CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY. ST. PAUL AS AN ETHICAL It was perhaps inevitable that the great historical manifestation which we call Christianity, should at the outset arouse a speculative interest and receive the mould of a metaphysic rather than an ethic. It might have been, as has been suggested, of infinite advantage if the early church councils had concerned themselves as much with the ethics as with the metaphysics of the person of Christ.1 But probably on account both of the nature of the new faith, and of the environment amid which it grew, it was not surprising that it should assume the character of a system of doctrine. When we consider the profound intellectual problemsas to the Being of God, as to the Deity of the Son and the relation of the two natures in Christ, as to the origin and extent of sin and the character of the reconciliation between man and God effected by the death of Christ-which at once presented themselves, we see how natural it was that Christianity should be first approached on its speculative rather than its practical side. Moreover, the new religion, though it sprang from Jewish soil, had its first habitat in the intellectual 1 Fairbairn, Philosophy of the Christian Religion, p. 565. A atmosphere of the Greco-Roman world. It may be that Christianity was saved by being thus assimilated to the world in which it had come to live. But the assimilation cost it centuries of impotence and struggle, more or less fruitless, to escape from the toils in which it had been caught. In this home of its adoption the spirit of Greek genius held sway, the characteristic of which was to appropriate new truth as it presented itself and shape it in the mould of its own native speculation. One consequence of the scientific treatment of Christianity, which marks the early ages of ecclesiastical history, was the almost entire neglect of the ethical nature and practical significance of the new religion. For more than fifteen centuries the history of the Church presents the dreary spectacle of bitter controversy and futile strife, and Christianity takes the form of a compound of dogmatic assumption and arid definition. Fortunately, however, life has often proved stronger than theory, and more than once in the course of the ages the subtleties of theology have been flung aside and religion has come forth as an ethical power. The spirit of the Renaissance and the ideals of Romanticism, with their return to human interests, prepared the way for the Reformation, which was really a moral revival as much, if not more, than a doctrinal movement. But the ethical character which Luther gave to the Reformation was once more thrust into the background by the attempt of Calvin and his followers on the one side and the Arminians on the other to systematise the faith. The Gospels were neglected and the Bible was resorted to as a quarry from which to extract the stones suitable for the erection of a gigantic theological edifice. 1 Fairbairn, Philosophy of the Christian Religion, p. 564. Under the influence of the historical spirit, which is perhaps the most marked feature of the thought of our time, signs are not wanting of the revival of interest in the ethical side of Christianity. The distinguishing characteristic of modern theology is, without question, its new feeling for Christ. From the palimpsest of the Church's changeful history over-written by the glosses, the inevitable conflicts and controversies, the misconceptions and partial conceptions of nigh two thousand years, the life and teaching of Jesus are being gradually restored. We are no longer content to regard Christianity as an abstract system of doctrine, and to construe its meaning through the decisions of Church councils. We go back to the Gospels to interpret Christ by means of His own character and thought. Under the pressure of vital needs and the calls and claims of the new time, the obscuring media of doctrinal abstraction and mediaeval speculation are being slowly but surely destroyed, that in Him who is its Light the world may once more see light clearly and be guided on its way. Viewed from the side of its expression in literature the new movement may be said to date from Strauss' Leben Jesu; but perhaps the book which has most decisively directed attention to the ethical elements in Christianity is the ethics of Schleiermacher. Since his time a host of brilliant writers-of whom Keim, Hausrath, Bernard Weiss, Wendt, Harnack, and Hermann are conspicuous-have sought to reveal to the world the supreme value of the personal character and ethical teaching of Jesus. The reasonableness of this movement at once becomes evident if we examine with unprejudiced minds the original documents of our faith. If we turn to the first three Gospels we discover that the atmosphere is entirely ethical. "One enters a region of homes and fields, of natural and familiar experiences, and through this rolling country with its varied vocations, its joys and pains, its happiness and temptations; among old and young, rich and poor, good and bad, walks the Teacher of the higher righteousness, showing by words of blessing and deeds of mercy, the way that men should go." The Synoptic Gospels are not the exposition of a doctrine, but the narrative of a life. Whatever further disclosures as to the relation of man to God, or as to the nature of Christ Himself, these Gospels may suggest, are inferences rather than direct purposes of the narratives themselves. The deity of the Son of Man, the sacrificial and atoning power of His death, His Resurrection and His eternal Presence, are truths which may be legitimately deduced from His life and teaching; but the inculcation of these doctrines is not the immediate aim of the Synoptics. Jesus is concerned with life and is in the first instance a teacher of righteousness and purity. He does not address Himself to the learned, but the simple. He does not begin with a theology, but with the questions of personal and practical life as they present themselves to fishermen and publicans, to the doubting and the sinning. His first blessings are offered to the poor, the humble, the merciful, the peacemakers. His first rebukes are for hypocrisy, worldliness, anxiety. He lays the emphasis upon chastity, moderation, sincerity, brotherliness, love. The kingdom of God is not a theological tenet but an ethical ideal. The kingdom is the end of His desire, but the immediate aim is the making of citizens. For Jesus has what has been called a passion for humanity and His supreme care is the individual. To fit men for the kingdom is 1 1 Peabody, Jesus Christ and the Christian Character, p. 20. |