August Hermann Francke is best known as a leading exponent of Pietism, an educational reformer, and an early sponsor of Protestant missionary work. His theology has received less attention, especially in English-language works. In this revised dissertation, Peter James Yoder illustrates how Francke espoused a conversion-based sacramental theology that responded to what he saw as the chief pastoral problem of his day, a reliance on externals without an accompanying inner spirituality.

Yoder presents his findings in seven chapters. In the opening chapter, he sketches Francke's career, emphasizing his conflicts with Orthodox Lutherans in the years following his conversion experience in 1687 and observing that Francke refined his theology as he defended his preaching and teaching against those opponents. In the next chapter, Yoder describes the three interrelated themes of biblicism, conversion, and reform in Francke's theology. Lay Bible reading brought knowledge of one's sin and prompted conversion, which empowered the individual for struggle against sin and for the reform of society. Yoder also describes Francke's hermeneutical approach, which contrasted the “husk” of the historical and grammatical sense with the “kernel” of the exegetical and practical sense understood through the grace of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 3, Yoder turns to Francke's understanding of the sacraments in general. Although he did not reject the Lutheran understanding of the sacraments as a means of grace, Francke described them first and foremost as human oaths of allegiance to God that encouraged a more holy life and aided the struggle against sin. The next two chapters look more specifically at baptism. In chapter 4, he uses Francke's sermons on Christ's baptism to illustrate his hermeneutic of husk/kernel in describing a historical event in Jesus's life and its meaning for both individual believers and the church as a whole. In chapter 5, Yoder points out the tensions between Francke's emphasis on conversion and the Lutheran understanding of baptismal regeneration. Reacting against those who placed their certainty of salvation in the external rite of baptism, Francke focused on the obligations entailed by the baptismal covenant. The final two chapters turn to the Lord's Supper, and especially to the issue of worthiness to receive communion. Chapter 6 discusses private confession, a necessary part of communion preparation in Lutheran Germany. Here again, Francke criticized those who thought it was sufficient to recite the formulas of confession without evincing an inward understanding of the words or a desire to amend their lives. To combat this, Francke instituted pastoral visitation in the days before communion, which gave him a better view of the spiritual state of his parishioners. Chapter 7, on the Eucharist, continues the theme of worthiness, this time with the emphasis on individual self-examination. In the epilogue, Yoder draws out the implications of Francke's sacramental theology for his ecclesiology. Corporate public worship provided one framework within which individuals worshiped, but smaller groups such as conventicles also aided Christian growth and the exercise of spiritual gifts. The centrality of conversion and rebirth in Franke's theology meant that the external marks of the church inevitably took second place to individual experience.

Yoder's study is largely based on Francke's sermons, which by their very nature emphasize the pastoral implications of sacramental theology, but Yoder does not discuss the relationship between genre and content. He also accepts Franke's self-identification as a Lutheran, without considering the extent to which Francke's position was shaped by Reformed sacramental theology, whether consciously or not. Yoder suggests that Francke was influenced by English Puritan views of the conscience in the process of sanctification, but the similarities with Reformed positions go much further than that. The association of the sacraments with an oath made to God was made by Erasmus and popularized by Ulrich Zwingli, for instance, while the practice of visitations preceding communion was introduced in Jean Calvin's Geneva. Lutheran theologians discussed the covenantal nature of baptism, but the topic was far more important for Reformed theologians beginning with Heinrich Bullinger. This is not to say that Francke was aware of, let alone influenced by, the sacramental debates of the sixteenth century, but some acknowledgement of the confessional context would have highlighted the controversial nature of Francke's views.

What is ultimately most striking, however, is the relative unimportance of specifically Lutheran positions for Francke's sacramental theology. Yoder closes his book by mentioning the appropriation of Francke's theology by Pennsylvania's Lutherans seeking accommodation within the American religious landscape. His observation demonstrates the value of this study of Francke's sacramental theology for contributing to our understanding of the broader development of evangelicalism in the eighteenth century.