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The Bible and Modern Criticism
MODERN CRITICISM AND ITS RATIONALISTIC METHOD stan I t n ly th g e r s o e w t in im g e b s o t l h d e e r r e in has its ap a p tt e a a c r k ed s u a p c o r n iti t c h is is m sa w c h re ic d h, b c o o o n k , now decrees, with all self-assurance and confidence, that i t is simply a human production. Besides other faults found with it, it is declared to be full of errors, many of its books to be spurious, written by unknown men at later dates than those assi gn ed, etc., etc. But we ask, upon what fundamental principle, what axiom, is this verdict of the critics based? It is upon the idea that, as Renan expressed it, reason is capable of judging all things, but is itself judged by nothing. T ac h te a r t i i s s s r u e r a e ll l y y n a o p ti r c o e u d d . d T ic o tu b m e , s b u u r t e, a G n o e d m h p a ty s o g n iv e en if r i e t a s so c n ha t r o man, so that, in his customary way of planting and building, buying and selling, he may make a practical use of created nature by which he is surrounded. But is reason, even as respects matters of this life, in accord with itself? By no means. For, if that were so, whence comes all the strife and contention of men at home and abroad, in their places of business and their public assemblies, in art and science, in legislation, religion and philosophy? Does it not all proceed from the conflicts of reasonu? The entire history of our race is the history of millions of men gifted with reason who have been in perpetual conflict one with another. Is it with such reason, then, that sentence is to be pronounced upon a divinely given book? A purely rational revelation would certainly be a flu c o o u n s t . rad B ic u ti t on w o h f en ter re m a s s ; on bes u i n d d es e , rt i a t ke w s ou t l o d b sp e ea w k ho o ll f y s th up in e g r s entirely supernatural, invisible and eternal, it talks as a blind man does about colors, discoursing of matters concerning which it neither knows nor can know anything; and thus i t makes itself ridiculous. It has not ascended up to heaven, neither has i t descended into the deep; and therefore a purely rational religion is no religion at all.
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