Religion and Theology

Darwinism has been used to refer to concepts that are linked to the idea of evolution. The definition has been broadened over time to encompass ideas which are not part of the work done by Charles Darwin. It has since acquired many meanings most of which are only applied with regard to the context. In the nineteenth century, Darwinism signified a great range of philosophies that included evolution and revolution in biology and also in the society. Darwins concept of evolution which was based on the belief that human beings must have developed from apes rubbed many a Christian the wrong way. This created a sort of conflict between faith and science with a very sharp boundary in between. One either had to believe that human beings evolved over time or that they were created by God with no compromise.

Liberalism, often referred to as modernism, is a term used to refer to the change in the manner of thinking among Christians in the nineteenth century. Christian liberals harbored the belief that the world was dynamic and thus must have changed over time, from the time of inception of Christianity. They felt that the words that had been used when writing the bible had become more or less outdated and less comprehensible to the world of today. They felt that while the content of the Bible was an inspiration from God, the writers of the Bible were human beings and were bound to limits that were set on by virtue of their times. They do not support subscribing to a religious belief by basing oneself on authority without question but instead they subject such kinds of belief through tests in terms of reasons and also experience.

Biblical criticism is a term that is normally used to refer to studying and investigating the writings in the bible with an objective of coming up with discerning and equally discriminating judgment concerning these writings. It seeks to determine the time and place of origin of such kinds of writings. It also seeks to know the author, the manner of writing, the reason for writing, the people such kind of writings were dedicated to, and the circumstances of its production. It also aspires to know the sources that were used to get the information or the manner in which the writers were inspired to write, and most of all it seeks to know and understand the message that is being conveyed.

Darwins theory appeared to challenge the theological descriptions that were present in the nineteenth century. While there could have been a relationship between the theory of evolution and the theological theories, Darwin had come out so strong to dispute the possibility of the existence of a supreme being who could have been responsible for designing all the creations. By refuting this claim, Darwin could be deemed to have broken ranks with the theological beliefs and to a large extent Christianity. This is because from the Bible in the book of Genesis, creation is being described with details of what God did on each particular day. Therefore, claiming that God did not create human beings is a sure way of doubting the Christian faith. Darwin appeared to have agreed with Lyells proposal that the earth was comparatively much older than the writings that were in Genesis and this meant that he doubted the scripture by basing himself on scientific grounds. While God in the book of Genesis said that He made man in a special and unique way, in fact in His own image. It would be a mockery of the Christian faith to state that human beings and apes had a common origin. Some Christians compromised their faith in the nineteenth century because of the works Darwin. Some found loopholes in their religion that they could not contend with. This is largely because of the manner in which Darwin had presented his work, mainly using simple and easily verifiable examples in his books The Origin of Species and The descent of Man.

Theological liberalism is in some occasions referred to as Protestant liberalism. It is believed to have originated from Germany in the nineteenth century, at a time when there were many theological as well as philosophical movements. The key players in this course of German enlightenment were Immanuel Kant, who was a philosopher and Friedrich Schleiermacher, who had very strong religious views. It had an objective of incorporating modern advances, especially in the manner of thinking and science into Christianity which borrowed a lot from traditional literature.

Liberal theologians were keen on establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. They applied their belief by coming up with what became to be known as the social gospel. They shifted their view from saving individual sinners, which had existed for a very long time, to saving the society as a whole. They felt that if the society was righteous then man would not be corrupt since they felt that the surrounding had a greater influence on an individual than the person himself. They were drifting from taking the words in the scripture as unquestionable truth that had to be followed regardless of whether they were working or not. They adopted a method of accepting the words in the scripture that had withstood the test of time or which were within their experience. Their quest for the life after death had degenerated to the desire to live an adorable life here on earth. They shifted their activities to aim for political democracy, peace and ending discrimination. Before the beginning of the First World War, liberalism had spread its roots through many protestant churches that were in Europe.

The liberal theologians were trying to present the scripture in a way that suited human experience. This was comparable to equating the natural to the supernatural. Human experience cannot be used to evaluate the message that was inspired by God.  They changed the popular belief that the scripture was a message that was inspired by God to a kind of new belief that the scripture was a collection of books that were written by men about God. Some of these liberals went to the extent of stating that some of the teachings of Jesus Christ suited His audience during those times but may no longer be very relevant in the modern day world. Theological liberalism had a very great effect on the theological revolution in Europe in the nineteenth century as quite a number of Christian colleges and seminaries chose to identify themselves with liberal theology which was still a relatively new concept at that time. Many churches also deserted biblical Christianity to subscribe to the new kind of theology. This was a very big blow to Christianity at the time.  

There was also an emerging disagreement about Jesus Christs identity. They felt that Jesus Christ did not proclaim to be the Messiah and they doubted whether He performed the miracles He was credited to have done. This was basically fueled by their renewed belief in science which had proved beyond any reasonable doubts that some of those miracles were practically impossible. They felt that scripture alone could not offer sufficient ground to rely on as most of the information in the scripture were passed by word of mouth and were susceptible to bias by the authors. A counter measure had to be formulated soon enough and this came to the credit of Spurgeon and Moody who came up with Bible institutes that could teach against liberalism. This gave a sigh of relief to the Christian conservatives who were getting irritated by the erosion that had befallen their religion. Because of the influence brought about by liberalism, there were formations of many Christian movements. Some of these movements were Evangelicalism, Fundamentalism, Pentecostalism, and Neo-Orthodoxy among other movements.

Biblical criticism involves taking the writings in the bible as natural works rather than what they had been thought to be for a very long time, that is, supernatural. The Bible has come to be appreciated just as a historical writing, making it loose the meaning it had and the authority it had been regarded with for a very long time. In the nineteenth century, this kind of criticism had been divided into two categories, the higher and the lower. Higher criticism basically involved studying the history and the manner in which biblical texts are composed. The lower criticism assumed a more detailed study and went to the extent of trying to establish the original and presumably correct readings.

These criticisms can sometimes be classified as historical and literary. Historical criticism basically goes deep into establishing the time of writing, the writer, among other historical aspects. Literary criticism seeks to establish the audience, the aim, and how the writings may have developed with time. While biblical criticism can be pointed out even during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is believed to have increased many times over in the nineteenth century. Higher criticism is believed to have been fueled by the nineteenth century rationalism in Europe. Naturalism is also believed to have played a substantial role in the development of higher criticism.

Some of the people who came to be closely associated with higher criticism included Friedrich Schleiermacher, Ludwig Feuerbach, and David Friedrich. This criticism is believed to have had started in a biblical school in Germany. From German it was fast in spreading across Europe, especially in France and in the United Kingdom this is because these countries had a greater population of liberal Anglicans in addition to the Catholics. Trends in philosophy supplemented biblical criticism in finding the historical faults in the scriptures. Some of the people who practiced biblical criticism believed that, while the bible was composed of Gods revelations, they words were written by men thus they felt that human error and alteration of information could not be ruled out. Some of them went to the extent of doubting if Jesus Christ really resurrected in flesh.

It is an undeniable fact that Darwinism, Liberalism and Biblical Criticism were a great set back to the Christian churches in the nineteenth century theological revolution in Europe and indeed other parts of the world. While historically, God had always been thought of to be omnipresent, liberalism led to the loss of the personality of God. Sin was no longer taken with the seriousness with which it had initially been, instead what mattered was the way the society and the individual perceived their actions. They had little regards for the words that were written in the Bible. With the onset of Biblical criticism, especially in the nineteenth century, the languages in the Bible were transformed to suit man, and this led to lack of an authoritative Bible. Liberals were keen on knowing who the historical Jesus was and this led to the loss of the uniqueness with which Jesus Christ had been initially regarded. We come to the conclusion that Christianity owes its roots to supernaturalism while liberalism owes its roots to naturalism.