The Churches and Modern Thought

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Vivian Phelips. The Churches and Modern Thought

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION

THE SITUATION. Chapter I. THE GRAVITY OF THE PRESENT SITUATION

§ 1. The Truth of the Matter

§ 2. The Attitude of the Laity

§ 3. Christianity and Science not Reconciled

§ 4. The Genesis and Character of the New Outburst

§ 5. Apologetics “Found Wanting.”

§ 6. More Things which Confuse the Issue

MIRACLES. Chapter II. THE EXTRAORDINARY STATE OF APOLOGETICS WITH REGARD TO MIRACLES

§ 1. Preliminary Remarks

§ 2. Miracle Apologetics

§ 3. The Fundamental Miracles

BIBLE CRITICISM. Chapter III. THE DESTRUCTIVE CHARACTER OF MODERN BIBLE CRITICISM

§ 1. Clashing Views on Bible Criticism

§ 2. A Summary of the Results of Bible Criticism

§ 3. By Whom the “Higher Criticism” is Accepted

§ 4. Admissions by Orthodox Apologists

§ 5. Some Remaining Difficulties

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. Chapter IV. THE GRAVE SUSPICIONS AROUSED BY THE STUDY OF ANCIENT BELIEFS

§ 1. The New Theological Theory of a Progressive Revelation

§ 2. Parallels in Ancient Religions, and Some Remarks Upon Them

§ 3. Parallels in the Beliefs of Primitive Man, and some Remarks Upon Them

§ 4. The Solar Myth

§ 5. Concluding Remarks on Christian and Anti-Christian Theories

EVOLUTION. Chapter V. IRRECONCILABLE DIFFICULTIES CONNECTED WITH EVOLUTION

§ 1. Preliminary Remarks

§ 2. “Nature Red in Tooth and Claw.”

§ 3. The Bible Account of Creation Irreconcilable with Science in Each and Every Respect

§ 4. Proofs of Our Animal Origin

§ 5. The Overthrow of the Doctrines of the Fall and Original Sin

THEISM. Chapter VI. THE FAILURE OF THEISTIC ARGUMENTS

§ 1. Preliminary Remarks

§ 2. The Existence of a First Cause—An Uncaused Cause.195

§ 3. The First Cause an Intelligence

§ 4. The First Cause a Beneficent Intelligence

§ 5. Religious Experience

§ 6. The Inevitable Conclusion

POPULAR ARGUMENTS. Chapter VII. FALLACIES IN POPULAR ARGUMENTS

§ 1. Preliminary Remarks. The Power of Christianity for Good

§ 2. Christianity Woman’s Best Friend.243

§ 3. The Overthrow of Christianity would Endanger Society and the Nation

§ 4. The Spread of Christianity a Proof of its Truth

§ 5. The Noble Army of Martyrs

§ 6. The Universality of the Religious Instinct

Chapter VIII. CONCLUSION

§ 1. A Summary

§ 2. Why Lead a Moral Life?

§ 3. Should the Truth be Told?

§ 4. The Outlook

§ 5. Concluding Remarks

APPENDIX

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What does a man seek when he examines his religious creed? To this question Canon Liddon replies as follows:—“He seeks intellectual satisfaction and moral support. His intellect asks for reliable information upon certain subjects of the most momentous importance. How does he come here? Whither is he going? What is the purpose and drift of the various forms of existence around him? Above all, what is the nature, what are the attributes and dispositions, of that Being to whom the highest yearnings of his inmost self constantly point as the true object of his existence? In asking that the answers to these questions shall be definite, that what is certain shall be affirmed as certain, what is doubtful as doubtful, what is false as false, he is only asking that his religious information shall be presented in as clear and practical a shape as his information on other subjects. In no department of human knowledge is haziness deemed a merit; by nothing is an educated mind more distinguished than by a resolute effort to mark the exact frontiers of its knowledge and its ignorance; to hesitate only when hesitation is necessary; to despair of knowledge only when knowledge is ascertainably out of reach. Surely on the highest and most momentous of all subjects this same precision may be asked for with reverence and in reason; surely the human mind is not bound to forget its noblest instincts when it approaches the throne and presence of its Maker?” (Some Elements of Religion, p. 24).

Again, in his New Year’s message for 1905, the Archbishop of Canterbury condemns indifference to truth as a vice, and “drifting along the current of popular opinion” as a sin. He invites and persuades us to use “the sadly-neglected powers and privileges of rational thought and common sense.”

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The objections of the more conservative to the new interpretations of Christianity are well expressed in the solemn words of a former Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, himself inveighed against, in his day, as somewhat of a freethinker. “Many,” writes Dean Mansell, “who would shrink with horror from the idea of rejecting Christ altogether, will yet speak and act as if they were at liberty to set up for themselves an eclectic Christianity, separating the essential from the superfluous portions of Christ’s teaching, deciding for themselves how much is permanent and necessary for all men, and how much is temporary and designed only for a particular age and people. Yet if Christ is indeed God manifest in the Flesh, it is surely not less impious to attempt to improve His teaching than to reject it altogether. Nay, in one respect it is more so, for it is to acknowledge a doctrine as the revelation of God, and, at the same time, to proclaim that it is inferior to the wisdom of man.”

The Athanasian Creed controversy furnishes some striking examples of both conservative and latitudinarian opinions. Dr. Pusey is related to have said: “If the Athanasian Creed is touched, I see nothing to do but to give up my canonry.” Yet we find the present Primate, Dr. Randall Davidson, replying to a deputation of clergymen who desired to be relieved from the obligation of reciting this Creed: “I am in complete sympathy with the object you have at heart.” Presumably he is in agreement with Dr. Barnes, Hulsean professor of divinity, who, when lecturing lately at Cambridge on the Athanasian Creed, declared that there was “no authority in Scripture for its minatory clauses.” The well-meant attempt of the Dean of Westminster to smooth down the asperities of the Creed by singing instead of saying it, is typical of those pitiful attempts to tide over difficulties which are now so much in evidence. “We make,” says one of the old school, “unsuitable persons partakers of the Divine service of the Church, and then it is proposed to alter the Divine service to suit them. Let honest Unbelievers or Half-Believers absent themselves from the Assembly of the Faithful, and let the Faithful worship faithfully.” Yet, if this line of conduct were put into practice, if the modern Origens were anathematised and only those laymen admitted to Divine service who held all the articles of the Christian faith without mental reservations of any kind, every single advanced theologian would be degraded from his office, and the present twenty-two per cent. who are church and chapel-goers would be reduced to—what shall we say? Well, the churches having cultured congregations would be almost empty. The modern spirit of toleration, admirable as it is in many ways, assists in preventing the discovery of the real truth of the matter. The Church is grossly deceiving herself if she really thinks that the apparent adherence of the majority of the well-to-do classes indicates that burning suspicions of the Christian dogmas have been quenched by Christian apologetics.

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