try, as I have once
or twice tried, to criticise some current conception of a Christian
dogma, the theological reviewer, with a titter that resembles the titter
of Miss Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby, says that a writer who presumes
to discuss such questions ought to be better acquainted with the modern
developments of theology. To that I demur, because I am not attempting
to discuss theology, but current conceptions of theology. If the
advance in theology has been so enormous, then all I can say is that the
theologians fail to bring home the knowledge of that progress to the man
in the street. To use a simple parable, what one feels about many modern
theological statements is what the eloquent bagman said in praise of the
Yorkshire ham: "Before you know where you are, there--it's wanished!"
This is not so in science; science advances, and the ordinary man knows
more or less what is going on; he understands what is meant by the
development of species, he has an inkling of what radio-activity means,
and so forth; but this is because science is making discoveries, while
theological discoveries are mainly of a liberal and negative kind, a
modification of old axioms, a loosening of old definitions. Theology has
made no discoveries about the nature of God, or the nature of the soul;
the problem of free will and necessity is as dark as ever, except that
scientific discovery tends to show more and more that an immutable law
regulates the smallest details of life. I honour, with all my heart, the
critics who have approached the Bible in the same spirit in which they
approach other literature; but the only definite result has been to make
what was considered a matter of blind faith more a matter of opinion.
But to attempt to scare men away from discussing religious topics, by
saying that it is only a matter for experts, is to act in the spirit
of the Inquisition. It is like saying to a man that he must not discuss
questions of diet and exercise because he is not acquainted with the
Pharmacopoeia, or that no one may argue on matters of current politics
unless he is a trained historian. Religion is, or ought to be, a matter
of vital and daily concern for every one of us; if our moral progress
and our spiritual prospects are affected by what we believe, theologians
ought to be grateful to any one who will discuss religious ideas
from the current point of view, if it only leads them to clear up
misconceptions that may prevail. If I need