THE HIBBERT LECTURES. BL 25 .HE2 [ow that the present series of Hibbert Lectures have been brought to a close, it may be of advantage to place on record a short account of their origin and purpose, and of the manner in which the plan has been carried out. The Trust Fund was established on the most liberal and comprehensive basis. It was to be applied in the manner deemed "most conducive to the spread of Christianity in its most simple and intelligible form, and to the unfettered exercise of private judgment in matters of religion," and no dogmatic or denominational test was imposed upon its administration. Such a fund seemed to offer an admirable opportunity for the establishment of a lectureship in which religious questions should be treated, by members of various churches, with reverent impartiality, and with no object in view but the investigation of truth, and the scholarly exposition of the best results of thought and study. Owing chiefly to the exertions of Dr. Martineau and the Rev. J. E. Carpenter, a letter was addressed to the Trustees by several scholars, some of them men of the highest eminence, requesting them to found a lectureship which should be free from "traditional restraints," and should exhibit "clearly from time to time some of the most important results of recent study in the great fields of Philosophy, of Biblical Criticism and Comparative Religion." This proposal was warmly welcomed by the Trustees, as affording an unexampled opportunity for illustrating the great principle of unfettered scholarship in matters of religion, and as enabling them to extend the benefits of the Trust to a wider 2 public than had hitherto been possible. Accordingly, a scheme of lectures was carefully prepared, which was to be followed as far as circumstances would permit, but was necessarily subject to variation owing to the necessity of obtaining the services of competent lecturers. The scheme, however, was more coherent, and was carried out with more regard to a definite purpose than was immediately apparent to the public. It appeared to the Trustees that the sympathetic study of every form of religion would be a valuable preparation for understanding its highest and purest expression in Christianity, which would not occupy its true position till it was brought into friendly comparison with other forms of faith. Moreover, this larger survey, it was thought, would prepare the way for a philosophy of religion, without which it would be impossible to place Christianity on its true intellectual ground. Especially an exposition of the older Hebrew religion, as the root out of which Christianity sprang, would aid the interpretation of its own richer and more spiritual development. It was further desirable that some of the great movements of Christianity, both near the time of its inception and at the epoch of the Reformation, should be exhibited from the point of view of the critical historian, so as to throw light on the genius of the religion in its most creative periods; and that the influence of the Græco-Roman world on Christian thought and practice should be carefully traced, so that the original essence of the religion might be separated from the accretions which it slowly gathered around it as it struggled for the mastery of the world. According to this scheme, which it was not possible to carry out with completeness or in systematic order, the lectures which were actually delivered fall into certain groups. First, a series of valuable contributions to the study of Comparative Religion, has been supplied by the lectures of Professor Max Müller on the Religions of India, of Mr. P. Le Page Renouf on the Religion 3 of Ancient Egypt, of Professor T. W. Rhys Davids on Indian Buddhism, of Professor Albert Réville on the Ancient Religion of Mexico and Peru, of Professor J. Rhys on Celtic Heathendom, of Professor Sayce on the Religion of Ancient Assyria and Babylonia, and of Mr. Montefiore on the Religion of the Ancient Hebrews. More philosophical in their conception and execution were the lectures of Professor Kuenen on National Religions and Universal Religions, and of Count Goblet d'Alviella on the Origin and Growth of the Idea of God; while those of Professor C. B. Upton on the Bases of Religious Belief were purely philosophical, and dealt with the most urgent questions of the present day. Connected with the history of Christianity were the lectures of M. Ernest Renan on the Influence of the Institutions, Thought and Culture of Rome on Christianity, and the Development of the Catholic Church; of the Rev. Charles Beard on the Reformation in its Relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge; of Professor Pfleiderer on the Influence of the Apostle Paul on the Development of Christianity; and of the Rev. Dr. Hatch on the Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church. The course was suitably closed by Dr. Drummond's lectures on Christianity in its most simple and intelligible form, which sought to deduce from the New Testament, under the illumination of the various previous studies, the fundamental and essential teachings of the Gospel, and to exhibit those permanent spiritual roots from which the various forms of theology and practice have sprung in accordance with the growing or declining culture and the predominant sentiment of successive ages. Thus the lectures, considered as a whole, constitute, if not a complete, nevertheless a regularly organised structure, all tending to the realisation of a free and spiritual religion, under the still living inspiration which breathed in him whom Christians recognise as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and which he bequeathed as a permanent possession to mankind. Where all 4 have been so conscientiously executed, none need be selected for special approval. The Trustees may justly feel that they have bestowed upon the public an important collection of volumes, and have illustrated the possibility of discussing religious themes with the same single-minded love of truth and the same freedom from doctrinal obligation as are brought to the study of science and of history; and they have a well-grounded confidence that their pioneer effort has not been without its influence in preparing men for a larger and more discerning treatment of the things of faith. In providing for a lectureship of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, which shall give special attention to those churches that have kept themselves free from the fetters of dogma, they believe that they are continuing the same work under another name, and serving the cause of that pure and undefiled religion to which the Trust is dedicated. DR. WILLIAMS'S LIBRARY, December, 1894. |