RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS
Snr,—I do not really think that a discussion of Schweitzer is very rele- vant to a correspondence on Religion in the Schools. But Colonel Mozley has asked me a question. By contrasting my "it" which "was so long ago that one forgets," with (a) the Gospels, which he assumes that I still remember, and (b) the Fathers and Aquinas, about my memory of which he offers no conjecture, Colonel Mozley makes it appear that I think I may have rather forgotten Schweitzer. Far from it. What I meant (and said) was that I could not recall any clerical boycott of his work, and the implication was only that in the course of years I might have forgotten some things about its reception. I also said that he had given us a fresh point of view. We were in fact thrilled by him. I was proud to be introduced to him once by Burkitt in the Backs at Cambridge, as he was on his way to give a Bach Recital in King's Chapel.
Three scraps of evidence occur to me (I quote in every case from memory). Professor von Dobschfitz said, "In the old books about the New Testament eschatology was the last chapter. Now it is the first. This is because Theology is now Historical Theology." Dr. A. C. Headlarn, now Bishop of Gloucester, said, "Apocalyptic is religion." When I returned to Cambridge in 1913 and tried to pick up sonic of the threads which had been rather dropped during a spell of other work, I said to a learned friend, "what do you make of Schweitzer?" He replied, "The chief result is that Harnack's What is Christianity? can now be put behind the fire." This is perhaps enough to demonstrate a sense of Schweitzer's importance. But I still think, as I have always thought, and as he now seems to think himself, that he did not cover all the ground.
To Colonel Mozley's question (though I admit that it is an ex- cessive simplification of the truth to posit as the sole alternative—" Or does teaching demand mere acceptance in place of thought ? ") I should reply as follows: Q. In any agreed syllabus for elder children, would the Dean in- clude Schweitzer's thesis, as well as the traditional teaching?
A. (i) If there were a Syllabus for Teachers which attempted to do justice to the great pioneers in the history of theology—" Yes."
(ii) In a syllabus for children, even for "elder children," I should reply, "Not precisely as it was. The net result of it, a certain way of regarding the New Testament—yes."—Yours faithfully,
Previous page
