New-York tribune., 1902-08-10
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT" N THEOLOGY.


Americans are less sensitive to foreign criti-
cism, wise or otherwise, than they were in the
DAYS of Charles Dickens. Possibly II is be-
cause so much more stupid and commonplace
matter is written about this country in Europe
than was produced forty years ago. Possibly it
is because a people feeling their power and
enterprise feared all over the world have been
finally able to put off the habits of children
who wonder what their elders are saying about
them. There are still, however. some persons
who though they boast themselves in a loud
voice citizens of a world power" easily
irritated by a British mediocrity who happens
to talk portentously about America. Few or
these appear to have taken with some Sc
| robustness DR.. ". Robertson Nicholls views or
American theology, expressed in criticism Of
Dr. William James's book, The Nanities OF
Religious Experience" and have begun to dis
cuss them as if they were a new and important,
if uncomplimentary, discovery. DR.. Nicholl is
critic who feels it necessary TO edit not less
than four journals TO give his views cumu-
lative weight, what he says in one being sol
emnly echoed in another, till q considerable
body of opinion seems TO be represented Fall
inc foul Of what he thinks the prevailing re-
Ugious sentiment of this country, he blames it
all on our characteristic national vices, self
appreciation and self-confdence, saying:
The pride of being a free and enlightened
citizen has more to do than many people
imagine both with their science and their re-
ligion. When the old doctrines as TO the CUNT
of human nature were rejected they were re
jected in part because they seemed to be libel
on the American people. When the redemption
in Christ was considered unnecessary, there
lay at the back of the rejection feeling that
such q country America can provide from
its own resources for all its needs, even for the
need OF salvation
Before anybody grows angry over this, as an
example of something more than "a certain
condescension in foreigners" and attempts Sc
riously to refute it, he should recall that very
much the same thing has already been said by
Mr. Barrett Wendell and nobody, at least out
side of Boston, has felt al all disturbed. Mr..
WendelrS remarks were not so crude and cheap
as those Of MI Crosland's "unspeakable Scot
who even suggests that the Americans had a
.'subconscious idea that if the world needed a
Saviour He should have been born in the
States" Mr.. Wendell accounted for the
growth of untarianism ana transcendentalism
out of a puritanism which held the creed of
Calvin in all severity by the easy physical con-
ditions and simple society which prevailed in
New England at the time. Human nature had
a chance to develop its better traits freely. The
moral hideousness of the crowded slum and of
the profgate palace were alike unknown. 1t
was comparatively easy for whole communities
of men and women to be fairly good, intelli-
gent and self-governing. The perfectability of
human nature seemed a natural conclusion, and
the overdrawn pictures of mans innate and
total depravity found little to confirm them in
the minds of philosophers almost all of whose
acquaintances seemed far from totally de-
praved. Hence the revolt from a theology
which did not correspond with the facts Of
experience. DR. NicholI has much the same
idea. Perhaps he got it from Mr.. Wendell
Only inexperience OF the Old World problems
of evil under his heavy hand becomes the
blatant self-confdence with which all Ameri-
cans are ticketed in his mind and their op-
timism becomes merely offensive self-conceit
That is the sort Of cast which DR.. Nicholl
would be expected to give to such an idea, and
if Mr. Wendell's derivation of New-England
philosophy is accepted in good part nobody
need worry over the harmless distortion 1t
is worthy CT note, however, that this country
is still the stronghold of Calvinism that the be-
livers in unitarian and transcendental philos-
ophy are a mere handful compared with the
adhereuts of orthodox Christianity and that
advanced" notions Of theology and Biblical
criticism which are commonly accepted not
only In England but among the Presbyterians
of Scotland are here considered heretical. Mr.
Wendell would account for this by saying that
isolation had retarded American intellectual
movements. But as for Dr. Ncholl, it is mere
" q fact which does not fit with his theory Of