Disunity—An Offence To God And Man

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 204, 28 August 1943, Page 4

Disunity—An Offence To God And Man

IN face of all the dangers that now assail us, there is no room for one little vestige of religious bigotry. Theological and doctrinal differences, however profound they may in the past have appeared, must no longer keep Christians apart.

The Church, in its widest sense, as the Body of Christ, broken' and torn as it is, has yet what the world needs. She is the sacred repository of Divine truth as well as of Divine By Rev. C. W. Chandler

power. "Humanity cannot save itself by its own effort," says Christopher Dawson, in "The Judgment of the Nations," "and the greater its power and material resources, the more complete is the catastrophe, when the State attempts to save itself by its own efforts."

It is not given to many either to think clearly or to act wisely to-day. We are blinded by dust raised by the juggernaut of war, as it hurtles on its destructive way. Demoniacal powers have been unloosed, and all our latent hates and greeds have been unleashed.

In the rise of the Totalitarian State we witness the death struggles of a self-defeated materialism. The giant is making a desperate last bid lor the bodies and souls of men. Their bodies he has, and their souls he is in the process of getting. How filled with new meaning are the words of Jesus, "and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

"Dark forces which have been chained by 1000 years of Christian civilisation have now been set free to conquer the world."

Christopher Dawson is one of the clearest thinkers of to-day, and as a devout Roman Catholic, and outstanding historical philosopher, he presents a very convincing case for the reunion of Christendom. He blames 18th and 19th century liberalism for the rise of the totalitarian state, and ascribes a great deal of the blame for a disunited Church to this same doctrine of unrestrained individualism, expressing itself in a multiplicity of sects. Whereas in the heyday of Catholicism Europe was spiritually homogeneous, it is now spiritually heterogeneous. It is house divided against itself, and must fall. No mere economic panacea forced upon it from without can reunite it. Nothing short of a spiritual revolution can do that, and there are doctrinal differences upon which the Latin Church is too insistent, that greatly hinder its accomplishment. With regard to the reunion of the Eastern, Western and Anglican churches, a "re-approachment," in a much more liberal spirit than has yet been betrayed, is well overdue, and before such conversations can be successful, a great deal more love has got to be infused into all parties. Fires of contention must be extinguished, and nothing but love, born of a realisation of our oneness in Christ, can quell these flames, and stamp out all the smouldering hates.

Abuse of Powe f f Dawson says nothing the abuse of power on the part of the Latin Church being a contributing factor, as undoubtedly it was, in its subsequent collapse as sole dictator in the spiritual affairs of Europe. Nevertheless, he is amazingly broad in his sympathies. He says, "the rigorist view concentrates its attention so much on the question of authority, and ecclesiastical order that it ignores or undervalues the importance of the common beliefs, the common moral values, the common religious traditions, and the common sacraments and forms of worship that exist m the midst of the religious divisions of the Christfan world. We have the clear apostolic testimony as to the fundamental criterion of Christianity. By this the spirit of God is known. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit which denies Jesus is not of God, and this is anti-Christ.

Is the Church (within its various denominations) sufficiently flexible? Is the will to unite big and strong enough to sweep before it all the controversial dead twigs that impede the flow of the life-giving stream? Why can there not be, in our own day, such a mighty upsurging of the Spirit, that everything in the nature of organised antipathy can be thawed out beneath the healing and cleansing rays of Christian love? If in wartime we can unite against a common foe, despite our religious, national and racial differences, why can we not unite as Christians in the cause of humanity and peace? Our divisions are an offence to God and man. We have well nigh organised the Holy Spirit out of existence, being more jealous of our historical traditions, than we are zealous for the salvation of mankind. Because, as Dawson concludes, "religion is the only power that can meet the forces of destruction on equal terms, and save- mankind from its spiritual enemies," it is imperative that a solid Christian front should immediately be set up.