302 VOL U TION A ND DOGMA . 



has been anticipated in the presentation of the 

 views of St. Thomas and St. Augustine, and their 

 consideration, therefore, need make no further claim 

 on our attention. 



Anthropomorphism. 



But not only does the theistic Evolution of St. 

 Augustine and the Angelic Doctor exclude special 

 creations and Occasionalism, it dispels as completely 

 all anthropomorphic views of the Deity, and is at 

 the same time thoroughly opposed to the doctrine 

 of constant Divine interference in the operations of 

 nature. 



St. Augustine shows how distasteful Anthropo- 

 morphism is to him when, among other things, he 

 declares : " To suppose that God formed man from 

 the dust with bodily hands is very childish. . . . God 

 neither formed man with bodily hands nor did He 

 breathe upon him with throat and lips." 



We know, indeed, that God created all things 

 from nothing, but we cannot imagine, nay, we 

 cannot conceive, how He created. We know that 

 the universe came into existence in virtue of a 



as contradistinguished from what he designates "the higher, or 

 Athanasian Theism," which, he will have it, knows nothing of 

 secondary causes in a world where every event flows directly 

 from the eternal First Cause, in a world where God is ever 

 immanent and eternally creative. If Mr. Fiske will take the 

 trouble to study more carefully the teachings of Sts. Athanasius 

 and Augustine, anent the Divine administration of the world, he 

 will find that, however much these two great Doctors may 

 have differed in the expression of their views, they were, never- 

 theless, at one as to the doctrine of derivative creation, or crea- 

 tion through the agency of secondary causes. For Fiske's 

 opinion on this topic, see his "Idea of God," chap, vn, and Cos- 

 mic Theism, in part III of" Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy." 



