evements of
humanity. It is a pity to be so ridden by the new that the noble in
the old is forgotten. Tenderness and love, however obscured at times
by formalism and bigotry, owe much to their nurture by Christianity.
Hence, the deeper and truer interpretation of all past movements
regards them as varying expressions of humanity's growth in social and
mental stature. There is, in other words, no real discontinuity in
human history. The only difference is, that the dynamic of social
conditions and intellectual heritage has varied.

{6}

But this acknowledged continuity does not preclude that presence of
genuine and effective newness which is revolutionary in its effects.
_The perspective, intention, and elements of religion are about to
alter_. In the following pages, I shall argue that the attachments of
past religion were determined by a mythological, and essentially
magical, idea of man's environment. Such attitudes and expectations as
prayer, ritual, worship, immortality, providence, are expressions of
the pre-scientific view of the world. But as man partly outgrows,
partly learns to reject, the primitive thought of the world, this
perspective and these elements will drop from religion. That this
alteration has, in surprisingly large measure, already taken place can
be seen from the following excerpts from the writings of the best known
American authority on Church History: "Traditional Christian ideas, in
fact, are undergoing extensive transformation as a result of the new
social emphasis. The individualism of evangelicalism, with its primary
concern for the salvation of the individual soul, is widely
discredited. The old ascetic ideal is everywhere giving way to the
social. Instead of holding themselves aloof from the world Christians
are throwing themselves into it and striving to reform it. Holiness in
the traditional sense of abstinence from sin is less highly valued than
it was. The test of virtue is more and more coming to be the social
test. The virtuous man is he who makes his influence tell for the
improvement of society. Personal probity and uprightness, dissociated
from the active service of one's fellows, is frequently regarded to-day
as 'mere morality' was by the Evangelicals. As virtue had value to
them only in union with and subordination to piety, so without the
spirit of service {7} personal morality seems to many a modern social
reformer a mere empty husk."[1] Obviously, the cent