"RELIGION FOR RELIGION’S SAKE.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18733, 11 December 1922, Page 5

"RELIGION FOR RELIGION’S SAKE.”

DEAN INGE'S CONDEMNATION. CONVERSION—SUDDEN OB GRADUAL?. (From Oue Own Correspondent.) LONDON. October 13. "The Meaning and Psychology of Conver* sion" was the subject of a paper read by Dean Inge before the Church Congress at Sheffield. Treating the matter in a judicial spirit, he marshalled the evidence which led him to doubt whether sudden conversion • was a normal experience- Still in the judicial spirit, he examined the circumstance* preceding the conversion of St. Pa-a] and St. Augustine, and came- to the conclusion Uiafc they were gradual. Some of the speakers who followed him appeared to imply that ho . had denied the reality of sudden conversion. The Dean said, that conversion, so far aa we could judge, was not an event in every religious life. "We have,", he proceeded, " all known men and women whoso characters were beautiful in childhood, and only, more beautiful, not different, in later years. Their path is a shining light, which ehinetb. more and more unto the perfect day. Wei sometimes think it is hardly fair—the devil has obviously forgotten them. These. I suppose, are the sky-blue souls of whom William James speaks. They would not, of course, wdmit tihis ditocription themselves; they would be shocked at it; they would say that they have many faults. But I do not think that they could point to any turm>£. point in their lives; they could not say that in a,, certain year they were converted. Othej: characters, less faultless, seem to develop normally, never shaking off the weaknesses which were apparent even in childhood, but steadily gaining in strength and stability. . Wo cannot say of them that at any one timtj in their lives they obviously stood at the cross roads. A larger number seem never to have made a decisive choice. Their characters are a working compromise. They may think that they are on the right road, bub others can see that they have left an account open with the world, the flesh, or th« devil. We are glad that wo have not to judge them. And what are we to say to those who have set up for themselves a narrow and formal standard of duty, correct livers, but neither spiritual nor amiable? These, I suppose, are the ninety-and : mne» ; just persons who need no repentance! ': Wo. who know them on earth can understand that their appearance in heaven will not lja greeted with enthusiasm Are thev ' cott* verted''? We cannot tell. I doubt very much whether sudden conversion is a normal experience at all." American books on the psychology of religion, Dr Inge thought, greatly exaggerated the importance and the frequency of sudden conversion during adolescence. It was ' probable that their statistics were compiled from those sects which laid stress upon it, rather' ' than from among Episcopalians and Kotaan • Catholics. Yet the Puritan and Methodist teaching about conversion—which usually meant sudden conversion—contained two important truths. First, it was Christian, do"- • trine that we all had to make a choice, and' that whether we and our friends knew it or not, we had most of us already made our choice between the broad and the narrow! way; for wo could not walk on both. Among livos wnich looked so much alike there waa a momentous difference, which would be revealed at the Judgment. Some would be declared to have iaken the right road, wfti* many stumblings and some wanderings, perhaps; and others to have taken tie wrong? . road. It would seem that every man andt and woman must stand once at the crossroads and direct his or her steps in one direction or the other. Secondly, the ex-' pectation cf a crisis during adolescence wafil psychologically sound. HUMAN WILL. AND EFFORT.

Where conversion took place it was always the victor}’ of one-half of a divided per - sonality over the other. By the unification’ of character we achieved a new self. This new birth involved tile whole man —will, intellect, and emotion. Sometimes the motive foice seemed to work through the will, and!' sometimes, more rarely, through the intellect. In cases, .where it was sudden tha ■ outward change consisted usually in. giving :: up some definite bad habit. Most of the ' “conversions” by the Salvation Army were:-; reclamations cf drunkards, who resolved ■ then and there “never to touch another drop,” and often kept their resolution. But) as a rule, conviction of sin was less important as an element of conversion than was often supposed. The subject was conscious of unhappiness rather than of guilt, and what drove him on was the vision of al’" better and purer life, now seen to be within his reach. The new life must be loved,, and desired before it could be ' lived. Tho attraction of goodness was felt first; then i came the will to realise it. It was a rather dangerous doctrine that we ought to let ourselves go, not willing or striving, but leaving the door open for the grace of; God-: to enter in. Relaxation after great spiritual tension might be necessary, and it might b» during the relaxation that we became con- • scions of victory; but with this exception, the will should not be relaxed. We wer»

trying to establish good habits instead of ; bad ones, and the condition of success wagthat the will should be not but firm and steady. The question as to where human effort left off and the grace of -God, or the operation > of the Holy Spirit, began,'was, he believed,;* quite impossible to ansv/er. The belief that we were guided and guarded by an unseen power was strong in all religious minds, and was shared by men of creative genius in other fields. But, neither St. Paul nor ; / the other great mystics had found it possible to separate between the human and r the Divine elements in the spiritual life. _ Such phrases as “tapping unknown reservoirs of energy” were likely to be popular ; at the present time. But much bad pay* i chology and very dubious theology had gathered round the idea of the ‘‘subconscious” ; and, frankly, he did not think wo would find it helpful to follow that oath: very far. There was no reason to think that the highest part of our nature had its seat ... in the subconscious part of the mind, which seemed to be a reservoir not of exalted in- ' : tuitions, but of racial habits and instinct®, which had escaped from the control ,of the- ’ will and reason. He did not agree with those who explained an apparently sudden.'change of character as due to an ‘ ‘irruption from the unconscious.” . . , ■' ,; y

The Dean’s speech was severely criticised ■ by several speakers. The Eev. Spencer- ■ Elliott, vicar of St. Paul’s, Sheffield, said: the lions had spoken, and the roar of the* - Dean of St. Paul’s had caused him to quaka exceedingly. “I am at a loss, he added, “to understand the point of his reference to . things which come homo to the , every-day 1 * work of the parish priest. What is this, doprecating of the idea of sudden conversion?-: I think we could as well deprecate any ideaj; of a sudden marriage?” On© of ths youngest of our psychologists-, (Dr W. Brown, who is Wilde Reader in. Mental Philosophy at Oxford), looked upon conversion as a necessary part of religious" ■ experience. Xt was a turning away from! , the naturalistic point of view and th© re- ( ligious point of view. This question of conversion was not primarily a psychological ;, question; it was religious. Describing, tha scope of psychology, he said it could explain evil but net good. Conversion did noil ahvavs take place early in life. It could ba gradual or sudden. A melancholic outlooks ; of life was very common, and there were people who could not acquire a vision of the r realities of religion gradually or without. a> severe struggle. By all means conversion should be gradual if that could be achieved, y When the change came suddenly the dangers of pathological effects linking themselves on to the more normal processes or conversion were greater. In his view ..it was too shallow a theory to put forward that, i people were converted when up _ against things, and iliat the subconscious mind-then . revetted to -what they had been taught, as children. _ A XEGLB CT E D D UTY. The Bishop of Chelmsford said th© greatest'

service one man could render another waa • to trv to get him in touch with. God. He would have counted his own life wasted if he simply gave himself up to the ministry, which did not produce conversions. Neither'; the clergv nor the laity were getting tha notoriously evil-livers to Christ, and that waa ; esentiallv' their word. Spurgeon, he said,.,; had a man ask him for church work. Spur- .■ „ con asked the man what he was, and. ha replied an engine driver. ‘.'ls your stoker ; converted?" asked the preacher, and tha reply being in the negative, Spurgeon said;.! ■ "That is your work.” Did hyey in the Churches to-day do the' kind cd work that j Suurgeon found for the engineer That waa . the work the members of the Churches had!, = to do, but he was afraid they were neglecting it. Were the clergy known in their parishes as the friends of sinyars, or the, friends of the riff-raff, or simply •- known as eloquent preachers ans; organisers? The greatest title of c.ll was tAe friend of sinncT. That was what clergyman! . should be.—(Cheers.) . > , V. To the Archbishop of Yortt the whole!;, Christian life seemed to be a ptXcess of conversion, and the whole business of tho Church was to convert. They need not , spend time in discussing the actual methods by which this essential process of the Christian life was begun and continued. Such, , methods must inevitably vary. They should - • dismiss from their minds any disposition to , discuss whether or not those who had had! - sudden conversion had had something of • which they ought io be doubtful or ashamed, , - Methods, ways, and times must be infinitely a' .... varied, and they would ho doing a service if they sought to impose any parti-.,,-cular times, methods, or ways in which thati essential movement of the human spirit to* ; , wards God was achieved.