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. 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".
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.
That report,
The seminary's board of control however had a 6-5 majority in favor of Tietjen and the faculty, and in February 1973 by a 6–5 vote, the board commended each member as faithful to Scripture and the Lutheran confessions. But the 1973 LCMS convention in New Orleans condemned the seminary's faculty in a resolution that charged them with "abolish[ing] the formal principle, sola Scriptura (i.e. that all doctrines are derived from the Scripture and the Scripture is the sole norm of all doctrine)". A new, more conservative seminary board of control was also elected at that convention, and the new board quickly proceeded to suspend Tietjen from the presidency of Concordia Seminary in August 1973. The suspension was initially delayed and then "vacated" while various groups in the LCMS attempted to find a route toward reconciliation, but Tietjen was again suspended on January 20 of the following year.
Synod in schism
Formation of Seminex
The day after Tietjen's second suspension, some of the seminary's students and faculty registered their protest. A group of students organized a moratorium on classes (which had been planned in the fall but was delayed because of the death of Arthur Carl Piepkorn, the graduate professor of systematic theology on December 13, 1973, causing the Board of Control to cancel its December 19 board meeting).
A large majority of the seminary's students voted on the morning of February 19, 1974, to continue their education under the targeted faculty at an off-campus site. Immediately after the students passed their resolution, they and the majority of the faculty staged a dramatic walkout, inviting the local press for the event. Singing "The Church's One Foundation", they processed out of the seminary grounds, where students had planted white crosses bearing their names. The event attracted a great deal of media attention. However, the seminary's Board of Control subsequently accused the students of disingenuous posturing, noting that the students had returned to the seminary cafeteria for lunch immediately after their supposed departure and continued to live in student housing for the remainder of the term.
The next day, classes officially began at Concordia Seminary in Exile (Seminex) in facilities provided by Eden Seminary and Saint Louis University. Since Seminex was not yet an accredited school, an arrangement was made with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) whereby the first class of Seminex graduates would officially receive their diplomas from LSTC. The first graduation was held in the neo-Gothic quadrangle of Washington University in St. Louis. John Tietjen, who in October 1974 was finally removed as president of Concordia Seminary, was elected president of Seminex in February 1975.
Within a year and a half of its inception, Seminex had acquired its own facilities at 607 North Grand Boulevard and then, following water damage to that building, at 539 North Grand. The institution also immediately received provisional accreditation through the Association of Theological Schools. No longer acknowledging the legitimacy of Concordia Seminary and its new administration led by Martin Scharlemann, Seminex faculty and students referred to that institution simply as "801", after its address at 801 DeMun Avenue. However, facing legal action from Concordia, the exiled seminary eventually changed its official name from "Concordia Seminary in Exile" to "Christ Seminary-Seminex" in October 1977.
Widening rift
In the wake of conservative advancements at the 1973 LCMS convention, opponents had convened a conference in Chicago to chart out strategies. The conference's 800 delegates promised moral and financial support for church members who faced pressure due to their opposition to the actions of the LCMS convention. They also formed a new organization, Evangelical Lutherans in Mission (ELIM), to serve as a network and rallying point for the liberal wing of the LCMS. ELIM provided financial support to Seminex, along with public-relations assistance via its twice-monthly newspaper, Missouri in Perspective.
In an attempt to increase support for their cause, Seminex students barnstormed the nation as part of "Operation Outreach", meeting with LCMS congregations to explain their perspective of what happening in the rapidly evolving situation in St. Louis. Tietjen and the other Seminex faculty also contacted various congregations of the LCMS to enlist their support. Tietjen fully expected that a minimum of 1200 congregations of the synod would leave when asked.
As part of the process of ordination in the LCMS, a prospective pastor must be certified for ministry, and per the LCMS constitution, only an official seminary of the synod could issue those certifications. In 1974, there were two institutions in Saint Louis claiming to be the official seminary, with both of them issuing certifications for the ministry. The expectation of Seminex backers was that if they could place enough of their graduates into pastoral positions, the overall synod would be forced to recognize Seminex as an official seminary of the LCMS.
After the expulsion, a movement to leave the synod took shape among dissident congregations and church officials, most of them members of ELIM or congregations that had ordained a Seminex graduate. a small fraction of what Tietjen had expected. To ministers and parishioners who remained with the LCMS, this and other moves by the fledgling AELC validated earlier concerns about the faculty majority at Concordia Seminary.
With congregations totaling about 100,000 members, the AELC represented less than 4 percent of the 2.7 million members of the LCMS. In consequence, the break-away organization could not provide nearly enough pastoral positions for all the graduates of Seminex, whose enrollment began to sharply decline.
End of Seminex
thumb|Seminex moved to the Humboldt Building at 539 N Grand Blvd in 2012 in 1982.
Starting in 1974, the LCMS made clear to prospective students that there was no chance of ordination in the synod unless course credits were obtained in official LCMS seminaries. The synod also barred Seminex recruiters from the Concordia University System. By the end of the 1970s, any hope that a large number of LCMS congregations would leave had been extinguished, forcing Tietjen, who was now president of Seminex, to begin laying off faculty. In addition, the seminary was torn between positioning itself solely as the seminary for the AELC, which would have made it difficult to continue to solicit donations from supporters in the LCMS who had remained in that synod, and reshaping itself as a "pan-Lutheran" seminary that would serve many different Lutheran church bodies. By the beginning of the 1980s, it was clear that there was no possibility of seminary's continued existence as a stand-alone institution.
In anticipation of the merger that formed the ELCA in 1988, Seminex dispersed its faculty and students to several seminaries of the ALC and the LCA around the country, including the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), Wartburg Theological Seminary, and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. Several professorial chairs at LSTC were subsequently named after Christ Seminary-Seminex.
Legacy
After their separation, the AELC catalyzed the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Many pastors and graduates of Seminex became prominent bishops and leaders in the ELCA; for example, in 2009, three of eight seminary presidents were Seminex graduates, as were a number of bishops. Theologian Robert Benne concurred, writing in First Things;