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Lectures
on Calvinism : The Stone Lectures of 1898 - Abraham Kuyper
Sixth
Lecture - Calvinism and the Future
The page numbering of the Eerdmans printed edition has been retained
for the benefit of readers.
The Stone Lectures CALVINISM AND THE FUTURE Page 171
THE CHIEF PURPOSE of my lecturing in this country was to eradicate the
wrong idea that Calvinism represented an exclusively dogmatical and
ecclesiastical movement.
Calvinism did not stop at a church-order, but expanded in a life system,
and did not exhaust its energy in a dogmatical construction. hut created
a life- and world-view. and such a one as was, and still is, able to fit
itself to the needs of every stage of human development, m every
department of life. It raised our Christian religion to its highest
spiritual splendor: it created a church order, which became the
preformation of state confederation it proved to be the guardian angel
of science; it emancipated art: it propagated a political scheme, which
gave birth to constitutional government, both in Europe and America; it
fostered agriculture and industry, commerce and navigation; it put a
thorough Christian stamp upon home-life and family-ties; it promoted
through its high moral standard purity in our social circles and to this
manifold effect it placed beneath Church and State, beneath society and
home-circle a fundamental philosophic conception strictly derived from
its dominating principle, and therefore all its own.
This, of itself, excludes every idea of imitative and what the
descendants of the old Dutch Calvinists as well as of the Pilgrim
fathers have to do, is not to copy the past, as if Calvinism were a
petrifaction. but to go back to the living root of the Calvinist plant,
to clean and to water it. and so to cause it to bud and to blossom once
more, now fully in accordance with our actual life in these modern times,
and with the demands of the times to come.
This explains the subject of my final lecture. A new Calvinistic
development needed by the wants of the future.
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The prospect of this future does not present itself to us, as every
student of sociology will acknowledge, in bright colors, I would not go
so far as to assert that we are on the eve of universal social
bankruptcy, but that the signs of the times are ominous admits of no
denial. To be sure, in the control of nature and her forces, immense
gains are being registered year by year, and the boldest imagination is
unable to foretell to what heights of power in this respect the race may
attain in the next half century. As a result of this, the comforts of
life are increasing. World-intercourse and communication are constantly
becoming more rapid and widespread. Asia and Africa, until recently
dormant, gradually feel themselves drawn into the larger circle of
stirring life. Aided by sport, the principles of hygiene exert a growing
influence. Consequently, v e are physically stronger than the preceding
generation. We live longer. And in combating the defects and infirmities
that threaten and afflict our bodily life, surgical science makes us
marvel at her achievements. In brief, the material. tangible side of
life holds out the fairest of promises for the future.
And yet discontent makes itself heard, and the thinking mind cannot
suppress its misgivings; for, however high one may value the material
things, they do not fill out the round of our existence as men Our
personal life as men and citizens subsist not in the comforts that
surround us, nor in the body, which serves us as a link with the outward
world, but in the spirit that internally actuates us; and in this inner
consciousness we are becoming more and more painfully aware how the
hypertrophy of our external life results in a serious atrophy of the
spiritual. Not as if the faculties of thought and reflection, the arts
of poetry and letters, were in abeyance. On the contrary, empirical
science is more brilliant in her attainments than ever, universal
knowledge spreads in constantly widening circles, and civilization, in
Japan, for instance, is almost dazzled by her too rapid conquests. But
even the intellect does not constitute the mind. Personality is seated
more deeply in the hidden recesses of our inner being, where character
is formed, .hence the flame of enthusiasm is kindled, where the moral
foundations are laid, where love's blossoms bud, whence spring
consecration and heroism, and where in the sense for the Infinite, our
time-bound existence reaches out unto the very gates of eternity.
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It is in regard to this seat of personality that we hear on all sides
the complaint of impoverishment, degeneracy, and petrifaction, The
prevalence of this state of malaise explains the rise of a spirit like
Arthur Schopenhauer's; and the wide acceptance of his pessimistic
doctrine reveals to what a deplorable extent this fatal Sirocco has
scorched already the fields of life. It is true, Tolstoi's efforts show
force of character, but even his religious and social theory is a
protest along the whole line against the spiritual degeneracy of our
race. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche1 may give us offence by his
sacrilegious mockery, still what else is his demand for the
“Uebermensch” (over-man), but the cry of despair wrung from the
heart of humanity by the bitter consciousness that it is spiritually
pining away? What is Social Democracy also but one gigantic protest
against the insufficiency of the existing order of things ? Even
Anarchism and Nihilism but too plainly demonstrate that there are
thousands upon ten thousands who would rather demolish and annihilate
everything, than continue to bear the burden of present conditions. The
German author of the “Decadenz der Völker” descries nothing in the
future but decay and social ruin. Even the sober-minded Lord Salisbury
recently spoke of peoples and states for whose unceremonious burial
preparations were already being made. How often has not the parallel
been drawn between our time and the golden age of the Roman empire, when
the external brilliancy of life likewise dazzled the eye,
notwithstanding that the social diagnosis could yield no other verdict
than “rotten to the very core.” And, although on the American
continent, in a younger world, a relatively healthier tone of life
prevails than in senescent Europe, yet this will not for a moment
mislead the thinking mind. It is impossible for you to shut yourselves
off hermetically from the old world, as you form no humanity apart, but
are a member of the great body of the race. And the poison having once
entered the system at a single point, in due time must necessarily
pervade the whole organism.
Now the serious question with which we are confronted is whether we can
expect that by natural evolution a higher phase of social life will
develop out of the present spiritual decline. The answer
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history supplies to this question is far from encouraging. In India, in
Babylon, in Egypt, in Persia, in China and elsewhere, like periods of
vigorous growth the have been succeeded by times of spiritual decadence;
and yet in not one of these lands has the downward course finally
resolved itself in a movement towards higher things. All these nations
to this day have persevered in their spiritual stagnation in the Roman
empire alone has the dark night of boundless demoralization been broken
by the dawn of a higher life. But this light did not arise through
evolution; it shone from the Cross of Calvary. The Christ of God
appeared, and by His Gospel alone was the society of that time saved
from certain destruction. And again. when towards the close of the
middle ages Europe was threatened with social bankruptcy, a second
resurrection from the dead and a manifestation of new vital power were
witnessed, now among the peoples of the Reformation, but this time also
not by way of evolution, but again through the same Gospel for which the
hearts were thirsting, and whose truth was freely proclaimed as never
before. What antecedents, then, does history furnish to lead us to
expect in the present instance an evolution of life from death, whilst
the symptoms of decomposition already suggest the bitterness of the
grave? Mohammed, it is true, in the seventh century succeeded in
creating a stir among the dead bones throughout the entire Levant by
throwing himself upon the nations as a second Messiah, greater even than
the Christ. And assuredly if the coming of another Christ, surpassing in
glory the Christ of Bethlehem, were possible, then the cure for moral
corruption were found. Hence some, indeed, have been anxiously looking
for the coming of some glorious “Universal Spirit,” who might again
instill his vitalizing power into the heart-blood of the nations. But
why dwell longer on such idle fancies? Nothingcan possibly surpass the
God-given Christ, and what we are to look for, instead of a second
Messiah, is the second coming of the same Christ of Calvary, this time
with His fan in His hand for judgment, not to open up for our sin-cursed
life a new evolution, but to receive at its goal and solemnly to
conclude the history of the world, Either this second coming, therefore,
is near at hand, and what we are witnessing are the death-throes of
humanity; or a rejuvenation is still in store for us; but if so, that
rejuvenation can come only through the old and yet ever new Gospel which,
at the
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beginning of our era, and again at the time of the Reformation, has
saved the threatened life of our race.
The most alarming feature, however, of the present situation is the
lamentable absence of that receptivity in our diseased organism, which
is indispensable to the effecting of a cure. In the Greco-Roman world
such receptivity did exist; the hearts opened spontaneously to receive
the truth. To an even stronger degree this receptivity existed in the
age of the Reformation, when large masses cried for the gospel. Then, as
now, the body suffered from anemia, and blood-poisoning even had set in,
but there was no aversion to the only effectual antidote. Now it is
precisely this that distinguishes our modern decadence from the two
preceding ones, that with the masses the receptivity for the Gospel is
on the decrease, whilst with the scientists the positive aversion to it
is on the increase. The invitation to bow the knee before Christ, as God,
is met so often with a shrug of the shoulders, if not with the sarcastic
rejoinder: “Fit for children and old women, not for us men!” The
modern philosophy, which gains the day, considers itself in
ever-increasing measure as having outgrown Christianity.
____________________
Therefore, first of all, the question must be answered what has brought
us to this pass, a question deriving its paramount importance from the
fact that only a correct diagnosis can lead to effective treatment. Now,
historically, the cause of the evil is found in nothing else than in the
spiritual degeneration which marked the close of the preceding century.
The responsibility for this degeneration undoubtedly rests in part with
the Christian churches themselves, not excepting those of the
Reformation. Worn out by their struggle with Rome, these last churches
had fallen asleep, had allowed leaf and flower to wither on their
branches, and had apparently become forgetful of their duties in
reference to humanity at large, and the whole sphere of human life. It
is not necessary to enter upon this more fully. It may be taken for
granted that towards the end of that century the general tone of life
had become vapid and common-place, ignoble and base at heart. The
eagerly devoured literature of that period furnishes the proof. By way
of reaction against this, the proposal was then made by deistic and
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atheistic philosophers, first in England, but afterwards chiefly in
France on the part of the Encyclopedists, to place the whole of life on
a new basis, turn upside down the existing order of affairs, and arrange
a new world on the assumption that human nature continues in its
uncorrupted state, This conception was an heroic one, and awakened
response; it struck some of the noblest chords of the human heart. But
in the great Revolution of 1789 it was put into execution in its most
dangerous form for in this mighty revolution, in this upheaval not only
of political conditions, but even more of convictions, ideas, and usages
of life, two elements should be sharply distinguished. In one respect it
was an imitation of Calvinism, whilst in another respect it was in
direct opposition to its principles. The great Revolution, it should not
be forgotten, broke out in a Roman Catholic country, where first in the
night of St. Bartholomew, and subsequently by the revocation of the
edict of Nantes, the Huguenots had been slaughtered and banished. After
this violent suppression of Protestantism in France, and other Roman
Catholic countries, the ancient despotism had regained its ascendency,
and to these nations all the fruits of the Reformation had been lost.
This, by way of caricature of Calvinism, invited and compelled the
attempt to strike for freedom by external violence, and to establish a
pseudo-democratic state of affairs, which was to preclude for ever a
return to despotism. Thus the French Revolution, by meeting violence
with violence, crime with crime, strove after the same social liberty
which Calvinism had proclaimed among the nations, but which had been
attempted by Calvinism in the course of a purely spiritual movement. By
this the French Revolution in a sense executed a judgment of God, the
result of which affords, even to Calvinists, cause for rejoicing. The
shades of De Coligny were avenged in the September murders of Mazas.
But this is only one side of the medal. Its reverse discloses a purpose
directly opposed to the sound Calvinistic idea of liberty. Calvinism, by
virtue of its profoundly serious conception of life, had strengthened
and consecrated the social and ethical ties; the French Revolution
loosened and entirely unfastened them, detaching life not merely from
the Church, but also from God's ordinances, even from God Himself. Man
as such, each individual henceforth, was to be his own lord and master,
guided by his own free will and good pleasure. The train of life was to
rush for
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ward even more rapidly than heretofore, but no longer bound to follow
the track of the divine commandments. What else could result than
wreckage and ruin? Enquire of the France of today what fruit the
fundamental idea of her grand Revolution has yielded to the nation after
its first century of free sway so rich in horrors, and the answer comes
in a most pitiful tale of national decadence and social demoralization.
Humbled by the enemy from beyond the Rhine, internally rent by partisan
fury, dishonored by the Panama cabal, and more still by the Dreyfus
case, disgraced by its pornography, the victim of economic retrogression,
stationary, nay, even decreasing in population, France, as has been well
said by Dr. Garnier, a medical authority on the subject, has been led by
egotism to degrade marriage, by lust to destroy family-life and presents
today, in wide circles, the disgusting spectacle of men and women lost
in unnatural sexual sin. I am aware that there are still thousands upon
thousands of families in France living without reproach, who dearly
grieve at the moral ruin of their country, but then these are the very
circles which have resisted the false pretenses of the Revolution; and,
on the other hand, the almost bestialized circles are those that have
succumbed to the first onset of Voltairianism.
From France this spirit of dissolution, this passion of wild
emancipation, has spread among the other nations, especially through the
medium of an infamously obscene literature, and infected their lives.
Then nobler minds. particularly in Germany, perceiving what depth of
wickedness had been reached in France, made the bold attempt of
realizing this enticing and reducing idea of “emancipation from God”
in a higher form while yet retaining its essence. Philosophers of the
first rank, in a stately procession, each for himself constructed a
cosmology endeavoring to restore a firm foundation to social and ethical
relations, either by putting them on the basis of natural law, or by
giving them an ideal substratum evolved from their own speculation. For
a moment this attempt seemed to have a fair chance of success: for,
instead of atheistically banishing God from their system, these
philosophers sought refuge in Pantheism, and thus made it feasible to
found the social structure, not as the French, on a state of nature or
on the atomistic will of the individual, but on the processes of history
and
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the collective will of the race, unconsciously tending towards the
highest goal. And, indeed, for more than half a century this philosophy
has imparted a certain stability to life; not that any real stability
was inherent in the system themselves, but because the established order
of law and strong political institutions in Germany lent the indirect
support of tradition to the walls of an edifice which otherwise would
have immediately collapsed. Even so, however, it could not prevent that
in Germany also, the moral principles became more and more problematic,
moral foundations more and more insecure, no other right than that of
actual law received recognition; and, however much German and French
development might differ between themselves, both agreed in their
aversion to, and rejection of, traditional Christianity. Voltaire's
“Ecrasez l'infâme” is already left far behind by Nietzsche's
blasphemous utterances on the Christ, and Nietzsche is the author whose
works are being most eagerly devoured by the young modern Germany of our
day.
After this manner, then, we in Europe at least, have arrived at what is
called modern life, involving a radical breach with the Christian
traditions of the Europe of the past. The spirit of this modern life is
most clearly marked by the fact that it seeks the origin of man not in
creation after the image of God, but in evolution from the animal. Two
fundamental ideas are clearly implied in this: (1) that the point of
departure is no longer the ideal or the divine, but the material and the
low; (2) that the sovereignty of God, which ought to be supreme, is
denied, and man yields himself to the mystical current of an endless
process, a regressus and processus in infinitum. Out of the root of
these two fertile ideas a double type of life is now being evolved. On
the one hand the interesting, rich, and highly organized life of
University circles, attainable by the more refined minds only; and at
the side of this, or rather far beneath it, a materialistic life of the
masses, craving after pleasure, but, in their own way, also taking their
point of departure in matter, and likewise, but after their own cynical
fashion, emancipating themselves from all fixed ordinances. Especially
in our ever-expanding large cities this second type of life is gaining
the upper hand, overriding the voice of the country districts, and is
giving a shape to public opinion, which avows its ungodly
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character more openly in each successive generation. Money, pleasure,
and social power, these alone are the objects of pursuit; and people are
constantly growing less fastidious regarding the means employed to
secure them. Thus the voice of conscience becomes less and less audible,
and duller the lustre of the eye which on the eve of the French
Revolution still reflected -some gleam of the ideal. The fire of all
higher enthusiasm has been quenched, only the dead embers remain. In the
midst of the weariness of life, what can restrain the disappointed from
taking refuge in suicide? Deprived of the wholesome influence of rest,
the brain is over-stimulated and over-exerted till the asylums are no
longer adequate for housing the insane. Whether property be not
synonymous with theft, becomes a more and more seriously mooted
question. That life ought to be freer and marriage less binding, is
being accepted more and more on an established proposition. The cause of
monogamy is no longer worth fighting for, since polygamy and polyandry
are being systematically glorified in all products of the realistic
school of art and literature. In harmony with this, religion is, of
course, declared superfluous because it renders life gloomy. But art,
art above all, is in demand, not for the sake of its ideal worth, but
because it pleases and intoxicates the senses. Thus people live in time
and for temporal things, and shut their ears to the tolling of the bells
of eternity. The irrepressible tendency is to make the whole view of
life concrete, concentrated, practical. And out of this modernized
private life there emerges a type of social and political life
characterized by a decadence of parliamentarism, by an ever stronger
desire for a dictator, by a sharp conflict between pauperism and
capitalism, whilst heavy armaments on land and on sea, even at the price
of financial ruin, become the ideal of these powerful states whose
craving for territorial expansion threatens the very existence of the
weaker nations. Gradually the conflict between the strong and the weak
has grown to be the controlling feature of life, arising from Darwinism
itself, whose central idea of a struggle for life has for its mainspring
this very antithesis. Since Bismarck introduced it into higher politics,
the maxim of the right of the stronger has found almost universal
acceptance. The scholars and experts of our day demand with increasing
boldness that the common man shall bow to their authority. And the end
can only be
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that once more the sound principles of democracy will be banished, to
make room this time not for a new aristocracy of nobler birth and higher
ideals, bat for the coarse and overbearing kratistocracy of a brutal
money power. Nietzsche is by no means exceptional, but proclaims as its
herald the future of our modern life. And while the Christ, in divine
compassion, showed heart-winning sympathy with the weak, modern life in
this respect also takes the precisely opposite ground that the weak must
be supplanted by the strong. Such, they tell us, was the process of
selection to which we, ourselves, owe our origin, and such is the
process which, in us and after us, must work itself out to its ultimate
consequences.
____________________
Meanwhile,2 as observed above, it should not be forgotten that there
flows in modern life a side current, of nobler origin. A host of
high-minded men arose, who, shrinking from the uneasy chill of the moral
atmosphere, and taking alarm at the brutality of the prevailing egotism,
endeavored to put new warmth in life partly by means of altruism, partly
by means of a mystical cult of the feelings, partly even by means of the
name Christianity. Though in accord with the school of the French
Revolution in their breach with Christian tradition and in their refusal
to recognize any point of departure besides that of empiricism and
rationalism, these men nevertheless, by accepting, as Kant does, a crass
dualism, tried to escape from the fatal consequences of their principle.
It is precisely from this dualism that they drew the inspiration for the
many noble ideas elaborated in their theories, embodied in their poetry,
conjured up before our imagination in touching novels, commended to our
consciences in ethical treatises, and, let us never forget. realized not
infrequently in the serious pursuit of life. With them conscience, side
by side with the intellect, had maintained its authority, and that human
conscience is so richly endowed, (geinstrumenteerd) by God. To the
vigorous initiative of these men we owe the numerous sociological
investigations and practical measures, which have allayed and alleviated
so much suffering, and by an ideal altruism have put to shame the
selfishness
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in many a heart. Having a personal predisposition for mysticism, some of
them claimed the right to emancipate the inner life of the soul from all
restraints of criticism. To lose one's self in the Infinite, and to feel
the stream of the Infinite pulsate through the deepest recesses of the
inner life, meant to them desirable piety. Others again especially
theologians, –to a less extent divorced from Christianity by reason of
their antecedents, office, or scholarly occupation, falling in with this
altruism and mysticism, set themselves the task of so metamorphosing the
Christ that He might continue to glitter from the throne of humanity, as
the highest ideal of the modernized human heart. Each and all inspired
by sincerity and inspiring by their ideal intent, these endeavors may be
traced from Schleiermacher down to Ritschl.3 He, therefore, who would
look down upon such men. would only dishonor himself. Much rather v. e
ought to thank them for what they endeavored to save, also those women
of noble aspirations, who by their character-novels, written in a
similar Christian spirit, have counteracted so much that was base and
have fostered so many precious germs. Even Spiritism, fraught with error
though it be, has often received its impulse from the alluring hope that
the contact with the eternal world. destroyed by criticism, could thus
be reestablished through the medium of visions. Unfortunately, however
boldly conceived this ethical dualism might be. and whatever bold
metamorphoses this mysticism might indulge in, there always lurked
behind it the naturalistic. rationalistic system of thought which the
intellect had devised. They extolled the normal character of their
cosmology over against the abnormalism of our belief: and the Christian
religion, being abnormalistic in principle and mode of manifestation,
inevitably lost ground to such an extent that some of our best men did
not shrink from professing that they preferred not only Spiritism. hut
Mohammedanism, and Schopenhauer or even Buddhism to the old evangelical
faith. It is true that the entire phalanx of theologians from
Schleiermacher to Pfleiderer continued to pay high honors to the name of
Christ. but it is equally undeniable that this remained possible only by
subjecting Christ and the Christian confession to ever bolder
metamorphoses. A painful fact, but one
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which becomes absolutely evident, if you compare the creed now current
in these circles with the confession for which our Martyrs died.
Even confining ourselves to the Apostles' Creed, which for almost two
thousand years substantially has been the common standard of all
Christians, we find that the belief in God as the “Creator of heaven
and earth” has been abolished; for creation has been supplanted by
evolution. Abolished also has been the belief in God the Son, as born of
the Virgin Mary, through the conception from the Holy Ghost. Abolished
further, with many, the belief in His resurrection and ascension and
return to judgment. Abolished, finally, even the belief of the church in
the resurrection of the dead, or at least in the resurrection of the
body. The name of the Christian religion is still being retained, but in
essence it has become a quite different religion in its principle, even
of a diametrically opposite character. And when incessantly the charge
is brought against us, that in point of fact the traditional Christ of
the Church involves a complete metamorphosis of the genuine Jesus,
whilst the modern interpretation has lifted the veil off the true
character of the historical Jesus of Nazareth, we can but answer that,
after all, historically, not this modern conception of Jesus of
Nazareth, but the Church's confession of the Christ is the one that has
conquered the world; and that century after century, the best and most
pious of our race have paid homage to the Christ of tradition and
rejoiced in Him as their Savior in the shadow of death.
Though desiring to be second to none, therefore, in sincere appreciation
of what is noble in such attempts, I am fully settled in my conviction
that no help is to be expected from that quarter. A theology which
virtually destroys the authority of the Holy Scriptures as a sacred
book; which sees in sin nothing but a lack of development; recognizes
Christ for no more than a religious genius of central significance;
views redemption as a mere reversal of our subjective mode of thinking;
and indulges in a mysticism dualistically opposed to the world of the
intellect, –such a theology is like a dam giving way before the first
assault of the inrushing tide. It is a theology without hold upon the
masses, a quasi-religion
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utterly powerless to restore our sadly tottering moral life to even a
temporary footing.
____________________
May more perhaps be expected from the marvelous energy displayed in the
latter half of this century by Rome? Let us not too hastily dismiss this
question. Though the history of the Reformation has established a
fundamental antithesis between Rome and ourselves, it would nevertheless
be narrow-minded and shortsighted to underestimate the real power which
even now is manifest in Rome's warfare against Atheism and Pantheism.
Only ignorance of the exhaustive studies of Romish philosophy and of
Rome's successful efforts in social life, could account for such a
superficial judgment. Calvin in his day already acknowledged that, as
against a spirit from the Great Deep, he considered Romish believers his
allies. A so-called orthodox Protestant need only mark in his confession
and catechism such doctrines of religion and morals as are not subject
to controversy between Rome and ourselves, to perceive immediately that
what we have in common with Rome concerns precisely those fundamentals
of our Christian creed now most fiercely assaulted by the modern spirit.
Undoubtedly on the points of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, of man's
nature before and after the Fall, of justification, of the mass, of the
invocation of saints and angels, of the worship of images, of purgatory,
and many others, we are as unflinchingly opposed to Rome as our fathers
were. But does not current literature show that these are not now the
points on which the struggle of the age is concentrated? Are not the
lines of battle drawn as follows: Theism over against Pantheism; sin
over against imperfection; the divine Christ of God over against Jesus
the mere man; the cross a sacrifice of reconciliation over against the
cross as a symbol of martyrdom; the Bible as given by inspiration of God
over against a purely human product; the ten commandments as ordained by
God over against a mere archaeological document; the ordinances of God
absolutely established over against an ever-changing law and morality
spun out of man's subjective consciousness? Now, in this conflict Rome
is not an antagonist, but stands on our side, inasmuch as she also
recognizes and maintains the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, the Cross as
an atoning sacrifice. the Scriptures as the Word of God. and the
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Ten Commandments as a divinely-imposed rule of life. Therefore. let me
ask ii Romish theologians take up the sword to do valiant and skillful
battle against the same tendency that we ourselves mean to fight to the
death, is it not the part of wisdom to accept the valuable help of their
elucidation? Calvin at least was accustomed to appeal to Thomas of
Aquino. And I for my part am not ashamed to confess that on many points
my views have been clarified through my study of the Romish theologians.
This, however, does not in the least involve that our hope for the
future may be placed in Rome's endeavor, and that we, idle ourselves,
may await Rome's victory. A rapid survey of the situation will suffice
to convince us of the contrary. To begin with your own continent, can
South America for a moment stand a comparison with the North? Now in
South and Central America the Roman Catholic Church is supreme. It has
exclusive control in this territory, Protestantism not even counting as
a factor. Here, then, is an immense field in which the social and
political power. which Rome can bring to bear upon the regeneration of
our race, can freely exert itself, a field, moreover, in which Rome is
not a recent arrival, but which she has occupied for almost three
centuries. The youthful development of the social organism of these
countries has stood under her influence; she has remained in control
also of their intellectual and spiritual life since their liberation
from Spain and Portugal. Moreover, the population of these States is
derived from such European countries as have always been under the
undisputed sway of Rome. The test, therefore, is as complete and fair as
possible. Rut in vain do we look in those American Romish States for a
life which elevates, develops energy, and exerts a wholesome influence
outside. Financially they are weak, comparatively unprogressive in their
economic conditions in their i political life they present the sad
spectacle of endless internal strife: and, if one were inclined to form
an ideal picture of the future of the world, he might almost do so by
imagining the very opposite of what is the actual situation in South
America. Nor can it be pleaded in excuse of Rome that this is due to
exceptional circumstances, for in the first place this political
backwardness is met with not only in Chili, but likewise in Peru, Brazil
as well as in the Venezuelan Republic; while, crossing from the New to
the Old
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World, we reach, in spite of ourselves, the same conclusion in Europe,
also, the credit of all Protestant states is high, that of the Southern
countries which are Roman Catholic, is at a painful discount. Economic
and administrative affairs in Spain and Portugal. and not less than in
Italy, offer cause for continual complaint. The outward power and
outside influence of these states is visibly declining. And, what is
more discouraging still, infidelity and a revolutionary spirit have made
such inroads in these countries, that half of the population, though
still nominally Romish, has in reality broken with all true religion.
This may be seen in France, which is almost entirely Roman Catholic, and
yet has voted time and again with overwhelming majorities against the
advocates of religion. In fact we may say that. in order to appreciate
the noble, energetic traits of the Romanists, one must observe them, not
in their own countries where they are on the decline, but in the centre
of Protestant North Germany, in Protestant Holland, and England, and in
your own Protestant United States. In regions where, deprived of a
controlling influence, they adjust themselves to the polity of others
and concentrate their strength as an opposition party, under such
leaders as Manning and Wiseman, Von Ketteler and Windthorst, they compel
our admiration by the enthusiastic championship of their cause.
But even apart from this testimonium paupertatis furnished by Rome
herself through the mismanagement in Southern Europe an
South America, where she has full sway, in the contest of the nations
also her power and influence are visibly waning. The balance of power in
Europe is now gradually passing into the hands of Russia, Germany, and
England, every one of them non-Romish States, and on your own continent
the Protestant North holds the supremacy. Since 1866 Austria has been
continually retrogressing. and at the death of the present Emperor will
be seriously threatened with dissolution. Italy has attempted to live
beyond its resources: it strove to be a great, colonial, naval power,
and the result is that it has brought itself to the verge of economic
ruin. The battle of Addua dealt the deathblow to more than her colonial
aspirations. Spain and Portugal have absolutely lost all influence on
the social, intellectual, and political development of Europe. And
France, which only fifty years ago, made all Europe tremble
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at the unsheathing of her sword, is now herself anxiously scanning the
Sibylline books of her future. Even from a statistical point of view,
the power of Rome is all the while decreasing. Economic and moral
depression has in more than one Romish country brought about a
considerable decrease of the birthrate. Whilst in Russia, Germany,
England, and the United States population is growing, it has in some
Romish countries become almost stationary. Even now statistics give only
the smaller half of Christendom to the Roman Catholic Church, and it is
safe to predict that within the next half century its share will be less
than forty per cent. However highly, therefore, I may be inclined to
value the inherent power of Roman Catholic unity and scholarship for the
defense of much we also count sacred, and though I do not see how we
could repulse the attack of Modernism save by combined exertion,
nevertheless there is not the slightest prospect that the political
supremacy will ever again pass into Rome's hands. And, even if this were
to happen contrary to expectations, who could possibly rejoice as in the
realization of his ideal, if he beheld the conditions now prevailing in
Southern Europe and South America, reproduced elsewhere?
We may, in fact, even put it more strongly: it would be a step backwards
in the course of history. Rome's world and life-view represents an older
and hence lower stage of development in the history of mankind.
Protestantism succeeded it, and hence occupies a spiritually higher
standpoint. He who will not go backwards, but reaches after higher
things, must therefore either stand by the world-view once developed by
Protestantism, or, on the other hand, for this, too, is conceivable,
point out a still higher standpoint. Now this is what the latter modern
philosophy does indeed presume to do, acknowledging Luther as a great
man for his time, but hailing in Kant and Darwin the apostles of a much
richer gospel. But this need not detain us. For our own age, however
great in invention, in the display of powers of mind and energy, has not
advanced us a single step in the establishment of principles, has in no
wise given us a higher view of life, and has yielded us neither greater
stability nor greater soundness in our religious and ethical, that is,
truly human existence. The solid faith of the Reformation it has
bartered for shifting hypothesis; and in
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so far as it ventured upon a systematized and strictly logical life view
it did not reach forward, but backward, to that heathen wisdom of
pre-Christian times, of which Paul testified that God has put it to
shame by the foolishness of the Cross. Let no one therefore say: Ye who,
because history does not go backward, protest against a return to Rome,
ye yourselves have no right to make a stand on Protestantism; for after
Protestantism came Modernism. The pertinence of such an objection must
be denied, as long as my contention be not disproved, that the material
advance of our century has nothing in common with advancement in the
matter of ethical principles, and that what Modernism offers us is not
modern, but rather very antique not posterior, but anterior to
Protestantism, reaching back to the Stoa and to Epicurus.
____________________
Only along the lines of Protestantism, therefore, can a successful
advance be attempted, and on those lines indeed salvation is sought at
present, by two different tendencies, both of which must lead to bitter
disappointment. The one of these is practical, the other mystical in
character. Without hope of defence against modern criticism and still
less against criticism of dogma, the former, the practical tendency,
holds that Christians can do no better than fall back upon all manner of
Christian works. Its devotees are at a loss what attitude to assume
towards the Scriptures; they have become themselves estranged from dogma;
but what is to prevent such hesitating believers from sacrificing their
person and their gold to the cause of philanthropy, evangelism, and
missions! This even offers a threefold advantage: it unites Christians
of all shades of opinion, alleviates much misery, and has a conciliatory
attraction for the non-Christian world And, of course, this propagandism
through action must be gratefully and sympathetically hailed. In the
century that has passed, Christian activity was indeed far too limited;
and a Christianity that does not prove its worth in practice,
degenerates into dry scholasticism and idle talk. It would be a mistake,
however, to suppose that Christianity can be confined within the limits
of such practical manifestation. Our Savior made whole the sick and fed
the hungry, but the paramount thing in His ministry was, after all, that
in strict allegiance to the Scriptures of
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the old Covenant, He openly proclaimed His own Divinity and Mediatorship,
the expiation of sins through His blood, and His coming to judgment. No
central dogma, in fact, has ever been confessed by the Church of Christ
which was not the intellectual definition of what Christ proclaimed
about His own mission to the world, and about the world to which He was
sent. He healed the sick body, but He even more truly bound up our
spiritual wounds. He rescued us from Paganism and Judaism, and
translated us into a wholly new world of convictions of which He Himself,
as the God-ordained Messiah, constituted the center. Besides, as far as
our dispute with Rome is concerned, we should not lose sight of the fact
that in Christian works and devotion Rome still outstrips us. Nay, let
us acknowledge without reserve that even the unbelieving world is
beginning to rival us, and that in deeds of philanthropy, she tries more
and more to overtake us. In missions, to be sure, unbelief does not
follow in our footsteps; but pray how can we continue to prosecute
missions, unless we have a well-defined Gospel to preach? Or is it
possible to imagine anything more monstrous than so-called liberal
missionaries preaching only humanity and colorless piety, and met by the
pagan sages with the answer that they themselves in their cultured
circles have never taught or believed anything else than just this
modern humanism?
Does perhaps the other tendency, the mystical one, possess stronger
powers of defence? What thinker or student of history would affirm this?
No doubt mysticism eradiates a fervor that warms the heart; and woe
betide the giant of dogma and the hero of action, who are strangers to
its depths and tenderness. God created hand, head, and heart; the hand
for the deed, the head for the world, the heart for mysticism. King in
deed, prophet in profession, and priest in heart, shall man in this
threefold office stand before God, and a Christianity that neglects the
mystic element grows frigid and congeals. We are, therefore, to be
accounted fortunate whenever a mystic atmosphere envelops us, making us
breathe the balmy air of spring. Through it life is made truer, deeper,
and richer. But it would be a sad mistake to suppose that mysticism,
taken by itself, can bring about a reversal in the spirit of the age.
Not Bernard of Clairvaux but Thomas of Aquino, not Thomas a Kempis but
Luther, have ruled the spirits of men.
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Mysticism is, in its very nature, seclusive, and strives rather to avoid
contact with the outside world. Its very strength lies in the
indifferentiated life of the soul, and on this account it cannot take a
positive stand. It flows along a subterranean bed and does not show
sharply demarcated lines above the ground. What is worse, history proves
that all one-sided mysticism has always become morbid, and has
ultimately degenerated into a mysticism of the flesh, astounding the
world with its moral infamy.
Accordingly, although I rejoice in the revival of both the practical and
mystical tendencies, both will result in loss instead of gain, if they
are expected to compensate for the abandonment of the Truth of Salvation
Mysticism is sweet, and Christian works are precious, but the seed of
the Church, both at the birth of Christianity and in the age of the
Reformation, has beer. the blood of martyrs; and our sainted martyrs
shed their blood not for mysticism and not for philanthropic projects,
but for the sake of convictions such as concerned the acceptance of
truth and the rejection of error. To live with consciousness is man's
well-nigh divine prerogative, and only from the clear, unobscured vision
of consciousness proceeds the mighty word that can make the times
reverse their current. and cause a revolution in the spirit of the
world. It is self-deception, therefore, and only self-deception, when
these practical and mystical Christians believe they can do without a
Christian life and world-view of their own. No one can do without that.
Everyone who thinks he can abandon the Christian truths, and do away
with the Catechism of Reformation, lends ear unawares to the hypotheses
of the modern world-view and, without knowing how far he has drifted
already, swears by the Catechism of Rousseau and Darwin.
____________________
Therefore, let us not stop half-way. As truly as every plant has a root,
so truly does a principle hide under every manifestation of life. These
principles are interconnected. and have their common root in a
fundamental principle; and from the latter is developed logically and
systematically the whole complex of ruling ideas and conceptions that go
to make up our life and world-view. With such a coherent world and
life-view, firmly resting on its principle
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and self consistent in its splendid structure, Modernism now confronts
Christianity; and against this deadly danger, ye, Christians cannot
successfully defend your sanctuary, but by placing, in opposition to all
this, a life- and worldview of your own, founded as firmly on the base
of your own principle, wrought out with the same clearness and
glittering in an equally logical consistency. Now this is not obtained
by either Christian works or mysticism but only by going back, our
hearts full of mystical warmth and our personal faith manifesting itself
in abundant fruit, to that turning-point in history, and in the
development of humanity which was reached in the Reformation. and this
is equivalent to a return to Calvinism. There is no choice here.
Socinianism died an inglorious death; Anabaptism perished in wild
revolutionary orgies. Luther never worked out his fundamental thought.
And Protestantism, taken in a general sense, without further
differentiation, is either a purely negative conception without content,
or a chameleon-like name which the deniers of the God-Man like to adopt
as their shield. Only of Calvinism can it be said that it has
consistently and logically followed out the lines of the Reformation,
has established not only Churches but also States, has set its stamp
upon social and public life, and has thus, in the full sense of the word,
created for the whole life of man a world of thought entirely its own.
I feel convinced that, after what I have said in my first lectures, no
one will accuse me of underrating Lutheranism; yet the present Emperor
of Germany has no less than three times furnished an example of the evil
after-effects of Luther's apparently slight mistakes. Luther was misled
into recognizing the Sovereign of the land as the head of the
Established Church, and what have we, as a result of this, been called
upon to witness from German's eccentric Emperor ? First of all, that
Stocker, the champion of Christian democracy, was dismissed from his
court, merely because this bold defender of the freedom of the churches
had so much as expressed the wish that the Emperor should abdicate his
chief episcopate. Next, that at the sailing of the German squadron for
China, Prince Henry of Russia was instructed to carry to the far orient
not the “Christian” but the “imperial gospel.” More recently
that he called upon his loyal subjects to be faithful in the
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performance of their duties, urging as a motive that after death they
were to appear before God . . . and His Christ? . . . No; but . . .
before God . . . and the great Emperor. And finally, on the banquet of
Porta Wesphalia, that Germany had to continue its labors undisturbedly
under the blessing of peace, as enjoined, he concluded, by the
outstretched hand of the great Emperor, who here stands above us. Ever
bolder encroachment, it will be noticed, of Caesarism upon the essence
of the Christian religion, These, as you see, are far from mere trifles;
rather, they touch principles of world-wide application, for which our
forefathers in the age of the Reformation fought their great battles. To
I am as averse as any man; but in order to place for the defence of
Christianity, principle over against principle, the world-view over
against world-view, there lies at hand, for him who is a Protestant in
bone and marrow, only the Calvinistic principle as the sole trustworthy
foundation on which to build.
____________________
What, then, are we to understand by this return to Calvinism? Do I mean
that all believing Protestants should subscribe, the sooner the better,
to the Reformed symbols, and thus all ecclesiastical multiformity be
swallowed up in the unity of the Reformed church-organization? I am far
from cherishing so crude, so ignorant, so unhistorical a desire. As a
matter of course, there is inherent in every conviction, in every
confession, a motive for absolute and unconditional propagandism, and
the word of Paul to Agrippa: “I would to God that with little or with
much, not only you, but also all that hear me this day, might become
such as I am,” must remain the heartfelt wish not only of every good
Calvinist, but of every one who may glory in a firm immovable
conviction. But so ideal a desire of the human heart can never be
realized in this our dispensation. First of all, not one Reformed
standard, not even the purest, is infallible as was the word of Paul.
Then, again, the Calvinistic confession is so deeply religious, so
highly spiritual that, excepting always periods of profound religious
commotion, it will never be realized by the large masses, but will
impress with a sense of its inevitability only a relatively small circle.
Furthermore, our inborn one-sidedness will always necessarily lead to
the manifestation
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of the Church of Christ in many forms. And, last not least, absorption
on a large scale by one Church of the members of another can only take
place at critical moments in history. In the ordinary run of things
eighty per cent of the Christian population die in the Church in which
they were born and baptized. Besides, such an identification of my
program with the absorption of one Church by another would be at
variance with the whole tendency of my argument. Not ecclesiastically
confined to a narrow circle, but as a phenomenon of universal
significance. have I commended to you the Calvinism of history.
Therefore, what I ask may in the main be reduced to the following four
points: (1) that Calvinism shall no longer be ignored where it still
exists, but be strengthened where its influence continues; (2) that
Calvinism shall again be made a subject of study in order that the
outside world may come to know it; (3) that its principles shall again
be developed in accordance with the needs of our time, and consistently
applied to the various domains of life; and (4) that the Churches which
still lay claim to confessing it, shall cease being ashamed of their own
confession.
First, then, Calvinism should no longer he ignored where it still exists.
but rather be strengthened where its historical influences are still
manifest. A pointing out in detail. with even some degree of
completeness, of the traces that Calvinism has everywhere left behind in
social and political, in scientific and aesthetic life, would in itself
demand a broader study than could he thought of in the rapid course of a
lecture. Allow me. therefore, addressing an American audience, to point
out a single feature in your own political life. I have already observed
in my third lecture how in the preamble of more than one of your
Constitutions, while taking a decidedly democratic view, nevertheless
not the atheistic standpoint of the French Revolution, but the
Calvinistic confession of the supreme sovereignty of God, has been made
the foundation, at times even in terms, as I have pointed out,
corresponding literally with the words of Calvin. Not a trace is to he
found among you of that cynic anti-clericalism which has become
identified with the very essence of the revolutionary democracy in
France and elsewhere. And when your President proclaims a national day
of thanksgiving, or when the houses of Congress assembled in Washington
are
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opened with prayer, it is ever new evidence that through American
democracy there runs even yet a vein which, having sprung from the
Pilgrim Fathers, still exerts its power at the present day. Even your
common school system, inasmuch as it is blessed with the reading of
Scripture and opening prayer, points, though with decreasing
distinctness, to like Calvinistic origin. Similarly in the rise of your
university education, springing for the larger part from individual
initiative; in the decentralized and autonomous character of your local
governments; in your strict and yet not nomistic Sabbath-observance; in
the esteem in which woman is held among you, without falling into the
Parisian deification of her sex; in your sense for domesticity; in the
closeness of your family ties; in your championship of free speech, and
in your unlimited regard for freedom of conscience; in all this your
Christian democracy is in direct opposition to the democracy of the
French Revolution; and historically also it is demonstrable that you owe
this to Calvinism and to Calvinism alone. But, lo and behold, while you
are thus enjoying the fruits of Calvinism, and while even outside of
your borders the constitutional system of government as an outcome of
Calvinistic warfare, upholds the national honor, it is whispered abroad
that all these are to be accounted blessings of Humanism, and scarcely
any one still thinks of honoring in them the after-effects of Calvinism,
the latter being believed to lead a lingering life only in a few
dogmatically petrified circles. What I demand then, and demand with an
historic right, is that this ungrateful ignoring of Calvinism shall come
to an end; that the influence it has exerted shall again receive
attention where it still remains stamped upon the actual life of today;
and that, where men of a wholly different spirit would unobservedly
divert the current of life into French revolutionary or German
pantheistic channels, you on this side of the water. and we on our side,
should oppose with might and main such falsification of the historic
principles of our life.
That we may be enabled to do so, I contend in the second place, for an
historical study of the principles of Calvinism. No love without
knowledge; and Calvinism has lost its place in the hearts of the people.
It is being advocated only from a theological point of view, and even
then very one-sidedly, and merely as a side is
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The cause of this I have pointed out in a previous lecture. Since
Calvinism arose, not from am abstract system, but from life itself, it
never was in the century of its prime presented as a systematic whole.
The tree blossomed and yielded its fruit, but without any one having
made a botanic study of its nature and growth. Calvinism, in its rise,
rather acted than argued. But now this study may no longer be delayed.
Both the biography and biology of Calvinism must now be thoroughly
investigated and thought out, or, with our lack of self-knowledge, we
shall be side-tracked into a world of ideas that is more at discord than
in consonance with the life of our Christian democracy, and cut loose
from the root on which we once blossomed so vigorously.
Only through such study will there become possible what I named in the
third place: the development of the principles of Calvinism in
accordance with the needs of our modern consciousness, and their
application to every department of life. I do not exclude theology from
this; for theology, too, exercises its influence upon life in all its
ramifications; and it is, therefore, sad to see how even the theology of
the Reformed Churches has in so many a country come under the sway of
wholly foreign systems. But, at all events, theology is only one of the
many sciences that demand Calvinistic treatment. Philosophy, psychology,
aesthetics, jurisprudence, the social sciences, literature, and even the
medical and natural sciences, each and all of these, when
philosophically conceived, go back to principles, and of necessity even
the question must be put with much more penetrating seriousness than
hitherto, whether the ontological and anthropological principles that
reign supreme in the present method of these sciences are in agreement
with the principles of Calvinism, or are at variance with their very
essence.
Finally, I would add to these three demands –historically justified as
it seems to me still a fourth, that those Churches which lay claim to
professing the Reformed faith, shall cease being ashamed of this
confession. You have heard how broad my conception and how wide my views
are, even in the matter of ecclesiastical life. In free development only
do I see the salvation of this Church-life. I exalt multiformity and
hail in it a higher stage of development. Even for the Church that has
the purest confession, I would not dispense with the aid of other
Churches in order that
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its inevitable one-sidedness may thus be complemented. But what has
always filled me with indignation was to behold a Church or to meet the
office-bearer of a Church, with the flag furled or hidden under the garb
of office, instead of being thrown out boldly to display its glorious
colors in the breeze. What one confesses to be the truth, one must also
dare to practice in word, deed, and whole manner of life. A Church
Calvinistic in origin and still recognizable by its Calvinistic
confession, which lacks the courage, nay rather which no longer feels
the impulse to defend that confession boldly and bravely against all the
world, such a Church dishonors not Calvinism but itself. Albeit the
Church reformed in bone and marrow may be small and few in numbers, as
Churches they will always prove indispensable for Calvinism; and here
also the smallness of the seed need not disturb us, if only that seed be
sound and whole, instinct with generative and irrepressible life.
____________________
And thus my final lecture is rapidly drawing to its end. But before I
close, I feel nevertheless that one question continues to press for an
answer. which accordingly I shall not refuse to face, the question,
namely, at what I am aiming in the end: at the abandonment or at the
maintenance of the doctrine of election. Thereunto allow me to contrast
with this word Election another word that differs from it in a single
letter. Our generation turns a deaf ear to Election, but grows madly
enthusiastic over Selection. How, then, may we formulate the tremendous
problem that lies hidden behind these two words, and in what particular
do the solutions of this problem, as represented by these two, almost
identical formulas, differ? The problem concerns the fundamental
question: Whence are the differences? Why is not all alike? Whence is it
that one thing exists in one state, another in another? There is no life
without differentiation, and no differentiation without inequality. The
perception of difference the very source of our human consciousness. the
causative principles of all that exists and grows and develops, in short
the mainspring of all life and thought. I am therefore justified in
asserting that in the end every other problem may be reduced to this one
problem: Whence are those differences? Whence is the dissimilarity, the
heterogeneity of existence,
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of genesis, and consciousness? To put it concretely, if you were a plant
you would rather be a rose than mushroom; if insect, butterfly rather
than spider; if bird, eagle rather than owl; if a higher vertebrate,
lion rather than hyena; and again, being man, richer than poor, talented
rather than dull-minded, of the Aryan race rather than Hottentot or
Kaffir. Between all these there is differentiation, wide differentiation.
Everywhere then differences, differences between the one being and the
other; and that, too, such differences as involve in almost every
instance, preference. When the hawk rends and tears the dove, whence is
it that these two creatures are thus opposed to, and different from each
other ? This is the one supreme question in the vegetable and animal
kingdom, among men, in all social life, and it is by means of the theory
of Selection that our present age attempts to solve this problem of
problems, Even in the single cell it posits differences, weaker and
stronger elements. The stronger overcomes the weaker, and the gain is
stored up in a higher potency of being. Or, should the weaker still
maintain its subsistence, the difference will be manifest in the further
course of the struggle itself.
Now the blade of grass is not conscious of this, and the spider goes on
entrapping the fly, the tiger killing the stag, and in those cases the
weaker being does not account to itself for its misery. But we men are
clearly conscious of these differences, and by us therefore the question
cannot be evaded, whether the theory of Selection be a solution
calculated to reconcile the weaker, the less richly endowed creature,
with its existence. It will be acknowledged that in itself this theory
can but incite to a more furious struggle, with a lasciate ogni speranza,
voi che'ntrate for the weaker being. Against the ordinance of faith that
the weaker shall succumb to the stronger, according to the system of
election, no struggle can avail. The reconciliation, not springing from
the facts, would therefore have to spring from the idea. But what is
here the idea? Is it not this, that, where these differences have once
become established, and highly differentiated beings appear, this is
either the result of chance, or else the necessary consequence of blind
natural forces? Now, are we to believe that suffering humanity will ever
become reconciled to its suffering by such a solution? Nevertheless I
welcome the progress of this theory of Selection; and
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I admire the penetration and power of thought of the men who commend it
to us. Not forsooth, on account of what it urges upon us as a truth; but
because it has mustered courage to attack once more the most fundamental
of all problems, and thus in point of profundity reaches the same depth
of thought, to which Calvin boldly descended.
For this is precisely the high significance of the doctrine of Election
that, in this dogma, as long as three centuries ago, Calvinism dared to
face this same all-dominating problem, solving it, however, not in the
sense of a blind selection stirring in unconscious cells, but honoring
the sovereign choice of Him Who created all things visible and
invisible. The determination of the existence of all things to be
created, of what is to be camellia or buttercup, nightingale or crow,
hart or swine, and, equally among men, the determination of our own
persons, whether one is to be born as girl or boy, rich or poor, dull or
clever, white or colored, or even as Abel or Cain, is the most
tremendous predestination conceivable in heaven or on earth; and still
we see it taking place before our eyes every day, and we ourselves are
subject to it in our entire personality; our entire existence, our very
nature, our position in life being entirely dependent on it. This
all-embracing predestination, the Calvinist places, not in the hand of
man, and still less in the hand of a blind natural force, but in the
hand of Almighty God, Sovereign Creator and Possessor of heaven and
earth; and it is in the figure of the potter and the clay that Scripture
has from the time of the Prophets expounded to us this all-dominating
election. Election in creation, election in providence, and so election
also to eternal life; election in the realm of grace as well as in the
realm of nature. Now, when we compare these two systems of Selection and
Election, does not history show that the doctrine of Election has
century upon century, restored peace and reconciliation to the hearts of
the believing sufferer; and that all Christians hold election as we do,
in honor, both in creation and in providence; and that Calvinism
deviates from the other Christian confessions in this respect only, that,
seeking unity and placing the glory of God above all things, it dares to
extend the mystery of Election to spiritual life, and to the hope for
the life to come?
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This then is what Calvinistic dogmatic narrowness amounts to. Or rather,
for the times are too serious for irony or jest, let every Christian,
who cannot yet abandon his objections, at least put this all-important
question to himself: Do I know of another solution of this fundamental
world-problem enabling me better to defend my Christian faith, in this
hour of sharpest conflict, against renewed Paganism collecting its
forces and gaining day by day? Do not forget that the fundamental
contrast has always been, is still, and will be until the end:
Christianity and Paganism, the idols or the living God. So far there is
a deeply felt truth in the drastic picture drawn by the German Emperor,
representing Bud&ism as the coming enemy. A closely drawn curtain
hides the future; but Christ has prophesied to us on Patmos the approach
of a last and bloody conflict, and even now Japan's gigantic development
in less than forty years has filled Europe with fear for what calamity
might be in store for us from the cunning “yellow race” forming so
large a proportion of the human family. And did not Gordon testify that
his Chinese soldiers, with whom he defeated the Taipings, if only well
drilled and officered, made the most splendid soldiers he ever commanded?
The Asiatic question is in fact of most serious import. The problem of
the world took its rise in Asia, and in Asia it will find its final
solution; and, both in technical and material development, the issue has
shown that heathen nations, as soon as they awake, and arise from their
lethargy, rival us almost instantly.
Of course, this danger would be far less menacing in case Christendom,
in both the Old and the New World, stood united around the Cross,
shouting songs of praise to their King, and ready as in the days of the
crusades to advance to the final conflict. But how when pagan thought,
pagan aspiration, pagan ideals are gaining ground even among us and
penetrating to the very heart of the rising generation? Have not the
Armenians, just because the conception of Christian solidarity has
become so sadly weakened, been basely and cravenly abandoned to the fate
of assassination? Has not the Greek been crushed by the Turk, while
Gladstone, the Christian statesman, politically a Calvinist to the very
core, who had the courage to brand the Sultan “Great Assassin,” has
departed from among us? Accordingly radical determination must
The Stone Lectures CALVINISM AND THE FUTURE Page 199
be insisted upon. Half-measures cannot guarantee the desired result.
Superficiality will not brace us for the conflict. Principle must again
bear witness against principle, world-view against world-view, spirit
against spirit. And here, let him who knows better speak, but I for one
know of no stronger and no firmer bulwark than Calvinism, provided it be
taken in its sound and vigorous formation,
And if you retort, half mockingly, am I really naive enough to expect
from certain Calvinistic studies a reversal in the Christian world-view,
then be the following my answer: The quickening of life comes not from
men: it is the prerogative of God, and it is due to His sovereign will
alone, whether or not the tide of religious life rise high in one
century, and run to a low ebb in the next. In the moral world, too, we
have at one time spring, when all is budding and rustling with life, and
again, the cold of winter, when every vital stream congeals, and all
religious energy is petrified.
Now the period in which we are living at present, is surely at a low ebb
religiously.
Unless God send forth His Spirit, there will be no turn, and fearfully
rapid will be the descent of the waters. But you remember the Aeolian
Harp, which men were wont to place outside their casement, that the
breeze might wake its music into life. Until the wind blew, the harp
remained silent, while, again, even though the wind arose, if the harp
did not lie in readiness, a rustling of the breeze might be heard, but
not a single note of ethereal music delighted the ear. Now, let
Calvinism be nothing but such an Aeolian Harp, –absolutely powerless,
as it is, without the quickening Spirit of God –still we feel it our
God-given duty to keep our harp, its strings tuned aright, ready in the
window of God's Holy Zion, awaiting the breath of the Spirit.
________________________________
1. (Ed.) F. W. Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German Philosopher; died insane.
Author of Thus Spake Zarathustra.
2. (Ed.) The following paragraph has been revised after the Dutch
original.
3. (Ed.) Albrecht Ritschl, 1822-1889. German theologian. |