Reason and Authority ^ IN Religion PKOF -^ ^ ^^i ->*/x t*xv\ ot t\w ®l««»%ral ^ '; Jl. IS. Cfi nttiii PRINCETON, N. J. Iff. Shelf BR 121 .S84 1891 c.2 Sterrett, James Macbride, 1847-1923. Reason and authority in religion ^^^ « BY Studies THE SAME AUTHOR, in Hegel's Philosophy of Religion. WITH AN APPENDIX ON CHRISTIAN UNITY. Price, . . . $2.00. REASON AND AUTHORITY RELIGION BY f J. MACBRIDE^STERRETT, D.D. PROFESSOR OF ETHICS AND APOLOGETICS IN SEABURY DIVINITY SCHOOL NEW YORK THOMAS WHITTAKER 2 AND 3 BIBLE HOUSE 189I Copyright 1891, BY J. MACBRIDE STERRETT. TO ittott)cr THE FIRST REASONABLE AUTHORITY IN RELIGION. PREFACE. Current discussions of contemporary religious themes and thinkers. J. MACBRIDE STERRETT. Faribault, Minn., October, 1890. CONTjElN^TS. CHAPTER I. THE GROUND OF CERTITUDE IN RELIGION. PART I. Reason and Authority in Religion. PAGE Discredit of Old Authorities 15 The Function of Criticism 16 Theories of Society Supplanting Theories of the Individual 20 Danger of Weak Romanticizing 22 The Right of Private Judgment 25 Ground and the " Urgrund " of Religion ... 27 Religion Genuinely Human 30 What is Religion ? 31 Revelation , . 32 Faith 34 Sub-personal Conceptions of the First Prin- ciple 36 The Ultimate Conception of the First Prin- ciple 38 Religion Has a History 41 X CONTENTS. PAGE "I Believe " implies a " They Believed " and a " We Believe " 43 What Do I Believe ? 44 Why Do I Believe the Cathohc Faith ? 45 PART n. The Psychological Forms of Religion. Three Chief Forms : Feeling, Knowing and Willing 49 1. Religion as Feeling 50 3. Religion as Knowing 53 (a) That of Conception 53 The Catechetical and Dogmatic Pe- riod 56 (5) Reflection, Criticism and Doubt 60 Saintly Doubt 61 Sinful Doubt 65 Faith as the Ground of Much Skepti- cism 66 Religious Knowledge Conditioned by the Incarnation 68 (c) Comprehension the Highest Form of Knowing 69 The Function of Philosophy 71 The Necessity of Religious Certitude.. 75 Philosophy of History 78 Philosophy of Religion 79 CONTENTS.. xi PAGE Modern Thought as Christian Thought 81 Use of the Nicene Symbol 83 Non-CEcumenical Theology and Theories... 84 The Law of Liberty also the Law of Duty. . . 85 The " Must" of the Bible 86 Open Questions 90 Inadequacy of Mere Theoretical Knowledge. 93 PART III. Beligion as Willing. This Rome-element Records Its Creed in Its Deed 96 The Moral Argument for Christianity 97 Instituted Christianity — the Kingdom of God 99 Mechanical and Ethical Conceptions of the Church 99 The Church and the State 100 Greek, Roman and Germanic Elements in Modern Christianity 102 The Christian Consciousness and Authority. 104 Self-Consciousness and Certitude 107 COATENTS. CHAPTER II. AUTHORITY IN RELIGION. PAGE Two Notable Books on Authority in Re- ligion 109 The Authors of the *' Lux Mundi " Ill How Influenced by German Criticism and Philosophy, by Prof. T. H. Green, and the Oxford Heg-elianism. — Their Appeal to Reason 114 The Divine Immanence 117 The Historical Method 119 " Open Questions " Granted 127 Dr. Martineau's Previous Works ; Their Character and Style 129 His Bald Individualism 134 His Critical Method and Negative Results. . . 146 Criticism of His Book by Contrast with the *'LuxMundi" 150 Bouleversment of this Party's Method 154 These New Leaders Change It from a " Party " into a '' School of Thought " 158 Their Adoption of Hegelian Conceptions of Rationality, Revelation and Authority. ... 164 CONTENTS. xiii PAGE Two Criticisms of Their Work 178 (1) Their Conception of the Church too Insular to be Quite CathoHc 178 (2) The Danger of Our Uncritical Restor- ation of So-called Catholic Customs, or the Vagaries of Ritualism 183 Welcome Their Spirit and Method, if not all of Their Results 183 OHAPTEE I. THE GROUND OF CERTITUDE IN RELIGION. PART I. REASON AND AUTHORITY IN RELIGION. Discredit of Old Authorities. " Father, don't you know that we left that word ' must ' behind when we came to this new country?" This was Patrick's reply to a priest, who said that he 7nust take his children from the public school and must send them to the parish school . This fairly represents the uttered or concealed reply of the mass of thinking men in the modern world to any presentation of the old au- thorities, when prescribed without further g-round than an uncriticised imperative. We have left behind the 7nust of an infallible Church, of an infallible Bible, and of an unerring* reason. Each one of 16 REASON AND AUTHORITY these in turn has been abstracted from an organic process and proposed as the authoritative basis of belief. The inade- quacy of the proof for such infallibility has rendered this claim of each one of no effect. The abstract reason, which was first used to discredit the other two, has fallen into the pit which itself digged, and de pro- fundis rise its agnostic moans. Hence the task laid upon us in these days is that of inquiring whether these old musts do not have a real authority, other and more ethical than the one rightf ull}^ denied ; to see whether they do not have a natural and essential authority that rational men must accept in order to be rational. The Function of Criticism. A criticism which is merely negative is both irrational and unhuman. The func- tion of criticism is to be the dynamic forcing on from one static phase of belief and institution to another, to destroy only by conserving in higher fulfilled form. Its IN RELIGION. 17 aim can only be to restore as reason what it first seeks to destroy as the nnreason of mere might ; to restore as essential realized fi'eedom what it momentarily rejects as external necessity. Such w^ork involves a thorong-h reformation of tlie whole edifice of dogma and institution, a thoroug-h re- appreciation of the genuine worth of these works of the human spirit under divine guidance. Such a task implies an ideal of knowl- edge vastly different from that of ordina- ry rationalism. That holds an abstract subjective conception of truth, imagined under the form of mathematical equali- ty or identity. It has no place for de- velopment or organic pi'ocess, and none for comprehension of concrete experience which it vainly tries to force into its me- chanical forms. This method, on the con- trary, simply undertakes to understand tuhaf is, or concrete experience, under the conception of organic development in his- toric process. It can attempt no demon- 18 REASON AND AUTHORITY stration of the org-aiiic process of relig'ion by an3^thing' external to it. It seeks only to give an intellig"ent description of the process. The process itself gives the con- ception of its rationality. It declines to abstract any part of the process or to seize any one of its static moments and make that the measure or the proof of the Avhole, as oi-dinarj^ apologetics attempt to do. The real history of religion, then, like the real history of any organism in nature, is its true rationality and vindica- tion. The reason appealed to, also, is that which manifests itself in the corporate process, and not in the individual member. A religious individual is an abstraction. The truth is the whole concrete historical institution of which he is a member. Only as he experiences or mirrors the various stages of this organic life can he under- stand or express the rationality of religion. His certitude rests upon authority, which he, as autonomic, must finall}^ impose up- IN RELIGION. 19 on liimself. Ojective rationality can onl^^ thus becojne subjective and afford real grounds of certitude. Such a method of acquiring' rational certitude may not satisfy those whose ideal of knowledge is that of or- dinary rationalism. But have we not vainly tried to satisfy such an ideal long- enough ? Has not the century and a half of " the age of i-eason " landed us in agnosticism, from ^vhich it cannot extricate us ? Are we not ready to abandon the attempt of such rationalism and try the higher method ? This method consists of an historical and -a philosophical study of religion . The historical inquiry should first enable us to see the value of Bible and Church as records and aids of the religious life of the past. The philosophic inquiry should then enable us to see their necessity and worth to the religious life of^oui- times. Neither of these methods is so irrational as to dare to sectarianize o\u' religious life fi-om that of the past. Both see this life as a V 20 REASON AND AUTHORITY continuous process, and only seek to under- stand and interpret what has been, as an aid to what should be. Neither of them &e individualistic. Both of them stud^^ the individual as an org-anic member of the social whole, recog'oizing that the wisdom and the work of the many, especially as an organized community, is always g-reater than that of an^^ of its members ; reformers never being* more than org-ans of the nascent communal spirit. Theories of Society Supplanting Theories of the Individual. Tlie whole swing- of the pendulum of thoug'ht to-day is awa^^ from the individual and towards the social point of view. Theo- ries of societ}^ are supplanting- theories of the individual. The solidarity of man is the reg-nant thought in both the scientific and the historical study of man. It is even running- into the extreme of a determinism that annihilates the individual. Both theolog-y and ecclesiasticism have passed IN RELIGION. 21 through this extreme, which we may call the Chinese phase of belief and life. The Protestant woi*ld is slow to yield to the Zeitgeist heralding- a retreat from in- dividualism to socialism, dreading* a rep- etition of its t^a^anny. But the swing- of the pendulum has also begun in these spheres. *' Martyrs of disg-ust " may be the loudest and foremost fuglemen in the retreat. But this does not prevent the her- alds of concrete reason from advancing- backward to reclaim their neglected heri- tage. The institution and the creed of the whole are being seen to have a rational au- thority that must be recognized. Societj^ is seen to be the obligatory theatre for the realization of freedom. Its authority is seen to be that of order and harmony of individual minds and wills. No Church no Christian, no oecumenical creed no right belief. But Church and Creed are already old. We cannot manufacture totally new ones. Nor can we accept the old forms at their 22 REASON AND AUTHORITY old worth, as fetters of thoug"lit and action. We have oiitg-rown that form of their authority, as the child outg-rows the pa- ternal authority. So we think. But the analogy is not perfect. Besides, the au- thority of the father as that of a full- g-rown man, which develops the powers of the child, is never fully shaken off. Nor does the individual member of a community ever outgrow the larger wisdom of the whole. At best the authorit^^ can only be translated from the form of coercive into the form of moral authority. And this is what we should aim at in our re-appraise ment of orthodox\" and the Church. Danger of Weak Roinanticiziiig. The dang-er of a weak romanticizing-, of a pathetically pessimistic distrust of rea- son causing- an uncritical acceptance of all the old bonds, should not deter us from seeking- a rationale of them that ^\\]\ com- pel an ethical submission to theii' rig'htful authority. But it should put us on our IN RELIGION. 33 g'uard ag-ainst humoring a weak phase of the human sphnt, which comes when its wings droop from weariness, so that a plunge into the ocean beneath seems relief. It should also put us on our g-uard lest the oncoming of this social view be permitted to take an abstract form, and thus crush out the might and rig'ht of personality. We should be alert to carrj^ with us all the hard-won fruits of Protestantism. The danger is that we may find our- selves slaves again. The two phases of authority for which Apologetics ordinarily contend are the in- tellectual and the practical. The first is that of creed or orthodoxy, the other is that of institution or Chui-ch. Till re- centl^^ the burden of Apologetics has been the maintenance of orthodoxy, which has largely meant Calvinism, founded upon an unhistorical interpretation of an infallible Bible. Such Apologetics have had their da3^ They have almost destroyed both orthodoxy and the Bible. The other phase 24 RE A S ON AND A UTHO RITY of Apolog-etics now claims to be heard. It claims to include the task of the former phase. The Church, as the author of the creed and the Bible, proposes to vindicate them as parts of its process — as its own offspring" — in vindicating- itself as the practical embodiment and promoter of Christianity. We need scarcel^^ disclaim any sympathy with this phase as repre- sented by Romanist and Hig-h- Anglican. The common method of both is arbitrary, abstract, unhistorical, dog-matic and un- convincing-. It is the " must " which Pat- rick left behind in the old country. But Patrick never leaves his patriotism behind. He has a double sort of patriotism for both his old and his new country. He is unreflectingly wiser and more concrete than the abstract rationalist who owns **no tribe, nor state, nor home," nor con- tent, except what he makes for himself. Nor can we leave the Church behind. It has helped make us what we are. The rational form of this method, then, com- IN RELIGION. 25 mands s^ympath}^ It should include a historical and psychological study of the institution, in order to arrive at a philo- sophical vindication of its rational author- ity over individuals, as constitutive of their essential well being-. This affords a relative vindication of the various phases, and an absolute vindication of the whole process and its results. The end justifies the means, is immanent in and constitutive of these. But this process and result are in and through the community. Chris- tianity is the Church. Its ground of cer- titude and authority is in the whole. It is in the light of this general conception of an organic social process that we must seek for the ground of certitude in both subjective and objective religion. The Right of Private Judgment. Certitude is conviction resting on dis- cernment as a constant element in all the activity of our mental and spiritual facul- ties. The certitude resting on authority or 26 REASON AND AUTHORITY on testimoii}^ really rests on a discernment of their reasonableness. Thus certitude is personal. It is the yea and amen of pri- vate judg'nient. It comes from the mani- festation of the truth by God through media. In the case of religious certitude, the inclusive medium is the Church. But no doctrine of the Church as an organism that denies the light and duty of private judgment can remain an ethical one. Protestantism has bought this at too great a price to be bartered away. It is ov^y as against an abstract individualism that ig- nores the patent fact that one is what he is by virtue of the social tissue in which he lives, that there is need of reasserting the authority of this constitutive environment. But this must be an ethical organism, in- clusive of, and living only in and through its individual members. It is just as true that the Church exists in and through its individual members as it is that they exist in and through the Church. It is a king- dom of persons where all are kings, because IN RELIGION. 37 all are persons, and not an abstract .exter- nal aiitliorit^^ It is an org*anism of organ- isms, a person of persons, a Holj^ Spirit that only lives and realizes itself on earth through personal members. This much is said here to guard against any sus- picion of reverting to the abstract concep- tion of the authority of the Church as a ground of certitude, which was " the infi- nite falsehood" of mediaeval ecclesiasti- cism. Ground and the " Urgrund " of Religion. I have used the singular, grotind, in- stead of the plural, grounds, because what we wish is a vital organic universal, in- stead of a number of abstract particulars. ^' To be confined within the range of mere grounds, is the position and principle characterizing the sophists." (Hegel's Logic, p 196.) This species of accident- al, arbitrary, special-pleading reasoning; this g-iving a pro for every con ; this age 38 REASON AND AUTHORITY of reason (of grounds) in Apologetics, had full sweep in the eighteenth century and far enough into the nineteenth to be re- sponsible for much of the prevalent scepti- cism. To-day, the ordinary grounds or proofs of our religion are justl}^ called in question, and we are asking for a fundamental uni- versal ground (an Urgrund) of them all — prophecy, miracle, the incarnation, the Bible, the Church, and reason — for the authorit^^ of all these authorities This Urgrund must be an organic first principle w^hich unfolds into a philosophy of religion as the only final and satisfac- tory Apologetic for Christianity ; a first principle which vindicates religion as a g'enuine and necessar}^ factor in the life of man, and Christianity as the fruition of all religion. Resting either in the simple faith of childhood, or on abstract external evidences, or 3 ielding' blindlj^ to external authority" by arbitrar^^ wilful repression of thought, as did the late Cardinal New- IN RELIGION, 29 man ; none of these methods are possible to-day. Mere dog-ma and mere external evidences and authorit}^ are no antidote to doubt, no g-rounds of certitude in our day. It is needless to multiply words in de- scribing the patent phase of current relig- ious thought. It is, in brief, one of unrest and doubt, and yet also one of faith and reconstruction. It is attempting the neces- sary feat of swallowing nnd digesting its own offspring of doubts. It is on its way to an Urgrund which cannot be something outside of itself. This can be nothing but the generic principle which, as constitutive and organic, is implicit throughout its Avhole process. At best there can be but an approximate comprehension of this im- manent life-principle. But it is the task which the thoughtful human spirit feels as a categ-orical imperative. There is an un- derlying faith or certitude even in those phases where negative results are most conspicuous. There is an everlasting" yea 30 REASON AND AUTHORITY beneath doubt which alone renders doubt possible. Reliyioii Geniiinelij Human. Religion is ackiiowledg-ed to be one of the great human universals, co-extensive with man's history, and as varied in form as his culture. It is trul^- and essentially human. It is a necessary part of human- ity's life. No religion, no man ; perfect religion, perfect man. Organizations may decay and theologies crumble, but the re- ligious spirit lives on through and above these changes, making for itself ever more congenial and adequate manifestations and org-ans of its perennial life — rising on step- ping stones of its petrified forms to higher ones. With art and philosophy it forms the triad of man's relations with the Ab- solute Spirit. In these three inter-relat- ed and mutually sustaining spheres is ex- hibited the perfection of his spiritual char- acter and functions. The creative object, the ultimate and constitutive ground of them all, is God. IN RELIGION. 31 What is Religion 9 What is religion ? A descriptive defini- tion of the totality of phenomena which constitutes relig"ion would he too extensive. So too would he a mere enumeration of the definitions of it that have been proposed. But most of such definitions have a com- mon heart, and proceed from a varied reflection of a common truth. Religion is at least a conscious reverential relation of man to God. It ma^^ be '^ morality tinged Avith emotion," but that emotion must come from impact of the soul with God. It is a spiritual activit}^ of self-relation to the great " Power not ourselves," through feeling, thought and will. It is a striv- ing to fall upward from the mere physical side of our life. But this implies — and im- plies as its essential presupposition — the falling down, the self-relation of this Power to man. We must therefore define rehg- ion as the reciprocal relation or com-i munion of God and tnan, ' 32 REASON AND A UTHORITY These two sides of this org-anic process may be termed (1) Rev^elation, (2) Faith. That is, the self relation of God to man constitutes the conception of re^'elation ; the self-relation of man to God constitutes that of faith. The two elements are cor- relative, thoug-h that of God's activity is both chronologically^ and logicallj^ primal, and evocative of the other. Thus religion rests upon a miivei-sal. It is not merely sub- jective. We cannot abstract faith from revelation. For it is only both tog-ether that give us the concrete content of religion. Revelation. (1). Revelation is the moment of divine self- showing- in the organic process which constitutes religion. As the self-relation of God to man, it is a primal and perennial act, which, in religion, is recognized as a phase of one's own personal experience. As im^nediate, it forms the background of all human life — sentient, mental and moral. It forms the 5i/jp7'a-nature of hu- IN RELIGION. 38 manity, and is creative of it. Back of, beneath, immanent in {/nerd) all that is human, there is that which constitutes and sustains it. This metaphysics of man, mental and moral, is the immanent, im- mediate relation of God to humanity. But the term is generally confined to what we may call mediated revelation. God's self-relation to us is continually mediated and brought to our consciousness through our physical, mental, moral and social re- lations. He is immanent in these rela- tions, and thus reveals himself to our conscious experience. It is through our knowledge of nature, through our knowl- edge and love of our brethren — that is, through our knowledge of the physical and moral world-order — that we become conscious of God's relation to us. Signs and tokens and mighty works, Bible and Church, family and social life, have all been used as media of this revelation. Revelation, however mediated, cgnstitutes the objective side of religion. 34 REASON AND AUTHORITY Faith. (2). Faitli is the subjective side. It is jnan's conscious apprelieiision of God tlius related to him throiig-h revelation. It em- braces all the constituent elements of the human side of relii^ion — tlie aj^prehension of the Godwaid side of all that we do or say or think. Fait li is faith. This tauto- ]o§"ical detinition is compulsory, from the nature of the activity. It is a ]n'imal, basal activity of the human spirit. It is the simplest, and yet may be the most complex, activity of conscious man. It has no special oi-i^-an and is no special faculty, hut is th^(^ dynamic in all our faculties. It contains elements of feelino-, thinkiiio- and williuii;', because it is the actus piirus prevenient and co-operating* with all these faculties. It is the spirit's apprehension of realities throug'h these faculties. It is its practical self-conscious- ness of the Absolute. It is the self prac- tically conscious of itself, in its relation IN RELIGION. 35 with God. Thus it is only another name for the hig'hest phase of self-consciousness. Such self-consciousness is never merely subjective. Its contents are the results of the mediation of all its physical, social and religious environment and training-, and ultimately of God, through these media. Religious faith — and specifically Christian faith — is God's children's crj^ of Abba, Father. It is their apprehension of their divine sonship, the responsive thrill of emotion awakened by the con- sciousness of God's paternal relation to them. Abraham's faith was his conscious- ness of friendship with God. Our faith is our consciousness of divine sonship through his eternal Son, Jesus Christ. Such Christian faith is a very profound and simple, and yet a most complex stage of self-consciousness. It involves the me- diation of a Christian education, Avhich implies that of eighteen centuries of the Church's life. Thus, wiiile our faith is subjective and personal, it is only so be- 36 EEAS ON AND A UTHORIT V cause we have been educated into the con- scious possession of tlie Christian heritag'e of centuries Our personal subjective faitli itself, as well as o!\jective faith, is g-round- ed upon and mediated for us tliroug'h in- stitutional CMu'istianity. Thus the objective g-round of religion is God, and the subjective ground faith — or the simple appreliension, through more or less media, of this i-elation — ^thus convert- ing* the whole into the process of recipro- cal relations between God and man, winch constitute religion. Suh-persoiiiil Conceptions of the First Principle. It will not do to substitute for God '' the power not ourselves,'' Law, Force, Sub- stance, or any »s'7//>-personal category . And the non-personal is always »s/r6-personal. It may be acknowledged that some scien- tific conceptions of law, order, nature, cos- mos, are higher in one sense than some anthropomorphic conceptions of God, but IN RELIGION. 37 they are never 6'?6pra-persoiial, and can never afford the conscious relation we call religion. Our analysis of the content of consciousness can only arbitrarily stop short of that of self consciousness, or self- determined totality. If the charge is made that our concep- tion of the first principle as personal is merely subjective — the imag-inative reflec- tion of our own mind upon phenomena— it may at least be met b^^ thecounter-charg-e of the same subjectivism in scientific con- ceptions. Matter, law, force, are equality subjective measurements of the objective by the subjective. But this argumentum ad hominem is only a side thrust of thought on its Avay through and above all such imperfect conceptions of the first principle. All such conceptions ai'e im- plicitly religious. They imply as their g»'ound the full conception of God. Hence the scientist is sane only as he becomes devout. But this criticism of the cate- gories of ordinary science, making explicit 38 REASON AND AUTHORITY its real ground, is the work of philosophy proper. It is the needed corrective of scientific ag-nosticism. Such a criticism of the categories of thought reaches a system of categories with God as the implicit and the ultimate one. We shall refer to tiiis later on, but only superficial] 3\ Religion grasps this without reflection. Philosophy has nothing further to do than to point out the necessity and rationality of the human spirit reaching and resting in communion with this per- sonal First Principle or Urgrimd. The In- carnation, as the perfect realization of this bond between God and man, and the exten- sion of the Incarnation in history, are the essential media of both present religious and philosophical apprehension of this g"eneric Urgrund. In neither case is it reached directly or intuitively. The Ultimate Conception of the First Principle. Relig-ion, then, as a part of man's con- IN RELIGION. 39 sciousiiess, has its ultimate g-round in the eternal and loving- i-eason of the First Principle of all things. Faith itself, or the subjective side, is necessai'ily reduced to the action of the Divine Spirit in man. The consciousness of this actual vital rela- tion, or reciprocal bond between God and man, is a primal and perennial fact, and the ultimate ground of religious certitude. Consciousness in man is implicitly a know- ing of self with God {con-scivs), 3,nd hence of knowing God in knowing self. This is the real significance of tlie ontoiogical proof of the existence of God. This bond is as real a relation as the causal relation. Indeed, it is often identi- fied with this relation. Our heredity is from God, even though it be through lower forms of life, and oui* goal is also God, even thougii it be through impei-fect manhood. The ground of religion we find, then, to be nothing extrinsic. It does not need a special handle in the way of external rea- sons. It is not founded upon nor sus- 40 REASON AND A UTHORITY tained by the various alleg-ed proofs. These may vary and pass away, but the activity continues as a necessary function of normal humanity. Relig-ion will be found at the grave as well as at the cradle of man, because God is the immanent and transcendent essence of man.* God is the ultimate metaphysics of man, physical, mental and spiritual ; the real substance ; the continuously creative and sustaining' power in His offspring. The Benedicite is the spontaneous expression of the whole groaning and rejoicing crea- tion. If men should be so insensate as not to worship, '' the stones would immediate- ly cry out " an anthem of praise. The Psalmist's exclamation, " Thou hast beset me behind and before ; . . Thou hast cov- ered me in my mother's womb," voices the consciousness of this ultimate meta- physics of all things ph^-sical. This Ur- * " As thepersonality of man has its foundation in the personality of God, so the reahzation of personality bring-s man always nearer to God." — Mulford's '* Republic of Ood," p. 28. IN RELIGION. 41 grund is creatively present before con- sciousness comes to raise the new-born man above the brutes. It begets religion as soon as consciousness of this power, in however low a form, appears, binding- man back to (re-ligare) or causing him to review {re-leg ere) the fact of this primal relation. This consciousness varies in de- gree, strength, form and clearness of con- tent. But it is the ground of the various grounds that Ave can offer as causal of this, which is itself the cause of them . Prophecy and miracle, the Bible, Church and rea- son also, are all its offspring, and authen- ticated by it, rather than the reverse. Religion Has a History. But it is impossible that this fundamen- tal fact of consciousness could be perfect at once. Religion, individual and racial, has a history. It begins as an immediate, in- definite apprehension of the fact in the sub- jective consciousness, but it expands and wins definite content with the growth of 42 REASON AND AUTHORITY human consciousness in all spheres of ex- perience. Thus subjective rehgion ex- pands with new revelation and apprehen- sion of it into objective forms of creed, cult and institution, which in turn educe and strengthen it. The same spontaneous consciousness of " the Power not our- selves " that led the childhood of the race to personify earth and skj^, also led Plato and Clement and Hegel, through the medi- ation of Greek and Christian culture, to proclaim the essential and perennial kin- ship of man with God, in all the concrete experience of his life and institutions. There is more than an analogy, there is a real kinship between the psychological and objective development in the individu- al and the race. So Ave ma}' trace a com- mon outline for both. Indeed its develop- ment in the individual is only rendered possible through connection with a com- munal life. It is only by a false abstrac- tion that the religion of the individual can be considered separately. Here as else- IN RELIGION, 43 where the universal is prioi' to, and consti- tutive of, the individual. But this is not an abstract universal. It is the concrete organism of which he is a vital member. '^ I believe " implies a '^ They believed " and a *' We believe.^'' One can say I believe {credo) only by first having- joined with others in saying ^^ we believe " {7ti6t8vohev). The / alwa^-s implies the we. It equals to-day the social- ized and Christianized man of the nine- teenth century. I believe, because the}^ — eighteen centuries of Christian kinsmen — have believed ; and because we, the Univer- sal Church, believe. Still, the subjective factor is central, and our socialized faith is personal coinuiunion with God. The individual has absorbed, and has been re- alized, not annihilated by, the universal. Religion remains to the end a personal re- lation to a Person, however much it has been nourished and quickened b^^ tli ' com- munity. '^ I believe " now means the sub- 44 REASON AND AUTHORITY jective, personal self-affirmation, ^^ the everlasting- ye^ " of our Christianized con- sciousness. What Do I Believe ? But what do I beUeve ? What is the definite content of the religious relation of the individual with God ? I believe the con sense of the Christian consciousness in regard to God, man and the world. I believe ''The Catholic Faith." We are far beyond the faith of childhood, of primitive man. The historic process of revelation and faith has rendered primitive immediate faith impossible and irrational. Both the act and the content have been endlessly mediated for us. Our consciousness of God has been enriched by that of a host of heroes of the faith, and by the cult and dog"ma of centuries of Christendom. Questions have been asked and answerd for us before we wei^e born. We have been born into the heritag-e of these answered questions in the shape of IN RELIGION. 45 the oecumenical creeds, though enough open questions still remain to make us heroes of faith, and our generation an age of faith. But I believe. This heritage of the Christian faith is mine, only by the subjective personal activity of appropria- tion and realization. The Creeds are the records of a series of deep insights into the content of the Christian consciousness. The mastery of these is an ascent of the hidividual into the -universal — something that cannot be ours by mere rote-learning, but onls' as we thiuk over, verify, re-create or experience anew within ourselves. Sub- jective faith remains the most important element of our spiritual life. We cannot be merely passive recipients of the most opuleut heritag'e. And yet the universal, the objective, rightly claims its place. We see this, also, when we ask, further : Why Do I Believe the Catholic Faith ? Why do I believe the Catholic Faith ? What renders it possible for me to make 46 REASON AND AUTHORITY this 1113^ own personal faith? Wh}^ does my faith, m^^ consciousness of relation with God, have this definite form and content ? This form of faith, though personal, is not an immediate consciousness — a primitive unmediated revelation of God. It is not a matter of mere individual feeling- or in- tuition. The ivhy can onl^^ be answered by reading- the whole history of liis devel- opment, throug-h the interaction of sub- jectivism and objectivism, of the self and its environment. A fair analysis of this process likewise leads back to God as its ultimate ground. The psychological and historical lead back to this metaphysical Urgriind. This stag-e of what we call Christian nurture is an indispensable phase in the development of both strength and definiteness of faith. It is here that the rationality^ of authoritative catechetical Church teaching' and Christian influence of family and community are to be justi- fied. It is chiefly in this ivhat and ivhy of relig- IN RELIGION, 47 ion that we meet with grouiicls that seem to be extrinsic and accidental. The task, then, is to translate these grounds into rationality ; to discover their place, that renders them necessary and rational ele- ments of the org-anic process of the relation of God and man. This task includes the psychological study of the development of man in the social organism, and the his- torical study of the development of the social organism itself, on the way hack to the ultimate or metaph3^sical groimd. The faith, though once delivered, could never, from the condition of the case, even in Christianity, be once foi* all delivered to the individual or the community. This has had, is having, and will have a psy- chological history in both. Faith as an activity is forever the same, but its content, and the interpretation of this content, va- r}^ and develop with new conditions and culture. The life-giving Spirit inspires to some new form of practical religion, to meet new issues. The type of Christianity 48 REASON AND AUTHORITY chang-es. Then the intellectual seers note this life, and modify the old theology so as to include it. « The question then is, whether the environ- ment leading- to chang-e of both vital and credal form of Christianity can be justified ; whether, in theolog-ical language, we can see the hand of Providence; or, in the language of philosophy, whether we can discern the immanent logic or reason thus objectif3ang itself in rational forms ? Or, if we restrict credal form to the oecumeni- cal symbols, and the normal ecclesiastical form to that of the primitive Church, the question is whether we can discern the rationality ia the culture of Greece and Rome as well as in that of Judea, Avhich makes " them legitimate ingredients in a cathohc, complete Christianity." Can we, in other words, reach a philosophy of re- ligion that justifies the multiform devel- opment of the two inseparable elements of religion — revelation and faith ; God's seek- ing and man's finding ; God's adhesion to man and man's adhesion to God ? Such IN RELIGION. 49 a philosophy of religlcii must be based upoji a philosophy of history which must be simply a rational comprehension of em- pirical history. We thus indicate a work far be3'ond the limits of this present essay. We can do no more than note briefly the psychological forms through which religion passes in racial and individual experience, catching glimpses of the immanent ration- ality in the whole process. PART II. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FORMS OF RELIGION. Three Chief Forms : Feeling, Knowing and Willing. We designate these three forms as (1) that of Feeling, (2) tliat of Kiioiving in its three phases of (a) conception, (b) reflection and (c) comprehension, and (3) that of Willing. These are inseparable parts of conscious- ness, that we can only artificially sepa« 50 REASON AND AUTHORITY rate for purpose of study. The univer- sal element of thinking- is more or less present in the particular element of feel- ing*, and willing fuses them both into the concrete individuality of person or epoch. But in different ages and persons, and in the same person at different times, one or the other of these phases is more empha- sized than the others. Hence religion va- ries in its psychological form. 1. Religion as Feeling. Religion exists primarily in tlie form of feeling. Its genesis belongs to the primi- tive depths in which the soul is just dis- tinguishing itself from the great not-self about it. It is the first coming into con- sciousness of the pre-conscious fact that every one is born of God. And yet this feeUng is generally mediated by some religious instruction. The power behind and before is first felt, rather than known. This gives the sense of dependence, which always remains an integral part of re- IN RELIGION. 51 ligion. It may run throug-h the gamut of reverence, fear, dismay and terror, or devil-worship. Or this power may be felt as a congenial and beneficent one, and the feeling run through the gamut of rever- ence, confidence, love, peace and ecstas}^ or mysticism. Fear and confidence are the two marked elements in this phase of religion. There is no lack of certitude in it. The unreasoned certitude of feeling hallows any object, from a log of wood to the sky, from a Jupiter to a Jehovah. The fetich- worshipper has as much certitude as the Mariolater. All I'eligions alike afford this certitude to their worshippers. Historical illustrations of religions and of individuals in this phase will occur to every one So also will the names of Jacobi and Schleiermacher, who, in their reaction tVoni vulgar rationalism, tried to make religion entirely a matter of feeling or of the heart. The certitude of this stage, I have said, is no measure of the worth of the contents of feeling. De af- 53 REASON AND A U2 HORITY fectibus non disputandum. Schleierma- cher went so far, we know, as to say that every religion or religious feeling' was g'ood and true ; thus proposing* a philoso- phy ^' as much contrary to revealed re- ligion as to rational knowledge," and making anything like a communion of worshippers impossible. Each one has his oivn feeling, and this ma^^ be so em- phasized as to lead to both sectarianism and atheism. But, strictly speaking, this elementary phase of religion is quite indefinite as to what it feels. Until other elements enter in, there is no personal object given to worship. It represents the] first con- scious mysterious impulse toward the infi- nite and eternal. It represents those ele- ments of reverence and confidence which made our Saviour promise the kingdom of heaven to children. But it is a phase into which other elements do speedily en- ter. The activity of the human spirit in relation with the Infinite Spirit impels IN RELIGION. 53 it on to definite conceptions of God and content of feeling". Milk for babes, strong- er nourishment for the growing* child. 2. Religion as Knoiving. The phase of knowing in religion.* We distinguish here three phases of knowing: (a) Conception, (b) Reflection, and (c) Comprehension. (a.) That of Conception. Mere feeling is rather an hypothetical stage of activit}^ Objects that produce feeling are soon named, or learned, or imagined. The child is soon initiated into definite religious conceptions which nour- ish his religious activity. This introduc- tion into objective forms of belief and worship is congenial with his developing intelligence. It helps him to name and to imagine the object of his religious feel- * I may refer to '* Studies in Heg-eFs Philosophy of Religion," Chap. IV., for a fuller and some- what varied statement and criticism of this sec- ond phase. 54 REASON AND AUTHORITY ing". The activity in this sphere is that of imag-ination . It is what we may call men- tal art— picture-thinking' taking- the place of picture- making". It is thought raising* us out of sense. Here the object and the content of the religious feeling appear in forms corresponding' to the degree of culture possessed. The new wine is first put into old bottles and then new bottles are formed out of the frag-ments of the bursted old ones. This mental art of picture conceptions advances, bodying' forth in less sensuous forms and in more abstract lang'uag'e the content of the re- lig-ious feeling' the^^ help to quicken. The savag'e indulges in rude sensuous art, or combines it with rude mental art, personi- fying earth, air and sky. The Christian child is met in this phase of activity with Christian names and symbols, which help him to hig-her conceptions of what he feels blindl}^ stirring- in his soul. They do not create, but only help develop his religious life in more rational form. The more IN RELIGION. 55 abstract form of conception, i.e., dogma, is of little use here, unless it be accom- panied with parable, leg'end and nan^a- tive. It is the time that religion is nour- ished on narrative-metaphor. The Bible contains a good proportion of such food for the 3^oung, and Christian history, es- pecially in heroic and martyr days, fur- nishes more. But these should be supple- mented by current religious Uterature, comparable with that furnished oar young people by St. Nicholas and The Youth's Companion, instead of the autumnal leaf- lets and childish Sunday-school books. By means of literature the Divine Educa- tor co-works in developing and strength- ening the bond between himself and the growing child. Such narrative -metaphors are winged, and bear the young soul aloft to the very heart of God. It is the ver^^ sustenance for which ^^oung" souls are hungry, and mere catechetical instruction in abstract theology is the veriest chaff to chafe and wither their aspirations, unless 56 BE AS ON AND AUTHORITY it be judiciously couoealed in. fragrant flowers or ripe fruit. Give them the his- cious g'rape, and not nierel^^ the seed. Along- with this g'oes the rehgious nur- ture, through pul)lic worship, Church fes- tivals and ceremonies. The Christian year, followed out as di^amaticallj' as possi- ble, is the best teaclier of Christian truth. Besides, all tliis brings out the social side of religion, and helps to unite them witli God through uniting with their fellows. The Catechetical and Dogmatic Period. The time for abstract conceptions will come soon enough. Tiie analyzing" and comparing- and geneializing activity will beg-in its work in due time. Here meta- phors harden into tact or are generalized into dogma. The winged metaphor will be clipped. The seed of the )-ipe fruit Avill be soug-ht. The soul will crave deflnite and systematic truth. Subjective feeling- and its imag-inative vesture must find a basis in ^' Church Doctrine and Bi- IN RELIGION, 57 ble Truth.'' Much of the non-symbolic teaching' given, it is true, represents the Avork of this same phase of the activity of thought in Church teachers. Systems of theology- are often not much in advance of this period of abstract conception.* How best to conceive God, and how best represent the essential rehgions relation in sj^stematic form, is the question at this stage, as the earUer picture-form becomes more abstract. This is the time for positive catechetical instruction, mingled with suf- ficient personal and rational persuasion to win assent. The pi'oper ground of certi- tude here is a mingling of reason and au- thority. Tlie authoi-itarive teaching of the Churcli, properly presented^ is God's method of fui'thor development of the bond between himself and his children. What great Christian teachers and what the Church in oecumenical councils have framed, come as the most vocal angels of the truth. Such teaching is the creation of the 58 REASON AND AUTHORITY lio]y Spirit co-working" with the com- munal spirit. It represents the best ex- pression of a large Christian consciousness through many centuries. It can and should be given with authorit3\ Ground- ed upon the vital idea of religion, it has a rational authorit\^to which every membei*, at this stage, will gladly and uncondition- ally submit. Such authoritative teaching- is the craving of the soul, and so essential to its religious life. Here such authority nourishes and cxuickens the religious life of the member, and submerges his in- dividual conceits by giving him the one Lord, one faith and one baptism of the Universal Church. It is the time to go to school ; the time when the mind era ves teachers and longs for the wisdom that is beyond it. It craves to know ivhat it ought to believe. It believes spontaneous- ly^ on authority. Itjs also the time for Bible teaching, for Christian education through sacred literature. The Bible is the Church's record of the IN RELIGION. 59 historical revelation upon which it is founded. It contains the word of God in all its forms of literatui'e. It is also the vehicle of revelation to the inquiring' mind and longing- heart. Protestants have made no mistake in reverting- to it as life-g-iving- and authoritative. It will continue to be both of these when the fullest and freest Biblical criticism shall have done its his- torical, psychological and literary work upon it. It will be found to ^aeld a much more wholesome authority than under its uncriticised form of infallibility. Many may stop contented with inragina- tion on the standpoint of Church services, with their symbolism and ceremonial ob- servances. Others, less aesthetic, stop on the more abstract form of dog-ma, or or- thodox belief. Vulgar Romanism and Orthodoxy illustrate these two phases of conception, of sensuous and mental idola- try, both of which are normal phases in the rehg-ious process. 60 BE AS ON AND AUTHORITY (b.) Reflection, Criticism and Doubt. The period of reflection. Reflection, in- deed, forms a part of the activitj^ which receives and forms definite religious con- ceptions and right belief. But it does not stop here. The normal activity of this phase impels on to a criticism of tradition, al and current conceptions on its way to a comprehension of the necessit^y of religion and an estimate of their comparative worth and real validity. Perfect representation or conception of God is intrinsicalh^ impos- sible, either in the form of pictured or of ab- stract symbol. Thought, in seeking- this, has abstracted the essence of all its s^an- bols or precipitated them into deflnite and logical forms, and annexed reasons thereto. The reflective activity now impels to an examination of these forms, and of the rea- sons alleged for them. It is essentially^ critical and inevitably skeptical. It real- izes the limitations and contradictions of attained conceptions. It then seeks to 77V RELIGION. 61 vindicate them by rationalistic investi- gations and evidences, only to multiply doubts. Saintly Doubt. This is a necessary phase in the life of every ing-enuously thoug-htful- Christian and Church. It is tlie work of the spirit criticising- its o\\ n inadequate creation. It is the noi^mal activit}^ of the human spirit responsive to new revelations from the Divine Spirit. It is not an alien force, but the implicit infinite energizing through and above the inadequate forms of its hitherto realization in the finite spirit. Such criticism is the normal activit^^ of the growing human spirit responsive to the Divine Spirit's new revelation, of which it may scarcely be conscious. The ad vocatus diaboli cannot prevent the canonization of such temporary doubt as sane and saintly. Dogma making and dogma sustaining, straining, breaking and re-formation are all-tlie normal work of the same phase of thought, as understanding, on its way to 68 REASON AND AUTHORITY the comprehension of the concrete ration- aUty of catholic S3aiibols. It must reflect upon the various musts which have hitherto been controlling-. It is the in- herently just and normal demand of the human spirit to know the source and g-round of these musts ; to find a rationale of the authority- of Bible, Church and reason. The authority of Bible and Church ma}^ be rudel}^ questioned by the rea- son that finall}^ questions itself. Its aim is to see what it is in them that makes the Bible, Church and reason worthy au- thorities. Much of this criticism is directed ag-ainst accidental, temporary and local conceptions of Christianity, which are in- herently false to its spirit and purpose. It is the attempt to reconceive Christ under the chang-ed conditions of modern science and thouglit. This task of reformation is; laid upon many Christians and many ag'Cf-. What we call revivals and reformations are only more emphatic working's of this IN RELIGION. 63 spirit in the Christian community. It is the dj^namic of the Christian Zeitgeist itself impelhng" to more comprehensive and vital knowledge of Christ, and should lead, on tlie one hand, to the throwing* aside the accumulated rubbish of other periods, and, on the other hand, to the recovering and holding fast all that is good in previous forms of Christianity. From the mother's knee to the grave, from Bethlehem to the New Jerusalem, the Christian man and Church have this reflective, critical task to perform, in order to advance in Chris- tian knowledge and life. It is a process of negating truth by affirming fuller truth. Half of current scepticism comes fromf the pressing upon this generation outgrown ■ conceptions and imperfect developments of the gospel. To acknowledge frankly the necessary imperfection of progress is not to detra(;1, iVom the gospel, but is to take away the eage of half the criticism. To attempt a readjustment of the letter to the spirit of Christianity; to reconceive 64 REASON AND AUTHORITY Christianity, if 3^ou will, in terras of modern tboug-ht and imagery ; to put the spirit in new forms : to abrogate the old letter in its fulfilment in the new — something like this is the problem set for the defender of the faith to-day. To acknowledge that Christianity has often been bound up with false views of science, history, philosophy and politics, and with poor mechanical views of God, the world and man, and that to-day we are tr3^ing to free the spirit from these limitations and from the letter of theological and ecclesiastical dogmatism with which it has been unduly hampered, is to win sympathetic hearing* and help, when otherwise we would meet Avith no vital response. When this critical activit}^ is abstract, it busies itself with finding grounds or rea- sons pro and con. It takes Christianity out of its concrete process and treats it ab- stractly as chiefly logical definitions. It proves and disproves and generally ends, unless it becomes concrete, in that negative form which should onl^^ be a mid station. IN RELIGION. 65 This abstract criticism is known as that of common rationalism. The A.ufhlaerung y J^claircissement and Rationalism were the three national forms of the '*age of reason." The eighteenth century should have sufficed for this narrow sort of mental work, and the nineteenth century should have gone on with the affirmative pro- cess. But it continues in its senile form of agnosticism. It has ultimatelj^ doubted itself as the organ of truth. Not much has been lost by this last stage, for its most positive result was a form of natural religion, or Deism, wliich dried up the rich fountain of spiritual life, having a God who was little better than *^ a frost-bitten reality." Sinful Doubt, It is only when the spirit's activity d roops and stops its work at this abstract nega- tive stage, that doubt can be called sinfiiJ. It is then putting the absolute emphasis on subjective reason. It is then non- human, non-rational, a violation of tlie 66 REASON AND AUTHORITY binding relation between God and man throug-b historical and social media. Such absolute negativity of subjectivism is the very essence of the devil. No one is more to be pitied and no oue is more to be dreaded than the man who has stuck fast in the mire of tliis standpoiut. The truly human cries out, "Great God, I'd rather be A pagan, suckled in a creed outworn !" It is the natural penalty of thought ab- stracted from action and institution. It is the penalty of boldiug- to Christianity as chiefly logical doctrine. For belief is rarely the outcome of formal logical pro- cedure. Conci*ete Christianity is also Catholicism, as well as orthodoxy and Protestantism. The East and the West and the New West ai'e only elements of its org-anic life. Atlenipts to vindicate any of these, abstracted from the whole, necessarilv lead to doubt and disbelief. Faith, as the Ground of much Skejjt Much of the prevalent skepticism, ho ICIS711. IN RELIGION. 67 ever, is earnest, serious, wistful, and not Mephistopheiian. It is within the Church in whicli its mart3a"s have been nurtured. It is normal. Puritanism, in its da}^ and Anglo- CathoUcism both doubted, protested and deformed as well as reformed the con- temporary forms of faith and life. They appealed from a present to a higher con- ception of Christianit3^ The New Theol- ogy is but another illustration of the same activity. Faith is at the bottom of such work. It is the outworking of a higher conception of Christianity in the common Christian consciousness. The real ground of criticism is here the real ground of cer- titude in this transition epoch. It is faith's apprehension of a deeper and larger revelation breaking forth from fettered Bible, Church and reason. It is the spirit negating in order to reform its inadequate conceptions— often, indeed, only an effort to understand, that it may hold with stronger conviction its catholic heritage. In this is seen the infinite cunning of the 68 REASON AND AUTHORITY guiding Spirit in spiritual]}^ minded men and in the Christian community. It is letting doubt have its way wliile using it as an instrument to acconiplisli higlier aims. The uoi'mal end of such donbt is a comprehension of tlie natural and persist- ent CO -relation and co- working of the Divine and human s[)irit in historic pro- cess, which explains and vindicates at comparative wortli all previous concep- tions and institutions. Religions Knowlrdge Conditioned by the Incarnation. This can, fi'om the nature of the case, now come only fron a genuine compre- hension of the fact of the Incarnation and its historic effect in life, thought and insti- tution. The religio:i o the Incarnation is the concrete form of reason that meets and fulfils the outworn abstract reason of this stage. It is born into a compi-ehension of that which is. H.tving proved to its satis- faction in agnosticism that its own sub- jective ideals Avere not rational, it turns to IN RELIGION. 69 the real to tiiid the concrete objective rational. If it arrives (at a comprehensive view) at a philosophy of history at all, it must' find in the reliiiion of the Incarna- tion the ripest and ultimate form of rationality. With Aristotle philosophy was a thoughtful comprehension of the encyclopaedia of Greek life and experience ; with Heg-el it was the same speculative compreliensiou of the concrete experience of Christendom. That is the objective matter of this phase of the activity of thought which Ave have called (c.) Comprehension, the highest form of knou'i7ig. We are cliiefly concerned now with the mode of its activity, rather than with its contents. Its mode is that of insight, sj^stem, of correlation of all relativities into a self-related organic process. It is philosophy loolviiig behind and before all previous phases and comprehending them as vital elements of a totality. It is con- 70 REASON AND AUTHORITY Crete experience taking full account of itself, winging" its flight from both earthly and airy abstractions. It is the incoming of the tidal wave, to flood the little pools left here and there, and to restore their continuitj^ with the great ocean. It is an overcoming of previous standpoints in one that correlates and embraces them all in a system which is self-related. It rises to the conception of the necessit}^ of self- consciousness, which is perfect freedom. The heart of this system is the primal, persistent and vital bond between God and man, or religion. The result of its activity, as I have said, is conditioned by its subject-matter to-day. That subject- matter is the religion of the Incarnation ; and philosophy only reaches its ultimate insight by a comprehension of that ivhich is. With many Christian thinkers the ac- tivity of the spirit does not persist unto this goal, where the wounds of reason are healed by reason ; Avhere the ground of IN RELIGION. 71 authority is self-contained and self -neces- sitated throu^'li a pi'ofound synthesis of them all. Either dog'tna or doubt catches and holds them. The^'^ remain in either one or the other of these phases of com- mon rationalism. And yet the spirit's demand and possibility is to make this eiri ueherwundener Stcmdpunkt. Often it is onl}^ implicitly overcome. It is over- come in that vital act of faith which we may call abbreviated knowledg*e. It is overcome practically, but not in the way of thoug-ht. The Function of Philosophy. Philosoph}" is only the making- explicit for thoug"ht what is contained in the ordi- nary Christian consciousness ; only seeing* the necessity of the real freedom in God's service; the realization of the bond be- tween God and man contained in the consciousness of pardon, peace and com- munion with God throug'h the incarnate Word. It is the discovery of the logic 73 REASON AND AUTHORITY of the Logos in Cliristian experience and history. It accepts Christianity as the manifestation, the positive form of the absolute relig'ion, affirming- in its doctrine of the incarnation the essential kinship of the human with the Divine Spirit. It is the onl}^ thing' that will save those who have passed into the critical, doubting- stag-e, from either a hopeless skepticism or an arbitrary submission to a non- intellig'ent power, which is the essence of superstition. Unsophisticated piety has no need of this. But how little of current relig-ion is unsophisticated. How thoroug-hly the rationalism of the understanding- has laid hold upon the majority of Christians. They are asking- and seeking- earnestly for rea- sons for their religion . Current apologet- ics, or external reasons, may temporarih^ satisfy many. But their inadequacy is also keenly realized by man^^ others. They demand a sufficient reason, an ade- quate First Principle, which validates all IN RELIGION. 73 proofs and authorities. Reflection, or the mere reasoning- of the understanding-, is incapable of reaching- this. The only ques- tion then is, whether thoug-ht shall and can persist to its fruition, or whether the spirit shall faint in hopeless ag-nosticism, offering- itself an unworthy sacrifice to either doubt or dog-ma. But here we must not neg-lect the value of the jjracti- cal reason, the demand for religion in our nature, and the adequac3' of current forms to meet this demand. We shall find that the theoretical can never reach its con- vincing- result without inclusion of the practical reason. In this work thoug-ht passes in appre- ciative critical review all the categ-ories which it has hitherto used in rationalizing- experience, impelled onward to an abso- lute First Principle which will include and explain them all ; that is, it seeks for a self-related and self- relating- system, or a science of forms of thought, some of which Theolog-y, as well as Science, uses 74 REASON AND AUTHORITY in its woriv. It is restless till it rests in a sufficient First Principle, adequate to ex- plain all experience. Being-, substance, force, cause, co-relation, external finality, an extra-mundane Deity arbitrarily cre- ating- and destroying-, are categ-ories which, when used as first principles, give rise to positivism, pantheism, idealism, deism and ag-nosticism. But concrete relig'ious experience to-da^^ is such as to render all such interpretations inadequate. The ab- stract supernaturalism of much theolog-y, as well as abstract mechanical natural- ism, has failed to reach the adequate con- ception of God which makes creation, the incarnation and restoration possible. Thoug-ht is restless beyond these concep- tions till it reaches the thoug-ht of an Absolute Self-consciousness who manifests himself creativel^^ in the finite Avorld and man, binding- them back to himself. It declines an^^ conception which makes na- ture, man and God to be discordant and irreconcilable ideas. It is especiall^^ con- IN RELIGION. 75 cerned to find the conception which binds man and God in the cong-enial bond which religion implies. Beginning- with the in- dividual finite mind, it passes through all the encompassing social circles, finding in the highest no place for " the religion of humanit3^" Religion demands a bond with a super-humanity. Beginning with the conception of an abstract supra-mundane Deity, it passes through all theories of creation till it reaches the conception of the concrete ab- solute Self-consciousness th?it must create, and realize himself in his offspring. Ab- stract mechanical necessit^^ of course, is here entirely out of the question. It is the free necessity of his own concrete triune Personality which leads to creation and its culmination in the Incarnation. Such a First Principle contains in its very nature organic bond with his off spilng. The Necessity of Religious Certitude. And in the light of this alone is finite 76 REASON AND AUTHORITY spirit, its nature, history and destiny, in- telligible . Here religion is seen to be necessary. Its elements of revelation and faith are in the reciprocal process of the Divine Spirit to the human, and of the human spirit to the divine. Philosophy does not create this concep- tion of the First Principle out of nothing*. It is not an abstract a prioi^i conception. It is the logical ultimate and the chrono- logical presupposition of all the other cate- gories under which experience is alone possible for man. These categories or conditions of thinking can only be found by reflection upon actual experience. Phi- losophy is sim ply the science of these cate- gories, implicit in the experience even of the most unreflecting, some of them be- coming more explicit in the special sciences. It is not a knowledge of all things, but a comprehension of the underlying condi- tions of all knowledge in a s^^stem with an adequate concrete generic First Principle. Here its special insight is directed to the IN RELIGION. 77 theological conditions of religious experi- ence, or, in particular, of the content of the Christian consciousness as to sin and redemption, or of alienated and of restored communion (religion) with God through Jesus Christ. In other words, it aims at comprehensive insight into the rationality of Christian experience, or at philosophi- cal theology founded upon historical and dogmatic theology. It does not destro^^ or transcend relig- ion, which is the most vital realization of the bond between God and man. Religion is the highest, the complete practical, re- conciliation, and is not destined to lose it- self in philosophy. Philosophy' does not set itself above religion, but only above partial and contiictiug interpretations of its experience. It leads us to know for thought and in thought, as reasonable and true and holy, what religion is as life and experience. It validates this experience for thought. It gives the highest author- ity to religion, b^^ demonstrating its abso- 78 REASON AND AUTHORITY lute necessity. It readies the ultimate ground, of certitude, which was only im- plicit and unthoug'ht of in the stage of feeling. Philosophy of History. It reaches, too, certitude as to objec- tive religion. It sees the necessit^^ and worth of all creeds and institutions as the outcome of the religious bond — the work of the spirit of man inspired by the Spirit of God in a course of divine educa- tion of the race. This spirit of compre- hension is never envious. It often roman- ticizes, growing tender and reverent in its appreciation of the forms of the earlier stages in which it has been nourished. If it has passed thoroughly through the skeptical stage, it can never be ungener- ous in its estimate of either dogma or doubt. Its insight into the truth of tlie heart of all religion ; its ripe conviction of the neces- sary org-anic communion of God and man; its comprehension of the process of the Divine Education, or its philosophy of IN RELIGION. history, enables it to find itself, to make itself at home at the humblest domestic altar as well as in the grandest cathedral, always holding- the critical faculty in abey- ance, as having- been satisfied once for all. It thus gives the hig'hest authority in re- lig-ion, as deduced from and implied in itself, as necessary. Holy and reverent is this spirit of nisig'ht, for it is the ver^^ Spirit of God whicli has bound the devil of doubt — a '* Part of that power, not understood, Which always wills the bad, and always works the good." Philosophy of Religion. It does not place itself above religion, again, because it is the child of religion. It reaches its conception of God onl^^ be- cause religion has already realized the essential bond between God and man. In particular, it is the child of Christianity — the thoughtful comprehension of its own experience. This starts from the culmi- 80 REASON AND AUTHORITY nation of the historical manifestation of the bond betAveen God and man. Jesus Christ manifested this bond perfectly. He was a man manifesting- perfect absolute union Avith God. Rational truth can onl}^ be apprehended on condition of its existence in natural and secular form. It must be immanent in a historical process. The man Jesus did not primarily appeal to thought. He liA'ed his practical life in the world. He came unto his o\A^n, and AA'on them by his life. He became the ful- filment of the supernatural order implicit in all previous history, the consummation of the self- necessitated DiAdne act of crea- tion in time. Here the hitherto immanent and constitutional co-AA^orking of God AAith man came to perfect manifestation. God became man because humanitj^ Avas an essential phase of his own life. Here his perfect self -consciousness AA^as manifested. Son of man and Son of God AA^ere manifest- ed as congenial and inherent parts of the DiAine Self-consciousness. Here vA^as IN RELIGION. 81 reached the axis of the world's history, or, for what concerns us at present, the axis of the world's thought about God and man ; for we are still abstracting- the con- crete thought from the more concrete pro- cess of Christian life and institution. Modern Thought as Christian Thought. Christian thought, w^iich is modern thought, starts from the sensuous life of Christ and continues following the secular extension of this life in humanity. This has been the woof of which thought has been the warp in the concrete web of the modern world. Previous philosophy had been an attempted comprehension of the relation of God and man as manifested in human experience. With the advent of Christ came new and fuller experience. It did not appeal primarily to thought. The practical experience of this life and its ex- tension in the life of the Christian com- munity came first. But thinking is an inherent human necessitv which continued 82 REASON AND AUTHORITY in the Christian community. It was self- necessitated to reflect upon and express in intellectual forms the content of its expe- rience. The thought activity was new only as modified b^'^ its subject matter. Thoughtful men, men trained in philoso- phy, became Christians, and Christians be- came thoughtful. Hence Christian doc- trines, and ultimately Christian creeds. These represent the most catholic thought of the intellectual aristocracy of the com- munity, thinking upon the content of catholic experience. They claimed the guidance of the Holy Spirit graduall3^ leading them into all truth. The Nicene symbol represents the highest and the most oecumenical expression of this cath- olic thought. This gives its authority to the completed Nicene symbol. Use of the Nicene Symbol. There are parts of this s^^mbol which can have their proper authority onl}^ to those who can think themselves into its IN RELIGION. 83 definitions and see how it states ultimate thoug-ht. Such thought should be the g'oal of all Christian thinking or theology. But all such knowledge is an approximate development toward, rather than an ac- tual attainment. In the highest specu- lative thought and in the most oecu- menical creed we still know only in part. But, for the understanding of the Nicene symbol, this speculative thought is neces- sary, as is also a knowledge of the whole history of the age which gave birth to it. Hence its general use in public worship is not to be desired. Repeating, parrot-like, forms of sound doctrine without any con- ception of their sense, is a pagan custom that we need not encourage. The Nicene symbol has its proper use in church-coun- cils and clerical meetings. But perhaps this would be too great a restriction. One can join with the great congregation of saints of the centuries in hymning this be- lief in the full divinity and the real man- hood of Jesus Christ. 84 REASON AND AUTHORITY Non-CEcumenioal Theology and Theo- ries. Our discussion implies a distinction be- tween what is authoritative for comprehen- sive thought, and the much larger part of dogma which consists of metaphorical con- ceptions, partial theories and inadequate definitions which are local and transient — at best, onl3^ truth in the making. It is this portion, too, about which much of the anxious thought and controversy and doubt of our day is concerned. To this part belong theories of the inspiration of the Bible, of the atonement, of future pun- ishment, of the method of the creation of nature and of man. Must I believe them ? Do we believe them ? Have they believed them ? If so, which one of them, and why ? Here the history of Christian doctrine can aid us greatly. It shows that none of these theories have passed through the oecumeni- cal Avork of comprehensive thought. To the doubting and harassed Christian IN RELIGION. 85 asking- what must I believe as to many traditional and current conceptions, we ma}^ answer : Believe them only so far as, from a study of their histor^^, you can see them to be necessary implications of the doctrine of the Incarna-tipn. Take them at a i:;elative rationality, as more or less harmonious with the general Christian sentiment. The Laiv of Liberty also the Law of Duty. The oecumenical creed is here a law of libert3^ But it is also a law of duty. We not only may, but we must freely investi- gate the grounds and worth of all other conceptions. Biblical criticism and the theory of creation by evolution, the doc- trines of the future life and of the atone- ment, the question of church polity and ritual, all are open questions, in the solu- tion of which we must take our part. The authoritative must is here that of free in- vestigation, instead of slavish submission. 86 REASON AND AUTHORITY The '' Must " of the Bible. Protestantism repudiated the unethical authoritj' of an unhol}^ Church, but soon yielded the same sort of blind i^everence to the Bible. The change was not wholly a mistake. It was the most spiritual and ethical attitude that could then be taken. The evil grew out of the abuse to which all good things are subject. Supersti- tion changed this living word into a dead letter. It was given the place assigned by pagans to their oracles, or by Moham- medans to the Koran. Bibliolatry be- came as real as Mariolatry. Orthodoxy was based upon a literal interpretation of an infallible oracle. Hence more than half the honest doubt of our day. Hence, too, the form of unevidencing evidences, serving only to increase skepticism. But there is a reformation rapidly tak- ing place in regard to the worth and au- thority of the Bible almost as great as that accomplished by the Reformation as JA^ RELIGION. 87 to the authority of the Church. Only this is an intellectual, while that was a moral revolt. It may take generations to bring men generally to a recognition of the rightful spiritual authority of the Bible, as it has taken centuries to turn the tide of appreciation in favor of recog- nizing the rightful and necessary author- ity^ of the Church. Certainly it is not to be overlooked that a total revolution has taken place in our day in the conception of the method of revelation and inspiration. Our Bishops, in their late Pastoral Letter, acknowledge that the '^ advances made in Biblical re- search have added a hol}^ splendor to the crown of devout scholarship,'^ and mention both ^^ shrinking superstition and irrever- ent self-will" as earth-born clouds that tend to obscure its hol^^ light. We can barely indicate the reformed conception of the Bible which is rapidly replacing the old one. The Bible is literature. It is sacred 88 REASON AND AUTHORITY literature. It is the '^ survival of the fittest " of the sacred literature of the Jews and of the early Christians. Like the creeds, it is the product of the Church, and at the same time the fountain and the norm of Christian life and doctrine. It is a record of revelation done into history ; a record of the historical incarnation of the Son of God, set in a partial preparation for it, and in a partial result of its primi- tive extension. It thus contains God's revelation. It is a vehicle of that revela- tion. It is itself a revelation of God to the student of it, and to the whole Church. It is not errorless, or infallible, or of equal value throug-hout. It is the Book of the Church to the Church and for the Church. Hence the Christian conscious- ness, rather than individuals, is the best interpreter of it. It also, in turn, pro- duces and g-ives the norm of development to the life and doctrine of the Church. It is a living word, appealing to the mind and heart and conscience after criticism has done its utmost work upon it. IN RELIGION. 89 We still have the Bible. The Bible, and the Bible only, is the Book of the Church, and the rule of faith. But we do not have — or we shall not, when critical study shall have finished its work — a word- book of equally valuable proof-texts, in- fallible in toto et partihus. This crit- icism demonstrates that the Bible is a record of divine revelation done into human history under the limitations of the mental and religious culture of the people of current times. All parts are not of equal value. Christ himself and his apostles criticised the morality and ritual of the Old Testament. Our Gospels are a fourfold transcription of inspired teaching* in the Church of the first century. The Church was before the New Testament. It is the Church, founded and growing under the limitations of his- torical conditions, that gives us our au- thentic record of the life of Christ. But this is by no means to adopt the Roman Catholic method of setting the Church 90 REASON AND AUTHORITY above the Bible. For it, in turn, is that to which the Cliurch confesses itself bound to appeal to as the rule of faith. Good Churchmen now g'enerally say that the orthodox view of the Bible as a verbally infallible text-book has never been a doctrine of the Catholic Church. I be- lieve that Apolog-etics should frankly con- cede this, and thus free Christianity from the hundred criticisms that have force onl3^ as against such a theory — none what- ever against the Bible as the Book of books. Open Questions. So as to liberty and duty in regard to other open questions. The greatest theo- logians of Christendom have always main- tained this. Only zealots and party poli- ticians have flourished an authoritative must over Christians in such questions. But this duty demands that we shall try to get at the heart, at the real significance of such conceptions and theories ; to modest- ly seek to understand them before we dare IN RELIGION. 91 call them irrational, after the short and easy method of many self-styled rational- ists. Indeed, the historical method has larg-ely replaced this negative rationalistic method even with unbelievers. They, too, thus find a relative justification for what they reject.* This much, at least, is com- pelled by the incoming- appreciation of social and historical factors of individuals. One can only know through others, and ul- timately the whole only through individ- uals. Thus historical and dogmatic the- ology furnish the necessary materials for philosophic theology. It remains true, however, that we can even thus only accept many traditional conceptions and dogmas ill a Pickwickian sense. Our belief in them will accord with Bishop Pearson's curi- ousl}^ elliptical definition of belief as *^ the assent to that which is credible as credi- * A very fine example of the historical study of dogma may be found in an article by Prof. C. C. Everett, D.D., on "The Natural History of Dog- ma." The Forum, Dec, 1889. 93 REASON AND A UTHORITY ble " — i.e., belief is belief in that which is believable as believable. But here we are still in the sphere of the liberty and duty of criticising- inade- quate metaphors and opinions. The task is how best to conceive or re-conceive Christianity throug-h aid of past concep- tions, and also throug-h the aid of the chang-ed conceptions furnished by mod- ern science and culture. We cannot be chained to winged or to petrified meta- phors of a past, whose whole material for imagination was very different from that of our times. We cannot accept them as authoritative, but must create the best we can, which will be as cong-enially authori- tative to us as theirs were to them. More cannot be demanded. The modern ideal of knowledge is drawn on the canvas of a progressive education of the race. It is in accordance with this ideal that the most authoritative truth for one people or age ma^^ have but relative validity for another. Nor should the value of meta- IN RELIGION. 93 phor and abstract dogma as media of the divine revelation be overlool<:ed in this criticism of their worth as scientific knowl- edge- Only we must not seek in them ultimate ground of authority. As we pass through self -compelled criticism from one conception to another, we are finding our real ground to be *^the unit}^ of identity and difference," of dogma and doubt. The new is better than the old only as it contains the old as a vital, though trans- muted, element. Inadequacy of Mere Theoretical Knowl- edge. But even in the most concrete historical and philosophic view of truth we are still too abstract. We are studying Chris- tianity as if it were chiefly a system of intellectual truth. We are abstracting the web from the woof, the Logos of the incarnation from the whole of its practical extension. We have acknowledged that Christianity must be done into history. 94 REASON AND AUTHORITY into concrete life and institution, before it could be seen to be reason, just as the earthly life of Christ was essential to the seeing" him as the Logos. Philosophy, then, must revert to this. Christianity is more than feeling or thinking-. It is also deed. Theoretical cognition is not suffi- cient. " Grey, friend, is all theory ; green Is the golden tree of life." PART III. RELIGION AS WILLING. We have, then, to notice the third form in which religion manifests itself — that of willing. Comprehension has to embrace not only the grey form of right thinking, but also the green tree of golden fruit — the exten- sion of the incarnation in the practical life of the social body. Religion is not merely the feeling or seeing the bond between God and man ; it is also the determination IN RELIGION. 95 of life by the bond. It is willing- to be God-like. This is the building- power, the realizing- of the extension of the incarna- tion to the sanctifying- the whole of secu- lar life. It is the Rome-element con- stantly accompanying- or preceding" the other phases of religion. It posits, puts in concrete form the certitude of both feeling- and thought. It is founded upon the rock of secular reality. It was pres- ent at the g-iving- of the Law upon Sinai, in the formation of the Jewish Theocracy and building- its temple, as it was in Rome be- coming- the imi3eria] mistress of the secular world. This bed-rock certitude has never left itself without a witness and an org-an in the form of institutions which have been the media of all our culture. This has been the activit}^ of what Kant called the *^ Practical Eeason,'^ or creative rea- son moulding" the concrete into accord- ance with its norm. It does the truth, and thus creates the forms which in turn nourish and educate it. 96 REASON AND AUTHORITY This Rome-element Records Its Creed in Its Deed. This Rome-element, or the " Practical Reason," is eternal, always placing- itself above past history by making new history, but alwa^^s vindicating- past history by the new which that past alone makes possible. It may be called the petrifying element of religion. It catches and fixes in progres- sive stationary form the fleeting phase of feeling and the restless dialectic of thought, and yet ever uses the new and more am- ple materials they furnish for its work. Man does what he thinks. Man thinks what he does. Man is what he does. If we were compelled to choose between any one of these abstractions, we should say, Man is what he does. The will is the man. It is the concrete unity of all the elements of man. Any act of will is the expression of the whole man as he is at that time. It is his character, his law, his authority, his certitude. Doing, IN RELIGION. 97 he is ever org-anizing his self, and ever rising* on stepping-stones of past deeds to higher ones. Doing, he knows the doc- trine of God. The Moral Argumefit for Christianity. But man is social, and pre-eminently so in religion. The kingdom of heaven on earth has from the first been a social com- munity. Its deed is its real creed. Hence the worth of what is called the moral argument for Christianity^ — its visible power in regenerating* and softening man- kind beyond all disquisitions of philoso- phers and all exhortations of moralists. This is also the truth in the argument that Christianity is a life of God in the soul of man, rather than a creed ; an immanent re- generative power, a mystical presence that moves the homesick soul to find its home in God in the ordinary routine of secular life. This too is the truth in the argument from personal experience of the members of this social body. Christianity finds 98 REASON AND AUTHORITY them, meets their relig-ious needs, nourish- es their spiritual life, proves its adequacy to human need in all jo^^ful and trying* ex- periences. Its conceptions of life, of duty, of forgiveness, of eternal life — all the deep- er moral and religious need^ of the human heart — are met in the presentation of the Gospel by the Church to its members. This social religion is a religion of both inspiration and consolation. The Church meets and incorporates the new-born babe into its motherly bosom in holy baptism. Throughout life it lifts up its perpetual eucharist to meet his needs, whether he be crying De Profundis or shouting In Ex- celsis. At death it transfers him from the home below to the home above — from the Church militant to the Church trium- phant. The certitude of these blessings comes from experiencing them. It is the deed of Christ's life in the members of his social body. IN RELIGION. 99 Instituted Christianity— the Kingdom of God. But Cliristianitj^ does not only realize itself in the practical life of its members, it also institutes itself in social organiza- tion. Here we approach perilous g-round, or rather, we have to sail between the Scylla of an abstract universal and an ab- stract individual conception of the Church. What is the form of the Holy Catholic Church in which all Christians believe? We would fain escape from the strife of tong-ues by calling instituted Chris- tianity the kingdom or the republic of God — the communion of saints on earth. That is the comprehensive truth. We limit ourselves to a few expository state- ments. Mechanical and Ethical Conceptions of the Church. Our conception of the Church depends upon our conception of the First Principle. 100 REASON AND AUTHORITY If God is conceived as abstract transcend- ence, the whole of religion necessarily re- ceives a semi-mechanical form. Tran- scendence implies a dualism, a gulf, rather than a bond between God and man, that can only be bridged in a mechanical way. The incarnation and its extension alike suffer from this partial conception of God. Romanism is the standing illustration of the form of institution realized under this conception. High- Anglicanism is but its feebler counterfeit. This form has had, and still has, in some phases of civilization, its worth and relative justification. But to-day it is under the more genial con- genial conception of the Divine immanence that we get the most comprehensive view of the kingdom of God as the whole of the faithful in every form of instituted Chris- tianity. The Church and the State. There is no universal external corporate form that is inclusive. The Holy Catholic 77V RELIGION. 101 Church is like the Universal State, that fed- eration of nations and Parliament of man to which individual states are subordinate and org-anic, and which is the world's tri- bunal, to pronounce and execute judgment upon them. Though constitutional mon- archy and Episcopacy be essential to the total corporate organization of Church and State, yet ''one must needs be stone-blind not to see churches " and states standing without them to-day. The immanent Spirit was present in earlier forms, and now He is present in modern forms of Church and State, which have been inex- tricably interwoven throughout history. Protestant communions are also forms of instituted Christianity, closely in sym- pathy with modern states, which base their constitutions on the principles of free- dom and respect for personality. Protes- tants necessarily regard the question of policy or constitution from a different point of view from that of Romanists. It is not an article of faith with them. The 103 REASON AND AUTHORITY Romanist conceives of instituted Chris- tianity as a mechanical, unethical form of authority. We recognize its institution as an ethical and historical process of the spirit immanent in Christian nations and communities. This spring-s from our con- ception of the First Principle as concrete Self-Consciousness, or Love, self-necessi- tated to create, and to relate himself to his created offspring. It is a part of the philosophy of history which is quite mod- ern, and yet Christian. Greek, Roman and Germanic Elements in Modern Christianity. Romanism is one phase of this process. But modern Christendom has passed be- yond Rome as ultimate. It is largely Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon. Still it is only a part of a process which must conserve the Greek and Roman element. The Greek element stands for philosophy or orthodoxy, the Roman for law or politj^, and the Anglo-Saxon for free spirit or IN RELIGION. 103 ethical personality. Creed and polity are permanent elements which Protestantism must conserve with its free spirit, without being seduced back to the stagnant ortho- doxy of the Greek Church or to the terrible tyranny of Roman ecclesiasticism. This is our task. It has its dangers, but it is a duty. The outworkings of the immanent spirit in our times indicate this trend of progress. The Christian consciousness is not content with so many Protestant vari- ations. It yearns for unity. We are still in the sphere of history in the making, but take our part in it under the conception of the Divine immanence. This conception is monistic and organic. It is the category of comprehension or of totality, self-active and self-realizing. Its chief danger is that of overlooking differ- ences, instead of reducing them to organic elements. But it is the conception which steers clear of all subjective individualism, and is only consistent with the social view of man in all spheres. 104 REASON AND AUTHORITY The Christian Consciousness and Authority. Thus it finds its ground of autliorit}^ in the communal Christian consciousness, and strives to make this as oecumenical as possible. There are always relatively catholic orthodoxies, cults and institu- tions. These have been formative of every Christian person. Only in and through life in some form of them has he become a Christian. They have been God-given conditions to limit, in order to educe and realize, the individual. To be a member of some form of instituted Christianity is essential to one's being- able to appreciate its rationality^ It is from within such nurture that doubt may come to force him to wider conceptions or more catholic fel- lowship. Authority after authority, as teacher after teacher, may be transcended on the way to higher thought and life. But it must always be within some con- crete form of the Christian consciousness IN RELIGION. 105 that the authority and rationality of Christianity can be seen, on the way to comprehension and cathoUcity. The ap- prehension of its rationahty comes after the experience of having- our best-self educed b3^ the process. The larger our fellowship, the larger authority and ration- ality we shall be able to recognize in this conditioning Christian consciousness. Instituted Christianity needs and can have no grounds or evidence strictly exter- nal. It vindicates itself, as all organisms do. For comprehension, it is reason done into institution, the sum total of the out- come of the consciousness of the vital bond between God and man in historic process. Religion to-day stands for the recognition of the Fatherhood of God and the sonship of social man, till we all come unto a per- fect manhood. The Church in every form is a partial organization of this recogni- tion. Submission to its authority in the most catholic form is the rational submer- g-ence of our empty individualism in the 106 REASON AND AUTHORITY whole historic Ufe of the great brother- hood. This yielding is neither childlike faith nor unmanly superstition. It is the yielding that should come from compre- hensive insight into the vital and constitu- tive relation of a concrete whole to the single member, subjective religion being rendered possible only within such a pro- cess. The historical is seen to be the con- stant accompaniment and educer of the psychological form of our faith, while both rest upon the metaphysical ground of the Divine adhesion to his own offspring in a course of education into full sonship. To think ourselves into the creed, to form ourselves into the manners, to feel our- selves into the worship of the Church, is our highest rational duty. Such rational submission implies constant self-activity. This implies much doubt and much self- restraint. Hence it is vastly different from that servile, superstitious yielding to dogmatic external authority that rational IN RELIGION. 107 Christians will never cease to protest ag-ainst as uncatholic. Self- Consciousness and Certitude. A person must always be at home with himself in the content of his self-conscious- ness in order to be rational. The creed and cult of the Church must be adopted and self-imposed through recognition of their constitutive influence in his own de- velopment. But this development he knows can never be in isolation. The ra- tional for himis the social He lives and moves and has his being in and through social relations. The rational " I believe " thus rests psychologically and historically upon a ^' we believe." The rational " we believe " rests upon the Christian con- sciousness of the community of which we are organic members. This consciousness rests upon the primal and perennial vital bond of God with his offspring. Thus the ultimate g-round of authority and of cer- 108 REASON AND AUTHORITY. titude is God's adhesion to man. The secondary, or mediating ground of certi- tude for the individual, is the Church, which represents the adhesion of man to God, through consciousness of this bond. CHAPTEE II. AUTHORITY IN RELIGION* Two Notable Books on Authority in Religion. The two g-reat books in the English re- ligious world this year are Dr. Martin- eau's Seat of Authority in Religion and the new " Essays and Ke views," entitled ''Iaix Mundiy They are both apologetical — the one for a minimized individual Chris- tianity, the other for the concrete current of historical and institutional Christianity. They are both alike, too, in that their authors have read, marked, learned and inwardly digested the theological bugbear *''Lux MundV John W. Lovell & Co., New York. "The Seat of Authority in Religion," by James Martineau, D.D., LL.D. Longmans Green & Co., London and New York. no REASON AND AUTHORITY of German criticism. They are both also rationalistic, aiming* as they do at estab- lishing" the rationality of the faith which they contend for, however great the vari- ance between the contents of the faith in the two cases. But as regards the organ for interpreting Christianity, both ac- knowledge no diviner faculty than reason. They differ, too, but little in their empha- sis of both faith and reason. They differ immensely, however, in the quantum of " The Faith " found to be rational, and in their conception of the rational. The first volume is a painful surprise, on account of its minimum of content ; the other is a pleasurable surprise, on ac- count of its maximum of rationalism, in the best sense of the word. The broad be- comes narrow and the narrow broad. Dr. Martineau, who, on his recent eight3^-fifth birthday, received an ovation from the great and good of all creeds and classes in England, because of his noble '' endeavors after the Christian life," here narrows the IN RELIGION, 111 external concrete manifestation of Christi- anity to scarcely more than a half-hiddei; rivulet in noxious glades and arid deserts. The Anglo-Catholic movement, on the other hand, which has hitherto stood for appeal to uncriticised authority of a past, arbitrarily labelled holy ; which has only spoken of reason with fear and hatred ; which has narrowed the limits of the Church more than any Puritan ; yes, the Oxford movement of Pusey and Newman here appears as not only offering- but beg- ging* to appeal to reason, in order to justi- fy itself to the times in which it lives. The Authors of the '^ Lux Mmidi.'' Eleven devout scholars of the school of Pusej^ " with unity of conviction," con- tribute the twelve essays in the volume, desiring " it to be the expression of a com- mon mind and a common hope." They believe 'Hhat theology must take a new development," that *' the faith needs dis- encumbering, reinterpreting, explaining." 112 REASON AND AUTHORITY Their twelve ^* Tracts for the Times" would have met with as severe condemna- tion at the hands of the authors of the Oxford movement, could they have been written then, as did the Broad Church '* Essays and Reviews." The Rev. Charles Gore, editor, and one of the contributors, is the Principal of Keble College. His essay on ^^Inspiration" has already re- ceived a like welcome from some of the narrower and unprogressive leaders of the party. The common method and spirit of all the essayists are seen to be the attempt to reconcile the Church and modern thoug-ht, including modern German criti- cism of the origines Christiance ; to show that Christ is the true I^iix Mundi of thought and science, no less than of relig- ion. Reason is the only interpreter. " Rea- son interprets religion to itself, and b3^ interpreting verifies and confirms." Re- ligion '^ dares to maintain that the foun- tain of wisdom and religion alike is God ; IN RELIGION. lib and if these two streams shall turn aside from him, both must assuredly run dry. For human nature craves to be both re- ligious and rational. And the life which is not both is neither " (p. 90). The Bible, the Church and individual reason are not three distinct messages or authorities. They must be so interpreted as to be seen to be but a manifold one — to be but parts of a concrete process. Sepa- rated from each other, abstracted from the process, each is alike false and misleading. Hence it is not each single man's reason or conscience that is ultimate ; nor is it the voice of the Church that alone proclaims the truth. It is the reason of the individ- ual, informed, enlightened, rationalized by the corporate reason of mankind recorded in the Bible and the Church. It is this which distinguishes their vol ume from Dr. Martineau's work. The au- thors have been trained and educated in the more concrete form of institutional Chris- tianity. Dr. Martineau has, to a great 114 REASON AND AUTHORITY extent, been separated from this life. He has been an eagie in the air, an Alpine climber on the top of the Jung- Frau. They have passed their lives in the cool silence and holy music of cathedral choir, and in the book-lined walls of cloistered college, and yet also in the midst of the modern Zeitgeist that has invaded and conquered old Oxford. Hoiv Infliienced by German Criticism and Philosophy, by Prof. T. H. G7'ee7i, and the Oxford Hegelian- ism. — Their Appeal to Reason. The influence of German philosophy is even more marked than that of German criticism in their essa^^s. A noticeable token of this is found in the opening essay on " Faith." In spirit and method it is scarcely to be distinguished from a lay sermon on ''faith" by the late Thomas Hill Green (the Professor Grey of " Robert Elsmere"), leader of the Hegelian school at Oxford. The same is true of the essays IN RELIGION. 115 on *'The Christian Doctrine of God," " The Incarnation and Development/' and '' The Incarnation as the Basis of Dog-ma. " In all these, it is true, the authors go much heyond Green, though not bej^ond Hegel, in starting from and remaining- in the Divine reason done into the historical institution of the Church, with its Word, Ministry and Sacraments. The influence of Oxford Hegelianism in these essays is very marked. The late Thomas Hill Green profoundly influenced many of the brightest men at Oxford, leading- them to a study of Heg-el. But very many thus influenced have been car- ried b}^ Hegel's thought and their own en- vironment into the Anglo-Catholic party. This has given rise to a current saying in England, that all the honey from Green's bees goes into the Anglo-Catholic hive.* * Since writing this chapter I liave looked over again the curious book of S. Baring-Gould on "The Origin and Development of Religious Be- lief," which was startling when first read some twenty years ago. I find it now, as then, a queer 116 REASON AND AUTHORITY But this honey has had the vital power to transform the hive. It is another case of the conquered giving- laws to the conquer- ors. hodge-podge of materialism and philosophy. The noteworthy thing about it, coming from an An- glo-Catholic, is its appeal to philosophy for vindi- cation of the Christian religion, and especially its rapturous acceptance of Hegel's philosophy. Thus he says, " The importance of Hegel's method I think it impossible to overestimate. ... I believe that if the modern intellect is to be recon- ciled to the dogma of the Incarnation, it will be through Hegel's discovery." . . . ''He supplies a key to unlock the gate which has remained closed to the minds of modern Europe. ... I do not pretend to have done more than apply the Hegelian method to the rudiments of Christianity, to establish the rationale of its fundamental doc- trine, the Incarnation." (Vol. II., pp. 39, 40, 116 and 375.) However ill-digested the materials which he worked up, and however imperfect his apprehen- sion of Hegel's method, he at least did pioneer work in calling attention to Hegel as a master in philosophy. I doubt not that his work has been one of the influences making '* Lux MundV pos- sible in that quarter. It need scarcely be said that their work is more scholarly and devout. Their style is rather German-like, while his is quite French-like. IJS RELIGION, 117 The Divine Lnmanence. The doctrine of Divine immanence is maintained as the Log-os of the world both before and after the incarnation. Greek and Roman culture is received as ^' no alien element, but a leg-itimate ingredient in Catholic, complete Christianity" (p. 168). '' The history of pre-Christian religions is like that of pre-Christian philosophy, a long preparation for the Gospel" (p. 171). The history of Christianity, too, is a long- historical process of spiritual and mental assimilation and interpretation of the in- carnation. Christianity, both as to its records and its creeds, has a history and is " subject to all the conditions of history and the laws of evidence." Historical criticism is welcomed as a true handmaid, a part of Lux Mundi. But historical conditions cannot invalidate the process they make possible. The word, the ministry and sacraments of the Church, though subject to all these conditions 118 REASON AND AUTHORITY represents the real static elements in tlie process. Thej^ are the highest and truest expressions and interpretations of the Lux Mundi. Neither histor^^, nor religion actualized in histor^^, is an unfolding' of abstract thought. Feeling, fancy, desire and will are also elements of the concrete life, and the Imx Mundi recognizes, uses, is imma- nent in them. Parable and myth and leg- end, proverb, drama and poetry, no less than prose, are vehicles of his presence and power and beneficence. Christianity is not merely philosoph^^ or theology or cult or creed or institution, but it is all of these, together with all thrills of feeling and visions of fancy and deeds of will that are inwoven elements of Christian history. Criticism may be welcomed to the task of distinguishing these various elements, but it must be dismissed the moment that it sets up any one or all of its dissected abstracted elements as the whole truth. The life and light, the Logos and the Lux of the world IN RELIGION. 119 are in the whole. This spirit and method of studying- and appreciating- Christian history and institutions is notably that of Hegel. Indeed his impatience with the abstract critical study of religion is far greater than that of the authors of Lux Mundi. The Historical Method. Throughout Christian history, in which Church and creed and ritual and culture and life have been developed, *Hhe entire human nature— imagination, reason, feel- ing, desire — becomes to faith a vehicle of intercourse, a mediating aid in its friend- ship with God" (p. 24). Welcome all that historical criticism may do to discriminate these^elements, but hold fast to all. '' Faith appeals to such a complex history to justify its career ; it bears about that history with it as its explanation ivhy or how it has arrived at its present condition" (p. 33). But mere ''spiritualized Christianity" is abstract and evanescent. " The religion 120 REASON AND AUTHORITY which attempts to be rid of the bodily side of thing's spiritual, sooner or later loses its hold of all reality. The Church of Christ is not so. It does not ig-nore the funda- mental conditions of human experience. The incarnation was the sanctifying- of both parts of human nature, not the abolition of either. The Church, the sacraments, human nature, Jesus Christ himself, all are twofold ; all are earthly objective as well as transcendental spirit- ual" (p. 226). Hence the frank and un- wavering- maintenance of the creeds, ritual and ministry of institutional Christianit3^ They are ,bone and flesh and feeling- and reason of these essayists ; hence rational, in the hig-hest and most concrete sense of the word. '^ There is one sense in ivhich we may own that even the definitions of the creeds may themselves be called rela- tive and temporary. For we must not claim for phrases of earthly coinage a more than earthly and relative completeness" (p. 212). And yet there is a sense in which IN RELIGION. 121 they are final and authoritative, being* *^ simply careful rehearsals of those inhe- rent necessities which inevitably are in- volved in the rational construction of Christ's living* character" (p. 41). In the same wa^^ the Sacramental system is rightfully maintained as a vital part of Christianit3^ Its rationality and necessity are justly vindicated by far different methods from those which have hitherto been in vogue with the Anglo-Catholic party. In short, no part of Catholic Christian- ity is given up, and yet no part is main- tained b3^ the former arbitrary method of mere assertion. The re-setting, the justi- / fying the parts by their history and their helpfulness and rationalit}^, puts an en- tirely new phase upon the w^hole. There is nothing new in the modern thought and methods which characterize this volume. The only novelty is in finding them in the representatives of that party which has from the first most vig'orously 132 REASON AND AUTHORITY protested against modern thought in favor of what the early Fathers thought and said under Divine inspiration. The Bible " con- tains " the word of God, but is subject to all the conditions of history and laws of evidence (p. 35). ^^ The modern develop- ment of historical criticism is reaching results as sure, where it is fairly used, as scientific inquiry " (p. 298). Even Christ, in his teaching, *^ used human nature, its relation to God, its conditions of experi- ence, its growth in knowledge, its limita- tions of knowledge." Even the cry ^^ remember Tuebingen" cannot frighten Mr. Gore from pleading for a free discus- sion of all these questions of Biblical criticism (301). All new truth of modern thought and science is welcomed as addi- tional rays of the Light of the world, help- ing to interpret and to understand the Bible (p. 448). Religion is to be interpreted and justified by reason manifested in a historical process of development. Morality is often far in IN RELIGION. 123 advance of religion. The Reformation was a moral protest, a genuine moral revolt against a religion which had come to toler- ate immoralit^^ " True religion is rational ; if it excludes reason it is self -condemned " (p. G8). " To sa}^ that a man need not inter- pret his religion to his reason, is like saying Be religious ; but you need not let j^our re- ligion influence your conduct" (p. 74). Dar- win and Huxley and Fiske present a wider teleology than Pale}^ (77). Of a previous book of Dr. Martineau on religion it is said that *^ No more earnest and vigorous, and, so far as it goes, no truer defence of relig- ion has been published in our da3^" Ph3^s- ical science and philosoph^^ have destro3^ed the deistic conception so regnant in Chris- tian thought. '' The one absolutely im- possible conception of God, in the present dsiy, is that which represents him as an occasional Visitor ' ' (82) . " The conviction that the Divine immanence must be for our age, as for the Athanasian age, the meet- ing point of the religious and philosophic 124 REASON AND AUTHORITY view of God, is showing- itself in the most thoughtful minds on both sides " (p. 83). It is admitted ^^ to be the province of reason to judge of the morality of the Scriptures " (p. 89). They are not fright- ened b}^ what some ignorantl}^ stigmatize as pantheism. Three t^^pical theologians of three different ages are quoted, ^* using* as the language of sober theology words every whit as strong as any of the famous pantheistic passages in our modern liter- ature " (60). It is frankly recognized that the orthodox thought has been cleared and served in no small part b}^ * liberalizers." Such liberalizers are recognized as ^^ help- ing to qualify the materialism or supersti- tion of ignorant sacramentalists, or to banish, dogmatic realisms about hell or explications of the atonement which malign God's Fatherhood" (p. 211). Such con- cessions to anti-dogmatists, as well as that of the merely relative finalitj^ of the creeds, are gladl^^ granted ^'in the name of truth." IN RELIGION, 135 The Holy Spirit is the author of all life. " The Spirit claims for his own and co7i- secrates the whole of nature. All that exists is in its essence very good'^ (273). The gradualness of the Spirit's method explains the most '' unspiritual appearance of the Old Testament ;" explains how, e.g., Phineas' murder was reckoned to him for righteousness, and how Abraham obtained an even higher honor for being not a mur- derer onl}' , but what was much worse, a child murderer " (pp. 274, 276). The same explains the imperfections, moral and in- tellectual, of the Christian Church, which has never been more than '' a tendency, not a result ; a life in process, not a ripened fruit" (276). As to the Trinity, it is said that ^^it was onl^^ with an expressed apology for the imperfection of human language that the Church spoke of the Divine Three 2iS, persons at all" (280). The doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures is not conceded a place with bases of the Christian belief, Assent 126 REASON AND AUTHORITY is asked in the Creed to certain histori- cal facts ^^ on grounds which, so far, are quite independent of the inspiration of the Evang'eUc records. All that we claim to show at this stage is that they are historical; not historical so as to be absolutely without error, but historical in the general sense, so as to be trustworthy '^ (284). Inspiration varies in degree, not in kind, in the teachers and writers of all religions and philosophies, and does not guarantee the exact historical truth of tlie records, as it is quite as consistent with mythallegory and poetry as with plain prose. Our Lord's use of Jonah's resur- rection as a type of his own does not de- pend in any real degree upon whether that was a historical fact or allegory. Dr. Pusey to the contrary notAvithstanding. Neither does his use of Psalm CX. guar- antee its Davidic authorship (p. 300). The visible method of the working of the Spirit of Christ in the world is made the historical and rational basis of the IN RELIGION. 127 organization of the Catholic Church, with its Apostohc ministry. The rational g-round for the succession of such a minis- try is said to be ' ' the necessity for pre- serving- in a catholic society, which lacks the natural links of race or language or common habitation, a visible and obliga- tory bond of association." The imtionale and extent of authority in the Church is the same as that given by Plato and Hegel. It is irrational when used for suppressing individuality^ instead of nourishing it, for the reaction of the individual on societ^^ is needed to keep the common tradition pure and unnarrowed (272). The num- ber of granted ^^ open questions," theolog- ical, ecclesiastical and liturgical, far ex- ceeds that hitherto allowed by the previous representatives of this party of finality. Open Questions Granted. We have barely quoted some of the '*open questions" and * ^concessions" grant- ed by the writers of this volume. They will 128 REASON AND AUTHORITY amply suffice, however, to show ^' the new front," the new spirit and the new method under which these new leaders present " The Faith " for the rational acceptance of Christians of every name. The hook, we would giadly believe, heralds a theo- logical renaissance of genuine catholic import and extent. The appeal is to reason, and awakens the affirmative response of reason. Such Catholics, Anglo or Americano, ^ve would all gladly be. Such Catholicism we wel- come as the need of the world and the Church to-day. It is the Catholicism of the nineteenth centur}^ after Christ — the Lmx Mundi of our own da3^ Such Catholicism is needed (1) not only to unify and inspire the diverse elements in our own Church, but it is also needed (2) to preserve, maintain and impart the heritage of Christian doctrine and wor- ship that to-daj" has a diminishing hold upon the Christian world. It is needed to save from mere negative critical results. IN RELIGION. 129 and from the baldest Quakerism, both of which are the conspicuous features of the other great volume— that hy Dr. Martin- eau. A presentation of his results will af- ford us the best occasion for further refer- ence to Lux Mundi as the genial anti- dote to the depressing, almost killing, negations of his book. Dr. Martinecm's Previous Works — Their Character and Style. Dr. Martineau — alarum et veuerabile nomen — has made a whole generation of devout and intellectual men his debtors. His volume on " Endeavors after the Christian Life " has been a genuine aid to faith and to personal piety. His vol- umes of ^' Essays, Philosophical and Theological,^^ have helped many out of the mire of empiricism and utihtarian- ism, and out of the murky Umbo of ag- nosticism. His ^^ Hours of Thought on Sacred Thing s,^^ though more analytical, subtile and subjective, still helped to wing 130 REASON AND AUTHORITY the flig-ht of the soul upwards ^^ from the alone to The Alone." His more recent volumes on " Ethics ^^ and "Religion^' have been x)ositive and constructive. Throughout he appears as an armed Christian knight, full of the vigor and jo}^ of battle. He is a born warrior, but trained to figiit single-handed, rather than as general in a large organized army. The Primacy of the English Church might easily have been his, if he had been a loyal member of it. He justly merited the marked ovation of respect recently paid him. The marring elements of his intellectual work have been those w hich have helped to make it efficient — that is, his keen polem- ics and his brilliant rhetoric. A disturbing satiet^^ of style is found in his last volume. We wish that we had no other criticism to offer. It is painful to criticise one whom we have learned to esteem and love as a conservative helper in philosophy, ethics and religion. His radical critical IN RELIGION. 131 attitude towards creed and church in this volume are unexpected and painful. But we are spared this pain throug-hout Book L, in which he traces, with ^lad mind and heart, the evidences of God in nature, in humanit^^, in conscience and in histor^^ Here he is positive and conservative, using- his keenest weapons against materialism and utilitarianism. Here he commands assent and gratitude. Doubt is banished and faith is regnant. This part was writ- ten some eig-hteen 3^ears ag-o, for the ex- tinct American magazine " The Old and New." He had then collected materials for ''a compendious survey of the ground of both Natural and Historical religion as accepted in Christendom." Released from preoccupation with philosophy two years ago, he found that his materials for the historical part— especially for the first two centuries of Christianity— had become un- trustworthy. He set at work to overtake the advance made in historical research and criticism. The admirably lucid and 132 EEASON AND AUTHORITY full work of the German scholars made this a comparatively eas}^ task. To this fresh study is due by far the larger part of the volume, which is so radically de- structive of ^^ The Faith." It is scarcely just to pass over the first part of Dr. Martineau's volume without g-enerous praise and extended quotation. It is a continuously^ profound, subtle and convincing argument for the existence and presence of God, as opposed to all materi- alistic and agnostic theories. The three grand discoveries of modern science, (1) the immense extension of the universe in space and (2) in time, and (3) the correla- tion and conservation of forces, may seem to banish God from nature. ^^ But,'' asks Dr. Martineau, "is it not childish, then, to be terrified out of our religion b}^ the mere scale of things, and because the little Mosaic firmament is broken in pieces, to ask wiiether its Divine Ruler is not also gone?" (p. 8). Again, ^^ though natural forces have lost their birthday . . . they are IN RELIGION. 133 no more entitled, by mere longevity, to serve an ejectment on the Divine element than the Divine element is to claim every- thing- from them" (p. 19). The third conception of forces also leads to the theis- tic conception of the one supreme Will. All three of these modern scientific con- ceptions only serve " to elevate and glorify ^the religious interpretation of nature.'^ And 3^et nature is '' not God's character- istic sphere of self-expression. Rather it is his eternal act of self -limitation . . . the stooping of the Infinite Will to an everlasting self-sacrifice . ' ' It is in humanity and humanity's history that his mind and heart are more clearly revealed. Conscience is the voice of God in the soul of man, divinely admonishing, inspiring, guiding humanity. In Christi- anity this voice of law is transformed into the voice of love. '^The veil falls from the shadowed face of moral authority, and the directing love of the all-holy God shines forth" (p. 75). Histor}^ shows us 134 RE AS ON AND A UTHORIT Y the stag-es of this drama of humanity and Divine Love. '^ Humanity is not onl}^ a many-JAvm^ org-an ; it is also a luO'^G- lived organ of God." His Bald Individualism. But we must turn from the part that will win praise and thanks from all good Christians to that larger part which will startle, pain, shame and anger nearly all who profess and call themselves Chris- tians. For he puts forth as '^ approved " the whole mass of the most radical modern destructive criticism of Church, Bible and Theology. He himself thus estimates the results of his own work : " As I look back on the foregoing discussions, a conclusion is forced upon me on which I cannot dwell without pain and dismay, viz., that " Christianity as defined or understood in the churches which formulate it, has been mainly evolved from what is transient and perishable in its sources ; from what is unhistorical in its traditions, mytho- IN RELIGION. 135 log'ical ill its preconceptions, and misap- prehended in tiie oracles of its prophets. From Eden to the sounding- of the last trumpet, the whole story of the divine order of the world is dislocated and de- formed. " To consecrate and diffuse, under the name of ^ Christianity,^ a theory of the world's economy thus made up of illusions from obsolete stages of civilization, im- mense resources, material and moral, are expended, with effects no less deplorable in the province of religion than would be, in that of science, hierarchies and missions for propagating" the Ptolemaic astronomy and inculcating the rules of necromancy and exorcism." (p. 650.) We need give but a brief resume of the discussion leading to this almost atheis- tic conception of Christian history, before passing to a criticism of his whole concep- tion and method. In Book II. he treats of '' Authority Artificially Misplaced.' ' His two an- 136 REASON AND AUTHORITY tagonists are the Catholics and the Protestants, who "are possessed with the idea that the}^ have actually got di- vine truth enclosed within a ring fence, still pure and integral after all these ages." They agree in having an external authority ; they differ in attributing it, the one to a corporation, the other to a literature. As between Lambeth, Gene- va and Rome, he decides that Rome has clearly the best right to the stupendous claim of being the Church, or the corpo- rate keeper of the truth. Hence his first chapter is on '^ The Catholics and the Church J ^ No Protestant could wish for a more drastic criticism of its preferred " notes " of the true Church, i.e.. Unity, Sanctity, Universality and Apostolicity. The Councils of Ephesus and Constance ; Borgia, Tetzel and Torquemada — the whole host of blots on Christian history are so emblazoned over its pages as to render the text illegible. It presents the errors and superstitions and weaknesses IN RELIGION. 137 of the Church, without the slig-htest ap- preciation of its organization, character and beneficence. With one fell, though long-continued and massive criticism, he destroys the Church of Rome, Lambeth and Geneva. He really polemicizes the Church under an^^ and every form, and awakens s^^mpathy rather than antipathy for the "mother dear " even in Roman form. In the second chapter he deals like wholesale negative criticisms to " the Protestants and the Scriptures.'' No Romanist would applaud his professed achievement of destroying the word of God contaioed in the Bible. To six of the epistles of St. Paul he allows merel}^ possi- ble genuineness. The synoptical Gospels wholly lack both genuineness and au- thenticity, being a mass of unhistorical accretions, false chronology, irreconcil- able contradictions and fabulous concep- tions. The Fourth Gospel was writ- ten in the middle of the second century 138 REASON AND AUTHORITY by a Platouized Christian, who sought to prove that Jesus was the Son of God by transfig'aring- received traditions into philosophical realism. We may spare the reader Sbuy detailed account of his criticism of the Gospels by quoting- a passage in the latter part of the volume. This is from Book V., which professes to be reconstructive. The first chapter is on " The Veil Taken Aivay.'' This is evidently' the heart of the book, the ke^^-chapter of the whole volume. To read it is to know the whole work. Ex lino disce omnes. But we give the quotation first, though it occurs at the beginning of the next chapter : ^' The portions of the synoptic texts which remain on hand, after severing what the foregoing rules exclude, can b3^ no means be accepted en masse as all equall^^ trustworth3\ They are relieved simply of the impossible, and contain onl^^ what might be time " (p. 602). The italics are Dr. Martineau's. IN RELIGION. 139 In this Book V. Dr. Martineau reveals most clear!}' the Puritan, or rather the Qua- ker conception of Christianity that domi- nates his whole work. He constructs the historical Christ from his own subjective Christ. The Biblical, the ecclesiastical and the theological Christs are perversions of the " Lig'ht of the world " that has immedi- ate!}' shone into his mind. The nimbus and the corona are due to tlie refracting- media tliroug-h wliicli the orb lias shone. It is im- possible for any ti^ue liistorica! portrait to be produced. Christian theology and tradi- tion and w^orsliip have only served to ren- der the prophecy true to-day that his vis- age ''was so marred more than an}^ man's." Their cry, ''Behold the God," renders it forever impossible for us to " be- hold the man." Yet even this perversion gives him a rule for separating the true from the false in the portrait of Jesus. But what a Persian sword this rule seems to be ! What a coup cle grace, be- heading more keenly and surely than any 140 REASON AND AUTHORITY g-uillotiiie ! The rule is simply that of ex- cluding- '' all that men have thought Sihout his person, functions and office," and re- taining- " what Jesus himself was, in spiritual character and moral relation to God." Dr. Martineau g-oes on (p. 575) to assert that the Apostles and all Christian teachers in every Church, from the most hierarchical to the most reformed, have put forth their own thoug-hts about Jesus, instead of delivering to men the religion of Jesus Christ. [The italics throughout are Dr. Martineau's.] " We must not mis- take all this scholastic dust for the divine radiance that shoots through it, and lends it aglor^^ not its own." But, alas ! he con- fesses '^ the real figure cannot, unfortu- nately, be seen by us except through the medium of human theories and preposses- sions." Where then is he to find the real Jesus, when all these false accretions have been set aside ? He confesses that ^Mt is perhaps a blind infatuation that impels us to seek, and a IN BE LI Gl ON. 141 blind incompetence that forbids us to find such a portrait un tinctured by some con- ceptions of our own." ^' It is in the sub- jective tincture of our spirits, not in the objective constructions of our intellect, that his consecration enters and holds us." Hence, " to draw forth the objective truth from behind this mist of prepossessions, Ave are thrown entn^ely upon internal evi- dence." Three rules may aid us in this hopeless task. I abbreviate, without mar- ring-, these rules. 1st. Reject all possible anachronisms, as where the narratoi's make past history out of present facts and fancies. 2d. Reject miracles that can be ac- counted for b3^ natural causes, and the subjective conceptions of the narrator. 3d. Retain all acts and words ascribed to Jesus which i^lainl}^ transcend the moral level of the narrators, and reject all such as are out of character with his spirit, but cong"ruous with theirs. *^ The first of these rules compels us to 143 REASON AND AUTHORITY treat as unauthentic, in its present form, every reputed or implied claim of Jesus to be the promised Messiah." ^' His investi- ture with that character was the retro- spective work of his disciples " (p. 577). In his last days '^ his depression of spirit was due to his anticipation of rejection and martyrdom ; not, however, as Messiah, hut SiS Messiah' sher^ald . . . he was sim- ply the continuator of the Baptist's mes- sag-e " (p. 625). So, too, the extension of the Gospel to the Gentiles was not embraced within the message of its founder (p. 585). Here, too, history is imagined back into prophecy by the apostles. Dr. Martineau finds the application of his third rule " a much more difficult and delicate task for the critic." Here his own subjective preferences afford the only means of discriminating between the true and the false in the gospel portrait. Thus he finds " the self -proclamation of meek- ness and lowliness of heart, and the pomp- IN RELIGION. 143 ous elevation above Jonah and Solomon and the temple, are out of keeping* with his personalit3\" So, too, is '^the irrita- tion attributed to him by St. Luke against the obduracy of his own people," and also the unbecoming* dinner-table invective against Pharisaic Iwpocrisy and ambition (596-599). There is finally left only '' a few ineffaceable lineaments which could only belong to a figure unique in grace and majesty" (601). The great part of the true stor}^ of Jesus has been hopelessly ruined in the trans- mission. Only ^^ here and there a precious shred of it turns up at last under the eye of a far-off observer, who brings it un- spoiled to light." Such shreds our author, the "far-off observer," tries to "bring unspoiled to the light " in his last chapter on " The Christian Religion Personally Realized." Here he says much that is fine and deep and spiritual as to the char- acter of Jesus. The few lingering shreds of true history afford him thoughts almost 144 RE AS ON AND A UTHORITY too deep for utterance. Yet he has pre- viously^ excluded '^ all that men have thought about Jesus " as unhistorical, and confessed the limitations of subjective conceptions. No wonder, then, that he adds, ^' As I look back on the foregoing discussions, a conclusion is foj-ced upon me on Avhich I cannot dwell without pain and disma3^" How much more will his results bring pain and dismay to other Christians who thus find their Lord taken away, unless, like the first disciples, they find him not in the tomb, but appear- ing to them in the resurrection form and 130 wer of his holy Catholic Church ? Dr. Martineau, it should be said, does not believe in the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb. " The absolute conviction of this on the part of his followers is among the most certain of historical facts. But it belongs to their- history and not to Ms, which has its continuance in quite another sphere" (p. 649). What is left? ''I am brought to a fur- IN RELIGION. 145 tiler* conclusion, in which I must rest in peace and hope, viz., that Christianity, understood as the personal relio'ion of Jesus Christ, stands clear of all the perish- able elements, and realizes the true relation between man and God." But even Jesus' own personal religion does not impl}^ that he was absolutely ''without sin." As Mediator, Uplifter, Inspirer, "he needs only to be better than we are." And he is Mediator, " not instead of immediate revelation, but simply as making us more aAvare of it, and helping us to interpret it. For in the yqvj constitution of the human soul there is provision for an immediate apprehension of God. . . And if Jesus of Nazareth, in virtue of the character of his spirit, holds the place of Prince of Saints, and perfects the conditions of the pure religious life, he therebj^ reveals the high- est possibilities of the human soul, and their dependence on habitual communion between man and God^' (Conclusion, pp. 651-2). 146 REASON AND AUTHORITY His Critical Metliods and Negative Results. We have endeavored to note faithfull^^ the method and results of Dr. Martineau, and to abstain from running- criticism. We have read his biography and gazed upon his portrait of our Lord with mingled pain and astonishment and resentment. We have spared the reader a resume of Book JF., in which he treats in the same negative way the various Christian ^' Theories of the Person of Jesus " and ^' Theories of the Work of Jesus." Suffice it to say that he does not treat the thoughts of Fathers, councils and theologians on these topics with any greater regard or conservation than he does those of the writers of the New Testament. We have endeavored to be just, in order that we might criticise justl}^ this work of a great devout man. The title of this book is '' The Seat of Authority in BeligionJ' But the field IN RELIGION. 147 covered by his work includes (1) What is the ^Tound of faith ? (2) What is " The Faith,'' neg-atively considered ? His sub- stantial repl3^ to the first is, that faith is faith, or an immediate apprehension of an unmecTiated revelation of God to the soul. To the second his substantial reply is that ''The Faith" of Evangelists, Apostles, fathers, councils, creeds, theologians and Church is not '^ the faith," but only '^ illusions from obsolete stages of civiliza- tion," '^ evolved from what is transient, unhistorical and m3^thological,'^ wholly concealing the truth. It is this latter and larger part of his Avork that demands chief criticism. (1.) A few remarks must, however, be offered upon his first topic — faith and its ground. Dr. Martineau is here a Quaker in religion and an intuition alist in phi- losophy. He rejects all mediations as an obstruction and an impertinence. ''Re- vealed religion is an immediate divine knowledge, strictly personal and indi- 148 REASON AND AUTHORITY vidual, and must be born anew in every mind'^ (p. 307). He joins with those who ask us to set aside the divine influ- ences transmitted to us by history, as impertinent obtrusions between the soul and God, and to retire wholly to the ora- cle within for private audience with God, though professedly acknowledging- the danger in this position. Id his j^ref ace he also says, " I am pre- pared to hear, after dispensing with mir- acles and infallible persons, I have no right to speak of aiitliority at all, the in- tuitional assurance which I substitute for it being nothing but confidence in m.j own reason." To this he demurs that his in- tuitions are not his own but God's — their source is Divine. This position in religion is certainly the reductio ad ahsurdum — one phase of Protestantism. It is to be noted, however, that Dr. Martineau is en- tirelj^ unjust to Protestants, in not noting his mark of their reformation. He confines them to a hook-religion, almost dishon- IN RELIGION. 149 estl^^ ignoring' their distinctive doctrine of justification by faith of the individual. The Protestant, however, is more just and rational than he himself ; for the Protestant does make this faith of the individual dependent upon, mediated bj" the Gospel records of the life of. God m the soul of Jesus. In philosoph3^ this theory of immediate intuitional knowledge by individuals has had a history that ought to suffice to show its utter abstractness and untruth- fulness. Mediation is the method of the universe and the life of the Spirit. The immediate — if such a thing- is thinkable — is the crude, raw, uninformed, uneduca- ted, uncivilized, unchristianized and un- rationalized. We feel, Ave live, we know only through mediation, through rela- tions to a surrounding set of mediations. Intuitionalism in philosoph}^, as Quaker- ism in religion, is a negation that only lives by surreptitiously appropriating all the mediations that it profoundly denies. 150 REASON Ah'D AUTHORITY Let Dr. Martineau really blot out and un- relate himself fr6m all the thoughts of evaug-elists about Christ and all the creed and deed of his professed Church, from the whole of the Christian sentiment, cul- ture and civilization in which he has been bathed from earliest years, and he would be in some primitive stage of na- ture-religion, worshipping a log or a stone. Without the mediation of the Chiistian Church, history and life, he would never know there was a Christ, or have any loftier human ideal than a Hottentot. In philosophy he would be equally primitive, and therefore equalh" incaiDable and un- worthy of a thought. Criticism of His Book by Contrast with the Lux Mundi. Yet Dr. Martineau's conception of faith as a personal conviction of relation with God is almost identical with that of Canon Holland, in the first essay in Lux Mundi. Canon Holland makes ^' faith an IN RELIGION, 151 elemental act of the personal self/' the mo- tion in us of our sonship in the Father, the conscious recog'nition and realization of our inherent filial adhesion to God," * ' our personal intimacy with God . " "To the end faith remains an act of personal and spiritual adhesion." Both Dr. Marti- neau and Canon Holland have the Evan- gelical or Protestant conception of faith. II. Whence, then, the difference, when thej^ pass from this to the concrete con- tent which this faith receives and lives by ? Whence the immense difference as to the amount and w^orth of " The Faith " as held by Dr. Martineau and the authors of ^' Lux MiincW'? The difference does not come, let us say, from either igno- rance or rejection of German criticism by the authors of the latter volume. They have studied the same works with open mind. They have accepted the principles and man}^ of the results of this criticism, and " plead that theology ma^^ leave the field open for the free discussion of these 152 REASON AND AUTHORITY questions wliich Biblical criticism lias re- cently been raising" " (p. 301). Every form of literature is conceded as entering' into the complex of inspired Scrip- tures. ^' A considerable idealizing- element in the Old Testament history " is recog"- nized. Mj^th and parable, poetic and dramatic composition, are as much vehicles of Divine revelation as plain prose. So also is the historical method welcomed as an aid to the explaining- of the how and why of the form of Church polit3^ creed and ritual. The g-radualness of the Spirit's method, the development throug-h the imperfect to the less impei^fect in all these forms is ivMy recog'nized. The Christian Church has always been "a hope, not a realization ; a tendenc^^ not a result ; a life in process, not a ripened fruit." ^^ The true self of the Church is the Holy Spirit, but a g-reat deal in the Church at any date does not belong* to her true self, and is ob- scuring- the Spirit's mind " (pp. 276, 277). The theor}^ of evolution is also frankly • IN RELIGION. 153 accepted, cong-enial as it is with the his- torical method. It is accepted as involving- new wa^'s of their attitude towards all knowledge. '^ Organisms, nations, lan- g-uages, institutions, customs, creeds, have all come to be regarded in the light of their development, and we feel that to under- stand Avhat a thing really is, we must examine how it came to he. . . . Our religious opinions, like all things else that have come down on the current of develop- ment, must justify- their existence b^^ an appeal to the past. . . In the face of the historical spirit of the age, the study of past theology can never again be re- garded as merel^^ a piece of religious anti- quarianism" (pp. 151, 152). The physical, mental, moral and religious possessions of humanit}^, all come under the conception of evolution in harmony with the doctrine of the incarnation. Thought is alive, in movement in both God and man, ^inca- pable of being chained to any one mode of expression ; incapable of being stereo- 154 REASON AND AUTHORITY typed" (163). As to Christianity, pre- Christian rehgions and philosophy are rec- og-nized as positive preparations and con- tributions ; " all g-reat teachers, of what- ever kind being vehicles of revelation " (165). So, too, ever^^ student in science contributes to Christian thought, ^'his discoveries being in fact revelations." All past religions, philosoph}^ and science aid in " the progressive purification of the religious idea of God, till he is revealed as what he is to a thinking Christian people of to-day — the Object of reverent worship, the moral ideal, the truth of nature and man " (p. 56). As full justice is done pagan religions as could be asked by any impartial student. '^ In them Christ was schooling himself for incarnation. " Bouleversment of this Party^s Metliod. A more complete bouleversment of method has never been seen in any Teligious partj^ With these writers at least it has ceased to be a mere *^^ party " and has be- IN RELIGION. 155 come a ^'school of thought." They hold, with the Greek fathers, " the true succes- sors of Plato and Aristotle " (p. 167), that '^ Christianity^ is a Divine philosophy and the Church its school" (p. 321). It has assimilated the Broad Church element. It illustrates, as Heg-elianism itself has done, Heg-el's dictum that " a party truly shows itself to have won the victory when it breaks up into two ]3arties ; for so it proves that it contains in itself the prin- ciple with which it first had to conflict, and thus that it has got beyond the one-sided- ness which was incidental to its first expression." It remains to be seen whether or not the Broad Church school can assim- ilate the Christian heritage contended for by this party. It still orientales, not that it ma}^ stand gazing upon a fixed historical fact, but that it maj'- trace the ra^^s of the immundated Lux Dei. Thus, with Hegel these writers find in " this process of development and realization of 156 REASON AND AUTHORITY spirit the true Theodiccea.'" (Heg-el's Philosoph}^ of History, 477. ) Here, too, we find the secret of the im mense difference between them and Dr. Martineau as to '' The Faith. " It is in their philosopl^y of histor^^, Avhich is that of He- gel. It is their philosoph}^ of histor^^ which puts all the past in a new lig'ht, and compels them to stand b^^ the accumulated heritage of the Chi'istian Church. Here these wri- ters rationally diverge widely and radi- cally from Dr. Martineau. I have quoted Canon Holland's idea of the act of faith as identical with that of Dr. Martineau. But while he seeks to hold it in abstract sub- jective isolation, Canon Holland recognizes that it has had a history and a develop- ment. Faith necessarily acts and reacts upon all the complicated relations of life. It objectifies itself and gathers all its acts into a bod3^, a creed, a cult. Faith begets " the Faith," as it apprehends the pro- gressive I'evelations of its Divine Object. In an exercise of faith to-day we cannot IN RELIGION. 157 '* force ourselves back into primitive days and imagine ourselves cliildren again." Our story has been a long and difficult one. Our faitli has implicated itself with a vast body of feelings, fancies and facts. The faith, as we have it, is now old. " It has had a history like everything else, and it reaches us to-day in a form which that history behind it can alone make intelligible. Like all else that is human, it has grown. The details of events are the media of that growth. . . . But the history, which constitutes our diffi- culty, is its own answer. . . . We cry out for the simple primitive faith. But once again this is a mistake of dates. We cannot ask to be as if eighteen centuries had dropped out unnoticed — as if the mind had slumbered since the days of Christ, and had never asked a question. . . . Now w^e must attain our cohesion with God, subject to all the necessities laid upon us by the fact that we enter on the world's stage at a late hour, when the drama has 158 REASON AND AUTHORITY alread^^ developed its plot and complicated its situations. » This is why, in full view of the facts, we cannot believe in Christ with- out finding" that our belief includes the Bible and the Creeds" (pp. 33, 37, 48). These New Leaders Change it from a *^ Party " into a ^'School of Thought.^' This is a very opposite way of appreciat- ing histor^^ from that of Dr. Martineau, who rejects ^^all that men have thought about Christ " — all ideas that Apostles, fathers, councils, theologians and the Church have uttered about the person and work of Jesus, as perversions and hin- drances to a true Christian faith. Dr. Martineau is abstract and unhistorical. They are historically concrete and ration- al. They hold the same as Hegel, who says, ^^ It is important that the Christian religion be not limited to the literal words of Christ himself. It is clear that the Christian community produces theFaitht. It is not merely the mechanical sum of IN RELIGION. 159 Christ's words, but the product of the Church enlightened by the Spirit." With their philosophy of history, too, must be coupled their own historical edu- tion. They have been born and nurtured in historical and institutional Christianity. They surve^^ past and present Christianity from within the institution. Dr. Martin- eau's survey is practically from outside of such Christianity^. He will not recognize it as bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. It is this that prevents him from having- a true historical appreciation of the Church, and causes him to regard its eighteen cen- turies of history as practically an apostasy from, an obscuration of, the Imx Mundi, The characteristic difference between them is the same as that between Plato and Aristotle. Dr. Martineau, with all his splendor of imager}^, subtile analysis and charm of language, is still '' all in the air," like a man in a balloon, not going anj^where in particular. The others are working citizens and intellectual rulers in the 160 REASON AND AUTHORITY civitas Dei beneath, of which he catches only g-hmpses and distorted views throug'li the mists of earth. Dr. Martineau is seeking- for primitive, undeveloped Christianity. He wants to find the unfledged eagle in the unaddled Qgg. He is straining his eye to catch " the light that never was on sea or land . ' ' They are enjoying the light which enlightens and warms now, as it has eighteen centu- ries of Christian folk. They have suckled at the breast of the Christian social or- ganism ; he seeks to be a spiritual Simeon Stylites, rejecting* all media between him- self and God ; a Christian Melchisedec, without genealogy. An old Grecian said that the best education he could choose for his son would be to make him a citizen in a g-ood state with good laws. The}^ have become good Christians in the same ob- jective social way. The}' recognize their spiritual ancestr}^ and home training. They have been loyal members of a good Church. IN RELIGION. 161 So, too, their conception of the Church and its history fits into a world-process and renders that process intelligible. His con- ception is so purely subjective that it has no place outside of himself, no consistency with any large historical process or insti- tution. Even the Christ concealed by history cannot be seen, he confesses, with- out some distorting- subjective conceptions of his own. Thus his own, as well as the corporate conceptions of the Church, hide what he would gladly find and use as an interpreter of his own immediate appre- hension of God. His Js the neo-Platonic effort at ecstasy which lo^icaUy leads, as it has always historically led, to despair. King'sley's spirited description of H^^patia's attempt is forever true on earth. They believe in the divine immanence, especially in the logic of Christian history, that the human spirit through eighteen centuries has no more been abandoned by God than has nature. This history has been but the actualizing gradually of the true nature 163 REASON AND AUTHORITY of man through a practical assimilation and a rational apprehension of the image of God. The history of spirit is its deed. It is objectively only what it does, and its deed has been the Christian Chmxh .and civilization. The true history- of man is that of his institutions, and none is great- er than the Church. He believes largely in the Divine absence from Christian his- tory. His study of it is that which Hegel characterizes as reflective history, where " the workman approaches his task with his oivn spirit — a spirit distinct from that of the element he is to manipulate." Their method is that Hegel, '' a thoughtful consideration of history Avith the simple conception that " Reason (Divine Wisdom) is the sovereign of the world ; that the history of the world, therefore, presents us with a rational process." (Philoso- phy of History, p. 9.) Indeed, one can read beneath'nearlv'everv line of their vol- IN RELIGION. 163 ume the inspiring conceptions of Heg-el's '^ Philosophy of History.'' Dr. Martineau will certainl^^ afford the chronic revilers of Protestantisni, who know not Hegel, mnch less Christ, a good example of what the^^ say is the logical outcome of Protestantism. We demur in toto to such a conception of Protes- tantism, which hears the visible imprima- tur of the Divine blessing. But Dr. Mar- tineau's extrenie individualism and utter lack of historical appreciation certainl}^ does call for a halt. Here is a decisive parting of ways. It is either concrete, hisJ:orical,. institutional Christianity, or it is nothing. The '' Lux Mundi " essay- ists vindicate the rationality of instituted Christianit3^ The}' do not, like their pre- decessors and spiritual fathers, stop with an uncriticised acceptance of it, nor, like Dr. Martineau, with a critical non-accept- ance. But the}' i^ass through criticism to a genuinely historical appreciation and a hearty acceptance of their Christian heri- 164 REASON AND AUTHORITY tage. The Church has never yet realized its ideal, which however is its basis and goal. Like individual Christians, it has gone stumbling to and fro between its ideal and its caricature. ^' Non adhuc requat hoc regniim.^'' Dean Stanley's " Christian Institu- tions " is the elder brother of their volume. It would be more correct, however, to call Baring-Gould's book the congenial pre- cursor of ^^ Lux Mundi." Dean Stanley's book so presents the historical environ- ments as to make them seem to be the efficient cause and the just measure of the worth of Christian institutions. It lacks the philosophical element. Their Adoption of Hegelian Concep- tions of Rationality, Revelation and Authority. Hegel's view of the authority of the Church, which Principal Gore quotes, is that of the dignity, worth and adequacy of the utterances and works of the relig- IN RELIGION. 165 ious consciousness of the ethical aristoc- racy^ of the community, as opposed to those of a subjective capricious individual- ism, which Protestantism is not. ''The idea of the Cliurch is this, that it widens Ufe by deepening- the sense of brotherhood ; ... by checking the results of isolated thinkers by contact with other thinkers ; and that it expands and deepens worship by eUminating all that is selfish and nar- row, and giving expression to common aims and feehngs " (p. 307). "It treats man as a social being who cannot realize hmiself in isolation " (269). He can be- come relatively complete only in social re- lations, and relativel}^ a good Christian by being a g-ood Churchman, as both Catholic and Protestant vigorously main- tain. If we are to choose, then, between Dr. Martineau's and their " Seat of Authori- ty in Religion," we must, as rational (and as Christian) men, choose with those who may be accused of sanctifying all Christian 166 REASON AND AUTHORITY histoiy, rather than with him who ma^^ be accused of reg-ardiiig- it all as profane and atheistic. The real is the rational. Institutions are greater than men. They are the utterances, or oitfe ranees, of the Spirit, to educe the incarnate spirit in socialized man. Unus Clwistianus, Niillus Chris- tianus. The Church is to the individual what languag-e is to thougiit, what deed is to creed — vehicle and creator at once. The conceptions of (1) Rationalit}^ (2) Revelation and (3) Authority which are regnant in this volume are thoroughly Hegelian. Thej^ steer clear of the ab- stract individualism, of which Dr. Martin- eau is a conspicuous tj'pe, and of the no less abstract socialism, under the forin of arbitrary ecclesiastical authority. 1st. The reason appealed to is not that of the abstract individual, but that of cor- porate man, as objectified or done into history. The image of God, the true na- ture of man, is recognized as being gradu- IN RELIGION, 167 ally educed from humanity In historic pro- cess. Humanity is an org-anism on its'i religious no less than on its political side.j And the eduction of rational relig'ion is thei'efore througli social religious institu- tions, rather than through prophet, re- former, or great religious leader or teach- er. These are but the organs, the mouth pieces of the religious consciousness of tha organism. Hegel has forever made it impossible to appeal to reason, other than that of social man-, expressed in his institutions. He has forever made it irrational to appeal to the subjective views of parts instead of the whole of the organism. He has brought back again the Greek ideal, only synthesizing therewith more justly the subjective element, making individuals or- ganic members of the organism — making the organism an organism of organisms, the life of the whole throbbing through every part — instead of standing* above the 168 REASON AND AUTHORITY parts and mechanically ordering" them in- to s^^stem. To be himself, the individual must be social. To realize his own ideal he must realize the ideal of his community. On the other hand, the life of the whole can onl3" manifest and realize itself through its organic members. The State and Church are the organisms which thus synthesize and live through the life of their members. They gather together and most completely represent, the one the moral, the other the religious conscious- ness of humanity. They are its objecti- fied reason. To be a member of a good State and a good Church, then, is the only rational wa}^ of self-realization for the in- dividual. The3^ limit him onl}^ to educate and realize him, just as the family does the child. The^^ are his true wisdom and his higher law. This conception of corporate reason also leads to the philosophy of history, of which Hegel has been the chosen mouth- IN RELIGION. 169 piece of the Spirit. It is simply that of the progressive eduction of the rationality of man in his institutions, in politics, art, relig-ion and philosophy. It denies chance and affirms reason as regnant through- out history. It denies '^ decadence " and " cycles " of history repeating- itself, and afifirms progress in history. It denies continuous progress, and affirms progress by antithesis. It accepts with universal- ized significance the religious view of Provide7ice in history. It declines to in- dite the whole, no less than certain parts, of history for unintelligibility or freedom from the control of immanent, regnant Providence. History is viewed as recital not merely of events, but of intelligent events — events in and over which Provi- dence has been working. This, too, differentiates it from the em- pirical historical method so much in vogue to-day. This perversion of the true method seeks to account for knowledge, morals, religions, and all institutions, by 170 REASON AND AUTHORITY showing- the historical g-enesis, or the em- pirical conditions in which they have been manifested. This is the method of Her- bert Spencer, denying- antecedent and con- comitant rationality^, or the teleolog-ical view. But teleology alone can account for rationality and progress. The true first cause, as Aristotle and Hegel have seen, is ''final cause.'' Both of them, and also the writers of " Lux Mundi,'' quote with approval the first utterance of this truth outside of Scripture. That is the saying of Anaxagoras : " Reason (Nors) governs the world. ^' This conception of rationality^ in history leads to the recognition that the real at any time is the rational for that time — e.g., the Mosaic economy for the Jews before Christ ; and to the kindred conception that might makes right — e.g., the Roman and the Christian domination of the bar- barians. That is, Reason, or Divine Wis- dom, has been able to " order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men." But IN RELIGION. 171 it also forbids the ig-noring- of historical perspective. It implies degrees of better and worse, though " the soul of the world is good." It forbids am- abstract re- affirmation, no less than any abstract de- nial of the ideals, faith and deeds of the past. " Moses said, . . . but I say unto you." It also forbids the mere glorifica- tion of any status quo of any existing form, as well as the uncritical acceptance of forms of the past. It does not permit a consecration of all the past history of the Church as ultimate, nor the idealizing of an arbitrarily chosen part of that history — the reverence '^ for a past that never was a present." It interprets the Church as the institution and organ of Christian/ consciousness. It is the progressive em- bodiment of the Divine idea as to man's relation to God on the side of emotion, imagination and devoted will. It is the standing record of the rational education of man on his religious side. It thus pre- sents a series of increasingly adequate 172 REASON AND AUTHORITY manifestations and vehicles of the Lux Mundi, positing" successive forms, and successively transcending- and fulfilling- them in richer shape. It is the highest embodiment of the relig-ious relation in corporate and institutional form. It is a complex of the Divine idea and of human needs, feeling-s, convictions and concep- tions, through which the idea takes form and shines. It has a warp and a woof. The woof is not constitutive, as empiricists affirm, but the warp is. 'Tis that divine Idea taking shrine Of crystal flesh, Through which to shine. The Church militant is the self-realiza- tion of Spirit in temporal process. All its merely temporal couditions do not account for its g'enesis and development. These would be merel}^ chaos without the opera- tive Lux MuncUy without the logical pre- supposition of creative Reason as the chronological antecedent and concomitant, IN RELIGION. 173 or architect. In the beginning', and throughout, ^\ was the Word." And yet the historical conditions which determined its form and progress were of divine choice and work. The world was prepared for the incarnation, and its subsequent develop- ment in life, thought and worship. The divine immanence la}^ back of chaos, pro- toj)lasm, and all the higher conditions — plwsical, social, intellectual and political — that have entered into historical Chris- tianity. Without the culture of Greece and Rome as well as of Judea, Christianity could never have been what it is. Both of these Hegelian conceptions of Reason as corporate and objective, and of the philosophy of history, have been so thoroughly assimilated by the writers of the Lux Mundi as to dominate all their apologetics for the Christian Church. So, too, they are thoroughly permeated by Hegel's conception of revelation. On the God ward side it is manifestation ; on the manward side it is discovery. All dis- 174 REASON AND AUTHORITY covery made by man in smy and every sphere of life and thought is revelation. All history is the record of man's seeking God, who had always and everywhere been seeking man. The rationality^ of his- tor3^ is but another form of statement for revelation. The modern rediscovery^ of the truth of God's immanence is really a rev- elation through philosophers and scien- tists. So, too, the poets of the Vedas and the Gathas, the Egyptian priest, and every man that cometh into the world, were vehicles of the Divine revelation, enabled, at least in a measure, to discover or spell out the manifestations of God (p. 170). Both the orthodox and the ecclesiastical conceptions of revelation have passed in music out of sight, in this larger concep- tion. The same is true as to their conception of authority. Reason is alwaj^s and every- where both the Law and the Lawgiver. Hooker's conception of law, its origin and sanction in its manifold forms, was far IN RELIGION. 175 ahead of that of his times. These writers have not '^ shelved" him. His view fits into their conception of '^The Religion of the Incarnation/' and of the authority of the Church. Their philosophy of history inevitably leads them to the maintenance of the authority of the Church over and through the individual. But it also modifies, rationalizes, their appeal to '^ hear the Church," believe its creeds, join in its worship, and practice its morality. This is especially noticeable in the essa3^s on '^ The Christian Doctrine of God," ^^ The Incarnation and the Development of Dog- ma," ^' The Holy Spirit and Inspiration," and ^^ The Church." Extended quotation in proof of this is beyond our limits. The reader may refer to Mr. Moberly's inter- pretation of the Athanasian Creed (p. 215), to Mr. Gore's '' perfectl}^ simple idea" of authority (p. 271), to Mr. Illingsworth's answer to the objection that mutability and development of creed are opposed to 176 REASON AND AUTHORITY its divine authoritativeness (p. 163), and to Mr. Lock on the authoritative teaching* of the Church (p. 323-4). Reason is '^ practical " as well as '^pure." It is not a mere weak idea. It fulfils itself on earth by instituting* itself in temporal forms. It has been thus ful- filling itself in and through the Church, which is therefore objective authoritative reason for every Christian. To be a good Churchman is 'essential to being a good Christian, a good man. In and through its social ethos man is to be confirmed and educated in the religious relation. It bears vfith it the marks of natural, rational authority of all God-given constitutive environments. Submission to its author- ity is the rational submergence of imme- diate subjective undeveloped individualism in the whole historic life of the great brotherhood of a common Lawgiver and Father. So wide-reaching is this world power to- day, that in Europe and America it besets IN RELIGION. 177 nearl}^ every man behind and before. In the womb, school, cradle and society it condi- tions and stamps nearly ever^^ one Avith its g-enial mark. From the cradle to the grave it appeals to its children with the voice of paternal authority. It asks for no other than filial response and recognition of its past, present and promised beneficence in educing- the religious relation implicit in man as man. This is the sort of authority ascribed to Church, creed and cult in this volume. Of infallibility and arbitrary or uncriticised authority there is scarcely a trace. On the contrary, it is maintained th^it credo ut intelUgain is founded upon an ultimate underlying intellexi ut cre- derem (p. 189). The core of the authority of. the Church is the fact of its being the adequate ethical and historical medium of the religious life. 178 REASON AND AUTHORITY Two Criticisms of Their Work, Their Conception of the Church too Insular to be quite Catholic. And 3^et one criticism must be offered as to their conception of the Church. It is too insular to be quite catholic. They do not use a map constructed on a sufficiently larg-e scale, when defining- the boundaries of the Church. The idola trihus still receives some homage in their modern Oxford. It is this which prevents them recog-nizing" that outside of the Episcopal branches of the Church there are also other vital and fruitful branches. *^ Hin- ter dem Berge sind auch Leute.^' Outside of the Greek, Roman and Anglican com- munions there are also Christian commu- nions. The whole rich fruitful Christian life of modern Europe and America is a part of history. Their historio-philosophi- cal method avouM seem to compel them to recognize and synthesize all this in their genial conception of the Church, in order IN RELIGION. 179 to make it catholic, as well as in order to maintain tbeir Hegelian philosophy of histor}^ — that history is not an apostasy, but that Nors governs the world. Yet Mr. Lock feels compelled to draw a distinction within the limits of the baptized, between those within Episcopal folds and those of other folds, who are schismatics. Thus not only the Dissenters in England but Kirkmen in Scotland, State-Clmrch- men in Germany, Sweden and other countries, are ruled out of the Saviour's one flock, and the validity of their minis- try and sacraments denied. They reall}^ base their apologetic for the Catholic Church upon its social religious power for good. Yet these other national Churches are as eflacient forms of instituted Chris- tianity^ and as valid powers for promoting the extension of the incarnation as the Church of England. They manifest the same historical vindication as the Church of Rome or the Church of England, as set forth by these writers. They are simply 180 REASON AND A UTHORITY false to their spirit and method, in failing to integrate these forms as real org-anic members of the Catholic Church. In this they are neither historical, nor philo- sophical, nor Heg'elian, nor Christian.* They have begun with the true catholic method of studjing Church histor^^, but they only partially realize the results to Avhich this method will inevitably lead them. This method looks at historj^ as an eter- nal violation of law, because it is life and movement which destroy that which has been in fulfilling it — which shatters law^s which have shackled the human spirit. Thus Jesus Christ violated the Law to ful- fil it in the Gospel. Thus the Reformation violated the ecclesiastical law to realize a larger and more ethical extension of the Incarnation . This method of history must * For a full discussion of this question of the Church, I may refer to my Appendix on Christian Unity, in "Studies in HegeFs Philosophy of Re- ligion.^* IN RELIGION. 181 be allowed proper scope or be denied en- tii'ely. This latter can only be done b}^ those who set themselves abov^e history — too busy building- the tombs of the old proph- ets to see the new ones in their midst. The Church is alwa3^s a means to the end of the perfecting' of humanit}^ It meets new needs at new epochs with tem- porary or ultimate abrogation of laws hitherto essential to this end. Accom- plished histor}^ indicates at least a tempo- rary violation of Episcopacy as the normal type of Church polit}^ If the development of Christian life in new forms since, and owing to, the Refor- mation ; if this break with* the old law seems like sinful schism, it is owing to a defective theor}^ which needs replacing by a theory more adequate to the facts. A narrow, arrogant and formal Anglicanism is surely not adequate to the facts, nor to the work of restoring the old law of Epis- copac3^ to meet the new life. And 3^et we look forward and work for this larger re- 183 REASON AND AUTHORITY suit. The integration of the new and the old, of Protestantism and Catholicism, is a g-oal that seems as necessaiy as it seems distant. (2) Tlie danger of our uncritical restoration of so-called Catholic customs, or the vagaries of Ritualism. Another criticism, too, ma}^ be offered as to their conception of the so-called " Cath- olic heritag-e," which their part^^ is labor- ing so zealously to restore. We find but little objectionable in the text of their volume, except this one narrow conception of the Church. We do not know how much of effete form and ritual they believe* in adopting. But knowing them to be leaders of that party which has sought a restoration of all sorts of ecclesias- tical rubbish, we feel tempted to read be- tween the lines of the text and make them participes criminis. This revival of ^^ catholic customs " by a party ne plus ultra Protestant dissenters is an incoming flood in our Church that needs to be met IN RELIGION. 183 with some hesitating criticism. Much of it is unintellectual and unethical romanti- cism. All that can be done to really adorn the Bride of Christ, all the beauty of wor- ship that is genuinely artistic and not tawdr}^ ornament, is to be welcomed. But let this "be done decently and in order" by the Church, and not by the self-assumecL infallibility of Protestant priests. Let it, too, be done apart from the desire to mag- nify the sacerdotal function of the presby- ter above his ethical function as a leader andinspirer of men. The vagaries of in- dividuals in this line in our Church far ex- ceed the variations of Protestants, with their extempore methods. Welcome Their Spirit and Method, if not all of Their Eesults. However, w^e find no expressed desire on the part of these writers to be the promo- ters of mere ritualism. They seem to be thoroughly enough permeated by the his- torical spirit to avoid such nonsense. Let 184 REASON AND A UTHORITY IN RELIGION. US take them at their text, as striving- for the restoration of the organic and oecu- menical elements of the Church, some of which we may confess have been neglected by Protestants. They are only seeking to restore as reason what had been given up because it appeared as unreason. This is ,but the return movement of history ful- filling by temporary or partial abrogation of old law. The Church is like the fabled Phoenix. Growing old, she fired her nest at the Reformation; but in the flames she is now seeking and finding renovation and development. We bid these new leaders of this movement all hail. If the so-called Catholic party in our Church will follow these new leaders and interpreters of ''The Faith, ^^ the}^ may be- come truly Catholic, and be in the fore- front of the Church militant. If not, the party is doomed to the extinction which all isolation and lack of intelligence in- volves. ERRATA. Page 43. Ninth line from top for -iGTevofx^.v read -iartvojuev. 148. Sixth line from bottom for read of. 148. Second line from bottom for /i/'s read ///«. " 149. Last line iox profoundly x^^?^^ professedly. "■ 155. Sixth line from bottom, for or/^«/ci/^^ read (9r/^«/«/^^. 164. Fifth line from top for rcquat read regnat. •' 170. Twelfth line from bottom for Nors read Noi),-. 179. Third line from top for Nors read ^t)v-. 178. Fourth line from bottom for hisiorio read historico. PRESS IfOTlCES. Extracts from Press Notices of Sterrett's " Stud- ies in Hegel's Philosophy of Religion." SECOND EDITION NOW OUT. Price, $2.00. " A more vigorous and straightforward piece of writing, as well as of thinking, it has not often been my fortune to meet with. The book before us is fairly buo3^ant in its vigor, fairly aggressive in its straight- forwardness. The purpose of the book is, as Dr. Sterrett frankly informs us in his preface, apologetic. But he has a worthy conception of apologetics. It is nothing more nor less than that a philosophy of religion is the only final apologetics for Christianity. . . . He has produced a work of great value. . . . One feature of the book is the spirit of honesty, of fairness, of love for straightforward intellectual dealing, which ani- mates what Dr. Sterrett writes. It is sometimes re- ported that our theological seminaries are not favor- able to intellectual light and honesty. There will hardly be a question about the seminary from which issues this book and the one of Dr. Kedney. Another feature is that rare thing in philosophical writing— the happy and really illustrative use of the dangerous metaphor. " — Prof. John Dewey, in The Andover Revieiv. " A book for study and prolonged consideration. No one call read it without receiving much intellectual and spiritual stimulus. . . . The Episcopal Church may well lay to heart the thought that if the Bishops of the lat- ter part of the reign of Elizabeth had shown a tithe of the spirit that breathes through Dr. Sterrett's pages, there would never have been any Congregationalism either in England or America..''^— BiUiotheca Sacra. " Its spirit is sanguine, its results are cheerful, while its method of constantly striving towards the widest and most reconciling point of view is, after all, the eternally best one ; so it is safe to predict for its author a certain success." — The Nation. "A clear and intelligent criticism is made of Hegel's chief doctrines in a style remarkably free from the mysteries of philosophical language. Heavy and scholastic phrases are interpreted into vivid and strik- ing English." — The Boston Journal. PRESS NOTICES. "The American book I hold worthy of a place be- side ^ Lux MxindV ... It gives the logical method which ' Lux Mundi ' applies in a less technical and more popular treatment. They are studies at first hand . . . earnest and noble, and offer noble aid to thought that would climb the loftiest and most difficult steep of knowledge. The path they trace is clear to the peak." —Rev. R. A. Holland, D.D., in The Living Church. •'Prof. Sterrett has not attempted a translation, but an analysis with a lively running commentary, which applies the principles of the work to present conditions and controversies. Dr. Sterrett is always lively and readable." — The American, Phila. "A scholarly book, in which 'Hegel's Philosophy of Religion ' is neither rendered nor paraphrased, but an- alyzed and considered in a sympathetic manner, and from an enlightened point of view." — The Neiv Fork Tribune. ''The author has worked very fairly and fully, without evasion, and relies upon the intrinsic merit of the case. He makes a positive addition to the equip- ment of the scholar who wishes to study Hegel." — Public Opinion. "It has the great merits of luminousness and life. Dr. Sterrett travei'ses much of the same ground as Dr. John Caird, to whom he acknowledges his obligations ; but his own treatment is more ample, varied and warm, with the generous ardor of an earnest disciple. Hence it will not only be an excellent supplement to Dr. Caird's book, but, of the two, it will be better adapted to the great majority of readers." — The Liter- ary World, Boston. " The author makes the abstruse subject as intelligi- ble as it well can be; in this succeeding better, we think, than did Prof. Caird, to whom he refers in a very complimentary manner." — New York Observer. " Dr. Sterrett repeats, amplifies and illustrates with such skill that the reader must be obtuse indeed who does not rise from the volume with a comparatively clear notion of Hegel's thought." — The Boston Post. " My object, however, is not to discuss Hegel, but to commend to the readers of this Revieiv the work of Dr. Sterrett. It is, on its face, a study of Hegel ; but it is something far better than this alone. It is an introduc- tion to a form of theologic thought which is at once PRESS NOTICES. helpful and stimulating. Amid the controversies of the time, it opens a view of fundamental truth which may be a solvent for many doubts and differences. Dr. Sterrett's style is fresh and often striking."— Prof. C. C. Everett, D.D. '•Dr. Sterrett has given to the elucidation of Hegel those, literary and critical abilities which make his book a valuable contribution to theology. No one can read it without profit. Dr. Sterrett is a helpful guide. He is careful, honest, frank and scholarly." — The Standard of the Cross and the Church. *'Dr. Sterrett proceeds to expound 'Hegel's Philos- ophy of Religion ' in his own way— that is, to American- ize it. Without making use of the German philos- opher's cumbrous terms and technicalities, he sets forth his ideas in clear, forcible modern English. The work is not a translation, but rather a transfusion." — The Critic. *' This work of Dr. Sterrett deserves the careful study of all thoughtful persons who are conscientiously seek ing to find the ground of all religion, and especially the ground on which Christianity may justly claim a place above and apart from all other religions. ... In Dr. Sterrett's compact volume one may find Hegel sum- marized in a helpful manner. He translates important and telling passages from the original, and supplements these by statements and explanations of his own. It is a great advantage to this book, giving it a superior claim over other books that attempt to state Hegel's views on religion, that its author is in sympathy with the great thinker whom he expounds. To the student of history, no less than to the student of philos- ophy and theology, this book will commend itself as giving the essential ideas that have upborne the civili- zations of the past and formed the great national pur- poses whose struggles have woven the texture of the world's history."— Hon. William T. Harris, LL.D., U. S. Commissioner of Education. " To thoughtful inquirers this book must be of ines- timable service, since it opens the gates of a region where our deepest questionings find answer. It would seem, then, that it ought to receive a cordial welcome from all who have at heart the interests of Christian truth."— TTie Church Review. Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 01008 9169 <■ M^ V y-.ij^f; :kai