Understanding the ScripturesMcConnell, Francis John
Religion
Understanding the Scriptures
McConnell, Francis John
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Bible -- Study and teaching
There are those who proclaim that we do not need any revelations of God
to make then human ideal fully significant--the human ideal stands by
itself. Some such thinkers go consistently the full length of saying
that they are willing to keep their eyes open to the hopelessness of
the universe. They can see nothing beyond this life but total oblivion.
Nevertheless, with their eyes open they will fight on manfully to the
end and take the final leap into the dark without flinching. They are
very apt to add that their philosophy is the only unselfish one; that
the desire of men for any sort of help from conceptions about the
Divine is selfishness where it is not sentimentalism. It is fair to say
that such doctrines seldom meet large response. The reason is not that
men selfishly seek out a God for the sake of material reward that may
come to them, but that they seek him for the sake of finding a resting
place for their minds and souls, for the sake of cherishing an end
which seems in itself worth while, for the sake of laying hold on a
universe in which they can feel at home. If this is selfishness, then
the activities of the human soul in its highest ranges are selfish. If
it is selfish to long for a universe in which the heart can trust, it
is selfish also to enjoy the self-satisfaction with which some of these
thinkers profess to be ready to take their leap into the night. As we
scan the history of Christianity since the day of the Founder we are
impressed that religious organizations as such which arise within
Christianity tend to survive in proportion as they make central the
significance of Christ as the revealer of the character of God. We
would not for a moment underestimate the importance of those groups of
Christians who take Christ merely as a prophet who lived the noblest
life and exalted his truth by the noblest death. Many such believers
manifest the very purest devotion to Christ. They are his disciples.
But the historic fact is that organizations founded on such doctrines
alone do not win sweeping triumphs. On their own statement the most
they hope to do is to spread the leaven of their doctrine into the
thinking of other groups of Christians. Their service in this respect
is not to be disparaged, for at all times the more orthodox opinion of
Christ, so called, needs the leavening of emphasis on the humanity of
Christ. But after all these allowances it is just to affirm that
theology which sees only the human in Christ does not come to vast
power, and that clearly because the world is chiefly interested in the
question with which the entire biblical revealing movement deals,
namely, what is the nature of God? With that question answered we can
best understand the nature of man and the possibility of communion
between man and God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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