The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-11
Canon Henson of Westminster
Attacks Scriptures.
Shocks Established Church and
NOnconfOrmists.
DEMANDS NEW FAITH.
Sir Oliver Lodge Also Questions
Accepted Views.
Denounces Doctrine of Atone
ment as Relic of Barbarism.

London, April 11.-Canon Henson OF
Westminster Abbey, in the Contem-
porary Review, attacks the Bible, and
especially the Old Testament, declaring
ats incredible. puerile, or demoralizing
narratives" are "a pack of lies, too
gross for toleraton.
The Anglican world is amazed at the
question with which Canon Henson
concludes his remarkable article. He
asks:
rs the faith Of the church in the
divine Christ, living. present, and ac-
tive really built on an empty tomb?"
The canon's onslaught on the Scrip
lures has amazed England, Anglican
as well as nonconformist. A great cry
has gone up from the established
church, and the archbishop of Can
terbury has been overwhelmed with
public and private appeals for the can
on's punishment.
simultaneously with Canon Henson's
attack comes a demand from Sir Oil
Yer Lodge, principal of the University
of Birmingham, and one of England s
noted scientists, for "reinterpreta-
tion of Christian doctrine" or, in other
words, revised Christianity.
Sir Oliver Lodge shocks the believing
people of England by declaring that
1.-The doctrine OF atOnement in its con-
crete form is a survival from barbar-
GUS times" He reDudiates the belief
in IAN angry God appeased by the viO-
lent death of Christ"
Seldom has England's religious feel
ing been so profoundly stirred as by
the articles Of these two men.
Canon Henson declares that "inspir-
alton is now not allowed to certify to
the truth of any statement in the BIZ
BILE which cannot be substantiated at
the bar of reason and evidence" In
the New Testament he finds little to
whether much or little, it will have to
go the way of the Old Testament pro-
digies."
He recommends supplementing the
reading of the Bible in church with
Christian compositions which have
secured the approval of general ac-
ceptance," declaring that "indiscrimin-
ate reading of the Bible in public is an
extremely perilous proceeding" and
adding that the rightly which re
stricts the modern English church to
canOnical scriptures is as intrinsicalIy
indefensible as it is practically mis-
chievous."
Despite it's misuse. however Canon
Henson holds that the Bible will con-
tinue for all time to be the best man
ual of fundamental morality and the
best corrective of ecclesiastical corrup-
ton" besides being the most effectual
check on the materialistic tendencies
of modern life"
In a striking analysis of the present
social condition Canon Henson attrib-
utes the spread of anarchy, the ulcer
that is eating the vitals of society," to
the disappearance over large areas of
civilized life of the religious bases of
morality.
Yet he finds an excuse for these
s'non-moral muItitudes." who from
the cradle to the grave have faced the
severe pressure of competition, the
squalor of poverty and the miserable
exigencies of unmerited want" and
who Inevitably compare their condi-
ton with the ostentatiOn of unearned
wealth, the profusion of unchecked
luxury, and the insOlence of IN
chastened power.
The canon says that when it is re-
membered that these cruel, shock
ing contrasts are TO longer regarded
with the dull stare of fatalistic ignor-
ance, but in the full light of those
doctrines of equality which are the
commonplace of democratic poll
tics" it is no wonder that "the minds
of thousands are DredispOsed towards
the soDhistries of anarchy"
TT would be idle to deny" he con-
cludes. that the credit of the scrip
lures is seriously shaken in the public
mind, nor can it reasonably be doubt
ed that the tendencies of popular life
as at present prevailing are in the
main hostile to Christian tradition .
In another and similar article
Canon Henson, dealing with Christ s
resurrection, asks:
rs the faith of the church in the
divine Christ living, present and ac-
tive, really built on an empty tomb ?
For myself I prefer to believe that no
such intimate connection exists be-
tween the truth of Christianity and
the traditional notions of its his
torical origins"
Sir Oliver Lodge asks, now that
religion is becoming so much more
real" whether the formal statement
of some of the doctrines we have in
herited from medieval and still earlier
times cannot wisely and inoffensively
be modified ?"
Sir oliver at this point shocks his
coreligionists by declaring that he re-
CARDS the doctrine of atonement in
its concrete form as a survival from
barbarOus times, repudiating the be-
lief "in an angry God appeased by the
violent death of Christ"
Mr.. Lodge, in declaring the doc
trine of the atOnement in its concrete
form as a survival of barbarous times
Il would not be dogmatic in such
a matter but surely it generally is
recognized that although the suffer
ings and violent death of Christ were
the natural consequences of his birth
and so far in advance of his age, and
although the pity and horror of such
a CHASTITY tragedy has a purifying and
sacram mental influence. yet we now are
unable to detect in it anything of the
nature of punishment, nor do we i'm
agine for a moment that an angry
God was appeased by it and is conse-
quently disposed to treat more light
" the sins of men here now or any
otherwise than they have been treat
ed by a constant, steadfast, and per-
severing universe.
1--WE now are beginning to realize q
further stage in the process of the
atonement. We are rising to the con
viction that we are a part of nature
and so a part of God-that the whole
creation is Travelling together towards
some great end. We are no aliens il
a strange universe governed by ar
outside God. This strengthening
vision, this sense of union with divin-
itY-this is what science will SONS