764 gin as the word of Hebrew seer or Christian lead er?” Indeed, the Unitarians, as will be presently pointed out, glory in th e ir co operation w ith pagans, such as the Brahmo Somaj of India, a H indu so ciety which is antagonistic to evangeli cal Christianity, bu t friendly to Unitar- ianism. The H indu poet Tagore, by the way, who is well-known for his enm ity to the Christian faith , represents the viewpoint of the Brahmo Somaj. Professor Francis A. Christie, of the Unitarian theological seminary, Mead- ville, Pa., in an article on Unitarianism, say s: Do Not Differ from Heathenism “W hat corresponds to the customary foreign mission work (in evangelical de nominations) exists (among the Unitar ians) in the relation sought by the Uni tarian body with (pagan) circles in India and Japan. The typical instance is the friendship and co-operation established w ith the Brahmo Somaj of India.” Professor Christie adds th a t -students of the said Hindu spciety who resort to Unitarian theological schools in Ameri ca “find an essential agreement in faith.” “The Unitarians think of th e Brahmo Somaj,” he says further, “as their own movement expressing itself in term s of Indian tradition.” “The bond of union among us all,” said another Unitarian professor, referring to Unitarians in Am erica, “is the fight against the deity of Jesus Christ:” Obviously and naturally heathen religionists are included in this bond of union. , It is to the Unitarians’ credit, however, th a t they do not claim their entering into relations w ith Hindu and other heathen bodies, and recognizing them as representing “their own movement”— th at they do not claim this to be mission work, though the w riter ju st quoted says it corresponds to mission work. Some of the liberals within evangelical church es, on the other hand, evidently think it the purpose of missions to enter into
THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S “relations” and religious fellowship with non-Christian peoples. Representatives of religious liberalism in evangelical de nominations are of the opinion th at the missionary should not come to the heath en claiming that Christianity is the one true religion, but he should appreciate the heathen religions and learn of them, and in turn have the heathen people ap preciate Christianity and learn of it. The Social Gospel Only But the new view of missions includes more than mere mutual interpretation of religion. Its burden is the social gospel. Instead of working for the salvation of individuals by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, it undertakes to save society by socialization and reforms of various de scription. Dean Shailer Mathews, of the Divinity School, University of Chicago, says on this point: “We used to regard the foreign mis sionary as try in g -to save brands from burning. Now we can see he is also putting out the conflagration (making endeavor for individual salvation un necessary). He is a messenger of good will, an ambassador of th e higher in ternationalism of the kingdom of God. If Christianity can only rescue brands from the burning but has no power to put out the fire (then we have) a reli gion doomed to disappear with the ad vance of ethical liberalism. The new social in terest of P rotestant Christianity w ants to save men into heaven by embodying th e principles of th e kingdom of heaven in th e sta te .” Professor Gerald Birney Smith says: “Today the m issionary enterprise is being shifted from a program of rescuing a few souls, from eternal disaster to the ideal of a long campaign of education and social reconstruction in th e non- Christian nations. Increased emphasis is being -laid on the claims of the social and political future of the non-Christian peoples on this earth. The Great Com mission was (formerly) regarded as an autocratic (authoritative) command to
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