The most recent edition of the Concordia Theological Quarterly is a paean to CPH in its 150th year. One of the articles, written by John Pless, highlights books written in the 60s articulating "evangelical confessionalism" as opposed to "scholastic confessionalism," in particular "Mission in the Making," a history of LCMS mission written by F. Dean Lueking. At the same time Mickey Kretzmann was the director of missions, and the Mission Affirmations came out of that same concept - evangelical confessionalism. Pless ties evangelical confessionalism into the ecumenical, inter-Lutheran unity efforts and John Tietjen's book "Which Way to Lutheran Unity." I'm not convinced the two are intertwined that thoroughly.
But I do think the red fault line in the Missouri Synod does lie right there in the differentiation between evangelical confessionalism and scholastic confessionalism. I was formed culturally, theologically and academically throughout my education in the LCMS from home through all the various institutions by evangelical confessionalists to take up that mantle. Which, to the best of my abilities, I have. And I take a dim view of scholastic confessionalists. So in terms of the thread title, I would say it represents accurately the goal of what eventually became Seminex as a missional movement: that Lutheranism is a dynamic movement of the Gospel into the world God loves in word and deed to any and everyone by the Body of Christ empowered and encouraged in the hearing of the Word and the reception of the Eucharist.
Dave Benke
Awesome assessment. Spot on imo.
I also find it helpful. But I wonder how that distinction between evangelical confessionalism and scholastic confessionalism works itself out in the context of "evangelical catholic"--terminology that appears on over 1100 occasions in this Forum. Does Prof. Pless get into that? Does this issue have anything to do with Dave Benke's observation Pless ties evangelical confessionalism into the ecumenical, inter-Lutheran unity efforts and John Tietjen's book "Which Way to Lutheran Unity." I'm not convinced the two are intertwined that thoroughly.
Peace,
Michael
I can give you my assessment, as I've heard it through opinions expressed by various and sundry. A pretty substantial group of those on the scholastic confessionalism side of the aisle, who are liturgical, have attempted to abscond with the term "evangelical catholic." Many but not all of those folks are affiliated with our Ft. Wayne seminary or are its graduates. Old school scholastic confessionals (RDPreus et al) would go along with the "Hypo-Euro" designation or something like that for them, but they are of the same uber-tribe.
In my opinion, however, they're minimally evangelical and minimally catholic. That is, they insist that their scholastic version of confessionalism is in fact evangelical. In my opinion it's an incurvatus se version, turned in on itself. So "evangelical" is minimally connected to the world outside the sanctuary and is almost exclusively a function of preaching (which in scholastic mode is actually teaching more than proclamation) correct doctrine to the already baptized. And catholic is applied only to that which is universally accepted within our/their own confessional theology, and very minimally universal in any connection to the wider Church. I just got an invitation to something at Herman Otten's (+) camp which is about stemming the membership losses in Lutheranism. It's completely a workshop on preaching correct doctrine. Not accidentally, our good brother RD Preus is one of the presenters. This is, to me, the scholastic mode.
A straddling figure in the LCMS was Al Barry, whose mantra was "Keep the message straight; get the message out." The scholastic confessional adumbrated version is simpler - "keep the message straight inside the walls." So the ecumenical or universal version of evangelical and catholic is to allow people from other Lutheran denominations who are or are deemed to be scholastic confessionals to the altar for Eucharistic fellowship. But that's as ecumenical or universal as it gets.
In this version, by the way, the mission movement is primarily and in some cases exclusively to establish academic teaching centers, mostly seminaries, so that the correct doctrine is learned through systematic indoctrination. A missionary is more a scholastic and professorial. An addition to that in the best sense of scholastic confessionalism is to allow others who are not teachers to conduct works of mercy. This is virtually never allowed to bleed over into the arena of justice/equity, but is limited to gifts in mercy.
Enough for now. There's plenty more on what evangelical and catholic would mean to an evangelical confessionalist. My initial estimation is that these are two distinct branched "spirits".
Dave Benke
