Reason, faith and authority in Christianity, being the Paddock lectures for 1901-02

Preface

These lectures on the relations between Reason, Faith, and Authority, were delivered before the students and professors in the chapel of the General Theological Seminary in New York in December, 1901, and February, 1902.

They are published under the conditions prescribed in the Paddock Foundation. Portions omitted for want of time when they were delivered, appear in the printed Lectures.

A few notes are appended developing some im¬ portant principles compressed into sentences in the text. I have also introduced in the Lectures, and especially in the notes, extracts from masters of style and luminous thinking, to call the attention of the younger generation of the clergy to books 'which may be helpful, educative and inspiring. The constant pressure of the pulpit for literary production may lead to the formation of the habit of slipshod methods of expression as well as crudities of thought. For in¬ telligent laymen, as well as for the clergy, time is too short for communion through books with any but the best minds.

PREFACE

While I am writing this prefatory note the in¬ telligence reaches me of the death of Dr. Eugene Augustus Hoffmann, for twenty-two years the Dean of the Seminary. That Seminary with its noble build¬ ings, library and equipment, is in great degree a monument to his unstinted generosity, his laborious fidelity, his practical abilities, his love of the beauti¬ ful, and above all, his consecration to Christ and to His church.

The responsibility of the generation of clergy, educated under his administration, for his example and the spiritual influence of his simplicity and godly sin¬ cerity, I can only estimate by my own experience as a guest in his home. May God bless his memory and keep it green.

THE

BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES.

Ih the summer of the year 1880, George A. Jar¬ vis, of Brooklyn, H. Y., moved by his sense of the great good which might thereby accrue to the cause of Christ, and to the Church of which he was an ever-grateful member, gave to the General Theolog¬ ical Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church certain securities, exceeding in value eleven thousand dollars, for the foundation and maintenance of a Lec¬ tureship in said seminary.

Out of love for a former pastor and enduring friend, the Eight Eev. Benjamin Henry Paddock, D.D., Bishop of Massachusetts, he named the founda¬ tion “ The Bishop Paddock Lectureship.’’

The deed of trust declares that, —

“ The subjects of the lectures shall be such as appertain to the defense of the religion of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the Holy Bible , and illustrated in the Boole of Common Prayer , against the varying errors of the day, whether materialistic, rationalistic, or professedly religious, and also to its defense and confirmation in respect of such central truths as the Trinity , the Atonement, Justification , and the Inspiration of the Word of God ; and of such central facts as the Church's Divine Order and Sacraments , her historical Reformation , and her rights and powers as a pure and national Church. And other subjects may be chosen if unanimously approved by the Board of Appointment as being both timely and also within the true intent of this lectureship.”

o

THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES

Under the appointment of the board created by the Trust, the Eight Bev. Alfred Magill Eandolph, Bishop of Southern Virginia, delivered the Lectures for the year 1901-02, which are contained in this volume.

LECTURERS.

1881. The Rt. Rev. John Williams, DD., LL.D., “The English

Reformation.”

1882. The Rev. John Cotton Smith, D.D.,* “ Relations of Religions

Belief and Philosophical Opinions.”

1883. The Rev. Wm. D. Wilson, D.D., LL.D., L.H.D., “TheMethods

of Natural Theology Vindicated against Modern Objections.”

1884. The Rt. Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Long

Island, “The Christian Ministry at the Close of the Nine¬ teenth Century.”

1885. The Rt. Rev. Henry C. Lay, D.D., LL.D., Bishop of Easton,

“The Rights and Powers of the Particular or National Church.”

1886. The Rev. William H. Platt, D.D., LL.D., “The Philosophy

of the Supernatural.”

1887. The Rev. John H. Egar, D.D., “ The History of Christendom,

Ecclesiastical and Political, from Constantine to the Reforma¬ tion.”

1888. The Rt. Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson, D.D., LL.D., Bishop

of Mississippi, “Christ’s Doctrine of Development.”

1889. The Rev. Edward Hurtt Jewett, D.D., LL.D., “ Diabolology

— the Person and Kingdom of Satan.”

1890. The Rt. Rev. Hollingworth Tully Kingdon, D.D., Bishop

of Fredericton, N. B., “God Incarnate.”

1891. The Rt. Rev. Benjamin Henry Paddock, D.D., Bishop of

Massachusetts.*

1892. The Rev. Morgan Dix, D.D., D.C.L., “The Sacramental

System Considered as the Extension of the Incarnation.”

1893. The Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, D.D., LL. D., Bishop

of Western New York, “The Repose of the Blessed Dead.”f

1894. The Rev. C. W. E. Body, D.D., D.C.L., “The Permanent

Value of the Book of Genesis as an Integral Part of Divine Revelation.”

*Died before delivering the Lectures.

tNot published.

THE BISHOP PADDOCK LECTURES

1895. The Rev. Robert B. Fair bairn, D.D., LL.D.. “The Influ¬

ence of Philosophy and Logic on the Revealed Facts of Chris¬ tian Redemption.”

1896. The Rev. Arthur James Mason, D.D., “ The Conditions of

onr Lord’s Life upon Earth, as set Forth in the Gospels.”

1897. The Rt. Rev. John Dowden. D.D., Lord Bishop of Edinburgh,

‘ ‘ The Theological Literature of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries. ’ ’

1893. The Rt. Rev. Thomas Frank Gailor, D.D., Bishop Coad¬ jutor of Tennessee, “ Liturgy and Dogma.” *

1899. The Rt. Rev. James Dow Morrison. D.D.. LL.D., Missionary

Bishop of Duluth, “ The Attitude of the Church towards Holy Scripture, the Creeds, and the Sacred Ministry.”

1900. The Rev. Charles W. Shields, D.D., “Professor of the

Harmony of Science and Revealed Religion,” in Princeton University, N. J., “Scientific Evidences of Revealed Re¬ ligion.”

1901-2. The Rt. Rev. Alfred Magill Randolph, D.D., Bishop of Southern Virginia, “ Reason, Faith and Authority in Chris¬ tianity.”

* Not delivered.