PREFACE 



IT is occasionally possible to disarm a critic by antici- 

 pating his criticisms. There is a frank ingenuousness 

 about the proceeding that is somewhat disconcerting. 

 That fact, however, is not my main reason for using 

 this Preface to draw attention to two characteristics 

 of the pages that follow, which may very likely, and 

 perhaps justly, be selected for adverse comment. Any- 

 one who tries to think honestly can only be grateful 

 when his theories are subjected to criticism. There 

 comes a stage when he can no longer act as his own 

 critic. Then he must get the help he needs from others. 

 In those conditions he is justly entitled, as it seems to 

 me, to explain why he has set out his theories in the 

 particular form in which they are submitted to the 

 critics; and it is only this liberty I claim. 



There is, unquestionably, full room at present for a 

 restatement of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity in 

 terms that are consonant with modern thought. Indeed, 

 it is not too much to say that there is urgent need of 

 such a restatement. A vague pantheism is the charac- 

 teristic product of the religious speculation of to-day, 

 and Christian doctrine, if not Christian ethics, is in 

 danger of losing its hold on the minds of the most able 

 among the younger men and women of England. Pan- 

 theism, with its emphasis on ultimate Unity, is not im- 

 pressed by the tritheistic expression of Christian belief 

 which passes popularly for Trinitarian doctrine. 



It seemed to me that an attempt to formulate the 

 doctrine anew from the standpoint of evolution, how- 

 ever inadequately carried out, might prove useful as a 



