Philip SchaffReseñas

Why I ever purchased this in 2012, I have no idea! Upon finally opening it up on my Kindle, I can tell you that most of the 980 pages were a slog. I did NOT read all 980 pages. I read about 400 pages written by Constantine the Great that deal with self-praise for his successes and his explanation on why he accepted Christianity, why he made it the national religion, and how men and women in the empire would reap the benefits of his conversion. This also included Eusebius' Oration of Praise in Honor of Constantine. In the scholarly historical sense, it wasn't "bad." In the enjoyment sense, pffft! There were as many notes as script and often they were more interesting. Off it goes into Kindle space! (The "original" is 32,400 pages, 38 volumes)½

Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church "is an eight volume history of Christianity from the New Testament through the Swiss Reformation (John Calvin). It was written around the time of the American Civil war (1860-ish). It's an excellent resource for church history and would arm someone to defend against 'DaVinci Code' attacks on the historic Christian faith." We have all eight volumes and can be found on the library shelves under the number 270/SCH.

Morning By Morning by Charles H. Spurgeon is a “contemporary version of a devotional classic based on the King James Version.” “A new topical index helps readers discover Spurgeon’s thought on various topics to Christian life.” There is also an index that allows readers to find what Spurgeon has to say about a Bible verse.

LT Creeds of Christendom : 3 Volumes, Philip Schaff, Baker Books (1984), Edition: Revised, 2547 pages, dates I read/studied book: 4/22
Recommended by [self], Where is hard copy? CBC office

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(Vol I-37) II. Character and Contents—The Symbolum Quicunque [Athanasian Creed] is a remarkably clear and precise summary of the doctrinal decisions of the first four ecumenical Councils (from AD 325 to AD 451), and the Augustinian speculations on the Trinity and the Incarnation. Its brief sentences are artistically arranged and rhythmically expressed. It is a musical creed or dogmatic psalm. Dean Stanley calls it ‘a triumphant paean’ of the orthodox faith. It resembles, in this respect, the older Te Deum, but it is much more metaphysical and abstruse, and its harmony is disturbed by a threefold anathema.

It consists of two parts.

The first part (vs3-28) sets forth the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity, not in the less definite Athanasian or Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan, but in its strictest Augustinian form, to the exclusion of every kind of subordination of essence. It is therefore an advance both on the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed; for these do not state the doctrine of the Trinity in form, but only indirectly by teaching the Deity of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and leave room for a certain subordination of the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to both. The post-Athanasian formula states clearly and unmistakably both the absolute unity of the divine being or essence, and the tri-personality of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is one in three persons or hypostases, each person expressing the whole fullness of the Godhead, with all his attributes. The term persona is taken neither in the old sense of a mere personation or form of manifestation (face, mask), nor in the modern sense of an independent, separate being or individual, but in a sense which lies between these two conceptions, and thus avoids Sabellianism [Modalism is the belief that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are three different modes of God, as opposed to a Trinitarian view of three distinct persons within the Godhead] on the one hand, and Tritheism on the other. The divine persons are in one another, and form a perpetual intercommunication and motion within the divine essence. Each person has all the divine attributes which are inherent in the divine essence, but each has also a characteristic individuality or property, which is peculiar to the person, and can not be communicated; the Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Holy Ghost is proceeding. In this Trinity there is no priority or posteriority of time, no superiority or inferiority of rank, but the three persons are coeternal and coequal.

If the mystery of the Trinity can be logically defined, it is done here. But this is just the difficulty: the infinite truth of the Godhead lies far beyond the boundaries of logic, which deals only with finite truths and categories. It is well always to remember the saying of Augustine: ‘God is greater and truer in our thoughts than in our words; he is greater and truer in reality than in our thoughts.

The second part (vs 29-44) contains a succinct statement of the orthodox doctrine concerning the person of Christ, as settled by the general Councils of Ephesus 431 and Chalcedon 451, and in this respect it is a valuable supplement to the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. It asserts that Christ had a rational soul, in opposition to the Apollinarian heresy [ Jesus had a human body and sensitive human soul, but a divine mind and not a human rational mind, the Divine Logos taking the place of the latter], which limited the extent of his humanity to a mere body with an animal soul inhabited by the divine Logos. It also teaches the proper relation between the divine and human nature of Christ, and excludes the Nestorian and Eutychian or Monophysite heresies, in essential agreement with the Chalcedonian Symbol.

Volume III - 1919 by David S. Schaff

Volume II - 1919 by David S. Schaff

Volume I - 1919 by David S. Schaff

General Introduction to the Study of Theology

or Dictionary of Biblical_ Historical_ Doctrinal_ and Practical Theology

or Dictionary of Biblical_ Historical_ Doctrinal_ and Practical Theology

or Dictionary of Biblical_ Historical_ Doctrinal_ and Practical Theology

This volume of Schaff' Christian history covers the Swiss Reformation from Zwigli (1484) until, the successor of Calvin, Beza's death (1605).

Schaff provides much interesting information on Calvin and, especially, his unfortunate connection with Servetus (the latter whom Schaff devotes one chapter of close to 22 pages alone.

Three fourths of the book, the last 13 chapters, discusses Calvin and the movement under his name in much detail, and does so, apparently, very objectively.

While outdated, nevertheless, Schaff's final volume, as with all the previous volumes of his Church History, is informative and well worth the read.

The 7th volume of Shaff's 8 volume work deals exclusively with the Reformation of the sixteenth century. It is rather comprehensive and thorough and, while dealing with other Christians of that era, it looks predominately at Martin Luther.

Although, admittedly, this volume is outdated, nevertheless, it is an intriguing read.

At head of title: ICHTHUS (in Greek characters).Sent for binding 2008-03

Saint Augustin's anti-Pelagian works / tr. by Peter Holmes and Robert Ernest Wallis ; the translation revised by Benjamin B. Warfield

St. Augustin's life and work / by Philip Schaff -- The confessions / tr. by J. G. Pilkington -- The letters / tr. by J. G. Cunningham

Our Lord's sermon on the mount / tr. by William Findlay ; rev. by D. S. Schaff -- The harmony of the Gospels / tr. by S. D. F. Salmond ; ed. by M. B. Riddle -- Sermons on selected lessons / tr. by R. G. MacMullen ; ed. by [Philip] Schaff

Homilies on the Gospel of John / tr. by John Gibb and James Innes -- Homilies on the First Epistle of John / tr. by H. Browne ; rev. and ed. by Joseph H. Myers -- Soliloquies / tr. by C. C. Starbuck

The letters and sermons of Leo the Great ... / tr. by Charles Lett Feltoe -- The book of pastoral rule and selected epistles of Gregory the Great ... / tr. by James Barmby

Theodoret / [tr. by] Blomfield Jackson -- Jerome and Genndius / tr. by Ernest Cushing Richardson -- Rufinus and Jerome / tr. by W. H. Fremantle

Some of the principal works of St. Ambrose / tr. by H. De Romestin ; with the assistance of E. De Romestin and H. T. F. Duckworth

The church history of Eusebius / tr. by Arthur Cushman McGiffert -- The life of Constantine / by Eusebius. Together with the Oration of Constantine to the assembly of the saints and the oration of Eusebius in praise of Constantine. A revised translation by Ernest Cushing Richardson

The works of Sulpitius Severus / tr. by Alexander Roberts -- The commonitory of Vincent of Lerins for the antiquity and universality of the Catholic faith ... / tr. by C. A. Heurtley -- The works of John Cassian / tr. by Edgar C. S. Gibson

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Select works / tr. by E. W. Watson, L. Pullan, and others ; ed. by W. Sanday -- Exposition of the orthodox faith / John of Damascus ; tr. by S. D. F. Salmond

Cyril: Catechetical lectures / rev. translation by Edwin Hamilton Gifford-- Select orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen / tr. by Charles Gordon Browne and James Edward Swallow -- Select letters of Saint Gregory Nazianzen