Excerpt from The Othodox Position IN the fateful three years of academic life, most of us subject our religious beliefs and experiences to the same stringent investigation that we apply to other phases of human existence. We seek to discover what relation religious truths bear to the general body of truth, some branch of which our secular studies are striving to elucidate. Confronted with difficulties, we turn to our ecclesiastical authorities and look for guidance. Like Elihu we expect that Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. But hitherto our Rabbis and teachers in England generally have refrained from issuing any pronounce ments. Behold, we waited for their words, they spake not. To take one striking illustration: the only orthodox contributions to Higher Critical study have been Mr. Wiener's works, and Mr. Wiener is neither a Rabbi nor a teacher at a Jewish seminary, he is a layman. We wait in vain for some official guidance. We cannot - nor do we wish to - ignore modern difficulties, and we venture to hope that our efforts to arrive at conclusions compatible with our faith, to reconcile our orthodox position with facts and truths that seem to controvert that position, may perhaps be of use to others. Hence, like Elihu, we speak amid the silence of our elders, and we trust that, also like Elihu, we shall escape the blame which was reserved for the other three friends. We speak in no presumption, but in the hope that our errors will provoke replies and promote instruction. We speak, each one for himself, giving each one his own personal views. If these are obsolete or incorrect, we plead that they represent stages in the growth of our outlook and, even so, may be of some service, for others will have to pass these same stages. To any friends who have already passed them, we shall look gratefully for inspiration. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.