An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant — Kant — John Shaqi
An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant
Kant · en
archæological material to rectify the current theological notions
concerning ancient history. A certain type of English mind has always
shown zeal for the interpretation of prophecy. Williams's thesis,
briefly put, was this: the Bible does not always give the history of the
past with accuracy; it does not give the history of the future at all;
prophecy means spiritual teaching, not secular prognostication. A reader
of our day may naturally feel that Wilson, with his paper on the
'National Church,' made the greatest contribution. He built indeed upon
Coleridge, but he had a larger horizon. He knew the arguments of the
great Frenchmen of his day and of their English imitators who, in Benn's
phrase, narrowed and perverted the ideal of a world-wide humanity into
that of a Church founded on dogmas and administered by clericals. Wilson
argued that in Jesus' teaching the basis of the religious community is
ethical. The Church is but the instrument for carrying out the will of
God as manifest in the moral law. The realisation of the will of God
must extend beyond the limits of the Church's activity, however widely
these are drawn. There arose a violent agitation. Williams and Wilson
were prosecuted. The case was tried in the Court of Arches. Williams was
defended by no less a person than Fitzjames Stephen. The two divines
were sentenced to a year's suspension. This decision was reversed by the
Lord Chancellor. Fitzjames Stephen had argued that if the men most
interested in the church, namely, its clergy, are the only men who
may be punished for serious discussion of the facts and truths of
religion, then respect on the part of the world for the Church is at an
end. By this discussion the English clergy, even if Anglo-Catholic, are
in a very different position from the Roman priests, over whom
encyclicals, even if not executed, are always suspended.