The Clothes of Religion: A Reply to Popular Positivism. In Two Essays and a PostscriptBurns and Oates, 1886 - 128 pages |
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The Clothes of Religion: A Reply to Popular Positivism; In Two Essays and a ... Wilfrid Ward No preview available - 2018 |
The Clothes of Religion: A Reply to Popular Positivism; In Two Essays and a ... Wilfrid Philip Ward No preview available - 2018 |
The Clothes of Religion: A Reply to Popular Positivism; in Two Essays and a ... Wilfrid Philip 1856-1916 Ward No preview available - 2021 |
Common terms and phrases
advocated Agnostic Agnosticism Altruism analogy aroused asked Athanasian Creed belief Calendar Christian claims CLOTHES OF RELIGION Comte conception consisting controversy creed criticism death Deity dignity dream ecstasy ecstatic endeavour enthusiasm essay essence Eternal Energy explain fact faith Frederic Harrison give grateful reverence grotesque habitually happiness Harrison's Address heroes hitherto hope human feelings Human Progress human race idealise implied infinite idea language lecture ligion lives manity mankind meditation mind monomania moral progress motive mysterious ness Newton Hall Nineteenth Century object ordinary sense pain Phidias Philip of Macedon philosopher phrases Pickwickian Positivism Pickwickian sense position Positivism bids Positivist Calendar Positivist worship practical present profess rational regard reality reason reference Religion of Hu Religion of Humanity religious feelings remarks saints seems sentiments Sir James Stephen speak Spencer supernatural suppose Supreme sure Theism things proceed thought tical tion trust tu quoque Unknowable whole vaster worthy
Popular passages
Page xxi - Amid the mysteries which become the more mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the ONE absolute certainty, that he is ever in the presence of an Infinite and Eternal Energy from which all things proceed.
Page 110 - On these principles it appears to me that the indulgence of hope with regard to the government of the universe and the destiny of man after death, while we recognize as a clear truth that we have no ground for more than a hope, is legitimate and philosophically defensible. The beneficial effect of such a hope is far from trifling. It makes life and human nature a far greater thing to the feelings, and gives greater strength as well as greater solemnity to all the sentiments which are awakened in...
Page 26 - And a mother wrung with agony for the loss of her child, or the wife crushed by the death of her children's father, or the helpless and the oppressed, the poor and the needy, men, women, and children, in sorrow, doubt, and want, longing for something to comfort them and to guide them, something to believe in, to hope for, to love, and to worship — they come to our philosopher and they say, "Your men of science have routed our priests, and have silenced our old teachers. What religious faith do...
Page 60 - The prince soon found that this was one of the sages whom he should understand less as he heard him longer. He therefore bowed and was silent; and the philosopher, supposing him satisfied, and the rest vanquished, rose up and departed with the air of a man that had cooperated with the present system.
Page 60 - I find young men so humble and so docile, said the philosopher, I can deny them no information which my studies have enabled me to afford. To live according to nature, is to act always with due regard to the fitness arising from the relations and qualities of causes and effects ; to concur with the great and unchangeable scheme of universal felicity ; to co-operate with the general disposition and tendency of the present system of things.
Page 110 - The beneficial effect of such a hope is far from trifling. It makes life and human nature a far greater thing to the feelings, and gives greater strength as well as greater solemnity to all the sentiments which are awakened in us by our fellow-creatures and by mankind at large. It allays the sense of that irony of Nature which is so painfully felt when we see the exertions and sacrifices of a life culminating in the formation of a wise and noble mind, only to disappear from the world when the time...
Page xxi - It shares some of the negative attributes of God and First Cause, but no positive one. It is, in fact, only the Unknowable a little more defined ; though I do not remember that Mr. Spencer, or any evolution philosopher, has ever formulated the Unknowable in terms with so deep a theological ring as we hear in the phrase "Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceed.
Page 25 - But if religion there is still to be, it cannot be found in this No-man's-land and Know-nothing creed. Better bury religion at once than let its ghost walk uneasy in our dreams. The true lesson is that we must hark back, and leave the realm of cause. The accident of religion has been mistaken for the essence of religion. The essence of religion is not to answer a question, but to govern and unite men and societies by giving them common beliefs and duties. Theologies tried...
Page 26 - Unknowable, and it is perhaps the most definite and ultimate word that can be said about it. The precise and yet inexhaustible language of mathematics enables us to express in a common algebraic formula, the exact combination of the unknown raised to its highest power of infinity. That formula is...
Page 29 - The final religion of enlightened man is the systematised and scientific form of the spontaneous religion of natural man. Both rest on the same elements — belief in the Power which controls his life, and grateful reverence for the Power so acknowledged. The primitive man thought that Power to be the object of Nature affecting Man. The cultured man knows that Power to be Humanity itself, controlling and controlled by nature according to natural law.