Evening star., 1946-03-31
George Sontoyono's S
Critical Analysis
Of the Gospels
THE IDEA OF CHRIST
IN THE GOSPELS

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1t Is hard to find a descriptive
phrase which will cover this new
work by George Santayana. 1t set.
out to be critical examination o.
Evangelists' interpretations of the
Gospels aimed at analyzing the
Christ. But it grows from that tc
an essay on the whole frame of reli-
gion in relation to the species which
lives within the frame, taking in the
historical, moral and philosophical
aspects OF the subject. 1t is a book
to charm the scholar and. imagine
stimulate the cleric.
Mr.. Santayana begins by uphold
Ing the inspired character of the
Gospels. The Evangelists wrote, he
says, not as historians but as artists
The differences between their ver-
sions may be due to the different
manner in which they, as artists
reacted to the story they had tc
tell. He then analyzes the -four
accounts in terms of Christ as the
Messiah, Christ as the Son of God
Christ as the Son of Man, the mir
acles, the parallels, the prophecies
and precepts, the prayers, the Pas
sion and the Resurrection. The
unique idea of the Christian faith
he observes, is the idea of God in
man. not God dwelling among men
or God assuming mans form, but
God becoming man, limiting Him
self by mans limitations without
ceasing to be divine. This is the
Christian inspiration which has en-
dured from the Evangelists to the
present time.
The Inward Consciousness
Thus he makes the experience of
Christ matter of the inward con-
sciousness of the believer, not one
OF historical knowledge. Christ
lives as an idea rather than a
person. But, proceeding from this
point, Mr.. Santayana examines the
historical frame in which Christ
as person, as the fulfllment of the
Jewish prophecies stood, and this
leads him into study of the moral
law of the Old Testament with its
basic concept of God as a tribal
deity concerned with defending His
chosen people. With subtlety and
beauty he develops the growth of
Christianity out of this earlier plant
and demonstrates the inseparabil-
ity of Christ from Jehovah. Our
religion began as "monarchical
theism," he says, and it remains
such. It's roots are in a theology
which presupposes a Creator who
bears the relation of father to our
kind. F'om this he traces the de-
velopment of moral law to love and
charity.
His book, he reiterates, is not a
personal expression of belief, but a
critical examination of the structure
of the Christian religion. It's con-
clusion is that the structure is indi-
visible and must be accepted in its
wholeness, even to the idea of the
damnation of the unsaved, those
who lose eternal life by not recog-
nizing its possibility. In this sense,
the work also accepts predestination
and does not hold up Christianity as
the hope of humanity, since, it says,
the great body of mankind are pre-
destined by their spiritual blindness
not to profit by the hope. The
barren fig tree story is, indeed, put
forward as the most perfect illustra-
ton of the working of the Christian
religion among men-those who do
not bear the fruit of the spirit are
those who cannot, yet they are
punished, Notwithstanding.
Thus the reader must conclude
that Mr.. Santayana sees the Judaeo-
Christian religion as the idea
uniquely personal among other reli
gions, of a relation between God and
man, conceived of by the inspiration
of prophets and saints, reaching its
elimination in the incarnation of
Christ, but effective only among a
spiritual elite The elite, he holds,
will enjoy Paradise. The rest of us
are accidents along the way.