Contents

CHAPTER I

What Is the Christian Faith?
[Need of a definition]16
I.[The Christianity of the New Testament Writers]16
[Their emphasis upon the Passion and Resurrection]16
[Their emphasis upon the Person of Christ]20
II.[Primitive Christianity and Pauline Christianity]21
[Was Paul the Founder of Christianity?]21
[Lines of connection between Paul and the Primitive Apostles]22
III.[The Christianity of Jesus and of Paul]26
[Harmony in their Ethical Teaching and in their blending of Doctrine with Ethics]27
[The Christological passage, Matthew xi.] [its exegesisand its alleged isolation]35
[The Passion narrative in Mark: views of Bousset]41
[Self-authenticating contrasts in the Character of Christ]43
IV.[The Dilemma of Historical Criticism]44
[Jesus as viewed by the Liberal and the Radical Schools]44
[The Dilemma of Liberal Criticism]45
[Lessening Significance of a merely human Jesus]49
[Harnack and von Dobschütz on the "Double Gospel"]53
[The Essence of Christianity]54

CHAPTER II

The Christian Faith and Modern Science
[The Darwinian Theory: inferences unfavourable and favourable to religion ]56
[Evolution and the Copernican Revolution]60
I.[The Method of Evolution: the biological discussion]61
[State of opinion after fifty years of Darwinism]61
[Laws of Variation and Heredity]62
[Weismann's theory of Germinal Selection]63
[Significance of the variety in opinions] 65
II.[The Meaning of Evolution: the philosophical discussion]66
[1. Mechanism and Design]66
[In the organic world in general; the fitness of the environment]67
[In the organic world including man]70
[2. Preformation and Epigenesis]73
[Preformation and the infinite regress]74
[The Origin of Life: various theories]75
[The Origin of Man as viewed from different standpoints]78
[The Generatio Æquivoca]80
III.[Theism and Evolution]82
[The causal demand]82
[Theism and the ideas of Continuity and Progress]83
[Religion and scientific advance]85

CHAPTER III

[The Psychology of Religion: its precursors and founders] 89
I.[The Psychology of Religious Experience: points emphasized in the discussion]92
[1. The normality of religion]92
[2. The power of religion in the individual and in society] 96
[3. The need of salvation]100
[4. The way of salvation]102
II.[The Metaphysical Implicates of Religious Experience]105
[1. The Physical Explanation: religion the result of bodily conditions; religion and sex]106
[2. The Psychological Explanation: religion and the subconscious]111
[3. The Social Explanation: religion and society]114
[4. The Theistic Inference]119
[The Pragmatic Argument for Theism]119
[The Mystical Argument: its strength and its weakness] 120
[The Evidence of Christian Experience]122

CHAPTER IV

[The philosophical situation at the opening of the century]125
[Leading representatives of present day philosophy] 127
I.[Bergson and Creative Evolution]127
[Creative Evolution a drama in three acts]128
[Features of Bergson's system: the vital impulse]129
[His rejection of Finalism: is it compatible with Theism?]132
II.[Eucken and the Truth of Religion]137
[His critique of Naturalism, of Pragmatism and of Absolutism]138
[Universal Religion and Characteristic Religion]140
[Eucken's relation to Christianity: "Can we still be Christians?"]142
[Bergson and Eucken as prophets of a new era]146
III.[Ward and the Realm of Ends] 146
[His transition from Pluralism to Theism] 147
[His argument for Immortality] 152
[Pampsychism and Metempsychosis] 153
[Difficulties in the doctrine of Pampsychism] 154
IV.[Royce and the Problem of Christianity] 155
[Christianity as a Religion of Loyalty] 157
["What is vital in Christianity?"] 158
[The Christian ideas of Sin and of Atonement or Grace] 159
[The Church as a source of salvation: its origin] 161
[Philosophical interest in Christianity and its significance] 164

CHAPTER V

The Christian Faith and Other Religions
[The Universal Mission of Christianity]165
I.[Christianity and Ancient Religions]165
[The resemblances and their significance]166
[Clemen's "religious-historical" principles]168
[1. The Virgin Birth and its alleged parallels]169
[2. The worship of Christ and the worship of the Emperor: origin of the "Kyrios" title]172
[3. Paul and the Mystery Religions]177
[Pauline doctrine of the Sacraments and of dying and rising with Christ]180
[The Pauline vocabulary: views of Reitzenstein]185
[Why did Christianity conquer the Roman Empire?]192
II.[Christianity and Modern Religions]193
[The missionary propaganda]194
[Dangers of compromise]195
[The Christian Plerosis: the fulfillment of the great religious ideas of the race]197

CHAPTER VI

[The Christian Faith and Biblical Criticism]
[The value and significance of Biblical Criticism]200
[Relation between the Old Testament and the New Testament]201
I.[The Pauline Epistles]203
[The Tübingen view and later criticism]204
[The Epistle to the Ephesians]204
II.[The Acts of the Apostles]205
[Evidences of trustworthiness]206
[Harnack on the Lukan authorship]208
[Harnack and Koch on the date]210
[Did Luke use Josephus?]213
III.[The Synoptic Problem]216
[The Two-Document theory]217
Modifications of the theory by the assumption:
[(1) of a larger dependence on oral tradition]219
[(2) of the use of Q by Mark]220
[(3) of different editions of Mark]220
["Secondary elements" in Mark]221
[Bearing of Harnack's early dating of the Lukan writings]225
[The inter-Synoptic differences]226
IV.[The Johannine Problem]227
[Evidence for Apostolic authorship]228
Rejection of Apostolic authorship on the assumption:
[(1) that John never lived at Ephesus]230
[(2) that there were two Johns at Ephesus]232
[The partition theory]234
[The internal evidence: style and contents of the Fourth Gospel]234
[Relation to the Synoptic Gospels as supplementary, explanatory and independent]236
[Concluding remarks]242
[Bibliography of Recent Important Works]244
[Index]249

I

What Is the Christian Faith?

If every rational discussion, as Cicero has said, should begin with a definition, it would be well at the outset to try to answer the question which forms the title of this lecture. Of the definitions which may be given of the Christian Faith two may be selected as typical: (1) it is the faith in the providence and love of God which Jesus exercised and exemplified; or (2) it is the faith of which Jesus Himself is the object. In the one case the essence of Christianity will be found in the simple precepts of the Peasant-Prophet of Galilee, in the other in the developed Christology of the Apostle Paul.

It is safe to say that the average Christian will not be satisfied with either of these definitions. He looks to Jesus, it is true, as his Teacher and Example, but he also trusts Him as his Redeemer and worships Him as his Lord. The real question at issue is whether original Christianity, the religion which Jesus taught, was thus inclusive of doctrine as well as ethics. Does Christianity in its essence include Christology? The attempt to answer this question will not only introduce our general theme but will bring us into the heart of it. It will be convenient to consider in order: I. The Christianity of the New Testament Writers; II. Primitive Christianity and Pauline Christianity; III. The Christianity of Jesus and of Paul; and IV. The Dilemma of Historical Criticism.

I. The Christianity of the New Testament Writers

The scientific study of the New Testament has brought clearly to light the individual traits of the various writers, but has shown at the same time the striking agreement of these writers in their fundamental conception of the Christian Faith. For those who set forth objectively the words and ministry of Jesus as well as for those who deal more explicitly with doctrinal interpretation, the centre of interest lies in the Person, the Passion and the Resurrection of Christ. It may be well to illustrate this unity of standpoint, while the fact of it is so generally conceded that it needs no elaborate proof.