SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Taranaki Daily News, 17 July 1929, Page 11

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

SERMON BY BISHOP BARNES. . THE BREAKDOWN OF DOGMAS. London, June 14. Bishop Barnes, of Birmingham, preached one of his characteristic sermons at Westminster Abbey on Sunday and had things to say which many people would consider startling. The application of exact inquiry to the Gospels had led, he" maintained, to an increasing disbelief in miracles and the churchman was now completely free to examine the Bible in the light of the knowledge of his era. The preacher chose for his text: “Seek ye first-the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Although this was age of religious unrest and the elaborate dogmatic systems of the past had broken down there was widespread the bishop declared. and he saw few signs that institutional religion was rapidly decaying. The present movement towards simplicity and even austerity in religious belief was largely due, he continued, to the influence of our men of science; the physicisis had now become the guides, just as the biologists were rather more than a generation ago. Although it might ‘ have withdrawn men from public worshop, said Dr. Barnes, the increasing authority of science since the war had been of great utility. During the war violent emotional disturbance brought into existence strange beliefs. Primitive religious fancies awoke to new life. In their own Church there was a deplorable outburst of what were usually termed medieval beliefs, “RELIGIOUS BARBARISM."

“Queer types of credulity also flourished under the name of theosophy. Descendants of the Witch of Endor found numerous, clients. . . Bishops found it hard to restrain- their clergy from superstitious irregularities in worship. Even in their Prayer Book proposals the bishops made what are now generally seen to have been, in'effect, concessions to religious barbarism. “These proposals made it possible to teach that a priest cai. convey spiritual properties to inanimate matter. The idea was discredited at the Reformation. But it tends to revive in every period of religious reaction. We need the controlling influence of science, with its appeal to experiment and reason, to prevent such recrudescence of ancient superstitions.”

While tho influence of exact inquiry had diminished religious extravagance it had led to an increasingly widespread disbelief in miracle. “Now the issue is between the uniformity postulated by natural science and the miracles of the New Testament.

“A recent commentary on the Bible, In which Bishop Gore’s influence has been paramount, concedes evolution and seeks to retain miracles. The concession, which virtually no one disputes, undermines that authority of the Bible on which the whole Anglican position is built. “In consequence its rejection of anything approaching Biblical infallibility leaves every Anglican clergyman or layman completely free to examine the Bible in the light of the knowledge of our era. . . It is certain that the vast majority of living -churchmen who have felt the influence of the scientific method find miracle nc. aid to faith." A BASIS OF UNION. Many of the younger clergy, who accepted the name of Modernist, were, explained the bishop, not prepared to deny, but regarded themselves as under no obligation to defend the miraculous records of the New Testament. The scientific, attitude toward miracle aided the destructive criticism now being applied to the Gospels, but modern inquiry did not touch the religious insight and spiritual elevation of Jesus. “In fact, the Christ-spirit which was in Him runs through Che world, its great redeeming force. . . I see in it the possibility of a basis of union between the divided unions of Christendom. "To removo misunderstanding, the preacher concluded, "we need constantly to explain that, while old standards of belief have crumbled, no new orthodoxy has been officially set forth. A young man, enthusiastic for all the new knowledge of our age, can to-day, without dissimulation o r hypocrisy, become an Anglican clergyman. A group of such men would have ft golden opportunity of useful service.**