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| R. L. Dabney (1820–1898). |
R. L. Dabney's The Practical Philosophy: Being the Philosophy of the Feelings, of the Will, and of the Conscience, With the Ascertainment of Practicular Rights and Duties (1897) is a very interesting book (there is also an open-access online version). I have read and consulted its third book, "The Will," because it seems to have some significant similarities with Jonathan Edwards' approach to the matter. I hope to have the time to write something about it in the future, also consulting other relevant places from Dabney's works.
While I was browsing the book, I came across the last chapter of the volume where Dabney discusses moral duties in relation to God. He then concludes with some remarks on natural and revealed theology. I find his words quite interesting, and I thought to report them here.
By the prevalent native disposition of men, duty to God for its own sake alone is not preferred, but disliked. The light of Natural Theology can do no more than present to the mind objects which, were the mind fundamentally moral, would attract it; but which naturally and in fact do not attract the immoral mind. What effective resource has Natural Theology, then, to work this moral revolution in which alone true reform and moral blessedness can originate?
Whence, then, are the effectual remedies for guilt and immorality to come? Philosophy is silent; it has no answer. To ascertain the solution we must pass into the domain of Revelation, the inculcation of which is the function of the Christian Church. Here, then, our study must end. And this is the impressive proof of its inferiority to its elder and divine sister, Christianity, that Philosophy, after leading us up to the greatest and most urgent of all problems, and redisclosing to us our guilt and moral disease, is compelled to turn over the great question of the remedy to the recorded Word of God, and retire confessing her own weakness to heal and save. Has this long course of her training been therefore useless? No; it has trained our power of thought. It has shown us many truths which are valuable, though they may not claim the primal worth and infallible certainty of God's messages. And its best gift to us will be derived if we learn its closing lesson of humility and of reverence for the "more sure word of Prophecy."
~ R. L. Dabney, The Practical Philosophy (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1984), 521.
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