Christianity and Modern Conditions
Tax application of- the principles of Christianity to social, industrial, and even international relations is receiving par- ticular and detailed attention at the present day. The causes for this copious and sometimes reiterative discussion of problems which, like the poor, are always with us, seem to be twofold. The Founder of Christianity declared their solution to be, at one and the same time, an imperative necessity for the conscience, and yet, with the world as it is and, He said, as it will be, a practical impossibility. But special circum- stances bring what on the Continent is called Chiliasm—the fashioning of Utopias—to the forefront of thought and states- manship over and over again.
In our own day there is the aftermath of the War, pro- gressively revealing itself in more and more appalling colours. If the social organism in process of restoration was to be Christian, the Christian mind is uneasily conscious that its own faith and discipline and practice were in no small measure responsible for the breakdown that occurred. The house divided against itself need not fall, if its inmates are aware of the peril and reproach of disunion, but at least they cannot throw stones, since the lack of cohesion within a Faith which was once the great unitive force of the world had its share in the general catastrophe. Hence the anxious searching, within the Churches, for common grounds of agreement ; and though, in this direction, nothing at present very practical seems to have taken place, the spirit of amity has replaced that of ancient rivalry, avenues of converging thought and joint action are being explored, and the dawn of a great hope is luminous on the horizon.
On the official side, The Stockholm Conference, 1925, edited
by the Dean of Canterbury, represents this effort towards unity. It is the Report of the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work held during August of last year, and attended by representatives from the Anglican and Orthodox Churches, the Church of Ireland, the- Reformed Continental Churches, the Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational and Baptist Churches, the Society of Friends, the Salvation Army, Toe H, and other international associations. It is a tightly packed— indeed overloaded—book.
-But, even after discounting the fact that the Roinan Catholic Church was not represented, the Conference itself, with its free interchange of experience and views, was a fact of the highest significance. We can but indicate the leading subjects debated : the Purpose of God, Industrial problems, Unemploy- ment, Housing, Youth, the relation of the Sexes, Alcohol and Legislation, International Relations, Federative Efforts among the Churches.
Christianity and the Present Moral Unrest enlists within its QOvers a notable list of contributors who, more informally,. approach some of the same themes. The papers, written, amongst others, by the Master of Balliol, Professors Muirhead, Arthur Thomson, C. C. J. Webb, the Bishop of Manchester, and Canon Quick, are a direct outcome of a " Copec " Conference. 1)r. Muirhead thinks that the Victorian Age of crude specula-. Lion has changed to an age of crude experimentation. Much of this experiment is in the direction of more supposed freedom for the personality, and that in a material sense which speaks of disillusionment about ideals, not least social ideals.
. The old confidence in progress seems to have departed, too ; and in its place self-assertiveness, the zest to secure the individual best out of dubious circumstances, holds the field. The object of the writers of this book—a very inspiring one, it may at once be said—is to show that the personality cannot exist apart from its environment, that progress, if not an axiomatic law that could take care of itself, is yet an inde- structible instinct of human nature, and that the underlying demand, despite appearances, is still for social service. No essays. in the volume are more arresting than those which deal with conflicting standards and obligations, with ethics and economics, with the family, and with the evolutionist and biological view of life. The true relations of the Christian ethic to modern thought and society are outlined ; and,. in Spite of reverse criticism, the conclusion is maintained that there can be no radical conflict between good science and Sound religion, so long as each, being incommensurable with the other, minds its own business.
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