born in the vicinity of Mansfeld, received
his preparatory education at Halle and other schools, and studied
theology at the University of Leipzig. After a brief service in Halle,
Kunze was called to be third pastor in Philadelphia. He landed in New
York, September 22, 1770, accompanied by two sons of Muhlenberg, who
had studied in Halle. In Philadelphia, where he married Muhlenberg's
daughter, Kunze conducted a Seminary from 1773 till its close in 1776,
and then successively occupied the chairs of Philosophy and of Oriental
languages at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1773 this institution
awarded him the title of Doctor of Divinity. In the following year he
received the call from the reunited Lutheran congregation in New York,
which he accepted. He entered upon his new labors with great zeal, and
met with no little success, confirming 87 persons in the first six
months. Kunze laid especial stress upon the English, which hitherto had
been greatly neglected. He also educated young men for the English
ministry. A year after his arrival in New York he published "The
Rudiments of the Shorter Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther," and ten years
later, 1795, the first English Ev. Lutheran Hymn- and Prayer-book. In
the same year he issued a new translation of the Small Catechism,
containing, besides the six chief parts, also, the Christian Questions,
103 fundamental questions, and a "Systematic Presentation of the Order
of Salvation." (527.) Kunze was also the first president of the New
York Ministerium, organized at Albany in 1786. At his burial, in 1807,
the Reformed Pastor Runkel delivered the funeral oration. While a
learned man, a hard worker, a man of great influence, a man also who
sought to familiarize not only the German, but also the English element
of his church with the doctrines of the Catechism, Kunze was not a
sound and staunch Lutheran on the order of Berkenmeyer or Falckner. He
had no adequate appreciation for the doctrinal differences which
separate the Lutherans and the Reformed. In the appendix to his Hymn-
and Prayer-book of 1795 Kunze wrote: "That the two Protestant Churches
have often shown animosities against one another is true and to be
lamented. But that such times are past is a truth more joyful than
another, which likewise ought not to be concealed, and [_viz_.] that
true piety in the Evangelical Church stands highly in need of a new and
energetic revival, and that it is doubtful in many cases whether