Richard C. H. Lenski

Richard Charles Henry Lenski (September 14, 1864 – August 14, 1936) was a German-born American-naturalized Lutheran pastor, scholar, and author who published a series of Lutheran New Testament commentaries.

Life Lenski was born on September 14, 1864, in Greifenberg, Brandenburg-Prussia (now Gryfice,

He was editor of Die Lutherische Kirchenzeitung for twenty years, beginning in 1904. In 1911, he became a professor of theology at Capital University and its theological department. He also served the Joint Synod of Ohio as president of its Western District for a number of years. Some of the volumes were published after his death.

Other works include The Active Church Member, The Eisenach Gospel Selections, The Eisenach Old Testament Selections, The Epistle Selections of the Ancient Church, The Gospel Selections of the Ancient Church, The Sermon: Its Homiletical Construction, and Saint Paul. grandfather of the sociologist Gerhard Lenski, and great-grandfather of the evolutionary biologist Richard Lenski. Lenski’s descendants have attended Capital University for six generations.

Theology As a Lutheran, Lenski shows little sympathy for Reformed theology in his commentaries. Lenski had sometimes distanced himself from the Calvinism-Arminian debate. However he practically adopted the main distinctive tenets of the Arminian soteriology. Though not using the exact terminology, he held to conditional election, unlimited atonement, prevenient grace and conditional preservation of the saints.

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