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positive science . The new doctrine of Inspiration , then , is a sanctuary into which affrighted dogmas fly for refuge . The letter of the law is perforce given up . Early in the eighteenth century , Germany began a crusade against the letter . There were three parties of Rationalists ; the first wanted to reduce all Religion to morality ; the second to prove that Christianity was pure Deism ; the third partyamong them Semler , followed by Paulus , Eichhorn , Plank , and others—tried to evolve what they called
a primitive Christianity . Orthodoxy , thus beset , had to besir herself . The tremendous effect of Lessiag ' s Wolfenb ' uttel Fragments , and the spiritualizing impulse given by Goethe , was followed by the peculiar results of Schelling ' s and Hegel ' s philosophy—to reach a climax in Strauss , Bruno Bauer , and Feuerbach . Even Schleiermacher , the greatest name on the orthodox side , was so bitten with Rationalism , that Bishop Thirlwall hurt his reputation in England by translating him . evident that
Arrived at this pass it was quite orthodoxy could no longer blindly defend the letter . Attacked by philosophy , by philosophy it retaliated . Compelled to shift its ground , it boldly took up a new position . It fled , as we before hinted , to a sanctuary j let us hope that if driven out of this it will find no other place of refuge ! In Neander * s Life of Christ , we have the most complete exposition of German orthodoxy , in all the fulness and with all the authority of one who justly boasted that " whatever appears to me to be true , or most probable , after candid and earnest inquiry with all reverence for the sacredness of the subject , I utter without looking at consequences . Whoever has a good work to do , must , as Luther
says , let the devil ' s tongue run as it pleases . Neander , therefore , is a man we are delighted to do battle with ; and he has himself pitched the camps where , without too much presumption , the Leader may oppose him . On all questions of erudition , on all topics of theological learning , we venture not to speak ; our extremely wnclerical training , and our unfeigned respect for him , equally enforce silence . But when he quits that ground to move upon the broad plains of philosophy , then we feel that our previous training has not altogether unfitted us for the combat . The lance may shiver in our hands against the breastplate of our antagonist , but at any rate we handle the weapons we have been taught to use .
Bearing in mind that the old doctrine of Inspiration is given up by Neander , and that he is prepared to meet Strauss and others on critical ground , let us now see the philosophical basis of his creed . It is nothing less than an appeal to that necessity of Faith which all admit as a general proposition , but which is illogically pressed by him into the service of a particular proposition . He thus beautifully expresses it : — " It has been often said , that in order to true inquiry , we must take nothing for granted . Of late this statement has been reiterated anew , with special reference to the exposition of the Life of Christ . At the outset of
our work we refuse to meet such a demand . To comply with it is impracticable ; the very attempt contradicts the sacred laws of our being . We cannot entirely free ourselves from presuppositions , which are born with our nature , and which attach to the fixed course of progress in which we ourselves are involved . They control our consciousness whether we will or no ; and the supposed freedom from them is , in fact , nothing else but the exchange of one Bet for another . Some of these prepossessions , springing from a higher necessity , founded in the moral order of the universe , and derived from the eternal laws of the Creator , constitute the very ground and support of our nature . From such we must not free ourselves .
" But we are ever in peril of exchanging these legitimate sovereigns of our Bpirituul being , against which nothing but arbitrary will can rebel , for the prepossessions of a 8 elf-created or traditional prejudice , which have no other than an arbitrary origin , and which rule by no better title than usurpation . But for this peril , the way of the science of life would be as safe as the way of life itself . Life moves on in the midst of such diversified and ever-commingling prepossessions , especially in our own time , which , torn by contrarieties ( contrarieties , however , which subserve a hi g her wisdom by balancing each other ) , forms tho period of transition to a new and better creation . On the one hand we behold efforts to bring
the human mind again into bondage to the host of arbitrary prejudices which had long enough enslaved it ; and , on the other . we see a justifiable protest aguinst these prejudices running into the extreme of rejecting even those holy prepossessions which ought to rule our spiritual being , and which alone can offer it true freedom . " What , then , is the duty of Science ? Must she dismiss all prepossessions , and work out her task by unassisted thought ? Far from it . From nothing nothing comes ; the Father of spirits alone is a Creator . Empty indeed , is that enthusiasm which seeks only the mere sound of truth—abstract , formal truth . This absolute abnegation of all prepossessions would free the soul from those holy ties by which alone it enn connect itself with ita
sourcethe source of all truth—and comprehend it by means of its revelations in humanity . The created spirit cannot deny its dependence upon God , the only creative Spirit ; and in its obvious destination to apprehend the revelation of God in creation , in nature , and in history . So , the work of science can only be to distinguish the prepossessions which an inward necessity constrains us to recognise , from such as are purely voluntary . Indeed , the healthfulness of our spiritual life depends upon our ridding ourselves of the latter , and , at the same time , yielding in lowliness and singleness of heart to the former , as the law of the Creator , as the means by which light from heaven may be conveyed to our minds . All that the intellect has to do in regard to these last , is to demonstrate their necessity , and to show that our being contradicts itself in rebelling against them . "
This will command almost universal assent ; as an argument upon which to ground our belief in a Deity it is quite philosophic . But we must say that , with regard to a belief in the divinity of Christ , this same proposition is totally inapplicable . To aver that belief in Christ , as the Son of God , is one of those presuppositions which are born with our nature , is to mistake the peculiar bias given to the mind by education for an external law of nature , and might be used , with equal force of argument , by a Hindoo or a Mahometan .
Thus , starting from the fact that we have within us a necessity of Faith , Neander assumes that the Faith in Christ is also a necessary part of our constitution ; a mode of reasoning tantamount to saying that , because a cat can run , it must run up one particular street and no other . But the fallacy is masked to him by a phrase which Schleiermacher has made celebrated , viz ., Christian consciousness—used by him " To denote Christianity as an undeniable , self-revealing power , entering into the life of humanity ; an immediate , internal power in the spiritual world , from which went forth , and Is ever going forth , the regeneration of the life of man , and which produces phenomena which can be explained in no other way . "
So that , besides an implanted belief in the Deity , we have , according to this scheme , an implanted belief in Christ . This we call a gigantic and gratuitous assumption—a violation of all logic . The question being , Why must I believe in the divinity of Christ ? it is answered Because that belief is one of the necessary presuppositions of the human mind ! ' It is shown to be a necessary and not a voluntary prepossession ; first , because it satisfies a fundamental want of human nature , a want created by history , and foreshadowing its own fulfilment ; and , secondly , because
this view of Christ ' s person arose from the direct impression which his appearance among men made upon the eye-witnesses , and , through them , upon the whole human race . This image of Christ , which has always propagated itself in the consciousness of the Christian Church , originated in , and ever points back to , the revelation of Christ himself , without which , indeed , it could never have arisen . As man's limited intellect could never , without the aid of revelation , have originated the idea of God , so the image of Christ , of which we have spoken , could never have sprung from the consciousness of sinful humanity , but must be regarded as the reflection of the actual life of such a Christ . "
We cannot hesitate to pronounce this reasoning a series of beggings of the question . Upon such methods every belief yet shared by a body of men must be accepted as correct . To show how completely Neander looks at the subject through his own prepossessions , let us call attention to his strange assertion that , without revelation , man ' s limited intellect cou ld never have originated the idea of God . How , then , came the ancient Greeks by their idea of God ? How the Hindoos ? How the Chinese ? The meaning which we believe to lie at the bottom of this phrase is , that the God of Revelation could never have been known to man except through Revelation : which is another example of his reasoning .
Neander having boldly assumed the divinity of Christ , and declared the assumption as irresistible as that of the Deity , proceeds to view all the incidents of the Life with reference to this one Fundamental Faith . Instead of proving the divinity of Christ by the historical evidence , he proves the historical evidence by its conformity with his fundamental assumption ! Such logic will not suit the nineteenth century .
Neander —( strange as it may sound)—belongs properly to tho Mystical school . He gives up tho Letter ; he retreatn before hard Logic ; Ihh sanctuary is in Sentiment . Thin would very hooii lead him to Spiritualism , were it not for certain dogmatic assumptions of orthodoxy . He avoids the conclusions which Reason would force upon him , by withdrawing into the vague region of " Christian consciousness . " Hamann—one of tins most remarkable of the German Mystics—said : " Tho pearl of Christianity is a life hidden in God , a
truth in Christ the Mediator , a power which con * sists neither in words and forms , nor in dogmas and outward acts ; it cannot , therefore , be estimated by the common standards of logic or ethics . " This renunciation of Reason—this assertion of a superior mode of estimating religious truth is the foundation of Mysticism , and is the guiding light to Nejander ,. who distinctly says that the theologian needs " a spiritual mind , a deep acquaintance with divine things ; and he must study with his heart as well as his head , unless he wishes his theology to be robbed of its salt by his criticism . " All which is undeniably true ; with this danger , however , that when the Heart undertakes to interpret dogmas the result is inevitably Mysticism . Take as an example the following upon Miracles : —
" Miracles belong to a region of holiness and freedom , to which neither experience , nor observation , nor scientific discovery can lead . There is no bridge between this domain and that of natural phenomena . Only by means of our inward affinity for this spiritual kingdom , only by hearing and obeying in the stillness of the soul , the voice of God within us , can we reach those lofty regions . If there be obstacles in our way , no science can remove them . " This is an evasion of the philosophic difficulty . It brings Sentiment to bridge over the chasms of Logic . But we doubt whether unbiassed students will accept such answers . This system of testing evidence by the light of presuppositions makes easy work of difficulties , e . g . . —
" John's Gospel , which contains the only consecutive account of the labours of Christ , arose in a very different way . It could have emanated from none other than that ' beloved disciple , ' upon whose soul the image of the Saviour had left its deepest impres 3 . So far from this Gospel ' s having been written by a man of the second century ( as some assert ) , we cannot even imagine a man existing in that century so little affected by the
contrarieties of his times and so far exalted above them . Could an age involved in perpetual contradictions , an age of religious materialism , anthropomorphism , and one-sided intellectualism , Uave given birth to a production like thia , which bears the stamp of none of these deformities ? How mighty must the man have been who , in that age , could produce from his own mind such an image of Christ as this ? And this man , too , in a period almost destitute of eminent minds , remained in total obscurity !"
This is very loose historical criticism . Could such an age have produced a John ? is an idle question ; the true question is , Did it produce him ? As to any profound dissimilarity existing between the intellectual tendencies of an age and one individual , the slightest survey of history will show that not to be at all unfrcquent . It would be easy to go through the volume and exhibit the operation of this system of testing points by presuppositions ; but our limits warn us to restrict our examples to those already given . What we have arrived at may be thus summed up . Neander relinquishes the old dogma of Inspiration ,
and appeals for the truth of Christianity to the verdict of the Soul of man . In the Soul he finds an irresistible necessity for belief in a Deity ; in Christian consciousness he finds an irresistible verdict in favour of the divinity of Christ . Being thus forced to believe Christ divine , he traces the manifestation of this truth in all the incidents of the life of Christ . It is evident that to any man having the belief already such an argument is superlluous ; to any man not having that belief such an argument is powerless . So that , after all , orthodoxy has but an indifferent support from thia great German theologian !
The danger is not confined to that loose logic . Neander is a " dangerous" writer , because his great qualities—which no polemical feeling on our part can prevent our acknowledging—give authority to certain ideas almost as unwelcome to orthodoxy as infidelity itHelf could be . Orthodoxy has no patience with her " candid friends . " She abhors the thought of progress , " not knowing where it will stop . " Judge , then , of the assistance slit : may expect from u theologian who teaches
that" As the Christian lift ; might assume these forms according tn the individuality of each believer , Chrittian doctrine miqht also assume many different corresponding forms . It . was , \\ v . niiiiiitaiiiH , no part of Christ ' s intention to covjine the Christian / if : to one fixed and stereotyped rule , nor to confine Christian intelligence and thought to one fixed formula of relit / ions doctrine . In both provinces of word utid deed , the Horninal principles out of which Christian life and doctrine were graduall y to emerge ., according to the law of historical development . '
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Feb . 8 , 1851 . ] Cft $ ILtdUtt . 129
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" IIo even maintains a kind of historical necessity for these different phases of Christian doctrine , believing that this process of development , when once begun , must advance , and thai from these tendencies of different aystoma the harmonious representation of Christianity in its hit / heat unity was to bo gathered .
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 8, 1851, page 129, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1869/page/13/
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