Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 61:243 (Jul 1904)
Article: Notes On British Theology And Philosophy
Author: James Lindsay

BSac 61:243 (July 1904) p. 579

Notes On British Theology And Philosophy

James Lindsay.

Kilmarnock, Scotland

It is a pleasure to commend to the notice of readers of the Bibliotheca Sacra the two volumes just issued, on the Gifford Foundation, by Professor Edward Caird, LL.D., D.C.L., D.Litt., Master of Balliol College, Oxford. They are the last terms in the series that forms a brilliant record of work done in Kant, Hegel, Comte, and other philosophical representatives. The distinguished firm of publishers, Messrs. Maclehose and Sons, of Glasgow, have done for the volumes, in type and finish, all that publishers could do. The volumes are marked by all those excellences of style and thought which have made Dr. Caird the superb lecturer he has ever been—so superb that it does not appear we in Scotland shall soon see his like again.

There are two ways in which we may estimate this work. One is as a contribution on the Gifford foundation, and the other is, as a general contribution to religious and philosophical thought. Now, in the latter, and fortunately the more important, aspect, the work seems to me to rank much higher than in the other view. For it is obviously a somewhat circuitous and indirect mode of approaching the problems of natural theology, to reach them through an exposition of early Greek philosophies. But, on the wider view, such a work has so great value in itself as a contribution to the subject of which it treats, that it can scarcely be too highly praised. That subject is, “The Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers.”1 “The opening chapter is on “the relation of religion to theology,” and has an exceedingly fresh and well-

BSac 61:243 (July 1904) p. 580

balanced statement of the relations of reason and faith. I am so heartily in accord with what the gifted author says that only with reluctance do I enter upon criticism. Yet no statement on such a theme can hope to win universal assent, and criticism is the greatest compliment we can pay to its value.

The contention of the Master of Balliol is that the opposition so often existent between faith and reason can only be relative—not absolute—and must more and more disappear, as each comes to its own in fully developed spiritual life. He proposes (vol. 1. pp. 18-20) no more new or striking idea than that of evolution—the usual catchword of our time—as an eirenicon in the hope of bringing both terms to better mutual understanding. As to his main contention, enlightened theologians have long been agreed upon it, and do not regard the opposition of faith and reason as more or other than accidental. Dr. Caird says there is “no third power beyond both “t...