The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candourPhelips, Vivian
Religion
The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour
Phelips, Vivian
Rationalism
are reported at once, often the very next day." Again, speaking of
the first three Gospels, he says: "These Gospels are not, it is true,
historical works any more than the fourth; they were not written with
the simple object of giving the facts as they were; they were books
composed for the work of evangelisation." Such reasoning serves only
to confirm one's suspicions. Here is the unedifying spectacle of an
erudite scholar using his intellectual powers to make out a case for
a Faith built upon foundations which he has himself destroyed. We do
not wish to be told that there is a substratum of truth in the Gospel
narratives. The ordinary man feels strongly that the whole should
be true if it be God's Word. That this is, and always will be, the
common-sense view of mankind is proved by the fact that it is held
by the vast majority of the strictly orthodox, as well as by every
Agnostic and every cultured heathen.
M. Loisy writes in much the same strain as Dr. Harnack, and finds
adherents in both English and Roman Catholic Churches, as may be seen
from the correspondence in the Church Times during April, 1904.
In the Hibbert Journal (January, 1905) an Oxfordshire rector, the
Rev. C. J. Shebbeare, presents the same aspect of liberal theology by
means of various illustrations. He remarks: "It is evident that the
lesson taught by our new teachers must have an important bearing upon
popular religious conceptions and upon religious practice. Its chief
effect will be to deliver us from the error of identifying religion
with belief in the supernatural--an error of which it is not difficult
to see the pernicious consequences" (italics are mine). This is all
very well for those who can divest the Christian religion of its
supernatural element, and yet remain honest believers. To my mind,
this is simply non-Christian Theism, and the Theistic Church, Swallow
Street, is the place where such persons should perform their devotions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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