Biography

Walther was the greatest American Lutheran theologian and a devout student of Luther. As a founding father of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Walther played a major role in uniting the Lutherans who had immigrated to America. He was a respected pastor, professor, and theologian.

Chiefly responsible for the Wisconsin Synod's move away from the unionism of the German mission societies, Hoenecke is the theological father of the Wisconsin Synod.

Most renowned for his systematic text, "Examen Theologicum Acroamaticum," Hollaz was a respected pastor and doctor of theology during the period known as the Lutheran Orthodoxy. His death ended the so-called "Silver Age" of Orthodoxy and marks the rise of the pietistic movement.

Known as "The Last of the Lutheran Fathers," Chytraeus helped guide the Lutheran church through the controversy that arose after Luther's death. Although he is relatively little-known, he contributed to the framing of the Formula of Concord while it was in its final stages.

After Chemnitz and Gerhard, Quenstedt was likely the most influential theologian of the post-Reformation church. Quenstedt faced numerous challenges in his life, suffering the death of two wives and dealing with physical ailments. He endured to produce his Theologia Didactio-Polemica Sive Systema, an extensive systematic theology text.

After facing death as a young man, Selnecker developed into a leading theologian of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Gentle in demeanor, Selnecker helped to frame the Formula of Conord. In addition to his theological pursuits, Selnecker was also an accomplished hymn writer.

“Gerhard is the third (Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard) in that series of Lutheran theologians in which there is no fourth” As a young man, the learned and talented Gerhard experience a great deal of suffering and sickness. Through it all his devotion to Christianity grew and grew. He put his prodigious talent to work for the church as a dogmatician, devotional writer, pastor, and advocate of Lutheran orthodoxy.

During a time of religious flux after the death of Martin Luther, Jakob Andreae worked tirelessly to unite the various factions of Protestants under the banner of Lutheran orthodoxy. His work culminated as a participant in the formation of the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, which united Lutherans under a common confession.

Martin Chemnitz is known as "the second Martin," after Martin Luther. The second Martin played a pivotal role in the solidification of the Lutheran church after Luther's death. Facing opposition from the Roman church after the Council of Trent, Chemnitz stood strong with the other framers of the Book of Concord and helped produce the Solid Declaration.