Rebuilding Britain - A Survey Of Problems Of Reconstruction After The World War by Alfred Hopkinson
page 95 of 186 (51%)
page 95 of 186 (51%)
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of theological education. This object would be promoted by the
establishment in our Universities of theological faculties where a part--it may be a large part but not the whole--of the training of those who intend to enter the ministry or for other reasons to devote themselves to theological study may be carried on. Such a faculty has been instituted with marked success in Manchester. No test is imposed except tests of knowledge, but the faculty has been said to be the most harmonious in the University. Whatever body he belongs to, whatever Church he wishes to serve, the student could not fail to gain profit from studying the language of the New Testament under a scholar like the late Professor Moulton, and would never find anything that--to use the words of the founder of the University--"could be reasonably offensive to the conscience of any student." Already the effect of such a faculty in advancing theological study and still more in uniting members of different communions in the pursuit of truth has been most marked. There is one point, however, in considering the influence of religion on Reconstruction which must be borne in mind. Untold harm has been done in the past by the intrusion of the lawgiver or the judge into the domain of religion, and, on the other hand, by the intrusion of the minister of religion into the domain of the legislator or the magistrate. It is essential that in dealing with any question of legislation or political action the clergy and ministers of all denominations, if they take part at all, should speak as citizens, and not professionally. They, in virtue of their office, ought not to be, and they have the highest authority for not claiming to be, judges or lawgivers. They have not, and ought not to claim, any authority to decide on the lawfulness of paying tribute to Caesar; any such claim must be strenuously resisted. The use of religious sanctions as weapons of political warfare is not wholly obsolete. We hear of it from across St. George's Channel--it |
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