A "RED" LIFE OF CHRIST

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22231, 23 October 1937, Page 18

A "RED" LIFE OF CHRIST

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON EARTH The Life of Jesus. By Conrad Noel. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. 620 pp. (12/6 net.) In Essex is the charming village tof Thaxted. With a population of less than two thousand people, the village hr.s a church as large as Christchurch Cathedral. For many years the vicar of Thaxted has been the Rev. Conrad Noel. Once upon a time he hoisted the "Red Flag" in his parish church. Students from Cambridge tore it down. Since then all flags have been removed from the church. Mr Noel tries to show us in his book how the life and teaching of Christ looks to one who is a Christian Communist. He reminds us that it was not only Karl Marx who found religion to be the opium of the people. Marx's contemporary, Charles Kingsley, wrote: "We have used the Bible as if it were the special constable's hand-book—an opium dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they are being overloaded." Mr Noel is well acquainted with much modern learning about the Gospel story. He begins with a sketch of the political, economic, and religious background of the story of Christ's life in order to show that His teachings "were given under much the same conditions as obtained in the modern world and cannot be dismissed as utterly inapplicable to it." Part II is entitled "The Kingdom of Heaven." It is written with a view to demonstrating the continuity of the teaching of Jesus with that Hebrew tradition at its best, and to prove that the idea of the Kingdom was not merely other-worldly, but meant political and economic reform in this world here below. In this respect, the Hebrew-Christian doctrine differed fundamentally from that of the pagan world. The latter aimed at making men at home in the human society in which they found themselves: "The religion of Palestine inspired men with the hope that it might be shattered to bits and then remoulded closer to the heart's desire." Part 111 contains Mr Noel's account of the life of Christ. This is based on a critical account of the sources a" 1 contains much that is fresh and unconventional, though the author's views of Christ's person and mission are mainly in the Catholic tradition, except for the contention that Christ regarded His Kingdom as not only spiritual but also involving a complete economic and political transformation of this world and its affairs. The ability and enthusiasm with which Mr Noel presses this contention on his readers in almost every chapter would make more impression on them if he had avoided Communist jargon, as, for example, his tiresome and frequent use oi the word "workers" as a term for manual labourers. There are four appendices to the volume. They are concerned with the Christ myth theory; the exact meaning of the word kingdom; the Virgin birth; the Subjective Christ and corruptions I in the text of the Gospels. Each I appendix is well documented and the author has a clear j;rasp of the question which he undertakes to discuss.

ST. PAUL Saul of Tarsus. By F. Warburton Lewis. Ivor Nicholson and Watson Ltd. 178 pp. (6/- net.) Saul of Tarsus, better known as St. Paul, has left us such vivid records, in his epistles, of his labours and his thoughts, that a study of what he wrote seems to attract new expositors in every generation. Mr F. Warburton Lewis here attempts to tell the story of St. Paul's life afresh. What he has produced is a more or less popular account of the Apostle's work and teaching. Translations of passages from the epistles are inserted in the narrative in what the author considers to be chronologically satisfactory places. Despite its popular form, the book is not unscholarly and Mr Lewis seems to have made use of the best authorities.