Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully aspossible, including nonstandard spellings and inconsistenthyphenation.
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The thief's mouth red from the feast,
The blood on the hands of the king,
And the lie at the lips of the priest.
—Swinburne
Is the Morality of Jesus Sound?
A Lecture Delivered Before
the Independent Religious
Society, Orchestra Hall,
Chicago, Sunday, at 11 A. M.
By
M. M. MANGASARIAN
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I make war against this theological instinct: I have found tracesof it everywhere. Whoever has theological blood in his veins is,from the very beginning, ambiguous and disloyal with respect toeverything.... I have digged out the theologist instincteverywhere; it is the most diffused, the most peculiarlySUBTERRANEAN form of falsity that exists on earth. What atheologian feels as true, MUST needs be false: one has thereinalmost a criterion of truth.
—Nietzsche.
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Is the Moral Teaching of Jesus Sound?
A great deal depends upon the answer to the question, "Is the moralteaching of Jesus sound?" This question brings us to the inner and mostclosely guarded citadel of Christianity. If it can be captured, the routof supernaturalism will be complete; but as long as it stands,Christianity can afford to lose every one of its outer fortifications,and still be the victor. Reason may drive supernaturalism out of theCatholic position into the Protestant, and out of that, into theUnitarian, and out of that again into Liberalism, but reason does notbecome master of the field until it has stormed and razed to the groundthis last and greatest of all the strongholds—the morality ofChristianity.
If Jesus was the author of perfect or even the highest ideals the worldhas ever cherished, he will, and must, remain the saviour, parexcellence, of the world. Whether he was man or God, which questionUnitarianism discusses, is a trifling matter. If his ethical teaching ispractically without a flaw, I would gladly call him God, and more, ifsuch a thing were possible. His walking on the water, or his raising thedead, or his flying through the air, would not in the least embarrassme. I could accept them all—if he rose morally head and shoulders aboveevery other mortal or immortal, our world has ever produced. It isclaimed that he did. What is the evidence?
To facilitate this discussion, and to concentrate all our attention onthe subject of this discourse, we will waive the question of thehistoricity of Jesus. For the sake of argument, we will accept thegospels as history—accept the authenticity of the documents, thetrustworthiness of the witnesses, and the inspiration of the texts whichwe are to quote. We[Pg 4] will grant every point; concede every claim, allowevery contention of the defendants. We will then say to them: Does theevidence which you have presented and we have accepted without raisingany objections, prove that the moral teaching of Jesus is perfect, oreven the highest the world has ever possessed?
A system of thought, or a code of morals, is much like a building. As