Past Masters

At noon on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg. This simple act started a movement which altered economic structures, undermined empires, and dras... Continue Reading...

Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) was born in Bantam, Connecticut. He was educated to hard work. His daughter, Mrs. Cheney, in her biography, says that he did the full work of a man for at least five years before he ... Continue Reading...

John Calvin (1509-1564) was born in Nyon, France. He prepared himself for a law career at the insistence of his father, but when his father died, he turned his interests towards the classics, and eventually tow... Continue Reading...

John Knox was born at Haddington, Scotland, in 1513. He was sent as a boy to the Grammar School to learn Latin and proceeded from there to the University of St. Andrews for further study. He became a priest tho... Continue Reading...

Joseph Fort Newton was born on July 21, 1876 in Decatur, Texas, the son of a former Baptist minister who had become a lawyer. He told the story of his life in a fascinating autobiography published in 1946, Rive... Continue Reading...

Paul Scherer was born at Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania, on June 22, 1892. He graduated from the College of Charleston in South Carolina in 1911, and from the Mount Airy Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, in 1916. He was ordained to the ministry of the Lutheran Church in 1916.