The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-04-02
RELIGION At THE
FORKS OF ROAD
Rev. F. F. Eddy Draws Line of De-
marcation Between Orthodoxy
and Heterodoxy.
VARYING POINTS OF VIEW
SIGN BOARDS IN RELIGION THAT
POINT DIFFERENT WAYS.

At the Unitarian services in Unity hall
/ yesterday, Rev. Frank Fay Eddy
preached on the theme. AT the Fork OF
! the Road in Religion" The sermon be-
gan with Illustration referring to New
Eli gland roads where the corners are not
square. but branch off from one another
as the tines of a fork.
Modern man. Mr.. Eddy said. was stand
ING at ehe forks of the road in religion.
Before him was three ways to choose
from Each of them might ina CINE
10 be marked with a guide-board on
which was inscribed the text Il am the
way, the truth and the life; no man COM
eth TO the Rather except by me- IN
derneath this sentence on the different
guide boards we may suppose were writ
ten the destinations to which they lead.
Thus on one would be. ITO Orthodoxy"
on another ITO New Orthodoxy" and on
the third ITO Heterodoxy." According
ing the challenge of Christ to the relig-
lCuS man, we will choose our roads.
These interpretations were referred to as
follows:
The Way of Authority.
THE way of orthodoxy is the way of
authority. Orthodoxy means the right
way, and it follows that somewhere there
must be an authority to determine the
rightnesS Of the way. Tradition plays
its part here. but usually when fashion
out of tradition or based upon tradition
I Thus the orthodoxy of Christianity is of
two kinds, each supported by authority;
one form, that of Roman and Greek
Catholicism, assumes to be authorized by
both the Bible or the sacred book. and
by the church or the holy institution; the
other form, that of evangelical Protest
antiSm, relies for authority upon the BIZ
In a general sense each of these would
interpret our text in similar way. They
would say that Jesus Christ came to re-
deem a fallen humanity from the penalty
of their sinful nature. Christ becomes
the divine instrument of salvation and we
are told that there is no other way. This
is declared by the authority of revelation
and eXpounded by the church
The way of orthodoxy is a much trav-
e;ed road; in it the hosts marshaled
ranks under leaders tramp steadily ana
StOlidly on
The "New Orthodoxy"
THE next guide-board points to the
way Of new orthodoxy so-called, but
which would be better named, perhaps,
the pseudO-OrthodOXy. This is a new and
| indeteTminate phase of faith and likely
enough a transient one. 1t seems clear
enough, however, that the new orthodoxy
has lost the old submissive belief in the
Authorities as expressed in a holy church
ane a sacred revelation II is also plain
that it is inclined to lay stress on ethics
with the corallary of salvation by char
1T is a phase of religion that is just
emerging into Self-cOnSciOuSneSs We of
the out-and-out liberal camp have thought
that those who were striving after new
scheme of values in religion would ind
the simplicity and nationality they needed
in our fold But apparently our faith is
too simple, and there are indications that
they will travel for a time at least upon
another road. And at last they begin TO
realize something like definiteness III
their thought.
Perhaps their best spokesman is Ly-
man Abbott. In his last book on the
can be the position of the new orthodoxy
in regard TO Christ He begins by &C
cepting Max Muller's definition of re
ligiou. which. by the way. is anything
but inclusive. that religion is the percep-
ton of the infinite under such manifes-
tatiOns as are able to influence the moral
character of man.
The Christian Religion.
THE christian religion is, then, he
says, such manifestation of the inf
mite in the life and character of Jesus
Christ as will result in ChriStlikeneSS of
life and character Admitting this, 1t fol-
lows that such a religion must be eN
tremely narrow and limited unless the in
CarnatiOn of the infinite in Christ is COM
ness of this incarnation. believing that the
Givine energy. the eternal power from
which all things proceed, has entered, as
he says, into one human lire, HlIed II
full lived. loved and suffered and died
that we might know who and what he is,
and how he who is intangible. inaudlble,
invisible. is operative upon US
1T is to some such conception of Christ
that the new orthodoxy is coming appa-
the Unitarian Jesus becomes Christ,
the Goldman. deity posing as an example.
his existence no longer justified as being
instrument in mechanical scheme of
salvation To us it seems much simpler
TO think Of Jesus rs "A one who aspired.
suffered and achieved as a man; as
born. who lived other men live and
whose death has no other significance
than that of martyrdOm.
ITO defy Jesus and construct theOl-
ogy about him may be illustrated by one
of the ChildreDS puzzles. which depend
upon putting pieces Of cardboard togeth-
er so as to form a figure. This can be
done because the pieces have been cut
of a perfect whole and consequently with
natience that design can be reconstructed.
But cut out an extra piece or replace one
Of those originally used by one of an
other shape and the solution Of the puZ-
zIe becomes an impOssibility. The same
thing occurs when we Introduce into our
world of law and order an IRRESPONSIBLE
being not subject to infirmities or
amenable to our discipline.
The Way of Heterodoxy.
1.-The WAY of heterodoxy is the way of
least Travelled of the roads of religion.
But its Interpretation of the text is that
Jesus was indeed the way. the truth and
the life. But only such in the capacity of
a man al other men have been. As the
great religious genius of the ages he is
neculiarly important figure i'm religion.
With the egotism of a lofty nature he re-
allied that he had found the way to the
kingdom lOf God and in a mystical sense
represented that way. In a similar man
ner he made the truth of the kingdom his
own and became representative of it. all
because he was experiencing the life of
that kingdom of divine communion and
we and i'm the same wav. Thus Jesus be-
comes our human brother So we inter
Dret the text who choose the way of
heterOdOXy.