The War and the Churches

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The War and the Churches

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The War and the Churches, by Joseph McCabe
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Title: The War and the Churches
Author: Joseph McCabe

Release Date: June 22, 2006 [eBook #18650]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE WAR AND THE CHURCHES
by
JOSEPH McCABE

[Issued for the Rationalist Press Association, Limited] London: Watts & Co. 17 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C. 1915

WORKS BY THE AUTHOR
Modern Rationalism (Watts), 2nd ed. 1/-
Peter Abelard (Duckworth), 2nd ed. 3/6.
Saint Augustine and his Age (Duckworth), 2nd ed. 3/6.
Twelve Years in a Monastery (Smith Elder), 3rd ed. 6d. and 1/-
Life in a Modern Monastery (Grant Richards). 6/-
Life and Letters of G. J. Holyoake (Watts), 2 vols. ￡1/1/-
Talleyrand (Hutchinson). 14/-
The Iron Cardinal (Nash). 12/-
Goethe (Nash). 15/-
A Candid History of the Jesuits (Nash). 10/6.
The Evolution of Mind (Black). 5/-
Evolution (Twentieth Century Science Series). 1/-
Prehistoric Man (Twentieth Century Science Series). 1/-
The Principles of Evolution (The Nation's Library). 1/-
The Decay of the Church of Rome (Methuen), 2nd ed. 7/6.
The Story of Evolution (Hutchinson), 2nd ed. 7/6.
The Empresses of Rome (Methuen). 12/6.
The Empresses of Constantinople (Methuen). 12/6.
Church Discipline (Duckworth). 3/6.
Can we Disarm? (Heinemann). 2/6.
In the Shade of the Cloister (pseudonymous--Constable). 6/-
The Bible in Europe (Watts). 3/6.
The Religion of Woman (Watts), 2nd ed. 6d.
Woman in Political Evolution (Watts). 6d.
Haeckel's Critics Answered (Watts), 2nd ed. 6d.
From Rome to Rationalism (Watts), 4th ed. 4d.
The Origin of Life (Watts). 1/-
Secular Education (Watts), 2nd ed. 1/-
The Martyrdom of Ferrer (Watts), 2nd ed. 6d.
The Religion of the Twentieth Century (Watts). 1/-
A Hundred Years of Education Controversy (Watts). 3d.
The Existence of God (Watts). 9d.
Shakespeare and Goethe (Cole). 6d.
George Bernard Shaw (Kegan Paul). 7/6.
The Religion of Sir Oliver Lodge (Watts). 2/-

PREFACE
The searching crisis through which the nation is passing must have the effect of securing grave consideration for many aspects of our life and institutions. We have already traversed the acute stage of suspense, and are gradually becoming sensible of these wider considerations. It was natural that for a prolonged period the disturbance of our economic conditions, the anxiety for the safety of our nation in face of an appalling menace, the personal concern of millions about the lives of sons or brothers who have bravely responded to the call, should keep our thoughts enchained to the daily or hourly fortunes of the field of battle. Now that the initial disorder has been allayed and we have attained a quiet and reasonable confidence in the issue, we turn to other and broader aspects of this mighty event of our generation. How comes it that the most enlightened century the world has yet seen should be thus darkened by one of the bloodiest and most calamitous wars that have ever spread their awful wings over the life of man? Where is all the optimism of yesterday? Must we reconsider our reasoned boast that our civilisation has lifted the life of man to a level hitherto unattained? Is there something entirely and most mischievously wrong with the foundations of modern civilisation?
A dozen such questions will press for an answer, but it will be granted that one of the most urgent and most interesting of the many grave considerations which the war suggests is its relation to the prevailing creeds and standards of conduct. The war coincides with an advanced stage of what is called the spread of unbelief. In each of the nations of Europe which are engaged in this awful struggle complaints have been made every year for the last two or three generations that Christianity is losing its moral control of the white race. In the cities, especially in the capitals, of Europe there has been a proved and acknowledged decay of church-going; and, however much we may be disposed to think that these millions who no longer attend church retain in their minds the beliefs of their fathers, the slender circulation of religious literature makes it plain that the vast majority of them do not, in point of fact, receive either the spoken or written message of the Christian Church. In the great cities--and it is undoubted that the life of a nation is mainly controlled by its cities--there has been an increasing reluctance to listen to the authoritative exponents of the Christian gospel.
A number of the clergy have very naturally noticed and stressed this coincidence. Prelates of high authority have, as we shall see,