Christianity As Religion Made Moral 197

CHRISTIANITYAS RELIGIONMADE MORAL

DOUGLAS CLYDE MACINTOSH, PH.D. Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

The most characteristic phases of results. At first religion was used as a religion are (i) a definite attitude of means of promoting any value appre- dependence upon a superhuman Power ciated, but more and more it is being for help and deliverance in some crisis concentrated upon moral ends. Mo- in which human values, actual or rality is a content of religion to which ideally possible, seem to be threatened; there can be no rational objection, and (2) the experience, in certain cases, of there is good ground for the hope that, the desired deliverance; and (3) the by becoming ever more truly moral in satisfied and grateful contemplation of its ends and in the ways and means of the superhuman Reality believed to reaching those ends, religion may con- have been the source of the deliverance. serve and even increase its vitality, so It often happens, however, that the that it cannot be rationalized out of desired deliverance does not come. In existence, but only into higher and more time, doubt and criticism are the in- universally acceptable forms. evitable result; a rational explanation As we look over the history of reli- of the failure of the religious attitude, gion we find that, in spite of the often when it does fail, is demanded. Prac- disintegrating influence of rational criti- tical religion, religion which seeks de- cism upon traditional religious belief finite experiential results of the religious and practice, there are certain products attitude, must submit to rationaliza- of the religious spirit which appear to be tion. The great question is whether able to withstand the influence of this it is to be rationalized out of existence, sometimes greatly dreaded "destruc- or rationalized into a final, universally tive criticism." Not all religious revo- valid, scientific form. Can religion re- lution is merely, or even mainly, negative main practical and vital, while develop- in its outcome. Not infrequently ing, along with other human interests rational renunciation of the inadequate and activities, in rationality ? in religion has been accompanied and It is worth noting, in connection even facilitated by the production, as a with this question, that there is one substitute, of religious contents more species of practical value which the fully compatible with the newer and demand for rationality in religion seems more critical modes of thought and to leave unimpaired, viz., morality. action. The failure of materialistic Definite, persistent, and self-abandoning religion has been interpreted as due to dependence upon the religious Object moral delinquencies on the part of the with a view to moral renovation and petitioner; moral ends are accordingly power for service does not fail to bring sought in religion, at first as a necessary I95

precondition of material blessings, but Essential Christianity, then, i.e., finally with the understanding that to Christianity in the form in which it create a clean heart, to renew a right can still be the vital religion of the spirit, is the true function of religion. scientifically minded man, is, whatever Non-moral ceremonies of riddance, too, else it may be, religion made moral. and even immoral mystery-religions be- Not only is religion made moral that come moral, when the public conscience which is most vital in rational religion demands it, and a powerful means of and that which is most rational in vital promoting morality. But most com- religion; it is also that which is most monly, perhaps, the moral revolution Christian in historic and present-day in religion has emanated from some great Christianity. That this is so, that the moral personality, as the history of essence of Christianity, as religion, can religion abundantly shows. be stated in terms of religion made Conspicuous above all others among moral (provided we use this term the prophets of moral religion is Jesus "moral" in the essentially Christian of Nazareth. Original Christianity, we sense, according to which moral value would maintain, was, in its innermost is everywhere an absolute value), is core and essence, religion, made more supported by a consideration of what moral and, therefore, potentially more have come and are today increasingly rational, by the introduction into it, coming to be regarded as the Christian actually and in its tradition, of the conception of God, the Christian experi- moral personality of this matchless ence of salvation, the Christian sense spiritual leader. At the same time it of the value of prayer, and the Christian was morality, made more religious and, hope of eternal life. therefore, more vital, by the carrying First as to the Christian conception into it of the dynamic of the morally of God. It is often said in these days renovated religion of Jesus, a religion of psychology "Man makes God in his whose experience.was that of spiritual own image." This statement cannot be communion and active fellowship with regarded as literally true save from the the divine Father, cultivated not only point of view of atheism. But it is as an end in itself, but as a means to the true that man makes his God-idea and completest self-giving in ministering to that he tends to make it in his own the deepest needs of the human brother. image. Xenophanes was right. "If Essential Christianity is, for the modern, oxen and lions had hands, and could rational, reality-loving spirit, the religion paint with their hands and fashion and morality of Jesus, clothed in the images, as men do, they would make concepts of a scientific age. It cannot the pictures and images of their gods even be the religion of the gospel about in their own likeness; horses would Jesus, unless that gospel about Jesus make them like horses, oxen like oxen." is interpreted in the spirit of the Often the natural desires and disposi- religion of Jesus. It is at once moral- tions of men, but always at any rate ity made religious and religion made their ideals, are reflected in their ideas moral. of the Object of religious dependence

and adoration. We have but to think As for Jesus, so for Christianity as of Zeus and Apollo, of Mars and Venus, essentially identical with the religion of of Rama and Krishna. The chief Jesus, the existence of God is not a trouble with the God-idea of Mohammed mere matter of traditional teaching or and his followers is that it is made too of speculative belief, nor is it a mere much in the image of Mohammed-- practical postulate; it is a verified arbitrary, unreasonably severe in pun- experiential judgment. Jesus could not ishment, impulsively merciful. have recognized any other God than the The Christian God-idea, as we now morally perfect Father. If he had not have it at any rate, is made in the image found such a God, if his spiritual of Christ. There are two varieties of experience had failed to provide veri- Christianity at this point: in the one fication of his belief in a perfect God, he Christ is worshiped as God; in the would have had to do without any God; other the religious Object is "the God for Jesus, it was a perfect God, or none. and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And it is of unending significance to the But, religiously speaking, the Chris- race that a man who demanded so much, tianity of the deified Jesus and the morally, of the Object of his religious Christianity of the Christlike God are dependence was not obliged to be an largely the same. Both have found the atheist. (The New England theology same sort of God-the same God, collapsed, as someone has remarked, indeed-and have found him in the because the God who could damn men same place, viz., revealed in the person for his own glory was too immoral a and work of Christ. being to be worshiped by a man who "Your Father in heaven is perfect." could set so severe a moral standard Perfect, that is, from the point of view for himself as that he ought to be willing of Jesus. The only God whom Jesus to be damned for the glory of God. The could worship, the only God of whom he time has come, indeed, when, to the could be the prophet, must needs be Christian moral consciousness, atheism morally perfect, judged by the standards would be a view more acceptable of Jesus himself. And the essentially than Calvinism in its more extreme Christian conception of God today is form.) that of the adequate Object of religious Christianity, then, as religion made dependence and adoration, sufficient, moral, includes the verifiable faith that not only in power and wisdom, but also the perfect God exists, and that not, as in character, being the realization of the Professor Howison would have it, as personal moral ideal of Jesus. "the final cause of everything and the If it be remarked, with Professor efficient cause of nothing," but as the of Simmel, Berlin, that we know well ultimate efficient cause of the spiritual enough what God is, viz., the unity of evolution of man, and of the spiritual all spiritual ideals, but that we can never redemption of sinful men accomplished know that God is, the answer is that it through Christ, and immanently active is true enough that, apart from religious as the Holy Spirit in the Christlike experience, we cannot know that God is. everywhere.

That in essential Christianity religion From this point of view of Christian- has been made moral is seen in the ity made moral, with its interpretation Christian experienceof salvation. Prac- of the Christian experience of salvation tical religion centers in the experience as moral deliverance through religious of deliverance from evil, actual or pos- dependence, the old-fashioned evangeli- sible, through dependence upon God. cal question, "Are you saved ?" while This deliverance is not primarily an a very wholesome one for a person to emotion, but a change of relationships. put to himself, is not one that can The prayer "Deliver us from evil" ordinarily be well answered quite so means neither more nor less than "Save glibly as was formerly deemed desirable. us." Salvation is deliverance from evil. From what specific moral evils of char- In primitive religion the "evil" was acter and conduct has the Christian chiefly physical and belonging to the been saved ? And to what extent has present life. Later it came to be chiefly the "good work" been accomplished? eschatological, although still mainly And, especially in these days of awaken- physical. But in spiritual religion the ing social conscience, to what extent evil from which deliverance is sought can the individual be saved, morally is chiefly moral, and thus primarily as well as in other respects, so long as belonging to the present life, even if multitudes of his fellows are in wretched- also presumably eschatological. ness and sin ? Interpreting salvation, then, as de- The result of making religion funda- liverance from moral evil, it may truly mentally moral is seen in the essentially be said that Jesus was saved. He was Christian sense of the value of prayer, as not saved from physical evil; "himself being moral, as well as religious. Prob- he could not save." But he was saved ably no one has ever experienced so from moral evil, by prevention and fully the value of prayer as did Jesus, and development, we take it, rather than by by word and example he has given us cure. Thus especially does he become some very remarkable teaching on this to us Christians "the Captain of our subject. The central problem in the salvation." Through the religious and philosophy of prayer has not been with moral ministry of the Christ, perpetuated regard to confession, or thanksgiving, in the Christian community at its best, or adoration, but with regard to what the individual is saved, delivered from is commonly called petition. The term moral evil, often primarily by way of is not a good one; its suggests a rela- cure ("redemption," interpreted as in- tion of man to God which is altogether ward, experiential, moral), but ulti- too external. But it is with reference mately also by way of prevention and to this question of prayer and its answer further development in positive good. that the word and example of Jesus are Thus Christianexperience of moral salva- most instructive. tion is not reservedexclusively for another In the first place, it may be said that life; it is a present, progressive deliver- according to Jesus we are never justified ance, which may well be expected to con- in more than conditional prayer for tinue beyond the confines of this life. relativevalues. "Your Father knoweth

This content downloaded from 138.073.001.036 on August 05, 2016 05:26:07 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION MADE MORAL 199 what things ye have need of." "Use not Jesus confronted, the appropriateexpres- vain repetitions"; insistently asking for sion of enlightened moral religion. this or that material "blessing," which, We would repeat, then, that in the is of but doubtful or relative value, religion of Jesus, as in essential Chris- is in vain. Be anxious only to be effect- tianity as religion made moral, it is felt ive for human welfare; "seek first the to be not morally right to offer uncon- Kingdom of God," and the question ditional petition for what we do not as to what things you are to get may be know to be an absolute value. But left largely to take care of itself. To be the world-view of Jesus was, it is well sure, in the "daily bread" petition there to remember, like that of his contem- is recognition of man's physical de- poraries, pre-scientific. What then is pendence; but the only physical desire the meaning of the prayer "Thy will explicitly sanctioned in the Lord's be done" when translated into our Prayer is the desire for the absolute modem world-view? Is it not, so far minimum of physical goods necessary as concerns events or matters with to sustain life. The petition is thus which the will of the petitioner has, or practically the honest expression to God can have, by means of any actual or of the desire to continue to live, which possible relations to the things or per- is not only morally legitimate but im- sons of this present world, nothing to do, perative, in view of life's opportunities that he should simply seek moral and for moral growth and service. But, spiritual equipment, through fellowship when so interpreted, it is greatly illumi- with God, in order that he may be fully nated by the story of how Jesus himself ready to meet, with moral triumph, prayed in Gethsemane. He expressed whatever the future may bring? Most his "soul's sincere desire" for continued future events either are pre-determined life, we are told; but this, we are sure, or will be determined by free agents was not for the mere sake of living, but over whom we have no possible control; in order that his ministry to humanity except for what is accomplished, imme- might be continued. And yet even this diately or ultimately, by our own will, prayer for life itself was, according to the future will not be different, so far tradition, expressly conditional. In as we can say with rational confidence, view of the possibility of increasing from what it would have been, by reason absolute values on condition of the of our prayer or our failure to pray. An further continuation of one's own life, English novelist has recently expressed it is a duty to seek to live, "if it be pos- the conviction that, as a result of the sible" without loss of moral integrity. present war, we shall retain only the "Nevertheless," in view of the possi- ethic of Christianity, giving up its bility of a life beyond physical death, distinctly religious elements. Such is and the consequently merely relative not the meaning of this refusal to seek, character of all physical values, even the directly, through prayer, deliverance most fundamental of all, the value of from physical "evil." Dependence physical life, "not as I will, but as Thou upon God for strength to meet physical wilt" becomes, in such situations as evil with courage and patience becomes

all the more urgent, if one deliberately prayer, when intelligent and absolutely refrains from praying for direct physical sincere, and continued "without ceas- interventions on the part of God, ing," i.e., without giving up in dis- because he deems it irrational to do so. couragement, is as sure to succeed as But if the words and deeds ascribed any process the scientist can describe. to Jesus suggest that unconditional It is universally answered. "Everyone prayer for merely relative values is that asketh receiveth." Thus while morally wrong, they teach even more science may reduce the number of our emphatically that prayer for personal petitions, the scientific attitude carried moral values, which we know to be abso- into religion will ultimately serve only lute, not only may, but, to be properly rationally to direct and intensify our effectual, must be unconditional. The prayer for moral uplift, giving us added publican in the parable prayed for assurance that such dependence upon mercy, and the mercy he obtained was the immanent divine spirit cannot be moral mercy, righteousness, sufficient in vain. for his "justification." "Good gifts"- And with regard to the intercession, in short, "the Holy Spirit," God him- the all-comprehensive prayer, which is, self-this is what is given in response "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done," to true religious dependence. Indeed can really be prayed only by being so this is how Jesus came to be more divine made the soul's sincere desire that the than others; not that he was born with- prayer is simply the inside of the life; out a human father, but that he so the life, the outside of the prayer. found the way to the divine Father, in When prayer is made thoroughly moral, the life of prayer for moral values, that it will be neither more nor less than God gave himself to him more abun- moral religion. dantly than to others. Finally, that essential Christianity And this greatest of gifts, the Holy is religion made moral is evidenced Spirit, like the midnightgift of loaves by the nature of the Christian hope of to the needy neighbor, is given by God eternallife. The heaven that men have to man, "not because he is his friend," spontaneously hoped for has always exactly, but only on condition of per- been the pursuit of favorite or ideal sistently seeking it in religious depend- activities under ideal conditions. The ence. Importunity, like that of the Egyptian looked forward to farming a widow seeking justice is indispensable river valley under ideal conditions; the in seeking, through religious adjust- heavenly Nile never failed to overflow, ment, the promotion of the absolute nor abundant harvests to ripen in due values of a thoroughly moral will and season. The ancient Teuton expected character. Men ought to pray (not a continual round of eating, drinking, to say prayers, merely) "always," per- and fighting, under conditions so ideal severingly, and "not faint," or grow that wounds would heal so rapidly that discouraged and give up when on the the fighting could be resumed without very verge of attaining to experiences serious interruption. The North Ameri- which can come by prayer alone. Such can's paradise was the happy hunting-

This content downloaded from 138.073.001.036 on August 05, 2016 05:26:07 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). CHRISTIANITY AS RELIGION MADE MORAL o01 ground. And so, in Christianity at One may easily be selfish and immoral its best, as moral religion, a future life in his desire for immortality; but no is looked upon as an opportunity for one can be fully Christian, or fully further spiritual development and moral, and not desire an immortality of further moral service. It does not moral service. And in view of the surprise us that Jesus, with his supreme Christian idea of God, the person who confidence in the moral perfection of thus morally desires and demands a the divine Father and in his own divine future life has a right to expect, and mission, should have coupled with his even to be assured, that this moral anticipation of death a confident pre- prayer for deliverance from the evil diction of his triumph over all that death of annihilation will be answered. He could inflict upon him. The continua- will be given personal immortality, tion of his personal existence in a future unless something else would serve quite life was morally imperative, and there- as well the end he morally wills; and fore to be prayed for without hesitation we are unable to conceive anything else and with full assurance, as for an abso- that could. It strengthens this assur- lute value. ance, too, to remember that he who, Not only is it moral to pray (i.e., to of all the sons of men, sounded the depend upon God, absolutely) for a deepest depths of moral personal future life, if we sincerely desire it for religion was assured that God was a moral purpose. It may even be the perfect Father, who would not morally demanded of a World-Ruler, suffer the moral personality of any for ourselves and for others, if our will of his human children to pass into and their wills are, or can be reasonably nothingness. expected to become, moral and a means If it is true that essential Christianity of promoting any absolute value. More- is religion made truly moral, as well as over, it is not fully moral for man not morality made truly religious, then to desire and even to demand further life essential Christianity is "absolute reli- and opportunity for moral action, here, gion," the religion of the future, the or else hereafter; hereafter, if not here. final faith of humanity.

This content downloaded from 138.073.001.036 on August 05, 2016 05:26:07 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).