UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA LIBRARIES COLLEGE LIBKrtrtr Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/christiancenturyOOfeyh The Christian Century Reader The Christian Century Reader Representative Articles, Editorials, and Poems Selected from More than Fifty Years of The Christian Century by HAROLD E. FEY and MARGARET FRAKES ASSOCIATION PRESS New York The Christian Century Reader Copyright © 1962 by The Christian Century Foundation Association Press, 291 Broadway, New York 7, N. Y. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction m whole or in part in any form, under the International, Pan-American, and Universal Copyright Conventions Publisher's stock number: 1474 Library of Congress catalog card number: 62-9590 Printed in the United States of America To Charles Clayton Morrison and Paul Hutchinson Preface In the past half-century American Christian thought has changed in important respects. A useful yardstick for measuring the scope of these changes is the fifty-three annual volumes of the weekly Christian Century. Here is recorded the swing from faith in progress, automatically ascending on the escalator of evolution, whose inventor was God, to the present dialectical realism; from a concept of the kingdom of God as something largely dependent on man's initiative to that of the kingdom as one in which the initiative lies with God, with man par- ticipating in God's redemptive activity; from the concern of the social gospel with the outward structure of justice to the in- wardness of an ethic of culture in which the divine Spirit moves at every level in love and liberation. The movement in Europe from Ritschl to Barth has been paralleled in America by the swing from Rauschenbusch to Reinhold Niebuhr. Today, as a new era dawns, God is using the power of ecumenical faith and experience to add a new dimension to churchmanship in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as in Europe and America. In the social order mighty new forces are loosed, for good as well as for evil. The development of these forces is also seen in these pages. The impact in the last half- century of nationalism on tribalism, of religion on politics, of church on state and state on church, of the Christian conscience on industry, agriculture and the professions can be traced here. The social responsibility of business, of science, of education, of medicine, of law and even of the arts begins to emerge. The great issues of peace and war, of race and class, of affluence in some societies and poverty in others, attain new insistence. The 7 PREFACE cold war confrontation of democracy and communism, both armed with weapons of ultimate destruction, contributes an apocalyptic urgency as this half-century ends. All issues test the validity of the affirmations by which faith answers the great questions: What does God intend? Why are we here? How can we know and do his will? What can we do to be saved? When The Christian Century reached its fiftieth year of publication in 1958, the idea emerged that we should make a selection of editorials, articles and poetry which would, in book form, distill the scope of these changes as they had been caught m this journal of Christian opinion. The task of selection was a formidable one; the annual volumes usually exceed 1,500 magazine pages, and a half-century of publication adds up to something more than a 20-foot shelf of large volumes. Time for working through something like 75,000 pages had to be worked into the schedules of persons actively involved in editing and publishing a weekly paper. But time was found, principally by Associate Editor Margaret Frakes, who spent an aggregate of several months at the task of selecting and organizing this mate- rial. Her great capacity for discernment and her discriminating judgment are seen in the representative quality of these selec- tions. Now our work is done, and we present this volume as one which attempts fairly to represent the scope and purpose of The Christian Century. In a larger sense, it also represents the direction, temper and understanding of Protestant Christianity in this century. While I am at present the editor of The Chris- tian Century, the reader should know that the editorial minds which principally shaped this record belonged to Charles Clay- ton Morrison and Paul Hutchinson. Dr. Morrison "re-founded" The Christian Century in 1908 and was editor until 1947. The late Dr. Hutchinson, who became managing editor in 1924, was editor from 1947 until 1956, when I, who joined the staff in 1940, succeeded him. Harold E. Fey, Editor The Christian Century Contents Preface 7 I. Instruments of Witness Has the Church Collapsed? An Editorial February 18, 1915 21 Our Secularized Civilization Reinhold Niebuhr April 22, 1926 22 End Missions Imperialism Now! Hugh Vernon White February 14, 1934 29 The Menace of the New Paganism Arnold J. Toynbee March 10, 1937 36 The Iona Idea Editorial Correspondence by Paul Hutchinson September 11, 1946 42 The Church as Prophetic Critic John C. Bennett January 6, 1954 47 The New Look in American Piety A. Roy Eckardt November 17, 1954 53 The Church in Suburban Captivity Gibson Winter September 28, 1955 59 Harbinger of Hope An Editorial December 13, 1950 66 An Analysis of Revivalistic Method An Editorial July 1, 1909 70 Needed: Evangelism in Depth Editorial Correspondence by Cecil Northcott June 26, 1957 74 9 10 CONTENTS II. Foundations At Henry Drummond's Grave Charles Clayton Morrison September 1, 1910 81 Honoring the Past Robert E. Speer May 26, 1910 87 The Changing World An Editorial September 28, 1911 88 The Sense of God's Reality Harry Emerson Fosdick November 6, 1919 90 God Lets Loose Karl Barth Douglas Horton February 16, 1928 96 A Letter from Karl Barth December 31, 1958 102 Arrested Liberalism An Editorial October 26, 1938 105 Post-Fundamentalist Faith Edward John Carnell August 26, 1959 110 How My Mind Has Changed 1. A Liberal Bandaged but Unbowed Robert L. Calhoun May 31, 1939 113 2. Beyond Religious Socialism Paul Tillich June 15, 1949 123 3. Ordeal of a Happy Dilettante Albert C. Outler February 3, 1960 128 III. The World Ecumenical Conferences The World Missionary Conference Charles Clayton Morrison July 7, 1910 139 The Conference at Stockholm Lynn Harold Hough September 24, 1925 148 The Rapprochement of the Churches Peter Ainslie September 22, 1927 156 Beginning at Jerusalem Samuel McCrea Cavert May 10, 1928 164 1 CONTENTS 1 The Church Faces Its World Winfred Ernest Garrison August 18, 1937 171 The Quest for Unity Charles Clayton Morrison September 1, 1937 178 Appraising Amsterdam An Editorial September 29, 1948 185 Evanston Retrospect An Editorial September 22, 1954 189 IV. Days of Trial The End of War An Editorial January 2, 1909 197 A Vicarious Nation An Editorial December 28, 1911 198 A Christian's Duty in Wartime An Editorial April 12, 1917 199 The Paramount Issue An Editorial October 28, 1920 201 Father of the Pact An Editorial February 12, 1941 204 Communism Knows There Is a Revolution! An Editorial February 22, 1933 207 After Twenty Years George W. Norris March 31, 1937 212 An Exchange Between Brothers 1. The Grace of Doing Nothing H. Richard Niebuhr March 23, 1932 216 2. Must We Do Nothing? Reinhold Niebuhr March 30, 1932 222 3. The Only Way into the Kingdom of God Richard Niebuhr A Communication by April 6, 1932 228 The German Church Says No! Harold E. Fey September 1, 1937 231 12 CONTENTS If Russia Wins John Haynes Holmes July 30, 1941 240 An Unnecessary Necessity An Editorial December 17, 1941 245 Citizens or Subjects? An Editorial April 29, 1942 251 Gazing into the Pit An Editorial May 9, 1945 256 America's Atomic Atrocity An Editorial August 29, 1945 259 Fifteen Years in Hell Is Enough An Editorial August 3, 1960 265 V. Some Areas of Concern Labor and the Federal Council of Churches An Editorial December 26, 1908 273 The Sacred Rights of Property An Editorial March 21, 1912 274 Hunger on the March Paul Hutchinson November 9, 1932 274 Another "Century of Dishonor"? An Editorial January 31, 1913 279 Ira Hayes—Our Accuser Editorial Correspondence by Harold E. Fey February 9, 1955 280 The Triumph of Temperance An Editorial March 19, 1914 286 The Temperance Movement Today Albion R. King March 8, 1961 287 The Church Amid Racial Tensions Alan Paton March 31, 1954 293 What Does the South Want? James McBride Dabbs September 19, 1956 297 Non-Violence and Racial Justice Martin Luther King, Jr. February 6, 1957 302 CONTENTS 13 VI. National Scene In God We Trust Henry Cadbury 1954 311 J. July 7, Why Is the DAR? An Editorial June 5, 1946 313 We Shall Not Sign An Editorial June 10, 1953 314 High, Wide and Ugly An Editorial March 15, 1961 318 The Meaning of "Separation" An Editorial November 26, 1947 321 Churches Should Pay Taxes! An Editorial April 9, 1947 327 VII. People and Places Amateur Dramatics at Dayton An Editorial July 30, 1925 335 Sinclair Lewis' Sunday School Class Samuel Harkness July 29, 1926 339 Einstein and the Red Flag Editorial Correspondence by Paul Hutchinson August 28, 1929 343 Gandhi An Editorial February 11, 1948 350 The Sage of Ballard Vale Philip M. Kelsey January 15, 1958 353 Italy and the Pope Editorial Correspondence by Margaret Frakes October 29, 1958 356 Sunday at Lambarene Albert Schweitzer March 18, 1931 359 The Sometime Holy Land Editorial Correspondence by Theodore A. Gill October 10, 1956 366 14 CONTENTS The Tomb of the Chosen One Editorial Correspondence by Dean Peerman August 23, 1961 374 VIII.