Seminex

Seminex is the widely used abbreviation for Concordia Seminary in Exile (later Christ Seminary-Seminex) that existed from 1974 to 1987 after a schism in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). The seminary in exile was formed due to the ongoing Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy that was dividing Protestant churches in the United States. At issue were foundational disagreements on the authority of Scripture and the role of Christianity. During the 1960s, the LCMS church leadership became more conservative and grew concerned about the direction of education at their flagship seminary, Concordia Seminary. Professors at Concordia Seminary had in the 1950s and 1960s begun to utilize higher criticism with the Historical-Critical Method to analyze the Bible rather than the orthodox method that considered scripture to be the inerrant word of God.

After attempts at compromise from both sides failed, the LCMS moved to suspend the seminary president, leading to a walkout from most faculty and students, and the formation of Seminex. Seminex existed as an institution until its last graduate class of 1983 and was formally dissolved and merged with Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 1987. Concordia Seminary in St Louis quickly rebuilt and by the late 1970s had restored its place as one of the largest Lutheran Seminaries in the United States.

The after effects of the controversy were vast. Before the split, the LCMS had both modernist and Evangelical wings. After Seminex, 250 modernist congregations would split from the LCMS to form the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (abv AELC) leaving the LCMS a much more conservative body than it had been in 1969. The AELC itself would later dissolve and merge with other modernist Lutheran churches to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

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