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The Fundamentals. SECOND FALLACY: THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION AP PLIED TO LITERATURE AND RELIGION. II. A second fundamental fallacy of the higher criticism is its dependence on the theory of evolution as the explanation of the history of literature and of religion. The progress of the higher criticism towards its present state has been rapid and assured since Vatke1discovered in the Hegelian philosophy of evolution a means of biblical criticism. The Spencerian philosophy of evolution, aided and reinforced by Darwin ism, has added greatly to the confidence of the higher critics. As Vatke, one of the earlier members of the school, made the hypothesis of evolution the guiding presupposition of his crit ical work, so today does Professor Jordán,2 the very latest rep resentative of the higher criticism. “The nineteenth century,” he declares, has applied to the history of the documents of the Hebrew people its own magic word, evolution. The thought represented by that popular word has been found to have a real meaning in our investigations regarding the relig ious life and the theological beliefs of Israel.” Thus, were there no hypothesis of evolution, there would be no higher criticism. The “assured results” of the higher criticism have been gained, after all, not by an inductive study of the biblical books to ascertain if they present a great variety of styles and vocabularies and religious points of view. They have been attained by assuming that the hypothesis of evolution is true, and that the religion of Israel must have unfolded itself by a process of natural evolution. They have been attained by an interested cross-examination of the biblical books to con strain them to admit the hypothesis of evolution. The imag ination has played a large part in the process, and the so-called evidences upon which the “assured results” rest are largely imaginary. But the hypothesis of evolution, when applied to the his- 1“Die Biblische Theologie Wissenschaftlich Dargestellt.” 2“Biblical Criticism and Modern Thought,” T. and T. Clark, 1909.
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