Tunkers

TUNKERS. - Derogatory name given to German Baptists, also called Dunkers.

I. HISTORY

This branch of the Baptists was founded at Marienborn (Wetterau) in 1708 by Alexander Mack, who emigrated to America in 1719, where the sect developed. Another branch of the Baptists was founded by Johann Gerhard Oncken in 1834 in Germany and spread in small groups into Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Russia.

In America, a sect derived from Mack's founded in 1732, through the work of Johann Beissel, the Brethren of Zion, who established a kind of monastery at "Ephrata" in the district of Cocalico (Pennsylvania). In this community, attention was devoted above all to printing, for the dissemination of the Bible. The Tunkers founded missions in India, China and Japan and in 1821 also in Liberia; in 1930 their number amounted to 156,768 adults, divided among 1,327 churches.

II. DOCTRINE AND WORSHIP

The T. differ from other Baptists mainly in the baptismal rite. It should be noted, on the other hand, that among Baptists in general, the smallest divergence of doctrine and worship has helped to give rise to a new sect. The baptismal rite of the T. is as follows: the neophyte kneels in the baptismal font (not standing, as in the other Baptist sects), then is completely immersed. The T. recognize as Sacraments, besides Baptism and the Supper, the washing of feet and the Sacred Anointing performed with oil. For the rest they accept almost all the articles of the Baptists, namely: 1) the particular Churches are completely autonomous and sovereign in their local affairs; 2) there must be a clear separation between Church and State; 3) freedom of religion is a natural right inherent in the human spirit; 4) a Church is an organism formed by the regenerated, who have been baptized following a personal profession of faith and attachment to the Gospel; 5) the Baptism of children is not only contrary to the Scriptures, but is also harmful to the spiritual life of the Church; 6) the necessary rite of Baptism is immersion in water; 7) the ministers of the Church, according to Scripture, are the pastors and deacons; 8) the Supper of the Lord must be observed in remembrance of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ (v. BATTISTI). The T. reject the use of the oath, condemn military service and teach the universal apocatastasis (v.), by which all spirits, men or demons, must ultimately be saved.

Leone Cristiani