137 - Philip Schaff, Historian and Ambassador of the Universal Church: Selected Writings

Philip Schaff, Historian and Ambassador of the Universal Church: Selected Writings
By Klaus Penzel
Macon, Ga., Mercer University Press, 1991. 391 pp. $29.95

Klaus Penzel's anthology of selected writings from Philip Schaff (1819-1893) fills a major gap in American religious historiography. Although some of Schaff's works have been reprinted in recent decades, Penzel's excellent collection offers contemporary readers the opportunity to sample within the covers of a single volume the contributions of this important figure during all phases of a long and extraordinary life. Born in Switzerland, Schaff received his education in Germany and fully immersed himself in the theological ferment of the age. In 1844, he forsook the promise of a European academic career to teach at the German Reformed Theological Seminary in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. There he and his colleague, John Williamson Nevin, created the so-called Mercersburg Theology, which cut against the grain of prevailing Protestant opinions. At a time of anti-Catholic nativism, ahistorical notions of the church, and rampant revivalism, Schaff emphasized the legitimate (if imperfect) witness of Roman Catholicism, insisted on the developmental character of church history, decried the "sect spirit" prevalent in American Protestantism, and argued for a more sacramental or "churchly" understanding of Protestantism. He embodied these concerns by chairing a committee that produced for the German Reformed Church a liturgical sourcebook, which recovered for the denomination forgotten riches of its own tradition.

Schaff also went on to a second career at Union Seminary, New York, in 1870, at which time he joined the Presbyterian Church. Previous historians, while noting his significant work at Union, have generally focused on the Mercersburg years. One of the great merits of Penzel's anthology-and of his splendid introductor

138 - Philip Schaff, Historian and Ambassador of the Universal Church: Selected Writings

essay-is to give the latter portion of Schaff's life equal attention. His prodigious activity during these years surely merits notice. He edited an American edition of Lange's German Bible Commentary, helped found the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis in 1889, chaired the American committee, which, along with a British counterpart, revised the King James Bible, served as a sort of impressario for the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in 1873, and played a major role in the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. He also published the multi-volume Creeds of Christendom, still a standard reference work, and was co-editor of a massive collection of patristic sources. In 1888, he organized the American Society of Church History, which he served as president until his death. Amid these numerous projects, he journeyed back to Europe more than a dozen times, thus providing in his own person an ecumenical link between European and American Christianity.

Penzel also charts a shift in Schaffs outlook during the second phase of his career. By the time he moved to New York, Schaff had already begun to be less high church and more broad church in view; he even celebrated the American denominational system he had previously condemned for its sect spirit. He also added his voice to the chorus of those praising the millennial mission of the United States.

The legacy of Philip Schaff is, in short, monumental, touching theology, liturgical reform, ecumenical politics, biblical scholarship, and historical research. To boot, Schaff offers a good case study for students of the immigrant experience of Americanization. Klaus Penzel deserves hearty thanks for making the contributions of this extraordinary figure more readily accessible to a wider public.

James H. Moorhead
Princeton Theological Seminary,
Princeton, N.J.