The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-07
THE NEW THEOLOGY.
As EXPOUNDED BY THE REV. R.
HEBER NEWTON, ID. d.


WINCH we are passing, d EeloIllld tlOIl y
refashioning Of the old theology-not
new formation, much less mere de
struction. 1t is a movement repeating
on large scale, the reformation in tn
sixteenth century. The issue of tina
mighty change was at the time ex
pected. by timid toes and by overzeal
GUS friends, to prove an utter breal
with historical Christianity. 1t proved
to be a recrystallization of the old ele
ments of faith, temporarily thrown int
state of flux, In much the same OLE
forms, enlarged and ennobled.
Notwithstanding the vastly greater
change now going on, there is good rea
son to believe that the issue of this new
reformation will be, not the loss of re-
ligion, nor yet wholly a new religion
but the old religion purified ant
evolved. made reasonable and moral.
We have had an unscientific theolo-
gy and, by reaction, an irreligious sci
ence. We may have scientific theology
and thus a religious science. Theology
is Shedding it's skin and preparing to
grow a new body-a natural theology
Theology Is no longer regarded as an
exact science of the divine mysteries,
authoritative and final, Gods word to
man, but as a most inexact science; In
exact necessarily in the grossly imper-
feet state of mans knowledge; full of
the errors and limitations of human
specula tion-man's thought concerning
God. This is an emancipation in itself.
The old theology teaches the dogma
of original sin-the guilt handed on
ea1 to- Il
ogy translates Original sim into "the
law Of heredity," which bowers us to-
day with the inherited appetites and
passions of the brute man from the
ages past.
The old theology sees in the hereaf-
ter two worlds-the one of perfect, UNI
alleged bliss, the other of hopeless, hor-
rible suffering-into one of which eve
ny man passes Immediately, through
death, to abide therein forever. The
new theology sees in the hereafter all
varieties of experience, following upon
all varieties of earthly life; each mans
lot there being the natural consequence
of his character here; the mercy of God
enduring forever and the love Of God
being mighty to save there, as here,
unto the uttermost.
The old theology teaches dogma of
divine election, which vindicates the
logic of man at the expense of the
character of God. The new theology
teaches law of Providential selection,
which chooses out the few for the ser
vice of the many and calls the elect,
not into the position of the petted ia
vorites Of the court of heaven, but into
the vocation of the servants of the
Heavenly Father for all His children.
The old theology sets forth a dogma
of sacrifice which sees in Jesus Christ
a voluntary victim to propitiate the
wrath Of the Father; by his death plac-
ing in mans hands quit claim from
Jehavah for the full payment of all
debts of humanity to Him. The new
theology sets forth the natural law of
sacrifice, which runs through all crea-
tion and Is an expression of the very
heart Of God himself; under which indi
viduals and classes and races are all
slowly being fitted into the human life
divine, as men are found ready to sac
riflce time and money, and life itself, in
the righteousness of love whose perfect |
is in esus Christ.
nc OlQ tIl6UlOSy lCdCHCp lllCl " NC
iieve In a God outside of nature, who |
wound up the mechanism Of the uni
verse six thousand years ago, and now |
interferes in it, by sus-
pending it's laws, in order to attest the |
mission of his messengers. The new
theology teaches men to believe in God
rs the Spirit indwelling the universe,
whose mind thinks in it's laws, whose
nature is imperfectly revealed in ma
ture, whose character is seen as in an
Image in man--"Our Father who art in
the heavens"
The old theology propounds dogma
of incarnation which represents God as
coming down through space from
at a certain moment of
to embody Himself In a man,
whom men vainly tried to think of as
being both God and man, being indeed
neither very God nor yet very man.
The new theology, returning to the
original philosophy Of the church, pro-
pounds doctrine of incarnation which
,onceives of the Divine Spirit dwelling
n the universe, embodied in nature,
'nsouled in man, as coming out from
within 1.-The abysmal deeps of personal
ty,%s and so filing one man that 'in
lin dwelt the fulness Of the Godhead
him the sacred sym
,ol Of the universal reality through
which man receives power to become
he son of God, a partaker of the di
'ine nature.
The old theology holds a dogma of
he Trinity whose historical origin it
las forgotten and whose philosophic
neaning it has lost; holding it as a
opeless puzzle to the intellect and p.
landing menace to faith, to nine :.
enths of believers formula of scarce
Y disguised tritheisn. The new the .
logy lays bare the historical origin of :,
he doctrine in paganism, brings out its :
meaning in Christianity, .
nd sees in it the archaic form in which .
ian has ever cast the mystic percep- :
on of the threshold mode of being of
le one God, who is 'above ale and
trough all and in you ALL God as the =
bsolute Being transcendent unknown !
the Fount and Spring of Being; God =
$ the Immanent Reason of crea ton; :.
cd as the Moral Power manifest in :.
pushing forward the edu- ;.
ltion of man. E,
AS the practical outcome of theology :,
life we have the old theology find :.
e in man no true child of God-par- y
ker of the being of God, pegotten OUT a
/, To-, II,,El