Some Christian Convictions

Some Christian Convictions

Project Gutenberg's Some Christian Convictions, by Henry Sloane
Coffin This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Some Christian Convictions A Practical Restatement in Terms of
Present-Day Thinking
Author: Henry Sloane Coffin
Release Date: August 3, 2005 [EBook #16424]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME
CHRISTIAN CONVICTIONS ***

Produced by Eric Betts and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdp.net

SOME CHRISTIAN CONVICTIONS

OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE CREED OF JESUS AND OTHER SERMONS
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE CROSS

HYMNS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD EDITED BY H.S. COFFIN
AND A.W. VERNON The Same for Use in Baptist Churches REV.
CHARLES W. GILKEY, Co-editor
IN A DAY OF SOCIAL REBUILDING (Second printing)
UNIVERSITY SERMONS (Second printing)
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WITH A CHRISTIAN
APPLICATION TO PRESENT CONDITIONS

Some Christian Convictions
A PRACTICAL RESTATEMENT IN TERMS OF PRESENT-DAY
THINKING
BY HENRY SLOANE COFFIN
MINISTER IN THE MADISON AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN THE UNION
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK CITY
_Non enim omnis qui cogitat credit sed cogitat omnis qui credit, et
credendo sogitat et cogitando credit_.--AUGUSTINE
COPYRIGHT, 1915 BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published, 1915 Second printing, 1915 Third printing, 1916
Fourth printing, 1920
TO D.P.C.
SOCIÆ REI HUMANÆ ATQUE DIVINÆ

PREFACE

Bishop Burnet, in his History of His Own Time, writes of Sir Harry
Vane, that he belonged "to the sect called 'Seekers,' as being satisfied
with no form of opinion yet extant, but waiting for future discoveries."
The sect of Sir Harry Vane is extraordinarily numerous in our day; and
at various times I have been asked to address groups of its adherents,
both among college students and among thoughtful persons outside
university circles, upon the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. Some
of my listeners had been trained in the Church, but had thrown off their
allegiance to it; others had been reared in Judaism or in agnosticism;
others considered themselves "honorary members" of various religious
communions--interested and sympathetic, but uncommitted and
irresponsible; more were would-be Christians somewhat restive
intellectually under the usual statements of Christian truths. It was for
minds of this type that the following lectures were prepared. They are
not an attempt at a systematic exposition of Christian doctrine, but an
effort to restate a few essential Christian convictions in terms that are
intelligible and persuasive to persons who have felt the force of the
various intellectual movements of recent years. They do not pretend to
make any contribution to scholarship; they aim at the less difficult, but
perhaps scarcely less necessary middleman's task of bringing the results
of the study of scholars to men and women who (to borrow a phrase of
Augustine's) "believe in thinking" and wish to "think in believing."
They may be criticised by those who, satisfied with the more traditional
ways of stating the historic Christian faith, will dislike their
discrimination between some elements in that faith as more, and others
as less, certain. I would reply that they are intentionally but a partial
presentation of the Gospel for a particular purpose; and further I find
my position entirely covered by the words of Richard Baxter in his
_Reliquiæ_: "Among Truths certain in themselves, all are not equally
certain unto me; and even of the Mysteries of the Gospel, I must needs
say with Mr. Richard Hooker, that whatever men pretend, the
subjective Certainty cannot go beyond the objective Evidence: for it is
caused thereby as the print on the Wax is caused by that on the Seal. I
am not so foolish as to pretend my certainty to be greater than it is,
merely because it is a dishonour to be less certain. They that will begin
all their Certainty with that of the Truth of the Scripture, as the

Principium Cognoscendi, may meet me at the same end; but they must
give me leave to undertake to prove to a Heathen or Infidel, the Being
of God and the necessity of Holiness, even while he yet denieth the
Truth of Scripture, and in order to his believing it to be true."
In preparing the lectures for publication I have allowed the spoken style
in which they were written to remain; several of the chapters, however,
have been somewhat enlarged.
I am indebted to two of my colleagues, Professor James E. Frame and
Professor A.C. McGiffert, for valuable suggestions in two of the
chapters, and especially to my friend, the Rev. W. Russell Bowie, D.D.,
of St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Va., who kindly read over the
manuscript.