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eludes by saying , " that much as it had cost him , he bad never repented of bis separation , " It is manifest that the Protestant convert disengaged himself from his first faith by placing himself on the ground of rationalism ; indeed , it may be inferred from his own account of his previous studies , that he was ill-prepared for a biblical examination of the question . The name rationalism is
perhaps new to some of your readers , but it occurs continually in the religious polemics of these parts , and seems to be used to designate an opinion or set of opinions directly opposed to supranaturalism . It is , however , to be believed , that different shades of opinion , and even different opinions , are included under it . It often denotes , what is often called in England , antisupranaturalism , but it is also descriptive of those who , without rejecting the Christian miracles , constitute reason the arbiter of what is to be received as
revealed truth . Of the last class of rationalists again , some maintain that nothing can be revealed truth which is either contrary to the reason of man or above it ; while others would exclude only what is contrary to his reason . As the battle between supranaturalism and rationalism still rages , especially at the University of Halle , where it may end in something more offensive and ponderous than the smoke of controversy , some occasional notices of the origin , progress , and present state of the dispute will not be unacceptable
perhaps in your Repository . In the Theologisches Literaturblatt of the AUgemeine Kircbenzeitung , the subject is introduced for the first time in the year 1824 , in a review of an inquiry into the Christian doctrine Df the holy supper , by Dr . David Sehulz , Theological Professor in the University of Breslau . The following passages are extracted from that treatise : " It seems to be as ungrateful as it is impious to say that the Creator , in giving reason and revelation to man , has bestowed upon him two mutually
hostile , and conflicting gifts , on « of which can be beneficial to him only in proportion as he withdraws himself from the deceitful light of the otherj * " Had we not the divine seed already within us , and were there not in our nature a medium of cornmunion with God through our reason , a revelation . absolutely strange and external to us would be no more fitted for our use , than a mathematical or metaphysical lecture for the instruction of the brute creation . Between existences in no way akin , there can be no
understanding . " "Above all human thoughts , inquiries , and knowledge , with a sure and rapid inarch , came forth the revelation by Christ ; but it is not , therefore , necessary , that it be either above the reason of man or against his nature . " " The just view of the subject appears to be this . Both the thinking power which we are wont to consider as purely human and natural , and the revelation which we acknowledge as an extraordinary gift of Providence ,
far from being essentially divided , are in harmony with one another , confirm , supply , and illustrate each other , and ought to be regarded as resolved into a perfect unity . No view can be rational which contradicts the plaiq word of God ; and no exposition of the divine word ; above all , np history of a revelation which is opposed to sound reason can be valid . They are alike in error who would exalt the value of either by the rejection of one of
them . " Between the author ' s opinion of the office of reason in religion and that of the editor , Dr . Zimmerman , of Darmstadt , there is a broad but not welldefined line of distinction . According to the latter , * ' all religion proceeds from revelation , for the spiritual eye has as little light in itself as the corporeal . It would be arrogance in reason to consider itself as the source and discoverer of religious truths ; but since revelation is intended for man , and since it , as well as reason , conies from God , between them there can be no
Untitled Article
Conversion of a Catholic Priesti 547
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1830, page 547, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2587/page/43/
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