!i III i pip ij I iiii THE RECOVERY AND RESTATE- MENT OF THE GOSPEL Recovery ? Restatement of the Gospel BY LORAN DAVID OSBORN, PH.D. CHICAGO THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 1903 COPYRIGHT 1 903 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO To R. R. O. CONTENTS. TAGS PREFACE xi INTRODUCTION xv PART I. THE RECOVERY OF THE GOSPEL. CHAPTER I. THE MODERN SPIRIT AND ITS SEARCH FOR REALITY 3 I. The modern spirit and modern culture - - 4 II. The modern spirit and Christianity 12 CHAPTER II. THE OBSCURATION OF THE GOSPEL IN THE COURSE OF ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 19 I. The early transformation of Christianity - - 19 The ecclesiastical transformation - - - 20 The theological transformation - - - 27 II. From Origen to the Reformation 36 III. The obscuration of the gospel resulting from the early transformation of Christianity - 40 The radical character of the change 40 The eclipse of the personal element in the gospel 47 The moral eclipse of the gospel ... 59 CHAPTER III. THE HISTORICAL RECOVERY OF THE GOSPEL 67 I. The Lutheran Reformation .... 68 II. The post-Reformation re-eclipse of the gospel - 73 The survival of Greco-Catholic dogmatics in Prot- estantism 73 The new emphasis placed upon theology 79 The formal principle of the Reformation displaces the material principle in importance - 8l The dogmatic system is read back into the Bible - 83 The new element in the post-Reformation eclipse 85 viii CONTENTS PAGE III. The nineteenth-century reformation - 89 The return to the Christian records 90 The popular reopening of the Bible - 95 The scientific reopening of the Bible 98 CHAPTER IV. THE RECOVERED GOSPEL OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 113 I. Attitude of modern exegesis toward the New Testament literature 113 II. The gospel of Jesus 117 Jesus of Nazareth the Mediator of salvation - 118 God the Heavenly Father the Author of salvation 122 The nature and conditions of salvation - - 123 1. Salvation as the kingdom of God - - 123 2. Salvation as eternal life - - - - 129 III. Conclusions -- 132 1. The New Testament terminology - - - 132 2. The true nature of the gospel - - - 135 PART II. THE RESTATEMENT OF THE GOSPEL. CHAPTER I. THE GOSPEL AND THEOLOGY - - - 153 I. The nature of theological statement 154 II. The value of theological statement - - - 1 59 III. The right of theological restatement - - 170 IV. The need of theological restatement at the present time 176 CHAPTER II. THE GOSPEL RESTATED: A SUGGESTED THEOLOGICAL SYSTEM 185 I. The governing position of Jesus Christ in theology 187 1. Theology must be loyal to the thought of Jesus 187 2. Corollary: the place of the Bible in Christianity 187 3. Statement of the theme of theology - - 197 II. Jesus Christ the Mediator of eternal life - - 197 The mission of Jesus 19? The person of Christ 201 III. God the Author and Source of eternal life - 205 CONTENTS ix PACK IV. Man the recipient of eternal life ... 207 The origin and nature of man ... 207 The origin and nature of sin - - - -211 V. The nature and conditions of eternal life 213 The nature of eternal life 214 Entrance into eternal life - - - - 214 The continuance of life 218 The result and reward of eternal life - - 221 VI. Eternal life and the kingdom of God - 222 The organic nature of the kingdom of God - 223 Relations within the kingdom of God - - - 223 The law of the kingdom - - - - 225 How the law of the kingdom is fulfilled - - 227 The progress and consummation of the kingdom 232 CHAPTER III. CONCLUSION 240 The change of center in theology - - - 240 The view advocated explains the situation, both historically 244 and practically 247 PREFACE. THIS book is the product of thinking and ex- perience, rather than of reading. It is not to be inferred that the author has not adequately in- formed himself concerning the questions of fact involved, or that he has failed to read what others have said about the interpretation of those facts. What is meant is that the subject has been worked out in vital connection with the author's mental and spiritual development, and that his thinking has kept in advance of his reading. For this reason, as well as because of the wide range of the subject and the demands of a busy pastorate, the book has been in prepa- ration during the past five years. It has been in typewritten form for two years, with an altera- tion now and then to bring it more closely into touch with new conceptions of truth and the practical aspects of religion which a pastor con- tinually meets. The thought in mind has been not merely, Is it true ? but also, Will it work ? The result of the waiting, with its theological clinical work and added reading, has not materi- ally changed the conclusions. A significant statement appears in a recent book: "If I mistake not, the unrest of the time xii PREFACE is less a revolt against the content of traditional beliefs than anxiety to find some way of being sure of something. The great question is not whether this or that doctrine is true, but rather where a starting-point is to be found, and how we are to distinguish the true from the false." 1 We do not want opinions, but facts. Christian truth at first hand is being sought and found to- day in three great fields of study: psychology, in the widest sense, including investigations in the schools and in practical religious and social serv- ice ; New Testament exegesis ; and the history of the church and of theology. The present book scarcely touches the first of these fields. For myself, that which brought order out of chaos and became the guiding thread of constructive work was the turning from contemporary the- ology, where there are such widely differing opinions, back to the New Testament, in an earnest and open-minded desire to understand its teachings. I then found myself forced into the history of interpretation and of theology, as well as into a study of the formation of the New Testa- ment canon. In a word, touch with reality was gained and a starting-point found in turning from the theological to the historical method of study. This, in turn, brought me back to the pres- ent theological problem. May I quote again, 1 G. A. COE, The Religion of a Mature Mind, p. 62. PREFACE xiii from a recent article? "To those who have fought their way through from irrational and op- pressive beliefs there is a freedom in the new- found position that is full of exhilaration. We imagine that it is the content of the new that sus- tains us, whereas it is in reality the sense of vic- tory over the old. The great religious problem before us is how to cast out the errors of an out- worn creed and yet hold fast to its truths how to avoid what the Germans call emptying the child out with the bath." 1 The negative victory will not long prove sufficient. And while the non- theological attitude of a purely spiritual appropri- ation of the great religious truths of the Bible will satisfy for a longer time, and some minds permanently, the thoughtful mind is impelled sooner or later to the farther step of articulating the religious truths of the New Testament and of experience into a system of thinking that will bring them into correlation with the rest of human knowledge. And when once a man has gotten back to the constructive problem, he is often surprised to find how near he is to the place from which he started. He realizes that it is the same great truth that has been struggling for expression through the ages, and he comes to have a new 'T. D. BACON, "The Coming Religious Problem," in The Outlook, March 21, 1903. xiv PREFACE respect for the old historic creeds, even though he cannot accept them as final ; for they are now perceived to have been at one time living words spoken from earnest human souls engaged in the same quest as his own. Yet the difference be- tween the new position and the old is a real one, nevertheless. It is the difference between travel- ing the road for ourselves and taking someone's description of it. It is the difference between learning what others have said and saying things ourselves. But more than this, there is a new point of view, a different emphasis, a better proportion, an assimilation of the world's grow- ing knowledge, a vital expression in contem- porary speech and these are much. It has been worth while. This experience of mine is, if I mistake not, the experience of many; is, indeed, typical of our age. The restless spirit passes along the way of vital religious experience on to the con- structive task. It is in the hope that the result of my own struggle, put into just this form, may help others to the intellectual and spiritual rest which I have found, that this book is published. It does not settle the questions involved in Christian thinking; they never will be settled. But it takes an attitude toward them, giving both present satisfaction and room for indefinite growth. This is worth even more. BLOOMINGTON, ILL., May, 1903. INTRODUCTION. THE QUESTION STATED. THE purpose of the following pages is to show how the gospel of Jesus has become obscured during the course of its historical development, and that it is therefore necessary to go back of this in order to recover the gospel which he taught ; and further, that, inasmuch as the world's culture has radically changed during the centuries since Christianity received its first dogmatic expression, this recovered gospel needs restatement in terms of modern thought and life. In asserting that the gospel has been ob- scured, no one would claim that it has ever been wholly lost. During even the darkest of the centuries it has still been a mighty power in the world. It has transformed lives and deter- mined the destiny of nations. It has leavened society, influenced the movements of thought, and produced a civilization that is at least semi- Christian. Yet there are good reasons for suspecting that a real obscuration has taken place. As thought is handed down from age to age it tends to become dead and stereotyped tradition. The new gen- xvi INTRODUCTION eration attempts to appropriate the statements of the former time, but life has moved on and the old forms of expression no longer possess vital force. Again, when Christianity entered the world, it came into an alien and unfriendly environment. In process of time it was modified by these outside influences, and lost something of its original power. Yet again, the gospel came at first in the form of life and speech. It had to be reduced to writing and brought into relation to the world's thought. Then, as it came into contact with the nations, this original literature was translated into other languages. Thus the gospel has been subject to radical transplantings as it has been transferred from the soil of Jewish life and forms of thought to that of Greek, Roman, German, and English life and culture. It has been called upon to pass out of one civilization into an entirely different one, in coming from the ancient to the modern world. It would be strange, indeed, if this long and intricate process had not affected Christianity and caused later conceptions of the gospel to depart from the original. Hence, on a priori grounds alone, we should expect that, after eighteen hundred years of such a history, the gospel would have become obscured. If we turn now to the great claims that Christianity makes, and reflect upon its com- INTRODUCTION xvii parative failure to vindicate them, we arrive at the same conclusion. Jesus Christ came into the world to save it. It remains unsaved. He came in order that on earth God's kingdom might come and his will be done as in heaven. God's will is not done on earth, nor is his king- dom triumphant. Making all possible allowance for the magnitude of the task, and giving full recognition to what has been accomplished, still something is radically wrong, that after nearly two thousand years the claims of the gospel have been fulfilled in so small a measure. The institutional life of the world remains almost untouched organically. What is at fault ? Are we mistaken in thinking that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself ? Is not the gospel in reality the power of God unto salva- tion ? There are good reasons for suspecting that the difficulty lies, at least partially, in the fact that the gospel has been obscured and mis- conceived, and so has led to misdirected energy on the part of God's people. The probability of an obscuration of the gospel, suggested by the above considerations, becomes a certainty when we compare modern Christianity with the Christianity of the New Testament. The one is characterized by form- alism and intellectualism, the other by freedom and spiritual power. When a man once escapes xviii INTRODUCTION from the persistent fiction that Protestantism, as a matter of course, is a perfect reproduction of New Testament Christianity, then the more he works his way into New Testament thought and the better he understands modern Christianity, the more clearly does he see the gulf between the two. Moreover, as we follow back the history of Christianity we are able to discover just where and when and how this disastrous obscuration actually occurred, and in what it consists. It took place in the formative period of the first three centuries, and was a radical secularizing of the gospel. The institutional eclipse of the gos- pel during that time, resulting from the forma- tion of the Catholic church, with its hierarchical priesthood and ecclesiastical salvation, is now generally recognized throughout the Protestant world. The great Reformation of the sixteenth century was directed against that error. The issue now hinges upon the question whether during the same period there occurred a theo- logical eclipse which has persisted until the pres- ent time. Was the theological development of that formative period the legitimate unfolding of the gospel of Jesus, or did it transform the nature of that gospel by the introduction of new and incongruous elements ? In the early adjust- ment of Christianity to contemporary thought, INTRODUCTION xix accomplished in the formation of the first Chris- tian theology, did the gospel become so identi- fied with this theology as to be changed in essential character from a life of faith, affecting the whole nature of man, to assent to a body of philosophical knowledge, affecting chiefly his intellectual life ? In other words, stated in present terms, the question is this : What is it to be a Christian? Does it consist in, or necessarily involve, the acceptance of the traditional dogmatic theology of the church, or does it consist solely in con- fident trust in Christ and loyal obedience to his will? What is Christianity in its essential na- ture ? A life of faith, or a creed ? Or is it a faith plus a creed ? This problem is fundamental. The issue here is not the difficulty that one generation finds in entering into the thought of another, nor the difficulty of translating thought from one lan- guage to another. It lies deeper. It has to do, not with the outside or accidental aberrations of the gospel, but with its inner and essential nature. At the present time no other theo- logical question can compare with this in impor- tance. Either consciously or unconsciously it lies at the very heart of the modern theological ferment. There will be no peace, and there ought to be none, until a thorough investigation has xx INTRODUCTION brought clearly to light the true nature of the gospel proclaimed by Christianity. The answer to this question is not easily found. Our first thought would be to go directly to the written documents of the primi- tive period, as contained in the New Testament. But we soon discover that these also have had a history, which must be understood before their contents can be justly estimated. Moreover, they were written under definite historical condi- tions, which render them subject to the ordinary laws of historical and literary criticism. The records depend upon the historical events which precede them ; the history itself is primary. And this history is not isolated, but is most intimately related to the whole complex en- vironment of the times. Thus is imposed the task of reproducing the history of New Testament times, in both its narrower and its wider circles, if we would rightly interpret the New Testament records. A further difficulty exists in the fact that we are living in the intellectual and religious atmos- phere that is itself the result of the hereditary complex of ideas formed by the long course of history that separates us from the New Testa- ment times. We see the New Testament through this atmosphere; and hence there is a strong tendency to read it in the light of its traditional INTRODUCTION xxi interpretation. But this is the theological inter- pretation, which is itself a part of the very obscu- ration that we are trying to locate. Later theological ideas, and new meanings acquired by words during the historical development of Chris- tianity, are unconsciously reflected back into the Bible and attached to its language. The diffi- culty can be overcome only by getting outside of the traditional theological environment. Just as the scientist in his experiments makes allowance for the personal equation, so here we must reckon with this theological equation. We must work our way back to the New Testament, and learn to read it in the light of the age in which it was written. For these reasons, therefore, to decide what original Christianity was is not so simple and direct a task as it might seem. It involves a knowledge of the New Testament that will do justice to the historical environment in which it was written, and an understanding of the history of Christianity that will make possible a just estimate of the influence of the post-biblical development. These are the two tasks that are being accom- plished, respectively, in the sciences of modern biblical exegesis and church history. The one attempts to understand the New Testament as interpreted by the canons of historical criticism; xxii INTRODUCTION the other, by unveiling the later development, discovers what has been added to Christianity, and when and how these additions were effected. All the work in these departments has not yet been completed, but the main conclusions are well enough established so that they can be brought to bear upon the problem of the re- covery of the gospel. While we might begin with the conclusions of either of these sciences, there is a distinct ad- vantage in considering the historical development first. To trace the progress of Christian thought prepares the mind for a more unprejudiced con- sideration of its beginnings, by disclosing the allowance that must be made for what we have called the theological equation. Yet these two, the study of New Testament teaching and the consideration of its development in history, cannot be kept entirely separate. We have to begin with something. We cannot really trace the stream backward, but must start tentatively at the source, follow it down, and then, with the new knowledge gained, go back and more fully explore the sources. The first of these tasks is attempted in chaps, ii and iii, the second in chap, iv ; while chap, i discusses the spirit that ani- mates the entire modern religious movement. The historical process described in these chap- ters is nowhere in a straight line. It is much INTRODUCTION xxiii involved, and the movement is sometimes well- nigh lost in the confusing interplay of forces and the multiplicity of details. If the matter seems presented more clearly in this discussion than in the history itself, it is because the logical signifi- cance of the movement is clearer than the chrono- logical sequence of events. The theme of Part I is, thus, the recovery of the Christian gospel. Part II deals with the problem of the restatement of that gospel in modern language. Much confusion is avoided by keeping the two questions distinct. The necessity for this restatement of Christian- ity arises from the change in the world's culture. The right to make such a restatement lies in the fact that theology is only the human science of Christianity. It should be borne in mind that a new theology does not mean a new gospel. The dog- matic statement of Christianity is extra-biblical and post-biblical. It therefore has none of the divine sanction and authority attaching to the gospel itself. Theology, having been made by men, may be remade by other men. But the case is different with the gospel. What we are contend- ing for is the old gospel an older gospel, indeed, than the church has had for many centuries ; older than Calvin and Augustine; older than Ath- anasius and Origen ; even as old as Jesus Christ, its divine founder. Yet we also maintain that, if xxiv INTRODUCTION the church is to have any dogmatic expression of this gospel at all, it should be in the terms of thought of the twentieth century, rather than of the fourth or the sixteenth. One of the greatest needs of our day is the old gospel expressed in a new theology. A few words should be said concerning the limits of the discussion undertaken in the follow- ing pages. The task that the author has set for himself is not an apologetic one. No attempt is made to prove the finality of the Christian religion To make that proof would require a book along an entirely different line. Only two things are attempted : first, the recovery of primitive Christianity by a just estimate of the nature and extent of its obscuration during the course of history, and a study of the New Testament sources; and, second, the restatement of Christianity in terms of modern thought. So far as the main argument is concerned, there is no more certainty that primitive Christianity, even after it has been recovered, is the ultimate religion thanthatthirteenth-century or nineteenth-century Christianity is, or even Buddhism, or Confucian- ism, or any other religion. The whole apologetic problem lies beyond the limits of the present dis- cussion. Yet it cannot be denied that the author has INTRODUCTION xxv everywhere assumed that the original gospel of Jesus furnishes ultimate religious reality. At first thought this might be regarded as a fault in a scientific treatment of the subject. But several considerations are available for the defense of the discussion as it stands. The first is that which has already been suggested, namely, that the assumption referred to in no way invalidates the real contention of the book that the gospel of Jesus was obscured during its historical develop- ment, is being gradually recovered through an- other historical process, and should now be restated in the language of modern life. In the second place, the conviction of the finality of the gospel is a part of the gospel itself, and has been ever since the days of Jesus. Every discussion must have some starting-point. The book finds this in the gospel of Jesus, and does not attempt to go back of that. It has a right, therefore, to make the same assumption that is everywhere bound up in that gospel. Indeed, to eliminate that assumption is impossible without depoten- tiatingthe gospel, and to prove it is unnecessary, inasmuch as that is not the purpose in view. And finally, it is this very presupposition of the intrin- sic value of the gospel that makes the subject worth considering at all, and that gives it special interest at the present time. That which men regard as of no value may be obscured or com- xxvi INTRODUCTION pletely lost without causing solicitude. But the conviction of the gospel that it offers ultimate religious truth has been the cause of the whole historical process of Christianity in the world. This claim offers in itself adequate and most attractive material for an independent treatise, but the author has purposely passed it by and chosen the other subject, assuming throughout his own discussion the truth that would be the conclusion of the first namely, that the uncor- rupted gospel of Jesus furnishes ultimate religious reality. PART I THE RECOVERY OF THE GOSPEL CHAPTER I. THE MODERN SPIRIT AND ITS SEARCH FOR REALITY. THE modern religious movement was not inaugurated by a priori probabilities respecting the obscuration of the gospel. Such considera- tions never would have shaken the church from its dogmatic slumber. The movement is due to the modern spirit, the Zeitgeist of our age, with its new historical sense and intense love of real- ity. Nothing else is so characteristic of the mod- ern world as this spirit, which, because it has found its clearest expression in the realm of nat- ural science, we have come to call the scientific spirit. It is something new, due apparently to the emerging genius of the Germanic peoples, coming at last to maturity and awakening to activity after its long period of silent develop- ment. In the great Renaissance, that wonderful new birth of the fifteenth century, the world of thought was shaken as in the throes of a mighty travail, and brought forth this virile child. Thus in the twilight of the modern dawn a new spirit appeared which has been steadily extending its 3 4 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT influence, and embodying itself in a new civiliza- tion. The distinctive peculiarity of this spirit is its determination to get at the reality of things. For centuries men had been working over and com- bining into new forms the material of Greek and Roman thought. Instead of going to the world itself, and to current life, for the subject-matter of science and philosophy, they inquired what the an- cients thought about the world and about life. The astronomy of Ptolemy, the philosophy of Aris- totle, the theology of the church Fathers these were the things that men were studying, rather than the realities back of them. But the new spirit awoke to the consciousness that it was liv- ing in a world of its own a world of present existences. It therefore deserted the realm of words and opinions, traditions and theories, the far-away region beyond the stars, and has been giving its attention with irresistible energy to the actual world in which it finds itself, in the hope of ascertaining what this is and what it means. I. THE MODERN SPIRIT AND MODERN CULTURE. In this search for reality the new spirit first turned to the study of that which was nearest and most tangible the world of nature. Here it worked out a new body of science, in harmony with the realities disclosed. The story is too OF THE GOSPEL 5 familiar to require many words. One of the first and most significant discoveries was that in the heavens the center of the solar system is not the earth, but the sun, about which the earth and its sister-planets revolve. The whole ancient sys- tem of elaborate cycles and epicycles collapsed as the real heavens and earth appeared. Turning to the earth itself, the new temper entered a field especially congenial for its operations. The earth was found to be, not some vague and limit- less plain with its four corners resting upon mys- terious foundations, but a comparatively small globe of definite dimensions, which could be cir- cumnavigated and mapped out. This discovery was a deathblow to numberless bogies and super- stitions, and gave a great impetus to the growing determination to know the real world. As the work of exploration proceeded, new continents appeared, rising out of the mist and darkness that had hitherto enshrouded them. The oceans became the highway of life, and ships sailed to the remotest lands of earth in search of treasure and adventure and new homes for men. The new heavens and new earth thus discovered have become the subjects of the minutest and most painstaking investigation, as to their nature and the laws operating among their multitudinous elements. The result is the vast and intricate body of natural science which is perhaps the 6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT most characteristic creation of the modern spirit. But while the new movement started with nature, and became assured of the soundness of its method in natural science, it did not stop here. It entered the realm of thought, and demanded there also a return to reality. It brought philosophy back from the realm of imaginative speculation and required of it the explanation, not of the hypothetical, but of the real; not the continuation and system- atization of the thinking of the past, but the interpretation of present existence. Descartes, doubting everything that could be doubted, and starting over again with present reality in his noted dictum, cogito, ergo sum, gave expression to the genius of the new spirit, at the very birth of modern philosophy. Beginning thus with the present reality and the conscious ego, there have come into existence a new philosophy and psychology which are required to remember that even here, in the most abstract of all realms, where the constant tendency is toward the unreal and visionary, the business in hand is the expla- nation of the real world and real life. In the field of art and literature, likewise, this love for reality manifests itself. After long copying of the ancient models, and continued use of subjects existing only in the imagination, OF THE GOSPEL 7 modern art has returned to nature and to life for its most characteristic themes. Literature also manifests the same tendency toward realism. In writings of travel and description, we have, if not a new creation, at least a literature that is animated by an entirely different spirit from that of the ancients. The whole purpose and effort is to be faithful to what actually ex- ists. In fiction, which certainly is a modern cre- ation, there may seem to be an exception to this return to reality; for is not here displayed a peculiar delight in the "fictitious" and imagina- tive ? Yet fiction has as its object the portrayal of life in a way truer to inner reality than is pos- sible in any other form of literature. It is there- fore a true child of the modern spirit ; and the demand is strong today that it shall remain loyal to its mission by the faithful representation of life as it is. Another form of modern literature deserves special attention. The new Zeitgeist, while at first concerned chiefly about present reality, has been forced, in the effort to explain the present, to widen its scope and undertake the study of the past. This has given birth to a new sci- ence of history, very different in character from the ancient history-writing. Employing the same scientific method used in the study of nature and of present life, and animated by the same deter- mination to get at the true state of things, the new study has done its utmost to reproduce the life of the past by an exhaustive scrutiny of the records that have survived. As little room as possible has been left for guesswork and for tra- ditional interpretations, while everything has been judged by comparison with the records at first hand. The result, without question, is a clearer perception of the historical continuity of life and a better understanding of present condi- tions. The seeds of the present were sown in the past : the fruit is better estimated because of our knowledge of the seed and the conditions of its growth. Important everywhere in the world of thought, this truth has special significance here because of its bearing upon the matter dis- cussed in the following pages. Present-day theological and institutional Christianity did not spring full-grown from the mind of God. The understanding of the past life of Christianity, gained by the new study of history, is of ines- timable value as a factor in the recovery of the gospel. This fact will become apparent as the discussion proceeds. After its search for reality in nature by means of the physical sciences ; in the realm of living beings through the biological sciences ; in the sphere of thought and action through psychol- ogy, philosophy, art, and literature ; and for the OF THE GOSPEL 9 reality of the past through the sciences of archaeology and history the modern spirit has now turned to the study of the corporate life of man with the same desire to know the real facts, and has given birth to sociology, the youngest of the sciences. The social relations of men, that have been left so long to the social instinct and to a limited religious sentiment, are now being investigated by the same scientific method else- where employed, and the facts and laws of com- munity life are coming to light. In the practical activities of the modern world, as well as in the search for truth, the nature of the new spirit reveals itself. Side by side with discovery has gone the utilization of the new knowledge for the enrichment of life. Geographical exploration has been followed by conquest and settlement, until nearly every hab- itable part of the earth is known and occupied. Discovery of the secrets of nature has been fol- lowed by the invention of mechanical contriv- ances for "harnessing the forces of nature" to do the world's work. Thus has been created a new world of affairs, in which the stage of activ- ity has vastly widened, a new commerce of gigantic dimensions and influence has been built up, and new means of transportation and com- munication have so bound the world together that isolated life has given place to the closest io RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT industrial, social, and national interrelation and interdependence. In all of these directions it is evident that a new force is at work in the modern world a spirit that has no love for a priori speculations, that is impatient of words and suppositions and scholastic subtleties, that will take nothing upon the authority of the past, and that is not over- reverent of the traditions of the Fathers ; but rather, with unquenchable thirst and incessant zeal and severe scientific method, is giving itself to the task of discovering the realities of the universe and of life, influenced more or less in all of this by the expectation of using this new knowledge for the enrichment of human life. The activity of this spirit has changed the world's civilization. In its search for reality in the realms of nature and life during the last four hundred years the new energy has built up a culture distinctively its own. This civilization does not merely add to the old ; it supersedes it. It contains elements that often necessitate a total break with ancient culture, because they are ir- reconcilable with it. These instances have been hinted at already, and do not need to be given in detail. They include an entirely different theory of astronomy and of the relation of material bodies to one another, a different attitude toward the material universe, a different theory of OF THE GOSPEL n knowledge, a new conception of the value of life, a new interdependence between men and na- tions. In short, the entire world-view has changed. Much that was an integral part of ancient cul- ture has dropped out. It is not that this cul- ture has been argued away, nor that the pres- ent conditions have been adjusted to it, but that it has of necessity passed into oblivion as the new and independent culture has taken its place. The fundamental character of the change as a whole is well illustrated in the realm of astronomy. When once it had become estab- lished beyond reasonable doubt that the sun, and not the earth, is the center of our planetary system, and that the mutual relations of material bodies are regulated by the universal law of gravitation, then the whole body of ancient astro- nomical culture sank out of modern life, as a thing with which we had no more concern, ex- cept for archaeological purposes. The world started de novo in astronomical science, and there was no attempt to combine the new culture with the old, or to reconcile the two. There was an absolute break, a radical revolution in thought. What is true in the case of astronomy is true, in general, of the ancient civilization. The modern world started afresh, and has developed a culture of its own, in harmony with its new conceptions of reality. 12 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT II. THE MODERN SPIRIT AND CHRISTIANITY. This new culture is sometimes assigned as the cause of the modern religious movement. The changed aspect of the world's civilization is said to demand a new view of religion. And in a certain sense this is doubtless true. The modern culture has reacted upon traditional Christianity and helped the movement onward. The direct effect of the new culture, however, is manifest in the demand for the restatement of the gospel, rather than in efforts for its recovery. The real cause of the religious movement beginning with the advent of the modern era lies back of the new culture, in the spirit that created it. The same Zeitgeist that, seeking reality in other departments, has built up a new body of knowledge which has changed the character of the world's culture and the current of its thought, turned at length to the realm of religion in its ceaseless search for truth, and demanded reality there also. It was not to be expected that the new spirit would leave untouched that realm of thought to which the human mind continually returns as containing, after all, the deepest and most permanent reality of life. While it manifested its true genius in choosing the world of nature as its starting-point, yet when here it had developed its method and gained confidence by undeniable successes, it was OF THE GOSPEL 13 inevitable that it should turn for yet greater conquests to the realm of religion. When this demand for reality began to make itself felt in the province of Christianity, it found there an elaborate ecclesiastical system and a traditional theology holding undisputed sway. The Roman Catholic church had perfected its organization, and by its priests and sacraments, its confessions, penances, and indulgences, now stood between men and God, as mediator of sal- vation. This ecclesiastical institution was ac- companied and upheld by a congenial system of doctrine which, germinating in the same soil and developing under the same conditions, had almost entirely ceased to draw its material from the original Christian sources, and indeed, by its own findings, denied the necessity of doing so. While pretending to be the authorized explication of the gospel, it had become hopelessly entangled with metaphysical speculations and traditional problems, which both rendered it incapable of doing justice to gospel truth and at the same time removed it far away from the interests of men in the actual world of affairs. This, also, had come to stand between men and God by de- manding its own acceptance as a condition of salvation and of fellowship in the saving church. Here in the realm of religion, likewise, the scientific spirit, true to its practical genius, laid i 4 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT hold of that which was most tangible. It did not begin with the speculative dogmatics of the church, but attacked the ecclesiastical institu- tion which it found blocking the way to religious reality. This is the meaning of the Reformation of the sixteenth century. It was the modern real- ity-loving spirit grappling in a life-and-death struggle with the man-made traditional eccle- siastical system which had thrust itself in be- tween men and God. Martin Luther was the incarnation of this spirit in its religious activity. When it spoke forth from him, however, it was quickly answered from far and near, showing that in him it had not come to a premature birth. The Reformation succeeded in its task. It gave men immediate access to God without in- tervention of priest and pope, and made salva- tion consist primarily in right personal relations with God. It tore down the interloping media- torial fictions of priesthood and ecclesiasticism and set men free. It did more. By opening the Bible to the people, it brought Christianity back into touch with its original sources, and prepared the way for further progress. But, while the Lutheran Reformation accom- plished so much, still it was only a partial success, for the reason that it was essentially only a prac- OF THE GOSPEL 15 tical reformation ; although, parenthetically, the paradox may be ventured that this was the cause of the success that it did achieve. It contented itself with attacking the corrupt ecclesiastical organization and the false salvation that this offered, leaving generically untouched the elab- orate system of ecclesiastical dogmatics. For, although the Reformation led to important modifications of theology, these affected only the practical issues that had been fought out. Indeed, the modern spirit seemed to have ex- hausted its energies in the struggle with the church, and left traditional theology to tighten its grip and extend its sway. The result of the perpetuation of the old dog- matics was a new loss of religious reality. Prot- estantism discarded the Catholic church institu- tion and left to theology the undisputed field, giving it a place out of all proportion to its im- portance, and extending its jurisdiction into regions where it has no right to rule. And so it came about that, as in the former time God must be approached through priest and sacrament, so now he was to be apprehended through an elaborate theological system, upon the accept- ance of which salvation was made to depend. Words and theories and scholastic distinctions insinuated themselves between man and God as insistently as before. This was the condition of 1 6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT things when the dormant modern spirit awoke again to life in the domain of religion, and began anew the search for truth. This time, as before, it attacked that which it found standing between itself and reality. But now, instead of the church institution, the obstacle was the mediaeval Catholic theology, worked over into the Protes- tant creeds. Hence the new Reformation, in the midst of which we are now living, partakes of a theological character. The theology of religion is asked to give way to religion itself. When it is finished, if successful, it will have completed the Lutheran Reformation by supplementing the practical reforms therein achieved with a theo- logical reconstruction that will assure the perma- nence of those results and give to Protestantism a theology that will do justice to its fundamental principles. In this new task the modern spirit, still true to its genius, did not begin with the speculative theology, where the difficulty really was, but laid hold of the tangible Christian literature as con- tained in the Bible and the existing records of the development of Christianity in history. It has undertaken the investigation of these records with enthusiastic eagerness, determined to know the facts concerning the origin of Christianity, the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and the history of the church since New Testament times. OF THE GOSPEL 17 This has given to the movement a historical and exegetical character, and has led to the creation of a new science of biblical interpretation, utiliz- ing the principles of the inductive method, and a new science of church history, based upon the principles of modern historical research. The general result of the return to the Chris- tian sources has been, and is to be more and more, a cutting beneath the whole traditional theological development, or, perhaps better, a going back of it, to the New Testament gospel a movement from traditional Christianity to New Testament Christianity in the search for religious reality. The new Reformation is thus an inherent necessity of the modern demand for reality in the realm of religion. If such reality is to be found, there is a wide- spread conviction that it will not be in the Ro- man Catholic ecclesiastical institution nor in the Protestant theological systems, but rather in immediate connection with that wonderful per- sonality that is back of church and creed alike the historical Jesus of Nazareth whose life and teachings are recorded in the New Testament literature. We have turned from the church and the creed to the Christ. The belief is daily gain- ing strength that our hope of rinding what we seek lies in a clearer understanding of him, a closer sympathy with him, and a more devoted loyalty to 1 8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT him. Here, after much conflict and controversy not yet wholly ended, the modern spirit is com- ing more and more to rest in that religious reality which has so long been the goal of its earnest seeking. 1 'It is here assumed that the unadulterated gospel of Jesus gives the final religious reality. To prove this lies beyond the scope of the present discussion. For a justification of the as- sumption see Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxvi. CHAPTER II. THE OBSCURATION OF THE GOSPEL IN THE COURSE OF ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. IN the history of Christian thought there are three periods of special importance : First, the period of the early church, including the first three hundred years of its existence. This was fol- lowed by several centuries that continued the tendencies already started, and that are of interest chiefly because of the systems of a few great theologians. Second, the period of the Lutheran Reformation. Third, the post-Reformation pe- riod, leading up to, and including, the present religious movement. The first period, including the following devel- opment up to the Reformation, will be considered in the present chapter. The second and third periods will form the subject of the succeeding chapter. I. THE EARLY TRANSFORMATION OF CHRISTIANITY. Doctrinally, the period of the early church is the most important in its entire history. It was in every way the formative age of Christianity, and determined the course of the whole subse- quent development. Two things are of paramount 19 20 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT significance : first, the organization of the eccle- siastical institution ; and, second, the contempo- rary and supplementary growth of the ecclesias- tical dogmatics. The first was due chiefly to Roman initiative, the second to Greek. In both there was a radical transformation of primitive Christianity. The departure from New Testament Christian- ity in the matter of church organization is now generally recognized, at least throughout the Protestant world. That was the point at issue in the Lutheran Reformation. The theological transformation, however, although it involved a still more fundamental change, was not discovered by the Reformation, and is not universally admit- ted even yet. But it has gradually been gaining recognition, and is without question the real issue in the new religious movement. It will be necessary to consider these two aspects of the subject at further length. The ecclesiastical transformation. The development leading to the gradual or- ganization of the Catholic church into a com- pact and coherent ecclesiastical body is now established with a fair degree of historical cer- tainty. The church at first was no hard-and-fast institution. It was a free company naturally united, not by mechanical ties, but by the com- mon possession of the Holy Spirit, and by com- OF THE GOSPEL 21 mon hopes and aims. All else was incidental to this fundamental character. In government it was simple and democratic. There was no marked distinction between clergy and laity. In each church those deemed best fitted to look after the affairs of the Christian community were chosen by their brethren to do so. Their duties were mostly confined to directing the financial affairs of the church, caring for the poor, and administering the ordinances, which as yet had no sacerdotal importance. The teaching and preaching were at first done chiefly by the apos- tles and by traveling evangelists and teachers. Well within New Testament times, however, the practice was instituted of selecting in each con- gregation men especially adapted to teach the Word, and appointing them to that task. Thus there arose a body of clergy more or less sepa- rated from the laity, yet with no sacerdotal line of distinction. The clergy were not priests, save only as all Christians are. Gradually, however, conditions operated to bring about a new state of things. In the first place, as the church came into contact with the sin of the world, and encoun- tered the consequent opposition and persecution, it became more clearly differentiated as a sepa- rate body. Then, as the early spiritual fervor and inspiration waned, the importance of the 22 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT institution was magnified. The efficacy of the ordinances was emphasized in proportion to the diminution of spiritual power. Gradually salva- tion came to be regarded as possible only through the church and its ordinances ; and thus the church came to have an entirely new significance and value. In the next place, within the church itself a change was going on in the growth of a sacer- dotal clergy. As emphasis came to be placed upon the ordinances of the church, new impor- tance attached to their administration. The early, but not inviolable, custom according to which the clergy administered the ordinances developed into the theory that this function was their prerogative exclusively. As the ordinances acquired a wholly sacerdotal character, the clergy were transformed into a priesthood, with power to grant or deny salvation by admitting to, or excluding from, participation in the sav- ing sacraments. The gulf between the clergy and the laity had appeared. This movement was accelerated by the fur- ther fact that the clergy came to be regarded as the custodians of the truth. After the apostles had passed away, where was authority to be found? In the traditional apostolic teaching. But who was to decide what this was in its purity, and who was to declare its meaning authorita- OF THE GOSPEL 23 tively? Heresies arose, and varying versions of the teaching, and manifold interpretations. The church was in danger of disintegration, and the need of authoritative teaching was sorely felt. Under such circumstances the clergy gradually arrogated to themselves, or were accorded, the right of interpreting the apostolic faith. They thus became guardians of the saving truth, and the gulf between them and the laity became yet wider. Still another factor entered into the change, in connection with the practical administration of af- fairs. Just as heresies appeared for lack of authori- tative interpretation of truth, so irregularities, disorders, and schisms arose in the independent churches for lack of authoritative government. Democratic liberty degenerated into schismatic license. From the other side, there was a natural movement on the part of the clergy. The most capable and influential men in the church community had been chosen as elders to direct the interests of the body. As disorder and schism appeared, these men, by virtue both of office and of influence, naturally gained special prominence and importance in the effort to pre- serve harmony. Thus the administration of affairs gradually fell more and more into their hands. Later, when the unity, not of individual churches, but of Christendom, was under consideration, it 24 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT was from the ranks of the clergy that represent- atives went up to the oecumenical councils and there legislated for the universal church, respect- ing both the orthodox doctrine and the required conduct. In the changes above considered appear in germ the distinctive features of the early Catho- lic, and its successor, the Roman Catholic, church. There is a sacerdotal ecclesiastical institution which by its teaching and ordinances mediates salvation ; while within the church itself the clergy have acquired the exclusive right to administer the saving ordinances, interpret the saving truth, and exercise the functions of gov- ernment. There is a fixed gulf between the laity, who now are the supplicating recipients of the gracious favors of salvation, and the clergy, who have become a priesthood, with power to admit to, or exclude from, participation in the divine blessings. In principle the transformation of the apostolic church into the Catholic church is complete. The keynote of the succeeding development was the contest for precedence among the clergy themselves. The terms "presbyter" or " elder," and "bishop" or "overseer," were probably used interchangeably at first,to denote the men selected to direct the affairs of the religious community. But it would seem that soon the term "bishop" .OF THE GOSPEL 25 came to be applied exclusively to the president or chairman of the presbyters ; he still being elected from their number, and being one of them, with no different rank or functions except such as naturally pertained to his chairmanship. By degrees, however, in the midst of the contro- versies and changes of the early years of Chris- tianity, the influence of the bishops increased, until they became a separate and higher rank of clergy, claiming to be the direct successors of the apostles, and, therefore, the sole custodians of the apostolic tradition, and the possessors of apostolic authority. The contest for precedence then became limited to the bishops of the "apos- tolic sees." The metropolitan bishop first ac- quired jurisdiction over the neighboring country bishops, then the bishops of the apostolic sees gained jurisdiction throughout their respective regions. The controversy resulted in the pre- cedence of the bishop of Rome in the West, and in the establishment of the coherent Roman Catholic hierarchical organization, with the pope at its head and Rome as the center of influence. In this later development among the clergy, however, nothing was added in principle to the condition of things noted above. This con- flict accompanied the others from the first and helped them on, and then continued the develop- ment. In fact, the whole movement was one, 26 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT working itself out along these various lines toward a unified and compactly organized church. This process was by no means simple, nor always clear. Many and complex factors were at work. The conditions were peculiar and called urgently for authority and unity ; the Roman genius for organization found a fitting field for operation; and it must also be admitted that human nature played no unimportant part. It is not necessary here to enter into an analysis of these factors, nor to trace their intertwinings. Neither is it incumbent to maintain or deny the historical necessity of the movement. It is sufficient that we recognize its occurrence and the condition of things resulting. In its main outlines, few scholars now question this historical rise and development of the Catholic church, in post-apostolic times. This transformation of the New Testament church was not accomplished without a struggle. Montanism was a widespread and vigorous pro- test against the despiritualization of the church and the curtailment of its freedom by the substi- tution of a highly organized and firmly fixed ecclesiastical authority for its early democratic liberty. Although Montanism was suppressed, yet the protest was continued by individuals and isolated sects from that day until the great Reformation. OF THE GOSPEL 27 The theological transformation. Parallel with the development of this ecclesi- astical institution there was formed a kindred ecclesiastical system of dogma co-ordinate with it, involving it and involved in it. They grew up side by side in the soil of the same civiliza- tion ; they naturally rest upon each other, and eventually they must stand or fall together. This is more apparent, and perhaps also more strictly true, concerning the distinctively Roman theology of the church. It was this especially that took form in immediate connection with the ecclesiastical development above described. In- deed, the theology was the theoretical justifica- tion of that which the historical movement was working out in institutional form. Not that it was always consciously apologetic, nor that it always followed after the other. The theolo- gians were in earnest in their convictions, and often the theory led the practical movement instead of resulting from it. Theory and his- torical process were organically connected. The teaching here involved was the practi- cal, as distinguished from the speculative, theol- ogy of the church. It had to do with the church institution and with salvation ; and there- fore affected the theology relating to the divine authority of the church, the organization and prerogatives of the priesthood, the character of 28 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT the sacraments, and the position and duties of the laity. This does not exhaust the Roman influence upon theology, but it includes the most significant things due to Roman initiative. The further influence of Rome can be considered bet- ter later on. The main stream of theological development, properly so called, takes its rise, not among Roman surroundings, but from the Grecian civili- zation. Christian theology is the continuation of Greek philosophy, both in its fundamental char- acteristic, in its method and terminology, and in the subjects with which it concerns itself. The fundamental characteristic of Greek phi- losophy was its emphasis of knowledge. To know was the only thing worth while. A more certain and more clearly articulated system of truth was what distinguished the Greek philosopher from the ordinary man. It was in this that he placed his hope, inasmuch as the posses- sion of the true knowledge was itself salvation. When the educated Greek, with this mental temper, was attracted to Christianity he saw in it a new knowledge ; and he accepted it because he regarded it as the perfect philosophy, more surely true than any other, since it was based on divine revelation. In the early days of Greek influence Christianity therefore came to be regarded as a revealed body of knowledge. This was the posi- OF THE GOSPEL 29 tion of the early Christian apologists, who were in reality philosophers defending Christianity as the perfect wisdom ; and of the early theolo- gians, who were philosophers systematizing this new body of truth. Thus the Greek emphasis of knowledge as the thing of first importance was transferred to Christianity almost at the begin- ning of its history. But the Greek philosopher not only turned to the investigation and systematization of this new material with the same underlying presup- positions which he had before ; he also carried over with him into Christianity the terminology and the dialectical method which had been devel- oped in Greek philosophy. Here in the philo- sophical realm the meanings of words had become fixed, some of them after a long and complex course of development. When Chris- tianity began to be thought out, and stated in terms of thought that is, when Christian the- ology began to form it naturally and necessa- rily expressed itself in the existing terminology. That meant that the old meaning of words at- tached to the new truth which they were used to express. Doubtless this meaning was in many cases more or less modified to meet the needs of the new truth, but the words never forgot their nativity ; the old coloring remained, and greatly influenced the early theology. The same thing 30 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT is true of the philosophical dialectics. It en- tered into the discussion of Christian truth with- out essential change, continuing in theology the spirit and method of Greek philosophy. Thus, both by its terminology and by its forms of rea- soning, philosophy had formed the mold into which the unorganized Christian material was poured. It was not strange, it was inevitable, that theology should take the form of this highly perfected receptacle of thought. Here, then, was the Greek philosophical mind, with its firmly fixed conviction of the primary importance of knowledge as the way of salva- tion, with its dialectical method, and with its established terminology, giving itself to the Christian tradition regarded as a new divine phi- losophy made certain by revelation. It is not denied, and does not need to be denied, that the men who did this were bound to the new religion by personal evangelical faith as well. Indeed, they could not have done justice to Christianity as a philosophy if they had not been moved by it as a religion. The epoch-making significance of the thing lay just in this, that it was an attempt to express this religion, both as objec- tive fact and subjective experience, in the terms of philosophy, and by its method. The attempt was natural and necessary. Given the mind trained, as was the Greek, to habits of reasoning OF THE GOSPEL 31 and philosophical expression, and bring into con- tact with it new material for thought, and it was inevitable that the effort should be made to ad- just this new material to the existing knowledge. The conditions presented a new problem for philosophical solution. The inherent necessity of this attempt was aided by outside causes which furnished the im- mediate occasion of the movement. The gospel was all-inclusive in offering its blessings : " who- soever " would, might receive. The church, there- fore, soon included men of all kinds of mental tendency, all stages of intellectual development, and all shades of belief, united only in the com- mon faith and the tradition upon which it rested. What was to be the criterion of the true Chris- tian teaching ? While it was imperative that the reflecting Greek mind should try to make some kind of adjustment between the Christian faith and existing culture, yet at first it was strongly felt that Christianity was a faith and not a philos- ophy. How far, then, could a man go in his philosophizing and still remain a Christian? The New Testament canon had not yet been formed to serve as an authoritative standard of belief, and the allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament made it susceptible of any de- sired meaning. In these circumstances, the same causes that 32 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT led to the ecclesiastical development which placed the authoritative interpretation of Chris- tian truth in the keeping of the bishops led to the kindred theological development which established the "orthodox" statement of that truth. The first known expression of this kind that gained any general currency was the so- called " Apostles' Creed," of which the oldest form is the Roman Symbol, in use in the church at Rome before the middle of the second cen- tury. At first this was not at all a creed in the later sense of that term. It was probably merely an expansion of the Baptismal Confession a statement of some of the great Christian facts, used as a confession of faith by the candidate for baptism. Then came the determinative conflict with Gnosticism. Gnosticism was the first systematic attempt to reduce Christianity to a philosophy, dominated by the Greek conception of the para- mount importance of knowledge. This effort, as we have seen, was not born in anight ; the phil- osophic mind had already touched the problem here and there. But in Gnosticism the movement attained consciousness, and became a definite struggle. There was a deliberate attempt to transform the pistis into a gnosis. Just as Montanism was a protest against the growing Catholic church as inconsistent with the OF THE GOSPEL 33 genius of the gospel, so there now ensued also a bitter struggle against Gnosticism, caused by the conviction that the gospel was not a system of knowledge by the acceptance of which salvation is secured. The enemies of Gnosticism literally stood forthe/zzY^ that was once for all delivered unto the saints. But alas! they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Instead of fighting for the faith with the weapons of faith, its friends undertook its defense with the weap- ons of Gnosticism. They formulated a body of knowledge supposed to be in accordance with the rule of faith, and therefore "orthodox," and set this up over against the heretical system taught by the Gnostics, and overcame it. But in so doing, the very thing was accomplished in principle that Gnosticism was contending for : the idea became firmly rooted that Christianity is a system of knowledge which must be sub- scribed to by its adherents. The Rule of Faith, "lexfidei" explained and expanded, was transformed from a confession that expresses existing faith into a creed that conditions the existence of faith. An entirely new place was thus given to knowledge. In the contest with heretical Gnosticism an orthodox Gnosticism had gained a permanent place in the church. The conquered was con- queror : in orthodox Christianity the pistis had become a gnosis ; and the first irrevocable step 34 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT was taken toward the identification of the gos- pel, the life of faith in God, with theology, the rational explication of that faith. The principle of Gnosticism, after gaining a foothold in the church, was firmly established there by the succeeding development. The apologists defended Christianity as the new and improved philosophy, the truth of which was at- tested by divine revelation, and the superiority of which was manifest by a comparison with heathen philosophies. Here are discovered the beginnings of orthodox Christian dogmatics. Irenaeus and Tertullian, with their contemporaries, took the philosophical conception for granted in their polemical warfare with heresies. This is true in spite of Tertullian's invectives against phi- losophy. No one of the early writers did more than he to emphasize in theology the Greek con- ception of the importance of right knowledge. His influence in this direction was so great that he may properly be regarded as the father of or- thodoxy in the western church. But that which underlay the work of apolo- gists and polemicists came to clearest conscious- ness in the Alexandrian school, especially in Origen. These men undertook directly and sys- tematically the task of reducing Christianity to a philosophy. In Origen is found in successful completion that which the Gnostics vainly at- OF THE GOSPEL 35 tempted. It is not the same system, to be sure ; but that is a matter of minor importance. Chris- tianity has become thoroughly transformed into a theological system which is generically the con- tinuation of Greek philosophy, both in its funda- mental conception of the primary importance of knowledge, in its method, in its terminology, and in its speculative spirit. Just as in the ecclesi- astical development the Christian faith, which was at the first a confident and loyal trust in Jesus Christ, was displaced by faith in the church and its ordinances, so here in the theological develop- ment there occurs another displacement, and one even more radical : this Christian faith, or reli- gious trust in Christ, has been transformed into an act of intellectual assent to a body of philo- sophical knowledge, disguised as Christian theol- ogy, upon the acceptance of which salvation depends. 1 1 If anything more than this bare outline were attempted here it would be difficult to know where to stop, the material is so abundant and complex. For details the histories of the movement must be consulted, and fortunately these now approximate agree- ment with reference to the facts. Two things, however, ought to be noticed, in addition to what is said in the text. In the first place, the point of attachment for the Greek speculation was the doctrine of the Logos, which gradually established itself in the creed of the church during the third century. On this point Harnack says : "The formula of the Logos, as it was almost uni- versally understood, legitimized speculation, that is, Neopla- tonic philosophy, within the creed of the church. When Christ 36 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT II. FROM ORIGEN TO THE REFORMATION. The intervening period up to the Lutheran Reformation does not require detailed considera- tion in this discussion. It only developed the theological germ that had already been success- fully planted in the church by Origen. During the first part of the period, through the oecumeni- cal councils, the results of philosophical specula- tion in theology were crystallized into the dogmas of the Trinity and the Person of Christ, which have always constituted dogma par excellence. At the was designated the incarnate Logos of God this implied a defi- nite philosophical view of God, of creation, and of the world ; and the baptismal confession became a compendium of scientific dogmatics, that is, of a system of doctrine entwined with the metaphysics of Plato and the Stoics." Christ was first identified with the Logos, and the Logos was then introduced into the inner circle of God's being. This was the line of development along which dogma gained a recognized place in the church. The second point concerns the completion of the movement which resulted in the triumph of the dogmatic conception of Christianity. In the text this is represented as taking place in Origen. While that is true in a general way, yet it is not strictly accurate. Origen still recognized that his theology was something different from the traditional apostolic faith. He maintained only that it was the scientific exposition of that faith, for the benefit of philosophers and men of culture. The simple faith itself, as expressed in the apostolic Regula Fidei was enough for the great mass of ordinary Christians, and was all that they were capable of understanding. But the educated man could not be satisfied until he understood the real meaning of this faith, which consisted in the system of knowledge elaborated by Origen. In this perfect gnosis was the eternal and abiding truth of Christianity. It was in the Logos-christological controversies OF THE GOSPEL 37 Lateran council of 1215 the church added to these ancient dogmas those of the eucharist, baptism, and penance. These five articles formed exclusive dogma of the first order up to the council of Trent. Around dogma proper a fine-spun and complex theology was built up during the Middle Ages that practically buried it, while the energy of west- ern Christendom was turned toward the establish- ment of the elaborate ecclesiastical organization and cultus of the Roman Catholic church. From the time of Augustine the period is notable, theo- of the seventy-five years following Origen that the philosophical speculations characterizing his theology really came to be intro- duced into the Regula Fidei as an integral part. One of the first instances is found in the letter of the eastern bishops to Paul of Samosata in opposition to his Christology. They say that they desire to set forth " the faith which we received from the begin- ning, and possess, having been transmitted and kept in the Catholic church, proclaimed up to our day by the successors of the blessed apostles, who were both eyewitnesses and assistants of the Logos." But what they proceed to define as " the faith " is nothing other than the speculative philosophy. In addition to this, by the end of the third century even baptismal confessions containing the doctrine of the Logos began to appear in the East. Thus gradually in this section of the church, during the years from Origen to the council of Nicaea, the philosophical dog- matics of Origen, or equally philosophical modifications of his system, became inextricably fused with the " apostolic faith," and the triumph of theology over faith was complete. Owing to the less speculative temper of the West, and its interest in other phases of Christianity, this fusion of dogma and faith was not completed there until a much later date, and then largely under the influence of the Greek spirit, exerted through the oecumenical councils and the controversies growing out of them. 38 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT logically, for the systems of a few great thinkers, rather than for general intellectual activity. The church at large lived in ignorance, superstition, and worldliness, while the more earnest spirits sought to escape from the world's temptations by fleeing to the isolation of the monasteries. In the East theology continued to be of vital impor- tance for a much longer time than in the West; yet even here it was gradually supplanted by the cultus. But, while old doctrines were turned into dogmas, and other doctrines came to the front, in neither East nor West was there anything generically new in theology during this entire period. In the theological activity of this period, as well as in the ecclesiastical, the molding influence of the Roman mind was decisive. Attention has already been called to the fact that Roman initia- tive in theology was confined to the practical doc- trines of the church. It was during the period now before us that the further influence of Rome there referred to appeared. The principle of ex- pressing the gospel in a theology that should embody the perfect knowledge was due to Greek influence, as we have seen, as were also the first essays in this direction. The matter was then taken up by the Romans and worked out accord- ing to their legal genius. That is, orthodox dogmatics is due, generically, to Greek influence ; OF THE GOSPEL 39 specifically, the dogmas were all of them nurtured, and some of them born, in Rome. The theo- logical stream, having taken its rise in Greek soil, flowed now through Roman territory, and drew up into itself Roman elements. This accounts for the fact that the doctrines which are cur- rent in western Christendom are so universally colored by the Roman juridical ideas. It accounts also for the dominating influence of Paul in the- ology, his terminology being especially suscep- tible of legal manipulation. It accounts still further for the unsatisfactory form, philosophi- cally considered, of many doctrines formulated under Roman influence; for the Romans had no independent speculative genius. The influence of the Roman Tertullian in the former age had already been far-reaching. In the period now before us Augustine is the great name the lineal theological descendant of Ter- tullian. Augustine carried the development for- ward, and exerted an incalculable influence in forming orthodox theology and in directing its subsequent course. He is of special interest for our discussion, because in his system there comes to light, although he was apparently unconscious of the fact, the inherent contradiction into which Christianity had run. On the one hand, he made salvation depend upon membership in the earthly church organization, with participation in its or- 40 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT dinances and the acceptance of its creed ; while, on the other hand, he maintained that salvation depends solely upon the free sovereign grace and election of God, conditioned only by faith in Christ. But while this period contains much of inter- est for a detailed history of the church and of doctrine, yet with these remarks we may pass it here ; for there was no change in underlying the- ological principle from Origen to Luther, if, in- deed, we are to find it even then. III. THE OBSCURATION OF THE GOSPEL RESULTING FROM THE EARLY TRANSFORMATION OF CHRIS- TIANITY. The discussion hitherto in this chapter has been occupied with the transformation of Chris- tianity that took place during the early history of the church. It is now necessary to observe more particularly the nature of this change and see how it caused an eclipse of the original gos- pel of Jesus. The radical character of the change. The obscuration of the gospel resulting from the success of the ecclesiastical movement as distinguished from the theological is apparent to every candid student of history. The secret of it may be expressed in a sentence : The early ecclesiastical transformation of Christianity in- volved the substitution of the church for the OF THE GOSPEL 41 Christ as the object of faith, and hence as the means of salvation ; or, to say the least, Christ could be found only through the church, which therefore conditioned salvation. There can be no question, as will be shown in chap, iv, that Christ and the apostles made salvation a vital, not a mechanical, matter. It did not depend upon ordinances, however much it might express itself in them or encourage itself by them. It depended solely upon a faith which brought man into such a relation of con- fident reliance upon God and willingness to do his will that God could teach him how to live and give him the power to realize the new life in actual character and deeds. The early transfor- mation of the church, with the new theories involved, obscured this New Testament idea of salvation. The process of change may be traced more or less clearly, as indicated above, and cer- tainly the resulting condition of things is all too plain. Salvation came to depend, not upon union with Christ, but upon union with the church. Not figuratively, but actually, were sins washed away by the baptismal waters ; and the perpetuation of God's gracious favors could be secured only by continued participation in the Lord's Supper, which now had become a sacrament. These were both administered by the church through its priests. Hence salvation was impossible out- 42 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT side the church. Ceremonialism replaced, or at least conditioned, salvation as a living process. Ceasing to be obtained by a vital process, salva- tion ceased to be a vital matter ; or, at best, liv- ing was regulated by what the church said, rather than by what Christ commanded. In connection with this ecclesiastical obscura- tion, account must also be taken of the seculari- zation of the worship of the church by the introduction of rites and ceremonies from the neighboring heathen cults. As to just how great this influence was there is difference of opinion, but without doubt it was considerable. The form of administering the ordinances, the char- acter of church architecture, the observance of days and seasons, the worship of saints and images these and many other things were in- fluenced by the heathen environment, which cast its ceremonial and superstitious shadows over the simplicity of the primitive Christian wor- ship. But, while the eclipse of the gospel due to Roman influence was disastrous, that due to the Greek influence during the formative period of the church was still deeper and darker was, indeed, the most radical metamorphosis of Chris- tianity that has ever taken place. In the first place, and of chief importance, the transfer of base from faith to knowledge OF THE GOSPEL 43 caused a fundamental obscuration of the gospel by radically changing its nature and the field of its operation. Not that the theological expression of the gospel in a philosophical form congenial with contemporary culture constitutes in itself an evil. On the contrary, this is necessary to its proper comprehension in any age, and to its most effective influence. Christianity has intellectual aspects and relations that need systematic expression. The obscuration results only when the gospel forgets its real nature, and not only expresses itself in philosophical form, but so identifies itself with this expression as to lose its original character as a religion of faith. Nor does this identification need to be absolute in order to constitute an eclipse. That result will be produced if the change from faith to knowledge is pronounced enough to affect per- manently the distinctive principle of Christianity and upset the old balance of truth by the substi- tution of a new governing idea. This is exactly what was accomplished in the early historical development that culminated in the theology of Origen. Christianity there not only produced a theology, but went farther, and became identified with this to such an ex- tent that it was transferred from the religious realm, where Christ established it, to the intel- lectual realm of philosophy. Now philosophy 44 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT deals only with ideas, in their thought-relations. This is not its fault, but its high calling and last- ing glory. Its proper task is to interpret the world to thought, by means of ideas and con- cepts. But for that very reason philosophy can- not take the place of religion. The thought is not the thing; the idea of God is not God him- self. Both philosophy and religion have God as their final goal. But in philosophy God is at the last still only an idea ; in religion he is the final personal reality. In philosophy we are related to him in thinking ; in religion we are related to him by the whole moral and religious nature as well. Philosophy is thus only a segment of religion, the intellectual segment. Religion includes this, and, in addition, the great realms of moral judgment, feeling, and willing. In- deed, if Christianity is to be confined to any one realm, it belongs, in Christ's thought, far more truly to one of these last than to that of ideas. Therefore to identify Chris- tianity with philosophy, or even to turn it de- terminatively in that direction, as was done in the early historical process, was radically to change its nature and obscure its characteristic quality by deflecting it into the channel to which it least properly belongs. Intellectual assent to a body of philosophical knowledge does not OF THE GOSPEL 45 meet at all Christ's requirements of faith, even though this philosophy has to do with divine things. This transformation constitutes the original and fundamental Christian heresy ; none the less a heresy because it has arrogated to itself exclu- sive right to the term "orthodoxy," and can still maintain that title for the reason that it is in pos- session of the standards by which it judges truth, standards which it has itself set up and declared to be authoritative. It is a heresy that has never been eradicated. While practically it has been overridden in every time of religious revival, when the original power of the gospel has asserted itself in spite of obstacles, yet theo- retically it has remained unchanged from that day to this, and has dethroned Christianity from its rightful dominion over the entire range of human life. The reason why it has not proved even more disastrous is the fact of the divine persist- ence of the faith itself. However it might be with individuals, assent to the creed was never com- pletely divorced, in the church as a whole, from living faith in Jesus. The gospel survived in spite of its theological obscuration ; and even in the darkest ages, when the teaching that men could be saved only by entering the organized church and subscribing to its authorized creed 46 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT cast its withering blight upon religion and moral- ity, still true religion was conserved and society preserved by the existence of sincere and pious saints and sages that had felt the inspiration of direct contact with the divine Lord. Another result of the success of this process leading to the establishment of Origen's theol- ogy was not immediately apparent, and could not be until the thinking of the world should change. This very success also, on the other hand, helped to keep thought from changing, for it caused the perpetuation of the particular philosophy then dominant. It was not philosophy in general, or in the abstract, with which Christianity became iden- tified, but the specific philosophy that up to that time had been developed, and was then current. Christianity thus took up into itself as a constitu- ent element the philosophical and scientific ideas of the Alexandrian period, colored by the world- view and the intellectual atmosphere of that age. Did that make the culture of that age divine, along with the religion which had appropriated it ? Or would the old world-view pass away, would the thinking of men change, and would this culture some day become so obsolete as to bring the gos- pel itself into disrepute, and thus rob men living in a new civilization of the blessings of Christian- ity? We shall see. OF THE GOSPEL 47 The eclipse of the personal element in the gospel. Looking at the early historical movement as a whole, and from a somewhat different angle of vision, its effect is still more clearly discern- ible. It involved the elimination, or at least the radical obscuring, of that which is most charac- teristic of religion in general, and of the Chris- tian religion in particular namely, the personal element. This is apparent from what has already been said concerning the process of transformation, but may well be brought out definitely here. I. Salvation was at first a new life of faith in Christ, involving a personal trust which so united the believer with him that the Master's power to conquer sin became the disciple's also. There came a double change. On the one hand, under the influence of the Greek spirit and phi- losophy, there was a change in the nature of faith, from personal trust and allegiance to intellectual assent ; the act of the whole moral and religious nature became an act of the intellect alone. On the other hand, this involved a change in the ob- ject of faith, the intellect turning from Christ to what he said, and to what others said that he said, and then to what ought to be thought con- cerning the kind of person he was. That is, the object of faith ceased to be Christ and became the creed the body of knowledge that deals 48 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT with Christ and his teaching. The object of faith was still further affected by the Roman influence, which made the thing requiring acceptance not so much the creed as the church and its ordinances. Here the church was substituted for Christ as the creed had been by the Greeks. There was thus a double depersonalization of the religion : faith largely ceased to be personal in its nature, due to its conversion from a religious into an intellectual act ; and in the object toward which it is directed, due to the displacement of the personal Christ by the impersonal creed and the impersonal church. This characterization is not to be taken as ab- solute. As a matter of fact, there never was a time when faith in Christ did not involve belief in what he said, as well as trust in him ; while, on the other hand, the time never came when the in- tellectual acceptance of the creed and the church was totally divorced from all connection with the personal Lord, who, whether rightly or wrongly, was regarded as the author of the existing dog- matics and church institution. Yet the change was decisive enough to affect radically and per- manently the distinctive character of Christianity, and deprive it of the wealth of personal relation- ships which it had in the thought and life of its founder. 2. Again, at the first the church was under the free leadership of the Holy Spirit. It was a OF THE GOSPEL 49 united company of Spirit-filled men and women. So led, they elected their officers and carried on their work. They agreed together because, and in so far as, they all possessed the common spirit. Nothing is plainer in the New Testament church than this. But this consciousness of spiritual in- spiration gradually waned under long-continued contact with the world, the unexpected delay of the return of the Lord, the encroaching preten- sions of the clergy, and other influences sur- rounding the early church. Then other author- ity and leadership seemed necessary to take the Spirit's place something tangible and able to enforce its claims with visible power. Moreover, abuses and extravagances were common under the old free spiritual regime, and the leaders of the church more and more desired to have things reduced to decency and order. So the old domi- nance of the Spirit was gradually supplanted by the authority of tradition, and by the " proprie- ties," and later by the written word of the New Testament which was formed into a canon partly to meet this very need, and still later by the creed and the church, all of these, in turn, involving the growing influence of the church leaders. Thus the Christian communities were brought into subjection to impersonal authority, and the unity of the Spirit was superseded by uniformity 50 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT of belief and of worship. No one will question that the old order, even with all of its abuses, was richer in life and power. It was this very spiritual exuberance that did more than anything else to give to Christianity its triumphs in the early cen- turies. Impersonal authority was substituted at the expense of vital force. Inspiration died as theology and priest acquired dominion. Perhaps this external authority was necessary during the long tutelage of the new races with which Christianity came into contact. Be that as it may, it involved a decided depersonalization of the gospel, which, if it continued permanent after its temporary purpose should have been served, would remain as an element of misunder- standing and inefficiency. The time of tutelage and bondage to law must again pass away and let the original spiritual leadership return in fuller and more intelligently accepted power. The elimination of the personal element from Christianity may be further illustrated by examples taken from the growth of special doc- trines. i. The substitution of a philosophical "God" for the personal " Father " of Jesus. Jesus' habit- ual and characteristic mode of designating God was by the term " Father." In the four gospels, not counting duplicates in parallel passages, he is OF THE GOSPEL 51 reported as using that term one hundred and fifty- eight times. He uses it almost exclusively in prayer and in reference to God's forgiveness and providence. The term " God " he employs only one hundred and thirty-three times, and nearly always in formal and technical ways one-third of the instances being in such customary phrases as " kingdom of God," " Son of God," and "word of God." He never uses it in speaking of forgive- ness, nor employs it in prayer ; unless one con- siders as prayer his bitter exclamation on the cross, when for one dark moment he loses the consciousness of his Father's presence. But even then he immediately recovers himself, and says : " Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." Jesus' Father was his dearest personal friend, his constant counselor and inspiration. His thought of God and his filial relation to God are unique and constituent elements in his personality and in the religion that he founded. But even. within New Testament times Christ's thought of God began to be obscured. It was impossible for his disciples to have the intimate consciousness of God as Father that Jesus pos- sessed. So it need not surprise us to mark a change in Paul's usage. In the thirteen epistles ascribed to him he employs the term " Father" only forty-five times, and the term "God" five hundred and forty-two times ; while in his four 52 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT great epistles, which have so extensively influ- enced theology, he speaks of the " Father " only sixteen times, and of "God" three hundred and fifty-one times. It is not assumed that Paul failed to grasp Christ's thought of the fatherhood of God. His writings show clearly that he did under- stand that idea, and experienced great comfort in the consciousness that God is a tender Father from whose love nothing can separate his children. But here is a remarkable change in terminology, to say the least. It is not without significance that Paul said, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God," instead of, " from the love of our Father." Terminology and thought are closely connected. The very name "Father" involves some of the closest and tenderest ties known to earth; while the term "God" is formal, govern- mental, and, in philosophical usage, often imper- sonal. Paul reverses in a striking manner the emphasis of Christ's terminology. This indi- cates a change from the atmosphere of Christ's habitual thought of God, even though Paul shows that he understood that thought. When once we get beyond the New Testament writings, the change is rapid and unmistakable. Greek philosophy knew nothing about a personal Father in Christ's sense, but it understood some- thing about a God, and had long been accustomed to the use of that term. Hence that was the OF THE GOSPEL 53 point at which it attached itself to Christianity. After three centuries of philosophical manipula- tion, there emerged a metaphysical tri-personal God that was supposed to meet the requirements of thought. But what was gained for thinking, if there was a gain, was lost for life. Jesus' tender, loving, watchful, personal Father had dis- appeared from theological Christianity, which had received, as a substitute, the attenuated God of Graeco-Christian speculation, cut off from touch with living men. The philosophical tri-personal- ization, whether true or false, had resulted in a practical depersonalization of God. 2. The substitution of a Logos doctrine for the historical Jesus. When the philosophical spirit began to work on the Christian tradition, the effort to understand the nature of the founder of the new religion was naturally one of its first undertakings. The rudiments of this christologi- cal speculation are found within the New Testa- ment itself, in the prologue to John's gospel, if not throughout his entire writings, in Paul's epistles, and in the epistle to the Hebrews. In the New Testament, however, true to the spirit and purpose everywhere characterizing those writings, the matter is still always presented in its practical religious aspects. Outside the New Testament the discussion soon developed into a purely philosophical specu- 54 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT lation. The point of attachment was the Greek doctrine of the Logos ; and the first step was the identification of the historical Jesus with the Logos. The Logos doctrine had already had a history of five hundred years, and had become a component part of Greek philosophy. When Jesus was identified with the Logos, therefore, he at once became the subject of metaphysical inves- tigation and definition. The historical person lost his vivid distinctness, and the philosophical idea took his place. Christology displaced Christ. The second step was the inclusion of the Logos within the essence of the Deity. Jesus thus became philosophically incorporated into a meta- physical God, and the further trinitarian specu- lations became a necessity. The point at issue here is not whether the ideas advanced were right or wrong, but the fact of the substitution of ideas for the personal reality. The change removed Christ from the realm of his- torical and practical life to the realm ot specula- tive metaphysics. It was a kind of christological pantheism, as if in our day a doctrine of Christ should be worked out in conformity with the cur- rent ruling philosophical idea that of evolution. 3. The substitution of a juridical "justifica- tion" for Christ's personal "forgiveness." Jesus regarded sin as a personal matter ; it is not so much the transgression of law as disloyalty to the OF THE GOSPEL 55 author of law ; not so much the breaking of God's law as the breaking of God's heart. The require- ment is supreme love to God and fraternal love to man. Sin is failure so to love. Sin is, there- fore, essentially personal. As sin was personal in Jesus' thought, so also was the forgiveness of sin. He habitually spoke of forgiveness. It was the nature of the Father to forgive, and the desire of his heart that men should repent in order that they might be forgiven. The number of times he used the word cannot adequately represent the place it had in his mind and teaching; for the same thought is conveyed by other words and by par- ables. He used the term " forgive " or "forgive- ness" twenty-six times in the gospels. He used the word "justify" only twice, in the Pauline sense, if indeed these two are so used. In Matt. 12:37 he says, referring to the final judgment, " By thy words thou shalt be justified," and in Luke 18:14 he says, "The publican went down to his house justified rather than the Pharisee." Here again the future development was started within the New Testament. It is a well-known fact that Paul employed the term "justification" to express the idea for which Christ used the word "forgiveness." Paul speaks of justification thirty times in his extant letters, and of forgive- ness only six times. But, still more significant, 56 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT in his four great epistles he uses "justification" twenty-eight times and "forgiveness" only once, and then in a quotation from the Old Testament. With Paul himself it may be that here, also, the change was one of terminology rather than of thought. It must also be borne in mind that he was combating legalism polemically, and that this influenced his terminology. Still it can hardly be questioned that Paul's conception of the matter was more restricted than Christ's, due to his pharisaical education and the persist- ence of old habits of thinking. Outside the religious atmosphere that pervades the New Testament, this legal view of forgive- ness made rapid way. The metaphysical dis- cussions concerning God were foreign to Roman habits of thought, and were left in the main to Greek theologians. The Romans took up rather the questions concerning sin and salvation. And when the Roman theologian, dominated by the legal genius of his nation, read the New Testa- ment, he did not choose Christ's term " forgive- ness," but Paul's " justification." The law knows no forgiveness. And so Tertullian, the father of Roman theology, himself a trained Roman lawyer, grasped that which he could understand, and at the very start turned the theology of salvation into that legal and governmental channel which it has followed ever since. OF THE GOSPEL 57 The significance of the change is evident. Forgiveness is not merely the remission of pen- alty. It is not the judicial pronouncement that the repenting sinner is now acquitted ; much less that he is acquitted because someone else has paid the penalty for him, as later theology has it. That is not forgiveness, but something else and something less. Forgiveness is pre-eminently a personal matter : the Father's pardon of the repentant son, the removal of the personal bar- rier that sin has raised to interrupt the com- munion between them. It is not a commercial barter nor a governmental expedient, but a free act of pardoning grace ; and as such Christ always represents it. Justification, on the contrary, is formal, legal, forensic : the acquittal of a criminal at the bar of justice, or the pardon of the guilty subject by his monarch. It is entirely inadequate to do justice to the thought of Jesus, and in its later theological form does decided violence to his teaching. Its substitution for "forgiveness" in the theology of the church has occasioned a serious depersonalization of Christianity. 4. Closely connected with the foregoing was the development of a legal and governmental view of the atonement, to the exclusion of its personal aspects. Christ did not say much about the atonement, which has occupied so important a place in the 58 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT theology of the church ; and he never used the word itself. Still, he said enough about that which the word stands for to assure us both of its purpose and of its spirit. It is safe to say that the historical development of that doctrine would have been widely different if his personal way of looking at it had not been exchanged for a legal view ; for the elimination of the personal element wrought sad havoc here. Later dog- matics had much to say about the atonement as the satisfaction of the justice of God. But in Christ's thought the atonement was not the satis- faction of God's justice so much as the satisfaction of the Father's love. " God so loved the world that he gave his son." And with this all the rest of the New Testament agrees. Paul says : " God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Not once in all the New Testament is the term "justice of God" used in the later theological sense, although once, in the classical passage in Romans, God is said to be just, or righteous, in connection with the atonement. It is doubtless true that the atonement is intimately connected with God's justice. But it is no less true that theology has emphasized this phase of the subject out of all proportion, and has overlooked the fact that, while the New Testament does not speak of the judicial aspect of the atonement at all, or at most OF THE GOSPEL 59 only once, it does speak of the atonement again and again as being the satisfaction of God's love. By this wrong emphasis great injustice has been done to the more personal aspects of the mat- ter. Even if God could save a man by some legal device, if he could reclaim a world by some governmental makeshift, it would not accomplish his purpose unless it reached the hearts of men and bound them to his own in truest love. God wants loving sons, not merely loyal subjects ; and love is personal. The cross of Christ is the supreme manifestation of personal vicarious divine love. Thus in these various ways and the special instances might be multiplied was the personal element crowded out of the gospel of Jesus, as the result of tendencies set on foot in the early transformation of Christianity. The time came when theological and institutional Christianity almost ceased to be a personal matter between man and God and man and his fellow-men, and resolved itself into the observance of churchly ceremonies and adherence to a set of scholastic ideas. The personal power of God had departed, and there remained an arid wilderness of imper- sonal substitutes. The moral eclipse of the gospel. The theological eclipse of the gospel had sub- stituted acceptance of the orthodox creed for 60 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT loyal trust in Christ ; and had thereby made sal- vation a matter of intellectual conviction rather than of moral and religious regeneration. The ecclesiastical eclipse had substituted faith in the church for faith in Christ, and had made salvation a matter of ordinances and observances, instead of a vital renewal by the power of God, conditioned upon a new attitude toward him. These two changes led naturally to a great moral eclipse of the gospel. The theological development, by identifying Christianity with philosophy, had removed it from the realm of motive and action, and so had divorced it from the practical life of the world. The domain of ethics was left to take care of itself. A man was all right if his thinking was orthodox ; he might do what he pleased. Above all things he must not be a heretic ; and heresy was a matter of right thinking, not of right doing. That, in a nutshell, is the theoretical justification of the morality of the Middle Ages. The theory was not lived out in uniform consistency, fortunately for the world ; but that was the logic of the situa- tion which made possible the immorality of the so-called Christian church. 1 * A full discussion of this subject belongs to the history of ethics, and would here lead us too far afield. As early as the Montanist struggle a party had begun to protest against the continuous secularizing of the church and its lax morality. But the great opportunist party contended that too strict a mo- OF THE GOSPEL 61 The ecclesiastical evolution, on the other hand, kept in touch with practical life, but changed the standard of living. The bishop took the place of Christ as lawgiver. It may be claimed, and is claimed, that this was no change ; that Christ continued to legislate through the bishop. rality would interfere with the dominion of the church over the world, and began to distinguish between the morality required of the clergy and that necessary among the laity. Hence it soon came to pass that " in order to be a Christian a man no longer required in any sense to be a saint." There was legitimized an average morality, in accordance with which the whole world could live. Those who were not satisfied with this loose morality could console themselves with the meritorious practice of asceti- cism. As Harnack says: "Alongside of a code of morals to which anyone in case of need could adapt himself, the church began to legitimize a morality of self-chosen, refined sanctity which really required no Redeemer." This asceticism, culminat- ing in monachism, exercised, from the end of the third century, an ever-increasing power in the Catholic church, with its alluring invitation to earnest spirits to escape the growing corruption by flight from the world. Thus the church, in its threefold order of priests, monks, and laity, offered also a threefold piety, some ele- ment of which was suited to every man. The theoretical founda- tion for these distinctions was found in the famous twofold mo- rality : natural morality, based upon the via media of Aristotle and the four cardinal virtues ; and supernatural morality, based upon I Cor. 13 : 13 and the Beatitudes, this preconditioned by celibacy, poverty, and obedience, and possible only through the church and for the clergy. Here should also be mentioned the Jesuitical doc- trine of " probabilism " : " if an opinion is probable, it is lawful to follow it, though the contrary opinion is more probable." For, although this doctrine was not "scientifically" formulated until 1577, still the principle then enunciated had been operative in the church throughout the Middle Ages. 6z RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT But the impartial student of history must de- mur. As the church moved down the historical stream and came into contact with unfriendly influences, it was corrupted by them. Noth- ing is more certain. The bishops who were made the guardians and interpreters of the truth were fallible men, and were themselves involved in the hostile and corrupting environment. Thus the moral standard of the church was ever changing, and apparently ever falling lower. Moreover, the probability of ethical reform was lost from the fact that the standard was now within the church itself, and firmly fixed there by the very theory of development that had led to this condition of things. The church did not need to go back to Christ, for itself was Christ perpetuated. It did not need to return to the New Testament, for it continued the New Testa- ment. Thus ever sufficient unto itself, and re- volving upon itself, supposing that it could not get away from its Lord, it moved forward oblivi- ous to the fact that it was plunging into moral degradation, and that its path was strewn with deeds of moral monstrosity. Both the blind and the blind leaders of the blind fell together into the ditch. Fortunately here, also, the result was not wholly a logical conclusion from the premises. In spite of the church theory, both bishops and people OF THE GOSPEL 63 caught glimpses of Christ's divine moral require- ments. Indeed, the gospel of Jesus somehow succeeded in perpetuating itself in the church. We must never forget that the reason for the being of both church and creed was Jesus Christ. His glory might be dimmed ; it was never wholly darkened nor extinguished. However far the church might get away from its divine Master's leadership, it could never break entirely with him. We may adapt to the church the words of the poet, and say truly: But yet I know, where'er I go, That there hath passed away a glory from the earth ; but still also we must add : Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory does it come, From God who is its home. It is evident, therefore, that the result of this long process of historical development was the eclipse of the gospel of Jesus, an eclipse so dark and dense that it might be called total were it not for the dim radiance which still penetrated the obscuring dogmatic and ecclesiastical formations a radiance that has deceived men into think- ing that the clouds thus illumined were them- selves divine. In the night that came before the dawn of the Reformation even the light of the 64 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT gospel had become darkness, and how great was that darkness ! In concluding this chapter it is worth while to pass in review the results reached. The funda- mental thing in the obscuration of the gospel was the dethronement of Jesus Christ from his govern- ing position in Christianity as Savior from sin and Lord of living. This displacement took a double form. Ecclesiastically, due chiefly to Roman in- fluence, it involved a practical change in the object of faith faith in Christ being transformed into faith in the church, which now came to be regarded as the mediator of salvation, being the depository and interpreter of the saving truth, and the admin- istrator of the saving ordinances. Theologically, due chiefly to Greek influence, it involved a still more fundamental doctrinal change, which af- fected both the object of faith and its nature- faith as religious confidence and trust in Christ being superseded by intellectual assent to a body of knowledge authoritatively formulated into a creed. This transformed the pistis into zgnosis, and identified Christianity with speculative the- ology, thereby divorcing it from the realm of the conscience and the will, and virtually shut- ting it up within the domain of the intellect. This primary transformation of the gospel, involving the double displacement of Christ, con- OF THE GOSPEL 65 tained in principle the whole matter, and deter- mined the historical development of Christianity for twelve centuries. During this period the germ so introduced expanded, and firmly in- trenched itself in an elaborate system of dog- matics and a firmly articulated ecclesiastical organization, which removed Christianity still farther from the purity, simplicity, and power of the original gospel. The eclipse thus accomplished was accom- panied by the depersonalization of Christianity. Personal loyalty to Christ gave way to alle- giance to the impersonal church and creed. The personal leadership of the Holy Spirit was superseded by the authority of the imper- sonal tradition and the written word of the Scriptures, mediated in turn by the impersonal church. Jesus' personal Father, the true God of Christianity, was transformed into a meta- physical idea. Jesus himself became identified with the ruling conception of contemporary Greek philosophy, that of the Logos. Jesus' idea of the personal nature of sin and forgiveness was changed into the legal view of sin and the juridi- cal idea of justification ; while his thought of the atonement as the saving expression of God's love was converted into the propitiation of God's wrath and the satisfaction of his justice. These fundamental changes helped on, if they 66 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT did not directly cause, the dark moral eclipse which the gospel suffered during the Middle Ages. Christianity being theoretically removed from the realm of the conscience and the will, its great moral requirements became practically nullified in the world of affairs. Men attached themselves to Christianity by swearing allegiance to the church and its creed, while they kept on living according to the old laws of the selfish and sinful world, even turning the church itself into an engine of worldly ambition. Thus it came to pass that Christianity, so radically had it changed its character and lost its light, became itself a part of the dark night which settled over the life of the Middle Ages, broken only here and there by the narrow circle of light cast by some lone saint who had felt the inspiration of the still imperishable faith, and had come face to face with his undying personal Lord. CHAPTER III. THE HISTORICAL RECOVERY OF THE GOSPEL. THE movement for the recovery of the gospel is due, as has already been shown, to the modern spirit and its insatiable desire to get at the reality of things. It was the awakening of this spirit during the latter half of the fifteenth century, and its investigation of the world at first hand along the various avenues of knowledge, that gave birth to our modern civilization. The domain of religious life and thought did not escape, but to this also the new spirit finally turned in its quest for ultimate truth. Just as the obscuration of the gospel was not a simple and momentary thing, but the result of a long and intricate process of development, so has it been also with the recovery of the gospel. It is being accomplished through a complex his- torical process, which has already been going on for four centuries, and in which we are still engaged. Yet the end is so nearly reached that the significance of the movement is discernible, some of its results are reasonably well established, and its final valuation is approximately possible. There are three clearly marked periods in the 67 68 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT progress of events. The first is that of the great Reformation, when the modern spirit broke forth in a vigorous and stormy demand for prac- tical religious satisfaction. The second is the post-Reformation relapse, in which Protestantism turned its attention to doctrinal controversy arid the formation of systems of theology that gave the old Catholic heresy a Protestant sanction and an enlarged influence. The third is the period of the nineteenth century Reformation, characterized as truly as the first by the demand for reality ; while, with greater patience and a clearer under- standing of the situation, it has been working its way to the desired end by the scientific method and a return to the historical sources of Chris- tianity. A section may well be devoted to each of these phases of the historical movement for the recovery of the gospel. I. THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION. Properly speaking, the sixteenth century Reformation was not a theological reformation ; or, at most, it was such only incidentally. Pri- marily it was a practical reform of ecclesiastical and religious abuses. In other words, it was the reformation of the Roman element in contempo- rary Christianity. Let it be recalled that in the early obscuration of the gospel the primitive trust in Christ and OF THE GOSPEL 69 loving loyalty to him had suffered a double dis- placement in the nature of faith and in the ob- ject of faith. Passing for the present the first of these, the change in the object of faith was in turn of a twofold character, Christ being dis- placed by the church and the creed. Or, as theology was of only secondary importance to the Roman mind, it is perhaps more accurate to say that in the West salvation came to be regarded as mediated by the church through the ordinances and the creed. This substitution of an ecclesiastical organization for Christ was the distinctive Roman contribution to the devel- opment of Christianity. Now, the Lutheran Reformation was at first and in its real genius a revolt against this Roman perversion of Christianity. It was, therefore, of a practical rather than of a theological nature. It was an attempt to reform the glaring evils in the existing church, and to make salvation a real and living matter, depending on right relations to God through Jesus Christ. It was an attempt of the new religious spirit to restore Christ to the position that had been usurped by the church. This gave it its character and determined its scope. The story of the Reformation is too familiar to be retold here. The corruption of the church had become so scandalous that it could no longer be 7 o RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT tolerated by the independent spirit of the awaken- ing world. At the same time the new temper could not be satisfied with a mechanical salvation that came through the mediation of priests and the sale of indulgences. The religious demands of the new age became incarnate in Martin Luther. There was the hopeless struggle for a real salva- tion, which could not be found in the endless round of penances and churchly works. There was the dawning light, followed by the glorious day, as the New Testament at last lay before him, and he came into touch with the living God by faith in Jesus Christ, the light of the world. And then, as he began to realize how radically contemporary Christianity had departed from the New Testament way of salvation, so joyously verified in his own experience, there was a deter- mined outcry against the corrupt institutional mediator of an artificial salvation an outcry in which all the pent-up struggling spirit within him burst forth in an indignant and vigorous opposition so deep and strong that the old order had to give way before it. It was the protest of the aroused spirit against the church instead of the Christ ; it was the indignation of the hungry soul at a stone in place of bread; it was an irresistible outburst of the religious nature demanding living satisfaction. The watchword of Paul, after his bitter struggle for righteousness by the deeds of OF THE GOSPEL 71 the law, was caught up by humanity after its long contest with the new legalism of ecclesiastical prescriptions, and " justification by faith in Christ" again offered a way of escape for the weary and despairing soul. It was a revival of the very es- sence of Christianity a real and remarkable recovery of the gospel. The religious and practical character of the Reformation is evident. In this, also, it was a return to the true spirit of the gospel. One is profoundly impressed with this fact. Coming into the spirit of the Reformation is like step- ping back into the apostolic age. We emerge from the atmosphere of hopeless striving for a salvation that may be bought by human ef- forts and worldly gold into the free air of the old glorious gospel of the New Testament, with its gracious gift of reconciliation and living com- munion with God through Jesus Christ, of peace for the conscience through justification by faith, and of divine power for help in every time of need. It was this that made the Reformation so welcome, and that gave it its power. When such a salvation was offered to a world longing for religious reality it was everywhere hailed with joyous acceptance. The Lutheran Reformation did not get beyond this practical religious stage. Or, if it did, it got beyond its proper range, and lost itself among the 72 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT theological rocks and shoals where its peculiar genius could not serve as pilot. The doctrines changed by the Reformation were only those that had an immediate bearing upon the practical issues involved. The doctrine of salvation by trusting the church, receiving its ordinances, and obeying its injunctions was changed back into the New Testament doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. That was the fundamental thing.and furnished the material principle of the Reforma- tion. It involved the repudiation of the authority of the church as co-ordinate with the Bible, and substituted the new doctrine of the all-sufficiency of the New Testament as the Christian's guide in matters of faith and practice. This was the formal principle of the Reformation. It involved, again, the denial of the church's official author- ity to interpret Scripture, and substituted the idea of individual right and responsibility in interpretation. This constituted the individual- istic element characteristic of Protestantism. These three doctrines, salvation by faith, the sole authority of Scripture, individual right and re- sponsibility in interpretingScripture all of them relating to the practical issues of a great religious reformation are pretty much the extent of the doctrinal reform of the sixteenth century move- ment. No one questions their great importance ; few will question their harmony with the spirit of OF THE GOSPEL 73 the New Testament gospel. They still remain the three fundamental and distinctive principles of Protestantism. During the centuries of churchly life under the influence of Rome, the dust of superstition and the cobwebs of human fantasy had gathered over the face of God's religious masterpiece and ob- scured its true character. The Reformation cleared away the accumulations of the passing years, and revealed again to the world the match- less power and beauty of the Master's thought. II. THE POST-REFORMATION RE-ECLIPSE OF THE GOSPEL. If the sixteenth century Reformation had fully succeeded, we should not need to discuss further the recovery of the gospel. But unfortunately it was only a partial success ; and that for two reasons. In the first place, it emancipated only a portion of the Christian world. The other part remained, and still remains, under the old erro- neous ecclesiastical system. Indeed, that system strengthened its hold and increased its claims during the struggle. The second cause of partial failure lay within the camp of the Reformers themselves. It must be remembered that they also had been educated in the intellectual environment of the old system. Their mental tendencies were established in the 74 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT groove which the church had followed for centu- ries. The old angle of vision had not been wholly altered. They were feeling their way in the midst of the semi-darkness of the new dawn. They still saw through a glass darkly. The smoke of the battle yet hung over the field and obscured the clearness of their sight. And so it happened that, while two or three fundamental principles were clearly discerned and became the governing ideas of the reform movement, these purely religious and ethical convictions were held by men of the old scholastic temper, and remained entangled in the traditional metaphysical conceptions. Thus the changes in dogmatics did not affect the underlying theologi- cal presuppositions, but only certain individual doctrines; and Protestant theology became the continuation of Catholic theology, as this in turn had perpetuated Greek philosophy. Not that this was done consciously and by intention. It is simply an illustration of the persistency of ideas, and of the fact that a man cannot wholly escape the influence of his educa- tional environment. Under the power of the awakened religious impulse, the Reformers broke away from the old order of things in a few vital points, and thought that thereby they had broken with it everywhere. This mistake was the easier because that with which they did not break was OF THE GOSPEL 75 of a different character from the other, had come into the church at a different time and from a different source, and was beyond their immediate purpose. They gave their attention to the Roman addition to the gospel; that which escaped them was the older metaphysical Greek obscuration. A brief review of the historical situation will make this evident. The distinctively theological interest which first began to make itself strongly felt in the church during the second century centered im- mediately in Christology and the doctrine of the Trinity. These doctrines were converted into dogmas by the first six general councils, and have always continued to be regarded in a pecul- iar sense as the fundamental dogmatic heritage of the church. They are justly called the Greek contribution to Christianity, for, however they may have been influenced by the Roman mind, they were born of the Greek spirit, and their form and development were decisively deter- mined by Greek philosophy. That these dog- mas soon ceased to be living issues and to find a place in the interests of men did not disturb their theological authority, but rather strength- ened it. The fact that they became petrified made them an all the more satisfactory, because more unshakable, foundation for a church which was built upon the traditions of the past. It was 76 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT upon this foundation of fixed dogma that Augus- tine set up his theological structure of sin, grace, and means of grace, and the whole Middle Ages occupied itself with tearing down and rebuilding in varying forms this superstructure. It never thought of interfering with the foundation. The only part of the work of the Middle Ages that could claim at all the same character as that of the old dogmatic symbols was that of the fourth Lateran council (1215) which established as dogma the doctrines of the eucharist, baptism, and penance, and attached these directly to the old dogmas of Christology and the Trinity. These new dogmas, however, clearly in no way weakened the authority of those formulated over five hundred years before, but rather increased this authority by adding another layer to the foundation. Still this later addition, even though regarded as dogma, and therefore more sacred than the changeable theology, was never ac- corded quite the same reverence given to the more ancient stratum of dogma, as the following period demonstrates. Nothing more clearly manifests the untheo- logical temper of the Reformation than its treat- ment of this Catholic dogma. The ancient layer, which had remained crystallized for a thousand years, the Reformation never even seri- ously thought of calling in question. As much for OF THE GOSPEL 77 the Augsburg Confession as for the council of Trent the church dogmas of Christology and the Trinity remained the unshaken foundation. With reference to the newer dogmatic formation of 1215 (the eucharist, baptism, and penance) the Reformation assumed a vacillating attitude ; while the real reforms were wrought out in the change- able superstructure of theological, but not dog- matically fixed, doctrines of sin, grace, and means of grace, built up by Augustine and the Middle Ages. In this last department the Reformation succeeded fairly well in returning to the New Testament teaching ; in the second it tried and failed ; while in the first it did not even make the attempt. This meant that the Greek element which had been incorporated into Christianity in the ancient dogmatic formation was not discovered or removed, and that the first and greatest heresy that Christianity is a body of knowledge upon the acceptance of which salvation depends passed over into Protestantism unchallenged and un- changed. This was the rock that wrecked the Reformation, checked it midway in its successful course, and broke Protestantism into fragments. A change of view concerning the ancient dogma is, however, to be noted in the Reform- ers. They did not retain the dogmas of Chris- tology and the Trinity on the ground that they were the authoritative dogmas of the church 78 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT by no means ; but because it was not perceived that they were not contained in the New Testa- ment. They were supposed to be the true evangelical expression of the New Testament teaching, indeed to be nothing other than the gospel itself an assumption that still remains so firmly fixed in Protestantism that a man who calls them in question is immediately regarded as a heretic, in wide circles, on the ground that he rejects the New Testament teaching con- cerning God and the divinity of Christ ; it not being perceived that this judgment is pro- nounced on the basis of the Catholic councils instead of the Protestant New Testament. At the Reformation, therefore, the Greek dogmas became fused with the gospel itself even more intimately than before, for now they had been projected back into the Bible. Before the sixteenth century three ideas with respect to the attainment of salvation were more or less influential : that of trust in the church and its ordinances, that of acceptance of the creed, and the dimmed but divinely persistent idea of faith in Christ. The question of salvation through the church was disposed of by the Reformation, while the idea of salvation by faith in Christ experienced a vigorous revival. The contest now remained, a contest subtle and unsuspected, between the two surviving principles the newly OF THE GOSPEL 79 revived idea of salvation by faith in Christ, and the old idea of salvation through faith in the creed. Here, then, was the insoluble antinomy of Protestantism : on the one hand the fundamental principle that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and by that alone ; on the other hand, the per- sistent idea, adopted from Catholicism, that there is saving efficacy in a body of knowledge ; or, at least, that a certain system of dogmas, regarded as true doctrine, must be accepted if a man is to be an orthodox Christian. And another anti- nomy growing out of or closely associated with it ; perhaps, indeed, the same thing under a dif- ferent aspect : on the one hand, the dominion and free guidance of the Spirit of God ; on the other hand, the written law of the Scriptures regarded as an infallibly inspired theological statute book. The history of Protestantism from that day to this is the story of the attempted solution of these antinomies. As long as the first religious fervor and enthu- siasm was in the ascendant, the principle of justi- fication by faith naturally remained the dominant one. But in process of time important changes took place, three of which are especially worthy of notice. I. Due partly to the need of authoritative teaching, felt by Protestants themselves, partly to the struggle with Catholicism, and partly to the 8o RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT survival of the old idea of the efficacy of true knowledge, together with the theological tenden- cies brought over from Catholicism, the Reform- ers early turned their attention toward questions of dogmatic theology. There resulted the elabo- rate doctrinal systems of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As has already been observed, these did not differ in principle, nor, indeed, in many of their conclusions, from Catho- lic theology. It is a generally acknowledged fact that Calvin is in the direct line of theologi- cal succession : Tertullian, Augustine, Calvin. The same thing is true to a less extent of the other Reformation theologians. These sys- tems perpetuated the old underlying idea of Christianity as the true system of knowledge, the old scholastic subtleties, and the old unreality and separation from living issues. Moreover, dogmatic theology acquired even increased influence in Protestantism. In Roman Catholicism, the church with its sacerdotal ordi- nances and spectacular worship shared the field of interest with dogmatics. Indeed, it was the church that occupied by far the most important place in the religious life of the masses, while theology was relegated to the scholars and teachers. In Protestantism this was reversed. When the church ceased to hold the power of dispensing salvation, it fell from its high place OF THE GOSPEL 81 in the minds of men; and Protestantism has often had a struggle to maintain it with a decent support. On the other hand, theology has received all of the attention which it for- merly shared with the church, and every Prot- estant, be he educated or uneducated, competent or incompetent, has his own doctrinal system which he wants every other man to adopt. Theology received a false importance in the days following the struggle with Gnosticism. It retained that false position through the Middle Ages, when men were subjected to torture that their souls might be saved by the compulsory acceptance of the right doctrine. But in Prot- estantism it exalted itself still higher, and increased its pretensions, so that its reign would have become intolerable but for the growing idea of individual liberty and the revival of the principle of salvation by faith, which succeeded in coloring with a warmer radiance the icy theo- logical peaks. 2. Another result of the struggle with Catholi- cism was a new emphasis put upon the Bible, causing a reversal of the relative positions occu- pied by the material and the formal principles of the Reformation. The infallible authority of the Bible was not at first the most important tenet of Protestant- ism. That principle was justification by faith. 82 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT This is sufficiently apparent everywhere in the early stages of the Reformation. For instance, Luther's loose and free use of the Scriptures is well known. Justification by faith was the great thing, by which all else, even the Bible itself, was judged by him. The conditions of the early days of Christianity were reproduced. Indeed, the parallel is remarkable. When at the first Christian- ity was a matter of living reality and made men free in the Spirit, Christians were satisfied to be led of the Spirit. In the first religious exuberance of the Reformation, men again felt themselves near to God and under the guidance of the Spirit ; there was no need of external authority. But just as in those early days the need of an external tangible authority was felt more and more as spiritual inspiration declined and contro- versies threatened the church, so it was again in the Reformation days. Moreover, the Protes- tant must have some standard of appeal in the conflict with his Catholic antagonist who rested so confidently upon the authority of the church. The leadership of the Spirit was too lofty and intangible a conception for controversial pur- poses. Hence, inasmuch as the authority of the church had been repudiated, and the authority of the Spirit was inadequate, the Reformers fell back upon the Bible, just as the early Christians had rallied around the apostolic tradition. OF THE GOSPEL 83 As theology, after the Protestant rejection of the church, received all the attention which it had previously shared with the church, here also an analogous result appeared in the case of the Bible, which hitherto had been theoretically regarded as co-ordinate authority with tradition and the church; it now occupied the field alone, and acquired all of the importance that before had been distributed. But this was not all. Still the standard of appeal was not definite enough. Hence under the stress of controversy, in order that assurance might be doubly sure, the Bible was made inflexible by a mechanical theory of inspiration which converted it into an absolutely complete, inerrant, all-sufficient Christian statute book. The Bible, so defined, was then substi- tuted for "justification by faith" as the corner- stone of Protestantism. Thus the material and formal principles of the Reformation had ex- changed places. 3. And now, or along with these two move- ments, another thing took place: the system of dogmatics that had been formulated by the church during the course of its historical development, and had been taken up, elaborated, and empha- sized by Protestantism, was unconsciously read back into the Bible, and was supposed to be contained therein bodily. Romanism had no need of such an idea, because it boldly asserted 84 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT that the Bible revelation was continued in the church, which was therefore divinely authorized to promulgate a doctrinal system, even one con- taining new elements. But with Protestantism the case was different. It could not go beyond the Bible. And yet here was its great system of theology which was regarded as both a true and a necessary part of Christianity. Evidently, therefore, it must be in the Bible. And so, without realizing that the dogmatics had come down the historical stream and was composed largely of extra-biblical material, floated with difficulty by proof-texts often wrongly inter- preted, the whole system received the divine sanction of its supposed biblical source. Prot- estants read the words of Paul and thought the thoughts of Tertullian and Augustine and Calvin, and Paul was held responsible for the whole thing. Thus the theological situation had become greatly complicated. Here was a system of dog- matics derived generically from Catholicism, with false premises as to its own importance due to the old Greek idea of the saving value of knowledge, and largely made up of elements of the ancient philosophical and scientific culture. This system had acquired even greater promi- nence when the church, with which it had former- ly shared attention, lost its hold upon Protestants. OF THE GOSPEL 85 Meanwhile, under the stress of controversy, the material principle of the Reformation, salvation by faith, had yielded first place to the formal principle of the solitary and all-sufficient author- ity of the Scriptures ; while, in the exigencies of the situation, and under false ideas of inspiration, these were transformed into a hard-and-fast arti- ficial Christian statute book. Then the dogmatic system, with its false presuppositions and ancient culture, was read back into the Bible with its new mechanical limitations, and all was surrounded by the divine halo that belongs to religion alone. Hands off theology! hands off the authorized view of the Bible ! because the gospel of Jesus is divine. With error bolstering error, and the sanctities of religion made to bolster both, is it any wonder that for long weary years the error held sway, and still does so? For even now it is only by gradual degrees that the real truth concerning this historical process is becoming clear and making its influence felt. We now come to another and entirely new element in the post-Reformation eclipse of the gospel. A change had been passing over the thought of the world. In the intellectual renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a new cul- ture had been born. This had taken place con- 86 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT temporaneously with the Reformation, but it had not yet acquired enough importance seriously to affect the question there at issue. It was the modern spirit at work in the Reformation, not the modern culture. But the new knowledge grew apace as discoveries, colonization, inventions, and commercial enterprises multiplied. A new science was built up in harmony with the new knowledge of nature and of life. Perspectives changed. New views of life emerged and new valuations of thought. In a word, a new cul- ture had altered the whole aspect of civiliza- tion, and substituted another world-view for that of the ancients. Almost literally the old heavens and the old earth had passed away : lo ! the ancient world was gone. The place that had known it now knew it no more. All things had become new except in the- ology. "Ay, there's the rub." Let it be recalled that in the early transformation of Christianity from a pistis to a gnosis the contemporary science and philosophy had been taken up into theology and made a component part of the religion, equally divine with the gospel which they were used to express ; that this error was not eradi- cated by the Reformation, but was taken over into Protestantism along with the Catholic dogmatics. This meant that in Protestant theol- ogy the ancient culture was projected into the OF THE GOSPEL 87 modern world under the name and protection of Christianity. As the volume of new knowledge increased, the modern mind did not understand the theology formed out of elements of the obsolete culture, and dropped it. There arose a new king that knew not Joseph. The forms of speech that had moved the ancient world did not appeal to the new age, and were with difficulty even under- stood by it. The better it was adapted for its purposes in the ancient time, the less value did it possess for influencing the new. And so it happened that systematic theology still farther lost touch with the masses, who either gave themselves to practical religious activities, in- nocent of doctrine, or patched up a system, each man for himself, regardless of the historical connections, and thus threw Protestantism into the theological chaos that characterizes it in the popular mind. The most disastrous results, how- ever, appeared among the educated classes, where men and women living in the atmosphere of the new culture were alienated from a Chris- tianity which seemed to be identified with anti- quated knowledge, while the alternative had not yet presented itself of changing the theology to meet the new conditions. Here, then, was an entirely new eclipse of the gospel. It was eclipsed once by its early 88 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT entanglement with philosophy. That was bad enough, as it was thereby removed from its true sphere of operation; but it was still tol- erable, inasmuch as Christianity continued to appeal to men's minds as long as the thought which it had adopted continued to pass current that is, up to the modern era. But when the ancient culture became obsolete, theology ceased to have this redeeming virtue, except as men threw themselves back into the atmosphere of the ancient world. The former obscuration of the gospel was due to a change in Christianity; this new eclipse was due to a change in the world's common stock of knowledge ; due, in- deed, to the very fact that traditional Chris- tianity did not change, and could not, until the old first heresy was discovered and removed. Theology might well have taken to itself the message of the poet's words : New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth ; They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth. Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the des- perate winter sea ; Nor attempt the Future's portals with the Past's blood- rusted key. OF THE GOSPEL 89 III. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY REFORMATION. In the conditions just described are laid bare the elements of the nineteenth century theologi- cal ferment: a new culture, in which the obso- lete science and philosophy of the ancient world are perpetuated under the guise of a divine theol- ogy that has become a component part of Chris- tianity ; this theology demanding the allegiance of the modern spirit, weary of speculative subtle- ties, and hungry for religious reality. This spirit had been nearly dormant, so far as religious ac- tivity was concerned, since the Reformation, appar- ently having exhausted itself in that great strug- gle. It had made little protest against the suc- ceeding re-obscuration of the gospel. But now, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, it awoke to new life, and began again the search for truth in the religious realm. The result is the nineteenth century Reformation as truly a great Protestant reform as was that of the sixteenth century. Indeed, it is the complement of that movement : the theological completion of the practical and ecclesiastical reformation. As such, it strikes at the old Greek fallacy, there over- looked, that transformed Christianity from a faith into a philosophy. While the Lutheran Reforma- tion was practical, although with theological im- plications, the new Reformation is theological, but destined to have far-reaching practical results. 90 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT Although developing into a theological re- form, however, it was not such in the begin- ning, either in motive or in point of attachment. The theological citadel was too strongly forti- fied, even though in error, to have been taken by assault. In fact, the new movement started wholly without reference to dogmatic considera- tions, and with a temper the farthest removed from the dogmatic spirit. The key to the whole situation lies in this, that the re-awakened spirit, true to its characteristic genius, laid hold of that which was most tangible for scientific purposes namely, the Christian records as contained in the New Testament literature and the existing mon- uments of the history of the church. This led to the creation of the new sciences of biblical exegesis and church history. The result of this return to the Christian records was not so much a warfare upon theology as an ignoring of it. The new study cut back of the entire stream of dogmatic development, and began de novo to work upon the sources. The investigation into the history of the church has gradually laid bare the varied fortune of Christianity in the world, and brought to light the main facts relating to the development of the Catholic church and creed. The results, as they affect the present discussion, have furnished the subject-matter of the preceding chapter and the OF THE GOSPEL 91 first two sections of this. Little more needs to be said here ; it remains only to point out briefly the influence of this new study of church history upon the rediscovery of the gospel, (i) In the first place, the whole process of the obscuration of the gospel here lies before us. We see the formation and progress of the dogmatic stream, taking its rise in post-apostolic times, flowing through an alien culture, and emptying its mixed and turbid waters into modern religious life. The first step toward the rediscovery of the gospel is this discovery of its obscuration. (2) This dispels the illusion that eighteenth-century Christianity was the same thing as New Testament Christianity. So successfully had eighteenth-century orthodoxy been read back into the New Testament that or- thodox and infidel polemicists alike took it for granted that the Christian religion stood or fell with contemporary theology. The knowl- edge of the historical formation of dogmatics in post-biblical times relieves the New Testament from the onus of upholding the metaphysical conclusions of scholasticism. (3) This sug- gests what, after all, is the chief value of church history so far as the recovery of the gospel is concerned. It clears the way for the New Testa- ment to exert its normal influence. By the dis- closure of the heterogeneous influences surround- ing the gospel all through its history, and by 92 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT making plain the changes in Christianity due to its absorption of foreign elements from this en- vironment, the work of church history has led us back to the New Testament in a new frame of mind, and with a keener and more critical appre- ciation of its teachings. In this new study of the New Testament, the formative literature of Christianity, we come to the heart of the nineteenth-century movement the open Bible. It was the rediscovery of the Bible that led to the recovery of the gospel. For centuries the Bible had been a closed book. In the earliest days the gospels and apostolic letters doubtless -had a considerable circulation, and were widely read in the churches. But as Latin and Greek ceased to be the languages of popular speech, the people did not understand the Bible as it was read in the liturgical worship of the church, and could not have read it for themselves, even if they had possessed copies of it. But these they did not have. From purely mechanical reasons it was next to impossible to give the Scriptures a general circulation. The epoch-making importance of the printing- press in this respect must not be forgotten. Furthermore, the emphasis .put upon the church as a saving institution had transferred popular attention to the church with its private confes- sional and its public worship, and the people had OF THE GOSPEL 93 lost practical interest in the Bible. To this must be added the fact that the right of authoritative interpretation had been monopolized by the church in the persons of its clergy, so that the people had no right to read and interpret the Scrip- tures for themselves. For these reasons by the beginning of the sixteenth century the Bible was almost an unknown book. The rediscovery of the Bible began with the Lutheran Reformation ; and, conversely, began that Reformation. It was the discovery of a com- plete copy of the Vulgate in the library of the university at Erfurt that started Martin Luther on his career of reform. The abuses existing in the complex ceremonialism of contemporary Catholi- cism could not stand before the direct religious simplicity and spiritual power of the New Testa- ment gospel. Indeed, it is the instinct of self- preservation that leads the Catholic church to oppose the popular study of the Scriptures. The recovered Bible is destined to bury Catholicism. But the Bible did not become known among the people at large at the time of the Reforma- tion. It had to make its way in the face of de- termined opposition and persecution. Traces of the Catholic idea of the danger of a popular reading of the book were carried over into Prot- estantism. The educated classes, especially, felt that the common people could not under- 94 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT stand it and would be excited to lawlessness by the reading of it ; and this view seemed to gain some justification from the individualistic and revolutionary aspects of the Reformation. Hence it was many years before the Bible could be read in peace. Moreover, it had to be translated into the modern languages before it could gain gen- eral circulation. Still farther, the undue promi- nence that Protestantism early gave to dogmatics made the creed, rather than the Scriptures, the center of interest. And when men finally reached the Bible they came to it through the creed, and therefore interpreted it in the light of cer- tain theological presuppositions. It could not be understood that way, for it is a book of reli- gion, not of dogmatics. Besides this, the artificial and mechanical theories of inspiration that early came to hedge it about added to the obscuration of its true nature, and increased the difficulty of getting at its real teaching. Thus it was that the open book still remained a closed treasure- house. But this could not go on forever. Given the aggressive and enlightening conditions of modern life, the misunderstanding of the Bible was bound to give way in time and its real char- acter to assert itself. This was accomplished along two main channels, these sometimes run- ning together in individuals who sympathized OF THE GOSPEL 95 with both movements, and perhaps never clearly separable in any period, but yet always more or less distinct in genesis and genius. Both move- ments were due to the modern spirit, of which they were the religious expression, and to which, each in its own way, they always remained faith- ful. The one channel of Bible reopening was popular and practical, the other was literary and scientific. The popular reopening of the Bible. Gradually the Bible was translated into the more important languages of Europe, and found its way into the homes of the people. The inven- tion of the printing-press made this general circu- lation possible to a degree hitherto entirely beyond precedent or even belief. The Reformation theo- retically gave every man the right to read this book for himself when it thus came to his door, and the new spirit of individualism soon convert- ed the theoretical right into a practical privilege. So the Bible was everywhere welcomed and read. Its simple presentation of the gospel came upon the world like a new revelation direct from heaven. The masses of the people were not deeply inter- ested in theology ; they wanted daily inspira- tion and help. In the Bible they found it ; again "the common people heard him gladly." And among them it encountered the minimum of dog- 96 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT matic theory to give it a false coloring. As Jesus turned away from learned, theology-har- dened Judea to the freer religious atmosphere and virgin soil of Galilee as offering a more prom- ising field of labor, so now again it was true that, when his message went forth in the language of the people, it was most quickly understood and most gladly received by those who were the farthest removed from the blinding influences of traditional theology. After two centuries of leavening operation in the quiet seclusion of the home the spirit of the Bible began to make itself felt, and led to great popular revivals of religion. It opened the eyes of Carey and his associates to the duty of the Christian to the heathen, and gave birth to the new foreign missionary movement that has set itself seriously to the task of the salvation of the unchristian world. It raised up the Wesleys to light the torch of New Testament religion in England. It caused the wave of revival that has swept over this country, in which Finney and Moody and scores of other evangelists have been preach- ing a practical New Testament gospel. It has passed into the regular pulpits of the land and given a new inspiration to every preacher of Christianity. More and more its power has extended to the educated elements of society OF THE GOSPEL 97 and has added a spiritual tone to culture. By direct activity and indirect influence, the newly discovered spirit of New Testament religion is changing the whole aspect of the Christian world. Here is a profound and widespread popular recovery of the gospel, in its original spirit and practical purpose, due, not to dogmatic theology, but to two hundred years of the open Bible in the homes of the common people. The remnants of the ancient and mediaeval theology mixed up with the movement are a source of weakness, and have been a hindrance. The movement has no coherent theology of its own. It is like the Lutheran Reformation in this respect, only that it has gone farther in breaking away from Catho- lic dogmatics. It is a religious revival, and its theology is a patchwork ; many of its adherents do not know where the pieces came from, or why they are put together in one form rather than in another. It is a distinct return to the teachings of the New Testament, but these teach- ings are unconsciously woven together with the warp of post-biblical dogmatics. "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau": the gospel is the New Testament gospel, but the theology is that of an antiquated culture. Herein is brought to light the theological aspect that the Reformation has now assumed. 98 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT The scientific reopening of the Bible. The theological implications of the nineteenth century Reformation become more apparent as we trace the second channel of Bible recovery. We turn from the popular world to the world of letters. As soon as the new world-view that came in with the beginning of the modern era had gained a firm hold, and the new culture had acquired assured results, there began a warfare between the new culture and the old. Sometimes this took the form of a feeling of irritation toward surviving ideas, without a clearly defined con- sciousness of what the trouble was. Sometimes there was open antagonism. From the middle of the eighteenth century the conflict has been going on as a semi-philosophical, semi-literary, semi-critical movement, which is inextricably mixed up with the theological problem. English deism, French rationalism, German enlighten- ment, romanticism, and idealism could not be ignored if an attempt were here made to trace modern theological thought. But none of these helped directly to place Christianity on its his- torical foundations. The old theological entan- glements still remained, either included in the movements themselves or tacitly attributed to the Christianity that they opposed. These, how- ever, all helped on the spread of the new cul- OF THE GOSPEL 99 ture, and increased the growing alienation from Christianity on the part of educated people. The elements of ancient culture bound up in traditional theology came more and more to repel the man familiar with the new science and looking at the world in the new way. Different classes of cultured people were affected in different ways. There remained some, among them apparently the majority of professional theologians and reli- gious teachers, who were more influenced by the dogmatic environment than by the atmosphere of modern life. They still lived in the old world of theological notions, and the new culture had not made enough impression upon them to cause them to realize the presence of any gulf between the two. They saw no "problem" peculiar to the new conditions, and stood confidently by traditional Christianity. Another class, more deeply influenced by modern education, and feeling the uncongeniali- ty of the ancient culture surviving in traditional theology, still realized so keenly the need and blessings of religion that they clung to Chris- tianity, and lulled to sleep their rational powers in the religious realm. There are yet many such among us, strong religious natures, who think acutely enough about other subjects, while in matters pertaining to religion they do not pre- ioo RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT tend to think. They hide behind the convenient plea of "mystery," without any suspicion that the mystery is often due, not to difficulties inher- ent in the gospel itself, but to the change in the world's thought which has made an obsolete extra-biblical theology unintelligible. These two classes constituted the "orthodox" of the day those who stood by Christianity ac- cording to the traditional dogmatic statements ; not according to the New Testament, necessarily, for not this, but the creeds, whether written or unwritten, outside the New Testament or read into it, had been made the standard of ortho- doxy. Other people tried to hold Christianity intel- ligently as well as religiously, while still accept- ing modern thought, and found themselves between two fires. They gained only mental tur- moil, alternating hope and despair, being one day full of intellectual doubt, the next giving play to the religious feelings ; having just enough light to see the darkness, but not to dispel it of all men most miserable. Still others, in whom the literary and scien- tific element predominated over the religious, accepted the necessities of modern thought, and gave up Christianity; sometimes carelessly, sometimes, where the religious nature was deeper, in hopeless sadness and pathetic despair. OF THE GOSPEL 101 None of these four classes saw where the real difficulty lay. Orthodox and infidel alike re- garded Christianity as being in truth the tradi- tional thing which passed under that name in his own age. In this Voltaire and his orthodox an- tagonists were agreed. The old heresy was bear- ing fruit : Origen's theology was having an unex- pected effect. Still another class, represented by German idealism, culminating in Hegel, sought to escape by filling the old doctrines with a new meaning, and building up an elaborate speculative philoso- phy which should reconcile faith and reason; philosophy was religion intelligently thought out the old Greek conception again. Another school of thinkers, with philosophi- cal sympathies akin to Kant, represented most prominently by Schleiermacher, and including the intuitionalists and romanticists, went to the other extreme, and declared that religion had nothing to do with science and philosophy, and was in no way dependent upon contemporary culture in any age, but belonged exclusively to the realm of feeling : "religion is the feeling of dependence." Thus there was warfare in the world of thought, there was ferment everywhere, and still it was not perceived that the cause was a new world-view contending against the ancient culture surviving in Christian dogmatics. 102 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT It was under such conditions as these that, in the fourth decade of the last century, Chris- tianity was rudely brought back to its historical foundations by the appearance of Strauss's Life of Jesus, Baur's work on the pastoral epistles, and Vatke's history of the religion of the Old Testa- ment. They burst like a bomb upon all camps of religious thought, and marked a new epoch for Christianity. As with all apparently sudden movements, however, this one also was not so abrupt as ap- peared upon the surface. Duringthe previous cen- tury Semler, Lessing, and Herder had enunciated the principle that the books of the Bible should be read and criticised as human productions; and from that time on the idea was never lost, but kept gaining ground. The transcendent impor- tance of Strauss and Baur lay in the fact that they were the first to apply this idea systemati- cally in an actual attempt to understand the his- torical life of Jesus and the historical conditions giving rise to the epistles. This significance which they had is entirely independent of the conclusions that they reached. Those conclu- sions are now almost universally rejected, but the idea and method of biblical investigation then introduced mark the beginning, and form the basis, of the modern science of biblical exe- gesis. OF THE GOSPEL 103 The new study of the Bible differs from the old in important particulars, and possesses char- acteristics peculiarly its own. A new temper animates it. This point hardly needs to be discussed further. The same spirit that had turned from theories about nature to a study of nature herself here turns from no- tions about the Bible to the Bible itself. It attempts to lay aside preconceived ideas and dogmatic prejudices in an earnest and honest attempt to discover what it is that the Bible really means to say. Thus it inaugurated a bib- lical exegesis carried on solely in the interests of truth, and not for theological considerations; at least this is true in theory. A different method also characterizes the new exegesis. The same scientific method that had gained an assured place and achieved such fruitful results in the study of nature is here applied to the study of the Bible. The alle- gorical interpretation that had been employed by Origen and the early church in general had continued to influence the study of the Bible up to the last century. It rendered any cer- tain knowledge of Scripture teaching impos- sible. A Jewish rabbi once said that a lofty peculiarity of the Word of God was that it could have from five to nine different meanings, while the word of man, such was its poverty, 104 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT could have but one. As long as such a concep- tion, or even the idea of a double meaning, viti- ated exegesis, it is evident that there could be no fixed body of Bible knowledge. The choice between the five to nine meanings was deter- mined by a man's dogmatic predilections. The new methed does away with this persistent error. It starts out with the idea that the books of the Bible were produced under definite historical conditions, and were addressed to definite indi- viduals and communities, with a definite mean- ing and for a specific purpose, generally without any reference whatever to a more remote future. God's message in the Bible to the future age depends upon the nature of the message to a given present, rather than upon the peculiarity of its transmission, the miraculousness of its pre- vision, or the multitudinousness of its meanings; and the way to learn the meaning of that message is first to find out definitely what the author meant to say to his contemporaries, and therein discover the universal gospel which the divine Author has given to all generations. The new exegesis thus takes a different atti- tude toward the Bible. The old view had no sense of movement or particularity. The Bible was all on one level plane, as if complete inspira- tion meant absolute uniformity. Everything was of universal application unless it was proved OF THE GOSPEL 105 to be particular and local. Paul's letters, for instance, were regarded as general treatises for all Christians of all times, in their form of state- ment as well as in their underlying principles. This accounts for the discussions that have taken place about such an injunction as, "Let the women keep silence in the churches." It ac- counts also for the fact that theology has re- tained so much of Paul's Hebrew cast of thought. The new science breaks up this forced univer- sality of application, and sees in the epistles local and particular injunctions, written to meet concrete needs. The presumption is that such is the case with any given passage in the Bible unless it can be shown to be of permanent validi- ty, either in its existing form of statement or in the underlying principle. While the old exe- gesis, at least that of post-Reformation Protes- tantism, regarded the Bible as an infallible statute book, the new study, with its reconstruction of historical conditions, has discovered that it is a book of life rather than of law, a book of re- ligion rather than of dogmatics, the constitution of the church rather than its specific legislation. It is the record of God's dealings with men for their salvation, and so we get back of the book to the living God behind it. In a word, the old exegesis was characteristically dogmatic, the new is characteristically historical and scientific. 106 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT This way of looking at the Bible does not at all deny the reality of its divine inspiration or the permanent value of its teaching, but makes it a book that is intended to be understood, instead of a collection of mysteries whose mean- ing is to be guessed at understood, at least, so far as its profound truths may be grasped by human thought. The arbitrary hindrances to its understanding are removed. The method of this scientific exegesis is be- yond question, and is itself the most valuable result achieved, because it makes possible a pro- gressingly definite knowledge of what the Bible teaches. The specific results hitherto worked out by the new method are not all fully established, and in some cases may be superseded, as have been the conclusions of Strauss and Baur. Yet not all of them. Sixty years of scientific work in this field have yielded unprecedentedly rich returns in assured Bible knowledge. It is worth noting, parenthetically, that one proof of this is the greater unity of the various evangelical denominations of Protestantism. They all pro- fess to take their stand upon the Bible. As they have ceased to guess at its meaning and warp its teaching by dogmatic prejudices, and have honestly tried to find out what it says, the denominations that are loyal to the Bible have of necessity approached each other. Herein also OF THE GOSPEL 107 lies the hope and the prophecy of the coming union of Protestantism. The general result of this literary and scien- tific reopening of the Bible has been a decided movement from traditional Christianity back to New Testament Christianity. It has therefore led to a striking recovery of the gospel. Go- ing back of the long theological development to the perennial source of Christianity, we have found ourselves again in the religious atmosphere of the first century, and have felt again the mighty power of the giant young gospel moving out in sublime confidence against the world. We have lived once more in days when Christian thought was a part of Christian life and led it on. We have felt ourselves to be in the midst of re- ligious realities instead of theological systems, and have rejoiced with the joy of the early Chris- tians in a gospel that is the power of God unto salvation for everyone that believeth. Perhaps more than we realize, this clear vision of the New Testament gospel has influenced all channels of present-day thought and life. In this general movement back to New Testa- ment Christianity one of the most noteworthy results has been the recovery of the historical Jesus and the consequent transfer of emphasis from the creeds to the Christ. The New Testa- ment has been found to be full of Christ his io8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT powerful and persuasive personality, his wonder- ful redeeming love for men, his welcome disclo- sure of the Father's heart, his cheering presenta- tion of a new life and the way to gain it ; but no theological system explaining all this. The re- sult was inevitable. The modern spirit, weary of metaphysical theories in religion, suspicious of a theology that was intertwined with scientific and philosophic conceptions which had already be- come effete, turned with joyous relief from mediaeval Catholic dogmatics back to the historic life of the Man of Galilee. This person has not been philosophically defined to a full extent ; in- deed, there is not a consuming desire to define him. To know and love him is felt to be better. Men have turned from theories about him to the blessed reality of his presence and his power, and are content. 1 The recovery of the gospel just described dif- fers from the popular recovery referred to above in that this movement, having come through the channel of literary and scientific thought and criticism, is more conscious of what it is about, more scientific in its method, more intelligent in its conclusions, and more keenly sensible of the consequences involved. For this reason the theological implications of the nineteenth century Reformation are more 1 See Introduction, pp. xxiy-xxvi. OF THE GOSPEL 109 clearly apparent here than in the popular move- ment. Starting with a scientific study of the Christian sources, without any reference to dog- matic considerations, conclusions have been reached that have turned indifference to tradi- tional dogmatics into antagonism. This has been due to the twofold reason that, on the one hand, the farther the new study of the Bible has pro- ceeded, the more evident it has become that the traditional theological system not only is not found there, but actually does violence to the New Testament gospel ; while, on the other hand, from the study of church history, the rise of this system, and the extra-biblical sources from which it largely drew its material, together with its varied fortune in the world, have been discov- ered in post-apostolic times. Among educated people who have gone to the New Testament for an acquaintance with Christianity at first hand, and who have acquired some accurate knowledge of what is there taught, there has consequently been a growing dissatisfaction with the tradi- tional theological system that seems to them not to do justice at the present day to this New Tes- tament gospel. Therefore, while the work of gospel recovery is destined to proceed still farther as the scientific study of the Bible continues, yet along with this activity the religious movement has now assumed a new phase the theological. no RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT In the open Bible the two streams of gospel recovery run into the same channel. But they cannot be said to blend. The one is still popular in character, intolerant of scientific difficulties, car- ing only for immediate practical issues, unfa- miliar with the tortuous course of dogmatics in history, ready to put up with a heterogeneous the- ology that adopts here an element from the Bible, there one from Origen or Augustine, now another from Luther or Calvin, and then another from the post-Reformation systems, with yet another from the loose current notions of the day, still uncon- sciously reading the whole thing back into the Bible and bringing it forth again triumphantly as divine truth. There is no historical sense, no scientific exegesis. The gospel is still vitiated by being confused with its later theological ex- pression. Hence, while many evangelistic work- ers preach Christianity with almost apostolic power, their theology shocks good taste and modern culture. They think the fault is with the taste and culture that have lost the relish for gospel truth. But it is not so. Gospel truth was never more welcome, and the effort to live it never stronger. The trouble is with this obso- lete culture which they are presenting as an essen- tial part of the gospel. The other movement is still scientific and thoughtful, inclined to be contemptuous of the OF THE GOSPEL in popular confidence and enthusiasm, somewhat cold and lacking in evangelistic fervor, perhaps putting over-emphasis upon what it is possible for knowledge to do in religion, yet trying to be loy- al to its scientific ideals and to keep reverent and sweet-spirited in the face of misunderstanding and abuse. It sees more clearly the seat of the difficulty, and feels more keenly the injustice of trying to force upon the modern world the ancient culture as a part of the religion of Jesus. It realizes more fully, and often more sadly, the inherent difficulty of interpreting religion to thought, but yet must have a thoughtful religion if it is to render whole-hearted allegiance. The time has therefore come when we face the theological problem of the New Reformation. Will this rediscovered gospel be permitted to express itself in a systematic theology congruous with our modern culture, or will it again, as after the Lutheran Reformation, be forced back into the old wine-skin of ancient knowledge ? If the latter, there is no alternative but for history to repeat itself another period of ferment by the gospel in its hiding place, followed by a new bursting of its bonds some time in the future. If, on the other hand, the gospel can now express itself in a new and fitting dogmatic system, it will be free to enter upon a permanent conquest of the modern world a conquest of its intelli- H2 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT gence and determined energy, as well as of its feeling and impulsive activity. The movement for the recovery of the gospel is passing, if indeed it has not already passed, into a move- ment for its restatement. CHAPTER IV. THE RECOVERED GOSPEL OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. IT has been assumed in the foregoing pages that the gospel of Jesus was originally of a cer- tain character ; that it was a pistis rather than a gnosis, and so had to do most properly with man's religious nature. In a former chapter it has been shown what Christianity became within three centuries after the apostolic age. The ecclesiastical transformation therein described is all but universally admitted. The theological condition of things in the fourth century is now also too apparent to be longer disputed; Chris- tianity had become a gnosis. It remains only to ascertain whether it was such also in the begin- ning, or whether the assumption that at first it was a. pistis is well founded. I. ATTITUDE OF MODERN EXEGESIS TOWARD THE NEW TESTAMENT LITERATURE. By common consent the nature of primitive Christianity is to be determined from the New Testament, which, whatever else it may be, is conceded by all parties to be, at least in the main, the literature of the first age of Christianity. "3 H4 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT In turning now to the New Testament to answer the question, What was the original gos- pel? we today occupy a double vantage ground never before enjoyed. In the first place, the new study of church history, and the movement leading to the recovery of the Bible, as traced in the last chapter, bring us to the New Testament in a more intelligent and open-minded spirit, and equipped with a better exegetical method, than have characterized any other age. In the second place, due to the new historical perspective in Bible study, we turn now, not primarily to the epistles of Paul, as has generally been done in the past, but to the New Testament records of the life and teachings of Jesus ; and then to the other Bible writings as throwing new light upon these. Here we stand upon practically new ground, never before occupied since the New Testament canon was formed. By the time that was accomplished Christianity had already started on its theological course, and gave precedence to those parts of the Bible that were most easily assimilated to its uses. Hence the Greek theo- logians turned to the writings of John and the philosophical aspects of Paul's writings, while the Roman theologians found special delight in Paul's legal terminology. At the time of the Lutheran Reformation, also, it is significant that the return was rather to Paul's writings than to OF THE GOSPEL 115 the gospel narratives. Luther, instead of taking Jesus' idea of the forgiveness of sins as his dominating thought, made Paul's "justification by faith" the center of his system. Calvin, instead of putting new emphasis upon Jesus' conception of the fatherhood of God, adopted as the center of his system the absolute sovereignty of God, an idea traceable back through Augustine to Paul. From the Reformation this same tendency passed over into all the great Protestant systems of the- ology. The writings of Paul, rather than the teachings of Jesus, have dominated dogmatics all the way of its course. This in turn was justi- fied by a theory of inspiration which regarded the apostles as the infallible mouthpieces of the risen Christ, and so made their utterances his. A clearer understanding of New Testament times, and a more careful reading of the New Testament itself, show that this position is not tenable, and indeed is unscriptural. It places the apostles on the same footing as Christ, ascribing to them the same universality of comprehension and expression. No one who has entered at all deeply into the thought of the apostolic writers will deny for a moment their divine inspiration. But they are not as Christ. They have the same spirit, but not without measure. They were still human, with human limitations and prejudices, Christ spoke as knowing what was in man, and as n6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT possessing immediate knowledge of the Father's heart. The apostles, according to their own con- fession, saw through a glass darkly. Jesus somehow spoke a universal religious language, not only to his own age, but to all generations. He did not argue, nor attempt to express his thought in terms of traditional Jewish theol- ogy; he lived the truth in his own divine life, and succeeded as none other ever has in speaking as soul to soul with man. With the apostles it was different. Their mission was to their own gen- eration, and to us only as first to it. It was their avowed purpose to bring the gospel to bear upon the conditions immediately before them. They had no gospel of their own, but themselves took the gospel of Jesus, and by means of argument and illustration, drawn from current conceptions and conditions, sought to press it upon their con- temporaries. That is, the apostles were the first theologians and preachers of the church, and are the inspired examples for all future workers in the same field. Doing as they did, we also refuse to stop with them, but press back to the same gospel of Jesus to which they gave allegiance. For this reason the following exposition will be confined chiefly to the gospel narratives. This much, however, should be said : anyone who really works his way into apostolic thought becomes more and more convinced that the apostles OF THE GOSPEL 117 preached no new gospel, but grasped in all of its essential features the teaching of Him whom they served. The thing to be remembered is that their expression of this gospel does not partake of the same universal and permanent character as the gospel itself, for it was cast in the form it now has in order to meet special conditions. If this is borne in mind, the expression "the gospel of the New Testament" may be substituted for "the gospel of Jesus " throughout this discussion with- out change of meaning ; it being understood that no attempt is here made to prove the essential identity of the two. It is not necessary in this place to enter into a critical estimate of the four gospel narratives. It is assumed that the first three give a true im- pression of Jesus, together with a trustworthy ac- count of what he did and taught. It is also taken for granted that the fourth gospel, even though it may color the thought of Jesus by the reflection of the author, is still true to the spirit and sub- stance of the Master's teaching. These assump- tions, to say the least, are not in contradiction to the most assured conclusions of the critical inves- tigation of the subject. II. THE GOSPEL OF JESUS. No pretensions are made in the following pages to a scientific exposition of the gospel, but only to an indication of such of its charac- n8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT teristic features as bear upon the question of the original character of Christianity. The fundamental idea of the gospel of Jesus is that of salvation. It cannot be better expressed than in the classical passage: " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life." Jesus of Nazareth the mediator of salvation. Before his birth, Jesus was given a name which indicated the fact that he should save his people from their sins. At his nativity the angels announced the good tidings that a Savior was born. The aged saints waiting in the temple welcomed him as the Redeemer of Israel. These things, however, would not determine anything, if he himself had not made salvation his great task. This he did, both by word and by deed. "The whole need not a physician," said Jesus, "but the sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." He called himself the good shepherd, who watched over the sheep and protected them with his life. " I, if I be lifted up," he said, "will draw all men unto me." " God sent not his Son into the world to con- demn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." " I am come," he said again, "that they might have life, and that they might OF THE GOSPEL 119 have it more abundantly." Then there is that great utterance, spoken when he was trying to impress upon his disciples the inherent nobility of service: "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." And the solemn words at the Last Supper : "This is my body ; this is my blood which is shed for many." These were not idle words. His life proved their sincerity. He vindicated his claim to be the great Physician by healing the diseases of men, living with sinners, loving and helping them, even until it became a great scandal among the Pharisees. He identified himself so fully with men in their sufferings that the evangelist saw in his life the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy: " Himself took our infirmities and bare our sick- nesses." But all other proof of Jesus' claim to be the Savior of men is overshadowed by the convincing proof of the cross. Here he sealed his professions by actual death in behalf of man- kind. The world's sickness and sorrow and sin, which he bore through life, he bore unto the utmost limit in his death. While this central fact in the life of Jesus can- not be permitted to be buried under man-made theories of the atonement, yet it is also true that the gospel fact cannot be limited to what the eye can see. As Jesus hung upon the cross, all that izo RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT could be seen was a man dying between two other men. Fact means more than this. Who it was dying, and how he came to be dying, are a part of the fact. It cannot be denied that fact and theory here come so close together that the one easily passes into the other. The safest thing to do is to include in the permanent gospel fact of the person of Christ what he himself included. Even in the synoptic gospels Jesus represents himself as bearing a unique relation to God. God is pre-eminently his Father. He will con- fess men before his Father, who has delivered all things unto him and given him all au- thority in heaven and earth. " No one knoweth the Son save the Father, neither doth any know the Father save the Son, and he to whom- soever the Son willeth to reveal him." The Father has committed the judgment of the world unto the Son, who will come in his glory to accomplish it. Jesus knows himself to be the Christ, the chosen and anointed agent of the Father for setting up the kingdom of God among men. When we turn to the fourth gospel, this is made more distinct. The consciousness of his intimate union with the Father is so strong that it colors all his life. He everywhere refers to "my Father" as the one whose messenger he is. OF THE GOSPEL 121 He speaks not on his own authority, he does not his own works, he carries not out his own will; but he is sent of the Father, does his will and works, speaks the things he has seen and heard of him. He was with the Father in his glory before he came to earth, and goes again to be with him. He that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father. Indeed, he and the Father are one. It is this unique relationship to the Father that giyes character and value to the work of Jesus. Knowing God by immediate union, he could make him known as the Father of men. Having personally experienced the Father's in- finite love, he could express it to the world in his own person. Understanding God's deadly antagonism to sin, he could teach men its real nature by resisting it even unto death, and causing it there to reveal its incarnate essence. The gospel records leave no doubt of the fact that Jesus regarded himself as the self-revelation of God. John gives the thought in his prologue by saying that he was the Word of God incar- nate God's expression of himself in humanity. Jesus claims to have for men the religious value of God. It is through him that we have our most treasured knowledge of God and come into communion with him. This claim of Jesus is pre- sented everywhere throughout the New Testa- 122 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT ment; and, it may be added, is abundantly veri- fied in human experience. This relationship to God is the gospel fact concerning the person of Jesus that makes the salvation which he brings to men a real salvation. God the Heavenly Father the Author of salvation. The gospel presents a new idea of God. He is not only a God of holiness and justice, but also of boundless love; not a God who loves Jews alone, nor the good alone, but whose love is all-inclusive, as extensive as humanity itself. Whether or not Jesus taught that God is the Father of all men, he certainly taught that he has a Father's love and care for all. It was God's love that led to Christ's mission of salvation : " God so loved the world that he gave his Son." As Paul puts it : " God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God is forever working to reclaim the lost world ; his love streams out con- stantly as the warm rays of the sun. He showers blessings upon the just and the unjust, that he may do them good. His thought for men is good and only good ; if there is any failure to receive eternal blessedness, it will be through man's sin, not by God's wish. With Jesus the cross is thus the manifestation of the Father's deathless love, rather than the satisfaction of the justice of a OF THE GOSPEL 123 wrathful God. This may not be Calvinism, but it is the message of Jesus nevertheless. The nature and conditions of salvation. This salvation, of which God is the author and Jesus the mediator, is presented in a somewhat different aspect in the synoptic gospels from that in the fourth gospel ; the former representing it as the kingdom of God, and the latter as eternal life. A closer examination, however, shows this to be a formal rather than a material difference. I. Salvation as the kingdom of God. The idea of the kingdom of God was not a new one. Israel theoretically constituted such a kingdom, both during the theocracy, when God was re- garded as the nation's ruler, and during the mon- archy, when the king was God's earthly vice- gerent. The Jews of later ages looked back longingly to the kingdom of David as the ideal condition to be reproduced under the coming Messianic reign. Jesus adopted this national hope of the kingdom, and made it the central thought of his preaching. He began with the proclamation : " Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." He went throughout the cities and villages preaching the kingdom of God during his entire ministry. He directed his disciples to preach the same theme. And during the forty days after his resurrection " he was speaking the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." 124 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT But while Jesus chose this national hope as the form into which he cast his message, he filled it with new meaning and wholly changed its char- acter. It is not necessary to discuss here the Jewish expectations concerning the kingdom. Their essentially materialistic character in the times of Christ is well known. On the other hand, he gave to the idea a clearly marked spiritual mean- ing. When the Pharisees came asking him when the kingdom of God should appear, he answered, " The kingdom of God cometh not with observa- tion ; neither shall they say, Lo here! or lo there! for behold the kingdom of God is within you," or " in the midst of you." The kingdom, that is, is a spiritual kingdom, not coming with worldly pomp and force, but already present in unseen spiritual power. It is the sovereign rule of God in the lives of men, both as individuals and as related to each other. All those who enter into the kingdom, there- fore, must turn from their old life and be of a new spiritual temper. " Repent, and believe the gos- pel," says Jesus. " Except ye turn and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." " Blessed are the meek, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." As men enter the kingdom by the exercise of repentance and faith, God meets them with the forgiveness of their sins, dispelling their fear of OF THE GOSPEL 125 him, and drawing them into personal fellowship with himself. This salvation into the kingdom thus involves a new life of communion with God. It is a life of trust, in which men cease to trouble themselves overmuch with anxiety about food and raiment and the evils of the morrow, but strive to do their Father's will first of all, and leave themselves in his care. The sovereignty in the kingdom is a " paternal sovereignty," in which the king is a loving Father, looking after the best interests of each child. While God is supreme in the kingdom, as lov- ing, forgiving, and sustaining Father, he makes his will known through Christ, the Savior, Mas- ter, and Friend, to whom immediate allegiance is due. Every man who enters is to deny himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus. This is not a mechanical matter. Jesus has adopted as his own the law of the kingdom, and fulfilled it in his own life, even unto crucifixion. Everyone who would enter must adopt the same law and fulfil it in the same way. The law of the king- dom is love not love along with other laws, but love as the all-inclusive principle of life which fulfils all other laws. " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and the prophets." And at the end of the ministry it was the same as at the beginning. In those last days at Jerusalem 126 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT Jesus answered the lawyer : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- self. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law and the prophets." Nor is this law of love to govern the subject's relations with his friends alone. He is to love his enemies, bless those that curse him, do good to those that hate him, and pray for those that despitefully use him and persecute him. Toward friend and enemy alike the spirit of kindliness is to rule. This love, moreover, is not to remain an unex- pressed benevolent impulse, but is to take form in word and deed. The cup of cold water is to be given, the naked clothed, the sick and unfor- tunate visited, the sorrowing comforted. " Who- soever shall lose Jiis life for my sake and the gospel's, shall find it." Paul sums it up in the spirit of the Master when he says : " Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." Salvation in the kingdom necessitates the overcoming of sin and the living of lives of purity and holiness. The law of love necessarily must overcome the law of selfishness, which Jesus everywhere presents as the essence of sin. The greatest sin is lack of love. Hence as men come OF THE GOSPEL 127 more and more under the dominion of the law of the kingdom they must grow in holiness. " Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," is the divine ideal ever leading the king's subjects on to holier living. Sin has no place in the king- dom. If it enters it is an element of discord and must be thrust out. Nor is holiness mere passive or negative goodness, but active and energetic righteousness. This is one of the remarkable things about Jesus' idea of goodness. It is the very opposite of stoicism and asceticism. It in- vites men to enter into life's activities and con- quer evil by overcoming it with good. Sin is not the doing of evil so much as the failure to do the good. Virtue is not the absence of the wrong so much as the existence and activity of positive goodness. In the kingdom of God sin is to give place to this kind of holiness. The new life in the kingdom of God begins here in this world; that is, the kingdom of God is a present kingdom. It already "is among you." In the days of Jesus the kingdom was es- tablished in the world, when through him God began to exercise his sovereign rule over in- dividual hearts. But this was not all of the kingdom. It was to extend its sway both indi- vidually and socially. Like the leaven, the new law of the kingdom was to permeate more and more the life of the individual who had felt its 128 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT power, until he came completely under its con- trol, and sin gave place to holiness as selfish- ness gave way before the new divine altruism. This may not be fully accomplished in the earth- ly life ; indeed, it probably will not be. And so there is in store for the individual subject of the kingdom a glorious consummation in the future, wherein his longings and strivings shall be real- ized. Some time, somewhere, they that hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. But the thought of Jesus seems also to antici- pate the leavening extension of the kingdom's law into the social life of the world. Beginning with individual subjects, and always preserving the individual dignity and the individual relation- ship between Son and Father, the kingdom also includes the relation of individuals to each other, and the penetration of the divine sovereignty into their collective life. It therefore involves a new society, whose laws are fair deductions of the great law of the kingdom, and whose institutions are just expressions of its spirit. Jesus did not say much about how this should be accomplished. There are the two parables of the leaven and the mustard seed which directly teach it. But more than that, it seems to be involved in all his teach- ing concerning the relation of the subjects of the kingdom to God and to each other. Supreme love to God, and a love to others equal to love OF THE GOSPEL 129 for self, necessarily must in time find expression in congenial social institutions. It can hardly be doubted that Jesus looked forward to the course of history as the scene of this conflict between the old world-kingdom and the new divine king- dom which he had established ; a conflict in which his kingdom should be progressively victorious until its final glorious consummation, represented by his return in the glory of the Father to an un- disputed reign. 2. Salvation as eternal life. Turning from the synoptics to the fourth gospel, we do not find a different message, but an entirely new form of expression. Whether this is due to John's own reflection and personal coloring, or whether Jesus used both forms, the synoptists mainly following one and John the other, is a matter of conjecture. However that may be, it is sur- prising how impossible one finds it to express the teachings of John's gospel under the catego- ries derived from an analysis of the first three gospels. A wholly different terminology has to be used. But it is even more surprising how little real change is found in the gospel mes- sage presented in these two forms. The shell seems to fall away in both cases and leave the same kernel of divine truth manifest in clearest light. The gospel of salvation which the synoptists 130 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT present under the form of the kingdom of God John presents as eternal life. That which the synoptists hint at is here clear- ly expressed that man must undergo a spiritual birth and emerge into spiritual life if he would see God. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. This spiritual birth is conditioned by the same requirements that the synoptists give for entrance into the kingdom, and this is doubtless one cause of the similarity of thought between the two. These conditions are repentance (a turning from sin) and faith in Christ (loving confidence and trust in him, together with the will to obey him). Upon the fulfilment of these conditions the Father forgives men their sins, gives them power to become sons of God, and grants to them eter- nal life. Here is brought out more clearly, also, what it is that man is saved from : sin and death and the wrath of God. This does not need to be en- larged upon, as the same teaching is found in the synoptists. But naturally an emphasis of the gos- pel as life and light brings out more clearly the shadows of death. We likewise see with greater distinctness what it is that man is saved unto : a life of light and of blessed union and fellowship with God. " I will not leave you comfortless," says Jesus, "I will OF THE GOSPEL 131 come to you." "If a man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." "Abide in me, and I in you." "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Life and light are the great gifts of God to those who fulfil the condi- tions of their bestowal through Jesus Christ. This new divine life must be sustained by continued loyal fellowship with Christ, who is the bread of life ; a communion whose continuance is rendered possible after his departure by his return in the Spirit to dwell within his people as comforter, strengthener, and guide. A man thus born of the Spirit, and living in the Spirit, has eternal life. He has it now : " He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life." There is not so much said about the present and future in John's gospel. They seem to disappear as Christ leads us out into the eternal verities where time is not. The man who through faith in Christ is brought into a permanent relation to God in the realm of spiritual life comes into an environment where the conditions of eternal life are already present. He is in vital touch with those mighty spiritual forces which are as strong and enduring as God himself. He is taken up by God into his own life, without losing his own individu- ality ; rather he there first finds it completely. 132 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT John does not show, as the synoptists do, how this life is to come into organic relations with the world, and constitute a kingdom, but deals with it in its inner, spiritual, eternal conditions. The atmosphere is more distinctively religious as contrasted with moral. He gives the spirit and essence of religion as taught by Christ, without attempting to give it a local habitation and a name. But it is the same gospel of salvation, here brought out with startling clearness and beauty. III. CONCLUSIONS. It now remains to consider the bearing of this New Testament idea of Christianity upon the question of the obscuration of the gospel, with which we have been concerned. Was the later dogmatic development the legitimate unfolding of this gospel, or a transformation of it? I. The New Testament narratives set forth the gospel under the two aspects of the kingdom of God and eternal life. From this fact several things are obvious. In the first place, the gospel message is thus better understood. Language is a means to an end. The end sought is the con- veyance of truth. But language is an inadequate means of communication, and hence a truth presented in only one form is subject to more misconception than when expressed in several ways. Without question the dual form in which OF THE GOSPEL 133 the gospel has come down to us makes its mean- ing clearer. Again, it is evident even here that the gospel is not to be identified with, or confined to, any one form of expression. It would seem as if in the very beginning Jesus sought to guard against that error. And if the gospel cannot be identi- fied with any one form of expression even as taught by Christ, much less should we feel bound by the more local form in which Paul set it forth; and still less by the expression given to it by theo- logians and councils who formulated their state- ments in the midst of passionate controversy, in times remote from Bible days, surrounded by an alien culture, and often with no clear concep- tion of the essential gospel message. But of still greater importance than either of these is the further consideration that the termi- nology which Jesus used is best adapted to express the real nature of the gospel clearly and universally. The two forms of expression that he adopted are marked by especial richness, and bring the gospel into touch with all life. It is significant that he did not use the philosophical language of formal thought, nor the legal termi- nology of his day, nor the speech of contempo- rary literary and scientific culture, but the two categories of life and a paternal kingdom. The terms of life are as universal as the human 134 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT race, and are full of the wealth of meaning that pertains to life in all of its manifoldness. Perhaps we might say that Christianity is life the only true life. Even under the guise of the kingdom of God, the gospel appears as life in the kingdom. The adoption of this terminology for the procla- mation of the gospel, therefore, brings to light its inner nature as a vital union of the spiritual man with the universal Spirit, and makes this conception everywhere intelligible. But this is not all of the gospel. Religion, at least the Christian religion, is not adequately defined by calling it the life of the soul in com- munion with God. It has earthly relationships and everyday duties. In expressing these also Jesus chose a terminology at once universal and fitted to manifest clearly their character. He took the mingled concepts of the family and the kingdom. Everywhere there is some sort of community life under one or both of these aspects ; and this renders universally intelligible the social teachings of the gospel as set forth by Jesus. Thus wherever the gospel goes the concep- tions are already prepared for teaching it in its original form of statement and for teaching it in the most practical way, by bringing it into imme- diate touch with those phases of life which it must most influence if it remains true to its mission. OF THE GOSPEL 135 2. But back of terminology, the foregoing exposition settles the more important .question of the true nature of the gospel of Jesus, and makes it certain that this is not chiefly a matter of knowledge. The conclusions reached in chap, ii, based upon the assumption that the original gospel was a religious message, are now proved to be true by an examination of the New Testa- ment itself. In this new light they may well be reviewed and reinforced here. That the New Testament gospel was pri- marily a religious message will be apparent from a consideration of the two conditions of salvation on the human side repentance and faith. It is here evident, without question, that Chris- tianity is not divorced from knowledge. Repent- ance is primarily a change of mind. There is a new way of thinking. Faith, likewise, is based upon an intellectual conviction that Jesus is what he claims to be, and that what he says is trust- worthy. But this is not all there is to repentance and faith, nor the chief part. The change of mind in repentance is a change respecting moral issues a changed attitude toward God, a forsaking of sin, a new ideal of living. It necessarily involves, therefore, an incidental change of feeling and a fundamental change of will. To repent, in the New Testament sense, is to turn one's whole nature, in- 136 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT tellectual, emotional, and volitional, away from sin, toward righteousness and God. So also faith is chiefly a religious rather than an intellectual act. While the mind must be sufficiently satisfied to give it confidence, yet there remains a distinc- tively religious act of trust upon the basis of this confidence, and a moral act of obedience upon the basis of the confidence and trust ; the whole colored by a feeling of joy at a course of life in line with the dictates of conscience. All of this is involved in New Testament faith. It is therefore an act of the entire religious nature a resting in confident trust upon God as revealed by Jesus Christ, and a joyful willingness to do his will. The object of faith, moreover, is also reli- gious in character, being either Christ or God or the gospel. Faith is sometimes directed toward one of these, and sometimes toward another. Eventually it includes them all. But Christian faith has to do with these things as Christ rep- resents them, and that is invariably as religious objects. God, according to Jesus, is not so much a metaphysical being, to be intellectually be- lieved in, as he is the heavenly Father who cares for his children and would save them from the blight and curse of sin, and who is therefore to be trusted and loved. Jesus presents him- self as the object of faith, not in the character OF THE GOSPEL 137 of a metaphysical Christology, founded upon the Greek doctrine of the Logos, but as a personal sympathizing human and divine Savior, clothed with the authority and saving power of God. We are saved by faith in Christ, not by belief in Christology. The other object of faith, the gos- pel, Jesus always represents as a message of sal- vation, not as a theory of salvation elaborated into a theological creed. The gospel message is, in a sentence, that God still loves men, and is both willing and able to forgive their sins and save them from sin, as soon as they make it possible for him to do so by repenting and returning to him through his Son Jesus Christ, whom he has sent into the world as his anointed representative. This is a religious message. It does not depend for its value upon being expressed in an intellectual creed which shall give a true explanation of how salvation is ac- complished. It lies back of all theories, in the very nature of God and man and sin, and has been wrought into the historical life of the world by the earthly work of Jesus. Man's theory about it may legitimately be presented in a theology ; but that theology is not the gospel message itself, and hence not the object of faith. This religious and moral character of the object of faith reacts, in turn, upon the act of faith, making even the intellectual element therein con- 138 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT tained belong to the jurisdiction of the conscience, rather than of the speculative reason. Both the nature of repentance and the nature and objects of faith, therefore, make it evident that the gospel is addressed primarily to man's religious and moral nature, and so belongs most distinctively to the realm of the conscience, the feeling, and the will. This fact is still further established by other teachings of Jesus. In John 7:17 Jesus says: "If any man willeth to do his [God's] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak from myself." In John 8 : 31, 32, he says : "If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples ; and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." In both of these passages the truth of the gospel is declared to be that which is known by obedience. Now, what kind of truth can be so known : scientific truth, such as a knowledge of whether the sun revolves around the earth, or of how many ages the earth required to reach its present geological condition ; philosophical truth, such as will satisfy one with reference to the validity of the doctrine of evolution ; historical truth, that will establish the facts concerning the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch ; theological truth, that will settle the questions of the Trini- OF THE GOSPEL 139 ty, the infallibility of Scripture, and the doc- trine of the atonement ? Everyone knows that Jesus had in mind no such questions of scientific and speculative import. Truth does not belong exclusively to the intellectual realm. The high- est truth does not belong there. Without ques- tion Jesus refers to what we may call life-truth, or religious truth truth that clarifies the con- science, quickens the sympathies, directs and strengthens the will ; the kind of truth that has to do with the consciousness of sin, repentance of sin, trust in God, and freedom from sin. Indeed, that is what he goes on to say : "The truth shall make you free ; " it being plain from the suc- ceeding discussion that he means free from sin. This kind of truth cannot be known by a purely intellectual act, but can be appropriated only by the whole rational, religious, and moral nature of man. No intellectual acceptance of a body of knowledge can make a man free from sin ; but only the activity of the will, whereby he works himself progressively free from sin in a life of obedience to moral truth, which, in turn, he progressively apprehends by loving loyalty to Christ, through whom, again, God enters into his life to help. Christ everywhere emphasizes this. "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that 140 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." In ending the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says : " He that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them " shall be secure. Again he says : " If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." In the judgment scene recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, Christ pronounces sentence on the ground of what is done and left undone. This has always been a great grief to theology, which pronounces judgment on the basis of what is believed or disbelieved. But theology here has unquestion- ably departed from Christ. However we may try to get around it, and make salvation a matter of intellectual belief, Jesus universally presents it as due to an activity of the will toward God and the right, which God responds to with the power that guarantees success. There is no real salvation except a practical moral and religious freedom from sin, won through the truth, in the sphere of actual life. This, of course, does not deny God's co-operation and Christ's atonement, but rather is based upon these. Nor does it deny the saving efficacy of faith; but proves that faith and belief, in the sense in which the latter has come to be used, are not synonymous. Paul sums up the whole matter in the spirit of the OF THE GOSPEL 141 Master when he says: "Work out your own sal- vation with fear and trembling ; for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure." In another place Jesus declares himself to be the way, the truth, and the life. No man com- eth unto the Father but by him. The kind of truth that could be incarnated in Jesus is the distinctive truth of the gospel. Instances might be multiplied, but it is unnecessary. From what has already been said it is sufficiently evident that Jesus regarded his gospel as primarily a religious message, rather than as a new body of intellectual knowledge. If we turn now from the words of Jesus to the apostolic writings, we find the same teach- ing concerning this matter. Paul writes to the church at Corinth: "And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, pro- claiming unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power : that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 142 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT "Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth : comparing spiritual things with spiritual." " The word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness ; but unto us who are being saved it is the power of God." "Where is the wise ? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world ? For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching [Greek, 'the thing preached'] to save them that be- lieve. Greeks seek after wisdom : but we preach Christ crucified, unto gentiles foolishness, but unto them that are called, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." "Christ sent me, to preach the gospel : not in wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void." Again, writing to Timothy, after warning him to avoid profitless discussions, Paul says: "The firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his : and, Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness." And in writing to Titus he gives explicitly the things that he regards as befitting sound doctrine : That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. He goes on to give OF THE GOSPEL 143 other similar directions, ending with the ex- hortation to look for the blessed hope of the appearing of Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify us unto himself. These are the things that Titus is to teach and exhort. The conception of what constitutes gospel truth is evident. In his won- derful eulogy of love in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, Paul says : " Love never fail- eth : whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away; for we know in part. Now abideth faith, hope, love." He surely did not regard the essence of the gospel as consisting in that which he declared to be partial and transitory. It was to be sought rather in the permanent qualities of religious truth. From these passages, and many others, it is clear that Paul, in spite of the fact that he began the dogmatic process by explaining the gospel of Jesus to the existing thought of his day, did not regard the gospel as being a theological body of knowledge, but as a salvation from sin, or a new way of righteousuess, through the power of God, appropriated by the faith of man. Not knowledge, but faith, saves a man. And with Paul, as with Christ, faith is a matter of the whole moral and religious nature, including confidence and trust in Christ, love for him, and the practi- cal activity of the will in loyalty to him. 144 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT In the other New Testament writers we find some very instructive passages in corroboration of this position. John gives two remarkable definitions of God. Recall for a moment the Nicene idea of God, with its metaphysical subject-matter and philo- sophical terminology. Recall the history of the doctrine of God down through the centuries, with its wearisome speculative discussions of a meta- physical essence. Then turn back to John and read his two great declarations: "God is light;" "God is love." We come into an entirely differ- ent atmosphere. While not needing to deny that there is a metaphysical truth about God, we realize that the highest and most important truth concerning him is of a religious kind. Light and love cannot be known by intellectual processes ; only the theory of them can be so understood. But that is comparatively a small matter. The man who is truly orthodox in his treatment of light and love is not he who accepts a given scientific theory concerning them, but he who takes a right attitude toward them in his living, and uses them as he ought. No more can the Christian God be known through intellectual processes. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Here also the truly orthodox man is not the one who subscribes to a given theological theory of God, but the one who takes a right attitude toward OF THE GOSPEL 145 him, and lives as he ought in view of the fact that there is such a God. The church has no right to make orthodoxy depend upon a given intellectual theory of God, such, for instance, as the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity, however true it may be. According to the New Testament, God is pre-eminently an ethical being; orthodoxy is primarily a matter of right relationships with him. In another place John says: "This is the vic- tory that overcometh the world, even our faith" not knowledge, but faith. One knowledge might succeed another forever and the world remain un- conquered, because knowledge does not possess overcoming power. Such power pertains only to faith. In similar spirit, Jude exhorts "to con- tend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints." And even if the expression "the faith" is here used to desig- nate the whole body of apostolic teaching, it still is distinctively a faith and not a system of theological knowledge. It was not called "the faith" in apostolic times without good reason. The meaning is plain from the first part of the verse : "While I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend ear- nestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints." Jude is talking about the kind 146 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT of faith that has to do with the "common salva- tion." The latter part of this passage is often quoted in defense of a theological system that came into existence centuries afterward. Rightly used, it condemns the pretensions of that theology to be a necessary part of the gospel, both because the system is a knowledge rather than a faith, and because it was not once for all delivered unto the saints by Christ, but was worked out by a later set of saints on their own responsibility. It is the New Testament faith that is to be con- tended for the faith upon which depends "our common salvation." The whole New Testament, therefore, is in per- fect agreement that the gospel is not a new body of knowledge constituting a revealed philosophy. There is without doubt theological material within the New Testament itself, and likewise theological speculation. But there is not nearly so much "theology," nor is it so "systematic" as has often been assumed ; most of it has been read back into the book from later days; and what little theological speculation there is, is marked by a different spirit and aim from that of later times it is always made subservient to practical religion. In the main, the New Testament con- tents itself with presenting the Christian facts, and ethical deductions from those facts. This is what it means by " doctrine ; " that is, " teaching." OF THE GOSPEL 147 It makes little or no attempt to explain the Christian facts by a coherent theory, as is done by theology, properly so called. It is everywhere a book of religion, and consistently presents the gospel throughout as a new religious and moral salvation. Now the later dogmatic development trans- ferred the gospel from this religious domain of the conscience and the will to the realm of the speculative reason ; or, to say the very least that can be said, it came so near doing this that it changed the former proportion, vastly overem- phasized the speculative intellectual aspects of truth at the cost of those having to do with the conscience and the will, and thereby fundamen- tally obscured the essential nature of the gospel and changed the whole course of its history in the world. The claim that this development is neces- sary for the completeness of Christianity, or even that it is the legitimate continuation of the gospel, is entirely without foundation, and is contrary to reason. The gospel was com- plete as it left the lips of its divine Founder. It is a strange conception of Jesus that holds otherwise. He knew what his message was, and he preached it, and preached all of it. The later theological process, instead of being the logical and necessary continuation of that gospel, was a 148 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT distinct change from the language of life used by Jesus to the language of formal philosophical thought which he avoided as being inadequate for his purposes. The expression of the gospel in this language is not, and cannot be, so com- plete and satisfactory as was its presentation in the rich and universal language of life that Jesus chose. The terms of thought change with men's changing apprehension of truth ; the terms of life remain essentially the same from age to age. Thought is only a part of man ; life includes all of his interests it takes in his thinking and feel- ing and willing, and everything connected with his entire being and activity. How instinct with life is the gospel as Jesus preached it! There are the birds of the air and the growing lilies ; the ever-living springs and the waving grain ; the faithful shepherd careful for his flock, and the hus- bandman solicitous for his crops ; the wayward son, and the grief-stricken father ; the awakening conscience and the developing will ; deadliest hate and tenderest love. Jesus' gospel pulsates with life and life's manifold interests. To turn from this and identify the gospel with thought, or even to express it exclusively or chiefly in terms of thought, is fatally to restrict it and remove it from its most legitimate and influential realm of operation. While not di- vorced from speculative truth in its proper place OF THE GOSPEL 149 and proportion, the gospel nevertheless is chiefly concerned with that religious truth which has to do with the mighty forces of right and wrong that govern the destiny of the world, and upon a man's practical attitude toward which his own destiny depends. Thus the answer to the question, What is the original gospel in its essential nature ? is clear and emphatic. The gospel is not confined within an earthly institution guarded by a privileged priest- hood, upon which men are dependent for salva- tion, nor is it a theological body of knowledge, to be intellectually subscribed to. To be a Chris- tian does not mean, nor involve, the acceptance of the extra-biblical dogmatics of the church, with its included elements of an obsolete culture. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, mediated by Jesus Christ ; a salvation addressed to man's whole nature, and claiming jurisdiction over his entire life. To be a Christian is for a man so to turn from sin and surrender himself to Jesus Christ in confident trust and loyal allegiance that Christ can bring him into vital touch with the forces of spiritual life that have their source in God, and so assure to him the blessings of salva- tion. This is the recovered gospel of the New Testament. PART II THE RESTATEMENT OF THE GOSPEL CHAPTER I. THE GOSPEL AND THEOLOGY. HITHERTO the discussion has hinged upon the question of the true nature of the gospel. We have seen how Christianity suffered a radical eclipse during the first centuries of its historical development by the change of its dominating principle from faith to knowledge, which removed it from the religious realm to the sphere of speculative philosophy. We have also seen how the original gospel has been recovered by a historical movement still in progress, in which the modern reality-loving spirit has returned to the New Testament as it was written, freed from the dogmatic system read back into it from the later development. What the gospel of Jesus is ought by this time to be unmis- takably clear : it is a salvation from sin, medi- ated from God to men by Jesus Christ, and expressing itself in a new divine life of faith, dominated by the law of love. The first part of our task is completed with this rediscovery of the real nature of the gospel. The further problem of the restatement of this gospel in such terms as will appeal to modern 154 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT thought and at the same time do justice to the gospel itself now requires attention. Inasmuch as the eclipse of the gospel was intimately connected with its theological state- ment, it has seemed to be helpful in the forego- ing treatment, if not indeed absolutely necessary, to consider somewhat the relations of the gospel and theology. It is worth while, however, to gather up the fragments that have been scattered here and there, and to discuss more fully and system- atically this important subject, even though it may involve some repetition of what has already been said. The preliminary questions con- nected with the relation of the gospel to theology will be considered in this chapter, leaving the subsequent one for a suggested theological restatement. I. THE NATURE OF THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT. "Theology" and "Christianity" are not syn- onymous terms, unless "Christianity" is used in the sense of the historical system existing in a given age. At any rate "theology" and "the gospel" are not synonymous. The gospel is primary ; theology is secondary. The gospel is not a theory, nor a thotight, but a life and an experience. As such it is related both to God and to men, affects all human interests, and per- meates every department of human activity. OF THE GOSPEL 155 Theology is only the theory of this gospel-life its expression in terms of thought, and for thought purposes. Christian theology is there- fore the science of the gospel of Jesus. It is here as in the realm of nature. The independent, already existing world of life is primary, and the science of biology is the attempt to discover its laws and express them for the use of man's intelligence. In the re- ligious realm the divine life in and through Jesus Christ is the primary reality, given by God ; and the science of theology seeks to dis- cover its nature, laws, presuppositions, and re- sults, and then to express these in terms of systematic thought. Biology is not natural life ; theology is not spiritual life. Life, both natural and spiritual, is independent of the science of life. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth : so is everyone that is born" whether of nature or of the Spirit. Life is here, coming from regions beyond man's vision. By faith we say it comes from God. But it is independent of man; his science of it can neither create nor destroy it. The most and best that he can do is to take it as it is, observe the laws of its operation, and put himself into harmony with them. In this way he may add to the sum of his own life, by enjoying it in 156 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT greater fulness and perfection. He may even learn enough of its real nature to understand something of its mysterious past and to prophesy its future. But that is all : man, in his thought, can only follow on to understand the life which God himself has created. This is as true in re- ligion as it is in nature. Theology is neither more nor less than the science of the Christian life, the spiritual life of God which was ex- pressed in Christ Jesus, and through him to men and in men. Here theology finds its subject- matter, and beyond this, with its necessary prem- ises and conclusions, it may not go. From these considerations it is evident that the first duty of theology is the explication of the Christian faith, and not of something outside of that faith. To this faith it must not add, from this faith it dare not subtract ; its sole business is to set it forth clearly in terms intelligible to thought. Theology is not the proud mistress of all the sciences ; it is only the humble servant of the Christian religion. It will do well to curtail its ancient pretensions and give its energies to its own great field of work. It is not the business of theology to formulate a philosophy of heaven and earth, except so far as this is involved in the Christian faith. That faith can live side by side with many systems of philosophy. Some it must doubtless exclude, because they involve teachings OF THE GOSPEL 157 antagonistic to its own fundamental principles ; but it does not need to confine itself to any one philosophical system. Theology has fulfilled its mission when it has done justice to the gos- pel of Jesus Christ by setting it forth honestly and clearly in a systematic form, according to the best light of the age in which and to which it speaks. While the Christian faith itself forms the subject-matter of theology, this involves presup- positions and produces results which are of great importance in the thought-relations of the gos- pel. These also it is the duty of systematic the- ology to elucidate. Given the historical Jesus, his life and teachings, how must we of neces- sity think of this Jesus in order to account for his influence in the world? What manner of man was he ? What relation does he sustain to God and to the world ? We know of Jesus chiefly through the New Testament writings. How are we to regard these ? What is their relation to the Old Testament ? Just how does the Bible stand related to Christianity ? Jesus told of God. How must we think of God in order to do justice to Jesus' thought? Then there is man himself; what kind of a being is he, in the light of Christ's relation to human nature, and his redemptive work? These ques- tions take us into the thick of the world's intel- 158 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT lectual battle. Someone has said that the com- ing conflict of Christianity is to be along the line of the Christian presuppositions. Whether this is true or not, theology certainly must deal with these questions. It should be remembered, however, that they are always to be treated in the light of the Christian facts, not for outside speculative purposes. Given the gospel facts, what made them possible ? Theology must not depart here from the historical foundations of Christianity. Christianity involves likewise certain conse- quences for the individual, for the church, and for the world consequences not directly explained in the gospel message itself. A long course of history has produced results due di- rectly or indirectly to the gospel. How are we to regard these in the light of the Christian facts ? What new light do they shed upon the nature of the gospel ? Much that was vague and uncertain at the beginning has been made plain by the in- terpretation of history. We cannot, if we would, go back to the gospel exactly as it was in the first century. It is absolutely necessary for us to take it now in the light of its historical life in the world. Theology must reckon with these consequences of the Christian faith and give to them their valuation. Here again, in the presuppositions and conse- OF THE GOSPEL 159 quences of the Christian faith, we see the need of distinguishing between the gospel and theolo- gy. Salvation does not depend upon the solu- tion of these questions. They affect only the intellectual aspects of the matter, and have chiefly an apologetic value. The solution reached in one age may be entirely unsatisfactory to the thought of another. The conclusions of any age are tentative and partial. These speculative de- ductions should not be bound upon the gospel with adamantine fetters. Men ought to be left free to accept the gospel salvation and to reject any or all human explanations of its presupposi- tions and consequences. II. THE VALUE OF THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT. We are now ready to ask : What is the value of theology ? i. That question can best be answered by first considering what value it does not possess. The- ology cannot save sinners. This is evident from its nature as the science of Christian life. The- ology can produce spiritual life no more than biology can produce natural life. Spiritual life is the gift of God : ye must be born from above, of the Spirit. The most that theology can do is, by setting forth the laws of life, to make plain the conditions upon which God bestows this su- preme gift. It cannot give men power to comply 160 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT with those conditions, nor furnish the motive for doing so. This leads, although perhaps somewhat as a digression here, to important considerations con- cerning how Christianity is to be propagated. It is a mistake to suppose that this is to be done chiefly by the preaching of theology. Theology at best is man's wisdom. And it is as true today as in Paul's time that "preaching should not be in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Theology is only the expression of the gospel to the intellectual part of man, while the gospel itself more truly appeals to the conscience and the will. So it happens that a man might preach theology for years and really preach very little gospel, at most only its intellectual aspects. In a recent criticism of new theology it was declared that, if the old theology was to be given up, preaching would have to cease until the new theology was worked out; that ministers would meantime have to "remain in theological quarantine." "What are our progressive preachers meanwhile to preach?" is asked with solicitude. There is no difficulty in answering that question, if we discriminate properly, and realize that theology, old or new, is not Christianity, but merely somebody's OF THE GOSPEL 161 attempted explanation of it, and therefore has no saving power. If the explanation of a past age has ceased to be satisfactory to these min- isters, let them leave theology out for a time, while it is undergoing repairs, and preach New Testament Christianity. Possibly the church may not be the loser by the change. At least we have good precedent in that early period of Christianity before the rise of systems of theology, when the church was so marvelously successful in its work of evangelization. Great revivals are not due to an infallible theology in which the preacher feels unshaken confidence, but to a faithful and confident preaching of Jesus Christ, and to the power of the Holy Spirit. Where these conditions are met revivals have come in spite of poor theology quite as often, perhaps, as by the aid of good theology. Effective preaching is, indeed, impossible with- out positive belief. But this positive belief must be conviction of the truth of the great New Testament Christian realities, not conviction that the current theological explanation of them is right. Thus a man's theology may be "in quarantine," and ought to be when it is sick, while at the same time he can keep on preach- ing Christianity with unshaken confidence, and perhaps with even increased effectiveness. Life is not begotten by theory, but by life. The gospel is to extend its sway by embodying itself in forms of life, and so bringing its power to bear upon the lives of men. It was thus that Jesus preached it, and every successful preacher must follow him in this. The gospel must take possession of the preacher himself, of all Chris- tians, indeed, set them on fire with the divine Spirit, and so put them into living touch with men. "Ye are my epistles, known and read of all men." The world will never be saved by theology, but only by the Christ-life reincar- nated in loyal disciples, who live out the Master's principles of unselfish love. Here is brought to light one great weakness of Protestantism : it puts undue emphasis upon theology. The public services of the church are of such a nature that, unless constant and intelligent care is exercised, the religious proc- lamation of the gospel degenerates into the intellectual presentation of Christian thought. The tendency for both preacher and listener is to be satisfied when the thought is pleasingly set forth and clearly understood. Even if Prot- estantism had a doctrinal system that did any kind of justice to the gospel, still this funda- mental difficulty would remain. The question is not wholly one of a true or a false theology, but the more fundamental question of trying to save the world by theology at all, by that which in OF THE GOSPEL 163 its very nature appeals to only one part of man, and that the part least characteristically belonging to his religious life. Too often the Protestant rule has been a maximum of theology and a minimum of sympathy. What is needed for the conver- sion of the world is a maximum of sympathy with just enough theology to direct it intelli- gently. There is room for doubt whether the theological salvation of Protestantism is much better than the churchly salvation of Catholi- cism. A man can have an orthodox creed and remain unchristian, as truly as he can belong to the Roman Catholic church and still be un- Christlike. There are signs of a better condition of things in the Protestant world. A clearer conception of the true nature of the gospel is making itself felt in less theological and more evangelical preach- ing. Moreover, Christianity is in much more vital touch with the world's life than it was fifty years ago. Protestantism is beginning to realize that the separation of church and state ought not to mean the divorce of religion and civic affairs ; that Christianity must embody itself in the indi- vidual, social, and institutional life of an age, if it is to exercise its greatest influence. The early removal of the gospel from the realm of life to that of thought is the chief reason for the slow progress that the kingdom of God has made in 1 64 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT the world. It was due to this transformation that when Catholicism finally succeeded in conquering the secular world it was not the gospel of Jesus, but something else, that had triumphed. The Catholic idea that Christianity ought to dominate the organic life of society is right. The trouble with Catholicism has been its adulterated gospel and worldly method. It remains for Protestantism to carry out the idea by incorporating the gospel of Jesus into the institutional life of the world, according to the method inherent in the gospel itself. It is in these ways, rather than by means of theology, that the kingdom of God is to be advanced. 2. Nevertheless, the theological statement of the gospel is of great importance. It is necessary, in the first place, in order that Christianity may express itself fully to thought. Christianity is a historical religion ; "we have not followed cunningly devised fables." It had its beginnings at a definite time and place, and has entered into history and helped to direct its course. It has thus become a part of the world's thought and life. Moreover, Christianity deals with questions that touch the widest reaches of thought of which the human mind is capable. It is not merely a sentiment, nor a way of living, but a kind of thinking as well. And while to overemphasize and misplace this intellectual ele- OF THE GOSPEL 165 ment by identifying Christian thought with a given philosophical system, and requiring the universal acceptance of this, leads to disastrous consequences, yet, on the other hand, to under- estimate this thought-element is to make of Christianity a chaotic mass of sentimentality, unrelated to objective reality and historical con- ditions, and to place it at the mercy of subjective and individual caprice. This is equally disastrous. The thing required is to deal with this truth in a way that shall do justice to the thought of Jesus, and not attempt to subject it to metaphysical and scholastic processes. Christian thought cannot be ignored, but must be expressed clearly and faith- fully, if the gospel is to make itself fully known. Theological statement is necessary, further, in order that Christianity may secure the complete allegiance of a man. Man is a thinking being. Intelligence is a constituent element in his nature. He must think. The more of a man he is, the more will he think. As soon as anything touches his life there is an instinctive effort of the ra- tional faculty to bring it into adjustment with the existing store of knowledge. To the extent that this cannot be done successfully the new element remains unknown, and fails to influence the life. No one thoroughly accepts what he does not understand. Much more is it true that a man cannot believe 166 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT what is contrary to his reason. When someone declares, for instance, that he believes a thing because it is in the Bible, whether it contradicts his reason or not, he has already accepted the Bible in its entirety because it seemed reasonable to him so to do; and it would do greater vio- lence to his reason to change his previously established view of the Bible than to believe an isolated fact that might seem unreasonable. He still decides according to his reason. For every man the rational faculty is the final judge of the credibility of that which comes to him with claims of being the truth. But the intellect is not only a constituent element in human nature, it is also regulative of activity and character. The estimate that a person puts upon a thing in his thinking largely determines what he will do with it. Feeling de- pends upon perception, and activity of the will depends upon both. A man cannot be ex- pected, therefore, to leap in the dark. The more important the issue at stake, the greater the desire and the obligation to understand its bear- ings before taking action. For these reasons, if Christianity is to acquire full dominion over a man, it must gain the alle- giance of his rational faculty. If he is to be a strong Christian, he must be an intelligent one. Permanent dualism between the religious nature OF THE GOSPEL 167 and the rational nature either is impossible or is maintained at enormous cost. Sooner or later the man's thinking, be it little or much, must come into harmony with the gospel that has touched his conscience and will, or else these will follow his .thinking away from Christianity. Chris- tianity, therefore, does not exclude thought, but welcomes it ; insisting only that it remain loyal to Jesus Christ in substance, spirit, and propor- tion. To reach this rational nature and convince it the gospel must be expressed in terms of thought. Herein lies the necessity of theology. It is the business of this science, as we have already seen, to present the gospel in the various aspects in which it touches intelligence. It is the mediator between the gospel and current culture. Theology, therefore, has as its task the apprehension and systematization of Chris- tian truth, together with the exposition of its relations to thought and to history. Its sole pur- pose in doing this is to gain the allegiance of the mind to Christianity ; and therefore it must work, on the one hand, with direct reference to the thinking of the age that it wishes to influ- ence, and, on the other, with strict fidelity to Christian truth. Because of the regulative character of intelli- gence, it is this faculty that determines also 1 68 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT what comes within its own sphere and what lies outside of it. By means of the intellect a man decides that he is not all intellect, and that the purely intellectual is not the most valuable part of him. By philosophizing he decides not to be merely a philosopher. So also in religion, it is by theologizing that a man decides that theol- ogy is not the most important thing in Chris- tianity, and that he will be something more than a theologian. Hence a part of the theological task is the recognition of its own proper value and limitations. Theological statement is necessary, in the third place, for the intelligent guidance of the church as a whole. What has just been said of the individual is true also of the church. If it is to hold its faith strongly and permanently, that faith must approve itself to the common reason of Christendom; the church must understand its faith as well as feel it. It must know how to separate truth from error. It must be able to "try the spirits whether they be of God ; " only remembering to try them according to Christ's standards, instead of by metaphysical dogmas of its own choosing. Furthermore, the practical activities of the church need to be directed intel- ligently, and to be kept true to the Christian ideals. If church doing outruns church thinking, it leads to disaster for both : the activity breaks connec- OF THE GOSPEL 169 tion with its sources, and runs dry in secu- larism ; the theology is deprived of its practical outlet, and becomes stagnant. The church can win glorious missionary con- quests, carry everything before it in great popu- lar revivals, turn things upside down with its practical philanthropies and reforms, and yet all of this be only a temporary raid into the enemy's territory. In order to make permanent occupation of what it carries by assault it must conquer the world's intelligence and make Chris- tian its thinking. Herein is one cause of the wonderful success of primitive Christianity. It translated itself into the thought of those early centuries and overcame it. And in all of the succeeding disciplinary period of the Teutonic peoples the thinking of the church played an important part. Without doubt this intellectual conquest and dominion was accomplished at great cost to the spiritual element in Christianity, by restricting the scope of its operation ; but the evil was due to a mistaken conception of the nature of theology, not to theological state- ment as such, within the limits of its proper sphere. In spite of the danger of overempha- sizing theology, it still remains true that the reli- gion which is finally to bring the world under its sway must be a religion that commends itself convincingly to the world's intelligence. 170 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT III. THE RIGHT OF THEOLOGICAL RESTATEMENT. The right of theological restatement is as clear and valid as the original right of statement, for it is exactly the same in kind. The only reason why it is questioned is the identification of the old statements with the gospel itself, and the mistaken notion that these are a part of New Testament Christianity. History makes it plain that when these formulations of doctrine were in process of making they were open questions, and that controversy raged fiercely about them, so great were the differences of opinion. But after they were once adopted by the church, and men's minds had become accustomed to them, and the passing centuries had made them a part of vener- able antiquity, they became closed questions, and began to seem as sacred and binding as the gospel itself; men forgot how they had come into existence. When, later, the exigencies of the situation forced it to read these systems back into the Bible, Protestantism ceased to distinguish between them and New Testament Christianity. Thus, for Catholic and Protestant alike, the one on the ground of church authority, the other on that of supposed biblical sanction, the accepted statements of theology came to be regarded as an essential part of Christianity. For this reason, when the old statements are called in question, many people think that the gospel itself is being OF THE GOSPEL 171 attacked and the hope of salvation undermined ; and so they strenuously contend for the old creed with all the religious fervor that only the defense of the old faith can legitimately call forth. It is time that this fiction was given up. The known facts abundantly disprove it, and it stands in the way of the progress of Christianity. "Bib- lical theology" is a misnomor. There is no the- ology, properly so called, in the Bible. There is abundance of theological material, and great wealth of doctrine, in the New Testament sense of that term. The Bible is the source of all Christian theology. But theology is a science. It is a systematization of religious truth, and a phi- losophy offered in explanation of it. This science is not found in the Scriptures. The teachings of Jesus do not appear in a systematic form, but in terms of life and social relations. It requires laborious research and reconstruction to formu- late them into scientific statements. Neither do the apostles present the gospel in a theology, although doubtless they come nearer to it than Jesus does, and that is why theology took its point of departure from them rather than from Christ. But still, even with them, while the theo- logical material is more accessible, there is no systematic arrangement, nor attempt at true philosophical explanation. They wrote for spe- cific practical purposes, and always massed their 172 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT teachings so as to bear upon the end in view. They were scientific neither in purpose nor in method. Paul may have had a theological sys- tem, but, if so, he did not incorporate it into the New Testament ; and it is with great difficulty that we are able to reconstruct his system, even tentatively. It is full of gaps and of things taken for granted. Paul was not primarily a theologian, but a vigorous thinker and great religious reformer. TJie New Testament is a book of religious truth, not of theological science ; and is content to state this truth in its practical aspects, upon the sole authority of Jesus Christ, and not because its philosophical foundations have been worked out and approved. One searches the Scriptures in vain for such church dogmas as those of the Trinity, the per- son of Christ, and the atonement. This state- ment does not question the truth of a single declaration of the Bible on these great subjects, nor deny in the least their importance, nor pro- nounce judgment upon the dogmas as later formu- lated. It merely brings to a focus what has been said. The creeds that have passed current in the church for centuries were made without excep- tion in post-biblical times. They have absolutely no divine sanction, except for the Catholic, who believes that the church continued New Testa- ment inspiration and authority. It is entirely OF THE GOSPEL 173 legitimate for a Protestant to call them in ques- tion, recognizing meanwhile their former provi- dential mission, without reflecting in the least upon his soundness in the faith. What man has made man has a right to criticise and change. The right to restate theology, therefore, rests upon the same basis, and is as incontestable, as the right of original statement. In both cases it derives its justification, not from Bible sanction, but from the nature and value of theology itself. Theology first arose in response to the inborn impulse of the human mind to know and to ar- range its knowledge in systematic form. Its continuation is due to the same impulse. It ac- complished its purpose in the early centuries by assuming a certain form. If in another age it can fulfil its end better by adopting a new expres- sion, it has as good a right to do so. In this principle, involving the interrelations of the gospel, theology, and culture, is discovered a further vindication of the right of theological restatement. The gospel itself is permanent, at least so far as we can now see. As long as the present moral world-order exists, the gospel of Jesus is better adapted to save it from sin and satisfy its deep- est needs than any other means conceivable. With all of our short comings in its application, it has achieved far greater success than any other 174 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT agency of reform ; and this is unquestionably due to its own intrinsic worth and its remarkable adap- tation to the conditions of life. The gospel, more- over, was complete and final as embodied in the person, work, and teachings of Jesus. All that remained to be done was the work of application. No essential thing was lacking, to be supplied by later additions ; nothing was out of proportion, to be corrected by a new distribution of em- phasis. Then, as now, and forever, as long as God and holiness, human nature and human need, remain unchanged, the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. 1 This permanent character of the gospel, how- ever, does not pertain to theology. Theology has the definite aim of stating religion in terms of thought. It mediates between the gospel and culture. Its very object, therefore, requires it to enter into contemporary ways of thinking, and adopt as its means of expression the scientific and philosophical concepts, terminology, and dialectics of the age which it addresses. These inevitably react upon it. The meaning that they have previously acquired colors the truth they are now used to express. Thus in the nature of 'This final character of the gospel of Jesus is here assumed; no proof is attempted. For vindication of the assumption, see Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxvi. OF THE GOSPEL 175 the case there cannot be an independent dog- matic statement of Christianity. Theology is always a combination of Bible-teaching with the philosophical thought of the day in which it is formulated. But this philosophy changes, and the culture represented by it passes away. The knowledge of one generation is only preparatory to that of the next. Thought is never final and perfect. Not that it is all false, but partial, incomplete, transitory. Each age sees through a glass darkly: the world awaits the clearer vision. "Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away ; for we know in part." " Our little systems have their day ; They have their day and cease to be ; They are but broken lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they. Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell ; That mind and soul, according well, May make one music as before, But vaster." The transitory character of culture, therefore, makes theology transitory also. The better the theology is adapted to fulfil its mission to a given age, the more fully will it be saturated with contemporary ways of thinking. When in the course of the world's progress this culture be- comes obsolete, the theology of that age becomes 176 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT obsolete with it. This theology may have been formulated in the supposition that it was the only possible statement of Christianity, and so was the absolute truth of God. But the fuller knowlege of the new generation reveals the im- perfections of the very systems of thought that have made its own glory possible. Truth abides forever; our apprehension of truth changes with the progress of thought: the gospel of Jesus is final and permanent; our statement of this gospel should keep pace with the growing culture. Inasmuch as it is the sole business of theology to mediate between the gospel and thought, when the old statements cease to do this there exists the unquestionable right of restate- ment to meet the requirements of the new condi- tions. Theology should neither be bound by the past nor seek to bind the future, but should demand a free and independent expression of the gospel in the present. IV. THE NEED OF THEOLOGICAL RESTATEMENT AT THE PRESENT TIME. Not only is it true that Christianity has a right to restatement, but it is further true that such restatement is absolutely obligatory when- ever changed conditions have made the old statements obsolete. Such a time has come. If Christianity is to get the hold upon our OF THE GOSPEL 177 age that it ought, its theology must be re- stated. i. Owing to the existence of a new civiliza- tion, the theological statements of the past are either meaningless or unsatisfactory to an increas- ing number of people, in that they are expressed in terms of an obsolete culture. This point was discussed so fully in connection with the modern religious movement for the recovery of the gospel (chap, iii) that it does not need to be considered at any length here. The state of things there described as the result of that process is the con- dition that now exists. As the movement for the recovery of the gospel was due to the nature of the modern spirit, so the movement for the restatement of the gospel is necessitated by the new culture which that spirit has created. This culture has occasioned a divorce between the modern church and its ancient theology. The recovered gospel has manifested itself with mighty power in these latter days, and still is doing so. But there are signs of a coming decline unless the thinking of the church is so revivified that it shall be able to overtake and assume the leadership of the modern religious activities that have outrun it and come first to Christ. The relative dearth in missionary zeal and offerings is not due to hard times, but, partly at least, to the more fundamental difficulty here 178 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT pointed out. The missionary movement was caused by a genuine gospel revival, resulting from the persistent influence of the open Bible. The first fervor has passed away, and the popular interest will diminish unless it is led on by the con- secrated thinking of the church. The same is true also with reference to the popular revivals of the past century in Christian lands. The preaching has been on the basis of the old theology, which has often been made an important issue. Men have not been converted by means of the theolo- gy, however, but rather because of the gospel truth presented in addition to the theology, and because of the incitement of religious feeling and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. The theology has not gotten hold of them, their thinking has not been convinced, and when the feeling has subsided they have often had no defi- nite conceptions to fall back upon. Thus the very preaching that emphasizes theology has failed to reach the faculty to which theology must appeal. This is one secret of superficial revivals, and of the present falling off in the demand for profes- sional evangelists. If lasting work is to be done, if the ignorant are to be instructed, the alienated reclaimed, the heathen conquests ex- tended, the gospel must now express itself in a theology that is in touch with modern thought. Such a restatement is directly in sympathy with OF THE GOSPEL 179 evangelistic activity, and will give it guidance. Evangelical Christians are making a fatal mistake when they protest against it. All of the reasons that made it necessary for the gospel to express itself in a certain form in the early centuries in order to meet the intellectual needs of that age make it equally imperative for it now to re-express itself in new terms, if it is to exercise the greatest possible influence on modern life. Only thus can the blessings of the gospel be preserved side by side with liberty of thinking and the progress of thought. 2. As a part of the foregoing, but deserving special mention because ' of its direct bearing upon theology, a second reason for the restate- ment of Christianity at the present time lies in the modern achievements in other departments of Christian thought. The scientific study of the New Testament and of church history has produced a large body of new knowledge, which is still increasing. This knowledge has been accumu- lated independently of systematic theology, and has quietly and unintentionally undermined it. Consequently there is today a gulf between the scientific knowledge of the church and its author- ized theology. It is necessary to reckon with this new knowledge and determine its effect upon Christian thought. Enough returns are already in to make it certain that a theological i8o RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT reconstruction will have to take place, and to render the beginnings of the task possible. The best assured results are fortunately those having to do most directly with the chief subject-matter of theology. The new Bible exegesis has re- covered the gospel of Jesus ; theology should now undertake the restatement of it. The new system of theology must not be made a closed circle, however ; but a scientific method should be adopted here, also, which will leave room for the incorporation of future results from the biblical and historical sciences. 3. A third reason why the gospel should be restated is that many of the old statements fail to do justice to the essential truth of Christianity; they are more or less extraneous to the faith. Early Christian theology was the lineal successor of Greek philosophy ; and instead of starting with the gospel and expressing only that, it attempted to harmonize the gospel, as a new divine philosophy, with the existing systems. The result was that much outside matter was interwoven into theology. Then, after this had become identified with Christianity, all succeed- ing dogmatics had to reckon with the whole combination. Subsequent theology thus came to have as part of its subject-matter a mass of material that is not intrinsically a part of the Christian faith. A new statement of Christianity OF THE GOSPEL 181 is necessary which shall take the gospel message itself for its theme, and consider nothing else, or more, than this, with its necessary presupposi- tions and conclusions. 4. Somewhat akin to these others, still another reason for the restatement of Christianity is the need of a Protestant theology. Protestantism today has no theological system of its own. It started out with Roman Catholic dogmatics, and for three hundred and fifty years has been trying to modify this to suit its needs. The result has been a failure. This theology is contrary to the fundamental principle of Protestantism, inasmuch as it depends upon the church-development theory for its validity. It cannot be divorced from the Roman ecclesiastical system, whose in- separable and congenial companion it has been from the beginning. The whole Catholic system is organic ; but Protestant modifications of it are fragmentary, without coherence or consistency. The Protestant theologians cut down the organic Catholic tree, sawed it up into timber, and built a mechanical theological house of it ; and alas ! the house has fallen upon our heads. This lack of a characteristic theology ac- counts, at least in part (the other part being the undue emphasis put upon theology), for a Prot- estantism split up into sects. There is no organic framework to hold it together. It is futile to i8z RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT talk of a reunion on the basis of Catholic theol- ogy, even though that be confined to the great historic creeds. If Protestantism is ever to be united, it must be upon the basis of its own fun- damental principle. This principle is the pri- mary New Testament truth that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and by that alone; or, in another form, that Christianity is a life of faith in Christ, as set forth in the New Testament. Now, upon this Protestant foundation has been superimposed the Roman Catholic body of doc- trine. Protestantism is thus made to rest upon two incongruous principles, and is divided against itself. What is needed is a distinctive Protestant theology. The practical and ecclesiastical Ref- ormation of the sixteenth century, which went back to the New Testament in matters of church reform and religious life, must be completed by a Protestant theological Reformation which shall not be afraid to cut beneath the whole Roman Catholic dogmatic development, go back to the New Testament for the subject-matter of Christian thought also, and give to Protestant- ism, in systematic form, an adequate and organic expression of its own fundamental idea. As this idea is that of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, Protestant theology will occupy itself with the explication of the Christian faith, as dis- OF THE GOSPEL 183 cussed under the preceding heading. Such a theology would have a determining influence in uniting Protestantism in its conflict with sin and with an antagonistic Catholicism. This theological restatement, necessary as it is, is likely to occasion a great deal of discom- fort to the men who undertake it. In the other departments of Christian knowledge the work can be done quietly, and its bearings not be clearly seen. But the theological task involves a conscious and deliberate break with the tradi- tional theology of the church. It is not always recognized that the theologian is simply bring- ing to light the necessary implications of the results reached in other departments; he is re- garded as the original disturber of the peace of the church, and is decried as an arch-heretic, while the real offenders go free. If we do not want a new theology we must stop the new Bible knowledge, we must overthrow the new scientific method, we must discountenance mod- ern culture and civilization, we must roll the world backward toward that ancient past in which the old theology was formed. That is the only civilization to which it will ever be satisfac- tory. In spite of the inherent difficulties of the task, however, in spite of misunderstanding or even abuse and persecution, the imperative duty of the 1 84 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT theologian today is to give to the church a theology which shall, on the one hand, do justice to the gospel itself, as rediscovered in the scientific study of the Christian sources, and thus furnish an ade- quate systematic expression for the fundamental principle of Protestantism; and which shall, on the other hand, so take account of modern cul- ture as to express this permanent gospel in forms of thought and speech which, instead of being repulsive and ineffective, shall appeal to the mod- ern world with the greatest possible force. CHAPTER II. THE GOSPEL RESTATED: A SUGGESTED THEOLOGICAL SYSTEM. IT is not so necessary to restate the gospel as it is to free it from the incumbrance of the old statements. These have often misrepresented and obscured it, and diminished its effectiveness in the modern world. When this evil is re- moved, and the gospel is allowed to stand forth as Jesus himself preached it, it will appeal pow- erfully to our age, even without any restatement. This is because of the gospel's universal applica- tion to common human needs and the universality of the form in which Jesus presented it. His teaching is animated by the spirit of intense reality, and is expressed in the language of life. These are two things especially character- istic of our own times. As we have seen, the desire for reality is the modern passion, reality in religion no less than in other things. In our age also life is at a premium. Everything is judged by its practicability for increasing the measure and richness of life. From the biolo- gist's solitary study of its origin an-d forms, to the greatest invention applying the new scientific 185 1 86 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT discovery to the world of affairs, Life everywhere is king. "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." And so Christ's gospel, charged with reality, and expressed in his own terms of life, is particularly adapted to present conditions. Still, however, there is room for theological statement, since the gospel as preached by Jesus and the apostles did not have a systematic form. Our age, so scientific in its instincts, needs a scientific statement of this gospel of divine life and its implications. Inasmuch as Jesus' own forms of expression, are so congenial to our times, and the sole business of theology is to mediate between the gospel and the thinking of an age, it is probable that no better terminology is now available than that which he employed In this theology should consider itself most fortunate, for its task is thereby greatly simpli- fied. By means of this terminology the gospel now needs to be stated in a scientific system of formal thought. The following pages constitute an attempt to do this, in such a way as to meet the require- ments of the discussion hitherto. It must be borne in mind that what is here given is only a most meager outline, by way of suggestion, and that it should be judged accordingly. OF THE GOSPEL 187 I. THE GOVERNING POSITION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THEOLOGY. 1. Theology must be loyal to the thought of Jesus. Christianity is not some vague and indefinite thing feeling around in the dark among the world's philosophies and hopes for its message. It has its message in Christ. Our business, therefore, is to find out what his thought is his thought about God, the world, and man; about sin and salvation from sin; about how we are to live in our social rela- tions; about everything that pertains to human interests. When found, this thought is to fur- nish the ruling conceptions for theology, is to be adopted by Christians as their guide, and, in all legitimate ways, is to be pressed by them upon others. We need to ascertain this teaching of Christ in its content, its emphasis or proportion, and in what we may call its coloring; and then preserve these in our own theological system. This central and dominating position of Christ is the most important thing to be considered here more important than a complete under- standing of his person; for we can be loyal to him and to his thought whether we can determine his place in the world with entire satisfaction or not. 2. As a corollary to the ruling position of 1 88 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT Jesus in theology, the question arises : How are we to know him and what he taught ? This in- volves one of the most important Christian pre- suppositions: the place of the Bible in Chris- tianity. The Bible is not the foundation of Christianity. "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ," says the apostle. The Bible does not come first, and then Jesus, because the Bible tells of him. Jesus comes first, he is the reality, he actually entered into history and wrought out redemption in the midst of humanity ; the Bible is the record and the interpretation of this Jesus and his work of redemption. The salvation of mankind is accom- plished outside of any book, among the living forces of history. It is a fact, whether recorded in a book or not. The Bible grows out of this historical redemption ; it is the result of it, not the cause. This is a distinction of great impor- tance, if we would preserve for Christianity its vital character and give to the Bible its proper place. The Old Testament is the record of God's preparatory work, in the life of the Hebrew people, for the establishment of Christianity in the world. God separated this people, and en- tered into its historical life through prophet, priest, law, and national institution. He re- OF THE GOSPEL 189 vealed himself in the historical life itself. The Old Testament is the record of that life, and at the same time is also a part of it, because produced by it. Because of its intimate con- nection with the preparatory stages of Chris- tianity, it will always have a special value. Because of the revelation which God therein makes of himself, his purposes for men, and the principles according to which he governs and judges nations, it will remain a great store- house of divine wisdom. But the Old Testa- ment is not distinctively the Christian book. Its chief significance lies in the influence that it exerted in making Jesus of Nazareth possible and fitting the world for his reception. He him- self then became the foundation of Christianity, and thenceforth the relation of the Old Testa- ment to the religion which he founded became indirect. Jesus lived and accomplished his mission of salvation in the midst of the world's life. The New Testament gospel narratives are the record of this. He set forth the principles according to which his new religion was founded, and gave commandments to his followers. The gospel narratives are also the record of these. They derive their importance from the fact that it was Jesus, the founder of Christianity, who lived and spoke what they record. 190 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT The new life brought to the world by Jesus organized itself into a church, under the immediate direction of those who had been most intimately associated with him, and therefore best under- stood his will ; and who, because of their unique position, enjoyed in an extraordinary measure the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts records this, in part. These churches found themselves in special conditions of need and danger in the untried conflict with heathenism, as the gospel in institutional form first entered into the world's affairs. The apostles, knowing Christ's mind, and enjoying his Spirit, wrote epistles in which they adapted this gospel to these concrete conditions of thought and life in the churches. These various writings, thus called forth by the early historical life of Christianity in its creative period, were collected by the church in the second century, and have become the classical literature of Christianity. The importance of this literature is not due to outside causes, however, but to its internal re- lationship to the historical Christ and the institu- tional establishment of Christianity. It is the literature of the Christian foundations. Its inspira- tion is the inspiration which entered into human life in Jesus Christ, and found expression in the Christian church organized under the direction of his apostles. The circumstances attending its ori- OF THE GOSPEL 191 gin can, in the nature of the case, never be repro- duced, and hence the New Testament has a unique character and an imperishable validity. It is not, however, a Christian law book so much as the underlying constitution according to which all Christian legislation must be enacted. This constitutional character of the New Testament determines the nature of our loyalty to it. The authoritative quality of Christ's teachings is sufficiently obvious, and does not need to be enlarged upon. The case is some- what different with the other portions of the New Testament, notwithstanding the traditional custom of putting all parts of the book upon the same plane. The question has already been touched upon above in discussing the new exegesis (pp. 103-6) and the new attitude toward the New Testament literature (pp. 114- 17). The difference between the teaching of Jesus and that of the apostles may be summed up in a single sentence : his was universal in both form and substance ; theirs was univer- sal in substance, but local in form. No bet- ter illustration can be found than Paul's doc- trine of justification by faith, which is the adaptation of Jesus' teaching of the forgiveness of sins to an age steeped in legalism. The doctrine of forgiveness most effectively takes that form in opposition to a theory of salvation 192 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT by works. Jesus did not directly attempt to combat legalism, but Paul did, and this accounts for the form of his teaching. The underlying truth is the same in both cases, but Paul has localized it and intellectualized it for polemi- cal purposes. Similar conditions reappeared in Luther's day, and that partly accounts for his adoption of Paul's terminology rather than that of Jesus. Again the authorized salvation had come to be a matter of works, and the conditions of Pharisaism were almost literally reproduced. Paul's juridical expression of the doctrine of forgiveness exactly fitted this condition of things, as it had that of his own day, and as it will that of all generations in which like conditions reap- pear. The doctrine of justification by faith is true always, and influences some men in every age ; but it is a particular expression of the more fundamental and universal truth of the forgive- ness of sins Such an age as our own, certainly in no danger of overemphasized legalism, will be more quickly and deeply reached by the original doctrine of forgiveness. The apostles were thus the first theologians of the church: the first to mediate the gospel of Jesus to local conditions of culture, although it is true that even they did not do this in systematic form. This conception does not militate in the least against the idea of their divine inspiration, OF THE GOSPEL 193 but rather strengthens it. They were God-ap- pointed and God-inspired men for the great task of giving Christianity its first organized applica- tion to the world's life. Their inspiration did for them two things. In the first place, it led them to understand Christ's gospel. "The Holy Spirit," said Jesus, "shall testify of me; he shall take the things of mine, and shall show them unto you ; he shall bring to your remembrance all things which I have spoken unto you." The promise was kept. It was not a different gospel that they preached, as uninspired theologians have so often done, but the gospel of Jesus, apprehended by spiritual inspiration. In the second place, their inspiration helped them to present the gospel in forms that were effectual in saving the men whom they addressed. "The Holy Spirit shall give you utterance," Christ had promised. " Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you ; and ye shall be my witnesses." These promises also were ful- filled : "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak .... as the Spirit gave them utterance." " They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness," and with success, it may now truthfully be added. Thus, with the apostles, theology was practical in its aim and method; they were first of all preachers and theologians 194 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT only because the gospel required local adapta- tions for successful preaching. The understand- ing of the gospel of Jesus, and power to present that gospel convincingly to their generation that was apostolic inspiration, and indicates the divine mission and method of theology. Would that later theologians had always followed the inspired precedent! We see herein what loyalty to the New Testa- ment involves. It does not consist in taking the apostles' terminology, formed to meet concrete historical conditions, and binding this upon all ages ; but in following their method, and so doing for our age what they did for theirs : finding the thought of Jesus, and adapting it to existing needs. In what respect, then, do the New Testa- ment epistles have special value? Because of the unique position of the New Testament writers. Their inspiration differs from all later inspiration in historical connections. They were either imme- diately acquainted with Jesus, or with the men who knew him well. They had peculiar and untransfer- able opportunities for understanding his gospel in its substance and spirit. Thus the New Testament applications of the gospel constitute, so to speak, a book of religious decisions, of incalculable pre- cedential value. The apostolic writings, there- fore, while being in the form of special messages to definite churches and individuals, are of the OF THE GOSPEL 195 nature of a constitution for later generations, somewhat as the judicial decisions of English courts constitute a large part of the English consti- tution. By means of these first inspired concrete apostolic decisions, we are able to understand, as would be possible in no other way, the nature of the gospel which they received from Jesus. All new legislation for the needs of succeeding ages must be in harmony with this underlying New Testament teaching. The New Testament is therefore the inspired and permanent constitu- tion of Christianity, existing partly in universal form, as given by Jesus, and partly in particular inspired precedential decisions and applications, as handed down by the apostles. The New Testament literature is subject to the usual canons of historical and literary criti- cism. But, like other literature, it also is to be judged according to the purpose and spirit of its writers. That is, it is to be judged as religious literature, not as theological or scientific writing, in the modern sense. As such, its truths must be spiritually discerned, in order to be appreci- ated. A scientific exegesis of the Bible cannot be made without the reverent religious study demanded by the nature of the writings. Only a Christian can be a scientific Bible critic. The New Testament is likewise to have equal rights of credence with other literary and historical 196 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT writings, and not to be discounted because of its peculiar subject-matter. So criticised and judged by fair tests, in the New Testament the life of Jesus stands out clearly in its main historical outlines, as do also his teachings in their fundamental principles. This is sufficient. The salvation of the world rests upon him. If we are reasonably cer- tain of him, Christianity as a world-religion is secure. 1 It is well for us to look at the subject in its large outlines, at times, and realize that Christianity does not depend upon proving that no errors exist in the Bible, or even in the New Testament, but that it depends solely upon Jesus Christ; of whom the New Testament is a reasonably authentic presentation, both as re- gards his life and his teachings. This Scriptural and common-sense view of the New Testament will save the church from two dangerous ex- tremes. On the one hand, realizing that the Bible is not the foundation of Christianity, the church will lose all fear of historical and literary criticism of the Scriptures, and will have no need to put a premium upon uncritical faith. Changes of view, or discovery of discrepancies, will not vitally affect faith ; while a proof-text Christian- ity is always in mortal terror. The New Testa- ment in its main contents is well established, 'See again Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxvi. OF THE GOSPEL 197 and makes Jesus known clearly enough so that we can rest our faith upon him. The historical and ever-living Christ thus becomes the basis of a perennial Christianity. On the other hand, re- alizing the unique and regulative character of the New Testament literature, the church will not at- tempt to depart from its historical foundations, but will come back again and again to the New Testament as the standard by which to test its life in every age. 3. The requirements of Christ's thought, as recorded in the New Testament, are met by the following definition of the gospel, which constitutes the subject-matter of theology : The gospel is the glad news of salvation from sin and its consequences; this salvation consisting in eternal life, mediated from God to men by Jesus Christ, and ex- pressing its social relations in a kingdom of God. II. JESUS CHRIST, THE MEDIATOR OF ETERNAL LIFE. Inasmuch as it is through Jesus of Nazareth that we know the nature and conditions of salva- tion, receive the Christian conception of God and the world, and enter into communion with the Father, it is most fitting that theology should be- gin with the consideration of him and his work. The mission of Jesus. The mission of Jesus was to bring men into the blessings of eternal 198 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT life, by bringing eternal life into them. In this he acted in complete sympathy with the Father's desires and purposes. By entering fully into the life of humanity, he knew its griefs and bore them ; by suffering with men, he made known the Father's divine love and compassion ; by renouncing sin in himself, and denouncing it in others, he brought to light its inner nature, and God's eternal antagonism to it. Jesus forced upon men a new conception and conviction of sin, and made them hate wickedness ; he gave them a new vision of God, and made them love him ; he set in operation new motives, and gave men power to actualize their new ideals. These things that he did in his life he did in a pro- founder way by his death, in which he endured the last measure of vicarious suffering, sealed with his blood the truths that he had taught, and made atonement for mankind. Thus the life of Jesus, culminating in his sac- rificial death, made manifest in eternal antithesis the incarnate essence both of love and of sin. As a judgment of sin, the atonement is a demonstra- tion of the justice of God ; although Jesus him- self never so speaks of it, and the expression is used only once in the New Testament. The later theological dogma of the death of Jesus as an appeasing of the wrath of God, and consequent satisfaction of his justice by commercial equiva- OF THE GOSPEL 199 lent, is absolutely foreign to 'Christ's thought. There can be little doubt that a certain school of theology has committed a double injustice : it has visited the punishment of the guilty upon the innocent, thus doing violence to morality; and it has first exacted payment for a debt, and then declared that God forgives it, thus doing violence to equity. As we turn from traditional theology to Christ, we find that what it calls the atonement, although not so designated by him, still is no myth. But here its real nature appears. Not only does the atonement meet the require- ments of God's justice, but it is even more a manifestation of the divine love, suffering with and for sinners, in order that it may save them. This is the inner meaning of the death of Christ, and we shall not be true to his thought until we return to it. Love cannot save except by en- tering into the condition of the one to be saved, and vicariously bearing his sorrow and even his sin. The cross of Christ, while not divorced from considerations of justice, is yet pre-eminently the divine manifestation of this truth ; rather, it is the incarnate doing of this divine thing, in order that the world may be made to feel God's heart so as to accept his help. This great truth cannot be permitted to die along with untenable theories of the atonement which men may make and overthrow. Neither 200 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT should our acceptance of the fact be prejudiced by the unsatisfactoriness of the theory. The gospel stops with the fact of the atonement. Apart from theory, back of theory, is the divine fact that Jesus entered into the world as the repre- sentative of God, and by his life and by his death in our behalf brought God's salvation to men. The Bible always presents the subject, not for theoretical purposes, but with the practical aim of bringing men to God. Holding to these state- ments in the spirit in which they were given, a man is left free to combine them into such a speculative philosophical theory as to his mind most satisfactorily explains them, or to leave them unexplained by any theory, if he so choose. For a thousand years after the death of Jesus the church had no systematic doctrine of the atonement, the constructive theories beginning with Anselm. A thousand years hence the pres- ent theories will have developed into more ade- quate expression of the truth. All theories are fragmentary and partial. The moral theory, the governmental theory, the substitutionary theory, the vicarious theory all of these contain truth, and some of them more than others ; but the atonement itself is greater and richer and truer than any or all of them. We rest our hope upon the fact itself, not upon men's attempted explana- tion of it. Theories of the atonement are sure to OF THE GOSPEL 201 change with the growing thought of the race, and should do so ; the fact of the atonement abides the same forever. The person of Christ. Probably the church has been justified in always placing the person of Christ before his work. Is he such a person as can accomplish the divine task he has under- taken? is a question of fundamental importance. The Christian conception of this person, however, should be determined for us, not by what men thought concerning the matter in the fourth century, but by what the New Testament says about him and by what we may justly infer from this. What did Jesus teach about himself ? Although he does not give the answer to this question in any dogmatic form, his own idea is nevertheless plain. He is the perfect Man, fully identified with humanity both in constitution and in life tempted, suffering, sympathizing, serving, liv- ing the normal human life without sin. But he is uniquely related to God, so intimately and fully that he can say with truth, "I and my Father are one." He is the Christ, the authorized mes- senger of the Father, the revelation of his will. He is the mediator of salvation, the way to God and to life, the Savior of men. He was with the Father before the world existed, knows fully the Father's heart and shares his life. " My Father" 202 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT how much this means to Jesus ! It certainly involves an identity with God that is sui generis. He demands of all who would have life unfalter- ing loyalty to himself. He will be with them in spiritual presence and power after his resurrec- tion and ascension. He will come, at last, in glory to judge the world. The thought of the apostles concerning the person of Christ contains the same elements found in the teaching of Jesus : he is for them also the perfect man and the divine Lord. More emphasis is perhaps placed by them upon his divine attributes and dignity, but not to the ex- clusion of a real humanity. It is evident that aside from these two strong convictions, opinions concerning his person were still in a fluid and un- formed state. They had not yet crystallized. The prologue of John's gospel, the second chap- ter of Philippians, and the epistle to the Hebrews look toward a more reasoned treatment of the person of Christ, but the religious interest even here completely dominates the speculative. The time of definitions had not come ; it was rather a time of love and loyalty. What are we therefore to think of Christ ? Here arise the questions relating to christological presuppositions. These are not of such an ex- clusively metaphysical character as has generally been assumed in the past. Christ's significance OF THE GOSPEL 203 is chiefly of a religious nature. Religiously, he has the value of God ; that is, the man who starts with him finds God. He that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father. This is plain, both from Jesus' teaching and from human experience. But it is of importance to note that, when Jesus so speaks, he always speaks religiously, not meta- physically. Nothing can be more evident. This religious value can be accepted, and the resulting blessedness of communion with God enjoyed, even though the metaphysical relation should never be understood. More than this, no metaphysical explanation at all is greatly to be preferred to one which stands in the way of the full influence of Christ's religious and ethical power. The early church attempted to express the truth about Christ in the Logos doctrine, and in the Chalcedonian dogma of the two natures in one person. For some this explanation is still satisfactory. Others may, perhaps, express it more satisfactorily for themselves in some other form, or may not suc- ceed in finding any adequate explanation. If the old statement obscures for us the great truths that Jesus declared about himself, rather than explains and enforces them, it may legitimately be dismissed. We are not bound by the theo- logical findings of the later church, but only by the gospel facts. All metaphysical statements 204 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT of Christ's nature are beyond the range of his own teaching, and hence are binding only upon those who make them, or find it helpful to ac- cept them. At the present time satisfactory christological statements seem to be far in the future. It is probable that we shall not be able to formulate them until we know more about what man is. At least it is safe to say that in the com- ing statement psychology will have more influ- ence, and metaphysics less. Meanwhile Christ's perfect oneness with the Father and with man, in the sense in which he taught it, making it possible for him to be the full revelation of God's ethical nature, and the divine Savior of men, lies at the very basis of the Christian salvation and hope. As Paul puts it: "God was in Christ reconciling the world un- to himself." The church cannot give up this plain gospel truth without losing its power and abandon- ing its mission. In a real sense Jesus Christ was the incarnation of God. He belongs to the inner circle of God's being and has expressed this in a real human personality. This is the truth con- tended for in the old christological creeds, and is the priceless heritage bequeathed by them to us. When the new christological formulations are made they must not be permitted to rob us of it. OF THE GOSPEL 205 III. GOD THE AUTHOR AND SOURCE OF ETERNAL LIFE. The Christian God is the heavenly Father revealed by Jesus Christ. Theology has too long occupied itself with a Greek philosophical deity and a Roman governor of the universe. It is time that now, at last, we let Christ interpret the God of Christianity. He is a personal, spiritual God, requiring a true and spiritual worship. He is a righteous God, who so loves the world that he has done, and is doing, all that he can to re- deem it from sin, not hesitating to give his only begotten Son to make known his forgotten love, and to show his holy nature that cannot tolerate sin. He is watching for the return of his prodi- gal sons with all of a Father's anxious solicitude, and goes to meet them on the way. If Jesus did not teach the universal fatherhood of God directly, he certainly taught a universal love and care which are paternal in kind. Yet with those who repent of their sin and turn to him through Christ, God comes into special relations as Father, because they acknowledge their sonship. Only for the loving and dutiful son can a father accomplish his heart's desires. God gives these penitent sinners power, or authority, to become his sons in a special sense. They come into new relations of endearment to him. He who watches over the growing lilies 2o6 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT and the homeless birds cares so minutely for his own children that the very hairs of their heads are numbered. Those who trust him come into vital union with him, and so receive eternal life, and can never perish. He is Sovereign of the universe and of the kingdom of God, but his sover- eignty is exercised according to eternal principles of righteousness and love which pertain to his es- sential nature. If he is absolute Sovereign, he is not therefore arbitrary Sovereign : his rule is still absolutely merciful and righteous. This holy God is spiritual in his activity. The Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God, is God dwelling in his church, in individual Christians, and, to a less extent, in the world at large : guiding and comforting and inspiring those who receive and yield to him ; moving to repentance those who are living in sin. Concerning God, also, there are doubtless theological presuppositions of great importance. While, if we are to be true to Christ's thought, the ethical and religious nature of God will be given precedence over his metaphysical attributes, yet God's metaphysical being and his relation to the creation and continuance of the universe must also be considered. At this point theology comes into intimate touch with, and dependence upon, the philosophical systems of the day, where the problem is being scientifically and progressively OF THE GOSPEL 207 worked out. Probably the chief task of theology in this connection is not so much the establish- ment of any one philosophy as it is the criticism of all systems, and the rejection of those that are not able to express the distinctive Christian truths of God's personality and free providential activity. Within these limits the widest latitude may be given. So far as Christianity is concerned, it can tolerate any philosophical system that is congenial with its religious ideas. The absolute philosophy has not been reached, and never will be. Chris- tianity may well use existing systems so far as they will help it to gain a stronger hold on the world's thought, but should not ally itself too closely with any one of them. IV. MAN THE RECIPIENT OF ETERNAL LIFE. God's provision of eternal life is made for the human race, and for individual members of this race. Theology, therefore, must consider the nature, capabilities, and life of man. The origin and nature of man. Here we have to do more with anthropological presuppo- sitions than with direct Christian teaching. I. Christ has nothing to say about the his- torical origin of man, and therefore Christianity is committed to no special theory concerning the matter, not even the Old Testament theory, except in its religious aspects, at most. The 208 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT Jewish theological implications are not a com- ponent part of Christianity. The question of the origin of man is not of vital interest or im- portance. In the place which it has given to the subject, theology has marked one of its departures from its proper task. If the matter had been of special significance, Jesus would not have passed it over without comment. With his deep insight and his practical mission, he took the world as he found it, and man as an already existing being. Man is here. How he came to be here is not of much account for religion. The important problem is : What is he going to do with himself now that he is here, and what is he going to make of himself for the future ? As Christianity is not committed to any one theory concerning the origin of humanity, neither is it concerning the much-discussed question of the origin of the individual soul. Whether the theory of pre-existence advocated by Origen be true; or that of creationism, which has found able advocates ; or that of traducianism, as adopted by Augustine ; or any other that may be advanced the New Testament does not say. Christianity is not committed to any of them, and no theory is of fundamental importance. We may well await the further progress of knowledge for our philosophy regarding the question, or rele- gate it to the realm of life's insoluble mysteries. OF THE GOSPEL 209 2. It is different with reference to the nature of man. While the question of historical origin is not connected with salvation, the constitution or nature of man is necessarily and most inti- mately concerned with it. Here, therefore, Christianity is more explicit. In the first place, humanity is an organism: the various members are vitally related. In Christ's doctrine of human brotherhood, in Paul's doctrine of the headship of Adam all through the New Testament this idea is taken for granted. There is very little said about the exact nature of this relationship, but the practi- cal fact remains, a fact everywhere apparent in life, and receiving special emphasis in our own times, that the human race is organically united. No man liveth unto himself. The sins of a father are visited upon his children. Heredity and en- vironment are index fingers pointing forever to the organic nature of humanity. In the second place, man is created in the image of God. Not merely he was, but he is now so created ; every man is. This is the religious truth expressed in the Bible account of creation. The point at issue is not so much the historical origin as the permanent constitution of man. Humanity is godlike in nature. Sin did not change this, and cannot. The proof is that after many ages God entered into this same zio RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The incarnation is an abiding demonstration of the fundamental godlikeness of human nature. Sin has distorted and dimmed this divine ele- ment in man, but not eliminated it. His very rational being is bound up with it. The yearn- ings and aspirations of the human heart are the stirrings of the divinity within us. The theo- logical doctrine of total depravity is found neither in Scripture nor in human nature. It is this remnant of divinity in men that makes them redeemable. It is this to which God calls, and which answers to his long-forgotten voice. It is this which gave to Jesus his unfaltering faith in human nature and his hope for the most aban- doned sinner. Yet, in spite of his divine constitution, man is a sinner, both by voluntary act and by nature. Jesus' whole attitude toward men is governed by his perception of the ruin wrought by sin. He does not say much about man's lost condition, and he offers no theory explaining how it came to be, but he everywhere assumes it and acts with it in view. The apostles are equally emphatic, and even more explicit: "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "There is none righteous, no, not one." And because of the or- ganic nature of humanity, involving vital rela- tionship and hereditary bias, the predisposition OF THE GOSPEL 211 to sin is passed on from father to son. Men be- long to a sinful race and inherit a nature prone to evil. There is, however, no teaching in Scrip- ture that upon the basis of this sinful inher- itance, and apart from voluntary wrong-doing, are guilt and condemnation pronounced upon a man. These three truths the organic character of humanity, man's fundamental godlikeness, and his sinful nature and deeds are the impor- tant Scripture teachings about the nature of man. They may well receive consideration at the hands of those who are trying to under- stand man by scientific study. But anthro- pology and psychology, in the proper scientific sense of those terms, are not matters of divine revelation. The facts concerning human nature must be sought for as any other knowledge. Here, as in the philosophical idea of God, theol- ogy is dependent upon science in this case upon psychology for its material; and part of its task is to preserve these three great truths, and reject any psychology that is hostile to them, rather than to identify itself absolutely with any current theory. The origin and nature of sin. As with the historical origin of the human race, so also con- cerning the origin of sin, Christ has nothing to say, and Christianity is bound to no theory. 212 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT Again Jesus adopts a practical attitude, and takes the position that when a man is in danger the problem is not how he got into it, but how to get him out. But it is relevant and necessary to ask what the character of the difficulty is. This must be known in order to suit the help to the emergency. So, while theology has no need to say any- thing whatever about the origin of sin, it does need to consider carefully the nature of sin. There is often confusion of thought on this point. It is sometimes said that it is necessary to know how man got into sin in order to save him from it. As a matter of fact, it is not the origin, but the nature, of his lost condition that needs to be understood. Men are here, actual sinners in a world of sin. What is sin? This was the question that Jesus asked and answered; and this is the question, therefore, with which theology is concerned. The Old Testament idea of sin is that of dis- obedience to law ; Jesus' idea is that it is love- lessness, or selfishness. Supreme love to God is man's highest privilege and duty. Nothing else than this will satisfy God, or realize man's true being and destiny. The greatest sin is the break- ing of this greatest commandment. Sin is there- fore not so much in acting as in failure to act ; not so much in doing concrete wrongs as in fail- OF THE GOSPEL 213 ure to do the great right. The second require- ment, like unto the first, is that men should love each other as they love themselves. The second great sin, also, is therefore a not doing failure to love. The nature of sin is the same in both cases : it is lovelessness. It is a matter of the disposition or character. All particular sins are the result of this underlying sin. On the other hand, love to God and man fulfils the whole law : concrete acts of right are the result of this fundamental right. This was the new and unique element in Jesus' teaching concerning sin and righteousness. He reduced them both to their lowest terms and brought out their elementary principles. V. THE NATURE AND CONDITIONS OF ETERNAL LIFE. Such being the nature of man and the nature of sin, Jesus set about saving him from sin. The essence of this salvation is eternal life. " I came," said Jesus, "that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "I am the resurrection and the life : he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die." "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life." The nature of eternal life. This life is of 214 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT the same kind as God's, it is spiritual, eternal, holy. It is therefore independent in nature although, as we shall see, not in expression of the world of sense about us. It lies back of the world, within it, and above it, giving to the world meaning and value. It has its own laws, in the keeping of which is the continuance of its blessings. Everlasting life is the gift of God, the gift of himself. It consists in the abiding communion with men that guarantees the con- tinued bestowal of his Spirit and his power. Thus intimately united with him, it is eternal in its na- ture, as he is eternal. And as God is holy, and cannot have fellowship with sin, this life is a holy life ; all who are to live in communion with God must take his attitude toward sin both in themselves and as it exists in the world. " Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is per- fect." Entrance into eternal life. Eternal life is entered by spiritual birth. Christ's thought here is the same as that more fully elaborated by Paul. Man is born of the earth, and is carnal ; to be carnally minded is death The man who is not in vital communion with God is dead, and does not know life. He must be born again, from above, of the Spirit As man must be born once of human parents in order to enter into earthly life, so must he be born again, of the OF THE GOSPEL 215 Spirit, in order to enter into the eternal spiritual life. This new birth is conditioned upon repent- ance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ. As God is eternally opposed to sin, and eternal life is a life of holiness, sin must be left behind when one applies for entrance into life. Repentance is this very thing : it is a determined turning from sin to the full extent of one's power. It, how- ever, does not give assurance of success, for it can supply no power to conquer sin. It is nega- tive and preparatory. Actual deliverance from sin is assured only by faith, the positive comple- ment of repentance. Because of the religious value of Christ, faith in him puts a man into touch with the spiritual forces of God, and so brings these forces to bear upon him in cleans- ing and saving power. That is why whosoever believes on the Son has eternal life ; not merely as a future hope, but as a present reality. He has already come into touch with God, the source of life. From this is evident Christ's conception of the nature of faith. Faith is not, and cannot be, a matter of assent to a set of propositions which are regarded as embodying the true philosophy. It is not so much an intellectual as a religious act. It presupposes intellectual conviction, doubtless, but adds to this the loyal and loving 216 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT trust of the heart. And not only is it religious in its nature, but in its object also, being directed toward a person whom it has come to regard as the one who can save from sin. The confidence and trust in this person necessarily involve be- lief in what he says and the purpose to obey his commandments. Thus Christian faith is a sure confidence in Jesus as Savior; a humble, trustful reliance upon him and upon the God whom he reveals ; together with a willing and teachable spirit which seeks to know the will of Jesus in order to obey it. A man having such a faith God can save and bring into eternal life; for he can teach him his will and communicate to him his power. The spiritual birth, conditioned on man's part by repentance and faith, is accompanied on God's part by the forgiveness of sins. This is not merely the remission of the penalty of sin, nor a forensic declaration of justification, but a real forgiveness of sin itself and the reception of the sinner into fellowship with God. It is no com- mercial barter, but a free act of divine grace. The wanderer has returned, the sinner has re- pented and sought forgiveness, the new germ of life has been implanted assuring deadly antago- nism to sin and certain victory over it. What more does God want ? Nothing. He welcomes his repentant son with absolute forgiveness. OF THE GOSPEL 217 In spite of its tragic sadness, and our desire to escape the conclusion, it yet remains true, in the very nature of the case, that those who re- fuse to comply with these conditions continue in death. There is no life except upon the fulfil- ment of certain conditions. Jesus does not say that it is desirable that men should be born again, but, "Ye must be born again." Unless a man comes into living touch with God, he can- not see life, and the righteous indignation of God rests upon him. God does not condemn a man for being born with a sinful nature and into a sinful heritage. That is his misfortune, not his fault, and evokes in God only a sympathetic de- sire to deliver him. The basis of God's condem- nation is man's continuance in his sinful estate when deliverance is offered him. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light." If a man chooses to remain in darkness and death, he is himself responsible for the consequences. God sent his Son, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. If it rejects him, it pronounces its own condemnation. Nothing else could by any possibility result. Christ's thought concerning life and death is here manifest. Life is union with God ; death is the absence of this life. Both are present reali- ties rather than future possibilities, although 2i 8 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT each has its future culmination. As long as a man is away from God he is dead. If he remains away forever, he forever remains in death, and the wrath of God abides upon him forever. If there is endless punishment, it is be- cause of endless sin. As to whether a man will continue thus forever in sin the language of Scripture is thought by some not to be abso- lutely explicit, although to the plain reader it would seem to teach everlasting punishment. We know, moreover, that the conditions upon which eternal life may be had will not change, and that the tendency of character is to pro- gressive fixedness. That in course of time it will become in a given man so fixed as to make re- pentance practically impossible is certainly the more probable conclusion. The continuance of life. Faith in Jesus is not merely the condition of entrance into eternal life ; it is likewise the condition of continuance and growth. Sometimes faith is virtually lim- ited to the beginning of the Christian life. Such a text as, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," is taken as referring to one act, to be performed at a given time, and all is completed. There is willingness to trust Christ for the forgiveness of sins, but no real idea of trusting him for power to live by. This accounts for the large number of men and women OF THE GOSPEL 219 who have tried Christianity and made a failure of it. Having entered into life they attempted to go forward by themselves, and lost touch with the source of power. It is also the secret of the undeveloped Christian possibilities which everywhere are found. There is a false concep- tion of faith. Faith is the teachable, humble, trusting spirit, the spirit turned Godward. It is the confident, courageous, hopeful, working spirit. It is not the highest thing in the Chris- tian life, but is an indispensable condition of the highest and best. The continuance of life and its progressive develoment depend upon favor- able environment as truly in the spiritual world as in the natural. God is the environment of spiritual growth. By faith we come into living contact with that environment. Not merely for spiritual birth is faith necessary, but "the life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith." Another thing involved in faith is loyalty to Jesus Christ throughout the whole course of life. There is no true faith which does not include the spirit of obedience. Separate acts of obedience are the fruit of faith ; but the will to obey is a part of faith itself. Here again we find a secret of the superficial and fruitless Chris- tianity which is so prevalent. Another kind of faith than that of the New Testament has been in vogue a faith which has not realized that to 220 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT be a Christian means honest, determined, perma- nent loyalty to Jesus as Lord of daily living as well as Savior from death. Salvation involves so complete a change that it is no less a thing than death to the old life of selfishness and resurrection to a new life in which Christ shall rule ; a life in which every question is to be answered as Jesus would answer it, every thought tested by his thought, every act governed by his law of life. We are to live as he lived. " If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments," said Jesus. "If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." To take up our cross does not mean to do hard things ; it means to do the one great thing to crucify self. As Jesus did, so are we to do, be crucified, that we may follow him in self-sacri- ficing service. To be a Christian is to be Christ's man ; nothing else, nothing less. The continued life of faith, involving vital touch with God and loyal allegiance to Jesus, will be a sanctified life ; that is, a life set apart for sacred purposes, and becoming progressively holy. This is the New Testament idea of sanctifi- cation. When a man becomes a Christian he becomes a partner with God for the accomplish- ment of God's holy aims. But the vessel so set apart must be cleansed. Christians ought to be progressively overcoming sin. Sin should OF THE GOSPEL 221 have less dominion today than yesterday, less tomorrow than today Do we not almost ignore God's promise not to permit us to be tempted above that we are able to bear, but with every temptation to provide a way of escape ? Have we not overlooked Jesus' injunction to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect ? Have we not failed to lay to heart the truth declared by John that the man born of God cannot keep on sin- ning ? The fact that the New Testament doctrine of sanctification has sometimes been misunder- stood and brought into disrepute does not vitiate the truth of it, nor make less binding the obliga- tion on the part of God's people to rise to a higher plane of living. As men live by faith they will receive both the motive and the power to conquer sin. The result and reward of eternal life. These are to be found, not outside, but within, in Christlike character. In earthly life the highest reward is more life, something that will make life richer and deeper. So it is with eternal life. All figures and illustrations used in the Bible bring out this truth. The reward of eternal life is more eternal life an increased capacity and increased opportunities for life. " To him that hath shall be given," is the law of reward. This reward is the legitimate and logical result of the Christian life. As living in the realm of 222 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT eternal life involves increasing holiness, so the final result is holiness. Or is there any final result ? It is rather an endless process of growth and perfection. The new life itself is its own re- ward. The progressive character of the Christian prize does not, however, imply continued sin. Im- maturity and imperfection are not sin. They become sinful only when the process of develop- ment is arrested. A condition which is sinless today becomes sinful tomorrow, because one ought to have outgrown it and has not. We have reason to hope that for the Christian the time will come when growth will progress with- out sin. This involves Christlike character, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, full of infinite possibilities and unspeak- able delight. VI. ETERNAL LIFE AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. So far we have been considering the essential nature of the Christian salvation. We have found that it consists in eternal life, mediated from God to men through Jesus Christ. We now come to another aspect of the matter. Eternal life does not remain an isolated phe- nomenon, affecting only God and individual men, but enters into social relations and or- ganizes a new community, the kingdom of God. Sociology, therefore, at least in some of OF THE GOSPEL 223 its bearings, must be considered by Christian theology. The organic nature of the kingdom of God. The very idea of a kingdom involves life. In the kingdom of God the eternal life which we have been discussing is the life to be organized. This life is first ; not first a kingdom, and then life put into it; but there is first spiritual life, which then brings its subjects into social rela- tions, and so organizes for itself a kingdom. The kingdom of God is therefore organic; it is a living thing, not artificial and mechanical. That is to say, it is built up, not from without, but from within; it is not a governmental de- vice, but a family-kingdom, with all which that involves. This truth is one of great importance for an adequate understanding of the kingdom of God, and will save us from many theological pit- falls. Relations within the kingdom of God. Inas- much as eternal life is the life of the kingdom, we may justly expect that its various aspects will find expression here. Since these have already been discussed, nothing more is needed with reference to many of them save to indicate their mutual relations. i. God, the Author and Source of eternal life, is Sovereign in the kingdom of God. He is absolute Sovereign. In him the kingdom, with 224 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT all within it, has its being. It is a transcript of his nature, the revelation of himself. But be- cause the kingdom is a family-kingdom, God is Father as well as Sovereign, and has all of a father's love and care for his subjects, who are also sons. When we say that God is absolute Sovereign, therefore, it does not imply that he can act arbitrarily, or in a different way from the wise way he has chosen. God, as a being of ethical perfection, is impelled to the wisest and most beneficent course of action possible in every case; not from outside compulsion, but because he is the God he is. 2. Jesus, the Mediator of Eternal Life, is, by virtue of his position, the Founder of the king- dom of God on earth, and the Vicegerent of God in the kingdom. He is the anointed King, the " Messiah." Jesus made the law of the kingdom his own, and fulfilled it in his life on earth. In so doing he gave the kingdom a place in the world, and around him it has built itself up. He thereby also became its Law- giver and Ruler. For him to speak is for God to speak, because he has made God's thought and will his own. At the same time, Jesus was so completely identified with human life that he belongs to the human race. He is a part of humanity, the elder Brother of many brethren. The kingdom thus has the advantage of a Ruler OF THE GOSPEL 225 whom it can understand, for he speaks with a human voice; one whom it can trust and obey, for he speaks the thought of God, and with his authority. 3. Those who, by faith in Jesus, have re- ceived eternal life are the subjects of the king- dom of God. Not all men are, although God wishes them to be. Those alone are subjects who participate in the eternal spiritual life of the kingdom. Men come into the kingdom of God as they come into eternal life, by a new spiritual birth. Repentance of sin and faith in Christ are therefore the conditions of entrance into the kingdom of God; and this entrance by way of the new birth is accompanied by the for- giveness of sins. By virtue of the family nature of the king- dom the subjects of God are also the sons of God, and are brethren among themselves ; as sons, fellow-subjects, and brethren, they come into social relations that are governed by the law of the kingdom, which we are now pre- pared to consider. The law of the kingdom. There is only one law in the kingdom of God. All former laws are fulfilled in this, and all subsequent ones grow out of it. This law is love. God is love ; therefore love is supreme in the kingdom that is the expression of his nature. The law is not 226 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT external, but organically and ineradicably bound up in the kingdom itself. It was this law which Jesus made his own and fulfilled in himself, becoming thus by right Lawgiver in the king- dom ; and it is now binding upon all who become partakers of divine life, and just because they become partakers. The new life within them is love, and must express itself according to the law of love. Love is the law, therefore, which regulates the community life in the kingdom of God. Perhaps the law needs no further definition ; we know what love is. Christ, however, does not use the word that expresses the love of kin- ship and of earthly affection, but that which ex- presses the principle of altruism. Christian love is grounded in admiration, veneration, or good will, rather than in sense and emotion ; it is a mat- ter of choice rather than of impulse ; and it involves an unselfish, altruistic desire for the well-being of others. The all-inclusive law of love needs to be adapted to the concrete circumstances of daily living. Jesus himself began this work. Just as white light may be separated by the prism into the many rays that compose it, so Jesus separated this one great commandment "to love" into the various commands that apply directly to exist- ing conditions. Only he always made it plain OF THE GOSPEL 227 that these separate commands must continually be blending again into love, if character is to shine out with the clear Christian light. Aside from the intrinsic value of these special directions given by Jesus is their helpfulness as precedents for future adaptations of a similar kind. The apostles continued the work begun by Christ. Much of the value of their epistles lies just in this specific application of the law of the kingdom to the exigencies that arose as Christianity first came into contact with the secular world. The special conditions that called forth these letters have largely passed away, it is true; but the apostolic decisions help us both directly and in- directly better to understand the gospel and better to express it in concrete laws for present conditions. " Greet one another with a holy kiss," is a local commandment. But it helps us to realize more fully that the law of love does not permit Christian brethren to pass each other by with scant courtesy and averted looks. How the law of the kingdom is fulfilled, This law of the kingdom, the law of love, is to be fulfilled in all the relationships of the king- dom. It is to be fulfilled toward God by un- anxious trust in him as the strong and wise and loving Father ; in the consciousness that he, on his part, fulfils the law toward men by caring for them. Christians are to go about 228 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT their tasks as laborers together with God, mak- ing his will theirs, and choosing his purposes as ends that shall dominate and give meaning to all their work. So choosing, and so living, they are to work from day to day easily, with- out friction and without worry. Such an atti- tude toward God gives men right views of life, and lets them understand it in its true proportions. No human cure for restlessness can begin to compare with this clear view of the most important things in life and this calm trust in the heavenly Father. The law of love is not fulfilled toward him till his children thus trust him. If an earthly father can never be satisfied unless his child has confidence in him, much less can the heavenly Father, who wants men's loving trust above all things else in the universe. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Perfect love casts out fear and brings in trust. Christ has fulfilled the law of love toward us by the vicarious bearing of our griefs and sins, even unto death. He continues to fulfil it by still offering his companionship and com- fort, guidance and strength. On our part this law is to be fulfilled toward Christ by sin- cere faith and loving service, with all which these involve of confidence, trust, and obedience. "If ye love me, ye will keep my command- OF THE GOSPEL 229 ments." But he does not require the service of slaves. He calls us no more servants, but friends. Hence the fulfilment of the law of love toward him involves an obedience that is ren- dered in the spirit of joyful and willing loyalty, not of fear. He is our companion and friend, to walk with us through the dark and hard places of life, as well as along the easy paths : "Lo, I am with you alway." Christian service can thus never degenerate into the perfunc- tory performance of duty. It is always glorified by love. "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me noth- ing." The law of love is to be fulfilled among the fraternal subjects of the kingdom by mutual burden-bearing. "Bear ye one another's bur- dens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," says the apostle. The only way love has of truly express- ing itself is by burden-bearing. That was why Christ entered the life of humanity. God might have declared his love forever from the heavens, and the world would not have believed it, and would have given no heed. Christ proved his love, and God's, by becoming the world's burden- bearer, and himself fulfilling the law of the king- dom in that way. So also must the subjects fulfil the law of Christ. The judgment scene in 230 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew here finds its significance, and does not need any far- fetched interpretation to satisfy theological exi- gencies. Men are judged by their deeds of help- fulness, because these deeds are the only real proof that they are dominated by the law of the kingdom. " By their fruits ye shall know them." The kingdom also cornes into relations with the outside world. The same law is to govern its subjects there, even though it is not recipro- cated, but is met by the law of the world. God does not confine his love and care to the sub- jects of the kingdom. He makes his sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends his rain alike upon the just and the unjust. He loves the world. He commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Jesus came, not to the righteous, but to sinners; the sick are the ones who need the physician. If God and Christ thus show their love outside the kingdom, so must the sub- jects also. The lawgiver of the kingdom him- self says : " Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you ; that ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven. If ye love them which love you, and salute your brethren only, what do ye more than the publicans ?" OF THE GOSPEL 231 It is in this way that the nature and worth of the kingdom are to be impressed upon those who are without. As it was first estab- lished by Jesus in deeds, so is it to be propa- gated. There is no salvation divorced from love ; and here also it remains true that the only proof of love is in burden-bearing. If Chris- tians are to help men, they must suffer with them and for them. Protestations will never do it. Preaching alone will not do it. Jesus showed his love by deeds of mercy. Having thus proved it to men, he saved them by it. The church must awaken to this fact, if it is to impress the truth of the kingdom upon the world and bring men within its own realm. It will reach "the masses" when it goes about it in Jesus' way, and not till then. The subjects of the kingdom are to fulfil its law in their relations with the outside world, further, by uncompromising hostility to sin. Sin is humanity's greatest enemy. He who loves humanity most will fight sin hardest. He will fight it in himself and in others wherever it shows its head. A man cannot be a loyal mem- ber of the kingdom of God, having the mind of Christ, dominated by love, and not take Christ's attitude of deadly conflict with sin. Again, the subjects of the kingdom are to fulfil its law by taking their place in the world's 2 j2 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT life and faithfully performing their obligations there. When a man enters the kingdom of God he does not thereby cease to belong to the kingdom of humanity. Humanity also is an organism, and each man is a component part. There are still the human relations of family and industrial and civic life to be fulfilled. "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called," says the apostle to the subjects of the kingdom who would repudiate their larger human duties. If the church had remembered this truth its history would not have been so marked by outrage to common human nature. Neither should it now withdraw from the world and leave it to the devil. In the world of human life the conflict is to be waged and the kingdom's conquest won. The progress and consummation of the kingdom. The considerations just adduced lead directly to the last topic to be discussed the consumma- tion of the kingdom of God ; together with that which is intimately connected with, and results directly in, this final consummation, namely, the future progress of the kingdom. These two are inseparable parts of one movement. In order to see its significance let us look again, and a little more closely, at the relation existing be- tween the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. The kingdom of the world, or OF THE GOSPEL 233 of humanity, is organic. No man is isolated, or can be. All men are bound together, not in artificial or mechanical union, to be broken at will, but by the common human life that has found expression in an organic community of all humanity. This old Scripture idea is re- ceiving an entirely new emphasis today through scientific sociology. But the kingdom of God also is an organism, its members being vitally related by means of the new divine life that they have received, and which has expressed itself in the community of the kingdom. Yet the mem- bers of this kingdom are also members of the kingdom of the world, thus constituting an organ- ism within an organism. Herein is disclosed the cause of the social ferment and the significance of the future course of the kingdom of God upon earth. However it came about, the kingdom of humanity has be- come the kingdom of the world, in which the supreme law is the law of selfishness, each man seeking his own isolated good, swayed by earthly passions, aiming at worldly gains, circumscribed by sensuous surroundings. Persistent strife for personal and selfish interests characterizes the world's life. We will freely and gladly admit that this law does not have free course, and that there are many instances in which the divine constitution of humanity asserts its latent power 2 3 4 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT and breaks the law of selfishness. It still re- mains true, however, that this law is the dominat- ing one in the kingdom of the world. It is within this kingdom, and as a constituent part of it, because claiming its subjects while not detaching them, that the kingdom of God is organized, not only with new aims and a law of its own, but with aims and a law diametrically and eternally opposed to those of the world. The world-conflict is begun a conflict inherent, inevitable, and to the death. It is easy to see this struggle between the laws of the two kingdoms in the individual, but it is also worth our while to understand the nature of the movement as a world-conflict of social forces. The peculiar character of this conflict lies in the fact that the same men are members of both organisms, and the law of each claims dominion over them. When a man has once come into the kingdom of God, has seen the beauty of the King, and has felt the power of love, this new life becomes the most cherished treasure of his soul, and by its own vital force asserts its domin- ion. At the same time this man, as subject also in the kingdom of the world, must take his place in the world and do his work in society. But inasmuch as the law of society still remains the law of the world, which is firmly intrenched in industrial and social institutions, when the sub- OF THE GOSPEL 235 jects of the kingdom of God come into this complex social life, of which they are still an organic part, they come perforce into conflict with the laws of the kingdom of the world. They must either act according to the old social laws, and outrage their conscience, or else stand by their conscience and commit social and industrial suicide ; or, as is probably the case with the majority, adopt the laws of the world, and strive to still their conscience by attempting to mitigate the more glaring evils of worldliness, and color them a little with the halo of the heavenly kingdom's love. Nothing at the present day so hinders the progress of the kingdom of God as this persist- ence of the old law of the world in social institu- tions. And the time is coming when it must give way. Eventually Christians must either with- draw from the world or conquer it wholly. No one who comprehends at all the nature and power of Christianity will doubt which is to be. When the new kingdom began on earth, it found the law of the kingdom of the world dominant. It could not be expected to overthrow this at once ; the leaven must have time to spread. It did make the attempt, however, within three hundred years, when the Catholic church, as an earthly organi- zation of the kingdom of God, entered into conflict with the kingdom of the world. But 236 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT this was done under a misconception of the inner nature of the contest. The church adopted, first the weapons, and then the law, of the world, and ended by itself becoming a worldly kingdom fighting for supremacy among other worldly kingdoms. The true kingdom of God had not yet gained strength enough to change the old constitution of society. But this kingdom has been quietly growing through the centuries. Its nature is becoming ever more clearly understood in the midst of God's historical discipline, and its real power is felt today over a wider range of life than ever before. Perhaps the time has not yet come when the new kingdom can overthrow the old, drive the law of selfishness out of social institutions, and incorporate the new law of love. But that day is approaching, and will surely come. Just how soon it will come depends, not upon God, for he has always been doing his utmost to bring it to pass, but upon the fidelity of the children of the kingdom to its principles, and upon the courage and wisdom with which they conduct the warfare against the kingdom of the world. The conflict will not cease until the kingdom of God triumphs. Already the expansive power of the gospel has occasioned great social upheavals and overturn- ings. It is destined to work yet greater revolu- tions. For this struggle is the meaning of the OF THE GOSPEL 237 world's history, and is shaping its course. Some- times quiescent beneath the surface, recuperating the exhausted forces, ever and again breaking out in fierce open battle at the world's historical crises, still the mighty combat wages and yet shall wage. This is the coming world-struggle, this fight of the kingdom of God to dominate the institutional life of mankind. The kingdom already is gain- ing strength for victory. As surely as it is the right kingdom for humanity, and contains its highest good and that is as sure as that God, whose nature the kingdom expresses, is right just so surely there must come a radical transfor- mation of society, in which the law of this king- dom shall supplant the law of the kingdom of the world. Then shall be fulfilled the divine ideal of the future which was the hope of the Hebrew prophets, even when the powers of the world were strongest ; then shall be realized the divine vision of John the apostle, when, exiled by the kingdom of the world, he looked into the future and saw the day when that kingdom not "kingdoms" had become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ; then shall be reached that consummation which has been the dream of prophets and seers in all ages, " That one far-off divine event Toward which the whole creation moves." 1 1 It is well to call attention again to the fact that this triumph of Christianity is the sublime assumption of the gospel itself, and 238 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT This will be the triumph of the Son of man, when he shall come in glory. The kingdom that he founded in lowliness and apparent defeat, but with sublime faith in its ultimate success, will have vindicated its divine power and its Founder's true perception of the deepest needs of humanity. What more there will be in the coming of the Son of man we do not know. It seems probable that he will come in this final triumph, as he has in former partial triumphs, by way of some great social upheaval, which will constitute the ultimate crisis of history and mark the death throes of the kingdom of the world. But it is hardly worth while to attempt to rend the veil of the future that we may see the circumstances accompanying the end. The language of Scripture is figurative and vague with reference to everything except the fact itself. And nothing else is of serious im- portance. In view, however, of the commentary of the past eighteen hundred years, it is fairly certain that this result will be accomplished as a part of the historical process itself, and not by some spectacular event wholly outside of organic connection with the previous development of the kingdom. The day of the deus ex machina is past. that no attempt is here made to prove it. See Introduction, pp. xxiv-xxvi. The only thing attempted here is to point out the char- acter of the conflict and the direction which it will take. An adequate treatment of the subject would of course require a much fuller discussion than can be entered into in this outline. OF THE GOSPEL 239 Such is the future of the kingdom; but how about its consummation ? Properly speak- ing, there is no consummation. It is an ever- lasting kingdom ; of it there shall be no end. This triumph of the kingdom marks, however, the consummation of the age the age in which it was founded, and which is character- ized by the dominance of the kingdom of the world and the new kingdom's growing strength. What will come after this age we know only inferentially. Just as with the individual the very process of living the new life brings its own intrinsic reward in the form of Christlike char- acter and richer life, so also with the kingdom will the next age be the logical and necessary outcome of its own nature as manifested in the course of its development. The desire of the human mind for definiteness here, for the compassing of the end, will not be satisfied ; for there is no end. We have left the realm of finite time, and passed beyond the limits of finite thought, out into the eternities of God which conceal the beginning and the end from our most searching gaze. It is well so. In this the divinity of the kingdom again manifests itself. Its last message, from as far into the future as the human mind can reach, is that the highest good of man is not a fixed state, but still a growth and a becoming. CHAPTER III. CONCLUSION. LOOKING back now at the whole process which we have tried to describe, and the conclusions reached, it is hoped that the significance of the matter set forth is plain. The author of this volume certainly does not make any claim to the original discovery of the nature of the movement that has been going on, or to an exclusive appre- ciation of its meaning, although he has nowhere seen it described in the systematic form here given it. 1 Detached perceptions of it appear here and there, and the ideas are fast making their way as a part of intelligent Christian think- ing everywhere. Indeed, it is surprising how rapidly the conditions of religious thought are changing, and from how many different sources come words which show that men are dealing with the problem discussed in the foregoing 1 Since writing these words the author has read Harnack's great work, in which the historical aspects of the subject here treated are so clearly brought out. While Harnack does not directly discuss the question either of the recovery or the restate- ment of the gospel, yet his views concerning both are very evi- dent. Harnack's later lectures, "What is Christianity?" come nearer the core of the matter. 240 OF THE GOSPEL 241 pages. An attempt has here been made to bring these current ideas into definite expression and give to the subject the importance that it de- serves. The significance of the matter for the theo- logical world is of such far-reaching import that without exaggeration it may be compared to the revolution wrought by Kant in philosophy, and by Copernicus in astronomy. 1 It will be inter- esting to recall Kant's words : In metaphysical speculations it has always been assumed that all our knowledge must conform to objects ; but every attempt from this point of view to extend our knowledge of objects a priori by means of conceptions has ended in failure. The time has now come to ask whether better progress may not be made by supposing that objects must conform to our knowledge Our suggestion is similar to that of Copernicus in astronomy, who, finding it impos- sible to explain the movements of the heavenly bodies on the supposition that they turned round the spectator, tried whether he might not succeed better by supposing the spectator to revolve and the stars to remain at rest. Let us make a similar experiment in metaphysics with per- ception. The revolution now going on in theology is like these in astronomy and philosophy in that it radically changes the center of things in the science affected. Ever since the inception of 'It is hardly necessary to state that the author does not mean that the importance of his own production is to be compared to the work of Kant and Copernicus ; the reference is to the change in thought just referred to as becoming so common. 242 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT theology the gospel has been made to revolve about philosophy. Or, at the very best, philoso- phy has constituted an independent center co- ordinate with the gospel, and the two have revolved about each other. Sometimes, as at the first, this philosophy has come from outside sources ; at other times it has been found within authorized Christianity, in the theology that had itself become a speculative system. From the days of the origin of theology, when the historical Jesus was displaced by the philosophical Logos, and the heavenly Father was transformed into a meta- physical idea, up to the present time, the philo- sophical domination has continued in Chris- tianity. Each generation has taken up the process where the preceding generation left off, and has added theological cycle to epicycle in the hope of reconciling the new knowledge with the old system. But the discrepancies have finally become so pronounced as to make it evident that the trouble is not one of accidental aberrations, but that something is fundamentally wrong in the system itself. Theology, according to the old method, has often proved a failure. Instead of leading the life of the church, it has lagged behind and become a burden. Its whole course is marked by arid stretches of acrimonious intel- lectualism that have misrepresented the gospel of Jesus and weakened its power. OF THE GOSPEL 243 The time has now come when it is worth while to see whether better success may not be achieved by a change of center ; and, instead of supposing the gospel to revolve about philosophical dogmas, to make these revolve about the historical Jesus of Nazareth. Each generation, instead of start- ing with the theological conclusions of a former time, will thus be sent back for itself to the gospel of Jesus, and will state this gospel de novo as often as changing conditions make it advisable to do so. Superficial theological makeshifts will disappear, along with the false system which made them necessary, and that real harmony will be brought to light which always manifests itself when the true center is found. In every department of knowledge this emer- gence of harmony is the strongest proof that the right theory has been discovered ; the phenomena are satisfactorily explained. The best evidence that a certain key is the right one is that it turns the bolt of the lock. The best and only proof that the right key has been discovered for the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics is that they make sense when interpreted by it. The demonstration of the truth of the Copernican system is that it reveals harmonious order in the movements of the heavenly bodies. In like man- ner, the best proof that the new theological center here contended for is the true one lies in the 244 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT fact that this theory satisfactorily explains the phenomena of the religious and theological world and reduces them to harmony. It does this both in the historical and in the practical realms. Historically, it accounts for the course taken by Christianity, and especially by Christian dog- matics, throughout its development, as well as for the condition of things existing at the present time in the religious world. By it is made clear the real nature of the gospel, and of theology, and the legitimate relations of the two. The early powerful influence of the gospel before the theological process began is explained. We understand also why it took so strong a hold upon the thinking of the second and immediately suc- ceeding centuries, as it transformed itself into a welcome philosophy of salvation, founded upon divine revelation. We see how, along with the dogmatic system, there grew up the congenial institution of the Catholic church, which divided with it the allegiance of men, and how these two, the church and theology, became the dis- ciplinary forces during the long period of the development of the Germanic peoples. But we perceive also at what fatal cost this conquest was made; how the transformation of the Christian faith into a semi-pagan philosophy, and the con- version of the Spirit-filled church into a worldly OF THE GOSPEL 245 institution, resulted in a disastrous depotentiali- zation of Christianity, and changed its essential nature. It is easy to understand, therefore, why the conversion of the world to this kind of a reli- gion should leave Christian society half pagan and produce such deep-seated and widespread misconception of what it means to be a Christian. The whole condition of things in the modern world also is explained by this view. The re- discovery of the gospel in the reopened Bible led to the great practical Reformation of the sixteenth century, when the new reality-seeking spirit began to make itself felt in religion. It failed to do more, at first, than reform the glar- ing abuses of the church and reassert the prin- ciple of salvation by faith in Jesus, as set forth in the New Testament. The old dogmatic en- tanglements remained, and theology quickly ac- quired increased importance when it was left to monopolize the attention hitherto shared with the church. Even then trouble might not have arisen if the knowledge emphasized had been contemporary knowledge. But it was that of the Greek and Roman world. Meanwhile the modern spirit had created a new knowledge, built up by the new scientific method, and had made the ancient culture obsolete. During the Middle Ages, theology had maintained its hold by perpetuating the ancient culture with 246 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT which it was bound up, accomplishing this espe- cially through the Aristotelian philosophy and the Ptolemaic cosmology. Then suddenly the whole ancient structure sank out of sight. Yet the Protestant theology insisted upon clinging to it and trying to bring it back to a place in the modern world. The result is theological confu- sion and controversy, in which is being waged the last conflict between two civilizations and two bodies of culture. Meanwhile two hundred years before the open Bible had produced an evangelical movement ac- cording to the spirit of the gospel, which expressed itself in practical missionary activity at home and abroad, but without any adequate theological leadership. Along with this movement, although independent of it, there arose a scientific study of the Scriptures that has produced a new bibli- cal knowledge. It has now been discovered that the theological system which has been claiming sanctity is not to be found in the Bible at all. Meanwhile the new science of church history comes in and tells us where this theology came from : that it attached itself to the gospel during the progress of the centuries, and has nothing divine about it except the halo cast over it by the gospel which it professes to set forth. Here is disclosed the condition of things that has di- vorced theology from the life of the church and OF THE GOSPEL 247 given rise to the movements and parties of the modern religious world. But in the midst of all the currents and countercurrents, we see ever more clearly the advance of the main stream of progress a stream gaining in definiteness and volume every day, drawing the lesser currents into itself in increasing numbers, and moving forward with resistless, because divine, force to- ward a great theological reformation which shall overthrow the first and oldest heresy that changed the gospel of salvation into a system of metaphysical philosophy, and which shall set Christianity free to leave the culture of the ancient world behind it and enter untrammeled into modern life on a new career of conquest. All of this historical process of Christianity becomes plain as we stand at the new center and look out upon it. Practically, the theological theory here ad- vocated commends itself by putting its adherents into closer touch with God and with humanity. Returning the gospel to its rightful jurisdiction over the conscience and the will, instead of mak- ing it chiefly a matter of the intellect, it brings theology back from the clouds of scholastic specu- lation into a living world. It sends a man with new determination to the Bible, to learn more of Jesus and his divine way of salvation. It urges him to 248 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT a new study of history in the hope of a clearer understanding of Christian truth through its mani- festation in the historical development. It puts him into sympathy with present-day life in all of its aspects, and impels him to seek a better un- derstanding of social conditions and needs, be- cause the world is God's and the object of his redemptive work. Thus touching a living God and a present world, and seeking to give a new incarnation to the divine Spirit of Jesus, men are forced forward by an irresistible impulse to bring the world to God. The proverbial influence of theology, at least ever since those first days when it had vital meaning, has been to remove its vo- taries from the world of affairs. Here is a the- ology that will give a man no rest until it has sent him forth to the age in which he lives with Jesus' message of salvation. Theology becomes a means to an end, and not an end in itself. In this theology the modern spirit is given an opportunity in religion such as it has enjoyed in other realms, to turn away from the traditional and hypothetical back to real conditions and vital issues. Religious reality is here set forth. We see again the age-long struggle between sin and righteousness, centering about Him to whom we are ever forced to look as the one who alone can lead the way to victory. Salvation is again a real deliverance from sin, not some judicial or meta- OF THE GOSPEL 249 physical fiction. The living Father, the personal Savior, the ever-present Spirit are restored to the position assigned them in the New Testament, but so long usurped by a metaphysical Trinity and a speculative Christology. The return of theology to religious reality and to the accomplishment of its mission in the world, which results from the adoption of the view advocated, is a strong proof that the right theory has been found. We need have no expectation that this new theological adjustment will save the world. No theology can do that. The tendency of human nature to sin will still remain. The forces of evil will not have abated their determined activity. But it will be something, it will be much, to have removed the artificial hindrances to the spread of Christianity, and again leave the divine gospel unfettered to accomplish its mission in the world. The gospel of Jesus, as expressed in the New Testament, and especially in the evangelical nar- ratives, is the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and constitutes the permanent Christian message, set forth in living terms that every gen- eration can understand. It will be the lasting glory of the nineteenth century that it led re- ligious thought back up the tortuous channel of ecclesiastical history to the clear perennial springs of Christian truth in the New Testament 250 RECOVERY AND RESTATEMENT sources, and thus brought about the recovery of this gospel. Is it too much to expect that this task has been done once for all, and that the New Testament gospel may now remain the inalienable heritage of men in all ages ? It certainly is to be hoped that every generation will maintain the hard-won right to stand before the open Bible and read there the gospel mes- sage for itself, in all of the purity and power with which it came from the sacred lips of Him who gave it to the world at the cost of such infinite sacrifice. Then let each age do for itself what the first centuries did : so express this universal gospel in terms of contemporary thought and in- stitutional life that it shall exercise its maximum influence upon the men of that age, and bring to them in greatest fulness the blessings of God's salvation in Jesus Christ. INDEX. Alexandrian School, 34, 46. Anselm, 200. Apostles: as theologians, 116, 192; their gospel the same as Christ's, 117; inspiration of, 190, 193. Apostles' Creed, 32. Aristotle, 3, 61 note, 246. Art and literature: realism in, 6, 7. Asceticism, 61 note. Astronomy, 3, 5. Atonement, 57 ff., 65, 172, 198 ff. Augsburg Confession, 77. Augustine, 39, 76, 77, So, 84, no, 115, 208. Authority, 49, 50, 72, 79, 81 ff., 191 f., 194, 227. Baur, 102, 106. Bible: place of in Lutheran Refor- mation, 79, 81 ff., 93; place of in Protestantism, 83 ; confusion of with theology, 83, 84, 85, 91, 109, no, 170, 171, 172 ; place of in nineteenth- century reformation, 92 ff. ; popular reopening of, 95 ff. ; scientific reop- ening of, 98 ff., 108 ; the two reopen- ings compared, no, in ; inspiration of, 106, 115 ff., 190; place of in Christianity, 188 ff., 194, 227. Calvin, So, 85, no, 115. Canon of the New Testament, 31, 114. Carey, 96. Christianity ( see also " Gospel " ) : what is it, xix, xxi, 149, 187, 220; restatement of, xxiii, 112, 153 ff., 250; transformation of, 19 ff., 27 ff. ; per- sonal element in, 47 ff. ; propagation of, 160 ff., 231. Chiistology, 35 note, 36, 54, 65, 75 ff., I2O, 137, 172, 2OI ff., 204, 224. Church fathers, 3. Church history, xxi f., 19, 90, 91, 109. Classes of educated people, 99 ff. Conflict between kingdom of God and kingdom of the world, 232 ff. Copernicus, 241. Council of Trent, 77. Deism, 98. Depravity, 210. Descartes, 6. Dogma, dogmatics (see also "Theol- ogy"), 27 ff., 32, 34, 35, 35 note, 36 ff., 43, 64, 75 ff., 80, 91, 97, 109, "5, 147. i?o, 172. "Enlightenment," 98. Eternal life, 213 ff. ; nature of, 214; entrance into, 214 ; continuance in, 218 ff. ; result and reward, 221, 222; and the kingdom of God, 222 ff. Eternal punishment, 217, 218. Exegesis, xxi f. ; new science of, 90, 102, 103 ff ., 106, 179 ; attitude^toward New Testament, 112 ff. Faith, 41, 47, 135, 136, 215, 218, 219, 225. Finney, 96. Forgiveness, 225; Christ's usage, 54 ff., 115,124; Paul's usage, 55, 56: theological usage, (56; compared with justification, 57, 65; nature of, 216. God : Jesus' usage, 50 ff., 65, 115, 120; Paul's usage, 50,51; theologi- cal usage, 52, 53; Author of sal- vation, 122, 205 ff. ; interpreted by Christ, 205 ; nature of, 205 ff . Gospel, The: obscuration of, xv ff., 40 ff., 42 ff., 46, 47 ff., 59 ff., 64 ff., 66, 91 ; finality of, xxv, 173 ; recovery of, 67 ff.,gi, 97, 107, in, 249 ; re-eclipse of, 73 ff., 85 ff., 87, 88 ; fundamental nature of, 118, 135 ff., 138 ff., 144 ff., 146 ff., 153, 197. Gospel narratives, 117, 189. Gnost's, 32, 36 note, 64, 113. Gnosticism, 32, 33 ff. Greek influence, 20, 28 ff., 38, 39, 42 ff., 47, 64, 75, 78, 89. Greek philosophy, 28 ff., 32, 75. 251 2 5 2 INDEX Hamack, 35 note, 61 note, 240 note. Hegel, 1 01. Herder, 102. Heresy, 23, 45, 60, 77, 88. Historical conditions explained, 244 ff. History, 7, 8. Holy Spirit, 49, 65, 82, 206. Idealism, 98, 101 . Individualism, 72. Interpretation (see "Exegesis"). Irenaeus, 34. Jesus Christ: the ultimate reality, xxiv-xxvi, 17, 108; displacement of, 40 f-. 53. 54. 64; the object of faith, 41, 136 ; recovery of, 107, 108 ; death of, 119; mediator of salvation, 118, 197 ff ., 224 ; relation to God, 120, 121, 201 ff., 204 ; nature of, 120, 121, 201 ff., 204,224; Lord of the king- dom, 125, 224 ; position in theology, 187 ff., 107 ; the founder and founda- tion of Christianity, 189, 196 ; mis- sion of, 198 ff. ; commandments of, 226 ; final coming of, 238. John, writings of, 114, 123, 129. Justification : Paul's usage, 55, 56, 191 ; theological usage, 56; compared with forgiveness, 57, 65, 191 ; Luther's revival of, 70, 115, 192. Kant, 101, 241. Kingdom of God, 123 ff., 222 ff. ; con- ditions of entrance, 124; life in, 125, 222 ff. ; Christ ruler of, 125, 224; law of, 125, 126, 225 ff. ; holiness in, 126 ; present and future, 127 ; as a society, 128, 197, 225, 229, 233 ff. ; organic nature of, 222, 233 ff. ; rela- tions within, 223 ff. ; subjects of, 335, 233 ff. ; law of fulfilled, 227 ff. ; author of, 223, 224 ; same subjects as kingdom of humanity, 232 ff. ; progress and consummation of, 232 if. ; conflict with kingdom of the world, 232 ff. ; triumph of, 237, 238. Lateran council, 37, 76. Lessing, 103. Logos, 35 note, 53 ff., 65, 303. Love, 225 ff., 227 ff. Lowell, quotation from, 88. Luther, 70, 82, 93, no, 115. Lutheran Reformation, 14, 68 ff., 73, 74. "4. Man : origin of, 207 ff. ; nature of, 209 ff. ; recipient of eternal life, 207 ff. ; a sinner, 210 ; as subject of kingdom, 225. Modern culture, 4 ff., 10, u, 85 ff.; and ancient theology, 86, 87, 101, 177 ; and ancient culture, 98, 101. Modem spirit, The : in nature, 3 ff. ; in religion, 12 ff., 16, 248; and Lutheran Reformation, 86 ; and nine- teenth-century reformation, 89. Montanism, 26, 32, 60 note. Moody, 96. Moral element, 59 ff., 66. Neoplatonism, 35 note. New Testament (see also "Bible"), viii, 90, 112 ff., 189 ff., 195, 196. New Testament and dogma, 78. Nicaea, council of, 37 note. Nineteenth-century reformation, 16 ff., 89 ff., 97, 109, no, 249. Origen, 34, 36, 36 note, 43, 46, 101, 103, no, 208. Orthodox, orthodoxy, 32, 34, 45, 91, 100, 1 01, 144. Paul, 50, 55, 56, 84, 105, 114, 115, 172, 191. Paul of Samosata, 37 note. Personal element: eclipse of, 47 ff., 50 ff., 59, 65; restoration of, 248, 249. Philosophy, 6, 28 ff., 44, 175, 242. Pistt's, 32, 64, 113. Probabilism, 61 note. Protestantism, 72; distinctive princi- ples, 72, 73; antinomies of, 79; early changes in, 79, Si, 83, 85; union of, 107, 181, 182; weakness in, 162; theology of, 74, So, 81, 86, 87, 181, 182. Ptolemy, 3, 246. Rationalism, 98. Reality: ultimate in Christ, xii-xiv, 17 ; search for in nature, 3 ff. ; search for in religion, 12 ff., 15 ff. ; loss of in religion, 13, 15; restora- tion of, 17, 248. Reformers, 74, So. Regeneration, 214 ff. Renaissance, 3, 85. Repentance, 135, 215, 225. INDEX 253 Return to Christ's gospel, 17, 114 ff., 185 ff. Revivals, 96, 97, 161, 178. Roman Catholic Church, 13, 20 ff., 37. Roman Catholic theology, 13, 16, 27 ff. , 77- Roman influence, 20, 27, 28, 38, 39, 42, 48, 64, 69. Romanticism, 98. Rule of faith, the, 33, 36 note. Salvation, 41, 47 ff., 70, 78 ; nature of, 123 ff., 129; as kingdom of God, 123 ff., 222 ff. ; conditions of, 124, 130; as eternal life, 129 ff., 213 ff. ; as the theme of the gospel, 197. Sanctification, 220. Schleiermacher, 101. Science, 4, 5. Secularization of worship, 42. Semler, 102. Sin: origin of, 211 ff. ; nature of, 212 ff. Social relations, sociology, 9, 134, 163, 197, 209, 222 ff., 225, 233 ff. Soul, origin of, 208. Sovereignty of God, 115, 206, 223. Strauss, 102, 106. Synoptic gospels, 123. Tennyson, quotation from, 175, 237. Terminology: of the four gospels, 123, 129, 132; gospel not identical with, 133; of Jesus, 133, 134, 185; of theology, 148. Tertullian, 34, 39, So, 84. Theology (see also "Dogma") : and the biblical sciences, 90, 179; nature of, 154 ff., 180; subject-matter of, 155 ff., 197; duty of, 156, 176, 178, 184; presuppositions of, 157, 139, 206; consequences of, 158, 159; value of, 159 ff., 164 ff., 1676.; preaching of, 160, 161, 162, 178; right of restatement, 170 ff., 173 ff. ; temporary [character of, 174, 175; need of restatement, 176 ff., 184, 188; position of Jesus in, 187 ff.; the new center, 241 ff. ; practical influence of, 247, 248. Threefold morality, 61 note. Trinity, 36, 75 ff., 172. Vatke, 102. Voltaire, 101. Wesley, 96. Wordsworth, quotation from, 63. er 75- THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY