applied. It is apparent that, on the hypothesis of the world coming into existence through the gradual emergence of reality from a state of relative quiescence, stage by stage from the lowest to the highest, evil cannot fail to occur. We have accounted therefore for both the rationality and the irrationality in the world, for both the purpose and the mechanism, for both the goodness and the badness. The world grows through the unfolding of the Universe, at the heart of which is Spirit.

There is then in the Universe a main motive power which is spiritual; and all else is in a manner produced by and dependent on this. Now spirit is personality in perfection, living wisdom and goodness and love. And the spiritual source and centre of the Universe must be a unity. We need not hesitate therefore to attribute personality and unity to the originating power of the Universe. We can no longer withhold from It the name of God.

And God being such, He must love the souls existing in the world that has emanated from Him, and labour for their redemption and growth. And this He does through spiritual dealing with them, through the intimate loving action of spirit on spirit. And in prayer and adoration souls respond to and draw to themselves the love of God.

In the difficulties and agonies and hopes of the world God and souls must share, and in virtue of this community of experience and purpose grow together in a living whole of spirit. God grows along with the growing world. He grows through the spiritual response of souls whom He quickens with His spirit. The spiritual life of the Universe grows, with ever ampler communion between God and all lesser centres of Divinity, so ordering all things into a living unity of good.

The Universe is a developing whole that increases in bliss and glory from age to age. And yet this surely cannot be all. We cannot but be aware of infinity,

the infinity of time and the infinity of space, of worldprocesses and universes for ever and ever and without end. Shall we be awed? Shall we not rather rejoice in the thought that in the infinitude of being there is infinitude of good? We gaze out for a brief interval into the limitless beyond, and then return to know and work and love.

Our God-our own God who loves us we know and love. "God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him." essence of the Christian doctrine of love.

This is the

God is the

Spirit from whom spring ourselves and the world we live in. And in union of love with Him we grow in spirit and fulfil our destiny.

CHAPTER III

CHRIST

OUR first task will be to investigate the difficulties inherent in the ecclesiastical and the biblical presentations of Christ. Defenders of Christianity have been wont to gloss over these difficulties, appealing to the religious values felt to be contained in the presentations. But this procedure is inadmissible to us who are seeking for the truth. A little reflection will make it appear likely that there are erroneous elements in the ancient conception of Christ; for the beliefs and dogmas of Christianity were affected by the immaturity of the science of the ages in which they came into being. Increasing knowledge of Nature has compelled

educated Christians to take a view of the Creation widely different from that commonly held in the days of the Apostles and the ecumenical councils; and it is compelling them to revise their beliefs as to the end of the world and as to Heaven and Hell; while psychology and literary criticism are forcing on them new conceptions of inspiration and the truth of the Scriptures. These considerations should prepare us to acknowledge need for modification in the ancient doctrine and view of Christ, if this should conflict with modern science and philosophy. Or is it to be maintained that the creation of the world and man in six days, the accuracy of the early record in the Hebrew Scriptures of the history of mankind and the Israelites, the imminent abolition of the Earth in fire, the golden

pavement of Heaven, and the flaming brimstone of Hell, are unimportant for religion; but that Christ, as represented by the New Testament writers and the Church councils, is of very great importance, so that the former may be disbelieved, whereas any radical reconstruction of the idea of Christ is inadmissible? But surely neither are the creation of the world and man, the Divine revelation to the Israelites, the end of the world, and the issues of righteousness and sin unimportant for religion; only, their significance may be conserved with the radical reconstruction of our ideas about them necessitated by the improving knowledge and intelligence of mankind. May it not be likewise that the main values formerly attributed to Christ are compatible with considerable changes in the conception of Christ? It should be our endeavour to bear in mind these values, and not to let our reconstruction of belief impair them. We will begin by raising objections to the ecclesiastical and the biblical presentations of Christ. Subsequently we will consider the religious values of Christ.

The dogma of the Holy Trinity as it took shape at the end of the doctrinal development of the early centuries of Christianity may be briefly stated as follows: God is one; but there are three Persons in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; each of these is God, though they unite to form but one God. According to the dogma of the Incarnation, the second of the Divine Persons, the Son, was born as a mannamely, Jesus of Nazareth, known as Christ. In Jesus Christ there were (and indeed still are) two natures (including wills)—a Divine and a human, each remaining distinct though united, but only one person—namely, the Divine Person of God the Son. It was confessed that the precise relations of the Persons of the Godhead and of the two natures were incomprehensible. But these dogmatic formulæ, it was maintained, were required to safeguard the truth from such misconcep

tions as arose from unorthodox speculation. To quote Augustine: " Dictum est tamen, Tres Personæ, non ut illud diceretur, sed ne taceretur."

The precise connotation of the word persona in the dogma of the Trinity is not easy to grasp. It certainly did not mean person" in the modern sensenamely, self or indivisible centre of consciousness. The word was adopted by the Latin Fathers as a translation, though an inadequate one, of úróσraois, which may be roughly interpreted as "distinct mode of existence." 1

But while the word persona in the creeds is by no means equivalent to the modern sense of "person,' nevertheless the doctrine of the Trinity, taken in connection with that of the Incarnation and with the biblical narrative and theology, resulted in the three Persons of the Godhead, especially the First and the Second, being regarded as individual centres of conscious life. For Jesus is depicted as a person in the same sense as any man. And, since "Jesus" is identical, according to ecclesiastical orthodoxy, with "God the Son "-an identification which is favoured by the belief that Jesus, after His earthly career, is

* Augustine," De Trinitate," v. 10: "Sed quia nostra loquendi consuetudo jam obtinuit, ut hoc intelligatur cum dicimus essentiam (ovơía) quod intelligitur cum dicimus substantiam (vróσraσiç), non audemus dicere unam essentiam, tres substantias, sed unam essentiam vel substantiam, tres autem personas: quemadmodum multi Latini ista tractantes et digni auctoritate dixerunt, cum alium modum aptiorem non invenirent quo enuntiarent quod sine verbis intelligerent."

The word persona corresponded to πρόσωπον, but ὑπόστασις was substituted because the former word was liable to be used in the interests of Sabellianism. John of Damascus, Dialogues, 43: Xpǹ dè γινώσκειν ὡς οἱ ἅγιοι πατέρες ὑπόστασιν καὶ πρόσωπον τὸ αὐτὸ ἐκάλεσαν.

Later a Person of the Trinity was defined as the Divine substance with a particular personal property, "essentia divina cum proprietatibus personalibus." In the First Person the personal property is paternity, in the Second filiation, in the Third procession. According to this the Second Person of the Holy Trinity is the Divine essence in so far as characterized by the attribute "begotten." Vide E. A. Litton, "Introduction to Dogmatic Theology," 2nd ed., p. 104.