What did Patton say are the two alternatives facing Christianity?
The quoted Princeton president said Christianity faces two alternatives: it must go back, back, back to an incarnate Christ and the atoning blood, or it will go on, on, and on to atheism and despair. The only hope is rehabilitating Pauline theology.
Les explains that he had previously paraphrased this quote but now reads it word for word for the television audience. He identifies the speaker as Francis L. Patton, president of Princeton University from 1888 to 1902, when Princeton was still a bulwark of conservative Christianity, unlike a Princeton president today. Patton’s two alternatives are either returning to an incarnate Christ and the atoning blood, or progressing onward to atheism and despair. The only hope of Christianity, Patton said, is in the rehabilitating of the Pauline theology. This fits the surrounding discussion that the Jew remains God’s chosen people, spiritually blinded yet not given up on.