In chronological order, with chapters on periods 1938–1965, 1965–1969, 1969–1974, and 1974–1981, James C. Burkee gives his readers an inside, up-close-and-personal look at the conservative-moderate split in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). I was looking forward to this read because I had an up-close-and-personal look at this split of my own during the nine years in the late 1980s and 1990s that I was a member of the Theology Department faculty at Valparaiso University, which served in many ways as a safe haven for Missouri-Synod moderates. Some of the Valparaiso colleagues that I respected and came to love wore scars not fully healed, and they spoke sadly and sometimes bitterly of what became of “the seminary,” their mentors, and friends during the internecine battles that led to the departure of moderate intellectuals and clergy, some forced out, and the establishment of Concordia Seminary in Exile, or “Seminex,” by dismissed “liberal” Concordia faculty.

Burkee's book is momentous in that it is the first time that a scholar has had access to myriad personal papers and records from that period in Missouri-Synod history—especially correspondence from J. A. O. Preus, the Synod president who orchestrated the fundamentalist take-over of the Synod—and has conducted long personal interviews of key players—especially Herman Otten, editor of the infamous conservative newsletter, Christian News; Waldo Werning, close confident of Preus and a key conservative strategist; and Ralph Bohlmann, Preus's successor to the Synod Presidency in 1981.

The story is, in general, one of a moderate, inclusive ethnic denomination—then the eighth largest denomination in the U.S.—torn apart by conservative activism. Today the LCMS is solidly in the Religious Right wing of American religion, conservative theologically, socially, and politically, almost devoid of diversity on any of those scores. Burkee's research confirmed some things that I had come to believe about this period in the Missouri-Synod, most of all the double-dealing and falsehoods wielded by many in the conservative movement. Yet I found surprises. All the while that the conservatives were decrying ecumenism, especially talks of merger and cooperation with the American Lutheran Church—a moderate Lutheran denomination that merged with the Lutheran Church in America to become the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the Lutheran contribution to liberal “mainline” Protestantism in the U.S.—the same conservatives, especially Otten, were associating with non-Lutheran conservatives such as Carl McIntyre and Bob Jones.

For the conservatives who “won,” things did not go so well in the end. Lay members and clergy left the Synod in significant numbers, about half a million; seminary enrollments between 1972 and 1992 dropped by almost half; and contributions are way down. To put things in context a bit, it can be argued that the fundamentalist take-over of the Southern Baptist Convention led to significant growth in members (the Convention grew by six million in the aftermath). But the fundamentalist take-over in the LCMS, according to Burkee, saw a “once-thriving church posed for growth” become “an also-ran, struggling for existence and relevance even as it continued the fight to define itself” (183).

This book is a must-read for all those involved in this LCMS controversy, and current LCMS leaders and clergy who come of age long after. Although it is very detailed and is an insider's tale, no one specializing in U.S. fundamentalism, the Religious Right, or Lutheranism in the United States should pass it up. I am sending my copy off to Valparaiso's Department of Theology immediately.