Ernst Troeltsch
The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. By Ernst Troeltsch. Translated by Olive Wyon. 2 vols. Halley Stewart Publications, No. 1. (Allen and Unwin. 42s.) IN the days before the War it was the custom of a certain eminent ecclesiastic to turn to his partner at luncheon or dinner with the simple question : " Do you know Troeltsch ? " Whilst the miserable victim hovered uncertainly between the rival claims of delikatessen and obscure German health- resorts, the dignitary returned—as he had intended—to the undistracted enjoyment of his food. But this childish ignorance lies far behind us. The works of Von Hiigel have Made known to all his readers the immense importance and originality of Troeltsch's religious philosophy, and the inter- pretations of history in which it was expressed. He gladly owned that he had " learned quite massively " from this staunchly Protestant thinker : as much where, regretfully but firmly, I still disagree, as where, so joyfully, I agreed from the first with all that I am." Indeed, a peculiarly deep and vivid understanding of the special characters of religion, an ingrained philosophic idealism crossed by a keen historic sense, and the strong personal feeling with which his thought was charged, combined to make of Troeltsch one of the most powerful and stimulating of teachers. Those who were not daunted by the immense richness of the material he put before them, and the difficulties presented by a mind in which the sense of form lagged behind the exuberant expressive power, were amply repaid for the effort he required. Yet hitherto, with the exception of one or two minor pieces, none of Troeltsch's works in their " bewilderingly rich instructive- ness " have been accessible in English. Hence, all students of the philosophy of religion owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Halley Stewart foundation, and to the skilled and devoted labours of Miss Olive Wyon, for putting them in possession of this truly admirable and lucid translation of his greatest work. Nearly a thousand pages in length, and furnished with an armoury of notes which would set up many a scholar for life, it is an achievement which can only be received with the awe-struck thanks of those who will benefit by it.
The general theme of The Social Teaching of The Christian Churches is the ethical content of the Gospel, as it became gradually explicated in Christian institutions and movements :
" The Ethos of the Gospel is a combination of infinite sublimity and childlike intimacy. On the one hand, it demands the sanctifica- tion of the self for God by the practice of -detachment from every- thing which disturbs inward communion with God. . . . On the other hand, it demands that brotherly love, which overcomes in God all the tension and harshness of the struggle for existence, of law, and of the merely external order."
But this profound and simple ethic exhibits different aspects, according to the religious system within which it finds its home. And here we come upon Troeltsch's famous discrimina- tion between the " Church," the " Sect " and the " Mystic," as the three typical products and expressions of Christianity. The mark of the Church-type is the emphasis placed on the objective institution, with its saving power and treasures of doctrine and grace, its ability to receive and enfold the masses, and adjust itself to the world. Here sacredness inheres in the historic Body rather than the individual soul. The Sect, on the othex hand, is a free association of fervent believers, who turn from the world and towards moral per- fection. As against the warm human compassion for the imperfect, and the willingness to admit double standards characteristic of the Church type, the Sect is radical in its other-worldliness. Both attitudes can justify themselves from the teaching of the New Testament. The Mystic is the pure religious individualist, concentrated on the relation of his soul to God. For him worship and doctrine are an inward and personal experience, and he feels little need of the corporate life of Church or Sect. And these three tempers of soul affect doctrine no less than practice. For the Church, says Troeltsch, Christ is the supernatural Redeemer, for the Sect, He is Master and example ; for the Mystic, an inward spiritual Principle. Although this brilliant generalization in its absolute form must be accepted with some reserve, it remains true that the chief doctrines of Christianity are variously interpreted in the experience of the institutional, the ethical, and the contemplative soul.
In Troeltsch's view, all three types of reaction to the spiritual order are needed for the balanced richness of full human religion, and specially for Christianity. But they have tended in the course of its historic development to separate and evolve in opposition to each other. On the whole, he considers the Church-type, with its ceaseless tension between the demands of pure religion and adjustment to the world, to be superior to the Sect and the Mystic as a conserver of supernatural values. Here, of course, mediaeval Catholicism is the classic example ; as the genius of Protestantism is the fullest expression in history of the Sect-type. To each of these one great division of his book is given, in which his power of marshalling and interpreting facts is seen at its best. He appears less successful in his treatment of the Mystic ; mainly because he draws his major examples from the mystical, individualists" of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and fails to give adequate consideration to the witness of the great contemplative saints.
The whole of the immense discussion, with its wealth of vivid historic illustrations, is summed up in. a conclusion which vindicates the unique character of Christian ethic. It alone, says Troeltsch, in virtue of its strongly personal theism, and its doctrine of a divine and universal love, is able to give the social life of man—with its tensions, struggles and achievements —a goal and a meaning which transcends the finite and is a part of that Eternal Order where "the final ends of all
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