Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod follows the rise of two Lutheran clergymen - Herman Otten and J. A. O. Preus - who led different wings of a conservative movement that seized control of a theologically conservative but socially and politically moderate church denomination (LCMS) and drove "moderates" from the church in the 1970s. The schism within what was then one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States ultimately reshaped the landscape of American Lutheranism and fostered the polarization that characterizes today's Lutheran churches.

Like other major Protestant denominations in the United States, the 2.6-million-member Luther Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), founded in 1847, has struggled with issues of relevance and identity in society at large. In this book Mary Todd chronicles the history of this struggle for identity in the LCMS, critically examining the central--often contentious--issue of authority in relation to Scripture, ministry, and the role of women in the church. In recounting the history of the denomination, Todd uses the ministry of women as a case study to show how the LCMS has continually redefined its concept of authority in order to maintain its own historic identity. Based on oral histories and solid archival research, Authority Vested not only explores the internal life of a significant denomination but also offers critical insights for other churches seeking to maintain their Christian distinctives in religiously pluralistic America.

Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod follows the rise of two Lutheran clergymen-Herman Otten and J.A.O. Preus-who led different wings of a conservative movement that seized control of a theologically conservative but socially and politically moderate church denomination (LCMS) and drove "moderates" from the church in the 1970s. The schism within what was then one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States ultimately "reshaped the landscape of American Lutheranism and fostered the polarization that characterizes today's Lutheran churches."

"When J.A.O. Preus was elected President of the three-million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in 1969, he was virtually unknown outside his own denomination. Most observers were surprised and even the experts did not know what to expect. What they got was a headline-making dispute between Preus and John Tietjen, head of the Synod's prestigious Concordia Seminary; a seminary-in-exile training ministers without official sanction; and finally a Lutheran civil war that has divided congregations and even members of the same family."--Book jacket.

This book gives today's Lutherans a sense of heritage, identity and continuity, a sense of self-understanding. Readers will see themselves as part of a family. They can identify with the struggles, hopes, and frustrations of wave after wave of immigrants adapting to the strange new world of America and at the same time trying to preserve all they had known and loved and brought with them from the homeland. The genius of the entire volume is that it points beyond family memories to an ongoing and continuing life of which we and our children are a living part. Contributors: Theodore G. Tappert, Eugene Fevold, Fred W. Meuser, H. George Anderson, August R. Suelflow, and E. Clifford Nelson.

"John Tietjen's close account of the conflict within a Christian body moves withthe skill, the drama, and the characterization of a novel. But there is no shredof fiction here. The author stood at the center of the conflict. His observationsof the events (both broadly public and closeted in private) that altered the face-politicof Lutheranism in this country are absolutely accurate. Here is the selfishexpression of faith, as well as the dangers of the right hand of power withinchurches. Here, too, is the sweetness of human community-even while individualpeople of faith must stand in their decisions ultimately alone. Tietjen haswritten a memoriam and a history and a jubilate and a confession. Excellent!"Walter Wangerin Jr."John Tietjen tells the unpleasant story of crisis and conflict in the church. It is a storythat needs to be told, and he tells it in a way that people will find both gripping anduplifting. This is his personal account, done with the precision and documentationof a professional historian, but his writing also produces a narration of many keyevents and a strikingly human portrayal of the people on both sides of the conflict.In John Tietjen's hands, this story of conflict and crisis brings us back to the Godwho produces order out of chaos and blessing out of the suffering of God's people."Jeanette H. BauermeisterJohn H. Tietjen, formerly president of ConcordiaSeminary, St. Louis, and Christ Seminary-Seminex, Saint Louis and Chicago, was pastor of Trinity LutheranChurch, Fort Worth, Texas.

From the time of Martin Luther's writing of On War Against the Turk in 1529 to American Lutheran military chaplains serving in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Lutheranism has had a symbiotic relationship with Islam in the Middle East, framed across cultural and religious borders. There have been those who have crossed these borders to engage in mission and dialogue. In Piety, Politics, and Power, David Grafton examines the origins of the American Lutheran missionary movement in the Middle East, with a focus on its encounter with Muslims and the varied Lutheran theological responses toward Islam. The narrative is placed within historical contexts to provide an overarching background of Middle Eastern history and Christian-Muslim Relations. The survey covers Lutheran missionary communities in Persia, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the work of the Lutherans working for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missionaries, the Anglican Church Missionary Society, the Lutheran Orient Mission, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Whether enthusiastic Pietists seeking the conversion of Muslims and Jews; cautious theologians in dialogue with Islam, Judaism, or Oriental Orthodoxy; or social activists working on behalf of refugees in Egypt and the West Bank, Grafton argues that these Christian missionaries were all enmeshed in the politics of the communities in which they lived, and either contributed to or suffered from the realities of Middle Eastern and international politics. Given the current reality of Pax Americana in the Middle East, the author asks the driving question about the role of American Lutheran missions and Lutheran-Middle Eastern Muslim dialogue in the age of American power in the Middle East.