Dr. Eric W. Gritsch

MISSION:

Through the establishment of this non-profit organization and in remembrance of the late Rev. Dr. Eric W. Gritsch, the Board of Directors are determined to raise funds to honor the man, his life and his legacy – benefitting and supporting Luther research and scholarship. 

We hope that his work lives on and continues to influence students of history and religion for many years to come.

MILESTONES:

His hand is already holding me
An Art History Lecture

On Saturday, August 11, 2018,  the Eric W. Gritsch Memorial Fund hosted an informative talk by Yu Na Han, Johns Hopkins PhD Candidate, at the George Peabody Library on Reformation art in 16th-century Germany. The talk was extracted from her developing dissertation centered on the theme of the consolation to be found in pictorial representations. Yu Na discussed how the faithful would have taken comfort in the works of Lucas Cranach and his fellow artists just as they would have in the words of Luther and pastoral care.

 Lucas Cranach, Christ and the Adulteress (detail), ca. 1538, Weimar, Germany

SACRED SPRING, Vienna Secession Posters

On Saturday April 21st, 2018 the Eric W. Gritsch Fund hosted a curator

 led tour of the exhibit, Sacred Spring: Vienna Secession Posters from the Collection of LeRoy E. Hoffberger and Paula Gately Tillman Hoffberger at the Baltimore Museum of Art, which highlighted the Vienna Secession, an influential group of artists who sought to break free from academic art of the past.  Deatils about the work of Gustav Klimt, Kolman Moser, Egon Schiele, and Peter Behren's influential 1898 color woodcut The Kiss from Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Rena Hoisington.

On November 5th, 2017 during Lutherfest, the Eric W. Gritsch Memorial Fund announed the winner of the Gritsch Fellowship in Reformation Studies:  Thomas Santa Maria, Yale PhD Candidate. 

His project is the 'custodianship and proper application of the senses' in Reformation era art, sermons, and devotional texts. 

The fund awards him $7,500 for travel, research and report. We look forward to learning from his travels and research.  Details

The Memorial Fund made a donation of $300.00 to the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology in memory of the Rev. Dr. Robert Jenson.   He and Eric Gritsch served on the faculty of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg for many years, often team teaching.  Together they co-authored  a book entitled LUTHERANISM:  THE THEOLOGICAL MOVEMENT AND ITS CONFESSIONAL WRITINGS. 

This book was published by Fortress Press in 1976 and is still being read and studied by those preparing for the Lutheran ministry. This well-known theologian recently passed away. 

The words of  both Gritsch and Jenson continue to live on!

 The Rev. Dr. Eric W.Gritsch was a member of  Zion Church of the City of Baltimore for seventeen years.  He conducted worship services  and preached in both German and English for one year while the congregation was in the process of calling a pastor.  For many years that historic church was the site of numerous events in which Dr. Gritsch played an important role.  The Adlersaal was the location of various celebrations honoring Dr. Gritsch.   

With that in mind, the Board of the Eric W. Gritsch Memorial Fund deemed it appropriate to make a donation of $1,000 for the restoration of an outdoor sculpture known as the Hans Schuler Eagle and the surrounding balcony area of the Parish House which is outside the Adlersaal overlooking Baltimore's beautiful City Hall. 

The Parish House was built in 1912 and Hans Schuler (1874-1951) one of Maryland's most prominent sculptors was commissioned to  design and sculpt the eagle for the Parish Hall entrance.  This  impressive piece of art depicts the American eagle with a shield depicting  on its heart with the German eagle.  Zion was the home congregation of many German immigrants who loving remembered their homeland while embracing their new life in America. 

Eric W. Gritsch Memorial Fund 2016 Essay Contest 

American Lutheran Publicity Bureau 500th Anniversary Medallion

THE WINNING ESSAYS of 2016

  Details  Video 

• 1st Place Winner: Shane Brinegar               FULL TEXT
• 2nd Place Winner: Kristopher Coffman   FULL TEXT
• 3rd Place Winner: Molly Hartshorn           FULL TEXT

Gettysburg Seminary Honors Memory of Dr. Gritsch

On October 26, 2016 Bonnie Brobst, the widow of The Rev. Dr. Eric W. Gritsch, attended The Luther Colloquy—an event of the Fall Academy at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Penna.  

Eric W. Gritsch served on the faculty at that institution for more than 30 years and, along with The Rev. Dr. Gerald Christianson, a fellow faculty member, established this Colloquy in 1970.  

Gritsch served as the Director of the Institute for Luther Studies at the Seminary until his retirement in 1994.  

The two professors were honored for their contributions to Gettysburg Seminary.  

Bonnie Brobst, as the widow of Gritsch, was also honored for her efforts to keep the legacy and words of her late husband alive for future generations of both clergy and laity through her work with the Eric W. Gritsch Memorial Fund.  

She was presented with a new book edited by Kirsi I. Stjerna and Brooks Schramm entitled ENCOUNTERS WITH LUTHER:  NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CRITICAL STUDIES which contains the thoughts of former presenters at various Colloquy events.

2016 Austrian Presentations About Eric W. Gritsch

The Eric W.Gritsch Memorial Fund was thrilled to learn that there were to be presentations in Neuhaus, Austria to commemorate the 85th birthday and baptism of Eric.  The brother of Eric and his wife,  Mr. & Mrs.Gunther Gritsch, will be in attendance.  Eric was born in Neuhaus, a town near the Hungarian border where his father, The Rev. Matthias Gritsch, was serving the Lutheran congregation in 1930.  Eric and Bonnie visited the parsonage where Eric was born and toured the church while they were visiting in the area several years prior Eric's death.  It is nice to know that Eric is remembered in his home land. Details

Eric W. Gritsch Memorial Fund Essay Contest 2015

The Winning Essays:

• 1st Place Winner:  Paul Flo 

• 2ndPlace Winner: Joshua K. Warfield M.A.

• 3rd Place Winner: Andrew Christiansen

2015: A Book by Dr. Eric Gritsch is Released (Posthumously):

ALPB Books (2015)

In 1978 the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America adopted a Joint Statement on Communion Practices that “precluded” the communion of baptized infants. This statement shut the door on a practice that the Western Church had observed for a thousand years and had not previously categorically precluded, that the Episcopal Church was reconsidering, and that the Eastern Churches still practiced. Eric Gritsch saw the ecumenical, biblical, and theological inappropriateness of this statement and was one of a handful of Lutheran theologians who spoke up for a reconsideration of the practice. Pastor Larry Recla has gathered papers of Dr. Gritsch that were disseminated for discussion purposes at the time of the debate, but have not previously been published. Their publication now is timely when churches are considering the inclusion even of the unbaptized in Holy Communion — a line Dr. Gritsch would not have crossed in his thesis that the Lord’s Supper is the meal of the baptized, but all the baptized.

An essay on this book is reprinted by permission from Pastor Chris Carr,
of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Richmond, VA 
A congregation of the ELCA

The original article in their LOGOS newsletter (February 2016)

 Your tax-deductable donation by check can be made to:

The Rev. Dr. Eric W. Gritsch Memorial Fund

PO Box 23064

Baltimore, MD 21203-5064

Thank You For your Support!

Please Join us at the upcoming Special Events being heled to benefit the fund!