An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 317 pages of information about An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant.

An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 317 pages of information about An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant.
distinction between the man who was satisfied with a naturalistic explanation of the universe and one whose devout soul asked for something more.  On the other hand, the contention against the miracle appeared to be a necessary corollary of the notion of a law and order which are inviolable throughout the universe.  Furthermore, many men have come of themselves to the conclusion for which Schleiermacher long ago contended.  Whatever may be theoretically determined concerning miracles, yet the miracle can never again be regarded as among the foundations of faith.  This is for the simplest of reasons.  The belief in a miracle presupposes faith.  It is the faith which sustains the miracle, and not the miracle the faith.  Jesus is to men the incomparable moral and spiritual magnitude which he is, not on the evidence of some unparalleled things physical which it is alleged he did.  Quite the contrary, it is the immediate impression of the moral and spiritual wonder which Jesus is, that prepares what credence we can gather for the wonders which it is declared he did.  This is a transfer of emphasis, a redistribution of weight in the structure of our thought, the relief of which many appreciate who have not reasoned the matter through for themselves.

Schleiermacher had said, and Herrmann and others repeat the thought, that, as the Christian faith finds in Christ the highest revelation, miracles may reasonably be expected of him.  Nevertheless, he adds, these deeds can be called miracles or esteemed extraordinary, only as containing something which was beyond contemporary knowledge of the regular and orderly connexion between physical and spiritual life.  Therewith, it must be evident, that the notion of the miraculous is fundamentally changed.  So it comes to pass that we have a book like Mackintosh’s Natural History of the Christian Religion, 1894, whose avowed purpose is to do away with the miraculous altogether.  Of course, the author means the traditional notion of the miraculous, according to which it is the essence of arbitrariness and the negation of law.  It is not that he has less sense for the divine life of the world, or for the quality of Christianity as revelation.  On the other hand, we have a book like Percy Gardner’s Exploratio Evangelica, 1899.  With the most searching criticism of the narratives of some miracles, there is reverent confession, on the author’s part, that he is baffled by the reports of others.  There is recognition of unknown possibilities in the case of a character like that of Jesus.  It is not that Gardner has a less stringent sense of fact and of the inexorableness of law than has Mackintosh or an ardent physicist.  The problem is reduced to that of the choice of expression.  We are not able to withhold a justification of the scholar who declares:  We must not say that we believe in the miraculous.  This language is sure to be appropriated by those who still take their departure from the old

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An Outline of the History of Christian Thought Since Kant from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.