The Place of Philosophy in the Theological Curriculum [pp. 103-124]

PHILOSOPHY IX THE THEOLOGICAL CURRICULUM. I07
reasons, I simply repudiate the suggestion. If Christianity is
a divinely revealed religion, there should be evidence that will
accredit it; and when I am told that it cannot be proved true,
but that it accredits itself to the religious consciousness, all I have
to say is that I have a poor opinion both of the piety and the
logic that shuts me up to any such conclusion. We know how
Sir William Hamilton undertook to aid faith by destroying
knowledge; and we know too how he was met-by no one with
more power of logic and more clearness of thought than by
Dr. Charles Hodge, whose famous chapter on the knowledge of
God stands as a magnificent parenthesis in the progress of his
theistic argument. The division of thought that followed the
publication of the doctrine of the conditioned is full of instruction, and should serve as a warning. Mansel thought he saw in
it the basis of a new defence of Christianity; and Spencer
pressed it into the service of agnosticism. The general opinion
is that while Mansel's was the better cause, Spencer's was the
better served. So true indeed is the remark of Hume's most
able critic, that "when the most pious philosophical purpose
expresses itself in a doctrine resting on an inadequate philosophical principle, it is the principle and not the purpose that
will regulate the permanent effect of the doctrine" (Green: Introduction to Hume, p. I33). We are likely to have another
illustration of this truth in the discussions that are now before
the church.
It is no new thing to be told that we cannot favor the canonicity and inspiration of the Scriptures, and that historical testimony cannot take us beyond probability. Roman Catholic
theologians have urged before to-day, and for the sake of shutting us up to the infallibility of the church, what Protestant
theologians are urging at this moment, and for the sake of
shutting us up to the infallibility of a personal judgment which
they call the witness of the Spirit. The method employed has
the merit of appearing to honor the Spirit, and on this account
will commend itself to many minds. On this account, too, Dodwell's "Christianity not Founded on Argument" was at first regarded with favor. But it turned out that Dodwell's book was
written in the interest of scepticism, and the subjectivism that