The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Chandler - The Spirit of Man
A marked characteristic of the present time is the widespread and increasing dissatisfaction with the individualism of the last hundred years. While, on the practical side, this dissatisfaction manifests itself in efforts to centralize the power and enlarge the functions of the state, the same thing is seen even more clearly on the theoretical side in the growing influence of idealism in metaphysics, and in the ethical system of such writers as Wundt, Ihering, and Leslie Stephen. So completely have philosophers of this class sunk the individual in society, that many who are most alive to both the theoretical and the practical defects of the old individualism fear that a reaction may be excited against this new-found sense of solidarity by the very extravagances of its advocates. We are, therefore, glad to welcome every earnest attempt to determine an adequate theory of the relations between individuals and institutions. The aim of the present work is to show that in Christianity we have a solution of the problem which gives at once due value to social organizations and full weight to the intrinsic worth of individual personality. While protesting against the 'sacrifice of individuality to the exigencies of Dialectic,' the writer acknowledges his indebtedness to Hegel, and, indeed, we may say that the book is written from a decidedly Hegelian standpoint.
The first chapter is devoted to epistemology. After a criticism of Locke, Spencer, Hume, Berkeley, and T. H. Green, the conclusion is reached that Knowledge and Reality are related as different aspects of one concrete identity of Truth. The second chapter is entitled "The Nature of Man and the Work of Christ." As is the universe, so also is man, a concrete identity yielding differences of aspect. The different aspects of man's nature are body and the rational soul or mind. "Spirit is the comprehensive unity in which mind and body, thought and feeling are reconciled and combined" (p. 41). The distinction of mind and body is the result of sin. The Fall of Man was a fall from his true nature as a spiritual creation; it was a disruption of the unity of the spirit, a disintegration of spirit into differences of mind and body. Just why this undifferentiated spirit 'in full and unclouded communion with God the Father of spirits' started off on a course of 'rebellious self-will' which resulted in this distressing disruption of itself into mind and body, the author does not explain. We are told, however, that the dire effects of this speculative Fall are all overcome by an equally speculative Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ — we say 'speculative,' for this theology has no more apparent connection with the historical narrative of the Bible than has a mathematical deduction of a fourth dimension in space, and, we may add, no more relation to the facts of experience either.
The next two chapters deal with 'Eternal Life' and 'Freedom.' In spite of the speculative theology which dominates these chapters, they contain much that is excellent. The eternal life (to which the term 'spiritual,' 'sacramental,' and 'perfect' are also applied) is 'the life rooted in the service of man.' "In the eyes of Christianity, both practical work and intellectual work, if unselfishly performed, may be invested with a spiritual character, and become the vehicle of an eternal life" (p. 103). The last two chapters on 'Virtue' and 'Institutions' are less cumbered with speculation and are excellent. After a brief but suggestive criticism of Greek ethics and of Utilitarianism, the writer enunciates his own view that reverence for the sacredness of human personality is the only genuine moral motive. "The good aimed at in Christian ethics is not the corporate glory of the state (the Greek view), or the private pleasure of the animal (Utilitarian), but the training and development of personality, the perfecting of human character" (p. 178). It is in and through institutions that men are trained to unselfishness and to a recognition of the affinities and duties which bind them in fellowship to all mankind. Their sacredness lies in the invaluable education which they give to character.
The criticism of the doctrine of the Social Organism (p. 197 ff.) is worthy of especial note. Of the book in general we should say that the ethical half is most admirable, and that the theological part may serve as a useful introduction for that class of minds who find it easier to reach the earth by first taking a preliminary flight through the upper ether.
F. C. French.