Memoirs are more self-justification than documentary history, so they should be read in that light. Yet they still provide the raw material necessary for documentary history, and these memoirs fit the bill on both counts. David Scaer, longtime professor of systematic theology at Missouri Synod seminaries in Springfield, IL, and Fort Wayne, IN, occupies a chair in systematic theology ironically named after the holder himself. His career has spanned many tumultuous years within the denomination, from its controversial embrace of emerging German theologies in the 1950s when he was a seminarian to the tensions leading to its splintering in the 1970s and the confessional resurgence (and corresponding opposition) of the 1980s and 1990s.