The philosophy of the Christian religion

Front matter

Glass _^._ Book._

Copyright^ cuEaacra deposit

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Preface

THIS book may be described as an attempt to do two things : first, to explain religion through nature and man ; and, secondly, to construe Christianity through religion. The author conceives religion to be a joint product of the mind within man and the nature around him, the mind being the source of the ideas which constitute its soul, the nature around determining the usages and customs which build up its body. He does not think, therefore, that any one of its special forms can be explained without the local nature which begot and shaped it, or that its general being can be resolved and construed without the reason or thought which is common to the race. He sees in religion the greatest of all man's unconscious creations, and the most potent of the means which the past, while it was still a living present, formed for the making of the man and the times that were yet to be.

The beliefs of the author are writ large on almost every page, and these he need neither explain nor justify here ; but a word or two may be said as to the occasion which defined not so much the problem of the book as its scope and point of view. Some years ago he had the honour of being appointed by the University of Chicago lecturer on the Haskell foundation. The conditions of the endowment were that a certain number of lectures should be delivered in India, especially in the Presidency towns. In India the author suddenly found himself face to face with a religion he had studied in its literature and by the help of interpreters of viii PREFACE

many minds and tongues, and this contact with reality at once illuminated and perplexed him. It was not so much that his knowledge was incorrect or false, as that it was mistaken in its emphasis. No religion can be known in its Sacred Books alone, or simply through its speculative thinkers and religious reformers ; and of all religions the one that these can least interpret is the encyclopaedic aggregation of cults and customs we know as Hinduism. Hence he realized as he had never done before the force of custom and usage, of social convention and religious observance, the didactic and coercive power of a worship which can command obedience where its value is doubted, or even where it is denied and despised. He saw a religion which had an innumerable multitude of deities and an indescribable variety of worships, which had grown out of a simple and primitive naturalism that had no knowledge of these gods and rites, which had had hosts of reformers who had yet only added to the mythologies and cults they had set out to purge and reform, and which still amid so many changes was conceived and described as one religion, and as continuous with that of the ancient Aryan men. Hence he was confronted with certain philosophical problems which he had to attempt to solve before he could think of undertaking any large historical investigation : — What is religion in general ? How and why has it arisen ? What causes have made religions to differ ? Is the multitude as good for man permanently as it has been necessary to his development ? What are the ultimate constituents of religions, — ideas and beliefs, or customs and institutions ? If by their usages and observances some religions are native to certain localities and peoples, and alien from certain o:her places and races, — can a religion whose institutions are at once local and essential be universal ? How has it happened that certain religions have become missionary while others have never desired or been able to transcend the limits of the tribe or the home ?

PREFACE ix

What attributes must distinguish a missionary from nonmissionary religions ?

These then were the problems which created this book, for they compelled the author to study his own faith in their light. He could not but feel that Christianity stood among the religions which must be historically investigated and philosophically construed ; and that no greater injury could be done to it than to claim for it exceptional consideration at the hands of the historical student or philosophical thinker. For he who advances such a claim practically surrenders either the truth and equity of his religion, or the integrity of the reason which was God's own gift to man. But it is further obvious that the mode of interpreting other religions, especially as regards the fundamental point of the origin and warrant of the ideas which are as the heart or basis common to all, has the most serious possible significance for Christianity. For if our primary and original beliefs be but the glorified survivals of certain " mistaken inferences " deduced by savage man from the phenomena either of his own dreams or of a nature he did not understand, then it is clear that every religion will be made to suffer from the inherent and inherited sin of its remotest ancestor. And, again, if great historical religions which innumerable millions of men, as rational as we, have professed through thousands of ages, be resolved into systems of error and delusion that only the blind deceitfulness of the human heart could tempt man to believe, then it is evident that we dare not use the reason or the conscience which we have so discredited either to believe or to attest or to justify the truth of our own. In other words, the philosophy that misreads the origin of religious ideas and the history of any religion will not, and indeed cannot, be just to the Christian ; while he who would maintain the Christian must be just and even generous to all the religions created and professed of men.

x PREFACE

This book, then, is neither a philosophy nor a history of religion, but it is an endeavour to look at what is at once the central fact and idea of the Christian faith by a mind whose chief labour in life has been to make an attempt at such a philosophy through such a history. The Son of God holds in His pierced hands the keys of all the religions, explains all the factors of their being and all the persons through whom they have been realized. And this means that the author would not, if he could, take the religion he loves out of the cycle of the historical religions. On the contrary, he holds that Christianity must stand there if it is to be really known and truly honoured. The time is coming, and we shall hope that the man is coming with it, which shall give us a new Analogy, speaking a more generous and hopeful language, breathing a nobler spirit, aspiring to a larger day than Butler's. It will seek to discover in man's religions the story of his quest after God, but no less of God's quest after him ; and it will listen in all of them for the voice of the Eternal, who has written His law upon the heart in characters that can never be eradicated. And it will argue that a system whose crown and centre is the Divine Man, is one which does justice to everything positive in humanity by penetrating it everywhere with Deity. The Incarnation, as here read, is the very truth which turns nature and man, history and religion into the luminous dwelling-place of God.

In sending out this book the author must record his gratitude to two friends : Mr. P. E. Matheson, M.A., Fellow of New College, Oxford, for his patience in reading the proofs, and for the many emendations in style and expression he has suggested ; and the Rev. R. S. Franks, M.A., B. Litt, formerly of Mansfield College, now of Birkenhead, for his labour in drawing up the Table of Contents and preparing the Index.

Introduction

PAGE 3-19

3-7

The Problem of the Christian Religion .... § I. The Person of Christ as the Mystery of the Christian Religion

1. The Jesus of the Gospels and the Christ of the Creeds ;

the place of mystery in religion ..... 3

2. Mysteries of nature and mysteries of art ... 5 §11. Need the Person be a Mystery . . . . . .7-12

1. Dialectic analysis of the doctrine of the Incarnation . 7

2. Literary and historical analysis of the same ... 10 §111. Why there is a Problem of the Person . . . 12-19

1. The common defect of the foregoing dialectic and literary

analyses is neglect of the place of Christ in history . 1 2

2. It is the divine Christ who has entered into history . 14

3. The problems raised by the person of Christ are both

literary and speculative. Christ is in history as God is in nature. Reason must construe the doctrine of His Person 16

Book I

QUESTIONS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE AND MIND WHICH AFFECT BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL PERSON

The Belief as a Problem in the Philosophy of Nature 23-60 § I. The Ideas of Nature and the Supernatural . . . 23-27

1. The incompatibility of the doctrine of the Person of

Christ with the scientific view of Nature ... 23

2. Hume's argument against miracles criticized on the basis

of his own philosophy ....... 24 xii CONTENTS

PAGE

§11. Nature and Thought 27-37

1. Nature does not interpret man : man interprets Nature 27

2. Nature and Personality : What thought gives to Nature

and what sense perceives in it . . . . -3°

3. Energy known in Nature because freedom is in man . 33

4. Nature a visual language ; the intellect and the intelli-

gible expressions of one Intelligence .... 35 §111. Mind and the Process cf Creation .... 37-55

1. The problem of Evolution not organism, but the Reason

that organizes ........ 38

2. Methods of solution . ..... 40

A. The Regressive Method 41

i. Man and ape in natural and in civil history.

Why do their histories differ? ... 41

ii. Darwin's petitio principii .... 46

B. The Egressive Method 48

i. Matter cannot originate Mind : speculative paralysis of the school of Hume : speculative passion of Science .... 48 ii. Granted the speculative conception of matter, can the creative process be explained ? Intelligence in Evolution .... 53 § IV. Conclusions and Inferences ...... 55~6o

1. A. Nature must be conceived through the supernatural 56

B. (a) The real creation of God is spirit ... 57 (/3) He remains in active relation with the spirits

He has made ....... 58

C. God's creative action never ceases . . . -58

D. This is the meaning of the doctrine of Evolution . 59

2. The key of all mysteries is man 60

The Problem as Affected by the Philosophy of Ethics 61-93 § I. The Problems raised by Man as an Ethical Being: Moral

Judgements imply a Moral Standard .... 6 1-63

§11. Empiricism in K?iowledge and in Ethics . . . 63-68

1. Intimate connexion between the metaphysics of know-

ledge and of ethics ... .... 63

2. Moral systems of Hobbes, Hume, and Bentham . . 65

3. These imply man's transcendence of Nature ; but fail to

relate the individual to society ..... 67

§111. Ethics and Evolution 68-74

1. The inherited social inteiest ...... 68

A. Darwin's theory of accidental variations ... 70

CONTENTS xiii

B. Spencer's principle of conservation of life . 2. i. The question of time not vital .... ii. The transmission of acquired characters dubious iii. Differences more important than similarities iv. The end not the adjustment of the individual to

society, but of both to the ideal .... 74 § IV. What do Moral Judgements Involve? . . . . 74-83

1. The question of Freedom 75

2. The idea of the Right ; the Right as happiness . . 78

(a) What is happiness ? . . . . . -79 (/3) What sort of happiness is the measure of the

Right? 79

(y) Whose is the happiness ? . . . . .80

3. Duty or conscience . . . . . . .81

§ V. The Ethical Matt means an Ethical Universe : Butler and

1. Butler and Kant compared 83

2. Butler on the moral law and its Giver .... 85

3. Kant's categorical imperative and his deductions of

Freedom, Immortality and God 87

§VI. Deductions and Conclusion ...... 89-93

1. Moral evil transcends Nature because creative . . 89

2. Self-realization the law of human progress ... 90

3. Man cannot be measured by Nature .... 91

4. Moral good is realized in persons 92

5. A supreme Personality the fitting vehicle of the highest

good 93

CHAPTER III The Question as Affected by the Problem of Evil

A. Historical and Critical 94-131

1. The problem appeals to the finest spirits ... 94

2. Moral evil the gravest problem 96

3. The problem intensified by belief in God ... 97 §11. Optimism and Evil ....... 99-111

1. Optimism of Plato and the Stoics, of Augustine and

Nicholas of Cusa 99

2. Leibnitz and Pope 103

i. The Thcodicee ........ 104

ii. The Essay on Man . . . . . . .106

3. Criticism of Pope : Voltaire : problem of the survival of

the fittest 107

P.C.R. c xiv CONTENTS

PAGE

§111. Pessimism Ancient a.7td Modern m-117

1. The causes of Pessimism . . . . . .111

2. Pessimism Uncongenial to the Greek mind : compared

with Mediaeval Asceticism . . . . . . 113

3. Pessimism in Goethe and Byron: in modern politics . 114 § IV. Eastern and Western Pessimism . . . . . 11 7-1 31

1. Philosophical Buddhism : its origin and aim . . .117

2. Western Pessimism. Schopenhauer : influenced by

Kant, Fichte and Buddha : compared with Buddha. Von Hartmann ........ 121

3. Appreciation and criticism of Pessimism : Gain or loss ? 127

Chapter IV

The Question as Affected by the Problem of Evil.

B. Some suggestions towards a solution . . . 132-168 § I. The Limits and Terms of the Discussion . . . 132-136

1. The Responsibility of God 132

2. Distinction of physical and moral evil : the painfulness

of experience . . . . . . . 134

A. Physical Evil : its kinds and functions . . . 136 §11. Man in the Hands of Nature ..... 136-141

1. Evils arising from the inter-relations of man and nature

classified 139

2. Functions of physical evils ...... 137

i. Education in the arts ...... 137

ii. Education in humanity . ..... 138

iii. The motherhood of Nature ..... 139

iv. Nature inexorable that she may be beneficent . 140 §111. Evils Peculiar to Matt 1 41-146

1. Death man's tragedy . . . . . . .141

2. What life gains through death ..... 144 § IV. Evils Man Suffers from Man 146-152

1. Classification : the problem raised. .... 146

2. Trie physical constitution of the race morally educative :

immortality and the problem of evil .... 147

B. Moral Evil : its Nature, Origin and Continuance , . 150 § V. Moral Evil and God 152-158

1. God as conditioned in creation ..... 152

i. External conditions ...... 153

ii. Internal conditions ...... 154

2. Conditions defining the character and states of the xv

PAGE

i. A creature necessarily limited in knowledge. . 155 ii. The end of the creation God's glory and human

good. God reflected in a creature . . .156

(a) Moral 1 56

§VI. The Permission of Moral Evil and the Deity . . 159-163

1. Law and freedom necessary correlatives : involve possi-

bility of evil 159

2. Interference no remedy ....... 162

jjVII. Why Evil has been Allozued to Continue . . . 163-168

1. How moral and physical evil are related. God views

the race as a whole . . . . . . .163

2. A state of suffering not one of probation, but of recovery

from lapse, the last word not Nature's . . . .166 v/

CHAPTER V The Philosophy of History 169-185

§1. The Significa?ice of History . , . . . .171-175

1. Man denotes the race, history its articulated mind. . 171

2. The growth of consciousness : its problems personal and

3. These problems of interest only when man realizes the idea of his unity

§ 1 1. The Ideas of Unity and Order in History

1. What the idea of unity signifies

2. The unity as an immanent teleology

3. Order in history a late idea, nevertheless necessary

distinction from the order of Nature §111. The Cause of Order in History .

1. Mind the maker of order .

i. Man its vehicle

ii. Action of Nature on Man iii. „ of Men „ „

iv. „ of God „ „

2. How does the idea of order arise in Man's life

i. An ethical substituted for a cosmic process .

ii. Primary passions . iii. Their regulation . iv. An ideal authority

v. The ideal must be immanent vi. Does it exist ? . . . vii. Religion the answer

• 173 175-181

• 175

. 176

Chapter VI Page

The Philosophy of Religion ...... 186-226

A. Religion : its Idea and Origin .....

§ I. The Phenomena to be Studied: the Religions . . . 187-194

1. The outfit of man, savage and civilized .... 187

(a) Material: 188

2. Vision of the Religions in history 190

3. Religion the mother of order, and creator of law and

§11. Religion as Universal is Native to Man . . . 194-200

1. The science of Nature and man incomplete without

religion : man more than his environment . . . 194

2. Man cannot escape from Religion ..... 196

3. Religion as architectonic idea : the problems of Religion 197 §111. I he Idea and Origin of Religion. .... 200-208

1. Religion subjective and objective 200

i. Religion an exercise of the entire spirit of man . 200 ii. Religion a mutual relation between man and God 202

2. Man the interpretation of the phenomena of Religion ;

ethnography not a philosophy ; Spencer's anthropological theory stated and criticized .... 203 § IV. Ethnographic and Historical Religion. . . . 208-215

1. The ethnographic method subjective : the historical

2. Religion no superstition 209

(a) Religion rooted in reason, but conditioned by

Nature 210

(/3) Ethnographical religion unreal : savage religion

less significant than civilized . . . .213 § V. The Causes of Variation in Religion; Conflict of its Ideal and

1. Race as factor of change ...... 216

2. Place as formal factor of ideas : transcendence and

3. Influence of ethnical relations 220

4. Influence of history : the gods conceived after the

fashion of men . . . . . . . .221

5. Influence of the social ideal on the conception of Deity . 222

6. Influence of creative personalities : the Divine purpose

CONTENTS xvii

Chapter VII Page

The Philosophy of Religion

B. The Historical Religions 227-257

As speech to dialects, so is Mind to the Religions . 227 §1. Religions as National and Missionary .... 230-235

1. The classification and its limits : universal empires do

not beget universal religions ..... 230

2. National religions which are missionnry. . . . 232

3. Missionary religions which are racial : Christianity

seems western to eastern peoples 233

§11. The Idea and the Institution in Religion . . . 235-240

1. The universal and the local in religion ; custom in Greek

religion and reason in Greek philosophy . . . 235

2. Opposed action of custom and of thought in religion . 238 § III. The Idea of God in Religion

A. Buddhism 240-244

1. Whether a Theism 240

2. Apotheosis of a moral ideal 242

§ IV. The Idea of God in Religion

B. Hebraic monotheism ...... 244-253

1. Monotheism begins as a tribal cult .... 244

2. But soon reveals its intrinsic character :

Hebrew history of creation, man and religion . . 246

3. Action of the idea and the institution within the religion 248

(a) Jehovah transcends Israel : becomes ethical in

character : man holy as God is holy . . . 248

(/3) The tribal instinct controls the worship . .251

§V '. fudaism at Home and in the Dispersion . . . 253-257

1. How Greek life and thought made Hebraism Hellenistic 255

2. Judaism as the victory of the local cult, yet as the

vehicle of the universal idea 255

CHAPTER VIII Founded Religions and Their Founders . . . 258-288

§1. Religions, Spontaneous and Founded ..... 258

1. Spontaneous religions apotheoses of Nature : founded

apotheoses of personalities ... ... 258

2. Personal religions rise out of natural, and need . . 259

i. An historical substructure 260

ii. A creative religious genius .... 262

iii. A congenial society, in which to live . . . 264 xviii CONTENTS

PAGE

§11. Impersonal Religions Classified as Personal . . . 265-270 i. Confucius a statesman, but not the founder of a ii. Monotheism not the creation of Moses, but of

$ III. Religions, Founded and Personal .... 270-286

A. Buddha and His Religion ...... 270

1. Buddha the creator of a religion missionary yet Indian :

the India of Buddha 270

2. His philosophy and discipline ..... 273

3. His apotheosis through the Church : his humanity

humanizes the ethics of Buddhism .... 274

B. Mohammed and Islam ..... . 277

1. Mohammed compared with Buddha: his character and

education: the vision of Abraham .... 277

2. Islam and the sword : severity and mercy of the Prophet 280

3. His religion and state : ultimate ideas of Islam . . 283

4. The man incarnate in the word : the miraculous in the

history of the Koran ....... 285

§ IV. Canons of Criticism or Regulative Ideas for the Interpretation of the Christian Religion ...... 286-289

i. The Founder and His Religion a unity . . 287

ii. He has both an ideal and an historical significance 287 iii. His historical Person determines the form of

His Religion ....... 287

iv. His ideal significance determines its value for

man 287

v. His word never ceases ...... 288

CONTENTS xix

Book II. The Person Of Christ And The Making Of The Christian Religion

In Three Parts.

PAGE

i. The Founder as an historical person ; or Jesus as conceived and represented in the evangelical history 311-433

2. The interpretation of the Founder ; or the creation of

the Christian Religion through the Apostolical construction of Jesus as the Christ . . . 435-514

3. The comparison of the elements and ideas in this inter-

pretation with those most constitutive in the ideal of Religion as conserved and exemplified in the Historical Religions 5 17-568

Recapitulation and Statement of the new Question 291-309 § I. The Old Problem 291-295

1. The common ground of the intellect and the intelligible

in a creative intelligence 291

2. The ethical in man involves an ethical God . . „ 291

3. Evil owes its being to man, but increases the responsi-

bility of his Creator ....... 292

4. God as active in history ....... 292

5. Importance of religion ....... 293

6. Religions natural and universal : the achievement of

Christ 293

7. Christianity a founded religion ..... 294 § II. The New Problem ........ 296

Its questions and their ancillary studies . . . 295 § III. The Criticism of the Literature and the Person . . 296-302 The Gospels and the Apostolical writings ; speculation

prior to history ........ 296

i. This is according to the laws of thought . . 297

ii. Does not imply neglect of the history . . . 298 iii. The sources of the Gospels ; contemporary

history in the Gospel 298

iv. The eye-witness and the histories . . . 299

v. The historian as an interpreter .... 300 xx CONTENTS

PAGE

§ IV. The Religion and the Literature . .... 302-307

1. Schmiedel and the Gospel history. The teacher a

sovereign personality ....... 302

2. The Gospels interpret Jesus as the Christ . . . 305 § V. The Founder and the Religion ..... 307-309

1. False antithesis of natural and supernatural : problems

raised by the Person and the history .... 307

2. Three main questions :

i. The historical Jesus 309

ii. The Christ of Faith 309

iii. How Christianity came to be a religion . . 309

Part I The Founder As An Historical Person, Or

JESUS AS HE APPEARS IN THE SYNOPTIC

GOSPELS

How His Person is Conceived 311-330

§ I. The Natural View of Jesus in the Gospels . . . .311

1. Natural factors of character : and the natural view of

Jesus 311

2. Caiaphas governed by it ; his statecraft . . -314

3. Pilate also governed by it ; the Roman touched with

pity; his vision and his awakening . . . .317

4. An immiraculous Passion becomes a mean and sordid

riddle 322

§ II. The Supernatural View of Jesus ..... 323-330

1. The hypothesis of the Gospels common and prophetic ;

its embodiment in a personal history .... 323

2. The miraculous Person a rational and conscious unity.

Jesus no mythical creation, but a study from life ;

the natural and supernatural in Him .... 327

The Historical Person and the Physical Transcendence 33I-3S5

§ I. A Sane Supernaturalism 33 2 ~337

1. Acts and character correspond ; the mythical imagina-

tion unhealthy ; extravagance of Jerome and Gregory 332

2. Jesus embodied beneficence ; intellectual sanity of the

Evangelists 336

CONTENTS xxi

PAGE

§11. The Physical Transcendence is Moral Service . . 337-343

1. The Temptation a subjective process ; its ethical signi-

ficance 2>37

(a) Conflict of the ideal of dependence with the

ideal of pre-eminence ..... 338

(/3) Conflict of a reasonable against a presumptuous

dependence 339

(y) Jesus ethical in means as in end . . . 341

2. The temptation continuous and signifies that Jesus is

governed as is man . . . . . . 341

§ III. Supernatural Power as a Moral Burden . . . 343-348

1. Absolute power depraves man unless he be as good as

God ; it does not deprave Jesus 343

2. Supernatural power alienates man from man ; but does

not estrange him from Jesus ..... 346

§ IV. The History of the Supernatural Person as a Problem in

Literaticre 348-355

1. (a) The Supernatural Person elevates the idea of God . 348 (b) How should we write the history? The Supernatural

Person. How the Evangelists do it . . . 350

2. The Gospels as literature. As the world is embosomed

in the Infinite, so is Jesus in God .... 353

The Ethical Transcendence of Jesus .... 356-379

§ I. The Ethical Ideal of the Gospels ..... 357-361

1. The ideal of the imagination and the real figure of the

358 356 360

2. Difficulties of portraying the ethical ideal

i. The subject must be an unconscious sitter, as was Jesus .......

ii. The writers must be as unconscious of their art iii. Light and shade in the humanity of Jesus .

§ II. The Sinlessness of fesus . . . . . .361-367

1. The external testimony ....... 361

2. The internal evidence 363.

i. Jesus has no consciousness of sin . . . . 363 ii. The Sinless forgives, yet is Friend of sinners . 364

3. Jesus perfect ; yet without the mechanism of religion . 365,

XX11

367-373 367

§ III. Qualities of this Ideal of Sinlessness ; its

1. < 'riginality .....

2. Catholicity .....

3. Potency creates ....

(a) The idea of conversion (/3) Fear of sin and love of sanctity § IV. Sinlessness and the Moral Person

1. Sinlessness applies both to nature and conduct.

nature not explained by one immaculate conception. Sinlessness distinguished from infallibility .

2. The Sinless still a man ; but man ideal, imitable and

373-379 Sinless

CHAPTER IV

The Religious Personality Interpreted by Himself

A. The Teaching and the Person 380

§ I. The Teaching and its External Characteristics . .381

1. Tne mind of Jesus as the ideal and universal mind

2. Simplicity and spontaneity of the teaching of Jesus

Nature and man as reflected in it

3. i. The real world involves the reality of the history ii. Jesus no abstraction

iii. His teaching timeless and placeless iv. The sovereign idealism of the world v. What it has achieved . § II. How Jesus Conceives and Describes Himself . . 391

1. The reserve of His early ministry

2. His claims ....

i. He fulfils law and prophecy ii. He saves the lost . iii. "Follow Me" iv. His personal sovereignty v. His unique relation to God § III. The Person and the Passion . . ... . 395

1. The "Galilean Springtime"; the harbinger of the

Passion

2. His prophecy of the Passion ; His death a sacrifice

382 386

387 388

395 397 xxm

CHAPTER V

The Religious Personality Interpreted by Himself.

B. Significance of His Death ...... 400-

§ I. Growth of the idea ....... 400-

1. The disciples estranged from the Master

2. His death " a ransom for many " .

(a) Different interpretations of the term "ransom "

(6) The term interpreted by the context ; contrast

between the kings and kingdoms, their means

and ends .....

3. Results of the analysis . .

(a) Death free, not compulsory

O) His motive .....

(y) His end .....

(<5) Worth of the ransom .

(e) Its uniqueness ....

403 403

§11. How Jerusalem Helps to Define the Idea . . . 411

1. The entry into Jerusalem is the King coming to His own. Which yet does not know Him

2. Teaching of the Jerusalem period .

(a) Exoteric : the parables spoken in Jerusalem