Ido not believe that the modern world has ceased to need the Christian view.… The “isms” of the day are numerous, and the denials from many quarters are fierce and vehement. But … I do not believe that the Christian view is obsolete; that it is doomed to go down like a faded constellation in the west of the sky of humanity. I do not believe that in order to preserve it, one single truth we have been accustomed to see shining in that constellation will require to be withdrawn.… The world needs them all, and will one day acknowledge it.… It is … with a sense of triumph that I see the progress of the battle between faith and unbelief. I have no fear that the conflict will issue in defeat.… Christ’s religion will ride in safety the waves of present-day unbelief, as it has ridden the waves of unbelief in days gone by, bearing in it the hopes of the future of humanity.
With these words the noted Scottish theologian James Orr concluded his famous lectures at the end of the century on The Christian View of God and the World. Many times Orr traversed the Atlantic to voice his high biblical confidence in “the reality and certainty of God’s supernatural Revelation to the world—of His great purpose of love and grace, centering in the manifestation of His Son, but stretching out in its issues through all worlds, and into all eternities—of a Redemption adequate to human sin and need, the blessings of which it is our highest privilege to share, and to make known to others.”
The specific aim of this issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY is to reflect the enduring relevance of Christ’s Gospel for the realms of learning and culture. It is popular to think of higher education today only in terms of its conflicts and tensions. For that reason it is all the more refreshing to realize that the power which radiates from the Crucified and Risen Christ retains its broad range of influence and touches even the most respected forums of modern thought. In our generation, as in every generation since the Christian martyrs bore their first glad testimony to the Redeemer, the Spirit of Christ begets still a warm personal devotion to the Saviour, a confident trust in the triumph of his purposes in history, a recognition of his incomparable significance in the molding of human ideals and life, and an invitation to young and old alike to discover in Jesus Christ THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.—ED.
