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.

中文翻译：

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作为美国神学的后康德历史主义

我很感激伊丽莎白 A. 克拉克写的这本关于一个被忽视的主题的丰富而详尽的书。她的精彩著作提醒人们，尽管 20 世纪早期的早期基督教历史的自由主义和现代主义学者在很大程度上被遗忘了——而且当被记住时往往会被嘲笑——但他们以正直和智慧努力成为优秀的历史学家。我很欣赏这一时期的自由主义者希望基督教在社会中发挥建设性作用，并试图在学院中获得一个研究早期基督教历史的位置。尽管如此，他们仍然坚信白人中产阶级文化的优越性，以至于他们无法将这种信念视为一种偏见。