e date of the great change was simply postponed
indefinitely. But the problem which the growth of modern science
caused could not be met so easily. The conflict was stern, and it was
only after defeat stared her in the face that Christianity tried to
adapt herself to the new view of the world.

Were this adaptation possible simply by giving up the mythical elements
in the bible and in the traditional theology, there can be no doubt
that it would be accomplished. Many protestant denominations have
practically gone thus far. There is reason to believe that, sooner or
later, the doctrine of the virgin-birth, with its only too evident
dependence upon classic mythology and its obvious violation of
biological facts, will be resigned and Jesus acknowledged to have been
born as all men are. We moderns see no shame in such biological facts.
Since historical criticism and biology point in the same direction,
there can hardly be a doubt as to the outcome. However reluctantly,
Christianity must yield to knowledge.

Even after Christianity has surrendered her mythical envelope and
resigned herself to the less dramatic and pictorial account of the
beginning and end of things, {109} taught by modern science, she is not
secure. The struggle has only passed from the outer works of religion
to its very citadel. To yield the nonessentials, which were the
wrappings of its early manhood, to this stern seeker after knowledge,
in the hope of a treaty of peace, will only lead to disappointment.
Because of her worship of the book, Christianity has set too high a
value upon beliefs which were simply doomed to destruction. Hence she
has no right to look upon her surrender of these beliefs as an act of
great merit. It is simply a preliminary step to the basic conflict
between science and religion. The question which confronts the human
mind at the present time concerns the problem of the harmony or
disharmony of the views of the world essentially connected with
religion and science respectively. Before this fundamental problem,
these minor conflicts which have occupied so much attention shrink into
insignificance. This problem involves the character of the agencies at
work in the universe. Can science admit the reality of a special
providence at work in the world? Let us see to what issues this
problem leads.

{110}

CHAPTER IX

THE LIMITS OF PERSONAL AGENCY

Religion was born from need wedded to ignorance. But needs