Some Christian Convictions: A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day ThinkingCoffin, Henry Sloane
Religion
Some Christian Convictions: A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day Thinking
Coffin, Henry Sloane
Christianity -- 20th century; Theology, Doctrinal -- Popular works
It scans international relations, and finds patriotism still a pagan
virtue. Mr. Lecky calls it "in relation to foreigners a spirit of
constant and jealous self-assertion." When a tariff is under discussion,
high, low or no duties are advocated as beneficial for the industries of
one's own country, regardless of the welfare of those of other lands.
The scramble for colonies with their advantages to trade, the
imperialistic spirit that seizes possessions without respect to the
wishes of their inhabitants, the endeavor to secure in other countries
special concessions or large business orders at an extraordinary profit,
are all sanctified under the name of patriotism. The peace of the world
is supposed to be maintained by keeping nations armed to the teeth, so
that rival powers will be afraid to fight, and huge armies and navies
are labelled insurance against war. A sentence in a letter of Erasmus
has a singularly modern sound: "There is a project to have a congress of
kings at Cambrai, to enter into mutual engagements to preserve peace
with each other and through Europe. But certain persons, who get
nothing by peace and a great deal by war, throw obstacles in the way."
The armament argument for peace has been given its _reductio ad
absurdum;_ but it is by no means clear that the world-wide war will free
the nations from the burdensome folly of keeping enormous armies and
navies. As Christians we must protest without ceasing that international
relations, based on mutual fear and maintained by the use of brute
force, can never furnish the peace of Christ.
It scans the system of justice in its treatment of the wrong-doer, and
declares that the crude attempt to fit the punishment to the crime, and
to protect society by deterrent penalties, is not the justice of Him who
is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." Divine justice is redemptive; and society, if it
wishes to be Christian, must pay the heavy cost of making all its
contacts with the imperfect transforming.
It scans the educational institutions of our land, and sees many
students viewing learning only with reference to its immediate
commercial availability, spurning all studies as "unpractical" which do
not supply knowledge that can be coined into financial returns; and it
sees many others without intellectual interest, prizing schools and
colleges merely for their social pleasures, lazily choosing courses
which require a minimum of labor, and disesteeming the great
opportunities of culture and enrichment provided by the sacrificial
studies and labors of the past. It insists that a moral revival is
needed for an intellectual renaissance. All students must be baptized
with a passion for social service, before studies that enrich the mind
and enlarge the character will be pursued with eager devotion. The
blight of irresponsibility is almost universal upon the students in the
higher educational institutions of our country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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