ABSTRACT
The account to be given in this section of the religious philosophy of the earlier part of our period is confined to those thinkers, or groups of thinkers, who have independent importance outside the currents of philosophy with which we have hitherto been dealing. We are not here concerned, as in former sections, to trace the development of a single unified and relatively self-contained movement of thought, but rather to glean and assemble in one inclusive presentation whatever seems important or valuable in religio-philosophical theory— that is, in thought directed to religious questions—wherever it is to be found. We are, however, far from intending to present anything like exhaustively the religious life of England in the XIXth Century, even so far as it is comprised in its deposit of theory. For such a deposit was naturally much more the outcome of work in the theological than in the philosophical field, and, though the frontiers between these two are constantly being obliterated, yet we must, as far as possible, confine our account to the latter. Our brief estimate deals merely with what has genuine relevance for philosophy, and even from this we can give only selections.
