IV. In English and American Theology

1. The Deistic Period in England

In Great Britain and America the idea of God has undergone many vicissitudes. In the period of q.v. 1650-1800, the doctrine of God was profoundly affected by certain modern questions which were already emerging: the scientific view of nature as a unity, the denial of the principle of external authority, the right and sufficiency of reason, and the ethical as compared with the religious value of life. The deists yielded to none of their contemporaries in affirming that God was personal, the cause of the fixed providential order of the world, and of the moral order with its rewards and punishments both here and hereafter. The cosmological was the only theistic argument. God's wisdom and power were expressed neither in supernatural revelation nor in miracle. His nature was perfectly apprehensible to man's reason. He was, however, absolutely transcendent, i.e., not merely distinct from but removed from the world, an absentee God. This process of thought reached its negative skeptical result in David Hume; the being of God could be proved neither by rational considerations nor by the prevailing sensationalist theory of knowledge. Outside of the deists, the demonstration of the being and attributes of God by Samuel Clarks (q.v.) was thoroughly representative of the time. Something must have existed from eternity, of an independent, unchangeable nature, self-existent, absolutely inconceivable by us, necessarily everlasting, infinite, omnipotent, one and unique, intelligent and free, infinitely powerful, wise, good, and just, possessing the moral attributes required for governing the world. Bishop Butler (Analogy of Religion) held as firmly as the deists the transcendence of God, and if he made less of the cosmic, ethical, and mysterious than of the redemptive side of the divine nature, this is to be referred not to hid underestimate of the redemptive purpose of God, but to the immediate aim of his apologetic. Accepting the fundamental tenet of Matthew Tindal (q.v.), i.e., the identity of natural and revealed religion, he shows that the mysteries of revealed religion are not more inexplicable than the facts of universal human experience. Thus he seeks to open a door for God's activity in revelation-prophecy, miracles, and redemption A new tendency in the idea of God appears in William Paley (q.v.). The proof of the existence and attributes of the deity is teleological. Nature is a contrivance of which God is the immediate creator. The celebrated Bridgewater Treatises (q.v.) follow in the same path, proving the wisdom, power, and goodness of God from geology, chemistry, astronomy, the animal world, the human body, and the inner world of consciousness. Chalmers sharply distinguishes between natural and revealed theology, as offering two sources for the knowledge of God. In this entire great movement of thought, therefore, God is con ceived as transcendent. God and the world are pre sented in a thoroughly dualistic fashion. God is the immediate and instantaneous creator of the world as a mechanism. The principal divine attributes are wisdom and power; goodness is affirmed, but appears to be secondary: its hour has not yet come.

2. The Same Period in America.

In America during the same period Jonathan Edwards (q.v.) is the chief representative of the idea of God. His doctrine centers in that of absolute sovereignty. God is a personal being, glorious, transcendent. The world has in him its absolute source, and proceeds from him as an emanation, or by continuous creation, or by perpetual energizing thought. As motive for the creation, he added to the common view-the declarative glory of God-that of the happiness of the creature. On the basis of causative predestination he maintains divine foreknowledge of human choice-a theory pushed to extreme limits by later writers, Samuel Hopkins and Nathanael Emmons (qq.v.; also see New England Theology). His doctrine of the divine transcendence was qualified by a thorough-going mysticism, a Christian experience characterized by a profound consciousness of the immediate presence, goodness, and glory of God. His conception of the ethical nature of God contained an s antinomy which he never resolved; the Being who showed surpassing grace to the elect and bestowed unnumbered common favors on the non elect in this life, would, the instant after death, withdraw from the latter every vestige of good and henceforth pour out upon them the infinite and eternal fury of his wrath. Edwards' doctrine of God and its implications later underwent, however, serious modifications. In the circle which recognized him as leader, his son reports that no less than ten improvements had been made, some of which, e.g., concerning the atonement, directly affected the idea of God. Predestination was affirmed, but, instead of proceeding from an inscrutable will, following Leibnitz, rested on divine foreknowledge of all possible worlds and included the purpose to realize this, the best of all possible worlds (A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, New York, 1900; S. Harris, God, the Creator and Lord of All, ib., 1896). The atonement was conceived as sufficient but not efficient for all (C. Hodge, Systematic Theology, Philadelphia, 1865), or, on the other hand, as ex pressing the sincere purpose of God to redeem all sinners (A. E. Park, The Atonement; Introductory Essay, Boston, 1859)` Divine sovereignty was roundly affirmed; for some it contained the secret of a double decree, for others it offered a convincing basis for the larger hope.

3. Nineteenth-Century Developments.

During the nineteenth century a new movement appeared in English thought. Sir William Hamilton held that God was the absolute, the unconditioned, the cause of all (Philosophy of the Unconditioned, in Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1829). But since all thinking is to condition, and to condition the unconditioned is self-contradictory, God is both unknown and unknowable. Following in the same path H. L. Mansel (Limits of Religious Thought, London, 1867) found here the secret by which to maintain the mysteries of the faith of the church in the Trinity, the incarnation, the atonement, and other beliefs. Revelation was therefore required to supplement men's ignorance and to communicate what human intelligence was unable to discover. Hence the

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dogmas concerning God which had been found repugnant or opaque to reason were philosophically reinstated and became once more authoritative for faith. In his System of Synthetic Philosophy Herbert Spencer (First Principles, London, 1860-62) maintains on the one hand an ultimate reality which is the postulate of theism, the absolute datum of consciousness, and on the other hand by reason of the limitations of knowledge a total human incapacity to assign any attributes to this utterly inscrutable power. In accordance with his doctrine of evolution he holds that this ultimate reality is an infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed, the same which wells up in the human consciousness. He is neither materialistic nor atheistic. This reality is not personal according to the human type, but may be super-personal. Religion is the feeling of awe in relation to this inscrutable and mysterious power. With an aim not unlike that of Herbert Spencer, Matthew Arnold sought to reconcile the conflicting claims of religion, agnosticism, evolution, and history, by substituting for the traditional personal God the "Power not ourselves that makes for righteousness." Side by side with this movement appeared another led by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, based upon a spiritual philosophy, which found in the moral nature a revelation of God (Aids to Reflexion, London, 1825). This has borne fruit in many directions: in the great poets, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning; in preachers like Cardinal Newman, Dean Stanley, John Tulloch, Frederick William Robertson, and Charles Kingsley; in philosophical writers, as John Frederic Denison Maurice and James Martineau (qq.v.). The idea of God is taken out of dogma and the category of the schools and set in relation to life, the quickening source of ideals and of all individual and social advance. Religious thought in America has fully shared in these later tendencies in Great Britain, as may be seen by reference to John Fiske, Idea of God (Boston, 1886), unfolding the implications of Spencer's thought, and, reflecting the spirit of -Coleridge, William Ellery Channing, Works (6 vols., Boston, 1848), W. G. T. Stead, "Introductory Essay" to Coleridge's Works (New York, 1884), and Horace Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural, and Sermons (in Centenary edition of his Works, New York, 1903). An idea of God based on idealism, represented in Great Britain by John Caird, Philosophy of Religion (London, 1881), Edward Caird, The Evolution of Religion (ib. 1893), in Canada by John Watson, God's Message to the Human Soul (New York, 1907), has received impressive statement by Josiah Royce, The Conception of God (ib., 1897), and The World and the Individual (2 vols., 1899-1901). God is a being who possesses all logical possible knowledge, insight, wisdom. This includes omnipotence, self-consciousness, self-possession, goodness, perfection, peace. Thus this being possesses absolute thought and absolute experience, both completely organized. The absolute experience is related to human experience as an organic whole to its integral fragments. This idea of God which centers in omniscience does not intend to obscure either the ethical qualities or the proper personality of the absolute.

4. Theistic Arguments.

Turning from the historical survey to specific aspects of the idea of God which have in more recent times engrossed attention, there come into view the theistic arguments, the immanence, the personality, the Fatherhood of God, and the Trinity. Those writers who have not acknowledged the force of Kant's well-known criticism of the theistic arguments maintain the full validity of these proofs (cf. R. Flint, Theism, new ed., New York, 1890; J. L. Diman, The Theistic Argument, Boston, 1882). Others, as John Caird (ut sup.), conceive of the cosmological and teleological arguments as stages through which the human spirit rises to the knowledge of God which attains fulfillment in the onto logical, the alone sufficient proof; yet Caird accords a real validity to the teleological argument interpreted from the point of view of evolution. Still others would restate the first and second arguments so that the cosmological argument would run as follows: The world of experience is manifold and yet unified in a law of universal and concomitant variation among phenomena caused by some one being in them which is their true self and of which they are in some sense phases. As self-sufficient, this reality is absolute; as not subject to restrictions from without, it is infinite; as explanation of the world, it is the world-ground. The teleological argument would first inquire if there is in the world of experience activity toward ends, and secondly, when found, refer this to intelligence. Other forms of the theistic argument are drawn from the fact of finite intelligence, from epistemology (in reply to agnosticism), from metaphysical considerations in which purposeful thought is shown to be the essential nature of reality, and from the moral order which involves freedom and obligation to a personal source and ideal (cf. E. Caird, Critical Philosophy of Kant, 2 vols., Glasgow, 1889; T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 4th ed., London, 1899).

5. Immanence

The idea of divine immanence is variously presented. Its true meaning is that God is the inner and essential reality of all phenomena, but this is susceptible of two very different interpretations. On the one hand, a pantheistic or metaphysical immanence, in which the One is identified with the many. This, however, destroys the relative independence of the human consciousness, eliminates the ethical value of conduct, and breaks down the very idea of God (cf. for criticism of metaphysical immanence, J. Caird, ut sup.; J. Royce, The World and the Individual, vol. ii.). Other notions of immanence are: First, God is present by his creative omniscience, so that the creation is in his image, and with a degree of independence, proceeds of itself and realizes the divine ideals (G. H. Howison, in Royce's Conception of God, New York, 1897). Secondly, the immanence of God is made picturesque by the analogy of the outside physical phenomena of the brain and the inner psychical phenomena of consciousness in which the true self appears. In like manner the veil of nature hides a person, complete, infinite, self-existent (J. LeConte, also in Royce, ut sup.). Thirdly, God is personally present as energy in all things and particularly in all

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persons-a doctrine which is not new in the Church, as witness the "spermatic Word" of Greek theology, and the Spirit of God in his cosmic and redemptive agency. The influence of the modern emphasis upon the divine immanence is evident in several directions. (1) Through the immanent teleology disclosed in the evolutionary process the teleological argument is reinstated in an unimpeachable form. (2) The distinction between the natural and the supernatural is not obliterated, but the natural is fully conceived only in relation to its supernatural cause: the natural is the constant method of the divine purpose, and the supernatural discloses itself in and by means of the natural. Special providence and even miracles are referred to the same divine causality. An ordinary event is as divine as a miracle (B. P. Bowne, Theism, New York, 1902). (3) Since the nature of man is grounded in God, life in union with God is not something alien or grafted on to his nature, but is the realization of what is essential and indissoluble in God's purpose for him (D. W. Simon, Redemption of Man, Edinburgh, 1889; A. H. Strong, Christ in Creation and Ethical Monism, Philadelphia, 1899). (4) In the light of the immanence of God a restatement of doctrine has been necessitated concerning revelation, the Trinity, creation, providence, sin,. incarnation, atonement, and the Christian life (A. H. Strong, Systematic Theology, passim, Philadelphia, 1907). The doctrine of immanence does not detract from the truth of transcendence involved in ethical monism, since transcendence signifies that the fullness of the divine life is not exhausted in any finite expression of it, but, distinct from the world, is itself free intelligence and power (J. R. Illingworth, The Divine Immanence, London, 1898; B. P. Bowne, Immanence of God, ib. 1905). Neither English nor American thought has added anything essential to Lotze's presentation of the divine personality (J. R. Illingworth, Personality, Human and Divine, London, 1894; H. Rashdall, Doctrine and Development, pp. 268 sqq., ib. 1898 ; Mikrokosmus, Leipsic, 1856-58; Eng. transl., Microcosmus, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1885).

6. Fatherhood of God

The Fatherhood of God is the well-nigh universal term to describe the relation of God to men. This position has been reached (1) by a return to the point of view of Jesus' teaching and his own personal attitude. toward God, (2) by an increasing ethical interpretation of the divine nature -in this particular respect led by Universalists and Unitarians (qq.v.), and (3) by a juster appreciation of the worth of the individual life. Fatherhood has indeed been restricted to God's relation to the regenerate, on the ground that man's natural relation to God was legal and servile, and that sonship and adoption resulted from redemption and regeneration (R. S. Candlish, The Fatherhood of God, Edinburgh, 1865). This, however, ignores the fact that man's essential nature was constituted for the filial relation. Since man was made in the image of God, and Christ not only has revealed the true meaning of sonship, but is himself the way to its realization, Fatherhood exhausts all the natural and redemptive relation of God to men (W. N. Clarke, Can I Believe in God the Father? New York, 1899; T. S. Lidgett, The Fatherhood of God, Edinburgh, 1902; J. Orr, Progress of Dogma, London, 1903). If, finally, all the divine attributes and activities are crowned in Fatherhood, even sovereignty, omnipotence, justice, election, and grace are interpreted by it (A. M. Fairbairn, Place of Christ in Modern Theology, New York, 1893; cf. W. Sanday, DB, ii. 205-215). For English and American conceptions of the Trinity as affecting the idea of God, see Trinity.

C. A. Beckwith.

Bibliography: For the Biblical conception of God consult the works given under Biblical Theology, particularly those of Schultz and Beyschlag. On the development of the idea in general consult: K. R. Hagenbach, Hist. of Doctrine, ed. H. B. Smith, New York, 1861-62; R. Rainy, Delivery and Development of Christian Doctrine, Edinburgh, 1874; A. V. G. Allen, Continuity of Christian Thought, Boston, 1884; T. C. Crippen, Introduction to Hist. of Christian Doctrine, Edinburgh, 1884; E. Hatch, Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, London, 1892; also the sections in the various works upon church history which deal with the history of doctrine, and the works upon the history of dogma, such as those of Harnack and Dorner.

For modern treatment consult: J.-B. Bossuet, Traite de la connaissance de Dieu et de soi-meme, Paris, 1722; S. Charnoek, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God, often printed, e.g., 2 vols., New York, 1874 (a classic); R. S. Candlish, Fatherhood of God, London, 1870; A. Gratry, De la connaissance de Dieu, 2 vols., Paris, 1873, Eng. transl., Guide to the Knowledge of God, Boston, 1892; J. Sengler, Die Idee Gottes, 2 vols., Heidelberg, 1845-52 (vol. i. historical, vol. ii. dogmatic); H. Ulrici, Gott und die Natur, Leipsic, 1875; E. Mulford, Republic of God, chaps. i.-ii., Boston, 1881; S. Harris, Self Revelation of God, New York, 1887; J. S. Candlish, Christian Doctrine of God, New York, 1891; P. H. Steenatra, The Being of God as Unity and Trinity, New York, 1891; J. A. Beet, Through Christ to God, London, 1892; E. M. Caro, L'ldee de Dieu et ses nouveaux critiques, Paris, 1894; A. M. Fairbaim, The Place of Christ in Modern Theology, London, 1896; G. d'Alviella, Origin and Growth of the Conception of God, ib. 1897; J. Royce, The Conception of God, New York, 1897; R. Rocholl, Der christliche Gottesbegriff, Göttingen, 1900; J. A. Leighton, Typical Modern Conceptions of God, London, 1901; E. A. Reed, Idea of God in Relation to Theology, Chicago, 1902; B. P. Bowne, The Immanence of God, Boston 1905; S. Chadwick, Humanity and God, New York, 1905; W. H. Gillespie, The Argument a priori for the Being and Attributes of the Lord God, Edinburgh, 1906; F. Ballard, Theomonism True: God and the Universe in Modern Light, London, 1906; W. R. Inge, Personal Idealism and Mysticism, lecture i., New York, 1907; P. Lobstein, Etudes sur la doctrine chrétienne de Dieu, Paris, 1907. Consult also the systems of theology in the works of Bus, Clark, Dabney, Dorner, Gerhart, Hodge, Jacob, Miley, Shedd, Smith Strong, etc.; H. W. Gevatken, The Knowledge of God, Edinburgh, 1906.