An Archbishop on Our Times
In an Age of Revolution. By Cyril Garbett, Archbishop of York. (Hodder and Stoughton. 20s.) In an Age of Revolution. By Cyril Garbett, Archbishop of York. (Hodder and Stoughton. 20s.) DR. GARBETT, who must be the most travelled Archbishop in English history, has made some of his most formidable journeys when already past the age of seventy. The years have not sapped his energy nor dulled his powers of observation ; and wherever he has journeyed-- in Europe, in the United States, in Russia, in Australia, in Malaya —he has brought a keen eye and a fresh mind to the troubles of the times. His latest book is not about his travels, although these are in the background of all that he writes. He sees the whole world passing through an age of revolution. What will be the end of it he does not care to prophesy, though in some passages his expectation seems to be of an imminent catastrophe, in which the human race destroys its civilisation and itself. He has a good deal to say in explanation of how the world has reached this perilous point. There have been two great wars ; there has been social and political upheaval ; and, as a man of left-wing sympathies, the Archbishop does not spare the record of capitalism, particularly in the nineteenth century, or indeed that of his own. Church which, as he points out, missed a great opportunity, in the Industrial Revolution, when it lost most of its contact with the working people of the land.
As fatal as any calamity, in the Archbishop's view, has been Western. Europe's error in supposing that it could jettison Christian doctrine while retaining the Christian ethic. The point has been made before, but the Archbishop developS it with skill and force. The result, he insists, has been a breakdown of moral restraints and a tragic weakening of the defences of the West against the shock attacks of new and subversive creeds : " The moral chaos of our time is the natural result of the rejection of God." Of the creeds which are creating the chaos, by far the most dangerous is Communism. The Archbishop is careful to give the devil his due— and no mere. His account of Marxism is studiously fair. He has visited the U.S.S.R., and allows its social achievements, although he suffered from the usual handicap of the visitor=that he sees what is good and as a rule can only read about what is bad. Any good, the Archbishop points out, is nullified by a denial of justice and freedom that proceeds from the materialist philosophy on which the whole Marxian system is founded. Since many people still believe in the Possibility of a reconciliation between some kind of Marxian Com- munism and some kind of Christianity, the Archbishop wisely repeats the now familiar arguments for their mutual incompatibility. •
Two-thirds of the book are an analysis of the present situation, on which the Archbishop may have nothing very new to say, though he says it with clarity, simplicity and moderation. In the last eighty Pages he deals with the Christian counter-attack ; and these, it must be owned, which should be the most important part of the book, are a little disappointing. He has given so daunting a picture of the strength, the energy, the enthusiasm and the tremendous resources of the enemy that the reader's expectations are perhaps pitched too high. The Gospel, Dr. Garbett tells him, must be preached with renewed vigour as the Good News it should always be. The West must be re-evangelised. The. Churches must make a more intelligent use of such devices as radio and the cinema. The Archbishop points out that in a number of ways, so unobtrusive as often to escape the notice of the general public, the Church of England has been re- ordering its household. But any disappointment that may be felt over this mustering of Christian resources is probably unreasonable. Or course the Archbishop is right. There is no abracadabra or Open Sesame which will suddenly discover new militant forces in Christianity. Its followers will only match the fervour of their adversaries through a moral revolution within themselves. No doubt the Churches can do much ; but the decision is with the Christian man and woman.
One minor criticism may be permitted. When the Archbishop talks of "the Church,'; he does not always make it clear whether he is using the term in its narrower sense of the Church of England, or in its wider sense of the " blessed company of all faithful People." The distinction is not unimportant.. J. G. LOCKHART.
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