Henry Eyster Jacobs (1844-1932) served as Professor of Systematic Theology and President of the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia. He was president of his church’s board of foreign missions, and edited the Lutheran Church Review, the Lutheran Commentary, and the Lutheran Cyclopedia. He wrote and translated many books.
“In 1906, Dr. Henry Eyster Jacobs, then in his sixty-second year, wrote these notes on his experiences in the leadership of the Lutheran Church. As he states in his opening sentence, these notes are set down for the use of others. He had in mind particularly his own son, Dr. Charles Michael Jacobs, then pastor of Christ Church, Allentown - later to succeed him as President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. The notes were handwritten in his miniscule script, and filled twenty-five of his familiar end-open note books. He reviewed the notes at least twice later and made corrections, additions and deletions. These changes are quite apparent in the manuscript by the shaky hand-writing and the occasionally added date of entry ( 1922, 1927, etc.).
15 May 2023
This is a highly readable, modern English version of the classic volume of Protestant Biblical theology. The translation of the Augsburg Confession is that of Charles P. Krauth, the Small Catechism by Charles F. Schaeffer, the Large Catechism by Rev. A. Martin, Professor of the German Language and Literature in Pennsylvania College, the Apology, the Smalcald Articles and the Formula of Concord were translated by Henry Eyster Jacobs.
16 Mar 2023
“Professor Jacobs is an exceptionally sympathetic and competent biographer… (He) has availed himself of all the latest sources of information, and done the needful work of selection and condensation with excellent judgment and skill.” — Christian Intelligencer.
13 Apr 2021
A Summary of the Christian Faith brings Hutter’s classic Compendium into a readable and easily accessible form. Henry Eyster Jacobs writes: “The book is not a mere compilation, but the matured expression of the convictions of the author, from the time when, as a child he was introduced to many of the problems treated, to the present.”
13 Apr 2021
Hutter’s Compend has been a beloved handbook of the Christian Faith for many Christians over many years. It’s well suited for people at all levels of knowledge. The translator, Henry Eyster Jacobs, has this to say about it:
6 Nov 2020
“Nor will the careful student ever recall Lincoln without recognizing the Gettysburg incident as condensing within itself all that he elsewhere spoke and wrote and accomplished. The meaning of what had transpired on the first three days of July, 1863, with the thousands of lives that had been sacrificed, and the tens of thousands that were enduring untold physical suffering, and the countless homes throughout the land that were darkened because they mourned loved ones, so filled his heart that he compressed the convictions of a lifetime and the anguish of the responsibilities he was then bearing, into a two minutes’ address that has become the most highly cherished classic that America has produced. The aim of what is presented in the following pages is to treat of the historical setting of the address, together with a study of the principles which underlie it.” — Henry Eyster Jacobs
30 Sep 2020
Luther’s Little Instruction Book (Small Catechism) has been translated into many of the languages of the world. Williston Walker in his History of the Christian Church describes it as “one of the noblest monuments of the Reformation”. Of it, Luther writes,
17 Jan 2020
“The Apology is more than a mere polemical treatise. It is a thorough discussion, in all its relations, of the cardinal doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, without Works; for whatever be the article treated, the discussion always reverts to this theme. At first reading, it may indeed seem diffuse, but farther study will show that it contains little, if anything, unnecessary, as it is its aim to meet the questions proposed at every turn, and to examine them from varied standpoints.
17 Jan 2020
The Augsburg Confession is the first part of the Book of Concord, the Lutheran Confessions. The Saxon Visitation Articles were used by pastors to instruct their congregants and appeared in Saxon editions of the Book of Concord until the forced union of Lutheran and Reformed in the Nineteenth Century.
17 Jan 2020
“The Formula of Concord is the result of controversies within the Lutheran Church after the breach with the Papacy had become complete… It required more than a single generation for the Evangelical faith in all its power to penetrate the minds and lives of even its staunchest adherents; and when we recall the deplorable condition into which the Church had fallen, and the deep ignorance not only of the people, but also of the ministry, described in the introductions to the Catechisms, we cannot wonder at the subsequent internal struggles, when the controversy with the Papists absorbed less attention…
17 Jan 2020