DIVINITY DEGREES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1607, 26 November 1912, Page 4

DIVINITY DEGREES.

The announcement which appeared in yesterday's Dominion that the Senate of the University of Cambridge has decided to throw open its degrees in divinity to laymen and Nonconformist ministers should meet with the hearty approval of all who hope for the coming of the day when tho barriers which at present divide the Christian world will be finally removed! The methods of the best modern scholarship, which is expected to treat all subjects in an entirely_ dispassionate, impartial, a,nd scientific manner, cannot fail to impress upon the student the-necessity of seeing both sides of evqry question. In this way a broad, tolerant, and. sympathetic temper is cultivated, and men come to understand the point of view of those, who differ from them. The unfettered search for truth has a way of overleaping artificial boundaries; The step now taken makes for unity, and this is 1 fully realised by the distinguished scholars who at present occupy the divinity chairs at Cambridge, all of whom were in favour of the reform. The previous situation, as the Dean of Christ Church recently declared, was an anomalous one. Anglicans read and used the books of men like Sir William Ramsay, Dr. G. Adam Smith, Dr. Milligan, and Dh. Hodgkin, and yet such men were excluded from the divinity degreesof Oxford and Cambridge. Many of the foremost Anglican scholars nave long been convinced that these degrees should not stand for any class , privilege or sectarian distinction, but that they should really represent sound scholarship. Only in this-way would it be possible., for the divinity doctorate to hold- its position in-the regard of men of learning alongside the doctor's degree in science, medicine, or letters. One of the objections urged by the opponents of reform was that if all restrictions were i-emoved, it would be possible for an infidel or agnostic to become a Doctor of Divinity, and this would give a severe shock to Christian people. Referring to this possibility, the.Dean of St. Paul's recently remarked that many essays were at present accepted for the doctor's degree .which did not necessarily imply Anglican orthodoxy. _It was most unlikely that an agnostic, however learned, would covet the degree. That fear was quite unnecessary. It was possible that one or two learned Jews might receive the honour, and he did not think he would object to that. Perhaps .the best answer to these theoretical objections, baaed on remote possibilities, is to be found in the plain fact that divinity degrees have been open to all comers at the University of Dublin for nearly forty years, and 1 the Gnnrdian. assures us that it has never heard of any scandal to Christianity having arisen from the abolition of the ancient tests. •