LITERARY NOTICES. 



277 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The Relations between Religion and Sci- 

 ence. Eight Lectures preached before 

 the University of Oxford in the Year 

 1 884, on the Foundation of the late Rev. 

 John Bamptom, M. A., Canon of Salis- 

 bury, by the Right Rev. Lord Bishop of 

 Exeter. New York : Macmillan & Co. 

 Pp. 252. Price, $L50. 



It is now upward of a century since the 

 Rev. John Barapton bequeathed his lands 

 and estates to the authorities of Oxford 

 University, the income of which was to be 

 used forever in paying for a course of eight 

 annual sermons or lectures devoted to the 

 following objects : " To confirm and estab- 

 lish the Christian faith, and to confute all 

 heretics and schismatics ; upon the divine 

 authority of the Holy Scriptures ; upon the 

 authority of the writings of the primitive 

 fathers, as to the faith and practice of the 

 primitive Church ; upon the divinity of our 

 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; upon the 

 divinity of the Holy Ghost ; upon the Arti- 

 cles of the Christian Faith, as comprehended 

 in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds." 



K the well-intentioned founder of the 

 celebrated Bampton Lectures could have fore- 

 seen what would be the result of a hundred 

 years' experience in confirming the Christian 

 faith and confuting heretics, according to 

 the plan laid down, it is more than doubt- 

 ful if he would have ventured upon the ex- 

 periment. Had it been possible for him 

 even to dream as to what sort of lectures 

 his estate would pay for in one hundred and 

 four years, he would have shrunk with horror 

 from the awful result. For, although noth- 

 in2 more earnest or able or wise in defense 

 of Christianity has been given by any of his 

 predecessors than this last series of discus- 

 sions by Dr. Temple, yet such has been the 

 revolution of theological thought in a cen- 

 tury that his book, if it had appeared in 1780, 

 would have been execrated as the rankest 

 conceivable infidelity. And yet, we repeat, 

 no more skillful or powerful defense of fun- 

 damental Christian doctrine than these last 

 Bampton Lectures has appeared in a long 

 time. But the issues have been profoundly 

 changed ; and theological ground has been 

 abandoned which a hundred years ago was 

 regarded as the most essential part of the 

 Christian faith. 



There are of course plenty of living the- 

 ologians who stick by the old — and the older 

 the better — and with whom the intellectual 

 progress of the last century goes for noth- 

 ing. But among these the Bishop of Exe- 

 ter does not belong. He is a Hberal-minded, 

 conscientious, and thoroughly trained think- 

 er, who recognizes the tendencies and fully 

 grasps the great results of modem scientific 

 progress, which has opened a new world ot 

 truth to the human mind, and altered the 

 point of view from which all the highest 

 questions of human concernment are to be 

 regarded. Instead of deploring the tenden- 

 cies of advanced inquiry, and dreading the 

 consequences of that deep and unwearying 

 study of nature which characterizes our 

 age, he regards it as something not to be 

 reluctantly accepted, but to be welcomed 

 and rejoiced in as the working out of a 

 great providential dispensation. His lect- 

 ures are characterized by this lofty and 

 catholic spirit. They are widely contrasted 

 in tone with that theological narrowness 

 which has hitherto marked the controversial 

 work of divines on the questions of the re- 

 lations of religion and science. 



We are here speaking of the temper and 

 quality of Dr. Temple's work as a professed 

 theologian, and not of the logical character 

 of his argument. That will be regarded by 

 many as in various points unsatisfactory. 

 The work is highly instructive, and much 

 important light is thrown on numerous 

 points of controversy. But our chief inter- 

 est in it is its striking significance in mark- 

 ing the progress of religious liberahty. His 

 attitude toward science is thoroughly unthe- 

 ological, using that term in its past and gen- 

 erally accepted sense. Dr. Temple professes 

 his belief in miracles, but he declares that 

 '' Science can never, in its character of Sci- 

 ence, admit that a miracle has happened," 

 But he holds that all alleged miracles, on 

 some possibly higher view yet to be reached, 

 may disappear as miracles, and be shown 

 conformed to a more enlarged view of the 

 natural order. We may say generally that 

 the force of his reasoning is derived from 

 the present limitations and incompleteness 

 of scientific truth. 



It is especially noteworthy that the Lord 

 Bishop of Exeter broadly accepts the doc- 

 trine of evolution. But it is not enough to 



