The Things Which Remain by Daniel A. Goodsell


Main
- books.jibble.org



My Books
- IRC Hacks

Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare

External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd

books.jibble.org

Previous Page | Next Page

Page 2

I speak of the Germans because they, chiefly, are those capable and
active in original research. Most of our American "advanced critics" are
merely translators and adapters of German work. Their volumes add
nothing to the controversy to those who know the German originals. Not a
few Americans have obtained reputation by the expansion of the note
books they made at the feet of German professors.

[Sidenote: The English Disciples of the German School.]

[Sidenote: Love of Novelty.]

This also is largely true of the English critics. Many of them are well
furnished for Greek criticism. The number of Greek Englishmen is still
very large. But these seem also to fortify, at least, their own
conclusions by the opinions of the original German investigators. It is
hard to believe that, in the contests for German professorial position,
as well as in the justification of the incumbent when the position is
gained, the desire to attract attention by some critical novelty of
method or result has not been in some cases, at least, as influential as
a simple love of truth.

[Sidenote: Some Questions as to Style.]

There is always the question also, which I profess seems to be one not
easy of answer, whether the literary judgments as to style when men are
dealing with another language than their own, and especially with Greek
and Hebrew, can be as worthy of acceptance as their authors and many
others hold them to be; whether, in short, their opinions may not, like
those of experts in handwriting, come to be so colored by their
personality, or their interests, as to be of little evidential value.
On this point it seems to me that not enough allowance has been made by
these critics for the difference in style when men write familiarly or
didactically, or when they are engaged in narration or exhortation.

[Sidenote: Foundation of Belief Unsettled.]

Whatever may be the truth as to these matters, the present state of
faith is due to the unsettlement of the foundation of belief by
scientific and critical scholarship.

[Sidenote: A New Foundation to Emerge.]

This unsettlement, admitted on every hand with difference of opinion as
to extent, is either to increase until faith in Christianity, except as
an ethical and humanitarian system, is dead, or abide until faith
revives by a perception that the Church has maintained an erroneous
basis for faith and that a new and stronger one is emerging from the sea
of discussion. This last I believe to be the truth in the matter. I
hold, therefore, that faith is not dying, but suffering in some minds
from a kind of lunar eclipse, where a shadow diminishes, temporarily,
the radiance, but does not extinguish the planet itself.

[Sidenote: The Authority of the Scriptures Weakened.]

When we ask what foundation is weakened, the answer is: The authority of
the Scriptures as the sole rule of faith and practice. Some claim that
only a few of the books are genuine and almost none authentic. If this
is to be the final judgment of the learned and the sincere, it is plain
that we must seek another foundation for faith than the word of
Scripture. It is no more a "Thus saith the Lord" for us.

[Sidenote: Critics not yet Agreed.]

[Sidenote: Arch�ology and the Bible.]

[Sidenote: Personal Standpoints.]

But we are very far from seeing that final agreement among the critics
which warrants us in discarding a single book. If any one has been
fought about, and fought over, it is the Gospel of John. "It used to be
said that this was not a history at all, but an idealizing of tradition
in the interest of a speculative idea;[1] now theologians are mostly
agreed that if John is the most speculative, he is, at the same time,
the most personal of New Testament writers." No other book has been
finally overthrown. Arch�ology has confirmed Paul, and also some Old
Testament writers, especially those who speak of widely separated
settlements of the Hittites. I get a strong impression that the New
Testament writers are sometimes attacked because they teach what the
critics do not wish to believe. Thus it would appear that Harnack scouts
the early chapters of Matthew and Luke because he doubts the virgin
birth, and would hold that belief therein is no part in authority or
value of the Christian religion.

Previous Page | Next Page


Books | Photos | Paul Mutton | Thu 28th Mar 2024, 19:00