409 - The Artist Works the Gold: The Vision of Philip Schaff

The Artist Works the Gold: The Vision of Philip Schaff
By David W. Johnson

"[I]f church history is a theological discipline, if somehow God is to be taken into account in the study of church history ... the example of Schaff's work, with its emphasis upon the continuity of God's work throughout history, at least reminds us that, if there is any such thing as a 'history of salvation,' a heilsge-schichte, it must extend beyond the biblical period."

Theology is now customarily divided into various fields of study: Bible, history, theology (confusingly enough, theology is a field of theology), and practical theology. Each of these fields is further divided: Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible), New Testament; patristic, medieval, reformation, and modern church history; systematic, apologetic, and historical theology; homiletics, pastoral counselling, church administration, and Christian education. And even these sub-specialties are divided. The details vary from institution to institution and curriculum to curriculum but the phenomenon itself is very nearly ubiquitous.

This has been a source of considerable confusion and not a little anguish. What can unify all this? Edward Farley's notable book Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education is, in many respects, a long lament over this loss of overall coherence in theological study.¹ Farley terms the various rubrics of contemporary theology as no more than "catalogue fields" for presenting various courses to students. The underlying rationale for considering the theological disciplines as theological is, in Farley's view, simply gone.

I

One serious, constructive, and often overlooked proposal concerning the overall theological coherence of the theological disciplines comes from the Theological Propadeutic of Philip Schaff. Neither the book nor the proposal has received the attention it deserves.² It is

David W. Johnson is Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Irving, Texas. He was formerly on the faculty of Brite Divinity School.

¹ Edward Farley, Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983).
² Theological Propadeutic (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, fourth edition, 1896) was Schaff's last work. It first appeared in 1892, the year before his death. in some ways, it was also his most quickly forgotten work. It is scarcely mentioned in George Shriver's centennial biography, Philip Schaff: Christian Scholar and Ecumenical Prophet, (Macon Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1987), which perhaps is not particularly surprising. But it also receives very brief notice in the much more voluminous biography by Schaff's son David, The Life of Philip Schaff, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897). This is somewhat more surprising in view of David's documentation of almost every aspect of his father's life. Many of Schaff's other works have been reissued, and some are still in print. The Propadeutic, although it went through at least three more editions after Schaff's death, has not received the same sort of attention.

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somewhat anachronistic but it is not merely anachronistic. It may no longer be available to us, at least not as Schaff presents it, but it is worthy of renewed consideration.

By "propadeutic," Schaff meant a comprehensive introduction to theological study, or, to use his own words, "a general introduction to the scientific study of the Christian religion in its origin, progress, and present condition."³ As such, it encompassed the theological encyclopedia, an outline of the various disciplines and their interrelationships, methodologies (or investigative procedures), and bibliographies.⁴

The Propadeutic is organized in five sections. The first, "Religion and Theology," presents a description of all the world's religions (which Schaff defines as "the relation of man to God"). It is here that Schaff's triumphalism is most embarrassingly present. The superiority and inevitable triumph of Christianity as a religion is a constant theme:

Christianity is the perfect religion of God for the whole human race. It is the end of all religions, and will itself have no end. It is the final revelation of God to men. All further religious progress will be a growth of humanity in (but not beyond) Christianity, or a more complete apprehension and application of the spirit and example of Christ.⁵

Schaff's ecumenical openness, rightly-lauded, extended to the borders of the Christian faith, but not much beyond them.

The next four sections of the Propadeutic deal with the four branches of theology, which Schaff terms exegetical, historical, systematic, and practical. Here we encounter the typical fourfold pattern of theological encyclopedia, which contains the fundamental division between the theoretical theological sciences (exegesis, church history, and systematics) and the practical ones. Unity is derived from what Edward Farley called the "clerical paradigm," the sciences necessary for the training of clergy.

Farley pays virtually no attention to Schaff. In Theologia, the Propadeutic is for the most part cited in footnotes as a typical example of the fourfold paradigm. This is rather myopic; in spite of its formal adherence to the fourfold pattern of theological disciplines, Schaff's work is really different, resting on a threefold notion in which the

³ Propadeutic, p. 6.
⁴ Bibliographies soon become dated by their very nature, but the incipient twentieth century was to produce such revolutions in the understanding of theology and theological method that the rest of Schaff's work quickly became outdated and in some respects positively quaint. Particularly, the whole notion of "theological encyclopedia" was soon virtually to disappear as a genre. See Edward Farley, Theologia: The Fragmentation and Unity of Theological Education (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), esp. pp. 109-10, for an account of the decline of "theological encyclopedia," and its replacement by the multi-author symposium after World War 1.
⁵ Propadeutic, p. 59.

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division of theological disciplines is based on the separation of time into past, present, and future.

For Schaff, the first of the theological disciplines is exegetical theology, which really centers on the explication of the biblical text:

EXEGETICAL Theology or EXEGETIC embraces all that belongs to the learned explanation of the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, or the whole extent of Biblical Literature. It is the science and practice of Biblical interpretation.⁶

This emphasis on text is seen in the subdivisions of exegetic: philology, archeology, isagogic (historico-critical introduction), hermeneutic, and exegesis. Disciplines that move either beyond or behind the text are assigned to other rubrics. Thus, the history of Israel is comprehended under historical theology, and biblical theology is a component of systematic theology.

The other three disciplines of historical, systematic, and practical theology are related to each other as past, present, and future:

CHURCH History traces the origin and growth of Christianity from the founding of the Church to the present generation.
SYSTEMATIC Theology systematizes and defends its doctrines and duties, as now held and understood on the basis of the Scriptures and the history of Christianity.
PRACTICAL Theology sets forth its task and progressive work, and connects the professor's chair with the pastor's pulpit.⁷

If this scheme is not to be facile, it must rest on some notion of the connectedness of history, which for Schaff is through the providence of God. History is "God's revelation in time, as nature is his revelation in space." History reveals the salvific will of God:

It gradually unfolds an eternal plan of wisdom and goodness for the redemption of the human race and the triumph of his kingdom.... As nature reveals God's power and wisdom, so history reveals his justice and mercy.⁸

Seen in this light, the human enterprise of history⁹ depends on the recognition of this activity of God. "The recognition of God in history is the first principle of all sound philosophy of history."¹⁰ God works within history, using, but also overriding, human freedom to direct the world to its final and inevitable goal. History is itself progressive, in spite of errors and setbacks, and the final triumph of God is assured:

The true theory of development is that of a constant growth of the church in Christ the head, or a progressive understanding and application of

⁶ Propadeutic, p. 93.
⁷ Propadeutic, p. 92.
⁸ Propadeutic, p. 236.
⁹ Schaff terms this "the biography of the human race." Propadeutic, p. 237.
¹⁰ Propadeutic, p. 236.

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Christianity, until Christ shall be all in all. The end will only be the complete unfolding of the beginning.¹¹

It is this history, the unfolding of the kingdom of God, that gives theology its past, present, and future. The unity of the theological disciplines thus rests upon the unified and progressive activity of God. The apprehension of this unity, and hence the coherence of the whole theological enterprise, is primarily the duty of historical theology, which Schaff terms "by far the most extensive and copious part of sacred learning."¹² The historian makes the results of exegetical theology available to the church, and church history is continually incorporating the other theological disciplines:

The exegete is the miner who brings to light the Scripture facts and Scripture truths; the historian is the manufacturer or artist who works the gold and gives it shape and form for actual use. Moreover, exegesis itself and all other departments of theology have their history and are constantly furnishing contributions to its material.¹³

A similar point is made in Schaff's "General Introduction to Church History," the preface to his History of the Apostolic Church:

Exegesis, therefore, has to do with the regulative charter, with which the revelation begins; church history, with the continuation and apprehension of the revelation in time past,- speculative theology, with the present scientific posture of the church; and practical theology looks to the future. But since the present and future are always becoming past, speculative and practical theology are continually falling into the province of church history, which, in this view again, appears as the most comprehensive department of theology.¹⁴

The other theological disciplines are also defined in terms of progressive historical development. The task of systematic theology is not only to organize the Christian religion¹⁵ as a "scientific system" but, through speculative dogmatic, also to take account of the current intellectual culture, bringing it "into contact with the scientific thinking of the age."¹⁶

Speculative Dogmatic is a scientific exposition and rational vindication of the Christian faith. It rests on the conviction that revelation and reason, faith and knowledge, are not opposed in principle and aim, but that they proceed from the same God of truth and must harmonize. Speculative theology reproduces, criticizes and advances the exegetical and historical

¹¹ Propadeutic, p. 240. Schaff criticizes Newman's theory of development in a footnote, saying it "leaves no room for reformation and revolution" and thus would exclude the Protestant and Eastern churches.
¹² Propadeutic, p. 235.
¹³ Propadeutic, p. 235.
¹⁴ Philip Schaff, "General Introduction to Church History," in Reformed and Catholic: Selected Historical and Theological Writings of Philip Schaff, edited by Charles Yrigoyen Jr. and George M. Bricker (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pickwick Press, 1979), p. 179. The essay was originally published in 1854.
¹⁵ The material for systematic theology is derived from "the Bible, the Church, and Christian experience." Propadeutic, p. 307.
¹⁶ Ibid.

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material, and adjusts it to the religious thought of the times. No Confession of Faith, however elaborate, can legislate for all future generations and supersede independent thinking. If it does, it becomes a yoke of bondage and a symbol of stagnation. Every age must produce its own theology adapted to its specific wants.¹⁷

Here, indeed, is Schaff's progressivism, or perhaps his romanticism, to use James Hastings Nichols' term.¹⁸ The present develops organically out of the past; precisely because the development is organic (and not, say, syllogistic, as in B. B. Warfield), the past must nourish and guide the present without confining or defining it. Systematic theology, in its speculative branch, grows as it responds to the spirit of the age. As ages change, the results of this theology are transferred to history.

Practical theology is concerned with the future. Schaff will also define practical theology in terms of the tasks of ministry: "Practical Theology is the science and art of the various functions of the Christian ministry for the preservation and propagation of the Christian religion at home and abroad."¹⁹ This definition is typical of the clerical paradigm, although Schaff insists that practical theology must be enlarged beyond the functions and duties of the clergy themselves to include the activity of the laity. However, the future orientation is also evident: The Christian religion is not only to be preserved, it is to be propagated.²⁰ Accordingly, the discussion of practical theology culminates in evangelistic, or the science of missions. This section rather neatly returns to the subject matter of the first section of the book, the description of the various religions, and describes new mission fields in glowingly optimistic terms: "In the providence of God, India, China, Corea [sic], Japan, and, since the explorations of Livingstone and Stanley, even the interior of Africa, in fact the whole heathen world, is now open to missions."²¹ The advance of missions and the growth of Christianity show the providential future of God:

The extraordinary progress of missionary zeal and enterprise is phenomenal, and one of the greatest evidences for the vitality of Christianity, and an assurance of its ultimate triumph to the ends of the earth, in obedience to Christ's command and in fulfillment of his promise.²²

For Schaff, then, the various branches of theology chart the course of the providential action of God in history. Historical theology is the story of God's work in and through the church of the past, which leads

¹⁷ Propadeutic, pp. 360-1.
¹⁸ James Hastings Nichols, Romanticism in American Theology: Nevin and Schaff at Mercersburg, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961). One suspects from the infrequent number of times the word appears in his book, that Nichols was not entirely happy with the term "romanticism."
¹⁹ Propadeutic, p. 448.
²⁰ It is indicative of Schaff's interests that he gives only two paragraphs to pastoral care as such (which, with his genius for using the most unwieldy name he can come upon, Schaff terms "poimenic"), while including an entire history of preaching that extends over twenty pages.
²¹ Propadeutic, p. 522.
²² Ibid.

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to engagement with the contemporary culture in systematics. Practical theology rests on God's promises for the future, as the church grows both numerically and geographically, and also in its correspondence to the kingdom of God. Historical theology is the most comprehensive of all these disciplines and is (to adopt Schaff's organic metaphor) the trunk which connects biblical roots to the branches of the present and future, or (to use his more mechanical one) the art that takes the biblical ore and forms it into useful material for the other disciplines. The organizing principle, the source of coherence, for all of theology, then, is historical theology. Whereas, according to Farley, the status of church history in theological encyclopedia is problematic,²³ for Schaff it is foundational. In Schaff's account, without historical theology, there is no coherent discipline of theology at all.²⁴

II

How are we to evaluate this proposal for the unity of the theological disciplines? On the one hand, it seems that Schaff is not at all susceptible to Farley's charge that theological encyclopedia ultimately failed to find a theological rationale for the unity of theological science. The theological rationale for the unity of theological science in Schaff is, as I have tried to show, the providence of God itself. One may well argue that Schaff's view of history was much too sanguine and his identification of the church with the kingdom of God much too parochial, but that is to evaluate the quality of this principle of coherence and not its presence.

Schaff's proposal has the further strength of clarifying the relationships between practical theology and the other theological disciplines. If exegetics, historical theology, and systematics constitute the theory of which practical theology is the practice, how do the theory and the practice fit together? Farley argues that the fourfold pattern and the clerical paradigm have systematically eliminated "practice" from theological study as such, and turned it into an aggregate of clerical skills in search of a unifying discipline.²⁵ In Schaff's understanding, practical theology as the future of the church is tied to the so-called theoretical disciplines by the coherence of the work of God in history. It would be possible, I think, to define further the relationship of past/historical theology, present/systematic theology, future/practical theology in terms of the theological virtues of faith, love, and hope. The actual interrelationship of specific courses is not addressed here,

²³ Farley, Theologia pp. 79-80.
²⁴ This can be contrasted with Schleiermacher's account of the theological disciplines, in which historical theology also provides a unifying principle, but there, historical theology is the tool (or collection of tools) which provides an identify description Of Christianity. This identity description does not have the orientation towards the future that one sees in Schaff. Cf. Farley, pp. 84-94, for an analysis. In any case, it was this aspect of Schleiermacher's thought that was lost in the later encyclopedia movement.
²⁵ Farley, Theologia p. 132 and passim.

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of course, but at least there is a formal principle to work with beside the clerical paradigm.

However, this account of the unity of theology may no longer be available to us, for a number of reasons. One has to do with the fact that, almost as soon as Schaff died, church historians in America found speaking of the work of God more and more problematic. Whatever the faith stance of the individual historian, the appeal to divine agency in the study of ecclesiastical (or any other) history more and more seemed methodologically unavailable. Henry Bowden's review of presidential addresses of the American Society of Church History in the Schaff centennial volume, A Century of Church History: The Legacy of Philip Schaff, reveals a kind of anguish on this very point. On the one hand, an appeal to supernatural causation in history appears decidedly unscientific, but, on the other hand, church history, or at least some church historians, do seem to rely on certain theological presuppositions or insights, among which is a belief in a God who does act.²⁶ If church history, or historical theology, is methodologically prevented from speaking about acts of God, then any concrete notion of providence is completely opaque, and church history cannot serve as a unifying element in theology-if indeed it remains an element of theology at all.

In addition, developments in systematic theology itself have removed Schaff's conception from us. The renewed emphasis on eschatology in the early twentieth century is still very much with us, minimizing any notion of God's work in the ordinary course of events. The abrupt intervention of God into history is not progressive; it is disruptive, or even destructive. In this context, church history or historical theology cannot serve to unify theological science because it is theologically irrelevant. If the providence of God shrinks to a single point (or two single points, one past and one future), all that telling the story will do is temporize until that point comes. At best, church history provides an occasional uplifting moral example or two. It is instructive, in this regard, that even a theologian so historically minded as Karl Barth banished church history from the theological arena, calling it an "auxiliary science" to exegetical, dogmatic, and practical theology,²⁷ and Rudolf Bultmann, who was a historian down to the ground, produced a profoundly ahistorical theology.

This is not a difficulty if church history is taken to be simply the history of a particular human institution. But if church history is a theological discipline, if somehow God must be taken into account in the study of church history, it simply will not do. The example of Schaff's work, with its emphasis upon the continuity of God's work

²⁶ Henry Warner Bowden, "The First Century: Institutional Development and Ideas about the Profession," in A Century of Church History.- The Legacy of Philip Schaff, edited by Henry Warner Bowden (Carbondale and Edwardsville, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1988), pp. 294-328.
²⁷ Church Dogmatics 1/1, p. 3.

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throughout history, at least reminds us that, if there is any such thing as a "history of salvation," a Heilsgeschichte, it must extend beyond the biblical period. Theology cannot survive the cognitive dissonance of a concept of Heilsgeschichte that is central to biblical interpretation and dogmatics but completely opaque to church historians. The consequence for church history is loss of contact with theological methods and categories; the consequence for doctrinal theology is an understanding of God in which God's work in the world, God's providence, is either sporadic, opaque, or simply absent. The church cannot live with either consequence for very long.