[See page image]
Page 223
228 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA g
Church in America, and published Early History of the Lutheran Church in America (Philadelphia, 1857); C. H. Bogatzky's Golden Treasury, translated from the German (1858); Family Prayer, a Book of Devotions (1859); Halle Reports, translated from the German, with extensive historical, critical, and literary annotations (vol. i., 1.880); Wackernagel's Life of Luther, translated (1883); and Hans Sachs' Wittenberg Nightingale, translated (1883).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: H. E. Jambs, in American Church History Series, iv. 269 et passim, New York, 1893; and literature under LBTRERANa.
SCHAFF, achaf, DAVID SCHLEY: Presbyterian; b. at Merceraburg, Pa., Oct. 17, 1852. He was graduated from Yale (A.B., 1873), and Union Theological Seminary (1876). He was pastor of the Presbyterian church at Hastings, Neb. (18771881); associate editor of the Schaff-Herzog Ertcydopadia (1881-83); pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, Mo. (1883-89); and professor of church history in Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, O. (1897-1903). Since 1903 he has held a similar professorship in Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburg, Pa. He contributed to the Bible Dictionary of his father, Philip Schaff (Philadelphia, 1880); has revised and abridged J. S. Howson and H. D. M. Spence's commentary on Acts for the International Revision Commentary (New York, 1892); has written The Life of Philip Schaff (1897); and has continued the History of the Christian Church by his father (vol. v. parts 1 and 2, 1907-10).
SCHAFF, PHILIP. I. Preparatory Period, 1819-43. II. Mercersburg Period, 18433. Election; Literary Activity (§ 1). Relation to Use of German (¢ 2). III. New York Period, 1883-93. Varied Activities (§ 1). Literary Work (§ 2).Philip Schaff, Biblical scholar and church historian, organizer and editor of the first edition of this Encyclopedia, was born at Chur, Switzerland, Jan. 1, 1819; d. in New York City Oct. 20, 1893. There are three well-defined periods in his life:
I. Preparatory Period, r8ig-43: From the schools at Chur and Kornthal (Wiirttemberg) he passed to the gymnasium in Stuttgart, and the universities of Tubingen, Halle, and Berlin (1837-f10). At Tubingen he heard Ferdinand Christian Baur (q.v.) but came especially under the influence of the Biblical theologian, Christian Friedrich Schmid (q.v.). At Halle he was on very intimate terms with Julius Miiller and Tholuck (qq.v.) living a part of the time under the letter's roof. There he made his first American acquaintance, George Lewis Prentiss (q.v.), afterward his lifelong friend and for many years his colleague in Union Theological Seminary. At Berlin he was especially attracted by Neander, whose amanuensis he was for a time. He then traveled through Italy and Sicily as tutor to Baron KriScher. In 1842 he received the venia legends at Berlin and began his career as privet-docent at that university. It was at this period that he came to know Godet and Theodore Dionod (qq.v.) and
wrote his treatises, Die Sands under den heiligen Geist and die daraus gezogenen dogmatischen and ethischen Folgerungen. Eine exegetisch-dogmalisehe Abhandlung, nebst einer historischen Anhange abet das Lebensende des Franceseo Spiera (Halle, 1841), and Des VerhtBltniss des Jakobus, Bruders des Hewn., zuJakobus Alphtii, aufs Neue ezegetisehund historisch untersucht (Berlin, 1842), the former being his licentiate of theology and the latter his habilitation theme.
IL 1llercersburg Period, r843-63: He emigrated to the United States in 1843 at the invitation of the German Reformed Church to occupy a chair in its theological seminary in Mercersburg, Pa., and showed himself eminently qualified for the position, adding to scholarly attainments and religious fervor wise theological judgment, a faculty of adapting himself to new conditions, and of enter s. Election; ing heartily into the republican forms Literary of the West. On his way to America Activity. he spent two months in England, studying the language and coming into contact with some of the leaders of the Oxford movement. Arriving in Mercersburg he found John Williamson Nevin (q.v.) in charge of the seminary, and as colleagues they brought out the so-called "Mercersburg Theology" (q.v.), known through out the English-speaking world and also in Germany, and charged with a Rome-ward tendency, but which really signified, so far as there was anything pecu liar in it, merely an application of the historical spirit to all problems of theology and a churchly regard for the ancient liturgical forms of the Church. Suspicion soon fell upon Dr. Schaff as an alleged advocate of a de-Protestantizing tendency, and his inaugural address on Das Princip des Protestantismus (Chamberaburg, 1845, Eng. transl. with Introduc tion by Dr. Nevin, The Principle of Protestantism, as related to the Present State of the Church) called forth the charge of heresy, which was argued before the synod at York in 1845, but he was acquitted by a practically unanimous vote. This address elabor ated the two principles of Protestantism and the two dangers to which Protestantism is exposed, sectarianism and rationalism. Dr. Schaff in sub sequent years said that he never dreamt of advoca ting anything heretical when he prepared and delivered his inaugural. His kindly references to the Middle Ages and to the Oxford movement prob ably suggested the charge. The great interest which this address aroused was the beginning of a new movement in the German Reformed Church. In the seminary Dr. Schaff at one time or another taught all the departments, having only a single col league. He became identified with all the move ments in the denomination, especially with the liturgical movement, serving as chairman of the committee to prepare a liturgy (1857). He brought out a Gesangbuch (1859) which introduced a new era in congregational song among the German-speaking churches of the United States by substituting a book of merit for books in which rationalistic hymns were freely used; and for the three-hundredth an niversary of the Heidelberg Catechism an elaborate edition of that catechism (1863). He had already written a simple catechism for children in German