The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century In Its Relation To Modern Thought And Knowledge

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ... Lecture VIII. THE RISE OF PROTESTANT SCHOLASTICISM. Church systems which formally reject the use of reason are nevertheless moulded and developed by rational processes; nor is it in the power of authority either to display or to defend itself. Its advocates may go so far as to admit, first, that the principle itself requires intellectual justification, and next, that the claims of rival authorities can be settled only by an appeal to reason. But this by no means exhausts the facts of the case. The system which imposes itself as authoritative, either on the bare word of a Church or its own alleged accord with Scripture, still requires and always receives exposition, co-ordination, development; and these are rational processes conducted under rational rules. This is not less true of Catholic than of Protestant systems. The scholastic theology--the form of Christianity universally accepted in the middle ages--was, if not rationalistic in the sense in which we now use the word, at least a result of the application of reason to religion. A series of very able and acute thinkers took up theology at the point at which the Fathers had left it, and applied themselves through many centuries to the task of moulding it into a complete system of belief. Their materials were of three kinds--Scripture, Tradition, the writings of the Fathers--all accepted, though as having different degrees of certitude, on the authority of the Church. Their object was to show that the Christian religion, thus conceived, was identical with the results of sound knowledge and right thinking; in 'other words, to make religion philosophical, and philosophy religious. And the philosophical method by which they sought to execute their task was the Aristotelian dialectic....