Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Student of Christ Church, Oxford; Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of
Lichfield; Priest-In-Charge of St. John The Evangelist, Wilton Road,
S.W.; Formerly Tutor of Keble College and Late Chaplain to the Forces.
1918
This is a book which is wanted. Thoughtful men, in every class, arenot afraid of theology, i.e. of a reasoned account of theirreligion, but they want a theology which can be stated withoutconventions and technicalities; they do not at all care for a religionwhich pretends to do away with all mystery, but they are glad to beassured of the essential reasonableness of the Christian Faith; theydo not expect a ready-made solution of the problem of evil, but theywish to see it honestly faced; above all, they want to know howChristian truth bears on the real problems of life; the best of themare not at all afraid of a religion which makes big demands on them,but they know well enough the difficulty of responding to thoseclaims, and their greatest need of all is to find and to use that lifeand power, coming from a living Person, without which our bestaspirations must fail and our highest ideals remain unrealized.
These needs seem to me to be satisfactorily and happily met in thefollowing pages. My friend and chaplain, Mr. Rawlinson, has had goodmeans of knowing what men are and what they want. He has had to dowith the undergraduate, with officers and men in the Army, and withthe ordinary civilian in parish life. He has been able to see thenature and needs of our British manhood at different angles, and he isthe sort of man with whom men are not afraid to talk. He has had goodopportunity of diagnosing the situation, and this book shows his skillin dealing with it.
I do not find myself in agreement with everything in these pages, butwhen I am conscious of difference of view, I am no less grateful forthe stimulus to thought. I am specially thankful that the writer hasbeen so courageous in tackling the most difficult subjects.
I know that the author's one desire is to help men to be more real intheir religion. I share his hope, and I believe that this book will domuch to accomplish it.
This book has grown out of the writer's experience in preparing menand officers in military hospitals for Confirmation. It represents, ina considerably expanded but—as it is hoped—still simple form, thekind of things which he would have wished to say to them, and toothers with whom he was brought into contact, if he had had more timeand opportunity than was usually afforded him. It seemed necessary towrite the book, because there did not appear to be in existence anyreasonably short book on similar lines which covered the ground ofChristian faith and practice as a whole, and which approached thesubject from the point of view which seems to the writer to be themost real.
The writer is consciously indebted in the first chapter to thediscussion of our Lord's teaching and character in Dr. T. B. Glover'sfascinating book, The Jesus of History. It is possible