LIBRARY OF THE University of California. QIF^T OF" ...yir^A/K^rtr:. £\ vJtw.CLov,<%r.O.. Class Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/functionofchristOOholtrich (FOUNDED BY JOHN D. ROCKEFELLBR.) THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE DIVINITY SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY. DEPAKTMENT OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. BY ARTHUR E. HOLT. TTbraT ^W/VER8ITY CHICAGO frtiu of ^to, 2C. ifazim ^ (Eo. 1904 CONTENTS. Introduction, Chapter I. Historical Study of the Function of Christian Ethics in the New Testament Period. 1. Ethical Teachings of Jesus. 2. Ethical Teachings of St. Paul. Chapter II. Study of the Function of Christian Ethics in its Subsequent Development. 1. The Function of Christian Ethics in the Catholic Development. Criticism of Catholic Development. 2. The Protestant Development. The Work of Luther. The Orthodox Protestant Development. Criticism of Orthodox Protestant Develop- ment. The Work of Schleiermacher. Chapter III. A Constructive Statement of the Function of Christian Ethics. Significance for Ethics of the Fact that Man is called to a Personal Life. Method in Christian Ethics. Relation of Christian Ethics to History. Chapter IV. Practical Value of such a System of Ethics. Christian Ethics and Science. Value for Moral Life. Value for Religion. Christian Ethics as a Scientific Task. BIBLIOGRAPHY. D. W. Herrmann, J. C. Krarup. R. Kubel. J. Kostlin. H. Schultz. Schleiermacher. Lobstein. Newman Smyth. Harless. T. B. Strong. W. Gass. T. H. Green. H. Martensen. W. E. H. Lecky. F. Paulsen. Wardlaw. Wuttke. A. Harnack. A. Harnack. Ethik. Grundriss der Christlichen Ethik. Christliche Ethik. Christliche Ethik. Grundriss der Evangelischen Ethik. Christliche Ethik. Introduction to Protestant Dogmatics. Trans- lated by A. M. Smith. Christian Ethics. Christian Ethics. Christian Ethics. Geschichte der Christlichen Ethik. Prolegomena to Ethics. Christian Ethics. Translated by W. Affleck. History of European Morals. System of Ethics. Translated by Thilly. Christian Ethics. Christian Ethics. Translated by Lacroix. What is Christianity? Translated by Saunders. History of Dogma, Vols. I-VI. Translated by Neil Buchanan. or THE UNIVERSITY INTRODUCTION. The title of this thesis is "The Function of Christian Ethics." It might well have been "A Study of the Norm in Christian Conduct." In general it may be said that the function of Christian ethics is sys- tematically to set forth the contents of Christian conduct. But this function must be more accurately defined ; stated in this general way it means one thing for a Catholic, another thing for an orthodox Protestant, and another thing for a New Testament writer. This function differs as the norm for Christian conduct differs. If this norm is the divine church law handed down by the Catholic Church then the function of Christian ethics is systematically to set forth the content of Catholic ethical tradition. If the norm is the sacred book of the Protestant then the function is to set forth the content of the biblical legislation, and if the norm is the redeemed personality then the function of Christian ethics is to set forth the content of Christian activity from the standpoint of this personality. Stated in less technical language, the question which this thesis seeks to answer is one which has been raised by the rather recent popular cry of "Back to Jesus in faith and conduct." This cry, which seemed fraught with so much good for the ethical and relig- ious Hfe of the Christian church, has been checked by a question which not many people seem to have answered, namely, "When you go back to Jesus, what can you bring away with you" ? Some have looked upon Jesus as a moral legislator whose precepts are good for all time and from whom we may obtain directions governing all the departments of life. The hard and fast legalism in which this an- swer has landed people has checked the enthusiasm of the movement. It is the purpose of this thesis to answer the question, "What can Jesus give a man in the ethical sphere ?" The method of procedure will be a study of Christian ethics in its New Testament inception. We shall then follow the change which comes with the development of the Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation and the development into orthodox Protest- antism ; on the basis of this study a constructive statement will be made of the true conception of the function of Christian ethics. CHAPTER I. STUDY OF THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN NEW TESTA- MENT PERIOD. ETHICAL TEACHING OF JESUS. Jesus' ethical teaching presupposes a reHgious call : "Love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you that ye may be sons of your Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." (Mt. 5-44-45.) Ethical action is here wrapped up with the relig- ious vocation of being a son to God. It is from this vocation, in other places described as fellowship with Jesus himself (John 15, 24, 14, 20-25, 14, 6:9), and as citizenship in the kingdom of God (Mt. 6, 33), that Jesus draws both a necessity and norm for Chris- tian activity. The vocation comes to man bringing an ethical prob- lem, a task to be performed ; the kingdom of heaven is something to be sought (Mt. 6, 33), to be entered by a narrow gate (Luke 13, 24). This vocation of sonship to God furnishes the norm for con- duct, "Ye therefore shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is per- fect." "Love your enemies . . . that ye may be sons" (Mt. 5, 44). Jesus' criterion for goodness is a condition of the personal life. It is to be noted here that he does not say it is sufficient to have a good will towards men, the realization of sonship is a richer term' than the having of a good will. Nor does he content himself with the Kantian formula, "Love for divine law," he always speaks of love for neighbor. Personality is a richer term than either will or law. To say that Jesus insists on an inner righteousness of the heart does not seem adequately to describe the moral strenuousness of his message. It does not do justice to the positive consciousness of the Christian. To Jesus the good acts are the acts of one who takes toward life the positive, purposeful attitude which God holds. An act is good which constitutes man a son of God.* *i. Jesus describes man's vocation as a call to fellowship with himself. Men whc reject him reject God, and men who enter into fellowship with him enter into fellowship with God. These passages are found largely in the gospel of John (15, 23; 14, 20-25; 14, 6-8). 2. Jesus also describes man's vocation as a call to citizenship in the kingdom of God. This can be understood only in the light of the vocation as described in the term "Sons of your Father." The kingdom of God is that organization where sons of God exist. As Professor Shailer Mathews has expressed it, the kingdom of God is that "ideal social order in which the relation of men to God is that of sons, and therefore to each other that of brotliers." cf. "Social Teachings of Jesus," p. 54. 7 O THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. Now it is not often pointed out that Jesus' description of the king- dom of God is always in terms of the life of the individual member. Instead of describing the kingdom as a whole he defines the life of a man who is called to sonship to God. It is as though he were de- scribing a democratic state in terms of the life of the individual member. The kingdom of God and of heaven is a state where men fulfill the vocation of sons of God. The characteristics of the voca- tion already described are not changed in this conception of citi- zenship in the kingdom of God. The terms kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven do not, so far as ethics is concerned, furnish a normative principle; they are general concepts in the minds of the Jewish people which Jesus reconstructs on the basis of the new emphasis on the fatherhood of God. We might, I think, sum up Jesus' call to men as a call to enter a kingdom of spiritual person- alities, the condition of entrance being the possession of spiritual life. Jesus' ethical teachings are nothing more nor less than the expli- cation of the implications which this call to sonship to God has for conduct. Though the call is primarily a religious one, yet there is no place where a line can be drawn between man's religious task and his ethical one; his religious task is an ethical one and his ethical task is a religious one. Man is called to sonship to God, but it is to a God who has created the world; his ethical task is to be a son in this world. Jesus never breaks the organic relationship of conduct to personal faith. The norm for conduct is found in the character of the Father — not the Father who stands hidden behind a dead tradition, but the Father who is revealed in personal life. Because God is personal man is called to be a person. The ethical criterion becomes then the criterion of personal life. Jesus' teach- ing comes to be a valuation of life on the basis of man's call to be a person. In a multitude of ways Jesus sets forth this principle, valuating all the departments of man's life on the basis of it. Let us consider his teaching on anger and retaliation. He criticises the teaching of the Pharisees who were the leaders of this time. They had taken as normal for action the words of Exodus (21, 23- 25) : "Thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe ;" also Leviticus (19, 17), "I am the Lord, thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart .... nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but shall love thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus puts in place of these teachings his own, "But I say unto you. Resist not him that is evil: but whosoever sm.iteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Mt. 5, 39). "But I say unto you love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you that ye may be sons of your THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 9 Father which is in heaven" (Mt. 5, 44). His objection to actions governed by the Old Testament code was that such righteousness never rises above the sphere of circumstances, whereas the son of God must rise above circumstances. The man who returns burning for burning and wound for wound has no consistent purpose govern- ing his Ufe; he is governed entirely by the way other men treat him ; if they treat him kindly he treats them kindly, if they are un- kind to him, he is unkind to them. Such a man is a slave to circum- stances, he has no vocation but rather exists as a means to some other man's vocation. God does not allow man's pettiness to deter- mine his attitude towards men, neither should a son of God allow the pettiness of other men to determine his attitude toward them. Jesus is not advocating a policy of weak passivity towards men, in fact that is the very thing which he is condemning. It is not always seen that the man who renders evil for evil is being dominated by other men. Jesus says that the only way to be free is to treat other men better than they treat you. Instead of robbing man's life of its dignity he is exalting it to supremacy. By this criterion of son- ship to God Jesus maintains the autonomous character of all true moral beings. By this same criterion of sonship to God, a God whose purpose dominates all occasions, Jesus regulates the teaching of his day in regard to the taking of oaths. The Pharisees taught that a man should perform unto the Lord his oaths. (Mt. 5, 33) : that a man should do that which he had sworn to do. The basis of this was found in Deuteronomy (23, 21-23) : "When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not be slack to pay it, for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee and it would be sin unto thee." Jesus overrules this teaching with the words, "Swear not at all." That he is not condemning the mere taking of oaths as wrong may be learned from the fact that he himself takes an oath when he stands before Caiaphas (Mt. 26, 63). What he condemns is the spirit in man which will make the occasion of having taken an oath the only occasion for truth telling. Men were telling the truth be- cause they had sworn so to do, their responsibility rested in the external fact of an oath. Man, says Jesus, must be veracious with- out regard to circumstances, his speech must need no guarantee ex- cept the self-imposed guarantee of a son of God. He incorporates truth-telling in man's vocation. One could run through all of Jesus' teachings showing how he values life by this criterion, that man has been called to sonship to a God who is a moral personality above all the world and yet in the world. The Jews had appointed times for fasting, times when it was proper for men to wear sad countenances ; Jesus asks why the sons of the bride-chamber should fast. (Mt. 9, 15.) He revolu- lO THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. ticnized the conception of the Sabbath by saying that it was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, thus throwing upon man the necessity of making the Sabbath valuable. He reverses the idea of purity and ceremonial cleanliness. The Pharisees taught that certain external things were defiling ; Jesus says only that which is a product of a bad heart is defiling : *'not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man, but that which procedeth out of the mouth." (Mt. 15, II.) Wealth is to be used to feed the poor, it is to be the means by which love expresses itself rather than the external occa- sion for self-satisfaction (Mk. 10, 17-27), nor should the lack of it be the occasion for worry on the part of man (Mt. 6, 19-34). Per- sonal life is the supreme good and all things are worthless if man has not found this good. (Mk. 8, 36.) Because Jesus located righteousness entirely in the personal Hfe, and exalted the human soul until he made all worthiness to consist in personal life, he could say that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. HitTierto the kingdom, had been so wrapped up with temporal conditions that it could not be brought near, but by making it supremely a life of God in the heart of man Jesus was able to make of the kingdom a present reality. To sum up our conclusions as to the function* of ethics in Jesus' teaching, we can say that ethics has for its task the defining of the new life to which man is called by virtue of the fact that he is a son of God. To live this life man must understand its nature, and this Jesus enables him to do. To accomplish this he works in two ways : first, he sets before men the nature of their vocation, and sec- ond, he sets before them the snares which may stand in the way of the attainment of this vocation. His work is like that of a physician who reveals the normal workings of a healthy human body and the conditions which mitigate against the normal workings of this body and who thus works in the interests of health. Jesus does not give men precepts for action, but he gives them a deep insight into the nature of a moral vocation and thus works in the interests of mor- ality.* *It is sometimes said that Jesus gives commandments for life, and that there are two commands especially which are given to be obeyed, i. e., the command to observe the Lord's supper (Lk. 22:19), and the command against divorce (Mk. 10:4-12). The answer to the claim that we have here two commands which are to be obeyed, as commands, is that it destroys the whole purpose of the Lord's supper if it is not kept in the spirit of brotherly love, and to observe it legalistically would be to observe it unworthily. May not Jesus' instructions against divorce be taken in the spirit of the other com- mands, that God alone is judge over the validity of the marriage tie and not human inclination? Those words which sound like strenuous commands are usually ex- hortations to the disciples to make clear to themselves the true significance of their actions. THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. II It is interesting to note how closely Jesus confines himself to the task of setting forth conduct in terms of personal life. He teaches nothing of value on science, he does not even think it worth while to commit his teachings to writing ; he is content to transform the character of a few men, to breathe into their lives the spirit of God their Father ; and with this final blessing he leaves them to transform the world. He does not even seem anxious that he should leave behind him a perfect system of teaching, he is content to have initiated a small band of men into their vocation. He does not seek to become a dictator over their lives, he is always more anxious that they should understand for themselves the true nature of righteous- ness than that they should do this or that particular thing.* ETHICAL TEACHINGS OF ST. PAUL. In a study of the ethical teachings of St. Paul we find the same emphasis on the personal nature of all righteousness: "For ye are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ" (Gal. 3, 26), "so we also when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudi- ments of the world : but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, that he might re- deem them which were under the law, that we might receive the adop- tion of sons. And because ye are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So that thou are no longer a bond servant, but a son : and if a son then an heir through God." (Gal. 4, 3-7.) "So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh ye must die : but if by the spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear: but ye received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself beareth witness' with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ : if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glori- fied with him" (Rom. 8, 12-17). These two passages are significant ♦There is noticeable in Jesus' teaching a general lack of interest in social and economic questions, which is significant as an index of his main interest. His rather curt answer to a question uppermost in the minds of the Jews, as to whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not (Mt. 22, 21), his seeming indifference to all political powers, and his failure to specify in any way as to the political or economic status of the coming kingdom, all tend to 'show that as an ethical teacher he did not consider that his function was to outline political and economic programs for his day. As Dr. G. D. Heuve.r says in his book, entitled "The Teachings of Jesus Concernmg Wealth" (p. 200) : "Jesus sought to better people's material condition by making the people themselves better." 12 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. because in one, man's vocation as a son of God is emphasized, and in the other, it is shown that this vocation is an ethical one because the vocation grows out of the character of God. To be filled with the spirit of God is to be a son of God, and to be a son of God is to dominate over the impulses of the flesh. Paul also defines the new life of a Christian as a life of vital union with Christ (Gal. 2, 2021) ; Christ lives in him in a close, personal union. This is not a differ- ent statement from the description given above, for Paul nowhere distinguishes between the spirit of God and the spirit of Christ. All Christians joined together in close, personal union constitute the body of Christ (Eph. 4, 12-16, I Cor. 12, 12, 6, 12-20) : the unifying bond which unites all these members is the bond of love. Any act which is not animated by love rends the body of Christ. From out of man's vocation Paul draws the principle for ethical activity. The central principle for a man's action must be love (Rom. 13, 8), which principle Paul, like Jesus, grounds in the na- ture of the Author of his vocation (Eph. 4, 31-5, 2) : "forgiving each other even as God also in Christ forgave you. Be ye there- fore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you." That is ethically bad, according to Paul, which robs a man of his vocation. There are two sources from which temptation comes ; the first is the temptation to subject one's self to the law in a legal- istic way. The essence of Paul's objection to the seeking right- eousness by following the precepts of the law, is that thereby men are throwing aside their vocation as sons of a God who through Jesus has called them to freedom (Gal. 4, i-ii) ; by following the precepts of the law they enter into bondage. The great controver- sies which continued throughout Paul's life were with those Juda- izers who sought to vitiate the ethical life of his converts by mak- ing them put their confidence in works of the law. It was a battle which Paul had fought for himself (Gal. 2, 19), and he appreciated the absolute futility of it. The second temptation which tends to rob man of his ethical vocation is the prompting of the flesh (Gal. 5, 16-24). The flesh wars against the spirit, and it is the business of the Christian to become so filled with the spirit as to be able to dominate over the flesh. This spirit, of course, is the spirit of God or of Christ. It is to be noted here that Paul's remedy for the temp- tation of the flesh is neither law nor regulations but the spirit of God. The man who walks by the spirit fulfills the vocation of a son of God, hence Paul's remedy for sin is that man exercising his will shall enter into this vocation to which Jesus has summoned him. To sum up the conclusions from the ethical teachings of Paul, he, like Jesus, finds in the religious call which man has experienced a call to ethical action. This has significance for his personal life. THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. I3 All of Paul's teachings are given in the interest of making man understand what it means for conduct that he has been called a son of God. He, like Jesus, sets forth the nature of the life to which man has been called. He seeks to give insight into the nature of that life and to deepen its significance. He sets forth the snares which might prevent a man from entering into his vocation. Like Jesus he confines himself closely to the teachings about personal life. Through this the teachings find an organic unity and because of this they are of supreme worth. He professes in no way to offer us knowledge on the various physical and social sciences. CHAPTER II. STUDY OF FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS IN ITS SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENT— I. CATHOLIC DEVELOPMENT. With the full development of the Catholic church the function of Christian ethics undergoes a distinct change. The forces which lead to this development are varied, but they all seem to lead directly to one goal — the erection of an authoritative institution in the place of Christ, an institution whose function it is to make men subordinate to itself, instead of freeing them from institutions. The most important forces leading to this result are the emphasis on the apostolic tradition and the gradual growth of the hierarchy. This was the effective way of meeting the opposition from heretical sects. Tertullian's words in his treatise ''Against Heretics" are very significant of the trend of development. "An appeal therefore must not be made to the scripture nor must controversy be admitted on points in which victory will either be impossible, or uncertain, or not certain enough ; but even if a discussion from the scriptures should not turn out in such a way as to place both sides on a par, the natural order of things would require that the point should be first proposed which is now the only one which we must discuss, 'with whom lies the very faith to which the scriptures belong, from what original giver and through whom, and when and to whom has been handed down that rule by which men become Christians/ For whenever it shall be manifest that the true Christian rule and faith shall be there will likewise be the true scripture and exposition thereof and all the Christian tradition."* The idea of authoritative apostolic tradition determined the con- dition of ethics in the Western Church. Ethics became a setting forth of certain authoritative laws which men are to obey. The Western Church claimed to be the successor of the Roman Empire, the natural result was that it was looked upon as the law giver; men were the subjects of this hierarchy, as they were formerly the subjects of the Roman Empire. (Tertullian Against Heresies Ch. XIX, Ch. XIII and Ch. XXI. Cf. also Cyprian Unity of the Church, paragraph 4.)* *The Eastern Church because of its speculative interests neglected the practical side of life and ethics played very small part in its development. It was reserved for the practical Western Church to lay the interest on conduct. THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 1 5 With Augustine there is a double development which partially leads back to the New Testament idea of righteousness and partially furthers the Catholic development. Augustine as no man previous to him, insisted that obedience to external tradition and custom was not righteousness ; "but when God commands anything, contrary to the customs or compacts of a nation, though it was never done before by them, it is to be done." (Confessions, Book III, Chapter VII, 15.)* This quotation from Augustine shows the vital conception which he had of righteousness. It was something which transcended all tradition and custom, and if carried out to its logical conclusion would have transformed the Catholic conception of ethics. But along with this, Augustine held a doctrine of grace which identified the grace of Christ with the institutions of the empirical church, and he also identified the church with the kingdom of God. The idea had been developed in the Donatist controversy which made the priesthood a sacred office without reference to the character of the priest. The church for Augustine is the sacred authoritative insti- tution which bears to man a commandment for conduct and grace for his weakness. This is the only method of salvation. (Ep. 173:6.) It brings an authoritative doctrine. In fact Augustine raises the Catholic Church into a divine institution which can give laws to men in place of Christ. This idea grows still more firmly established in the following years, and with Thomas Aquinas it is a central doctrine ; more than Augustine, he emphasizes the authority of the church in matters of faith and practice. The development is entirely along lines of jurisprudence; the church is the great law-giving institution. (Cf. Aquinas, Summa III. qu 8; Summa qu ii. Art. 2.) This conception of the church as a divine institution with powers to give law is final for the Catholic development. It has been still further accentuated *i. "Many a deed then which in sight of men is disapproved is ap- proved by thy testimony and many a one which is praised by men is, thou being witness, condemned." 2. "Although in this life the only virtue is to love what ought to be loved. But what should we choose chiefly to love except that than which we can find nothing better? This is God and if we prefer anything or esteem anything equal to him we fail to love ourselves. For it is the better for us the more we enter into him, than whom there is nothing better. But we move not by walking but by loving, we may not go to him afoot, but with our character. But our character is wont to be judged, not from what any one knows but from what he loves. Nothing makes a character good or bad but good or bad affections." Augustine Ep. 155, Chap. 12, 13. 1 6 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. by the doctrine of an infallible pope.* The following quotation from a comparatively modem Catholic ethical writer indicates the result of this development on the function of ethics in the Catholic Church. After discussing the power of temporal authorities to give laws he says : "Certum est adesse in ecclesia potestatem ferendi leges, immedi- ate a Christo Domino Ecclesiae Institutore Communicatem. Unde ( i ) Hanc potestatem certissima habet Summus Pontifex, tanquam caput universal, Christo Vicarius successor sancti Petri, cui totem Ecclesiae regimen a Christo ficit commissum, independenter a conciliis." 2. "Concilia generalia etiam possunt ferre leges, pro tota ecclesia, modo sint congregata de licentia Summi Pontificiis, et pro loco ac tempore ab ipso assignatio." (De Ligiores, Compendium Theolo- giae Morale, p. 36.) Christian ethics thus becomes a setting forth of the revealed will of God as embodied in the traditional laws hand- ed down by the church. (Cf. Gury Ethics. Proemium. Decree of Council July 8, 1870.)* CRITICISM OF CATHOLIC DEVELOPMENT. The erection between God and man of an infallible church which is vicarious for God and to which man must submit his will, must necessarily change the function of Christian ethics. It had been the purpose of Jesus so to value all earthly institutions that a man should not look on any of them as having authoritative power over his life. The Pharisees came with a sacred tradition for which they claimed divine authority. Jesus tells them that only God has author- ity over the soul. The Catholic development is practically a return in principle to the very system which Jesus opposed. The function of ethics in the Catholic Church can only be the setting forth of the content of an inherited tradition. Tradition (not personal life) has become organic. Man is called primarily to be a son of the church *I. "Ac primo quidem theologicae est, non solum de iis disputare divinae revelationis mysteriis, quae fidei dogmata apellantur, sed etiam ad ea omnia se porrigere, quae ad hominum mores rite effigendos a Deo revelata etiam integro revelationis deposito Ecclesiae magisteris concredita sunt; Verum cum humani mores non solum juxta rectae rationis leges, sed etiam juxta revelatae voluntatis Dei norman exigendi sint, ut per supernaturalium virtutum actus ad supernaturalem vitam et beatitatem dirigantur, manifestum est, prima nostrae scientiae elementa non aliunde, quam ex fidii dogmatibus esse accipienda. Serviat igitur huic nostrae disciplinae humana ratio, fides vero et judicium magisteriumque ecclesiae praeeat in omni nostra disputa- tione necesse est." Gury: Proemium. *2. "In the difficult course of events Catholic believers if they will give heed to us as they are bound to do will see what are the duties of each, as much in the opinions which they ought to hold as in the thing which they ought to do Especially and particularly in what is called modern liberty, they must abide by the judgment of the Apostolic See." Leo XIII. Appendix VII. THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. I7 and Catholic ethics sets forth this calling. Catholic ethics seeks to give insight not into the nature of personal life, but into tradition. It leaves the nature of the personal life entirely in mystery. The reason for an act rests entirely outside of the person. It cannot be interested in ethical personalities because it is too much inter- ested in the Catholic Church as an institution. It does not see that an ethical personality must transcend all institutions, and when it has transcended all institutions it will have transcended the Catholic Church. It is the very greatness of Jesus that he in no way ties his followers down to any stage of culture ; he holds them with an eternal grip and yet he bestows upon them the possibility of an eternal development. Jesus would further morality by working in the interests of free personalities ; the function of his teachings is to endow his disciples with the right method of life. The Catholic Church works in the interest of right action without reference to the agent ; it's plan of s-ilvation is arranged with reference to a mass of fixed results rather than with reference to a living person. The Catholic Church assumes the right of dictatorship, and dic- tatorship on the part of any human person or earthly institution is absolutely inconsistent with the claim at the same time to be work- ing in the interest of moral personalities. Its end denies its meth- od. The criticism to be made on casuistry is that its method denies its end. As an ethical teacher the casuist is supposed to be interested in righteous characters, and yet his presupposition is that righteous- ness is ultimately lodged, not in personality, but in tradition. It should be its aim to save men from institutionalism, and yet its as- sumption is that divinity is lodged only in institutions. Harnack in his "History of Dogma" discussed this sentence of Sohm : "The foundation of CathoHcism is the divine church law to which it lays claim." Sohm declares that a church law to which a man must declare obedience is inconsistent with the essence of the gospel. Harnack declares this an "Ana-baptist proposition." I am inclined to think that Harnack is right in declaring that a church or any organization cannot get along without laws and regulations, but Sohm is right in declaring that for a church to claim to be the mediator of a "divine church law" is inconsistent with the gospel. A church faith will develop into a creed, its government will develop into an institution ; all this is inevitable, but the church which is content to give to man habits and institutions, instead of taking every man to the fountain head from which it came, to Christ him- self, thus making him a son of God rather than a child of the church, can have but one end, and that is the ultimate destruction of the inner life and freedom of the individual member. Every organization when it has done its perfect work will leave a man free even from l8 THH FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. the organization itself, except in his gratitude towards it for its service. When the CathoHc Church makes the traditional laws of the church normative for man's actions it prepares the way for its system of indulgences and penances. So long as the criterion for ethical action is lodged in the personal life, the source of ethical motive will be found in that life; men will find the sanction for an action in their own desire for life ; they will identify their own life with the doing of the act. But the case is different when the ethical action is one traditionally proscribed. An externally prescribed act of this kind demands an external sanction, which must be provided by the church, hence the necessity of a graded system of rewards and punishments. A justification for the Catholic system has sometimes been made on the ground that many people are unfit to legislate for themselves : they are children and belong under the law. The answer to be made to this is, that what they need must not be called Christian ethics. Christian ethics has for its function the creating of spiritual personalities. There is a demand for a Judaistic ethics, not a Christian ethics. 2. PROTESTANT DEVELOPMENT WORDS OF LUTHPIR. The Protestant Reformation is an effort to lead men back of the forms and ceremonies of the Catholic Church to the living personality behind them all and thus to re-establish the claims of Christianity to be a religion of personal beings. Luther's work is nothing else than a penetrating through the accretions which for ages had accu- mulated about the true faith, and the re-establishing of the Christian religion as a spiritual religion. The Catholic Church was the prod- uct of a long development, which perhaps had been to a certain ex- tent justifiable. The political framework of society had crumbled and the church had supplied the lack with terrible results to herself. Men had become lost in the maze of religious ceremonies and as a result there was little peace for the tender conscience inside the walls of the church. Luther fought out the battle for himself in his cell at the monastery and solved the problem by once more affirming that man is justified by faith and not by works. As Harnack says, ^'Living faith in the God who in Christ addresses to the poor soul the words, 'I am thv salvation,' the firm assurance that God is the being on whom one can place reliance, that was the message of Luther to Christendom." Luther's work was to find a deeper unity back of the multiplicity of Catholicism. The Catholic Church had paganized religion — every effort which puts things as central in religion paganizes it. It was Luther's work to lead men back to their Father. It all resulted in a simplification of religion. As THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. I9 Hamack says, 'That, however, which he had experienced and which, with ever increasing clearness he now learned to state, was in com- parison with the manifold things which his church offered in religion above everything else an immense reduction, an emancipating simpli- fication . . . that reduction meant nothing else than the restora- tion of religion, seeking God and finding God." (Hamack, Vol. yill, p. 183.) To quote from the "Larger Catechism," II. 3: 'Neque umquam propriis viribus, pervenire possemus, ut patris favorem per Jesum Christum dominum nostrum, qui paterni animi erga nos speculum est, extra quem nihil nisi iratum et truculentum videmus judicem." If the central fact in all life is the personal God revealed in Jesus then the central fact in man's life must be a personal will which wills the good. Man is justified by faith, which is the correlate on man's part of a personal God who has revealed himself. The Church, according to Luther's conception, becomes a company of believers bound together by nothing except a common faith. The Church loses its function as dictator and takes its place as a servant of society. All the departments of life which have been under the external control of the Church, such as civic life and marriage, are now set free and are held under control only by their worth for men. The Church has taken upon itself to train men duly to appre- ciate the value of life and thus it maintains a control over society from the inside. This is a distinct return to the New Testament conception of the Church. The Church exists solely for the purpose of training spiritual personalities. Christian ethics then, as in the New Testament, must work in the interests of these personalities. Goodness again becomes a personal thing. Ethics ceases to expound laws. This is not the supreme need of the Christian: ''Habito Christo facile condemns leges et omnia recte judicabimus. Imo novos decalogos faciemus, sicut Paulus facit per omnes epistolas, et Petrus, maxime Christus in evangelio. Et hi decalogi clariores sunt quam Mosi decalogus, sicut facies Christi clarior est quam facies Mosis." (Quoted from Luther by Herrmann, "Ethik," p. 139.) Luther grasps the^eal need of the ethical man when he writes his treatise "Concerning Christian Liberty," which is one of the great ethical treatises of the Christian Church. In it he shows how the man redeemed by Christ is free in his moral life and yet is under obligations to all. It is an effort to aid man in the under- standing of his moral vocation. Nothing could be read by any man which would be more stimulating to true moral action. Luther's treatise on the "Ten Commandments" is along the same line. Throughout it all there is an effort to unify the moral life by relat- ing the different activities to the one principle of love. If one grasps clearly the Reformation conception of the Church 30 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. he is led immediately to the true conception of Christian ethics. The Church has discarded its function as a dictator over society. If it is to be powerful, it must be because it creates in the world men who rightly value the issues of life. Whatever of order it produces in society, it produces by the creating of order loving per- sonalities. Christian ethics has as its function to further the work of the Church. This it can do by all the means which help man in the understanding of his moral problems. ORTHODOX PROTESTANT DEVELOPMEN. The Reformers did not long maintain their attempt to rest their protest against the Catholic Church on the appeal of Christ to the human heart. In the place of an infallible church they soon place an infallible book. The movement begins with Luther, and yet with him it is not carried out in the legalistic way of later reformers. In his teaching he never ceases to make the person of Christ organic. But Calvin* and the later theologians exhibit the tendency to make the Bible organic for religious and moral teaching rather than the redeemed personalities of which the Bible tells. All this has sig- nificance because it brings about a change in the function of ethics. With the erection of a book between God and man the words of which have value in themselves, ethics again becomes interested primarily in the content of tradition. The Church again takes up the work of dictatorship, only now it is not the dictatorship of hier- archy but of a book. The Protestant Church agreed that to submit to the dictates of an institution like the Church was legalistic, but it did not see that to submit to the laws of a divine book in the place of the laws of a council or a pope did not differ in principle. The following quota- tion from Wardlaw's "Christian Ethics" (p. 155) is substantially the same in principle as that of the Catholic authority before quoted. "That man was originally in full possession of the knowledge of the divine will as the rule or law of duty, and that a disposition in accordance with this will was (if I may so express myself) inwoven with the very texture of his moral constitution, that in this his original state, the dictates of conscience might with unhesitating assurance have been taken as the test and standard of moral recti- tude, that since by throwing off his allegiance man became a sinful creature, the knowledge of his Master's will has not been entirely obliterated, but in consequence of the obliteration of the disposition to do it, has become so sadly defaced and confused in its character ♦Calvin "Institues," Bk II, Ch. 8, Sec. 19. THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 21 and impression that although it still leaves him as a subject for moral government, intelligent and accountable, it has been rendered as a standard or right and wrong incompetent and unsatisfactory, itself requiring to be rectified, that the holy scripture coming from the same Being who was the Author at first of man's moral nature, are with respect to the rule of duty in precise harmony with the dictates of conscience in that nature in the state of primitive inno- cence, the law in the book being the same as the law in the heart, and that the way to bring mankind back to the knowledge of the orig- inal law and to correct the dictates of a depraved and erring con- science is to put them in possession of the divine document." This statement, though coming from an author no longer looked upon as an authority, is to be commended for its consistency. Man, by his fall, lost knowledge of the divine will; Christian ethics has for its function the restoring of this lost knowledge; since the difficulty is largely a matter of the head, by placing in man's hand a divine book, there is guaranteed to the man an infallible action. What Wardlaw says with perfect frankness a great many other Protestant ethical writers mean, though they have not his gift of clear statement. The following words from Hodge's "Systematic Theology" (Vol. Ill, p. 270), are from the same point of view : "The perfection of the moral law as revealed in the scriptures includes the points already consid- ered (i) that everything that the Bible pronounces to be wrong is wrong; that everything which it declares to be right is right; (2) that nothing is sinful which the Bible does not condemn, and nothing is obligatory on the conscience which it does not enjoin; (3) that the scriptures are a complete rule of duty, not only in the sense just stated, but also in the sense that there is and can be no higher standard of moral excellence." Under the heading, "How Far May the Laws in the Bible be Dispensed With?" he says that "(i) None but God can free from the obligation of any divine law which he has imposed upon them. (2) With regard to the positive laws of the Old Testament and such judicial statements as were designed ex- clusively for the Hebrews living under the theocracy they were all abolished by the introduction of the new dispensation. We are no longer under obligations to circumcise our children, to keep the Passover, or Feast of the Tabernacles, or to go up three times in the year to Jerusalem, or to exact an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. (3) With regard to those laws founded on the permanent relations of men such as the laws of property, of marriage, and of obedience to parents, they can be set aside by the authority of God." Outside of this sphere Hodge recognizes a sphere for the exercise of "Christian liberty in matters of indifference." I have stated Hodge's position thus fully because he has given what is the popular 22 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. view on the matter, an opinion spread through the agency of the or- thodox scripture doctrine.* To satisfy the demand for something fundamental in ethical ac- tivity orthodox Protestantism has offered to men a book. This book is vicarious for Christ. It is the mediator between Jesus and man and the ipse dixit of this book is fundamental enough for any one who seeks to ground his ethical activity on eternal reality. CRITICISM OF ORTHODOX PROTESTANT DEVELOPMENT. The first criticism to be made upon the orthodox principle of ethical action is that it fails to make a vital organic unity between the faith life of the redeemed man and his ethical activity. It has ether adopted Greek virtues or it has thrust a man back into Juda- istic laws, neither of which gives freedom to a man in his ethical action. To make the Old Testament or the New Testament the source of the content of Christian conduct makes the conduct an external thing. It does not draw its motive power from the new life itself. It demands an external sanction of rewards and punish- ments, and just because Protestantism has never seriously under- taken to furnish these rewards and punishments, it has often been weaker than Catholicism in its ethical teaching. The second criticism to be made is that Protestant ethics has never been able to find a unity in its ethical activity. Protestants have never been willing to affirm that all the Old Testament precepts were valid, but they have never been able to draw a clear distinction *Wuttke in his "Christian Ethics" (Vol. II, p. 128) discusses what he calls "the sphere of the allowed," i. e., a sphere outside of those duties ex- pressly commanded in the law of the Ten Commandments. He says, "The sphere of the allowed stands in the same relation to that of the express law as play stands to earnest activity. Play also is an element essential to the full development of moral life. With the child play is of high moral sig- nificancy, as it is thereby that it learns to comprehend, to exercise, and to enjoy its full personal freedom. In learning and working the child is also free, but however good and zealous of work it may be, it is nevertheless conscious at the same of being controlled by an objective law to which it must adapt itself; the other and equally legitimate phase of its life, that of personal freedom and self-determination, is revealed to it in its purest form only in play: and the child, even the morally good one, finds so great a delight in play for the simple reason that it thereby comes to the enjoyment of its full personal freedom, and the essence of its enjoyment lies in the simple fact ttiat in its playful activity and feats it is free lord of its own voli- tion and movements." This statement seems to make explicit some principles which are often implied but not expressed, (i) Full personal freedom exists in the activity in which man is not morally serious. There is created a dualism between man's moral nature and his freedom. (2) To make any sphere of life indifferent and to identify that sphere with the one in which man exercises his own moral consciousness certainly does not confer any great dignity on the moral consciousness. THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 23 between those which are valid and those which are not. Melancthon said there were more commandments than the Ten Commandments which were vaHd.=*= In fact it may be urged, I think, that the Ten Commandments are not all valid; the one concerning the keeping of the seventh day has been set aside by Christian custom which keeps the first day. Just so long as Protestant ethics fails to find a deeper sanction than the sanction of a book per se, it will lack both unity and certainty in its ethical teaching. It is not, however, a question of the validity of the Ten Commandments, it is a question of finding a proper norm for action, which will allow a man to keep not only the Ten Commandments but the thousand and one other commandments not included in this table of the law that are valid. Again, it is not seen that to say that the content of the moral law consists in loving your neighbor as yourself plus the keeping of the Ten Commandments is the mixing of two things which are not homogeneous. It is the same as saying that the correct method of biblical exegesis consists in a spirit of fair-mindedness, plus the ac- ceptance of the fact that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. The secret of securing fair-mindedness in biblical exegesis is not to insist that the exegete arrive at certain results ; to be sure he must arrive at them, but the chances of his arriving at them are destroyed the moment the results are specified. The principle is the same in ethics and the result is just as vicious. 'To insist on the law as law banishes the spirit. It shows lack of confidence in the very thing desired in man, namely, the spirit of a freeborn son. Finally, the Church by its doctrine of the infallible book assumes a dictatorship over society which it cannot maintain. It has tried to exalt the right of this book to rule, by all the arguments which the Catholic has applied to the Church. "The book is unified and complete in every part." "The book can not err." "It is accorded as divine by signs and wonders." "It is ancient." But these do not suffice to make man accept the "ipse dixit" of the divine document as reason for action. If it is asked why Protestantism is ethically impotent, the answer is that Protestantism has attempted the im- possible. It has sought to play the dictator rather than the helper. Catholicism is in a far better position to play the dictator than is Protestantism, for it has undertaken the task in a serious way, and there is more adaptability in an institution than there is in a book — the hierarchy does move, a book does not. The task which Luther outlined for the Protestant Church was fraught with far more power than the one it has actually undertaken. The authority to which he appealed was neither the external authority of a book nor that of a church, but the immanent authority of life. ♦Melancthon; Loci VI. 24 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. JESUS AS THE REVEALER OF A LEGALISTIC IDEAL. Newman Smyth makes the function of Christian ethics to be the setting forth of the content of the ideal revealed by Jesus. This is right or wrong according to the idea which one has of the ideal which Jesus reveals. By this principle Newman Smyth seeks to advance beyond the legalism of a book, yet his ethics seems to me to be somewhat legalistic in principle. Although his Christian Ethics in many places is obscure, and the one who reads it always labors under the fear that perhaps he has misunderstood the author, I think that a number of rather lengthy quotations will suffice to give us its point of view. *The moralist is the man with an ideal. He can not appear among men as a moral teacher unless he brings some idea of good which he would stamp on human life. The moral law-giver is always the man who has had some pattern shown him on the holy mount. The moral enters and lingers in our consciousness in some vision of the ideal. We perceive some better thing to be thought or done." (Smyth's Ethics, p. 49.) "Normative ethics will bring to Ufe at every point some idea of what shall be" (p. 49). "The ideal is given to men in the person of Christ, who was the real exam- ple of it, and the influence of whose Spirit is a creative power in the lives of other men" (p. 52). "This ideal has also been partially realized and applied to life in many directions, during the course of Christian history which has proceeded from its influence, and it is still further to be realized and interpreted in the progress of Chris- tian life and thought" (p. 52). "Christian ethics will be conse- quently the unfolding and application to human life in all its spheres and relations of the divinely human ideal which has been historically given in Christ" (p. 57). "The present and continual condition of the apprehension of the Christian ideal is through moral oneness with the spirit of it. 'But if any man hath not the spirit of Christ he is none of his' " (p. 52). "The sole and ultimate Christian authority is the Holy Spirit which Christ has sent. The special and outward means of the communication of the mind that was in Jesus is the testimony of the apostolic scriptures. The necessary inward judge of what is Christian, that is, of what is the teachings of the Spirit is the common Christian consciousness, or the continuous and ever-renewing testi- mony of the Church" (p. 75). "Since the ideal is still in progress of revelation and will continue to manifest itself in larger and higher realization of good until the end of the world age, it is folly to wish to bring back the moral standard of any past age" (p. 76). "The harder more manifold and only Christian task is to organize present life in all its spheres of industry and thought in the spirit of Christ. That task can be accomplished by no restoration of the Jerusalem U'NIVERSITY OF THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 25 that was, but by the coming of the Jerusalem which is above" (p. 78). In discussing the content of the Christian ideal Newman Smyth says : (i) "It is a personal good." The beginning of it "lies in the personal character" (p. loo). (2) "It is a social human good. The harvest is not the individual ingathering but the end of the world. The Christian conception of good is to be realized in the consummation of the ages of our human history" (p. 100). "The Christian ideal is extensive over all spheres of activity. It is an ideal co-extensive with Hfe" (p. 126). "The true human ideal in its co- extension with life must comprehend these separate goods and unite in its supreme conception all the worths of life. In this organic comprehension of the ideal the social welfare, together with the individual attainments of good, is to be included" (p. 128). "His- tory in its profoundest significance is a moral and spiritual move- ment toward the ideal or highest good" (p. 144). "The Christian ideal which has been historically given in Christ as it is to be found in the spiritual consciousness of Christians is an absolute ideal . . . It is the absolute moral imperative of the Christian character" (p. 123). These different descriptions are hard for me to understand. I confess I can form no such picture before my mind as this calls for. Jesus reveals an ideal, he himself is that ideal, he is the embodiment of it ; I can understand what Smyth means here, it would seem to be about what I mean when I say Jesus calls a man to be a son of God ; but I am totally confused when he talks about this ideal as only partially realized and applied to life, as still in progress of revelation, so to continue until the end of the ages, as being the new Jerusalem which is from above, as being inclusive of all the goods known to human welfare. My point is this, how can Jesus be the embodiment of the ideal, the eternal ideal which the ages shall know, the Jerusalem which is from above, and yet be a person ? How can he reveal an ideal social order and also a personal hfe? But more than this, it seems to me that the ideal which really fits Smyth's ethical system is the ideal of a social order. It is some- thing which man must be filled with the Holy Spirit to appreciate, for the Holy Spirit is the judge of the ideal and decides what is Christian; the ideal in this case does not seem to be the criterion of judgment. Smyth says : "The ideal progresses." So far as he has accounted for it it progresses without man being conscious of the progression. Nineteen hundred years ago it was one thing, now it is another thing. Man's business nineteen hundred years ago was to put his life in accord with it. Now that it has advanced his business is still to put his life in accord with it. He is no longer subject to the Jerusalem which was, but he is subject to the Jerusalem which is to 26 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. be. Unless Smyth can find some principle by which ideals advance, some unifying principle between his new Jerusalem and his old Jerusalem, the legalism is just as bad as though Jesus had given to man two systems of laws, an old system, and a new one, both of which were equally valid. As a matter of fact Smyth does provide for a principle of advance in his doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Christians, but hereby he seems to me to have given away his whole case. Jesus did not give an ideal to be the supreme stand- ard of man's life, but he gave the Holy Spirit which sits in judg- ment on the ideal. Again, of what value is it to a man to compare his ideal with a perfect ideal? This in no way helps him; it can only result in discouragement for the man. He is not in any way given a bridge which will unite the gap, his first impulse will be to cease making ideals for himself, and to seek to copy the perfect ideal. This sys- tem of copying ideals is unethical. Man ceases to have a life which is worthy of itself, he is always gazing up into the heavens longing for something which is out of his reach, and also out of connection with his life. According to the view here to be set forth, what Jesus gives to man is not an ideal of a social order, but a vocation, which becomes a criterion by which ideal social orders may be judged. Man is left to work out his own ideals in accord with his vocation in the same way that he makes laws for conduct. Man progresses, and his ideals must change, he grows, and he must order his ideals differently than before. So far as his vocation is concerned he never advances, he never reaches the place where he ceases to be a son of God, nor does he reach the place where the necessity of living in accord with the principles of the brotherhood of man will depart from him. His ideals will take in all societ}', just because he has chosen as his voca- tion to be a son of God who rules in all society. But to say that the ideal progresses in itself, takes the helm out of the hand of man and he is left the helpless sport of the ideal. If a man is born of the spirit of a son of God he can create new Jerusalems for himself. JESUS AS A MORAL LEGISLATOR. A line of thought which seems to be legalistic in principle is that which would derive from the teachings of Jesus a direct solu- tion of the industrial and social problems of our time. The following quotation from Richard T. Ely's "Social Aspects of Christianity" is an illustration of what I have in mind. His criticism of the church is that : "The ministers of the Church repeat often enough the words of the Golden Rule ; but the question arises, 'How am I to show my love for my fellowmen? How am I to go to work to elevate them, THE FUNCTION OV CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 27 to make them both happier and better? How am I, as a follower of Christ, to conduct myself in the industrial world ? What are my duties as employer, as landlord or tenant, as creditor or debtor? What position should I take on the land question, on the subject of labor organization, and the other aspects of the great labor prob- lems ?' " The presupposition of all such writers is that in Jesus' words we have regulations for the different departments of life. They seem to think that if we could get back to Jesus' teachings on such and such subjects we would have our troubles settled, that with- out further effort we could apply the regulations which he sets forth to our present day problems. Dr. Gerald D. Heuver's book on the 'Teachings of Jesus in Regard to Wealth" is a book that by a careful exegetical study leads to the conclusion that we do not "find in Jesus' teachings an economic system — it would have been impossible for Christ to have given us a system which would be universally suitable. It is with economic institutions as with political ones, what suits one does not suit another." ("Teachings of Jesus in Re- gard to Wealth," p. 200.) This I think is substantially correct, and yet Dr. Heuver does not seem to me to grasp clearly the significance for all ethical conduct of the moral vocation which Jesus does give to a man, and which will undoubtedly furnish a criterion for dealing with such a subject as wealth. The poverty of Jesus' precepts which can directly be applied to conduct, ought to teach us that his greatness does not consist in the giving of a few regulations. At the same time the thought that one living in a stage of society such as surrounded him could legis- late for all time is, considered from every standpoint, absurd. The legalism would be worse than that in which the Catholic Church would land us, for the Catholic Church has worked out its casuistry until it covers all departments of life, while Jesus' teachings are com- paratively meager and fragmentar}\ It is only when we come to the position that Jesus offers to a man a moral vocation which the man is to work out for himself in his own sphere of life that we get a concept which is rich enough to be of aid to man in every sphere of activitv. By appropriating this vocation he is at the same time true to Jesus and at liberty to advance to the solution of any moral problem. Jesus' words are of value to a man because they help him understand his own vocation. By means of this vocation he is able to judge what in these teachings is of temporary value and what is of eternal worth. THE WORK OF SCHLKIERMACHER. The work of Schleiermacher marks an epoch in the history of Christian ethics. He said that the function of Christian ethics was to set forth the conduct life of the man who had been redeemed by 28 THE FUNCTION OK CHRISTIAN ETHICS. Jesus Christ. **Sie wird nichts sein konnen als eine Beschreibung derjenigen Handlungsweise, welche aus der Herrschaft des christ- lich bestimmten religiosen Selbstbewusstseins entsteht." (Schleier- macher, "Christliche Ethik." Einleitung.) He thereby distinguished Christian ethics from philosophical ethics, and also from a Chris- tian ethics, philosophically constructed. (R. Rothe, Theologische Ethik; Hofmann, Theologische Ethik.) Philosophical ethics has sought to draw from out of man's nature, in accord with the prin- ciples of reason, a criterion for action, and on the basis of this to formulate a system of ethics. Schleiermacher says in his "Intro- duction to Christian Ethics" that Christian ethics seeks to be his- torical while philosophical ethics seeks to be universal. This seems to me to be a dangerous admission, since the moment Christianity gives up its claim to be universal, it is doomed. But need it give up that claim? Historicity, in the sense in which Schleiermacher means it, is not inconsistent with universality. An ethical system may be both. The question as to its universality is a question apart from its historicity. Just because Christian ethics takes upon itself to expound the New Testament type of life, it ought not to be prejudged as lacking in universality. When we come to the test of universality, what is to be the test, will it be the speculative test or will it be the test of experience? Is there any valid test, as to whether or not a system of ethics is universal, except the test of its efficiency ? Instead of philosophical ethics asking: "Why should not Christian ethics become universal," has not the latter the right to make philosophical ethics show cause why it should not become historical? Is not the experience of cen- turies a better recommendation than the deductions of reason ? The significance of Schleiermacher's work seems to me to be just this, that he calls men back to the test of experience. Is not the very historicity of Christian ethics, the fact that it has been tested through centuries, an argument for its universality? The chances of some one's coming along and creating a new system of ethical values are about as great as of some one's coming and creating a new lan- guage or a new religion. This being understood, I think it must be admitted that there is a philosophical test from the "Nature of Man" which may be applied by philosophy to Christian ethics, and it is here that there is a demand for an ethical apologetic. A task, however, which should be kept distinct from the exposition of an ethical system. It must be admitted that Christian ethics may not be a universal ethics. If any man finds another system of ethics which he considers more universal, then it must be left open to him to expound that system. But to the man who, in the activity to which Christian ethics calls him, finds a type of life universally worthful, it is open to expound THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 29 the content of that new life. He can be perfectly assured that the test which he has applied is valid above any speculative one. Schleiermacher in his work is also of significance to us in that while treating of the Christian religion as a historical religion he gives us a principle by which we can distinguish between the tem- poral and the eternal in that religion. He makes the God-con- sciousness of the Christian to be the abiding thing in Christianity and thus he saves men from a legalistic devotion to dogma and to church, and yet at the same time keeps them true to the essence of that reHgion. The same principle has significance for ethics, from it we can also draw a principle by which Christian ethics can be true to the essence of Christianity and yet not be bound in any legalistic way to any one stage of that religion. Christian ethics becomes a setting forth of a conduct life of the man in whom the God-consciousness has been aroused. What Jesus gives a man is not a set of precepts but a divine vocation and ethics has for its function the setting forth of that vocation. This line of thought first entered upon by Schleiermacher has been the basis for much of the subsequent work in Christian ethics. In Germany he has been followed by such men as Herrmann and Kostlein. In Denmark Krarup has followed the same line of development. CHAPTER III. A CONSTRUCTIVE STATEMENT OF FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. — SIGNIFICANCE FOR ETHICS THAT MAN IS CALLED TO A PERSONAL LIFE. The Christian man, is a man who has been called to a personal* life. This and this alone he can take directly from Jesus. The Christian community, is a body of men united in a common faith that there is for them such a life. The essence of their religion is that back of all the changing process of life, there stands a per- sonal God, who has created the world and who governs it. That personal will is the source of all the change which meets the eyes of men. The significance of all this for men is that in this world of time and space they must become personal beings. They are created that they may grow into the image of God, who is the perfect moral personality. There is for them the possibility of a right- eousness like unto God's. It makes little difference which one of the customary terms is used to describe the Christian man, whether we call him a son of God, a citizen in the kingdom of God, a friend of Jesus Christ, the essence of them all is that man has been called to personal life. He is thereby distinguished from a man under the Old Testament covenant, who was called to give obedience to an impersonal law and who instead of being a person, was a slave. He is thereby distinguished from the Con- fucianist who worships the past instead of a person who transcends all time. He is thereby distinguished from the Buddhist, who seeks the extinction of personality. The Christian religion is unique in the particular that it claims for man the power to live a full personal life.* To be a person means that the norm for conduct has been located within oneself. A person will obey laws, but the laws will be laws whose value he himself recognizes. He will work accord- ing to plans and purposes, but these plans and purposes will be formulated by him. He will live in a world of time and space, but it will always be with a consciousness that he is superior to time and space. ♦The word personality is used here with a moral significance. THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 3 1 "Man pflegt das eigentumliche Wesen der Personlichkeit, wo durch sie von alien anderen und namentlich auch von alien anderen belebten und beseelten Realitaten sich unterscheidet vor allem ins Selbstbewusstsein zu setzen." (Kostlin Christliche Ethik., p. i.) "Ein Leben in selbst bestimmung ist so das Leben der per- sonlichen Geistes und zwar einer Selbstbestimmung, welche be- stimmte Zwecke sich setzt, eines Willens, der seinen eigenen Zielen zustrebt." (Kostlin Ethik., p. 6.) This call to personal life confronts man as a problem, it is not an endowment, but a task to be accomplished, as some one has expressed it, man has on his hands a "fight for character." It is in the solving of this problem that Christian ethics must be of service. But by virtue of the fact that the norm for conduct has been located inside the personal life the function of Christian ethics has been determined. It cannot content itself with the expounding of an external law, which is to be obeyed by the man who is working at the problem of personal life. It cannot content itself with outlining plans and purposes, since the very essence of personal life is that a man makes laws and plans for himself. It cannot content itself with expounding a tradition. Such an ethics would have to be transcended in order that a man might become completely moral. The training of a personality is a different problem from training an automaton. The problem has changed from the description of an inanimate tradition, to the description of life in terms of a self-conscious being. The point of this thesiii might be summed up by saying, that the method of Christian ethics is pre-determined by the function which it must perform. Just because it must work in the interests of personal beings, there are certain methods it cannot use. It must cease to be interested primarily in cataloguing certain good deeds, and turn its attention to securing good men. It has noiif the very difficult task of helping the man, zvho must decide for himself n'hat are good deeds. Chris- tian ethics becomes the defining of a z'ocation. It is necessary to make clear, that Christian ethics in no way ^akes the place of an ethical experience on the part of an individual. It does not issue the call to personal life, it presupposes such a call which has come to man out of the reality of which he is a part. It cannot create personal life any more than systematic theology can create faith. Systematic theology presupposes faith as a fact which has grown up out of life — the union of man's life and the reality which he meets in Christ. Its function is to help man to enter more completely into the experience of faith, to enable him to imderstand its meaning. It has the same practical value as a text book on astronomy. A text book on astronomy may help a man better to adapt himself to the benefits of the sun's rays, but 23 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. astronomical theories are a poor substitute for sunlight. As a science presupposes an experience of which it seeks to give ac- count, so a text book on ethics must presuppose an ethical experi- ence on the part of man entirely independent of itself. Without this experience its work is valueless. The church has always in- sisted that the Holy Spirit alone redeems a man, and it is right, the ethical import of this doctrine being, that ethical experience must come before there can be ethical culture. The truest ethical experience does not come outside of the storm and stress of life. But ethics can be of service to a man by furthering the experience which it cannot create. Ethical teaching can free a man in his ethical life, by giving him a larger insight into the nature of that life. A good illus- tration of what is meant is the way the science of architecture frees a man in the building of a house. Suppose that a house has been in process of construction for a long time, and when it is half erected, a new workman is put on the job. There are three ways open to him to work: he can carry out in detail the minute instructions of another man, in which case he is always a slave with little comprehension of what he is doing and little unity in his efforts; or he may reject all directions and start to build in a free way by himself, in which case there is little organic unity between what he does and what has been done before; or in the third place, he can get hold of the original purpose of the house, he can learn the meaning and significance of what has been done in terms of this purpose, and on the basis of this he can recon- struct whatever has been faulty and proceed to construct the re- mainder of the structure. He is neither a slave to the past, nor an anarchistic wrecker of the past, but occupies a free constructive attitude toward both past and future. This illustration helps in the elucidation of the point. It should not be pushed too far, but it makes clear, I think, that the unifying of conduct with refer- ence to its fundamental purpose, frees a man in his activity. All this is thoroughly in accord with our study of Jesus' method, in that he sought not to give men precepts for life, but to give them an understanding of their vocation. He is willing to trust the future in the hands of men who have been taught to distin- guish between the promptings of Mammon and the will of God. He has analysed their life and laid before them its purpose and the conditions under which it is to be lived. His work is more accurately described as that of a spiritual physician, who ministers to each one as he sees need, at the same time giving with the pre- scription the basic principle on which the prescription was made. As Herrmann says, ''Jesus ist nicht der ansicht das wir schon gut handeln wenn wir die gebote in andern erfuUen wollen, auch dem THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 33 nicht wenn wir die gebote von Jesus selLst empfangen zu haben nieinen, er hat daher uber-haupt kein geboten gegeben, die keine weitere befolgtwerden konnen, was in seinem munde wie ein gebot klingt, ist immer nur eine Anregung fur die Junger sich selbst klar zu machen was sie thun sollen. Denn Jesus wuszte das der Mench nur dann warhaft lebig und innerlich mit Gott ver- binden ist, wenn er aus eigenen freier Uberzeugung heraus handelt, also wahrhaftig ist und nicht schauspielert." (Herrmann, "Romish und Evangelische Sittlichkeit," p. 135.) Christian ethics comes to a man confronted with a problem, his problem is the realization of a personal life in the world of time and space. Christian ethics did not create this problem, nor should it relieve man of the problem, since it is in the solving of this problem that man comes nearest to his God. Anything which solves the problem by taking it away from man does him an untold injury. This seems to me to be the fault of all systems of casu- istry. T. B. Strong, in his ''Christian Ethics," discusses the need of the Church again taking up the function of discipline. He says that the danger from casuistry lies only in its misuse. "The danger of casuistry- consists in a certain moral temper, which appears when ever the intellect is allowed to paralyze the will, whether this results in positive immoral action or not." The danger from casuistry seems to me a greater one than this, it consists rather in a misconception of the function of the ethical teacher, for it gives in the stead of a man, who would make clear to people their moral problems, a man who would take their problems away from them. Ethics can help a man by making the problem more definitely his, by showing him what are the conditions which constitute the problem, and what are the conditions, inherent in the life of man and his circumstances, which govern the solution of the problem. Christian ethics is more concerned, lest a man should dodge his moral problem. The strenuousness of Jesus' teaching is all along this line, the moral problem is such a serious one in his eyes that he summons his strongest language to make the issue clear to man. The loss of one of the members of the body is nothing in his eyes when compared to the sacredness of a moral conviction. "But further the constant effort of Jesus in the training of his disciples was to create in them a moral consciousness identical with his own, and by this means to put them in a condition to carry on his work of criticism, to pursue his task of distinguishing be- tween that which is eternal and that which is perishable in the Old Testament. Jesus did not employ a didactic process in his work. He laid down its principles, applying them by way of example to a few particular cases, such as the Sabbath, fasting, 34 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. food not to limit the reformation but to introduce it to reveal its spirit and open the way for its further progress." (Sabatier, Religions of Authority, p. 291.) It was said that it is the function of Christian ethics to give insight into the nature of the moral problem and thus to further morality. It will be well to investigate further along this line. Christian ethics has an interpretative function, it seeks to give meaning to all the phases of life by interpreting them in terms of the end of life, which for a Christian is the realization of person- ality. It affords by this method the strongest incentive to moral- ity. An ethics which calls for mere blind obedience may flourish for a time, but its life will be short. That discipline, which exhibits to a man the significance of an act in terms of his own vocation, makes the act interesting, the individual immediately identifies himself with the act, it is no longer an isolated thing, but is a part of the life of the actor. Take for instance a lecture on "Pas- toral Duties." A mere catalogue of the duties of a pastor would in no way inspire to action, even though there were the enforcing sanction of a fat yearly salary; but a treatment of pastoral duties which related them all organically to the great purpose of a man's life, would arouse enthusiasm, the sanction would become an im- manent one, as strong as a man's desire for life, and his clear per- ception of the relation of those activities to his life. Such a system of ethics has as its sanction the authority of life. Other systems may call in the external sanction of an institution, but the Christian ethicist bases his authority on the truth of his statement. His authority is the authority of experience. Such an ethics starts with one presupposition ; granted that a man has felt the call to personal life; and it answers the question, what is the significance of all this for his earthly conduct? The motive will grow out of the call which he has heard. The function of Christian ethics may be described as the mak- ing of intelligent workmen in the realm of character building. Two things are necessary to an intelligent workman : First, a con- ception of the end, and, second, a conception of the means to be used. Christian ethics has no other function than to give men a clear conception of the ends of life with reference to the means with which he is to build. Its method is to promote righteousness by clarifying for men the nature and meaning of their moral probkm. It works on the supposition that better ultimate results will be produced by well trained free men, than by carefully guided slaves. The problem of training a moral man has much in common with the training of a biblical exegete. Both men are under obli- gation to arrive at results, and these results are inwrought with the nature of things. Will you seek to make a good exegete by placing THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 35 in his hands a set of results, which he must verify, or will you place in his hands a right method and allow him to find his own results? There are those who look upon past results as sacred, and to these they would limit a man, who would make of man's life an eternal repetition of the results of other men's lives. By this method a man becomes a copyist. If one does not choose this method, there is but one other method open to him, and that is the method which trusts a man with a right heart to find the right results. This latter method is a dangerous one, it leaves a way open for mistakes, but, according to Christianity, it is the only method which will ultimately result in personal life. With this task before a man the discipline which will most help him will be the one which helps him to rely upon himself. It will be the one which clearly defines for him the nature and meaning of his task. It cannot dictate results for this would deny its main function by distrusting man's capacity to do the very thing it urges him to do. METHODS IN CHRISTIAN ETHICS. Christian ethics has for its function the valuation of life on the basis of man's vocation to which he has been called through Jesus Christ. This throws upon the ethical teacher the task of understanding first the nature of the vocation to which man has been called. Since man has been called to sonship to God what are the implications for conduct in this call? What are the condi- tions by which a man can enter into fellowship with a free moral personality who has called him to be a friend and not a servant. Herrmann in his "Ethik," begins with the conditions of the moral life, its origin and problems, and then in the last part of his book introduces Jesus as the Savior of man from the struggle and difficulties in which he finds himself in working at his moral prob- lem. Herrmann say on p. 26, that the beginning of the moral struggle within us is at the time when we come into contact with another personality.* This truth that the moral struggle is created as well as solved through contact with a moral personality, seems to me to justify the Christian ethicist in starting with the call which Jesus issues to man. One could begin with the discussion of the relation of the moral will to the senses and with the con- ditions of freedom, thus defining beforehand the moral life; but *"Durch einen eigenthiimlichen Eindruch von Menchen muss eine Bewegung in uns entstehen in deren Richtung die Sittlichkeit liegt, die sich selbst von Naturlichen Leben unterscheidet. Es geschieht das immer, wenn Andere so atif uns wirken, dass wir zu ihnen Vertrauen fassen. Wen uns das Widerfahrt, richten wir uns nach Andern. Der Anfang der Sittlich- keit an einem bestimmten Punkt liegt immer in der Macht der personlichen Autoritat." Hermann Ethik, p. 26. ^6 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. the other method seems to me the proper one in writing a Christian ethics. The first task then of the Christian ethicist is to define fhe Christian vocation, since it is a call to a certain kind of life, he must organically describe that life. To give a concrete example Paul is doing the work of an ideal ethicist when (I Cor., 12, 12-31) he describes the nature of the Christian life, by the analogy of the body and its members, each part of which contributes its several part. "Whether one member suffers all suffer with it, or one member is honored all the members rejoice with it." What he gives here is an insight into the nature of moral life, even as a lecturer on physiology works in the interest of health, when he gives insight into the normal workings of the human body. The vocation having been defined the further task comes of valuating man's life in terms of it. The Christian virtues must be organically related by showing their relation to the Christian vo- cation. The necessity of this grows out of the fact that only thus can the Christian escape a legalism imposed upon him by those who exhibit virtues to be copied. No virtue is an end in itself, it is but the attitude of the self in its progress towards realization. (Cf. Dewey's ** Syllabus on Study of Ethics," p. 134.) The danger of isolating a virtue from the self lies in the fact that emphasis on a single attitude of the self, leaves a man without a knowledge of the virtue's larger significance. For instance, self-denial, when over emphasized, leads to absolute weakness. Is there not a rela- tionship between self-denial and self-affirmation? Witness Jesus driving the money changers from the Temple. On the other hand self-affirmation may be overstressed. The point is that there must be some criterion by which virtues may be judged. It is not sufficient just to balance them against each other. They must be co-ordinated with reference to an end, a vocation. This method excludes also what might be called a grafting method, the taking of a system of virtues from outside the Chris- tian life and grafting them into the Christian principle of love. This method prevailed in the early church when the virtues of Greek ethics were brought into the Christian system, and enforced by the sanction which the Christian religion had to offer. This method also prevailed to quite an extent in the philosophically constructed ethics in vogue previous to the time of Schleiermacher. This, if I mistake not, is the method of Newman Smyth in his "Christian Ethics." He divides duties into two main classes: (i) Duties to oneself, and (2) Duties to others. Under the first he discusses (i) Care for bodily health, (2) Self defence, (3) Temperance and exercise, (4) Freedom from fear of death. Under the second head, he discusses (i) Justice, showing that it is not THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 37 inconsistent with love — it is the giving to man his dues; (2) Speak- ing the truth, honorableness, valor. (Cf. Newman Smyth, Chris- tian Ethics, Book II, Chap. 2, 3.) Now the criticism to be made here is that this setting forth of Christian duties is not an organic one. He has taken the ordinary Platonic duties and shown that the Christian duty of love does not contradict them. Is Christian ethics so poor that it cannot have its own system of duties? A Christian ethics, which is self respecting, ought not to go to philo- sophical ethics for its list of virtues, rather will it derive its virtues from the nature of the Christian vocation. The Christian has been called to a life of love towards God and man and this concept is broad enough to include all the attitudes and phases of the moral life. (Cf. Dewey's Syllabus of Ethics, p. 143. Cf. I Cor., 13 Chap.) The necessity of giving our system of duties an organic rela- tionship to the Christian faith seems to be imperative at the present time. There is a tremendous loss of energy when these two do not meet. Our time seems to be suffering from the rather strange dilemma of having accepted to a large extent a Christian faith and to some extent a Grecian or philosophical system of ethics. The result has been a loss of power in ethics and a loss of purpose in religion. There was no such dualism in Jesus' teachings and there is no necessity for such a dualism in our teaching. The category of **Son-ship to God" is rich enough to include all the content which any philosophical ethics has claimed for its ideal. Having valued the personal virtues with reference to man's vocation Christian ethics must advance to value conduct, as it ex- presses itself in customs and institutions. It is clear that we come here to a place where some careful discrimination is necessary. There are certain judgments, about customs and institutions, which Christian ethics cannot render; these must be left for science. There are certain other judgments which it can render, and to distinguish betw^een these two is often a difficult task. Man is born into a world of institutions. He does not, at least in our age, enter life at its beginning. Society has been moving onward for hundreds of years, and by a process of experimentation men have found that certain things are worth doing. Around cer- tain of the great ''worths" of society have grown institutions which claim a certain sanctity in themselves. They develop ethical codes of their own. Such are all the great professions w4th their profes- sional ethics. There is a legal ethics, and an ethics peculiar to the medical profession ; there are codes peculiar to certain social con- ditions : the Court of St. James has one code, the Four Hundred have another, the Ghetto yet another. There are certain codes of ethics which are peculiar to the business world, all built around 3^ THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. the great values which they seek to conserve. Now the man born into the world of multitudinous values will first feel the inclination to keep them all; they are all of equal value for him and he has no basis for distinction. But such a condition of mind can only result in injury to the man. On the other hand, if he recklessly rejects all these values, he finds himself crippled in the struggle for existence. What he needs is that these values be unified on the basis of some fundamental value. This valuation must not be one which gives an external classification of values but one which systematizes them with reference to a fundamental concept or pur- pose. Christian ethics has for its function the valuation of every custom, profession or institution with reference to man's vocation. It must never make the mistake of declaring these customs and institutions to be of no value; this is the fault of anarchism. It must not declare them sacred and valuable in themselves; this would result in legalism. But it must so value these customs and institutions as to give each its relative place. Man is freed from them, not by taking him out of them, but by giving him a principle of criticism of them. He remains in the world but not of it. The Sabbath is not destroyed but it is to be used by man. Christian ethics should save a man from the slavery of institutionalism in every form, because it must insist that every institution was made for man and not man for the institution. Its business is to keep the institutional side of life in solution. In a word Christian ethics will prevent a man from holding any institution as supremely valu- able, that is as divine. Divinity cannot be lodged outside of God and man. Christian ethics ought to save a man from the sin of profes- sionalism. The essence of professionalism is the setting up of one's profession as an end in itself. A physician drops into pro- fessionalism when he looks upon his professional values as supreme and fails to relate them to the larger values of life. The lawyer deteriorates to professionalism when his legal code of ethics be- comes the sole guide of life. It should be the function of Christian ethics so to relate these secondary values that there will be unity in them all, and thus afford a basis for control in each. There is a great need at the present time for a system of ethics which can bring unity into the secondary values of life, men are pulling in opposite directions, there is a lack of co-ordination among the professions, especially a lack of harmony between the secular pro- fessions and the church. It should be the function of Christian ethics so to unify life that no profession may look upon itself as an end in itself, but as a part of a larger whole to which it must look for its ultimate sanction. THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 39 RELATION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS TO HISTORY. The charge will doubtless be made that the system of ethics here set forth lands one in anarchistic subjectivism, which will totally disregard the historical values of the race. It is necessary to say a few words as to the relation of the ethical man to history. In the first place, it is to be pointed out that the Christian who is working at his moral problem, can never get away from the fact that the call to this problem comes to him out of history. There is little in nature to lay upon him this demand, and still nothing in his immediate circumstances which makes him certain of the necessity and possibility of such a life. It is out of history that the call comes, out of history comes the guarantee of its possi- bility. And yet it is not history as such to which man owes obedi- ence. Out of history has come a call which lays it upon man to transcend history. He is called to personal life, and yet to be a person, means to be superior to history as such. Or to state the matter in a different way, the Christian although he gets his call through the events of history, always goes back of history, as mere events, to the personal will which transcends it, as personality always transcends things. Men have been working at the Chris- tian vocation for centuries, and it is through their continuous labor that the modern Christian enters into his vocation, and yet by the very nature of his vocation, he is under obligation not to subject himself to those who are the medium of his call. In the second place, it is to be pointed out that the moral struggles of the men in the past have a positive value for him. Although he may not copy the moral struggle of his father, yet the fact that his father has struggled should be of value to him. Through the pain and strife of centuries men have found that certain things were worth doing; there are great values which they have sought to conserve. They have incorporated these values in codes of law. The great "Thou shalts" and 'Thou shalt nots," of the race all have stood for the fact that certain things are uni- versally worth the doing or the not doing. It must be that man can make use of this moral capital, thus stored up at such a cost, without for himself repeating the struggle. All this depends, how- ever, on the man himself. The fact that men have left this deposit from their experience is not in itself a help to him. Their pre- cepts must have a meaning for him, else they are of no value. He is met with a thousand precepts of every description which he tries to keep as precepts, if they are all of equal value, if he feels under obligation to keep the whole law, then the only result of the ethical experience of the past will be to land him in slavish legalism. It will be a rock on which inner life will dash itself in pieces. As an ^O THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. ultimate result he will probably discard all ethical values, and set up some independent ones of his own, which means that society will cast him out as dangerous to its welfare. It is such a relation to history which actually does end in ultimate anarchy.* History is not ♦The French Revolution is interesting from this point of view, necessarily a blessing to a man, to subject one's self to it is slavery, to reject it is poverty and weakness. History has value for the man who has first heard the call to personal Ufe. If, as has been said, this call comes to man out of history, it must be the first which he hears. This call to personal life, unlocks for man the treasures of the ethical experience of the race. By first raising him above this experience he is placed in a position where he may use it. It is Jesus, not the Pharisees, who makes good use of the Old Testament law, for him it is filled full of meaning. For the man, who first holds in his hand an ethical criterion, all of history becomes a source of ethical gain. It seems necessary to emphasize this relation of the ethical man to history, for to say that a man can be ethical apart from history is absolute nonsense. No man can construct anew the great ethical values of the race, any more than a man can construct anew the great religious values of the race. A speculative ethics will last about as long as a speculative religion. In these two spheres it is experience which counts. No philosophical speculator will ever set aside that which, through years of experience, the world has tested and proved good. But in going back to history it is always neces- sary to keep in mind that the Christian goes to the personal will of which he conceives history to be the expression — a will which calls upon him to be a person also, and which forbids him to sub- ject himself to any human thing or force. By going back to history in the attitude of a personal being with a clear conception of his own vocation all the ethical struggles of the race become significant for him. He alone can gather in the rich fields of the past because he alone has the power to appreciate. Instead of rejecting history, the man who has heard the call to personal life, is the only one who really appropriates it. The rejection of a legalistic acceptance of scripture teaching does not mean that a man rejects the ethical teachings of scripture as of no value. This is something which Lobstein has shown in the realm of dogmatic theology. The question in systematic the- ology concerns the relation between the doctrines of systematic theology and scripture doctrines. Is systematic theology to take over uncritically the doctrines of scripture ? This must be answered in the negative, since, if answered in the affirmative, it would result in a legalism in thought life. It would be intolerable to say that my world view must be the same as that of St. Paul. He believed THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS; 4I in a cataclysmic 'Svind-up" of the universe in a very short time. Must a man, to be a Christian, also hold this ? On the other hand, if he does not ag^ree to accept those doctrines in their entirety, is he to reject them all as valueless, or shall he accept a few great ones and reject the more minute ones — admitting a sphere of the indifferent here as in ethics? (Cf. Lobstein, page 123, "Introduc- tion to Protestant Dogmatics.") Lobstein says: "The Bible is the witness which causes us to comprehend the Gospel." The Gospel — that is to say, the good news of the coming of the King- dom of God on the earth, the revelation of the divine holiness and love in their perfect harmony manifested in the light and in the entire activity of that One from whom our religion derives its name, Jesus Christ* — the Gospel is the essential content and inspir- *Quoted by Lobstem from L. Monod, Le Problemede 1' autorite, pp. 70, loi, 108. ing soul of the Holy Scripture. The value of the latter consists in that it is the document of the history of a divine work which, continuing through the centuries, has brought to humanity, accord- ing to a providential plan, especially revealed in Israel, the organs of a new life, whose perfect development and supreme manifesta- tion are found to be realized in Jesus Christ. This permanent and integral source of the Gospel furnishes to us a principle of spiritual criticism, a positive religious criterion, according to which we can value the books of the Holy Scripture and discriminate in each writing between the fundamental and essential parts and the decrepit and transitory parts. The proclamation of the Word of God, the proclamation of the Gospel of redemption, as a sovereign authority, puts into our hands a regulating principle; we have found the focus about which all the parts group themselves with a value proportionate to the approach of each part to this divine center." What Lobstein has said here concerning the value of the biblical doctrines for faith seems to me equally true in the realm of Christian practice. The Bible is the means by which there is revealed to man a new divine life. This life is authoritative, its life has expressed itself in faith and practice. On the side of prac- tice, it is the working out by Jesus and his early followers of their divine earthly vocation. Their words and their deeds show us this vocation in its various phases, and we gain thereby a rich knowledge of it. As we appreciate the vocation, their deeds take on a unity, they are no longer a conglomerate mass, but the dif- ferent phases of an organic life. We can value their actions by the inner principles of that life. In our attitude towards them, it is not for us to copy their actions, but to appropriate their vocation, work- ing out an organic life of our own. We are thus dependent on thern, since it is from them we get our vocation, and yet our vocation is 42 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. at the same time an independent one. It is to the Bible that the Qiristian ethicist goes for the clearest, most normal expression of the Christian vocation. In this he finds the objective statement of the vocation which he, as a Christian, has appropriated. By thus gaining a clear conception of the criterion for action, given by Jesus, we save even the Old Testament as a source of Christian ethical knowledge. The man who insists strenuously upon the validity of the Ten Commandments saves only the Ten Commandments. When once a criterion of son-ship to God as a criterion for ethical action has been accepted, one approaches the Old Testament, not primarily to find out what has been com- manded, but to learn how men in the past have worked at their vocation. Their experience is valuable, be it either a success or a failure. Throughout the Old Testament he finds the experience of men who are working at the problem of life. From all of them he gains insight into what it means to be a child of God. He thus gains a clearer conception of his vocation and is by so much a freer man. CHAPTER IV. PRACTICAL VALUE OF SUCH A SYSTEM OF ETHICS — CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND SCIENCE. In discussing the practical value of Christian ethics, we shall first consider the value of Christian ethics for the physical and social sciences. In order to do this it will be necessary to give a somewhat extended discussion of the function of these sciences. It was intimated in a previous section that there were certain judgments about an ethical act which the ethical teacher could not render. As to the end and purpose of every act he is an authority. But that is not the only question which may be asked. Suppose the good Samaritan, whom the great Ethical Teacher, commended as good because of his good will which knew no limitations, had poured a salt solution into the man's wounds instead of oil, who would have passed a judgment on this act? Eventually I suppose the ethical teacher would, he would say that no person with a desire to help his neighbor would pour a salt solution into a gaping wound. But this would be only after he had found what was the proper remedy to apply to this wound. There would be a time when the question of the proper remedy would be a real question. The fact that a man has a good will is no immediate guarantee that he will use the right means to express this will. A good heart will eventually find the right way, but the process is a long one and in the meantime the man needs help. To be ethically good, knowledge is necessary to a man as well as a good will. It is not sufficient merely to love one's neighbor as one's self, to do unto him as one would be done unto. The question comes, what would one wish that a neighbor should do unto him. It is not a question of how, but of zdtat. This is not something outside of the Golden Rule, it is simply the application of the Golden Rule to a special case. The Golden Rule covers the whole situation, science is not something outside of ethics, ethics includes science, it is not complete without science. Man in his vocation must use means, science has to do with the means which a man uses in carrying out his vocation. Let us make this plain by returning to the illustra- 43 44 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. tion of house building. Suppose I am to construct a house, and have a very clear idea of the purpose of the house but a very poor idea of the materials to be used in its construction. If I do not know the power of resistance of the different materials and the adhesive power of mortar, my execution of my purpose is bound to be very inadequate. Suppose I want to tear down one house and reconstruct it, if I do not understand the mechanism of the house I shall have hard work in tearing it down, and when I recon- struct it I shall be liable to make simply a copy of the old. But if I understand the materials as well as the purpose of houses, I ought to be able to produce the ideal product, that is, the product thoroughly in accord with my purpose. With this illustration in mind, let us turn to some of the social institutions upon which it is the business of science to render a verdict. Take for instance the liquor traffic. Is it best for a city to have free saloons, high license or prohibition? This is a question on which there has been expended an endless amount of good will, but it has often hap- pened that those exercising the good will have been somewhat intolerant of any question as to the proper means. As a result, much good will has been dissipated. There has been need that someone should do as the "Committee of Fifty" has done, i. e., make a scientific study of the means to be used. They have done this by gathering their facts together, by systematizing facts, and by placing in the hands of the reformer a knowledge of the means to be used in the accomplishment of his purpose. Science does not dictate means, it simply analyzes means, and systematizes them, and then places in the hands of the reformer the necessary facts. It may be worth while to note that science did not do this until long after the man of good will had created a demand for it, but the man of good will could not get along without the knowledge of the means to be used. It is the purpose of science to keep the means side of life in solution, to keep man from using wrong means to a good end. In times of reconstruction, and for the man who is following the Giristian vocation, all times are times of reconstruction, ethics has for its function to keep clear before a man his fundamental purpose, and science places in his hands the principles of control of the materials to be used. When both have done their perfect work there should be reconstruction without devastation, progress without retrogression. The conception of Christian ethics here set forth should be wel- comed by the man of science. It is often emphasized that ethics has everything to gain from science. It can be shown, I think, that science has as much to gain from ethics. If ethics does its work well a man should be saved from institutionalism. Science gains here in two ways. In the first place man is in a better atti- THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 45 tude to criticize and remodel an institution when he stands above it. So long as a man identifies his eternal welfare with an institution, he will be very slow to allow anyone to criticize it, which of course hinders the scientist in his work. When any class of people identify their welfare with a certain social order the scientist may criti- cize in vain. On the other hand, if worth is lodged not in an institution but in personal life, man ceases to look upon the insti- tution as permanent and will seek to make of it a means for the expression of the personal life. This will increase the demand for a carefully performed scientific task with reference to this institution. The question will be asked : "Is this institution the proper means for accomplishing the purpose for which it was in- tended?" This of course demands a scientific answer. Lecky tells us that it was the increased emphasis on the worth of the individual life which enabled Christianity to renovate the institu- tions of the ancient Roman world. It may be shown, 1 think, that the conception of ethics here set forth is the only one which allows full play to the scientist in his work. All systems of casuistry can not help doing violence to the scientific side of life since they assume that this side is static. To give a man a precept is to state for him his act in terms of the means to be used. It is to state not only the attitude of his heart toward a man but the means to be used in carrying out this atti- tude, hence no room is left for a proper consideration of the means to be used. VALUE FOR MORAL LIFE. Such an ethics as is here described will strike at the very root of sin. Men sin, not through lack of knowledge of the right thing to do, but through lack of what St. Paul calls "faith," through failure to take life personally. They try to limit the sphere in which they must act as personal beings. Jane Addams' book on "Democracy and Social Ethics" sets this forth in a very lucid way. Tolstoi has shown in his works the tendency of men to institutionalize life, to think that there are limits to the sphere in which they must act in accord with the principle of love. Jesus' efforts were to get men to take life personally, to avoid allowing external things to dominate over them. It is at this point that such an ethics will attack the moral problem, it will not seek to tell men what to do but it will so analyze personal life that a man will see that there is no place where he can cease being a person and be- come a thing, that there are no external fortunes or misfortunes which can relieve him of the necessity of taking life personally. Such an ethics will insure several characteristics to an ethical act. It will insure that an ethical act shall be organically related to 46 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. the ethical personality, a characteristic which neither Catholic ethics nor orthodox Protestant ethics can secure. According to the theory here set forth there is no goodness outside of personality. No act is good in itself, but it is good because it is the work of a good person. The act which is done for any external reason grows out of a sinful motive. Our theory of ethics in no way seeks to prescribe what definite things are to be done. It would thereby encourage men to sin. It rather seeks to throw man back upon himself, to insist that the act must be his own, to teach him to listen to the voice of God within himself. By causing man to take life personally it furthers his life in the realization of per- sonality. Again such an ethics will secure the possibility of progress in ethical action. According to the Catholic conception, progress musi come through increased legislation, for new situations new precepts must be formulated. According to the orthodox Protestant con- ception it is hard to see how there can be any progress. Accord- ing to our conception it is the personality which progresses. Man's vocation does not change nor does the exposition of it change, but the man himself changes. He can adapt himself to a new situation but he never reaches the place where his vocation as a child of God is changed. VALUE FOR RELIGION. It can be claimed, I think, that this is the only conception of ethics which works in the interest of a man who has experienced a new spiritual birth. Catholic ethics is not primarily interested in the conduct of the Christian life. It is interested in the Catholic Church as an institution and will make plain to a man what things the institution will demand of him, but it is not primarily inter- ested in the way these "things to be done" relate themselves to the life of the Christian. The Protestant ethics which makes a book organic for the content of ethical action, is not primarily inter- ested in the relation of conduct to the new life. So that the man who has been set free in his faith life is shoved back into Juda- istic legalism on the conduct side : there is no organic relation between such conduct and the new life to which man has been called. But the conception here set forth makes faith and conduct an organic whole. It is often said, that a man is not saved by ethics. This is perfectly true. Neither is a man saved by theology. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of God, working in a man is the source of all saving power. But theology aids in the saving of men by making clear to them the nature of their faith. May it not be said that ethics aids in the saving of men by making clear to them the nature THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. 47 of their Christian conduct? Salvation is a matter of being a son of Gk)d, being a son of God implies a faith life and a conduct life, inasmuch as Christian ethics aids a man in his conduct life it can be said to aid in saving him. A man is certainly not saved until he is saved in his conduct life. Faith and conduct are too inti- mately related to permit a man to be free in one and enslaved in the other. To be truly free he must be free in both faith and conduct. CHRISTIAN ETHICS AS A SCIENTIFIC TASK. This conception of Christian ethics gives to the ethical teachef a scientific task. By scientific task I mean a task to which there are definite limits and which co-ordinates with other interests of society. If science is a definite body of knowledge reduced to laws and embodied in a system, then the Christian ethical teacher has a scientific task, for he has a definite body of knowledge which may be reduced to law and embodied in a system. It is the knowledge that has accumulated about the conduct side of the Christian faith. The scientist in this field of knowledge has a definite field of labor. He in no way conflicts with the scientific servant working in other fields of knowledge. Such an ethical teacher has perhaps a more limited task than an ethical teacher who seeks to legislate on all the issues before the public, but just because it is more limited, it is more definite and ultimately more necessary. The Christian ethicist must take his stand among those whom society conserves because it has need of such. He will be valuable so long as his work is necessary. It can not be denied that such a conception of the function of Christian ethics means a quantitative reduction of the sphere of teach- ing which belongs to the Christian minister and the Christian church. The church gives up its claim to train men in the tech- nique of ethical action. The Christian minister will not consider it his function to tell the banker how to conduct his business, the lawyer must be allowed to win his own case, the physician must regulate the affairs of his profession. When the church has granted all this, will it have committed suicide? When to every man has been granted the right and necessity of deciding what is right will there be any need of a church? Many people will answer in the negative. Certainly if the great need of society is technical instruction the university ought long ago to have sup- planted the cathedral. If man's acts are imperfect because he lacks knowledge society ought long ago to have substituted the public school for the meeting house. It is the function of supplying technical instruction which has been eliminated from the church's duties, and if this is the kind of truth which sets men free then ^8 THE FUNCTION OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS. there is no longer a demand for the church. It is hard to see how the institution got such a start. Socrates was right before Jesus and the change in the course of events which Jesus introduced has been a miserable aberration. tJut all such fears for the future of the church are based on a misapprehension of the function of the church. The people who hold them look upon the church as a sort of Bureau of Informa- tion — a social sign board to direct people through the wilderness. Since men have found that one of the joys of life is to blaze new paths through the wilderness they have decided to burn the sign boards, or at least to leave them to the weaklings in the rear of the procession. Now the whole information bureau idea is per- nicious. It represents a dull, dreary, priggish, pedantic, view of life which may satisfy some men with scholastic tendencies, but which does not answer to the demands of real life. The crying need of man is not for knowledge, but for fellow- ship. Witness the fraternal organizations and witness the church when it is not controlled by scholastic ideals. Man doesn't object to being in a wilderness if he has company. Give him fellowship and he will conquer the wilderness. His primary need is not knowledge but inspiration. This he draws from association with personalities both human and divine. The feeling that life is worth living, not the knowledge of how it is to be lived, is the thing of primary importance. The church will exist just so long as it is worth while for a man to meet in fellowship with other men who are fighting the same battle, and with Jesus Christ, who is captain of the host. If anyone doubts the need of such an organ- ization let him look at the number of societies and organizations whose function is not the dispensing of knowledge but the realiza- tion of brotherhood. Ethical principles are the conditions under which a man may enter into the kingdom of personalities, the human brotherhood in which Jesus is the elder brother. \braT or THE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BEIiOW Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in demand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of loan period. NOV 27 1917 HFC a 1917 270d' 4&^^ 50»n-7,*l( YC 30378 -cf-'' i Tl m ,r' '%. ■jf> t :h