Editorial August 8, 1908 Issue

UNDEMONSTRABLE THEOLOGY

John B. Willis

Religious history witnesses to the fact that every great redemptive idea and movement among men has suffered more disability at the hands of its professing friends than at the hands of its pronounced enemies. The mortal sense element remaining in those who represent an advanced religious thought is always sure to come to the surface, and its phenomena being attributed by the ignorant and prejudiced to the new teaching, they readily find sufficient ground of criticism and offense.

This has been emphasized for every Christian traveler in mission lands by the painful discovery that the most serious disadvantage to Christian propaganda is not the antagonism of those who have had no knowledge of Christian truth, but the daily living of those who have been reared in Christian countries, and who ofttimes classify themselves as Christians, but whose unrighteous doings put their religious teaching to an open shame. Remembering this, and that inconsistency of conduct naturally and inevitably follows inconsistency of thought, we are prepared to understand the statement recently made by an eminent Christian writer (Dr. Hoffman, The Sphere of Religion), that theology has been the greatest enemy of religion, and further that "the one preeminent demand of the present hour is a truly scientific theology ... so cautiously constructed as to exclude all fiction, and so profound and comprehensive in its teaching as to include all the facts."

The spiritually thoughtful have always perceived that religion, "the Christian religion," which has been defined as "the life of God in the soul of man," is something quite distinct and separate from the great bulk of things which have been said about it. Christ Jesus lived the Christianity he taught. He spoke out of a consciousness that was supported by demonstration; hence the conquering power of his words. Unverifiable theology cannot be scientific, nor can it be the expression of a divine idea, for this idea is always revealed in right consciousness, and it is manifest that right consciousness must be demonstrable, else it would not be right. Theological assumptions may have place as evidences of a truth-seeking thought, but the truth is unquestionably reached only when the corroborating phenomena appear. Said Jesus, "If any man will do ... he shall know," and the whole field of physical science substantiates the truth of his assertion.

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