The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2) — John Shaqi
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2)Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Religion
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 1 (of 2)
Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Catherine, of Genoa, Saint, 1447-1510
To take some such survey, let us look, to begin with, outside of where
Catholic discipline and unity somewhat obscure, at first sight, even
the legitimate and indeed the really existing diversities of school
and tendency. In the Church’s organism each divergence has ever been
more largely tempered and supplemented by the others; and since the
Reformation, indeed in part even more recently, owing to an entirely
intelligible and in part inevitable, reaction, even most legitimate
and persistent divergencies, which flourished in rich and enriching
variety throughout the Middle Ages, have largely ceased to appear in
any obvious and distinct embodiments. Let us look then first to where
such diversities grow unchecked, and indeed generally tend to excess
and caricature. Let us take contemporary English Protestantism, and
then Foreign Protestantism in the large lines of its history. In both
cases the experimental-emotional strain and group will seem to compare
unfavourably with its competitors.
For if we look about us in England, we seem to have little difficulty
in classing the tendencies within the Established Church under the
headings of High, Broad, and Low; indeed we can readily extend this
treble classification to all the various schools and bodies of English
Protestantism. We can easily conceive of the greater portion of English
Nonconformity as but a prolongation and accentuation of the Evangelical
school in the Established Church: the readiness and ease with which
the former at certain moments unite and coalesce with the latter, show
quite conclusively how close is the affinity between them. We almost
as readily think of the Unitarian and Theistic bodies as prolongations
and further sublimations of the Anglican Broad Church view, though
here, no doubt, the degrees and kinds of difference are more numerous
and important. And if it would be hard to find an extension, still more
an accentuation, of the Anglican High Church party amongst the English
Nonconformists, a strain largely identical with the sacerdotal current
elsewhere has always existed in the Presbyterian churches. Nor must
we forget the powerful and constant, both repellent and attractive,
influence exercised by Rome upon even those outside of her obedience.
To be quite philosophical, the survey ought to include all types of
English Christianity; and, in that case, the High Church position would
rank rather as a dilution, as a variety, incomplete and inconsistent
though it be, of the type represented most strikingly and emphatically
by Rome, than as a variant of the types having their centres at
Wittenberg and Geneva.
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