Philip Schaff (1819-1893): Portrait of an Immigrant Theologian by Gary K. Pranger (review)

BOOK REVIEWS585 ered. His Christocentric gospel, tilted sharply toward order and stability, led him to defend Southern slavery and to excoriate abolitionists, women's rights activists , and temperance leaders as the vanguards of chaos. Beecher's Congregational theology notwithstanding, he applauded the stability sustained by Catholic ritual and hierarchy and in the 1850's even took the Church's point that public schools should purge the curriculum of Protestant bias. Beecher was anything but predictable, and Glenn does some ofher best work in iUuminating the irony and contradictions that punctuated his life. Disgruntled with temperance agitators early in his ministry, he later ran for local political office under the Prohibition Party banner. A frank apologist for Southern slavery, Beecher established a long-term relationship with his solidly abolitionist Independent Congregational Church (renamed Park Church in 1871) in Elmira, NewYork. A firm opponent of the women's rights movement, Beecher maintained close relationships with his wife, sisters, and lifelong friend EllaWoIcott , all fiercely independent women with activist credentials. More remarkably, he supported the ordination of Annis Eastman, his female successor at Park Church. Finally, while holding to a conservative line on several fronts, Beecher made late nineteenth-century Park Church a model of socially conscious outreach, sponsoring poor relief, day care, and a variety of educational and cultural programs . Such innovations are the basis of Glenn's claims that institutional churches nationally, as well as the Social Gospel Movement, "owed much to Beecher's pioneering efforts" (p. 160). If so, her claim for direct influence needs more substantial support in the text. While the progress of Beecher's ministry controls Glenn's narrative, she commendably integrates his undulating professional path with national transformations and a lively personal life that included two marriages and an on-going struggle to keep his eccentric flights from eroding the family ties he cherished. Most importantly, Glenn's work reveals the internal struggles that pressed conservative Protestants like Beecher toward both parochial and progressive responses to nineteenth-century democracy. Mark Y Hanley Truman State University Philip Schaff (1819-1893):Portrait ofan Immigrant Theologian. By Gary K. Pranger. [Swiss American Historical Society Publications, Vol. IL] (New York: Peter Lang. 1997. Pp. 305. $45.95.). Exactly one hundred years ago, Philip Schaffs son, David, published with Charles Scribner's Sons the story of his father's life, in part autobiographical. In 526 large pages he presented a thoroughly complimentary yet complete pic- 586BOOK REVIEWS ture of Philip Schaff along with perhaps still the most comprehensive bibliography of Philip's wide-ranging publications. Since 1988, when the centennial celebration of the American Society of Church History, founded by Philip Schaff, was held, a number ofworks have appeared to honor and interpret him. Prior to 1988 a host of dissertations across the country studied Schaff from various viewpoints, perhaps the first of which was Luther J. Binkley's "The Mercersburg Theology" at Harvard University in 1950. Soon thereafter Theodore L. Trost wrote his "Philip Schaffs Concept of the Church" at New College, Edinburgh University in 1958. Others followed the leaders—Shriver (Duke, 1961), Penzel (Union, 1962), Post (Michigan, 1966), Meyer (Catholic University, 1968), Goliber (Kent State, 1976), Mitchell (Notre Dame, 1978), Conser (Brown, 1981), Pranger (University of Illinois at Chicago, 1987), and Graham (Chicago, 1989). During the centennial year my own brief celebratory biography of Schaff appeared along with Henry Bowden's edited volume, A Century of Church History : The Legacy ofPhilip Schaff. A few years later, Klaus Penzel's magnificent Philip Schaff: Historian andAmbassador ofthe Universal Church—Selected Writings (1991) was published. Stephen Graham's Cosmos in the Chaos came out in 1995 as the most thorough exposition of Schaffs views ofAmerica and religion in America. A sprinkling of articles also made their contribution to facts about Schaff in relation to his personal life (his illegitimacy, the reason for his leaving Chur early on, his friendship with Sarah Borthwick) as well as his contributions to academic freedom. Pranger's book is the latest contribution to Schaffian scholarship. An otherwise fine contribution,it is marred at two major points. First, Pranger does not show a major awareness of Schaffian scholarship since 1987. Bowden 's and Penzel's later volumes are...