Common Sense Applied to Religion; Or, The Bible and the People

Catharine Esther Beecher

• Publisher: Perlego
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9700000055531
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Religione

"The theological theories referred to, as seemingly opposing the moral sense and common sense of mankind, are those that relate to the foundation principle on which the training of mind is to start. They involve the most practical questions of every-day life, both as to individual responsibility and to the education of the young. These theories, then, are to be examined and tested by the laity as much as by theologians, and especially are they to be examined and decided on by woman, as the heaven-appointed educator of infancy and childhood. In this examination, these theories are to be tested, not by the decisions of ecclesiastical bodies, nor by the writings of theologians, but by those principles of reason and common sense, and those laws of language, which guide mankind in all other practical and personal duties. In order to this, these principles must be evolved and stated in simple and popular form, for particular application on these questions; for no man or woman can decide whether a thing agrees with, or is contrary to the moral sense, or to the principles of reason and common sense, till they clearly perceive what those principles are, and have learned to apply them appropriately. The leading object of this volume is, then, to present these principles in a popular form, and to make it apparent that they can be practically employed by the laity in deciding what is truth, both as to the claims of the Bible as containing authoritative revelations from the Creator, and also as to the true interpretation of it"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).