Religion: Dean Inge Again

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The current Atlantic Monthly contains an article by the brilliant Dean of St. Paul's, London, discussing the Catholic Church and the Anglo-Saxon mind. He makes it his purpose to examine whether or not Protestantism is a spent force. He points out that although the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Established Church in England is strong among the clergy, especially in Canterbury, yet the movement has but a weak hold on the laity. "But," he adds, "a schismatical Catholic Church is a contradiction in terms. The (Anglo-Catholic) movement will probably end by enriching Protestantism with such romantic and aesthetic accessories as are compatible with its principles; the real Catholics will end by joining the Church of Rome." (Cardinal Newman, who went over to the Church of Rome in 1845, is a case in point.) The Dean declares that the Roman church exhibits the old Roman genius for international government, and to prove that it is a static, not a progressive, type of government, he quotes from the Papal syllabus of 1864: "If anyone says the Roman pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself and come to terms with progress, with liberalism, and with modern civilization, let him be anathema." The Dean sees three remarkably good points in this church government—it makes for loyalty, it keeps in touch with human nature through sacraments and music, it works, as far as the common people are concerned. Dean Inge points out that whereas the genius of the Roman race is primarily for government and power, the genius of the Anglo-Saxon race is primarily for valor, honor and truthfulness. He contrasts Kingsley's blundering directness in 1845 with Newman's "loss of power to distinguish fact from fiction." The three results of this Anglo-Saxon Protestantism are: a reversion to an earlier Christianity than the Catholic, an inspiration of moral and political reform, and a dependence on the religious witness of the inner man rather than the dogma of the church. Thus Protestantism is less hampered than Catholicism in dealing with advances in philosophy, science or gov- ernment—because individuals can adjust more quickly than institutions, and the Papal syllabus shows no inclination to adjust anyway. Clericalism in government, he says, "is more like a permanent conspiracy than a dominant power," whereas Protestantism has no interests apart from the highest welfare of the nation, and permeates rather than dominates its politics. "Few, I think, would say that Christianity as a moral force has less power in England or America than in Spain or Peru."

Finally, the Latin type of governmental Christianity can never suit the northern code of honor. He points to Christ as one who never spoke to the hearts of men en masse, but rather to the inner spirit of each individual. "He banished political methods from His teaching." This individualistic, Protestant type of Christianity, with its adaptability to a modern, scientific and industrial age, is decidedly not a spent force. "This, we may venture to predict, is the Christianity of the future, as it was the first Christianity," declares the Dean, at the end of his very outspoken essay.