A religion, on its doctrinal side, can thus be defined as a system of general truths which have the effect of transforming character when they are sincerely held and vividly apprehended. Wherever there is a creed, there is heretic round the corner or in his grave. Whatever be the right way to formulate religious truths, it is death to religion to insist on a premature stage of precision. The vitality of religion is shown by the way in which the religious spirit has survived the ordeal of religious education. A dogma which fails to evoke any response in immediate apprehension stifles the religious life.
Religions commit suicide when they find their inspirations in their dogmas.
A system of dogmas may he the ark within which the Church floats safely down the flood tide of history. But the Church will perish unless it opens its windows and lets out the dove to search for an olive branch. Sometimes even it will do well to disembark on Mount Ararat and build a new altar to the divine Spirit - an altar neither in Mount Gerizim nor yet at Jerusalem. The task of Theology is to show how the World is founded on something beyond mere transient fact, and how it issues in something beyond the perishing of occasions. The temporal World is the stage of finite accomplishment.