Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 6.djvu/583

NEW BOOKS. 567 Part iii. discusses Matter and Force ; the Universe in its Potentiality and Actuality. The treatment is historical : the Ionian and Eleatic schools, Aristotle, Kant, Descartes, Spinoza, Helnaholtz are sharply criticised. Gravitation is replaced by the force of centrality, " the one tender or innermost force or principle in the universe, which holds and correlates the universe together ". A brief excursus brings evidence for the fact that the Hindoo Brahma or Braham is the patriarch Abraham, with the initial letter omitted. Part iv. treats of Universal Mechanism ; Motion and its Transfor- mation. Newton's laws are reconsidered in the light of the principle of centrality, and the atomic theory replaced by the doctrine of the universal essence of parts i. and ii. Examples are given and worked out in detail. It is unnecessary here to dwell upon these : enough has been said to give the reader a general idea of Mr. Silberstein's method and results. For the full understanding of the system he must be referred to the book itself. E. B. T. Contemporary Theology and Theism. By E. M. WENLEY, M.A., D.Phil. (Glas.), D.Sc. (Edin.), Senior Professor of Philosophy in the University of Michigan, etc. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1897. Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.: John Wilson & Son. Pp. 197. The author tells us that the substance of this work was originally pre- sented in the form of a Lecture, delivered some three years ago before the members of the Glasgow Theological Society. Its object was to depict the controversies which have agitated the modern theological world since the polemic between Kant and Schleiermacher was brought to an inconclusive issue at the end of the last century. Professor Wenley thinks that the character of contemporary speculative theology has been largely determined by the influence of Hegel, whose writings accustomed thinkers to interpret religious ideas from a genetic and historical standpoint, and to account for their existence by evolution instead of by revelation. The abiding miracle of the universe is the potentiality of development which manifests itself everywhere. Of this absolute miracle " Christianity is to be viewed as an integral and hi nowise exceptional portion " (p. 36). Pages 39-60 are occupied with criticism of the General Principles of the Speculative School, of which Strauss and Baur have been the most pronounced representatives. The recent phase of German theology, known as the Bitschlian School, betrays a decidedly reactionary tendency, owing, thinks Professor Wenley, partly to the teaching of Lotze, and partly to the impatience of Hegelian Absolutism, which has found expression in the common catch-phrase " Back to Kant ". Eitschl's contention seems to be " that religion and the theoretic knowledge of the world are distinct functions of the spirit, which, where they are applied to the same objects, do not even partially coincide, but go in toto asunder from each other. Religion necessarily implies a teleological conception of the world ; science, a causal one " (p. 86). The originality of the Ilitschlian method consists in its attempt to establish Theism by means of Christianity, whereas other theological systems had assumed Theism as the premise of Christianity. With Ritschl Christ is the focus, the pivot and the starting-point of all religious faith and sentiment. After discussing the questions of modern theology under the heads of Agnosticism and the Theistic Problem the Principle of Rationality Speculative Gnosticism Personality, our author concludes with a