VII DEVELOPMENT IN THEOLOGY T HE writer of these pages is quite aware that there are some churchmen who while thor oughly sympathetic with the general aim and purpose of this work, will nevertheless criticize him for basing his argument so strongly upon the position assumed by the Anglican Reformers, and not refuting the "Catholic" theory by direct appeal to the results of modern scholarship which are in themselves amply sufficient to overthrow the mediavalism of that party. To all such criticism he replies by saying that the object of this essay was not to discuss the abstract problems relating to the origin of the present day dogmas and institutions of the Christian Faith, nor would the portrayal of the actual results of such research, however damaging to the "Catholic" hypothesis, be of any practical benefit in the present issue if considered in and by themselves alone, and not in relation to the views of the Anglican Reformers. In short, we are face to face with a purely practical problem, a proposed act of legislation which threatens to overthrow the existing official position of this Church. We are not primarily concerned with the general question as to whether the official position of this Church can be regarded as correct or incorrect, in the light of recent criticism, but only with the particular question here and now confronting us, as to whether a certain proposed act of legislation can be carried out without abandoning the foundation principles upon which this Church has been established. It is a question of Constitutional Law, not of general scientific or theological fact. We have merely set out to prove that it is absolutely impossible for any one to assume that the theological position taken by the Anglican Reformers and incorporated into the Articles and other formularies of the Church of England is not the present official position of that communion as well as of this Protestant Episcopal Church, that the doctrinal position of the "Catholic" party is not absolutely incompatible therewith, and that the present proposition to change the name of this Church to The American Catholic Church does not necessarily mean the entire abandonment of the official and historic position of this Church. Having accomplished this task, we feel that our work is ended and all essentials of our argument complete. But while we have proved our case, so far as the real issue now before the Church is concerned, it may not be amiss to make a few remarks, in conclusion, in regard to the general position occupied by the Anglican Reformers in the history of Christian Theology. There need be no fear in the minds of any that the position of the Anglican Reformers can ever be logically regarded as obsolete. That they were in any sense infallible, or that their theological conclusions must be regarded by us as final it would be folly to assume, but that they do represent a stage, a most important stage, in the true, normal development of theological doctrine can never be forgotten or ignored without simultaneously denying our own doctrinal continuity with the primitive Apostolic Church. This, we may add, is the only Succession really necessary to render any Church a true, historic branch of the original Catholic Church. We do not hesitate to take advantage of this occasion, therefore, to say here, incidentally, that the results obtained by certain Modernists of the present day in applying the scientific theory of Development in the domain of Theology, are as foreign to the idea or "logos" of the original germ of Christian Revelation as are the corresponding results obtained by "Catholics" and Roman theologians. In truth, it is a most significant fact, and one most comforting and reassuring to all members of the Anglican Communion, that it can be shown most conclusively that the truest, sanest, and most normal development of the original germs of Revelation has undoubtedly taken place through the Anglican Communion, and that while the position assumed by the Reformers of the Church of England was necessarily incomplete, and far from infallible, it was nevertheless a normal stage in the history of theological development, which can never be forgotten or eliminated without simultaneously annihilating our historic, doctrinal continuity with the Church of the Apostolic Age. The truth is that many of those who are |