THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM



THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM

by Philip Schaff and David Schaff

Baker Book House, (originally published in 1931 but reprinted in 1993),

3 volumes, 2,547 total pages, hardback

Would you believe that Benjamin B. Warfield once wrote that next to Calvin's Institutes, the above 3 volumes by Philip Schaff, are most valuable source of theology available to the ministerial student?

The strength of these volumes is that they get right to the point and cover the major Christian Creeds (theological statements of belief) in the following chronological order:

1. The New Testament

2. The Ante-Nicene and Nicene

3. The Ecumenical

4. Roman

5. Greek and Russian

6. Old Catholic Union

7. Evangelical Lutheran

8. Evangelical Reformed

9. Modern Protestant

10. Recent Confessional Declarations

These volumes provide a good historical theological reference for nearly anything in Church History from the New Testament era to the early 1900s. Volume 1 provides a quick summary of Church History in a 940 pages single column, large print format. Volume 2 deals with the early, Greek, Roman, and Orthodox creeds. Volume 3 deals with the Protestant Creeds. Nearly all the creeds are printed out in full (although just a small few are printed out in Greek and Latin). It is very wise to first read through Volume 1 and then to go through the remaining 2 volumes.

Schaff was a well known professor of Church History first at the Mercersberg Seminary in PA and then on to Union Theological Seminary in NYC during the 1800s. He also wrote a famous 8 volume work, HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. However, if I had my choice to read through either Schaff's HISTORY or his CREEDS, I would definitely prefer the latter.

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