# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S158
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

158 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES

4, Important social and economic forces have so altered the
lives of the people for whom ministers must work, that
ministers now need a personal equipment significantly dif-
ferent from that which may have been adequate in the
past.

II. The Objectives

With the foregoing assumptions as a foundation, an enumera-
tion of objectives may now be attempted for those synodical
schools which are engaged in the training of young men for the
ministry.

The enumeration which follows is a statement of the objectives
of the entire school process of training for the ministry. That
is, the objectives purport to describe the equipment which the
student should have when he is graduated from the seminary.

A. Doctrinal Knowledge. This is considered to mean the fol-
lowing:

1. A comprehensively organized conceptual structure of all

Scriptural doctrine.

2. A detailed understanding of those doctrines which consti-
tute the principal members of the framework of Christian
faith, with
a. The ability to recall the important Scripture passages

in which these doctrines are stated;
b, An accurate appreciation of the relevance of these doc-
trines to each other and to significant areas of life.

3. A familiarity with all canonical books of the Bible, and a
knowledge of the development of the canon.

4. A thorough knowledge of the confessional documents of
the Church.

5. A knowledge of the issues in the important doctrinal con-
troversies of the Pre-Reformation, the Reformation, and
the Post-Reformation areas, and the ability to establish,
on Scriptural grounds, the distinction between truth and
heresy in these controversies.

B. A Spiritually Dominated Personality. This group of ob-
jectives is considered to embrace the most critically important ends
to which ministerial training can possibly be directed. It is un-
derstood to include the following:

1. A penetrating awareness of

a. The personal, subjective significance of Christ’s atone-
ment.

b. The unqualified personal necessity for manifesting one’s
faith in the atonement by a life whose every aspect is
affected by a faith-generated love of Christ.