Philip Stephan - In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephans Journey

O ne amazing thing leapt out of these pages as I was writing. When reading acknowledgements in other authors books one gets a sense of how many people help with ideas, format, editing, and so on, but until youve written a book yourself you have no idea the number of friends and the amount of thought they gave on the way to the publisher. Someone once said that it takes a village to raise children. So does the production of a biography such as this one. Here are but a few of those that assisted with this book.

So here goes ... I might omit thanking someone, and there are some folks that I have never met or known who gave help with this project.

First of all to my wife, friend, and partner goes my love and deep affection for her endless patience when I was absorbed in the writing of this work. Her commonsense comments were most important especially when I shared with her some of the parts of the Martin Stephan story that were difficult to write. She knows his history now as well as anyone.

Deep appreciation goes to Tom Carson, a very special friend and colleague over the years in campus ministry. During one of his visits to my home, he urged me in Nike style, Phil you need to write this story of Martin Stephan. Just do it.

Luke Stephan deserves lots of praise for his help in finding documents that dispelled several myths and gossip about Martin Stephan. It was Luke who swelled our courage to tell the truth to those who thought Martin Stephan was a good target for foul jokes. Above all Luke unearthed the wonderful address by Pr. Stephen Wiest of Michigan who died in the year 2000, too early in his ministry and before I could thank him.

Many thanks go to Lukes brother Bob Stephan for his encouragement, financial contribution, and atta boys for the work of preserving family historical documents and books. I am grateful for Timothy Stephans financial and moral support.

To my enthusiastic cousin Dick Stephan, deceased now, I owe much for his financial help and his support for gathering information about Martin Stephan with the family genealogy.

I owe much thanks to my late sister Janice Lydia Torgerson for her careful and precise work on the family genealogy.

Many thanks go to Dr. Naomi Stephan who assisted with the translation of several letters and court documents.

The Koepchen family heirs deserve thanks for their permission to use two manuscripts of their grandfather, the Rev. William Koepchen, friend of Theo Stephan.

Concordia Historical Institute is commended for giving me such cooperative help through their staff, particularly Dan Borkenhagen, in gathering documents for this book.

If Theo Stephan were still alive I would thank him for his careful work not only in the family genealogy but in the history of the Saxon Emigration.

John Conrads was a special gift to this project. He appeared in my life by way of an introduction of some friends. His help and enthusiastic spirit were instrumental in translating many documents. This project of translating original documents enabled me to find very important information especially from the legal documents from the Dresden Courts and the Martin Stephan book of Sermons. I appreciated his unflagging energy invested in giving many more hours in translating documents than we had agreed. His stories spurred me on to complete this work.

My neighbors, Ivan and Jarmila Prikryl, formerly from the Czech Republic in the city of Olomouc, near Stramberg, whom I met serendipitously at a neighborhood gatheringI am pleased about their help in translating several Czech language documents and grateful for their friendship.

There were four colleagues and friends whose time and suggestions were vital to this book. These people gave selflessly in serving as readers of rough drafts of the book manuscript. Thanks to Dr. Arthur Preisinger for his suggestions and for writing the foreword to this book; to Rev. Thomas Carson, Rev. Gene Brueggeman, and Dr. Harry Boyle, all of whom read early copy and made very helpful suggestions to shape this story.

A special mention goes to Margot Wright, herself an author and former clergywoman, for reviewing this work at the invitation of the publisher and who gave selflessly in the final edit.

Dr. Martin Marty, who invested much time giving specific suggestions on how to edit the manuscript, deserves my applause. He was not shy about warning me that reading his comments on the manuscript might be a rough ride. It was a rough ride and a necessary journey at that!

Finally, to Donna Boyle, special friend over the years, there just arent enough right words to acknowledge her investment in this book. Many of her talents I did not comprehend fully until she started to work on this project. As a teacher of church history and English she guided this project in both areas and was not hesitant to watchfully make sure I got it right. Above all, she has worked for four years with little compensation way above and beyond anyones expectations. I am so indebted and grateful for her careful crafting and watchful criticism of every word. Frankly, this book would have never made it to the press without her untiring efforts.