RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1663, 1 February 1913, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

CHRISTIANITY AND MODERN THOUGHT. NEW BOOK BY SEVEN OXFORD MEN. "The modern world is asking questions," say seven Oxford men, in a remarkable book, "Foundations, a Statement of Christian Belief in Terms of Modern Thought" (Macmillau and Co.), .which is sure to be widely discussed. "Christianity and its traditional theology have come down to us from an ago very different from our own, an ago when the sun and tho stars moved round the earth, when the meaning of natural law and evolution was only dimly appreheuded, when the psychology of religion, the historical method and the critical study of ancient documents wcro yet unborn. These things touch the foundations of the old beliefs, and it is about the foundations that the world is asking. Head and Heart. ; "The world is calling for religion, but it cannot accept a religion if its theology is out of harmony with scicnco, philosophy, and scholarship. Religion, if it is to dominate life, must satisfy both, tho head and the heart, a thing ivhich neither obscurantism nor rationalism can do. At such a time it seems most necessary that those who' believe that Christianity is, no mere picturesquo survival of a romantic past, but a real religion with a real message tho present and the future, should Eet themselves to a careful reexamination, and, if need be, restatement, of tho foundations of their belief in tho light of the knowledgo and thought of the day." j And these seven men seek to give such a restatement in this book. . They are all Oxford friends, /and their names are: Rev. N. S. Talbot, M.A. (Balliol: Tutor),; Rov. R. Brook, M.A. (Mcrton Tutor), Rev. B. H. Streetor, M.A. (Dean of Queen's), Rev. A. E.' J. Rawlinson, M.A. (ifeblo Tutor), Rev. E. G. Parsons, M.A. (Principal of Wells Theological College), Rev. W. Temple, M.A. (Headmaster of ltepton), and W. H. Moberly, M.A. (Fellow and Lecturer in Philosophy of Lincoln College).; Thib group of men are conscious of life's dark side and of the shadows which fall upon the world in A.d., 1912, but 1 they aro optimists, too. So while th<Jy faco the facts they refuse to admit that tho dark side 'of the world contains all tho facts, and they have vision enough to see the: light that never was on land or sea. And so'in the chapter on "the modern situation," written' by N.'S. Talbot, they say:—. To-day All Changes; "The times of , the impotence of Jesus Christ are. passing. He was ever powerless with those who did not need Him. A knowledge of darkness-is needed to urge indolent man upon the quest after the light. Onco there was a bonfire lit in the world, of which tho New Testament is still a flaming brand.; Once men were darkness and onco they became light in ,the Lord. ' Since then-tho light has been diffused into twilight,-and in half-Chris-tianised Europe generations have no knowledge either of the light or of the darkness. But to-day all changes. "The darkness of the far lands where |ho Gospel has never been, lot alone grown old, lies close , round Europe. The darkness of the veil of things seen and pleasurable hangs heavy over luxurious souls. The darkness of the universe in its incomprehensible;" age';apd , vastness overcasts the vision, of post-Darwinian science. The. darkness : of human heart's emancipated, and void ,of all allegiance but to, themselves, creeps ever on.

Light Begins to Shine. ■ "Therefore, to-day the light begins to shine anew, as men begin 'again to know the need of it. llavo not the times arrived the rumour of whose coming touched tho prophetic heart of Robert Browning?;- ." .: V , ' "'... . what whispers me of .times . to ■ come? ' '7 ,;- 1 (\ What if it be the mission of that age Mydcath shall usher into life, to shake This torpor of assurance from' our creed, Re-introduoe, the. doubt "discarded, bring That formidable danger back, we drove Long ago,to the distance, and the dark? No wild beast now prowls round the in- • fant camp: , ■ -' We have built walls and sleep , in . city safe: But if ■ some earthquake try the towers that laugh ... To think they once saw lions rule outside, >' And man stand out again, pale, resolute, Prepared to means alive 1 at -. last?'" ' : '(Come Forth, Great Causo." Though these seven men realise that the Kingdom of God is not yet come, they see that;tho. battlo before the victory .13 begun, and so in their Epilogue they declare:— "Tho Kingdom''cf'God' is not yet come; tho world-rulers of this darkness have not fallen; the dumb need of the heathen world is still' unsatisfied;- the nations, whose citizens protess allegiance to Christ, show but few traces of His Spirit's influence either '-hi thoir own condition or in their dealings'with ono another. ■ "Jesus of Nazareth claimed that He was the Founder of the Kingdom of God; that claim will never bo admitted as a consequence of reasoning, however cogent; it will bo admitted ivhen men again see His followers conquering the world for Him by His own methods ill the power of His Spirit:— . " 'O that the armies were arrayed! O joy of the onset! ... Sound, thou Trumpet of God, come forth, Great Cause, to array us, . King,and Leader appear, thy soldiers sorrowing seek Thee.' ■ "So we are tempted* to exolaim, as wo see men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. But it is at such times that we are bidden to look up, for our redemption drawcth nigh. The Hour is Come, "And, indeed, tho hour is come; already the aiynies arc arrayed; the battle is begun. For all the world is in transformation. Europe and ; America seethe with social movement; India toils in the birth-pangs of an unknown, future; Japan has leapt to the van of civilisation; . China is awake from age-long-sleep and plunging into new life. Even the Dark Continent is astir as Mohammedanism surges across it. Nov; is the opportunity ami the test of faith;, and even'now in the vision of faith the Captain of the Armies of'Solvation goes forth conquering and to conquer." ( The .various chapters in this stimulating book deal with the Bible, the Historic Christ, tho Atonement, the Church, tho Principle of Authority and God and, the Absolute. Tho "Athenaeum" says that "far the most original and striking are that by Mr. Nevillo .Talbot 011 'The Modern Situation,' and that on 'Tho Divinity of Christ' by the Headmaster of Repton, whoso father was the protagonist of 'Essays and Reviews.'" 1 The Modern Generation. "Probably," says Sir. Talbot, "every generation of men has called itself modern, and, more than that, has held its modernism to be more radical, genuine, and interesting than that of any previous time. _ Certainly this-generation—and by that is meant people of about thirty years of age—is tempted to do so. "This generation is modern in tho sense that it never knew tho world 'before the Hood.' While it has been growing up the assumptions of Mid-Victorian liberalism have been going bankrupt. Their capital has been running out. Even their last survivor, Progress, has- been at grips with a doubt deeper than itself as to man's place in tho universe. For the infection of a kind of cosmic nervousness has become widespread. Somehow the world is now felt to bo less domestic.than it was. The skies 'have darkened,- and men's minds have become more sombre. In some a mere sense of the scale and range of the world in size nnd time has prompted a philosophy of relativity wherein nothing is absolutely , true or right at any passing moment. 1 Others have beon led by tho observation of tho effects of physical environment to ask whether matter is not dominant over mind and spirit. Others have bpen appalled to realise that nature (so far from being benevolent to tho individual) aims on|y at the survival of tho race, and o-res nothing for its members exccpt as

contributing to tho health of the 6pecies, "In greater or less degree through all minds is spread tho sense that they aro in a world which is indifferent to their interests. And thereout springs a fear of being thrown upon its mercies; a consequent prudential relianco upon the weapons that money can buy for' the struggle for existence; and a doubt whether morality is not tho philosophy either, of tlioso who aro paid to maintain it, or of those who can afford to be good. Economic Conditions of Morality. "The economic conditions of morality, have been laid bare, and tho relationship of all parts of society to one another has been recognised. The parts of the body politio which talk and write most liavo been found to bo but margins upon a world of which tho facts confuto their theories, let the solidarity of the social whole ensures that none of its members can cscapo from tho fortunes of tho rest. Therefore tho whole mind of our- time is tainted by tho moral poworlessness of men in modern 'competitive business— where tho sway over human volition of uncontrolled and accidental forces is at its highest; where tho natural struggle for existence is made many times worse by tho intricate devices of scientific ingenuity; where men aro as good as they daro to bo; where it is most evident that tho world left to run looso and hot battled with is indifferent to tho hopes and fears of individual human beings. ' "Driven, therefore, into the world of secular fapts, what is tho Christian preacher's message to it? Is he, as somo Roman modernists advise, to despair of it?. Is he, that is, to accept the belief that the world of fact is governed by the hard law of failure, and be content to surround a bloody reality with a halo 6pun out of his 'religious' or mystical consciousness of a heaven beyond? Must lie. recognise the impotence of' Christianity, to take' modern civilisation within its grasp? Must ho resign himself to limbing along- with it as beside a soteriological; ambulance in the rear of the world's war?" ' Mr. ,Talbot's answer to those questions is that Christ "has been impotent for centuries owing to tho spiritual-complacency of men. ,Ho has suffered every, degree of patronage by intellectuals who have been interested in Him, but have had no need of Him. He has been degraded by the transformation of His revolutionary, disclosure' into an established and coniservative tradition at truce with tho world and in.bondago to propriety. But how His day returns,' as human hearts aro loosoned to, receive Him. A common need draws all the saints, both prodigals and elder sons, to renpprehend what is the bretfdth and length and depth, and. to learn anew His love which passeth knowledge." - • - ' The Village Carpenter. The Rev. B. H. Streeter, in his chapter on "Tho Historic Christ,"'says:—. "To found an institution which shall outlive, the centnries, to create an in-' fluenco which shall dominate the future, to mould the mind nnd outlook'of mankind, to leave a name winch posterity shall 'venerate with wonder and admiration—this has from,the beginning be>en' the ambition of emperors, statesmen, and warriors with nations and armies at their back to achieve their aim; it has been the ambition of thinkers and poets with all the wisdom and culture of the ages at their command. , ,

"In the roll-call of famo are names like Alexander, Caesar,' Chnrlemoene, Napoleon; there are names like Plate, Kant, Newton, and Darwin, Dante, and Goethe, hntl on the history and mind of our race each of these has left a frreat and enduring mark. They have left their mark; .their name and their influence is still a power. But which of them lias done, a work, lias left an influence or n name like the village. Carpenter, unlettered and unarmed, who dreamed that God would redeem the world through. Him, and died to make the dream come,true?"—"Public Opinion." • c