INTRODUCTION 



God '* is obliged to review the considerations 

 which had formerly forced Fiske to reject " an- 

 thropomorphism." A certain historical inter- 

 pretation of the meaning of theism now comes 

 to Fiske's mind, an interpretation which, in his 

 own treatment of the subject, appears as a rela- 

 tive novelty. In the history of Christianity, as 

 he finds, there have been two ideas of God in 

 conflict with one another. The one is the Greek 

 idea, derived in large measure from the Stoics. 

 This is the idea of the indwelling Deity, " eter- 

 nally operating through natural laws." For his 

 account of this Greek aspect of the conception 

 of Deity, as he now emphasizes it, Fiske is in- 

 debted to Professor A. V. G. Allen's " Continu- 

 ity of Christian Thought." The influence of 

 this work supplements in an important way the 

 views about the history of thought which Fiske, 

 following Lewes and other similar interpreters, 

 had earlier emphasized. The other conception 

 of God which in Christian theology has strug- 

 gled with that of the " immanent God " is the 

 dualistic conception. It is now interesting to 

 note that the dualistic conception tends, in this 

 discussion of Fiske's, to take the place of dis- 

 honour which had formerly been occupied by 

 anthropomorphism. On the other hand, he re- 

 cognizes, now that the necessity of a teleological 

 interpretation of evolution has come home to 

 cxxvi 



