The Tradition of the Syriac Church of Antioch, concerning the Primacy and the Prerogatives of St. Peter, and of his successors, the Roman Pontiffs. By the Most Rev. Cyril Behnam Benni, Syriac Archbishop of Mossul (Nineveh). London: Burns, Oates & Co. 1871. For sale by The Catholic Publication Society, 9 Warren Street.
This unique production symbolizes the contrariety and unity of the East and West in a singular manner. It begins at both ends, and finishes in the middle, where the appendices usually put at the end are snugly sandwiched between the Syriac original and the English translation. This translation has been made by the Rev. Joseph Gagliardi, and is, of course, at that end of the volume which, to our Occidental habits of thought, appears to be the natural beginning. The Syriac begins at the opposite end, and thus both languages have their own way, and the book will answer equally well for the reader in Nineveh and the one in London. The tradition
of the Church of Antioch, where St. Peter established his first see, is scarcely inferior in interest and importance to that of the Roman Church. The learned prelate has gathered together the best and most authentic testimonies to the supremacy of the Roman See from documents both ancient and modern, liturgies, official acts, and writings of prelates and learned men, both Catholic and schismatical. The references are most carefully given, and the whole work is critical and scholarly. It is published in a very handsome and ornamental style, and cannot fail to interest the curious, the learned, and all who are engaged in theological pursuits. The testimonies to the authority of the Holy See which it contains are very valuable, and as they are given in a clear English translation, methodically arranged, and accompanied by full explanations, they are intelligible to any person of ordinary education. We cannot flatter ourselves that we have very many among our subscribers who will be able to appreciate the beauties of the Syriac original.
The Life of Jesus the Christ. By Henry Ward Beecher. Illustrated. New York: J. B. Ford & Co. 1871. Vol. I.
The publishers of this work have given it a very handsome exterior, and adorned it with a number of excellent illustrations of scenes and places in Palestine. The attempts at reproducing some of the most celebrated representations of our Lord are, however, not successful. As for the work itself, it is an effort to imitate the fascinating and popular style of Renan in such a way as to satisfy those Protestants who call themselves Evangelical. That the author has the art of pleasing the multitude cannot be questioned. That he is an artist in the highest and truest sense we cannot admit. And, so far as more solid qualities are concerned, he is not to be compared for a moment, in respect to
that erudition which brings rabbinical and classical treasures to enrich and illustrate the Evangelical narrative, with Dr. Sepp, whose Leben Jesu still remains both the most valuable and the most interesting of all works of this class thus far produced, in spite of much that is fanciful and visionary.
If the doctrine of this book were sound, we should hail its publication with joy, even although we could not consider it to be a literary masterpiece. Even if it contained only the errors common to Protestants; still, if it were sound on the great central truth of the Incarnation; one might think it likely to be useful in preserving among Protestants the true doctrine of the divinity and humanity of Christ contained in their formularies. As it is, we must condemn it as more mischievous and absurd than the Vie de Jésus of Renan. Of course, no Catholic who has any regard for his own principles will ever think of looking for religious instruction or edification in any book proceeding from Mr. Beecher’s pen. The evil which this shallow and utterly heretical production, coming forth in such a taking guise, will cause will be among Protestants. One class of them—those who swallow its honey with pleasure—will take in a deadly poison of heresy. Another class, who will look at its doctrine coolly and critically, will be strengthened in their tendency to rationalism and unbelief by its crude absurdity.
Mr. Beecher teaches a more gross and monstrous doctrine than that of Arius, Nestorius, or Appolinaris. It is, namely, that God contracted and diminished his divine nature within the mental and physical limits of manhood. God became the human soul of a human body. This is the anthropomorphism of Swedenborg. It destroys all true conceptions both of the human and the divine nature of our Lord. Pantheism is better than this. The reasoning and exegesis on which
this revolting doctrine is based are not worthy of a moment’s notice. All is mere superficial, rhetorical, sentimental talk, without a shred of philosophy or theology. We shall look with some curiosity to see what judgment the Episcopalian and Presbyterian divines of the stricter sort will pronounce on this latest product of the pseudo-Evangelical school. What those of them who have some theological knowledge will think, we know very well; but we are desirous of seeing whether they will express their thoughts in clear and emphatic language, and caution the Protestant public against a doctrine which subverts the Nicene Creed and the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, to say nothing of other formularies which are essentially the same with these.
Behold a new proof of the utter insufficiency of the text of Scripture alone by itself even to preserve the orthodox doctrine after it has been fully presented to the mind! How much more, then, to give it at first hand! What the orthodox Protestants still retain of the faith is the faith of creeds, councils, and tradition, and the exercise of private judgment on the text of Scripture is destroying it fast.