Author: F. W. NewmanPublisher: Forgotten Books
ISBN: 9780267273188
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 20
Book Description
Excerpt from The Action and Reaction Between Churches and the Civil Government: A Lecture, at South-Place Chapel, Finsbury, May 20, 1860 I began by pointing out the evidence lying on the surface of history, that the morality of nations is more dependent on laws and institutions than on religious creed. I think I should hardly overstate in saying, that laws, enactments, in stitutions of property, and the social relations which rise out of them (all of which are the sphere of the State), must of necessity affect the national character for good or evil hence the action of the State is essentially either moral or immoral. But inasmuch as the Churches, or Church, either need not exist at all, or very often exist in a feeble, cloudy, ceremonial life, their action on the national morality is apt to be but a secondary force. Hence, instead of saying with the Ultra voluntaryist, that morality is the sphere of the Church alone, it is more true to assert, that the State has necessarily a moral action, the Church only accidentally and occasionally. And if we admit that Religion rises above a solemn mummery or a wild fanaticism, only in proportion as morality underlies it if we are conscious that Spiritualism is the glorification of the highest Morality, and that the immoral man cannot be permanently and consistently spiritual, nor ever reap the noblest fruits and blessed joys of spirituality if we feel that an immoral atmosphere is corrupting to the most of us, and intensely painful to the best - then never can those institu tions and measures of State which make our neighbours and ourselves moral or immoral be matter of indifference to the spiritual man; nor can the religious unions, which we call Churches, ever wisely cherish neutral sentiment towards them. The best and noblest churches, however strong and fresh the religious impetus within them, must necessarily be weakened, disorganized, and degraded, by prevailing public depravities. I will add, that when the spiritual influence within them be comes most intense, most pure, most beneficial, it will produce permanent results of good only in proportion as it affects public action or institutions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.