Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/866

 850 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

of the fittest. Of many paragraphs that set forth the idea, the fol- lowing may be selected.

We find it [the demand for goodness] in all societies at all periods of history. We are, therefore, assured at the outset that the prophets of Israel had no patent on the cry for righteousness. It surrounded them like the atmosphere. The simple fact is that Israel was in a situation that lent itself historically to this universal demand upon the others for good. Every man, at one time or another, has a case against somebody; most people have chronic cases against the world ; and here, for the first time in history, a large number of men were able to make a plausible claim that God (Elohim) was on their side against the others. The prophetic movement gave expression to this demand. In Israel we must recognize the universal as taking on a particular form which has commended itself to future ages. (Pp. 97, 98.)

The author presupposes the results of the more progressive bibli- cal science of our time. For twenty-five years or so biblical theology in America has been in the antithetical saving of the pendulum, and many of our foremost scholars have denied the fundamental pos- tulates of the older theology on account of facts observed in the biblical literature. The thesis from which these scholars have turned maintained the transcendent operation of God in the gift of a revelation external to the mind of man ; the antithesis is that the truths of the Bible have proceeded from the human mind by purely natural means. The latter has been presented in our day with great power, and the evidence has been collected with marvelous skill, so that few theological circles remain in which the so-called modern conclusions are not accepted either wholly or in part. It has been observed, however, by more than one lover of the Bible and of men that the new phases of truth are not paralleled in the church by that careful attention and enthusiastic interest which alone can make the new views effective in the production of char- acter. The people have not assimilated them. They appear indif- ferent to them. It would seem that a synthesis of the opposing views must be made, before the Old Testament can have vital interest for men ; and many scholars are endeavoring to effect the synthesis. At last, a young sociologist arises from the laity and declares that we have failed to notice the movements of society in the Old Testament times, that these are well marked, and, when exposed to view, will aid in establishing the development of the Old Testament religion as no other discipline has done.

It must be recognized that historical criticism thus far has done little more for the popular mind than to demonstrate facts in the