Religion: The Holy Ghost

“Feed my sheep,” said Jesus; and a few years ago the Bishop of Oxford laid down his pastoral staff, walked through the unfinished cloisters of Christ Church into the seclusion of scholarship. His purpose was to bring forth food for the minds of doubting Christians, that they might be nourished not only by faith but also by reasons for their faith. Bishop Gore’s great work is done. His book, The Holy Spirit and the Church* following a book on God and a book on Jesus Christ, completes the most notable justification of orthodox Christianity which has ever been presented to modern civilization. Granted God, the all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving “Our Father.” Granted Jesus Christ, His Son, Our Lord. What then? What of the Church with its trinitarianisms, its dogmas, sacraments, priests? Is any of all this divine? “Yes,” says the Bishop, “and here is my argument!” The Bishop contends that, although Jesus did not found a new church, he did most specifically refound the old Church of Israel, specifically equipping it with divine authority and sacraments. The Holy Ghost is not a theory but a fact. The Holy Ghost did come to the ‘disciples after Easter, and the Holy Ghost has always been present in the Church, and under certain conditions, the Church, by the power of the Holy Ghost, is the voice of God upon earth, possessing the keys of Heaven. The Bishop repudiates the charge that he “reasons in chains.” He has gone, says he, boldly, with a free mind, into the hinterland of historical fact. He has set out, adventurously, on a voyage of intellectual discovery, ready to acknowledge whatever conclusions his reason may bring him to. Without disparaging the Bishop’s sincerity, it must, however, be said, that in all the labyrinth of his argument he seems to be clutching fast to a little thread which always brings him safely back to Anglican Orthodoxy.

He is severe in his condemnation of the sins of the Anglican Church. He finds its cowardice colossal—for it has attacked drunkenness and sexual immorality, but has, like a cur, kept safely away from dangerous enemies such as the greed of Mammon and the lust of Mars. Nevertheless, he contends that the Anglican Church (like the Eastern Orthodox) is apostolic, whereas the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Churches (Baptist, Presbyterian, etc.) have departed so far from the faith that they are not apostolic. He sees some prospect for union with the Eastern Churches, but none with the others. Finally, he prays that all may unite in boldly attacking the sins of the age—money-making, pleasure-hunting, war.

*Scribner ($2.00).