The Christian Faith Under Modern Searchlights — John Shaqi
The Christian Faith Under Modern SearchlightsJohnson, William Hallock
Religion
The Christian Faith Under Modern Searchlights
Johnson, William Hallock
Modernism (Christian theology)
But Paul's moral teaching was by no means merely an echo or reminiscence
of the ethics of Jesus; it was organically connected with his own
doctrinal teaching. In Paul's letters there is usually an ethical
section, but this is preceded by a didactic or doctrinal section.
Doctrine with him, in the words of Phillips Brooks, was the "child of
faith and the mother of duty." Admittedly his doctrine is used to
enforce and to inspire his ethics. A high Christology--"Christ also
pleased not himself" (Rom. xv. 3)--enforces the appeal not to please
oneself. The Incarnation is the supreme example of generosity to the
poor, and the death upon the Cross of lowliness of mind and obedience (2
Cor. viii. 9; Phil. ii. 5-8). His own sacrifice for our sins grounds the
plea for a life of unselfishness (2 Cor. v. 14, 15; Rom. xii. 1). We
should walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us (Eph. v.
2); and should walk in newness of life, as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father (Rom. vi. 4). Doctrine with Paul and
ethics in its solemn sanctions and its inspiring motivation are
inextricably intertwined. Paul's doctrine about the person of Christ and
His death and resurrection can be disentangled from his ethical teaching
as little as it can from his experience. Certainly the doctrine was no
alien or extraneous element in Paul's system, and certainly it
strengthened rather than weakened his ethical appeal.
Is there a similar blending of ethics and doctrine in the teaching of
Jesus? For the gospel of Jesus in its purity we must, according to a
popular school of criticism, go back of the Fourth Gospel to the
Synoptics, and back of these to their sources, practically to Mark and
to the source called Q (Quelle), or the Logia, representing the
non-Markan agreements of Matthew and Luke. Even in these sources, it is
often maintained, caution must be used, and foreign elements must be
eliminated. Let us see, then, whether there is such a mingling of the
ethical and the Christological in the authentic teaching of Jesus as we
have noticed in that of Paul. The Sermon on the Mount, the words to the
disciples after the confession of Peter (Mark viii. 34-38), and the
teaching on true greatness (Mark x. 42-45), may be taken as typical
examples of Jesus' ethical teaching. In these passages are not merely
disconnected maxims, but an ethical system, containing a profound and,
as we may say, fully thought out philosophy of life, in which the
religious and ethical elements are organically united.
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