Christian Unity : Its History and Challenge, by the Rev.
Gains Jackson Slosser, Ph.D. (Kegan Paul, 21s.), is the latest testi- mony to humanity's age-long striving to realize the great ideal of the Founder of Christianity. Its value lies particularly in its historical record, which, as the Archbishop of York affirms in his introduction, is distinguished by thoroughness and completeness. No effort, from the early Councils of the Church to the latest Lambeth, Australian, and Jerusalem Missionary Conferences, is left without full and fair analysis. A feeling of disappointment, however, inevitable, yet none the less acute—comes over the student as he turns over these crowded pages. Since the quarrel between East and West, since the further rupture and fissures caused by the Reforms- - tion, so much has been attempted to attain what should belong to the very fundamentals of the faith, and yet the goal seems almost as far away as ever. The photographs of the assembled delegates at Lausanne, Stockholm , and Jerusalem do not cheer us much. That everyone is in earnest is certain, and yet—is not the very work towards unity in danger of becoming one of the stock-in-trade efforts of the Christian world, or a large part of it ? An opportunity for fellowship and the widening of outlook to those who participate, doubtless ; but is there that tense feeling of anxiety which there should be in a matter that is one of life or death to the Church Universal ? Still, we believe that this volume twill foster such a feeling, and so we commend it.
Previous page
