panentheism again

tdavis@mcis.messiah.edu
Fri, 28 Feb 97 13:57:00 -0500

As before, George Murphy's replies are very
helpful. Perhaps my blanket condemnation of
panentheism was not appropriate, though I still
think many forms of it I have seen are theologically
dubious, some (as George apparently also believes)
truly unacceptable.

An interesting historical question, which I am
hoping to explore at some point systematically,
is this:

What led to such a radical denial of divine transcendence
on the part of turn-of-the-century people such as Schmucker?
(And, I suspect, Fosdick, who often wrote like Schmucker.)
Was it all the impact of the aggressive naturalism of
the late nineteenth century, as manifested in biblical
criticism as well as some forms of evolution? Or was something
else also at work? I'd be interested to hear the ideas of
anyone familiar with this period.

Ted Davis