Contents

CHAPTER I

What Is the Christian Faith?
[Need of a definition]16
I.[The Christianity of the New Testament Writers]16
[Their emphasis upon the Passion and Resurrection]16
[Their emphasis upon the Person of Christ]20
II.[Primitive Christianity and Pauline Christianity]21
[Was Paul the Founder of Christianity?]21
[Lines of connection between Paul and the Primitive Apostles]22
III.[The Christianity of Jesus and of Paul]26
[Harmony in their Ethical Teaching and in their blending of Doctrine with Ethics]27
[The Christological passage, Matthew xi.] [its exegesisand its alleged isolation]35
[The Passion narrative in Mark: views of Bousset]41
[Self-authenticating contrasts in the Character of Christ]43
IV.[The Dilemma of Historical Criticism]44
[Jesus as viewed by the Liberal and the Radical Schools]44
[The Dilemma of Liberal Criticism]45
[Lessening Significance of a merely human Jesus]49
[Harnack and von Dobschütz on the "Double Gospel"]53
[The Essence of Christianity]54

CHAPTER II

The Christian Faith and Modern Science
[The Darwinian Theory: inferences unfavourable and favourable to religion ]56
[Evolution and the Copernican Revolution]60
I.[The Method of Evolution: the biological discussion]61
[State of opinion after fifty years of Darwinism]61
[Laws of Variation and Heredity]62
[Weismann's theory of Germinal Selection]63
[Significance of the variety in opinions] 65
II.[The Meaning of Evolution: the philosophical discussion]66
[1. Mechanism and Design]66
[In the organic world in general; the fitness of the environment]67
[In the organic world including man]70
[2. Preformation and Epigenesis]73
[Preformation and the infinite regress]74
[The Origin of Life: various theories]75
[The Origin of Man as viewed from different standpoints]78
[The Generatio Æquivoca]80
III.[Theism and Evolution]82
[The causal demand]82
[Theism and the ideas of Continuity and Progress]83
[Religion and scientific advance]85

CHAPTER III

[The Psychology of Religion: its precursors and founders] 89
I.[The Psychology of Religious Experience: points emphasized in the discussion]92
[1. The normality of religion]92
[2. The power of religion in the individual and in society] 96
[3. The need of salvation]100
[4. The way of salvation]102
II.[The Metaphysical Implicates of Religious Experience]105
[1. The Physical Explanation: religion the result of bodily conditions; religion and sex]106
[2. The Psychological Explanation: religion and the subconscious]111
[3. The Social Explanation: religion and society]114
[4. The Theistic Inference]119
[The Pragmatic Argument for Theism]119
[The Mystical Argument: its strength and its weakness] 120
[The Evidence of Christian Experience]122

CHAPTER IV

[The philosophical situation at the opening of the century]125
[Leading representatives of present day philosophy] 127
I.[Bergson and Creative Evolution]127
[Creative Evolution a drama in three acts]128
[Features of Bergson's system: the vital impulse]129
[His rejection of Finalism: is it compatible with Theism?]132
II.[Eucken and the Truth of Religion]137
[His critique of Naturalism, of Pragmatism and of Absolutism]138
[Universal Religion and Characteristic Religion]140
[Eucken's relation to Christianity: "Can we still be Christians?"]142
[Bergson and Eucken as prophets of a new era]146
III.[Ward and the Realm of Ends] 146
[His transition from Pluralism to Theism] 147
[His argument for Immortality] 152
[Pampsychism and Metempsychosis] 153
[Difficulties in the doctrine of Pampsychism] 154
IV.[Royce and the Problem of Christianity] 155
[Christianity as a Religion of Loyalty] 157
["What is vital in Christianity?"] 158
[The Christian ideas of Sin and of Atonement or Grace] 159
[The Church as a source of salvation: its origin] 161
[Philosophical interest in Christianity and its significance] 164

CHAPTER V

The Christian Faith and Other Religions
[The Universal Mission of Christianity]165
I.[Christianity and Ancient Religions]165
[The resemblances and their significance]166
[Clemen's "religious-historical" principles]168
[1. The Virgin Birth and its alleged parallels]169
[2. The worship of Christ and the worship of the Emperor: origin of the "Kyrios" title]172
[3. Paul and the Mystery Religions]177
[Pauline doctrine of the Sacraments and of dying and rising with Christ]180
[The Pauline vocabulary: views of Reitzenstein]185
[Why did Christianity conquer the Roman Empire?]192
II.[Christianity and Modern Religions]193
[The missionary propaganda]194
[Dangers of compromise]195
[The Christian Plerosis: the fulfillment of the great religious ideas of the race]197

CHAPTER VI

[The Christian Faith and Biblical Criticism]
[The value and significance of Biblical Criticism]200
[Relation between the Old Testament and the New Testament]201
I.[The Pauline Epistles]203
[The Tübingen view and later criticism]204
[The Epistle to the Ephesians]204
II.[The Acts of the Apostles]205
[Evidences of trustworthiness]206
[Harnack on the Lukan authorship]208
[Harnack and Koch on the date]210
[Did Luke use Josephus?]213
III.[The Synoptic Problem]216
[The Two-Document theory]217
Modifications of the theory by the assumption:
[(1) of a larger dependence on oral tradition]219
[(2) of the use of Q by Mark]220
[(3) of different editions of Mark]220
["Secondary elements" in Mark]221
[Bearing of Harnack's early dating of the Lukan writings]225
[The inter-Synoptic differences]226
IV.[The Johannine Problem]227
[Evidence for Apostolic authorship]228
Rejection of Apostolic authorship on the assumption:
[(1) that John never lived at Ephesus]230
[(2) that there were two Johns at Ephesus]232
[The partition theory]234
[The internal evidence: style and contents of the Fourth Gospel]234
[Relation to the Synoptic Gospels as supplementary, explanatory and independent]236
[Concluding remarks]242
[Bibliography of Recent Important Works]244
[Index]249

I