Theism; being the Baird Lecture of 1876Flint, Robert
Religion
Theism; being the Baird Lecture of 1876
Flint, Robert
Theism
When man apprehends God as powerful, wise, and good--as possessed of
will, reason, and righteousness--obviously he thinks of Him as bearing
some likeness to himself, as having in an infinite or perfect measure
qualities which human creatures have in a finite and imperfect measure.
This can be no stumbling-block to any one who believes that God made
man in His image, after His likeness. If man be in some respects
like God, God must, of course, be in some respects like man. Power
and freedom, knowledge and wisdom, love, goodness, and justice, are,
according to this view, finitely in man, because they are infinitely
in God. But it is a view which excites in certain minds deep aversion.
There are men who protest, in the name of religion, in the name of
God, against this anthropomorphic theism, as they call it. According
to them, to attribute to God any human qualities, even the highest and
best, is to limit and degrade Him--is contrary to reason and contrary
to piety--is idolatrous and profane. The Psalmist represents the Lord
as reproaching the wicked for supposing that He was like them in their
wickedness--"altogether such an one as themselves;" but the modern
philosophers to whom I am referring are horrified at the thought that
the most righteous man, even in his righteousness, has any likeness
to God. According to them, to think of God as wise is to dishonour
Him, and to declare Him holy is to calumniate Him. To think of Him as
foolish, and to pronounce Him wicked, are, in their eyes, only a little
more irreverent and no more irrational.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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