MODERNISM
In following the course of religious thought in Holland during the nineteenth century, we come now to what may be described as the dominant school of thought in the third quarter of the century. I refer to Modernism in its earlier phase, which must be distinguished from the Ethical Modernism that succeeded it. The period during which Modernisn, in this earlier form, flourished, was a comparatively brief one. We may date its rise as a school about 1860, or a few years earlier, and by the middle of the second half of the century its strength was well-nigh spent. It was a period of much theological activity in Holland. It witnessed the rise, with Tiele, of what Max Müller was fond of calling, with a kind of fatherly interest, "our young science"—the science of comparative religion. Kuenen's epoch-making work in Old Testament criticism began, and most of it was carried out, during this period.
133
