Book Description

Excerpt from Essays in Puritanism There used to be a presumption that theology had something to do with religion, and, inasmuch as religion undoubtedly has to do with God, the three, religion, theology and God, were insensibly brought together into an unnatural trinity. It was not long before theology dominated the compact; its devotees at once proceeded to define and limit the sphere within which Providence might exercise its beneficent influence, and religion was left entirely out of consideration. It is difficult in any compact for all the persons, if one might so name them, to sustain the ideal relations of equality in power and glory, and in this case the theologians went too far. The astrologers never undertook to say upon whom the sun should shine and the rain fall; there have been rainmakers, of course, but they lost all credibility long before the theologians lost theirs. We must appreciate the strength of the belief, that there is an essential association between theology and religion if we would have any understanding of the times in which that belief prevailed; and we must not be deterred by the strangeness of the idea, for doubtless we ourselves possess notions that are equally curious. We hold that literature has a dominating influence upon life; that science has some bearing upon religion; that art has something to do with morality; that there is a perception of right and wrong, of good and evil in nature. It is a lack of seriousness on our part, which prevents our appreciating the full import of any given system of theological speculation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.