Church Reform: The Only Means to That End, Stated in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the Treasury — John Shaqi
Church Reform: The Only Means to That End, Stated in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the TreasuryCarlile, Richard
Religion
Church Reform: The Only Means to That End, Stated in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the Treasury
Carlile, Richard
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Church and state -- Church of England; Rationalism
Such alone can be a Church of Christ. Christ the Logos, Jesus the
Saviour of Man, is, in principle, nothing more in its dramatic or
mystified and present church presentation, than a personification of the
principle of reason, or of the knowledge of which the human being is a
recipient, and without which can have no salvation, has no relation to
the idea of a salvation, or any evil from which to be saved. Such is a
true revelation of the mystery of Christ.
And a Church of Christ has no other true meaning, than a convenient and
sessional gathering of the people in districts, for purposes of mutual
enquiry and mutual instruction; for catechism and intelligible and
useful exhortation; for revelation of knowledge, or mind, or reason;
for mental improvement; and not for mystery, nor dramatic ceremony, nor
superstition, nor idolatry. It is in this sense only, that the Church
of Christ is superior to all other Churches--the word Church meaning a
gathering or association of the people for mental improvement.
This generation has no proof, nor has history a warrant, that any other
generation of man has had a proof of the material existence of the being
called Jesus Christ. The seeming narrative of such a purport is the
current mythology of the ancients, or people of two thousand years ago,
taken up by us in its literal sense, and so mistaken; so mistaken, as to
warrant a belief in the literality and fact of the material, temporal,
and local existence of every one of the Gods of the Pantheon, or of
human imagination, and then we shall have rivalry enough for the best.
But then, I should make a choice of Christ, as the only one that makes
due provision for the right cultivation of the human mind; the only one
that has laid the foundations of the kingdom of Heaven, in the peace and
good-will of mankind, dwelling upon a land flowing with milk and honey,
and overflowing with knowledge.
I challenge the Bishops and the whole priesthood, to produce me any
knowledge that is intelligible to themselves or to any other person, as
an interpretation of the narratives in the Old and New Testament, about
Jehovah or Christ, other than that which I am now unfolding. Mine has
a warrant in the spirit of the language of the books, in the roots of
words, and in all the principles of things that relate to man's welfare;
and more particularly in that to man most important of all, MORAL
SCIENCE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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