Christianity & Reason, Their Necessary Connection (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.1879 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII. ST. PAUL: HIS THEOLOGICAL AND HIS PRACTICAL TEACHING. The Christian religion is intended for man--to elevate him here, and thereby to prepare him for the higher life hereafter. To effect this, it must commend itself to his reason and moral sense. If this be the case, it follows that it is lawful to examine, analyse, and systematise our religious creed, in order to see that in all its parts it squares with truth and righteousness and reason; and that if, in the progress of the times, we have discovered errors or misconceptions or undue bias in any part of it, whether arising from ignorance or from prejudice or from polemical contentions, these may be removed. The result of such a calm examination would in our day probably be considerably to simplify the articles of our belief. In our Standards we exhibit religious opinions as they existed 300 years ago, and, not very closely, as they exist now. We do not wish to make too much of any seeming errors or misconceptions; still it cannot be denied that of the dogmatic positions taken when our Standards were constructed, some, if examined, may be now found to rest on errors in science, some others probably on errors in interpretation, and some errors may be found to arise from adopting in too literal a sense the words and arguments which the ardour and ingenuity of a controversialist like Paul may have employed in prosecuting a great reform in the religious life of his countrymen--a reform involving the entire repeal of their Ceremonial Law. It may seem strange that when most of the educated community of our day see such defects to exist, and therefore hold that our Standards need a good deal of revision, many of our clergy shut their eyes to the fact, and insist on holding these old documents to be h...