The Christian religion, its meanings and proof

Introduction

PAGE

Causes of dissatisfaction with existing systems of Christian Evidence 3

This state of things not surprising 5

A threefold reason for the restatement of the nature and grounds of Christian belief:

Firstly : The principles of continuity 5

Secondly : The scientific point of view 7

Thirdly : The claims of the spiritual consciousness 8

The Christian consciousness must speak for itself 10

Yet its expression will become systematic 11

The result will establish the unique character and authority of the

Christian religion 11

The need of maintaining both continuity and distinction 12

The course of the present inquiry 12-13

Book I The History And Task Of Christian Evidences

The General History of Christian Evidences to the Rise of the Critical Philosophy

Christian Evidences seek to prove the truth of the Christian Religion. 17

I. This necessity is inherited from the Old Testament 17

The main outlines of the proof therein offered 21

II. An increased necessity to make good the truth of Christianity

'in the early ages of its history 24

III. With the general acceptance of Christianity a new phase of

the history of Christian Evidences is reached 20

Christianity as a spiritual philosophy 30

IV. The Renaissance and the evidential task occasioned by it... 33 V. Protestantism and doctrinal controversy 35

VI. The Deistic controversy gives new importance to Christian

Evidences 3ti

VII. The critical philosophy of Kant 44 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Inadequacy of Existing Systems of Christian Evidences to Satisfy the Modern Point of View

PAGE

The advance of inductive inquiry 54

The scientific point of view 55

The necessity of criticizing scientific conceptions 56

Widespread hesitations 57

Christian Evidences must justify the view of the value of human

life upon which the Christian religion is built up 60

How far are they adequate to present needs? 61

Their incidental limitations 61

The procedure generally adopted hitherto 62

This does not reflect the history of theological belief 63

The exaggerated distinction between natural and revealed religion.. 66 Natural theology is an abstraction from the complete Christian

doctrine of God 67

Paley's Xatural Theology 68

His Evidences of Christianity 70

Dr. Martineau's A Study of Religion 73

The Ritschlian School and the proof of Christianity 81

Kaftan's The Truth of the Christian Religion 82

CHAPTER III The Task set to Christian Evidences in the Present Time

The reasons of the inadequacy of the systems of Christian Evidences

hitherto recognized 87

What is meant by the proof of Christianity 88

The view of Ritschl 91

The course prescribed to Christian Evidences in the present day... 95

CHAPTER I The Content of the Christian Religion The datum of Christian Evidences is Christ 101

The first step therefore is to ascertain what is distinctive of Christ

Himself 102

I. Christ gives a final theology to the world as the expression of a perfect Religion 103

1. This result is due to our Lord's consciousness of the

Fatherhood of God as reflected in His perfect

Sonship 104

2. His consciousness of being the Son of Man 110

3. Our Lord's claim to be the Christ Ill

The way in which He transforms the conception 112

4. His transformation of the doctrine of the kingdom of

God 115

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5. Is there a transitory element in His teaching? 117

6. The authenticity of His teaching 118

7. The doctrine of spiritual discernment in St. John's

Gospel 119

II. Our Lord as the source of the Christian Religion 126

The apostolic teaching is experimental 126

The experience is that of Sonship to God 127

This experience is derived from a spiritual relationship to

Christ 127

It is attended by immense spiritual and moral consequences. 128

Finally it is brought about by means of redemption from sin 128 The experience of sonship thus brought about is the key to the whole doctrine of Salvation contained in the New

Testament 129

It is bound up with certain distinctive facts of the life of

Christ 131

The miraculous element in His life 131

The Christian doctrines <of the world-place of Christ and of

the Godhead 134

In what relation does Christianity, as thus outlined, stand to the spiritual consciousness of mankind and to the interpretation of the universe ? 137

The claim of Christianity can only be established by showing its relations to other religions. It is necessary at the outset to

consider Religion in general 138

The definition of Religion 139

I. The influence of activity 142

II. The experience of dependence 145

III. The affectional result 149

IV. The moralizing of Religion 155

V. The desire of the Infinite 158

VI. The influence of particular events 160

The development of religious rites 162

The Prophet and the Priest 164

Religion and social order 164

The whole man involved in the growth of Religion 165

Religion and theology 166

Influences affecting religious development 167

The spiritual conception is determinative 170

Theories of the development of Religion 171

The influence of creative personalities on Religion 173

Religion must be tested in its most perfect form 175

The tests to be applied 176 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER III The Ethnic Religions PAGE

The classification of Religions 181

I. Nature-worships 183

II. Ancestor-worship and Animism 189

III. The Humanism of the Greeks 193

IV. Confucianism or Moralism in Religion 196

V. Philosophical reactions from popular naturalistic Religion.. 200

Greek 200

Brahmanism 202

Buddhism 212

VI. Dualism : Zoroastrianisin 218

VII. Mohammedanism 221

The failure of all these types to satisfy the tests laid down 222

CHAPTER IV Christianity a revelation which becomes an experience 225

I. This experience fulfills the idea and end of Religion 227

II. Its marks are power and satisfaction 229

III. Its experience of sonship is immediate in Christ, but

mediated through Him for all others 231

IV. His mediation consists not merely of Revelation and of Self-

impartation, but also of Reconciliation and Redemption. 233

V. The result is Regeneration through the Spirit 235

VI. The Christian Doctrine of God is derived from this experience 236

The connection of Christianity with Hebrew Religion 236

The peculiarity of this Religion 237

Christianity as a Missionary Religion 243

The development of historic Christianity 244

Christianity as the Absolute and Catholic Religion 246

BOOK III THE PROOF OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION Christianity is experimental 251

This experience satisfying and comprehensive 252

The conditions of its proof 253

I. The primary argument that Christianity is indispensable to

the full realization of the noblest human life 254

3. Judgments of value 254

2. They contain a revelation of God 259

3. And are the key to the explanation of the world 265

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II. The sense of filial relationship to God is characteristic of the

highest spiritual consciousness 270

The affirmations contained in it 271

They are the foundation and fulfillment of that which is assumed by all truly human life 276

Criticism of attempts to preserve it without its theistic basis. 282

1. "Cosmic Emotion" 282

2. The Religion of Humanity 283

3. The worship of the Infinite and the Absolute as

impersonal 284

4. Hoffding's faith in "Conservation of Value" 285

The Christian Explanation of the World and the Rejoinder of Naturalism

1. The world to be explained is an ordered system, mani-

festing a regular development and fulfilling many special ends 300

2. The world is apprehended as being thus ordered and is

utilized by Reason 302

3. The development of this ordered, and therefore reason-

able, system of things is marked by the successive introduction of higher and more complex forms of existence seeking higher ends 302

4. Hence the world takes a new beginning with Man, who

creates civilization 303

5. Man attaining this ideal existence of civilization is re-

ligious 304

G. The whole system is fulfilled in and mediated by Christ. 305 To this Christian explanation of the world is opposed the Naturalistic, which necessitates :

1. The expulsion of final causes from the world of reality. . 311

2. The reduction of the world to Substance manifesting it-

self in Matter (313), Motion (31G), Life and Consciousness 316

3. A doctrine of Evolution 317

and

4. An attitude of Agnosticism: Mansel, Spencer, Balfour. 321

CHAPTER III The Criticism of Naturalism

I. The philosophical position assumed by Agnosticism 330

1. Agnosticism contradicts man's natural instinct of ex-

planation 330

2. Attempts to secure the practical advantages of Ma-

terialism, while evading its metaphysical difficulties.. 881 i TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

3. Covertly brings in the explanations it expressly ex-

cludes 332

and

4. Is as "anthropomorphic" as theistic belief. Criticism

of Kant, Spencer, and Haeckel 333

II. The doctrine of Evolution:

Gaps in the Naturalistic explanation — the introduction of

Life and of Consciousness 341

Three elements essential to the conception of Evolution for which Naturalism does not account :

1. An immanent end in the universe 343

2. An organized system for realizing that end 343

3. A persistent energy adequate to the result 343

The impossibility of explaining the change from chaos to

order by chance or accident 344

Naturalism cannot account for consciousness and choice, the principal results of Evolution 348

III. The world cannot be explained by the action and interaction

of Matter and Motion 352

What is Matter? Motion? Energy? 353

Anthropomorphic conceptions read into them by Naturalism. 360

IV. The reality and interpretation of final causes in Nature 361

Criticism of Spinoza and Spencer 362

The "Power" at the back of the process of Evolution a

rational Power, and the resulting universe a system of spiritual values 372

CHAPTER IV The Argument From Design

The Wider Teleology 375

Of greater weight in confirming than in creating faith 376

Answers to objections to the Argument:

1. That it cannot prove the existence of an absolute Creator. . . 381

2. That it suggests limits to the Creator's power 382

3. That it involves the necessity of choice on His part, which

is contrary to the divine perfection 383

4. And a need of satisfaction, which is contrary to His eternal

blessedness 385

5. That it treats things as means to ulterior ends 386

6. That the significance of the facts is exaggerated, and their

testimony to the being and character of God inconclusive :

(1) Many of the examples of design adduced are faulty, e. g.

the human eye 387

(2) These examples are not the predominant features in

Nature : there is much that is purposeless 389

(3) The existence of evil, moral and physical, proves that its

designer is either not beneficent or not omnipotent .... 390 Four cases in regard to evil specially examined :

1. Where apparent purpose seems to be either abortive or incompletely fulfilled 396

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2. Where the purpose fulfilled appears to be that of deliberately

causing pain 398

3. Where the purposes involved in different forms of existence

appear to be mutually destructive 399

4. Where the seemingly purposeless, or that which is inferior in

the worth of its purpose, interferes with purposes of

higher value 400

The mystery and the ministry of suffering and death 401

Summary and conclusion of the general argument for the Christian

and Theistic explanation of the world 404

CHAPTER V The Christian Doctrine of Man and of Redemption

The divine end in man involved in the spiritual constitution of his nature and culminating in conscious sonship to God is reached by way of redemption 411

The Christian doctrine of redemption is unique in that it is a revelation of divine grace through the incarnation and sacrifice of Christ, and an act of deliverance in which both God and man cooperate ; salvation being both a divine operation and a vital spiritual process 413

The doctrine assumes and sets forth three fundamental facts :

I. That man is possessed of spiritual freedom 420

1. The judgment of consciousness is that while man is

conditioned by the material, he is not subject to its necessity 422

2. Man is influenced by motives, but not determined by

them 42G

3. The sovereignty of God is compatible with moral

personality 433

II. That mankind is involved in sin 43G

1. Sin is not a necessity of development 43S

2. Or contrary to the facts of evolution 441

3. Nor is the "fallen" world a "ruined*' world 444

III. That man's redemption is due to a transcendent dealing with

him by God 44G

1. The Incarnation is the transcendent fulfillment of the

possibilities contained in the divine immanence in mankind 45G

2. The Atonement is the direct outcome of the relationship

in which God stands to man 458

The death of Christ completes the union of the Son of God with the lot of men, and fulfills the relations in

which Iff stands alike to God and man 469

His MCrifice was a complete satisfaction offered to God for (lie sin of the world, and an expression of I J is love for man and His regard for righteousness. 4G1 xii TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

3. The redemptive work of Christ issues in the life of the

Spirit, with its quickening energy and moral power. 463 and

4. In a consummated humanity and a renovated and

eternal world 467

CHAPTER VI The Doctrine of God

That doctrine is the reflective product of Revelation within and by means of human consciousness, in a measure in all men, supremely in Christ 481

In the Christian revelation God is presented to us as our Father ; 'in which conception of Him and of His relation to the world are included the following elements :

I. The personality of God 485

II. The spiritual perfection of God 489

III. The transcendence and immanence of God 496

IV. The sovereignty of God, in accordance with, and for the sake

of, the highest ends 498

V. The supremacy of love in God 501

VI. The unity in the Godhead of internal self-realization, of external self-communication, and of satisfaction in the return of creation to Himself in fellowship and service.. 504 VII. In conclusion, the supreme truth of Revelation and of Reason is the Christian doctrine of the Fatherhood of God, which verifies itself as affording the indispensable, complete, and only explanation of the meaning and end of the Universe 507

IXDEX 511

Preface

THIS book forms the sequel to my former work, entitled The Fatherhood of God in Christian Truth and Life. It is an attempt to explain and verify the Christian religion by means of the fatherly-filial relationship, the supremacy and meaning of which for Christian consciousness and theology, was investigated in the former work. The book has been prepared under very great difficulties, owing to the ceaseless pressure of public engagements. It is to be feared that it has suffered thereby. Moreover, its scope is so extensive that it has been impossible to fill in many details, while some important subjects connected with the exposition and proof of Christianity have been but lightly touched upon or in some cases omitted altogether. The purpose of the book is rather to establish a general point of view than to treat the subject with the exhaustiveness of a Compendium of Christian Evidences.

The popular discussion of what is commonly called the New Theology did not take place till this book was practically completed. It has, therefore, been impossible, even if it had been otherwise desirable, to enter into the current controversy on the subject. It will be found, however, that many of the subjects of the controversy are dealt with, and that a serious attempt is made to give full effect to the truth of the immanence, while steadfastly maintaining the transcendence, of God.

I am, of course, greatly indebted to many sources in working out the view of Christianity and of its relation to Reality, which is outlined in these pages. Special acknowledgment, however, must be made of the obligation that I am under to Dr. James Ward for his Gilford Lectures on Naturalism and Agnosticism,

xiii xiv PREFACE

and to Mr. J. Theodore Merz for his History of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century. So far as the results of the science of religion are concerned, I have derived help from many works, but not least of all from The Philosophy of the Upanishads, by Principal Gough.

In conclusion, I would offer my grateful thanks to the friends who have so kindly relieved me as far as possible of the mechanical work of preparing the book for the press, and to the Rev. W. F. Lofthouse, M.A., who has again assisted me by reading a large part of it in manuscript, and has made valuable suggestions.

I am deeply sensible of the inadequacy of the book to the great subject with which it deals. Yet it seemed a duty to attempt to complete the task previously begun, in the hope of helping some seekers after truth in a period of transition and uncertainty. I trust that my endeavor, despite its imperfections, may be used by the Spirit of Truth to this end.

J. SCOTT LIDGETT.

INTRODUCTION

ITS MEANING AND PROOF

INTRODUCTION

IT cannot be denied that widespread dissatisfaction exists at the present time with the ordinary systems of Christian Evidence. To some extent this is the case in regard to the statements of Christian doctrine which they seek to substantiate. Yet it is still more so in regard to the general point of view from which the subject is approached and to the arguments by which the truth of Christianity is upheld. Those who are not convinced in the matter feel that their difficulties have not been realized, still less met. Those who are convinced are disappointed, because the deepest grounds of their belief are inadequately set forth.

There are several main reasons for this state of things. In the first place, the philosophic outlook has greatly altered in recent years. It is true that comparatively few are directly affected by such changes. Yet philosophic thought is more closely related to the general intellectual characteristics of an age than is often supposed. A great philosophy is the formal expression of widespread tendencies of thought which are not in themselves philosophical. Because of these general relationships its main conceptions pass out almost insensibly and by many channels, till from being the property of the few they affect the outlook of the many. Hence at. the present time influences are widely diffused which are in their origin philosophic, and these create the impression that the Christian Evidences of the past are built upon intellectual foundations which cannot bear the weight of the conclusions resting on them. The vast increase of knowledge has not merely added immense stores of information to the intellectual wealth of mankind, but has forced us to revise many of our conceptions of the relations in which things stand to one another, and in which the past of the universe stands to the present. The wholeness of the universe in all its parts and throughout its history has been brought home to the modern mind as never before. Hence any treatment of Christianity which seeks to emphasize its claims by completely isolating it from the history and meaning of the world and man as a whole brings its advocates into collision with the most powerful forces of presentday thought. If the unique character and the divine claims of Christianity are to be acknowledged by those who enter into the modern point of view, it must be by laying bare its relations to the inmost nature of humanity and of the universe as fulfilling the ends for which they exist, and not by separating it in thought from the whole texture of reality in order subsequently to establish its truth by evidences, the force of which is held to be altogether due to their exceptional character.

Closely bound up with the apparent defect of Christian Evidences just alluded to is their failure to give satisfaction to the spiritual consciousness of Christian believers by giving an adequate account of the grounds of their certitude. There must be something wrong with any system of Christian Evidences which is essentially alien to the mind and chilling to the heart of the intensest Christian faith. This has certainly not seldom been the case in the past. Its effect has often been so serious as to cause a reaction on the part of simple and fervid piety against any attempt to establish by reasoning the truth of the Christian religion.

The force of these difficulties has been felt by all the more thoughtful and sympathetic theologians of recent times. Important and successful efforts have been made both to set forth and to establish the relation of Christianity to the whole order of things as being its fulfillment, and also to explain and indicate the inner reason of faith in it as the truth. Yet such attempts have so far been neither sufficiently numerous and representative to supersede the impressions of the older teaching, nor sufficiently systematic to establish a new point of view more entirely in consonance with the fundamental principles of modern thought. Hence much work remains to be done before the old truth can be enabled to speak with convincing power to the new thought.

No student of history will be surprised that this need should exist. The systems of thought which ecclesiastical authority sometimes seeks to bind in perpetuity upon the mind of Christians were for the most part when they appeared daring innovations, or at least the final and formal expression of spiritual and intellectual changes akin to those which are taking place at the present time. Their appearance was necessitated by exactly the same intellectual unrest, both within and without the Church, which is felt at the present day. The only difference is one of degree, both as to the variety of new issues raised in modern times and the number of minds affected by them. This difference is, however, comparatively unimportant. The main facts to be l/ borne in mind are these: In the first place, that the progress of Christianity has been primarily due to the spiritual experience and not to the formal doctrine of the Church. Secondly, that the growth of that experience and its manifold contact with the world and life as a whole has entailed intellectual consequences and given rise to many succeeding attempts at formal explanation. And, lastly, that the success of such attempts must be measured by their power to satisfy the Christian consciousness itself, and to give an account of its relationship to the universe and its history which meets all the claims, whether spiritual, moral, or rational, which can rightfully be made upon it.

Three governing necessities affect the present demand for a restatement of the nature and grounds of Christian belief. In the first place, the emphasis which modern thought lays upon the principle of continuity throughout the whole range of reality. The universe as it exists involves the union of continuity and distinction, of sameness and difference. Without continuity there could be no order of things; without distinction no variety. The thought which would give a satisfactory explanation of reality must hold fast to both these elements.

Yet there are times when a deepened sense of the one endangers the position of the other. In earlier modern times, and especially in Western thought, the principle of distinction has often been so emphasized that the sense of continuity has been wellnigh destroyed. The distinctions between God, man, and the world, have often been pressed to the point of regarding them as in merely external relations to one another, and sometimes to the extreme of a supposed intrinsic opposition between them. The attributes of God have been conceived as existing and working more or less independently of one another, and little or no effort has been made to show that His different manifestations of Himself are aspects of one supreme and comprehensive relationship which varies in the fullness of its expression according to the capacity or the fitness of its object. A similar tendency in regard to man has severed his spiritual from his common interests, has treated his powers as a bundle of faculties, loosely knit together by the bond of self-consciousness, and has magnified his independence of the natural order of things, to which in some sense he obviously belongs. These are but a few of the illustrations that might be given. The same tendency was equally marked in physical science, with its attempt to multiply distinct elements, forces, and operations in nature.

A variety of causes has in recent times brought the principle of continuity to the forefront. The present danger is not that distinctions should be exaggerated but that they should be ignored. Almost the whole stress is at present laid upon unity and affinity. So far as God is concerned, the effort to realize an unbroken consistency of purpose and an all-comprehending relationship has not only criticised the cruder representations of the religious imagination and superseded many artificial combinations of the divine attributes, but has, sometimes at least, imperiled all that is most essential to the belief in His supreme and holy personality. In the case of man. the attempt to separate parts and powers of his complex being from one another has been succeeded by an attempt at unification, which, rather than fail, will suppress the most direct and hitherto unquestioned testimony of his own consciousness, in order to secure the advantage of continuity and to escape the difficulties of distinction. The same tendency is at work in physical science, alike in the effort to reach one underlying substance and to explain the whole order and history of all things by one pervading energy. Nor does this attempt to realize continuity end here. It includes in its efforts the endeavor to find an underlying unity between God, man, and the world. This is what is meant by the new insistence upon the immanence of God. The truth which is involved in this conception has never been overlooked by the highest exponents of Christian Theism. Yet undoubtedly it was endangered by the hardened distinctions which at present we term deistic, but which prevailed far beyond the immediate circle of those who can be called Deists, in the strict sense of the term. Such an effort to secure unity and continuity may, of course, be pressed so far as to ignore obvious facts, to fall into hopeless confusion of thought, and seriously to imperil grave spiritual and moral interests. Yet the very fact of its exaggerations shows the urgency of the principle in the modern mind. Clearly the task set to Christian thought is to take adequate account of the principle of continuity, while maintaining the distinctive differences upon the validity of which the integrity of spiritual experience depends.

In the second place, the scientific point of view must be borne in mind. Here, above all, the ultimate explanation is sought in the complete establishment of the principle of continuity. The immediate effect is to establish the historic, comparative, and psychological points of view. So far as the first of these is concerned, the conception of evolution causes ever increasing stress to be laid upon the description and explanation, even of the most highly specialized products, in the light of the processes by means of which they have come into existence. Inquiry is not content to take them in themselves and as a new beginning, without tracing out the whole course of their development. The same principle involves not merely continuity with the past, but also throughout the whole range of present existence, and therefore the adoption of methods of comparative description. Further, general metaphysics has somewhat fallen into the background, while psychology, both introspective and experimental, has greatly advanced its claims, either as a substitute or as the only sure foundation of metaphysical generalization.

All these features at once affect the treatment of the phenomena of Christian religion. Modern thought assumes that whatever may be their ultimate explanation there is a natural history of their development which can be investigated. This may mean the denial of the supernatural in regard to them. On the other hand, the reality of the supernatural may be recognized, provided it be acknowledged that when the supernatural enters into history it conforms to the conditions which govern historic progress throughout. Hence the whole temper of modern thought in respect to religion prompts it to take advantage of modern investigation in regard to non-Christian religions, and insists that, however unique may be the Christian consciousness, it should be treated in connection with all other embodiments of the religious faculties throughout history, and should justify its peculiar claims, if at all, as being the unique fulfillment of that which is more imperfectly revealed elsewhere. Such an attempt cannot succeed without increased attention to the psychology of religion.

In the third place, more distinctively spiritual influences must be recognized. A growing importance is attached in many quarters to the personal and experimental note in religion. It is felt that the spiritual consciousness must contain within itself the means of its own verification, or failing this, that its proof can be found nowhere else. This formal conclusion is illustrated by the growing influence exerted in many quarters by the accent of personal conviction in regard to the Christian religion. This influence is not purely moral, but has distinctly intellectual elements. The reason of this is well stated by the late Dr. Hort in the introduction to his invaluable Hulsean Lectures on The Way, the Truth, the Life.

"The impulse," he says, "to give the discussion of Christian evidences an argumentative shape proceeds from a right source, a sense of the untrustworthiness of beliefs founded exclusively on cravings and sympathies, and still more of the difficulty of conveying these grounds of assurance to others.

But this well-founded desire to be rational leads easily to the suppressing of personality as inconsistent with an impartial balance of judgment. Not to speak now of the personal factor which must enter into every perception of comprehensive truth, the effort to be impersonal affects injuriously the discussion of Christian evidences to at least this extent, that it beguiles Christians into setting forth the considerations which ought, they think, to be convincing to others, with little or no reference to what has actually exerted power over their own minds. This vicarious or dramatic pleading cannot escape unreality, except where either its scope is negative — that is, the dialectic refutations of objections — or it is dealing with literary or historical or physical phenomena on a purely literary or historical or physical footing; and consequently it can have no final persuasiveness except toward those peculiar minds whose own beliefs or disbeliefs are formed or retained exclusively within these same limits. With or without good reason, most men who seek foundations on which to build a conviction on grave subjects — not excuses for adhering to an opinion — find no help in arguments which, however honestly urged, bear no trace of having proceeded from an actual experience of help already needed and found."1