# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S59
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 59

projects for given periods of time and for the general fellowships
‘according to the patterns in common use in American higher
‘éducation. Leaves of absence from congregations may involve the
furnishing of temporary substitutes.

Comments

There does not seem to be any need to offer arguments for
the research aspects of the proposed institute. If our Church is
to meet the challenging tasks of the future, an indispensable
item in the program will be the production of authoritative theo-
logical literature on a scale that cannot be achieved under present
conditions, when the burden falls almost entirely on the faculty
of the St. Louis Seminary, the size of which is hardly adequate
even for the teaching functions of the Seminary.

In support of the second of the purposes of the Institute
mentioned above we wish to submit the following considerations:

It is generally admitted that there is a deeply felt need for a
wider distribution in the clergy of the Missouri Synod of trained
and authoritative scholarship in theology and in secular subjects
related to theology.

The Church should have a large number of trained scholars
for leadership in conferences and Districts and Synod at large,
for pastorates in large and important parishes, for various synodical
offices, for membership on boards and committees, and for the
filling of professorships in our educational institutions, Other
church bodies have long since felt this need and have taken action
regarding it. The Roman Catholic Church, for instance, has among
its priests not only men of outstanding scholarship in Roman
Catholic theology, but also has authorities in such fields as philos-
ophy, psychology, education, economics, sociology, political science,
history, literature, and other humanistic fields, and even in the
natural sciences (geology, biology, etc.). A growing group of
scholars in our Church distributed over these fields and also
geographically’ distributed over areas in which our Church is
a active would under the Lord’s blessing be a source of considerable
a strength for our Church.
ee Our present means for developing such scholarship are not
adequate. The junior colleges and the teachers’ colleges do not go
far enough into the secular fields, and the graduate school and
the correspondence school of Concordia Seminary are on too
small a scale and too low a level. No work for the Doctor’s degree
is offered at St. Louis. Besides, the number reached by these
agencies is very small. The inadequacy of the present situation is
apparent especially in connection with the calling of men into