SUMMARY OF PART III

What is the present status of theology?

We have now passed in rapid review the leading arguments of contemporary religious philosophy. Much that was irrational and mistaken in the older tradition has long been exposed; on the whole, a far saner view of life and of religion prevails than among church-people of even a generation ago. But if we are candid, we must admit that upon its constructive side theology has less to show. We can raise far more problems than we can solve; and we know far less about the great enigmas than men once thought they knew. The situation is far from satisfactory: theology has been overhasty, unwisely dogmatic, and, for the most part, committed to an untenable method. But we need not despair. Already attempts at an empirical theology are appearing; the near future may show a great advance in this, the last field to be occupied by science. We await new philosophies. But in the meantime our duty is, in the main, clear; we are to serve and to work during the day. The ultimate outcome of our labors we cannot see; but perhaps it will be far greater than we dare to dream.

In any case, the religious experience rapidly surveyed in Part II of this volume remains unquestionable, however dubious the interpretations and inferences that have been based upon it. There is a way to transform life, to give it dignity and imperishable worth; religon has found that way, and remains the best thing in the world. And as for those beliefs that transcend experience, they may well be true, or adumbrations of something that is true, even if

the arguments by which they have usually been supported are weak and fallacious. We shall be told that men want something more definite, more sure. And with that want, that hunger of the heart, we can all sympathize. What would we not give to pierce the veil! But the trouble with the "definite" dogmas is that they are definitely assumptions, definitely presumptuous, surely unproved. The Church must be willing to acknowledge this; the world outside knows it, and discredits the Church for its blindness, or its unwillingness to admit the limitations of our present knowledge. The situation is not so soothing to our wistful wonderings as we should like, but it is vastly stimulating. The whole movement of theology, comparative failure as it has been, witnesses monumentally to man's indestructible sense that his ideals count in a greater world than here and now, that human life has a wider setting, that the struggle between good and evil has a cosmic significance and is but paving the way for a consummation of which our Christian hope has been, however inadequately, a symbol. This is the larger significance of the belief in God. That belief, in some form or other, man, whatever his future history may be, will never abandon. “A religion without a great hope is like an altar without a living fire." And Christianity, not only because of the insight and profundity of its ideals, but because of the splendid sweep of its cosmic hope, is probably destined to be, in some developed and rationalized form, the religion of the future.

In conclusion, the practical corollaries of the point of view from which this volume has been written may be gathered into a brief summary: We must be open-eyed and openminded, keeping our intellectual integrity, never closing the window to new light, always ready to revise our beliefs when new evidence appears. We must recognize the difference between the assured conclusions of science and those

personal over-beliefs, which, however passionately we may espouse them, stand upon a different level and cannot serve as bases for a universal religion. We must not delude ourselves into thinking that we know more than we do, or trouble ourselves over the limitations of our knowledge. We must be tolerant and sympathetic toward the beliefs of others, never thrusting our own beliefs dogmatically upon them, but sincerely seeking to learn from them as well as to win them to what seems to us good and true. We must learn to see God in human life, to love, fear, and seek God, as the guiding motive of our lives. We must cleave through ll temptation to the way of life that Christ revealed, and that he lived, that we may find therein the joy and peace and power to serve that is our birthright. We must believe in prayer, and utilize this means, as well as the institution of the Church, for the deepening and purifying of our spiritual life. We must believe in and work for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth, the time when righteousness shall reign and men shall live as brothers together. We must believe, so far as in us lies, in the power of the human soul to live beyond the grave, in the ultimate victory of good over evil, and the greatness of our destiny. We must seek to bring together the scattered forces of the Church, finding some common platform or covenant upon which men of good will the world over can unite for that age-long war with sin and suffering which it is the great mission of religion to wage. As a suggestion toward such a common covenant, and as an epitome of the spirit that has animated this volume, the writer would append this brief profession of his personal faith:

I believe in God, the Eternal Power that makes for righteousness and all good: known to us in Nature, speaking to us as the Holy Spirit in our hearts, incarnate in the soul of Christ. I believe in the Way of Life taught by Christ, in the Bible as a revelation

of God, and in the power of prayer unto Salvation. I pledge myself to live by the eternal laws of God, looking unto Christ for guidance and strength; to resist unto the end all sensuality, selfishness and sin; to work loyally with the Church of Christ for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth; and to cherish the hope of eternal life.