Book Review: Christianity and Civilisation
| Published date | 01 March 1950 |
| Date | 01 March 1950 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070205000500109 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book
Reviews
CHRISTIANITY
AND
CIVILISATION.
By
Emil
Brunner.
First
Part:
FOUNDATIONS
(Gifford
Lectures delivered
at
the University
of
St.
Andrews,
1947.)
1948.
(London:
Nisbet
&
Co.
xii,
167pp.
10s.)
This
book
represents
the
first
part
of
an
ambitious
study
concerning
the
basis
of
civilization. The
common
man
longs
for
a
simple
answer
to
the
question:
"Why
does
our
civilization seem
to
be
drifting
on
the
rocks,
and
how
can
we
save
it?" An
answer
is
offered
in
this
preliminary
series
of
Dr.
Brunner's
lectures,
but
it
is
not
quite
easy
to
find,
nor
is
it
simple.
Lord
Gifford,
the
founder
of
the
lectures,
desired
that
their
subject,
that
of
"Infinite
Being,"
should
be
treated
as
"a
strictly
natural
science,
the
greatest
of
all possible
sciences,
indeed,
in
one
sense,
the
only
science."
In summarizing
the past
achievements
of
speculative
thought,
Dr.
Brunner
is
constrained
to
use
the
erudite jargon
of
philosophy
which
to
the reader
may
seem
cumbersome
and
frustrating.
But
his
con-
clusions,
under
nine
heads,
are
trenchantly
stated,
in
support
of
his
thesis
"that
only
Christianity
is
capable
of
furnishing
the
basis
of
a
civilization
which
can
rightly
be
described
as
human."
Lord
Gifford
contemplated
that
the
lecturers
would
eschew
"reference
to
or
reliance
upon any
supposed
special,
exceptional
or
so-called
miraculous
revela-
tion,"
but
if
he
had
been able
to
visualize
present-day
conditions,
he
would doubtless not
have
suggested
any
such
limitation.
Dr.
Brunner's
nine
heads
are
the
problems
of
being,
and
of
truth;
of
time,
and
of
meaning;
of
man
in
the
universe;
of
personality
and
humanity;
of
justice;
of
freedom; and
of
creativity.
True
reality,
says
Dr.
Brunner,
is
the
spiritual,
not
the
material
world.
God
himself
is
much
more
real than
the things
around
us.
Science claims
the
monopoly
of
truth-knowledge,
but it
stands
bewildered
and
helpless
before
the
ethical
and
social chaos
of
our
time.
While
the
dogmatism
of
the
Christian
Church
has,
in
his
opinion,
discredited
the
truth
of
revelation,
yet
that truth,
in
its
New
Testament
purity
and
depth,
can
create
forces
of
moral
renewal
and
a
spirit
of
communion
which
alone
are
capable
of
re-uniting
the
self-dissolving
human
family
and
of
solving
the
problems
of
society.
Within
certain
limits,
,rmodern
evolutionist theory
is
not in
conflict
with
Christian
faith,
but
two
elements
of
it
must
be
unconditionally
rejected;
first,
the
identification
of
moral evil
with
the
primitive;
and
second,
the assumption
that
the
development
of
human
intelligence,
skill
and
culture
mean, in
them-
selves,
a
progress
in
the
sense
of
the
truly
human.
Man
is
tormented
by
uncertainty
as
to
the
meaning
of
life.
Human reason
thinks
it
can
solve
the
problem
from
its
own
resources.
From
the
Christian
point
of
view,
this
idea
is
a
great
illusion.
Only
through
repentance
72
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