The Sequel to Catholic Emancipation, 1830–1850. Monsignor Bernard Ward. Longmans & Co.1915. Two Vols. Pp. Vol. I, xx, 296. Vol. II, viii, 328. $6.00.

Abstract

HARVARD THEOLOGICAL REVIEW America is to be told, then the hasty and blunt verdict upon it by Charles Hodge-"atheism"-the explanatory advocation by Asa Gray, and the general hospitality towards it which was shown by Congregationalists, are of the first importance. But of these Dr. McGiffert says nothing. And it would seem as though it were not an unprofitable line of historical investigation to discuss why Congregationalists were as hospitable as they were. It would then appear that in the long development of "the New England Theology," technically so called, and in the Unitarian movement, Congregationalists had learned these great and liberating things-that the Calvinistic theology of Geneva was not final and authoritative, that much could be learned from adversaries, that the fundamental elements of religion are vital, spiritual processes (see N. W. Taylor, long anterior to Ritschl), and that progress in theology is to be expected and labored for. These were the preparation for evolution and biblical criticism, and for the dynamic rather than the static view of the universe. We hope the book will pass to a second edition, and that Dr. McGiffert will extend his view to the fields suggested, and to others, and give us thus a still more vital history of the actual growth of our American system of thought, now in process of rapid development among us.