Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/184

172 on theology the fuller knowledge of the laws of nature with the increasing sense of their uniformity which imposes itself as a necessary condition of thought wherever things physical are concerned; the hypothesis of evolution, which suggests an account in harmony with this uniformity of the genesis of the whole animate creation; and, turning to another department, the history of religion, of which so much more is know now than formerly. 2. In referring to criticism we may dwell upon the discoveries recently made as to the dates of the books of the Old Testament, and the consequent rearrangement of Hebrew literature and history; the views now given by scholars of the origin of the Gospels, the diminished historical value which it is found necessary to ascribe to the Acts of the Apostles, the dubious character of the later Epistles ascribed to St. Paul, and the greater clearness of the circumstances under which the Apocalypse was composed—we must pass on to the investigations into the structure of the early Christian Churches and their theological ideas, especially those relating to the Eucharist, and we must also take in the change which has come about in the treatment of all early documents—that which teaches us to value them as literature, not as the quarry from which dogmatic statements may be hewed out. 3. Turning to the conditions of church-life we shall have to notice the abolition or mitigation of tests and subscriptions, and the greater tolerance and friendliness between those who hold different opinions or belong to different religious bodies; the freedom which the law of the Church, as interpreted by the Privy Council, gives to theological opinions of clergymen; together with the tendency, to which all religious bodies have been subject for some time past, to make less of abstract theological statements and more of practical piety and philanthropy. 4. Lastly, turning to the social and political conditions, we must consider the effect of our greater acquaintance with the wants of the masses, and the admission of the demand for equality. Theology has to take account not of a mere mass of ignorance and sin, but of human beings standing in moral equality with their teachers, and capable of virtue and self-direction, who require to be told, not, after the manner which reminds them of the older political economy, of a way of salvation under which a few elect souls may be saved, but, in a manner corresponding with the better social policy, how they may be helped to rise in all respects and all together.

Before going more into detail and showing the necessary or probable effects of these conditions upon theology, there are three remarks which should be made:

First, in the present day every institution is passing through the ordeal of criticism, and lives only because it can justify its existence. It would be foolish, if it were possible, to attempt the exemption of the study of theology from this process. Nor is there any reason why it should shrink from the questioning, if only it be applied with the