THE
CHRISTIAN VIEW OF GOD
AND THE WORLD
AS CENTRING
IN THE INCARNATION
BEING THE
FIRST SERIES OF KERR LECTURES
BY JAMES ORR, D.D.
PROFESSOR OF APOLOGETICS AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY,
UNITED FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW
"For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen."--ROM. xi. 36.
NINTH EDITION
THE KERR LECTURESHIP.
The "Kerr Lectureship" was founded by the Trustees of the late Miss Joan Kerr, of Sanquhar, under her Deed of Settlement, and formally adopted by the United Presbyterian Synod in May 1886. In the following year, May 1887, the provisions and conditions of the Lectureship, as finally adjusted, were adopted by the Synod, and embodied in a Memorandum, printed in the Appendix to the Synod Minutes, p. 489. From these the following excerpts are here given:-- II. The amount to be invested shall be £3000. III. The object of the Lectureship is the promotion of the study of Scientific Theology in the United Presbyterian Church. The Lectures shall be upon some such subjects as the following, vis.:--A. Historic Theology--(1) Biblical Theology, (2) History of Doctrine, (3) Patristics, with special reference to the significance and authority of the first three centuries. B. Systematic Theology--(1) Christian Doctrine--(a) Philosophy of Religion (b) Comparative Theology, (c) Anthropology, (d) Christology, (e) Soteriology, (f) Eschatology; (2) Christian Ethics--(a) Doctrine of Sin, (b) Individual and Social Ethics, (c) The Sacraments, (d) The Place of Art in Religions Life and Worship. Farther, the Committee of Selection shall from time to time, as they think fit appoint as the subject of the Lectures any important Phases of Modern Religious Thought, or Scientific Theories in their bearing upon Evangelical Theology. The Committee may also appoint a subject connected with the practical work of the Ministry as subject of Lecture, but in no case shall this be admissible more than once in every five appointments. IV. The appointments to this Lectureship shall be made in the first instance from among the Licentiates or Ministers of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, of whom no one shall be eligible who, when the appointment falls to be made, shall have been licensed for more than twenty-five years, and who is not a graduate of a British University, preferential regard being had to those who have for some time been connected with a Continental University. V. Appointments not subject to the conditions in Section IV. may also from time to time, at the discretion of the Committee, be made from among eminent members of the Ministry of any of the Nonconformist Churches of Great Britain and Ireland, America, and the Colonies, or of the Protestant Evangelical Churches of the Continent. VI. The Lecturer shall hold the appointment for three years. VIII. The Lectures shall be published at the Lecturer's own expense within one year after their delivery. IX. The Lectures shall be delivered to the Students of the United Presbyterian Hall. XII. The public shall be admitted to the Lectures.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
This Third Edition is a reprint of the First and Second, with the exception of a few verbal corrections and alterations, and slight adjustments and curtailments in certain of the Notes. The analysis of Contents also has been abridged. The author is indebted to the Rev. Alexander Mair, D.D., for kindly assisting him in the correction of the proofs.
Edinburgh, July 1897.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
These Lectures, the first on the Kerr Foundation, are published in fulfilment of the conditions of the Trust under which they were delivered. Their publication has been delayed owing to the author's appointment to the Chair of Church History in the Theological College of the United Presbyterian Church, at the Synod of May 1891. They have now been made ready for the press under the burden of labour and anxiety connected with the preparation of a second winter's course. This may excuse the minor oversights which, in handling so large a mass of material, must inevitably occur.
The Lectures are printed substantially as delivered in the spring of 1891--the chief exception being that portions of the Lectures which had to be omitted in the spoken delivery, through the limits of time, are here restored in their proper connection. Material which could not conveniently be incorporated in the Lectures has been wrought into Appendices and Notes. The latter are designed to furnish not simply references to authorities, but illustrations, corroborations, and what may be termed generally "assonances" of thought, drawn from a wide range of literature, which it is hoped will aid the reader who is disposed to pursue his study of the subject further, by guiding him to the best sources of knowledge. Since the Lectures were delivered, important books have appeared, both in this country and on the Continent, dealing with parts or aspects of the field here traversed, such, e.g., among English works, as Mr. Gore's valuable Bampton Lectures on The Incarnation, Principal Chapman's Pre-organic Evolution, Mr. Kennedy's Donnellan Lectures on Natural Theology and Modern Thought. Occasional references to these and some other works are likewise included in the Notes.
The author's best thanks are due to the Rev. Professor Johnston, D.D., of the United Presbyterian College, and to the Rev. Thomas Kennedy, D.D., Clerk of Synod, for their kind assistance in the revision of the proofs.
Edinburgh, February l893.
CONTENTS.
GENERAL INFORMATION
TITLE PAGE
INTRODUCTION
PREFACE
INDEX TO NOTES
LECTURE I
The Christian View of the World in General.
Introductory--
The Idea of the "Weltanschauung."
Relation of Christianity to world-theories.
General drift and scope of the Lectures.
Objections in limine:--
I. From theology of feeling.
Examination of sentimental theory.
Impossibility of extruding doctrine from Christianity.
II. From the Ritschlian distinction of a "religious" and a "theoretic" view of the world.
Relative justification of this distinction.
Error of the Ritschlian view--Impossibility of sundering faith and reason.
APPENDIX TO LECTURE I.
Sketch of the Christian View.--
LECTURE II.
The Christian View and Its Alternatives.--
Introductory--
Central place of Christ's Person in His religion.
Method of this Lecture--appeal to history; logical movement in history.
I. History a series of alternatives--the downward movement.
First alternative--A Divine Christ or humanitarianism.
Second alternative--A Divine Christ or Agnosticism.
Third alternative--A Divine Christ or Pessimism.
II. The upward movement from Pessimism to Christ.
Unsatisfactoriness of Pessimism as a theory of existence--it works back to Theism.
The alternative of Pantheism--its degradation to Materialism.
The nobler movement--elevation to Theism.
Theism impels to belief in Revelation.
Recognition in modern systems of idea of Revelation.
Inadequacy of modern theory of Revelation.
Vocation of Israel; Christ the highest Revealer.
Summary--Theism can only secure itself through belief in Christ.
APPENDIX TO LECTURE II.
The Pessimism of Scepticism.--
LECTURE III.
The Theistic Postulate of the Christian View.--
Introductory--
Christianity a theistic system.
The strength of Christian Theism--its connection with Revelation.
This first postulate of the Christian view--how related to modern thought?
I. The negation of the Christian view.
The Agnostic negation--why so regarded?
1. It negates the Christian view of God as self-revealing.
2. The denial of evidence of God's existence tantamount to denial of His existence.
Mr. Spencer's admission of the Ultimate Reality or Power; criticism of his view.
Development of the system by Mr. Fiske into Theism.
II. Positive evidence for the Christian view.
1. Concessions of the evolutionary philosophy.
The term "Personal" as applied to God.
2. This theoretic "proofs" for the existence of God--how far valid?
(1) The cosmological argument.
The religious experience corresponding to this proof--the consciousness of absolute dependence.
(2) The teleological or design argument.
Argument against design from evolution.
Two views of evolution: criticism.
Wider form of this argument (order, plan, law, etc.).
(3) The ontological argument.
The Anselmic form and Kant's criticism.
New form of this argument Rational Realism.
The religious experience corresponding to the teleological and ontological argument's--sense of the Divine in nature.
III. The moral argument--contrast with theoretic proofs.
God a postulate of the "practical reason."
Religious experience corresponding to the moral proof.
APPENDIX TO LECTURE III.
God as Religious Postulate--
LECTURE IV.
The Postulate of the Christian View or the World in Regard to Nature and Man.--
Introductory--
Second postulate of the Christian view: man made in the image of God.
The doctrine of man closely linked with the doctrine of nature.
I. The natural basis--the doctrine of creation.
The consonance of this doctrine with reason: three oppositions--
The opposition of Dualism (Martineau, Mill), etc.
The opposition of Pantheism: logical derivation of the universe (Spinoza, Hegel, etc.).
The opposition of Atheism: self-existence and eternity of the world.
Evidences of a beginning
Difficulties of the doctrine of creation in time.
Proposed solutions of these difficulties.
The motive and end of creation (Kant, Lotze, etc.).
II. The nature of man, and his place in creation: man the final cause of the world.
Man the link between the natural and the spiritual.
Man as bearing the image of God.
The potential infinitude of man's nature.
Materialism and consciousness--
1.Grosser form of Materialism: mind and brain identified (Moleschott, Vogt, etc.).
2.Newer form of Materialism: Monism (Strauss, Haeckel, etc.).
Ambiguity of the term "matter" in Tyndall, etc.
Refutation of Materialism: matter itself needs thought to explain it.
III. Man as made in the image of God constituted for immortality.
Modern rejection of doctrine of a future life.
If man constituted for immortality, the fact must show itself in his nature and capacities.
1. Universal prevalence of belief in a future state. Spencer's theory; its inadequacy.
2. Rational grounds for this belief : nature of evidence.
Conclusion.
LECTURE V.
The Postulate of the Christian View in Regard to the Sin and Disorder of the World.--
Introductory--
Third postulate of the Christian view: the sin and disorder of the world. Christianity does not create the problem of natural and moral evil, but helps to solve it.
I. The problem of moral evil: conflict of Christian and modern views.
Respects in which the modern view comes to the support of the Christian view.
Fundamental difference between the Christian and the modern view.
Sin in the Christian view not something natural, necessary, and normal, but the result of a free act of the creature.
Theories of sin opposed to the Christian view--
1. Theories which seek the ground of evil in the constitution of the world.
2. Theories which seek the explanation of evil in the nature of man.
Sin in all these theories made something necessary.
Weakening or destruction of idea of guilt.
Differences between the Christian and the modern view depend on theory of origin.
Theory of man's original brutishness--relation to narrative of the Fall.
Relation of Christian view to modern theories of the antiquity of man.
Science does not negative the idea of a pure beginning of the race: the Biblical account of primeval man.
II. The problem of natural evil: connection with moral evil.
Natural evil in the inorganic world.
Natural evil in the organic world.
The question altered when we come to self-conscious, rational man.
Connection of natural evil with sin: nature and admissibility of this connection.
The Pauline view: what it implies.
III. Culmination of this problem in the question of the relation of sin to death.
Man created for immortality.
Death the sundering of essential parts of his being: therefore abnormal.
The true immortality is through Redemption, and embraces the resurrection of the body.
APPENDIX TO LECTURE V.
The Old Testament Doctrine of Immortality.--
LECTURE VI.
The Central Assertion of the Christian View: The Incarnation of God in Christ.--
Introductory--
Completion of argument in second Lecture.
A priori objection to the Incarnation based on Christ's lowliness.
I. Testimony of the apostolic age as throwing light on Christ's own claims.
Modern agreement as to general teaching of New Testament--the Johannine writings.
The Epistles of Paul--
1. The undisputed Epistles--the " Heavenly Man" theory.
2. The later Epistles — Christology of Philippians, Colossians, etc.
The Epistle to the Hebrews an independent witness.
The doctrine of the Apocalypse as high as John's or Paul's (Reuss, Pfleiderer).
The Petrine and Minor Epistles.
Discourses in the Acts.
Conclusion:--The supernatural view of Christ's Person established in first generation of believers.
II. The testimony of the Gospels--Christ in the Fourth Gospel.
The Christ of the Synoptics also a supernatural Being.
1. The claims of Jesus--the titles "Son of Man," and "Son of God"--His eschatological claims, etc.
2. Representation of the character of Christ--His sinlessness.
3. The works of Jesus in keeping with His claims.
4. The resurrection of Jesus--the Trinitarian formula, etc.
The Synoptic representation of Christ in keeping with the apostolic estimate of His Person.
Conclusion:--The facts of Christ's Revelation require the supernatural view of His Person: impossibility of evading this claim.
III. Doctrinal aspects of the Incarnation: proposed reconstructions.
In what sense modern theories ascribe "Godhead" to Christ.
1. Are these theories tenable on their own merits?
2. Do these theories do justice to the facts of Christ's Revelation?
What is not, and what is, true Incarnation.
3. Consideration of Kenotic theories (Phil. ii. 7).
Relation of preceding discussion to the early Christological decisions.
Advances in modern speculation.
The question of the impersonality of Christ's humanity.
The Incarnation to be studied in the light of its revealed ends.
APPENDIX TO LECTURE VI.
The Self-Consciousness of Jesus.--
LECTURE VII.
Higher Concept of God Involved in the Incarnation--The Incarnation and the Plan of the World.--
Introductory--
Recapitulation of defective theories.
I. Higher concept of God involved in the Incarnation--God as triune.
This doctrine the result of an induction from the facts of Revelation.
How far this doctrine is anticipated in the Old Testament.
This doctrine of the Trinity as involving distinctions in the Divine essence.
Objection on this score--"One and Three."
Drawbacks of the word "Person" need of the expression.
Proof that distinctions of this kind are implied.
Alternative view an economical Trinity.
Relations of the doctrine to rational thought.
Psychological analogies in Augustine and others.
Relation of the doctrine to self-consciousness, etc.
1. The deduction from knowledge.
2. The deduction from love.
3. Deduction from the Divine Fatherhood--God eternally Father.
4. Bearing of the Trinity on God's relation to the world --safeguard against Deism and Pantheism.
II. The Scripture view brings creation and Redemption into line--consequences of this.
Relation of the Incarnation to the plan of the world.
World there have been an Incarnation had man not sinned.
History of the question.
Strong point against this theory--the constant connection of Incarnation with Redemption.
Difficulty arises from too abstract a view of the Divine plan.
Great weight on this question to be attached to the revealed end--the gathering up of all things in Christ.
Harmony of Scripture with this view--
1. The Scriptures know of only one undivided purpose of God.
2. They assert a direct relation of the Son with creation.
3. They represent Christ as the final cause of creation.
4. God's purpose actually tends to the unification of all things in Christ.
Summary and conclusion.
LECTURE VIII.
The Incarnation and Redemption from Sin.--
Introductory--
Christianity a religion of Redemption.
Special question--The connection of Redemption with the sufferings and death of Christ.
I. Scripture testimony on this subject--the apostolic witness.
Does Christ's teaching agree with that of the apostles?
Proof that Christ attached a redemptive significance to His death.
Grounds on which the apostolic Church proceeded--
1. The objective facts of Christ's death, resurrection, etc.
2. Christ's sayings on the meaning and necessity of His death.
3. The teaching of the Old Covenant as throwing light on Christ's work.
II. Explanation of the redemptive significance of Christ's death--theories of Atonement.
Modern desire to connect the Atonement with spiritual laws.
The Atonement considered from the point of view of the Incarnation.
Points taken for granted in all Christian theories of Redemption.
Theories differ as they attach themselves to one or another of these points.
1. Theories of fellowship: Schleiermacher, etc.
2. Theories based on idea of sympathy: Bushnell.
Points in which this theory comes short.
Dr. Bushnell's later modification of his view.
3. Theories based on idea of vocation: Ritschl.
Theories which recognise an objective element in the Atonement: in what does it consist?
4. Theories based on idea of self-surrender of holy will to God: Maurice, etc.
5. Theories which recognise a relation to guilt: Campbell's theory of vicarious repentance and confession.
Deeper elements in Campbell's view--the "Amen" in response to God's judgment on sin.
Christ's sufferings viewed as expiatory.
Objections to this view--the innocent suffering for the guilty.
The real question--How should such sufferings become expiatory for others?
Recapitulation and conclusion.
LECTURE IX.
The Incarnation and Human Destiny.--
Introductory--
Necessity of an eschatology.
The Christian view eschatological because teleological.
I. The astronomical objection to Christianity.
The objection a quantitative one.
The bearing of sin on this question.
The issues of Redemption not confined to this planet.
II. Principles of interpretation of eschatological prophecy.
The nearer aim of Christianity--the coming of the kingdom of God on earth.
History has its goal--transition to eschatology proper.
The positive and bright side of the Christian view.
1. The aim of God is conformity to the image of the Son.
2. This includes likeness to His glorious body: the resurrection.
3. The perfecting of the Church carries with it the perfecting of nature.
Pictorial and scenic elements--
1. The personal Advent--how to be interpreted?
The Coming a process in which many elements flow together.
Still, a personal Coming is implied.
1. The general Judgment.
Its certainty.
Parabolic character of descriptions.
III. The dark side of this question--the destiny of the wicked.
Three theories on this subject--
1. Dogmatic Universalism.
2. The doctrine of Annihilation: Conditional Immortality.
3. The doctrine of Eternal Punishment.
Fundamental positions laid down--
1. The principle of certain retribution for sin.
2. Need for distinguishing between what Scripture teaches and subjects on which it is simply silent.
3. A larger calculus needed than we at present possess.
Criticism of theories--
1. Scripture does not warrant dogmatic Universalism.
2. Scripture does not warrant Annihilation.
Theory of "Conditional Immortality" criticised.
3. The theory of Future Probation.
Facts which suggest caution--
(1) Concentration of every ray of exhortation and appeal into the present.
(2) The judgment invariably represented as proceeding on the data of this life.
(3) The silence of Scripture on future probation: limits of the application of 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20; iv. 6.
Result--We have not the elements of a complete solution.
CONCLUSION OF LECTURES.
APPENDIX.
the Idea of the Kingdom of God.
Index To Notes.
Lecture I.
The Idea of the "Weltanschauung"
Classification of "Weltanschauungen"
Unconscious Metaphysic
Antagonism of Christian and "Modern" Views of the World--Anti-supernaturalism of the latter
Internal Conflicts of the "Modern" View
Uniqueness of the Old Testament View
Origin of the Old Testament View--Relation to critical theories
Nature and Definition of Religion
Undogmatic Religion
AEsthetic Theories of Religion
Religious and Theoretic Knowledge
Lecture II.
The Central Place of Christ in His Religion
The Defeat of Arianism
Modern Unitarianism
Concessions of Ritschlians on the Person of Christ
The Weakness of Deism
Weakness of Modern Liberal Protestantism
Christianity and the Idea of Progress
The Prevalence of Pessimism
Transition from Pessimism to Theism--Hartmann and Karl Peters
Materialism in Germany
The Reasonableness of Revelation
The Ritschlian Doctrine of Revelation
Lecture III.
Primitive Fetishism and Ghost-worship
Old Testament Monotheism
Kant on the Cosmological Argument
Kant on the Teleological Argument
Schools of Evolutionists
Kant on the Ontological Argument
Rational Realism
Lecture IV.
The Creation History.
Evolution in Inorganic Nature--The Nebular Hypothesis
The Hypothesis of Cycles
"Eternal Creation"
Eternity and Time
Man the Head of Creation
Mind and Mechanical Causation.
Mind and Cerebral Activity
Schleiermacher and Immortality
Lecture V.
Defects in Creation: an Argument against Theism
Dualistic Theories of the Origin of Evil
Hegel's Doctrine of Sin
Ritschl's Doctrine of Guilt
Alleged Primitive Savagery of Mankind
Early Monotheistic Ideas
The Antiquity of Man and Geological Time
The Connection of Sin and Death
Lecture VI.
The Doctrine of Pre-existence.
Philo and the Fourth Gospel
The Resurrection of Christ and the Reality of His Divine Claim
Lecture VII.
Recent Theories of the Trinity
Dr. Martineau as a Trinitarian
Lecture VIII.
The Germ Theory of Justification
Lecture IX.
Renan's Eschatology
The Gospel and the Vastness of Creation
Alleged Pauline Universalism
The Christian View of God and the World
by James Orr
"Jesus Christ is the centre of all, and the goal to which all tends."--PASCAL.
"If we carry back the antagonisms of the present to their ultimate principle, we are obliged to confess that it is of a religious kind. The way in which a man thinks of God and the world, and their relation to one another, is decisive for the whole tendency of his thought, and even in the questions of the purely natural life."--Luthardt.
"The Christian truth, with the certifying of which we have to do, is essentially only one, compact in itself, vitally interconnected, as such at the same time organic,--and it is therefore not possible one should possess and retain a portion of the same, while yet not possessing, or rejecting, the other portions. On the contrary, the member or portion of the truth, which it had been thought to appropriate or maintain alone, would by this isolating cease to be that which it was or is in itself; it would become an empty form or husk, from which the life, the Christian reality, has escaped."--F. H. R. Frank.
"In no case can true Reason and a right Faith oppose each other."--Coleridge.
LECTURE I.
THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF THE WORLD IN GENERAL.
Introductory
I Might briefly define the object of the present Lectures by saying that they aim at the exhibition, and, as far as possible within the limits assigned me, at the rational vindication, of what I have called in the title, "The Christian View of the World." This expression, however, is itself one which calls for definition and explanation, and I proceed, in the first place, to give the explanation that is needed.
The Idea of the "Weltanschauung."
A reader of the higher class of works in German theology--especially those that deal with the philosophy of religion--cannot fail to be struck with the constant recurrence of a word for which he finds it difficult to get a precise equivalent in English. It is the word "Weltanschauung," sometimes interchanged with another compound of the same signification, "Weltansicht." Both words mean literally "view of the world," but whereas the phrase in English is limited by associations which connect it predominatingly with physical nature, in German the word is not thus limited, but has almost the force of a technical term, denoting the widest view which the mind can take of things in the effort to grasp them together as a whole from the standpoint of some particular philosophy or theology. To speak, therefore, of a "Christian view of the world" implies that Christianity also has its highest point of view, and its view of life connected therewith, and that this, when developed, constitutes an ordered whole.
To some the subject which I have thus chosen may seem unduly wide and vague. I can only reply that I have deliberately chosen it for this very reason, that it enables me to deal with Christianity in its entirety or as a system, instead of dealing with particular aspects or doctrines of it. Both methods have their advantages; but no one I think, whose eyes are open to the signs of the times, can fail to perceive that if Christianity is to be effectually defended from the attacks made upon it, it is the comprehensive method which is rapidly becoming the more urgent. The opposition which Christianity has to encounter is no longer confined to special doctrines or to points of supposed conflict with the natural sciences,--for example, the relations of Genesis and geology,--but extends to the whole manner of conceiving of the world, and of man's place in it, the manner of conceiving of the entire system of things, natural and moral, of which we form a part. It is no longer an opposition of detail, but of principle. This circumstance necessitates an equal extension of the line of the defence. It is the Christian view of things in general which is attacked, and it is by an exposition and vindication of the Christian view of things as a whole that the attack can most successfully be met.