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Inventory of the The Rev. Winfred B. Schaller Collection
GTU 2010-12-01  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography / Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms
  • Index

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: The Rev. Winfred B. Schaller collection
    Dates: 1958-1990
    Bulk Dates: 1958-1970
    Collection number: GTU 2010-12-01
    Creator: Schaller, Winfred B. (Winfred Bernhard), 1922-1983
    Collection Size: .7 linear feet (1 5" and 1 2" box), 1 image, 2 documents
    Repository: The Graduate Theological Union. Library.
    Berkeley, CA 94709
    Abstract: Rev. Winfred B. Schaller was a leader in the creation of the Church of Lutheran Confession (CLC). He served as editor of the CLC's first periodical, The Lutheran Spokesman, from June 1958 until he was forced to resign in August 1970. He left the CLC in 1972 and finished his ministry in service to a congregation of the Missouri Synod in Indio, California.
    Physical location: 1/G/4
    Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

    Preferred Citation

    The Rev. Winfred B. Schaller collection, GTU 2010-12-01. Graduate Theological Union Archives, Berkeley, CA.

    Acquisition Information

    Donated by Susan Schaller on December 2, 2010.

    Biography / Administrative History

    Winfred B. Schaller Jr. (December 16, 1922 - March 4, 1983) was a Lutheran minister and leader in the Church of Lutheran Confession (CLC). Due to unresolved differences with the leaders and sensing that he no longer represented the thinking of the CLC, he left the organization in 1972.
    One of a long line of Lutheran ministers and professors, Schaller graduated in 1947 from the Wisconsin Synod Seminary at Thiensville, Wisconsin. He served as pastor in Gresham, Nebraska. In 1949, he founded Redeemer Church and a day school in Cheyenne, Wyoming. While there he wrote, Concerning Church Fellowship. With a few edits, this became an essential part of the Church of Lutheran Confession organization. Schaller and others objected strongly to the later interpretation of the document that was slanted to exclude everyone not in the CLC, which appeared in E. Schaller, "Omnes Christiani de Evangelio Consentiunt," Journal of Theology (Church of Lutheran Confession), No. 1, February 1961, 8-24.
    The CLC was formed as a response to doctrinal differences with members of the Synodical Conference: the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (Norwegian). The central concern was that no union should take place with other Lutheran synods without total agreement on doctrine. When the Wisconsin Synod broke from the Missouri Synod, the CLC maintained that there was still a significant difference in doctrine. Schaller considered this difference an invention in order for the CLC to remain as a separate organization.
    In 1963, he moved to California and served under the direction of the CLC Board of Missions in San Fernando Valley. There he assisted the Servant of Christ Church. He also helped found St. Stephen Lutheran in San Francisco Bay peninsula and a group in Fresno.
    He served as editor of The Lutheran Spokesman from its initial issue in June 1958 through his final issue in June 1970. In the first issue, he writes about why a new periodical is needed: "Lutheranism has fallen on evil days. One Lutheran body after another has lost its confessional character or is in the process of losing it."
    In his last issue, in August 1970, he expresses concern over the issue of unionism. He writes: "In the early years the pen pointed directly at laxity in doctrine and the unionistic spirit of the day. In the latter days the editorial concern was more and more directed at the excesses and extremes of those fighting for confessionalism and doctrinal purity. The cures for unionism were all too often more fatal than the disease. Had we who fought for orthodoxy, confessionalism and truth created monsters of legalism, pietism and sectarianism? I confess today that this remains my chief concern." He concludes, "Our last prayer is that the Church of Lutheran Confession be both confessional and ecumenical."
    He left the CLC in 1972. In a letter on "Why We Left the CLC," Schaller writes that he was censored more and more and then forced to resign from the periodical (See Why We Left the CLC ). He finished his ministry serving a congregation in Indio, California, of the Missouri Synod. He died in 1983.
    Biographical notes taken from Rollin A. Reim, "First Editor of the Lutheran Spokesman Dies," The Lutheran Spokesman, Vol 25 (10), April 1983, 12-14.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection contains three documents by Schaller and nearly all issues of The Lutheran Spokesman from its initial publication in June 1958 through the last issue that Schaller edited in June 1970.

    Arrangement

    Collection is arranged by personal papers and then by published journals, which are arranged chronologically.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

    Subjects

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    Church of the Lutheran Confession - Doctrines
    Lutheran Church - United States - Clergy
    Lutheran Church Catechisms and creeds

    Index

    Schaller Jr., Winfred B. (1922-1983)
    Church of Lutheran Confession
    Synodical Conference of North America
    Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod
    Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod