Philip Schaff | |
|---|---|
 Schaffc. 1880 | |
| Born | (1819-01-01)January 1, 1819 Chur, Switzerland |
| Died | October 20, 1893(1893-10-20) (aged 74) New York City, US |
| Children | David Schley Schaff |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Berlin |
| Influences | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline |
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| Sub-discipline | Ecclesiastical history |
| Institutions | |
| Signature | |
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Philip Schaff (January 1, 1819 – October 20, 1893) was a Swiss-born, German-educatedProtestanttheologian andecclesiastical historian,[1] who spent most of his adult life living and teaching in the United States.
Schaff was born inChur,Switzerland, and educated at thegymnasium ofStuttgart. His father died when he was young and he was sent to an orphanage.[2]
At the universities ofTübingen,Halle andBerlin,[1] he was successively influenced byFerdinand Christian Baur and Schmid, byFriedrich August Tholuck andJulius Müller, byDavid Strauss and, above all,Johann August Wilhelm Neander.[3] At Berlin in 1841 he took the degree ofBachelor of Divinity[4] and passed examinations for a professorship. He then traveled throughItaly andSicily as tutor to Baron Krischer. In 1842, he wasPrivatdozent in the University of Berlin, where he lectured onexegesis andecclesiastical history. In 1843, he was called to become Professor of Church History and Biblical Literature in theGerman Reformed Theological Seminary ofMercersburg, Pennsylvania,[4] then the onlyseminary of that church in America. During his time there, he spoke positively of some medieval Catholics and of theOxford Movement and he was accused of heresy; a church council exonerated him.[5]
On his journey Schaff stayed in England and metEdward Pusey and otherTractarians. His inaugural address onThe Principle of Protestantism, delivered in German atReading, Pennsylvania, in 1844, and published inGerman with anEnglish translation byJohn Williamson Nevin was a pioneer work in English in the field of symbolics (that is, the authoritative ecclesiastical formulations of religious doctrines in creeds or confessions). This address and the "Mercersburg theology" which he taught seemed too pro-Catholic to some, and he was charged withheresy. But, at the synod atYork in 1845, he was unanimously acquitted.
Schaff's broad views strongly influenced the German Reformed Church, through his teaching at Mercersburg, through his championship of English in German Reformed churches and schools in America, through his hymnal (1859), through his labours as chairman of the committee which prepared a new liturgy, and by his edition (1863) of the Heidelberg Catechism. So much so that when the German Reformed Church, in a desire to begin producing more and better published material for the denomination published Samuel Miller's work entitledA Treatise on Mercersburg Theology: Mercersburg and Modern Theology Compared in 1866. Schaff'sHistory of the Apostolic Church (in German, 1851; in English, 1853) and hisHistory of the Christian Church (7 vols., 1858–1890), opened a new period in American study of ecclesiastical history.
In 1854, Schaff visited Europe, representing the American German churches at the ecclesiastical diet atFrankfurt am Main and at the Swiss pastoral conference at Basel. He lectured in Germany on America, and received the degree ofDoctor of Divinity from Berlin.
In consequence of the ravages of theAmerican Civil War the theological seminary at Mercersburg was closed for a while and so in 1863 Schaff became secretary of theSabbath Committee (which opposed the "continental Sunday")[6] inNew York City, and held the position till 1870. In 1865 he founded the first German Sunday School in Stuttgart. In 1862–1867 he lectured on ecclesiastical history atAndover Theological Seminary.
Schaff was a member of the Leipzig Historical Society, the Netherland Historical Society, and other historical and literary societies in Europe and America. He was one of the founders, and honorary secretary, of the American branch of the Evangelical Alliance, and was sent to Europe in 1869, 1872, and 1873 to arrange for the general conference of the Alliance, which, after two postponements on account of theFranco-Prussian War, was held in New York in October 1873. Schaff was also, in 1871, one of the Alliance delegates to the emperor of Russia to plead for the religious liberty of his subjects in the Baltic provinces.
Schaff became a professor atUnion Theological Seminary,New York City in 1870 holding first the chair of theological encyclopedia and Christian symbolism till 1873, ofHebrew and the cognate languages till 1874, ofsacred literature till 1887, and finally of church history, until his death.
He died October 20, 1893, following a stroke.[5] He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
Schaff served as president of the committee that translated theAmerican Standard Version of the Bible, though he died before it was published in 1901.
Schaff'sHistory of the Christian Church resembled Neander's work, though less biographical, and was pictorial rather than philosophical. He also wrote biographies, catechisms and hymnals for children, manuals of religious verse, lectures and essays onDante, etc. He translatedJohann Jakob Herzog'sReal-Encyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche (Encyclopedia in Real Terms of Protestant Theology and Church) into English.
Working with the Evangelical Alliance and the Chicago (1893) World's Parliament of Religions, and in Germany, through the monthlyKirchenfreund, Schaff strove earnestly to promote Christian unity and union. It was his hope that thePope (thenLeo XIII) would abandon thedoctrine of infallibility and undertake the reunion of Christianity. He recognized that he was a "mediator between German and Anglo-American theology and Christianity."
Schaff was commissioned to supervise the first series of theNicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.[7] He was later joined byHenry Wace.[8]
Schaff's son,David Schley Schaff, was a Presbyterian clergyman and professor of church history. David wrote his father's biography in 1897.[9][10]
Schaff was married to Mary Schley and they had seven children.
Schaff also wrote several hymns.[11]
The Philip Schaff Prize is an award given by theAmerican Society of Church History, which he founded in 1888,[10][12] for works presenting original research on the history of Christianity.[13][14]
Notes
Bibliography
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Schaff, Philip".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 311.Further reading
Quotations related toPhilip Schaff on Luther's Bible at Wikiquote
Works by or aboutPhilip Schaff atWikisource
Media related toPhilip Schaff at Wikimedia Commons
