The Value of Matthew Arnold’s “Literature and Dogma”
On theology, and criticizing biblical language.
In Literature and Dogma, Matthew Arnold contends that words in religious texts can have ambiguous, “literary” interpretations or factual, “scientific” ones. His analysis serves to undermine theologians who assign unnecessarily precise definitions to biblical language.
Arnold’s rhetoric
Arnold uses three rhetorical appeals, logos, ethos, and pathos to support his position against 19th-century Christian theology within the context of a polarized discussion on faith and religion. Overall, the author offers a persuasive intellectual case in relation to his audience, a combination of religious scholars and laymen, but Arnold’s writing lacks the logical rigor needed to warrant many of his claims.
Arnold’s case is simple: 19th-century theologians interpret the Bible in scientific terms, despite the text’s original literary meaning.
Remiss to define “scientific” and “literary,” Arnold does create a distinction by using analogy, a type of logical appeal. He posits that St. Paul, the believed author of the New Testament, used specific religious vocabulary in a “fluid and passing way” comparable to how “men use terms in common discourse” to make approximations about Christian…
