The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 1: The History of Creeds
Overview
In The Creeds of Christendom, Philip Schaff offers a critical analysis of the most important and fully developed expressions of faith. Through the words of the creeds, Schaff explains that honest controversy can produce lasting union, and that the theological controversies of the historic church have made the present church stronger. Schaff writes these volumes for a church divided, and begs a multitude of denominations to explore their common origins and common beliefs.
Volume 1 explores the ecumenical creeds, the creeds of the Greek Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the numerous confessions of the Protestant Church. Schaff offers a history of not only well-known confessions, such as the Belgic Confession, but also a history of the numerous lesser-known confessions.
In all, this volume contains a history of 118 creeds and confessions and a sweeping view of the church’s attempt to articulate its doctrine and define matters of faith and belief in light of cultural challenges and theological controversy.
With Logos, this important work by Philip Schaff is easier to read than ever before! The Scripture texts link to your Greek and Hebrew texts and English translations. And your digital library gives you the ease and flexibility to read Schaff alongside the primary texts of the key figures in church history, such as Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and the Church Fathers.
Key Features
- Doctrinal history of the church
- Creeds and confessions of all Christian denominations
- Authentic material for the study of Comparative Theology—Symbolics, Polemics, and Irenics
Praise for the Print Edition
In the development of the discipline of church history in the United States, few scholars played a more important role than the Swiss-born, German-educated immigrant Philip Schaff. His model of careful, accurate, comprehensive, and irenic scholarship . . . remains worthy of admiration and emulation.
—R. Graham, professor of American church history, North Park Theological Seminary
No scholar of his generation has interested me so much. He was broad, powerful, a man of great genius.
Philip Schaff wanted to be remembered as a Christian scholar, and he pursued this scholarship in the context of his grand and optimistic ecumenical vision . . . Schaff was, in his own words, an inveterate hoper.
—George Shriver
Product Details
- Title: The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 1: The History of Creeds
- Author: Philip Schaff
- Publisher: Harper & Brothers
- Publication Date: 1877
- Pages: 947
About Philip Schaff
Philip Schaff (1819–1893) was born in Chur, Switzerland. He was educated in Germany at Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin, where he studied under August Neander. In 1843, he moved to America and became a professor of church history and biblical literature at the German Reformed Theological Seminary in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
During that time, he edited a hymnal, worked on the liturgy in the German Reformed Church, and edited a translation of the Heidelberg Catechism. The English translation of his History of the Apostolic Church appeared in 1853. Schaff remained at Mercersburg until 1863, when the Civil War forced the seminary to close.
In 1870, Schaff became a professor at Union Theological Seminary. During his tenure there, he held the chair of theological encyclopedia and Christian symbolism, the chair of Hebrew and cognate languages, the chair of sacred literature, and the chair of church history. He also served on the committee that translated the American Standard Version.
Schaff also authored or edited the History of the Christian Church, Early Church Fathers, and the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. He is remembered as one of America’s foremost church historians of the nineteenth century.
Top Highlights
“The Nicene Creed (without these Western additions) is more highly honored in the Greek Church than in any other, and occupies the same position there as the Apostles’ Creed in the Latin and Protestant Churches.” (Page 27)
“While the first Council of Nicæa had established the eternal, pre-existent Godhead of Christ, the Symbol of the fourth œcumenical Council relates to the incarnate Logos, as he walked upon earth and sits on the right hand of the Father. It is directed against the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches, who agreed with the Nicene Creed as opposed to Arianism, but put the Godhead of Christ in a false relation to his humanity. It substantially completes the orthodox Christology of the ancient Church; for the definitions added during the Monophysite and Monothelite controversies are few and comparatively unessential. As the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity stands midway between Tritheism and Sabellianism, so the Chalcedonian formula strikes the true mean between Nestorianism and Eutychianism.” (Page 30)
“May this repository of creeds and confessions promote a better understanding among the Churches of Christ. The divisions of Christendom bring to light the various aspects and phases of revealed truth, and will be overruled at last for a deeper and richer harmony, of which Christ is the key-note. In him and by him all problems of theology and history will be solved. The nearer believers of different creeds approach the Christological centre, the better they will understand and love each other.” (Page vi)
“The Arminian controversy is the most important which took place within the Reformed Church. It corresponds to the Pelagian and the Jansenist controversies in the Catholic Church. It involves the problem of ages, which again and again has baffled the ken of theologians and philosophers, and will do so to the end of time: the relation of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. It started with the doctrine of predestination, and turned round live articles or ‘knotty points’ of Calvinism; hence the term ‘quinquarticular’ controversy. Calvinism represented the consistent, logical, conservative orthodoxy; Arminianism an elastic, progressive, changing liberalism. Calvinism triumphed in the Synod of Dort, and excluded Arminianism.” (Page 509)
- Title: The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes, Volume I: The History of Creeds
- Author: Philip Schaff
- Series: The Creeds of Christendom
- Publisher: Harper & Brothers
- Print Publication Date: 1878
- Logos Release Date: 2011
- Era: era:modern
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Creeds
- Resource ID: LLS:CREEDSCHR1
- Resource Type: text.monograph.confessional-document
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-08T04:50:51Z
Philip Schaff (1819–1893) was one of the most distinguished church historians who ever lived. He was educated at Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin, and was professor of church history and biblical literature at German Reformed Theological Seminary. When the Civil War forced the seminary to close, Schaff moved to Union Theological Seminary. Schaff had an enormous influence on German Reformed churches in America, and he wrote History of the Christian Church, Creeds of Christendom, and The Principle of Protestantism.