Preaching to Young Theologians: Sermons of Robert Preus

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Robert D. Preus was born on October 16, 1924, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He graduted from Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, and Bethany Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mankato, Minnesota. Doctoral degrees were earned at Edinburgh University, Scotland, and the University of Strasbourg, France.

Preus served as pastor at parishes in North Dakota, Boston, and north Minnesota for ten years. In 1957 he was called as a professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri. There he taught for seventeen years until called to serve as president of Concordia Theological Seminary of Springfield, Illinois, and later of Fort Wayne, Indiana. He served as president of that institution until his retirement in 1993.

During his tenure at the seminary in St. Louis, Robert Preus was among a handful of professors who remained faithful to his calling and continued to teach when the faculty majority walked out in 1974. For a brief period of time Preus functioned as president and was singularly instrumental in keeping the doors of that seminary open under extremely adverse conditions. As the president of the seminary in Fort Wayne, Robert Preus brought a period of theological growth and academic excellence to that school which has established it as one of the premier Lutheran seminaries in the world.

Among the works published by Preus are "The Inspiration of Scripture," his two-volume "The Theology of Post-Reformation Lutheranism," and "Justification and Rome," published posthumously.

Robert Preus died on November 4, 1995, after forty-eight years of marriage to his beloved wife, Donna. At his death he was praised as one of the leading American Lutheran theologians of the twentieth century.

Editor Klemet Preus, second son of Robert D. Preus, has selected from his sermons his father preached at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and Concordia Theological Seminary, Springfield/Fort Wayne, the collection included in this volume. Klemet is pastor of Glory of Christ Lutheran Church in Plymouth, Minnesota.