Christian Keyser Preus was an American Lutheran clergyman and college president.
Background
He was born on October 13, 1852 at Spring Prairie, Wisconsin, United States, the son of Herman Amberg Preus and Caroline Dorothea Margrethe (Keyser) Preus. His father, a graduate of theology from the University of Oslo, emigrated from Norway in 1851, and was one of the six founders of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (Norwegian Synod).
Education
He received his early education from tutors, entered Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, in 1868, and graduated with the B. A. degree in 1873. He then studied theology for three years at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, graduating in 1876.
Career
He was ordained in 1876 and accepted, temporarily, a charge at Our Saviour's Church in Chicago. He was assistant pastor to his father in the large Spring Prairie charge with adjacent territories from 1876 to 1897. The long pastoral journeys in these pioneer regions tested the physical endurance of both, especially the father, who was president of the Norwegian Synod from 1862 until his death in 1894. A close association with his father gave him first-hand information about many an ecclesiastical controversy in and about the Synod, which had been committed to the defense of Lutheran dogmatics of the seventeenth century.
In "Minder fra Spring Prairie prestegaard, " in Symra, 1906, a periodical published in Decorah, Preus has recorded interesting reminiscences from his earlier field of work twenty miles north of Madison. In 1897 he resigned because of ill health.
In 1898 he was appointed a teacher in Luther College at Decorah, and in 1902 was elected president of the institution, a position which he held until his death. The conservative changes which Preus had effected in the curriculum were forced to give way, however, when the S. A. T. C. was established at the college in 1918.
Preus was vice-president of the Norwegian Synod from 1911 to 1917, when it merged to form the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America, and from 1917 until his death, he was vice-president of the Iowa District of the new body. In 1911 while attending a theological conference in Norway, he lectured at the University of Oslo. He was not inclined to write books, although articles of his appeared from time to time in the church papers of his synod or in Norwegian newspapers published in the West.
He was disappointed, when he saw the classical, theological, and linguistic requireds supplanted by elective courses and requirements in "war aims, " "military English, " and only one hour in "religion. " Preus was opposed the drastic governmental edict, that no language of instruction save the English was to be used in Iowa.
Personality
He was a man of even temper, of attractive presence, kindly manners, and unusual eloquence. He preached in Norwegian, English, and German.
Connections
He had a large family, eleven children being born to him and his wife, Louisa Augusta Hjort, whom he had married on May 24, 1877.