The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour — John Shaqi
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 there not indications, moreover, everywhere in the literature of
the day? The works of some of our greatest scholars are either covertly
or openly agnostic. The more thoughtful of our magazines, such as the
Nineteenth Century, Fortnightly Review, Hibbert Journal, Independent
Review, etc., are continually publishing articles which teem with
heterodoxy. The "Do We Believe?" correspondence in the Daily Telegraph
(not to mention the more recent controversies in the Standard, Daily
Mail, and Daily News) was without precedent, and highly significant
of the present state of religious unrest. In a lecture reported in the
Tablet, Father Gerard voiced the growing feeling of apprehension when
he referred to the "Do We Believe?" controversy and the "amazing
success" of the Rationalist Press Association as indicating a
situation of "the utmost gravity, as gravely disquieting as any with
which in her long career the Church has ever been confronted." Also
it may be noticed that organised efforts have commenced all over
England to answer inquiries concerning the truth of Christianity by
means of apologetic literature and lectures. What do these inquiries
portend? The reply is given in the warning of the Rev. Mark Pattison
in his essay on "Tendencies of Religious Thought in England." "When
an age," he says, "is found occupied in proving its creed, this is
but a token that the age has ceased to have a proper belief in it."
Whichever way we turn the same spectacle confronts us. In France
especially, and also in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium,
Italy, Spain, the United States, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Brazil, and
Argentina (where the men are practically all agnostics), freethought
is making rapid progress. Only in Russia, where ninety per cent. of
the population are uneducated, is the growth small and confined to the
"intellectuals." Never in the world's history has there been so much
disbelief in the "supernatural"; and, with the advance of science
and education, this disbelief appears likely to be one day almost
universal. Militant Rationalism is jubilant; while the pastor of
the Theistic Church [7] proclaims: "I see a battle coming. I do not,
like Froude, predict that it will be fought once more, as of old, in
blood and tears; but I am as certain as I am of to-morrow's dawn that
a mighty conflict is at hand which will revolutionise the religious
thought and feeling of Christendom."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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