22 MAY 1920, Page 21

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

[X -lice is this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent rev;eu% The Shaping Forces of Modern Religious Thought : a Historr, of Theological Development. By Archibald B. D. Alexander, D.D. (Glasgow : MaeLehose. 14s.)—" Our age demands ottee d'ensemble—large views, presented in the smallest possible compass," says Dr. Alexander ; and his book, judicious and use- ful as it is, has not wholly escaped the weakness inseparable from handbooks, which is expressed in the maxim Compendia Dispendia. It is an attempt to trace the evolution of the spiritual ideas which have shaped the spiritual conceptions of modern Europe ; and it is not historical only ; it has also a critical and constructive aim. Its outlook is that of liberal, but not unorthodox, Protestantism : "'every phase of thought, Indeed, not directly or indirectly Connected with the spiritual uplift-which Protestantism. has given to mankind, is felt to 'have in it something unreal and alien, and is destined to oblivion." The English reader may bointerested to see-the light-in-which-the Oxford Movement presents itself to an educated Scotsman, who regards it from the outside. Its " Sacramentarian theory," it seems to the author, "'makes the truth of revelation to repose upon a magical occurrence, and reduces the Christ of Faith to a merely material entity ; denuding the Gospel of all intelligibility and Teasonablenesa as an appeal to the conscience and mind of man." And "it is doubtful if its contribution to modern thought has been so valuable as some Anglicans assume. The movement has touched but little the leading minds of our time."