408 APPENDIX 



NOTES ON THEISM 



IT is possible for a man to be a theist in the etymological sense of 

 that word, i.e. one who feels that the whole of his own and the 

 world's interests are bound up with the idea of Theos God and 

 yet not to acknowledge himself a theist in the sense given to the 

 word by professed theists, such as the Kev. Mr. Voysey, who lifts 

 his voice in England now. 



I am not prepared to predicate so much of God as they do ; nor 

 do I think that we have arrived at that stage of knowledge in which 

 a new definition, satisfying human needs and authoritative for 

 human wills, can be given to the complex notion Deity. Unless 

 the idea of God should ultimately be eliminated from the stock of 

 human concepts, it must be remoulded to suit the changes which 

 have taken place in our theory of the universe. The time is still 

 far off before that can be effected ; and the process, if it is to lead 

 to serious belief, must be a very gradual and instinctive act of 

 assimilation carried on in the minds of multitudes and masses. 



Meanwhile professed theists seem to retain more of the theo- 

 logical systems they are undermining than is justified by logic. 

 They ought surely to abstain from such ways of thought as find 

 expression in phraseology like ' God's purposes,' ' God works out 

 His gracious ends.' To attribute personality to God is to attribute 

 something which has significance only in relation to man's pheno- 

 menal existence. This does not prevent us from believing that 

 mind and moral consciousness are somehow essential factors 

 in the universe ; for this reason, that we find them present and 

 paramount in man i.e. in the only portion of the universe we 

 are really acquainted with. But we are not hereby pledged to 

 the corollary that God must be a Person, a righteous Judge, 

 a loving Ruler, a Father. The words I have italicised cease 

 to be significant when we pass in imagination beyond the range of 

 human relationship. 



Theism, lika Unitarianism, is a necessary phase in the process of 

 disintegration, which must be gone through before the new process 

 of assimilation and integration can commence. It is our duty to 

 regard with deep interest and respect all attempts to base religion 

 upon sounder foundations, all schemes for facilitating the transition 

 from mythological Christianity without loss of religious fervour, all 



