been wholly due to a mistaken notion of what it really is. In so far
as any of those criticisms have been directed against me personally, I
have nothing to say; I hope I can leave my vindication to the judgment
of whatever public may feel an interest in my work. The best rejoinder
that could be made to the various criticisms of the teaching itself
would be to publish them side by side, for they neutralise one another
most effectually. But a better and more useful thing to do is to let
the public know just what the teaching is and leave it to the test of
time. I do not greatly object to having it described as "new." The
fundamental principle of the New Theology is as old as religion, but I
am quite willing to admit that in its all-round application to the
conditions of modern life it is new. I do not see why a man should be
ashamed of confessing that he does his own thinking instead of letting
other people do it for him.

This book, then, is not the author's _Apologia pro Vita Sua_. It is
intended as a concise statement of the outlines of the teaching given
from the City Temple pulpit. It is neither a reply to separate
criticisms nor an _ex cathedra_ utterance. I think I am usually able
to say what I mean, and in the following pages my object is to say what
I mean in such a way that everyone can understand.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE NAME AND THE SITUATION
II. GOD AND THE UNIVERSE
III. MAN IN RELATION TO GOD
IV. THE NATURE OF EVIL
VI. THE ETERNAL CHRIST
VII. THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD
VIII. THE ATONEMENT.--I. ASSOCIATION OF THE DOCTRINE WITH JESUS
IX. THE ATONEMENT.--II. SEMITIC IDEAS OF ATONEMENT
X. THE ATONEMENT.--III. THE DOCTRINE IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY
AND EXPERIENCE
XI. THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE
XII. SALVATION, JUDGMENT, AND THE LIFE TO COME
XIII. THE CHURCH AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD
XIV. CONCLUSION

THE NEW THEOLOGY

CHAPTER I

THE NAME AND THE SITUATION

+Religion and Theology.+--Religion is one thing and theology another,
but religion is never found apart from a theology of some kind, for
theology is the intellectual articulation of religious experience.
Every man who has anything worthy to be called a religious experience
has also a theology; he cannot help it. No sooner does he attempt to
understand or express his experience of the relations of God and the
soul than he finds himself in posses