Present Position of Theologians.

In attempting to portray the present state of the theological world, it is needful first to distinguish between a class which may distinctively be termed theologians and the much larger class which are pastors of the people.

The two classes are so commingled that it would be impossible to draw any line so exact as to arrange all in these two classes; for sometimes the same person is both theologian and pastor. Still there is foundation for classification as distinct as ordinarily exists in regard to other professions where men combine diverse pursuits.

All these are conducted by men whose business is not that of pastors, and yet a great majority of whom were educated for this office by a regular theological training. Meantime, their position, professional reputation and daily bread depend on maintaining the particular peculiarities in doctrine and practice of a given sect. By this is meant, that should they publicly avow a renunciation of the peculiarities that distinguish their sect, they would suffer in the public estimation of their supporters, and be immediately removed from their professional employment. It is this class who are usually among the chief leaders of each denomination, and who therefore are exposed to all the difficulties and temptations which beset those whose power, influence, profession and pecuniary support are more or less connected with a conservative course in all matters of religious opinion—difficulties and dangers to which a pastor is much less exposed, so long as he maintains his hold on the confidence and affection of his people, who are his chief protection against theological persecution of any kind.

The first class depend on a whole denomination for reputation and a livelihood; the last class depend chiefly on their own people. The first class, on every practical question, must regard the views and opinions of a sect, as leaders and guardians of the interests of a great organization, whose very existence depends on the dominance of certain opinions. The latter class must chiefly regard the highest spiritual good of the souls committed to their care.

In like manner, the Congregational theological professor and editor must maintain that form of church organization or give up his post. And so the Presbyterian, Episcopal and Methodist theological professors and editors are equally bound.

This representation does not necessarily imply any thing invidious. If it is regarded as a duty to keep up the sectarian divisions, which, as has been shown, all result from the Augustinian dogma, then men must be supported to do it by theological schools and periodicals. And when men are put into positions for the express purpose of sustaining the peculiar views of a sect, it is not honest for them to hold these positions after they can no longer conscientiously do the work they are hired to perform.

Thus it is that the pastors of churches have fewer of those difficulties to meet which restrain the chief theological leaders of a sect.

We are now prepared to notice the present position of theologians in this country.

It has been shown that the chief theological conflicts, since the days of Augustine, and also the chief sects, have resulted from attempts to throw off the dogma introduced by him in some one of its developments. Thus the conflict headed by Luther was against the substitution of external rites and forms resulting from man's helpless depravity for an internal principle of love and obedience.

The conflict commenced by Arminius was to maintain man's ability to do something by his own efforts to gain eternal life, in opposition to the utter inability taught by Calvinism.

The conflict commenced by Wesley and his associates, was to rouse men from a resting in outward rites and forms and educational training, by making instantaneous regeneration a practicable aim, and one to be secured by the use of “the means of grace.”

The conflict commenced by President Edwards was to remedy the Calvinistic tendency to hopeless inefficiency and waiting for God to regenerate, by insisting on man's ability to obey all that God requires.

All these controversies have been carried on, more and more, in the audience of the people, who, in the meantime, have been continually advancing in mental culture and knowledge.

Especially has this been the case in this country, where religion has been freed from civil restraints. Several of the religious sects have been so divided on these matters as to involve civil suits to settle questions of property, thus bringing theologians and lawyers on to the same arena. And thus discussions on theological points were reported in secular papers.

This was the case in the rending of the Presbyterian church into the Old and New-school sections. During this controversy, some of the most honored and talented of the clergy were suspended from their pulpit duties and threatened with dismission from theological professorships, solely on the charge of denying certain points of doctrine of the Augustinian system. And the highest judicature of the nation was called to decide whether the men thus charged had, or had not so departed from orthodox creeds as to warrant the loss of place and income.

In this discussion, the endowments of colleges, of theological schools, and of church property, were so at stake, that the laymen all over the land were obliged to inquire into and understand the merits of a discussion strictly metaphysical and theological.

Meantime, the study of mental science has been introduced into both colleges and schools all over the land, and the sons, and even the daughters of our farmers and mechanics, have gained clearer and more discriminating views on such subjects than can now be found in the writings of Aristotle, Plato, and the wisest men of past ages.

Phrenology, also, has drawn maps of the mental faculties, so that even the senses have been trained to aid in metaphysics.

The pulpit, the press and public lecturers now, when they refer to the intellect, the susceptibilities, the will, the moral powers, and use other metaphysical terms, are understood by all.

In short, the human mind has developed in all directions, until it is impossible any longer to conceal absurdities under cover of hard names and metaphysical abstrusities, especially when the practical concerns of this life, as well as the life to come, are equally involved.

A few years since, Dr. Edward Beecher published the Conflict of Ages, in which, with a calm and Christian spirit and in a popular form, was set forth the difficulties consequent on the Augustinian system, which for ages have agitated all Christendom.

In this work, it is shown that there are “principles of honor and right” which all theologians agree in maintaining that God must and does regard and obey; that these principles are violated by God on the supposition that he has brought mankind into being in this world with a depraved nature; and finally, that all theories as yet invented by theologians to relieve the Creator from such an imputation are failures, except the theory, which is there presented, of a pre-existent state, according to which, mankind were created with perfect natures, which they ruined by sinning, and came into this life to be restored to their former perfect state.

Much that appears in the early portion of this work is from this source. Still more has been gained from that work in the clear manner in which it is there proved, that the Bible does not teach that the sin of Adam had any effect on “the nature” of the human race, and that the interpretation given to the passage in Romans v., which is the chief one claimed as teaching this doctrine, not only has been interpreted wrong, but is contrary to the rendering of the whole Christian world from the apostles to Augustine.

This work was read, not only by theologians and pastors, but by intelligent laymen, to an extent never known before of a strictly theological work.

And what was the ground taken by theologians of all schools? They were bound to show to the people, in opposition to this work, if they could, that this Augustinian dogma was not contrary to the moral sense of mankind, and that it was taught in the Bible.

But not a single attempt of this kind has ever been made. This universal silence is as direct a confession of inability to reply as ever was known in the theological world. All that ever has been attempted has been, to show that the theory of a preëxistent state, offered by that author, affords little or no relief, and is without scriptural authority.

The words of a distinguished theologian and editor of a theological quarterly, addressed to the writer, express the case exactly: “Your brother has succeeded in throwing us all into the ditch, but he has shown us no way to get out.”

That is to say, so long as the doctrine of a depraved nature that insures “sin, and only sin,” in every unregenerate mind, is maintained, there is no satisfactory way yet devised of proving the wisdom and benevolence of God, by the concessions of theologians themselves.

This universal, tacit concession of theologians of all schools, in reference to this famous passage of Scripture, had no little influence in bringing before the public the volume entitled Common Sense Applied to Religion, or the Bible and the People before referred to.

In this work, the principles of common sense and the nature or construction of mind are by the author exhibited more at large than in this volume. And the common-sense system of religion as thus educed is also set forth, though less completely and extensively than in this work.

The laws of language and interpretation also are introduced into that work for the purpose of showing (in the second volume not yet published) that the common-sense system is also taught in the Bible.

But preliminary to this, it was seen to be important to apply the principles of common sense to prove that the Bible is a collection of reliable records, of reliable revelations from the Creator to mankind.

It was seen also, that if the Augustinian system is really taught in these writings, it is impossible to prove them to be reliable revelations from God, as is set forth at large in chapter 34 of this present volume.

For this reason, in the Addenda to the first volume the Augustinian theory is introduced, and very briefly shown to be, not only contrary to the common sense and moral sense of mankind, but also without support from the Bible.

Several of those thus addressed, returned criticisms and remarks in reply. The book was then issued, in which the author appeared not in the attitude of a teacher, but as an inquirer. And the closing inquiries were:

Are these principles of common sense accepted?

Is the system of natural religion evolved by their aid accepted?

Is the Augustinian theory of depravity, as tried by these principles and the rules of interpretation, supported either by reason or the Bible?

The work, as thus revised, was again sent to these same theologians, and it was noticed in most of the periodicals.

The result was the same as was accorded to the arguments of the Conflict of Ages. Some criticisms on style, language and minor matters appeared in the notices of the book, but the above main questions thus submitted were met with an ominous silence.

Moreover, in the columns of the Independent, in reply to their notice of her work, the following statement was made by the author:

Not only the professors and editors thus addressed, but all the theologians of all schools, so far as the writer can learn, have maintained a profound silence on all these questions. The Independent also declined any discussion thus: “We have no intention of surrendering our columns to a theological or psychological controversy such as might be introduced by the communication we now publish.”

The writer after this, in several cases, suggested to some of the most active and intelligent minds in some of the above theological seminaries, to endeavor to secure a full discussion of these topics in their lecture rooms, and was told, in reply, that all such efforts were decidedly discouraged.

Finally, on consulting one of the most shrewd and best informed publishers in regard to the future volume, he expressed the opinion that “in whatever else theologians differed, they were all united in the determination that the investigation proposed by the author should not be permitted.”

This being so, the author has concluded, and the public probably will conclude, that the most profound and acute theologians of this country have relinquished the idea of attempting any farther defense of the Augustinian dogma.