Digital Verbum Edition
Philip Schaff was one of the leading historians of the nineteenth century, and one of the most public theologians and prominent intellectuals of his time. Schaff played a foundational role in the development of American Protestantism, and gained wide recognition as one of the leading experts on matters of theology, history, and biblical studies. He was a widely respected scholar and a prolific writer, and his works were influential in both Europe and America.
In addition to writing a mammoth church history, editing what has become the standard work on the Early Church Fathers, and editing the 13-volume Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Schaff wrote more than twenty other works, now included in this collection. The Philip Schaff Collection includes Schaff's 3-volume Creeds of Christendom, his 2-volume Theological Propædeutic, and voluminous works on church history, literature, and textual criticism. This collection also includes a travel narrative from Schaff's extensive travels in the Middle East and a biographical volume on Philip Schaff written by his son, David S. Schaff.
What's more, with Logos, these important works by Philip Schaff are easier to read than ever! The Scripture texts in Schaff's works on the Bible and textual criticism are linked to your Greek and Hebrew texts and English translations. And your digital library gives you the ease and flexibility to read Schaff alongside the primary texts of the key figures in church history, such as Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and the Church Fathers.
In the development of the discipline of church history in the United States, few scholars played a more important role than the Swiss-born, German-educated immigrant Philip Schaff. His model of careful, accurate, comprehensive, and irenic scholarship . . . remains worthy of admiration and emulation.
—R. Graham, Professor of American Church History, North Park Theological Seminary
No scholar of his generation has interested me so much. He was broad, powerful, a man of great genius.
Philip Schaff wanted to be remembered as a Christian scholar, and he pursued this scholarship in the context of his grand and optimistic ecumenical vision . . . Schaff was, in his own words, an 'inveterate hoper.
—George Shriver
Philip Schaff was born on January 1, 1819 in Chur, Switzerland. He was educated in Germany at Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin, where he studied under August Neander. In 1843, moved to America and became professor of church history and biblical literature at the German Reformed Theological Seminary in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
During this time, he edited a hymnal, worked on the liturgy in the German Reformed Church, and edited a translation of the Heidelberg Catechism. The English translation of his History of the Apostolic Church appeared in 1853. Schaff remained at Mercersburg until 1863, when the Civil War forced the seminary to close.
In 1870, Schaff became a professor at Union Theological Seminary. During his tenure there, he held the chair of theological encyclopedia and Christian symbolism, the chair of Hebrew and cognate languages, the chair of sacred literature, and the chair of church history. He also served on the committee that translated the American Standard Version.
In addition to the 22 volumes in this collection, throughout his lifetime Schaff also authored or edited the History of the Christian Church, Early Church Fathers, and the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. He is remembered as one of America's foremost church historians of the nineteenth century.
Schaff died October 20, 1893.
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