We may find that the
appearance of such a program as that of the British Labour Party,
supported as it is by an imposing proportion of the population of the
United Kingdom, marks a further step, not only in the advance of social
science and democracy, but also of Christianity.
I mention Christianity, not for controversial or apologetic reasons, but
because it has been the leaven of our western civilization ever since the
fall of the Roman Empire. Its constant influence has been to soften and
spiritualize individual and national relationships. The bitter
controversies, wars, and persecutions which have raged in its name are
utterly alien to its being. And that the present war is now being fought
by the Allies in the hope of putting an end to war, and is thus in the
true spirit of Christianity, marks an incomparable advance.
Almost up to the present day, both in our conception and practice of
Christianity, we have largely neglected its most important elements.
Christian orthodoxy, as Auguste Sabatier points out, is largely derived
from the older supernatural religions. The preservative shell of dogma
and superstition has been cracking, and is now ready to burst, and the
social teaching of Jesus would seem to be the kernel from which has
sprung modern democracy, modern science, and modern religion--a trinity
and unity.
For nearly two thousand years orthodoxy has insisted that the social
principles of Christianity are impractical.
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