Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v3.djvu/228

210 Later Theology Lewis Diman, who left the pastorate for a professorship of history in Brown University, asserts in his Lowell lectures on The Theistic Argument (1882) : Some internal principle of transformation must be admitted. ... If we allow that the modifications of an organ are the result of some more or less conscious tendency which serves as a directing principle, then we are brought to recognize finality as the very foundation of nature. ... To affirm that life is the continuous adjustment of inner relations to outer relations is to afiirm nothing to the point, since the adjustment is the very fact for which we are seeking to account. Or as the scintillating Joseph Cook from his lecture-throne in Tremont Temple, Boston, put it: "The law of development explains much but not itself." Gradually, however the imagination of theologians, like that of other men, refused to accentuate the small gaps of the stupendous process and evolu- tion, not very clearly defined or delimited, became accepted as God's method of creation. Belief in the unique sonship of Christ is a difficulty in the complete acceptance of evolution. George Harris of Andover Seminary and later President of Amherst College writes : ' ' There is no reason to suppose that any other man will be thus God- filled. . . . We may well believe that he was one who trans- cended the human."' Because Christ produced "a new moral type," Harris feels that we need not deny either his nature miracles or his resurrection. Among the most thoroughgoing Christian evolutionists of our period may be mentioned President Hyde (1858-1917) of Bowdoin College and Presi- dent John Bascom (1827-1911) of the University of Wiscon- sin. The latter, in his Evolution and Religion or Faith as a Part of a Complete Cosmic System (1915), rejoices in the breadth of view and the boundless hope with which the doctrine of evolu- tion invests its believers. In youth Bascom studied both law and theology; in mature years he taught sociology and philosophy; he occupied influential positions in the educational institutions of the East and the West. His lapidary style and his avoidance of the concrete have kept his numerous works confined to a small circle of readers, but they are thankful for them. ' Moral Evolution, chapter xvi.