cute ha i YS aN POTD cl wach 5 . ; Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library httos://archive.org/details/liberalchristianO0case LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK - BOSTON - CHICAGO - DALLAS ATLANTA + SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CoO., LimitTep LONDON + BOMBAY + CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lim. TORONTO LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION A STUDY OF OBJECTIVES IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION BY ; ADELAIDE TEAGUE ‘CASE, Px.D. TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Jem ork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1924 All rights reserved Corrricut, 1924, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and printed. Published October, 1924. Printed in the United States of America by J. J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK PREFACE I am glad to have opportunity to point out both the importance and the timeliness of the investigation that is reported in this book. We are living within what is perhaps the most serious crisis that the Christian religion has had to confront. ‘The most serious because everything that our religion has held precious, literally everything, is subjected to re-examination from new points of view. The dominance of the scientific method; the evolu- tionary view of all life, man’s whole cultural life in- cluded; critical historical methods employed in the study of the Bible and of all religions; the overwhelm- ing social issues precipitated by modern industrialism —all these are forces that play upon the very brain and the very heart of religion. Momentous changes are bound to occur either within Christian thought and experience, or else in the position of Christianity within Western culture. Whether Christianity will take up into itself these modern developments, permitting itself to be changed accordingly; or whether, resisting change, it will isolate itself from scientific and ethical culture; or whether we shall have henceforth two or more sorts of Christianity, remains to be seen. But the issues are becoming definite, and they are beginning to be argued in the court of the laity. Vv vi PREFACE One new type of thought, conscious of itself as Christian, has disengaged itself from customary re- straints. It is characterized by (a) a determination to think the problem of life anew under the presuppo- sitions of modern science, (b) appreciation of the new social issues, and (c) a conviction that life-principles inherent in the religion of Jesus are of permanent and commanding value. These three marks will serve to identify, in a general way, what is called liberal theology. The scene of the present crisis is not merely the the- ologian’s study and classroom. Religious living as well as theological thinking is involved. The use of the Bible, the apprehension of God, prayer, the fellowship and worship of the church, daily conduct and the meaning of duty—all are affected. Now, as these are matters for the common consciousness of the laity, it necessarily follows that a first-magnitude problem of religious education is upon our hands. Whether one accepts the liberal position or not, one encounters the issues, and one makes some sort of adjustment to them. Even conservatives, therefore, have reason to add something to the indoctrination, accompanied by in- citements to individualistic piety, that has character- ized the Sunday school. On the other hand, for lib- erals who really expect the laity to assimilate and live liberal Christianity the problem is nothing less than that of providing for the young a fundamentally reconstructed educational experience. What, then, has been done to provide this neces- sary religious intelligence and this reconstructed ex- PREFACE | Vil perience? Do the young, even within broad-minded congregations, have opportunity to grow up intelli- gently liberal and socially consecrated? Does current practice provide enough information to produce even intelligent conservatives? How many questions in the whole field of religious education are as important as this? Dr. Case’s work is the only one that an- swers it. This investigation is peculiarly timely as well as important. It is timely not only because our social strains are increasing, but also because of the re- surgence in America of religious conflicts that most of us supposed we had left behind for good. How far could these conflicts have been obviated if religious education, for the last quarter-century, had aimed definitely at religious intelligence? In any case, our only hope of anything better than a skin-deep and therefore impermanent healing of our discords, 1s pop- ular religious education that, in point of thought and of ethical experience, is genuinely fundamental; for appeal is being made to the laity on basic issues. These issues have to be faced in legislative bodies both civil and ecclesiastical, in the administration of congregations, and in personal religious living. Even the secular news sheets are peddling religious discus- sions. In a situation like this it is timely to ask, as Dr. Case has done: Does current religious education fit the people at large for the tasks of religious ad- justment that already are upon them? Before treatment, diagnosis! Let us not hasten to prescribe changes in curriculum and method until we vill PREFACE ascertain our internal condition and scan our present resources. This book is for those who appreciate painstaking educational diagnosis. But I have no hesitation in saying that, whether one’s convictions be liberal or conservative, the outcomes of this study will indicate to any Christian educator the shortest road to his goal. GEORGE A. COE. CONTENTS [EYRE OR Pia) aia BM Ga etl ASG ALAA Malh na Ark dag es CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION Say | ; ek tke Il. Tuer DIstiInctTive repeal oF LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY AND THEIR IMPLIED EDU- CATIONAL OBJECTIVES . ... By Ill. Tur Distinctive Positions oF reek CHRISTIANITY AND THEIR IMPLIED EDU- CATIONAL OBJECTIVES (continued) IV. Ossnctives As Derinep sy LEADING Writrers IN Reuigious Epucation. Ta Wuat Extent Do Tuesr EXPRESS THE PosiITIoNs oF LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY? . V. Ossectives ANNOUNCED BY ORGANIZATIONS FOR Reuicgious EpucaTion. Do THESE REPRESENT THE EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES IMPLICIT IN THE LisERAL MOVEMENT? VI. Currgicutum Opgsectives. How Far Do THE TrextTsooks Usep spy LEADING PRoT- ESTANT DENOMINATIONS RECOGNIZE THE Issues ImPorRTANT FOR LIBERAL CHRIS- TIANITY AND SEEK TO Meret THEM FROM A LiperAL Point or Vipw? . .. . VII. Tue Competency or Reticious WorKERS To DEAL WITH THE OBJECTIVES oF LiIB- ERAL CHRISTIANITY. ARE THE WORKERS Wuo Are IN Direct ToucH WITH THE PrOPLE PREPARED TO DEAL WITH THE Facts AND STANDARDS INVOLVED IN THE ISTBURAL. WEOVEMENT (oh) ou ahh Dae WD a UON CLUSION. bc. ch. os BIBLIOGRAPHY . 11 38 75 84 114 155 184 189 ood) lay} Wie ee ek LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (ot yh ae is aria ah en ' re cena ia my i. LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Onz of the most conspicuous features in the life of Protestantism in America in the last twenty years has been the movement for religious education.t De- partments of religious education have been organized in nearly all the large denominations. Colleges and universities, in steadily increasing numbers, are creat- ing professorships and offering courses in religious ed- ucation. Professionally trained workers are uniting in organizations. Recent developments such as Daily Vacation Bible Schools and Week Day Schools of Re- ligion have set up machinery (special equipment, text- books, administrative bodies, etc.) for their distinctive functions. Buildings specially designed for religious education are being constructed. An immense amount +1903, the year in which the Religious Education Associa- tion was organized, may be taken as a convenient date to mark the rise of this movement. The teaching of religion is of course nothing new, and religious education in a non- technical sense has always been characteristic of Christianity. 3 4 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY of literature is published every year. Promotion agencies are spreading rapidly. With an efficiency which in its administrative aspects approaches, if it does not equal, the proverbial efficiency of American business interests, Protestantism in America has been organizing for religious education.” The last twenty years, in which these developments in religious education have taken place, have wit- nessed likewise a great acceleration of another and larger movement which has been going on within Protestant churches for half a century,?—a move- ment which aims at nothing less than a reconstruc- tion of Protestantism itself. That there has been pro- found discontent with traditional Christianity, even an upheaval within the ranks of Christianity, is clear from evidences on all sides. A distinguished profes- sor of history began a series of lectures to college stu- dents in 1913 with the words: We are in the midst of a religious revolution! The “old régime” of immemorial belief and custom is vanishing be- fore our eyes. Faiths so old that they come to us from *See foreword in Religious Education, June, 1923. “Feverish activity marks the production of text-books, the propaganda for new organizations, the advocacy of novel methods and the agitation for enlarged institutions.” An account of the rapid development of the movement for Religious Education will be found in the report, “Twenty Years’ Progress in Re- ligious Education,” by Henry F. Cope, published in Religious Education for October, 1923. See also President Arlo Brown’s A History of Religious Education in Recent Times, published in 1923. * Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859. INTRODUCTION 5 the prehistoric world are yielding to the discoveries of yesterday. Institutions that have embodied these faiths and held the allegiance of the civilized world are now crumbling to pieces or transforming themselves wherever the new forces of revolution touch and penetrate. (James T. Shotwell, The Religious Revolution of Today, p. 1.) The same position is taken by a sociologist who, writing on religion, says, “Like all other institutions, religion is in revolution.” * Both of these men hold that any progress in religion must involve acceptance of, and not opposition to, the revolutionary changes that are taking place throughout our culture. The historian’s attitude is stated as follows: So it is possible that the revolution which we are an- alysing may offer for the onward march some such in- spiration out of the very heart of its very destructive forces. One thing is sure, that inspiration must be found there or not at all. It must be armed with the strength of the conqueror, not with the mere protest of defeat. (Shotwell, The Religious Revolution, p. 150.) The sociologist who has been quoted maintains a more positive thesis: But the religious revolution has now given religion the opportunity to become a dynamic rather than a static thing—to become “experimental,” as it were; at least, to base itself upon the experience and needs of men in a present world.... The religious revolution need not, then, end in chaos and irreligion. It can and should end, “Charles A. Ellwood, The Reconstruction of Religion, p. 1. 6 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY if guided by intelligence, in a new era of rational religious faith. (Ellwood, The Reconstruction of Religion, p. 30.)° Certain groups within Protestant churches recognize the elements of change, at the same time earnestly deploring them. An admirably clear exposition of this attitude is found in a recent book from which the following is quoted: In the sphere of religion, in particular, the present time is a time of conflict. The great redemptive religion which has always been known as Christianity is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because it makes use of traditional Christian terminology. (J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Inberalism, p. 2.) Again from the same (p. 177): The present is a time not for ease or pleasure, but for earnest and prayerful work. A terrible crisis unquestion- ably has arisen in the Church. In the ministry of evan- gelical churches are to be found hosts of those who reject the gospel of Christ. Recognized from outside Protestantism, recognized and attacked from within, the movement for religious reconstruction is exceedingly significant. Although among its supporters there are differences in point of view, its general outlines are reasonably clear. It has grown historically from an effort to reconcile *It is of course not suggested that these views are held by all historians or sociologists. They are quoted as representing opinions of leaders in fields other than that of religion. INTRODUCTION 7 Christianity with “the two outstanding facts in our civilization—science and democracy.” ® Not only does it refuse to recognize any incompatibility between science and religion, but it insists upon the religious character of scientific investigation itself and desires increasing scientific knowledge and control within its own field. A statement of this attitude 1s found in Dr. Gerald B. Smith’s Social Idealism and the Chang- ing Theology where he says (p. 92): Theological scholarship in Protestant seminaries is rapidly committing itself without reserve to the scientific method, which means the ideal of searching for truth without pledging oneself beforehand to uphold the doc- trines approved by the church. See also on p. 173: The scientific ideal is gaining such control that it must be reckoned with as the approved method of formulating conclusions in the realm of religious belief. Convinced of the value of the Christian religion for the progress of humanity, this movement seeks to interpret the principles of Jesus in terms of the issues of our present civilization: If, then, Christianity is sincerely interested in the quality of human spirits, in the motives and ideals which dominate personality, she must be interested in the economic and industrial problems of our day. (Fosdick, Christianity and Progress, p. 11.) ® Hillwood, p. 2. See especially chapters 1, 5 and 11. 8 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY The movement for reconstruction is impatient with the restrictions of ecclesiasticism but it desires no break with historic Christianity, holding that liberal- ism represents the inevitable next step in Christian progress. Its point of view involves a series of shifts in emphasis, the full significance of which is just be- ginning to be felt. In general, it is less concerned with the restatement or rejection of traditional dogmas— though much has been attempted along this line— than with the recognition of Christianity as a dynamic factor in the moral progress of humanity. Dr. Wil- liam Austin Smith expressed this position when he sald: When the Church shall be willing to take some of the magic out of the doctrine of the Incarnation, and put mo- rality in it, we shall make religion a more effective imple- ment of fellowship. (War and the Churches, pamphlet, p. 8.) It tends to define its concepts less in theological terms than in terms of social psychology and ethics. Its standards are social standards and its goal the crea- tion of a new human society, the democracy or the commonwealth of God. It is even interpreted as not primarily a reform movement, not remedial, but rad- ical and creative. The word “radical” has however somewhat confusing connotations; so too with the word “modernist.” “Progressive” means little or nothing. In spite of their awkwardness, the terms INTRODUCTION 9 “liberal Christianity” and “the liberal movement” are probably the most clearly understood.’ It is the purpose of this study to consider the mu- tual relationship of these two developments in modern Protestantism,—the movement for religious education and the movement for the reconstruction of religion. In particular it will be concerned with objectives, and will address itself to the inquiry: To what extent has _ Protestant religious education adopted the educational purposes implied in the liberal movement? Five lines of investigation will be undertaken: 1. First, we shall seek to discover the dis- tinctive positions of liberal Christiamty. For this purpose the writings of numerous authors recognized as liberal will be examined. Since, in the nature of the case, few of these writings dis- cuss education, we must search for their religious points of view and from them infer the educa- tional objectives that are wmplied. 2. Objectives as defined by leading writers in religious education will then be examined. We shall need to know to what extent these leaders recognize and adopt the positions of liberal Chris- tianity. ‘It is not maintained that this tendency toward religious reconstruction is the sole or dominant tendency in Protestant thought today. Further, it is the function of this study neither to acclaim nor condemn this movement but simply to note its existence. The writer has no wish, however, to conceal the fact that her own views are in substantial sym- pathy with those of Protestant liberalism, 10 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY 3. The next step will be to inquire whether the objectives announced by organizations for re- ligious education represent adequately the pur- poses implicit in the liberal movement. 4. We shall then be ready to examine curricu- lum objectives—the aims as stated in textbooks used by leading Protestant denominations—to as- certain whether they show a recognition of the issues important for liberal Christianity and an attempt to meet them from the liberal point of view. 5. There will remain the question whether workers in Protestant religious education—many of whom are trained by educational leaders, rep- resent organizations for religious education, and use denominational textbooks—are themselves prepared to deal with the facts and standards involved in the liberal movement. We shall there- fore undertake a brief inquiry into the compe- tency of religious workers to deal with the objec- tives of liberal Christianity. The conclusion, in addition to summarizing the evi- dence presented, will interpret the significance of it and will offer a few practical suggestions for the re- construction of Protestant religious education. CHAPTER II Tue Distinctive Posirions or LIBERAL CHRIS- TIANITY AND THEIR IMPLIED EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES Wuat are the distinctive positions of liberal Chris- tianity and what are the objectives for religious edu- cation implied in these positions? While it is true that a specific type of religion requires for its self- maintenance and growth a specific type of religious education, yet the educational objectives that are implicit in liberalism have never been stated in any definite and comprehensive fashion. The reasons are these: (1) The recognized field of religion has broad- ened so enormously that it becomes difficult to set up distinctive objectives. (2) Liberalism is in its essen- tial nature a progressive movement, always changing, always in flux; its conclusions are never fixed or static; it has no unalterable “deposit of faith” to teach. It does not desire uniformity of opinion.t +The very essence of Protestantism is the recognition that we have not reached finality, but must be ever seeking.” (McGiffert, A Teaching Church, in Religious Education, Feb., 1921, p. 6.) “Not semper idem but semper alterum is the keynote of science. Each discovery of something new involves the dis- 11 12 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY (3) Until recently the element of protest in liberal thinking has often loomed so large as partially to obscure its constructive contributions. Teachers have seen more clearly what not to do than what to teach or how to teach. (4) Many, if not most, liberal writers have been preoccupied with ultimate aims, with the great vision of a redeemed humanity; they have not concerned themselves with immediate ob- jectives. Pointing in the general direction of the City of God, they have failed to give the traveler guidance for the next turn in the road. (5) Many leaders and writers take a thoroughly liberal position along certain lines without recognizing its implications elsewhere. One sees, for instance, a church school where scientific Bible study is carried on but where results of the scientific study of educational processes are obvi- ously unknown.’ (6) Incorrect accounts of liberalism carding of something old. Above all it progresses by doubting rather than believing.” (James T. Shotwell, The Religious Revolution of Today, p. 101.) ?Instances of similar inconsistencies abound. W. H. Fitchett, in Where the Higher Criticism Fails, says, on p. 9, “An intelligent Christian must be willing, not only frankly, but gladly, to accept every conclusion about the Bible which has adequate historic proof.” Later (p. 10), he declares his belief “that Moses wrote the Pentateuch” although not the account of his own funeral with which the story closes. Bishop Manning, in his Address of the Bishop in the Con- vention of the Diocese of New York, May 8, 1923, insists that he has no quarrel with science. Thus, on p. 4, “The . supposed conflict between science and religion which for some decades has tended to chill religious faith is seen now to have no reality,” and on p. 6, “We find nothing in the THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 13 are sometimes heard from those of its opponents who are willing to make specific charges without sufficient evidence. This leads to general confusion. A state- ment in some detail of the outstanding positions char- acteristic of liberal Christianity and a summary of the purposes of religious education that may be in- ferred from them, is therefore very much needed. Investigation of recent writings of liberal Protes- tants ° reveals certain issues as the immediate, neces- sary concern in their opinion, of Christian leaders and teachers. Such a study further reveals distinct points of view in dealing with these issues. Both the issues and the ways of dealing with them are significant for determining the objectives of religious education. The issues recognized may be conveniently classified under the following headings: I The Bible; II Theological Dogmas; III The His- torical Jesus; IV Social Welfare; V The Reconstruc- tion of Society; VI The Political State; VII Interna- tional and Inter-racial Problems; VIII Human Nature; IX The Educational Process; X The Church. In the Christian faith which conflicts with the scientific theory of evolution;” but he goes on (p. 7) to affirm belief in tradi- tional dogmas including the Virgin Birth as necessary for ministers in his church, and asserts that there is “no room for difference” in these matters. *Only those who are widely recognized as representative of groups within the Protestant churches in the United States are quoted. Religious leaders who are outside the fellowship of Protestantism are not included; and leaders in Canada and England only if their writings are very generally known and read in this country. 14 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY nature of the case these divisions can not be com- pletely exclusive of one another, but the overlapping need not lead to confusion. In this and the following chapter we shall endeavor to set forth the points of view of liberal writers on these issues, with a sufficient number of citations to give breadth and definiteness to our inquiry. At the end of each chapter, the educational objectives im- plicit in the positions described will be _ briefly indicated. I. Tur Breie* 1. Liberalism encourages historical method in Bib- lical criticism and accepts without equivocation the results of scientific inquiry. In Reconstruction in Theology, President King of Oberlin defines this type of research: Positively, higher criticism may be defined as a careful historical and literary study of a book to determine its unity, age, authorship, literary form and_ reliability. (Pas t2) Professor Charles F. Kent points out its value for clarifying one’s knowledge of the original sources: Interpreted in the light of contemporary literature and language, most of the obscurities of the Old Testament melt away. Modern research in the fields of Semitic philology *“The Church is undoubtedly passing quietly through a revolution in its conception and attitude toward the Bible, more fundamental and far-reaching than that represented by its precursor, the Protestant Reformation; but its real sig- nificance is daily becoming more apparent.” (Kent: Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament, p. 16.) THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 15 and syntax and the discovery of older texts and versions have put into the hands of the translators new and valuable tools for making clear to all the thoughts in the minds of the original writers of the Old Testament. (Kent: Origin and Permanent Values of the Old Testament, p. 12.) and specifically on the New Testament: The gospels, like the historical books of the Old Testa- — ment, embody older oral and written sources which reflect the earliest impression that Jesus’ personality and words made on the minds of his followers. The first step, there- fore, in the quest of the real Jesus is to distinguish and to separate these oldest records from the later variant accounts which blur or conceal the original portrait. The more vital the questions involved, the more important is it that the records be carefully studied and tested by the most thorough methods known to modern historical re- search. (Kent: The Life and Teachings of Jesus, preface, p. v.) In his very careful description of the historical method in connection with the New Testament, Dr. Moffatt emphasizes the openmindedness with which it must be approached: In the department of New Testament study, as elsewhere, the historical method has to maintain its rights over and | again. Mainly against two encroaching theories. One is that the function of historical research is to provide evidence for foregone dogmatic conclusions. This would mean the very death of the historical spirit in the study of the New Testament... . We shall return to this point in a moment. Meantime, we observe that the other foe is the a priori abstract method, 16 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY which develops an idea of Christianity out of special con- siderations, till it really matters little or nothing what has happened in history. (James Moffatt: The Approach to the New Testament, pp. 148, 144. See especially Chapters V, VI, VII, and VIII.) 2. Historical and scientific study has led liberals to discard the “authority of the Bible” in the usually accepted sense. In these later days God has taken the Bible from the throne of infallibility on which Protestantism sought to place it. (Kent: Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament, p. 32.) Students of the rediscovered Old Testament also recog- nize, in the light of a broader and more careful study, the fact, so often and so fatally overlooked in the past, that its authority lies not in the field of natural science, not even of history in the limited sense. (Kent: Ibid., p. 26.) 3. Liberal writers lay much less stress on the miracles of both Old and New Testament than has been the custom in the past. There are several pos- sible explanations for this: (1) The growth of the scientific outlook on life implies the recognition of the uniformity of causal law. (2) Scientific crit- icism—the investigation of manuscripts, study of contemporary customs, etc—has made it possible to trace the development of some of the miracle stories and to understand how the events to which they refer may have taken place without the interposition of supernatural powers. (3) No doubt one of the rea- sons that miracles are not emphasized is due to the THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 17 fact that liberals are in general more interested in moral values than in accounts of physical marvels. The modern man cannot conceive of any break in the causal, genetic process. True, he is ready to admit that there may be events which are not yet located in any of its known formulas, but in such a conception there is no place for that which, before its recent apologetic manipulation, the word miracle stood—an event out of its causal series. (Shailer Mathews: The Gospel and the Modern Man, p. 46.) And, above all, the modern mind has been led to feel that the identification of religion with the acceptance of marvelous events degrades religion from a supreme spiritual experience to an acceptance of belief in a non-rational universe. So there are many who feel that insistence upon miracles is deadening to the expansion of faith. (Leighton Parks, What Is Modernism? p. 33.) The further back we go towards barbarous superstition, the more prominent becomes the conception of prodigy as the only method by which divine operation can be known. The nearer we approach to the reverent interpretation of it in our own times, the more is God conceived to act in accordance with the uniformity of nature. Even when events occur inexplicable according to natural law as thus far known, we do not expect them to remain unintelligible. We expect the naturalist will sooner or later discover the process, and while science as such is voluntarily self-limited to the study of secondary causes, we think the knowledge of these only a help to the theologian. God as we know Him, the real and living God in whom we actually live and move and have our being, is “not a God of confusion” but of intelligibility, of order and law. 18 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY . .. In principle there is no reason why we should not apply the method of historical interpretation to biblical accounts of miracle precisely as we apply it in the case of witchcraft, or demon possession, or in the expectation of an immediately impending dissolution of the world. Miracle is no longer to us a necessary mode of divine revelation. (Benjamin W. Bacon, The Success and Failure of Liberalism, in the Yale Review, Oct. 1923, pp. 91, 92.) 4. The great value of the Biblical records as re- \ ligious literature lies in the fact that they are a \ description of growth in religious experience. The Bible is permeated with the spirit of growth; growth of the world and its peoples, of their customs, institutions, laws, moral and religious progress. Because of this spirit it is most sympathetically interpreted by means of the con- cept of development. Unconsciously, we are invited by our experience with these Scriptures to think of life’s prob- lems in the light of progress. This is so true that any bad or backward person or standard of action in the Bible is best judged by standards further on in the book. Both the Old and the New Testaments record movements of the spirit which suggest that man is approaching ever nearer to the destiny of a moral being in a world of personality as well as one of material forces. So then, though a book cannot keep pace with advances in knowledge, it may be congenial with the mood of essential, advancing humanity. The germ and the logic of an incalculable improvement are of the very genius of the Bible. (Elihu Grant, What Shall We Think of the Bible? in [Rufus Jones ed.] Religious Foundations, pp. 88, 89.) The inconsistencies and imperfect teachings which are revealed by a critical study of the Old Testament are also THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 19 but a few of the many indices that it is the record of a gradually unfolding revelation. (Kent: Origin and Perma- nent Value of the Old Testament, p. 29.) The fallacy at the heart of the situation was the failure to recognize the fact that the Old Testament is a record of progress. The accounts which it contains of the making of the world are true in the sense of being true records of what the Hebrews thought about these matters, several thousand years ago. But mankind would be dull indeed if after all these centuries of residence upon this planet we know no more about it than was known a thousand years before Christ in the Mediterranean provinces of Asia. (George Hodges: How to Know the Bible, p. 12.) 5. A most striking point in the writings of liberals is the fact that they are enormously interested in the life and teachings of Jesus. They are seeking to discover Jesus the Galilean as he really was, apart from the presuppositions of Judaistic tradition and the accretions of Pauline theology. To them the Gospels are of unique significance. The results of their study will be discussed under Topic III (pp. 33-36). It should be recognized here, however, that for liberals the Bible is supremely important because it contains records, however fragmentary, of the life of Jesus. It is because the Modernist believes that the reality of the historic Jesus has been obscured by the mists of theological speculation that he is desirous of finding, if possible, what is the bedrock fact in the Gospel narrative. (Leighton Parks, What Is Modernism? p. 13.) It is a pity that our sympathies and prejudices weaken our appreciation of Jesus as an historical force. But such 20 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY he must be considered by any historian of modern culture. If we could rid ourselves of all conventional attitudes and professional language with its suggestion of cant, our ap- preciation of Jesus would be seen to be no expression of ecclesiastical bigotry, but a thoroughly objective estimate of his place in the progress of human life from the physical to the spiritual. Theology, important as it is to religion, must ultimately shape itself within the limits set by religious-social experience in which faith in personal values ever more perfectly revealed in history and in the cosmos has its indispensable office. When we thus approach the spiritual history of modern times we are at once struck with the failure of professed Christian thought and idealism to appreciate Jesus as a teacher, or, better, revealer of elemental spiritual laws. Christians have been very keen to believe the gospel about Jesus but they have not been so eager to receive the gospel of Jesus. Even a superficial examination of Christian thought and dogma will make this plain. It is certainly most remarkable that only within the last century while democracy has really been in the making have men seriously begun to study the words and life of the Jesus of the Gospels. (Shailer Mathews, The Spiritual Interpretation of History, pp. 208, 209.) 6. With the discriminating attitude of science— the weighing of evidence to determine dates, author- ship, etc.—liberal Protestants would unite an attitude of ethical discrimination which seeks to evaluate individuals, historic events, the theology, the poetry, and drama, of the Bible, on the basis of the ethical standards of Jesus. This point of view is described by Dean Hodges, who said: THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 21 When Jesus told the disciples that Elijah was mistaken, he liberated us from allegiance to the Old Testament, and bound us only to New Testament truth,—to Old Testament truth certified by the knowledge and spirit we are of. When we encounter errors of statement and deficiencies of doc- trine in these pages we are not to shut our eyes to them, or to conceal them, to deny them, or to behave ourselves in any unnatural or insincere manner. We are to follow the example of his frankness. Out of bondage to these ancient books, he has set us free. (George Hodges: How to Know the Bible, p. 21.) Such an attitude brings into prominence historical records, which, although they deal with an important period in.the life of the Hebrew people, have been neglected because they have been regarded as uncanon- ical—notably the heroic accounts of the Maccabean period. Professor Kent emphasizes this point: The first book of Maccabees is in many ways the best history that has come down from ancient Israel. Luther’s conclusion that it was more deserving of a place in the Old Testament canon than, for example, the book of Esther, is now being widely accepted both in theory and practice. The religious spirit in which it is written, the importance of the events with which it deals, and the faithfulness with which they are recorded, all confirm this conclusion. (Kent: Makers and Teachers of Judaism, Vol. IV of the Historical Bible, p. 189.) Biblical characters whom tradition has placed be- yond criticism or who have been criticized seldom in the past, have been subjected to the test of Christian idealism. 22 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY To quote from Kent’s Historical Bible, a text-book widely used among liberals: Gifted with great possibilities and the heir of a mighty empire, Solomon, in the light of later events, proved a glittering failure both as a man and as a ruler. He who was counted by later tradition the wisest proved to be in many respects the most foolish king who ever sat on Israel’s throne. (Vol. II, p. 208.) Samson has sometimes been held up as a worthy char- acter. This tendency, however, is dangerous. He must, of course, be measured by the standards of his age, but even so he is far from noble. . . . Samson is a signal ex- ample of a man who possessed great gifts, but failed to consecrate them to a noble cause. (Vol. II, p. 60.) His [Paul’s] picture of a pre-existent, supernatural Messiah who is to come again from heaven to judge man- kind and to establish a new kingdom on earth, is very different from the simple portraits of Jesus in the oldest gospel records; but he shared these beliefs with the primi- tive church. They are not his unique or permanent con- tributions to Christianity. It is, therefore, unfortunate that Christian theology in the past has been built more on the teachings of Paul than those of Jesus. (Vol. VI, p. 236.) Elijah’s conception of Jehovah, however, appears to have been the same as that of Moses and the earlier leaders of his race. They were quite willing that Baal should be worshipped in Phoenicea; but in Jehovah’s land there was no place for a heathen God. (Vol. III, p. 29.) He [Joseph] grew up a spoiled, egotistical boy, with false ideas of life. (Vol. I, p. 126.) THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 23 7. The relationship of both Hebrew and Christian cultures, including religious beliefs, with the cultures of adjacent groups is recognized and studied. Chris- tian tradition is seen to possess no immunity from the influence of pagan customs. It is progressively recognizing that Christianity did not come into existence and grow up in quarantine from all pagan influence; but that, on the contrary, it felt and responded to the same historical exigencies which con- tributed to the making of pagan religions. (G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology, p. 95.) Certain parts of the Old Testament itself testify that the wealth of tradition, of institutions, of laws, and religious ideas, gradually committed to the Semitic ancestors of the Hebrews and best preserved by the Babylonians, was not lost, but, enriched and purified, has been transmitted to us through its pages. A careful comparison of the Biblical and Babylonian accounts of the creation and the flood leaves little doubt that there is a close historical connection between these accounts. (Kent: The Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament, p. 55.) By virtue of their democracy and their appeal to uni- versal human needs the mystery-religions proved Chris- tianity’s strongest competitor in the first century. At the same time, like Judaism and the Greek philosophies and even the emperor-worship, they did much to prepare the ‘minds of men for the reception of Christianity. As was inevitable, when competition was so close and constant and when there was so much in them that was essen- tially good, they exerted a powerful influence upon Chris- tianity, as is shown, for example, not only in the language but also in the thought of Paul and in the rites which 24 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY were ultimately adopted by the Christian Church. (Kent: Work and Teachings of the Apostles, Vol. VI, in the His- torical Bible, p. 19.) Our current Protestant fiction has it that our own re- ligion rests on the Old Testament. As a matter of histori- cal fact, it is, as to doctrines, a synthesis of about equal parts Pharisaism, Stoicism, Neo-Platonism, and the common elements in all the mystery cults. (Edwin T. Brewster, The Understanding of Religion, p. 127.) 8. When the Bible is released from its isolation as supernatural and super-historical, a study of the Biblical accounts of the early Christians quite naturally leads to further study of the history of Christianity up to the present day. An increased interest in all sorts of history is characteristic of our age. It is not surprising, therefore, that liberal Protestants are demanding that more attention be given to an unprejudiced historical study of the Christian movement. Thus it has come about that in planning courses of re- ligious study, Protestant teachers have not paid sufficient attention to what God has been doing through the Church since the year 100 A.D. The old word of Chillingworth about the Bible may or may not be true of the Protestant religion, but it certainly has been true of Protestant edu- cation. The Bible and the Bible alone has been the text book of Protestants. A generation has grown up almost completely ignorant of the history of the Church since post-Biblical times and of the forms in which Christianity finds organized expression in the world to-day. For this lack we are suffering to-day in many ways—most of all in that we have developed among Protestant Christians so THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 25 little intelligent consciousness of the Church as a whole. As a result we lack a public opinion strong enough to sup- port those who are trying to unify the churches. To create this opinion we must teach our people the history of the Christian Church and help them to understand the origin and present significance of the main forms of contemporary Christianity. (Wiliams Adams Brown, The Church in America, p. 293.) II. THurotocicAL DogmMas The infrequency of references to traditional formu- lations of doctrine in the writings of liberal Protes- tants 1s indicative of a change of emphasis exceedingly important for religious education. Dogmas® were of absorbing interest to religious leaders of a few gen- erations ago. Most of the Protestant denominations retain historic statements of doctrinal belief and make use of them in forms of worship or in ordination, re- ception of new members, trials for heresy, etc. But for liberals the center of interest is elsewhere. The affirmations of religion have become no less profound, no less commanding but they are of a different sort.® This difference is noteworthy because of its bearing upon religious education. 1. The historic creeds are considered primarily in the setting in which they were formulated. They are >A dogma is understood to be “a doctrine of theology officially defined and declared to rest on divine authority.” (Mathews and Smith: Dictionary of Religion and Ethics, p. 135.) *This will be illustrated in the succeeding sections of this chapter. 26 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY not regarded in any sense as absolute but as relative to the thought forms and religious issues of their times. Biblical criticism makes it possible for us to see how doctrines have their rise, why they change, what changes are for the better and what for the worse, and what the place of formal belief is in the total religious life of men. Tradition thus becomes the servant of the present and not its despot. (G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the Changing Theology, pp. 199 and 200.) Even the Apostles Creed was an exceedingly gradual development and required centuries to attain its present form. (Conrad H. Moehlmann, What are the Fundamentals of Christianity?, Journal of Religion, January, 1922, p. 22.)" 2. Some liberals apparently find little difficulty with traditional statements provided (a) that their historic character is recognized, (b) that large liberty of in- terpretation is allowed, and (c) that with them is associated the expression in conduct of Christian standards of living. But this is a fact: in every communion, even in the Roman Catholic, to-day is a growing minority of intelligent people who have departed from the traditions of the elders and have accepted the new knowledge, and reinterpret the old creeds in the light of the facts as they have come to see them. The process of change is slower in some churches than in others, but even in the most conservative and reactionary body there is some change.’ In all the churches are men who have come to see that "Note this very interesting examination of the Apostles Creed and the conclusion that it dates from the 5th and 6th century and in its entirety not before the 8th. THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 27 collective life and action, rather than conformity to creed, is the basis of the church. And even as life is more important than thought, so the religious community is more vital than creeds. Creeds ought to be like guide posts along the automobile highway—to guide the traveler, not obstruct his going. So used, they are of great value. They embody the experience of many generations, an experience which if learned and heeded will keep men from error and guide them into wisdom. (John Howard Melish, in a sym- posium on Creeds and Truth in the World To-morrow, August, 1923, p. 235.) So with any article of any historic creed or any ancient teaching of any church. We can never know too com- pletely why men of other days thought as they did, nor too accurately what it was they thought. We shall come to no harm by conducting our present-day worship or by talking about our present-day faith in terms of the science of a bygone time, any more than by building our churches in a style that men once used also for houses and barns, so long as we understand frankly that we are using obsolete forms. Religion takes on the unreality of the discarded science only when we forget that the science is discarded and try to piece together the old garment and the new cloth. We may rightly say all the old words in honor of the old saints—provided only that we always understand precisely what the ancient worthies meant, and precisely what we mean, and precisely why the two are or are not the same. The danger lies in muddle-headed pretense of factitious agreement. (Edwin T. Brewster, The Under- standing of Religion, p. 33.) 3. Others feel that the historic creeds are a hin- drance, a block to progressive thinking—that reformu- lations or no formulations at all are to be preferred. 28 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY The chief objection to historic creeds is not that they compel us to believe things we have long outgrown, but that they relieve us of the responsibility of trying to put the things we now believe into teachable form. (McGiffert, A Teaching Church, in Religious Education, Feb., 1921, p. 6.) The business of the church to-day is (1) to translate the basic convictions of the Christian Gospel into terms intelligible to modern minds, and (2) apply those con- victions to modern circumstances. (Fosdick, in a sym- posium on Creeds and Truth, in the World To-morrow, August, 1923, p. 233.) The way out is not the reformulation of creeds. That would only burden our descendants with a new phase of our problem. It is not openly to flout the old creeds, nor privately to whittle them away. They could be quietly dropped, both by those who believe them and by those who do not. The former especially have a duty in re- moving a stumbling block to true Christian progress. (Henry Cadbury, ibid., p. 234.) The great demand to-day is not for a manipulation of our inherited theology into some form more acceptable to our modern ways of thinking. It is rather for a frank disregard of inherited dogma except by way of historic evaluation and a return to the primitive gospel itself; to the gospel that founded Christianity, conquered the Roman Empire, and embodies the continuous realities of the spiritual life. . . . Inherited orthodoxy is so colored by outgrown philosophies, pre-scientific conceptions, outgrown political ideals and prejudices, as to be unusable by many an earnest man and woman. To remodel the old house is more ex- THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 29 pensive than to tear it down and use such materials of it as are sound in erecting a new building. (Shailer Mathews, The Gospel and the Modern Man, p. 6.) 4. However they may differ about the usefulness of the historic creeds in the churches of the present day, liberals are generally agreed that creedal state- ments should never be regarded as final, and that they should not be made the test of a man’s standing as a Christian or the basis of fellowship between Christians. The trouble with the creeds is not that they claim too much, but that they say too little. They are unfortunate in their stress upon the intellectual phase of religion. They are too readily propositions of alleged fact. They ignore the categories of value and conduct, the faculties of feeling and of will. To many devout modern men and women, truth is not an objective or unchangeable reality, com- municable through a statement of words. The most serious defect of the creeds is that their intention and use have so often been exclusive and defensive rather than inviting and affirmative; excommunicative, rather than communicative. Their positive, “I believe” has become in practice a negative, “Thou shalt not deny.” (Henry A. Cadbury, in the sym- posium on Creeds and Truth in the World To-morrow, quoted above.) ... The use of the creeds as restrictive delimitations of thinking has been one of the saddest elements in re- ligious history. (Fosdick, in the same article.) What is the condition of belonging to this age-long and world-wide Brotherhood [the Church] united solely by that love which is the bond of perfectness, Christ has made clear! ‘Ye are my friends,” he said, “if ye do what I have 30 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY commanded you.” Obedience to Christ’s commands is the only condition which Christ has prescribed for membership in the Christian Brotherhood. (Lyman Abbott, What Christianity Means to Me, p. 51.) Dogma is a fingerpost which indicates the way in which religious experience is traveling; but it becomes a prison for the soul and an arrest of life when it is assumed to be _ the final truth of things. (Richard Roberts, The Untried Door, p. 72.) But they [liberals] are united in the belief that the church is called to face all difficulties and to attempt to solve them by unfettered inquiry. They do not hold that authority and tradition have settled everything so that we have only to accept the formulas drawn up in the early centuries. (W. R. Inge, What Is a Liberal Christian? in the Christian Century, Dec. 15, 1921, p. 11.) Just to the extent to which we free ourselves from the sense of the finality of the historical dogmas and forms which have grown up within the church it is possible to recognize the spirit of free inquiry and of constructive thought as harmonious with the attitude of the religion of Jesus. (Edward Scribner Ames, in Christian Century, April 20th, 1922, p. 492.) Tolerance is the child of conviction and love. It never had any other parentage. To believe strongly and yet doubt one’s omniscience is no small achievement, but to believe strongly and yet permit a man who does not agree with you theologically also to believe strongly, is one of the supreme achievements of the spiritual life. (Shailer Mathews, The Gospel and the Modern Man, p. 308.) The great mass of people in the recital of the Creed do not understand the articles in detail. What meaning does THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 31 the average worshipper attach to the articles, “Of one sub- stance with the Father,’ or “He descended into hell’? Far deeper and more spiritual bonds than the Creeds hold the Church together and inspire the people to go forward. (Lawrence, Fifty Years, p. 66.) Indeed experience has convinced me that the vital test of a young man as he enters a high calling is not as to what particular doctrine he believes to-day, but what is the essential trend of his thought, what his attitude toward the ever-revealing truth; not in what he does, or thinks, but what, in the long run, he is, what spirit, character, or temper controls him. (Lawrence, ibid., p. 74.) 5. The theology of liberalism has, especially in this country, been profoundly influenced by pragma- tism and by the prevailing interest in the social sciences and in functional psychology. God is de- fined in terms of fellowship (our Father) and of purpose (love); and communion with God includes communion with our fellow men and cannot isolate us from them. Many of the traditional terms are still used but with new meaning. For example, “salvation”, “sin”, “regeneration”, are no longer doctrinal terms in the old sense. They are no longer thought of as relating to individuals apart from the common life, nor as having any significance apart from the ethical demands of a Christian community. This change of emphasis’is indicated in the succeeding topics of this study. A few quotations here will suffice to show what is meant. ®See Coe: Social Theory, especially Ch. II, The Philo- sophic Setting, and Ch. X, The Social Nature of Man. 32 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY While it is wrong to think that sociology will displace theology, yet it is evident that in so far as religion becomes a program for the transformation of this world, it must depend increasingly upon sociology. Theology itself is, indeed, being so modified in a scientific and social direction to-day that it is now sometimes difficult, in the case of the more socially-minded of our theological thinkers, to tell where their sociology ends and their theology begins. We may safely conclude, therefore, that sociology, while not a substitute for theology, will become the ally of scientific theology in attempts at the interpretation and practical development of the religious life of man. This is surely, if one studies and compares carefully the sociological and theological literature of the present, the trend of what is actually taking place. (Charles A. Ellwood, Christianity and Social Science, p. 23.) In the Christian religion, with its central emphasis upon love, prayer tends to become, wherever the constructive significance of love has not been submerged by ritualism or dogmatism, the affirmation of what may be called social universalism of essentially democratic tendency. (G. A. Coe, The Psychology of Religion, p. 319.) When I was a boy I was taught that sin is a relation, not between me and my neighbor, but between me and God. Subsequent reflection has led me to regard the distinction here made as not valid... . The need for any such term as sin lies in the fact that we men, in addition to constructing the human society in which God and men are both sharers, also obstruct it and in some measure destroy. (Coe, Social Theory, p. 164.) The church is at the parting of the way. If it gave one-tenth the attention to developing a keen edge for the conscience of the individual, to regenerating itself, to in- THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 33 terpreting the religious significance of the industrial, eco- nomic and social transformations of the present, to Chris- tianizing all life which it has been bestowing upon cor- rectness of dogmatic phraseology, the Kingdom of God should become a more thrilling experience for multitudes. (Moehlmann, What Are the Fundamentals of Christianity ?, in Journal of Religion, Jan., 1922, p. 26.) Salvation of the soul is increasingly conceived to be linked up with saving the body, the health, the habits, the ideals, the interests—indeed, the whole range of the being. Life is more and more being looked upon as a unity in which one part cannot be “saved” while the remainder is neglected and ignored. (G. H. Betts, The New Program of Religious Education, p. 38.) In and through his growing participation in the creation of an ideal society the pupil will realize his fellowship with the Father. (Coe, Social Theory, p. 56.) III. Tue Historic Jesus The liberal attitude toward the Bible and toward traditional theology has released Jesus of Nazareth alike from the machinery of a prearranged scheme of salvation and from the dead hand of pious super- stition. Jesus thus freed becomes the center of the liberal movement. Many liberals assert that he has never been adequately understood or appreciated in the past, that the way of life which he suggested has mever been adequately attempted. The phrases, “Back to Jesus” and “Forward with Jesus” have been used in efforts to discover and understand the Jesus of history and to relate his life to the needs of to-day. 34 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY Important to notice in the attitude of liberals to- wards Jesus are: (1) their attempt to avoid bias of any sort with respect to the facts of his life; (2) their interest in the moral quality of the life he lived in distinction from his “miraculous” powers; (3) their insistence on the social character of his teachings; (4) their emphasis on the importance of meeting present social issues in the spirit of Jesus as the primary con- dition of fellowship with him, the Christian experience being for them the actual experience of trying out the principles of Jesus in individual and _ social living. If we could approach the study of Jesus with minds free from preconceptions, we could go straight to the heart of the subject. .. . However that may be, we of the West are the heirs of our own past, and burdened as we are with a legacy of wrong thinking and false sentiments, we must needs begin by deliberately clearing away this débris. (Alfred E. Zimmern, The Rediscovery of Jesus, in the Century Magazine, Dec., 1923, p. 269.) This rediscovery of Jesus carries with it a new emphasis upon the Kingdom of God as the social ideal which Jesus is seeking to realize in the world. We have seen how this ideal is being forced upon us by other influences growing out of the practical needs of the time. The new theology reinforces this emphasis by its study of the nature of the Christian religion as revealed to us in the life and teachings of its founder. It shows us that Jesus, deeply as He was concerned with the individual man, highly as He rated his value for God and his capacity for service, never conceived of him as an isolated individual. He was one of many sons, potential citizens in a society in which loving service THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 35 was to be the law of all men’s life. (W. A. Brown, The Church in America, p. 149.) To be a Christian to-day is to be an explorer, a discoverer. It is the great adventure of the age to find out how the principles of Jesus can be made to work in the actual tasks of life. To make work and government Christian—this is our great objective. To be a Christian to-day is not simply to accept a body of truth, not merely to live accord- ing to certain rules, but to find out how the great prin- ciples that Jesus gave mankind can be translated into character and conduct, individual and social. A new world has to be made. The one in which humanity is now living is intolerable to both our reason and our conscience. Who will dare to be a Christian? (Ward, The Gospel for a Working World, p. 223.) Here is its [the church’s] supreme task: not to draw up programs but to beget in men the sacrificial social- mindedness which God displays in Jesus Christ. (Shailer Mathews, The Spiritual Interpretation of History, p. 214.) Weary of dispute about the person of Christ, the world is now transferring its inquiry to his great message. Per- haps if we can comprehend the message we shall know the messenger. (Faunce, The New Horizon of State and Church, p. 29.) ... We must find out who Jesus Christ is and what he wants done in this world; we must then make the venture of faith and go the whole length with him. If his teachings will not work, let us know it and no longer delude ourselves. But if they are the very wisdom of God, if they will work in the world and are the very power of God unto salvation, then let us joyfully confess him as our Lord and go whithersoever he leads. Do we really believe in Jesus 36 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY Christ? Dare we be Christians? Do we believe that the meek shall inherit the earth and that love never faileth? Dare we forsake all other masters and measures and go as far as Jesus Christ goes? This is the acid test, the supreme challenge of our time. (Samuel Zane Batten, Why Not Try Christianity, in the Christian Century, Sept. 6, 1928, Dp. 1182)) The reader will recall that the positions of liberal writers on the three issues discussed—the Bible, theo- logical dogmas, and the historical Jesus—have been described in order that we might discover from them the educational purposes characteristic of the liberal movement. It is true that the liberal writers cited do not, for the most part, concern themselves with the educational objectives implied in their po- sitions. Objectives for the teaching of children and youth may, however, be inferred from the points of view that we have outlined. They will include: 1. A knowledge of the outstanding and widely accepted facts about the Bible as they are revealed by Biblical research, with specific information on important and much discussed points in both the Old and the New Testament. 2. A scientific attitude toward the Biblical records, toward nature, and toward the facts of Christian history. 3. The discovery of the character of Jesus and the nature of his teaching through a free and realistic approach to his life. 4. An acquaintance with the background that gave THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 37 Christianity its setting, the surrounding cultures, and the history of the Christian movement. 5. An evaluation, on the basis of the ethics of Jesus, of Biblical characters and incidents, religious ideas, and doctrinal statements. 6. An appreciation of the teachings of Jesus and a conscious attempt to make them effective in meeting the problems of present social life. 7. An effort to restate the “fundamentals” of Christianity in terms of ethical purpose and inclusive fellowship. If it represents the standpoints of liberal Chris- tianity, religious teaching will work toward the ac- complishment of these purposes. CHAPTER III Tue Distinctive Postrions oF LIBERAL CHRIS- TIANITY ANE THEIR IMPLIED EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES (continued) IV. Soctan WELFARE HowerverMucH the essential compassion of the Christian gospel may have been obscured by theolog- ical speculations, it is true that historic Christianity has always been associated with works of mercy and charity. These acts of kindness may have been in- discriminate, or unwise, or undertaken with the mo- tive of acquiring merit for the giver. They have often been bestowed only upon the faithful, or used as a bait to entice into the fold the unwary or the unwilling. But, to some degree, they have served to identify Christianity with unselfish social service. Because of their eager interest in the gospel ac- counts of the life of Jesus, liberals have discovered a fountain of fresh enthusiasm for the ministry of phys- ical and moral healing. They often recall to us the quotation from Isaiah with which, according to one of the accounts, Jesus began his public work:— The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: 38 THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 39 He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. and they seek to carry on this ministry to-day. They call to their aid the resources of science. Recognizing the interdependence of mental and physical life and the vital importance of environment, they are con- cerned with the whole of every man’s life. That he should be relieved from anything which interferes with his fullest possible development seems to them not secondary, not incidental, but a primary concern of religion. While the activities for social betterment are often undertaken by individuals and organizations not avowedly religious, liberal Protestants ascribe a truly Christian character to all such service and call upon Christian people intelligently and energetically to support measures for better health, better housing, sufficient recreation, fair wages and kindred items of social welfare. We are coming to realize, as our fathers did not, that the spiritual life of men is conditioned by such materialistic items as the housing which they can secure, the number of hours which they sleep, the character of the tasks at which they must work, the presence or absence of means of recreation, the amount and quality of their food, the nature of the contract between the employer and the employed, and countless other situations which need investigation by social experts. (G. B. Smith, Social Idealism and the New Theology, p. 125.) *St. Luke 4:18, 19. 40 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY All too slowly does the truth lay hold upon the Church that our very personalities themselves are social products, that we are born out of society and live in it and are molded by it, that without society we should not be human at all, and that the influences which play upon our lives, whether redeeming or degrading, are socially mediated. A man who says that he believes in the ineffable value of human personalities and who professes to desire their transformation and yet who has no desire to give them better homes, better cities, better family relationships, better health, better economic resources, better recreations, better books and better schools, is either an ignoramus who does not see what these things mean in the growth of souls, or else an unconscious hypocrite who does not really care so much about the souls of men as he says he does. (Fosdick, Christianity and Progress, p. 100.) V. Tuer RECONSTRUCTION OF SOCIETY In the gospel of Jesus liberals discover something far more fundamental and searching than suggestions for social reform, important as these are.? Chal- 2 Ellwood holds that Christianity has always been directed at a revolution in culture: “The distinctive note of Chris- tianity was ‘redemption’—not simply of the individual but of the world. For it looked to the establishment of a social order in which the divine will should be realized—a kingdom of God—an order which should make of humanity one large family with peace, justice, and good will among all its mem- bers. But this new social order was to be established not by force or by authority, but by a new life within the individual soul—a life redeemed from sin and in harmony with the divine will. Christianity was thus not so much a mere ‘reform’ movement in the external social order as a movement directed at a ‘revolution in culture,’ a complete THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 41 lenged on the one hand by the all too apparent im- possibility of permanent amelioration while underly- ing conditions remain unchanged, and on the other hand by the Christian vision of a just and loving society, some liberals are demanding in Jesus’ name a radical transformation of the whole structure of our present civilization. Their utterances—many of them at any rate—ring with evangelistic fervor. With courage to condemn selfishness and aggression wherever they are found, they are calling upon the Christians of this generation to repent and to devote themselves to the creation of a society informed by the spirit of love. This, they declare, is the will of God, and.in this task they believe that one experiences fellowship with God. They insist that salvation of the individual and salvation of society can not be separated, that they belong together and condition each other. Thus the three evangelical virtues of faith, hope and love take on new and deeper significance. Of faith President McGiffert says: For democracy demands that we should believe not in great and good men merely, and not merely in the ordinary run of people, but in all people; that we shall have the confidence that they are able or will become able to govern themselves and to form a society where equal rights and opportunities and even-handed justice shall everywhere change in the ‘mores.’ From the first it was so recognized and fought by the champions and defenders of the older order in which it originated.” (Ellwood: The Reconstruction of Religion, p. 78.) 42 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY obtain. It is the biggest faith history has to show. If it be not a religious faith, there never was such a thing; and if it do not need all the religion a man can muster, religion never was needed for anything. (A. C. McGiffert, Democ- racy and Religion in Religious Education, June, 1919, p. 158.) It is sometimes objected that ideals of social organ- ization are outside the sphere of Christianity which should concern itself solely with the spiritual life of individuals. To this liberals reply: Everywhere that the Christian minister turns, he finds his dearest ideals and hopes entangled in the economic life. Do you ask us then under these conditions to keep our hands off? In God’s name, you ask too much! (Fosdick, Christianty and Progress, p. 115.) There is, then, no standing-ground left for a narrowly individualistic Christianity. To talk of redeeming per- sonality while one is careless of the social environments which ruin personality; to talk of building Christ-like character while one is complacent about an economic system that is definitely organized about the idea of selfish profit; to praise Christian ideals while one is blind to the inevitable urgency with which they insist on getting themselves ex- pressed in social programs—all this is vanity. (Fosdick, ibid., p. 123.) Many writers proclaim the un-Christian character of our present society, and demand its transforma- tion: The concrete embodiment of Jesus’ principle of love, of course, is Brotherhood. This is revolutionary. It implies the transformation of the unbrotherly organization of THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 43 society into new structures which shall embody the prin- ciple of universal love. In other words, our commercial, industrial, and political life remain largely unchristianized. They are almost as pagan as they were in Jesus’ day. We have only played with the application of His principles to society, and have yet to discover how revolutionary His ideas are. (Samuel Dickey, The Constructive Revolution of Jesus, pp. 148, 147.) Rauschenbusch may well be thought of as the great prophet of the new social order among liberal Protestants in America. He contrasts Christianity and Capitalism: Christianity teaches the unity and solidarity of men; Capitalism reduces that teaching to a harmless expression of sentiment by splitting society into two antagonistic sections, unlike in their work, their income, their pleasures, and their point of view. True Christianity wakens men to a sense of their worth, to love of freedom, and independence of action; Capitalism, based on the principle of autocracy, resists independence, suppresses the attempts of the working class to gain it, and deadens the awakening effect that goes out from Christianity. The most important advance in the knowledge of God that a modern man can make is to understand that the Father of Jesus Christ does not stand for the permanence of the capitalistic system. The most searching intensification that a man can ex- perience in his insight into sin and his consciousness of sin is to comprehend the sinfulness of our economic system and to realize his own responsibility for it. 44 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY The largest evangelistic and missionary task of the Church and of the individual Christian is to awaken the nation to a conviction of that sinfulness and to a desire for salvation from it. (Rauschenbusch, Christianizing the Social Order, pp. 321, 322.) The following passage from a recent article in a religious magazine represents the same point of view: Even before the recent orgy of war-profiteering revealed its heart-sickening proportions, it was only necessary to read the daily news columns to realize that, from the stand- point of any worthy moral ideal, our capitalistic society stood daily self-condemned, and that “business versus society” would not be a completely exaggerated view of the social process in some of its most important economic aspects. (Clarence Marsh Case, The Dilemma of Social Religion, in The Journal of Religion, May, 1922, p. 284.) Professor Shailer Mathews discusses the relation of individual and social salvation and the patience and sacrifice which are needed. The gospel must socialize the spirit of Calvary. Society cannot be saved as it is. It, like the individual, must partake of the death of Christ. Love can not fully express itself while our social order permits selfishness to succeed. Many an institution and practice must be ended. Ob- viously such a putting off of the social “flesh” will not be without cost. ... One great mission of the Gospel is to educate men to let such loss come as sacrifice rather than as coerced surrender. Such an education cannot be accomplished over night. It presupposes slow growing social sympathy and wise counsels. But without it social progress will be by revolution rather than by that sacrificial unfold- ing of love which Jesus illustrated and to which he calls THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 45 men. If such socializing of the spiritual impulses shall come to compel an extensive reorganization of society, that is only what is to be expected if every knee is to bow to Jesus Christ and the will of God is to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Yet even the prospect of a new social order is not to blind the Christian community to its unspectacular mission to the spiritual life of the individual. There may be regenerate men without their being a thoroughly regenerate society; but a regenerate society cannot be composed of unregenerate men. ... And it is the business of the church to see that such men are forthcoming; men of vision, of social sym- pathy, of consciences trained from childhood to see the moral obligations of corporations and labor unions, each ready to take up his cross and to teach society to take up its cross. Christians need to be taught the virility of such sacrificial life, for they are in danger of being feminized to the point of submission to a laissez faire optimism. So- ciety needs to be taught to share in the adventure of a love which chooses the spiritual in preference to the merely economic. A vicarious tenth must replace the submerged tenth. (Shailer Mathews, The Gospel and the Modern Man, pp. 317 and ff.) The goal and the process cannot be separated. So- cial reconstruction which has as its aim the estab- lishment of a Christian democracy must employ methods consistent with its aim. It must be clearly understood that the two fundamental demands of Christianity for reconstruction are absolutely interdependent. The spirit and the end of society belong together. Its organizing principle and its goal must har- monize. If society seeks possession, then it must have force to protect the possessor. If it seeks power, it must 46 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY have armies as the tool of the aggressor. Autocracy must build its state around militarism and plutocracy must organize industry around its hired and armed guards to suppress the protesting or revolting workers. The natures of the militaristic state and of capitalistic industrialism are identical. They seek special power and privilege for the few, and that necessarily means the control of the many by the few. Mars and Mammon belong together. If we would overthrow one, the other also must be destroyed, for they are inseparably joined. Both of them are the relent- less, uncompromising foes of Christianity and of de- mocracy. (Harry F. Ward, The Christian Demand for Social Reconstruction, p. 49.) Sherwood Eddy, one of the leading missionary evan- gelists of this generation, recognizes the urgency of the same demand. The Church cannot forfeit its right of moral judgment in economic questions. On the issue of war, as a generation ago on the issue of slavery, on the moral issues of our industrial, social and political life, the church is at the parting of the ways. Will it take up its cross and follow its Master in a self-sacrificing life of redemptive love, or follow the discredited method of the autocracies of the old world in fighting for the status quo, without vision and without passion for social justice? (Sherwood Eddy, The Church at the Cross Roads, in the Christian Century, Dec. 29, 1921, p. 18.)° *See also an article by the same author, Putting Chris- tianity into Industry, in The Christian Century, March 9, 1922, p. 298; and an article by Paul Jones in the issue for March 16, 1922, Can the Church Function with a Social Gospel, in which he urges Christians to make a thorough study of the principles of social and industrial relationships as the field in which the gospel is most needed today. THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 47 This requires of liberals the colossal purpose of transforming our present social order—characterized by conflict, greed, and oppression—into something fundamentally different. This obviously would neces- sitate a fundamental re-direction of religious education. The modern church is concerned with life, with the life of our society. She prays for a new social order every time she utters the Lord’s Prayer. She prays for a new reign to begin, the reign or social organization of a Father. She seeks that humanity may be turned from its present order of the jungle, from the wolf-band ways to the ways of a family. She preaches, if she preaches the good news, the possibility of men practicing good-will, of a society which is so utterly unlike ours that it holds that a man’s life does not “consist in the abundance of things he possesses.” What could be more revolutionary? What could more definitely cut under the very foundations of our form of social living? (Cope: Organizing the Church School, pp. 15, 16.) “Social reconstruction” may be so interpreted as to include the entire purpose of religion. For the sake, however, of defining objectives with greater clear- ness, it is important to consider the various implica- tions of such a purpose as they relate to other issues significant for religious education. VI. Tue Po.utricaL STATE Liberal Protestants have no common political plat- form. They are found in all the various parties in the United States. They are alike, however,—many of 48 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY them at least—in possessing certain general atti- tudes towards the political state, attitudes which are characteristically revealed in the following po- sitions. 1. In general, they affirm the desirability and the possibility of operating the political unit, whether large or small, upon the humanitarian principles of Jesus— with (a) the absence of economic strife, (b) no race or class privilege, (c) participation in government of all those not physically or mentally incompetent, and (d) the ruling motive of aggression replaced by that of mutual service. These characteristics of the ideal state are illus- trated by quotations under other topics treated in this chapter. 2. Many liberals recognize the value to the gov- ernment of constructive criticism, and they maintain that such criticism, from a Christian standpoint, is one of the essential functions of the church. There is hardly anything more needed now in the inter- national situation than a multitude of people who will sit in radical judgment on the actions of their governments, so that when the governments of the world begin to talk war they will know that surely they must face a mass of people rising up to say: War? Why war? We are no longer dumb beasts to be led to slaughter; we no longer think that any state on earth is God Almighty. (Fosdick, Christianity and Progress, p. 186.) The church in America has a unique mission to perform. No other agency—certainly not the state- administered school system—has such an opportunity THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 49 to educate the youth of the country in ethical dis- , crimination on political issues. There is at least one necessary objective in the training of citizens that the state schools are certainly not in a position to pursue vigorously. I mean the development of free judgment upon the state itself. ... Therefore, to the question, What specific contribu- tion to training for citizenship have we a right to expect from religious education? the answer is: This above all— Habituating the young to judge all social relations, processes, and institutions, the state included, from the standpoint of the command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Coe, Religious Education and Political Conscience, in Religious Education, Dec., 1922, pp. 431, 485.) 3. Considerable impatience exists with the limita- tions imposed upon good will by the policies of a narrow nationalism. The curse of nationalism is that, having pooled the unselfishness of persons in one group under one national name and of persons in another group under another national name, it uses this beautiful unselfishness of patriotism to carry out national enterprises that are funda- mentally selfish. One element, therefore, is indispensable in any solution: enough Christians, whether they call them- selves by that name or not, who have caught Jesus’ point of view that only one loyalty on earth is absolute—the will of God for all mankind. (Fosdick, Christianity and Progress, pp. 184, 185.) We are surely approaching a time when patriotism is not to be interpreted as implying a persistent attitude of suspicion, distrust, and hatred toward other nations. (King, The Moral and Religious Challenge of Our Time, p. 173.) 50 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY As Christians we cannot admit the nationalist’s contention that the nation is the final unit, and that no humanitarian considerations should be allowed to stand in the way of national interest. (Brown, Js Christianity Practicable? p. 158.) He [the Modernist] is convinced that the evangelization of the world must be preceded by the casting down of the idol of nationalism, in order that the ideal of brotherhood may dominate. (Leighton Parks, What Is Modernism? p. 148.) There are indeed in current nationalism certain tendencies which Christianity cannot promote or countenance. Fore- most among these is the spirit of national conceit. (Faunce, The New Horizon of State and Church, p. 64.) 4, Liberals are concerned that democracy in this country should be truly representative. Their activ- ities for social welfare contribute to this end. They desire in particular that women shall have a larger function in the direction of the processes of govern- ment. One of the resolutions adopted at the Cleve- land Convention of the Federal Council of Churches contains the following clause: We recognize that women played no small part in the winning of the war. We believe that they should have full political and economic equality with equal pay for equal work, and a maximum eight hour day. (Quoted by Coe Hayne, in For a New America, p. 144.) Some liberals are also questioning whether children cannot take a recognized and constructive part in democratic social organization. Professor Coe says: THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 51 The experience of a legal status, defined in the child’s own mind, and involving both rights that he can have enforced and duties that cannot be evaded—this essential experience of democratic discipline is nowhere provided. (George A. Coe, The Nature of Discipline for a Democracy, in Religious Education, June, 1919, p. 140.) and he suggests that “the grant of full franchise as a citizen of the state and of the United States should be conditioned upon success” in a graded experience and practice of democracy which should include even for young children the making and enforcing of laws. 5. The newer books on home missions discuss the practical implications of making America Christian in terms not only of individual piety but of com- munity-wide and nation-wide movements for social reform: The whole task is to make the United States, as a nation, and the people, as individuals, Christians. (Coe Hayne, For a New America, p. xvi.) We shall at least have made a good beginning in building a better America when we have stopped unnecessary dis- ease; supplied good schools for all our children; provided thoroughgoing religious training for them; made wise and adequate provision for the use of constantly increasing leisure time; developed a sense of social responsibility which finds its clearest interpretation in terms of Christian stewardship; substituted justice, tolerance and _ broad sympathies for injustice, intolerance and prejudice; and *For further discussion on this point see the entire article to which reference has been made and another article by Professor Coe, The Functions of Children in the Community, Religious Education, Vol. xii (1918), pp. 26-32. 52 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY created a true sense of world fellowship with all peoples under the sun. These are some things to start with, at least. (Jay Stowell, The Child and America’s Future, pp. 171-2.) VII. INTERNATIONAL AND INTER-RAcIAL PROBLEMS Nowhere is the change of emphasis characteristic of Protestant liberals in America more obvious than in their attitude toward other races and nations. 1. The purposes of the great missionary enterprises are being transformed. a. Liberal Christian missionaries no longer seek ut- terly to discredit and destroy non-Christian faiths. Moreover the application of the scientific spirit to the study of the non-Christian religions of to-day is leading to a new valuation of these. . . . At any rate, it is no longer respectable among scholars to seek to show the utter de- pravity of pagan nations as a step in the process of proving the perfection of Christianity. (G. B. Smith, Social Ideal- ism and the Changing Theology, p. 96.) Our concern should be not to break down and destroy, not to displace other faiths by the Christian faith and other civilizations by our Western civilization, but to build up in cooperation with those of other faiths and other civilizations a better world, more genuinely religious and more completely civilized than anything we yet know. (A. C. McGiffert, The Church and World ellowship, in Religious Education for June, 1921, p. 133.) b. They seek, on the other hand, to appreciate the contributions of the cultures of other countries, and THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 53 to replace the spirit of benevolent philanthropy with a spirit of reciprocity—of mutual give and take. If we are ever to work with India for a better world, there must be a development of mutual appreciation and respect. Pity and compassion may go forth to those whom we do not respect, but if we are to enter into Christian cooperation with another people, there must be admiration for what is worthy in them. We must think of them not only as recipients of help, but as contributors of a rich store of customs and habits all their own. (Daniel J. Fleming, Building with India, p. 27.) c. Movements for social reform and for social re- construction are beginning to be recognized as a legiti- mate part of the missionary program. In his recent book on Japan, Mr. Galen Fisher em- phasizes the importance of Christian social service: Many other examples of the leadership of Christians in social enterprises could be given. To a practical people like the Japanese, who judge a religion chiefly by its fruits, these enterprises are more convincing than volumes of apologetics. . . . For generations the common people have associated religion with the shaven-headed Buddhist priests, who drone Sanskrit liturgies and officiate at funerals, while they give the multitudes sweating under the yoke of life exhortations on the unreality of evil and the compensations of a paradise hereafter. A learned comparison between Buddhism and Christianity is beyond their grasp, but a religion that incarnates itself in self-sacrificing service and that stoops in the spirit of Christ unto the very least of the drudges in mines and factories, and the unfortunates in the slums, will command their respect. (Galen Fisher, Creative Forces in Japan, p. 100.) 54 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY The Peking social survey is well known. It has con- tributed to the interest in social questions taken by Chinese Christians. At the meeting of the National Christian Council at Shanghai in 1922, a strong plea was made for resisting, in the name of Jesus, the in- justices of a rapidly growing industrialism. What is the Church doing to help the industrial workers adjust themselves to the tremendous change that the mod- ern industrial system brings? Must the tragic and humiliating history of the West be repeated here? (Agatha Harrison, in Report of the Na- tional Christian Conference, Shanghai, China, May, 1922, p. 463.) Mr. Paul Hutchinson, doubtless representative of a number of missionaries of the younger generation, de- mands that the missionary forces of the churches should consciously recognize as their supreme task the creation of a new society, international in scope and Christian in spirit. In an article in the Atlantic Monthly, he says in part: This is the sort of international sin that most grievously besets the future—political injustice, economic exploitation, racial discrimination, material standards of success. Chris- tian missions, if they mean to make the world truly Christian, must deal with this. To deal with these sins will require an entire change of missionary method... . This readjustment to a new campaign is not a minor matter. For either the churches of the West will make the readjustment, and find themselves once more engaged upon an adventure of vigor and significance, or their bid for a place among the world’s moulding forces will end in a THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 59 formal sterility. (Paul Hutchinson, Christian Missions, in the Atlantic Monthly, Sept., 1923, p. 389.) d. It is agreed that foreign direction of missionary affairs should be withdrawn as speedily as possible and that the nationals of the various “mission fields” should be expected to assume increasingly the control of the Christian organizations in their communities. A secretary of one of the leading mission boards writes: It becomes ever more evident that the Christian Church is the fundamental institution in the missionary enterprise, and that the establishment of a real Church with its own life and government, unsubsidized and undirected, but standing on its own feet and codperating with us or making a place for us to cooperate with it, should be the normative principle of missionary policy. (Robert E. Speer, The Gospel and the New World, p. 285.) From China comes this message: I would humbly suggest that in so far as the Chinese church exists, the organized missions of Western churches in this country have no ecclesiastical status whatever, except by the courtesy of that Church; and I think that the time has come, or is soon coming, when it must be clearly rec- ognized that, in so far as the churches of Europe and America continue operations here in China, it ought to be only by the consent, and at the invitation of, the Chinese Church. (R. K. Evans, The Church of Christ in China, in Report of the National Christian Conference, Shanghai, May, 1922, p. 229.) The same point of view is expressed by a missionary in India: 56 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY In the last resort this transfer of control involves to that extent the voice of Indians in the appointment and even more in the removal of foreign missionaries. . . . For there is no victory in our work to be compared to the native church that can stand up to us and look us in the face and make terms with us as sovereign in her own house. (Frank Lenwood, The Effect of Modern Development on Mission Policy, in the International Review of Missions, October, 1923, pp. 524, 525.) 2. While liberal writers do not identify themselves to any great extent with theoretical pacifism, recent writings of some representative liberals reveal a pas- sionate determination to abolish war as a means of settling disputes between nations. We want a change of mental attitude toward this whole matter of peace and war so fundamental and revolutionary as to require a complete reconstruction of the principles upon which the relations between nations have hitherto rested. (Brown, Is Christianity Practicable? p. 99.) The most amazing thing in modern ethical discussion is that intelligent men are still found who honestly believe that among nations the brute’s way of settling a quarrel is the only way and that the law of the jungle is the most fundamental law of international life. (Faunce, The New Horizon in Church and State, p. 65.) To-day we must make unmistakably clear our position against war, against competitive preparation for war, against reliance on war. We must make clear our certain conviction that, save for our corporate senselessness, war in the modern world is as needless as it is suicidal, that only the folly and selfishness of diplomats and the stupid willingness of the people to be led like beasts to the THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 57 shambles, make it seem necessary. Against foolish chauvin- ism, competitive armaments, secret diplomacy, imperialistic experiments, against endeavors to play lone hands when, by cooperation, international agencies could be set up to solve the problems which war never solves but only makes the worse, we must now lift our protest and launch our crusade. (Fosdick, in his Introduction to War, by Kirby Page, p. xx.) The last war may have been the lesser of two evils; the next war will be suicide. If we believe this, let us begin at once to educate statesmen, newspapers, and the clergy. The next war must be boycotted by the Church of Christ. (William Austin Smith, War and the Churches, pamphlet, p. 14.) 3. They believe that the religion of Jesus calls for an expression in international organization of a world-wide loyalty. But to make the economic organization a means for the increase of fraternity requires that it be shaped around certain concepts and ideals. It requires the general recog- nition of the equality of need and right of all mankind, and the universal acceptance of the obligation of service. It demands adherence to the truth, “above all nations is humanity,” and the development of supreme loyalty to the worldwide human family above all loyalties to class or nation or race. (Ward, The New Social Order, p. 381.) The Church has something to say about this conflict of patriotisms. It has a loyalty to offer which makes place for all the lesser loyalties of race and class and nation. It opens a horizon which carries us beyond the confines of our country and requires us to envisage the world as a whole. (W. A. Brown, The Church in America, p. 45) 58 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY The Christian statesman who moves for humanization of international relationships may be advancing into new territory, but he may well remember that his religion has from the beginning called for just such statesmanship. (Francis J. McConnell, Democratic Christianity, p. 59) 4. A growing number of Protestant liberals are op- posed to discrimination in the United States on the ground of race, color, or religion; and they oppose as un-Christian factional organizations which stir up suspicion and prejudice. The following sentences are from an article on the Ku Klux Klan which appeared recently in one of the leading church papers: The fact must be borne in mind that our lives, in Amer- ica, have become so firmly intermeshed, that a real, per- manent hatred on the part of one group toward another would be very difficult to sustain. We all live by faith in one another, here. ... This is the sort of faith that is threaded through our whole American life. We must not let that faith break down! It is no mere adornment! It is the only guarantee we have of the perpetuity of our nation! It is just that serious! Well; how are we to have faith in one another without mutual confidence and trust? And does mutual trust thrive on hate? Preachers are asking one another, these days, “What are you doing about it?” Many are maintaining a digni- fied silence because they know there are klansmen in the congregation. They do not care to. become embroiled in a racket. It is quite fortunate for us that Jesus Christ was not so sensitive to the discomforts of a racket. The question for us to decide is not: What will it do to me, personally, if I do my bit toward discrediting this thing? The question is: Am I for, or against, a program THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 59 of organized hate? If I am against it, and keep silence for policy’s sake, may God have mercy on my soul! (Lloyd C. Douglas, The Patriotism of Hatred, in the Christian Century, Oct. 25, 1923, pp. 1373-1374.) . VIII. Human Nature Psychological investigations of the make-up of human nature are vitally important for the Christian religion, with its characteristic concern for the trans- formation of ordinary human beings into citizens of a heavenly kingdom. In general, however, liberal Prot- estants seem to be less alive than one should expect to scientific researches in this field. Recognition of their importance is confined, for the most part, to liberals who are writing definitely on problems of religious education or the psychology of religion. The discoveries which they mention include: (1) the inherently social character of personality; (2) the extent and the limits of the educability of human nature—educability, that is, in the sense that human nature is modified by experience; (38) the importance of individual differences—their nature, extent, and significance for learning; (4) the effect of age and growth upon ability and interests.5 All these must be considered in formulating objectives for religious education which are adapted to the needs of children * While it is not within the province of this report to quote from writers outside the field of Protestant religious educa- tion, it should be recognized that the conclusions referred to here rest in considerable measure upon the researches of such men as Baldwin, Cooley, Thorndike, MacDougall, etc. 60 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY and youth. They suggest the importance of phrasing general objectives not in static terms but in terms of social progress or growth. They also suggest the de- sirability of proposing subsidiary aims related to more general aims but adapted to the needs of special individuals and groups, and to special circum- stances. The following quotations illustrate these four points: 1. On the social character of personality.® We now think of human nature in terms of the relations of persons to one another and of their behavior within these relations, including not only what they do with their hands, and feet, but what they do with their minds. We are interested not merely in the fact that groups exist, but in the way the minds of the members of groups inter- penetrate and in the way the groups under consideration are related to one another and to other groups. Human nature, then, is what human nature does—under certain conditions, namely, when it is in socially function- ing relations. (Hugh Hartshorne, What is Human Nature, in Religious Education, Feb., 1923, p. 17.) and Society is able to have this enormous influence upon the individual because it not only instructs him but to some extent genuinely constitutes him. ... In short each one of us is what he is in virtue of his relations to his fellows. His place in the social network is a genuine part ®°This is the psychological justification for the insistence of liberalism that personal salvation is possible only in a re- deemed society—that the individual and social aspects of all life are bound together. THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 61 of him. (James B. Pratt, The Religious Consciousness, DDw 10,6 42) 2. On the educability of human nature— In the first place, modern sociological research has shown almost beyond the shadow of a doubt the plasticity or modifiability of human nature in social life. Much of the incubus of doubt which has rested upon the program of ethical religion in the past has been due to the supposi- tion that human nature was unmodifiable; but the studies among all the peoples of the world of anthropologists and sociologists show human nature to be one of the most modifiable things we know. We are almost justified in drawing the conclusion that it may be indefinitely modified by social traditions, social institutions, and the social en- vironment. (Charles A. Ellwood, Christianity and Social Science, p. 18) and Original equipment provides for changing itself in the direction indicated by satisfactions that come from the operation of this equipment in a human environment... . Original nature thus provides for its own development, for its own evolution. (Hugh Hartshorne, Childhood and Character, p. 155) 3. On individual differences— To sum up then. Find out all you can about each child’s parents, grandparents, size of family, home-life, neighborhood influences, previous physical conditions, any peculiarities, in order that you may know better why he acts as he does, and make allowances for him accordingly. It is absolutely false that all are born equal either phys- ically, mentally or socially; and we must take into account 62 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY just what capital a child has to start out with. Of him who has little, less may be expected; to whom much is given, of him more must be required. (Mary T. Whitley, A Study of the Little Child, p. 21) 4. On the effect of age and growth on ability and interests— Personality grows naturally. You cannot build it within a pupil by mechanically cementing ideas one upon the other, as though they were bricks. The youngest child in your class already has a personality of his own—living, growing, maturing. And, like every other living thing, it has its laws of life and growth and development. Just as the body develops in accordance with the laws of its nature, so the mind develops from the blank of babyhood to the self-reliant personality of complete manhood in accordance with definite laws which by nature belong to it. If you are going to help a child become the right sort of a person, you must understand these laws, just as truly as the gardener must understand and use the natural laws of plant development. (Luther A. Weigle, The Pupil, p. 6) Moreover, as the child grows in years, new possi- bilities of action appear through the ripening of new capacities. The adolescent’s actions, eg., are capable of very great enlargement through the ripening of the sex function and the tremendous growth in body and nerve structure that go along with it. (Joseph M. Artman, Expressional Activities in the Light of Current Psychology, in Religious Education, Feb., 1918, p. 13.) IX. Tur EpucatTiIonaL Process Liberalism in religion is allying itself with pro- gressive movements in education. Both are products THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 63 of this age, and it is impossible to overlook their con- geniality of spirit. For the purpose of this study it is not necessary to make a survey of modern educa- tional theory. It will be sufficient simply to state the points of emphasis of certain outstanding Protestant liberals—representative of important groups—when they refer to such issues in the theory of the educa- tional process as have a bearing upon aims for re- ligious education. 1. Liberals emphasize the influence of environment on learning. To a varying degree, “environment” is understood to include imaginative elements present, the persons in the group, and the total “set” of the learner, as well as the material surroundings. The whole philosophy of modern education is based upon the principle that to bring about an inner change in the individual you must change his environment. (Kierstead, The Leadership of the Ministry, in The Journal of Religion, January, 1922, p. 50.) Environment provides the stimuli which free the capaci- ties into expression... . As stimulus for reaction environment is not to be thought of merely as an object or thing. Nearly all objects or things with which one comes in contact are colored or evaluated by the way other folks act toward or with these material things. Thus, the stimuli for the growing child or youth are more often social ways of doing which are organized around the physical objects... . Education enters only when society scientifically manip- ulates environment as a stimulus. (Joseph A. Artman, Expressional Activities in the Light of Current Psychology, in Religious Education, Feb., 1918, pp. 10, 12.) 64 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY The aims of religious education must then include provision for a controlled social environment. 2. The primary importance of focussing atten- tion on present rather than future experience is recognized. The whole trend of modern educational theory is to emphasize the child’s characteristics and abilities, to adapt the school to his present needs, rather than to try to fit him to a hard-and-fast, traditional curriculum based on certain things that we believe he will need to know later as an adult. We say nowadays that education means, not filling a child’s mind with supposedly necessary external material, but developing the child in every way, phys- ically, mentally, morally and socially, for fuller present life, because we believe that out of present development will come enrichment of life in the future. (John H. Fin- ley, The Debt Eternal, pp. 168, 169) Again, the scientific study of religion is making clear the experimental basis of our faith in God. We see that the arguments we give to justify our belief are arguments after the fact. We must find God in our experience before we can reason about him. (Brown, The Church in Amer- ica, p. 147) Of neglecting to give attention to factors actually existing in the present social experience of young children, Professor Coe says: But let us not deceive ourselves. While we thus sleep the enemy sows tares. From infancy the pupil is in con- tact with the social order as it is; through this contact he is forming habits, and not only habits, but also the pre- suppositions of his thinking with respect to men and so- THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 65 ciety. ... Shall we forever go on making the foolish assumption that the will of the child remains neutral for years and years with regard to the contest between justice and injustice? Shall we go on postponing in education what is not and cannot be postponed in the child’s social experience? (George A. Coe, A Social Theory of Religious Education, pp. 60, 61) The aims of religious education must then concern themselves with issues alive in the present social en- vironment of children. 3. Insistence on pupil activity has become a com- monplace in the educational methods advocated by all forward-looking Protestant leaders. ‘The important point to note in this regard is that imterest in such educational devices as meaningless games and “busy work” is giving place to the promotion of enterprises of genuine worth, socially conducted, and evaluated by ethical standards. Here is the central principle upon which the educational work of the church is based: persons learn by doing; they learn social living by actively sharing in the life of social groups; they can learn the social life of Christian love only by sharing the life of a society that loves and by finding in it the opportunity actively to share in loving. (H. F. Cope, Orgamzing the Church School, p. 32) Our chief work as teachers of religion is to develop wholesome religious activity. . Whatever phases of Moire life we emphasize in class, it is essential to remember that the universal method of learning is in and through activity, both physical and mental, and that the younger the pupils are the more closely must learning be associated with muscular activity wed 66 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY at the moment of learning. (Hugh Hartshorne, Childhood and Character, p. 160) Sound method in moral education, then, will cause chil- dren to face, directly and analytically, their relations to one another, to their teachers, and to the larger society. It will not build up a structure of moral ideas apart from moral action, nor will it be content, on the other hand, with conduct, however appropriate, that does not grow into reflective self-control and weighing of standards. Just as the best teaching of arithmetic, or of manual processes, or of physics causes the child to realize what he is doing, why he does it, what the results are, and how it can be im- proved, so in morals it is open-eyed, forward-looking, and in this case self-conscious practice that counts most for the formation of a democratic character. (George A. Coe, A Social Theory of Religious Education, p. 194) Everyone is most interested in that in which he has an active part. The meeting in which we presided or made a speech or presented a report is to us a more interesting meeting than one in which we were a silent auditor. To the child, personal response is even more necessary. No small part of the reason why the child “learns by doing” is that he is interested in doing as he is not interested in mere listening. (George H. Betts, How to Teach Re- ligion, pp. 153-4) Other attempts to vitalize the schools are in methods of teaching. ‘The underlying principle of them is that the child’s interest must be secured, that he learns best what and when he wants to learn, and that he learns best by active participation, rather than by passive absorption. The methods run all the way from the use of plays and games to awake interest to the “project method” which sets forth a definite task or problem, in the choice of which THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 67 the children have a part, and which they work out them- selves under guidance and supervision. (J. H. Finley, The Debt Eternal, pp. 172-3) The aims of religious education must then provide for social activities on a Christian level and for reflec- dion upon these activities. 4. The school of religion, like the secular school, must be integrally related to the larger life of the society of which the school is a part. Experience within the school, to be adequately educative, must be continuous with life outside. We must make the life of the class one with the life of the community, establish areas of codperation, make this our chief work, building our instruction upon the pupils’ immediate experience of social problems. (Hugh Hartshorne, Childhood and Character, p. 165) It now becomes evident that if the basal process in education is social interaction, the ancient isolation of school experience from other experience must be overcome all along the line. (George A. Coe, A Social Theory of Religious Education, p. 21.) We have passed from the pigeon-hole school. We have the much larger task of organizing class work extending into the week, group activities, worship and play, all inte- grated into the total, normal week-around experiences of children. Instead of scheming a Sunday-single-session school, we now seek to organize programs of religious edu- cation. (Cope, Organizing the Church School, p. 25.) The aims of religious education must then provide for continuity of social experience, 68 | LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY 5. The attitude of research is emphasized—the patient searching for facts and the habit of forming an opinion only after sufficient evidence is secured. This is our most serious need. We have made many mistakes by divided counsels, but we have made more mistakes by attempts to work in ignorance of the facts. (H. F. Cope, Principles of Christian Service, p. 99) When religious education acquires the purpose of taking a definite part in the evolution of society as a whole, and when, in order to fulfill this purpose, we undertake to lift the teaching of religion from the plane of traditional rou- tine to that of a scientifically controlled process, we obli- gate ourselves to cosmopolitanism of intellect as well as of heart. To make it effective, we must go on to assume the university attitude of freedom, of scientific method, of eagerness for new knowledge and for the widest organ- ization of knowledge. (Coe, Social Theory of Religious Education, p. 290) The aims of religious education must then empha- size the value of research and must themselves de- pend upon a scientific study of facts. X. Tur Cuurcu Tue outstanding requirements of liberal religion upon the social institution which expresses its life have been set forth in the preceding sections. The church is to be a fellowship of persons committed to the general Christian purpose rather than to a formula of beliefs. The liberal expects that through experience and instruction this Christian attitude will develop into the insights and purposes already de- THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 69 scribed with respect to the Bible, theology, Jesus, social welfare, the reconstruction of society, the polli- tical state, international and inter-racial problems, human nature, and education. A comprehensive statement of the church’s responsibility along all these lines could hardly be expected from a single source; when liberal writers emphasize certain issues, they quite naturally maintain that there—within the areas of those particular issues—lies the supreme duty of the church. Mention should be made, however, of certain char- acteristic attitudes toward the church found more or less generally in the writings of Protestant liberals. 1. The church is criticized. Liberals, themselves church members, seek to evaluate the institution on a Christian basis. Many of them are surprisingly out- spoken in their confession of defects. ‘The Modernist is convinced,” says Dr. Parks, that “unless the Church can be revivified by a blood infusion, it will die of per- nicious anemia.” (What rs Liberalism? p. 144.) Lyman Abbott contrasts different standards and practices within the church. It is true that the prosperity and progress of the Church has been its peril. While it has been pushing its influence out into the world, the world has been pushing its influ- ence into the Church. Deeds of avarice and cruelty have been strangely interwoven in the fabric of its history with deeds of unselfish devotion and self-sacrificing love. It has been both narrow-minded and large-hearted; both di- vided into petty sects quarreling over forms of words and united in worldwide service by love for its Master. When- 70 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY ever it has lost that love; whenever it has substituted an admiration of beauty for a reverence of goodness, emotional enjoyment for self-denying service, regulation of conduct for inspiration of the spirit, belief in a creed for faith in a Person, whatever its wealth, its political power, its pres- tige, whatever the beauty of its services, the regularity of its order, or the soundness of its theology, it has ceased to be a living church, and has had pronounced against it the condemnation uttered nineteen centuries ago against its prototype: “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Lyman Abbott: What Christianity Means to Me, p. 45) According to another writer, the church of the present day is, to some extent at least, stifling the spirit of free inquiry. Here we touch on what is perhaps the Church’s greatest sin—the sin of encouraging the closed mind instead of urging open-mindedness and the critical spirit. Men have been asked to believe thus and so simply because such was the inherited teaching of the Church. ‘This is putting shackles on the mind. In so far as the Church has en- couraged people to give their assent, without searching inquiry, to doctrines whose truth is sincerely questioned by any considerable number of intelligent men, she has done a grave disservice to our democracy. But not only has she taught questionable opinions as certain, she has attempted to imoculate her members with such an as- surance in regard to them that they shall be immune to opposing arguments. By emotional influences she has stifled the murmurings of the intellect. The result is that the whole course of modern thought has been confused, THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 71 and few, if any, modern philosophers have attained to the intellectual clarity of the Greeks, The fact that a man belongs to a church is widely taken to show that he has an uncritical mind. (Durant Drake: Shall We Stand By the Church? p. 12) 2. Liberals welcome, and indeed seek to promote, fellowship among denominational groups. They stress the inclusive character of Christian fellowship. They rebel against barriers erected in the interests of eccle- siastical orthodoxy. A few references will illustrate this tendency: What is going on in industry, in politics, and in education is going on also mm the Church. In many different ways the different Christian bodies, dissatisfied with their pres- ent divisions, are working out forms appropriate to demo- cratic religion. In the local community, in the missionary and educational work of the Churches, between the differ- ent denominations as a whole, various forms of union are being devised. Community Churches are being formed, Federations of Churches are being set up, nationwide Federal Councils are being established. Plans are being made for extensive cooperation in the field of religious education. What the end is to be, we cannot yet foresee. But we shall fail to read the signs of the times if we do not perceive that in these new experiments the democratic Church of the future is feeling its way to a more complete and adequate self-expression. (William Adams Brown: Imperialistic Religion and the Religion of Democracy, pp. 176, 177.) When a class like organized labor seems to think that the Church does not in any sense belong to it, the Church should give itself no rest in the search for a message or 72 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY a policy that shall make unmistakably clear that the Church belongs to all men. (F. J. McConnell: Democratic Christianity, p. 21) Ecclesiasticism is defined by the Century Dictionary as “devotion to the interests of the Church and extension of its influence in its external relations.” JI did not find in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ any devotion to the interests of the Church. (Lyman Abbott: What Chris- tianity Means to Me, p. 18.) We have outlived the day of individualism and also that of orthodoxy. I believe few of us realize how completely the old orthodoxy fails to appeal to the modern Christian. (Foakes Jackson: Some Different Aspects of the Church, p. 25) 3. It is essential to the liberal position that the Church should be thought of as progressive, as looking to the future, as experimental and creative. To quote two of the writers already mentioned: The members of this developing church will never re- gard their work as finished. They will always be trying . new experiments. They will be continually comparing experiences in the hope of finding some better way. Con- scious of serving the living God, their faces will be turned to the future; they will set no limits to their expectation. (William Adams Brown: Imperialistic Religion and the Religion of Democracy, p. 178) What a travesty it is to speak of the Church as a brake- system on the fast-moving life of our time! Brakes we no doubt need, but the Church of God is not to be forever pictured as stopping things or as holding them back. The Church enthrones and worships a Creator. How better THE DISTINCTIVE POSITIONS 73 to worship a Creator than by showing a creative spirit. (F. J. McConnell: Democratic Christianity, p. 35) The aspects of the liberal movement noted in this chapter—involving as they do standards of method, items of knowledge, and individual and social atti- tudes—carry with them numerous educational ob- jectives. While these objectives have been implied in the foregoing analysis, it remains necessary to state them in such a way that they may serve as standards for the religious education of children and youth in the issues here mentioned. They are not special or final ends but directions of effort that we may expect to find running through all educational activities char- acteristic of liberal Christianity. These objectives include: 1. Knowledge of the facts of our present civilization —accurate information on living conditions, on social institutions including the church and the state, and on the make-up of human nature. 2. The desire and the ability to relieve suffering and to work toward the reform of un-Christian social conditions. 3. An evaluation, on a Christian basis, of the in- stitutions with which the groups under instruction come into contact, and active efforts for whatever re- constructions are found to be needed. 4. Mutual appreciation and codperation between groups where there are racial, occupational, national or other differences; and the attempt to destroy “spe- cial privilege’ due to age, sex, race, wealth, etc. 5. Activity in abolishing war as a means of set- 74 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY tling disputes, and participation in efforts for reconcil- lation between individuals, classes, and nations. 6. Active faith in humanity and in the gradual transformation of society into what is commonly called “the kingdom of God”. This is always taken to mean a brotherly society and usually involves the acceptance of a democratic ideal and experiments in democratic organization. 7. Efforts to develop the Christian church as an effective agency for the reconstruction of society. CHAPTER IV OBJECTIVES AS DEFINED BY LEADING WRITERS IN RELiIcIous HpUCATION To what extent do the objectives as defined by writers in religious education express the positions of liberal Christianity? It is fair to suppose that prac- tice in religious education will be largely influenced by the aims advocated by leading writers on the sub- ject, and it is therefore important to ask how far their aims indicate agreement with the liberal positions already outlined and a tendency to present the recon- structive purposes inherent in the liberal movement. Among the leaders who have written extensively in recent years, six representative men have been chosen. Dr. Weigle, professor in Yale Divinity School, em- phasizes the point that religious education means more than imparting information and more than mere “training.” As a teacher you aim, then, to develop a personality. You want your pupil not simply to know, but to live Christianity. You want him not merely to do right deeds, but to do them of his own will. There is but one test of a teacher’s work. It is not “What have you taught your pupil to know?” or “What have you trained him to do?” but “What sort of a person have you helped him to be- come?” (Weigle, The Pupil, p. 5) 75 76 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY In a later book on worship he says: The goal at which we aim in training children to wor- ship is that we may help them to become men and women (1) of sound individual habits of devotion, (2) members of the Christian Church and regular participators in its worship, (3) who have committed their lives to God through Jesus Christ and have experienced his redeeming, regenerating grace, (4) whose worship issues in lives of Christlike service, doing God’s work in the world, (5) and who have begun so to know God through worship as to have entered, here and now, upon eternal life. (Weigle, Traimng the Devotional Life, p. 90) This aim is stated in general terms and lacks spe- cific direction. As stated, without further interpreta- tion, it suggests individual goodness through such means as doctrinal conformity, habits of worship, and the practice of social service. Dr. Weigle does not go on to explain how lives committed to God should be changed, nor what God’s work in the world actually involves. Professor Athearn of Boston University makes a strong plea for a religious education which shall pro- vide a continuity of social experience. He says: The task of religious education is to motivate conduct in terms of a religious ideal of life. The facts and the ex- periences of life must be interfused with religious mean- ing. In a democracy the common facts, attitudes and ideals given as a basis of common action must be surcharged with religious interpretation. Spiritual significance and God- consciousness must attach to the entire content of the secular curriculum. Unless the curriculum of the Church OBJECTIVES DEFINED 77 school can pick up the curriculum of the public school and shoot it full of religious meaning, the Church cannot guar- antee that the conduct of the citizens of the future will be religiously motivated. (Walter Athearn, A National System of Religious Education, p. 30) He emphasizes the importance of the standards of Jesus and declares for a world brotherhood. The purpose of religious education is to indoctrinate the minds of all men with the standards, ideals and personal experiences of Jesus Christ in the interests of a perma- nent brotherhood of man. (Ibid., p. 25.) The characteristic notes of a world brotherhood are not indicated in Professor Athearn’s writings; nor are the standards and ideals of Jesus as they bear on questions of the day. He gives us no hints as to our objectives in teaching children about the church, the political state, traditional theology. His statement that “in some place’”—presumably the church school— “the Bible must be taught as religion as well as lit- erature and history” is not supplemented by any eluci- dation of what he means by the Bible as religion. In two recent books on religious education, Profes- sor Betts of Northwestern University goes into more detail in discussing objectives. In his definition of aim he emphasizes especially the possibility of a nor- mal continuous growth in religious experience. On the positive side, religious education takes the child, endowed through his original nature as he is with capaci- ties both for evil and good, and seeks to stimulate the good and suppress the bad, using for this purpose religious 78 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY instruction, nurture, and guidance. (G. H. Betts, The New Program of Religious Education, p. 40) and We must ask what part our instruction is having in the making of Christians. We must measure all our success in terms of the child’s response to our efforts. We must realize that we have failed except as we have caused the child’s spiritual nature to unfold and his character to grow toward the Christ ideal. (Betts, How to Teach Religion, p. 39) Professor Betts would encourage discrimination in the use of Biblical material. He desires children to accept the ideals of Jesus. He, like Professor Athearn, rec- ognizes the continuity of religion with life. ‘Theo- logical niceties and ecclesiastical distinctions have”, he says, “a small and decreasing interest for the great mass of persons to-day who are interested in religion.” Ideals of social welfare and to some extent at least of social transformation form a part of his aim. “The world” is being interpreted in a new sense as the environment in which our lives must be lived, and this “world” may itself be transformed to make it a favorable medium in which to cultivate a soul. (Betts, The New Program of Religious Education, p. 38) Professor Betts’ books are forward looking. They express, to some extent at any rate, the point of view of liberal Christianity. ‘They have a tendency, how- ever, to leave the reader with certain questions in mind on which he might desire further information. Such questions as these: * ~ OBJECTIVES DEFINED 79 1. What is Dr. Betts’ view of the function of ideas? Is he still under the partial domination of the old theory that “information” is antecedent to “applica- tion”? The members of the “great trio” in his three- fold aim—‘“fruitful knowledge”, “right attitudes”, “skill in living’—seem to be relatively independent of one another. 2. How far does Dr. Betts recognize the educa- tional effect of the entire social environment? Although there is stress on activity, one finds com- paratively little effort to control the children’s entire environment in the interest of desired responses. 3. Jesus is central in Dr. Betts’ purpose. How then would he explain his suggestion that material from the Old Testament representing an idea of God unlike Jesus’ idea be used for children’s first religious teaching? (See How to Teach Religion, p. 115.) 4. In what sense does Dr. Betts urge a child “to accept the life of Jesus as the ideal and pattern for his own’? Both liberals and conservatives say this. One needs to have some idea of the implications in the writer’s mind. 5. Liberal Christians hold it to be one of the pur- poses of religion to evaluate experience on the basis of Christian standards, judging their own actions, their surroundings, and religion itself. This objective does not appear in Dr. Betts’ statements. In his book, Childhood and Character, Professor Hartshorne of the University of Southern California gives this definition of religious education: 80 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY Religious education, therefore, is the process by which the individual, in response to a controlled environment, achieves a progressive, conscious, social adjustment, dom- inated by the spirit of brotherhood, and so directed as to promote the growth of a social order based on regard for the worth and destiny of every individual. (Hartshorne, Childhood and Character, p. 5) On aims he says: The goal of religious education for the individual is thus seen to be the completely socialized will, expressed in a life which is sharing increasingly in the knowledge and work of an eternal society, and in the joy of human and divine companionship—in a word, world-citizenship. The goal of religious education for society is the re- organization of institutions and enterprises in such a way as to provide for all individuals the stimulus of the re- ligious heritage of the race, and equal opportunities for - health, education, work, play and worship—in a word, world-brotherhood. (Jbid., p. 6.) Dr. Hartshorne’s distinctive contribution to the lit- erature of aims lies in his analysis of the attitudes which religious education of this type seeks to stim- ulate. Religious education, if it be Christian, strives for the cul- tivation of Christian attitudes. It makes for the growth of the broadest possible outlook on life. It is interested primarily in the associations which are permanent and universal, and it thinks of the individuals so associated as members of a permanent and universal family—the chil- dren of God. (Hugh Hartshorne, Worship in the Sunday School, p. 6) OBJECTIVES DEFINED 81 “Worship”, according to Dr. Hartshorne, is a “means by which the leader controls the group to develop attitudes of social value’. While he holds that the attitudes characteristic of Christianity should be thought of as actual responses to concrete situations, he suggests that they may be grouped under the following general heads—Gratitude, Good Will, Reverence, Faith, Loyalty. Professor Coe, of Teachers College, Columbia Uni- versity, and the late Dr. Henry F. Cope, secretary of the Religious Education Association, are agreed in advocating as the inclusive aim of religious education _ the reconstruction of society into a democracy—the democracy of God. In his Social Theory of Religious Education, Pro- fessor Coe states the aim of Christian education to be: Growth of the young toward and into mature and effi- cient devotion to the democracy of God, and happy self- realization therein. (Coe, Social Theory, p. 55) The aim as expressed in Dr. Cope’s latest book, Organizing the Church School, is ... that men may effectively will this human living of ours, this world society, in spiritual terms, terms that make possible social good-will, instead of warring lust for things. Religious education seeks to develop in men the purposes and abilities of the Christian social order. (Cope, Orgamzing the Church School, p. 18) Professor Coe discusses the implications of social purpose as regards nearly all of the present issues of 82 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY religion mentioned in this study. While he does not formulate definite objectives on all the issues in ques- tion, he has produced a philosophy of religious educa- tion quite consonant with the fundamental positions of liberal Christianity. At the present time, his book, The Social Theory of Religious Education, is the only thoroughgoing treatment in print of the principles of religious education from a liberal standpoint. Per- haps Dr. Coe’s most significant contribution to the literature of aims in religious education is his insistence on the necessity of deliberative group action and of revaluing traditional and widely accepted values. He maintains that the scientific attitude, the attitude of social appraisal, is fundamental to the Democracy of God and that this attitude can be stimulated in even very young children. Society as it now exists is quite willing to support an educational policy that makes for negative goodness and for conventional goodness; society would go as far, if it knew how, as to produce in its children the “rock-ribbed” fidelity to principle that constitutes character in the third sense. Up to this point religious education includes, or fuses with, whatever there is in “general’’ education that effectively socializes children. But beyond this point there lie, not the highways of social conformity, but the moun- tain trails of social reconstruction. Not the will that is conformed even to what is good in conventional social standards, but the will that is transformed into the like- ness of the divine democracy that is far beyond and far above, is the character that Christianity has to pro- duce. (Coe, Social Theory of Religious Education, p. 185.) OBJECTIVES DEFINED 83 Dr. Coe has given us little explicit guidance upon the use of the Bible beyond the statement that “if the curriculum is fundamentally a course in Christian living, the Bible will be so used at each turn of the child’s experience as to help him with the particular problem that is then uppermost”. It is however jus- tifiable to suppose that his position would be substan- tially that of the liberal writers quoted in Chapter I. The statements of these six men are given as sam- ples. Among the progressive writers in the field of religious education, exponents of other types have not been found.t *If this chapter were an attempt to evaluate contributions, it would be necessary to name many not included here. This is however simply an attempt to find the drift of opinion on particular points, CHAPTER V OBJECTIVES ANNOUNCED BY ORGANIZATIONS FOR ReEticious EDUCATION Do the objectives controlling the organizations for religious education represent the educational purposes implicit in the liberal movement? It is not easy to answer this question. Such printed material as is available for examination often fails to reveal with exactness the basis of the policies pursued, even if the policies themselves are clearly stated. Furthermore, the purposes expressed in such formal documents as official constitutions and the like must almost of necessity be relatively general and therefore unillu- minating as to specific interpretations and issues. Some light may be thrown on the problem, how- ever, by a brief study of the announced objectives of the leading agencies for religious education, both de- nominational and interdenominational, as these are expressed in constitutions, periodical reports, and other statements in which purposes are set forth. DENOMINATIONAL AGENCIES For the purposes of this inquiry an examination has been made of the agencies for religious. education in the ten Protestant denominations having the largest 84 OBJECTIVES ANNOUNCED 85 number of members, as given in the Year Book of Churches, published for the Federal Council in 1923. They are, in order of their size: Methodist Episcopal, Southern Baptist Convention, National Baptist Con- vention, Methodist Episcopal South, Presbyterian (U. S. A.), Northern Baptist Convention, Disciples, Protestant Episcopal, Congregational, and United Lutheran. With them were included, as representing significant and somewhat different views, the religious education organizations of the Society of Friends (orthodox), and the Unitarians. The present forms of organization for religious edu- cation in these denominations, as in Protestant denom- inations generally, represent a development of several functions which most of the Protestant churches have been discharging for many years; that is—(1) the business of publishing Sunday-school books and other religious literature, (2) the promotion and administra- tion of church-schools and of denominational academies and colleges, including the raising of schol- arships, (3) young people’s work in denominational societies such as the Epworth League, and (4) pre- paring and editing curriculum material.1 With the increased interest in religious education characteristic of the last few years, there has been a movement to unite these functions—and sometimes others—into a single agency for a denomination. In some denomina- tions no union has yet taken place; in others a real *This chapter does not deal with the aims expressed in Sunday-school text books and other curriculum material. They will be considered in Chapter VI. 86 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY fusion has been effected; in still others there is a com- bination of several boards, each keeping its own autonomy. Where a uniting of forces is found, it marks the acceptance of a broad field for religious education, and provides for the administration of various related © activities in the same general field under the direction of a single unified policy. When one studies the expressed aims of the various denominational organizations for religious education, one is struck with the absence for the most part of any definite position whatsoever concerning the issues in modern life which liberal Christians regard as su- premely important. Apparently the agencies make few attempts to analyze the implications of such gen- eral purposes as are set down in their constitutions. Typical of these general objectives are the following: The object of this Board shall be to promote the general educational interests of the Church, to conserve the re- ligious life of the students in the educational institutions of the Church; in State Universities, and in other schools; to stimulate the supply of candidates for the ministry; to administer the work of ministerial education for codper- ating Synods, and to render financial aid to educational institutions. (Constitution of the Board of Education of the United Lutheran Church of America, p. 7.) It shall be the duty of said Board to found Sunday Schools in needy neighborhoods; to contribute to the sup- port of Sunday Schools requiring assistance; to educate the Church in all phases of Sunday School work, constantly endeavoring to raise ideals and improve methods; to de- termine the Sunday School curriculum, including the courses OBJECTIVES ANNOUNCED 87 for teacher training; and in general, to give impulse and direction to the study of the Bible in the Church. It shall also be the duty of said Board, after consultation with the Editor of Sunday School Publications, to recommend to the Book Committee the kind and character of litera- ture, requisites, supplies, etc., needed for use in our Sun- day Schools, and the Publishing Agents shall provide and publish such literature, requisites, and supplies as, in the judgment of the Book Committee, the best interests of the Church may demand. It shall also be the duty of said Board to promote such organizations as the organized Bible classes, Brotherhoods, and kindred organizations. (Board of Sunday Schools of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1920. Discipline, page 468) The object of this organization shall be to win and hold its members for Christ, to promote in them an earnest and intelligent spiritual life, to bring them into loyal Church membership, and to train them in Christian serv- ice. (Constitution of the Junior Epworth League.) The objects of the Union are: (a) to foster the religious life, (b) to bring the young people of our several churches into closer relations with one another, and (c) to spread rational views of religion and to put into practice such principles of life and duty as tend to uplift mankind. The cardinal principles of the Union are truth, worship, and service. (Young People’s Religious Union of the Uni- tarian Societies, Year Book, 1921-1922, page 51.) It should be noted that in several denominations there appears to be included in the functions of re- ligious education agencies, the duty of giving expert educational advice and of leading the denomination into new educational adventures. Some phrases in 88 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY the constitutions quoted illustrate this. There are other instances. The By-Laws of the Board of Edu- cation of the Northern Baptist Convention declare that “It shall be the duty of the Board of Education to develop the educational convictions of the churches represented in the Northern Baptist Convention”. The Unitarian Department of Religious Education seeks “to introduce and encourage modern methods in religious education in the Unitarian churches”. And the secretary of the Board of Education of the Dis- ciples of Christ announces as one of the objectives of his Board, “To foster an educational spirit and awaken an educational conscience among Disciples of Christ”. His appeal to the Church is noteworthy: One cannot be a Christian in the highest sense without being educational in outlook, in desire and purpose. Every devoted follower of Christ is a devout “searcher after truth.” ... There is an intellectualism which is barren of spiritual fruitage, and there is a sickly sentimentalism which parades itself as spirituality. ... Let the church awake. Let her cease her suspicious attitude in matters of the intellect. Let her throw herself with abandon into the great undertaking of higher education and sanctify it to the glory of God and the redemption of mankind. (Re- port of the Board of Education of the Disciples of Christ, Sept. 1923, p. 9.) Occasionally reference is made to the ultimate aim of bringing in the Kingdom of God. In a report of the Presbyterian Board, one finds this statement: Christian education seeks not only to impart knowledge, increase skill, promote efficiency and develop personality, OBJECTIVES ANNOUNCED 89 but so to develop the maturing personality that all of its powers and attamments will be used in accordance with the will of God for the establishment of that kingdom of righteousness and brotherhood without which the world can never know lasting peace and the fullest freedom. (1919 Year Book, Council of Church Boards of Educa- tion, p. 36.) Here we have as an end, the developing of individuals for the Kingdom of God. In the aims of the Episcopal Church there is a further recognition of the parish as a social unit for reconstruction. Thus, the Episcopal Church “affirms for the parish this edu- cational aim: So to nurture the growth of each indi- vidual, especially the child, that he may attain the ‘mind of Christ’ and by his efficiency in the parish, assist it to lift the life of the community into that of the Kingdom of God.” (The Educational Opportunity of the Churchman, 1922, p. 11.) There is no expressed desire on the part of any one of the boards to consider theories of social organization or to attack institutionalized social abuses. Appar- ently this is looked upon as outside their province. An expression of social idealism, however, which is full of practical implications is found in the report submitted in 1915 by the Commission on Moral and Religious Education of the Congregational churches. It says in part: It has come to be recognized that the welfare of Prot- estant Christianity, as a mere question of growth, will depend very largely upon its educational processes. More fundamental than that, the problem of moral control in 90 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY a democracy is in the last analysis, a question of religion. Religion deals with the roots of life from which character and conduct spring. One of its essential functions is to establish the kind of moral attitude in men and women which shall purify society, insuring social justice and eco- nomic righteousness. It goes beyond the ethics of custom and social contract by carrying the issue to the final court where God is the judge. (Minutes of the National Council, 1915, p. 376.) And in the Year Book of the Board of Sunday Schools of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1922, some paragraphs in a statement made by Professor George A. Coe are quoted, accompanied by these remarks: I am at liberty to quote from this statement some tren- chant sentences bearing upon the necessity for a frank facing of the charge that our present system of religious education is little short of futile. ... Then this man with keen insight points out how the great issues of a warless world, and economic justice, and intellectual honesty, find small purposeful place in our present system of religious education. ... In some effective way we must bring the entire church to a realization of the fact that the moral energy which she must have to meet the demands of the human world depends on the quality of religious education given childhood and youth. (Report of Corresponding Secretary, p. 64 ff.) With but few exceptions, such as have been men- tioned—where the general influence of liberal educa- tional standards can be recognized and where an en- OBJECTIVES ANNOUNCED 91 larged social consciousness is apparent—the denomina- tional agencies for religious education fail to express positive attitudes upon the crucial questions of re- ligion. They fail to give guidance on the use of the Bible, the significance of dogma, the relationship of the religion of Jesus to modern life, the Christian’s atti- tude towards his own and other nations, the value of ecclesiastical institutions, and other burning questions of the day. The absence of positive guidance is probably due to one or more of the following causes: (1) Failure to recognize the wmportance of defimte educational objectives. Apparently some of the leaders of the denomina- tional agencies are deceived by the same “illusion” to which Professor Miller refers in a discussion of col- lege life. He says: The great college illusion is the faith that the accumu- lation of buildings, “courses”, degrees, and students charac- teristic of the last fifty years is a progress in education. In other words, the illusion is that you can attain the purpose of education without trying to attain it, without knowing definitely what it is, without seeking till you find the defi- nite means that will secure it; that you can find it by let- ting it take care of itself. ... The great illusion is but a case of the human failing that may be called occupationism (an ugly word for an ugly fact)—a physician might call it a form of occupation-psychosis; that is, the continued operation of the machinery with its daily details, the carrying on of the occupation according to custom quite crowds out the question what it is for and whether it compasses its end. 92 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY (Dickinson Miller, The Great College Illusion, in the New Republic, June 22, 1921.) (2) Reliance upon the positions already formulated by the churches concerned—in, creed, catechism, canon, etc., or through other departments of church actiwity— and the expectation that fundamental policies have already been, or should be, the concern of the church at large. The business of the department of religious edu- cation has been thought of as having to do with the How, not the What of teaching religion. Usually the departments have taken for granted the generally accepted point of view of their constituencies. Some- times they act under definite instructions, as in the case of the Southern Baptist Board of Education when the last Convention adopted the following resolution: That, in view of the fact that the claim is being con- stantly, and with justification, made that text books can not be found for the departments of science free from erroneous statements with reference to evolution, our Education Board begin at once to seek for Christian sci- entists, who will prepare text books for all departments of science which will rightly relate science to the Bible and who will set forth the fact that the majority of the greatest men of science have repudiated Darwinism ex- cept as an unproven working hypothesis. (Baptist Educa- tion Bulletin, May, 1923, p. 14.) (3) Fear of alienating members of their group uf definite positions are taken on certain contested points. In some of the Protestant denominations there is such a wide divergence of conviction even on essential points that the educational departments are in obvious difficulty. The central tenets of the church do not OBJECTIVES ANNOUNCED 93 touch at all upon certain vital issues; on other issues the teachings may be—and are—‘interpreted” in various ways, with the result that faithful members of the same denomination may hold antagonistic views as to the fundamental direction which their education should take. Under the circumstances one is per- haps justified in suspecting a tendency to “play safe’ on the part of many of the denominational educational agencies when it comes to stating their objectives. In certain noteworthy cases, denominational agen- cles, organized for functions other than religious edu- cation, are conspicuous in that they have not taken a subservient or neutral attitude. For instance, the De- partment of Christian Social Service of the Protestant Episcopal Church declares its function to be “to in- terpret to the Church not only what social service means but to suggest also some things social service does not mean”. The Methodist Federation for Social Service, an agency which is officially recognized by the Methodist Episcopal Church although it receives no financial appropriation from the Church, has taken a clear-cut stand upon a number of vital questions, con- ceiving its duty to be the proposal of definite objec- tives and the education of the church constituency to the understanding and acceptance of these objectives. Thus, the Federation formulated the ‘Social Creed” which was adopted by the Methodist Church in 1908 and later accepted, with additional clauses, by the Federal Council of Churches as well as by many Protestant denominations and other religious agencies 94 LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY —the statement now generally known as “The Social Ideals of the Churches.” The time may come when denominational agencies for religious education are driven—by the force of their own convictions, by compulsion from within their constituencies, or by social pressure from out- side—to declare their purposes in terms of the major issues confronting religious leaders of our generation. At present they appear to be for the most part, either ignorant of the educational demands of liberal Chris- tianity or indifferent to them, or in some other manner outside of them, or at least not consciously inside. INTERDENOMINATIONAL AGENCIES The Year Book of the Churches for 1923 lists twenty-four “service organizations” under the general heading of “Religious Education”.? They are: 1. American Sunday School Union. 2. Biblical Seminary in New York. 3. Commission on Christian Education (Federal Council). 4. Committee on Friendly Relations among Foreign Students. 5. Committee on the War and the Religious Outlook (Fed- eral Council). 6. Conference of Church Workers in Universities of the North Central Region. 7. Conference of Church Workers in Universities of the USS: *Year Book of the Churches, 1923, pp. 309 ff. *The reason that this organization appears in the above list is not clear, but since it was included there it has seemed best to include it in this study. OBJECTIVES ANNOUNCED 95 8. Conference of Theological Seminaries and Colleges in the U. S. and Canada. 9. Council of Church Boards of Education. 10. International Association of Daily Vacation Bible Schools. 11. International Council of Religious Education. 12. International Sunday School Lesson Committee. 13. Magna Charta Day Association. 14. Missionary Education Movement. 15. Religious Education Association. 16. Students Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions. 17. Sunday School Council of Evangelical Denominations. 18. United Society of Christian Endeavor. 19. World Association of Daily Vacation Bible Schools. 20. World Brotherhood Federation. 21. World’s Student Christian Federation. 22. World’s Sunday School Association. 23. Young Men’s Christian Association. 24. Young Women’s Christian Association. These organizations represent various lines of special interest. Eight of them (Nos. 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 21) are concerned primarily with the religious interests of students; two (Nos. 1, 2) exist mainly for the teaching of the Bible; four (Nos. 4, 18, 14, 16) are devoted to missionary activities and the promoting of international friendships; the remaining twelve (Nos. 5, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24) are more general in character.® *The reason that this organization appears in the above list is not clear, but since it was included there it has seemed best to include it in this study. *Nos. 4 and 16 concern both students and missionary activities and are therefore counted under both headings. 96 | LIBERAL CHRISTIANITY Material on all the organizations enumerated has been collected and examined in order to determine whether or not the expressed purposes of each organi- zation showed indications of the attitudes character- istic of liberal Christianity. The accompanying chart reveals in a rough fashion the result of this study. Where there was apparent agreement in one or more respects with the liberal position (as presented in Chapters I and II) this was indicated by a plus sign (+). Where evidence dis- closed an opposing position this was indicated by a minus sign (—). In two instances where organiza- tions expressed conflicting points of view on the same issue, both signs were used (+). (See Chart on opposite page) The chart may be misleading. In interpreting it, the following facts should be kept in mind: (1) The examination was restricted to such printed material as was available. Informal inquiry of present leaders of the various organizations might bring forth different results. (2) A plus (+) does not mean that the organiza- tion in question should necessarily be counted as en- tirely liberal on any given issue, but as liberal in one or more respects. The like caution should be observed when a minus sign appears. (3) 2020 ~ 28) (28 +86) an meeren care neenee amen nen amnenanensncuemenmmanenene (84 » 92) laa (5) The averages of Groups A, B, C, D, and E fall below the median of the total scores of the church workers tested and below the median of the college undergraduate group. One may infer, therefore, that the majority of the members of these groups are not 9'6T Tole YUE 80T LES en 1A Oh bao i ST GGiees.© bak + TE Seed) IT VG roe bot GG Ves & L Ge eas & ene ESA & Or 6 if 0 055-207 0 0 Vose= U1 250 0 eo Ul 0 Olea te 0 0 LG==- Ge = 0 0 1 re HREES YE 0 Oe OL == 0 SHLVNGVED SUTMHOM YL -UH0NO SsNororimay GOGTI00 =" IV.LOL GIG 66 S8sI 60t FI 86 G 96 & Glau ise 9 0 if T Vv T G 0 9 0 T 0 G 0 G 0 T 0 G 0 H DvD S8I i rm ra BOOCOns AN HO tHOm OULSStl vt. Lee OCC 2 G 0 g g T 3) 9 Vv 9 8 T v J Vv T v € 6 G Veesy 0 g v t Ef T G G G T 6 0 T 8 0 0 T 0 0 T 1G Risen © Foes VI 92 96 Lg & T T T T 0 & & o & v g T L € L T ps T $ T v 0 9 0 9 6 SV cS ee INGNVLSE]T, CIO THL NO SLINAWHLVLG ¢7 FHL NO sayoog 8) umpapy see8s mor "*"" 6 9} GG egeeGG 9 UG meen UG RU teOL be OL Ue, paige) Ley ey): ect V Le Oh = ol ee Gee a)! eee UL SOTSS “5592 01 9 “559 04 F “EO Z “57 O19 “89 On Z— ‘7 Mong sdnoy 169 Vol 801 SHLVAGVED SUAMYOM “ddan n HDaTIOO OSS FS 225 06-0 POL sol AIS a eis 999