Henry Eyster Jacobs

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Henry Eyster Jacobs (10 November 18447 July 1932) was an American educator and Lutheran theologian.

Jacobs was born at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania He graduated from Pennsylvania College in 1862 and from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1865. Between 1870 and 1883, he was professor at Pennsylvania College. He was then appointed professor of systematic theology in Mount Airy Seminary in Philadelphia, where he also assumed the office of dean in 1894. In 1920, he became President of the Seminary when the office of dean was abolished.

He served as president of his church's board of foreign missions (1902-07), of the General Conference of Lutherans (1899, 1902, 1904), of the American Society of Church History (1907-08), and of the Pennsylvania German Society (1910-11). Besides translating various German theological works and editing the Lutheran Church Review (1882-96), a Lutheran Commentary (1895-98), and a Lutheran Encyclopedia (1899), he wrote:

  • The Lutheran Movement in England (1891)
  • History of the Lutheran Church in America (1893)
  • Elements of Religion (1894)
  • Life of Martin Luther (1898)
  • The German Emigration to America, 1709- 40 (1899)
  • Summary of the Christian Faith (1905)

Further biographical information (with portrait) is available in The Philadelphia seminary biographical record, 1864-1923.