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David P. Scaer, Th.D.
Holder of the David P. Scaer Chair of Systematic and Biblical Theology
Chairman of Systematic Theology
CTQ Editor
david.scaer@ctsfw.edu
260.452.2134
Dr. David Scaer is a professor of Systematic Theology and New Testament and holder of the David P. Scaer Chair of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. At the seminary since 1966, he serves as Editor of the Concordia Theological Quarterly (1969–1994; 1999–present) and was Academic Dean (1984–1989). He is currently Chairman of his department.
Dr. Scaer has written extensively, and his articles have appeared in Christianity Today, Lutheran Forum, Logia, Forum Letter, The Lutheran Witness, Modern Reformation, Cresset, The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Grace Theological Journal, and Issues in Christian Education. His Christology (1990) was the first volume to appear in the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics series and is in its fourth printing. A second volume in this series, Baptism, has been published by the Lutheran Academy. For the same series, he authored the volume of Law and Gospel and the Sacraments, which is the subject of a Swedish doctoral dissertation in which his views are compared Pannenberg and Elert. Twice he was awarded the prestigious John W. Behnken Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award by AAL for study in Europe (1969, 1986).
A parish pastor serving congregations in Gillespie, Illinois, and Rockville, Connecticut, he also taught for ten years as a part time instructor in religion at the University of Illinois (Champaign) from 1966–1976. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, the Alliance of Confessional Evangelicals, and the Christianity Today Institute, for which periodical he also serves as a research scholar. Dr Scaer was a member of the composing committee for “Evangelical Affirmations 1989” and a contributor of essays published for the May meeting (1990). He is listed as a contributing editor for Logia and Modern Reformation. His Latin Ecclesiastical Glossary, a dictionary of Latin terms for Lutheran seminary students, is regularly used with Pieper's Christian Dogmatics.
Professor Scaer's interest in New Testament studies is shown in his book James: The Apostle of Faith (Concordia Publishing House), which demonstrated this epistle’s close connection to the preaching of Jesus and its basic unity with the Pauline epistles. His interest for some time has been in the area of Gospels and their order and interdependency.
His Sermon on the Mount was published by Concordia Publishing House. He has written in the area of the Lutheran Confessions and co-edited a volume in honor of the 450th anniversary of the Small Catechism called Luther's Catechisms - 450 Years (1979) and contributed to a volume honoring the 400th anniversary of the Book of Concord called Getting into the Story of Concord (1977).
His articles have appeared in the Concordia Theological Quarterly, the Concordia Journal, Christianity Today, Affirm, The Lutheran Witness, Lutheran Forum, Theology Today, and Philosophy and Theology. He is a contributor to Contemporary Theology, The Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics, The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, and Westminster Dictionary of Church History.
Among his other books are What Do You Think of Jesus?, The Apostolic Scriptures, and The Lutheran World Federation Today. Along with eighteen other recognized theologians, he is a contributor to Doing Theology in Today's World, a festschrift in honor of Kenneth Kantzer, one-time editor of Christianity Today. His contribution is entitled “How Do Lutheran Theologians Approach the ‘Doing of Theology Today.’” He has written three essays analyzing the theology of Dr.Francis Pieper. The first appeared in Baker's Handbook of Evangelical Theologians, in The Pieper Lectures: The Office of the Ministry, published by the Concordia Historical Institute, and “Francis Pieper” in Lutheran Quarterly. He is author of Discourses in Matthew: Jesus Teaches the Church that was chosen by the Association of Theological Publishers in 2004 and has been translated into Spanish.
He has served as the organizer of the annual on-campus Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions since 1978. His essays have also appeared in festschrifts for Professor Kurt Marquart, Dr. Charles Manske, Dr. Glen Zweck and Bishop Jobst Schoene. In 1999, his “The Doctrine of the Sacraments in the Theology of Johann Gerhard” appeared in Protestant Scholasticism: Essays in Reassessment published by Paternoster Press (UK). His Getting into the Story of Concord was translated into French under the title Mieux conntaitre l'histoire de Concorde: une histoire du Livre de Concorde under the Mission Board of the LCMS for use in its sister churches.
A third generation Missouri Synod Lutheran clergyman, Professor Scaer was brought up in Brooklyn, New York, where his father, the late Reverend Paul H. Scaer, served his lifetime ministry at Trinity Lutheran Church of Flatbush. He and his wife Dorothy have been married since 1960 and have five children.