758. Volume 2 includes 14 curricula vitae and 19 journals of 10 pastors, dating from 1746-1784. Most of the sources presented have never been published. Extracts from some of the journals appeared, heavily edited tough, in contemporary missionary and edifying literature. Up to now, there does not exist any edition that is completely annotated, gives numerous cross references, provides detailed indices and is highly faithful to the original wording of the sources.The two volume are of particular value to scholarship in several respects:1. The curricula vitae teil much about the pastors' family and social background. They reveal the cardinal significance that personal relations and informal as much as institutional networks of sponsorship had for a candidate's taking up studies of divinity, entering the ministry, and finally being called to pastoral service overseas.2. The curricula vitae allow intriguing insights into the writers' religious beliefs, innermost feelings, and personal thoughts, into their self-perception, and into their way of handling their own weaknesses and the constant struggles between the certainties of faith and religious doubts. Many such biographical resumes read like personal sketches reflecting an ongoing conflict between the authors's own standards and abilities on the one hand and God's commandments and their superiors' expectations on the other.3. The journals provide multi-facetted insights not only into congregational issues but also into real life in eighteenth-century North America, contrasting it with the conditions in Germany and Europe, which were entirely different. In addition to regular ministerial acts, there are plenty of comments and reflections on other denominations and non-Christian persuasions, on current events in politics and society, or on recent developments in science and culture.4.Usually integrated into the journals, travelogs impressively describe the circumstances and difficulties of traveling on land or at sea prior to the age of steam engines and railways. Besides furnishing indidual observations of the country and its people, of nature and environment, they illustrate how carefully any dispatch of preachers had to be planned and arranged for in advance, and the many dangers the pastors faced on their way to America.