E. G. Homrighausen

The Revolution in Religion

The Reverend Elmer G. Homrighausen, Charles R. Erdman Professor of Pastoral Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, delivered this sermon at the Sunday morning session of the convention. WE LivE in a revolutionary era. The old is being seriously reexamined, and in some instances discarded; the new is being tried, and in some instances embraced as the way of salvation. And this revolutionary spirit has affected religion. Religion usually stands for that which abides, and is &dquo;the same yesterday, today and forever.&dquo; Religion is regarded by many as a refuge and a conserver of

The Younger Churches Today

The Younger Churches Toddy w H A T is happening in and to the younger Churches as they face a world of rapid and bewildering change? It is impossible to answer this question adequately, since the situation in which these Churches find themselves is so different and since they are in various stages of development. No Westerner can possibly understand these Churches from the inside unless he has lived with them for years. Further, they represent new forms of Christian expression which are being implemented in Eastern cultures. One thing, however, is certain: This is a new phase of history which is having a profound effect upon them. The old setting which obtained when these Churches were started as missions is gone. And it is this new revolutionary situation which is posing a number of new problems.

The Church and the World

The mass movements of India are built upon the caste system that has erected its impenetrable wall around particular groups of the Hindu people. Caste is observed by high-caste Hindus, and also among the millions who are underneath its terrible downward pressure and who are called outcastes by the orthodox Hindus. The caste system gives solidarity to the social groups of the lower classes and so binds the communities together that whatever affects part will ultimately affect all. It is precisely upon this sense of caste solidarity that the mass movement is established. Mass movement means the movement within a caste toward Christianity. In the International Review of Missions for April there is an account of the mass movement within the Methodist Episcopal church in India. In this article the writer, Bishop Frank W. Warne, states that the mission was established by his church in India in 1857. He describes six of the more important mass movements which have taken place during this period, with the result that there is now a baptized community of 386,000 and a waiting list of I50,000. The chaudhri movement is one of the significant movements among the MIethodist missionary activities. It is a voluntary laymens movement. The chaudhris are headmen in the caste communities of the Hindustanispeaking country. When they become Christians, they become leaders that they may teach their people. The chaudhris have proved to be much more efficient as native preachers than the paid mission workers. Furthermore, the people of the community give much more heed to the direction of the chaudhri than they would give to a paid mission worker in their midst. A fundamental principle of this chaudhri movement is that the work is to be done voluntarily, and since this principle has been adopted, whereas heretofore voluntary workers were counted by the hundreds, now they are counted by the thousands. The method pursued in the chaudhri movement is practically the same as that pursued in other movements. But the mass movement presents problems that are not easy of solution. In the first place, the mass movement is found to be one of the best means of preserving the converts to Christianity against the persecution of their own caste within their own community. The object of the mass movement is to have the whole caste within a given community come to Christianity, and thus there is banded together a group whose interests are common and who are prepared to support each other in the common religious and social life. Nevertheless, the presence of a large number of new converts within the fold of the mission means that a serious problem has been confronted in the effort properly to educate them. This is attempted largely by the use of native mission workers. Again, the training of native mission workers presents its own problem. One of the significant things about the mass movement as described by Bishop Warne is the bearing it has upon group movement. They are nurtured in the hope that if the mass movements in the particular castes already affected are properly shepherded they will spread yet more rapidly among the many millions of the castes already touched, and then move up gradually through the great middle castes, until ultimately, along caste lines, they will reach the highest castes.

The Importance of the Bible in the Present Crisis—As a Revelation of God

cepts and resources. The longing for meaning, for significance, for security, for power to cope with tragedy and evil forces, for some authoritative norm of faith and conduct is to be found in many outside the Christian community. The disintegation of the inner structure of our civilization has at last affected our social forms and has led to an uncertainty which is cause for much thought about unity and authority. The Christian Church finds itself faced with ideologies, communities, leaders and literatures which it scarcely dreanmed possible in the light of widespread popular education, political democracy, applied science and critical thought. A global secularism, which in many quarters has grown militant and in others indifferent to Christian values, confronts the Church with enemies that can be met only by a more articulate and self-conscious type of Christianity. The Christian movement likewise is aware of weakness within its own ranks. It