MODKKXISM AND T i; A 1 >1T I ON A I. C 1 1 K ISTIANITY. 



69 



if it is (o dominate life, must satisfy both the head and the 

 heart — a thing which neither obscurantism nor rationalism can 

 do. At such a time it seems most necessary that t hose who 

 believe that Christianity is no mere picturesque survival of a 

 romantic past, but a real religion with a real message for the 

 present and the future, should set themselves to a careful 

 re-examination, and, if need be, restatement of the foundation of 

 their belief in the light of the knowledge and thought of the day." 



( 'anon Streeter's position seems at first sight to be a sound one. 

 The mind cannot for long contain a dualism of irreconcilables 

 within it. and the new light obtained from incontestable know- 

 ledge must have a bearing on all previously acquired views. 



We have come, therefore, to the real points at issue between 

 " Modernists " and those who adhere to the traditional faith. 

 The establishment of the validity of the knowledge of the day 

 must necessarily be the first task to be taken in hand by the 

 Modernists. Canon Streeter limits the field of investigation 

 to the areas respectively of science, philosophy, and scholarship, 

 and with the established result of that investigation Christian 

 theology has to be brought into harmony. 



We have, in the first place, to set traditional Christianity 

 at one with modern science. But here we need to discriminate. 

 Kirchhoff said, and many scientific men agree with him, 

 " There is only one science — mechanics." If we were to 

 accept this dictum, there would seem to be no room for any 

 accommodation between science and Christian theology, if that 

 theology claims to meet intellectual demands. Christian 

 theology, in such a case, cannot be of any interest to those 

 who accept Kirchhoff s description, and may be ruled out. 

 More than a hundred years ago it was imagined by philosophers 

 that the universe could be explained on mechanical principles 

 only. Laplace even conceived a physicist competent to foretell 

 the progress of Nature for all eternity, if only the masses 

 of matter, their position, and their initial velocity were given. 



But there is now a seemingly more stable base for prediction 

 of Nature's future than even the universality of gravitation. 

 Within our own time the great principle of the conservation 

 of energy* has taken form as an undisputed acquisition of 



* The theory of the conservation of energy was, like the atomic theory, 

 anticipated by the ancients. Empedocles (500 B.C.) contended, against 

 the hypotheses of absolute generation and decay, that nothing which 

 previously was not could come into being, and that nothing existing 

 could be annihilated. " Actual origination (cfrvo-is) is a name void of ob- 

 jective meaning." Ueberweg, Hist, of Philosophy ; vol. i, p. 61, Eng. Trans. 



