1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com
1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com
1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com
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LL told, there are upward<br />
A of 910 million professed<br />
Christians in the world today.<br />
Of these, more than fiveninths<br />
are said to be Roman<br />
Catholics, as also are from 90<br />
to 99 percent of the people in<br />
some twenty lands in Europe,<br />
Central and South America.<br />
In certain Protes<br />
"''''' THE<br />
"". LACK<br />
Of<br />
tant countries, such<br />
as Great Britain and<br />
Denmark, the head CHRISTIAN<br />
of the State is also THINKINO-.<br />
the head of the -"<br />
clergy give US leadership<br />
in thinking<br />
Christianlyabout<br />
the contemporary<br />
world. What we lack<br />
is not scholarly<br />
bishops but thinking<br />
bishops and pre<br />
eminentlyChris- tianly thinking<br />
bishops. It is a peculiarly<br />
English,<br />
probably even peculiarlyAnglican<br />
confusion of<br />
Church. Even the thought to assume<br />
United States with its principle<br />
that the pursuit of learning<br />
of separation of Church and<br />
State is, according to its Supreme<br />
Court. "a Christian nation."<br />
On the basis of such facts<br />
you might expect that there is<br />
Whllo<br />
profe ... d OnfsIfClftl<br />
.. rrum.rou., SJ.rtuoo<br />
I .. ChrIotIan _inti<br />
Is ICCIIU. What ...<br />
, ..... lor "'Is?<br />
is somehow of necessity a<br />
less secular activity than the<br />
pursuit of wealth. The scholar<br />
is not, by the mere fact of<br />
his scholarship a more religious,<br />
a more spiritual, a less<br />
widespread Christian thinking<br />
secular [person]. The idea<br />
in Christendom, but is there? No, there that because a man is learned, especially<br />
is not. Actually, there is so little Chris in subjects pertaining to religion, he is<br />
tian thinking manifested that some even therefore secure from the seductions of<br />
despair of there being any Christian mind worldliness is a fallacy."<br />
today. Among such is the English writer<br />
Harry Blamires. In his book The Ohristian<br />
Mind he laments that "there is no<br />
longer a Christian mind." As he sees it,<br />
"the modern mind has been secularized<br />
[and] deprived of any orientation toward<br />
the supernatural. The Christian mind has<br />
succumbed to the secular drift with a degree<br />
of weakness and nervelessness unmatched<br />
in Christian history."<br />
He spares neither the "laity" nor the<br />
clergy. Of the former he says: "Though<br />
he does not face it, the loyalty of the average<br />
Churchman to the Conservative Party<br />
or to the Labor Party is, in practical matters,<br />
prior to his loyalty to the Church."<br />
What Is Christian Thinking?<br />
Throwing light on this question by<br />
way of contrast is the following confession<br />
made some years ago by the popular<br />
American clergyman, John Haynes<br />
Holmes, recently deceased:<br />
"I have found incalculable help and<br />
guidance in recent years in taking Gandhi<br />
as my example. If 1 have been tempted to<br />
write an angry letter, I have asked myself,<br />
'Would Gandhi write such a letter?' If I<br />
have been irritated by some selfish boor<br />
who has stolen my time to serve his own<br />
designs and purposes, 1 have said to myself,<br />
'How would Gandhi treat this person?'<br />
If 1 have found myself perplexed as to<br />
And regarding the bishops and the clergy what to do in this instance or that, I have<br />
he states: "Neither our bishops nor our again and again inquired within my heart,<br />
AUGUST fill, <strong>1964</strong><br />
5
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