Christianity And Progress

Text extracted from opening pages of book: The Cole frtrH/ a-1922 Christianity and Progress HAm EMERSON FOSDICK Fnftiicr iftnaial Ikikgj a til Union Tntolopctu Sttntnoiy t trtadur at tht Erst Pnttyttria Church* Nwr Yoat CSICACO Heming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH THE COLE LECTURES rrtHE late Colonel E W Cole of Nashville, JL Tennessee, donated to Vanderbilt University the sum of five thousand dollars, afterwards increased by Mrs, E W. Cole to ten thousand, the design and conditions of which gift are stated as follows The object of this fund is to establish a foundation for a perpetual Lectureship in connec tion with the School of Religion of the University, to be restricted m its scope to a defense and advocacy of the Christian religion The lectures shall be delivered at such intervals, from time to time, as shall be deemed best by the Board of Trust, and the particular theme and lecturer will be determined by the Theological Faculty Said lecture shall always be reduced to writing in full, and the manuscript of the same shall be the prop erty of the University, to be published or dis posed of by the Board of Trust at its discretion, the net proceeds arising therefrom to be added to the foundation fund, or otherwise used for the benefit of the School of Religion. Preface NO one who ever has delivered the Cole Lectures will fail to associate them, in his grateful memory, with the hospi table fellowship of the elect at Vanderbilt Uni versity. My first expression of thanks is due to the many professors and students there, lately strangers and now friends, who, after the burdensome preparation of these lectures, made their delivery a happy and rewarding experi ence for thelecturer. I am hoping now that even though prepared for spoken address the lectures may be serviceable to others who will read instead of hear them. At any rate, it seemed best to publish them without change in form addresses intended for public delivery and bearing, I doubt not, many marks of the spoken style I have tried to make a sally into a field of inquiry where, within the next few years, an increasing company of investigators is sure to go. The idea of progress was abroad in the world long before men became conscious of it; and men became conscious of it in its practical effects long before they stopped to study its 8 PREFACE transforming consequences in their philosophy and their religion. No longer, however, can we avoid the intellectual issue which is involved in our new outlook upon a dynamic, mobile, pro gressive world-Hardly a better description could be given of the intellectual advance which has marked the last century than that which Renan wrote years ago: the substitution of the category of becoming for being, of the con ception of relativity for that of the absolute, of movement for immobility. * Underneath all other problems which the Christian Gospel faces is the task of choosing what her attitude shall be toward this new and powerful force, , the idea of progress, which in every realm is remaking man's thinking. I have endeavoured in detail to indicate my indebtedness to the many books by whose light I have been helped to see my way. In addition I wish to express especial thanks to my friend and colleague, Professor Eugene W. Lyman, who read the entire manuscript to my great profit; and, as well, to my secretary, Miss Mar garet Renton, whose efficient service hasbeen an invaluable help. H. E. F. New York iRenan: Averroes et I/ Averroisme, p. vii. Contents PAGE LECTURE I TEE IDEA o? PROGRESS . . . .11 LECTURE II THE NEED FOR REWGION ... 49 LECTURE III TEE GOSPE& AND SOCIAL PROGRESS . . 87 LECTURE IV PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY . . .127 LECTURE V THE PERIW OF PROGRESS . .,167 LECTURE VI PROGRESS AND GOD 207 LECTURE I THE IDEA OP PROGRESS I THE supposition that fish do not recog nize the existence of water nor birds the existence of air often has been used to illustrate the insensitive unaware ness of which we all are capable in the pr