# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1878_S20
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 20 —

...into it, 39 more will be called into it yet this year. Our faithful
God has kept our dear professors in good health during this time, so
that they could carry out their office undisturbed and have carried it
out with complete faithfulness. Only the seminary suffered a great loss
in that Prof. Schmidt was called away in the fall of 1876 by the
venerable Norwegian Synod, which had originally employed him, to its
newly established practical seminary in Madison, Wis. After Prof.
Schmidt's departure, English instruction at our seminary — in
particular the critique of sermons composed in English — had to be
dropped entirely. Other courses, too, could not be carried on as they
had been under Prof. Schmidt. The appointment of an English professor
is therefore absolutely necessary, and if possible at once, so that he
may begin his instruction at the start of the next academic year. A
professor of systematic theology should also still be appointed, one
who could work into that office during the lifetime of Prof. Dr.
Walther. It is precisely the theoretical seminary, which ought to be
best equipped with teaching staff, that has the fewest, and these few
are moreover overloaded with much heavy work for synodical purposes.

As for the English professorship in the first place, it is not hard to
convince oneself that it is indispensable to our seminary. We live in a
country in which the English language predominates. Our students
should therefore be able to preach not only in German but also in
English. The orthodox Church here in America ought to have a
preachers' seminary in which instruction is given exclusively in
English, so that we might obtain preachers who, linguistically, are
the equals of the best English preachers and who fall not the least
bit behind them in thinking or in argumentation according to English
logic [*Dialektik*]. But as long as no such seminary exists, we must
take care that this goal be achieved, even if only approximately, in
our German seminary. More and more German congregations, too, make it
a condition of the preacher they are to call that he also be able to
preach in English. We are therefore obliged to see to it that our
preachers are able to preach in the English language as well.

Resolved, that the English professorship at our seminary be filled
again by a professor suited to it.

Since the prompt appointment of an English professor is an urgent
necessity, and the General Synod has reserved to itself the right, for
extraordinary cases, to carry out elections to fill teaching positions
at its institutions itself while it is in session (cf. "Supplements to
the Synodical Handbook" [*Nachträge zum Synodal-Handbuch*], p. 4):

Resolved, that the Synod, at its present convention, elect an English
professor.