" All society is organic, — the church, the state,
the school, the family ; and there is a spirit in each
of these organisms, peculiar to itself, and more
or less hostile, more or less favorable to religious
character, and to some extent, at least, sovereign
over the individual man. . . . The child is only



80 HORACE BUSHNELL

more within the power of organic laws than we all
are. We possess only a mixed individuality all our
life long. A pure, separate, individual man, living
wJiolly within, and from himself, is a mere fiction.
I need not say that this view of an organic con-
nection of character subsisting between parent
and child lays a basis for notions of Christian
education, far different from those which now pre-
vail, under the cover of a merely fictitious and
mischievous individualism " (p. 30).
" Something has undoubtedly been gained to mod-
ern theology, as a human science, by fixing the atten-
tion strongly upon the individual man, as a moral
agent, immediately related to God, and responsible
only for his own actions ; at the same time there
was a truth, an important truth, underlying the
old doctrine of federal headship and original or im-
puted sin, though strangely misconceived, which we
seem, in our one-sided speculations, to have quite
lost sight of. And how can we ever attain to any
right conception of organic duties, until we dis-
cover the reality of organic powers and relations ?
And how can we hope to set ourselves in harmony
with the Scriptures, in regard to family nurture,
or household baptism, or any other kindred sub-
ject, while our theories exclude, or overlook, pre-
cisely that which is the base of their teachings and
appointments?" (p. 39).
