# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1953_S1070
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

848 PARISH EDUCATION

day. After these gems had been selected,
late them and to provide for each item
graphical reference.

Professor Ewald M. Plass reports that as of February 1,
he had done over 3,000 of the 4,800 selections into. English 1953,
carefully comparing the texts of the three editions with which he
is working. He hopes to have translated all of the Selections by
Reformation Day of 1953. Then will come the task of integrating
the materials and adding the contextual, critical, historical, and
bibliographical notes. He anticipates that the manuscript wil] be
finished by 1955, although the untimely death of President Rincker
of Concordia College, Milwaukee, has made it necessary for him
to assume additional work and responsibility at the college until
the faculty can be restaffed.

3. Restudy of Marriage, Divorce, and Family Life. — This study
authorized by Synod in 1947 was assigned to the Family Life Com.
‘mittee of the Board for Parish Education. Early explorations
showed that a research program was needed. An appeal for
$25,000 to carry forward the study was granted by the Committee
and approved by the Board of Directors (1949). A subcommittee
(W. F. Wolbrecht, Erdmann Frenk, Paul Jacobs, and O. E. Feucht)
set up the principles and procedures for the project in 1950 and
from a field of sixty names suggested selected the Rev. Paul G.
Hansen of Denver, Colo., as research director (1951). Early in
1952 the Board for Parish Education approved the Research Design
which outlined six areas of investigation: (1) mate selection, (2) sex
attitudes, (3) engagement and marriage, (4) family size (birth con-
trol), (5) family responsibility and authority, (6) divorce and re-
matriage.
Twenty men assisted with special studies in such fields as Old
and New Testament exegesis, dogmatics, church history (ancient
‘and modern), practical theology, modern scientific studies, Lutheran
teaching on the continent and in America, positions in other
branches of Christendom. The research director made a sociological
study with representative fami ies in every section of our Church
in North America. This study is now being interpreted. The fol-
lowing men participated: Dr. Geo. Schick, Prof. Aug. Suelflow,
Dr. Carl Reuss, Dr. W. Roehrs, Dr. A. von Rohr Sauer, Dr. Wm. Arndt,
Dr. E. L. Lueker, Prof. Norman Gienapp, Dr. L. Spitz, Prof. O. E.
Sohn, Prof. Fred Kramer, Dr. A. C. Piepkorn, Dr. Carl Mundinger,
Dr. Luther Koepke, the Rev. Messrs. Herbert Mayer, Theo. Scha-
backer, Gunther Jacobs, and Harold Maleske, Mr. A. C. Zeddies,
Dr. A. T. Mattson, Dr. G. M. Bruce, Dr. W. Baepler. The entire
project was further examined and assignments clarified in a con-
ference of research assistants, March, 1952. Most of these studies

an introduction ang biblis_

PARISH EDUCATION 349

summaries written. The final report will

os ted and :
payeibert ren man, determines the answers to problems in
ys j ,

ae i logical in its emphasis, keeping in mind
pat Be. ties Of family life today and how the grace of
the Pr ist meets human need. No official report has been
God d it will take another triennium to complete the Program,
Lich ha des seven stages of development: (1) setting up of the

ict inclu 2) assigning and making the studies, (3) evaluation and
“ the studies (synthesis), (4) testing of preliminary
inter reformulation and final revision, (6) submitting of re-
findine®, ( ares (7) using the report in the life and work of the
port to the are now at the end of stage 3. The director had
Chir absence from his congregation for 10 months in 1951—52
: 7 for two months in 1953. volves
= 4, European Theological Literature. — This project invo ve

eloping a bibliography covering the German and Scan : vian
deve al literature of the past twenty-five to thirty years. It was
thealoe under the leadership of Dr. Theodore Graebner. His
ati 1y death made it necessary for a faculty committee to assume
ao rth direction of the project. The present faculty committee
th as of Dr J. Pelikan, Dr. A. C. Piepkorn, and Dr. M. Scharle-
Cc! . .

men The original grant of $8,000 covered the purchase of pos
and the cost of clerical help needed for accessioning and in exing
the books. The faculty committee is now directing the purc'
of additional books to complete this project. 7 ,
5. Tests and Measurements. The Synodical convene o
1947 established a Lutheran Educational Measurements aie
under the supervision of the Board for Parish Education. o ea
with this new project the Board for Parish Education appoin d
a Committee on Tests and Measurements consisting of me . ow
ing persons: Dr. H. J. Boettcher, Prof. W. O. Kraeft, Dr. E. eger,
Dr. T. G. Stelzer, and Dr. A. L. we wer Our committe
carry out projects in . ;
soe oe vmnithoe has thus far worked on three projects: an a
tude inventory, unit tests on the Catechism, and a test on Biblic
ae The Attitude Inventory developed by Professor Walter Kraeft,
Dr. Oliver Graebner, Dr. Elmer Pflieger, and Mr. E. Junghans aes
been in experimental use during the spring of 1953. As soon a8 he
reliability of the test has been estabished, copies will be av e
Concordia Publishing House. -
a The reuse on Luther’s Catechism will eventually comprise
fourteen independent tests on the Small Catechism. The first four
tests have been completed under the authorship of Dr. H. J. Boett-