Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — Februar 1914, Seite 84

German transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Cited in Eckhardt's Reallexikon (1907) under: Union 2

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84 Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches.

lutherische Volk diese Anstalt andern Universitäten aus kirchlichem Patriotis⸗
mus vorziehen würde. Viertens, wo käme das Geld her? Schließlich fragt
D. Haas: How many of the different bodies of Lutherans in our land
would unite in establishing a Lutheran university? Would our Missourian
brethren do so. Wwho now cannot pray with us? IS Ohio ready o do 80
Would the Norwegians cooperate? While there is à greater tendeney
towards unity, and while we are beginning in part to undeérstand each
other better, are we in a position to agrée on a common undertaking like
this? With all these difficulties in the way, let us cease indulging in such
day dreams as à Lutheran university, and master the problems béefore us
with the means best at hand.“ G.

über die Theologie der Loung Men's Christian Association gibt ein Vor⸗
trag Aufschluß, den D. W. G. Ballantine am 12. Dezember letzten Jahres
vor dem Alumnenverein der Association in der Stadt New Hork hielt.
Ballantine ist seit siebzehn Jahren als Lehrer der Bibelkunde in der V. M.
C. A. tätig. Wir entnehmen seinem Vortrag die folgenden bezeichnenden
Aussagen über die Autorität der Schrift: The Bible for the average Amer-
ican Christian of 1863 was à superhuman and infallible thing, mechanie-
ally inserted into human history, but not to be understood psychologically
and historically like the products of human life. It shared no human im-
perfections, and gave oracular decisions upon all points of belief and con-
duct. To-day to intelligent people the Bible is an outgrowth of history,
each book arising from the life of its oπwn time and place, and sharing
the imperfections of that time and place. And the Bible is valued, not
as an infallible question-settler, but as an introduction into the eurrent
of virtual religion, and, above all, as making us acquainted with Jesus
Christ, hom to know is life eternal. A genuine knowledge of the con-
tents of the Bible will lead to a diseriminating valuation of the various
constituents. Considerable amounts will be seen to consist of mistakes
and misconceptions, — the childish things of childisbh ages, Some things
will be seen to be still worse, the indecencies and barbarisms of coarse
ages or the superstitions of benighted ones. Michael Angelo used to say
that in every block of marble lies a possible perfect angel, if only a man
can be found to chip away the superfluity. So with the Bible, this so⸗
called destructive criticism, if done with spiritual insight, ean only re-
sult in revealing the perfect outlines of divine and eéternal truth. The
Christian of the twentieth century, without any perturbation, recognizes
the Psalter as the greatest and most original book of devotion ever pro-
duced, but still having many grave faults inevitable in that dark age
which gave it birth. What the student finds true of the Book of Psalms,
he finds true, utatis mutundis, of all the other books both of the Old
Testament and of the New Testament.“ Daß die Theorien der neueren
Theologie noch nicht von allen amerikanischen Kanzeln gepredigt und in
allen Sonntagsschulen vorgetragen werden, bedauert Ballantine auf das
lebhafteste. Our religious world is in a strange situation. The leading
theological seminaries and the great universities have been teaching the
truth about Biblical criticism for thirty years past. All scholarly min-
isters know all about these things. But somehow few preachers have
found it possible to instruet their congregations. The older church-mem-

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