Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Problems of Old Testament Discussion
In American circles also this controversy has attracted more attention than had been given to the contests of European critics heretofore. The ups and downs of advanced criticism in Europe had scarcely been even reportcd to the American public. It was not the Robertson Smith case alone that made this debate a burning question for America also, although this was the outward occasion for the outbreak of the controversy in our midst also. The theology of Germany has for decades back become a more and more potent factor in the formation of theological thought in America; nor has it always, or even generally been the best of German theology, older or modern, which has exercised this power. A large number of the younger-american teachers of theology have been Sitting at the feet of the famous professors in the German Universities, and brought over with them from - the Fatherland both the good and the bad. While it is a matter of congratulation that so many young Americans seek the impetus and encouragement given them by the German schools, it is to deplored that so many go there unprepared and not sufficiently ripe in heart and mind to be able to prove all things and keep that which is good; nor do they as a rule, stay long enough to understand even the theological tendencies in Germany. It is to some extent owing to this that the Old Testament discussions in our midst have assumed a more or less crude and fragmentary Shape. On the other hand, it must be stated that a great deal of the controversy against Old Testament criticism is born of ignorance and blind zeal. Especially does the religious press often consider it its privilege to condemn before it has gone to the trouble of examining into the merits of the cause it criticises. Then what has not been brought over from Germany by young students has been scattered by the translations of German works. It is true that the majority of these works represent either the confessional school or the more orthodox of the mediating theo logians, yet the radical critics also have found translators and readers. These and Similar causes have united to bring prob lems to our doors of which otherwise we might have only heard vague rumors. But as they are here, and have come to stay.
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