The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ... revived, though with his habitual prudence, all the uncertainties and differences of opinion which we find among the Church Fathers as to the list of canonical and non-canonical books, the homologoumena, the antilegomena, and the apocrypha. No doubt he strove to reconcile all these literary facts with the reality of inspiration, but he profoundly modified the idea of inspiration. He was especially fond of using it as a weapon against the Protestant dogma, and to show that, after all, the only basis for the divine authority of the Scriptures was the present authority of the Church. But in that case what does the latter rest upon? Catholics and Protestants, equally embarrassed before the witness of history, can escape its testimony only by shutting themselves up in vicious circles. Jean Leclerc developed the criticism of Richard Simon, and Semler, treading in their footsteps, went still further along the path they had opened. All questions were raised, and men began to get glimpses through the veil of dogmatics of an entirely new historic reality, which our own age was at last to bring to the open light of day. Under the influence of this criticism the dogmatic authority of the Canon of Holy Scripture also vanished away. The notion of the " Word of Go...