Biography

Perhaps because he succeeded the prolific C.F.W. Walther as Professor of Exegesis at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, George Stoeckhardt is not as well-known as he perhaps should be. Beginning during an early ministry full of adventure and obstacles, and continuing throughout a long ministry in America, Stoeckhardt maintained an intimate connection with the Scriptures in their original languages. Exegetic study and its application were the foundation of his life. For this reason, Christian Education mattered a great deal to him. In these ways and others, Stoeckhardt provides an example for all Christians and especially for called workers.

Johannes Brenz may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think about the fathers of the Reformation like Luther and Melanchthon. Many Lutherans have never even heard of him before. Yet this Lutheran father played an important part in spreading the Reformation and nurturing its growth.

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.