Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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spectrum. He is there, not because he views li ghtly the
plight of natural man, but because he sees God's
objective action as already having solved man's problem.
With Harry Emerson Fosdick and Karl Rahner, we move
to the left on the spectrum. They believed that God has
given man an infinite potential. God uses preaching, not
to help man avoid negative consequences, but to assist
him in reaching forward toward that potential.
"Jesus' attitude toward human personality can be
briefly described as always seeing people in terms of
their possibilities." 1 '.' So wrote Harry Emerson
Fosdick. Fosdick began his own evaluation of humanity
based on the example he saw in the mind of Christ. "His
[Jesus'] estimate of human personality. its divine
origin, its spiritual nature, its supreme value. its
boundless possibilities, has been rightly called his most
original contribution to human thought." 17 Fosdick
never stated a belief in inevitable progress, le but
was, without doubt. a firm idealist. "The divinity of
Jesus differs from ours [all mankind's] in degree,
indeed, but not in kind."15'
Man frequently acts against God's will by not
following Jesus' example. Preaching presents Jesus as
the model, in order that people might see their errors
and turn toward the right. "Preaching is an opportunity
so to mediate a knowled ge of God and the saving power of
Christ that lives can be transformed." 2° The
transformation salvation brings, however, is not