[untitled] The Harvard Theological Review, (1915-01-01), pages 145-146

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BOOK REVIEWS 145

the past — for example, to accept the Copernican astronomy — it will
likewise develop so as to become worthy of the confidence of the
world. This will be, not so much because of outward changes, as
because of the absolute necessity in the life of man for the conscious-
ness of the Infinite Life, and because the church will minister more
and more effectively to this profound need. It is rather hard to be-
lieve that if Baron von Hiigel had not been born into the Roman
Communion, he would ever have been able to join it. For he seems
to belong to the noble list of the free spirits who, taking their
religion "at first hand," can hardly bear the yoke of external
authority.

One would like to quote many an eloquent and stirring passage
from this unusual book. It is full of great utterances of religion,
carrying their own weight and evidence. It is also rich in philosophi-
cal criticism, dominated by a faith and a philosophy so high that
smaller and partial philosophies fall into their place as so many
approximate efforts after that which indeed must transcend every
endeavor of the mind of man.

Charles F. Dole.

Jamaica Plain.

Religion and Life. Elwood Worcester, Ph.D. Harper & Brothers.
1914. Pp.264. $1.25.

Dr. Worcester divides into three parts his study of religion — its
relation to the community, to Jesus, and to the individual soul.
Of these the second will perhaps be found most valuable, for it
shows much insight into the history and character of Jesus. Views
of critical scholars, which with them are apt to stop at intellectual
conclusions, Dr. Worcester develops upon their religious side, ex-
hibiting in them food for meditation and growth. Thus the view,
which Schweitzer has emphasized, that Jesus regarded the end
of the world as near at hand, is shown by Dr. Worcester as mould-
ing Jesus' plans and shaping his action. 6 We may indeed question
the author's interpretation of the crime of Judas. This he considers
to have been not the indication to the authorities of the place where
Jesus was to be found ; not the pointing out to them of the individual ;
but the betrayal to them of Jesus' claim to be the Messiah, which
— so he holds — had up to that time been carefully kept secret.

But whether we agree with the author in this or not, we welcome
the clearness with which he connects the remarkable events in
Jesus' career with the laws which govern all life. The majority of

6 P. 121 ff.

146 HARVARD THEOLOGICAL REVIEW

his miracles, for example, he holds to be the same in kind as the cures

which are now regarded as psychical. His resurrection was the

inevitable result of his character; while his appearance after his

resurrection and the many alleged reappearances of men after death,

cast much interpretative light on each other. 6 The book shows

penetration into many situations narrated in the Bible, 7 and into

the ways of character, human and Divine.

Fbedebic Palmer.
Harvard University.

Theodore Thornton Munger: New England Minister. Benjamin
W. Bacon. Yale University Press. 1913. Pp. xxiv, 409. $3.00.

This is a very sumptuous volume. Save for a most excruciating
typographical error on page 115, extending over four lines, and re-
minding the reader of the careless proof-reading of his morning
paper, the publishers have left nothing to be desired. The Press of
the University has done its best to honor its erstwhile Fellow.

And yet it would seem to the reviewer that the book is a little too
sumptuous for the record of a life so unassuming and tender as that
of Dr. Munger. And the pages fit the binding; the style of the
volume is very redundant. Two or three times we are reminded
of the distinction between Congregationalism as a principle and
Congregationalism as a "denomination"; quotations from ad-
dresses or documents are repeated in different chapters, and the
theological situation in New England and American Congregation-
alism, out of which grew the demand for a denominational creed,
is set before us more than once at wearisome length. Indeed, when
we have closed the book, the situation in which Dr. Munger
worked and which he attempted to relieve bulks larger to us than
Dr. Munger himself.

The author, Dr. Bacon of Yale, is a very busy man and a most
prolific writer, and the biography is to him evidently as much a
labor of love as the sketch that Dr. Munger wrote of his father-in-
law. We should not perhaps, therefore, apply to it the ordinary
canons of criticism. But we cannot refrain from wishing that the
book followed a less obvious outline and was less hurriedly written.
Immediately after the preface we have a three-page chronology
of the dates of Dr. Munger's life, and the book follows the chrono-
logical record quite closely. But the chronology has but little
interest aside from the circle of Dr. Munger's closest friends;

« P. 158.

7 The surprises of the hereafter, p. 45; Moses, p. 48 f.; Naaman, p. 222 f .