"MAX AND HIS WORLD"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 194, 17 August 1944, Page 4

"MAX AND HIS WORLD"

If the extract from Philip Main, waring's book "Man and his World" is a fair sample of what is complained about, then pity help anyone who endeavours to simplify any theology in order to make its essential principles comprehensible to the child mind. That the criticism is forthcoming can be understood when one thinks of the sectarian intolerance dividing us and the implied assertions by our church leaders that any explanations of Christ's life and works varying in any degree from dogmatic teachings are heretical. Sadly enough, organised orthodox churches have in our time made no mark worthy of note, that the innate goodness of man himself would not have achieved alone. By enshrouding the earthly Jesus in mysticism they have unconsciously lost the Christ, as exemplified in their inability to propagate the doctrine, or heal the sick. By all means let us have faith that if allowed to find compatible viewpoints our children will themselves find Christ. FATHER OF THREE.

I am one of those who protest against the using of "Man and his World" in schools. I have read both volumes and think that it is to be condemned- The way that Mr. Mainwaring describes the life of Christ is really very childish and the fact that he has to describe the whole life of Christ in merely two pages is in itself evidence of incapacity. Christ is an infinite being, and if only two pages of a book written by a finite being can be spared for Him, then I implore the parents of New Zealand to demand its removal from the list of approved books. F. W. Faulkner wonders why Bishop Liston objects to this book- "Let every girl and boy, woman and man, do as they would be done by, hurt not one the other, speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil, and love one another," says Mr. Faulkner. Does he expect God to see evil and leave It undone^