some at least have learned the futility of waxing
indignant at each new scientific hypothesis that encroached, as they
thought, within their domain. A great many liberal theologians have as
yet not learned the extreme danger to their theology in grasping at some
concept of science that for the present moment does not appear to be
detrimental to their theology, or, as they think, seems to bolster up
their particular creed. "The enthusiasm aroused in certain theological
circles by recent developments in mathematical physics," states Dr. M.
C. Otto, "seems to me to indicate just one thing, that these theologians
felt themselves to be in so desperate a state that a floating straw
assumed the appearance of a verdure-clad island. I am of the opinion
that all persons who would work for a more decent and happy existence
for themselves and for their fellows must turn their backs upon religion
just to the extent that religious leadership seeks spiritual renewal in
these hallucinations of despair." (_Drs. Wieman, Macintosh, and Otto:
"Is There a God?"_)

It is only proper to point out that what certain emancipated minds are
trying to reconstruct as a basis of religious belief is not what is held
by the masses as their conception of religion. In a recent clear and
frank statement of the religious revolution, John Herman Randall and
John Herman Randall, Jr., state: "Such beliefs, even so fundamental a
one as belief in God, must stand their chances with the philosophic
interpretation men give their experience.... The really revolutionary
effect of the scientific faith, so far as religion is concerned, has
been not its new view of the world, but its new view of religion.
Reinterpretations of religious belief have been unimportant compared
with reinterpretations of religion itself. For those who have come to
share the scientific world-view, even more for those who have absorbed
the spirit of scientific inquiry, it has been impossible to view
religion as a divine revelation entrusted to man. It has even been
impossible to see it as a relation between man and a cosmic deity.
Religion has rather appeared a human enterprise, an organization of
human life, an experience, a social bond, and an inspiration." (_J. H.
Randall and J. H. Randall, Jr.: "Religion and the Modern World."_) To
the man who literally entreats his deity, "Our Father, who art in
Heaven, grant us our daily bread," the above reinterpretation of what is
meant by religion ca