Founding the Fathers. Elizabeth A. Clark
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kept “steady hands on the floodgates through which, a little later, the tide of German thought came pouring into the square enclosures of New England metaphysics and theology.”280 In other words, Schaff and Smith moderated the entrance of contemporary German thought into American intellectual life so as to preserve traditional Christian interests.281
At the December 27, 1893 meeting of the American Society of Church History, representatives from various confessions (including the Roman Catholic282) praised Schaff’s accomplishments. Methodist Bishop John Fletcher Hurst compared Schaff’s efforts to unite Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon theology to Jerome’s linking of East and West and to Origen’s union of three continents (Schaff however, unlike Origen, mercifully had “no touch of Oriental fancy”). Schaff, Hurst proclaimed, will be remembered as “the first to bring to the Anglo-Saxon mind the treasures of the Fatherland.”283
George Park Fisher (1827–1909)
George Fisher—whom historian Roland Bainton describes as a “mellowed Puritan”284—was born in Massachusetts in 1827, graduating from Brown in 1847. At Brown he was introduced to historical studies by Professor William Gammell, under whose tutelage he wrote a paper on Roger Williams, based on manuscripts of Williams’s correspondence that had recently come to the Rhode Island Historical Society.285 After one year in the Yale Theological Department, he decamped to Andover Seminary, graduating in 1851. He then went to Germany, studying at Halle in 1852–1853. From Germany, he was called back to a position at Yale.286 His entire subsequent career was spent at New Haven.
Fisher kept a travel diary (now in the Yale Divinity School archives) detailing his year in Europe. Arriving in Halle in June 1852, he learned that the university had only recently “recovered” from the prevailing Rationalism of German universities. Earlier, anyone who showed a leaning toward Christianity, he was told, had been deemed a fanatic.287
Fisher began attending lectures at Halle a few days after his arrival. He confessed in his diary that he “understood precious little”—but within a week or so, he was able to catch an idea here or there.288 He steadily improved in the coming months, eventually translating German texts for American audiences. One example is his translation of an article by August Neander (“The Relation of the Grecian to Christian Ethics”), prefaced by a long introduction that Fisher offered as “a contribution to Christian evidences.”289 After Fisher assumed the chair of Ecclesiastical History at Yale, the number of books by German scholars that students in the Theological Department checked out from the library increased significantly.290
Many aspects of German university education—for example, the lack of examinations—required adjustment on Fisher’s part.291 Several professors at Halle, however, befriended him and helped him to understand the German system. One of these, Heinrich Leo, liked to discuss all things American with him,292 while August Tholuck, as was his custom with American students, went on walks during which he explained the mysteries of theological parties in Germany.293 In 1853, Tholuck gave Fisher letters of introduction to professors in Rome, Basel, Bern, Heidelberg, and Bonn.294 In Germany, Fisher, like other American evangelical students, developed a suspicion of “Pantheism” and the Tübingen School that remained with him in later years, as did a general distaste for radical biblical criticism.
In December 1853, President Theodore Dwight Woolsey of Yale invited Fisher to accept a position in theology. Woolsey bluntly admits that there had been a delay with the appointment because a few professors were “somewhat reluctant to call a man not a graduate of the College,” but all now seemed ready to concur. The post involved offering instruction in “Natural Theology and the Evidences”; in addition, Fisher would preach and serve as pastor of the university church, officiating at least once a week at prayers. He would receive $1300 annually—and salaries are soon to be raised to $1500 (“beyond a question,” Woolsey assures him). Woolsey claims the faculty’s agreement to Fisher’s appointment shows that Providence must be at work!295
Fisher’s appointment came over the objections of Noah Porter, who for two decades had taught courses in “Natural Theology and Evidences of Christianity” in the College. Porter reasoned that since Fisher had no particular philosophical training, he should not be allowed to teach theology.296 (Porter apparently suspected Fisher of wanting to teach philosophy—his own turf.297) Both appealed to President Woolsey. Fisher hotly rejected Porter’s implication that he was to be “merely like a city missionary or tractdistributor in college—prevented from guiding by thorough and careful discussions the religious opinions of the students—prevented from assailing ‘philosophical’ and all other unbelief.” It appears that Fisher won this dispute, as the catalogue for 1855–1856 lists him as teaching “Natural Theology and Evidences of Christianity” to the senior class.298 In 1858–1859, Fisher is listed as the Livingston Professor of Divinity,299 and in 1861 he was awarded the new Street chair in Ecclesiastical History.300 With this appointment, Fisher resigned his position as pastor of the university church, although he continued to preach throughout the difficult years of the Civil War.301 In 1895, Fisher became Dean of the theological faculty (i.e., the Divinity School), a post he held for five years.302
Upon Fisher’s retirement in 1900–1901, the Yale Corporation noted that he had given Yale more years of service—forty-six—than any other professor (excepting the “elder Silliman”) since the College had been founded, and praised his “expansive learning,” “truly Catholic spirit,” and “temperate attitude as a Theologian.”303 He had taught (after his seven years in the College) in the Theological Department from 1861 to 1901.304 His writings, one commentator claims, “struck the theological and apologetic note, with which was combined the historical approach.”305 After Fisher’s death in December 1909,306 a memorial window was dedicated in his honor. At the dedication ceremony, he was described as neither a liberal nor a conservative, but a middle-of-the-roader.307 Indeed, compared with the other professors here described, he seems rather bland. Since there is no biography of him, we lack details of his life and work that would have sharpened our picture.
Fisher was esteemed outside Yale as well. In 1873, he was invited to become a member of the Philosophical Society of Great Britain.308 He received seven honorary degrees.309 (President Charles Eliot of Harvard himself wrote to convey Harvard’s wish to confer an honorary D.D. on him during its 250th anniversary celebration.310) In 1897, Fisher served as President of the American Historical Association, delivering an address on “The Function of the Historian as a Judge of Historic Persons.”311
Fisher also was an editor of The New Englander, which advertised itself as disavowing “allegiance to any party in theology or politics.” Although the editors claimed that the journal would discuss issues of “public interest in literature, science, and philosophy” beyond the realm of theology, they also assured readers that it “will not be inattentive to the various assaults of rationalism against revealed religion, or to the position of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States.”312 Several of Fisher’s essays were published in this journal.
Fisher wrote many lengthy serial articles, some of which, when combined, constitute book-length treatises. Of his published books, I here note the following: Essays on the Supernatural Origins of Christianity (1865);313 The Beginnings of Christianity with A View of the State of the Roman World at the Birth of Christ (1877); Discussions in History and Theology (1880, a collection of his essays); The Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief (1883, another collection of essays); Outlines of Universal History (1885); History of the Christian Church (1887);314 A Brief History of the Nations and of Their Place in Civilization (1896); and History of Christian Doctrine (1896). Several of his scholarly articles, more than his textbooks, show his interest in the Jewish streams of early Christianity and in combating modern German criticism; these essays shall be considered in the chapters that follow.
Colleagues elsewhere knew Fisher as a hard and rapid worker. James B. Angell, President of the University of