The future historian of Modernism will be much embarrassed by the contradictory appreciations and misjudgments which are to be found in our contemporary literature on this subject. One book presents Modernism as a movement of the Latin mind, distrusting individualism and laying stress upon the corporate element in religion; another writer, on the contrary, characterizes Modernism as “a spirit of anarchy, of individualism, of personal distinction and culture.” To some writers Modernism is the greatest spiritual movement ever produced inside the Catholic Church, while to others it is an insignificant and useless dream of a few not completely developed minds. Consequently some of them outline the development of Modernism as an anecdotic history without a real unity in purpose, while others conceive of it as of a system of theology derived from certain fixed and definite philosophic premises.

The religious propaganda carried on in Italy by the Protestant churches has not, we must confess, yielded the results they presumably hoped for. It is not that they have achieved no practical result. Doubtless they have done good to scattered groups of believers. But the result has had no national importance. It has not been felt as a vital force in the world of Italian culture, nor as creating a spring of living, genuine religious feeling such as could exercise a noticeable influence on the further development of the religious consciousness of the country.

Among the most notable contributions of recent years by classical philologians to New Testament interpretation is E. Norden's Agnostos Theos (Berlin, 1913), a comparison of the Lukan account of Paul's missionary career and preaching with Hellenistic parallels, more particularly the biography by Philostratus of Apollonius of Tyana. As a further example of the same method of literary parallels Norden appends a discussion in the last chapter of this book (Schlussbetrachtung, pp. 277–308) of the famous logion, or saying of Jesus, from the Second Source (Q) on the Son's Knowing the Father and being Known of Him (Mt. 11 25–30 = Lk. 10 21–22).

The recent extension of scientific psychology to religious life could not leave the theologian unconcerned. “What theological problems can the psychological treatment of religion solve?” “According to what method must the psychology of religion proceed?” These and other questions have become, especially among German theologians, frequent topics of discussion.