Unitarian Christianity E-Book

William Ellery Channing

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 66

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

William Ellery Channing was the most popular Unitarian preacher in the United States during the early nineteenth century. Channing was considered one of the most prominent thinkers in the liberal theology of his day and had a major influence on famous authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Leseprobe

Unitarian Christianity

1 Thes. v. 21: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”

  The peculiar circumstances of this occasion not only justify,

but seem to demand a departure from the course generally followed

by preachers at the introduction of a brother into the sacred

office. It is usual to speak of the nature, design, duties, and

advantages of the Christian ministry; and on these topics I should

now be happy to insist, did I not remember that a minister is to be

given this day to a religious society, whose peculiarities of

opinion have drawn upon them much remark, and may I not add, much

reproach. Many good minds, many sincere Christians, I am aware, are

apprehensive that the solemnities of this day are to give a degree

of influence to principles which they deem false and injurious. The

fears and anxieties of such men I respect; and, believing that they

are grounded in part on mistake, I have thought it my duty to lay

before you, as clearly as I can, some of the distinguishing

opinions of that class of Christians in our country, who are known

to sympathize with this religious society. I must ask your

patience, for such a subject is not to be despatched in a narrow

compass. I must also ask you to remember, that it is impossible to

exhibit, in a single discourse, our views of every doctrine of

Revelation, much less the differences of opinion which are known to

subsist among ourselves. I shall confine myself to topics, on which

our sentiments have been misrepresented, or which distinguish us

most widely from others. May I not hope to be heard with candor?

God deliver us all from prejudice and unkindness, and fill us with

the love of truth and virtue.

    There are two natural divisions under which my thoughts will

be arranged. I shall endeavour to unfold, 1st, The principles which

we adopt in interpreting the Scriptures. And 2dly, Some of the

doctrines, which the Scriptures, so interpreted, seem to us clearly

to express.  

    I. We regard the Scriptures as the records of God’s successive

revelations to mankind, and particularly of the last and most

perfect revelation of his will by Jesus Christ. Whatever doctrines

seem to us to be clearly taught in the Scriptures; we receive

without reserve or exception. We do not, however, attach equal

importance to all the books in this collection. Our religion, we

believe, lies chiefly in the New Testament. The dispensation of

Moses, compared with that of Jesus, we consider as adapted to the

childhood of the human race, a preparation for a nobler system, and

chiefly useful now as serving to confirm and illustrate the

Christian Scriptures. Jesus Christ is the only master of

Christians, and whatever he taught, either during his personal

ministry, or by his inspired Apostles, we regard as of divine

authority, and profess to make the rule of our lives.

    This authority, which we give to the Scriptures, is a reason,

we conceive, for studying them with peculiar care, and for

inquiring anxiously into the principles of interpretation, by which

their true meaning may be ascertained. The principles adopted by

the class of Christians in whose name I speak, need to be

explained, because they are often misunderstood. We are

particularly accused of making an unwarrantable use of reason in

the interpretation of Scripture. We are said to exalt reason above

revelation, to prefer our own wisdom to God’s. Loose and undefined

charges of this kind are circulated so freely, that we think it due

to ourselves, and to the cause of truth, to express our views with

some particularity.

    Our leading principle in interpreting Scripture is this, that

the Bible is a book written for men, in the language of men, and

that its meaning is to be sought in the same manner as that of

other books. We believe that God, when he speaks to the human race,

conforms, if we may so say, to the established rules of speaking

and writing. How else would the Scriptures avail us more, than if

communicated in an unknown tongue?

    Now all books, and all conversation, require in the reader or

hearer the constant exercise of reason; or their true import is

only to be obtained by continual comparison and inference. Human

language, you well know, admits various interpretations; and every

word and every sentence must be modified and explained according to

the subject which is discussed, according to the purposes,

feelings, circumstances, and principles of the writer, and

according to the genius and idioms of the language which he uses.

These are acknowledged principles in the interpretation of human

writings; and a man, whose words we should explain without

reference to these principles, would reproach us justly with a

criminal want of candor, and an intention of obscuring or

distorting his meaning.

    Were the Bible written in a language and style of its own, did

it consist of words, which admit but a single sense, and of

sentences wholly detached from each other, there would be no place

for the principles now laid down. We could not reason about it, as

about other writings. But such a book would be of little worth; and

perhaps, of all books, the Scriptures correspond least to this

description. The Word of God hears the stamp of the same hand,

which we see in his works. It has infinite connexions and

dependences. Every proposition is linked with others, and is to be

compared with others; that its full and precise import may he

understood. Nothing stands alone. The New Testament is built on the

Old. The Christian dispensation is a continuation of the Jewish,

the completion of a vast scheme of providence, requiring great

extent of view in the reader. Still more, the Bible treats of

subjects on which we receive ideas from other sources besides

itself; such subjects as the nature, passions, relations, and

duties of man; and it expects us to restrain and modify its

language by the known truths, which observation and experience

furnish on these topics.

    We profess not to know a book, which demands a more frequent

exercise of reason than the Bible. In addition to the remarks now

made on its infinite connexions, we may observe, that its style

nowhere affects the precision of science, or the accuracy of

definition. Its language is singularly glowing, bold, and

figurative, demanding more frequent departures from the literal

sense, than that of our own age and country, and consequently

demanding more continual exercise of judgment. — We find, too,

that the different portions of this book, instead of being confined

to general truths, refer perpetually to the times when they were

written, to states of society, to modes of thinking, to

controversies in the church, to feelings and usages which have

passed away, and without the knowledge of which we are constantly

in danger of extending to all times, and places, what was of

temporary and local application. — We find, too, that some of

these books are strongly marked by the genius and character of

their respective writers, that the Holy Spirit did not so guide the

Apostles as to suspend the peculiarities of their minds, and that

a knowledge of their feelings, and of the influences under which

they were placed, is one of the preparations for understanding

their writings. With these views of the Bible, we feel it our

bounden duty to exercise our reason upon it perpetually, to

compare, to infer, to look beyond the letter to the spirit, to seek

in the nature of the subject, and the aim of the writer, his true

meaning; and, in general, to make use of what is known, for

explaining what is difficult, and for discovering new truths.

    Need I descend to particulars, to prove that the Scriptures

demand the exercise of reason? Take, for example, the style in

which they generally speak of God, and observe how habitually they

apply to him human passions and organs. Recollect the declarations