The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Fisher, George Park

FISHER, George Park, an American scholar, born in Wrentham, Mass., Aug. 10, 1827. He graduated at Brown university in 1847, and studied theology in the divinity school of Yale college and in that at Andover, Mass. In 1853 he visited Germany, where he continued his theological studies. He was appointed professor of divinity in Yale college on his return from Europe, and, in connection with his professorship, he was ordained as pastor of the college church, Oct. 24, 1854. After a period of seven years he resigned his office, and in 1861 was elected professor of ecclesiastical history in Yale divinity school. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Brown university in 1866. He has been a frequent contributor to the “New Englander,” of which quarterly he has since 1866 been one of the editors. In 1865 he published a volume entitled “Essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity, with special reference to the Theories of Renan, Strauss, and the Tübingen School” (enlarged ed., 1871). He delivered in 1871 a course of lectures at the Lowell institute, Boston, on the reformation, and from these resulted a volume on the “History of the Reformation” (1873).