FORMS OF ATTACK 1 7 



the laws by which its operations are governed. God 

 was conceived of as external to His universe, and as a 

 Mechanic who is debarred from tampering with what 

 He has constructed. Darwinism has caused a strong 

 reaction against such a conception of things; and has 

 led men to look upon the world as a growing thing, 

 having the principle of its development within itself. 

 An evolutionary theist naturally considers God to be 

 this interior principle of evolution, and is led to dwell 

 upon divine immanence rather than, as his predeces- 

 sors did, upon the transcendence of God. A sound 

 theologian is able to see that the truths of transcendence 

 and immanence are equally essential to a correct notion 

 of God, and neither of them has lacked emphasis in 

 catholic theology. But they must be held together, 

 if we are to avoid onesidedness and caricature of the 

 doctrine of God. 



If the eighteenth-century tendency was to bow the 

 Creator out of His universe, the present tendency is 

 often to submerge God in the world, and to reduce Him 

 to an impersonal and immanent force — a sort of 

 anima mundi; — and this line of thought has pantheism 

 for its logical conclusion. That any genuine form of 

 pantheism can be reconciled with Christian doctrine 

 cannot be conceded by one who has rightly understood 

 such doctrine. Pantheism nulHfies the validity of 

 moral distinctions, and is as fatal to the Christian 

 postulate of a personal Creator and providential Gov- 

 ernor of the world as any theory can be. The mystery 

 of personality is profound, and those who are not dis- 

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