Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

Chapter 2
The Wauwatosa Theology
The hermeneutical method that would eventually define the Wisconsin Synod was
forged in a different crucible. The Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan Synods could not
be classified as strictly confessional Lutheran at the time of their founding. While these
synods identified themselves as Lutherans, they all had ties to milder Lutheranism in this
country and abroad. Such ties exposed these synods to sharp, at times harsh, criticisms by
the Missouri Synod. Yet it was not the harshness of Missouri’s criticism that changed the
theological course of these synods, but a solid patient study of Scriptures and the
Lutheran symbols.
The turn to a scripturally sound theology was one that gradually came with new,
confessionally minded men to the Wisconsin Synod (Bading, Koehler, and Hoenecke),
the Minnesota Synod (Sieker, Albrecht) and the Michigan Synod (Eberhardt,
Klingmann). The sound Scriptural principles of these newly confessional synods were put
to the test in various ways: the controversy over the Four Points in the General Council;
the severance of ties with the unionistic mission societies of Germany; and the Election
Controversy. By the time the dust had settled from these battles, the three founding
synods of the WELS stood clearly on the principle Sola Scriptura with their brethren in
the Synodical Conference.
The second generation of Wisconsin Synod theologians, however, saw dark
clouds on the horizon in the Synodical Conference when it came to the practice of
biblical hermeneutics. Sloppy exegesis and the elevation of the words and opinions of the
church fathers caused Wisconsin Synod theologians to dig deeper into Scripture. The
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