Science and Christian tradition : essays / by Thomas H. Huxley.

  • Thomas Henry Huxley
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Science and Christian tradition : essays / by Thomas H. Huxley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/464 page 11
    it followed that, in the long run, whoso settled the canon defined the creed. If the private judgment of Luther might legitimately conclude that the epistle of James was contemptible, while the epistles of Paul contained the very essence of Christianity, it must be permissible for some other private judgment, on as good or as bad gi'ounds, to reverse these conclusions; the critical process which excluded the Apocrypha could not be barred, at any rate by people who rejected the authority of the Church, from extending its operations to Daniel, the Canticles, and Ecclesi- astes; nor, having got so far, was it easy to allege any good ground for staying the further progress of criticism. In fact, the logical development of Protestantism could not fail to lay the authority of the Scriptures at the feet of Reason ; and, in the hands of latitudinarian and rationalistic theologians, the despotism of the Bible was rapidly converted into an extremely limited monarchy. Treated with as much respect as ever, the sphere of its practical authority was minimised; and its decrees were valid only so far as they were countersigned by common sense, the responsible minister. The champions of Protestantism are much given to glorify the Reformation of the sixteenth centuiy as the emancipation of Reason ; but it may be doubted if their contention has any solid ground ; while there is a good deal of evidence to
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