The Philosophy of Religion in England and America by Caldecott Alfred;

Author:Caldecott, Alfred;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1295135
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

§ 5

Edward Steere, afterwards Bishop of Zanzibar, published in 1856 an Essay on the Existence and Attributes of God. It is the work of a somewhat solitary mind versed in old modes of thought, especially the Fathers and the Schoolmen, unfamiliar with modern philosophy, and yet aware of there being something in the atmosphere which prevented the old positions from being quite as they were. Himself resorting to Demonstration to the extent to which Aquinas used it, he also falls back on that mode of the Schools which regarded Reason as resting on something beyond itself, ‘something like faith’; Reason itself rather ‘testing’ than ‘discovering’; and so he has affinity with the Intuitivists.

He exhibits Cosmology on the lines of Aquinas; and also the Ontological proof, although in this he is not at home, ‘it is difficult to be sure of one’s footing,’ he says; then the argument from Conscience, of which he does not make very much, confusing it a little with the next, namely, that from the Feeling of Dependence, the awe aroused by our sense of loneliness in the presence of Higher Power. He has a touch of Idealism in his references to Infinity and Perfection: and he endorses all by reference to the practical benefits of religious belief both to the individual and to society. Consensus he had used as giving a preliminary ground for careful inquiry, and at the outset he had also inquired into the question of Evil. Steere evidently thought his matter all over for himself and caught glimpses of many of the older views, all of which he tries to incorporate. That a man who proved so admirable a Missionary-Bishop should have had these intellectual interests engages the respect of the student, even though the result is not of any permanently independent value.

R. A. Thompson’s Christian Theism (1863) is another work by a recluse student. He makes the mistake of occupying large space with expositions of philosophical positions which were quite well known, arguing de novo everything he puts down, although it is in the main the Natural Realism of the Hamilton School. His method is simple—Causality applied to the data of experience given by ‘perception,’ including Moral experience, and the sense of the Beautiful and Marvellous, and the Benevolent Affections. It is the width of his basis which gives him his place in the Combined type. He brings out well the parallel with belief in the external world. In this he maintains that Causality has once bridged the gulf between conception and belief: its capacity is therefore proved: and it only remains to extend it to Theism. Infinity, as would be expected from his Hamiltonianism, he finds a difficulty, and he endeavours to find a support for it outside Intellect, namely, in the aspirations of Moral Sense, in the sense of Beauty, and in Feeling. He writes gravely and solidly, and his book won high commendation from de Rémusat as a good introduction to the subject for the general reader.

About the same

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.