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radicals, he kept a tight hold on the obvious truth which religionists
generally appear to have great difficulty in keeping in mind- the in–
escapable truth that economic and social ills can only be cured by
economic and social means, even
if
not by those means exclusively.
"Christianity no longer holds the field," he wrote in his last book,
Personalism.'
"There are other massive realities ; undeniable values are
emerging apparently without its help, arousing moral forces, heroisms,
and even kinds of saintliness. It does not seem, for its own part, able
to combine with the modern world .. . in a marriage such as it con–
summated with the medieval world. Is it, indeed, approaching its end?
... Perhaps the decomposing hulk of a world that Christianity built, that
has now slipped its moorings, is drifting away, and leaving behind it
the pioneers of a new Christianity...."
Whether Mounier's hope for a "new Christianity" will be historically
justified or not we do not know, but that he had a deep understanding
of the discords experienced by the modern consciousness in relating itself
to religious life there can be no doubt. He corrects the excesses of a
writer like Chambers, whose illusion it is that he is serving religion by
pulling down the image of man.
2. The Grove PreIS. $5.00.
