Name Martin Franzmann Role Poet | Education University of Chicago | |
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Died 1976, Wells, United Kingdom Books Word of the Lord Grows, Concordia Self‑study Commentary, Follow Me: Discipleship Accordin, Pray for joy, Commentary on Romans | ||
Thy Strong Word
Martin H. Franzmann (January 29, 1907 – March 28, 1976) was an American Lutheran clergyman and theologian. He was also a college professor and poet who wrote numerous books and hymns.
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Background
Martin Hans Franzmann was born in Lake City, Minnesota. He was the son of Rev. William Franzmann (1868-1953) and Else (Griebling) Franzmann (1875-1944). His father had been an immigrant from Germany and was a Lutheran minister. Franzmann graduated from Northwestern College before entering Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. He had also studied at, but did not graduate from, the University of Chicago and studied in Greece as a Daniel L. Shorey Traveling Fellow.
Career
In 1936 Franzmann accepted the position to serve as a professor of Greek and English at Northwestern until the Summer of 1946. In 1946, he was called to teach at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1957, he became the Chairman of Exegetical Theology at Concordia. He was notable for his traditional stance on Biblical inerrancy and inspiration against historical criticism well before the walkout that led to the Seminex crisis.
Among his other position was time as chair of the Synodical Conference, a member of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations of the [Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]], and the 1962 LCMS representative to the Lutheran World Federation. He left the faculty of Concordia Seminary in 1969 to become tutor at Westfield House, the theological college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England (ELCE), in Cambridge, England. In 1972 he retired from Westfield House and moved to Wells, England, where he died in 1976. He was succeeded as tutor by his son John Franzmann.