Inspiration and Interpretation: Seven Sermons Preached Before the University of OxfordBurgon, John William
Religion
Inspiration and Interpretation: Seven Sermons Preached Before the University of Oxford
Burgon, John William
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Bible -- Inspiration; Sermons, English
What then is the system, or theory, or view, advocated by these seven
Authors?--They are all agreed that we are "placed evidently at an epoch
when Humanity finds itself under new conditions, to form some definite
conception to ourselves of the way in which Christianity is henceforward
to act upon the world which is our own." (p. 158.) To do this, we must
emerge from our "narrow chamber of Doctrinal and Ecclesiastical
prepossessions." (_Ibid._) Accordingly, we find insinuated "a very
wide-spread alienation, both in educated and uneducated persons, from
the Christianity which is ordinarily presented in our Churches and
Chapels." (p. 150.) There has been "a spontaneous recoil." (p. 151.) We
cannot "resist the tide of civilization on which we are borne."
(p. 412.) "The time has come when it is no longer possible to ignore the
results of criticism." It is therefore "of importance that Christianity
should be seen to be in harmony with them." (p. 374.) "The arguments of
our genuine critics, with the convictions of our most learned clergy"
(p. 66) are all opposed to the actual teaching of the Church. Meantime,
"the Christian Religion is in a false position when all the tendencies
of knowledge are opposed to it." (p. 374.) "Time was when the Gospel was
before the age: ... when the highest minds found in its truths not only
the rule of their lives, but a well-spring of intellectual delight. Is
it to be held a thing impossible that the Christian Religion may again
embrace the thoughts of men upon the earth?" (pp. 374-5.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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