“These hereditary1 enemies of the Truth... have even had the heart to degrade this first preacher of the Mountain, the purest hero of Liberty; for, unable to deny that he was earth’s greatest man, they have made of him heaven’s smallest god.”—Heine: Reisébilder.
The doctrine2 of the divinity of Jesus, which, in whatever relation regarded, is full of self-contradictions and absurdities3, is, above all, pernicious in its moral and spiritual results. Most myths have a certain justification4 in their beauty, in their symbolism of high truth. This one distorts the beauty, degrades the sublimity5, stultifies6 the meaning of the facts and the character wherein it has been founded, taking away all true grandeur7 from Jesus, benumbing our love and reverence8.
Jesus, as a man, commands my heart’s best homage9. His words, as reported by the Evangelists, are ever-flowing fountains of spiritual refreshments10; and I feel that he was in himself even far more wise and good than he appears in the gospel. What disciple11 could be expected to report perfectly12 the words of a teacher so mystically sublime13? The disciple intends and endeavors to report faithfully; but when he hears words which to him are without sense, because they express some truth whose sphere is beyond the reach of his vision, he makes sense of them by some slight change—slight as to the letter, immense as to the spirit; for the sense is a truth or truism of his own lower sphere. And when the reports are not put into writing until many years after the words were first uttered, the changes will be important even as to the letter; for a narrative14 from a man’s mouth always alters year after year as much as the man himself alters, for he continues grafting15 his own sense (which may be deplorable nonsense) upon words which have been spoken. When we find sentences of the purest beauty and wisdom in the records of a man’s conversation, we may safely proportion the whole philosophical16 character of the speaker to such sentences. They mark the altitude at which his spirit loved to dwell. We are but completing the circle from the clearest fragment-arc left. Sentences of wisdom less exalted17, or of apparent unwisdom, have perhaps been degraded by the reporter, or have been relative to circumstances which we cannot now learn thoroughly18.
Jesus as a man, whose words have been recorded by fallible men, is not lowered in my esteem19 by such contradictions as I find between his various speeches. Every proverb has its antagonist20 proverb, each being true to a certain extent, or in certain relations. Could we conceive an abstract intellect, we might conceive it dwelling21 continually in the sphere of abstract and absolute truth; but no man, however wise, dwells continually in this sphere. As a man living in the world, his intellect no less than his body lives in the relative and the conditioned, and naturally reflects the character of this sphere. The wise man finds himself surrounded and obstructed22 by certain concrete errors, and he attacks these errors with relative truths. Were the errors of another sort, the truths commonly in his mouth would be of another sort too. Many wise men of different ages and countries are pitted against each other as if their doctrines23 were fundamentally antagonistic24, while, in truth, their doctrines are essentially25 in unison26, and either would have spoken or written much the same as the other had he lived in the same circumstances. For a wise man only attacks the errors that are in his way; things which he never meets he can scarcely think of as obstructions27. Hannibal, whose business it is to get into Italy from Gaul, sets about blasting the Alps. Stephenson, whose business it is to get from Manchester to Liverpool, sets about filling up Chat Moss28. The same man, who muffles29 himself in as many furs as he can get in Greenland, will strip himself to a linen30 robe in Jamaica. Luther said that the human mind is like a drunken peasant on horseback: he is rolling off on the right, you push him up, he then rolls over on the left. Exactly so; and because one sage31, seeing him roll down to the right, has pushed him up on the right, while another sage, seeing him roll down to the left, has pushed him up on the left, are the two sages32 to be accounted antagonists33? Now as a wise man in the course of his existence meets errors of many sorts, some of a quite opposite tendency to others, and as he proves his wisdom by applying to each error its relative or pertinent34 truth, the rule is almost rigidly35 exact: that the wiser the man the more of apparent contradictions can be found in his writings or conversation treating of actual life.
But deity36 is beyond the sphere of the relative and conditioned. When deity speaks and deity reports the speeches, all should be absolute truth transparently37 self-consistent, else what advantage or gain have we by the substitution of God for Man? Why bring in God to utter and record what could have been as well uttered and recorded by man?
Everything for which we love and venerate38 the man Jesus becomes a bitter and absurd mockery when attributed to the Lord Christ. The full heart is praising the man; you turn him into God, a ruinous salvo is added to the praise.
He went about doing good: if God, why did he not do all good at once? He cured many sick: if God, why did he not give the whole world health? He associated with publicans and sinners: if God, why did he make publicans and sinners at all? He preached the kingdom of heaven: if God, why did he not bring the kingdom with him and make all mankind fit for it? He loved the poor, he taught the ignorant: if God, why did he let any remain poor and ignorant? He rebuked39 the Pharisees and Sadducees: it God, why did he not wholly purify them from formalism, hypocrisy40, and unbelief? He died for love of mankind: if God, why did he not restore mankind to himself without dying? and what great thing was it to seem to die for three days? He sent apostles to preach salvation41 to all men: if God, why did he not reveal it at once to all men, and so reveal it that doubt had been impossible? He lived an example of holiness to us all: if God, how can our humanity imitate Deity? And finally, a question trampling42 down every assertion in his favor: why did he ever let the world get evil?
One is ashamed of repeating these things for the ten-thousandth time, but they will have to be repeated occasionally, so long as a vast ecclesiastical system continues to rest on the foundations of the absurdities they oppugn. And while one is grinding such chaff44 in the theological mill, he may as well have a turn at the Atonement, which is, in fact, the essence of the dogma of the Incarnation. No wonder this poor Atonement has been attacked on all sides; it invites attack; one may say that in every aspect it piteously implores45 us to attack it and relieve it from the misery46 of its spectral47 existence. It is so full of breaches48 that one does not know where to storm.
I am content to note one aspect of this unfortunate mystery which, so far as I am aware, has been seldom studied. The whole scheme of the Atonement, as planned by God, is based upon a crime—a crime infinitely49 atrocious, the crime of murder and deicide, is essential to its success: if Judas had not betrayed, if the Jews had not insisted, if Pilate had not surrendered, if all these turpitudes had not been secured, the Atonement could not have been consummated50. Need one say more? Sometimes, when musing51 upon this doctrine, I have a vision of the God-man getting old upon the earth, horribly anxious and wretched, because no one will murder him. Judas has succeeded to a large property, and would not be tempted52 to betray him by three hundred pieces of silver; the chief priests and elders think him insane, and, therefore, as Orientals, hold him in a certain reverence; Pilate is henpecked and superstitious53, accounts the wife’s dreams oracular, and will have nothing to do with him; even Peter won’t deny him, although he has restored Peter’s mother-in-law to life. The situation is desperate; he has again and again prayed his Father to despatch54 a special murderer to despatch him, yet none appears: shall he have to perish by old age or disease? may he be compelled to commit suicide? must he go back to Heaven unsacrificed, foiled for want of an assassin?
Benjamin Disraeli attained56 the cynical57 sublime when he suggested a monument of gratitude58 to Judas. In fact, Christendom ought to have erected59 hundreds of years ago three grand monuments to the sub-trinity of Christianity, to the three men without whose devoted61 assistance the heavenly trinity would not have triumphed in the scheme of Salvation by Atonement; Judas, Caiaphas and Pilate; and as these three men could not have done what they did in furtherance of the glorious work without a well-known inspiration, a fourth memorial—the grandest of all—should have been erected to the Devil. But the world, even the religious world, has always been ungrateful to its most generous benefactors62.
Is it not the worst of sacrilege, a foul63 profanation64 of our human nature, which for us, at least, should be holy and awful, when the heroic and saintly martyrdom of a true Man is thus falsified into the self-schemed sham43 sacrifice, ineffectual, of a God? The people who profess65 belief in this are shocked at the outrage66 offered to our humanity by the Development Theory, while they themselves commit this outrage more flagitious. Little matters whence we sprang; we are what we are. But much matters to what we may attain55. If the Development Theory plants our feet in the slime, the Christian60 Theory bows our head to the dust. It asserts that human nature could not possibly be so good as Jesus, that human genius could not possibly write the books which tell of him; it denies us our noblest prerogatives67, and declares us bastards68 when we claim a crown. It climbs to God by trampling on Man, it builds Heaven in contempt of Earth, its soul is a phosphorescence from the slain69 and rotting Body; its fervent70 faith vilifies71 us worse than the coldest sneer72 of Mephistopheles. Yet the orthodox shudder73 and moan, outraged74 in their pious75 sensibilities, when one dares to speak with manly76 plainness of their doctrines, which commence by polluting our common nature, continue by insulting our reason, and conclude by damning the large majority of us!
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1
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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absurdities
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| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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stultifies
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| v.使成为徒劳，使变得无用( stultify的第三人称单数 ) | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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refreshments
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| n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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grafting
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| 嫁接法，移植法 | |
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philosophical
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| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
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exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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antagonistic
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| adj.敌对的 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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unison
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| n.步调一致，行动一致 | |
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obstructions
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| n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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muffles
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| v.压抑，捂住( muffle的第三人称单数 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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antagonists
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| 对立[对抗] 者，对手，敌手( antagonist的名词复数 )； 对抗肌； 对抗药 | |
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pertinent
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| adj.恰当的；贴切的；中肯的；有关的；相干的 | |
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rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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transparently
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| 明亮地，显然地，易觉察地 | |
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venerate
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| v.尊敬，崇敬，崇拜 | |
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rebuked
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| 责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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43
sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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45
implores
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的第三人称单数 ) | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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spectral
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| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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breaches
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| 破坏( breach的名词复数 )； 破裂； 缺口； 违背 | |
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49
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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consummated
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| v.使结束( consummate的过去式和过去分词 )；使完美；完婚；（婚礼后的）圆房 | |
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51
musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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52
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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59
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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benefactors
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| n.捐助者，施主( benefactor的名词复数 )；恩人 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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profanation
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| n.亵渎 | |
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profess
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| v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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prerogatives
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| n.权利( prerogative的名词复数 )；特权；大主教法庭；总督委任组成的法庭 | |
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bastards
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| 私生子( bastard的名词复数 )； 坏蛋； 讨厌的事物； 麻烦事 （认为别人走运或不幸时说）家伙 | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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vilifies
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| n.中伤，诽谤( vilify的名词复数 )v.中伤，诽谤( vilify的第三人称单数 ) | |
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sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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