Remembering Shailer Mathews (Modernism)
Balios
Theology at Chicago and dean of the Divinity School from 1908 to 1933, did
not shy away from the term "modernism" -an epithet even more frightening
than "liberalism." Believing that one must accept development in all
things, even religious doctrines, and further affirming that the
scientific method was the best avenue to truth, Mathews saw modernism not
as negative and destructive, but as a positive religious force. A lifelong
Baptist, the Chicago professor remained committed to the churches and to
their important role in modern life.
The following passages are excerpted from his book The Faith of Modernism
(1924), pp, 22- 23, 179- 82
Modernism /Fundamentalism
What then is Modernism? A heresy? An infidelity? A denial of truth? A new
religion? So its ecclesiastical opponents have called it. But it is none
of these. To describe it is like describing that science which has made
our modern intellectual world so creative. It is not a denomination or a
theology. It is the use of the methods of modern science to find, state
and use the permanent and central values of inherited orthodoxy in meeting
the needs of a modern world. The needs themselves point the way to
formulas. Modernists endeavor to reach beliefs and their application in
the same way that chemists or historians reach and apply their
conclusions. They do not vote in convention and do not enforce beliefs by
discipline. Modernism has no Confession. Its theological affir-mations are
the formulation of results of investigation both of human needs and the
Christian religion. The Dogmatist starts with doctrines, the Mod-ernist
with the religion that gave rise to doctrines. The Dogmatist relies on
conformity through group authority; the Modernist, upon inductive method
and action in accord with group loyalty . . . .
While by its very nature the Modernist movement will never have a creed or
authoritative confession, it does have its beliefs. And these beliefs are
those attitudes and convictions which gave rise to the Christian religion
and have determined the development of the century long Christian
movement. No formula can altogether express the depths of a man's
religious faith or hope to express the general beliefs of a movement in
which individuals share. Every man will shape his own credo. But since he
is loyal to the on-going Christian community with its dominant
convictions, a Modernist in his own words and with his own patterns can
make affirmations which will not be unlike the following:
I believe in God, immanent in the forces and processes of nature,
revealed in Jesus Christ and human history as Love.
I believe in Jesus Christ, who by his teaching, life, death and
resurrection, revealed God as Savior.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the God of love experienced in human life.
I believe in the Bible, when interpreted historically, as the product
and the trustworthy record of the progressive revelation of God through a
de-veloping religious experience.
I believe that humanity without God is incapable of full moral life and
liable to suffering because of its sin and weakness.
I believe in prayer as a means of gaining help from God in every need and
in every intelligent effort to establish and give justice in human
relations.
I believe in freely forgiving those who trespass against me, and in good
will rather than acquisitiveness, coercion, and war as the divinely
established law of human relations.
I believe in the need and the reality of God's forgiveness of sins, that
is, the transformation of human lives by fellowship with God from
subjection to outgrown goods to the practice of the love exemplified in
Jesus Christ.
I believe in the practicability of the teaching of Jesus in social life.
I believe in the continuance of individual personality beyond death; and
that the future life will be one of growth and joy in proportion to its
fellowship with God and its moral likeness to Jesus Christ.
I believe in the church as the community of those who in different
con-ditions and ages loyally further the religion of Jesus Christ.
I believe that all things work together for good to those who love God and
in their lives express the sacrificial good will of Jesus Christ.
I believe in the ultimate triumph of love and justice because I believe in
the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
Such affirmations are more than the acceptance of biblical records,
ancient facts or the successive doctrinal patterns of the Christian
church. They are the substance of a faith that will move mountains. Under
their control no man can deliberately seek to injure his neighbor or
distrust his God. They are moral motive and direction for social action.
To trust God who is good will is to find a cure for the cynical doubt born
of war and its aftermath.
To be loyal to the sinless Son of Man is to gain new confidence in the
possibility of transforming human nature and society from selfishness to
brotherliness.
To discover in the death of Jesus that God himself shares in sacrifice for
the good of others is to gain confidence in the struggle for the rights of
others.
To know that the God of law and love has made good will the only source of
permanent happiness is to possess a standard of moral judgment.
To follow Jesus in international affairs is to end war.
To find God in natural law and evolution is an assurance that love is as
final as any other cosmic expression of the divine will.
To embody the spirit of Jesus Christ in all action is to enjoy the peace
which can come only to those who are at one with the cosmic God.
To experience the regenerating power of God is to have new hope for the
ultimate completion of the human personality through death as well as
life.
The final test of such generic Christianity is the ability of the
Christian movement to meet human needs. And of this we have no doubt.
Whoever does the will of God will know that the gospel of and about Jesus
Christ is not the dream of a noble though impracticable victim of
circumstance, but the revelation of the good will of the God of nature,
the Father of our spirits, the Savior of His world. And through that
knowledge he will gain the fruit of the Spirit-love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithful-ness, meekness, self-control.