Matthew Arnold's Literature and Dogma [pp. 86-100]

8MIATTHitEW ARNOGLD'S
teundiency [Lo antropomonorlhism; it deligllts to ",mak"e believe
that it is deaing withi a person, that there is a perscn at each
endl of it. Of course thle doctriones of a miraculous atonemnent,
of justflaion, etc., are "astoundingy fse," seen by "the
light which tvhe Kirf,eiat is be:,in iro to hold over tihenm" (p. 303).
The L'ost offenilve and prt,ane p,aragraphs in the volume, in
our view, are those in wehich the auth'or travesties "the ProtestatIt story of Justiflication " in his accountIl of Pan imaginable
transaction between thlree Lord ihaftLtesburys (pp. 806-7). This
has called forth the indignant censure of critics much more indulgent t)ow-ards liberal thleology than ourselves. Of course the
whole of Escliatology is disposed of in the same way. On the
one hland none of its elements is verinabIe, and on the other
they are all demonstrably parts of Jewishl superstition, and
should have died eighteen hundred years ag,o.
Christ followed his own " method," followed his ow,n "secret"
even to the extant of dyi-ng, for it, and by his sweet reasonableness won a few disciples, and laid the foundations of his church.
"For them, it was a thing beyond all doubt that by miracles
Christ maneifested forth hiis glory and in(duced the faithful to believe in him" (p. 154); but in this they were mnistaken; it was in
fact thie internal evidence, and this alone, th'at made them believers in him. They "were coansciou,s" of tihe former, they "experienced" thle latter kind of eidenc (pp. 158-.
(Uir tAre s creeds, the p'sti, theioee, and the Athanasitan, have- grown out of "a supposed final eh'rge from Jesus to
his apostles':''SGo ye and teach all atos, etc.,' wi1ic it is
almnost impossible he can hla-ve given... The genuine chLarge
of Jesuts to his apoities xwas, talmcst certainly,' As my YFat,hler
hathi sena me, even so send I on,' and not this. So th0.t our
three cr s, amLA wi'i th t i.m the v'hole of our so-called, orthodoe theolioy, are founde:! uion words; which Jesus in all proba)il',it.- never u-f 3 t te.ed".;s-S1~ Anid how is aill Iis to be
set right 9 We are to giwv3 u,p most of th cLii:''ich has
been emlrnpoyed on th'e Nelw Tes:am'ent, en,uech maIte::, s as the
time w hen, thO persons by whom, thoe, womr, "'ri'tt,
ji~~ ~~.lll hs~f1 OpkS0SlyWALl tm3s~e t:.ooI::s were wt' rit/en~,
and even t. e inquiry as to; the real words, of the writers.
To this literature thus timed a(drift, and emptied of all certain
contents, we are to de-vote f,Uer',Iri-y criticam, which "is extremely
difficult. It calls into play the highest requisites for the study
98
[Janutary,