The Birth and Development of National Evangelical Lutheran Theology in the Baltics from 1918 to 1940

This paper examines the birth and rise of Latvian and Estonian national theology during the first independence period of Latvia and Estonia from 1918 to 1940. After the establishment of the independent republics of Estonia and Latvia in 1918, leading positions at the theological faculties of the Universities in Tartu and Riga, and in the Lutheran Churches, were seized by Latvians and Estonians, i.e., by the representatives of the national majority. In this paper the transition from a society led by Baltic Germans to societies led by Estonians and Latvians is described and analyzed, with a special emphasis on the activity of theologians at the University of Tartu and at the University of Latvia, as well as national and theological discussions and confrontations in the Lutheran Churches of Latvia and Estonia. In the study all leading theologians, their views and works, as well as their international cooperation are analyzed. To describe the rise of Latvian and Estonian national theology, a historical overview of the situation in the Baltic provinces in the nineteenth century has been given as well.