[Vocabulary] must yet compel adoring credence

[jacob123]

What does "adoring credence" here mean?

Suppose, for instance, that we collect many such histories, recorded on first-hand evidence in our critical age; and suppose that all these narratives break down on analysis; that they can all be traced to hallucination, misdescription, and other persistent sources of error; can we then expect reasonable men to believe that this marvellous phenomenon, always vanishing into nothingness when closely scrutinized in a modern English scene, must yet compel adoring credence when alleged to have occurred in an Oriental country, and in a remote and superstitious age? Had the results (in short) of " Research" been purely negative, would not Christian evidence—I do not say Christian emotion, but Christian evidence —have received an overwhelming blow?

"The History of Spiritualism," by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

What does "adoring credence" here mean?

Suppose, for instance, that we collect many such histories, recorded on first-hand evidence in our critical age; and suppose that all these narratives break down on analysis; that they can all be traced to hallucination, misdescription, and other persistent sources of error; can we then expect reasonable men to believe that this marvellous phenomenon, always vanishing into nothingness when closely scrutinized in a modern English scene, must yet compel adoring credence when alleged to have occurred in an Oriental country, and in a remote and superstitious age? Had the results (in short) of " Research" been purely negative, would not Christian evidence—I do not say Christian emotion, but Christian evidence —have received an overwhelming blow?

"The History of Spiritualism," by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I thought you were done with that book!

It means avid appreciation, enthusiastic belief, unqualified acceptance.