Some Christian Convictions: A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day ThinkingCoffin, Henry Sloane
Religion
Some Christian Convictions: A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day Thinking
Coffin, Henry Sloane
Christianity -- 20th century; Theology, Doctrinal -- Popular works
Science, too, has its contribution to offer to our thought of Him who is
over all and through all and in all. Truth is one, and scientific
investigation and religious experience are two avenues that lead to the
one Reality faith names God. Science of itself can never lead us beyond
visible and tangible facts; but its array of facts may suggest to faith
many things about the invisible Father, the Lord of all. Present-day
science with its emphasis upon continuity makes us think of a God who is
no occasional visitor, but everywhere and always active; its conception
of evolution brings home to us the patient and long-suffering labor of a
Father who worketh even until now; its stress upon law reminds us that
He is never capricious but reliable; its practical mastery of forces,
like those which enable men to use the air or to navigate under the
water, recalls to us the old command to subdue the earth as sons of God,
and adds the new responsibility to use our control, as the Son of God
always did, in love's cause.
Philosophy, too, which Professor James has described as "our more or
less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means," helps us to
make clear our idea of God. A philosopher is just a thoughtful person
who takes the discoveries that his religious, moral, aesthetic,
scientific experiences have brought home, and tries to set in order all
he knows of truth, beauty, right, God.
In attempting to philosophize upon their discoveries of God, Christian
thinkers have arrived at the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity. It was,
first, an attempt to hold fast to the great foundation truth of the Old
Testament that God is One. The world in which Christianity found itself
had a host of deities--a god for the sea and another for the wind, a god
of the hearth and a god of the empire, and so on. Today it is only too
easy to obey one motive in the home and another in one's business, to
follow one principle in private life and another in national life, and
to be polytheists again. Christian faith insists that "there is one God,
the Father, of whom are all things and we unto Him." We adore One who is
Christlike love, and we will serve no other. We trust Christlike love as
the divine basis for a happy family life, and also for successful
commerce, for statesmanlike international dealings, for the effective
treatment of every political and social question. The inspirations that
come to us from a glorious piece of music or from an heroic act of
self-sacrifice, from some new discovery or from a novel sensitiveness of
conscience, are all inspirations from the one God. At every moment and
in every situation we must keep the same fundamental attitude towards
life--trustful, hopeful, serving--because in every experience, bitter or
sweet, we are always in touch with the one Lord of all, our Christlike
Father.
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