Christian Ethics
CANON PETER GREEN has produced a short and simple book on a large and complex subject, which will be of immense use to clergy, teachers, social workers, and, in fact, all men and
women who are liable to be called upon to solve moral pro- blems—either other people's or their own. A clear head, much common sense, a deep sympathy with mankind, and a long
experience of its failings and merits, fit him well for this task rendered specially necessary by the fact that the very basis of ethics, Christian and other, is now called in question, and clergy, and other teachers of, morality are required by the
younger generation not merely to tell them how to be good, but to show any reason why we need try to be good at all. Speculative ethics have therefore, at the moment, a practical importance which in other generations they have hardly possessed. The ever-increasing complexity of life, and the problems in conduct with which it provides us, render more
than ever necessary some solid and coherent body of prin- ciples, which shall govern the behaviour of civilized man :- " The circumstances of the modern world, problems of peace, problems of nationality and of race, problems of colour, economic problems, sex problems, and a thousand others ; new problems due to the bringing together of once distant countries by modern means of transport and of communication, and old problems accentuated by that bringing together—all these things demand an increase in public righteousness. It would seem that mankind must be better, or civilisation will perish."
Canon Green bases his system on that ideal of right living and right adjustment which fulfils all the possibilities of Man's true nature. Not the twisted, stunted, self-interested product
usually called " human nature as it is " ; but a full and un- blemished humanity, a creature with spiritual, social and physical powers and responsibilities, individually a " work of art in the making," socially conditioned by his membership of one or more groups of greater or less complexity on which he depends, and to which he owes service and must adjust his behaviour. The laws of Christian ethics, then, concern a being who is (1) individual, (2) social, (3) a member of volun- tary associations, and (4) a child of God : and are found to involve the application to conduct of seven great principles—
God, Immortality, Personality, Fellowship, Service, Sacrifice, and Function (or Vocation). Right living deepens our hold on these truths, and expresses their implications in action.
All behaviour which is inconsistent with them is self- condemned.
The value of Canon Green's exposition, however, does not abide mainly in its excellent theory, but rather in the steady
and practical application of the theory to the conditions and problems of everyday life. ' It is here that his work will be of the greatest service in clearing the issue for many muddled but well-meaning minds. His excellent chapter on the problems of sex proves that he is neither an opportunist nor a rigorist ; but a humane and experienced moral guide willing to face the facts. He points out the extreme importance of realizing, first, that ethics is a living, growing thing, and some, times lags behind the growing social order within which it must be applied. And next that, partly on this account and partly because of the distortion of circumstance created by our personal and social sins and stupidities, many situations arise for which no really ethical solution is at present possible. Man's sin is stamped on his environment ; " it is past ill-doing,H the past ill-doing of ourselves or of society of which we are' members, which often makes right doing impossible." Indus- trial, social and personal. relationships in the modern world present problems which are insoluble on purely ethical lines ; and in which we can but take the best of two courses, neither of which is really right. And this is inevitable in a sinful and acquisitive society ; for " if what is right for man is identical with what is, in the fullest sense, natural for him, then there can be no really right course of action under utterly unnatural conditions." Canon Green's own illustrations of this truth are excellently chosen ; but most of his readers will be able
to provide many for themselves. .
Finally, what is the ideal of personal rightness put before us by Christian ethics, as that which expresses the true nature of man ? It is, ,says Canon Green, an ideal of self-discipline and surrender, in which he harmonizes and fulfils his double obligation to the worlds of spirit and of sense : an ideal which may seem to us hard to the point of impossibility, but which has again and again been attained in the persons of the Christian saints :-
" The moral man is one who is entire master in the house. of his ,own being.. He will gratify bodily desires, the ' lusts of tho only in the attainment of their prescribed ends. He will taste the fullest joys of living just because he is abstemious to the verge 'of asceticism. He will have sublimated his desire for individual possession till it becomes a desire to serve, and his goods ' will be thosu things which are capable of being enjoyed in common--know- ledge, beauty, friendship, service, God. With respect to material possessions, having food and raiment he will ho therewith content. Anger will be so sublimated and directed as to become a motive force in noble causes.and not an emotional disturbance. All powers of body, mind, and spirit, regarded as an endowment from (Iod for which an account will have to be rendered, will be trained and deve- loped to the utmost, and used in the service of others rather than of self. And the whole personality will be surrendered to, and con- sciously under the direction of, the Holy Spirit."
EVELYN UNDERHILL,
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