Kenneth R. Good (1925–2003)

Kenneth Good has written a short biography of Jacob Albright (Johannes Albrecht), founder of Die Evangelische Gemeinschaft, translated as the Evangelical Association. Jacob was born in 1759 to German immigrant parents near Pottstown, Pennsylvania. After serving in the Revolutionary War as a drummer boy, he settled in Lancaster County where he farmed and was a tiler by trade. He and his wife worshipped at a nearby Lutheran Church but also attended Reform services. After losing several show more children during an epidemic, he had a conversion experience and began attending a Methodist group near his home. He felt compelled to preach to his fellow Germans; however the Methodists were an “English” church and Bishop Asbury did not want services in German. Jacob Albright felt that he needed to start his own church but based it closely on Methodist principles. (At the same time, Wilhelm Otterbein and Martin Boehm were also wrestling with this issue, in time forming the United Brethren in Christ.) Good goes on to describe the challenges facing Albright and his new church, one being education. The Evangelical Church opened schools and promoted education for both boys and girls together, a radical idea for the mid-1800’s. Albright died while on a missionary trip in 1808.

It is interesting to note that the Evangelical Church merged with the United Brethren in Christ to form the Evangelical United Brethren and later that church merged with the Methodist Church, coming full circle in Jacob Albright’s life journey.

The account of Albright’s life and work is accurate except for the assertion that Jacob’s parents emigrated with Jacob at age 5 in 1732, a date inconsistent with facts. Also that early immigrant family settled in Berks County Pennsylvania, not Pottstown. For further information, Good lists 5 sources, one being Reuben Yeakel’s work Jacob Albright and his co-laborers, an 1879 work translated from the German in 1883. He misses the first important work, Jacob Albright : the first biography of the founder of the Evangelical Foundation written by George Miller in 1811 and translated from German many years later.

For a good basic introduction to Jacob Albright and why he founded a new church, this slim volume is invaluable. For serious research, you are best served by the two books listed above. show less