Philipp Schaff (1819–1893)

To adequately pay tribute to Philipp Schaff, the different buildings blocks of his theological thinking, which originated in Lutheran orthodoxy, supranaturalism, idealistic romantic evolutionary theory and critical rationalism, must be considered in combination with one another. He was no systematic theologian who analysed and critically evaluated each of these elements individually. Rather, he shaped out of them a universal vision of Christian eschatology, culminating at the end of all time. And his vision was always directed towards the Atlantic horizon, where he sought to link up the – at the time definitive – German theology with the emergent American theology; he developed great expectations for the future of Americaas the place where a second Reformation would take place.