RELIC lON IN AUSTRALIA.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1948, 3 January 1914, Page 9

RELIC lON IN AUSTRALIA.

Some arresting, if severe, comihcuti on tho spiritual side of Australian liiowero isuuli.- recently by the Hev, A, Deplodge-Sylces, an English clergyman, who has contributed i<j tlio "Christian World" tlio irnks of his investigationi in tlio Antipodes. Mr. Beplt-dge-Sykel finds Australia, in the matter of reii* gious thought, "one of the. most conscr« vative countries in the world." This paradox gives a third condition within which. tlie local religious problem emerges, and is significantly conti-ibri-. live to the real religions issue. A propositional religion is coiitVoUing and supreme, and safety counts for moro than piety. Truisms as to modern views of the Bible, personality, authority, and tho general intellectual and social implications of tho tcacfiing and person of Jesus are severely and ofttimes fiercely opposed. A militant and indexible orthodoxy holds the field, an orthodoxy which has never lei; tho pressure of tho twentieth century pioliIcni and spirit, and with which therefore it is almost impossible to roasnn." Tho most pervasive and subtle factor in the problem, says tlie writer, is the pragmatic spirit that dominates Anslialian life. This atmosphere of practical . materialism, combined with on absenc-a ■ of spiritual insight and passion, duo . partly to climatic conditions and partly . t.o tho comparative comfort and even , luxury of out" environment, makes, h» says, the religions challenge one "for a complete reversal of dominant values." Here, within our borders, "a prepositional religion is. dominant that is strangely rigid and immobile. Without is the tenso problem nf a community enfolded by sensuous comfort and case. Tho Australia,!! is gonial; he is a «r.od fellow: ho is beneficent; but. what are these where great sniritual passion is sleeping or dead? N-itionhood cannot oincrcjo in terms merely of geniality, l beneficence, and brotherliness. Calvary strikes a. deeper arid more tragic imto than that .... If, within existing social conditions, Australia can achieve spiritual nationhood.-then the tvpo of fUcli .nationhood v,ill_Lo commanding on this earth."