HALF TRUTHS AND THE TRUTH.

LECTURES

ON THE

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PREVAILING FORMS OF UNBELIEF,
CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE NATURE AND
CLAIMS OF THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM.

BY

REV. J. M. MANNING, D.D.,

PASTOR OF THE OLD SOUTHI CHURCH, BOSTON, AND LECTURER ON THE
RELATIONS OF CHRISTIANITY TO POPULAR INFIDELITY

AT ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

Other foundation can no man lay than that island, which

is Jesus Christ. 1 COR. iii. 11.

CONTENTS.

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INTRODUCTION.

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Nature and spirit of the work. - Definition of the word "infidelity.”— Char-

ity; its limit. Invidious use of the word. Practical infidelity. Sense in

which the word is here used. — Etymological meaning.— To be used with

discrimination at all times. - Should be boldly applied when deserved. —

Two sources of infidelity. - Strictly but one source. - Effects of the Fall.-

Two opposite mental tendencies. - Each tendency the source of a class of

infidelities. Scope of the present work. — Suggestions in advance. - Spec-

ulative and scientific theories not to be prejudged. — Error not always to be

denounced. Mistake respecting astronomy.

Treatment of geology. -

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Caution respecting Darwinism. - Fondness of clergymen for science. -

Man's physical nature not a subject of revelation.—A true spirit of reform

in the church. - Natural history of infidel reformers. Infidelity welcomes

those whom the church repels. The church not innocent. Should avoid

a false position.-Duty of the pulpit.- Congregations must co-operate. -

New England pulpit to be commended. - Effect of a weak pulpit. - Lead-

ing infidels. How the exigency is to be met.· The spirit of Christ in his

people our main reliance. - Duty of ministers. · -The whole church must

have the mind of Christ. How the spirit of Christ is to be shown. - This

spirit peculiar to Christianity.

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Pages 1-36

LECTURE I.

SPINOZA AND OTHER MASTERS.

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- Spinoza's parents religious refugees. His
His defection. His trial. -

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His conduct.

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A singular death-bed scene.

childhood. His studies.

His excommunication. A fugitive. At school. His love. His pur-

pose formed. Reads Descartes. Characteristics. - His poverty. - His

His tolerance. His easy views of all events. - Vagueness of

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The Alexandrine masters.- Plotinus.

Aristotle. Xenophanes the Eleatic..

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- The Chinese.

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- Iamblichus.
Heraclitus. —

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Pythagoras. Hylozoists and others.- The Orientals. - Egyptian specula-
tion. Primitive monotheism.
The Greeks. Testimony
from Egypt.- Conclusion of Naville. - Origin of Fetichism. - The Totem of
the Indians. Spinoza our starting-point. - Vagueness before him. Course
of religious thought sketched. - Spinoza's system the receptacle. — Claims
of Bruno. Intellectual activity of the age favorable to Spinoza. The Ref-
ormation. Bacon. The Pilgrim Fathers. - Richelieu and Cromwell.
The Dutch. -Locke. - Newton. -
Triumphs of science. - Mathematics. —
Astronomy. - Optics. Literature of the seventeenth century. - Theology.—
Religious writers.- Divine purpose.

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THE NATURE AND GROUNDS OF PANTHEISM.

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Definition of pantheism. - How it differs from theism and atheism.- Wherein
atheism and pantheism agree. — Language of pantheists often ambiguous. —
Many names for one thing. - Knowledge of Spinozism which the purpose
of this work requires.. Descartes was Spinoza's guide. -This doubted. -
Opinion of Saisset. - Parentage of Descartes. Early purpose. — Criterion
of truth. Not original with Descartes. - Testimony as to Descartes' posi-
tion. Four main points in Cartesianism. -"I think, therefore I am."— Crit-
icism of Gassendi and Huxley.. - Descartes to be taken as he understood
himself. The Cartesian method. - Descartes' first step. - A foothold for
Spinozism. -The recognition of Reid's doctrine of necessary truths would
have saved Descartes. - The Cartesian argument for the divine existence
favors Spinozism. The argument for a God which now tends to prevail. —
Descartes only seems to anticipate this. - - How his argument legitimates
pantheism. The Cartesian method aids the tendency to pantheism. - The
tendency further strengthened by his denial of second causes. - Spinoza's
logic faultless. The premises of pantheism untenable. The central posi-
tion of Spinozism. The dogmatic result. -Three kinds of knowledge. —
Some account of the Ethics. - Subject of the Second Part. - Of Part Third.
-Of Part Fourth. - Of Part Fifth. Of the First Part. -Definitions.
Axioms. - A demonstration. Perfection of superstructure. Two attri-
butes of substance. - Bearing on question of immortality. -Fatalism.
The a-priori philosophy not to be judged by Spinozism. - - Malebranche. -

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LECTURE III.

THE GERMAN SUCCESSION

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A reaction. Empiricism. - This movement to be passed over for the present.
- Revival of Spinozism. What is here attempted. — Relation of Leibnitz
to the new movement. - The Leibnitz-Wolfian philosophy. - Kant's earlier
views. - The need of a critic suggested by Hume. - Critique of the pure
reason. Relation of the reason to the understanding. - Space and time
forms of the reason. The categories of the understanding. — Ideas of the
reason. - -What they are. Their subjective nature. — Where this critique
leaves us.
- Kant's plan broader than this sphere of the reason. - Another
faculty. Function of the practical reason. - - Result not satisfactory. - Cri-
tique of the judgment.. The object not attained. Three distinct tendencies
in Kant. Reinhold. Jacobi. His mystical tendency. - Argues against
The thinkers of his time not with him. The inter-
view with Lessing. - Character of Jacobi. — Hegel's criticism. - Fichte. —
Thought-activity the only knowable thing. The non-ego.

Kant's first critique.

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A product of
the ego.
The alternative of atheism or pantheism. - Accused of atheism.—
Becomes a pantheist. Unlike Spinoza. -The true wisdom. - Fichte's pan-
theism considered defective. - Schelling. Grand objection to Fichte.
Schellingian doctrine of knowledge. How Schelling reaches the position
of the pantheist. His system described. Agreement with Spinoza.
Three potences. - How they work in the evolution of spirit. - Distinction
between nature and spirit. - How Schelling would account for Christianity.
-The spirit of Schelling's system. - Short continuance of this school of
pantheism. Schelling and Edgar A. Poe. — Culminated in Hegel. - The
best refutation of error its clear statement. - An anachronism. - Hegel.
The absolute idea. Use of Kant's antinomies. The logical movement.
Natural philosophy. - Philosophy of spirit.—Its theological result. - Hegel
and Kant.- Consequences of the system. Strauss. - Schleiermacher. - Net
result. - Lesson of the survey now taken. - Testimony of Müller. 111–149

philosophy. Two uses of the word " religion."- When pantheism is a
religion. Religions to which pantheism may be applied. Re-statement of

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