Monday, January 22, 2018

Lutheran Seminaries Were Good When They Were Small and Inexpensive.
Now They Are Small, Expensive, and Apostate

 Ulrich Leupold was the youngest person to earn at PhD at the  University of Berlin. He was the head of Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, now mostly a counseling school.

Some may wonder why I am working on the histories of various Lutheran seminaries. In fact, I just obtained the Brenner-Prange history of Mordor - Treasure in Clay Jars.

I have seen a persistent pattern in the Lutheran seminaries, moving away from men with real ability, scholarship, and faith while embracing strutting peacocks and peahens with an act, a thin resume, and no scholarship at all.

 Otto Heick, PhD, wrote a History of Christian Doctrine that was used and still is read in many synods. He was my Waterloo teacher and our family friend.

Tiny Waterloo Lutheran Seminary had a small faculty and student body but two noted scholars.

Capital Seminary - now Trinity ELCA - had Loy, a different Leupold, and Lenski. They replaced Lenski with a liberal and down it went, slowly at first, rapidly later.

Trinity (Danish) in Blair, Nebraska had John N. Lenker as a seminary professor. They merged into Wartburg, but what have they done for Luther studies since? I read a memorial book about the good old - recent - days. The president was a great fan of Paul Tillich, the adulterous theologian who liked to sleep with his students' wives. Tillich - deep and full of grace. I read it in the book.

Let me be blunt for a moment. One would be have to be waterboarded to come up with a few Lutherans teaching at Lutheran seminaries in America, without adding the requirements of scholarship and ability. And such testimony is not going to hold water when obtained under duress.

 The Capital Seminary Leupold wrote the commentary
on Genesis.