IN

INTRODUCTION

N the interval between the delivery of these Lectures and their publication a volume has appeared from the pen of the veteran, D. F. Strauss, which has already run through four editions.' No work could better illustrate the double line of attack to which Christian belief is at this time. exposed. Commencing with the inquiry," Are we still Christians?" and taking the Apostles' Creed as his standard of orthodoxy,' the writer seeks to show in detail not only the unreality of a belief in the Holy Spirit; not only the unhistorical character of all that is Divine in the Person and Life of Jesus Christ; but further, the needlessness and logical imperfection of the very idea of a Creator of the Universe. That Universe, he holds, is itself both the term of human inquiry and the basis of all reality. In it and in its manifold developments must be sought the ground of all

3

1 Der alte und der neue Glaube. Vierte Auflage. Bonn, 1873. 2 See §§ 5-13.

3 See more particularly §§ 5, 36, 38. It was a saying of Kant, "Give me Matter; and I will show you how a world might from it arise."

existence,' the secret of life, the measure of eternity and of infinity, the limitations of immortality. Duty is resolved into resignation to the invariable Laws of Nature, and into the submission of individual desires to the general good of the race or species. Religion, if indeed it can be said to exist, is explained to be a sentiment of awe and admiration at the grandeur of that Universe, of which the particular soul, if that can be called soul, which is so entirely one with the body, forms a minute fraction.

Such are the results of a criticism of forty years, hitherto supposed to be directed to the examination of the historical documents relating to the Life of Christ. It has closed in landing the critic not in the position of the Unitarian; who denies, indeed, the cardinal doctrine of our Lord's Divinity,

"Im Laufe unsrer weiteren Betrachtung bestimmte sich uns dasselbe näher dahin, dass es in's Unendliche bewegter Stoff sei, der durch Scheidung und Mischung sich zu immer höhern Formen und Functionen steigert, während er durch Ausbildung, Rückbildung, und Neubildung einen ewigen Kreis beschreibt."-Strauss, p. 226. See also 228.

2" Alles sittliche Handeln des Menschen, möchte ich sagen, ist ein Sich bestimmen des Einzelnen nach der Idee der Gattung."-Ib., pp. 241 and 243. Strauss of course denies free-will, p. 252.

3 See p. 244. "Das religiöse Gebiet in der menschlichen Seele gleicht dem Gebiete der Rothhäute in Amerika, das, man mag es beklagen oder misbilligen so viel man will, von deren weisshäutigen Nachbarn von Jahr zu Jahr, mehr eingeengt wird;" p. 141. See also 145, 147. Similarly M. Littré on the side of Positivism defines Religion, “La définition de la religion c'est l'ensemble des dogmes et d'institutions qui conforment à la conception du Monde l'éducation et la morale."-Paroles de la Philosophie Positive, p. 62. As regards the old theological dogmas he declares himself superior to conviction. Ib., pp. 50, 51.

yet acknowledges "the form," and even, it may be

said, "the power of godliness:" but in that of a Pantheistic Materialist,' indifferent alike to the existence of God, or of the soul. Professing to write in the interests of a powerful and intellectual minority, Herr Strauss declares his readiness to await the extinction of the popular religion, the doctrines of which, meanwhile, he hardly thinks it necessary to assail.3

Now, if such be, indeed, a fair representation of the issues of an union of Biblical Criticism with Natural Philosophy; it will appear that henceforward there may be expected a new line of attack upon Revealed Truth, the result of a junction of the forces which have hitherto been ranged on

1 "Wenn man hierin den klaren crassen Materialismus ausgesprochen findet, so will ich zunächst gar nichts dagegen sagen," p. 212. Strauss, however, thinks the differences between the Materialist and Idealist of little account. He prefers a system of Monism. This again is the view of the Positivist School. See Littré, Principes, pp. 38, 39. Strictly speaking, however, Pantheism supposes a GOD immanent in things; while Positivism sees only Laws.

2 "Karl Vogt (er ist sonst nicht mein Mann, aber in diesem Felde stimme ich ihm durchaus bei) hat den Schluss gezogen, dass die Annahme einer besondern Seelensubstanz eine reine Hypothese ist: dass keine einzige Thatsache für die Existenz einer solcher Substanz spricht."-lb., p. 210. Vogt, it is well known, after Cabanis, makes Thought a secretion of the brain. See his Bilder aus dem Thierleben. 3Für uns selbst indessen begehren wir von diesen Bewegungen vorerst mehr nicht als Diogenes von dem grossen Alexander. Nämlich nur so viel dass uns der Kirchenschatten fortan nicht mehr im Wege sei."-Ib., p. 296. See also pp. 7, 8, 15, 75. In his Nachwort als Vorwort, Strauss quotes a very true observation of Dahlmann : "Wie man eine Kirche auf blos Christlicher Moral bauen könne, das sehe ich vor der Hand nicht ein:" p. 41.

different sides against the cause of Christianity. While, on the one hand, criticism is being directed, legitimately and not unfairly, upon the original documents of our Faith, the trust-deeds of the Gospel; on the other, arguments are advanced, presumably the products of scientific research; which are fatal to the Christian scheme, it is true, but also to the very existence of Religion generally.

Hence the twofold character of the line of proof pursued in these Lectures, involving considerations which may be said to lie at the roots. of all faith in GOD and Eternal Life, as well as an examination of facts which concern the history and prospects of Christianity. Both, indeed, are connected by the reflection that the Religion of Christ, if it is to be a permanent gift to mankind, must first be found superior to all objections raised by the free-thinking efforts of the age. It must show itself as ready to assimilate with scientific culture as with the barbarism of ruder times.

The position of the foregoing school of thought, as regards the main tenets of Positivism, is not far to seek. Both equally exclude the Supernatural from History and from the Universe.' Both alike

1 "Du moment qu'on ne laisse aucune place aux volontés surnaturelles, ni dans le monde inorganique ni dans le monde organique, ni parmi les phénomènes cosmiques ni parmi ceux de l'histoire, on est nécessairement des nôtres."-Littré, Paroles de la Phil. Positive, p. 58. Comp. Strauss, p. 181.

find in the Universe only Matter and Force,' neglecting the idea of Form. Both hold that to seek the reason of things in the thought of God is to seek it in a region which is both practically and mentally inaccessible. Thus it is this attempt which has constituted the whole history of Metaphysic and Religion; a history of failure. Both agree in banishing free agency from human life and conduct. Both in the study of things omit the study of man; forgetting the difficulty, if not impossibility, of establishing on material grounds alone the ideas of GOD, of immortality, of our own individual personality. Both alike confound the

1 "Au delà de ces deux termes, Matière et Force, la science positive ne connait rien."-Littré, Principes, p. xi. "La force," says M. Janet (Le Matérialisme Contemporain, p. 20)," selon Moleschott n'est pas un Dieu donnant l'impulsion à la matière; une force qui plane au dessus de la matière est une idée absurde." Moleschott's ground-principle is, "No force without matter; no matter without force; "= Allgewalt des Stoffenwechsels.

2 "Cette idée de l'espèce qui serait inhérente au germe c'est un principe qui dépasse toutes les données du Matérialisme."-Janet, p. 115.

3 Thus the old antithesis between Predestination and Free-will is now represented by Naturalism and Religion, Laws of Nature and Human Liberty. We may be content to rest in Dr. Mozley's conclusion (Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination, I. 29), “ While sufficiently clear for all purposes of practical religion (for we cannot doubt that they are truths so far as and in that mode in which we apprehend them), these are truths upon which we cannot raise definite and absolute systems. All we build upon either must partake of the imperfect nature of the premiss which supports it, and be held under a reserve of consistency with a counter conclusion from the opposite truth."-See also IV., 326.

4 M. Janet well observes: "Le Positivisme c'est le revanche de l'empirisme contre la phrénésie de la spéculation rationnelle à priori."