AN APOLOGY FOR THE CHURCH'S PERSECUTION OF SCIENCE 1 83 



At first sight the new idea of the solar system seemed to have no 

 place for God; to make the ascension and future descent of Christ un- 

 thinkable. By making this earth, not the center about which the 

 whole universe revolves, but only one of many planets revolving 

 about the sun, it made the sending of God's only begotten Son to 

 earth seem a most improbable act of favoritism. 



Of course all these difficulties have been surmounted. New and 

 grander conceptions of these articles of the Christian faith have been 

 constructed, which serve in our day all the purposes which the older 

 conceptions served in theirs. But the translation of the faith into 

 these new forms of thought took time. At first it was not evident 

 how it could be accomphshed or that it could be accompUshed at all. 

 The old ideas conveyed the old faith. The new astronomy for the 

 time did not admit of it. It is not after all to be wondered at that the 

 church identified the old conceptions with the old faith and fought 

 for the astronomical system with which those conceptions were bound 

 up as for her own Hfe. 



Nor was her resistance wholly misguided. Even had she foreseen 

 that new ideas might be framed which would replace the old, it would 

 have been pardonable in her, had she viewed the process of translation 

 which was thrust upon her, not without misgiving. After all, what 

 assurance was there that all her children would accompHsh the trans- 

 lation; that none would lose their faith without regaining it. Even 

 should this danger be surmounted, yet another must be faced; a dis- 

 turbance in what the sociologists are teaching us to call the reHgious 

 mores; an unsettKng of rehgious habits. To illustrate from our own 

 times : The crisis which has resulted from the appUcation of historical 

 methods to the Bible may fairly be said to be surmounted. A new 

 view of the Bible and of revelation has been evolved which is truer 

 than the old and quite capable of replacing it. In fact, the Bible is 

 even more fitted than ever it was to be the guide and inspiration of 

 life. But the sad fact is that it is not used. Even those who have 

 reconstructed their faith in the Bible do not always read it as their 

 fathers did. Their habits have been shaken in the revolution. It 

 can scarcely be doubted that they are serious losers. 



