Volume 63: 3 July 1999 Table of Contents .................... Heino 0. Kadai (1931-1999) 163 From Death to Life: The Christological Crossing: A Homily for Heino 0. Kadai ........................ Dean 0. Wenthe 165 Luther's Theology of the Cross ......................... Heino 0. Kadai 169 A Response to an "Overture to Establish an Ordained Diaconate" The Faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary ....................................... 205 The Twilight of Lutheranism .......................... Leonard Klein 221 Theological Observer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Correction In the Interest of Accuracy Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 American Originals: Homemade Varieties of Christianity. By Paul Conkin . . . . . . . . Lawrence R. Rast Jr. Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening. By Vigen Guroian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Bushur Theological Observer Correction A dedication to the late seminary president Dr. Robert Preus in the July 1996 issue of the CTQ reported that he had been honorably retired by the Board of Regents in July 1989. This dedication omitted that in 1992 the LCMS Commission on Appeals overturned this action. Dr. Preus retired from the seminary presidency in April 1993. The Editorial Committee expresses its regrets to the Preus family for this omission. In the Interest of Accuracy In comparison to the St. Louis seminary, Ft. Wayne has traditionally suffered from the poor step-sister syndrome. Whether this is externally or self-imposed is for the reader to decide. One illustrious academic dean urged the faculty to be the best second- rate institution it could be. Call us Avis. Good-natured badgering between colleagues in the ministry from both seminaries will always be a part of our experience as long as we have more than one seminary and that's the way it should be. Are the reports that students inclined to study at Ft. Wayne are urged by some district presidents and synodical college presidents and deans to send an application to "the seminary" -St. Louis - based in fact? While we are at it, the Lutheran Annual which commemorates the anniversaries of Synod's institutions on its covers somehow has managed to forget its first institution - Ft. Wayne. Ft. Wayne has no complaints. It is equally proud of its alumni who have graduated from St. Louis as from Springfield/Ft. Wayne. The January confessional symposium shows that children of both mothers [alma mater means step-mother] are at home in Indiana. In the day of extended families, two step-mothers (aha matres) are common. But there is the question of historical accuracy. Which seminary has the distinction of being the Synod's first-St. Louis or Ft. Wayne? Lutheran Witness Editor David Mahsmann answers "St. Louis." Wrong! His article, "Welcome to the Synod's Museum," in the September 1999 Lutheran Witness (20) featured a photo of the log cabin in St. Louis with this caption: "A replica of the Synod's first seminary." The Board for Higher Education's web site had made a similar assertion (12 May 1999), but by 23 August this claim was reversed. Incontrovertible historical data indicates that Ft. Wayne and not St. Louis possesses the right of primogeniture. Let's look at the dates. The LCMS was founded in April 1847. On the convention agenda were requests that the Ft. Wayne and St. Louis seminaries be handed over lock, stock, and barrel. Since the St. Louis seminary &as founded in Altenburg, Missouri in 1839, its claim to being Synod's oldest seminary is incontrovertible, but the Altenburg and St. Louis congregations waited to transfer the papers until 1849/50.16 Ft. Wayne dates from 1846 and in the next year, 1847, Wilhelm Lohe proffered his seminary to the Synod.17 The Synod accepted his gift in convention in 1848. While the St. Louis seminary was still a congregational seminary, Ft. Wayne had become the Synod's first seminary. If Ft. Wayne started in Lohe's living room in Neuendettelsau before 1839, then this is an entirely new ball game. Our Synod has two seminaries, one can claim to be the oldest and the other thefirst, but both are the best. Simon Schneeweis 16Carl S. Meyer, From Log Cabin to Luther Tower: Concordia Seminary During One Hundred and Twentyjive Years Toward a More Excellent Ministry (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1965), 15-19, 221; August R. Suelflow, "The Seminary Serves the Synod," in Light for Our World: Essays Commemorating the 150" Anniversary of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, edited by John W. Klotz (St. Louis: Concordia Seminary, 1989), 21. 17Eric H. Heintzen, Prairie School of the Prohpets: The Anatomy of a Seminary 1846-1976 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1989), 37-38: "Of crucial importance for the seminary in Fort Wayne, was the resolution passed on Tuesday, May 4, to ask Lohe 'whether the founders of that institution would be willing to formally transfer the same to the Synod for free disposition and still support it as heretofore.' In his reply to Walther on September 8,1847, Lohe and his friend Wuchere graciously deeded the seminary to the synod. . . . In its second convention (St. Louis, 1848) the synod formally accepted the seminary. . ."