Book contents
- Frontmatter
- ESSAYS AND CONTRIBUTORS
- PREFACE
- PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION
- PREFACE TO THE TENTH EDITION
- Contents
- I FAITH
- II THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF GOD
- III THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
- IV PREPARATION IN HISTORY FOR CHRIST
- V THE INCARNATION AND DEVELOPMENT
- VI THE INCARNATION AS THE BASIS OF DOGMA
- VII THE ATONEMENT
- VIII THE HOLY SPIRIT AND INSPIRATION
- IX THE CHURCH
- X SACRAMENTS
- XI CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICS
- XII CHRISTIAN ETHICS
- APPENDIX I ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN DUTY
- APPENDIX II ON THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF SIN
V - THE INCARNATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- ESSAYS AND CONTRIBUTORS
- PREFACE
- PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION
- PREFACE TO THE TENTH EDITION
- Contents
- I FAITH
- II THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF GOD
- III THE PROBLEM OF PAIN
- IV PREPARATION IN HISTORY FOR CHRIST
- V THE INCARNATION AND DEVELOPMENT
- VI THE INCARNATION AS THE BASIS OF DOGMA
- VII THE ATONEMENT
- VIII THE HOLY SPIRIT AND INSPIRATION
- IX THE CHURCH
- X SACRAMENTS
- XI CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICS
- XII CHRISTIAN ETHICS
- APPENDIX I ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN DUTY
- APPENDIX II ON THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF SIN
Summary
1. The last few years have witnessed the gradual acceptance by Christian thinkers of the great scientific generalization of our age, which is briefly, if somewhat vaguely, described as the Theory of Evolution. History has repeated itself, and another of the ‘oppositions of science’ to theology has proved upon inquiry to be no opposition at all. Such oppositions and reconciliations are older than Christianity, and are part of what is often called the dialectical movement; the movement, that is to say, by question and answer, out of which all progress comes. But the result of such a process is something more than the mere repetition of a twice-told tale. It is an advance in our theological thinking; a definite increase of insight; a fresh and fuller appreciation of those ‘many ways’ in which ‘God fulfils Himself.’ For great scientific discoveries, like the heliocentric astronomy, are not merely new facts to be assimilated; they involve new ways of looking at things. And this has been pre-eminently the case with the law of evolution; which, once observed, has rapidly extended to every department of thought and history, and altered our attitude towards all knowledge. Organisms, nations, languages, institutions, customs, creeds, have all come to be regarded in the light of their development, and we feel that to understand what a thing really is, we must examine how it came to be. Evolution is in the air.
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- Lux MundiA Series of Studies in the Religion of the Incarnation, pp. 132 - 157Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009