Originally published in 1938. SYMBOLISM AND BELIEF by EDWYN BEVAN
PREFACE: THE lectures contained in this volume were given for the
University of Edinburgh on Lord Giffords founda tion In the years
1933 and 1934. I have delayed their publication in the hope that
with process of time I might, by further reading and thought, be
able to expand and modify them, so as to make them more worthy of
presen tation to the public in the form of a book. This hope has
been so meagrely realized that it now seems best to let them go
forth, with all their imperfections on their head, hardly at all
altered from the form in which they were delivered. Some changes in
arrangement have been made in the order of lectures the two on Time
now follow immediately the two on the spatial symbol of Height.
Four lectures have been omitted altogether from the present volume,
those on image-worship and doctrines ondemning the manufacture of
images in antiquity and in the Christian Church. Since in the rest
of the lectures ihe symbolism of material objects in worship was
not the kind of symbolism under consideration, these four lectures
seemed somewhat of a digression from the main ine of argument. I
hope later on to issue them as a small book by themselves. As is
generally known, Lord Giffords Will prescribes hat lecturers on his
foundation are not to ask their iudience to believe any statement
on the ground of any special revelation, whether contained in
Scripture or the iogma of a Church, but to rest what they affirm
solely upon grounds of reason. That is to say, their basis must be
the facts of the world so far as they are accessible to the reason
common to mankind. I hope that I have nowhere transgressed
thisrestriction imposed t by the munificent benefactor to whom
these lectures owe their existence. Of course beliefs entertained
by the Christian Church, or by Theists, are, as psychological
facts, among the indisputable facts of the world, and a Gifford
lecturer is, I take it, permitted to point to them, as such, though
he may not ask his hearers to accept them on the authority of
Church or Scripture. Since my two lectures on Time were written, a
note worthy contribution to the subject, from a Christian
standpoint, has been made by Mr. F. H. Brabant in his Bampton
Lectures, Time and Eternity in Christian Thought delivered in 1936,
published in 1937. It was unfortunate for me that I had not Mr.
Brabants book before me, when I wrote my two lectures. Of one thing
I am sure that the questions I have raised regarding the element of
symbolism in our religious conceptions take us to the very heart of
the religious problem. How inadequate my attempts to answer them
have been no one can be more conscious than I am. But if I have
succeeded in putting the questions themselves in a somewhat clearer
light, so that the thought of others may be directed upon them with
richer result, that at any rate is something which I trust the
University which honoured me by appointing me to this lectureship
will accept as something worth doing. Contents include: LECTURE
PAGE Preface 7 I. Introductory 1 1 II. Height 28 III. Height
continued 58 IV. Tiihe 82 V. Time continued 102 VI. Light 125 VII.
Spirit 151 VIII. Spirit continued 177 IX. The Wrath of God 206 X.
The Wrath of God continued 23 1 XI. Distinction of Literal and
Symbolical 252 XII. Symbols Without Conceptual Meaning 275 XIII.
Pragmatism and Analogy 297 XIV.Mansel and Pragmatism 318 XV.
Rationalism and Mysticism 341 S XVI. The Justification of Belief
364 Index 387.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!