SPIRIT OF MODERNISM.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16114, 1 May 1923, Page 9

SPIRIT OF MODERNISM.

CANON BARNES ON PIONEFJ »8 OF THOUGHT.

LONDON. March 4.—Tin? first of a series of four lecture-; on "The Spirit of .Modernism" was delivered by Canon Barnes at. Westminster Abbey before a large eongrega tion.

"My object,-', said;the lecturer, "is to show'yotu that this spirit is not, as is olte'ii believed, a. new and dangerous phenomenon in the Christian Church. It lias-, in tact, been present in every age when secular thought was active and progressive. Moreover, it lias been the source of mosl important developments of 'Christie™, theolagy in the past. Those who, at. different epochs, were animated l>\ this; spirit, were more ofleji than nut distrusted by their contemporaries. Like nther pioneers, they sometimes made mislakes; but their names live, and will continue to live in, ( hristian history, because iliey sought truth, so far as il could he reached hv their understand-

As the., first of those whom lie proposed tn discuss, (..'anon Barnes selected tbigen, who sought to reconcile the Christian fait]) with Greek philosophy early in the third century, when Christianity was becoming the dominant religion d the Roman Empire. We needed, in the first place, he said, a definition of Modernism, and it. might best he described as the attempt to join the revelation of ..Jesus Christ to contemporary science, scholarship, audi philosophy. Origen took the Christion faith, as represented by the Bible, and showed how it. could iw placed in the .settling made by the thought of his age. He had a magnificent intellectual audacity, and' he used the Scriptures with a freedom .and' ingenuity that excite surprise, and are

still worthy of study. But he laid down the lines on which orthodox theology was to develop during the centuries when our creeds assumed their present .forms.. Origen boldly adopted the theory of allegorical interpretation, and by this device: he was able lo use the Bible wjth our modern freedom. "We discard:'an erroneous statement in. the Bible," said Canon Barnes. 'Origen interpreted it lo suit the ideas of his age. The result is often much the some, though we are more loyal to truth in that we insist that every passage must bear the meaning which its writer originally sought to convey." Orjgc-iiii rejected, as, indeed, do modern scholars, literal belief in the story of the 'Fall. But he assumed! that the soul of man was indestructible; that it pre-existed before being joined to the body; and that in its pre-existcnt state it had suffered a transcendental fall. On this foundation he built bis theological scheme.

"To us, with our more accurate scientific conceptions," said Canon Barnes, "Origen's view of the universe seems strange and bizarre, a. queer medley of good sense andi fancy. But because he was honest in his. thought, many of his ideas remain valuably suggestive. He defends, for instance, t lie Virgin Birth by the plea that in Nature there are parallels to it. We smile at his belief that the vultures offer such a parallel ; but we know that parthenogenesis is a. biological fact, andi with Origen we can still -say, , 'ls it, then, incredible to suppose that, if God wished to send a Divine Teacher to the human race'. He caused' Him to he born in a manner different from the common? Similarly, Origen awakens a response in us when he says that there could not have been evening and morning on the lirst three days of Creation without sun, moon, and stars. The Creation story, in fact, is figurative, and so also, says Origen, is the Temptation of our Lord, 'From no high mountain could a man see all the kingdbms of the world.' Yet Origen insists that, in the; figurative story of Creatiofi), we) can discover 'a meaning worthy of God,' and-' we all know that in relating the Temptation Jesus gave the most profound revelation of His character rind purpose."