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

THE PRINCE TON RE VIE W.
scious intelligence, we may well ask if the theists with their
belief in one personal God are not in possession of the only
hypothesis that can save the language of these writers from the
charge of meaningless and idiotic raving.
And it is easy to see how large an area of polemic the
theistic discussion involves; for not only are objections to be
answered, but rival theories of the universe are to be examined.
There is the system of pantheism, which organizes the phenomenal world under the conception of God and denies the separate personality and freedom of finite minds. There is the
system that does not get outside of the phenomenal self, and
so finds its creed shrivelling into a barren agnosticism. And
there is, finally, a system that undertakes to articulate the
phenomenal universe in the terms of matter, and ends in giving us not only a mechanical world without, but a mechanical
mind within. It ends in automatism. It ends in explaining
the music of Beethoven, the painting of Raphael, the sculpture of Thorwaldsen, and the cathedral monument of Sir Christopher Wren as the purposeless play of blind material atoms.
And when it does this it commits suicide. When mind is reduced to automatism, schism is introduced into our conscious
life. You cannot, as Professor Herbert has so ably shown,
take intentionality out of matter without taking it out of mind.
The materialist cannot help purposing; he cannot help believing that his actions are the realization of purpose; and yet purpose is a word for which his theory of the universe has no use
and which it cannot explain. "Consistent materialism," says
Mr. Green, "should be speechless." And Mr. Green is right.
Consistent materialism is egoism. The self is the solitary
tenant of a lone universe. It has no logical right to call any
other self its companion, for of that other self it has no knowledge. The soul is a caged bird. It is the function of a true
theory of Knowing and Being to open the doors of that gilded
cage, and when this is done, with little help from us, but under
the irresistible tendency of an instinct born in heaven, this poor,
pining, imprisoned thing will fly away to God.
Nor must we overlook the fact that the atheism of to-day is
possessed of great industry and intellectual activity. Remem
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