BRITAIN, FRANCE AND CULTURE
Snt,—Surely the difference between French and English culture lies far less in the extent of their diffusion than in the nature of the beasts. English culture is essentially " dilettante " in character. An extraordinarily large proportion of it consists in being able to discuss the musical value of such word-combinations as "Which She Sits." Frenchmen are far more given to adopting definite and connected views of life, and then appending thereto such literary fancies as they may happen to have. Frenchmen have creeds, and creeds which demand action; Englishmen fiddle about with the difference, especially the etymological difference, between " doctrine " and "dogma."
Although I am quite convinced that others can bring abundant testimony to this difference from elsewhere, one notices it very definitely in my own field, that of theology. The average English parson can talk to you very competently about literature, philosophy, horticulture and whatnot, but as for theology, he hasn't even a clear idea of just what the subject is, and what is its place among the sciences as a whole. In France, however, even laymen—be they Catholic, Protestant or free thinking—know thoroughly well how to express themselves on theological subjects. At the World Conference of Christian Youth at Amsterdam last year the French delegates mostly discussed Karl Borth; while the English ones seldom got beyond your worthy contributor Dorothy L. Sayers.
The same dilettantism in this field is reflected in the curricula of the theological colleges of the Church of England, many of which do not include systematic theology at all, the nearest they come to it being a semi-historical study of the Thirty-nine Articles. The actual books written convey exactly the same reflection. England has contributed excellent work to the outlying parts of theological learning—Biblical criticism, the philosophy of religion, aids to de- votion, and the like—but at the centre, where systematic theology ought to be, there is a blank. On the other hand, the greatest syste- matic theologian of Protestantism, John Calvin, was a Frenchman.
This contention that English culture is frivolous while French is serious may not seem to square with the fact that Englishmen tend to be stodgy while Frenchmen tend to be gay; but such an objection can only be raised by people who have not yet learned that frivolity is the stodgiest thing in the world. It takes a well-organised mind
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