iviissions ana ivioaermsm A Chapter from a Recent Work, “Modern Religious Liberalism.” W hat of Future Missions? B>> JOHN HORSCH
Bible faith. This testimony is altogether in accordance with fact. Cause for Decline The real cause for this negative, de clining attitude of liberalism to Christ ian missions is not far to seek. True missionary work is always based on the conviction th at you have the tru th and the tru th must be .given to others. “The real belief in absoluté truth,” says a w rit er in The Unpopular Review, “is a mis sionary state of mind, and carries with it the faith th a t tru th is the one thing worth having.” Modern liberalism den ies the possibility of knowing absolute religious truth. Furthermore it consid ers all questions of religious doctrihe and tru th as secondary. Therefore it has no positive religious message. The best in Christianity and the best in heathen religions is, according to the new theology, only subjectively, or rela tively, good. If Christianity be better than some of the non-Christian religions, we are told, the difference is only in de gree, indeed in some instances in but slight degree. The fact is th a t some of th e .liberals-—the Unitarians, for example —frankly confess to their own substant ial unity w ith certain heathen religions. A Unitarian writer, having ■ called atten tion to the fact th a t religious liberalists have more in common w ith th e Re formed or Liberal Jews th a n with orthodox Christianity, proceeds to say: Then wê think of other non-Christian religions. Has it not been the Unitarian group th a t has led in the affirmation th a t there are no heathen religions, that there is one F ath er over all, and all true thought and feeling, yes, all dim groping after tru th and right, is as divine in ori-
ELIGIOUS liberalism has from the beginning been either in different or antagonistic to Christian missions. In recent
years there has been a change in its a ttitu d e to missions. Liberalism , as rep resented by those who have accepted the new theology, is now professing friendliness to m ission work. This change of attitude is due to a new view regarding the nature and purpose of mis sions which has come to prevail in liber- alistic circles. The modern view of m is sions stands in strong contrast to the evangelical view. Professor Edward Caldwell Moore, of Harvard University, in an article on The Liberal Movement and Missions, points out th a t “for th e missionary achieve ments of the nineteenth century the churches described as orthodox have been almost wholly responsible.” Lib eral churches, he says further, “have sustained missionary endeavor in but slight degree,” and “the liberal element within the so-called orthodox churches . . has frequently excluded itself from the missionary enterprise. Hostil ity to missions, lack of sympathy with th e aims, dissent from the methods of those eager in this (missionary) propaga- ganda, have'been almost a party badge of the so-called liberal Christianity.” The same author, in his book on The Spread of Christianity in the Modern World, shows th a t rationalists and liberalists were “hostile to missions” for the rea son th a t missions stood for the Biblical doctrine of salvation, ju st as the liberals were also “alienated from the church at home” for the same reason, namely be cause of th e fidelity of th e church to the
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