THE LIFE AFTER DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18032, 6 March 1922, Page 8

THE LIFE AFTER DEATH.

RESURRECTION DOCTRINE.

MODERN CHURCHMAN'S yiEW, CHARGE OF HERESY PRESSED. ["FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON. Jan. 20. It was recently reported that charges of heresy had been formulated against the Rev. H. D. A. Major, formerly of Auckland, and now principal of Ripon Hall And editor of the Modern Churchman. The charge was laid by the Rev. C. E. Douglas, a London clergyman, in reference to views expressed by Mr. Major regarding the resurrection of the body, on the ground that he had " published doctrine which is contrary to the teachings of the creeds as set forth in the prayer book, and contrary to the. spirit of Holy Scripture." A further objection was made that Mr. Major had imported into the Christian religion the teachings of "an Eastern mystic, Buddha." In spite of the fact that the Bishop of Oxford and his theological adviser; have failed to find anything heretical in Mr. Major's beliefs, and consequently the bishop declined to bring a charge against him. Mr. Douglas has returned vigor ously to the attack He has now appealed to the Archhishop of Canterbury setting forth his accusations and stating that he is prepared to substantiate them eithei before a commission of inquiry or " in accordance with more ancient usage, before the Sacred Synod itself. - The Eastern Hypothesis. The present appeal is a pamphlet ol twenty-three pages, which contains among other things, twenty-three letters which have passed between Mr. Douglas and the Bishop of Oxford. In dealing with the grounds of appeal Mr. Douglas says; " This is not the plate to give more than an outline of the argument with whicli the accusation against Mr. Major would have been supported. To the Scriptural thinkers the New Creation is a transfiguration of the old in Jesus Christ here and now, a process growing in intensity until all things shall be summed np in Him. To the Eastern mystic there is no New Creation as far as the physical w concerned. It is dropped as ar incumbrance .and hindrance to the spiritual. In the early days of the Church the Eastern hypothesis was regarded (rightly) as one of the subtlest and gravest dangers to the Gospel. Sect after sect of Gnostic heretics was condemned for introducing it into the Christian religion, and with such finality that for more than 1500 years those who were inclined to emphasise the detachment of the spiritual' from the physical would only do so by advancing heterodox Christologies, e.g., Docetism. " During the last 160 years, however, English thought has been increasingly in direct touch with the East, with the result that (sometimes avowedly, sometimes unconsciously) the Eastern hypothesis has again found a foothold'in Western religion, and it is almost impossible to overstate the necessity for clear authoritative guidance on the" matter." Danger of Being Ridiculous. Some of the correspondence between tho bishop and Mr. Douglas is not without its human interest. In a letter dated October 28 the bishop wrote:—"l have been going into the matter in order to see how we can best proceed. lam very anxious that we should not make ourselves in any way ridiculous." In a later letter Mr. Douelas replies:— " Dear Lord Bishop,—ln your last letter you kindly cautioned me against the danger of being ridiculous. The gentlemen who advised yon to writejour letter of November 1 are, I think, likely to expose you not only to such a chargo, but also to one of disingenuous. , . Do your advisers take me for a child that they have placed you in such a thoroughly false position as to threaten me with piling up costs? Of course, a heresy case cannot be heard for nothing, and probably the appellant will have to pay the Court fees, whatever the issue. I accept the responsibility, and again press that Mr. Major may be called upon to ans rer my charges, and that a copy of his answer be sent to me." The'bishop replied next day:—"My dear Douglas,—You won't do any good by getting angry and writing impertinently. I never cautioned you against the danger of b*ing ridiculous, but I was only anxious that we should not all make ourselves ridiculous. When yon speak of my being ' disingenuous,' you reallv do not know what you are talking about. But please do not think that this in any way creates a prejudice in my mind. I can quite < sympathise with you, and my one desire is to go into this matter and get it cleared up and out of the way. I am going into it very carefully, and I claim to know how to deal with it much better than you do. I have, oeen in communication with Mr. Major, and I have no doubt in a short time I shall be able to get the issue clear." Referring to the decision of the bishop and his avisers (Dr. Headlam, Dr. Lock, and Dr. Watson) the Guardian makes the comment:—"When three such distinguished and representative doctors of theology are of one mind on a subject of this kind other people may well be content. There is abundant cause for thankfulness that the Church will be spared the turmoil of a trial for heresy and all the strife that would inevitably have accompanied it. It has sterner work before it than this—work for which all its energies are needed. ! There are clearly limits to the expression of private opinions on the part of the clergy if their loyalty to the Church is to be maintained, but these limits are assuredly not reached by tho' mere expression of a belief in the resurrection of a spiritual body, If the incident sets people to the highly necessary work of examining themselves "upon what they believe, and the grounds therefor, it will not have happened in vain." Mr. Major's Extraordinary Influence. In the same Church journal is a flattering eulogium on the personal work of Mr. Major, written by a London clergyman, Mr. Hubert Handlev. "In my large, poor London parish, he writes, " two curates came to me at different times from the Theological College at Ripon, trained and inspired by Mr. Major. His influence over his theological students was extraordinary; it is hard to speak of it without exaggeration. It was a personal influence, all.for things high and sacred. In this respect Mr. Major has long seemed to me, weighing my words, to he a man of genius. He is achieving the game ends now at Ripon Hall, Oxford. Those who have bad the pleasure of meeting his present students have found already his mark upon them; have found in them that attractive mixture of reverence, simplicity, and manliness which I have also especially noted, with great respect, among the students of Eelbam. I might speak, too, of Mr. Major's work as a parish priest in his village of Copgrove, and of his rock virtues as a friend. " But ray peculiar function is-to testify to his surpassing gifts as an educator of ordinands. This man has been delated. There are a good many clergy, in all ranks of the ministry, who deserve delation, or, baiter Btill, a thrashing—worldlings, place-hunters, sycophants, prodigies of affectation and moral unreality. These persons are not delated or thrashed; they walk about smiling and scot-free. But when we get a man of heroic mould, like Mr. Major, a man who thinks, a man who strives to quicken and expand the meaning of old doctrines; a man who interprets the ancient formula, 'I believe in the Resurrection of the body,' in a large, developed sense compatible with any,idealistic philosophy; a clergyman, in fact, of precisely the type for which the Church is panting and sick with thirst— then this man is delated and held up before us all as a kind of theological criminal. Not thus. 0 Church of God in this loved land, will you march forward to the future conquests which, when you shall bo humblo and sincere, nv/ait you."