Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 75:299 (Jul 1918)
Article: The Divine Immanence
Author: David Foster Estes

BSac 75:299 (July 1918) p. 399

The Divine Immanence*

David Foster Estes

That within a generation there has been in religious thought and teaching a remarkable renascence of the conception of the Divine immanence can scarcely be questioned by any one, whether he is sympathetic with the fact or antipathetic.1 It is to be recognized that this movement has a philosophical basis, that many hold the truth of the immanence of God on the ground of careful reasoning, and present it in their teaching thoughtfully and helpfully. On the other hand, it is to be feared that the notion of immanence as held by many is completely covered by two sentences, “There is a spark of the divine in every man,” and

“Closer is He than breathing,
And nearer than hands and feet”;

while underneath the repetition of these sentences may lie very variant conceptions from a mere conviction that “Spirit

*Copyright, 1918, D. F. Estes

BSac 75:299 (July 1918) p. 400

with spirit can meet,” and that “in him we live, and move, and have our being,” to pantheistic notions scarcely distinguishable from Campbell’s “God in man is God as man” and Mrs. Eddy’s “All is God, God is all.” It is important to bear in mind the cautious reminder of Dr. W. N. Clarke, who says that the word “immanence”

“savours of philosophy rather than of religion, for in this use it is distinctly a modern term, and has not yet had time to win its religious associations. Moreover, it is not without ambiguity, it seems to promise more of definiteness than it really brings to the subject, and in actual usage it has often brought a suggestion of pantheism.”2

It may be well to take into account, at the very beginning of this discussion, that, so far as religion is concerned, its values are not necessarily affected by changes in the philosophical theories which are currently prevalent. So far as religious values are involved, it is very possible that the truth of the divine omnipresence was earlier presented by many preachers in such a way as to convey all the moral impressiveness now found in the philosophical conception of imma-

BSac 75:299 (July 1918) p. 401

nence, later perhaps to be found in some other philosophical conception: that from the thought of omnipresence men formerly drew as much confidence of God’s nearness, as much sense of his power of providential helpfulness, as much assurance of comfort, as much conviction of responsibility to a constantly present God, as any, or at any rate many, nowadays draw from the thought ...