ABSTRACT
In this chapter no more than in the corresponding section iv of the first main division of this book shall we be undertaking a complete or exhaustive presentation of the religious thought of the more recent period. Rather we are simply to consider some specially striking forms of the religious consciousness as manifested in the last and the present generation apart from those currents of thought of which we have already treated. Here as before, we do not intend to push the inquiry too far into the domain of theology. We shall mainly select for consideration those thinkers who, although their chief interests are theological, must also be regarded as of significance for philosophy. We shall thus exclude whatever is put forward within the limits of traditional ecclesiastical or denominational belief, whether liberal or orthodox, Anglican or Nonconformist, without having any philosophical character or note of its own over and above this, as well as the numerous attempts from the religious side, mostly stereotyped enough, to reconcile Christian doctrines with modern science. From this point of view we shall have no special interest in the theistic attempts and systems of A. M. Fairbairn, A. B. Bruce, H. Wace, H. M. Gwatkin, the Duke of Argyll, J. Lindsay, G. Galloway, F. R. Tennant, and many others. But we must also exclude all those with whom we have already dealt in another connection, first and foremost among these being the neo-idealist writers who have bestowed specially intensive attention on the problems of religion and religious philosophy, partly because of its strong ecclesiastical connections and partly from the character of its speculation. The reader is, therefore, asked to refer back at this point to earlier comments, those, for instance, passed upon the doctrines—theistic through and through or culminating in a type of theism—of E. and J. Caird, J. Ward, Pringle-Pattison, Rashdall, Sorley, Laurie, Taylor, Webb, Temple, and others. In regard to religious speculation other contemporary tendencies to a large extent recede into the background when compared with the idealist movement.
