THE TEACHING OF THEOLOGY 303 



teaching. It is not the purpose of this paper to speak in a derogatory 

 manner of any one of these modes of authority, nor to question that, 

 in the evolution of the religious consciousness of Christianity, im- 

 portant benefits have come by means of each of them. 



To the open-minded student of religious history those benefits 

 are apparent. Catholic imperialism has made its peculiar contribu- 

 tion to the advancement of theological science. By ceremonial 

 splendors, investing the primary data of Christianity with sensuous 

 magnificence; by august paternalism, breaking the bread of know- 

 ledge, pouring the wine of mystery, feeding the mind of ignorance 

 with food convenient for it, restraining with the rod of correction 

 the undue ardors of the intellect; by spiritual legislation delimiting 

 the boundaries of religious ideas and prescribing their order and 

 content, Catholic imperialism has forced upon the attention of the 

 world the facts and claims of the Christian religion. 



The development of the protesting sects of Christendom represents, 

 in the first instance, revolt from Catholic authority, resulting in the 

 substitution therefor of the authority of dissent, often no less im- 

 perial and uncompromising in its temper; in the second instance it 

 represents the multifarious lines of cleavage in the body of dissent, 

 with the consequent multiplication of sectional and sporadic claims 

 of authority. 



However confusing this spectacle of multitudinous rival authorities 

 may be to him who conceives of truth as one essence, homogeneous, 

 incapable of self-contradiction, it is probable that hereby resulting 

 evil has not been unmixed with good. The revolts from authority 

 have occurred for cause. Suppression of truth, perversion of its 

 meaning, contempt of its ethical sanctions, have been among the 

 charges brought against authority to justify dissent; and if, as in the 

 present Scotch Church case, the imperialism of an autocratic minority 

 brings catastrophe for the time being to the cause of religion, we may 

 not doubt that, upon the whole, the protesting sects of Christendom 

 have brought greater protection than peril to the Church which, 

 without the perpetual recrudescence of salutary dissent, might fall 

 a victim to secular ambitions and corrupt beliefs. 



The authority of popular religious usage is another mode of ex- 

 pression exercised by ecclesiasticism in the region of theological 

 science. Sects develop their own religious vernaculars. Biblical 

 words acquire fixed connotations, determined by a sectarian author- 

 ity, which unconsciously reflects popular usage, and, in turn, seals 

 that usage with official approval. The peril of this is obvious. The 

 criteria of truth may become its local modes of verbal expression; 

 a theory of interpretation may count for more than the fact to 

 be interpreted. The authority of popular religious usage contains 

 grave possibilities of intellectual oppression and moral injustice. 



