Of Creeds in General - Philip Schaff Philip Schaff (January 1, 1819 – October 20, 1893) was a Swiss-born, German-educated Protestant theologian and ecclesiastical historian, who spent most of his adult life living and teaching in the United States. Schaff was born in Chur, Switzerland, and educated at the gymnasium of Stuttgart. His father died when he was young and he was sent to an orphanage. 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 entitled A Treatise on Mercersburg Theology: Mercersburg and Modern Theology Compared in 1866. Schaff's History of the Apostolic Church (in German, 1851; in English, 1853) and his History 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 at Frankfurt am Main and at the Swiss pastoral conference at Basel. In consequence of the ravages of the American Civil War the theological seminary at Mercersburg was closed for a while and so in 1863 Schaff became secretary of the Sabbath Committee (which opposed the "continental Sunday") in New 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 at Andover Theological Seminary. Schaff 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 the Franco-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 at Union Theological Seminary, New York City in 1870 holding first the chair of theological encyclopedia and Christian symbolism till 1873, of Hebrew and the cognate languages till 1874, of sacred literature till 1887, and finally of church history, until his death. He died October 20, 1893, following a stroke. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. Schaff served as president of the committee that translated the American Standard Version of the Bible, though he died before it was published in 1901. Schaff's History 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 on Dante, etc. He translated Johann Jakob Herzog's Real-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 monthly Kirchenfreund, Schaff strove earnestly to promote Christian unity and union. It was his hope that the Pope (then Leo XIII) would abandon the doctrine 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 the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Works The Principle of Protestantism (1845) What is Church History? (1846) History of the Apostolic Church (in German, 1851; in English, 1853) 1874 English ed. The Life and Labors of St. Augustine (1854) Germany: Its Universities, Theology and Religion (1857) History of the Christian Church (8 vols.) (1858-1890) Slavery and the Bible (1861) The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes (3 vols., 1877), vol. I, vol. II, vol. III Through Bible Lands: Notes of Travel in Egypt, the Desert and Palestine (New York: American Tract Society, 1878) A Library of Religious Poetry. A collection of The Best Religious Poems of all Ages and Tongues (with Arthur Gilman) (London: 1881) The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Schaff edited the European Herzog encyclopedia for an American audience; this is a revision of that work. vol. IX Philip Schaff's Letter book, private correspondence from June 2, 1868 to August 26, 1881. Early Church Fathers, a 38-volume translation in 3 parts, covering the Apostolic Fathers through Afphrahat. Dictionary of the Bible (1887)