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Literature and Dogma: An Essay towards a better Apprehension of the Bible is a work of religious and literary criticism by Matthew Arnold, first published in February 1873. [1]
Arnold begins with noting the difference between literary and scientific terms as they are employed in the Bible, illustrating his position by the different ways in which the term God is understood. [2] "People use it", he says, "as if it stood for a perfectly definite and ascertained idea, from which we might … extract propositions and draw inferences, just as we should from any other definite and ascertained idea. … But, in truth, the word 'God' is used in most cases—not by the Bishops of Winchester and Gloucester, but by mankind in general—as by no means a term of science or exact knowledge, but a term of poetry and eloquence, a term thrown out, so to speak, at a not fully grasped object of the speaker's consciousness,—a literary term, in short; and mankind mean different things by it as their consciousness differs."
Among the Jews was found the feeling of the importance of conduct; they had a stronger admiration of righteousness, or, rather, their admiration was less complicated by admiration of other things than was the case with other peoples. [3] Their idea of God, Arnold says, was as The Eternal, the not ourselves which makes for righteousness. [3] Later there arose among the Jews a different notion of what their God was going to bring to them; instead of calmly accepting the fact that "righteousness tendeth to life", they looked for some more tangible result as a reward for their right doing; at first it was nothing but a vague, indefinite longing, hardly different from hope, but in time it changed into a belief in material progress. [3]
Then came Christianity with its new message to man, that of the necessity of personal religion. [3] "Christ made his followers first look within and examine themselves; he made them feel that they had a best and real self as opposed to their ordinary and apparent one, and that their happiness depended on saving themselves from being overborne. And then, by recommending, and still more by himself exemplifying in his own practice, by the exhibition in himself, with the most prepossessing pureness, clearness, and beauty, of the two qualities by which our ordinary self is indeed most essentially counteracted, self renouncement and mildness, he made his followers feel that in these qualities lay the secret of their best self; that to attain them was in the highest degree requisite and natural, and that a man's happiness depended upon it." In this way "was the great doctrine of the Old Testament, To righteousness belongs happiness! made a true and potent word again." In time, however, arose the belief that "the mild, inward, self-renouncing, and sacrificed Servant of the Eternal, the new and better Messiah, was yet, before the present generation passed, to come on the clouds of heaven in power and glory." Since the Advent failed to come then, it was supposed that it would arrive at a later time; "the future and the miraculous engaged the chief attention of Christians; and in accordance with this strain of thought, they more and more rested the proof of Christianity, not on its internal evidence, but on prediction and miracle."
Then follow two chapters, one on the proof from prophecy, the other on proof from miracles. [4] Arnold contents himself with showing the possibility of error under which those who have given us an account of them laboured, and how uncertain is the test which the mind of the Christian applies to their examination. [4] His method may be compared with that of Strauss and the Tübingen school, in this matter of miracles. [4]
The two chapters which follow are entitled, respectively, "The New Testament Record" and "The Testimony of Jesus to himself". [5] According to Arnold, there is no call for profound historical or philological study to aid in the treatment of the questions which come up; we have the account of one man, who, it might almost be said, is nearly a contemporary of ours, in comparison with the ancient Israelites; we have often his very words, and, although they will carry a different meaning to every heart, varying with the nature and experience of the individual, they nevertheless were spoken directly to men; they were not designed as subjects for abstruse discussion or dogmatic reasoning. [5]
The two following chapters, "The Early Witnesses" ("Faith in Christ") and "Aber glaube re-invading", discuss the later books of the New Testament, and the appearance and spread of certain of the dogmas of the Church. [6] He gives instances of the way in which literal criticism has perverted the true meaning of texts, and draws an outline of the main differences between Catholicism and Protestantism. [6] This is followed by a chapter entitled "Our 'Masses' and the Bible". [6]
This chapter is titled 'The True Greatness of the Old Testament'
In his chapter, "The true Greatness of Christianity," Arnold writes: "But there is this difference between the religion of the Old Testament and Christianity. Of the religion of the Old Testament we can pretty well see to the end; we can trace fully enough the experimental proof of it in history. But of Christianity the future is as yet almost unknown. For that the world cannot get on without righteousness we have the clear experience, and a grand and admirable experience it is. But what the world will become by the thorough use of that which is really righteousness, the method and the secret and the secret reasonableness of Jesus, we have as yet hardly any experience at all."
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The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BCE prophet Isaiah ben Amoz, but there is evidence that much of it was composed during the Babylonian captivity and later. Johann Christoph Döderlein suggested in 1775 that the book contained the works of two prophets separated by more than a century, and Bernhard Duhm originated the view, held as a consensus through most of the 20th century, that the book comprises three separate collections of oracles: Proto-Isaiah, containing the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah; Deutero-Isaiah, or "the Book of Consolation",, the work of an anonymous 6th-century BCE author writing during the Exile; and Trito-Isaiah, composed after the return from Exile. Isaiah 1–33 promises judgment and restoration for Judah, Jerusalem and the nations, and chapters 34–66 presume that judgment has been pronounced and restoration follows soon. While few scholars today attribute the entire book, or even most of it, to one person, the book's essential unity has become a focus in more recent research.
In religion and theology, revelation is the disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities.
Ebionites as a term refers to a Jewish Christian sect that existed during the early centuries of the Common Era, whose name may have reflected its members viewing spiritual humility and/or voluntary material poverty as prerequisites of righteousness.
Religious pluralism is a set of religious world views that hold that one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus recognizes that some level of truth and value exists in other religions. As such, religious pluralism goes beyond religious tolerance, which is the condition of peaceful existence between adherents of different religions or religious denominations.
Righteousness or rectitude is the quality or state of being morally correct and justifiable. It can be considered synonymous with "rightness" or being "upright" or to-the-light and visible. It can be found in Indian, Chinese and Abrahamic religions and traditions, among others, as a theological concept. For example, from various perspectives in Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism it is considered an attribute that implies that a person's actions are justified, and can have the connotation that the person has been "judged" or "reckoned" as leading a life that is pleasing to God.
Marcionism was an early Christian dualistic belief system that originated with the teachings of Marcion of Sinope in Rome around 144 AD. Marcion was an early Christian theologian, evangelist, and an important figure in early Christianity. He was the son of a bishop of Sinope in Pontus. About the middle of the 2nd century (140–155) he traveled to Rome, where he joined the Syrian Gnostic Cerdo.
The catholic epistles are seven epistles of the New Testament. Listed in order of their appearance in the New Testament, the catholic epistles are:
Tzadik is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ṣadiq, is ṣ-d-q, which means "justice" or "righteousness". When applied to a righteous woman, the term is inflected as tzadika/tzaddikot.
The biblical term "proselyte" is an anglicization of the Koine Greek term προσήλυτος (proselytos), as used in the Septuagint for "stranger", i.e. a "newcomer to Israel"; a "sojourner in the land", and in the Greek New Testament for a first-century convert to Judaism, generally from Ancient Greek religion. It is a translation of the Biblical Hebrew phrase גר תושב. "Proselyte" also has the more general meaning in English of a new convert to any particular religion or doctrine.
Norman Leo Geisler was an American Christian systematic theologian, philosopher, and apologist. He was the co-founder of two non-denominational evangelical seminaries.
Criticism of Christianity has a long history which stretches back to the initial formation of the religion in the Roman Empire. Critics have challenged Christian beliefs and teachings as well as Christian actions, from the Crusades to modern terrorism. The arguments against Christianity include the suppositions that it is a faith of violence, corruption, superstition, polytheism, homophobia, bigotry, pontification, abuses of women's rights and sectarianism.
In Christian theology, Hell is the place or state into which, by God's definitive judgment, unrepentant sinners pass in the general judgment, or, as some Christians believe, immediately after death. Its character is inferred from teaching in the biblical texts, some of which, interpreted literally, have given rise to the popular idea of Hell. Theologians today generally see Hell as the logical consequence of rejecting union with God and with God's justice and mercy.
Answer to Job is a 1952 book by Carl Jung that addresses the significance of the Book of Job to the "divine drama" of Christianity. It argues that while he submitted to Yahweh's omnipotence, Job nevertheless proved to be more moral and conscious than God, who tormented him without justification under the influence of Satan. This scandal made it necessary for God to become united with man. Satan was banished from heaven and God incarnated as purely good, through a virgin birth, into the sinless redeemer Jesus Christ. Eventually, however, God will incarnate his evil side as well. For this to happen, the Holy Ghost left by Christ on earth has to enter "empirical", sinful human beings in whom the divine can be realized completely. Jung turns to the Book of Ezekiel, the Book of Enoch, and especially the Book of Revelation to consider how this may unfold. He suggests that the contemporary modern era, in which humanity possesses immense technological power, is significant to this second divine birth. He interprets the 1950 papal dogma of the Assumption of Mary as easing this transition towards completeness by re-emphasizing the feminine dimension of God.
In Christianity, the term biblical authority refers to two complementary ideas:
Cessationism versus continuationism involves a Christian theological dispute as to whether spiritual gifts remain available to the church, or whether their operation ceased with the Apostolic Age of the church. The cessationist doctrine arose in the Reformed theology: initially in response to claims of Roman Catholic miracles. Modern discussions focus more on the use of spiritual gifts in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, though this emphasis has been taught in traditions that arose earlier, such as Methodism.
Christian theology is the theology – the systematic study of the divine and religion – of Christianity and Christian belief and practice. It concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis and argument. Theologians may undertake the study of Christian theology for a variety of reasons, such as in order to:
Prophets in Islam are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers, those who transmit divine revelation, most of them through the interaction of an angel. Muslims believe that many prophets existed, including many not mentioned in the Quran. The Quran states: "And for every community there is a messenger." Belief in the Islamic prophets is one of the six articles of the Islamic faith.
The personification of wisdom, typically as a righteous woman, is a motif found in religious and philosophical texts, most notably in the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish and Christian texts.
1 Timothy 1 is the first chapter of the First Epistle to Timothy in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author has been traditionally identified as Paul the Apostle since as early as AD 180, although most modern scholars consider the letter pseudepigraphical, perhaps written as late as the first half of the second century AD.
Job 4 is the fourth chapter of the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is anonymous; most scholars believe it was written around 6th century BCE. This chapter records the speech of Eliphaz the Temanite, which belongs to the Dialogue section of the book, comprising Job 3:1–31:40.
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