Berthold von Schenk

Berthold von Schenk (1895–1974) was a pastor of Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and pioneer of Lutheran liturgical renewal.

Rev. von Schenk was trained for ordained ministry at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and served first as pastor of a mission congregation in St. Louis, Bethesda Lutheran Church. Notably he served as an inner-city pastor of Our Saviour Lutheran Church and School in The Bronx, New York. He was an internationally renowned author and scholar. He participated in the first of ecumenical Protestant-Roman Catholic consultations prior to Second Vatican Council.

Son of Walter von Schenk (1852-1921) who came from Germany to the United States and was a member of the family. He and his descendants dropped the long version of the family name.

In an article published in 2010 it was claimed that Berthold von Schenk was a cousin of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler. However, this is not the case as the families Schenk zu Schweinsberg and Schenk von Stauffenberg are not related.

Works

• The Presence: An Approach to the Holy Communion. Published by E. Kaufmann, inc, 1945, 189 pages
• The Presence: An approach to the Holy Communion. Edited by Paul Robert Sauer. Published by The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 2010, 174 pages. https://web.archive.org/web/20101116111348/http://alpb.org/presence.html

Literature

• Berthold Von Schenk (1895-1974): Pioneer of Lutheran Liturgical Renewal By C. George Fry, Joel R. Kurz. Published by E. Mellen Press, 2004
• Lively Stone: The Autobiography of Berthold Von Schenk By B Von Schenk, C George Fry, Joel R Kurz. Published by American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 2006
• Sauer, Paul Robert. "Berthold von Schenk: Out of Step or Before His Times?." [Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod pastor and a leader in the Lutheran liturgical renewal movement] Concordia Theological Quarterly 74 (2010) No. 1: 39–56. http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/SauerBertholdVonSchenk74-1,2.pdf.

References