To Infidelity and Back

by Henry F. Lutz

My conviction of the depressing, devitalizing and disintegrating effect of Unitarianism has been intensified through my recent experience in evangelistic work in New England. The rationalistic liberalism of Unitarianism has largely permeated New England Protestantism. It was not an accident that it was in New England, where, to a large body of clergymen, a speaker declared, with applause, that "Protestantism is decaying and will soon be displaced by a new form of Catholicism." Here Protestantism is indeed decaying through its contact with Unitarian teaching, and is already largely displaced by old Catholicism and new Christian Science and other antichristian delusions. Nowhere else did I ever see Protestant churches so saturated with worldly pleasures and so indifferent about the salvation of souls. It was here I had the humiliating experience of sitting in a union Thanksgiving service where the preacher called the Pilgrim Fathers religious fanatics, and spoke of words writers of the Pentateuch put into the mouth of Moses to give them influence with the people. Yet I never saw a sign of disapproval in the audience or heard a word of criticism. It is true he was a Universalist preacher, but that makes it all the worse. To think that Protestantism has so degenerated in a New England city that a preacher who does not believe in the divinity of Christ nor in the inspiration of the Bible should be appointed to represent it on such an occasion. It is enough to make the Pilgrim Fathers turn in their graves and groan for pain. Had present-day Protestantism of New England a fraction of the moral and spiritual earnestness that the Pilgrim Fathers possessed, it might have been spared the abject humility of sprawling in weakness before the same vaunting religious intolerance of Catholicism that through cruel and bloody persecution drove the Pilgrim Fathers to "the bleak New England shore" for safety and religious liberty.

When a prominent Catholic recently aped the Protestant clergymen by declaring that Protestantism is decaying, the preacher at Tremont Temple called it a "damnable lie." This is a hopeful sign, and indicates that the sick man is not dead yet. It shows that at least some think it is not true, or wish it not true; and if enough get a strong desire that it shall not be true, it will not be true. When we renounce rationalism and its products it will not be true.

At a meeting of one of the leading ministerial associations of New England, at which the writer was present, the speaker of the day declared that the church has been claiming too much for itself. The contents of the speech indicated that he had reference to its claim of supernatural power to transform the sinner. He also said he had given up the effort to reconcile the first chapters of the Bible with science. The significance is in the fact that some Protestants acquiesce in such teaching, and that they are in harmony with the doctrines of Unitarianism.

Although its advocates must admit that Unitarianism is a monumental failure in organizing churches, it is their boast that it has powerfully affected other religious bodies. This fact we admit; but as the effect is devitalizing, disorganizing and ultimately demoralizing, we consider the result the crowning shame rather than the crowning glory of Unitarianism.

That the liberal theology resulting from rationalism and championed in this country by Unitarianism is merely negative and destructive, is evidenced on every hand. Dr. Pearson, in the Missionary Review, has recently pointed out its fatal effects in the mission fields, and still more recently it has been compelled to confess its own defeat in Germany, where it originated and where it has found its chief support. The evidence of this is found in the Literary Digest of Feb. 25, 1911, where we find the following:

That "liberal" theology has made an almost utter failure in Germany is asserted by one of its leading spokesmen in a liberal religious organ. It consists too much of mere negation, he thinks, and has no strong faith in anything. The masses have rejected it, and the educated have accepted it only in small numbers. Practically it is a failure, and he demands a reconstruction along new lines, with new ideals and new methods. This courageous liberal is Rev. Dr. Rittelmeyer, of Nuremberg, and he writes in the Christliche Welt (Tubingen). Here are the main points of his argument:

"Let us ask honestly what results modern theology has attained practically. As far as the great masses of workingmen are concerned, practically nothing has been gained. They either do not understand it or they distrust it. All the public discussions and popularization of modern critical views have not found any echo or sympathy among the ranks of the laboring people.

"And how about the educated classes? It has long since been the boast and hobby of advanced theology that it, and it alone, will satisfy the religious longings of the educated man who has broken with the traditional dogma and doctrines of orthodox Christianity. But what are the actual facts in the case? It is a fact that there are a considerable number among the educated who thankfully confess that they can accept Christianity only in the form in which it is taught by the advanced theologian. But how exceedingly small this number is! A periodical like the Christliche Welt, the only paper of its kind, has not been able to secure more than five thousand subscribers, although its contributors are the most brilliant in the land of scholars and thinkers; while periodicals that are exponents of the older views are read by tens and even hundreds of thousands. There are whole classes of society among the educated who are antagonistic to liberal tendencies in religion. Among these are the officers in the army and the navy, practitioners of the technical arts and of engineering, and almost to a man the whole world of business. It is foolish to close our eyes to these facts."

What is the matter? asks this writer. What is the weakness of liberal and advanced theological thought? These are some of the answers:

"One trouble is that modern theology has entirely grown out of criticism. Its weakness is intellectualism; it is a negative movement. We can understand the cry of the orthodox, that advanced theology is eliminating one thing after the other from our religious thought, and then asks, What is left? True, we answer, God is left. But is it not the case that the modern God-Father faith is generally a very weak and attenuated faith in a Providence, and nothing more? And on this subject, too, we quarrel among ourselves, whether a God-Father troubles himself about little things only or about great things too, such as the forgiveness of sins. We do the same thing with Jesus. We speak of him as of a unique personality, as the highest revelation of the Father, and the like, but always connected with a certain skeptical undercurrent of thought; but we do not appreciate him in his deepest soul and in the great motives of his life. He is not for modern theology what he is for orthodoxy, the Saviour of the world and the Redeemer of mankind."