Christian Types of Heroism; A Study of the Heroic Spirit Under Christianity (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890. Excerpt: ... Christian Types Of Heroism. INTRODUCTION. /J ERNEST REN AN, ruminating upon the growing reverence for what are commonly styled the passive virtues, exclaims, "How feeble would be a society of perfect beings " His lament over the millennium is a condensation of what is unquestionably a wide-spread feeling about the militant types of ethical character. The charge is frequently brought against Christianity that it bestows a special patronage upon the passive virtues, reversing the honors men have usually paid to those of the heroic type, and claiming for meekness the praise which once went to courage, and for self-sacrifice what used to be bestowed on personal force. Christian ethics, it is said, do not encourage the active and aggressive qualities. The Christian ideal lacks force. Its spirit deprecates the wrestling energy which has won all the world's battles. Its saints are feeble; its code is unfriendly to the strong; its millennium is a reign of effeminacy. Once let the spirit of Christianity prevail, this criticism urges, and you will witness under its refinements the disappearance of the active virtues, the decline of physical courage, the prowess which shone in battle, the intrepidity of manhood, the force which has overcome chaos and built a civilization. We shall see the type degenerate and perhaps disappear, and we shall only be allowed to honor the virtues of the warrior, the patriot, and the knight as the best products of a benighted past. But justice to Christianity demands a revision of this common judgment. It is deficient at two points. It is not true to the facts of Christian ethics nor to the facts of Christian history. It misconceives the real nature of the dispositions which Christianity inculcates and it is inconsistent with the actual...