The psychology of inspiration; an attempt to distinguish religious from scientific truth and to harmonize Christianity with modern thought

Front matter

The Psychology op ispiRATii

George L. Raymond fyxMll Hmvmitg pikatj

THE GIFT OF

Preface

Near the end of a life which began with a theological training, but has been spent mainly as a professor in college or viniversity, I find myself with this book prepared for publication. Some of it was written several years ago; some of it has been written recently, but the whole has been carefully revised. It is the outgrowth of an endeavor — exceptional, as is thought, in its processes, tho not in its purposes — to find a way in which all that is essential to the methods and results of scientific and historic research can be accepted, while, at the same time, nothing that is essential to the theory or practise of religion need be rejected. That, in our age, any endeavor with this object in view is deserving of the effort expended upon it requires no arguing.

A few months ago I was dining beside a scholar who presides over one of the foremost educational institutions of New England. "Why is it," I asked him, "that Andover Seminary has so few students?" "Mainly," he answered, "because the New England colleges have so few who want to study theology." "Yes'" I said, "they are waiting for my book." "What book?" he asked. "Mine, or some other," I answered, "written to show that a man can be both an out-and-out Christian and a thorough scientist;

iii

IV

PREFACTl can exercise to the full both faith and rationality; can be bound to a church for his support, yet be free in his methods of thinking." "A hard thing to prove," he said. "Yes," I replied, "but it must be proved by some one, or else religion itself can not hold the approval of most of us." Then I explained that, for years, while occupying a professorship necessarily bringing me into close relations with students proficient in oratory, I had noticed a gradual decrease in the proportionate number and quality of those entering the Christian ministry, altho many failing to do so had seemed not only particularly fitted for success in it, but particularly unfitted, intellectually, morally, or spiritually, for following with satisfaction to themselves any other calling.* Their turning from the

* The following enumeration of students and graduates in theological seminaries of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, as reported to the General Assembly for the years 1895 and 1907, was printed in The Princeton (N. J.) Press of September 28, 1907, under the signature of Rev. Lewis W. Mudge, D.D.

Students.

Graduates.

Princeton

Auburn

Western

Lane

Kentucky

McCormick

San Francisco ....

German Dubuque.

German Newark . .

Lincoln

Biddle

Omaha

178 62 72 38 42

106 12 11 22 51 19 26

Totals .

44 20 21

These figures are still more significant in view of the great increase, during these twelve years, in the total population of the country and of the yet greater proportionate increase in the number of those attending the colleges from which the students of Presbyterian seminaries are drawn.

PREFACE V

ministry, I said, so far as they had given expression to that which had influenced them, had seemed due less to any lack of sympathy with religion in general than to a repugnance to becoming special pleaders and hired advocates of what appealed to them as a narrow and biased, and, so far, uncourageous and unmanly method of accepting and interpreting religious dogmas and practises. Such being the case, I exprest to my neighbor my conception of the importance of one of the objects to be undertaken in this book — namely, the removing of difficulties in the way of those whose mental attitude is that of the students just described.

The serious reader will ask, at once, whether this xmdertaking is feasible; whether what is proposed can be done in any such way as to do justice to all the requirements of religion. If it can not be so done, then, of course, this book must prove a failure. It will naerely add one more volume to the many, already too numerous, in which the spiritual is ignored for the sake of the comprehensible, or the comprehensible for the sake of the spiritual. This book can prove a success in the degree alone in which neither of these is ignored, but each is credited with the influence legitimate to it, and this in its entirety. But if it be feasible to attain such a result, so stated, why has it not been attained before? One reason is that it has not before been demanded, or, at least, not as universally as at present. Another reason is that the facts from vi PREFACE

which deductions such as are to be presented in this book can be logically drawn had not been studied, were not understood, and, presumably, could not have been conceived by the theologians of even the last century, to say nothing of men like Calvin or Luther, or like Augustine or Aquinas.

At the same time it is somewhat remarkable that, even in such circumstances, some of the conclusions indicated in the pages that follow have not already been more widely recognized than is the case. Most of our Protestant churches, for instance, profess to accept the principles underlying the Protestant Reformation, especially the one assigning authority to the Chiistian Scriptures, and the one asserting the right of private judgment in interpreting these. But most of our Protestant theologians seem reluctant, at least, to admit that either principle shoiild be carried to a logical conclusion. In doing this, as must be confest, they are faithfully following the examples set by both Calvin and Luther. But historians, without exception, attribute mainly to these examples the sudden check put, in the sixteenth century, upon the progress of the Reformation. May future historians be saved from attributing to the same a like check put, in the twentieth century, upon the progress of all Christianity! Why is the danger of such a check a present menace? Because the science of the day trains the mind to be candid and logical; and theology is inclined to be neither. If, for instance, two pas-

PREFACE vii

sages of Scripture seem to conflict, and so evidently, too, that every thinking mind must perceive it, the theologian, instead of frankly admitting the fact and then trying to find a theory that will justify it as a fact, either denies that it is a fact, or, as will be shown hereafter, makes only one of the two passages authoritative.* Again, while admitting, as a matter of theory, the right of private judgment, he by no means always acknowledges it in practise, especially when another's interpretation of Scripture differs greatly from his own. No one can deny that such attitudes of mind tend to lessen very considerably the influence of the reformed churches, while, at the same time, they do not strengthen that of the unreforined. Those in the reformed churches desire, as a rule, not less but more candor and logic, which is exactly what the unreformed are not prepared to give them; and those in the unreformed churches, if affected at all by a similar desire, are apt, like the French of our day, to look for the fulfllment of it beyond the confines, of any church, even reformed, in which their demands can, at best, be only partly met. This is the same as to say that, in this age of general education and scientific thinking, religion, in order to preserve its influence over men, ,. must be prepared, without prevaricating or hedging,' to satisfy all the requirements of the rational nature. One object of the treatise that follows is to present a theory in accordance with which this can be done viii PREFACE

As applied to practise, the aim of the book may be illustrated thus: Some time ago I attended a meeting of scientists. As I looked about me I became aware that, so far as I knew, not one of those present was considered by himself or by others to be what is conventionally termed religious. Yet in the unselfish, untiring and well-nigh unrewarded labor that every one of these seemed performing for the advancement of the knowledge, the health, and the comfort of his fellows, I recognized such devotion, conscientiousness, and charity as could not be rightly designated irreligious. About the same time my attention was called to a meeting of ecclesiastics. All who took part in it were, presumably, considered by themselves and by others to be religious in an exceptional degree. Yet no reported speech of any one of them happened to be devoid of a certain selfish, intolerant, and immagnanimous disregard of the feelings and thoughts of others such as, so far as one could draw just conclusions from a few utterances, did not place the speaker outside the pale of those ordinarily supposed to be particularly characterized by distinctively Christlike traits. In view of these facts, it seemed to me that it was about ^ time for the world to have some criterion more trustworthy than those commonly accepted by which to judge of the kind of faith and life separating the religious from the non-religious. This seemed especially important in view of the influence which men of both types mentioned are constantly

PREFACE ix

exerting upon the young and the inexperienced. Is it not unfortunate that one of the first type, whom these can not but esteem and, therefore, instinctively strive to imitate, should be connected in their minds with irreligious and not infrequently injurious precepts and examples, which, if also imitated, can not but lead astray? And is it not equally unfortunate that a man of the second type whom the same classes can not fail often to disesteem, and, therefore, to strive not to imitate, should be the one connected in their minds with that which is religious and, as a rule, elevating and fitted to lead aright? Is there any need of preventing a man of either type from exerting the sort of influence for which his personal traits fit him? It does not seem to me that there is. But before this can be recognized by most men they require clearer views than they usually have with reference to the connection between Christianity as a system and the Christian as a subject of it. Here is a reason, therefore, in addition to reasons already given and to others naturally associated with each, seeming to justify, as applied to practise as well as to theory, an attempt, as in this book, to make a more careful study than has yet been undertaken of the nature of that phase of influence to which spiritually minded people believe that religion owes its source.

I may, perhaps, be excused for mentioning, before closing this Preface, two regards in which the thought presented in the pages following differs essentially x: PBEFA CE

from that in almost all other works written with a somewhat similar intent. In the first place, while em^ phasizing the importance of rationality in religion, the arguments advanced are not in the least degree allied to those of "rationalism" in the materiahstic sense in which this term is ordinarily used. On the contrary, they tend distinctly toward belief in the spiritual, and this to a degree not true of very many of the Christian discussions of our times. In the second place, while emphasizing spiritual discernment as necessary to the understanding of the literal statements of the Scriptures, the arguments are not advanced as pleas for — nor, indeed, against — any merely esoteric method of interpreting occult sjrmbols or allegories. On the contrary, the whole line of thought tends distinctly toward confidence in the sufficient intellectual equipment of those who exercise merely honest and unbiased common sense.

George Lansing Raymond.

The George Washington University.

November 1, 1907.

Contents

INTEODUCTION

PAOB

Conditions of Prevailing Thought Which Occasioned This Book- Comprehensive Character of the Besults Beached in It — Inspiration and Revelation— Apparent Inaccuracy in the Hebraic and Christian Scriptures — No "Writings or Utterances Supposed to Be Inspired Are Free from Ambiguity, or from the Liability of Being Interpreted Differently — ^A Logical Mind Can Not Accept This Condition Unless It Perceive Some Reason for It — This Reason Must Be Found, if at All, in the Nature of the Spirit Inspiring, of Which We Can Not Know ; or of the Man or Mankind Inspired, of Which We Can Know. ... 1

Chapter I The Nature Of Truth As Indicated By What Men

SEEK WHEN THEY SEARCH FOR IT, AND THINK

THAT THEY FIND WHEN THEY OBTAIN IT

Methods Through Which It Is Proposed to Ascertain the Nature of Truth— Scientists and Philosophers Search for Truth as Something Behind Appearances in Space— And in Time- Therefore Conceive It to Be Not Alone in the Appearances Themselves— But in These as Related to Certain Methods of Operation— Same Facts Shown by the Treatment Given to Formal Statements— The Truth in Them Discovered by Regarding Relations to Surrounding Circumstances — Therefore to Methods of Operation— Absolute Truth as Existing Without Reference to Relations— Necessity of Considering Methods of Operation Shown by What Men Find When They Think That They Have Obtained Truth— Meanings of the Adjective True —Further Meanings— Its Meanings When Material or Bodily Conditions Are Compared With Mental or Spiritual — Its Meanings When Applied to Language— The False in Language Is a Want of Conformity to a Method of Operation in a Mental Process— Summary of the Meanings of the Word 2Vue— Of the Word2VMt?i. 9 xii CONTENTS

Chapter II The Nature Of Truth As Indicated By What Men

DO WHEN RECEIVING AND IMPARTING

ITS INFLUENCE

PAGE

Objections to the View Presented in the First Chapter— Truth, as Exprest in Language, Should Not Be Confounded with the Formula ; Illustrated from Methods of Interpreting the Bible —Its History Noteworthy for the Methods of Life Which It Illustrates— Its Prophecies Valuable for Their Fulfllnaent Not Only, but Applicability to Laws Operating Every where—Confirmation of This Principle of Interpretation of the Bible in Its Explanations— Its Arguments— Its Injunctions— Real Meaning Lost When Truth Is Supposed to Be Conformed to Formulae Alone, and Not Also to Methods of Operation — The Use of the Word Truth in the Bible— lUnstrations—Inferences—Truth Is Perceived in the Process of Searching for It — Supposing Change Inconsistent with Absoluteness in Truth Is a Source of Both Infidelity and Bigotry— Right Views of Truth as a Corrective of These — The Truth in Revealed and Natural Religion Connected with a Conception of Method — One Recognizing This May Be a Friend to Both Progress and Permanence — Inferences from the View Here Presented — A Few Forms in Space May Reveal Universal Methods — One Mind May Represent God— And One Life, if Full of Love— The Mission of the Friend — Comfort in This Suggestion — The Changes of a Few Moments May Reveal Universal Methods — Child or Man with Short or Long Life May Both Have Experience of Them 26

Chapter III

THE MIND'S SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SPIRITUAL OR IN- SPIRATIONAL, AS CONTRASTED WITH MATERIAL, INFLUENCES

To What Men Refer When Using the Term Inspiration— When Using the Term Spiritual— Considered an Influence Not Traceable to the Conscious Sphere of the Mind — But Traceable to or Through an Inner or Subconscious Sphere— Proofs of the Existence of This Sphere, as in Memory, Fright, Fever, Hypnotism — Subconscious Philosophical and Mathematical Intellection — Resulting from Previous Conscious Action, as in

CONTENTS xiii

FAOB

Skill — Nob Resulting from Previous Conscious Action ; Coburn, Mozart, Blind Tom — Subconscious Diagnosis of Disease at a Distance — Subconscious Apprehension of Distant Occurrences — Both in Space and Time — Mind-Reading — Automatic Writing — Apparitions — Connection Between Such Facts and Belief in a Future State of Rewards and Punishments— Often Attributed to Natural Material Causes— Should Be Attributed to Influences from Nature's Occult Side — Shown in Susceptibility of the Primitive, Uneducated Man to Such Influences — Instinct and Reason — Instinctive and Rational — Instinctive and Religious — Instinctive and Animal — Story of the Fall— The Mental Actions of Animals- Of Negroes, Indians, and Those Subject to Hallucinations, with Inferences Therefrom — Like Inferences with Reference to the Origin of Religion Drawn from Primitive Religious Customs — ^With Growth of Intelligence, Physical Occult Manifestations Are Considered Less Important Thau Verbal— But the Verbal Continue to Be Associated with Subconscious Intellection 51

Chapter IV

THE MIND'S CONTRIBUTIONS PROM CONSCIOUS INTEL- LECTION TO THAT WHICH IS RECEIVED THROUGH THE SUBCONSCIOUS

Subconscious and Conscious Influences Manifested in All Forms of Intellection — Value of That Obtainable from the Former Depends on the Character of That Given by the Latter — Obligation of an Inspired Man to Interpret Promptings from the Subconscious by His Conscious Intellection — Fulfilment of This Obligation Characteristic of Writers — Consequent Intellectual Progress Connected with This Form of Inspired Communication — Recognizing Relationship of Christian to Other Forms of Inspiration Does Not Impair the Authenticity and Authority of the Christian Scriptures— Or Lessen One's Veneration for Them — Nor Does the Acknowledgment That Signs and Wonders Are Wrought in Other Religious — The Testimony of the Christian Scriptures Upon This Subject — Rationality of the Scriptural Test as Applied to Spiritism —Hudson's Theory— Importance of Investigating Spiritism — The Dangers Attendant Upon Accepting, Without Thinking, Its So-called Revelations Also Threaten Those Accepting, in the Same Way, Revelation in Any Other Form 92 xiv CONTENTS

Chapter V The Necessarily Suggestive Character Of In- Spired Or Revealed Truth

PAOE

Ambiguity and Indefiniteness Seem Characteristic of the Communications Received Through Inspiration and Revelation — The Method of Action of the Inner Sphere of the Mind May Render This Result Necessary — We Can Study This Method Through the Analogous Methods of Hypnotism — Limitations of This Study — Hypnotism Influences Through Suggestion, Which Leaves Expression Eree and, When Influencing Different Minds, Different — The Bearing of This Argument — Analogies from Hypnotism May Explain Many Things Assigned to Spiritual Influence in the Scriptures — This Is so of Conversion — Of Atonement, of Spiritual Unity, of Creation, of Probation, of Life After Death — Suggestive Revelation May Be More Influential Than Dictatorial — Additional Evidence of This — Suggestive Control in Religion Conforms to Divine Control as Manifested in External Nature — Suggestive Nature of Revealed Truth Already Widely Acknowledged by Christians — This Acknowledgment Not Antagonistic to Continued Study of the Scriptures — Illustration of the Way in Which the Same Inspired Truth May Be Exprest in Different Forms — Different Legends in Different Religions May Give Expression to the Same Fundamental Truth — Influence of This Fact Upon Future Theologians 107

Chapter VI Significance And Form In Suggested Truth

A Conception Impressing Our Minds Is Not Identical with a Word Expressing It— The Latter Is a Result of Materializing the Conception — Use of Materialized Conceptions by Man and by the Creator — Universal^ Recognition of This Use — ^Apr propriateness of Its Use in Inspiration and Revelation — How This Fact Modifies Certain Current Conceptions— Differences Between Scientific and Religious Truth — Application to Statements in the Bible — Rendering These Conformable to Reason — And to Philanthropy — Degrees of the Credibility of the Influence Occultly Exerted Through the Subconscious — Depends Upon the Truthfulness of the Suggestion Given It as a Premise— The Truthfulness of This Suggestion and of Its Results Must be Determined by the Action of Some Con-

CONTENTS XV

PAGE

scious Mind — Whose Conscious Mind This Is — It Is a Mind Influenced by Heredity and Environment — This Explains the Development of the Truth as Revealed in the Bible — The Explanation Accords with Biblical Statements — With General Opinion — This Conception Does Not Render Biblical Truth Less Determinant 134

Chapter VII The Rational Method Of Interpreting Biblical Statements

Theories of Modern Biblical Critics — How to Reconcile with the Conception of Inspiration the Conception That Parts of the Bible Are Compiled from Other Writers — Scriptural Warrants for Testing by the Conscious Mind the Truth Coming Through the Subconscious — The Test Afforded by the Results of Previ- [ous Information — Of Intuitive Insight — Of Logical Inference — Application of Faith to Matters Beyond the Reach of Conscious Information, Intuition, or Inference 158

Chapter VIII

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST INTERPRETING BIB- LICAL STATEMENTS AS SUGGESTIVE AND NOT DICTATORIAL

The View Presented in the Preceding Chapter Seems to Subject the Truth of God to the Judgment of Man — This Method in Analogy with Other Ways in Which Man is Expected to Interpret Divine Truth — Nature and Experience Influence Him so as to Cultivate His Power of Acting Rationally — Effect of This Upon the Young — We Should Expect the Same Method to Be Pursued in Revelation: Impossibility of Any Other Method Except the Suggestive in Communicating Spiritual Truth — The Error of Interpreting the Scriptures Literally. . . . 169

Chapter IX

CHRISTIAN DOGMATISM AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDER- ING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Conclusions Reached in Preceding Chapter — Conflrmation of These Afforded by the Scriptures — These Conclusions Are Not Accepted by Christians in General — Deleterious Effects of This xvi CONTENTS

PAGE

Manifested in Diminished Attendance Upon Church Services —The Church Should Remedy This Condition— Origin of Dogmatism, Intolerance, and the Dark Ages— Dogmatism and Intolerance as Irrational as Uncharitable— Creeds Should Not Be Made a Test of Christian Character— Applied to the Doctrine of Inspiration— Injurious Eflfects of Applying Such a Test in Connection with This Doctrine— Same Principle Exemplified with Reference to the Doctrine of the Personality of God— The Trinity— The ImmaculatelConception and Incarnation—The Method of Salvation— The Problem in Salvation— Its Solution in the Work of the Christ^How Dogmatism, Tho Based Upon This Solution, Does Harm— Not Only Among Christians, but Non-Christians, as Buddhists and Mohammedans—Same Principle Applied to Doctrine of Eternal Punishment—Certainty with Reference to Spiritual Truth Not Justifiable— Illustration of the Practical Evils of This Attitude 178

Chapter X

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDER- ING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

The Church Not an End but a Means — The Church Intended to Infiuence Opinion, Inclination, and Conduct — Opinion Most Influenced Not by Authority, but by Thought — Illustrations from History — Same Principle Applied to the Influence Exerted Upon Belief by the Numbers Attending Any One Church — Or Exerted Upon Expressions of Belief — External Unity of the Church May Be Detrimental to Infiuence of Thought as Thought — Influence of Thought as Thought, Aside from the Influence of Authority Upon Christian Opinion — And Upon Conduct — Reasons for This — The Conception of the Church Which Harmonizes with the Testimony Afforded by Historic Christianity — By the Primitive Church — Enforced Unity of the Church Is Not the Spiritual Unity of Christians — Nor Is It Made Prominent Where the Church Is Growing — The Church as Influencing Inclinations Through Rites or Rituals— Worship Can Not Be Exprest Through Argumentative or Dogmatic Language— Neglect of This Principle in English Cathedrals — In Assemblies of Those of Divergent Views — Principle Applied to Hymns— To Prayers and Repetitions of Creeds— The Church in Influencing Conduct Is Sometimes Dictatorial, Sometimes Prohibitive, but Usually Negative— The Chris-

CONTENTS xvii

PAGE

tianity of the Christ Is Positive — The Christian Must Do More Than Seek His Own Salvation — Development in the Church of the Feeling of Individual Responsibility — ^Further Developments to Be Expected in the Future— These Theories Not Due to Lack of Appreciation of the "Work of the Church.'. 2W

Chapter XI

CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE AND CONDUCT AS AFFECTED BY CONSIDERING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

Important to Consider the Church's Influence Upon the Individual — Supposed Origin of Subconscious Tendencies — The Important Matter Is to Recos;nize That They Exist, and Are Often Antagonistic — The Antagonism Is Caused by a Consciousness, Which We Term Conscience, That One Tendency Has Superior Claims to Another — The Nature and Function of Conscience — Its Promptings from the Subconscious Different in Different Minds — Character of the Influence from the Subconscious to Some Extent Under One's Control — The Result of Environment and Habit — The Influence of Conscious Repetition — The Influence of Rituals and Rites — Overbalanced by the Influence of Example— Reasons for This — Futility of Confining Efforts for Reformation of Character to Effects Merely Addressing the Eye or Ear — Influence of Example Upon the Subconscious Mind 347

Chapter XII Christian Faith As Affected By Considering Spiritual Truth Suggestive

Suggestion Influences One Differently When in a Conscious and in a Subconscious State — In Either State, He Surrenders Control of His Subconscious Mentality to One Alone in Whom He Has Confidence — Importance of Noticing This Influence of Personality— Its Relation to Christian Faith and Conversion —To Preaching and Revivals — Faith Not Peculiar to Christianity—Nature of Christian Faith— Faithfulness and Fidelity Essential to It — But Not Perfection of Character — Faith as Infiuenced by the Agencies Employed by the Church, as in Formulation—Error Necessarily Introduced Into This— Two II lustrations — Influence of Church Authority — Influence Upon Faith of the Historic Christ— How Faith Necessitates Freedom of Mental Action— Scriptural Warrant for This 265 xviii CONTENTS

Chapter XIII

.UNITY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF AS AFFECTED BY CON- SIDERING SPIRITUAL TRUTH SUGGESTIVE

^ , PAGE

Principles Unfolded in the Preceding Chapter Can Be Applied in All Religions— What Are the Most Common and Universal Religious Conceptions — Communications from Bad and Good Spirits— Homage Appeasing the First, and Soliciting Favors from the Second, Who Are Often Supposed to Be Heroes and Ancestors — Formulation of Opinions Concerning These and Their Teachings Into Systems of Belief, as by Copernicus, Zoroaster, Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, and the Christ — Christianity Not Necessarily Antagonistic to Other Religions, as Shown by Its Holding Many Similar Beliefs — Acknowledging Certain of the Truths in These Religions Might Benefit Christianity — This Need Not Imply Acknowledging That Everything in Any Other System Is True — Nor Need It Throw Discredit Upon Missionary Effort, but Lead It to Emphasize in Christianity That which Is Lacking in Other Systems, and Is Essential in Its Own — Religious Unity — This Must Begin by First Acknowledging the Truth Common to All Religions 387

Chapter XIV

CERTAIN OTHER PROBLEMS MADE SOLVABLE BY THE THEORY PRESENTED IN THIS BOOK

Reconciliation Between the Claims of Inspiration and Apparent Inaccuracy and Contradiction in the Text Giving It Expression — Between the Claims of Absolute, Eternal, and Infinite Truth and the Apparent Impossibility of Stating or Determining This ; Pragmatism— In What Sense, Value, or Worth, Emphasized in Pragmatism, Is a Test of Truth — Difference Between Knowledge Which Is Applied to a Part and Faith Which Is Applied to a Whole— Illustration— Difference Between This View and That of Pragmatism — Reconciliation Between the Full Acceptance of Revealed Truth and the Full Exercise of Reason — Between Liberality of Thought and Honest Acceptance of the Christian System, Applied to Those Not Members of the Church — To Scientists — Applied to Members of the Church — Reconciliation Between Complete Adherence to One's Own Religious Views and Complete Toleration of the Views of Others — Between Others' Acceptance of the Truth in One's Own System and Conservation of the Truth in Theirs

CONTENTS xix

PAOE

— Between Rationality or Intelligence and Spirituality or Faith — The Material and the Spiritual — Spirituality — If Inspired Truth Be Suggestive, Spirituality and Faith Can Follow It with No Lessening of the Exercise of Intelligence and Reason — Conclusion 306

INDEX 337

Introduction

Conditions of Prevailing Thought Which Occasioned This Book — Comprehensive Character of the Results Reached in It — Inspiration and Revelation — Apparent Inaccuracy in the Hebraic and Christian Scriptures — No Writings or Utterances Supposed to Be Inspired Are Free from Ambiguity, or from the Liability of Being Interpreted Differently — A Logical Mind Can Not Accept This Condition Unless It Perceive Some Reason foy It — This Reason Must Be Pound, if at All, in the Nature of the Spirit Inspiring, of Which We Can Not Know; or of the Man or Mankind Inspired, of Which We Can Know.

One who mingles much with educated men in our country will find large numbers of them doubting whether a modern mind, trained to observe scientifically and to reason logically, can without bias accept as true the form of religion most prevalent in our times, or, indeed, any religion, and yet honestly weigh all the arguments that can be brought against it. There must be some reason for their doubting this. To attribute the reason to the false working of their minds, as contrasted with the right working of the minds of other people, would be manifestly uncharitable and illogical. The doubters themselves are often men of exceptional capability and conscientiousness. All minds, of course, have their idiosyncrasies; but these alone are not sufficient to accoimt for similar effects produced upon large classes of men who, above all things, are

2 THE PS YGHOL OQY OF IN8PIBA TION

thinkers. There must be something and often much in the external conditions to cause these effects. In the case that we are considering, the external conditions are the forms in which are presented what are termed the truths of religion. So far as a mind does not accept these forms because of something in themselves, we must hold that this something is either essential to the truth that is in the form or that it is non-essential to this truth. If essential, then there seems to be no escape from concluding that supposed truth which can not stand the tests of modern science and reasoning must, sooner or later, become whollydiscredited. If non-essential, then every effort should be made to change the method of interpreting it and of separating it, so far as possible, from the essential. The pages that follow have been written upon the hypothesis that the latter supposition is correct, as well as to show why this may be supposed to be the case, and how the conditions occasioning it may be met.

An endeavor to deal with such subjects as these is an undertaking for which, in the present state of religious thought and life, no earnest man writing for earnest men need make excuses. One fact, however, in justice to the author ought to be stated. When he entered upon his work he had no conception of the comprehensiveness of the inferences which would logically follow upon obtaining from it any definite results. These inferences, one after another, have unfolded themselves from his line of thought as naturally as a