CHURCH HISTORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27274, 28 December 1949, Page 2

CHURCH HISTORY

THREE RECENT STUDIES A History of Christianity in England. By the Rev. Professor E. O. James. Hutchinson’s University Library. 7s 6d.

Catholicism in England. By Archbishop David Mathew. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 15s.

The Prospect for Christianity. By Professor K. S. Latourette. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 6s. The first of these books is a somewhat heroic attempt to cover nearly 2000 years of church history in less than 200 pages. Professor James is undoubtedly well qualified for his task, but exigencies of space have forced him to be somewhat less than satisfying in his treatment of the development of Christianity in the British Isles. Treating all sects he deals thoroughly with none, and while the book is an excellent work for quick reference its chief value is in its very complete bibliography. The second book, on Catholicism in England, is a second edition of a work first published in 1936. The first half of the book, dealing with the history of Catholicism up to the Gordon Riots, is of the greater interest to New Zealanders, for in a sense it is the background of New Zealand Catholicism as well. The latter part, which presumes a knowledge of' figures with which we are hardly familiar, is less easy and less interesting reading. Taken as a whole, the book is extremely well done, highly readable and remarkably free from bitterness or sectarian spirit, even where it would have been most excusable. Archbishop Mathew manages to tell of the trials and tribulations of his coreligionists without ever being unfair to their opponents. The reason for that is that he possesses a genuine understanding of history, and of the motives that moved men to act as they did. His own standpoint is modern but strictly orthodox and he has little sympathy with the Cisalpine mind, implying as it does rather a lay than a clerical outlook. This book can be recommended to anyone who is interested in the part that was played in English history by Catholics. The Prospect for Christianity is the work of a professor of Yale University. Its purpose is to discuss the various divisions ot modern Christianity and to try to see where there is most hope for the future. Dr Latourette is an American and a Protestant and oddly enough he finds in American Protestantism -the most hope for the world, tie seems to take for granted, without much visible reason, that Protestantism is likely to sweep forward on a more and more united front, and to show the spiritual vitality necessary to meet the changes likely in the world of tomorrow. He does not seem to feel that there is any great danger of serious set-backs. He is very definite in his view that Roman Catholicism has little tuture, and gives his reasons. His criticisms of that Church are sound but he perhaps gives insufficient weight to its compensating advantages of unity and real spiritual fervour. His apprehension of the advantages of Protestantism is also fair and well stated, but here he gives little prominence to the serious disadvantages of disunity and a certain materialism. This is a somewhat partisan book, not without value in its wide survey of the present situation, out not inspiring any great confidence in its propnecies for the near future.—P.H.W.N.