Review: Faith and Conscience

Reviewed Work(s): Newman on the Psychology of Faith by Sylvester P. Juergens; The

Psychology of Christian Faith by Gaston Frommel, J. Macartney Wilson and J. Vernon
Bartlet
Review by: Walter M. Horton
Source: The Journal of Religion, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Jul., 1929), pp. 482-484
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1196991
Accessed: 21-05-2019 19:19 UTC

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482 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

A book of essays one cannot criticize, only commend. I com

this book because it is the flowering of a mind that has been libe
enough to grow flowers. These essays are one way of cultivating
logical flower garden.
MILES H. KRUMBINE
PARKSIDE LUTHERAN CHURCH
BUFFALO, NEW YORK

FAITH AND CONSCIENCE

To the future historian, the religious thought of the ninet

tury will appear to be one almost self-consistent system, do
the pervasive influence of one thinker, Immanuel Kant. In t
of that dominating trend, all the party differences of the pe
like quibbling distinctions.
Here' for example are two nineteenth-century thinkers q
from one another in background and point of view: Cardinal
whose Catholicism pushed to its logical outcome the reaction
Movement of the first half of the century, and Gaston From
co-Swiss Protestant of the end of the century. Yet when one
their views upon the psychology of Christian faith, one is str
ately with their similarity. Both deny flatly that there is an
psychological stimulus for Christian faith in those rational a
whereby the eighteenth-century divines had sought to rise thr
to nature's God, and both find the average man's real "motiv
bility" in the sense of moral obligation. Says Newman, "Wer
this voice speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart
an atheist, or a pantheist, or a polytheist when I looked into t
Says Frommel, "The substance of the world and the central m
the universe are not to be found in her (Nature). .... A
pers in my ear: You will find it when simple duty, loyal
makes your heart submissive to the love of the Good."3
Both Newman and Frommel agree that in conscience we im
apprehend the presence of a personal and righteous God; that
hension is dim and confused, and of itself leads to despair; t
' Newman on the Psychology of Faith. By Sylvester P. Juergens
Macmillan Co., 1928. xviif 288 pages. $2.75.
The Psychology of Christian Faith. Selections from the writing
Gaston Frommel, translated by J. Macartney Wilson, D.D., edited w
tion by J. Vernon Bartlet, D.D. London: Student Christian Moveme
+194 pages.
2 Juergens, p. 174. 3 Bartlet, p. 5.

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 CRITICAL REVIEWS 483

peal which the Christian revelation makes to our faith com

intellectual cogency but from its perfect correspondence
conscience has already told us, and its perfect fulfilmen
after reconciliation which conscience by itself has left u
Newman, the Christian revelation means the teaching
with all their supernatural mysteries; for Frommel, it is
figure of the historic Jesus, with all its baffling anomalies
claims. Both begin by accepting what appeals directly to
end by accepting all the rest-miracle, mystery, and anom
because, they insist, it all hangs together, without "breach
organic unity.4 Thus Newman proves his Catholicism
Protestantism by appealing to the same criterion.
The parallel-which could be carried out in much gr
too complete to be accidental. Clearly, both thinkers are
same current of thought; both can be accurately dated
era. I say this in despite of Father Juergens, whose book
prove that Newman was not a Kantian, hence not "the fa
ism," hence not a dangerous thinker. Good evidence is ad
that Newman was not, as is commonly asserted, a con
the "Kantian Coleridge."5 For this historical correctio
painstaking and scholarly correlation of all that Newman
ing the psychology of Christian faith, Father Juergens
thanked; but his main thesis remains unproved. Newman
in the same sense and for the same reason that St. Paul w
no one could breathe the air of nineteenth-century Euro
bibing Kantianism, as no one could breathe the air of fir
Minor without imbibing Platonism.
Dr. Bartlet and Dr. Wilson have rendered a real servic
lish-speaking world in making Frommel's essential teachi
such an attractive form. Frommel reminds one of Amiel
self-analysis and psychological insight, but the self revea
logue, Alone on the Heights, and in his Frank Explanation
and nobler fiber than Amiel's. There is spiritual toni
food for thought. Theologically, Frommel belongs with S
goz, and other French Ritschlians-a school whose influen
ly beginning to pass, as the Kantian dualism between the
and the world of moral-religious values begins to disappear
tacks of thinkers like Whitehead and Wieman. Yet if the
' Bartlet, p. I13; cf. Juergens, pp. 190-93.
'P. 257.

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 484 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

the future is to find it easier to discover God in nature, it cannot well d

pense with the painfully won insight which men like Newman and From
mel defend so passionately: that the God of religion is first of all,
Pascal insisted, "not the God of the philosophers," but the God of
human heart and conscience.
WALTER M. HORTON
OBERLIN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE CHURCH SCHOOL

Directors of religious education looking for courses in

ment can save themselves many wearisome hours by consul
of the Horace Bushnell Professor of Christian Nurture in the Yale Di-
vinity School.' He has thoroughly examined the use of Old Testament
materials in the "International Graded Series," the "Constructive Studies
in Religion," the "Completely Graded Series," the "Beacon Course in Re-
ligious Education," the "Christian Nurture Series," and the "Abingdon
Week-Day Religious Education Texts." The aims of all these courses are
listed and classified. The most common type of aim, the author finds,
combines knowledge, appreciation, character development, and social con-
duct. The amount of Old Testament material in each course in computed,
and a "steadily diminishing use of the Old Testament" is discovered.
This is due, however, to the abandonment of unsuitable incidents: books
and passages of educational value "are either holding their own or gaining
ground."
Five criteria are adopted to measure the effectiveness of the use made
of the Old Testament: (a) It should be in harmony with the prevailing
standards of critical scholarship. This requirement is fairly well met in
the courses examined. (b) The material used should contribute to the un-
derstanding and realization of the ideals of Jesus. On the whole the
courses conform to this criterion also, though they often resort to ideali-
zation or a misleading imaginative elaboration which Professor Smith
justly condemns. In connection with this criterion he discusses the use of
miracle stories, pointing out that they tend to make faith in God's good-
ness and greatness dependent upon the miraculous. (c) The material
should serve the social objectives of religious education. The courses do
not measure up so well to this criterion. Social aims, though recognized,
often constitute a mere addendum to an essentially subject-centered
course. (d) The material used should be suited to the comprehension and
1 The Use of the Old Testament in Current Curricula. By Robert Seneca Smith.
New York: Century Co., 1929. xi+337 pages. $2.25.

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