SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Evening Star, Issue 17927, 24 March 1922, Page 6

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

DEAN INGE ON BISHOP GORE.

Dean Inge Pas reviewed Bishop _ Core’s fcow book on 1 Belief in God in the 1 Church Family Newspaper. _ ino Mahon surelv guvs much too far in sayin" tfiat in Now Testament criticism tho ; conservatives have gained a _ solid victory,’” says Doan Inge. “ VVo may m- . deed bo thankful that nearly all the Pardino epistles (except the pastor ils) bavo been been final v reinstated, and that tho Synoptic Gospels ha ve been proved to certain elements which, date from before A.n. 70, But in his persistence about the Johannino authorship of tho hourth Gospel ho will find hardly any competent scholars to support him. Tho Johannino question has really been decided. Tho Fourth Gospel is an inspired interpretation of the" person and work of Christ, written probably hy a _ Hellenisecl Jew, and reflecting in all points tho state ox religious thought among Greek-speaking Christians between a.u. 100 and 120. The son of Zebedoe vrmi probaoly in nr tyred half a century earlier. as_ Christ foretold that he would be. The bishop’s book has only confirmed my conviction that, while the doctrine of the divinity (or deity, if the expression is preferred) of Christ is mi essential part of tho Christian religion, no one ought to bo compelled to take Up a positive and dogmatic attitude about diiy miracle, even the physical Eesurrectioq, Christ is risen ; that wo know: but have wc any right to say that know what became of the body which died at tho Cross? Nevertheless, _wo ought always to ■remember that science does not anti cannot give us an adequate view of reality. Its categories tire quantitative j it 'disregards values which it cannot measure. Religion is bound to supplement unci correcDthis oue-sidcdncßs; it falls into contradictions just because it is not an abstract science, but an attempt to coordinate ail reality' as it affects tho highest interests of mankind. Philosophy . attempts a more subtle synthesis than either science nr religon; but its escape from the inherent !imitations of human

knowledge and thought is more apparent ' than real. We see through a glass darkly and know only in part, and yet we must have a working hypothesis by which _to direct our lives. Catholic theology, including its theory of’ the supernatural, ia an attempt to provide such a working . ■ hypothesis; *ifc rims at a higher or _ more comprehensive truth than that of science. On the question of miracle it is sharply In conflict wifh 'scientific truth, which is itself a divine, though a partial rovcla- • tion. Some way out .of the impasaij must bo found. It has not .been found yet.”