Christ Seminary in Exile - Seminex

The Rev. Dr. Robert Walter Bertram was born on March 27, 1921, Easter Sunday, to Martin H. and Emma M. Dau Bertram. He was the second of three children born to the Bertrams and the only son. Dr. Bertram was educated within the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) system of parochial schools, attended college at Concordia Jr. College and graduated in 1941. He attended Washington University, St. Louis, part-time between 1941 and 1943. Upon completion of his studies at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, he received a bachelors of divinity in 1946. He married Ethelda Alma Koch June 12, 1946, at Zion Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana. They would eventually have six children: Susan, Kathleen, Timothy, Sarah, John, and Michael.

While in seminary, Dr. Bertram worked as a case worker for the Family Service Society of Greater St. Louis. After receiving his divinity degree in 1946, he did not immediately serve as a called pastor. He enrolled at the University of Chicago in a masters program in social service administration and received his degree in psychiatric social work in 1948. He would receive a Ph.D. in theology and philosophy of religion from that same institution's Divinity School in 1964.

While still studying for his masters degree from University of Chicago that he would receive in 1948, he took a position as Professor of Theology at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, from 1948-1950. From 1950-1957 he served as an assistant then associate professor of philosophy at Valparaiso. While at Valparaiso, he also taught from 1951-1954 as a part-time instructor in philosophy at Indiana University, Ft. Wayne. In 1957 he became the department chairperson of the Theology Department at Valparaiso and associate dean of the chapel. He served in these capacities until 1963 when he was offered a position as a professor of systematic and historical theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

During his tenure at Concordia Seminary, Dr. Bertram had the opportunity to become a significant contributor to theological conversations taking place on an international level as well as between different church bodies. He also became a principal figure in the struggle within the LCMS as it related to the controversy involving Concordia Seminary professors and charges they were putting forth teachings that were contrary to LCMS doctrine. Dr. Bertram was one of the faculty members fired in 1974 and along with the other terminated Concordia Seminary colleagues formed Concordia Seminary in Exile-Seminex. When the Rev. Dr. John Tietjen was suspended from the presidency of Concordia Seminary in January 1974, Dr. Bertram served as chairman of Seminex's executive committee while Dr. Tjetjen's case worked its way through LCMS canon law. Dr. Bertram would serve as a Seminex professor of systematic theology for the entire life of Seminex and would serve in that same capacity at the seminary into which Seminex was absorbed in 1983, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). Dr. Bertram retired from LSTC in 1991, though he would continue to teach on and off for many years after at Washington University, St. Louis and the Lutheran School of Theology at St. Louis.

Throughout his life, Dr. Bertram served in many different capacities - many of them simultaneously. He was ordained in 1953 and served as an assistant to the pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church, Whiting, Indiana, from 1953-1956. While serving as a pastor he was a professor and while serving as a professor, he was a pastor. At Concordia Seminary and later Seminex, he would accept invitations to preach at Sunday services in congregation in the St. Louis area. He presided at weddings of former students and then even baptisms for their children. He lectured to his students and then would go on the road to speaking engagements across the country speaking on a variety of issues before the church. His bibliography contains more than 100 titles.

One of Dr. Bertram's lasting legacies was the creation of Crossings. This ecumenical organization had as its mission to bring Christians together, lay and clergy, to study how to bring God's word into their daily lives at work. Dr. Bertram, along with colleague the Rev. Edward H. Schroeder, created this organization in the 1970s and through it conducted workshops throughout the country. Since its inception, Crossings has expanded its scope while continuing to teach participants how to listen to the Word of God and connect it to their daily lives in order to understand how daily life and faith are interwoven.

After a lengthy illness, Dr. Bertram passed away on March 13, 2003 in Webster Groves, Missouri. His legacy as a pastor and professor lives on in the countless number of students, colleagues, and persons he met throughout his life and work whom he helped to learn to think critically, understand the Bible and its teachings, and live out those teachings whether as a part of a called Christian vocation or as a part of understanding the connection between the Scriptures and their own daily lives.

From the description of Robert W. Bertram (1921-2003) Papers [1943-2008] (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Library). WorldCat record id: 497826294