7 - Inventing a Lutheran Ritual: Baptisms of Muslims and Africans in Early Modern Germany

Summary

The essay explores the baptism of so-called pagans or Muslims as practiced in German Lutheran churches. Sermons written especially for these occasions were a typically Lutheran form of self-assertion. Baptisms of Muslims or “Africans” were usually lavish ceremonies, every detail of which was perfectly orchestrated to reflect the self-understanding of the Lutheran parish, their rulers, and Lutheran belief. Baptismal sermons were often printed and distributed, further enhancing the prestige of both the noble family and the Lutheran Church itself. For Lutherans in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these ceremonies became a divine symbol of an explicitly Lutheran universalism. This was “Global Lutheranism” without having to go on missions. Baptismal sermons firstly show that abduction, slavery, and forced immigration were also a reality in early modern Germany. Secondly, the most striking point of these baptismal sermons is that individual cases were celebrated as a victory of universal Lutheranism. This was a specifically Lutheran appropriation of the world, for it was the single believer who was at the centre of the whole service.