RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Socinus
only; in secondary matters even the apostles might err. His two criteria for the critical elimination of the ungenuine and for judging what is of divine content are (1) accordance with reason, and (2) moral significance and utility. The tendency was ever toward a more rationalistic faith.
The doctrine of God is divided into the ideas of the essence of God and of his will. The being of God undistinguished from his existence is not considered in the abstract metaphysical sense, but in the concrete relation to the world of finite being,
more positively in relation to man. 2. God. Being and sovereignty are identical in
God. He possesses absolute (ex se ipso) determination of will in the sense of the Scotist Scholasticism (q.v.). His existence, nature, and attributes are subjects of positive revelation; therefore involved with the proofs of the authority of Scripture. With respect to the divine attributes the canon holds that they are inseparable in understanding. Socinianism was occupied mainly with that of omniscience. God's foreknowledge is limited to the necessary, and does not apply to the possible; otherwise there would be no human freedom. Special attention is given to the attribute of divine unity, which coincides with the divine aseity, even the conception of God itself. The knowledge of the unity of God is necessary for salvation, because otherwise man would be uncertain as to who had revealed to him salvation. It is also profitable for salvation to know that God is only one person. Here is the nexus of the polemical battle with orthodoxy. The doctrine of the Trinity is represented as contrary to Scripture. That the Holy Spirit is anywhere in Scripture called God is denied. The passages in which Father, Son, and Spirit are represented, according to orthodoxy, to be coordinate, are invalidated. This is followed by the proof of reason against the Trinity, consisting in pointing out the inconsistencies and irrelevancies in the dogmatic formula and emphasizing the omission from Scripture of such terms as " substance," "person," " eternal generation of the Son," and " preexistence." Thus, the thesis of Socinus was sought to be established: " Plurality of persons in one divine essence is impossible." The creation out of nothing is denied by the Socinians and there is posited a preexisting matter from which God formed the world. Ex nihilo according to II Maccabees vii. 28 is identical with the ex informi materia (formless matter) of Eccles. xi. 17, or the tohu wabhohu (Gen. i. 2)
which is not said in Scripture to have 3. Creation ; been created. Here appears the dual- Man, ism that governs the whole system.
The divine image in man consists essentially in his dominion over nature, including mind and reason; from these the likeness to God is derived. Man, created mortal, has by nature nothing of immortality, and therefore did not lose this virtue by the fall. Man was not created perfect or originally endowed with a high measure of wisdom. He had a negative or possible free will, not a positive actual freedom. The fall was due to a weak understanding and an inexperienced will, so that sensuality blinded the reason and incited to transgression. Inner nature merely asserted itself; yet
Socinianism aimed to conceive sin as an act of freedom, in which it was not altogether consistent. Through sin Adam and his descendants have not lost free choice. In so far as original sin is the denial of this freedom, Socinianism disputes it most emphatically. Original sin as depravity of the choice of the good and as a penalty impending over man contradicts Scripture, which in its admonitions to repentance everywhere presupposes the freedom of man, and the doctrine not less emphatically contradicts reason. Lust and inclination to sin, in which original sin is said to consist, are possible in all but not shown to be in all. Granted that there is such a doom over all, that it is the result of Adam's sin would not follow. If this were so, original sin would cease to be sin; for there is no sin where there is no guilt. Hence there is no original sin as such. Inconsistently, however, the general mortality of the human race is traced to the sin of Adam; after the fall man, mortal by nature, was abandoned to his natural mortality because of the sin of Adam. With this assumption there is connected that of a certain sinful disposition produced by the continuous sinning of all generations. Accordingly, the freedom of man is weakened; but with the aid of God man may appropriate salvation. This divine reenforcement is needed to avoid gross and violent sins, contrary to reason; and those over which reason affords no mastery require specially potent and lofty promises of grace, and these are the promises in Jesus Christ.
The doctrine of salvation contemplates only a select part and has been characterized as ethicoaristocratic. The Gospel effects a total change in
the spiritual nature of man. Christ
4. Chris- came, not to restore man to the orig-
tology. inal state before Adam, but to lift him
to a more exalted one. The Christian is more than the truly human. Is then Christ also more than human? Socinianism answers that he was, on the one side, truly mortal man; on the other, more than mere man, a man with unusual endowments, imbued with immeasurable wisdom, and exalted by God to unlimited power and immortality. Christ was bound to be of like nature with man, because the goal of religion was immortality mediated by his resurrection, and if, on the other hand, his advantage above all men was in his divinity, he could not die. The Catechism expressly teaches that the Scripture denies to Christ the divine nature, in so far as it testifies to his humanity. Here lies the second great polemical center of Socinianism. Other human beings are called sons of God (Hos. i. 10; Rom. ix. 26). "Only begotten son of God " means " favorite and most beloved " (cf. Heb. xi. 17; Prov. iv. 3). " Equal with God " (John v. 18; Phil. ii. 6) refers to unity of power and work; and the statement " I and my Father are one " (John x. 30) is to be understood in the sense that the disciples are to be in accord as he and the Father are one (John xvii., 11, 22). Against the doctrine of preexistence it is maintained that the " beginning " (John i. 1) is the beginning of the Gospel (cf. xv. 27, xvi. 4). The creation of the world by the Word meant either the reformation of the human race, or the future eon of immor-
Socinus Socrates