Word: preus
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...battle over the literal "inerrancy" of the Bible has been shaping up ever since 1969, when a grass-roots alliance of conservatives succeeded in electing the Rev. Jacob A.O. ("Jack") Preus as president of the denomination. Preus, a former professor of Greek and Latin as well as Scripture, is no simple fundamentalist; like other orthodox Missouri Synod theologians, he believes that some parts of the Bible are poetic or symbolic-such as the Book of Revelation. But he also believes that what the Bible presents as factual is factual, and he holds what could be called a theological domino theory...
Since his election, Preus has been waging a war of attrition against a number of somewhat more liberal theologians at the synod's distinguished Concordia Theological Seminary of St. Louis, and particularly against its president, the Rev. Dr. John Tietjen. The progressive majority on Tietjen's faculty hold that the Bible is the inspired word of God because it has the power to bring men to salvation, but they believe that insistence on inerrancy can actually obscure the Gospels' message...
...Orleans convention, Preus and his conservatives were in complete control. The delegates started by re-electing Preus himself on the first ballot with 606 votes, 77 more than he needed for a majority. The convention next elected a seminary board that gave Preus forces a clear majority for the first time. Then after a series of raucous arguments and filibusters ("If we can't act like Christians, let's at least act like gentlemen!" cried one delegate), they voted to recognize a statement by Preus on the Bible as the church's official position on inerrancy...
...showdown between Theological Hard-Liner Jacob A.O. Preus, president of the 2,900,000-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and more liberal Lutherans in the denomination has long been expected to occur at the national synod convention in New Orleans this July. Since he was elected president in 1969, Preus has been fighting the "historical-critical" approach to the Bible that casts doubt, he says, on the literal accuracy of such biblical tales as Adam and Eve and Jonah and the Whale. Less literal Lutherans have hoped to defeat Preus by nominating a popular moderate candidate, Oswald C.J. Hoffmann...
...battle of the presidents is bound to continue until the Synod's 1973 convention in New Orleans next July, when both Preus and some board members must stand for reelection. In preparation for that day of judgment, both presidents will be battling for rank-and-file votes. For his part, Tietjen is counting on the aura and prestige of the seminary -which has produced the majority of the church's clergymen-to ensure the election of a moderate board. Preus will undoubtedly rally the grass-roots conservatives who first elected him in 1969 in a coup against...