The gospel of the Resurrection
Subtitle: thoughts on its relation to reason and history
By: by Brooke Foss Westcott
Edition: 2d ed.
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 1867
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
Subjects: Resurrection
Notes: Access to portions of this material may be restricted.
Table of contents: title: I. Statement of the question; title: A. The resurrection as the central truth of Christianity, either true or false: no mean; title: 1. Morally a revelation; title: 2. Historically a fact; title: Uniting the objective and subjective elements of religion; title: A religion of the world necessarily historical; title: The history essentially moral; title: B. Preliminary questions; title: II. Introduction: Ideas of God, nature, miracles; title: A. The difficulties of Christianity essentially included in common life; title: 1. The resurrection a new fact and not an explanation of mysteries essentially insoluble by us, which are reducible to the final antithesis of finite and infinite; title: a. Christianity assumes the existence of: an infinite personal God, a finite human will; title: Explanation of terms; title: Hence we gain some conception of: Nature in relation to God; Laws of Nature: simply laws of human observation which include the operation of an unknown force and cannot therefore be absolute; title: Indeterminate powers in nature; title: b. Christianity claims to be miraculous; title: The idea of a miracle: a miracle not impossible nor unnatural; title: What natural explanations must be avoided: In relation to God, in relation to man; title: Why a scientific age is incredulous of miracles; title: Instinct is not conquered by science; title: Miraculous records not antecedently incredible; title: III. The resurrection and history; title: A. Christianity claims to restore harmony to all creation; title: 1. A historical progress observable in the physical and moral worlds; title: with which Christianity is intimately connected, according to the teaching of the Apostles, whether the advance was realized among the Jews or Gentiles; title: And Christianity itself is a history, and has been developed historically; title: In this lies its distinguishing characteristic, which centers in faith in the person of Christ; title: If therefore the circumstances of its origin were unique, so also may have been the phenomena which it included; title: B. Christianity in connection with universal history; title: 1. The relation of Christianity to pre-Christian history; title: a. Jewish History: Characteristics of the history of the Jews; title: The discipline of Egypt, Sinai, the conquest, the kingdom, the captivity, the dispersion; title: The development of the idea of a deliverer; title: The doctrine of the Messiah, the word; title: Contrast of the two doctrines; title: b. Gentile history; title: Greek literature and thought; title: Roman statesmanship and law; title: 2. The relation of Christianity to post-Christian history; title: General outline of its progress: the church of the first centuries; title: The medieval church; title: The church of modern Europe. Evangelical; title: B. The special evidence for the resurrection; title: 1. The testimony of St. Paul; title: 2. The character of the event: excludes the possibility of delusion; title: Not anticipated by any popular belief among Greeks, or Jews; title: 3. Contrary to the messianic expectations of the Jews to the ideas of the Apostles; title: 4. The effects of the event; title: on the character of the Apostles; title: On the Apostolic view of the person of Christ; title: Especially on St. Paul's teaching on the death of Christ, and our relation to him; title: 5. The relation of the belief in the event to other parts of Christian doctrine; title: The return of Christ; title: The Holy sacraments; title: The life of the Church; title: II. The resurrection and man; title: A. The final elements of every moral question: God, the world, self; title: 1. The result of suppression of any one of these elements; title: 2. The individual 'self' felt at present to be twofold and the antithesis which it includes is essential to our personality; title: 3. Hence arise the questions; title: Will our personality be preserved after death?; title: What is the future relation of self to God?; title: What is the relation of Self to the world?; title: B. Personality as far as we can see, depends upon the special limitation through which the soul acts; title: 1. Reason can shew that we survive death by shewing either that; title: a. The soul will itself have a personal existence; title: b. It will act through an organism corresponding to its present one; title: On principles of Reason there is no reason to think that the individual soul is personal; title: The judgment of Aristotle; title: The arguments adduced in support of the belief apply to the past as well as to the future; title: We have no ground for supposing that the soul can take to itself any organization soever; title: Thus there remains a final conflict between Instinct and Reason as to our future personality; title: 2. The doctrine of the resurrection preserves the idea of our personality completely; title: The significance brought out gradually; title: The Lord's body the same, yet unchanged; title: After death the whole complex nature of man is ennobled; title: ^; title: C. The final relation of man to God depends upon the reality and issues of sin; title: 1. What reason teaches of sin; title: The possibility of sin included in the idea of a finite, free being; title: Its realization not required for moral development, though in some forms it may be subservient to it; title: It is indeed essentially foreign to our nature and yet when once realized permanent in its effects; title: Thus there remains an instinct which looks for forgiveness of sin, and Reason which points to the inexorable sequence of the results of action; title: 2. The light which the resurrection throws on the forgiveness of sin; title: In what way the Lord's suffering and triumph belong to us; title: D. The relation of self to the world; title: 1. This is indicated by the dignity assigned to the body, which is the seed of that which shall be; title: 2. Effects of the doctrine; title: Morally as to the individual and society; title: Physically in relation to the outer world; title: III. The resurrection and the church; title: ^; title: A. The resurrection in relation to the history of the church; title: B. Various images under which the Christian society is described; title: A kingdom; title: A temple; title: A body; title: C. Hw these images are seen in light of the resurrection; title: A spiritual kingdom: a new heaven and a new earth; title: A structure reared through many ages and hallowed by One Spirit; title: The visible body of the risen Christ; title: D. Contrast between the fundamental idea of Christianity as the basis of a society and those of; title: Paganism; title: Judaism; title: The principle of unity illustrated by the resurrection; title: The principle of life; title: E. The essential unity of the church does not require external unity, nor one visible centre of authority such as was for a time established at Jerusalem, till 'the end of the world,' and afterwards at Rome; title: The extent of variation consistent with substantial unity not to be determined antecedently; title: The admission of the necessity of variations in the church does not sanction sectarianism; title: ^; title: We have to deal with a world in which sin is realized; title: Progress itself implies antagonism and individuality; title: F. The essential unity of the Church seen in its historic development; title: 1. This development one of organization; title: not of doctrine absolutely; title: corresponding to the general progress of civilization and the complexity of the Christian body; title: Hence it includes many partial and transitional developments, which are set aside when their work is done; title: 2. How far this development is due to human imperfections; title: Scripture the unchanging test of development; title: 3. Our age presents an epitome of all past ages; title: The function of national churches; title: Grounds of hope in the midst of the contradictions of modern life.