“Schwenkfelder” is the term used since the very early 1700s to identify people who study and follow the ideas and teachings of Caspar Schwenckfeld. Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig (1489/90–1561) was a radical-Protestant, spiritual reformer. Born a member of the lower nobility, Schwenckfeld lived in Silesia (at that time an area on the eastern border of Germany; today southwestern Poland) from the time of his birth in 1489/90 until 1529 when he was exiled as a heretic. He spent most of the rest of his life constantly moving incognito around a broad area of southern Germany, hiding in the homes of his friends and fellow believers as well as monasteries. He died in 1561 at the home of a friend in Ulm. His burial place is unknown. As a spiritualist, Schwenckfeld never intended to establish or to build a separate, physical church. Worship during Schwenckfeld’s lifetime was in the form of individual devotions.

Public worship in a church was not an option. He published many treatises and books in defense of his teachings, aimed primarily at scholars who attacked him. He wrote countless letters to teach and support his followers. Major issues central to Schwenckfeld’s Christianity were The Lord’s Supper and Celestial Flesh. Schwenckfeld’s spiritual view of The Lord’s Supper asserted that Christ’s body is not physically present in or around the bread and wine nor that the elements are merely empty symbols. Schwenckfeld contended that The Supper is a spiritual communing with God. His view is based on John 6. Schwenckfeld encouraged his followers not to participate in public celebration of the rite until all Christians could agree on a single understanding of the sacrament. This suspension of the sacrament was called the Stillstand. The Schwenkfelders abided by the Stillstand until the last quarter of the 1800s.

Regarding Celestial Flesh, Schwenckfeld viewed Christ’s divinization as a gradual change starting from his birth on earth proceeding through the resurrection to his glorification at the right hand of the Father. Schwenckfeld’s concept of the New Man gradually replacing the Old Man resembles this same process. By the late 1700s, Schwenkfelder descendants began moving away from their original settlement area and now live in nearly every state. By the early 1800s there were no more Schwenkfelders living in Europe. Today, four Schwenkfelder churches are in Montgomery or Philadelphia Counties, but nowhere else. Though the membership has changed from predominantly Schwenkfelder descendants to a multi-cultural church community, the values of the Schwenkfelders, rooted in religious freedom, tolerance, charity, and education, are undercurrents in all current church activities.