RELIGIOUS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 870, 2 November 1888, Page 7

RELIGIOUS.

SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF THE BIBLE. Dr T. T. Munger thinks that the Bible should be regularly taught in our universi ties. In an article in the Century for September he says : ‘There is now no public sentiment that needs to ho regarded which complains of the scientific study of any subject. If in some regions and from some sources there should be complaint at treating sacred themes in a scientific way, it is a complaint that the university must be ready to meet and to endure. It will lessen as the conception, now rapidly growing, gains ground that all education is conducted in the scientific or inductive method. The teacher who now wages a warfare In his class-room in behalf of Free Trade, or Protection, -or evolution, is behind his age. The true teacher is the one who gives the facts, the principles and the laws of his subjeot. If it be said that suoh a theory of education reduces it to a cold and colourless thing, it may be replied that the true teacher puts the warmth and colour into the facts aud laws. He may hide as much conviction as he sees fit within such teaching, but ho must not contradict the very law of education—namely, teaching the student to think and giving him matter for thought. ‘ This method can be carried into a study of the Bible. Objection might come from three sources —strict Sectarians, who regard the Bible as a fetich too sacred to be touohed except in their own way; Atheists and Infidels, who nourish a contempt for the Bible as an antiquated piece of rubbish ; and the devotees of culture, who vary the monotony of their agnosticism by temporary zeal for Classicism, Buddhism, and, of late. Mohammedanism. To the first it may be said, We do not propose to undermine your sect, but to send your students back to you with a better knowledge of the Book that you revere. To the second it may be said, This is still a Christian nation, and the Christian religion is a real factor and power in the life of the people. We do not require your students to become believers, but we do require of them to become familiar with a fact and a force which they will meet at every turn in their future careers. To the third it may be Baid, It is not improbable that, in your varying enthusiasms, you will soon come to take an interest in the Babylonian myths, or in the psychic element in the Hebrew prophet, in a comparative study of Oriontal and Western symbolism, in which case a thorough knowledge of the Book most intimately related to these subjects would not be amiss. ‘ln order not to leave the subject in a vague condition, I will indicate, or rather hint the direction such scientific study of the Bible might take. ‘ Genesis; the nnture, sources and composition of the book. * The Pentateuch ; its authorship and composition. ‘ The Hebrew commonwealth ; its nature and growth. ‘An outline of Jewish history. * The nature ’and meaning of such books as the song of Solomon and Jonah. * The theism in the Psalms. ‘ The argument in the Book of Job, and its literary features. ‘ The Proverbs, and their relation to Oriental thought. * The Captivity, and its effects upon the nation, ‘An analysis of the prophecy of Isaiah, and its literary features. ‘An outline of the life of Jesus Christ. ‘ The sources of the Christian Church as found in The Acts. * Christian institutions : their origin. ‘The forces in Christianity which led to its reception and continuance.’