Browning and Dogma: Seven Lectures on Browning's Attitude Towards Dogmatic ReligionNaish, Ethel M.
Religion
Browning and Dogma: Seven Lectures on Browning's Attitude Towards Dogmatic Religion
Naish, Ethel M.
Browning, Robert, 1812-1889 -- Religion
This then is the man, a fearless fighter, an uncompromising investigator
who, whilst he would "fain be a Christian," is yet bound to reject a mere
uncritical acceptance of the tenets of Christianity. Opposed to him in the
first twelve Sections is a second speaker to whom, somewhat strangely it
would seem, the designation sceptic has been applied. The title in its
virtual sense, is, indeed, justly applicable, but in the ordinary
acceptation might possibly prove misleading. It is a fact of common
experience that among professing Christians, of whatever form of creed,
are to be found those who, in that peculiar crisis of life when death
removes from sight those dearest to them, go back from the fundamental
tenets of a faith in which hitherto their confidence appeared to have
been unshaken. Even that main pillar of faith, a belief in the immortality
of the soul, lies temporarily shattered. Such failure suggests itself as
the result of an insufficiently considered acceptance of dogma; an
acceptance without question, rather than in spite of doubts and
questionings. This distinction we have seen Bishop Blougram drawing
between the position of the man who implicitly believes, since, his
logical and reasoning faculties being undeveloped or inactive, no cause
for question arises; and the position of him who, in the midst of
spiritual perplexity, makes "doubt occasion still more faith." To
Browning, with whom half-heartedness was the one unpardonable sin, this
so-called faith would necessarily be far more dangerous than downright
acknowledged scepticism. Hence the succeeding argument of _Easter Day_
becomes one, not between a pronounced sceptic and a would-be Christian,
but rather between two nominal Christians whose outward profession may be
similar but the motives inspiring it wholly at variance--This in
accordance with Browning's peculiar attraction towards problems involving
the establishment of connection between motive and action. As in _Bishop
Blougram's Apology_ his psychological analysis would reconcile two
apparently irreconcilable aspects of the mind of a prelate whose position
had perplexed the world. As by a method closely akin to this treatment, he
offers explanation of the presence, amongst the illiterate and bigoted
congregation of Zion Chapel, of a man whose intellectual capacity should
have led him to assume a position of wider tolerance: so here, too, he
would discover and reveal the link between the outward form of creed and
the widely differing spiritual acceptance of the same in two individual
cases.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account