1856 – 1917

James Denney

Worth knowing

A Scottish theologian of the Free Church who taught in Glasgow and became principal of the college there.
His Death of Christ (1902) shows that every part of the New Testament treats Christ's death as a death for sins, however its sources are divided up.

In Scholar’s Dream, James Denney has one book

The Death of ChristJames Denney, The Death of Christ (1902)SoteriologyHistory

James Denney’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from James Denney that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“He does not aim at cheap pathetic effects, like the modern romance writers, who studiously paint the brightness and gaiety of life against the omnipresent black background of death.”
James Denney, The Death of Christ I (1902), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Not a Softened Man

HistoryArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe gentle teacher of the nineteenth century is the one figure the sources do not contain. They contain somebody who cursed a tree, cleared a temple with a whip, and told his closest friend to get behind him.

Learned byThe Death of Christ (Lv 44)

Strong against

×3The Life of Jesusan argument · why?

Denney points to the Jesus the Gospels actually show: one who drove the traders from the temple and set his face toward the cross. Renan’s gentle teacher is not in the sources.

“It is an immediate inference, then, from all that we have seen in the New Testament, that where there is no Atonement there is no gospel.”
James Denney, The Death of Christ VI (1902), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Explain the Death

SoteriologyArgument · power 102 · 95% accurate

In the gameGrant every critical result. You are still left with a crucifixion, and with men who watched it and died saying it had saved them. An account that explains the documents but not that has missed the main thing.

Learned byThe Death of Christ (Lv 48)

Strong against

×4The Life of Jesusan argument · why?

A sweet young man by a lake does not get crucified.

×3The History of Religionsan argument · why?

Denney asks about the cross. No mystery cult had a named man, executed under a named governor, whose followers died saying his death had saved them.

×3The Life of Jesus Examinedan argument · why?

Denney grants every critical result and still asks about the cross. The first Christians died saying that Christ’s death had saved them. Myth does not explain that.

×2Beyond Good and Evila book · why?

He does not dispute that it happened. He disputes that it was good — which is a moral claim, from the man who has just said there are none.

Words James Denney’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byThe Death of Christ (Lv 29)

“When baptism is given in the words of the gospel, however great be the perverseness of understanding on the part either of him through whom, or of him to whom it is given, the sacrament itself is holy in itself on account of Him whose sacrament it is.”
Augustine, On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4.12.19 (trans. J. R. King, rev. Hartranft, NPNF¹ 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move It Rests on Christ

EcclesiologyArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameIf a baptism were only as good as the hands that gave it, no one could ever be sure they had been baptised at all. The minister is not the one doing the saving.

Learned byThe Death of Christ (Lv 52)

Strong against

×4The Conscience of the Giveran argument · why?

It answers the sentence itself — the book was written at this man.

×3One Nature After the Unionan argument · why?

Everything rests on who Christ is. If his manhood had been swallowed up, there would be no man to stand in our place, and nothing for our salvation to rest on.

×2Every Creed Killsan argument · why?

The church is not the states that fought in its name. It never was.

×2The Traitor’s Handsan argument · why?

Augustine’s answer: baptism belongs to Christ, not to the minister. A traitor’s hands cannot undo what Christ gives.

×2The Varieties of Religious Experiencean argument · why?

The private inner experience is real. It is also not the thing faith rests on — that is outside you, finished, and does not rise and fall with how you feel about it on a given morning.

Who else was alive

James Denney against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window