Beale Melanchthon Schmucker (August 26, 1827 – October 15, 1888) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Lutheran leader, liturgical

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

 scholar and historian.

Biography

The Rev. Beale M. Schmucker, D.D. was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Gettysburg is a borough that is the county seat, part of the Gettysburg Battlefield, and the eponym for the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. The town hosts visitors to the Gettysburg National Military Park and has 3 institutions of higher learning: Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg College, and...

, the son of German-American Lutheran pastor and theologian Samuel Simon Schmucker

Samuel Simon Schmucker

Samuel Simon Schmucker was a German-American Lutheran pastor and theologian. He was integral to the founding of the Lutheran church body known as the General Synod, as well as the oldest continuously-operating Lutheran seminary and college in North America .Later in his career, Schmucker became a...

 and Mary Catherine Steenbergen. He was graduated from Pennsylvania College during 1844. In 1847, Schmucker was a graduate of the Philadelphia Lutheran Seminary

Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia is one of eight seminaries associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America , located in Philadelphia . It was founded in 1864 but traces its roots further back to the first Lutheran establishment in Philadelphia founded by Henry Melchior...

. Schmucker served as Secretary of the Alumni Association of Philadelphia Lutheran Seminary at the time of his death in 1888.
In 1870 he received the degree of D.D.

Doctor of Divinity

Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....

 from the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

.

Schmucker was the pastor of Lutheran churches in Martinsburg, Virginia and Shepherdstown, Virginia, 1847–51; Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...

, 1852; Easton, Pennsylvania

Easton, Pennsylvania

Easton is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,800 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County....

, 1862; Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

, 1867; and Pottstown, Pennsylvania

Pottstown, Pennsylvania

Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States northwest of Philadelphia and southeast of Reading, on the Schuylkill River. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the...

, 1881–88.

Schmucker collaborated with A. T. Geissenhainer on A Liturgy for the Use of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In particular, Schmucker worked to revive historic liturgical practice. His knowledge of details in matters pertaining to the order of service, especially of the Lutheran Church of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was unusually extensive and accurate.

Selected works

• The First Pennsylvania Liturgy, Adopted in 1748 (1882)
• The Early History of the Tulpehocken Churches (1882)
• The Lutheran Church in Pottstown (1882)
• The Lutheran Church in Frederick, Maryland (in Quarterly Review, 1883)
• The Lutheran Church in the City of New York during the First Century of its History (in Church Review, 1884–85)
• The Organization of the Congregation in the Early Lutheran Churches in America (1887)
• A Liturgy for the Use of the Evangelical Lutheran Church(1888)

He was co-editor of the Hallesche Nachrichten (Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Halle

Halle

Halle is a noun that means hall in the German language. It may also refer to:-In Germany:* Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, official name Halle , also called Halle or Halle an der Saale...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, vol. i., 1884; English ed., Reading, Pennsylvania, vol. i., 1882), which is the primary source of information concerning the early history of the Lutheran Church in the United States. Schmucker also edited:

• Liturgy of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1860)
• Collection of Hymns of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania (1865)
• Church-Book of the General Council (1868)
• Ministerial Acts of the General Council (1887).

He published numerous articles on doctrinal, historical, and liturgical subjects, of which many have been republished separately in pamphlet-form.

Other sources

• Gross, Ernie. This Day In Religion. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishing, 1999. ISBN 1-55570-045-4.

External links

• Schmucker, Beale Melanchthon from Christian Cyclopedia
  Christian Cyclopedia
  Christian Cyclopedia is a one-volume compendium of theological data, ranging from ancient figures to contemporary events. It is published by Concordia Publishing House. It should not be confused with The Lutheran Cyclopedia , edited by Henry Eyster Jacobs and Charles A.W...
  
  
• Schmucker, Beal Melanchthon from Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
  Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
  The Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge is a religious encyclopedia. It is based on an earlier German encyclopedia, the Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche. Like the Realencyklopädie, it focuses on Christianity from a primarily Protestant point of...