|
|
HARDNESS |
A Contemporary Interpretation of the Doctrine of Sin |
||
|
by E. La B. Cherbonnier |
|||
|
___________________ |
|||
|
1955 DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC. Garden City, New York |
|||
|
|||
|
PREFACE This book attempts to correlate the biblical understanding of sin with the facts of modern life. It will argue that the Bible, far from being irrelevant to the twentieth century, is in fact indispensable to it, that the problems of our day raise questions to which only the biblical religion has ever claimed to have an answer. The implication is that the Bible will yield a philosophy of life which can sustain itself on independent grounds. It is often maintained, to the contrary, that many different philosophies appear in the Bible and that to select one of them and label it “biblical” is arbitrary. Actually, however, recent scholarship has disclosed a far greater unity in the Bible than was formerly supposed. The method underlying the present essay has been to ask: What unspoken philosophical assumptions does the Bible make when it is not talking philosophy at all-that is, about ninety-nine per cent of the time? When the answers to this question are correlated, they comprise a remarkably consistent world view, spanning over ten centuries and including scores of writers. It is this over-all unity of philosophical outlook which will be designated herein as “biblical.” The residue of inconsistencies which admittedly exists thus ceases to be a problem. The Bible provides its own internal principle of self-criticism, by which these odds and ends can legitimately be identified as falling outside the overwhelming import of the Bible as a whole. The following pages attempt to reduce some of this biblical wisdom to the language of reasoned argument. I should like to express my gratitude to all who have contributed directly or indirectly to the book. I am especially indebted to Reinhold Niebuhr, not only for a critical reading of the text and for valuable suggestions which have spared me many an infelicity, but also for a dozen years of counsel and stimulus. Although not liable for the book’s conclusions, his influence is evident throughout. Finally, Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Newton, together with Spessard Caldwell, have spent more time and effort in improving the text than I could possibly repay.
E. La B. C.
Barnard College
|
|||