Sociological Study Of The Bible

SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE By Louis WALLIS Author of An Examination of Society, Formerly Instructor in Economics and Sociology in the Ohio State University THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS COPYRIGHT 1912 BY Louis WALLIS All Rights Reserved Published April 1912 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicago Press . Chicago, HI., U. S. A. TO MY WIFE Sran gl WHOSE SYMPATHY AND HELP HAVE BEEN A CONSTANT ENCOURAGEMENT 61191.97 CONTENTS PREFATORY PART I PRELIMINARY VIEW OF THE BIBLE PROBLEM CHAPTER viii CONTENTS PART IV THE SPREAD OF BIBLE RELIGION CHAPTER PAGE XXV. THE WORK OF JESUS 229 XXVI. CHRISTIANITY AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM .... 239 XXVII. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 242 XXVIII. CATHOLICISM REJECTS THE SOCIAL PROBLEM ... 248 XXIX. THE CONVERSION OF THE BARBARIANS . . . . 252 XXX. CATHOLICISM AS EXTERNAL AUTHORITY .... 255 XXXI. JUSTIFICATION BY WORKS 258 PART V THE BIBLE AND ITS RELIGION IN THE MODERN WORLD XXXII. PROTESTANTISM AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM . . . 264 XXXIII. PROTESTANTISM AS EXTERNAL AUTHORITY . . . 279 XXXIV. PROTESTANTISM REJECTS THE SOCIAL PROBLEM . 285 XXXV. MODERN SCIENTIFIC BIBLE-STUDY 289 XXXVI. SEPARATION OP CHURCH AND STATE 292 XXXVII. THE MODERN SOCIAL AWAKENING 294 APPENDIX Note on the History of Sociological Bible-Study, . 299 INDEX OP SUBJECTS 303 PREFATORY This book is an evolutionary study of Christendom. Although it largely takes the form of research into ancient history, it is in substance an inquiry into vital questions of today. Owing to the recent separation of Church and State, there is a tendency to take for granted that religion deals only with matters of belief about things that have no concern for practical persons, or that it relatesonly to private, individual affairs. Hence the need for pointing out that the vital religious ideas of Christian society took shape in response to a social pressure as tremendous and compelling as that in which we live today. The present social revival of the church is part of a wider awakening which extends beyond the limits of religious institutions, and which has already put its deep mark on the age. Although every period of history has its own difficulties, there are times in which the social problem bids for attention more acutely and insistently than at others and the present seems to be such a time. The purpose of this book is to state, as clearly and simply as possible, the relation of the Bible to the social problem. The title Sociological Study of the Bible seems to carry much of its own explanation with it. But the term sociology is a new one and some prefatory statement of the general drift of the treatise will therefore be of more than usual assistance to the reader. In the first place, this book takes the standpoint of what is called pure science. It seeks to know the historical facts of the subject before it, and to interpret these facts in their actual, historical connections. Such being the case, it is necessary to enter upon our theme in view of what has already x PREFATORY been accomplished by investigators in several departments of research. Modern scientific study has been slowly approaching a time in which new disclosures of the connection between religious thought and secular experience are possible. The necessary division of scientific research into special departments, and the consequent slowness of co-operation among specialists, have delayed the fullappreciation of scientific results among scholars themselves, and have made it practically impossible for the intelligent public to share in some of the most fruitful achievements of modern scholarship. In no lines of scientific research is this more true than in the case of the investigations whose results come together in the sociological study of the Bible, or, as we have sometimes called it, biblical sociology...