At a moment when attention is being specially directed to
the need for a sound understanding of the intellectual basis of Christian belief, the Archbishop of Armagh's new volume, The Christian Outlook in the Modern World (Hodder and Stoughton, 6s.) will find many appreciative readers. Address- ing himself to the normal man and not to the theological specialist; Dr. D'Arcy here considers some of our chief human
problems from the point of view of an enlightened Christian theist, who is conversant with the chief findings of physical science and fully aware of the difficulty of reconciling traditional doctrine and contemporary thought. Though not all his proofs would withstand the battering-rams of Mr. Aldous Huxley or Mr. Bertrand Russell, and some of his chapters cover familiar ground, the Archbishop has much to say that is of great value. Moreover, he writes a clear and vigorous English, avoiding dogmatic language ; and out of his wide knowledge of literature and art brings many striking images to illustrate his arguments. In his excellent chapters on " Man and the World " and " The Order of Creation " he exposes numerous weak spots in the armour of secularism ; and invests the evolutionary doctrine of man's origin with a spiritual beauty when he confesses that " the realization that every living thing is a blood-relation has been to him a source of intense joy."
* * * *
Previous page
