results. It is not, perhaps, for us to suggest that the theological army in
the past has been too much encumbered with impedimenta for effective
aggression in the conflict against atheistic tendencies in modern science;
and that in resisting attack it has endeavored to hold too much ground, so
wasting strength in the obstinate defense of positions which have become
unimportant as well as untenable. Some of the arguments, as well as the
guns, which well served a former generation, need to be replaced by others
of longer range and greater penetration.
If the theologians are slow to discern the signs and exigencies of the
times, the religious philosophical naturalists must be looked to. Since the
above remarks were written, Prof. Le Conte's "Religion and Science," just
issued, has come to our hands. It is a series of nineteen Sunday lectures
on the relation of natural and revealed religion, prepared in the first
instance for a Bible-class of young men, his pupils in the University of
South Carolina, repeated to similar classes at the University of
California, and finally delivered to a larger and general audience. They are
printed, the preface states, from a verbatim report, with only verbal
alterations and corrections of some redundancies consequent upon
extemporaneous delivery. They are not, we find, lectures on science under a
religious aspect, but discourses upon Christian theology and its
foundations from a scientific layman's point of view, with illustrations
from his own lines of study. As the headings show, they cover, or, more
correctly speaking, range over, almost the whole field of theological
thought, beginning with the personality of Deity as revealed in Nature, the
spiritual nature and attributes of Deity, and the incarnation; discussing
by the way the general relations of theology to science, man, and his place
in Nature; and ending with a discussion of predestination and free-will, and
of prayer in relation to invariable law--all in a volume of three hundred
and twenty-four duodecimo pages! And yet the author remarks that many
important subjects have been omitted because he felt unable to present them
in a satisfactory manner from a scientific point of view. We note, indeed,
that one or two topics which would naturally come in his way--such,
especially, as the relation of evolution to the human race--are somewhat
conspicuously absent. That most of the momentous subjects which he takes up
are treated discursively, and not exhaustively, is all the better for his
readers. What they and we most want to know is, how these serious matters
are viewed by an honest, enlightened, and devout scientific man. To solve
the mysteries of the universe, as the French lady required a philosopher to
explain his new system, "dans un mot," is beyond rational expectation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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