Page:The Conception of God (1897).djvu/30

Rh the reliance of those who would vindicate an eternal Person against the hostile theory of Agnosticism. That this spread of the conception of an Immanent God is a fact, affecting not only the world of technical philosophy but also the world of applied theology and practical religion, it is enough to cite in evidence the writings and influence of the late Professor Green in England, of the brothers Caird in Scotland, of Professor Watson in Canada, and, in the United States, — besides its presence in various modified forms in the philosophical chairs at the leading universities, — the preaching of Phillips Brooks, the long and impressive philosophical industry of our National Commissioner of Education, the noticeable book of Professor Allen entitled The Continuity of Christian Thought, the recent public declaration of Dr. Strong, and the writings of Dr. Gordon, such as his Christ of To-day and his Immortality and the New Theodicy. Nor should one forget, in this connexion, the Bampton Lectures of 1893, by Mr. Upton. Idealistic Monism pervades the religious influence of all these minds, gives this its controlling tone, and tinges deeply the New Theology, as it is called, wherever this appears, — be it among Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, or Unitarians, or even among the progressive Romanists: one finds clear traces of it in the “liberal” theological seminaries in almost every denomination. A significant fact of the same order was the irenical essay of Mr. John Fiske, The Idea of God as affected by Modern Knowledge, with its extraordinary popular success. Here a professed