Cosmos in the Chaos: Philip Schaff's Interpretation of Nineteenth-Century American Religion

by Stephen R Graham

Overview

Philip Schaff is considered the founder of the discipline of church history in America, and he was the foremost practitioner of that discipline in nineteenth-century America. In this book Stephen R. Graham provides the first in-depth treatment of Schaff's analysis of religion in American and, by means of that study, examines not only Schaff's thought but also the development of religion in the United States in the nineteenth century.

Topics covered include the three "threats" to American Christianity as conceived by Schaff — sectarianism, romanism, and rationalism; Schaff's understanding of the American experiment of separation of church and state; Schaff's conception of America as playing a unique role in world and Christian history; and Schaff's contributions to ecumenism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802808417
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	11/06/1995
Pages:	291
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Stephen R. Graham is associate professor of American church history at North Park Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois. He has written extensively on Philip Schaff, including articles in scholarly journals and a chapter on Schaff in Broadman History of Church Historians.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	x
	Foreword	xii
	Preface	xvi
1.	Religious Freedom and the Threat of Sectarianism	1
	Schaff's German Background	1
	A Land So Free from Restraint	7
	The Protestant Principle and Sectarian Divisions	15
	Rich Material for a New Creation	21
	America	28
	Denominations vs. Sects	34
2.	Religious Freedom and the Threat of Romanism	45
	Ecumenism on Trial	45
	The Catholic Union with the Past	51
	The "Semi-Popish Doctrines" of the Tractarians	56
	Professor Schaff's Poisonous Popery	58
	Romanism or Catholicism?	67
3.	Religious Freedom and the Threat of Rationalism	73
	The Abyss of Heathenism	73
	Educating America	81
	Scholarship and the Church	87
	International Theological Nuncio and Mediator	95
	Evangelical-Catholic Historiography	108
4.	Church and State	123
	The Voluntary System	123
	Mormons and Catholics	127
	"Christian" America	134
	Church and State in the United States	138
	Connecting Links	142
5.	Shaping Christian America	151
	American Busyness	151
	The Revivalist Style	153
	Drying Out the Alcoholic Republic	155
	New York Sabbath Committee	159
	Bible Revision	168
6.	The American Nation	177
	A "Specifically American" National Character	177
	Go Forth Noble Saxon Tongue	184
	Digesting the Nations	187
	Surmounting the "Unsurmountable Difference of Race"	190
	America's Tendo-Achilles	195
	Mysteries of Providence	206
7.	Evangelical-Catholic Christianity in America	209
	Patriotism vs. Nationalism	209
	Evangelical-Catholic Christianity	212
	Publications as a Means to Reunion	219
	American Religious Consensus?	222
	One Flock, but Not One Fold	226
	Union Despite Rugged Individualism	229
	Epilogue	235
	Selected Bibliography	239
	Index	256