James McMullen Rigg

“ The truth of revelation being thus 'not the truth of theological statement, but that of fact and experience,' it is, in Tyrrell's view, 'a patent fallacy to speak of a "development" of revelation as though it were a body of statements or theological propositions,' and the sole legitimate function of theology is ' the protection and preservation of revelation in its original form and purity.' Even to the dogmatic decisions of councils he therefore allows only a 'protective' value, as reassertive, by no means as ampliative. ”

“ He also recognises a development, not dialectical but morphological, of the Christian idea as distinguished from the Christian revelation ; and thereby, in common with Newman and M. Loisy, he maintains the essential identity of the modern catholic church with the church of the apostles ; while as against the liberal protestant view of Jesus as merely the ideally just man, and of the Kingdom of Heaven as merely the reign of righteousness in men's hearts, he insists on the predominance of the 'otherworldly' over the ethical elements in the gospel. ”

“ By revelation he means the evolution of religious experience as such. In his view that evolution, initiated by the deeper self-reflection commonly called mysticism, by man's recognition of himself as a being transcending space and time, and by his consequent inability to 'rest but in a conscious relation to the Universal and Eternal,' reached its final consummation in the spiritual life which Christ communicated to His apostles, and which in a lesser degree has been and still is shared by all the saints. ”