Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1900: Vol. 56, November, 1899 to April, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
There can be no doubt that there has been a great overturning of dogma
in our times, and it is altogether probable that this will assume
much greater dimensions. Many think that dogma has had an exaggerated
importance in the past, and, from their point of view, the Christian
religion has made an advance by pushing dogma back to a less dominant
position. Those who maintain that dogma is of supreme importance
naturally think that the Christian religion declines when dogma is
discredited in the Christian community. There can be little doubt that
a large number of men absent themselves from church attendance because
they dislike the popular orthodoxy, which seems to them antiquated,
unscientific, and untrue. Many refuse to unite with religious
organizations which are dominated by an orthodoxy representing the
theories of scholastic theology. Many remain apart from the churches
because they are unwilling to be responsible in any way for their
official orthodoxy. Many, born and trained in Presbyterian families,
refuse to remain in an organization which is responsible for the hard
doctrines set forth in the Westminster Confession. Many Methodists
refuse to be compromised by Wesley’s doctrines and Wesley’s rules of
life. Many refuse to remain Baptists because of what is involved in
close communion. Many refuse to be Episcopalians because they resent
the doctrines and practices of sacerdotalism. And so we could find,
more or less in all religious communions, a dissatisfaction with
dogmas--sometimes superficial, giving a plausible excuse for absence,
sometimes profound, inciting active hostility to the Church. If all of
these dissatisfied ones are to be regarded as hostile or indifferent
to Christianity, then it is evident that an army of Christians have
practically separated themselves from the Church in our time, and we
must say that Christianity has in this respect declined. If, on the
other hand, we think that these dissatisfied and disgruntled ones are
yet Christians, and that they are maintaining their faith in Christ
in opposition to an unreasonable church, that they are exerting an
important influence in the transformation of the dogmas of the Church,
then we may say that this is an evidence that Christianity is in a
state of transition, that it is on the move away from an untenable
position of exaggerated dogma to a truer and stronger position,
in which dogma will be transformed and given its normal place and
importance.
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