GARDEN OF EDEN A MYTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16360, 24 February 1921, Page 6

GARDEN OF EDEN A MYTH.

DEAN INGE CALLS IT A “ MYSTERY PLAY.” “ The time has now come when we must give up the ictea of the ancient parable of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Alan as a chapter of actual history.” This was one of the conclusions of Dean Inge in an address to a largo audience at the Kingsway Hall recently. His subject was “ Sin and Alodern Thought.” “ The narrative of the Fall,” he said, “ will always be valuable as a kind of mystery plaj’ of the psychology of man.” The dean, for once, was by no means pessimistic. Here are some of liis points:— “ The modern idea is c What is a man good for?’ and not ‘ What is he bad for ?’ “ Threats from" the pulpit are no longer in us© in the Church of England. In the Free Churches it was becoming uncommon. It could hardly be said that was because we had attained the perfect love which cast out fear. No, we have ceased to fear punishment because we don’t think we deserve it.’ “ Alodern thought tends to suppress . sin. What has decayed among us is the sense of sin. “ I do not think it is fair to say that in earlier centuries the difference between good, and had was recognised, ! and that now it lias been lost. It would bo more true to say that disproportionate punishments were then so familiar that they shocked no one, whereas now they seem to us unworthy of God and incredible in a universe governed by God. “ A great deal of what we call evil is manifestly inseparable from the conditions under which we live. “ Common-sense and morality had both revolted against the moral dualism which divided mankind into ‘ the lost * and ‘the saved.’ To-day there was no great gulf, fixed, no dividing line between the good and the bad. Human nature was seldom or never utterly depraved seldoiu or never entirely saintly or beroie.' ’