THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3796, 26 February 1881, Page 1

THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 1880.

♦■ Lectures on the Influence of the Ins/itutions, Thoughts, and Culture of Some, »n Christianity and the Development of the Catholic Church, by Ebnbst Kenan. The brilliant lectures delivered by M. Benin in London last Bummer attracted a great deal of notice ou their delivery, and will no donbt attract more in the üble English translation, aud boot fotm in which they now appear. There is no one alive equally competent with M. Kenan to il last rate the important question he has here discussed of the influence of Boite ou the early development of Christianity. His polished, flexible style is eminently adapted to the discussion of a subject the most delicate nuances of which require careful discrimination. There is, perhaps, ao English writer on theological history who would have ventured to'give expression to all the dissolving scepticism which M. Renan reveals, and, indeed, assumes to be the only way of regarding the subject. The eminently French quality of M. Eenan's mind, its cultivated, cold, slightly sarcastic spirit, allows him to treat a rather tender subject with less parti* sanship than our English thinkers are accus* tomed to display. And assuming Chat the object of the late Eobert Hibbert was really, as M. Renan says, to 3ecure the application of rational and scientific modes of treatment to religious subjects, then the trustees were, indeed, happy in their choice of M. Henan as a lecturer, and it it is to be hoped that they will take further opportunities of enlisting the aid of eminent thinkers of France and Germany in elucidating other branches of the inquiry. Referring to the objects of the founder, 11. Eenan said : " Why—the promoters of this reform have rightly said—why should not the method which has approved itself in all other departments of intellectual culture be applicable in the domain of religion also t Why should the pursuit of truth, without care of consequences, he dangerouf in theology, when it is accepted by all iv the domain of the social and natural sciences ? You have believed in truth, and you are right. There is but one truth ; and it ia to show ourselves something less than respectful to revelation, to confess that, in regard to it, criticism is compelled to modify the severity of its methods." This is a good illustration of the adroitness of M. Eenan in alluring his adversaries to accept principles to which they are essentially hostile, hut which he presents in so attractive a form as to make them accepted even by their foes. Of course M. Renan knows that there are a large number of the defenders of orthodoxy who strenuously maintain that ifc is sinful to dream of applying to theology the. same methods which have been bo successful in discovering truth in other spheres, and who refuse to admit of any critical inquiry save on the condition that they may beforehand determine its results. But still his graceful aUfcetuent of the case is equally successful whether its assumptions be admitted or denied, in the one case it leads to an insjuiry from which truth must profit, ou the other it serves to shed the light of sutire aud irony on a system of belief which.' implicitly arowa its consciousness that inquiry must be fatal to its existence. M. Eenau loses no time in defining very ulear'y to his hearers the ground on which he, and, as he assumes, they also, stand. We do not now hope, he 8"»js, to resolve the problems with which religions undertake to deal. "We justly suspect all dogmatism simply because it is dogmatic. We are willing to admit that a religious or philosophical system may, a.nd even must, contain a certain element of absolute truth ; but we deny, evts before wo have examined its claUiasi that it can possibly contain absolute tv-uth itself." We are to look on religions simply iia so many tentatives to attain the however, which have t>y no means been in vain. This conetaatly reaewed eil'ort is not without fruit. "Toe faith which escapes me when I examine in detail each of the religious systems which divide the world among them, in part return* to me when I relief \ipou them as a whole-. All religions muy be defective aud partial, but religion is uone the less a divine element in humanity, and the mark of a superijr fate." Proceeding to his subject, he maintains that the time of " the sweet Galilean vuiou '* was a period wheu Viie religious consciousness was ino.-tj eminently creative, and when it laid, dawn with must aosolu c. authority th,9 iaw of the /uture. Tnia extraordinary movement came out of the heart of Judtigco, b,ut it had to trau#fr* itself to the tire«k and Latin worW to, aeey.ro the conditions of its dexelupwent. BJis task is to trace the contribution., of, Home to, this work; For "it is

B«me-that.,haa- propagated,.rcligipa. in, the> world, as it civilisation. But the civilisSfSff&wbioh. it propagated was not 'thepetdyi narrow," ausfa re' culture of ancient latiuiE,.but- the graDd and large civilisation "»E bh Greece created ; "so the religion to which it finallyJlent its support, was not the naean..-.Buperß»ition ;which satisfied :the: rude and; primitive settler,? on the Palatine; it was Judaism —thatia to say, precisely the religion which; Rome most bated and despised." M. Jtenan gives a liberal statement of the moral „progress .that was iworking itself out in the Roman world before Christianity became a • ipower in, the world. It is usuhl to look on /-.this period as one which every form of human corruption and; crime attained its climax, and ,it ie, therefore, of interest/to. note how good a case M. Renan makes out for it,as one of; j great moral improvement, The amplitude of; thejempire had reduced,,the pressure^of the '.gold yarrow, governments on the individual.: Large conceptions of universal fraternity ; for; the most part the issue of Stoicism, as well; as/a; kiiid^ v of^general sentiment ofjhumanityi were growing in men's minds. Strange ideas! "were; asserting themselyeß,, and as-Virgil's: Fourth Ecfogiiy shows, men dreamed of aj new era and of new worlds. In spite of the corruption * of' the great capital, we have evidence of the existence of a middle class in the provinces, among whom kindness, conjugal fidelity, domestic virtue, probity, were general. Woman was gaining rights and- liberties, the • condition ; pf the slave w&8 becoming much : improved; and " almsgiving, the love of the iinivereal sympathy, came to be looked upon as virtues." ■ ■ M. Renan traces ■, the, origin and growth of the Jewish colony in Rome and dwells on the unknown Syrian Jews, who, about the year 50 of our era, carried to Rome the belief in Christianity to which they had ' been converted. Aquila, the- tent^maker, and Priacilla, his wife, were the most distinguished of these, and are the two oldest members of the-Church of Rome known to us. "There they are batdly remembered. Legend, always unjust, because always moulded by reasons of policy, has expelled from the Christian Pantheon these two obscure artisans to award thahonor of founding the Church of Rome to ißamea more fully answering its proud preten sionß.".,lt ! was not till 61 that Paul was taken a prisoner to Rome to prosecute the appeal he had made to the tribunal of the Emperor.,. Peter did not come till afterwards, and the lecturer believes there is. strong pro bability for holding that both the great apostles perished in .the terrible persecutions of the Christians directed by Nero after ihe " fire at Rome. Of theße cruelties M. Renan „ giveß a painfully vivid account. He strongly > insists on the serious nature of the doctrinal - differences which divided.Peter and Paul, and boldß that the. deßire afterwards to com promiae and conceal this fundamental dispute was the cause of much remodelling of early Christian history. Thus be conjectures that Clement of Rome may have inspired St. Luke to write his gospel with the view of showing ' that "Peter and Paul were absolutely at one; the Christianity of the one is the Christianity of ibe other"-7^giving sometimes a new^ turn to the evangelical history for the purposes of effecting this posthumous reconciliation. All influences -tended to make Rome the head of the church. The statecraft which the Roman Church derived from the Empire . was wonderfully seconded by events. Thus the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus proved of immense advantage to the growth of Christianity. As the original tree of Judaism was overthrown, the emker from the tree assumed an independent existence. "If the temple had remained, Christianity would certainly have been arrested in its development. ' The temple, still standing, would have continued to be the centre of all Jewish activity." : Christianity would have retained the narrowness, the tribal character of Judaism, bad it not broken loose from the church of Jerusalem. It is on ly by fixing the centre of its activity at Rome, modelling its organisation on that of the empire, and imbibing tlie spirit of the Roman competition, that it .became . fitted to be religion of humanity. A bright sketch is given of the way; in which the bishops contrived to take away all authority from the church and. centre it in t>:e clergy, and ultimately in themselveß. Thus the early liberty became exchanged for a hierarchy. " M>n felt that the free church, such ac Jesus had conceived (Matt. xvii. 20). such as Paul still understood it to be (2 Cor. i. 21) was an sanarch!c Utopia holding no promise, of the futvire^ With evangelical liberty, dicorder went hand in hand ; they did not see that in the long run, hierarchy meant uniformity and death." He touches with beautiful satire on the legends that were devised to effect the full reconciliation 6l Peter and Paul at Rome. They were tender and beautiful, they " only wanted a narrator, a man at once of geuiua andla' simple mind. But it was too late : the vein of the first Christian literature was exhausted : the' serenity of the author of the Acts was lost: it was impossible to rise to a higher tone than that; of legend and romance." We may quote the following passage with which M. Kenan closes his third lecture, as giving a good example of the charmingly suave style of the lecturer :— '"Almost all of you will some day go to Rome, ,or,!if you have already been there, will return once more. Well, if you retain any recollection of these lectures, go, in memory of me, to the Aqua Salvise, alle Tre .Fontane, beyond St. Paul, without the Walls. It is one of the most beautiful spots in the Roman Campagna, solitary, moißt, green, and sad. A deep depression in the soil, crowned by those grand horizontal lines which no sign of life disturbs, thither brings a spring of clear and cold water. Fever is in the air we breathe, the humidity of the grave. There the monks of La Trappe have established themselves, and conscientiously pursue their religious suicide. Sit there awhile —not too long— an £l while the Trappist gives you to drink of the wa'er which rises from the three fountains that mark where Paul's head struck the earth, think of bim who came to talk of iheae' legends with you, and to whom you listened so courteously and with se kind an attention." In his final lecture he traces the masterly process of management which made Rome the head of an organised church. All the rights and powers of the Church were surrendered to the bishops, and gradually all our or many of the powers of the bißhops were concen-trated-in the Bishops of Rome. The democratic element in early Christianity had evolved from itself conservative and imperial institutions, which gave it order and permanence. While calling itself the Church of Peter, " by an unequalled tour dt force, the Church of Rome had Bucieeded in giving itself the name of the Church of Paul also. A new and equally mythical duality replaced that of Romulus and Remus." M. Renan ends by reverting to the tone of historic scepticism with which he began. Our only interest in these subjects is to understand them. Our age'is the age of history "for it is the age of doubt as to matters of dogma 1 j ;it is.the age in which the enlightened -mind, refusing to.enter upou the discussion of systems, says to itself:—' If, ever since the birth of reason, so many thousand creeds have claimed to set, forth the whole truth, and those claims have always been adjudged to be Vain, -is it likely that I should ba more fortunate than so many others, and .that the truth should have waited for ~my " coming to "make its final selfrevelation? There is no final revelation ; there is only a pathetic attempt of that poor, disinterested creature, man, to make his fate tolerable." We could not end this notice ; in a 1 way that would leave a fuller impression of the'style and method of M. Renan on the ear arid mind of the reader than by concluding it with the foregoing extract. —Australasian,