[ p. xi ]
THE subject of these chapters is not only of perennial interest but of great immediate importance. To a discerning eye it must be clear that the main question which is being decided in the world to-day is whether or not the majority of men shall continue to believe in God. The debate has invaded world-politics through the dogmatic atheism of the Bolsheviks, who appear to persecute impartially all Theists. I have tried to write always with the thought of the intellectual and spiritual crisis of the present gencration before my mind.
This book, however, is neither a work of apologetics nor a treatise on dogmatic theology, though it has obvious relations with both these branches of study. It is an attempt to state the essential elements in the Christian experience of God, and to formulate a view of the divine Nature, and the relation of God with the world, which may be acceptable to the reason of modern men. Of course such an attempt can never be wholly successful, and it is a part of the thesis which I maintain that the Object of our religious apprehension must be beyond our full comprehension. I have avoided the suggestion, I hope, that I claim to present a complete and logical account of the God whom Christians worship. The reader will misunderstand my purpose if he supposes that there are no problems to which I have not an [ p. xii ] answer, or that I imagine we can eliminate all mystery from our most adequate thoughts of God.
I believe that this book is a statement and a defence of the Catholic faith about God; but I must admit that it is, in some respects, a departure from what has come to be described as Catholic theology. In my opinion, it is a misfortune that many writers who have no need to defer to the authority of Rome seem to take for granted that the Catholic faith has some necessary connexion with the Scholastic theology. To have insisted on that alleged necessary connexion is one of the injuries which Papalism has done to Christendom.
Several important works have appeared since this book was, in the main, finished. I specially regret that I have been able to make no use of Dr. A. N. Whitehead’s Process and Reality, and less use than I should have wished of Dr. Tennant’s Philosophical Theology. The references in the text do not show the full debt which I owe to other writers. I am conscious that the works of Dr. Inge, Dr. Gore, Dr. A. Caldecott, Professor C. C. J. Webb, Professor A. E. Taylor, and the late Dr. Rashdall have influenced my thought to a degree which no footnotes could adequately represent.
The first five chapters and parts of some others are based upon lectures which I delivered in Harvard University on the Noble foundation in 1928, but I have greatly expanded the material and, on some points, modified my opinions, so that no part of the book remains precisely as it was in its original form. I regret that the revision has taken so long and sieze this opportunity of thanking the authorities at Harvard for their generosity [ p. xiii ] and patience. But for the stimulus of their invitation the book would not have been produced.
I owe sincere thanks to members of my “seminar” at King’s College for constructive criticism. One by whose comments I have often profited, the Rev. G. W. Sibley, M.A., A.K.C., Vicar of Old St. Pancras, has died in the full tide of life, while these pages were passing through the press. I am under especial obligation to my friend and former pupil, Miss M. E. Sandbach Marshall, M.A., B.D., who has read the whole book in MSS. and has helped in many ways to clarify its thought and expression.
W. R. M.
KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON, July 30, 1930.