OF THE SPIRIT. 



349 



development of Eitschl's theological convictions we have 

 to mark two important stages : the first, when he freed 

 himself from the fetters of the Hegelian philosophy 

 which assigned to religion an important but a sub- 

 ordinate position in mental development ; the second, 

 when he, through his historical and biblical studies, 

 became so deeply impressed with the personality of 

 Christ and His work that he recognised in it an 

 absolutely new content and beginning of spiritual life, 

 and undertook to found the whole of his theology upon 

 this discovery as an independent and original source. 



Independent of Eitschl, Lotze was then already ad- 

 mitting in his lectures on the Philosophy of Keligion the 

 possibility of new beginnings and origins in the midst 

 of a uniform system of mechanical relations, provided — 

 as he was wont to express it — that the ultimate pur- 

 pose implied in the general scheme of existence, which 

 is unknown to us, warranted the departure from, what 

 we call, the ordinary and uniform course of events. He 

 had also recognised that a partial reconciliation of the 

 mechanical and spiritual was to be found in the existence 

 of human personalities. It was, therefore, not a new 

 idea, but one which forced itself in many ways upon 

 philosophical and religious thinkers, that if the highest 

 problem admitted of any solution at all, such could 



Ritschlian without knowing it. If 

 there had been no Ritschl there 

 would have been someone else very 

 like him." These are the words 

 in which Dr Talbot introduces a 

 recent publication by Mr E. A. 

 Edghill, being an essay which 

 divided with that of Mr J. K. 

 Mozley, the Norrisiau prize of 1908 



at Cambridge ; and these two recent 

 critics of Ritschlianism have shown 

 its affinity to, or influence on, other 

 recent movements in religious and 

 philosophical thought, such as that 

 represented by Sabatier in France, 

 by "Modernism" among Roman 

 Catholics, and by " Pragmatism " in 

 English-speaking countries. 



