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Vol. 59 No. 12 DECEMBER 1954 Threepence Notes

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Vol. 59 No. 12 DECEMBER 1954 Threepence Notes • Vol. 59 No. 12 DECEMBER 1954 Threepence Notes of the Month Custos Some Notes on a Vish to Finland Sir Ernest Kennaway The Outlook for Humanism Archibald Robertson The Mystery of Joanna Southeott Royston Pike The Origin of Christianity P. G. Roy Conway Discussion Circle Book Reviews Correspondence South Place News Society's Activit ies SOUTH PLACE HETFEICAL • SOCIETY SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS AT ,ELEVEN O'CLOCK . / • ' - . ' • -J..' , • December 5—PROFESSOR T. H. PEAR, M.A.-`tAre Modern Scientists Afraid of Doing Good?". ' . 'Cello and Piano SoloS by LILLY PHILLIPS and JOYCE LANDLEY Vivaldi Orientale; .'. Cesar Cui SPanisK Dance Glazounov , - December 12-Dlt. Mi. E. SWINTON, Ph.D.—"Digging up the Truth!' Soprano Solos by MARY LENVIg • Gefang Weylef .. Wolf Dat..verlaffene Magdein Wolf HYmn:. No. 41 • December 19—ARCH1BALD ROBERTSON,'-i%I.A.--"Mithni iind the Christian Festival." Bass Solos by G. C. DOWMAN My Lone Abode Schubert My Lovely Celia arr. Lane Wilson Hymn: No. 226 SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS, 64t1- SEASON Concerts 6.30 p.m. (Doors open 6 p.m.) Admission Is. 6d. December 5—MACGIBBON STRING QUARTET Mozart in D, K575; Rawsthorne No. 2; Schubert in D minor, Op. Post h. December 12-1IURWITZ CHAMBER ESISEMBLE Handel Concerto Grosso, Op.'6, No. 11 in A; Corelli Concerto Grosso No. 8. Op. 6; Boccherini 'Cello Concerto in B flat; Mozart Divertimento for Strings, 1C138 in F; Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. December 19—FREDERICK GRINKE. DENNIS BRAIN. WILFRID PARRY: Beethoven in C minor, Op. 30, No. 2; Delius No. 2 Piano and Violin. Sonatas; Paul Dukas Villanelle Horn Solo; Brahms Horn Trio. Officers Hon. Treasurer: E. J. FAIRHALL Hon. Registrar: MRS. T. C. LINDSAY Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.I Secretary: J. Hurto8 HYND The Monthly Record is posted free to Members and Associates. The Annual charge to subscribers is 4s. 6d. Matter for publication in the January issue should reach the Editor, G. C. Dowman, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.1, by December 10. - . • . The Objects of the• Society, are the study and-dissemination of ethical - principles and the cultivation of.,a rational religibus sentiment. - Any person in sympathy with these objects is cqrdially .invited to become a• Meniber '(minimum annual .subscription; is 10s.), or Asi"oeiatejminiminn annual , subscription 5s.). Life meinberShip:£10 .10i Associates are, not eligible to vote • , or hold office. Enquiries shriuld be aade of the Regisfiar to''whorn subsciiptiOns should be paid. 2 The MONTHLY RECORD — Vol. 59 No. 12 DECEMBER 1954 Threepence CONTENTS PAGE NOTES OF THE MONTH, Custos 3 SOME Nous ON A VISIT TO FINLAND, Sfr Ernest Kennaway 5 THE OUTLOOK FOR HUMANISM, Archibald Robertson 8 Ti IE MYSTERY OF JOANNA SOUTHCOTT, Royston Pike 10 THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY, P. G. Roy . 12 CONWAY DISCUSSION CIRCLE 14 BooR REVIEWS ..I 8 CORRESPONDENCE .. 20 SouT0 PLACE NEWS 22 SOCIEXY'S ACTIVITIES .. 23 The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society. Notes of the Month THE YEAR ends in a general atmosphere Of hope that Makes a striking contrast to that of 1953 or 1952. Whether this mood is justified or not, the. British public decline to- be shaken out of its tempered or detached optithism. There are? to be sure, grounds for the present feeling. It is clear that the tension over the atom bomb is relaxed now that Moscow is ex- hibiting an altered attitude towards the West. A partial lifting of the iron curtain has convinced, our people that Russian policy is being modified. The belief has grown that both Russia and China are anxious to avoid war, and this despite -the published facts relating to the vastness of Soviet armament. Britain, again, is not disquieted by the result of the American election, while by a great majority we have accepted the rearming of Germany as inevitable, if not as a positive addition to the security of Western Europe. It is not difficult to believe that in home affairs the out- look on the whole is improving. Unemployment is negligible. Mr. Butler's repeated assurance that the upturn of the national finances is satisfactory is not seriously challenged. Nothing, it would seem could be much more serious than the menace of strikes in the nationalised and semi-nationalised industries; but even so the majority view' is that the danger can be handled 3 without grave losses to the nation. Meanwhile the curious condition of Parliament arouses some misgiving. It arises partly from the weaknesses of an Opposition when parties are balanced, and partly from the wide extent of the area (such as the social services) that is now almost common. The situation, however, is not likely to be maintained beyond 1955. The re- tirement of the Prime Minister must open a new chapter. br. Albert Schweitzer In view of his standing as an eminent servant of humanity, it is not surprising that Dr. Albert Schweitzer's speech on acceptance of the Nobel peace prize should have been awaited with unusual interest. It was an earnest ethical sermon on the imperative need of world peace, its keynote being, as always with him, reverence for life. Schweitzer is a humanist..He affirms that the spirit of man is the one and only reality upon which we have to rely, and that there is no hope for our distracted world save in a new ethical crusade and adoption of the universal principles of compassion and co-operation. Hence the first duty of Governments is to set about healing the wounds left by the last war. He urges as a practical measure a large and determined effort to re-settle the Multitudes of uprooted people. We may all agree with this and in Schweitzer's statement that there is no greater obstacle to the recovery of peace than the mad nationalisms in- tensified by the wars, how, in a world of colossal armament governed by fear, a universal moral force can be discussed and applied. Schweitzer, in common with so many others, declares that the alternative could not be more plain: either we make peace or we perish. Schweitzer admits that this conclusion demands a miracle and that such miracles do not occur. Hence, we are driven to infer, the spirit of man is unequal to the task of the age. Schweitzer is no pacifist. He believes, like the majority of church leaders, that if a nation is attacked, the right of defence by means of all the terrible weapons now at its disposal must be conceded. Buf does not this fateful concession destroy the moral basis of his.own solemn argument? Broadcast Religion It would be interesting to learn the extent of the protests coming from the listening public now being aroused by the policy of the B.B.C. in the field of religion. If the complaints are few or moderate, the fact could undoubtedly be explained by the widespread indifference to religious matters that has been noted at church conferences and in other assemblies for many years past. Any foreign listener to the regular features of our broadcasting system, always extravagantly praised in Parliament, could not fail. to take note of the uniform assumptions concerning the "oldLtime religion". The chosen preachers take for granted that theology does not fall within, the realm of knowledge or inquiry. They scorn the riches of comparative religion and speak as though the immense results of a century of biblical research may be altogether set aside. Long ago Matthew Arnold protested sharply against the extreme "licences of affirmation" about God and Jesus Christ in which our religious instructors indulged. There is no evidence that this practice has been challenged in the broadcast services. No critical or modernist voice is ever heard. Look, for instance, at its daily morning admonition so quaintly called the Uplift. It has become a playground of the literalists, whose expositions and.ritual phrases are astonishingly juvenile; as when the dramatic scenes of Jonah were presented. as a portion of the actual history of Nineveh, the greatest city of the then known .world. At 7.50 a.m. the great majority of.listeners are getting off for the dayls work. Why not treat. them .as adults? 4 The Father of Liberalism • Liberal and progressive thinkers will unite in' paying homage to John Locke, who died 250 years ago. He is sometimes called the Father of British Philosophy, but he is 'quite certainly the fountain head Of the vatious streams of liberal and progressive thdught which have inspired the idealism of successive generations. A physician by profession, he looked on' social ills with the pragmatic eye of a doctor, tied to no rigid general principles, but using the experimental method of the great founder of medicine, Hippocrates, who was, perhaps, the first empiricist. "I appeal to observation and experience," wrote Locke, thereby setting the mould in which the dominant school of British thought was to be formed. He found philosophy a narrow specialism, to which only those who knew its highly, technical terms had the key. He set himself the task of making the subject readable for the ordinary intelligent man, disclaiming all ambition to construct yet another system that pretended to be the truth at last. He described him- self, modestly, as "a journeyman and under-labourer" who .was content with the "twilight of probability". Thus the doors werc opened for all that is best in our tradition and for the development of what was in his day called Natural Philosophy, but which in the early part of the last century came, to be known as Science. Cus-ros Some Notes on a Visit to Finland B Y SIR ERNEST KENNAWAY AFTER SOME CORRESPONDENCE with Professor Sakari Mustakallio, Director of the Central Institute of Radiology in Helsinki, who had in 1944 initiated enquiry into the relation between cancer of the rcspiratory tract and smoking in Finland, my wife and I fiew to Helsinki on August 5 last.
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