Showing papers in "Theology in 1945"

The Shape of the Liturgy

Abstract: requirements of justice. There is no need, and we have no right, to arrogate to ourselves the power to punish. Governments have the right and duty to prevent or check the progress of sin by the punishment of criminals. This is only effective if it can be done in such a way as to be manifestly just. Whether this can be done in the case of the \"war criminals\" is a matter for the lawyers. But if it can, according to the New Testament, it ought to be done; and a penitent criminal would wish it to be done to himself. The Christian as such must never fail in love towards anyone, not even towards the unrepentant criminal. He must always be longing for, and actively seeking, his good. The Christian, who in himself, or in his friends, has suffered, has a special privilege of forgiveness towards those through whose fault he has suffered. At least he will stop the spread of hatred; at the best, he will be instrumental in the conversion of the individual or his fellows in the sin. This is the redemptive love of God in action. If we want to be used in this way, God will show us, and show the Church, how and where it can be done. And if we would help the atonement on behalf of Jews, or any others who have suffered more than ourselves, we shall begin by winning the right, through friendship, of sharing in their suffering and bearing it with them. T. R. MILFORD.

The Doctrine of Confirmation

Abstract: whereby young people can publicly renew the promises made for them in Baptism, and receive the Holy Spirit for their life of service as full members of the Church. The Confirmation of the Western Church, which is a completion of Baptism, is one of the great values which we have to offer to the Eastern Churches. I can conceive of the Eastern Church, while retaining its chrism in Baptism, and welcoming its children from their earliest years to the Lord's Supper, introducing a service of Ordination of the Layman (as Bishop Westcott loved to designate Confirmation), by the laying-on-of-hands of the Bishop conveying to the Layman the gift of the Holy Spirit for that life of witness and service in the Church to which Christ calls all his followers.l

Book Review: The Christian Churches and International Peace. By the Archbishop of York. S.C.M. Press. 1s.; Christianity and Democracy. By Jacques Maritain. Geoffrey Bles; The Centenary Press. 5s.The Christian Churches and International Peace. By the Archbishop of York. S.C.M. Press. 1s.; Christianity and Democracy. By MaritainJacques. Geoffrey Bles; The Centenary Press. 5s.

Abstract: gave us the sex instinct, and hallowed our lives by the Incarnation. In this age of upheaval, when everything is insecure-most of all the family framework-when sex is exploited at every turn to make a film, a song, a patent medicine sell, there are many eager for advice and support. A legalistic assessment of sex virtues and vices is totally inadequate to meet the situation. Only the preaching of the Gospel of redemption-it would not fall on deaf ears-will bring forth the fruits we desire. . Can the Church of England produce.a similar book, as unsentimental, as scholarly, but more theological, or will she pass by on the other side? MARGARET WOODCOCK.

Agape and Eros

Abstract: long ago as 191 I, but he was one of the greatest German philosophers of his time, and, as Professor Hodges says, this introduction is overdue. It is claimed that he was the first philosopher to deal thoroughly and systematically with the difference between our knowledge of physical objects and our knowledge of persons. He showed that, because of this difference, the aims, presuppositions, and methods of the "human studies" and social sciences ought not to be modelled on those of the natural sciences, but ought to correspond to the peculiar character of their subject-matter. He thus challenged the tendency, which is still dominant in England, to treat the methodology of natural science as the norm of every methodology that is entitled to be called scientific. Of course there have been many heartfelt protests against this tendency in the names of art, poetry, and mysticism. It is the merit of Dilthey to have given these protests intellectual substance and precision. He showed that the pursuit of truth is a much more complicated and inconclusive undertaking than has been generally supposed even by intellectuals. Psychology, history, philosophy and sociology, each has its own proper methodology. Thus, Dilthey leads up to the question of the proper methodology of theology, although it lies beyond his purview. If we are to define the exact and peculiar sense in which theology is a science, we shall have to take Dilthey's work into account. Theologians must not be put off by the radical relativism of his thought, nor be in a hurry to affix an opprobrious label to his position.

Liturgy and Community

Abstract: I cannot but think that it would be better if the State professed to support in the schools that it provides not any form of Christianity but the inculcation of the Law ofNature. For it can reasonably be claimed that the English nation still recognizes, though incompletely and none too surely, the authority of the Law of Nature, even ifit does not know it by that name, while it is even more certain that the English nation does not recognize the authority of the supernatural Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the present situation; therefore, high churchmen who are also high statesmen will call upon the State not to support the Church of ,England or even Christianity as such, since that cannot be done sincerely or without misleading, but to acknowledge and make effective its allegiance to the Law of Nature (which the (jospel affirms, though it is not by any means to be identified with, or substituted for, the Gospel). The least that high statesmen may assert: is that the State, as a power ordained by God, whether it be pre-Christian, Christian, or postChristian, is morally bound to have regard to the Law ofNature. High statesmen must assert this against all who cry down the office of the State or want to confine its regard to temporal or material interests, or who would exempt the State from moral obligation, or who try to work up a belated clamour for laissez faire in religion and morals. On the other hand, high churchmen must assert that it is the office of the Church as a supernatural society independent ot: but with a perpetual duty to, the State, to remind the State that ifit does not obey the Law of Nature, which is the Law of God, it will surely perish (cp. Isa.lx, 12). In obeying the Law of Nature:, the State will be doing, not the most that it can or ought in any circumstances, but the most that it can and ought in these circumstances, to serve as a guardian of the Church's children, and these, let it be reme~bered, include all the children of this realm, even those who acknowledge neither God nor His Church, and know neither their Father nor their Mother. Just because the power of the State is now so much heightened, and thereby liable to greater abuse, it needs the witness, and when necessary the rebuke and the active opposition, of a strong and independent Church, to keep. it true to, its high place and office as an ordinance of God for good. A. R. VIDLER.