great apologetic classics, like
Butler, are hopelessly out of date. The modern apologist must do
ephemeral work--unless it should chance that he proves to be the
skirmisher, pioneering for a modified dogmatic. He holds a watching
brief. While he must beware of hasty speech, he has often to plead that
new knowledge does not really threaten faith; or that it is not
genuinely established knowledge at all; or else, that faith has mistaken
its own grounds, and will gain strength by concentrating on its true
field. The work is not always well done; but the Christian church needs
it.

1. _Apologetics and Philosophy._--The main part of this subject is
discussed under THEISM. Some notes may be added on special points, (a)
Freewill is generally assumed on the Christian side (R.C. Church;
Scottish philosophy; H. Lotze; J. Martineau; W.G. Ward. Not in a
libertarian sense; Leibnitz. New and obscure issues raised by Kant). But
there is no continuous tradition or steady trend of discussion. (b)
Personal immortality is affirmed as philosophically certain by the
Church of Rome and many Protestant writers. Others teach "conditional
immortality." Others base the hope on belief in the resurrection of
Christ, (c) Theodicy--the tradition of Leibnitz is preserved (on
libertarian lines) by Martineau (_A Study of Religion_, 1883). See also
F.R. Tennant's _Origin and Propagation of Sin_ (1902)--sin a
"bye-product" of a generally good evolution. Others find in the gospel
of redemption the true theodicy. (d) The problem of Christian apologetic
has been simplified in the past by the prevalence of the Christian
ethics and temper even among many non-Christians (e.g. J.S. Mill). But
hereafter it may not prove possible for the apologist to assume as
unchallenged the Christian moral outlook. Germans have suspected an
anti-Christian strain in Goethe; all the world knows of it in E. von
Hartmann or F. Nietzsche.

2. _Apologetics and Physical Science._--(a) Copernicanism has won its
battles and the Church of Rome would fain have its error forgotten. The
admission is now general that the Bible cannot be expected to use the
language of scientific astronomy. Still, it is not certain that the
shock of Copernicanism on supernatural Christianity is exhausted. (b)
Geology has also won its battles, and few now try to harmonize it with
Genesis. (c) Evolution came down from the clouds when C. Darwin and A.R.
Wallace succeeded in displacing the naif conception of