Dogma, Science

Seven hundred years ago Thomas Aquinas built a system of dogma on the doctrine that Christianity is truth, that all philosophy which is true is Christian, and that all Christianity which is not true philosophy is not Christianity at all.

Aquinas did for the 13th century what Christian leaders attempt today--he unified Christianity and philosophy. But since his death philosophy has produced natural philosophy, natural philosophy has become science.

Pope Leo XIII, link between the 19th and 20th centuries, laid down the dogmatic system of Aquinas as the " norm" of Roman Catholic teaching. Pius X, in 1907, blasted all " modernism" by an encyclical (Pascendi Dominici) which emphasized the central Catholic idea of Authority. Abbe Loisy in France, Father Tyrrell in England, and Father Zahm in America were promptly excommunicated. Whether or not the Vatican has merely scotched the snake, modernism (in the " dangerous " sense) is not now visible within its broad domains. Hilaire Belloc, brilliant Catholic now visiting America, tells the world it needs Authority, which means dogma personified by the Pope. G. K. Chesterton was converted to Roman Catholicism because of its reasonableness : " Dogma is a friend to religion."

Modernism is now further dividing the already divided Protestant communions. Manning, Grant, Fosdick, Bryan, Buckner, even pragmatical Will Hays, are involved.

Early Protestants (after Luther) set up the Bible to replace the authority of the Church. Their zealous quotation of the Bible soon made them more dogmatic than Catholics. Even Isaac Newton wrote with unperturbed faith about the miracles in Genesis. But his grand children-in-science, Darwin, Huxley, and historical criticism, hinted that not even the Bible was inerrant, so that now Steinmetz, a Unitarian, is forced to say that religion and science are unrelated.

In 1890 Andrew D. White, Cornell President and Ambassador to Germany, wrote The Warfare of Science with Theology. Today Fosdick preaches their reconciliation, but this in turn arouses Machen of Princeton (Conservative Presbyterian) to prove that " liberalism" and Christianity are totally different religions with different roots in the past. The " Fundamentalists," Bryan leading, attack evolution, and Bishop Manning, although accepting evolution, must admonish Dr. Grant--he is not sure just for what. The Jews are similarly divided into " Orthodox" and " Free," and debate the relative sanctity of Saturday and Sunday.

Men seem to believe that a modern Aquinas will join Christian discovery and scientific discovery into a unity of aim which will command the allegiance of both head and heart. Or perhaps a John Wesley (who founded Methodism in the days of sophisticated Fox, Pitt, Catherine II, and the French Revolution) will re-emotionalize religion.

Last Friday, before a crowded throng of Lenten worshippers in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Bishop Manning said: "We are at the threshold of a great religious awakening, of earnest inquiry and of living faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."

People are tired of theological dogma; they are equally tired of cold science. Dogma, science and religion --these three, and the greatest of these is religion.