science, philosophy and a matured human wisdom, has been found to
conflict with the first interpretation of the world. The recognition
of this conflict dates back now some centuries--the warfare between
science and religion also has its history--but each generation has seen
the addition made of some new element to the clash which is leading man
to a new view of the world.

What is striking about the present situation is the increase of the
positive elements in the outlook which is forming in men's minds. In
the past, the traditionalist had some justification in speaking of the
opposed ideas as largely negative. What positive doctrine there was in
the physical science which theology had to meet, to its discomfort, had
only an indirect bearing upon life. But the nineteenth century was the
witness of a distinct revolution in this regard. I do not refer merely
to the fact that the idea of evolution was applied to man. That was
prophetic and strategic rather than revolutionary. It symbolized the
passage of science from the periphery to the center, from the outlying
regions of the universe to man's very self. All the time, however, a
new perspective had been arising in man's interests and values. The
possibilities and needs of this life were replacing the dream of
another life in {5} another world. A busy concern with the things of
this world was everywhere evident. Man was seeking to master his
environment.

During the first stage of this revolution, the industrial and political
changes were the most prominent. A change in the instrumentalities of
life, physical, economic and political, occupied men's thoughts to a
larger degree than ever before. But as the nineteenth century circled
to the twentieth, deeper notes became audible. Humanitarianism,
constructive reform, social democracy became the watchwords of the day.
I do not think that it has yet been clearly realized how completely
these new aims and interests fit in with the results of science and yet
pass beyond them to the service of human values. The truth seems to be
that, by an imperceptible process, new values and hopes have been
replacing the traditional ones, and that these values and aims both
find themselves in harmony with the new knowledge and rest upon it.

In spite of the conflict between the rising view of man and nature and
the traditional religious conception, there is yet, I believe, a
profound continuity in the genuinely spiritual achi