CHRISTIAN TRUTH AND CATHOLIC TRADITION." Pro THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPEOTATOR."1 Elm—Your kindly reference in last week's Spectator to my recent letter in the Times on " Christian Truth. and Catholic Tradition" encourages me to ask you for space for a few further reflections on the same subject.
The confusion of truth with tradition lies at the root not merely of most of the difficulties of Churches but also of many of the problems of the world. Some traditions, indeed, in their origin were good. They were the truth aa conceived by man at the time. But traditions, being man-made, are always transient, and never the truth for all time. It is thus with political, social, and scientiflo traditions, as well as with eccle- siastical traditions. They are in their essence particularist and temporary. If suffered to become permanent, they hamper development and retard progress. Physical science could make little progress till it was emancipated from the letters of its obsolete traditions. The real ground, too, of our present hopes of a new era for man's social and industrial life lies in the fact that the Great War has broken in pieces many of our ancient feudal and class traditions, and has substituted ideals of social comradeship and human brotherhood in their stead.
Similarly with ecclesiastical or "catholic" traditions. Until they are modified or abandoned Christian truth can make little progress in the enlightenment and redemption of the world. Of course, the catholic traditionalists affirm, and verily believe, that their traditions are Christian truth. But are they ? I know of only one Court of Appeal to which I can apply for an answer to this question. That Court is the New Testament. I cannot appeal to the Churches for two reasons: (1) because I shall get from them as many different answers as there are Churches; and (2) because I find that on this question of the nature and value of tradition the teachings of the Churches are often in manifest opposition to those of the New Testament. I cannot conceive of anything more anti-catholic, according to the measure of New Testament catholicity, than most "catholic" traditions. If all "catholic" traditions are true, the New Testament is untrue : if the New Testament is true, many " catholic " traditions are false. Why? Among other reasons, because " catholic " traditions are built upon, and owe their continuance to, the spirit of exclusiveness. Brahminism, we know, is essentially a caste and class religion. But Christianity is the antithesis and antagonist of Brah- minism in all its forms. In the New Testament there is not a single trace of the Brahminical spirit, whether in the form of State Kultur, or hierarchic supremacy, or denominational monopolies, or social, caste, or class rivalries. On the contrary, Christ and His Apostles constantly condemn exclusiveness in every form. They founded their Gospel on the two rocks of God's universal Fatherhood and man's universal Brotherhood, The universal love of God for man is the New Testament model for the universal love of man for his fellow-men. The univer- sality of this love is the great revelation of the Christian Gospel and the chief characteristic of Christian truth. Whatsoever is not consistent with universal charity is inconsistent with Christian truth. If the fruits of " catholic " principles are anti-catholic, then we may justly conclude that the principles are anti-catholic also.
Moreover, the basis of tradition is opinion. Its bulwarks are opinion. Its worth is merely that of opinion. Its only appeal is to the :bar of opinion. It cannot appeal to facts. God is every day manifesting by Hie benediction on non- episcopal ministries that such traditions as the in4:spensable need of episcopacy to the existence of the Church, or to the validity of the Sacraments, or to the converting grace of the Gospel, have no foundation in fact, and are nothing more than the opinions of men: often good men, yet only men. Again, it is characteristic of truth to be the same at all times for all
men and in every place. The great verities of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Men bear on their foreheads the clear stamp of this divine immutability. The war has also opened the eyes of the world to see something of their blessedness and their joy. In the forward and resistless tread of these two glorious revelations our God is marching on to the redemption and elevation of mankind. Will the Churches march on with God, or, will they, clogged and *rippled by their particularist principles and their exclusive traditions, be left lagging behind P My earnest hope and confident belief is that, forgetting and forsaking the traditions that an both contrary to the revelation of God and below the ideals of men—tradi- tions which hitherto have made the Word of God of so little effect—the Churches will bravely and loyally follow the Lord Christ in teaching, in season and out of season, that all men are brethren, because sons of the One Father. It will be difficult indeed for the Churches to abandon their "catholic:" traditions and their exclusive claims: because in many respects the Churches are so very human and the Love of God is so vastly broader than the measure of their mind, that they will find it hard to apprehend the exceeding fullness of the length and breadth and depth and height of God's Love for man.
Still, I cannot doubt that in the end and before long the Churches will make a grand move forward. And the more Christlike they grow in their love of both God and men, the more will men flock to their standards in battling for righteous- ness and freedom and truth. These battles will probably be long and very stern, because, although Christian love is the greatest and sweetest of all God's gifts, yet its victories over self-will and exclusiveness can only be won by sacrificial courage and endurance. The most divine of all emblems and proofs of love is the Cross. In their adoration of Crucified Love both Catholic tradition and Christian truth agree.—I am,
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