James MacBride Sterrett REASON and AUTHORITY in RELIGION London and Sydney 1890

8/2/2019 James MacBride Sterrett REASON and AUTHORITY in RELIGION London and Sydney 1890

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REASON AND AUTHORITYIN

RELIGION

BY

J. MACBRIDE STERRETT, D.D.PROFESSOR OF ETHICS AND APOLOGETICS IN SEABURY

DIVINITY SCHOOL

GRIFFITH FARREN OKEDEN & WELSHNEWBERY HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD

LONDON AND SYDNEY


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TO

JtlotljerTHE

FIRST REASONABLE AUTHORITY IN RELIGION.


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PEEFAOE.Current discussions of contemporary

religious themes and thinkers.J. MACBRIDE STEBBETT.

FARIBAULT, MINN.,October, 1890.


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CHAPTER I.THE GROUND OF CERTITUDE IN RELIGION.

PART I.Reason and Authority in Religion.

PAGEDiscredit of Old Authorities 15The Function of Criticism 16Theories of Society Supplanting Theories ofthe Individual 20

Danger of Weak Romanticizing 22The Right of Private Judgment 25Ground and the " Urgrund " of Religion ... 27Religion Genuinely Human 30What is Religion ? 31Revelation , . 32Faith 34Sub-personal Conceptions of the First Prin

ciple 36The Ultimate Conception of the First Prin

ciple 38Religion Has a History 41


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x CONTENTS. PAGE"I Believe " implies a " They Believed " anda " We Believe " 43

What Do I Believe ? 44Why Do I Believe the Catholic Faith ? 45

PART II.The Psychological Forms of Religion.

Three Chief Forms : Feeling, Knowing andWilling 49

1. Religion as Feeling 502. Religion as Knowing 53

(a) That of Conception 53The Catechetical and Dogmatic Pe

riod 56(b) Reflection, Criticism and Doubt 60

Saintly Doubt. 61Sinful Doubt 65Faith as the Ground of Much Skepticism 66

Religious Knowledge Conditioned bythe Incarnation 68

(c) Comprehension the Highest Form ofKnowing 69

The Function of Philosophy 71The Necessity of Religious Certitude.. 75Philosophy of History 78Philosophy of Religion 79


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CONTENTS. xiPAGEModern Thought as Christian Thought 81Use of the Nicene Symbol 82Non-CEcumenical Theology and Theories. . . 84The Law of Liberty also the Law of Duty. . . 85The " Must "of the Bible 86Open Questions 90Inadequacy of Mere Theoretical Knowledge. 93

PART m.Religion as Willing.

This Rome-element Records Its Creed in ItsDeed 96The Moral Argument for Christianity 97Instituted Christianity the Kingdom of God 99Mechanical and Ethical Conceptions of theChurch 99

The Church and the State 100Greek, Roman and Germanic Elements inModern Christianity 102

The Christian Consciousness and Authority. 104Self-Consciousness and Certitude . . 107


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xii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER II.AUTHORITY IN RELIGION. PAGETwo Notable Books on Authority in Re

ligion 109The Authors of the " Lux Mundi " IllHow Influenced by German Criticism andPhilosophy, by Prof. T. H. Green, and theOxford Hegelianism. Their Appeal toReason 114

The Divine Immanence 117The Historical Method 119" Open Questions " Granted 127Dr. Martineau s Previous Works ; TheirCharacter and Style 129

His Bald Individualism 134His Critical Method and Negative Results.. . 146Criticism of His Book by Contrast with the

"Lux Mundi" 150Bouleversment of this Party s Method 154These New Leaders Change It from a

" Party " into a " School of Thought ". . . . 158Their Adoption of Hegelian Conceptions ofRationality, Revelation and Authority. . . . 164


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CONTENTS. xiiiPAGETwo Criticisms of Their Work , 178(1) Their Conception of the Church too

Insular to be Quite Catholic 178(2) The Danger of Our Uncritical Restor

ation of So-called Catholic Customs,or the Vagaries of Ritualism 182Welcome Their Spirit and Method, if not all

of Their Results 183


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CHAPTER 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 tothis new country?" This was Patrick sreply to a priest, who said that he must takehis children from the public school and mustsend them to the parish school . This fairlyrepresents the uttered or concealed replyof the mass of thinking men in the modernworld to any presentation of the old authorities, when prescribed without furtherground than an uncriticised imperative.We have left behind the must of aninfallible Church, of an infallible Bible,and of an unerring reason. Each one of


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16 REASON AND AUTHORITYthese in turn has been abstracted froman organic process and proposed as theauthoritative basis of belief. The inadequacy of the proof for such infallibility hasrendered this claim of each one of no effect.The abstract reason, which was first usedto discredit the other two, has fallen intothe pit which itself digged, and de pro-fundis rise its agnostic moans. Hencethe task laid upon us in these days is thatof inquiring whether these old musts donot have a real authority, other and moreethical than the one rightfully denied ; tosee whether they do not have a naturaland essential authority that rational menmust accept in order to be rational.

The Function of Criticism.A criticism which is merely negative isboth irrational and unhuman. The function of criticism is to be the dynamicforcing on from one static phase of beliefand institution to another, to destroy onlyby conserving in higher fulfilled form. Its


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IN RELIGION. 17airn can only be to restore as reason whatit first seeks to destroy as the unreason ofmere might ; to restore as essential realizedfreedom what it momentarily rejects asexternal necessity. Such work involves athorough reformation of the whole edificeof dogma and institution, a thorough re-appreciation of the genuine worth of theseworks of the human spirit under divineguidance.Such a task implies an ideal of knowledge vastly different from that of ordina

ry rationalism. That holds an abstractsubjective conception of truth, imaginedunder the form of mathematical equality or identity. It has no place for development or organic process, and nonefor comprehension of concrete experiencewhich it vainly tries to force into its mechanical forms. This method, on the contrary, simply undertakes to understandirlxit is, or concrete experience, under theconception of organic development in historic process. It can attempt no demon-


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18 REASON AND AUTHORITYstration of the organic process of religionby anything external to it. It seeks onlyto give an intelligent description of theprocess. The process itself gives the conception of its rationality. It declines toabstract any part of the process or toseize any one of its static moments andmake that the measure or the proof of thewhole, as ordinary apologetics attempt todo. The real history of religion, then,like the real history of any organism innature, is its true rationality and vindication.

The reason appealed to, also, is thatwhich manifests itself in the corporateprocess, and not in the individual member.A religious individual is an abstraction.The truth is the whole concrete historicalinstitution of which he is a member. Onlyas he experiences or mirrors the variousstages of this organic life can he understand or express the rationality of religion.His certitude rests upon authority, whichhe, as autonomic, must finally impose up-


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IN RELIGION. 19on himself. Ojective rationality can onlythus become subjective and afford realgrounds of certitude. Such a method ofacquiring1 rational certitude may not satisfythose whose ideal of knowledge is that of ordinary rationalism. But have we not vainlytried to satisfy such an ideal long1 enough ?Has not the century and a half of " theage of reason" landed us in agnosticism,from which it cannot extricate us ? Arewe not ready to abandon the attemptof such rationalism and try the highermethod? This method consists of anhistorical and a philosophical study ofreligion.The historical inquiry should first enable

us to see the value of Bible and Church asrecords and aids of the religious life of thepast. The philosophic inquiry should thenenable us to see their necessity and worthto the religious life of our times. Neitherof these methods is so irrational as todare to sectarianize our religious life fromthat of the past. Both see this life as a


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20 REASON AND AUTHORITYcontinuous process, and only seek to understand and interpret what has been, as anaid to what should be. Neither of themare individualistic. Both of them study theindividual as an organic member of thesocial whole, recognizing- that the wisdomand the work of the many, especially as anorganized community, is always greaterthan that of any of its members ; reformersnever being more than organs of the nascentcommunal spirit.

Theories of Society SupplantingTheories of the Individual.The whole swing of the pendulum of

thought to-day is away from the individualand towards the social point of view. Theories of society are supplanting theories ofthe individual. The solidarity of man isthe regnant thought in both the scientificand the historical study of man. It is evenrunning into the extreme of a determinismthat annihilates the individual. Boththeology and ecclesiasticism have passed


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IN RELIGION. 21through this extreme, which we may callthe Chinese phase of belief and life. TheProtestant world is slow to yield to theZeitgeist heralding- a retreat from individualism to socialism, dreading a repetition of its tyranny. But the swingof the pendulum has also begun in thesespheres. "Martyrs of disgust" may bethe loudest and foremost fuglemen in theretreat. But this does not prevent the heralds of concrete reason from advancingbackward to reclaim their neglected heritage. The institution and the creed of thewhole are being seen to have a rational authority that must be recognized. Societyis seen to be the obligatory theatre for therealization of freedom. Its authority isseen to be that of order and harmony ofindividual minds and wills. No Church noChristian, no oecumenical creed no rightbelief.But Church and Creed are already old.We cannot manufacture totally new ones.

Nor can we accept the old forms at their


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22 REASON AND AUTHORITYold worth, as fetters of thought and action.We have outgrown that form of theirauthority, as the child outgrows the paternal authority. So we think. But theanalogy is not perfect. Besides, the authority of the father as that of a full-grown man, which develops the powersof the child, is never fully shaken off. Nordoes the individual member of a communityever outgrow the larger wisdom of thewhole. At best the authority can only betranslated from the form of coercive intothe form of moral authority. And this iswhat we should aim at in our re-appraisement of orthodoxy and the Church.

Danger of Weak Romanticizing.The danger of a weak romanticizing, of

a pathetically pessimistic distrust of reason causing an uncritical acceptance of allthe old bonds, should not deter us fromseeking a rationale of them that will compel an ethical submission to their rightfulauthority. But it should put us on our


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IN RELIGION. 23guard against humoring- a weak phase ofthe human spirit, which comes when itswing s droop from weariness, so that aplunge into the ocean beneath seems relief.It should also put us on our guard lest theoncoming of this social view be permittedto take an abstract form, and thus crushout the might and right of personality.We should be alert to carry with us allthe hard-won fruits of Protestantism.The danger is that we may find ourselves slaves again.The two phases of authority for which

Apologetics ordinarily contend are the intellectual and the practical. The first isthat of creed or orthodoxy, the other isthat of institution or Church. Till recently the burden of Apologetics has beenthe maintenance of orthodoxy, which haslargely meant Calvinism, founded upon anunhistorical interpretation of an infallibleBible. Such Apologetics have had theirday. They have almost destroyed bothorthodoxy and the Bible. The other phase


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24 REASON AND AUTHORITYof Apologetics now claims to be heard.It claims to include the task of the formerphase. The Church, as the author of thecreed and the Bible, proposes to vindicatethem as parts of its process as its ownoffspring1 in vindicating- itself as thepractical embodiment and promoter ofChristianity. We need scarcely disclaimany sympathy with this phase as represented by Romanist and High-Anglican.The common method of both is arbitrary,abstract, unhistorical, dogmatic and unconvincing. It is the " must " which Patrick left behind in the old country. ButPatrick never leaves his patriotism behind.He has a double so ft of patriotism forboth his old and his new country. He isunreflectingly wiser and more concretethan the abstract rationalist who ownsi( no tribe, nor state, nor home," nor content, except what he makes for himself.Nor can we leave the Church behind. Ithas helped make us what we are. Therational form of this method, then, com-


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IN RELIGION. 25mands sympathy. It should include ahistorical and psychological study of theinstitution, in order to arrive at a philosophical vindication of its rational authority over individuals, as constitutive oftheir essential well being . This affords arelative vindication of the various phases,and an absolute vindication of the wholeprocess and its results. The end justifiesthe means, is immanent in and constitutiveof these. But this process and result arein and through the community. Christianity is the Church. Its ground of certitude and authority is in the whole. It isin the light of this general conception ofan organic social process that we mustseek for the ground of certitude in bothsubjective and objective religion.

The Right of Private Judgment.Certitude is conviction resting on dis

cernment as a constant element in all theactivity of our mental and spiritual faculThe certitude on or


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26 REASON AND AUTHORITYon testimony really rests on a discernmentof their reasonableness. Thus certitude ispersonal. It is the yea and amen of private judgment. It comes from the manifestation of the truth by God throughmedia. In the case of religious certitude,the inclusive medium is the Church. Butno doctrine of the Church as an organismthat denies the right and duty of privatejudgment can remain an ethical one.Protestantism has bought this at too greata price to be bartered away. It is only asagainst an abstract individualism that ignores the patent fact that one is what he isby virtue of the social tissue in which helives, that there is need of reasserting theauthority of this constitutive environment.But this must be an ethical organism, inclusive of, and living only in and throughits individual members. It is just as truethat the Church exists in and through itsindividual members as it is that they existin and through the Church. It is a kingdom of persons where all are kings, because


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IN RELIGION. 27all are persons, and not an abstract external authoritj7 . It is an organism of organisms, a person of persons, a Holy Spiritthat only lives and realizes itself on earththrough personal members. This muchis said here to guard against any suspicion of reverting to the abstract conception of the authority of the Church as aground of certitude, which was " the infinite falsehood" of mediaeval ecclesiasti-cism.

Ground and the " Urgrund " ofReligion.

I have used the singular, ground, instead of the plural, grounds, because whatwe wish is a vital organic universal, instead of a number of abstract particulars." To be confined within the range of meregrounds, is the position and principlecharacterizing the sophists." (Hegel sLogic, p 19G.) This species of accidental, arbitrary, special-pleading reasoning;


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IN RELIGION. 29man ; none of these methods are possibleto-day. Mere dog-ma and mere externalevidences and authority are no antidote todoubt, no grounds of certitude in ourday.

It is needless to multiply words in describing- the patent phase of current religious thought. It is, in brief, one of unrestand doubt, and yet also one of faith andreconstruction. It is attempting the necessary feat of swallowing :ind digesting itsown offspring of doubts. It is on its way toan Urgrund which cannot be something-outside of itself. This can be nothing butthe generic principle which, as constitutiveand organic, is implicit throughout itswhole process. At best there can be butan approximate comprehension of this immanent life-principle. But it is the taskwhich the thoughtful human spirit feels asa categorical imperative. There is an underlying faith or certitude even in thosephases where negative results are mostconspicuous, There is an everlasting yea


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30 REASON AND AUTHORITYbeneath doubt which alone renders doubtpossible.

Religion Genuinely Human.Religion is acknowledged to be one of

the great human universals, co-extensivewith man s history, and as varied in formas his culture. It is truly and essentiallyhuman. It is a necessary part of humanity s life. No religion, no man ; perfectreligion, perfect man. Organizations maydeca}7 and theologies crumble, but the religious spirit lives on through and abovethese changes, making for itself ever morecongenial and adequate manifestations andorgans of its perennial life rising on stepping stones of its petrified forms to higherones. With art and philosophy it formsthe triad of man s relations with the Absolute Spirit. In these three inter-related and mutually sustaining spheres is exhibited the perfection of his spiritual character and functions. The creative object,the ultimate and constitutive ground ofthem all, is God.


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IN RELIGION. 31

What is Religion ?What is religion ? A descriptive defini

tion of the totality of phenomena whichconstitutes religion would be too extensive.So too would be a mere enumeration of thedefinitions of it that have been proposed.But most of such definitions have a common heart, and proceed from a variedreflection of a common truth. Religion isat least a conscious reverential relation ofman to God. It may be " morality tingedwith emotion," but that emotion mustcome from impact of the soul with God.It is a spiritual activity of self-relation tothe great " Power not ourselves," throughfeeling, thought and will. It is a striving to fall upward from the mere physicalside of our life. But this implies and implies as its essential presupposition thefalling down, the self-relation of this Powerto man. We must therefore define religion as the reciprocal relation or communion of God and man.


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32 REASON AND A UTHORITYThese two sides of this organic process

may be termed (1) Revelation, (2) Faith.That is, the self relation of God to manconstitutes the conception of revelation ;the self-relation of man to God constitutesthat of faith. The two elements are correlative, though that of God s activity isboth chronologically and logically primal,and evocative of the other. Thus religionrests upon a universal. It is not merely subjective. We cannot abstract faith fromrevelation. For it is only both togetherthat give us the concrete content of religion .

Revelation.(1). Revelation is the moment of divine

self- showing in the organic process whichconstitutes religion. As the self-relationof God to man, it is a primal and perennialact, which, in religion, is recognized as aphase of one s own personal experience.As immediate, it forms the backgroundof all human life sentient, mental andmoral, It forms the swpra-ftature of hU-


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IN RELIGION. 33manity, and is creative of it. Back of,beneath, immanent in (tierd) all that ishuman, there is that which constitutesand sustains it. This metaphysics of man,mental and moral, is the immanent, immediate relation of God to humanity.But the term is generally confined to whatwe may call mediated revelation. God sself-relation to us is continually mediatedand brought to our consciousness throughour physical, mental, moral and social relations. He is immanent in these relations, and thus reveals himself to ourconscious experience. It is through ourknowledge of nature, through our knowledge and love of our brethren that is,through our knowledge of the physicaland moral world-order that we becomeconscious of God s relation to us. Signsand tokens and mighty works, Bible andChurch, family and social life, have allbeen used as media of this revelation.Revelation, however mediated, constitutesthe objective side of religion.


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34 REASON AND AUTHORITYFaith.

(2). Faith is the subjective side. It isman s conscious apprehension of God thusrelated to him through revelation. It embraces all the constituent elements of thehuman side of religion the apprehensionof the Godward side of all that we do orsay or think. Faith is faith. This tautological definition is compulsory, from thenature of the activity. It is a primal,basal activity of the human spirit. It isthe simplest, and yet may be the mostcomplex, activity of conscious man. Ithas no special organ and is no specialfaculty, but is the dynamic in all ourfaculties. It contains elements of feeling,thinking and willing, because it is theactus piirus prevenient and co-operatingwith all these faculties. 11 is the spirit sapprehension of realities through thesefaculties. It is its practical self-consciousness of the Absolute. It is the self practically conscious of itself, in its relation


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IN RELIGION. 35with God. Thus it is only another namefor the highest phase of self-consciousness.Such self-consciousness is never merelysubjective. Its contents are the resultsof the mediation of all its physical, socialand religious environment and training-,and ultimately of God, through thesemedia. Religious faith and specificallyChristian faith is God s children s cry ofAbba, Father. It is their apprehensionof their divine sonship, the responsivethrill of emotion awakened by the consciousness of God s paternal relation tothem. Abraham s faith was his consciousness of friendship with God. Our faithis our consciousness of divine sonshipthrough his eternal Son, Jesus Christ.Such Christian faith is a very profoundand simple, and yet a most complex stageof self-consciousness. It involves the mediation of a Christian education, whichimplies that of eighteen centuries of theChurch s life. Thus, while our faith issubjective and personal, it is only so be-


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36 REASON AND AUTHORITYcause we have been educated into the conscious possession of the Christian heritageof centuries Our personal subjective faithitself, as well as objective faith, is grounded upon and mediated for us through institutional Christianity.Thus the objective ground of religion is

God, and the subjective ground faith orthe simple apprehension, through more orless media, of this relation thus converting the whole into the process of reciprocal relations between God and man, whichconstitute religion.

Sub personal Conceptions of the FirstPrinciple.

It will not do to substitute for God " thepower not ourselves," Law, Force, Substance, or any sw6-personal category. Andthe non-personal is always s?/7>-personal.It may be acknowledged that some scientific conceptions of law, order, nature, cosmos, are higher in one sense than someanthropomorphic conceptions of God, but


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IN RELIGION. 37the}7 are never s?/:pra-personal, and cannever afford Hie conscious relation we callreligion. Our analysis of the content ofconsciousness can only arbitrarily stopshort of that of self consciousness, or self-determined totality.

If the charge is made that our conception of the first principle as personal ismerely subjective the imaginative reflection of our own mind upon phenomena itmay at least be met \yy the counter-chargeof the same subjectivism in scientific conceptions. Matter, law, force, are equallysubjective measurements of the objectiveby the subjective. But this argumentumad hominem is only a side thrust ofthought on its way through and above allsuch imperfect conceptions of the firstprinciple. All such conceptions are implicitly religious. They imply as theirground the full conception of God. Hencethe scientist is sane only as he becomesdevout. But this criticism of the categories of ordinary science, making explicit


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38 REASON AND AUTHORITYits real ground, is the work of philosophyproper. It is the needed corrective ofscientific agnosticism.Such a criticism of the categories of

thought reaches a system of categorieswith God as the implicit and the ultimateone. We shall refer to this later on, but onlysuperficially . Religion grasps this withoutreflection. Philosophy has nothing furtherto do than to point out the necessity andrationality of the human spirit reachingand resting in communion with this personal Fii-st Principle or Urgrund. The Incarnation, as the perfect realization of thisbond between God and man, and the extension of the Incarnation in history, are theessential media of both present religiousand philosophical apprehension of thisgeneric Urgrund. In neither case is itreached directly or intuitively.The Ultimate Conception of the First

Principle.Religion, then, as a part of man s con-


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IN RELIGION. 39sciousness, has its ultimate ground inthe eternal and loving- reason of the FirstPrinciple of all things. Faith itself, or thesubjective side, is necessarily reduced tothe action of the Divine Spirit in man.The consciousness of this actual vital relation, or reciprocal bond between God andman, is a primal and perennial fact, andthe ultimate ground of religious certitude.Consciousness in man is implicitly a knowing of self with God (con-scius),&nd henceof knowing God in knowing self. This isthe real significance of the ontologicalproof of the existence of God.This bond is as real a relation as thecausal relation. Indeed, it is often identified with this relation. Our heredity isfrom God, even though it be through lowerforms of life, and our goal is also God, eventhough it be through imperfect manhood.The ground of religion we find, then, to benothing extrinsic. It does not need aspecial handle in the way of external reasons. It is not founded upon nor sus-


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40 REASON AND A UTHORITYtained by the various alleged proofs.These may vary and pass awa}^, but theactivity continues as a necessary functionof normal humanity. Religion will befound at the grave as well as at the cradleof man, because God is the immanent andtranscendent essence of man.*God is the ultimate metaphysics of man,

physical, mental and spiritual ; the realsubstance ; the continuously creative andsustaining power in His offspring. TheBenedicite is the spontaneous expressionof the whole groaning and rejoicing creation. If men should be so insensate as notto worship, " the stones would immediately cry out" an anthem of praise. ThePsalmist s exclamation, " Thou hast besetme behind and before ; . . Thou hast covered me in my mother s womb," voicesthe consciousness of this ultimate metaphysics of all things physical. This Ur-* "As the personality ofman has its foundation

in the personality of God, so the realizationof personality brings man always nearer to God."MulforcTs " Republic of God," p. 28.


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IN RELIGION. 41grund is creatively present before consciousness comes to raise the new-born manabove the brutes. It begets religion assoon as consciousness of this power, inhowever low a form, appears, binding-man back to (re-ligare) or causing him toreview (re-legere) the fact of this primalrelation. This consciousness varies in degree, strength, form and clearness of content. But it is the ground of the variousgrounds that we can offer as causal of this,which is itself the cause of them . Prophecyand miracle, the Bible, Church and reason also, are all its offspring, and authenticated by it, rather than the reverse.

Religion Has a History.But it is impossible that this fundamen

tal fact of consciousness could be perfect atonce. Religion, individual and racial, hasa history. It begins as an immediate, indefinite apprehension of the fact in the subjective consciousness, but it expands andwins definite content with the growth of


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42 REASON AND AUTHORITYhuman consciousness in all spheres of experience. Thus subjective religion expands with new revelation and apprehension of it into objective forms of creed, cultand institution, which in turn educe andstrengthen it. The same spontaneousconsciousness of " the Power not ourselves " that led the childhood of the raceto personify earth and sk}r , also led Platoand Clement and Hegel, through the mediation of Greek and Christian culture, toproclaim the essential and perennial kinship of man with God, in all the concreteexperience of his life and institutions.There is more than an analogy, there is

a real kinship between the psychologicaland objective development in the individual and the race. So we may trace a common outline for both. Indeed its development in the individual is only renderedpossible through connection with a communal life. It is only by a false abstraction that the religion of the individual canbe considered separately. Here as else-


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IN RELIGION. 43where the universal is prior to, and constitutive of, the individual. But this is notan abstract universal. It is the concreteorganism 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 having1 joined with others in saying" we believe " (ititirEvonev). The / alwaj^simplies the we. It equals to-day the socialized and Christianized man of the nineteenth century. I believe, because theyeighteen centuries of Christian kinsmenhave believed ; and because we, the Universal Church, believe. Still, the subjectivefactor is central, and our socialized faithis personal communion with God. Theindividual has absorbed, and has been realized, not annihilated by, the universal.Religion remains to the end a personal relation to a Person, however much it hasbeen nourished and quickened by the community. " I believe " now means the sub-


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44 REASON AND AUTHORITYjective, personal self-affirmation, " theeverlasting1 yea " of our Christianized consciousness.

What Do I Believe ?But what do I believe ? What is the

definite content of the religious relation ofthe individual with God ?

I believe the consense of the Christianconsciousness in regard to God, man andthe world. I believe " The CatholicFaith." We are far beyond the faith ofchildhood, of primitive man. The historicprocess of revelation and faith has renderedprimitive immediate faith impossible andirrational. Both the act and the contenthave been endlessly mediated for us. Ourconsciousness of God has been enriched bythat of a host of heroes of the faith, andby the cult and dogma of centuries ofChristendom. Questions have been askedand answerd for us before we we^re born.We have been born into the heritage ofthese answered questions in the shape of


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IN RELIGION. 45the oecumenical creeds, though enoughopen questions still remain to make usheroes of faith, and our generation an ageof faith. But I believe. This heritage ofthe Christian faith is mine, only by thesubjective personal activity of appropriation and realization. The Creeds are therecords of a series of deep insights into thecontent of the Christian consciousness.The mastery of these is an ascent of theindividual into the universal somethingthat cannot be ours by mere rote-learning,but only as we think over, verify, re-createor experience anew within ourselves. Subjective faith remains the most importantelement of our spiritual life. We cannotbe merely passive recipients of the mostopulent heritage. And yet the universal,the objective, rightly claims its place. Wesee 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


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46 REASON AND AUTHORITYthis my own personal faith? Why doesmy faith, my consciousness of relation withGod, have this definite form and content ?This form of faith, though personal, is notan immediate consciousness a primitiveunmediated revelation of God. It is nota matter of mere individual feeling* or intuition. The ivhy can only be answeredby reading the whole history of his development, through the interaction of subjectivism and objectivism, of the self andits environment. A fair analysis of thisprocess likewise leads back to God as itsultimate ground. The psychological andhistorical lead back to this metaphysicalUrgrund. This stage of what we callChristian nurture is an indispensable phasein the development of both strength anddefiniteness of faith. It is here that therationality of authoritative catecheticalChurch teaching and Christian influence offamily and community are to be justified.

It is chiefly in this what and why of relig-


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IN RELIGION. 47ion that we meet with grounds that seemto be extrinsic and accidental. The task,then, is to translate these grounds intorationality ; to discover their place, thatrenders them necessary and rational elements of the organic process of the relationof God and man. This task includes thepsychological study of the development ofman in the social organism, and the historical study of the development of thesocial organism itself, on the way backto the ultimate or metaphysical ground.The faith, though once delivered, could

never, from the condition of the case, evenin Christianity, be once for all delivered tothe individual or the community. Thishas had, is having, and will have a psychological history in both. Faith as anactivity is forever the same, but its content,and the interpretation of this content, vary and develop with new conditions andculture. The life-giving Spirit inspiresto some new form of practical religion, tomeet new issues. The type of Christianity


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48 REASON AND AUTHORITYchanges. Then the intellectual seers notethis life, and modify the old theology so asto include it.The question then is,whether the environ

ment leading to change of both vital andcredal form of Christianity can be justified ;whether, in theological language, we cansee the hand of Providence; or, in thelanguage of philosophy, whether we candiscern the immanent logic or reason thusobjectifying itself in rational forms ? Or,if we restrict credal form to the oecumenical symbols, and the normal ecclesiasticalform to that of the primitive Church, thequestion is whether we can discern therationality in the culture of Greece andRome as well as in that of Judea, whichmakes " them legitimate ingredients in acatholic, complete Christianity." Can we,in other words, reach a philosophy of religion that justifies the multiform development of the two inseparable elements ofreligion revelation and faith ; God s seeking and man s finding ; God s adhesion toman and man s adhesion to God ? Such


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IN RELIGION. 49a philosophy of religion must be basedupon a philosophy of history which mustbe simply a rational comprehension of empirical history.

We thus indicate a workfar beyond the limits of this present essay.We can do no more than note briefly thepsychological forms through which religionpasses in racial and individual experience,catching- glimpses of the immanent rationality 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) that of Knowing inits 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-


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50 REASON AND AUTHORITYrate for purpose of study. The universal element of thinking- is more or lesspresent in the particular element of feeling-, and willing- fuses them both into theconcrete individuality of person or epoch.But in different ages and persons, and inthe same person at different times, one orthe other of these phases is more emphasized than the others. Hence religion varies in its psychological form.

1. Religion as Feeling.Religion exists primarily in the form of

feeling. Its genesis belongs to the primitive depths in which the soul is just distinguishing itself from the great not-selfabout it. It is the lirst coming into consciousness of the pre-conscious fact that

every one is bornof God. And yet this

feeling is generall\T mediated by somereligious instruction. The power behindand before is first felt, rather than known.This gives the sense of dependence, whichalways remains an integral part of re-


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IN RELIGION. 51ligion. It may run through the gamutof reverence, fear, dismay and terror, ordevil-worship. Or this power may he feltas a congenial and beneficent one, and thefeeling run through the gamut of reverence, confidence, love, peace and ecstasy,or mysticism. Fear and confidence arethe two marked elements in this phase ofreligion. There is no lack of certitude init. The unreasoned certitude of feeling-hallows any object, from a log of wood tothe sky, from a Jupiter to a Jehovah. Thefetich-worshipper has as much certitude asthe Mariolater. All religions alike affordthis certitude to their worshippers.

Historical illustrations of religions andof individuals in this phase will occur toevery one So also will the names ofJacobi and Schleiermacher, who, in theirreaction from vulgar rationalism, tried tomake religion entirely a matter of feelingor of the heart. The certitude of thisstage, I have said, is no measure of theworth of the contents of feeling. De af-


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53 REASON AND A U2HORITYfectibus non disputandum. Schleierma-cher went so far, we know, as to saythat every religion or religious feeling- wasgood and true ; thus proposing a philosophy " as much contrary to revealed religion as to rational knowledge," andmaking anything like a communion ofAvorshippers impossible. Each one hashis own feeling, and this may be so emphasized as to lead to both sectarianismand atheism.

But, strictly speaking, this elementaryphase of religion is quite indefinite as towhat it feels. Until other elements enterin, there is no personal object given toworship. It represents the"] first conscious mysterious impulse toward the infinite and eternal. It represents those elements of reverence and confidence whichmade our Saviour promise the kingdom ofheaven to children. But it is a phaseinto which other elements do speedily enter. The activity of the human spirit inrelation with the Infinite Spirit impels


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IN RELIGION. 53it on to definite conceptions of God andcontent of feeling-. Milk for babes, stronger 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 activity. Objects that producefeeling are soon named, or learned, orimagined. The child is soon initiated intodefinite religious conceptions which nourish his religious activity. This introduction into objective forms of belief andworship is congenial with his developingintelligence. It helps him to name andto imagine the object of his religious feel-

* I may refer to " Studies in Hegel s Philosophyof Religion," Chap. IV., for a fuller and somewhat varied statement and criticism of this second phase.


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54 REASON AND AUTHORITYing. The activity in this sphere is that ofimagination. It is what we may call mental art picture-thinking taking- the placeof picture-making. It is thought raisingus out of sense. Here the object and thecontent of the religious feeling appearin forms corresponding to the degree ofculture possessed. The new wine is firstput into old bottles and then new bottlesare formed out of the fragments of thebursted old ones. This mental art ofpicture conceptions advances, bodyingforth in less sensuous forms and in moreabstract language the content of the religious feeling they help to quicken. Thesavage indulges in rude sensuous art, orcombines it with rude mental art, personifying earth, air and sky. The Christianchild is met in this phase of activity withChristian names and symbols, which helphim to higher conceptions of what he feelsblindly stirring in his soul. They do notcreate, but only help develop his religiouslife in more rational form. The more


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IN RELIGION. 55abstract form of conception, i.e., dogma,is of little use here, unless it be accompanied with parable, legend and narrative. It is the time that religion is nourished on narrative-metaphor. The Biblecontains a good proportion of such foodfor the young, and Christian history, especially in heroic and martyr days, furnishes more. But these should be supplemented by current religious literature,comparable with that furnished our young-people by St. Nicholas and The Youth sCompanion, instead of the autumnal leaflets and childish Sunday-school books.By means of literature the Divine Educator co-works in developing and strengthening the bond between himself and thegrowing child. Such narrative-metaphorsare winged, and bear the young soul aloftto the very heart of Grod. It is the verysustenance for which young souls arehungry, and mere catechetical instructionin abstract theology is the veriest chaff tochafe and wither their aspirations, unless


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56 REASON AND AUTHORITYit be judiciously concealed in fragrantflowers or ripe fruit. Give them the luscious grape, and not merely the seed.

Along- with this goes the religious nurture, through public worship, Church festivals and ceremonies. The Christianyear, followed out as dramatically as possible, is the best teacher of Christian truth.Besides, all this brings out the social sideof religion, and helps to unite them withGod through uniting with their fellows.

The Catechetical and Dogmatic Period.

The time for abstract conceptions willcome soon enough. The analyzing andcomparing and generalizing activity willbegin its work in due time. Here metaphors harden into fact or are generalizedinto dogma. The winged metaphor willbe clipped. The seed of the ripe fruit willbe sought. The soul will crave definiteand S37stematic truth. Subjective feelingand its imaginative vesture must finda basis in " Church Doctrine and Bi-


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IN RELIGION, 57ble Truth." Much of the non-symbolicteaching given, it is true, represents thework of this same phase of the activity ofthought in Church teachers. Systems oftheology are often not much in advance ofthis period of abstract conception.How best to conceive, God, and how bestrepresent the essential religious relationin systematic form, is the question at thisstage, as the earlier picture-form becomesmore abstract. This is the time for positivecatechetical instruction, mingled with sufficient personal and rational persuasion towin assent. The proper ground of certitude here is a mingling of reason and authority. The authoritative teaching ofthe Church, properly presented, is God smethod of further development of the bondbetween himself and his children. Whatgreat Christian teachers and what theChurch in oecumenical councils haveframed, come as the most vocal angels ofthe truth.Such teaching is the creation of the


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58 REASON AND AUTHORITYHoly Spirit co-working- with the communal spirit. It represents the best expression of a large Christian consciousnessthrough many centuries. It can andshould be given with authority. Grounded upon the vital idea of religion, it has arational authority to, which every member,at this stage, will gladly and unconditionally submit. Such authoritative teaching-is the craving of the soul, and so essentialto its religious life. Here such authoritynourishes and quickens the religious lifeof the member, and submerges his individual conceits by giving him the oneLord, one faith and one baptism of theUniversal Church. It is the time to go toschool; the time when the mind cravesteachers and longs for the wisdom that isbeyond it. It craves to know what itought to believe. It believes spontaneously on authority. It is also the time forBible teaching, for Christian educationthrough sacred literature.The Bible is the Church s record of the


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IN RELIGION. 59historical revelation upon which it isfounded. It contains the word of God inall its forms of literature. It is also thevehicle of revelation to the inquiring mindand long-ing heart. Protestants have madeno mistake in reverting to it as life-givingand authoritative. It will continue to heboth of these when the fullest and freestBiblical criticism shall have done its historical, psychological and literary workupon it. It will be found to yield a muchmore wholesome authority than under itsuncriticised form of infallibility.Many may stop contented with imagination on the standpoint of Church services,

with their symbolism and ceremonial observances. Others, less aesthetic, stop onthe more abstract form of dogma, or orthodox belief. Vulgar Romanism andOrthodoxy illustrate these two phases ofconception, of sensuous and mental idolatry, both of which are normal phases in thereligious process.


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60 REASON AND AUTHORITY(6.) Reflection, Criticism and Doubt.

The period of reflection. Reflection, indeed, forms a part of the activity whichreceives and forms definite religious conceptions and right belief. But it does notstop here. The normal activity of thisphase impels on to a criticism of traditional and current conceptions on its way to acomprehension of the necessity of religionand an estimate of their comparative worthand real validity. Perfect representationor conception of God is intrinsically impossible, either in the form of pictured or of abstract symbol. Thought, in seeking this,has abstracted the essence of all its symbols or precipitated them into definite andlogical forms, and annexed reasons thereto.The reflective activity now impels to anexamination of these forms, and of the reasons alleged for them. It is essentiallycritical and inevitably skeptical It realizes the limitations and contradictions ofattained conceptions. It then seeks to


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IN RELIGION. 61vindicate them b}7 rationalistic investigations and evidences, only to multiplydoubts.

Saintly Doubt.This is a necessary phase in the life of

every ingenuously thoughtful Christianand Church. It is the work of the spiritcriticising its own inadequate creation. Itis the normal activity of the human spiritresponsive to new revelations from theDivine Spirit. It is not an alien force, butthe implicit infinite energizing 1 throughand above the inadequate forms of itshitherto realization in the finite spirit.Such criticism is the normal activity of thegrowing human spirit responsive to theDivine Spirit s new revelation, of which itmay scarcely be conscious. The advocatusdiaboli cannot prevent the canonization ofsuch temporary doubt as sane and saintly.Dogma making and dogma sustaining,straining, breaking and re-formation areall the normal work of the same phase ofthought, as understanding, on its way to


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62 REASON AND AUTHORITYthe comprehension of the concrete rationality of catholic symbols. It must reflectupon the various musts which havehitherto been controlling-. It is the inherently just and normal demand of thehuman spirit to know the source andground of these musts ; to find a rationaleof the authority of Bible, Church andreason .The authority of Bible and Church

may be rudely questioned by the reason that finally questions itself. Its aimis to see what it is in them that makesthe Bible, Church and reason worthy authorities. Much of this criticism is directedagainst accidental, temporary and localconceptions of Christianity, which are inherently false to its spirit and purpose. Itis the attempt to recoriceive Christ underthe changed conditions of modern scienceand thought. This task of reformation islaid upon many Christians and many agesWhat we call revivals and reformationsare only more emphatic workings of this


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IN RELIGION. 63spirit in the Christian community. It isthe dynamic of the Christian Zeitgeistitself impelling- to more comprehensive andvital knowledge of Christ, and should lead,on the one hand, to the throwing- aside theaccumulated rubbish of other periods, and,on the other hand, to the recovering- andholding- fast all that is good in previousforms of Christianity. From the mother sknee to the grave, from Bethlehem to theNew Jerusalem, the Christian man andChurch have this reflective, critical taskto perform, in order to advance in Christian knowledge and life. It is a process ofnegating truth by affirming fuller truth.Half of current scepticism comes from

the pressing- upon this generation outgrownconceptions and imperfect developments ofthe gospel. To acknowledge frankly thenecessary imperfection of progress is notto detract from the gospel, but is to takeaway the edge of half the criticism. Toattempt a readjustment of the letter tothe spirit of Christianity; to reconceive


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64 REASON AND AUTHORITYChristianity, if you will, in terms of modernthought and imagery ; to put the spirit innew forms ; to abrogate the old letter inits fulfilment in the new something likethis is the problem set for the defender ofthe faith to-day. To acknowledge thatChristianity has often been bound up withfalse views of science, history, philosophyand politics, and with poor mechanicalviews of God, the world and man, andthat to-day we are trying to free the spiritfrom these limitations and from the letterof theological and ecclesiastical dogmatismwith which it has been unduly hampered,is to win sympathetic hearing and help,when otherwise we would meet with novital response.When this critical activity is abstract, it-busies itself with finding grounds or reasons pro and con. It takes Christianityout of its concrete process and treats it abstractly as chiefly logical definitions. Itproves and disproves and generally ends,unless it becomes concrete, in that negativeform which should be a mid station.


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IN RELIGION. 65This abstract criticism is known as that ofcommon rationalism. The AufJclaerung ,claircissement and Eationalism were

the three national forms of the "age ofreason." The eighteenth century shouldhave sufficed for this narrow sort of mentalwork, and the nineteenth century shouldhave gone on with the affirmative process. But it continues in its senile formof agnosticism. It has ultimately doubteditself as the organ of truth. Not muchhas been lost by this last stage, for itsmost positive result was a form of naturalreligion, or Deism, which dried up the richfountain of spiritual life, having a Godwho was little better than " a frost-bittenreality ."

Sinful Doubt.

It is only when the spirit s activity droopsand stops its work at this abstract negative stage, that doubt can be called sinful.It is then putting the absolute emphasison subjective reason. It is then non-human, non-rational, a violation of the


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66 REASON AND AUTHORITYbinding- relation between God and manthrough historical and social media. Suchabsolute negativity of subjectivism is thevery essence of the devil. No one is moreto be pitied and no one is more to bedreaded than the man who has stuck fastin the mire of this standpoint. The trulyhuman cries out,

"Great God, I d rather beA pagan, suckled in a creed outworn !It is the natural penalty of thought abstracted from action and institution. It isthe penalty of holding to Christianity aschiefly logical doctrine. For belief israrely the outcome of formal logical procedure. Concrete Christianity is alsoCatholicism, as well as orthodoxy andProtestantism. The East and the Westand the New West are only elements ofits organic life. Attempts to vindicateany of these, abstracted from the whole,necessarily lead to doubt and disbelief.

Faith, as the Ground of much Skepticism.Much of the prevalent skepticism, hov-


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IN RELIGION. . 67ever, is earnest, serious, wistful, and notMephistophelian. It is within the Churchin which its martyrs have been nurtured.It is normal. Puritanism, in its day, andAnglo Catholicism both doubted, protestedand deformed as well as reformed the contemporary forms of faith and life. Theyappealed from a present to a higher conception of Christianity. The New Theology is but another illustration of the sameactivity. Faith is at the bottom of suchwork. It is the outworking- of a higherconception of Christianity in the commonChristian consciousness. The real groundof criticism is here the real ground of certitude in this transition epoch. It is faith sapprehension of a deeper and largerrevelation breaking forth from fetteredBible, Church and reason. It is the spiritnegating in order to reform its inadequateconceptions often, indeed, only an effortto understand, that it may hold withstronger conviction its catholic heritage.In this is seen the infinite cunning of the


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68 REASON AND AUTHORITYguiding Spirit in spiritually minded menand in the Christian community. It isletting doubt have its way while using itas an instrument to accomplish higheraims. The normal end of such doubt is acomprehension of the natural and persistent co-relation and co- working of theDivine and human spirit in historic process, which explains and vindicates atcomparative worth all previous conceptions and institutions.

Religious Knowl< dqc Conditioned by theIncarnation.

This can, from the nature of the case,now come only fro 11 a. genuine comprehension of the fact of the Incarnation andits historic effect in life, thought and institution. The religion o the Incarnation isthe concrete form of reason that meets andfulfils the outworn abstract reason of thisstage. It is born into a comprehension ofthat which is. H.iving proved to its satisfaction in agnosticism th:it its own subjective ideals were not rational, it turns to


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IN RELIGION. 69the real to find the concrete objectiverational. It it arrives (at a comprehensiveview) at a philosophy of history at all, itmust find in the religion of the Incarnation the ripest and ultimate form ofrationality. With Aristotle philosophywas a thoughtful, comprehension of theencyclopaedia of Greek life and experience ;with Hegel it was the same speculativecomprehension of the concrete experienceof Christendom. That is the objectivematter of this phase of the activity ofthought which we have called

(c.) Comprehension, the highest form ofknowing.

We are chiefly concerned now with themode of its activity, rather than with itscontents. Its mode is that of insight,system, of correlation of all relativitiesinto a self-related organic process. It isphilosophy looking behind and before allprevious phases and comprehending themas vital elements of a totality. It is con-


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70 REASON AND AUTHORITYcrete experience taking- full account ofitself, winging- its flight from both earthlyand airy abstractions. It is the incoming-of the tidal wave, to flood the little poolsleft here and there, and to restore theircontinuity with the great ocean. It is anovercoming of previous standpoints in onethat correlates and embraces them all ina system which is self-related. It risesto the conception of the necessity of self-consciousness, which is perfect freedom.The heart of this system is the primal,persistent and vital bond between Godand man, or religion. The result of itsactivity, as I have said, is conditioned byits subject-matter to-day. That subject-matter is the religion of the Incarnation ;and philosophy only reaches its ultimateinsight by a comprehension of that whichis.With many Christian thinkers the ac

tivity of the spirit does not persist untothis goal, where the wounds of reason arehealed by reason ; where the ground of


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IN RELIGION. 71authority is self-contained and self necessitated through a profound synthesis ofthem all. Either dogma or doubt catchesand holds them. They remain in eitherone or the other of these phases of common rationalism. And yet the spirit sdemand and possibility is to make thisein lU hern-nmleiicr Standpunkt. Oftenit is only implicitly overcome. It is overcome in that vital act of faith which wemay call abbreviated knowledge. It isovercome practically, but not in the wayof thought.

The Function of Philosophy.Philosophy is only the making explicit

for thought what is contained in the ordinary Christian consciousness ; only seeingthe necessity of the real freedom in God sservice; the realization of the bond between God and man contained in theconsciousness of pardon, peace and communion with God through the incarnate\Vord. It is the discovery of the logic


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72 REASON AND AUTHORITYof the Logos in Christian experience andhistory. It accepts Christianity as themanifestation, the positive form of theabsolute religion, affirming- in its doctrineof the incarnation the essential kinship ofthe human with the Divine Spirit. It isthe only thing- that will save those whohave passed into the critical, doubting-stage, from either a hopeless skepticismor an arbitrary submission to a non-intelligent power, which is the essence ofsuperstition.Unsophisticated piety has no need of

this. But how little of current religionis unsophisticated. How thoroughly therationalism of the understanding- has laidhold upon the majority of Christians. Theyare asking and seeking earnestly for reasons for their religion. Current apologetics, or external reasons, may temporarilysatisfy many. But their inadequacy isalso keenly realized by many others.They demand a sufficient reason, an adequate First Principle, which validates all


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IN RELIGION. 73proofs and authorities. Reflection, or themere reasoning- of the understanding, isincapable of reaching this. The only question then is, whether- thought shall andcan persist to its fruition, or whether thespirit shall faint in hopeless agnosticism,offering itself an unworthy sacrifice toeither doubt or dogma. But here wemust not neglect the value of the practical reason, the demand for religion in ournature, and the adequacy of current formsto meet this demand. We shall find thatthe theoretical can never reach its convincing result without inclusion of thepractical reason.In this work thought passes in appre

ciative critical review all the categorieswhich it has hitherto used in rationalizingexperience, impelled onward to an absolute First Principle which will include andexplain them all ; that is, it seeks for aself-related and self-relating system, ora science of forms of thought, some ofwhich Theology, as well as Science, uses


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IN RELIGION. 75cerned to find the conception which bindsman and God in the congenial bond whichreligion implies. Beginning- with the individual finite mind, it passes through allthe encompassing social circles, finding intin 1 highest no place for " the religion ofhumanity." Religion demands a bondwith a super-humanity.Beginning with the conception of anabstract supra- mundane Deity, it passes

through all theories of creation till itreaches the conception of the concrete absolute Self-consciousness that //m6 create,and realize himself in his offspring. Abstract mechanical necessity, of course, ishere entirely out of the question. It isthe free necessity of his own concretetriune Personality which leads to creationand its culmination in the Incarnation.Such a First Principle contains in its verynature organic bond with his offspring.

The Necessity of Religious Certitude.And in the light of this alone is finite


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76 REASON AND AUTHORITYspirit, its nature, history and destiny, intelligible. Here religion is seen to benecessary. Its elements of revelation andfaith are in the reciprocal process of theDivine Spirit to the human, and of thehuman spirit to the divine.

Philosophy does not create this conception of the First Principle out of nothing.It is not an abstract a priori conception.It is the logical ultimate and the chronological presupposition of all the other categories under which experience is alonepossible for man. These categories orconditions of thinking can only be foundby reflection upon actual experience. Philosophy is simply the science of these categories, implicit in the experience even ofthe most unreflecting, some of them becoming more explicit in the special sciences.It is not a knowledge of all things, but acomprehension of the underlying- conditions of all knowledge in a system with anadequate concrete generic First Principle.Here its special insight is directed to the


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IN RELIGION. 77theological conditions of religious experience, or, in particular, of the content ofthe Christian consciousness as to sin andredemption, or of alienated and of restoredcommunion (religion) with God throughJesus Christ. In other words, it aims atcomprehensive insight into the rationalityof Christian experience, or at philosophical theology founded upon historical anddogmatic theology.

It does not destroy or transcend religion, which is the most vital realization ofthe bond between God and man. Religionis the highest, the complete practical, reconciliation, and is not destined to lose itself in philosophy. Philosophy does notset itself above religion, but only abovepartial and conflicting interpretations ofits experience. It leads us to know forthought and in thought, as reasonable andtrue and holy, what religion is as life andexperience. It validates this experiencefor thought. It gives the highest authority to religion, by demonstrating its abso-


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78 REASON AND AUTHORITYlute necessity. It reaches the ultimateground of certitude, which was only implicit and unthought of in the stage offeeling.

Philosophy of History.It reaches, too, certitude as to objec

tive religion. It sees the necessity andworth of all creeds and institutions asthe outcome of the religious bond thework of the spirit of man inspired by theSpirit of God in a course of divine education of the race. This spirit of comprehension is never envious. It often romanticizes, growing- tender and reverent in itsappreciation of the forms of the earlierstages in which it has been nourished. Ifit has passed thoroughly through theskeptical stage, it can never be ungenerous in its estimate of either dogma or doubt.Its insight into the truth of the heart ofall religion ; its ripe conviction of the necessary organic communion of God and man ;its comprehension of the process of theDivine Education, or its philosophy of


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IN RELIGION.history, enables it to find itself, to makeitself at home at the humblest domesticaltar as well as in the grandest cathedral,always holding- the critical faculty in abeyance, as having been satisfied once for all.It thus gives the highest authority in religion, as deduced from and implied initself, as necessary. Holy and reverent isthis spirit of insight, for it is the verySpirit of God which has bound the devilof doubt a" Part of that power, not understood,Which always wills the bud, 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 only because religion has already realized theessential bond between God and man. Inparticular, it is Hie child of Christianity-the thoughtful comprehension of its ownexperience. This starts from the culmi-


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80 REASON AND AUTHORITYnation of the historical manifestation ofthe bond between God and man. JesusChrist manifested this bond perfectly. Hewas a man manifesting- perfect absoluteunion with God. Rational truth canonly be apprehended on condition of itsexistence in natural and secular form. Itmust be immanent in a historical process.The man Jesus did not primarily appealto thought. He lived his practical life inthe world. He came unto his own, andwon them by his life. He became the fulfilment of the supernatural order implicitin all previous history-, the consummationof the self-necessitated Divine act of creation in time. Here the hitherto immanentand constitutional co-working of God withman came to perfect manifestation. Godbecame man because humanity was anessential phase of his own life. Here hisperfect self-consciousness was manifested.Son of man and Son of God were manifested as congenial and inherent parts ofthe Divine Self-consciousness. Here was


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IN RELIGION. 81reached the axis of the world s history, or,for what concerns us at present, the axisof the world s thought about God andman ; for we are still abstracting- the concrete thought from the more concrete process of Christian life and institution.Modern Thought as Christian Thought.

Christian thought, which is modernthought, starts from the sensuous life ofChrist and continues following the secularextension of this life in humanity. Thishas been the woof of which thought hasbeen the warp in the concrete web of themodern world. Previous philosophy hadbeen an attempted comprehension of therelation of God and man as manifested inhuman experience. With the advent ofChrist came new and fuller experience. Itdid not appeal primarily to thought. Thepractical experience of this life and its extension in the life of the Christian community came first. But thinking is aninherent human necessity which continued


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82 REASON AND AUTHORITYin the Christian community. It was self-necessitated to reflect upon and express inintellectual forms the content of its experience. The thought activity was newonly as modified by its subject matter.Thoughtful men, men trained in philosophy, became Christians, and Christians became thoughtful. Hence Christian doctrines, and ultimately Christian creeds.These represent the most catholic thoughtof the intellectual aristocracy of the community, thinking upon the content ofcatholic experience. They claimed theguidance of the Holy Spirit graduallyleading them into all truth. The Nicenesymbol represents the highest and themost oecumenical expression of this catholic thought. This gives its authority tothe completed Nicene symbol.

Use of the Nicene Symbol.There are parts of this symbol which

can have their proper authority only tothose who can think themselves into its


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/AT RELIGION. 83definitions and see how it states ultimatethought. Such thought should be thegoal of all Christian thinking or theology.But all such knowledge is an approximatedevelopment toward, rather than an actual attainment. In the highest speculative thought and in the most oecumenical creed we still know only in part.But, for the understanding of the NiceneS3^mbol, this speculative thought is necessary, as is also a knowledge of the wholehistory of the age which gave birth to it.Hence its general use in public worship isnot to be desired. "Repeating, parrot-like,forms of sound doctrine without any conception of their sense, is a pagan customthat we need not encourage. The Nicenesymbol has its proper use in church-councils and clerical meetings. But perhapsthis would be too great a restriction. Onecan join with the great congregation ofsaints of the centuries in hymning this belief in the full divinity and the real manhood of Jesus Christ.


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84 REASON AND A UTHORITYNon- (Ecumenical Theology and Theo

ries.Our discussion implies a distinction be

tween what is authoritative for comprehensive thought, and the much larger part ofdog-ma which consists of metaphorical conceptions, partial theories and inadequatedefinitions which are local and transientat best, only truth in the making. It isthis portion, too, about which much ofthe anxious thought and controversy anddoubt of our day is concerned. To thispart belong theories of the inspiration ofthe Bible, of the atonement, of future punishment, of the method of the creation ofnature and of man. Must I believe them ?Do we believe them ? Have they believedthem ? If so, which one of them, and why ?Here the history of Christian doctrine canaid us greatly. It shows that none of thesetheories have passed through the oecumenical work of comprehensive thought.To the doubting and harassed Christian


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IN RELIGION. 85asking what must I believe as to manytraditional and current conceptions, wemay answer : Believe them only so far as,from a study of their history, you can seethem to be necessary implications of thedoctrine of the Incarnation. Take themat a relative rationality, as more or lessharmonious Avith the general Christiansentiment.

The Law of Liberty also the Law ofDuty.

The oecumenical creed is here a law ofliberty. But it is also a law of duty. Wenot only may, but we must freely investigate the grounds and worth of all otherconceptions. Biblical criticism and thetheory of creation by evolution, the doctrines of the future life and of the atonement, the question of church polity andritual, all are open questions, in the solution of which we must take our part. Theauthoritative must is here that of free investigation, instead of slavish submission.


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86 REASON AND AUTHORITYThe " Must " of the Bible.

Protestantism repudiated the unethicalauthoritj^ of an unholy Church, but soonyielded the same sort of blind reverenceto the Bible. The change was not whollya mistake. It was the most spiritual andethical attitude that could then be taken.The evil grew out of the abuse to whichall good things are subject. Superstition changed this living word into a deadletter. It was given the place assignedby pagans to their oracles, or by Mohammedans to the Koran. Bibliolatry became as real as Mariolatry. Orthodoxywas based upon a literal interpretation ofan infallible oracle. Hence more thanhalf 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 authority of the Bible almost as great asthat accomplished by the Reformation as


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IN RELIGION. 87to the authority of the Church. Onlythis is an intellectual, while that was amoral revolt. It may take generationsto bring men generally to a recognition ofthe rightful spiritual authority of theBible, as it has taken centuries to turnthe tide of appreciation in favor of recognizing the rightful and necessary authority of the Church.

Certainly it is not to be overlookedthat a total revolution has taken place inour day in the conception of the method ofrevelation and inspiration. Our Bishops,in their late Pastoral Letter, acknowledgethat the " advances made in Biblical research have added a holy splendor to thecrown of devout scholarship," and mentionboth " shrinking superstition and irreverent self-will" as earth-born clouds thattend to obscure its holy light.We can barely indicate the reformedconception of the Bible which is rapidlyreplacing the old one.The Bible is literature. It is sacred


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88 REASON AND AUTHORITYliterature. It is the "survival of thefittest " of the sacred literature of theJews and of the early Christians. Likethe creeds, it is the product of the Church,and at the same time the fountain and thenorm of Christian life and doctrine. It isa record of revelation done into history ;a record of the historical incarnation of theSon of God, set in a partial preparationfor it, and in a partial result of its primitive extension. It thus contains God srevelation. It is a vehicle of that revelation. It is itself a revelation of God tothe student of it, and to the whole Church.It is not errorless, or infallible, or ofequal value throughout. It is the Bookof the Church to the Church and for theChurch. Hence the Christian consciousness, rather than individuals, is the bestinterpreter of it. It also, in turn, produces and gives the norm of developmentto the life and doctrine of the Church. Itis a living word, appealing- to the mindand heart and conscience after criticismhas done its utmost work upon it.


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IN RELIGION. 89We still have the Bible. The Bible,

and the Bible only, is the Book of theChurch, and the rule of faith. But we donot have or we shall not, when criticalstudy shall have finished its work a wordbook of equally valuable proof-texts, infallible in toto et partibus. This criticism demonstrates that the Bible isa record of divine revelation done intohuman history under the limitationsof the mental and religious culture ofthe people of current times. All partsare not of equal value. Christ himselfand his apostles criticised the moralit3Tand ritual of the Old Testament. OurGospels are a fourfold transcription ofinspired teaching in the Church of the firstcentury. The Church was before the NewTestament. It is the Church, foundedand growing under the limitations of historical conditions, that gives us our authentic record of the life of Christ. Butthis is by no means to adopt the RomanCatholic method of setting the Church


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90 REASON AND AUTHORITYabove the Bible. For it, in turn, is thatto which the Church confesses itself boundto appeal to as the rule of faith. GoodChurchmen now generally say that theorthodox view of the Bible as a verballyinfallible text-book has never been adoctrine of the Catholic Church. I believe that Apologetics should frankly concede this, and thus free Christianity fromthe hundred criticisms that have forceonly as against such a theory none whatever against the Bible as the Book ofbooks.

Open Questions.So as to liberty and duty in regard to

other open questions. The greatest theologians of Christendom have always maintained this. Only zealots and party politicians have flourished an authoritativemust over Christians in such questions.But this duty demands that we shall try toget at the heart, at the real significance ofsuch conceptions and theories ; to modestly seek to understand them before we dare


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IN RELIGION. 91call them irrational, after the short andeasy method of many self-styled rationalists. Indeed, the historical method haslargely replaced this negative rationalisticmethod even with unbelievers. They, too,thus find a relative justification for whatthey reject.* This much, at least, is compelled by the incoming- appreciation ofsocial and historical factors of individuals.One can only know through others, arid ultimately the whole only through individuals. Thus historical and dogmatic theology furnish the necessary materials forphilosophic theology. It remains true,however, that we can even thus only acceptmany traditional conceptions and dogmasin a Pickwickian sense. Our belief in themwill accord with Bishop Pearson s curi-ousty elliptical definition of belief as " theassent to that which is credible as credi-

*A very fine example of the historical study ofdogma may be found in an article by Prof. C. C.Everett, D.D., on "The Natural History of Dogma." The Forum, Dec., 1889.


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92 REASON AND AUTHORITYble " i.e., belief is belief in that whichis believable as believable.But here we are still in the sphere of

the liberty and duty of criticising inadequate metaphors and opinions. The taskis how best to conceive or re-conceiveChristianity through aid of past conceptions, and also through the aid of thechanged conceptions furnished by modern science and culture. We cannot bechained to winged or to petrified metaphors of a past, whose whole material forimagination was very different from thatof our times. We cannot accept them asauthoritative, but must create the best wecan, which will be as congenially authoritative to us as theirs were to them. Morecannot be demanded. The modern idealof knowledge is drawn on the canvas of aprogressive education of the race. It isin accordance with this ideal that themost authoritative truth for one people orage may have but relative validity foranother. Nor should the value of meta-


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IN RELIGION. 93phor and abstract dogma as media of thedivine revelation be overlooked in thiscriticism of their worth as scientific knowledge Only we must not seek in themultimate ground of authority. As we passthrough self-compelled criticism from oneconception to another, we are finding ourreal ground to be " the unity of identityand difference," of dogma and doubt.The new is better than the old only as itcontains the old as a vital, though transmuted, element.

Inadequacy of Mere Theoretical Knowledge.But even in the most concrete historical

and philosophic view of truth we are stilltoo abstract. We are studying Christianity as if it were chiefly a system ofintellectual truth. We are abstractingthe web from the woof, the Logos of theincarnation from the whole of its practicalextension. We have acknowledged thatChristianity must be done into history,


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94 REASON AND AUTHORITYinto concrete life and institution, before itcould be seen to be reason, just as theearthly life of Christ was essential to theseeing him as the Logos. Philosophy,then, must revert to this. Christianity ismore than feeling- or thinking. It is alsodeed. Theoretical cognition is not sufficient.

" Grey, friend, is all theory ; greenIs the golden tree of life."

PART III.RELIGION AS WILLING.

We have, then, to notice the third formin which religion manifests itself that ofwilling.Comprehension has to embrace not only

the grey form of right thinking, but alsothe green tree of golden fruit the extension of the incarnation in the practical lifeof the social body. Religion is not merelythe feeling or seeing the bond betweenGod and man ; it is also the determination


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IN RELIGION. 95of life by the bond. It is willing" to beGod-like. This is the building- power, therealizing- of the extension of the incarnation to the sanctifying- the whole of secular life. It is the Rome-element constantly accompanying- or preceding- theother phases of religion. It posits, putsin concrete form the certitude of bothfeeling- and thought. It is founded uponthe rock of secular reality. It was present at the giving- of the Law upon Sinai, inthe formation of the Jewish Theocracy andbuilding- its temple, as it was in Rome becoming- the imperial mistress of the secularworld. This bed-rock certitude has neverleft itself without a witness and an organin the form of institutions which havebeen the media of all our culture. Thishas been the activity of what Kant calledthe "Practical Reason" or creative reason moulding the concrete into accordance with its norm. It does the truth,and thus creates the forms which in turnnourish and educate it.


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This Rome-element Records Its Creedin Its Deed.

This Rome-element, or the " PracticalReason," is eternal, always placing itselfabove past history by making new history,but always vindicating past history by thenew which that past alone makes possible.It may be called the petrifying element ofreligion. It catches and fixes in progressive stationary form the" fleeting phase offeeling and the restless dialectic of thought,and yet

Documents

James MacBride Sterrett REASON and AUTHORITY in RELIGION London and Sydney 1890