More Affirmations
The Inner Light. By G. K. Hibbert Sectarianism. By
Dr. T. E. Lacey.—The Grey Dawn of Religion. By Dr. W. Morgan.—Faith and Reason. By R. G. Collingwood. —The Place of Sex in Life. By T. W. Pym.—Journal- ism. By H. Wickham Steed. (Ernest Bonn. Is. each.)
THE admirable series of essays on " God in the Modern World " pursues its individual way. The whole object of the series is to extract positive statements of belief, and the latest batch are more successful in this respect than some of the earlier examples.
The most positive and the most attractive to the ordinary reader is Mr. G. K. Hibbert's exposition of the Quaker ..tandpoint. He finds the essential element of the Quaker faith well stated by Dr. Inge—" at the core of our personality is a spark lighted at the altar of God in heaven." That faith holds a strong position in relation to the thought that has been so profoundly influenced by the stern criticism of Descartes. It begins with the known ; it does not appeal primarily to history or to law or to the deliverances of any external authority, scientific or ecclesiastical. It begins with the thinking, reasoning self of which every man is aware. Starting from that it is able to build up a religious outlook
that seems very congenial to the modern temper. This is noticeably true in that the Quaker tradition leans towards a passive doctrine of prayer, while the exclusion of sacraments from the necessities of religion avoids many difficult problems. But there are two weaknesses from the empirical standpoint. The Quaker does not merely begin with the self that thinks.
He starts straightaway with a terrific dogma about it, the dogma laid down in Dr. Inge's words above. And having cut off all history and institutional religion, this dogma seems to stand in an irrational isolation, which makes its dogmatic starkness almost alarming. But Mr. Hibbert is not unaware of these difficulties, and his Quakerism is not fanatical. He realizes the necessity of calling in " the ' mass-judgment' of the community—and especially of the noblest part of the community—to check the vagaries of the individual judgment."
Canon Lacey is at the opposite pole. his task is to defend institutional religion, and this he does by a bold and ingenious defence of sectarianism. Properly understood it is essential to Christianity. A sect consists of those who follow a leader.
Stap4ing broadly as a Christian, I belong to a sect ; I am a follower of Jesus Christ in a world, which generally respects
him, but in great part refuses to accept him as Lord and Master." This following implies membership. The Christian Church, Dr. Lacey contends, is " the whole people of God spread throughout the world which commonly acknowledges Jesus the Son of God as Christ and Lord." He develops the theme that full membership in that people means sharing the organic life of the historic Church. But no one who grasps the content of Dr. Lacey's thought will fail to see that institutional religion of the most definite kind is compatible with the largest and most generous views.
Mr. Collingwood brings the mind of an Oxford philosopher to bear on the relation of faith and reason. His sketch of the failure of the attempt to delimit the spheres is cogent. It only leads the advocates of faith into an irredenta which science will ultimately redeem. Reason must deal, not with some of the facts, but with all. Reason deals with the details.
Faith is an attitude to the whole. Each is necessary to the other. The weakness of his argument is a tendency to over- look the moral struggle in an attempt to obtain a tidy intel- lectual system. Dr. Morgan also regards religion as primarily an attitude to the world as a whole. But he recognizes that awe and dependence are fundamental elements in that atti- tude, though he finds few traces of it in his extensive study of primitive religion. He holds firmly to the orthodox view that in religion there has been a steady progress from lower to higher.
Mr. Pym's essay will have the widest appeal, because it deals with that moral and practical side of religion which contains the real difficulties. His handling of sex is one of the best efforts of the kind that has appeared for some time. It is a fine exposition of a view that is at once Christian and
scientific. Mr. Pym is too much of a realist to forget that his whole argument depends upon the capacity of thf soul for God. Mr. Wickham Steed writes well and wisely of Journal- ism. He pays tribute to the genius of the late Lord North- cliffe and suggests that the journalism of the future will depend on some new master of crowd psychology, able to gauge the popular taste of this mechanized age as Northcliffe was able to divine the wants of the " Board School " public of the 'nineties. But Mr. Wickham Steed does more than indulge in prophecy : his book is a valuable conspectus of the duties, difficulties, and responsibilities of the modern editor.
It is difficult to extract a common mind from this chance group of writers. But they are at one in thinking that religion is supremely important, and that it demands the utmost honesty.
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