The Creeds of Christendom, Vol 2: Greek and Latin Creeds

by Philip Schaff

Philip Schaff's The Creeds of Christendom is a massive set, originally published in three volumes and here reproduced across five volumes, cataloging and explaining the many different creeds from the myriad Christian denominations. The differences in belief between Calvinists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, for example, can often be subtle, so a thorough examination of the particulars as well as an explanation for how those different beliefs result in a different worldview is necessary. Volume Two . Scripture Confessions . the Anti-Nicene and Nicene Rules of Faith and Baptismal Creeds . Symbola ecumenica . Romans Creeds . Greek and Russian Creeds . Orthodox Confessions of the Eastern Church . the Confession of Dositheus, or the Eighteen Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem . the Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church . and the Old Catholic Union Creeds. Swiss theologian PHILIP SCHAFF (1819-1893) was educated in Germany and eventually came to the United States to teach at the German Reformed Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He wrote a number of books and hymnals for children, including History of the Christian Church and The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches.

Genres: Reference

644 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Philip Schaff was educated at the gymnasium of Stuttgart, and at the universities of Tübingen, Halle and Berlin, where he was successively influenced by Baur and Schmid, by Tholuck and Julius Müller, by David Strauss and, above all, Neander. At Berlin, in 1841, he took the degree of B.D., and passed examinations for a professorship. He then traveled through Italy and Sicily as tutor to Baron Krischer. In 1842 he was Privatdozent in the University of Berlin, where he lectured on exegesis and church history. In 1843 he was called to become professor of church history and Biblical literature in the German Reformed Theological Seminary of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, then the only seminary of that church in America.
On his journey he stayed in England and met Edward Pusey and other Tractarians. His inaugural address on The Principle of Protestantism, delivered in German at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1844, and published in German with an English version by John 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 with heresy. But, at the synod at York 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. His 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, he visited Europe, representing the American German churches at the ecclesiastical diet at Frankfort and at the Swiss pastoral conference at Basel. He lectured in Germany on America, and received the degree of D.D. from Berlin.
In consequence of the ravages of the American Civil War the theological seminary at Mercersburg was closed for a while and so in 1863 Dr. Schaff became secretary of the Sabbath Committee (which fought 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 church history at Andover.

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 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.

He 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, till his death. He also served as president of the committee that translated the American Standard Version of the Bible, though he died before it was published in 1901.
His 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 into English.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE SECOND OF SCHAFF'S THREE-VOLUME STUDY OF CHRISTIAN CREEDS

Philip Schaff (1819-1893) was a Swiss-born, German-educated Protestant theologian and Church historian, who was a professor at Union Theological Seminary. His 8-volume History is a classic (History of the Christian Church: Apostolic Christianity, A.D. 1-100 (Vol. 1); also available as a set: History of the Christian Church. Complete in Eight Volumes.). His 'Creeds of Christendom' was first published in 1877; the third volume in the series is The Creeds of Christendom, Volume 3: The Evangelical Protestant Creeds.'

Schaff begins with various "confessions" from the Bible (e.g., the baptismal formula of Matt 28:19); then moves on to miscellaneous Ante-Nicene (i.e., prior to the Nicene Council) rules and baptismal creeds; then the so-called "ecumenical" creeds (the Apostles' Creed; the Nicene Creed; the Creed of Chalcedon; the Athanasian Creed); the "Roman" Creeds (Concil of Trent; Immaculate Conception; Syllabus of Errors; Infallibility of Pope); the Greek and Russian creeds; and finally the "Old Catholic" (i.e., those Catholics who rejected infallibility) creeds.

He even includes a creed from the heretic Arius, which "is heretical not by what it says, but by what it omits." (Pg. 28)

Schaff's set is an excellent resource for the various Christian creeds, and is a welcome addition to any complete theological library.

[Andy Febrico Bintoro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more like an appendix for the first volume. This is the creeds and orthodox catechism, though not all creeds have the english translations.