THE RIGHT OF
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY
BY.
BENJAMIN
B.
WARFIELD,
D.D.
PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
With an Introduction sy
PROFESSOR
J.
ORR,
D.D.,
EDINBURGH
EDINBURGH T.
&
T.
CLARK,
GEORGE STREET
38
1897
NOTE OF COMMENDATION
Proii^essor
Warfield
sides of the Atlantic. interest of Systematic of that
science in a
He
well
is
known on both
has rendered special service in the
Theology
;
and
his defence of the " Right
number
recent
Reformed Review^ which he of a
Princeton
of
edits,
The Presbyterian and
of
has appeared to us well worthy
wider circulation in this country than
it
can hope to have
in a journal published in America.
This explains the issue of the present book, which we com-
mend
who have
to the attention of all
in
any degree
realised
the importance of the subject.
William Garden Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor in
New
College,
Edinburgh. A. H. Charteris, D. D., Professor, University of Edinburgh.
George
C.
M. Douglas, D.D.,
Principal,
Free Church
College,
Glasgow.
Robert Flint, D.D., LL.D., Professor, University of Edinburgh. William H. Goold, D.D., Martyrs' Free Church, Edinburgh. John Laidlaw, D.D., Professor, New College, Edinburgh.
Alexander Mair, D.D., United
Presbyterian Church, Morningside.
KoBERT Rainy, D.D., Principal, New College, Edinburgh. Alexander Stewart, D.D., Principal, St. Mary's College,
St.
Andrews.
James Stalker, D.D.,
Norman
L.
St.
Matthew's Free Church, Glasgow.
Walker, D.D.,
Editor of
Free Church of Scotland
Monthly. J.
Wardrop, D.D.,
Professor, U.P. College, Edinburgli.
INTRODUCTION BY THE
REV. PROFESSOR JAMES ORR, D.D.
EDINBURGH
Systematic Theology has fallen on her
may
what Kant of all
Preface
the
in
says of metaphysics
queen
evil
To
days.
be applied, with scarcely a change of a word,
"
:
famous
his
to
Critique
Time was when she was the
the sciences, and
we
if
take the will for
the deed, she certainly deserves, so far as regards the
high importance of her object-matter, this
Now
honour.
it
title
of
the fashion of the time to heap
is
contempt and scorn upon her, and the matron mourns, forlorn
and forsaken,
like
Hecuba
Modo maxima rerum,
'
Tot generis, natisqiie potens
Nunc
trahor exul, inops.'
But a subsequent sentence thinker ^
may
" So lately the
destitute."
also
be applied to theology gi-eatest
sons-in-law and children
.
woman in now .
.
.
.
.
^
"
of :
this
" E'or
it
great is
in
the world, powerful in so manyI
am
dragged away an
exile,
Introduction
8 reality
says, " to
he
vain,"
profess
indifference
in
regard to such inquiries, the object of wliich cannot Besides, these pretended
be indifferent to humanity.
however much they may try
inditferents,
themselves by the assumption
on
by changes doubtedly
propositions,
language
the
the
of
which they profess
un-
schools,
and
declarations
[theological]
into
fall
disguise
to
popular style and
of a
to
with so
regard
much contempt." The grounds on which a denial Systematic Theology to exist they of
may
at
bottom
all
is
of
the right of
based are various, but
be reduced to one
—
the denial
the existence of an adequate foundation on which
such a structure can be reared. the
human
faculties are held to
Whether be
incompetent to such a true knowledge
His ways as
is
it
be that
constitutionally
presupposed in theology
of ;
God and
or that the
nature of religion, as lying in sentiment or emotion, is
thought to preclude the element of knowledge
otherwise, indeed, than as the poetic vesture in which religious emotions
that there
is
transiently clothe
;
;
or
lacking in reason or revelation a reliable
source from which
be obtained
themselves
the
desiderated knowledge
may
or that the data in Scripture or religious
on which theology has hitherto been supposed rest have been rendered insecure or swept away by
facts to
—
the result
the same,
modern doubt and
criticism
that theology has
not a trustworthy foundation on
which
to
build,
and
that,
illegitimate pretender to the
in
is
consequence,
name
of science.
it
is
an
For
it
Introduction
9
be conceded that this last and highest branch
will
of theological discipline proposes nothing less to itself
than the systematic exhibition and
grounding
scientific
knowledge we possess
of wliat true
God and His
of
character and His ways of dealing with the world and
men
and
;
no such knowledge
if
what men have
really
exists,
—
if
at best vague yearnings, intuitions,
is
aspirations, guesses, imaginings, hypotheses, about God,
assuming
name the dim
a symbol of
the universe,
of
to be itself
this
—
anything more than
feeling of the
if
mystery at the root
these emotional states
and the
conceptions to which they give rise are ever changing
with men's changeful fancies and the varying
stages of culture,
— then
it
is
as vain to attempt to
construct a science of theology out of such materials as
it
would be
to
weave a
solid tissue out of
sunbeams,
or erect a temple out of the changing shapes
A
of cloudland.
"
exist to investigate the in religious
and
"
criticism
of
independent
the "
might
their
remain
mocking as
a
of
Theology,"
as
illusions,
study
Church's historical creeds
Science
still
psychological laws involved
phenomena and
dogmatics "
and hues
Science of Keligions " might
a
;
and
but an
body
of
natural and revealed truth about God, and His purposes and dealings, would no
We
shall
not
more have any
place.
anticipate Dr. Warfield's able dis-
cussion of the objections to Systematic Theology in
the succeeding pages by going at any length into the subject here, but would only observe that, divested of irrelevancies, the issue resolves itself ultimately into
Introduction
o
I
the one question of the fact, nature, and verifiableness of the
of
historical
Christian
The time
revelation.
when men's minds were captivated by
past
a "Natural Keligion
consisting of a few
"
revelation
from supernatural
apart
dream
of the Deists
and while
the
and
simple
of proof by, reason
drawn from, and capable
articles
is
the idea
—
favourite
that
eighteenth-century illuminists
theory which
" speculative "
;
would
render theology independent of history by resolving
still
domain a
advocates,
its
metaphysical
into
doctrines
essential
its
sceptre
its
There remains as
of really serious theology.
source
knowledge the positive
theological
of
has
ideas
long broken in the
is
re-
God which
vealing and redeeming acts and words of
constitute the subject-matter of historical revelation,
though
it
may
antagonism flecting
to
be contended that these stand in no conclusions
the
on the structure
of
sound reason
re-
pondering
of the universe, or
the deeper questions of origin and destiny, but rather are in truest consonance with the latter, and furnish
reason with a light to help danger,
accordingly,
stands arises from foundations sceptically
gone to the
tlie
mode
revelation
assailed,
sutticiently
—
faitli
it
a
on
which in
its
The
way.
theology
at
which these being
are
process
chief
present
historical
critically
which
has
and
already
extreme lengths with respect to
Old Testament, and
subvert of
of
in
is
now
being apphed
to
in such vital facts as the resurrection
our Lord, and the miraculous context of the
of Christ generally, in the
New.
It is in this
life
part
Introduction of
the apologetic
field,
battle will have to be possibility of theology
that one
result
probably, that a
new
decisive
fought in the interests of the ;
and
it is
satisfactory to observe
of the critical
been to impress on
1
movement
many minds
has
itself
the impossibility of
eliminating the supernatural factor from the explanation of the history either of Israel or of Christ.
When we first
read this article of Dr. Warfield's, on
its
appearance, some months ago, in The Presbyterian
and Reformed service
Revieiv, it
would be
seemed
rendered
circulation in a separate form,
by
to its
us that a special publication
and we heartily
and
rejoice
that the same thought has independently occurred to others,
and that the idea has now taken shape
this little volume.
Apart from
its
in
other merits, the
article will be found exceedingly informatory as to the
tendency and bearings
movements
of
certain recent
in Continental theology.
interesting
THE RIGHT OB'
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY The question
the
of
right
Systematic Theology to exist
such
of
may
thing
a
as
be regarded as a
question in general philosophy or as one within the the
limits of
theological
disciplines themselves.
we
the former alternative be taken, at
such problems
once with
exist
May God
?
means
worthy
learning
of
:
Does God
Have we
?
trust-
concerning Him, His
nature. His works, His purposes all
these
as
known
be
If
are confronted
In other words,
?
the great questions with which Apologetics busies
itself
immediately loom before
Theology
us.
science of God, and the right of a science of exist will
depend on a favourable solution
They
problems.
are,
therefore, in
the
is
God of
to
such
every sense
of
the words, the fundamental problems with which the
theologian present,
has
it is
to
If
deal.
we
pass
them by
at
because of no underestimation of their
supreme importance.
We may
fairly
be
allowed,
however, to assume at this point, the existence and 13
The Right of Systematic Theology
14 the
knowableness
credible sources
God and
of
knowledge
of
the
accessibility
Him
of
—
in
of
a word,
the possibility and right of a theology, generically so
This
called.
to
make.
to
asking to be permitted
between men pro-
to raise a question to be discussed
fessing
be
to
assumption
after all not a very large
is
amounts only
It
instead
Christians,
one in debate
of
between the Christian and non-Christian worlds.
The
we propose
question, then, that
to consider lies
within the limits of the theological disciplines.
assumes the right concerning
the
says
theological
correlates
may
"
Systematic
against
it
would,
Christianity debate.
We
many
that if
valid, cut
But
itself.
And
shall of
to
the
certainly
the
deeper
this is a
its
We
kept carefully in
is
objection
raise
Theology.
contrary,
mind
to
other theological disciplines.
who
all
calls
in
Theology
Systematic
and
discipline,
the
in
Theology
Systematic
of
says
not find that the distinction
mind by the
right
He who
particular.
It
and inquires
of theology at large,
right
of
find,
on
objections still
urged
and destroy
common
incident in
the clear recognition at the outset of
the limits of the discussion will conduce to a proper
estimate of
those
forms of objection to Systematic
Theology in the mouths really insisted
nugatory. Christian
of
Christian men, which,
Such arguments prove so much that
men
disproved, in
if
upon, would render Christianity itself
they prove nothing at other
words, by
the
evidence which gives us Christianity.
all.
whole
for
They are mass
of
»
The Right of Systematic Theology
We
accustomed
are
queen
of
the
regard
to
1
theology as
the
and Systematic Theology as
sciences,
queen among the theological
But these
disciplines.
are not days in which lofty claims are readily allowed
and we need not be surprised which
Theology advances
Systematic
are
not
per-
that
her
mitted to pass unchallenged.
It
sister theological disciplines are
sometimes found
sisting her high pretensions
no
will
have her
loncrer
between
flict
elsewhere to
its
is
strength
of
than
by becoming divided against
itself.
may
the
more
nor
look
on with an amused
older-sister's pleased recognition
new
little
too conscious of
discipline of Bible Theology,
for example, tosses her fine of her
although
much
powers just now perhaps a
when
:
more here
and a certain
themselves,
them
the spectacle of con-
is
that a family will add
likely
Systematic Theology tolerance
re-
and declaring that they
edifying,
sisters it
little
is
to rule over
no more here than elsewhere
;
to discover that those
young head and announces
settled sister that her
day
But
is
over.
these w^ords have a
more ominous ring
in
them when
the lips that frame
them speak no longer
as a sister's
Imt as an enemy's, and the meaning injected into them threatens not merely dethronement but destruction.
The
right of Systematic Theology to reign
only
days
thing :
its
that
is
brought into question
very right to exist
is
is
not the
in
these
widely challenged.
There are few phenomena in the theological world
which are more striking indeed than the impatience which
is
exhibited on every hand with the effort to
1
The Right of Systernatic Theology
6
define truth and to state witli precision the doctrinal
presuppositions and contents of Christianity.
The
impatience
this
of
basis
is
latitudinarian indilferentisni, which sion
neglect
in
weary
formulated truth, and
of
what
of girding at
mere
a
often
expres-
finds its
never
is
represents as the hair-
it
splitting ingenuity of theologians
and the unprofitable-
ness of theological discussion.
But
is
root
at
are
doctrines
heated
dislike
and
;
this indifference
easy affirmation
passes very readily
useless
that
assertion
the
they are noxious.
contemptuous smile gives way to the flush
and
instead
of
unconcerned
an
opinion that theology ness,
we
is
that
the
into
Now, the of anger,
expression
the
of
a more or less amiable weak-
have the passionate assertion that theology
is
killing religion.
A
certain relief often
open
war.
difficult
This
is
to
Dead
comes with the outbreak
indifference
deal with
than
is
frequently
of
more
the most lively assault.
doubtless true in the present case also.
It is
not hard to show the folly of theological indifferent-
ism is
:
but just because
apt to pay
little
it
is
indifferent, indifferentism
attention to our exhibition of
its
But let us we only could get it to care it calmly goes to ever so much absurdity on in indifference. This indifference to its own refutation by no means extends, however, to its own propa-
folly.
If
reduce
it
!
—
contrary, a
most
widespread, persistent, and earnest propagandism.
We
gation.
It
lias
cannot escape
developed, on
its
wooing.
the
Turn where we may, we
The Right of Systematic Theology met with
are
of
full
is
prises
;
barriers
;
it
;
it
entrenches
mere amusement is
worthy
to us alike in
may
It
of
of social
behind philosophical
not be surprising that
is
idle hour,
though the
with which
is
it
to
it
the
serious-
commended
even such novels of contemplation as
Lanoe Falconer's
certainly
an
of note
Cecilia de
adventure as Dr.
like
and thought
dominant note among the purveyors
the
ness
life
itself
finds a voice for itself in the lightest of
current literature. is
air
presides over great religious enter-
It
colours the daily
it
intercourse
The
appeals, suggestions, assaults.
it.
1
Noel,
and such novels
Conan Doyle's Micali
Clark.
of
It
not surprising that a bright Jewish writer
Mr. Zangwill
^
should include
among
the sparkling
stories which he has gathered into his King of the
Schnorrers a pathetic appeal to us to recognise that all
the
differences
which
Jew and
divide
Gentile,
Romanist and Protestant, fade into nothingness before the spectacle of " the
human
eternal mystery "
suffering of
and in presence
of
But we cannot
death.^
us that modern and conduct, and to The religious dogmas which a these only, in His capacity as Judge. man happens to be taught and to believe are of no account or import'The righteous of all ance in this regard: the good life is all. that, according to nations shall have a share in the world to come the Jewish divine, is the doctrine of the Tahnud and of modern 1
Mr. Claude G. Montefiori, for example,
"Judaism teaches that God looks
tells
to character
;
'
Judaism" [The Jewish Quarterly Review, January
1896, p. 202;
cf.
pp. 210, 211).
"A
Tragi-Comedy of 2 The story referred to that entitled is It is only another form of the Creeds," p. 176 sq. of the volume. celebrated apologue of the "Three Rings " which Lessiiig made the core of his Nathan the Wise, concerning which it is worth while to consult Cairns' Unbelief in the Eighteenth Century, Lecture v.
ii.
ad finem.
1
The Right of Systeinatic Theology
8
miss of
its
significance when, in the midst of the stirrings
soul with
which we read
Drumtoclity of "
Ian Maclaren
those "
has
men
of
the doings in dear
of
whom
sturdy hearts
taught us to love, we find
it
slowly borne in upon us that the main purpose of this evangelical minister
is
to
wring from us the confession
that the Christianity approved of
enough
for the world.^
Much
of
Rousseau
is
good
even the professed
^ Let it not be thought that we do injustice to this delightful and profoundly religious writer. An editorial in The British IVeeJcly for
October 31, 1895, puts most strikingly just what we conceive the
"A parallel
of pro-
to be found in the place assigned to religion
by the and
attitude of his stories towards Christianity to be
found interest
is
older sentimentalists
and the new.
The
:
position of Ian Maclaren
Mr. Barrie seems to us exactly to coincide with Rousseau's. Rousseau always professed to be religious. He thought there was a certain want of moral depth and grandeur wherever religion was left out, and he would probably have said that this was necessary, for without religion the loftiest reaches of conduct were a form of insanity. At the close of his life Rousseau rejoiced that he had remained faithful to the prejudices of his childhood, and that he had continued a Christian ^ip to the point of membership in the Universal Church. Tlie words in italics precisely describe the religion that is glorified in Ian Maclaren's books. He is not unjust to Evangelicalism, and one of his noblest characters is Burnbrae, a Free Church elder. But he lingers witli most love and understanding on the Moderates Drumsheugh, Dr. Davidson, Dr. i\Iaclure, and James Soutar. Maclure, who has tlif best means of knowing, declares that if there be a judgment, and books be opened, there will be one for Drumtochty, and the bravest page in it will be Drumsheugh's. There is very little sympathy here for modernity the ministers who talk about two Isaiahs are laughed But there is just as little sympathy for extreme Evangelicalism. at. Plymouthism is treated as if it Avere hypocrisy of the grossest kind, and high Calvinism as almost too monstrous to be mentioned. The particular forms in which the religion of revivals expresses itself arc described with evident dislike. All this is, of course, Ian Maclaren's limitation. AVe should not care to lend him our cherished volumes of the Earthen Vessel. Still the heart of things is here. Say the
—
;
'
Name,' that
is
enough
— the name of Jesus,
in
which every knee
shall
The Right of Systematic Theology
and
many
too
in
When we
and
religion
literature of
its
recalling
many another
runs her picture
when
am
lesson.
—
"
we
find ourselves
conference which "
would
it
Of course
"
afraid
so
there was a tremendous crowd on
the Imperial
I
fit
—
High Commissioner gave
and everybody was so delighted with
his address, I
same
pulpits enforces the
read good Georgie Hesperton's description
without the need of her finessing.
the day
on platform
reflection
the " conference at Honchester,"
of
19
it.
do not exactly remember what his
subject was, but I
know he
said
it
seemed probable
that nothing in particular was true, but that people
could go on believing whatever they liked, which did
And
just as well.
I hear his address
satisfactory.
sort of
the bishops said
all
and no doubt you
tract,
and
very earnest
convincing."
is
it
was perfectly
to be printed as a
will read
it
;
it
was
The whole mass
^
popular religious literature seems surcharged with
of
attacks on
"
Intellectualism " and " Dogmatism," and
glowing with highly-coloured portraitures Christians " faith
of
and no
every faith,
name and no name,
under each
of
of of
"
good
every
which stands the
bow. Beyond that nothing is needed to create the noblest character. Mr. Barrie does not glorify Moderatism, but, like Ian Maclaren, lie declines a dogmatic religion, and is gently apologetic or humorous when speaking of what goes beyond the essence. Therein he differs from George Macdonald, whose books are full of theologoumena, and have suffered in consequence. But they side with Rousseau, who was wont to insist that the Christianity which appeals only to the moral conscience is alone comformable to the Spirit of Christ. Conduct, character
and ^
— these
were with him and are with them the great results
tests of true religion."
Jane Barlow's Maureen's Fairing,
p. 148.
The Right of Systematic Theology
20
legend written that since good Christians arise under
every form of faith or no faith alike,
much importance what men wrangle over this or that,"
no consequence
of
all
is
"
Let
others
common
cry
—
" it is
to
their
us leave
let
:
the
cannot be of
it
believe.
them
disputes and for ourselves be Christians."
Professor John Stuart Blackie's lines
The
quite
late
embody
the sentiment of the hour "Creeds and confessions? High Churcli or the Low? I cannot say but you would vastly please us If with some pointed Scripture you could show To which of these belonged the Saviour, Jesus. ;
I
think to
all
Not
or none.
curious creeds
Or ordered forms of churchly rule He taught, But soul of love that blossomed into deeds, "With human good and human blessing fraught.
On me
nor priest nor presbyter nor pope, Bishop nor dean, may stam[> a party name But Jesus with His largely human scope
The
service of
my human
life
may
;
claim.
Let prideful priests do battle about creeds, The church is mine that does most Christ-like deeds."
The inconsequence and the
line of
adopted,
when
pushed
sion,
reasoning
thought that to
is
is,
of course,
thus lightly
legitimate
its
conclu-
would obviously banish Christianity from the For
earth.
who
this
of
colossal,
if
doctrine be of no value, because some,
theoretically
exhibit
the
remain
to
traits
deny of
which we
would not be
or
a
can
neglect
good
attach
difficult to discover
;
and we should soon
nevertheless
importance
good
severally every doctrine of even the
Christianity
it,
what truth
life,
?
will It
men who deny
most attenuated
find ourselves forced
The Right of Systematic Theology to allow that not only those doctrines
2
i
which divide
Christian sects, but those also which constitute the
very elements of Christianity, are of no real moment.
But
us ask a brilliant young French theologian to
let
make
Says M. Henri Bois
this clear to us.
" Doctrine
is
But,
are told.
of little importance, it
what
being admitted that
^ :
of importance
is
is life,
the essential thing
life is
we
—
is as incontestable as it is uncontested, and which, admitted, saves us from Intellectualism in the only cen-
matter which
when
it is
surable sense of the word
— the
question
is
precisely whether certain
doctrines are not necessary for the production and maintenance of a certain
life.
they were. to
life
Does
life
!
Assuredly not.
No
one ever said
follow from that tliat they are not indispensable
Doctrines are not the cause of
?
it
Doctrines are not
But does it
life
On
!
that
we
are agreed.
follow from that that they are not one of the conditions of
"Here
life
?
Such and such a great Christian is adduced who does not profess some doctrines which we profess. And at once the consequence is drawn to the uselessness recourse
is
had
to a notable argument.
You see this scholar, as pious as he is learned he rejects these doctrines, and that does not prevent him from being pious. Therefore these doctrines serve no purpose or else, you must refuse to see a Christian in your brother, you must anathematise him, condemn him, " It will be wise to observe whither this argument leads. Apply it well, and it will not be easy to discover what it will leave subsisting for, after all, who of us does not know rationalists who lead a life as moral and spiritual as some evangelicals sometimes more so 1 Therefore, since it is conduct, life, sentiment, which is of supreme importance, there is no need to be evangelical. More than that, who of us does not know free-thinkers, unbelievers, superior in morality at least, if we hesitate to say in spirituality, to such and such Christians ? Therefore, there is no need to be a Christian. " 'Well, yes,' our honourable opponents will reply, 'there is no need to be a Christian, in the sense you mean there is no need to be evangelical in the sense you mean that is, in the doctrinal sense.
of these doctrines.
:
—
:
—
;
—
^ Le Bogme Grec (Paris, We shall have occasion 1893), pp. 40-42. during the course of this paper to draw very largely from two admirable books by Prof. Henri Bois his Le Dogmc Grec and his De la Connaissance Relvjieuse. Let us express here our appreciation of the value of these works as well as our indebtedness to them.
—
The Right of Systematic Theology
22
—
True religion is life.' And then, if you press tliem, they will tell you with a iine air that they know perfectly what they mean by Well, tell us, then, what it 'life,' however little you may believe it. communicate 3'our happy knowledge to is, if you know it, we reply If you open your mouth you will become But take good care us Intellcctualists on your own account at once Intellectualists ;
!
—
!
—
"This exaggerated aversion
to Intellectualism
leads logically to
rendering incapable of transmission and to isolating in the silence of the individual consciousness, a life which doctrines alone have
rendered possible, and which without them would not exist." Ill
one word, the whole latitudmariaii position
up upon the fancy that the product sentiment
Christianity
is
awakening whenever
ment
is
it
;
and
it is
of
is
built
the religious
destined to a rude
discovers that religious senti-
the natural possession of man, and performs
appropriate work in every atmosphere, and under
its
the tutelage of
no
less
every
The fetish-worshipper,
faith.
than the vested priest serving at some gor-
Eome or Moscow, possesses his religious and may through it attain a high degree of
geous altar at nature,
religious development.
that nothing
and
its
Newman ^
we take
the ground
we have cut up
sense,
by the
roots.
Christianity, in
So poor Francis
any
W,
found when in his half-taught zeal he stood
before the
p.
then,
needed but a deep religious sentiment
is
fruits,
intelligible
If,
Moslem carpenter
The
striking scene
32.
The reader
is
at Aleppo,^
and
his heart
described in Phases of Faith (London, 1870), James Macdonald's Religion and Myth
of Mr.
(London, 1893) will feel that Mr. Macdonald has gone through some such experience, in a less acute form, as Mr. Newman's. He, too, has discovered that even the lowest savages have a religious consciousness,
and
exercise religious faith
and enjoy
I)ure naturalism.
Cf. J.
Macbride
and is which amounts to
religious certitude,
led by it to a theory of the origin of Christianity Stcrrett's
Religion for some good remarks on this point.
Reason and Authority in
The Right of Systematic Theology was forced
him a man
to recognise in
23
deeper
of
reli-
gious nature and of higher rehgious attainments than
he himself possessed
him and such
— he who
him the
as
"
had come
to teach to
With the
true religion."
premises which had taken possession
of
his
mind,
—
what could he do but what he did give distinctive Christianity up ? What, after all, is peculiar to Christianity
not the religious sentiment and
is
working, but
its
To be
doctrine.
another way of
message
of salvation
—
indifferent to doctrine
we
saying
its
in a word, its
thus but
is
are indifferent to Chris-
tianity.
It
is,
of course, easy to say that in reasoning thus
we have pressed the
latitudinarian
warrantable extreme.
with
indifference
It is
upon
quite
doctrinal
idea
an un-
to
possible
to look
differences within
the limits of essential Christianity, without thinking of
no consequence
which
constitute
answer
those
equally
is
latitudinarian
great
essential
To refuse
easy.
idea
to
fundamental
this
extreme
to is
truths
But
the
follow
the
Christianity.
to
abandon
altogether the principle of the uselessness, the indifference of doctrines.
If there
which, as Christian men,
then
it is
be some doctrines to
we cannot be
indifferent,
no longer true that doctrines as such are
There may be some doctrines which we esteem as less important than others, or even as of no importance in the framing of a specificmatters of indifference.
ally
Christian
others, the
life but so long as there remain maintenance of which we esteem essential ;
The Right of Systematic Theology
24 to
the very existence
of
Christianity, our
attitude
towards doctrine as such cannot be that of amused
The very centre
contempt.
And
shifted.
so little
new ground,
this
debate
the
of
now
is
can doctrine be neglected on
that a serious attempt becomes at
once imperative to distinguish between essential and
Men may
unessential doctrines.
which the
to the exact point at
conceivably differ as
line of discrimination
But the very
between these classes should be drawn. attempt to draw
which
are
implies that there are doctrines
it
important,
useful,
And
necessary.
the
admission of this yields the whole point in debate. If
there be any doctrines, however few, which justly
deserve the
name
of essential doctrines,
the root of the Christian tions,
and stand at
life
as its conditions, founda-
it
surely becomes the duty
or presuppositions,
as well as the right of tlie
Christian
man
to
study
them, to seek to understand them in themselves and in
relations,
their
attempt
to
them with
state
to
accuracy and to adjust their statement to the whole
body
known
of
The extent
of this
an open question it,
—
in
a
word,
Systematic Theology
function of
for
truth
;
is
Systematic Theology
but a content
is
right
the
and
vhidicated.
may remain
already vindicated
and a place and function among the necessary conception of
theological disciplines, so soon as the " essential
doctrines,"
into thought.
becomes
at
however
He who once
an
limited, once
goes only so
far, in
" Intellectualist "
sense in which the Systematic Theologian
in is
emerges a word,
the
only
an Intel-
Right of Systematic Theology
TJie lectualist
—
that
is,
truth as well as
25
he recognises that Christianity
and as such addresses
life,
itself
is
to
the intelligence of men, and has claims upon their belief as well as
upon
He
their obedience.
at once a " Dogmatist " in the only sense in
Systematic Theologian
a Dogmatist
is
—
becomes
which the
that
is,
he
recognises the objective validity of a body of religious
truth and ance,
imperative claims upon
its
and
therefore prepared to
is
upon the attention their religious
of
all
In
life.
fine,
press this truth
he who only goes so far
spite
Theologian
and once having come
of
accept-
alike as the condition of
becomes in :
all for
himself
himself,
a Systematic
upon any
to look
doctrines as " essential," and to attempt to set forth
in
an
orderly
manner,
gradually to enlarge the will
he
circle
hardly
will
" essential "
which
of truths
admit to his systematic treatment.
that only the
them fail
he
Let us say
doctrines are to be included
but surely, in a systematic treatment of these,
cannot exclude the statement
and
development
:
we of
those other truths which, while not " essential " in and of
themselves, are yet necessary to the integrity and
stability of these " essential " doctrines,
and
so are, in
a secondary and derived sense, themselves " essential."
And
so
on in the
Thus the body hard
if
we do not
of a pretty It
tertiary
and quaternary rank.
of doctrine will
grow
until
it
will
be
find ourselves at last in possession
complete Systematic Theology.
would seem, then, that a mere doctrinal
ferentism cannot sustain
itself
as
indif-
over against
the
26
The Right of Syste^natic Theology
claims
of
Systematic
theology to exist
more
positive
Theology.
right
of
must be on some
to be denied, it
is
the
If
ground than that which merely affirms
when
It is only
that doctrines lack all significance.
the widely diffused dislike of doctrines takes the more directly polemic form of
but
useless
And
come
hierarchy
simple living
followers,
more
found a
to
machinery
ecclesiastical
freedom
and
and power
of
its
stripped
of
the
all
In their
tlie
and permitted once more as
faith
killing religion,
we
flexibility,
to
and
primitive
its
must be
it
envelopes in which
work on men
not
are told
it
;
in its
naked
Theology
dogma.
and the hope first
of
is
the
that religion
live.
There are naturally
somewhat "
ever to
perverse ingenuity of men,
future rests on our killing theology
may
the
toils faith is
it
if
:
reproduction,
artificial
has been swatlied by
simplicity,
holy
Eome was no
of
imprisoned, straitened, petrified
fecundity
His
impulse,
than the equally elaborate theological
foreign
regain
To His
hearts
religious
constructions of the dogmatists. is
are told,
religion.
whose pious
to
communicated a deep
elaborate
we
Christ,
teach a doctrine or to institute a
to
He came
;
contro-
real
of late this stronger assertion has
become exceedingly common. did not
the
that
noxious,
actively
versy begins.
them not merely
declaring
dogma,"
violent as
its
many forms
hostility
opponents
many grounds on which
it
to
like
taken
doctrine to
call
by
— it
seeks to support
this
or
to
— and
itself.
The Right of Systematic Theology
No
doubt
27
often only the expression of an innate
it is
antipathy to clear thinking and of a not very rare incapacity for truth
The
truth.
example, speaks
late
as
accuracy,"
his
a
sort
"
Andrew
he wrote,
"
comes in the shape struck out of
it
Lang
"
Half the
of a proposition.
in the process."
How
^
Truth
me when
becomes distasteful to
mucli more
could only have had more taste for exact fact
many
form
in
is
its life
whom
theologians to like
manner
afflicted
inaccuracy.
tutional
distasteful,
Men
like these
he
There
!
and
half, or
—
all,
because
with a lamentable and consti-
No wonder
minds exact statement seems
and theology appears
if
truth in propositional
seems dissipated, for the same reason
they too are
it
life is
trustworthy he would have been as a historian
are
in-
similar antipathy to formu-
lated truth in the spheres in which he dealt. itself,"
to
Froude, for
lamented and constitutional
exhibited a
^
colour-blindness
of
what Mr.
from
suffering
of
—
Mr. James Anthony
to
must be
upon such
that
an
to act like
be an
enemy
of
irritant,
religion.
classified as deficients
;
and
1 " In Mr. To the last he had Fronde's wine there were no dregs. the same captivating power, despite his lamented and constitutional
inaccuracy " (Andrew Lang, The Cosmox)olitan (magazine), September 1895, p. 576). -
"The
radical
Fortnightly Review, about which you ask,
publication.
doctrinaire politicians
for
are
my as
Many good men taste.
stiff
The
write in
formulas
and arrogant
of
it.
is
an advanced
But
advanced
it
is
too
English
as the formulas of theology.
becomes distasteful to me when it comes in the shape " of a proposition. Half the life is struck out of it in the process (J. A. Froude, letter to Gen. Cluseret, in The Independent, August 8,
Truth
1895).
itself
The Right of Systematic Theology
28
we can no more
yield
the
obedience to their outcries
consent to refuse
right
than
the colour-blind, or the musician
physicist can
study of liarmony
all
for music.
have no faculty for truth will always con-
sider an appeal
to
truth an
upon doctrinal Christianity
is
whom we must
those
On
it.
But the assault
evil.
from being confined
far
believe
the contrary,
possess reason,
to
who seem very chary
indeed, for they too are men, but of using
it
is
being carried on
to-day by the very leaders of Christian thought
men whose by
their trained dialectical skill their
religion"
incapable
is
save
is
theology and would
it
from
weak and
is
preserve tlie
killing
who
nevertheless
are fain
the reasoned assertion
It is
theological
of
to
Theology
not merely the wail of those
of
masters
and the profundity
"
learning.
tlieological
preserve their religion.
object
— by
shining intellectual gifts are equalled only
of
of
in
colour to please
he should bore those who have no ear
lest
Men who
to
the
discussion of
all
theology
of
science
whose
professed
Christianity in its purity and
dangers which encompass
erring world.
it
in this
a position, therefore,
It is
which deserves our most respectful consideration, and if
we
still feel
bound
to refuse
it,
we owe
selves to give a reason for the faith that
There are two chief points
of
right of doctrinal Christianity tlieologians of our day.
these schools of thought facts,
not dogmas
:
Tlie is
is
it
to our-
in us.
view from which the is
denied
watchword
by leading of
one of
that Christianity consists of
that of the other
is
that Chris-
The Right of Systematic Theology tianity consists of
tnrn what
Let us see in
not doctrine.
life,
29
meant by these phrases and what
is
is
to
the modes of conceiving
be said with reference to
Christianity which they represent.
we are told, What we rest upon
consists of facts, not
Christianity, then, of dogmas.
body
a
not
for our salvation is
constructions,
intellectual
theories,
of
speculative ideas, but a series of mighty acts of God,
He
by which
has entered into the course of
human
history and wrought powerfully for the salvation of
He
chose for Himself a people in
our lost race.
Thus,
Abraham and
gradually moulded them into a matrix
in
which salvation might
world
prepared for
be
and when the fulness
;
all
had come.
of time
the
He
descended into their midst in the person of His Son,
was born
woman,
of a
and suffered and died
lived
our salvation, and having died for our
and now ever
for our justification,
cession
for
acts
—
all
human
that
we
:
it
death for us
us,
by the
;
He
make
series
inter-
divine
of
side of these facts
many
impertinences.
of the person of Christ that
it
is
not by any theory of the atonement
—
it is
by the great
is
it is
by the great
fact
of
the
in-
fact of Christ's
not by any theory of His heavenly
we
high-priesthood that
High and
:
lives to
mighty
—
are saved
fact that
this
theories are only so
by any theory
are saved
carnation
—
Christianity
this is
It is not
we
This
us.
for
again
sins, rose
sits at
are saved, but by the great
the right
reigns over
all
then, renounce all
hand
of the
Majesty on
things for His Church.
our wire-drawn
theories
Let
and
The Right of Systematic Theology
30
take our stand once for all upon these great facts
which
Christianity
Christianity.
constitute
really
dogmas
consists of these facts, not of
:
and
it is
the
sole business of the theologian to establish these facts,
In
not to invent dogmas.^ imitating the
writers
of
moreover, he will be
this,
Scripture
:
"
for
Bible
the
simply recounts the facts without pretending to the least
shadow
The truth very obvious
;
whose watchword they are intended
Accordingly nothing
justify.
acts, to
of revelation
indeed,
God
in the series of
the exclusion
by word, which
in
as
All revelation
facts.
the patefaction of
redemptive
become more
has
than an appeal from the doctrines of
of late
Christianity to its to
nature
the
is
of
—
which consist facts
" religious "
and adopt which
in lie
is
reduced
His great
entire or partial
sometimes represented, the
ones
impossible. "
case
Churches are exhorted to lay aside their creeds
is
and we cannot wonder that they have
class of thinkers
common
underlies these representations
tliat
an influence far beyond the limits of the
exercised
to
-
of authority."
—
" theological
that
is,
creeds
the mere enumeration of the great at
the
basis
of
Christianity,
the
advocates of this procedure usually having something the Apostles' Creed in mind.
like ^
" La
tlR'ologie
doit
peutetre
se
In
still
broader
bonier a constater des
faits
Nazareth et le devcloppemcnt de sa 2Jensee sur luiquoted by H. Bois, Le Dogme Grcc, p. 225). 07ienie, p. 156 -"La Bible raconte simplement les faits, sans pivtendre a la nioindre ombre d'aiitont»5 " (Astie, in Evangile et Liberte, Dec. 26, 1890 (juoted by H. Bois, De la Connaissance Rcligieuse, p. 342). (Stapfer, Jesus de ;
;
TJie circles, it
Right of Systematic Theology
3
has become very customary to distinguish
between what
is
and the theory when
called the fact
dealing with special doctrines, and to profess belief in the fact of sin, of the incarnation, of the atonement,
and
the
like,
while despairing
now
this
fashionable
mental elements
of
mode
of
A
tenable explanation of them. of
Christianity
discovering
any
recent example
dealing
may
of
with funda-
be found in the
essay on the Atonement which was contributed to the volume called Faith and Criticism, by Dr. K. F. a brilliant preacher, who, howHorton, of London
—
must not be taken
ever,
Such a mental
too seriously as a theologian.^
James Denney points
attitude, as Dr.
out,2 in a striking passage in the lectures
which he
New York Essays by Congregationalists. Faith and Critkism. V. The Atonement, pp. 188, 222, 237: '^It is the object of the present essay to advocate this sobriety of assertion in It may be a duty on dealing with the question of the atonement. :
1
E. P. Button, 1893.
the one hand to maintain that the death of Christ
is
the means by
pardoned and reconciliation between God and man and yet, on the other, to own that no real explanation of it effected can be found." " The New Testament has no theory about the atonenor is the case fully stated when we deny that the New ment Testament contains a theory there is a strong reason for suspecting differed," etc. that the several New Testament writers " In spite, too, of confident assertions 2 Studies in Theology, p. 106 " this distinction of fact and theory— this to the contrary," he adds, pleading for the fact as opposed to the theory— is very far from finding For my own part, I have no doubt support in the New Testament.
which
sin
is
;
.
.
.
;
.
.
.
:
Testament does contain a theory, or, as I should prefer to One may suspect that Dr. a doctrine of the atonement," etc. Denney had precisely :\Ir. Horton's essay in mind in penning this porcontion of his discussion ; certainly he traverses with very great the
New
say,
vincingness the contentions and illustrations alike put forward by Dr. Horton. The statement in the late Dr. Henry B. Smith's Si/stem of " AVIhmi we say Christian Theology, p. 460, may well be compared.
The Right of Systeuiatic Theology
32
recently delivered before the students of the Chicago Theological Seminary,
certainly not easy to under-
is
and cannot possibly
stand,
be
attitude in which not only do
final
many
but some even seem to glory.
but
it
an
is
Dr. John Watson, for
" little
example, in a delightful
:
acquiesce to-day,
book on religion," in
which, like Mr. Horton, he emphasises the importance of
Christ's
death for salvation, yet seems to take
considerable pride and to find great comfort in the idea that
it
is
could
make
little
band that evening,"
supper, "
how
"
for salvation.
— he
how His death
entirely inexplicable
says
in
Christ's death
Had
one questioned the
the evening of the last
customarily
his
striking
way,
would be of any good unto them
or the world, then
it is
had been
Much
silent.
—
probable that
St.
John himself
has been written since by
devout scholars, and some of their words have helped
and some have hindered, and the reason mystery There
of sacrifice has not yet
is
been declared.
one modern crucifixion which
satisfying because
and the soul
to
it
of the great
is
.
.
.
perfectly
leaves everything beyond Jesus
the imagination.
It is a
space of
black darkness, with some dim strokes of light, and as
you try
to pierce the
a crucified Man.
gloom they suggest the form
The
face
is
faintly visible
of
and a ray
from the forehead striking downwards reveals a kneelthat the deatli of Christ was instead of our puiiishment, and that
made facts.
expiation for our sins, .
.
.
We
we
it
are not statini,^ theories but revealed
do not suppose that anytliing which can properly is involved in any one of the points that we have
be called a theory
presented in respect to the doctrine of sacrifices."
The Right of Systematic Theology fio-ure
iiiir
o
o
human
place of this mystery the
best
it,
loves
darkness it
indeed,
If,
Is
^
where
Christianity thrives
Within the secret
at the foot of the cross.
and become one."
is
were
it
2>Z
and Jesus meet
soul
indeed true
then,
more
than
to
and
light,
least understood
necessary
tliat
?
distinguish,
as
sharply as this theory bids us, between the doctrines
and
facts of Christianity, there
the essence
find
is
none who w^ould not
Christianity in
of
the
fact of the incarnation, the atonement, the
high-priesthood
— here
Christianity, about if it
undoubtedly
which
its
is
The
facts.
the
heavenly centre
And
doctrines revolve.
were possible not merely
to
distinguish between
them, but to separate the doctrines from the then of course
it
would be
flee.
facts
without
their
facts,,
to the facts alone that
We may cherish
could
of
we
doubts as to the value of
interpreting
doctrines,
we
but
cannot but be sure that doctrines to which no facts correspond us
say
it
can be nothing other frankly,
lies.
It
is
to
than the
myths
force
of
—
let
this
suggestion that the representations under discussion their influence.
But the
a wholly false one.
No
owe is
antithesis thus
drawn
one would contend that
Christianity consists in doctrines as distinguished from ^ The "A mystic," says Dr. London, 1895, p. 75. UxJjjer Room. Watson, admiringly (p. 60), "gathers truth as a plant absorbs the It is certahily easy enough to light, in silence and without effort." refuse to make the requisite effort to obtain the truth :' and were it
only indubitable that thus the truth would be absorbed, the pathway knowledge would be royal indeed. It seems to be the characteristic of our modern mystics, however, to stop short of obtaining the truth and to
to proclaim it to be unnecessary, if indeed not positively undesirable.
The Right of Systematic Theology
34
far
facts,
that
less
tend that
far
that
less
man
to
in
it
and doctrines entirely
The incarnation
facts.
and
womb
virgin's
faith
but
:
vain,
is
if
is
are
yet
a fact
the apprehension
to
their adequate testimony
no eye saw
:
our
men and
of
but
:
in
is
it
He
most satisfactory manner.-^
witnessed by
at the
Dr.
"Christianity,
it will
be here said,
is
o.
says
true.
.
same time
James
Orr,
.
.
The gospel
:
fact-revelation
centre in a living Christ and not in a dogmatic creed. is
The
sins.
Kerr Lectures, brings out the truth here
in his noble
sense
enter the
an occurrence in time
:
the cardinal doctrine of Christianity.
in a
are
be not a true fact as well,
it
we
resurrection of Christ
coalesce.
doctrines
its
doctrine
a
is
all
God descend from heaven and
the Son of
level
as
Christianity consists
a true religion, which offers
is
facts are doctrines
its
our
from
facts
a real redemption that was really wrought out
history, its facts
All
in
and doctrines that are
in is facts that are doctrines,
Just because
consists
it
What
separated from doctrines.
facts.
wholly
doctrines
in
But neither ought anyone con-
consists in facts as distinguished
it
and
doctrines,
consists
it
unrelated to facts.
—
has
it
And
its
this in a
no mere proclamation of eternal God for mankind,
is
'
truths,' but the discovery of a saving purpose of
executed in time.
The
But the doctrines
are the interpretation of the
do not stand blank and dumb before us, but have a voice given to them and a meaning put into them. They are accompanied by living speech, which makes their meaning clear. Wlien facts.
facts
John declares that Jesus Christ God, he
^
is
Cf. Dr.
p. 25.
stating a fact, but he
is
is
come
and is the Son of enunciating a doctrine.
in the flesh
none the
less
James Orr's The Christian Vieio of God and
the IVorld,
The Right of Systematic Theology AVheii Paul affirms,
he
tures,'
'
Christ died for our sins according to the Scrip-
proclaiming a
is
35
fact, l)ut
he
is
at the
same time giving an
interpretation of it."
be of use to us to consider for a
It will
effect
the sharp antithesis which
of
dogmas, but in
What
facts.
separated from
does
Christianity
that
declaration
what
is
is
not
"
the
in
the
consist
in
a fact that
here called
is
moment
drawn
is
dogma
wholly "
?
If
doctrines which stand entirely out of relation to facts are myths,
we
lies,
facts
call doctrine
It is
what we
cance to
could have no meaning to us whatsoever.
call doctrine
to the contemplation of facts,
" doctrine,"
''•
theory,"
comprehension
is
of facts.
what the Herbartians
means
all their signifi.=^^
That intellectual element brought by
not understood.
of
winch gives
A fact without doctrine is simply a fact
facts.
the mind
which have no connection with what
of it
alone
is
which we
call
the condition of any proper It constitutes the call "
elements
apperception," and by
a fact capable of passing into our
minds as a force and in any measure influencing our And therefore Dr. James Denney, thought and life. in the passage to to allude,
which we have already had occasion
— where he
anyone should seem
is
expressing his surprise that
to glory
and triumph
to discover the theory of a fact
in inability
fundamental to Chris-
tianity—adds with the most complete justice
^ :
"
A fact of which there is absolutely no theory is a fact which stands out of relation to everything in the universe, a fact which has no conCf. the remark of Coleridge, in p. 106. None of your "' Facts— stuhborn facts! theory A most entertaining and instructive essay might be written on this text, and the sooner the better. Trace it from the most 1
Stiidies
Anima
in
Poetce,
!
'
Theology, p.
125:
The Right of Systematic Theology
36
nection with any part of our experience it is a blank unintelligibility, a rock in the slcy, a mere irrelevance in the mind of man. There is no such thing conceivable as a fact of which there is no theory, or even a ;
fact of which lot have no theory such a thing could not enter our world at all if there could be such a thing, it would be so far from having the virtue in it to redeem us from sin tliat it would have no ;
;
interest for us
and no
effect u])on us at all."
So closely welded are those intellectual elements those elements of previous knowledge, or of knowledge
derived from other sources
—
to facts as
taken up into
our minds in the complex act of apperception, that
we have
possibly
ordinarily failed to separate them,
and consequently, liuently "
matter
worship of what we
the naked facts," have very
what a bare have for
in our
fact
us.
is,
and what
M. Naville has sought
by an incident from
Even, he says
little
considered
meaning
little
to
it
could
illustrate
own
his
so
call
the
experience.
^
cjj. in Fracastorius' Be SyriiixUMd, cap. i., and Alchemy Book — even to that of your modern agriculturists, relating their own facts and swearing against each other like ships'
absurd credulity the
Oh
crews.
From
!
it is
the relations of the facts
— not the
the point of view of the historian. Professor
facts, friend
" !
Woodrow Wilson
{The Century Magazine, September 1895, pp. 787, 788) speaks to somewhat the same effect " Give us the facts, and nothing but the facts,' is the sharp injunction of our age to its historians. Upon the :
'
an eminently reasonable requirement. To tell the truth, is the unimpeachable first principle of all right living and historians have no licence to be quit of it. Unquestionalily they must tell us the truth." But " an interesting circumstance thus comes to light. It is nothing less than this, The truth is that the facts do not of themselves constitute the truth. abstract, not concrete. It is the just idea, the right revelation of what things mean. It is evoked only by such arrangements and orderings of facts as suggest meanings," ^ Le temoignage die Christ et Vunitddu mondc Chretien, pp. 293, 294 face of
it,
simply, openly, without reservation, ;
.
.
.
;
quoted by H, Bois, De la Connaissancc Religicuse,
p. 343.
The Right of Systematic Theology
2)7
"The things which we ourselves see have their lueaniiig and their import only through the adjunction of ideas taken upon testimony. One day, at Paris, I saw on the quay which runs alongside the Tuileries, the Emperor Napoleon iii. pass by in a cabriolet wliicli he Here
himself was driving. let
a fact
is
which
I
But
verified for myself.
us reduce this fact to the elements of personal perception, separated
I saw a large buihlfrom the ideas which came from another source. how did I know that this building bore the name of the Tuileries, and that it was the residence of the sovereign of France ?
ing
By
:
the testimony of others.
man was By French.
this
I
Napoloon
called
saw a man pass how did I know that and that he was the Emperor of the :
iii.
If I reduce the
testimony.
personal perceptions, here
what
is
is left
:
I
fact to
the data of
my
saw, near a large building,
—
man who drove a cabriolet nothing more. The facts that pass under our eyes have their meaning and value only by the intervention
a
which we owe
of ideas
If,
then,
of facts,
we
to the affirmations of our fellows."
are to affirm that Christianity consists
wholly separated from those ideas by which
these facts obtain their significance and meaning and
which
it
pleases us to call "
do but destroy gether
?
that
all
The great
are just as "
naked
dogmas
we know any other
facts,
they themselves but
their
we
they are
i.e.
until not only
doctrinal
significance is
The whole Christianitv
us.
facts resides in their
shall
and are just as
facts, until
not only perceived but understood,
to
—what
as Christianity alto-
facts that constitute Christianity
" as
meaningless to us as any other
made known
"
of these
meaning, in the ideas which are
involved in them, but which are not independently
gathered from them by each observer, but are attri-
buted to them by those who interpret them to us a word, in the doctrines
what are the great Strip
them 3
free
accompanying them.
—
in
For
facts that constitute Christianity
from
"
?
dogma," from that interpreta-
The Right of Systematic Theology
J8 -^
which has transformed them into doctrine, and
tion
what have we
left
at the
most but
this
that once
:
upon a time a man was born, w^ho lived charity, died on
and
An
no doubt, with elements of
interesting series of facts,
mystery
in poverty
the cross and rose again.
in them, of the marvellous, of the
touching
;
but hardly in their naked form constituting what we
For that they require
Christianity.
call
This
their interpretation.
He came
man was
to
receive
the Son of God,
we
are told
He
gave Himself to death as a propitiation for their
sins
;
and
indeed,
;
He
the flesh to save sinners
in
rose again for their justification.
we have
But
Christianity.
it
;
Now,
not consti-
is
tuted by the " bare facts," but by the facts as interpreted,
and indeed by the Give the
not otherw^ise.
we cannot give them
find in
facts as thus interpreted, facts
a different interpretation,
therefore, not
"
i.e.
specific
"
by the
manner.
Surely
to the Christian
man
of
Christianity:
and
by the
facts it is
as
this
have is
but by the
understood in
one
of importance, therefore,
great is
shall
Christianity
facts,
to investigate this
the
interpretation
call Chiistianity
and we
Christianity.
constituted,
dogmas
no interpretation, and
them what we can
something other than
and
the
facts
task
one Christian
that of
constitute
Systematic
Theology.
We at
must not fail to emphasise that the conclusion which we have thus arrived implies that there lies
at the basis of Cliristianity not only a series of great
redemptive
facts,
but also an authoritative interpreta-
The Right of Systematic Theology Amid
those facts.
tion of
many interwho will help
the perhaps
pretations possible to this series of facts, lis
39
one through which alone they can constitute
to that
Christianity
In the ordinary
?
enabled to arrive at the
meet
facts that
of life
affairs
by the explanations
us,
we
are
true interpretation of the of those
who
have knowledge of their meaning and who have a claim upon our belief
when they
explain them to
For example, in the instance cited from
man
could be assured that the
he saw driving the
was Napoleon
ledge
of
the Emperor he could trust.
facts
of
knowledge our belief
iii.
—
there
is
These great
anyone who has
meaning and who has
of their
when he
us.
Naville, he
by anyone whose know-
cabriolet
Christianity
M.
explains
them
to
us
a right to
who, in a
?
word, has authority to declare to the world what this series of great facts
Christianity
means, or in other words, what
It is
is ?
evident that
nothing less than authority
is
Christianity.
We
In
Him we
meaning
of Christian facts in
which
He was
have supreme confidence
facts.
means
whom He
of
find that doctrinal authority ulti-
of the
may
it
the existence of a doctrinal
this, that
whose knowledge
apostles
are face to
fundamental to the very existence
mately, of course, in Christ. in
we
And
face here with an anxious question.
;
and
to
discern one
of the great series
chief actor,
we can
whom, with the all nations, we
appointed to teach
safely go for the interpretation of the Christian
In the teachings of Christ and His apostles,
therefore,
we
find authoritative
Christian doctrine
The Right of Systematic Theology
40 "
doscma "
"
the
in
dogma
"
enters
But we are
told, as
this
very
the
into
word
the
sense of
strictest
and
:
essence
of
Christianity."^
may
perhaps be remembered,
M.
that the Bible does not contain " dogmas."
himself "
that
quoted,
already
passage
allowed
has
example,
for
Bible
the
recounts the facts without pretending
shadow
every Bible reader
M. Henri
Cf.
a
simply
of fact
be trusted to resolve
least
and
;
it
for
Obviously the Bible does not give us a
himself.-
1
may
in
the
to
It is a question
of authority."
Astie,
affirm,
to
Bois,
Le Dogme
pp. 110-117
Ghrec,
" Christianity is, and
:
therefore, without being this exclusively, a combination of facts ideas.
.
.
.
The
fact does
serves no purpose.
That
not suffice. The fact by itself is nothing, should avail anything, there is needed the
it
interpretation of the fact, the idea.
.
.
.
Who
Himself and those
whom He
make Him known
to the world.
to recount
what the
will tell us in
true interj)retation of the Christian fact consists
?
.
.
.
Jesus Christ
Himself chose, prepared and inspired to The mission of the aj)ostles was .
.
.
and interpret the Christian
facts to the world.
...
If
God
whole of humanity together, it seems to us altogether natural that He should have given also, in a definite fashion, by His Son, Jesus Clmst, Author of these acts, and by the apostles, witnesses of these acts, formed in the school of Christ and penetrated by His Spirit, an interpretation of these acts, valid for all humanity. God acted once for all, in a definite fashion but the first essential sense of this act does not change, since the act itself, There are therefore the past act, remains accomplished, immutable. We affirm, theredefinitive ideas by the side of definitive facts.
wrought certain
definite acts for the
:
.
fore,
.
.
that the writings of the witnesses of the Christian facts, their
accounts and their interpretations, have authority." ^
Prof.
Henry Wace,
in his
Bampton Lectures on The Foundations
of Faith (p. 121), neatly exhibits the nature of the frequent assertion that the Bible contains no "dogmas" in a characteristic incident or " It is the favourite contention of those who impugn the faith two. of the Church," he says,
"that the teaching of the Sermon on the
Mount is purely moral and independent of theology.
*
It is undeniable,
The Right of Systematic Theology bare
of
list
development
meaning
—
*'
naked
of facts
the interpretation their
facts "
but a rich account and
;
a
special
understood and interpreted.
With
significant
of
of
as, for
held
facts
these
of
in
rather
facts,
mere record, a large part
employed,
4
than with
the Bible
solely
is
example, the epistles of Paul
and
:
says the author of Supernatural Religion, with cliaracteristic strength of assertion,
'
that the earliest teaching of Jesus recorded in the gospel
as in any degree historical is pure morality, not quite, free from theological dogmas. Morality was the Two pages essence of His system theology was an afterthought.' later this writer states with perfect correctness, but with complete unconsciousness of inconsistency, that Christ's system 'confined itself But is to two fundamental ])rinciples, love to God and love to man.' there no theology involved in teaching love to God ? No theology in
which can be regarded almost,
if
;
the belief that God is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and that in spite of all the difficulties, perplexities, and cruelties of the world. He is worthy of the whole love and trust of our hearts Wliy, this is the very theological problem which has racked the heart and brain of man from the dawn of religious thought !
to the i^resent
moment. On these two commandments
curious phrase just quoted, Christ's system
is
— to which; in the
said to have
confined
'
—
though they Avere slight or simple on these two commandThey are the germ from mt^nts hang all the law and the prophets. wdiich has sprung the whole theoloj^ical thought of the Christian Church, and to which it returns and no theologian can wish to do more than to deepen his own apprehension of them and to strengthen their hold upon others. With similar inconsistency, M. R^nan
itself,'
as
;
declares that 'w^e should seek in vain for a theological proposition in
the gospel,' and yet states elsewhere that 'a lofty notion of the God,' Divinity was in some sort the germ of our Lord's whole being. '
'
he adds, is in Him He feels Himself in communion with God and He draws from His heart that which he speaks of His Father.' These ai'e strange inconsistencies. But there is nothing, perhai)s, more '
;
;
warn a thoughtful mind, at the threshold of sceptical specuthan the manner in which the vastest conceptions and the profoundest problems are thus passed over, The as it were, dryshod by such writers as have just been quoted." fine passage on })p. 194-198 on the influence of doctrine on life should fitted to
lations, of their essential shallowness,
also be read.
The Right of Systematic Theology
42
even when the immediate object
is
facts themselves, they are not set
the record of the
down
Denney is expositors who
thoroughly justified in his rebuke to
would neglect
this context
nakedly, but
Dr. James
in a distinct doctrinal context.
^ :
sometimes tempted," he says, "to read New had no context but that which stands they had from the very beginning, before him in black and white and have still, another context in the minds of Christian readers which it is impossible to disregard. They are not addressed to minds in the condition of a tabula rasa ; if they were, they could hardly be they were addressed to minds that had been understood at all delivered— as Paul says to the Romans a church, remember, to which such to a type or mould of teaching lie was personally a stranger
"Amere
exegete
Testament sentences
is
as if they
;
;
:
—
;
and a clew to the intention of a Christian writer they can take a hint, and read into brief words the fulI have no doubt that it was in this way such ness of Christian truth.
minds have
in this a criterion
;
expressions were interpreted as
we
find all
through the
New
Testa-
He loosed Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Behold the Lamb of God that taketh us from our sins by His blood He is the propitiation for our sins.' To away the sin of the world ment
:
'
'
'
'
;
'
;
'
'
;
—
say that words like these express a fact but not a theory a fact as opposed to a theory is to say they mean nothing whatever. A member of the apostolic Church would be conscious of their meaning without any conscious effort what they suggested to him would be precisely that truth which is so distasteful to many of those who plead
—
;
for the fact as against 'theory,' that in Christ's
tion was endured by
Him.
This theory
is
death our condemnathere is nothing
the fact
;
else in these various expressions either to accept or to contest."
If there
be any justice in these remarks at
surely their justice lies
on their face
truer to say of the Bible that "
dogmas," than to say that
it
it
—
it
all
—and
would be
contains nothing but
contains only
" facts
"
1 Studies in Cf. the wise remarks of Dr. ThcoJo(jy, pp. 119, 120. Cairns, d^iropos of Sender, in his Unhclief in the Eighteenth Century,
Lecture v.
ii.,
near the beginning.
Right of Systematic Theology
TJie "
and no
"
dogmas
"
o
the facts given to us by Scrip-
all
:
ture are given as
4'^
dogmas," that
as facts that have
is,
a specific meaning for our souls.
Doubtless part of
the extremity of such deliverances as M. Astic's
due to a failure on the part facts bare
Christian
the
is
their authors to strip
of
enough.
It is the
fact as
interpreted and not the naked fact itself that they
But
call the fact.
Christianity "
it
dogmas," by calling
will scarcely do
in
consists
all
facts
of
No
doubt they are
but not in the sense intended by these writers
and thus the whole centre "
of the
debate would be
The contention would no longer be that
shifted.
"
dogmas merely
but
exclusion
the dogmas which enter into
the essence of Christianity facts. facts,
no
to prove that
the
to
enter into the essence of Christianity,
only
that
such
"
dogmas
"
enter
into
the essence of Christianity as are rooted in fact, to
the exclusion of such as have no basis in fact
other
words,
But
dispute.
will
myths and
of
it
lies.
does not
avail
This to
no
—
in
one
show that
Christianity consists of facts and not dogmas, but only
that the dogmas
which enter into Christianity are
true.
The antipathy
much
too
external authority in religion
to
mere exhibition
of
the necessity of interpretation to
render facts of any import or value to man. are
some
to
whom
of interpretation
ence
of
is
deeply rooted, however, to die with the
an
it
will still
may
external
There
seem that the necessity
be allowed, and yet the existdoctrinal authority
be
denied.
The Right of Systematic Theology
44
M. Kivier may be taken thought.
"
as an
Certainly," he says
example
of this
type of
^
" Certainly to verify a historical fact is far from conipreliending its and supernatural sense. An event whose significance remains foreign to us cannot have the least direct importance for our salvation, even though it may be ineffably rich in divine lessons and in religious motives. In order that we may know God, it evidently is not sufficient that he should act, it is necessary further that He should
religious
speak."
So
far,
everything runs along satisfactorily
the contention
we have been making.
:
it
is
just
But M. Rivier
proceeds at once to take the significance out of his "
admission. "
only "
is
Only,"
he
continues,
and
the
word
ominous
"Only it is necessary that he should speak to us. For we could never recognise His activity in a historical fact unless its explication made us personally verify a divine element in it. Now this interpreGod commonly
tation
gave, according to the biblical narratives, to
the witnesses of the events. facts,
Whilst we, in order to understand these more or less exact report of their
are to be reduced to the
authentic interpretation
" Therefore,"
!
comments M. Henry
imitable point
Bois, with his in-
-
"Therefore, in what the Bible and history transmit to us, there is nothing but the raAv facts for us to take into consideration. The rest it is of little consequence to us what God has said to is of no value others that alone is of consequence to us which has been said to us. Nevertheless, it is allowed that the facts without ideas are of no Consequently what history and the Bible value for salvation. transmit to us has no value for salvation value resides principally, fundamentally, in what God says to us, at present, in our revelations, :
;
.
.
.
.
.
.
:
^
Etude sur la revelation chretienne,
Dogme -
Grec^ p. 114.
Lc Dogme Grec,
p.
114
sq.
p.
44
;
quoted in H. Bois' Le
The Right of Systematic Theology
45
For having in our dreams. in our illuminations, in our fantasies, of the historic fact, we ^vished to discard the apostolic explications the historical fact ourselves quite naturally brought to discarding find
itself.
" And, indeed, we shall ask M. Rivier Wliy this different mode of In order that we may know God, it treating the fact and the idea \ is necessary further evidently is not sufficient that He should act it Only it is necessary that He should speak to that He should speak. :
'
:
But why not say also 'Only it is necessary by us, and in ws' % It is of no use to make God speak historically % Be it so. But why make Him act historAre we to be reduced to the more or less exact and more or ically ? certain men were witnesses less authentic reports of the facts of which many centuries ago % No, it is necessary that God should act for ns far so good.
So
lis:
thkt
He
and
in
:
should act for
The
%ls.
us,
ai.ostolic interpretation of
the Christian facts
is
given
nightmare of so-called us by tradition, that fatal tradition, that if you please, independent minds? It is true. But by what, then,
You
same tradition ? are you furnished with the facts, if not by this later commentaries, and declare that tradition reporting ideas needs a divine you exclaim, Is the latest commentary too clothed with should like you to tell us if tradition reporting facts authority % will criticism, perchance, then be clothed criticism '
'
We
has no need of with a divine authority
" In
short,
he who says
fact, history,
The more
tradition, authority.
more
:
?
fact."
We
scarcely
could
have a neater or of reduction
by the method
refutation pity
is
that everybody
reduction
is
to
The to
says at the same time witness, more tradition— the
authority, the
which
M.
that very position
the
would
thus
drive
M.
Eivier,
voluntarily assumed by others.
show that by parity of reasoning M. Eivier would refuse to that by which
Would M. with
is
does not see that
For the absurd position
absurdity.
Bois
completer
to absurdity.
Bois
be bound by the doctrines of the Bible, the facts, Undoubtedly, replies, for be refused? too, may example, Mr. G. Frommel
:
religion cannot consist of,
The Right of Systematic Theology
46
external
upon,
or rest
external doctrines
"By
:
their very nature historical facts lack the special evidence The most certain of them are only indispensable for faith.
which
is
Their probability, by the accumulation of evidences and
probable.
the weight of the testimony,
but
any more than upon
facts
^
never attains
it
it.
may
increase until it grazes certitude,
The best evidenced
historical facts rest
on
intermediary witnesses, with regard to whom doubt remains permisWere they even absolutely proved, they would remain in sible. essence incapable of forming authority for faith, the object of whicli
—
cannot in any case be a historical fact and, above all, not a past fact and which demands for its establishment the discernment in history of a divine activity, the initiative and permanent character of which
—
forms upon one a directly accessible impression."
That
to say, past facts
is
can enter into the essence of
Christianity just as little as past of Christianity
must be found wholly
the position of those of facts, not
who
what
in
of
another class who equally refuse to
that Christianity consists in
This position
outcome
of
present
cry that Christianity consists
allow the validity of Christian doctrine, is
is
dogmas, M. Bois has only driven them to
the position
cry
the essence
:
In reducing to absurdity
the soul here and now.
to
dogmas
comes before us thus the
demands
of
those whose
not doctrine. the
as
who
those
Christianity consist only of facts,
—
life,
and not
logical
will
have
at all of
dogmas. Before w^e turn to the consideration of this position, however, there is
contention doctrines, 1
La
1892
;
that
an extreme form
Christianity
consists
which claims our attention.
Crise du jyrotcslantisinc, in ^vangile quoted by Henri Bois, Le Dogme Grcc,
et
of
This
Libert^,
\\ 1'2.
of
facts, is
new the
not that
27th May,
The Right of Systematic Theology
vogue
which has gained such
positivism
curious religious
47
through the vicrour of the followers
of late
Albrecht Eitschl, and which occupies a sort
between the type
tional position
of
of
of transi-
thought which
declares that Christianity consists in facts, not dogmas,
and that which represents
The extremity
doctrine.
as consisting in
it
of
the circumstance that, while Christianity consists not in
effect, in
says in
one sole
That no dogmas
it
facts, it
metaphysics
Christianity consists,
:
is
another
it
at the root or enter into the
lie
Eeligion
is
one thing, he
is
tells us,
and Christianity
;
dogmas are
while
religion,
reduces
fact.
essence of Christianity, the proper Kitschlite fectly assured.
not
agrees in general that
dogmas but
these facts to a single fact
life,
this position resides in
per-
and
is
in essence
metaphysical
products.
The service which Jesus did the world was not that
He He
presented
gave
came from
it
it
with a revealed metaphysic, but that
The metaphysical element
a religion.
into historical Christianity when, in
primitive
its
simplicity,
it
came
centre
and
from
into contact with
the Greek mind, which at once
its
advance
primitive
its
and bondage upon
seized
it
to
and,
according to the inherent Greek tendency, philosophised it,
and thus wrought out what we
Christian dogmas.
call the
fundamental
These, therefore, so far from being
essential to Christianity, are corruptions of Christianity.
And must
if
we would have
strip
dogma,"
or,
off
from
to
speak
Christianity in
it
its
purity,
every remnant of
more broadly, every
we
"
Greek
"
meta-
The Right of Systematic Theology
48
physical " element which has
ages attached itself to
it.
the course
in
More,
m
Christianity from entire destruction criticism
from
it
of
modern
these
the searching
we must
times,
those metaphysical accretions by
and consequent confusion with which
modern thought.
the light of
from
all
connection
it
is
But
it
in
purity as a
its
be
cannot live
let it
such entangling alliances, we are
stand forth
brought
If it is to
entangled with an outworn metaphysics, in
separate
its
modern knowledge.
into conflict with
the
of
we would save
if
be freed told,
and
simple religion, and
philosophy and science will find that, as Satan found
with Christ, they desired
be
to
between the seen,
is
"
have nothing in
obtained
The
it."
sharp
effect
distinction
and the metaphysical,
religious
it
will be
the security of Christianity in the forum of
The whole realm
the world's thought. physical
by
tliis
is
at once
abandoned
of the
meta-
to the world, while that
of the purely religious alone is retained for Christianity
and the two spheres are represented practically mutually exclusive.
;
as
Keligion cannot properly intrude
into the region of metaphysics, and metaphysics cannot
invade the region of pure religion. be safe from attack on this
will
Thus Christianity side.
But
it is
not
only on the side of metaphysics that Christianity attacked in these days. of
liistory.
It
is
not only her
assaulted, but also her
her
"
we
to
dogmas
" to
defend at
all
It is attacked also
" facts."
"
dogmas
is
on the side "
When we
that are yield
up
the mercy of the metaphysician, are
hazards her
" facts "?
Is Christianity
The Right of Systematic Theology to
be represented as standing or falling with them
No, says
need "
49
of
doo-mas "
" facts "
so-called
its
worst, let
than
of
its
one fact alone will sufhce for
;
evaporate into the mist of
it
so-called
the one
it,
myth every
men have been accustomed
on which
found
to
Christianity, Christianity will remain untouched
constituted by this one fact only
Such, then,
truth and power in It is
it
it is
in, at least, its
of
obvious on the face of the
is
much
:
Christ.
That there are elements
most characteristic form.
statement.
— Jesus
the Eitschlite position,
is
?
no more
Let historical criticism do its
great fact of Christ.
fact
Christianity has
Eitschlite.
the
to protest against the identifi-
cation of Christianity with the changing metaphysics of
the schools
and
;
undeniable that Christianity
it is
has often been confounded by the Hegelian with his
Hegelianism, by
by the Platonist with
telianism,
with
Aristotelian
the
his
Aristo-
his
Platonism, and
has thus been subjected to unwarranted suspicion and It
distrust.
may
Christianity " facts "
is
something survive
and being worthy
is
many
of
true and
is
of
that
her
worthy
of her, is part of her being
her supports and stays, yet she does not
and one
of
draw
her sap from this one root.
all
realise
to
the loss
that though her history
;
of her,
also
Above
all, it is
a
great thing to have our eyes focused on Jesus Christ as
the great, the
about
whom
all
constitutive else
receives its significance,
have
all.
Through
its
fact
gathers, from
whom
to
of
have
insistence on
Christianity,
whom is
all
else
indeed to
such points as
The Right of Systematic Theology
50
wrought a good work
these, Ritschlism has often
theological circles of
good degree.
Germany, and earned
But, unfortunately, the theory
put forward goes in
beyond insistence on such points as It is
that
has
it
implications fatally
logical
its
in the
for itself a
these.
hard to take seriously the sharp discrimination proposed between religious and metaphysical
is
knowledge
;
and
it is
hard
to take
patiently the com-
placent abandonment of the whole body of Christian doctrine
which
distinction. "
proposed on
is
One
tempted
is
to
the
basis
look upon
this
of
as
all
it
playing to the galleries," as merely a clumsy flattery
offered to the tendencies of
an age essentially
positivist.
In an era when even our psychologists seek to steer clear of metaphysics,
it is
possibly not to be wondered
which
at that a theology also should be attempted
be free from tainly
it
"
metaphysical
"
question those
who
M. Fouillee warns us that
reject "
"
metaphysics
quickly discover that they reject
it
It is so in the present case also.
if
is
we
shall very
name
of a
their own.^
is
The whole Eitschlite
the outgrowth of metaphysical theories drawn
from Kant through the mediation
of Lotze.
basis of these metaphysical theories, ^
we
in the
metaphysical system, which naturally
is
cer-
can not be wondered at that the failure
even more complete.
system
shall
And
conceptions.
" Interrogez ceux qui rejettent
naitrez bien vite qu'ils la rejettent au
qui est naturellement
le
leur"
la
(Alf.
Fouillee, ;
On
the
are asked to
nieta})hysique
nom d'un
phyfiique fondee sur Vcxpericiice, p. 275 Grec, p. 51, note).
we
;
vous recon-
syst<^me metaphysique,
UAvenir
de la meta-
quoted by H. Bois, Le
Dogme
The Right of Systematic Theology
5
eviscerate Christianity of its whole doctrinal content
Nor do mixed with metaphysical elements " whole content doctrinal " of the w^e, in For what truth Christianity, overstate the matter.
as being
!
saying
God and
concerning
the soul can come to expression
without involving metaphysical conceptions
however primary, contains a meta-
truth,
religious
M. Bois
physical element. limits of fact
when
"Those who thus For
if it is
no
metaphysical.
within the
repel metaphysics do not understand themselves.
less certain
If
therefore
is
he says^ that
certain that all that
religious, it is
Every
?
metaphysical
is
that all that
you wish
is
not on that account is on that account
is
religious
be rid of metaphysics at any
to
Whoever
abstain from speaking of God.
cost,
'I believe in God,'
says,
deals with metaphysics."
must be admitted, however, that the Eitschlites, having placed their brand upon metaphysics in religion, It
do make the boldest possible skirts of it
And
altogether.
effort
to
cleanse their
herein, for us, lies their
For at the bidding of this theory, some have not hesitated to discard the most elementary
severest reproach.
M. Bois says
truths of religion.
that
we cannot even
say, " I believe in
God," without a tinge of metaphysics.
We
it.
fully believe
also,
and actually
raises
validly even say so
What it
is
That even
do we, after asked.
He
is
this.
And
^
is
?
infinite?
No.
only know Lc Dogme
That he that
he
Grec, pp. 51, 52.
know
it
may
God
as this, " I believe in
!
of
God,
Certainly
not.
as Christian men,
all,
That he
We
the question whether we
much
a person
the EitschUte perceives
exists is,
as
?
Not
Eitschl
The Right of Systematic Theology
52
himself
once put
postulate "
for
it,
a " Hlilfsvorstellung "
the validating
God, in other words
"
—
of
Dr.
as
—
a useful
our practical
Denney
-
encls.^
brings out
Eitschl's idea *'God, in other words, is a necessary assumption of the Christian's but, scientifically, view of man's chief end in its bearing on the interpretation of nature and history, for exami)le, it may be left an open question whether there be a God or not."
—
;
^
—
Prof. Otto Ritschl thinks that his father's former
employment of
the term HiiJfsvorstellunfj in this connection ought not to be remem-
bered against him.
But with the
and Ritschlism a
we do not see God still remains for Ritschl The case is the same, of course,
excision of the term
that the conception has been changed. heuristic postulate.
with the Deity of Christ and its implications, as, for example, His pre-existence, which Ritschl similarly spoke of as a Hulfdinie for the comparing it thus Avith the imaginary lines traditional conception, assumed in geometrical reasonings, which have no reality, and are "VVe note Prof. Otto Ritschl's welcome declaraintended to have none. tion that it might as well be asserted of his father that he denied the existence of God and taught atheism, as that he did not intend to teach and we rejoice in this testimony to the Deity of Christ as a reality Ritschl's personal faith in two matters which do indeed stand for him
—
;
similar
in
relations.
We
too,
rejoice,
make
Ritschlites have been led to
in
the concessions which
in the matter of the proper Deity
But we are of Christ (see them exhibited in Orr, as cited, p. 448 sq.). not here concerned with Ritschl's personal convictions, nor with the indications in his followers of a not unnatural recoil from the full rigour of liis teaching, but with the logical implications of that teachins
itself.
And
tliere is after all a
considerable difference between
working hypothesis and the dX-qdivbs debs of the New Testament. For one thing, those to whom God is a working hypothesis are apt to conceive of Him as their creature who cannot be permitted to wander from the place and function He was called into being to fill and serve. The extremity of this feeling Avas startlingly exhibited by Heine, who, when asked in his anguish whether he had hope of forgiveThe distance that is what God is for." ness, repli.'d, " Oh, certainly between this attitude and the Christian conception of God is measured by the contrast between looking upon God as existing for us and
God
as a
:
realising that ^
we
exist only for
Studies in Theology, p. 8
;
Him. cf.
Orr, Christian View, etc., p, 45.
The Right of Systematic Theology In
similar
Herrmann
spirit,
teaches
that
53 "
for
maintaining of the impulse of religious faith,"
" it
the
does
not matter whether our conception of the world theistic, pantheistic, or
we may come
materialistic."
when we
to
element in religion, and
God
of
what
is
religious knowledge.
brought
truth
we need know
insist that all
in
residuum
the
in
It is the old
back,
is
what
is
refuse every metaphysical
involved
is
This
^
extreme
the
of
idea of regulative
includes the implication that what true for the needs of our practical
is
form
which
postulated as
life
may
in
the
sphere of theoretical knowledge be at the same time recognised as
And
false.
mode
this
Christianity
is
domain
said, into the
a characteristic
with
with the foundations of
of dealing
carried by this school, also, as of " facts."
we have
Denney quotes ^ example from Harnack when dealing
the miracles
"
Jesus.
of
Dr.
The
historian,"
says
Harnack,* "is not in a position to reckon with a miracle as a certainly given for in doing so he destroys that very method of looking at things on which all historical investigation rests. Ever}' historical event
;
See Orr, Christian View of God and the World, pp. 46 sq. Cf. Orr, as above, p. 29: "Under the plea of expelling metaphysics from theology, the tendency is at present to revive this distinction in a form which practically amounts to the resuscitation of ^
-
the old doctrine of a
—
double truth the one religious, the other not held necessary that even where the two overlap they should always be found in agreement." philosophical
;
and
'
'
it is
^
Studies in Theology,
^
Docjmengeschichte, Ed.
p. 12. 1,
i.
50, note 4
;
cf.
E. T.
i.,
p. 65,
where, however, the concluding words are quite different: conclusion itself belongs to the province of religious faith
:
note
3,
"This though
The Right of Systematic Theology
54
single miracle remains, historically, entirely dubious
tion of the dubious can ever
amount
to a certainty.
and no summa-
;
If,
in spite of this,
the historian convinces himself that Jesus Christ has done what is extraordinary, and even in the strict sense miraculous, he argues from
an ethico-religious impression which he has received of this person, to a supernatural power belonging to Him. This inference belongs itself We may conceive, however, a strong to tiie domain of religious faith. religious faith in the teleological reign of the divine and the good in the world, which does not need such an inference."
That
is
to
say, as
belongs
to
the
Denney
Dr.
domain
of
points out, " since
religious faith,
belong to the domain of assured fact," and to
it
it
it
cannot is
only
those of little faith that the supernatural power
and miracles
From
of Jesus are
passages like this
real import of the historical Jesus
not matters of indifference.
we may begin
to
learn the
constant Eitschlite appeal to the
— that
fervent and devout appeal to
the very central fact of Christianity which gives their writings such attractiveness to us
By
the
emphasis
which
all.
they
place
" historical Christ," who, according to them,
upon is
the
the one
great constitutive fact of Christianity, the Eitschlites
intend
first
of all
exalted
Christ
promise,
is
of
to
— the
exclude from consideration the Christ who,
according
to
His
with His followers always, even to the end
the world, the living source of
and the fountain
of all their
life.
all
For
their strength this
there has seldom been a strong faith that would not have
school of drawn
it."
(which alone is accessible to us as we write) runs " Dieser Schluss gehort selbst dem Gebiet des religioseu Glaubens an. Es liisst sich aber ein starker religioser Glaube an die Herrschaft und Zwecksetzung des Gottlichen und Guten in der Welt denken, welcher
The German
of Ed.
1
eines solrhen Schlusscs nicht bedarf."
The Right of Systematic Theology thought, which piques
itself
greater antipathy to what religion than to
indeed
what
"
positivism, has no
its
calls "
it calls "
introducing
be
on it
55
metaphysics
mysticism."
metaphysical
" in
would
It
elements
"
to
conceive of Jesus, dead for two thousand years, yet
God and
ruling the world from the throne of
No
instilling
by some magical process into the hearts
life !
of
men.
we can know nothing but the who lived and died in Galilee, and by His " historical Christ,"
the Christ life of
pure faith has
He, at
the world.
an indelible impression upon
left
least, is a fact
magnitude that face
face
to
and a
;
fact of such
Him we
with
cannot
escape the conviction which was the spring of His
and which, from the
spectacle of His
cated to us, that there
we
are not merely the
is
"
God who
a
life
communi-
life, is
loves us, and that
step-children of time."
Yet we must guard ourselves from supposing that this
Christ
historical
pointed
the
is
Christ
to
which we have thus been
of
the
historical
which have preserved the memory deeds to
on the
us.
documents
His
of
life
and
For, by the emphasis which they place
" historical
Christ," the Eitschlites intend, in
the next place, to exclude
all " unhistorical "
from the picture they would bring before
elements
us.
It is
not the Christ of legend to which they would direct our eyes, but the Christ of sober history willing to relegate to the
domain
:
and they are
of legend all that
the most exigent criticism would ask of them.
not the Christ
welcomed
by
It is
who was born of a virgin, who was who wrought wonders, who,
angels,
of Systematic Theology
TJic RigJit
56
having died for our
again from the dead and
sins, rose
ascended in bodily form into heaven Christ who, according to them,
critical history
He a
lived
and died and This
life of faith.
tianity
whom we
of
:
It
We
consists.
is
the Christ
can say but this
Him
behind
left
is
not this
is
it
the one great con-
is
Christianity.
of
fact
stitutive
—
—
of
that
the aroma of
the one fact of which Chris-
cannot
ourselves
rid
of
the
impression which this historical figure makes upon us, of the lesson of faith
which His
life
teaches us
:
in it&
and see
we can walk our allotted pathway in life God in the events that befall us, and so live, like Jesus, in communion with the God light
the hand of Jesus'
of providence
we
the religion of Jesus
:
are Christians.
what He did
—
all
is
thus ours, and
AVho Jesus was, what He was, His life of this is indifferent to us :
love in the world has begotten religion in our souls
and
this is
enough.
It is to
Christ "
point of view would reduce the
" historical
the one fact that constitutes
Christianity.
we
find
it
hard
abandonment
of
on the plea that
to
take
it is
sum
of
And
if
complacent
patiently their
the whole
;
that the Ritschlite
this
Christian doctrine
metaphysical, shall
we not
find it
impossible to take patiently their equally complacent abandonment of the whole series of Christian facts, on the ground that
it is
unhistorical
The inconsistency of the has often been commented metaphysical character of
bias,
thoy
Christianity:
?
,.
Ritschlite procedure here on. insist
First, in
on
Christianity
their anti-
the
historical
is
not meta-
The Right of Systematic Theology physics but fact
:
it is
to the historical Christ,
57 and not
we
to the Christ of theological construction, that
go
to
—
Christ
the
Nicene Greeks or
Galilee, not the Christ of the
And
scholastics. is
are
actually lived and died in
that
of the
then this historical Christ Himself
calmly handed over to the tender mercies of un-
believing critics,
what they
Him
with permission to do with
more
It is
list.
our present purpose,
to
however, to note the effect of this double dealing, in the evaporation of the whole essence of Christianity.
We
a Christianity which
all desire
unbelieving
is
world,
secure from the
whether
those
assaults
of
the
assaults
are
made in the name of philosophy and But the name of history and criticism.
science, or in
this security is
in a
to be sought
and can be found only
and doctrines are
Christianity whose facts
so
intrenched against the inevitable assault that, whatever
What
else falls, they shall stand. it
fatuity it
rather by yielding to the assault all
it
is
to seek
chooses to
demand, and contracting Christianity into dimensions too narrow to call out the world's antipathy and too
weak
may no
longer be worth the world's notice, and
by that same token preservation. point,
Such an eviscerated Chris-
to invite its attack.
tianity
and
is
It
is
no longer worth the Christian's
has
been reduced
ready to
pass
away.
to It
vanishing
a is
entirely
fatuous to suppose that the spheres of religion and
thought, of religion and history, can be kept apart
what
is
what
is
true in metaphysics trve in religion
is
is
:
true in religion, and
true in
lii
story, or, in
one
The Right of Systematic Theology
58
we
word,
shall profess ourselves willing to
We may acquiesce in
false religion.
confess a
the implications of
Let
the persistent activity of our religious sentiment.
metaphysics decide the problems of being as criticism decide the problems of history as
animal.
a religious
is
But
it
may,
let
may, man
it
say that the special
to
form and direction which have been given
the
to
action of this religious sentiment by a specific body of
convictions and a specific body of facts are independent of philosophical
and
historical determinations, passes
beyond the apparent absurdity actually absurd.
paradox into the
It sounds very well
to ask, as
declare that the full
and complete
satisfaction of the needs of
the conscience and the aspirations of the heart
is
involved in the
solution of a problem of historical criticism of ichatcver importance this not to cast souls into trouble
and
it is
them
to expose
that crown which they are exhorted to hold fast
But
"
—
is
to the loss of
" ?
surely one thing for the soul to be sure with
an immovable surety that the conceptions the
M.
^
Lobstein asks
"To
of
dogmas
"
—and
and are implicated criticism whatever
:
—
the facts that underlie in
it
that
its
is,
faith
cannot be shaken by any
and quite another thing
for
one to
imagine that he can lightly surrender them at the
demand
any criticism you
of
faith undiminished.
his eye
will
and yet retain
his
Accordingly, M. Bois justly fixes
on the extremity
of
M.
Lobstein's language
that faith cannot depend on the solution of a problem of
historical
may
be
—
^
criticism, no
matter what
Quoted by H. Bois, Le Do(//ne Girc,
its
p. 54,
{wportance
The Right of Systematic Theology "Will " for
it
59
be iiulifferent, then, to the Christian faith," he demands,^ we do not possess a single authentic
it
to be demonstrated that
Paul's that the Fourth Gospel is the work of a forger, and that the Synoptics arc only a tissue of legends and traditions without the least historical value ? Will it, then, be indifferent to the Christian faith for it to be proved to us, for example, that Jesus Christ did writinj,' of
not rise from the dead or even that He never existed ? We should very mucli like to know what will remain to Christianity when there have been excluded from it the ideas (since metaphysics must be excluded) and the facts (since we must be independent of historical
Note that thus the eliminated from Christianity, and
of Christ is completely reduced to vague, obscure,
person
criticism).
it
is
—
On the other to sentiment in its pure estate. do we not know that the school of Ritschl does not wish to hear the mystical union spoken of, that is to say, internal, personal and What then is left livincr relations between the soul and its Saviour 1 Nothing at all— except, perhaps, the maxim of of Christianity? Bene dicere de priore, facere officium suum certain mediaeval monks
doubtful sentiment side,
:
taliter qualiter, sinere
mundum ire quomodo
vadit.
In
all
ways, the
reaction against intellectualism, pushed to the complete i)roscription of doctrine, of metaphysics, brings us to nihilism in the matter of religion,"
Thus we see reduces it
itself
must go
extremes
that
Eitschlian
the
in order to save its principle.
it
tendency also
absurdity in the extremes to which
to
must go or
For
to these
admit a metaphysical, a
else
truly dogmatic element at the very heart of Christianity.
Kecoil from them ever so slightly, and the centre of
the debate
is
at once shifted
:
we no
longer are dis-
"
dogma " enters into the essence of Christianity, but what " dogmas " may be rightly recog-
cussing whether
nised as holding
constitutes Christianity
can be asked
What
for,
Jesus Christ alone
that position.
for
Jesus Christ 1
?
;
in
Him
is
included
the perfect religion.
The
all
Jesus of the Gospels
Lc Dogme Grec,
p. 54.
that
So be ?
it.
Or
The Right of Systematic Theology
6o
the Jesus of
Gospel
The Logos Jesus of John's The heavenly Jesus of the Apocalypse ? Or
?
Strauss?
the purely earthly Jesus of Plieiderer and
Or even perchance
the
Pierson and Naber and
our intelligence to
how
Christianity
tell
?
entirely imaginary Jesus of
Loman
us that
it
It is
?
makes no
an insult to ditierence to
But the
these queries be answered.
beginnings of an answer to them introduce the
first
From which
dogmatic element. that
cannot
Christianity
which
it
puts
exist
the business of
is
investigate
"
Eenan
and
state.
follows at once
it
without
the
dogma
Systematic Theology to
As M. Henri
Bois
^
eloquently
it
Still we must enter In order that two moral subjects should communicate with one another there must needs be manifesta-
Cliristianity
is
the person of Jesus Christ.
into relations with this person.
tions between them.
A
and
;
his acts
his
words
person manifests himself clearly to us only by
and he has value
ourselves a certain idea of him.
only as we form for
for us
Christianity
therefore essentially,
is
above all, a person but on pain of reducing it to a magic, which would no longer possess any ethical and, consequently, no longer possess any religious quality, we must needs grant that Christianity, ;
precisely because
it is
cssentinlly a person, is also a
body of facts and
of ideas.
"For the contem])oraries of Jesus Christ, who could see and hear Him, the teaching that fell from His lips, and the deeds performed by Him, constituted this necessary middle term between Jesus Christ and them. For us, with no wish certainly to deny the personal, present, and living relations of Jesus Christ with the soul of the redeemed, Ave cannot, without opening the door to the most dangerous mysticism, reduce Christianity to these relations, in derogation of the acts and revelations of the historical Christ, which we have neither seen nor lieard, but which have been transmitted to us by tradition, by the liible tliis would l)e equivalent to cutting down the tree at its roots, ;
under pretext of being thus better able to gather ^
Le Dogmc
Grcc,
]>.
its fruit."
107.
The Right of Systematic Theology On
6
down Christianity at its we shall thus be better we must admit a doctrinal
pain, then, of cutting
roots, under the pretext that
able to gather
its
element at
very
merely
of
"
its
Jesus
fruits,
basis.
Christianity consists not
Christ,"
but of that Jesus Christ
which the apostles give us of the apostolical
may
"
choose to fancy in
ours.i
Are there
—
in a word, of the
Jesus
dogma," and not of any Jesus we
"
this
nineteenth century of
metaphysical
"
elements in this
Then metaphysical elements enter apostolical dogma ? Are there traces into the very essence of Christianity. Greek thought perhaps in these apostolical interpreOf what importance is tations of the Christian facts ?
of
that to us
?
M. Bois says truly
"Whether there be in these interpretations Greek elements or not, a very secondary (question, and one wholly without the importance that it is sought to give it. There is no good reason known to us for rejecting a teaching of St. Paul's or of St. .John's, under the pretext
is
that
it
The
has a Hellenic colour."
apostolic interpretation
is
an inseparable element
in the fundamental fact-basis of Christianity
;
and
it
cannot be rejected because a part of the providentially
formed peculiarity distasteful to us.^ 1
"
I
of the apostolic
Call
it
mode
of
thought
metaphysical, call
it
is
Greek,
determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and
Him as crucified"
said the apostle, defining a special doctrine of Jesus
as the essence of Christianity. - Dr. E. L. Hicks' suggestive paper on "St. Paul and Hellenism," which opens the fourth volume of the Oxford Studio, Bihlica et Eccle"Greek thought," siasHca, will well repay consulting on this matter. he says, "had provided for St. Paul a vocabulary, and a set of ideas
—
as well as phrases, wherein to express his doctrine a doctrine in nowise borrowed from Hellenic thought, but which could hardly be made in-
The Right of Systematic Theology
62 if
you
But remember that
will.
the essence
of
it is
of Cliristianity.
By no means, Christianity
man
is
a
whom
in
itself is
text-book of
life,
this
the
in
the answer comes back to us at once
not a doctrine
life
implanted
is
instance a
first
is
a Christian
and the Bible
;
means
of grace, not
anti-doctrinal posi-
all
which proposes a Christianity wliich
independent
of
it
now and
probably clear by this time that, Christianity
to
is
under this banner.
It is
it
mode
an anti-doctrinal position.
of thinking, the sole
Bible
we
is
quicken
to
divert
it
from
as anything else
life,
its
all,
must be
it
immediate purpose
not to satisfy curiosity, and
proper use when
is
at an end
we go
to
it
— than
the im-
able to save our souls.
When
has performed this function is
its
of the
than the living and abiding word
planted word which
ment
seeks
it
According to
through which we are begotten again
it
it is
indeed that every
other tendency of thought inevitably drifts, as to defend
have
and
;
the onset on doc-
if
succeed at
towards
again
be
shall
We
both facts and doctrines.
already had a glimpse of
trinal
a
Thus we are brought back
theology.
once more to that extremest of tions
he
;
;
its
its
dogmas and
immediate employits facts
may
alike
minds of his time, or to our own minds to-day, unless had prepared the human mind for such grand and far-
telligible to the
(Ireek tliought
"The influence of 6 7dp (pt.\6cro(pos (twotttikSs tls." Hellenism began, in fact, with the first preaching of the gospel and That influSt. Paul is the foremost representative of the process. ence was of course indirect and unconscious, and did not involve any deliberate adoption of Hellenic practices, but it had been a leaven
reaching ideas:
;
working
in the
Church from the
first.
The Right of Systematic Theology when we
be passed by in indifference
—
6 v)
possess the life
being once formed in us,
that Christ-life which,
And
surely renders us superior to all extraneous aid. for the inception of
this
life
we cannot be dependent
on any book or on any dogmas or
facts whatever, laid
hold of by the intellect and embraced in knowledge. Its source can only be the
and loving God Himself grant
to
Fountain of Life
and He
;
only to shining intellectual
it
— our
living
cannot be supposed or to
gifts,
exceptional intellectual opportunities, or to the knowledge which
is
standing
no bar
is
Him, and poverty
His grace
to
;
—
knowledge rather puffeth up Christianity
sight.
consist in or to rest is
a
and
life,
is
for this
the
leading
extended
its
say for its
precious in His it is
or
thought to
dogmas
;
it
God,
solely on
all life.^
has
commended
minds
our
of
itself
time,
to a multitude
and which has
influence so far beyond the circle of its
have coloured
minds
if
facts
we depend
life
own proper adherents to
is
go without saying that a manner of thinking
like this, w^hich of
—
ill-conceived
upon either
the ever-living Source of It will
under-
seldom conjoined with great knowledge
which
for
of
while that poverty of
spirit
is
The poorest
the fruit of these things.
as the richest before
is
all
itself.
that
modern
We
characteristic
it
may
be truly said to
religious thought, has
much
need only turn over in our
modes
of expression
to
find
enshrined in them the deepest truths of Christianity. ^
Cf. Dr. Orr's discussion of this
View,
etc., ])p.
18
sq.
mode
of statement in
liis
Christian
The Right of Systematic Theology
64 It is
true that Christianity
hid with Christ in God, the
be said that
it is
God, the
of
must
it
but Christ that
it,
series of Christian facts, the
whole body of Christian doctrines, do exist only order to
this
Christ
life.
many
natural
marvellous facts into history
He might
His action
of
constitution
it
;
that they might have it
more abundantlv.
has been revealed to
make them
sophy, to to
them
knowledge on
the
of
was
to save
life,
and
life, it is
We
And no sing^le men merely as wise
;
eacli
salvation.
they might have
a tenet in philo-
and every one
by the power
life,
all
tliat
our souls are amenable to
Christian
life
that
we
Son
to give
God, by
of
Him
and
;
becomes
of the
to
it
God
open to the truth, or its
This
discipline.
live is not the creation of the
doctrines or of the facts of Christianity
working
be
Christian
only because of the indwelling of the Spirit of
in our hearts that our ears are
sent
may
they all
knowledge
of the
is
and terminates
virtue of a vital relation of our souls to is
the
facts,
Christian doctrine
Yet though
not in the power of
live
of
the souls of men,
tliat
thus only in order to
is
insert
course
dull
as a piece of glad tidings, that
made wise unto
life.
the
the historical sequence, was not the
beautifying of
end
the
:
in
not come into the
did
world, die, and rise again, merely that so
is
that
life
which
life of
not we that live
The whole
lives it in us.
the hfe that
life,
communion with the Son
lived in is
a
is
;
it
is
tlie
Spirit of God, who, abiding within us,
us a second and higher
self.
These are
the fundamental elements of the gospel of Christ
;
and
The Right of Systematic Theology we count
it
65
most luippy thing that they are em-
a
we have now Above all, we rejoice
phasised as the school of thought which
under view emphasises them.
that in the face of a positivist and materialistic age
there have arisen
in
men who
divine
reality of the
boldly proclaim the
so
the actual presence of
life,
men, and the prevalent work
To the
heart.
as
it is
if
Christian
community
as
if
extremer
Spirit
the general influence that
i.e.,
that
all
;
—
takes
—
bare
a
allowed
is
by a bare
ethicism, supported
Providence
belief
now
the teaching
ticism once
But the very
of thoudit,
and
to
it is
those
able
to
special
of the service it
may
do justice to
Christianity, or even
institutes
wholly in
life,
declares
and not
that
at all
between
Christianity in
it
preoccupation with
the sharp separation which it
the
in this
Christianity which
elements of
it
of
be unable to allow
still
its
doctrine,
the
has rendered in
thus has taken up, when, in
and
core
in the world.
truth which are embraced
emphasising them, we
is
;
recognition, however,
heartiest
precious elements of
a simply
God and we are making Christian mys-
for
it
more a power
With the
is
engaging our attention
profoundly grateful to
that
place
belief in a loving
great conception of the indwelling
mode
its
which cannot reach the
height of theoretical knowledge. of
sort, at least,
the spirit of the
;
there were no divine power within us work-
ing for righteousness
human
Holy
Christians as a body
exhales from it is
Eitschlite, of the
there were no
God
the Spirit in the
of
doctrine.
life
consists It
may
The Right of Systematic Theology
66
possibly conduce to a clearer understanding of
the real implications of this contention are, select
some
learn
it
him
Fortunately this
ideas.
will
thought
forms, and seek through
fundamental
its
we
if
fair representative of the school of
whose watchword
what
to
has
been rendered especially easy by the recent publica-
on the part
tion,
of the learned Professor of lieformed
Theology at Paris, Professor Auguste Sabatier, of certain
documents apparently designed precisely
as a manifesto of his school.^
In the discussion which
among French
necessarily arose
to serve
around
Protestants
such utterances, the chief burden in behalf of the essential doctrines of
by the
venerable
whose expositions
and more
Christianity was borne at
Professor of
Scripture
by the
latterly
Godet,^
we have
brilliant
whom we
Montauban, from
Frederic
all
first
from
profited,
young professor
of
have already quite largely
quoted in this paper, Professor Henri Bois.^
During the
course of the controversy the postulates and implications of the
mode
of conceiving Christianity
advocated
by Professor Sabatier have naturally been brought under a very searching hibiting ^
in
the
light,
clearest
way
Especially his Lci Vic Intimc des
tion,
and
with the result of exinability
Dogmcs et Icur Puissance
d' Evolu-
his Essai d'une Theorie Critiqtw dc la Connaissance Religieuse.
-
Pa})ers in the Chretien Evangelique lor 1891
^
Especially in his Le
gieuse.
utter
their
In the latter
and 1892.
Dogme Grec and his De la Connaissance Reliwork, pp. 5 sq., M. Bois gives an exact account
of the primary literature in the controversy.
An
interesting narra-
was given by the late Professor Grctillat in the Presbyterian and Reformed Review for July 1892 and July 1893. tive of the early stages of the controversy
The Right of Systematic Theology do justice
to
67
or even to preserve the essence
to,
of,
Christianity.
At
the bottom of
ing there proves to
all
lie
M.
Sabatier's relifdous think-
a crass philosophical empiricism,
be more precise, the empiricism of Mr. Herbert
or, to
Out
Spencer.
of
empiricism there springs im-
this
mediately the fundamental principle of his theory of
knowledge, which
is
none other than the ordinary
postulate of the sensational school
—now
being anew
pressed upon our acceptance by certain of our physiological psychologists
the
is
M.
source
of
^
—
that sensation
knowledge.
all
Sabatier's contention
is
in time as well as in value
lies
In
its
rarely that
it,
:
happens
this
come only
ideas
On
^
first
after-
or, if
so imperfectly
we need not take account
role of ideas "
strictness,
that " feeling conies
wards, and ideas cannot produce feeling,
can produce
behind, and
they
and
so
the
of this in
the other hand, sensation does
produce ideas, and
all
and are the product
of sensation
our ideas rest ultimately on :
"
our ideas are only
the algebraic notation of our impressions and of our
When
movements."
^
of
this
religion,
carried
philosophical
over into the sphere
theory
of
knowledge
becomes M. Sabatier's fundamental theological postu-
^
' '
The tendency
origin of intellect
Sensation
is
of physiological psychology
H.
2
E.
p. 299.
to
make
the feeling that points towards the intellect.
the feeling that points towards the will." 2
is
W.
.
Desire
.
.
is
T, Harris.
De
la Connaissance Eeligieuse, p. 34. Goimelle, in the Montauban Revue de Theologie,
Bois,
feeling the
on the one hand, and of will on the other.
May
1895,
The Right of Systematic Theology
68
As sensation
late.
Christian
life
mother
the
is
mother
the
is
Christian
and doctrine
:
doctrine.
only a product of the
is
It follows, of course, at once that
life.
the
not merely in importance,
Life, then, is before doctrine,
but in time
Christian
of
so
of ideas,
God
does not reveal Himself except througli and by means of the Christian life
thing as
"
an
:
there
objective
is
and cannot be any such
Himself only in and by piety," and
A
produces dogmas."
man
in
action
;
:
Christian
that Christian
and one
"
revelation."
of
life is first
reveals
faith that
quickened
effloresces into Christian
life
form
God
it " is
being intellectual
action
action. Christian action ultimates
among
other things
As M.
Christian thought, knowledge, doctrine.
in
Dandiran puts "
We
there
clearly
need a dogmatic
;
there
a Christian pliih^sophy
is
sophies. the
it
end
;
^
is
;
a Christian verity in Christianity
it is
the most extensive of
Only, instead of placing it at the beginning, 1 i^lace it at making it precede the Christian life, we make it
instead of
This
the difference l)etween us
proceed from the Christian
life.
and our opponents, but it two opposed theologies."
great enough to
All
is
is
make
us say, Here are
Christian doctrine being thus but
festation of precedent Christian
life,
the mani-
doctrine will, of
course, vary as the Christian life varies.
M.
;
all philo-
And
here
Sabatier brings in and operates with the concep-
tion of evolution
— the evolution
of religion,
and with
the evolution of religious thought, and finally of
it
Christian dogmas. 1
In t,vangiU
Dogme
et
Grec, p. 28.
In the course of
Libcrte, Sept. 4, 1891
;
human
develop-
quoted by H. Bois in Lc
The Right of Systematic Theology which
ment,
normally,
proceeded
has
man
always
has disengaged himself
69
naturally
and
by
little
little
from animalism and gradually created himself man. In the course of this upward growth he has slowly attained the free
life of
the spirit
:
his first religious
stage was that of egoism, corresponding to the religions of
nature;
then came the stage of moralism
the stage of
lastly,
"
;
and
the consciousness of Christ, in
which a new relation springs up between God and Thus as the religion of ^man, the relation of love." law succeeded the nature
religions, the religion of love
But the stream
has succeeded the religion of law. still
flows
flows on on,
;
and as the stream
inevitably
of spiritual life still
stream
the
dependent on the spiritual
of
religious
also flows on,
life
doctrines vary, age by age, in spite of ourselves.
children
may
speak the words
of the fathers,
cannot mean them in the same sense. the underlying spiritual lectual concepts
life,
The
and the river
ideas
and our
The
but they river of of intel-
and doctrinal ideas dependent on the
fluctuations of the spiritual
life,
inevitably flow on for
ever.
This
is,
then,
what M. Sabatier means when he
says that Christianity it is
quite clear that,
is
a
life,
not a doctrine.
when taken
And
in its entirety, the
theory amounts to the formal renunciation of ChristiTanity as anything else than one stage in the religious
(development of humanity, having, like of religious
development, in
and
and
its
hfe
its
all
other stages
relative fitness
I
value,
in its
teachings
its
relative
truth
The Right of Systematic Theology
JO
relative to the times
and the men
and which have given
birth
it
which
to
belono-s
it
but possessing as
;
little
absoluteness of value or truth as any stage of religious
development wliich has preceded tells us, is "
he
which dominates the manifestations that
life itself "
wish to
to
"
Eeligion,
it.
too,
subject to the law of transformation
and
;
it is
life
and
therefore folly for orthodoxy
what was born
the absolute
elevate to
human
of
in
time and must necessarily be subject to modification it is
if
to live in time "
of a river
:
^
we cannot
by building a dam across
Sabatier's conception everything
is
bar the course
Thus, in M.
it.
and the
in a liux;
doctrines which Christianity proclaims, and even the
form
of life
which underlies them and
which they
of
moment
are the expression, are only one evanescent
As M. Godet
the ceaseless advance of mankind.
in
has eloquently put "This
religion
porary form of
is,
it,
from
like all those that
human development
have preceded
— 'one
^
view
this point of
of the
it,
only a tem-
day's works of
—
humanity,' as Lerminier said a simple product of consciousness and reason on the road of indefinite progress, a form of the religious life of which it cannot be affirmed any more confidently than it may of all predecessors, that
its
it
is
the
last.
representative of this point of view '
One who was
— M.
Scherer
in
some
— expressed
Christianity, the fruit of a long elaboration of the
human
sort the it
thus:
conscious-
ness, destined to pre}»are for other elaborations, represents only
of
tiie
phases of the universal transformation.'
This
is
one
to proclaim, as
sharply as possible, the })erpetual banishment of authority in matters An authority intervening in tliis continuous work would of faith.
mark
in it a point of arrest,
taneous progress which ^
^
is
and would become a
fetter
upon the spon-
looked upon as the supreme law of history.
II. Bois' Be la Connaissance lieligieuse, pp. 204, 205. Chretien A'vangcliquc, April 20, 1891, pp. 148, 149 quoted by Bois, De la Connaissance lieligiexLse, pp. 348, 349.
Citations in
;
7T.
The Right of Systematic Theology
7
view the sacred books of the Christians have no for religious thought than that which may be possessed for philosophical thought by the treatises of Aristotle or the dialogues of Plato: interesting documents, no doubt, they could have no authority."
From
this point of
otlier
kind of vahie
That M. Sabatier has admitted
to
mind such
his
implications of his theory of evohition as applied to religion,
inclusive
here
Christianity, as are
of
gested, such sentences as the following assure us
"The
sug:
transformation of religious ideas does not always take place It is more frequently insensible, but it never
in a violent fashion.
pauses, whatever precautions
be thrown up against
may
The
it.
be taken or whatever barriers
may
river of the spiritual life flows on con-
tinuously."
"The
sons pronounce the same words with the fathers, but they no
longer understand
"We
them
in the
same way."
continually speak of the inspiration of the prophets and
apostles, of expiation, of the Trinity, of the divinity of Christ, of
miracles, but
we understand them, peu
The
fathers.
river flows
last
this
It is
"You drop What .
.
oil j)rou,
comment
M. Godet's
of
this phrase as in passing
but
;
conception] the
it
rouses
to
the
^ :
much
thought.
No
doubt that of that is [according to your of intellectual concepts It flows on continually, essentiall}" variable element. on
river flows thus continually
doctrinal ideas,
otherwise than our
for ever."
remark which gave occasion
following eloquent
.
on
?
;
'
'
this doctrinal river, transforming itself, purifying itself, spiritualising itself,
from
present
its
source on the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret to
mouth on
And who
the Boulevarde Arago.
whom we
its
are these fathers
no longer in accord, we Luther and Calvin ? I comfort myself. Augustine and Athanasius, Polycarp and Ignatius ? Now I do not so easily St. John, St. Paul ? I still comfort myself. comfort myself. Jesus Christ ? This time I do not comfort myself of
whom
you speak, and with
are
their children of the nineteenth century
^
Rcvxic Chretienne, April 1892, p. 262
Connaissance Ee/igieuse,
p.
Sabatier will be found also.
;
?
quoted by H. Bois, De la above clauses from 51,
208, where the
The Right of Systematic Theology
72
at all, and I even tremble, although fear is forbidden us. What we understand the inspiration of the })rophets and apostles otherwise than He did ? Ah, well, pass on But expiation, the meaning of His own death ? He made a very close connection between His outpoured !
!
blood and the remission of our
The conception
sins.
That
to be corrected
is
whom He
The
!
His Father and of whom He said No one knows the Son except the Father neither the Father except the Son and him to whom the Son willeth to reveal Him The divinity of the Son ? The conception which, according to the narrative of His disciples. He has given us of His own person Miracles ? Those facts Avhich He considered the witnesses of the Father in His behalf, but which we know to-day to have been only the benelicent and natural ed'ects of His personality Yes, ^jc^6 oit prou, we understand all this and much else besides, of which I do not here speak otherwise than He did. And when all this Hebrew sediment has been cast away so as to save only the 'vital germ,' what we have left is 'the consciousness of the Son of God, wbich has been placed in the midst of history and in the bosom of humanity, as a power Forme, what strikes of life capable of engendering life after itself.' Trinity
?
:
of God,
called
'
;
!
'
!
!
—
—
me
'
in all this,
is
that in place of possessing, as
I
believe
do,
I
ness in the Christ of the Gospels, I see form itself before
me
a.
ful-
a void
in wliich there disappears the Jesus of the Church, the Jesus of Jesus
Himself."
It will, of course, go
makes a vigorous void
to
which
without saying, that M. Sabatier
effort
his
to
escape from this
empty
theory inevitably conducts him.
Despite the necessary implications of his conception that Christianity
is
but one of the passing phases of
the religious life of the race,
and
its
doctrines but the
evanescent expression of this passing phase, and Christ
Himself but the phase of religious
earliest life,
form
typical
M. Sabatier cannot
this
new
refrain
from
of
speaking of the religion of love, with wliich he identifies
and
Christianity, as the perfect of Christ as
religion in
and
definitive religion,
having perfectly realised this perfect
His own
life.
But
if
ever an
illogical
The Right of Systematic Theology
jt*
thinker was fairly scourged out of his inconsistencies,
M. Saba tier's incoherences of this M. Bois kind have been cured by M. Bois' lash.
we may
believe that
refuses
to
believe
that,
evolution put forth by
on the theory
M.
of
religious
any
Sabatier, there can be
necessity or place for such a one as Christians recognising Christ at
all.
he
" Is it,"
asks,^
"that evolution was not sufficient to guarantee the transformation did the Spirit of the religion of law into the religion of love ?
Why
of God, enveloping, penetrating humanity, need anything else than His own universal and continuous action to leveal to us the true way ?
What
necessity could there have been for Jesus Christ to come into You tell me that Jesus Christ was simply the first man
the world
!
evolution introduced the transformation of the religion of law into the religion of love. I reply. In that case it is evident that Jesus Christ represents the lowest degree of the religion of love in
whom
we are superior to Him by evolution has long ago passed Him nineteen centuries of evolution. You wish to say that Jesus Christ How perfectly realised the principle of love ? That is inconceivable. can we admit tiiat the highest degree of the religion of love appeared suddenly in a people still entirely immersed in the religion of law ? ;
Natura non facit saltus. If Jesus Christ actually realised love fectly, He must have been the end-terra of an anterior evolution.
perIt
would be necessary to trace this evolution— not an easy task and then it would be necessary to explain by evolution the spectacle which the nineteen centuries of Christianity present to us evolution would ;
:
demand
that you should show us a
new
principle of subjective religion
taking the place of the principle of love. But M. Sabatier does not desire this, since he declares that the religion of love is the perfect
and
definitive religion.
"The perfect and religion
definitive religion!
Have we read
!
aright
?
.
.
Then
.
a definitive, unchangeable religion
is
not after
all
subject to the law of transformation which dominates the manifestaThe contradiction tions of the human life and that life itself.' '
.
.
.
In order to justify the incomprehensible arrest which evolution underwent when it attained Christ, the ingenious critic declares It is very evident that we are morally able to conceive of
is
flagrant.
:
'
^
De
la Convaissance BcUgicusc,
]i.
203.
The Right of Systematic Theology
74
nothing above the religion of love.' A good reason, indeed We, religious men of the nineteenth century, we cannot conceive anything better that is very possible but what of our descendants of the twentieth and twenty-tirst centuries ? And then, methinks, this is strange language from the pen of our author, and shows a singular forgetfulness of his own theories. "We are morally able to conceive of nothing above the religious experiences that we are having or have had ? Ah, it is too plain. Or, does M. Sabatier renounce his theory, according to which the idea, the conception, follows on the expeiience ? We cannot conceive anything above the experience we have had because we have had only this experience. But when our we posterity have had another experience (it is not my aifair how know from other passages that religious ex})erience is a kind of inexplicable, spontaneous generation), they will without trouble conceive something superior to the religion of the men of the nineteenth century. By what right do you erect into a universal law your personal faculty of conceiving or not conceiving that empirical product of the By what right do you exercise and habitudes of your own thought ? !
—
;
—
;
affirm that our successors will not have experiences superior to ours
No
?
experience permits you such an affirmation.
". It does not seem to me that our subtle theoriser can escape from the olyection drawn from his own premises to his own point of view. If continuous transformation is the universal law, if religion itself has evolved during so many centuries, we cannot see why we do religion should suddenly become immutable and definitive not see why Jesus Christ should occupy the preponderant place which .
.
—
Him. M. Sabatier affirms that it is because and by Christ religion attained a certain point of moral perfection but how do we know that we have not advanced far And otherwise, beyond what was for him morality and religion ? If we place ourselves this does not remove the contradiction. at the point of view of M. Sabatier's theory of evolution, that theory absolutely interdicts that any symbol whatsoever, any religious word Christians attribute to
in Christ
;
.
,
.
The
whatsoever, even Jesus Christ, should preserve an eternal value. river flows on continuously
river of the word.
But
if
What
remains
M. Sabatier
self in contradiction
Christ
— the river of
the river of doctrine, the " permanent life,
?
Logically, nothing
occasionally thus involves him-
—whenever, namely, he
and Christianity
instead of according to
!
in
the
traditional
the demands
speaks of
manner,
of his theory
;
in
The Right of Systematic Theology
we may be permitted to believe, which he learned to speak of them before he had
the manner, that in
75
worked
is,
and which
his theory out,
tends to usurp other times, as
we have
occasionally
still
wonted place upon
its
his
lips
—
at
seen, he frankly follows the
implications of his theory to the legitimate result of
conceiving
really
distinctive
importance to the Christian
Christianity life.
as
no
of
comes out
This
curiously even in utterances, the fervour and breadth of
whose piety are apt
the hasty
reader.
their extremity
to veil
from
Take, for example, the following
beautiful passage from his Discourse on the Evolution
of Dogmas, where he
is
^
pleased to imagine
"ill one of our churches a great crowd come together for worship. There are, perhaps, in this auditory," he continues, "poor old women, very ignorant and possibly superstitious, men of the middle class with a tincture of literature, scholars and philosophers who have conned Kant and Hegel, possibly even professors of theology, All bow thempenetrated to the marrow with the critical spirit. all speak the same language learned in selves in spirit and adore infancy all repeat with heart and lips, I believe in God the Father Almighty I do not know if there is on earth a more touching ;
'
;
!
'
anything more like heaven. All these spirits, so different from one another and perhaps incapable of understanding each other one in the region of the intellect, really commune with one another identical religious sentiment penetrates them and animates them. The moral unity of which Jesus spoke when He said, That they may But do be one as we are one,' is for the moment realised on earth.
spectacle,
;
'
you suppose that the same image is awakened in all these spirits by The poor old this one word 'God,' pronounced by all these lips? woman, who still remembers the pictures in the big Bible, has a glimpse of the figure of the eternal Father with a great white beard and bright and burning eyes like coals of fire. Her next neighbour would smile at this simple anthropomorpliism. He has the Deistic idea, rationally established
1
in
his
philosophical course at college.
Quoted in M. Henri Bois' De la Counaissance RtUgieusc,
p. 35.
The Right of Systematic Theology
76
This notion in turn would appear rude to the disciple of Kant,
knows that
God
who
and who, to escape from contradiction, takes refuge in that of the Unknowable. For all, however, the doctrine of God subsists, and it is because it is all positive ideas of
still
living that
it
but
it
living
—
is
express a piety
A
many
lends itself to so
let it
felt in
are contradictory,
be well remarked
common by
different interpretations
— only because
;
serves to
it
these believers."
all
we
true and affecting picture,
say, of the
will all
condition of Christianity in the world to-day, gathering in of every kind in order to elevate and purify their partial or to all
wrong impressions
who and what
really
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
M.
God, and teach
of
God and Father
the
is
Only
of
this is not
Sabatier's conception of the import of the scene he
has brought so vividly before
To him
us.
it
to pass
away
learns
to
for each of the worshippers as
know
Christ.
It
is
life,
state.
flourishes
extreme differences conceptions
of
in
:
a unity which
the presence
In
religion.
a
most
the
of
even the most
in
is
the fulfilment
It is
prayer for Christian unity
and
exists
he better
a picture of what
and what most nearly
normal in the Christian approaches the heavenly of Jesus'
not a
is
away and
picture of Christian imperfections, passing
fundamental
word, M.
Sabatier
places before us here only another picturesque plea for the
extremest religious indifferentism.
fore the rebuke
which was administered
late Professor Charles Bois "
I
stood ^
^
And to it
was fully deserved
there-
by the :
avow myself," says M. Bois, "not to have thoroughly underhow M. Sabatier can go into ecstasies over the conmiunion of
Definition
p. 166,
ct
Role dc Dorjme in
quoted by H.
Ijois,
De
the licvue
la Con. Rcliy.
\).
36.
Theologiquc,
1890,
The Right of Systeviatic Theology
77
the souls which compose his assembly of superstitious devotees, deists, Hegelians, worshippers of the Unknowable all repeating the I
—
'
Father Almighty,' all prostrating themselves before Him, all united in a moral and religious communion which can be compared to the communion of the Father and the Son, and in which we can see realised Jesus' prayer, That they may be one in God,
believe
the
'
we
What
M. Sabatier have of the union of the Father and the Son ? What they are one as the Father and Son are one they are morally and religiously one, these men, one of whom believes in a God who concerns Himself about him, enters into the details of his life, knows his prayers and answers them another of whom holds such belief to be superstitious, and believes only in a •God who directs tlie universe by general laws promulgated once for as
are one.'
idea does !
—
;
without special care for individuals a third of whom thinks he can affirm nothing of God without contradiction, unless we limit ourall,
;
selves to calling
Him
the Unknowable
Hegel, does not even believe that
a fourth of whom, a pupil of God knows Himself, and confesses ;
He exists All these worshippers are religiously one they should discover to one another, I do not say the bottom of their thoughts, but the bottom of their hearts, they would perceive
only that
But
!
!
if
as great a contradiction between their sentiments as between their
convictions.
Their communion
in formula.
And
this
is
is
only apparent
—
it is
only in
ritual,
just the least touching and the least admir-
able thing in the world."
In
fine,
the goal to which M. Sabatier's theories have
conducted him,
is
just the proper latitudinarianism of
The outcome
the day.
of
his
theorising
is
only to
supply a reasoned basis to the unreasoning indifferent-
ism that vexes our time his
work
:
and we may best look upon
as an attempt to justify this indifferentism
by placing beneath
it
a philosophical foundation, in a
theory of religious knowledge and a theory of religious evolution.
that
if
Its
meaning
to us will be, therefore, simply
doctrinal indifferentism
basis on
which
hand,
as
if,
it
must build
we have
is
to stand, this
itself
;
but,
is
the
on the other
seen, indifferentism cannot
remain
Christian except at the cost of admitting the claims
The Right of Systematic Theology
yS
of Christian
work
doctrine and providing for the essential doctrine
that
of
Christian
then,
life,
words, are religion
;
against
the
M.
distinctively
a
man,
Christian
the
must
indifferentism
for
basis
rational
The arcrnments
forming
in
for
this
with
fall
it.
Sabatier's theories, in other
arguments against indifferentism in arguments,
these
more
impinge
indeed,
sharply against his theories than against unreasoned indifferentism, in so far as the points
especially
were
impinge
latent
in
on which they
and are
it
the-
explicit postulates of his theories.
Indifferentism,
we
will
remember, does not precisely
condenni Christian doctrine
;
it
only neglects
M. Sabatier does not
true to his indifferentist results,
deny the
possibility or the right or even the necessity
even of Christian dogmatics.
of Christian doctrines, or
He
confesses that a living religion
itself
in appropriate religious
doctrines which
faith without ]
embody
faith
works
is
must needs
express-
thinking, and in those
For him
this thinking.
only a special case under
is
And,,
it.
general rule that
the
No
dead.
this
faith
a living
is
It is not
which does not produce doctrine.
then
exactly against the possibility or right of Christian doctrine
that he protests
that he denies.^ 1
It
He
:
it
conceives
must be confessed that the
only
is
it
not as the former
writers of this school are not always
entirely consistent witli themselves on this point.
When M.
{Dc la Vic Jntimc dcs Dorjmes, pp. 25, 26) says: Christian dogma, we suppress Christianity all
religious doctrine,
which does not express
we
kill
itself
usefulness
its
;
"In
Sabatier-
sni)prcssing
in casting off absolutely
religion itself.
... A
would not be aware of
religious
itself,
life:
would not
The Right of Systematic Theology and director determiner of
occasion of
the
faith,
of
79 and
rise
its
form, but as the product of faith,
its
of and therefore as only the manifestation and index fluctuate, therefore, the underlying life. Life does not,
Vand the nature
of faith change, according to doctrine
according to the life-move-
doctrine fluctuates
/but
which
of
life
movement, and
is
is
it
in
doctrine
abounding [
more
it
told, renders
it
an
not
is
is
:
be measured by
evil,
but
a
sign
a really living Christianity,
doctrinal
its
In
and malleable.^
this,
since
follows that changeable-
The more unstable a doctrine
life.
living
may
vitality
richness of vital motion,
ness
And
only a reflection.
ments
of
is,
the
we
are
product peculiarly supple as
seems,
it
we reach
the
We are very apotheosis of religious indifferentism. prepared in its light not only to look upon variations in doctrine with indifference for
them
as the
mark
of a
;
shall anxiously seek
we
deep and rich religious
life.
Periods of doctrinal unrest and uncertainty will betheory. communicate itself "—he is still speaking on the lines of his theologie et de de F^cvue in Dogmes, des Fin {La Astie But M. its bounds philosophie, July 1891, pp. 372, 374) seems to pass beyond of the when he writes: " A development of dogma is indispensable, Practical piety by itself is insufficient. lirst necessity. pain of lapsing Christian feeling, which is, of course, the first factor, on Christian reason to into fanaticism, into subjective fantasy, needs a Here is a use to which dogmas give it tone, to lend it steadiness." in Grec, Dogme p. 34, and his criticism can be put. Cf. H. Bois, Le affirmation Fe la Connaissaiice Religieuse, p. 23 sq.: "M. Sabatier's .
very
comes to this obvious assertion religion, be known. But of what advantage is
if it is
:
known ? 1
p.
it
.
.
not known, will not itself to be
to this life
" etc.
Cf. above, p. 445,
215 and note.
and
cf.
H.
Bois,
Fc
la Connaissaiice Religicnse,
The Right of Systematic Theology
8o come faith
us
to
stability
—
eras
of
— which seem
will
faith,
we have to us
to
and periods hitherto
doctrinal
of
called
ages
of
deadness in
be times of
religion.
It is
of the greatest
observe
M.
these
that
importance for
however, to
That
theory of evolution in religion.
Sabatier's
on
dependent
not
are
results
us,
theory serves only to introduce order into the variations of doctrine consequent on the multiform activities of religious
down
lay
life
to postulate for
:
them
for
fundamental postulate
which M. Sabatier
and
exclusive
sense
proclaims
it,
For
in
in
whole school
whicli
we
of
life
when proclaimed school
this
independently of
if
and
to
The the
thought
brilliant a representative,
principle that
doctrine,
all
call in to
of
proceeds in
the
thought
further hypotheses
complete their world-
are to define religion in this exclu-
sive sense as a feeling,
religion
so
its
which individuals may view.
of the is
and must follow from determines
goal,
the direct outgrowth of
results in question are
of
them a
a course through history.
and
to define
Christianity as a
terms of the religious feeling alone, we
have certainly identified Christianity with the religious sentiment, and have failed to institute any essential distinction like
it
of
between the
it
and other
religious
religions, the products
sentiment.
The most that
could be said on this ground, would be that in wliat
we
call Christianity the religious feeling first
its rights,
and
for the first time
and freely in accordance with
comes
to
expresses itself fully
its truth.
But even
so.
The Right of Sysieinatic Theology Christianity
represented as essentially one with
is
other religions, differing differs
8
r
all
from them only as the perfect All religions at once take
from the imperfect.
their places as relatively true
they stand no longer
:
in opposition to Christianity, as the false to the true,
but in a hierarchy of relatively partial or complete.
And above
all,
we
lack
work to
:
succeeded
length it
may
ground from
this standpoint
Christianity the religious feeling
for declaring that in
has at
all
producing her perfect
in
be as yet her masterpiece
;
but what
assure us that in the coming ages there
may
is
not
spring out of her depths some consummate flower of religion as
much
surpassing Christianity as Christianity
surpasses Fetishism
On
?
and truest product to us.
]
the purest
known
doubts, of course, that religion
things, a feeling
is,
nor need we doubt that
:
the implications of this feeling
fully
drawn out and
— and
a theology, let
if
stated would give us a theology,
frankly at once, which would be true, and
us say
it
would
enter
element of
Christianity
into
its
common
—a to
all
which Christianity
we should have
is
men
were
is
also,
one doubts
among other
form which the religious
specific
implication of this specific
fundamental
And no
doctrinal system.
things, a feeling
the
as
that Christianity, as a religion,
feelino;
is
of the religious feeling as yet
Now, no one
among other
we cannot
this postulate,
get beyond the judgment that Christianity
takes
form
all
of
:
or
that,
if
tlie
religious feeling
brought out and stated,
a specifically Christian theology.
But
the very enunciation of these facts involves recognising
The Right of Systematic Theology
82
that behind the specific form of religious feeling which Christianity
common
there are implications which are not
is,
other forms of religious feeling,
and
to it
and which have determined the religious feeling into It might be conceivable that these this specific form. implications
come
should
knowledge
our
to
only
subsequently to Christianity, and as a result of an but in the analysis of the Christian phenomena ;
order
thought
of
precedent
and
Christianity
to
any
nature they are in
of
and
producing
the
case causes of the specific form which the religious feeling takes in
it.
Now, the pressing question form
specific of
What
is.
the religious feeling which
of
Christianity
is
distinctive
that the Christian
man
speaking, specifically differently
from
Why
?
feels, religiously
produces the
is
it
the Buddhist, the Shamanist, the Fetish-worshipper
?
The old answer was that the difference in the form which the
religious
sentiment takes in the diverse
from the difference in the religious conceptions characteristic of these religions and we do not see that any better answer has been or can be arises
religions
;
There
offered. religions,
and
is
this
something that
common
common element man
arises
action of the religious nature of
prompt
is
to a religion,
and
it
:
it
to
all
from the suffices to
will secure that
man, so
long as he remains man, will remain a religious being, accessible to religious ideas
and
to religious training.
What,
however, is distinctive of the several religions
arises
from
differences
between
them
in
religious
The Right of Systematic Theology
%'}^
conceptions, which mould and direct the action of the religious feeling into this channel or that.
If this be "
a religion independent of conceptions,
so,
would be confined
to a
common
possess nothing not
dogmas,"
and could
religion of nature,
to all religions
and
;
to
proclaim Christianity independent of doctrine would
simply to
be
revert
'only
is
through
conceptions which
animate
other
religions
a
it
type of
specific
ligious
that
But
life.
thought
this school of
life
cause
as
if
of
religious
which form
for
and
re-
experience
then
it
is
the
doctrine precedes
:
specific
To be
itself.
it
and
so,
is
not true
beneath
and
it
is,
and
is
of distinctive Chris-
indifferent
were only an index
steadily
life,
form which the religious
takes in Christianity, that
tianity
different
religious this
if
the it
The
religion.
distinguished from
is
precedes doctrine in the sense intended by
life
the
natural
which Christianity
in
and
Christianity
distinctive
off
fundamental
the
to
way
cast
to
this
of the life
independently
doctrine,
flowing on of
it,
is
therefore to be indifferent to distinctive Christianity itself.i
Of course, there
which the
in
is
a sense less exclusive than that
school
thought
of
discussion uses the phrase, in which
We
precedes doctrine. deny,
we
involved ^
Cf.
Prof.
rather wish in
the
Orr's
Christian View,
at
present
it is
true that
proclaim, the great truth
watchword 18
sq.
life
not only have no desire to to
of
the greatest
remarks on the relation of ideas to
etc., pp.
under
of
the
religion,
84
The Right of Systematic Theology
fathers^
and schoolmen, Credo
by the Keformers
maxim
the
in
ut i/iteUig am,
and adopted
Fides prcccedit
of
rationem, and before the Reformers or schoolmen or
proclaimed by Paul in the immortal words
fathers,
tliat " tlie
Spirit of
natural
man
God, for they are foolishness unto him
(1 Cor.
ii.
can understand Christian truth
man
competent
is
;
and
them because they are spiritually None but the Christian man 14).
he cannot know
judged"
receiveth not the things of the
none but the Christian
;
There
state Christian doctrine.
to
is a low ground on which this obvious proposition may be defended, which even Aristotle was able to formu-
late
:
€KaaTo<;
dyaOo^
ecTTiv
Ka\(o<;
/cptr/J?
*
aTrXco?
Sevfievo^,
has
Paul
Kpivei
It
doctrine.
is
KaO'
irdv
Tvepl
S'6
dpa
a
much
the guidance
only through
Holy Ghost, dwelling within
o
rreirat-
But
ireiraLhevp.evo^.
Christian
the
taught
a yivcoaKeo, Kai tovtcov efcaarov
us, that
higher the
of
we can reach to Were
the apprehension of the deep things of God.
meant by the assertion that life must precede doctrine, we would give it our heartiest
this
all
that were
assent.
mean
to
And
so far as
however true
;
is
has already
may
be thought
and they
Deinn
I'oic tiers,
been
life,
said,
we
witli
no creative power in doctrines, will
huiiianu.s, nisi })er lideni
([uidein uatur.ini
(Hilary of
as
it,
There
acclamations.
Animus
assertion
that doctrine alone cannot produce
would welcome
^
this
douuin spiritus hauserit, habebit
iiitclligeiidi set!
De Trimtate,
ii.
pass over dead souls,
lumen scienti;^} non habebit " Sic accepite, sic credite,
34).
ut mereamiui intelligere tides enini debet prrecedere intellectuni, ut " (Augustine, Scrmones de verb Dom.). sit intellectus tidei prtcniium :
The Right of Systematic Theology
85
them
the
leaving
dead souls into \
all
who
competent
is
and without
;
will be,
doctrines
the
/what
one spark of
the
in
Him
life
But
world.
What
meant by
is
blooms and flourishes
Christian
whether
life
—
are
produced by this life
not
is
precedes
that the Christian
wholly
independently of
these
known
quicken
to
it is
Christian conceptions, and that
fundamental
it is
:
there has never
intended by the watchword that
is
doctrine. life
life
and never
been,
they found them
as inert as
Creator Spiritus alone
or
it is
indifferent to the
conceptions
— however
Against this
not.
protest with all the energy possible, and pronounce
proclamation a blow at distinctive Christianity
We (<
accord,
fully
words
with
therefore,
M.
we its
itself.
strong
Bois'
^ :
We
conclude, then, that in religion the idea precedes
ledge precedes
feeling
knowledge following
(which does not at
Even
life).
constitutes the essence of religion
if
all
life,
know-
a
certain
prevent
we admit that
it is feeling
— a feeling of dependence,
which
of love or
of fear— it is still necessary for the feeling, no matter what it is, to have an object, known and thought. We are not able to love or fear what we have no knowledge of. We are not able to love what we do not think worthy of love, nor to fear what we do not think an occasion of fear. We are not able to feel dependent on something of whose existence
we
are ignorant.
If religion
is
a feeling, this feeling supposes
a certain knowledge
which explains and justifies it it is illusory and is condemned as such by conscience and reason, which command us to repel it and to eliminate it, if it has no object or if its object is not known. To make religion a feeling without precedent knowledge is to make it an illusion or a disease its history is no more than the history of an illusion or of a disease, and the science which can be made of it is only a section of mental pathology. " But this is not all. We refuse to make religion consist solely and ;
:
essentially in a
^
6
feeling.
.
.
.
Thought
is
not an
Henri Bois, De la Connaissance Bcligieuse,
epiphenomenon p. 31,
The Right of Systematic Theology
86
superadded to piety it forms an integral part of it. Doctrines are not something external and posterior to religion they are an essential Intellect and will have part in religion as Avell as element of it. "Without conscious all the human faculties concur in it. feeling^ ideas there might be obscure feeling, blind passion, fatalism, magic, Should there would not be either morality or religion. all you wish ;
:
.
.
.
—
.
.
.
:
be emotions and feelings without ideas, those feelings and emotions would be neither moral nor religious."
there
But
known
object
is
that feeling without a
and meaningless
blind
would be suggestive
—
we allow
in proportion as
of disease rather
in that proportion
we
to
us
— and
than of the divine
give a place to doctrine at the
root of religion, and to Christian doctrine at the root
ception, so, then, first
As
Christian religion.
of the
is
the feeling
importance for
the
is :
the underlying con-
and
Christian
it
becomes
man
of the
rightly
to
conceive these fundamental ideas which give form and direction to the ideas
gate and secure
:
right conception of these
and thus the right and function
Systematic Theology It will
The
life.
the task of Systematic Theology to investi-
it is
is
add greatly
of
already vindicated.
to the confidence with
which we
recognise this fundamental place of Christian truth
with reference to Christian 1
Cf.
Dr.
considered,
life,
to
Ladd's definition of religion:
may
be defined as an attitude of
remind ourselves
"Religion,
mind
—
subjectively
intellect, feeling,
—
towards Other Being, on which I recognise my dependence being and my well-being, and to which I feel myself somehow responsible in the way of control" {The New World, Sept. 1895,
and for
will
my
So also Prof. Laidlaw {The Bible Doctrine of Man, ed. 2, is evident, on a general review of the facts, that we cannot assign religion to any single faculty or power in man as its The intellect, the affections, and the will are seen exclusive function. p. 415).
p.
130): "It
to be all
concerned in
Theolofjy, pp. 54-59, for
it."
He
refers to Alliott's Psychology
good remarks on the subject.
and
The Right of Systematic Theology
Z"]
that such was evidently the conception of the founders
the Christian religion concerning the relations of
of
doctrine and
This fact
life.
he makes of his matter
and then the
it
:
written large over the
is
by the very distribution
Epistles of Paul, for example,
ever
is
the doctrine
first
The
with him.
life
transition at the
opening of the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the
Eomans regard.
preceded
a typical example of his practice in this
is
Eleven chapters
chapters of precepts are to succeed
five
;
and he passes from the one has
been
his
called
"
to
this
revealed
Paul's
truth and
be
said,
In these
so.
is
was that
of
!
life,
is,
of
the relation
his
it
How
given to His
might know the truth and have
for
fulfilled
in
them was that they might be
by the truth which God's
exhibition of
between
Word which had
Word
of course, clear recognition that faith is
" is
need scarcely
and that His joy might be
moral basis and
"I
:
because
Master before him.
Him and which He had
His prayer
sanctified
therefore "
" therefore,"
of the Father's
followers, that they
them
—
tremendous therefores
conception
much Jesus makes
eternal
"
"
The same conception,
life.
been given to
the other with what
tremendous
beseech you therefore, brethren all
had
of doctrinal exposition
was.
There
rests
upon a
not to be compelled by the mere
truth.
Gregory
of
Nazianzen did not
go beyond the teaching of the founders of Christianity
how Keep the commandments
in "
his
theory
prescription
to ;
become a theologian:
conduct
irpa^L^ eVZ/Sao-i? eecopia^."
is
the ladder to
Our Lord Himself
The Right of Systematic Theology
88
any one willeth
declared, "If
Me, he
that sent
know
shall
the teaching whether
be of God, or whether I speak from Myself,"
it
—
that
only in the good ground of a good heart that
is, it is
even the good seed of the gospel can produce
But
Eim
do the will of
to of
nowhere did
He
that the good seed
that the unsowed
any
or
is
soil,
of
unnecessary for the harvest
however good,
produce the golden return.
itself
to
God's
\vill
God's
will,
fruit.
His apostles ever teach
is
competent
of
Knowledge
of
wath them was ever the condition of doing
and lay
at the root of all good conduct
and
true religion in the world.
And from
that day to this, this has been the funda-
mental conception
of the Christian religion
The meaning
adherents.
of
this
is
among
forth at the opening of that eloquent book. Dr.
Macgregor's
The Apology of
Other religions have sought is
what
peculiar to Christianity
it
made
"No ^
Beligion.
is
characteristic
its
and
appeal from the
men's reasons.^
other religion," says Dr. Maegrcgor, "has ever seriously set to reason the sinful world out of worldliness into godli-
...
itself
p.
:
James
propagate themselves
to
in various ways, but this
first to
Christian
the
its
delightfully set
Compare also Dr. James Orr's remarks, The Christian View, etc., "If there is a religion in the world which exalts the office of
23
:
It has it is safe to say it is the religion of Jesus Christ. been frequently remarked that in pagan religions the doctrinal element is at a minimum, the chief thing there is the performance of a ritual. But this is precisely where Christianity distinguishes itself from other
teaching,
religions
—
it
It comes to men Avith definite, does contain doctrine. it bases religion on it claims to be the truth
positive teaching
conditions."
;
;
knowledge, though a knowledge which
is
only attainable under moral
The Right of Systematic Theology ness.
The aspect of the new
89
religion thus appearing towards the
human soul, in aridressing itself to the reason in order man in his conscience and his heart, struck the intelligent
freedom of the to reach the
heathens as a presumptive evidence of truth and divinity, since is 'the door' (John x. 1 s^-.)— the lawful way of seeking to win and to control the manhood. And that aspect was given to the religion from the beginning by the author of it."
—
reason
Christianity has thus from the beginning ever
men
the
as
rational
religion,
primarily to the intellect.
not merely, as
itself
It has
to men's accceptance,
truth
seeks
it
to
it
all
their
other
has truth to offer
and by their acceptance
rule
pre-
it,
but also pre-
Above
religion. ;
to
appeal
thus ever evinced
religion,
religions, it consists in doctrines
come
its
Macgregor puts
Dr.
eminently as the apologetical eminently as the doctrinal
making
lives
and
of this
save
their
souls.-^
How world
else,
indeed, would
We may
?
speak
propagate
itself in
the
of " spiritual contagion "
and
it
of the hidden work of the Spirit of God in the heart and each phrase enshrines a precious fact without which Christianity could not live in the world. Chris-
tianity does propagate itself prairie
fire
from soul
leaps from spear
to
to
spear
soul, as
of
the
the tall
^ It is probably, then, not mere accident that in Rom. vii. 23 it is from the j/ous— the " mind "—that the conquest of Christianity over the life proceeds outwardly to the members. Christianity makes its
"mind" and secures the affection of the "inward man" and thence advances to victory over the "flesh" and "members." Accordingly it is by the "renewing of their mind {jov ;/oo's) " that sinners are to be so metamorphosed as to be no longer fashioned according to the world, but to prove the will of God (Rom. xii. 2). Compare the rich expressions of Eph. iv. 18-24. The noetic root of appeal to the first,
salvation
is
continually insisted on in the Scriptures.
The Right of Systematic Theology
90 grass
our Lord Himself
:
tells
the world
all
the religious
God is
the
has
]\Iaster
" spiritual
Word
us was
given
He
nor has
:
should work His wonders
Word.
The
promise after
to
followers
is
commission
—
grace
;
the
Are we,
declared
that
preach the gospel
to
but
it
is
Was
?
own
their
of
preaching after
of
Christ
all
and
:
ohcycth.
strengthening
when he will
on the
exercise " of no value
men
we
is
apart from that
Go, i^rcach
is,
useless evil, inliicted on
above
depend
to
a kind of spiritual gymnastics for
and
the foolishness
Is
the
promised that the Spirit of
" spiritual
a mere
manifestation
faith?
till
suppose that this great duty laid on His
beyond themselves the
not
him that hearcth and
to
is
all,
the
But the commission that
leavened.
contagion," but to sow the seed which
God
of
:
leaven hidden in the meal, and
is like
works silently and unobservedly from within whole mass
in
life
God
the creation of the Spirit of
is
Ivingdom of
us that the seed are the
And
children of the kingdom.
all
a
Paul mistaken
had sent him forth ?
We may
think as
very evident that the founders of
Christianity earnestly believed, not that the so-called
Word
of
God
is
the product of faith and
is
to witness to the faith that lies behind
it
birth,
seed of
but that the veritable
faitli,
ing by the
Word
of
its it
only use
and gives
God
is
the
that faith cometh by hearing and hear-
Word
of
behind the Christian intelligently believed.
asks the Galatians,
"
God,
life
or,
in
other
words,
that
stands the doctrine of Christ,
When,
for example, the apostle
This only would I learn of you,
7'/ze Right of Systematic Tlzeo!ogy
9r
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by , the hearing of faith ? , he intimates with entire distinctness that it is in connection with the truth of God offered to faith that the Holy Spirit is given ; and therefore elsewhere, although the gospel is naught save as it is attended with the demonstration of the Spirit and with power-and Paul may plant and Apollos may water in vain if God do not Himself give the increase-yet this very gospel itself and its preaching is called the "power of God unto salvation " (Rom. i. 16 ; 1 Cor. i. 24). In insisting, therefore, on the ��Y of Christian doctrine, and on the consequent right and duty to ascertain and accurately to state this doctrine- which is the task of Systematic Theology-we have the consciousness of beiug imitators of Paul even as he was of Christ. How much the apostle made, not merely of the value of doctrine as the condition of life, but of the importance of sound doctrine ! His boast, we will remember, is that he is not of the many who corrupt the truth, but that he, at least, has preached the whole counsel of God. He is not content that \ esus Christ should be preached, but insists on a special doctrine of Christ-Jesus Christ and Him as /crucified. He even pronounces those that preach any other gospel than that he preached accursed: and we should carefully note that this curse falls not on teachers of other religions, but on preachers of what we might speak of to-day as different forms of Chris tianity. In a word, in all his teaching and in all his
y
92
The Right of Systeviatic Theology
practice alike, Paul impresses
upon us the duty and
the supreme importance of preserving that purity of doctrine which its
it is
the aim of Systematic Theology in
investigation into Christian truth to secure.
BENJAMIN
B.
Princeton. X.J.
PRINTED BY
MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
WARFIELD.
JUST PUBLISHED.
In
Crown
8yo.
Price
3s. 6d.
THE HOPE OF ISRAEL A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENT
FROM PROPHECY BY
H.
F.
WOODS,
B.D.
SOMETIME FELLOW AND THEOLOGICAL LECTURER OF ST.
jobn's college, oxford
Vicar of Chalfont
yviJoaecrde t7]v dXrjOeiav, 7]
Peter
St.
dXi^deia eXevdepibaeL
St.
Kal
v/Jids
John
32
viii.
CONTENTS
— Introductory.
—
Chapter II. The Spiritual and Moral Chapter III. The Predictive Element of Tone of the Prophets. Prophecy its Nature and its Limitations. Chapter I V. Methods of Chapter V. The Material Elements of the Interpreting Prophecy. Chapter VI. The Eeligious Aspect of the Messianic Messianic Hope. Chapter VII. The Messianic King. Chapter VIII. The Hope. Prophetic and Priestly Aspects of the Messiah. Chapter IX. The Atoning Victim. Chapter X. The Fulfilment of Prophecy in ChristiChapter XI. —Progressive Christianity the most Perfect Fulfilanity. Chapter XII. The Practical Value of ment of Jewish Prophecy. Prophecy as an Aid to Christian Faith.
Chapter
I.
—
:
—
—
—
—
— —
—
—
A
' frank, courageous, and able attempt to restate the argument from . This candid . biblical prophecy in the light of recent biblical exegesis. and valuable work will win gratitude from all enlightened students of .
Hebrew
British Weekly.
prophecy.'
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London
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In Two
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OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY. THE RELIGION OF REVELATION IN ITS PRE-CHRISTIAN STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT. By Prof.
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