few centuries, so far as they were not occupied in struggling
against the eclipse of civilisation which began in the fifth century,
were occupied in working out the implications of these syntheses. The
results were codified in Catholic theology and in the civil and canon
law of the early Middle Ages. But one more step remained; after nearly
a thousand years Aristotle was rediscovered, and the final achievement
of Christian theology was the synthesis effected by St. Thomas Aquinas
between the Christian theology and the philosophy of Aristotle.

It is a great record of great achievement, for no one who studies the
history of religions with any degree of sympathetic insight can doubt
but that each synthesis was a real step in progress towards that
unification of aspiration with knowledge which {11} it is the task of
theologians to bring about, and to express as clearly as they may.

Many centuries have passed since the time of St. Thomas Aquinas; and
the element of tragedy in the study of the history of religions for the
Christian theologian is that he is forced to admit that never again has
there been a time when the unification of aspiration and knowledge has
been so completely realised by organised Christianity. It was not long
after this time that epoch-making changes were made, first in the
domain of astronomy and afterwards in other sciences. They have
revolutionised human knowledge. Nor have human aspirations stayed
where they were. The ideal of justice which men see to-day is
different and assuredly better than that of a thousand years ago. It
extends beyond the sphere of the law-courts to every branch of human
life. But the doctrines of the Church remain formulated according to
the knowledge and aspirations of the past. The divergence between
knowledge and theological statement has become more and more obvious
every year. There has been no synthetic progress in theology since the
time of St. Thomas Aquinas,[3] for it is impossible for the student of
history to feel that the Reformation can be regarded as a synthesis.
Indeed it seems ominously like the first step in that disintegration
which has always been {12} the last stage in the story of each
religion. It is absolutely certain that the world will once again some
day achieve what it has often had and often lost--the closer
approximation of knowledge and aspiration--so that its religious system
may satisfy the soul of the saint without disgusting the