God and History

The new understanding of history, developed in the 19th century, created a number of difficulties for Christian theology. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the attempts of a variety of British theologians to deal with these difficulties.

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It is well known that the scientific discoveries of the nineteenth century posed problems for Christian theology. Less well known is the fact that the new understanding of history, developed in the same period, also created a number of difficulties. The realization that Christianity possessed a history of its own, and had changed and developed, raised numerous important questions for theologians and Christians alike.

Newman's revised Essay on the Development of Doctrine provides the starting-point for this new and comprehensive survey, in which Peter Hinchliff discusses the ideas of a wide range of theologians from the full spectrum of British Christianity - from Roman Catholics through to theologians from the Churches of England and Scotland, and the Free Church - and their attempts to tackle these questions in the period leading up to the Great War. He proves that this hitherto little studied period in the development of theology is in fact an area of considerable interest and pertinence to historians as much as theologians.