1819–1893

Introduction

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Born: Jan­ua­ry 1, 1819, Chur, Grau­bün­den, Swit­zer­land.

Died: Oc­to­ber 20, 1893, New York Ci­ty.

Buried: Wood­lawn Ce­me­te­ry, Bronx, New York.

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Biography

Philip was the son of Phil­ip and An­na Schaf, and hus­band of Ma­ry Eli­za­beth Schley.

He was edu­cat­ed at the uni­ver­si­ties in Tü­bing­en, Hal­le, and Ber­lin, Ger­ma­ny, and re­ceived the de­gree of Li­cen­ti­ate of Theo­lo­gy (BD) at Ber­lin, May 29, 1841.

He lat­er re­ceived an hon­or­ary de­gree of Doc­tor of Di­vi­ni­ty from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ber­lin (May 5, 1854); the Uni­ver­si­ty of St. An­drews, Scot­land (Ap­ril 20, 1887); and the Uni­ver­si­ty of the Ci­ty of New York (No­vem­ber 25, 1892). He al­so re­ceived an LLD de­gree from Am­herst College, Mas­sa­chu­setts, in 1876.

After emi­grat­ing to Am­eri­ca, Schaff be­came a pro­fess­or at the Mer­cers­burg Re­formed Se­mi­na­ry in Mer­cers­burg, Penn­syl­van­ia, in 1843. He spent 20 years there, then moved to New York in 1863. He lec­tured at sem­in­ar­ies in An­do­ver, Mas­sa­chu­setts; Hart­ford, Con­nec­ti­cut; and New York.

In 1869, Schaff joined the fa­cu­lty of the Un­ion Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry in New York Ci­ty, where he held suc­cess­ive­ly the chairs of Pro­pæ­deu­tic and Sym­bo­lic, Bib­li­cal Li­te­ra­ture (first He­brew, then Greek), and (in 1887) Church His­to­ry.

Schaff al­so served as sec­re­ta­ry of the New York Sab­bath Com­mit­tee, hon­or­ary cor­respond­ing sec­re­ta­ry of the Ev­an­ge­li­cal Al­li­ance, and pre­si­dent of the Am­eri­can Bi­ble Re­vi­sion Com­mit­tee. He was re­peat­ed­ly sent on em­bas­sies to Eur­ope on be­half of the Bi­ble Re­vi­sion Com­mit­tee, the Ev­an­ge­li­cal Al­li­ance, the Pan-Pres­by­ter­ian Al­li­ance, and as a de­le­gate to the Fifth Cen­ten­ni­al of Hei­del­berg Uni­ver­si­ty, Ger­ma­ny (1886), and the Eighth Cen­ten­ni­al of Bo­lo­gna Uni­ver­si­ty, It­aly (1888).

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