On the recommendation of Peter Hastie, I obtained a copy of Kurt E Marquardt's Anatomy of an Explosion: Missouri in Lutheran Perspective, an account of the amazing confessional resurgence in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in the 1960s and 70s.  It is a dry but fascinating read, indicating that the only way to bring about reformation of ecclesiastical institutions is, humanly speaking, not grandstanding at megaconferences of the faithful but rather the boring, incremental, thankless and unglamorous work of attending tedious administrative meetings, speaking up for the umpteenth time on a point of order, fighting elections, being very unpopular, working harder than the opposition, having your name trodden on by Uncle Tom Cobley and all, and being consistent in fighting for the whole counsel of God, not just the bits that address the most distasteful and trendy aspects of contemporary life.  Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  A book well worth reading by any who want to know about true reformation.

It also contains a host of statements which, while now over thirty years old, have a strangely contemporary ring to them.   Take this gem, a quotation from one of the anti-orthodox journals of the time:

To the question, Is there no absolute truth?  Are we always simply seekers after truth?  Dialog  "To the first we answer: Yes, there is absolute truth.  To the second we answer: Yes we are always simply seekers after truth."
With stimulating candor the editorial supports its answer: To the believer, "Jesus Christ, a person, and the event in which He confronts us is the absolute Truth."  If he is the Truth, then ideas, however true, are only relatively true.  In this light even "theological propositions straight from the Bible" are only relatively true.

Sounds strangely familiar, a salutary reminder that there is nothing more traditional and time-worn than the latest trendy evangelical theology.

And those who do not learn from history etc etc.