Charles Theodore Benze

Reverend Charles Theodore Benze (September 19, 1865 - July 3, 1936), notable Lutheran minister and missionary, personal archive housed in original travel trunk and period archive travel boxes. Archive contains thousands of pieces including: handwritten letters, journals, travel related information, notes, sermons, correspondence, as well as printed hymns, songbooks and booklets.  Items span the majority of Benze's adult life, from late 1880s to 1930s.

Benze was born at Warren, Pa., September 19, 1865, the son of the Rev. Adolph Leopold and Elizabeth C, (Kiehl) Benze. After graduating from the Erie, Pa., High School, he took college work under private instructors, specializing in philology. He taught in the Erie Public School, 1883-95 (Chief of Modern Language Department in the High School, 1888-95). He graduated from the Chicago Theological Seminary, 1897, and was ordained by the Pittsburgh Synod, 1897. He married Hermine Elizabeth Ohl (daughter of Dr. J. F. Ohl, '74) in 1898 and has one son, Winfrid Theodore. He received the degree of D.D. from Muhlenberg College in 1909.

Dr. Benze was pastor at Beaver Falls, 1897-98; St. Stephen's, Erie, Pa., 1898-1908; President of Thiel College, 1909-13; American Professor in Kropp Theological Seminary, Germany, 1913-15, and since 1915 has been Professor of Old Testament Theology and Missions in the Philadelphia Seminary.

Dr. Benze was commissioner of the General Council to inspect the India mission field in 1908; President of the Pittsburgh Synod, 1908-09; is Vice-President of the United Lutheran Church Board of Foreign Missions, and Chairman of the India Committee (1918- ). In 1922 he was given leave of absence and left for Russia as Commissioner of the National Lutheran Council to engage in relief work. He is the author of Pilgerlieder fur Schule and Haus, The Confessional Principle and the Confessions of the Lutheran Church (with Dr. T. E. Schmauk), 1908; and (also with Dr. Schmauk) a Commentary on the Gospels for the Trinity Season, 1919. Since 1920 he has been co-editor of the Lutheran Church Review. He has contributed frequent articles to the Lutheran, the Lutheran Church Review and other Church papers. He is a member of the Pennsylvania German Society, Society for Biblical 

This archive offers a wonderful first hand insight into the Lutheran church of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, filled with research and institutionally significant history.