Untitled Sermon (2)

The Christian Doctrine of Reconciliation Chapter I: The Experimental Basis of the Doctrine

But though the pantheistic reconciliation which merely assumes the unity of man and nature is less than Christian, it is not worthless or unreal. There are problems inevitable to the Christian which it has not raised, but on its own ground its value is not to be disputed.

James gives value to Kant and Pathesism, and the unity of man and nature.

The Christian Doctrine of Reconciliation Chapter I: The Experimental Basis of the Doctrine

By emphasising these differences, and especially the ultimate difference between the physical and the ethical, and between right and wrong, with an implacable logical rigour, Kant gave the problem of reconciliation new aspects

The Christian Doctrine of Reconciliation Chapter I: The Experimental Basis of the Doctrine

Men may be very dimly and imperfectly conscious of the nature of the strain which disquiets their life, and may seek to overcome it in blind and insufficient ways. They may interpret it as physical in its origin when it is really ethical, or as the misapprehension of a moral order when it is really antagonism to a personal God, and in either case the reconciliation they seek will fail to give the peace of which they are in quest. Nevertheless, reconciliation and nothing else is what they want, and its place in religion is central and vital.

The Christian Doctrine of Reconciliation Chapter I: The Experimental Basis of the Doctrine

There is always some kind of strain or tension between man and his environment, and man has always an interest in overcoming the strain, in resolving the discord in his situation into a harmony, in getting the environment to be his ally rather than his adversary. The process by which his end is attained may be described as one of reconciliation, but whether the reconciliation is adequate depends on whether his conception of the environment is equal to the truth.