RECONSTRUCTION OF BELIEF.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1396, 23 March 1912, Page 9

RECONSTRUCTION OF BELIEF.

LECTURE BY BISHOP GORE. A REMARKAIiLF GATHERING AT OXFORD. The great influence at Oxford of liishop ("lore (wlm recently returned to that centre ot learning as' liishop of the after an absence of .iljoul ten years) shows no .-i>;u of {tiiniiiistiing. lie exercised a uui(|Ue inlluence at tm> t nivor.-ny in; former year- as Librarian of l'ii=ey House, ami his subsequent experience as Canon of Westminster, liishop of Worcc.-ter, and Jiishop ufljirminghuin Has naturally given linn a wider knowledge of men ami atlaiis, which will he put to good use in his new position as of m;ord. On February 1 he made a burning speech on the apatiiy of eliurehpioplo as lizards social lelorm, and on February Ii no delivered tin; lir-t of four on "U'lia reconstruction of belief" to the l.'niversity in the Examination Schools at Oxlurd. The assembly (as a report of the lecture in an English paper slates) \uis signjlicnnt of the marvellous hold which the liishop lias on modern Oxford, and indicates an indefinite extension ot that hold. The great South School at the Examination Schools was thronged with men of all colleges and creeds, and the theological and philosophical leaders and feathers were in full lorco around the plailorni. The liishop has certainty returned wilh added experience and strengthened conviction. His lecture was delivered with characteristic intensity, and had a prophetic tone, which we selduin yet in Oxford lectures. The illustrations from personal experience, as well as the delightful allusions to contemporary French literature, all com-bined-to give distinction and directness to the Bishop's clear and lucid exposition.

Tlio Bishop said anyone brought up in the Christian tradition who went out today into our modern intellectual world found himself in an atmosphere if not antagonistic, at itiiyrntc discouraging, to n positive Christian* faith. Jt was unite true that the antagonism of religion to science and nf science to religion, <-.f which they heard so much forty or filly years ago, had either passed away or become vastly and fiiiidanu'iitiUly modified. There was, they might say, at thj present moment no dominant schuol of hostile opinion. T!ie tendencies in I lie intellectual world worn strangely conflicting, and the result appeared, when they tried to sum it up, incoherent ain't indecisive. There hail Ivfii groat changes, and, if they ce.ntrastcd the situation to-day wilh tliiit of forty or lifty years ago it did not do lo draw light-heartedly toj cheerful conclusions, because, all Theism was not Christian Theism. The Christian position was based on a very distinctive be'iiet in God.

Forty or fifty yc-.irs ng> thev were greatly exercised about matters o'f Christian belief, but they said it was a ureal comfort that they were ell agreed about mailers of Christian morality. With regard lo that, again, the atmosphere had must markedly altered. In their navel literature ami in their romantic iiction, and not only there, but in a gro.it ( l c:l1 of other literature, the fuiu'.amontal axioms of Christian morality were questioned and discarded. That" was a new and perhaps invrrasingiy formidable important feature in the -intellectual situation.

What was to be their altitude towards their modern intellectuals? Thoie wore four attitudes which wore sufiiciontly .common to merit attention. First there, wo.s Iho atlitudo oi capitulation. That tiioy should determine. To be with the intellectuals at all co.-ls and at very little resistance abandon I heir traditional L'liri-linn belief as something which was intellectually out of fashion—that, he ventured to thi:i!;, was a i'ooij.Oi attitude. Second, there was another passible course or attitude, of mind, and that was the attitude of panic, moral panic, with a consequent withdrawal on mere authority, and refusal to have anything to do with critical imiuiry. While he.could nut commend that met hod of attitude—it was, at any rate, to him, an impossible attitude—he could not lieal it in Mm to justify a refusal to examine the legitimate chums of historical science and historical criticism. He was quite sure that that tort of panic, if not in the individual mind, then at any rate'in the corporate mind, brought with it a certain and dis.a*. trons nemesis. He"was f|hite -ure thai thev could not. as reasonable beings, rel'n>t to test and prove all things, and in suffer the frees! and most upon criticism of historical science, and facts which claimed to he historical. A third altitude which was much more C'.u;i" - 07i was Ihe altitude which was described os scepticism. There were a vast number of people who went through life never making up their minds on one side or the other," always bnliir.ciug, 'never concluding. He ventured to think there was no intellectual duty, no moral duty, which ttv.s at 'he present moment more in danger of being ignored than Ike attitude of intellectual decision.

Whon he- came to (be last of the posiible attitudes, the line of conduct which hey might adopt in face of tho intelectual situation 'in which they found hoinsolvos, one Thing he desired serious-

v lo recommend, and that was that, they i'hould first of oil endeavour to nuder■tand what (he Christian faith really t'.eant in its best interpretation. They ihouid start by paying due regard to the

weight of '.lit' ?r n at Christian tradition. the'Vxperici'.cc of Christian ages, and whatever 111 oy had of personal experience at their "best, and thus as much a? might be from inside tost, and prove all things, let them face boldly, oouragonusly. and simply what was offered to them in the way oi' trstiug- and proving of their faith, whether from scie-noo or from the experience, of Hie or iron, historical criticism, anil do their best boldly (o challenge and weigh and make np their own minds to Iry to find out in what way their own judgment went, and follow- it in central points with tho best light ''hey could per. That was what he. meant b'v the reconstruction of belief. He was speaking not of the corporate faUU of the Christian Church, but their own personal fabric. It was intellectual reconstruction he was thinking of, and vet intellectual reconstruction meant much else that lay below the process of conscious intellectual life.