The Relations of Science and Religion: The Morse Lecture, 1880Calderwood, Henry
Religion
The Relations of Science and Religion: The Morse Lecture, 1880
Calderwood, Henry
Religion and science
constantly being employed in some mode or other for relief of suffering.
What we witness in the varied forms of His works is supernatural
intervention, exercise of divine authority and power. There is no
competent vindication of the sacred narrative by reduction of our Lord's
works to the level of those forms of knowledge and skill which are
within the reach of human discovery. The sacred writings offer no
suggestion pointing in this direction; Christian faith, in the defence
it offers for its recognition of the miraculous in Christ's life, does
not shelter itself behind such a poor breastwork, as that which is
gained by eliminating the supernatural,--seeking to defend itself by
surrendering all that is distinctive of the God-man, who not only spake
as man never spake, but who with profuse liberality performed works of
healing which made the ears of the nation to tingle, compelling
reluctant witnesses to testify, that it was never so seen in Israel. The
supernatural works of Jesus belong to the same place in history, as
that which records the supernatural attributes belonging to His
personality.
To the question, How do the works of Jesus stand related to the laws of
nature? the _next_ portion of the answer is that they do not conflict
with these laws in any intelligible sense. The believer in Christ's
miracles, as he meets the manifest requirements of science, may fairly
ask of scientific critics that they state any law of nature which was
violated in any example of the Saviour's benevolent doings, in a sense
of the word "violation" which conflicts with the indubitable teaching of
science concerning the unchangeableness of the laws of nature. It might
well suffice for exposition of Christian thought at an earlier period of
Bible interpretation when the sole object was to set forth the
transcendent grandeur of Christ's works, to represent a miracle as "a
violation of the laws of nature," meaning thereby to concentrate on the
fact that equally by its character, and by profession of the agent, it
was a work which ordinary power was insufficient to explain. By parity
of reasoning, it may equally be allowed that a legitimate course is
followed, and an important service is rendered to the advance of
Christian evidence, if it be urged by scientific men that a violation of
the laws of nature is inconsistent with what is now ascertained as to
the government of the physical world. This collision between old forms
of statement and new forms of test is a gain to all interests concerned.
It must press into notice the inquiry as to the sense in which the old
terminology was employed, and also the sense in which this new test is
presented. If this comparison be prosecuted to its final result, no
Christian believer will find himself disturbed by apprehension of a
possible call to conflict with science, and no scientific men will feel
themselves drawn into antagonism with the accredited forms of Christian
belief as to the miraculous.
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