vi} need of our day, for only such can save us from much
fanaticism and secure us in the full possession of a sober and sane
reason.

Theology is less a single science than an encyclopaedia of sciences;
indeed all the sciences which have to do with man have a better right
to be called theological than anthropological, though the man it
studies is not simply an individual but a race. Its way of viewing man
is indeed characteristic; from this have come some of its brighter
ideals and some of its darkest dreams. The ideals are all either
ethical or social, and would make of earth a heaven, creating
fraternity amongst men and forming all states into a goodly sisterhood;
the dreams may be represented by doctrines which concern sin on the one
side and the will of God on the other. But even this will cannot make
sin luminous, for were it made radiant with grace, it would cease to be
sin.

These books then,--which have all to be written by men who have lived
in the full blaze of modern light,--though without having either their
eyes burned out or their souls scorched into insensibility,--are
intended to present God in relation to Man and Man in relation to God.
It is intended that they begin, not in date of publication, but in
order of thought, with a Theological Encyclopaedia which shall show the
circle of sciences co-ordinated under the term Theology, though all
will be viewed as related to its central or main idea. This relation
of God to human knowledge will then be looked at through mind as a
communion of Deity with humanity, or God in fellowship {vii} with
concrete man. On this basis the idea of Revelation will be dealt with.
Then, so far as history and philology are concerned, the two Sacred
Books, which are here most significant, will be viewed as the scholar,
who is also a divine, views them; in other words, the Old and New
Testaments, regarded as human documents, will be criticised as a
literature which expresses relations to both the present and the
future; that is, to the men and races who made the books, as well as to
the races and men the books made. The Bible will thus be studied in
the Semitic family which gave it being, and also in the Indo-European
families which gave to it the quality of the life to which they have
attained. But Theology has to do with more than sacred literature; it
has also to do with the thoughts and life its history occasioned.
Therefore the Church has to be studied and presented