12 - Philip Schaff: His Role in American Evangelical Education

Summary

INTRODUCTION

There have been many German influences on American Christianity. Among the early settlers of America were groups such as the German and Dutch Reformed or Lutherans, Moravians, Brethren, and Roman Catholics. German “higher” criticism had significant effects on American theological studies toward the end of the century. But few people are familiar with Philip Schaff, whose life and thought spans the nineteenth century and touches both ends of the spectrum.

Philip Schaff (1819-93) is one of those marginal men whose mediating influence as a theologian touched both the evangelical and modernist camps within American Christianity. His direct and indirect influence on American evangelical education is unmistakable if one defines education, in the words of a recent historian, as “the deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to transmit, evoke, or acquire knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, and sensibilities, as well as any learning that results from that effort, direct or indirect, intended or unintended.” To demonstrate Schaffs complex influence, which was conservative in nature, his background needs to be summarized before we can evaluate his role as a teacher, theologian, and church historian in its American context.