CHRISTIANITY AND COMMUNISM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 462, 30 April 1948, Page 14

CHRISTIANITY AND COMMUNISM

European Youth at the Crossroads

HEN Dr. A. John Coleman, of Toronto, was in Welling- . ton tHe other day in the course of a world tour from Geneva, he told The Listener that he had already visited over 50 universities in Europe, England and America in his capacity as secretary of the World Student Christian Federation. So we had several questions to ask him about university conditions in other countries. One was about the position of the new generation in Europe, the young people who had not actually fought in the war. "To-day in Europe the only real alter‘natives for a young person who wants to get®something worthwhile out of life," he told us, "are Christianity and Communism. Yet in the Communist-con-trolled countries I found that the students had a much higher sense of purpose and were much more enthusiastic about their work than elsewhere." One reason for this greater enthusiasm, of course, was simply the Slav temperament, while their tremendous intensity of purpose was ‘mainly due to the fact that their countries were so far behind the rest of Europe, economically and socially, Then in countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia a tremendous proportion of university graduates were killed by the Nazis, and the students knew that this gap of intellectuals had to be filled as speedily as possible." "What about France- and Western Germany?" "In Germany the most progressive socialist party is still dominated by an un-Christian spirit, so- that Christianthinking people (and students) are faced with a tremendous dilemma as to what party to align themselves with. You see, although Germany is superficially as Christian as the rest of Western Europe -I medn in the work done by the Churches ‘and the clergy-there seems to be a different motivation, a different

spirit behind their Christianity. It’s hard to define, but if you contrast it with England it might make things clearer. Socialist Lay Readers "In England you have*a_ socialist state in which many people who are most* active socialists in the political field on week-days are also lay readers in the Church on Sundays. The English seem to Be much more stable in their beliefs in that way, and actually I don’t think that Christianity and Communism are so completely incompatible as they appear, although that seems to contradict what I said at first. For instance, I have a very close friend who is an ardent Christian and also a very strong Communist, But his* Communist beliefs are purely political; he doesn’t let them interfere with his religious beliefs. So that although Arnold Toynbee has called Communism ‘one of our latter-day religions,’ I think that the notion of Communism being a religion is not necessarily correct." "You think in fact that these two beliefs can be reconciled?" Dr. Coleman said his own position was perhaps best expressed in the words of the Russian thinker Berdyaev, who died recently. Berdyaey saw the contemporary world as in a state of flux between the final break-up of an old civilisation and the beginning of a new. He argued that Christians must concentrate on the new, that Christianity’s mission. was "not to fear the social movement in the world, not to struggle purposelessly against it, but to spiritualise it and try to cure it from the poison that has been mixed with it, the poison of hate." Much of the blame for the present decline of Christianity lay pith the churches themselves, Dr. Coleman said, because of the many schisms and divisions that had occurred. The World "Student Christian Federation had as one (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) of its aims the establishment of a more universal, international viewpoint in Christianity. The University’s Function We asked Dr. Coleman about another Gubject in which he is greatly interested, the function of the university in the world to-day. What differences in function had he noticed, for instance, between England and America? ' England was as far ahead as any country, except possibly Russia, in the matter of equality. of opportunity for attendance at a university, he said. In America the great majority of students were the children of wealthy parents, but in England there were far more bursaries and large Government grants that made the universities more independent. At the same time the object of the university in England seemed to be to train experts and specialists to help run the socialist state. In America the position was more complex: "They

don’t really know what they are training leadership for.’ There was worship of the slogan of free enterprise, and American universities seemed to be guided mainly by the traditions of the past, of the bth Century society-based on a concept of liberal humanism-that was collapsing now. American universities did not concentrate on specialist courses, but were more concerned with giving a "general" education. At Harvard, for instance, one third of the_time spent on any course must be devoted to the humanities, to the social. and natural sciences. "Yet in no country at present.is there more discussion about the function of. the university, and of how its position can be improved." After visiting Dunedin Dr. Coleman will go to Australia, and from there to. England, before he -turns to his head- | quarters at Geneva. While he was in Wellington he recorded a talk on The University in the World To-day, which will be heard from the main National stations in the near future,