Similarities of Physical and Religious Knowledge. By James Thompson Bixby. Pp. 266. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Price, $1.50.
Our readers will be interested in the article on "Religion and Science as Allies," by Mr. J. T. Bixby. This gentleman is author of the volume under the foregoing title—a work written in a liberal spirit, with much discrimination and judicial fairness, and which aims to get down to the radical harmonies of religion and science. There is a steadily-deepening interest in the thinking world on the question of the relations of these two subjects which relates to both their analytical and historical aspects. Mr. Bixby' s book-is one of the best representatives of a large class of works that are devoted to working out the fundamental relations of science and religion. The inquiry goes deep, and still involves the most radical disagreements among thinkers of different schools. Partial views must still be expected while thinkers remain partisans, for current scholarship is not yet broad enough to deal with a problem so comprehensive in a thoroughly synthetic and unifying way. But there is compensation from the number of earnest and vigorous minds that are taking it up on its various sides, and, from the thorough sifting which the subject will thus receive, we may expect a wider agreement and more pacific relations among the parties interested. The present work is written in the interest of peace, but the author does not shirk its difficulties, and is aware how large must be the mutual concessions before lasting concord can be gained. He is an independent thinker, who has studied carefully the later products of scientific literature, and treats them with marked critical ability. The volume is full of instruction, well presented, and we cordially recommend it to readers interested in this line of inquiry.
The Scientific Bases of Faith. By Joseph John Murphy, author of "Habit and Intelligence." Pp. xliv-474. 8vo. London: Macmillan & Co. 1873. Price $5.00.
We regard this work as of unusual interest and value, and taken in connection with its predecessor, "Habit and Intelligence," it should be welcomed by those who desire a more harmonious adjustment of the relations among the thinkers and believers (often coexistent in the same person) of the present time. It is an attempt to "harmonize Scripture with science," that is say, to "try by how little distortion of the sense of Scripture, and by how little misrepresentation of the facts of science, the narratives of the Old Testament may be made to coincide with the facts disclosed by scientific research." Through twenty-nine chapters, with an "introduction" and a "conclusion," Mr. Murphy discusses such subjects as the relations of "Metaphysical and Positive Philosophy," "The Metaphysical Interpretation of Nature," "The Bases of Knowledge," "The Limits of our Knowledge," "The Proof of Deity from Intelligence and Design," "The Structure of the Universe," "Nature and the Religious Sense," "Immortality," "The Relation of History to Religion."
The author is, we believe, a clergyman of the lately disestablished Church of Ireland, and his views of Scripture inspiration and interpretation may fairly be called "broad," as that word is now understood in the English Church; but we rarely find a man who seems more reverent in spirit: courteous, critical, and fair, he is worthy of a patient, candid hearing, alike from those who hold very "conservative" views of the Bible and of orthodoxy on the one hand, and on the other from those who are inclined to think that the "age of faith" has passed away before the more certain and substantial things of the "age of science."
Mr. Murphy asserts it to be "as certain as history and philosophy can make it that science is absolutely independent of theology;" yet he insists that science and faith are closely related, and that no treaty of peace can be established on the assumption that they have nothing to do with each other. His view of their mutual relation is illustrated by reference to that between matter and life, and life and mind, life presupposing matter as its basis, mind presupposing life as its basis. So science (using the word in its largest meaning and application) is presupposed as the basis of religion, which he believes will ultimately be recognized as the summit and crown of all knowledge.
