The Origin and Development of Religious Belief, Том 2

Excerpt from The Origin and Development of Religious Belief, Vol. 2

Starting from the facts of human nature and the laws they reveal to us, as spread out before us in history, can we attain to the existence of God, to Immortality, and to the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, the Incarnation?

Hitherto Christianity has leaned, or has been represented as leaning, on authority, - on the authority of an infallible text, or of an inerrable Church. The inadequacy of either support has been repeatedly demonstrated, and as the props have been withdrawn, the faith of many has fallen with a crash. The religious history of the Church exhibits three phases. The first when dogma appealed to men and met with a ready response, the second when dogma was forced on man by an authoritative society, and the third when dogma was insisted on, upon the authority of an infallible text. Men revolted against the Church, opposing the text against it, men revolt now against the text, and on what does dogma stand?

To this question I offer an answer in this volume. Unless Theology can be based on facts anterior to text or society, to facts in our own nature, ever new, but also ever old, it can never be placed in an unassailable position.

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