The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-10-05
POPULAR APoLoeETIcs.
Adapted from the German OF Rev
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev.
James Watcher.
81 Remains Life of Jesus.

81. Remains Life of Jesus
ohjection: Remains Vie de Jesus
Life of Jesus" is a masterpiece OF
poetic conception of the exalted life
of the great Nazarene and fine eX-
ample OF French scholarship.
Answer: The heavily written Life
of Jesus" by David Strauss, C1S7D
in Germany. Ernest Renan 1S23-1S92)
remodeled into a romance, in which
ligntness of form, shallowness OF con-
tant. charming landscape-painting and
sentimental, enthusiastic reverence
for the man Jesus and the lowest
treason against His divinity are
united.
Ernest Renan had received the four
Minor Orders, and after losing his
faith, he left the seminary and in 1S45
became professor. In his Souvenir
I enhance ct de jeunesse-Reminls-
1eaces of My Childhood and Youth
he says Of himself: Il admit that in
the early part Of my life lied much. y
Truth is but of little value to the
Oriental; he looks to the idea. The
best thing is won as rule by the
worst motives" (Cf. Vie de Jesus
252-258. $50; Liberte de penser t. III
p. 266, 500.
Il saw the futility of all virtue; l
understood especially that nature
cares absolutely nothing that a man
be chaste. l adopted the morals
of a Protestant preacher E.
know Protestant preachers of very
broad views, who save everything by
their immaculate cravat :"
(Cf. Revue des deux mondes, Nov.
1882
A man with such views was evi.
IDENTIFY very fit to understand the
highest ideal of virtue and to write
the life of the Goldman. AS the nov.
elist Dumas Jr. diyulged, Renan re-
ceiyed one million francs from the
Jew Rothschild for this romance, in
which he. under the mask of the hypo
critic, who is in ecstacy over the human
ity of Jesus, tries to annihilate the
divinity of the Saviour by perversion
natural explanation of the supernat
ural and insinuations of the worst
kind.
His principle is: A miracle cannot
be proved historically. His proposal
{ Of a scientific committee of inquiry
for miracles Is not even original, fol
already the old Encyclopedias of the
eighteenth century demanded grena
oilers as supervisors of miracles; but
the proposal is absurd and silly, fol
God cannot degrade Himself to ap
pear before a human committee OIL
inquiry; on the other hand God works
such miracles which can be known as
such without such a committee BY
every reasonable man. (Cf chap. So
40, II of this series.)
Just a few examples of how easy
Renan takes the explanation O
miracles. The wonderful multiplied
ton of bread he explains" by thu
single phrase: by extreme frugalit,
the holy crowd lived three days in tn
desert. Naturally this was accepte
as a miracle" l wish only that MI
Renan would go with 5000 YER
hungry men into the desert an
demonstrate this extreme frugality
with five loaves. If we then could fl
twelve baskets with the pieces lei
over after they had their fill, we woul
believe Mr.. Renan.
The healing of the sick by Jesu
Renan explains by friendly trea
ment." Such an important and extr;
ordinary person as Jesus gives wha
he can, smile, hope, and that is Nc
in vain" (Vie de Jesus p. 26O.)
Of course, at such a smile" tn
lame throw away their crutches, tn
dumb speak, the blind see Gust ho
they can see the smile is hard to see!
the lepers are cleansed. For the DO
sesSed a sweet word" is suficien
The satisfaction to see an "extrao
binary person" also makes people wei
That is especially the case with til
blind Mark TO- IS; John 8: u; til
same with those at distance, fl
example the servant of the capital
(Matth. 8: g., the daughter of tt
woman CT Canaan (Matth. Is: 21
who were healed by Christ; this
especially true Of the dead who wei
raised by Christ! Luke Z: IL; 8: A.
John II: H.
(To be continued.)