The Letter and the Spirit

What do we mean by religion?... [T]he tendency since the Reformation has undoubtedly been, to make religion more a badge of separation than a basis of union. But in our day this subject has begun to present itself in a new light. As the science of language has taught us to see affinities where, until recently, men only saw diversities, so the science of religion-a science which, as yet, professes to be only in its infancy-is teaching is that beneath all the outward manifestations of religion lies that which is anterior to all religions, the faculty of aspiring and yearning after the Infinite. -from "Lecture VI: In Creeds and Confessions of Faith" These eight lectures, delivered by Trinity College Fellow ROBERT EDWARD BARTLETT (1830-1904) at the University of Oxford and gathered together in one volume in 1888, explore Christianity from the perspective as both faith and law, as the expression of human feeling as well as the rules by which humanity should live. From the trials of his conversion that influenced St. Paul's interpretations of the Gospels-and the suggestion that he did not consider faith dependent upon them-to how the history of the Church and the performance of the Sacraments are connected in metaphor and actuality, this is an intriguing discussion about how ideas about God, man, and the relationship between them created the Church and ensure its continued existence. OF INTEREST TO: students of Christian philosophy