This book had its origin in a doctoral thesis prepared under the supervision of the Revd Professor John Rogerson, Head of the Biblical Studies Department in the University of Sheffield. It is a pleasure to record my gratitude to Professor Rogerson for generous guidance and continual encouragement freely given over many years.

The book is, of course, entirely my own responsibility. It gives expression to certain convictions which became clearer and firmer as work proceeded, and to other convictions which only emerged as I studied the evidence relevant to the thesis. Among the latter are a sense of the reality and inevitability of the conflict between natural science and religion, the permanent insight enshrined in what is otherwise an outmoded conservative approach to biblical study, and the serious deficiency of liberal scholarship, despite the basic correctness of the critical approach to biblical texts and a multitude of fruitful results produced by it.

The historical aspect of the argument is no accident. The child is father of the man, and the true nature of man-come-of-age in the twentieth century can only be grasped when recognised as the more developed form of a troubled childhood and tempestuous adolescence going back to conception in the later eighteenth century.

The careful study of long-forgotten or generally neglected texts is no mere esoteric pastime to satisfy those who enjoy reliving distant controversies while remaining safe from painful exposure to current conflict. The Preacher's terse comment on novelty will be found to have remarkably frequent application, and the echoes of past controversy a disturbingly contemporary ring.