The tendency of German theology has gone against the external evidences of Christianity, but this very tendency opened tlie door to rationalism and infidelity, above which German orthodoxy has only recently l)e- gun to emerge. On this point, see the Xeiu York l^e- vierv, ii, 141 sq. See also bishop Butler's admirable discussion of the "particular" evidence for Christian- ity in his Analogy of Ecligion, pt. ii, ch. vii. See also Mansell, in Aids to Faith, Essay i (London, 1861, 8vo). The tendency of the best modern apologists is not to thrust the argument from miracles into the back- ground, but to vindicate it afresh. So Auberlen, Gdttliche Offenbarung (1864); ]Mozlej% On Miracles; Fisher, Essays on the supernatural Origin of Christian- ity, p. 12 sq., 503 sq. The rejection of miracles gen- eralljf leads to a rejection of the doctrine of the per- sonality of God. See, for a fuller treatment of this branch of the subject, the article Miracles. The chief task of the apologist for Christianity in the pres- ent age (apart from the metaphysical conflict with Pantheism and Positivism, for which see articles under those heads) is to vindicate the authenticity and the earh^ date of the books of the N. T. against the as- saults not merely of avowed skeptics, but also of theo- logians witliin the Christian Church, such as those of the Tiibingen school (q. v.). This task resolves it- self, again, into that of vindicating the historical real- it}' of the scriptural miracles. " The recent criticism of the N.-T. canon, eiiliracing the attempt to impeach the genuineness of various books, is onh- a part of the great discussion of the historical trutli of the N. T. ; for it is difficult to attack the credibility of the Gospel liistorians witliout first disproving their genuineness" (Fisher, Essays, p. 14). In the noted Essays and Re- views (Boston ed. 1865, 12mo), Prof. Baden Powell has an article on "The Study of the Evidences of Chris- tiaiiit}'," in whicli he undertakes to state the present condition of the discussion, and to indicate the true line of Christian evidences. He disparages the " pro- fessed advocates of an external revelation and liistori- cal evidence" by innuendo as well as liy direct attack, and assumes the inconceivability and impossibility of miracles. See Goodwin's article in the American The- ological Eeriew, July, 1861, wdiicli closes as follows: " It is one thing to urge other evidences of Christian- ity as stronger and more satisfactory tlian that from miracles ; it is anotlier thing to reject all miracles as iiicredilde and absurd. He wlio takes the former course may show an eminently Christian spirit, and for ourselves we cordially sympathize with his posi- tion ; but he who takes tlie latter course, if not an in- fidel himself, is certainly playing into the hands of infidels and atlieists."
One of the chief forms taken by recent Christian apologetics is the argument drawn from the actual
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 381
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phenomena of Christianity, the exisiinff facts vrhich no- body can deny. The tirst of these is tlie character of Christ, which has been so described by rationalistic and infidel writers (e. g. Strauss, Renan, Schenkcl) as to bring the argument down almost, if not cjuite, to the point whether Jesus were an impostor or no. The replies to these attacks within the last twenty years have brought with greater force than ever the eternal light of evidence which the person and life of the Re- deemer contain in favor of the whole S3'stem of Chris- tianity. See the works on this subject of Neander, Lange, Schaff, Pressense, Ellicott, Young, Pluraptre, and others. Dr. Schaft' sums up the result of a study of Christ in one strong passage : "Jesus of Nazareth is the one absolute and unaccountable exception to the universal experience of mankind. He is the great central miracle of the whole Gospel historj'; and all his miracles are but the natural and necessary mani- festations of his miraculous person, performed with the same ease witli which we perform our ordinary daily works." The second of these phenomena is found in the hoolis of the New Testament themselves, as affording abundant internal evidence of reality and truthfulness. The third is the specific Christian doc- trine, which can be traced up (through the Epistles to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, Romans, and Gala- tians, the genuineness and early date of which are ad- mitted even by the Tubingen school) to within thirty years after the death of Christ. (See an excellent arti- cle on the Unexhausted Resources of Christian Evidence, by Prof. Lorimer, in B. and F. Ev. Review, Jan. 1865, reprinted in The Theolog. Eclectic, New Haven, iii, 30 sq.) Dr. H. Schmidt, of Meiningen, taking the Tu- bingen critics at their word, undertakes to find in the four iniquestioned epistles (Galatians, 1st and 2d Co- rinthians, and Romans) a full vindication of the truth and divine origin of Christianitj'. See his Der PauU- nische Christus (Weimar, 1867, 8vo).
The comimrison of Christianity with heathen religions is opening a new and rich mine of Christian evidences. The science of "Comparative Religion," so called, is yet in its infancy, but all contributions to it only tend to bring out the argument for the divine origin of Christianity into clearer relief. See Maurice, Relig- ions of the World (1846, 12mo) ; Pressense, Religions he- fore Christ (1866, 8vo) ; Miiller, Chips from a German Workshop (1867, 2 vols, 12mo) ; Hardwick, Christ and other Masters (Lond. 2d ed., 1863, 2 vols. 12mo); and an article by Caldwell, Bapt. Quart. Rev. Oct. 1868.