Outwardly, the tailored lawns and brown Gothic buildings of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis give every evidence of serenity. The very name of the schoolthe 135-year-old academic font of the 2.8 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synodis Latin for "harmony." Last week, however, Concordia, the largest Lutheran seminary in the world (690 students), was closed down by a student and faculty boycott. The reason: Concordia's president, the Rev. John H. Tietjen, 45, had been ousted on charges amounting to heresy.
The clash has been building ever since 1969, when the Rev. Jacob A.O. ("Jack") Preus was elected to a four-year term as president...