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Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge

The Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge is a religious encyclopedia. It is based on an earlier German encyclopedia, the Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche. Like the Realencyklopädie, it focuses on Christianity from a primarily Protestant point of view. The final edition, titled The New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, was published 1908–14 in 13 volumes, based on the third edition of the Realencyklopädie (1896–1909).

1853–1868: 1st ed. Ed. (1805–1882). 22 vols.

Johann Jakob Herzog

c. 1877: new ed. Ed. Herzog and G.L. Plitt (1836–1880).

1896–1909: 3rd ed. Ed. Albert Hauck (1845–1918). 22 vols.

The Realencyklopädie's publishing history was:[1]


The Schaff-Herzog's publishing history was:[1]


Christian Classics Ethereal Library has digitized the work and made it available online. Logos Bible Software is also undertaking a digitization project of it.


The new Schaff-Herzog encyclopedia of religious knowledge, embracing Biblical, historical, doctrinal, and practical theology and Biblical, theological, and ecclesiastical biography from the earliest times to the present day. Edited by Samuel MacAuley Jackson (Volumes 2 to 12 have abbreviated titles which vary slightly; volume 13 is an Index volume, which was edited by George William Gilmore).

that at its base lay the Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie and Kirche

that it gave in condensed form the information in that work, and took such matter directly from the German work in most instances, although occasionally while the topic was the same the treatment was independent of the German original;

that it had much new information contributed by the editorial staff and specially secured contributors;

that in biblical matters it limited its titles to those of the German base, so that it should not be considered to be a Bible dictionary.

The idea of translating Herzog in a slightly condensed form occurred to John Henry Augustus Bomberger, a minister of the German Reformed Church, and then president of Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and in 1856 he brought out in Philadelphia the first volume, whose title-page reads thus: The Protestant Theological and Ecclesiastical Encyclopedia: Being a Condensed Translation of Herzog's Real Encyclopedia. With Additions from Other Sources. By Rev. J. H. A. Bomberger, D.D., Assisted by Distinguished Theologians of Various Denominations. Vol. I. Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, x 1856. In this work he associated with himself twelve persons, all but one ministers. In 1860 he issued the second volume. But the American Civil War breaking out the next year put a stop to so costly an enterprise and it was never resumed. The first volume included the article "Concubinage", the second "Josiah". It had been issued in numbers, of which the last was the twelfth.[1]


In 1877 Professor Philip Schaff (1819–93) was asked by Dr. Herzog himself to undertake an English reproduction of the second edition of his encyclopedia, and this work was fairly begun when, in the autumn of 1880, Clemens Petersen and Samuel Macauley Jackson were engaged to work daily on it in Dr. Schaff's study in the Bible House, New York City. The next year Dr. Schaff's son, the Rev. David Schley Schaff, later professor of church history in the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pa., joined the staff. The original publishers were S. S. Scranton & Company, Hartford, Conn., but a change was made before the issue of the first volume and the encyclopedia was issued by Funk & Wagnalls. The title-page read thus:


The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge followed the previous editions. The points of similarities were:[1]


The points of dissimilarity were:[1]

Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication in the : Jackson, Samuel Macauley (1908). "Preface". In Jackson, Samuel Macauley (ed.). New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Vol. 1 (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. pp. ix–xii.

public domain