Evolution and Theology, and other Essays. By Otto Pfleiderer, D.D.,
Professor of Theology in the University of Berlin. Edited by Orello Cone. (A. and C. Black. 6s.)—It is not, perhaps, quite fully realised here that the central citadel of theological learning and teaching in the German Empire is held by a pro- nounced and somewhat militant Unitarianism. In the paper which gives its title to the volume before us Professor Pfleiderer pours contempt on certain theologians who, while accepting in other respects the results of scientific research, in the realm of Biblical history as well as in that of Nature, yet cling to a belief in the divinity of Christ. The nature of the Founder of our religion, as conceived by them, is put down as "the product of a subtilizing scholasticism, that is too clarified for a naïve faith and too feeble for rational thinking. How much more rational in comparison with him is the Christ of the faith of the Church, the incarnation of the divine Logos!" Relatively indulgent, however, as is Professor Pfleiderer's attitude towards that ancient faith, he considers it a "holy mission" to strip off the "mythological disguises" in the shape of Catholic dogma by which the "true essence of Christianity" is veiled. The "essence of Christianity," accord- ing to his view expressed in a paper so entitled, is "in the universal human sonship of God, the ethico-religious ideal of humanity which" Jesus Christ "typically represented for all of us by the original power of genius in his person, and thereby estab- lished its realisation and rendered it feasible for all men." On those lines Professor Pfleiderer has much that is devout and im- pressive to say, and it is interesting to observe that away from Christianity, as he understands it, he has practically no hope of morality. What does not seem to strike him is the fact that the divine Incarnation, in which as against him the vast majority of persons professing and calling themselves Christians believe, is unquestionably held by them to be essential to the provision of that motive force for righteous living which he deems it the great office of religion to furnish.
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