The Christian Idea in the Modern World (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918. Excerpt: ... VI CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP The task of harmonizing the Christian ideal with the life of our modern world has by no means been completed when the underlying ideas of the Christian faith have been shown to have their roots in the native soil of the human heart. There remains the task of proving that those ideas are actually workable under the practical conditions of our modern world. The word 'true, ' as we have seen, means to the majority of men today 'true to life.' The Christian teaching about love, sacrifice, unselfishness may seem beautifully and ideally true when one interrogates the life of an individual apart from its actual location in a given kind of world, and yet seem hopelessly out of place when that same individual attempts to live his life in that world. When he looks about him and seriously contemplates living out these ideas of love and good-will which he finds to be a part of himself, he is embarrassed at the conditions that confront him. However men believe, whatever they say, to whatever faith they confess, actually are they not conducting their practical affairs upon the sheer principle of love of self? How then, and upon what terms, may one enter into this life upon any other principle? One must have a working basis for his practical participation in affairs. And if affairs are actually conducted upon one principle, how can one hope to engage successfully in them if one's guiding principle is its utter opposite? It is at this point that multitudes of young men and - women of our time pause. Their real difficulty is not in persuading themselves that the Christian ideas are either ideally or intellectually true, but in persuading themselves that they can truly be lived and practised in the kind of a world we inhabit today. Evidence o...