The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-03-31
REVIVINC THE WORK OF LUTHER

miracles of the Old and New Testa
ment.
| Men Of intelligence and scientific
habits like Mr. Burroughs and the
late Goldwin Smith have no interest
in these dogmas. They dc not think
| they have any necessary connection
with religion at ALL The conception
of God and CT nature which has now
| been finally accepted by the human in
| telligence has made the dOgmas in
stanced untenable, and has rendered
all belief in the miraculous impossible.
| The historic creeds are human words
about things in region where words
have no meaning. The very central
tenet of the Church's teaching is pro-
foundedly immoral, namely, the re-
demption. Atonement and propitia-
ton are conceptions which belong to
low and savage stage of evolution.
Now, what ought the Church to do
i'll these premises. Of course he
means all along the Protestant
church. Is there any way by which
IIit IOln llldIl anu lHc lHJclllStIG
man, or rather the religion and the in
telligence in man can get together?
The problem is for the Protestant
churches, and the learned theologian
has solution of the difficulty that
confronts Professionalism in trying to
serve both God and Mammon. The
churches must declare formally, Off
cially, and in a way which cannot
be misunderstood by honorable men,
that membership in that body does not
imply and is not understood to imply
subscriptions to their dogmas, and to
conform their regulations TO the state
ment. Then would reasonable men of
the calibre of Burroughs, and Goldwin
Smith and Hurley, and IngerSoll and
| suppose Billy Sunday, and Dr. Nc
Connell himself, be willing to join in
the activities of the Christian life. He
ventures to hint another reason, even
more timely, why the Protestant
churches should envisage afresh their
doctrinal formularies. They were all
''made in Germany Even he thinks
those formulated in England and
America are only reconstructions of
German fabrics of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
Yes, indeed, Dr. Mcconnell, Protes-
tantism, root and branch, was made in
Germany, whether it be Lutheranism,
or Anglicanism, or EpiscopalianiSm.
1917 is the fourth centenary of it's
birth, and Luther had as much divine
authority to start it, as your Zulu from
Natal had to bring out an eypurgated
edition of the Pentateuch, and his
disciples of the twentieth century are
as loyal as ever he was TO his great
rule of faith, "sic vOlO sic jubeo stat
pro ratione voluntas.' But Mr.. McCon-
nell is good deal more thorough
going than Martin Luther ever thought
of being. Luther, after all, denied
only some of the articles Of the Catho-
lie faith without any reason, whereas
DR.. Mcconnell would let them all go
because he wants all to belong to the
one fold.
We are glad to be able to agree with
the learned divine in one point at
least. We always thought that this
was the logical conclusion of the prin-
ciple of private judgment applied as
rule of faith. But what we are at 4
loss to understand is, what strange
theological kink in his mind keeps him
from seeing, that his solution of the
very real difficulties arising from the
insurmountable inconsistencies of
Professionalism, destroys the notion of
that does not believe in any super
natural truth of religion at all, is moth
ing but an atheist, or materlallst, or
positivist, or whatever else you like
to call him. Certainly, such man
has no religion If there be anybody
then inclined to get hysterical over the
splendid fruits of the grand and glori-
Gus Reformation let him, in addition to
the church page of the-Monday morn
ing sheets, read what the great living
Protestant theologians think about the
amount of real religion left in Protes-
tantism. DR.. McConnelrs article in
the North American is typical of
scores of editorials which make ones
brain sore when they try to mix up
with this sort of logic, such express
sions as, intellectual upheaval primi-
tive paganism, and the accretions OF
medieval superstition. Yes, DR.. Nc
Cornell, Cardinal Newman came to
the same conclusion as you did, but
when he came to it he admitted it.
There is no via media. 1t is all or
nothingAAtheism or Catholicism.