Page:Religion in the Making.djvu/133

 practice. The nearest Greek dictionary will give this elementary information. But the dictionary — and this is why I have quoted it — gives an ominous addition to the information about Galen. It says that Galen contrasts “dogmatic physicians” with “empiric physicians.” If you then refer to the word “empiric,” you will find that “empiric physicians” contended that “experience was the one thing needful.” In this lecture we have to investigate the application to religion of this contrast between “dogmatic” and “empiric.”

The philosophy of expression is only now receiving its proper attention. In the framing of dogmas it is only possible to use ideas which have received a distinct, well-recognized signification. Also, no idea is determinate in a vacuum: It has its being as one of a system of ideas. A dogma is the expression of a fact as it appears within a certain sphere of thought. You cannot convey a dogma by