Eric Flint: Grantville Gazette .Volume XXIII

"Well… ah, no."

"You're a good man and a preacher needs to be married. Constanzia is a good woman and she loves you. You must take care of this." Sternly, Susannah added, "This week. Before you leave for your next revival. Now, take one of these pies and let's say no more about it."

Jena,

State of Thuringia-Franconia,

United States of Europe

The Collegium Jenense had been the center of the University of Jena since it's first two professors, Stigel and Strigel and their one hundred seventy-one students moved into the old Dominican monastery in 1548. In his third floor office just under the bell tower, a gray-bearded man dressed in a black vest and robes sat at his desk studying.

"Dean Gerhard?"

The Dean of the College of Theology rose from his chair, bidding Dean Werner Rolfinck, his counterpart from the College of Medicine to enter.

Gerhard asked, "Well, Rolfinck, what's your conclusion concerning those that participated in the healings?"

"I've examined a good number of the patients, Professor. What's more, I've verified their previous history of suffering from the ailments they claim to have received relief from." Shrugging his shoulders, Werner Rolfinck concluded, "All seem to be valid. From what we've learned so far from our up-timer colleagues, some seem to have suffered from one form or the other of arthritis, some may have had nervous disorders, and some may have had other diseases of the mind or body, but as far as my examinations have been able to determine, the outward symptoms seem to be in remission now."

With a small smile, Rolfinck added, "I've seen the inflammation of the cartilage around joints of arthritis sufferers in my autopsy work. If I were able to get any of these subjects into my anatomical theater, I would be able to verify to what degree those conditions have indeed disappeared, but alas, I doubt if we could get that permission from the patients."

Gerhard let himself smile for a brief moment. It was an open joke that no student without a Bible in hand was safe in Rolfinck's presence. The doctor had received permission from the church to perform his autopsy studies on any body the church refused to bury. "No, I'm sure they wouldn't. Unfortunately, that leaves us with yet another unsolved mystery."

"Have you heard anything from Wittenberg yet?"

"No. We are becoming so used to this telegraphy that the Americans have brought us that we become impatient with waits for responses of only a week or so. And, since Saxony chose not to join the USE last year, AT amp;L has found adequate reasons not to extend their lines to Wittenberg.

"However, we have located correspondence with one of our professors from a Dieter Fischer. It was from the right time period for this Fischer to have been of the age to hear lectures in the Faculty of Theology there."

"Then, when do you expect to hear from your colleagues in Wittenberg?" Rolfinck asked.

"I sent a personal courier out Friday, a young theological student to whom I entrusted this responsibility. More than likely, he should be able to bring us a response by the end of the week, Monday at the latest."

"I see." Rolfinck nodded. "And what is your opinion of the theological substance of Fischer's Pentecostal message?"

"Well, it's all based on extrapolations from the first century church, in that it seems valid. They seem to reject the bulk of Christian scholarship from the intervening centuries. They do acknowledge the major creeds, but strongly reject any arguments that the age of miracles ended with the passing of the Apostles."

"Frankly, with the Ring of Fire, they have good supporting evidence."

Gerhard nodded in agreement, "Still, as with all the rest of the future Christian philosophies that flow out of the Ring of Fire, including the Grantville Roman Catholic for that matter, this Pentecostal belief system is heavily influenced by our current day Protestant doctrines. These Pentecostals have gone much further in removing priests or even pastors from the role of intermediary between mankind and our God. They very clearly believe that the third member of the Holy Trinity exists to this day as a direct conduit for God's instructions.

"We noted that Fischer was very careful to disclaim any personal credit for any of the healings that took place last week. Plus, in every theological matter, he always deferred his interpretations of scripture to the interpretation that this Holy Spirit would be offering direct to the congregant, once they had opened the ears of their souls to what It was trying to tell them."

"Then there's this Pentecostal Commentary and Concordance." Dean Gerhard picked the book up off his desk and absent-mindedly began to flip through its pages. "The concordance section seems to be a straight derivative translation of the up-time Thomas-Chain concordance that is standard in a number of the Bibles we've acquired from Grantville since the Ring of Fire. Chalker and Fischer have made some interesting modifications in areas relating to their peculiar beliefs on the end of the age of miracles, of course. But all in all, it's a perfectly acceptable point of view from the Lutheran perspective.

"As far as the commentary goes…" Gerhard grimaced. "It's hardly what we think of as commentaries. It's more of a collection of remembrances or stories that one would tell to a child. I did find quite a number of surprising interpretations of scripture there, but nothing like what the Papists have tried to shovel down mankind's throats all these years.

"Of course, only a theologian would have a problem with that. For the average person, especially someone who had been kept from reading the Bible in his own language by his religion, this might be very powerful. All in all, as the Americans might say, it's a very plain vanilla theology wrapped in an extraordinary amount of emotional appeal."

The two professors looked at each other in silence for a moment, then Rolfinck added, "I can say one thing. It's clear that Herr Fischer is not as confident in his power to restore the wounded and disabled. The students I sent to observe his tent meetings all reported that he would pray for amputees but send them away unchanged."

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God," Gerhard quoted from Luke. "You remind me of something. At services yesterday, our chaplain observed a number of our students place their hands over their heart, then raise their open palms to the sky during prayers."

When Rolfink's eyes widened at this information, Gerhard added, "I've instructed him to strictly reprimand any future participants from this sort of behavior.

"This faith apparently rose from a period in the future which had large numbers displaced from their homes due to wars and depressions. It's sure to be very appealing to the displaced thousands upon thousands throughout Europe due to our current wars. It even threatens to be a tool for a concerted demagogue, if that were the Pentecostals' intent. However, I see no theological evidence that it must be opposed at this point. Let's watch how the Reverend Fischer's future tent meetings go, and keep a closer watch on their results."

Grantville

"Reverend Chalker? Ready for dinner?"

Ingrid Nemeth heard the squeaking of chair legs against the wood floor, then, "Come on in, Mrs. Nemeth!"

Ingrid opened the door, and carried her wicker basket into Chalker's office. She placed it on a chair so she could clean off the table to serve Chalker his evening meal. "Well, how have you been today, Reverend?"

"Fine, fine." Chalker set aside the sheaf of papers he had been studying, "I was just going over the figures from young Fischer's Jena revival. I am so proud of that boy."

"He's truly a gift from God, Reverend. We needed someone to continue our faith in this world and He provided Reverend Fischer. I remember Paul's vision that Fischer would be the answer to our prayers."