.-A^^^''' h f^nn.. DEC 1 1 1916 " "3 complicated. To push the biological analogy farther, it might be said that the ''cell" of religion is man's conscious attempt to place himself, as a member of a group possessed of similar concepts and customs, in benefit-gaining relationship with those superhuman forces in his world, his dependence upon which he realizes, and which he treats as he would treat persons by whom he wished to be aided. Or, more briefly, religion is a social laying hold of God (or any object of worship) for the sake of help or salvation. It is obvious that the content of such a formal definition will vary according to the conception of what constitutes this superhuman environment, and that this variety of estimate will affect the methods which a man adopts in his search for superhuman aid. A study of even the most primitive religion leads one to two convictions apparently paradoxical : religion does not necessarily imply a belief in a supreme person, and yet, in religion, environment is conceived of in the same way that men conceive of persons. Therein the functioning of life in religion differs from the functioning of life in the satisfaction of the impulse of sex or of food-seeking. True religion does not, as Monier- Williams would insist, postulate the existence of one living and true God of infinite power, wisdom, and love. That would exclude too many religious customs and rites. Men have worshiped fetishes or animals or sacred stones. Such objects are regarded as elements in the environment which affect human interests, and therefore, without being of necessity consciously personified, are treated as if they were personal. c) Theories concerning the origin of religion. — There are a number of theories undertaking to show how this attitude of mind was induced, but all are more or less unsatisfactory. Some find the cause in fear, or dreams, or regard for ancestors, or the appetencies of sex. Doubtless there is truth in all of these hypotheses, but we are not absolutely sure as to just how religion came into existence any more than we are sure as to 34 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION how human Hfe itself arose. We can, however, see clearly that the functional significance of religion is an elemental expression of the second of the two elemental impulses of life itself, namely, to propagate and to protect itself. Religion is life functioning in the interest of self-protection. It differs from similar functional expressions of life in that (i) it treats certain elements of its environment personally (though not necessarily as a person), and (2) it seeks to make these friendly and so helpful. One or the other of these two ele- ments has almost invariably been overlooked in studies of religion, but both are indispensable to the concept. Religion utilizes personal experience and uncompromisingly pre- supposes personalism — not, let it be repeated, always in the sense of any systematic world-view. Doubtless unconsciously at the first, but with ever-increasing clearness of conception, men have treated their environment as they would treat human beings. Religion is uncompromisingly functional, not only in adjusting the individual or the group to its environ- ment, but also in the attempt to adjust environment to the person or the community. Thus Schleiermacher's conception of religion as a feeling of dependence is only part of the truth. To it must be added the conscious effort tOvvard reconciliation. It is this twofold modification of the elemental functioning of life in the interest of self-preservation that distinguishes religion from so many activities with which it has been inti- mately associated, like hunting, and grain-planting, marriage, and burial. Obviously the inception of this radically human attitude toward its world is lost in the unrecorded struggles by which humanity raised itself above the other forms of animal life with which it is genetically united. But one's ignorance here does not impugn the fact that such a use of experience was actually made. Some time, somewhere — just when and where it matters not — there appeared a man who, first of all living creatures, THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 35 with the new impulses of a genuine person, attempted to adjust himself consciously to the outer world upon which he saw himself dependent by an attempt to make that outer world favorable to himself. It makes little difference how he conceived that outer world or which one of its particular aspects first impressed him. Any one of the various theories of the origin of religion might here suffice. The essential thing is that, in his passion to protect his life and to insure his continuous existence as a person, he attempted consciously to enjoy or to win the favor of the extra-human environment with which he found himself involved and on which his happiness seemed to depend. And that, so far as we know, no animal other than man ever attempted to accomplish. But even this statement is too individuaUstic. Such efforts have always appeared in history as the expressions of group activity. Religions are fundamentally social, the pos- session of some tribe, nation, or church. It is not necessary to insist that all religions are genetically related, in the sense that one has been derived from another. That some such relations between certain religions in the way of development or devolution exist is undeniable; but the historico-religious method at the present time is in danger of mistaking similarities between religions for genealogical rela- tions. Thus in the comparative study, let us say, of Chris- tianity there is strong temptation to insist that elements of Babylonian myths go to constitute the very content of Christianity. That a certain degree of genealogical relation- ship in this particular case may exist may well be admitted, but a too rigorous application of the comparative genealogical method in the study of religion is certain to distort the facts. If there is anything undeniable in the study of society, it is that human nature is essentially the same, and that when facing the same social needs it functions in a generic sort of way. Thus, in the case of inventions, men subject to the stimulation of similar social needs, in absolute independence 36 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of each other, produce instruments and processes practically identical. An even more striking illustration of this general tendency is to be seen in the fact that all civilizations pre- cipitate practically the same moral codes when they arrive at the same stage of complication of social life. So in the case of religions; the striking similarities which occur between religions belonging to the primitive groups and reHgions belong- ing to the highly socialized groups are not necessarily to be interpreted as involving imitative, or in fact any, historical relationship. Such similarities, both in institution and in process of evolution, can often be sufficiently well accounted for by a generic religious impulse in humanity, which tends to produce customs, rites, institutions, and creeds in answer to individual and social needs. d) The nature of religious activity. — At the risk of excessive repetition one thing needs particularly to be emphasized; namely, the worshiper not only seeks to appease that in his environment which he regards as conditioning his welfare, but he also undertakes to put himself into proper relationship with that which he appeases. The essence of religion is not a feeling of dependence, but the impulse toward reconciliation with that which engenders such a feeling. The moment a group thinks that the highest power in its environment is unreconcilable its relations therewith become utterly passive, i.e., impersonal; men cease to be religious and become simply fatalists. And fatalism is not religion, for it lacks the fundamental attitude of religion, which is the effort to establish favorable relations with the super-environment. In other words, the situation which religion would establish is one of personal harmony between the worshiper and that worshiped, no matter how crude or superstitious that relationship may be. The primitive savage who by mysterious rites seeks to induce his corn-god to give him a good harvest differs no whit, so far as his psychological attitude is concerned, from the most philosophically religious person who seeks to enter into THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 37 healthful personal relations with a supreme and infinite God through an intelligent faith that the universe may be conceived of as involving a cosmic personality possessed of purpose and love. How true this is, is apparent in the work of Christian missionaries. They do not need to engender the religious impulse — they need simply to give new content and intel- lectual control to that impulse. A man could never make a religious convert of a dog. The South Sea cannibal could become a Christian because he was first of all rehgious. Literature. — On religion in general there is developing a voluminous literature. Farnell, The Evolution of Religion (New York: Putnam, 1905), is a good handbook on certain religious phenomena, particularly sacrifice. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites (London: Black, 1894) ; Bousset, Das Wesen der Religion (Tubingen: Mohr, 1906; English translation. What Is Religion? [New York: Putnam, 1907]); King, The Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910); Moulton, Religions and Religion (New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1914); and Andrew Lang, Ritual and Religion (London: Longmans, 1899), are also valuable general popular treatments. Toy, Introduction to the History of Religion (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1913); Jastrow, Introduction to the Study of Religion (New York: Scribner, 1901), are admirable handbooks. See also important titles on p. 29. 3. THE EVOLUTION OF THE PERSONAL INTERPRETATION OF ENVIRONMENT It will be understood from what has already been said that the term extra- or superhuman environment does not always necessarily involve personality. What the term means is simply some power other and (in its influence at least) more than human which a group regards as having influence upon its life and fortunes. The fact that such elements of the environment are treated as if they were personal is only to say that religion involves an extension of personal experience over into environment as a means of interpreting that environment in the interests of a helpful reconciliation. Personal Ufe seeks personal adjustment to an environment beheved to possess personal elements. Such an instinctive act is not 38 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION ' unlike that in which, to speak figuratively, a living organism makes the assumption that its environment discovered by experience is capable of forming a part of a dynamic situation. Thus far Ward is correct in saying that religion is in man what instinct is in animals. But only in so far; for did an animal ever seek to placate nature ? The personal element is essential in religion, because it is the functioning of the total life of a personal being. The essential matter in the evolution of religion, as in all evolution, is the transformation of the original organism through its relation with its environment and the nucleating about itself — if the figure may be allowed — of other experiences into species of the same genus. And this is accomplished by the varying social experience with which a group adjusts itself to its environment, to which it must submit, and from which it must derive assistance. a) Primitive religions. — ^These generally deal with environment directly. The primitive gods in the earliest survivals and literature in which we can trace religious con- cepts were often natural forces. The heavens and earth, fire, water, and wind, the sun, moon, and planets — these natural objects were worshiped, but they were not personified. Man found himself face to face with the awfulness of Nature. He saw how dependent he was upon Nature, how the rising of the river would flood and sweep away his hut, how the rain would come from heaven to give him grass for his cattle, how the sun would drive the animals he hunted into the deep forests. He naturally wanted to make the river and the heavens propitious. He therefore treated them as he treated human beings whom he wished to make propitious. Groups also were or became animistic and regarded natural forces as the home or the visible expression of personal beings, such as ghosts, spirits, gods. These, men treated personally — as they treated members of their own or other tribes. Customs thus preceded doctrines. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 39 If we go even farther back than philology can carry us and study religion as we discover it in the most primitive folk, we find corroboration for this view, although with this differ- ence : there seem to be some tribes that have not risen to the conception of the great natural forces as those that are to be appeased and who therefore concern themselves rather with items in their natural environment. In fact, anything unusual is likely to be regarded by primitive men as a good or a malign influence. In either case it needs to be treated with respect and, if possible, placated. A rock over which someone has fallen, a cave in the darkness of which someone has been lost, a curious root that was discovered when someone became ill, a tree that has been struck by lightning — all have been regarded as operative forces in man's situation which have needed in some way to be placated. Here, too, an early step was to regard these natural objects as the residence of some spirit, good or evil. Thus fetishism arose as a sort of limitation of the lesser nature- worship. Not all natural objects were significant, and even those which were might lose their meaning if the spirit aban- doned them. It is possible to draw a distinction between magic and reli- gion as soon as religion begins to take on its more social form. The witch is different from the priest, in that her arts are anti-social, or at least not those of the group. Despite the weighty names to be quoted against such a view, it would seem to me that non-injurious magic may often be treated as the vestige of a rudimentary religion preserved and observed by specially empowered persons rather than by groups. For there is in such magic, e.g., rain-making, that "will to conciliate" as well as to control, which, as a comple- ment to the "will to power," is the very sign- manual of religion. But this is not to say that religion developed from magic. The fundamental difference between magic and reli- gion lies not in the fact that magic was originally anti-social / 40 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION ' or individualistic, but in the fact that in the course of social evolution it is seen to be so. As religion develops, certain rites are seen to apply only the impersonal principle that like affects like through the agency of a specially empow- ered person who has a personal monopoly of power. The primitive religion thus outgrown becomes magic and, although socially condemned, continues as a survival. And the reason for its condemnation is in large measure the development of a knowledge of natural processes. A growing science thus rele- gates certain elements of a religion to superstition. Similarly, too, in the case of the worship of dead ancestors, a stage in religious development to be found all but universally in simple civilizations. Whatever may have been the origin of such a custom, it is sufficiently clear that the dead are regarded as important factors in determining good and evil fortune. For a group to propitiate them is therefore good policy as well as tribal piety. b) Tribal religion. — With the emergence of actual tribal organization a new phase in this religious interest appeared. A developing civilization does not always, it is true, immedi- ately react to the conception of the god, but, in so far as the religious concept develops, it invariably passes through a stage in which these forces which have been treated like persons are treated as persons. This is to say that, con- temporaneously with the development of the clan, religion entered into the stage of naive anthropomorphic or anthropo- pathic religions. Such a development was inevitable for people sufficiently constructive to become a part of the main current of civilization. All others, like the Black Fellows of Australia, preserve the religious ideas in forms as primitive as their civilizations. Such personification, however, does not seem to have proceeded uniformly. In some cases a tribe would have as its own a god who is the personification of some natural force, and would worship him by attributing to hirii those qualities which, thanks to its social development, THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 41 the tribe as a whole beheved to be the most ideal. Without exception these tribal gods are regarded as normally in a state of reconciliation with the tribe. Generally they are regarded as the fathers of their tribes. In other words, they are beheved to partake of the same elemental quahty as primitive civilization itself. They are, however, subject to paroxysms of anger, evidenced by the defeat of the tribe in battle, by the outbreak of disease, and by various other mis- fortunes. In such cases they must be placated by gifts. In this we see one of the various contributing influences that made sacrifice a social institution, although there are other influences quite as powerful. At other times a god appears to be particularly favorable, in that he sends good weather and good fortune. At such times his kindness needs to be appre- ciated by gifts. Thus arises the sort of sacrifice which is not intended to appease the tribal god, but to thank him for his help. In this all members of a tribe partake. But the most essential element in the tribal religion is the conception of the god as the supreme chieftain of the tribe. It is true that he is not beheved to appear frequently, but that at critical moments some member is likely to see him and get some word of encouragement or warning. Further, there have been few peoples who have attained to the tribal form of society in which there has not been some particular person or family regarded as in some way the god's particular repre- sentative. Such persons instructed the tribe as to the will of the god, served as priests, and, under the god's direction, established great feasts of which the god partakes. Probably at this point we find the most important contributing source of sacrifice. The social group includes the god, and he shares in the experiences of the tribe, be they sad or joyous. And it should be noted that the rites of religions had their origin in the enjoyment of life as truly as in its misery and fear. Men thought of the gods as their companions as truly as their judges. 42 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION This tribal god in some tribes may, so to speak, be assisted by a number of secondary gods, but polytheism is not neces- sarily an element of tribal religion, and even when a tribe worships several gods it is likely to have one particularly its own. In fact, as the tribal civilization developed it would seem as if, in many cases, particularly among the Semites and the Aryans, there were two classes of gods — those which represent the material forces more or less personi- fied and constitute a sort of super-divine body of deities to whom worship is to be paid as the final sources of good for- tune, and, along with these, so to speak, the working class among the gods. Other tribes carry along with their single tribal god a phase of magic which may be said to be the sur- vival of some more primitive religious practice. Similarly, customs, the meaning of which has long been forgotten , may be carried along as essential elements of a developing religion. So important may these customs become as to give almost its full content to the religion. c) Monarchical religion. — The fact that the tribal god was regarded as, so to speak, the responsible party in tribal history led to another phase of religion, the monarchical. Such a term is at best unsatisfactory, but it serves to indicate how the thought of God develops by the extension to him of new political conceptions. The national god must be superior to the tribal chieftain. As a chieftain developed in power by conquest so as to extend the power of the tribe over other tribes, it has been all but uniformly true that the tribal god was regarded as victorious over the gods of the conquered tribes. Thus, as the tribe itself through conquest became the head of a quasi-nation, the god became a conquering monarch. But it did not at all follow that the tribe which had been absorbed or conquered would give up its god. It might continue to worship him in the hope that ultimately he would assert himself and give deliverance to his people. Or, on the other hand, as the tribe was incorporated into a new THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 43 political entity, its god might become a member of the royal court of the supreme God. There is many a nation whose religious history shows the struggle between the worship of the two sets of deities. Thus we find, in the history of Israel, a long succession of struggles between the worship of Jehovah and that of the Baalim and the Syrian gods of the high places belonging to the conquered Canaanites. This struggle is likely to be particularly violent when the two sets of gods are brought together, not by war or conquest, but by the inter- mingling of civilizations. For conquest is not the only source of the development of the king god. Political development as such leads to this more developed conception. It may often be that a number of tribes have the same god. These may federate, as in the tribes of Israel, religion being the sole or at least the chief bond of the political unity. But even such federation is not neces- sary for the development of the idea of God. The trans- formation of the tribe from nomadic to agricultural life has been accompanied by a transformation of the conception of a god and has given him new attributes, as in Zoroastrianism. Sometimes this addition has been made through the religious teachers or the priests; sometimes it has been unconsciously due to the rise of new economic conceptions born of social evolution. As the agricultural stage of social evolution has passed into the commercial and urban, the new powers of the chieftains have been used as media for shaping new preroga- tives for the god. His relations have become less those of the father of the family and more those of the king, increasingly po- litical and forensic. It is not too much to say that, in the case of all tribes whose development we can trace across the various stages of social evolution, the idea of monarchy, which has characterized some period of every developed society, however different its social institutions may have been, has also colored religions. The god is not subject to the will of the people; the people and their material environment are to obey him. 44 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Obedience to his law becomes thus a condition of his rendering his people aid. d) The higher development of monarchical religion. — At this point the really great religions have made two important transitions : 1. The superhuman monarch of the tribe has come to Be regarded as the superhuman monarch of the world, the king of creation. It has not followed that all the other gods have been regarded as non-existent, for in many cases they have been treated as devils or saints. But the passage to genuine monotheism can, not infrequently, be traced through this monarchical stage. The divine monarch is supreme over human subjects. He arranges nature. The thunder is his voice, the wind his messenger, the earthquake the creature of his will. Men begin to think of him philosophically, and so transcendental may the thought of him become that the effort to realize the now supreme and increasingly ethical conception of his character gives rise to a genuine if naive theology. 2. The second transition has been the moral elevation of the idea of God. This change has been the work of the prophet. In primitive religion the prophet in any true sense of the word is unknown. There are only medicine men, necromancers, witches, and the like. But few peoples ever come to the universal monarchy conception of their god without seeing in him the standard of morality. If such a transition is impossible, a new god is adopted as the new conscience needs a more sensitively moral god. If, as in the case of classical mythology, gods are past reformation, they are pensioned off with conventional honors and allowed to pass into innocuous desuetude on some mountain where their example will not injure the morals of young people. In the extent of this moral idealization of its idea of God the Hebrew religion is unique. It seems to have passed through the earlier stages of religious evolution; but this eventuated, as THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 45 in no other religion, in a monarch of absolute righteousness, hating iniquity. That this is the case is due to the work of the prophets who, from an exceptional religious experience, taught an unwilling nation ideals that were to serve as the basis of the non-monarchical ethical religion of Jesus. This monarchical conception has given rise to the most precise theologies. It is easy to see why. Political experi- ence is so universal, political institutions are so subject to legal adjustment, and legal analogies are so intelligible, that it has been comparatively easy to systematize religious relations under the general rubrics of statecraft. Thus righteousness has been thought of as the observance of the laws of the god, given through divinely inspired teachers, and punishment has been attached to the violation of such laws in precisely the same way as to the violation of laws of the king. The pardon- ing of sins has been a royal prerogative, although sometimes needing justification in the way of vicarious suffering by some competent sacrificial animal or person, while the rewards of the righteous have been pictured by figures drawn from the triumphs of earthly kings, just as in primitive societies the future has been regarded as the "happy hunting-ground." 3. Only a few religions have as yet progressed beyond the monarchical stage. In Brahmanism religion has been denied content and direction by an impersonal cosmic philosophy, and two of the three great religions of Semitic origin — Judaism and Christianity— have moved over into a quasi-transcen- dental personal sphere. But the theologies of even these religions have been developed on the monarchical analogy. This is particularly true of Christianity as the flowering of Hebrew religion through the introduction of the personal experiences of Jesus. Literature. — See the references given above (p. 37). For more philosophical treatment, see also Fiske, The Idea of God as Affected by Modern Knowledge (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1885); Wester- marck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1906 and 1908); Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human 46 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Experience (New Haven: Yale University Press, 191 2); and Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God and Its Historical Development (Edinburgh: Clark, 1906). C, THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES Theology deals primarily with experience, and experience is far more extensive than rational processes. Theology arises when men undertake to organize their inherited and new religious experiences, beliefs, and customs in harmony with other elements of experience, and thus to satisfy their deepest spiritual need for unity between their faith and their knowledge of the universe. The organizing principle is all but invariably dramatic, a presupposition born of social experience which the community producing the theology has unconsciously accepted as a basis of social activity and the standard of social values. Most frequently such an organiz- ing principle is that already operative in the state. A second, or apologetic, period begins when men undertake to defend their right to hold religious behefs by means of appropriating current elements of culture. The creative and the apologetic stages of theology are indispensable, but the former is primarily social, the latter philosophical. Mythology, philosophy, and theology. — Religion is per- sonal, but it is also a phase of social experience. Although by no means to be identified with social custom, its develop- ment involves such custom, and particularly the preser- vation of tribal sanctions for various social activities. Yet to limit religion to merely social experience and to make God a symbol of an authoritative totality of social experience is to neglect outstanding elements of personality and its relations. Religion is a word of experience, but it has a correlate in an extra-experiential reality which is a dominating factor in the situation out of which religion develops. To eliminate an objective God from religion is as illogical as to eliminate the soil and air from the life of a plant. A theology in the nature THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 47 of the case must therefore contam its meta-experiential ele- ments. A pragmatic view of the world is highly fruitful for the discussion of the psychological and social aspects of religion, but it is not sufficient for a theology which shall include the cosmic processes in which men find themselves. But after this has been admitted it still remains true that the first creative attempts to rationalize religious experience into harmony with elements of culture have not found their organizing principles in metaphysical processes. Meta- physical treatment of religion has always been a second or even third stage in the rationalizing process. Prior to it are mythology and theology, each structurally dramatic. a) Mythology as a means of interpreting religion. — Recent discussions in the history of religion have made evident the fact that mythology has played no inconsiderable part in the early stages of religious development. Myths might be described as a method of combining rationalized religious aspiration with observed cosmic phenomena by the use of elementary experience, generally of individuals rather than of groups. In this, mythology differs from theology, which organizes religious thought on more genuinely social concepts than combats, love-making, and individual careers. In the case of practically all religions, with the exception of the Christian and other religions, like Mohammedanism, which have been derived from the Bible, the philosophical stage followed immediately upon the mythological and served to destroy confidence in the myth, even when, as in Greece, mythology continued as a form of popular religion long after Plato and Aristotle had all but universalized the philo- sophical attitude of mind. In the case of the Hebrew religion, whatever may have been its roots in early Semitic thought, it is all but impossible to discover any period of myth within its biblical stage. Both in it and in Christianity religious syncretism, it is true, did to some extent show itself, as in the influence of Baal-worship 48 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION upon the Hebrews and in the appropriation of pagan customs and institutions on the part of the Christians. But Hebraism in its constructive principle was germinally monotheistic. It never was characterized by the mass of mythological details which most polytheistic religions have included. Hebraism used for its structural religious ideas not the adven- tures of individuals, as classical mythology did, but the universalizing conception of monarchy. Zeus was never a lawgiver, but Yahweh's relations with his people were always those between a king and his subjects. That is to say, the material of Hebrew religious thought, while like mythology in being dramatic rather than philosophical, was organized about an essentially political experience. Literature. — See Fiske, Myths and Mythmakers, (Boston: Osgood, 1873; 3d ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 1900). b) The relation between theology and philosophy.— A dis- tinction between theology and philosophy is hard to draw in terms of definition, for both alike seek to give some sort of unity to the highest thought of mankind. Furthermore, philosophy, like theology, is largely conditioned by social experience. Of the two, philosophy is by far the more fre- quent framework for religious thought. Indeed, one might even say that there never has been but one well-rounded theology, namely, that which has been produced by the Chris- tian thought of Western Europe. The other great religions which have used bibhcal material have resembled Western orthodoxy to some extent, but in the case of Mohammedanism and Judaism no theological system in any way comparable with that even of the arrested theology of the Eastern church has been developed. Yet practically all religions have had their philosophies, and in some cases, notably in Hinduism and the religion of Egypt, there has often been developed an esoteric system of teaching for the cultured classes along- side of gross superstitions among the masses. Western Christianity has, it is true, developed its secondary form in THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 49 the practices of the Roman church; but this secondary Chris- tianity has always become at length organically embodied in a real theology, the subject-matter of which is the relationship of God and humanity, and which is only apologetically cos- mological or metaphysical. Further, while it is difficult to distinguish formally between theology and philosophy, the content and tendency of the two show marked differences. Philosophy as it has existed in the Western world has been concerned primarily with the con- struction of some world- view which finds its unity in a general conception such as the ideas of Plato and the idea of Hegel. Once having gained such an a priori principle, instead of working toward experience, it has by a process of abstraction worked away from experience. In the place of personal rela- tions it has substituted those of logic. Pragmatism, it is true, is an exception to this general tendency, but pragmatism itself is more concerned with the problems of reality and knowl- edge than with the systematic presentation of the relations of man and God as theology conceives them. And there is a further distinction between pragmatism and theology in that theology cannot be content to find its subject-matter wholly in the region of experience. Theology, since its subject- matter is primarily religion, must always involve a meta- physical reality, and above all emphasize relations between God and men. A comparison of philosophies with theology will show still another difference. Whereas the organizing, unifying prin- ciples of philosophy are, with the exception of those of prag- matism, in the realm of the meta-experiential, in the case of theology the unifying principle is some presupposition which determines social experience as a whole. In giving form and rational acceptability to its formulations the theology of the schools has utilized dominant philosophies, but this process belongs to the second rather than to the original and creative stratum of the organizing process. A theological system, 50 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION as distinguished from its amplification, has sprung from the same subconscious social mind as that from which has sprung political theory. Interaction between politics and theology is always to be noted, but neither is strictly the origin of the other. The parallelism between the two is due to their com- mon origin. It is this fact that in part explains the survival in highly developed types of theology of those concepts which are fully intelligible only when they are historically valued as drawn from the experience of different economic and political stages through which the people creating the theology have passed in its development. Such a fact is easily appreciated. Theology is essentially concerned with relations or situations in which man and God are both involved. But to describe relations men inevitably make use of relations already in experience. In religion men seek help; they justify that search by the use of those cate- gories of social experience in which help has already been found and its methods of operation organized. And, further- more, a religion and its consequent theology has been the possession of a total group like the church, and has conse- quently relied upon customs, rites, and ceremonies as embody- ing its truths. Such control exercised by the non-religious presuppositions of social experience over a theological system, whether it be simple or highly developed, is inevitable, since such a system is only one phase of a social mind. A philosophical treatment of religion, and particularly a philosophy of religion, are always likely to overlook this fact because of their tendency to deal with concepts abstracted from experience. But speaking strictly, there is no history of doctrine ; there is only the history of men who hold doctrines. A ''doctrinal man" is as impos- sible as an " economic man." Theology has been even slower than political economy to recognize this fact; but as soon as the doctrine-making process is seen to be only one phase of an evolving civilization, its social aspect at once appears clear. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 51 and the approach to theology is seen to be through history and group-Hfe rather than through philosophy. Indeed, it may be said that when philosophy becomes dominant in theology the period of creative theology, like the period of creative mythology, has closed. D. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE I. THE CREATIVE SOCIAL MIND Occidental civilization has resulted from the genetic succession of several creative social minds. These social minds have been the outcome of social experience of various sorts. Christianity, as a developing religion by which men of different grades of culture have sought to gain help from God in accord with the teaching and person of Jesus Christ, has appropriated and built into itself these dominant social minds, which in turn have been expressions of creative social forces. As social experience varies new intellectual con- cepts result. Doctrine-making, when analyzed, is the group- formulation or modification of inherited religious beliefs in accordance with these new concepts, for the purpose of vin- dicating and directing religious self-expression. Generally such formulation gives birth to but one doctrine in an epoch. To put the matter more distinctly, theology is the out- growth of the needs of religion for intellectual expression. Wherever religion is practiced, it is forced to meet the needs set by the social life of those to whom it ministers. In the nature of the case, the satisfaction of these needs, as well as the needs themselves, are determined by the habits and thought and social activity of any given epoch. Religious doubts or religious controversies, which have been the usual occasion of doctrinal growth, have in general sprung from the tension of soul resulting from the failure of inherited religious formulas to meet needs set by the dominant and creative social minds. The doctrines of Christianity have thus been religiously 52 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION functional rather than absolute, and the development of Christianity has thus inevitably been a social process. The fact that in the midst of these successive social minds Christianity has proceeded in a definite direction, and has bred true to itself, is an argument that a generic but not absolutely and finally formulated Christianity is to be found by a study of the successive periods of creative theological thought. Such periods are epochs of that genetically related creative activity which has expressed itself in the successive social minds which have constituted the continuous stream of Western history. A nation without social development natu- rally has no developing theology. The relation of doctrine to the creative social mind from which both the new religious needs and their satisfaction spring is not quite as simple, however, as what has been said might imply. While a social mind has been formulating the particular doctrine demanded by the same new creative social impulse, it has usually accepted and defended other doctrines which it has inherited from a long line of predecessors. Thus new doctrines appear only at what might be called the tension- points of intellectual and social progress. These, however, are not, strictly speaking, inventions, but the organization of truths already held implicitly in the Christian religion, much as elements of a developing civilization are implicit in its fundamental genius. Quite as important is the further fact that just as some persons have alternating personalities, so most epochs have more than one social mind. In fact, much of the progress of history is due to the conflict between these social minds, each of which has tended to shape up some characteristic religious expression. These counter social minds express the social experience of minorities unproductive of immediate historical develop- ment. When expressing themselves in theology, they have THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 53 given rise to the opposition theologies which have been side- tracked into the Kmbo of heresy. The fact that the developing system of Christian teaching which we call orthodoxy per- sisted was not due to any superficial causes like persecution or state support. These indeed were agents, but the funda- mental explanation why one doctrine rather than another triumphed during moments of creative struggle is that it served better than the other the needs begotten by the con- tinuously developing and dominant social experience. Could, for example, true progress in social development, any more than in theology, ever have resulted from social minds which could have been satisfied with gnosticism or the essential polytheism of Arius or the atomistic philosophy of Pelagius ? Counter-theologies have been valuable because they each have recognized something not included in the theology which ministered directly to the dominant social mind; but, despite common belief regarding heresies, they have never become some future orthodoxy. These theologies failed to function directly in the actual course of development of both society and Christianity. At the best they were of influence only as contributing causes of new social minds. These counter-theologies or heresies failed to persist for two reasons: they did not tend toward the increasing knowledge of reality; and, however much influence they may have had in affecting the course of the development of orthodoxy, they have not satisfied the religious needs set by the dominant social minds which determined the main course of history. Only those Christian conceptions for which the genetically connected dominant social minds of successive periods have shown affinity have given the real content to our growing religion. In them, as by a sort of Mendelian formula, the generic quality of Christianity is to be found. Dominant traits alone have persisted in vigor. 54 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 2. THE CREATIVE SOCIAL MINDS WHICH HAVE MADE OCCI- DENTAL HISTORY The creative social minds which have made Occidental history during this Christian era are the Semitic, which gave us the New Testament and the messianic drama; the Hellen- istic, which gave us ecumenical dogma; the imperialistic, which gave us the doctrine of sin and the Roman church; the feudal, which gave us the first real theory of atonement; the national, which gave us Protestantism; the bourgeois, which gave us modern evangelicalism; and the modern or scientific-democratic mind, which must give us the theology of tomorrow. It is not without importance that each of these dominant social minds has had its particular place of birth. Syria, the Hellenistic territory. Western Europe, Germany, England, and America have each been the home of one of these social minds which have resulted in doctrinal development. And it is not improbable that the Western movement of our civilization may yet add still another phase of social as well as doctrinal development — the cosmopolitan- fraternal, which, so far as the church is concerned, will find its birthplace in Asia. a) The contribution of the Semitic social mind to Christian theology. — Christianity considered theologically perpetuates the transcendental politics of the Hebrew. Sovereignty and subjects, law and judgment, punishment and rehabilitation, these great rubrics which express the presuppositions con- trolling the highest social activity of the Hebrew, became the skeleton of their religious thought. Christianity springs genetically, however, not directly from the Hebraism of the Old Testament, but from the Judaism of New Testament times. Its principles are those of Hebraism re-expressed in the messianic hope. How far Christianity at its start was from being a phi- losophy appears not only from the teaching of Jesus but also from the expressed hostility of Paul to what he called "the THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 55 wisdom of this world," a hostility which was vigorously urged by such church Fathers as Tertullian. The latter's treatise, The Prescription of Heretics, is a plea for the supremacy of a dramatic theology as over against a philosophy. But neither Paul nor Tertullian was apart from other Christian writers. The theology to which they held was the limit within which philosophically minded Christians like Justin and Origen debated. This theology epitomized in regidafidei was nothing more nor less than a transcendentalized theory of that con- ception of government which was an unconscious but deter- minative presupposition of the entire social life of the ancient world. And its schema was the messianism which had been brought over from Judaism. Messianism undoubtedly had deep roots which must be traced back into the hopes and mythologies of ancient nations, particularly those of Baylonia and Persia, whose civilizations had affected Judaism. But there is no chief root that does not finally end in social practice. However great or, as it seems to me more probable, however slight may have been the role of the Gilgamesh epic in Jewish messianism, it is colored by the political habits of the age in which it arose. Similarly in the case of the influence of the Persian religion. Whatever may have been the relative importance of the reciprocal influ- ence of Mazdaism and Hebraism, the outcome in either case was a religious hope that involved transcendental politics. The Jewish messianic hope passed through two stages, both formally political. In the first the Jews believed that Yahweh would re-establish through ordinary methods the Jewish state as supreme over all its enemies; and in the second they hoped that the same triumphant nation would be established, not in the ordinary course of history, but by the miraculous intervention of God through his Anointed. Messianism is as truly political in its transcendental as in its politico-revolu- tionary stage. A sovereign God who seeks to establish his Kingdom by the conquest of the rival kingdom of Satan; a 56 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION vice-gerent through whom the divine sovereign works and who is to conquer the hostile kingdom and estabhsh the Kingdom of God in which the law of God is to be established; a new age in which God is to be the supreme sovereign and his people supremely blessed while the arch-antagonist is bound and punished with his followers; a day of judgment in which the triumphant king metes out the fate of all mankind in accord- ance with its loyalty or disloyalty — these are the fundamental elements of the program of messianism. The resurrection simply assured the disposition of all mankind in the final world-order. It requires no argument to show that this schema is fundamental to Christian theology, and that it is indeed the organizing principle of theology as it subsequently was developed in the Western world and less imperfectly in the Greek church. Whatever else philosophy may have accomplished in the development of doctrine, it has never obscured these fundamental rubrics which were carried over into religion from the social presuppositions on which the ancient civilization was ultimately based. Indeed, Christian theology as an organized system might be described as the philosophical expansion of a political dramatic scenario in which the future and present relations of men and God are set forth in terms drawn from the political experience of the Jewish people. Literature. — On the messianic hope, see Schiirer, Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, III, § 29 (New York: Scribner, 1891); Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament, Part I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1905). b) Some non-political elements in New Testament thought. — At two points this schema is modified in the New Testament and by later writers by the addition of non-political elements, which are really the most essential in Christianity. There is first the spiritual experience of the Christian. This is in turn twofold. Those phenomena which are called in the New Testament the gifts of the Holy Ghost have never been THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 57 thoroughly worked into orthodoxy and have always been emphasized among groups (e.g., the Montanists) who have been to a considerable degree regarded as heretical. The reason is very plain. The general schema of historical ortho- doxy is transcendental politics redefined by the use of other elements of social experience and rationalized in detail by current philosophy. In such a schema there is no room for mysticism. That must always be extra-orthodox. Yet the second sort of spiritual experience, the actual transformation of the believer by God, has always been empha- sized by theology. In Greek Christianity this element played a very large role. We see it in the "recapitulation" by Jesus, so attractive to Irenaeus, and even more in the conception of salvation as the theizing of human nature into incorruption. At one time it even bade fair to become the organizing prin- ciple for an entire system. But the development of Greek theology was arrested in its christological epoch, and Western theology became so far committed to a forensic outline of teaching that the saving transformation of the believer was attached to the idea of the church and its sacraments instead of being allowed to organize Christian teaching into a vital system. Yet it has always persisted in Western theology as a sort of parallel orthodoxy. If it instead of the messianic drama had become really central in orthodoxy, doctrinal development would have been far more vital and less authori- tative. In modern theology this spiritual and vital element is assuming a new importance and constitutes one of the great constructive principles for a theology which shall be more in accord with the presuppositions of modern social life so radically different from those expressed in absolute monarchy. Completely outside of the inherited messianic drama, it is essential Christianity itself. A second element, too Httle used by orthodoxy because it also lies outside of the politico-religious drama of messian- ism, is the experience of Jesus himself. All theologians, it is 58 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION true, have generalized this element of historical Christianity in the same proportion as they have not been dominated by the transcendental politics of messianism, but the really personal life and significance of Jesus have lain outside of the norm of doctrinal development. Indeed, Christology has never been whole-heartedly interested in Jesus, even though it has devoted itself to his natures and person. The reason is simple: in the messianic schema the Christ is essentially functional. He must perform the work of God's vice-gerent. For such an office his earthly life was of small significance. Even his resurrection, which, if once accepted as historical, has a meaning wholly independent of the messianic argument, has been made contributory to the proof of his divine office. The chief interest in the anti-Arian movement out of which orthodoxy rose lay in the desire for assurance that the Savior was divine. The ethical impKcations in the belief were all but overlooked. Yet in the actual experiences of the historical Jesus with their wealth of religious and moral appeal there was over- looked another organizing principle which modern theology recognizes, but to which historical orthodoxy was blind, because such experiences were not readily systematized in the messianic-drama theology. The reason that the messianic drama became the vertebral column, so to speak, of Christian doctrine is not far to seek. It is primitive Christianity itself, minus only these experi- mental elements. The New Testament and other early Chris- tian literature make it plain that the conquest of Christianity was due primarily to an enthusiasm born of the belief that the entire messianic program was to be immediately fulfilled and that those who accepted Jesus in his messianic capacity would participate in the joys of the literal kingdom which he was to establish. The beliefs with which Christianity started on its conquest of the Roman Empire were utterly foreign to phi- losophy and were as dramatic as the social experience in which THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 59 the early Christians shared. Recall only the impassioned hopes and arguments of Ignatius. To think of Christianity as originally an ethical, sociological, or philosophical movement is to misinterpret it completely. The elements of its hope were concrete and their unity was the unity of a drama. Therein was Christian theology in outline. Literature. — ^Literature on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is vast, but mostly dogmatic or mystical in character. For more scientific treatment reference may be made to Wood, The Spirit of God in Biblical Literature (New York: Armstrong, 1904); Swete, The Holy Spirit in the Church {London: Macmillan, 191 5); ]onts, Studies in Mystical Religion (London: Macmillan, 1909); Fleming, Mysticism in Christianity (London: Scott, 1913); Cohh, Mysticism in the Creeds {London: Mac- millan, 1914). c) The Hellenistic social mind.— When primitive Chris- tianity entered into the Greco-Roman world in the eastern part of the Empire, it entered a world untrained in the mes- sianic hope. It was therefore forced to restate itself in such forms as would satisfy certain very definite religious needs on the part of perhaps the most complicated social mind which the world has evex seen prior to that of modern days. The social mind of the eastern or Hellenistic part of the Roman Empire was excluded from political and social expres- sions by the policy adopted by the Roman conquerors. While there were incidental reforms instituted in various cities of the Empire, the religious need of the Greco-Roman life was essen- tially metaphysical and dramatically mystical. On the one side there was a need of an absolute God as over against idolatry; and on the other side there was the yearning for salvation through union or at least fellowship with this God. The former of these two needs appears everywhere in the philosophical writings, but most characteristically in the Stoic term "Logos." The second of these needs is apparent in the rapid spread of the drama-mystery religions with their promise of salvation from evil and death through the union by worship with some god like Osiris or Mithra. 6o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION When the message of Christian salvation came to this Greco-Roman world, it was immediately found capable of satisfying these two dominant needs of the social mind. What the other religions promised, Christianity, through the course of several hundred years of bitter struggle and persecution, actually supplied to the satisfaction of both the metaphysician and the mystic. The form taken by this satisfaction was the Nicene formula of a God who is meta- physically and substantially one and yet in terms of experi- ence has manifested himself personally so as to come into vital relationship with sinful man. The later discussions of the nature and person of Christ were not superimposed upon the original Christian religion, but were the growth of the new exposition of the content of the new doctrine of God. The old conceptions persisted, but were interpreted through new carrying concepts. The Nicene theology, so far from being an addition to Christianity, was vital Christianity itself functioning in certain definite religious conditions and under the control of the Hellenistic social mind. Arianism failed not so much because it was finally outlawed as because it did not so express the elemental Christian impulse and belief as to satisfy the needs of the Greco-Roman social mind. Literature. — On Roman and Greek religions in the time of the New Testament, see DUI, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius (New York: MacmUlan, 1904); Mahaffy, The Greek World wider Roman Sway (New York: MacmUlan, 1890); and especially Cumont, Les religions orientates dans le paganisme romain (Paris: Leroux, 1906; English translation, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [Chicago : Open Court Co., 191 1]). For general discussion of the influence of Greco-Roman religions in the development of Christianity, see Case, The Evolution oj Early Christianity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1 91 5); Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery Religions (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1913). The philosophizing of theologians of the early church never destroyed their Christian inheritance. By the middle of the second century, however, the messianic expectation had THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 6i ceased to be concrete and had become transcendentaL True, there were those like the Montanists who fought against this transformation and sought to maintain the messianic drama- theology in full literalism. But so strong had become the tendency to revalue the messianic program as a philosophy that this more primitive type of Christianity was repeatedly relegated to the limbo of heresy. Notwithstanding the contributions made by TertulHan to Christian doctrine and vocabulary, the line of theological development runs not through him, but through that remarkable group of Alex- andrians who made regula fidei the basis of a theology by synthesizing the messianic drama with Hellenistic culture. This transition can be observed primarily in two par- ticulars, (i) With the disappearance of the hope that the heavenly Kingdom would be immediately established the Christian teachers passed from the heralding to the rationaliz- ing of their message of deliverance. At once they became involved in disputes with representatives of contemporary philosophies, all of them profoundly interested in cosmological speculations. We have so little first-hand knowledge of men like Marcion that it is unsafe to speculate as to what Christianity might have become had the church leaders not stood manfully by the messianic outline, but it can hardly be doubted that the new religion would have been lost in the swarming gnostic sects. The line of defense as laid down by Tertullian was implicity itself. "Away with all attempts to produce a mottled Chris- tianity of Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic composition! We want no curious disputation after possessing Christ Jesus, no inquisition after enjoying the gospel! With our faith we desire no further belief. For this is our palmary faith, that there is nothing which we ought to believe besides." Ter- tuUian's final appeal is to regula Jidei, which is the very quintes- sence of an unphilosophical, dramatic summary of Christian messianism. 62 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION (2) But the Alexandrine teachers chose quite another method. With them regula fidei was final, but it was also defensible philosophically. Accordingly, for centuries the defense proceeded in the way of giving the Messiah a cos- mological value. Materials for such redefinition lay close at hand in the New Testament terms "Son of God" and "Logos." In the New Testament usage the term "Son of God" was simply a synonym for "Messiah," and the Pauline usage by no means served to modify the politico-dramatic expectation of messianism. In the hands of the Alexandrine theologians, however, it passed from the social presuppositions of politics to the even more universal presupposition of generation. A study of Justin Martyr and Origen will enable one to trace this clearly. Instead of the conquering king we have the incarnate God foretold by the prophets; and this doctrine of incarnation which played practically no role whatever in Paul- inism becomes a central feature of the new interpretation of regula fidei. But the transition from the political to the parental-filial presupposition may be seen even before Justin in the struggles of Docetism to reach a rational Christology. Indeed, the dangers inherent in this heresy appear in the Johannine epistles, where a test of genuine Christian belief is to be seen in the assertion that the Christ has come in the flesh. The question under discussion did not concern the Godhead but the historical person Jesus. How could the Son of God be genuinely human? The source of the difficulty in accepting the Hebraic conception of unction is doubtless to be found in the fact that Christianity had passed from the Jewish people, where messianism in its full content was a religious presupposition, to the Gentile world, in which the possibility of incarnation through divine generation was a universally accepted presupposition. But even here it will be observed that the transition is from one social presupposition to another — from politics to paternity. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 63 Literature. — Harnack, History of Dogma (English translation [Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1896-1900]), is the great authority on the devel- opment of early doctrine. A more genuinely philosophical concept appears in the Logos. The most significant transition in the history of Christology occurred when the Logos of cosmological sig- nificance was identified with the begotten Son of God and the new conception was injected into the old messianic formula of regula fidei. The Logos, then, with Justin became the revealer of a new and sacred philosophy. This tendency to elevate concrete dramatic expectation into a transcendental, philosophical formula reached its cul- mination when the contest over the sonship of the Logos passed from the realm of history into the realm of the meta- physics of the Godhead and the center of interest in the Son became not Jesus but the second person of a trinity. Just as the Kingdom of God ceased to become a definite social order upon the earth and became a transcendental heaven did the doctrine of divine sonship pass from the stage of history into the stage of metaphysics. But again the mold in which the new doctrine was shaped was not in itself metaphysical but one of social experience. The great discussion of the century that culminated in the Council of Nicea centered about two terms, "eternal generation" and persona. We are accus- tomed to overlook this fact because so much attention came to be centered upon the metaphysical term " consubstantial " ; but consubstantiability was only a marker for the genuine content expressed by the sonship of the Logos through eternal generation rather than creation. And as any fair study of Athanasius will show, it is the expression "begotten, not made" which is the real heart of the Nicene Creed. Con- substantiability was a dangerous metaphysical concept blurred by Latin phihstinism, used as a shibboleth against Arianism to protect the content of "eternal generation." The organon, so to speak, by which "eternal generation" 64 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION was rationalized was the legal term suggested by the lawyer Tertullian, persona. While it is true that in the entire trini- tarian controversy the tendency was toward abstraction, it is beyond question that the final decision of the Nicene Council was regarded, not as a completely metaphysical, but rather as a dramatic and symbolic expression. The opposition which Athanasius felt to the word " consubstantial " was largely due to his fear lest the word should involve Christian theology in metaphysical heresies. What he and his party desired was the maintenance of the actual relationship which the figure "eternal generation" expressed. The appropriation of per- sona, a term so essential to Roman law, was due to the fact that it connoted something that gave the theological truth a universalized social, i.e., forensic, connotation. However metaphysical the language of the disputants in the Arian controversy, the synthetic rather than the definitive force of the term appears from the well-known expression of Augustine to the effect that the word persona is used to express a fact which really transcends formal definition. Literature. — Paine, A Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarian- ism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1900), is a readable account of a difficult matter. But while thus the messianic term Christ lost much of its original content and became metaphysical, the entire schema of the Christian hope remained unchanged. The philoso- phizing of ecumenical Christianity never affected the dramatic program contained in the old Roman symbol, and even its metaphysical Trinitarianism was itself determined by the analogies of social experience. The ecumenical creeds never passed beyond the relation of the Son to the Father except as regards the person of Jesus and, somewhat incidentally, in the matter of the procession of the Holy Ghost, and never attempted to reorganize the messianic program as a whole. d) Latin orthodoxy as determined by imperalism. — When one passes from ecumenical to Latin theology, the dominance THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 65 of the original messianic program is at once apparent. Whereas the Greeks with their constitutional inability to organize politically turned to the concept of salvation as a gaining of immortality, the Latin world with its passion for administra- tion and law undertook to develop the governmental pre- suppositions which lay back of the primitive Christian hope. Indeed, the history of doctrinal development in the Western world might be described as the construction of a theology on the basis of transcendental politics. Theology thus advanced parallel with the development of the church as an institution. As the Christian religion spread westward it carried with itself not only the original messianic conception but also these new formulas so full of religious power. It was not merely church authority which prevailed in their acceptance; it was a new intellectual and religious harmony. Anything less than a Christ possessed of the divine nature was repudiated by that Western social mind of which Augustine is the epitome and expression. The success of Arianism among certain German tribes simply makes the real progress of generic Christianity more obvious. As all students of institutions would admit, it was really in the West that the Roman genius best expressed itself. It was in Italy, Gaul, and Spain that by an epoch-making series of experiments the Roman world evolved the imperial idea. To the East this idea was carried in terms of ofhcialism, but the ancient civilizations were too deeply bedded to be replaced by Roman methods, and remained a force against which the imperial idea struggled only to find itself transformed into likeness to Oriental despotism. In the Western world the imperial idea was really creative. It built up new civilizations and worked itself into the very tissues of a growing new world. Naturally it was in the Western world that the deep religious need was felt of administrative efficiency in religion akin to the political efficiency of the Empire. This was especially felt 66 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION when the Empire itself began to weaken, and the only con- servative or preservative force in the Western civilization was the church. It was natural, therefore, that Christianity should have still further developed itself in terms of con- temporary social efficiency. The Roman Catholic church was not the invention of this or that man; it was rather the outcome of the union of the vital impulses of Christianity, in part already recognized, with the social mind of the Western world. So thoroughly did it satisfy the need of the region in which the institutions of Rome persisted that to this day there is a well-marked social and political — not to mention religious — distinction between the countries which had been thoroughly Romanized and those countries of Northern Europe where Roman influence had never triumphed, or where Roman institutions were destroyed by un-Romanized invaders. But Christianity in Western Europe came in contact with another widespread social attitude, the pessimism and distrust of human nature so inevitable in a period when a civilization literally disintegrates before peoples' eyes. Almost para- doxically the great religious need which this terrible collapse of civilization engendered was some teaching that could raise men from trust in discredited human nature to trust in an eternal and supreme God. Augustine formulated and fixed this new phase in the Christian religion. His doctrine of sin is, of course, involved in the New Testament, but with him it was systematized in our religion. Christianity was not only organized in terms of liberation from the natural corruption of human nature, but was made to serve the purposes of faith in a God who was greater than his world and was not dependent upon human virtue to bring about his ends. The doctrine of original sin and of God's sovereignty were, therefore, by no means accretions, but the expressions of the vital impulse of Christianity as it brought power and courage to the mind of Western Europe. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 67 e) Feudalism and Christian theology. — The history of the Middle Ages gains unity as one sees imperialism expressed in the Holy Roman Empire; but so far as Christianity was con- cerned, this attempt at a social order administered by Jesus Christ through his two vice-gerents, emperor and pope, expressed itself almost entirely within the development of the church itself. There was, however, another creative social mind which was to have powerful influence on the develop- ment of Christian thought — feudaUsm. Feudalism as a creative conception of social relationships is not difhcult to state, however much we may fail to under- stand its origin. It is the expression of life subject to definite economic conditions, temporary, it is true, but, wherever found, pervading all the thinking of its social order, Chris- tianity came to the world of feudalism with its well-developed message of a triune sovereign God, of a Savior possessed of the divine nature and of original sin. Anselm endeavored to think these three together by systematizing the divine method of salvation according to the principles of feudahsm. The significance of the death of Christ, though a part of the original message, had never been systematized with other Christian behef. It had been set forth dramatically as sacrifice or ransom. Such dramatic presentations had been carried over into the church services, as the mass; but minds dominated by the social conceptions of feudalism and the passion for system seen in scholasticism could not be content to leave their religion with no connecting thought between salvation from sin and the all-perfect God. Such systematizing was accompHshed by Anselm's extension of feudal concepts into the realm of theology. As a complement of the inherited doctrines, the death of Christ was shown by him to be the satisfaction of the honor of God, injured by man's sin. Thus Christianity found itself for the first time possessed of com- plete symmetry. While the Anselmic doctrine of the atone- ment never became a part of official orthodoxy in any such 68 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION sense as did the philosophy of substance and the behef in original sin, it did none the less give direction to the de- velopment of Christian thought. From his time Chris- tianity has always seen in the death of Christ something which has made plain to the world the ethical unity of a forgiving Sovereign. Literature. — Taylor, The Mediaeval Mind (New York: Macmillan, igii), is a masterly treatment of this fascinating subject on Anselm. See the English translation of the Cur Deus Homo (Chicago: Open Court Co., 1903), and Foley, Ansehn's Doctrine of the Atonement (New York: Longmans, 1909). /) The nationalistic social mind and theology. — ^The period which followed feudalism was essentially a struggle between the imperialistic conception in Church and State and the new spirit of monarchy and individualism. The Reformation was far more than a mere theological or even church struggle. It rooted itself in a changing order with new economic, political, and cultural forces. On its religious side it was an extension into theology of the same forces which were operative -in the shaping of our modern state, and, conversely, an extension into the course of political development of those spiritual conceptions which give worth to personality. But at this point we notice the practical completion of another religious development in tenns of Roman Catholicism. Just as the Greek church has never markedly advanced beyond the theological development expressed in the ecu- menical creeds, so the Latin church stopped its development at the point reached by scholasticism, imperialism, and feudalism. Individual dogmas, it is true, have been added by the Latin church, but they have been little more than formal ratifications of beliefs involved in ecclesiastical imperialism. The Roman Curia in its present struggle with Modernism is thoroughly consistent in its insistence that its theologians shall revert to the study of Thomas Aquinas, and this fact THE liiSTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 69 makes it plain that the Roman church as yet does not pro- pose to be influenced constructively by the new social minds which have created periods since the sixteenth century. Speaking generally, and with due regard for the appar- ently exceptional situation in France, in those nations which embraced the new monarchical conception born of the new conditions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the develop- ment of Christianity has proceeded in terms of Protestantism. Conversely, Protestant theology has been marked by an extension into theology of the monarchical idea as opposed to the imperialistic. This is less true in the case of Luther than in that of Calvin, but the change is obvious in the new interest shown by the sixteenth century in God's sovereignty and in the substitution of the satisfaction of his punitive (sovereign) justice for the satisfaction of his unsatisfied (feudal) honor. But such a development has been genetic. Protestantism, notwithstanding its laxity in some of its organizing concepts, has held true to the formulas of ecumeni- cal orthodoxy. The effort of Deism to build up a sort of cosmic constitu- tional monarchy similar to that which was being built up contemporaneously in England is a striking illustration of the impossibility for the social mind to shape up a permanent religious concept that does not embody the fundamental Christian concepts as to God. In its failure to perpetuate the belief that God is in actual control of his world Deism was also an illustration of the fact that the elements of generic Christianity are to be recognized in their capacity so to unite -with the dominant social minds as to produce doctrines which satisfy all succeeding social minds. A constitutionally limited God is a religious impossibility for the scientific mind. He must be absolute or he is not God. g) The age of revolutions and theology. — The eighteenth century might be described as the period in which the bourgeois 70 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION class became dominant in politics through revolution. It followed naturally, therefore, that its influence should be felt in all phases of social life. This can be seen in the rapid exten- sion of commerce, the spread of a limited democracy, as well as in the establishment of our present capitalistic system. But quite as clearly it can be seen in the field of religion. The bourgeois social mind had inherited the Protestant theology with its emphasis upon metaphysical matters such as those of free will and foreordination. Its needs, however, were vastly more practical than those which the professional theologians and the higher ecclesiastics could satisfy. There resulted, therefore, from the interplay of Christianity with this new spirit an emphasis on the atonement largely in com- mercial terms which was to have much the same influence in religion as the bourgeois movement had exercised in politics. For it is to this union that we owe evangelicalism, that char- acteristic type of religious interest which was so evident among churchmen of all Christian bodies in the first half of the nineteenth century. Centering as it did around the substi- tutionary atonement, it brought home afresh to a commercial age the vitalizing conception of a divine love that dared to suffer in order to serve. A great and sacrificial conception of God could not fail to find expression in the religious hfe of the church. However selfish and commercial certain forms of evangelicalism may appear, however much it has failed to appreciate the inefficiency of aristocratic conceptions in morahty, to it are due the abohtion of slavery, reforms in prisons, and the care of the insane and of the poor, the estab- lishment of Young Men's Christian Associations, Bible and foreign mission societies, colleges, and theological seminaries. Altogether evangehcaHsm is to be credited with profoundly ethical sympathies. This bourgeois attitude took two other very different theological directions. On the one side was Unitarianism, in THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 71 which, like an insurgent bourgeoisie, a respectable humanity, sensitive to its natural rights in the sight of a sovereign God, rose up and repudiated belief in total depravity, and, in consequence, the orthodox conceptions of God and Christ. On the other side was Wesley anism, which became a training school of religious democracy, vital religious experience, and aggressive but not excessively theological orthodoxy. The subsequent history of these two movements shows clearly which best represented generic Christianity in its relation with the dominant social mind. Wesleyanism and its kindred nonconformist groups live on, possessed of unchecked power of spiritual parentage. h) The modem social mind. — At this point we come to the modern world in which tendencies are as yet hardly sufficiently developed to be traced with precision. But the religious needs of the dominant social mind are at once apparent. Trained as we are in scientific thought and surrounded as we are by the forces of an adolescent democracy, it is inevitable that we should seek to satisfy religious needs in accordance with these dominant forces. In the light of the past it is inevitable that these satisfactions will be gained only on the condition that first, they include the vital propagating elements of Chris- tianity rather than some current philosophy; and, secondly, that the dominant social mind, rather than some counter or fractional or anachronistic social mind, be permitted to shape up dramatically rather than metaphysically the formulas of our religious thinking. The latter demand is perhaps a little more clearly organized than the former. We can appreciate the demand of a scientific method and we can formulate with some precision the share which democracy must have in our religious development; but the religious thinkers of the day are not yet at one as to what elements of our inherited religion are essential to the continued efficiency of Christianity. 72 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION E. WHY THEOLOGY HAS NOT DEVELOPED PARALLEL WITH THE PRESUPPOSITIONS OF SOCIAL EXPERIENCE While thus the influence of the presuppositions of social experience is to be traced in the development of doctrinal systems, it is also true that there has been no such complete parallelism in the development of theology and social insti- tutions as might be expected. Theologies have not always been orthodox, but they have seldom reached wide acceptance when diverging widely. Furthermore, periods of intellectual and political progress have always been marked by distrust as well as transformation of theological systems. The reason for these discrepancies between the logical and the actual relation of theology to the social mind are not far to seek. a) The influence of philosophy. — In the first place, theology has always been checked in its response to the creative social forces by a tendency to become a philosophy. The history of theology on the one side may be described as a struggle between these dramatic conceptions in which men have endeavored to make real to themselves the significance of their religious beliefs and philosophy. Such a conflict was inevi- table from the fact, already noted, that philosophy is both the product of the same social experience as theological thought, and at the same time is a phase of that social mind with which theology has to reckon. In its earlier stages theology was forced into conflict with systems of thought which undertook to organize Christianity in terms of some cosmological or metaphysical principle. Especially was this true in the case of the great contest lasting for centuries between Catholicism and Gnosticism. The gnostic movement, strictly speaking, was not theological. Combining the cos- mological idea of emanation and the theosophical idea of dualism, it undertook to embody in itself such elements of the New Testament as it could. Its success was great, and there THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 73 resulted what might fairly be called a rival religion which was Christian only in the sense that it embodied certain elements of Christianity in a synthetic philosophical schema covering all phases of human thought. In their struggle with this rival the Christian thinkers, as has already been pointed out, strove to do two things: first, to maintain the supremacy of the messianic schema which was involved in the baptismal symbol and regula fidei; and, second, to show forth the philosophical significance of such doctrines as were in process of formulation. That Catholicism conquered was due to many causes, but doubtless as much as any to the fact that, although cosmological sig- nificance was given to Christ reconceived as Logos, the second person of the Trinity, the Catholic scheme of doctrine was not subjected to that world-view which was the basis of the gnostic teaching. On one side Catholicism protected itself by the criticism of the extravagant ideas of Gnosticism and on the other side by the appeal to that which had been "always, everywhere, and by all" believed. This latter appeal was of course not an answer to the claim of Gnosticism to be the true philosophy of religion, but it did succeed in making clear that Gnosticism was not the Christianity which was contained in the New Testament. Furthermore, in refusing to answer philosophical objections to Christianity by philosophical arguments and by concentrating attention upon its strictly theological elements, CathoHcism accomplished two things: it preserved the theological elements which it had inherited, and it repudiated a view of theology as of necessity adapting itself to current modes of thought at the expense of its own criteria. It has been inevitable, therefore, that in the same propor- tion as a philosophy has become identified with the strictly theological elements of a church system the two should have been carried along together. A striking illustration of that is Thomas Aquinas, whose Christianized AristoteHanism 74 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION thoroughly identified philosophical method and point of view with theological positions. The current struggle of the Roman Curia with Modernism is an illustration of how a theology which has grown rigid through the dogmatizing of philosophical concepts fails to respond to the new presup- positions which condition the evolution of social experience and philosophy itself. But similar illustrations could be drawn from Lutheranism and Calvinism. Each of these great systems has suffered a hardening of the arteries of theology because of the introduction into it of philosophical concepts transformed into orthodoxy by ecclesiastical and poHtical authority. In consequence neither system responds readily to the modern mind. b) The retarding influence of doctrinal orthodoxy. — Thus ^we are brought to the second reason for the failure of theology to develop pari passu with social evolution. The philosophiz- ing of theology might have been to a considerable extent rectified in the course of the development of Christianity had it not been rendered static by being transformed into authori- tative orthodoxy. A student of church history does not need to be told how this process proceeded. Generally speaking, it may be. said to have begun in an attempt at some adjustment of the in- herited Christian faith to a philosophical mode of thinking; this was followed by a period of controversy in which the defenders of the inherited regula fidei were forced to justify their position by the use of some philosophical concept; there- upon there occurred the holding of a council which formulated the doctrine in dispute in accordance with regula fidei or creed and the philosophy of its defenders, and then made the accep- tance of its formularies the test of right belief. As the decisions of these councils were as a rule enforced by the state as well as by the penalty of excommunication from the church, theology steadily grew less responsive to the changing social mind. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 75 We see here the fundamental weakness of a doctrine which depends solely or chiefly upon authority. It of necessity perpetuates philosophical and social survivals. However serviceable it may have been to the age in which it was formu- lated; however it may have functioned helpfully because of its participation in the dynamic presuppositions of the life of its day, it grows incapable of service and helpfulness in ages of different character. Indeed, we might almost say, in the same proportion in which it did function well does its rigidity render it incapable of vital service to those communities which are dominated by different social minds. For this, if for no other reason, there is imminent danger lest the essential and permanent values which orthodoxy expresses shall be lost to those who no longer accept the philosophy and no longer share in the social experience which orthodoxy has embodied in itself. Literature. — A notable treatise on this aspect of Christianity is Sabatier, Religions of Authority mid the Religion of the Spirit (New York: McCIure Phillips, 1905). c) The constructive task of theology. — Yet this cannot obscure the fact which the history of the doctrine-making process discloses. Orthodoxy is the outcome of a process, unhappily arrested by ecclesiasticism, by which fundamental religious realities were mediated to religious needs of a given period by the use of the presuppositions of that period's social experience. Any theological reconstruction, therefore, that would be thoroughgoing and do for our age what the original creators of theology did for theirs must face two tasks: first, it must distinguish between the theological schema which came over from the messianic Christianity of the primitive church and that philosophical construction which has built up by it as defense an explanation ; and, second, it must evalu- ate the schema itself in terms of religious efficiency. This second is the primary task of today. As long as it is neglected will theology be in distress. Christianity can never dominate 76 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION our modern world by merely changing its philosophical ele- ment. That is, of course, demanded; but the fundamental need is that of dramatic analogies drawn from our dominant social mind by which religious thinking can satisfy their re- ligious needs, that longing for divine help, which our intense and compHcated life originates. Theology today as never before cannot be replaced by either psychology or philosophy. The position which the theologian will take in the present moment of unrest will be very largely determined by his conception of the aim of the- ology. If, as many hold, the purpose of theology is to give final and unchangeable formulations for religious experience and so to express religious truth that it shall be as statically absolute as metaphysical reality itself, there is no appeal except that of orthodoxy itself to the authority of either councils, the pope, or an a priori belief in an infallible Scrip- ture. It goes without saying that such an appeal will com- pletely break with our modern world. If, on the other hand, the purpose of theology is held to be functional and if it is an ever-growing approximation to ultimate reality through the satisfaction it gives to the ever-developing and changing reli- gious needs of different periods, then theological method becomes to a considerable extent empirical and pragmatic. Theological reconstruction will seek, first of all, not philo- sophical means of adapting a theological schema to our modern world, but will rather reproduce the actual procedure of theology in its creative epochs. That is to say, as theology in such epochs has utilized the dynamic presuppositions con- ditioning all social activity in general will it today seek to utilize such presuppositions as are now creative. Nor is this a difficult task. The theologian who approaches his problem from the point of view of social experience rather than that of metaphysics will recognize two presuppositions which are reconstituting our modern world: evolution and creative democracy.. Just how these two presuppositions THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 77 can be used for theological reconstruction must be left to an honest and scientific methodology. The historical study of a religion like our own is not content to deal only with facts and their relations. It seeks not only to discover the origins and to trace the course of development of Christian truths; it must also evaluate them. When one evaluates historically our heritage of doctrinal formulas, he will discover in them both form and content. The latter may have been recognized without reflection throughout the history of the church, but the doctrine- making process at last brought it into consciousness and sys- tematic perspective. It is this fact that explains how it is that Christianity has always attempted to reproduce biblical materials. Such determination is not due merely to a belief in the inspiration of the Scriptures; it is really due to the essential nature of Christianity itself, for the teaching and person of Jesus as seen through actual experience have always been the ultimate criteria to which the church has reverted. The normative elements of our religion, however stated, are always traceable to the relations of the church to its Founder. The successive developments of doctrine might be thus described as our religion functioning in the new situations set by dominant social minds for the purpose of making clear to successive generations the reality of that salvation which Jesus brings. Generic Christianity is, in fact, the gospel as it has developed under new social influences. It is thus not difficult to see, back of these successively organized doctrines, the elements which go to make up generic Christianity. Stated as far as possible without the doctrinal forms given them by successive social minds, they are as follows: 1. Men are sinful, and, if they are to avoid the outcome of sin, in need of salvation by God. 2. The God of the universe is knowable as the God of love, who in personal self-expression seeks reconciliation with men. 78 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 3. God has revealed himself as Savior in the historical person, Jesus. 4. God comes into any human life that seeks him, both directly through prayer and service, and indirectly through social organizations like the church, transforming it and making it in moral quality like himself. 5. The death of Christ is the revelation of the moral unity of the love and law of God. 6. Those who accept Jesus as the divine Lord and Savior constitute a community in special relationship with God. 7. Such persons may look forward to triumph over death and entrance into the Kingdom of God. These fundamentals of generic Christianity are not dependent upon the particular type of philosophy in which they have been adjusted to the needs of social minds. They are as old as the New Testament. As a growing religious inheritance they have been constantly recast and reappreci- ated. Various social minds, in proportion as they have felt the need of the help one or all of them can give, have used their own vocabularies to express them, but even when the vocabularies themselves have in some cases grown unin- telligible, the reality itself has continued to function. In the light of these facts it seems inevitable, therefore, that, if Christianity is to go on developing, these same funda- mentals must be brought into contact with the dominant social mind of today. The Christianity of tomorrow will not be a new religion, nor will it be a merely reiterated, un- critically accepted orthodoxy. It will be a genetic develop- ment of those beliefs which have constituted the permanent elements in historical orthodoxy. The particular formulas in which this generic theology has been expressed do not function well with modern men, but that which they express — which is generic Christianity — is possessed of religious value and power. THE HISTORICAL STUDY OF RELIGION 79 At one point we already see evidence of new doctrinal development. The religion of our modern world is already shaping up the social as well as the individual content of the eschatology of the original gospel message, as yet so imper- fectly evaluated, and therefore so often Hterally presented. But this awaited doctrine of salvation, which our age, because of its new social passion, is the first clearly to need, and, because of its more scientific understanding of man's nature and of its new social sympathies, is the first to grasp and attempt to organize in terms of life and society, will be genetically the outcome of the generic Christianity of the past. It will mediate God to the individual in his personal sorrow and temptation, and also to the complex of individual activi- ties we call society. However much grander and richer it may become, generic Christianity tomorrow, as yesterday, will prove itself capable of satisfying the religious needs of a dominant social mind in terms and concepts, both individual and collective, which are furnished by that social mind. Expressing itself in an enriched, genetically progressing, and far-reaching way of life, it can have no other foundation than that which is laid, Jesus Christ our Lord. Any form of Chris- tianity that is not in attitude and fundamental sympathies at one with the religious spirit of historical Christianity, in whatever way it may reject the philosophies or the dramatic pictures and analogies in which this spirit has been expressed, will be spiritually weak. III. THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL By J. M. POWIS SMITH Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature, University of Chicago ANALYSIS PAGES Introduction. — The aim and the process of the study of the Old Testament 83-85 1. The Process of Translation. — The character of the Hebrew lan- guage.— Methods and helps in the study of Hebrew. — Lexicography. — Obscure passages 85-89 2. The Textual Criticism of the Old Testament. — The existing manuscripts. — The state of the Massoretic text. — Emendation of the text. — Duplicate passages. — Comparison of ancient versions. — The Septuagint and daughter-versions. — Other Greek versions. — The Samaritan Pentateuch.— The Targums.— The Peshitta'.— The Vulgate. — Conjectural emendations. — Should the Hebrew language be required of all students of theology ? — How best to study the Old Testament in English 89-104 3. The Literary Criticism and Lnterpretation of the Old Testament. — The function of criticism. — The criteria of poetry. — Varieties of prose. — Composite authorship. — The problem of authorship. — The problem of date. — The author's purpose. — Comparative study of literature. — The art of interpretation 104-119 4. The History of the Hebrews. — Scope of history. — Dating of sources. — Facts vs. interpretation of facts. — The interpretative bias. — Geography as a historical source. — ^Archaeology and history. — History of the Semitic world. — Problems in Hebrew history . . 1 19-135 5. The Religion of the Hebrews. — Religion and history. — Religion and culture. — Hebrew religion and Semitic religion. — Problems in the study of Hebrew religion 136-144 6. The Religious Value of the Old Testament. — The Canon. — History of the interpretation of the Old Testament. — The value of the Old Testament. — The Old Testament in relation to the New. — The Old Testament and systematic theology.— The Old Testament and vital religion 144-161 III. THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND OF THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL INTRODUCTION The primary purpose in the study of the writings of the Hebrews is the discovery of the exact thoughts which the writers themselves desired to express. The task of inter- pretation is not a simple one, even when writer and inter- preter belong to the same race, speak the same language, live in the same age, and have the same background of history and civilization. When none of these advantages are to the credit of the interpreter, his work is rendered immeasurably more difficult. In proportion as these racial, linguistic, and socio- logical barriers can be removed or surmounted, the interpreter may hope for success in his attempt to enter into the thought of the author. But just as the only way to learn to swim is by swimming, so the interpreter of the Old Testament must gain his equipment for interpretation in the main from the very literature that he is to interpret. Aside from the larger Semitic literature, of which the Old Testament forms a part, and to which it constitutes in itself the easiest and most natu- ral approach, there is no source whence the interpreter may derive the point of view, the linguistic skill, the anthropological approach, and the historical knowledge requisite to the suc- cessful prosecution of the work of interpretation. This larger Semitic sphere is similarly segregated and cannot be understood or appreciated from the outside. Its interpreter, too, must learn to interpret by interpreting. Under these circumstances the practical method of procedure for one who wishes to gain the best possible understanding of the Old Testament is to start work at once upon the Old Testament itself. Through the gate thus opened let him pass on into other fields of Semitic thought and come back from these into 83 84 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the Old Testament again, better able to understand and appreciate it by reason of the breadth of vision and standards for comparison obtained in the larger Semitic world. The first step on the way to mastery of the contents of the Old Testament is to take up the study oj the Hebrew language, in which all of it, except certain chapters in Ezra and Daniel, is written. This work of translation will inevitably involve comparison with the earlier translations into Greek, Syriac, Latin, etc., and it will drive the zealous translator farther afield into the cognate languages, Assyrian, Arabic, Ethiopic, etc., that he may discover there the meanings of words and phrases upon which the Old Testament itself throws insuffi- cient light. But, when all legitimate aids to translation have been exhausted, there will remain many passages which still defy interpretation or translation. Many of these will raise the question of the validity of the textual tradition, and the translator will find himself forced to enter upon the science of textual criticism. He must endeavor to restore the original text by elimination of its errors before he can with satisfaction undertake the task of translation. When the work of textual criticism and translation has been completed, the task of literary criticism remains. The function of this discipline is to enable us to evaluate aright the document that lies before us. It enables us to place it in its proper literary category, to determine whether it is the work of one or of many hands, to fix its approximate date, to discover its historical and social background, and to learn its author's purpose and point of view. With these facts in our possession we are ready to under- take detailed interpretation of the document. We are able to put ourselves in the author's place and see the people to whom he addressed his message and the occasion which called it forth. His words take on new meaning, and his message becomes vital. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 85 We pass from this consideration of documents as such to the more comprehensive science of history. On the basis of the documents properly analyzed, classified, dated, and interpreted we proceed to reconstruct the historical experience of Israel. We trace the course of her economic, social, and political development. We relate her development to that of the oriental world in general. In the same way the religious development is traced from its earliest and most primitive stage, as merely one of the minor Semitic religions, to its highest goal as one of the great religions of the world. Finally, the question of value remains. In the effort to determine this we consult the judgment of past ages, which has expressed itself in the process of canonization and in the history of interpretation. We are then ready to con- sider the worth of the Old Testament and its religion for today. This leads to an investigation regarding its con- tribution to the various co-ordinate subjects which go to make up a theological curriculum, e.g., the study of the New Testament, church history, systematic theology, religious education, and the like. Especially important is the question as to the degree to which the Old Testament contributes toward the upbuilding of character through the implantation of high ideals and the inspiration that comes from the con- sideration of the lives of its great men. In the following pages the preceding program will guide our thought and enable us to bear in mind constantly the relation of the special topic under consideration to the larger subject as a whole. I. THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION THE CHARACTER OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE The first obstacle confronting him who desires to appreci- ate the Old Testament to the full is the necessity of learning the languages in which it is written. These are Hebrew and Aramaic. The proportion of the Aramaic text to the whole is 86 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION very small, the former being limited to Jer. io:ii; Dan. 2:4b — 7:28; Ezra 4:8 — 6:18; 7:12-26; and two words in Gen. 31:47- The Hebrew language is, relatively speaking, not difficult to learn. Its syntactical structure is simple; its inflectional system is not cumbersome; and the vocabulary of the Old Testament is quite limited. There are in all about seven thousand words in the Old Testament, of which one thousand appear twenty-five times or more each. Not only this, but these words are formed from roots of which each yields many different formations. A knowledge of the root and its meaning, together with a familiarity with the significance of the various methods of formation, gives control of the mean- ing of a large number of words. There are only about three hundred possible verbal forms, as compared with those of Greek, for example, which has approximately twelve hundred such forms. It is safe to say that as much facility in the use of Hebrew can be gained in one year as would require three years' time in the case of Latin or Greek. METHODS OF STUDYING HEBREW Grammars and dictionaries. — For the beginner in Hebrew the best plan is to use the inductive method, as represented by W. R. Harper's Introductory Hebrew Method and Manual, 23d ed. (New York: Scribner 191 2). This should be accompanied by W. R. Harper's Elements of Hebrew, 25th ed. (New York: Scribner, 1912). Those preferring the older, deductive methods may choose between A. B. Davidson's Intro- ductory Hebrew Grammar, with Progressive Exercises in Reading and Writing, 19th ed. revised throughout by J. E. McFadyen (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1914), and C. P. Fagnani's Primer of Hebrew (New York: Scribner, 1903). For more advanced stages in the study of the language recourse must be had to the standard grammars, viz., Wilhelm Gesenius' hebrdische Grammatik, vollig umgearbeitet, von E. Kautzsch, 28th ed. (Leipzig: Vogel, 1909; 2d English ed., translated by G. W. Collins and revised by A. E. Cowley [New York: Oxford University Press, 1910]); F. E. Konig, Historisch-kritisches Lehrgebdude der hebrdischen Sprache, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1897); Sta.de, Lehrbuch der hebrdischen Grammatik OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 87 (Leipzig: Vogel, 1879); W. R. Harper, Elements of Hebrew Syntax (New York: Scribner, 1888); A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax (New York: Scribner, 1894); S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew, 3d ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892); Kennett, A Short Account of the Hebrew Tenses (Cambridge: University Press, 1901); W. H. Green, A Grammar of the Hebrew Language (New York: Wiley & Sons, 1889). The only dictionaries of Hebrew worthy of consideration are : Francis Brown (with the co-operation of S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, based on the Lexicon of W. Gesenius, as translated by Edward Robinson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1906); Frants Buhl, Wilhelm Gesenius^ hebrdisches und aramdisches Handworterbuch ilber das Alte Testament, i6th ed. (Leipzig: Vogel, 191 5); Siegfried-Stade, Hebrdisches W orterbuch zum Alien Testamente (Leipzig: Veit, 1899; Eduard Konig, Hebrdisches und aramdisches W orterbuch sum Allen Testament (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1910); Elieser ben Jehuda, Thesau- rus totius Hebraitatis et veteris et recentioris (New York: International News Co., 1909; not yet complete). Biblical Aramaic. — Biblical Aramaic may easily be mastered with the aid of Marti's Kitrzgefasste Granimaiik der biblisch-aranidischen Sprache, 2d ed. (New York: Lemcke und Buechner, 191 1). The vocabu- lary will be found listed in the foregoing Hebrew and Aramaic diction aries . Hebrew and Aramaic are not two wholly unrelated languages. They are rather but two branches or dialects of the Semitic family of languages. Consequently, a knowledge of Hebrew greatly facilitates the acqui- sition of Aramaic. Much new light has been thrown upon the biblical Aramaic by the discovery of a collection of Aramaic papyri at Elephan- tine on the Nile in the years 1906-8 a.d. Versions. — No translator of the Old Testament can ignore the translations already in existence. Starting with the many modern versions, he must push back to the ancient versions, seeking to improve his own rendering by careful comparison at every step. The most important ancient version is the Septuagint, which was begun some time in the third century B.C. Next comes the Syriac Version, known as the Peshitta. Behind these must be placed the more familiar Latin rendering, commonly called the Vulgate.'' 'Information and literature regarding these and other versions will be found on pp. 94-100. 88 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Supplementary lexicographical and grammatical study. — Better translations of the Old Testament than any thus far made are now within our reach. Before the oldest known translation was made classical Hebrew had become prac- tically a dead language. It is safe to say that the scientific scholarship of the present day yields a better mastery of that language than has been possible at any earlier stage of its study. Through the aid of exhaustive concordances we are able to compare passage with passage and word with word, and thus to determine the precise significance of many a word and phrase which, standing alone, would be almost unintel- ligible. By the study of a word in all of its various contexts we obtain new conceptions of its flexibility and capacity to take on more or less widely varying shades of meaning. This word-study is further advanced by the contribution obtainable from the languages cognate with Hebrew. The vocabulary of each one of these contains much that is found also in Hebrew. Oftentimes a word that occurs but once or twice in Hebrew is found to be of constant occurrence in one or more of the cognates, and its meaning is thus easily obtain- able. In the light of this comparative language-study a much better understanding of the laws of Hebrew syntax obtains today than ever before.' It is often of vital sig- nificance that we should know definitely what possibilities the nature and structure of a sentence afford to the translator and interpreter. For example, in Isa. i : i8, it makes much difference whether we render, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool"; or, "If your sins be like scarlet, can they be as white as snow? If they be red 'The best comparative grammar of the Semitic languages at present available is Carl Brockelmann, Grimdriss der ver glcichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen, 2 vols. (New York: Lemcke und Buechner, 1908-13). A condensed edition of Vol. I, deaUng with phonetics and morphology only, is furnished in Brockelmann, Kiirzgcfasste vergleichende Grammatik der semiti- schen Sprachen (New York: Lemcke und Buechner, 1908). OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 89 like crimson, can they be as wool?" The determination of the true meaning here involves two things: a close study of the prophet's line of argument here and a thorough knowl- edge of Hebrew syntax. Much work remains to be done. Our knowledge of Hebrew vocabulary and Hebrew syntax, is even yet far from exhaustive. The Hebrew dictionary is continually being enriched by fresh materials brought in by the cognates. Many problems of syntactical structure remain to be solved. For example, what are the decisive signs of an interrogative sentence which lacks the ordinary interrogative particles ? Is the usage of the Hebrew tense-forms yet correctly analyzed ? Have we as yet properly treated all classes of clauses intro- duced by so-called waw-conjunctive and w^iw-consecutive ? The history of Hebrew syntax, and, indeed, of the language as a whole, remains to be written. But many preliminary and detailed studies must be carried through before it can be satisfactorily done. Obscure passages. — When the Hebrew lexicographer and grammarian shall have said their last word, there will still remain many a passage which will defy successful translation — and that, too, not because of the ignorance of the translator. The fact is that, in many cases, the Hebrew text as it stands presents phenomena in direct conflict with the best-known facts of Hebrew grammar. This raises at once a suspicion as to the correctness of the text as handed down and leads the translator to take up the work of textual criticism. II. THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT THE AGE OF THE EXISTING MANUSCRIPTS In any attempt to get at a writer's thought one of the first things to be done is to determine whether or not the document under consideration is precisely as its author left it. If we have before us the actual manuscript as originally QO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION prepared, and if the manuscript is clearly written and well preserved, the task of the textual critic is reduced to a mini- mum. But when, as is the case with the Old Testament writings, the original manuscripts lie by thousands of years in the past and their contents are available only in copies, then the labors and problems of the textual critic rapidly multiply. Modern editions of the Hebrew Bible all practically repro- duce the text as edited by Jacob ben Hayyim in the second edition- of the Bomberg Bible (1524-25 a.d.). The best of these modern Bibles are the following: (i) Bihlia Hehraica edited by R. Kittel, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913.) This gives a limited conspectus of variant reading from the versions and of conjectural emendations at the foot of every page. (2) The texts of the individual books edited by S. Baer and Franz Deli tzsch (Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1869-95). These editions offer a revised Massoretic text, collations of various manu- scripts, and critical textual notes. The books from Exodus to Deuteronomy inclusive were never published in this series. (3) The very best editions of the Massoretic text are those by David Ginsburg. He first published Four and Twenty Holy Books Carefully Edited after the Massorah and after Earliest Editions (London: Trinitarian Bible Society, 1894). This was put out again in a cheap edition by the Trinitarian Bible Society (London, 1906). From this edition were eliminated all the variant readings from Massoretic manuscripts which were incorporated in the first edition. The same text was published again with a far more comprehensive array of variant readings (London: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1908-11). This is the standard edition of the Massoretic text as far as it goes; the "Writings," viz., Psalms, Job, etc., remain to be published. Texts like the foregoing are constructed upon the basis of a careful and exhaustive comparison of all existing Hebrew manuscripts and printed editions. No printed edition goes OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 91 farther back than 1477 a.d. The oldest of the manuscripts now existing, of which there are approximately two thousand, go back only as far as the latter part of the ninth century A.D., with the exception of one fragment containing the Decalogue and Deut. 6:4. This latter fragment belongs apparently to the second century a.d. It exhibits a form of the Decalogue, presenting many textual variations from the recensions of Exod., chap. 20, and Deut., chap. 5, but accords on the whole more nearly with the latter than with the former passage. The remarkable fact regarding the rest of the manuscripts is the slight amount of variation among them. What variation there is, is of relatively slight importance, being for the most part due to easily recognizable errors and pecu- liarities of copyists. They all represent what is known as the Massoretic text. This text was established some time in the early Christian centuries and succeeded in displacing all other texts. There developed different schools of Massoretic scribes, representing somewhat different interpretations of the textual tradition, but they all sought to perpetuate essentially the same text and to guard it from error by most scrupulous precautions. Literature on the Massoretic text. — For the history of the Massoretic text the following will be found invaluable: CD. Ginsburg, Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible (London: Trini- tarian Bible Society, 1897); A. S. Geden, Outlines of Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1909); F. C. Burkitt, article "Text and Versions," Encyclopaedia Biblica, IV (1903); H. L. Strack, article "Text of the Old Testament," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, IV (1902); P. Kahle, Der masoretische Texte des Alten Testaments nach der tfberliefcrung der babylonischen Juden (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1902); P. Kahle, Masoreten des Ostens. Die dltesten piinktierten Hand- schriften des Alten Testaments und der Targume (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913). Collations of many Hebrew manuscripts will be found in Kennicott's Vetus Testamentum Hebr. cum variis lectionibus, 2 folio vols. (Oxford, 1776-80); in De Rossi's Variae lectiones Veteris Testamenti (Parma, 1784-88) and Scholia critica in Veteris Testamenti libros (1798); and in C. D. Ginsburg's edition of the Massoretic text, published in 1908 ff. 92 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION THE STATE OE THE MASSORETIC TEXT The word Massora means "tradition," and the Massoretic scribes were so called because they aimed at nothing more than the reproduction of the text as it had been handed down by tradition. Yet the Massoretes themselves recog- nized the fact that the traditional text was not in perfect condition. This is evidenced by the preservation of two sets of readings, the Kethihh and the Qeri. The former repre- sents the traditional consonantal text, the authority of which was so great that it could not be set aside; the latter is the emended text proposed by the Massoretes as a substitute for the traditional text. For example, in Isa. 46: ii, the Kethihh has "man of his counsel"; the Qeri has "man of my counsel." In Ezek. 48:16, the Kethihh has "five" twice, the Qeri only once; and in Jer. 51:3 the same is true of the word "bend." The Qeri is not always an improvement upon the Kethihh; but it shows that the scribes did not regard the traditional text as free from errors. In addition to the corrections offered by the Qeri, the Massoretes compiled a list of passages which they recognized as now presenting a different text from the original. These are eighteen in number and are known as "the emendations of the scribes" {tiqqune sopherim). The passages involved are Gen. 18:22; Num. 11:15; 12:12; I Sam, 3:13; II Sam. 16:12; 20:1; I Kings 12:16; II Chron. 10:16; Jer. 2:11; Ezek. 8:17; Hos. 4:7; Hab. 1:12; Zech. 2:8 (in Heb. 2: 12); Mai. 1:13; Ps. 106:20; Job 7: 20; 32:3; and Lam. 3:20. In Hab. 1:12, for example, the present text offers, "we shall not die " ; the Massoretic testimony is that the original reading was, "thou diest not." Though the Massoretes formulated a set of rules providing for the copying of the Old Testament manuscripts in the most painstaking and accurate manner, so that the text they established has been perpetuated in the precise form in which they left it, very many errors had crept into it before it OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 93 reached their hands. Most of these were of the kind com- monly made by copyists; e.g., confusion of similar letters; the wrong grouping of letters into words ;^ the repetition of letters, words and phrases (known as dittography) ; the writing of letters, words, or phrases only once, where they should have been written twice (known as haplography) ; the confusion of similar sounds, and the elision of words or phrases due to their being between two occurrences of the same word, so that the eye of the scribe after leaving the manuscript where the word first occurred returned to the manuscript where the word occurred the second time, thus omitting the intervening material. Other errors were due to the damaged or illegible condition of the manuscript serving as copy, so that the scribe misread it. Some also were due to the delib- erate "corrections" of copyists and editors who considered the text in need of improvement of various kinds. Of the many errors arising in these and other ways the Massortes have indicated but a very small proportion. Much remains to be done. EMENDATION OF THE TEXT There are three main sources of help in the discovery and correction of errors, viz.: (i) the examination of duplicate passages; (2) the comparison of the various versions; and (3) scientifically controlled conjecture. Examination of duplicate passages. — The first of these methods is, of course, capable of application only in a limited area. There are certain sections of the Old Testament which are found repeated almost verbatim. For example, Ps. 18 = II Sam. 22; Ps. i4 = Ps. 53; Isa. 36-39 = !! Kings 18:13 — 20:19; Isa. 2:2-4 = Mic. 4:1-3; Exod. 20: i-i7=Deut. 5:6-21; Ezra 2:i-7o=Neh. 7:6-73; and large sections of Samuel and Kings are incorporated in the Books of Chronicles. ' It must be borne in mind that in early Hebrew writing words were not separated one from another, but that the letters were written continuously without any break between words. This affords large room for error in reading. 94 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Comparison of passage with passage reveals many variations between the two, and that which is wrong in the one may be right in the other. For example, II Chron. 22:11 retains "and put him," which has been lost from the Hebrew text of II Kings 11:2. These duplicate passages are of great value, particularly in revealing to us the kinds of errors into which Hebrew copyists were liable to fall and the degree of depar- ture from the original that was possible on the part of a copy- ist or series of copyists. Between Isa. 2 : 2-4, for example, and Mic. 4: 1-3, there are no less than twelve variations. Comparison of ancient versions. — ^The second method for the detection and correction of errors is a much more compli- cated and indirect one. The great ancient versions of the Old Testament were prepared at times all antedating the fixing of the Massoretic text and in some cases certainly upon the basis of texts belonging to recensions wholly different from the Massoretic. Through these versions we are thus enabled to get behind the Massoretic text and in very many cases to improve upon it. a) The Septuagint: The most important of these versions is the Septuagint, the Greek translation made for the Jews of Alexandria, which became the Bible of both the Jewish and the early Christian communities. The oldest portion of this Greek version, viz., the translation of the Pentateuch, goes back probably to the days of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285- 246 B.C.). The entire Old Testament was probably put into Greek by the close of the first century B.C. The task of discovering the Hebrew text that lies behind the Septuagint cannot be satisfactorily performed until we have determined the text of the Septuagint itself. The his- tory of the Septuagint shows that in the early Christian centuries it was current in at least three recensions, viz., that of Origen, that of Lucian, and that of Hesychius. The text of the Septuagint is now extant in a large number of manu- scripts, both uncials and cursives. The more important of OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 95 these codices are the Vatican, the Alexandrine, Sinaiticus, Marchalianus, Ephraem Syrus, Sarravianus, Petropolitanus, Coislinianus, Taurinensis, and Cryptoferratensis. The task of careful and minute comparison and collation of these and the many other codices and manuscripts for the purpose of grouping them according to their common characteristics, and of determining their relations to the three great recensions, or the necessity of recognizing still other recensions, is now occupying the time and energy of Septuagint scholars. When it shall have been completed, we shall have before us the main types of Septuagint text accepted in the early Christian centuries. It will then be in order to determine whether these recensions presuppose one common text from which they are all derived, or rather point to the fact that there was prior to the third century a.d. no single authoritative translation, but two or more competing versions. 1. The Old Latin Version. — As further aids in fixing the text of the Septuagint, we have certain translations made from it into other languages. First may be mentioned the Old Latin Version. This translation was made from a Greek text which antedated all three of the known recensions of the Septuagint mentioned above. ''The Old Latin, in its purest types, carries us behind all our existing MSS and is sometimes nearer to the Septuagint, as the church received that version from the Synagogue, than the oldest of our uncial MSS. Readings which have disappeared from every known Greek MS are here and there preserved by the daughter-version, and in such cases the Old Latin becomes a primary authority for the Greek text. "^ 2 . The Syro- Hexaplar Version. — Another daughter- version of the Septuagint is the so-called Syro-Hexaplar text. This is a literal Syriac translation, by Paul of Telia, in 616-17 ^■^•> of the fifth column of Origen's Hexapla, which contained his recen- sion of the Septuagint. The Syro-Hexaplar reproduces the 'Swete, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek, 2d ed. (1914), p. 493. 96 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION apparatus devised by Origen to indicate the relation of his revised Greek text to the current Hebrew text of his day. The testimony of the Syro-Hexaplar is therefore of the greatest value for the history of the Septuagint text in general and for the determination of Origen's recension in particular. 3. Other daughter-versions. — Other daughter- versions of value are (i) the Coptic, in three recensions, the Bohairic, the Sahidic, and the Middle Egyptian, which was probably made at least as early as the third century a.d.; (2) the Armenian version which is a very slavish rendering from the Greek, and hence helpful as a witness to the recension of Origen, whose text it seems to reflect; (3) the Slavonic Old Testament, which on the other hand, in so far as it is a rendering from the Septuagint, is generally recognized as reflecting the Lucianic recension. Literature on the Septuagint and daughter-versions . — The best handy edition of the Septuagint is H. B. Swete's Old Testament in Greek accord- ing to the Septuagint, 3 vols. (Cambridge: University Press, 1887-94); and a special volume, Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (1900), 2d ed., by R. R. Ottley (Cambridge: University Press, 1914). This edition presents the text of the Vatican Codex, with a limited selection of collateral readings from the more important parallel codices. The standard edition of the Septuagint is now being published by the Uni- versity of Cambridge, under the editorship of A. E. Brooke and Norman McLean. This, too, presents the Vatican text, but it greatly extends the citation of collateral readings. Three parts (1906-11), extending from Genesis to Deuteronomy, have thus far appeared. The old col- lection of readings in Holmes and Parsons, Vetus Testamentum Graecum cum variis lectionibus, 4 vols. (1827), is meantime the student's best friend. The publications of the Royal Academy of Gottingen, known as Mitteilungen des Septuaginta-Unternehmens der Koniglichen Gesell- schaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, are valuable contributions to the classification of the Septuagint manuscripts. Thus far there have appeared: E. Hautsch, Der Lukian-text des Oktateuch (1910); P. Glaue und A. Rahlfs, Fragmente einer griechischen Ubersetzung des samaritan- ischen Pentateuchs (19 11); E. Grosse-Brauckmann, ZJer Psalter-Text bei Theodoret (191 1). O. Procksch's Studien zur Geschichte der Septuaginta (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1910) is an important contribution to the same task. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 97 P. de Lagarde outlined a program for the reconstruction of the text of LXX in his Ankiindigung einer neiien Ausgahe der griechischen Ubersetzung des Alien Testaments (1882) and published the first half of his edition of the Lucianic recension in Librorum Veteris Testamenti canonicorum pars prior (1883). Rahlfs, a pupil of Lagarde, carried on his work in Septua- ginta-Studien, I, Books of Kings (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Rup- recht, 1904); II, Psalter (1907); III, Lucian's recension of Kings (1911). The vocabulary of LXX is rendered accessible by Hatch and Redpath's Concordance to the Septuagint, in three parts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892-1906). The grammar of LXX is treated by H. St. J. Thackeray in his Grammar of the Old Testament in Greek (Cambridge: University Press, 1909) ; by R. Helbing, in Grammatik des Septuaginta, Laut- und Wort-Lehre (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1907); and by Jean Psichari, in Essai sur le Grec de la Septante (1908) . The Old Latin text is preserved only in fragments, and these are scattered over many manuscripts and editions. The text of the Minor Prophets has been edited by W. O. E. Oesterley, and published in the Journal of Theological Studies, Vols. V and VI. The same kind of work is waiting to be done for the entire Old Testament. The Syro-Hexaplar text has been edited and published piecemeal by a succession of scholars. The titles will be found in Swete's Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (1914), p. 113. To the list there given we should add J. Gwynn, Remnants of the Later Syriac Versions of the Bible (London: Williams & Norgate, 1909). The editions of the Coptic versions wUl also be found listed by Swete and Ottley on pp. 107 and 503 f- h) Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. — Three other Greek versions are of exceptional value. The translation by Aquila was made about 130 a.d., directly from the Hebrew of his time. Its purpose was to provide a version more service- able to the Jews than the Septuagint, which was held by the Jews to have suffered perversion at the hands of Christian apologetes. The virtue of Aquila's rendering, from the point of view of textual criticism, is its painfully literal character. Thus the Hebrew upon which it was based is easily discerned through it. The translation by Theodotion is less valuable. It was made with the Hebrew text in view, but was rather a free revision of the Septuagint than an independent rendering. 98 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION It dates from about i8o a.d. The translation by Symmachus is a free rendering, made about 200 B.C., with the aid of the Septuagint and Theodotion's version, on the basis of the Hebrew. The ttebrew text used by all three of these versions was one ahnost identical with the Massoretic text. These versions were all incorporated in Origen's Hexapla. The fragments that survive will be found chiefly in Field's great work, Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, 2 vols. (1875). See also F. C. ^urkitt, Fragments of the Book of Kings ac- cording to the Translation of Aquila (London: Clay, 1897); and Taylor's Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, 2d ed. (Cam- bridge: University Press, 1897). c) The Samaritan Pentateuch. — -The Samaritan Penta- teuch is really not a version, but the edition of the Hebrew text used by the Samaritan community. It exhibits about six thousand variations from the Massoretic text, most of them merely orthographic. Aside from some deliberate changes and additions clearly made to subserve the Samaritan claims, the text is essentially the same as that of the Mas- soretes. This carries the Massoretic text of the Pentateuch back at least to the latter part of the fourth century B.C. The Samaritan makes but little contribution to the correction of the Massoretic text. It will be found in both the Paris and the London Polyglots. A critical edition is under way under the editorship of Freiherr von Gall; parts 1-3 extending through Leviticus have thus far appeared (Giessen: Topel- mann, 1914-). d) The Targums. — -The targums are Aramaic versions and paraphrases of the Hebrew text. The main ones are the targum of Onkelos, which covers the Pentateuch, and that of Jonathan, which deals with the Prophets. The oldest of them dates from no earlier than the fourth or fifth century A.D., and in their present form they belong to a much later date. The targum of Onkelos is a fairly close rendering of the Hebrew; the targum of Jonathan is much more free OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 99 and in the prophetic books is often very periphrastic. Very Httle textual aid is to be derived from any of the targums. The targums are contained in the Paris and London Polyglots, and the prophetic portions are given in Lagarde's Prophetae Chaldaice (1872). e) The Peshittd. — The Syriac version, known as the Peshitta, was made directly from the Hebrew, though it reflects a good deal of influence from the Septuagint, espe- cially in the case of the prophets and Psalms. The name Peshitta, which means "simple," probably contrasts this version made from the Hebrew with other Syriac versions, like the Syro-Hexaplar, which came through the Greek. The Hebrew text used seems to have been practically identical with our present Massoretic text. The cases of departure from it are relatively very few, and the translation therefore is correspondingly weak as an aid to textual criticism. Only occasionally does it afford genuine help. The date of the translation is unknown. The oldest known Syriac manuscript bears the date 464 a.d., and is the oldest dated manuscript of either Old or New Testament now known in any language. A critical edition of the Syriac text is an urgent need. Note. — The version is now accessible in the Paris and London Polyglots; in Lee's edition, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society (1823), which reproduces the text of the Polyglots; in the edition by the American Mission Press at Urumiah (1852), which reprinted Lee's edition; in the edition published at Mosul in 1887-92; and in M. Altschueler, Die Syrische Bibel-Version Peschita im Urtext (Leipzig: Verlag "Lumen," 1908), which has progressed thus far only through the Pentateuch, and is a mere reprint of Lee's text. The kind of work needed on the Peshitta is illustrated by W. E. Barnes's Apparatus Criticus to Chronicles in the Peshitta Version (Cam- bridge: University Press, 1897), and by his Peshitta Psalter according to the West Syrian Text, with an Apparatus Criticus (Cambridge: University Press, 1904), and by G. Diettrich's Ein Apparatus Criticus zur Pesitto zum Propheten Jesaja (Giessen: Topelmann, 1905). Cf. Ch. Heller, Untersuchungen iiber die Peschittd zur gesammten hebraisclten Bibel (Berlin: Itzkowski, 191 1). lOO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION /) The Vulgate. — The Latin Vulgate was begun by Jerome in 390 A.D. and completed in 405 a.d., and by the beginning of the seventh century was in common use among the Latin churches. This version, too, was made directly from the Hebrew; but its Hebrew was essentially the Massoretic text. The Vulgate has suffered the penalty of being a popular version in that it has departed frequently from its original form. Many manuscripts are extant. Note. — A good edition of the official text has been produced by Michael Hetzenauer, Bihlia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis (Venice, 1906). The revision of this, printed at Rome ( 1 9 1 4) , is the most practical student 's edition. The official edition of the Roman Catholic church is that made by Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) and revised by authority of Pope Clement VIII in 1592, which was issued in a third edition in 1598. The present Biblical Commission, appointed by Pope Leo XIII and confirmed by Pope Pius X, has been authorized to prepare a new and revised edition of this Clementine text. Conjectural emendations. — When everything possible has been done in the way of the comparison of passage with passage and version with version, there will still remain many a passage which defies successful translation or interpretation by reason of its having become corrupted in transmission at a very early stage. It is beyond question that in many cases the text was already corrupt when the translators of LXX knew it. Under these circumstances the only recourse for the textual student is to scientific conjecture. Emphasis should be laid upon "scientific." The kind of conjecture required is that controlled by full knowledge of the factors entering into the textual situation and by sound judgment. This involves familiarity with the kinds of errors commonly made by copyists; knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet in all of its changing forms, rendering it possible to trace con- fusion of similar letters; a thorough knowledge of Hebrew grammar and lexicography; a tireless industry, which will not shrink from a thoroughgoing comparison of all the render- ings of the versions and of the textual readings they pre- OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL loi suppose; and a clear understanding of the course of thought in the passage involved, that the reading proposed may har- monize with the context. This conjectural procedure can never yield certainty, but it will produce varying degrees of probability, according to the difhculty of the problem and the learning and judgment of the critic. In some cases the only choice for the scientific translator is between the adoption of such conjectural readings and a frank confession that the passage in question is hopelessly corrupt and unintelligible. A satisfactory translation of the Old Testament upon the basis of a critically restored text must wait until much pre- liminary investigation has been done by the textual critic. Additional literature on textual criticism. — In addition to works already mentioned, we must call attention to the following: F. C. Burkitt, article "Text and Versions," Encyclopaedia Biblica (1903) ; H. L. Strack, article "Text of the Old Testament," Hastings' Dictionary oj the Bible (1902); G. B. Gray, article "Text, Versions, and Languages of the Old Testament," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (in i vol., 1909); F. Buhl, Canon and Text of the Old Testament (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1892); T. H. Weir, A Short History of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament (London: Williams & Norgate, 1899) ; S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, with an Introduction on Hebrew Palaeography and the Ancient Versions, 2d ed. (Oxford: Claren- don Press, 1913); Bleek-Wellhausen, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, 4th ed. (Berlin: Reimer, 1878), pp. 563-643; C. Steuernagel, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Tubingen: Mohr, 1912), pp. 19-85; C. H. Cornill, Das Buch des Propheten Ezechiel (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1886); A. Geiger, Urschrift und Uebersetzungen der Bibel (1857). It is, of course, clear that the task of the thoroughgoing textual critic is so complex and laborious that only a very few students have the requisite tools for it or can give the time necessary to secure the proper equipment for it. The majority must be content with but a relatively slight degree of tech- nique. With a working knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin a very clear conception of the nature of the work to be done can be attained and considerable progress achieved in its actual accomplishment. As a beginning no better step can I02 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION be taken than that of comparing a large number of parallel passages in the Hebrew Old Testament and registering the variations there found and the nature of the error involved. Then to get well on the way the student should take up Driver's Notes on the Text of the Books of Samuel (1913) and work through it thoroughly. This will give familiarity with the methods of criticism and the sources of information. After that the textual criticism of any book, to the extent that the student's linguistic and technical equipment makes possible, may be entered upon. THE OMISSION OF HEBREW FROM THE PRESCRIBED COURSE FOR THE DEGREE OF D.B. All the work thus far outlined involves a wilhngness on the part of the student to undertake a course of hard study in at least Hebrew and Greek. From this labor many students are precluded either by mental ineptitude for this kind of study or by a desire to turn their energies in other directions. Indeed, on December 21, 1898, the Divinity Faculty of the University of Chicago, upon the initiation of the late President Harper, Head of the Department of Old Testament Language and Literature, voted to discontinue the requirement of Hebrew of its candidates for the degree of D.B., placing it on the list of electives. For the previously required courses in Hebrew, there were substituted certain courses in the inter- pretation of the English Old Testament, which called for an equal, if not greater, amount of work. It is scarcely necessary to say that the students in an overwhelming proportion have chosen the English courses and passed by the Hebrew electives. The policy has since commended itself to many of the leading theological schools of the United States in which it has been adopted, e.g., the Yale School of Religion, the General Theological Seminary (Episcopal, New York), the Rochester Theological Seminary, the Newton Theological Institution, the Oberlin Theological Seminary. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 103 the Garrett Biblical Institute, the Crozer Theological Semi- nary, and the Chicago Theological Seminary. Students who forego the delight of studying Hebrew will, of course, always be dependent upon the scholarship of others in every question involving the translation of a Hebrew passage, the meaning of a Hebrew word, the linguistic testi- mony as to the date of a document, the poetic forms and characteristics of Hebrew rhythmical passages, or the validity of the Hebrew text. One consolation is that such a student can never fully know how much he has lost. Furthermore, if the student goes out from the divinity school only to drop his study of Hebrew at that point, it is fairly certain that as a rule it is better for him to have spent his time in the class- room and library in securing an intelligent and comprehensive view of the Old Testament literature. It is better for him to know how this literature arose and to appreciate its true sig- nificance through the use of the English version than to have gained simply a smattering of Hebrew of which he expects to make no further use, while he has learned very little of the real meaning of the Old Testament as a whole because his time has been spent in a futile study of the language. HOW BEST TO STUDY THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ENGLISH The student who knows no Hebrew should provide him- self with several good translations and be very careful in choosing his commentaries. By reference to the pages of standard biblical journals he should discover for himself those commentaries whose translations and grammatical inter- pretations are most trustworthy, and should avoid unscholarly works as he would the plague. The student of the English text may console himself, in part, with the reflection that the historico-critical interpreta- tion of the Old Testament places relatively Httle stress upon minute verbal exegesis. That has its place, to be sure; but the main matter is the recovery of the great drift of Hebrew 104 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION religious thought and the full realization of the conditions under which it was wrought out. It is a far more vital matter to know the situation, that confronted Amos, for example, and the main outlines of his teaching and attitude toward the problems of his day, than it is to know precisely what was the meaning of Amos 5:25 or of any other isolated passage. Into most of the tasks outlined in the following pages the stu- dent without a knowledge of Hebrew can enter enthusiasti- cally, with the confidence that he can obtain most satisfactory results despite his handicap at the start. III. LITERARY CRITICISM AND THE INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT THE FUNCTION OF CRITICISM. The function of criticism is appreciation, not depreciation, as is too commonly supposed. It seeks to present each object that it studies in its true light. It seeks to know it precisely as it is. It divests it of all error and prejudice that do but befog vision- and allows it to stand out in the clear light of truth. Only thus is it possible for true appreciation to be enkindled in the soul. The thing studied must be looked at from every side, and the conditions amid which it was pro- duced must be clearly understood, if its value is to be rightly estimated and if the producer's ability is to be properly evaluated. The capacity for critical appreciation needs careful cultivation. The ability to see a thing just as it is seems within easy reach of all; but as a matter of fact it is possessed by relatively few. This is particularly true in the field of literary appreciation; and when the literature in question is biblical, obstructions in the field of vision rapidly multiply. We come to the study of our sacred literature with our minds already closed to much that it has to say to us, because of the theories and prejudices that we entertain regarding this whole group of literature in general OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 105 and the special section under consideration in particular. The truly critical interpreter comes to the literature to be interpreted with his mind free from all restraining and obstruc- tive influences. He seeks only to hear what the literature itself has to say. He insists that it be allowed to tell its own tale and to make its own impressions. Intelligent apprecia- tion springs only from full and exact knowledge of things as they are. Still another difficulty that all too easily besets the inter- preter is the more or less unconscious feeling that the Old Testament, being a part of the Bible, must always be of value primarily for practical purposes of edification. Its purpose must be that of stimulating the devotional life. Hence, if a passage, when read in its natural and normal meaning, does not seem to yield material for spiritual enrichment, it must be re-examined and probed until some hidden, richer significance is discovered. As a matter of fact, however, there are whole pages of the Old Testament that can in and of themselves by no legitimate methods be made to minister to the soul's welfare and evidently were not written for that purpose. Take, for example, the genealogical Hsts that occur so often. The Old Testament is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for cor- rection, for instruction which is in righteousness"; but it does not yield its richest treasures to those who seek to force it to say what they expect from it. A facile, superficial, homiletical exposition of the Old Testament misses most of its highest values. Before using it for practical purposes we must make the honest effort to let it tell its message in its own way. THE CRITERIA OF POETRY The critic, therefore, is in part a searcher for information. He approaches each piece of literature with a series of ques- tions. One of his first concerns is the determination of the class and character of this literature with which he is dealing. io6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Is it poetry or is it prose ? This question is not so simple as it seems at first thought. Hebrew manuscripts do not distinguish between the two by writing poetry in a special poetic form. A casual look at a page of Hebrew as printed even in our older Bibles does not at once reveal the classi- fication to which it belongs, for there is no distinction in the arrangement of poetic and prose lines. It becomes necessary, therefore, for the student to learn to recognize poetry by such characteristics of form and content as are independent of copyist and printer. This recognition of poetry as such is, of course, of the greatest importance for interpretation. No one dreams of taking poetic statements in the same literal and matter-of-fact way in which prose utterances are inter- preted. It is of the essence of poetry to be imaginative, figur- ative, and idealistic. We do violence to the spirit of poetry when we treat it as a mere sober statement of fact. To do so is utterly to misunderstand the point of view and purpose of the writer. For example, we should hardly treat as a literal statement of fact these poetic lines: The mountains skipped like rams, The little hills like Iambs [Ps. 114:4]. Yet it is by no means always easy to discriminate between poetry and prose in the Old Testament. At the present time there is not unanimity of judgment in this matter. Of course, such books as the Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Job commend themselves to all as poetical. There is, too, an increasing willingness to recognize much of the prophetic writings as poetry. But some enthusiastic students of Hebrew poetry are not content unless we declare such books as Genesis and Samuel to be poetic also. The careful study of the nature and form of Hebrew poetry is, consequently, a duty incumbent upon every interpreter of the Old Testament. Even the prophetic books take on a different atmosphere when we clearly understand the significance of the fact that OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 107 they are poetic in form and spirit. How much greater a change in our attitude would result were we to conclude that the historical books too are poetry and not prose ! Parallelism. — The outstanding formal characteristic of most Hebrew poetry is its parallelismus memhrorum. This parallelism is represented in such verses as: In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, And his dwelling-place in Zion [Ps. 76:1, 2] The statement of the first line is repeated in slightly different form in the second, and that of the third in the fourth. This is the simplest and most easily recognizable form, and is usually designated "synonymous parallelism." Another closely similar variety is called "antithetic." It is represented largely in the Book of Proverbs, e.g. : The full soul loatheth a honeycomb ; But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet 127:7]. A third kind is known as "synthetic," since two or more parallel clauses are necessary to the complete thought. For example : Yea, though I walk through the valley of deep darkness, I wUl fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. The fact of such departure as this from the norm of strict parallelism is one of the elements that enters into the task of deciding between poetry and prose. If the parallel form is not clearly marked, as it is in the synonymous and antithetic varieties, and if in addition the poetic quality of the literature is not very high, it is not an altogether simple matter to classify it correctly. Meter. — The problem of meter in Hebrew poetry is one still far from solution. How are the parallel lines organized ? Can they be measured by poetic feet? Are the units of io8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION which the Hnes are composed of equal length? How is length determined — by the number of syllables or by the number of words ? Does the nature of the syllable play any part in the calculation, viz., whether it is long or short? Is the same meter requisite throughout a poem or may there be more or less variation? These and other related ques- tions still call for decisive answer. Uncertainty on these matters also tends to increase the difficulty of distinguishing poetry from prose. The one thing in this sphere that seems fairly certain is that the basis of the poetic line is accentual. We count the number of word-accents as the measure of the line. In general, also, the length of the lines thus deter- mined is the same throughout a given poem. But the usage controlling the number and nature of the unaccented syllables that accompany each accented syllable has not yet been discovered. Literature on Hebrew poetry. — General treatments of the character- istics of Hebrew poetry are furnished by the following works: A. R. Gordon, The Poets of the Old Testament (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1912); N. Schmidt, The Messages of the Poets (New York: Scribner, 1911), pp. 1-72; B. Duhm, article "Poetical Literature," Encyclopaedia Biblica, III (1902); K. Budde, article "Poetry," Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, IV (1902) ; Isaac Taylor, The Spirit of the Hebrew Poetry (1861) ; R. Lowth, De sacra poesi Hebraeorum (181 5); J. G. Herder, Vom Geist der hebrdischen Poesie (1787); E. Konig, Stilistik, Rhetorik und Poetik (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1900); C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899), pp. 355-426; G. A. Smith, The Early Poetry of Israel in Its Physical and Social Origins (London: Oxford University Press, 191 2). The more important schemes for the organization of Hebrew meter are presented and discussed in the following: W. H. Cobb, A Criticism of Systems of Hebrew Meter (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905); J. Ley, Grundziige des Rhythmus u.s.w. in der hebrdischen Poesie (1875); G. Bickell, Carmina Veteris Testamenti metrice (1882); J. Ley, Leitfaden der Metrik der hebrdischen Poesie (1887); H. Grimme, Grundziige der hebrdischen Akzent- mid Vocallehre (1896) ; J. DoUer, Rhythmus, Metrik und Strophik in der biblisch-hebrdischen Poesie (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1899) ; OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 109 E. Sievers, Metrische Studien, I: Studien zur hebrdischen Metrik (Leipzig: Teubner, 1901); II: Die hebr. Genesis (1904-5); III: Samuel metrisch herausgegeben (1907); J. W. Rothstein, Grundziige des hebrdischen Rhythmus und seiner Formenbildung (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909); C. L. Souvay, Essai sur la metrique des Psaumes (St. Louis : Seminaire Kenrick, 1911). On the organization of strophes in Hebrew poetry, cf., in addition, D. H. Miiller, Die Propheten in ihrer ursprilnglichen Form (Vienna: Holder, 1896); J. K. Zenner, Die Ch'orgesdnge im Buche der Psalmen (Freiburg im B. : Herder, 1896) ; D. H. Miiller, Strophenbau und Respon- sion (Vienna: Holder, 1898); C. A. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms, I (New York: Scribner, 1906), pp. xxxiv-xlviii. VARIETIES OF PROSE If the literary product under consideration turns out to be prose, the critical student seeks farther to know to what class of writings it belongs. Is it historical narrative, concerned with no other end than that of recording events exactly as they occurred ? Is it sermonic or didactic in character, setting consciously before itself the end of instruction and edification ? If the latter, to what extent is its treatment of history con- trolled by its aim ? If ostensibly historical, is it really so ? Careful discrimination must be made between the mythical or legendary and the historical. Allowance must be made also for the possible presence of parabolic or allegorical matter under the guise of historical narrative. The failure to recognize this has played havoc with the interpretation of such literature as the Book of Jonah. Again, are the visions in Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, Zechariah the records of veritable prophetic experiences, or are they but a literary or homiletic dress chosen for the more effective presentation of the pro- phetic thought ? The search for answers to these and other such questions yields a knowledge of the literary methods and characteristics of the Hebrews which is of the greatest value to the interpreter. no GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION COMPOSITE AUTHORSHIP Another matter for investigation by the hterary student is the problem whether or not the writing before him is a unit. As a matter of fact, most of the Old Testament books are today regarded as of composite origin. The analysis of the Hexateuch into several documents and the partition of the Book of Isaiah among several writers are but illustrations of the situation as a whole. The tests of the unity of a biblical book are in general precisely the same as those appHed to any other book. Are the language and style throughout the work one and the same, or are there marked variations ? Judgments regarding style will always differ somewhat. De gustihus nil disputandum. But certain objective, out- standing differences can be recognized by all. Browning and Longfellow, for- instance, could hardly be confused. Styhstic differences of pronounced character are thus generally recog- nizable, and they, at least, reinforce other considerations indicating diversity of authorship. Similarly, the language of Chaucer and that of Tennyson could not possibly be regarded as belonging to the same man or the same age. In the same way the language of the Old Testament represents approximately the history of a thousand years. Unfor- tunately the history of the Hebrew language is not as well known as the history of English. Furthermore, the language of the Old Testament has undergone considerable revision from time to time, being kept up to date by reason of the fact that the books were so widely read and in such steady demand. Yet there are certain clearly marked differences between early and late Hebrew, and the presence of both in one book gives rise to legitimate suspicion regarding its unity. Another criterion of unity is harmony throughout the writing. Are the statements it makes and the presuppositions it reflects mutually compatible ? Are the likes and dislikes in general the same throughout? Are the interests and ideals OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL iii sufficiently alike to belong to one mind, or do they presuppose more than one ? Is the theological standpoint the same from beginning to end ? Or are there differences of religious and theological character too great to be reconciled on the hypothesis of unity? For example, could David have held the two conceptions of God reflected in I Sam. 26: 17-20 and Ps. 139:7-12? The same inspection must be made of the historical background. Is it the same throughout? The historical situation is revealed sometimes indirectly and inci- dentally even when we are not directly informed as to the period to which a writing belongs. If a discussion of some religious doctrine were, for example, to use an illustration based upon wireless telegraphy, later ages would be enabled to determine the terminus a quo, at least, of the writing by that incidental allusion, even if no other information were available. THE AUTHOR The next question asked of a book by the interpreter is, Who wrote it or its several constituent elements? The mere possession of an author's name is of little value in itself. We seek rather to know the man as he was. To what stratum of the social whole did he belong ? It is of great help, for example, in the understanding and appreciation of the sympathy felt by Amos and Micah for the poor and the oppressed to know that they both came from the peasant class and knew whereof they spoke by personal experience. What was the inheritance of the author in the way of family traditions and prejudices ? What kind of training or educa- tion had been his? What were his personal history and experience ? We come to the prophecy of Hosea, for example, with somewhat different attitudes, according as we regard him as a young man who had bestowed all the wealth of his love upon a maiden who, after she had become his wife, devel- oped lustful proclivities and finally deserted him, or as a 112 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION man who believed himself called of God to marry an out-and- out harlot that he might thereby furnish a striking object- lesson to Israel. The fuller and the more exact our knowledge" of the author, his antecedents, and his temperament the better qualified are we to appreciate his point of view and his utterance. THE DATE It is of primary importance to fix the date of a writing as nearly as possible. The value of this information lies in the fact that it enables us to know the historical situation out of which the writing came and to which it was addressed. This knowledge is necessary to a full understanding of any writing. To know, in the fullest measure possible, the environment of the writer and the situation of those to whom he wrote throws a flood of light upon the meaning and sig- nificance of his words. Words uttered in the ninth century would not convey the same significance as the same words coming from the third century B.C. Prophecies from the days of Jeroboam II cannot be understood aright if read with the supposition that they come from the Exile. The cir- cumstances of the age are woven into the very texture of the thought, and they must be known if that thought is to be made wholly intelligible. The date of a piece of literature is determined in various ways. The superscription attached to it not infrequently states a date. But the superscriptions were evidently added by later editors, in many cases at least, for they frequently do not accord with the contents of the document to which they are prefixed. Hence, in every case, whether there is superscription or not, the final test of the date of a document is the document itself. If it alludes to known historical events and circumstances, these, of course, fix the date at least within limits. For example, since the 137th Psalm opens with— By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion, OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 113 it is perfectly clear that the period of the Exile lay behind the writer. The last verses of the same psalm, on the same prin- ciple, show that the city of Babylon had not yet, when the poet wrote, been punished as he thought it deserved, viz., totally destroyed. When Isa. 44:26-28 and 45: iff. speak of the wasted state of Jerusalem and of the triumphs of Cyrus, it is clear that the writer of these chapters lived during the latter part of the Exile, after Cyrus had begun his glorious career and before Babylon had fallen or a return from exile had taken place. Specific historical allusions are not always, however, avail- able. Then recourse must be had to other kinds of testimony. The vocabulary and syntax of the language give some aid in the determination of date. The appearance of certain words and of certain idioms can be dated with approximate definiteness. Their presence or absence from a document is therefore a slight indication of the time when it originated. Persian or Greek words, for example, at once betray the age to which a writing belongs. But, on the whole, less aid is derived from the linguistic argument than from any other (cf. p. no). Much help in dating a book or document is often derived from a study of the social, political, and ecclesiastical insti- tutions, customs, and ideas it reflects. If the writer refers to the monarchy, for example, as an existing institution, he reveals the general period to which he belongs. In like manner, if he laments the lack of temple services, we at once place him in the Exile. If the whole background of his thought is commercial or urban, rather than rural and agricultural, we put him in the later sections of the history. This kind of testimony is furnished particularly by the religious and theological thought of the writer. 'For instance, when II Sam. 24:1 tells us that Yahweh' moved David ■ This is apparently the way in which the Hebrews pronounced the name of their God. The pronunciation "Jehovah" is a mongrel form arising some- where in the fourteenth century after Christ. It is due to a mixture of the 114 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION against Israel, saying, "Go number Israel and Judah," and I Chron. 21:1, in describing the same situation, informs us that ''Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel," we know that a long history of religious and theological development lies between the two interpretations. The difference in standpoint illustrated by these two judg- ments runs through the entire thought of the two stages of religion represented by these two passages. Writings whose theological and religious standpoint approximate that of the passage in I Samuel belong near the beginning of the process of growth, those that approximate the standpoint of the Chronicler belong near the end of the Hebrew period. And the steps along the way from the first to the second are fairly well recognizable, so that the religion and theology of a writer do much to place him chronologically for us. THE author's purpose Another contribution to the understanding of a document is made when we discover its author's purpose in writing it. If we read the Books of Chronicles, for example, as a sober record of history, made by one whose chief aim was to find out what the facts were and what the causes were that con- trolled the course of events, we are confronted by vexatious questions. How can we account for the many discrepancies between Chronicles and Kings (cf., e.g., II Chron. 14:5; 17:6; and I Kings 15:14; 22:43), the latter being much the older record? Why does the Chronicler, if a historian vowels of the Hebrew word for "Lord" with the consonants of the name "Yahweh." The later Hebrews regarded the latter as too sacred to be pro- nounced, and therefore substituted the word "Lord" whenever "Yahweh" occurred. In their manuscripts they wrote the consonants of the word Yahweh , leaving out the vowels and putting in their place the vowels of the Hebrew word for "Lord," thus'reminding themselves not to pronounce "Yahweh," but the word for "Lord." Christian interpreters, in the 14th or 15th century, not knowing the significance of this method of spelling, misunderstood it and pro- nounced the combination as "Jehovah" — an error that has persisted until the present. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 115 primarily, pass over so many facts without mention of them (e.g., the story of Bathsheba, the discords in David's family, and the Elijah and Elisha stories) ? How does it happen that the David of the Chronicler is a saint, chiefly interested in preparations for the proposed temple and its ritual, while the David of Samuel and Kings is a man of flesh and blood, busied in war and intrigue and the practical affairs of a monarch's daily life ? When we discover that the Chronicler was not at all concerned with history as such, but was solicitous to vindicate the legitimacy and glory of God, the temple, the priesthood, and the ritual as he knew them and loved them, many of these questions are at once answered. He was interested in the facts of history only to the extent to which he could make them subserve his purpose. He there- fore selected such materials as he could use to teach the lessons he desired to inculcate and passed by the rest. He also inter- preted past history from the standpoint of his own time and from the viewpoint of his great purpose, and thus presented conclusions widely at variance with those of an earlier inter- preter writing from a different standpoint and with a differ- ent purpose. If we take prophetic literature, the importance of knowing the prophetic purpose is equally great. If we decide that the prophets were merely human automatons who spoke and moved as the Spirit of God directed them, there will be practically no limits, except such as inhere in our con- ception of God, to our conceptions of what they might do and say. If, however, we regard the prophets as men who were profoundly moved by the events and conditions of their times and sought to bring to bear upon their contemporaries such considerations as would turn them from sin unto righteousness, our whole interpretation of the prophetic activity will be con- trolled by our conception of the prophets' purpose. For example, if we think of the prophet Isaiah as seeking to stimu- late Israel's faith in God at the time of the Syro-Ephraimite invasion of Judah, we shall seek to show how the Immanuel ii6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION prophecy (Isa., chap. 7) contributed to the achievement of his purpose, and we shall have great difficulty in understanding how it could do so, if it was primarily a prediction of the coming of Jesus Christ, as older interpreters used to say. Again, if we regard the writer of Isa., chaps. 40-55, as engaged in the great purpose of inspiring and strengthening discour- aged Israel in captivity that it might be ready to seize the opportunity for return when it should present itself, we shall read those chapters with a new appreciation. We shall at once understand why he enlarges upon the power and the love of Yahweh and the futility and absurdity of idolatry. We shall also see why so much attention is given by him to the problem of suffering; he must explain satisfactorily the misfortunes of the past if he would inspire confidence in Yahweh for the future. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LITERATURE The necessity of still another way of approach to the Hebrew literature is now beginning to be recognized. It was long thought that the Old Testament literature was absolutely unique, that it was quite without parallel in any way. But within recent years certain facts have come to light which challenge that point of view. The Babylonians had a creation story and a deluge story which present such striking points of similarity to the biblical stories that we are forced to raise the question of the use of the Babylonian stories by the biblical writers. The Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, antedated the Mosaic legislation by hundreds of years. Some of the Mosaic laws are much like those of Hammurabi. Was Hebrew law, therefore, dependent to some extent upon older Babylonian law? The Egyptian tale of two brothers offers elements that vividly recall the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. Prophetic and messianic literature has been found in Egypt at dates far preceding the earhest appearance of prophecy or messianism in Israel. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 117 Was this old Egyptian prophetic material familiar to the Hebrew prophets, and did it furnish models for the expression of Hebrew prophetic thought? In the recently discovered Aramaic papyri from Elephantine there was found an Aramaic version of the story of Ahikar. This Aramaic version arose about 500 B.C. It is a legend of a wise man who served as chief adviser of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. In its Aramaic form it spread throughout the hither Orient, and was finally translated into Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian, Greek, and Slavonic. It is indisputable evidence of the freedom with which literary influences passed from one part of the oriental world to another, and it lends new impetus to the study of oriental literature as a whole from the comparative point of view. To what extent, we are compelled to ask, were the Hebrews dependent upon the literary life of the Orient as a whole for the form and content of their own literature ? The Ahikar story contains a large amount of proverbial material which is no whit inferior in either form or content to much that is in the Book of Proverbs. We can no longer, therefore, view the Old Testament entirely as a thing apart. We must reckon with the probability of interrelations between it and surrounding literatures and be prepared for the possi- bility of surprising discoveries in this field. THE ART OF INTERPRETATION In view of the fact that everything which has preceded is preparation for the work of interpretation, it will be recog- nized at once that the ofhce of interpreter is no sine- cure. His work calls for the most careful preparation and the most complete self-surrender. We must divest ourselves of every preconceived opinion or prejudice that may stand as an obstruction between us and our author. We cannot dic- tate to him what he shall say, but must be ready to receive what he has said. We try to put ourselves in his place, in the ways pointed out in the foregoing pages, to look through Ii8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION his eyes, to hear with his ears, and to feel as he felt. We may add nothing to his message, nor may we subtract any- thing from it. Our obligation as interpreters is to be abso- lutely loyal to our sources and transparently honest in our endeavor to understand their full significance. As inter- preters we have no concern with the truth or the error of the views presented by our sources. We may agree or disagree with the doctrines of our author, but it is our first and only duty, in our capacity as interpreters, to understand his views completely and to report them accurately. When the student of the Old Testament has finally equipped himself thoroughly for the work of interpretation, so that he is able to read the mind of his author clearly, he is still confronted by the problem of method in his presentation of his results to the public in general. He cannot expect the average person to go through the long and painful process by which he himself has arrived at his understanding of the Old Testament. He must devise some easier way for the great majority of men. They may, perhaps, reasonably be expected to read their Old Testament in more than one English trans- lation, a procedure which will be found helpful in so far as it presents familiar ideas in a new dress and so arouses new thoughts about them. In so far as the translations read differ from one another, they will contribute also to bring about freedom from bondage to any one translation and a recognition of the fact that no translation can quite take the place of the original language. Further, the main features of the historical and social situation can be set before the popular mind briefly and vividly and the right background thus suggested for the understanding of the Old Testament book or document. But, in addition to this, it is of great value to be able to translate the ancient situations, institutions, and ideas into terms of modern life and thought. Being unable to carry our public back to the days of the Hebrew people, we must at least, so far as possible, bring the ancient life down OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 119 to our modern days and interpret it in terms of our own age. One of the best examples of this method of exposition is furnished us in George Adam Smith's commentaries on Isaiah and the minor prophets. Literature on criticism and interpretation. — Some of the more impor- tant works treating of matters of literary criticism and interpretation as they concern the Old Testament are here given: S. R. Driver, An Introduc- tion to the Literature of the Old Testament, revised ed. (New York: Scrib- ner, 1914); C. H. Cornill, Lntroduction to the Canonical Books of the Old Testament (New York: Putnam, 1907); H. T. Fowler, A History of the Literature of Ancient Israel (New York: Macmillan, 1912); G. B. Gray, A Critical Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Scribner, 1913) ; C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899); W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: A. & C. Black, 1892); K. Budde, Ge- schichte der alt-hehrdischen Litter atur; mil Apokryphen und Pseudepi- graphen von A. Bertholet (Leipzig: Amelang, 1906); B. Duhm, Die Entstehungdes Alien Testaments, 2d. ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1909); E. Sellin, Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 191 o); C. Steuernagel, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das Alte Testament (Tiibin- gen: Mohr, 191 2); L. Gautier, Introduction a VAncien Testament, 2 vols., 2d ed. (Lausanne: Bridel & Cie., 1914); Hermann Gunkel, "Die israelitische Literatur," in Paul Hinneberg, Die Kultur der Gegen- wart, Teil I, Abt. VII, pp. 51-102 (Berlin: Teubner, 1906). The Ency- clopaedia Biblica, edited by T. K. Cheyne and J. S. Black (New York: Macmillan, 1899-1903), and Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Scribner, 1899-1904) contain articles of introduction to each of the Old Testament books; in addition, the general articles in the former on "Historical Literature" (G. F. Moore), "Law Literature" (G. B. Gray), "Poetical Literature" (B. Duhm), and "Wisdom Literature" (C. H. Toy) are excellent presentations of the main facts in each case. Similar articles in the nth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica are well worth study. IV. THE HISTORY OF THE HEBREWS Important and valuable as the v^ork of interpretation is, it is only as its results are gathered up and given larger sig- nificance by the historian that it comes to full fruition. I20 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Interpretation of documents is fundamental in the recon- struction of history, while history is the crown and glory of interpretation. Scope of history. — The historian seeks to cover the record of the whole life of a given people. There is no phase of its thought or activity that is not of interest to him. A full understanding of the development of any people requires a full knowledge of the various influences that have co-operated in the production of the result. The pohtical history of a people cannot be understood as a thing apart from its intel- lectual, social, economic, ethical, and religious life. Nat'onal life is a unitary thing; all its parts are bound together in one structure and exercise mutual and reciprocal influence one upon another. Every fragment of information, of what- soever kind, is therefore of significance to the historian. He seeks for facts wheresoever they may be found, and, given equal powers of interpretation and exposition for all, the truest reconstruction of a people's history will be presented by that historian who is in possession of the widest and most accurate knowledge of facts. Dating of sources. — Naturally, the most valuable source of information for Hebrew history is the Old Testament. The first step in the use of this source for historical purposes is to accept the results of literary criticism regarding the time of origin for each of the literary units composing the Old Testa- ment. Its thirty-nine books must be arranged in chrono- logical order, that each one may make its contribution at the proper point in the course of the history. Having gone thus far, we must go farther and discriminate among the various literary strata of which the Old Testament books are composed. The Hexateuch, for example, as a complete work belongs to the fourth century B.C.; but it contains within itself elements of much greater age, some of which go back even as literary documents to the eighth or ninth century OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 1 21 B.C., and perhaps farther.' Before the Hexateuch can be properly used as a historical source it must be analyzed into its primitive constituent elements, and these must in turn be arranged in chronological order. In like manner the Books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah have been found to be composite and must submit to an analysis and a chronological assignment of the com- ponent parts. Similar processes are applied to the writings of the prophets and the poets. It is at this point that a large measure of uncertainty must attach to any effort toward a reconstruction of Hebrew history. The dating of many of the literary strata within the Old Testa- ment is of necessity a somewhat subjective piece of work. Few tangible and definite chronological indices are at hand, and in their absence more reliance than is desirable has to be placed upon considerations of taste and judgment. The farther the historian moves from firmly fixed objective facts into the regions of thought and feeling the more speculative are his results. But no truly historical mind can rest content with a bare list of chronologically attested facts. Chronology is not history, but merely its framework. The historian must fill in the picture as best he can, seeking for the full historical setting, of which the definitely known and placed facts form but a small part. It is inevitable, therefore, that there will always be many variant representations of the progress of Hebrew history; for conjecture and imagination, even when controlled by sound historical principles and methods, afford wide scope for variations in judgment. Facts versus interpretation of facts. — When a literary source has finally been definitely placed in time, a new prob- lem presents itself to the historian. He is seeking for facts; his literary record offers him an interpretation of facts. ' See my article, "Some Problems in the Early History of Hebrew Religion," American Journal of Semitic Languages and Litcralures, XXXII (1916), 81-97. 122 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The record is the product of some person's observation of an event, or study of a tradition, or thought upon an experience. Consequently it partakes of the limitations and reflects the characteristics of the writer. A single individual, with the best will in the world, will almost inevitably give a partial or incomplete interpretation, or one in which certain aspects of the fact or truth are given undue prominence. The historian, therefore, must discriminate between a fact and its inter- pretation. Is the interpretation historically valid ? Does it do full justice to the facts, or is it but a partial or prejudiced view ? Was the writer in possession of all the facts or of a sufficiently large proportion of them to make it possible for him to arrive at a just estimate of the situation? Was his ability as an interpreter vitiated by the purpose for which he was writing? Did he desire primarily to find out exactly what the facts were and to make them known, or were facts only secondary or incidental matters with him, his mind being set upon some great political, social, or religious end ? A literary document that purports to narrate some past event is not infrequently a source of information regarding at ' least two periods, viz., the age in which the event occurred and the age in which the narrator lived. To the extent to which a faithful record is given of the situation or circumstance described the docuriient is of value as a witness to the actual facts; but even when, for various reasons, a document is any- thing but a faithful record of actual facts, it may be of exceedingly great value for the age from which it itself originates. That is to say, a writer always reveals some- thing of the milieu out of which he writes. Whatever he may or may not tell us directly of the more or less remote period whose history he is recording, he will certainly tell us, more or less indirectly, much regarding the times in which he himself lives. He will write in the language of his own day; he will drop occasional allusions to recent or con- temporary occurrences and personalities; he will reflect the OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 123 opinions — political, social, ethical, or religious — of his genera- tion, and he will employ the literary and historical methods and point of view of the world in which he is living. No twentieth- century document could ever be mistaken for a sixteenth- century document, even if it were a history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is of the greatest importance that the historian of the Hebrew people should make this differentiation between fact and interpretation of fact. The Old Testament records, even those that profess to be written as histories, were all written by men who knew nothing of the modern scientific historiographical spirit and method. They were wholly lacking in all that goes to make up critical scholarship in the field of history. They accepted as true practically all that tradition had to offer them. They never dreamed of sub- mitting traditions to cold-blooded, scientific investigation. They wrote, not for the purpose of recording facts for fact's sake, but for the edification and inspiration of their people. They selected their materials and modified them as seemed necessary from this point of view. The result is, not in- frequently, a disproportionate emphasis upon some phase of the national life and a complete ignoring of others equally important. JFurthermore, Hebrew writers, like all other ancient historians, were almost totally lacking in the sense of perspective. They were unable to make the necessary allowance for the lapse of time. They looked at events and situations from the standpoint of their own age. They did not think of the necessity of divesting themselves of all that the progress of time had brought to them and of putting themselves in the place of those whose sayings and doings they were recording. They judged everything and every- body by their own standards and conceived of people of former generations as actuated by the same ideals and pur- poses as they themselves were. They read back into ancient times the ideas and institutions of their own times without 124 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION a thought of the incongruity that must often result from such a procedure. The interpretative bias illustrated by the Books of Chron- icles.— Plentiful illustration of the characteristics here enumer- ated is furnished by the Books of Chronicles. In them the spirit and method of much of the Hebrew writing is most clearly seen. A comparison of these books with the corre- sponding portions of the Books of Samuel and Kings is most instructive and illuminating. These two sections of the Old Testament cover largely the same ground. But the interests, point of view, and aims of the writers are widely different. These differences control their selection and use of materials and result in interpretations which vary radically. The Chronicler, living after the fall of the Northern Kingdom and regarding that kingdom as having been contrary to the will of Yahweh throughout its history, almost wholly ignores it in his narrative, giving it mention only where the history of Judah was so inextricably interwoven with that of Israel as to compel recognition of the latter by the recorder. The Chronicler, being concerned chiefly in an effort to validate the temple at Jerusalem and its ritual as he knew them, traces the institutions of his own day back to the days of David, to whom he assigns the whole organization of the temple cultus. The Chronicler's David is an ecclesiastic first of all; out of the nineteen chapters devoted to David's life and work in Chronicles eleven are devoted to accounts of his activities in connection with temple, ritual, and the like. The same desire to represent the great King David as fulfilhng the Chronicler's ideal of a king leads him to omit almost all reference to the sins of David, which bulk so large in the Samuel record. The only sin noticed by him is that of taking the census; and a striking difference appears in his narrative regarding it. In II Sam. 24:1 we are told that Yahweh moved David to number Israel and Judah and then punished him and his people for so doing. This was not ethically OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 125 justifiable in the Chronicler's eyes; hence in I Chron. 21:1 we read: "Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel." Similar liberty in modifying and even contradicting the earlier record is often taken by the Chronicler when the purpose he has in mind seems to him to require it; cf., for example, II Chron. 14:5 and 17:6 with I Kings 15: 14 and 22:43; II Chron. 24:26 and II Kings 12:21 (where the Chronicler's attitude toward mixed marriages leads him to attach the terms "Ammonitess" and "Moabitess"); II Chron. 24:4-14 with II Kings 12:5-17; II Chron. 36:9 with II Kings 24:8. We have the advantage of being able to check the Chron- icler's accounts by the earlier records of Samuel and Kings; they reveal to us the great freedom with which the Chronicler has handled his sources and his facts. More or less of the same attitude is discoverable in other Old Testament writings, and the historical student must therefore always be on the lookout and ready to make allowance for the bias of his sources of information. The historian must endeavor to find out how things actually happened; he cannot rest content with the opinions and interpretations of uncritical writers, even if they were eyewitnesses of that which they record. He must compare testimony with testimony, witness with witness, and seek to get behind all records to the facts themselves. Geography as a historical source. — A second source of information that must be utilized to the full by the historian is the geography of Palestine and the neighboring lands. The land of Palestine, in relation to its illumination of the life-story of Jesus, has been weU named "the Fifth Gospel." The same kind of value is to be obtained from it for the understanding of the Old Testament. The geographical data contained in the Old Testament are abundant; scarcely a page but makes one or more topographical, climatic, geo- logical, political, or ethnological reference, for the under- standing of which a knowledge of the geography of Palestine 126 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION and the neighboring lands is almost indispensable. Travel and residence in Palestine and the study of good maps and handbooks have made the general topography of Palestine familiar to most students. The lay of the land, the lakes and rivers, the hills and greater valleys, and many of the more important towns are well known. On the other hand, many places still await exact localization and sure identification, e.g., Gibeah of Saul, Lo-debar, Beth-rehob, Salem, Topheth, Gath, Bethcar, and Aphek. The political significance of the geographical location of Palestine. — Geography has much to do with the making of history. Location largely determines vocation; climate and soil vitally affect character and function. The situation of Palestine was strategic. It was, as a glance at any map of Western Asia and Egypt will show, the only path of com- munication between Asia and Africa. It lay between the great powers of these two regions as a connecting link. All the commerce and culture of the ancient oriental world must, perforce, pass through Syria and Palestine. Palestine received the impress of the civilizations of Crete and the Aegean, of Egypt, of the Hittites, of Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman, each in turn. It was the battlefield of contending tribes and the prize of the great world-powers. The control of this bridge was indispensable to the aspirant for world-dominion. Its inhabitants could not live the life of seclusion; they were inevitably involved in all the great military and political movements of each age. Their statesmen were continually confronted by great problems in the field of foreign affairs. The policy to be adopted in any great crisis became a subject of tremendous import and called forth opinion and discussion throughout the land. These people were continually in the forefront of the world's history and could not escape the effect of con- tinual concern with great issues in the realms of politics and morality. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 127 The economic resources of Palestine. — The surface of Palestine is very broken. Hills of varying elevation are intersected by valleys of greater or less extent penetrating into the hills and ascending to various degrees of elevation. The Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea run like a deep gash through the land from north to south. With such great variety of elevation and of exposure there goes a corresponding variety of products; consequently the land is to an unusual degree self-sustaining, providing for practically all the needs of its inhabitants. In contrast with the sandy deserts to the east and south it is a garden of fertility. This has always made it the envy and the prey of marauding bands of Bedouins and attracted to it the hungry hordes of the desert. The Hebrews themselves approached it thus and looked longingly toward the "land flowing with milk and honey." But large areas of its surface are limestone rock, coated with an inch or two of soil, which raises nothing but a little grass for a few weeks in the springtime. Consequently, famines were no uncommon occurrence, the area of productive land being so small, and a full allotment of rain being necessary to a full yield. A study of the records of Judges and Joshua shows that the conquering Hebrews were for long confined almost wholly to the hillsides, and that the fertile plains were held firmly by the Canaanites, Economic motives played no small part in the relations between the incomers and the older inhabitants. In like manner, reference to a raised map of Palestine and Syria will show that Damascus was cut ofi from Phoenicia and the coast by the Lebanon ranges. Her only way out was across the northern end of Palestine. The need for an outlet for her commerce may have had much to do with the long wars , between Damascus and Israel. The economic resources of Palestine were so slight, in comparison with those of the fertile valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates, as to constitute a heavy and hopeless handicap to the Hebrews in any endeavor to rival the political and economic power of Egypt and 128 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Babylonia- Assyria. The Hebrews were never far removed from starvation. It may well be that this lack of things material contributed much toward the development of spir- itual riches. In these and other ways the influence of geography upon Hebrew history is easily discernible, and it well deserves the careful consideration of students. Literature upon the geography of Palestine. — The following books are of value on. this subject : George Adam Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (New York: Armstrong, 1894), and Jerusalem: The Topography, Economics, and History from the Earliest Times to 70 A.D., 2 vols. (New York: Armstrong, 1905); Selah Merrill, Ancient Jerusalem (with illustrations, charts, and plans; Chicago: Revell, 1908); L. B. Paton, Jerusalem in Bible Times (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1908); E. Huntington, Palestine and Its Transformation (Boston: Houghton Miflflin Co., 191 1); R. L. Stewart, The Land of Israel: A Textbook on the Physical and Historical Geography of the Holy Land (Chicago: Revell, 1899); A. Socin and I. Benzinger, Palestine and Syria (Baedeker's Guide-Book Series), 4th ed. (New York: Scribner, 1906); F. Buhl, Geographie des alien Paldstina (Tubingen: Mohr, 1896); H. Guthe, Paldstina (Land und Leute: Monographien zur Erdkunde; mit 142 Abbildungen nach photograph. Aufnahme und einer farbigen Karte; Bielefeld: Velhagen u. Klasing, 1908). Maps. — George Adam Smith and J. G. Bartholomew, Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 191 5); Topographical and Physical Map of Palestine, compiled by J. G. Bartholomew and edited by G. Adam Smith (scale, 4 miles to the inch; New York: Armstrong, 1904); H. Guthe, Bibel-Atlas (in 20 Haupt- und 28 Nebenkarten. Mit einem Verzeichnis der alten und neuen Ortsnamen; Leipzig: Wagner und Debes, 191 1); H. Kiepert, Wand- karte zur Erlduterung der biblischen Erdkunde Alten und Neuen Testaments (Berlin: Reimer). The most exhaustive maps of Palestine are those compiled under the direction of the Palestine Exploration Fund, from whose agents they may be obtained. Special attention may be called to the value of their relief maps. Archaeology and history. — A third source of information regarding Hebrew history is at hand in Hebrew archaeology. This science concerns itself with the material remains of OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 129 Hebrew civilization. These are fragments of ancient build- ings, city walls, and fortifications; wells, cisterns, tombs, and graves; altars, shrines, and sacred pillars; various prod- ucts of artistic skill, e.g., idols, figurines, coins, statues; tools of various kinds and weapons; utensils for household use, such as jars, bowls, and lamps. In short, any product of human labor and skill is serviceable to the archaeologist. Through such things he may trace a people's progress in the arts and sciences and be enabled to give them their right place in the scale of culture. Of especial interest, however, are the few inscriptions that have been recovered thus far from the soil of Palestine. Whence have materials of this sort been obtained? In part from the representations, in inscriptions and reliefs, of the spoil carried away from Israel by invaders, like the Assyr- ians and Babylonians; in part also from the surface of the soil, where may still be found such things as ancient high places, wells, walls, and building materials from ancient structures which had been torn down and utilized by the natives in the erection of modern houses, etc. But the most fertile source of such materials has been and will continue to be the work of the excavator. Thus far excavations of any extent have been conducted only at Jerusalem, Jericho, Gezer, Samaria, Beth-shemesh, Taanach, Megiddo, Lachish, Tell-es-Safi (Gath[?]), Tell-Zakariya (Azekah[?]), Tell-ej-judeideh, and Mareshah. The work of excavation in Palestine has little more than begun. There is yet much soil to be overturned. In the words of Dr. F. J. Bliss, himself a competent and suc- cessful excavator: Excavation has all the possibilities of an infant art. The debris of ages has only just begun to reveal its treasures. Scattered under the soil are countless "documents" — documents in stone, in metal, in earthenware — documents inscribed and uninscribed, but each waiting to tell its tale of the past. Of the hundreds of buried sites in Syria arid Palestine, those in which excavation has been attempted on any large scale do not reach the number of twenty. I30 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Relatively few inscriptions have as yet been recovered from the soil of Palestine. This is in part due to the many political and military vicissitudes of the land, and in part to the destructive effects of climate and soil. The more important written documents found are the Moabite stone, the Siloam inscription, the Gezer calendar, the Lachish tablet, the ostraca from Samaria, the Assyrian tablets from Gezer and from Taanach, the lion seal from Megiddo, and the stamped jar-handles from Tell-es-Safi. and neighboring sites. The finds of the excavators have thrown much light on certain phases or sections of Hebrew history. For example, it is pretty generally conceded now that the Palestine excava- tions support the contention that there was no sudden in- cursion into Palestine of an overwhelming horde of Hebrews sweeping everything before them, but that the process of Hebraizing Canaan was a slow and gradual one. Again, the excavations show that the civilization of Palestine, into which the Hebrews came and with which they identified themselves, was not a pure, unmixed product, but rather a complex and composite culture into which had entered most varying ele- ments from widely separated homes. It was a cosmopolitan life in large measure. Many more interesting revelations doubtless await the spade of the excavator. Literature on Hebrew archaeology. — The following are of value: George A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible (Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union, 1916); P. S. P. Handcock, The Latest Light on Bible Lands (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1913); and The Archaeology of the Holy Land (New York: Macmillan, 1916; F. J. Bliss, The Development of Palestine Exploration (New York: Scribner, 1906); H. Vincent, Canaan d'apres Vexploration recente (Paris: Gabalda, 1907); S. R. Driver, Modern Research as Illustrating the Bible (London: Henry Frowde, 1909); W. M. Thomson, The Land and the Book (New York: Harper, 1882); F. J. Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities, or Tell-el-Hesy Excavated (London: Palestine Exploration Fund, 1894); F. J. Bliss, Excavations at Jerusalem, i8g4-i8g7 (London: Palestine Exploration Fund, 1898); F. J. Bliss and R. A. S. Macalis- ter, Excavations in Palestine, i8g8-igoo (London: Palestine Explora- OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 131 tion Fund, 1902); E. Sellin, Tell-Ta'^anek (Vienna: Holder, 1904); G. Schumacher, Tell-el-Mutesellim (Leipzig: Haupt, 1908); R. A. S. Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer (London: Palestine Exploration Fund, 1912); Sellin und Watzinger, Jericho (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913); W. Nowack, Lehrhuch der hebraischen Archdologie (Leipzig: Mohr, 1894); I. Benzinger, Hebrdische Archdologie, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1907); R. Kittel, Studien zur hebrdischen Archdologie und Religions- geschichte (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908). History of the Semitic world. — A very important contribu- tion to the understanding of Hebrew history is obtained through the study of the history of the neighboring nations. First of all, the inscriptions of Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Persia, Moab, and Syria contain many references to Israel and Judah which substantiate, modify, correct, or help in the interpretation of the statements of the Old Testament itself. Literature. — The more important of these inscriptions will be found translated or interpreted in their bearing upon the Old Testament in the following books: George A. Barton, op. oil., pp. 235-443; R. W. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament (New York: Eaton & Mains, 191 2) ; S. A. B. Mercer, Extra-Biblical Sources for Hebrew and Jewish History (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1913); H. Gressmann, Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum Alien Testamente (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1909); J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906); C. H. W. Johns, The Oldest Code of Laws in the World (Edinburgh: Clark, 1903), and The Relations between the Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of the Hebrew Peoples (London: Oxford University Press, 1914); S. A. Cook, The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi (London: Black, 1903), R. F. Harper, The Code of Hammurabi (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1904); H. V. Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands during the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: Holman, 1903); E. Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 3d ed., by H. Zimmern und H. Winckler (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1902); L. W. King and H. R. Hall, Egypt and Western Asia in the Light of Recent Discoveries (London: Society for Promotion of Christian Knowl- edge, 1907); A. Jeremias, The Old Testament in the Light of the Ancient East (New York: Putnam, 1911); W. H. Bennett, The Moabite Stone (Edinburgh: Clark, 191 1); A. H. Sayce, Aramaic Papyri Discovered at Assuan (London: A. Noring, 1908); E. Sachau, Aramdische Papyrus 132 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION und Ostraka aus einer jildischen Militdrkolonie zu Elephantine (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1); A. Ungnad, Aramdische Papyrus aus Elephantine (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1); I!.d. Meyer, Der Papyrusf und von Elephantine (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 2). In addition to the concrete statements regarding Israel and Judah to be obtained from the inscriptions of neighboring peoples, the entire progress of their history must be con- sidered in its bearing upon Hebrew history. By geographical location the inhabitants of Palestine were the connecting link between the two great centers of civilization in the oriental world, viz., the valley of the Nile and that of the Euphrates. It was impossible for them to live an isolated life. They were of necessity involved in all the movements of the life of the Orient. Across their border marched and counter- marched the armies of the East, and their own fate lay in the hands of the great contenders for world-supremacy. The foreign policies of Egypt, of Syria, of Urartu, of Babylonia, of Assyria, and of Persia each in turn affected more or less pro- foundly the course of Hebrew history. We cannot under- stand the reign of King Hezekiah, for example, apart from an insight into the larger political field of Egypt and Western Asia. We get valuable light upon the series of events cul- minating in the Maccabean revolt and the full significance of that struggle as we view it in relation to the tangled politics of Egypt, of Syria, and of Rome. No important political or economic movement anywhere in the world of Egypt and Western Asia was without great significance for the Hebrew kingdoms. Not only in such external ways was Israel affected by the world about her. She was herself part and parcel of that world. The historian must fully recognize and give due weight to this fact. The Hebrews were Semites living among Semites. There is thus a very real sense in which the life of the entire Semitic world was one life. Its underlying currents, its dominating motives, its psychological reactions to the OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 133 phenomena of experience were throughout the length and breadth of that world fundamentally the same. To write the history of any one part of the Semitic world without con- stant reference to the life of the other parts would be as radically wrong as to attempt to obtain an intelligent under- standing of the history of the state of Massachusetts apart from a thorough knowledge of the history of the United States and of England. Yet the importance of this method of ap- proach to Hebrew history and its full significance are only just beginning to dawn upon Old Testament scholars. Literature on the history of the related peoples. — ^J. H. Breasted, A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, 2d. ed. (New York : Scribner, 1909) , and A History of the Ancient Egyptians (New York: Scribner, 1908) ; G. S. Goodspeed, A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians (New York: Scribner, 1902); R. W. Rogers, A History of Babylonia and Assyria, 6th ed. (New York: Abingdon Press, 191 5); J. Garstang, The Land of the Hittites (New York: Dutton & Co., 1910); P. S. P. Handcock, Mesopotamian Archaeology (New York: Macmillan, 1912); L. W. King, A History of Babylonia and Assyria, 2 vols, so far issued (New York: Stokes & Co., 191 5) ; Morris Jastrow, Jr., The Civili- zation of Babylonia and Assyria (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1915); Ed. Meyer, Geschichte des Alter tums, 2d ed. (Stuttgart : Cotta, 1909 ff.) ; H. R. Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Salami s (London: Methuen, 1913); C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, Israel. Seine Entwicklung ini Rahmen der Weltgeschichte (Tubingen: Mohr, 1911). Problems in Hebrew history. — The kind of problems that interest historians of the Hebrews at the present time may be indicated by a few examples. The Hebrew settlement in Canaan invites investigation. Conflicting views in the Old Testament raise questions regarding the manner and duration of the Hebrew entry. The likelihood of the JJabiri of the Tell-el-Amarna letters having been Hebrews, in a wider application of the name, involves the probability of their having been marauders in or invaders of Canaan in the fif- teenth century B.C. The stele of Merneptah places "Israel" 134 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION in Palestine about 1200 B.C. What relation did the Habiri and "Israel" of Palestine bear to the Jacob tribes in Egypt? Were they the same people or different branches of one and the same people? When did they first enter Canaan — at the time of the Hyksos invasion, or in the Amarna period, or at some other time? The results of excavation show no break in the culture of Canaan at any point in the early days. Was Israel's settlement there a peaceful one, not disturbing existing conditions ? Did the Israelites bring with them a culture so akin to that of Canaan as to make amalgamation easy and natural? Or did they come with everything to learn from the Canaanites, but in such relatively slight numbers and so gradually as to produce no appreciable effect upon the life of the times ? Another group of problems besets the return of Judah from exile in Babylon and the restoration of the Jewish community. Is the Chronicler's account in Ezra and Nehe- miah a wholly trustworthy one ? Was there the return of a large body of exiles about 536 B.C. ? To what extent did the Chronicler use '^ sources" in his record of these events, and to what extent did he write in independence of ''sources"? Which was the pioneer in the work of restoration, Ezra or Nehemiah ? Was the hostility of the Samaritans toward the Jews fundamentally on account of religious or political con- siderations ? Did the old breach between the North and South reassert itself here ? To what degree is the chronology of the Old Testament trustworthy? Checking it up where we have the data for testing it we seem forced to doubt its validity at many points. For example, the period from the Exodus to the laying of the foundation stone of Solomon's temple was, according to I Kings 6:1, 480 years. But the sum of the figures given in the Hexateuch, Judges, Samuel, and Kings for the same period is 550 years; and these figures do not include the days of Joshua, the elders who outlived Joshua, OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 135 Samuel, and Saul, which, if added, would bring the total up toward 650 years. The total of the reigns of the kings of Judah, from Athaliah to the sixth year of Hezekiah as given in Kings, is 165 years; the figures for the corresponding period in Israel are 144 years. The chronology of Hezekiah is in great confusion; according to II Kings 18:2, compared with 16:2, Ahaz was about nine years old when his son Hezekiah was born. Samaria fell in 721 B.C., the sixth year of Hezekiah, according to II Kings 18:9, 10, thus placing Hezekiah's accession in 727 or 726 B.C. Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, according to II Kings 18: 13; this places his accession in 715 or 714 B.C. Such problems call for the most careful and thoroughgoing application of historical method to the reconstruction of the history of the Hebrews. Intelligence of a high order and patience unlimited are requisite for the treatment of this great subject. There is opportunity here for almost unlimited work, and the reward, from the point of view of the genuine student, will certainly be commensurate with the labor involved. Books on Hebrew history. — ^J. Wellhausen, Prolegomena zur Geschichte Israels, 6th ed. (Berlin: Reimer, 1905; the EngHsh edition of this famous work is out of print) ; R. Kittel, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 2d ed. (Gotha: Perthes, 191 2; the EngHsh translation of the first edition, History of the Hebrews, was published by Williams & Norgate, of Lon- don, in 1895-96); H. P. Smith, Old Testament History (New York: Scribner, 1903) ; G. W. Wade, Old Testament History, 2d ed. (New York: Dutton, 1903); C. F. Kent, History of the Hebrew People and History of the Jewish People (New York: Scribner, 1896-99) ; B. Stade, Geschichte des Volkes Israel (Berlin: Grote, 1887); H.GMthe, Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1904); Ed. Meyer, Die Isra- eliten und ihre N achharstdmme (Halle: Niemeyer, 1906) ; W. H. Kosters, Die W iederherstellung Israels in der persischen Periode (Heidelberg: Hor- ning, 1895); Ed. Meyer, Die Entstehung des Judcnthums (Halle: Niemeyer, 1896); C. C. Torrey, Ezra Studies (Chicago: The Univer- sity of Chicago Press, 1910); C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, Israel. Seine Ent- wicklung im Rahmen der W eltgeschichte (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1). 136 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION V. THE RELIGION OF THE HEBREWS Religion and history. — The modern approach to the study of Hebrew religion has shown that that religion was just as truly a historical product as is the religion of any other people. The history is one of growth or development from a primitive type of thought and conduct to a relatively advanced and lofty type. Progress in religion went hand in hand with progress in culture. Jephthah in a primitive age sacrificed his daughter to please his God. A writer in the post-exilic age says: Wherewith shall I come before Yahweh and bow myself before the most high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old ? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? It has been told thee, 0 man, what is good. Yea, what does Yahweh require of thee, But to do justice and to love kindness, And to walk humbly with thy God? [Mic. 6:6-8]. David dreads expulsion from Israel as involving banishment from Yahweh (I Sam. 26:19, 20). A later ''David," living at the other end of the Hebrew career, says: Whither can I go from thy spirit ? And whither can I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. If I make Sheol my bed, lo — thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, And'dwell in the uttermost part of the sea; There also would thy hand lead me. And thy right hand hold me [Ps. 139:7-10]. The Second Commandment says that Yahweh is "a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and the fourth generation of them that hate" him. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 137 Ezekiel at the time of the Exile says, ''The soul that sinneth, it shall die: the son shall not bear the guilt of his father, neither shall the father bear the guilt of his son; the righteous- ness of the righteous shall be for himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself" (Ezek. 18:20). Such being the case, the study of Hebrew religion is in reality a part of the study of Hebrew history as a whole. It calls for the same preliminary processes in the treatment of the sources of information that any other historical investi- gation calls for (see pp. i2off.). The same sort of allowance must be made for the point of view and purpose of the writers, for their limitations, prejudices, and enthusiasms. It is also to be continually borne in mind that religion is one of the most conservative elements in civilization — that it tends to conserve and enshrine the old even long after the new has taken a place alongside it. Many a primitive religious idea or institution has persisted into modern times, sometimes with a change of function or significance that keeps it alive and effective, sometimes having lost all significance and become a mere matter of habit, sustained by the momentum of its long history. This will explain many an apparent inconsistency in the religious consciousness of later times. It also makes it possible to recover something of the more primitive religious mind from the religious practices of later generations. Religion and culture. — ^The effect of the political and eco- nomic history upon the content and development of the religious history must be carefully studied. If religion is one of the functions of culture, it must be studied in relation to all the other functions, if it is to be properly appreciated. Take the effect of the settlement in Canaan upon Hebrew religion as a case in point. The God-idea of the nomadic Israelites was wholly unfitted for the needs of a settled people. The God of the desert had been thought of as supplying all the needs of his people there. But a new kind of life confronted them in Canaan. Here they must become fanners and city-dwellers. 138 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Whole areas of new experience were opened out before them. They must learn new ways of living and they must learn to - associate their God with these new ways. The Canaanites were farmers and must be depended upon to teach their art to Israel. But the Canaanites were worshipers of the Baalim and organized all their agricultural life in connection with Baalistic rites. The Baalim were for them the lords of the soil and the givers of its fruits. Yahweh must displace the Baalim in these functions if he is to retain the loyalty of his people. He must become a farmer's God. This change of function on the part of Israel and Yahweh required much time. It was a life-and-death struggle for the religion of Israel, which ended in complete victory over the Baalim only after centuries of conflict; cf. Hos. 2 : 2-13. Another illustration of the dependence of religion upon history is at hand in the Hebrew teaching regarding the per- sonal responsibility of the individual to God for his own deeds. This teaching never received full recognition and distinct emphasis till the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Prior to that period the whole thought of the teachers of religion had concerned itself with the problems and duties of the nation as such. The future of the Kingdom of Yahweh was indissolubly bound up with the future of Israel. But at last it became clear to the religious guides of Israel that the nation as such was doomed. Was Yahweh therefore to be eliminated from history ? This led to a transfer of attention from the nation to the individuals of which it was composed, and to a recognition that the Kingdom of God must be set up in the hearts of the pious. Hence, Ezekiel takes upon himself the "cure of souls " and wrestles with the problems and doubts that disturb the faith of the men of his day. Through the experiences of those trying times he is brought to see that no man is condemned by Yahweh for sins committed by other men, and that no man's righteousness can be counted to the credit of another than himself. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 139 Isaiah and Micah interpret the invasion of Sennacherib as chastisement from Yahweh for Judah's sin and lack of faith. A later "Isaiah" kindles faith in the hearts of his despairing people by exalting Yahweh in his omnipotence and sole god- head, when his people are buried in exile, apparently having "no God, and without hope in the world." Habakkuk preaches the necessity of faith in God when all men's hearts are failing them for fear. The prophets as a whole make Yahweh the God of the world just when it seems inevitable that his own land will be overrun by the heathen. The rela- tion between religion and the larger life of the day was vital and must always be taken into account. Hebrew religion and Semitic religion. — Another aspect of the study of Hebrew religion is the relationship of the Hebrew to the oriental religions in general. We can no longer think of the religion of Israel as existing in a vacuum. The civili- zation of the Hebrews owed much to the Semitic world in which it was developed; we can safely say that there was little that was distinctively Hebraic in it. It was largely composed of the Semitic and non-Semitic cultures that surrounded Israel and were rooted in the very soil upon which she lived. If this be true, it is scarcely possible that the religion of Israel could have escaped some influence from the religions that were vital elements in these neighboring civilizations. The possibility becomes even more vague when we consider that not a single one of the great fundamental institutions of the Hebrew religion was exclusively Hebraic. Sacrifice, prayer, Sabbath, circumcision, clean and unclean, prophet, priest, temple, feasts, fasts — all these institutions were existent among other Semitic peoples and that, too, long before the Hebrew nation and people came into being. The latter did not create their religious institutions; they inherited them. This inher- itance carried with it a tremendous body of Semitic religion which became the substratum of Hebrew religion. In order to get a right historical view of the religion of the Old I40 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Testament, it is. incumbent upon the student to obtain some idea of the elements in it that were held in common with their Semitic ancestors and brethren, to trace their resem- blances, and to note their differences. When we discover, e.g., that in many cases precisely that which was "unclean" for the Hebrew was "taboo" for other peoples, we are on the way to a new understanding of "clean and unclean." When we note that circumcision was not an exclusively Hebraic rite, nor even confined to the Semites, but a practice in vogue among the most widely scattered peoples, from the North American Indian to the aborigines of Australasia, we approach the study of it in Israel with a wholly different mental attitude. When we learn that the root- word for "holy" is the same throughout the Semitic group of languages, and that in Assyrian, for example, it is used in one form to designate a "prostitute" or "harlot,"' we get a new point of view for the interpretation of the Hebrew word. Even prophecy, the crown and glory of Hebrew religion, was at home also in Syria, Assyria, and Egypt. It is gradually appearing that messianic prophecy had very close parallels in Assyria and Egypt, and it is by no means unlikely that the messianism of Israel received some of its coloring and content from one or the other of these sources. Facts like these force upon the student the obligation to study the religion of the Old Testament from the comparative standpoint. It was not a thing apart; it was a religion among religions; it was one of a great family of religions. It exhibits strong family resemblances; but it also is marked by distinctly individual characteristics. Both alike must ' This is accounted for by the fact that the religion of Assyria found place for the practice of prostitution as a sacrificial honor to the gods, the givers of life. Being thus incorporated in the worship and attached to the shrines, the harlot was a "holy" person. There was evidently no thought of moral purity in the word at this stage. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 141 be investigated. The differences will appear all the more wonderful when they are seen against the background of so many and such great resemblances. Problems in the study of Hebrew religion. — The modern student finds the study of the religion of the Hebrews bristling with problems which invite attention. For example, when did monotheism succeed in establishing itself firmly in Israel, and when was it first formulated ? Was it arrived at through a process of speculative thought, as in Egypt in the days of Amenophis IV, or was it attained as the result of ethical necessity ? That is to say, did the Hebrews formulate mono- theism in response to the demand for an ethical interpretation of the world to which such a doctrine seemed indispensable ? Was any impetus toward monotheism received from Baby- lonia, Assyria, or Egypt, or was it a purely native product ? Again, how is the marvelous ethical superiority of Israel's religion to be accounted for? Was it a gift from above, unmediated by human instrumentalities? If not, what ele- ments in the environment and history of Israel contributed to this development? Were these elements present or absent from the experiences of the related peoples ? Are we content to say that the Hebrews had a special and innate affinity for ethics even as, according to some historians, the Greeks had for aesthetics? Cannot practically every Hebrew ethical ideal and precept be paralleled in the ethical teachings of the neighboring peoples? If so, wherein precisely does the ethical superiority of Israel consist ? Yet again, the tendency of critical scholarship has been to place practically all the eschatological writings of the Old Testament in the exilic or post-exilic age. Is this procedure valid? Or is it better, with some recent scholars, to make eschatology antedate the whole prophetic movement and to see in the prophetic promises and threats merely an ethicizing of older eschatological ideas belonging to a more or less general Semitic world- view ? That is, did Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and 142 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION their successors simply take over already existing non- ethical conceptions regarding national disaster or deliverance and world-catastrophe and read into them great ethical lessons, making effective homiletical use of them for the religious education of Israel? The development of Hebrew law is likewise a subject that calls for fresh examination. The historical school of inter- pretation has arranged the codes in this order: (i) Covenant Code, (2) Deuteronomy, (3) Holiness Code, (4) Priestly Code. With this arrangement has gone the tacit assumption that the last two codes at least were composed almost entirely of new laws, formulated in the days of the Exile and the following centuries. But we are now asking whether it is not more probable that very much of the content of these later codes was in existence and in use at the various shrines quite early in Hebrew history. Some of the laws in these two codes are obviously late; but are they all necessarily equally late? Is it not probable that much of the law and custom of Israel escaped formal literary revision until a relatively late period, when the aggressive priestly scribes laid hands upon the whole religious life of Israel and set their seal indelibly thereon ? Finally, the influences and elements that entered into the composition of Judaism need closer definition. How much was the later legislation influenced by Babylonian law and ritual, either in the way of direct imitation and emulation or by way of reaction and protest ? What did Persian views contribute toward Jewish religious thought, especially in the realms of demonology, angelology, and eschatology? Did Greek philosophy either directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, shape the thought of the Hebrew sages ? Literature on Hebrew religion. — General: H. Preserved Smith, The Religion of Israel: An Historical Study (New York: Scribner 19 14); J. P. Peters, The Religion oj the Hebrews (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1914); K. Marti, The Religion oj the Old Testament: Its Place among the Religions OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 143 of the nearer East (New York: Putnam, 1907); K. Budde, The Religion oj Israel to the Exile (New York: Putnam, 1899); T. K. Cheyne, Jewish Religious Life after the Exile (New York: Putnam, 1898); B. Stade und A. Bertholet, Bihlische Theologie des Alien Testaments, 2 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1905-11); R. Smend, Lehrhuch der alttestamentlichen Religions geschichte, 2d. ed. (Leipzig: Mohr, 1899); E. Kautzsch, Biblische Theologie des Alien Testaments^ (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1); B. Baentsch, Altorientalischer und israelitischer Monotheismus (Tubingen: Mohr, 1905) ; E. Sellin, Die alttestamentliche Religion im Rahmen der andern altorientalischen (Leipzig: Deichert, 1908); E. Konig, Geschichte der alttestamentlichen Religion {Giitersloh: Bertelsmann, 1912); J. Hehn, Biblische und babylonische Gottesidee (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913); H. G. Mitchell, The Ethics of the Old Testament (Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1912); W. F. Bade, The Old Testament in the Light of To-Day (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915); A. C. Welch, The Religion of Israel under the Kingdom (Edinburgh: Clark, 1912); W. H. Bennett, The Religion of the Post-exilic Prophets (Edinburgh: Clark, 1907) ; H. Wheeler Robinson, The Religious Ideas of the Old Testament (New York: Scribner, 19 13). Prophetic: C. H. Cornill, The Prophets of Israel (Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1901); J. M. Powis Smith, The Prophet and His Prob- lems (New York: Scribner, 1914); L. W. Batten, The Hebrew Prophet (New York: Macmillan, 1905); W. R. Smith, The Prophets of Israel, 2d ed. (London: Black, 1896); E. Sellin, Der alttestamentliche Prophetis- mus (Leipzig: Deichert, 1912); H. Gressmann, Der Ursprung der israelitisch-judischen Eschatologie (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Rup- recht, 1905); M. Friedlander, Griechische Philosophie im Allen Testa- ment (Berlin: Reimer, 1904); J. Koberle, Siinde und Gnade im religiosen Leben des Volkes Israel bis auf Christum (Munich: Beck, 1905); H. Gressmann, Mose und seine Zeit (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht 1913)- Semitic: W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, 2d ed. (London: Black, 1894); J. Wellhausen, Reste des arabischen Heiden- thums, 2d ed. (Berhn: Reimer, 1897); J. H. Breasted, The Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (New York: Scribner, 1912); M. Jastrow, Jr., Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens (Giessen: Ricker, 1905-13; greatly expanded from the English edition published by Ginn & Co., Boston, 1898); R. W. Rogers, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1908); M. Jastrow, Jr., 'A translation and revision of the article "Religion of Israel," in Has- tings' Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. V. 144 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Aspects of the Religion of Babylonia and Assyria (New York: Putnam, 191 1), and Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions (New York: Scribner, 1914); A. Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London: Constable, 1907). VI. THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT THE CANON The extraordinary value of the writings composing the Old Testament was very early recognized. A process of official recognition and standardization of the literature was begun when the priests in Josiah's day secured the royal approval and public indorsement of the Deuteronomic Code of law (II Kings, chaps. 22, 23). Another long step and in the same direction was taken in the days of Ezra and Nehe- miah, when a new edition of the law received the stamp of pubHc acceptance (Neh., chap. 8). The end toward which it all aimed was the erection of a Canon of Scripture. Canoni- zation itself was not a single act but a long-drawn-out process. The precise time of its beginning has not been determined; but the prologue to the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach ( = Ecclesi- asticus) furnishes clear evidence that the Law and the Prophets were regarded as canonical before 200 B.C., and that the formation of the third division of the Canon, viz., the Writings, had already begun at that time. 'Like uncertainty obtains regarding the date of the completion of the process of canoniza- tion. It seems safe to infer from the existing evidence that the entire Canon of the Old Testament was completed before the Christian era. In any case, the question of the Canon was taken up for discussion and settled by the Jewish Synod of Jamnia, which convened about 90 a.d., and decided in favor of the retention in the Canon of all books that had thus far been included. Problems in the history of canonization. — Many questions regarding canonization still remain unanswered. At what time did the Canon of the Law close? Just when did the OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 145 Canon of the Prophets close ? How much longer did the Canon of the Writings remain open ? What considerations led to the inclusion or exclusion of a book from the Canon ? What did canonization involve? Were canonized books immune to all further editorial modification ? What were the contents of the so-called Alexandrine Canon? How did the theory of the Hellenistic Jews regarding the Canon differ from that of the Palestinian Jews ? Why does the Protestant Canon not include the apocryphal books recognized by the Roman Catholic Carton? Must the decision of past generations of the Christian church regarding the relative values of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha be binding upon the conscience and judgment of the present day ? Does the canonization of a writing make it of any more intrinsic value to the mind and heart of the individual reader ? Are not some of the Apocrypha more conducive to edification than some of the canonical books of the Old Testament ? Literature on the Canon. — F. Buhl, Canon and Text of the Old Testa- ment (Edinburgh: Clark, 1892); W. R. Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: Black, 1895); H. E. Ryle, The Canon of the Old Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1892); K. Budde, Der Kanon des Alten Testaments (Giessen: J. Ricker, 1900); G. Wilde- boer, The Origin of the Canon of the Old Testament (London: Luzac, 1895) ; W. H. Green, General Introduction to the Old Testament Canon (New York: Scribner, 1899); A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Divine Library of the Old Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1891). HISTORY OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT The fact of canonization carried with it a heavy increment of sanctity and authority to the writings thus exalted. These passed on to later generations with credentials that could not be lightly regarded, much less ignored. Bringing such weighty indorsement, they had to be utilized in the religious education of the church. The record of the way in which they were used by the successive generations of believers 146 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION is one full of interest and significance. One system of inter- pretation after another has come to the fore, held the center of the stage for a while, and finally retired, yielding its place to its successor. The New Testament interpretation of the Old Testament is of especial interest, contrasting as it does the rabbinical exegesis of most of the writers of the New Testament with the saner and sounder methods of Jesus, though the latter, if his attitude is correctly represented in the gospels, is not wholly free from rabbinical influence himself. Among the more prominent schools of exegetical method have been the literalistic, the allegorical and spiritual, the typological and mystical, the dogmatic, and, in later times particularly, the grammatical and historical. The bane of practically all the older exegesis was, that it read into the text of the Old Testament the ideas and ideals of the inter- preters themselves. Whatever the method of interpretation adhered to, the interpreter felt himself under obligation to obtain from the words of the Old Testament, of whatever character the passage treated might be, some message "for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- eousness." He always took it for granted that the Old Testa- ment was written throughout from the point of view of the needs of men in all times. Consequently that method of inter- pretation was the most successful which secured the most moral and religious stimulus and instruction from any given passage. For a brief sketch of the history of interpretation, see G. H. Gilbert, Interpretation of the Bible (New York: Macmillan, 1908). For earlier points of view, compare F. W. Farrar, The History of Interpretation (New York: Dutton, 1886), and C. A. Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New York: Scribner, 1899), chap, xviii. THE VALUE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT In the light of the modern historical method of interpreta- tion the question of the value of the Old Testament calls for a fresh examination of the evidence. The kind of answers OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 147 that satisfied former generations of Bible students may not be acceptable to modern students. We approach the Old Testa- ment with different presuppositions and with different expectations; or, rather, we try to bring to its interpretation no presuppositions nor expectations. We merely seek to discover what the writers of the Old Testament had to say. Having learned that, we weigh their utterances in the scales of critical judgment, for the purpose of estimating their value. The contribution of the Old Testament to religious education, aside from its value as a source of philological, historical, archaeological, sociological, and ethnological information, is chiefly in three directions, viz., (i) to the interpretation of the New Testament, (2) to the content and method of systematic theology, and (3) to the instruction and edification of the reli- gious life. The Old Testament in relation to the New. — Every properly trained student of the New Testament at the present time recognizes that the methodology of study worked out by Old Testament scholarship and the point of view there ob- tained must be made operative also in the New Testament. For a certain time after the historico-critical method had estab- lished itself as legitimate and indispensable in the interpre- tation of the Old Testament many scholars failed to realize the necessity of carrying it over into the New. The full application of the method in the study of the New Testa- ment has as yet been made by but few. But that the New Testament may not exempt itself from the same kind of thoroughgoing treatment that has been applied to the Old is now generally recognized. From the point of view of the need of acquiring a right standpoint and methodology for his New Testament work a student makes no mistake in securing a preliminary training in the interpretation of the Old Testament. In addition to its value for training in method the study of the Old Testament is an indispensable element in any 148 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION preparation for the interpretation of the New, because of the genetic relationship between the two. The rehgion of the New Testament is but the finest product and ultimate realization of the ideals of the Old Testament. The New cannot be understood apart from a sympathetic and appreciative acquaintance with the contents and character of the Old. Old Testament phrases and thoughts abound in its pages. Such books as Hebrews and Revelation simply overflow with Old Testament terminology, archaeology, theology, and escha- tology. The Old Testament was the only Bible of Jesus and of the writers of the New Testament. Their minds were saturated with it and their thinking shaped by it. The New Testament is the continuation of the Old, and those scholars who insist that the two must be studied together, that there is no legitimate line of demarkation between the Old Testa- ment and the New, but that the New is the completion of the Old, are not to be lightly set aside. In the words of a recent writer: The Old Testament .... affords the presuppositions that are indispensable to apprehend the character of Christ. It is the Old Testa- ment rehgion that Christ came to fulfil. It is as necessary to understand what the material was which Christ completed as the method of his completion It is as impossible, therefore, to understand the purpose and spirit of Jesus, without something of his reverence for the Old Testament and something of his intimacy with it, as it would be to understand a proposed amendment to a constitution without a knowl- edge of the original constitution, or to comprehend an advanced course in physics without studying the elementary laws of heat and light. The most fatal misapprehensions of Jesus are those that fail to see the spirit of the Old Testament in all his ideas and deeds. ^ The Old Testament and systematic theology. — It will probably have become quite evident, to those who have read the foregoing pages, that we need not expect the Old Tes- tament to furnish the systematic theologian ready-made doctrines with which he may build up his system. We have ' A. W. Vernon, Religious Value of the Old Testament, pp. 66 f . OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 149 outgrown the period when the content of systematic theology was supposed to be furnished by bibHcal theology. The fact is that the historical study of the Old Testament does not deliver to us any product which we can properly label Old Testament theology. The Old Testament is the fragmentary record of a growing religious life. Changing environment, growing experience, the coming and going of towering personalities, kept Israel's life from becoming fixed and rigid. No two centuries pre- sented the same type of religious thought and experience. But theology and religious experience are, or at least ought to be, inseparably related. So the ever-changing experience involved an ever-changing theology. The seeker after an Old Testament theology is therefore embarrassed by a superfluity of riches. He finds not one, but many theologies. He may, e.g., speak of the theology of Amos, or of Isaiah, or of Ezekiel, or he may group certain personalities and formu- late a theology of the eighth century B.C., or of the Exile. But he may not group them all into one Old Testament theology, for the differences, yea, contradictions, render such a step impossible. Nor may he select the best features from the various periods and weave them into a harmonious whole. The result would be an eclectic theology derived from the Old Testament, but not an Old Testament theology; it would be an abstract, imaginary thing that never had any historic existence or value. Nor may he even take the theology of the last days of the Old Testament period and say, "This is the typical Old Testament theology; this is the ripe fruitage of the whole process of growth; it is the end, the purpose, of the whole theological development of the Hebrews, and so may be taken as fitly representing the Old Testament point of view and contribution to theological science." Such a method would give only a partial presenta- tion of the theological teachings of the Old Testament. For the theology of the last days did not, as a matter of fact, take I50 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION up into itself all the good of the preceding ages, no matter how- generous we may be in our attitude toward the literary and religious activities of the post-exilic age. It appears then that Old Testament science is not now, nor ever will be, in a position to present to the systematic theologian a scheme of Old Testament theology which he may accept or reject in whole or in part according as it meets or fails to meet his systematic needs. Old Testament science, with all of its departments, belongs in the category of his- torical disciplines. Old Testament theology must give way to Religionsgeschichte. It is from this point of view only that we may consider its relation to systematic theology. The adoption of this conception of the Old Testament as the register of a series of historical permutations of life and thought carries with it a total abandoment of the conception of an external, mechanical authority to be exercised arbitrarily over the thoughts of men. Such authority as inheres in the Old Testament will now be seen to be conditioned solely upon the existence in the Old Testament of great truths which appeal with compelling force to the mind and conscience of man. It is as the repository of such self-authenticating truth as needs no factitious support of any kind that the Old Testament must appeal alike to the religious man and to the systematic theologian. The Old Testament is thus a sourcebook for the theologian. Theology may ignore no phase of human experience from the beginning of human history. It must take into account all known facts of both past and present. The Old Testament's value for theology lies in the fact that it is the record of an especially illuminating section of the religious history of our race. In that period were wrought out the foundations of much of the religious thought of our day. We understand the nature and value of the ideas and institutions of our own religious life the better for being able to trace their origin and growth. A satisfactory theology must root itself deeply in OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 151 the experience of former generations as well as in that of contemporaries. Here the Old Testament aids the theologian. It does not in any sense stand as dictator over his utterances, but, like other tributary disciplines, it offers him free use of all its stores. The Old Testament and vital religion. — It is unnecessary here to emphasize the great contribution of the Old Testa- ment to moral and religious character-building, a contribution much of which lies upon the surface and is thus within the reach of every reader. The great sermons of the prophets, the spiritual longings and ideals of the Psalter, the sound maxims of the sages — these have always wrought mightily in the experience of men for good, no matter what method of interpretation was for the time being in control. But it may be well here to call attention to a phase or two of the religious value of the Old Testament that are not so commonly recog- nized. Its attitude toward truth. — One of the most significant things in the Old Testament is the attitude toward truth therein reflected. The Old Testament worthies respected the past; yea, reverenced it. They never tired of reference to it. They gloried in their history; it was to them a never- failing fount of information and inspiration. They never dreamed of such a thing as ignoring their traditions. They could not and would not make an absolute break with the accumulated experience of preceding centuries. But, on the other hand, they did not blindly worship the past. They did not allow it to take such complete possession of them as to render them incapable of appreciating the present or of mak- ing progress toward the future. They valued the past for what it had to teach them about God and about life; but they never regarded it as being the repository of all knowledge or the full and complete guidebook for all time to come. Their attitude, indeed, was quite the reverse; it was one of expecta- tion, anticipation, hope. They were ever looking eagerly, 152 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION longingly, confidently, for new light to flash forth from above. They were decidedly receptive toward new ideas. They did not attempt to open "the future's golden portals with the past's blood-rusted key." The history of Hebrew literature clearly demonstrates this. It is a history of revisions. New editions of the old truths were constantly in demand. We have only to call to mind the three great editions of the Hebrew law, each of them prac- tically a rewriting of the old lawbook. Between these great editions there was constantly going on a process of correction and expansion in preparation for a new code. All this was in response to the growth of knowledge and to the ever-changing needs of the time. The law of Israel was not the cold, dead thing that it is so commonly conceived to have been ; it was a vital organism, in closest touch with the growing life of the nation. It was not too sacred and holy for the touch of human hands. Its promoters never conceived of it as having reached the stage of finality. It grew under their hands up to the very last. There were not wanting men who even dared to look forward to the time when the written law would be outgrown, a thing of the past, having fully accomplished its mission — ^and all this notwithstanding the fact that they held it to be a revelation from God. They knew better than to think that the revelation of one age could satisfy the needs of every age. Each age must have its own revelation from God. Jesus did but reincarnate the old spirit of Israel's best thinkers when he dared to set aside certain phases of the law of Moses and to substitute for them great, far-reaching principles of truth and right. The same spirit of independence and progress is manifested in the prophets, and even to a greater degree than in the law. The very foundation of prophecy lay in the conviction that God was ever ready to speak to his children, that he had not yet exhausted his message to Israel. Consequently, with every fresh crisis in the history of Israel there appeared great OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 153 prophets with the necessary message from God. They con- ceived it to be their task to interpret the world as they found it, and not as their fathers or grandfathers had known it. They utilized the experience of the past for the interpretation of the present; but ear and eye were ever open and alert for the divine message in the new, in the experiences of today. In ethical and theological ideas growth was manifested and progress was made; so that, at the end, the religion of Israel was immeasurably richer and more spiritual than it was at the beginning. The religion of Israel was not a static thing, but a dynamic spirit. It was not a gift from above, bestowed upon Israel at the beginning of her career to be carefully treasured in earthen vessels. Nor was it a series of gifts, imparted from time to time in some way wholly unrelated to the natural and normal life of the people. It was an achieve- ment, wrought out with heroic faith and courage and mar- velous persistence. Israel was girded for this task in no way that was not available to her fellow-workers in that age or to her successors in the present age. The story of her religious progress is not one of unbroken success and steady advance. She labored under the same limitations that beset religious men today. She encountered the same opposition and was subjected to the same sorts of temptation and trial. The whole record is intensely human and, for that reason, intensely interesting. Her good men did not always think alike or feel alike. Radical differences of opinion at times separated her prophets and saints in hostile camps. There was no royal road to truth and power in Israel. The men of Israel had to struggle toward the truth and to agonize for it even as men must now. There is no discharge from that war. It is man's heritage. The task of faith.— Nor was the task of faith any easier then than now. The Hebrew faith insisted that godhness ought to be profitable for all things. Prosperity and piety were almost interchangeable terms. But the actual facts of 154 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION experience seemed to contradict such doctrine at every turn. The national history is one of successive disasters. The greater nations of the Orient, one after another, conquered and exploited Israel. The people of Yahweh were almost con- tinuously trodden under the foot of the Gentiles. The more zealously Israel strove to please her God the less did he seem to do for her. No severer test of faith than this could have been devised. But Israel held fast to her God. Forced to abandon hope of reUef in the present dispensation she took refuge in the thought of a new dispensation. The nation's goal of faith became the establishment of a messianic kingdom upon earth. This expectation involved the coming of a golden age comparable to that once represented by the Garden of Eden. All the wrongs of the present were to be righted in the new world; and Israel, the chosen people, was to be exalted to the place of honor and power, as the representative of God upon earth. It was almost tantamount to saying that, in the messianic age, all conditions would be exactly the reverse of what they were in the historical Israel. But the time of the fulfilment of this dream was continually deferred. Out of what looked like the national grave Ezekiel saw clearly the coming of the longed-for kingdom and went so far as to prepare an outline of the regulations that should control its work and worship. The Isaiah of the Exile saw the dawn of the messianic age upon the horizon when Cyrus started his career of conquest. When the Persian Empire was shaken to its foundations upon the death of Cambyses, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were certain that Yahweh was about to intervene and to introduce the messianic kingdom. They were so sure of this that they confidently identi- fied Zerubbabel as the expected Messiah. This hope was again aroused by the personality and work of Nehemiah, whom some declared to be the Messiah. So Israel went on from age to age believing in God, surviving shock after shock of disappointment and disillusionment, and. OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 155 through this severe process of training, coming ever into a clearer and better conception of God. Theological dogmas were modified or abandoned in order to make place for new ones; but through it all faith endured. The trial and triumph of faith as it affects the life and religion of the indi- vidual are depicted with marvelous skill in the Book of Job. This affords us a view of the kind of problem that was of vital importance in the Hebrew religious experience and of the unflinching courage and of the loyalty to truth, to facts, and to God of which the Hebrews were capable. Their religion was not a gift; it was a prize. They fought for it; they suffered for it; they died. But through their struggle, endurance, and death they have incalculably enriched the religious life of all ages. The record of this great religious experience was written for our learning. That experience was wrought out under ordinary conditions, such as are common to men. The Hebrews were given no extraordinary or abnormal aids or advantages not within the reach of other men, then as now. God did not show favor toward them in any such way as to render them exempt from the temptations, weaknesses, fail- ures, and sins that beset us all. Nor were they endued with power or grace that was not accessible to other men. Having the same opportunities and being possessed of the same facul- ties as other men, no more and no less, the Hebrew prophets and saints threw themselves heart and soul into the task of interpreting the world about them in terms of God. The Old Testament is the record of their success. Vitality of Hebrew religion. — This means that the Old Testament has become for us, as compared with our ancestors, a more human document, and consequently a more helpful one. It has become, that is to say, more definitely applicable to the conditions of modern life. We learn from its pages how the Hebrews wrought out their own salvation. In this record of their religious experience we have the story of the making 156 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of a religion. The thousand-year-long process is portrayed before our eyes. It reveals much of inestimable value to the historical student of religion. The Hebrew religion was always "in the making"; it was never a finished product. Each generation exercised the right to make its religion for itself. Not that they started out afresh each time by casting overboard all the accumulations of preceding generations, but they did not hesitate to "prove all things" in order that they might "hold fast that which was good." They changed their theology from time to time; they reorganized their religious institutions as changing circumstances and changing views required ; they accepted materials from every hand and used them for the enrichment of their religious faith and hope. They were never satisfied with present attainments. They were constantly striving toward something better. In spite of reaction and relapse they persisted in pushing forward. They were by no means making a religion to order for later generations; they were rather making one for themselves, something to live by as they went along. What they had to do every age has to do for itself. They made their religion in the full light of history. They made it out of their daily experiences in the great currents of the world's life. A vital religion is always in the making; it is never made. Satis- faction with present achievement spells death here as else- where. Religion is under the same law as every other product of the human spirit. We too must interpret our own world religiously; we must be making our own religion. We may learn from the successes of the Hebrews and profit by their failures. The words of Matthew Arnold on the relation of modern poetry to that of the ancients apply with special force here: "The present has to make its own poetry, and not even Sophocles and his compeers, any more than Dante and Shakespere, are enough for it. That I will not dispute. But no other poets so well show to the poetry of the present the OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 157 way it must take."^ No matter how much we may learn from Israel, we cannot rest content with that. We cannot shirk the task of making a religion for ourselves. Ready-made religion, from whatever age it may come to us, will not fit our spiritual needs, however well it may have fitted the age in which it originated. The twentieth-century world needs a twentieth-century religion, and it is part of its task to make that religion for itself. The Hebrews, with far less of inherited privilege and edu- cational and social opportunity than we, carried the torch of truth and piety far up the heights. Material civilization and culture have moved far since their day and are still advanc- ing with giant strides. Religion and morality too, upon the basis of the achievements of the Hebrews, have added greatly to their attainments. But progress cannot cease at any point if religion is to remain a vital force in the lives of men. As long as progress is characteristic of other phases of human activity, religion too must grow. It cannot remain static while all else is dynamic. "An unchangeable Christianity would mean the end of Christianity itself. There has never been such an unchangeable Christianity and never can be so long as it belongs genuinely to history."^ It is the task of the leaders of the religious life of today to see to it that the religion they teach and embody shall be one suited to the needs of the modern world. If they can meet the demands of the present age, the future may be trusted to look out for itself. If they serve their day and generation faithfully according to the will of God, they will hand on the heritage to their successors with some increment of truth and power. An inspiration to the modern minister. — The modern atti- tude toward the Old Testament brings to the true preacher a sense of freedom and the realization of a creative opportunity. ' From the closing paragraph of the essay on The Pagan and the Christian Sentiment. = Ernst Troeltsch in American Journal of Theology, XVII (January, 1913), 21. 158 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION He discovers himself to be in the hne of the prophetic suc- cession, at least, even if he dare not lay claim to "apostolic succession." He is released from the necessity of merely repeating, in parrot fashion, the mes'sages of men long since dead. His work is at once seen to be of the same kind as that of his great prophetic predecessors. They had no Bible from which they must preach or from which they might learn. Equipped with a knowledge of a few traditions regarding their people's history, they studied closely the social and political conditions of their times and poured forth words of scathing denunciation of wrong, or glowing assurances of Yahweh's purpose to deliver, as the situation might demand. They preached to the people of their own day and about the things in which the nation was most deeply concerned. They applied their highest ideals of religion and ethics to every phase of contemporary life. When Jerusalem was split into contending political parties, one pro-Assyrian and another pro-Egyptian, Isaiah preached on politics. When the rich were grinding the face of the poor and swallowing up widows' houses, men like Amos and Micah became the champions of the poor and preached social justice. Such men did not frit- ter away their time upon the exposition of abstract and dead issues nor upon the contemplation of iridescent dreams. They used the raw materials of contemporary life in the structure of their religion. They were not content with pointing out the dealings of God with past generations nor with dwelling upon his purpose for the future; but they took the events and movements of their own day and gave them religious significance. Hence their words have great and im- perishable value for all time, not because they set out to write great books, but because, being great men, they grappled fearlessly and effectively with the real problems of their own day. The history of Greece and Rome furnishes us a familiar analogy here. A well-known classical scholar, speaking of the new education, has said: OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL 159 I have tarried a moment with the ancients, instead of beginning much later in the history of Europe, expressly to suggest that the best things in ancient literature were not written solely from the artistic, but often from the social motive as well. Letters, and originally men of letters, were not sundered from public life, but actively contributed to it. If the classics have molded later history, it is not merely because of their great qualities as literature, but because they are involved in the history of their own times.' It is such wrestling with the social, political, and religious problems of one's age that makes intellectual, moral, and religious fiber strong. No greatness ever came as the result of a mere slavish doing over again of the things that have already been done, or of a thinking over again of the thoughts that have already been thought.^ It is always in some degree the application of the old idea to a new situation in a vital way that makes the old idea into something new and great. The prophets sought all the light the past had to shed upon their task. But they gave themselves primarily and with open minds to the study of their own times. The evils and errors of their contemporaries they undertook to detect and correct. It was their unselfish and untrammeled devotion to the tasks of their own day that made them great and resulted in a literature that is an object of admiration and a fountain of inspiration to all thoughtful men. The Old Testament prophets are a worthy example and inspiration for the modern preacher. They call him to the* exercise of his highest function. They would not justify him, indeed, in ignoring the wisdom and experience of the past; but they urge upon him the duty and privilege of utilizing the past for the illumination of the present. They indicate to him that his task is to study the conditions of his ' Professor E. K. Rand, of Harvard, in Latin and Greek in American Educa- tion, edited by F. Kelsey (New York: Macmillan, 191 1), p. 262. ' Cf. the words of E. A. Ross, in The Changing Chinese (191 1), p. 54, regarding the intellectual sterility of the Chinese: "As well expect an apple tree to blossom in October as expect genius to blossom among people convinced that the perfection of wisdom had been granted to the sages of antiquity." i6o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION own day and to address himself to the betterment of those conditions in the fear of God and of none other. The proph- ets, living in a small world, made a great religion. We live in a world immeasurably greater than that of the prophets' thought. Our God is the God of a boundless universe. Is our religion proportionately greater ? Have we made a place in our religion for every remotest comer and every hidden force and inexplicable power of this universe? Have we succeeded in adjusting our thought of God to our expanding world, as the Hebrews were able to enlarge their thought, which carried Yahweh along from the most restricted begin- nings until he became the God of the whole known world ? What was it that made the prophets so strong and fearless in the execution of their commission? Their reliance upon God. They were ever conscious of his presence in his world. They saw proof of his activity on every hand, in the phe- nomena of nature and in the course of history. They con- ceived of him as seeking to make known his will to man. They thought of themselves as his mouthpiece. As the spokesmen of God they could not keep silent when his will clamored for utterance. "The Lord hath spoken; who can but prophesy?" Some such consciousness of God and of working together with God is indispensable to the true preacher in whatever age he may appear. A preacher not conscious of fellowship with the God of the universe has no message for this age; the age cries out for God. The man who can make God seem real and can acquit himself as a man of God will never lack a hearing, though his way may be a via dolorosa. The church needs leaders. The record of Israel's leaders is a splendid challenge to the men of today. It appeals to all that is highest and holiest in the one ambitious to ''do great things for God." Israel's saints expected great things from God, but received greater thmgs than those for which they hoped. Coveting position and power for their nation among the OLD TESTAMENT AND RELIGION OF ISRAEL i6i nations of the world, they received instead exalted purity of thought, magnificent ethical passion, and a depth of spiritual insight that have made the whole world their debtors. If the men of this and succeeding generations, following the example of their Hebrew predecessors, will become the fearless spokes- men and champions of a virile and spiritually progressive Christianity, it is, perhaps, not too much to hope that the religion of the not-far-distant future will be as much greater than, and different from, that of today as present religion differs from, and is greater than, the Judaism of post-exilic Israel. Literature on the religious value of the Old Testament. — A. W. Ver- non, The Religious Value of the Old Testament in the Light of Modern Scholarship (New York: Crowell & Co., 1907); M. Dods, The Bible — Its Origin and Nature (New York: Scribner, 1905); W. G. Jordan, Biblical Criticism and Modern Thought. Or the Place of the Old Testament Documents in the Life of Today (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1909); G. A. Smith, Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament (New York: Armstrong & Son, 1901); J. E. McFadyen, The Old Testa- ment and the Christian Church (New York: Scribner, 1903); W. N. Clarke, Sixty Years with the Bible (New York: Scribner, 1909); A. S. Peake, The Bible, Its Origin, Its Significance and Its Abiding Worth (New York: George H. Doran Co., 1913); W. C. Selleck, The New Appreciation of the Bible (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1907) ; C. F. Kent, The Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament (New York: Scribner, 1906); L. W. Batten, The Old Testament from the Modern Point of View (New York: E. S. Gorham, 1901); W. R. Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, 2d ed. (London: A. & C. Black, 1895). IV. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT By ERNEST DeWITT BURTON Professor and Head of the Department of New Testament Literature and Interpretation, The University of Chicago AND EDGAR JOHNSON GOODSPEED Professor of Biblical and Patristic Greek, The University of Chicago. ANALYSIS PAGES Introduction 165-174 I. The Books of the New Testament and Their Interpretation. — I. The general nature of the interpretative process. — 2. The environ- ment of early Christianity. — 3. The occasion and purpose of the several books. — 4. The acquisition of the language of the New Testament. — 5. The criticism of the text. — 6. The interpretation of the books 174-220 II. The History of the New Testament in the Christian Church. — I. The history of interpretation and criticism. — 2. The history of the Canon 220-228 III. The Use of the New Testament at the Present Day. — i. For purposes of history.— 2. For systematic theology and ethics. — 3. For the cultivation of personal character. — 4. For religious teaching and preaching 228-238 ■ Note. — Of the foregoing the Introduction, I, i, 2, 4, 6, and III are by Professor Burton. 1, 3, 5, and II are by Professor Goodspeed. IV. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT introduction: general purpose and scope of new testament study I. The purpose and general character of New Testament Study. — The purposes for which the New Testament is legitimately studied are many, but they may be compre- hensively stated as two — the intellectual and the religious. Men come to it to get knowledge or to get help for the better Hving of their Hves as religious men. But these two purposes again blend into one another. One may conceivably acquire knowledge — geographical, archaeological, historical, or doc- trinal— without any religious benefit. But normally at least one can gain no religious benefit except through the medium of an intellectual process. It is through the ideas that come to us from the New Testament that we gain spiritual benefit, and it is with these ideas that New Testament study has directly to do. But we may seek ideas from the New Testament along several different lines and by several different methods. We may conceivably treat the New Testament as a book of magic and seek to discover in it sentences which, regardless of their original connection or meaning, shall give guidance in the per- plexities of Hfe. We may think of it as furnishing a program of the future and seek from it to write history before the fact. We may come to it as to a source-book of ethics, culling from it its moral maxims and constructing them into a code, or of theology, and endeavor from its utterances to construct a system of Christian thought. The tendency of recent years, however, is to emphasize the historical aspect of New Testament study. And this seems to be right. For, in the first place, interpretation, by 165 1 66 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION / which alone we obtain the ideas of the New Testament, is itself a historical process. Its comprehensive question is, What thought did the writer of the book have in his mind and by his book endeavor to express ? The answer to this question is that he thought thus and so, and this fact that he so thought is a fact of history, as much so as the date of a battle or the name of a king. Secondly, all the processes that are contributory to interpretation are themselves in the field of historical study. If one ask the meaning of an ancient word, or the force of a Greek tense, or which of two readings of a passage of the New Testament is the original one, he is asking for facts of history. And, in the third place, if from the facts ascertained by the interpretation of ancient records one seeks to construct the story of the life of Jesus, or an account of his teaching, he is obviously engaged in historical study. It is facts of history in their historic relations with which he is dealing. This is not, however, to say that the results of the inter- pretative process have no value except for purposes of history. The New Testament books are rich in profound and stimulat- ing religious thought, and because of this fact have a value as religious hterature quite apart from their value to the historian. At two points, therefore, the historical study of the New Testament may make its contribution to religious thought and life: first, at the end of the process of interpretation, when it turns over to the theologian or the religious man needing inspiration and stimulus the rich treasure of religious thought which exegetical study has discovered, and, secondly, at the end of the process of historical construction, when it has written the history of the early church. From both points of view, whether we think of the New Testament books as sources from which we may learn the history of early Christianity, or as rehgious literature valuable as such independent of its contribution to history, they are THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 167 of the highest value for the rehgious hfe and to the rehgious teacher.' For history is the great teacher of mankind, and our richest inheritance from the past is found in the great thoughts preserved in hterature. Nor must the distinction between these two points of view be overemphasized. The historian must recognize the rehgious value of the books in order to be a good his- torian. The student of the hterature for its religious value must read it in the light of the history of the movement out of which it sprang if he would gain from it its highest religious value. The thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians is magnificent, read as a panegyric of love, even when detached from its connection and historic background. But it becomes doubly significant and expressive when it is read as addressed to the Corinthians, who were ambitious to possess the showy, charismatic gifts of the Spirit, and were forgetting and depreciating the far more valuable fruit of the Spirit, love. The historian must be appreciative of the material with which he is dealing; the student of religion must have the historical spirit. 2. Interpretation the central task. — With the task of his- torical construction, though it falls properly within the field of New Testament study, we are not at this point immediately concerned. For reasons of practical convenience this subject is dealt with in Chapter V, "The Early History of Christianity." That which claims our immediate attention is that which is prerequisite to constructive history, viz., interpretation and the processes contributory thereto. To understand the nature and methods of the interpretative process and its central place in New Testament study is of first importance to the New Testament student. 3. Studies preliminary to interpretation. — But to the interpretation of these books certain other studies are for us of today necessary preliminaries. The books were written 'See more fully under section III, pp. 232 ff. 1 68 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION ' in Greek; they have been preserved in manuscripts of the original text and of ancient translations which do not, however, perfectly agree among themselves as to how the books origi- nally read. Hence arises the necessity for a process of textual criticism by which the original text may be as nearly as possible recovered (cf. section I, 5, pp. 204 ff.). Furthermore, since the Greek of the New Testament is for us a foreign tongue, and even for modern Greeks an antiquated form of their mother-tongue, we need, in order to ascertain with accuracy the thought of the writers of these books, a knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of that ancient language (cf. section I, 4, pp. 200 ff.). But not only so; for the interpretation of the books from which we learn the history of this religious movement out of which Christianity came to be we need to know something of the story of their own origin (cf. section I, 3, pp. 180 ff.). And to an understanding of the origin of the New Testament books there is needed in turn a knowledge of the life in the midst of which they arose — ^that of the Jewish people of the first century and of the Graeco-Roman world and of the Christian move- ment itself, of which they were the products (cf. section I, 2, pp. 1 77 ff.). In other words, a general knowledge of the origin of Christianity, of the environment in which it arose, and of the way in which it came to express itself in literature, is a needful preparation for the interpretation of the books from which we are in turn to gain a fuller knowledge of the rise of Chris- tianity. Thus we move in a circle, or rather in a spiral : from the books by a simple and incomplete interpretation we gain a general knowledge of the movement; with the aid of this we read the books with fresh understanding, and this in turn leads to a larger knowledge of the movement, and so on indefinitely. 4. Studies that must follow interpretation. — But if these things, textual criticism, grammar, lexicography, and a general knowledge of the times in which and of the move- THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 169 ment out of which the books arose, are necessary preliminaries to the interpretation of the books and of any other sources of the history of the beginnings of Christianity, there must be added to the work of interpretation certain other processes if New Testament study is to achieve its goal. These processes subsequent to interpretation may be described as the critical and the constructive. For the results of interpretation are the thoughts of the ancient writers, and the interpretative process does not, of itself, determine their value for the pur- poses of history or for the promotion of the moral and spiritual life. The student of the New Testament who would gain from his study the largest value must on the one hand carefully avoid diverting the interpretative process from its proper goal by premature estimations of value, and on the other hand must add to the work of interpretation both a critical and a constructive process. The critical process as it deals with narrative material has for its purpose to add to the fact that the writer believed certain events to have happened in a certain way, a well- founded judgment as to what actually happened. Luke says that John began to preach in the fifteenth year of Tiberius. Is his chronology correct? As pertains to material of a didactic character, the critical process seeks to add to the historic fact that a given writer held this or that view of reli- gion or morals — itself a valuable fact immediately available for the history of thought— a judgment called for, not by the historian, but by the theologian or the moralist, concerning the value of the doctrine held by this ancient writer. Paul held that marriage was desirable only under certain conditions and for certain reasons. Was this judgment a sound one ? When we engage in the critical task in the field of event, i.e., when we seek to ascertain what happened in the New Testament times, whether the question pertain to external event or internal thought, though we are no longer inter- preters, we are still in the field of New Testament study, lyo GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION for we are still dealing with the history of the New Testa- ment period. So, also, when we proceed from the historical data furnished by interpretation and criticism to construct the history of the rise of early Christianity, we are still within the New Testament field, whether dealing with events or ideas, since both events and ideas are facts of the history of the New Testament period. But when, having discovered by our interpretative process that a given early Christian writer or teacher, or group of writers, held certain opinions and doctrines we proceed to subject these to a process of critical judgment to determine howmuch of this thought can justifiably be taken up into modern thought, we are certainly on the outer edge of New Testament study and approaching that of theology and ethics. We are dealing, not with the facts of the past, but with present values. The New Testament student may certainly ask these questions, but he has perhaps in that fact become something else than a New Testament student. 5. Closer definition of the field of New Testament study. — The study of the New Testament as thus understood is accord- ingly wholly a historical task. The studies preliminary to interpretation deal wholly with historical questions. Inter- pretation itself is a process of historic inquiry. The results of interpretation have a double value and use. The student may use them as data for the construction of the history of early Christianity or for their intrinsic value in the field of religious thought and life. In the former case he is still the historian of the New Testament period of the Christian movement; in the latter he is passing into the field of the theologian and the preacher. 6. The use of other books than those of the New Testa- ment canon. — But the recognition of New Testament study as historical and as including within its task the construction of the history of the rise of Christianity compels the inclusion of other books than those of the New Testament within its field of work. There are two reasons for this broadening of the THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 171 field: first, because from these other books we discover the environment in which Christianity arose, and, secondly, because from them we gain supplementary data for its early history. The sources of the history of any period or people consist of those historical documents and monuments which furnish valuable testimony of what took place in that period among that people. These sources may be classified as direct and indirect, the former including those that testify directly con- cerning the matter in hand, and the latter consisting of those which by their evidence concerning the antecedents and surroundings of the movement under consideration furnish a basis for the understanding of the direct sources and of the historic movement as a whole. Under such a definition we cannot either in principle or in fact strictly identify the books of the New Testament with the sources of the history of early Christianity. Yet, we shall not be far wrong if we think of these as constituting the direct sources of our study. When the church of the second century collected from the existing literary produ(^ts of the new reH- gious movement the books that gradually came to be accepted, along with the books of the Old Testament, as the sacred Hterature of the Christian church,, the test by which they were selected was not indeed their value for historical purposes, but their value for doctrine and edification. Yet, in fact, the church chose none which are not valuable for the history of the origin and early development of Christianity, and but few that do not belong to the first century; and on the other hand it did not fail to include the most important of the sources, at least of those which are still extant. When, therefore, modern bibhcal scholarship came gradually to assume the historical point of view and to esteem the books of ancient times not only for their devotional and inspirational value, but also as sources of history, it not only followed a natural course, but was substantially right from a historical point 172 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of view in continuing to use as the principal subjects of its historical study, and the principal sources of the history it was endeavoring to construct, the books of the New Testament. It would indeed be of immense value to us to possess today some of the books which our study of the New Testament books and of early tradition has shown to have existed in the first or second century, such, e.g., as the Logia of Matthew or the works of Papias. Yet if we are speaking of direct sources still extant for the history of the Christian movement down to, let us say, the production of the Fourth Gospel, we shall have to add to the books of the New Testament per- haps only the First Epistle of Clement, and we shall omit, not as having no value, but as falling outside the period, at most only two or three of the general epistles, say II Peter and Jude and possibly James. Of the indirect sources, those from which we are able to recover the environment of early Christianity, on the other hand, the number is legion. To this class belong all the books that were produced by the Jewish people in the last two centuries before Christ and the first century after (in a sense, indeed, the earher literature, including the whole Old Testament), and all those numerous works by non- Jewish authors which reflect for us the currents of thought in the Roman Empire in the period in which Christianity was fiaiding its way out from Jerusalem to all the lands of the Empire. 7. Subsidiary lines of studies.— In still another direction also we may legitimately extend the boundaries of New Testament study in order to include two subsidiary sub- jects which are necessary in order to give to New Testament scholarship due breadth and balance, and to insure a proper measure of contact with the practical interests of the reHgious Hfe. On the one hand, in accordance with the general prin- ciple that any process of investigation is illuminated by a knowledge of the experience of previous study in the same field, students of the New Testament have found it expedient THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 173 to examine into the history of the use of the New Testament in the Christian church. On the other hand, the study of the New Testament does not find its end in itself, but in the con- tribution which it can make to Hfe. For this reason, and because a perception of the end to be achieved illuminates the whole process, it is expedient that a general survey of the field of New Testament study should include a consideration of the relation of New Testament study to such other interests as those of systematic theology and the religious hfe of the modern man. ^ 8. The divisions of the field. — The whole field of the New Testament study may then be subdivided as follows: I. The Books of the New Testament and Their Interpretation. 1. The general nature of the interpretative process. 2. The environment of early Christianity. 3. The discovery of the occasion and purpose of the several books — Introduction to New Testament literature. 4. The acquisition of the language of the New Testament. 5. The recovery of the text: Textual criticism. 6. The interpretation of the books of the New Testament. XL The History of the New Testament in the Christian Church. 1. History of interpretation and criticism. 2. History of the Canon. III. The Use of the New Testament at the Present Day. 1. For purposes of history. 2. For systematic theology and ethics. 3. For the cultivation of personal character. 4. For religious teaching and preaching. But while all these studies fall within the range of New Testament study, and must be pursued with thoroughness and accuracy by someone, if we of this generation are to understand the New Testament and know how our religion came to be, it does not follow either that every student of the New Testament must pursue these studies in the order indicated or that every one shall pursue all these hues of study. Thus a given student may carry on his study of the New Testament on the basis of a modern critical text of its 174 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION books without knowing anything about the evidence on which this text is based or the principles according to which such evidence must be used in order to arrive at the true text. In this particular part of the field he may simply accept the results of the studies made by other men. Again, he may — most students do and must — -use the lexicons and grammars written by other men without investigating the evidence on which they are based. He may even do his work of inter- pretation on the basis of a translation instead of a Greek text, in which case, instead of taking the word of the lexicog- rapher as to what individual Greek words mean, he accepts the word of a translator as to what whole sentences mean, so far as that meaning can be indicated by a more or less literal translation. No scholar, however thorough, is wholly inde- pendent of others; every man must build on another man's foundation; but some begin much farther back than others. Again as to order of studies, we must, as indicated above, move in a spiral rather than in a straight line. For centuries the books of the New Testament were interpreted without any systematic development of the preparatory lines of study, and each such study still depends upon the others and upon inter- pretation. The order of studies above indicated is therefore a logical rather than a hard-and-fast chronological or peda- gogical one. In practice, the systematic pursuit of the differ- ent lines of study may well be in the order indicated, but the thorough student will necessarily go back and forward from one line of work to another, using the results of all the studies he has at any time made to deepen his knowledge of each line of study to which he returns. I. THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THEIR INTERPRETATION I. The general nature of the interpretative process. — • a) The meaning of the word. — -The word "interpretation" (Latin interpretation cognate with interpres, derived from inter THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 175 partes) primarily denotes the act of one who stands between two others to communicate the thought of one to the other. In usage it denotes most commonly the process of discovering the thought of another from its expression, with or without communication of the thought thus discovered to a third person. Interpretation, in this sense, is the exact correlate of expression, and the two processes enter into every com- munication of thought from mind to mind. The thinker con- verts his thought by expression, so to speak, into a visible or audible sjonbol, and the receiving mind converts the symbol into thought again by the process of interpretation. More exactly stated, the thinker creates or utters a visible or audible symbol of what he has in his mind, and the interpreter, hearing or seeing the symbol and knowing its conventional value, thinks the thought for which the symbol stands. The field of interpretation in this sense of the word is a very wide one. The lawyer, the student of literature, the historian, indeed every reader of what is written or printed, and every listener to the speech of his fellow-men, is an inter- preter. Not only so, but all who look at pictures or listen to music do so with the intent of repeating in their own experi- ence that which the painter or composer thought or felt. The fundamental principles of interpretation are, moreover, for all of these interpreters the same. In all of them, also, the term "interpretation" is used either of the process by which one recovers for himself that which has been expressed in symbol or of the communication of what he has thus obtained to another. h) A definition of literary interpretation. — -If we limit our thought for the moment to the interpretation of literature, language written or spoken, we may define interpretation as the process of re-presenting to one's own mind (or to the minds of others) the whole of that state of mind of the author of which the language to be interpreted was the expression c) Some untenable methods of interpretation. — The accept- ance of this definition, which, it must be remembered, is based 176 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION upon the premise that interpretation is the correlate and com- plement of expression, leads to the rejection of certain methods of interpretation which have often been employed, not by bibhcal interpreters only, but especially by them. (i) It excludes the allegorical method, which conceives that the meaning of what is written is to be found, not in the thought which the writer had in mind, but in that which is suggested by treating statements of facts as allegories. What is written allegorically is, of course, according to the principles above enunciated, to be interpreted as allegory. But what is here described as the allegorical method consists in treating unallegorical language as allegorical, in defiance of the prin- ciple that interpretation is the reproduction of the thought of the author. (2) It excludes the mystical method, which, assuming that one is able by some inner light to discover meanings inde- pendently of all rules and principles, really abandons the search for the writer's thought and sets up the interpreter's thought in its place. The element of truth in this theory, of which it is important not to lose sight, is that interpretation demands s>Tnpathy with the mind of the writer to be inter- preted, and that in particular the interpreter of rehgious writings must himself have a sympathetic understanding of the possibilities of religious experience. (3) It excludes the dogmatic method, which assumes that the results of the interpretation of a certain body of hterature must conform to the dogmas of an accepted body of doctrine or system of thought. This method takes on two forms, the traditionalistic and the rationalistic. In the former the interpreter finds in some traditional and accepted system of doctrine the standard and criterion of the results of inter- pretation. In the latter he sets up such a standard in a system of thought arrived at by supposedly rational processes. The impulse which gives rise to the use of this method in either of its forms is one that commands respect, arising, as it does, THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 177 out of the desire to co-ordinate all the results of one's thought into a consistent unity. But it falls into the obvious but serious error of assuming that one's favorite author must have held the same views of truth as that at which the inter- preter himself has arrived or which are laid down in his inherited and accepted creed. d) The grammatico-historical method. — The only method which is consistent with a proper conception of interpretation is the so-called grammatico-historical method, which endeavors, by the use of historical data and the methods of historical investigation, to ascertain the thought which the writer or speaker had in mind when he wrote or spoke. This method, though demanding the diligent use of grammar and lexicon, does not reduce interpretation to a mere matter of the use of these instruments, but calls for the restoration of the whole thought-world in which the writer or speaker to be interpreted lived and the most complete and systematic devotion of one's energy to the task of rediscovering his thought. The question which it asks is, ''What did the writer think when he wrote these words?'' It entirely separates the criticism of the results of interpretation from the interpretative process itself. It asks not what is true philosophically or theologically, but what was that experience in the mind of the writer of which the language is the outward expression. By its very nature it demands of the interpreter a knowledge of the thought-environment in which the book to be interpreted was produced and of the usages of the language in which it is written, and therefore calls for those studies preliminary to interpretation which are discussed in the paragraphs next following. 2. The environment of early Christianity. — No historic movement takes place as an isolated phenomenon, but always has its antecedents and surroundings which condition its character and direction, and no such movement can be under- stood without some knowledge of its historic setting. Every 178 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION piece or body of literature is the product and expression of the life of a people or the experience of an individual, and no literature can be interpreted adequately without some knowl- edge of the life in the midst of which it was produced. A study of the actual processes of expression and interpre- tation in everyday hfe and the more intensive prosecution of the task of interpreting ancient literature have made it increasingly clear that no literature can be adequately inter- preted with lexicon and grammar only. To read the First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians as an undated piece of literature or as a document written by a man of today to men of today is to touch only on the high spots of its meaning. To read it as a part of an actual correspondence between people of the first century with the benefit of a knowledge of the life of that period is to look through an open window into an intensely interesting human situation. To read the Gospel of Matthew ignorant of the questions which in the latter part of the "first century were at issue between Jews and Christians and between Jewish and gentile Christians is not necessarily to fail to grasp the great central elements of the teaching of Jesus, but it is inevitably to miss the exact thought and purpose of the book and seriously to misinterpret the writer's state of mind and his central contention. But to reproduce the life, especially the intellectual and religious life, of that far-away period is obviously a difficult task. It is to this task that some of the ablest scholars of the last and of the present generation have devoted themselves most diligently. Such writers as Schiirer and Bousset have by their patient and thorough investigations put us in fuller possession of the thought and religious life of the Jewish people in the New Testament period than the men of the Christian church have ever been in any preceding age. And the investi- gations, which have long been in progress and are still far from complete, into the life and thinking of the people among whom Paul did his work are gradually giving us a truer and deeper THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 179 insight than we have ever before had, not only into the apostle's thought, but into the whole life of the early church and the real character and significance of the early Christian movement. Eventually these studies promise to enable us to read the literature of that period with some measure, at least, of that sympathetic understanding and quick intelligence with which it was read by most educated and many uneducated men of the first century. The full discussion of the subject belongs to another part of this volume (see chap. V). But to omit all mention of it at this point would be to set the interpretative process itself in a false light. Literature. — -On the Jewish literature, thought, and environment see E. Schiirer, Geschichte dcsjiidischcn Volks im Zeitalter Jesu Ckristi, 4th ed. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1901-9), and English translation of the second edition; History of the Jewish People in New Testament Times, 5 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1891); Oskar Holtzmann, N eutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte (Tubingen: JVIohr, 1906); S. Mathews, History of New Testament Times in Palestine, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1910); E. Kautzsch (editor), Die Apocryphen und Pseudepigraphcn des Alien Testaments, 2 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1900); R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913J ; Josephus, Works, edited in the original by Niese, 7 vols. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1895; English translation by Whiston, various editions; revised by Shilleto, 5 vols. [London: Bell, 1889-90]). Philo, Works edited in the original by Cohn and Wendland, Vols. I-VI, ready (Berlin: Reimer, 1896-; English translation by Yonge, 4 vols. [London: Bohn, 1854-55]). On the non-Jewish literature, thought, and environment see F. Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co., 191 1); T. R. Glover, The Conflict of Religions within the Roman Empire (London: Methuen, 1909); Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics; English translation by O. J. Reichel, revised ed. (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1892); E. V. Arnold, Roman Stoicism (Cambridge: University Press, 191 1); R. D. Hicks, Stoic and Epicurean (New York: Scribner, 1910); S. J. Case, Evolution of Early Christianity (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 19 14) (see especially the bibliographical notes on chaps, vii-ix). i8o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 3. The discovery of the occasion and purpose of the several books. — The reproduction of the general situation in the midst of which the New Testament books were produced is, as we have seen, invaluable and indispensable to the student of those books. But it /alls short of preparing him for the full understanding of them. For the intelligent reading of these books, that is, for their interpretation, it is requisite that one restore, as fully as possible, the precise occasion and set of circumstances out of which the book arose. A letter, picked up on the street, may easily be an absolute enigma when first read, but by the identification of its writer and the discovery of its occasion and purpose may become so full of meaning as to be the basis of a life-and-death decision by a court. So a letter of Paul's, written to a group of Christians in the first century, read without knowledge of the circumstances under which it was written, may seem like a dull essay on eschatology or a dry treatise on election and justification. But if it is possible for us to reproduce the situation which gave rise to it, out of which it sprung, and in which it played a part, it may become to us an intensely interesting and luminous reflection of the life of the church in the days of the apostles. Early Christian writings. — The religious movement which began with the preaching of Jesus in Galilee very soon found expression in writing. This was more true of Chris- tianity than of any contemporary rehgious movement of which we know. The literature, if we may call it by that name, at first consisted of personal letters called forth by a special situation and designed to meet an immediate need, and nothing more. More conscious literary works presently arose — gospels, prophecies, histories, sermons — -and books were written and put in circulation. These books soon fell into groups, and some of these groups were at length gathered up into the collection known to us as the New Testament. But in order to understand them we must take them up THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT i8i individually and inquire what called them forth, who wrote them, why and for whom they were written. This is the first step toward the real understanding of the contents of every such ancient work. Possible groupings of them. — The books of the New Testament may be conveniently grouped about four impor- tant historical points: the gentile mission, which gave rise to the letters of Paul and afterward formed the subject of the Acts of the Apostles; the fall of Jerusalem, about which the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke gather; the persecution by Domitian, which called forth the Reve- lation, First Peter, and the Epistle to the Hebrews; and finally the rise of the docetic and gnostic sects, which con- stitutes the background of the Gospel of John and the minor epistles. From another point of view the New Testament books may be divided according to the literary types to which they belong. Some are personal letters, some are epistles — ^that is, more formal discussions of a general theme, put in epistolary form and published for a wide circle. Some are gospels, a type of literature very near biography but closer still to the Elijah and Elisha cycles in the Books of Kings. One, the Acts, is a historical book; one, James, is a sermon; and one, the Revelation, is the prophecy of a Christian prophet. The type of literature to which each book belongs is a matter of much importance in the study and understanding of it. There is, however, a more practical division of the New Testament writings. It is suggested in part by literary and in part by historical considerations. The letters of Paul constitute one natural group, and the early gospels and Acts a second. The writings relating to Domitian's persecution make a third, and the Gospel and Epistles of John a fourth. There remain the other general epistles, James, Jude, and II Peter. We may approach these groups in this order. i82 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The letters of Paul. — -The ancients who compiled our New Testament ascribed fourteen letters to Paul. The his- torical student of the New Testament has to satisfy himself as to whether all or any of these are indeed from his hand, for in the interpretation of them much depends upon a sound view of their authorship. In the effort to arrive at the facts in such a study we have two kinds of materials to build upon, the testimony of each letter as to itself and the statements of ancient writers about it. Neither of these may be neglected. It is indispensable that every scrap of ancient testimony be taken account of, and each letter must be minutely examined for every ray of light it can throw upon its writer and his purpose. The testimony the letter bears to its own author- ship and purpose is called internal evidence, the testimony borne by ancient writers is called external evidence, or tra- dition. Hebrews not by Paul. — If we examine the fourteen letters which have borne the name of Paul from these two points of view, it is at once clear that Hebrews is much less entitled to be called a letter of his than are the other thirteen. It is anonymous, and so the internal evidence is wanting at the most important point. Moreover, when closely examined Hebrews shows differences from the remaining letters so marked in language, style, and ideas that most scholars hold that it cannot have been the work of Paul. Nor is the voice of tradition by any means unanimous. Tertullian thought it was the work of Barnabas and did not regard it as Scrip- ture, and although Hebrews is first reflected in Roman writings, the Christian writers of Rome and the West did not accept it as Paul's until the middle of the fourth century. In fact, the assignment of Hebrews to Paul can be definitely traced back to one man, for the first writer to state it is Clement of Alexandria, and he says that he learned it from the Blessed Presbyter, which is his way of referring to his teacher Pantaenus. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 183 The Pastoral Letters. — If we apply these same instru- ments of inquiry to the other letters bearing the name of Paul, the letters to Timothy and Titus at once stand out as a dis- tinct group, from the point of view of both internal testimony and tradition. These Pastoral Epistles, as they are called, definitely claim Paul as their author, and to this extent satisfy the requirement of internal evidence. But when examined more narrowly they disclose a style and interest and a type of thought very different from that of Paul as we know him through his leading letters, and the historical situations that gleam through them are clearly later than the Kfe of Paul. This suspicion of the Pastoral Letters, suggested by their own indirect internal testimony, is confirmed by a study of tradition about them. The earliest list of Paul's letters of which we know definitely, that of Marcion of Pontus, made about 140-50 a.d., does not include them. But they were accepted by Irenaeus about 180-85 ^s written by Paul and as parts of Christian Scripture. But we may not immediately conclude that these three letters have no connection with Paul but were wholly com- posed under his name at a later time. We must consider the possibility that short genuine letters of his to Timothy and Titus were expanded into these letters as we know them, in order to claim the authority of Paul for much-needed regula- tions as to church organization and management. This possibility cannot be denied, but as a matter of fact all attempts to determine what genuinely Pauline parts are pre- served in these letters have proved unconvincing. More- over, the letters, which fit so poorly into what we know of Paul's life and work and thought, are readily understood if set in the early years of the second century when just the questions with which they deal were, as other documents show, deeply concerning the churches. In that age, too, men did not scruple to write letters, revelations, even gospels, in the name of other apostles, for example, Peter; and while it would have 1 84 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION been difficult to put into circulation a letter purporting to be from Paul to a well-known and still active church, it would have been easy to put forth such letters addressed to indi- viduals long dead. Colossians and Ephesians. — The remaining ten letters stood in the earhest list of Paul's writings of which we have definite knowledge, the canon of Marcion. The evidence of tradition for these ten is therefore much stronger than for the three just discussed. But considerations of internal evidence, i.e., the testimony of the letters themselves, make it necessary to scrutinize the authenticity of some of these letters very closely. Colossians and Ephesians when com- pared prove to resemble each other in so many details of expression, and to present a phase of thought so different from anything in Paul's major letters, as to throw serious doubt upon their authenticity. Some scholars explain this as due to the fact that when Paul wrote Colossians the prac- tical and doctrinal errors that had appeared at Colossae had given his mind a new direction, and that he wrote at the same time a general letter (Ephesians) to the neighboring churches in which he dealt with the same general situation in much the same terms. Others have held that Colossians is indeed a work of Paul but that Ephesians is from the hand of a later follower of his who made Colossians the basis for his work. Others seek to solve the problem by the theory that an original letter to the Colossians, now lost, was expanded into the two epistles that we have. The relation of Ephesians and Colos- sians and the genuineness of these letters form one of the present problems of the Pauline literature. Ephesians presents a further problem in the matter of its original destination. To whom was it written ? Paul can hardly have sent it to the Ephesians, for it is wholly without personal touches, and some things in it suggest that it was addressed to people who did not -know Paul personally, but only by reputation (3:2). In Marcion's list it went by THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 185 the name of Laodiceans and the oldest manuscripts, while they give its title as "To Ephesians," omit the words ''in Ephesus" from the first verse. The historical student has to inquire whether Ephesians is a circular letter sent to Ephesus among other places, or is the "letter from Laodicea" mentioned in Colossians (4:16), and in this latter case how it came to be called "To Ephesians." The writer of the Revelation (3:16), Marcion, and Basil of Caesarea throw some light upon this question. // Thessalonians. — ^One other letter which has come down to us under the name of Paul calls for careful investiga- tion in the matter of its authenticity. II Thessalonians resembles I Thessalonians very much as Ephesians does Colossians. In general outline and in many details of expres- sion the two letters to Thessalonica agree. How did a writer so original and fertile-minded as Paul come to repeat himself in this way ? Did he hav^ a letter book, and before writing II Thessalonians refer to a copy of I Thessalonians which he had retained ? Or did he write the two letters at the same time, sending one to the Greek and the other to the Jewish-Christian body at Thessalonica? To these psycho- logical doubts about II Thessalonians is added an eschato- logical one. The Lord's Day, it is alleged, is described in the first letter as coming without warning, as a thief in the night, but in the second a series of premonitory events is, predicted. These difficulties must be fairly dealt with before II Thessalonians can be confidently accepted as a letter of Paul's. The seven undisputed letters. — Of the fourteen letters assigned by tradition to Paul, there remain seven with refer- ence to which internal evidence and tradition may fairly be said to agree. These are I Thessalonians, Galatians, I and II Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon. They were probably all written between 50 and 63 a.d., and in the order named above. Their date and order must of course 1 86 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION be determined if their place in Paul's work and life is to be understood, and in this and other matters each presents its own special problems. Galatians. — In respect to Galatians, its destination is a problem of some interest, both for its own sake and in con- nection with the time of its writing. For if the Galatia of which Paul spoke was the Phrygian and Lycaonian region of the province of Galatia and not ethnographical Galatia in north-central Asia Minor, Paul's visit to it and the subse- quent composition of the letter fall earlier in his career than most students of the letter have supposed. Composite letters: Romans, II Corinthians, and Philip- pians. — A different tjrpe of problem is presented by Romans, II Corinthians, and Philippians. It is that of integrity: are these letters units, or is each of them made up of two or even three letters combined? At the end of Romans stands a chapter of salutations in which Paul shows a wide acquaintance, not only with the personnel of the house congre- gations at Rome, which he had never visited, but even with the domestic groupings of these individuals. This and other considerations make it probable that the sixteenth chapter of Romans was originally a letter to Ephesus which was appended to Romans when the first considerable collection of Paul's letters was made, very likely at Ephesus before the end of the first century. The striking contrast between the two parts of II Corinthi- ans raises a similar problem. The opening chapters say much of comfort and reconciliation. The closing chapters, 10-13, are a vehement invective against Paul's critics at Corinth. It is difficult to explain this except on the theory that the closing chapters are from the painful letter of rebuke and correction mentioned in II Cor. 2:4 and 7:8, which has usually been regarded as lost. If this be true, we possess three of the four letters Paul is known to have written to Corinth — the second, fourth, and third. The case for the analysis of II Corinthians THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 187 is stronger than that for the analysis of Romans in this respect, that the new letter disclosed by the analysis is one of which we have long known from statements in II Corinthians itself. The letter to the Philippians is another exception to the usual orderliness of Paul's letters. Its course of thought is unsystematic and irregular. The violent break at 3 : 2 pre- sents great difficulty to all students of the letter. Now, Paul must have written to Philippi at least five times; for we know from his own statements that the Philippians had sent him money or supplies on four occasions, and the return of Epaphroditus to Philippi evidently called forth a letter from Paul. Is our Philippians this last letter only, or are two or even three of Paul's five letters to the Philippians united in our letter ? The probability that the latter is the case may be easily tested by reading Phil. 3:2^ — 4:20 as a letter writ- ten to acknowledge the Philippians' present sent through Epaphroditus (Paul's fourth letter to Philippi), and 1:1 — • 3:1; 4:21-23 as Paul's fifth letter to the Philippians, sent by Epaphroditus when he returned to Philippi after his illness at Rome. Those who find three letters in our Philippians divide 3:2 — 4:9 from 4:10-20, making this last the final letter and placing 3 : 2 — 4 : 9 earlier in the correspondence. While the analysis of Philippians is less convincing than is that of Romans and II Corinthians, it deserves serious considera- tion, especially in view of the fact that Polycarp early in the second century speaks of Paul's "letters" to the Philippians and advises the Philippians to consult them. The editing of the Pauline letters. — The question of the editorial work in the Pauline letters is involved with that of the earliest collection of them, and that properly belongs to the history of the canon. It is enough here to say that many things point to Ephesus as the place of the making of that collection, and the time was probably well within the first century. The combining of two or three letters into a single one was very probably a part of the editorial work incident 1 88 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION to this larger task of putting in circulation a collection of Paul's letters for Christian use. The specific occasion of the Pauline letters. — But it ought not to be inferred from the foregoing list of doubts and questions concerning the Pauline authorship or the integrity of the several letters ascribed to Paul in the New Testament that these are the only questions or the most hnportant ones with which we have to deal in this part of our subject. In fact, they are all preliminary to discovering under what circum- stances and to meet what situation each of these letters, or their several component letters, were produced. It is the answer to this question, largely to be discovered from the internal evidence of the letter itself, or from this, combined with the evidence of other letters and the Book of Acts, that will enable us to set each writing in its proper place in the his- tory, and so help us to understand its purpose and its course of thought. To decide that a letter ascribed to Paul is made up of two or more letters of his, or is not his at all, is not to deprive it of interest or value for us, but only requires that we date it and place it where it really belongs. To do this may increase both its interest and its value. To decide, or even to discuss at length, the date, place, and occasion of each of the letters named above would require more space than can be given in this book. But it is a very important part of the task of the student of the New Testa- ment. In undertaking it he must make the fullest possible use of the evidence afforded by the books themselves, of ancient external evidence, and of the results of modern study. To the more thorough study of the books of the New Testa- ment from this point of view we owe no small part of the progress of the last century in the understanding of their thought and of the origin of Christianity, The earliest gospels. — The letters of Paul were written to serve special immediate needs of individuals, churches, or groups of churches. They were not intended as permanent THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 1S9 contributions to literature. The earliest Christians had no thought of producing a religious literature; they were wholly concerned with an inward spiritual experience and the expectation of the early return of Jesus to the earth to usher in the messianic era. They were loyal to what the spirit of Jesus said to their hearts and to what Jesus in his earthly ministry had taught. This last along with some brief account of Jesus' ministry and doings Christians learned from the oral instruction of the missionaries through whom they had been converted. This was the way in which the Corinthians, for example, learned of the Lord's Supper and the Resur- rection. Paul and every successful missionary taught his converts the ''traditions," as Paul calls them, I Cor. 11:2, 23; 15:3. In this way some short compend of the words and deeds of Jesus was known among the churches, and there was at first no thought of writing an account of his teaching or ministry, much less his hfe. The Synoptic Gospels. — Of the score of gospels which were written by 200 a.d. the four gospels which are included in the New Testament contain probably the most valuable and trustworthy material. Three of these four resemble one another so strikingly in chronology, order of events, and details of expression that students have long been accustomed to group them together under the name Synoptic Gospels. Their resemblances are so close as to prove that these gospels are dependent on one another or on some common documentary source. Along with these resemblances they exhibit certain striking differences which greatly complicate the problem of their relationship. It is this combination of agreement and difference that gives rise to what is called the synoptic problem. The minute comparison of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, section by section and even phrase by phrase, clearly shows that the writers of Matthew and Luke had the Gospel of Mark and made large use of it in producing their igo GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION gospels. This is especially true of Matthew, into which fifteen- sixteenths of the verses of Mark have been taken over. The question arises whether Mark was known to these evangel- ists in the form in which we have it or in some more primitive form, the so-called original Mark. It is reasonably clear that when the writer of Matthew used Mark it had not lost its original conclusion, but that in other respects it was known to him in substantially the form in which it is known to us. Origin of Mark. — Tradition explains the origin of the Gospel of Mark as due to the effort of Mark to preserve for the Roman church and other churches Peter's recollections of the ministry and words of Jesus as Mark had learned them in his capacity of interpreter to Peter in Peter's latter days. The idea that Peter was the authority for a gospel record was familiar in the first half of the second century, as Papias, Justin, and the II Peter (1:15) indicate. It seems probable, therefore, that Mark was written soon after the death of Peter, which occurred in 64 a.d. If we examine the Gospel of Mark with reference to the probability of such an origin, it proves to exhibit such an emphasis upon the fall of Jerusalem as we should expect in the years of the Jewish War, 66-70 a.d., and its generally primitive character and freedom from edi- torial retouching make it very Hkely that it was composed during the Jewish War much in the way Papias describes. There is little question that Mark's collection of Peter's recollections is embodied in our Mark. The chief critical question is whether the two documents are identical or the recollections only served as one source toward the com- position of our Mark. But the fact that our Mark is so completely taken over into Matthew is opposed to this latter alternative, and certain obscurities and ambiguities in Mark's narrative confirm the impression that it is not the work of an editorial reviser. There is indeed little to set against the testimony of tradition that Mark wrote this earliest of gospels. The tra- THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 191 ditional account of its purposfe, too, fits very well with the character of the work. While the writer believes Jesus to be the Messiah, he does not put that statement into the mouth of Jesus, but reports him as designating himself the Son of Man. The writer seems more concerned to reproduce faith- fully the materials at his disposal than to estabhsh a theo- logical interpretation of Jesus. His narrative, while it makes high claims for Jesus, includes many homely touches which later evangelists preferred to leave out. It is, in short, an informal and unambitious narrative, with no strongly defined apologetic purpose such as the Gospels of Matthew and John so clearly show. Two-document theory. — Synoptic study has shown that Matthew and Luke are based upon Mark. But the more difficult part of the synoptic problem remains. How shall we explain the occurrence in Matthew and Luke of common material not derivable from Mark ? The obvious answer is, both derived it from a second source possessed by both. This second common source was for a long time identified with the Logia or Sayings of Jesus composed, according to the testimony of Papias, by the apostle Matthew in the Aramaic language. But the fact that that document is described as existing in Aramaic while the resemblances it would have to explain are often in the details of Greek expression, and the further fact that it is said to have consisted of sayings while the resem- blances which the theory requires it to explain are often in narrative, have led most synoptic scholars in recent years to give up the effort to identify the second source of Matthew and Luke with the Logia of Matthew. The two-document theory, as it is called, suffers decidedly when its second document ceases to be identified with the Logia, and becomes a mere critical conjecture, and the question arises. Why is it necessary to explain the non- Markan resemblances of Matthew and Luke by one con- jectural document instead of more ? The answer is at once 192 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION made, because it is reasonable to postulate no more con- jectural documents than are required to account for the facts. But the theory necessitates assigning to one document ma- terial of widely different types and interests, and it is a some- what striking fact that the non-Markan material shared by Matthew and Luke, while scattered all through Matthew, is in Luke for the most part confined to two considerable sections. These sections are further remarkable for the almost total absence from them of any Markan material, and they have long been spoken of by students of Luke as the Small and the Great Interpolations, because they may be viewed as bodies of material interpolated by Luke in the text of Mark, which he was clearly making the basis of his gospel. These sections, Luke 6:20 — ^8:3 and 9:51 — ^18:14, may very probably have been documents which Luke char- acteristically inserted en bloc while Matthew, with his ana- lytical and topical way of working, took from them what he wished to use and placed it where he saw fit. To the former of these source-sections should probably be assigned also Luke 3:7-15, 17, 18; 4:26-30; 5:1-11; and to the latter 19: 1-28. Three-document theory. — This would explain the resem- blances of Matthew and Luke by a three-document theory, that is, by the use by both of three documents — Mark, and the two just outHned. The writers of Matthew and Luke had each of them, in addition to these, special sources, per- haps documentary. Each had his own peculiar source for his account of the infancy of Jesus, and it is not improbable that the writer of Matthew may have had the Sayings of Matthew, and so the name of that apostle came to be con- nected with that gospel. Authorship of Matthew and Luke. — This introduces the question of the authorship of these gospels. Of the author of the Gospel of Matthew nothing is definitely known. The statements of ancient writers are probably due to the THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 193 incorporation into our Matthew of the Sayings of Matthew above referred to. The gospel itself is anonymous and gives no definite evidence as to its writer. If it were the work of an apostle or any other eyewitness, it is very difficult to under- stand its dependence upon Mark. Its earliest name seems to have been simply "The Gospel," and it is possible that it was the first work of Christian literature to go by this name. The Gospel of Luke, on the other hand, while it no- where mentions its author by name, is not quite anonymous since the individual to whom it was addressed or dedicated would naturally have known who was addressing him in the preface. Nor is there in this case any reason to doubt that such an author as Paul's friend Luke might very naturally have used written sources and oral tradition in making up his narrative. There is, in short, much more to be said for the Lukan authorship of the Gospel of Luke than for the assign- ment of apostohc authorship to Matthew. The difficulties with it will be pointed out in connection with its sequel, the Acts. We have seen that the Gospel of Mark was written in the effort to preserve the recollections of Peter for the edification and instruction of the churches. What occasioned the writing of Matthew? A close examination of it suggests that a variety of motives actuated the writer. He was in part anxious to explain to his Christian brethren the continuity of the Christian movement with Judaism, upon which the recent fall of Jerusalem had thrown what he considered new and important light. He wished also to harmonize and unify the various writings on the ministry and teaching of Jesus which were so hkely to confuse the ordinary man. Probably Mark had shown how helpful in the life of the churches even so moderate and limited a gospel could be. Some light is thrown upon the place of origin of Matthew by the fact that it is first clearly reflected in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, early in the second century, and that the kind of circle, mainly 194 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Jewish Christian, for which it was evidently intended would be most likely to be found there, in the years just following the fall of Jerusalem. To that place and period it is probable the Gospel of Matthew is to be referred. The Acts. — Closely related to the Gospel of Luke, and so to the synoptic problem, is the Book of Acts, written by the same author and presumably upon principles and methods similar to those which governed the writing of Luke's Gospel. The problem of Acts relates to its authorship and trust- worthiness. All agree that Luke and Acts are from the same hand, and, further, that the writer of the we-sections (Acts 16:10-18; 20:5-16; 21:1-18; 27:1 — 28:16) was a com- panion of Paul and an eyewitness of what he reports in the first person. But was the we-diarist Luke? Much more important, was he the author of the whole Book of Acts ? Furthermore-, how near was he in writing to the events which he records? Had he read the Antiquities of Josephus, pub- lished in the thirteenth year of Domitian, 93-94 a.d. ? And what was the character and worth of the sources used by the Christian historian in the earlier part of his work? All these matters are of essential importance to the interpretation of Acts and the reconstruction of early Christian history. On the whole, there is not sufficient evidence to make it probable that the writer of Luke-Acts used Josephus' work, and it seems reasonable to conclude that the we-diarist is identical with the author who speaks in the first person in Acts I : I and in Luke 1:3. The reign of Domitian introduced the Christian movement to a new situation. The increased emphasis upon .emperor- worship which marked that reign involved Christians in different parts of the Empire in suspicion, condemnation, and persecution. This situation is the background of three books of the New Testament. Revelation.- — The Revelation is the- work of John, a Christian prophet of Asia, who was imprisoned for his Chris- THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 195 tian profession, and while in prison wrote a series of letters and visions to fortify his brethren in the Asian churches against the temptation to apostatize. As early as the time of Justin {ca. 150 A.D.) this John was identified with the apostle John, but there is nothing in the Revelation to suggest this. Yet it was probably this idea that afterward kept the Revelation of John in the New Testament of the Western church, when the other apocalypses were dropped from Christian Scripture. A more serious problem in the study of the Revelation is that of its dependence upon earlier apocalyptic writings. That its general form was suggested by Jewish apocalyptic works such as Daniel and Enoch goes without saying. But there are certain parts of it which seem to reflect an earher time than Domitian's, and it is at least possible that the book as we know it is based upon an earher apocalypse, perhaps of the period of the Jewish War. Hebrews. — Another work of Domitian's time is the so- called Epistle to the Hebrews. The anonymity of this letter has occasioned much futile conjecture as to the identity of its author, beginning with the unfortunate guess of Pantaenus that it was from the hand of Paul. It is more important to ascertain to whom it was written and for what purpose. Its strongly Jewish color and the name by which it has so long been known have led many scholars to the view that it was written for Jewish Christians in Palestine and designed to deter them from lapsing into Judaism. Over against this stands the fact that such a body could hardly be addressed in Greek, and that the description the writer gives of the church to which he is writing is quite inappropriate to the Jerusalem church or any Palestinian church of which we know, while the Judaism of which the writer speaks is always that of the wilder- ness and the tabernacle, never that of Jerusalem and the temple. On the other hand, the picture given of the church addressed, with its virtues and faults and its pecuhar history, fits remarkably well upon the Roman church in the time of 196 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Domitian, and the salutations of "those from Italy" (13:24) point in the same direction. The problem is a difficult one, but it is decidedly probable that the letter was addressed to Roman Christians whom the persecution of Domitian exposed to the danger of discouragement and apostasy. I Peter. — A third document from Domitian's persecution may serve to bind these two together. I Peter in its opening words claims to be the work of the apostle Peter, but the situa- tion it reflects can hardly be earlier than the time of Domitian, for the followers of Christ are being persecuted for the name of Christ and as Christians (4:14, 16). The letter is written from Rome, which is spoken of as Babylon, as in the Revela- tion, and is addressed to the Christians of the provinces of Asia Minor who are undergoing persecution. But why was it given the name of Peter ? It may have been the work of a Roman presbyter of that name (5:1) who was afterward identified with the apostle Peter, as the John of the Revelation was later identified with the apostle. Or the explanation may lie in the fact that a variety of works were put forth early in the second century under the name of Peter and were widely accepted as genuine. The Gospel of John. — The Johannine problem in its larger aspects includes the authorship of all the five writings ascribed by Christian tradition to the apostle John. The main interest of it centers about the Gospel of John which, while anonymous, in a later epilogue, chap. 21, distinctly claims the apostle John as its voucher. When compared with the synoptic representation, however, the Johannine is found to differ in certain vital respects. The Jesus of the Synoptists, reticent about himself and his office, gives way to a divine Christ promptly and boldly asserting his pre-existence and messiahship. The synoptic order of narrative, disrupted at many points, is sometimes even inverted. The boldly apoca- lyptic eschatological teaching of Jesus reported by the Synop- tists gives way to a spiritualized eschatology, and the Jewish THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 197 forms of thought in which the Synoptists cast their message are replaced by more Hellenized and universal ones. It is evidently true that if the author of this gospel was a personal follower of Jesus, still more if he was his confidential disciple, the Fourth Gospel has substantial claims to be con- sidered the authoritative formulation of Jesus' thought and teaching. But apostoHc authorship is not the most vital point of the Johannine problen. The point is rather the historical truth of the picture of Jesus and his teaching which it contains. Is this or is the synoptic representation the true one ? Are both true, the synoptic presenting the public external aspect of Jesus' life and teaching, the Johannine the intimate esoteric explanation of himself which he made to his disciples ? Or is the Fourth Gospel the end-of-the-century reinterpretation of Jesus in the more universal terms of Greek thinking, in accord with the wider horizons and new streams of thought which the success of the gentile mission had brought with it, and colored with the Hellenic thought of its time, somewhat as the Synoptic Gospels are colored with the Jewish ideas of theirs ? But if this be the solution of the Johannine problem, it leaves some elements still to be explained. What is the his- torical value of the specific narratives it preserves ? What genuine elements of Jesus' teaching, wanting in the Synoptists, has it preserved? How far does its chronology of Jesus' ministry soundly correct that of the Synoptists ? Is its spiritualization of synoptic eschatology a bold effort to assimilate apocalyptic crudities to Greek thinking on the part of a writer who had undertaken to transplant Christianity from Jewish soil to Greek, or a real sounding of the profound thought of Jesus ? /, //, /// John. — Of the three Johannine letters, the first is so like the Gospel of John in tone and ideas that it might almost be a stray leaf from it, and seems clearly to have come from the same hand with it. The second and third are 1 98 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION more evidently letters, one to a church, the other to a certain Gaius, from one who calls himself " the Elder," and deals with a dispute over views and authority which has the ring of the early second century. They may well be from the hand which wrote the Gospel and I John, and suggest that "the Elder" may be that Elder John of whom Papias speaks. This has led some to the conclusion that the Gospel of John embodies traditional materials from the apostle John recast and inter- preted by John the Elder. In both Gospel and letters is reflected the docetic controversy of the beginning of the second century. Later epistles: James. — There remain three so-called epistles bearing the names of James, Peter, and Jude. The first of these is quite clearly a Christian sermon later published among the churches under the name of James, who afterward came to be identified with James of Jerusalem, the brother of Jesus. It is an interesting example of early Christian preaching, but it is not possible to determine who the James whose name it bears was. Jude and II Peter. — The Epistle of Jude is directed against the docetic thinkers who made of Jesus so fantastic and unreal a figure. Its author is represented to have been a brother of James and so of Jesus. The letter is a vehement denunciation of the Docetists and shows a canonical regard for Jewish works like the Assumption of Moses and the Book of Enoch. The substance of this little document is closely paralleled in II Peter, and the question arises how this is to be explained. Is Jude a condensation of II Peter, or is II Peter an expansion of Jude, or are both based upon some other document ? II Peter is directed against certain persons who were denying t^e second coming of Christ, and it seems most probable that the writer simply appropriated to this purpose the denunciation which in Jude is directed at the Docetists. II Peter is remarkable in the number of New Testament books known to its writer ; he speaks of a collection THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 199 of Paul's letters, alludes to I Peter and the Gospel of Mark, quotes the Gospels of Matthew and of John, and reproduces most of the contents of Jude. II Peter is therefore m all proba- bility the latest of the New Testament books. But its writer fully intends it to be understood as the work of Peter and seeks to identify himself in a variety of ways with the apostle. That such a course was not unusual in the Christian Hterature of the second century has already been pointed out, and intel- ligent Christian opinion in antiquity came very slowly and reluctantly to the acceptance of II Peter as apostolic. Literature. — i. Brief works in English on all the books of the New Testament: B. W. Bacon, An Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1900); Hermann v. Soden, The History of Early Chris- tian Literature (New York: Putnam, 1906); A. S. Peake, Critical Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 19 10); E. J. Goodspeed, The Story of the New Testament (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 19 16), a brief presentation for the general reader of the situations out of which the several New Testament books arose and the way in which they met these situations. 2. Fuller works covering all the books of the New Testament: B. Weiss, Lehrbuch der Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 3d ed. (Berlin : "Hertz, 1897); A Manual of Introduction to the New Testament, 2 vols. (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1889), a translation of a previous edi- tion of the above; H. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 3d ed. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1892); A. Jiilicher, Einleitung in das Neue Testament, 6th ed. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1913); Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Putnam, 1904), a translation of an earlier edition of the above, a valuable intro- duction, representing liberal but not extreme views, with fewer technical details than Moffatt furnishes; T. Zahn, Introduction to the New Testa- ment, 3 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1909); C. R. Gregory, Einleitung in das Neue Testament (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909); James Moffatt, Intro- duction to the Literature of the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 191 1), the most complete volume for the well-equipped student. 3. Introductions to particular books or groups of books: V. H. Stanton, The Gospels as Historical Documents, 2 vols. (New York: Putnam, 1904); E. D. Burton, A Short Introduction to the Gospels (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1904); Principles of Liter- ary Criticism and the Synoptic Problem (Chicago: The University of 200 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Chicago Press, 1904); J. Wellhausen, Einleitung in die drei ersten Evangelien (Berlin: Reimer, 1905); A. Harnack, The Sayings of Jesus (New York: Putnam, 1908); William Sanday (editor), Studies in the Synoptic Problem (Oxford, 191 1); The Criticism of the Fourth Gospel (New York: Scribner, 1905); James Drummond, The Character and Authorship of the Fourth Gospel (London: Williams & Norgate, 1903); E. F. Scott, The Fourth Gospel: Its Purpose and Theology (Edinburgh: Clark, 1906); H. H. Wendt, The Gospel according to St. John (New York: Scribner, 1902); Robert Scott, The Pauline Epistles (New York: Scribner, 1909); F. Godet, Introduction to the New Testament. The Pauline Epistles (Edinburgh: Clark, 1899); 'Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul, 2ded. (London: Rivington, 1914). 4. The acquisition of the language of the New Testa- ment.— What has already been said respecting the nature of the interpretative process makes it at once evident that the inter- preter must be acquainted with the language in which the htera- ture which he is interpreting is written. Any language is a system of arbitrary symbols for ideas. There is no necessary, in the majority of cases there is not even a natural, relation be- tween the subject described or the idea expressed by a word and that word itself. This, which is obviously true, is made more evident by the fact that there are literally thousands of human languages. In other words, men have created thousands of systems, each of which, differing from every other one, is used for the symbolizing of human thoughts. Not only so, but there are as many systems of expressing those differentia- tions of thought which are indicated by the inflections and syntactical relations of words as there are for the differences of thought expressed by different words. These facts make it necessary that the interpreter of any writer or speaker shall be acquainted with that particular system of symbols — that is, that particular language— in which the author whom he is interpreting writes or speaks. The man of but one language may be scarcely aware of this fact, but the German who desires to understand a Greek or the Frenchman who wishes to understand a Chinese quickly discovers it. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 201 But it is not only the man who desires to interpret a different language from his own who is compelled to make a study of the language. There are 60,000 characters in the Chinese language, each of which represents a different idea. A fairly well-educated man knows but 2,000 of these. To acquire a knowledge of the other 58,000 is no small task. It is less obvious but equally true that no user of the EngUsh language knows all the meanings of all the words of that language, and the English student of the English Bible does not therefore escape the necessity of being a diligent student of the language of the Bible. To learn Greek may be more difficult for him than to learn English. But when Greek has been once acquired, he may learn the ideas represented by the New Testament words more easily, and certainly more exactly, through the medium of the Greek than through that of the English. But not all the meaning of the word is conveyed by its stem or body. The terminations show whether it refers to one object or many, whether it denotes the person or thing of which the sentence affirms something, or one who is affected by the action spoken of in the predicate. These and many other varieties of relations between things spoken of are expressed by the inflections of words. Out of this double fact that ideas are expressed by words and that words themselves take on different forms to express certain variations of the idea for which they stand arises the necessity for lexicography and grammar. a) Lexicography. — ^This is the process by which one dis- covers and formulates the meanings of words, i.e., the idea or ideas for the expression of which a given word may be employed. Had each word but one meaning and were there for each idea a separate word, this process would be relatively simple and might be compared to a mere table of equivalents of Roman and Arabic figures. In fact, however, in every language most words have various meanings and many ideas 202 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION can be expressed by different words. Furthermore, behind this variety of usage there Hes in all cases a historical process, in some cases of centuries of extent. Words which have in one period a certain meaning have in a later period come to have a very different meaning; sometimes the latter is almost the exact opposite of the former. The task of the lexicographer is therefore a strictly historical one. His task is to determine what meaning, or what various meanings, the writers of a given period were accustomed to express by the use of a given word. To discover this, it is often necessary not only to examine the extant literature which has come down to us from the period in question, but to trace the development of the usage through the previous periods in the history of the lan- guage. One can, for example, scarcely decide what the word ''lord" means in the New Testament without an extended investigation of its usage both by Hebrew and by Greek writers; and the same is true of many other words, such as "soul," "spirit," "holiness," "repentance." Literature. — Though they give some attention to New Testament usage, the standard lexicons of the Greek language exhibit this usage so inadequately as to make them insufficient for the purpose of the New Testament student. Yet because it shows the New Testament usage In relation to the general use of words in Greek literature at large, the student will often have occasion to consult Liddell and Scott, A Greek Lexicon, 8th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1891). But of far more use for the student of New Testament Greek is J. H. Thayer, A Greek- English Lexicon of the New Testament: being Grimm's edition of Wilke's Clavis Novi Testamenti, translated, revised, and enlarged, cor- rected edition (New York: Harper, 1889); Erwin Preuschen, V ollstdndiges griechisch-deutsches Handworterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testa- ments und der iihrigen Urchristlichen Litteratur (Giessen: Topelmann, 1 9 10). The testimony of the Greek papyri is taken account of in later lexical works: F. Zorell, Novi Testamenti Lexicon Graecum (Paris, Lethielleux, 19 11); H. Eberling, Griechisch-deutsches Wortcrhuch zum Neuen Testamente (Leipzig, Hahn, 1913); Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1914) (in progress: THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 203 Parts I, II, a-Sj . A later work than Thayer, but on the whole a less useful one, is Hermann Cremer, Biblisch-theologisches Worterbuch zum Neuen Testament, gth. ed. (Gotha: Perthes, 1902); Bihlico-Theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh and New York, 1880-86), trans- lation of the second edition of above work, with supplement based on the fifth edition. It consists of historical-lexicographical studies of - the most important New Testament words, and is a valuable supplement to Thayer, useful for extended study rather than ready reference. For purposes of independent study of New Testament words one needs concordances, the best being Moulton and Geden, Concordance of New Testament Words (New York: Scribner, 1897); C. H. B ruder, Concordantiae Novi Testanienti, 7th ed. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913) ; Hatch and Redpath, Concordance to the Septuagint and Other Greek Versions of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897). For a fuller discussion of the nature of lexicographical study as applied to New Testament words see E. D. Burton, "The Study of New Testament Words," Old and New Testament Student, XII "(1891), 135-47. For examples of special studies see, besides Cremer, mentioned above, A. Deissmann, Bible Studies, 2d ed. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1903); G. Dal- man. The Words of Jesus (Edinburgh: Clark, 1902); E. F. Thompson, The Words Meravoew and Mera/xeAtt (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1908); E. D. Burton, "Spirit, Soul and Flesh," a series of articles in the American Journal of Theology, XVII (October, 1913), 563-98; XVIII (January, 1914), 59-80; (July, 1914), 395-414; (October, 1914), 571-99; XX (July, 1916), 390-413- • h) Grammar. — What the lexicographer does in relation to the body or stem of a word, the grammarian does in rela- tion to the variations of meaning conveyed by the inflection of the word, and in general in respect to the relations of words in sentences. It is his task to arrange the various word-forms in an orderly scheme and to determine what various shades of ideas are expressed by these variations. What the nomina- tive case signifies, or the dative, what variation of idea is conveyed by the use of the present tense or the past, by the subjunctive mood or the optative, how sentences are built and what ideas are expressed by the structure of sentences — with all these and like questions the grammarian deals. It is obvious on the one hand that all these are, hke those of 204 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the lexicographer, purely questions of history, pertaining to the habits of men in respect to the use of words in a given period, and, on the other, that the answers to them are indis- pensable to the processes of interpretation. Literature. — In the field of grammar, even more than in that of lexicography, the New Testament student will have occasion to consult the standard grammars of the Greek language: W. W. Goodwin, A Greek Grammar (Boston: Ginn, 1895); Hadley- Allen, A Greek Grammar for Schools and Colleges (New York: Appleton, 1889); W. W. Goodwin, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of the Greek Verb (Boston: Ginn, 1890) ; Carl Brugmann, Griechische Grammatik, 4th ed. (Miinchen: Beck, 1913). For the Greek of the New Testament in particular, which, however, it is even more clear than formerly, used in general the forms and followed the syntax of the common Greek of -the period, see A. Buttmann, A Grammar of the New Testament Greek, translated by J. H. Thayer (Andover: Draper, 1891); G. B. Winer, A Treatise on the Grammar of New Testament Greek, translated by W. F. Moulton, 3d ed. (Edinburgh, 1882); F. Blass, Grammar of New Testament Greek, 2d ed. (New York, 1905); Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch, 4th ed., edited by Albert Delbrunner (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913), being a revised edition of the original of the preceding; E. D. Burton, Syntax of the Moods and Tenses in New Testament Greek, 6th ed. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1913) (unchanged from 3d ed., 1898); J. H. Moulton, A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. I, Prolegomena, 3d ed. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1908); A. T. Robertson, A Short Grammar of the Greek New Testament (New York: Armstrong, 1909); L. Rader- macher, Handbuch sum Neuen Testament, Bd. I, Neutestamentliche Grammatik (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1); A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 19 14), an exhaustive work making much use of the results of comparative philology and quoting extensively from recent writers. 5. The recovery of the text. — a)- What is textual criti- cism?-— To understand what a man has said, it is essential to know what he said. If a precise understanding of the meaning is wanted or if he has dealt with matters of impor- tance, it is desirable to know exactly what he said. If he wrote his words instead of merely speaking them, we can THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 205 reach certainty as to what he wrote by consulting his auto- graph manuscript, as in the case of Lincoln's Gettysburg address. In the case of ancient writers whose original manu- scripts, autograph or dictated, have been lost, we must depend upon copies made from them or secondary copies made from these in turn or from copies even further removed from the originals. But it is very difficult to copy even a few pages with absolute accuracy, and different copies of ancient works naturally differ from one another in many particulars. Which is right ? Probably no one of them is entirely so. One may preserve some particulars correctly, another others. Com- parison and scrutiny are necessary to decide which copy is probably closer to the original at the points in which the copies, disagree. This is textual criticism. In some cases an ancient work has come down to us in a single copy made long after the original work was written. It is evident that it matters very httle how many years have passed between the writing of the original work and the making of this particular copy, but very much how many copies have intervened, for with every copying of the text a new opportunity is given for errors to creep in. When an ancient work has been preserved in but a single copy, the effort to recover the precise text of the lost original must take the form of conjecture; that is, wherever the text is not smooth or consistent, or does not yield an intelligible sense, the scholar who is trying to recover the original text must try to guess what the writer actually wrote from what his copyists have represented him as writing. More can often be done in this direction than might seem probable, but at best this method is dangerous even in the ablest hands and should always be used sparingly and with caution. b) The problem of the New Testament text. — -But the New Testament is preserved not in one manuscript only or a few, but in hundreds and even thousands, in a greater number 2o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION indeed than any other work of literature. Few of these contain all the New Testament. It was usual to copy the Gospels together, the epistles of Paul together, and so on. But not only are there hundreds of such manuscripts of the original Greek text, but in the early centuries the New Testament was translated into Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Persian, Gothic, and other languages, and the manuscripts of some of these versions are very numerous. The textual materials for New Testament study are in fact so abundant as to be really overwhelming. Anyone who undertakes to study the New Testament seriously in EngHsh finds it presented to him in different textual forms. The Authorized Version differs materially from the Revised Version of 1881, and that in turn often reads differently from the American Revision. There are besides numerous lesser translations. Which is right? The Authorized Version of 161 1, like the series of English versions that had preceded it, beginning with 1525, was based on the early printed editions. In 15 14 the Greek New Testament was first printed at Alcala in Spain, but before it was published Erasmus in 15 16 issued his edition, and many editions followed these. For all of these the text was drawn from late manuscripts of the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, which differed relatively Httle from one another. But in the years that followed, manuscripts of much greater age and of very different textual quahty came one by one to light. In 1581 Theodore de Beze gave to the University of Cambridge his famous manuscript, called after him the Codex Bezae. In 1628 the patriarch of Constanti- nople gave to the king of England the Codex Alexandrinus. New studies revealed the worth of the ancient Codex Vati- canus, the Paris Codex of Ephrem was deciphered, and Tisch- endorf discovered at Mount Sinai the Codex Sinaiticus. Both Vaticanus and Sinaiticus date from the fourth century, and they are generally considered our best New Testament THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 207 manuscripts. The more ancient versions, first printed in the sixteenth and the seventeeth centuries, in the nine- teenth began to be critically examined and the materials for the study of the New Testament text were thus greatly increased. c) Better textual materials. — This growing mass of materials led to improved methods of investigation. Scholars had at first been content to reprint the prevailing sixteenth-century text, the Received Text, as it was called, and to put any valuable variants from it which the study of freshly discov- ered manuscripts yielded, into footnotes. But the really superior readings at length became so numerous that the true text was often to be found in the margin instead of in the column above. The editors of the Greek text had therefore to revise the Received Text. They did this at first modestly and sparingly, but at length grew bolder and broke away from it altogether, basing their text no longer on the Received Text, but wholly upon the ancient manuscripts, from the fourth to the tenth centuries, which had come to hght. It was the development of this critical ancient text, differing widely from that on which the Authorized Version had been based, that necessitated the Revision of 188 1. d) Types of New Testament text. — Yet these ancient manuscripts do not agree among themselves. Some of them exhibit the same kind of text that we find in the sermons of John Chrysostom, at the end of the fourth century. Quotations such as he and other Christian Fathers make from the New Testament are in fact among the most important aids to the study of the history of the text, because we can fix their dates and places of abode as we cannot those of most manuscripts. It was this text of Chrysostom's, which he had probably learned at Antioch, which prevailed in the Middle Ages and came down to modern times as the Received Text. Other early manuscripts, like the Codex Bezae and parts of the Freer and Koridethi Gospels, show a very different text, 2o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION with additions, omissions, and occasional substitutions, some- times of a very striking character. This erratic text has often the support of very early Christian writers, who seem to quote the New Testament in this form. Other manuscripts again preserve a text less picturesque than this and at many points less full and smooth than that of Chrysostom. Some would distinguish a fourth type of text differing from this last only in its greater smoothness and finish. How did these text- ual types come into existence ? What are their relations to one another ? Which of them is nearest to the original text ? And how can the original text be reached through them ? These are the questions which textual study seeks to answer. e) Method of textual criticism. — In doing this it is helpful to remember that changes made in copying are not all invol- untary; they are often intentional. We do not understand what lies before us to be copied, and so we naturally alter it to make sense. This alteration may possibly restore the original text where an earlier scribe had corrupted it, but it is quite as likely to corrupt the text or to make a previous corruption worse. With all three forms of such a passage before us it would not be difficult to discover which was the original and which the secondary reading. By this compari- son of rival readings we can in fact often determine which is the parent reading. Some manuscripts prove upon examina- tion to contain a large proportion of such readings, and we conclude that they represent a comparatively pure text. We infer that in other readings less demonstrably original they are probably right. When such a manuscript is found to agree in numerous particulars with another manuscript which has on similar grounds established its claims to accu- racy, the group thus formed carries great weight. If others can be added to the group, their testimony is further strength- ened. In such ways, by the comparison of series of rival readings, by the discovery of superior readings throughout a manuscript, by the study of groups of kindred manuscripts, and THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 209 b^ distinguishing parent manuscripts from their descendents, something hke certainty in textual study can be attained. Literature. — Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1881, Vol. II, revised ed. 1896). Vol. I presents the best Greek text of the New Testament that criticism has yet pro- duced; Vol. II, the best estimate of textual materials and the best statement as to the theory of textual history and the method of textual study. F. G. Kenyon, Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 19 12), is an excellent compre- hensive manuarfor the use of students. C. R. Gregory, Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1900-1909), is especially valuable for its full descriptions of manuscripts and other textual ma- terials. C. R. Gregory, The Canon and Text of the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 1907), furnishes a popular treatment dealing especially with the materials of textual criticism, manuscripts, versions, and editions. C. R. Gregory, Die griechischcn Handschriften des Neuen Testaments (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908), embodies an improved system of manuscript designations. A. Souter, The Text and Canon of the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 1913), is a concise and intelligent intro- duction to the subject, intended for students. M. R. Vincent, A His- tory of Textual Criticism (New York: Scribner, 1899), is especially useful as a sketch of the various editions and the critical principles underlying them. H. v. Soden, Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, 2 vols. (Berlin: Duncker and Glaue, 1902-13), furnishes a new approach to the textual problem, resulting in a partial return to the Received Text. While C. Tischendorf, Novum Testamentum Graece, ed. octava crit. maior, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1869-72), has been excelled by the text of Westcott and Hort, Tischendorf's apparatus of readings, though far from infallible or complete, is still unsurpassed. K. Lake, The Text of the New Testament (London: Rivington, 1902; 4th ed.. New York: Gorham, 1908), is the best short sketch for the general reader. F. H. A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 2 vols., 4th ed. (London: Bell, 1894), is an elaborate work, advocating the superiority of the tra- ditional text. 6. The interpretation of the books of the New Testa- ment.— With the book in a corrected text before him, with a knowledge of the language in which it is written, with an intel- hgent understanding of the life of the period in which it was written and a specific knowledge of the occasion which called 2IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION forth the book and the purpose which it was intended to achieve, the student is prepared to undertake the detailed inter- pretation of the book itself. This involves, as already pointed out, the discovery with the utmost possible accuracy of the precise state of mind of the author of which the book is a reflection (cf. p. 177). The interpretative process may be divided into two parts, grammatical interpretation and logical interpretation. The term "grammatical," as here used, does not mean pertaining to grammar, but has a meaning derived directly from the Greek word gramma, pertaining to that which is written. Similarly, the term "logical," as here used, has no direct reference to logic, but derives its meaning from the Greek word logos in the sense of discourse. Grammatical interpretation deals with the separate expressed elements that compose the complex discourse, and aims at the reproduction of the author's thought in so far as that thought was embodied in the separate terms as such and in their grammatical relations. Logical interpretation deals with the thought of the writer in its continuity as discourse. a) Grammatical interpretation. — This part of the inter- pretative process falls into two parts, according as it has to do with the meaning of words or with their relation in the sentence; with questions of lexicography or of grammar. On its lexicographical side again it falls into two parts, according as it seeks to ascertain the general usages of a word or its particular meaning in the passage in hand. Inasmuch as the meaning possible to a term in any given passage must be one of the meanings which were current for that word in that period in which the passage was written, it is evident on the one hand that the discovery of possible, that is, of current, meanings, must precede the assignment of a meaning to a given instance of the term, and on the other hand that the possible meanings must be determined by a historical investi- THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 21 1 gation. The latter is the process which we have already described as the task of the lexicographer. Its results are embodied in lexicons and dictionaries. The task of discover- ing which of the several meanings of a word historically established to be current the word bears in a given passage belongs to the interpreter as such. Only in the case that a word had but one meaning in the period in which the passage under consideration was written do the two processes merge in one. It is obvious that the same principles hold in the realm of grammatical relations — grammatical interpretation in the narrower sense of the term — as in that of meanings of words. The grammarian must first determine the possible usages of a given form, and then the interpreter as such must decide which of the relationships listed in the grammar corresponds to the writer's thought in the passage under consideration. Thus, for example, before one can decide in which of the various forces of an aorist indicative a particular aorist indicative is used, he must know in what various ways verbs in the aorist indicative were used in the period in which the New Testament books were written. One ordinarily turns for information of this kind as concerns meanings of words to a lexicon, and as pertains to meanings of forms and syntactical relations to a grammar. This is not because of any divine right of lexicons and grammars. Any student who has the ability, time, and patience may be his own lexicographer and grammarian. But unless he is prepared to give himself to the laborious historical study on which lexicons and grammars are based, he must rely upon the scholars who have done this work for him. But he must also be on his guard to take into account those meanings of words and those usages of forms which were current in the period from which the literature that he is studying came, and only those. Because Liddell and Scott assign to a word a given meaning, citing for it an example in Homer, it does not follow 212 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION that it could have been so used by Paul; nor does the non- occurrence in Plato or his contemporaries of a certain usage of the subjunctive exclude the possibility of its occurrence in the New Testament. But if in the first part of the process of grammatical inter- pretation, viz., the enumeration of possible meanings and possible relations, the student is naturally dependent on the lexicon and the grammar, in the second part, the selection of the actual meaning and the actual relation, he must, if he will be a real interpreter, assume a more independent position. The lexicons, for example, and of course the commentaries, frequently express an opinion as to the meaning of a word in a given passage. But such opinion is only incidental to the proper task of the lexicon and is of necessity subject to more doubt than the verdict of the lexicon as to possible meanings. The lexicographer's opinion in his own proper field, the' possible meanings of a word, is, or should be, based upon a broad induction and the study of many instances, and the probability that it is correct is much greater than that he is right in his interpretation of each individual passage. Appeal on the latter point may therefore properly be taken by the interpreter to the evidence itself. This evidence is to be found in the context — either the immediate context, which is often decisive by excluding all meanings but one, or the broader context, which, by disclosing the general trend of the writer's thought, guides one to the meaning which he has in mind for the term under examination. Further help may be obtained from parallel passages, this term being taken in its broader sense as referring to other passages in which the same writer has dealt with the same or similar subjects. To the meaning of a word it is often necessary to add, for purposes of interpretation, its reference. .Many nouns and even verbs are to this extent like pronouns. They have reference to persons, things, or acts which are identified, not by the meaning of the term, but by the context. Such THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 213 identification is as necessary to the recovery of the writer's thought as is the discovery of his meaning. Thus, in Rom. 5:12, "for that all sinned," the problem of interpretation is not only to define the word "sinned" and the force of its tense, but, even more important, to determine what event or series of events is referred to. It is also necessary in many cases to discover what associ- ated ideas were conveyed by words in addition to what may be strictly called their meaning. Thus the words "publican," "Pharisee," Sadducee" in the New Testament had each their own associated ideas, and these ideas were as much a part of the writer's thought in the use of words as the lexicographical definition. Altogether analogous to the process by which one ascer- tains the meaning of a word in a given passage is that by which the grammatical relations of terms are determined. The grammarian lists the possible usages. The interpreter must discover, by the study of the context and other like methods, which of the particular usages is in the writer's mind, in the particular passage. Often the grammarian will incidentally, by citing a given passage as an illustration of a given usage, express an opinion as to the use of the form in that passage. But such opinions are, like the similar verdicts of the lexicog- rapher, only opinions, not authoritative assertions, and to the interpreter as such belongs the decision. b) Logical interpretation. — It might seem as if with these tasks accomplished, viz., from the possible meanings of the various terms the actual ones selected and from among their possible relationships their actual relations determined, the interpreter's task would be fully accomplished. But such is far from being the case. To content one's self with these re- sults, important, essential, and difficult of achievement as they often are, would often be to fall far short of grasping the writer's thought, of "representing to one's own mind the whole of that state of mind of the author of which the language to be 214 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION interpreted was the expression." A story, an essay, a poem, a parable, a sermon, is a unity, not a collection of disjecta membra, nor can all the relations of part to part be reduced to grammatical statement. It represents a continuous current of thought, imperfectly represented by the words that suggest it and therefore imperfectly interpreted by definitions of words and naming of grammatical relationships. By means of language souls come into communion. The ultimate purpose of interpretation, it has well been said, is the communion of souls. But the communion of souls requires both expression and interpretation, and the thought which by means of language, expressed and interpreted, passes from soul to soul is often conveyed far more by what it suggests than by what it definitely expresses. Hence arises the necessity that to the process of grammatical interpretation, which deals with what is expressed in words, there should be added a process of logical interpretation which shall seek to reproduce the current of thought in its continuity, the body of thought in its unity. More specifically stated, the necessity for logical inter- pretation arises from two facts respecting the character of human language: first, no language, save possibly that of mathematical formulae and logical definitions, expresses in words all the thought which it is intended to produce, and actually does produce, in the hearer's mind ; the language leaves gaps to be filled by suggestion ; secondly, one train of thought is frequently employed to suggest another, the latter in itself wholly different from the former but so related to it that the utterance of the former begets the latter also. In other words, all men talk more or less in figures of speech. Corresponding to these two facts are two great divisions of logical interpretation: the interpretation of literal language and the interpretation of figurative language, the two having this in common, that they both deal with the reproduction of thought not actually expressed in the written or spoken THE STUDY DF THE NEW TESTAMENT 215 word, and differing in this, that the former has to do with filling the gaps between words, the latter with discovering in one line of thought conveyed by the words in their literal and usual sense a parallel line which it is the writer's intention to suggest. The methods of logical interpretation applied to hteral language are by the very nature of the process itself sus- ceptible of much less exact definition than those of gram- matical interpretation. It must suffice here to lay down a few general principles. (i) Logical interpretation must presuppose and be pre- ceded by grammatical interpretation; links of connection between expressed elements of thought can be supplied intelligently only when the expressed elements are them- selves correctly apprehended. (2) The omitted elements of thought which logical inter- pretation must supply in order to recover the continuous cur- rent of thought may vary all the way from a more exact definition of relationship between terms than can be deter- mined grammatically, to a whole sentence, expressing a fact taken for granted in discussion, and necessary to continuity of thought, but left unstated because already present to the mind of speaker and hearer. (3) The element of thought to be supplied must always be something contained in the mental possessions of the speaker or writer and believed by him to be in possession of those to whom he speaks or writes. The writer can leave to be supplied only what he knows, and assumes that his reader knows. The process of logical interpretation demands, therefore, an acquaintance as full as possible with the ideas common to the writer and originally intended reader. These are of course largely the ideas current in their age and environ- ment. It is just at this point that New Testament interpre- tation is making greatest progress today, in the recovery of the thought and life of the age in which Christianity was born. 2i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION (4) The element to be supplied must be so connected with what is expressed that the latter rnay be expected to suggest the former. The writer cannot assume that his reader will think of things in no way associated with what he puts into words. (5) From material reasonably believed to be the conmion property of the writer and the originally intended reader, and germane to the subject in hand, the exegetical imagination must construct hypothetical bridges to cover the gaps left between the expressed elements. (6) Such hypothetical bridges must be rigidly tested to see whether the suggestion gives continuity and logical consistency to the discourse, and whether the resulting course of thought is of such character that it can reasonably be attributed to the writer. That connection which best stands these tests may then be accepted as most probably representing the thought as it lay in the mind of the writer. But if the formulation of rules or principles applicable to the interpretation of literal language is difficult and necessarily inadequate, much more is this the case in respect to figurative language. No attempt can be made here to classify the various types and forms of figurative language or to formulate the specific principles of interpretation that apply to meta- phors, parables, and allegories. It must suffice to reiterate two general principles: first, interpretation aims to reproduce the writer's thought, not some other meaning which may be supposed in some more or less arbitrary way to belong to the words; secondly, it is a characteristic of human language generally that, habitually conveying more thought than it actually expresses, it often does this through the medium of a course of thought wholly distinct from that which is directly expressed though parallel to it; through an induced current, so to speak. The task of the interpreter, therefore, is by no means limited to finding out the meanings of words, however neces- THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 217 sary this may be as a part of his task, but requires him to reproduce the state of mind of his author and to pass through — or, more exactly, to perceive — the mental experience which the words of the author were intended to generate. In other words, the interpreter must neither include in his result things which the author's language suggests to his mind, but which the author did not have in mind, nor, by limiting himself to merely lexicographical and grammatical processes, exclude any thought which the author intended to generate. The whole process of interpretation is therefore reproduc- tive. Only when the interpreter as he reads lives through the mental experience which it was the purpose of the poem, the sermon, or the story to produce, only when he perceives in its entirety what the author saw before his vision as he wrote and intended his reader to see as he heard or read, has he achieved his purpose as interpreter. Successful interpretation, always reproductive, is as applied to ancient writings a process of resurrection and recreation. c) Application of the process of interpretation to the New Testament hooks. — It is to such a process as this that it is the task of the New Testament interpreter to subject all the literature from which he can derive material for the recon- struction of the early history of Christianity. Pre-eminent among this literature for his purpose are the books of the New Testament. Each of these represented a certain mental process and possession in the writer's mind which it was his purpose to reproduce in his hearer's mind. By its every word and construction it conveys some elements of that mental-* process. But its total thought is more than the meanings of words and the significance of construction. In its onward movement it is comparable to a stream, which one sees through a series of windows, not all of it visible to the eyes, but repro- ducible in its continuity by the mind, which, from that which is visible, reproduces the whole. In its totality it is com- parable to a building, of which one gains knowledge by 21 8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION observation of its several parts and constituents, but whose beauty and whose meaning as a representation of the archi- tect's idea are something far more than the added-up result of one's observation of its parts. The task of the interpreter calls for careful study of words and constructions, phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, for careful tracing out of the course of thought in its continuity, and for the reproduction of that mental picture which lay before the writer's mind when he had finished his book, if not, also in a measure before he began it. d) Use of the original or of translation in interpretation. — As already indicated, the work of interpretation is obviously best performed on the basis of the original text of the books, since only on this basis can the interpreter study the actual words and constructions by which the author expressed his thought. Yet much can be done on the basis of a good translation, it being as a rule only the finer shades of meaning that are missed by the student of an English translation. The greatest lack of such a student is an Enghsh dictionary of the words of the New Testament. With this supplied, as it is to be hoped it will be some day, his handicap as compared with the Greek student would be greatly reduced. Such as it is, it should be overcome as far as possible by a diligent effort to reproduce the atmosphere in which the book was produced and by repeated attentive readings of the book in the consciousness of that atmosphere. By these means the student of the Enghsh translation may arrive at a good understanding of the great ideas of his author and the total significance of his book, which will be of greater value than that which the stu- dent of the Greek achieves by minute study if he neglect the larger matters of contemporary thought, general purpose, and sweep of thought. Literature. — Of thoroughly satisfactory treatises on interpretation there are very few. The following are among the best available: J. A. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 219 Ernesti, Principles of Biblical Interpretation, English translation of the Institutio Interpretis by Charles H. Terrot (Edinburgh: Clark, 1843; by Moses Stuart, Andover: Draper, 1842); A. Immer, Hermeneutics of the New Testament, translated by A. H. Newman (Andover: Draper, 1877) ; M. S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, 2d ed. (New York: Phillips & Hunjt, 1883) ; F. W. Farrar, History of Interpretation (New York: Dutton, 1886); G. H. Gilbert, Interpretation of the Bible (New York: Macmillan, 1908) ; H. S. Nash, History of the Higher Criticism of the New Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1903). Of modern commentaries on the New Testament the best in general for the student who knows Greek, but does not use German easily, are: International Critical Commentary, edited by C. A. Briggs, S. R. Driver, and Alfred Plummer (New York: Scribner, 1895-); The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. R. NicoU, 4 vols. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1897-). To these are to be added many volumes on single books or groups of books, among which the following are important: C. G. Montefiore, The Synoptic Gospels, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1909); Plummer, An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew (New York: Scribner, 1909); H. B. Swete, The Gospel according to St. Mark (London: Macmillan, 1902); Allan Menzies, The Earliest Gospel [Mark] (New York: Macmillan, 1901); F. Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Clark); Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1883); B. F. Westcott, "St. John's Gospel," Bible Commentary (New York: Scribner, 1891); J. B. Lightfoot, St. PaiiVs Epistle to the Galatians, nth ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1905); St. Paul's Epistle to the Philipplans, 9th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1891); St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians and^to Phile- mon (New York: Macmillan, 1904); T. C. Edwards, Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (New York: Doran, 1897) ; J. A. Robinson, St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (NewYork: Macmillan, 1903); George Milligan, St. Paul's Epistles to the Thessalonians (New York: Macmillan, 1908); B. F. Westcott, Epistle to the Hebrews (NewYork: Macmillan, 1906); J. B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (New York: Mac- millan, 1910); B. F. Westcott, The Epistles of St. John (NewYork: Macmillan, 1892); H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John (New York: Macmillan, 1907). For the student who reads German the following are specially to be commended: H. A. W. Meyer, Kritisch-cxcgctischcr Kommcntar ilber das Neue Testament, revised by Bernhard Weiss and others, 18 vols. (Got- tingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1910-); Johannes Weiss (editor), 2 20 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, 2 vols. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1907); H. Lietzmann (editor), Handhuch zum Neuen Testament, 5 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907-11); T. Zahn, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament (Leipzig: Deichert, 1905-). For the student who reads neither Greek nor German the following series are specially commended: Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge: University Press, 1877-96); New Century Bible (New York: Frowde, 1899-1904); Bible for Home and School, edited by Shailer Mathews (New York: Macmillan, 1908-). For fuller lists of commentaries and other modem literature on the New Testament see C. W. Votaw, "Books for New Testament Study," Biblical World, XXXVII (May, 191 1). II. THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH I. History of interpretation and criticism. — a) Ancient interpretation generally allegorical. — ^The Pharisees had believed the Law of Moses to be verbally inspired and the Hellenistic Jews had extended this predicate to the whole of their scrip- tures, which included all the Hebrew Bible and much more beside. As thus inspired the divine word must, it was thought, be in all its parts capable of religious edification. This idea is very clearly put in II Timothy: "Every scrip- ture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness." This was precisely the view of the Jews of the Graeco-Roman world about the Jewish scriptures. But many passages of these writings did not, when taken literally, yield any such moral instruction, and pious Jews were carried along by their own principle to an allegorical treatment of them, by which the most unpromising narra- tive or ordinance could be made to serve the purposes of religion. It did not matter that the allegorical interpreter extracted from his text only what he had previously put into it. The dogma was satisfied. This way of using the Old Testament is familiarly exemplified in the writings of Philo THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 221 of Alexandria. Paul occasionally falls back into it, and the writer to the Hebrews habitually employs it. Growing up under the shadow of the Old Testament and coming at length to share its position of scriptural authority, the New Testament shared also in the allegorical treatment it received. From the time the New Testament books began to be regarded as Scripture we find Irenaeus and Origen treating them allegorically, and finding in them types and figures of spiritual need and remedy. The scholars of Antioch, it is true, kept themselves free from this fallacious and illusory method of using Scripture and practiced the Hteral interpretation of the New Testament, which John Chrysostom, their greatest preacher, conspicu- ously exemplified. But except for an occasional figure like Theodore of Mopsuestia, the allegorical method, under the influence of the scholars and teachers of Alexandria, pre- vailed in the early church. b) Eclipse of ancient criticism. — The collection of the New Testament writings into a sacred and authoritative canon incidentally removed them from the reach of criticism, that is, critical inquiry into their authenticity and historical char- aracter. But ancient Christianity was not altogether un- conscious of critical doubts and critical method. Julius Africanus, the friend of Origen, wrote him a very acute letter as to the History of Susanna, pointing out certain very cogent critical difficulties about supposing Daniel to have made in Hebrew the plays upon Greek words with which that book credits him. Susanna was part of the Greek Old Testament, and Africanus was engaged in biblical criticism. Origen's reply failed to meet his argument, and shows how far the greatest Alexandrians were from the historical method. But a little later another Alexandrian, Dionysius, showed critical interest and acumen when he pointed out that the Revela- tion differed markedly from the Fourth Gospel in both literary style and general tenor. But the general belief in the 222 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION inspiration of the Scriptures brought with it the idea of the infallibihty of Scripture, and the sporadic critical impulses of antiquity went down before this formidable combination. When the Catholic church added to these the authoritative interpretation of Scripture, criticism was completely halted, and so continued for a thousand years. c) Modern revival of criticism. — It was just this authorita- tive interpretation, however, that in the end opened the way for the revival of criticism. For over against Christian Scripture there grew up the Catholic tradition, and at length the disparity between the two became too great. The Protestant Reformation resulted. Two centuries later the critical movement stirring since the Renaissance reached a climax, and criticism began to be definitely applied to the New Testament. It was the text that first felt the touch of criticism. Richard SLgion (ti7i2) began the critical study of the New Testament text, and Semler (born 1725) carried it on. But Semler went beyond the Catholic scholar in this, that under the influence of his classical and historical studies he applied his criticism not simply to the New Testament text but as well to the New Testament canon, the origin of which he sought freely to investigate. Semler saw that in order to interpret the New Testament it must be historically under- stood, each document in it being interpreted in the hght of the circumstances which called it forth and which it was in- tended to meet. In Semler we see the transition from the lower (textual) to the higher (Kterary and historical) criticism. One of the first problems to emerge in this new study was the synoptic problem — that is, the question of the literary relationships of the first three gospels. Investigation of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel and of the Pastoral Epistles soon followed. But with 1835 a new unity begins to per- vade these detached and generally negative studies. It was no longer enough to show that Paul did not write the Pastorals THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 223 or John the Fourth Gospel. It was seen that, whoever did or did not write these books, they had possessed great influ- ence and worth and had functioned importantly in the world for which they were written, and that even a non-apostohc writing might have great human significance and worth. With Baur and Strauss criticism became a constructive method. In this rather than in their extreme results lay their contribution to critical study. Their work has been modified and corrected by the influence of the followers of Schleier- macher (11834), Ritschl (1822-89), and others. d) Historical interpretation. — It will be seen that it is criticism that has opened the way for the historical inter- pretation of the New Testament. The New Testament is no longer interpreted as a book apart, but as having arisen in the closest possible human relationships. While the authoritative Catholic interpretation assimied the agreement of the various writers with one another, the historical method is prepared to recognize disagreements where they exist. In other words, each New Testament author is guaranteed the right to speak as he sees fit, not warped into a rigid and minute conformity to the other authors of the New Testament. Moreover, the sources of the documents and the literary methods which some of the writers employed are to be studied with the same diligence and freedom as are applied to any other historical documents, in order that our knowledge of the New Testament may be as sound and trustworthy as earnest and intelligent inquiry can make it. Literature. — F. H. Farrar, History of Interpretation (London: Mac- millan, 1886). G. H. Gilbert, A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible (New York: Macmillan,igo8), is a compact and useful sketch for the general reader. H. S. Nash, A History of the Higher Criticism of the New Testament (New York: Macmillan, 1903), explains to the general reader how criticism became necessary and possible and how it came to be actually applied to the New Testament writings. C. A. Briggs, A General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture (New York: Scribner 1899), is a large work, well informed and readable, by one who did much to advance the critical understanding of the Old Testament. 224 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 2. History of the Canon. — a) Problems presented by the appearance of the New Testament. — The best and earliest Christian writings were composed at various times and places to meet the specific demands of definite historical situations. Their writers with one exception claimed for them no such authority as Old Testament Scripture possessed. How did it come about that they were afterward collected into a sacred canon? The primitive church acknowledged the inward authority of the spirit in the heart. They esteemed this above any written word. "The letter killeth, the spirit giveth Hfe." Why did they so soon appeal to a new Scripture ? What was the purpose of the collection ? Was it to supply historical material on Christian origins, or devotional works for church' use, or manuals of church life and manage- ment, or literature for missionary propaganda? Was it to complete the Old Testament as a companion volume or to compete with it as a modern substitute ? How did these books come to be collected? Their writers did not intend them for such a purpose. Was it an unconscious automatic movement, by which without human contrivance these books and no others found each other amid the Christian writings of the first two centuries and clung together? Who invented the New Testament? Did Mar- cion, the first man to put out any considerable collection of Paul's letters ? Or Justin, the first one to show acquaintance with four gospels ? Was it the church at Antioch, or Ephesus, or Alexandria, or- Rome? Or did each of these have a share in the process ? Not only the concept but the content of this New Testa- ment provokes inquiry. Upon what principle was it made up ? Was it supposed to include apostolic writings only and all the apostolic writings ? Was the test authorship, or age, or edification ? The presence of four gospels raises a question. " Why four instead of one, or five ? There were other gospels and among THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 225 these four the early church had its favorite gospel, the one known to us as Matthew's. How comes it that the New Testament includes and co-ordinates four such narratives, although on some matters they very definitely disagree ? b) Variety among ancient New Testaments. — Even after the early churches had become accustomed to the idea of a Christian Scripture, there was evidently much uncertainty as to what particular books belonged in the collection which they named the New Testament. In Alexandria the Epistle of Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles were regarded as Scripture by some very intelHgent men. In Rome the Revelation of Peter seems to have been so esteemed. But in Syria not even the Revela- tion of John was accepted as part of the New Testament. The Syrian church indeed long admitted only twenty-two books to its New Testament, omitting II Peter, Jude, and II and III John. On the other hand, the Syrian church, at one stage iti its history, accepted III Corinthians as canon- ical. The Roman church long excluded the Epistle to the Hebrews from the New Testament. As late as the fourth century individual Christian leaders in Asia Minor excepted from their New Testament various minor epistles which we find in our New Testament, and even the Revelation of John. Some of our earliest Greek manuscripts of the Bible (Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus) include as part of the New Testa- ment such books as I and II Clement, Hermas, and Barnabas. Out of this ancient confusion when did our New Testament emerge in clear and definite form ? What conditions and considerations determined its final form, and who was respon- sible for it ? How far are those considerations vahd today ? These questions have a definite bearing upon our con- ception of the New Testament and upon its proper place in modem religious Hfe. How shall they be answered ? c) Historical approach to the problem. — The New Testament is evidently in some sense the companion of the Old. Whether 226 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION it arose as supplement or as substitute, the Old Testament is its parent and its explanation. We must inquire what was thought of the Jewish Scriptures by the Jewish people of the first century and how Jesus and his first followers regarded them. To what extent did they regard the Old Testament as authoritative ? We must ask further what other authorities the first Christians recognized and what the earHest Chris- tian writers thought about their own authority. We must trace these ideas of inward and of outward authorities through the meager remains of early Christian Hterature into the fuller stream which develops in the time of Irenaeus and Tertullian. We must observe how the phrase New Covenant or New Testament, first used by Jeremiah, and quoted more than once in the New Testament, came to assume a literary sense and to be used of the collection of books in which that New Covenant was set forth. We must find out what Christian writings were first esteemed equal in authority to the Old Testament Scriptures and to what they owed this preferment. We must see what part prophets and apostles played in this development and try to appreciate the situation of the primitive churches, scattered, unrelated, and not highly intelligent, when the gifted and enthusiastic party leaders of the second century began to move among them with energy, eloquence, and fervor. d) The rise of the New Testament. — ^We must study the rise of the Cathohc church, which sought to unify and relate these scattered religious units and recall them to what it deemed the primitive type of Christian teaching. We shall observe the different ways in which the several leading centers of Christianity, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, contributed to this movement, and the different lists of Christian writings, which the different districts saw fit to canonize by reading from them publicly in Christian worship. While Syria lags behind in canon-building and Alexandria, with its encyclopedic writers, forges ahead, Rome occupies a middle ground. We THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 227 shall find Eusebius, perhaps the most intelligent Christian of his time, uncertain as to precisely what books ought to be included in the New Testament and content to reproduce Origen's classification of them into accepted, rejected, and disputed books. Not until the festal letter of Athanasius in the year 367 shall we find the fist of books which we have in our New Testament anywhere set forth without addition or omission. Councils later indorsed this list, but centuries more elapsed before the Greek and Latin churches unani- mously concurred in it. Meantime the Syrian church clung to its limited canon of twenty- two books and the Armenian church shared its opposition to the Book of Revelation and the lesser Catholic epistles (II Peter, II, III John, Jude), while the Ethiopic or Abyssinian church on the other hand developed a fuller canon than Western Christianity had done, including eight or nine writings unknown to the Western canon. The New Testament in modern times. — An occasional Latin manuscript, it is true, included the spurious httle Epistle to the Laodiceans in the Vulgate New Testament, but there was general unanimity in the West as to the con- tents of the New Testament when the invention of printing made possible the general circulation of the whole collection in a single volume. But this had hardly taken place when the critical views of certain reformers began to threaten the position of minor documents such as James. Other reformers like Calvin set forth a very rigorous doctrine of Scripture, and on the whole the Reformation tended to confirm and enhance the authority of the canonized New Testament. The spirit of criticism, however, awakened in the Renaissance, at length took up the canon's claim to unique authority. The effects of that inquiry constitute the latest chapter in the history of the New Testament. Under its influence we are today perhaps nearer to the primitive Christian conception of the basis of authority in religion than the church has been for many centuries. / 228 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION On the whole, no discipline connected with New Testament study is more illuminating and emancipating than the study of the history of the New Testament canon. Literature. — B. F. Westcott, A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament, 7th ed. (London: Macmillan, 1896); C. R. Gregory, The Canon and Text of the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 1907), both standard descriptive treatments, not always alive to the great problems of the canon's history; A. Souter, The Text and Canon of the New Testament (New York: Scribner, 1913), a condensed presenta- tion of the main facts, for the general reader; E. C. Moore, The New Testament in the Christian Church (New York: Macmillan, 1904), a comprehensive and scholarly presentation of the history of the New Testament, for the general reader; T. Zahn, Geschichte des neutesta- mentlichen Kanons, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Deichert, 1888-92), valuable for its collection and investigation of materials rather than for its deductions; Grundriss der Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons (Leipzig : Deichert, 1901), a concise summary of the conclusions of Zahn's larger work; J. Leipoldt, Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1907-8), an excellent modern treatment, only deficient in clearness of arrangement ; A. Harnack, Die Entstehung des Neuen Testa- ments (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1914), a timely and incisive sketch of the causes and effects of the making of the New Testament; E. Jacquier, Le nouveau Testament dans I'Eglise Chretienne, Vol. I (Paris: Lecoffre, 1911), clear, fair, and intelligent in its presentation of evidence and opinion, but dogmatically controlled in its conclusions. III. THE USE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TODAY It was suggested in the introduction to this chapter (p. 165) that the ultimate aim of all New Testament study is the enrichment of human life, and of course specifically in those aspects of life which we commonly include under the terms "moral" and "religious." This discussion ought not to close, therefore, without a few words concerning the uses of the New Testament by modern men. We may distinguish four such uses. I. For the purposes of history, — On this point little need be added to what was said in the introduction, pp. 165 ff. THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 229 As pointed out there, the employment of the results of the interpretative and critical processes in constructive historical work is within the field of New Testament study, but in this volume is dealt with mainly in chapter v. It calls, therefore, for no extended discussion at this point. All history must be written on the basis of records of the past of one sort or another. All such records must be interpreted, i.e., their meaning must be discovered, in order that they may be avail- able for the purposes of the historian. If these records con- sist of written statements — ^literature in the most inclusive use of the term — the immediate product of the process of interpretation is, as already pointed out, the thought of the writer. This thought is itself a historic fact of prime impor- tance for the historian. From such data the history of thought is constructed, and of all history none is more impor- tant than the history of thought. It was the recognition of the importance of the history of thought that led in the last century to the development of biblical theology as a distinct division of the field of biblical study. For biblical theology, as it is understood in modern times, is simply the history of reHgious thinking in Israel and the early Christian church in so far as that history can be traced in the books of the Bible. If eventually this discipline shall disappear again from the field of theological study, it will be because it is recognized on the one hand that the history of thought cannot profitably be separated from that of the other aspects of life, and on the other that the thought of which the books of the Bible bear witness cannot be separated from the life of the period of which we have evidence in extra-biblical literature. Meantime it is beyond all question clear that the bibhcal historian, whether dealing with thought or external event, must do his work genetically. In other words, he must not only set forth facts, but must set these facts in relation, associ- ating them with their antecedent types of thought and showing their relation to later developments. 230 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION But whether we are dealing with the history of thought or of event, in order that the data yielded by interpretation may take their proper place in the completed history, the authors must be dated and located as exactly as possible, and, if possible, identified. That certain opinions were once held is a fact of Httle value to the historian unless he can with some measure of approximation determine when, where, and by whom they were held. Hence the necessity of literary criti- cism to determine authorship, date, and location, not only as a preliminary and aid to interpretation, but also as an indis- pensable condition of the use of its results by the historian. Whether to this process by which the history of opinions is discovered it is necessary to add a work of criticism in order to determine the correctness of the opinions, depends, from the historian's point of view, on the character of the opinions. With the correctness of Paul's opinions on matters of theology and morals the historian as such is not concerned. That Paul held them, itself makes them data for the history of opinion, i.e., for biblical theology. But when the matters on which statements are made are themselves matters of history, as, for example, when Luke affirms that Jesus was born when Quirinus was governor of Syria, or that Paul preached in the synagogue of Thessalonica for three Sabbaths, to the work of interpretation there must be added a further process in order to ascertain not only that Luke thought thus and so, but also what the historic fact was. For this purpose all the available evidence, whether found in the New Testa- ment, or on ancient monuments, or in the writings of Greek or Roman historians, must be brought to bear, testimony com- pared with testimony, and that finally accepted as fact which, so accepted, best accounts for all the evidence. Nor can the student altogether escape the necessity for far-reaching investigations and the use of general conclusions based on extensive study in the realm of biology, history, or philosophy. It must always be remembered that the record THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 231 is that which requires to be accounted for. This is the fixed fact — that the record affirms, for example, that Jesus was born without human paternity, that Stephen when accused before the Sanhedrin made a certain speech, that Peter when imprisoned in Jerusalem was released by an angel and guided out of the prison, the gates opening of them- selves. It is not the historian's task, or within his province, simply to deny the assertion or expunge the record, but to discover what is the most probable genesis of the record. Is it a correct interpretation of veritable experiences, or a misinterpretation, or a modification of an account which was originally one or the other of these, or a poetic expression of more prosaic facts which we ourselves are liable to misread through misinterpretation of its character ? In the consideration of these and other possible explana- tions of the fact of the record, account must be taken of such matters as the way in which the New Testament books — especially the narrative books — arose, as this is disclosed, for example, by extensive and minute study of the relation of the Synoptic Gospels to one another; the way in which the men of the first Christian century thought and reasoned in refer- ence to what may be called the natural and the supernatural; the total evidence of biology as to the possibihty of partheno- genesis, and the total evidence of history as to the probability of the occurrence of unique exceptions to otherwise universal laws. The eventual verdict of the historian will be the accept- ance of that as fact which, being so accepted, best accounts for the existence of the record as it stands. Thus the New Testament scholar in his character as historian becomes far more than an interpreter and cannot escape those large responsibilities which fall to the historian in general. Literature. — Weiss, Biblical Theology of the New Testament, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Clark, 1879), Introduction; Beyschlag, New Testament Theology, 2 vols.. Introduction (Edinburgh- Clark, 1896); Burton, "The Relation of Biblical Theology to Systematic Theology," Biblical World, Vol. XXX (December, 1907), pp. 418-28. 232 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 2, For the purposes of theology and ethics. — In the realm of theological and ethical thought the student of the New Testament not only finds certain opinions expressed, but dis- covers the historic fact that these opinions were held and ad- vocated by those great historic persons whose life and works gave birth to Christianity. It also falls within his task as a historian to discover how these teachers and writers influenced one another and how they were severally influenced by the thought of their predecessors and contemporaries, whether Jewish, Greek, Roman, or oriental. In other words, the New Testament historian deals with genetic relations, not simply with unrelated facts. It is within his scope to discover not only how far the author of the Fourth Gospel, for example, was influenced by Paul and what use he made of the Synoptists, but also how far he was affected by the Stoic philosophy, the Judaeo-Greek type of thought exemplified in Philo, or the Orientahsm which was sweeping over the Graeco-Roman world in his day. But all this falls strictly within the sphere of history. It may indeed throw important light upon questions of value. To discover, if such be the case, that a certain opinion of Paul was absorbed by him from an oriental religion which as a whole has little claim to be of exceptionally high religious value may properly affect one's judgment of the weight which is to be given to such an opinion as compared with one which is found to be the product of a personal and profoundly ethical experience of the apostle himself. Yet origins do not of them- selves determine values. To label a doctrine oriental is not to prove it false, nor to mark it Hebrew to prove it true. Questions of boundary are usually difficult to settle. It is more important to make clear distinctions in one's mind between questions of fact and origin and those of value and truth than to determine just where the boundary line hes between New Testament study and systematic theology. The former are clearly within the sphere of the New Testament THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 233 student, and in dealing with the latter one is certainly ap- proaching, if not entering, the domain of the theologian and ethicist. Perhaps it is best to say that New Testament scholarship has discharged its duty when it has answered the questions of history, including those of origin, and delivered its historic results to the theologian. It may then be left to the latter to say how these results shall be used to contribute to the ends of his science. Literature. — E. D. Burton, "The Relation of Biblical to Systematic Theology," Biblical World, XXX (December, 1907), 418-28; Gerald B. Smith, "What Shall the Systematic Theologian Expect from the New Testament Scholar?" American Journal of Theology, XIX (July, 1915), 383-401. 3. For the development of personal character. — The New Testament presents to us certain great and admirable char- acters, Peter, John, Paul, Jesus, and a few examples to be shunned, Judas, Ananias, and Sapphira. It also abounds in ethical and religious teachings, some in the form of specific injunctions, others in that of broad, inclusive principles. That the character of the noble men of the early Christian church, above all and far above them all that of Jesus, presents an ideal of character, both in its attitude toward God and in its relation to men, which makes a powerful appeal to the human mind and conscience and effectively incites to efforts to achieve that ideal, the history of the Christian church gives abundant evidence. The noblest men of the Christian centuries have drawn their inspiration from Jesus, and the noblest achieve- ments have found their suggestion and their impetus in him. Only less effective have been the teachings of the teachers and writers of the New Testament. If the influence of these has been less uniformly good, the explanation probably lies largely in two facts. First, the teachings of the New Testa- ment as they stand — and the church generally has not been at pains to distinguish sharply between the teachings of Jesus and those of his followers, whether expressed as their own or 234 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION ascribed to him — are on a somewhat lower level and some- what more easily open to misapprehension than is the char- acter of Jesus or even that of Paul. Thus the literalist, who has resorted to the book as his authority, has gained a smaller advantage than he who has turned to its great personalities for inspiration. The second reason, which is closely connected with the first, is that many interpreters of the New Testament, failing to penetrate deeply enough into its meaning, have taken its teachings in a legalistic spirit, thus reversing the real intention and missing the deeper thought of both Jesus and Paul. Legalism, to be sure, if its individual precepts be suffi- ciently lofty, tends to produce a type of character having a certain nobility, as is illustrated in ancient Phariseeism and the Puritanism of the seventeenth century. But, as illustrated by these same examples, it fails to produce the highest type of character. Afike, therefore, from the point of view of sound principles of interpretation and from that of the pragmatic test of actual effects, it appears that the highest benefit in personal charac- ter is achieved, not by treating the New Testament as a body of rules of conduct, but on the one hand as a book of history, presenting to us in biographical narratives of sur- passing interest the highest ideals of character, not to be copied in detail, but to be emulated in spirit and motive, and on the other hand as a transcendent example of the "literature of power," setting forth in many forms with many specific illus- trations the central principles of the reUgion of faith in God and universal love for all members of the community of sen- tient beings. This was both the reUgion and the morality of Jesus and of his great apostle. If it be asked whether the teachings of the New Testament and the example of Jesus are not to be accepted as authorita- tive, the. answer must be (and this is largely the point of view of the New Testament itself) that in the realm of belief that THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 235 only can claim authority which can establish itself as true, and in the realm of conduct that only which can estabhsh itself as good, not for the individual apart from the com- munity, but for the community and for the individual as a member of the community. The New Testament as a whole is the greatest aid to the production of good character of any piece of literature in existence; but it is most effective in the production of character when its authority is grounded in the truth and excellence of its teachings, pragmatically tested, not the truth in its authority; when emphasis is laid on its great central principles rather than on specific injunctions, and when the latter are severally put to the test of their conformity to the central principle and their fruitage in life. 4. For religious teaching and preaching. — Closely associ- ated with the use of the books for the development of personal character is their employment in rehgious teaching and preach- ing. For centuries Christian preaching has been based very largely on the New Testament, and Christian teachers have found in it not only a storehouse of texts, but a wealth of inspi- rational and instructional material. The discriminative judg- ment that has led men who were endeavoring to Uft their fellow-men to higher moral and rehgious planes to seek their material in this collection of ancient books has a sound basis. Nor is there any reason to anticipate that this judgment will be reversed or seriously modified by the results of scholarly research. The problems with which Jesus and Paul dealt are, in part, problems of perennial and deep interest ta serious- minded men of all ages, in part problems that are again to the front in our own day. Not only the specific answer which they gave to these questions, but even more the way in which they dealt with them, the profound and far-reaching principles at which they arrived in their consideration of their tasks, above all the ideals of character which their fives exemphfy, have always exerted and today still exert a powerful and 236 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION healthful influence in stimulating men to noble effort and guid- ing them in ways of wisdom and righteousness. The preacher who turns away from these deep wells of thought and life to shallower streams, and staler, though more modem cisterns, makes a serious mistake. The preacher must, indeed, be a man of his own day — a prophet to his own time. But to speak effectively to his contemporaries he needs to know the great epochs and the great teachers of the past, and he cannot afford to neglect the books of the Bible in which preachers of all the Christian centuries have found unsurpassed instruc- tion and unequaled inspiration. For the value of these books for the purposes of the teacher and preacher is in no way diminished, but rather increased by the recognition of the facts respecting their origin and author- ity, and a use of them in accordance with the facts. The student and preacher who discovers that our New Testament books were in no small measure the product of controversies and differences of opinion, of struggle within the souls of men and between men, learns indeed not to estimate all parts of the New Testament as of equal value for all purposes or from the rehgious point of view. But this discovery makes him a better not a worse preacher. The facts of history have shown that Paul was in error in his teaching in I Thessalonians about the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven. It is a palpable infidehty to truth to affirm that this teaching was true ; it is a double error to transfer it to the present time and reaffirm it for our own day. Some portions of his teachings about marriage and spiritual gifts, however adapted to meet the needs of the Corinthians, are impossible of reaffirmation today. Whether the preacher in the pulpit passes these things over in silence and limits himself to the things that have attested themselves as true by the test of human experience, as may often be his wisest course, or the teacher finds it necessary to deal with THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 237 them explicitly, honestly, and frankly, as he must if they come up for consideration at all, both the preaching and the teach- ing will be made more effective religiously and morally than when it is assumed that all the views of the New Testament writers are equally valuable. Nor are these superseded teachings thereby simply remanded to the historical museum. By dealing with them honestly and frankly the religious teacher of today may find them of great value. They were vital elements of the experi- ence of the early church. They illustrate how inevitable it is that religious experience shall find expression in terms of the thought of the time, and the development of religious think- ing march abreast with the general intellectual progress of the race. The study of them will on the one hand heighten our estimate of Jesus, as we discover how keenly his vision penetrated to the fundamental facts of religion and escaped being warped by the thought of his day, and on the other hand make us watchful of our own bias and prejudices and tolerant of what seems to us the one-sidedness and provin- cialism of other thinkers. But above all it is important that the recognition of those elements of the New Testament which no longer serve the moral and religious needs of modern men should never be allowed to obscure from our vision or exclude from our preach- ing those far more central elements which are of perpetual value and which are capable of being used today with almost limitless power for the transformation of character and the elevation of the lives of men. All human experience has in it moral value for teaching and preaching, and all may there- fore be legitimately used for these purposes. But it would be a great mistake to overlook the exceptional value of the books of the Bible for these purposes, or give them anything lower than the place of first importance. The Bible, espe- cially the New Testament, is still the preacher's most valuable 238 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION source of inspiration and thought. To neglect it is to enfeeble his ministry and diminish his power. To study it dihgently and intelligently, while also keeping himself awake to the problems of the modern world, is to fit himself to be a messenger of power, a prophet of God, to his own day and generation. V. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY By SHIRLEY JACKSON CASE Professor of New Testament Interpretation, University of Chicago ANALYSIS PAGES I. Task and Method. — ^The point of departure. — The ulterior limit. — The scope of study. — The developmental character of Christianity 241-244 II. The Contemporary Graeco-Roman World. — Political condi- tions.— The status of society. — The religious situation . . . 244-248 III. Contemporary Judaism. — The Jewish dispersion. — Jewish life outside Palestine. — The political history of Palestine. — The status of the people. — Religious conditions. — Jewish literature . . 248-253 IV. The Work of Jesus. — Jesus' relation to Judaism. — Jesus' relation to John the Baptist. — ^The task of the biographer. — The char- acter of the sources.^Tests for determining the historicity of tradition. — Chronological and geographical data. — Jesus' messianic con- sciousness.— The miracles of Jesus. — The personal religion of Jesus. — Jesus' place in early Christianity 253-270 V. Palestinian Jewish Christianity. — Relative importance of the period. — Sources of information. — Connections with Judaism. — The attainment of the new messianic faith. — ^The beginnings of a new community. — The break with Judaism. — Growth of missionary enterprise. — Life in the Palestinian community. — Later history of Palestinian Christianity 270-279 VI. Gentile Christianity in the Apostolic Age. — Characteristics of the period. — Sources of information. — The conversion of Paul. — • Paul's career as a missionary. — Missionary methods of Paul. — Life in the Pauline communities. — The Christianity of Paul .... 280-288 VII. Gentile Christianity in Post- Apostolic Times. — General characteristics. — Sources of information. — Evidences of growth. — Relation to Judaism. — Relation to the Roman state. — Organization and worship. — The content of Christian teaching. — The Christian life 289-300 VIII. The Work of the Early Apologists. — New tendencies. — The individual Apologists. — The specific problem of the Apologists. — The Logos Christology. — The philosophical vs. the mythical motive 300-305 IX. Gnosticism. — General characteristics. — The antecedents of Gnosticism. — Relation to Paul. — Earliest contact with Christianity. — The chief Gnostic leaders. — The Gnostic system. — The historical significance of Gnosticism 305-315 X. The Establishment of the Catholic Church. — The emergence of the Catholic idea. — Outstanding leaders of the period. — Internal conflicts. — Contemporary relationships. — Triumph of the monarch- ical ideal 315-326 V. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY I. TASK AND METHOD The point of departure. — The first problem confronting the student of early Christianity is the choice of a starting- point. Where ought he to begin his study in order to obtain a correct and full understanding of that historical phenomenon called " early Christianity " ? A moment's reflection will show that this question cannot be answered so easily as one might on first thought imagine. While the name Christianity is said to have been coined at Antioch in Syria early in the forties (Acts 11:23), the religious movement itself had already been in existence for some time. If by "Christianity" we mean an independent movement differentiated from Judaism by the estabHshment of a new organization, ritual, and doctrine, we may properly look for its beginnings in the period following close upon the death of Jesus. But this period, while it may mark the formal beginning of the new rehgion, does not supply an adequate starting-point for a thoroughly genetic study. Although Jesus did not formally break with Judaism, and so did not found any new organization, his work was so significant for the estabhshment of the new enterprise that the latter cannot be properly understood without taking account of his career and the career of his followers prior to his death. Again, he and they were part of a specific phase of human experience which gave them their problems and supplied them with a substantial religious heritage from the past. John the Baptist preceded them, and all stood within the great stream of later Jewish history. Moreover, Palestine had been ruled in turn by several different powers, finally coming under the domination of Rome. Consequently conditions within Judaism cannot be properly interpreted without some 241 242 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION reference to the Graeco-Roman world of which Judaism was now a part. The student of early Christianity must take account of these historical antecedents if he would make a thoroughly genetic study of the new religion. The ulterior limit. — A second problem is the choice of a a stopping-place. At what date did the Christian movement become so well established as an independent religion and win for itself so substantial a place in the Mediterranean world that it may fairly be said to have reached maturity ? While recognizing that all history is one great stream of Hf e and not a series of unrelated segments, we still may detect stages in the growth of a movement when certain phases of its life become so fully crystalHzed as to mark a definite period in its growth. Although Christianity did not receive legal recognition in the Roman world until the issuance of the edict of Milan (3 13 a.d.) , its distinctive character and form as a future world-religion were practically established by the middle of the third cen- tury. By this time the movement may be said to have passed from youth to maturity. Before this date a distinctively Christian literature had been assembled and canonized; apologists had come forward to defend the new faith before the poHtical authorities and to commend it to the learned; Christian communities had become established all about the Mediterranean, especially in the chief centers of population; and problems of organization, ritual, and doctrine had been worked out along lines which remained fairly stable for some time. It is a purely arbitrary, and on the whole erroneous, custom to make early Christianity end approximately with the year 100, at the close of the so-called New Testament period. The student must extend the range of his vision well into the third century if he would follow at all fully the course of Christianity's initial history. The scope of study. — Within this general period how com- prehensive should the scope of the student's inquiry be ? If he desires to become acquainted only with certain externals in THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 243 the history of the new reHgion, such as its territorial expansion, its ecclesiastical organization, its literary products, or its doctrinal tenets, he may confine himself within relatively narrow hmits. But if in addition to these items he also desires insight into the vital experiences and activities of actual Christian people, who faced various problems and ''worked out their own salvation with fear and trembling," the scope of inquiry must be greatly enlarged. These vital matters cannot be understood unless one becomes intimately acquainted with the actual world in which the early Christians lived. ■ And since the new reHgion drew its membership from many sources, a variety of surroundings contributed toward the making of hfe within the new communities. Converts from Palestinian Judaism were equipped with a set of expe- riences determined more immediately by political, social, cultural, and religious conditions within Palestine, but more remotely by conditions within the contemporary Graeco- Roman world to which Palestine politically belonged. Con- verts from among the Jews of the Dispersion had still another set of experiences, in which contact with Graeco-Roman life formed a more important item. Those who came over to Christianity from paganism — and these constituted by far the greater number of its adherents long before the close of our period — had still a different heritage, the reahty and importance of which are too often minimized. The scope of the student's inquiry must be sufficiently comprehensive to include the whole range of different Christians' experience in contact with their varied environment during the first two centuries of our era. The developmental character of Christianity. — ^One more item must be noted in order to insure correct procedure. What conception of Christianity's nature is implied in the foregoing definition of the historian's task? This t>'pe of study will necessarily view Christianity in terms of life — the vital religious experience of actual people. This means 244 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION that wide variations are to be recognized, since varying types of personality set in different environments and drawing upon different historical heritages must produce much complexity in real Kfe. While the historian will note items of uniformity among Christians he will not neglect items of diversity, which are quite as essential to a correct understanding of the actual rehgious life of believers. Nor will he attempt to define Christianity simply in terms of static quantities of belief, ritual, or practice. The behefs which different Chris- tians held, the forms they employed in worship, and the decrees they enacted for the conduct of the ideal life must all receive due attention, but the true historian will ever remember that his work is not completed when he has merely catalogued and evaluated these products of early Christian living. His ultimate task is to interpret the great complex of actual life out of which these things came and of which they formed an integral part. Thus Christianity must be conceived as thoroughly vital and developmental in its nature. Literature. — G. W. Knox, article "Christianity" in the Encyclo- paedia Britannica, nth ed. (Cambridge: University Press, 1910), VI, 280-91; S. J. Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1914), pp. 1-47; G. B. Smith, "Christianity and History," Biblical World, XLIV (1914), 409-16. II. THE CONTEMPORARY GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD The early Christians' world, taken in the large, was Graeco- Roman. At the outset their relations with this larger world were at second hand through the medium of Judaism. But since Judaism itself was really a part of Graeco-Roman Kfe as a whole, and more especially since Christians in the second and successive generations were not only brought into intimate touch with gentile hfe but were actually a part of it by birth and training, the first duty of the student of early Christianity is to acquaint himself with conditions in the Graeco-Roman world. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 245 Political conditions. — In order to obtain a proper per- spective for viewing the political history contemporary with early Christianity, one should begin with the rule of Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.)- The course of history under his successors (the "Diadochi") and their descendants (the "Epigoni"), and particularly the rule of the Seleucids in Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt, ought to be followed with some care. Otherwise it will be impossible to understand some of the most important phases in the experience of the Jewish people as well as the gentile conditions of life which became fixed at this time and remained substantially unchanged in many respects even after the Romans conquered the East. But attention must center particularly upon the Roman period, especially from the time of Augustus on, when the pohtical history of the Roman Empire had a very important bearing upon the life of both Jews and Christians. A knowl- edge of this background is essential to an understanding of such significant events as the death of John the Baptist and of Jesus, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. and its destruction in 135 A.D., the long imprisonments of Paul and ultimately his death as well as that of many other Christian leaders, the persecutions which the Christian movement suffered from time to time, and its ultimate recognition as a state-religion. The status of society. — The social situation is a more difhcult subject to study, but one of equal importance for the student of Christian origins. In the first place the economic conditions of that age were largely responsible for the dis- persion of the Jews throughout the Mediterranean lands as well as for that free movement of the masses which con- tributed so significantly to the spread of early Christianity. The economic situation also had much to do with the dissemi- nation of many pagan faiths over the territory where Christian- ity later came to be established, and these cults accordingly constituted an important factor in the history of Christian expansion. The social distinctions of the time must also be 246 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION , studied, not merely for the light they shed upon the ante- cedents of the Christian movement, but because the expanding life of the new movement was so closely linked with the general social status. The new cosmopolitanism which had resulted from the establishment of world-empire; the rapid development of individuahsm called forth by the breaking down of the narrow nationalism of earlier times; the mingling of many different nationalities at the great centers of popu- lation ; the social gradations distinguishing slave from master, rich from poor, ignorant from learned — -these are topics about which the student of early Christianity should possess accurate and fairly full information. The general cultural status of Graeco-Roman civilization ought also to be studied for the Hght it sheds upon the personnel of the gentile churches and the conditions under which the missionary propaganda was carried on. A knowledge of the ways in which the youth were educated, the intellectual standards of the time, the popular modes of entertainment such as the sophist provided, and the types of literature which found favor with the people of that age will aid very materially in our study of the early Christian movement. The religious situation. — The religious side of Graeco- Roman life, while inseparably bound up with political, social, and cultural conditions, is so important for the study of Chris- tian origins that it deserves special attention. The outstand- ing religious characteristic of the period was its syncretism. This was exceedingly complex, but for convenience of treat- ment some attempt must be made to single out in a general way the chief factors in this complicated life. The student may select the following topics for investigation: I. A study of survivals from the ethnic faiths of an earlier age is of value. Since Graeco-Roman civihzation occupied territory that had nourished older cultures such as those of Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine, pre-Hellenistic rehgious survivals naturally played an impor- THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 247 tant role in later times. To these oriental heritages must be added the popular polytheism of Greece and Rome. To be sure, the ancient cults were often considerably affected by the new conditions of the later age, but these changes frequently in- creased rather than lessened the significance of the ancient faith. 2. The so-called mystery-religions form a sufiEiciently dis- tinct phenomenon to receive independent treatment. In the main they were, indeed, survivals from an earUer age, but they attained unique prominence and importance in Graeco- Roman times. In Greece the Eleusinian mysteries are most deserving of attention, though other cults of similar type, such as the mysteries of Dionysus, ought not to be ignored. A study of the oriental mysteries which in this period spread far and wide over the Mediterranean lands will also prove very instructive. The more important of these, to which study should be directed, are the cults of Cybele and Attis in Phrygia, Ishtar and Tammuz in Babylonia, Ashtart and Eshmun in Phoenicia, Atargatis and Hadad in Cihcia and Syria, Aphro- dite and Adonis in Syria and Cyprus, and Isis and Osiris- Serapis in Egypt. 3. A third type of Graeco-Roman religion, which had con- siderable influence, was the worship of the ruler. The attempt of the Seleucids to impose this worship upon the Jews had much to do with the Jewish uprising of Maccabean times, and emperor-worship under the Romans affected considerably the life of both Jews and Christians. Some of the most character- istic experiences and doctrines of early Christianity were the result of contact with this pervasive phenomenon - against which Christians uniformly protested. 4. The popular philosophy of that age was so closely linked with religion as to furnish a distinct item in the actual religious situation. The Epicurean and Stoic schools are of greatest importance for the student of first- and second- century Christianity, before neo-Platonism gained pre-emi- nence. Stoicism in particular had permeated the life of the 248 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION masses and was being vigorously preached by missionaries who styled themselves apostles of Zeus sent to proclaim a message of deliverance to the common man. Acquaintance with both the content and the form of their preaching will often prove helpful as shedding light upon the early Christian missionary's task and methods. 5. Certain types of religious speculation, mostly oriental in origin, were also common in this age. A knowledge of these may be obtained by studying such subjects as astrology, pre-Christian Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and ancient mysticism in general. Literature. — Greek and Roman authors of the period wrote volumi- nously. Many of their writings are still extant, for which see the standard works on Greek and Roman literature. H. N. Fowler, A History of Ancient Greek Literature (New York: Appleton, 1902), and J. W. Mackail, Latin Literature (New York: Scribner, 1912), are good brief treatments. For comprehensive treatments one may consult W. von Christ, Geschichte dcr griechischen Litteratur, 3 vols., 5. Aufl. (Miinchen: Beck, 1911-13), and M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, 6 vols., 2.-3. Aufl. (Miinchen: Beck, 1905-14). To these literary soiirces we must add large quantities of non-literary documents, such as papyri and inscriptions, of great importance for our study. As for modern study of the Graeco-Roman world, the main outlines of the subject are given in S. J. Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity, chaps, iii, vii-ix, where literature is also cited in full. The following will be found especially useful: E. Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church (London: Williams & Norgate, 1890); P. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-romische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zu Judentum und Christentum, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 2); A. Deissmann, Licht vom Osten, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1909; English translation. Light from the Ancient East [New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910]); S. Angus, The Environment of Early Christianity (New York: Scribner, 191 5). III. CONTEMPORARY JUDAISM The Jewish Dispersion. — The territorial distribution of the Jewish people in Graeco-Roman times was extensive. Those Jews who lived outside Palestine were greatly in the THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 249 majority, and from the time of the Exile on they were scattered widely over the whole territory. Large numbers of them hved in the Tigris-Euphrates valley as well as in Egypt, where they became very numerous under the Ptolemies. In Syria and Asia Minor they constituted a large percentage of the popula- tion in early Christian times, and throughout other parts of the Mediterranean world they were everywhere in evi- dence. Josephus (Ant., XIV, vii, 2) reports Strabo as saying, " One cannot readily find any place in the world which has not received this tribe and been taken possession of by it." Thus the significance of the Jewish Dispersion for the history of early Christianity was very great, not simply because Chris- tianity in gentile lands naturally built upon the foundation which Judaism had laid, but also because the Judaism out of which Christianity in Palestine grew had already been impressed by forces from without. Jewish life outside Palestine. — In studying the status of the Jews in the Diaspora several items should be noted. They occupied a distinct position within the civic life of an ancient city and enjoyed many special favors. They sometimes stood high socially, even holding important official positions; yet as a whole they carefully preserved their distinctiveness. Since they maintained a separate community organization, their rehgious Hfe was in so far as possible modeled after that of their kinsmen in Palestine and they retained a very Hvely interest in the Holy Land. But the stimulus of their gentile environment was not without effect upon their religion, nor were they by any means impervious to the influences of foreign culture. A Philo or a Josephus, though an aggressive defender of the Jewish faith, was quite different from a Palestinian rabbi. The fact that Judaism retained its integ- rity, notwithstanding these widely varying conditions, and even carried on a proselytizing propaganda, shows that we must not regard it as merely an isolated Palestinian phe- nomenon without any significant vitality. Inquiry into the 250 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION vigorous religious life of the Jews of the Diaspora, and a recog- nition of the close connection they maintained with Palestine, should do much to prevent the student from falling into this not uncommon error of depreciating the vitaHty of Judaism. The political history of Palestine. — A brief sketch of the poHtical history of the Palestinian Jews is essential to an understanding of their religion. This study may begin with Alexander the Great, but its importance increases with the time of the Seleucids and Ptolemies. The most significant point in the history of this general period is the revolt of the Maccabees. From this time on the poHtical activities of the Jews must be followed with some care since their rehgious life is very closely connected with national activities. Not only during the rule of the Maccabean princes, but after the sub- jugation of Palestine by the Romans, politics and religion went hand in hand. It was this situation which produced the different Jewish parties and raised many of the perplexing problems which were discussed by both Jews and Christians. Thus familiarity with the political experiences of the Jewish people during the period from the outbreak of the Maccabean revolt in 167 B.C. to the destruction of Jerusalem in 135 a.d. is absolutely essential to an understanding of the rise and early history of Christianity. The status of the people. — Similar consideration should be given to the social, economic, and cultural status of the people. The daily occupation of many persons consisted in tilling the soil and raising cattle; others were fishermen, artisans, or merchants; others followed a professional career, being priests, scribes, or physicians; many others were ordinary day laborers and some were slaves, although most persons of the latter class were probably of foreign birth. These different occupations yielded an abundance to some, while others lived in poverty. As a rule the priestly class was well-to-do, but the common people were less prosperous and the payment of tribute to Rome, together with the col- THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 251 lections for the temple at Jerusalem, often proved exceedingly burdensome. In matters of education and general culture, interest centered chiefly in the Scriptures. But these writings were in a language which the common people no longer under- stood, and apparently few of the Aramaic-speaking populace ever became proficient in the use of Hebrew. The education of the upper classes was more extensive. Those who could afford leisure for study attended the school of some noted rabbi, devoting themselves to the study and interpretation of the Scriptures. Other Jewish youths with a broader outlook, such as Josephus, for example, added to their strictly Jewish training a smattering of Hellenistic education. These various conditions must be understood by the student who wishes to know the actual situation in which Jesus, his imme- diate followers, and many of the early missionaries of the new religion had lived in their youth. Religious conditions. — The more distinctly religious side of life among the Jews is a subject of especial importance. I. Religion was fostered and came to expression in differ- ent ways, but it centered about three chief institutions, viz., the Temple, the Synagogue, and the Law. Associated with the Temple were the elaborate priestly organization, the national tribunal known as the Sanhedrin, the sacrificial system, and the great national festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. The Synagogue was also a very important local factor in the hfe of the people. It served as town- house, school, and church — a community center for the dis- trict in which it stood. In the third place the Law, together with the persons and means employed in its interpretation, occupied a large place in the hfe of the people. To them the Law embodied God's will for every phase of thought and action, hence the especial significance attaching to the pro- fession of the scribe and to the oral tradition by means of which the ancient teaching was elaborated and made appli- cable to the conditons of life in later times. 252 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 2. The various parties, though in reaHty their significance was often quite as great poKtically as reKgiously, not only represent special phases in the development of Jewish religion but constitute the setting for much early Christian activity and thinking. The Pharisees and Sadducees are the parties most frequently mentioned, but the Zealots ought not to be ignored. In fact, their place in the history and life of the period is probably greater than we have been accustomed to imagine on the basis of the infrequency with which they are mentioned in the New Testament. Still other parties, such as the Zadokites and the Essenes, represent important tendencies within Judaism at the beginning of the Chris- tian era. 3. Furthermore, the religious thinking of that day had crystalhzed into several distinct doctrines which suppHed a point of departure, and often largely the content, for early Christian speculations. The different notions which the Jews entertained regarding the Kingdom of God, the relation in which they set the Messiah to the Kingdom, and the plans which they outlined for the consummation of their hopes are all items of fundamental significance for the rise and early development of Christianity. Jewish literature. — Finally, it should be noted that the vital experience of the Jewish people found partial expres- sion in a distinctly religious literature, a portion of which has come down to us. Sometimes students of early Christianity, in pursuing the literary side of their investigation, have passed directly from the Old Testament to the earliest Christian writings. But in the interim, and contemporary with the rise of a Christian hterature, important Jewish documents were produced, a knowledge of which is now recognized as absolutely essential to the proper equipment of one who is to study early Christianity. This survey of hterature should include not only those books commonly referred to as Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, but all other THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 253 Jewish documents, especially such extensive works as the writings of Philo and Josephus and the earher portions of the Talmud. Literature. — The two standard collections of extra-biblical Jewish documents are E. Kautzsch, Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des- Alteii Testaments, 2 vols. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1900), and R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha oj the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913). These, it should be remembered, do not con- tain Philo, Josephus, or the Talmud. The best critical edition of Philo is that of L. Cohn and P. Wendland, Philonis Alexandrini opera (Berlin: Reimer, 1896-) , of which six volumes have already appeared. A German translation under the editorship of L. Cohn, Die Werke Philos von Alexandria (Breslau: Marcus, 1909), is in course of preparation, and two volumes have already been published. There is an English trans- lation (out of print) by C. D. Yonge in four volumes (London: Bohn, 1854-55). The works of Josephus are available in the critical edition of B. Niese, Flavii losephi opera, 6 vols. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1888-95). A convenient English version is that of W. Whiston newly edited by D. S. Margoliouth, The Works of Flavins Josephus (New York: Button [n.d.]). For literature on the Talmud see M. Mielziner, Introduction to the Talmud, 2d ed. (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1902), or H. L. Strack, Einleitung in den Talmud, 4. Aufl. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908). The most comprehensive modern work on Judaism in the period under discussion is E. Schiirer, Geschichte des jiidischen Volkes im Zeit- alter Jesu Christi, 3 vols., 4. Aufl. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1901-9; English translation, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, 7 vols. [New York: Scribner, 1891]). There are also many briefer but valuable works, e.g., W. Fairweather, The Background of the Gospels (New York: Scribner, 1908); S. Mathews, The History of New Testament Times in Palestine, 2d ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1910); 0. Holtzmann, Neu- testamentliche Zeitgeschichte, 2. Aufl. (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1906); W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums in neutestamentlichen Zeitalter, 2. Aufl. (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1906); A. Bertholet, Die jiidische Religion von der Zeit Ezras his zum Zeitalter Christi (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1); J . Jusier, Les J uifs dans r empire romain, 2 vols. (Paris: Geuthner, 1914). IV. THE WORK OF JESUS Jesus' relation to Judaism. — John the Baptist, Jesus, and the disciples immediately associated with him were all Jews, 254 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION and their activity constituted an integral part of the Judaism of their day. In a history of Judaism they would take their place beside the Zealots, the Zadokites, the Essenes, the hermit Banus, and other reformers and preachers whose activity was called forth by the conditions of unrest peculiar to that particular period in the history of the Jewish people. But the reform movement begun by John the Baptist, con- tinued and transformed by Jesus, perpetuated and expanded by his followers, ultimately became differentiated from Judaism and was called Christianity. Hence the student of early Christianity quite properly emphasizes the work of Jesus as especially important for the history of the new religion's beginnings. Jesus' relation to John the Baptist. — At first Jesus himself was a disciple of John, and the earliest stages in his activity cannot be understood without first noting the character of John's work. Full knowledge of John's career and message is difficult to obtain. He appears to have been a vigorous moral reformer, a stormy preacher of the desert, who called upon men to repent and be baptized in preparation for the coming judgment. His activity brought to expression a prominent phase of Jewish faith, viz., the beUef that ulti- mately God would interfere on Israel's behalf and estabhsh a new order of things. John proclaimed the necessity of repentance and purification among Jews themselves as a prehminary to the consummation of their hope. His invectives were hurled against high and low ahke, but with disastrous results for the prophet himself. Herod Antipas became offended at his preaching, cast him into prison, and ultimately put him to death. Josephus {Ant., XVIII, v, 2) says that Herod feared lest John might instigate a revolt, a statement which may imply that John was disposed to dabble in pohtics. But of this we cannot be certain. We do know that the burden of his message was rehgious, and in this lay its significance for our present study. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 255 It is clear that Jesus received baptism at the hands of John, but in almost all other respects the relation between the two remains a perplexing problem. Among the early Christians who preserved our gospel tradition there was variation of opinion on many points. Some statements imply that John stood to Jesus in the relation of the promised Ehjah to the Messiah (Mark 1:2-5; 9'ii~i3; cf. Matt. 17:9-13), while other parts of the tradition make John dis- tinctly deny that he is Elijah (John 1:21). Similarly, in some sections of the narrative he positively aflfirms his belief in Jesus' messiahship and makes the announcement of this fact his chief mission (John 1:6-8, 19-34), yet in other con- nections his belief in the messiahship of Jesus is quite doubt- ful (Matt. 11:2-6; Luke 7:18-23). But apart from these attempts to define the official relationship of these two indi- viduals to one another, the question of more fundamental interest is what Jesus' personal reaction toward John's movement actually was and how far Jesus received from John vital stimulus for his own future work. This is the point of special interest for the historical student. The continuation of the Johannine movement side by side with the movement inaugurated by Jesus, though only incidentally mentioned in the New Testament (Mark 2:18; John 3:22; 4:1 ff.; Acts 18:25; 19:35 f.), is also an important item for the early history of Christianity. The task of the biographer. — In examining Jesus' own career the student is confronted at the outset by the fact that Jesus occupies a twofold position in the history of early Christianity. In the first place he gathered about him a group of hearers to whom he imparted instruction reflecting his own personal rehgious experience and living. Secondly, after his death he came to hold in the thinking of believers a new position at God's right hand in heaven. He now pos- sessed truly official dignity and was expected to return at an early date to set up the messianic kingdom upon earth. The 256 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION consciousness of this distinction between the earthly Jesus of past history and the heavenly Christ of present faith is reflected in such a statement as Acts 2:36 to the effect that through the resurrection God had made the crucified Jesus to be both Lord and Christ (Messiah). Although the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith were thus originally distinguished, the meaning of this distinction was soon lost as beHevers reflected upon the earthly career of Jesus in the light of their new-found faith in his heavenly exaltation. They were now able to see in many of his words and deeds a much more elevated significance than they had observed while he was with them. This failure to appreciate his full dignity while upon earth was not credited to any lack in him, but was quite their own fault. Either they had been unduly stupid, or else for some good reason their eyes for the moment had been blinded. By this course of reasoning they were able in the course of time to discover in the earthly Hfe of Jesus practically the same official dignity and glory which they now attached to his person in heaven. The task of the modern student of the Hfe of Jesus is made especially difficult by this situation. All the direct sources of information at present available date from a time when this process of reinterpreting the life of Jesus had been going on for twenty years or more. The problem could be easily solved if it were simply a question of reproducing this or that picture of Jesus as set forth by one or another of his early interpreters. But today the task of the historian is much more difficult since he must endeavor to determine what features in the sources represent the early Christians' interest in the heavenly Christ and what data relate to the earthly Jesus as he actually appeared to the people who associated with him during his public ministry. To be sure, the believers' new appreciation of Jesus after his death is as much — or more — a part of the history of early Christianity as is the THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 257 story of his earthly career. But the former belongs in the history of the early community subsequent to his death, and not in a strictly historical biography of Jesus. The character of the sources. — In view of this peculiar problem the student ought first to note the general character of the sources of information and the varied portraits of Jesus there presented. Paul's epistles are the oldest extant Christian documents, but Paul is interested almost exclusively in Christ spiritually present in the believer and soon to come upon the clouds in glory. Yet it is worthy of note that Paul shows Uttle or no disposition to superimpose the official dignity of the heavenly Christ upon the earthly Jesus. While, in Paul's thinking, Jesus was a pre-existent divine personality, his career upon earth was one of almost abnormal humility and lowHness. In fact, this point is especially stressed by Paul (e.g., Phil. 2:5 ff.). But, unfortunately for our present needs, Paul has mentioned only incidentally a few items in connection with the teaching and activity of Jesus. At an early date Paul had several points of intimate contact with Christians, and a careful reading of his epistles, with a view to discovering incidental information about Jesus' earthly career, may be expected to yield some valuable results (e.g.. Gal. 3:13; 4:4; I Cor. 11:23 ff.; 15:5; II Cor. 8:9; 10:1; Rom. 7:1; 15:3; Phil. 2:5). The Gospel of Mark shows much advance over Paul's letters in assigning official dignity to the earthly Jesus. The author of this Gospel is sufficiently well informed regarding the actual history to observe that this heightened significance of Jesus was not generally appreciated prior to his death by even his most intimate associates (e.g., 1:22; 4:41; 5:31; 6:51 f.; 8:17-21,32; 9:10,32; 10:32). But Mark himself labors under no such hmitations. The disciples had been unable to understand certain words and deeds of the earthly Jesus previous to his resurrection (cf. 9:9 f.), but now he has 258 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION arisen, and in the light of this new behef Mark is able to under- stand everything. On the strength of this assurance he col- lects, arranges, and interprets the gospel story to meet the needs of the particular readers he has in mind, at the same time endeavoring to do justice to the person of Jesus as the official founder of the Kingdom of God on earth. Before this oldest extant gospel can be properly employed as a source of biographical information about Jesus, the pragmatic interests of the author must be taken carefully into account. The same demand must be met in the case of Matthew and Luke. While they use Mark as one of their chief sources, and so carry over into the career of Jesus Mark's interest in the heavenly Christ, they also attempt interpretations on their own account. In fact, they excel Mark in this art. The latter begins with the baptism as the moment when Jesus became distinctive through a special anointing by the Holy Spirit, but both Matthew and Luke point out that Jesus at the very first was begotten by the Holy Spirit. The author of John carries the thought still farther, making the whole earthly career of Jesus virtually the activity of an incarnate Deity. A similar interest dominates the fragmentary remains of other ancient gospels, as well as the remainder of the New Testament books, in so far as they take any account at all of Jesus' earthly life. Since our sources of information are all interpretative in character, and strongly influenced by the Christians' later confidence in Jesus' official position as Messiah, the student must use rigid critical processes in treating these sources if he would recover even an approximately correct portrait of the historical individual Jesus as distinct from the heavenly Christ of primitive Christian faith. Tests for determining the historicity of tradition, — How can the historicity of tradition be fixed ? In the first place there is the test of literary analysis by means of which the older elements in the gospel story are recovered. Since a THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 259 comparison of Matthew with Luke shows at a glance that they both used not only Mark but other common source materials not contained in Mark, it is possible to reconstruct in a fragmentary way a body of non-Markan tradition ante- dating both Matthew and Luke. This earHer document, or these earlier documents (Luke 1:1-4), a-^e probably older than Mark, although they have not been directly used by him. In the case of Mark also it is possible to discover certain strata of tradition, such, for example, as the parables of chap. 4, which he probably took over from earher documents. A thoroughgoing literary criticism will endeavor to fix as far as possible the relative age of all the different constituent ele- ments which have gone into the making of gospel tradition as it exists at present. But Hterary criticism cannot be regarded as a final test of historicity. Even the oldest recoverable source was com- posed from ten to twenty years after Jesus' death, and the motives prompting composition were supphed by conditions within the expanding life of Christianity. While it is true that in these early days memory of the earthly Jesus was still fresher than in subsequent times, yet it is also true that Christianity in the earher period had its pecuhar problems and ways of thinking, in the light of which the earliest recover- able document was composed. Its author must have selected, arranged, interpreted, and supplemented his materials if he sought to minister to the needs of his immediate environment — and he could hardly have had any other motive for com- position. Nor is a portion of tradition which first comes to light in a later document — say in Luke only or in John only — unhistorical simply in virtue of its late emergence. There were many persons who remembered Jesus and who talked much about him after his death, and it is not at all probable that all the rehable things said by them were taken up into the written sources used in common by Matthew, Luke, and John. It is quite possible that some perfectly reliable information may 26o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION have come into the possession of one or another of these writers independently. Ultimately one must apply what ma}' be called the prag- matic test for determining the historicity of tradition. If anything is ascribed to Jesus which is out of harmony with the age and environment in which he lived, but is more closely akin to the problems arising during the expansion of the new movement in the years following his death, that feature in the tradition cannot be safely connected with the historical Jesus. Even if one should assume that Jesus may have anticipated the future situation, one must still reckon with the fact that certainly the disciples did not share this forward look, and consequently were unprepared for the reception of any such teaching. On the other hand, the work of Jesus, as deter- mined by his own particular situation, did influence extensively the subsequent career of his followers; hence many features in the life of the early Christian movement may reasonably be traced back to his words or deeds. Here the pragmatic test yields constructive results by pointing to items of later tra- dition which show logical continuity with the situation of earlier times. Chronological and geographical data. — The constructive task of the student of the Hfe of Jesus revolves about certain main problems, one of which is the recovery of the chrono- logical and geographical outhne of Jesus' career. Mark, it may be observed, presents one schema, while John follows a very different outline. Matthew and Luke reproduce Mark in the main, although each makes a few unimportant changes. Neither Hterary criticism nor pragmatic considerations yield any very certain results in this field. The student may have to content himself with following the outhne of Mark, incom- plete and unsatisfactory as it is. Certainly no historian would attempt an uncritical fusion of the outHnes of John and Mark as a means of restoring the actual course of Jesus' career. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 261 Jesus' messianic consciousness. — The question of Jesus' self-consciousness has been much discussed in modern times. Did Jesus regard himself as the Jewish Messiah, and if so in what sense did he understand messiahship ? In order to answer these questions historically, the student must take his stand strictly within the Jewish world where Jesus himself lived. The national history of the Jewish people had been one long story of disappointed hopes. They had enjoyed a period of national independence under David and Solomon, but their subsequent history had been one series of successive subjugations by Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedonia, and Rome. During all this time their faith in their God Yahweh remained unshaken. They were his chosen people and some day he would surely come to their aid, restoring their inde- pendence and elevating them to a position of supremacy among the nations. In Jesus' day this hope was current in two principal forms commonly termed by moderns (i) the national and (2) the apocalyptic. The former rested upon the expectation that a Uneal descendant of David would arise when the time for Israel's deliverance arrived. This Davidic prince would be anointed — i.e., made Messiah (Anointed) — by God and would miraculously free the chosen people from all oppressors. It was this hope which prompted the numerous messianic uprisings in Palestine between the years 6 and 135 a.d. There were other Jews who had lost all faith in earthly princes, and so had abandoned the messianic hope in its Davidic form. Nevertheless they retained their faith in God and redefined their hope in terms of a purely heavenly Messiah, an angelic being without any earthly connections whatsoever. He was of purely divine origin but would assume the likeness of a man (cf. Dan. 7:13) when he came upon the clouds to set up the new kingdom. With his appearing the present order of existence would come to an end and the Jewish nation would be re-established in purity and peace upon a 262 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION miraculously renovated earth. Since the Messiah of this new kingdom was to be ''revealed" from heaven, this type of hope has been termed the "apocalyptic." What were Jesus' views regarding the Jewish messianic hope? The difficulty of answering this question has been greatly enhanced by the confusion of opinion which prevails in the Gospels. At one time he is given Davidic credentials, and so is made the fulfiller of the national hope (cf. Luke 2:11). At other times he is represented as denying the Davidic ancestry of the Messiah (Mark 12:35-37), ^-nd he even affirms that after death he himself will come upon the clouds and thus fulfil the apocalyptic rather than the Davidic hope (Mark 8:39; 9:1; 14:61 f.). In still other connections, notably in the Gospel of John, he abandons Jewish imagery almost entirely and defines his messiahship in terms of Hellenistic speculation regarding the incarnate Logos. Another favorite interpretation of Jesus' messianic consciousness, popular in later times, bases his claim to official dignity upon his sense of special ethical and spiritual kinship with God the Father. No doubt the situation in Jesus' own day was far simpler than that depicted in the Gospels, or in later Christian think- ing when different interpreters combined different types of messianic terminology in an endeavor to establish by every possible means the superior official dignity of the heavenly Christ of Christian faith. The modern student is confronted by the difficult task of threading his way back through the almost inextricable tangle of later opinion to the more primi- tive situation of Jesus. The following possibilities in Jesus' thinking have to be considered: I. Did he adopt the national hope, expecting a deliverance to be accomplished by means of a revolution against Rome, whether this was to be led by himself or by another ? There certainly is very scanty evidence for supposing that he enter- tained any such notion, although it has sometimes been assumed that his thinking moved in this realm. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 263 2. Did he expect redemption through the coming of an angeKc deliverer ? This was the natural alternative for a Jew of his day who rejected the revolutionary program. But this apocalyptic hope in its purely Jewish form allowed no place for a present earthly Messiah. The apocalyptic Messiah was to be a purely heavenly being. 3. Did Jesus so transform the apocalyptic hope as to give the divine heavenly Messiah a preliminary human career upon earth ? He is thought by many modern interpreters to have done so, notwithstanding the difhculty of finding in his environment an adequate incentive for so radical a change in Jewish thinking. Moreover, it is very easy to see how the disciples, disappointed in their first hope that the earthly Jesus would lead a messianic revolution when the fitting moment arrived (cf. Mark 8:32 f.; Luke 24:21; Acts 1:6), might apply the apocalyptic imagery to him after his death. In their new faith, attained through the resurrection appear- ances, he was now a heavenly angelic being capable of func- tioning as apocalyptic Messiah. 4. Did he anticipate Hellenistic speculation regarding his personality, considering himself the Messiah on metaphysical grounds ? This view is not commonly held by critical scholars today, although the importance of this item in the history of Christology is generally recognized. 5. Did Jesus claim official messianic dignity on the ground of close personal rehgious fellowship with God ? There is much to prove that his life was one of rich spiritual attain- ments, but many students now recognize that there are very slight grounds for supposing that any person of that day, how- ever rich his spiritual experience might be, would find in this fact a basis for behef in official messiahship. The miracles of Jesus — Among early Christians interest in the miraculous character of both the person and work of Jesus kept pace with the growing desire to emphasize the official dignity of his earthly career. Paul, for example, 264 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION gives no intimation that the earthly Jesus performed miracles, although Paul makes abihty to work miracles in the name of the exalted Christ a distinctive credential of the new religion (cf. Gal. 3:5; II Cor. 12:12; I Cor. 12:28). In the earher elements of gospel tradition there is also very httle said about any miracles of Jesus. Here his distinctiveness is shown more strikingly by his religious message than by his marvelous deeds. But in Mark he is first of all the miracle- worker. The wild beasts are rendered harmless by his pres- ence in the wilderness, and the people in the synagogue of Capernaum are astonished at his power over the demons. It is not his religious message which strikes them with awe, but the miraculous power of his commands — "with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits and they obey him" (Mark 1:22, 27). Matthew and Luke follow Mark in stress- ing the miraculous. And in John Jesus' whole career is one glorious display of supernatural wisdom and power. This growth of interest in the miraculous as a means of heightening the dignity of the earthly Jesus was especially appropriate to a Hellenistic environment. Gentiles were particularly susceptible to the marvelous as attesting heroes and divinities. Heroes like Hercules and deified emperors like Augustus had, according to popular behef, been born of a divine father and a human mother. Such stories were widely current and highly esteemed. Heroes and rulers also worked miracles, as happened in the case of Vespasian, for instance. He once healed a man with a withered hand, also a blind man, in Alexandria where "many miracles occurred, by which the favor of heaven and a sort of bias in the powers toward Ves- pasian were manifested" (Tacitus Hist. iv. 81). As Chris- tians themselves performed miracles in the name of Jesus, competing with the ever-present magician and with vigorous heahng cults like those of Asklepios, the value of a miraculously begotten and miracle-working Jesus was increasingly appre- ciated. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 265 But in Jesus' Jewish environment the situation was some- what different. There probably were some Jewish magicians and exorcists in Palestine at that time, and they doubtless enjoyed a measure of popularity, especially among the lower classes. Yet their practices were prohibited in the Law, and persons suspected of cultivating these arts were frowned upon by the authorities (Deut. 18:9-14; Acts4:7). Further- more, miracles were not employed extensively to attest Jewish worthies. They did, to be sure, work wonders on occasion, but their chief significance lay in their teaching, by which they communicated a message from God to his chosen people. In spite of the miracles Moses wrought, he was revered chiefly as the giver of the Law; while great prophets like Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were almost exclusively God's spokesmen with no credentials other than the words they uttered. Hence it was very natural that the earhest element of gospel tradition, taking shape in Palestine among Jewish Christians and for use in the Jewish mission, should have given almost no place to the miracle- element in the career of the earthly Jesus, but should set in the foreground his remarkable teaching. These are the main facts which the student has to take into account in discussing the question of Jesus' miraculous person and work. Two chief questions to be decided are: (i) Did miracles figure as prominently in Jesus' own career as they do in Mark's portrait of him? (2) How far are the stories of Jesus' miraculous birth prompted by a conviction on the part of early interpreters that Jesus must have been thus divinely begotten since he surely excelled all other heroes who were similarly authenticated ? The personal religion of Jesus. — The task of recovering information about Jesus' personal rehgious hving is less difficult than that of determining^ the truth either about his messianic consciousness or about his miracles. In the nature of the case the personal rehgion of Jesus did not lend 266 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION itself so readily to the purposes of apologetic on behalf of the heavenly Christ. There was, to be sure, a tendency to eliminate from his Hf e all genuine personal rehgious experience and activity, as well as a disposition to make him the ideal Christian of later times. But these tendencies may be dis- covered with comparative ease, and our abundant information about Jewish life in Jesus' day, together with the information recoverable from the Gospels, enables one to reconstruct a fairly distinct picture of Jesus' own religious career. In attempting to restore this portrait the student should have in mind such topics as the following: 1 . Jesus received a rich heritage from his Jewish home and family connections. He was not a trained rabbi but a village carpenter, yet he was devoutly religious. Under such cir- cumstances his rehgion could hardly be of the scholastic type, but would contain more emotional and mystical features. 2. Jesus employed with particular vividness the figures of fatherhood and sonship to portray the ideal relationsHip between God and man. In this connection we are reminded that Jesus had hstened to John the Baptist preach about an angry God for whose coming in judgment men must prepare themselves. When Jesus began independent work he seems to have done so under a conviction that God would help men prepare because he really loved men. 3. The method of Jesus is also striking. This perhaps reveals more clearly than anything else the real genius of his religion. John preached in the wilderness where men came to him, and the professional rabbi often estabhshed a school to which pupils resorted, but Jesus went to the people. He traveled about among the synagogues, he talked to crowds in the city street or beside the sea, and apparently sought espe- cially to reach the masses. This method was well suited to produce trouble for the teaj:her in case his message proved to be unwelcome to the authorities, but it accorded well with Jesus' notion of God's desire to help all men. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 267 4. Jesus seems to have worked under the pressure of oppo- sition during almost his entire career. His aggressive method tended to arouse hostiHty, and the mystical strain in his reh- gion, together with his apparent bias toward nonconformity, made it difficult for him to understand the Jewish leaders of the day and impossible for them to understand him. Conse- quently his was the religious experience of one who suffered persecution even unto martyrdom. 5. One of the most significant items in the history of early Christianity is the fact that Jesus' religious personality impressed itself so strongly upon an inner group of his dis- ciples. His Jewish heritages, his mystical leanings, his aggressiveness, and his persistence even under persecution were all reproduced more or less perfectly in the careers of his followers. The power of his influence upon them was remark- able, and this fact serves to reveal his own character as a religious individual. Jesus' place in early Christianity. — Although Jesus was put to death before any formal organization of the Christian movement had taken place, still he is commonly regarded as the founder of this organization. To be sure, as the details of organization were worked out to meet later necessities there was a natural disposition to seek the authority of Jesus for the course of the development. He was now thought to have accepted baptism by John in order to establish the Christian rite — "thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" (Matt. 3:15). It was also believed that Jesus had installed Peter as head of the new organization (Matt. 16:18 f.). The last meal which Jesus had eaten informally with the disciples now came to be viewed as the deliberate establishment of a Chris- tian rite which he had designed to be perpetuated in his memory (Luke 22:19; I Cor. 11:25-27). Similarly, after the leaders of the new movement rather tardily arrived at the conviction of a world-wide mission they felt assured that Jesus himself had intended this result and had in fact 268 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION commissioned them to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28 : 19) . These matters all belong in the history of the expand- ing movement subsequent to Jesus' death, and Jesus cannot be regarded as the immediate founder of the new ecclesiastical organization which gradually evolved in the Apostolic Age. But is he not the author of the Christian doctrine, and so the founder of Christianity in the sense that he authenticated its theology? On this point also historical investigation casts some doubts. Early Christian dogma centered about the official heavenly Christ and only gradually did behevers come to think of the earthly Jesus as authenticating the spe- cifically new doctrines of Christianity. In fact, the new movement "Christianity" took its name, not from Jesus, but from the exalted Christ. Nevertheless Jesus' actual contribution to the rise of Christianity is really more significant than might at first sight appear. But the historian must look for this significance in the sphere of personal daily contact between Jesus and his associates rather than in the realm of formality and officialism. It was in daily life that the disciples received their most endur- ing impressions of him, as well as those ideals of piety and devotion exemplified in the propagation of their new faith. Literature. — On John the Baptist see W. Baldensperger, Der Prolog des vierten Evangeliums (Freiburg: Mohr, 1898); H. Oort, "MattheiisX en de Johannes-Gemeenten," Theologisch Tijdschrift, XLVII (1908), 299- 333; M. Dib&lius, Die urchristliche Uberliejerung von Johannes dem Tdufer (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 191 1). Of less value is A. Blakiston, John the Baptist and His Relation to Jesus (London: Ben- nett, 1912). Books on the life of Jesus are legion. Most of them are critically summarized in A. Schweitzer, Geschichte der Lehen-Jesu-Forschung, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1913; English translation. The Quest of the Historical Jesus [London: Black, 1910]). A less detailed but more readable summary is given by H. Weinel, Jesus im neunzehnten Jahr- hundert, 8. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907,; English translation with additions, H. Weinel and A. G. Widgery, Jesus in the Nineteenth Century and After [New York: Scribner, 1914]). The literature on the recently THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 269 debated question of Jesus' existence is listed and appraised in S. J. Case, The Historicity of Jesus (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 2). One group of lives of Jesus may be termed harmonistic, since they combine the gospel data without attempting to estimate the relative historical reliability of the different elements in the tradition. Typical of this class is A. Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 2 vols., 8th ed. (New York: Longmans, 1896). Representatives of more critical views differ somewhat widely among themselves. The earlier stages of critical work may be seen in D. F. Strauss, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined, translated from the fourth German edition (New York: Macmillan, 1898); T. Keim, The History of Jesus of Nazara, 6 vols., translated from the German (London: Williams & Norgate, 1876-83); W. Beyschlag, Das Lehen Jesu, 2 Bde., 3. Aufl. (Halle a. S.: Strien, 1893); B. Weiss, Das Leben Jesu, 4. Aufl. (Stuttgart: Gotta, 1902; English translation. The Life of Jesus, 3 vols. [New York: Scribner, 1883-89]). Among more recent writers some rely chiefly upon Mark, with its apocalyptic emphasis, to furnish the most accurate historical picture of Jesus; e.g., O. Holtzmann, Das Leben Jesu (Tubingen: Mohr, 1901; English translation, The Life of Jesus [New York: Macmillan, 1904]); W. Sanday, The Life of Christ in Recent Research (New York: Oxford Uni- sity Press, 1907); A. Loisy, Jesus et la tradition evangelique (Paris: Nourry, 19 10). Other biographers make the non-Markan materials common to Matthew and Luke (i.e., the "Logia," or "Q") more normative; e.g., W. Bousset, /e.jM^, 3. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1907; English translation, Jesus [Nevf York: Putnam, 1906]); A. Reville, Jesus de Nazareth (Paris: Fischbacher, 1897); C. Piepenbring, Jesus historique (Paris: Nourry, 1909); G. H. Gilbert, Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1912); F. L. Anderson, The Man of Nazareth (New York: Macmillan, 1914)- Special studies on Jesus' messianic consciousness, stressing the apocalyptic side of his thinking, are J. Weiss, Die Predigt Jesu vom Reiche Gottes, 2. Aufl. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1900); W. Baldensperger, Das Selbstbewusstsein Jesu im Lichte der messianischen Hoffnungen seiner Zeit, 2. Aufl. (Strassburg: Heitz, 1892); H. J. Holtz- mann, Das messianische Bewusstsein Jesu (Tubingen : Mohr, 1907) ; E. F. Scott, The Kingdom and the Messiah (New York: Scribner, 191 1); S. Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1905). Works which subordinate apoca- lypticism in Jesus' consciousness are, for example, E. von Dobschiitz, The Eschatology of the Gospels (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910); 270 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION H. L. Jackson, The Eschatology of Jesus (London: Macmillan, 1913). All messianic consciousness is denied to Jesus in N. Schmidt, The Prophet of Nazareth (New York: Macmillan, 1905); W. Wrede, Das Messiasge- heimniss in den Evangelien (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1901); F. Goblet d'AlvieUa, L'Evolution du dogme catholique, I, Les Origines (Paris: Nourry, 1912). Cf. also H. B. Sharman, The Teaching of Jesus about the Future (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). On the miraculous features in the Gospels see J. M. Thompson, Miracles in the New Testament (London: Arnold, 191 2); W. Soltau, Hat Jesus Wunder getan? (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1903); P. Lobstein, Die Lehre von der iihernalurlichen Geburt Christi, 2. Aufl. (Freiburg: Mohr, 1896; English translation. The Virgin Birth of Christ [New York: Putnam, 1903]) ; W. Soltau, Die Geburtsgeschichte Jesu Christi (Leipzig: Dieterich, 1902; English translation, The Birth of Jesus Christ [London: Black, 1903]); A. Meyer, Die Auferstehung Christi (Tubingen: Mohr, 1905); K. Lake, The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (New York: Putnam, 1907). For the teaching of Jesus the following books are most worthy of note: H. H. Wendt, Die Lehre Jesu, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Gottingen: Vanden- hoeck und Ruprecht, 1901; English translation of second volume. The Teaching of Jesus, 2 vols. [New York: Scribner, 1892]); A. Jiilicher, Die Gleichnisreden Jesu, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1910); P. Wernle, Die Anfange unserer Religion, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904, pp. 1-82; English translation, The Beginnings of Christianity, 2 vols. [New York: Putnam, 1903-4], I, 1-116); H. J. Holtz^mann, Lehrbuch der neutesta- mentlichen Theologie, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1911), I, 159- 420; H. Weinel, Biblische Theologie des Neuen Testaments, 2. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1913), pp. 43-230. V. PALESTINIAN JEWISH CHRISTIANITY Relative importance of the period. — The Christian move- ment began in Palestine, but only a minor portion of its early history is confined to this territory. In fact, Palestinians exerted comparatively little influence upon the movement outside Palestine after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. After 135 A.D. even the church at Jerusalem was composed exclu- sively of Gentiles, and Jew^ish Christians very soon came to be regarded as heretics (e.g., the Ebionites). Consequently THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 271 it will be sufficient, in a general survey of the history of early Christianity, to follow the career of the Palestinian Jewish communities through only the first hundred years of their existence, at the same time noting more especially the earlier events in this period. Sources of information. — The first difficulty confronting the student is lack of direct sources of information. All the early Christian writings now extant were composed in Greek, while the mother-tongue of Palestinian Christians was Aramaic. But fortunately Paul, writing between the years 50 and 65 A. D., refers occasionally to his own relations with the Palestinians. Also the author of Acts records a few incidents in the history previous to the year 45 a.d. and touches the Palestinian community again in connection with Paul's last visit to Jerusalem. While the writer of Acts was not like Paul in being a contemporary of the events described, yet it is not improbable that he availed himself of some early sources of information both written and oral. Of course he selected, supplemented, and explained these sources with a view to convincing Theophilus that a particular interpretation of Christian history was the valid one (Acts 1:1; cf. Luke 1:4). Nevertheless some reliable information is probably preserved in the early chapters of Acts. From the Gospels also, and particularly from the Synoptists, something may be learned regarding the early situation in Palestinian communities. While the Gospels as they now stand are all products of the gentile mission, some of the sources employed in their composi- tion undoubtedly arose in a Palestinian environment, and they often reflect the special problems of Jewish Christians in the first generation. If one were to attempt a complete restora- tion of the history of early Palestinian Christianity, all this literature would have to be searched for such items as might disclose in themselves a Palestinian interest and provenance, as distinct both from the situation in which Jesus himself lived and from the situation in gentile fields. 272 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Connections with Judaism. — One fact stands out very clearly in the history of the Palestinian Christians. They were all Jews and at first they had no thought of breaking with their ancestral faith. Indeed they regarded themselves as the true Jews and apparently conceived their chief, if not their sole, mission to be that of estabHshing within Judaism a reform movement which would lead up to the fulfilment of the Jewish messianic hope when Jesus returned upon the clouds. They loyally observed Jewish customs and adhered strictly to the Law. In fact, many of their number were sure that Gentiles could not be saved unless they received circumcision as a sign of their right to the Hebrew salvation, which was to be God's special gift to the Jews. Other Christians were less rigid in their demands, and conceded that Gentiles who accepted the Jewish messianic faith as reinterpreted in terms of faith in the heavenly Christ might obtain salvation. Yet no Jewish Christian was at liberty to neglect any of the reli- gious rites pecuhar to his own people (cf . Gal. 2 : i-i i) . These two attitudes were represented .in Palestinian Christianity throughout its entire history, although the more conserva- tive disposition seems always to have predominated. It is very necessary to keep in mind this phase of primitive Chris- tianity in order to understand the Palestinians themselves, as well as the circumstances under which the notion of gentile missions arose. The attainment of the new messianic faith. — If the first Christians were so emphatically Jewish in their leanings, what constituted their distinctiveness ? This lay chiefly in their behef that the apocalyptic Jewish Messiah who was soon to come upon the clouds was none other than the earthly Jesus who had died on thie cross. This, it should be noted, consti- tuted a. distinct transformation of their former hope that Jesus while on earth might dehver the nation. Even as late as the seventh decade of the first century, when the Gospel of Mark was written, it was still remembered that the disciples' THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 273 hopes previous to Jesus' death centered upon the earthly Jesus, and so upon some form of national Davidic dehverance which he as their leader might effect. But his death shattered their hopes. They concluded that God had forsaken Jesus, and they returned to their former occupations thoroughly dis- appointed. Then came the visions of the angehc Jesus, which led them to beheve that he had escaped from Sheol and ascended to heaven. Now they were able to renew their messianic hopes, recasting them in apocalyptic form. Since Jesus was in heaven was he not really the individual whom God would send forth to establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth ? This possibility quickly became a conviction with several of Jesus' former associates, and this faith consti- tuted the most distinctive' mark of the new movement. There is ample evidence to show that this new faith was the direct result of visions of the risen Jesus experienced by cer- tain leading members of the community (e.g., I Cor. 15:5-8), but a study of the factors involved in this experience carries one over into the realm of primitive religious psy- chology. The main historical considerations to be kept in mind when investigating the subject are: 1. Popular thinking in that day moved freely in the realm of what moderns would call supernaturalism. Behef in the possibihty and reality of apparitions was firmly established, especially among the populace. 2. There was also a current conviction that in the past God had not permitted certain righteous Israehtes whom he especially favored to take up permanent residence in Sheol, but had miraculously transported them to heaven (e.g., Moses, Enoch, Elijah). 3. In the case of the disciples there was also the memory of Jesus' attractive personahty which had led them while with him to believe that he stood in especial favor with God and so was worthy to be the Jews' national deliverer from Roman oppression. 2 74 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 4. Furthermore, the apocalyptic messianic imagery was ready at hand the moment the disciples began to reflect upon the possible status of their beloved master in the world beyond the grave. 5. It is less certain that any specific words of Jesus pre- dicting his resurrection and exaltation constituted for the disciples a real factor in the situation. Even if he did try to prepare them for this belief — as they later thought he must have done — they candidly admitted that his attempts proved utterly futile. Their hearts were hardened and their eyes were holden — until after the events had happened. 6. The gospel accounts which emphasize the reality of Jesus' risen body reflect a later discussion in the history of Christology when the reality of Jesus' physical body even prior to his crucifixion was being called in question (Docetism). Similarly, the story of the guard at the tomb (Matt. 27 : 27-66; 28 : 1 1-15) answers the needs of later apologetic. The original disciples are hardly likely to have demanded any such props for faith. They would be quite convinced merely on the strength of the appearances, and would naturally conclude that, as in the case of Enoch and Ehjah, Jesus' body had been miraculously transformed into its heavenly counterpart. 7. Marvelous awakenings from the dead, especially in the case of heroes and divinities worshiped in many contemporary pagan cults, were familiar items in the thinking of that ancient world and may have constituted an important factor in deter- mining the early Christians' use of similar credentials for Jesus — even if these current ideas may not have really been one of the genetic forces in bringing about the disciples' own faith. The beginnings of a new community. — Very soon after certain friends of Jesus became convinced of his rise from Sheol and ascent into heaven, groups began to assemble in certain places, and individuals preached this new belief prob- ably in the synagogues at the time of pubHc worship. Exact THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 275 information regarding all the events of these earliest days is no longer attainable. In fact, there is uncertainty as to where the first visions of Jesus were experienced. According to one tradition the disciples saw him first in Galilee (Matt. 28:10, 16-20; cf. Mark 16:7); another tradition locates all the appearances in or near Jerusalem (Luke 24:13-31, 34, 36-51; Acts 1 : 1-9 ; while the Gospel of John combines the two tra- ditions, giving first place to Jerusalem (21:19-23, 26-29; 2i:4ff.). After Christianity had become a formally organized move- ment standing over against Judaism, there was a strong tendency among Christian interpreters to ignore the obscure beginnings in Gahlee or elsewhere throughout the country and to emphasize the importance of the new assembly which ultimately came together at Jerusalem. This is the situation in Acts, whose author apparently knows nothing and cares nothing about earlier and smaller assemblies. The apologetic interest is especially noticeable in the account of the first Christian Pentecost. Since this was the festival at which the giving of the Jewish Law, and thus the birth of the nation, were celebrated, it was appropriately made the natal day of the new rival religion. Likely enough former friends of Jesus came up to the feast from various parts of the country, and those who had attained the new messianic faith would spread the news of Jesus' appearances. Hence it may well be that this first Pentecost marked a distinct stage in the growth of the movement, but the historian must take account of earlier stages in the development, recognizing the pragmatic necessities under which the later interpreters labored. The break with Judaism. — The early Christian preachers, whenever the opportunity offered, tried to convince their Jewish kinsmen that the end of the world was near at hand and that Jesus had been elevated to messianic dignity in heaven whence he would soon return to set up the apocalyptic king- dom upon earth. All Jews were urged to accept this teaching 276 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION and thus guarantee for themselves a place in the new kingdom. A few of them accepted, but the vast majority did not. Again, the early Christians were enthusiasts. Jesus was now in the messianic office in heaven, his return was near, and the disciples felt themselves moved by the power of the divine Spirit which had always been so important a factor in the his- tory of Israel, especially at times of great crises in the life of a prophet or leader. Now they were new prophets of the final age and so believed themselves moved on occasion by the power of the Spirit. The very foundation of their new faith was an ecstatic vision of the heavenly Jesus, and they doubt- less frequently experienced exceptional outbursts of new enthusiasm. They even ventured to use the powerful name of the heaven-exalted Jesus in working miraculous cures, notwithstanding the Deuteronomic prohibition against all forms of magical practice (Deut. 18:9-14). At an early date the new faith was adopted by Hellenists, that is, by Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora who had returned to Jerusalem to reside either temporarily or perma- nently. Among these converts, whose wider experience tended to liberalize their views on some matters, the Christian cause found new champions. Acts alludes very briefly to this Hellenistic community in Jerusalem (chaps. 6 f.), but appar- ently it was this leadership that especially incensed Saul (Paul) and called forth his activity as a persecutor. This whole course of development tended to differentiate believers in Jesus' messiahship from other Jews, and the Chris- tian community must soon have become a distinct group, although its members still regarded themselves as thoroughly good Jews. Growth of missionary enterprise. — The rise of interest in missions is one of the most puzzling problems in the history of early Christianity. The earliest Christian preachers talking in a Jewish synagogue at the regular Sabbath service were propagandists from the start, but their confidence in the immi- THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 277 nence of the judgment day prevented them from planning any extended missionary enterprise even to the Jewish people scattered over the Graeco-Roman world. Much less would they contemplate a mission to the Gentiles. But the Lord delayed his coming and the Jews of Palestine in the main rejected the new reformers' teaching. The pressure of this situation must soon have produced the notion of a mission to Jews of the Diaspora. This process of expansion had doubtless begun before Paul appeared upon the scene, and probably it went on in many quarters of the Graeco-Roman world contemporaneously with Paul's missionary labors. It would be a grave mistake to suppose that he and his associates were the only persons doing missionary work outside Palestine. But who first conceived the idea of assembling believers from among the Gentiles without first requiring them to become proselytes to Judaism ? In the present status of our information the question can hardly be answered with cer- tainty. The practice of receiving gentile converts was in vogue with Barnabas and Paul upon their so-called first missionary journey to Asia Minor, and presumably it was already a custom among Christians of Antioch who were responsible for the mission of Barnabas and Paul. The custom evidently was of spontaneous origin, and when later it was made a matter of discussion it was approved even by the Jerusalem church. A more difficult but closely related question pertained to table-fellowship between gentile and Jewish converts. Prob- ably at first no questions were raised as to the propriety of such fellowship among individuals of whatever nationality who had believed in a common Lord and received the cleansing rite of baptism in his name. But when the question came up for theoretical consideration, the Jerusalem Christians were unwilling to have Jewish converts violate the laws of cere- monial purity by sitting down to table with Gentiles. It was 278 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION conceded that Gentiles might constitute Christian communi- ties by themselves, but there must be no mixed communities. This was the ruling against which Paul protested so vigorously in the second chapter of Galatians. In the light of these events, Peter can scarcely have decided to abandon the law of clean and unclean meats at so early a date as Acts, chaps. 10 f., would imply. But after further reflection upon his experience at Antioch (Gal. 2:11 f.) he may have taken this step, nor would this be the first time that the author of Luke-Acts had misplaced an incident. Peter continued his missionary activities outside Palestine, and it would not be strange if he also worked among non-Jews. Although early missionaries went out from Palestine, the native church still remained very conservative in its attitude toward the gentile propaganda. Many Palestinians depre- cated it entirely and opposed the work of Paul. Leaders like James, however, approved the enterprise, but were offended at the thought of free intercourse between Jewish and gentile Christians in the same community. These are some of the more important items which require study in reconstructing this part of the history of early Christianity. Life in the Palestinian communities. — Relatively little is known of actual conditions within the Palestinian churches. We may infer that many of the members were in straightened circumstances, else Paul would not have been so diligent in gathering his collection for their benefit. They undoubtedly cultivated the Jewish type of religious life, attending regularly upon the services of the synagogue and the temple. They also met together to eat and pray, thereby cultivating their own special interests, and among their number were certain persons who naturally assumed a position of leadership. The "Twelve" and relatives of Jesus were naturally given first place. But in this whole region where exact information is so scanty the historian must be particularly careful to test statements from a later date when the notion of formal THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 279 organization had come to be a matter of primal importance, as was the case with the author of Acts. Later history of Palestinian Christianity. — At a com- paratively early date the original leaders of the Christian movement began to scatter. Barnabas, who had once been prominent in Jerusalem, removed to Antioch where he and Paul worked together. James the son of Zebedee was put to death in 44 a.d., and Peter barely escaped a similar fate. Henceforth Peter resided elsewhere and James the brother of Jesus became leader of the Jerusalem church. Except for the account of the Jerusalem council, and the story of Paul's experiences on the occasion of his final visit to the city, the career of the Palestinian Christians is scarcely mentioned in any extant literature from the first century. Josephus refers to the death of James in 62 a.d., and Eusebius gathered up a few scattered notices regarding relatives of Jesus who con- tinued to reside in Palestine. These fragmentary items of information are indicative of the relatively minor position which Palestinian Jewish Christians later occupied in the main stream of the new religion's development. Literature. — See appropriate sections in A. C. McGiffert, A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 2A. td. (New York: Scribner, 1899); C. Weizsacker, Das apostolische Zeitalter der christlichen Kir die, 3. Aufl. (Tubingen: Mohr, 1901; English translation. The Apostolic Age of the Christian Church, 2 vols., 2d ed. [New York: Putnam, 1899]); E. von Dobschiitz, Die urchristlichen Gemeinden (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1902 English translation, Christian Life in the Primitive Church [New York Putnam, 1904]); V. Bartlet, The Apostolic Age (New York: Scribner, 1899) J. H. Ropes, The Apostolic Age in the Light of Higher Criticism (New York: Scribner, 1906); .E. F. Scott, The Beginnings of the Church (New York: Scribner, 191 5). See also brief sections in the books of P. Wernle, H. J. Holtzmann, and H. Weinel, cited above, p. 270, and "General References," below, p. 324. Special works of minor importance are F. J. A. Hort, Judaistic Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1898); G. Hoennicke, Das J udenchristentum im ersten und zweiten Jahrhundert (Berlin: Towitzsch, 1908); A. Schmidtke, Neue Fragmente und Unter- suchungen zu den judenchristlichen Evangelien: Ein Beitrag zur Literatur und Geschichte der Judenchristen (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1). 28o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION VI. GENTILE CHRISTIANITY IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE Characteristics of the period. — From earliest times to about 70 A.D. the new religion in gentile lands was hardly- distinguished from Judaism by outsiders. Its chief advocates, such as Paul, Barnabas, Apollos, Peter, Silas, John Mark, were all Jews by birth and training. Moreover, the Christian preachers used the Jewish Scripture as their own sacred literature, they did their work when possible in connection with the Jewish synagogues, and they presented the new movement as a continuation of ancient Hebrew religion. On the other hand, between Jews and Christians them- selves bitter enmity had developed. Not only were the Christian missionaries unacceptable to the majority of the Jews, but the Christian movement had by this time evolved an independent organization which drew away from the synagogue the support of all individuals who accepted Chris- tianity. Hostility was further aggravated by the inroads which Christianity made among the circle of "God-fearers." These were Gentiles who attended the synagogue services, -admiring the ethical and spiritual heritage of Judaism, but who were backward about identifying themselves completely with the Jewish race. To them Christianity must have made an especially strong appeal since it offered a means of inheriting the spiritual values of Judaism without accepting circumcision as a condition of participation in the full blessings of salvation. Still another cause of discord in those circles where liberal preachers of Paul's type labored was violation of the rules of ceremonial purity by Christian Jews who freely associated with gentile converts in the same community. The gentile churches contained converts from many faiths. The Jewish element predominated in some communities, while in other places Gentiles were greatly in the majority. The latter had been reared in one or more of the contemporary pagan religions in which that ancient world abounded; conse- THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 281 quently a Christian community was likely to be varied in its tastes, interests, and heritages. But as yet it was not fully conscious of its own real permanence as an institution in the world. Even gentile converts accepted the notion that the world was to come to an end soon and in the manner described by adherents to Jewish eschatological views. Such are the general conditions to be kept in mind when sketching the history of Christianity in gentile lands down to, say, 70 A.D. The new movement is practically ignored by the Graeco-Roman world at large; it is confined chiefly to the lower strata of society where it encounters severe opposition from the Jews; it draws its membership from the various contemporary faiths; it has almost no real consciousness of its own permanence as an institution, and it is still guided in the main by leaders of the first generation who, roughly speaking, are ''apostles" or friends of apostles. Sources of information. — Paul's epistles are the chief direct sources of inforrtiation for the period. But they are merely occasional documents written at different times be- tween the years 50 and 65 a.d., and are not at all designed to furnish a comprehensive history of Christianity during its early spread to gentile lands. Moreover, in dealing with this period the author of Acts has been interested almost exclusively in the activities of Paul. In consequence of thisr one-sidedness of the sources a study of Christianity during this period becomes almost exclusively a history of the work of Paul. But we must not suppose that he and his immediate associates were the only gentile missionaries carrying on work during these years. For example, there was an important church at Rome to which he wrote one of his longest letters but with whose establishment he had had nothing to <^o. Furthermore, Barnabas, Peter, Apollos, and John Mark, as well as many other unknown persons, were at the same time carrying on missionary activities, and a portion at least of their labors fell in gentile territory. 282 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The conversion of Paul. — Paul's conversion seemed to the author of Acts to mark a distinct epoch in the history of the new religion, and its epochal significance for Paul's own life is attested in his letters (Gal. 1:15 f.; I Cor. 15:8; 9:1; II Cor. 4:6). He says that the event marked the halting of his vigorous activity as a persecutor and the revelation to him of the heavenly Christ. The exact content of Paul's experience at this time has been much debated. From the historian's standpoint the primary problem is to ascertain Paul's own view of the matter and the factors in his environment which helped him toward the attainment of this particular experience. Following are the chief considerations involved in this • study: 1. Belief in the reality of apparitions was a common possession in Paul's world. 2. Christian preaching regarding Jesus' elevation to a position of angelic dignity in heaven; and his appearance to certain of his followers, had been brought forcibly to Paul's attention when persecuting the Christians. 3. Paul's own sensitive temperament is evidenced in the vigor of his persecution as well as in his liability to ecstatic experience after becoming a Christian. 4. His life in the Diaspora must also have brought him into contact with a widely popular type of thinking in which mys- tical experience was regarded as the summum honiim in religion. Even Jews were influenced by this notion, in spite of the fact that it ran counter to the spirit of legalism. In the case of Philo, for example, satisfaction for the mystical impulse was found in the emotional discovery of hidden meanings in the law — a result reached by freely applying the allegorical method of interpretation. Paul as a Jew had evidently been seeking mystical satisfactions under the law, though his search may have been directed more along ascetic lines (cf. Rom., chap. 7). THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 283 5. There were also many contemporary cults which by their rites and teachings provided concrete means for realizing mystical religious satisfaction through belief in a dying and rising hero divinity hailed as Lord of the community. The worship of "Lord" Serapis, "Lord" Osiris, "Lady" Isis, and several other similar divinities, had been flourishing in the eastern Mediterranean lands a century and more before Paul's conversion (see above, p. 247). These cults supplied to the populace the mystical satisfactions which the more educated classes sought in the realm of philosophical meditation. The way in which familiarity with these cults may have helped to prepare Paul for the acceptance of Christianity is suggested in his statement that salvation is to be obtained by following the simple recipe: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). The notion of a "Lord" in whose resurrection believers exercised faith was doubtless well known to Paul from contact with the Hellenistic world, but the pagan cults were too far removed from Judaism to permit Paul as a Jew to make any practical use of their imagery in his personal religious life. In Christianity he first found it possible to bridge the chasm sepa- rating Jewish legalism and Hellenistic mysticism. 6. Doubtless Paul was also familiar with the apocalyptic beliefs of contemporary Judaism; hence the idea of the heavenly Christ as preached by the Christians would all the more readily find lodgment in Paul's mind. These are some of the factors which were peculiar to Paul's environment prior to his conversion and constituted the setting for his experience. Modern psychological analysis of religion had no place in Paul's world; hence the question so often raised today as to the ultimate ground of the experi- ence was never asked by him. He was convinced that he had witnessed an actual vision of the living Lord, and in this he was but repeating the conviction not only of other 284 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Christians who had seen visions of Jesus, but also of devotees of the mystery-rehgions in which the initiate sometimes believed himself favored by a vision of the god. Paul can be understood historically only as we accustom ourselves to the ways of thinking peculiar to Paul's own world. Paul's career as a missionary. — In so far as the Christian career of Paul is recoverable at all, it may easily be recon- structed from his letters and from Acts. The special occasion and purpose of each of his epistles will also appear as the student follows the course of Paul's activity. Still there will remain several questions not easy to answer. The extent and character of his work for a dozen years previous to his first missionary tour described in Acts, chaps. 13 f., are very obscure. There is also a question whether the council in Jerusalem reported in Acts, chap. 15, is identical with that mentioned in Gal. 2:1-10. In view of Gal. 2:iif. it is also doubtful whether Paul would have accepted the "decrees," passing them on to the churches so obediently as Acts repre- sents (15:22-29; 16:4). Again, it is not known positively whether Paul addressed his Galatian letter to Christians in Southern Galatia (Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe) or to churches in the north of the province (e.g., at Ancyra or Pessinus). Finally, was Paul released at the end of the two years of Roman imprisonment mentioned in Acts ? If so, did he ever carry out his intention of going to Spain (Rom. 15:24, 28), and what were the circumstances which brought about his death ? These are some of the problems still open to discussion in a study of the life of Paul; nevertheless his place in the history of early Christianity is better known than that of any of his contemporaries. Missionary methods of Paul. — The methods employed by him in his missionary work are particularly interesting. When he and Barnabas went on their first tour, the church at Antioch in Syria may have financed the enterprise (Acts 13 : 2 f .) ; but later Paul worked strictly on his own account, and so his THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 285 activity was restricted mainly to industrial and commercial centers where he and his companions could more easily earn their livelihood as they preached. When troubles arose in distant communities which had been established by himself, or by some other Christian in his travels, Paul would write a letter of instruction and exhortation, sending it by some friend who might be passing that way. In cases of serious trouble he endeavored to make a personal visit to the church, but this was not always possible, and letter-writing was used as a substitute. The manner of propaganda was simple. When possible, Paul embraced the opportunity which the Jewish synagogue service offered for preaching, following the reading of the Scripture. But this privilege usually was short-lived, since Paul's message proved unacceptable to the Jewish authorities. Probably much effective missionary work was done through personal conversation with men and women engaged in the same activities in the ordinary walks of life. Street preach- ing was another means which was doubtless frequently employed. One of the most characteristic phenomena of that age was the traveling moral philosopher, the Cynic- Stoic preacher, who went about exhorting men to live the nobler life which these practical philosophers held up as the ideal. The form of their discourse, known as the diatribe, is reproduced in many portions of Paul's letters. As he dic- tated these letters to an amanuensis he easily fell into the style which he, like his fellow Stoic preachers, employed in public discourse. The sophist was also a familiar figure in that. world. He was more of a public entertainer than the Cynic-Stoic preacher, and followed the profession for its lucrative possibihties. He often had a building or hall where he instructed pupils in the art of oratory and where he gave pubhc exhibitions of his own oratorical skill. Paul speaks rather disparagingly of the sophist's art (I Cor. 1:20), but it was probably from one of these pedagogues in Ephesus that 286 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Paul rented a room for a certain time each day when he publicly expounded the new religion in a manner not wholly different from the method used by the sophist for propagating his interests (Acts 19:9). Life in the Pauline communities. — How are we to think of the new assemblies so often referred to as ''churches"? It must not be supposed that Christians at this time owned buildings or that they supported elaborate organizations. They assembled at the home of some member of the group or at some hall temporarily procured for the purpose when they were able to pay the rental. The time of meeting was either early in the morning before going to work or at night after the labors of the day were over. A special service was held on the first day of the week (Sunday), but as yet there was no such thing as a Sunday holiday. There were two kinds of meeting, one private and the other pubUc. The religious meal was eaten at the former, while Scripture reading, singing, and preaching took place in the latter (cf. I Cor. 14:26-33). New members were admitted into full fellowship in the com- munity through the rite of baptism. There were no stated officials, but certain individuals stood out more prominently than others because of their ability to discharge particular functions. At first these activities were wholly spontaneous and were credited to the guidance of the Spirit. Prophesying, teaching, working miracles, healing the sick, helping the needy, giving counsel, speaking with tongues, and interpretation of tongues were all effected through the agency of the Spirit (I Cor. 1 2 : 28-30) . Nevertheless conditions within this new society were not always ideal. Its membership was varied, some being slaves while others were fairly prosperous individuals. Different tastes and opinions were represented, and occasionally there were factions and even cases of moral laxity (e.g., I Cor., chaps. 1-6). Sometimes families were divided, one member having adopted Christianity while the others remained ad- THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 287 herents of some pagan cult. And to add to the difficulty, some of the communities were visited by Judaizers who asserted that the Gentiles could not be saved unless they accepted circumcision. The Christianity of Paul. — What, in its main outlines, was the type of Christianity represented by Paul ? 1. He strongly advocated a mystical, as opposed to a legalistic, interpretation of religion. But he was a practical rather than a philosophical mystic, that is, he attained to union with Deity, not by means of meditation and intellectual emotion, but through the medium of worship. To be "in Christ," or to be "spiritual" — to use his characteristic modes of expression — was a state which could be attained only in connection with the new worshiping community. Hence the great significance of its unique rites such as baptism and the Lord's Supper. 2. The Christianity of Paul is also dominated by a vivid eschatological hope phrased in the apocalyptic imagery of Jewish messianism. If Paul's mysticism shows a distinct Hellenistic coloring, his eschatology is emphatically Jewish in type. The heavenly Christ with whom he enjoyed a perma- nent mystical union, as realistic as that of the devotee in any of the mystery-cults, was the Jewish Messiah soon to come on the clouds in glory, and one of the chief incentives for missionary .enterprise was the thought of this impending event. 3. The ethical note in Paul's exposition of Christianity is also very prominent. He not only conserved those fine ethical heritages which came to him from Judaism and from the teaching of Jesus, but occasionally he also availed himself of Stoic ideals widely current in his day. Thus Paul so appreciated the needs of his environment, and was himself so thoroughly an integral part of his world, that he was able to deliver a religious message which made a strong appeal to the men of his time. He himself had 288 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION encompassed so wide a range of experience that he was espe- cially suited to the task of ministering to the needs of that syncretistic age. He did not, to be sure, reach the higher philosophical circles of the time, but this failure was in a measure fortunate. The mission of Christianity still lay for some years with the masses, and in fact, as we shall later observe, it ultimately triumphed as an organized cult rather than as a philosophy of religion. Literature. — For the general period see the works of McGiffert, Weizsacker, von Dobschiitz, Bartlet, Ropes, Wernle, Holtzmann, and Weinel, cited above, p. 279; see also "General References" on p. 324. Representative books on Paul are K. Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul: Their Motive and Origin (London: Rivingtons, 191 1); H. Weinel, Paulus der Mensch und sein Werk (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904; Eng- lish translation, St. Paul the Man and His Work [New York: Putnam, 1906]); C. Clemen, Paulus sein Lehen und Wirken, 2 Bde. (Giessen: Topelmann, 1904); A. Deissmann, Paulus: Eine kultur- und religions- geschichlichte Skizze (Tubingen : iVIohr, 191 1 ; English translation, St. Paul, a Study in Social and Religious History [New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1912]); P. Gardner, The Religious Experience of St. Paul (New York: Putnam, 191 1); W. Wrede, Paulus (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904; English translation, Paul [Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1908]); A. Schweitzer, Geschichte der paulinischen Forsckung von der Reformation bis auf die Gegenwart (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 1 ; English translation, Paul and His Interpreters: A Critical History [London: Black, 191 2]). Some important special discussions are H. Gunkel, Die Wirkungen des heiligen Geistes nach der popular en Anschauung der apostolischen Zeit und der Lehre des Apostels Paulus, 3. Aufl. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1909); M. Dibelius, Die Geisterwelt im Glauhen des Paulus (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1909); H. A. A. Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery-Religions (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1913); J. Weiss, Beitrdge zur paulinischen Rhetorik (Gottingen: Vanden- hoeck und Ruprecht, 1897); R. Bultmann, Der Stil der paulinischen Predigt und die kynisch-stoische Diatribe (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1910) ; H. Bohlig, Die Geisteskultur von Tarsos im augusteischen Zeitalter mit Beriicksichtigung der paulinischen Schriften (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913); K. Benz, Die Ethik des Apos- tels Paulus (Freiburg: Mohr, 1912); A. Jiilicher, Paulus und Jesus (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1907); W. HeitmiiUer, Taufe ufui Abendmahl bei Paulus (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1903). THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 289 VII. GENTILE CHRISTIANITY IN POST-APOSTOLIC TIMES General characteristics. — This period extends from about 70 to 140 A.D. As compared with the previous period in the history of gentile Christianity, it shows several distinctive characteristics. By the year 70 the original apostolic leaders had quite generally given place to men of the second genera- tion, and indifference on the part of the Roman authorities had changed into a growing hostility which occasionally broke out in more or less vigorous persecutions. Within the com- munities themselves the spontaneous ecstatic life of former days was less in evidence, and a more formal leadership and organization came to be the rule. But still believers con- tinued to look longingly toward a future world-catastrophe for .the full realization of Christianity's mission. While Jewish apocalyptic expectations were not always pictured so vividly as they were in Paul's thinking, still the advocates of the new religion in this period never came to regard their chief mission as that of establishing Christianity in a present endurmg world-order. The new movement was gaining rapidly in the strength by which it was later able to take possession of the Graeco-Roman world, but as yet it was quite unconscious of its power and made almost no deliberate attempts either to defend itself against persecution or to appropriate for itself the political, economic, religious, and intellectual forces of the day. Sources of information. — For the first time in the history of early Christianity the direct sources of information now become fairly numerous. They are, in the first place, several extant letters written, as in the case of Paul's epistles, to meet some immediate demand. Hence they reflect very clearly certain local situations. Important examples of this class of literature are the epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corin- thians, the seven letters of Ignatius written while on his way to Rome to be martyred, Polycarp's letter to the Philippians, and still other letters of doubtful authorship but of similarly 290 - GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION valuable content, such as I and II Peter, I-III John, Jude, and the letters of Revelation to the seven churches of Asia. Other documents commonly classed as letters are less specific in character but are valuable for the light they shed on general conditions. In some cases they were designed as circular letters, while in other instances they may originally have been Christian homilies or sermons. Among these documents I and II Timothy and Titus were apparently intended as handbooks for the use of young pastors, while Hebrews, James, and Barnabas have more of the character of homilies. Another type of literature characteristic of this age is the so-called "gospel." This form of writing was designed for the instruction and edification of individuals or of communi- ties, and as tastes and needs varied in different parts of the widening mission field several different written gospels took shape. Those called by the names of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John have been preserved in the New Testament, while others once highly prized in certain circles are now known only in fragments. Such are the Gospel according to the Hebrews and the Gospel of Peter. The Gospels, as well as the Book of Acts, all purport to deal with the history of the earlier age, yet their point of view and method of treatment often dis- close something of the specific conditions amid which the authors themselves lived. In addition to these indirect sources, other writings similarly designed for purposes of instruction deal directly with problems of post-apostolic times. The Didache belongs here, and also II Clement and Diognetus — if the two last-named documents are not really of later date. Lastly, the Apocalypse of John (Revelation), a frag- ment of the Apocalypse of Peter, and perhaps also the older elements of the Shepherd of Hermas belong in this period. Evidences of growth. — The course of Christianity's spread during these years cannot be traced in detail. There is no ancient document which reconstructs the career of a single missionary in the way that the author of Acts follows Paul's THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 291 activity. Nor did any Christian leader of post-apostolic times stand out so pre-eminently as did Paul in his generation. But significant leaders were not lacking, as the names of Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp show. Although comparatively little is known of individual leaders, the student of the period will be struck by some notable evidences of the new religion's expansion. About the year 112 a.d. Pliny the Younger wrote to the Emperor Trajan describing the situation in the province of Bithynia-Pontus over which Pliny had recently been appointed governor. He said that the new religion had spread not only among the cities, but even in the villages and country districts, until the worship of the old gods had been seriously impaired. There was no longer any demand for sacrificial victims or for the fodder which formerly had been regularly purchased by their keepers. This economic decline, due to the wide spread of Christianity, caused Pliny real alarm. There is also evidence of Christianity's increased impor- tance in territory where it had already been in existence during apostoHc times. This is particularly true of the Province of Asia. Ephesus is still the chief seat of the new religion, but important Christian communities are now found in various cities (e.g., Smyrna, Pergamum, Philadelphia, Sardis, Tralles, Hierapohs, Laodicea, Colossae, Magnesia, Thyatira). In Syria and Palestine, in Macedonia, in Greece, in Italy, and in Egypt there are also signs of growth. Even North Africa, Gaul, and Spain were probably reached by Christian preachers during this period. Relation to Judaism. — The breach between Christians and Jews of the Diaspora was already wide at the end of the ApostoHc Age, and hostility between the two religions con- tinued to increase during the subsequent years. The fall of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. was regarded by the Christians as a direct punishment of the Jews for their rejection of the Chris- tian message. Paul's expectation that his own countrymen 292 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION would accept the Gospel when they saw the Gentiles coming into the kingdom (e.g., Rom. 11:25 ^•) was abandoned, and a belief that the Jewish people were to be utterly rejected appears clearly in such writings as Matthew, Luke-Acts, and John. Christians now claimed that they, as gentile converts to the new faith, were the true people of God with exclusive rights to the Old Testament revelation and all its promises. The old covenant had been merely anticipatory, hence it was now the proper possession of the new religion in which it had come to fulfilment. Christians accordingly used the ancient Scripture to substantiate their new teaching, allegorizing or ignoring those features which could not be appropriated directly. Various interpreters tried their skill at this task and the varying results are observable in docu- ments like I Clement, Hebrews, and Barnabas. The Jews, as would be expected, resented the Christians' mode of procedure. Those Jews who had adopted Chris- tianity were regarded as apostates, and the use of the Old Testament in gentile Christian communities was viewed as a defilement of the Scripture. Hostility was all the more bitter because in many places Jewish and Christian com- munities existed side by side as competitors in appealing for a following among the heathen. Under these circumstances bitter enmity was inevitable, and it is not surprising that the Jews embraced every opportunity to persuade the authorities that Christianity was politically dangerous. It is this situa- tion which causes the author of Revelation to exclaim that the Jews of Asia are veritably a synagogue of Satan (2:9; 3:9). It is noticeable also that the writers of Luke-Acts and John take pains to show that the Roman authorities of earlier days found Christianity politically harmless in spite of Jewish allegations to the contrary. These are indications of the real difficulties under which Christians were laboring as a result of the new religion's continued Jewish connections in post- apostolic times. THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 293 Relation to the Roman state. — The new movement con- fronted a still graver difficulty when Roman officials began to realize that it no longer stood within Judaism. The Jewish religion enjoyed a large measure of tolerance within the Roman Empire, and Christianity at first shared in this privilege. But in the post-apostolic age its independence came to be more and more appreciated by the state authorities, who occasionally sought to suppress the new "superstition," as they called it. The exact charge upon which Christians were condemned is not always clear, but the causes of official interference are easily discovered. In the first place Rome was on principle intolerant of new cults, at whose secret meetings disturbers might hatch up political sedition. Sometimes the Jews took advantage of this situation and accused Christians before the suspicious Roman magistrates. Moreover, pagans also were often ill-disposed toward these new religionists who held aloof from the common life of the community, and so won for themselves the epithet of "haters of the human race." Christianity also disturbed economic conditions, as Pliny's letter attests. And, finally, when Christians were haled before the magistrates they would neither acknowledge Caesar's lordship nor offer incense before his image, thus virtually refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the state. The specific occasions when Christians suffered persecu- tion during this period are not altogether clear. In the closing years of apostolic times (64 a.d.) Nero had inflicted tortures on Christians at Rome, but probably his action did not extend beyond the city. There were persecutions again under Domitian (81-96 a.d.) which may have reached Asia and given occasion for the writing of Revelation and I Peter. Similar events recurred under Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117- 38), and Antoninus Pius (138-61). But probably the extent and severity of these early persecutions have been somewhat exaggerated in later tradition. 294 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Organization and worship. — In post-apostolic times the earHer spontaneous Hfe as seen in the Pauline communities was supplanted by a somewhat more orderly and formal practice. Yet the primitive spontaneity was not entirely lost. There were still the public and the private meetings, though the latter were tending to disappear. Small groups met at private homes for prayer, reading and interpretation of Scripture, and exhortation. But greater importance attached to the general meetings, especially to those held on Sunday. The members came together at the home of some Christian who could furnish the necessary room, or else they assembled in some place rented for the purpose. There was one gathering early in the morning where the time was taken up with Scripture reading, prayer, and preaching. There was another assembly in the evening after the day's work was over when the love feast (Agape) was eaten and the Eucharist was cele- brated. But the Agape gradually disappeared from formal worship, becoming a private social function, while the Euchar- ist was taken over into the other service where its ritualistic character was still further emphasized. For example, Did. 10:3 calls it "spiritual food and drink and eternal life"; in John 6:51-59 it is said that they alone have eternal life who eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man; and for Ignatius the Eucharist is the very "medicine of immor- tahty," the "bread of God" (Eph. 20:2; Rom. 7:3; see also Justin Apol. i. 66. 2). The rite of baptism is also further formalized in this period. Apparently it may still be administered by any Christian, as in Paul's day (I Cor. 1:14-17), but several specific prescrip- tions for its observance are laid down (e.g.. Did., chap. 7). The candidates undergo a preliminary training ending in a season of fasting immediately preceding the administra- tion of . the rite marking the individual's entrance into full membership in the church. Baptism freed him from the dominion of evil demons and supplied him with the THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 295 Holy Spirit, all of which meant a new birth and a divine enlightenment. In post-apostolic times the new society also became more formally ofhcered than it had been in the preceding genera- tion. This phase in the historical development is often obscure, but its main outlines are recoverable. It is very clear that the authority of the persons who directed the affairs of the Pauline community at Corinth rested in their functional capacity rather than in official appointment. Yet Paul himself recognized the special authority of the leaders at Jerusalem, although unwilling to admit that their authority was superior to his own. The author of Acts, however, has gone so far in his desire for formal official leadership as to make the Jerusalem apostles virtually a college of overseers in- trusted with the task of supervising affairs not only in the local community, but also in all the adjacent missionary fields. This is the general direction taken by the developing ecclesi- astical organization of the post-apostolic age. As yet there is no central authority for all Christendom, but local leadership tends to center in a monarchical bishop with presbyters and deacons as his subordinates. The duties of various officials become more exactly defined, and the activities of the pneu- matic traveling prophet are less highly esteemed. The content of Christian teaching. — The teaching heard within the Christian communities of post-apostolic times was still very largely Jewish in content. As yet the only recog- nized canonical books were those of the Old Testament, although many distinctly Christian writings were in circula- tion and were read for edification. The memory of the blessed apostles was everywhere cherished, but their writings had not yet been made canonical. Yet a tendency in this direc- tion had begun to show itself, especially in the new conception of Christianity as a specific body of teaching authoritatively defined and once for all delivered unto the saints (e.g., II Tim. 1:14; Jude, vs. 31). 296 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION This growing deposit of faith was composed of many differ- ent elements. As in earlier times, Jewish ideas about God, angels, Satan, and demons were prominent. The end of the world and the coming of the apocalyptic Messiah were still preached (e.g., Mark 9:1; I Clem. 23:3-5; Ignatius Eph. 11: i; Barn. 4:3, 9), and different explanations were offered to account for the delay in the Messiah's coming (e.g., Mark 13:10; II Peter 3:4!?.). In the meantime Christians called themselves the true people of God on earth, and the whole course of the world's history was believed to head up in the church. The significance of Jesus' work occupied the center of distinctively Christian teaching, but christological specula- tion moved along several new hnes. For example, the Gospel of Mark pictured Jesus' uniqueness in terms of spiritual endowment at baptism; the authors of Matthew and Luke added the notion of miraculous birth; in John the idea of the incarnate Logos was adopted to explain Jesus' person. Igna- tius also insisted emphatically upon the idea of a literal incarnation of Deity in Jesus, while other thinkers like Clement of Rome and the authors of Hebrews, Barnabas, and the Gospel according to the Hebrews made their respective contributions to Christology. While Jesus was elevated to a position approaching more nearly that of the heavenly Christ revered in the worshiping community, Christianity cannot be said to have evolved as yet any one self-consistent form of christological speculation. In several quarters the Christian teaching of this period is framed to offset the work of "false teachers." These disturbers were not unknown in apostolic times (e.g., the Judaizers), but later they became more prevalent and more dangerous. The author of Revelation warns his readers against these individuals in Ephesus, in Pergamum, and in Thyatira. The letters of John and Jude, and by implication also the Gospels of Luke and John, show a similar anxiety for the preservation of the true faith as understood by the THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY * 297 orthodox. The Pastoral Epistles several times caution readers against being caught in the snare of vain disputations, and both Ignatius and Polycarp denounce the heretics. Numerous incidental references in other documents show how general these disturbances already had become (e.g., Matt. 7:15-23; 24:iif.; Acts 8 : 20 f.; 2o:2gi.] Heb. 13:9; I Pet. 2:16; James 3:131!.; Did., chap. 11; I Clem., chaps. 23 ff.; Barn., chap 4). These errors are occasional, varied, and for the most part still within the church. Their general tendency, however, is in the direction of Gnosticism, which later, as we shall see, developed into an independent Chris- tian movement. Attention must be called to one other phase of Christian teaching characteristic of this period. Although the advocates of Christianity were quite unconscious of the process, the new movement was gradually becoming an integral part of the religious life of the Graeco-Roman world. A few indications of this fact may be observed in passing. While Christians believed that they were perpetuating Hebrew monotheism in its purity, in the prayers, hymns, confessions, and other ritualistic acts of the worshiping community, the heavenly Christ was treated as himself a deity, just as was done in the case of the special divinities worshiped in the contemporary Hellenistic cults. The titles "Lord" and "Savior," current in the cult of the emperor and in the mystery-religions, were freely applied to the risen Jesus. His "Name" had the same magical significance as that of other divinities, and in fact the new movement sometimes was called simply the religion of the "Name." While Ignatius was the first to call Jesus God outright, the place which Jesus occupied in the reverence of the community from the very beginning of post-apostolic times was virtually that of Deity. Nor was Christian thinking any longer content as Paul had been to locate Jesus' career as Deity in heaven only; he was also God while on earth. The earlier apostolic problem of the man- God now became the 298 Guide to study of christian religion problem of the God-man. In their efforts to solve this prob- lem the post-apostolic Christians freely availed themselves of contemporary Hellenistic thinking, in which the God-man was a familiar figure. Various subsidiary phases of Christian thinking during this period also show the influence of the Graeco-Roman environment. Jewish views regarding the fate of the soul after death were not entirely abandoned, but they were to a considerable extent fused with a more distinctly Greek imagery. Less importance was now attached to the resusci- tation of the body and the notion of final judgment, and more stress was placed upon the soul's entrance into final blessed- ness immediately after death (e.g., Luke 16:22; 23:43; John 14 : 2 f .) . The complementary idea of a place of punishment to which the wicked went immediately upon leaving the earth was also a popular Hellenistic notion (cf. Luke 16:23, ^-^^ espe- cially the Apocalypse of Peter) . The conception of religion as the attainment of "Knowledge" and "Life"^ — ideas occurring in the Didache, John, I Clement, and Ignatius — have striking parallels in contemporary Hellenicism. The peculiarly Stoic notion of divine immanence also finds expression in such Christian statements as "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). The Christian life. — In post-apostolic times Christian living also had its characteristic features. The personnel of the communities was greatly diversified. Most of the mem- bership was still composed of adult converts — some from Judaism, but a rapidly increasing majority from paganism. Various nationalities were represented, as well as many differ- ent tastes and interests. The new movement was located mainly in the cities, although in some places it had penetrated into the country districts. The majority of its adherents still belonged to the lower classes, but the number of prosperous and more influential converts was gradually increasing. * . THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 299 Christians were exhorted by their teachers to hold them- selves scrupulously aloof from the contaminating influences of heathen society. Not only heathen worship, but pagan life in general, was adjudged a work of Satan and his evil demons. Over against this Satanic society stood the assembly of the saints on earth. To be sure, many Christians proved themselves to be mere babes in sainthood, as the leaders of the new religion often sadly admitted. But the ideal was high, and much attention was given to the means by which it might be attained. Of course the rites of the cult were indispensable, but the daily life of the individual needed constant attention if the highest attainments in piety were to be reached. Among these special means of grace the Spirit still held an important place. Spiritual manifestations were more care- fully controlled than in Paul's day, and the Spirit was no longer so completely regulative for all Christian activities. Yet it was thought to be the common possession of all believers (e.g., Heb. 6:4; Barn. 1:2; I Clem. 2:2; I John 2:20). It expressed itself in various ways, but especial emphasis now fell upon the activity of the Spirit in communicating to men the Old Testament revelation. The prophetic Spirit speak- ing through the Scriptures now took precedence over those more spontaneous forms of-charismatic activity characteristic of apostolic times. Some new instruments for the attainment of special grades of piety were discovered, or newly applied, in post-apostolic times. One very serious question concerned the treatment of members who sinned after becoming Christians. Certain heinous sins seem generally to have been regarded as unpardon- able (Mark 3 : 29 f. ; Heb. 6:4 ff.; Did. 11:7; I John 5: 16 f.), but a large opportunity for repentance was usually allowed (Rev. 2:21 f.; John 7:53 — 8:11). Much stress was placed upon the act of confession, especially public confession, as a condition of forgiveness. Those of stronger moral character 300 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION sought to transcend the ordinary requirements of righteous- ness and win special merit through the performance of "good works" — ^ahnsgiving, fasting, special prayer, and asceticism. The greatest rewards, however, could be attained only through martyrdom. Thus two main grades of piety came to be generally recog- nized. The lower was that of the ordinary man who, from lack of opportunity or through native inability, was unable to attain to the higher level. On the other hand, a chosen few, diligent in almsgiving, prayer, fasting, ascetic observances, and wit- nessing, attained to a position of especial reverence in the community and were believed to inherit the richest rewards of heaven. Literature. — The best book on this specific period is R. Knopf, Das nachapostolische Zeitalter (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1905). See also books on the Apostolic Age (above, p. 279), which sometimes treat the period only in so far as the New Testament writings are connected with the history. See also "General References" (below, p. 324). VIII. THE WORK OF THE EARLY APOLOGISTS New tendencies, — When a student has followed with some care the course of Christianity's development in post-apostolic times, he has become familiar with the main features char- acterizing the new religion during the next two generations. The age of the apologists did not produce any very radically new features in Christianity. Yet, although the leading apologists themselves stood definitely within the Christian communities as already established, they do represent certain new tendencies in the growth of the new religion. In general, they aim to show that Christianity is really deserving of a recognized place in the world. The patient unaggressive attitude of earlier times is gradually superseded by a growing disposition toward self-defense and aggression. The apologists address themselves to the emperors; they contend for the superiority of Christianity over the culture and religion of THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 301 the contemporary world; they vigorously attack Jewish opponents, and occasionally they also refute the heretics who have now become independent of the church. The individual apologists. — Apart from writings like Luke-Acts and John, which are essentially apologetic in spirit if not in form, the earliest apologist known is Quadratus. But only a very small fragment of his work, which was addressed to Hadrian about 124 a.d., is now extant. About the year 150 Aristides, a Christian philosopher of Athens, addressed to Antoninus Pius a defense of Christianity, the main con- tention being that true 'knowledge of God is found only in the new religion. While the Jews profess to believe in one god they are accused of really worshiping angels ; the gods of the Greeks are merely gross anthropomorphic creatures, and the deities of the barbarians are simply the forces of nature. Only by the fourth division of humanity, the Christians, is God truly known and worshiped. Justin was a Hellenistic philosopher converted to Chris- tianity in Asia about 130 a.d., but his chief work was done at Rome, where he conducted a Christian school until over- taken by a martyr's death about the year 165. Among his genuine extant writings are a longer and a shorter apology in which he contends for the innocence of Christians and affirms that Christianity is worthy of recognition as the true religion and the true philosophy. Similarly, in another work, the Dia- logue with Trypho, Christianity's superiority over Judaism is affirmed on the ground that Christians alone are the true Israel. Tatian, a pupil of Justin, also addressed a defense of Christianity to the Greeks. He describes Greek culture as a body of error, while Christianity is the true wisdom running back through all antiquity. Moses is said to have antedated Homer by four hundred years, and since the Old Testament is claimed as the pecuhar property of Christianity, the new religion possesses both the prestige of antiquity and the deposit of real revelation. 302 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Several fragments are preserved from Melito of Sardis, who addressed an apology to Marcus Aurelius. To the same emperor Athenagoras, possibly of Athens, directed an appeal on behalf of the Christians about 177 a.d. The argument proceeded along usual lines, defending Christians against calumnies and dwelling upon the nobiHty of the Christian con- ception of God. In still another work Athenagoras attempted to furnish a philosophical basis for behef in the resurrection. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch in Syria, some time after the death of Marcus Aurehus (180 a.d.) also composed three apologetic books addressed to a heathen called Autolycus. About the same date a Roman Christian, Minucius Felix, wrote a defensive treatise modeled after Cicero's De natura deorum. All these early apologists were interested in demanding tolerance from the state and in defending the new religion's superiority over pagan religions and philosophies. To a less extent they refuted Jewish critics, and incidentally they now and then condemned heretics. Thus representative leaders in different parts of Christendom were beginning to widen their range of vision and claim for the new religion a recog- nized place in that ancient world. The specific problem of the apologists. — All the apologists were engaged in the general task of proving to the heathen the absolute rationality and universaUty of the Christian rehgion, the true philosophy. But their more specific prob- lem was a christological one. During the Apostolic Age, and especially in post-apostoHc times, the process of pushing back upon the earthly Jesus the glory of the heavenly Christ was gradually completed. No distinction was any longer made between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith to whom Christians directed their prayers and confessions, in whose name they were baptized, of whose immortal substance they partook in the Eucharist, and whose divine glory they cele- brated in their hymns. The fulness of Deity thus popularly THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 303 ascribed to the heavenly Christ was freely posited of the man Jesus. He was now definitely called a Second God (Seurepos debs). The apologists shared in full this item of popular faith, and the necessity of defending it against the charge of polytheism gave them their special problem. Polytheism had long ago been discarded, not only by Jews, but by the better educated classes of the Graeco-Roman world, and strong monotheistic tendencies had appeared within those circles where either Platonic idealism or Stoic pantheism exerted a dominating influence. Christians were now accused of being polytheists both by Jewish and by pagan critics. Jewish criticism was taken less seriously, since hope of winning any large Jewish following had been abandoned. But the desirabihty of meeting gentile objections was felt more keenly, and the apologists set themselves to the specific task of proving that Christians were really monotheists in spite of the fact that they worshiped Jesus as God. The Logos Christology. — The chief instrument employed by the apologists in defense of Christian monotheism was the notion of the Logos. This word, which was already doing service in various connections among their pagan contempo- raries, was appropriated by the apologists without any thoroughgoing attempt to define its exact meaning. Their primary interest was in Christianity as a new cult, and philosophical terminology was employed only as an expedient to serve the apologetic needs of the rehgionist. In other words , we have here to do with the rehgionist turned philosopher and not with the philosopher interpreting rehgion in terms of a carefully devised system of philosophical speculation. This opportunist character of the apologists' work is apparent in their Christology. While they called Jesus God, they endeavored to unite him with the supreme Deity by means of the Logos as a divine emanation or hypostasis. In this way they hoped not only to meet the demands of philo- sophical monotheism but to estabhsh the rationahty and 304 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION universality of Christianity. Since the Logos was commonly supposed to be the source of all intelligence within the universe everywhere and at all times, all the enlightenment of the past could be called essentially Christian in content and all present and future wisdom must be sought within Christian circles where the Logos had finally been perfectly revealed. The philosophical versus the mythical motive. — Happy as this Christian apologetic may on first sight seem, it con- tained features which made it impossible of acceptance for the real philosopher of that day. It was of the nature of all genuine Hellenistic Logos-doctrine that man by creation had the Logos-enlightenment in virtue of which he could by searching find out God. This was emphatically denied by the apologists, whose ultimate criterion of religious knowledge was not reason at all, but supernatural, special revelation. The- oretically they allowed that the Logos had been present in the gentile world before the coming of Christ, yet they affirmed that this manifestation was of a very inferior sort and that the Greek philosophers had in the main produced only a mass of errors. Nor could a contemporary philosopher attain true wisdom outside the Christian community. Ultimately true philosophy, i.e., true religion, was a divine donation rather than a human attainment, and could be acquired only through acquaintance with revelation contained in the Old Testament and finally brought to completion in the Logos Christ. When the apologists took this stand they really sided, not with the philosophers, but with the mythologists of their day. The Christian Logos was not a normal quantum of divine rational energy possessed in common by mankind, but a heroic figure descended to earth under one special set of cir- cumstances in order to redeem a hopelessly lost humanity. By interpreting Christianity in this way the apologists probably did more to secure its place in that world than they could have done by adopting outright the more rational THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 305 methods of philosophy. Although the mythical deities of Greece and Rome were no longer generally revered, the mythi- cal motive was still strong even among the educated. The force of this motive outside of Christianity is amply attested, for example, in the abundant allegory of the Stoics. By employing this device they recognized, in spite of their insist- ence upon the rational (XoyLKos) character of the whole uni- verse, that in the realm of religion the functioning significance of myth was far stronger than that of reason. In mythicizing the Logos by identifying it with an indi- vidual the apologists were not doing absolutely original work. Their notable predecessor within Christianity was the author of the Fourth Gospel, but both he and they had Hellenistic predecessors. The outstanding Hellenistic figure who was supposed to have functioned as the creative, revealing, redeem- ing Logos was Hermes, though various other divine heroes, such as Osiris and Thot among the Egyptians, played a similar role. When Christians pictured Jesus as the incarnation of the -enlightening, saving Logos they were but giving further evi- dence of their skill and wisdom in reinterpreting his career in such way as to make him minister to the needs of that larger world to which expanding Christianity was now making its appeal. Literature. — In addition to appropriate sections of books mentioned among "General References" (p. 324), see J. Geffcken, Zwei griechische Apologeten (Leipzig: Teubner, 1907); J. Riviere, Saint Justin et les apologistes du second siecle (Paris: Bloud, 1907); A. Peuch, Les Apolo- gistes grecs du IP siecle de notre ere (Paris: Hachette, 191 2). IX. GNOSTICISM General characteristics. — Another effort to connect early Christianity with contemporary Hellenicism was made in the movement commonly termed Gnosticism. This attempt was much more thoroughgoing than that of the apologists, it pro- ceeded along quite different lines, and it met with strong 3o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION opposition from Christians themselves. The apologists subordinated speculation to the faith of the worshiping com- munity, they dealt mainly with the christological problem, and they kept Christianity bound up closely with the Jewish Scriptures. The Gnostics, on the other hand, made specula- tion paramount, they freely deviated from the traditional opinions of the community, their main problem was soteriology rather than Christology, and they generally sought to sever Christianity from its Jewish connections. There was still another fundamental difference between the Gnostics and the apologists. In so far as the latter were con- trolled by speculative interests they inclined toward the monistic world- view of the Stoics and endeavored by a shifty use of the Logos-idea to fit into this philosophical schema the essentially contradictory notion of a special supernatural revelation mediated through the Jewish Scripture and the Christian cult. On the contrary, the Gnostics were out-and- out dualists. The good and the evil worlds were sharply con- trasted, and were not united by any natural bond. Man belonged to the evil world, his soul only having any original connection with the good, and in his present state he was utterly helpless until aid came to him from the supernatural realm. And since this help came for the express purpose of delivering the soul from the world of evil matter, the divine deliverer could have no essential and natural bond of unity with matter. Hence the Gnostics' fundamental interest in soteriology and their comparative lack of interest in the his- torical man Jesus whom the apologists sought to define in terms of the Logos incarnation. The antecedents of Gnosticism. — In order to understand the genius of Christian Gnosticism one must glance briefly at its antecedents. It used to be said that Gnosticism resulted from a fusion of Greek philosophy and Christianity in the second century, but the investigations of recent years have shown the inadequacy of this hypothesis. Scholars now THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 307 recognize a pre-Christian as well as a Christian Gnosticism, its philosophical basis in each case being far more oriental than Hellenic. It is Hellenistic to be sure, in that it com- bines Hellenic and oriental elements, but the latter largely predominate. For instance. Gnostic dualism is not of the Platonic type which distinguishes between an ideal and invisible world on the one hand and a real and visible one on the other, the latter being modeled after the former. In con- trast with Plato, Gnostic dualism posited two opposing dominions within the visible world, one presided over by the powers of darkness and the other belonging to the kingdom of light. Matter was wholly evil, and only through a divine redemption could the human soul be delivered from its bondage in matter. Hence salvation meant deliverance from the dominion of evil — a deliverance to be realized by the individual through a knowledge of the good Deity as revealed in the teaching and sacraments of the cult. Therefore knowl- edge (ypuiaLs, gnosis) in the Gnostic sense has nothing to do with philosophical knowledge in the Greek sense of the word, but is an affair of supernatural revelation. These, and a host of other distinctive Gnostic notions which might be mentioned, prove beyond question the genuinely oriental character of the movement — ^whether we trace it ultimately to Persia, Babylonia, or Egypt. Relation to Paul. — At the outset it must be apparent that Paul was to some extent influenced by this same type of oriental thinking. His dualistic world-view, like that of other Jews of his day, was essentially oriental. For him "flesh" was a serious hindrance to spiritual Hfe, even if he did not assign a wholly evil origin to matter. The prac- tically hopeless condition of the human soul in its natural state, and the absolute necessity of supernatural redemption, were also characteristic Pauline ideas. The notion of an indwelling heavenly possession within the behever — which he usually called Spirit rather than gnosis — his deprecatory 3o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION estimate of marriage, and his pessimistic view of the present world generally are all of a piece with the pre-Christian Gnostic way of thinking. But Paul was quite un-Gnostic in supposing that the world of matter could have been created by the good Deity, and in holding that supernatural revelation came through spe- cific historical events, such as the giving of the Law to Moses or the advent of Jesus. These and other differences separated Paul from the pre-Christian Gnostics, yet the similarity be- tween him and them was so close that Gnosticism and Chris- tianity fused most readily in the realm of Paulinism. As a consequence of this fact the main stream of Christianity, which ran counter to the gnosticizing of the new religion, also practically rejected Paul during the period when the Gnostic movement was most aggressive. This situation prevailed all through post-apostolic times as well as during the age of the early apologists. Earliest contact with Christianity. — Previous to the rise of definite Christian Gnostic leaders who estabhshed inde- pendent Gnostic movements, traces of Gnostic influence upon Christianity appear in several quarters even outside of the Pauline epistles. The false teachers of early post-apostoHc days (see above, p. 296) usually represent some form of this speculation, although they sometimes differed widely from one another, since Gnosticism was not really a uniform system but a family of kindred tendencies in thinking. For example, within the churches addressed by the author of Revelation there were members who claimed to be so thor- oughly enhghtened and free from this world that they could visit the heathen feasts, or even break the rules of chastity, with impunity. They seem to have thought that since Gnostic salvation was an affair of the spirit only it was of httle or no consequence what the mortal body did when once the spirit had become thoroughly enhghtened. In the epistles of John and of Ignatius we meet with Christians who apply THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 309 the Gnostic notion of matter to Christ and affirm that he, being a truly divine dehverer, cannot have been really united to a body of sinful flesh — and all flesh was evil. His residence in the body of the man Jesus was said to be only temporary, extending merely from baptism to the crucifixion (Adoptionism) ; or else he never had a real body at all, but was only an apparition (Docetism). Again, in the Pastoral Epistles, as in Colossians, certain Christian teachers boast of their pneumatic equipment and show a fondness for Gnostic speculation regarding angels and aeons. Polycarp refers to other errorists who, true to the Gnostic doctrine of matter's evil character, deny that there will ever be any resurrection of the body. The chief Gnostic leaders. — The full significance of Gnosticism for the history of early Christianity does not appear until a definite and influential Gnostic leadership arises. Many of its champions were evidently persons of force and character, but unfortunately our knowledge of them is con- fined almost wholly to information derived from their oppo- nents. There are a few original documents extant in Coptic translations and some lengthy quotations are preserved in the writings of the Fathers (e.g., Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Clement of jAlexandria, Origen). But often little more than the name of a teacher, or the name of some school, is known. The Christian Gnostic movement arose early and in differ- ent parts of the Mediterranean world. The Ophites and the Naassenes are names commonly applied to a very early type of this speculation, in which the pre-Christian features are especially in evidence. Among specific teachers, at the close of the first century Cerinthus appears in Asia, and at about the same time Satornilus (Saturninus) , whose prede- cessors were Simon Magus and Menander, taught in Syria. But Alexandria is especially noted as the home of the move- ment. Here BasiHdes established a school about the year 130 A.D., either selecting or composing a special gospel, and 3IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION writing a commentary upon it in twenty-four books. More famous still was Valentinus {ca. 150 a.d.), who worked first in Alexandria and then in Rome. His pupil Theodotus estab- lished a school in the East and another pupil, Ptolemaeus, estabhshed one in the West. From about 145 to 165 a.d. Marcion was an influential Gnostic teacher at Rome, and communities representing his particular views soon sprang up in different parts of the Mediterranean world. He is especially noted for his efforts to persuade the church that the Jewish sacred Scriptures should be displaced by a specifi- cally Christian canon composed of the Gospel of Luke and the Epistles of Paul. In the latter part of the second and early in the third century Eastern Gnosticism had a powerful champion in Bardesanes of Edessa. The Gnostic system. — The Gnostic movement was so com- plex, and individual Gnostics exercised so large a measure of personal hberty in thinking, that no specific Gnostic system of Christian theology can be exactly defined. But its main characteristics are ascertainable, and a brief sketch of these will serve to show the skilful way in which the movement met some of the most perplexing problems of that age. 1 . The chief feature of Gnosticism was its sharp separation between the god- of light and the god of darkness, with their respective divine associates. These two groups of divinities were supposed to be constantly carrying on a fierce confhct with one another for the possession of the human soul. The scene of conflict was the earth where man now dwelt, and also the upper air through which the soul must pass on its way to the highest heavens. 2. This material world, and the material body containing the soul, were beHeved to be wholly evil. Matter was evil because it had been created by the evil powers. The creator of the present world cannot have been a good god, else the world would have been wholly good, but man knew by experience that it was not good. Therefore its creator must THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 311 be bad. Thus the Gnostics offered — -if we grant their premises — a very simple solution of the ever-present problem of evil. 3. The soul of man did not originally belong to this world of created matter. It was a fragment from the realm of Hght which by some mishap had sunk down and become entangled in evil matter. Here it abode in ignorance and agony, utterly unable of itself to fight its way back to the realm of light whence it had fallen. 4. But a way of salvation had been provided. Another and more powerful emissary from the realm of light had descended into this realm of darkness in order to bring aid to the helpless soul. Originally this deliverer seems to have been conceived of as a principle of salvation, or a hypostasis, rather than a person. But it was portrayed in mythical form under the image of the -Primal Man (cf. the Son of Man of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic), the Heavenly Mother, and — in Christian Gnosticism — the pre-existent Christ. 5. This aid was mediated to specific souls by means of the cultus. Through the rites of initiation and worship the individual received a new increment from the world of light by which he learned the secrets of divine wisdom enabling his soul to pass safely all the gateways on the road to heaven. 6. Different individuals might attain different degrees of enlightenment, but every believer received a new guiding power in his hfe which freed him from the bondage of the flesh. The logic of this behef often led to asceticism. Since matter was evil, the appetites of the body were to be sup- pressed, and since the begetting of children meant the per- petuation of evil matter, marriage ought also to be avoided. In some cases, however, the exaltation of the enlightened mind over matter was made to justify Hbertinism. One might let the body have its way, since the enlightened spirit only counted for things eternal. 7. This depreciation of the physical body determined the Gnostics' notion of the earthly Jesus. The man Jesus of 312 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Nazareth could have no central place in their system; they needed only the pre-existent angelic Christ. Though they adopted the myth of the God-man as a means of portraying concretely the scheme of redemption, they were loath to allow- that he had any natural connection with an actual human being. Some said that he was only an apparition while on earth (Cerinthus) , others thought that he resided temporarily in the man Jesus (Basilides), while others employed the notion of a virgin birth as a means of obtaining a unique body worthy to enshrine this heavenly spirit (so the later Valen- tinians) . 8. The Gnostics' view of matter was logically accompanied by an inferior estimate of the worth of human history. They rejected Judaism, along with the popular Christian notion that the Old Testament was a divine revelation. Most Gnostics said that the creation of evil matter must have been the work of an inferior evil deity, hence the Jews had been worshiping a demon rather than the god of light. Inci- dentally, Christianity was thereby reheved of the embarrass- ment of explaining its connections with the unpopular Jewish race. 9. Since revelation was not to be found in Judaism it was located in Christianity alone. So the leading Gnostics proceeded to canonize distinctively Christian writings and to elaborate them by extended works of interpretation. Thus it was in the Gnostic movement that Christianity first found fluent literary expression aS well as the stimulus for assembling a New Testament canon of Scripture. The historical significance of Gnosticism. — Notwithstand- ing the fact that the Gnostics were condemned as heretics, the movement they represented cannot have failed to satisfy numerous popular needs peculiar to the situation of that age. Indeed, orthodox Christianity actually enriched itself both by absorbing certain features of Gnosticism and by developing new phases within its own life to offset similar items in the THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 313 heretical movements. A few illustrations of these lines of development should be particularly observed. 1. The growth of Christian asceticism within the orthodox communities, finally resulting in monasticism, was doubtless greatly stimulated by the Gnostic notion of matter. And it is possible that the Gnostic idea of divine knowledge as a per- sonal attainment of the individual soul may also have con- tributed to the development of mysticism within the church. 2. The importance which Gnostics attached to the rites of the cult as a means of insuring divine wisdom necessary to salvation is reflected in orthodox circles, where there was an increasing disposition all through the second and third cen- turies to emphasize the sacramental significance of rites. Gnostic influence may have tended to enrich the liturgy, especially in the realm of hymnology, for the Gnostics were pre-eminently the hymn-writers of their day. 3. In resisting Gnostic Christology the Christians of post- apostoUc times were led to give much more attention than their predecessors in the ApostoHc Age had done to collecting and reporting tradition regarding the actual earthly Jesus. Thanks to this incentive a considerable body of gospel tra- dition was put into circulation and four representative docu- ments of this class were finally given first place in the new official collection of Christian writings. While the orthodox thus sought to dismiss Gnostic views, it was nevertheless true that the Gnostics bequeathed to Christendom a set of christo- logical problems which have long continued to trouble theo- logians. 4. Another very significant effect of the Gnostics' work was the development of an interest in apostolic authority. Here they set the example by discarding the authority of the Old Testament which all through the first century had con- stituted the Christians' main source of appeal. On the other hand. Gnostic writers appealed to apostolic heroes and the writings which had come from them, and not infrequently 314 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the Gnostics showed themselves past-masters at the art of pseudonymous Hterary production. This situation stimu- lated orthodoxy to discover and set up what it held to be a genuine apostoHc authority over against the pseudo-authority of the heretics. The ultimate outcome of this process was the production of a New Testament to which the Old was subordinated. Incidentally this also meant the rescu:"ng of Paul from the Gnostics. Orthodox writers Hke Justin had avoided reference to Paul, who was the mainstay of the heretics, but once the New Testament canon was established Paul was reinstated — at least in form if not in spirit. 5.. One of the earliest and most notable effects of incipient Gnosticism is seen in the tendency to establish within orthodox circles a stated leadership to displace the older functional ideal of trusting to the guidance of pneumatic individuals. Even as early as the time of Ignatius this point was especially stressed. The false teachers claimed for themselves full pneumatic powers, and doubtless in the eyes of the populace they often successfully justified their claim. Hence the need of regularly appointed officers with supreme authority to dispose of false prophets. The result was a claim of apostohc authority for ofl&cials as well as for canonical books. 6. In a word, the whole trend of the church's development in reaction against the numerous and powerful Gnostic move- ments of the second century was toward Catholicism with its stated officials, its fixed New Testament canon, its uniform rule of faith, and its universal control. Gnosticism, on the other hand, was so individuaHstic in its emphasis and so diversified that it failed to develop the unity of interest and organization necessary to withstand successfully the resistance of a more formally united orthodoxy. Literature. — For introductory purposes see the excellent articles on "Gnosticism" by E. F. Scott in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics and by W. Bousset in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth ed. More detailed treatment will be found in W. Bousset, Hauptprobleme der THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 315 Gnosis (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1907); E. de Faye, Gnostiques et gnosticisme (Paris: Leroux, 1913); and C. W. King, The Gnostics and Their Remains, 2d ed. (London: Nutt, 1887). For collec- tions of source materials see G. R. S. Mead, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten (London and Benares: Theosophical Pub. Soc, 1900); A. Hil- genfeld, Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums (Leipzig: Fues, 1884); W. Schultz, Dokumente der Gnosis (Jena: Dieterichs, 1910); C. Schmidt, Koptisch-gnostische Schriften, I, Die Pistis Sophia (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905). Also consult "General References," below, pp. 324. X. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH The emergence of the Catholic idea. — The impetus toward universality, which was brought prominently into the fore- ground, and in no small measure engendered, by the Gnostic controversy, finally issued in the complete cathoUcizing of orthodox Christianity. This process was well under way before the end of the second century, and it continued to gain momentum during the succeeding years. By the close of the third century it was complete in all essentials. In every quar- ter of the Roman Empire communities of Christian believers existed under an established form of organization; from time to time synods met to settle new issues; and the notion of a universal Christendom, at least ideally self-consistent in all its parts, had come to full consciousness. Outstanding leaders of the period. — During these days of crystalHzation Christianity in various parts of the Empire enjoyed the leadership of a number of notable individuals. In many instances their writings have been preserved and con- stitute important sources of information for the student. A brief notice of the more significant leaders will be a con- venient way of approach to the history of the period. The most prominent figure in the West is that of Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, in Gaul during the closing decades of the second century. His only extant work deals with the heretics, whom he vigorously opposes. He appeals especially to the authority of apostoUc tradition, handed down through 3i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION properly appointed successors of the apostles and guarded by the true church. This authority is twofold. In the first place the written Gospels contain the pure apostolic teaching. But in addition to this each church continues to be under leaders standing in direct Hne of succession from the apostles who everywhere appointed bishops in the churches. And to make the matter more sure Irenaeus cites the church at Rome as the supreme authority. With this church all others must agree, since apostolic tradition is necessarily always self- consistent. Hence all those who hold ''perverse opinions" or assemble in "unauthorized meetings" are to be put to confusion by appeaHng to ''the very great, the very ancient and universally known church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; .... for it is a matter of necessity that every church should agree with this church on account of its pre-eminent authority" (III,iii, 2). The regular bishops at Rome during this general period were not men of great hterary activity. The most proHfic Roman writer was Hippolytus, who flourished in the first quarter of the third century. He was a prominent presbyter and later became a rival leader beside the regular bishop, whom Hippolytus accused of laxity in deahng with heretics and sinners. In variety and extent his literary activities rivaled those of his younger Eastern contemporary, Origen, but only a relatively small part of Hippolytus' writings has been preserved. Among these is a Refutation of All Heresies. This gives ample evidence that he was a champion of the catholicizing principle, notwithstanding his break with the contemporary Roman bishop. In the province of Africa Tertullian and Cyprian were the most noted leaders. The prohfic literary work of the former was done in the early years of the third century. He covered the whole range of Christian apologetic, defending the new religion against persecution, attacking heretics, and THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 317 refuting both heathen and Jewish critics. He also produced a number of treatises of a practical sort, and was really the creator of an ecclesiastical Hterature in the Latin tongue. Although he joined the heretical movement known as Mon tan- ism, he was in essential agreement with Irenaeus in upholding the authority of apostolic tradition preserved within the ecclesiastical organism. Moreover, he was the first Westerner to make any substantial contribution toward the elaboration of a Christian theology. His guiding principle, however, was not Hellenistic philosophical speculation, but juristic notions which he inherited from his training as a Roman advocate. Cyprian was converted to Christianity shortly before the middle of the third century, and within a few years became bishop of the Carthaginian church, which he continued to guide until his martyrdom in 258 a.d. He had more of the instincts of a pastor than of a theologian, and wrote large numbers of letters dealing with various contemporary problems. Yet he also was the author of apologetic and doctrinal treatises, as well as works dealing with questions of conduct and church poHty. Especially important in the present connection is his De unitate ecclesiae. Against the heretics he maintained that there was no possibihty of salvation outside the estab- lished ecclesiastical organization — ^"he who has not the church for a mother cannot have God for a father" (chap. 6). And the church is one, since Christ founded it on Peter. Augustine has very fittingly termed Cyprian catholicum episcopum, catholi- cum martyrem {De bapt., Ill, iii, 5). While the leaders in the West were incorporating into Christianity the Roman genius for organized government, the leaders in the East were working out a system of Chris- tian doctrine in conformity with the philosophical genius of the Greeks . The misnamed ' ' catechical school ' ' of Alexandria — -a kind of Christian university — had arisen during the second century. Here Christian teachers were famiharizing them- selves with the whole range of Greek science and seeking to 3i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION employ this knowledge in the service of their religion. The school existed beside others of a similar character — some Gnostic, some pagan — for which Alexandria was noted, but of its beginnings absolutely nothing is known. It first comes to Hght about i8o a.d. with Pantaenus at its head. Toward the close of the century he was succeeded by Clement, whose writings are the earhest extant literary products of the school. In expounding Christianity as a world-rehgion Clement em- ploys the notion of the Logos, but in the use of this conception he is not hampered as the earlier apologists were by slavish attachment to the cultus. He is thoroughly ecclesiastical, in that he adheres to the notion of a prescribed rule of faith, but he would universahze Christianity by an individuahstic rather than an organic process. The Logos-experience is available for every member of the human race, which has been created, educated, and redeemed by the Logos. Moreover, knowledge (gnosis) is the key to salvation and the true Christian is the true "Gnostic." But Clement's gnosis is of the Greek type, in contrast with the oriental sacramental conception current among the Gnostics. Notwithstanding Clement's interest in the field of Greek science, he did not really work out any systematic scheme of Christian doctrine. This was done first by Origen. He was Clement's suc- cessor as head of the school of Alexandria, but the latter part of his Hfe was spent at Caesarea, where he conducted an independent school. He produced a vast number of works, several of which are still extant. These include hortatory, apologetic, textual, exegetical, and doctrinal treatises. To this last class belongs his De principiis in which he works out the first real system of Christian doctrine ever written. Though Origen was an ecclesiastic, in that he beheved that the church suppHes to men the correct rule of faith, yet in his own thinking it was neither the authority of the cultus nor the authority of a canon of Scripture which constituted his ultimate norm. To be sure, he made the Logos revelation THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 319 the ground of the Christian's knowledge, but it was by means of philosophy — that is, by the use of the speculative rational faculty — that Origen really sought to discover the true revela- tion of the Logos, in the light of which he interpreted the his- tory and content of Christianity. Internal conflicts. — The main trend of Christianity during the closing years of the second, and throughout the third, century was toward universality and uniformity. Yet there were still within the movement many differences of opinion and practice. The consequence was a series of internal conflicts which marked the growth of the church in this period. 1. At the very beginning of the period the Easter con- troversy arose. It concerned a difference of practice between the Roman church and the churches of Asia. The latter, tracing their authority to the apostle John, celebrated Easter on the fourteenth of the month Nisan regardless of the day of the week. On the other hand, the Roman church insisted that the celebration ought always to take place on a Sunday. This difference of opinion brought on a sharp debate which for a time threatened to rend the East from the West. 2. A second question concerned the treatment of those who had committed some unusual sin, especially those who denied the faith in times of persecution. From an early date murder, adultery, and lapsing had generally been regarded as unpardonable sins. But in the course of time a more, generous attitude was assumed, especially toward the lapsed and some bishops reinstated these persons after a proper form of repentance had been secured. But the matter caused much sharp controversy, men like Hippolytus in one genera- tion and Cyprian in the next holding opposite views on the question.' 3. Christological disputes also broke out anew. The main line of orthodox speculation employed the Logos-idea as a means of preserving monotheism while still regarding Jesus 320 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION * as God. A different explanation was offered by the so-called Monarchians, who did not make use of the Logos. The "dynamic" Monarchians affirmed that Jesus was possessed by an impersonal power {8vvaiJ,Ls) from God. But the ''modalistic" Monarchians personahzed the divine insert, and found the difference between the Father and the Son in the mode of manifestation rather than in the character of the personality. 4. Two new and influential heresies came into prominence during the third century. These were Montanism and Manicheism. The former had arisen in Phrygia in the sixth decade of the second century, and fifty years later it was powerful enough to draw to itself Tertullian in North Africa. The Montanists beheved in the continued activity of the Holy Spirit among believers, they retained vivid eschatological expectations, and they insisted upon rigid ethical require- ments, not alone for the clergy, but for all Christians. On the other hand, the church in general had come to look askance at pneumatic enthusiasm to which false teachers so readily laid claim ; the realistic eschatological hope was growing dim with the passing of the years and with the betterment of the Chris- tians' lot in the present world ; and there had arisen a double standard of morahty, a select class of persons being expected to attain to a high degree of perfection while the masses lived on a lower level. The Montanists' efforts to restore the simplicity of earlier days met with a measure of success, but the movement was essentially anachronistic and so destined to failure. Manicheism, in some respects closely akin to Gnosticism, was largely a composite of Persian and Babylonian ideas. In "eality it was a revival of oriental speculation thinly overlaid mth. a veneer of Christian ideas; nevertheless it became an important rival of Christianity, especially in Persia. 5. One other debated question related to the vaUdity of baptism when performed by heretics. This^ controversy THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 321 did not continue long, but it was troublesome for a time. At Rome the bishop Stephen (254-57) pronounced the sacra- ment valid in itself and received the converted heretic without repeating the rite. But Cyprian in Africa contended with equal vigor for the opposite course of procedure. The former opinion prevailed, although the latter found new champions in the Donatist movement of the next century. Contemporary relationships. — During these days of Catho- hc crystallization the relations between the church and the contemporary life of the Graeco-Roman world became increasingly intimate. Converts were no longer drawn mainly from one class of society, as in apostolic and early post- apostolic times. Representatives from all classes were now to be found within the Christian communities. An educated pagan rhetorician like Cyprian and a Roman jurist like TertuUian each brought his own distinctive personality and heritage into the service of the new religion. In a less con- spicuous way the same thing was going on all over the Medi- terranean world, and thus Christianity began to win a real place for itself among the recognized social and reUgious forces of the age. This growth inevitably led to further conflicts with the state authorities. For years Christians had been objects of sporadic hostile action on the part of an emperor or a governor, but Decius (249-51) undertook a more systematic suppression of Christianity as a means of restoring the old religions of the state. This new form of persecution, recurring especially under Valerian (253-60), Diocletian (284-305), and Galerius (305-11), was of much importance for the final estabHshment of the Catholic church as a recognized institu- tion in the Roman state. Attempts to revive the old pagan faiths and the growth of rival oriental cults called forth from Christians new attacks upon contemporary paganism. Striking examples of this apologetic are still extant in the writings of Arnobius, 322 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Lactantius, and Firmicus Maternus. At the same time the Christian cult was developing sides of its own life which mediated more fully to its votaries the rehgious values attach- ing to rival faiths, and this process of adaptation ultimately proved to be one of Christianity's strongest anti-pagan weapons. Among the educated, neo-Platonism was also a trouble- some enemy of Christianity in the third century. Porphyry in particular was a bitter foe of the Christian faith, and wrote a work of fifteen books Against the Christians. But also in this crisis Christian leaders presently arose who proved equal to the task of incorporating a large measure of neo- Platonic thinking into the church. Triumph of the monarchical ideal. — -Christianity finally triumphed over all rivals and became the one religion of the Roman state. Ultimately its chief ofhcial, the bishop of Rome, was recognized as the supreme authority, not alone in matters of religion, but also in the realm of pohtics and science. Many things contributed toward this result. Among these contributory factors were rich inheritances taken over from Judaism, the personal work of Jesus and the early missionary preachers, the new phases of Christian thinking or practice which were worked out as a result of contact with other cults already popular in the pagan world, the adoption of oriental speculations and Greek philosophies, and the ever-repeated personal rehgious experiences and energies of the numerous and able leaders who from time to time espoused the new cause. Moreover, all these factors were mingled within an enlarging social organism wide enough in its range to include many types of personaHty and opinion, and yet distinctive enough in its moral and rehgious ideals to ehcit the loyal support of its members. But as a force in the Roman state Christianity attained its final success not immed'ately through its rehgious and moral ideahsm, nor yet through its power as a philosophy of rehgion. Its triumph was ultimately due THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 323 to its momentum as an organized worshiping community, a formal cult with a strong monarchical organization. The monarchical principle was the dominant social ideal of that age. Ever since the time of Alexander the Great this principle had been in the ascendancy. The democratic Greek city-state had given way before the world-dominion of a single overlord in the person of Alexander. The same ideal was maintained by his successors and their descendants; and finally republican Rome yielded to the monarchical impulse, even going so far as to deify the emperor. When Christianity adopted the monarchical principle, establishing a single religious empire throughout the Mediterranean world, it caught the spirit of the times more truly than did any of its contemporary reUgions. Mithraism was its nearest rival in this respect, and as a matter of fact was its most serious competitor, but the mithraic monarchy remained primarily an affair of the gods, while Christianity had both a heavenly monarchical ideal and its earthly counterpart in a monarchically organized church. Even in the second century, when Christianity began to present a united front to the world, it was already on the way to become the state church of the Roman Empire. And in succeeding generations its leaders proved capable of grasping more firmly the spirit of the age and turning it to account in the interests of the new movement. Whether they themselves were ever fully conscious of the ultimate possibihties of their action is very doubtful, but their work resulted in giving organized Chris- tianity so strong a grip upon Roman society that on June 13, 313 A.D., the emperors Constantine and Licinius fully legaHzed the new cult. Under Theodosius the Great it was elevated above all rivals and became the only legal rehgion of the Empire (392 a.d.). Thus the Kingdom of God was finally established upon earth — though in a very different manner from that in which the Christians of earlier times had expected its estabhshment. 324 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Literature. — R. Rainy, The Ancient Catholic Church (New York: Scribner, 1902); P. Battifol, UEglise naissante et le catholicisme (Paris: Lecoffre, 1909; English translation, Primitive Catholicism [London: Longmans, 191 1]). See also "General References" below. General references. — In addition to literature already cited in con- nection with special topics, a few works of a more general character should be mentioned. Regarding the documents from which historical information is to be derived see, in addition to works on New Testament introduction referred to above (p. 199), C. T. Cruttwell, A Literary History of Early Christianity, including the Fathers and the Chief Heretical Writers of the Ante-Nicene Period, 2 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1893); A. Harnack, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litter atur bis Eusehius, 3 Bde. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1 893-1 904); G. Kriiger, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, 2. AuH. (Fveihurg: Mohr, 1898; English trans- lation, History of Early Christian Literature in the First Three Centuries [New York: Macmillan, 1897]); H. Jordan, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 1911); O. Stahlin, "Christliche Schrif tsteller " in W. von Christ's Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur, 5. Aufl. (Miinchen: Beck, 1913), II, ii, 907-1146; M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, 2. Aufl. (Miinchen: Beck, 1905), III, 240-495; O. Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur (Freiburg: Herder, 1902 ff.), and Patrologie, 3. Aufl. (Freiburg: Herder, 1910; English translation, Patrology [St. Louis: Herder, 1908]). On the New Testament Apocrypha see especially E. Hennecke, Handbuch zu den neutestamentlichen Apokryphen and Neutestamentliche Apokryphen in deutscher Uebersetzung und mil Einleitungen (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1904). The critical editions of the original texts of both Greek and Latin writers are usually listed in the above-mentioned works on the literature. For the New Testament see above, p. 209. For extra-canonical writings the most complete series is that of Migne, Patrologia Graeca (Paris, 1857 ff.) and Patrologia Latina (Paris, 1844 ff.). A more critical edition of Greek authors is in process of publication in Die griechischen christ- lichen Schrif tsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, herausgegeben von der Kirchenvater-Commission der koniglich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1897 Q..). The Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum of the Vienna Academy (1866 flf.) performs a similar service for Latin authors. In some instances convenient editions of particular writers are available, e.g., J. B. Lightfoot and J. R. Har- mer, The Apostolic Fathers (London: Macmillan, 1898); K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers [Loeb Classical Library], 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1913); E. Preuschen, Antilegomena: Die Reste der ausser- THE STUDY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY 325 kanonischen Evangelien und iirchrisllichen Ueherlicferimgen, 2. Aufl. (Giessen: Topelmann, 1905); E. J. Goodspeed, Die dltesten Apologeten (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1914). English translations are printed with the texts in the editions of Lightfoot-Harmer and Lake (also a German translation in Preuschen). The most complete set of English translations is that of the Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York: Scribner, 1885 ff.). Selections are printed in J. C. Ayer, A Source-Book for Ancient Church History from the Apostolic Age to the Close of the Conciliary Period (New York: Scribner, 1913). For archaeological sources of information see W. Lowrie, Monu- ments of the Early Church (New York: Macmillan, 1906). The general history of the period is covered by all the standard works on church history, of which the more recent and serviceable are A. H. Newman, A Manual of Church History, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1899-1902); K. Miiller, Kirchengeschichte, 2 Bde. (Freiburg: Mohr, 1892-1902); W. Moller, Lchrbuch der Kirchenge- schichte, 3 Bde., 3. Aufl., von H. von Schubert and G. Kawerau (Tu- bingen: Mohr, 1907; English translation. History of the Christian Church, 3 vols. [New York: Macmillan, 1892 ff.]); G. Kriiger, Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte fUr Studierende, Erster Teil, Das Altertum, von E. Preuschen und G. Kriiger (Tiibingen: Mohr, 191 1). Works especially worthy of note on the early period alone are A. Harnack, Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906; English trans- lation. The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, 2 vols., 2d ed. [New York: Putnam, 1908]); O. Pfleiderer, Das Urchristentum, seine Schriften und Lehren, 2 Bde., 2. Aufl. (Berlin: . Reimer, 1902; English translation. Primitive Christianity, 4 vols. [New York: Putnam, 1906-11]) ; H. Achelis, Das Christentum in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, 2 Bde. (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 1912); L. Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de Veglise 3 Tomes (Paris: Fontemoing, 1906-11; English translation, Early History of the Christian Church from Its Foundation to the End of the Third Century, 2 vols. [New York: Longmans, 1909-13]) . F. Legge, Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity (Cambridge : University Press, 1915); J. E. Carpenter, Phases of Early Christianity (New York: Putnam, 19 16). There are numerous special treatises on the persecutions. These are listed and commented upon in L. H. Canfield, The Early Persecutions of the Christians (New York: Longmans, 1913), pp. 210-15. Canfield's book deals only with the earlier persecutions. For the whole period of persecution see especially A. Linsenmayer, Die Bekdmpfung des Christen- tums durch den romische Staat bis zum Tode des Kaisers Julian (Miinchen; 326 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Lentner, 1905)5 cf. also H. B. Workman, Persecution in the Early Church (London: Kelly, 1906); E. G. Hardy, Studies in Roman History, First Series (London: Allen, 1906), pp. 1-161, being a reprint of the same author's valuable book on Christianity and the Roman Government; A. Bigelmair, Die Beteiligung der Christen am ojffentlichen Lehen in vorcon- stantinischer Zeit (Miinchen: Lentner, 1902). On organization and ritual see E. Hatch, The Organization of the Early Christian Churches (New York: Longmans, 1895); W. Lowrie, The Church and Its Organization (New York: Longmans, 1904); A, Harnack, Enstehung und Entwickehmg der Kirchenverfassung und des Kirchenrechts in den zwei ersten Jahrhunderten (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1910; English translation, The Constitution and Law of the Church in the First Two Centuries [New York: Putnam, 1910]); P. Glaue, Die Vorlesung heiliger Schriften im Gottesdienste, I. Teil, Bis zur Entstehung der alt- katholischen Kirche (Berlin: Duncker, 1907); A. Harnack, Ueher den privaten Gehrauch der heiligen Schriften in der alten Kirche (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 2; English translation, Bible Reading in the Early Church [New York: Putnam, 191 2]); H. Monnier, La Notion de I'apostolat des origines a Irenee (Paris: Leroux, 1903); J. Reville, Les Origines de T episco- pal (Paris: Leroux, 1894), a.nd Les Origines de I' eucharisiie (Paris: Leroux, 1908); E. Baumgartner, Eucharistie und Agape im Urchristentum (Solothurn: Buch- und Kunstdruckerie, 1909); Y-DihelxMS, Das Abend- mahl. Eine Untersuchung iiber die Anfdnge der christlichen Religion (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1); H. Windisch, Taufe und Siinde im dltesten Christentum bis auf Origenes (Tubingen: Mohr, 1908); W. Heitmiiller, "Im Namen Jesu." Eine sprach- und religionsgeschichtliche Unter- suchung zum Neuen Testament, speziell zur altchristlichen Taufe (Gottin- gen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1903), and Taufe und Abendmahl im Urchristentum (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1911); M. Goguel, L'Eucharistie des origines a Justin Martyr (Paris: Fischbacher, 1910); E. Lucius, Die Anfdnge der Heiligenkults in der christlichen Kirche, herausgegeben von G. Anrich (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904). Of the books dealing with Christian doctrine in this period attention may be called especially to A. Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 3 Bde., 4. Aufl. (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1909; English translation, History of Dogma, 7 vols. [Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1896-1900]); E. Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen : Mohr, 1912), pp. 1-178; W. Bousset, Kyrios Christos. Geschichte des Christus- glaubens von den Anfdngen des Christentums bis Irenaeus (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913). VI. THE DEVELOPMENT AND MEANING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH By FRANCIS ALBERT CHRISTIE Professor of Church History, Meadville Theological Seminary, Meadville, Pennsylvania ANALYSIS Introduction: The Problem of Understanding Catholic Chris- tianity.— Protestant prejudice and historical interpretation. — The development of primitive Christianity into Catholicism . . 329-330 1. The Church System of Thought. — ^The development of ecclesi- astically approved doctrines. — The main doctrinal problems . 330~333 2. The Strengthening of Church Organization. — ^The effect of persecutions on church polity. — The organization of the clergy . 333-334 3. Union with the World. — The demand for political unity. — The pressure for official doctrinal unity. — Some results of this political unification 334-337 4. The Ideals of Monasticism. — Why did monasticism flourish? 5. The Development and Significance of the Greek Catholic Church. 337-338 — ^The age of Justinian. — The essentials of Eastern orthodoxy . . 338-339 6. The Problem for Study in the History of Western Catholicism. — The meaning of religion in Western Catholicism. — The study of the growth of Western Catholicism 339-340 7. Western Characteristics. — How does Western Catholicism differ from Eastern ? — Great personalities in the West . . . 340-342 8. Monasticism in the West. — Organization and activities. — Influ- ence of monasticism 342-344 9. The Mission of the Papacy. — The ideal of papal policy. — The papal ideal and the Kingdom of God. — Church and state. — The place of the church in a feudal system 344-348 10. Mediaeval Theology. — Its relation to the life of the age . 348-350 11. The Decline of the Papacy. — The rise of national loyalties. — The development of lay religion. — Mysticism. — The revival of classic culture 350-3S3 12. Suggestions to Students 353~355 VI. THE DEVELOPMENT AND MEANING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH introduction: the problem of understanding catholic christianity Protestant prejudice and historical interpretation. — The idea of Luther most effective with the common people of his time was his identification of the Pope and Antichrist. The Magdeburg Centuries, the first church history written by a Protestant, presented the story of Catholic ages as a warfare of the papacy with gospel truth. The religious wars following the Reformation developed this bitter hostility to Catholicism into a fixed and systematic prejudice which obstructs the effort of a Protestant student of history. Since the middle of the eighteenth century, however, the spirit of science has been winning control of the Protestant mind, and the spirit of science requires an ascetic suppression of prejudgments and prejudices. Modern Protestantism has the glory of having boldly encountered the peril of a severely scientific revision of the very biblical history to which it appealed as its own revealed foundation. A student should feel that the honor of this truth-loving modern Protestantism is at stake when he essays to understand the mission of the Catholic church in history, to see its growth as historically inevitable, and to appreciate its service in the civilizing of man. Without sympathy no one can truly comprehend a man's career or an epoch of human life, and the students of the present generation have an interest which gives them the sympathy interpretive of Catholic history. The modern devotion to the ideal of the Kingdom of God lends meaning to the contrast of the church and the world. In that contrast "world" means an organization of life which, in spite of the 329 33© GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION ideal elements contained in it, is dominated essentially by pri- mary human instincts for possession and power. Christianity is a "passionate unworldliness " seeking to elevate and trans- form the world into the likeness of that order where every spirit mirrors the absoluteness of love beheld in God. This the student easily recognizes as the dynamic ideal which found institutional form in the historic Catholic church. His .attention is immediately engaged by the problem of explain- ing by historical conditions the development of a church which could serve this Christian social ideal. The development of primitive Christianity into Catholicism. — The first Christians were a democratic brotherhood imbued with a passionate desire to live the life that Jesus would approve. The church when it came was a strongly governed sacerdotal institution. The early informal and spontaneous effusions of worship became the world's most impressive uniform ritual. The dogmas of faith, hope, and love became the philosophical dogmas of Trinity and Incarnation. The religion that was persecuted became an organized force which the state needed to adopt as the spiritual support of its power. Bishops of great centers aspired to universal domina- tion, and, in the end, the Bishop of Rome became the Pope of Western Europe. The purpose of the student is to win an intelligible account of the process by which these later con- ditions emerged from the simple beginnings. I. THE CHURCH SYSTEM OF THOUGHT The development of ecclesiastically approved doctrine. — The church, as a self-conscious, authoritative institution, began to take form at the end of the second century. React- ing against the confusing effects of Gnostic, Marcionist, Mon- tanist versions of Christianity, church leaders emphasized the controlling value of the original missionary (apostolic) teaching as exhibited in the baptismal affirmations (the earliest form of the Apostles' Creed), the apostolic Hterature DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 33 1 (the New Testament), and a public tradition of truth for the preservation of which the bishop received a special gift {charisma veritatis) on his succession to office. Under the restraint of these standards there was a rapid development of such a system of thought as could proclaim monotheism, give absolute validity to Christ's gospel of love and to the hope of eternal life through Christ, and also satisfy perplexity concerning the problem of evil. The apologists had already claimed absolute validity for Christ's teaching by asserting that the Logos spoke in him. The church system grew by an elaboration of the Logos doctrine on the part of Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus in the West and of Clement and Origen in the East. At first the majority of believers were averse to this philosophy of religion,^ but such a philosophy was needed to win and hold cultivated minds, especially in view of a rival growth of pagan thought in the spiritually impressive system of neo-Platonism. The mass of believers were content with simpler views. For some it was enough to magnify Jesus as a man who by gift of the power of the Holy Spirit became the supreme instance of human salvation (Dynamists, Adoptionists : Theodotus, Artemon, Paul of Samosata). A larger number, following the implication of the term Lord applied to Jesus as Lord of the cult, and yet wishing to be faithful to monotheism, denied any humanity in Christ save the fleshly form and defined him as a mode of manifestation of the one only God (Modalism, SabeUianism: Noetus, Praxeas, Roman bishops, Sabellius). The main doctrinal problems. — ^These simple views of limited scope might satisfy an unreflecting religious reverence but could afford no answer to the questions which haunted Greek intelligences: how the world of manifold reahty had its origin from unitary ground, how evil could arise in a world divinely originated and governed, how the seeming injustice ' Tertullian, Against Praxeas, 3; Origen, Commentary on John, II, sec. 3. 332 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION and inequality of human experience could be reconciled with divine goodness, how the perfecting of man is mediated by Christ. To convert the world Christianity must answer these large questions. Origen's system gave them ample statement and a brilliantly persuasive answer in a general view so satis- fying to mind and heart that it carried to victory over Adop- tionism and Sabellianism the Christology which he expounded. All believers affirmed a divine background for jthe life of Jesus. Origen conceived Christ as exhibiting and creating in the believer in Christ a unison of thought and will between the human soul and the Logos. The Logos is a hypostasis (person) distinct from God as the Absolute yet of one essence with him, and, God being changeless will, eternally and con- tinuously generated from the Father to be the creative ground and sustaining energy of the world. In fellowship with Christ man thus has communion with the divine power immanent in the world. Although seen from a later time Origen's Christology failed to arrive at what has become complete orthodoxy, the enthusiasm justly roused by his total view insured the success of his advanced trinitarian and christological thought, so that by the middle of the third cen- tury the Logos doctrine was dominant in Rome and about 270 A.D. triumphed over Adoptionism expounded in the East by Paul, the bishop of Antioch, From that time on this theology was taught in the baptismal instruction and began to enter into the tissue of the social mind of Christian com- munities. Literature. — ^Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de Veglise (Paris: Fonte- moing, 1906-8; English translation, The Early History of the Church [New York: Longmans, 1913]). (A masterpiece of Catholic scholarship and literary art. The most interesting to read.) Robert Rainy, The Ancient Catholic Church (New York: Scribner, 1902). (A careful manual.) H. M. Gwatkin, Early Church History to 313, 2 voR (London: Macmillan, 1909). J. Estlin Carpenter, Phases of Early Christianity (New York: Putnam, 1916). George P. Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine (New York: Scribner, 1896). Reinhold Seeberg, Grundriss DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 333 dcr Dogmengeschichie (Leipzig: Deichert, 1901; English translation, Text-book of the History of Doctrines [Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1905]). (This valuable manual provides in translation the significant doctrinal utterances of church Fathers.) Adolf Harnack, History of Dogma, Vols. I-VII (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1905). (A work for advanced students.) II. THE STRENGTHENING OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION The effect of persecutions on church polity; the organiza- tion of the clergy. — The gospel of the infinite significance of love had been elaborated into a cosmology and a conception of salvation more rational and illuminating than Gnostic circles and pagan mystery-cults could offer. It began to draw to itself the moral ardor and the higher intelligence of the world, and it became formidable to the pagan organization of life. The state made its first systematic efforts to suppress a religious system of such menace to the sanctities to which the Roman imperial power appealed. The emperor Decius (250) began a persecution of ten years' duration, but by reason of the numbers, the social status, and the devotion of the Christians the attack was doomed to failure, and the effect on the church itself was to strengthen it as an institution by adding firmness to clerical authority. Controversies over the policy of bishops in dealing with men tempted to apos- tasy resulted in schismatic churches, but the result was that the bishop became absolute monarch of the local church ; the church indispensable to salvation was to be found in the bishop's ofhce, and the world-unity of Christianity was defined (Cyprian of Carthage, 251) as resting in the totality of bishops. Presbyters and deacons were no longer officers of the con- gregation but delegates of an episcopate sovereign in doc- trine and discipline and clothed now with the sanctity of the Old Testament priesthood. The situation produced by the Decian persecution, the ecclesiastical policy and formulations of Cyprian, and the conflict between Cyprian and Stephen 334 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of Rome arrest the attention of the student and enable him to see the relation of historical conditions to the emergence of the sacerdotal power which so defines Catholicism. With the provision of penance for apostates the church definitely ceased to be a company of the saved and became a company seeking salvation through a priesthood which controlled the keys to heaven and hell. The Roman recognition of heretical baptism marks the arrival of the opus operatum conception of a sacrament. Cyprian's view of the priestly function in worship shows the passage from an act of commemoration and communion to a symbolic repetition of the sacrifice of Christ's death upon the cross. This is the point of history where the momentous power of sacerdotal authority begins to be felt. The great persecution thus fortified the church organiza- tion for the final pagan assault which, after a forty years interval of peace and prosperity, came under Diocletian (303) and was confessed a failure by the edict of Milan (313), which gave equality to Christianity and pagan cults. The church emerged from its long conflict with the world unified in sub- stance of doctrine and restrained by standards which pre- vented any marked aberrations, administered by officers possessing extraordinary powers, and celebrating a ritual which had already assimilated the conception of salvation to which pagan cults aspired. Literature. — Harnack, Expansion of Christianity (New York: Put- nam, 1904); H. B. Workman, Persecution in the Early Church (London: Kelly, 1906-11); J. A. F. Gregg, The Decian Persecution (London: Black- wood & Sons, 1898); C. W. Benson, Cyprian, His Life, Times, Work (London: Macmillan, 1897). III. UNION WITH THE WORLD The demand for political unity. — With Constantine, sole ruler after 324, began the new era of Christianity with the state as patron. The poHtical problem of this new ruler of DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 335 Western origin was to win the East, and his policy was to estabhsh a universal Christian state with a new Eastern capital, Constantinople, free from the tenacious traditions of the gods of Rome. The American student, accustomed to churches free from political connection, will have pecuhar interest in considering what happened to Christianity by this union with the state. An obvious effect of the suppression of pagan worship, begun by the sons of Constantine, was the streaming into the church of masses of men who had not chosen it for its ethics and who broke down its serious discipline. It was but natural that they should also bring into the usage and worship of the church beliefs and practices which, found in paganism, are deemed superstition. The church was established before society was adequately Chris- tian in ideals. The demand for official doctrinal unity. — Nor was this the only way in which the change to a state church obscured the original ethical interest. Party strife, resting largely upon poHtical motives, consumed the energy of the church in the struggle over theological precision in the official creed now demanded. To use Christianity as the basis of world- unity Constantine needed a united church. He must over- come the divisions which had been created by the issues of discipline due to the preceding persecutions (Donatists, Meletians, Novationists) . A dissension still more alarming was developing in the East. The Adoptionists had not been wholly vanquished by the condemnation of Paul in Antioch (270), though their theological leader, Lucian, compromised with the dominant thought by accepting the conception of the Logos, not indeed, as a person in deity but as a semi-deity intermediate between God and creation. Christ was neither man nor God but this Logos personality in human shape. This crude compromise was not in harmony with a view which required both full humanity and full deity in Christ. In pagan cults a physical redemption was sought by union with 33^ GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION a god. So now the Christian circles emphasized the eternaliz- ing of man by an interpenetration of divine and human sub- stance. "As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive." The redeemer who mediated this "deification" through the eucharistic sacrament must unite in his person a real humanity and a Logos being that by absolute oneness with deity could bring an unqualified eternity of divine nature into human possession. It was this dissension which disturbed the imperial policy and induced emperors to give the weight of their authority to one or another creedal phrase related to the contentions concerning the Trinity or the two natures in Christ. The deification of Christ for the interest of worship and the theory of salvation was thus completed by a process in which political instincts and ecclesiastical rivalries dis- torted and degraded the Christian ideals. The church seemed to lose its moral power by union with the world. The intellectual discussion spent itself and theology became a neo-Platonic theory of the elaborate ritual worship in which the Christology had expressed itself. Some results of this political unification. — Social power had indeed been gained. Perfected in doctrine, in ritual, in administration, the church shared the state's poHtical authority. The creed adopted by the majority was enforced by state law with penalties of outlawry and death on public dissent. The clergy was exempt from burdens of taxations and army duty. Churches were enabled to hold large endowments from public or private gifts. Bishops won judicial authority, the state accepting a bishop's decision of cases appealed to him from the civil courts. Power and opportunity thus fell to the religious establishment. What social tasks did it perform ? It is to be feared that union with the world involved it in the decay which fell upon the world, and although some beneficent services may be recited, the uplift and transformation of society to the pattern of the Kingdom of God was a task beyond the power of the Eastern DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 337 church. In the reform and reinvigoration of the state by the Isaurian emperors the church was a resistant obstacle. IV. THE IDEALS OF MONASTICISM Why did monasticism flourish? — The failure is accentuated by the relative failure of Eastern monasticism. Why and to what end this new institution ? It sprang surely from vague discontent with the loss of the church's original heroic ideal. The earhest theory really required that the church should be a fellowship of saints, and when experience belied the theory, those who would be perfect withdrew from the churches where sins were too easily forgiven, if not to found Puritan churches of strict discipline at least to the abnormal and merely negative holiness of the hermit life. Especially in the second quarter of the fourth century, when the church made formal union with the world and a mass of population entered it from expediency, the man passionate for perfection forsook the church for the company of austere ascetics and seekers of mystical privilege in the desert. The emptiness of this negative life and the ineradicable principle of fellowship compelled the organization of these ascetics in the social form of monasticism where work and study were joined with prayer and fasting. St. Basil (360 ff.) sought to find social usefulness for these ideal communities by giving them the care of orphanages and the education of boys, but in the East the farm labor, the works of charity, the intellectual occupation, died away and only the limited life of routine devotions and devout contemplation remained. Even this refuge of strenuous souls shared in the general stagnation where religion became a traditional ritual form without ethical or social vitality. There was mysticism, but the emotional bliss of this mysticism wears the aspect of a sub- ethical type of religiosity other than that awe and enthusiasm for God's sovereignty of righteous purpose which Christianity had inherited from Israel's religious consciousness. The 338 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION story of the East sharpens interest in the somewhat con- trasted career of Christianity in the West. A further evolu- tion, the continuous and progressive assimilation and striving which mark a growing organism, is to be found in the Latin rather than the Greek church of the mediaeval period. Literature. — ^Harnack, Seeberg, Fisher, as cited on p. 332; A. E. Burn, Introduction to the Creeds (London: Methuen, 1899); W. P. Du Bose, The Ecumenical Councils (New York: Scribner, 1896); H. B. Workman, The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal (London: Kelly, 1913). V. THE DEVELOPMENT AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH The age of Justinian. — Attention to the age of the emperor Justinian (527-65) reveals the distinctive form which the Greek church was destined to assume, a church under state control, a church absorbed in a ritual worship grounded in neo-Platonist forms of thought. In Justinian we have the emperor as pope. The bishops were reduced to unconditional submission to the imperial will, and the Codex Juslinianus, the codification of imperial laws, became, together with the canons of the ecumenical councils, the law of the church. The Greek church came thus to be characterized by submis- siveness to the policy of the state and claimed no social mission of its own. The church ceased to be an ideal object of faith and meant the totality of the population uniting in its worship. The natural result was that with the fall of the Empire it fell into national divisions. The essentials of Eastern orthodoxy. — The policy of the emperor-pope was to suppress heresy, give the sole control to orthodoxy, and to check new tendencies. Eastern orthodoxy never advanced beyond the matters settled by the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds. Thought remained in the patristic stage without receiving that fructification from Pauline thought which the West obtained through Augustine. With the decline of thought and the lack of DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 339 institutional program religion tended to be a contemplative enjoyment of the ritual which now more dramatically than before expressed the deification of man accomplished by the incarnation and resurrection of the God-man. The only added novelty was the literature of the pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita which contributed a kind of theology of the worship. This is essentially a Christianizing of the neo- Platonism of Proclus and reveals the complete final substitu- tion of the metaphysical idea of the Absolute for the Father proclaimed by the Jesus of history. The student will find interest in a related topic — the development of image- worship. This may possibly be viewed as the surging up of lower levels of popular religion when the higher circles ceased to think. Literature. — ^W. G. Holmes, The Age of Justinian and Theodora (London: Bell, 1905-7); W. H. Hutton, The Church of the Sixth Century (London: Longmans, 1897); W. F. Adeney, The Greek and Eastern Churches (New York: Scribner, 1909). VI. THE PROBLEM FOR STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF WESTERN CHRISTIANITY The meaning of religion in Western Catholicism. — What the student is to learn and comprehend is suggested by the situation at the end of the Middle Ages. The supreme question confronting a man was the question of his guilt and pardon. Religion seems to center in the sacrament of penance. A man is born subject to the king of England or of France, or to some German or Italian prince, but he is also born subject to another dominion which determines his eternal weal or woe by granting or withholding pardon for his sins. The national dominion is secular, but this spiritual dominion is not merely secular. Its treasury in Rome draws the wealth of the nations. Its agents hold marriage courts and probate courts and profit by the settlement of estates. Its supreme head claims the right to erect or depose national rulers and to absolve subjects, if it will, from the duty of political allegiance. 340 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION This dread sovereign who controls so much of Hfe and can even determine the duration of the soul's disciphne in purga- tory is not a mere chief priest. It is a prince among princes; sovereign of an Italian state, who wields this universal spiritual power and loans the sword of temporal rule to other princes. The state church has become a church-state. The Roman successor to the missionary glory that was Peter's has become the vicar of God on earth. The study of the growth of Western Catholicism. — A historical process produced this ecclesiastical absolutism. What is the story of that process ? What ideal actuated it ? What accounts for the social acceptance of it? What his- toric service was rendered by this mediaeval papal theocracy in the West ? The themes presented to study are the ethical emphasis of Western Christianity, the role of monasticism in the life of the West, the process by which the Bishop of Rome became master of church life, the origin and develop- ment of the ideal which the papacy sought to embody, and . the reasons why in the end every nation was in rebellion against the historical result. Literature {general treatments of Western Catholicism). — H. H. Mil- man, History of Latin Christianity, 8 vols. (New York: Sheldon, 1890); H. B. Workman, The Church in the Middle Ages (London: Kelly, 1900); H. A. L. Fisher, The Mediaeval Empire, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1900); J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (New York: Macmillan [many editions]); E. Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1888); E. Emerton, Mediaeval Europe (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1896); Andre Lagarde, The Latin Church in the Middle Ages (New York: Scribner, 1915); Mandell Creighton, History of the Papacy frotn the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome, Vols. I-VI (New York: Longmans, 1892). VII. WESTERN CHARACTERISTICS How does Western Christianity differ from Eastern? — Turning from the stagnant East a student seeks to know what differentiates Western and Eastern Christianity. No differ- ence is found in the formulation of trinitarian and christo- DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 341 logical doctrine. The West in fact furnished the terminology adopted in the ecumenical creeds. The West also shows a similar fusion of Christianity with elements of paganism, Roman or Teutonic. Pagan shrines, rites, and festivals were Christianized in name. Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide had usages of pagan origin, and the saints are obviously suc- cessors to the pagan gods. It was in fact by this blending with Teutonic elements that Christianity became the religion of the masses. Great personalities in the West. — The fact of a signifi- cant difference may be seen in the varied and powerful moral personalities of Western history, whose personal energy and rich individuality apparently center in the strength of their religious consciousness. To know the mediaeval period one must gain intimacy with these remarkable types of human character: Gregory I, Hildebrand, Bernhard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi — ^men who enrich our conception of human possibility. More broadly, the whole life of the West shows that religion did not suppress or conventionalize diversified human power in men of varied talents: Charlemagne, Arnold of Brescia, Frederick II, Abelard, Aquinas, Dante. Is this related to the higher valuation in the West of Christ's human personality as compared with the Greek church, where Jesus vanished into a vague, abstract humanity, attaining person- ality only in the Logos, and where ritualistic or monastic mysti- cism rested upon a pantheistic conception ? It is in the West that we hear of Christ as mediator tanquam homo (Augustine), of the love of the human Jesus as prior to mystical ecstasy (Bernhard), of the apostolic life as the ideal (Arnold, Francis, Waldensians) , of the Imitalio Christi (a Kempis), of the de- votions of the Stations of the Cross. The play of the religious consciousness as awe and self-submission to One who is holy through righteousness, the t}q3e of religious consciousness by which the Hebrew prophets reached ethical monotheism and Jesus found the fatherhood of love in God — this seems to 342 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION resume its sway more distinctly in the Western development. The East dealt with categories of substance or nature. The West talked of the will, the tragedy of the divided will, the perfection of the will in caritas. The Western soul vibrated more to the ethical note. There was more homesickness for the morally perfect. If the Greek church developed that aspect of Paul's thought which is now seen to be related, in expression at least, to the sacramentalism of mystery-cults, the West began with Augustine to understand that other Paulinism which wrestled with the problems of guilt and forgiveness, of law, of merit, of justification by faith. It is Augustine who first makes us understand Christianity as ''the religion of personality," and Harnack's chapter on Augustine as ''The Reformer of Piety" {History of Dogma, Vol. V) is a good basis for all s^-mpathetic understanding of the best in Western religion. Literature. — Harnack, History of Dogma, Vol. V (Boston: Little, Brown, 1905); Rudolph Eucken, Die Lehensanschauimgen der grossen Denker, 5. Aufl. (Leipzig: Veit, 1904; English translation. The Prob- lem of Human Life as Viewed by the Great Thinkers from Plato to the Present Time [New York: Scribner, 1909]); H. B. Workman, Christian Thought to the Reformation (London: Kelly, 191 1). VIII. MONASTICISM IN THE WEST Organization and activities. — The monk was the religiosus. Monasticism was the soul of Catholicism in the Middle Ages. Augustine, reformer of piety, as a priest and bishop united his clergy in a life according to monastic rule. Many great bishops of Gaul were trained in the monastic life. With Gregory I a monk became pope. The famous Benedictine rule which Gregory's missionaries carried to England and which English missionaries carried to Teutonic lands on the Continent was free from ascetic extravagance and empha- sized the life of the Christian spirit in an ideal brotherhood disciplined to prayer and manual labor and devout reading. DEVELOPMENT OE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 343 Incidentally rather than by intention Benedictine monasteries kept culture alive and so contributed to civilization in the centuries of darkness; but the great historic service which exhibited monastic religion as a social force were the missions which converted Teutonic peoples and disciplined them both by moral instruction and by a model community life of brotherhood and organization and work. To the chaotic moral dissolution of the Franks who had convents without influence upon the world outside came the missionary Irish monks of Columbanus who were preachers to the people and applied to lay life the moral discipline of their own penitential rules. To the Frisians, Hessians, Thuringians, Saxons, came the English missionary monks with the Benedictine rule which was to prevail over all others — ^missionaries of a moralistic type of religion applying again the monk's penitential canons and inculcating in wild natures the plain, concrete duties of moral life. From the ninth century the great organization of the Congregation of Cluny became a factor in Western civili- zation, impressing the severe standards of Catholic piety upon a secular priesthood too easily prone to the interests of the world, impressing upon the anarchic warring lords of feudalism the duty of the peace of God. The cultural work of Cistercians and Premonstrants marks again the social effi- ciency of Western piety, and with the new creations of Francis- can and Dominican friars there is a new creation of European life not only in enthusiastic piety but in art, science, and poetry. Plato's teaching that the Good is the creative principle finds illustration in these cases of undesigned social results from devotion to Christian goodness. Influence of monasticism. — Monasticism thus intensified the ethical type of Christianity which was congenial to the practical West and helped to make the problem of sin and its remedy by the sacrament of penance the central interest in church life. But more than that it had a great ecclesiastical result. The monks as papal missionaries made Roman 344 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION usage and respect for Rome dominant in England. English missionaries (Boniface) became papal and Romanizing agents in German lands and helped bring to pass that alliance of the Frankish monarchy and the papacy by which the Roman bishops won temporal as well as spiritual power. It was the Cluny monastery reform which found expression in the great papal program of Hildebrand and his successors by which the Church of Rome was to be in control of civilization. When the papacy had begun to make the program something of a reality, the Friars of St. Francis and St. Dominic were an international spiritual army for the papal cause. Literature.— VL. B. Workman, The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal (London: Kelly, 1913 [with a bibliography]); Montalembert, The Monks of the West, 6 vols. (London: J. C. Nimmo, 1896). IX. THE MISSION OF THE PAPACY In our own generation the churches are summoned to a social mission: the transformation of the social order. Some- thing of the early messianic enthusiasm comes back to the Christian soul. It was the illusion of Lammenais that the papacy could act as the instrument of this modern social transformation. It was despair of any other solution that carried Orestes Brownson into the Cathohc church. The pressure of this contemporary ardor will kindle the student's interest in the story of the mediaeval papacy. It will give him a point of view by which to appreciate its historic mission. From this great historic experiment also he may learn some- thing of the peril which political power brought to religion. The ideal of papal policy. — What the student wishes to comprehend is the historical process by which the amazing claims of the bull U?iam Sanctam, issued by Boniface VIII in 1302, came to be possible. According to that bull the church possesses both the spiritual and political authority over mankind. Kings and soldiers wield the sword of political authority by the will and sufferance of the pope. The DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 345 spiritual power, the papacy, establishes the earthly power and sits in judgment upon the use made of it. It is necessary to salvation for every human being to be subject to the Roman pontiff. When the student begins the story of the development of the Roman primacy he finds an explanation in many historic relativities cleverly used by bishops who inherited the Roman instinct and tradition for rule. At a later time he finds a mass of fraudulent documents used to support a claim of ecclesiastical jurisdiction for the Roman bishop over the churches of the West. He discovers that the general ignorance of actual history, the absence of any critical- sense even among the intelligent, and the blind cred- ulity of the masses furnish conditions for the rise of the absolute papal monarchy. He has a partial explanation of that power to which emperors like Henry IV, Frederick Barbarossa, and Frederick II humbled themselves. But he also detects that this marvelous papal development had its origin in an ideal conception and that those who fostered it were actuated by the aim of Christianizing a social order full of injustice, strife, and corruption. The papal ideal and the Kingdom of God. — This ideal conception has some relation to the primitive Christian ex- pectation of the reign of Christ on earth, but it was formed when the decay of the Roman Empire compelled reflection upon the course of history. Alaric's sack of Rome in 410 was a shock to Christian as well as pagan. Why was Rome, that had been strong when pagan, doomed to perish in Christian times ? Wrestling with this problem of history, Augustine wrote his City of God with the argument that what was hap- pening was the supplanting of a dominion founded on self- love by a dominion founded on love of God, a kingdom of force yielding to the church of Christ as the earthly anticipa- tion of the eternal Kingdom of God. With the irruption of wild Teutonic hordes into the Empire and the part played by the church in civilizing and moralizing these barbarians, with 346 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the ever-present dualism of barbarians' conquests by power and the church's assertion of spiritual dominance, Augustine's conception became more and more real as an interpretation of history. If, however, the church was a kingdom, it must be more than a preaching voice; it must be able to enforce obedi- ence to its higher will. Church and state. — How should this authority come to the spiritual power? The mediaeval empire began with Charlemagne, who had pondered on Augustine's Civitatis Dei and conceived his power in theocratic form. His empire was a church-state ruled by a priestly emperor. Subjects owed both political and religious duties to his theocratic will. He was head both of state and church. But the conditions of history gave no permanence to this ideal. The imperial successors of Charlemagne did not inherit it nor were they qualified to give it effect. The church must exercise authority over them in order that the Kingdom of God might have earthly expression. In whose hands then should the authority lie? The first natural answer would be: In the hands of the bishops. But the bishops themselves were more and more dependent on the world, on the very civitas terrena that needed restraint and guidance. Bishops were appointed by the state. They were a part of the political system. They were members of a military aristocracy involved in the world's quest of riches and power. He who reached the dignity of archbishop was likely to show himself an auto- cratic prince, and it is significant that just when the royal power was too weak to restrain such ecclesiastical princes subordinate bishops in Gaul, about 850 a.d., forged a series of documents providing for papal supremacy over the hier- archy and for the right of appeal to the pope in the case of bishops oppressed by their metropolitan (the forged decretals). This spurious canon law was quietly made use of by Pope Nicholas I. He began that series of claims to absolute sovereignty which culminated in the bull of Boniface VIII, DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 347 already mentioned. This spurious canon law, which was accepted in an age without historic sense, was appealed to by those who were associated with the movement for reform championed by the Congregation of Cluny. The great career of Hildebrand in the eleventh century is the career of such a social reformer aiming above all to make bishops dependent on a reformed papacy rather than on a secular ruler who seldom was actuated by the principles of Christian ethics. The test question thus became the investiture or form of installation of a bishop in his office. The place of the church in a feudal system. — To com- prehend the historical situation in its moral aspects the student needs to know the workings of feudalism — the social system of the time — not merely learning its general character and origins but studying it as it was seen in its actual opera- tion by the pious monks who wrote chronicles. Such a chronicler, Richer, in the tenth century describes the time when might made right: "To plunder other men's possessions is every man's supreme aim. It is a bad management of one's business not to add to one's own inheritance that of others. Hence in place of concord universal discord. Hence pillage, burnings, usurpations, violence." So also the eleventh and the twelfth centuries are full of complaints of oppression of the weak, the misery of the serfs, the plundering of churches. The "world" of that time seen in such contrast to the church was the expression of greed, cruelty, and lust. It had not yet been interpenetrated by ideals that could make it sover- eign over the deeper elements in human nature. The ideals that had sacred restraint on the soul belonged to the church. The motives actuating Gregory VII in his great battle for papal supremacy rise from this social situation. In his letters he laments over the corruption of the world where princes sacrifice righteousness to worldly advantage, and the cor- ruption of the church where bishops obtain office by purchase or bargain and live worldly and immoral lives. We understand 348 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION thus why he fought to prevent patronage of the church from being the spoil and merchandise of men of the world. The social situation explains the rise and acceptance of the ideal of papal theocracy and gives intense interest to the long battle of pope and emperor. Social peace, social order, social justice were at stake, the Christianizing of the social system. A grandiose idealism actuated the best of the popes, and it is intelligible that the great theologians of the scholastic period supported the most exorbitant of papal claims and that the pope's supremacy over life became grounded in the common mind. Intelligible, too, is the great codification of canon law by which the church originating in the simple brotherhood of lovers of Jesus became a juris- prudential institution requiring the service of skilled church lawyers. This extensive addition of the papal decretals to the old canons of councils not only emphasized the sub- ordination of the church to the pope and began the systems under which the pope possessed the right of absolutions and dispensations, but also tended to efface the distinction between a church of worship and a system of law. By the fourteenth century all functions of the church were treated in the spirit of juristic science, even the doctrines in which the Christian faith and worship were expressed. Luther, when he came, emancipated religion as the soul's experience from this false constraint of jurisprudence. Luther marked his revolt by burning the canon law. Literature. — W. Barry, The Papal Monarchy from St. Gregory the Great to Boniface VIII (New York: Putnam, 1902); A. F. Villemain, Life of Gregory VII, 2 vols. (London: Bentley, 1874) ; A. H. Mathew, Life and Times of HUdebrand (London: Griffiths, 1910); D. J. Medley, The Church and the Empire (New York: Macmillan, 1910). X. MEDIAEVAL THEOLOGY Relation to the life of the age.— The expression of the soul's experience in conceptions borrowed from the legal system of the feudal times is illustrated in the case of DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 349 the famous doctrine which the first scholastic theologian, Anselm, contributed. His doctrine of the atonement is an effort to rationalize dogma, to show that the church doctrine agrees with reason. The dogma is that God became man. Why a God-man ? Because only such a being could satisfy the Suzerain of the Universe for the infinite wrong done to his honor. The argument is rational only as it uses notions cus- tomary in Germanic law. It seems not the proper form of thought for what Jesus proclaimed (Luke, chap. 15) of the joy in heaven over the sinner that repents. The illustration shows us how contingent and relative to mediaeval time and place were the conceptions of scholastic theology. Neverthe- less, this chapter in the history of doctrine is of immense inter- est and profit to the student of religion. With the student of the history of philosophy he shares the edification afforded by this powerful development of intellectual energy in dis- cussing the rational form of the teachings and practices of the church. The culmination of this mediaeval thought is found in Aquinas, who sought to bring into the unity of one har- monious system all that natural reason knows and all that has been supernaturally revealed to the church. The system is of sociological interest since it is the scientific expression of the universal state which the theocratic papacy attempted to make real. The disruption of the scholastic move- ment through the Franciscan attack on this Dominican rationalism illustrates a conflict of theological method which still divides men. For the student of religion there is a special necessity. He needs to comprehend how Martin Luther was so revolutionary in effect, if not in intention. He needs to understand how Luther regained the primi- tive Christian apprehension of religion as the soul's experi- ence of God as Father; how, emancipating "grace" and "faith" from their official expression in mediaeval forms, he emancipated personal lay religion from sacerdotal tyranny. The prerogative over the laity which the medi- 350 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION aeval theory assigned to the priests and to the pope is expressed in the priest's control of sacraments which were the only means of divine action on men, the only channels of divine grace into human life. It was in these sacra- ments, indispensable for salvation, that the jurisdiction of the hierarchic church was brought home to every man in every social grade and made a reality to his personal emotional life. The chief dogma of the scholastic period, the central interest of its theology, was the dogma of the sacraments. One must understand the scholastic attempt to rationalize or justify the sacramental systems which had grown up through historical processes in order to see the place of Luther in history, in order to understand his terminology, in order to see how and why the Christian current of energy finds its farther evolutionary expression in a Protestantism that broke away from the Roman dominion. XI. THE DECLINE OF THE PAPACY The rise of national loyalties. — The end of the mediaeval period is indeed full of signs that the world would break away from the Roman dominion, and the student's task is not only to learn the story which leads to the crisis and catastrophe of the sixteenth century but to understand how and why life released itself from the control of the institution which it had created. Reaching its height of domination in the thirteenth century and reducing the imperial authority to a decorative title, the papal domination was itself shattered in the following century by collision with the new national organizations in France and England and Spain. These, unlike the imperial system, were social unities grounded in common blood and common speech and the loyalties sustained by economic interests, traditions, and ideals of organized neighborhood life. The papacy, reduced in political power, still profited by the spoils of its victory, and, by exploiting the wealth of the nations without any longer serving an adequate social DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 351 purpose, became more and more the object of attack. The scandal of papal administration led to the reforming councils where the papacy was disciplined by the episcopate or by bishops acting for the expressions of separate national inter- ests. This remarkable reaction does not mean that Europe was falling away from religion but that religion had already fallen away in some degree from the papacy. The development of lay religion. — This begins to show itself even before Innocent III exhibited the splendor of papal supremacy in the Lateran Council of 1215. The student finds that the religious consciousness of the people — the creative source of all new movements — had already turned away from the sacerdotalism which reigned by power to simpler concerted forms of lay religion fed by a knowledge of the Christian beginnings when Jesus walked in Galilee with disciples who had renounced house and home to preach repentance. The succession of these earnest, simple lay movements of an evangelical t3^e is instructive as showing that the dynamic current of religion had met an obstacle in the hierarchic institution and was finding new outlet and expression in the life of the common people. There were being generated anti-papal, anti-sacerdotal currents which would contribute popular support to the Reformation that came. Mysticism. — Another reaction, also religious, is of similar significance to the historian. Monasticism, serving the papal monarchy and sharing in its affluence, was losing vitality, but in Germany and the Low Countries Dominican monks and circles allied to them were using the intellectual form of scholastic philosophy for the gratification not of logical inter- est but of religious emotion. The mysticism of Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, and of the Theologia Germanica meant — • whatever be the complication with philosophical theory — an invigoration of the religious consciousness and the con- centration of it on the problem of winning a heart of that 352 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION unselfish love which Jesus preached and Paul sang. Here again is non-sacerdotal lay religiosity achieving salvation through the soul's own surrender of itself to the unpurchased grace of God. The simpler expressions of this northern mysticism helped to clarify Luther's own understanding of religion as a personal experience — no longer mystical in theory — which, as accomplished by the sole mediation of Christ's revelation of divine love to the repentant soul, emancipated man from the Babylonian captivity to sacra- ments and priests. The revival of classic culture. — There is finally the emanci- pation of culture from the mediaeval scholastic form. This is not a religious movement. It was the discovery in the rich literature and art and philosophy of antiquity of a new content of life, a new spiritual substance, more gratifying than the arid formalism of mediaeval scholasticism, and stimulating to revolt against the mediaeval asceticism, even involving much skepticism of Christian convictions. The papacy, robbed of power but opulent for the support of scholarship and art, made itself the patron of the new culture, incongruous as this might be, with all that the papacy had established as Christian. The scholars, the poets, the artists of Italy might loyally support and embellish the papacy which gave them station and pension, and yet be skeptical or indifferent to worship and doctrine; but when Englishmen and Germans and Netherlanders appropriated this new culture, they fused it with the spirit of Christian ethics, applied it to the study of the Bible, and, as Bible Christians, began to talk religion in the terms of the Gospels and of Paul's Epistles, contributing in their turn to the anti-papal, non-sacerdotal movement of society. The union of this Humanism with the devotion of the northern mystics, the extension of this now devoutly religious new culture to popular circles in the North by the Brothers of the Common Life, means again a permeation of German society DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 353 with a spirit which welcomed and fostered the Lutheran Reformation. Those who were not of this mystical devout- ness, those who were of the type of Erasmus, were at least biblicists freed from the scholastic trammels and in practical ethical protest against the religion of priestly sacraments. These too were allies, if only temporary allies, for Luther's protest against the papal system. Through evangelical sects, through national conflicts with Roman exactions, through the emancipation of the individual by mysticism or by Humanist culture or by a blending of both the northern part of Europe was preparing for that crisis which arrived in 15 17. XII. SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS Knowledge of this long story is knowledge of a supremely interesting drama where the better and the worse wrestle for human lives, a pageant of great men in romantic picturesque days, a process of evolution where we may have glimpses to' confirm our faith in a Providence shaping our ends, rough- hew them as we will. The knowledge may yield the fruit of wisdom which can rightly judge and interpret men's ideals and methods and the institutions which their strivings have built. Such wisdom is wealth for those who in the ministry of religion persuade men to live by the vision of the Kingdom of God. The first duty is to know the story. To acquire and retain the facts which enter into so complex a story a proper method is required. At the outset we should obtain a rapid outline survey of the whole and then study the subject in more intensive detail. The outline may be found in such brief helps as the following: J. W. Moncrief, A Short History of the Christian Church (Chicago: Revell, 1902); Zenos, Compendium of Church History (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board, 1900) ; Sohm, Kirchengeschichte im Grundriss (Leip- zig: Ungleich, 1893; English translation, Outlines of Church History 354 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION [New York: Macmillan, 1895]); Gusta.v Kvueger, Das Papstum; seine Idee und ihre Trdger (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1907; English translation, The Papacy: The Idea and Its Exponents [New York: Putnam, 1909]). It is also advisable to study the table of contents of the larger methodic treatises in order to acquire at the beginning a clear conception of the proper order and distribution of topics. The only profitable, the only scientific, knowledge is knowledge of facts in their systematic relations, and the effort so to construct, as we learn and after we have learned, helps to sustain our own mental activity and rescues us from the danger of being mere passive readers. We need not fear that the construction borrowed from treatises may be false, since the whole period has been thoroughly worked by an army of scientific investigators and has been so long discussed that the main structure of this knowledge is well established. In order to enjoy the fullest independent activity of mind the student should conceive himself as making his own textbook. If following a descriptive course in a uni- versity or a theological school, he should keep ample margins or a blank page in his notebook for the insertion of material borrowed from collateral reading. If pursuing the study by himself, he may profitably construct his own condensed out- line by the aid of more than one treatise and a sufficient amount of source material, and he should select a number of topics for essays which may embody a fuller knowledge and his own interpretation of the significance and interest of the facts. Excellent selections from sources are found in the following: H. M. Gwatkin, Selections from Early Christian Writers (New York: Mac- millan, 1893). (This has texts and translations.) J. C. Ayer, A Source Book for Ancient Church History (New York: Scribner, 1913). (The most complete and accurate collection of translated passages indis- pensable for exact knowledge.) Mirbt, Quellen zur Geschichte des Papst- ums (Leipzig: Mohr, 1901). (Latin texts illustrating papal history.) J. H. Robinson, Readings in European History, Vol. I (Boston: Ginn, 1904). (Good bibliographies and informing descriptions of sources,) DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 355 E, F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (New York: Macmillan, 1892). The best systematic expositions in English covering the whole period are the following: A. H. Newman, Manual of Church History, Vol. I (Philadelphia: Baptist Pub. Soc, 1900). (The best brief treatment. It has good bibliographies.) Moeller, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Bd. II (Freiburg: Mohr, 1893; English translation. History of the Christian Church, Vols. I and II [New York: Macmillan, 1892 ff.]). (A model of scholarship.) Philip Schaflf , History of the Christian Church, Vols. I-IV (New York : Scribner, 1891 ff.) . (This full narration, enriched with material of concrete interest, is completed by David Schaff, The Middle Ages, Vol. V [New York: Scribner, 1910]). VII. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION By GEORGE CROSS Professor of Systematic Theology in Rochester Theological Seminary ANALYSIS I. General Considerations. — i. Personal influence — 2. Social in- fluences and economic changes. — 3. Political developments. — 4. Intellectual advance and unrest. — 5. Moral and religious growth . 359-362 II. The Course of the Reformation 362-363 III. The Lutheran Reformation. — A. The Lutheran Reformation in Germanic countries. — i. The establishment of Lutheranism in Germany. — 2. Stages of the Lutheran movement. — 3. Significance of the Lutheran Reformation. — B. The Lutheran Reformation in other countries. — i. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. — 2. England, Scotland, and Holland. — 3. In several countries that ultimately remained Catholic. — C. The Lutheran theology. — D. Estimate of Lutheranism 363-379 IV. The Origin and Establishment of the Reformed Churches . — - The Zwinglian reformation. — The Calvinist reformation. — A. Cal- vinism in Geneva. — -Founding of the first Protestant theocracy. — B. The Calvinist reformation in Scotland. — Founding of Scottish Presbyterianism. — John Knox. — C. The Calvinist reformation in the Netherlands. — D. The Calvinist reformation in other lands. — i. France. — 2. Germany. — 3. Switzerland. — 4. England. — D. Retrospect . . 379-391 V. The Reformation in England. — The forces and conditions operative. — The actual establishment of the English church. — The work of the Reformation under Edward VI. — The accession of Elizabeth 392-396 VI. The Anabaptist Reformation. — i. The affiliations of the Anabaptist movement. — 2. Directions of development. — 3. The prin- cipal tenets of the Anabaptists. — 4. The propagation and outcome. — 5. The relation of Anabaptism to .the Baptist, Armenian, and Quaker movements of the later Protestant period .... 396-404 VII. The Beginning of the Disintegration of the Protestant Systems. — Some pertinent questions. — Controversies between Dissenters and Churchmen.^A. The effect of the Counter-Reformation on the course of Protestantism. — ^The reason for the Counter-Reformation. — The Society of Jesus and its influence. — The inner nature of Jesuitism. — Propaganda. — The Council of Trent. — B. Undermining of Protestant orthodoxy by intellectualism. — i. Rationalistic criticism. — 2. Skeptical reaction caused by doctrinal controversies among the orthodox. — a) Controversies among Lutherans. — b) Controversies between Lutherans and Calvinists. — c) Controversies among Calvinists in the Netherlands. — d) Calvinistic controversies in England. — 3. The ■ discrediting of orthodoxy through the progress of scientific knowl- edge.— C. Threatened dissolution of the Protestant state churches through the rise of the Free churches. — i. Growth of the Free-church ideal in England. — 2. Presbyterianism. — 3. The Independents. — 4. The Baptists.^ — C. Summary estimate of the Protestant Refor- mation 404-427 VII. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION I. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS The Protestant Reformation was a general upheaval in the life of the peoples of Western Europe by which that life was partially reconstructed on a different basis and the way prepared for a transition from the mediaeval to the modern order of society. Like all great revolutions, it was a cata- clysmic outcome of the joint working of many forces through long periods preceding it. A thorough study of the Reforma- tion should therefore begin with an examination of those influences. Though they were complicated and interwoven, for purposes of examination they may be distinguished as personal, social, economic, political, intellectual, moral, and religious. Literature. — A good review of the situations leading to the Reforma- tion may be found in G. B. Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages (New York: Scribner, 1900). 1. Personal influences. — Pre-eminent among many great names are those of John Wycliffe, the Enghsh reformer of the fourteenth century, and his followers, John Huss of Bohemia and Jerome of Prague, fellow-workers and -martyrs. The work of these men had a profound effect on the social and political life of England and Central Europe. Literature. — For these movements the following works may be consulted: G. V. Lechler, John Wiclif aiuL His English Precursors, translated, and the sources mentioned there (London: Kegan Paul, 1878); J. Loserth, Wiclif and Hus, translation (London: Hodder & Stoughton Co., 1884); von Liitzow, The Life and Times of Master John Hus (New York: E. P. Button & Co., 1909). 2. Social influences and economic changes. — These should be studied close together: the effects of the Crusades on 359 360 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION trade and commerce, the growth of cities and city govern- ment, the formation of trading guilds and secret societies, the breakdown of feudahsm, the decrease of serfdom, the ambitions of the peasantry, the appearance of the free wage- earner, the spirit of enterprise, invention, the increase and centrahzation of wealth, the minglings of the people through travel, the dissemination of knowledge among the common people by means of the printing-press, the growing democratic feeling, the Black Death, and millenarianism. The subject cannot at present be studied thoroughly under any one author, though many writers of repute have referred to these con- ditions at some length, but mainly with reference to conditions in Germany. Literature. — Among the works to be consulted are: G. W. Cox, The Crusades (New York: Scribner, 1874); J. M. Ludlow, Age of the Crusades (New York: Scribner, 1900); B. Bax, German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages (London: Sonnenschein, 1894); W. Vogt, Die Vorgeschichte des Bauernkrieges (Halle: Niemeyer, 1887); Cam- bridge Modern History, I, i, iv; Munroe, Diehl and Prutz, Essays on the Crusades, (New York: Jax Duffield & Co., 1903). 3. Political developments. — Here one should study the new groupings and differentiation of the peoples after the Empire of Charlemagne; the new centers of power with the dechne of feudalism; the community of race, language, sentiment, and geographical boundaries, favoring the establishment of new nations with kings at their head; the opposition to the claims of the German imperial authorities and the Catholic church; the movements toward the national control of the territorial churches. The national ambitions of the English, French, and Spanish achieved success, while the national spirit of parts of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia pressed for recognition in vain for the time. The disintegration of the Empire and of- the church alHed with it was threatened. Literature. — For a view of the political situation one may consult the Cambridge Modern History; R. Lodge, The Close of the Middle Ages (New York: Macmillan, 1901). THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 361 4. Intellectual advance and unrest. — The conditions referred to above were necessarily accompanied by the out- burst of new ideas and of a spirit of revolt against traditional science, philosophy, and religious beliefs in general. We are to observe the intellectual ferment that followed the Crusades as the life of East and West contended and mingled. Arabian and Aristotelian philosophy, Greek literature in general, Roman law, the recovery of a knowledge of the Scriptures and their translation into the vernacular of the peoples created a new mental atmosphere. Modern science was born with Roger Bacon. Universities were founded and swarmed with students — -not all of them by any means for the priest- hood. Leadership was being transferred from the priests to the laity, asceticism was being discounted, skepticism was extending to the church's dogmas, knowledge of truth was coming to be esteemed above the possession of sacraments. Literature.— The vast literature bearing on the Renaissance and Humanism is available for this study. See Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy (London: Smith & Elder, 1875-80); Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe (London: Murray, i860); J. Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Period of the Renaissance, translation (London: Sonnen- schein, 1890); histories of European universities; the works of Erasmus, More's Utopia and Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum are illustrative of the spirit of the Renaissance and Humanism. 5. Moral and religious growth. — The new age mani- fested its character pre-eminently in a protest against the conventional moral standards and practices and religious beliefs. All the other currents of opposition to the ancient or mediaeval institutions found their focus in the moral- religious revolt that was constantly growing in force. The church's own training of the conscience of the individual aroused many to a sense of abhorrence of its practice of compounding moral felonies and of its paganism. The shock of Mohammedanism is to be taken account of here. More important is the persistence of the earlier dissent that the Inquisition had failed to uproot. Men were finding it possible 362 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION to live the higher life without the priest or the church. Faith and pure goodness were displacing trust in ecclesiastical works. Literature.- — Among the works to be consulted on this subject are: Harnack, History of Dogma, Vols. VI and VII (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1899); A. H. Newman, History of Antipaedobaptism (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1898); Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes sell dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, Vol. I (Freiburg: Herder, 1897). II. THE COURSE OF THE REFORMATION It is open to the student to trace the disruption along various lines,' the most inviting being the line of racial and national divisions or the line of religious and doctrinal cleavage. If we follow the former, the Catholic church can be seen withstanding the shock most successfully in the lands where the ancient Roman Empire had been most firmly established — as parts of Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France — and the Reformation meeting its greatest success in lands where the Roman influence was more remotely felt, as portions of Germany, Holland, Britain, Scandinavia, Denmark. In so doing the other line of cleavage will also be met, and in following it the different new types of faith and of the ecclesi- astical order will appear, as Lutheran, Zwinglian, Calvinist, Anabaptist. It will be observed how at one time the political and at another time the more distinctively religious influence is dominant, and how again a number of influences mingle indistinguishably. The theological student will preferably follow the second Une of division. The period of time has no strict boundaries, but it may conveniently be divided into two parts, the first extending from the time when the various forms of opposition to the Catholic church found a focus in the national life of several European peoples to the establishment of national churches (say, from 1517 a.d. to 157 1 a.d.), and the second extending from the vigorous beginnings of dissent within the new estab- lishments to the overthrow of Charles I of England and the THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 363 Peace of Westphalia in Germany (say, from 157 1 to 1648), when dissent and the power of the demand for liberty of con- science had got beyond control. Literature. — Among the many works which treat the whole subject the following may be especially mentioned: F. Seebohm, The Era of the Protestant Reformation (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1893); Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany (translation, 1905), A. H. Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, I4g4-i5g8 (New York: Macmillan, 1900), presents the chief events of the century from the political point of view mainly; W. Stubbs, Lectures on European History (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1904), also reviews the whole period with his accustomed skill; W. Walker, The Reformation (New York: Scribner, 1900), attempts the* history of the entire movement in a handy, small volume; the Hibbert Lectures of 1883 by C. Beard, The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in Its Relation to Modern Thought (London: Williams & Norgate, 1883), reviews the progress of strife in the field of thought during this period; Hausser, The Period of the Reforma- tion, 2 vols., translation (London, Strahan, 1873), describes the po- litical struggles of the time from the German point of view; T. M. Lindsay, History of the Reformation, 2 vols. (New York: Scribner, 1906 and 1907), is the most satisfactory work in English on the whole move- ment and is indispensable to the present-day student. Earlier works on the subject and some modern works are written too much in the controversial interest. It is necessary that the student should cease to feel under any obligation to idealize the Reformation. He should seek to find out just what happened and what it signified at the time and for the present, if he is to obtain an unbiased view. The documentary material should be consulted as far as possible. Much of it is still untranslated. The collection of Documents Illustrative of the Continental Reformation by B. J. Kidd (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 191 1) partly meets this nped, though, unfortunately for the unskilled reader, the documents appear mostly in the original. For a valuable list of references and documents see Gieseler, Lehrbuch der neuen Kirchen- geschichte (Bonn: Marcus, 1853; English translation, Compendium of Ecclesiastical History, I, 211 ff. [London: Hamilton, 1846-55]). III. THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION The movement that bears the name of Luther has two main characteristics : it bears the stamp of the personahty of Martin Luther, and its formal acceptance was substantially confined 364 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION to the Germanic peoples — Germany, Denmark, and Scandi- navia. However, other peoples were profoundly affected by Luther's work, though its thoroughly Germanic character prescribed for it inevitable limitations. The natural divisions into which the study of the movement falls are herewith given : Lutheranism in Germanic countries and Lutheranism in non-Germanic countries. A. THE LUTHERAN REFGRMATIGN IN GERMANIC COUNTRIES The study of the establishment of Lutheranism as a state religion should begin with Germany proper. I. The establishment of Lutheranism in Germany. — Three preliminary studies are essential to an understanding of the trend and final character of the movement, namely, the German imperial political system at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the personal character and experiences of the man Martin Luther, and the policy of the papacy at the time. a) The imperial political system. — James Bryce in The Holy Roman Empire has given the best compact account of the development of this famous conception of government and of the way the theory worked. The following features deserve special consideration: the axiom that the Empire was the counterpart, ally, and support of the Holy Catholic church; though England, Scotland, France, Spain, Denmark, and Sweden were nominally part of it, they were independent kingdoms and the Empire was really German; the imperial Diet that constituted the government, with an emperor at its head, was composed of three somewhat discordant elements, namely, seven electors (later eight) , who chose the emperor, and a higher and a lower nobility, both lay and ecclesiastical; each constituent state, down to the smallest, enjoyed the right to make war on its own account — hence the powerful tendency toward disintegration. The manner in which these conditions affected the course and ultimate character of the German THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 365 Reformation is significant. The peculiar relations of the imperial house at the outbreak of the Reformation are to be noticed: the Hapsburgs, their marriages and alliances with the houses of Spain and Burgundy and, indirectly, with that of England; the jealousy of the power of Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain) on the part of the Pope, the kings of France and England, and many of the imperial princes, and their willingness to use the religious movement for political purposes; the offense which Spanish dominance gave to the rising spirit of German nationalism. Thus the break-up of the Empire and the break-up of the church went together. b) The man Luther. — Since his personality dominated the religious side of the Reformation in Germany, the explanation of the movement lies partly in him — the son of Saxon peasants, possessing their character, and, on the other hand, his strong individualism and self-assertion. His early career at school, susceptibility to the appeals of mysticism rather than to the influence of Humanism, and the religious terror that drove him to the monastery largely account for his interpretation of Christianity. The personal influence of Staupitz, vicar- general of the Augustinian order of monks, and the assurance of faith that sprang up in this connection are valuable clues. His life as priest and his professorial relations with the new Saxon University of Wittenberg brought him into contact with the demoralizing work of the sale of indulgences and into conflict with the papacy. Literature. — For one who would gain a first-hand acquaintance with Luther his collected works should be studied (Erlangen and Weimar editions in the German) ; also his letters, Briefc, 5-vol. ed. by De Wette (Berhn: Reimer, 1825-28). The Lutherans in All Lands Company- has published a number of volumes of his works translated into English by Lenker. Lives of Luther are numerous. The following may be consulted: Kostlin, 3d ed. (Elberfeld: Friederichs, 1883; English trans- lation, Lutheran Pub. Soc, 1898); Froude (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1894); McGiffert (New York: Century Co., 191 1); Preserved Smith (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1911); Grisar, from the Jesuit 366 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION point of view (Freiburg: Herder, 191 1; English translation, London: Kegan Paul & Routledge, 1913). c) The policy of the papacy. — Three of its features claim chief attention: the political ambitions and alliances of the popes immediately preceding the outbreak and the manner in which these tied the hands of the papacy in the ensuing struggle; the extravagances and debts of Pope Leo X and the necessity of augmenting the revenues of the papal see by extraordinary means on account of the jealousy of the states of Europe and their parsimoniousness toward the papal church; and the development of the whole penitential system of the church, especially the confessional and indulgence. Literature. — For the last-mentioned, Lea, History of Auricular Con- fession and Indulgences (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1896), is indis- pensable. For the other subjects the general history of Europe and the history of the papacy should be reviewed. 2. Stages of the Lutheran movement. — For convenience the Lutheran Reformation up to the establishment of the Lu- theran church in Germany may be divided into three stages : first, from Luther's first emergence in public opposition to the sale of indulgences in Germany to his appearance before the Diet at Worms, when his protest became a matter of imperial politics; secondly, from the Diet of Worms to the organization of a Lutheran party, known as Protestants, in the Imperial Diet; thirdly, from the formation of this Protes- tant party to the legal establishment of the new state church when the Empire was split in two along ecclesiastical lines. The great dates are 1517, 1529, 1555, marking the publication of the famous Ninety-five Theses, the open organization of a Lutheran party in the Diet, and the establishment of the new church within the Empire. a) The public controversies. — The first stage is characterized by public controversies over the questions raised by Luther and by the general European excitement roused by them. The great documents of the period should be studied, espe- THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 367 cially Luther's Ninety-five Theses and the trio that followed, The Liberty of a Christian Man, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, and On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. The papal attempts to suppress Luther through Cajetan, Eck, and Miltitz and the Disputation at Leipzig, and the course of the proceedings at the Diet, indicate the depth and breadth of the influence exerted by Luther at the time. Luther's Primary Works (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1896), edited by Wace and Buckheim in an English trans- lation, contains these documents. The influence of such Humanist scholars as Erasmus and Melanchthon in sup- port of Luther is to be noted. h) The ban against Luther. — The second stage commences with the pronouncement of the ban of the Empire against Luther. Then follows the accession of the support of the Elec- tor Frederick of Saxony and his protection of Luther at the Wartburg, the continuation of the controversy by Luther in the literary works produced by him while there, the attempt of Pope Hadrian VI, through the institution of certain reforms, to forestall the rising demands for a renovation of the church, the failure of the Diet of Nuremberg to enforce the ban of the Empire against Luther, and the clear split in the Diet of Speyer in 1524 into two German parties, Austria and Bavaria leading a Catholic federation, while the Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Margrave of Brandenburg led a Lutheran federation. The Peasants' War, partially an outcome of the influence of Luther, needs careful study at this point. Its connection with earlier struggles of the peasantry of Germany for fuller recognition of their rights is to be noted. The noble Twelve Articles, in which they set forth their claims, are evidence of the presence of a master mind among them. The struggle became fateful for Luther, since he ultimately took the side of the princes against the peasants, and thereby sealed the fate of the free movement which he had inaugurated and 368 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION postponed indefinitely the advent of democracy in Germany. The connection of the Peasants' War with premillenial expectations and with the Anabaptist movement indicates the presence of a spiritual factor in European life distinct from that which obtained legal sanction and connected inwardly with the dissenting movement in Protestant countries. Literature. — Vandam and Fisher, Social Germany in Luther's Time (London: Constable, 1902), a translation of the memoirs of Barthol- omew Sastrow; Bax, The Peasants' War in Germany (London: Sonnen- schein, 1899); Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II. The play of general European politics comes in at this point. The relations between Emperor Charles V, King Francis I of France, King Henry VIII of England, the Pope, and the Turks complicated the situation and rendered the emperor helpless against Luther. The temporary truce with the Protestants on the basis Cujus regio, ejus religio ("the religion of the prince shall determine the religion of the people of his territory"), which became the basis of the final peace long afterward, was made at the Diet of Speyer in 1526. To understand this it is necessary to examine the feudal principles in vogue in the governments of the German states and to become acquainted with the part the Turks had been playing, and were still playing, in the politics of Europe. Charles's defeat of Francis and the Turks renewed the terrible danger to the new faith and resulted in the famous Protest at the Diet of Speyer in 1529 which gave to the new party the name of Protestants. The Augsburg Confession, drawn up by Melanchthon and presented in 1530 to the Diet, should be carefully examined at this point for a knowledge of the con- servative doctrinal position of the Protestants. Literature. — See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 4th ed., Vol. Ill (New York: Harper, 1905); Kidd, Documents Illustrative, etc., p. 259. See also Melanchthon's Loci Communis, ed. Kolde (Leipzig, Deichert, 1890). His collected works were published at Wittenberg, 1562-64. For a recent account of him read J. M. Richard, Philip Melanchthon, the Protestant Preceptor of Germany (New York: Putnam, li THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 369 The Marburg Conference. — The distinctive character of the Lutheran movement on its rehgious and doctrinal side is brought out more fully by reference to the abortive conference at Marburg in 1529, when Lutheran princes attempted to find a basis of union with the Zwinglians for common ecclesiastico- political action (for Zwinghanism see below). The far- reaching consequences of the difference between Luther and ZwingH on the question of the Supper becomes indicative of two widely diverging lines of Protestant development — the Rationahst-Evangehcal and the Protestant-Catholic, the one issuing in the free churches and rationalism and the other in the sacramental state churches. c) Lutheran settlements of faith and polity. — The third stage is the stage of politico-ecclesiastical and military con- flict. The story belongs particularly to political and mihtary history. The significant documents are the Schmalkald Articles drawn up by Luther as the basis of the Schmalkald league in opposition to the CathoHc league, the Interim statement issued by the emperor after defeating the Protes- tants at Miihlberg in 1547 (a year after Luther's death), specifying the temporary rights to be enjoyed by the Protes- tants, till he could finish with them, and arousing the jealousy of the papacy by the assumption of the imperial right to dictate terms of faith, and the Peace of Augsburg after the Protestant victory, giving the Lutheran faith (and no other form of Protestantism) a legal position alongside Cathohcism in Germany on the basis Cujus regio, ejus religio. In this connection should be noted the special proviso in favor of Catholic territories known as the Ecclesiastical Reservation, because it reserved to Catholicism the territory belonging to a prince who, having formerly been a Catholic, might turn Protestant. See Kidd, Documents, etc., pp. 319, 358, 363- This is a suitable point for a review of the general character of the Lutheran Reformation, with its mixture of conservatism 370 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION and radicalism, for a survey of the inner religion of Luther and his theology, and for an estimate of his services to the German people and of his contribution to the creation of their nation- hood. The German Reformation exhibits in its variegated and confusing movements the uprising out of feudalism of a nascent national consciousness against the artificial restraints imposed upon the spirit of the people by the Empire and the Church. This new national spirit found its highest expression and inspiration in Martin Luther and in his semi-mystical religious faith, but the divisive internal condition of the country, and the want of interest in the intellectual freedom represented by the Renaissance and in the religious freedom represented by the Anabaptists, prevented a clear victory over the traditional and reactionary forces. In non-German coun- tries the outcome was similar, except that in some of these Lutheranism prepared the way for other movements. 3. Significance of the Lutheran Reformation. — The whole movement in Germany may be reviewed under two main heads, its political side and its spiritual side. On the poHtical side a thorough reconstruction on a constitutional or popular basis was rendered impossible at the time and for centuries later, on the one hand by the traditional respect for the Empire and by the personal prowess of an emperor who was as much Spanish as German, and who was bent on subjugating national aspirations to imperial interests, and on the other hand by the persistence of the feudal spirit in the princes, by their lack of national spirit, and by their selfish desire — with exceptions — to enhance their own authority by means of the religious and ecclesiastical reformation. Thus the move- ment as a whole lacked coherence and unity of aim. Each little state drew up its own creed and its ecclesiastical system under the control of its prince; each of these, again, was jealous of the others, and all of the emperor. No great statesman arose to bring the national hopes to fruition. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 371 Luther's own support of the princes against the people con- firmed the fatal tendency. On the distinctively spiritual side — ^i.e., in religion, morals, and theology — ^there was better progress ; but here also the combination of radicalism and conservatism and the fencing- in of the spirit by hereditary forms made inevitable either a period of stagnation or future outbreaks of inner strife. The manner in which Luther's invaluable contribution to the life of Germany was checked may be observed somewhat in detail: a) As respects the essence of all religion, i.e., the free com- munion of the human spirit with God: Luther affirmed the immediacy of the action of divine grace upon the souls of men and maintained the all-sufficiency of the principle of inner faith (trust) for the fullest participation in that grace; but he never got clear of the idea of the necessity of the action of the church and the sacraments for its impartation. Conse- quently a superstitious sacramentalism and a subjection of reason to church dogmas continued. b) As respects the mutual religious communion of men: The universal priesthood of believers was affirmed against the pretensions of a sacerdotal order. A natural corollary would be the universal right of believers to voluntary association and the free, spontaneous utterance of personal faith for mutual profit and fulfilment of fellowship; but the deep-seated monastic distrust of human nature on the one side, and the dread of a radical democracy on the other side, issued in the subjection of religious communion to the authority of the sovereign civil power. c) As respects freedom of thought and its place in religion: The competency and right of each human mind to interpret revelation (the word of God) for itself and, therewith, the necessity of a free criticism of all utterances purporting to be a divine message were accepted in principle and exercised at times; but Luther's inheritance of Catholic intellectual 372 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION timidity, his unsympathetic attitude toward the Renaissance, and his distrust of reason combined with the exigencies of controversy to readmit the external doctrinal authority of the Bible as the written and final word of God and prepared the way for the later withering scholasticism and for the reinstate- ment of legalism in religion. d) As respects the ideal of the Christian life: In place of a life restricted to the narrow limits prescribed by ecclesias- tical legislation and by the monkish demand for world-flight Luther held to the free outgoing of the soul to its self-chosen end and to the fulfilment of the normal tasks of life in the midst of natural conditions, such as the family, the state, industry; but over against this wholesome view he held to the idea of a universal fall of nature and of the bondage of the will. He was destitute, accordingly, of positive interest in science or philosophy, and to the clear idea of liberty of conscience and political freedom he never attained. On these lines Germany was held back for centuries. e) Over and above these defects stand, however, indis- putable services to the German people and to humanity: the translation of the Bible into the popular German tongue (thereby standardizing it and really making it the language of German literature) and the gift of the Bible to the people, thereby insuring the continuance of the work of the earlier dissenters; the preparation of a hymnody expressive of the newer and fuller religious life, of religious catechisms for the young (thereby preparing the way for the famous German educational system) , and of a system of order for the churches and equipment for the priests; finally, the cumulative eiTect of these and other causes in the creation of a German Protes- tant nation. Literature. — Kostlin, The Theology of Luther, translation (Lutheran Pub. Co., 1898), is a standard work on his doctrinal views. Vedder, The Reformation in Germany (New York: Macmillan, 1914), attempts, with a measure of success, to tell the whole story from the point of view of THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 373 the social interest. For the literature of the Lutheran Reformation see Newman, Manual of Church History, II, 40 (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1900); Lindsay, History of the Reformation, II, 189 f. (New York: Scribner, 1906); Denize, Luther und'Luthertum, II, 290 ff. (Mainz: Kirchheim, 1909). B. THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES The idea of a single imperial church with a single imperial state as its complement, by reason of its furthering of the sense of unity, must be kept in mind as a powerful factor in the spread of Lutheran ideas among the peoples of Europe. Since the center of the Empire was in Germany it was natural that the influence of the Lutheran movement should be felt among other peoples proportionately to their racial and spiritual kinship with the Germans. We may thus make a threefold division of the countries affected: first, those in which Lutheranism became the form of religion established in the state, as Denmark, Norway, and Sweden; secondly, those in which it prepared the way for a Protestantism of a different type, as England, Scotland, and Holland; thirdly, those in which it was temporarily powerful but ultimately failed, as France, Spain, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria. The study of the Lutheran reform in these lands tends to bring out clearly the fact of the complication of the Christian religious spirit with many other tendencies. I. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. — The student should acquaint himself with the intimate political interrelations of the three peoples from early times, their political union in 1397, and the independence of Sweden under Gustavus Vasa in 1523. The internal political condition of each is to be noted — the struggle in Sweden between the nobility and the hierarchy and in Denmark between the crown and the nobility, supported by the bishops. In the former country the labors of Olaf and Lars Petersen and of other Lutheran ministers with the support of the king, the establishment of a Lutheran episcopacy, and the development of a vigorous Protestantism 374 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION that wrought victoriously in the struggles of the Thirty Years' War are the points of chief interest. Literature. — For a general history of the Swedes consult C. F. Johnstone, Abstracts of the History of the States of Europe (London: Kegan Paul, 1880) ; for the time of the Reformation, Weidling, Schwedische Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation (Gotha: Schloessmann, 1882); for the Reformation itself, Butler, The Reformation in Sweden under Charles IX (New York: Randolph, 1883); for the Swedish church from 1500 to the present, J. Wordsworth, The National Church of Sweden (Milwaukee: Young Churchman Co., 191 1). Denmark led Norway and Iceland. In Denmark there is, first, the failure of Christian II, nephew of the Elector Fred- erick the Wise of Saxony, to follow the successful efforts of his uncle in his attack on the clergy; then the loss of his king- dom to another uncle, Frederick I, who himself became a convert through the Lutheran preacher, Hans Tausen; and, finally, the resultant struggle between the two religious parties and the accession of a Protestant son. Christian III, who established the episcopal Lutheranism that remains to the present time the Danish church. Literature. — For the general history of these lands see Johnstone, op. cit.; for an elaborate ecclesiastical history of Denmark and Norway to the time of the Reformation study Miinter, Kirchengeschichte von Ddnemark und Norwegen, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Vogel, 1823-34); F. C. Dahlmann, Geschichte von Ddnemark (Hamburg: Perthes, 1840-41); for the ecclesiastical history of Norway from the earliest times to the down- fall of the Catholic church, T. B. Willson, History of Church and State in Norway (London: Constable, 1903). 2. England, Scotland, and Holland. — The story of Luther- anism in these countries is only a part of the story of the Reformation there. The student who is especially interested in the Lutheran Reformation will naturally seek to estimate its influence on these countries. He will find much difference of opinion and must content himself with general statements. Lutheranism prepared the way for the establishment of Cal- vinism in the two latter countries and for the somewhat THE I'ROTESTANT REFORMATION 375 distinct type of ecclesiastical life we may call Anglicanism in the first. In England. — An independent judgment on the influence of Lutheranism can be reached only by a thorough mastery of the history and genius of the English people before and during the Tudor period and by the study of state documents and of such collections as Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII; Strype's Annals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1824) and Ecclesi- astical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822), and the works of the English theologians. The following points are of special interest: the knowledge of Luther's work in Eng- land, the relations between Henry and Luther, the influence of the state-church arrangements of the German princes, the effect of the Schmalkald War, the relations with Melanchthon and other German theologians, and the inspiration given to William Tyndale by Luther's translation of the Bible. The estimate ofTered by Pollard in the Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II, is worth noting. /w Scotland. — Here the influence of Lutheranism found less support from earlier domestic reforming movements, though Lollardy was at work. The Lutheran influence is mainly traceable in the career of the fi.rst martyr, Sir Patrick Hamil- ton, of George Buchanan, of George Wishart, and in the earlier activities of John Knox. Literature. — Materials are found in Fox's Acts and Monuments, new and complete ed. (London: Seeley & Burnside, 1837-41); the Collected Works of John Knox (Edinburgh: Wodrow Soc, 1857). The career of Hamilton is set forth in Lorimer, Precursors of Knox (Edinburgh: Hamilton, 1857). In Holland. — The Lutheran movement in the Netherlands is closely connected with the determined but unsuccessful attempt of Emperor Charles V to subdue dissent. Literature. — Among the many accounts the most interesting to the American student will be Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic (New York: 376 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Harper, 1867). Even more valuable is P. J. Blok, History of the People of the Netherlands, 5 Vols. (New York and London: Putnam, 1898- 1912). The story of the first Lutheran martyrs of the Netherlands, Henry Voes and John Esch, is told by Brandt, The History of the Refor- mation, Vol. I (London: T. Woode, 1720). 3. In several countries that ultimately remained Catholic. — In many parts of Europe the Lutheran movement roused numbers of the people to new or renewed efforts to break away from the papal church, but through the lack of moral energy or of religious depth or through unfavorable political or social or economic conditions their efforts fell away or were overthrown by a reactionary movement. The study of these struggles belongs ultimately to the study of the Counter- Reformation. However, in an inquiry into the history and character of Lutheranism the following suggestions may be followed at this point: In France.— Attention should be given to the work of Bishop Brigonnet of Meaux, Jacques Lefevre d'Estaples {Faher Stapulensis) , and Jean Leclerc, the martyr of 1525. Perhaps more important are the attitude and political ambi- tions of King Francis I, who, notwithstanding his patronage of the scholars of the Renaissance and his political support of the German Protestants, sought rather to weaken the power of Emperor Charles V than to encourage the new religious movement in his own realm.. Literature. — H. M. Baird, History of the Rise of the Huguenots, especially chaps, ii-v (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1880), should be read for a knowledge of the whole situation. In Spain. — Here the influence of Lutheranism on the religious views of Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain) and on the Spaniards whom he brought into Germany is of some significance. Chief interest centers in the evangelicals and martyrs of Seville and Valladolid and in the overbearing effect on the Spanish character of the long struggle with THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 377 Mohammedanism, which gave to Spain the political and military leadership of Europe. Literature. — Of the somewhat extensive literature on the subject the following may be named: Lea, Chapters from the Religious History of Spain (Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1890); Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1872 and 1873); Betts, translations of various works of Spanish reformers (London: Triibner, 1869-83). In Italy. — Here the Lutheran influence did not go very far on its religious side, but it strengthened the spirit of the Renaissance and the rationalistic trend in Italian spiritual revolt. One may note the revival of interest in the works of Augustine, the translations of the Bible and of the works of Lutheran theologians, the friendship of the Duchess Renata of Ferrara, and the abortive conference at Regensburg. Literature. — McCrie, History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1827), is an old book but valuable for a general survey. In Poland, Bohemia, and Moravia. — In these countries Lutheranism was temporarily powerful, and less so in Hungary and several provinces of Austria, as the Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria, and Carinthia. Emphasis is to be placed on the rela- tion to mediaeval dissenting bodies, as Hussites and Bohemian Brethren, and to the preparatory relation to later Reforma- tion movements, as anti-Trinitarianism, Anabaptism, and Calvinism. C. THE LUTHERAN THEOLOGY The best index to the character of the Lutheran Refoma- tion on its religious and intellectual side is found in its theology. This is to be studied, as to its method genetically, and as to its content or form. I. Augustinian sources. — Genetically: First, the Lutheran theology is to be traced to the Augustinian interpretation of Christianity by which Luther, being an Augustinian monk, was deeply influenced. This can be seen especially in his doctrines 378 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of sin, grace, bondage of the will, election. Secondly, the monastic life, and the works of the mediaeval mystics with which Luther was familiar, produced the mystical view of salvation as an experience overriding the claims of reason and introduced a realistic view of the human relation to the Redeemer and that immediacy of assurance of the truth of the revelation that had come to him which enabled him to set his personal convictions over against all authority. Thirdly, his training in Catholic modes of thought produced, some- what in opposition to the other tendencies above men- tioned, that habit of resting on the letter of the Scriptures and that dependence on sacraments which was never shaken off. J'ourthly, the distinctive personality of the man Luther, so original and so powerful, gave to all his views a peculiar stamp and impressed his convictions on multitudes. 2. Method. — The method of Luther's theology was varied and irregular. His churchly training and his literalism com- bined with a natural self-assertion to establish the dogmatical method. With this was combined a spirit of free criticism, especially as to religious values, which enabled him to use the Bible as a work of devotion and inspiration rather han as an external authority, and to set a-going a powerful impulse toward a truly religious view of revelation and life. But he never attained to the historical method of investiga- tion and interpretation and often fell into mere allegorizing after the long-established method of the Catholic theologians. 3. Content. — The content of Lutheran Theology, especially after Melanchthon gave it form and moderated its tone, was mainly Catholic in form and somewhat so in spirit, the doc- trines of grace and faith and the reduction of the sacramental view of salvation to narrower limits being most in evidence. For the specific doctrines of Lutheranism consult the authori- ties named below. Literature. — For documentary sources of Luther's theology the stu- dent may consult the Erlangen edition of his collected works (1S26-27); THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 379 his Brief e, ed. DeWette (Berlin: Reimer, 1825-28); Melanchthon's Loci Communes, ed. Kolde (Leipzig: Deichert, 1890), and the Lutheran stan- dards in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill (New York: Harper, 1877, 4th ed., 1905). Brief expositions of Lutheran doctrine are given in Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine (New York: Scribner, 1901); Harnack, Dogmen- geschichte. III, 725-814 (Freiburg: Mohr, 1897; English translation, VII, 180 ff. [Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1900]). The best exposition in extenso is Kostlin, The Theology of Luther, translated by Hay (Phila- delphia: Lutheran Pub. Soc, 1897). D. ESTIMATE OF LUTHERANISM This may proceed on several lines, e.g. : first, its religious value, especially its effect on the higher religious life of Ger- many; secondly, its influence on morals, especially the effect at that time of removing external restraints on those accustomed to them, and the later effects; thirdly, the intel- lectual power of the movement, especially the extent to which it carried forward the impulse of the Renaissance and devel- oped a deeper interest in education and general intelligence; fourthly, its destructive and constructive work in the field of religious doctrine; fifthly, its relation to religious liberty, particularly in reference to the Anabaptists and to the creation or toleration of free dissent; sixthly, its part in the develop- ment of the national spirit of Germany in particular and of Europe in general, and the type of civil government to which it is most nearly akin. Literature. — For instances of contrary estimate see Lindsay, History of the Reformation, Book II, chap, vii (New York: Scribner, 1905), and 'Newma.n, Manual of Church History, II, 115 ff. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1900-1903). IV. THE ORIGIN AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES The name Reformed churches, or churches of the Re- formed, pertains to a number of the new religious organiza- tions of the Reformation that were Protestant but differed 380 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION from Lutheranism in important features and continued separate from both Lutherans and Cathohcs. In spirit, in order, in worship, in doctrine, in government, and in relation to the civil power they were distinct. They were also more cosmopolitan than the Lutheran church and found a home early in Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, in many parts of the Empire, for a time in France, to a degree in England, and at last in the United States of America. A knowledge of this movement demands a prolonged and involved study of con- ditions in many lands. A twofold origin of the Reformed church can be traced, though the two streams coalesced, namely, in the work of Huldreich Zwingli and in that of John Calvin, both first established in Switzerland, the former contemporary with Luther and the latter a generation later. The study will proceed best by countries. Our first study must be the history of the Swiss people to the time under consideration, their characteristics, and their method of government. Their geographical situation, the physical features of their country, their racial diversities, their relations with other people, their achievement of political independence by warfare, the degree to which they came under the influence of the Renaissance and of such mediaeval dissenters as the Waldenses, the industry, simplicity, and thrift for which they were noted, are all important factors in the reformation of religion. Domestic political conditions, the local democracies (cantonal self-government), the loose con- federacy in which thirteen urban cantons and four ''forest" cantons were united, the inner differences among these, espe- cially in intelligence, are to be recognized as determining the final form in which the Reformation was set up or the rejection of it. They also partly explain the early success and the final overthrow of the Anabaptist propaganda there. Literature. — Seebohm and Johnson, as above (p. 363), and the general church histories. For a more elaborate knowledge use Joseph THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 381 Planta, History of the Helvetic Confederacy, 3 vols. (London: Stockdale, 1800-1807). ' The Reformation in Switzerland arose mainly in two centers, Zurich and Geneva — the movement in the former under the leadership principally of Huldreich Zwingli and in the latter under the leadership principally of John Calvin. The account of each is inseparable from the personal career of the leaders. THE ZWINGLIAN REFORMATION The character and career of Zwingli. — His family, his education at Bern, Basel, and Vienna, the influence of the New Learning on him through such men as Erasmus and Thomas Wyttenbach and his strong intellectual revulsion against popular Catholic superstitions, his close attention to biblical and classic studies during his priesthood at Glarus and Einsiedeln, his chaplaincy of a mercenary Swiss regiment campaigning in Italy, and his resolute patriotic stand against the mercenary practice are the features of importance in his pre-reforming career. His great pastorate at Zurich and his public controversies, by the appointment of the civil authorities, with the upholders of indulgence-selling, ecclesiastical tithing, celibacy, fasts, image-worship, papal primacy, the mass, saint-worship, purga- tory, and such practices gave him the leadership of the new movement. The resulting civil establishment of the Re- formed faith as set forth in Zwingli's Sixty-seven Articles and the rejection of the radical program of the Anabaptists, followed by the pubHc prosecution and cruel punishment of these people, complete the movement in Zurich. Thence the interest widens to the whole extent of the Swiss confederacy and brings the Zwinglian Reformation directly into contact with general European pohtics and the Lutheran Reformation. The progress of Zwinghanism, modified somewhat in other places by its contact with reform- ing efforts already at work elsewhere in Switzerland, brings to 382 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION our attention the names of Leo Judaeus, Conrad Grebel, and Balthazar Hubmaier (the two latter to be known later as Anabaptists) at Zurich; the city of Bern, and the work of John and Berthold Haller and Sebastian Meyer; Basel, where the work of Erasmus and Wyttenbach is carried farther by Capito and Hedio, later by William Reublin, and finally by Oecolampadius ; St. Gall and Appenzell, and the work of Vadianus; Schaffhausen, which adopted the Reformation under the influence of Sebastian Hofmeister and Sebastian Meyer; the Graubiinden, where John Comander persuaded the mixed population to accept an established church which tolerated both Zwinglians and Catholics, but not Anabaptists; and at length many cities of Southwestern Germany, such as Augsburg, Strassburg, and Frankfurt, which accepted the Reformed faith and became centers of great power for the spread of the whole Protestant Reformation. The relations of similarity and contrast with Lutheranism can be brought out by a study of the invitation given to the leaders to meet in conference, looking to a union in a com- mon religious and political effort at Marburg, the colloquy between Luther and Zwingli, and the failure to unite. The outcome as regards the standing of the Reformed church and the Catholic church in Switzerland at large appears in the two wars of Cappel and in the Peace of Cappel, so disappoint- ing to Zwinglians. Literature. — There is much material to examine. A general view of the Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and its influence on the Swiss reformers can be obtained from the Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I, or Paul Van Dyke,^ge of the Renaissance (New York: Scribner, 1897). Zwingli's life and doctrines are pretty fully exhibited in the histories of the Reformation. S. M. Jackson's Huldreich Zwingli, the Reformer of Switzerland (New York: Putnam, 1901) and The Latin Works and Correspondence of Huldreich Zwingli (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 191 2) are valuable. A. Baur, in Zwinglis Theologie (Halle: Niemeyer, 1885-89), sets forth the Reformer's doctrine at length. Zwinglii Opera are edited in German and published in eight THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 383 volumes (Schultess: Zurich, 1828-42). Strickler, Actensammlung zur schweizerischen Rejortnationsgeschichte in den Jahren 1521-1532, 5 vols. (Zurich: Meyer & Zeller, 1878-84), gives the most complete historical material. The student should seek to apprehend the peculiar signifi- cance of Zwinglianism by a comparison with Lutheranism on such points as the following: the comparative influence of mysticism and rationalism on Luther and Zwingli; their respective attitudes as regards the relation of the religious reformation to the authority of the civil power; the breadth of human sympathy and of doctrine in each; their attitude toward sacraments; their influence on the growth of a broad intelligence and of a courageous view of the world and the future of men. Literature. — Schaff gives some interesting suggestions in his history of the Swiss Reformation, History of the Christian Church, Vol. VII (New York: Scribner, 1884-1907). THE CALVINIST REFORMATION There are certain preliminary considerations necessary to the study of the Calvinist Reformation. First, it began about a generation later than the Lutheran and Zwinghan movements and profited by them as well as by the earlier work of such men as William Farel; it became naturally better organized than these and represented a higher stage of the Protestant consciousness and also a more advanced organization of the new religious forces. Calvinism is Protestantism clearly self-conscious and organized for aggres- sion. Secondly, it bears the stamp of the man by whose name it is known — of Calvin's French thoroughness and intellectu- ality, his moral sternness, legal training, intolerance of opposi- tion, leaning to aristocracy or despotism, vast learning, bibhcism, and acquaintance with and interest in the poHtical life of Western Europe. To understand Calvinism it is emphatically necessary to know the man in his relation to 384 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION , earlier and contemporary European politics and to the earlier an ti- Catholic movements. Literature. — Lives of Calvin are numerous. The student should know Beza's Life of Calvin, translation by Gibson (Philadelphia: Whet- ham, 1836); Henry's famous life of Calvin, Das Leben Johann Calvins (Hamburg: Perthes, 1835-38; English translation [documents omitted] by Stabbing [New York: Carter, 1859]). Among the later lives, H. Y. Reyburn, John Calvin, His Life, Letters and Work (New York: Hodder '& Stoughton, 1914), and L. Penning, Life afid Times of Calvin (London: Kegan Paul, 19 12), are valuable, the former being especially discriminat- ing and the latter a tribute of high regard. Nevertheless, in contrast with the case of Luther, it is not so much the man as the theologian and states- man that interests us in Calvin. His Institutes of the Christian Religion (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Soc, 1845-46) is the classic of Reforma- tion theology and his church-state at Geneva the model of contemporary and of later Protestant ecclesiastical organization. See Doumergue, Jean Calvin, les hommes et les choses de son temps (Lausanne: Bridel, 1899-1908). We follow his work by countries. A. CALVINISM IN GENEVA — FOUNDING OF THE FIRST PROTESTANT THEOCRACY As introductory to the study there should be a knowledge of the situation and general relations of the three French- speaking Swiss cantons, Geneva, Vaud, and Neuchatel. The limited territory of Geneva, its relations with the house of Savoy, the rise of a popular patriotic party (Eidgenots, Huguenots, Eidgenossen) , the supremacy of the idea of liberty rather than of morality, the constitution of the three councils that governed the little state, and the asserted overlordship of Bern constitute the main elements of the situation prior to the Reformation. Literature. — Consult Roget, Histoire du peuple de Geneve, 7 vols. (Geneva: JuUien, 1870-83). Preparatory to Calvin's religious and theological reform came the work of William Farel of Provence, Antoine Froment, his fellow-countryman, and Peter Viret, of Vaud, with its stern religiousness and violent iconoclasm. Literature. — See Herminjard, Correspondance des reformateurs dans les pays de la langue franqaise, etc. (Paris: Fischbacher, 1866-97). THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 385 Calvin's arrival in the city and his first abortive attempts to establish a uniform confession of faith and stern moral dis- cipline, with severe civil penalties for the heretical and the immoral, compulsory attendance on public worship, educa- tion and religious catechizing of children, and obedience in religion to the ministers brought out the inner antagonism between the Reformers and the Libertines; and the despotism of the former issued in their expulsion. This episode serves to bring out the underlying intolerance in Calvinism and might serve as a starting-point for a study of the struggle within Calvinism between the Judaistic elements and the Christian elements in it. Calvin's sojourn in Strassburg from 1538 to 1542, by bringing him into intimate relations with Protestant refugees from France and other lands, and by giving him leisure for friendly correspondence with Luther and his great colleague, the theologian Melanchthon, and for the enlargement of his Institutes, the writing of a commentary on Romans, the preparation of an elaborate scheme of church order, and the carrying on of controversies with Catholic leaders is to be viewed as the beginning of his remolding influence on Luther- anism and of the extension of his personal view throughout Western Europe. The study of the " Crypto-Calvinist " controversy among the Lutherans, relating especially to the Lord's Supper, indicates the character of the Calvinist influ- ence on Lutheran doctrine. Literature. — Such documents as the Augsburg Variata, the Apology for the Augsburg Confession, and other documents published in the Corpus Doctrinae Philippum after the death of Melanchthon, indicate the extent of the controversy. The Formula of Concord (see Schaflf, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill), by which the Lutheran theologians tried to settle these and other disputes, should be examined in this connection. See also Schaff, "The Friendship of Calvin and Melanchthon," Papers of the American Society of Church History (1889). Calvin's recall to Geneva and the work of the twenty-two remaining years of his life there brought into being the cast- iron system of religious and civil control for which Geneva 386 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION became famous, and supplied to Europe the needed demonstra- tion of the ability of Protestantism to establish an order of faith and of moral and political life which became a standing proof that it was not simply a disintegrating force but truly constructive in a wide sense. The details of the labors that effected this must be sought in the histories of the Reformation on its religious side and on its political side also. The follow- ing features of the Genevan theocracy merit special attention : Calvin's nominal limitation to the life of a minister and teacher but practical ecclesiastico-political dictatorship; his funda- mental conviction that the whole life of the people in their domestic, social, industrial, and political relations must be put under the strict authority of religion whether by con- sent or by outer compulsion (compare the Roman Catholic view); the use of the teachings of the Old Testament, espe- cially the two Tables of Moses, as divinely given instructions on this matter; the relentless enforcement of the laws by a system of espionage and of penalties ranging from beheading to fmes, and covering the minutest details of public and private life, both religious and secular; the founding of the Consistory, a mixed body of ministers and laymen in the ratio of one to two, for the enforcement of ecclesiastical rules; the impulse thereby given to republicanism. Observe that Calvin founded a church-state rather than a state-church, perfecting Zwingli's idea and reversing Luther's. Literature. — Eugene Choisy, L'Etat chretien calviniste a Geneve (Paris : Fischbacher, 1902) ; Auguste Lang, Zwingli und Calvin (Bielefeld : Velhagen & Klasing, 1913). In addition to this local activity one must notice Calvin's intimate acquaintance and co-operation with the work of the Reformed church in other countries. Theodore Beza in France, John Knox in Scotland (now a Calvinist rather than a Lutheran), Enghsh Protestant statesmen, and the Dutch Reformers received inspiration and counsel from him. He became the outstanding figure of Protestantism in his closing years. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 387 Literature. — For a broad survey of his relations to Protestantism read Williston Walker, John Calvin, the Organiser of Reformed Protestant- ism (New York: Putnam, 1906). Accompanying all this was an intense literary activity. The student will do well to examine particularly the con- troversies with Catholics, Anabaptists, anti-Trinitarian dis- senters, especially the Socini and Servetus (R. Willis, Servetus and Calvin [London: King, 1877]), and the relation, spiritually, between Calvinism and these. It would be interesting to discover whether Calvinism is the more closely related in spirit and idea with rationalist Unitarianism, Lutheranism, or Catholicism. Literature. — Calvin's correspondence with churches, statesmen, and princes in many sections of Europe and with the sovereigns of England, France, and Navarre can be read in Jules Bousset, Lettres de Jean Calvin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1854). There was published at Lausanne in 1575, his Epistolae et Responsa, and at Amsterdam, 1667-71, his col- lected works {Opera Omnia). The Calvin Translation Society (1844-55) published translations of his commentaries on practically the whole Bible and his tracts containing dogmatical and controversial treatises. A selection of his most celebrated sermons in translation was published in Philadelphia in 1849. B. THE CALVINIST REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND — FOUNDING OF SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIANISM The Reformation in Scotland may be regarded as, in a sense, the resultant of the complication of religious and ecclesiastical reform with a disturbed condition of foreign and domestic politics. The long-standing alliance between the royal house of Scotland and the royal house of France as a means of protection against Enghsh aggression was threatened by the inauguration of the policy of the Tudor house of Eng- land, which sought alliance with Scotland by royal inter- marriage. These two parties divided the country. Related to this situation were the internal economic, social, and political strifes threatening the integrity of the realm. The 388 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION crown was strongly Catholic and papal in sympathy, but the nobility, for patriotic reasons and for the sake of gaining the control of the church's property, led an opposition to the church and crown. When England became politically and ecclesiastically Protestant, the Scottish lords gained a vast accession of strength by alliance with English Protestant- ism. Add to this the old antipathy between the untamed Highlanders and the more civilized Lowlanders and you have the conditions of a distracting struggle that might be brought to a successful issue by the appearance of some strong man. He came in the Calvinist, John Knox. Calvinism, by placing the Reformed church in a position of dominance, became the chief source of the ultimate unity of Scottish life. Literature. — ^A general history of Scotland should be read, e.g., P. H. Brown, History of Scotland (Cambridge: Clay, 1900-); A. R. McEwen, A History of the Church of Scotland, Vol. I (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1913), carries the ecclesiastical account from 397 a.d. to 1546 A.D. John Knox. — The earlier reforming efforts have been noted. Knox's work of conserving their results and develop- ing a more powerful movement is partly to be accounted for by his personal career and character. In some respects he was another Calvin. Note, then, his slavery for religion's sake in the French galleys, his release through English intervention, his preaching for five years in England and his connection with the reform in Edward's reign, his five years on the Continent, mainly at Geneva and Frankfurt, and his return to Scotland. The organization of the Protestants under the "Lords of the Congregation" and their covenant, and the assumption of the name "Church" with a confession of faith drawn up by Knox in 1560 and approved by Parliament, mark the begin- ning of the new order. The articles of that confession are especially important because they were the standard of Scottish Protestantism for nearly a hundred years and became the vestibule to the Westminster Confession of 1647. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 389 The function assigned to civil government is significant of its thorough Calvinistic or church-state ideal. Literature. — For the story of the Reformation consult D. Hay Flem- ing, The Scottish Reformation (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910), and the Story of the Scottish Covenants (Edinburgh: Oliphant, 1904). There are many lives of Knox. Among the later are A. T. Innes, John Knox (New York: Scribner, 1896), and A. Lang, John Knox and the Reforma- tion (New York: Putnam, 1905). Lorimer's John Knox and the Church of England (London: King, 1875) presents a side of Knox's activity often overlooked. Dean Stanley in his History of the Church of Scotland (London: Murray, 1872) presents the Episcopalian estimation of the Presbyterian and Episcopal struggles in Scotland. Four other steps completed the formation of the Presby- terian church of Scotland — the preparation of a book of dis- cipline which described the organization of the church, the provision of a liturgy, the translation and acceptance of Calvin's Catechism, and the adoption of a scheme for the education of the people. The conflicts of the next seven years, which ended in the legal establishment of the church as thus reformed, belong to the story of the great European struggle for the safety of Protestant countries, with England as the chief protagonist for the Reformation against the emperor and the king of Spain. Literature. — Original materials for study may be found in D. Laing's edition of Knox's Works (Edinburgh: Wodrow Soc, 1846-55) ; Calendar of State Papers, i §47-160 j (Edinburgh, 1898); Pollen, Papal Negotiations with Mary Queen of Scots (Edinburgh: Scottish Historical Soc, 1901); J. F. S. Gordon, Ecclesiastical Chronicles of Scotland, 3 vols. (Dumfries, 1875); Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. HL From the accession of James VI to the united throne of England and Scotland in 1603 onward for a century the history of the Church of Scotland is mainly the story of its struggles against Episcopacy and Independency. C. THE CALVINIST REFORMATION IN THE NETHERLANDS The interest in the Reformation in the Netherlands lies not so much in any distinctive character to be perceived in the religious spirit, in the theology, or in the ecclesiastical order 390 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION established there by Protestantism as in the effect of the Reformation in the creation of the Dutch nation and in its vast influence on the history of Europe by virtue of its pecuhar connection with the pohtics of the two opposing forces. The story of Dutch Calvinism belongs mainly to the political his- tory of those times. The principal preliminary studies are: first, the geograph- ical situation of the Low Countries — their physical features, their economic condition, and their commercial relations with other lands; secondly, the inhabitants — their racial differences (Dutch and Flemings), their ancient love of independence, their tenacity of inherited rights, local patriot- ism, vigor, industry, and determination; thirdly, political relations — -the many municipal governments, the divided relation to the house of Burgundy and the house of France, their union by marriage with the house of Austria and later with the house of Spain, their direct political relation with Emperor Charles V and the consequent determination by him that their religious beliefs must conform with his own; fourthly, their open-mindedness toward intellectual and religious currents flowing from other lands, especially from the South. Thus we may trace the work of the Waldenses, Lollards, Humanists (e.g., Erasmus of Rotterdam was the leading figure of Humanism), Lutherans, Anabaptists, and finally Calvinists. The many private religious societies in the Netherlands (such as Brethren of the Common Lot) indicate the tendency toward a free position in matters of religion. The events of outstanding importance are mainly the following: pre-Lutheran biblicism and protests against the Catholic system under the influence of men like John Pupper and John Wessel; the entrance of Luther's views and of those of the early Lutheran martyrs (noted above in the ^account of Lutheranism, p. 375); the rapid multiplication of THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION ' 391 Bibles by the printing-press and the dissemination of radical views; the growth of Anabaptism and its overthrow through the "Miinster Uproar"; the desperate and cruel attempts of Charles V to reduce dissent (see his infamous "placards"), the lists of prohibited books, and his gradual introduction of the methods of the Spanish Inquisition — thus far to the abdi- cation of the emperor and the transference of the sovereignty of the Netherlands to his son, King Philip II of Spain. Then appeared his measures for the enforcement of the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent and the acceptance of the challenge by the Calvinists, who now became the leaders of the Reformation there. The iconoclasm of the Calvinists, the formation of consistories for defense, and the organization by the Spanish government of measures of suppression intro- duced the political revolution. The events of the hundred years' war of the Dutch Revolution belong to the poHtical history of the Netherlands. With the detachment of the southern provinces to the Roman- ist side and the Union of Utrecht under the leadership of ''William the Silent" of Orange, Holland becomes a new Protestant state with a state-supported Protestant church of the Calvinist t^pe. Literature. — Of chief value for the new student are the following: A History of the Reformation in the Netherlands (in Dutch) by Brandt, a Remonstrant, published in 167 1, gives an almost contemporary view. It was translated and published in English at London in 1720-21. In this work the religious history of the people is carried from the eighth century to the Synod of Dort. Reformation in den Niederlanden, 1518- 1619, by C. P. H. de Groot, was translated into German and published at Gutersloh in 1893. It is brief. J. L. Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic, carrying the story to 1584, is fascinating modern work, super- seded, however, by P. J. Blok, History of the Netherla^ids. For the doc- trinal standards of the Dutch church consult Schaff, Creeds of Christendom. For the ecclesiastical movement see Lindsay, History of the Reformation (New York: Scribner, 1907). 392 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION D. THE CALVINIST REFORMATION IN OTHER LANDS, ESPECIALLY IN PRANCE, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, AND ENGLAND I. France. — The stirring but tragical story of the Hugue- nots, or French Calvinists, has attached an interest to the Reformation in France out of proportion to its actual influ- ence in world-affairs. The genius of the French people has been political rather than religious. The Reformation in France followed the genius of the people. At the outset of the study it is essential that the student place himself squarely abreast of the political situation in France* at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The following are points of significance: the powerful nationalism of the French, developed partly through the long conflict with the English; the strongly monarchical authority in government, with a tendency to imperialism and despotism in church as well as state; " Gallicanism " as against the power of the papacy in the church of France; the personal policy of King Francis I, leading him to encourage the men of the Renaissance, to protect reformers like Lefevre and Berquin as against the Parlement of Paris, and to support the German Protestants against his rival, Emperor Charles V; his con- cordat with the Pope in 15 16, and his determination that Protestantism should not go so far as to threaten his despotic power. Literature.— Woxk?> on the political history of France should be consulted. George B. Adams, The Growth of the French Nation (New York: Macmillan, 1897), is an excellent one -volume survey. See also Duruy, Histoire de France (Paris: Hachette, 1866; English translation by Carey, History of France [New York: Crowell, 1889]); G. W. Kitchin, History of France, 3 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1873), especially Vol. II. M. Guizot, History of France, 8 vols., is well known. The religious influences working positively toward a reformation may be discovered through a study of the char- acter of Francis' sister, Margaret of Angouleme, who became the mother of the noble Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 393 and mother of Henry of Navarre, who was later King Henry IV of France; the early evangelical activity of Brifonnet, bishop of Meaux, Farel, Roussel, Marot, and Calvin; and the influence of Lutheranism, especially through Melanchthon. Literature. — These influences are described in detail by Baird in his The History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France, Vols. II-V (New York: Scribner, 1895-1907). For a French estimate of Calvin see F. P. G. Guyot, Louis and Calvin (London: Macmillan, 1878). When the character of the Reformation in France becomes more clearly defined, the influence of Geneva appears upper- most. The unfavorable change in the attitude of Francis becomes evident and occasions the publication of Calvin's Institutes, introduced by his famous address to the French king (which read). The proceedings of the Sorbonne (the theological faculty of the University of Paris) and the Parle- ment of Paris, with the king's support, following the posting of the Placards against the Mass, introduce the era of regular persecutions, marked by the massacre of the Vaudois in 1545. The history of the Waldenses (French Vaudois) should come under review in this connection. Literature. — For the progress of the persecution at this time the student may consult Bulletin de la Societe de VHistoire du Protestantisme Franqais for 1858, and H. M. Bower, The Fourteen of Meaux (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1894). With the death of Francis and the accession of Henry II comes a new period in French Protestant history. On the ecclesiastical side the scattered bands of Calvinists in nearly all the provinces of France, but especially in Normandy, Brittany, and Picardy, are organized after the Presbyterian model under the leadership of the great Theodore Beza and with the Confessio Gallica (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill) as their doctrinal standard. On the political side are the division of the nobility into two parties, the Huguenot nobles under the leadership of the house of Bourbon and Admiral Coligny of Chatillon and the Catholic nobles under the 394 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION leadership of the Guises, and the treaty with Spain by which the king bound himself to co-operate with the Spaniards in the extirpation of the Protestants of the Netherlands and France. The year 1559 may be set as the great date in the story of French Calvinism. At that time the Huguenots became a religio-political party and Calvinism a political faith in France. The story of the next forty years is the story of the religious wars in France. Some of the great events may be noted here because of their significance: the entrance of the house of Navarre into French affairs, the massacre of St. Bartholemew's Eve, the War of the Three Henry's, and the Edict of Nantes. Literature. — -For a thorough account up to 1574 read H. M. Baird, The History of the Rise of the Huguenots (New York: Scribner, 1895, 1900, 1907). For the religious wars see Armstrong, The Religious Wars of France {Oxford: Blackwell, 1904); Thompson, The Wars of Religion in France (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). For the general history see The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. II. H. M. Baird, Theodore Besa (New York: Putnam, 1899), gives an account of the career of the great Huguenot ecclesiastical leader. 2. Germany. — ^The salient points are: the limitation of the toleration secured to the Lutherans by the Treaty of Augsburg; the acceptance of Calvinism by the Hohenzollerns and its spread in Prussia; its virtual establishment in the Palatinate by the Elector Frederick III, with the adoption of the Heidel- berg Catechism drawn up by Ursinus and Olevianus; the influence Calvin exercised on the views of Melanchthon (noted above) ; and the vigor imparted to German Protestant- ism, enabling it to play a courageous part, so far as the Calvinists were concerned, in the Thirty Years' War. 3. Switzerland. — The virtual absorption of Zwinglianism by Calvinism is signalized by the adoption of the Second Helvetic Confession (1566) by the Protestant cantons (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. III). 4. England (see below). — The significance of Calvinism is seen especially in the struggle between Elizabeth and Mary, THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 395 the rise of the Puritans and Nonconformists, the formulation of the Lambeth Articles, and the civil war under the Stuarts. D. RETROSPECT At this point the student may profitably make an estimate of the value of Calvinism for early Protestantism. The following points are of particular significance: its inner religious significance; its services to intelligence, morality, and civil life; its doctrinal constructiveness; its relation to the spirit of liberty and the impulse to progress. Arising later than the Lutheran Reformation, Calvinism profited by the conquests and defeats, by the truth and the error, in the earlier movement. It was freer from the taint of monasticism and regard for sacraments, it had a more whole- some view of the world and a more hopeful outlook on its future. Calvinism was less mystical in its piety than Luther- anism and succeeded in imparting to its adherents a greater degree of assurance of objective final salvation and a clearer sense of personal relation to God. It was bolder and more thorough in its assertion of the prerogatives of intelligence and more definite in its formulation of its faith in doctrines. It had a firmer moral tone, exalted the authority of con- science, and established the importance of moral discipline in the churches. Calvinism has been the mother of great moral reforms. It possessed more initiative than Lutheran- ism in the matter of ecclesiastical organization and succeeded in vindicating the right of the church over against the claims of the civil power, in which the earlier movement had failed. Hence also its tendency to democratic or republican govern- ment. The vigor and statesmanship of its great leader enabled it to set up a militant Protestantism that successfully disputed the possession of the earth with Catholicism and to develop great church-states whose influence has largely per- vaded the world. The independence of the personal judgment which the intellectualism of Calvinism nourished has made it 396 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION fruitful from its earliest times in the creation of dissent, but over against this it has exhibited a stern and hard intolerance that shrinks not from inflicting on others the sufferings that Calvinists were willing to endure, if need be, for their own faith. V. THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND The early Protestantism of England appears at first glance as almost wholly political and economic in character and its existence as due to the skilful manipulation of the proceedings of Parliament by one determined, selfish, and unscrupulous man, King Henry VIII. That at a later time English Protes- tantism became an immense moral and religious force fruitful in high achievement may be said to be the consequence mainly of the coming to England of great numbers of religious refugees from the Continent and to internal civil disturbances that favored a propagation of the Reformation faith. Though possessed of some superficial truth, this view is misleading. To understand the English Reformation one must understand the genius of the English people — their keen sense of inde- pendent nationhood, their reverence for the past (historical sense, regard for precedent), their honesty of purpose, their love of freedom and adventure, their appreciation of the worth of the practicable rather than the logical or ideal, their genuine religiousness. The church established by law in those days was such an establishment as was possible in a nation of people possessed of political genius capable of world- wide exercise and desirous that their national life and institu- tions be permeated by religion but not disintegrated by it. The student will observe how the early subserviency of the church in England began to yield to a sense of inde- pendence or opposition in the time of the Plantagenets, when Parliament and king (supported by a growing popular distrust and dislike for clergy and monks) and the powerful polemic of the great Wycliffe repeatedly defied the papal THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 397 church and passed severe legislation against it. The accession of the house of Lancaster, its friendship for the papacy, its attempted suppression of the Lollards, Wycliffe's successors, the submergence of the reforming movement in the conflict known as the Wars of the Roses, the virtual disappearance of the old nobihty in the struggle, the rise of the Tudor dynasty with despotic power, the creation of a new nobility dependent on the will of the monarchy, and the gradual renewal of the power of the House of Commons are all to be taken account of in the religious and ecclesiastical revolution. Literature. — For this important preliminary study A. D. Innes, England under the Tudor s (London: Methuen & Co., 1905) will furnish the student with a clear and just view of the general conditions. Dyson Hague, The Church of England before the Reformation (London : Hodder & Stoughton, 1897), describes from the churchman's point of view the ecclesiastical side of the preceding history. J. Gairdner, Lollardy and the Reformation, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1908), gives an elaborate but very partial view of the influence of the Lollards, which may be corrected by reading G. M. Trevelyan, England in the Age of Wycliffe (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.,- 1809); J. C. Carrick, Wycliffe and the Lollards (New York: Scribner, 1908), and the general histories. The influence of Humanism immediately before the Reformation is exhibited in Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1869). The forces and conditions operative at the inception of the new movement in England may be specified in the main as follows: religious influences, persisting through earlier times, given fresh power and developing a distinctively Eng- Hsh type through the Wycliffian reformation; the infiltration into England of the Continental dissent that had prepared the way for reform and had produced a good many martyrs; the religious estrangement from Rome through the work of translators and expositors of the Scriptures (e.g., Colet, Erasmus, and More); the immense incitement to opposition to the Roman church through Luther's doctrine of justifica- tion by faith; the Renaissance, arousing skepticism as to the 398 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION church's doctrines and claims and disclosing the ignorance and corruption in the priesthood and monks ; foreign political relations, embracing the scheme of alliances through inter- marriage among the royal houses, of which the marriage of Henry VIII with Catharine of Aragon, the alignment of England with Spain, and the Pope's dispensation granting him the right to marry his deceased brother's widow, involving the papacy in the dissatisfaction the fruitless marriage ulti- mately produced in the headstrong but superstitious king, constituted a signal instance; the long-pent-up anger of the English people with the papacy as a foreign power that nevertheless drew heavy revenues from an unwilling people; finally, the popularity of Henry with his own people and his power to awaken their enthusiasm by elevating England in the eyes of Europe at a time when pope and emperor were at loggerheads and nationalism could assert itself with success. The actual establishment of the English church occupies an important part of the story of four reigns, those of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. The facts are related with substantial agreement in the general histories of the state and the church. The student should examine carefully the following: the significance of Henry's participation in the controversy with Luther, of the divorce from Catharine and the marriage with Anne Boleyn, of the fall of Wolsey and the substitution of Cranmer as clerical councilor and Cromwell as civil councilor, and of the appeal to the House of Commons; the constitutional changes effected through the successive acts of Parliament that finally broke all connection with the papacy and made the king the head of the church in England ; the limited extent to which the reform in doctrine, order, ritual, and morals went; the effect on England's relations with Scotland. The work of Reformation under Edward is significant on account of the closer relations it brought with the Protestants of the Continent, as respects doctrine especially, and the THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 399 reactionary feeling caused by the selfish and blundering policies of the young king's advisers. This facilitated the restoration of the papal authority under Mary. Her perse- cution of Protestants and the revulsion it produced in the English mind is a matter of great moment to the student of English history, because it brings out a contrast with the common acceptance, on the Continent, of the idea that death penalties were the normal punishment for heresy. (Note that the Inquisition had never been estab- lished in England.) The humiliating character of Mary's foreign policy, the coolness of the papacy toward her govern- ment, and the unwillingness of the English people as repre- sented in their Commons to restore the property of the despoiled monasteries and the other papal revenues tended to confirm the public mind in the belief that the good of the nation lay in the Protestant direction. The accession of Elizabeth introduced the glorious period of English history. The points of importance up to 157 1 are: the personal views and policy of the queen, the restoration of the royal supremacy, the subjection of the ecclesiastical authority to the secular, the adoption of the Thirty-nine Articles as the rule of doctrine, the revision of the Book of Common Prayer prepared during Edward's reign, the estab- lishment of episcopacy as the form of the internal government of the church, the rejection of Puritanism, and the passing of the Act of Uniformity in religion. The outcome of these measures is to be traced through all the subsequent history of the English people. There are many subjects that call for special investigation, such as the economic interests that affected the course of the movement, the extent to which the English Reformation was at bottom political, the influence of Continental Protestantism on the doctrines of the English church, the translations of the Bible and their effect on the life of the religious leaders and people at the time, the degree to which the Reformation 400 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION fostered the spirit of liberty, the reason why the Protestantism of England became the most prolific in dissent among all the Protestant churches by law established. Literature. — A few of the most valuable works to be consulted are herewith mentioned. A thorough and original study of the English Reformation requires an examination of the English State papers of the period. The publications of the Parker Society have preserved the works of many of the leaders, such as Bishops Hooper, Coverdale, Latimer, Ridley, and Jewel, Archbishop Cranmer, and William Tyndale. Strype's Memorials and Annals preserve contemporary accounts from the Protes- tant point of view. So does Foxe's Book oj Martyrs. Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History (London: Macmillan, 1896), is valuable, and so is Burnet's History of the Reformation, critical ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1865). Froude's History of England (Lon- don: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1870) contains an elaborate account of the Reformation. Geikie's and Clark's histories of the Anglican Refor- mation are more summary. Gairdner, The English Church of the Six- teenth Century (London: Macmillan, 1902), is more recent. F. A. Gasquet, in The Eve of the Reformation (London: Bell, 1905) and Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, 6th ed. (London: Hodges, 1902), gives the Roman Catholic view of the movement. Most of the works referred to concern also the later period of the Reformation, to be treated below. VI. THE ANABAPTIST REFORMATION The significance of the name Anabaptist or Rebaptiser is of essential importance, for it creates the impression that the people referred to laid special stress on baptism, while the reverse is nearer the truth. The clue to the derogatory sense in which the word was commonly used and to the bitter attitude assumed toward these people is found in the Roman Catholic view of baptism and in the sympathy with that view on the part of the orthodox Protestant churches. The name Anabaptist is indicative of a thoroughly radical form of Protestantism, if it can be called Protestantism, and of an apparently anarchical tendency. Hence there is no move- ment of Reformation times that is better suited to give the THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 401 Student help at the beginning toward an insight into the character of the forces at work then. Literature. — In the earlier histories little justice was done to the Anabaptists, but recent historians have made ample, though late, amends. The interest in the movement has become deep and wide- spread, especially in Germany and among the more radical Christian thinkers of the present. For the best one-volume account the student is advised to read A History of Anti-Paedobaptism by A. H. Newman (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1907), and to consult the extensive bibliography it gives. The short chapter on Anabaptism in Lindsay, History of the Reformation, Vol. 11 (New York: Scribner, 1907), is typical of the appreciative view of many today. The following suggestions are offered as to the lines of investigation to be followed: 1. The affiliations of the Anabaptist movement. — Among these are the evangelical or dissenting parties of mediaeval times, such as the Petrobruscians, the Henricians, the Poor Men, the Waldenses, the Lollards; there are the mediaeval and later struggles for economic and social reform or revolu- tion following upon the Crusades and issuing in peasants' wars, especially in Central Europe, of which the one that broke out shortly after Luther's breach with Rome was very closely related to the rapid spread of Anabaptism that came quickly afterward; there are the afiEiliations with the spirit of intel- lectual liberty in the Renaissance which produced a left wing of Anabaptists; there are, finally, the affiliations with the great reforming movements whose course has been indicated. The student may ask himself whether it was not the con- sciousness on the part of the "Reformers" that the Ana- baptists were carrying their own principles to a natural but unwelcome conclusion that led them to denounce Anabaptism and to repress it as dangerous to the state-church systems that sought to combat Catholicism with secular support. 2. The different directions in which Anabaptism tended to develop. — Note especially the thoroughgoing individualism that was so strongly marked in them all: {a) mysticism, 402 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION growing into pantheism on the one side after the manner of the later Franciscans and the Brethren of the Free Spirit, with such prominent instances as David Joris and Heinrich Nicolaes; or (b) mysticism flaming up into "prophetism," as in the case of the Zwickau prophets that gave Luther so much trouble; or, again, (c) millenarianism under leaders like Nich- olas Storch, Melchior Hoffmann, or Bernhard Rothmann, cul- minating in the Miinster tragedy; or, again, (d) the prevailing type of the Swiss Anabaptists, with their insistence on religious liberty, free churches, spirituality even beyond biblicism, and a sane and healthy view of the state as necessary but distinct from the church, represented by such men as Balthasar Hub- maier, George Blaurock, Conrad Grebel, and John Denck; or, once more, (e) the Anabaptists of the left wing, who developed a rationalism that was but slightly permeated with the deep religious spirit that characterized the last mentioned and whose great representatives are the Italians Camillo Renato, George Biandrata, the Socini, and, perhaps, the Spaniard Servetus. 3. The principal tenets of the Anabaptists. — The follow- ing points are significant: (a) the immediacy of the indi- vidual's relations with God, carrying with it the rejection of all ecclesiastical authority and legalism in religion, all priestly mediation or sacramental efficacy; (b) the pure spirituality of the Christian religion, carrying with it the renunciation of any external form of organization, ritual, or confession of faith as essential to salvation; (c) the freedom and spontaneity of the Christian spirit, carrying with it the subordination of the ''outer word" of God to the "inner word" of religious liberty, and supremacy over enact- ments of moral law; (d) voluntarism in religion, carrying with it the rejection of the Augustinian doctrine of original sin and the associated doctrines and ecclesiastical practices and, on the other hand, emphasis on the saving quality of truly good works; (c) the necessity of reproducing primitive THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 403 Christianity in order to obtain a religion pure from the cor- ruptions that had accumulated in the intervening period — hence their depreciatory view of the history of the church and their democracy; (/) the essence of Christianity found in the life of hkeness to Jesus Christ — -hence their interest in the New Testament and comparative disregard for the Old Testa- ment and their substitution of the Gospels for the Pauline writings as the chief source of Christian truth; (g) little emphasis on ecclesiastical organization, with democracy or in places a tendency toward Presbyterian organization, and with a consistent rejection of all alliance with the civil power. In the study of the working of their views in Reformation times the student will be able to orient himself with regard to important religious and theological movements of later times. 4. The propagation and outcome of the Anabaptist Refor- mation in the times of the Protestant revolution. — Notice in this connection the spread of Anabaptism throughout West- ern Europe from Poland to Scandinavia and the British Isles; the treatment the Anabaptists received in each of the countries included in this territory, and the attitude of Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, and Anglicans, not omitting to notice the instances of broader views on the part of some rulers; their behavior under persecution and the nevertheless terrible effects of this persecution on the whole character of Protestantism, the tragedy of the uprising at Miinster, the sweeping condemnation of them on account of it, and the rescue of the remnant of and perpetuation of quiet Anabap- tism through the statesmanship of Menno Simons. 5. The relation of Anabaptism to the Baptist, Arminian, and Quaker movements of the later Protestant period. — This will bring the student into an intimate knowledge of the struggle between state-churchism and Free-churchism in England, Holland, and America. Literature. — For a knowledge of the relation of the Anabaptists to the social and economic influences of the time one would do well to read 404 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the popularly written works of E. Belfort Bax on "The Social Side of the Reformation in Germany," mainly his German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages (London: Sonnenschein, 1894); The Peasants' War in Ger- many (New York: Macmillan, 1899); and the Rise and Fall of the Ana- baptists (New York: Macmillan, 1903). R. Wolkan, in Die Lieder der Wiedertdufer (Berlin: Behr, 1903), gives an inside view of the piety of the Anabaptists. The recent work of J. Horsch entitled M etmo Simons: His Life, Labours, and Teaching (Mennonite Publishing House, Scott- dale, Pa., 1916), has valuable data for the European Mennonites. The life of Balthasar Hubmaier, the highest type of the Anabaptists, is written by H. C. Vedder (New York, 1903). See Carl Sachsse, Balthasar Hubmaier als Theolog (Berlin: Trowitzsch, 1914). The Mennonitish literature is extensive, but apart from the translation into English in 187 1 (New York: Mennonite Pub. Soc.) from the original Dutch of the complete works of Menno the works in English give but brief sketches of early Mennonitism and devote their attention mainly to the Mennonites of America. In the histories of the Baptists by Crosby, History of the English, Baptists (London, 1738); Joseph Ivimey, A History of the English Baptists (London, 181 1); and John Evans, A Brief Sketch of the Several Denominations into Which the World Is Divided (London, 1795), and in the publications of the Hanserd KnoUys Library, there is considerable original material reflecting Anabaptist influence. See also Strype, Annals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1824), and Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822). VII. THE BEGINNING OF THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE PROTESTANT SYSTEMS If the student were to seek an approximate date for the estabhshment of Protestant state-church systems in general, he would find the year 1560 suitable. Let him note the dates for the Treaty of Augsburg; for the recognized supremacy of Calvin in Geneva; for the first French national synod of the Reformed church and the Galilean Confession; for the restoration of the royal supremacy in England the Act of Uniformity, the revision of the Prayer Book, and the adoption of the Thirty-nine Articles; for the adoption of the Scotch Confession, the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and of that most popular of all the Protestant confessions, the Second Helvetic. We may say, therefore, that about THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 405 1560, with Anabaptism destroyed, Protestantism was organ- ized and fully armed to realize its hope of supremacy in Christendom. The story of the failure of this hope reads almost like a tragedy. Some pertinent, questions. — It is fitting that at this point such questions as the following should be raised: Were the state churches or church-states truly organic to the Protestant spirit ? Was the basis of membership in the Protestant churches a compromise between the new spirit and the founda- tion principles of the Roman church ? Were the demands for acceptance of the confessions in harmony with the spirit of free inquiry that awoke in the Renaissance and prepared the way for the Reformation ? Were the very methods of Protestant theology, and especially the methods of interpret- ing the Scriptures, consistent with the spirit of religious faith, or did they represent an inharmonious combination of Catholi- cism and religious individualism ? Our present study con- cerns itself with the beginning of the movements that supply an answer to these questions. The controversies between Dissenters and Churchmen in England, partly preserved in such collections as the Hansard KnoUys Library; Strype's Annals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1824), and Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822); 'iiediVs History of the Puritans (London: Tegg, 1837), or Gardiner's Cow- stitutional Documents Illustrative of the Puritan Revolution or the contro- versies that gathered about the Arminian movement and the Synod of Dort in Holland, indicate how quickly it was perceived that the Establishment in these countries failed to meet the conscience of large numbers of Protestants. Harnack, in his History of Dogma, Vol. VII, under the title "The Issue of Dogma in Protestantism," gives a valu- able estimate of the doctrinal decisions from the Ritschlian point of view. The grafting of the Protestant ecclesiastico-political systems on the Protestant estimate of the worth of the indi- vidual man and its conviction of the immediacy of his relations with God seemed to necessitate either a return toward Catholicism or a development of a radical Free-churchism 4o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION and democracy in religion, science, church, and state. These two tendencies soon appeared in great force. They indicate the two main contrary movements in the history of post- Reformation Christendom. The first of these tendencies is seen in what is known as the Counter- Reformation in the Cathohc church. It merits attention here because of its influence on Protestantism. A. THE EFFECT OF THE COUNTER -REFORMATION ON THE COURSE OF PROTESTANTISM The reason for the Counter-Reformation. — The first step in this study is to discover how there came to be a Counter- Reformation. The answer is partly indicated in the life and work of such men as Erasmus of Rotterdam, the most eminent European scholar of the times; of John Colet, the scholar and churchman who wrought so zealously for the application of the methods of the New Learning to the interpretation of the New Testament, and of Thomas More, the scholar-statesman, both of Oxford, and both zealous for reform in religion, educa- tion, and morals, but both, like Erasmus, hoping that the change would come from within the church and not by the disruption of it; of Gaspero Contarini, the moderate and broad-minded Italian cardinal, and the religious association known as the Oratory of Divine Love in Italy; of Cardinal Ximines and his co-religionists in Spain. These men are representatives of a large number of men of high character found in many parts of Europe who strongly demanded a reformation in the inner life and government of the church, but whose reverence for the idea of the unity of the church and for its embodiment in the Catholic church and whose dread of revolution and the violent uprising of democracy prevented them from joining the Reformers in making an outward breach in the Catholic church. When the breach actually came it tended, for a time at least, to accentuate their demands and to lead to an actual moral reform within the church. The move THE TROTESTANT REFORMATION 407 for a doctrinal reform met with much less response from within the church. Literature bearing on the Counter-Reformation is partly to be found in the extensive works on the Renaissance. Paul Van Dyke, Age of the Renaissance (New York: Scribner, 1897), gives a summary statement; Jacob Burckhart, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, English translation (London, Sonnenschein, 1890); Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy, volume entitled The Catholic Reaction (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1887), are more elaborate. The shorter works bearing directly on the Counter-Reformation worthy of special attention are: Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1887), in which the work of Colet, Erasmus, and More is extolled. A. Ward, The Counter-Reformation (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1889), gives a summary account of the whole movement. Lindsay, History of the Reformation, II, 501 ff. (New York: Scribner, 1907), furnishes an admi- rable sketch. Special attention may be given to the reforms attempted by Popes Hadrian VI and Paul III. The following may also be consulted: Ranke, Die romischen Papste, ihre Kirche und ihr Staat in den i6ten mid lyten Jahrhunderten (Berlin: Duncker, 1854-57; English translation, History of the Popes [LondiOn: Bell, 1866]); Dupin, Histoire de I'eglise du 16^ siecle (Paris, 1 701-13); English translation, New Ecclesiastical His- tory of the Sixteenth Century [London, 1703]); Philippson, La Contre- Rcformation religieuse du 16^ siecle (Brussels: Muquardt, Paris: Alcan, It should be noted that these Catholic reformers had more confidence in the secular government as an instrument for improvement than in the papacy. The student will trace the division in the Catholic ranks on this point, the conflict between Emperor Charles V and the papacy, the temporary ascendency of the party that sought to conciliate the Protes- tants by attempting a doctrinal compromise, the abortive effort at the conference at Regensburg (Ratisbon) in 1541-, with Contarini leading the Catholics and Melanchthon the Protes- tants, the inevitable split on the question of transubstan- tiation, the disappointment of the emperor and his belated attempt to take action on a doctrinal question in the publica- tion of the famous "Interim" without consulting the pope. 4o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The reaction after Ratisbon put the mihtant Catholicism of the Spanish type, with Cardinal Caraffa, later Pope Paul IV, as their leader, in control. Before long there appeared a mili- tant Calvinism leading the Protestants and a militant Jesu- itism leading the Catholic reactionaries. The immediate outcome is best seen in the calling of the so-called Ecumenical Council of Trent and the formation of the Society of Jesus. The effect of these Catholic movements on the succeeding his- tory of Protestantism has been so great as to entitle them to special consideration. I. The Society of Jesus and its influence in the early history of Protestantism: The inner nature of Jesuitism. — The first step toward an understanding of the Jesuit order and its doings is a sympathetic knowledge of the career and spirit- ual experiences of its founder, the Spanish knight Inigo de Recalde de Loyola, better known, through his renunciation of knightly dignity and his assumption of the name of St. Ignatius, as Ignatius Loyola. The following events are note- worthy: his early military crusading career; its termination by a crippling wound; his retirement, wholly in accordance with the Catholic monastic ideal, to meditation; his striking religious experiences, so much like Luther's and yet so differ- ent in their ultimate direction; his devotion to a vain effort to evangelize the Turks ; his studies at Paris; his organization of the new monastic order in 1534; and his success, in 1540, after earlier disappointments, in obtaining the papal recog- nition. Note the names of the other nine constituent members (nearly all of them Spaniards or Portuguese) , especially Francis Xavier, the most famous next to Loyola, and trace the story of their personal achievements. Such questions as the following are hereby suggested: the relation of Jesuitism to the mediaeval crusading spirit; its embodiment of Spanish militant Catholicism; its likeness to and contrast with earlier monastic orders; its value to THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 409 the student as an interpretation of the true character of Roman Catholicism. The next step is an analysis and interpretation of the inner nature of the Jesuit movement. For this a thorough examina- tion of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises is indispensable. Note the intensity of the psychic processes resorted to, the keen insight into the relation between physical and psychical conditions, the attempt to control the will through the imagination, the lurid character of many of the forms of the latter, the emphasis on training rather than culture, the su- preme place of the obligation of unquestioning obedience, the aim to develop ultimately a perfectly effective mechanism. Growing out of this is a view of the system of organization of the Jesuits and its relation to the existent ecclesiastical order, of the conflicts within Catholicism growing out of its pretensions and its aim to control the entire policy of the Catholic church, of its conscientious subordination of moral standards to this one end of making Catholicism, according to the Jesuit interpretation of it, absolute in the world. Note the strict limitation of the privileges of membership to the truly competent, the slow advancement through the successive degrees, the small number of Jesuits at any time, the methods of operation, many of them unscrupulous and clandestine, their absolute intolerance and pitilessness toward Protestants. A Jesuitized Catholic church would seem to be an irresistible military power. Propaganda. — A further step is the tracing of the course of the Jesuit propaganda. The disintegration of Protestant- ism at the hands of Jesuitism is remarkable. Note how the basic principle of the Peace of Augsburg, Cujus regio, ejus religio, exposed the Lutheran state churches in particular to their attack. Hence the attempts to convert princes, the special interest in the growing boy-princes, the attempt to control the schools, the institution of Jesuit colleges 4IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION in many lands, and the mastery of colleges already in exist- ence. Finally, note the successive revolutions, the religious wars, and their outcome. The student will note the Jesuit influence in the colleges and universities at Ingoldstadt, Cologne, Vienna, Prague, Douay, Rome, Lyons, Briinn. He will trace their success in Hungary, Poland, Moravia, Siebenburgen, Upper Austria, Southern Germany, Belgium, where Protestants had had a powerful hold, and in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France, where there had been hope of a reformation, and particularly in the terrible struggle in Holland. He will observe how Protestantism had to fight for •its very existence, even where it had been strongly established. The story of the desolating Thirty Years' War reflects the culmination of the early work of the Jesuits. It will be well to notice in this connection the contrast between the Lutheran countries and the countries under the influence of Calvinism with its more vigorous moral fiber. It would seem that but for the latter Protestantism might have been extingu'shed. The Peace of Westphalia, syn- chronous with the beheading of Charles I of England, marks the failure of the Protestant ecclesiastico-political settlement as well as of the Jesuit policy to dominate Europe. Literature on this subject is extremely extensive. Much of it is con- troversial, and not a little of uncertain value, because of the secrecy of the Jesuit order and its habit of denying the authenticity of what is afi&rmed concerning its inner character and methods. Collections of materials for a general study of the Counter-Reformation are of value in the study of Jesuitism as sources, such as those made by Laemmer, Monumenta Vaticana historiam ecclesiasticam saec. xvi illustrantia (Freiburg: Herder, 1861); and Weiss, Papiers d'etat du cardinal de Granville, etc. (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1841-52). The Exercitia Spiritualia composed by Loyola, partly based on Thomas a Kempis' Imitatio Christi, are indispensable. They may be found in an English translation by Charles Seager (London : Dolman, 1849) . Regulae Soc. Jesu (London, 1604) and Secreta Monita Soc. Jesu (Latin and English, Balti- more, 1835) may be used, with hesitancy, owing to questions of genuine- ness. DoUinger und Reusch, Geschichte der Moralstreitigkciten, etc. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 411 (Miinchen: Beck, 1889); Beusch, Der Index der verbotenen Biicher (Bonn: Cohen, 1883); Cardinal Bellarmine, Opera Omnia (1620), give full material for an acquaintance with the controversies of early Jesuit- ism. A compendium of the last mentioned, by J. de La Serviere, under the title La Theologie de Bellarmine (Paris, 1909), is invaluable for the average student who knows French. Histories of Jesuitism by Chem- nitz, Theologiae Jesuitarum brevis ac nervosa descriptio et delineatio, 2d ed. (Frankfurt and Wittenberg, 1690), London, 1848; and by Taunton, History of the Jesuits in England (London: Methuen, 1901); examinations of their educational methods by Cartwright, The Jesuits, Their Constitution and Teaching (London: Murray, 1876), and by Thomas Hughes, Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits (New York: Scribner, 1899), ^rid the terrible arraignment of their principles by Pascal in his Provincial Letters, should be read. 2. The Council of Trent: the effect of its canons and decrees. — ^The calling of the so-called Ecumenical Council of Trent was the natural sequel to the failure at Ratisbon and marked the reaction toward a stern and intolerant antagonism against Protestantism. There are three outstanding facts to be noted at the outset: first, the place of assembly, a city in Austrian territory, a Catholic city, but under imperial author- ity, indicating the continuance of the strife between emperor and pope, with the failure of the repeated attempts of the pope to change the place of meeting; secondly, the time, lasting from 1548 to 1563, the most critical time in the history of early Protestantism, with both Protestants and Catholics laying down fixed policies; thirdly, the dominance, as above described, of the reactionary party in the sessions of the Council, and the disappearance presently of the Protestants from the Council. This issued in making the aim of the Council to be the vindication of mediaevalism and the con- demnation of Protestantism. The student will observe that the question of the primacy of the two principal demands to be met, namely, whether the interest of the church as an institution, or the moral and reli- gious longings of the time, should receive first attention, and the decision in favor of the former, were fateful. He will be 412 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION able to estimate the value of the doctrinal canons and decrees in that light, the aim being to condemn the enemy rather than to enlighten the world. The polemical purpose is clear. Note, next, the immediate achievements of the Council: First, it gained the credit of stating the Catholic doctrine fully and of vindicating its claim to be the sole Christian expression of faith. To understand these canons and decrees the student must master the political and intellectual situation. Secondly, it gained credit for moral reform by pronouncements against some evils then current in the church. The Catholic church appeared as the custodian of morals. Thirdly, the Council distinctly shaped the policy of the church in the direction of Curialism and Vaticanism. Note the following facts: the presence of Jesuit theologians in the Council as the special representatives of the papacy ; the decision that the initiative in all reforms lies with the pope and cardinals and not with secular authorities; the leaving of final interpretation of the canons and decrees with the pope. The revival of Roman Catholicism that followed the action of the Council may be traced in the attempts of Charles V to enforce rigorously the earlier decisions of the Council in the Netherlands and in the still more ruthless work of his son Philip II in the Netherlands and Spain; in the fearful wars of religion in the Low Countries, in France, and on the seas between England and Spain, with their tremendous results religiously and poHtically ; in the reconquest (referred to in the study of Jesuitism) of vast regions from Protestantism, in the continuation of the mediaeval mind in Roman Catholicism, and in the culmination of Catholic ecclesiasticism in the papal decree of infallibility in 1870. The effect on the inner life and thought of Protestant- ism is not to be overlooked in this connection — the accen- tuation of the controversial spirit, the hardening of Protestant faith into fixed dogma, and the fresh impetus given by reaction to the radical tendencies already operative in the Protestant THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 413 communities (to be treated in what follows). The organiza- tion and papal recognition of the Jesuit order and the meeting of the Council of Trent may be regarded as the two acts that went to create an unbridgeable chasm between Romanism and Protestantism and permanently divided Western Christendom into two warring camps by bringing into clear consciousness the irreconcilable antagonism in fundamental principle. Literature. — There is an enormous amount of material for a study of the Council of Trent. For an extended study the following sources should be consulted: Mansi, Colledio amplissima Conciliorum, Vol. XXXIII (Paris: Welter), Vol. X (Paris: Harduin, 1715). On the Council of Trent consult Le Plat, Amplissima Colledio, etc.. Vols. I- VII (Paris, 1781-87); Sarpi, Istoria del concilio Tridentino; English translation from Italian, History of the Council of Trent (London, 1676); also Historia dell' Inquisizione, translated into English by Gentilis, The History of the Inquisition (London, 1639). On creeds and confessions see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. II (New York: Harper, 1877); W. H. Curtis, A History of Creeds and Confessions of Faith in Christen- dom and Beyond (Edinburgh: Clark, 191 1); Winer, Comparative Dar- stellung der Lehrbegriffe der verschiedenen christlichen Kirchenparteien (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1882; English translation, ^ View of Dodrines and Confessions of Christendom [London: Simpkin, 1887]); Waterworth, Canons and Decrees of the Sacred Ecumenical Council of Trent (London : Dolman, 1848); also accounts by Dollinger, Beitrdge zur politischen, kirchlichen und Kulturgeschichte der sechs letzten Jahrhunderte, Vol. VIII (Regensburg: Mainz, 1862-82); Du Bose, The Ecumenical Councils (New York: Christian Literature Co., 1896); Harnack, History of Doc- trine, Vol. VII; Froude, Lectures on the Council of Trent (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1898); and Littledale, A Short History of the Council of Trent (New York: Gorham, 1888). A succinct summary of the reforms of the Council is given by Newman, Manual of Church History, II, 360 ff. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1903). For an adequate view of the papal Inquisition the student should become familiar with the great work of Henry C. Lea on the Inquisition of the Middle Ages (New York: Macmillan, 1906), which has been followed by his History of the Inquisition in Spain (New York: Macmillan, 1907). See also histories of the Inquisition by Rule, History of the Inquisition, (London: Hamilton, 1874); Lavalee, Histoire des Inquisitions, etc. (Paris, 1809) ; Shafer, Beitrdge zur Geschichte des spanischen Protestantis- mus, etc. (Giitersloh: Bertelsmann, 1906). For the history of the 414 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Roman church's Indexes read Putnam, The Censorship of the Church of Rome and Its Influence upon the Production and Distribution of Literature (New York: Putnam, 1906). Among the various collections of Indexes that have appeared that of Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Biicher (Bonn: Cohen, 1885), is considered of extreme value. The story of the religious wars that issued from these ecclesiastical conflicts pertains largely to political and economic history, but merits the close attention of the student of church history. In this connection the following are important: Motley, The Rise of the Dutch Republic (New York: Harper, 1867); 'Qdaxdi, History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France (New York: Scribner, 1879), and The Huguenots and Henry of Na- varre (New York: Scribner, 1886); Thompson, The Wars of Religion in France (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909) ; and Gardiner, The Thirty Years' War (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1875). B. UNDERMINING OF PROTESTANT ORTHODOXY BY INTELLECTUALISM The Reformation released intellectual forces that had been held in leash more or less successfully by Catholicism but were increasing in power and contributed, as we have seen, to the Protestant movement. It was to be expected that the free spirits that shared in the joy of the New Learn- ing should resent the restraint upon free thought which issued from the establishment of state churches. The struggle for a larger freedom may be regarded as twofold, according as the interests of intellectual liberty or the "interests of religious liberty were mainly cherished. Though the two phases are closely allied, it will be profitable for the student to examine them, as far as possible, separately. The first of these stands in relation with the speculations of John Duns Scotus, with the Renaissance and its love for unlimited inquiry, and with the prevailing individualism of the early stages of the Reformation itself. It will be profitable to distinguish three different lines along which opposition of an intellectual character arose from within Protestantism against the established forms of belief: first, the direct attack of rationalistic criticism; secondly, the reaction against the doctrinal controversies among Protestant theologians; THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 415 thirdly, the discrediting of orthodoxy through the progress of scientific knowledge. Each of these is worthy of prolonged study. I. The direct attack of rationalistic criticism. — The student will note the countries in which it was most active — especially Italy, Poland, and, in a lesser degree, France and Spain — and judge how far they had participated in the deeper religious spirit of the Reformation. He will note also the connection of some of the leaders with Calvinism and judge how. far this rationalism was a natural outcome of Calvinism. He will examine particularly the economic, political, and spiritual situation in Poland, the movement of Italian reform- ers to Poland, and the connection between Polish Anti- paedobaptists and the Antipaedobaptists of Holland and England. The following names attract special attention: Camillo Renato, Tiziano, and Pietro Manelfi in Italy. The disclosures to the Papal Inquisition by the last, supply the basis of our knowledge of the Italian churches of this type. A summary is given by Newman, History of Antipaedohaptism, pp. 327 f. This takes us only to the middle of the sixteenth century. Among the Italians who migrated to Poland, Peter Gonesius, George Biandrata, Laelius Socinus, and Faustus Socinus are the most important. The most valuable statement of the views that were held by the churches of Poland that followed the teachings of the Socini is found in the Racovian Catechism. This work exhibits the views of the Unitarian churches which the younger Socinus united in one body. It sets forth their methods of doctrinal formulation, and their views in detail, with great ability. It deserves minute study as the principal rationalistic polemic of the earlier days against Protestant orthodoxy. The influence of this polemic is to be traced all through later Protestantism. An indication of its early impression is found in the reply which the great Dutch jurist, 41 6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Hugo Grotius, made to the Socinian objections to the ortho- dox doctrine of atonement. It is very significant that in order to confute them he had to meet them halfway and to reject the substitutionary view on the very ground urged by them — that it was neither according to reason nor taught in the Scriptures. This carries us to the attempt to rationaHze Calvinism in Holland, known as Arminianism, from the name of its chief representative, James Arminius, the Calvinist theologian of Leyden. The study of Arminianism pertains more particu- larly to the next-following topic. Literature. — For the theological views of the Socinians the Racovian Catechism (originally written in 1590 and first published in 1609, with a historical introduction by Rees [London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1818]), is the most valuable work. The Bibliotheca Fralrum Polonorum (Amsterdam, 1656) preserves other documents. Foch, Der Socinianismus (Kiel: Schroder, 1847), is a standard history. The polemical literature is plentiful and extends into the nineteenth century. The work of Grotius is available in an English translation by F. H. Foster (Andover, 1889), Defence of the Catholic Faith concerning the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ against Faustus Socinus. J. Owen's works. Sceptics of the Italian Renaissance and Sceptics of the French Renaissance (London: Sonnenscheui, 1893), may be read as introductory to a study of the whole rationalist movement. The interest in Servetus is indicated in the following: Punjer, De Michaeli Serveti Doctrina (Jena: Dufft, 1876); E. ToUin, Das Lehrsystem Michael Servets (Giitersloh: Bertels- mann, 1876); Willis, Servetus and Calvin (London: King, 1877). 2. Skeptical reaction caused by doctrinal controversies among the orthodox. — The doctrinal precipitations which appear in the confessions of the Protestant state churches were attempts to consolidate Protestantism before its religious spirit had thoroughly permeated the minds of the leaders. An outcome of this is to be seen in the rise of a Protestant scholasticism that viewed doctrinal statements as declaring saving truth in itself apart from the religious faith that grounds the truth. The efforts to systematize these doctrines provoked opposition and exasperating controversies. Space THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 417 forbids reference to these in detail. For convenience the principal disputes may be arranged under the following heads : (a) controversies among Lutherans; {b) controversies between Lutherans and Calvinists; (c) controversies of Calvinism in the Netherlands; (d) controversies of Calvinism in England. Literature. — The standard works on church history give a general account, the best being that of Newman, Manual of Church History, II, 307-35, 4th ed. (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1903). Pertinent articles in religious encyclopedias may be consulted. Among the histories of doctrine see Fisher, History of Christian Doctrine, Part HI, chaps, vii and viii (New York: Scribner, 1896), but more particularly Dorner, Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie, pp. 330-420 (Miinchen: Oldenburg, 1867). a) Controversies among Lutherans. — The following pro- visional classification may serve as a guide: First, contro- versies concerning faith, (i) in relation to law and good works, (ii) in relation to justification, sanctiiication, and the mystical participation in the divine nature of Christ. The following disputants merit especial attention: Philip Melanchthon, John Agricola, Georg Major, Nicholas Armsdorf, Andrias Osiander, Francis Stancarus, Martin Chemnitz, and Flacius. Secondly, controversies respecting the person of Christ, or, more especially, respecting the Lutheran idea of the commu- nication of idioms, or the mutual real participation of the hu- man and divine nature in Christ. Here again the name of Chemnitz figures, and also the names of James Andreas and Brenz, Balthazar Munzer, et al. The Formula of Concord, 1576 and 1584, which attempted to mediate and settle the disputes by prescribing articles on original sin, free will, the righteousness of faith before God, good works, law and gospel, the Lord's Supper, the person of Christ, etc., should be care- fully studied. See Schaff , Creeds of Christendom, III, 93 &. b) Controversies between Lutherans and Calvinists. — These include, besides the earlier disputes between Lutherans and reformed theologians referred to in the first division of our 41 8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION study, the later controversies which- arose from the influence of Calvinism on certain Lutheran theologians. They stand closely related to the controversies among Lutherans noted above. The most notable of these is known as the Crypto- Calvinist controversy, which concerns the question of the real or spiritual presence of Christ in the elements of the Supper. Of special importance here is the growing Cal- vinistic tendency of Melanchthon. The question of pre- destination also figured in the controversies. For a temporary doctrinal outcome read the Saxon Visitation Articles, 1592, in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, III, 181 ff. The disputes in the nature of the case were interminable. c) Controversies among Calvinists in the Netherlands. — These are of special importance because, first, in the ultimate adjudication of them the entire Reformed church was invited to participate; secondly, because the Arminian theology out of which they partly sprang has continued in powerful influence to the present. The Arminian controversy, like most theological con- troversies of the time, must be studied in relation to the political situation in the countries where the Reformed church was estabhshed, and particularly in Holland. Note, first, the traditional love and enjoyment of freedom among the Dutch; secondly, the influence of the Renaissance (Erasmus) there; thirdly, the vindication of Protestant liberty in the long war with Austria and Spain; fourthly, the presence of religious dissenters there; fifthly, the determination of Maurice of Nassau to turn the Dutch Republic into a monarchy, and the powerful opposition led by John of Barneveld. The strict Calvinists came into line with the monarchists, and the Arminians with the republicans. Each of these features of the situation demands close attention. Literature. — For an intimate knowledge of the situation in the Netherlands, especially on the poHtical side, the great works of Motley- should be studied: The Rise of the Dutch Republic {a.s above); History of THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 419 the United Netherlands (New York: Harper, 1879); Life and Death of John of Barneveld (New York: Harper, 1870). The names and works of the leading theologians and of the great parties to the controversy should be familiar: for the Arminians, James Arminius, Hugo Grotius, Episcopius, Limborch; for the extreme Calvinists, Theodore Beza, John Piscator (who later became Arminian), and Gomarus. The "Remonstrants" and " Contra-Remonstrants " and the "five points" of Calvinism about which the controversy gathered reveal the two parties. Note the calling of the Synod of Dort (Dordrecht) , the divi- sion of the Calvinists that comprised it into Supra-Lapsarians and Infra-Lapsarians, the canons adopted at the synod, and the persecution of the Arminians. Note finally the survival of Arminianism and its powerful influence in England during the time of the early Stuart kings. Literature. — The proceedings of the synod have been preserved in Latin. Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill, gives the canons in full. The works of the Remonstrant theologians are accessible in Latin edi- tions, but those of Arminius are given in English translation by Nichols (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1825). Grotius' Defence of the Catholic Faith has been translated by Foster (Andover, 1889). For a brief history of Arminianism read G. L. Curtiss, Arminianism in History (Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern, d) Calvinist controversies in England. — The principal interest these have for us lies in their relation to the formation of separated bodies in England (for which see below). At this point we are concerned with the theological struggle between hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism (used, in a wide sense, of the moderate Protestant soteriology) . Its beginnings can be seen, perhaps, in the less severe Protestantism of the Thirty-nine Articles as compared with that of the Forty-two Articles. The actual controversy with historical Arminianism is to be seen in the Lambeth Articles composed by Whitaker. They may be read in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. III. 420 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The later controversies with Arminianism can be traced in the politico-ecclesiastical struggle between the Puritan Parliament of England and the first two Stuart kings. The Commons believed that the growing Arminianism was at the bottom a subtle reaction toward a revived Catholicism. Literature. — See Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889). Note, e.g., "The Resolu- tions on Religion," pp. 77 ff. ("the subtle and pernicious spreading of the Arminian faction," p. 79), "The Grand Remonstrance," pp. 202 fi., especially p. 207. The Westminster Confession of faith (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill) should be examined in this connection. In addition to the standard church histories the following are valu- able: Masson, Life of John Milton (London: Macmillan, 1875-80); W. H. Frere, The English Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I (London: Macmillan, 1904) ; W. H. Hutton, The English Church from the A ccession of Charles I to the Death of A nne (London : Macmillan, 1 903) . 3. The discrediting of orthodoxy through the progress of scientific knowledge. — Protestantism owes its origin in part to the growth of the spirit of free discovery and enterprise. Yet it is plain to a student of the Protestant creeds that the claims there made to a knowledge of the higher realities, and the view of the world running through the creeds, disclose an inner opposition to the principles and methods as well as to the results already recognized by science. An open conflict was inevitable. The story of the conflict pertains to the history of science rather than to the history of the church, since it is generally at bottom a conflict between a newer and an antiquated science. The outstanding fact is the movement of science toward the postulating of the government of the universe by immanent "natural" law rather than by external control or arbitrary interference with the common order of fixed validity. The result was the creation of a distrust of those affirmations of the creeds which embodied unscientific views, and therewith the rise of a spirit of skepticism toward all claims of pos- session of any supernatural revelation whatsoever. Such a THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 421 position undermined the church establishments that made these doctrines their basis of truth. Literature. — The whole subject has been treated at great length by A. D. White in A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christefidom (New York: Appleton, 1896). A smaller work, in the "International Science Series," by J. W. Draper, History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (New York: Appleton, 1875), unhappily identifies religion and theology. The student may become acquainted with the growing consciousness of a purely scientific method by a knowl- edge of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum. The study of the skeptical reaction that followed in the wake of the Reformation carries us rather beyond the limits of our period. It embraces the rise of modern philosophy in its efforts to lay a new foundation for certainty by proceeding through doubt to empirical investigation and rational specula- tion, and more particularly the history of empiricism and deism in England, of the enlightenment in Germany, and of infidelity in France. Literature. — Lecky, History of Rationalism in Europe (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1867), and Hurst, History of Rationalism (Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern, 1901), are good. One should consult the standard histories of philosophy, especially the portions of Windelband and Hoffding dealing with this subject. The old work of Leland, On the Deistical Writers (London, 1754-56), and Oman, The Problem of Faith and Freedom (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906), are valuable, but a first-hand acquaintance with the writers of the period is indispensable to an appreciation of the movement. C. THREATENED DISSOLUTION OF THE PROTESTANT STATE CHURCHES THROUGH THE RISE OF THE FREE CHURCHES The struggle precipitated by the rise of the Free churches is to be contrasted in its inner character with the two forms of opposition to the Protestant establishments above discussed, in that, while the first (A) appeared to be mainly between rival forms of ecclesiasticism and concerned directly the lawyers and statesmen of the churches, and the second (B) appeared mainly as a protest from within Protestantism against the unnatural 422 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION bonds placed by the Reformation church creeds upon the action of human intelligence and concerned principally the intellectuals among the people, that now to be discussed related to a specifically religious interest and had its roots in the free spontaneous faith of the common people and, con- sequently, was more radical and" comprehensive in its scope. The limitation of our study to the period of the Reformation confines our attention to the beginnings of the movement, which is still progressing. The first step in this study is to review the record of the origin and progress of those voluntaristic, individualistic, democratic religious groups or orders or communions that underlay much of the Reformation and persisted through its course, despite severe measures of repression taken by both Catholics and Protestants (see division I of this outline) . The tendency native to Protestantism, to create free churches, is to be noted; e.g., its insistence on using the Bible in the vernacular, its profession of the right of private judgment in religious matters, its nurture of a warm personal faith, its elevation of the laity to equality with the clergy in religious and ecclesiastical affairs. Note further how the spirit of individual enterprise in the maritime Protestant countries co-operated in the same direction and prepared asylums for the spirit of religious liberty. Interest centers mainly in the English and Dutch people. Observe how the struggle with Spain had strengthened their mutual sympathy and developed intimate commercial, social, and political intercourse. It will be noticed how the religious radical when persecuted in one of these countries fled to the other or even to colonies across the sea — e.g., the Pilgrim Fathers of New England. Literature. — A very extensive literature has accumulated. The state papers of the countries concerned exhibit the steps taken by their governments and indicate to some extent the character of the dissenting movements. Foxe's Acts and Monuments (London, 1570-), Strype's An- THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 423 nals of the Reformation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1824) and Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1822), works of the Reformers collected and edited by the Parker Society, and of the early Baptists collected and edited by the Hanserd KnoUys Society, are fundamental to a first-hand knowledge. To these may be added, among earlier works, Thomas Fuller, The Church Hisiory oj Great Britain from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the Year 1648 (London: Hopton, 1662) ; Jeremy Collier, An Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, etc., recent edition (London: 1852); Crosby, History of the English Baptists (London, 1738); John Evans, A Brief Sketch of the Several Denominations into Which the World Is Divided (London, 1795); Joseph Ivimey, A History of the English Baptists (London, 181 1); Neal's great History of the Puritans (London: Tegg, 1837). Recent works are numerous, but among them Dexter, Congregationalism as Seen in Its Literature (New York: Harper, 1880); Walker, Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism (New York: Scribner, 1893); and McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Phila- delphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 191 1), are of much value. Newman, History of Antipaedobaptism (Philadelphia: American Bap- tist Pub. Soc, 1897), particularly the last three chapters, traces the rise of the Baptists in England. I . Growth of the Free-church ideal m England. — The most noteworthy growth of Free-churchism is in England, and its relation to the Protestant establishments is seen to best advan- tage there. Beginning with the authorization of the Book of Common Prayer as the only legal compendium of pubHc worship, the drafting of the Thirty-nine Articles, and, for the suppression of opposition, the Act of Uniformity, the student will trace four stages in the progress of dissent, accord- ing to the degree of its radicalism. The first includes those who were willing to accept episcopacy as the form of church government but sought to purify the doctrine and ritual of the Church of England and bring it into harmony with the Reformed churches — the Puritans. Here we see the influence of Geneva and Scotland. The names of the archbishops of Canterbury from Parker to Bancroft figure in these con- troversies. The Apology of Bishop Jewel and The Ecclesi- astical Polity of Richard Hooker set forth the views of the moderate Episcopalians. The works of Thomas Cartwright, 424 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the Lambeth Articles (see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. Ill), and the Millenary Petition presented to James I present the Puritan view. The controversy came to a head through the ecclesiastical administration of Laud and culminated in the great civil war. For this the standard political histories are available. The student will note the rise of a persistent division within the established church — the High Church and the Broad Church parties. Recon- ciliation has proved impossible. 2. Presbyterianism. — The second stage of dissent is held by those who sought to bring the Church of England into full conformity with the Reformed conception in both doctrine and order — the Presbyterians. The work of Walter Travis, in Latin, on church discipline opened the Presybterian con- tention. The bitter attacks on the bishops made by the author of the Martin Mar prelate tracts (perhaps Henry Barrowe) are the most noteworthy features of the early steps taken by Presbyterians. The names of the three martyrs, John Greenwood, Henry Barrowe, and John Penry, are notable in this connection, as are also those of Francis John- son and Henry Ainsworth, exiles in Holland. The full impact of the Presbyterian polemic is seen in the attempt to bring the whole of England under Presbyterianism through the alliance of the English Parliament with the Scots. The Longer and Shorter Catechisms and the Westminster Con- fession are monuments of the struggle, which was brought to an abrupt close by Cromwell and the army. Literature. — Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889), gives material illustrative of the true character of the struggle in the civil war. 3. The Independents. — In the third stage we find tnose who, in addition to practicing the "godly discipline" and plain worship of the Presbyterians, claimed the right of all churches of the regenerate to independent, democratic self- government as laid down in the New Testament — ^the Inde- THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 425 pendents, later called Congregationalists. These, however, still held to the propriety of enforcing the doctrines and practices of the Christian faith upon all inhabitants of the country. The first noteworthy advocate of these views was Robert Browne — -hence the early name, "Brownists." Literature. — The most exhaustive study of Browne has been made by Champlin Burrage in The True Story of Robert Browne: The Church Covenant Idea (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1904); The Early English Dissenters in the Light of Recent Research (Cambridge: University Press, 1912); The Retractation (Oxford: Hart, 1907); and other studies. The founding of a Separatist church at Norwich, the flight to Middleburg in Zeeland, the change in Johnson and Ains- worth's congregation at Amsterdam, the coming of John Smith and his congregation from Gainsborough, the migration of the congregation at Scrooby with the well-known Brewster, Bradford, and Robinson, of Pilgrim fame, as leaders, and the emigration to Plymouth, Massachusetts, are recounted in numerous works noted in all the histories of Congregationalism and of the founding of the New England colonies. The strenuous part played by the Independents in the civil war under Cromwell's leadership is recognized in the histories of that fight. Literature. — The following works may be specially noted: Dale, History of Congregationalism, especially Bks. I and II (London: Hod- der & Stoughton, 1907); Dexter, Story of the Pilgrims (Boston: Con- gregational Publication Soc, 1894); Fletcher, History of Independency (London: Snow, 1847-49). 4. The Baptists. — We reach a fourth stage of opposition to the state church when we find many Independents becom- ing Baptists, as they preferred to be called, rather than Anabaptists. The story of John Smith, called by Dexter the Se-Baptist, his relations with the Mennonites, the separation from him, when he sought baptismal succession, by many 426 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION who followed Thomas Helwys and John Murton back to England in 1611, and the growth of the General Baptists there, is related by the Baptist histories above named. The student will note the rise of another Baptist body, Particular Baptists, so called from the view of atonement held by them, springing from a church under the leadership of Henry Jacob. It is important to study the Tracts on Liberty of Con- science collected by the Hanserd Knollys Society, especially Leonard Busher's Religion's Peace and Roger Williams' Bloody Tenent of Persecution. At this point we reach the limit of our study. The student should not leave the subject without raising the question: Which of these four movements offers the best interpretation of the inner spirit of Protestantism ? C. SUMMARY ESTLMATE OF THE PR(5tESTANT REFORMATION The Protestant Reformation appears, as one surveys it from the distance of four centuries, to have been one of those great convulsions of human society which occur when multi- tudes of people inhabiting vast contiguous territories come under the influence of a common impulse to seek the ful- filment of the meaning of life in new directions. Such an impulse is sure to appear as mainly iconoclastic in the early stages of its action, because existing customs, institutions, and theories stand as barriers to its free execution. In later stages of its progress its creative power is disclosed in the appearing of new customs, institutions, and doctrines which displace those that have now become antiquated to some minds; but alongside of them the old may survive and even regain new vigor by contact with the new. Thus it was with the Reformation. In respect both to the destructive and to the constructive force that was released it was less effective in the sixteenth century than its most enthusiastic representatives expected, for after the first shock of surprise the .conservative influence asserted itself THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 427 with much success and forced the postponement of the radical outworking of the Protestant principle to later times. The preceding study has shown that the factors at work were many and diverse in their empirical origin. The ques- tioij arises: How is it that the Reformation has been tra- ditionally regarded as a religious movement ? The answer must be: Because it really was such — ^not, of course, in the narrow sense of a distinctively supernatural impulse separate from the motives that direct men in common affairs, but in the sense that a man's religion is constituted by the unification of all his many-sided activities in a single aim, the worship of the unseen ideal. The true genius of the Reformation found its best expression in the religious leaders because they most truly divined its secret heart. Religiously viewed, then, the Reformation was an attempt to consecrate the supreme worth of personality. It was an effort of the human spirit in the individual to affirm the supremacy of the personal in the spiritual and material realms. In the former realm it took the form of a conflict between the aggressive spirit of the self-conscious man and the structures of thought and will by which a precedent social order sought to maintain its ancient possessions in their entirety and there- by to hold the man in leash. In the material realm it was an affirmation of the essential friendship between man and "nature" and the right and capacity of the human spirit to make " nature " instrumental to the achievement of the destiny of personality. In this regard it may be described as an attempt to take possession of the material world as a means of fulfilling the life of fellowship with God. Its God was distinctly personal and in no need of intermediaries in his approach to men. He wrought in them immediately. The immense enterprises that awakened in Protestantism were the fruit of the unconquerable courage that the new religious spirit created. VIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY By ERRETT gates Instructor in History and Assistant Professor of Church History in the Disciples' Divinity House, University of Chicago ANALYSIS Introduction: The Nature and Meaning of Modern Christianity. — Definition. — Religion and culture indissolubly related. — Distinctive elements of modern Christianity. — i. The element of liberty. — 2. The element of scientific veracity. — 3. The element of rationality. — 4. The element of humanity. — 5. The element of spirituality — 6. The element of secularity. — 7. The element of social responsibility. — 8. The element of democracy. — 9. The element of catholicity. — 10. The relation of modern Christianity to Protestantism and to Catholicism 431-440 I. The Politico-Ecclesiastical Movement. — Liberty of conscience in rehgion. — The ancient conception of religion as an affair of the state. — Christianity a religion of individual conviction. — The develop- ment of the idea of religious liberty. — The influence of the Protestant Reformation. — The movement of religious dissent. — The guaranty of religious liberty by the state. — Development of religious liberty in Protestantism 441-446 II. The Scientific Movement. — Scientific method welcomed by modern Christianity. — The development of modem science. — The conflict between religion and science.^ — Attempt at harmoniza- tion.— The present relationship between Science and religion. — Some unsolved problems 446-45 2 III. The Philosophical Movement. — The problems of modern philosophy. — The problem of knowledge. — The rationaUstic move- ment.^— Influence of rationalism on religious thinking. — The philo- sophical criticism of rationalism. — Kant. — Schleiermacher. — Ritschl 452-458 IV. The Historical Movement. — The genetic treatment of his- tory.— Development of historical method. — The principle of historical correlation. — The principle of historical development. — The prin- ciple of historical uniformity. — The historical study of the Bible. — History of biblical criticism. — The critical study of church history 458-466 V. The Social Movement. — The sense of social responsibility. — Elements of the social consciousness. — Sources of the social move- ment.— The socializing of modern Christianity. — The development of Christianity from a dogmatic to an ethical interest. — The practical testing of Christianity.^ — The transition from an ethical to a social interest. — The literary prophets of the social ideal .... 466-475 VI. The Missionary Movement. — The influence of missionary ideals on modern Christianity. — The modification of missionary activities due to modern thought. — Factors in the broader view of missions. — Some problems which missionaries must face. — The study of comparative religions and missionary ideals. — A new apologetic for Christianity. — The need of social salvation. — The movement toward Christian union 475-482 VIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY INTRODUCTION THE NATURE AND MEANING OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY Definition. — The term "modern Christianity" is used in this treatment in a special sense, and refers to the principles, tendencies, or movements which have sometimes been called "progressive Christianity," "the new theology," or "modern- ism." It has not taken institutional form in any organized denomination nor received authoritative expression in any system of doctrine. It is rather a religious attitude, a mode of thought, or a principle of action manifesting itself in all denominations and Christian movements. Briefly defined, modern Christianity is the Christianity which has steadily progressed with the progress of modern civilization, both influencing it and being influenced by it. The history of Western Europe since the introduction of Christianity shows a continuous balance between the church and society, religion and civilization. Neither at any time shows any great difference from the other. Sometimes one, sometimes the other, may be leading, but they are never com- pletely separated from each other in character. Religion and culture indissolubly related. — It is impossible for religion or the church to move on apart from the rest of society. The religion of an age is a part of the civilization of an age. The individuals who make up the state and formulate the politics of an age, or compose society and create its social consciousness, make up the church and formulate its religious thought. The same individuals are at the same time citizens, merchants, scholars, soldiers, and worshipers, and what they are in one sphere they tend to be in all other 431 432 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION spheres. Society is a solidarity, and religion is an integral part of it. This will be found to be notably true of modem Chris- tianity. It is a reflex in religious thought and action of the modern social consciousness. It has grown out of a deliberate acceptance of the results of modern progress and out of a conscious effort to incorporate all of the assured values of modern civilization into religion. DISTINCTIVE ELEMENTS OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY • Since modern Christianity is not an organic movement nor a formulated system of doctrine, it can be summarized only in terms of certain peculiar principles or tendencies, and these cannot be stated definitely or exhaustively, but only suggestively. No definite date can be assigned for the beginnings of modern Christianity. Faint intimations of it lie far back in the mediaeval period. Its more rapid course of develop- ment was coincident with the emancipation of the human mind and society from the control of the mediaeval church and theology in the sixteenth century; but it did not become conscious of itself until the eighteenth century. The nine- teenth century witnessed the acceptance of all of its essential principles in enlightened religious circles. Literature. — Troeltsch has attempted a formulation of the tendencies ^f the modern reUgious movement in several treatises, especially in his Protestantism and Progress (New York: Putnam, 19 12), which should be studied with painstaking care. On p. 39 the author refers to several different formulations of the principles of modern thought which he has attempted, thus showing how differently the same principles may be stated. In this connection three books by President Henry Churchill King of Oberlin College are of primary importance: his Reconstruction in Theology (New York: MacmiUan, 1901); Theology and the Social Con- sciousness (New York: Macmillan, 1902); and The Moral and Religious Challenge of Our Times (New York: MacmiUan, 191 1). THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 433 ^ Professor George A. Coe, in The Religion of a Mature Mi fid (Chicago: Revell, 1902), has given careful and discriminating expression to several elements of modem Christianity. Professor Gerald B. Smith has studied the transforming influence of democratic and scientific ideas upon ethics and theology in his book on Social Idealism atid the Changing Theology (New York : Macmillan, 19 13) . 1. The element of liberty. — ^Liberty in modern Chris- tianity has a wide range of manifestations. In its general theological phase it is the right claimed by the modern religious thinker to be free from the control of authority, or the disposition to subject all authorities, whether the Bible, the church, tradition, or a priori "reason," to the test of rationality and experience. In its politico-religious phase it is the right claimed by the individual to be free from the control of the civil authority in his belief and worship, and constitutes "freedom of con- science." In its historico-bibhcal phase it is the right claimed by the scholar to study the Bible as any other literature, and con- stitutes "freedom of scholarship." In its ethical form it is the right to be inwardly self- governed in the choice of -moral aims and in moral conduct, and constitutes "freedom of will" or "moral autonomy." Literature. — For a study of the principle of liberty in its general historic relation to religious authority the student should turn to Auguste Sabatier, Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit (New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904). Read in this connection chap, iii of Professor Coe's book on The Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago: Revell, 1902); and Professor W. N. Clarke's An Outline of Christian Theology, pp. 10-53 (New York: Scribner, 1898). 2. The element of scientific veracity. — Veracity enters intimately, along with liberty, into every phase of modern Christianity. It really forms the moral ground for the justification of liberty. The right to be free is grounded in the duty to be true to what really is; that is, to be truthful. It is the scientific spirit. 434 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION We shall see this element of veracity especially at work in the field of biblical study. The quest for what is really true concerning the origin and history of the books of the Bible constitutes its aim and spirit, and the discovery of what is true constitutes the reason for freedom to state what is discovered. This is freedom of scholarship as under- stood by all modern biblical scholars. It is the spirit of veracity in religious belief and in moral conduct which has compelled the appeal to experience as a source of authority. The use of experience in ethics and religion corresponds to the use of fact in science and of event in history. Nothing but experience will yield the sense of truth and reality, and nothing but reality and worth can compel veracity. Hence both theology and ethics have become experimental in method. Literature. — H. C. King has called attention to the moral basis for the scientific method in The Moral and Religious Challenge oj Our Times, chap, iv (New York: Macmillan, 1911). 3. The element of rationality. — The development of modern Christianity has been characterized by an increasing tendency to appeal to reason as a criterion of the truth. While it has found its chief sphere of application in the field of religious thought, no element of religious faith or practice has escaped its influence. The beliefs, the ceremonies, the customs, the institutions, and the Hfe of religion have all been subjected to its testing. The tendency of the modern Chris- tian mind is to accept only that which commends itself as true, just, and good in the light of experience and reflection. It is not enough that a belief, ceremony, or institution have the sanction of authority or custom; it must secure the sanction of reason by proving its truth or its worth. The rise of Deism in the seventeenth century was the beginning of that inexorable demand upon religion, in modern times, that it make itself entirely rational. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 435 4. The element of humanity. The element of humanity, kindness, or sympathy has steadily grown in importance as a criterion of good morality and of true religion. It has grown out of the increasing sense, in modern times, of the dignity and sacredness of human life. The growth of human- ity has revolutionized human conduct in both its personal and its political aspects. It has at the same time revolutionized Christian theology and activity. It lies at the root of all modern philanthropy and social service, whether carried on by the church, by the state, or by society at large. 5. The element of spirituality. — Religion has tended to grow more spiritual, more inward, in modern times. The essence of spirituality consists in a direct, personal, and inner relation to God as opposed to a magical, cecemonial, or "hierarchical relation; in ethical conduct rather than in ecstatic feeling or doctrinal inerrancy. As to form, spirituality is a psychological rather than a physical con- dition or relation. As to content, it is grounded in a good will and cannot be distinguished from a truly moral life. Literature. — The student will find this modern conception of spiritu- ality set forth by Professor George A, Coe in his book on The Spiritual Life (Chicago: Revell, 1900), and in chap, v of The Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago: Revell, 1902). 6. The element of secularity. — ^A greater appreciation of the worth and sanctity of the present natural order enters pre-eminently into the attitude of the modern Christian. The secular spirit has grown as the ascetic spirit has declined in the modern world. It has broken down the sharp antithesis between sacred and secular, the present and the future, the heavenly and the earthly, the inspired and the uninspired, the human and the divine. Several ideas have wrought in this direction: the spiritual conception of religion has made all times and places sacred; the concept of the sovereignty of the individual and the equality of all men have made all persons sacred, while the conception of the divine immanence 436 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION has made both ethical and metaphysical dualism incongruous. The result has been a twofold process — a. secularization of the religious and a sanctification of the secular. Professor Gerald B. Smith characterizes this process as an "ethical transformation" under the influence of the demo- cratic and scientific ideals, and says: Now the total effect of those movements of thought and of social activity which make up what we call the modern world is to turn atten- tion to the resources of this world and to discover moral values in the immanent processes of human evolution [Social Idealism and the Changing Theology, p. 211]. In contrasting the points of difference between the medi- aeval and the modern world Professor Troeltsch says: A valuation of the present world for the sake of the riches and beauty of the world, an estimation of the goods attained in the progress of civilization because of an independent ethical value attaching to them, is consequently impossible. But precisely such a valuation of these things is the characteristic feature of the modern feeling towards the world and civilization (Protestantism and Progress, p. 77). Literature. — -For a further treatment of the modern trend toward an ethical secularism in opposition to asceticism the student is referred to Gladden, Ruling Ideas of the Present Age (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1895); Freemantle, The Gospel of the Secular Life (London: Cassell, 1882); Bowne, The Divine Immanence (Boston: Houghton MifHin Co., 1906); and G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology, chap, ii (New York: Macmillan, 1913). 7. The element of social responsibility. — One of the most significant discoveries of the modern world has been the fact that a man's life — his moral, intellectual, economic, and physical life — ^is socially conditioned. It has been dis- covered that it is not enough to regenerate the individual; his environment must also be regenerated — ^the society in which he lives, Vv^ith all of its customs and institutions — -if the regeneration of the individual is to be permanent and com- plete. And it has been further discovered that a man is a unity; he is not merely soul, but soul and body. As the THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 437 individual is one with his society, so the soul is one with the body; and Christianity has therefore a social as well as an individual, a physical as well as a spiritual, task in the salvation of the soul (see King, Rational Living). Literature. — The student will find the libraries filled with books on this theme, and a growing stream of them issuing from the press. Among the most notable of the earher books read Freemantle, The World as the Subject of Redemption (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1895); and among the more recent, Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907), and Christianizing the Social Order (New York: Macmillan, 1914). 8. The element of democracy. — The principle of democ- racy afhrms the sovereignty and competency of the individual in all affairs relating to his own well-being. It arose first of all in the political sphere, but it was found to be equally applicable in the religious sphere. No phase of modern life or thought has escaped its influence, but it has been especially influential in all modern religious development — ^in doctrine, life, and organization. It has been largely responsible for the overthrow of the Calvinistic theology, with its absolutist doctrine of the divine sovereignty and election, of a limited atonement, and its fatalist doctrine of hereditary depravity. It has also been the guiding principle in the modern development of independence in church government. The modern conception of religious authority has grown out of the democratic principle. Rev. George Tyrrell says: "The two deepest characteristics of the new order are the scientific spirit and the democratic movement — a new con- ception of authority and government" {Mediaevalism, p. 120). An analysis of the element of democracy, however, would show that other elements enter into it, such as the elements of humanity and liberty. Literature. — The student will find that all the writers to whom reference has already been made deal with the principle of democracy 438 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION in relation to modern religious thought and life, especially Smith and King. 9. The element of catholicity. — The modern Christian mind has grown more tolerant toward the religious beliefs of other Christians and more appreciative of the religions of non-Christian people. Christian co-operation and union are taking the place of sectarian ostracism and controversy. The resemblances to Christian teaching found in non- Christian religions are no longer waved aside as false imita- tions of Christianity or the inventions of demons, but are considered genuine attainments of the truth under different forms by the most inspired spirits among the heathen. And their virtues are no longer treated as "splendid vices," but as, in their degree, approaches to genuine Christian morality. The study of comparative religion, and a closer contact with the East through foreign missions and international commerce, have had much to do with this new attitude; but the decisive change has come through the rationalizing influences of philosophy and science. The modern mind has discovered new principles by which to interpret and unify the facts of the universal religious consciousness, the most significant of which are the principles of evolution and of the relativity of knowledge. The student should be reminded that these principles or elements are at the same time elements of modern Christianity and of modern civiUzation, and that Christianity and civiliza- tion have been inseparable in their development. It is not possible then to say that they are the exclusive product of either one; they are the product of the total social process which we call civilization, of which Christianity has been a part, and on which it has exerted its influence. Just what the influence of Christianity has been it is difficult to say, but it is safe to afiirm that it has been very decisive. Literature. — Efforts have been made to estimate the influence of Christianity upon social progress, the most notable of which is by THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 439 Benjamin Kidd in his two books, Social Evolution (New York: Mac- millan, 1895), and The Principles of Western Civilization (New York: Macmillan, 1902). 10. The relation of modem Christianity to Protestantism and Catholicism. — Troeltsch and Harnack have pointed out the many mediaeval elements which survived in early Protes- tantism, such as the dogma of biblical authority, a redemptive church, sacramental and confessional assurance, the union of church and state, and an ascetic view of the Christian life. All of these principles stood opposed to the trend of the modern world toward freedom, spirituality, and democracy. In both principle and action, however, Protestantism has shown itself more congenial to modern tendencies than Catholicism. The Protestant principle of justification by faith, in its earliest expression as an act of faith, was essentially a modern principle; but it was later identified with the doc- trinal content of faith and largely eliminated as a factor in modern progress. Persecution for heresy arose in the dominant Protestant churches as a consequence, and just as little freedom of faith and of thought was granted in Protestant countries as n Catholic. Within Protestantism have arisen many organic move- ments embodying fundamental Protestant principles and one or more modern elements, such as Socinianism, Armini- anism, Baptistism, Congregationalism, Quakerism, Evan- gelicalism, Pietism, Unitarianism, and Universalism, and various intellectual movements, such as Latitudinarianism, the Higher Criticism, and Ritschlianism, all of which have left traces of their influence upon the dominant trend of Protestantism. Protestantism has undergone a gradual transformation and has shown a disposition to adapt herself to modern progress. The student will find that it has been quite different with Catholicism. In principle the latter is opposed to all 440 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION change. She has crushed all modern tendencies and resisted all modern influences within her organization. In the Syllabus of Errors of 1864 Pope Pius IX condemned as an error the following proposition: "The Roman Pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberalism, and civilization as lately introduced." All or- ganizations and all schools of thought with modern tend- encies which have arisen in Catholicism have been suppressed. Such movements as Jansenism, Quietism, and Febronianism disappeared before the nineteenth century and left no influence. Doellingerism was overwhelmed within the church by the Vatican Council of 1870, and Modernism was forced into silence or submission by Pius X. Ultramontanism and Mediaevalism are in complete ascendency, as in the sixteenth century. Modern Christianity is therefore neither Protestant nor Catholic. Its development has taken place more rapidly and completely within Protestant countries and shows greater affinities for Protestantism than for Catholicism; yet it is not possible to say that it has been the sole product of the Protestant movement. Troeltsch goes so far as to say, however, that, "on the grounds of pure fact, we are warranted in saying that the religion of the modern world is essentially determined by Protestantism, and that this constitutes the greatest historical significance of Protestantism" {Protestant- ism and Progress, p. 185). Other forces of a non-religious secular nature have also contributed largely to the total result. Literature. — The student will find the above-mentioned relations specifically dealt with by Troeltsch in Protestantism atid Progress (New York: Putnam, 19 12), and in his section of Die Kultur der Gegen- wart, Teil I, Abt. IV, on " Protestantisches Christentum und Kirche in der Neuzeit" (Berlin: Teubner, 1906); by Harnack in his History of Dogma, English translation. Vol. VII (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1900); and by Karl Sell in Katholizismus und Protestantismus in Geschichte, Religion, Politik, Kultur (Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer, 1908). THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 441 I. THE POLITICO-ECCLESIASTICAL MOVEMENT The importance of the modern politico-ecclesiastical movement for the development of modern Christianity lies in the relation of this movement to modern liberty. The attention of the student has already been called to liberty as a constituent element of modern Christianity. One aspect of this liberty — liberty of conscience — was largely an out- growth of the politico-ecclesiastical movement. Liberty of conscience in religion. — By liberty of conscience in this treatment is meant the freedom of the individual from the control of the state in his religious belief and worship. The study really involves the entire history of the relation between church and state, from the beginnings of that relation under Constantine (312-36). To understand just what the nature of the struggle for religious liberty has been, the student should study first of all the origin and nature of the mediaeval tyranny out of which modern liberty arose. The student will find that mediaeval tyranny was an inheritance from previous political and religious conditions as they existed in ancient states, especially in Greece, Rome, and among the Hebrews. For this study the most significant element of that inheritance is the control of religion by the government — a union of church and state — and the concep- tions of the state and of religion upon which it was based. The ancient conception of religion as an aflfair of the state. — In all ancient states religion was an affair of the state. The worship of the gods was a public function and not a private right. Religion was social, not personal, and consisted of public ceremonies rather than personal convictions. The individual had no personal religious interests apart from those of the community, unless he happened to be a foreigner and worshiped a foreign god. Christianity a religion of individual conviction. — With the rise of Christianity religion became an affair of the individ- ual. Jesus appealed to the conscience and grounded religion 442 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION in personal belief. When he said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's/' he established an authority over the individual distinct from the authority of the state. Reasons for the persecution of Christians. — All the con- ditions of religious tyranny and persecution were at hand with the birth of Christianity into Jewish society and the Roman state. The early Christians, with their conception of the inwardness and privacy of religion, were bound to come into conflict with the temporal powers of the ancient world, with their conception of the absolute sovereignty of the state. The personal Christian conscience from the first set itself against the royal and the social will and declared, "We must obey God rather than men." With this difference between the ancient pagan conception of the state and of the place and function of religion in the state, and with the new Christian conception of the distinction between things spiritual and things temporal, religious tyranny began; and it did not cease until modern states transferred religion from the status of a public function to the status of a private right, under the legal form of a voluntary association or private corporation. The development of the idea of religious liberty. — ^The growth of religious liberty was a many-sided movement. It was involved in the whole development of civilization. It came as a result of many influences — religious, political, military, philosophical, economic, and commercial. A com- plete understanding of it would involve a knowledge of all that has made for progress in the modern world, for liberty is one of the products of civilization. But the history of religious liberty is something more definite than the summary of the influences which have brought it about; it finally came through certain specific parlia- mentary acts which changed the constitutions of states. It came both gradually and suddenly — gradually as a result of THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 443 the progress of such great principles of liberty as democracy, humanity, and rationality, and suddenly as a result of the victories of political parties and of armies. But for clearness of distinction the movement may be studied as a twofold process: first, as a movement of public opinion in favor of liberty created by all of its advocates, and, secondly, as a movement in political action expressed in the various acts of toleration. Both aspects are essential to a complete under- standing of it. The influence of the Protestant Reformation. — The starting-point in this study is the Protestant Reformation and its relation to the progress of liberty. The student will find that the first generation of great reformers and Protestant parties did not believe in freedom of conscience nor in a separation of church and state, and that the first direct influ- ence of the Reformation was a strengthening of the principle of religious tyranny — ^of the authority of the civil ruler over the religion of his subjects. It remained for the outlawed Protestant parties of the first generation — the Anabaptists and the Socinians — and for the new reformatory parties of the second and subsequent generations — the Independents, the Baptists, the Arminians, and the Quakers — to become the heralds and bearers of religious liberty. The movement of religious dissent.— The direct move- ment for religious liberty in modern times began with the rise of religious dissent (chiefly Protestant but partly CathoHc), and was consummated through the struggle of these dissenting nonconformist parties for freedom of worship against the efforts of civil rulers to enforce uniformity of religion in their realms. The interesting fact is that the leading part in this struggle was taken, and the greatest sacrifices for liberty were made, by a religious party which did not at first believe in individual freedom of conscience — the Presbyterians. They struggled for liberty for themselves, but they won it finally for all other dissenters. 444 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The student will find the history of the Netherlands, England, Scotland, France, Germany, and America during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries of chief significance in the development of modern liberty. Religious questions were inseparably interwoven with political ones during this period. In each of these countries the government was the sovereign ecclesiastical as well as political power, and as a means of securing religious liberty the dis- senting religious parties were obliged to identify themselves with political movements. They adopted political measures and such political principles as favored their religious free- dom. They became at the same time both religious and pohtical revolutionists and brought in by the same struggle both religious and political liberty. The guaranty of religious liberty by the state. — While many influences co-operated to promote religious liberty, the student must not forget that it was finally achieved in the sphere of political theory and action. It was the state which withheld it and the state which finally granted it. A study of the history of political theories, both mediaeval and modern, becomes, therefore, for the student of religious liberty one of his most essential tasks. The idea of liberty was first of all formulated in political theory before it was carried out in political action. In each case it came as a result of a changed conception of governmental powers and of the relation between government and religion. Development of religious liberty in Protestantism. — The student will discover that Protestantism has been a more congenial soil for the growth of liberty than Catholicism. This phenomenon may be due in part to racial characteristics; but it is due in far greater measure to the religious differences between Protestantism and Catholicism. Through its dis- tinctive religious principles — justification by faith and the universal priesthood of believers — Protestantism became a decisive influence in the struggle for modern Hberty, both religious and political. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 445 For this reason such Protestant countries as the Nether- lands, England, Scotland, and America have contributed far more to the progress of religious liberty than such Catholic countries as France, Spain, Austria, and Italy. Literature. — On the history of religious liberty in general consult F. Ruffini, Religious Liberty (New York: Putnam, 1912), which deals chiefly with the great historic treatises advocating religious liberty; G. L. Scherger, The Evolution of Modern Liberty (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1904), which deals with the relation of the principle of "natural law" to liberty. See also J. MacKinnon, A History oj Modern Liberty (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1906); Lord Acton, The History of Freedom- (London: Macmillan, 1907); V. Sch.a.il, The Progress of Religious Freedom as , Shown in the History of Toleration Acts (New York: Scribner, 1889); D. G. Ritchie, A''a/wm/i?ig^/5 (New York: Mac- millan, 1895); the New Schajff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowl- edge, article "Liberty." For the theory of the mediaeval church-state consult James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire (New York: Macmillan, 1890) ; W. A. Dunning, History of Political Theories, Ancient and Mediaeval (New York: Mac- millan, 1902); A. J. Carlyle, A History of Mediaeval Political Theories in the West, 3 vols. (London: Blackwood, 1903-9). Especially impor- tant is O. Gierke, Das deutsche Genossenschaftrecht, Bd. Ill (Berlin: Weidmann, 1868-81), a portion of which has been translated by Mait- land, under the title Political Theories of the Middle Ages (Cambridge: University Press, 1900). See also by the same author, Johannes Althu- sius, und die Entwickelung der naturrechtlichen Staatstheorien (Breslau: Marcus, 1902). For the political theories of the reformers consult W. A. Dunning, History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu (New York: Macmillan, 1905); J. N. Figgis, From Gerson to Grotius (Cambridge: University Press, 1907); G. Jager, "Politische Ideen Luthei;s und ihr Einfluss auf die innere Entwickelung Deutschlands, Preussisches Jahr- buch, 1903. For the general relation of church and state read H. Geffcken, Staat und Kirche in ihrem Verhdltniss geschichtlich entwickelt (Berlin: Hertz, 1875; English translation by Tyler, Church and State, Their Relations Historically Considered, 2 vols. [London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1877]). See Nrou Schajff-Herzog Encyclopedia, articles "Church and State" (with bibliography), "Territorialism," " Collegialism " ; K. Volker, Toleranz und Intoleranz im Zeitalter der Reformation (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 2). y 446 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION For the rise and theory of absolute monarchy see H. Sidgwick, The Development of European Polity (London: Macmillan, 1903); J. N. Figgis, The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings (Cambridge: University Press, 1896). On the struggle for political and religious liberty in the Netherlands the student will find a good brief account in A. H. Johnson, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, chap, viii (London: Rivington, 1898). This should be supplemented by a study of P. J. Blok, History of the People of the Netherlands, Vols. Ill and IV, (New York: Putnam, 1898-1912); Ruth Putman, William the Silent (New York: Putnam, 1895). For the Puritan struggle for religious liberty in England consult D. Campbell, The Puritan in England, Holland, and America (New York: Harper, 1892); G. P. Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge: University Press, 1898); W. St. John, Contest for Liberty of Conscience in England (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1900); H. F. Russell-Smith, The Theory of Religious Liberty in the Reign of Charles II and James II (Cambridge, 191 1); A. A. Seaton, The Theory of Toleration under the Later Stuarts (Cambridge, 1911). On Puritanism in New England and the struggle for rehgious liberty consult S. H. Cobb, The Rise of Religious Liberty in America (New York: Macmillan, 1902) ; P. E. Lauer, Church and State in New England (Balti- more: Johns Hopkins University, 1892); M. L. Greene, The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1905). On the struggle for toleration in France the student should consult the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, articles on the Huguenots, with cross-references and bibliography; Armstrong, "The Political Theories of the Huguenots," English History Review, IV, 13; Bonet-Maury, Histoire de la liberie de conscience en France (Paris: Alcan, 1900); W. M. Sloane, The French Revolution and Religious Reform (New York; Scribner, 1901). II. THE SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT Modern science has been one of the most decisive factors in the formation of modern rehgious thought. Very few rehgious ideas have escaped its modifying influence. The result of this influence within the sphere of Christian behef is registered in what is here called modern Christianity. Scientific method welcomed by modem Christianity.^ Modern Christianity thus receives one of its chief marks of THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 447 distinction from its connection with modern science. It recognizes the fundamental necessity of a true science to reUgion, approves and imitates its spirit and methods, and accepts all of its verified discoveries and conclusions. It does not fear science, as the older Christianity did, nor seek to control it, but cordially welcomes it as a friend and ally. The development of modern science. — The task before the student in this study is to find out, not merely the nature of the influence of science upon religion, but to trace the origin and historical development of that influence. The student should not forget that his task is primarily historical and that the logical place to begin is with the beginnings of modern science. The conflict between religion and science. — The relation between science and religion in modern times assumed the form of a conflict. This appeared first of all as a conflict between the statements of Scripture concerning the origin and formation of the physical universe and the statements of scientists. It arose out of the adoption by the Christian church of the Old Testament, with its primitive Semitic cosmogonies, as authoritative divine revelation. Throughout the entire conflict the first task of the theologians was to defend the scientific authority and infaflibility of Scripture. The fundamental difference between science and religion was a difference in method of verification. Science sought to prove things true by observation and experiment; religion, by an appeal to authority— the authority of Scripture. Still further conflict arose owing to the two different theories of causation held by science and religion — the natural and the supernatural. Science sought a natural cause for things; religion rested upon the principle of an ultimate supernatural causation embodied in the scriptural explanation of things. Each of the sciences as they arose — astronomy, geology, biology, archaeology, anthropology, and medicine — offered a natural explanation in place of the 448 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION supernatural explanation of Scripture and gave rise to a new conflict which passed through an identical course of develop- ment in each instance. The first stage of each conflict was marked by the bitter, irreconcilable hostility of religious leaders toward the discoveries and hypotheses of the new science. Attempts at harmonization. — But the irresistible demon- strations of the scientists forced the theologians into an atti- tude of compromise. Harmonistic schemes were drawn up and Scripture was given an interpretation in agreement with the new science. But as the new science changed new harmonistic schemes and new interpretations of Scripture were formulated; and each new scheme, so different from the previous one, was in turn accepted as authoritative and divine. The present relationship between science and religion. — This contradictory and futile process was finally its own un- doing and prepared the way for the present relation between science and religion in modern Christianity. Many discoveries were made by both scientists and religionists during the course of this conflict. Religionists discovered that Scripture was not what the older Christianity supposed it to be. It had been defended as an inspired scientific revelation. In the light of the new historical criti- cism, of archaeological discoveries, and of studies in com- parative religion, it was discovered that the sacred books of the Hebrews had grown up as the sacred books of all other religious peoples had, and were a record and a reflection of their civilization and religious evolution. In other words, the Bible itself was discovered to be a natural instead of a supernatural book, and to reflect the scientific knowledge of ancient peoples rather than to anticipate that of the modern world. Hence was born a new conception of Scrip- ture as the first step in a final reconciliation of science and religion. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 449 But, partly through this conflict and partly through social development and philosophical inquiries, religionists dis- covered that religion was not what the older Christianity supposed it to be. It had been held to be identical in part with Qorrect historical, scientific, and dogmatic beliefs based on Scripture. It was discovered to be spiritual life and began to be defined ethically in terms of personal purity and broth- erly love and service. Hence arose a clear distinction between science and religion and a separation of their spheres and functions. As a result of this modern separation of science and reli- gion, questions which were once regarded as religious, because dealt with in Scripture, were transferred to science. Such questions as the origin and age of the earth and of the solar system; the origin and age of man and the lower forms of life; the origin and distribution of races of men, of languages, and of species of animals are now dealt with as purely sci- entific questions. The answers to them in nowise belong to or affect religion. But, on the other hand, the scientists have made some dis- coveries which have contributed to a final reconciliation of science and religion. Many of the older scientists were as hostile toward religion as the older religionists were toward science. They settled accounts finally with religion by pronouncing it a superstition — the invention of designing priests; and they proclaimed science to be the sum of all human knowledge and the ground of all human well-being. The newer scientists admit the limitations of science and agree to her restriction to her own peculiar sphere. Many questions once regarded as scientific are now turned over to ethics, religion, or philosophy. As Professor L. T. More says: If I have made myself clear, the limitations of science are due solely to the fact that there are, in addition to material forces, others of an essentially different kind which may be called, for lack of a better name, 450 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION spiritual powers. And so long as men of science restrict their endeavor to the world of material substance and force, they will find that their field is practically without limits, so vast and so numerous are the prob- lems to be solved. And it should distress no one to discover that there are other fields of knowledge in which science is not concerned {Limitations of Science, p. 260J. The criticism of science on the basis of the modern theory of knowledge — the principle of relativity — -as well as the history of its mistakes has done much to moderate its dog- matic certainty. Relative to this More says: ''Evidently the postulates of science are as complex, as subjective, and debatable as the postulates of religion and philosophy" {op. cit., pp. 219-20). The emancipation of both science and religion. — Thus the conflict between science and religion, which had grown out of this attempt to discredit modern science by an appeal to the supposedly inspired science of Scripture, drew to a close at the opening of the twentieth century. It was settled, not by the overthrow of either, but by the emancipation of both from unnatural alliances and unwarranted pretensions. Science achieved its freedom and the recognition of its value to religion in all enlightened religious circles. The way was prepared for the rational and scientific treatment of all questions between science and religion. This has become the distinguishing mark of modern Christianity. Some unsolved problems.^This does not mean that all problems raised by science in the sphere of religious thought have been settled. On the other hand, there were many other problems -besides that of biblical authority and infalli- bility which appeared all along the way. There was the problem of the nature of God and of his relation to the physical universe, growing out of the discovery of "the reign of law" in nature; there was the problem of prayer and miracles in the hght of natural law; the problem of sin and its origin and retribution in the light of evolution ; there was the THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 451 problem of immortality and science — all of which were ear- nestly debated and still call for solution. Some of these problems lie on the bord^^rland between science and religion, where science passes into philosophy and religion into theology. In that realm the controversy will probably go on indefinitely, but in a spirit of earnest search for truth and of mutual respect in the relation of scientists and theologians. Literature. — There are several classes of books in which the student wUl find his material. He should turn first of all to such general his- tories of the sciences as those of Whewell and Williams and to the various histories of particular sciences. But there is very little material in either of these on the contact between science and religion. A second class of works are the biographies of the great scientists, which contain information on the treatment accorded the leaders of science by ecclesi- astical authorities. But more germane to this particular study are such histories of the conflict between science and religion as those by White and Zockler and the many works embodying attempts to reconcile science and religion. Very valuable also are the discussions of the general relations of science and religion by Boutroux and Romanes. On the primitive union between science and religion see O. Pflei- derer, Philosophy and Development of Religion, Vol. I, Lecture III (New '--'' York: Putnam, 1894); Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religioii and Ethics, article "Cosmogony and Cosmogonies." On the history of the sciences see W. WheweU, History of the Induc- tive Sciences, 2 vols. (New York: Appleton, 1901) (old but useful); H. S. Williams, A History of Science, 5 vols. (New York: Harper, 1904) (popular); Geikie, The Foufiders of Geology (London: Macmillan, 1897); LyeU, Principles of Geology, 12th ed. (London: Murray, 1876); W. W. Bryant, A History of Astronomy (New York: E. P. Button & Co., 1907); Osborn, From the Greeks to Darwin (New York: Macmillan, 1899); J. H. Baas, Leitfadcn der Geschichte der Medicin (Stuttgart: Enke, 1880; English translation by Handerson, Outlines of the History of Medicine [New York: Vail, 1889]). On the history of the conflict between science and religion the best ^ in English is the work by A. D. White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, 2 vols. (New York: Appleton, 1896); this is critical but appreciative of both science and religion; its bibliographies are of immense value. J. W. Draper, History of the Conflict between Science and Religion (New York: Appleton, 1893), is a pioneering work in English, 452 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION hostile to religion. See also O. Zockler, Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen Theologie um Naturwissenschaft, 2 vols. (Giitersloh: Bertels- mann, 1877); W. N. Rice, Christian Faith in an Age of Science (New York: Armstrong, 1903). On the relation between science and religion see A. J. Balfour, The Foundations of Belief (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1895); G. J. Romanes, Thoughts on Religion (Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1895); L. T. More, Limitations of Science (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1915) ; Boutroux, Science et religion dans la philosophic contemporaine (Paris: Flammarion, 1908; English translation, Science and Religion in Con- temporary Philosophy [London: Duckworth, 1909]); G. Galloway, The Philosophy of Religion, pp. 189-95 (Edinburgh: Clark, 1914); R. B. Perry, Present Philosophical Tendencies, pp. 3-109 (New York: Long- mans, Green, & Co., 1912). III. THE PHILOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT Modern Christianity owes some of its most characteristic principles to the reflection of modern philosophers, while all of its principles have been elucidated and strengthened by them. The relation between theology and philosophy has always been very intimate and their influence upon each other very marked, but never more so than in modern times. The problems of modem philosophy. — Modern philosophy has been concerned with two major inquiries: What is the nature of ultimate reality ? and What are the origin, nature, and limits of human knowledge ? Both of these inquiries have direct religious bearings. The problem of knowledge. — Philosophers had not gone far in their inquiry into the nature of ultimate reality before they discovered that all their inquiry depended upon the solu- tion of a previous question as to the nature and validity of their knowledge. Hence modern philosophy was resolved into an inquiry into the origin and nature of human knowledge. From a study of the objective world modern philosophy turned to a study of the subjective or inner world. In this realm are to be found its great discoveries. And here, also, lie its decisive contributions to modern religious thought. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY 453 In order to understand the origin 347~77 (New York: American Tract Soc, 1900); Edinburgh, 1910, IV (New York: Revell, 1910). Missionary magazines, such as The East and the West and The International Review of Missions, contain many valuable articles showing the modern trend of missionary thought and activity. For the relation of foreign missions to the science of comparative religion consult L. H. Jordan, Comparative Religion: Its Genesis and Growth (New York: Scribner, 1905), and Comparative Religion: Its Adjuncts and Allies (London: Milford, 1915). For the relation of missions to the ethico-social movement consult J. S. Dennis, Christian Missions and Social Progress, 3 vols, (New York: Revell, 1897); W. D. Mackenzie, Christianity and the Progress of Man (New York: Revell, 1898); J. L. Barton, Human Progress through Missions (New York: Revell, 1912); E. W. Capen, Sociological Progress in Mission Lands (New York: Revell, 1914); W. H. P. Faunce, The Social Aspects of Foreign Missions (New York: Missionary Education Movement, 1914). For the relation of missions to Christian union consult Church Feder- ation, pp. 251-94, 333-55 (New York: Revell, 1906); Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, Philadelphia, 1908 (New York: Revell) ; Christian Unity at Work, pp. 81-107 (New York: Federal Council of Churches, 1913); Reports of missionary conferences: London, 1888, 1, 91-109; 11,429-87; New York, 1900, 1, 233-77; Edinburgh, 1910, VIII; R. E. Speer, Christianity and the Nations, chap, vi, "The Relation of Missions to the Unity of the Church" (New York: Revell, 1910); J. S. Dennis, The Moder^n Call of Missions, chap, ix, "Union Movements in Mission Fields" (New York: Revell, 1913); A. J. Brown, Unity and Missions (New York: Revell, 1915). IX. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS By GERALD BIRNEY SMITH Professor of Christian Theology in the Divinity School, University of Chicago ANALYSIS Introduction: The Task of Systematic Theology . . . . 485-486 I. The Method of Theological Inquiry. — The fundamental issue in modern theology. — Orthodoxy and modernism. — The appeal to authority vs. the method of free inquiry. — The religious value of critical honesty. — The outcome of the historical study of Chris- tianity.— ^The nature of a vital theology 486-494 II. How Shall the Content of Christianity Be Determined? — The Catholic method of determining the content of Christianity. — Protestant orthodoxy. — "Liberal" orthodoxy. — The appeal to Christian experience. — The Ritschlian theology — The modem- positive school of theology. — Theology and idealistic philosophy. — The definition of Christianity from the historical point of view 494-508 III. The Main Doctrinal Problems. — ^The meaning of religion. — The Christian doctrine of God. — ^A vital faith during theological reconstruction. — What do we mean by salvation? — ^The problem of sin. — Religious experience as a natural development. — The need of a revised theological vocabulary. — The relation between the concep- tion of salvation and the doctrine of the person of Christ. — The mod- ern interpretation of Jesus. — The need of a positive understanding of the new interest. — The Christian life. — The Christian hope . . 508-540 IV. The Truth of Christian Beliefs. — ^The defense brought by the authority type of theology. — The modern conception of apologetics. — 1. The so-called "conflict between science and rehgion." — The need of cultivating the scientific spirit. — The rights of religious faith. 2. The ontological problem. — The problem of religious certainty. — The type of assurance compatible with the scientific spirit. — 3. The problem of the supernatural. — Can we draw a line between the natural and the supernatural? — Emphasis on quality rather than origin. — The real religious interest. — 4. The problem of the absolute- ness of Christianity. — The conception of revelation tested by his- torical fact. — The appeal to a metaphysical absolute. — Christianity as a developing historical religion. — 5. Christianity and other reli- gions.— ^The modern attempt to appreciate foreign faiths . . 541-561 V. Christian Ethics. — The historical evolution of Christian ethics. — The ethical ideal of the primitive Christians. — The sub- ordination of ethical to theological interest. — The Catholic concep- tion of ethics. — The ethics of Protestantism. — The need for a new conception of Christian ethics. — The study of psychology and of soci- ology.— The spirit of Christian ethics 561-577 IX. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS INTRODUCTION What is the task of systematic theology? — Interesting as is the history of Christianity, the primary concern of most men is with their own religious problems and beliefs. In so far as a study of history can aid in answering questions of present- day Hfe it is eagerly used. But every age — indeed, every individual — has pecuhar circumstances to face, and because of these has peculiar questionings. It is the task of the depart- ment of systematic theology to deal with the vital religious behefs of living men, to appreciate and to interpret the questionings of contemporaneous thinking, and to formulate the convictions which a Christian has a right to hold in the light of the actual conditions of religious thinking and living. The peculiar importance of a study of theology today. — The present generation is passing through one of the most remarkable developments of religious thinking ever known in human history. There is very general perplexity and uncertainty concerning many phases of Christian doctrine. Every pastor will have in his congregation, and more especially in his community, persons who are high-minded and loyal to good ideals but who find little meaning or inspiration in the inherited formulations of doctrine. In order to influence such men, as well as to inspire those who still love the familiar terms and phrases, one ought to know just what doctrines have meant in human history, and just how the typical experiences of Christian men today may find adequate intel- lectual formulation. It is precisely here that the teaching of theology in a modem divinity school differs most markedly from that of a generation ago. Then it was taken for granted that the inherited system of doctrine was entirely adequate 485 486 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION to express the real convictions of Christian men. Today the theologian is facing a world of ideas and aspirations which owe their origin to scientific, social, and industrial activities which have altered the conditions of human living. He must therefore consider the problems of religious belief in relation to all these comparatively new but intensely real factors of modern life, and so formulate Christian convictions that they may enable men to carry their religion into all realms of life. Theology may be defined as the attempt to think over our religious inheritance in the light of present problems, so as to formulate for today and to transmit to the coming generation an expression of faith vitally related to our actual life. There is no short and easy way of gaining a theology today. We must creatively think through a host of problems which found no place in the theological treatises of former days, just because the conditions of life formerly were different from the exigencies of thought and of action which we must daily confront. It is the purpose of the following discussion to call attention to the principal problems which a theological student today must face, and to indicate the way in which beliefs are to be worked out. I. THE METHOD OF THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY The fundamental issue in modem theology. — We have inherited the conception of Christianity as a perfect revela- tion of truth which abides substantially unchanged from age to age. The theologian, from this point of view, is not search- ing for truth, as are men who deal with mere human science. His truth is "given" to him by revelation, and has only to be effectively expounded and interpreted. According to this ^ conception, the most that a modern theologian might expect to accomplish in the way of advance would be to point out the inadequacy of former interpretations. But he, like all his predecessors, would be expected to find the content of Chris- tian truth already given in the Bible. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 487 But what does the history of religious thinking reveal? Has the content of Christianity actually remained constant ? Have not the exigencies of changing human experience com- pelled a changing theology? For example, do we take seriously today the bibHcal doctrine of demons? On the other hand, are we not vitally interested in some doctrines about which biblical writers knew nothing, as, for example, the conception of evolution? The fact that Christian the- ology has actually been developing and changing throughout its history comes into conflict with the theory of a divinely authorized, unchangeable content of doctrine. Orthodoxy and Modernism. — The above-mentioned ques- tion is crucial in all divisions of Christianity. In Roman Catholicism the advocates of unyielding authority are in serious controversy with the "Modernists" who recognize the fact and the significance of historical evolution. Nowhere is this issue more clearly stated than in the EncycUcal Letter of Pope Pius X against Modernism and in the Programme of Modernism put forth in reply. The papal letter judges every- thing on the basis of conformity to the authoritatively pre- scribed system. The Modernists declare that historical facts must be frankly recognized, even if it be necessary to modify the system. Precisely the same division of opinion runs through Protestantism. " Orthodoxy " and " hberalism" can scarcely understand each other, for each starts from premises which the other would deny. Our traditional denominational divisions prevent Protestants from reaUzing the importance of this issue as it is realized in Catholicism; but it is more or less keenly felt by every thoughtful man. To study the task of theology in the light of this fundamental cleavage is imperative if the student is to understand the problems of theological thinking today. Literature. — The Programme of Modernism and the Encyclical of Pius X (New York: Putnam, 1908) is perhaps the most illuminating theological debate of our day. McGifTert, Protestant Thought before ^ 488 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Kant (New York: Scribner, 191 1) and The Rise of Modern Religious Ideas (New York: Macmillan, 191 5), should be read for a clear historical account of the development of the theological situation which we con- front. Other suggestive treatments are Troeltsch, " Protest antisches Christentum und Kirche in der Neuzeit," in Kultur der Gegenwart, Tail I, Abt. IV, pp. 253-458 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1906), and Protestantism and Progress (New York: Putnam, 19 12); G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1913); Mathews, The Church and the Changing Order (New York: Macmillan, 1907); Youtz, The Enlarging Conception of God (New York: Macmillan, 1914). The change from the method of appeal to authority to the method of free inquiry. — In attempting to formulate our beliefs today, we are subject to pressure from the two ideals described above. On the one hand is the inherited demand that the system of doctrine which has been authori- tatively promulgated shall be transmitted unimpaired. Every Christian is familiar with the injunction to hold fast the '' faith once delivered." On the other hand, many thinkers of our time feel that this inherited system does not do justice to the demands of living faith. There is a rapidly increasing number of loyal Christians who insist that religious beliefs must be large enough to include the truth of modern discovery as well as the truth of ancient Scripture. What, now, is the task of the theologian ? Is he primarily the custodian of an authorized system ? If so, his sole task will be tt) expound the content of the revelation which has been com- mitted to him. Or is the modern theologian, like the modern physician or the modern educator, to ask how the interests of living men may best be cared for ? If so, he must be ready to modify or to discard traditional doctrines whenever investi- gation sheds new light on religious problems. Theology in such a case would alter the content of religious hypotheses as readily as any science alters the content of its hypotheses in response to more exact knowledge. Protestant theology is beginning to abandon the method of appeal to authority; but it has not yet, as a rule, come to face SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 489 squarely the tests of free investigation, as have other branches of human knowledge. The student will find that most theo- logical writings today are characterized by considerable vagueness and by many inconsistencies. While the inade- quacy of the mere appeal to authority is generally recognized by modern theologians, nevertheless their habits of thinking have generally been formed under the sway of the authority ideal, and they are constantly seeking to find some acceptable way of continuing to employ the familiar method. Thus while the older supports are admittedly weakening, men have not yet learned to rely confidently on the somewhat unfamiKar supports of critical examination. There is a general desire to find some basis which "criticism" cannot touch. The student should realize that we are living through a transition period in which theologians are not very sure of themselves. -^ A primary question of moral loyalty. — The method of appeal to authority involves the enlistment of a high moral loyalty. If the theologian has been intrusted with a divinely authorized message, loyalty bids him deHver it in its integ- rity. Any departure from the authorized truth would be dishonorable. It would be like treachery to the government which one has sworn to uphold. Heresy from this point of view is wilful sin. If, now, a theologian does actually depart from the author- ized content of doctrine, he has to meet the traditional feehng that he is a traitor to the cause. So strong is this feeling that a religious man today is almost inevitably compelled to adopt an apologetic method of setting forth new doctrines. He is led to use the familiar terms and phrases, so far as pos- sible, and to make what he holds to be true seem as much like orthodox doctrine as possible. The traditional conception of moral loyalty brings the strong temptation to make the duty of conformity more important than the duty of exact truth- telling. New meanings are thus smuggled in under familiar labels, with a resulting lack of clearness in thinking. 490 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The student should recognize the dangers involved in serving two masters in his attempts at theologizing. He should see that there are really two very different questions which may be asked when one confronts the task of construct- ing a doctrinal statement. One question is, "What is the content of authorized belief?" The other is, "What, in the light of careful, critical study, is the truth?" The student should make clear to himself which question is guiding him. Much confusion arises in modern theology from the fact that these questions are not clearly distinguished. Fidelity to the implications of the first question would mean that the student must eHminate all personal preferences and seek to make his thinking conform to that of Scripture. Fidelity to the view- point of the second question would mean that critical inquiry must determine what one shall say. Now, critical methods do enter fundamentally into any theology. But the conclusions dictated by criticism are fre- quently so shaped and modified as to appear to be results of mere interpretation of Scripture. The danger in such attempts is that one may eventually have neither good exegesis nor good criticism. Modern books on theology fre- quently indulge in clever rhetorical statements which serve, indeed, to allay the fears of conservative Christians, but which also fail to meet the demands of earnest and exact think- ing. Such adjustments of statement are likely to involve a failure to be thoroughly loyal either to Scripture or to the demands of criticism. And when stern loyalty is relaxed, the door to clever timeserving is wide open. The religious value of critical honesty. — Probably there is no greater need today than the acquirement of an attitude which does not involve distrust of the processes of critical examination. Every intelhgent man knows that critical scholarship prevails in all important modern theological schools. Moreover, while occasionally an individual is unable to unite positive religious conviction with critical SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 491 methods, there is no evidence that those who employ critical scholarship are as a rule any more lacking in religious devotion and power than are those who fear critical methods. The attempt to retain the appeal to authority and at the same time to cultivate an acquaintance with critical methods leads to a habit of "harmonization" which withholds one from the kind of accuracy essential to self-respect and to real influence with men. It is of fundamental importance that the student of theology should learn to feel the religious value of honestly facing the facts. The man who has taken this attitude of absolute loyalty to whatever proves itself to be true possesses a spiritual strength which can never be attained by one who is in constant dread lest "criticism" make inroads into his faith. It is only as one comes to feel that loyalty to the truth is more religious than mere conformity to a prescribed statement that the full value of critical methods will appear. Because of timidity and attempts at compromise the "new theology" has not yet had an opportunity to disclose its entire power. So long as departures from traditional positions must be made apologetically there is the tacit admission that strict conformity is morally better. If this be admitted, any departure from the authorized doctrine exists on suffrance. The theologian wilhng to make " concessions " to modem ideas seems made of less heroic stuff than one who defies innova- tions. Only a devotion to the interests of modern life which shall express something of the religious passion which animated Jesus in his rebuke to Pharisaic conformity can adequately strengthen one who faces the future rather than the past. Without this conviction of moral compulsion a "new" theology will be nothing more than a pleasing essay. The value of historical study for the student of theology. — One whose task it is to uphold a prescribed doctrine will inevitably employ the method of debate. One's own position is put in the most favorable light possible, while opposing views are discredited by all possible means. The systematic 492 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION theologies which employ the method of appeal to authority make large use of debate. The controversial spirit prevails. Denominational distinctions are emphasized. The historical method of studying theology means the abandonment of the debater's attitude. For example, while the debater will seek out all possible considerations which enable him to afhrm or to deny the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, the historical student must refuse to allow his study to be determined by a preconceived theory. He must attempt to take account of all the facts, and must let his conclusions be dictated by these facts. Modern historical study presupposes the painstaking examination of all the evidence rather than the determined defense of a theory declared authoritatively to be the ''truth." While the adherent of the method of appeal to authority is primarily concerned with content of doctrine, the historical scholar is primarily concerned with accuracy of investigation. Thus while abandonment of a doctrine seems to the believer in authority like radical disloyalty, it is an incidental matter to the historical scholar. The latter is concerned that the investigation shall be accurate, whatever may be the result in content of doctrine. He inevitably feels a confidence in a critically established doctrine which he could not feel in any theory which has not been subjected to criticism. Conclu- sions reached by historical inquiry may be revised or even abandoned without involving distress of spirit, or without involving any sense of moral disloyalty to the old. One thus obtains a spiritual anchorage. Changes in religious convictions become possible without the period of moral disintegration engendered by the attempt to compromise with the dogmatic attitude. As a steadying power for stu- dents of theology in this transitional age the value of train- ing in the methods of historical interpretation can scarcely be overestimated. Certainly no student ought to attempt to deal with the problems of systematic theology today with- SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 493 out first having learned the full significance of the historical study of the Bible and of Christian history. The outcome of the historical study of Christianity. — The historical study of Christianity makes it clear that religion is always in the making. Every generation inherits from the preceding age certain doctrines and ideals which were wrought out in the struggles and the triumphs of faith in the past. But each new generation has to ask its own questions. New conditions arise, making necessary adjustments of faith. Out of efforts at adjustment changes in doctrine come about. Historical study attempts to explain the significance of doctrine-making in terms of the actual questions which were being asked and for which satisfactory answers were being sought. The historical student is never satisfied with mere statistics. He wants to know not simply what Isaiah or Jeremiah said; he wants also to know why they said what they did. If this latter question can be answered, it serves to relate the utterances of a man vitally to the religious problems which he must face. It reveals the fact that theology arises just because men ask searching questions and demand profound answers to those questions. The nature of a vital theology today. — This view of doc- trine resulting from historical appreciation should be con- sistently carried into the realm of doctrinal fornlulation today. If the analysis of the experience of men in biblical times is the key to the understanding of the making of biblical doctrine, then the way to formulate doctrine for our own day is to analyze the religious longings and experi- ences of the present. We, like every generation, have in- herited doctrines and ideals. But we have our own peculiar problems to face, and we must use our inheritance, and, where necessary, modify it, so as to meet these problems. In so far as the circumstances of our life differ from those of former generations our beliefs must differ. Sometimes a theo- logian faces conditions essentially identical with those which 494 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION prevailed when the inherited doctrine was formulated. In such a case no striking changes take place. Sometimes, as occurred when Israel had to meet the fact of national dissolution, or as is the case when we today have to learn to preserve our ideals in the midst of the bewildering novelties introduced by modern learning and invention, the changes in doctrine will be very great. If the student can come to measure the validity of his theologizing, not by its conformity to standards of the past, but by its capacity to meet the questions of the present, he will be in a position to do fruitful work. The abihty to see that this prophetic spirit, which makes the needs of the present and of the future supreme, is the impelling force lead- ing to the construction of strong religious beliefs is one of the chief gains from the historical study of the Bible. To incorporate this spirit into theological method today is far more important — and more true to the deepest spiritual meaning of the Bible itself — than authoritatively to repro- duce biblical doctrines for our acceptance. Literature. — The point of view here advocated is set forth with more detail by G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1913). See also by the same author "The Task and the Method of Systematic Theology," American Journal of Theology, XIV (April, 1910), 215-33, and Significant Movements in Modern Theology, a professional reading-course published by the American Institute of Sacred Literature, Chicago, 1915; Troeltsch, "The Dogmatics of the Religions geschichtliche Schule," American Journal of Theology, XVII, (January, 1913), 1-21. Very suggestive is Youtz, The Enlarging Con- ception of God (New York: Macmillan, 1 9 14). II. HOW SHALL THE CONTENT OF CHRISTIANITY BE DETERMINED ? The definition of Christianity given by the authority type of theology. — It is only in modern times that the problem of defining Christianity has become a really scientific problem. It has been very generally assumed by theologians that Jesus definitely conceived and committed to the apostles an author- SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 495 ized system of doctrine and an authoritative church with exactly prescribed officials and practices. By ascertaining this original thought of Jesus as expounded by him and by the apostles one would know precisely the content of true Chris- tianity. Any types of Christian thinking which diverged from the alleged authoritative type could be disposed of as "here- sies." Unfortunately for the decisiveness of this method, heretics appealed in support of their claims to the same Scriptures, using the same methods of interpretation. The "true" doctrine had, in the last analysis, to be upheld by ecclesiastical coercion. However, the inexact methods of exegesis in vogue for centuries permitted men to feel that the content of the Christianity which they knew and loved had been ascertained by an appeal to the original revelation in Scripture, culmi- nating in Jesus. The student should be familiar with this method of defining Christianity, for the vast majority of Christians today suppose that it is the only defensible way in which to find out what we are to believe. Moreover, if one adopts a different method of ascertaining the content of doctrine, one will still constantly be compelled to meet men who cling to this method of appeal to authority, and who will wish to debate on the basis of the method. It is of the utmost importance to see that while in theory an appeal to the teachings of Jesus or of Scripture ought to yield a single "true" system of doctrine, as a matter of fact such an appeal has not prevented variety and change in beliefs. Far from bringing unity of conviction, it has only served to divide Christendom into mutually sus- picious and hostile groups, each claiming exclusive validity for its system of doctrine. If one allows himself to be drawn into debate on the basis of the mere appeal to authority, one will be fatally blinded to the actual history of Christianity, and will consequently be incompetent to pass accurate judg- ment on its real nature. 496 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The Catholic method of determinmg the content of Christianity. — The aim of Catholicism is so completely to establish authoritative control as to prevent that uncertainty and division of opinion which actually exist in Christendom. According to Catholic theory, Christ committed to the church the power to interpret correctly the content of Christianity. Statements of Scripture must mean what the church says they mean. Private judgment must bow before the mandates of the church. In this way all differences of opinion may be authoritatively decided. The student should familiarize himself with the magnificent completeness of this control of theological thinking, and should ask himself whether Protes- tantism, with its insistence on the private right of the indi- vidual to interpret Scripture, can hope to be a formidable rival so long as the appeal to authority is made supreme. Literature. — The best way in which to know the Catholic position is to read the official statements in the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent and in the Dogmatic Decrees of the Vatican Council (both found in the original and in translation in Schaff, Creeds of Chris- tendom, Vol. II, New York: Harper, 1878). Denzinger, Enchiridion^ Syniholorum et Dejinitiorum, etc., is a standard presentation for those who read Latin. WUhelm and Scannell, A Manual of Catholic Theology, an abridged translation of Scheeben's Handbuch der katholischen Dog- matik (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1898), is an excellent treatise in English. Mohler, Symbolik, 2d ed. (Leipzig: Deichert, 1896; English translation, Symbolism [New York: Scribner, 1894]), gives a comparative study of Catholic and Protestant beliefs from the point of view of Catholicism. The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Rbbert Applet on) is a mine of information concerning Catholic opinions and positions. Protestant orthodoxy. — The student should realize that the essential features of Protestant orthodoxy are due to the inevitable apologetic debate with Catholicism during the early years of the growth of the new movement. Theo- logically, Protestantism shared the main presuppositions of the Catholicism which it opposed. It asserted that it was restoring in primitive purity the Christianity which Catholi- cism had corrupted. By making the Bible the sole authority, SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 497 Protestant theologians felt that they could authoritatively correct the errors of the Roman church. This appeal to the Bible is still supposed by most Protestant laymen to be the true way in which to discover the content of Christian belief. It is thus a source of serious perplexity to Christians generally if it is suggested that we cannot use the Bible in this formal way. The student who is familiar with bibhcal criticism and who has worked out a new method of determining the content of his belief is likely to forget the deep religious loyalty which clings to the traditional attitude toward the Bible. We must not make the cnistake of depreciating the sincerity and the moral earnestness which mark the devotion of a deeply religious orthodox soul. Such a person puts wil- Hngness to obey the truth higher than mere curiosity. He can make positive use of the accumulated momentum of centuries of consecrated Christian thinking. To understand and appreciate the inner spiritual power of orthodoxy is indis- pensable if one is to be able to stand in helpful relations to men during a transition stage of thinking. Nevertheless, the sudden disappearance of this type of theology from our foremost American divinity schools is a striking fact. Up to the last decade of the nineteenth century it was almost universally prevalent. Today the younger theologians nearly everywhere are adopting new conceptions of theology. When we recall how recently our divinity schools have made the change from the method of appeal to authority to the method of scientific investigation, it is not to be expected that laymen generally should be aware that there is any legiti- mate method of discovering Christian doctrines other than that which has prevailed in Protestant orthodoxy. It is especially important during the period of transition that ministers should be familiar with the older as well as with the newer theology, in order to interpret the meaning of religion to perplexed souls. Particularly should one be able to show that the change in method is not due to hostility to religion, 498 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION but rather to the desire to do more efhciently and accurately that which orthodoxy can no longer do in the presence of modern conditions of thought and life. Literature. — Standard treatises representing the system of Protestant orthodoxy are Hodge, Systematic Theology (New York: Scribner, 1872 and 1887); Shedd, Dogmatic Theology (New York: Scribner, 1888); Strong, Systematic Theology (New York: Armstrong, 1898; enlarged ed. in 3 vols., Philadelphia: Griffith & Rowland Press, 1907). The scholarly volume. Biblical and Theological Studies (New York: Scribner, 191 2), published by members of the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary, is especially valuable, because in it orthodox^ is expounded and defended against modern liberalism. F. H. Foster, A Genetic History of New England Theology (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1907), gives a detailed account of the characteristic American type of orthodoxy. McGiffert, Protestant Thought before Kant (New York: Scribner, 1911), furnishes an exceptionally keen analysis of the characteristics of ortho- doxy. "Liberal" orthodoxy. — If the method of appeal to authority is strictly carried out, the theologian is not at liberty to consult his own moral or spiritual inclinations. Doctrines are authoritatively prescribed. But in practice it has never been possible to ignore the human element. In one way or another the ideals of a theologian always find a place in his theology. The method of authority, however, insists that the validity of a doctrine is to be found in its biblical character rather than in its human appeal. If a theologian consciously attempts to raise human needs and ideals to a normative place in the construction of doctrine, he becomes "liberal." In proportion as he more definitely admits the claims of experience to a larger place he becomes more " liberal." Actually the "liberal " theologian is attempt- ing nothing new. Any vital theology must be convincing to men, and hence must meet the demands of experimental verification. But the "hberal" consciously recognizes that experience has a normative place in theologizing, whereas SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 499 the more orthodox man attempts to subject experience to the authority of the Bible or of sacred tradition. Liberal orthodoxy attempts to preserve both authoritative sanction and experimental testing. This involves many difficulties and compromises. Sometimes the statements of Scripture are so modernized as to meet the demands of present-day thinking; sometimes experience is subjected to an interpretation which gives it an essentially biblical aspect. The result is more or less vagueness and uncertainty in exposition. But such vagueness is inevitable in the stage of transition from one method to the other. If one remembers this fact, one will find in the mediating treatises of our day a gratifying amount of insight into the real religious problems of our life and many suggestive hints as to constructive doctrines. The appeal to Christian experience. — The motive under- lying modern attempts at theological reconstruction is the desire to allow the living experience of Christians today to find convincing expression. Over a century ago Schleiermacher introduced a new epoch in the history of religious thinking by defining theology as the interpretation of the experience ll^/vV of Christian men. Since his day this conception of the task has become increasingly dominant. But it is easier to formulate the general conception than to work it out in detail. Just what is a Christian " experience " ? How is it derived ? What are the philosophical factors which enter into it ? In recent years we have become aware of the social character of any experience. How much of the content of " Christian " doctrine is due to the social Zeitgeist? Can we trust "experience" in and of itself to continue to be "Chris- tian"? Such are some of the questions which arise as one comes to look more carefully at the implications of the appeal to' experience. The theological expositions which are most in favor at pres- ent are concerned to smooth the way for a quiet modification of orthodox views rather than to engage in a thorough-going 500 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION analysis of the problems involved. They are likely to pre- serve the form of an appeal to biblical authority; but the content of doctrine is found in those aspects of bibhcal ideals which are convincing to modern men. Thus the Bible is used as a suggestive aid to the discussion of modern questions rather than as an external authority. The way is thus being pre- pared for a theological method which shall start from an analysis of actual religious life rather than from prescribed doctrines found in the Bible. But ''liberal orthodoxy" does not as a rule see its way clear to adopt a consistently empirical method. ^ Literature. — Schleiermacher's Discourses on Religion (translation by Oman [London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1893]) should be read by every one who desires to master the problems of modern theology. His Der christliche Glaube has been admirably interpreted in paraphrase by Cross, The Theology of Schleiermacher (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1911). Typical works attempting to mediate as smoothly as possible the transition from the method of authority to that of interpreting Christian experience are Stearns, Present Day Theology (New York: Scribner, 1893); Clarke, Outlines of Christian Theology (New York: Scrib- ner, 1898); Brown, Christian Theology in Outline (New York: Scrib- ner, 1906) and Modern Theology and the Preaching of the Gospel (New York: Scribner, 19 14). An especially stimulating attempt to analyze experience and to base an evangelical theology upon it is well represented by Sabatier, Esquisse d'une philosophie de la religion (Pans: Fischbacher, 1897; English translation. Outlines of a Philosophy of Religion [New York: Potts, 1902]). Suggestive studies are found in King, Reconstruction in Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1901), and Theology and the Social Consciousness (New York: Macmillan, 1902). The Ritschlian theology. — The most important movement in Christian thought during the latter part of the nineteenth century was the development of the Ritschlian theology. It is impossible to read modern theological discussions intelli- gently without a knowledge of Ritschlianism. The essential characteristic of this type of theology is the appeal through SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 501 experience to the spiritual authority of that which produces Christian experience. Just what is it that makes a man a "Christian? Upon what does his experience depend for its existence ? If we can answer this question correctly, we shall be able to relate our convictions, not simply to the emo- tions and thoughts which dominate us, but to the objective source of these emotions and thoughts. It is here rather than in mere subjective states of mind that we are to find the ulti- mate basis for our theology. This conception of the task of theology has been of im- mense fruitfulness. It has compelled theologians to pass beyond the comparatively simple task of setting forth per- suasively whatever convictions chance lo characterize modern Christianity. It is necessary to inquire into the genesis of beliefs and thus to establish them on a scientific basis. A Christian theology, according to the Ritschhans, should limit itself to those convictions which actually grow out of the ^al relation of the behever to the historical Jesus. It is thus a description of actual experience, but at the same time it finds the norm for this experience in the revelation of God in Jesus. Every student should make a careful study of some Ritschlian treatise on theology, for he will here encounter an exactness of critical analysis and a clearness of aim which are largely lacking in the less critical popular expositions of current "liberal" theology. To read and digest such a book as Herrmann's The Christianas Communion with God will leave a lasting impression of the dignity and the religious possibihties of keenly critical theological discussion. The Ritschlian school has rendered great service in revealing so clearly the fact that scientific acuteness may go hand in hand with religious zeal. It is true that the particular theological solution furnished by this school is today being generally abandoned by the younger generation of theo- logians; but the method of a radically critical examination 502 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of the sources and the genesis of religious experience has gained widespread approval. The religious power of a critical theology has been demonstrated, and the way has been, opened for a more confident use of strictly scientific method in dealing with problems of belief. Literature. — The literature belonging to the Ritschlian movement is enormous. The student should consult the articles on Ritschl and the Ritschlian movement in such encyclopedias as the Herzog Realency- clopadie or Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart for bibliographies. The most important theological treatises are Ritschl, Die christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versohnung, 3d ed. (Bonn: Marcus, 1889; English translation of 2 vols, by Black and by Mackintosh and Macaulay, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation [Edinburgh: Edmonston, 1872; Clark, 1900]); Yitxrmaxm, Der Verkehr des Christen mit Gott (Stuttgart: Cotta, 1889, 4th ed., 1906; English translation by Stanyon, The Christian's Communion with God [London: Williams & Norgate, 1895]; English translation from the 4th German ed. by Stewart [London: Williams & Norgate, 1906]); Kaftan, Dogmatik (Freiburg: Mohr, 1897, 5th ed., 1909); Harnack, Das Wesen des Christentums (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1900; English translation by Saunders, What Is Christianity? [New York: Putnam, 1901]); Haering, Der christliche Glaube, 2d ed. (Calw: V ereinsbuchhandlung, 191 2; English translation by Dickie and Ferries, The Christian Faith [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1913]); Wendt, System der christlichen Lehre (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1906 and 1907); Lobstein, Essai d'une introduction a la dogmatique protestante (Paris: Fischbacher, 1896; English translation by A. M. Smith, Introduction to Protestant Dog- matics [Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1902]). Expositions of Ritschlianism by others are far less valuable to the student than the writings of the Ritschlian theologians. Good inter- pretations in English are Garvie, The Ritschlian Theology, (Edinburgh: Clark, 1899); Edgehill, Faith and Fact (London: Macmillan, 1910); Mozley, Ritschlianism (London: Nisbet, 1909); Swing, The Theology of Albrecht Ritschl (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1901). The modem-positive school of theology. — The influence of the Ritschlian appeal to experience has been so wide- spread that conservative theologians are generally coming to make more confident use of this appeal. The so-called modern-positive school in Germany frankly abandons the SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 503 older conception of deducing the content of Christianity from an objective source as such. It proposes to allow religious experience freely to test and interpret the content of revelation. But the^ representatives of this school believe that experience justifies us in retaining much more of the scriptural content of doctrine than is permitted by the Ritschlian theology. It is not the inner life of Jesus alone, but the total redemptive history recorded in the Bible and cul- minating in Christ, which constitutes the basis of faith. Thi^ school thus approximates more closely to orthodoxy in the content of theology, but in its method of testing doctrine frankly adopts the empirical ideal. It is thus primarily inter- ested in the Christianity of living experience rather than in the Christianity of a formally prescribed system. The student should note carefully the fact that here is an essentially conservative type of religious thinking which uses modern methods of inquiry. While the theologians of this school attempt to estabhsh the finahty of the "essentials" of the biblical doctrines, there is nothing in the method employed to prevent the modification of any religious idea in response to the demands of living faith. The influence of this type of theology is sure to be very great in popular thinking during the next few years. It commends itself to conservative minds just because it retains more of the content of ortho- doxy than does Ritschlianism. At the same time it makes men familiar with the open-minded processes of free inquiry, and thus leads to the adoption of an undogmatic attitude in theology. When once confidence in the newer method is established, the unfruitful polemic debates which are engen- dered by the mere appeal to authority will become a thing of the past. Conservative and liberal can then work together in friendly criticism for the better understanding of our real theological problems. Literature. — The article by Schian, entitled "Modern-positiv" in the encyclopedia Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, IV, 418, gives an 504 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION excellent account of the rise and activities of the party in Germany. A good bibliography is furnished here. The most important works for a student to know are Seeberg, Die Grundwahrheiten der christlichen Religion (Leipzig: Boehme, 1902, 5th ed., 1910; English translation by Thomson and Wallentin, The Fun- damental Truths of the Christian Religion [New York: Putnam, 1908]); Seeberg, Modern-positive Vortrdge (Leipzig: Boehme, 1906) and Zur systematischen Theologie (Leipzig: Boehme, 1905 and 1909); Beth, Die Moderne und die Prinzipien der Theologie (Berlin: Trowitzsch, 1907). The most vigorous English-speaking advocate of this theological position is Principal P. T. Forsyth, whose Yale lectures. Positive Preach- ing and the Modern Mind (New York: Armstrong, 1909), were evidently inspired by the German controversy. Mathews, The Gospel and the Modern Man (New York: Macmillan, 1910), reflects the general spirit of this type of theology, though he employs a more historical method. See also his article "A Positive Method for an Evangelical Theology," American Journal of Theology, XIII (January, 1909), 1-46. Theology and idealistic philosophy. — Another way of at- tempting to modernize theology is to transform the inherited doctrines into statements which gain their meaning from modern philosophy. It is well known that Greek philosophy supplied the basis for the doctrines of the ancient church. Should we not render to modern religion a similar service by employing modern philosophy? During the early part of the nineteenth century this was a favorite undertaking, and some of the most impressive systems of theology were wrought out by this method. This "medi- ating" theology (Vermittlungslheologie) translated inherited doctrines into modern philosophical form with as httle dis- turbance to faith as possible. Old terms were used, thus retaining the religious emotions associated with orthodoxy; while modern meanings were given to these terms, thus enlist- ing the intellectual interest of modern thinkers. Great as are the merits of this attempt, it is exposed to two serious objections. In the first place, it operates with philo- sophical concepts which are out of the reach of ordinary men. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS '505 It is thus in danger of being too abstruse to have convincing power among those who are not philosophically inclined. In the second place, those who are critically able to appreciate the use of philosophy are likely to discern striking differences between the content of doctrine set forth in the traditional dogmas and that advocated by the newer philosophy. The older theology depicted God as the transcendent Being who governs the world by decrees, and who acts through miracles for the important achievements of history. The newer philosophy conceives God as the immanent source of cosmic evolution, dynamically present in all reality. To attempt to intermingle these two points of view inevitably leads to confusion. The older religious attitude finds more direct and satisfying expression in a frankly orthodox system, while the newer attitude soon becomes impatient of the attempt to accommodate its meanings to a vocabulary which comes from an alien source. Thus during the latter part of the nineteenth century this type of theology steadily waned in importance. It is still a vigorous and optimistic movement, however. Literature. — Classic representatives of this idealistic theology are Dorner, System der Glaubenslehre (Berlin: Hertz, 1878; English trans- lation by Cave and Banks, A System of Christian Doctrine [Edinburgh : Clark, 1880]); Biedermann, Christliche Dogmatik (Berlin: Reimer, 1884); Pfleiderer, Grtmdriss der christlichen Glaubens- und Sittenlehrc (Berlin: Reimer, 1893). Among writings in English representing this theological attitude the following are important works: John Caird, The Fundamental Ideas of Christianity (Glasgow: MacLehose, 1904); Watson, Christianity and Idealism (New York: Macmillan, 1897) and The Philosophical Basis of Religion (Glasgow: MacLehose, 1907); Royce, The Problem of Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1913). More popular expositions of Christian ideals from this point of view are found in Hyde, Social Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1895); Gordon, The Ultimate Conceptions of Faith (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1904); Jones, Social Law in the Spiritual World (Philadelphia: Winston, 1904). 5o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION An attempt to show how the new philosophy may take the place of the Greek philosophy in modern theology is found in a suggestive study by Ten Broeke, A Constructive Basis for Theology (New York: Mac- millan, 19 14). The definition of Christianity from the historical point of view. — The historical study of religion makes it clear that the beliefs of any generation are determined partly by the ideals and maxims inherited from the preceding generation and partly by the necessity for thinking through the specific problems which are occasioned by the actual exigencies of Hfe. For example, we recognize that the beliefs of any given period in the history of Israel were due partly to the social inheritance furnished by tradition and partly to the original thinking of the living generation. In relating the theology of the Old Testament to the "experience" of the Israelites we also recognize that that "experience" was no vaguely subjec- tive thing. It was definitely determined by historical circum- stances. So, too, New Testament scholarship is seeking to show how the content of the Christianity of the first century was due to the specific historical conditions of religious think- ing and experience in that age. Now, what is true of the beliefs of the Israelites and of the early Christians is equally true of those of all generations. Every age has its own "Chris- tianity," the specific traits of which are due to the working over of inherited beliefs under the pressure of new problems. Just as we recognize Jewish Christianity and gentile Chris- tianity in the New Testament, so we recognize Nicene Chris- tianity, Augustinian Christianity, Lutheran Christianity, Pietistic Christianity, Modernist Christianity, and many other typical forms. There is no one fixed authoritative type. Christianity is always in the making. Each generation inherits certain behefs; but these beliefs are brought into relation with new conditions, and are subjected to criticism and reconstruction. If the historical conditions of life are not essentially different from those which prevailed when the SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 507 inherited doctrines were formulated, little or no modifica- tion is needed. If, as is the case with us today, the living generation is facing a host of new problems, the changes in theology will be much more radical. "Experience" is indeed the source of doctrines; but experience changes with the changing conditions of life. The value of this historical understanding of the nature of Christianity is very great. It at once relieves the student of the formaHty of trying to express his convictions in any stereotyped way. Moreover, it provides a definite "objec- tive" basis for theologizing. The great defect of many "lib- eral" theologies is their failure to give an objective basis for the "experience" to which they appeal. The historical point of view corrects this defect, and thus takes away the main adverse criticism of liberalism. Orthodoxy is strong because of its appreciation of the necessity for an olDJective control of experience; but it is weak because oTits inability to appreciate the positive significance of modern life. Liberal- ism is strong by virtue of its emphasis on the right of living faith to determine its own content; but it is often weak in failing to show the value of objective control. The historical I method of interpreting Christianity has the strength of both these positions without their weaknesses. If we conceive Christianity to be the living movement in which every. ''''^ generation is reworking its inherited beliefs into forms more potent to inspire and direct living men, the task of the theologian becomes clear. He is to appreciate the inherited beliefs in relation to the conditions which pro- duced them, and thus to feel the spiritual power of the Chris- tianity which found expression in these beliefs. He is then to analyze the problems which confront Christians today, and is to derive from this analysis an understanding of the best way in which the inheritance from the past may be trans- formed into a theology which shall enable men to live positively and to transmit to the next generation the inspiration of a .UiJ-'- 5o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION dynamic faith. Our beliefs are thus rooted in a vital relation to the past, but they receive adequate interpretation only as they are related to the needs of the present. Literature. — The full force of the historical point of view is only- beginning to be felt. Most definitions of Christianity still seek some non-historical "essence" which shall not be subject to the vicissitudes of historical change. An excellent survey of such attempts at definition is given in Brown, The Essence of Christianity (New York: Scribner, 1902). The contentions of the Catholic modernists are of great value to Protestant students who have been accustomed to depreciate the value of history. See especially The Programme of Modernism (New York: Putnam, 1908), and Loisy, The Gospel and the Church (New York: Scribner, 191 2). One of the clearest and best discussions of the developmental char- acter of Christianity is given by Case, The Evolution of Early Christianity, chap, i (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1914)- See also Pfleiderer, Evolution and Theology (London: Black, 1900); Troeltsch, "Was heisst Wesen des Christentums ? " in Die Christliche Welt, 1903, cols. 443 fif.; and Die Absolutheit des Christentums und die Religions- geschichte (Tubingen: Mohr, 1902; 2d ed., 1912). Outlines of a theological method based on this historical point of view are given by Troeltsch, "The Dogmatics of the Religions geschicht- liche Schule," American Journal of Theology, X.YU (January, 1913), 1-21; and G. B. Smith, "The Task and Method of Systematic Theology," American Journal of Theology, XIV (April, 1910), 215-33; see also G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: 'Macmillan, 1913); Johnson, God in Evolution, chap, ii (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1911). III. THE MAIN DOCTRINAL PROBLEMS What is the meanmg of religion?— For the type of theology which finds the content of doctrine in an authorized system the primary question must be as to the validity of this authority. Thus the authenticity of Scripture must be established by orthodox theology before one is scientifically justified in deriving doctrines from Scripture. If, however, we regard doctrines as the creations of religious thmking for SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 509 the purpose of interpreting religious experience, the first task of the theologian must be to inquire concerning the nature of religious experience. This approach to the study of theology was initiated over a century ago by Schleiermacher, whose famous Discourses on Religion are today as stimulating and suggestive as anything which one may read on the subject of religion. The student of modern theology should reahze that his primary task is to understand the vital nature and function of religion. If interest is once aroused in this direct subject- matter, many of the formal topics of theological controversy — such as discussions concerning the exact location of "author- ity"— cease to be of importance. One is thus free to address himself to the immediate problems of our real religious life. Fortunately the student of theology today may avail him- self of numerous admirable studies of the nature and function of religion. It is true that these investigations are usually made in the realm of non-Christian religions, for it has been possible to employ the methods of scientific inquiry here with- out encountering theological prejudice. There is at all events a certain advantage in looking at the field of religion objectively in realms where personal emotion does not play so large a part. When one has learned to appreciate the significance of historical evolution in the case of other religions, one will have received a training which is invaluable in overcoming the dogmatic attitude in the case of Christianity. The study of the nature of rehgion should by all means include the reading of the utterances of religious souls in the form of prayers, meditations, appeals to God, exhortations to men, and the like. No reading of a second-hand account of a religion can furnish the direct impression of its power which comes from the original utterances of a devout soul. Such a book as James's Varieties of Religious Experience shows a method by which one may recover the inner meaning of religion. If one comes to appreciate the intense reality of 5IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION such aspirations and struggles as find expression in utterances of personal religious conviction, one will be preserved from the mistake of attempting to deal with doctrines in an external, formal fashion. Literature. — ^Toy, Introduction to the History of Religions (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1913), gives nearly forty pages of comprehensive bibliog- raphy. Schleiermacher, Reden fiber die Religion (published first in 1799; English translation by Oman, On Religion [London: Kegan Paul, 1893]), is a classic which every student should know. Of recent works the following are especially suggestive: Tiele, Elements of the Science of Religion (New York: Scribner, 1899); James-, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1902); Bousset, Das Wesen der Religion (Tubingen: Mohr, 1906; English translation by Low, What Is Religion? [New York: Putnam, 1907]); 'Hoiidmg, Philosophy of Religion (L^''^^^'^'- Macmillan, 1906); Eucken, Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion (Leipzig: Veit, 1901; English translation by Jones, The Truth of Religion [New York: Putnam, 191 1]); Ames, The Psychology of Religious Experience (Boston: Hough- ton Mifflin Co., 1910); King, The Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910); Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience (New Haven: Yale University Press, 191 2). ^ Religion as a problem of cosmic adjustment. — Religion is an experience of vital unity with the great forces in environ- ment upon which life is ultimately dependent. It brings the most significant enlargement of experience. It is this enrichment of life which is important. Doctrines and rituals are means to this end. The doctrines of religion vary with varying conceptions of the nature of our environment. Where animism prevails, religion will take the form of propi- tiating a host of spirits. Where environment is philo- sophically conceived, rehgion takes the form of a mystic understanding of the significance of one's unity with the ultimate reality. To feel the wonder and. the mystery of this experience of cosmic adjustment is essential if one is to interpret religion aright. When theology becomes exclusively devoted to doc- trines as such, it becomes dry and formal. Doctrines must SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 511 always be viewed as means of interpreting the attempt of man to find a sense of vital unity between his life and the power which works unseen in the world upon which man is dependent. Let the student always remember that the real test of value in a theology is not so much its logical completeness, or its philosophical consistency, as its ability to furnish ideas and interpretations which enable men to realize the experience of satisfactory adjustment to the cosmic reality on which they are dependent. Now, men cannot employ in their religious quest cosmic ideas which are scientifically absurd. When one has come to abandon animism, a theology which proclaims the necessity of dealing with spirits and devils is impossible. The theology of the Bible employs some cosmic ideas which we today have outgrown. To continue to embody these ideas in a modern theology means to make such a theology useless for the reli- gious life of all who do not hold a pre-scientific conception of the world. The student must seek to express the vital rela- tions of religious experience in such a way as to enable men to pursue the religious quest in the environment which is real to them. For example, before entering upon a discussion of the problem of miracles, one should ask whether the idea of mir- acle is one which we actually employ in our thought of the activities of the universe. If we cannot invoke the aid of miracles today, modern religion will ignore miracles and will lay primary stress on those aspects of cosmic reality which are active factors in our life. The student should constantly remember that the purpose of theology is not to discuss scholastic questions — and any question which has no immedi- ate relation to our life-problems is scholastic — but rather to furnish conceptions which are helpful in establishing vital relations with the unseen forces of the universe. Doctrines which do not furnish this help are worse than useless; they are burdens which hamper and discourage men. A modern theology must face the problem of finding a rightful home for 512 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the spiritual aspirations of the soul in the universe which we moderns know. Literature. — Schleiermacher's Discourses on Religion, already men- tioned in other connections, is a classic expression of modern religious aspirations. Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience (New Haven: Yale University Press, 19 12), is especially suggestive on this aspect of religion. Other good discussions are Herrmann, Die Religion im Verhdltniss sum Welterkennen und zur Sittlichkeit (Halle: Niemeyer, 1879); Eucken, Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion (Leipzig: Veit, 1901; English trans- lation by Jones, The Truth of Religion [New York: Putnam, 191 1]); Foster, The Function of Religion in Man^s Struggle for Existence (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). A suggestive analysis is given by Watson, "The Logic of Religion," American Journal of Theology, XX (January and April, 1916), 81-101 and 244-65. The social and ethical significance of religion. — If cosmic forces are believed to be capricious, religion will be full of fear and superstition. If these cosmic forces can be believed to be subject to an ethical purpose, religion itself becomes ethical in content. This ethical emphasis is one of the striking characteristics of Christianity. If we can feel assured that the social and ethical values which we most prize in our earthly life are sustained by the cosmic order, we have a religion which is ethically satisfactory. Christian theology has been conspicuously successful in harmonizing the ethical and the cosmic aspects of spiritual life. Indeed, so completely has it laid emphasis on moral conceptions that it is constantly in danger of being conceived solely in terms of ethics. Important as is this moral emphasis, the student should not forget the fundamental problem of our cosmic welfare. Religion brings to the moral endeavors of man the reinforcement of a cosmic faith. Christianity insists on both the cosmic and the ethical aspects of religious experi- ence. The unfortunate consequence of allowing either of these elements to be sacrificed may be observed in Hinduisrh, where social aspirations have been eliminated by a highly SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 513 mystical type of religious speculation, and in Confucianism, where ethics has found no adequate cosmic support, and hence has been supplemented by superstitions with a cosmic appeal. The task of Christian theology is to bring out the implica- tions of its unified cosmic-ethical ideals. Literature. — Kant is the classic exponent of the religion of pure morality. His Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft trans- lated Christianity into ethics. The Ritschlian school of theologians has followed Kant in this emphasis, but has stressed the need of redemption from our moral defects. Recent interpretations of religion almost exclusively in terms of moral and social values are given by Hoffding, Philosophy of Religion (London: Macmillan, 1906); Ames, The Psy- chology of Religious Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1910); and King, The Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910). The Christian doctrine of God. — Christian theology has summed up the content of religious faith in its doctrine that man's fate in the universe is in the control of a morally perfect God, who shapes events according to the demands of absolute righteousness. Thus one's happy adjustment to the forces of the universe involves moral fidelity; and, on the other hand, one's moral efforts have cosmic significance. The new cosmic consciousness. — ^The doctrine of God has been traditionally expressed in terms derived from a con- ception of the universe which modern science has modified. God was thought of as a transcendent sovereign, whose "decrees" must be obeyed by all nature. These decrees took the form of "laws" of nature, which might at any time be "suspended" if the purposes of the sovereign demanded a miracle. Man's religious history depended upon a series of "dispensations," the last and highest of which was intro- duced by Christ. "Special providences" might be expected in human experience. It was believed that this world is eventually to be brought to a sudden end by a cosmic catas- trophe deliberately brought about by the divine will. God was thus pictured in anthropomorphic terms, and his relation 514 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION to the world and to man was represented as a matter deter- mined only by his sovereign will. Today we face a universe of unimaginable extent in space and in time. We explain its structure and its behavior in terms of immanent forces rather than by reference to an anthropomorphic will. No longer do we seek the aid of personal cosmic spirits in practical life. Exorcism, which was so prominent a function of early Christian activity, no longer exists among us. Science is everywhere using impersonal ideas in explaining the universe. The anthropomorphism of former days is inapplicable to our present situation. In response to this new cosmic consciousness many of the former characteristics of the doctrine of God have vanished or have been radically modified. The Calvinistic doctrine of "decrees" is becoming a theological curiosity. The idea of "creation" has been merged into the vaguer conception of evolution, where the exact extent of the divine activity is uncertain. Miracles are now "problems" rather than un- doubted realities. The conception of God is thus imdergoing a reconstruction, in response to the pressure of the new cosmic ideas. In this reconstruction men are likely to become be- wildered. It will be helpful if the student can keep in mind one or two significant aspects of the theological problem which deserve especial mention. The religious problem distinguished from the metaphysical problem. — It is confusing to find the word " God" employed in two very different senses. It is used by philosophers to indi- cate the metaphysical ultimate, and it is used by religious men to signify the spiritual life with which man may have personal communion.] The history of religion shows that the gods of religious faith are not necessarily identical with the cosmic ultimate. Indeed, it is quite possible to have a religion in which the object of worship is a spirit working within the cosmos somewhat as man works within it. Practical religion demands a God who will actually help man in his life. God SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 515 must be "good" in the sense that he takes sides against the evil in the world. Now, philosophy is concerned to discover a metaphysical ultimate which will include iii its higher unity all the disparate aspects of the world. The "God" of the philosopher must include all aspects of reality, both what we call good and what we call bad. This metaphysical ultimate thus becomes too remote to be "touched with the feeHng of our infirmities." The problem of evil is solved by showing a metaphysical way of transmuting supposed evil into actual good. But practical religion longs for a God who will take sides against evil and insure the victory of the good. In the interests of practical religion much recent theology has attempted to push the metaphysical problem into the background. The Ritschhan theology insisted on banishing all metaphysics from religious doctrine just because of the colorless character of the "God" of philosophical speculation. Professor James, with his keen sensitiveness to the practical exigencies of life, suggested a "plurahstic universe," in which God should be conceived as a particular being alongside of other beings. On the other hand, men like Professor Royce attempt to introduce into the conception of the philosophical Absolute a real sympathy with finite occurrences. These movements are indications of the practical emphasis of religion, and their significance should be appreciated by the Christian theologian. Some questions concerning the nature of God. — The construction of a doctrine of God should always be guided by the religious interest. Religion is concerned to affirm the possibility of a vital spiritual relationship in which the soul of man feels that it has a rightful home in the universe. The traditional doctrines concerning God should be critically examined, first, in order to see how they grew up in response to the demand for a vehicle of thought adequate to interpret the full significance of religious experience, and, secondly, in order to ask whether these doctrines are still capable of 5i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION promoting our worship. These practical inquiries will pre- vent one from going astray into fields of metaphysical specu- lation which are religiously barren. For example, instead of regarding the doctrine of the Trinity as a theological- metaphysical puzzle to be solved by some sort of acute logic, the student should ask what function the doctrine served in the religious faith of the age in which it was wrought out. What were the problems of that time which led men to feel such concern over the matter ? A study of the doctrine in this historical fashion will disclose certain presuppositions and certain religious ideas of the third century which demanded the discussion of the nature of God in terms of "essence." But do our presuppositions today and our religious problems lead us to be interested in the definition of the divine "es- sence"? Only after this has been determined can we know the significance of the doctrine of the Trinity for modern faith. Most polemic discussions of today are theologically useless just because they do not raise this fundamental ques- tion. In particular, the student should remember that our inherited doctrine of God was formulated under the influ- ence of political ideas which have been modified in important ways in modern times. The phrase "the sovereignty of God" harks back to the days of belief in the divine right of kings. But today we believe in a democratic form of government which allows citizens to call rulers to account. If criticism is a valuable moral asset in our political life, can we exclude it from religious thinking ? May we not demand that God shall be required to receive the moral approval of men ? This spirit of democracy with its insistence on the rights of men is responsible for the current protests against such ideas as that God has a right to elect some to salvation and to pass others by; or that he has a right to insist on some rigid "plan of salvation" purely because he has chosen this rather than any other plan; or that he forbids men to apply SYSTEMATIC 'i;HEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 517 critical tests to the Bible. Men who believe in democracy insist on worshiping a God whose excellence is to be found, not in an aristocratic " sovereignty," but rather in a self-sacrificing identification of himself with his children in their endeavors after righteousness. The '' immanence" of God is thus a leading conception of modern theology. But religiously this immanence does not mean mere essential pantheism — this would be a metaphysical rather than a religious con- ception. It means rather the thought of God as the untiring co-worker with men, always dynamically present in their spiritual endeavors. It is evident that the language of traditional theology, taken, as it is, largely from a political philosophy which we have outgrown, is not suitable to bring out the full meaning of modern religious faith. The constructive work of theology must be in the direction of discovering ideas which will rein- force our actual religious experience in a democratic world. This problem, unfortunately, has not yet been generally grasped by theologians. Most current discussions, recognizing* that there are difficulties in the way of holding the older conception of God, seek to meet these difficulties by resorting to modern philosophy as an aid to reconstruction. Theology thus is diverted into a consideration of the metaphysical rather than the religious problem. Only a persistent determina- tion to base critical reconstruction on the actual demands of religious faith can give the insight which is needed for the construction of a theology as contrasted with a philosophy of religion. The latter is essential; but it cannot serve as the working faith of a worshiping community. Moreover, in so far as the doctrine of God has been philo- sophically interpreted, it has embodied the -metaphysics of the ancient Greek world. But modern philosophy has engaged in radical criticism of this metaphysics. Whereas Platonism sought to define God so as to remove him completely from the changes and accidents of our finite world, thus making 5i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION transcendence of primary importance, modern philosophy is employing dynamic and evolutionary conceptions, thus involving God in the movement of the universe. Thus the influence of philosophy as well as that of political thinking leads away from the fundamental categories of the older con- ception of God. A vital faith during theological reconstruction. — If the criticism of traditional theology is inspired by the desire to make doctrine more directly and efficiently serviceable in the promotion of the religious life, the process of criticism itself comes to have a religious meaning. Even if one has not yet found an adequate conception of God, one can feel the enrichment of life which comes from living and thinking and aspiring in relation to the worshipful aspects of environ- ment. Faith may thus actually flourish during a period of intellectual doubt and questioning. By relating doctrines to the religious needs of men one centers attention on the primary reality of the quest of men after God. So long as this quest is real and earnest, one's discussion of theology will always be vital and will always serve as a practical basis for prayer and for faith, whether one has reached satisfactory doctrinal statements or not. Perhaps no greater servige could be rendered today than to persuade men of the positive significance of a questioning faith. It may be religiously more fruitful than the kind of faith which believes itself to be in possession of final doctrines. Such a faith is contributing to the better doctrines of the future. Literature. — For the historical development of the Christian doctrine of God see Gwatkin, The Knowledge of God (Edinburgh: Clark, 1906). For readable presentations of a conception which preserves the Chris- tian ideal in the light gi modern ideas see Clarke, The Christian Doctrine of God (New York: Scribner, 1909) ; Harris, God, the Lord and Creator of All (New York: Scribner, 1897); and Clarke, Can I Believe in God the Father? (New York: Scribner, 1899). The critical and philosophical problems involved in the doctrine are well treated in Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience (New SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 519 Haven: Yale University Press, 1912); Royce and Howison, The Con- ception of God (New York: Macmillan, 1897); and Wobbermin, Der christliche Gottesglaube in seinem Verhdltniss zur heutigen Philosophic und Naturwissenschaft, 2d ed. (Berlin: Duncker, 1907). Adverse criticisms of the traditional identification of God with the metaphysical Absolute are found in McTaggart, Some Dogmas of Religion (London: Arnold, 1906); James, Pragmatism (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1907), and A Pluralistic Universe (New York: Long- mans, Green, & Co., 1909); and Johnson, God in Evolution (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 191 1). Suggestive accounts of the reasons why the traditional doctrine of God needs revision are found in McGiffert, The Rise of Modern Religious Ideas, chaps, x-xii (New York: Macmillan, 1915), and G. B. Foster, The Function of Religion in the Struggle for Existence (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). Ten Broeke in the latter portion of A Constructive Basis for Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1914) shows what a fruitful use of modern philosophy may be made by the theologian. What do we mean by salvation? — The need of keeping actual religious experience and its demands constantly in mind becomes especially evident in treating the doctrine of salvation. If one begins with an a priori conception of the "plan of salvation," one is certain to find one's self dealing with abstractions. The traditional soteriology presupposed the historicity of Adam's fall and started from the assumption that mankind needs to be saved primarily from the taint inherited from Adam. But modern anthropology has dis- credited this way of determining the nature of man and of sin. Moreover, the traditional doctrine of atonement em- bodied conceptions of penalty and of sati^action which are being abandoned in modern criminology and penology. We cannot attribute to God a method of dealing with delinquency which would be condemned if practiced in our courts of justice. For example, to insist dogmatically, as an a priori principle, that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin" is both foolish and futile in an age which has abandoned the conception of bloody sacrifice, and which is loudly demanding the abolition of capital punishment. To 520 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION talk emotionally about ''sin" in the abstract without any adequate psychological analysis of moral consciousness means to encourage artificiality in religion. The student must, if he is to work out in this realm convictions with moral power, rigidly compel himself to abandon the method of mere rhetorical exposition of traditional ideas, adopting instead the method of honestly asking what the evils of our life are and how we may hope for deliverance from their bondage. The need of a broader conception of salvation. — Men need to be saved from mental perplexity and despair as truly as they need to be saved from sin. Many pastors and teachers deal with doubt as if it necessarily involved moral delinquency. Fortunately, we are coming to see that much of the doubt of our day is due to a fine sense of personal honor in dealing with religious beliefs, involving the willingness to endure suffering if need be rather than be guilty of the slightest falsehood in reference to religious truths. There are hosts of well-intentioned persons today whose religious life has been made uncertain because of honest doubt induced by modern education. Such persons can no longer think in terms of the traditional creeds. They live consciously in relation to the complex world of modern scientific thought rather than in relation to the cosmos depicted in the Bible. With the dis- crediting of the older doctrines they often suffer spiritual agonies. To call this typical religious need of our day "sin" is hopelessly to misunderstand the problem of "salvation" in such instances* To be "saved" here means to find new ideas which may both express the honest convictions of one who lives in the modern world and lift one into the con- sciousness of communion with God. Only an inductive study of this characteristic experience of religious doubt can furnish one with data upon which to construct a theory of salvation. Literature. — Such an autobiographical sketch as Sir Edmund Gosse's Father atid Son (New York: Scribner, 1907) is an invaluable means of appreciating the situation. See also Van Dyke, The Gospel for an Age of SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 521 Doubt (New York: Macmillan, 1897); Romanes, Thoughts on Religion, 2d ed. (Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1896); Wimmer, My Struggle for Light (New York: Putnam, 1903). Of far more importance than the attempt to deal with this t3^e of experience theoretically is the task of knowing the critical scholarship which makes the older doctrines unsatisfactory. The critical historical study of the New Testament, for example, or an acquaintance with the sociological method of interpreting human life, will bring one to a realization of the importance of the problem above outlined. The problem of sin. — In dealing with the conception of sin it is imperative likewise to use the inductive method. Too often it has been taken for granted that the experience of Paul or Augustine or Luther is typical. Can this experience be universaHzed ? Is it to be expected that every soul will pass through so dramatic a crisis ? Theologically, sin has been measured not so much with reference to the experience of the individual as against the infinity of God. If this interpreta- tion be too logically carried out, there is danger that God will seem to be less charitable than good men, and the moral value of the interpretation is thus lost. Let^e student ask empirically the question why sin actu- ally exists in human life. Psychology and social science furnish valuable insight here. What are the actual facts con- cerning heredity? Is moral delinquency due primarily to what we inherit ? Or is it due largely to the social environ- ment and to the education which the individual receives ? In view of the facts established by sociology, can we treat sin entirely in terms of individual conduct and responsibihty ? - How much does an enfeebled body have to do with moral - delinquency ? How far are overcrowding and undernourish- " ment responsible for low moral standards? If such facts as are suggested by the foregoing questions are considered, how ought a doctrine of sin to be formulated ? No theological student has any right to ignore the imperative necessity for a radical reconstruction of the doctrine of sin in the light of modem knowledge. 52 2 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION When once the facts are clearly seen, the student will dis- cover that, instead of minimizing the emphasis of Christianity on sin, he must face a terribly complex and powerful realm of evil which holds men in wrongdoing. Every individual is bound by physical and by social conditions to realities which thwart his moral purposes. Poor eyesight or adenoids may so exclude a child from normal conditions of activity as to induce hopelessness and passionate attempts to find relief through lawlessness or trickery. Employees may be com- pelled by industrial conditions to do dishonest work, knowing that it is dishonest. Even the church member may be deriv- ing his income from the proceeds of iniquity, if he is ignorant as to the exact nature of his investments. A man who honestly desires to be a disciple of Jesus finds the hindrances to discipleship to be so many and so serious that the need for salvation is keenly felt. The frank recognition of these real foes of the good life brings a much more convincing knowledge of the sinful life than is the attempt to trace our ills to an inheritance from Adam. The realization of the. facts which everyone ought to know is sufficient to produce an earnest longing for deliverance. Literature. — The familiar theological doctrine of sin is thoroughly treated in Tennant, The Origin and Propagation of Sin (Cambridge: University Press, 1902); Robinson, The Christian Doctrine of Man (Edinburgh: Clark, 19 11); and Orchard, Modern Theories of Sin (London: Clarke, 1909). R. Mackintosh, Christianity and Sin (New York: Scribner, 1914), gives a very complete bibliography. The empirical point of view, dealing with moral facts of our modern life rather than with adjustments of the traditional theological doctrine, is vigorously represented in Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907); Ross, Sin and Society (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1907); Vedder, The Gospel of Jesus and the Prob- lems of Democracy (New York: Macmillan, 1914). Attempts at a constructive statement from this point of view are found in Hyde, Sin and Its Forgiveness (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909), and G. B. Smith, in Burton, Smith, and Smith, Biblical Ideas of Atonement, chap, xiii (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 523 The interpretation of salvation in terms of supernaturalism. — The spiritual deliverance which a man finds through religious experience is so wonderful when contrasted with the evils which weigh us down that it has very generally been interpreted in terms of a supernatural change. The Catholic regards the sacraments as the miraculous means of saving man; Protestantism has emphasized trust in a supernaturally revealed ''Word of God," and in evangelistic circles has insisted upon a crisis in experience so unusual as to demand a supernatural explanation. The student should be on his guard lest a discussion of supernaturalism be thrust into the foreground and distract attention from the facts of the religious life. It often happens that men who have come to question the adequacy of supernaturahstic interpretations have been led to doubt the possibiUty of a vital religious expe- rience of salvation. It is important to recognize that super- naturalism is only one way of explaining the facts. The conception of religious experience as a natural devel- ment. — Today we are coming more and more to think of religion as a normal and natural experience. Those who con- fuse experience with its doctrinal interpretation are greatly perplexed by this tendency, for it seems like abandoning fundamental realities of Christianity. But the history of religion has made us aware that, so far as the supernaturahstic details of a doctrine of salvation are concerned, these appear .in various forms in pagan religions as well as in Christianity. Sacrifices to appease the deity, incarnations to bring the deity to help mankind, the suffering of a savior-god to bring redemp- tion, sacraments with regenerating power, and mystical exaltation to a sense of oneness with God — ^these may all be found in non-Christian religions. The distinctive qualities of Christian salvation must be looked for in the kind of moral and religious character produced by Christian faith. Now, the kind of character which we call Christian may be developed in an entirely "natural" way. A child may grow 524 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION up in a Christian family and never know a time when he was not trying to appreciate and appropriate the Christian Hfe to the best of his abihty. In such a case one is more conscious of the spiritual influence of Christian people today than he is of supernatural interventions. Religious life more important than doctrine. — It is to be feared that more attention is usually paid to the formal doc- - trines of salvation than to the reaHties of the religious life. For a vital understanding of the religious hfe Augustine's Concessions are far more important than his anti-Pelagian theology. Luther's sermons and his Tahle-Talk reveal evan- gelical religion better than the later Protestant formulations of the doctrine of justification. Anselm's doctrine of satis faction is really an utterance of speculative apologetics in- spired by current political ideas rather than an interpretation of rehgious experience. Let the student learn to seek direct testimonies of the saving power of God. Let him remem- ber that to begin with an elaboration of a "doctrine" of atonement or of regeneration before one has undertaken to appreciate the facts of our religious life means to spend time in barren scholastic discussions. The need of a revised theological vocabulary. — ^It is characteristic of our day that men are seeking to get rid of the scholasticism which inevitably accompanies a mere deductive method in theology. We are attempting to define salvation in terms of inner spiritual attainments rather than in relation to some external "transaction.'^ The life of Jesus becomes the standard by which we estimate both the need of salvation and the power of Jesus to save men. But the inertia of theological thinking tends to conserve terms which have had a vital significance in relation to realities of former days, but which are artificial in our own day. To insist upon a doc- trine of bloody sacrifice in an age which has completely abandoned such sacrifices in actual life serves no purpose save to confuse men. To describe the "work" of Christ by the SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 525 traditional titles of "prophet," "priest," and "king" involves the use of terms which have largely ceased to function in actual life today. The Ritschlian theology furnishes an especially good illustration of the laborious explanations and reinterpretations which are necessary if one employs terms belonging to an outgrown culture to interpret the meaning of Jesus in relation to a different culture. The student of theology should recognize the danger of artificiality which lurks in the use of outgrown terms. The most suggestive expositions of the doctrine of salvation today are adopting conceptions which are significant in our modem life. The so-called "moral influence" or "vital" theories of the atonement represent attempts to find analogies in our best spiritual life which may serve to interpret our relation to Jesus. We are coming more and more to adopt the empirical attitude which cares more for facts than for labels. The student should constantly ask himself such questions as the following: Just what are the evils from which we need to be saved ? Is terror at the wrath of God the most real evil of which we are conscious ? If not, are we interpreting religious experience adequately by a doctrine of salvation which presupposes that the work of Christ was primarily to satisfy God ? Are not the transformation of human ideals and the stimulation of new spiritual power primary ends ? What about the social and industrial cir- cumstances which are responsible for so much sin and misery in our modern world ? Are we setting forth a doctrine of sal- vation which includes the way of release from these evils ? If one has felt the blighting consequences of modern materiahstic philosophy, can his salvation be expressed in a doctrine formulated before men were aware of the immensity and the uniformity of our universe ? Have we done justice to the inner life of Jesus, with its spiritual victory over the demoraliz- ing forces which everywhere assail humanity ? Ought not this as well as his crucifixion to receive adequate interpreta- 526 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION tion? The persistent endeavor to meet the facts of our actual experience and to judge the efficacy of any theory of salvation in the light of those facts will go far to save one from formalism and from the undesirable habit of mere rhetorical adaptation of famihar phrases to changed con- ditions. There is a great constructive task in this field of doctrine which has not yet been adequately undertaken. Literature. — The most significant recent works on the doctrine of salvation have attempted to interpret the significance of the work of Christ so as to do justice to our modern ethical and spiritual ideals. Stevens, The Christian Doctrine of Salvation (New York: Scribner, 1905), gives an excellent survey of the history of the doctrine and a criticism of recent treatises. Another good historical survey is by Sabatier, La Doc- trine de r expiation et son evolution historique (Paris: Fischbacher, 1904; English translation by Leuliette, The Doctrine of the Atonement and Its Historical Evolution [New York: Putnam, 1904]). Important treatises are those by J. McLeod Campbell, The Nature of the Atonement and Its Relation to the Remission of Sins (London and New York: Macmillan, 1855; 6th ed., 1895); A. Ritschl, Die christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versohnung, 3d ed. (Bonn: Marcus, 1889; English translation of 2 vols, by Black and by Mackintosh and Macaulay, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation [Edinburgh: Edmonston, 1872; Clark, 1900]); Bushnell, The Vicarious Sacrifice (New York: Scribner, 1866); Dale, The Atonement (London: Congregational Union, 1875; 14th ed., 1892); Denney, The Atonement and the Modern Mind, 3d ed. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910). A good selected bibliography is found in Burton, Smith, and Smith, Biblical Ideas of Atonement (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). The relation between the conception of salvation and the doctrine of the person of Christ. — The historical method of interpretation reveals to us the close relation between the religious ideals of an age and the significance which it assigns to Christ. Christian faith has always attempted to discover in the character of Jesus precisely those 'qualities which are necessary for the salvation of men. The early Christians, looking for salvation in terms of the advent of the messianic kingdom, found the primary significance of Jesus in his SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 527 messiahship. The Christians of the Nicene period, conceiving salvation to consist in the transformation of corruptible human nature by divine power, declared that the important thing about Christ was his divine "nature." Mediaeval doctrine and early Protestant theology, dominated by forensic ideas, set forth the work of Christ in concepts taken from current penology. Our own age, interested as it is in the education and the inner maturity of the spirit, is calling attention to the spiritual resources of the inner hfe of Jesus. In order to study intelhgently the doctrine of the person and work of Jesus Christ, one must take into account the practical inter- ests of religion which make men eager to discover in Jesus precisely the qualities which they are conscious of needing for dehverance from evil. The necessity for eliminating some a priori considerations, — The problem of interpreting the significance of Jesus for Christian faith is complicated because of certain apologetic interests. Since the older appeal to the Bible as an "abso- lute" revelation has been modified, theologians have generally transferred to Christ the emphasis on absoluteness which formerly was put upon the Bible. Just as the a priori belief in the infallibility of Scripture leads to the strong desire to find in the Bible that which one believes to be absolutely true, regardless of historical considerations, so the apologetic purpose of declaring Christ to be the absolute and final revela- tion leads men to feel that they ought to find in his character precisely those traits which modern men believe to be essential in an ideal person. The student must take especial care to test and verify christological statements just because of this strong apologetic interest in the formulation of the doctrine. Itjs not necessary to trace every valuable element of Chris- tianity back to Jesus. What are the historical facts concerning Jesus? — Mani- festly an accurate statement of the character of Jesus must rest on a knowledge of the historical facts concerning him. 528 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION But at this point students are just now compelled to face a serious difficulty. At present historical criticism of the sources of our information is at a stage of investigation where the inadequacy of former interpretations is clearly seen; but great uncertainty exists as to many important historical details. We are compelled to acknowledge that in the exist- ing state of historical criticism we simply do not know many things which we should like to know. The Synoptic Gospels represent beliefs which had been shaped by the theological questionings of thirty or forty years. The New Testament writers were primarily concerned to use the traditions regard- ing Jesus in such a way as to derive satisfactory answers to the religious problems which confronted them. Powerful selective theological influences thus determined the content of the gospel narratives. Can we with any degree of cer- tainty press back of the definitely conditioned beliefs of the early Christians so as to obtain satisfactory answers to the questions which we moderns want to ask ? The distinction between the historical question and the theological question. — The student is likely to approach the problem of formulating a Christology with the presupposition that if the exact teachings of the New Testament concerning Jesus can be ascertained all that a modern theologian has to do is to expound these teachings in the form of a connected and logical doctrine. But historical criticism shows us that the New Testament writings are themselves the products of theo- logical interests. They reflect the religious ideals of the first century. Later forms of Christology reflected later ideals, and our Christology will inevitably embody our own ideals. Now, since the task of modern theology is admittedly to inter- pret the realities of our experience in the light of all that his- tory and criticism can furnish, the student of theology need not feel completely discouraged because he must leave many historical questions so largely unsolved. The task for theol- ogy is simply to use all means at our disposal to appreciate SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 529 the significance of Jesus for men of today. Our peculiar religious interests will lead us to discern elements in the re- ported deeds and words of Jesus which were largely overlooked by men of former days. For example, the early Christians were not at all interested in the private life of Jesus. They selected and treasured in their doctrine those traits which enabled them to believe him to be the Messiah who would soon come on the clouds in glory. But time has proved that eschatological^ expectation to have been mistaken. We are no longer looking ^ for the cure of our social evils by miraculous catastrophe. Our theology will therefore properly disregard the millenarian elements of the early Christian faith. On the other hand, we are eager to find a religious dynamic which shall enable men confidently and steadily to work together with God for the gradual reconstruction of our social order. Hence we properly ask whether the life of Jesus may not yield inspiration here. It is the task of a modern Christology to relate Jesus to this modern religious interest as former Christologies have related their statements concerning Jesus to the exigencies of the religious life of their own times. The changed interpretation of Jesus. — Since the mil- lenarian solution of social ills involved the belief that miracu- lous intervention is God's way of saving the world, it was natural that the character and the work of Jesus should be interpreted in terms of miracle. But if we have come to think of God's purpose as something which is slowly wrought out with the co-operation of men, we cannot do justice to our belief in Jesus by interpreting his character in terms of a supernaturalism which separates him from humanity. If God is to be found in the age-long purpose of righteousness steadily working through the processes of cosmic and human evolution, our doctrine of Christ will lay stress on the same activities and attributes which we affirm of God. This means that to withdraw Jesus from the "natural" order would be to leave him unrelated to the realm in which we find God 530 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION working. If our faith affirms God in the world, faith will also discover the divinity of Jesus in the world rather than in some other-worldly origin. Consequently we find today a growing appreciation of the life of Jesus in this world and a lessening emphasis on such matters as the virgin birth or the supernatural "nature," which find their meaning only in a conception of religion which defines God primarily in terms of transcendence. The need of a positive understanding of the new interest. — The student is likely to be distracted in his study of Chris- tology by the polemic treatment of the subject which is still prevalent. Any departure from the Christology authorized in the creeds of the church is felt to be a betrayal of the faith. The student should realize that we today are engaged in a creative epoch of religious thinking no less significant than the age which produced the Nicene Christology. Exactly as men then defined the significance of Jesus in terms which fitted the religious ideals and aspirations of the time, so we today are attempting to relate Jesus positively and vitally to the reli- gious ideals in which our best aspirations find expression. If the Christians of the first century had the right to employ mes- sianic ideas in their interpretation of the significance of Jesus ; if the Nicene Fathers had the right to introduce into their Christology the mystic-philosophical ideals of their time; if Luther had the right to relate Christ directly to his funda- mental problem of religious assurance, surely modern Chris- tians are justified in attempting to undertake a constructive task of similar import for our own day. The trend of theo- logical thinking during the past century has~5een in the direction of a new appreciation of the life of Jesus in human history. Theology must do justice to this positive ideal. Any negative criticisms of former christological statements are only incidental to the great positive motive which inspires modern thinking. Some important questions. — Before undertaking to formu- late a constructive doctrine of the character of Jesus one SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 531 should analyze the familiar terms, asking what significance they have for modern religious experience. What is meant by the "deity" of Christ ? If it is taken in its Nicene sense, just what meaning for religious experience can a divine "substance" have? What was the relation between this substantial conception of the deity of Christ and the sub- stantial conception of sacramental regeneration which pre- vailed at the same time ? If a modern religious experience does not think of God in terms of "substance," is justice done to the significance of Jesus by the use of the term ? How are we actually saved by Jesus today? Is it because of his messianic exaltation ? Or is it also because through the power of his life over us we are enabled to have a triumphant faith ? If the latter is the case, do we do justice to the place of Jesus in our faith if we confine ourselves to a doctrinal statement, like the Apostles' Creed, which passes over the life of Jesus in silence, in order to exalt the messianic aspects of his career ? Why are we so eager today to understand and appreciate the experience of Jesus ? Why do we picture him as facing "problems" ? Why are we beginning to talk about the "religion of Jesus"? Did the older christological con- ceptions really leave room for a genuine religious experience of Jesus ? Such are some of the questions which must be asked before fruitful constructive work is possible. The definition of Jesus in relation to religious experience. — Theologically, the content of Christology is to be found by asking two questions: "From what do men need to be saved ? " and "How is Jesus related to man's salvation ? " If the source of our sin is located in a non-psychological "nature " which we inherit, we shall, of course, interpret the work of Christ in terms of his "natures," divine and human. But if we think of sin concretely and refer it to its psychological causes, we shall interpret salvation in terms of conscious experience. We shall then not ask concerning the "nature" of Jesus, but rather concerning his religious consciousness and life. We shall emphasize his God-consciousness and his ability 532 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION to create in his disciples a trust in God which gives spiritual insight and moral power. As Schleiermacher declared, the important thing about Jesus is his God-consciousness. A modern Christology will seek to make clear the reli- gious significance of this God-consciousness in relation to the specific needs of modern life. The terms employed by the Nicene and the Chalcedonian creeds, admirably suited as they were to the religious thinking of their age, are not adequate to express this modern interest. Hence we are now in the process of working out a new vocabulary with which to express the significance of the character and the work of Jesus as enthusiastically and as vitally for our age as the ecumenical creeds expressed it for a different age. There is no more fruitful field for study than this realm of the creative con- struction of a new appreciation of Jesus. Literature.- — The traditional religious interest, with its unwavering belief in salvation as an essentially supernatural transformation of human nature, is forcefully expounded in Briggs, The Fundamental Christian Faith (New York: Scribner, 1913); Warfield, The Lord oj Glory (New York: American Tract Soc, 1907) ; and NoUoth, The Person of Our Lord (New York: Macmillan, 1908). Most present-day discussions attempt to do justice to the modern interest in religious experience without departing from the older vocabu- lary. Important among these are Denney, Jesus and the Gospel (New York: Armstrong, 1909); Forsyth, The Person and Place of Christ (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1909); Sanday, Christologies Ancient and Modern (New York: American branch of the Oxford University Press, 1910); Mackintosh, The Doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ (New York: Scribner, 19 12). The Ritschlian interpretation of the significance of Jesus has been particularly influential. Herrmann, Der Verkehr des Christen niit Gott, 4th ed. (Stuttgart, Cotta, 1903; English translation. The Communion of the Christian with God [New York: Putnam, 1906]), should be read by every theological student. It portrays with matchless power the inner life of Jesus as a redemptive force. F. L. Anderson, The Man of Naza- reth (New York: Macmillan, 1915), furnishes a profound religious appreciation of the life of Jesus. The attempt to distinguish between the Jesus of history and the Christ of later faith has recently received much attention from German SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 533 scholars. Loofs, What Is the Truth about Jesus Christ? (New York: Scribner, 191 2) , presents a conservative view. Bousset, Jesus (Tubingen : Mohr, 1904; English translation by Trevelyan, Jesus [New York: Put- nam, 1906]), and Kyrios Christos (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1913), set forth a liberal estimate. An excellent survey of the latest phases of the discussion is found in Case, The Historicity of Jesus (Chi- cago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 2). An analysis of the problem is given by G. B. Smith in "The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History," American Journal of Theology, XVIII (October, 1914), 521-44- The Christian life. — The deductive method followed by the older theology placed the doctrine of God and the plan of salvation first and made the experience of the Christian a logical consequence of the dogmas of salvation. The induc- tive method requires one first to examine religious experience in order to discover the data for theological thinking. The significant aspects of Christian experience will therefore already have been considered by the student in connection with other doctrines. However, it is necessary to give an interpretation which shall gather up the implications of one's theological thinking and set the activities of life in relation to a vital faith. It is here that the fundamental difference is to be found between a purely scientific study of experience and its religious interpretation by the preacher. The scien- tist is not concerned to discuss the reality of the existence of God; he is concerned only with the idea of God and its psychological significance. The preacher, on the contrary, must make men feel the reality of the communion of the soul with God. He must therefore set forth religious experi- ence, not as mere psychology, but as theology. Religion must be seen to be, not only a human experiment, but also a real communion of man with God. The "Religion of the Spirit." — -The theological vocabulary which we have inherited suggests a somewhat formal aspect of Christian living. Such terms as "regeneration," ''con- version," ''sanctification," and the like have been the watch- words of so many theological controversies that they have 534 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION come to be associated with narrowly dogmatic conceptions of the Christian life. Moreover, so eager have the dis- putants been to establish the correctness of certain views that arbitrary lines of chronological succession, of "stages" of salvation, or of relationship to certain beliefs or ordinances have been laid down. In recent times preachers and theo- logians have been learning to observe the actual facts of reli- gious experience. Thus we now have many expositions of the Christian life which ignore the technical theological disputes of former days and which seek to give vital interpretation to life itself. In order to give full religious significance to the Christian life, it should be theologically viewed as the work of the divine Spirit in the heart of man. In the place of the older ordo salutis, with its formal discussions of the mechanics of salvation, we should do well to put a vital discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit. It is interesting to see how this doctrine has been neglected by both Catholic and Protestant theologians. Catholics find in the church the needed religious guidance. Protestants have been inclined to place primary stress on the work of Christ and the "plan of salvation." Modern religious sentiment is coming to demand an inter- pretation which shall do justice to the immanent divine factors of our experience of God and salvation. The doc- trine of the Holy Spirit is coming into greater prominence because of this demand. The student should realize that here is a possible doctrinal development which will do much to offset the sense of loss occa- sioned by the disappearance of the method of appeal to author- ity. If men can he assured of the vital presence of God in modern life, if the "religion of the Spirit" can be confidently proclaimed, the disappearance of book-religion will not cause serious concern. Every preacher should study some of the religious movements of our day which exalt this conception of a present power of God. The thousands who are reading SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 535 such books as Trine 's In Tune with the Infinite, or who are uphfted by the somewhat pantheistic conceptions of Chris- tian Science, witness to the power of a rehgious interpretation which makes Hfe seem constantly interrelated with God. Popular evangelistic religion owes its success to precisely this vivid portrayal of divine power near at hand and easily avail- able. Liberal religion is sure to be a failure if it does not emphasize the conception of God as immediately accessible. Nowhere is there greater need of careful study and reflection than at this point. Here, as always, the student should let his theological thinking rest on a first-hand acquaintance with real reli- gious experience. The testimonies and biographies of great religious spirits should be read. One should know what regeneration is, not merely in terms of formal doctrine, but as it finds expression in the lives of those who have been transformed by the grace of God. Such experiences as those narrated in Harold Begbie's Twice-horn Men should be carefully examined, for here we see the dramatic possi- biUties of Christian faith. But one should also become familiar with the deep experiences of those who have had no dramatic crises. The utterances of Phillips Brooks are surely as important and as significant as are those of a converted drunkard. The modern minister should be able to show the work of the divine Spirit in the influences of Christian parents as truly as in the appeals of a professional evangelist. Indeed, in view of the fact that striking conversions are dramatically impressive, and hence are hkely to be viewed as the most important evidences of the work of the Spirit, we ought to take especial pains to show the religious significance of the more normal processes of growth into a confident and strong sense of the presence of God. Some important questions. — It is essential to realize that modern conditions of thinking have altered certain aspects of Christian experience. Some of these changes are of 536 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION considerable significance and ought to find expression in theology. • For example, early Protestantism made much of the doctrine of assurance. To Luther any sort of uncertainty was spiritual torture. Salvation meant that one could without shadow of doubt declare and know himself to be justified and approved by God. The influence of this early Protestant conception frequently leads to deep perplexity today. One who is acquainted with critical scholarship cannot assure himself by the considerations which satisfied Luther. What then ? To reproduce the more naive type of certainty is impossible. Is one therefore less of a Christian ? We need here to con- sider that we do not demand absolute, unchangeable affirma- tions in other realms. We find abundant room for positive living on the basis of a tentative and growing knowledge. In religion we need to incorporate . this attitude into the Christian life. To be growing toward a better acquaintance with God rather than to be dogmatically certain of complete salvation is an attitude increasingly common today. The religious value of this attitude should be positively appreci- ated. Faith that one will find in the future ever-richer and more satisfying practical experience of God's presence may take the place of the older certainty which affirmed an abso- lute assurance from the first. If one takes this more experimental attitude, many of the older questions disappear. The doctrine of instantaneous sanctification and the questions concerning "perseverance" or "falling from grace" cease to have meaning. When the Christian hfe is thought of in terms of a development rather than in terms of an abrupt structural change, the older "absolutes" cease to be matters of practical concern. The modern form of the doctrine will be expressed in the conception of a growing experience of God. With the changed conception of the Christian life comes a new conception of prayer. Christianity means the growing SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 537 experience of a social relationship with God. But the very means by which this social relationship is established is prayer. The "answers" to prayer are not to be looked for in detached incidents, but rather in the total outcome in one's religious social experience. There is much need of readjust- ment of popular thinking on this point. When religion is conceived as a never-ceasing quest for the largest possible communion of the human spirit with the spiritual forces of the world in which we live, prayer will be seen to be the prirary and indispensable activity which establishes spiritual relation- ships. When considered in the light of this function in the total religious life, it assumes larger significance than men have been wont to recognize. It is evident to every careful observer that there is being developed in our day a new type of Christian experience. There is danger lest we fail to realize the full power of this type if we seek to force it to utter itself in the vocabulary of a former age. To appreciate and to give positive interpreta- tion to a religious experience which is essentially a quest for God, yielding a growing experience of communion rather than a dogmatic assertion of a "finished" redemption, is a task worthy of the best efforts of theological students and preachers. Literature. — For the most part theologians still employ the con- ventional terms to expound the Christian life. But in popular and untechnical books there is coming into existence a body of religious literature of real power setting forth the characteristic modern attitude. The student may well acquaint himself with Herrmann's profoundly spiritual interpretation of the Christian life in The Christian'' s Communion with God (New York: Putnam, 1908). Other suggestive interpretations are King, Theology and the Social Consciousness (New York: Macmillan, 1902) ; Jones, Social Law in the Spiritual World (Philadelphia: Winston, 1904); Coe, The Spiritual Life (Chicago: Revell, 1900) and The Religion of a Mature Mind (Chicago: Revell, 1902); Hyde, God's Education of Man (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1899); Faunce, What Does Chris- tianity Mean? (Chicago: Revell, 191 2); and Dickinson, The Christian Reconstruction of Modern Life (New York: Macmillan, 19 13). 538 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The Christian hope. — In no realm are the changes of thinking more marked than in the portion of theology which deals with the future life. Where theologians used to speak to us in detail concerning "last things," they now set forth in somewhat general terms the reasonable basis for optimistic confidence in the continuance of life beyond physical death. Reasons for a changed interpretation. — The reasons for this change of emphasis are obvious. Modern biology and psychology have compelled the recognition of the close inter- relation between our spiritual and our physical life. When the physical organism is in any way modified or ceases to function, the character of the spiritual life is affected. The belief in the resurrection of the body, which used to enable men to think of the life beyond in terms of the activities which we know here, has been very generally modified. Yet when we attempt to think of a life without the bodily functions to which we are accustomed, it is difficult to form a definite picture. More- over, the modern impossibility of reproducing all details of the hope of early Christianity leads to caution in the formulation of Christian belief. The early Christians looked for a speedy end of this worldly regime and the miraculous establishment of a Kingdom of God from which all evil-doers should be excluded. But nearly two thousand years have passed, and this hope is still unfulfilled. Shall we cling to it in spite of all the evidence ? Or shall we recognize that this particular form of hope is not in accord with what we know of God's dealings with men ? The New Testament eschatology, however, is so closely bound up with the New Testament behef in resurrection that we cannot discredit the one without its affecting the other. The real meaning of the primitive Christian eschatology. — Modern preaching often fails to do justice' to the early belief in the Kingdom of God. We need to recall that for the primitive church it meant the establishment of a righteous social order on this earth. Originally it was expected that - SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 539 all followers of Jesus would live until he returned. It was only when death overtook some that the question of the resurrection was discussed. To the query as to whether those who had died were to lose their rights in the Kingdom the answer was given that the dead should have their bodies restored to them at the time of the great consummation, so that they might participate in the joys of the Kingdom. As time went on and the expected catastrophe did not take place,, Christianity gradually developed the idea of heaven, with which we are familiar, and abandoned the social hope of the early Christians. Modem developments. — Today we are ceasing to place so much emphasis on the mediaeval conception of heaven, but we are beginning to emphasize the social hope, which was so important in the thinking of early Christians. In the "social gospel" of today we are recovering an aspect of the primitive gospel which has been largely forgotten. Thus the lessened emphasis on details of the heavenly life is accom- panied by a great revival of the social hope. This positive aspect of the modern situation should be appreciated. The "religion of the Spirit" will lay much stress on the possible elimination of evil from our earthly life through the strength of Christian faith and activity. When we remember that the religion of the prophets of Israel was developed in relation to a social and political hope rather than in relation to the problem of personal immortality, we may see that there are as yet unrealized possibilities in this aspect of Christian thinking. The larger hope. — But death is so universal a fact that no one can escape the necessity of thinking concerning it. It is important here to recognize that negative dogmatism is scientifically as unjustified as is positive dogmatism. If it be true that the exigencies of modern scientific thinking make it difficult to affirm the concrete details of the older resurrection faith, we are not therefore compelled to draw the worst possible 540 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION conclusions from our inability to prove anything tangible. It is quite as reasonable to believe that death may lead to some- thing better than we hope for as it is to fear that it may lead to something worse. Christian faith has here to draw the legitimate inferences from its doctrine of divine providence. We may trust God for the sequel to death as we trust him for the present life. From this point of view the various theories of men concerning the future are symbolic of the trustworthy instincts of the soul. We have a right to con- struct the best possible picture of the future, recognizing that in so doing we are simply continuing the Spiritual interpre- tations which find expression in other aspects of Christian faith. Literature. — Interest in the problem of immortality today is primarily psychological and philosophical. The history of religious thought on the subject is given in detail in Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immor- tality (New York : Scribner, 1896) . William Adams Brown has furnished a readable popular survey of the history of thinking on the subject in The Christian Hope (New York: Scribner, 191 2), which furnishes a full and excellent bibliography on the subject. The IngersoU lectures delivered at Harvard reflect various aspects of thought in both ancient and modern times. Especially suggestive are James, Human Immor- tality (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1898); Osier, Science and Immortality (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1904); and Fiske, Life Everlasting (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1900). The Society for Psychical Research has for some years been attempt- ing to discover whether alleged spirit communications furnish" tangible evidence of continued existence after death. The results are meager and unsatisfactory. Myers, Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1903), gives an optimistic interpretation, which should be balanced by a negatively critical study such as Tanner, Studies in Spiritism (New York: Appleton, 1910). The specifically religious interests are represented by many popular books, among which may be mentioned Fosdick, The Assurance of Immortality (New York: Macmillan, 1913); Gordon, The Witness to Immortality (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1893); and Crothers, The Endless Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1905). SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 541 IV. THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIAN BELIEFS Because of his education and his personal experience the individual Christian is usually content to let the vindication of his behefs be found in the practical satisfaction which these bring in his life. But whenever critical thinking is encountered either in the course of one's own wider study or in the utterances of men who doubt the adequacy of Chris- tian beliefs, it becomes necessary to examine more closely the grounds of our convictions. This critical justification of faith is the task of apologetics. The defense brought by the authority t3rpe of theology. — Where the task of theology is conceived to be that of reproducing the authorized doctrines, the primary apologetic task is to vindicate the authoritative character of the source from which doctrines are derived. The revelation to which appeal is made must be shown to be authentic; and this authenticity is in the last analysis to be established by an undoubted sign of its divine origin. Miracles, fulfilment of prophecy, and a supernatural inspiration of the biblical writers were the main attestations according to ancient and mediaeval writers. Protestant orthodoxy laid especial stress on the doctrine of inspiration. The survival of older apologetic interests.— If, however, the task of theology be defined as we have urged in the preceding pages, the task of apologetics is changed. But the age-long emphasis on the fundamentals of the older apolo- getics leads one naturally to fix upon these older interests as if they were primary. It is taken for granted that we must continue to defend as fundamentals the historicity of miracles, the fulfilment of prophecy, and the idea of supernatural inspiration. But what is the relation of modern religious experience to these matters? Does our faith actually rest on miracles today ? Or are we attempting to defend miracles by appeal to something more primary? It is interesting to see how 542 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION former arguments on this question are now completely reversed. Whereas men used to be told that the miracles of Jesus proved his divinity, we are now informed that we ma,y believe the miracles because of our prior belief in the extraordi- nary nature of Jesus. Whereas men used to feel that the mere presence of a statement in the Bible guaranteed its truth, today we hear such statements as, ''A thing is not true because it is in the Bible; it is in the Bible because it is true." If miracles have to be "proved" to a modern mind, the argu- ment from miracles has lost its primary value. Instead, then, of taking the apologetic items of former theological treatises ready at hand, the student should learn to ask the "previous question," What are the real foundations of modern faith? Having discovered these, we may then ask why we may con- tinue to regard them as reliable. The modem conception of apologetics. — Wider historical knowledge has shown that those supernatural aspects of religion .which Christianity has emphasized in the past are not peculiar to Christianity. Other religions also have their miracles, their inspired literature, their men with occult powers of knowledge. It is not very difficult to show the critical difficulties in the way of accepting these things at face value in the case of other religions. But the very knowledge that this is so makes one more exacting in regard to the evidence for similar elements in Christian tradi- tion. The fact that comparisons can be made leads one to feel that the real significance of Christianity is to be found, not in these vulnerable matters, but rather in the spiritual content which men recognize to be of value for its own sake. But the moment one ceases to attempt to vindicate the "authority" of an entire system of theology the method of apologetics changes. One comes to see that the inductive method requires us first to ask. What are the real difficulties which people feel today? We can then deal with these difficulties on their own merits. It is evident that from this SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 543 point of view the task of apologetics cannot be distinguished sharply from that of constructive theology. We have defined the task of theology as the attempt to think over our religious inheritance in the light of present problems, so as to formulate for today and to transmit to the coming generation an expres- sion of faith vitally related to our actual life. Into this con- structive task apologetic questions inevitably enter. Still, there are some aspects of modern religious thinking which deserve special treatment. We may briefly call attention to some of the most urgent of these. I. THE SO-CALLED "CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION" We are today passing out of the period in which science and religion were felt to be hostile to each other. Still, there is much popular uneasiness on this point. It is well known, and usually frankly admitted by theologians, that modern astronomy, geology, biology, and critical history set forth conclusions which conflict with biblical statements. When one recalls the important place in the traditional theological system occupied by Adam, it can readily be seen that the modern doctrine of evolution causes consternation to one who thinks consistently in terms of orthodox doctrine. Again, science sets miracle aside, for the reason that miracle explains nothing so far as scientific control of events is con- cerned. In short, the tendency of science is to eliminate from our thinking the idea of supernatural interventions. In so far as one's religion is conceived in terms of supernaturalism science is continually invading the religious realm. The danger of an apologetic which seeks to refute science. — ^The first tendency when one's faith is attacked is to repudi- ate the arguments of the opponent. Apologetic writers often try to disprove the contentions of science, so as to retain the belief which was threatened. But nothing is so fatal to one's prestige as to engage ignorantly in debate with an expert. The student should recognize that in his own field 544 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION a scientist's statements are based on careful, critical investiga- tion. The only man who can successfully debate with a scientist is one who knows with equal accuracy the field in question. Many of the well-meant defenses of traditional belief against new scientific ideas have recoiled on theology with fatal consequences. Take, for example, the many attempts to '' harmonize" Genesis and geology. It does not take much acumen to discover that often a harmonizer is willing to distort both the plain meaning of Genesis and the theories of geology in order to "save the face" of theology. Such distortion is odious to every lover of truth; and those who have been guilty of it have created a deep prejudice in the minds of scientific men against theology. While many Christians may have been emotionally soothed by superficial rhetoric on these themes, yet the damage done has been great. It is scarcely too much to say that scientific men today frequently believe that a theologian cares more for superficial conformity and rhetorical adjustment than for the truth. Every theological student ought to know at first hand some branch of science. Fortunately our colleges are more and more insisting on an adequate acquaintance with the achieve- ments of science. Theologians in the past have done cruel wrong to these seekers after truth. Attempting to maintain the mediaeval superiority of theology over all branches of learning, in an age which no longer looks to theolog}^ for final information on scientific subjects, Christianity has put itself in a false light. Nothing is more needed today than a frank admission of our faults in the past and a determined purpose to be fair and truthful in spirit. In an age which owes so much to science a theology which depreciates science is playing a losing game. The need of cultivating the scientific spirit. — There is no better defense of any theory than to show that it rests on a full and accurate examination of the facts. It ought to be evi- SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 545 dent to everyone that knowledge of facts is constantly- improving as humanity advances. We today know many things concerning which men were ignorant two thousand years ago. Instead of assuming at the start that a doctrine which was formulated in the past is absolutely true and has only to be defended against ''attacks," we ought first to make sure of our facts. If this investigation results in the modifica- tion of the doctrine in question, it is far better to make the modification than to conjure up clever arguments which con- ceal the truth. If once we shall have come to the point of being willing to go wherever the facts lead, no matter what becomes of our doctrines, we shall occupy a position far stronger than that of the current popular "defense." The- ology has so long been accustomed to rely on external authority that it is necessary to exercise particular care in order to meet modern questions in a way which will convince men accus- tomed to scientific exactness. The rights of religious faith. — When scientific research has done all within its power, there remains the realm in which exact knowledge is impossible. Here conjecture and hypothe- sis supplement the verified conclusions of science. Not only does intellectual curiosity impel one to imagine possible con- ditions in this larger world; practical considerations also demand some hypothesis as a basis of action. Thus all sciences have their philosophical theories on the basis of which practical attitudes are possible. The assumptions of the indestructibility of matter and of the uniformity of nature are hypotheses which serve to guide practical experiments and to establish confidence in the reliability of such experiments. The scientist "trusts" nature to behave in certain ways. In similar fashion the practical spiritual interests of men demand faith that the universe is of such a character as to justify those higher spiritual activities which find expression in religious and moral life. Strictly speaking, one cannot "prove" the existence of God. But neither can one disprove 546 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION it. One may decline to pass beyond the limits of what science may say concerning the world. But if so, one should refrain from anti-theistic hypotheses as well as from theistic theories. As a matter of fact, the interests of life are too complex and too big to be satisfied without recourse to some kind of "faith." The Christian has only to ask whether his particular extra- scientific philosophy is as respectable and as compatible with what we surely know as any other type of speculative thinking. Some necessary distinctions. — ^Much confusion is often caused by failure to understand just what the limits of criti- cism are. To challenge a belief is easy in any realm. One may challenge the doctrine of the bacterial origin of certain diseases or the doctrine that there is a real material world. But a challenge is of little significance unless it is followed by some explanation which is more adequate than the one which is questioned. The theologian is well aware of critical difficulties in the way of a complete demonstration of the truth of many of the doctrines of Christian faith. He should welcome any discussion which helps to an understanding of these difficulties. But he has also the right to demand that one who objects to his solution of the questions at issue shall have thought as carefully as he has himself and be ready to pro- pose an alternative to the theological doctrine which shall be as respectable intellectually from all points of view. Many so-called "scientific" objections, when carefully analyzed, betray too superficial knowledge of all the problems involved to deserve serious question. Here one might well study the careful analysis given by Romanes, on the basis of what he calls impartial (as contrasted with prejudiced) agnosticism, in his Thoughts on Religioti. He felt that his earlier objec- tions to religious beHefs had been due to superficial considera- tions. Another important distinction which should be made is between the purpose of science and the purpose of religion. Science is concerned to interpret reality in terms of exact SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 547 cause and effect, so as to be able to control the processes of nature mechanically. The more exactly mechanical its for- mulas are the more "exact" is the science. Thus there is the constant pressure to include as much as possible under the laws of physical activity. A world completely mechanized would be a world completely explained, so far as science is concerned. Religion, on the other hand, is concerned to interpret the world so as to emphasize those aspects of reality which justify man in his desire to establish relations of trust and love and moral confidence between himself and the world- process. Spiritual meanings are of supreme importance for the theologian; they lie outside the realm of the scientist's particular purpose. Now, the scientist is likely to have only his technical aims in mind in his attacks on religion. He objects to religious formulations because they do not sig- nify anything for scientific purposes. But the obvious answer to this objection is that religion is using its doctrines, not for scientiiic, but for religious purposes. Theological statements, like literary or artistic creations, are to be evalu- ated by asking whether they promote the rightful interests of the spiritual life of man. The only requirement which science has a right to make is that these statements shall be such as not to compel a man to be untrue to the requirements of scientific honesty. In short, hypotheses and symbolic statements are entirely legitimate so long as they are com- patible with scientific veracity. They need not conform to the norms of technical science, for the simple reason that they are intended for another purpose. If it be granted that man rightly demands a spiritual interpretation of his environ- ment as well as knowledge of the technique of mechanical control, a theology which proceeds by the methods urged in the foregoing pages ought not to have great difficulty in coming to terms with a scientifically open-minded science. Literature. — An excellent survey of the "conflict" between religious doctrines and scientific discoveries is furnished by White, A History of 548 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, 2 vols. (New York: Appleton, 1898). Suggestive treatments of the problem are Boutroux, Science et religion dans la philosophic contemporaine (Paris: Flammarion, 1908; English translation by Nield, Science and Religion in Contempo- raneous Philosophy [London: Duckworth, 1909]); Wa.vd, Naturalism and Agnosticism, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1899); Romanes, Thoughts on Religion, 2d ed. (Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1895) ; Otto, Natural- istische und religiose Weltansicht (Tubingen: Mohr, 1904; 2d ed., 1909; English translation by Thomson, Naturalism and Religion [New York: Putnam, 1907]); G. B. Foster, The Finality of the Christian Religion, chaps, iii-vi (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906). -^ 2. THE ONTOLOGICAL PROBLEM Serious difficulty is caused for religious thinking by the fact that critical epistemology seems to make impossible the affirmation of "reality" in the older sense of the term. The scientific spirit involves a radical modification of tra- ditional realism. The scientist today regards his statements as "working hypotheses" rather than as realistic descriptions. He values them because of their practical efficiency in ena- bling him to deal with the world in which he lives. He may find symbolic representations actually more efficient than descriptive language. For example, mathematical formulas may be preferable to descriptive statements. The scientist has learned to combine an ontological agnosticism with a practically optimistic method of trusting in "hypotheses." The objective significance of a tenable hypothesis. — ^It is important for the student to recognize that a hypothesis is not merely a mental creation. A hypothesis is an instru- ment for exploring the reahty of our environment. If it is a hypothesis which "works," it actually enables us to establish definite relations with our environment and to receive into our experience the increment which comes from such rela- tionship. The theory of gravitation is a "hypothesis," but it is a means of enabling us to deal definitely and consistently with the "real" world. In short, there is an ontological reference in any hypothesis which is found to be tenable on SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 549 critical grounds. To be sure, we do not have the older sort of static and finished ontology; but neither is the content of a hypothesis as "subjective" a thing as it is often supposed to be by those who distrust the empirical spirit. The problem of religious certainty. — It must be admitted that this attitude is very different from that of traditional theology. The "certainties" derived from revelation have been sharply contrasted with the uncertainties of human thinking. The positive vigor of religious faith has been assumed to be indissolubly connected with rehance on an infallible declaration of God. In contrast to this position, the proposal to exercise a practical trust in "religious hy- potheses" seems to those who have been educated in the traditional way to be weak and unsatisfactory. Such hypoth- eses are frequently represented as mere human creations. Religious convictions, it is held, should embody eternal, unchangeable truth. The type of assurance compatible with the scientific spirit.— If it be realized that a "hypothesis" concerning God may be the most fruitful practical means of establishing real relationship between the life of man and that mysterious ulti- mate which we call " God," theology will be relieved of a bur- den which is fast becoming unendurable. There is no more fundamental need today than that of a way of formulating religious faith which shall allow men who cannot honestly start from the " absolute certainties " provided by the older theology to work their way into a vital religious life, building up their own ideas as they go along. We readily admit that imper- fect conceptions of God in the past have been stepping-stones to a richer and fuller religious life, with its better theo- logical conceptions. May not tentative theories held by men today be also a means of appreciating "objective" reality? As experience grows our hypotheses also develop. But at every point in the development we are actually estabHshing some sort of relationship with the universe in which we must 550 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION live. In the place of the older kind of ''assurance," which declared that God's absolute word had been proclaimed to us in final form, we must develop a type of assurance which looks confidently toward the establishment of truer dynamic rela- tionships with God through the practical experience of using the best conceptions we have, while striving always for better ones if these are to be found. It is the duty of theologians today to show the positive side of this experimental attitude. Its negative aspects as contrasted with the older type of "assurance" have been so emphasized both by orthodox theologians, and more recently by Ritschlians, that apologetics has been placed in a difficult position. What is worse, mul- titudes of modern men who cannot honestly assume the attitude of "absolute" certainty supposedly demanded by Christianity have felt that they have no place in the modern church. If the method of appeal to an infallible revelation be abandoned, all doctrines must be related to human experience for their justification. Now, experience is unceasingly experi- menting— living, indeed — on hypotheses which have proved their efficacy in human life; but it is ever eager for better means of establishing vital relations to environment. This quest for larger contact with reahty has its religious value. The religion of the inquiring mind has in the past been depre- ciated as compared with the religion of dogmatic certainty. The impression has been created that the attitude of ques- tioning is incompatible with a strong religious faith. A modern apologetic should make it clear that a "reality" which is discovered in and through experience, and which although imperfectly defined is nevertheless actively function- ing in human life, is no less valuable than a "reality" which is defined as existing prior to, and independent of, experiences. More and more shall we be compelled to recognize that a faith which is in harmony with the general methods of think- ing current today must appreciate the prophetic and vital SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 551 significance of relative and imperfect formulations of the object of religious quest. We are slowly developing a con- ception of reality which makes possible the questionings essential to scientific inquiry along with an experienced confidence in the practical sufficiency of symbolic representa- tions of ultimate realities. Literature. — This problem requires a knowledge of critical episte- mology. Of especial suggest iveness are Baldwin, Thought and Things, or Genetic Logic (New York: Macmillan, 1906), and A Genetic Theory of Reality (New York: Putnam, 1915); Royce, The World and the Indi- vidual (New York: Macmillan, 1901 and 1902); Ward, Naturalism and Agnosticism (New York: Macmillan, 1899); James, Pragmatism (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1907); Perry, Present Philosophical Tefidencies (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1912); Mackintosh, The Problem of Knowledge (New York: Macmillan, 1915); Hockmg, The Meaning of God in Human Experience, Part IV (New Haven: Yale University Press, 19 12). 3. THE PROBLEM OF THE SUPERNATURAL It has been assumed in the past that any mere "natural" religion is totally inadequate because of the frailty of human nature and its liability to error. Christian doctrine has thus represented the fundamentals of our religion as having a superhuman source. The origins of man and of the world in which he lives have been referred to special activities of God. The means of salvation have been defined in terms of miracle. Christ has been valued primarily because of his non-human, divine origin. Regeneration has been looked upon as a miraculous transformation rather than as a development of character. The means of grace, baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Bible, have been declared to be efficacious because of their divine origin. Thus the validity of Christianity has seemed to rest on the proved miraculousness of its origin and nature. The modern discrediting of miracles. — One of the striking aspects of modern religious thought is the widespread departure 552 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION from the strict supernaturalistic view. Formerly the fact of the presentation of miracles in the Bible was held to be a strong evidence of its truth. Today many of these miracles are seriously questioned and elaborate "proofs" of their probability have to be devised. The doctrine of evolution has led us to think of the world in which we live and of the history of man in terms of a long and gradual development rather than as originating through a special divine act. Attention is being more and more directed to the/ human life of Jesus, and there is less and less insistence on the necessity of the virgin birth as an element in the value of Jesus for us. Bap- tism and the Lord's Supper in large areas of modern Protes- tantism have ceased to be regarded as miraculous channels of special grace, and are interpreted as ritualistic activities with profound psychological suggestiveness. In short, there is growing up a type of religious belief which does not need to affirm miracles in the older sense of the term. Can we draw a line between the natural and the super- natural?— The presupposition underlying the defense of miracles is that there is a virtue in the so-called supernatural which is not to be found in the so-called natural. This presupposition needs to be critically examined. Let the student make out a list of the most valuable items in the Christianity which he knows and loves. Let him then inquire whether these are all located in the realm of the "super- natural." He will perhaps be surprised to discover the large significance of the "natural" in his religious life. Again, let him make out a list of the defensible miracles, and let him ask how many of these actually affect his religious faith. Such a practical test would reveal the fact that religious values are not at all identical with distinctly supernatural interventions. There^are many items treasured by faith which receive a "natural" explanation, and there are many recorded miracles concerning which faith is religiously indiffer- ent. Now, since the religious soul recognizes God's activity SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 553 in all that is of religious significance, faith finds God in the so-called natural as well as in the so-called supernatural. To draw a distinct line between the two realms is impracticable. Emphasis on quality rather than origin. — If we are to be true to the demands of actual religious experience, we should give our primary attention to the identification of what is of value for our faith rather than to the attempt to vindicate non- natural origins. Instead of attempting to prove that the entire Bible has an origin different from that of any other literature, we ought rather to make sure of the value of biblical religion for actual religious life. Before deciding that a defense of a given account of a miraculous event should be undertaken one should first ask whether the event is of vital significance for faith today. It is poor strategy to pre- pare an elaborate defense of positions which are of no vital consequence. When once it is recognized that we do not need to draw any dividing line between the "natural" and the "super- natural" realm, and when it is further recognized that the question as to whether an event is miraculous or not is of secondary importance, since faith sees the activity of God in all that touches our spiritual welfare, it will no longer be felt necessary to validate Christianity primarily by proving its supernatural origin. We are already accustomed in Protes- tantism to the valuation of many aspects of our religion in terms of a protest against Catholic supernaturalism. We feel that religious faith is better if we deny that baptism super- naturally effects a change of character. We insist that the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper do not undergo any miraculous transformation. We are becoming accustomed to the use of the Bible as a book of religious experience rather than as a supernaturally produced literature. We are laying more stress on the inner life of Jesus and less on the circum- stances of his birth. Gradually our confidence is being shifted from the exceptional and inexplicable to the normal. It is 554 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION necessary today to grant differences of opinion concerning many of the miracles of the Bible and concerning the possi- bility of a supernatural element in connection with some of the factors in Christian salvation. It is apologetically a stronger position to show that religious values are not necessarily de- pendent on a supernaturalistic philosophy than it is to at- tempt to assert supernaturalism all along the line. The real religious interest. — The crucial point in the discus- sion lies in the desire of the religious soul to affirm the activity of God in the world and in human experience. In so far as what is "natural" is viewed as godless it becomes essential to emphasize a ''supernatural." But if, as is the case in much modern thought, the religious uplift of man through faith's contact with the unseen is regarded as a natural and normal development of experience, religion may find abundant ground in the "natural" world for affirming the presence of God. If the abundant rights of religious faith are vindicated in the "natural" world, the defense of the "supernatural" becomes superfluous. Literature. — The critical difficulties in the way of affirming a miracle if one has once come to doubt it were stated in classic form by Hume in 1748 in his famous essay Of Miracles. The philosophical and religious objections to miracles were forcibly urged by Spinoza in his Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670). As the empirical spirit of Hume has become more widespread, the cogency of his criticism is generally recognized, though at the same time his failure to do justice to religious interests is seen. Good popular treatments of the subject are: Wendland, Miracles and Christianity (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 191 1; translated by H. R. Mackintosh from the German, Der Wunderglaube im Christentutn [Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1910]); Gordon, Religion and Miracle {Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1909); Whiton, Miracles and the Supernatural (New York: Macmillan, 1903). The problem of miracles has recently received much attention by German scholars. Critical studies have been made by Herrmann, Ofenharung und Wunder (Giessen: Topelmann, 1908); Rade, Das religiose Wunder (Tubingen: Mohr, 1909); Hunziger, Das Wunder SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 555 (Leipzig: Quelle unci Meyer, 19 12); and Stange, Christenlum mid moderne Weltanschauung, Vol. II (Leipzig: Deichert, 1914). 4. THE PROBLEM OF THE ABSOLUTENESS OF CHRISTIANITY It has been assumed by theologians in the past that Chris- tianity is a reUgion of absolute truth. It has thus been a part of the task of apologetics to prove the "finality" of the Christian system. It has not been deemed sufficient to show that Chris- tianity has justified itself practically in history. One must attempt to show that Christianity can never be superseded. Can we demonstrate absoluteness?^To state whether a given ideal can or cannot be superseded would require some- thing more than the limited knowledge which men possess. Consequently the affirmation of the absoluteness of Chris- tianity is logically possible only as one appeals to superhuman evidence. Such an appeal has been made in two ways. The character of Christianity has been affirmed to be due to a superhuman revelation which, just because it came from God, was freed from the errors of human judgment, or the truths of Christianity have been identified with a tran- scendental philosophy of the absolute. It is necessary to examine these two methods of proof. The conception of revelation tested by historical fact. — The application of more exact historical criticism to the Bible has resulted in relativizing the contents of the Bible. It is a com- monplace of modern biblical interpretation that the concep- tions of the biblical writers are expressions of the historically conditioned thinking of devout men. As a matter of fact, we have to recognize the temporal and imperfect character of many of the aspects of biblical thinking. To assert the absoluteness of biblical theology would mean, if consistently carried out, the affirmation of the finality of such bibHcal ideas as those concerning demons or the place of the Jews in general history or eschatology. But if we admit the rela- tive character of these ideas, what is to guarantee the absolute 5S6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION character of other bibhcal ideas ? Evidently the test em- ployed must be something other than the mere biblical char- acter of the idea. Even if present-day thinking sees no reason to doubt or to modify these other ideas, we should remember that for centuries Christian thinking saw no reason to question the accuracy of biblical demonology. Can we declare what future generations will affirm concerning doc- trines which seem to us self-evidently true ? The appeal to a metaphysical absolute. — Is it not possible to strip off all those aspects of historical Christian beliefs which are subject to the vicissitudes of changing experience and to discover an unchanging ^'substance" which may be pro- nounced absolute ? This method of apologetic has been much in vogue since Hegelianism aroused interest in the ideal of an absolute idealistic metaphysics. If we may conceive of his- torical movements as due to the dynamic activity of the infinite in the finite, we may consider the finite in metaphysical rather than in experimental terms, and thus interpret it in terms of absoluteness. But when one attempts thus to get back of the historical and finite aspects of experience to a supposed "absolute," one is compelled to pass from the concrete to the abstract. Is religious faith satisfied with such abstractions ? To take a single illustration: Hegelian apologetics admits that the vicissitudes of a single human being, such as Jesus, belong in the realm of history, and as such cannot be treated as absolute. It is the idea of incarnation which is absolute. It is the principle of Christ rather than the person of Christ which forms the eternal content of Christianity. Does not this method of absolutizing a concrete figure of history deprive us of precious elements in our religious faith? Are nt)t our affections and our devotion actually stirred by the concreteness of the life and teachings of Jesus rather than by the abstract grandeur of the "principles" lying back of his historical life? SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 557 Moreover, logically this method of seeking an ''absolute" defeats the apologetic aim which it proposes to satisfy. For the persistent apologist may discern universal "prin- ciples" underlying non-Christian as well as Christian history. Thus the content of the absolute in the last analysis must be such as to be applicable to all history. In other words, instead of demonstrating the absoluteness of Christianity as a historical religion, one would demonstrate the absoluteness of certain universal religious principles found in all religions. One could then only say that in historical Christianity these universal principles are more nearly realized than in other religions. But this would be making the Christianity which we know only relatively better than other religions; and it would be confessing that a religion of universal ideas is higher than historical Christianity. There are signs that this appeal to metaphysics which was so common fifty years ago is now being recognized to be unsatisfactory for the reasons indicated above. Do we want to pronounce final any historical expression of Christianity? — ^It would be well for the student, before enga- ging in the attempt to prove the absoluteness of Christianity, to ask whether he would like to have the Christianity of the present day declared final. Are we willing to rest content with the beliefs and the practices which now exist ? On the contrary, are we not eagerly striving to correct some of the' aspects of our Christianity which seem to us to be in need of improvement ? But if it is not the Christianity which we know which is to be pronounced absolute, what form is to be selected ? Has not every period in the history of Christianity seen a dissatisfaction with some aspects of religious belief and practice and a striving for reforms and advances ? Surely there are aspects of New Testament Christianity which have been outgrown, and which no one would wish to reinstate. To canonize for all time disputes over circumcision or argu- ments over the parousia is not to be thought of. Indeed, 558 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION was not New Testament faith conscious of defects in existing faith and practice just as we today are conscious of defects in our own Christianity ? Has not the attempt to fix exactly the content of Christianity always failed ? Can Catholicism make absolute its ideals ? Can any type of Protestantism become universal ? Even if we succeed in affirming an abso- luteness, is it not the absoluteness of an as yet unrealized ideal ? And can we be sure that the actual course of Chris- tianity will conform to this absolute ideal in the future if it has not done so in the course of the centuries lying behind us ? Christianity as a developing historical religion. — ^The assumption that we may affirm finality rests on the conception of Christianity as a finished system of beliefs delivered authoritatively in perfect form. But with the conception of evolutioij we have come to see that there is no such static form of Christianity. Christianity is always in the making. Instead of attempting to demonstrate the finality of its con- tent, we ought rather to ask whether the present stage of its evolution is such as to give faith in its future. If it can be shown that Christianity today is alive to the pressing reli- gious and moral questions of human life, and that it is fur- nishing insight and power for the solutions of those questions, we may well speak enthusiastically of its future. But if we should discover that, instead of yearning forward toward the spiritual conflicts of the coming age, it is trying to sur- round itself with an armor of defensive dogma, we may well be concerned. In a civilization that is changing so rapidly as our own absolutes are out of place. A Christianity which can point to its adaptability, which can look hopefully forward to such changes as are necessary in order that it may play a leading part in the solution of our spiritual problems, is more defensible than is a Christianity standing rigidly for the finality of this or that doctrine or practice. Literature. — The problem is critically analyzed and discussed with reference to modern conditions by G. B. Foster, The Finality of the Chris- SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 559 tian Religion, chaps, i and ii (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906). The desire to affirm the absoluteness of Christianity is forcibly expressed by Hunziger, Probleme und Aufgahcn der gegenwdrtigen syste- matische Theologie (Leipzig: Boehme, 1909); and H. R. Mackintosh, "Does the History of Religions Yield a Dogmatic Theology ? " American Journal of Theology, XIH (October, 1909), 505-19. Of great importance is Troeltsch, Die Absolutheit des Christentums und die Religionsgeschichte (Tubingen: Mohr, 1901; 2d ed., 1912). See also the article "Absolut- heit des Christentums" in the encyclopedia Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, I, cols. 125 fT. CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS ^ A rational defense of Christianity is not complete with- out an inquiry into the claims of other religions. It is true that this comparative study is not a matter of very vital concern for most adherents of Christianity in Christian lands. It is in the mission field that this aspect of apologetics is most essential. Still, the student should be at least reason- ably intelligent concerning other religions in order that he may enrich his religious thinking by a knowledge of other ways of meeting the problems of faith. The modern attempt to appreciate foreign faiths. — For- merly theologians were too prone to adopt a method of defense which consisted in depicting the failures and defects of other religions while expounding Christianity in its ideal aspects. Such a comparison seemed easily to prove the superiority of Christianity. In recent years, however, the honest attempt has been made to give a sympathetic and fair account of other faiths. This attitude is partly due to the better acquaintance with the thinking of peoples in missionary lands, as mis- sionaries have had opportunity to enter more fully into the life of those to whom they minister. It is partly due to the historical spirit which undertakes to tell the truth about a religion, no matter what becomes of apologetic considerations. The question which arises in connection with this historical appreciation is whether missionary efforts are justified. 560 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION When we take into account the fact that every reHgion arises to meet the actual social needs of those among whom it develops, may we not assume that such natural development represents a survival of the fittest among possible religious beliefs ? The fallacy of this position is easily seen if we recognize that no religion, not even the Christianity which we know, is entirely adequate to the needs of men. Any religion is constantly in need of criticism and of development in order to reach its full measure of value. A comparison of the ideals of Christianity with those of other religions in these regards will be extremely valuable to the student, leading him not only to a new appreciation of .the priceless value of the great utter- ances of the prophets and of Jesus, but also awakening in him the vision of the possibilities of spiritual development if these ideals are allowed to come into their rights. The comparative point of view will also make it clear that Christianity in mission fields will have a peculiar de- velopment due to the stimulus of peculiar conditions of each field. If, in the history of our faith, Greek Catholic ortho- doxy, Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and other forms of Christian faith have developed in response to the historical conditions which they met, ought we not to ex- pect that the future will bring into existence types of Chris- tianity bearing the impress of the special cultures of the Orient ? If this question be answered in the affirmative, it is no longer a question of proving that Western Christianity is superior in all respects to the oriental faiths. The real question is whether Christianity is more capable than any other religion of introducing into the religious traditions of the oriental peoples a spiritual worship embracing a devout humanitarian culture. The answer to this question is not to be found in creedal statements. It is rather to be sought in the actual capacity of Christianity to adapt itself to foreign conditions while maintaining that continuity of spirit and SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 561 that idealism which have made it worthy of the love and loyalty of Christians in all ages of its Western history. Literature. — Statements as to the superiority of Christianity are of scientific value only as they rest on real knowledge. Such knowledge is difficult to attain. The following books represent suggestive attempts at historical comparative study : Religious Systems of the World, by various authors, 2d ed. (London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1892); Kuenen, National Religions and Universal Religions (New York: Scribner, 1882); Ellin- wood, Oriental Religions and Christianity (New York: Scribner, 1892); Bousset, Das Wesender Religion {Tuhingen: Mohr, 1906; English trans- lation by Low, What Is Religion? [New York: Putnam, 1907]); G. F. Moore, History of Religions (New York: Scribner, 191 2) (a second volume to follow); Menzies, History of Religion (New York: Scribner, 1895)- V. CHRISTIAN ETHICS The Christian is a person who not only relates his life to the spiritual reahties of his environment for the sake of his own inner satisfaction, but who also necessarily lives in the world and in society with certain standards of conduct. He believes that certain ways of behavior are imperative, and he seeks to order his own life and to organize society in such a way as to promote the kind of life in which he believes. Christian ethics undertakes to set forth the principles which the Christian believes ought to guide human conduct. Prob- ably this ethical aspect of Christianity is most important in the eyes of most men. Theological opinions are very generally regarded as matter of personal option. But moral convic- tions are esteemed to be of primary importance, and an indi- vidual or a church is generally judged on the basis of ethics rather than on the basis of theological behefs. A study of the ethical content of Christianity is thus imperative if one is to understand its real nature. The historical evolution of Christian ethics. — Just as it has been common to think of Christian doctrine as a thing authori- tatively fixed once for all, persisting unchanged through the ages, so it has been customary to speak of Christian 562 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION ethics as a divinely authorized system of conduct. The first task of the student should be to realize the significance of historical development in the realm of Christian conduct. In a vague way the fact of historical change is realized by everyone. Paul's precepts concerning the behavior of women in pubHc places are generally recognized to have been the reflection of local and temporal exigencies. Protestants regard some Catholic practices, like fasting, obedience to the ecclesiastical authorities, etc., as unwarranted developments in Christian history. But there is not yet an adequate understanding of the fact that Christian morality has had a historical development. Until this is fully realized Chris- tians will be more eager to conserve the customs of the past than aggressively to attack the evils of the present and- the future. The ethical ideal of the primitive Christians. — The lofty ideals of the New Testament Christians will always stand as an inspiration to later ages. But it is important for the stu- dent to realize the historical limitations of those ideals as well as to appreciate their moral grandeur. The early Christians were looking for a speedy ending of this "present evil age" by the miraculous establishment of the Kingdom of God. Their affections were therefore set upon a future which was not to be brought about by their own moral efforts. To be a Christian meant to be personally devoted to Christ, so as to win his approval in the great day of judgment. But it did not mean that Christians should undertake to transform the existing social order. This was expected to pass away in the great consummation. The New Testament thus lacks that interest in social evolution which is an essential of modern ethical thinking. This disregard for the present social order and the vivid expectation of the speedy coming of the heavenly Kingdom meant that the standards of conduct must be found in that "other" world rather than in this. Consequently men were SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 563 concerned to ask what God requires of those who are to be citizens of the coming Kingdom rather than to ask what ought to be done to make this world a better place in which to live. It is true that the interpretation of the character of God given by Jesus and set forth by his disciples affirms that God is fundamentally concerned with humanitarian welfare. Thus in actual content the ethics of the New Testament demands the exercise of unselfish love toward one's fellow- men. But these same fellow-men are valued, not as citizens of this world, but as beings capable of entering into the future Kingdom. Thus the morahty of the New Testament moves on a very simple plane of personal relationships, and does not involve any serious entanglement with the social and industrial problems of existing civilization. This .dominant position of the eschatological hope makes it impossible to transfer literally to our own age the precepts of the New Testa- ment. To do so would mean to ignore the moral problems due to modern social and industrial conditions. It is of espe- cial importance that the student should learn to read the moral ideals of the New Testament in the light of the histor- ical situation in order to see the inadequacy of a conception of Christian ethics which would ascertain duty for today simply by asking what the New Testament teaches. Literature.— Most expositions of the ethics of the New Testament ignore or minimize the significance of the historical situation and attempt to read the precepts of Jesus and of the apostles as sufficient for all time and for all historical situations. Among the most readable works of this type are Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Christian Character (New York: Macmillan, 1905); Jesus Christ and the Social Question (New York: Macmillan, 1900); Clarke, The Ideal of Jesus (New York: Scribner, 191 1); King, The Ethics of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1910), with a good bibliography. Attempts to set the teachings of the New Testament writers in relation to the historical conditions of thinking may be found in Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament, Part IV (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1905); Herrmann, Die sittliche Weisungen Jesu; ihr Misshrauch und ihr richtiger Brauch (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck 564 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION unci Ru^Drecht, 1904; English translation in pp. 145-225 of The Social Gospel (New York: Putnam, 1907); E. F. Scott, The Beginnings of the Church, Lecture VI (New Yorlc: Scribner, 1914); Troeltscli, Die SoziaUehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen, pp. 1-83 (Tubingen: Molir, 191 2). The subordination of ethical to religious interests. — This attitude on the part of the early church meant that conduct must -be judged in relation to religious interests. To be ready for the coming Kingdom was more important than to attain any particular status in this world. The inevitable consequence of this point of view was to make ethics sub- ordinate to theology. Indeed, it is only in modern times that Christian ethics as a separate realm of study has been differ- entiated from theology as a whole. The development of the Catholic conception of Christian ethics. — The theological emphasis which placed the future world above the present, and which led men first to ask what was demanded in order to be eligible to the blessings of that future world, made inevitable the development of a system of authoritative control of human conduct. If ethics be defined as obedience to the will of God, the all-important ques- tion is to determine where that divine will is made known. So long as men disagree here human error is vitiating conclusions. The possibility of mistake must be eliminated. Cathohcism has undertaken to furnish an authoritative pronouncement of the divine will. The church, as the divinely appointed agent of God, has the right to guide the inquiries of men and to decide what conclusions are in accord with God's revealed will. All merely "natural" reasoning must be subjected to the censorship of "supernatural" authority. All activities of men are to be controlled by the church. The moral quahty of an action is ultimately determined by its conformity or lack of conformity to the authority of the church. Thus church- controlled education is morally superior to secular education because it inculcates a wilhngness to conform to authority. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 565 An unbaptized man is morally bad because he has not sub- mitted himself to the church. Freedom of research, freedom in politics, freedom of religious thinking, are all dangerous because these attitudes represent a fundamental failure to apply the standard of authority. Obviously such a conception of ethics makes difficult, if not impossible, any wholesome criticism. Men trained under this system are taught to ask the question, "What is officially authorized ?" rather than to inquire what an honest study of the facts yields. Cathohc ethics is thus necessarily static and conventional. It seeks to meet moral questions by interpreting a predetermined program rather than by analysis of actual conditions. Logically it would compel a return to mediaeval culture, when it was taken for granted that the church should be supreme in authority over the thoughts and actions of men. The student ought to make himself acquainted with Cathohc ethical ideals, for every pastor and social worker finds himself confronted with the powerful influence of the Catholic church. In its fundamental distrust of merely "natural" or "secular" forces Catholicism is intent on creating a kind of goodness which shall be ecclesiastically identified and approved rather than a kind of goodness which shall lose itself in the social development of humanity as such. Ultimately it is the "other" world of theological exposition rather than the present world of historical development which is to determine moral issues. It is true that by its elaborate casuistry Catholicism attempts to meet the particular prob- lems of changing life. But such casuistry is pecuharly liable to be misunderstood. In form it too often seems to be a clever attempt to nullify the obvious meaning of authorita- tive pronouncements in order to give relief in some particular instance. If the highest good is defined as conformity to an authoritative standard, any nonconformity means moral laxity, however it be explained. It is only when a moral 566 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION imperative can be found precisely in nonconformity itself that ethical integrity is possible in the act of departing from pre- scribed duties. For such an ethical interpretation Catholicism makes no logical place. Literature.- — Standard works on Catholic ethics are Werner, System der christlichen Ethik (Regensburg: Verlagsanstalt, 1850; 2d ed., 1888); Liguori, Theologia moralis (first published in 1756 and repeatedly republished); Cathrein, Philosophia moralis (Freiburg: Herder, 1895); Mausbach, Die katholische Moral, Hire Methoden, Grimdsdtzen und Aufgahen (Cologne: Bachem, 1901); Rickaby, Moral Philosophy (Lon- don: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1888). The discussion of moral prob- lems in the Catholic Encyclopedia will give authoritative statements. An admirably clear and earnest statement of Catholic principles in relation to many modern problems is found in The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII (New York: Benziger Bros., 1903). The moral dangers of casuistry are set forth by Pascal, Lettres provinciales (a good edition, Paris: Hachette, 1886). A scathing criti- cism of the Catholic position is given by Herrmann, Rdmischkatholische und evafigelische Sittlichkeit (Marburg: Elwert, 1900; English translation in Faith and Morals [New York: Putnam, 1904]). The ethics of Protestantism. — From the ethical point of view the fundamental distinction between Protestantism and Catholicism lies in the elimination of ecclesiastical authority by the former. This leaves the individual free from institutional domination. Protestantism, therefore, has at- tempted to find moral motives and sanctions in the Christian experience of the individual rather than in the pronouncements of the church. The abandonment of the confessional is a mark of this emancipation of the individual. Moral activity is represented as the consequence of being saved by the grace of God. The Christian, filled with gratitude for God's love toward him, voluntarily devotes his life to the fulfilment of the will of God. One should be familiar with the vital optimism of this conception of morality as it is expressed in Luther's sermons and in his treatise Concerning Christian Liberty. Such an ethical ideal opened the way for the SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 567 recognition of moral values in secular life. It enabled Luther to declare that the housemaid in the kitchen is engaged in as sacred a task as is the clergyman. It inspired Luther's famous Address to the German Nobility, in which those whose vocation was in the realm of political activity were summoned to an opportunity for Christian ministry. Protestantism thus is much better adapted than is Catholicism to appreciate and to inspire non-ecclesiastical moral endeavors, and it is in Protestant lands that secular culture has been permitted to develop without the necessity of submitting to ecclesiastical control. But Protestantism, hke Catholicism, retained the funda- mental conception of a morality directed by prescriptions from another world. The Reformation occurred before men had come to realize the possibilities of empirical inquiry. The deductive method was still dominant in all branches of learning. Ethics also was regarded as a deductive science. Even philosophical ethics was attempting to set forth the principles furnished a priori in the divinely established "law of nature." Protestantism supplemented this law of nature by the revealed law found in Scripture. Thus the essen- tial content of ethics was regarded as "given" from above. In principle the Protestant Christian, like the Catholic, is taught to study a ready-made code rather than to analyze the actual conditions of life. The fact that every individual has the right of private interpretation gives an opportunity for flexibility not found in Catholicism; and in recent years Protestant ethics has been very active in seeking to under- stand the problems of our modern life, though it still generally professes to derive its principles from an authoritative source in Scripture. The defect of the traditional Protestant conception of ethics. — We have come to realize the fact that human life is a historical growth, and that this growth involves changes in human culture. The moral code of the savage, with his simple 568 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION life and his few interests, is totally inadequate to the complex problems of modern industrial and social life. The prin- ciples which secured justice in an age when every locality was virtually self-supporting and self-sufficient are hopelessly antiquated in an age when we are all dependent on transporta- tion of goods and an intricate machinery of exchange of values. Moral principles, whether of the savage or of the modern man, must be derived from an appreciation of the actual moral needs engendered by conditions of life. Thus we are today more and more adopting the method of study- ing the facts of life as the means of determining what ought to be done. Now, Protestantism has continued to employ the deductive method. It has been assumed generally that a study of the Bible would adequately prepare one to live a moral life. But the Bible presents us with comparatively primitive conditions of industrial and social life. The principle of neighborliness is set forth as sufficient. And in small com- munities where men know one another neighborliness is a reasonably efficient way in which to secure right relations of men to one another. But in the complex conditions of a •gfeat industrial civilization a man may earnestly desire to be neighborly, and yet find himself helplessly confronting moral evils. The ethical conception of Protestantism, emphasizing as it does the appeal to an alien source of moral authority, fails to train men in that inductive study of conditions which is indispensable to the evolution of a morality suited to our modern life. Protestantism, like Catholicism, is still primarily concerned with conventional, ecclesiastically approved virtues. We are just awakening to the fact that moral leadership has been fast passing out of the hands of the church, simply because, in an age of rapid and profound change in habits of life, the church has behaved as if a code of ethics wrought out two thousand years ago were entirely adequate to the demands of the present. SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 569 Literature. — The fresh inspiration engendered by the original Protestant ideal is best seen in Luther's great treatises, Concerning Christian Liberty and To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation respecting the Reformation of the Christian Estate, both found in English in Luther's Primary Works, translated by Wace and Buchheim (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1896). The ethical portions of Calvin's Institutes should also be read. Protestant ethical treatises have generally attempted to make such use of the deductive method as should bring either Scripture, or the "principles" of Scripture, or the expression of Christian "experience" into relation with the moral problems of our day. Among the best are Herrmann, Ethik (Tubingen: Mohr, 1901; 5th ed., 1913); Haering, Das christliche Leben auf Grund des christUchen Glaubens (Calw: Verlagsverein, 1902; 2d ed., 1906; English translation by Hill, The Ethics of the Christian Life [New York: Putnam, 1909]); Smyth, Chris- tian Ethics (New York: Scribner, 1892); Murray, Handbook of Christian Ethics (Edinburgh: Clark, 1908). Alexander, Christianity and Ethics (New York: Scribner, 1914), is an interesting and instructive example of the struggle to do justice, by means of a deductive conception, to a situa- tion which demands the use of the inductive method. It has an extensive bibliography. In recent years the attempt has been made to use the teachings of Jesus deductively to interpret modern moral duties. Typical works of this kind were cited on p. 563. The need for a new conception of Christian ethics. — Since the same factors which occasion changes in theological think- ing are operative in the realm of ethics as well, a reconstruction of ethical thinking is involved in theological reconstruction. The repudiation 'Of the Catholic conception of the church involved the radical revision of the idea of Christian morality which we find in Luther's treatment of the subject. But, as has been indicated in the section dealing with modern theolog}', we have today abandoned the ways of thinking which characterized early Protestantism. For modern men God is to be discovered in the relations of the aspiring soul to immediate environment. He is immanent in the move- ments of history. The dictates of the Catholic church are no more authoritative than the summons of actual moral 570 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION need as we meet it. We cannot define Christian ethics in terms of a church-controlled society. Neither can we regard Christian duty as identical with biblical precepts. We readily disregard Paul's instructions concerning the pubhc activities of women, because we hold judgments due to our modern appreciation of woman's place in social life. We are learning more and more to organize our Christian activities in relation to the actual moral demands of life rather than in response to a pattern taken from an isolated portion of history. The most vigorous Christian activities of our day are building up their moral principles through actual experience. The Young Men's Christian Association, the modern Sunday school, the institutional church, the methods of modern evan- gelism, the fight against intemperance and against vice — • these movements are all employing an empirical method of determining morality which should be extended to the entire field of Christian ethics. They are not looking for explicit direction from an alien source ; they are rather concerned to understand and to utilize the moral forces latent in life today. God's will is found in the actual appeal of the facts rather than in a prescribed code. Just as modern religious thinking is learning to draw its inspiration from the world in which we live, so modern Christian ethics must learn to determine its content by a careful study of the problems which confront us and an understanding of the resources with which we may attain moral results. Christian ethics should be defined as the determination of the duties of a modern Christian living in the modern world. To define it in terms of an ethical system belonging to another age is to fail to make Christianity completely ethical. Moral inefficiency due to confusion of ideals. — Until one definitely asks himself whether his moral duty is to con- form to a "given" code or to meet the needs of the situation one has not reached a foundation for the consistent building of the moral structure. Is it our Christian duty to organize SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 571 church activities and to engage in missionary enterprise with the purpose of creating as many churches as possible which shall reproduce the "scriptural'' polity? Or is it our Chris- tian duty to ask what kind of a church and how many churches are demanded by the religious needs of each community ? Our criminally overchurched small towns, with their sectarian rivalries and their pitiful struggles for bare existence, are monuments of moral delinquency due to a failure to base duty on a study of the facts. The same moral failure is sure to follow any enterprise which is guided merely by an ethics of conformity. Our Christian activities today are in too many instances following the scribes rather than Jesus. Our treatises on Christian conduct are too generally using the scribal methods of exegesis of scriptural texts rather than the method employed by Jesus, by Paul, and by all great moral prophets, of determining duty by spiritual insight into the actual conditions confronting them. The method of the scribes is always cumbersome and clumsy. So long as we are pursuing the devious way of attempting to solve modern moral problems by a study of precepts addressed to other times and other occasions we shall reap the harvest of moral confusion. Nothing is more imperatively demanded of the modern minister than an understanding of the inadequacy of the deductive method which we have inherited in our Christian ethics. Our rehgious instruction and our moral training must be brought into line with that method of ascertaining duty which is in accord both with the practice of Jesus and with the science of our day. Literature. — This situation has been portrayed in some detail by G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1913). See also Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 2); King, The Moral and Religious Challenge of Our Times (New York: Macmillan, 1912); Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Mac- millan, 1907) ; Dickinson, The Christian Reconstruction of Modern Life (New York: Macmillan, 1913). 572 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The study of psychology and of sociology. — In order to feel at home in the use of this empirical method of studying ethi- cal problems, every minister should avail himself of the aid furnished by modern psychology and sociology. In these branches of human investigation he finds men first asking ques- tions concerning the facts of human life, and then deriving their conclusions from the facts. For example, where the older dogmatic theology began with a doctrine of innate sinfulness, modern investigations ascertain as far as possible the concrete causes of behavior. It has been shown, for example, that minor physical defects, such as adenoids or poor eyesight or dull hearing, lead children to unwholesome mental atti- tudes and to "wrong" conduct. Manifestly, to allow these physical hindrances to receive no attention is to neglect our plain moral duty. To discover the specific reasons why people "go wrong" is a better preparation for dealing with their moral problems than is a detailed metaphysical or theological study of the "nature" of sin. To ascertain in detail just what it is in the experience of men that constitutes the motive to do "right" is better than to indulge in rhetori- cally vague appeals to "conscience." To know the physical conditions of a wholesome spiritual life is an indispensable part of ethics. Here it should be remarked that most philosophical treatises on ethics are too metaphysical and abstract to furnish the needed aid. Philosophy as well as theology has been under the domination of the deductive method. The effort has been to establish some a priori principle from which to derive the content of ethics. From Kant's "categorical imperative" to the utilitarian "greatest good of the greatest number" the ethical systems of the past century have attempted to unify and simplify ethics by subsuming all particular kinds of conduct under some one ultimate norm. Inspiring as is the conception of some great all-inclusive ideal, it nevertheless does not furnish one with the sort of insight SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 573 which is developed by patient inquiry into the facts. The student should master some treatise which effectively employs the empirical method. Literature. — An excellent popular introduction to this way of study- ing moral problems is given in King, Rational Living (New York: Mac- millan, 1905). More thoroughgoing treatments are Wundt, Facts of the Moral Life (English translation by Gulliver and Titchener [London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1902]) ; Dewey and Tufts, Ethics (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908); Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, 2 vols. (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1906); Westermarck, Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1908). The spirit of Christian ethics. — Having come to under- stand that moral problems must be studied inductively, the student is freed from the blighting influence of the ideal of mere conformity. Ethics is a creative activity, not a mere reproduction and application of predetermined prin- ciples. The real power of Christian ethics is revealed only as moral activity is seen to be the way in which one joyously and heroically unites his activities with those of the loving God whose presence one has been able to realize in one's inner life. The creative identification of one's will with the pur- pose of God, and the conviction that the will of God is most truly found in those attitudes and ministrations of love which Jesus exemplified and which his truest followers have always put foremost — these are the essentials of Christian ethics. One who believes in the possibility of this co-operation with the divine purposes is stimulated to an optimistic idealism with surprising possibilities. One is not daunted by seemingly insuperable difficulties. One feels the divine call and knows that the divine strength is available in every heroid undertak- ing. While one prays that the Kingdom of God may come, one also rejoices in the opportunity to have a share in bringing in the better day. Let one recall the courage with which devout Christians have undertaken appalling tasks. Think of the magnitude of the missionary enterprise, of the untiring 574 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION evangelism which never despairs of even the desperately sinful, of the insistence of Christians, in the face of social dis- tinctions, that all men have equal rights to spiritual oppor- tunities, of the fight against intemperance, impurity, and demoralizing luxury. Christianity enables those who bear heavy burdens to feel the aid of a divine yoke-fellow; it brings to the man who faces tasks too large for his strength the consciousness of God's slowly moving but wonderful plans; it lifts one's thinking and one's aspirations above the petty level of utilitarian plans and gives to life at its best a grandeur and a significance which suggest divine possibilities. Men who are conscious of longing for the coming of the Kingdom of God will pray and strive to live in the spirit of the Kingdom, and will thus experience the presence and power of God in their hves. It is the creative power of such religiously inspired morality that distinguished the early Christians from the mere conformists of their day, and that made them the founders of a growing religion of power. The New Testament, rightly understood, is the "charter of the religion of the Spirit," and should stimulate modern Christians to a forward- looking creative spirit of active discipleship to Jesus in relation to the problems of our day. Literature. — Most expositions of the ethical practice of Jesus are concerned to find in his ethical precepts an authoritative code which may be employed deductively. Suggestive studies of the spiritual freedom of Jesus and of an ethics in the spirit of Jesus are found in Herrmann, Die sittliche Weisungen Jesu; ihr Missbrauch und ihr richtiger Branch (Got- tingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1904; English translation in The Social Gospel, [New York: Putnam, 1907]); Wernle, Die Anfdnge unserer Religion (Tubingen: Mohr, 1901; 2d ed., 1904; English trans- lation by Bienemann, The Beginnings of Christianity [New York: Put- nam, 1903]); King, The Ethics of Jesus (Ntvf York: Macmillan, 1910), with a good bibliography. The development of Christian character. — The most important and significant moral task of Christianity is the creation of a moral purpose leading men to transcend the SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 5 75 convenient utilitarian standards which excuse easy-going conduct, and to face the question of a right relationship to God, from whom the inner life of man cannot be concealed. In Christian experience one learns the joy and strength which comes from fellowship with Jesus in the identification of self with the holy purpose of the loving God. It is difficult to overestimate the moral significance of this experience of communion with the living God. It makes possible self- sacrifice for the sake of the goods of the Kingdom of God. It brings into life the reinforcement of a spiritual friend- ship with God. It inspires men to dare to hope for large things and to attempt seemingly hopeless tasks. We are constantly aware of moral opportunities which must be neglected because the spiritual life of men is too poor to undertake the necessary toil and sacrifice. The most impor- tant task of Christian ethics is to set forth the reality and the moral power of such an experience of God through dis- cipleship to Jesus. The technique of secular investigation may be used to ascertain our moral problems. But the spiritual dynamic for high moral undertakings almost inevi- tably is derived from Christian hves. The reality of this moral power is best seen in those who have been sublimely conscious of the ethical dynamic found in their experience. What gave to Jesus his unwaver- ing moral courage ? How does Paul seek to give moral strength to his own life and to the activities of those to whom he wrote ? Read in Augustine's Confessions the repeated emphasis on the divine source of his own moral triumphs. Let St. Francis of Assisi, Luther, John Wesley, and Tolstoy testify concerning the source of their moral strength. In this religious inspiration of moral endeavor Christianity makes its indispensable contribution to ethics. To fail to understand this is to fail to touch the heart of Christian ethics. Back of all discussions of particular moral problems should lie the appreciation of the inner resources 576 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of a Christian, who looks upon his tasks as contributions to be made to the accomplishment of the divine will on earth, and as activities in which profound communion with the righteous God is attained. Christian ethics is primarily concerned with the Christian attitude toward life as the practical outgrowth of the experience of Christian faith. Christianity and social ethics. — While the interpretation of moral character in relation to the Christian experience belongs naturally in the department of theology, the analysis of social problems must be undertaken by one who is familiar with the social sciences. This necessary division of labor is not as widely recognized as it should be. We are still under the influence of the mediaeval conception of the authority and abihty of the church to dictate pohtical and social con- ditions. It is of the utmost importance that the student should come to think of social institutions as natural develop- ments. In every race and in every condition of human life there is some kind of family Hfe, some form of group govern- ment, some current way of educating each new generation, some socially approved methods of conducting industrial life. To speak of the ''Christian" family, for example, as if Chris- tianity were responsible for creating family life means to emphasize precisely such technical regulations as are promi- nent in Catholicism and to fail to take due account of the light which historical and social science may throw on the problems in this realm. The political welfare of the modern world involves the refusal to allow the church to dictate in the realm of government. Our modern governments are secular and "natural" rather than "Christian." This means that in the field of social problems Christianity must employ the same method of determining what is desirable that is used by secular agencies. If the result of an open- minded inquiry shows that the highest good demands a reversal of previous doctrines, Christian ethics should be fore- most in declaring the moral duty of a change. For example, SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS 577 Christianity is rapidly reversing the judgment of former generations concerning the vocations of women. It is doing this, not because of any better understandmg of bibHcal pre- cepts, not because of any technical claim to a "Christian" solution of the problems due to the emancipation of women, but because Christian people, recognizing the facts of our social development, desire to approve what is manifestly good. The contribution of Christian ethics in this realm must be largely that of keen sympathy for human welfare developed by the Christian faith, with its afhrmation of the holy purpose of God to establish his Kingdom, and its insistence on Chris- tian love toward, men as the only defensible attitude in the sight of God. From Christianity will therefore come a powerful impulse toward generous justice in social relations and toward subjecting the material forces of the world to the promotion of human spiritual welfare. But the precise ways in which justice and spirituality are to be secured must be determined by experiment and investigation. The social order is to be "Christianized," not in the sense that every aspect of human life shall be technically related to the church, but rather in the sense that men who direct society shall pos- sess the spirit of service and of religious aspiration which find their clearest expression and inspiration in the Christian ideal of life. Note. — ^This aspect of Christian ethics is treated in detail in chap, xi of this volume. X. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY By THEODORE GERALD SOARES Professor of Homiletics and Religious Education and Head of the Department of Practical Theology, University of Chicago ANALYSIS Introduction: The Scope of Practical Theology .... 581-582 I. Homiletics. — Definition and scope. — The modern conception of the sermon. — The place of the Bible in modem preaching. — Doctrinal preaching. — Ethical preaching. — Evangelistic preaching. — The form of the modern sermon. — The new homiletics . . . 582-594 II. Church Polity.- — Definition and scope.— The historic place of church polity. — The modern view of church polity. — ^The economic value of church polity — Denominational organizations. — The trend toward efficiency 594-599 III. Church Administration. — Definition and scope. — Church types. — Specialism in the ministry. — Church architecture. — The organization of churches. — Interdenominational relations. — The church and the community 599-610 IV. Pastoral Care. — Definition. — The cure of souls. — The pastoral office in the modem world 610-614 V. Liturgies. — Definition. — The psychology of liturgies. — Pre- . vailing liturgical forms. — Hymnology 614-625 VI. Missions. — Definition and scope. — Fields of missionary activity. — Forms of missionary organization. — Principles and prob- lems of foreign missions . . . 625-640 VII. Religious Education. — Definition and scope. — The history of religious education.— Data of religious education. — Theories of religious education. — Materials of religious education. — Methods of religious education. — Special problems 640-663 VIII. Psychology of Religion. — The relation of the psychology of religion to practical theology. — The history of the science. — Definition and scope. — Methods. — Problems of the psychology of religion. — Conclusion 663-676 X. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY INTRODUCTION What is the scope of practical theology? — Practical the- ology is the science which studies the activities that result from the institutionalizing of religion, specifically of Chris- tianity. Christianity is not an institution but a way of Hfe, a faith. This faith becomes institutional in the activity of preaching, whence the science of homiletics; in the organized ministry to personal religious needs, whence the science of pastoral care; in an organized community, the church, with a definite constitution, whence the science of ecclesiastical polity; in the organized church with an elaborate system of practical activities, whence the science of church administra- tion; in a technique of worship for the development of reli- gious feeling, whence the science of liturgies; in a system of educational development, whence the science of religious edu- cation; and in all these, interests extended beyond the borders of the immediate Christian community, whence the science of missions. The word "practical" as applied to this body of studies is fitting enough; the word "theology" is, of course, entirely inappropriate, but comes down traditionally from the use of the word to cover the whole system of studies connected with religion. It is the sense, indeed, in which it is used in the title of this volume. No one has yet succeeded in finding a better term to cover this comprehensive field. Literature. — There are many older treatises, especially in German, dealing with the whole subject of practical theology. An elaborate work, available in English translation, is Van Oosterzee, Practical Theol- ogy (New York: Scribner, 1878). It has four divisions, representing the traditional treatment of the subject : homiletics, liturgies, catechetics, poimenics. A modern and very satisfactory treatment from the German S8i 582 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION point of view is E. Chr. Achelis, Lehrbuch der praktischen Theologie (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 191 1). There is no modern book in English which includes all the subjects in this branch of theology. Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the Working Church (New York: Scribner, 1906), is an admirable treatment of the practical phases of ministerial activity other than preaching. Oswald Dykes, The Christian Minister and His Duties (Edinburgh: Clark, 1908), treats of (i) "The Modern Minister," (2) "As Leader in Worship," (3) "As Preacher," (4) "As Pastor." Within the brief compass of the Yale Lectures, Charles E. Jefferson has discussed the whole work of the minister in a practical way in The Building of the Church (New York:- Macmillan, 19 10). I. HQMILETICS I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE Homiletics is the formulation of the laws of effective pulpit discourse. It is a science, while preaching is an art. The two cannot be divorced. Homiletics does not impose its rules upon the preacher, but the effective preacher furnishes the data for the homiletician, whose business it is to observe the principles that actually obtain in successful preaching. The popular preacher who is fond of declaring that he never studied homiletics and that he breaks all the rules of the schools is a valuable piece of laboratory material. He is like the poet who sings metrically without understanding prosody, like the artist who paints effectively without studying anatomy and design, like the singer who charms us although he has not learned the niceties of technique. The probabihty is that he has some glaring faults which could be removed by the comparative study of other effective preachers. It is the humble task of homiletics, not to tell the master of assem- blies how to do his work, but to note the elements of effective- ness in different masters with a view to determining what constitutes the power of the pulpit over the hearts of men. The study evidently involves a knowledge of theology, of exegesis,' of literary and historical criticism, of the history of the pulpit, of the movements of modern thought, and of general and social psychology. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 583 2. THE MODERN CONCEPTION OF THE SERMON Change from the idea of derivation of doctrine from Scripture. — The conception of the sermon depends upon the conception of religion. When the dominant idea was that of a plan of salvation authoritatively contained in the Bible and to be found impHcitly or explicitly in every part of the Bible, then the business of the pulpit was to expound a text of Scrip- ture with reference to its bearing upon some element of redemptive doctrine. The procedure of the sermon was there- fore determined by its function. First of all the exact mean- ing of the text must be set forth, then the doctrine to be derived from the text must be stated and defended, then the practical application of the doctrine must be made. But when religion is freed from intellectualism and becomes a matter of attitude, motive, experience, faith in a God not of the dead but of the living, the sermon makes a different appeal. It finds its authority in experience, in conscience, in the eternal yea, which is man's affirmation of the truth which finds him. The sermons of Phillips Brooks should be read for this quality. The trend away from apologetic preaching. — The modern sermon, therefore, is not apologetic. The preacher does not think of himself as set for the defense of the faith but for the stimulation of faith. The aim of the sermon is to secure, not the agreement of the hearer with the views of the preacher, but an honest consideration, unbiased by prejudice and selfish- ness, of the rehgious problem involved in the discourse. For example, the modern sermon is not concerned to explain and defend a certain theory of biblical inspiration, which is after all a piece of dialectics, but rather to make the Scriptures a motive power in human life. The one might result in an acceptance of the infallibility of the Bible, the other would lead to a recognition of its availability. Preaching from experience. — "The true preacher can be known by this, that he deals out to the people his life — life passed through the fire of thought." The last phrase is 584 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION important, and expresses that which distinguishes the sermon from exhortation. The preacher is a man of rehgious experi- ence who has drunk deep of the wells of religious inspiration; he knows the modern world in which he lives ; he talks to the people persuasively of those religious and moral certitudes which he knows will illumine the personal and social prob- lems of their lives. Literature. — ^The writer may refer to his essay, "The Need of Power in American Preaching," in University of Chicago Sermons (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 5). 3. THE PLACE OF THE BIBLE IN MODERN PREACHING The historical study of the Bible. — The modern view of the Bible as presented in the chapters of this book dealing with the study of the Old and New Testaments involves a change in its pulpit use. It can no longer be regarded as a storehouse of texts. It must be used as a hterature, the product of definite social situations, and must be used in accordance with the canons of literary quotation. Regarding any biblical statement we must always ask two questions: What did the writer mean ? and What was the situation which made such meaning significant ? Then we may consider its contribution to our own needs. The wise minister will therefore be regu- larly engaged in some phase of Bible-study, which he will pursue scientifically with the aid of the best literature that he can secure. The Bible as a literature of power. — As soon as one ceases to think of the Bible as a repository of redemptive facts and appreciates its significance as a revelation of spiritual experi- ence, its value for the sermon is transformed. We look now, not for a text from which to deduce a theme, but for a con- tact with the human heart in its need or in its power. ■ Here is the whole gamut of religious experience from the ecstasy of rapt fellowship with God to the cry of skepticism and despair, from the sober consideration of prudent principles PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 585 of conduct to the splendid self-sacrifice of heroic devotion. And here is the experience of Jesus in whom by faith we see God. On the basis of such an appreciation of the biblical literature the minister prepares his sermon. He does not have to hunt for a text. His bibHcal study is constantly fur- nishing him with great suggestions. Of course he keeps these recorded as they occur, for the best thoughts have wings and must be caught as they fly. The enlarged opportunity of expository preaching. — The superficial acceptance of the new view of the Bible has led some preachers to a diminished use of it. But the his- torical approach gives opportunity for a more vital and more interesting expository preaching. The wonderful Hfe of that oriental past, with its essential humanness and its many points of contact with our own day, affords admirable opportunity for the illustration of moral attitudes toward life. In recent years there have been some notable exhibitions of the finest kind of exposition in the pulpit. Witness the work of George Adam Smith and C. R. Brown and the interest of the "Short Course Series." The cultivation of the social imagination by the presentation of the way in which religious men met the problems of other days is excellent education for the modern man. The place of the text. — Early Christian preaching was entirely expository. The text was a considerable unit of Scripture. But the development of doctrinal preaching led to the selection of the single verse or phrase from which the all-important doctrine was to be deduced. Thus the sermon came to have its authority from its derivation from the Bible. If the preacher desired to preach upon a theme which was not treated in the Bible he had to find a text which by some homiletic ingenuity he could accommodate to his purpose. The modem pulpit is less rigid in its devotion to the text. Most ministers who desire to speak upon a subject which is not treated in the Scripture are honest enough not to 586 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION pretend that it is treated there. The omission of the text on such occasions is a sign of respect for the Bible. It may be hoped that this freedom will do away with the foolishness of accommodated texts. 4. DOCTRINAL PREACHING Doctrine and experience. — Doctrine in religion is suffering the usual fate of the deposed autocrat with "none so poor to do him reverence." In the determination to be freed from creeds that were imposed from without men have declared that they will have none of them. But that would be intel- lectual anarchy. The only way to escape from doctrine is to give up thinking, for doctrine is nothing but formulated experience. All men have their doctrines — ^economic, social, pohtical, legal, medical, pedagogical. As soon as we say that we believe in a minimum wage for women we have laid down a doctrine. The objection to the creed is that it formu- lates doctrine once and for all, as if human experience were complete. Not only is human experience changing with changing conditions, but the contribution which the past furnishes to the experience of today is itself modified by our new interpretations of the past. What men need, therefore, is doctrine that will formulate the meaning of life as the thinking of the past and the deepest religious insight of the present enable us to understand it. Christian doctrine and modern thought. — Faith and science apprehend truth differently but not independently. Each of them contributes to experience. Faith which does not take account of the facts of life is a will-o'-the-wisp and its doctrines are foohshness. The minister must therefore be a scholar. His knowledge of human history and hterature, of the physical and social sciences, of philosophy and psychology, will give him the intellectual equipment that will enable him to distinguish between the things that we can know and the things that we may believe. Guarded thus from intellectual pre- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 587 sumption, faith goes forth upon its daring course, and the preacher confidently but humbly tells the people what he believes about God, Christ, Providence, regeneration, prayer, spiritual communion, human worth and destiny, and the other supreme themes of human interest. The minister must guard himself most carefully at this point. He is the one speaker who may proceed without interruption and close without rejoinder. Let him cultivate the art of self-criticism. Let him be sure that he distinguishes between what he knows and what he believes. Then he may speak with freedom and with power. Practical character of the doctrinal sermon. — The preacher does not very much impart information ; he communicates the teachings of rehgious experience. Of course these are founded upon knowledge, and one's religious convictions must con- stantly be brought to the test of the severest intellectual criticism. But the preacher is not a theological lecturer. As a teacher in classes and conferences he seeks clear thinking. As a preacher he is not so much concerned with correct think- ing as with religious attitude. His purpose is not that his hearers' conception of the person of Christ shall be the same as his own, but that the spiritual lordship of Jesus shall be sig- nificant to them. He is not seeking an agreement upon a theory of prayer, but a common appreciation of the value of prayer. He is trying to make truth plain, but his chief purpose is to make it vital. He can generally test his success in this en- deavor by estimating the practical effect of the sermon upon himself. He preaches best to others who preaches first of all to himself. 5. EXmCAL PREACHING The new ethical emphasis. — The object of doctrinalpreach- ing not only goes beyond intellectual comprehension to an experience of the doctrine but generally farther still to some activity which is the result of the experience. The habit of mind of our age connects religion with duty. Those who 588 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION desire to connect religion with creed feel themselves to be opposing the trend of the times, albeit they may deplore the condition. But even such always preach that faith without works is dead. The essentially practical character of the Bible has been rediscovered and Christianity is more and more preached today as a "Way" of hfe. The new social emphasis. — The latest response of the pul- pit is to the awakened social consciousness of our time. The ethics of the pulpit has been individuahstic. To be sure, in temperance work, in poHtical and missionary utterances, preachers have often struck the social note, as they did a generation ago in the conflict with slavery. But the larger social problems involved in the comphcated economic and industrial conditions of today have rather dismayed the min- ister. Some have rushed in and made themselves ridiculous. Most preachers have decided that social reform was none of their business. A few great voices have really spoken with prophetic power. The modern ministry is trying to find itself in this new, difficult situation. There are three elements in the congregation: those whose ethical outlook is still entirely individuahstic and who can only connect religion with personal duty; those whose controlling social passion demands a social gospel; and the great mass who are just awakening to a sense of social responsibility and who find unexpected vitality in a preaching that strikes the note of faith in the salvation of human society. Rauschenbusch has done this most effectively in his two books — ^which are really sermons, though not homi- letic in form — Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907) and Christianizing the Social Order (New York: Macmillan, 19 12). Religion and morality in modem preaching. — The lead- ing preachers of today recognize the danger that the larger ethical and social interest may become a substitute for reli- gion, and that the gospel may thus become a program instead of a revelation. They are therefore seeking the social dynamic PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 589 in a reaffirmation of the great religious certitudes. Thus preachers are inspired by the recognition of the unity of the rehgious and social passion in the Hebrew prophets. They are putting new emphasis on the idea of the Kingdom of God as at once a rehgious and a social concept. They are reinterpreting "the Coming Age" of the New Testament in terms of the modern world. This may be seen in the preach- ing of Clifford, Horton, Ingram, Coffin, and Gordon. 6. EVANGELISTIC PREACHING The evangelist the least responsive to the modern spirit. — Evangehstic preaching is that form of pulpit appeal which is designed to induce persons who are not controlled by religious motives to desire and decide to become so. The problem then is the awakening of the desire and its stimulation to the point of decision. To what motive shall the immediate appeal be made? Manifestly the strong primal motives of fear and self-regard form the easiest avenues of approach. His- torically the hell and heaven motives have been splendidly efficient. And the opportunity of giving adhesion to a plan of salvation has afforded the necessary initial act which has launched the penitent upon a new current of experience. That notable results of ethical achievement and spiritual regeneration are obtainable by this process the history of evangehcahsm abundantly attests. But, on the other hand, the danger of a dependence upon a magical salvation pro- vided and not achieved, concerned with the future life and not with the present, has been all too pitifully evident. But our modern perplexity is of another kind. The eternal truths underlying the ideas of heaven and hell and underlying the conception of substitutionary atonement are profoundly real to the thoughtful mind, but superficially these ideas are not acceptable to modern men. The preaching of the fire of hell may obscure rather than vivify the fact of retribution. The commercial presentation of the atonement may not help 590 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION men to appreciate the passion of God. The reinterpretation of these appeals to fundamental motives is the need of today, but the popular evangelist still pursues the easier method. To be sure, the majority of men do not live altogether in the modern world, and they may still respond to the old appeals. But the condition is fraught with peril. Some significant trends. — There are not wanting evi- dences of better things. Some of our most flamboyant evangelism connects itself definitely with social righteousness, e.g., "cleaning up the town." Evangelistic campaigns some- times eliminate the saloons. The evangelism of the Men and Religion Forward Movement was largely free from the crass theologizing of the past and struck a definite social note. The great Sunday-school world is getting away from the idea of evangelizing children and is seeking their spiritual awaken- ing and culture. Wise ministers without any campaigns are presenting worthy motives for the religious life, and men and women are responding. And most significant of all the great Student Movement throughout the world has given up the old appeal entirely and is presenting Christianity as Jesus' Way, to be followed in humble and joyous fellowship with God. Beecher and Bushnell did that in their day. Drummond did it. Dawson, Jefferson, Ingram, Mott, are so preaching today. The problem of content. — We need a vital evangelistic message, and we shall get it by making all preaching evangehs- tic. The great social motive must become supreme and the pulpit must summon men to come with penitent hearts and clean hands because such are needed in the great crusade. After all it is but a modernizing of the splendid appeal, "Repent because the Kingdom of God is coming near." 7. THE FORM OF THE MODERN SERMON The modification of the traditional form. — The traditional form of text, proposition, proof, application, belongs to the conception of the sermon as a derivation of doctrine from the PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 591 Bible and the application of it to life. With the changed conception there follows change in form. There need be no text. The text may be a great spiritual utterance with a literary rather than a logical relation to the theme of the sermon. There may be no proposition to be defended, and so the logical homiletic steps of proof — first, secondly, thirdly — may be unnecessary. And the whole sermon may be applica- tion. It is not surprising, therefore, that one finds much greater variety in modem preaching than would have been possible in a former day. There is a tendency to approxi- mate the ordinary forms of public speech. It is a reproach to say that a man has a pulpit tone or manner. He does not wish to be called a sermonizer. He finds his inspiration, not in the scholastic preachers, but in the prophets of righteousness. He speaks as man to man in the way of genuine eloquence. Phillips Brooks is the most conspicuous example of this. The continuance of traditional forms. — And yet the sermon has still a form of its own and is likely to retain it. The Bible is the only book for the pulpit. The sermon still begins with some great word from that treasure-house of spiritual experience. And it is still vital with Scripture reference and illustration. The sermon is not quite hke other speech. We listen to lectures from men who are capable of giving us information or of entertaining us; we listen to speeches from advocates of a cause; but only in the sermon do we let a man open his heart to us and summon us to right- eousness and faith. A certain hereditary character will therefore always give form to the sermon. In the hands of the skilled preacher this will not be obtrusive; with the less able the conventional form will naturally be more evident. Van Dyke is an especially good example of a preacher who uses largely the conventional form, yet in such a way that his ser- mon seems genuine speech. Spurgeon, with his wonderful spontaneity, does not read well, because of his stilted homiletic form. 592 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 8. THE NEW HOMILETICS Declining emphasis of old distinctions. — It is evident that the task of homiletics is a new one. The division of sermons into textual, topical, narrative, special, is no longer significant. Indeed, few preachers have a clear understanding of what was involved in the distinction between topical and textual. Practically, a sermon either starts from a text which stirs the preacher's imagination and gives him a theme which he devel- ops, or it starts from some other germinal thought for which he may seek an appropriate text at any time in the prepara- tion of the sermon. There is no vital difference between the two. If the divisions of the sermon should be derived from the text, that is quite an incidental matter. Expository preaching has still a certain distinctness. It involves interesting problems of historical interpretation, social imagination, and rhetorical unity. More work ought to be done in the training of good expository preachers. The message of the preacher. — Formerly exegetics and theology furnished a man his message, while homiletics gave him his method of presentation. But if the message is to come from a preacher's experience, the most fundamental homiletic problem is not one of manner but of matter. The most fre- quent failure of the pulpit has been, not in that a man has spoken badly, but in that he has had nothing to say. It is the duty of homiletics to study the content of the messages that are stirring the souls of men. The place of formal homiletics. — The ministry is par excellence the speaking profession. Lawyers and politicians speak a great deal, but, except on important occasions, do not deliver carefully prepared discourses. There is little attention to form in the argument addressed to a court or in much of parliamentary debating. But the necessity which is upon the preacher to dehver regularly two discourses every week upon the same general theme, within the limited space of about thirty minutes, and with a certain emotional quality, PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 593 constitutes a demand for a severe study of form. Thus the ordinary training in rhetoric and elocution must be extended to a careful study of the methods of religious discourse. The preacher must learn the principles of the oral style of the pulpit, which is at once dignified, earnest, and vivacious. The psychology of preaching. — After the acquisition of correct habits of speech, the problem of effective preaching is fundamentally one of psychology. The interaction of a religious leader and the hearers of his speech takes us to the psychology of mood, apperception, emotion, suggestibility, the psychology of the social consciousness, and, in the case of more intense reUgious appeal, to the psychology of the crowd. Literature. — Good books for the preacher are James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908); Mark, The Pedagogics of Preaching (Chicago: Revell, 191 1); Scott, The Psychology of Public Speaking (Chicago: Privately published, 1906). More formal works are: A. Vinet, Homiletics, American ed. by Skinner (New York: Ivison & Phinney, 1855), the most significant among the earlier treatises presenting the art of sacred rhetoric; *John A. Broadus, A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons (New York: Armstrong, 1870, 25th ed., 1900), which is a very stimulating treatment by a master of pulpit eloquence; Austin Phelps, The Theory of Preaching (New York: Scribner, 1881), perhaps the most elaborate discussion of the older type of sermon. On practical homiletics read T. H. Pattison, The Making of the Sermon (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1898), which deals with the various classes of sermons as resulting from the treatment of the text and with the various parts of the sermon; A. S. Hoyt, The Work of Preaching (New York: Macmillan, 1905), a good treatment of the essential elements of preaching; Vital Elements of Preaching (New York : Macmillan, 1914), a treatment of the psychology of preaching without technical analysis; David R. Breed, Preparing to Preach (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 191 1), which is very suggestive as regards the psychology of preaching. The Yale Lectures on Preaching for the most part are not formal treatises. They deal with special phases of pulpit ministry. The best are Henry Ward Beecher, Yale Lectures on Preaching (New York: 594 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Fords, Howard &Hulbert, 1872, 1873, 1874), a very suggestive treatment; *Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1877), which are worthy of perusal every year; N. S. Burton, In Pulpit and Parish (Boston: Congregational Pub. Co., 1884), which presents the great ideals of ministry; Ian Maclaren (John Watson), The Cure of Souls (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1896), which gives eminently human suggestions from a literary master; W. J. Tucker, The Making and the Unmaking of the Preacher (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1898), a discussion of the conditions of modern preaching; George Adam Smith, Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament (New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1899), a presentation of the homiletic values of the new Old Testament; Charles R. Brown, The Social Message of the Modern Pulpit (New York: Scribner, 1906), an essay in expository preaching; *W. H. P. Faunce, The Educational Ideal in the Ministry (New York: Macmillan, 1908), which treats of the preacher as a teacher; Charles Sylvester Home, The Romance of Preach- ing (New York: Revell, 19 14), an exposition of the principles of preach- ing from a study of a few great masters at critical periods in Christian history. On the history and criticism of preaching see: J. W. Alexander, Thoughts on Preaching (New York: Scribner, 1867), which is full of practical ideas, valuable in illustrations from the great preachers; E. C. Dargan, History of Preaching (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, Vol. I, 1904 (to the Reformation); Vol. II, 191 1 (to the end of the nine- teenth century), the best complete treatment; Lewis O. Brastow, Repre- sentative Modern Preachers (New York: Macmillan, 1904); The Modern Pulpit (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 1906), which presents excellent discussions of six great preachers and of the nineteenth- century pulpit. II. CHURCH POLITY I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE Ecclesiology is the historic name for the science which treats of the organization of the church. It was concerned with the problems of the origin of church government and its historical development, and with all that pertained to the institutional administration of the church. Among more elaborately organized bodies the subject of church law was of great importance. In the modern church, with its greatly PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 595 enlarged interests and functions, and its numerous more or less extra-ecclesiastical societies, two distinct lines of adminis- trative interest emerge: 1. The ecclesiastical interest. — This has to do with the question of the orders of the clergy, the permanent con- stitution of the church, the various courts and assemblies in which authority is vested, and the legislation which these courts and assemblies impose. Here also is included the consideration of the conditions necessary to church mem- bership and the rules governing the administration of the sacraments. 2. The practical interest. — The important administrative problems of the modern church as they arise practically in church work are, for the most part, non-ecclesiastical, and are concerned with economic efficiency, adaptation to changing conditions, and the training and employment of many types of expert leaders. These two interests are so manifestly different that there is a convenience in treating them as separate subjects in prac- tical theology. The term " ecclesiology " may well be dropped and the traditional term "church polity" or "church polity and law" employed for the first of these, and the more prac- tical term "church administration" for the second. 2. THE HISTORIC PLACE OF CHURCH POLITY The church, almost from the beginning, has been domi- nated by the idea that its form of government is of divine origin and of the very essence of revealed religion. It has been com- monly supposed that the New Testament presents a consistent scheme of ecclesiastical organization intended to be the stand- ard for all time. This has been variously interpreted as autocratic, aristocratic, representative, democratic; as con- sisting of three orders, bishops, presbyters, and deacons, or of only two orders, the two terms, bishop and presbyter, pertaining to the same office. Similar differences have 596 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION obtained regarding the theory of the sacraments. The prob- lems here involved are evidently exegetical and historical, according as the questions of New Testament language and ecclesiastical procedure are concerned. ' The treatment of the subject has been essentially apologetic, for the organi- zation of the given church was to be proved historically correct. Inasmuch as these questions have been very prominent in church consciousness the subject of church pohty has been of great importance. This importance is still retained in those sections of the church which regard themselves as alone fol- lowing the form of divinely ordained organization. 3. THE MODERN VIEW OF CHURCH POLITY In the hght of modern New Testament research church polity undergoes a transformation such as does systematic theology. As we no longer form a system of Christian think- ing from New Testament proof-texts, so neither can we form a system of church government in that way. As the question whether our theological thinking is efficient cannot wait for the last word of textual, historical, and literary criticism, so neither can the question of the definite constitution of the church. If we cannot draw up an authoritative New Testa- ment creed as a basis for church membership, so neither can we designate authoritative forms. But, on the other hand, as our modern theology is inspired by the great Christian experi- ences of the creative personalities of its early days, the New Testament thus being of highest value for our Christian think- ing, so is our church organization given historical dignity and high religious value from the New Testament examples. And the historic forms of church initiation and sacramental observ- ances have a like significance. That is to say, the same shifts from external authority to approved religious value have occurred here as everywhere else. Antiquity and tradition become not regulative but meaningful. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 597 4. THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF CHURCH POLITY The significance of various church polities. — Church polity to the modem man becomes a study in efficiency, due regard being given to the value for efficiency of emotional attitudes toward time-honored and rehgiously significant procedure. Christendom is composed of great historic churches, each of them with an organized life, whose forms are dear to its mem- bers and of definite rehgious worth to them. On the other hand, the churches are cumbered with constitutional con- ditions and requirements that are irksome to large numbers of religiously minded people. The modern study of church polity, therefore, is concerned with estimating the economic values of systems which the historic process has bequeathed to us. Denominational organization. — The minister of each de- nomination will need to understand in detail the specific organ- ization of his body. In the more highly organized bodies that are under episcopal and presbyterial control this involves a knowledge of the organic law of the church, its officers, courts, modes of procedure, and of the constitution of the various boards by which the denominational interests are carried on. In the less highly organized bodies the subjects for study would be the city, district, state, and national organizations, whose constitutions and interrelations are being constantly more clearly defined, and, in connection with these, the boards and societies to which is committed the larger denominational work. Each body has its problems of denom- inational pohcy which are under discussion in the denomina- tional press, and at the various conventions and assemblies, and which may well constitute subjects for scholarly investi- gation in practical theology. The trend toward democratization. — Rigid as church poUties are supposed to be, they are all yielding to the modern spirit. There is an unmistakable trend in the more highly organized churches toward the determining of policy and pro- 598 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION cedure by the membership. The democratic churches which have developed extra-ecclesiastical societies, whose govern- ment has been virtually oligarchical, are taking possession of those societies and bringing them under popular control. Laymen are becoming more and more significant in the govern- ment of all churches. Positions which until recently could have been held only by ministers are now held by men who regard ordination for themselves as undesirable. With the expanding influence of the church into society, ordination itself is becoming to some degree a question of ecclesiastical convenience. The basis of church membership is being made more and more a question of personal conscience and less of ecclesiastical conformity. The trend toward organized efficiency. — The commercial word "efficiency" is coming into larger ecclesiastical use. On any theory of the New Testament only a small part of modern church life can there find its regulative constitution. The ever-widening work of the church is constantly being carried on under the influence of economic considerations. Those churches that regarded themselves as pure democracies are developing a denominational officiahsm for the conduct of missionary endeavors which has the efficiency value of episco- pacy ; and within the local church work is so organized under committees and boards that the ruling eldership largely obtains. The study of these tendencies and of their meaning for social progress constitutes the new and important task of church polity. Literature. — Each denomination has its own treatise on polity. A few of the more important may be noted., F. N. Westcott, Catholic Principles (Milwaukee: Young Churchman Co., 1902), is a frank presentation of the polity and order of the Episcopal church from the High Church standpoint. It indicates the fundamental law of the church. Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, an official edition) is the official handbook of polity and order. The Methodist Episcopal Church South has a similar publication. S. M. Merrill, A Digest of Methodist Law PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 599 (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1900), is, as its name implies, a brief treatise giving the main points of procedure. W. H. Roberts, Presby- terian Digest (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1907), is a monumental work dealing with the elaborate legislation of two hundred years and codifying the law and precedent. Hodge, What Is Presbyterian Law? (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1903), is a brief working compendium of the law and order of the denomi- nation. W.E. Barton, Barton's Manual (Chicago: Puritan Press, 1910), is a presentation of the polity of the Congregational church as it is at present developing into greater efficiency. This useful work also includes rules of order for ecclesiastical assemblies. While this work has been prepared for the Congregational denomination, it is valuable for all forms of congregational polity. Theodore G. Soares, A Baptist Manual (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1911), gives an exposition of Baptist polity in its present development, including a model constitution for a Baptist church. III. CHURCH ADMINISTRATION I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE As already indicated, this title might seem to be synony- mous with church polity; but if the latter term be kept for the study of historical forms of church organization and their significance in the changing conditions of today, we may con- veniently discuss under church administration the problems of the organization of modern church life. With the enlarging activities in the church, the develop- ment of distinct types of churches, the relation of the church to the welfare and reformative movements of the time, and the emphasis on the expressive aspect of religion, this subject has attained great importance. The efficiency of the minister today is to no small extent a question of administrative ability. 2. CHURCH TYPES The complexity of church administration arises from the fact that the social conditions of our day have inevitably pro- duced different types of churches. We no longer have simply large and small churches, those of cultured people and those 6oo GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of the less educated, all of which may be virtually of the same type calling for exactly the same kind of administration; but we have very marked diversities of condition which demand new organization and activity. The family church. — The traditional American church still continues in the towns, in the small cities, and in the suburbs of large cities. While it has some new and very pressing religious responsibilities in the direction of relating itself to the social progress of our times, its administrative problems are relatively simple, having to do with efficient sys- tems of finance, the organization of the membership in significant activities, and the newer opportunities of religious education, largely conceived. The downtown church. — The crowding of metropolitan sections has resulted in the recession of the well-to-do classes into exclusive residence districts and into suburbs. The great church which at one time included the ablest people of the city becomes stranded in a boarding-house district. The gravest administrative problems immediately arise. The population is larger than ever, the religious need is greater than ever, the necessity of expert leadership is enhanced. Money must be raised in excess of what the ordinary congregations can supply. Teachers and workers of a higher grade than the neighborhood can furnish are required. In the contest with cheap amusement, and among a population in which no family ties contribute to church allegiance, the advertising and follow-up methods of business life become imperative. The pastor, while endeavoring to keep a study, must have also an office. He must have an assistant, a secretary, a stenographer, filing-cabinets, card catalogues, etc. The administration of such a church becomes a serious and complicated problem. The institutional church. — The downtown church usually finds that it has opportunity and necessity to make larger appeal to its parish than the conventional church ordinarily undertakes. The problem of evil amusement must be met PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 60 1 by the provision for healthful recreation, athletic, social, dramatic. The natural gathering of young people into groups and societies can be very well supervised by the church. Industrial classes, vocational classes, and various other educa- tional opportunities may be provided. The church may even become an employment agency, a bank, a boarding-house registry — it may do anything for the welfare of the community. Such highly developed churches have been rather infelicitously called institutional. It is manifest that the administrative problems of such organizations are increasingly complex. Large funds have to be raised, many experts have to be em- ployed. Considerable inventiveness and initiative are neces- sary to keep it in the current of the community life. The union church. — There are numerous conditions in which Protestantism finds itself unable to maintain its life in its present divided state. Sometimes in the down- town district, more often in the sparsely settled suburbs, quite generally in the new community, it is simply impossible that there should be four or five denominational churches. The necessities of the case result in a return to the parish church in which denominational affiliations are either minimized or abandoned, and in which the conditions of membership are the broad spiritual requirements of common Christianity. The problems of organization here arise from the peculiar necessity of adapting the church to its local situation. The rural church. — It has been a question whether the country church could survive. The movement of the chil- dren of former church members to the cities, the tenancy of farms by foreigners, the emphasis of denominationalism in the face of lessening numbers, have been serious causes of the decline of the country church. But there are encouraging signs that the country church has a great future. With the development of social interests in the farming communities a new type of church much the same as the institutional church 6o2 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of the cities has a great opportunity to contribute to the en- largement of life, intellectual, aesthetic, recreational, as well as specifically moral and religious. If the economic handi- caps of denominationalism can be overcome, there are possi- bilities of the development of a vigorous church life under spiritual leadership. If this is to be done, it is evident that men of unusual strength must devote themselves to the pas- toral management of such churches, and that they must have a peculiar training which will fit them to understand thor- oughly the problems of the communities which they serve. Interesting suggestions are being made regarding a possible alliance between the theological seminary and the agricultural school in the training of the country minister, 3. SPECIALISM IN THE MINISTRY It is evident that whatever interest may still attach to the significance of the orders of the ministry, the actual conditions of modern church life compel attention to the different types of ministry. Of these there are at least four: the preacher, the teacher, the pastor, and the administrator. One of the most difficult problems before us today lies in this necessity of specialism. The preaching ministry. — The question as to whether the preaching function of the ministry may be maintained never arises in the presence of a real preacher. He dominates the situation. He is the minister, and whoever else may be in- cluded in the leadership of the church are his assistants. It not infrequently happens that the orator has less fitness for the other functions of the ministry, and inefficiency may there- fore result. The teaching ministry. — The developing educational work of the church demands peculiar specialism entirely different from that of the preacher. A most significant administra- tive question today is whether the church will be willing to put its ministry of teaching on a par with that of PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 603 preaching. In many cases the educational leader is not ordained. The pastoral ministry. — For many reasons the preacher should be the pastor, and yet this becomes increasingly difhcult in large churches. The service of the pastoral minis- try calls for peculiar gifts and abilities, and it cannot be satisfactorily discharged by the ordinary assistant minister. Sometimes by sheer force of pastoral goodness an indifferent preacher sustains his work; but there is a possibility of specialism with a significant place for the real pastor. The administrative ministry. — -The large and elaborately organized churches always have various assistants in adminis- trative capacities. An important question is whether there is place for a man, not necessarily ordained, who by special training in the executive phases of church life shall be able to take the leadership of the church in its great modern develop- ments. 4. CHURCH ARCmXECTURE The enlargement of functions, with the graded educa- tional work of the church, is requiring a new type of building. Our churchly feelings are stirred by the traditional forms of ecclesiastical architecture, the Gothic holding the first place. But the churchly structure is to be an auditorium, and con- nected with it must be opportunities for the religious exercises of many different groups, together with numerous separated classrooms, and in addition society rooms, clubrooms, kitchen and dining-room, lecture-room, and perhaps gymnasium, bowling-alley, and even swimming-pool. These problems are particularly acute where the needs of the community call for a diversified work, and where the funds available do not per- mit of an elaborate building. As function must always determine form in every structure, it is evident that new and most interesting problems confront the church architect. There is necessity here for some co-operation between the practical leaders of the church and the schools of architecture. 6o4 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The latter have made scarcely any attempt to understand the needs of the modern church. 5. THE ORGANIZATION OF CHURCHES The constitution. — Whether the constitution of the local church is provided for it by a larger body or is the product of its own independent requirements, it will have little relation to the New Testament beyond a very few central points, for the reason that the modern church is concerned with so many matters that did not affect the primitive church. The consti- tution, therefore, or the by-laws, or the church rules, must develop in accordance with the demands of efficiency. Group organizations. — The important practical questions regarding subordinate organizations within the church are (i) by what authority they shall be organized, (2) to what extent they shall be supervised, (3) what relation they shall have to other agencies of a similar character, so that the whole work of the church may be correlated without gaps and without overlapping. Important developments of modern times have been the sex and age differentiations within the church. The official positions, the direction of missionary activity, the provision of financial support have been for the most part in the hands of the adult men; women's organizations were formed to secure specific interests or service from women, and later came specific organizations to give young people a larger opportunity. It has finally become necessary to secure a larger place and activity for the adult men, who were rather left out of account in the multiplying societies. Numerous men's organizations have therefore of late come into being. Literature. — The Efficient Layman (Philadelphia: Griffith & Row- land, 191 1), by H. F. Cope, is a good discussion of this last development. A book is promised by F. O. Erb, on The Young People's Movement in the Modern Church, which will deal with present conditions in that field. Women's work is discussed by Gladden in The Christian Pastor PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 605 afid the Working Church (New York: Scribner, 1906), which is still the best book on the whole subject of church organizations. Financial methods. — The church has become a very complicated financial organization. As endowments are few, the large budgets must be raised entirely by voluntary con- tribution. People may have the benefit of an expensive plant and large ministries, and yet decide for themselves whether they will pay anythmg for the privilege. A vigorous church may have a dozen treasuries, each needing to be con- stantly supplied. Carelessness at any point means disaster. No church does good work whose finances are mismanaged. A marked sign of religious vitality is the willingness of people to give in large sums and constantly to the enterprises in which they believe. Great importance, therefore, attaches to the orderly management of the securing and disbursing of funds. Usually money for the current expenses of the church, regarded as a definite mdebtedness, is kept distinct m fact and in thought from the missionary and philanthropic contribu- tions, regarded as benevolence. But the greatest efficiency requires that every member of the church and congregation shall be a contributor to both of these. Regularity is also of prime importance, and the system of weekly givmg is be- coming more and more common. Able business men should have these matters in charge, the pastor being relieved of all specific responsibihty. Subordinate societies should be sub- ject to some supervision as to their financial affairs. The plan of having a single treasury with which all the societies bank their funds is receiving thoughtful consideration. The organization of parochial work. — Efficiency in reli- gious work depends upon adequate skilled oversight and large voluntary activity. The church is best conceived as an organization of the religious people of the community for the largest service to the community. It is organized friend- liness, the organization being necessary because of the number of friends and the number to be befriended. Various methods 6o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION are in operation for the division of the church membership for mutual acquaintance and help and for the visitation of the unchurched. This is peculiarly the work of the pastor, and one of his largest opportunities will be in seeing that every member has some helpful duty assigned to him, and that every possibility of helpfulness is adequately grasped. Literature. — Dr. Gladden's The Christian Pastor and the Working Church (New York: Scribner, 1896, 1906) is very suggestive in this matter; also Mead's Modern Methods in Church Work (New York: Hodder & Stoughton, 1896). 6. INTERDENOMINATIONAL RELATIONS ' The parish. — In the days of a single state church the limits of jurisdiction and responsibility for each local church ^ere readily defined upon a geographical basis. Everyone within that area was in the parish of the pastor. Within a given denomination the territory is still roughly divided into par- ishes, and each church is supposed to be responsible for the denominational interests within its more or less uncertainly defined jurisdiction. Some very acute intradenominational problems are here involved, and in many cases much energy is wasted through competition among churches of the same name. Some method of more definite parochial division is greatly needed within most of the religious bodies. The problem is much more acute, however, when from four to twenty denominations are operating within the same terri- tory. In communities where there are enough members of each body to sustain a vigorous church there is no particular difficulty, except that no single church feels the proper respon- sibility for the great mass of the unchurched. Where the popu- lation is not sufficient to sustain all the bodies, the condition is often unsatisfactory and sometimes deplorable. Movements of comity, co-operation, and union are thus very much to the fore. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 607 Interdenominational comity. — Although rivalry and com- petition among Christian bodies unhappily still continue, it is being generally realized that the religious situation of today calls at least for certain agreements and divisions of labor. No church should start an out-station where it will rival a similar undertaking of another body. In the establishment of new churches the religious needs of the district should be considered in a broad way. The organization of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America is a hopeful movement toward a more effective organization of the Protes- tant forces and the elimination of useless and harmful compe- tition. A local council of this federation ought to be organized in every community. The reports of the Federal Council and of its commissions ought to be in the library of every church and the subject of its earnest study. Interdenominational co-operation. — There are many re- spects in which actual co-operation can take place, and the Federal Council is the best agency for projecting and conduct- ing plans to this end. The unchurched population may be definitely canvassed and divided among the churches. Effort may be made to bring all the children of the community to the Sunday school. A community house may be established for recreative purposes, or affiliation with the Christian Associa- tions may secure the same results. Evangelistic campaigns may be conducted. Indeed, unlimited endeavors for com- munity betterment may be undertaken in this way. We are only at the beginning of the possibilities of church co-operation. The newly awakened interest in religious education, concern- ing which there is so little opportunity for difference of opinion, and in which denominations markedly diverse may unite, is particularly favorable for this larger co-operation. Church unity.— The Christian church is about equally divided between those who look for the organic union of Christian bodies as the only possible ideal toward which to strive, and those who regard the division of the church into 6o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION a few great denominations as the most reasonable and effective method of promoting the reHgious interests. Probably a great deal of energy is being employed in talk about unity by those who are not willing to make the slightest sacrifice of personal opinion or attitude in order to secure it. Some very interesting attempts are actually being made, in small suburbs and in rural districts, to have a single Protestant church connected with no denomination in which the largest liberty shall be permitted in the matter of religious opinion. Probably we have not yet reached a point where anything more can be said than that each community must endeavor to meet its own problem in the most economical and effective way. If there are a few ultra-denominationalists, a union of the churches would probably do more harm than good, and it is a question whether the failures have not been as significant as the successes. Some special phases of this problem will be more properly discussed in connection with missions. 7. THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY The church and other social institutions. — Many churches do not yet recognize that a great deal of work which was once entirely under ecclesiastical control is now more properly undertaken by other agencies. The state is constantly assum- ing responsibility for larger and larger areas of social interests, and of those social activities which must still be undertaken by private organizations many appeal to a wider constituency than that of the religious community. All earnest citizens are interested in kindergartens, hospitals, playgrounds, the prevention of crime, the extinction of tuberculosis, child wel- fare, etc. The church must not feel jealous of these goodly endeavors outside of its own communion, but must rather encourage its members to enter into all of them, inspiring them with its own religious fervor and motive. It will often be desirable for the church to hand over activities in which it has PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 609 been greatly interested, because a larger number of persons may thus be secured to engage in them. Relation to philanthropy and moral education. — While there are many social activities into which the church can enter only through its individual members, there are others in which it may have a part organically. This is particularly the case as regards the charities and juvenile protective agen- cies. On account of the personal character of the relations involved in these endeavors, each church may well undertake, in connection with the city or community organization, cer- tain specific responsibilities, such as the care and comfort of particular families or of particular children. This is an extension of its pastoral office which it should eagerly seek to make. In this way the philanthropies may be furthered, and at the same time the church may secure the educational opportunity of sending its own trained workers, clerical and lay (and more and more the latter) , into genuinely social en- deavors. In order to promote this social interest the Survey (122 East Twenty-second Street, New York) ought to be in every church library and as far as possible in every home. Relation to political and reform movements. — Great care is needed in relating the church as an organization to move- ments which involve specific political and social theories. The church is for all the people, and there are religious people in all the political parties and on both sides of many social issues. Yet the church may lose its moral leadership by being too timorous. If some religious people think that the state has no right to regulate the labor of women and children and the hygienic conditions under which workmen shall be employed, the church is not obliged to hold itself silent in deference to their wishes. We can have no social progress until we share the prophetic passion for social justice. Perhaps there is no more difficult problem before the preacher and teacher of today than the tactful yet courageous appeal to have the church take its place in social reform. 6 10 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Literature. — ^The beautiful spirit as well as the keen analysis of the books of Professor Rauschenbusch make them valuable to the minister and for adult classes in the church. Read also W. H. Roberts, Laws Relating to Religious Corporations (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication) . It is important for the church to understand its legal status. This work presents the statutes of the various states as to incorporation, management, etc. It is brought down only to 1896. Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the Working Church (New York: Scrib- ner, 1898), while concerned principally with the typical city church, deals with manifold forms of organization for religious efficiency. In Parish Problems (New York: Century Co., 1887) Dr. Gladden has discussed particularly the church in its relation to its social opportunities. George Hodges and John Reichert, in The Administration of an Institutional Church (New York: Harper, 1906), give a detailed account of the operation of St. George's Parish, New York. The book is very suggestive in respect to varied forms of church activity. W. H. WUson, The Church of the Open Country (New York: Missionary Education Move- ment, 191 1), is the best book dealing with the problems and opportunities of the rural church. *Mead, Modern Methods of Church Work (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 1896), is a storehouse of valuable sug- gestion to the minister. Here are brought together the plans and projects that have been successful in various churches. Forms for advertising and for various invitations are given, so that the busy minis- ter may find many matters worked out for him. J. F. Cowan, New Life in the Old Prayer Meeting (New York: Revell, 1906), on this single phase of church activity is full of good suggestion. WiUiam B . Patterson, Modern Church Brotherhoods (New York: Revell, 191 1), deals with the character and opportunity of men's organizations, which have been prolific of recent years. H. F. Cope, The Efficient Layman (Philadel- phia: Griffith & Rowland Press, 191 1), is another treatment of the men's activities in the church. IV. PASTORAL CARE I. DEFINITION The division of practical theology relating to the personal and private as distinguished from the organizational and public work of the ministry has been traditionally known as poimenics. It inevitably included the matters of parish visitation, and even of the relief of the poor, which we should \^ - PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 5ii now more naturally treat under the organization of the church. The subject may be confined to the personal relations of the minister with the families and members of the church com- munity, and with the individuals outside of the church com- munity who may be won to the religious hfe. As £)r. Jefferson has pointed out in his stimulating work, The Minister as Shep- herd, it is this important phase of ministerial duty which gives such great significance to the title ''pastor." He rightly holds that it is the most significant of all the names which are applied to the professional leader of the church. 2. THE CURE OF SOULS The traditions of the pastoral office. — The ancient phrase, "the cure of souls," appearing in English at least as early as the fourteenth century, referred, of course, to the charge or care of the parishioners who were committed to the ministerial oversight. As the magistrate had the care of the temporal interests, so to the priests were committed the spiritual inter- ests of the people. As a result of the pastoral charge given by Christ to the apostles, by Paul to the Ephesian elders, and elaborated in the so-called Pastoral Letters, it was the inevitable expectation of the church that her ministers would be the shepherds of the spiritual flock. The people needed moral and religious guid- ance, admonition, discipline, comfort, encouragement. The pastor was appointed that he might minister to these needs. In Hterature, from the Canterbury Tales to The Deserted Village, wherever the good minister was portrayed it was the faith- ful shepherd, true, wise, self-sacrificing, sometimes severe, always fearless, who led men to righteousness and peace. Two great treatises of the seventeenth century. The Country Parson, by George Herbert, and The Reformed Pastor, by Richard Baxter, present the ideal of the pastoral office in the Protestant churches, and these two works, so nobly and tenderly written, coming out of the ripe experience of their 6i2 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION saintly authors, will always remain classics upon the subject. Here the pastor is the teacher who must instruct the unlearned; he is the spiritual guide who must counsel and admonish the erring; he is the religious comforter who must bring the con- solations of religion to the sick and the dying; he is the mes- senger of salvation who must seek out the lost and bring them to repentance and faith. The pastoral office in the modem world.— The foregoing statement of functions may seem at first to relate to an out- grown office. Our educated and democratic people are little inclined to brook domination, and usually regard them- selves as quite as well qualified to determine matters of duty as the minister. Many people feel that they will be glad to welcome their pastor at any time as a social visitor, but have no desire for a "pastoral call." Jefferson has made a very keen analysis of the problem in its modern phases and, out of the experience of his busy metropolitan ministry, most earnestly contends that the pastoral office is needed even more today than it was in the past. The minister as priest. — The modern minister is still in a certain sense a priest. With all the changes that have taken place in his own and in the public estimation of his office, it is still true that he is set apart to hold a mediatorial position between God and man — not, of course, in the sense that he has the secret of approach to the divine which is withheld from the laity, but that it is peculiarly his business to help men to know God and to serve as the interpreter of God to men. It is for him to take in special manner upon himself the responsi- bility for the spiritual welfare of the people. However successful he may be as preacher, administrator, teacher, lecturer, promoter of worthy enterprises, there remains the personal relation to the people who are in need of comfort and spiritual help, which it is his peculiar function to mediate. The minister, after all, is not quite the same as other men. He may give up the distinctive ecclesiastical garb and PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 613 many of the traditional trappings of his office, but the very fact that he officiates on the significant occasions of life — at marriage, where he pronounces the blessing of the church upon man and wife; at baptism, whether of infant or confessor, where he performs the ceremony of initiation into the church membership; at the burying of the dead, where he speaks the faith and hope of the church in the life to come — all this gives him a certain sacerdotal character even in the least ecclesiasti- cal communions. Moreover, however carefully any semblance of the confessional be avoided, the pastor is, in the nature of the case, very often the expert counselor in matters of conscience. Sophisticated people may insist that they have no need of a priest, but the human heart has not changed, and many people still have need of the personal help which the appointed religious leader may afford. The old phrase, " the consolations of religion," from which we have revolted a little in our rightful insistence upon an aggressive Christianity, stood, nevertheless, for a fundamental human need. A great many people ought to be comforted, and most of them will welcome the effort if it be wisely and graciously bestowed. The pressure of modern life has only made the common burdens more grievous to be borne. It is for the pastor to administer the consolation. The consensus of opinion of the most efficient ministers of today is that more emphasis must be put upon the pastoral function. They insist that preaching is vitalized by contact with the people in their personal interests and needs, and that no organization of visitation can take the place of the pres- ence of the minister in the home. Of course this raises the serious problem of how practically to secure such personal relation with every member of the parish without the waste of time involved in mere social calling and perfunctory visiting. The pastor as friend. — This is the title of an excellent chapter in Gladden 's The Christian Pastor and the Working Church, in which he discusses the subject of pastoral care. 6i4 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION He lays emphasis upon the essential friendship of the pastoral relation. It is a most important conception, for it saves the office from the professional sacerdotalism which robs it of its finest character. When the pastoral office is at its best the minister is present in every time of need as a valued friend. The people want him because they love him. He makes their joys sweeter and their sorrows easier to bear. At the bedside of the sick, in the house of mourning, in the family that is waiting for the prodigal to return, in conversation with the perplexed and with the erring, he is the strong and wise friend, every ready and ever able to help. One of the supreme qualities of the minister is his capacity for loving people, and that includes liking them. Other men may deal with cases; he deals with persons. He is willing to pay the price in the tax upon his sympathy of a wide- extended friendship. He is the friend of those who are rich in friendships, and also of those who are so poor of friends that they are lonely. Literature. — The following are of value: George Herbert, The Country Parson, an old book, but very vital in its gracious discussion of pastoral duty; Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, a book still practical after three hundred years; Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the Working Church, chap, vii (New York: Scribner, 1898, 1906); *Charles Edward Jefferson, The Minister as Shepherd (New York: Crowell, 191 2), is modern, practical, eminently wise and evangeli- cal; Oswald Dykes, The Christian Minister and His Duties (Edin- burgh: Clark, 1908), a more formal work, but wise and suggestive; the fourth section deals with the minister "as pastor"; Theodore L. Cuyler, How to Be a Pastor (New York: Baker & Taylor, 1890), a fresh and helpful treatment coming out of a long and successful ministry. v. LITURGICS I . DEFINITION The subject of liturgies may be variously considered. A broad study may be made of the origin, history, and signifi- cance of religious ceremonial. This would involve the study \ PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 615 of primitive ritual and of the part which it played in the devel- opment of social control, an aspect of the subject of liturgies which belongs to the history of religion. Again, the various religious rites and ceremonies may be analyzed with reference to the ideas which they embody and to the emotional states which they are calculated to express or to produce. The psychology of religion would treat of liturgies in this aspect. Christian liturgies has a significant historical growth with origins in Judaism and in paganism and an intimate connec- tion with the development of doctrine. In this phase it belongs in the field of church history. But in addition to these the subject is of high importance in modern religious expression, including a consideration of the type of liturgy to be employed, the technique of the performance of ritual, and a study of the values to be secured by its employment. It is this aspect of the subject which properly belongs to prac- tical theology, and with it may well be included the subject of hymnology. 2. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LITURGICS The full treatment of this subject, as noted above, belongs to the psychology of religion. Certain aspects must be noted, however, for their bearing on practical problems. Psychological principles involved in the employment of liturgy. — Historically, ritual probably had two purposes. In the first place it was directed toward the god. The divine favor was to be secured or the divine displeasure averted by certain established ceremonials which it was necessary to per- form according to a recognized technique in order that they might be efficacious. As a magic the proper performance of the ritual compelled the god to comply with the wishes of the worshiper. In a refined form this has come down through the stages of religious development in the concep- tion that fitting worship is well-pleasing to God. This idea is preserved in the expression "divine service." But ritual 6i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION had always another purpose. When impressively performed it was found to have an effect upon the worshipers. It aroused emotions that were felt to be congruous with the exercises of worship. The ritual was therefore elaborated with refer- ence to the production of this effect. This, too, came down through the stages of religious development, issuing in Chris- tianity in the gorgeous ceremonial of the mass and in the numerous less elaborate liturgical services. An interesting manifestation of the same tendency in our own time is the development of the revival music, which melts the hetero- geneous elements of a crowd into a unity. Manifestly, in modern ethical religion there can be no idea of influencing God by means of ceremonial, though there may well be the behef that worship is pleasing to him as mani- festing a right attitude on the part of his people. But the dominant purpose of worship must be the production of cer- tain moods and emotional reactions which we recognize as religious, such as the contemplative, the restful, the hopeful, the trusting, the aspirational, the ecstatic. And in an ethical religion these moods and emotions are not ends in themselves but are designed to facilitate desirable conduct and desirable attitudes toward life and its problems. Evidently, then, the modern test of a ritual must be prag- matic, just as we have found it to be the case with an ecclesi- astical polity. In the nature of the case, other things being equal, antiquity, tradition, and the rich associations of the past will tend to enhance the emotional effect of a ceremonial. So far prescription must ever remain an inherent virtue of a liturgical form. But if the rationalizing process has emascu- lated of its value the idea which the symbol conveyed, its antiquity may go for nothing. It may lose all its power to stir emotion, or it may even become obnoxious. Thus the mass, so profoundly significant to the Roman CathoHc, has wholly lost any power to stimulate religious emotion in the ordinary Protestant. Or changing taste may so alter the PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 617 attitude of the worshiper that rites which formerly seemed deeply significant may appear to be trivial; liturgical exer- cises that were once productive of reverence may become tiresome. To some persons the solemn chant is dull and tedious; to others the lively gospel song is irreverent and painful. The modem problem of worship. — A most important problem which has received very little consideration is the effect of the church service upon the occupants of the pews. We can no longer think of the service as something demanded by God to which the worshiper is therefore compelled to sub- mit. We must think of it as an exercise designed entirely to help the worshiper in securing the right religious attitude toward God, life, and duty. We must consider, then, the presuppositions with which our worshiper enters the church. The psychology of apperception is important here. We must estimate his attitude toward each element of the worship. We must consider what may check the rising tide of emotion and what may carry it on to the full. We must analyze our ceremonial as to its impressive or expressive character with a view to a certain balance between these elements. We must see whether the various emotions of reverence, contrition, aspiration, joy are called forth in natural order. The psy- chology of attention and of interest will be of the greatest significance in studying our problem. The technique of the administration of worship is of great importance. Given the proper elements and the most effec- tive rites, are the ministrants qualified to carry them through ? Here personality counts for d great deal. But there is a certain freedom, attitude, inner appreciation, sense of har- mony, even quality of voice, accuracy of enunciation, power of interpretation, which are vital to success. As regards the ministry of song, apart from the selection of fitting music there is again the question of personality in the singer, and there is a fitness of the rendition of the music to the circum- 6i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION stances of worship. Thus anything in the nature of display is immediately destructive of the mood of worship, so that the music most admirable from the standpoint of artistic tech- nique may be utterly objectionable for the purpose of educing religious feeling in the congregation. 3. PREVAILING LITURGICAL FORMS Liturgies prescribed by rubric. — In many churches the matter of liturgy is altogether prescribed and the business of the minister is to become thoroughly acquainted with the rites, ceremonies, forms, vestments, and ministrations. He will naturally seek to know the history of the ritual of which he is the ministrant, and will wish to understand the inter- pretation of the various symbols and forms which the best modern thinking of his own church affords. In all bodies which have traditional liturgies there are those who dogmati- cally insist upon the retention of the historical meaning of the various elements. But in all these bodies there are also thoughtful men who appreciate the new world in which we are living, and who, while reverently and affectionately maintaining the old forms, find larger meaning in them in accordance with modern needs. It is idle to modernize one's theology if one does not also modernize the interpretation of his liturgy. The ministrant of the prescribed liturgy will also be con- cerned to study the effect of the various elements upon his congregation. General psychological principles will be help- ful, but on the basis of these he ought to make as careful a practical study as he may of the actual results secured in the experience of the worshipers. He should attempt to analyze his own reactions to the service and those of the various types of persons who are in attendance. Again, the tech- nique of ministration will be most important here. And even where the prescriptions of the church are very definite there is often large opportunity for individuality of expression. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 619 Liturgies conventionally employed. — It is usual to differ- entiate between the liturgical and the non-liturgical churches. There is a convenience in the distinction, but it must be recognized that it is only one of degree. All churches employ ritual. What is known as the "Order of Worship" in the most unconventional ecclesiastical bodies is yet quite definitely conventional, while the forms employed in the administration of the ordinances and in the marriage and funeral services are definitely set by custom. Even such simple services as the prayer-meeting and the young people's meeting have an almost unvarying order, which practically amounts to ritual. It must be kept in mind that the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, the responsive reading of the Psalter, the singing of the Doxology, and indeed of all congregational hymns, the bowing in prayer, the collection of the offerings of the people, the reading of the Scripture, the sermon itself, and the bene- diction are as definitely liturgical forms as the prayers which are printed in prayer-books. It is not then a question whether a church should employ a liturgy, but rather what liturgical forms may be most satisfactorily used for a particular congregation. Pattison in Public Worship has discussed the various elements most helpfully from the standpoint of the congregational churches. The most serious criticism to be offered of the conven- tional church service is that it is so little congregational. The significant emphasis which the reformed churches put upon the sermon has thrown that element into such prominence that the minister is thought of, and often called, the "preacher," and the congregation is thought of, and often called, the "audience," while the general name for the room in which public worship is held is the "auditorium." An able preacher recently wrote an article with the title "As to Preliminaries." He meant everything that happened before he began to preach. The congregation is still allowed to sing two or three hymns, "omitting the third verse," but the minister prays, offers the 620 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION confession, and reads the Scripture, besides preaching the sermon, and the choir takes the larger part of the music to itself. There is needed an emphasis on congregational worship. Eclectic liturgies. — This need has given rise to various endeavors to ''enrich the service." Some have stigmatized this effort as an addition of liturgical frills. Others have said that the minister and the choir were the only persons inter- ested in the enrichment. Of course a generation that has been trained to think of a church service as consisting of a sermon with some opening exercises will not easily appreciate the elements of worship. The problem before the modern minister is to use such liturgical forms as shall actually promote in his people the mood of worship. He must study his own congregation. He must experiment. He must particularly study the technique of ministration. He has the right to feel that all the litur- gical riches of the ages are open to his use. They belong to no section of Christianity but to the church universal. To employ the General Confession in a church of Puritan ancestry is not to add a liturgical frill, nor is it to negate the protest of the Puritans. It is simply to realize that some things which some found hurtful to true worship at a certain stage of the progress of the church have regained their use- fulness in this day when ecclesiastical conflict is abated. The minister should be very familiar with the Book of Common Prayer and with the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian church. The Psalter lends itself peculiarly to the valuable congregational practice of antiphonal chanting or reading; but for this purpose it must be properly edited. We are under no obligation to use psalms in their entirety when portions of them will better suit our liturgical needs. Various attempts have been made to edit a church-book of responsive readings, but a thoroughly satisfactory arrange- ment still remains to be made. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 621 One difficulty which confronts the modern minister is the fact that the worship of the church has been developed upon the basis of the individualistic religion of the salvation of the soul, "almost the only social element in it referring to the evan- gelization of mankind. How shall he pray for the great social needs so apparent in our day ? Evidently we need a new devotional literature inspired by the social passion. Rausch- enbusch has made a most beautiful endeavor in this field in his For God and the People: Prayers of the Social Awakening. 4. HYMNOLOGY The history of the hymns. — Music, chant, song, have always been an important element of worship. Musical rhythm is one of the most potent means of exciting emotion. Elemental feelings are stirred by accented music of the drum- beat quality, and the dirge with its moanlike character has ever produced sadness and depression. The developed musical sense responds emotionally and in characteristic fashion to the various types of music. The wedding of words and music when each is interpretative of the other naturally heightens the emotional quality of the exercise. Christianity inherited the Psalms from the Jewish church and doubtless took over the simple chants in which they were rendered. But while appreciating these noble expressions of religion, the new faith desired more definite ascriptions of praise and expression of faith, aspiration, hope, joy. It is thought that there are fragments of Christian song in the New Testament. Very early appeared the "Gloria in Excel- sis," the "Gloria Patri," the"Ter Sanctus," the"Benedicite," the "Te Deum," together with the Nativity songs in the Gospel of Luke. Then followed *the noble hymns of the Greek and Latin churches, of which the latter are especially fine; then the wonderful and extensive German hymnody; then the French, English, and Scottish psalmody; then from the middle of the seventeenth century the great development of 62 2 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION English hymnody. Duffield has two scholarly works, Latin Hymns and English Hymns. The monumental Dictionary of Hymnology by Julian is the best treatment of the whole subject, while Breed, The History and Use of Hymns and Hymn Tunes, is an accurate and interesting popular treatment (see bibliography at close of this section) . The survival of the fittest. — It would be rash to endeavor to estimate the number of Christian hymns that have been written. Charles Wesley wrote over six thousand, Fanny Crosby over three thousand. Probably not far 4ess than a quarter of a million hymns have actually been written and sung in Europe and America. But Benson has written an excellent and appreciative little book on the thirty-two best h3rmns! A vast number were forgotten in their own genera- tion. The same process that preserves the best painting, sculpture, poetry, drama, has saved the best hymns from dying with the mass that were not worth saving. If com- mercial considerations, denominational pride, and fortuitous interest could be eliminated from the consideration of the subject, the conclusion would be that it is doubtful whether there are more than four hundred hymns in English that are worthy to be kept for the use of the Christian church. Most hymnbooks are far too large. Breed, Benson, Pratt, and Dickinson have suggestive discussions on this point (see bibliography at close of this section). Modem hymns. — The lyric is naturally very personal. The finest Christian hymns breathe the aspiration of the indi- vidual soul for communion with God, for cleansing, for sal- vation, for the blessedness of the life beyond. To be sure, the singer realizes his representative capacity — he is also singing for his brethren. But the values expressed are pre- dominantly pietistic. Where shall we find hymns to express our social passion and hope ? It is manifestly not easy to put sociology into lyric form; and of course that would be the last thing to be desired. Hymnody always fails when it PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 623 becomes hortatory and propagandist. But what the great missionary hymns have done for the passion of evangelism, hymns of the social awakening ought to do for the passion of social justice and love. A new collection entitled Hymns of the Kingdom has sought to bring together the best that are available of these lyrics. It is clear that the singer who will voice our new hopes and prayers will have a mission. The gospel songs. — The very effective religious work of Moody, with that of Bliss and Sankey, produced the gospel songs. They have a certain likeness to the popular songs of the stage and of the street, which are so extraordinarily interesting and so transitory. They caught the ear of the people. The music was easy, requiring no effort. There was generally some simple and obvious imagery which appealed to some common sentiment. The connection of the gospel songs with the significant evangelistic work of Moody, from which so many thousands of persons drew their deepened religious interest, naturally gave to them a peculiar sanctity. But they wore out. It was necessary to find new ones to take their places. The evangelists who followed in the wake of Moody had each his own singer who wrote and published gospel songs. The business became exceedingly lucrative. The commercial motive, which hitherto had had little to do with hymnody, became very prominent. Today we are flooded with songbooks filled with cheap, sentimental, often irreverent, and generally undesirable, hymns, whether con- sidered from the devotional, the poetic, or the musical point of view. They are sung in evening services, in Sunday schools, in young people's meetings, in church prayer-meetings — • the great and noble hymns being confined to the Sunday morn- ing service. The result is that the hymns which ought to be the permanent religious possession of the people are not learned and are not known. Perhaps the gospel songs have their place. Breed gives a very fair general estimate of their value. Probably the 624 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION church would be the gainer today if a score of the better gospel songs were to be retained and all the rest forgotten. Present tendencies and needs. — The last decade has seen a decided improvement in church hymnals. Most of them are still too large. The hymnbook is not the place for the documents of the history of hymnology. We should gain by the elimination of every hymn that is not a distinctly noble religious lyric. Some of the best evangelistic hymns, carefully selected, are now printed in the best hymnals, and that is well. There is still room for a larger number of hymns of the social awakening. Above all, we need to begin singing the best hymns in childhood and youth, and we need to use our great choruses in conventions and evangelistic meetings for leading the people into the singing of noble words, set to worthy music, that shall exalt religion in their lives and open the springs of the deeper religious emotions. Literature. — For psychological works see under "Psychology of Religion." The following are of value: *Charles Cuthbert Hall and others, Christian Worship (New York: Scribner, 1897), ten lectures, in which the liturgies and forms of the various churches are discussed by representative men — an excellent conspectus; *Pattison, Public Worship (Philadelphia: American Baptist Pub. Soc, 1900), a practical discussion of forms suitable for bodies of the congregational order; Hoyt, Public Worship for Non-Liturgical Churches (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 191 1), similar to Pattison; N. J. Burton, In Pulpit and Parish, Yale Lectures, which cover the whole field of pastoral duty, having much that is valuable on the subject of worship; Alexander Maclaren, Pulpit Prayers (New York: Hodder & Stoughton), prayers stenographi- cally reported without the knowledge of the minister, revealing the possibilities of free prayer; Oswald Dykes, The Christian Minister and His Duties (Edinburgh: Clark, 1908), which treats of the minister as leader in worship; Washington Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the Working Church, chap, vi, "Pulpit and Altar" (New York: Scribner, 1898, 1906), *Breed, The History and Use of Hymns and Hymn Tunes (New York: Revell, 1903), a popular and very satisfactory historical and critical discussion of the Christian hymn — a practical handbook for the leader of public worship; Benson, The Best Church Hymns (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1899), a brief discussion of the PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 625 thirty-two best English hymns; Duffield, English Hymns (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1894), a critical treatment in alphabetical order of all the better-known hymns; Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, 2d ed. (London: Murray, 1908), valuable for its information upon a vast number of hymns; Pratt, Musical Ministries in the Church (New York: Revell, 1901), a little book dealing with the problem most helpfully as it concerns the minister; *Dickinson, Music in the History of the Western Church (New York: Scribner, 1902), an excellent historical study of the development of music in connection with worship, culminat- ing in a discussion of the problems of church music in America; Benson, The English Hymn, Its Development and Use in Worship (New York: Doran, 191 5), a masterly study and the best treatise on the subject. VI. MISSIONS I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE It would be difficult to draw a line of distinction clearly between organized efforts for social betterment and that specialized activity comprehended under the term "missions." So far as the former are directly undertaken by the church they are likely to be intimately connected with activities that are more definitely recognized as missionary. Wherever the church is the chief socializing agency of the community, it will be under obligation to engage in many forms of social en- deavor which in more developed communities are undertaken by other voluntary organizations or by the state. In foreign lands, for example, the missionary enterprise embraces all forms of philanthropy and education, including even industrial training, hospital, dispensary, and medical care, even some- times the organization of industry. The missionary is con- cerned, not merely with a religious propaganda, but with an extension of all the social and spiritual values which in its best expression Christianity represents. If Christianity may be understood in that broad sense, we may define this branch of practical theology as a study of the conduct of the propaga- tion of Christianity through external initiative in communities and countries where Christianity does not exist or where the 626 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION local Christian forces are insufficient for self -sustenance and development. 2. FIELDS OF MISSIONARY ACTIVITY The church as an institution of modern Hfe has a definite economic basis. Of course it is a religious community and not a building, but inevitably it must have a building, and this involves care and upkeep. To be effective the church must have a professional ministry, which must be financially sup- ported. The community to which the church immediately ministers would naturally provide the necessary funds for these expenses. Where for any reason this is impossible a missionary field exists. Densely settled communities. — In modern cities the poor live closely packed together in certain sections, apart from the well-to-do. Whenever a family rises above the poverty line the first idea is to flee from the crowded, dirty, unhealthful, uninteresting abodes of the poor and to seek residence in a better neighborhood. It is not expected that these densely populated districts will support their own schools, hospitals, fire-stations; these are provided from the common funds in accordance with the needs, not in propor- tion to the taxes. The same principle adapted to the volun- tary organization of the churches is involved in the mission church. The utter inability of the poor to maintain even an in- expensive religious organization and the want of initiative in a shifting population alike demand that the church in a densely settled district shall be maintained from without. This may be done by means of endowment, as in the case of Trinity Parish in New York, or by the direct appropriations of a denomination, as in the case of the Labor Temple, supported in New York by the Presbyterians. The activities of such a church may be those already discussed in the consideration of the so-called ''institutional" church. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 627 Foreign populations in America. — The rapid immigration of peoples from all over the world into urban and rural dis- tricts in America has brought about a special religious need. In many cases these people come from countries where the state-supported churches have given them little training in voluntary religious organization. They are thus ill-adapted to form self-supporting religious congregations. In some places the state churches were part of the Old World authority, which the freedom-loving immigrant was glad to throw off in the New World. There exists then an actual antagonism to religion. Again, state religion, which may be very efficacious in holding children in the religious life and which normally may keep them attached to the church in their maturer years, has seldom manifested great power in winning those who have fallen away from religion. There are needed the fervor of the evangelistic appeal and the social attractions of a church adapted to the community situation. In the case of the Roman and Greek Catholic populations there is the added obligation to missionary effort, in that the Protestant feels called upon to win these people from their superstitions to an evangelical faith which is related to the modern world. Naturally there is no possibility of self-initiating nor of self-supporting religious effort in such conditions as these. The American church must provide a church home for the foreigner until he has reached the point where he is able and willing to carry it on for himself. Where the immigrant lives in the cities the problem of missionary activity in his behalf is often complicated with that already discussed, as many foreigners are crowded in the poorer quarters. Sparsely settled communities. — The United States taken as a whole is still one of the most thinly populated regions of the civilized world. Small towns many miles apart, with farm houses at considerable distances from one another, are to be found all over the country. Moreover, there is a constant effort to get away to more remote places. The history of the 628 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION United States has been a history of the pioneer pressing into new regions. Cheap land has ever been the lure that has called him from the more settled parts of the country. While there is a sense in which there is no longer a frontier, yet in a very true sense there are many frontiers. Every city has its far- flung line of newly opened suburbs. All the western states have large sections of newly opened land. What of the pioneer's religion ? One of the glorious chap- ters of American history is the story of how the pioneer took his religion with him. Without waiting for any missionary organization he often opened a Sunday school and set up his altar in the log house as one of the first social institutions of the new community. But this was not always the case, nor when it was the case was it adequate. The building of a church and the support of the minister are tasks too heavy for the new community, struggling to get on its feet. A most natural field of fraternal effort has always been found in the frontier towns, in the country villages, in the new suburbs, in the mining camps and logging camps, and wherever the people were too few or too feeble to initiate and support their own religious organization. The Indians and the negroes. — ^The segregated condition of the Indians on the reservations has been an appeal to Chris- tian churches to make these "wards of the nation" also wards of the church. Christian schools and churches have been estabhshed by the various denominations, therefore, among most of the tribes. As the Indian comes into our American life it will still be the desire of the Christian churches to help him to share in our highest religious values. The emancipation of the slaves suddenly opened to the churches of the North an opportunity which they felt called upon to meet. Education had not been permitted to the negroes, and they had for the most part conducted their own religious services with a strange combination of Christian conceptions and African practices. The medicine-man had PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 629 become the pastor. It was felt that these liberated children must be given the Christian education and guidance which would enable them to become self-directing. Unhappily the bitterness growing out of the sectional strife prevented the proper co-operation between the northern and southern whites which alone would have made such a missionary work thor- oughly effective. There is still need for many readjustments in this direction, but the fact remains that the ten millions of negroes in the North and South greatly need the sympa- thetic help of the white churches, and they constitute a proper field for missionary activity. Latin, Greek, and oriental Christian populations. — There are those who consider the non-Protestant forms of Chris- tianity better adapted to the peoples among which they exist than our more rationalized Protestantism. Probably the majoriiy of Protestants who are interested in missions at all are profoundly convinced that the religions of Latin America and of the Christian populations of the Turkish and Russian empires are utterly unsatisfactory from the ethical, social, and spiritual points of view. A great system of Christian schools has been established in the Turkish empire, and an enlarging educational and evangelistic endeavor is being prosecuted in Cuba, Mexico, South America, and in Italy itself. These missionary efforts do not always aim at proselytism, but very often, as particularly among the oriental Christians, the endeavor is to vitalize the old faith and to bring the people to an appreciation of the nobler Chris- tian values, even though they still remain within their ancient communions. Non-Christian countries. — Christianity began as a great proclamation of hope to a pagan world. The enthusiasm of propagandism continued until all Europe was nominally Christianized. When the New World was discovered, and when the Far East came into the ken of the church, the old enthusiasm was revived in the Jesuit movement, and later in 630 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION that of the Moravians. The modern missionary enterprise belongs especially to the nineteenth century. The church awoke to a sense of responsibility for the souls of men which were believed to be lost. The idea of securing salvation for the heathen world captured the imagination of the church and called forth heroic missionaries. The actual work of the missionaries revealed deeper needs. It was found that a fundamental educa tional enterprise must be undertaken . The pitiable lack of the simplest medical care opened the way for a great ministry of healing. Thus schools and hospitals were established in lands where nothing of the kind had ever existed. A new missionary motive developed, that of shar- ing with less fortunate peoples the blessings of the Christian civilization as well as the Christian faith and hope. In the last generation a further movement has taken place. The world, commercially, has become practically one. The missionary is not the sole representative of the civilized peoples. There is also the trader, the mechanic, the engineer, often the man of science, and, unhappily, always the soldier sent with aggressive intent. The Christian church no longer looks upon a heathen world perishing in ignorance of the gospel, but upon a non-Christian world exposed to all the influences of our commerce and diplomacy, with accompaniments of vice, chicanery, fraud, tyranny. It is not a question as to whether the non-Christian world shall have any contact with the Christian world, but whether it shall have contact with its best as well as with its bad, its indifferent, and its worst. The great modern missionary enthusiasm is to help the peoples of the earth to come to their best with the sympathetic help of the churches of Christian lands. 3. FORMS OF MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION The various denominations have different means of carry- ing on these wide activities. Those that are more centrally organized carry them on by means of boards which are respon- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 631 sible to the central authority, but which exercise large independence an account of the diversity of the work to be done. The less centrally organized bodies have special societies for the different phases of missionary activity. City mission societies or boards. — The missionary prob- lems of the large city are so definite that there is almost always a local organization charged with the responsibility of studying those problems and of providing a means of carrying out an adequate missionary policy within the metropolitan area. There is generally an executive ofhcer, the superintendent of city missions, who promotes the collection of money from the churches and the operation of the missions in his territory. Sometimes churches are entirely supported in needy districts. Sometimes grants are made to assist a semi-independent church. Sometimes new enterprises, churches, or Sunday schools are initiated by the city-mission organization. The theory of the organization is that there shall be no community without a church and no church without adequate means to carry on its work effectively. State mission societies, conventions, or boards. — The next territorial division above the cit}^ depends upon the form of church organization. It may be the diocese, the synod, the conference, the convention, and any of these may or may not be coterminous with the state. However, there is usually a society or board which is responsible for missionary activity within some such large territory. The great cities within its area will generally be exempt from its operation, having their own metropolitan organization. But the extension and sus- tenance of the church in the smaller cities and towns, in the country places, and in the new communities will be its con- cern. The money will be raised within the territory — -state, diocese, or whatever its name. There will be an executive oflticer whose duty will be the superintendence of these activities. The theory here again is that there shall not be 632 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION any community without a church, nor any church without the means to carry on its work efficiently. National or home mission societies or boards. — Certain denominations are unified throughout the entire country. Several have still the two main divisions that were brought about by the slavery controversy. The Episcopal and Congregational churches, tlie Disciples, and many smaller denominations are national; their home missionary work is therefore coterminous with the United States. The Metho- dists have a northern and southern denomination, the former regarding its jurisdiction as practically national, although to a great extent limiting its southern activities to negro work, the latter belonging definitely to the southern states, and con- cerned with church extension and sustenance in that section. The Presbyterians have a somewhat similar condition. The Baptists are one denomination, but have a northern and a southern convention, whose territories slightly overlap. The northern convention does not undertake missionary work in the South except among the negroes. While these various differences exist, there is always a denominational society or board concerned with the entire missionary activity of the denomination in the home land. There are usually several executive secretaries, and the denominational territory is generally divided into large divisions for the purposes of the collection of money, the mis- sionary education and stimulus of the churches, and the super- vision of the missionary activities. Foreign-mission societies or boards. — Almost every de- nomination is actively engaged in the foreign-mission enter- prise. Several denominations exist as such only by reason of their missionary interests, these great activities having created the denominational consciousness . Even among the centrally governed bodies the missionary undertakings are the supreme object of the denominational organization. The active direc- tion of missions may be intrusted to the highest officials of the PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 633 church, there may be a special board appointed or elected for the purpose, or there may be foreign-mission societies which have been developed, in and through which the denomination expresses itself. Whatever the form of organization, it has generally at least two phases. One is concerned with the missionary education and stimulus of the churches in America, the raising of the great income necessary for the enterprise, the selection of the young men and women who are to be missionaries, and to some extent the supervision of their training. The other is con- cerned with the actual operation of the missions in foreign lands. This involves a study of the conditions in the various countries, the appointment of the men and women to the various stations, the decisions as to the kind of work to be done, the amount of equipment to be provided, the buildings to be erected, etc., the arrangement of furloughs, the care of missionaries who may be ill or who may need to return home. In short, it is a complicated business enterprise requiring great skill for its economical and efficient prosecution. 4. PRINCIPLES AND PROBLEMS OF MODERN MISSIONS Theological. — It is becoming increasingly clear, especially in the foreign-mission field itself, that it is a vain task to endeavor to reproduce for peoples of traditions differing from our own the religious forms, doctrinal statements, and ecclesiastical names which belong to our special religious heritage. We no longer think of salvation as dependent upon the acceptance of certain redemptive facts. We are con- cerned with a religious experience of faith, dependence, and love toward the God of righteousness and love, whom we know in Jesus — an experience which shall function ethically in human relations. What may such an experience be for a Chinese disciple of Confucius, for a Japanese Buddhist, for a Hindu, for a Moslem, for a Congo fetish-worshiper ? Evi- dently these questions are to be answered in the light of the 634 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION most careful and sympathetic study of the particular people, with an appreciation of the best in morals and religion that they have produced, and with a broad realization that our Western Christianity is a specialized type, and is not an unchangeable norm for all peoples and times. The great simpHfication which the modern theological point of view brings to the missionary is ably discussed by Macintosh in an article entitled "The New Christianity and World- Conversion," American Journal of Theology, XVIII (July and October, 1914), 337-54 and 553-70. Sociological. — Our Christianity partakes of the genius of our Western democratic social organization, unless indeed it still belongs to the aristocratic organization of feudalism. How far is it adapted to the social organization of another people ? Is the church, whether it be episcopal, presbyte- rian, or congregational in its government, a natural form of social organization for Africans, for Hindus, for Chinese ? Is the community life of the American missionary family a helpful example in those different lands ? Is the American boarding-school system, or the day school, whether or not coeducational, the best means of educating all people ? What shall be our attitude in the face of such a practice as polygamy ? Shall a man put away all his wives save one as a condition of entering the church ? How shall we meet such social con- ditions as foot-binding (now, to be sure, scarcely a problem) ; the marriage of children without their own consent; the veneration of ancestors, which is regarded as filial piety; the worship of the emperor, which is regarded as patriotism; the festival, which is a pageantry expressive of race life and which yet may have undesirable elements ? Evidently there is a mass of problems requiring the most tactful and scientific consideration. We cannot pull up a race by the roots. We cannot separate it from its social heritage. We do not want to produce slavish imitations of our foreign customs. The people must continue in their own social process with the PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 635 new urge, motive, and hope of the essential Christian spirit. EducationaL — Missionary work both at home and abroad has been increasingly educational. The missionary found very soon that he must concern himself with the youth. Ele- mentary schools are to be found in practically all missions. Secondary schools of good grade have followed wherever pos- sible, and a number of good colleges afford advanced educa- tional opportunities under Christian auspices. An insistent missionary problem is that of the adaptation of educational procedure to the experience and needs of the various peoples. We are only beginning to learn this principle in our own education. Just as we formerly supposed that religion was religion, so we also thought that education was education. Each would have been expressed in terms of a certain content. People were to be saved by accepting our theology and to be educated by learning what we had learned. Thus today the Sunday-school literature which is prepared for Americans is translated and used, with its Western illustrations and sug- gestions, all over the world. American hymns are translated regardless of the applicability of the symbols and imagery to another people. The tunes are carried over without considering whether they accord with the musical genius of other peoples. Education is a process of progressive socialization. It must take account of the habitat, the inheritance, the social conditions of a people. What is the best education for an Indian on a western reservation, for the negro boys and girls of the South, for the Japanese in a Christian academy, for a low-caste Hindu in a village of India, for the native pastors who are to lead their people in the various lands ? These ques- tions cannot be answered offhand by the simple transference of the corresponding grade of an American school. Edu- cation must have relation to social experience. These matters are being seriously considered by modern students of missions. They were much discussed in the Edinburgh Conference, and 636 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION further investigations are being made which will doubtless result in large improvement. The education of the missionary himself is a most interest- ing problem. Out of the Edinburgh Conference, which gave great attention to the matter, have come some marked reorganizations of curriculum in the theological seminaries. Historical, psychological, sociological, pedagogical, and lin- guistic studies must be included in the missionary preparation. Above all, there must be an understanding of the modem world in which the missionary church and community is to live its life. The divinity schools will most naturally continue to give this preparation, especially those that are connected with universities. The training of women 'for home and foreign missionary service has been undertaken by special training schools, and these are developing their standards in a very satisfactory manner. Ecclesiastical. — A common impulse has led all denomina- tions to undertake the various forms of missionary work. For the most part there has been little zeal of denominational propaganda, but father the larger desire for the extension of the Christian faith. In home and city missions, where there was a definite possibility of the establishment of churches that would become self-supporting and in time contributory, the element of rivalry and competition inevitably obtruded itself. In missions that were not likely to add to the denomi- national vigor and prestige this was not so marked. But in any case serious overlapping inevitably developed, while great gaps existed where no Christian work was carried on at all. Long before the problem of denominational comity arose at home the foreign missionaries themselves felt its impera- tive necessity. And they have been constantly in advance of the home church in furthering this needed reform. Among the great foreign missionary boards the world has been fairly divided, with the purpose that a given denomination shall, as far as possible, be given full responsibility for a given terri- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 637 tory. Some difficult problems arise in regard to ecclesiastical procedure. Manifestly, if one denomination is in sole pos- session of a certain region.it ought to receive members of other denominations into full membership in its churches. This matter is still to be worked out. Comity has proceeded more slowly at home than abroad. The wretched rivalry of home-mission churches in small places and in frontier districts has come to be recognized as a shame to Christianity. The economic waste, the inefficiency, the un-Christian spirit which has resulted from this often bitter competition are becoming clear. In a few cities inter- denominational councils have been appointed with the re- sponsibility of deciding where there is room for new churches, and of apportioning the new territor)^ fairly among the denominations. There are always, however, certain intense sectarians who refuse to abide by such decisions. Much still remains to be done in this direction. Beyond comity is co-operation. At this point again the foreign field is in the lead. In several localities, notably in Western China, an interdenominational university has been started. When one denomination is unable to send out mis- sionary applicants, other boards are sending them without asking them to change their denominational affiliations. If the foreign missionaries were left to themselves there would probably soon be an end of real denominationalism altogether. The matter is more difficult at home, where vested interests are at stake, but progress is being made. The leading divinity schools are becoming interdenominational or undenomina- tional. Certain forms of missionary work are supported by several boards in co-operation. Evangelistic activities which are essentially missionary in their character are generally interconfessional. The problem in its practical phases is vital and ever more insistent. One of the greatest of all foreign missionary problems is that which has come to be called technically "devolution," 638 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION that is, the transfer of ecclesiastical control from the mission board in America and its representative missionary to the native church itself. An interesting study on this subject has been made by Fleming in a Doctor's thesis (University of Chicago) on Missionary Devolution in India. The Japanese church has already asserted its independence. Fundamentally this is more than a mere matter of administrative control; it involves the question whether there is any sort of propriety in transplanting Western denominationalism to foreign lands. If one believes that a certain form of church polity and ritual has been divinely ordained to be observed everywhere and at all times, manifestly there is nothing to do but to impose it' upon all converts. To those who do not find a hard-and-fast ecclesiasticism in the New Testament, but rather a glorious way of life taking upon itself certain convenient external forms, there will be no impropriety in allowing Japanese, Chinese, or Indian genius to find for itself the vehicles through which the spirit of Jesus may express itself and institutionalize itself in those lands. Literature. — J. L. Barton, Educational Missions (New York: Student Volunteer Movement, 1913). (Discusses in popular form different aspects and problems of education in the mission field and shows its value as a part of the missionary enterprise. One of the best books on this subject.) E. W. Capen, Sociological Progress in Mission Lands (New York: Revell, 1914). (A study of missionary work by a trained sociologist. Treats the problems met in the mission field and shows the progress that has been made in the removal of ignorance, inefficiency, and poverty. The book is a convincing statement of the constructive power of Christian ideals.) Louise Creighton, Missions, Their Rise and Development (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 191 2 [Home University Library Series]). (A small volume intended for popular reading but containing much valuable historical and descriptive material. A good book to recommend to*those who have only a slight interest in missions.) J. S. Dennis, The Modern Call of Missions (New York: Revell, 1913). (Consists of a review of some articles formerly published in different periodicals. Discusses especially the relation of missions to diplomacy, national evolution, and commerce. The chapters are disconnected and PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 639 make no pretense of thoroughness. The book is of special value because of the light it throws upon the governmental aspects of missionary work.) George S. Eddy, The New Era in Asia (New York: Missionary Education Movement, 1914). (Gives an interesting account of the religious awakening that is taking place in Asia. Full of striking facts gleaned from the author's own investigations. An inspirational book by a noted missionary leader.) *W. H. P. Faunce, Social Aspects of Foreign Missions (New York: Missionary Education Movement, 19 14). (One of the best missionary books of recent years. Written by a man in thorough sympathy with mission work in its broadest sense. Gives inter- esting facts about the social achievements of missionaries and discusses the enlarging function of the modern missionary.) A. E. Garvie, The Missionary Obligation and Modern Thought (London: Hodder & Stough- ton, 1914). (Deals with the changes which have occurred in modern thought concerning the Bible, theology, and non-Christian religions, and shows the bearing of this changed viewpoint upon foreign missions. Written from the standpoint of a conservative scholar not in sympathy with present liberal tendencies.) I. T. Headland, Some Byproducts of Missions (Cincinnati: Jennings & Graham, 1912). (A popular pres- entation of the indirect results of missions. A stimulating book that enlarges one's conception of the missionary enterprise.) W. S. Hooton, The Missionary Campaign (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 191 2). (An elementary book dealing with the theory and principles of missions. Useful as a popular discussion of the subject in a small compass.) Shailer Mathews, The Individual and the Social Gospel (New York: Missionary Education Movetnent, 1914). (Develops the thesis that the gospel must be a social gospel, because there is no such thing as an individual inde- pendent of social conditions.) *J. R. Mott, The Present World Situation (New York: Student Volunteer Movement, 1914). (Discusses the need of statesmanship in missions, the problems involved in the meeting of the East and the West, and the necessity of spiritual power in the missionary enterprise.) Scott Nearing, Social Religion (New York: MacmUlan, 1913). (Emphasizes the social viewpoint of Jesus and points out the need of a social gospel to regenerate modern society. Discusses definite social problems, such as poverty, unemployment, child labor, and the discontent of the masses, with special reference to the responsibility of the Christian church. Popular in treatment and very suggestive.) C. Stelzle, American Social and Religious Conditions (New York: Revell, 1912). (A study of the facts and conditions of present-day society in America. Discusses various aspects of industrial problems and points out the part that the church can play in a program 640 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of social betterment.) H. C. Vedder, The Gospel of Jesus and the Prob- lems of Democracy (New York: Macmillan, 1914). (A criticism of the church for failure to lay emphasis upon the problem of economic injustice. Has a bearing on home- and city-mission policies.) C. H. Robinson, History of Christian Missions (New York: Scribner, 1915). (Indis- pensable for a thorough scientific survey of the history. Full statistics are brought up to 1 9 1 5 . This work deals only slightly with problems and principles.) C. H. Robinson, The Interpretation of the Character of Christ to Non-Christian Races (London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1910). (Endeavors to show how the Christian message may be presented in an understanding way to people of other faiths. Rather conservative in viewpoint. Discusses the best ideals of some of the oriental religions.) *R. E. Speer, Christianity and the Nations (New York: Revell, 1910). (A comprehensive treatment of the theory and practice of missions, including such themes as the basis, aims, and methods of missions, the problems of the native church, Christianity and the non-Christian religions, etc. An excellent and suggestive work.) *World Missionary Conference, 9 vols. (New York: Revell, 1910). (Contains full reports of the commissions appointed to investigate all phases of modern missions. A mine of information for missionary addresses. Full of facts gleaned from the experiences of many missionaries.) Magazines: International Review of Missions, J. H. Oldham, editor (i Charlotte Square, Edinburgh). (A magazine devoted to the scientific study of missionary principles and practice. Contains articles on vari- ous aspects of missions by authors of wide reputation. The bibliography and reviews of current missionary literature make it invaluable for the student of missions.) Missionary Review of the World, D. L. Pierson, editor (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co.). (A missionary magazine filled with fresh facts from the field. Inspirational in character, but represents a conservative viewpoint. Contains valuable book reviews and excellent suggestions for missionary meetings.) VII. RELIGIOUS EDUCATION I. DEFINITION AND SCOPE Under the title " catechetics " practical theology has always concerned itself with the problems of the religious education of the young. As that name implies, it has been a study of the means by which the fundamental doctrines of the church and the social duties of its members might be made PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 641 clear to children. The principal method employed until recent times was the catechism, with illustrations, explanatory sermons, etc. It has always been regarded as the duty of the pastor to supervise the religious training of the children of his parish, and personally to prepare them for church member- ship. The development of the Sunday school somewhat enlarged the task of practical theology, but until lately the educational work of the church has not been a matter of very serious theological consideration. In the curriculum of the theological seminary of twenty years ago a few lectures on the pastor's relation to the Sunday school covered all that was done in this field. It is now coming to be recognized that religious education is to be so broadly conceived that it will cover a very large part of the function of the church. Faunce, in The Educational Ideal in the Ministry, very definitely presents this considera- tion as fundamental to the effective modern church. Religious education considered as a science is a study of the developing moral-religious experience in order to determine the principles of its healthiest growth, and the methods, materials, and activities by which that growth may be fur- thered. While a theoretical difference does exist between morality and religion, practically they cannot be separated. 2. THE HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION This is a vast field. It must suffice simply to indicate the ground to be covered. Primitive religious education. — There is little education, properly so called, among primitive peoples. There is rather a training in the technique of living which is acquired by imi- tation. At puberty, however, among many peoples, elaborate and significant initiation ceremonies, generally of a religious character, take place. There -is often some body of instruc- tion given to the youth by the elders; sometimes the secrets of the tribe are then revealed. Recent scholars have called 642 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION attention to the significant parallel between these practices and the confirmation ritual or the conversion experience, at the period of early adolescence, in Christian churches. Ames has discussed the subject in The Psychology of Religious Experi- ence (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1910). Hebrew religious education. — The Hebrew elementary- school system probably arose shortly before, or shortly after, the time of Christ. There were no "schools of the prophets" in early Israel. Religion was a training developed by the sacrifices, festivals, and customs, and later by the synagogue service, with its prayers, scriptures, and instruction. The Hebrew life at its best was deeply religious, and the child grew into it as his inheritance. Literature. — The article "Education" in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible may be consulted for detaUs; also Schiirer, The Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, II, chap, ii, 47-83. Greek and Roman religious education. — The developed education of the Greek and Roman youth was intimately connected with religion. It is the individualism of Chris- tianity that has made its religious education so different from that of other peoples. When religion is the national posses- sion, every youth comes into an appreciation of its significance just as he acquires patriotism and the moral standards of his group. We have much to learn from an understanding of this acquisition of moral and religious ideals by means of the social inheritance. Literature. — Classical education is discussed by Monroe, Textbook in the History of Education (New York: Macmillan, 1907). Early Christian education. — There is very little reference to education in the New Testament. Education being so largely a discipline in the communal life, the disciples took for granted that the children of Christians would grow up in the practice of the Christian life. The catechumenate was estab- lished especially for the instruction of the heathen before their PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 643 reception into the church. Later it became customary for children to receive catechetical instruction before their con- firmation. The details of this matter have never been thor- oughly studied. Literature. — Geraldine Hodgson's Primitive Christian Culture (Edinburgh: Clark, 1906) is rather a study of the relation of the early Christian leaders to the Graeco-Roman learning. Religious education in the Middle Ages. — The church councils constantly laid emphasis upon the duty of pastors to catechize. There was evidently great laxity on the part of the priesthood. Religion was largely participation in the festivals and ceremonials of the common religious life. The most notable education, which was not without its religious character, was that of chivalry. Here the child entered on a system of discipline which was not acquired from books but from the activities of life. He learned how to live and to be- have as a page. In due time the youth learned the duties of a squire. At last, with the most solemn and impressive religious ceremonial, he took the vows of knighthood. Our modern book education, so little related to life, and bereft of pageantry and ceremonial, has much to learn from the extraordinary effectiveness with which the ideals of knighthood were so often achieved in that rude age. Monroe has a brief discussion of this discipline. In a less degree a similar life- training was effected by the trade apprenticeships, and in the homes, both high and low, by the teaching given the girls in the performance of house- wifely duties. Humanism and its effect on religious education. — Human- ism, with its great appreciation of learning, brought about the change from discipline to instruction. The youth must learn the things that could be known, especially the classic literature, and in religion he must know the Bible and the Creed. To be sure, there was great emphasis upon the exercises of religion, but there was far more upon the material. 644 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION That emphasis characterizes the schools of Germany and of Great Britain to this day, and persists in many of the American churches. Its fundamental methods were the memorizing of Scripture and of catechism and the explanation of these in terms of duties, moral and religious. The educational error is in exalting the significance of material above the needs of the developing human personality. Literature. — See Watson, English Grammar Schools to 1660 (Cam- bridge: University Press, 1908). For the great educationalinfluence of Luther, Painter, Luther on Education (Philadelphia: Lutheran Pub. Co., 1889), may be consulted. The Jesuits, in order to meet the new Protes- tant education, developed their own characteristic system, which is well described in Hughes, Loyola and the Educational System of the Jesuits (New York: Scribner, 1892). The Sunday school. — The great development of religious education arose from the voluntary efforts of the laity to give religious instruction to neglected children. While the clergy in England, and especially in America, were supposed to catechize all the children of their parishes, there were in fact large numbers who received no religious instruction at all. Many sporadic efforts were made during the eighteenth cen- tury to meet this neglect. The one which attained public recognition, and therefore permanence, was that of Mr. Robert Raikes, of Gloucester, who established schools on Sundays for poor children who could not go to school on week days. He provided that they should be taught to read in order that they might be able to read the Bible and the catechism — the chief purpose of reading, according to practically all school authorities in the eighteenth century. The name "Sunday school" was given to this new institution, and it soon spread over all England and Wales, but not so readily in Scotland, where religious training was better administered. It was imported into America and attained great vogue. National organizations were formed for its propagation. At last an international organization and a World's Sunday School Con- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 645 vention organized all the forces of the Protestant world in a united work. Literature. — A popular and brief treatment of this subject is Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday School (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 191 1). A fuller discussion for America is Brown, Sunday School Movements in America {Chicdigo: Revell, 1901). The convention reports of the inter- national Sunday School Association record the progress and statistics of the movement. The modem religious educational emphasis.— While the Sunday school in its extensive effort went into every com- munity in Great Britain and America and spread over the whole world, its work for the most part was, and is still, very superficial. The Sunday-school teacher is generally entirely untrained. Sunday-school literature has until recently been far below the standards of the public school. Sunday-school work has been enthusiastic and inspirational, but not educa- tional. During the last quarter of a century in England and America expert educators have given much attention to the matter of religious education, earnestly advocating reforms and improvements. In 1903 the Religious Education Association was formed for the purpose of uniting all persons interested in the subject in a common endeavor to further religion, by educational means, in home, school, church, community, and in all human life. The International Sunday School Association has been hospitable to the newer ideals and has invited the co-operation of religious educators and given them place on its boards and committees. It has completely revised its curriculum, presenting a graded course of study from the kindergarten to the adult classes. This has been accepted and issued in text pamphlet form by the leading denomina- tional publishing houses. Other systems of graded curricula have been developed, most notably the "Constructive Studies" published by the University of Chicago Press, 646 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the "Completely Graded Series" published by Scribner, and the new graded system announced by the Unitarian Board. The problem of moral and rehgious education in the pubb'c schools has received earnest attention during recent years. The great controversy over sectarian education in England produced the Moral Education League, which developed a series of textbooks in the field. Sadler's two- volume Moral Instruction and Training in Schools is a con- spectus of what is being attempted in this direction all over the world. The proceedings of the National Education Association and of the Religious Education Association con- tain numerous papers presenting the various points of view of education in America. Numerous very interesting experiments, notably that at Gary, have recently come into operation. These will need most careful observation and criticism. A valuable beginning of such evaluation has been made in the reports published in Religious Education, February, 1916. 3. DATA OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION General psychology. — Religious education is concerned with a process in consciousness. Religion is a complex of attitudes, dispositions, habits, ideals; it is concerned with reactions of thought, of feeling, of conduct; it has to do with imagination, memory, association. Education in religion can only be understood as consciousness in all these aspects is understood. The science of consciousness is psychology, which therefore must be fundamental in the study and prac- tice of religious education. Genetic psychology. — The human personality, conceived as a psycho-physical organism, is in process of development. From birth to maturity there are interrelated changes, physical and psychical, which determine the nature of the organism at any period of its growth. Education cannot deal with mem- ory, imagination, reasoning, but with these functions of con- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 647 sciousness as they operate at any given stage of development. The science of the developing consciousness is genetic psy- chology, which thus becomes of high importance to the religious educator. Literature. — Irving King's Psychology oj Child Development (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1903) is good for the first years of life and his High School Age for the study of adolescence. Kirkpatrick's Pundamentals of Child Study (New York: Macmillan, 1903) is a more general work. Social psychology. — Education is also a social process. Indeed, it cannot be defined apart from the use of social terms. Thus the special phase of psychology which is concerned with the study of the social nature of consciousness and the inter- pretation of reciprocal personal relations is contributory to education. Literature. — Cooley's Human Nature and the Social Order (New York: Scribner, 1901) is a good introductory work in this field. Anthropology. — All subjects today are studied genetically. Every phase of our religious experience has its history and is illuminated by an understanding of its genesis and develop- ment. A knowledge of the life, culture, and education of primitive man and of the less developed races is -of great value for the appreciation of modern problems. The fact that the correspondences between primitive and child life have been greatly overstated does not lessen the importance of the contribution of anthropology to education. Literature. — The reading of Thomas' Source Book of Social Origins (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909) reveals at once the significant educational implications of this subject. The psychology of religion. — As religious education is con- cerned with the development of the moral-religious life, it is obvious that it must understand the nature of the experience which it seeks to promote. The psychology of religion studies and interprets that experience, thus furnishing the religious 648 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION educator with the means of understanding his task and esti- mating his results. This is also a new science, and so depend- ent is religious education upon the progress of the psychology of religion that the two can scarcely be separated in practical study. This science holds so large a relation to the whole field of practical theology that it has seemed wise to give it a brief separate treatment, with some discussion of its literature (see below, pp. 663 £f.). General education. — Education is a unitary process. Religious education is not a distinct undertaking which can be separated from so-called "secular" education. Every educational process has its ethical and religious influence. Whether we work in church or in school, we deal with the same human instincts, dispositions, capacities, emotions, ideas, activities. Religious education is only a special emphasis. If it is to be broad and wise it must keep close to the principles and methods which education in general has worked out. Education has made great advances in recent years; it has a hundred experts where religious education has one. The younger branch of the science does well, therefore, to learn very humbly from the elder. Literature. — Thorndike's Education (New York: Macmillan, 191 2) is a representative non-technical treatise in the larger field. 4. THEORIES OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION There is a theory of religious education, held by not a few persons who are not themselves religious, which- may be called prophylactic. A writer on the subject actually stated that he would wish to have his own child brought up in the strictest type of Calvinism till he was about eleven years of age, after which he would gradually let him get rid of it. A lady who does not regard the church as useful to herself allowed her children to engage in all its activities, and frankly stated that it seemed to be about the best thing for them until they reached fifteen years of age. These views would seem to indicate that religion is a lower stage of culture through PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 649 which the child must pass on his way to that of the super- rehgious man. The culture-epochs theory. — The only theory of religious education which has actually gained a name is that which has come over from the field of general education and is founded on the recapitulation theory. As biology was sup- posed to have proved that the individual recapitulated, in the prenatal stage, the history of his whole line of ancestors, so by an interesting analogy it was assumed that in his postnatal stage he passed through the various periods of culture through which the race has passed. Born an animal, he developed into a savage — this stage roughly comprising the period of child- hood— thence into a barbarian at adolescence, and so grad- ually into a civilized man. This being the case, it was positively advantageous that he should live a genuinely sav- age and barbarian life lest, like the tadpole deprived of his tail, he should be cut off from his natural development. This theory is worked out in great completeness and with much interest in G.Sta.n\eyIlalVs Adolescence (New York: Appleton, 1904). The theory has largely lost its vogue in recent years, as both the biologist and anthropologist have denied its basis. At the best it would be a very unsafe guide by which to organize a system of education. The preparation theory. — The process of religious educa- tion has very often been regarded as the means by which the immature person was prepared for mature life. Spencer has given us a great definition of education as preparation for complete living. It would be idle to deny that there is a large element of truth in this view, but it does not sufficiently take account of the most important fact that living itself is the only preparation for larger living. The boy is best prepared to be a man by being a complete boy. The danger of the preparation theory is that it may degenerate into a cold- storage theory. For example, because later childhood is supposed to be a time of peculiar ability in memorizing, it has often been insisted that advantage should be taken of this 650 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION fact to "store the mind" with material that would be useful later on. W. W. Smith, in his book Religious Education (Milwaukee: Young Churchman Co., 1909), defends this view. It has been carried by some to such an extreme that abstract theological definitions, expressed in elaborate formulas, have been committed to memory by children, who are expected to retain them till some future time when they would become useful. This is to offend against the soundest principles of pedagogy. There can be no value in learning anything that does not have some point of contact with experience, and nothing can be more unfortunate than to associate religion with meaningless abstractions. The progressively socialized personality. — The aim of religious education can be stated only in terms of socialized personality. That means becoming at home in the universe with the Father God, at home in the world with the brother- man, and contributing one's best to the ongoing process. This is to be genetically conceived. At every stage of Hfe there is a certain normal possibility of this socialization. It begins with the babe's relation to its mother, as yet unrealized, extends through the naturally enlarging groups of home, companions, school, community, and finds its goal in the completely socialized spirit of Jesus. A true religious educa- tion would always seek to know what would be the healthful and significant experience in this socializing process at any period of life, and would strive to secure such limited experi- ence, assured that so the best advance was being made toward the goal. Literature. — Coe, in his Education in Religion and Morals (Chicago: Revell, 1904), has presented a theory of religious education which is at once social and genetic. 5. INSTITUTIONS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Dewey, in Moral Principles Underlying Education, has shown that the definition of education as the symmetrical PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 651 development of all the powers of the individual is defective because each of the terms needs to be defined. The individual does not develop by himself but always in relation to social situations. Education is therefore to be conceived as a social process ; moral-religious education particularly so. It is in the creation of social situations conducive to ethical and religious development that the process of such education consists. There are at least four institutions which are con- cerned with this task. The home. — Altogether the most important religious institution is the home. In the early years of childhood are formed the dispositions, prejudices, and attitudes which are so largely determinative through life. The home is able to provide a natural community within which its various mem- bers shall live that corporate life which is genuinely social. Yet the home is for the most part little conscious of its responsi- bility and even of the real nature of its task. Literature. — Coe, in the book above cited, has a significant discussion of this matter. See also a study in Religious Education in the American Home, prepared by Votaw for the Religious Education Association. The problem of the education of parents is one that must be vigorously faced. After the wide discussion regarding the teaching of sex hygiene in the schools, many educators have come to the conclusion that the proper method is to teach the parents how to teach their children ; and the principle that is made so evident in startling fashion in this subject is equally true in many others. The most progressive churches are seriously undertaking classes for parents in the health of childhood, the psychology of childhood, the problems of reli- gious and moral nurture. Literature. — A good book in this field is St. John, Child Nature and Child Nurture (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 191 1). The social problems of the modern home constitute great difhculties. Among these are adequate space opportunities 652 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION for recreation, the scattering of the family in various pursuits, the absence of definite and significant tasks for children, the increasing independence of young people, the decay of family worship. Literature. — A very satisfactory treatment of the various phases of the subject will be found in Cope, Religious Education in the Family (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 19 15). The school. — -Historically the school has always been regarded as an institution particularly concerned with moral and religious education. Its close relationship with the church, which existed until very recently in America, and which still continues in many countries, made possible a cor- related religious education through week days and Sundays. The complicated process by which this has become impossible in America is familiar, and it is quite useless as well as unwise to make any attempt to return to our former condition. Our schools are inevitably "secularized"; that is to say, they cannot give specifically religious instruction, nor can they make use of the Bible, even to the extent of reading limited portions of it. However, the real responsibility of the school for moral training is only obscured by a discussion of the permissibility of the use of the Bible by the teacher. Our definition of religious education indicates the direction in which the school must function in the development of the child. If the studies are so organized as to permit an enlargement and enrichment of the social experience, if the school is a community where the social life of teacher and pupils and of children together is so carried on that actual social values are realized, then the school is serving most effectively as an institution of moral education. Literature. — This subject has been much discussed in the proceedings of the National Education Association and of the Religious Education Association. There is a valuable series of essays by Rugh et al. on "The Essential Place of Religion in Education" (Ann Arbor: National PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 653 Education Association, 1916). Dewey has considered the social value of the curriculum in The School and Society (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1899), and Irving King has brought together a series of significant papers in Social Aspects oj Education (New York: Macmillan, 191 2). The bibliographies in this latter work are especially valuable. The church. — The one institution whose sole and specific aim is religious education is the church. All its organization, worship, instruction, social life, and altruistic developments are properly directed toward the development of the moral- religious values in its membership, and in those to whom its members may minister. And the church is strong in pro- portion as it recognizes its educational purpose and its social responsibility. This function of the church may be obscured under any of the following conditions: {a) when the church exists as a rehgious institution, separate in thought and interests from the great world of modern life; {h) when the idea obtains that the principal business of the church is to get people converted or committed to the Christian hfe, as if anything significant were accomplished by this one moment of decision; {c) when the traditional routine of church life goes on without any careful study of the educational character of its various activities and their possible modification or improvement; (d) when the necessity for financial self-maintenance absorbs the energies of its members, with the consequent temptation to resort to catch-penny, and therefore non-educational, means of raising money; {e) when the altruistic motives lead the members to sporadic and unconsidered charities without the establishment of genuine social relations. Literature. — Faunce discusses many of these problems most help- fully in The Educational Ideal in the Ministry (New York: Macmillan, 1908). The church has some serious handicaps in its task: (a) While it has a superlative opportunity in the fact that Sunday morning is still practically its own, yet even this 654 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION great section of t ime is quite insufficient for adequate educa- tion, (b) In spite of the fact, in which the church has gloried, that the last century has been conspicuous for the magnitude of its lay service, it is becoming increasingly evident that this service is lamentably incompetent. A trained lay leadership is a present problem of great moment, (c) The church has traditions of a noble architecture which, however, was designed originally for the spectators of a dramatic pageant, and then was modified to suit the needs of the audience of a popular oration, and now must be adapted to the demands of a complicated educational institution. Few churches have the equipment that is necessary for the educa- tional task. Literature. — Evans has discussed this problem very practically in The Sunday-School Building and Its Equipment (Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1914). Some interesting experiments are being made in the direc- tion of enlarging religious education by co-operation between the church and the public school. In North Dakota high- school students may receive credit for Bible-study carried on in the Sunday school, examinations on the subject being set by the state authorities. A similar plan is in operation in Colorado and elsewhere. In the almost revolutionary plans of the schools of Gary, Indiana, the superintendent has offered to the churches any opportunities that they desire to take the children during school hours for study in the church buildings. Several denominations have put educational directors into that community to work out such plans of religious education. The results will depend largely upon the possibility of training religious teachers. The community. — We are just beginning to realize that the community is a social institution with high educational value. Chicago's establishment of field houses is notable. The large educational values that arise out of properly PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 655 organized play must be recognized, not only by the church and Christian associations, but by the municipalities and the rural communities, for the life of a people will never rise above the level of the moral quality of its amusements. When boys or girls run the streets, form gangs, and patronize harmful amusements, they are being educated downward by the community. Literature. — ^Jane Addams has discussed this problem in The Spirit oj Youth and the City Streets (New York: Macmillan, 19 10). The ques- tion is to the fore whether the community has not a distinctly positive educational responsibility beyond the mere provision of intellectual training. The Wider Use oj the School Plant by Perry (New York: Charities Publication Committee, 191 1) is a discussion of certain phases of this responsibility. It is important that the church should foster this move- ment and direct it rather than feel jealous of its influences. The church gains in its very loss whenever it inspires the people as a whole to take upon themselves some new educa- tional function. Literature. — Social Aspects of Education by Irving King (New York: Macmillan, 191 2) may again be referred to, especially chap, vii, "Playground Extension," and the bibliography at the close of the chapter. The correlation of educational activities. — The aroused sense of educational responsibihty has resulted in the some- what feverish anxiety of various institutions to equip them- selves for the task without having any very clear idea of the division of the responsibility. As soon as we can see the possibilities a little more clearly, there will need to be some better definition of the functions of the various educational institutions than has yet been made, and some satisfactory correlation of their efforts. It may be possible to do this through the Religious Education Association, in whose journal these problems are constantly discussed. 656 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 6. THE ORGANIZATION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Developments in the church. — The acceptance of the Sunday school by the church in the beginning of the last century was the first educational development beyond the pastoral oversight of the young. This was followed by the establishment of many societies of young men and women for self-culture, culminating in the formation of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. This, with its related denominational organizations, was properly intended for young people of about feighteen to twenty-five years of age. Unfortunately junior societies were formed for children and intermediate societies for boys and girls, each conducting prayer and testimony meetings in imitation of their elders. A much healthier development was the Knights of King Arthur for boys, the Queens of Avalon for >girls, and other similar institutions founded on the modernized ideals of chivalry. The latest, and in many respects most satisfactory of all, are the Boy Scouts and the Campfire Girls. Besides these better-known organizations there are a host of clubs, recreational, dramatic, musical, together with choir organiza- tions, mission-study circles, etc. Within the Sunday school itself have come the organized classes, such as Baracas and Philatheas, which are essentially clubs with various recrea- tional and other activities. Correlation of educational agencies in the local church. — A very serious problem is the adjustment of these various organizations to one another and to the church life as a whole. Many of the interesting activities which formerly belonged to the Sunday school have been taken over by these specialized organizations, so that it may easily come to pass that the Sunday school will be merely a teaching institution, all the social activities being otherwise conducted. The attempts that have been made to conserve the significance of the biblical instruction by requiring a certain minimum of attendance in Sunday school for eligibility for the more inter- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 657 esting activities are not likely to enhance the intrinsic value of the instruction. Evidently there is needed such a corre- lation of these good activities that there shall be no gaps, no overlapping, no useless organizations, no undue demand upon individuals either as leaders or as members, while the educational idea shall be dominant. The Sunday school would seem to be the basal organization which can be enlarged and developed to include all others. Literature. — The details of such a solution of the problem are pre- sented in the report of a commission on the subject in Religious Educa- tion for April, 191 2, and have since been worked out by Athearn in The Church School (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 19 14). Community organizations of religious education. — The local denominational church is seldom competent to care for all the educational interests of its own people; and when a vigorous church is able to do so, this is frequently done at the cost of others who are unable to compete. It is becoming increasingly evident that many educational activities should be carried on by the whole Christian community rather than by the individual church. The Christian associations often serve as such co-operating agencies. The city institute for teacher-training which has been developed in many places, most notably in Des Moines, Iowa, is a significant effort in this direction. Athearn has described this and discussed the principles involved in The City Institute for Religious Teachers (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1915). The question has indeed arisen whether we may not in the near future need a city superintendent of religious education who would be an officer of experience and dignity comparable to the superintendent of schools. 7. MATERIALS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION The criteria of religious material. — When Christian faith is defined in intellectualistic terms, religious material does not extend much beyond the Bible, Christian doctrine, and the 658 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION elements of worship. But when religion is thought of as pro- gressive socialization, everything that tends to enrich social experience has moral-religious value. There is a sense in which every sound discipline would mediate such enrichment. It is the same sense in which we speak of all life as religious. However, it would be more helpful to confine the term "reli- gious" or "ethical" or "social" to such material as has some special wealth in the particular direction. Literature. — Pease, An Outline of a Bible-School Curriculum (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906), and Haslett, the Pedagogical Bible School, Part III (Chicago: Revell, 1903), discuss the religious and moral values of a wide range of material. The value of the Bible. — All that has been written regarding the Bible as Hterature of power, as the inspirational record of religious experience, applies at this point, with a further pro- vision that its value must be estimated with reference to the developing experience of the growing individual. Its wide range of literature contains material adapted to the interest and experience of every age of life. The Bible can no longer be the one material of religious instruction. We do not need a "Bible" school. But there is no danger that the Bible will lose its unique significance. Its intrinsic worth, the hallowed associations of the centuries, and its integral place in our literature and thought make the Bible religious material of first value. Literature. — The writer has discussed the literary value of the Bible in detail in an article on " Types of Literature in the Bible " in The Ency- clopedia of Sunday Schools and Religious Education, and an excellent treatment of the subject is Raymont's The Use of the Bible in the Edu- cation of the Young (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 191 1). Direct moral and religious instruction. — When any material embodies the idea that is to be taught without spe- cifically expressing it, the moral instruction is indirect. Can such instruction be given directly? Of course the most effective instruction is connected with the actual occurrence PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 659 of moral crises, as when the telhng of a He gives opportunity to discuss the social significance of lying, or when the sense of a need of God leads to instruction in prayer. A more difficult question is whether vital moral discussion can be aroused apart from the occurrence of the moral crisis. The futility of a vast amount of exhortation to be good is, of course, evident. Literature. — Some systems devised for teaching a catalogue of virtues were well criticized by Coe, in an address before the National Education Association, on "Virtue and the Virtues, "published in Religious Education, January, 1912. But practical ethics may be taught with tact and skill. Jenks, Life Questions of High School Boys (New York: Y.M.C.A. Press, 1908), and Johnson, The Problems of Boyhood (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1914), are able texts for the purpose. There is need of similar books for girls. 8. METHODS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Religious pedagogy. — When the problem of adequate religious material has been solved and this material has been organized into a graded system, there arises the problem of pedagogy. The same objection may be made to the term "reli- gious pedagogy" as to " religious education." Of course there are no distinct pedagogical principles that belong to religion. Any satisfactory system of education seeks to secure from any material of instruction the fitting results in social efficiency; yet because the religious reactions are so subtle and because so much mistake has been made in seeking to get adult reactions from immature persons, it is particularly important that the principles of teaching should be carefully studied with refer- ence to their religious and moral implications. Literature. — A first-class book in this field still remains to be written. Meantime, James, Talks to Teachers on Psyclwlogy (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908), is invaluable. McMurry, The Method of the Recita- tion (New York: Macmillan, 1906), is an excellent presentation of the Herbartian pedagogy, and Dewey, How We Think (Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1910), is fundamental. Weigel has done an admirable 66o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION popular piece of work in The Pupil and the Teacher (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 1911). It is to be regretted that a few years ago the various denominational houses hastily prepared a number of teacher- training books, and have thus occupied the field very inadequately. This situation is now being gradually corrected with some better texts. The education of religious feeling. — Feeling is fundamental in religion and affords impulse to conduct. A full discussion of this subject would involve a consideration of worship as a phase of the psychology of religion. Of course personal religion in the leaders of the church, and simplicity and sincerity in the conduct of religious exercises, are essential to the cultivation of fine religious feeling. Yet the adequate stimulation of such feeling in younger or older people, or in groups of various. ages, by means of the various liturgical elements as well as by spontaneous exercises, is scientifically a psychological problem, and practically a problem of tech- nique. Literature. — Some excellent results which have been achieved in the Union School of Religion are discussed by Hartshorne in Worship in the Sunday School (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913). A volume upon The Children in Worship by Boocock is also in the series of the University of Chicago Press. Expressional activities. — Religion has not been taught when religious ideas have been imparted, nor when religious feeling has been stirred, but only when religious conduct has resulted. The church is not so well equipped for this experimental task as for the intellectual and emotional phases of its work. Indeed, about the only opportunity that it has furnished its members for the active expression of religion has been, for the few, in carrying on its own life, including its educational work, and for the many, both old and young, in the giving of money. And this latter activity, with its extraordinary educational possibilities, has been for the most part sadly uneducational. The church has been so busy in getting the money for local and philanthropic and PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 66l missionary needs that it has given little attention to the educa- tion of people in the giving of money. This again is a prob- lem of graded education, having regard to the developing experience of children and young people. Beyond the giving of money there is the great field of the giving of service, and this in such a way as to establish genuine social relations with the persons served. Here is a very fine problem in practical social psychology which needs much more careful study than it has received. * Literature. — Hutchins has dealt with the whole matter in Graded Social Service for the Sunday School (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 5). 9. SPECIAL PROBLEMS The problems of religious education beyond those involved in the various phases of the subject already discussed are intimately connected with the problems of the psychology of religion. Indeed they are often largely the educational aspects of these latter problems. Very fundamental is the question whether anything like an experimental approach to these problems is possible. Can we devise a technique by means of which we can measure the results of our educational experiment in religion and morals ? Literature. — In a paper, "Securing First-Hand Data as to the Reli- gious Development of Children," in Religious Education, October, 191 5, Hartshorne argues for the practicability of such investigation. Some of the most pressing problems to be studied are the following: (i) efficient religious education for the various stages of the developing life, young child, older child, boy, girl, young man, young woman, adult; (2) the place of the intellectual, the affective, and the conduct elements in reli- gious development ; (3) the development of moral and religious life in connection with the growth of sex-consciousness; (4) the relation of religion and play; (5) the preparation of the child for church membership. 662 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Literature. — The Proceedings of the Religious Education Association (322 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago) and its magazine, Religious Education, contain the most significant material in this field. The Association publishes numerous pamphlets, one of the most important of which is Graded Textbooks for the Modern Sunday School (free). The student of religious education will do well to read representative works in general education. *Thorndike, Education (New York: MacmiUan, 1912), will be a good introduction. The Original Nature of Man (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913), by the same author, is suggested because of its thorough discussion of instinct as basal for all education. While the work is somewhat technical, the religious educator will find it valuable as giving him the standpoint from which to estimate educational theory and practice. G. Stanley Hall, Adoles- cence, 2 vols. (New York: Appleton, 1904), was one of the first books to call attention to the characteristics of youth life. It is extreme, laying great emphasis on the theory of recapitulation, but is eminently sug- gestive. Youth, Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene (New York: Appleton, 191 2), is a shorter work, giving Hall's position more succinctly. *Irving King, The Psychology of Child Development (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1903), and The High School Age (Indian- apolis: Bobbs Merrill, 1914), are two volumes covering the field of genetic psychology, giving a very satisfactory treatment of the child and youth. See also Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study (New York: Macmillan, 1903). The whole literature of child-study is germane. This clear and interesting treatise may be taken as representative. *Coe, Education in Religion and Morals (New York: Revell, 1904), was one of the early books on the principles of religious education, and is still one of the best. Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School (New York: Revell, 1903), is a briefer presentation of G. Stanley Hall's position on child development in its various stages and an excellent outline of a curriculum adapted to those stages. Pease, Ati Outline of a Bible- School Curriculum (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1906), was one of the first efforts to set forth the principles of graded lessons in religious education. It is still very valuable. Burton and Mathews, Principles and Ideals for the Sunday School (Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 1903), presents a discussion of school organization and of pedagogical method. It is especially valuable for the latter and is commended to the teacher. *Athearn, The Church School (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1914), is the best presentation of the organization of the Sunday school and related organizations. The bibliography is full and valuable. There is no better book than *Cope, The Modern Sunday PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 663 School in Principle and Practice (New York: Revell, 1907), to introduce the new ideal into the Sunday school. His Efficiency in the Sunday School (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 1912) is a discussion of specific factors making for efficiency, and is excellent. Hartshorne, Worship in the Sunday School (New York : Teachers College, Columbia University, 1913), is a popular treatment of the psychology of liturgy and a presentation of the worship values and opportunities as worked out in the Union School of Religion. Cope, The Evolution of the Sunday School (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 191 1), is a concise and accurate treat- ment of the history of religious education. Brown, Sunday School Movements in America (New York: Revell, 1901), is an excellent history. Hoben, The Minister and the Boy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 2), is a fascinating presentation of the possibilities of the pastor's relation to the boys of his parish. *Hutchins, Graded Social Service for the Sunday School (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1914), gives a discussion of the principles involved in social con- tributions of children, and a presentation of practical plans from the kindergarten to the adult grades. *Evans, The Sunday-School Building and Its Equipment (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1914), is the best presentation of the modern educational needs in the matter of equipment. Churches undertaking new buildings or seeking to remodel old ones should consult this work. Athearn, The City Institute for Religious Leaders (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 19 15), presents a practical plan for community teacher training. Wardle, Handwork in Religious Education (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1916) treats the science and practice of expressional activity. Herbert W. Gates, The Church and Recreation (Chicago: The Uni- versity of Chicago Press, in press, 1916). Cope, Religious Education in the Family (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 5), is a most helpful and practical treatment of this important subject. The Encyclopedia' of Sunday Schools and Religious Education (New York: Nelson, 191 5) contains many valuable articles. The literature under "The Psychology of Religion" should also be consulted. VIII. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION I. THE RELATION OF THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION TO PRACTICAL THEOLOGY Practical theology is concerned with the principles and methods by which rehgious life and work are developed, especially through the institution of the church. But religion 664 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION is a human experience. It is a phase of human consciousness. Its principles and methods cannot be discussed without con- stant reference to psychological considerations. Our study of the sermon, evangelism, pastoral care, hymnology, and liturgies has again and again required reference to the psy- chology of religious experience. And the subject of religious education goes necessarily hand in hand with this science. In the university the subject of the psychology of religion is naturally organized in the department of philosophy or of psychology. In the divinity school it may come to have an independent status, although there is not as yet any seminary with a chair so named. The intimate relation between the two fields of work has in more than one case put the psychology of religion with practical theology. Without laying undue emphasis upon this relation a brief treatment of the subject may be appropriate here. 2. THE mSTORY OF THE SCIENCE This branch of study strictly considered is of very recent origin. Some articles in the American Joiunal of Psychology were early essays in this field. Such were Daniels, "The New Life: A Study in Regeneration," VI (1895), 61-103; Leuba, "Studies in the Psychology of Religious Phenomena," VII (1896), 309-85. In 1899 appeared Starbuck's more comprehensive and elaborate work. The Psychology of Religion (New York : Scribner, 1899) . This was mainly a study of the phenomena of conversion by means of the questionnaire. While it had of necessity the uncertainties involved in that method of investigation, it had an important part in awaken- ing an interest in the possibilities of a critical study of religious experience. The following year appeared The Spiritual Life by Coe (New York: Revell, 1900). This book, though not based on numerous cases, discussed more critically and thor- oughly the principles of conversion and of religious feeling, reaching conclusions very similar to those of Starbuck. In PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 665 the same year in England Granger published The Soul oj the Christian (New York: Macmillan, 1900), a theoretical psy- chological study of conversion, visions and voices, love, ritual, prophecy, and theology. There followed in 1902 the really great and ingenious Gifford Lectures by Wilham James, on Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1902). Unlike his predecessors, James based his investigation on the biographies of many noted religious persons of the past, endeavoring from the standpoint of psychology to interpret those experiences that had been so often regarded as unique and inexplicable. James made much use of the theory of the subconscious, which has since been seriously questioned. In 1905 Davenport made a valuable contribution in Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals (New York: Macmillan, 1905), a keen study of those phen mena from the social as well as the psychological point of view. G. Stanley Hall, who had made wide investigations by the questionnaire method, founded in 1904 the Journal of Religious Psychology and Education (since 191 2 the Journal of Reli- gious Psychology) and has printed numerous essays in this field. The short-lived Zeitschrift fiir Religions psychologic , published by J. Bresler at Halle, should also be noted. The work of Murisier in France on the pathological phases of religious experience, of Delacroix and others on mysticism, of Flournoy on the psychology of inspiration, of Henri Bois on religious feeling, and of Frommel on conversion made con- tributions to the science. Harold Begbie's practical observa- tions of remarkable cases of conversion which he has given us in Twice Born Men (New York: Revell, 1909), Other Sheep (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 1912)? Souls in Action (New York: George H. Doran & Co., 191 1), etc., are important data for the psychologist. Pratt's Psychology of Religious Belief (New York: Macmillan, 1905) was an attempt to explain scientifically the belief attitude. Ames's Psychology of Religious Experience (Boston : Houghton Mifflin 666 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Co., 1910) is the best statement of the social theory of the development of religion, while Stratton has criticized this view in The PsycJwlogy of the Religious Life (London: Allen, 1911). In Germany the work in the psychology of religion has not been clearly differentiated from that in the history of religion and in the philosophy of religion. Elemente der Volker- /?^;ycAo/o^^e,byW.M.Wundt (Leipzig: Kroner, 1900-), belongs rather to the former science, and Die religions psychologische Methode in Religionswissenschaft und Theologie (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913), by Georg Wobbermin, belongs to the latter. The number of workers in the field of psychology of religion is rapidly increasing, and in the last few years a large amount of material has appeared in the form of articles in scientific journals as well as in books. 3. DEFINITION AND SCOPE In distinction from metaphysics. — The psychology of reli- gion does not concern itself with the objective truth of religious beliefs. " It has nothing to do with ontology. It is not con- cerned to estabhsh the objective validity of any faith or rite, or even of rehgion itself. These considerations belong to theology proper or to metaphysics. Religion as we actually find it is a part of human experience. Beliefs, feelings, activities of religion, just because they appear as states of consciousness, lend themselves to scientific observation, classi- fication, and explanation. Pratt gives the following description of the task of the rehgious psychologist: Having collected his facts, the psychologist will proceed as other scientists proceed with their data. That is to say, he will group his facts and note the general relations between them, thus seeking a sys- tematic and general description of the various facts in the religious consciousness. Whenever possible, he will "explain" these facts by subsuming them under the laws of general psychology, that is to say, he will proceed on the assumption that, for the purposes of science, reli- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 667 gious facts are not different in kind from other psychic facts. Thus he wUl seek to build up a scientific view of the religious life, interpreting and explaining it by itself and by the known facts and laws of the human mind ' Irving King makes the important suggestion that in the psychology of religion one must not take for granted the con- cepts of religionists and use them on the same level with psychological terms. Relation to the history of religion. — Leuba distinguishes the psychology of religion from the history of religion on the ground that the former deals with the contents of conscious- ness, impulses, desires, representations, ideas, volitions; whereas the latter finds its data in the deeds of men and chiefly in the social resultants of the activities of individuals. The two, however, are very intimately related. Literature. — Irving King's Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1910) goes into the field of psychology, and many books on the psychology of religion derive much of their material from the study of historic religions, and particularly of the religions of primitive peoples, e.g., that of the Australian tribes as known from the researches made by Spencer and Gillen. Phylogenetic and ontogenetic problems. — Many of the problems of the psychology of religion are anthropological, such as the origin of religion in the race, the rise of religious rites and ceremonies, the forms of beliefs, superstitions, etc.; and even those that seem definitely individual, such as the rise of religious consciousness, the stages of religious development, the place of feeling, will, and ideas in religious consciousness, and such phenomena as conversion, sanctification, prayer, faith, revivals, worship, inspiration, prophecy, mysticism, all run back to anthropological considerations. While, however, this intimate relationship exists, the problems that are dis- tinctly psychological are those which concern the religious consciousness as we know it. ' "The Psychology of Religion," Journal of Religious Psychology, V, 386. 668 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION 4. METHODS A consideration of the means by which the psychology of rehgton accumulates its facts is of prime importance, as upon this its validity depends. Four methods may be distin- guished as having been employed by investigators. The introspective method. — This is the ordinary method in the science of mental life in general, which religious psy- chology may properly make use of. It may indeed be questioned whether a man to whom the religious experience is personally foreign, if such there be, is capable of making a proper estimate of the phenomena of religious consciousness. The best example of this method is Granger, The Soul of a Christian. The biographical method. — This includes studies of bi- ographies, autobiographies, letters, and other spontaneous expressions of rehgious persons. It has the value, of course, of widening the range of observation. James made use of this method in his Varieties of Religious Experience. The questionnaire method. — This consists in collecting answers to definite questions from a large number of persons. Its value depends upon the skill with which the questions are framed with reference to securing the actual facts, the range of the investigation, the willingness and ability of the persons questioned to give adequate answers, and the skill of the investigator in the classification and interpretation of the answers. Its weakness is that the most suggestible persons usually answer the questions, that there is no means of checking the accuracy of the answers, and that very few persons are competent to give information regarding their own subjective life. An illustration of this method is Star- buck's Psychology of Religion. The comparative or objective method. — The study of the relatively objective experiences of social religion furnished by history, anthropology, the sacred literature of various peoples, furnishes data of high scientific accuracy. This method is PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 669 employed by Irving King in the Development of Religion, and largely by Ames in his Psychology of Religious Experience. Other Available Methods. — ^Besides the foregoing, which have commonly been employed, there are other possible methods of approaching the subject. The accurate and continued observation of a few individuals in their religious development should yield important results. The statistical method has to a certain extent been employed by all writers on the subject, but there is a large field before it in the study of the efficiency of the directed efiforts toward religious develop- ment. How far the methods of experimental psychology may be available is open to question. George E. Dawson has reported briefly an attempt in this direction in the Journal of Religious Psychology, II (19 13), 50-58). Literature. — Coe, Psychology of Religion (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 6), has an illuminating discussion of methodology. 5. PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION Definition of religion. — The simple question, What is religion ? is one of the most difficult and baffling to answer scientifically. The philosophy of religion has long been engaged upon a definition and has produced about a hundred forms. Wright ("A Psychological Definition of ReHgion," American Journal of Theology, XVI [19 12], 385) suggests that these are of three types: (i) those having the general qualities of Hoff ding's "conservation of values"; (2) those insisting on the supernatural agency; (3) those giving chief importance' to the "feehng" element. Evidently there is another distinction from the standpoint of the psychologist, namely, whether religion arises as the product of social organization or has an instinctive basis in the nature of man. Ames and King represent the former point of view; James, Coe, and Stratton the latter. Literature. — See Coe, "Religion from the Standpoint of Functional Psychology," American Journal of Theology, XV (April, 191 1), 301-8, 670 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION "The Origin and Nature of Children's Faith in God," ibid., XVIII (April, 1914), 169-90, and his Psychology of Religion. An interesting attempt at a mediating point of view is made by Watson in an article, "The Logic of Religion," American Journal oj Theology, XX (January and April, 1916), 81-101 and 244-65. The religious experience of childhood. — On the basis of genetic psychology we are to ask, What is the nature of the rehgious in child consciousness ? What is the criterion of religious sentiment in the child ? What relation does it hold to other phases of child life ? Different answers to these questions are suggested by the authors above cited. Those who conceive of religion as a social phenomenon consider that it belongs almost wholly to adolescence, childhood religion being objective, external, ritualistic, imitative. Those who find an instinctive basis for religion in the in- dividual would credit children with the possibility of a genuine, if simple, religious experience. Much further study of individual children needs to be made. The religious experience of youth. — The most definite contribution that the psychology of religion has made is its recognition of the character of adolescent religion. The studies of Starbuck and Coe, and also those of G. Stanley Hall, have shown that ''conversion" is really a natural phenomenon of adolescence based on the growing and expand- ing of the personal self. Its connection with the rise of the sex-consciousness is very interesting, as is also its relation to the initiation ceremonies at puberty among primitive peoples. Some have gone so far as to consider religion Itself as an outgrowth of sex feeling. The religious experience of the youth is so largely conditioned by adult preconception and prescriptions that there is still much opportunity for the study of its normal character. Conversion. — Distinction ought to be made between the religious awakening of youth, which at its best is probably a process of evaluation and idealization, and that more vital PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 671 crisis which James describes as the unifying of the divided self. The latter is generally the result of a long tension which finally yields to the relaxation of peace. Literature. — The writer has discussed this matter with reference to its educational implications in an article on "Some Psychological Aspects of Regeneration" in the Biblical World, XXXVII (February, 191 1), 78-88. The large literature on the subject has been given above. Sex in religion. — -The question of the differences in the religious experiences of boys and girls, and of men and women, is a very interesting and important one. Most of the dis- cussions on the subject rather superficially state that the female is subjective, introspective, sentimental, concerned with religion as a matter of personal feeling and with reference to future bliss, while the male is objective, rational, con- cerned with religion as a matter of conduct in this present world. It is said that our hymns and our churches are feminine, and that therefore women greatly outnumber men in them. Perhaps all this is more true of the past than of the present, and much of it may belong to the hereditary treatment which women have received rather than to their psychological constitution. At all events, it is becoming increasingly difficult to consider women in the categories thus laid down. They insist upon intellectualizing their religion, in demanding outlets of religious activity, and they are promi- nent in reform and in philanthropy. Hall, Starbuck, Haslett, and Coe have attempted to make these sex distinctions in religious experience. But it is questionable whether we yet know very much about the matter. Most of the careful studies in adolescence have been made with boys. It is to be hoped that more will be done in the study of girls. Literature. — Meantime such a book as Thomas' Sex and Society (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1907) is a basal scientific treatise. Prayer. — The psychology of religion has nothing to do with the objective efficacy of prayer, nor with the question of the 672 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION reality of the Being to whom prayer is addressed. This belongs to philosophy, not to psychology, and at last to faith, not to science. Psychologically, prayer is a resultant experi- ence in attitude and in language of the awakened religious consciousness. It satisfies a psychological need. It has a definite subjective justification. The mental states of peace, exultation, and resolution which issue upon the exercise of prayer are due to the release of conscious tension. The "demonstration" of the Christian Scientist is, of course, psychologically of the same nature. Literature. — Strong's Psychology of Prayer (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909) is a significant study of the subject from the standpoint of social psychology. Revivals. — It is definitely recognized that there is a psy- chology of the crowd which is different from that of the individual. Such a book as Le Bon's The Crowd (London: Unwin, 1903) presents this fact with great clearness, though one is not obliged to accept his somewhat cynical view of democracy. The revival is a crowd phenomenon. Daven- port's careful study of Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals (New York: Macmillan, 1905) indicates the essential char- acter of these movements in that loss of normal inhibitions and that development of the "sympathetic likemindedness" which explain many of the extraordinary results. So far from feeling that these studies minimize the appreciation of the divine power in saving men, many earnest people think that they ought to enable us to understand the laws which are in- volved in such movements, so that we may conserve the good results and eliminate the dangers. On the basis of such con- ceptions a healthy evangelism may well be developed. Worship. — Feeling is predominant in primitive religion, and, historically, worship developed as a means of securing effective results. The sacrifice, prayer, dance, feasts, fasts, whatever may have been their supposedly objective value, derived their real significance from their manifestly sub- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 673 jective quality. The place of feeling in modern religion is an important question, and, in connection therewith, the part that symbolism and ritual ceremonies may play in stimulating it. While there are probably two types of mind, one type being aided by the introduction of outward symbols and ceremonies and the other hindered by it, it is equally true that no one is likely to be independent of the influence of con- crete images and sense stimulations. One may be unaffected by the sacrament but powerfully stirred by religious music. Worship is significant to religion in four ways: (i) conscious- ness is controlled and directed into religious paths; (2) there is a collective suggestibility; (3) the motor expressions of a feeling through ritual tend to a continuance of the emotion and may help toward making it of motor influence in con- duct; (4) the assumption of the bodily posture connected with any feeling tends to produce or to strengthen the feeling. This subject, together with the special significance of music, has been discussed in connection with the study of liturgies. Inspiration and prophecy. — Faith believes in a revealing God. Psychology can only concern itself with the way in which the experience of that revelation appears in conscious- ness. The message which is "received" is usually a body of ideas suggested to the mind by the current state of affairs. It is, in other words, a subconscious inference from situations. It involves highly intellectual processes of judgment, imagina- tion, and reasoning. Kaplan says: "Revelation. .... is a sudden mysterious awareness of an inflow of thought, an inundation of spirit, an awakening of mind, seemingly from unaccountable (subconscious) sources and therefore believed to be ... . through supernatural agency." The prophet really delivered a rational message, although it may often have seemed to him to be other than his own. The vitally important matter for modern religion is that the rational character of the message shall be understood so that the mod- ern recipient may realize his own responsibility of rational 674 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION interpretation. An objective message from Deity must be obeyed without thought or question; the inspired message through a man must be evaluated in human experience. So may the psychology of religion help our faith. Literature. — Thomas has treated "The Psychological Approach to Prophecy" in the American Journal of Theology, XVIII (April, 1914), 241-56. Mysticism. — Mysticism as an experience subject to psy- chological investigation is a consciousness of immediate union with the Infinite. The emotional element always predom- inates, and the fundamental quality of the emotionalism is love. Mystic experiences are of many kinds and are much dependent upon individual temperament. The absorp- tion of the mind in one dominant idea, and the excess of undifferentiated emotion which generally accompanies it, may easily result in abnormality and mental disease. Yet all forms of religious experience contain some element of mysticism, and all the great saints have been mystics. In the practical religion that is so much desiderated by many for modern times, it is of great moment to inquire what place will be found for the mystic element that has characterized the supreme religious spirits of the past. Literature. — See Underhill, Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man^s Spiritual Consciousness (London: Methuen, 1911). Ethnic aspects of religious consciousness. — The history of religion is concerned with the comparative study of the objective facts. The psychology of religion may undertake to discover the actual differences in the religious experience of persons of different races. Does a Japanese youth have an evaluated experience with reference to the sun-god that is comparable with the "religious awakening" of the Chris- tian youth ? If not, does the difference lie in the intellectual content of the religion or in any ethnic quality of mind ? PRACTICAL THEOLOGY 675 Evidently, if missionary education is to be carried on scien- tifically, much remains to be done in this field. Conclusion. — The foregoing are some of the more impor- tant problems which it is the task of the developing science of the psychology of religion to investigate. There are many others, for every phase of religion has its psychological aspect. As above indicated, the employment of the results of these studies in practical religious work is the task of religious education. Literature. — *James, Varieties of Religious Experience (London: Longmans, Green, &. Co., 1902), is a great contribution on the basis of the study of religious biography. Starbuck, Psychology of Religion (New York: Scribner, 1899), gives an analysis of the conversion experi- ence on the basis of the questionnaire; it is particularly strong in the treat- ment of adolescent experience. Coe, The Spiritual Life (New York : Revell, 1900), is particularly concerned with the religious awakening of youth and with the relation of temperament to various religious experiences. The book is based partly on a questionnaire. Davenport, Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals (New York: Macmillan, 1905), presents an examination of the great revivals in Christian history, with reference to an explanation of the psychic phenomena there manifested. Irving King, The Development of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1 9 10), while belonging rather in the historical field, is a treatment of religious phenomena from the standpoint of the psychologist. *Ames, The Psychology of Religious Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1910), gives an interpretation of religion from the standpoint of functional psychology. It is a very able and interesting book. Leuba, A Psychological Study of Religion; Its Origin, Function, and Future (New York: Macmillan, 191 2), gives an interpretation of religion by means of a study of its primitive manifestations and of the purpose that it has served in human life. The author looks for a non-theistic religion of humanity. Stratton, in The Psychology of the Religious Life (London : George Allen & Co., 191 1) , finds in the religious life an inherent struggle and studies the conflict in the field of emotion, of action, and of thought. He deals rather with the great historic religions than with those of primitive people. F. G. Henke, A Study in the Psychology of Ritualism (Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 19 10), is a Doctor's dissertation (University of Chicago) on primitive rituals and their meaning. J. P. Hylan, Psychology of Public Worship (Chicago: Open 676 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Court Pub. Co., 1901), is a little book based on a questionnaire as to the feelings of people with reference to the Sabbath and worship. The discussion is illuminating. A. L. Strong, The Psychology oj Prayer (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909), is a study of prayer from the standpoint of social psychology. Coe, Psychology of Religion (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1916), is a significant in- sistence that the implications of functional psychology must be carried through. The modern Christian will feel that this is a psychology of his own religion. XL CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS By CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON Late Professor and Head of the Department of Practical Sociology in the Divinity School, University of Chicago ANALYSIS I. The Social Evolution of Christianity. — ^The development of the Hebrew religion. — The message of Jesus. — ^The primitive church. — Constantine and the Latin church. — Mediaeval thought.— The Renaissance. — The Reformation. — The assimilating power of Chris- tianity.— Christianity as a contemporary system of beliefs, life, institutions.- — Biblical exegesis cannot be substituted for social science 679-687 II. Contemporary Social Problems. — i. The equipment essential to social leadership. — 2. The historical evolution of social ideals and institutions. — Evolution of the race and its institutions. — ^The impor- tance of historical knowledge. — ^The main aspects of the development of industry and commerce. — a) Primitive industrial conditions. — b) Mediaeval industry and trade. — c) The downfall of feudalism. — d) Modem industrial conditions. — The church and modern industrial- ism.— The need of historical perspective. — The evolution of ideas and ideals. — Evolution of poor relief. — The development of modern social-political ideals 687-699 III. Personal Preparation for Leadership in Social Service. — Education in the social sciences. — In the high school. — In the college and university. — Curriculum of social sciences.— The training of social workers 699-703 IV. Analysis and Classification of Social Problems. — i. The social groups. — 2. Community interests. — Social regulation. — Property. — Social problems. — Social technique 703-710 V. Christianity in Relation to Social Problems. — i. The ideals of the church. — 2. The resources of the church. — The Bible. — Inspiring personalities. — Christian literature. — Personal influence of members of the church. — Educational equipment. — 3. Defects of the church. — 4. Signs of promise. — The zeal for reformation. — Missions. — Co- operation and federation. — The wise direction of effort in the near future. — The characteristic social task of the church the ministry of religion. — The promotion of social reforms. — The need of workers. — Social politics. — Welfare work. — Socialism. — Common wealth. — Perils of progress. — Fellowship in religion the crown of all progress . 710-728 XI. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS' I. THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF CHRISTIANITY The development of the Hebrew religion. — The Old Testament supplies materials for a history of the growth of the Hebrew people, its evolution from tribal conditions to its incorporation into the Roman Empire. These fragmentary documents are themselves composed of varied notices of the land, population, industries, domestic experiences, trade, art, customs, sentiments, laws, governments, wars, and treaties of Palestine and neighboring countries. They reflect the state of knowledge, the superstitions, the changing policies, the ceremonies, philosophies, and beliefs of the people at different periods. The ideas of God which came to expression are affected by all these experiences of persons of many degrees of ethical and spiritual ripeness. The later editors of the books sought to reduce the apparent inconsistencies, more or less consciously, but many anomalies remain — fortunately for a better understanding of the real course of progress. Specialists in Hebrew literature and history must be con- sulted for the details. For our present purpose it must suffice to indicate a few results of the process. The conception of God which emerged out of the long struggle is central: the idea of the One Almighty Creator of heaven and earth; righteous himself and requiring righteousness in heart and conduct of all men; caring little for ceremonies, everything for justice, mercy, and humble piety, and demanding obedience to holy law in all relations of life, domestic, commercial, political. The narrow popular conceptions, the fiercely patriotic narrowness of certain parties, the materialistic and ' This chapter was nearly completed by Professor Henderson just before his death. He would undoubtedly have revised it had he lived; but it seemed best to publish it substantially as he left it. — The Editor. 679 68o GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION catastrophic expectations of the Messiah as avenger and restorer of Israel, modify and pollute these lofty conceptions but do not altogether obliterate them. Here and there visions of international moral and religious comity and even of immor- tality widen the horizon of thought. Literature. — Edward Day, The Social Life of the Hebrews (New York: Scribner, 1901) ; Frank Buhl, Die sozialen Verhdltnisse der Israeliten (Berlin: Reuther und Reichard, 1899); P. Kleinert, Die Profeten Israels in sozialer Beziehung (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1905); George A. Barton, A Sketch of Semitic Origins, Social and Religious (New York: Macmillan, 1902); W. Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion of the Semites: The Fundamental Institutions (London: Black, 1894); Louis Wallis, Sociological Study of the Bible (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 191 2). The message of Jesus. — Jesus brought to consciousness the infinite worth of personality in communion with God the Father. Compared with the blessedness of fellowship with God, all other interests seemed to him secondary, and might be postponed; the essentials are in the Beatitudes, mercy, peace, humility, purity of heart. Jesus was not ascetic, not indifferent to the hunger, the pain, and the joy of this life; but he insisted on the supreme and all-inclusive good, what- ever else deserved consideration. He did not attempt to make laws nor to organize a church or government; he pro- mulgated no social program. Yet when his views of God, of friendship, of holiness, of virtue, of the boundless worth of a person are accepted, the seeds of social revolution and progress are planted. The primitive church. — The early followers of Jesus huddled together for mutual protection, dreading the coming storm of persecution, and attracted also by the enthusiasm of devotion to the ascended Lord. They apparently mis- apprehended Jesus' words about a swiftly coming Kingdom, and even pulled wires to make sure of prominent offices. They believed that the world without was soon to fall with a crash; crowns and thrones, merchandise and art, far-seeing CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 68 1 plans of improvement, were out of the question, too unimpor- tant for them to consider. Most of the early Christians were of the petty trading class, rf not wretched slaves. Few dis- tinguished men of state or learning at first deigned to notice them. They lived in small circles of intimates; their philan- thropy was expressed in alms-giving, with a few simple rules to prevent abuses. It was not worth while to try to save the institutions of society or to try to mend them; all would soon be consumed, and a new earth emerge out of the flames. We look in vain for any large constructive policy under such conditions. Yet the ferment of divine friendship was there, and the little congregations became the nurseries of senti- ments which one day would dominate the policies of nations. Time passed; knowledge enlarged with experience; the heavens did not depart as a scroll; the churches were welded together by the bishops into organized institutions; the authorities of the Empire were compelled to pay attention to the new society, even when they persecuted it. Literature. — Suggestive studies of the social aspects of early Chris- tianity are found in Troeltsch, Die Soziallehren der christlicher Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen: Mohr, 19 12); Harnack, Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Chrislentums in den ersten 3 J ahrhunderten (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1902; 2d ed., 1906; English translation by Moffat, The Mission and Expansion oj Christianity in the First Three Centuries [London: Williams & Norgate, 1904 and 1905]); von Dobschiitz, Die iirchristlichen Gemeinden (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1902; English translation by Morrison, Christian Life in the Primitive Church [London: Williams & Norgate, 1904]); Uhlhom, Die christliche Liebesthdtigkeit in den alten Kirche (Stuttgart: Gundert, 1882; English translation by Taylor, Christian Charity in the Ancient Church [London: Hamilton, 1883]); see also Mathews, The Social Teaching of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1897); Cone, Rich and Poor in the New Testament (New York: Mac- millan, 1902); Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the New Testament, Part IV (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1904). Constantine and the Latin church. — The reign of Con- stantine marks a new epoch — the recognition of the church by the government, the beginning of ecclesiastical influence 682 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION in legislation, the possession of property in land and buildings by rich people and by the church, social honors for the clergy, centralization of episcopal direction, with a Romeward trend. The "decline and fall" of Rome, as a political organi- zation, left the West with a memory of an empire and a dream of its renewal; or, rather, the "Holy Roman Empire" insensibly and gradually grew naturally out of the ancient system. When the center of sovereignty was transferred to Constantinople, the Bishop of the Eternal City stood alone in Italy as the representative of this ideal, and men of genius were ready to take advantage of the opportunity, "for the greater glory of God." As the legions returned from the North defeated, missionaries, by martyrdom, charity, learn- ing, pomp, and mystery, carried the ancient culture to the Teutons, and Charlemagne tried to learn to write Latin and to establish a sort of university at his court. But native Teutonic culture was never extinguished; it entered with new factors into the movement of civilization; developed the free spirit of cities, and gradually a nation; kept on its own course in civil and criminal law, with Roman grafts on its rude strong trunk of custom; created its own literature; finally broke with Roman control into the Humanist and Reformation movements, and aspired to supreme influence in the science and trade of mankind. Mediaeval thought. — In this long and complicated process the doctrines, the feelings, the ideals, the institutions which were called " Christianity," were all modified. The Bible was quoted by all parties, but by none with the exact primitive meaning. Both Plato and Aristotle profoundly influenced the theologians, as is seen in Aquinas and Dante. They contributed political, economic, ethical, and even religious ideas too valuable to be lost. The church from its origin down had leaders of sufficient learning and ability to discover and appreciate these classic elements and to utilize them. They justified themselves for this borrowing process on various CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 683 grounds; but the significant fact is that they borrowed with- out stint or scruple, and our "Christianity" is immensely richer for their studies. The Renaissance. — When with the Renaissance the Greek literature was brought to Italy, the ecclesiastics went mad over profane and even unclean classics, the storm broke out again, and when it cleared the classics at times almost dis- placed the Bible in Europe and America as the substantial material of academic culture. The assimilation of the ancient ideas is so complete that we read them into the simplest parables of Jesus and into the rabbinical metaphysics of Paul, often to the concealment of their real meaning. The critical operation of dissecting out the originals of our stocks of ethical and theological conceptions is not yet complete. Since all that is true emanates from the one Holy Spirit who dwelt in Jesus, we may enjoy our full heritage without anxiety about the human sources. "All things are Christ's; Christ is God's." The Reformation.^The Reformers helped to liberate human spirits from bondage to ecclesiastical absolutism and to seek a direct and personal communion with God by a living faith. In matters pertaining to church and state the Luther- ans and the Calvinists parted company, the latter making a larger contribution to the activity of the church in the alBfairs of daily life. Neither entirely escaped from the delu- sion that religious orthodoxy can be enforced by political power; neither quite attained confidence in the self-evidencing truth of religion as a personal experience; instead of relying on a pope they leaned on a book for a prop of infallibility. But devout men, whether Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, or sectarian, all possessed within themselves a life which pro- ceeded immediately from God and was not at the mercy of changes of creed or church. The assimilating power of Christianity. — One of the distinctive features of Christianity is its power of assimilation 684 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION without loss of its genius. Hinduism appropriates and swallows up in the gulf of nihilism all sorts of faiths; Chris- tianity assimilates novel and diverse elements from Palestine, Greece, Rome, and the Far Orient, yet without failing to assert uncompromisingly the holiness of the supreme God, the redemption which sinful men need, and the hope of personal immortality which gives value to time. Christianity as a contemporary system of beliefs, life, institutions. — To the historical student contemporary Chris- tianity reveals many elements, some of them contradictory, which have come down to us from many sources. It would be easy to show that the doctrines of the churches of today are not in a single instance precisely those of the early Chris- tians; that the various ceremonies and modes of administra- tion which characterize multiplied sects could not all be those of the apostolic church. If we attempted literally to "go back to Jesus," in the sense of believing and teaching what can be found in his words, we should be poorer than we are. For evil and for good, every age, experience, system, debate, and organization of the past has left its precipitate in our institutions, convictions, customs, and modes of thinking. The problem is not to find and keep what was known to the primitive churches, but what is true, valuable, workable now. No one who really beheves in Christ can ever fear that a new truth will contradict his fundamental ideals. No one who intelligently repeats the creed, "I believe in the Holy Ghost," can fear to trust Him who is guide into all truth. No one should pretend, by legerdemain and juggHng with words, to deduce his social science from biblical texts. He will do well to live in spiritual contact with lawgivers and prophets, with the apostles, and with Jesus most of all; but he wrongs these by asking them to describe, explain, and interpret the phenomena of all lands, peoples, and ages, so as to make investigation superfluous and to give countenance to intel- lectual indolence. Religion is life in the realm of values, CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 685 above the causal series whose unbroken iron chain belongs to the domain of the sciences, including history and all social sciences. There is sharp conflict the moment the seer assumes the role of statistician and statesman. Nothing is more pitiful than the solemn tricks some devout biblical students have played with the cryptic symbols of Daniel and the dream of Patmos, and the equally mistaken attempt to evolve from a spiritual maxim of Jesus a legal constitution for family, republic, or industrial system. Biblical exegesis cannot be substituted for social science. — It is only fair to call attention to the fact that the conclusion here stated is entirely opposed to the position of many excellent writers who think that we can find in the words of Jesus an answer to all the social questions of our age. The revelation of God in the Bible was never intended to be a substitute for common-sense, invention, and investigation according to the requirements of changing situations. The proof of this statement is found first of all in the utter failure of merely exegetical studies to throw light on any inodern problem, save by furnishing fundamental ideals and rehgious inspiration. The business man who selected his investments by reference to Scripture texts would soon go bankrupt. The Canadian farmer who treated the descrip- tions of Palestinian agriculture in the Psalms as author- ity for his ploughing and planting would perish with his children on the fertile prairie of the Northwest. The states- man who consulted the Pentateuch or the parables of the New Testament for direction in drawing up statutes of social legislation would never be returned to the legislature; he would probably be sent to a hospital for the mentally dis- turbed. The disappointments which have befallen those who have tried to foretell events by interpreting the Apoca- lypse are familiar to all students of church history. Principles of righteousness in morals and religion are "Christian" even though they cannot be explicitly and 686 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION verbally drawn from Old or New Testament. Finding a teaching good is a discovery of a revelation of the will of the Father, no matter how new. Unless Christ is dead, as his enemies claim, he is doing something now. He is not thresh- ing out dry chaff, nor moving in a circle like a blind animal turning a wheel. He is the everlasting Creator; it is his Spirit which is guiding into new truth; and some day we shall realize that this is the final and only adequate explanation of those great and growing creations which we call science, art, progress. Literature. — ^The following books, written by eminent representatives of modern Christianity, in an earnest historical spirit, have been influ- ential in revealing to the churches the obligations of Christian men to improve the outward conditions of life and to increase the incentives to upright and useful conduct. Their arguments rest partly on inter- pretations of the teachings of the Bible, partly on genial and intelligent views entertained by men of wide reading, large experience, and sym- pathy for all sorts and conditions of men. They are not based entirely on the inductive method of reaching conclusions, and they do not furnish adequate material for independent judgment on the subjects dis- cussed. They ^re rather literary than scientific. Many of these titles, and also those of books of scientific value, are found in A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects, by Teachers in Harvard University (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1910), (pp. 216 ff.); it contains many valuable helps for our study in all directions; Ernst Troeltsch, Die SoziaUehren der christUchen Kirchen und Gruppen (Tubingen: Mohr, 191 2), gives a masterly inter- pretation of the development of Christian thought on social problems from the time of the primitive church to our own day. The notes are an indispensable apparatus of illustrations, quotations of sources, and bibliography. See also W. H. Freemantle, The World as the Subject of Redemption (London: Rivington, 1885); Lyman Abbott, Christianity and Social Problems (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1897); *Fairbaim, Religion in History and Modern Life (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1894); W. Gladden, Applied Christianity (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1886); R. T. Ely, Social Aspects of Christianity (New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1889) ; *Gore, " The Social Doctrine of the Sermon on the Mount," Economic Review, April, 1892; *Bosanquet, The Civilization of Christendom (London: Sonnenschein, 1893); *Hodges, Faith and CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 687 Social Service (New York: Whitaker, 1896); Harnack, Das Wesen des Christentums (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1900, and several editions; English translation by Saunders, What Is Christianity? [New York: Putnam, 1901]); Mathews, The Social Teaching of Jesus (New York: Macmillan, 1897) and The Gospel and the Modern Man (New York: Macmillan, 1909); Francis G. Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Social Question (New York: Macmillan, 1900); Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907) and Christianizing the Social Order (New York: Macmillan, 191 2); *Nathusius, Die Mit- arbeit der Kirche an die Losung der sozialen Frage (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1893), a work which approaches in form and method the standard texts of social science. Valuable historical suggestions and bibliographies are found in W. J. Ashley, An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory (New York: Putnam, 1894; 3d ed., 1898), which contains a learned and sensible discussion of the mediaeval social ethics of usury, business, charity; J. Dewey and J. H. Tufts, Ethics (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908), a strong presentation of the fact that duties are determined by the total social situation, with a fine bibliography; J. S. Mackenzie, An Introduction to Social Philosophy (New York: Macmillan, 1890), a pioneer work in the movement to reveal the ethical life in its relations to the community and the fulness of its needs; G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1913); E. A. Ross, Sin and Society (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1907). II. CONTEMBORARY SOCIAL PROBLEMS I. FUNDAMENTAL SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE The equipment essential to social leadership. — There is no easy substitute for scientific toil. The traditional and conventional equipment of the college and theological semi- nary of the past has left men helpless in the presence of the new situations in which Christian laymen find themselves in consequence of the industrial revolution of the last century and the problems it has brought. It may possibly be an open question with some preachers whether they should ever try to help the men of their congregations find the path of righteous- ness in this babel and labyrinth of conflicting interests. Per- haps many saintly men, while remaining quite innocent of knowledge of the actual world, may inspire and comfort and 688 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION may have the gift of soothing with rhetorical and poetic charms. There is a literature of power and beauty which belongs to all times, because it has a universal value, and it is by no means to be underrated in these materialistic and mammon-serving times. Certainly no preacher who has missed the opportunity to study social science should pretend to in- struct others when he is incompetent himself. There are others, however, who believe themselves called to give strong intellectual help to honest Christian men seeking to do justice in a new world where all ancient experience is inadequate, and to proclaim a judgment to come against the contemporary and impenitent workers of iniquity. Ministers of this type are also needed; and they should at least be tolerated by the "orthodox." In a period of intellectual pitilessness and readjustment there is good need of charitable judgment on both sides. It may prove to be necessary for the church to provide for specialization in the ministry, for the Spirit grants a diversity of gifts. The artistic preacher has his function and his following, but he is likely to jumble statistics. The sci- entific temperament inclines to severe and exact reasoning on the basis of precise measurement- of facts ; and there are congregations which enjoy and profit by the kind of sermons which grow naturally out of such a method. In the good time coming, when union churches will displace sectarian chapels, it may not be difficult to establish a new and modern itinerant system, "lest one good custom should corrupt the world." In a well-trained orchestra the vioHn does not say to the violoncello, "I have no need of thee." In a truly catholic church we ought to find devout mystics who dwell much alone and apart in protracted meditation, and who are able to make the invisible seem real. Let them dream their dreams but not meddle with strikes. The musician who tries to make steel rails imperils his fellow- workmen and loses the cunning of his delicate fingers. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 689 The knowledge which is required for this novel situation is that contained in the modern sciences on which our industrial technique, our administration of business and government, is based. Preparation for understanding the ethical difficulties and obligations of the modern man demands a study, not only of the essential ideas of the civiHzations of Greece, Rome, Palestine, and the Hanseatic cities, but of physics, chemistry, physiography, biology, preventive medicine, economics, politics, and sociology. A profound blunder has been com- mitted by men who have been eager to master in a fortnight all the social problems, while they were still without training in social science. This is rank quackery and brings the speaker or writer into contempt, and it injures church and religion. The general social sciences, as economics, political science, jurisprudence, sociology, with statistics as a method of research which belongs to all, have for their first purpose a description of the phenomena of contemporary human association and their explanation in terms of antecedents and causes. The special or practical social sciences have for their function the study of the improvement of methods of promoting human welfare by concerted voUtion guided by knowledge and urged by motives. Literature. — Further discussion of this point is found in C. R. Henderson, Practical Sociology in the Service of Social Ethics (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1902). 2. THF, HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL IDEALS AND INSTITUTIONS Evolution of the race and its institutions. — The popular conception which we have inherited from traditional theology is that of a series of disconnected, unrelated events nailed together by some constant supernatural, magical, unintelli- gible intervention. The modern scientific conception is that of an immanent organic force working steadily and perpetu- ally without a break and without interference — the idea of 690 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION evolution. Theism has been held to by partisans of both views, but the modern scholar, whether theist or agnostic, habitually thinks in terms of evolution. The religious leader who has followed only the traditional theological curriculum cannot understand the modern man of scientific training and cannot himself be understood by modern men; they live in different worlds of thought; they speak a different language. If a spiritual guide really desires to become intelligible to the men of our age, he cannot do better than to put himself through as thorough a course of study as possible in the fundamental' principles of biology, psychology, the evolution of animals and man, early culture history, anthropology, the evolution of morals and religion. Literature. — Fairbanks, Introduction to Sociology (New York: Scribner, 1896); F. H. Giddings, Principles of Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 1896) and Elements of Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 1898); W. T. Sumner, Folkways (with fine bibliography) (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1907); W. I. Thomas, Source Book for Social Origins (cita- tions of sources and authorities) (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909); *L. T. Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution (New York: Henry Hoh & Co., 1906); E. Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas (London: Macmillan, 1894); W. Bagehot, Physics and Politics (New York: Appleton, 1875, 1906); W. E. H. Lecky, History of European Morals (New York: Appleton, 1869; 3d ed., 1906); JohnhuhhockjOrigin of Civilization, 5th ed. (New York: Appleton, 1892), and Prehistoric Times, sth ed. (New York: Appleton, 1892); H. S. Maine, Ancient Law (London: Murray, 1861, 1909) and Village Com- munities in the East and West (London: Murray, 1871, 1890); Herbert Spencer, The Study of Sociology (London: Williams & Norgate, 1880) and Principles of Sociology (London: Williams & Norgate, 1882-85); E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, 3d ed. (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1889), and Researches into the Early History of Mankind (London: Mur- ray, 1870). The importance of historical knowledge. — ^There is another scientific discipline which is necessary to attain a sane view of contemporary problems — -the study of history, the history of institutions, and the history of reflective thought about CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 691 institutions and experiences. Thus there is a history of industry and commerce, of political organization and law, of art and literature, of domestic life, of religion and ecclesiastical forms. There is also a history of the theories of economics, politics, ethics, dogma, and ceremonies, of science, inventions, arts. The great advantage of the evolutionary conception is that it tends to produce a chastened hopefulness, prepares the mind for inevitable changes, and curbs immoderate haste and mob fury. Short views of social conditions paralyze effort, because the mind has no help from a survey of the long road upward which humanity has already traveled, and of the achievements of the human intellect and will in spite of innumerable blunders and crimes. On the other hand, a study of evolution steadies the mind and checks animal and savage impulse by revealing the power of habit and custom, the inertia of institutions once estab- lished, the necessity of making new adjustments, both external and internal, before a new system can be made to work. Take for example the questions which just now are so diffi- cult to discuss with philosophic calm and clear vision: those relating to the control of industry and commerce. The pas- sion which formerly made the discussion of theology and poHtics so spectacular has died down; the partisan instincts of mobs now concentrate upon the mastery of the instruments of production — land, machines, railways, telegraphs, banks. Never was self-possession and freedom from prejudice so necessary to avert shipwreck; never was it so difficult as now to be just to antagonists. The evolutionary conception may become general enough to help us past the rocks and shoals which now seem so ominous. The conservatives who now control society's capital and direct it are partly right in declaring that their services are useful and necessary; that the people have not yet developed that degree of intelligence, morality, loyalty, and skill in 692 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION government which is necessary for the management of great industries through elected representatives on salary. But the conservatives often err in supposing that the capitahst-manager system is ancient and eternal, for it is neither; it is recent in origin, is being rapidly transformed, is even now competing with both hand industries and public industries, and Utopians see signs of its gradually going into the hands of receivers. A genuinely evolutionary view would modify much of the dogmatism which is far too prevalent in industrial disputes. The main aspects of the development of industry and commerce. — It is impossible to interpret the religious life and thought of the Hebrew people and primitive Christians without a careful study of the stages of development; so it is equally impossible to understand the capitalist-manager system of our age without keeping before our minds the ante- cedent forms of industry out of which our system has grown. The studies of Schmoller, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirt- schaftslehre (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1900-1904); Biicher, Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, 8th ed. (Tubin- gen: Laupp, 19 10); Sombart, e.g., Der moderne Kapitalismus (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1902; English translation, The Quintessence of Capital [New York: E. P. Button & Co., 19 1 5]), and Sozialismus undsoziale Bewegung im ig Jahrhundert (Jena: Fischer, 1896; English translation, Socialism and the Social Movement [New York: Putnam, 1898]), and other recent economists enable us to present this evolution in its essential features with a high degree of certainty and clearness. Think- ing chiefly of European and American history, we are able to discover the following stages: a) Primitive industrial conditions. — First on the horizon of our knowledge are the pastoral groups setthng down to agriculture, each man cultivating the soil and producing only what his own household requires, with no excess product for the market. The individual householder belongs to a village community and later passes under the protection and CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 693 control of a feudal landlord. Princes, bishops, and knights have large domains, but also live on what their estates, with contributions from vassals, can produce. All live near the edge of starvation, and in times of scarcity the mortality from famine and disease is high. Capital is small. The villagers are exposed to the exactions of nobles, with some protection from the village organization; and the struggles of classes begin in the resistance of peasants to exploitation by their social superiors. b) Mediaeval industry and trade. — ^During the early mediaeval period the rise of towns and cities offers a new starting-point of industrial, political, and moral development. With improved methods of agriculture and stock-breeding, with better roads and boats, the surplus product of the fields finds a local market in towns in exchange for the manufactured commodities made by the craftsmen. Only in articles of luxury, such as spices and jewels, is there trade with distant regions. Bulky articles cannot be transported far. Pro- ducers and consumers are personal acquaintances, and each man has his customers. Slowly a few men of higher ability and enterprise accumulate capital, undertake larger con- tracts, employ money in exchange instead of barter. Popu- lation becomes more dense; division of labor is necessary; social classes are differentiated; conflicts arise over divi- sion of profits, use of markets, taxes and tributes, guild regulations. c) The downfall of feudalism. — ^From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century the middle-sized states and the modern great nations emerge under the royal houses, as in Germany, France, Spain, England. The feudal lords and the church are held responsible to kings; the supremacy of the papacy is weakened and falls; capital funds are enlarged and the con- centration of wealth and trade in a few hands becomes more frequent and manifest; new trades arise to meet new wants; the Reformation transforms the political and spiritual direc- tion of society. 694 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION d) Modern industrial conditions. — With the colonial policies following the discovery of sea routes to India and America trade becomes world-wide; the village market widens into an intercontinental market; the vast new enterprises require greater capital, larger numbers of workmen under one management, joint-stock corporations with limited liability, division of labor, increased use of machinery. The invention of the steam engine still further calls for more compact popu- lation, larger masses of capital, more stringent regulation and discipline of labor. The industrial commander whose energy and ability, rather than refinement and humanity, give him first place becomes ascendant, while priests, scholars, and feudal nobility retreat into the background. The last word of the eighteenth century is freedom and individualism; and with free trade and free competition the business man becomes a prince, capital becomes colossal, trade unions are fought to their death, legal protection is opposed tooth and claw, and monstrous cruelties, with the degradation of work- ing people, at last shock and alarm the nations and awaken a social conscience. The reaction sets in about i860 with an assertion of the moral duty of the state to all its citizens. Over against the huge corporations with their vast financial and political dominion rise the national federations of labor, the extension of the suffrage, the increased poHtical power of the wage-earners, and the international organization of socialism. We now live in the midst of a transformation more significant than the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of modern nation- alities, or the Reformation. We cannot yet see clearly for the smoke of battle, our nearness to the contestants, and our personal participation in the passions of the conflict. The church and modem industrialism. — The church itself, once mistress of empires, is stripped of all authority and is reduced to a voluntary association protected by the state; its claim to infallibility is disowned. The problem is alto- gether new and the revolution finds ecclesiastical leaders con- CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 695 fused and unprepared. They go out with ancient bows and arrows to resist rapid-firing fieldpieces and titanic cannon; their mediaeval commands are mocked ahke by masters and men. The movement sweeps along as if the clergy did not exist. The echoes of ancient creeds sound hollow and faint in the roar of the contemporary struggle of interests. And yet the church carries in- its traditions and its heart the only principle which can assure the future of mankind, if only its prophets learn in time how to interpret and apply it to the problems of our own age. The need of historical perspective. — There are radicals who still think in terms of magic and miracle, and who make their dupes believe that by some universal strike or other "direct action" the world will be made over in a few hours. They are like a band of Chinese pirates who stole a complicated and costly electric machine from a railway station in Kwang- tung Province and then did not know how to make it function. If the I.W.W. could by some cataclysm take possession tomorrow of all the mines, mills, and railways of the country, would they be able to use them to advantage, or at all ? Those whose mode of thought is evolutionary are convinced that democracy has come to stay, but that it has much to learn; that boys cannot do the work of men, nor crowds of turbulent "reds," trained to destroy machinery, be long trusted with its direction. It is true, the alternative is some- times provoking — paying a few "Napoleons of finance" fabulous sums for their as yet indispensable services, while submitting to their taunts that it is all their own "pri- vate business," into which the public has no concern nor right to intrude. The only possible mode of avoiding tragic conflict under these conditions of passion and prejudice arrayed against passion and prejudice is to cultivate the historic sense. Literature. — See the bibliography in chap, viii, p. 473; also on pp. 708 and 709 of this chapter. 696 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The evolution of ideas and ideals. — Not only industry and commerce but all other activities of mankind are in this life-current of evolution and should be studied in the same spirit. There is a measure of truth in the "economic inter- pretation of history," which finds in the modifications of the industrial organization the clue to changes in art, science, morals, religion, philosophy; but this interpretation is inade- quate. Physical changes do affect thinking, but constant experience and common-sense reveal the other side of reality: we men modify things by thinking and by action. The capitalistic system is a mode of belief, and if socialism ever dominates the world it will be because men have thought upon it, imagined it, resolved to have it, and voted it. It is amusing to see the immense energy of the leaders of the "materialistic" school who teach fatalism and practice idealism with all their might. We must be content in this scant sketch barely to indi- cate various aspects of the evolution of man's spiritual life which are so amply and ably treated in competent works on the history of the evolution of the sciences, of the techni- cal inventions and processes, of the fine arts, of ethics, of religion, of theology, and of philosophy. The domestic, educational, political, and professional institutions have passed through various stages, and each change in all de- partments of thought or action has set up profound changes in all directions. We have already touched upon the evolution of Chris- tianity itself, of its ideas, teachings, organization, adminis- tration in the church. This course of development ran parallel with that of art, politics, science, industry, law, and there has been constant interaction and reciprocal influence among all the movements of the human spirit. Culture history ought not to be conceived as an evolution outside the will of humanity, but as the very deed of humanity. Events CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 697 do not happen; they are made, and made by the human will. Literature. — Suggestive hints are found in Windelband, History of Philosophy (translation by J. H. Tufts, New York, Macmillan, 1901); Eucken, Die Lehensanschauimgen der grossen Denker (Leipzig: Veit, 1890; 5th ed., 1904; English translation by Hough and Gibson, The Problem of Human Life [New York: Scribner, 1909]); Spencer, Prin- ciples of Sociology (London: Williams & Norgate, 1882-85); Compayre, Histoire critique dcs doctrines de I'education en France depuis le seizieme siecle (Paris: Hachette, 1879; English translation by Payne, The History of Pedagogy [Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1886; 2d ed., 1907]). Evolution of poor relief. — Christianity is essentially charity in the deepest, finest, and most real meaning. The first organization of the churches provided for relief of the distressed, widows, and orphans; and this function of the churches has never been abandoned, though it has often been perverted. In the simple life of the small primitive con- gregations the faithful brought their offerings of money or commodities and laid them before the bishops for distribution; and both men and women were appointed to assist the elders in the administration. The officers became more numerous and specialized with the growth of the church. In Greece and Italy the churches took on the form of associations which were protected by law and which, in addition to regular membership fees, had an established custom of offering gifts for the poor in connection with worship. To the "love feasts" the indigent were invited and there satisfied their hunger. With the cessation of heathen persecutions, the recognition of Christianity as the state religion, the increase of war and poverty, the acquisition of estates and enormous incomes, the principles and methods of relief changed. Alms- giving was often impulsive and without method, and the largesses of bishops often encouraged mendicancy without preventing suffering. The causes of misery were too deep and powerful to be cured with doles, and the church had no policy 698 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION of prevention. The belief in the merit of almsgiving without regard to its effects on the poor became popular. Hospices, hospitals, monasteries, and orders gradually took the place of the congregational and personal-relief system of the early church. The road to the church door was the resort of beggars. Ignorance of medical science made the devotion of merciful Christians impotent to stay the pestilence, heal the leper, and restore reason to the insane. The history of mediaeval charity is a tragedy of errors, a record of super- stition, but also a sublime revelation of consecration and mercy struggling in the dark. With the rise of commerce and free cities in the twelfth century and later the merchant class rose in influence and gradually transferred the direction of relief from the clergy to the laity, this tendency being more marked in Northern Europe. The Lutheran Reformation did not improve methods of relief; wars and theological con- troversies paralyzed the hopeful beginning in the sixteenth century. The Calvinistic churches developed ecclesiastical and civil relief, while England (in 1601) established the first poor law, on the principle that the entire Christian nation ought to combine for the relief of its weakest member; and this principle is shaping the policies of all modern nations. The Humanism of the sixteenth century and the ''Illumina- tion" of the eighteenth century went beyond Lutheranism and Calvinism in demanding that religion should carry the torch of science to Ught the dark ways of struggling humanity. In modern times that regard for the lowly which once was limited to feeble little conventicles has become the accepted obhgation of all the mightiest governments of the earth. The charity of churches and of voluntary associations is still pre- cious and necessary but in the main auxiliary to the institu- tions of the commonwealth. The development of modem social-political ideals. — Gradually, since the Reformation, "social poHtics" has been differentiated from poor relief; friendship and justice CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS- 699 now aim rather to prevent misery than to palliate it, and to make men self-supporting rather than to cultivate helpless, whining parasites and beggars. Christianity, though it did not absolutely create something out of nothing, published and developed in the world finer and higher notions of the value of personality, the dignity of sonship in God, the reality of brotherhood in the human race. Local sympathy gained a cosmopolitan character. The physical world and the glory of empire would vanish in flame and earthquake, but God and the soul were imperishable. Such ideas as these, with a gospel of redemption and hope, took captive the rude but vigorous and conquering barbarians. Augustine gathered up in a great system of theology the ideas of Christianity, neo-Platonism, Origen, and Plotinus, and provided a philosophy for the church. Arabian physicians of the Middle Ages became acquainted with the natural science of Aristotle and other Greek phi- losophers. The contacts of the Crusades and the travels of Jewish merchants brought this learning to the scholars of Europe and helped the tendency to study nature directly and not merely by tradition. And now church and state seem to be seeking a way, not of suppressing each other, but of serving, through diverse methods, the welfare of mankind in the partnership of unifying ideals and scientific procedure. Literature. — Uhlhom, Die Christliche Liehestdtigkeit, 3 vols. (Stutt- gart: Gundert, 1882-; Vol. I translated into English under title, Chris- tian Charity in the Ancient Church [London: Hamilton, 1883]), the standard book, based on sources, and Lutheran in doctrine; G. Ratzinger, Geschichte der kirchliche Armenpflege (Catholic author) (Freiburg: Herder, 1884); C. S. Loch, Charity and Social Life (London: Mac- millan, 1910); *L. Lallemand, Histoire de la Charite, 5 vols. (Catholic) (Paris: Picard, 1902-12); C. R. Henderson (editor), Modern Methods of Charity (New York: Macmillan, 1904). 3. PERSONAL PREPARATION FOR LEADERSHIP IN SOCIAL SERVICE Education in the social sciences. — In the high school. — ■ If the studies of childhood and youth could be directed with 700 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION reference to large and effective co-operation for service of the community, they would certainly include some acquaintance with the French and German languages, in addition to Eng- lish, as necessary tools of knowledge and vehicles of com- munication. The usual elementary subjects should include a great deal of ''nature-study" and familiarity with the pic- tured life of primitive peoples. In the secondary school it is not too much to ask for an introduction to biology and the elements of personal, domestic, and industrial hygiene, the history of the United States and its political institutions, and the service rendered by the local and general governments. Books and articles in German and French should be read on these subjects, and interesting knowledge should be obtained by young persons through these languages. The well-trained teachers will be able to apply mathematics to simple statistical surveys of the neighborhood; friendly activities, guided by experts, will keep alive social sympathies; and provision for practical expression of ethical convictions and emotion should be made in high school and church school for adoles- cents. The Bible should be studied as the record of a life- process and as a stimulus to altruistic endeavor. Literature. — See the article of J. M. Gillette, American Journal of Sociology, January, 1914, on "Social Studies in Elementary Schools." In the college and university. — In college the candidate for the ministry and for religious service should be kept in constant contact with social movements, both in his studies and in his activities. The development of character depends quite as much on habits of unselfish service as on the precepts of morahty, the exhortations of the preacher, and habits of worship. Nothing is said here of mathematics and Hterature, the high value of which is assumed. The studies which pre- pare most directly for social leadership are physiography, geography, history, statistics (as a necessary tool of all the sciences), a survey of the whole field of the social sciences. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 701 biology, psychology, economics, political science, general sociology, ethics, history of philosophy, logic, and a study of selected problems of social amelioration accompanied by wisely supervised participation in some forms of service. Such a course would establish habits of keen observation, induction, discovery of causes, forming of judgments, interest in general welfare. In the Senior year of college and during the years of graduate study the candidate for social leader- ship in the church should take up more specialized subjects. Church history, biblical study, pastoral duties, and religious education may be closely correlated with social science. In the study of theology and the Bible the social motive and ideals will be made clear and potent; in the study of church history the evolution of Christian life in relation to law, government, poor relief, social politics, slavery, domestic conduct, customs, education, etc., ought to find a large place, while time could be saved by passing over the study of dead controversies about creed and ceremonies. The problems of social surveys, statistical investigations, the amelioration of conditions in cities and rural neighborhoods, the care of immigrants, and social service in foreign fields should find a place. On the basis of previous studies of elementary economics, politics, and law the fields of social poHtics, labor legislation, trade unionism, and socialism should receive attention. The most vital principles of poor relief and of the social treatment of the anti-social class should be familiar. Curriculum of social sciences. — We here present a curricu- lum drawn up by Professor L. C. Marshall, with a schematic diagram of some of the courses actually offered and taught in several universities of large equipment. Many of the fun- damental courses are given in well-equipped colleges or even in secondary schools. The accompanying diagram serves to outline in a broad way the organization of studies in preparation for philanthropic service. The 702 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION first aim (see diagram) is to secure for the student a broad cultural foundation in the main divisions of human knowledge. Above this foundation is placed a broad survey of the social sciences. In these social-science survey courses the future business man, the future social worker, the future civil servant, and the future teacher and investigator in the various social-science departments will be led to appreciate the relationships of their future specialized tasks to the operations of the rest of organized society. Even after the social-science survey has been com- pleted narrow specialization may not occur. The work of the third year consists of basic semi-cultural, semi-professional courses designed to give the student a clearer appreciation of the organization of modem society than was possible in the social-science survey. The academic spirit (using this expression in the objectionable sense) is guarded against by introducing a considerable amount of contact with actual conditions, by lectures on technical matters by outside experts, by instruction through the case-method as far as is at present possible, and by requiring that the equivalent of at least three months shall be spent in actual service. The final stage is the distinctly professional work, partly of undergraduate, partly of graduate grade, in which the student cultivates intensively his own special field. The student who has traversed these stages should go out with some idea of social needs, with some zeal for serving those needs, with some appreciation of the rights, the privileges, and the obligations of other members of society, and with training which should enable him to do his work efficiently. In the administration of the work of the School of Commerce and Administration of the University of Chicago the following features are significant: I. The work is organized on the hypothesis that the technical or pro- fessional work should rest upon a broad foundation of work in biology, psychology, history, political economy, sociology, law, and government. FuU preparation accordingly contemplates at least one year of graduate work over and above a properly selected under- graduate curriculum. II. There is no general or machine curriculum in either the under- graduate or the graduate work in this School. Each student's course is a matter of personal adjustment and depends upon previ- ous training, present aptitudes, and expected future occupation. III. The equivalent of at least three months of field work must either precede or accompany the technical or professional work. [The diagram is to be read upward from the foundation to the specialized courses at the summit.] THE SEMINAR: OPE 1 p-L S 1 1 v: X 11 c c c Industrial Ubor Arr Trade U F -^ K 1 1 1 H 1 ' { 1 1 — , , ' , I 1 1 1 1 c 0 1 i~i ri r~ e ^ 1 "H .2 S J 1 1i % Scien Comrr E < 4 0 I, tiJ_ 5 S T3 I « C 4) BJ 1 ' '^ re .£? Dom School 1 J 11 11 LJ^ - ■" V V n The Social Science Survey. Tl Foundation. This includes the Composition and Literature, DIAGRAM OF COURSES AVAILABLE IN PREPARATION FOR PHILANTHROPIC SERVICE I THE SEMINAR: 01 P WTO STUDENTS SATISFACTORILY PREPARED IN ONE OR MORE OF THE FIELDS INDICA T 0 I I T I I i I I I5 TED BELOW Introduction to the Study of Society. This is characteristically a second-year course. I 1 X The Social Science Survey. This work is generally taken in the first and secord years- of college. It includes Psychology, Political Science^ Political Economy, Ethics, and History. Foiirth year and Graduate work Foundation. This includes the work of the high school, the first year and part of the second year in college. Certain minimum requirements in (1) English Composition and Literature, (2) Mathematics, (3) the Physical and Biological Sciences, (4) the Social Sciences, and (5) Modem Language must be met. Third year College work I High ' School and Junior College 1 work ./^^. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 703 At first sight this scheme of courses seems to bewilder and discourage. More careful study and inquiry of compe- tent instructors will make it clear that there is a progressive movement from the elementary and broadly fundamental studies to those which are special and professional, intended for advanced students who seek to fit themselves for some form of public service. The young student cannot make a wise selection without personal advice. The courses chosen should be carefully arranged in a series for each student, so that he will become a master of some branches while gaining a broad general view of the relations of sciences and of life- callings and relationships. Without very careful planning in advance the young person may scatter his efforts, become an intellectual vagabond, and end by knowing no one subject thoroughly. All these academic studies should be driven home by visits of observation, carefully planned to discover methods of constructive work rather than the abnormal and pathological aspects of vice. Observation must be extended by actual practice in connection with well-organized societies for philanthropy and civic improvement, under trained and practical administrators. Teamwork among professors in the theological school would be promoted by keeping in the central office of the dean or president rather full syllabi of courses given, so as to econo- mize the teaching force, avoid duplication, and discover neglected areas. The indications of a modem curriculum of social science given above will show how various specialists can best co-operate, and that without losing anything of independence of thought or method of investigation. IV. ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS Every thinker must classify social problems, because they are too numerous and bewildering for orderly discussion until they are grouped; but every thinker is likely to make his 704 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION own arrangement. We may deal with this subject by means of two categories: (i) the social groups, and (2) the com- munity interests. I. THE SOCIAL GROUPS These are provisionally distinguished as follows: the family, the rural neighborhood, the urban community, the commonwealth, the nation, the international conventions. The church is the imperfect but actual and unique representa- tive of the Kingdom of God, which is not only an international but a universal community, having yet unrealized ideals, but having also actual incorporation in this earth. The only part of the Kingdom of God we know is what we see in the present world . Within all these communities we discover subgroups or classes having certain likenesses, needs, and interests, such as the abnormals, the defectives, the anti-social — all of them sub- social, and in various degrees "ahenated" from normal social relations and activities, and requiring from normal society special modes of treatment, each with its technique. The minister is not and cannot be a specialist in social science if he does his duty as a pastor. He will not be master of any particular department of public service. His youth- ful studies in this field must therefore be limited to the funda- mental sciences, to the broad surveys, and to one or two fields of practice which will give him methods of observation and judgment. To secure this preparation, begun in the high school, he need not neglect the essential disciplines of the divinity school. In the best schools of theology time is conserved by pruning off minute investigations of dead issues which this age has no time to discuss. The training of social workers. — But the minister is not the only Christian leader in whose education the Christian community is interested. If the church is to be counted as a force and an assistant in the modern world, it must recognize CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 705 the variety of gifts, talents, and professions through which the Spirit reveals God to man and builds up the Kingdom (Rom., chap'. 12; I Cor., chap. 12). We are providentially called to teach and train Christian young men and women who will be specialists in the fields of public service and private philanthropy: teachers, investigators, statisticians, settlement residents, playground and social-center directors, physical directors, secretaries of the Y.M.C.A., organizers of mutual-benefit associations, advocates of social legislation, secretaries for social-welfare work, officers of prisons, reforma- tories, and institutions for defective and abnormal persons, etc. Starting from our economic system, which is now char- acterized by freedom of contract, legal and political equality, private property secured by law and moral beliefs, with capitalistic management dominant, we come to the wage- earning class of operatives, the "industrial group," with its own needs, interests, ideals, aspirations, and demands. A rudimentary class seems to be emerging in the second crop of capitalist-manager families, the "leisure class," with its own ideals, attitudes, fashions, activities, and modes of influence. Literature. — See T. B. Veblin, Theory of the Leisure Classes (New York: Macmillan, li 2. COMMUNITY INTERESTS Associated effort, when it is conscious and intelligent, is directed toward common ends. Clear thinking and effective action depend on a distinct and well-grounded notion of social aims and ideals. These common interests are revealed by the conduct and institutions of men; they manifest their inward desires by their outward deeds. The analysis of human motives has been made by every writer on ethics from Aristotle and Plato to our own time. The two most elementary inter- ests we share with animals, because they are essential to the existence of human beings — hunger and reproductive impulses. 7o6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Sumner adds vanity and fear, which also are manifested by our humbler fellow-creatures. All these primitive desires cling to all men and cannot be totally extinguished by the most devout ascetic until senility or the paralysis of approach- ing death extinguishes the last flickering flame of exhausted nature. Hunger and love may be regulated, tamed, brought under legal, moral, and religious control; but they persist because without them the very race would soon disappear. In all social plans these elemental forces must be reckoned with. Literature. — For suggestive discussions of the principles of social interests see A. W. Small, General Sociology (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1905), and E. A. Ross, Foundations of Sociology (New York: MacmiUan, 1905). Social regulation. — ^In a state of society so early that no clear record has been left in document or on monument men discovered that social life could not go on without some measures to secure order, safety of life and limb, and the possession of property. The evolution of government, of civil and criminal law, was caused by this necessity, which was even felt among the higher animals before humanity emerged. In our own time the recognition of these interests has given support to a vast and complex system of social control, direc- tion, and regulation. Property. — In order to support individual existence, to supply the needs of offspring, to add comforts and luxuries to necessities, to gratify vanity and desire for influence and distinction, men have combined to secure commodities. The acquisition of property is primarily the result of industry, of applying human wit and labor to the materials and forces of nature; but, secondarily, property has been acquired by robbery and war, by cunning and fraud, by the mission of legal privilege and the exploitation of slaves, of women, of children, of ignorant men. The economic interest is at the root of all industries, trades, commerce, and finance, however CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 707 complex these may become. Business has become an end for its own sake, the ultimate ends of life being forgotten in the eagerness of the pursuit, and thus wealth has in a measure lost connection with welfare, and the devotion to money has become idolatry. Culture interests. — Culture interests are those which distinguish civilized men from the lower animals and from savage races. It is true that some law of beauty, goodness, and religion may be found in animals and in the lower races of mankind, for in the process of evolution there is no violent break with the past at any point. The spiritual not only arises after the natural but gradually and imperceptibly out of the natural, as the flower out of the growing plant. But as dis- tinctly characteristic and differentiated interests, art, science, morality, poHtics, and religion are achievements of the human spirit, and to these goods of civilization contributions have been made from the dawn of human consciousness. Here and there a man of genius has added something conspicuous and remarkable to these higher possessions, and the gift of his soul has become his monument. But inventions, languages, faiths, beautiful lines and forms, proverbs, folk-lore, moraHties, legal conceptions, are far more the result of the universal activities of humble and nameless human beings than of distinguished and famous leaders. The desires for these higher satisfactions become motives to social effort. Men combine in many ways to secure them, as in musical societies, clubs, schools, museum associations, local and general govern- ments. The measure in which these satisfactions are enjoyed and the extent to which the people share in them give us a standard of civilization, a test of progress. Statistics furnish us with a scientific method of applying the standard to the actual working of institutions and laws. Literature. — Useful works on the scope and relations of the social sciences are: W. Wundt, Logik {Methodenlehre, Bd. 2, Abt. 2, Stutt- gart: Enke, 1907); A. W. Small, General Sociology (with many refer- 7o8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION ences) (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1905); L. F. Ward, Outlines oj Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 1898); K. Menger, Methode der Sozialwissenschajten (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1883); *Dietzel, Theoretische Sozialokonomik, I, 4 (Leipzig: Winter, 1895); *E. A. Ross, Foundations of Sociology (New York: Macmillan, 1905); *C. A. Ellwood, Sociology in Its Psychological Aspects (New York: Apple- ton, 191 2); E. S. Bogardus, Introduction to the Social Sciences (Los Angeles: Ralston, 1913). A Guide to Reading in Social Ethics and Allied Subjects (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 19 10) will be found useful here. The following economists have written in the modern spirit with learning and insight and with humane purpose: J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy (London: Parker, 1848; an excellent edition. New York: Appleton, 1907); G. SchmoUer, Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1 900-1 904) (vast bibliography of German literature); Ueber einige Grundfragen der Socialpolitik mid der Volkswirtschaftslehre (Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1904) ; Charles Gide; Principles of Political Economy (Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1904); R. T. Ely, Socialism and Social Reform (New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1894) and Outlines of Economics (New York: Macmillan, 1908); Henry Rogers Seager, Introduction to Economics, 3d ed. (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1905) ; F. W. Taussig, Principles of Economics (New York: Macmillan, 191 1); Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, 5th ed., Vol. I (New York: Macmillan, 1907); Thomas Nixon Carver, The Distribution of Wealth (New York: Mac- millan, 1904); Karl Biicher, Die Entstekimg der Volkswirtschaft, 8th ed. (Tubingen: Laupp, 1910; English translation by Wickett, Industrial Evolution [New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1901]). Social problems. — These are the questions w^hich men put to practical reason and science in regard to the best methods of stimulating, harmonizing, and universalizing the satisfactions of the social interests. The desires are found in all human beings; th-e specific methods of attaining the satisfactions must be adapted to the peculiarities of each group in the nation; and therefore each stage of evolution, each dis- covery and invention, each increase of population, offers a new problem for solution. The solution must take into account the particular needs of each group in its relations to all other groups of the nation. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 709 Literature. — Professor Small has sketched many of these problems in his General Sociology (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1905) in the section entitled "Conspectus of Social Achievements," many of which are yet to be achieved. Social technique. — To increase, universalize, and harmon- ize these satisfactions in each group requires a method or methods. There is a best and wisest and most effective way; it is the business of social science and statesmanship to discover this way; it is knowable, but never altogether known. The causal forces which explain the present may be utilized by human intelligence and concerted action to promote socially desirable ends. Theoretical social science culminates in discovery of causes, practical social science in a foundation of knowledge for desirable achievements. So far as the technique has been mastered in a high degree it is best known by a body of specialists or experts; but usually it cannot be effectively carried into life without the intelligent co-operation of a considerable body of laymen. Hence the need of popular education in social science; for science simply means common knowledge made as compre- hensive, reliable, and systematic as possible, which is precisely that knowledge which is most effective in action and conduct. Literature. — Good general works are: L. F. Ward, Applied Sociology (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1906); C. A. Ellwood, Sociology and Modern Social Problems (New York: American Book Co., 1910) ; *C. R. Hender- son, Social Elements (New York: Scribner, 1898) and The Social Spirit in America (Chicago: Scott, Foresman & Co., 1901) (elementary and popular in form); W. D. P. Bliss, New Encyclopedia of Social Reform (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1898). Important works of reference are: Handworterbuch der Staatswissen- schaften (Jena: Fischer, 1908-); *Palgrave, Dictionary of Political Economy (New York: Macmillan, 1910); Schonberg, Handbuch der politischcn Oekonomie, 3d ed. (Tubingen: Laupp, 1890); Rubinow, Social Insurance (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1913); Frankel and Dawson, Workingmen^s Insurance in Europe (New York: Charities Pub. Committee, 19 10); Twenty-fourth Report United States Bureau of Labor; C. R. Henderson, huiustrial Insurance in the United States 7IO GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909); *Hart and Mc- Laughlin, Cyclopedia of American Government (New York: Appleton, 1914); American Journal of Sociology (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press) ; Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia). V. CHRISTIANITY IN RELATION TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS It remains to indicate the service which the Christian churches, as bearers of Christian thought and ideals, can render in the work of stimulating, universalizing, and harmon- izing these efforts of the collective will to promote human welfare. I. THE IDEALS OF THE CHURCH Only think what the Christian religion signifies! "God so loved the world," loved all the people; as Creator, Father, Providence, Redeemer, Friend, our God, as Jesus taught, lives for us. He gives us life and the will to live; creates appetites and desires and provides for their satisfaction; and all he creates is essentially good. The divine Spirit is at the heart of all our arts, sciences, reformations, the very fer- ment in all the restless agitation for improvement. The demagogue is a mere caricature of the evolutionary ambitions which seethe in human history. The end is abundant, rich, varied, many-sided, harmonious life. It is this infinite, crea- tive, active divine life which came to noblest expression in Jesus, which is manifested in the development of the human spirit and all its institutions, laws, governments. The ''Kingdom of God" has a more splendid aim than that of the conventicle of pietists intent on saving their own souls; a larger scope than ecclesiastical intrigue and ambition. If we could only set before us all that is required for the perfec- tion of personality, for the order and progress of the world, for the quickening of intellectual curiosity, for the finest expl-ession of beauty, for grace and courtesy, for intellectual mastery of the knowable universe through the sciences, for harmony, friendship, and worship — ^all this would be found CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 711 at home within the idea of the "Kingdom of God." Inter- national law has statesmanship; but is it petty and provincial when compared with the universal realm opened up to us by the vision of Jesus, Son of God. It is for this idea that the church stands, if only it could realize its unique and sublime task; if only its leaders could appreciate their role in relation to business and philanthropy, to artists, explorers, scientists, statesmen, philosophers, poets. The church and its ministry have yet to learn how all-inclusive their mission is, how all the nations must bring their glory and honor into the city of God, whether they will it or not. We have been exclusive, self -centered, when we might have been inclusive, comprehensive, catholic. We have desired to dominate and monopolize, when we were called to fraternal and sympathetic co-operation. We have abandoned vast fields of truth, art, power, as alien to our religion, when we might have transformed these forces and brought them into harmony with the highest ideals of faith. "All things are yours, " yet we deliberately surrendered our claim and called most of the precious values of humanity "secular." The church is not outside social problems; it is not benefactor or patron; it is not alien to the world; the church lives upon industry, its children are born from natural impulses in holy and legal wedlock, its security is derived from government and law, its ritual is enriched by poets and musicians, its sins are those of its age, its vision of truth is widened by science and education, its morality is the best custom of the time, its picture of heaven is composed of democratic and neighborly experiences of friendship, its God is define'd as Father or King. We as Christians are, like St. Francis, brothers of the poor and even of the birds, and we are here to co-operate with all men of good will. Here we must consider, first, the possible resources of the church for this purpose; secondly, the defects of the church and the explanation of these defects; thirdly, illustrations of 712 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION progress i^ the church toward reahzing its duty and its oppor- tunity; fourthly, the wisest direction for the near future. I. RESOURCES OF THE CHURCH The greatest book of Hfe is the Bible, to whose exposition the church is committed, and whose story of truth and faith is one of the chief forces of history. The Bible. — So far as the church is studying and teaching the Bible, in a truly historic spirit and method, it is generating interest in human welfare. There- are two tables of its law, reverence for God and regard for man; both are assimilated and authorized in the Golden Rule of Jesus and illustrated by his character and life. Inspiring personalities. — So far as the church, under the leadership of an educated ministry, knows its own history and holds before its children its heroes and martyrs, its missionaries and its philanthropists, it is generating fervor and zeal for sinning and suffering humanity. Church history and biography supply a magazine of ennobling and inspiring per- sonal examples. Church history is a precious possession and a treasury of spiritual energy. Literature. — Christian literature is a vast and fruitful store of motive to kindly and beneficent action. In hymns, poems, essays, in Dante, Luther, Milton, Tennyson, Brown- ing, Shakespeare, Webster, Macaulay — in all the most powerful authors of Christendom there runs a deep Christian undertone. Christian literature is in a very high and true sense a continuation of the Bible. We need anthologies, source- books, and a library of selections with historical annotations. Much of the "written stuff" of the Fathers and mediaeval theologians does not deserve the name of ''literature," and the people have not time to read it nor money to buy it nor houseroom to store it. Yet it is a pity to leave the jewels lost in the mass of rubbish, speculation, and superstition CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 713 which makes up so much of the writings of the past. Only when the real classics in prose and verse have been selected and reprinted by competent scholars, in chronological order, with historical sequences noted, will this spiritual inheritance of the church come into its rightful place of power and influ- ence. But God has not left himself without a witness in other lands of high culture. India, China, Japan, and even the proverbial philosophy of Africa, have literary monuments of religion, and they also are ours to use and enjoy. The pitiful mediocrity of much contemporary so-called "religious literature," its waste and desolation of miserable sectarian polemics, its obscurantism and dull platitudes, might well give way to the buried and forgotten literary treas- ures of the world. The personal influence of the members of the church in the home and throughout the community. — We may well count the personal influence of the members of the church as an asset. Discount with the severest justifiable criticism the conduct of Christians, they are nevertheless the salt of the earth, the light of the world, though, unfortunately, they often hide their lamps under a bushel and bury their talents out of sight. The exertion of influence reacts upon character, and he who earnestly endeavors to make his neighbors better instinctively criticizes his own standards and conduct. The army of church members are citizens and voters, masters of assemblies, judges on the bench, presidents and directors of corporations, members of clubs and associations, and trade- union lawmakers and administrators; and this gives the church access to every legitimate organization of the nation. Such a power is also a responsibility. Educational agencies. — The educational equipment of the churches is enormous. All the modern systems of educa- tion and research grow out of ecclesiastical institutions of the Middle Ages. Cap, gown, and hood are reminders of the 714 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION uniforms of learned monks of the ancient days when clergymen monopolized scholarship. Now we are on the way to the time when *'all God's people will be prophets," and democracy has taken over education and made it universal. But even now lay control does not imply irreligion. When the atmos- phere is flooded with light, no window can open without admitting its radiance; and while Christianity shines every- where, it will not be excluded from state institutions. We can therefore count practically all the agencies of science and education among the resources of the church. One may gain some idea of the extent of these educational resources by taking the statistics from the report of the United States Commissioner of Education concerning schools, colleges, and universities under church control. 2. DEFECTS or THE CHURCH The humane impulse of primitive Christianity is partly obscured and obstructed by fruitless and excessive specula- tion without ethical aim; by war for domination rather than by devotion to service; by ecclesiasticism and fanaticism; by making ceremony an end; by priestly ambition; by clinging to an excessive individualism and the laissez-faire philosophy and practice which was the idol of the eighteenth century. It is not agreeable for us to analyze our defects, yet it is wholesome and necessary. An ancient Greek statesman told the people after a military defeat that if they had done their utmost he would despair of his country ; but that they had not employed their best powers, and that if they would rally with all energy and devotion the day could yet be saved and honor restored. The church has amazing undeveloped re- sources; its wastes would furnish capital for world-conquest. The correction of its errors and the joyful acceptance of its obligation would make it invincible. And therefore the loyal servants of the churches must deal with themselves critically CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 715 and earnestly. Rather than bring indictments against one another let us searchingly examine ourselves and revise our methods. Why should we not sincerely, earnestly, and without equivocation bring our leadership before the bar of impartial justice by asking ourselves such questions as these: Have we concentrated our studies and sermons on the essen- tials of Christianity or have we lavished energy and time on topics in controversy among the faithful? If we should subordinate sectarian enterprises to the cause of missions in regions which have never heard of Jesus Christ and his gospel, would not millions of dollars be employed construc- tively rather than destructively ? If the Christian people of a village or town would support one strong minister instead of starving four or five uneducated men, would there not be fewer mockers at the superstitions of the church and more institutions of charity, rational recreation, and ennobling education ? If the fanatical zeal which now divides Christen- dom into warring camps were to be devoted to improving the dwellings of workingmen and providing social centers for youth, would not the world's skepticism be changed into admiring faith ? If Christianity were presented in revivals as a consecration to the cause of elevating and enriching man's estate, and not merely as a selfish and absorbing desire for individual salvation, would this not be a convincing demon stration of the divinity of the message ? If a blue pencil were drawn through every line of sermons which did not tend to increase love, peace, justice, and wisdom, might not the discourses suffer only in length while they improved in form and attractiveness ? If ministers would exclude from their libraries the tomes which are unscientific or anti scientific, the works which intensify bigotry and fill the head with errors and platitudes, might not many of the graduates of high schools and colleges be attracted to church attendance who now remain away because they are amazed by the ineptitudes and anachronisms of a traditional and outworn teaching ? 7i6 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Are there not hundreds of communities which lack pubHc spirit, common aims, facihties for culture, because the churches remain apart and refuse to do teamwork ? Are our ministers prepared by their education to grapple intelligently with the colossal moral problems of business men, and do they not too generally limit their instruction in righteousness to petty personal relations or to vociferous denunciations of the sins of ancient Israel ? Are not the average business man, farmer, and mechanic compelled to decide most of the problems of duty without any real intellectual help from the church ? How much of this failure is due to cowardice, or to ignorance, or to preoccupation with merely ecclesiastical or even clerical schemes which have not the slightest bearing on the matters of life and death, of daily anxiety, of inner spiritual struggle to know the right? How much is due to the conventional training of pastors which still is under the influence of the monastic ideals which were nominally overturned by the Reformation ? Whatever may be the causes, all who are not blind to the facts must see that the church and the ministry are too small a factor in the ethical tumult and anarchistic struggles of our age in spite of our resources. 3. SIGNS OF PROMISE The day is breaking in the east Of which the prophets told, And brightens up the sky of time, The Christian's age of gold. It is more agreeable to call attention to the evidence that the leaders of the church are awakening to a sense of their privilege and duty and summoning the disunited hosts to co-operative action. The zeal for reformation. — ^The apostolical succession of servants of humanity has never once been broken; in all ages lofty spirits have protested against abuses and recalled Chris- CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 717 , tians to the essentials of faith. In the darkest night of the ages a flickering lamp burned on many an humble altar. The renaissance of a humane Christianity was not pro- duced by individual saints, but it was the outgrowth of a life which was in the church from the beginning and which mani- fested itself in men of genius and also in millions of gentle and obscure persons who lived without renown and rest in nameless graves. No one sect can claim the entire honor for this revival. The Roman Catholic church has its galaxy of pure spirits — St. Francis, Ehzabeth of Thuringia, St. Vincent de Paul, Frederick Ozanam, and many others. The Society of Friends, true to their name, gave us George Fox, Elizabeth Fry, William Penn, and the poet of the "drab-skirt muse," John G. Whittier. The Methodist movement gave us the Wesleys. We hardly care to recall to which sect belonged Wilberforce, John Howard, the Earl of Shaftesbury, John Ruskin, Florence Nightrhgale, Octavia Hill, Thomas Carlyle, for they are just human. The Unitarians never could boast great numbers, but their William E. Channing and Theodore Parker compelled the ecclesiastical world to think of the workingman, the slave, the drunkard; and they helped us all to see that an arbitrary and heartless tyrant, even if armed with omnipotence, cannot really be worshiped as God. Biblical criticism undermined the dogmatic foundations of the church and compelled believers to seek refuge in God himself rather than in a book about him, or in a creed, however valuable these are as wit- nesses and instruments. German economists became our aUies when they insisted, with Wagner and Schmoller, that gains must rest on a basis of justice, and that the iron law of supply and demand ought to be directed by a righteous and intelligent purpose. Missions. — Foreign missionaries went out to save men from future punishment and found the people in Africa and parts of the Orient in a present purgatory. Compassion for 7i8 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the multitude who were as sheep without a shepherd took, possession of them; and while they told of God, heaven, and redemption they taught the people to plough a deeper furrow, to weave a better cloth, to use quinine against malaria rather than sacrifice to devils, to treat women with courtesy, and to educate their children. Perhaps it could be shown that missionaries abroad were pioneers of the social work of the church. Charles Dickens did something by holding up to ridicule those who sent blankets to the naked blacks of tropical Africa while they left starved children to freeze in the slums of London; but on the whole his caricature was unfair even then, and since he wrote the methods of missions have been rapidly improved. Medical and educational missions have given a start to the modern movements in the Orient and brought countless millions to the door of hope and light. These inspiring works have not only been the most convincing demonstration of the divine life in Christianity, a veritable revelation of its essence, but they have reacted upon the methods' of the churches at home and made them more sensible, practical, and persuasive. Literature. — See the literature cited in chap, viii, p. 481. Co-operation and federation. — Over against the unhappy and wasting divisions of the church we set the establishment of powerful institutions which represent unity and co-operation. There have been various overtures from ecclesiastical digni- taries to the ''sects," with amiable invitations of the tiger to the kid, " to lie down inside " ; but these have not been taken seri- ously, however kindly meant. There have been conventions, conferences, eloquent speeches in favor of unity, not without some result. But the most direct and effective movements have let church union wait for some immediate, urgent, and imperative service to humanity. The temperance movement has brought together members of all denominations for the common defense of youth, virtue, and religion from the CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 719 brutalities and degradation of the drink traffic. The union Sunday-school conventions and associations have mobilized the forces of the whole Christian church for the religious educa- tion of youth, and the Religious Education Association has brought to this agency the resources of modern biblical scholar- ship and of the art of education. The Young Men's Christian Association by no means satisfies the demands of modern fellowship ; its creed basis excludes many of the finest spirits of our faith; but it has gone as far as its supporters have yet been ready to go, and in the right direction; it has gradually developed a ministry to the whole man — body, mind, and spirit; and it seems nearly ready to move forward, with due caution, beyond individual aid, into the field of public service. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ is also restricted in its organization by the fears and traditions of godly men, and yet it also has brought into effective co-operation a vast multitude of members of the popular branches of the Chris- tian communion. In several states the home missionary societies have advanced, only too slowly, to a position of comity, courtesy, and economy, where they refuse to sub- sidize the strife and vainglory of sectarianism. These movements, significant and valuable already, are still more hopeful in indicating the direction of future enterprises. 4. THE WISE DIRECTION OF EFFORT IN THE NEAR FUTURE The problems of the next century will be solved more easily if we attend strictly to our present urgent duty. The pillars and roof will be firm only as the foundation is sure. The requirements of social welfare in the present age are determined by the facts of this age, as already sketched. The church cannot and ought not to work out a separate pro- gram of its own. The consensus of experts in each branch of social science is the nearest possible indication of duty. The isolation of the church makes its efforts barren. The leaven must be mixed with the dough ; the seed must be buried 720 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION in the soil. Even Catholic Europe has frequently abolished monasteries; and it would be atavistic return to barbarism to adopt a monastic or conventicle ideal for the church. The duty of the leaders of the church is to become acquainted, as well as they can, with the best methods known for advan- cing the physical, economic, and spiritual welfare of the home, the neighborhood, the town, the commonwealth, the nation, the world. The beginning of wisdom is to know more and to cease to waste time on idle controversy and speculation. We shall find inspiration, worship, in the Bible; but we must seek duty in the relations of the age in which the Creator has placed us, as our fathers sought for it in their situation. The day of domination of the state by ecclesiastical authority has passed. Clerical interference in political parties is resented, and rightly, because clergymen have no professional quahfications for this task. But there never was an age when religion and religious personalities were more needed as an influence, when the church had such a splendid opportunity to inspire men of action and power with hope, faith, and charity in their colossal and often discouraging tasks. The characteristic social task of the church ministry of religion. — The church with its ministry has the most vital part in social service; it must have a theology which honest and intelligent men can understand and beheve. It must help people to a reasonable moral view of God. It must have something wise and persuasive to say about the Divine, about sin, prayer, the hope of immortahty. To help men to see God is the highest and most precious social service. The church must keep alive this belief until the whole world is civilized and refined enough to appreciate it. In doing this work science must be respected in its field; no doctrine of faith, or prayer, or miracle must contradict the universality of the causal principle on which all knowledge rests. We must not ask a man of science to stultify his reason in order to worship and hope. We must teach men to find God every- CHRISITANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 721 ■where and not merely in the inaudible, exceptional, and extraordinary. We must be rid of magic, and keep mysticism in its place as poetry, and learn the ways of science. The seer and the poet and the preacher need not fear exact knowl- edge if each remain true to his own call. The essence of theology is its doctrine of friendship as the spirit of the universe. All the arts of music, liturgy, oratory, poetry, painting, architecture, sculpture, city planning, are most glorious when they help humanity to trust, to hope, to love; and the church holds a unique place in this world of beauty and idealism. No newspaper, no secular or ethical club, can ever compete with it, if it knows how to help men to see God, to love and reverence him, to exult in hope. The promotion of social reforms. — In the improvement of physical, economic, and political conditions the churches have a different duty to perform, and a less direct. But what they can do is great and is urgently needed. Sermon, song, and teaching may quicken the conscience, kindle pity, compassion, remorse, and kindness. At this point the study of social science will furnish the church leaders with an inexhaustible supply of illustrations long after books of "rehgious anec- dotes" and "feathers for arrows" have been worn out. The newspapers and magazines paint stories, but they lack the fire of religious fervor to give momentum to sacrificial endeavor, and newspapers cannot organize institutions and train workers as the church can. Numerous groups of scientific specialists exist who possess knowledge but who have comparatively few votes; the federated churches have millions of voting members, with vast and widely diffused political influence over the entire nation; but they have no authority in social science. A good understanding between the expert groups and the multitudes who profess a religion of benevolence and justice would be fruitful, and it seems to be at hand. The American Association for Labor Legislation, the American Prison Asso- ciation, the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 72 2 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION the National Child Labor Committee, the Consumers' League, and others have long invited the co-operation of pastors, recently with much success. The church has opportunities of instruction in social duties which belong to no other institution. The sermon can do something, but cannot deal with technical problems. Dis- cussions in social meetings, classes, and societies are the most effective means of training the members to think socially, to consider the claims of justice in all relations of life. Literature. — A list of most important societies may be had from the Russell Sage Foundation, 102 East Twenty-second Street, New York City. The Survey, published weekly, gives an excellent review of cur- rent activities in all fields, indispensable to anyone who will march with his American contemporaries. See W. N. Hutchins, Graded Social Service for the Smiday School (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1 9 14); C. R. Henderson, Social Duties from the Christian Point of View (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1909). Josiah Strong, The Gospel of the Kingdom (New York: Bible House), supplies lessons and helps each month in the year. See also Directory of Speakers on Municipal Problems, published by the Department of Social Betterment of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America offers a program for study and action and the social-service committees of various denominations seek to enlist groups of students. The "social evangelist" may have his uses as the indi- vidualistic revivalist, if sane, has his place; but the serious and lasting work will be done in small groups of careful students, for educated leaders are afraid of the mob mind and seek quiet discussion. The leaders of these groups must ultimately be trained for their task in colleges and universities ; they will be specialized ministers of churches. Groups of churches will combine to support them; one competent man in a populous county could direct the serious discussions of hundreds of leaders under a proper system of co-operation. It would be absurd to require that every pastor should be competent to guide studies over such vast fields. The church CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 723 will learn to specialize in religious leadership just as the uni- versities, the great industries, and all other successful organizations have done. The need of workers. — Yet it will be entirely possible, and it is highly desirable, that all educated men and women, ministers included, during their course of instruction in second- ary school, college, and professional school, should receive preparation for intelligent co-operation in the works of good citizenship. A curriculum has already been arranged for the accompHshment of this purpose, as mentioned above, and it includes a liberal provision for language, science, history, and literature. The church can send laborers into the harvest; theological students, a few; but multitudes of others. There is not an effective society of philanthropy which does not cry out, often in vain, for helpers. These helpers must be prepared for their duties, and there are educational institutions prepared to give the necessary instruction and training for social service. Many churches could select promising young people and pro- vide for their professional education as directors of play- grounds, probation officers, charity visitors, librarians with a missionary spirit, social secretaries, teachers in reform schools, managers of clubs for youth, residents in settlements. Literature. — Mary E. Richmond, Friendly Visiting among the Poor (New York: Macmillan, 1899) and The Good Neighbor in the Modern City, 7th ed. (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1913); Graham Taylor, Religion in Social Action (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1913). Social politics. — The most perplexing problems before the church which undertakes to exert any influence whatever on "social poHtics" and the material and cultural interests of the wage-earners are those of trade unions and socialism. The problem of the liquor traffic is comparatively simple, because the financial interests involved are so plainly in recognized antagonism to order, security, health, morals, and religion. 724 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION But the "labor question" divides the nation into two camps, and there is no present outlook for agreement. So far as charity is concerned, there is no very bitter controversy, except when the philanthropists regard it as a substitute for justice and settle down in contented satis- faction with their alms-deeds. Scientific charity itself in our time dispels the illusion of the finahty of gifts, and its matter- of-fact records point to low wages, exhausting toil, poisonous air in workshops, reckless disregard of life in mines and on railways, unequal taxation and "tax-dodging," exploitation of consumers and laborers, as among the chief causes of misery, the "extravagance" of the poor and alcohohsm having been greatly exaggerated in this connection. Welfare work. — ^" Welfare work" on the part of employers, as an expression of sincere kindness, awakens some protest, and is not received with enthusiastic satisfaction by the working- men; they regard it, in the main, as an element of minor importance, even when it is not used to distract workingmen and win them away from their own unions. The real issue is one which we are loath to face, and one which we can meet only with adequate knowledge, sympathy, and sober judgment. Who is to control the conditions of labor and the distribution of the product ? Literature. — Suggestive studies are found in J. G. Brooks, American Syndicalism (New York: Macmillan, 1913); A. W. Small, Between Eras (Kansas City: Intercollegiate Press, 1913). See generally the literature of Socialism. Socialism. — The scheme of socialism needs to be under- stood by Christian leaders, for nothing does greater harm than misrepresentation. Common objections to socialism are that it would mean equality of income; destruction of the right to hold and enjoy private property; perhaps community of wives and rearing of children by the state; atheism; a monotonous dead level of culture. None of these things belongs to the essence of socialism, although various socialistic CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 725 writers have indulged in all sorts of adventures in these directions. Any definition of socialism is likely to be chal- lenged; but perhaps we may say that the essence of socialism is the demand that all wealth used for social production should be under social control. This means that the managers of industry, commerce, and banking should be employees of the commonwealth and responsible to the people for their conduct of affairs. It would be the extension of control by representa- tives of the people, not only over law and government, but over business. The product of industry would not be divided at the will of capitalist managers, nor by vote of the operators in particular industries, but under control of representatives of the entire public. Apparently there is no immediate prospect of this radical and revolutionary scheme being carried out. But there is a marked tendency to realize the principle of social control one step at a time, as in the supervision of powerful corporations by public utilities commissions; the Interstate Commerce Commission and courts; municipal ownership and management of water works, street cars, gas and electric works; the federal post- office, parcel post, and federal telegraph and telephone service; obligatory insurance of all kinds under public regulation. The whole system of public inspection and regulation of factories, mills, mines, and railways to protect the life, limb, and health of employees is an expression of a determination to use the power of the government to restrict the arbitrary and irresponsible abuse of power by capitalist managers. The swift extension of social insurance means in part taking profits and dividends to add to wages; giving to the men who work hardest and suffer most a more adequate support and share in the heritage of civilization. Social insurance means that life is to be made secure and free from deadly worry and gaunt care, without dependence on uncertain and humiliating charity. 726 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Literature. — The literature on socialism is so enormous that we can only select a few representative titles. The following will serve to introduce the general reader to this phase of industrial philosophy and effort. Kirkup, A History of Socialism (New York: Macmillan, 1909); Sombart, Sozialismus und soziale Bewegung, 6th ed. (Jena: Fischer, 1908; English translation by Epstein, Socialism and the Social Movement [New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1909]); Rauschenbusch, Christianity and the Social Crisis (New York: Macmillan, 1907); Podmore, Robert Owen (London: Hutchinson, 1906); Hillquit, History of Socialism in The United States (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1910); Ensor, Modern Socialism (New York: Harper, 1908); Hunter, Socialists at Work (New York: Macmillan, 1908); Orth, Socialism and Democracy in Europe (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1913). A good classified bibliography is given in Skelton, Socialism: A Critical Analysis (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 191 1). Common wealth. — The multiplication of public libraries, parks, museums, and schools signifies that modern democracy intends to bring the blessings of the higher realms of culture within reach of every living soul. The condemnation of crowded and insanitary dwellings is a policy widely accepted, and it will include municipal ownership of houses wherever the self-interest of capital fails to provide decently for the homes of men. The federal income tax, with its exemptions of the poor and its progressively increasing levy on super- fluous revenues, is an expression of the determination of the people to curb and restrict luxury so long as millions of manual workers have not enough to eat. Inheritance taxes have more than a mere financial purpose; they are a means deliber- ately adopted for the redistribution of earned and unearned fortunes, and a notice to the heirs of wealth who toil not nor spin that it will be well for them to learn a trade. In all this economic movement there is something deeper and nobler than physical hunger; there is a sense of justice, an ideal of brotherhood. Such legislation is too calm, steady, and secure of its aim to be under control of envy and revenge or anarchistic passion; it is the largest, finest, and most eflfective method of expressing solidarity, fraternity. So CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 727 far from being a brief madness, this policy is the slow growth of centuries of discussion, and gradually has changed senti- ments, customs, laws, and constitutions in all civilized lands. Perils of progress. — While leaders of the Christian church should study these modern policies intelligently and sympa- thetically, they should also be critical and able to understand the perils and difficulties of reform, especially of a radical and revolutionary plan like sociaUsm. For direct popular con- trol and administration of the complex industries of modern times the masses of the people are yet unprepared; the dif- ficulty of securing competent managers of large affairs is seen in the failure of many of our political ventures in industrial fields. We must get our training as we travel forward, and must learn from our mistakes; but the general direction of progress is made clear by noting the historical movement for social control over a period of several centuries. Literature. — R. Fulton Cutting, The Church and Society (New York: Macmillan, 191 2) (with many concrete examples of church activities); S. N. Patten, The Social Basis of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 191 1) ; A. M. Trawick, The City Church and Its Social Mission, with bibliog- raphy (New York: Association Press, 1913); W. H. Allen, Efficient Democracy (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1907); Joseph Mazzini, The Duties of Man (London: Chapman, 1862; New York: E. P. Button & Co., 1907). Fellowship in religion the crown of all progress. — Social service culminates in the fellowship of religion. Religion does indeed, as we have insisted, stimulate us to love all our fellow- men, to do good as we have opportunity, to use all our resources and all institutions to promote the economic, physical, aesthetic, scientific, political well-being of mankind. Thus far religion is a powerful means to a noble and rational end, toward which God himself is working with us and in us. And the church as the chief school of religion cannot neglect the task of applying religious influences in the cause of humanity. 728 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Yet religion is a good in itself and the highest, not merely a means to promote other ends; and the specific, characteristic function of the church is not that of promoting science, art, or preventive medicine; there are special institutions for each oi these worthy objects, and the church has no call to meddle with their administration. As one of my honored colleagues has said : We need the church, a community of men in which we interchange the faith of our heart in living, mutual fellowship with the hearts of other men The certitude of our faith depends upon the discernment of itself in others' hearts; the endearment of our faith is increased by seeing the enlargement of our faith The very satisfactions which are achieved by the functions of religion can become our possession only in case that religion be not means but end as well.' The climax of the social service of the Master was not in heahng the sick and giving sight to the blind, but in preaching the gospel to the poor. And who are so poor as the rich who know not God ? ' G. B. Foster, The Function of Religion in Man''s Struggle for Existence, 1909. XII. THE CONTRIBUTION OF CRITICAL SCHOLAR- SHIP TO MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY By GEORGE BURMAN FOSTER Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, University of Chicago ANALYSIS I. The method of modern education. — "Calling" and "voca- tion."— The secularization of the minister's profession. — The -advantages of modern methods. — The dangers of secularization. — The value and the danger of efficiency. — The modem experience of doubt 730-742 II. The task of theology. — Theology and vocational demands. The need of the scientific spirit in theology. — How does the scientific study of theology equip the preacher ? 742-751 XII. THE CONTRIBUTION OF CRITICAL SCHOLAR- SHIP TO MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY I. THE METHOD OF MODERN EDUCATION The essentials of a school are teachers and students. According to our new education, the primary office of the teacher is to teach, not thoughts or things, but human beings. He is not a superior being whose aim is to impart authoritative information to inferiors, sustaining to him the appropriate attitude of submission, passivity, and docility. Renouncing aristocratic aloofness, he becomes his students' guide and friend, developing their energy, independence, initiative, and resourcefulness. Learning hy doing is the slogan in our modern schools as against the old watchword of learning by being told or taught. Accordingly, pupils are put in direct relation with reality instead of with symbols of reality. The content of life and environment is the subject-matter which they study. It is not that the student is immediately fitted for some trade or voca- tion or profession, but that the material which he examines and elaborates is drawn from actual life itself. The new education aims to give neither mere ''book learning," as was the case with an earher scholasticism, nor the narrow and technical vocational training, as the present-day secularist craves, but to develop mind and body, to stimulate inventive- ness, and to cultivate a judicial temper and habit, in order that the student may be prepared to become a happy and useful member of a democratic society. In a word, our new general education assimilates itself to the spirit of democracy and to the method of our sciences. Now, in what respect, if in any, does professional or vocational education differ from our ordinary education ? By 731 732 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION a professional school is meant an institution where students gain control of one specialized field of knowledge, of one par- ticular industry or profession or calling — such, for example, as engineering, or medicine, or divinity. Professional schools — ■ their history reveals this — have usually fallen into the extremes of an inherited scholastic " bookishness " or else of a narrow utilitarian practicism. To illustrate in the use of theology, this ''discipline" was knowledge dissociated from life, a thing worth while on its own account, or else it was little more than drill in the usages and ceremonies of the church. In ages of rationalism and panlogism it tended to be the former; it was the latter in primitive and mediaeval times. It may be doubted whether medicine and law are second to theology as exemplars of these extremes. In opposition to this scholastic education apart from active life or this technical education apart from broad learning, the new education of the ordinary schools unites ideas and practice, work and the recognition of the meaning of what is done, learning and social applications. Happily, the conviction is maturing today that this unity should replace those theoretical and practical onesidednesses in our professional education; that, advancing into the region of specialism, the matter of most importance is not familiarity with the body of ready- made knowledge, or skill in manipulating a technique, but knowing how to know, skilful in becoming skilful. At bottom this means the formation of the kind of character and experience which, in their special modification, are required for the enthusiasm and service of humanity in that special profession. Thus, the primary function of any pro- fessional school is the unfolding and maturing of the right kind of man for the right kind of work. Both the school's science and practice are simply means to that end. It is neither the knowledge nor the practice in their abstractness, but the knowing and doing personality that is society's valuable asset. SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 733 Now, it is in the light of such considerations as these that the serious problems of our theological education may be approached. "Calling" and "vocation." — There is a distinction — not philological, but historical and real — ^between the words *' calling" and "vocation." The significance of this dis- tinction leads to the heart of our problem, so worthy of thus studying in a large way. Historically speaking, calling is providential, vocation is optional; calling is religious, voca- tion is moral; calling is a man's by motives deeper than his choice, wiser than his deliberations; vocation is a man's by his own elective preference. In calling, a minister feels that he is a man of destiny — woe is me if I preach not the gospel; I was foreordained and set apart from my mother's womb for this work, a work in which the power of the eternal is at my disposal, is indeed my power. Without this feeling the minister is sure to be shorn of his strength and robbed of his greatness among men. But in vocation one is looked upon as self-dependent, self-sufficient, self-accountable. To be sure, calling and vocation are not exclusive, but the objective and subjective, rather the divine and the human side, of the same experience. But, historically, they have fallen asunder. At the beginning of the modern world Luther and Calvin both looked upon a man's work, no matter what it was, as his calling — as his by the providential will of God. Thus a man's work reposed upon a religious basis. Men were what they were, doing what they did, by the power and plan and purpose of God. Such a conviction brought strength and stay and contentment. But in the eighteenth century the religious basis of all secular' callings was undermined. The relative historical justification of this critical dissolution does not concern us here. The fact is that, along with science and art and education, the other orders of life dispensed with their 'Aware of the dualism seemingly involved in the words "secular" and "sacred," I find it convenient to use them in this discussion. 734 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION religious foundation, and that capital, machinery, and technique came in to take their place. Accordingly, faith in the fulfilment of one's daily task came to repose in the latter rather than in the former. In all this one may see progress in a certain direction. Per- haps the heavens had to be emptied and clouded for a time, if men were to realize that they must stand upon the earth, develop the resources of the earth, and depend upon them- selves. Yet this loss of the religious basis of secular callings is largely responsible for the sorry fruits of egoism and mammonism, of cynicism and pessimism. It may not be too much to say that the world of business needs nothing so much as to add to the confidence in technique and machinery and money the ancient faith in God, with his providential guidance over men's work, and his peace and power in men's hearts. Labor needs to supply to its notion of vocation its former notion of calling. It watches, but it also needs to pray. The secularization of the minister's profession. — Has an analogous development gone on in the sacred calling of the Christian ministry? Once there was the religious basis without machinery and capital — -not even a salary! The ministry was caUing, conscious of God's power and will, God's truth and cause, God's providence. The minister spoke with authority to the consciences and hearts of men. There was an accent of positive conviction that could not be simulated or mistaken. Men were made to face the tables of stone, the cross, and the great white throne. A supernatural significance and awe attached to human life as a probationary place of definitive and eternal decisions. The prophet and priest of God was a king among men. What has been going on ? The sacred calling is duplicating in its own way the experience of the secular calling. The calling becomes a vocation. To be sure, this is but a "moment" in the total secularization of all life, which seems to be the set program of the modern world. The sacred calling is becoming de-supernaturalized and, in a SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 735 sense, de-spiritualized. So is its technique. But one sees in this great change the method of the evolutionary process fully illustrated. Life, characteristic of one era, survives increasingly unproductive and moribund, in the subsequent period, committed to new growths and species. At length such life of the old order ceases in fact as it had already ceased in prin^ciple. This is true in the sphere of the higher life and processes of which we are thinking. Thus in prin- ciple— though not yet entirely in fact — ^the divinity of the historic sacraments is gone, and of ministerial grace from ordaining hands ; gone is the origin of the sermon in the Holy Ghost — the open-your-mouth-and-it-shall-be-filled theory of preaching — ^the naive and primitive trust in divine afflatus; gone is the preacher's living upon the capricious gratuities and donations of a flock who felt that it was their place to keep him poor, God's to keep him humble — ^both prerogatives now arrogated to themselves. More serious still, the divinity of his church, of the doctrines and morals of his sermons, of the Head of the church, of the specific God of his theology — these too are gone, and with them the old miraculous supernatural- ism of regeneration and sanctification and perfection . Indeed , these words are quite unintelligible to the modern man on the street and almost obsolete in the terminology of the theo- logian. What is taking the place of all this that once consti- tuted the religious basis of the ministerial calling ? In part, technique, machinery, capital, especially organization with the correlate of scientific efficiency of the churches in manipulating them. The dream is of a scientific ministry instead of the old religious ministry. The minister is not so much prophet and priest of God as an administrative officer of a philanthropic and humanitarian institution endowed by capital, which he is competent to execute. The church is not a temple, but a "plant." The idea seems to be gaining favor that if men are fed and clothed and sheltered and washed and amused they will not need to be redeemed with the old terrible redemption. 736 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION In somewhat harsh antithesis, to be sure, one may say that not supernatural regeneration, but natural growth; not divine sanctification, but human education; not supernatural grace, but natural morahty; not the divine expiation of the cross, but the human heroism — or accident? — ^of the cross; not the supernatural spiritual brother, but the. natural bodily brother; not the invisible religious communion of saints, living and dead, but boys' clubs and men's clubs and social settlements, all run in the use of technique, machinery, and capital, with scientific efficiency clinically learned in a divinity school; and not Christ the Lord, but the man Jesus who was a child of his times, not God and his providence, but evolution and its process without an absolute goal — that all this, and such as this, is the new turn in the affairs of religion at the tick of the clock. It is the change that is going on from the old minister to the new, from the old church to the new. The advantages of modem methods. — Now, is this progress ? . In a sense, yes. It was progress in the secular. The machine makes shorter hours possible, leaving time for possible personal improvement and social intercourse. A larger population can be provided for, and so forth. The same is true of the church with modern appointments and appliances, money and organization. We have but to think of how much better religion can be taught in the use of modern pedagogy; or of how much more systematically and wisely scientific charities can be administered; of how organized parish visitations can be carried on; of how the problem of the boy can be solved; of how church services can be conducted with beauty and finesse. All this is good and will doubtless grow better. Besides, the beUefs of the church which constitute the substance of the sermon are readjusted to fit more harmoniously into the sum of modem convictions. We shall not be able to go back behind all this in the world of the church any more than in the world of business. SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 737 The dangers of secularization. — But, for all that, we have the problem on our hands in the secular world as to whether machine and capital are primary, and personaHty and human- ity secondary, or whether it is the other way around; the problem of whether man is for the sake of vocation or voca- tion for the sake of man — the problem of man's spirituality and freedom and worth. But this problem can never be solved until there is the restoration of the long-lost religious basis of secular life. It is not science, it is faith, the com- munion of all men in and with God, that can make man the lord and not the slave of capital and machine and organiza- tion. Only so can there cease to be the hard dominion of thing over person. Once again the laborer must return to the conviction that his vocation is a calling — ^his calling by the will and providence of God. A similar relationship needs to be maintained in the world of the sacred between the primary worth of personality and the instrumentalities and institutions of the church. The real church of God is a spiritual and invisible communion of religious faith. The real church of God is super-institu- tional. As man, any man, is more than a "member of society," is super-social from the point of view of a social organism, that is, is a child of God, so the calling of the minister is more than so-called ''social service," and has to do with that deep of man which cries unto the deep of the being of God. There was a lonely hour at the brook Jabbok when Jacob's family and flock were out of his mind, the peril of his angry brother forgotten, his heart corroded by no mordant memory — a lonely hour in which he cried: "Tell me, I pray thee, thy name," the Ineffable Name. He wanted to know the eternal mystery and meaning of existence. Not so-called "social service," but the ministry of the interpretation and the satisfaction of this inexpugnable and abysmal need of man, is the supreme and inalienable function of the Christian minister. And this is a work where the peculiar worth of 738 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION personality, religious personality, entirely dissociated from all the technique and machinery and capital of the whole ecclesi- astical entity, is paramount. It were well to realize in thought what a reduction of human nature and human need there would be were man to be abridged to a point where what could be done for him by "social service" with its instru- mentalities could satisfy him. Man has untranslatable wealth, super- vocational vastness and verities and relationships. So has the minister; and it is this super- vocational overplus that is the best part of the minister, and that lends chief charm and value even to the minister's vocational activity itself. The value and the danger of efficiency. — It is in the light of this larger perspective that one can evaluate the most characteristic watchword of the modern world — efficiency. The educational and ecclesiastical circles have borrowed it from the commercial world. It must be admitted that there is much value in the maxim. It is opposed to sloth. In the concentration and solidification which it requires, it dis- courages the spirit that reflectively divides the inner self and leaves it divided. And it emphasizes courage. To be sure, it is the courage to face rivals in the market place rather than the courage that meets one's own spiritual enemies. But for all that we know in our hearts that this modern watch- word is profoundly unsatisfactory in every sphere of life, particularly in the Christian ministry. What this watch- word does not emphasize is the significance of self-possession ; of lifting up our eye to the hills whence cometh our help; of testing the life^ that now is by the vision of the largest life that we can image and appreciate. In a way that appeals to a superficial populace with quantitative standards it emphasizes results rather than ideals, vigor rather than cultivation, temporary success rather than wholeness of life, the greatness of him that "taketh a city" rather than of him that ''ruleth his spirit." It points to a shallow pragmatism, missing SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 739 the pragmatic depths. In its current signification it is not correlated to man's deepest needs — needs which, from the point of view of this word, are super-efhcient. Men are indeed suffering from poverty and dirt and disease, from manifold industrial and social evils. The minister must indeed sustain positive relations to these evils. But the worst evil is not such sufferings. The worst evil is spiritual destitution. Men are suffering far more from the loss of God and of the moral imperative than from the lack of bread and work, of recreation and amusement. What can silence the voice of the heart's pain ? What can introduce a man defeated, lonely, bereaved, defenseless, into the region of eternal truth, eternal rest, eternal peace? ''Efficiency" cannot answer such questions. These are questions common to all time. But our time is indeed an age of doubt, more widespread and more basic than the premature prognosticators of an age of faith seem to be aware of. The new world began in doubt. First there was a doubt of the church and of its divine authority. A violent devastating storm swept over popular life. The storm was speedily exorcised. Again — The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. Then from the old doubt a new faith emerged, like sweet waters in a bitter sea, and kept man a living soul. The sea is calm tonight; The tide is full. The tide of the new faith was the faith in the Bible, and in the doctrines derived from the Bible, but this tide went back to sea, and now one only hears: Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar Retreating to the breath Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. 740 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION The human spirit urged a new, mightier protest against the "It is written," which was said to put an end to all doubt. The new doubt, as protestant science, as free inquiry, flung down the gauntlet to the old Bible faith. No page of the Sacred Book remained unscrutinized. Only one certainty spread from this new doubt — the certainty that the Sacred Book was a human book. Therefore allowing and ever rejoicing in the moral and religious value of many a page, the biblical canon as such had no right to rule over man. Man was the book's judge; the book was not man's judge. The book must be measured by man's truth, man's conscience. The modem experience of doubt. — How, now, should the timorous heart of man be quieted in the presence of this new doubt ? At once new props were offered — for one thing the state. What the church was to the mediaeval man the state became to the modern man — God manifest in the flesh. Men believed in their state as in their Christ. All power in heaven and on earth seemed to be given to it. What was preached in the name of the state was a gospel. It seemed a sin to doubt the wisdom of the state at all. It was blasphemy to contest the state's claim to omnipotence. Good ? What is good if not that which benefits the state ? True ? But where is there truth apart from the word that is the ipse dixit of the state ? The political end sanctifies any means. Then a great change began. Historic study and the doc- trine of development, together with the new ideals of per- sonality and humanity, decomposed the old theory of the state. Modern man came to see that the state does not possess eternal life. The state is only a special form in which human social Hfe can exist, not human society itself. There have not always been states. They came to be in the long course of the evolution of a people's life. What comes to be must pay its toll to Father Time. The state will change — and pass. Thus its inerrancy and finality were discredited. If we SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 741 doubt the church, why not the state too ? Man's tottering Hfe could not be braced up by either. Then new props were offered man. What science recog- nized as " true," what morals and bourgeois customs recognized as "good" — ^these were offered him. "Trust the light of science, and you shall indeed have the light of life; do what is 'good' and you shall indeed be crowned with the crown of life." This was the watchword. Then there stirred in the womb of present-day humanity the last, ultimate, uncanniest doubt. If we doubt faith, why not doubt science too ? If we doubt the church, the Bible, the state, why not doubt reason, doubt knowledge, doubt morality? Even if what we call " true " be really true, can it make us good and happy ? Is not that which is called "good" grievous impediment in our pilgrimage ? Law, morals — are not these perhaps a blunder of history, an old hereditary woe with which humanity is weighted down ? Was Stendhal right perhaps in his judg- ment that " the only excuse for God is that he does not exist " ? Here — here is the agony of the modern world. But what can our current "efficiency" do here — "efficiency" with its technique and machinery and money and organization ? At this point the tragedy of life passes beyond the help of such things and of institutional religion. Is there no help for lost souls any more ? The minister who cannot cope with this deepest need of the modern man may organize superficial and often impertinent reforms, but he cannot give the bread of life. He may minister to bodily wants — ^good enough in its way — but he leaves the soul in its bewilderment and forsaken- ness. In the end he loses confidence and abandons his funda- mental task. Our fathers thought of the Christian minister as prophet, priest, and king. This watchword "efficiency" tends to restrict the ministerial function to that of king. But the need of the times, as of all times, is satisfied more fully by prophet and priest. In sum : the great question is not that of efficiency, but of the criterion of efficiency. It would be the 742 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION minister's sin against the Holy Ghost, which hath never forgivenness, were he to truncate and abridge the nature and need of man so that our institutionahzed rehgion of scientific efficiency could sustain an easy correlation thereto. II. THE TASK OF THEOLOGY Thus conceiving the function of the ministry in the terrible religious situation of the modern world, the utility of the study of theology in our divinity schools may be estimated. Theology is the science of faith, of religion. Of this statement much more needs to be said than can be said here. While science and religion are both expressions and aids of human life, they are different in form and function. Briefly expressed, religion experiences, science calculates; religion creates, science discovers; religion ventures, science weighs. Science avails itself of concepts and categories and laws; religion, of symbols and pictures and parables. Assuming that theology is a science, a practical difficulty at once confronts us. Can theology be at once scientific and ecclesiastical ? From the ecclesiastical point of view the aim of theology has been to clarify and increase the Christian's intelligence as regards the content of his faith; to evince the living power of the Christian religion, and to bring this home to bear upon life through preaching, teaching, and Christian communion. From the scientific point of view theology seeks to be free from the control and needs of the church, to be determined solely by the truth-interest, by the impulse to know reality, and to regard no law but its own, and no authority save the compulsion of its subject-matter. Since the second Christian century those two poles, the ecclesiastical and the scientific, have never vanished. But it may be doubted whether they have ever been in equilibrium. Usually the one has been emphasized at the expense of the other. Indeed, theology is usually under a cross-fire from both science and SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 743 faith — disowned by science, distrusted by faith. One may recall its mediaeval dignity as queen of the sciences, as science was then understood; but since the rise of the modern scien- tific method, theology came to be but compassionately toler- ated by the representatives of the exact sciences, doubted by many of its own representatives, and incriminated by the laity as the primary cause of all the evils with which the church of the present was infested. It was thought that in satisfying the requirements of science theology betrayed the interests of religion. Hence the question became acute: Can theology be at once scientific from the point of view of science and serviceable from the point of view of practicable Christianity ? Is the study of theology a sufficient or even a suitable prepara- tion for the office of preacher and pastor ? Does theology destroy the preacher's message, lower the preacher's piety, impair the preacher's usefulness ? Facing the problem thus fundamentally one may be permitted to dismiss certain superficial or captious objections. For example, it is pointed out that the scientific study of theology in a divinity school has occasionally impelled students to abandon the ministry. Such abandonment may be due to the popular theology and nominal Christianity in which he was indoctrinated before he went to the divinity school; or the student, as was the case with Emerson and Kant and Hegel, may enter upon a larger human service than that which a local church could afford. Besides, the occasional abandonment of the ministry under the influence of scientific theology does not discredit such theology, if it is seen to be in general useful, any more than would be the case in the analogous situation of law or medicine. But if it be true^as sometimes true it is — that now and then a theological student makes shipwreck of faith, even this disaster does not constitute a decisive objection, since this is a world where such shipwreck is possible from many causes, one of them being the absence of sound theological training. 744 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Other objectors ask: Why is it that so many students who have studied scientific theology cannot preach? It might not be amiss to inquire whether they could preach if they had not studied scientific theology. As a rule the academic and technical character of the young minister wears away as the years bring him experience and maturity, suffering and sorrow of his own, sickness and death of others. His fault is more likely to be a neglect of theological study than a bad use of it. But we may pass by such objections and return to the main issue. ■ Theology and vocational demands. — Let us assume that theology is in method a "pure" science, in purpose an "applied" science — avoiding the extremes of academic book- ishness and of the narrow practicalism of "efficiency." Let us grant — as the truth-interest requires us to grant — that the purity must not be adulterated by the application. Pure science is free science and — in Hegelian phrase, not to be prag- matically flouted — has the theoretical self-end of knowledge. Now, by virtue of this very character of theological science, is there some service which it may render the ministry ? A science which serves the self- cognition of spirit serves thereby one of the supreme, practical ends of life, which is self-realiza- tion of spirit. Only an officially infallible church can do with- out the aid of such science. Ministers, like politicians, are especially tempted to debasement of the truth-interest — to sham learning, sham religion. The great sin of ministers can easily be the infraction of the ethics of the intellect. Theological science is developing a fine sincerity in our relation to both theology and religion. Such honesty and sobriety of judgment are among a minister's best assets in our age of doubt. They go toward the formation of personality, which is at once the primary need of man and the main concern of all education. Should theology be restricted to the so-called applied, or, better perhaps, vocational sciences, as some divinity schools SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 745 seek to do, a problem of no little gravity would arise. Would the new vocationally determined science be any more free and pure than the old authoritatively determined science ? Is not a post-determined science by an end externally imposed as prejudicial to the critical occupation of the scientific spirit as a predetermined science by a cause or authority which proscribes freedom and dictates conclusions ? Is the pull of an ahen finalism any better than the push of an alien mechanism ? If authority-science gives doctrine and not truth, does not vocation-science give practice and not truth ? There is something here that should be borne in mind lest we impair the truth-interest, so inalienable to our highest life as students and ministers. Extremes meet, and it would be an ugly situa- tion were "authority" and "vocation" to combine upon us in such a way that our natural impulse to know should be wounded and weakened. This evil may be avoided by honor- ing the study of scientific theology as corrective and supple- mentation of vocational science, ever inclined to deteriorate to an immediate and narrow professionalism. The need of the scientific spirit in theology. — But theology in all its branches — ^historical, psychological, philosophical — • as "pure" science does serve the vocational ends of the minis- try, even if it does not directly and consciously aim to do so. For one thing, it is indispensable to a reasoned understand- ing of what religion really is. In defining anything one speed- ily turns to see how it came to be and what it is for. Thus, one knows a religious idea, or a religious deed, only as one sees how it has historically and psychologically emerged, and what function it fulfils in a people's or an individual's life. Besides, one requires to know the relation between idea and action in religion, the order of the emergence of magic, cult, myth, idea, doctrine, and their relations to each other. Especially does one need to know how to face the problem as to what is primary and what secondary and impermanent in religion. It appears that religion is not exhausted as a short circuit 746 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION to the real by way of instinct and feeling. The science of religion shows that there is a deep truth in this. Most of the best things in life are rooted in instinct — which is perhaps just another way of saying that we are still ignorant of their precise conditions and causes. But religion, if it is worth while, is not merely a matter of instinct and emotion. It is a legitimate part of man's rational nature. The substance of religion is not in the ceremonies and creeds and institutions which have been built up in connection with church, but in man's consciousness that the best part of him lies in his ideals and in his earnest and sincere efforts to realize these ideals. It is the recognition that the spiritual center of gravity of his life lies, not in what he is or has been, but in what he feels that he ought to become. The only study that leads us into this most needful insight for our work as preachers is that of scientific theology. But, for another thing, such study yields impressive testimony to the human cry for God. That cry— whether joyous and triumphant, or painful, pathetic, poignant — ■ reverberates from land to land and from century to century. The very import of human history is its mysterious and uni- versal urgency and awfulness. Whether it be the vague cosmological gropings of a primitive animism with its crass anthropomorphizing of duty and personification of inanimate objects ; whether it be the passionate searching out of concepts or essences by Socrates, Plato, and the Scholastics, with their confident assurance of the existence of an archet3T3al reality; whether it be the blended love and fear with which the intense and mystical Semites worshiped Yahweh and dared finally in the Greatest of the Hebrews to claim Divinity itself; whether it be the masterful executive ability with which the mediaeval ecclesiastics sought to embody a spiritual world in a temporal, even in a political hierarchy; whether it be the refreshing directness with which the Protestants sought to re-establish an immediate relation of the believer with his God ; whether SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 747 it be the pathetic attempts of modern apologists to reconcile Genesis and Darwinism, or the wistful admission of the man of science that he has scanned the heavens with his telescope and found not God — whether it be one or all of these earnest and honest endeavors of man to understand his world and his own experience, the study of theology makes us recognize throughout, always and everywhere, the search for the unity and continuity of the life and love of man with an eternal and fatherly God. The value of this world-old and world-wide witness to the minister of religion is obvious. It is quite the fashion in some modern circles to pride one's self on one's unbelief — though why what one does not believe should be so admirable is not so immediately evident. It is much more to the point, one would think, to pride one's self on the number of truths one had found at the core of current superstitions. But it is only through the study of theology in all its branches that one acquires the judgment and skill to make such dis- coveries. How does the scientific study of theology equip the preacher? — With these general considerations in mind we may very well close by isolating for special remark those specific questions which were raised a moment ago. The first of those questions is the efifect of the study of theology upon the definite message of the preacher. Biblical infallibility now abandoned, the idea that the source and certainty of the preacher's message are rooted in God's dictation and donation of truth is no longer tenable. The props that upheld him in the old orthodox days are virtually all gone. The easy gift of authoritative truth has been denied him once for all. The study of a deposit of truth must give way to the search for reality. The case is quite the same in this regard if one turns from orthodoxy to rationalism, which undertook to replace the finished and final truth of revealed and authoritative biblical religion. According to rationalism, the human mind possesses 748 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION a priori a sum of theoretical and practical ideas, untarnished by the corruptions and contingencies of experiential origin, from which absolute truth may be easily deduced. A religion of reason, consisting essentially of the ideas of God, of free- dom, of the moral law, and of immortality, supplemented the religion of revelation at first, but subsequently became a forum before which the truth and error of all positive historical religions were adjudicated. The task of the old rationalistic clergyman who expounded the parsimonious content of truth inborn in his own reason, and skilfully demonstrated its agree- ment with Christianity, was simpler and shorter than the task of the orthodox clergyman burdened with the study of biblical languages, with exegesis and harmonizings with creeds and confessions. But the intellectual and critical movements of the modern world have remorselessly demolished this naive rationahsm. As to those innate ideas, John Locke searched the infant mind and reported that he could not find any of them. He found that ideas are of temporal and empirical origin. Thus their fixed and eternal truths were under- mined. Kant followed with his proof that the content of the religion of reason could not be object of rational knowledge, but only of faith. The outcome was that the authority of reason went the way of the authority of the Bible. All finished and fixed authorities fell, even that of conscience, since it too was unfinished and temporally and spatially conditioned. Of all this earher mention will be recalled. In all these ways the task of the minister grew more diffi- cult, more grievous. In the absence of easy donations of truth from an inerrant book, he must seek and try and doubt and test, with an open and candid truth-loving spirit. The study of theology becomes more important than ever. This importance consists, not simply in the ascertainment of the truth, but especially in the formation of a religious person- aHty. Through historical and philosophical study of the dissolution of orthodoxy and of rationalism the student reca- SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 749 pitulates and epitomizes the terrible experience of doubt, learns that religion is ever changing, ever in the making, and thus becomes personally prepared to meet the needs and difficulties of our age of doubt and transition and growth. It is not simply truth, but the truthful man, tried in the fires of critical theological research, that can win the confidence of our bewildered and discouraged religious Hfe. Men who ask whether Christianity is final or transient, even whether rehgion is an illusion or a verity, cannot abide an answer from those ministers who have themselves never asked in anguish, and who cannot answer with sincerity out of the earnestness and courage of their own hearts. Reverting to the question of the influence of theological study upon the personal piety of the student, the possibilities are the dependence of piety upon theology — in which case theology could conceivably destroy or sustain piety; or the dependence of theology upon piety, faith, religion, with the reverse alternative to the former; or, finally, the complete or partial independence of the two. Representatives of each of these possibilities have been numerous in the history of the church. In the end theology annihilates faith — so the second- century church maintained against Clement the Alexandrian theologian, and so Overbeck, for example, argues in recent years. Moreover, many a theological student feels as if the critical work in the classroom of a scientific theologian was a deadly assault upon his faith. Were this indeed true there would be no help for it, since science cannot submit to quarantine from any region of reality that is accessible to examination, and since a faith that fears scrutiny is already enfeebled through self -distrust. For all the future, it would seem, the piety that resists research is foredoomed to atrophy. Indeed, part of the purpose of the study of theology is to subject our piety to the laws of survival. But while some divinity students make shipwreck of faith — a possible price to be paid to the right of science — the usual 750 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION outcome is a destruction, not of faith, but of the inherited form of faith. As a rule the student closes his years of special study with his faith purged and strengthened, and adapted as never before to nourish and hearten him for the battle of life and the fulness of service. Ceasing to be a quan- tum of past beliefs, his faith becomes an interior attitude of his spirit, which science cannot take away. The opposite position — advocated strenuously in recent years by Bollinger — is quite out of harmony with the philo- sophic temper and thought of our new day. Its thesis is that theory precedes practice, that knowledge is the foundation of practical piety, that knowledge of God is the prius of faith in God, finally, that this knowledge is not traditional (in which case there would be no way to decide whether it was true or false), but demonstrative. It is clear that such a contention is a reversion to an obsolete rationalism with its theistic arguments and the like. Admitting, as a truth at which it hints, that there is an intellectual "moment" in the religious consciousness, still one of the great merits of scientific theology is its recognition that the way to God is not proof, but prayer; that we know God because we have faith in him, rather than have faith in him because we know him. Modern theology has probably done no more important service than to clarify this problem. There remains the possibility for which no less men than Kant and Schleiermacher stood, as have many Ritschlians, namely, the reciprocal neutrality of theology and piety. "Extreme as this position is, there is an important distinc- tion between religion and theology, a distinction in form and function. Suffice it to say here that one of the purposes of the study of theology is to acquire a thorough understand- ing of this whole matter. Otherwise it would hardly be possible for the student to escape confusion and aberration. Failure to make such an escape would later yield the injurious result of misleading his church into a piety without knowledge SCHOLARSHIP AND MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY 751 or a knowledge without piety, or an identification of the two — an evil to which the pages of church history bear impressive witness. The distinction, for instance, between the living real God and a concept God is vital to peace of mind and to the power of the gospel today. With reference to this whole question, it may be said that usually the candidate for the ministry — young though he may sometimes be — enters the divinity school as a finished religious and theological product, but that in consequence of his studies there he departs unfinished, growing aware that his personality, with its religion and its theology, are alike in the making. A divinity school that achieves such a result has fulfilled its function in the life of the human spirit. INDEX INDEX Absoluteness of Christianity, 555 ff. Acts, Book of, 194. Alexandrian theology, 62, 318. Anabaptists, 400 ff., 402. Ancestor-worship, 40. Animism, 38. Anselm, 67, 349. Apologetics, modern task of, 478, 541 flf- Apologists, 300 ff. Apostolic authority, 314, 316, 330. Aquinas, 349. Archaeology andHebrew history, 1 28 f. Architecture of churches, 603. Arminianism, 416, 419, 470. Assurance, 536, 549 f. Augustine, 66, 342. Authority, 75 f.; of the Old Testa- ment, 150; of the New Testament, 234; of the apostles, 314, 316, 330; of the pope, 346; modern revolt against, 433 f., 447 f.; attitude of rationalism toward, 454; in theol- ogy, 488, 494 f., 541; in preaching, 583; in church poHty, 595 f. Baalim, 138. Baptism, 294, 320, 334, 551, 553. Baptists, 425 f. Bible: use of, in theology, 148 f., 232 f., 496 f., 555; use of , in preach- ing, 157 S., 235, 583 ff.; use of, in education, 652, 658; and social problems, 684 f . Biblical criticism, 23 f., 120 f., 204 f., 208, 220 ff., 230, 460 ff. Biblical theology, 149, 229, 555. Bourgeois social mind, 70. Calvin, 383 f. Calvinism: in Geneva, 384 f.; in Scotland, 387 f.; in the Nether- lands, 389 f.; in France, 392; in Germany, 394; estimate of, 395; controversies in, 418 f. Canon: of the Old Testament, 144; of the New Testament, 224 ff., 310. Catholicism, 68, 73; rise of, 315 ff., 330; development of, 329-55; ideal of, 329 f.; Greek, 338 f.; Western, 339 f.; and the Reformation, 407; Counter-reformation in, 406 ff.; relation of, to modern thought, 439 f.; method of theology in, 496; ethics of, 564. Catholicity, spirit of, in modern Christianity, 438 f. Certainty, 536, 549 f. Charity, 697 f. Christian: doctrine development of, 51 ff.; ethics, 561 ff.; life in early times, 298 ff.; life, doctrine of, 533 ff.; life, training for, 574 ff.; socialism, 473; union, 480, 607 f., 7 18. Christianity: generic, 52, 77 ff.; early, 241-326; ethics of, 561 ff.; devel- opmental nature of, 243 f., 493 f., 558,684; in the post-apostolic age, 291; relation of, to Judaism, 272, 275 ff., 291 f.; relation of, to the Roman state, 293; Western, distin- guished from Eastern, 340 f.; prob- lem of determining the content of, 494 ff.; absoluteness of, 555 ff.; in relation to other faiths, 559 ff.; and social problems, 577, 679-710. Christology, 58, 62 f., 283, 296 f., 302 f., 311, 313, 319 f., 331 f., 335, 526 ff. Church: relation of, to Jesus, 267 f.; beginnings of, 274 f.; organization of, in Catholicism, ;i^^; relation of, to the state, 335 f., 338, 339, 346 f., 386, 398, 421 ff., 441 ff.; adminis- tration, 599 ff.; finance, 605; polity, 594 ff.; relation of, to social prob- lems, 608 f., 679 ff., 720 ff.; relation of, to industrialism, 694 f.; modern social mission of, 710 ff.; resources of, 712 ff., 716 ff.; defects of, 714 ff. 7SS 756 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Churches: organization of, in early Christianity, 286, 294; types of, in modern life, 594 ff., 599 ff., 604 f. College: courses in, leading to theo- logical study, 5 fif., i6fi.; relation of, to theological education, 4; reli- gious life in, 12 fT. Colossians, Epistle to, 184. Comparative religion and missions, 477- Congregationalism, 425. Conversion, 670. Corinthians, Epistles to, 186. Council of Trent, 411. Counter-reformation, 406 fT. Criticism: textual, 23 f., 204 f., 208; historical, 24 f., 120 f., 230, 460 fl.; "higher," 24 f., 462; history of, 220 ff., 461 f.; and theology, 490 f. Cyprian, 317, 334. Deism, 69, 453. Democracy: and theology, 71, 76, 437, 517; and church polity, 597. Denominations, 607 f. Diaspora, 249 f. Doctrine: development of, 46 S., 51 ff., 72 ff.; in post-apostolic times, 295; development of, in Catholicism, 330 ff.; relation of, to experience, 493, 499 ff., 508 ff'., 524 f., 533; relation of, to preaching, 586. Doubt, 518, 520, 550, 740. Early Christianity : sources for knowl- edge of, 170-72; environment of, 177 f., 241 ff.; study of, 241-326; scope of, 241 f.; nature of, 243 f.; ethical ideals of, 562, 680. Easter controversy, 319. Ebionites, 270. Education, meaning of, 640 ff., 731 f. Emperor-worship, 247. English Bible, study of, 103, 218. Ephesians, Epistle to, 184. Eschatology, 141, 287, 538 f. Ethics: of early Christianity, 298 ff., 562 f.; of Catholicism, 564 f.; of Protestantism, 566 f.; modern con- ception of, 569 ff.; and religious faith, 573 f.; and preaching, 587 ff. Eucharist, 294, 338. Evangelistic preaching, 587 f. Evil, problem of, 515. Evolution: conception of, 8; of reli- gion, 30 ff.; of social ideals, 689 ff. Experience and theology, 498 f. Fetichism, 39. Feudalism: and theology, 67 f.; and the church, 347. Future life, 538 ff. Galatians, Epistle to, 186. Gentile Christianity: beginnings of, 277 f.; in the apostolic age, 280 ff.; in post-apostolic times, 289. God, doctrine of, 44 f., 513 ff. Gnosticism, 61, 72 f., 305 ff.; relation of, to Paul, 307; doctrines of, 310 ff. Gospels, 190 f., 257 f., 290. Graeco-Roman world, 59 f., 244 ff. Greek: language, 6, 201 ff.; theology, 57; Catholic church, 338 f. Hebrew: language, 6, 85 ff., 103; history, 119 ff., 133 ff.; religion, 136 ff., 679. Hebrews, Epistle to, 182, 195. Hellenistic social mind, 59 f. Hellenists, 276. Heresy: nature of, 53, 489, 495; in early Christianity, 296. Higher criticism, 24 f., 462. Historical: criticism, 24 f., 120 ff., 169, 230, 259, 462 ff.; interpretation, 170, 177, 223, 229 f., 458 ff., 493, 506 ff., 584; method, vi, vii, 21 f., 26 ff., 166, 223, 329, 458 ff., 492. History: value of the study of, 8, 690 f., 695; nature of, 21, 26 ff.; sources for writing of, 21-23; Phi- losophy of, 26; of religion, 28 ff. Holy Roman Empire, 364. Holy Spirit, 56 f., 276, 299, 533 ff, Homiletics, 582 ff., 592 f. Humanity, spirit of, in modern reli- gion, 435. Hymnology, 621 f. INDEX 757 Imperialistic social mind, 64 f. Incarnation, doctrine of, 62. Independency, 424. Industrial revolution, 472. Industry, development of, 692 ff. Inspiration, 669. Interpretation: task of, 83, 117 f., 1 74 ff . ; of the Old Testament, 145 f. ; of the New Testament, 167 flf., 220 ff.; literary, 175; allegorical, 176, 220; mystical, 176; dogmatic, 176; grammatico-historical, 177; grammatical, 210 ff.; logical, 213 ff. Interpretative bias, 123 f., 255. Irenaeus, 316. James, Epistle of, 198. Jesus: work of, 253 ff. ; relation of, to Judaism, 253 f.; relation of, to John the Baptist, 254 ff.; problem of as- certaining the facts of his life, 25s ff-, 527; messianic conscious- ness of, 261 ff.; early interpreta- tions of, 267 f.; resurrection of, 273 f.; modern interpretations of, 529 f.; social ideals of, 679. Jesuits, 408. Jewish Christianity, 272 f. John the Baptist, 254. John: Gospel of, 196 f.; Epistles of, 197. Judaism, 142, 2482.; religious insti- tutions of, 251; parties in, 252; personal religion of, 265 ff.; and early Christianity, 272, 275 ff. Jude, Epistle of, 198. Kant, 454 f. Kingdom of God, 138, 154, 323, 329, 345, 538, 562, 704, 710. Knox, John, 388. Labor problem, 724. Language-study, value of, 5. Latin: language, 6; world, religious ideas of, 64 f. Law: Hebrew, 142; Canon, 348. Legalism, 234. Lexicography, 88, 201 f. Liberalism, 498. Liberty: of thought, 414 f., 433; reli- gious, 421 ff., 433, 441 ff. Literary criticism, 24 f., 104 ff., 230, 259- Liturgies, 614 ff. Liturgies, 618 f. Logos, 62 f., 303, 331, 335. Loyola, 408. Luke, Gospel of, 189 ff., 258. Luther, 349, 365, 377 f. Lutheranism, 363 ff., 369 ff.; in Den- mark, Norway, and Sweden, 373; in England, Scotland, and Holland, 374 f. ; in France, Spain, and Italy, 376 f.; theology of, 377 ff.; esti- mate of, 379; controversies in, 417. Maccabean period, 250. Magic and religion, 39 f. Manicheism, 320. Manuscripts: of the Old Testament, 91 ; of the New Testament, 206 f. Mark, Gospel of, 190 f., 257. Massoretic text, 90 ff. Matthew, Gospel of, 189 ff., 258^ Mediaeval Christianity, 329-55, 682. Messianism, 55 ff., 140, 261 ff., 272 f., 287. Methodist movement, 471. Ministry, types of, 602 f. Miracles: of Jesus, 263 f.; in Hellen- istic thought, 264; in modern thought, 511, 541, 551 ff- Missions: in early Christianity, 276 f.; Pauline, 284 ff.; of the monks, 342 f.; in modern times, 476 ff., 717 f.; organization of, 625 ff.; problems of, 633 ff. Modern Christianity: development of, 431-82; relation of, to Catholi- cism, 439 f.; relation of, to Protes- tantism, 439 f. Modernism, 68, 74, 440, 487. Modern-positive theology, 502 f. Modern social mind, 71. Monarchical religion, 42 f., 322 f. Monasticism, 337, 342 f. Montanism, 320. Mystery-religions, 59, 247, 283. 758 GUIDE TO STUDY OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION Mysticism, 351, 674. Mythology and religion, 47, 304. Nationalistic social mind, 68 f. New Testament: in relation to the Old, 147, 225 f.; study of , 164-238; origin of, 180, 220 ff., 314; canon of, 220 ff.; value of, today, 228 ff.; in relation to theology, 232 f.; in relation to personal religion, 233 f.; in relation to preaching, 235. Nicene theology, 60 ff. Old Testament: study of, 83-161; religious value of, 144 f. ; canon of, 144; in relation to the New, 147 f., 225 f.; in relation to theology, 148 ff.; in relation to vital religion, 151 ff.; in relation to preaching, 157 ff.; theology of, 149 f. Ontological problem, 548 ff. Origen, 318, 332. Orthodoxy: nature of, 55; place of, in doctrinal development, 74 f., 296 f., 486 f.; in the Eastern church, 338 f.; in Protestantism, 496 f. Palestine: geography of, 125 f.; eco- nomic resources of, 127. Palestinian: Judaism, 250 f.; Jewish Christianity, 270 ff., 278 f. Papacy, 339, 344 ff., 350 f., 366. Pastoral: care, 610 ff.; epistles, 183. Paul: letters of, 182 ff.; conversion of, 282; missionary career of, 284 ff.; religion of, 287. Penance, 334, 339. Persecutions, 293, 321, 333, 442. Peshitta, 99. Peter, Epistles of, 196, 198. Philippians, Epistle to, 186. Philosophy, value of, 11; relation of, to theology, 48, 72, 514 f.; Hellen- istic, 247; modern, 452 ff.; idealis- tic and theology, 504 f. Politics, relation of, to theology, 48, 50. Practical theology, 581-676. Pragmatism, 49. Prayer, 536, 671. Preaching: function of, 522 ff.; rela- tion of, to the Bible, 584 ff. Presbyterianism, 389, 424. Primitive religions, 38. Prophets of Israel, 138, 143, 152 f., 160. Protestantism, 359-427; controver- sies in, 416 ff.; disintegration of, 404 ff.; orthodoxy in, 496 f.; rela- tion of, to modern thought, 439 f.; ethics of, 566 f. Psychology: value of, 4, 572; of reli- gion, 647, 663 ff. Rationalism, 414 ff., 420 ff., 434, 453. Reformation: Protestant, 359-427; main forces in, 3595.; social as- pects of, 360; political aspects of, 360, 367 ff.; intellectual aspects of, 361; moral and religious aspects of, 361, 369 f.; in Germany, 364 ff.; in Switzerland, 380 ff., 384; Calvinist, 383 ff.; in England, 396 ff.; esti- mate of, 426 f., 683. Reformed churches, 379 ff. Regulafidei, 55, 61, 62, 63, 73, 74. Religion: history of, 28 ff.; evolution of, 30 f.; nature of, 32 f., 34, 36, 46, 508 ff.; theories as to the origin of, ^:i; primitive, 38 ff.; tribal, 40 f.; monarchical, 42 ff.; of Israel, 136 ff., 151 ff.; cosmic significance of, 510 ff.; ethical significance of, 512 ff. Religionsgeschichtliche school, 30, 464. Religious education, 640 ff., 663. Renaissance, 352, 683. Resurrection: beliefs of the early Christians concerning, 273 f.; mod- ern conception of, 538. Revelation: Book of, 194 f.; concep- tion of, in theology, 555. Ritschl, 456 f. Ritschlianism, 500 ff. Roman Empire and Christianity, 245. Romans, Epistle to, 186. Sacraments, 350. Sacrifice, 41. Salvation, doctrine of, 5 19 ff. Samaritan Pentateuch, 98. Schleiermacher, 455, 499, 509. INDEX 759 Science: value of the study of, 7, 544; relation of, to religious belief, 466 ff ., 543 S., 549- 745 ff- Scientific method: 7, 433, 446 ff., 544 f.; and ministerial efficiency, 730-51- Secularism in modern thought, 435, 733 f- Semitic: social mind, 54; world, 132 f. Septuagint, 94 fif. Sermon, modern form of, 590 f. Sin, problem of, 521. Social: gospel, 539; leadership, 687!!., 699 ff. ; movement, 436, 466 ff . ; poli- tics, 723 f.; problems, 703 ff.; sci- ence, 10, 592, 57_6,_ 679-728, 699, 700; workers, training of, 704 f. Social mind: relation of, to doctrine, 51 ff.; Semitic, 54 f.; Hellenistic, 59 f.; imperialistic, 64 f.; feudal, 67; nationalistic, 68; revolution- ary, 69 f.; modern, 71. Socialism, 724 f.; Christian, 473. Socinianism, 415. Spirituality in modern religion, 435. Sunday school, 644, 656 f. Supernatural, problem of, 458 f., 523f., 55iff., 543- Synoptic: gospels, 189; problem, 189 ff. Systematic theology, 485-561; rela- tion of, to the Old Testament, 148 f.; relation of, to the New Testament, 232 f.; task of, 485 ff- Targums, 98. TertuUian, 316. Textual criticism, 23 f., 204 f., 208; of the Old Testament, 89 ff.; of the New Testament, 204 ff. Theological -education, organization of, V, vi, 4. Theology: relation of, to religion, 46 ff., 51; relationof, to politics, 47, 50; relation of, to philosophy, 48, 72; relation of, to experience, 493, 499 ff., 508 ff., 524 f., 533; con- structive task of, 75 f., 485 ff.; mediaeval, 348 ff. See also Doctrine; Systematic Theology. Thessalonians, Epistles to, 185. Tribal religion, 40. Trinity, doctrine of, 63 f., 513. Ultramontanism, 440. Unitarianism, 70. Versions: of the Old Testament, 87, 94 ff.; of the New Testament, 206. Vulgate, 100. Wesleyanism, 71. Worship, problem of, 617, 672. Zwingli, 381 ff. 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