The Lewiston teller. (Lewiston, Idaho) 1900-1905, 1905-01-13
Has Lyman Abbott a New Idea?

NCnlCdSO lTlDuHe)
Lyman Abbott, in his famous Harv-
ard sermon, apologized for overturning
the fabric of established Christianity.
He was sorry that he was a hereto.
His idea that God was present in every
atom of the universe seemed to him so
revolutionary that he almost hesitated
to give it utterance He was afraid
that people might call him a pantheist.
The Tribune suggested that the idea of
God as an indweling principle in the
universe was as old as Christian the
ology and that DIR. Abbotts subdued
joy in his audacity was gratuitous.
Several readers of The Tribune have
taken exception to this criticism. They
think that DR.. Abbotts idea is really
creditabe to his ingenuity and that 1t
deserves praise as an original contribu-
ton to religious thought.
In reply the Tribune wishes to pre-
sent three quotations from Latin the
ologians. Christian theology falls into
two parts. The first part was erected
by the Greeks. in whose language the
New Testament was written and
through whose philosophical power the
ideas of the New Testament were given
philosophical form. 1t is admitted by
everybody that in the Greek theolo-
gians such as Origen and Athanasius,
the idea that God pervades and ami
mates all the physical operations of the
universe was given due prominence.
Even Lyman Abbott. in other sermons,
has given his assent to this historical
fact.
The Greeks however, were succeeded
by the Latins. The bishop of Rome
became the center of Latin Christianity
1t is claimed by DIR. Abbott that under
the bishop of Rome the western Chris
tan world began to conceive of God as
an absentee landlord" who sat far
aloof from his estate, as a venerable
old man who inhabited the heavens and
who interviewed in the physical world
only occasionally as n creator who
started the world going and then left
it to go on by itself, except when he
felt disposed to perform a miracle 1t
was left for the advanced thinkers of
! ton of God as the energizing influence
of the universe, permeating it, working
in it, causing the leaves to fall pump
ing the sap up the tree trunks in the
spring, uniting hydrogen and oxygen
to form water. and in every other ply
steal act. present and operative.
Lyman Abbott says all this in 1904
and thinks himself daring. Gregory
the Great one of the least adventurous
intellectually of all the popes, said in
the sixth century: God dwelleth with
in all things and without all things,
above all things and beneath all
things st. Thomas Aquinas. the
greatest of all Latin theologians. said
in the thirteenth century: "The imme-
date operation of the creator is closer
to everything than the operation of any
secondary cause Cornelius a Lapide
a Jesuit, in the seventeenth century
after comparing our continual depend
air, said: Seeing then that we are
thus united to God physically we ought
also to be united to him morally
A secular newspaper has no particu-
lar conception of God to defend. The
interest which 1t takes in the contro-
versy is only historical. From the his
torical point of view it is interesting
to see one of the oldest of ideas mads
the basis for a new reputation. The
immanence of God in the universe ha:
been affirmed by man ever since he be
gan TO think philosophically.