Post-Kantian Historicism as American Theology

Extract

I am grateful for this rich and sumptuously detailed book by Elizabeth A. Clark on a neglected subject. Her splendid book is a reminder that although the early twentieth-century liberal and modernist scholars of early Christian history are largely forgotten—and tend to be derided when remembered—they strove with integrity and intelligence to be good historicists. I appreciate that the liberals of this period wanted Christianity to play a constructive role in society and tried to secure a place in the academy for the study of early Christian history. Still, they believed so intently in the superiority of their white middle-class culture that they could not see this belief as a form of prejudice.