wrote this evangel of modernist Protestantism--and
thereby much of the meaning of what he said--is more
purely revealed in the Soliloquies of a year later. ²

The history of Schleiermacher's family is linked
with three distinct episodes in the development of lib-
eral Protestantism, each of which has produced a
characteristic strain of thought and feeling in pursuit
of a characteristic kind of liberation. ³ The first strain
is that common initially to the Quakers and Pietists,
then to Wesleyanism, and evangelicalism generally. It
is essentially bent on inner moral regeneration, often
strongly tinged with elements of mystical exaltation.
It is supernaturalistic at first hand or by original con-
viction. Its liberalism consists in its freedom from
ecclesiastical forms, and its reliance upon the individ-
ual's experience. It was evoked essentially by the
ecclesiastical formalism of the seventeenth century,
by sectarian strife and those last fearful struggles over
the dead body of mediaeval Christendom, that raged
in Central Europe from 1618 to 1648. Above the
degradation and turmoil of those years there came
once more to certain sensitive souls a pure vision of
Christ, still beckoning to all men as a companion in
a simple but adequate brotherhood of charity. For
these idealists the immediate communion with Christ
was the supreme reality of life. One might walk and
talk with Him in the fields around Bristol or in the

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