Sacred-texts  Christianity

The Seeming Unreality of the Spiritual Life

The NATHANIEL WILLIAM TAYLOR LECTURES

FOR 1907

GIVEN BEFORE THE DIVINITY SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY

BY

HENRY CHURCHILL KING

PRESIDENT OF OBERLIN COLLEGE

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1908

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, 1908 by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Set up and electrotyped. Printed September, 1908

THE MASON-HENRY PRESS SYRACUSE, N. Y.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

I. The Fundamental Nature of the Inquiry
II. The Meaning of the Theme
III. The Order of the Discussion

PART I

THE CAUSES OF THE SEEMING UNREALITY
MISCONCEPTIONS

IV. Ignoring Bodily Conditions
V. Forgetting the Complexity and Unity of Life
VI. Knowledge Never Merely Passive
VII. No Merely Theoretical Solutions
VIII. The Practical Nature of all Belief
IX. Some Common Logical Fallacies
X. Some Traditional Objections
XI. Difficulty in the Conception of God
XII. The Difference Between the Scientific and Religious Problems
XIII. The Difference Between the Philosophical and Religious Problems
XIV. The Spiritual Life not a Life of Strain
XV. The Spiritual Life not a Life of Imitation
XVI. The Spiritual Life not a Life of Magical Inheritance
XVII. The Spiritual Life not a Life of External Rules

FAILURE TO FULFIL CONDITIONS

XVIII. The Way into the Great Values
XIX. The Conditions of a Deepening Personal Relation

THE INEVITABLE LIMITATIONS AND FLUCTUATIONS OF OUR NATURES

XX. Limitations and Fluctuations Common to All our Life
XXI. The Special Bearing of Limitations and Fluctuations on the Spiritual Life
XXII. The Witness of our Consciously Best Hours

A PURPOSED SEEMING UNREALITY OF THE SPIRITUAL

XXIII. The Seeming Unreality a Large Factor in our Moral and Spiritual Training
XXIV. The Special Religious Need of the Unobtrusiveness of the Spiritual
XXV. Our Very Questionings a Proof of Reality

PART II

THE WAY INTO REALITY
THE PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE�

XXVI. The Test of Present Trends of Thought-Historical, Philosophical, Scientific, Ethical, and Social
XXVII. The Test of Present Trends of Thought-Psychological
XXVIII. Man's Essential Need of Religion

AS TO THE THEISTIC ARGUMENT�

XXIX. Facing the Facts often Ignored
XXX. The Necessary Limitations in the Argument
XXXI. The Main Lines of Argument

AS TO THE PERSONAL RELATION TO GOD�

XXXII. The Need of the Modern Man met only in Christ
XXXIII. The Needed Emphases in Modern Religious Life
XXXIV. The Method of the Spiritual Life

AS TO THE PARTICULAR CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES�

XXXV. Doctrine as Expression of Experience with Christ
XXXVI. Illustrated in the Doctrine of Personal Immortality