The grand feature of the book is, that reason being the supreme Judge, the
Divinity of Christ and the Trinity are absolute impossibilities. On
both doctrines, while directly at issue with Pfander, he simply assumes his
own position as axiomatic, and proceeds to draw his inferences from them. His
work is therefore beside the point, and cannot be regarded as a reply to the Miftâh
until he strengthens his premises by argument and proof. Revelation, he
argues, must be communicated through a prophet, whose mission cannot be
established until the existence of the Deity by whom he is commissioned be
ascertained; and that can be done by reason alone; therefore, reason is prior
to revelation, and to imagine anything proved by revelation which is contrary
to reason is to imagine a thing to be proved by itself, which is absurd; and
hence he deduces that revelation must bend to reason, and that anything in the
former which opposes the latter must be explained as metaphorical, or
abandoned altogether. From such premises he concludes, that were the Trinity,
or any other impossible doctrine, contained even in an acknowledged
revelation, it must