Historical Character Of Christianity Obscured
Christ's mission is misunderstood to-day as well as His cosmic work.
In certain religious quarters where zeal is not balanced by learning,
His mission as the founder of a religious society is forgotten. To
those who are deficient in historic sense the continuity of the Church
down the centuries seems unimportant, and institutional religion a
hindrance rather than a help to the spiritual life of the individual
Christia
. Pietism of this kind has always been present in the church;
to-day it is prevalent. It nominally associates its piety with the
historic Christ, but actually it worships an ideal constructed by its
own ethical imagination. Such pietists spiritualise the faith. The
facts of the historic creed are to them little more than symbols of
religious truth. Spiritual resurrection, spiritual ascension are the
only miracles for them. This tendency to spiritualise everything is a
phase of monophysitism. It results from losing sight of the person of
the historic Christ, and resolving His assumption of human nature into
the assumption of a title.