Education came to the British Isles along with the message of the Gospel, and for many centuries the church was its patron and sole purveyor. This remained true until long after the Reformation, and early in the nineteenth century the basis of the English elementary system was laid by the rival efforts of the Church of England and of noncomformity in establishing the “National” and the “British” schools for the poor. The first break with tradition came in 1836 with the founding of University College, London (known to contemporary Anglicans as “the Godless institution in Gower Street”). Then in 1870 the first Education Act established a system of local school boards. In the board schools “no catechism or religious formulary distinctive of any denomination” could be taught. But this attempt at neutrality between Church and Non-conformity resulted in neutrality between Christianity and secularism. Henceforth Her Majesty’s Inspectors took no cognizance of the teaching of religion, and the Christian faith—hitherto the integrating factor in the whole curriculum—had to struggle for a place on the timetable.

In Scotland a plan projected by Knox during the Reformation had ultimately come to fruition with the result that every parish had its school long before National and British schools began in England. The fact that most Scots were Presbyterians of one kind or another made it possible to arrange for religious teaching even when the schools became controlled and supported by the government.

THE PRESENT POSITION

In England much of what was lost in 1870 was, however, regained in 1944 when a new Education Act abandoned neutralism regarding religion. Church schools were offered half their capital outlay on agreed improvements, in addition to full running expenses. Even the local authority schools—descendants of the board schools—were required to hold a daily assembly for worship and to teach religion according to an agreed syllabus, and once again the Crown’s Inspectors supervised religious instruction.

How well does the British system of religious education work? The answer is with varying success. The denominational schools, with their own forms of worship and also staffs sympathetic to their outlook, should be able to provide an atmosphere favorable to the nurture of young Christians. But their problem is to find enough convinced Christians as teachers. Britain is suffering from an acute shortage of teachers of all kinds, but the dearth of Christian teachers is a reproach to the churches for their failure to provide enough recruits to the profession. The Church of England cannot fill the places to which it is entitled with convinced and practicing church members in its 26 teacher training colleges. Consequently, its colleges are not providing even the church schools with enough Christian teachers. Without an adequate intake of committed and instructed Christians, church colleges lack the spiritual ethos essential for their task. The consequent shortage of born-again teachers called to be pastors of Christ’s young sheep is the real impediment to a truly Christian education for British children. Therefore, instead of the schools being a nursery for the church, they are themselves a mission field.

CHRISTIAN WORK IN THE SCHOOLS

Within this mission field liberal and conservative Christian organizations operate by means of traveling secretaries. The Student Christian Movement, officially supported by the churches, is more concerned—especially in its Sixth Form conferences—with questions of applied Christianity than with the problem of making converts. The Scripture Union, definitely evangelical, works through its Inter Schools Christian Fellowship which operates in the grammar schools through autonomous Christian Unions, of which there are over 300, and in the secondary modern schools by Scripture Union branches, run by Christian members of the school staff. In Scotland, there are over 200 SU branches. In Northern Ireland, every senior school has an SU branch, as do 30 grammar schools. In addition, the ISCF runs one-day and three-day (residential) conferences, while the year-round work of sowing the good seed of the Gospel finds its fruition in the 111 camps held in various parts of Britain during the summer holidays when the emphasis is on evangelism.

THE CHURCH IN THE UNIVERSITIES

The university scene is remarkably varied. In England and Wales only the religious foundations—Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and little Lampeter—give official recognition to the Christian faith with college chapels and chaplains, and—at Oxford and Cambridge—university churches. The English provincial universities are avowedly secular, and their atmosphere predominantly materialistic. Although the various denominations appoint chaplains, full or part time, only a small proportion of the students attend any place of worship, and there is little interest in the discussion of religion. Contrast Cambridge, where a recent census indicated a weekly attendance at worship of nearly 50 per cent! Scottish universities are ancient foundations, and their senate and court meetings are opened and closed with prayer. Each university has its own official chaplain who belongs to the Church of Scotland but whose work is interdenominational. The proportion of Christians among the students is probably higher than in the country at large.

STUDENT WITNESS

The most effective Christian witness in all the universities is that undertaken by the students themselves. This is true even of “Oxbridge,” despite the well-attended college chapels.

1. Cambridge: Among the 7,000 students the multiplicity of religious societies is quite remarkable. There are denominational societies, of which the Methodist, with a membership of 230, is the largest. The Congregational is half that size. Then come the Robert Hall (Baptist) Society, the Presbyterian Association, the Young Friends (Quaker), and a small Lutheran Society. All these, operating through fellowship groups, breakfast and tea meetings, provide Christian fellowship and hold some students who might otherwise drift from Christian influence. There is no Anglican Society as such, but the Church Union takes care of Anglo-Catholics, the Church Missionary Society Fellowship fosters missionary interest with emphasis on vocation, and the Cranmer Society aims at providing instruction in the Reformation principles of the Church of England. Two interdenominational societies, the William Temple and the Student Christian Movement, stress the application of Christianity to political, social, and economic spheres, and the SCM also seeks to co-ordinate the work of the denominational societies.

Amid this plethora of religious activity, the task of faithfully presenting Christ as the Saviour of the individual is largely left to the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union which, with its 400 full members and equal number of fringe adherents, is the oldest and most vigorous Christian Society. CICCU’s daily prayer meeting, Saturday Bible reading, and Sunday evangelistic sermon are supplemented in each college by small Bible study groups and prayer meetings—some on behalf of student evangelism in the university, and some to support missionary work abroad. The greatest evangelistic effort is concentrated in the annual “Freshers’ Sermon” and the Triennial Mission to the University, and, down the years, thousands have been won for Christ by these.

2. Other Universities. Although in all the universities student witness is carried on in a pattern similar to that at Cambridge, only Oxford and Durham (where OICCU and DICCU have considerable influence) approach the Cambridge model. But they all have their denominational societies, their SCM, their CU, and again only the CUs make the winning of souls for Christ and the nurture of Christians by Bible study and prayer their chief activities. In Scotland the denominational societies flourish less, and the CUs possibly a little more, than in England.

TWO ESSENTIALS

There are two essential requirements if the Christian faith is to regain its rightful place in British education. First, there must be far more Christian teachers in the schools, and especially in the Grammar schools for they produce the undergraduates and the future teachers. Until the Christian Church produces enough teachers, the benefits of the 1944 Act will not be fully reaped. Secondly, the university CU’s must beware of becoming isolated groups, the members of which make few friends outside the union. “Holy huddles” are pleasanter and easier than involvement, but Christians are told to be salt, and salt is no use if it remains in the salt cellar. Fortunately, the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, which acts as a link between the CUs, encourages them to reflect on the image of Christianity their members are giving.

The Shade of Lincoln Walks

The shade of Lincoln walks upon these streets

Looking with longing at the passing men;

He yearns to speak something to those he meets, For here he feels the ancient pain again.

Fear plants a furrow on their countenance,

Dread casts a darkness on their tortured path:

They walk in fetters who were born to dance,

Languish in bondage who were meant to laugh.

—KENDIG BRUBAKER CULLY.

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

Despite the ever-increasing urban sprawl, the people of England still live in a land that is predominantly green and pleasant. Those who visit our shores depart with a mental picture of a country of villages. each with its own special character and always the ancient parish church as its centerpiece. Were our visitor to stay and inquire whether those mellow churches are still the focal point of the village life, he might be greatly shocked. The sweet bells still peal out, but there is little enough response, for church life in the rural areas is at very low ebb. Honest investigation into the causes of this decline is long overdue.

NEW FACTORS

It is not enough to put it down as “the new order and changed social conditions.” There is indeed a new spirit of independence in the country; a sense of emancipation from the traditional village community with its deference to parson and squire is manifest. Granted all this, can we discern other reasons in the church itself for the alarming deterioration in public worship? A careful examination of the contemporary ecclesiastical scene certainly suggests new factors. If we refer mainly to the established church, it is because we are more familiar with it. But much of what will be said applies also to the free churches which have for some years been applying a policy of retrenchment in the rural areas.

DILUTION OF FELLOWSHIP

It is significant that the witness of the church is usually least effective where several parishes have been joined under one incumbent. Archdeacon West, in his book The Country Parish Today and Tomorrow, gives us a picture of what happens on Sundays: “The new Rector rushes out of the vestry door with his surplice over his ears while they are still on their knees after the recessional hymn, and is a mile away down the road before they are out in the churchyard.” When this sort of thing happens week by week something is missing that is a very real part of Christian fellowship, and that should be the concomitant of real worship.

DECLINE OF CHURCH LIFE

Under the Pastoral Reorganization Measure, the Church of England has embarked upon a policy of putting three or four parishes under one parson who must serve them as best he may. The result is one service per Sunday in each church at a time which varies every week to the exasperation of the country man. There is an inevitable decline of church life in each parish in the group. Moreover there is an official tendency to insist on a “central” type of churchmanship, which often means the extinction of the one remaining center of evangelical witness in a large area. This matter of churchmanship cannot be ignored in any fair survey of our subject. It is the case that the modern edition of Tractarianism, with its emphasis on Church and Sacrament and the official dislike of strong evangelical ministries, is having a debilitating effect at a time when Protestant nonconformity has largely lost its traditional insistence upon justification by faith and the necessity for a personal experience of salvation.

THE AIR IS STILL FRESH

There is still a definite response in the country to a personal ministry with a Gospel message. The churches should see the danger sign now and determine to make full use of their opportunities and find men of God, ordained or lay, to bring in that revival of spiritual life which could mark the beginning of a new movement of the Spirit throughout the whole land.

Perhaps a return to the old “field preaching” is the first step. “There’s a breath of fresh air up here,” cried Whitefield as he climbed a Radnorshire hillside to preach the Gospel to 2000 countryfolk, “and the Spirit of God is fresh and free and full of power to convict sinners,” and no less than 500 were convicted and converted that day through the simple message of this great evangelist. The air is still fresh in the English countryside, a congregation may still be gathered, and God’s free Spirit still “bloweth where he listeth” in saving power.

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

The great cities of Britain present special difficulties to the work of evangelism. But they call for thorough consideration, since almost a third of the population lives either in a city of over a million souls or in one of the vast industrial “conurbations” of these islands.

Because of unplanned development, large urban areas exist without a sense of community. Long journeys to work and to cultural amenities, as well as to the open country, are common to these areas. Much of the housing is old and uneconomic, and playing fields, swimming baths, and community halls are far from adequate. These conditions militate against community life, since they discourage attendance at meetings, whether political, social, literary, or artistic. The work of the churches suffers from the same difficulties. In addition, the incidence of shift-work in many industries prevents regular attendance by those who desire to take their part in activities outside the home. All voluntary youth organizations encounter difficulty in finding sufficient adult leaders.

Another set of factors affecting church attendance is the enormous change in home comforts. Mass-produced furniture, television, washing machines, refrigerators, and now record players and tape-recorders, have combined to produce a comfortable if noisy home life for multitudes of our people. Those of us who have known “working-class” homes for the past half century have seen remarkable changes. There has been considerable increase in “off-license” sales of alcoholic liquors, and people of the great cities have been disposed to stay at home when the day’s work is done.

Without doubt the mechanical and automatic routines of modern factory life encourage a materialistic rather than a personality-centered outlook on life. Prosperity is measured in terms of manufactured goods rather than by the results of the family’s own labors. Thus the family car receives more attention and has a status-value in the community beyond that of the garden which used to be important in areas where gardens could be found. But the garden is now often either laid to grass or paved to lessen the demand for attention, while many cars are religiously washed in the street as a Sunday morning exercise. From some towns the local football team is always accompanied by special train loads and coach parties of “supporters,” but these are mainly week-day activities.

The total effect of such things is to crowd life with earthly interests so that little time remains for God. Home, business, and sport combine to make life too full for God to have a place. The new convert finds that a complete reorganization of his leisure time is involved if he is to take his place in the life of the church.

RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF THE PEOPLE

In the past 15 years several interesting surveys of social conditions have dealt with religious views and activities. Reports from chaplains in the services and in the prisons have disclosed widespread ignorance of Christian truths and faith. Yet beneath all this, several valuable things persist. First, there is a real respect for the Bible, a fact which gave potency to Billy Graham’s assertion, “The Bible says.” By and large, this resounds in the hearts of most people, despite the persistent attacks on the authority of the Bible by some church leaders and lecturers. Although the clergy or ministers as a class are sometimes held in disrespect, almost invariably there is high regard for some preacher who is personally known.

Since much of the social, educational, sick visiting, and nursing work of the church has been progressively taken over by the state, it is now less customary than in former times for the nonchurchgoer to turn to “the parson” for guidance and help.

ATTITUDES OF THE CHURCHES

The various denominations have reacted differently in the face of aging congregations and financial difficulties. Some have been cushioned against losses by substantial endowments; others have amalgamated churches in the same neighborhood and have sold redundant sites at high prices. The shortage of men for the ministry has been widely felt despite the use of laymen wherever possible. A few years ago a prominent Baptist warned the London Association that few of their churches would remain open in 25 years. That was before Billy Graham’s Harringay Crusade in 1954, which gave a great boost to churches of the London area (including the Baptists). Congregationalist and Methodist churches are still being closed, while numbers of bombed Anglican churches have not been rebuilt in situ but on new building estates on the outskirts of the area. Among the clergy there is a widespread feeling that the day of mass evangelism is over.

Many leaders are concentrating on their own private methods—for example, industrial chaplaincy work, men’s societies, youth groups, modernized forms of church services, visual aids, advertising stunts, cells for this or that, healing circles, and so on. In a large center of population it is possible to gather an eclectic congregation around almost any fad or fancy.

But the basic problem remains, how to reach the people with the Gospel message. One method is by door-to-door personal evangelism—this has been the method of the London City Mission for over a cen tury. A London vicar said recently that if he had the available man power he would concentrate on following up the routine contacts of his church in bereavements, marriages, and hospital cases which he finds yielding results whenever he is able to give time to them. Such visitation must be done when the people are at home and available, and therefore will often clash with church meetings. Which shall be given priority?

If visitation, persistent and systematic, is to be an answer, how shall the visitors be secured, trained, and kept at work? This writer believes that the churches need a method which combines the best features of the Navigator system with a training scheme such as that of The Methodist Church in the U.S.A., for the Navigator method trains the individual to use resources available to every Christian and to teach these to others one at a time, while the visitation training scheme inspires purposeful visiting with a view to church attendance and church membership.

In Great Britain the media of radio and television are not available for hire by the churches. Preachers and churches have their opportunities by invitation and not by purchase, and it is still an open question whether Christian people recognize the importance of these means. A single radio or television message may reach more people than a preacher can address in 50 years of ordinary ministry. (Assuming that 400 different people hear him every week of his life for 50 years, he would only then address a million people. British radio and television audiences may total 8 million for a popular program.) Training for this work ought to be a “must” so that acceptance of one invitation may lead to further invitations. Even a “natural” will be more effective when he has learned the techniques of the craft.

MESSAGE FOR THE GREAT CITIES

Assuming the Gospel’s irrelevance to life today, the crowd has simply left God out. This means that city preaching must be related to the basic needs of the people. Their interests in the mysteries of life, birth, and death, their questions about justice and judgment, their interest in the future of the nations, and, above all, the personal problems of sin, temptation, guilt, anguish, and loneliness, all provide opportunities for the wise preacher.

This preaching must be Christ-centered and Christ honoring, for those who quarrel with or neglect the church seldom turn away from the living Christ when they meet him. We need a new humiliation in the face of the vast ineffectiveness of the church, and a new search for wisdom and power so that every creature may hear. We need to confess our failure, neglect, and loss of vision and power.

At present the duty of the church to proclaim the Gospel to every creature seems to be neglected because present methods seem unable to cope with the task. But even in the large cities the matter of meeting the task is not impossible, however, provided the burden is faced honestly by every minister and every Christian. Training must be for service and not merely for the sake of achieving a standard of piety or knowledge. And there must be a new reliance upon the Spirit of God who cares for men beyond any imagining. We need his caring, his love shed abroad in our hearts, so that his Church may live out his concern for the lost outsider as well as for the Christian insider.

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

In his presidential address to the National Free Church Council in 1916, the Reverend J. H. Shakespeare, one of the outstanding free church leaders of those days, spoke these ominous words: “You know that for years there has been a decline in members and Sunday school scholars, and that, unless it can be stayed, the free churches must slowly bleed to death.”

Forty-five years have passed since those words were uttered, and the free churches in England and Wales are still alive. That does not mean that any of us are satisfied with the state of the free churches, for “continuous decline” in the membership of some of our major denominations has gone on to this day. But the result is not quite so catastrophic as some of the pessimists were inclined to prophesy.

At the time Mr. Shakespeare spoke, the free churches were a political force in the land and governments took careful note of the resolutions sent to them by the free church council. But this era has ended and we are not likely to see it again. The cynic used to say that “the Church of England was the Conservative Party at prayer,” and others added that “the free churches were the Liberal Party at prayer.” With the Right Honorable David Lloyd George, the Liberal Prime Minister, as a vice-president of the National Free Church Council, it was inevitable that people should associate the free churches with the Liberal Party and link up the decline of the former with the almost total extinction of the latter.

CAUSES FOR DECLINE

But this would be a superficial and wrong judgment. There are other and more serious causes for the decline of the free churches. The first World War with its complete change of habits of millions of men, women, and children, plus a loss of faith in God which beset many hearts, caused a grievous wound in the Body of Christ in this land from which it has never really recovered. It has been calculated that nine people out of ten hardly ever darken a church door (of any denomination) in England. Who are the nine, and why do they not come to church?

Most of these are decent law-abiding citizens with no antipathy to the church (in fact, they all like to have a church near their own home where their children can be baptized, their daughters married, and their old folks buried), but with an impregnable wall of apathy and indifference surrounding them. If questioned, they would all say they are Christians, but they see no necessary connection between that and attending church regularly. Their usual excuse is that there are so many denominations that they are confused and don’t know which one to attend. “Why don’t the churches get together?” they ask rather petulantly.

But in districts where the churches have come together and have formed a united community church with no denominational label, the attendances are little better and sometimes worse! Now, this does not excuse our slowness in breaking down the barriers between us. Kagawa used to say that he spoke English very badly, and when he tried to say “denomination” it sounded more like “damnation”! Certainly the slowness with which the free churches have debated the matter of union, without getting any further, has bedeviled our witness in the eyes of the ouside world.

FIGURES AND FALLACIES

Because figures can be very deceptive, comparisons of figures between denominations can lead to snares and delusions. Professor Highet of Glasgow University (who has done a great amount of research in church statistics) is constantly pointing out the fallacy of comparing Roman Catholic and Protestant figures. The Roman Catholic church, for example, counts every baptized child as a member, while the Protestant churches only count as members adults who have made a profession of faith and have confirmed their baptismal vows. This strictness tends to depress the numbers on our church rolls and thus give quite a false impression. There are some parts of the Highlands of Scotland in which the free churches (or “Wee Frees”) have a majority. Their membership rolls may show only 50 names, but attendances on Sunday may average 500. Such is the fear in the Highland heart of “eating and drinking unworthily” that many postpone the act of joining the church until they reach the sere and yellow leaf, while most do not join the church at all although they attend faithfully.

With this caveat, let us look at the facts and figures of the free churches in England and Wales. Undoubtedly, the figures are disturbing and show a slow but steady decline over the last 50 years. The idea that all churches were crowded to the doors 50 or 60 years ago when “everybody went to church” is a figment of the imagination. The fact is that 50 years ago the free churches had sittings for 8 million people, while the membership was only just over 2 million. In those days when the motor car was in its infancy, radio and television were unknown, and Sunday cinemas and other counter-attractions were nonexistent, there were some churches in London and throughout the country which were crowded to the doors. Today, when it is no longer fashionable to go to church, and when there are innumerable counter-attractions on Sundays, there are still some great preachers who can draw “capacity” congregations. In London, the City Temple (Congregationalist) and St. Columba’s, Pont Street (Presbyterian) have closed-circuit television built in to cope with their overflow congregations, while churches like Westminster Chapel (Congregationalist) and some of our suburban free churches are crowded Sunday by Sunday.

The four major free churches in England and Wales are the Methodists (with 733,658 members), the Baptists (with 242,000 in England and 93,000 in Wales), the Congregationalists (with 212,017 in England and 111,864 in Wales), and the Presbyterians (with 71,039 in England and 138,655 in Wales).

In round figures, there are 23,000 free churches, 17,000 Anglican churches, and 3,000 Roman Catholic churches in England and Wales.

Each denomination has its quota of problem churches, where the population has changed its character or moved away, so that the closure and sale of downtown church buildings is a common experience. On the other hand, each denomination has its own church extension policy that reaches out into new areas, and new churches are constantly being opened. For some years now there has been an understanding between the major denominations that only one church is opened in each new area to serve all the free church denominations. Unbridled competition in church building has gone. The day of co-operation has dawned.

Fifty years ago there were (in round figures) 2,150,000 members in the free churches and 3,250,000 Sunday school scholars. Today the numbers are 1,550,000 members (a drop of 25 per cent) and 1,225,000 Sunday school scholars (a drop of 60 per cent)—and it must also be remembered that, so far from standing still, the population has increased by some 30 per cent during this period: a fact which aggravates the situation still further. Thus, while the churches in the United States have been growing by leaps and bounds to unprecedented heights, we have been steadily declining in numbers. The landslide in our Sunday school numbers has been catastrophic.

MITIGATING FACTS

Over against these figures there are one or two mitigating facts. One is that there are hundreds of thousands of “adherents” in our free churches who will not allow their names to go on the roll, but who attend one church or another. If asked point-blank what they are, they would say Methodist, Baptist, Congregationalist, or Presbyterian, as the case might be. So there is, up and down the land, a very wide public of free church people, well-disposed towards the churches but who cannot be tabulated or counted.

Then the recent movement of Christian Stewardship, which has affected most of our churches, while not producing more members, has deepened the meaning of membership. We now have a more responsible type of member, ready to worship more faithfully, give more generously, and serve the church and community more readily.

One more mitigating fact is that since the 1944 Education Act became law, every day-school in the land must begin the day with an act of worship and with the teaching of Scripture.

But when every explanation has been given, and every excuse made, the fact remains that the revival, for which so many of us have prayed and worked for decades, shows no sign of coming to our land. When the Spirit tarries, we must wait for Him; but many Christian hearts in Britain today cry out: “How long, O Lord, how long?”

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

Apoll taken by the Glasgow Evening News (Feb. 5, 1947) revealed that half the people of Scotland never go to church (suggesting that the other half do), and that one quarter of those interviewed do not criticize the church, but declare themselves simply to be “not interested.” On an average Sunday morning about 34 per cent of Church of Scotland members attend worship (Baptists have 78, Methodists and Roman Catholics 63, Congregationalists 49, Episcopalians 40 per cent). On an average Sunday evening only 8 per cent of Church of Scotland members attend (United Free Church 16, Congregationalists 12, Episcopalians 10 per cent). Although evening services in Scotland have never been well attended, there has been a marked decrease in recent years; congregations of 15 and 18 are not uncommon, even with churches of around 800 members. The counter-attraction of television seems to have contributed to this state of affairs.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion, now six years after the Billy Graham Kelvin Hall Crusade in Glasgow, that “the fruit that has been pulled off the unchurched branches does not amount to any very large basketful.” When consulted on the value of large-scale or local evangelistic campaigns, only 12 of 176 congregations reported definite results; 45 slight results; 119 little or no results.

CHURCH AND NATION

The Church of Scotland is independent of state control, is Presbyterian in government, and bases its doctrine on Holy Scripture, with the Westminster Confession of Faith as the Church’s subordinate standard. It claims as members a larger proportion of the national population than any other church in the English-speaking world. It has 2,257 pastoral charges in Scotland, and is served by about 1,950 ministers.

THE POSITIVE SIDE

The picture is by no means all black. The figures on Christian liberality over a 30-year period show encouraging gains. Where the average Church of Scotland member in 1930 gave £1.9s. per year in offerings, he gave £2 in 1947, and £3.6s. in 1959. Moreover, during the period 1948–59 the Church of Scotland established 84 new parishes and completed 129 buildings, of which 108 are hall-churches, the cost of which ranged from £12,000 to £30,000 each.

COMMUNION OBSERVANCE

Also noteworthy is the fact that during 1959 a total of 932,456 members took Communion at least once, a figure to be considered against the background of a church where Communion services are held only once, twice, or four times in the year.

MINISTERIAL STATISTICS

There are at present (July, 1961) 200 vacant charges in the Church of Scotland, most of these in country areas. Some have not had a minister for three years or more. Some 100 new ministers per year are required to carry out even the routine work of the church at home and abroad. That a critical manpower situation is developing can be seen from the fact that the average annual intake of new ministers covering the years 1960–62 inclusive does not exceed 60. The church’s missionary strength is now only two-thirds of the 1901 figure.

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

Despite the great increase in the general population, the over-all picture for the Church of England, reveals a vast breakaway from the life and dedication of the church, and a lingering belief that the maintenance of some link with the church is prudent. The church’s ministerial manpower and reserves are seriously depleted. The lessened sense of missionary responsibility among churchgoers gives evidence that the spiritual quality of Christian commitment today contrasts unfavorably with that of earlier generations.

The information which follows is taken in the main from Facts and Figures About the Church of England, published by the Church Information Office in 1959. Unless otherwise stated, the figures apply to 1956, the year of the census, and are the most accurate now available.

POPULATION

Estimated population of the provinces of Canterbury and York: in 1851, 16,896,189; in 1956, 42,227,000. Number of “livings” (as of Dec. 31, 1958): 11,533, of which 1,027 were vacant. Of these, 6,687 have one church, 3,551 two churches, 1,027 three churches, and 268 have more than three churches. Of these livings, 3,185 had populations over 750; 5,090 had populations between 750 and 4,999; 2,193 had populations between 5,000 and 9,999; and 1,024 were over 10,000. The total number of churches and chapels in 1958, including extra-parochial buildings, was 20,289.

MANPOWER

1. The Number of Clergy: Total number of clergy working full time, 14,454. There are 43 archbishops and bishops, 77 suffragan and assistant bishops, 10,357 beneficed incumbents, 2,645 assistant curates and curates-in-charge, and 727 retired clergymen working part-time.

2. The Age of Clergymen: In 1851, the proportion of all clergymen under the age of 35 was 30 per cent; in 1951, 10 per cent. In 1851, the proportion of all clergymen over 75 was 3 per cent; in 1951, 12 per cent—in other words, there are now more clergymen over 75 than under 35.

3. Ordination of Deacons: The numbers for the last ten years are: (1951) 411; (1952) 479; (1953) 472; (1954) 444; (1955), 446; (1956) 481; (1957) 478; (1958) 514; (1959) 512; (1960) 601. At least 600 deacons are required to be ordained every year, simply to make good the losses by death and retirement. To make a real and fairly quick recovery from the accumulated losses of the last 50 years would call for at least 1,000 ordinations of deacons every year.

4. Licensed Lay Readers: Generally business or professional men who give help freely on Sundays in their own parishes or in the diocese total 5,971. Full-time workers: Church Army workers, 142 men, 130 women; deaconesses, 119; women workers, 441; other workers, 579. Total: 6,279 men; 1,103 women.

TELL-TALE FIGURES

The following figures reveal on the one hand a widespread desire for some link with organized religion. But on the other hand there is little corresponding consistency of religious observance. Some 66 per cent (26,771,000) of the population have received baptism in the Church of England; 24 per cent (9,691,000) have been confirmed; 6 per cent (2,348,354) received communion on Easter Day.

Marriages per thousand of the population reveal the sharp breakaway from the Church:

The increase in Roman Catholic marriages is undoubtedly due, in part, to pressure against mixed marriages.

The total number of Sunday school scholars is 1,307,662; the total number of teachers, 101,330. Television and the motor car have seriously affected Sunday school attendance.

Stewardship campaigns are a common church activity today, but their effect upon missionary giving remains to be seen. The proportion of expenditures on overseas missions has decreased. In 1906, it was 6.5 per cent; in 1956, 3.1 per cent.

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

The Communist newspaper The Daily Worker has a larger circulation than that of the three Church of England weekly newspapers combined. It would be wrong to conclude, however, that the membership of the Communist party outnumbers the membership of the Church of England, for that is very far from the case. But it would, I think, be right to conclude that church people in Britain show far less intelligent interest than do Communists in what they profess to believe. There is a general lack of urgency and a failure of genuine involvement.

Compare this situation with 150 years ago when the newly-founded British and Foreign Bible Society, impelled by a realization of the drastic need for translating the Scriptures and distributing them throughout the world so that the Word of God might be available to all mankind, applied itself in full seriousness to the prosecution of this stupendous task. The work of that great Society continues. But respectability seems to mean more to the average British Christian today than does urgency. Is he excited and goaded by the fact that 1,800 of the world’s 3,000 languages are still awaiting the translation of even a part of Holy Scripture? Is he disturbed to know that 1,500 millions of the world’s population of 2,900 millions have never heard the message of the Gospel? Such zeal as he may show confessedly looks anemic when set beside the tireless persistence of the so-called Jehovah’s Witnesses in door to door visitation, distribution of literature, and argumentation.

The facts and figures which emerge in the pages that follow demonstrate clearly enough the seriousness of the present situation in Britain—a situation now frequently described as “post-Christian.” The number of men annually ordained in the different churches falls far short of the figure required to fill existing gaps, let alone maintain an adequate ministry. Moreover, it is an elderly ministry, with clergy over 75 years of age outnumbering those under 35 (in the Church of England at least). Still more distressing is the low level of missionary concern—as regards both going and giving. In the Church of England, for example, a paltry 3.1 per cent of income is expended on overseas missions—less than half of the proportion devoted to this purpose half a century ago (and that was woefully little!).

The information that two out of every three members of the population have been baptized in the Church of England may at first sight seem impressive. But it must be offset by the startling fact that only one out of four go forward to confirmation, and, worse still, only one out of every seventeen are present in church for Holy Communion on Easter Day. In other words, between baptism and communion there is a leakage of some 90 per cent—and even then we should take into further account the fact that Easter communions are inflated by numbers who ordinarily are not seen in church on Sundays.

The Free Church picture is, if anything, still less reassuring. A combined membership of more than 2 million 50 years ago has now dropped to some 1½ million. Within the same period children enrolled in Sunday school registers have decreased in number from 3½ million to less than 1¼ million. At the same time English population figures have not remained static but have increased by some 12 million. This makes the actual situation much more disconcerting than the mere figures of church and Sunday school membership would by themselves indicate. While the population advances the Christian Church lags behind.

Closely, indeed inextricably, linked with this state of deterioration is the phenomenal increase of crime and vice. When men no longer live for God they live for self. Lowering of spiritual standards leads inevitably to lowering of moral standards and to the increase of futility and instability in personal life. The widespread snapping of the sacred bonds of family life and the demoralization of youth, many of whom seem to have no standards of behavior whatever, does not present a perspective of hope for the future. Indeed, as Judge Ruttle observes, “nothing but a revival of true religion on a national scale can meet this situation.”

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

No thoughtful and responsible Christian can survey the spiritual state of Great Britain today with complacency. Indeed, only deep concern will enable one to look the facts in the face and assess them properly, for the situation in Britain calls for much heart-searching and penitent prayer.

For at least a century and a half Britain has been in the vanguard of evangelical and missionary enterprise. She has been known, not without some justification, as a Christian nation. Her laws and her life have been built upon the Word of God. To a unique degree her influence among the other nations of the world has rested upon her reputation for integrity, honor, and justice.

What are we to say about the moral life of Britain in this mid-twentieth century? The moral and spiritual condition of the nation is far from healthy—particularly the moral condition, and, after all, that is but the reflection of the spiritual. The voice of history bears witness to the fact that spiritual decline inevitably leads to moral decay.

Today the old standards of Christian decency are being openly flaunted. Crimes of violence are increasing at an alarming rate. Despite the expenditure of colossal sums of money for education, juvenile delinquency is a matter of growing concern. Immorality, prostitution, and vice are more highly (and openly) organized and commercialized than ever before. The theaters, cinemas, and bookshops reflect all too clearly the moral trend of the age—a trend downwards, not upwards.

And yet the church life of the nation is by no means extinct. Far from it. Quite apart from the main denominations, numerous religious agencies are engaged in spreading the Gospel through city missions, village evangelism, Scripture distribution, colportage work, open-air meetings, young people’s camps, and the like. One way or another a vast amount of Christian activity—much of it genuinely evangelical and spiritual—is going on throughout Britain year by year.

Why then is the church so seemingly ineffective? Although, comparatively, Britain is geographically a small country, the state of the church varies enormously from place to place. The North is different from the South. Rural England (and much of it is still rural) presents a contrast to the industrial areas. London has its own particular problems. It must suffice here to note one of two things about the religious state of the nation in general terms.

1. It is a mere commonplace to assert that the chief enemy of the church in Britain today is spiritual indifference rather than organized hostility. There is little real opposition. The number of militant atheists or Communists is comparatively small. Indeed, most people view the church with a benevolent eye as a venerable and sometimes useful institution, to be patronized on such occasions as baptisms, weddings, and funerals, but otherwise not to be taken too seriously. The average man-in-the-street does not think much about religious issues: in fact, he does his best not to think. The “church” is not a vital factor in his life. Undoubtedly this attitude of indifference is due to the contemporary scientific mood. The intellectual climate of the age is not conducive to deep religious thought.

2. Another factor to be reckoned with is the welfare state, together with the present wave of material prosperity. After the austerities of the war years, and the struggle of the immediate post-war era, the nation now at long last finds itself comfortably off. Poverty scarcely exists. Money is plentiful. More is being spent on luxuries and pleasures—drink, tobacco, gambling, entertainment, sport, and so on—than ever before. From the cradle to the grave the State takes care of them. Their bodies are well fed. Their health is looked after. They are amply provided with cultural and intellectual interests. What more can they require? There is no obvious sense that something vital is missing, that life lacks purpose and power. In consequence the relevance of the Gospel becomes all the more remote.

3. Without question, the real cleavage between the church and the nation is at the level of the “working classes” rather than at the other end of the scale. Of course, it is a fact that the working classes historically have been poor churchgoers, and their religion always has been nominal and superstitious rather than active and real. Perhaps the difference today is that their religion is ceasing to be even nominal—at least in many cases—and that this section of the community is more blatantly pagan than any other.

The spiritual situation in Britain is therefore not an easy one. In many respects it is quite complex. Looking at things as a whole, it would be easy to become entirely pessimistic.

SOME SIGNS OF HOPE

It would be equally easy to be deceived by a false optimism. Yet the position is not without hope, particularly from the evangelical point of view.

1. Ever since Billy Graham’s visit to London in the spring of 1954 for the “Harringay” crusade, there has been a quickening of evangelistic concern in the churches and the result in many cases has been an improvement in church attendance. But more—there has also been a notable increase in the number of recruits for the Christian ministry. As a result the supply of ordinands is now better than it has been since before the war, and it is still improving. The significance of this is that, in the opinion of many observers, manpower is the key to the missionary situation facing the church in Britain today. There is evidence that in well-staffed parishes the church is having a definite and decided impact on the community. The ineffective church is usually the church with an ineffective ministry.

2. Another hopeful sign is to be found in the universities and colleges, more especially among the older foundations. It is claimed that church and chapel attendances at Oxford and Cambridge are larger than they have been for several decades. Those engaged in evangelistic and pastoral work among students tell of a quickening of interest in the eternal verities, a deeper spirit of inquiry, a new readiness to consider the claims of Christ—and in many cases to accept them. It seems that the Gospel is making itself felt in a potent way among the future leaders of British public life.

3. Closer co-operation between the churches is another significant mark of the current religious situation in Britain. Slowly the barriers between the established church and the free churches are breaking down. Bitter and jealous rivalry among the denominations is giving way to united endeavor—sometimes in the field of evangelism, sometimes in the sphere of social service. Admittedly visible unity among the churches is not necessarily a mark of grace; but no more is visible disunity. And the latter is all too often a cause of stumbling to those outside who cannot reconcile the church’s message of peace and goodwill with its own deeply divided state. Clearly the church can speak with more authority to a bewildered and questioning society when it speaks with one voice.

4. Much has been made in certain quarters of the post-war revival of “biblical theology” and the return to biblical preaching. There is enough truth in this claim to enable us to speak of a “back to the Bible” movement in the churches. The old era of destructive biblical criticism seems to be a thing of the past. This has not been followed by a wholesale revival of “conservative” theology—not by a long way; but at least the Bible is being taken more seriously than before and is being accorded a new place of honor in the pulpit and lecture hall.

So there are signs of hope. But there is no ground whatever for complacency in looking at the religious life of Britain today. True, a great deal is being done. The disturbing question is: How much is being accomplished? And what is needed to make the Church’s witness more powerful and penetrating in the life of the nation?

There is only one answer to that question. The basic need of the church is for spiritual revival. The machinery is there. The driving force is lacking. Perhaps it would not be unfair to suggest that Christians in Britain, generally speaking, are living on the right side of Easter but on the wrong side of Pentecost. They have faith but not power. And that is true of the church as a whole. A deep religious awakening would change the church in Britain from being a respectable (and often respected) institution into a dynamic (and sometimes disturbing) spiritual force.

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

The Russian Orthodox church has now become one of the main focuses of attention within the ecumenical purview. There are two reasons for this: firstly, the application by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox church for membership in the World Council of Churches; and, secondly, the intention of Pope John XXIII to convoke an ecumenical council of his own for 1962, one of the chief features of which is expected to be an appeal to the Eastern Orthodox churches to return to the “True Fold.” There is hardly room for doubt that at the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches to be held at New Delhi in November of this year the Russian Orthodox church will be readily granted its request for membership.

A concordat between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches is, however, less certain. It is true that neither church belongs to the Protestant and Reformed camp and that they have a great deal in common with each other. Many, using the loose terminology now fashionable, would classify them both as “Catholic” churches—though the Roman Catholic church regards the members of the Orthodox churches as “Eastern Dissidents” rather than as “Catholics.” Still, as a Franciscan writer in a Roman Catholic weekly has recently said, the latter are “very close to the Catholic church in belief and piety, and yet separated nonetheless from its ecclesiastical jurisdiction.”

Of the differences between the Eastern Orthodox churches (of which the Russian is much the largest) and the Roman Catholic church, the most important is the rejection by the Orthodox churches of the papal supremacy. This difference is not only rooted in history but is also, one can’t help feeling, constitutional, dictated by an ingrained dislike of absolute autocracy and authoritarian centralization. Russian Orthodoxy cherishes the concept of each diocese as a separate and complete entity in itself under its appointed bishop. The ecclesiastical rivalry between Rome and Constantinople (with which the Orthodox churches are historically aligned) is a well-known fact of history.

Another matter of historical dissention between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches concerns the clause “and the Son” (known by theologians as the Filioque clause) in the Nicene Creed, which affirms the “double procession” of the Holy Spirit—that is, from both the Father and the Son; whereas the Russian together with the other Eastern churches contends that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, and not from the Son as well.

Other matters of contention between the two churches involve the doctrines of purgatory and of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, the practice of granting indulgences, and the use of unleavened bread at the sacrament of Holy Communion.

There is, however, a further obstacle in the way of effective rapprochement between Moscow and Rome, and it is the prevailing political situation. These two capital cities, the one the center of world communism and the other the headquarters of world papalism, are not linked by bonds of affection and understanding. They both make totalitarian claims, and a decision for the ecclesiastical reunion of Rome and Orthodoxy would almost certainly place the Russian Orthodox church in a position still more awkward than that in which it now finds itself, and might well jeopardize even such limited freedoms as are at present accorded that church in the Soviet Union.

Despite the points of contrast with Roman Catholicism to which I have referred, the Russian Orthodox church can be expected, once it becomes a member of the World Council of Churches, to stand rigidly with the minority in the Council who maintain that episcopacy is of the essence of the Christian church and therefore refuse to acknowledge the validity of nonepiscopal orders, and who decidedly oppose all overtures for the practice of intercommunion and maintain that intercommunion cannot precede unity or be a means to that end.

It should be recognized that these convictions are sincerely held however much they may be deplored as constituting the greatest single block to the realization of reunion. Those who find the principle of unity in the evangelical faith of the New Testament, rather than in ecclesiastical order, feel it to be distressingly incongruous that Christians meeting together—and worshipping together—at ecumenical assemblies of the World Council of Churches have so far been unable to consummate their fellowship (though most of them would like to do so) by eating of the one loaf and drinking of the one cup at the Lord’s Table. Sooner rather than later the World Council of Churches will have to decide whether schemes and schedules for reunion are to be governed by the doctrine of an apostolic succession of bishops or by the doctrine of a common faith in the one Redeemer. In other words, it will have to make up its mind which has priority: faith or order. Meanwhile the devising of ambiguous rites of unification, as in the case of the proposed Church of Lanka (Ceylon), cannot be regarded as satisfactory, or even candid, because they leave this crucial issue unresolved.

The Right Reverend Anthony Bishop Sergievo, of the Russian Orthodox church in London, told me in a recent conversation that the Russian Orthodox church desires to become a member of the World Council of Churches for two principal reasons: firstly, because at every one of its services prayers are offered for the unity of all Christians; and, secondly, because the Russian Orthodox church is intensely aware of the solidarity of all Christians in a world which is so largely dominated by non-Christian and anti-Christian modes of thought and action, and therefore will value this opportunity of wider contact and fellowship with Christians in the ecumenical movement. We should all intercede for unity that is steadfast “in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Toynbee Reconsiders—But Critics Remain

Reconsiderations, by Arnold Toynbee (Oxford, 1961, 740 pp., $10), is reviewed by C. Gregg Singer, Professor of History, Catawba College.

In this volume Dr. Toynbee is to be highly commended for the serious effort which he has made to meet the objections of his many critics. Few historians have so openly and so fully stated the criticism leveled against their positions as has Professor Toynbee. Of course, many of these criticisms were contradictory and it would have been impossible for him to meet them all.

Just how much, if at all, has Professor Toynbee changed the position which he enumerated in the earlier volumes? In the opinion of this reviewer his basic conception of history remains essentially as it was. This is not to say that it has not been modified, or that he has not made important concessions to some of his critics. This is far from the case and there is much evidence that Dr. Toynbee has taken the criticisms to heart.

If the essential structure of his philosophy of history remains unchanged, then in what areas has he made the concessions? It would seem that he has lessened his insistence on forcing all other civilizations into the Hellenic mold, and hence some deviations at this point would be allowed. He has also recast the structure of previous cultures and regrouped them (see pp. 546, 561).

Furthermore, Toynbee has definitely changed his view concerning the higher religions. In his earliest volumes he tried to account for higher religion in terms of civilizations, seeing such religions as a mechanism by which civilizations provided for their own reproduction. He now sees that this was in error and that no longer are the higher religions the “chrysalises” into which disintegrating civilizations enter in the last stage of their dissolution and from which a new civilization would subsequently emerge.

Of particular interest is Toynbee’s chapter on the history and prospect of the Jews. And it is here that many will continue to take issue with him, particularly his Jewish critics. His characterization of contemporary Judaism as a fossil type of culture does not in itself place Toynbee in the rank of anti-Semitism, but it is susceptible to great misunderstanding in the hands of those who do not understand his basic position. His refusal to see Judaism in perspective lies at the heart of his difficulty at this point.

Actually Toynbee’s weakness in regard to Judaism as a community and culture stems from an even greater weakness in his refusal to recognize that the Jews were God’s chosen people and that they hold a unique place in history. For Toynbee, they represent no more than an ancient culture which has had its day and which gave birth to two other religions, Islam and Christianity.

In the opinion of this reviewer the fundamental weakness in Toynbee’s whole approach is theological. Not only does he take a radical attitude toward the Scriptures and refuse to recognize their inspiration or authority, but he also rejects supernaturalism in regard to Christianity. He even goes so far as to admit that he has a preference for Jewish beliefs as against those of Christianity and openly states his opposition to any claims of deity for Jesus Christ. There is no specific biblical point of view in Reconsiderations. There is no interpretation of human history from the point of view of the Word of God, and for the Christian this latest book by Dr. Toynbee must be a tremendous disappointment. Whether or not he sets forth a philosophy of history, he certainly does not set forth a theological (much less a Christian) conception of history.

Nevertheless this book is rewarding for the Christian scholar, minister, or layman who would understand how modern man would interpret his own past without the aid of the Word of God. We may not agree with Dr. Toynbee, but we must be fully informed of what he is thinking for his position has many adherents.

C. GREGG SINGER

To Chart A Course

Bible Guides, edited by William Barclay and F. F. Bruce: No. 1, William Barclay, The Making of the Bible; No. 7, George Knight, The Prophets of Israel (1) Isaiah; No. 11, John Paterson, The Wisdom of Israel; No. 13, C. L. Mitton, The Good News (London: Lutterworth Press, and New York: Abingdon Press, 1961, 96 pp. ea., $1 ea.), is reviewed by William Sanford LaSor, Professor, Old Testament, Fuller Seminary.

Bible Guides endeavors to present in 22 volumes the “total view” of the Bible, presenting “the purpose, plan and power of the Scriptures” (Vol. 1, p. 6). The work does not aim to be a commentary but a guide for nontheologically-equipped readers to help them understand the component parts of the Bible. The contributing scholars seek to examine, explain, and give expositions of the respective portions of Scripture for which they are responsible.

To judge from the first four volumes to be published, the authors are doing a commendable job. The writing is clear, nontechnical, and set in up-to-date terms. The reader, though he may have been ignorant of the Bible at the beginning, will certainly know something of its form, composition, and message, and he will not find the reading tedious.

In Volume 1, Professor Barclay tells of the making of the Old and New Testaments. The general conclusions of source criticism are accepted, and the Pentateuch is “D+JE+H+P” (p. 21). The description of the emergence of Scripture (or canonization) is well told. In the case of the New Testament, Barclay works his way through oral tradition, a bit of “Form Criticism,” the writing of the books, and the process of canonization, finally to discuss the decision to retain the Old Testament as part of the Christian Scriptures. He closes with a presentation of the authority and Christocentricity of Scripture.

In Volume 7, Professor Knight opens with a discussion of the purpose and the plan of Isaiah, with references to “Second-Isaiah,” “Third-Isaiah,” and the “Little Apocalypse.” The “unity” of Isaiah is “a unity of revelation despite its diversity of origin, period and style” (p. 38). The exposition that follows is filled with fine insights. Concerning the “Servant” passages, and referring specifically to Isaiah 43:22–23, the author says, “That is why we can declare with conviction that the fourth Servant poem, that passage which we call for convenience ‘Isaiah 53,’ coming as it does at the end of Second-Isaiah’s long and intensive argument, is a picture, not so much of Israel, as of God Himself!” (p. 90).

Volume 11, by Professor John Paterson, is an enlightening work on the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament, specifically Job and Proverbs. The general introduction to this genre is much too short (pp. 11–12), but contains the fine statement that “Wisdom Literature represents the effort of the Hebrew mind to understand and explain all that exists.” Of the expositions, I find that of Proverbs more stimulating. References to “serious dislocation of the text” (p. 21), and to Elihu’s speeches as “an intrusion in the work” (p. 43), will cause some eyebrows to lift, as will the statement that Proverbs 22:17–23:14 is “clearly indebted to” and “seems to have been ‘lifted’ straight from” the Wisdom of Amenemope (p. 61).

Volume 13, by Principal Mitton, is the only one of the New Testament volumes to appear thus far. His approach is interesting and revealing: first he presents Jesus of Nazareth, then the faith of the Church, and then the written records. But what, after all, do we know of Jesus or the faith of the Church except from the written records? The author uses Mark for the outline, and adds details from the other Synoptics. He discusses the message of Jesus, the parables, and the miracles, and concludes with an evaluation of the person of Christ. Concerning the healing miracles he takes a strong position supported by “incontestable evidence” (p. 87), but his position on the nature miracles seems to beg the question (p. 91).

The presence of critical theories with which we may not agree should not lead us to deprive ourselves of the rich values we can find in these works.

WILLIAM SANFORD LASOR

They Live Again

Makers of Religious Freedom in the 17th Century, by Marcus L. Loane (Eerdmans, 1961, 240 pp., $4), is reviewed by W. S. Reid, Professor of History, McGill University, Montreal.

This work recounts the lives of four men who fought for religious liberty against an overbearing episcopacy in the seventeenth century: Alexander Henderson, Samuel Rutherford, John Bunyan, and Richard Baxter. Bishop Loane has already shown his ability to make historical characters live in his writings and these studies reveal the same facility of pen. No Christian can read this work without receiving encouragement and inspiration.

In some places, however, the accounts suffer somewhat from compression, as for instance when the author deals rather cursorily with the Resolutioners and the Remonstrants in Scotland (p. 86). Also the writ of habeas corpus was enacted in 1679, long after Bunyan was imprisoned in 1661 (p. 131).

These, however, are mere details. This book attracts interest not solely because of its story, but because an Anglican bishop is its author. If his attitude to nonepiscopalians had prevailed in 1661 and even prevailed now, a very different story could today be told concerning English-speaking Protestantism the world over.

W. S. REID

Hungary’S Real Church

The Lean Years: A study of Hungarian Calvinism in Crisis, by Gyula Gombos (The Kossuth Foundation, 1960, 131 pp., $3.50), is reviewed by Bela Vassady, Professor of Systematic Theology, Lancaster Theological Seminary.

The life and death issue of the Church of Jesus Christ behind the iron curtain is whether she can remain the Servant Church of the Servant Lord without at the same time being degraded into a servile Church. The book of Gyula Gombos gives a dramatic description of political and religious events in Hungary after World War II. It describes how the East gradually took over political control, how a “new theology” was developed in order to justify the servile attitude of the church leaders, and how the divine warfare of the Church was more and more given up by subjecting it to the interests of a God-defiant and self-reliant totalitarian welfare state. “The brave confessors of 1956” were crushed by Russian tanks, and the Church today is again under political control—in fact, much more than ever before. Yet the real Church, the Servant Church of the Servant Lord is still alive awaiting her political liberation.

Today we cannot have free contacts with that real Church. Her official delegates to international and ecumenical church conferences are men rubber-stamped by the Communist government. The voice of these men, however, is not at all identical with the silenced voice of the real Church. Gombos’ book makes this clear to the reader at many points. Nevertheless the declaration of this silenced Church could be heard at least in 1956! And it is spiritually enriching to be made acquainted with the basic principles of that declaration. Members of the free churches in a free country should avail themselves of it. Such reading will make them more appreciative of their precious heritage and more devoted to the cause of liberating their captive Christian brethren with weapons of a nonworldly warfare.

BELA VASSADY

History Plus A Theology

The Life and Teaching of Jesus, by Edward W. Bauman (Westminster, 1960, 240 pp., $3.95), is reviewed by George Eldon Ladd, Professor of Biblical Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary.

The purpose of this book is “to discover what can be known of the life of Jesus of Nazareth and his message” (p. 11). However, this is not a purely historical study. Bauman frequently raises the question of the theological meanings of the historical events. At points, he is very helpful. He acknowledges the centrality of the Incarnation. “God took on flesh in a particular person who became the center of a particular event that is his supreme revealing act in man’s life. This revealing act is the center of history because it gives meaning to all of history and reveals God’s purpose for history” (p. 223). These words, if they reflect Bauman’s own views, could not be made by a Bultmann. Again, Bauman faces squarely and at points helpfully the question of the Resurrection. Although he does not know what happened to the dead body, he insists upon the necessity of Bodily Resurrection. Any theory of visions does not fit the facts. However, Bauman only creates confusion by saying that Mark’s Gospel belittles the importance of the Empty Tomb (p. 113) without explaining what he means.

Having admitted the reality of these suprahistorical events in history, Bauman nevertheless boggles at other lesser events. Jesus’ miracles of healing are explained not as acts of the incarnate God but as due to Jesus’ insight into the nature of healing which modern medicine has yet to attain (p. 70). Nature miracles are explained either rationalistically or as a result of Jesus’ unsurpassed insight into the ways of nature (p. 71). The question of the manner of Jesus’ birth is not interpreted as a creative act of God but is left unresolved in “Christian agnosticism” (p. 53).

Bauman’s discussion is superficial when, in favor of a moral theory, he dismisses the possibility of a substitutionary view of the Atonement as unworthy of God (p. 105 f.). He confuses the Messianic terminology by leaving the “Son of man” without definable content and substituting “Messiah” for “Son of man.” He creates a false impression in saying that the statement “Jesus is God” “is nowhere made by Jesus or by any writer in the New Testament” (p. 201; cf. O. Cullmann, Christology, chap. 11: “The Designation of Jesus as ‘God’ ”). He leaves the problem of the Fourth Gospel in confusion by stating that it is “a synthesis of traditional Judaism, Hellenism, and sectarian Judaism” coming from the second century (p. 209) which nevertheless records the inner consciousness of Jesus (p. 213). In view of John 12:25, it is difficult to see how one can say, without qualification, that “eternal life is present and not future” (p. 215).

GEORGE ELDON LADD

House Divided

Thy Brother’s Blood, by Larry Ward (Cowman, 1961, 227 pp., $3.75), is reviewed by Henry W. Coray, Author of Son of Tears.

Here is a Civil War saga from the pen of the editor of World Vision Magazine and vice president of Information Services of World Vision, Inc. The plot is intriguing. Out of a Baltimore family one brother representing the North finds himself pitted against another brother marching with the Confederate forces under Stonewall Jackson. You might know that the two would meet on the field of battle—with a surprising result. One could wish that the writer had narrated his story with a smoother flow, fresher expression, and had sheared away the clichés. The vignette of Stonewall Jackson stands out as the book’s best feature.

HENRY W. CORAY

Zen, Symptom Of Crisis

Zen Comes West, by Christmas Humphreys (George Allen and Unwin, 1960, 207 pp., 21s.), is reviewed by Lit-Sen Chang, Lecturer in Oriental Religions, Gordon Divinity School.

The author is not unknown to those in the West who are interested in Buddhism. He is Founder-President of the Buddhist Society in London and author of Zen Buddhism which appeared in 1949. The present book is for the most part a hodgepodge of the author’s letters to the society members and notes of his talks to the Zen class about themes, problems, and aspects of Zen teaching. In addition there are several short articles which first appeared in The Middle Way, the organ of The Buddhist Society. Because the book lacks systematic presentation, the reader may readily note its overlappings and confusions, although the author has “to a small extent graded the sections from simple to more advanced in theme or treatment” (p. 17). The book may well serve as a report about the way in which Humphreys’ Zen class works; it is not, however, relevant to nor deserves wide hearing by the ordinary reader. Moreover, there is nothing original in Zen teaching, either in practice or theory.

The position of the book is so deceptive that it would require a volume to criticize its perverse teaching and slanted thesis. For instance, the author says: “Zen practice has no use of God. Zen finds no use for that concept.… Look to no person or Person or God for help” (p. 74). “In the West it is necessary … to remove the personal God-concept and all that it implies of salvation by faith alone” (p. 203). Obviously, he is entirely blind to the desperate need of a Saviour to break down “the middle wall of partition between us” by his precious blood. Thus we perfectly agree with him when he considers himself as “the incompetent but blindly courageous leader of the blind” (p. 17). But “can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?” (Luke 6:39).

Strange to say, after World War II, Zen found its place in the West as a study of serious interest and has a peculiar fascination for minds weary of conventional religion and philosophy. This is surely the symptom of the spiritual crisis of modern men. The Light is come into the world, and men, being deceived by the plausible teachings of Zen, comprehended it not, loved darkness rather than Light, because their deeds were evil. From this book, one sees a miserable picture of a Zen follower probing in the darkness while alleging attainment of so-called enlightenment (Wu, in Chinese; Satori, in Japanese). (The reviewer is speaking as a convert from Zen to Christianity.) Even Carl G. Jung, Western scholar and psychiatrist who is sympathetic to Zen, wrote these words: “We can never decide definitely whether a person is really enlightened or whether he merely imagines it, we have no criterion of this” (cf. his forward to Dr. Suzuki’s Introduction to Zen, p. 15). Thus as there is no criterion, man can in no way test his inward impulse and determine which is of God and which of evil. To tell him, therefore, to look within, to discipline the Mind itself, to make it its own master through insight into its nature, is to engender not only a spirit of mysticism but a guide which will lead man to destruction. This is why the author declares on the one hand that “Zen is the One creative life in a new form”; but on the other hand that “the difficulties ahead are enormous” (p. 202); “as it becomes more popular and the quantity of literature increases, the quality will steadily deteriorate” (p. 206); “in the U. S. A.… it has already degenerated … into a foolish and rootless cult” (p. 201).

LIT-SEN CHANG

Methodism And Missions

The Christian Mission Today, a symposium (Abingdon, 1960, 288 pp., $3), is reviewed by Harold B. Kuhn, Professor of the Philosophy of Religion, Asbury Theological Seminary.

This volume embodies a series of studies, written by 21 contemporary writers who seek to assess the world mission of the Church of our day, with special reference to the manner in which Methodism is seeking to fulfill that task. It is intended as a guide to ministerial training, as that training is directed toward the goal of acquainting the candidate with the extent and nature of Christian activity.

The opening chapter, “Contemporary Theology and the Christian Mission,” is designed to afford, we suppose, a general orientation for the series of studies which follow. Its author deals at some length with the several theological approaches, particularly of “neo-orthodoxy” (a term lacking in precision) and liberalism. Historic orthodoxy receives little attention, and the reader is left with the feeling that it has little in the way of constructive word to speak to the contemporary missionary situation. The author seemingly is of the persuation that some form of “neo-liberalism” offers the best all-round approach to the non-Christian world.

Chapters two and three deal, respectively, with the relation of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit to the world-mission of the Church. The two writers seek to present a form of “Christian Realism” in their respective areas. One is tempted to wonder whether both chapters are not limited by a lack of preciseness in definition. The 11 ensuing chapters set forth, in area by area, the conditions which confront missionary activity in the world of our time. As such, they are what they were projected to be, quite informative surveys, combining suggestions for challenges which face us in the days ahead.

The reviewer found himself intrigued by a number of paragraphs in the chapters of Part D—that is, in chapters 15 to 20. The authors, particularly of chapter 15, “Materialism and Secularism,” and of chapter 18, “Younger Churches and New Nations,” have made some exceedingly penetrating analyses of the contemporary scene, and have probed into sore areas in Western culture. Equally instructive is Dr. Stephen Neill’s chapter 21, “The Urgency of This Mission Today.”

Read as a survey of what is, this volume has merit for readers beyond the boundaries of the church which has sponsored it. As a critique of much of the world scene, the book has much to offer. If it has any overall weakness, I would say it is in the absence of precision at the point of what should be the essential content of the Christian Evangel.

HAROLD B. KUHN