Page:Religious Thought in Holland during the Nineteenth Century James Hutton Mackay.djvu/6

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PREFACE

have been occupying our minds on this side of the North Sea, there is a certain interest in seeing how men of a different mental type, living under different ecclesiastical conditions, have been dealing with them.

In itself the work of recent Dutch theologians is highly valued by scholars of other countries who have made acquaintance with it—the names of Professor Cheyne and the late Professors Pfleiderer and Hastie may be mentioned, who have all expressed regret that it should be so little known outside Holland. The principal works of Tiele and Kuenen—men of world-wide reputation—have been translated, and some of them originally appeared in an English dress, and I have not thought it necessary to devote much space to them in my lectures, confining myself mainly to an attempt to indicate their position in the general movement of thought in Holland. I had intended to notice the work of Professor Bavinck—Dr Kuyper’s loyal and learned theological henchman—before concluding my final lecture. I may give as an excuse for omitting the name of the ablest living writer