Page History

SCANNED PDF

General Reflections

1) In what sense does Maurice say that "the words of the Bible generally, the assurance of baptism to you particularly, give you the right to believe" (KC, I, 89). Does man acquire the right solely because of these words or this rite; or are they rather attestations of the right he has already acquired? Maurice's answer clearly seems to be the second. But, then, how has man already acquired the right that Bible and baptism attest to him? Has he acquired it by the Incarnation and Atonement of Christ? Or are they, too, but an attestation – better, a "manifestation" -- of the right which he has always already had by virtue of his having been constituted in Christ? Here Maurice's position seems less clear, though one suspects the answer is, again, the second. In which case, he is really very close to Robertson, who, however, is immeasurably clearer!

...