THE DEVELOPMENT -OF- RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Religious Experience : Its Nature and Truth. By Kenneth -. Edward, MA., D.Phil. (T. and T. Clark. Ss.) Essays in Ethics and Religion. By James Seth, MA., LL.D.
FOUR inspirations were at work, it seems to us, in Dr. Edward's very suggestive Kerr Lectures of 1923. First, there was the directive impulse towards psychology communicated by that epockmaking book—to use a jaded but in this case strictly truthful phrase—James's Varieties of Religious Experience. James brought in psychology as the partner, almost the pre- dominant partner, with theology, in any exploration of the nature of the phenomena of religious experience.
In the second place, modern psychology has changed " natural theology," the eighteenth century's satisfied scheme of religion, which opposed Reason to Faith, for a non-rational element (employing " non-rational," of course, in its technical sense) and, following closely Schleiermacher's guidance, digs beneath and beyond the intellect to find an autonomous sphere of pure feeling or emotion as the ground of this mys- terious experience. Here Bergson comes in with his descrip- tion of " the incommunicable knowledge of direct acquaint- ance " as apart from " the discursive knowledge " of the intellect, and his exaltation of this immediate knowledge—call it intuition or instinct—as the simple and prime factor in religion. •
Finally, we still have to ask—Knowledge of what ? "Peeling" and " emotion " might be utterly misunderstood terms unless an answer be supplied to that question. Otto's definition of the apprehension of "the numinous," of the creature-feeling of awe, of fascination, of love, in the presence of that " Otherness," the " tremendum mysterium," certainly fills in a void in the description of mystical, and even of ordinary religious experiences, and his book, " the most signi- ficant and provocative work on religion which has appeared in our generation," influences and colours the central portion of Dr. Edward's work.
This all too brief summary is due, we think, to a volume which deserves attention for its clear constructive handling of a subject grown increasingly complex of recent years.
Those who valued the ethical teaching of Professor James Seth will turn in this connexion with keen interest to his Essays in Ethics and Religion, a memorial volunie, alas ! to which are added a short Memoir by Professor Pringle-Pattison and two portraits. Some lecture summaries, provoking much further thought, are given. A good deal of the book is con- cerned with a vindication of Mill from some of the fallacies of which his Utilitarianism has been accused, by the statement that Mill's Psychological Hedonism was a practical affair and did not really reach, or interest itself with, the deeper ethical problems present to the minds of Seth and his hearers. This is followed by defence of the Christian Ethic, a historical review of -its alleged deficiencies, and an assertion of its abiding values.
While we may not agree with Seth that " the Christian ideal, on its human side, is identical with the ideal of contemporary Socialism," his survey as a whole of the effects of the' Christian spirit on modem conditions of society and industry is worth attentive study. We are again within the limits of religious experience, viewed from another angle. Immediately - two representativefigures suggest themselves to the mind, the brother Apostles, Paul and Peter. It is curious that Dr. Seth should speak of St. Paul's " system-loving mind." True, no man had greater responsibility in transforming the initial and merely ethical following of Jesus into an elaborate if inchoate system of Christology than the Apostle, so much so that a certain school of thought has indicated- him, and not Jestis, as the real Feiunder of Christianity. But to his contem- poraries he appeared as a typical eclectic. Paul would not have cared to apply to himself the almost untranslatable word which occurred to his -acute Athenian hearers—the " seed- picker,” the bird that at random picks and drops the seed— nevertheless the nhrase, superficial in judgment as it was, had its spice of truth. It caught the imagination of Luke. Here was a- man who was-Israelite of Israelites, even Rabbinist, yet open to Hellenist waves of thought ; a Roman proud of his citizenship, yet one who never got his defiance of Legalism. quite clear from a condemnation of Law ; a man again, who, after yearsof bitter conflict with Pharisaism, could, on sudden impulse and for a- polemic advantage, cry out : " I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee," and then repent of his out- burst. Here was a " master-builder " of churches most of which individually soon fell into decadence, who yet helped to build the Church itself with a sure hand. Here was one who openly relied on " revelation " for his gospel, yet was prone, when pressed, to fall back on a logic which often enough brought his own. reasoning to a cul-de-sac, and whose premisses are some- times invalid for modern thought. Strange as was his lire, still stranger after his death were the destinies of his teaching. More or less neglected through the earlier centuries of the Church, his theology lived anew under the fiery interpretation of Augustine, counted for little with the Mediaevais, and lit up all Europe once more at the touch' of Colet, Luther and Calvin.
Since the Reformation, Paulinism in its innumerable aspects has been the special study of the English-speaking races. Mi. Bulcock adds one more analysis—a terse and hicid analysis—of what was transient and what is permanent in the great Apostle's development of Christian doctrine. In passing we May remark that he emphasizes the Alexandrianism noticeable in Pauline thought after its contact with Apollos, and the pure parallelism of Mithraic symbolism.' All the same, the latter may well have proved a " Praeparatio Evangelits " for St
Paul. • Over against the pulsating dynamic forces of Paulinism in the history of the Church stands always the Petrine conser- vatism, represented, in spite of the dual founding of that See, by the claims of Rome. These are very fairly stated by 'Dr. Orchard, who, secure in his eclectic position, in the possession of, as he believes, valid Orders, and therefore of a valid Masi, states them with great respect, complete composhre, a belief that they may represent the true fulfilment of Christ's promise
to the Church, and: a,quiet certaintythat, jf so,,the," " sehool of lioman-iheology will prevail, and the way of reconciliation be found.
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