the necessary consequence of our being born in the 'last
days' 41-45
Yet to the end, faith remains an act of personal and
spiritual adhesion 45-46
V. Faith, not only covers a long past, but anticipates the
future; it pledges itself ahead, e.g. in the case of
'ordination vows.' Such pledges justified, because the act
of faith is personal; and the object of faith is final,
i.e. 'Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever' 46-54
II.
THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF GOD.
I. Object of the essay and attitude assumed 57-59
II. A broad contrast between the God of Philosophy and the God
of religion 59-60
Attempts to get rid of the opposition (1) by division of
territory; (2) by confusion of terms 60-63
III. Religion demands that God shall be Personal, and stand in a
moral relationship with man 63-65
IV. Growth and purification of the religious conception of God 65-68
V. _Religion and Morals._ Collision between the two in Greece,
and its consequences. Synthesis of religion and morality
among the Jews: and in Christianity 68-78
Subsequent collisions between religion and morals within
the Christian Church. The Reformation a moral protest.
Immorality of its later developments. Modern protest
against these 78-82
VI. _Religion and Reason._ Protest of Greek Philosophy against
Polytheism. Christian Theology the meeting-point of Jewish
religion and Greek Philosophy 82-86
What Theology is. Objection to it from the side of
(1) religion, (2) philosophy 86-90
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity an appeal to the
reason 90-91
Its answer to the speculative problems of Greek thought
(1) as to what unity is; (2) as to the immanence of reason
in nature 91-95
The witness of the Fathers 95
The doctrine of the Trinity the true Monotheism; the
doctrine of the _Logos_ as personal yet immanent 95-96
VII. The Christian doctrine of God why challenged in the present
day 96
The deism of the last century. The new science of nature.
Evolution restores the truth of the Divine immanence which
deism denied. Pantheistic reaction 96-102
The Christian doctrine of God the safeguard of rational
religion against deism and pantheism 102-103
VIII. The so-called 'proofs' of the existence of God 103-104
Parallel between the belief in God and the belief in nature 104-107
Verification in experience the only 'proof.' Reason in both
the interpreter of Faith 107-109
III.
THE PROBLEM OF PAIN.
The problem of pain admits of no new treatment, but the attempt
to use it as an argument against Christianity calls for a
recapitulation of what may be said on the other side 113
Pain is (1) animal, (2) human.
(1) Animal pain is a thing of which we can only form
imaginative conjectures; and these, besides being liable to
exaggeration, are not of a nature to form premisses for
argument 113-116
(2) Common sense tells us that human pain contributes as
(_a_) punitive, (_b_) purgatorial, (_c_) prophylactic,
to the development of the individual and the race 116-119
Natural religion further views it as the necessary condition of
approach, by sinful beings, to the Divine; and looks for its
fuller explanation to a future existence 119-122
Christianity carries on the view of natural religion, and sees
in pain and suffering:--
(_a_) The antidote to sin 122-124
(_b_) The means of individual and social progress 124-125
(_c_) The source of sympathy with man 125
(_d_) The secret of union with God 125-126
IV.
PREPARATION IN HISTORY FOR CHRIST.
General considerations on the study of the historical
preparation, as part of the study of the Incarnation 129-133
Special value of such study in the present age of historical
and scientific method which
may be able to gauge finally the value of naturalist
theories of the origin of Christianity 133-134
may find its own congenial 'signs' in the beauty of
manifold preparing process; in the wonder of an apparently
unique convergence of lines of preparation 134-137
I. General preparation--in the world at large:
(1) In the shaping of its external order 138-142
(2) Through its inward experiences of
Failure 142-146
Progress 146-150
II. Special preparation--in Israel:
(1) The singularity of Israel's external position at the
critical moment of the Christian Era 150-156
(2) The paradox of its inward character 156-159
(3) The peculiar influences which had made it what it was: 159-160
_a._ Prophecy 160-167
_b._ The Law 167-169
_c._ The Course of its History 170-175
III. The independence of the two preparations; the paradox of
their fulfilment in one Christ 175-178
V.
THE INCARNATION AND DEVELOPMENT.
I. The theory of evolution has recalled our minds to the
'cosmical significance' of the Incarnation, which was a
prominent thought in (1) the early (2) mediaeval church 181-187
II. Theology and Science move in different but parallel planes:
one gives the meaning, the other the method of creation 187-188
Thus the doctrine of 'the Eternal Word' is compatible with
all the verified results of scientific teaching on
(1) energy 188
(2) teleology 188-193
(3) origin and antiquity of man 193-195
(4) mental and moral evolution 195-199
(5) the relation of philosophy to Theology 199-202
(6) the comparative study of religions 202-205
while in the Christian view, it both illuminates and is
illuminated by those results 205-206
III. But when the planes intersect, and we say 'the Word was
made flesh,' we are said to traverse experience 207
(1) This charge is only a critical presumption 207-208
(2) All novelties traverse past experience 208
(3) Moral experience is as real as physical 208-209
(4) The Incarnation harmonizes with our moral experience 209-210
(5) By reorganizing morality it reorientates character 211
(6) It has therefore a true relation to all phases of human
life 211-214
VI.
THE INCARNATION AS THE BASIS OF DOGMA.
I. The principle of Dogma is not to be attacked or defended
on _à priori_ grounds. The real question is whether
the Incarnation, as asserted, is true or false. And this is
a question for evidence 217-220
Even scientific 'dogmata' differ less from religious dogmas
than is sometimes supposed, in that (_a_) both are received
on evidence, (_b_) both require an experimental verification,
or (in so far as either are still held along with error)
correction 220-224
The acceptance of dogmatic truth is essentially reasonable.
Its claims to (_a_) authority, (_b_) finality, are not the
ground for accepting it, but a necessary outcome of the facts
accepted in it 224-229
II. The evidence for the Incarnation is as many-sided as human
life 229-233
But primarily historical. The crucial fact is the
Resurrection 233-236
Everything is involved in the answer to 'What think ye of
Christ?' 236-238
It is an error to think of the belief of the Church as an
edifice built up in the age of the Councils 238-239
The decisions of the Councils represent only a growth in
intellectual precision through experience of error 239-245
The creed in its whole substance is the direct outcome of
the fact of the Incarnation 245-250
III. The dogmatic creed is to be distinguished from the body of
theological literature which comments upon it 250
Theological comment is variable: it may err, it may
develop. Herein lie most of the disputes of technical, and
the advances of popular, theology 250-255
Even the creeds are human on the side of their language 255-258
IV. The 'damnatory clauses,' though easily misunderstood,
really mean what is both true, and necessary 258-260
Christian dogmatism is after all devotion to truth, for
truth's sake 260-261
V. The modern reading of the Scriptures without miracle and
the Christ without Godhead depends for its justification
upon the truth of an hypothesis 262-266
But this hypothesis explains away, instead of explaining,
the evidence; while it is itself incapable of proof 266-270
Historical reality is essential to the truth of the
Incarnation. Mere spiritualism ends in unreality 270-272
VII.
THE ATONEMENT.
I. Sin and sacrifice in relation to the Atonement 275-276
1. Twofold character of sin:--
(_a_) A state of alienation from God 276-277
(_b_) A state of guilt 277-279
2. Twofold character of sacrifice:--
(_a_) The expression of man's original relation to God 279-280
(_b_) The expiation of sin, and propitiation of wrath 280-281
Both aspects shewn in the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law 281-282
3. Inadequacy of man's offerings to satisfy sense of
personal guilt 282-285
II. The death of Christ answers to the demands of the sense of
sin and of the desire for forgiveness 285
1. Christ's death a sacrifice of propitiation:--
(_a_) Of the wrath of God, which is--
(1) The hostility of Divine Nature to sin 285-287
(2) The expression of the eternal law of
righteousness 288
(_b_) By virtue--
(1) Of the obedience manifested by Him 289-290
(2) Of His recognition of the Divine justice 290
(3) Of His death as the necessary form of both 290-292
The propitiatory character of His death shewn--
(i.) By the general relation between
physical and spiritual death 292-293
(ii.) Because of the nature of Him who
endured it 293-294
(iii.) Because of the results flowing from it 294
(_c_) On behalf of men, for He is our Representative--
(1) As Victim, by His perfect humanity our
sinbearer 294-297
(2) As Priest, able to offer what man could not 297-298
The true vicariousness of His Priesthood 298
2. Christ's death the source of life 298-299
(_a_) As delivering us from sin 299
(_b_) As bestowing new life 299
(_c_) As uniting us to God 299
But only as connected with and issuing in the
Resurrection and Ascension 300-301
3. Christ's death in relation to man's responsibility 301
(_a_) The Atonement, being forgiveness, must remit
some of the consequences of sin 301-302
(_b_) But our mystical union with Christ ensures
our share in the sacrifice 302-303
(1) Not in its propitiation, which we can only
plead 303-304
(2) But by faith which accepts it and recognises
its justice 304-305
(3) And by following Him in obedience through
suffering 305-307
III. Consideration of certain erroneous statements of the
doctrine 307
1. The implied divergence of Will in the Godhead 307-308
2. The view of Redemption as wrought for us, not in us 308
3. The view that Christ redeemed us by taking our
punishment instead of us 309
(1) The essential punishment of alienation He could not
bear 309
(2) The penal sufferings which He bore are not remitted
to us 309
(3) But He bore them that we, like Him, may bear them
sacrificially, not as punishment 309-310
IV. Short summary.
1. The death of Christ as propitiatory } tested by
}
2. His death as transforming pain and death } experience 310-312
VIII.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND INSPIRATION.
Christianity is an experienced or manifested life: because its
essence is the possession of the Spirit, and the Spirit is Life 315-317
I. The Holy Spirit the life-giver:--
In nature 317-318
In man 318-319
In the gradual recovery of man from sin 319-320
In Christ 320-321
In the Church 321-322
His work in the Church:--
1. Social or ecclesiastical 322-323
2. Nourishing individuality: both of character through
the Sacraments, and of judgment through authority 323-327
3. Consecrating the whole of nature, material as well as
spiritual 327-328
4. By a gradual method 328
Imperfection of the Old Testament 328-331
" of the Church 331-332
The Holy Spirit personally present and continually
operative in the Church 332-333
II. The Theology of the Holy Spirit. Real but limited
knowledge through revelation 334-335
He is (_a_) distinct in Person but very God,
(_b_) proceeding from the Father and the Son,
(_c_) One in essence with the Father and the Son 334-335
The Doctrine of the Trinity not Tritheistic 335-336
III. The Inspiration of Holy Scripture. Fatal results of not
keeping this in context with the rest of the Holy Spirit's
work in the Church 337-340
1. It is an article of the Faith, not among its bases 340-341
2. It is a necessary article 341
3. Its certain and primary meaning, as seen by examination
of the books of the Old and New Testaments 341-348
4. Its practical meaning and obligation 349-351
Questions raised as to its meaning by Old Testament
criticism:--
(_a_) While the Old Testament is, like the New
Testament, certainly and really historical, can it
admit of elements of idealism in the narrative? 351-354
(_b_) Can it admit of dramatic composition? 354-356
(_c_) Can it admit the presence of primitive myths? 356-357
The Church not prevented from admitting these to be open
questions either:--
(1) By any dogmatic definitions of inspiration 357-358
(2) By our Lord's language as to the Old Testament 358-360
We may expect the criticism of the Old Testament, like that
of the New, to deepen and enlarge, not impair, our
reverence for the 'Word of God' 360-362
IX.
THE CHURCH.
The Church the final satisfaction of certain social instincts,
viz. the need of co-operation for life, for knowledge, and for
worship 365
These instincts are:--
(1) Universal 365-368
(2) Embodied in Judaism, and combined with the principle
of God's election of one people to be a source of
blessing to others 368-370
(3) Fulfilled in the Incarnation 370-372
I. The Church as the centre of spiritual life: offers its
blessings, without limitation, to all who are willing to
submit to spiritual discipline, and combines them in a
brotherhood of common service 372-375
Hence it is, of necessity:--
(1) A _visible_ body 375-377
(2) _One_, both in its spiritual life and in external
organization. This unity implied in the New Testament,
and explained in the second century, as centering in
the Episcopate. The Apostolical Succession is thus the
pledge of historic continuity, and has always been the
mark of the English Church. Loyalty to the Church is no
narrowing of true sympathy 377-384
II. The Church as the Teacher of Truth: primarily by bearing
witness to truths revealed to it; secondarily by
interpreting the relation of these truths to each other 384-387
Hence:--
(1) It witnesses to the reality of central spiritual truths
and teaches them authoritatively to its members 387
(2) It trains its members to a rational apprehension of
these truths 387-388
(3) It leaves great freedom on points not central 388-389
(4) It protects the truths themselves from decay 389-390
III. The Church the home of worship: worship the Godward
expression of its life: its highest expression in the
Eucharist: its priestly work earned out from the first by
a special class of ministers 390-393
Each aspect of the Church's work completed by the
co-operation of the Blessed Dead 394
Causes of the apparent failure of the Church 394-400
Need of its witness and work in modern times 400-402
X.
SACRAMENTS.
Comprehensiveness a characteristic distinction of fruitful and
enduring work: which will here be traced in the sacramental
work of the Church; with incidental reference to the evidential
import of the inner coherence of Christianity, and its perfect
aptness for humanity 405-408
I. Christianity claims to be a way of life for men: whose
nature and life involve two elements; which are usually
distinguished as bodily and spiritual 408-409
The distinction of these two elements real; their union
essential 409-411
It is to be inquired whether this complexity of man's
nature is recognised and provided for in the Church of
Christ 411
II. Grounds for anticipating that it would be so:--
(1) In the very fact of the Incarnation; and more
particularly 411-413
(2) In the character of the preparatory system whose
forecasts it met 413-414
(3) And in certain conspicuous features of Christ's
ministry 414-415
The work of Sacraments to be linked with this anticipation 415
III. The prominence of the Sacramental principle in Christ's
teaching: to be estimated with reference to the previous
convictions of those whom He taught 415-416
There is thus found:--
(1) Abundant evidence that the general principle of
Sacraments is accepted, to be a characteristic of
Christianity 416-417
(2) The authoritative appointment of particular expressions
for this general principle:--
Expressions foreshown in preparatory history:
anticipated in preliminary discourses: appointed with
great solemnity and emphasis 417-418
[These expressions such as may be seen to be
intrinsically appropriate, ethically helpful and
instructive, and safeguards against individualism.] 418-420
(3) An immediate recognition in the Apostolic Church of the
force of this teaching, and of the necessary prominence
of Sacraments 420-421
IV. The correspondence between the ministry of Sacraments and
the complex nature of man appears in three ways: since:--
(1) The dignity and the spiritual capacity of the material
order is thus vindicated and maintained: so that unreal
and negative spirituality is precluded, and provision
is made for the hallowing of stage after stage in a
human life 422-426
(2) The claim of Christianity to penetrate the bodily life
is kept in its due prominence by the very nature of
Sacraments: the redemption of the body is foreshown; and
perhaps begun 426-429
(3) The evidences of mystery in human nature, its moments
of unearthliness, its immortal longings, its impatience
of finite satisfaction, being recognised and accounted
for by the doctrine of Grace are met by Sacraments: and
led in an ordered progress towards a perfect end 429-433
XI.
CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICS.
INTRODUCTORY.--The twofold problem of Christianity in its
relation to human society--
(1) To consecrate; (2) to purify 437-440
I. The Church is _neutral_ as to natural differences, e.g.
the form of government, autocratic or democratic leaning 440-442
II. The Church _supplements_ the moral influence of the
State, in respect of--
(1) The appeal to higher motives 443-445
e.g. as to the duties of--
(_a_) Governors and governed 446-451
(_b_) Owners of property 451-452
(2) The support of the weak against the strong 452-455
(3) The maintenance of religion 455-461
III. The Church _purifies_ the whole social life of mankind--
(1) By spreading Christian ideas 461-462
(2) By maintaining the Christian type of character 462-463
CONCLUSION.--The Church appeals to deeper needs than the
State and is therefore fundamentally Catholic, and only
incidentally national 463-464
XII.
CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
General characteristics of the Christian ethical system 467-468
Dogmatic postulates:--
(1) Doctrine of God: God a Personal and Ethical Being 469-470
(2) Doctrine of Man: his ideal nature; his destiny as
related to the good through conscience and freedom;
his present condition 470-476
(3) Doctrine of Christ: Catholic view of His Person 476
I. Christ's revelation of the Highest Good 476-480
The Kingdom of God: twofold meaning of the term 477-479
Christian view of the world 479-480
II. The Moral Law; its authority, sanctions, and content 480-489
The basis of obligation found in the idea of personal
relationship between God and Man 480-482
The sanctions, and motives of Christian Morality 482-484
The Law of Duty embraced in the decalogue 484-489
III. Christ the pattern of character 489-504
Conditions required in the perfect example 490-491
Christ the pattern of filial dependence, obedience,
and love 491-494
Virtuous action seen to imply a harmony of the
different elements in personality, postulating a
threefold virtuous principle supernaturally imparted 494-496
Christian character: the Christian personality in its
relation:--
(1) To God--Christian Wisdom 497-498
(2) To Man--Christian Justice 498-501
(3) To Self--Christian Temperance 501-502
(4) To the hindrances of environment--Christian
Fortitude 502-503
IV. Christ the source of the recreation of character 504-512
Claim of Christianity to recreate character 504-505
Dogmatic truths implied in the recreative process 505-506
Holiness dependent on a permanent relation to Christ 506
The Church a school of character, and sphere of
individual discipline 506-508
Christian ascetics--their ground in reason, and effect
on character 509-512
V. The consummation of God's kingdom 512-518
The intermediate stage 513
The final stage of glory:
(i) The kingdom to be finally manifested 513-514
(ii) and purified through judgment 514
Extent and limits of the final triumph of good 514-516
Perfection of human personality: the perfect state one of
harmony 516-517
glory 517
blessedness 517
and fellowship in a moral community 517
VI. Conclusion: relation of Christian Ethics to the products of
civilization, to individual character, to social life 518-520
APPENDIX I. ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN DUTY 521-525
APPENDIX II. ON THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF SIN 526-538
I.
_FAITH._
HENRY SCOTT HOLLAND.
I. In proposing to consider the origin and growth of faith, we have a
practical, and not a merely theoretical, aim. We are thinking of the
actual problems which are, at this moment, encompassing and hindering
faith: and it is because of their urgency and their pressure, that we
find it worth while to go back upon our earliest beginnings, in order
to ask what Faith itself means. For only through an examination of its
nature, its origin, and its structure, will it be possible for us to
sift the questions which beset us, and to distinguish those to which
Faith is bound to give an answer from those which it can afford to let
alone.
We set out then on our quest, in the mind of those who have felt the
trouble that is in the air. Even if we ourselves be not of their
number, yet we all suffer from their hesitation: we all feel the
imparted chill of their anxieties. For we are of one family: and the
sickness, or depression of some, must affect the whole body. All of
us, even the most confident, are interested in the case of those who
are fearing for themselves, as they sadly search their own hearts, and
ask, 'What is it to believe? Do I know what it is to believe? Have I,
or have I not, that which can be called "faith"? How can I be sure?
What can I say of myself?' Such questions as these are haunting and
harassing many among us who find themselves facing the Catholic Creed,
with its ring of undaunted assurance, with its unhesitating claim to
unique and universal supremacy, and contrast with this their own faint
and tentative apprehension of the strong truths, which are so
confidently asserted. Such men and women are anxious and eager to
number themselves among those that believe: but can they call this
temper 'belief,' which is so far below the level of the genuine
response which those Creeds obviously expect? Where is the blitheness
of faith? Where is its unshaken conviction? Where is its invincible
simplicity? Why is it that they only succeed in moving forward with
such painful indecision?
Now, it is to this temper that this essay is addressed. It does not
aim at convicting a hostile disbelief, but at succouring a distressed
faith. And this it does under the conviction that, in so doing, it is
responding to the peculiar character and needs of the situation.
For the urgency, the peril of the hour, lies, not so much in the
novelty, or force, of the pressure that is brought to bear against
faith, as in the behaviour of faith itself under the pressure. What
has happened is, not that faith has been confounded, but that it has
been challenged. It has been challenged by new social needs, by
strange developments of civilisation, by hungers that it had not yet
taken into account, by thirsts that it had not prepared itself to
satisfy. It has been challenged by new scientific methods, wholly
unlike its familiar intellectual equipment; by new worlds of facts
opened to its astonishment through discoveries which have changed the
entire look of the earth; by immense masses of novel material, which
it has been suddenly and violently required to assimilate; by strange
fashions of speech in science and history; by a babel of 'unknown
tongues' in all departments of learning and literature.