[British Critic, Jan. 1841]
The “History of Christianity” which Mr. Milman has lately given to the world, is a work of very considerable ability, and bears upon it tokens of much thought and varied research. No one could doubt that such would be the character of any publication of the author’s, and the expectation raised by his name has been increased by the length of time during which reports have been current of his having a work on Christianity in hand. It consists of three ample volumes, but even these are but an instalment of the whole design to which he has devoted himself. “If he should be blessed with life and leisure,” says his Preface, “the author cannot but look forward to the continuation of this history with increasing interest, as it approaches the period of the re-creation of European society under the influence of Christianity.”—P. 10.It is notorious that the English Church is destitute of an Ecclesiastical History; Gibbon is almost our sole authority for subjects as near the heart of a Christian as any can well be. We do not indeed mean to say that Mr. Milman will supply this want; rather we conceive him to hold that it is a want which ought not to be supplied. Our impression at least is,—we do not mean to state it as more than an impression,—that he considers Church histories, as such, to be nothing better than “tolerabiles ineptiæ.” His present volumes are rather the substitute than the supply of this desideratum in our ecclesiastical literature, and are meant to supersede the history of the Church by the history of Christianity. But we acknowledge even this as a boon; without agreeing to Mr. Milman’s historical views or doctrinal opinions, as what we shall presently say will show, we consider it to be impossible even for a Gibbon to write an uninstructive history of the Evangelical Dispensation; and much less can Mr. Milman, who is not a Gibbon, but a clergyman, fail to be useful to those who are in search of facts, and have better principles than his own to read them by. We frankly confess that he has not pleased us; nor, on the other hand, will he please any clear-headed, long-sighted adherents of that philosophy which he has allowed himself just to taste,—except, indeed, as far as, in the present state of things they will thankfully accept whatever is conceded to them, and welcome it as a precedent and pattern for fresh innovations.
1.
However, we shall be very unjust to Mr. Milman, unless we try carefully to place ourselves in the position which he has chosen for contemplating and delineating the Christian religion. Unless we succeed in this, we shall cruelly misunderstand him, as if he held certain opinions, when he does but state the premisses which practically involve them. It is obvious that the whole system of Revelation may be viewed in various, nay antagonist aspects. He who regards our Lord as man, does not in consequence deny that He is more than man; and they who with Mr. Milman love to regard the whole Christian history as much as possible as a thing of earth, may be wise or unwise, reverent or irreverent, in so doing, may be attempting what is practicable or impracticable, may eventually be led on to commit themselves to positive errors about it, and may accordingly be wantonly trifling with serious matters, but cannot without unfairness be charged with an ipso facto denial of its heavenly character. The Christian history is “an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace:” whether the sign can be satisfactorily treated separate from the thing signified is another matter; but it seems to be Mr. Milman’s intention so to treat it, and he must be judged by that intention, not by any other which we choose to impute to him. Christianity has an external aspect and an internal; it is human without, divine within. To attempt to touch the human element without handling also the divine, we may fairly deem unreal, extravagant, and sophistical; we may feel the two to be one integral whole, differing merely in aspect, not in fact: we may consider that a writer has not mastered his own idea who resolves to take liberties with the body, and yet not insult the animating soul. So we do; but all this is another matter; such a person does not mean any harm; nor does the writer who determines, as far as he can, to view the Christian as a secular fact, to the exclusion of all theological truth. He gives a representation of it, such as it would appear to a man of the world. This, at least, is our primâ facie view of Mr. Milman’s book, and to draw it out shall be our first step,—in doing which we shall have an opportunity, without unkindness to the author, of convicting him of what seems to us a want of clearness and definiteness of conception in his original design.
And first he shall state his object for himself, as it is set before us in his Preface:
“As the Jewish annals might be considered in relation to the general history of man, to the rank which the nation bore among the various families of the human race, and the influence which it exercised on the civilization of mankind: so Christianity may be viewed either in a strictly religious, or rather in a temporal, social, and political light. In the former case, the writer will dwell almost exclusively on the religious doctrines, and will bear continual reference to the new relation established between man and the Supreme Being: the predominant character will be that of the theologian. In the latter, although he may not altogether decline the examination of the religious doctrines, their development, and their variations, his leading object will be to trace the effect of Christianity on the individual and social happiness of man, its influence on the polity, the laws and institutions, the opinions, the manners, even on the arts and the literature of the Christian world: he will write rather as an historian than as a religious instructor. Though, in fact, a candid and dispassionate survey of the connexion of Christianity with the temporal happiness, and with the intellectual and social advancement of mankind, even to the religious inquirer, cannot but be of high importance and interest; while with the general mass, at least of the reading and intellectual part of the community, nothing tends so powerfully to the strengthening or weakening of religious impression and sentiment, nothing acts so extensively, even though perhaps indirectly, on the formation of religious opinions, and on the speculative or practical belief or rejection of Christianity, as the notions we entertain of its influence on the history of man, and its relation to human happiness and social improvement.”—Pp. v. vi.