Seminex is the widely used abbreviation for Concordia Seminary in Exile (later Christ Seminary-Seminex), which existed from 1974 to 1987 after a schism in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS). The seminary in exile was formed due to the ongoing Fundamentalist–modernist controversy that was dividing Protestant churches in the United States. At issue were foundational disagreements on the authority of Scripture and the role of Christianity. During the 1960s, many clergy and members of the LCMS grew concerned about the direction of education at their flagship seminary, Concordia Seminary, in St. Louis, Missouri. Professors at Concordia Seminary had, in the 1950s and 1960s, begun to utilize the historical-critical method to analyze the Bible rather than the traditional historical-grammatical method that considered scripture to be the inerrant Word of God.
After attempts at compromise failed, on January 20, 1974, the seminary Board of Control chose to suspend the seminary president John Tietjen, leading to a walkout of most faculty and students, and the formation of Seminex. Seminex existed as an institution until its last graduating class of 1983 and was formally dissolved and merged with Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1987. Concordia Seminary quickly rebuilt and by the late 1970s had regained its place as one of the largest Lutheran seminaries in the United States.
The after effects of the controversy were vast. Before the split, the LCMS had both liberal and Evangelical wings. After Seminex, 200 liberal and moderate congregations split from the LCMS to form the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC), leaving the LCMS a more conservative body than it had been in 1969. The AELC itself would later merge with other liberal and moderate Lutheran churches to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Background Formation of the LCMS In the 1830s, a group of Saxon Germans immigrated to the United States and settled in St. Louis and in Perry County, Missouri. They were fleeing the forced union of German churches by royal fiat. Seizing the opportunity to freely practice their confession, these immigrants, eventually led by C. F. W. Walther, established what would eventually become known as the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Reacting against the rise of theologians such as Albrecht Ritschl and Friedrich Schleiermacher, Walther emphasized the inspiration and authority of the Bible as well as a strict adherence to the Lutheran Confessions.
In addition to a strict adherence to the Lutheran Confessions, Walther also sought to ensure that the new synod was decentralized and congregational. No congregation could be compelled to accept any resolution from a synodical convention or presidential decree that was contrary to the Word of God and the Lutheran Confessions. Each congregation is to be properly taught by a pastor who has been certified for the ministry by one of the official seminaries of the synod. The seminaries themselves are overseen by the synodical president, but he could not take any action against any official of the synod unless empowered by a resolution passed by the synod in convention. This governing structure would be sorely tested in the Seminex crisis.
Rise of theological modernism Beginning in the middle of the 19th century in Germany, a group of philosophers at the University of Erlangen and the University of Tübingen began applying a new method of interpretation of Biblical texts. Supernatural elements of the Bible, such as miracles and the Virgin Birth, were dismissed or explained away in natural terms. Historical accounts in the Bible such as the Hittite Empire and the United Monarchy were assumed to be unreliable, and figures such as Abraham, Moses, and Noah were held to be entirely fictional.
Not limited to just the Bible, theological liberalism also sought to change the way that the Lutheran Confessions were understood. The Confessions themselves do not use the term inerrancy with regard to the Scriptures.
During the synodical presidency of Franz Pieper, these new theological methods had only limited support within the LCMS. In 1932, Pieper authored the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod. In that booklet, Pieper attacked the new theologies, with the statement being circulated widely within the synod. So popular was Pieper's position that well into the 20th century, a majority of LCMS pastors described themselves as Pieperians. Despite Pieper's popularity and resolutions by several synodical conventions endorsing the Brief Statement, theological modernism slowly made inroads in the LCMS.
Rise of student activism Concordia Seminary was affected, as were many institutions of higher education in the United States, by the rise of student activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s relating to the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. On February 10, 1969, about 250 students petitioned the seminary for a three-day moratorium from classes in order to discuss student issues and grievances. One of the main issues was the definition of "full-time" enrollment, which determined whether a student was eligible for deferment from the military draft for the war. Later that year many students wanted to participate in the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam on October 15.
The killing of four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, led to Concordia students holding a vigil for the Kent State victims on May 6. Four crosses were erected in the seminary quadrangle, the bells were tolled, and barbed wire was strung.
During the 1969–70 school year and thereafter, the student newspaper, the Spectrum, urged students to take action to boycott California table grapes, work for social justice, and fight discrimination. The student response to the events leading to the establishment of Seminex borrowed from the previous activism. For example, the crosses erected for the walkout and the tolling of the bells replicated the response to the Kent State killings.
Early tensions Concordia Seminary Under the presidency of Alfred Fuerbringer from 1953 to 1969, Concordia Seminary had developed a reputation as a more liberal institution within the LCMS due to its teaching of historical-critical methods of biblical interpretation. Though the charges were reformulated in several different reports, they generally held that the faculty (and, particularly, members of the exegetical theology department) were using historical-critical methods for biblical interpretation, and that these professors improperly stressed the importance of the doctrine or teaching of the Gospel (forgiveness of sins in Christ) over the importance of the whole of the Christian Bible. The September 1, 1972, Report of the Synodical President states:
Sensing that the LCMS was changing its theological position, two other conservative Lutheran church bodies, the Evangelical Lutheran Synod and the Wisconsin Synod, who had been in altar and pulpit fellowship with the LCMS for a century, suspended that fellowship with the LCMS in 1955 and 1961, respectively, and withdrew from the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference in 1963, a body the synods had co-founded in 1872.
Beginning in 1959 and continuing through 1973, the laity in the LCMS reacted to the growing modernism at Concordia Seminary by passing a series of seventeen resolutions either affirming full biblical inerrancy or condemning the spread of "antiscriptural teaching" in the synod. Fuerbringer ignored these resolutions as well as the growing discontent in the synod. Many conservatives in the LCMS asked whether the seminary was serving the denomination or the denomination was serving the seminary.
Ascension of John Tietjen At the end of 1968, Fuerbringer announced his retirement as president of Concordia Seminary, triggering the selection process for his replacement. Presidents of the LCMS seminaries at that time were elected by a vote of the following four entities, with each entity having one vote: the president of the LCMS, the president of the LCMS district in which the institution was located (in this case, the Missouri District), the seminary's Board of Control, and the LCMS Board of Higher Education. At the time, these positions were all under the control of either supporters of the ecumenical movement or theological modernists.
Among this group, there was increasing concern that the incumbent synodical president, Oliver Harms, was going to lose his reelection bid. Harms was a key supporter of the Lutheran Council in the United States of America (LCUSA) and other inter-Lutheran cooperation, and the modernist faction was concerned that confessional insurgents would disrupt the process of selection for presidency of Concordia Seminary; hindering the greater goal of Lutheran unity. In addition, members of the seminary's Board of Control would be elected at the convention. There was great urgency to complete the process of selecting a new seminary president before the upcoming synod convention would intervene. While the procedure for actually electing the seminary president was normal, the timing was unusual in that it was the first time a new president of the seminary would be elected before the actual retirement of his predecessor.
In May 1969, John Tietjen was selected president of Concordia Seminary after sixteen years as a minister in New Jersey and three years heading the public relations division of LCUSA. Although a virtual unknown among the broader synod, Tietjen was well known in the ecumenical movement. The selection of Tietjen caused great excitement among the faculty of Concordia Seminary and in wider Lutheran circles. In the words of the wife of Ed Schroeder (then a professor at the seminary), "Tietjen is the one we wanted".
Election of Jacob Preus Two months later, Jacob Preus—then the president of the other LCMS seminary, Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield, Illinois—was elected president of the synod in an upset over the incumbent Harms. Preus's 1969 campaign for the LCMS presidency was supported by conservatives within the church body who opposed moves by Harms to institute altar and pulpit fellowship with the American Lutheran Church (ALC), which did not hold the Bible as infallible and inerrant. Preus's supporters wanted to see the LCMS, and especially its colleges and seminaries, adopt more uniform orthodox and confessional theological stances.
Within a year of assuming office, Preus established a Fact Finding Committee to examine the teachings of the seminary's faculty. The committee presented this complete report to Preus on June 15, 1971. Two weeks later, Preus sent the entire report to the seminary Board of Control and seminary president Tietjen.This report is available in its entirety in the appendix of Seminary in Crisis, Concordia Publishing House, 2007.
That report, called "The Blue Book" due to its cover, was later mailed to all congregations and pastors of the LCMS in September 1972. The main bulk of the report consisted of a large number of quotations from the transcripts of the interviews with the seminary faculty members, whose anonymity was protected. The Blue Book had a powerful effect in the LCMS. Based upon the committee's findings, the seminary's board of control was instructed "to take appropriate action on the basis of the report, commending or correcting where necessary ... That the Board of Control report progress directly to the President of Synod and the Board for Higher Education".Resolution 2-28, Proceedings , 122