The Collapse of the Faith [pp. 339-360]

THE PRINCETON RE VIE W.
as a device of the devil, and one form of stating the Christian
faith is declared to be as good as another where all are necessa rily so imperfect and one-sided.
It is not easy to prove to a certain class of alarmists that
even these extravagant speeches are only the foam of a great
movement of Christian thinking which bodes good rather than
evil to Christian theology and Christian catholicity. It is difficult to allay the honest fears of men who cannot distinguish
between that reflective or reasoned statement of religious truth
which must characterize every formulated creed and school
theology, from those picturesque and emotional expressions
of religious truth, largely in popular language, with which the
Scriptures abound. Even if this difference can be made clear,
it is not easy to demonstrate that with the revolution in
the principles and rules of exegesis, together with what is.
almost a revolution in the principles of religious philosophy,
the old methods of handling proof-texts and of translating their
import into catechetical and theological propositions must be
modified in some essential particulars. And yet the conviction
of this necessity is confessed by the deeds if not in the words
of the majority of Protestant theologians now living. Most of
them, certainly all who have the ear of their generation, whether
consciously or unconsciously, whether avowedly or disavowedly, use proof-texts in a manner that differs materially from
the traditions of other generations. They accept if they do
not acknowledge the principle that the Christian theology of an
age must be more or less manifestly the product of its philosophy conjoined with its scientific interpretation of proof-texts.
These principles are as certain to gain ground as Christian and
philosophic truth are certain to triumph. So fast and so far
as they prevail they must essentially modify the unquestioned
authority of traditional creeds and formulated theological systems. The faith of the church of the remote future and of the
near present may be less dogmatic and unquestioning than formerly, but it may be more discriminating, catholic, and devout.
While we are not so simple as not to be fully aware that faith in
Christ as a Person involves faith in a possible creed and a reasoned and formulated theology, we contend that the one may
exist without the development of the other, and that under
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