Religious World Trends

We seek to present in this section the leading religious thought currents and developments of the hour. Some of the most striking utterances of recent times have un­questionably appeared in the Christian Cen­tury—so named to reflect the Modernistic con­cept of a world actually laid under tribute to Christian principle through the social-gospel channel, and eventuating in the establishment of a carnal kingdom of God on earth. A notable statement, constituting an inescapable challenge to the leadership and ministry of the advent movement, appears in the issue of April 27, in an editorial entitled, "In a Time of Waiting." A resume, with generous ex­cerpts, will be needed to bring it clearly be­fore us. The opening sentences read:

"The church has come upon a time of waiting. It does not know how to act; yet it has not learned to wait. This is particularly true of the American church whose outstanding characteristic for two generations has been its activity."

The terms "activism" and "quietism" are next defined, and used to represent the con­trastingly characteristic American and Euro­pean religious attitudes. Following this comes a description of the "situation" confronting Protestantism, with its "shaken" conceptions and the crumbling of the previously accepted foundations. It employs, generously, a much-overworked word in present-day theological parlance,—"ideology," meaning the philosophy or concept, with its attendant terminology.

"Society is in a profoundly unstable condition. The foundations of the whole secular order are being shaken—political foundations, economic foundations, cultural foundations, and therefore, ethical founda­tions. And therefore, also, religious foundations. . . . So long as the foundations of this order could be taken for granted, as they were up to the close of the World War, the church projected its activistic policies in terms of the prevailing ideologies. The ideologies of democracy, of liberty, of property, and of science, gave to the world what seemed like a firm structure. They provided a fixed framework within which the values and the criteria of man's highest welfare were to be found. Within these ideologies, the Christian church assumed that its main activities were to be carried on, . . . to make straight a highway upon which science could move everywhere in the world of nature, of society, and even of the inner life of man, discovering more and more of truth and inventing more and more mechanisms of comfort, convenience, speed, and efficiency."

The fallacious ground of its concept of suc­cess was this:

"Until very recent times, American Christianity was quite willing to measure its success in terms of its contribution to the realization of these ideological values which rested upon the unchallenged foundations of the secular order. . .The church was conceived in this same activistic, not to say mecha­nistic, fashion as an instrument, or an engine, or a dynamo of progress, in the sense that the increase of these values spelled progress."

The Modernistic misconception of the church's task is next expressed thus:

"The task of the church, then, was to infuse the social order with the teaching of Jesus. This meant the projecting of reforms in all fields, the correction of the existing system at this point and that, and the inspiring of men and women with strength and vision for living up to their best within the social order."

Distinguishing between the liberalist em­phasis upon the social gospel, and conserva­tism's stress of the relationship of the individ­ual soul with God, both were nevertheless "activistic" and were based upon the premise that "this structure was regarded as perma­nent, subject only to the law of evolutionary improvement." The "predicament" of Prot­estantism, due to the collapse of the secular system, is then portrayed, together with its unpreparedness for anything not based there­upon:

"How can a church whose mood has long been keyed to activity in the field constituted by these concepts, continue in this role, when the very field of its activity has either vanished or is threatened with devastation? The church, as we said at the outset, has come to a period of waiting. But being attuned to action—extravertive, almost go-gettive, action—it is not inwardly prepared to wait. It has made no place in its 'program' for waiting—its pro­gram has called for action, social action, evangelistic action. It has established no altar where it is accus­tomed to tarry to receive the gifts of God,"

Then follows discussion of that "altar," usually conceived as a place to leave one's own gifts of human achievement, individual and united, and "institutional busyness," rather than a place to seek for the "gifts of insight and strength and grace which only God can give." This assertion is made:

"No civilization erected in the temporal order, even though it is built by the highest human knowl­edge and idealism, is worthy to command the un­critical and unreserved devotion of the Christian faith. The time has now come to affirm with meas­ured gravity that it is infinitely more important to bring secular civilization to the altar of the Chris­tian church than to carry Christian moral idealism into secular civilization. It is a mistake to identify the social gospel with the kind of activism which has too generally characterized its exponents. The social gospel lays upon the church far greater de­mands in the realm of the 'spiritual' than has been recognized. It requires something more than a go-getting activism. It presupposes such a church as has never yet been fashioned by Christian faith." [Italics ours.]

The significant suggestion is next made that perhaps this is the announcement of the hour of God's judging of the church:

"Perhaps this waiting time to which Christian faith has come is itself the announcement of God's judgment upon the church as well as upon secular civilization. Certainly He cannot make His judg­ment felt by a church that is breathlessly preoccu­pied with its own uncriticized and unchallenged ac­tivities. But with this activism arrested and the church thrown back upon its inner resources, it may discover how shrunken is the capital upon which it has been doing business, and how thin the harvest of its hectic labor."

Finally comes a remarkable acknowledg­ment of bewilderment, coupled with a plain­tive appeal for counsel and direction in this baffling situation:

"A church that yearns to help the world today is in profound perplexity to know what to do. Not in a century has there been such chaos in respect to specific programs. Not only so, but the church was never so put to it to distinguish between right and wrong. In international relations, in economic proposals, in political systems, in personal and marital and social morality—who will give the church a clear and unchallengeable cause to fight for? . . . Who will confront the Christian church with a cause high and great and unchallengeable enough to command the full resources implicit in the church's gospel?"

Thus a bewildered liberal Protestantism, disappointed and disillusioned, confesses its confusion, and asks the meaning of it all and the way out. Lacking a clear understanding of Bible prophecy, and also the special and certain light shed by the Spirit of prophecy, it occupies a situation both tragic and appeal­ing. This should prove a mighty spur to the advent movement—a tremendous incentive. The searching question comes, Are we ade­quately telling the religious world just what it all does mean, why they find themselves so baffled, wherein Protestantism at large has lost its bearings, and the outcome of it all?

This is our unparalleled opportunity to de­clare with clarity, fidelity, carefulness, vigor, and yet with restraint, the truth of God for this troubled hour. We should speak with a voice that will be heard—not merely individ­ually, but in our collective capacity. The hour has come for the making of statements to the world commensurate with the times. The loud voice of this movement should ring out.

Retrospect and Summation

The Christian Century is rankly Modernistic, but it is ably, yes, brilliantly edited, and its observations on world affairs are drawn from the most prominent liberal church­men throughout the world. One annual fea­ture of this journal is the yearly "Retrospect," appearing in the closing issue of each volume. The issue of December 29 presents a pene­trating analysis of the world situation of sufficient value and suggestion to be worthy of scrutiny. It reflects the reactions of a keen and well-informed observer. It is well to get back of obvious results to probable causes. And it is imperative for us, as workers, to have an integrated world view of affairs. The opening paragraph of the sur­vey reads:

"Another year enters history. Many will see it pass without regret, remembering it as a period of fear, when most of man's efforts ended in failure, and every day brought new foreboding. Everywhere the sense of apprehension, the feeling that civiliza­tion is rushing blindly to an awful doom, has in­creased during the twelve months now closing. No longer is the question asked, Will there be another world war?' The terror at the back of men's minds now forces them to say, 'When will the second world war start?' Many with historical insight, viewing the events of 1937, are questioning, 'Has the new world war begun?' Man, the hunted quarry of his own follies, staggers along a dark road that seems to lead toward a greater darkness."

Then follows a section in which the editor attempts to peer behind the outer scenes in the "great theater" of international affairs, to discover the secret of the present general world imbroglio. The original cause of uni­versal fear and military measures is traced to the implications of Russia's successive "purges" in these words:

"It is hardly an exaggeration to say that many of the most ominous developments in the Far East and in other parts of Europe can be traced directly back to the measures taken by Stalin's government to assure its own stability."

The situation, the Century contends, has produced this European realignment:

"In Europe, the Russian purges have convinced both Germany and Italy that nothing save defensive action is to be expected from the Soviet Union, and have raised grave doubts in other nations as to the value of the military alliance between France and the U.S.S.R. The result has been a shifting of the balance of continental power into fascist hands—the so-called Berlin-Rome axis—and the acceptance of a subordinate role by the democratic nations pending completion of the gigantic rearmament pro­gram undertaken by Great Britain. This program is based on belief that Britain can no longer count heavily on help from Russia in the event of a general war. She and her ally, France, must be prepared to fight virtually alone. But while England is thus straining every resource to reach that level of pre­paredness, the fascist states have found themselves given almost a free hand."

This has resulted, it is contended, in the well-known conditions and the extension of fascist power in Spain, the Mediterranean, the Little Entente, northern Africa, and Ethiopia. Most serious of all, the editorial continues, is the—"Community of interest between the fascist states of Europe and Japan. Japan, likewise, has been spurred to a new aggression in Eastern Asia by her belief that Russia's internal condition renders inter­ference unlikely."

As the "fascist world bloc" comes into being, the League passes from the picture, and fren­zied world armament rules the day. Thus:

"Formal alliance between Japan, Germany, and Italy is proclaimed. As this fascist world bloc has come into being, pushing its fortunes by war in both Europe and Asia, the League of Nations has con­tinued to fade from the international picture. Even as a forum for the discussion of threats to peace, the league has almost ceased to function. . . . In a world where force has become, not the ultimate arbiter, but the daily recourse of nations which depend on war for their very lives, despairing men see no alternative but to prepare to meet that force with more force. As a result, the whole world has been plunged into an armament race without parallel."

The concluding section discusses two sig­nificant religious developments with their grave portents for the future. First, and foremost among these has undoubtedly been—"the increasing drift of the Roman Catholic Church within the orbit of fascism. There is something peculiarly tragic in this, for by every sign the Pope, Pius XI, who wrote the encyclical `Quadragesimo Arno,' has no business blessing tyranny of the sort represented by Mussolini and Franco. Many Cath­olics are struggling to offset this drift, but the weight of hierarchical interest, intent on preserving privileges which have grown up under passing orders of society, is against them. Too widely for its own future good, the Roman Catholic Church is becom­ing identified in the minds of the masses with polit­ical and social reaction."

Then, after_` discussing the German church struggle, the survey closes with a reference to the Oxford and Edinburgh Conferences, which looked "with open eyes on the realities of the present world:"

"They accepted the responsibility of the church for the character of civilization. They confessed that in a divided church there is no strength sufficient for this task. To open the way toward union, they formed a World Council of Churches. It remains to be seen how largely what was accomplished at these two ecumenical conferences can be translated into the thought and life of the now-scattered churches of a divided Christendom. Or did Oxford and Edinburgh come too late—so late that civiliza­tion itself must be born anew before the churches can be born anew?"