ABSTRACT
The new biblical studies were the feature of the postwar intellectual climate. The pattern of response among Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Jews to the challenge of scientific modes of thought was remarkably similar. There were some who resisted the new intellectual currents and rejected any modification of inherited theological formulations. The challenges of the postwar era were enormous, and they provoked theological reform among Protestants. The most heated initial debate centered on the notion of biological evolution by its apparent contradiction of the Bible, Darwin's theory seemed to strike at the very root of a biblically grounded faith. The striking feature of the liberal movement in Protestantism that began to take shape during the 1870s was its conservative intent. The great advantage of both forms of a revived evangelicalism was that proponents were enabled to maintain what to them was the heart of the inherited faith without coming into conflict with the intellectual climate of the modern world.
