The New York herald., 1922-12-24


his syndicated. weekly articles. which ap-
pear regularly in one Of the most infiuen-
tial and widely read New York papers and
in numerous periodicals throughout the
country. reaching an audience-probably-
of more than a million readers bill
IS being prepared for submission to the
Legislature of Minnesota to prohibit the
teaching of evolutionary doctrines in
the schools and in the University of that
State. following the precedent of the Ken
tucky movement. which, it should be re-
membered. failed Of passage by but one
vote. The campaign against the Rev
Or. Harry Emerson Fosdick. started by the
Philadelphia Presbytery. appears to be
Banner has demanded that the New York
Presbytery do its duty. toward
silencing heresy in the historic old First
Church One might multiply instances
Of this recrudescence of the church mill
tant.
Unquestionably. the people at large are
devoting more and more thought and
emotion toward religious problems. 1t is
often said that the present generation
from the middle aged down to the children
are a goddess lot. but a more accurate
statement is that they are. very largely
unOrthOdox from the standpoint of the
older churches. So far from being in
different the average citizen is much more
Interested than hr> grandfather was. This
widespread interest is reflected in the un-
precedented number of books recently put
out in this field 1t is plainly a response
10 a demand. since. aside from a few sub
sidized volumes. the publisher does not
print books unless he feels very sure the
public Will buy them.
Examination OF more than eighty rep
resentative books on religious subjects
issued this fall shows that by far the
greater number belong either to old fash
iOned. out and out orthodoxy or to that
growing class which may be called liter
ature Of reconciliation. of attempted ad-
fustment between the old creeds. or frag-
ments Of them. and modern scientific
thought These last fall into two broad
subdivisions: those that hold fast TO the
divinity Of Christ and insist upon some
form OF "vicarious atonement' and those
thar would preserve an ethical religion. a
something called Christianity without
Christ or any reliance upon a formal
revelation. a few years ago we heard
much of the warfare between science and
religion" to-day many nominaIly Christian
writer's assure US that that warfare is
over and that the progressive Church has
adjusted itself to the changes brought
about by the newly acquired knowledge
II would be nearer the truth to say that
ii we use the terms accurately. there never
rs been any war between science and
religion II by religion We mean mans
attitude toward the Unknown or Unknow-
able But il religion be restricted to or
rthodox Christianity it viii be nearest the
fact to realize that the warfare between
that particular form of religion and modern
science Is only now really beginning
There are abundant signs that the church
militant Is just waking up. and that the
warfare IS passing out OF the realm OF
abstract. theological controversy into the
hands OF the people; led. not by alooi
philosophers, but by such men as Mr.
Bryan. Billy Sunday. and the Baptist
"Fundamentalists" (and the Ku KluS
Klan) who aim TO translate their belief:
into action The movement is not neg
Hgible-
II
But by far the most interesting. and
possibly most significant. OF this unusual
aaod of hooks is the small volume by DR.