ART. X.-CHRISTIANITY AND PHILOSOPHY. BY THE EDITOR. NUMBER I. Introductory Remarks.-Object of this Discussion.-Historical View of Christian Philosophy.-Account of the Patristic and Scholastic Periods. THAT complete renovation of the world to which the hopes of the Church are directed, requires that Christianity should not only be spread through the whole earth, but that, wherever it is planted, it should pervade all the powers of the mind, all the departments of their activity, all the forms and institutions of social and civil life. It cannot be doubted, that in the better period which we are justified in expecting from the prevalence of our religion, affection, imagination and reason, literature and art, science, philosophy and government, will be brought into captivity to Christ, and will together contribute to the embellishment and glory of his kingdom on the earth. As yet, however, this grand consummation is far, very far, from being attained, even in countries where Christianity has been long established. The popular literature even of Christian lands, the reigning systems of their philosophy, the tone and usages of their society, the frame of their governments, still rest to a great extent on an antiChristian basis, and remain at variance with the spirit of our religion. An impartial survey of the actual state of things in modern Christendom must convince us, that Christianity is at present scarcely more circumscribed by the narrowness of its geographical boundaries, than by the various obstructions towering against its influence within these boundaries themselves, and that as much yet remains to be done in giving intensive effect, as extensive spread, to the religion of the Cross. But among all these obstructions, there is none which has held out more obstinately against Christianity, or done its assailant forces so much injury, as false philosophy in all its forms. What was it, during the first ages of the Christian era, which, more than civil oppression, impeded the progress of the Gospel, and corrupted its purity? Those ancient, huge, grotesque systems of Gnostic and Platonic philosophy with which it came into contact ! What was it, during the middle ages, which, more than barbarism and ignorance, fettered the spirit, and quenched the light of Christianity? The heavy chains of Aristotelian dialectics, the thick integuments of scholastic philosophy, which were so industriously fastened upon it and folded about it! What is it, at the present day, which, more than open infidelity and irreligion, prevents the spiritual discernment and the transforming power of the doctrines of Christianity? The spirit of that Material Philosophy, which, having throned itself in the belief of the men of our times, controuls their feelings, opinions and principles, their whole inward and outward life. The influence of all the other powers which have been adverted to, as hostile to Christianity, is manifestly inferiour to that of philosophy. Literature is only the amusement of life; it exercises the lighter faculties, and occupies the careless hour; moreover it takes its own tone and direction from philosophy. Government, tremendous as is its power, can mould only our outward destiny, and cannot reach the inward man. Its mighty wheel, too, moves by the measure and in the track which philosophy prescribes. Philosophy, then, is the true mistress of life. It is not the idle entertainment of fancy, but the grave employment of the leading faculties. It does not move in an outward sphere, but strikes its empire into the depths of the soul. "Philoso phia," says Seneca, "sedit ad gubernaculum;** if it be, then, itself perverse, how certainly will it misdirect all the courses of thought and action, and ensure the final wreck of our whole being! While such is the controul which Philosophy is acknowledged to exercise over the minds of men, it can never be a matter of indifference to Christians, whether it be friendly or hostile to their cause. If they understand their true interests, they will sincerely deprecate its opposition, if they do not covet its alliance. They will see, that so long as the principles of the reigning philosophy are incongenial with those of Christianity, the latter must necessarily be exclu The whole passage deserves to be cited. "Non est philosophia populare artificium, nec ostentationi paratum; non in verbis, sed in rebus est. Nec in hoc adhibetur, ut aliqua oblectatione consumatur dies, ut dematur otio nausea. Animum format et fabricat, vitam disponit, actiones regit, agenda et omittenda demonstrat, sedit ad gubernaculum, et per ancipitia fluctuantium dirigit cursum."-Ep. 16. ded from its rightful supremacy. That there is some such incongeniality between Religion and Philosophy at the present day, is very generally believed. But what are the precise points in which the disagreement consists; what are the general characteristics of the Philosophy of the present period, in distinction from that of former periods; what is the exact problem to be solved by our own age in this department; what are the signs and prospects of the dawning philosophical era, and how our efforts are to be directed in hastening it on;-these are questions about which there is much vagueness and uncertainty. They cannot, however, be uninteresting to the many who are asking solicitously, why Christianity delays to possess the world, and what can be done to hasten its triumphs. It is with the hope, which is perhaps presumptuous, of casting light upon some of these points, that we have ventured, with trembling hand, upon this difficult subject. There has been much said of late years, about our mechanical, shallow, sensuous philosophy, and about another system, conceived to be deeper, more spiritual, more unworldly. This has become a common and favourite theme of declamation with some of our popular writers. There seems to float before their minds the dim vision of an Ideal Philosophy, a new-born Platonism, sprung from German enthusiasm, which they hail as congenial with imagination, feeling and sentiment, and in comparison with which they cannot too much detest that "soberizing" system, which they have learned at the universities. And there is, no doubt, much truth in their complaints of the unfriendliness of the current Philosophy to the Imaginative, the Sentimental, and the Poetic. Others, actuated by a moral interest, denounce the old system on account of the grovelling, sordid, selfish principles of action which they suppose it to inspire, and welcome the new system, as the parent of disinterested, generous and chivalrous principles and conduct. But these classes of writers, having no distinct conceptions themselves, either of the system with which they are so dissatisfied, or of that from which they hope so much, have conveyed none to others; and what they have said has passed off with the great public, as elegant, but visionary sentimentalism.-Others still, impelled by a scientific spirit, have found the waters of their native systems too confined and shallow for their far-reaching and deep-going speculations, and have steered their barks for the "mooned sea" of the Kantian Philosophy. But the doctrines they have brought home from that fairy region, have worn such a foreign aspect, and been dressed in such frightful tecknics, that they have never been hospitably received among us. Little, therefore, has been done, after all that has been said, to give our countrymen definite ideas, either of the defects of the old Philosophy, or of the advantages of that which it is proposed to substitute in its place. Our object, in this discussion, is different from that of any of the classes now described. It is neither a poetic, nor philosophic, nor simply moral interest by which we are. actuated in this undertaking. We care little to show, in this place, either the intrinsic errour of the prevalent empiric school, in itself considered, nor its unfriendliness to the imaginative and sentimental, nor even its debasing moral tendencies; because all of these, in our view, are subordinate to, and grow out of its irreligious spirit. To this, therefore, our remarks will be mostly confined. We would contemplate the philosophy of our times in a religious point of view, and endeavour to show its general relations to Christianity, its bearings upon evangelical piety and sound theology. It will be impossible for us to understand fully the philosophy of the present period, unless we consider it in its connexion with that of the periods by which it has been preceded, and which have contributed to make it what it is. We shall first, therefore, take a brief survey of the great periods in the history of philosophy from the commencement of the Christian era to the seventeenth century. This will occupy the present number. We shall then be prepared to understand, by comparison, the spirit of the philosophy, which, from that time to the present, has ruled the world of mind. Then, too, in the light of history, we shall be able to prognosticate more justly respecting the future, and establish the principles on which our farther progress should be conducted. It has often been remarked, that while other religions have exerted little influence on the course of events, Christianity has created the history of the nations among whom it has been established. Though itself estranged from all political interests, it has yet, while pursuing its heavenly objects, shaken the kingdoms of the earth. The grand movements in modern history, the fall of the Roman Empire, the conversion of the northern nations, the rise and decline of the Roman hierarchy, the Crusades, the Reformation, the antireligious French Revolution, the founding of this Western Empire-have all turned upon Christianity. "It was," says Schlegel, "the divine power of love, bringing all earthly wishes and life itself, as a sacrifice to that higher love by which it was enkindled, spreading rapidly over all lands, binding all who felt it in an indissoluble union, which stood firm against the most raging opposition, and kept itself free from the mixture of every thing foreign; it was this divine power of love which overcame the conqueror of the world, gave birth to a new era not as yet finished, and became ere long the principle by which, more than any thing else, the world was impelled and governed." Equally, and even more wonderful were the effects produced by Christianity in the intellectual world. It gave an impulse to the mind of the ancient nations, which had become enervated by errour and vice, and set it forth on a new career of improvement. It originated a philosophy which entered into successful competition with the systems of the old world. And when that world was inundated with barbarism, it arrested the current of passion, diverted it from carnage and conquest, and turned it into the peaceful channels of sacred wisdom. Through the excitement to thought and reflection which Christianity afforded, we see the singular spectacle of schools of philosophy, heretofore the last product of cultivation, rising amidst the rudeness of yet uncivilized nations. It is well that Philosophy, in the pride of its recent independence of Religion, should be reminded, that it owes its origin in modern Europe to the excitation, and its growth and maturity to the nutriment, which Christianity furnished. To ascribe the early rise and maturity of philosophy in modern Europe, to any peculiar ingenuity of mind, or strength of scientific interest, in the barbarous conquerors of this portion of the world, were almost absurd. It is a fact attested by the most impartial historians of philosophy, that the new ideas introduced by Christianity, and the unwonted experiences it occasioned, first elicited the higher powers of reason, and have continued to occupy them, throughout Christendom, until this last period of religious indifference. Nor is it difficult to account for the fact, that Christianity |