LOGIC AND FAITH.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 18

LOGIC AND FAITH.

"Tho Modern Churchmen seem to think that their little band of the intellectual elect are representative of the man-in-the-street. This illusion is like that of the three Tooley Street tailors who thought they were the peopte of England. The average man lives by faith, not by logic. That is the way God has made him. Modern psychology tells us that the great instinctive emotions play the principal part in our lives. They are probably a surer guide to truth than reason. The Modern Churchmen place far too high a value on the logical process in religion. In this glorification of the intellect they are quite unscientific. They do not make adequate allowance for the tremendous power of appeal which ritual and ceremonial, symbol and sacrament, make to the heart of man. The liberal catholics are advancing along the right lines. By combining the modern intellectual outlook with catholic worship and symbolism, they make contact with the whole human personality—heart and mind. This double appeal is emphatically endorsed by the new psychology. The Modern Churchmen are not modern enough. There is something wrong with the philosophical position of the Modern Churchman. Here, again, he is behind the times. Fifty years ago the materialistic conception of the universe held the field. Wo were then told that the universe was a closed system, governed throughout by the iron law of necessity. There was no room for free action either by God or man. This philosophy has broken down under criticism. AYe have got back freedom and free-will. Anything is possible. The future cannot be predicted. The universe is a great adventure. This is an immense change in philosophic thought; but there has not been a corresponding change in the attitude of Modern Churchmen regarding the miraculous and supernatural elements in the New Testament. The assumption that miracle is impossible still underlies their teaching. I congratulate the Churchmen's Union on having elected the Dean of St. Paul's as their new President. He will have a stimulating influence, and will probably shake tho Union out of the rather narrow rut in which it has dropped. In him the ancient and the modern are curiousl}' combined. He, is very modern in some of his ideas, but strangely archaic in his opinions regarding the social teaching of the Church."