AN ESSAYIN OPPOSITION TO CERTAIN TENDENCIESOF MODERN THOUGHT.
By B. F. COCKER, D.D., LL.D.,
PROFESSOR OF MENTAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN;AUTHOR OF "CHRISTIANITY AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY."
"Science discloses the method of the world, but not its cause; Religion,its cause, but not its method."—Martineau.
NEW YORK:HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,FRANKLIN SQUARE.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
The present volume was announced in the preface to"Christianity and Greek Philosophy" as nearly readyfor publication under the title of "Christianity and ModernThought."
Several considerations have induced the author to delayits appearance, the most influential of which hasbeen the desire to await the culmination among a classof self-styled "advanced thinkers" of what they havebeen pleased to call "the tendency of modern thought."No extraordinary sagacity was needed to foresee the issue,or to predict that it must soon be reached. The transitionhas been rapid from negative criticism of the Christianreligion to direct assault upon the very foundationof all religion—the personality and providence of God.Distrust of a supernatural revelation, and denial of allauthority to the teaching of the sacred Scriptures, hasbeen succeeded by doubt of the existence of God in theproper import of that sacred name. The Theistic postulateis degraded to the rank of a mere hypothesis, which ispronounced inadequate to explain the universe. A "law-governedCosmos, full of life and reason," eternal and in[Pg 5]finite,must now take the place of a personal God, theCreator and Ruler of the universe. This is the "NewFaith" which is to supersede the Old.
The question, "Are we still Christians?" has receiveda final answer in the words of Strauss: "If we wouldspeak as honest, upright men, we must acknowledge weare no longer Christians."[1] And in giving this answer heis confident he speaks in the name of a large and rapidlyincreasing number of men who once believed in the truthof Christianity—"The We I mean no longer counts onlyby thousands."[2] The further question, "Have we still aReligion?" (understanding by religion "the recognitionand veneration of God, and the belief in a future life")is also answered in the negative. Religion "is a delusion,to abolish which ought to be the endeavor of every manwhose eyes are open to the truth."[3] The only questionwhich now remains for the speculative intellect is, "Whatis our conception of the Universe?"—the conceptionwhich henceforth must take the place of a personal God.The answer of Strauss is explicit, and in his estimationfinal: "The conception of the Cosmos, instead of that ofa personal God as the finality to which we are led byperception and thought, or as the ultimate fact beyondwhich we can not proceed, ... assumes the more definiteshape of matter infinitely agitated, which, by differentiati