Note: Here’s a final excerpt from toward the end
of Dabney’s 1887 “Spurious Religious Excitements” (Discussions, Vol. 3: pp. 456-475).
Here Dabney lays part of the blame for revivalistic excess at the feet
of egalitarianism (cf. his essay “Lay Preaching” in Discussions, Vol. 2: pp. 76-95):
One corollary from this discussion is: How perilous is it to entrust the care of
souls to an ignorant zeal! None but an
educated ministry can be expected, humanly speaking, to resist the seduction of
“revival measures,” or to guard themselves from the plausible blunders we have analyzed above. And the church which entrusts the care of
souls to lay-evangelists, self-appointed and irresponsible to the
ecclesiastical government appointed by Christ, betrays its charge and duty (p.
474).
No comments:
Post a Comment