Dear Friends,
I hope that all in the northern hemisphere are now enjoying their summer holidays with appropriate sunny conditions. But I send you this dual issue in case you have time or desire to consider these rather interesting new books on different aspects of our subject.
1) Book reviews:
a) K.Clements, Faith on the frontier. A life of J.H.Oldham
b) J.Pollard, The Unknown Pope. Benedict XV
c) ed. K.Chadwick, Catholicism, Politics and Society in 20C France, R.Bedarida, Les Catholiques dans la guerre 1939-1945
1) K.Clements, Faith on the Frontier. A life of J.H.Oldham. Edinburgh and Geneva: T.T. Clark and WCC Publications. 1999 515pp
Joe Oldham was one of the leading figures in the world-wide
ecumenical movement of the Christian churches during the first
half of the twentieth century. But he was a humble unassuming
man who principally operated through behind-the-scenes diplomacy
and advocacy. He is hence not so well known as such pioneers as
William Temple, John R.Mott or Archbishop Söderblom with
their more charismatic personalities. But now at last this masterly
biography has appeared which does justice both to Oldham as a
person and to his far-reaching and searching ideas on the future
paths of Christianity at a time of particular travail.
The author, Keith Clements, is himself an experienced
international ecumenical leader, based in Geneva as General Secretary
of the European Conference of Churches, one of the many agencies
now carrying out much of Oldham,s legacy. From this vantage point
he brings an insider,s knowledge of the difficulties faced by
the promoters of ecumenical and international Christianity. This
is a first-rate scholarly biography which deserves full praise.
Oldham was born in India in 1874, but grew up in Scotland
in a devout and pious family, very conscious of its Christian
calling. Not surprisingly he was "converted while at Oxford
after a visit by the renowned American evangelist, Dwight N.Moody,
and resolved to devote his life to the burgeoning missionary movement,
which drew so much inspiration from its annual meetings in Keswick.
As a supporter of the Student Volunteer Missionary Union, he
soon received a call to go to India, and served in Lahore for
nearly four years until ill health forced him to return. He was,
like so many young men in Europe and North America, fully inspired
by the SVMU,s goal, as enunciated by its leader, John R.Mott,
which sought the "evangelization of the world in this generation.
But his experience in India taught Oldham that it was not enough
to send out platoons of idealistic well-educated white males to
undertake this task. The voices and interests of the recipients
must also be heard and above all the disastrous divisions within
the churches must be overcome. These were the themes adopted
by Oldham as he returned to take up work for his church,s mission
board in Edinburgh.
This city was to be the site of the first great international
missionary conference in 1910, and not surprisingly Oldham was
drawn into its organization. Clements shows how his resourcefulness,
his high-minded energies and his skillful personal diplomacy made
him the ideal person to become secretary of the whole enterprise,
and subsequently of its continuation committee, in collaboration
with its Chairman, Mott. Mott,s gift was to be able to inspire
hundreds of young men at large rallies, and then give them their
marching orders. "Young man, the Lord has need of you in
Shanghai. Here is your boat ticket. Oldham was more restrained
but no less effective.
For years the two men worked together in close harmony,
especially after 1919 when the International Missionary Council
became a permanent reality. Oldham recognized the need to have
effective machinery for keeping missionaries in touch with each
other and with new developments around the world. The International
Review of Missions was started by Oldham in 1912 and is still
going strong after 90 years. This was a successful vehicle for
spreading new ideas across old frontiers, and of stimulating ecumenical
contacts at a high intellectual and theological level.
But this optimistic era, looking forward to the rapid
spread of the Gospel around the globe through ever wider campaigns
of personal evangelism, came to a crashing halt with the outbreak
of war in 1914. Clements rightly notes that Oldham, by 1916, had
recognized the effect the war was having, particularly in two
directions: first, that this mutually destructive European struggle
had dealt an almost irreparable blow to Christian credibility
in other parts of the world, and especially in the mission fields.
Secondly, it revealed the deficiencies of a limited appeal
for personal salvation. From then on, Oldham began to call for
the need to Christianize the social order as well as individuals
in it. Christendom and its churches would have to adopt a much
less triumphalist tone. He began to point prophetically to the
need to mobilize a new moral passion sufficient to restore a broken
world. To be sure, the traditional Protestant insights of the
missionary movement, drawn from its Puritan and Wesleyan roots,
were to be reaffirmed, but the emphasis had to be on forgiveness
and reconciliation in order to find a new life in Christ.
One sign of this was Oldham,s concern for the overseas
missions in war-time, particularly the German establishments in
areas captured by the British in Africa, as well as in India.
Contrary to the propaganda spread by the German missionaries
and their home boards, these "orphaned missions were not
confiscated by Oldham and his gang of robbers, nor were the missionaries
unduly maltreated. Clements makes quite clear that Oldham fought
hard against any such tendencies in British government policy,
and indeed succeeded in having included in the Versailles Treaty
a specific clause exempting German mission properties from being
seized for reparations. But the resentment of the Germans lingered
on - even to this day - as part of their unwillingness to face
the loss of a war they had largely caused. These feelings were
to cause great difficulties in the whole ecumenical movement throughout
the inter-war period.
In the 1920s Oldham became directly involved in strategic
planning for a new approach to mission problems in Africa. But
his interest went beyond mere ecclesiastical organization. He
saw that the new era called for a specific change towards the
native inhabitants, and one which would recognize their paramount
interests. This was strongly opposed by the white settlers of
South Africa, Rhodesia and Kenya, and a heated debate continued
throughout the decade over imperial and colonial policy. Oldham,s
concern for education, which was largely in the hands of the missions,
prompted him to lobby intensely the British officials in London
and in the colonies, and even to take part in an official investigating
committee. Not surprisingly, this new interest was not well understood
by his more conservative colleagues on the mission boards.
But in the 1930s, when the focus turned back to Europe,
Odham diverged further from the traditional evangelical approach.
He now saw the need for new Christian social thinking in face
of the challenges of totalitarianism and racism, and the threat
to Christianity in its own heartland. By this time he had been
much influenced by Karl Barth,s theology, and no longer accepted
the progressive liberalism of earlier years. At the same time,
he placed less faith in clerical gatherings and conferences, which
seemed to be too often expressions of idealism without clear goals
for remedying the world,s defects. Oldham,s forte was to match
expectations with effective action. He was, in Clements, view,
a sanctified pragmatist who considered carefully the practical
steps towards his desired end. This made him a most dynamic stimulator
of action. Memoranda, proposals, preliminary studies, letters
to significant leaders, conference addresses poured forth from
his desk, and the impact was undoubtedly significant, even after
increasing deafness made it difficult for him to communicate directly.
But he never abandoned his view that the Christian cause needed
to mobilize its best brains and look carefully at future strategies.
Organizing such meetings and ensuring that the results were put
to work was his strength.
Notably Oldham,s preparations for the Life and Work meeting
in Oxford 1937 was the high point of his career. Less well-known
was his inside-track participation in the moves to unite all the
international ecumenical bodies in a single World Council of Churches,
and particularly to recruit a young Dutchman, Visser t Hooft,
to be its General Secretary. This was achieved in 1938, but
the outbreak of war delayed the actual founding until a decade
later.
To meet the disasters of the second world war, Oldham
pioneered one of his most memorable achievements - the Christian
News-letter. This was a weekly initiative to maintain the Christian
fellowship in war-time, based on Oldham,s extensive network of
contacts, and specifically designed to deal with the war,s mortal
challenges. Any repetition of the disastrous splits in Christendom
of 1914 was to be sedulously avoided. Rather, constructive practical
consideration was to be given as to what kind of society Christians
should seek after the war ended. Readership quickly grew among
informed laymen and women throughout Britain, and even abroad.
Oldham,s personal touch ensured both a continuity and a welcoming
call for a new engagement of Christian thought in the contemporary
and changing world.
As Clements makes clear, Oldham was not really a team
player. But he had the gift of finding very talented men and women
and persuading them to join in his enterprises. His influence
was therefore extensive and elitist rather than popular. On the
one hand, his extraordinary creative services to the whole ecumenical
world led to many outstanding developments. On the other hand,
his habit of asking searching and critical questions was intolerant
of complacency, timidity, or introversion. He also had an ingrained
suspicion of ecclesiastical structures, which he feared would
inevitably be conservative and stifling of creative thought. Church
conferences, he knew from experience, had a regrettable tendency
to indulge in moralizing pronouncements. Others, however, saw
rightly that inspired freelancing by talented individuals would
not be enough to sustain ecumenical institutions for the long
haul. They would need to be clearly representative of the churches
and accountable to them. Oldham, like his German counterpart
Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze, feared that the result would be a
dull mediocrity and ecclesiastical sclerosis. For this reason,
as Clements admits, Oldham proved obstructive over the setting
up of a British Council of Churches, which only followed in 1942.
And he kept on insisting that his finest creation, the World
Council of Churches, should have clear and pioneering thinking
as its first priority. His faith in Visser t Hooft, as General
Secretary, was to be vindicated, although at times Vim could be
far more of a general than a secretary. But Oldham lived long
enough, until 1969, to see the World Council firmly established
as the major international focus point for all the Christian churches,
with the exception of the Roman Catholics.
Oldham,s life,s work was undertaken at a time of world-wide
catastrophe, political disorder and moral collapse. The institutions
he sought to build, and the Christian heritage he sought to protect,
have not - as yet - fulfilled his hopes. But this account of
his struggles, urging his fellow Christians to grapple with the
issues involved, and the possible roads ahead, is a convincing
statement of a Christian visionary contribution in an age of violence
and dissension.
We can be grateful to Keith Clements for this insightful
and trenchant narration of Oldham,s theological pilgrimage, his
administrative strategies, his prophetic discernment and his warm
personal relationships. This is also a major account of the Christian
churches,developments and interactions during the twentieth century
from a sympathetic but not uncritical perspective. Above all,
Clements correctly places Oldham on the frontier of Christian
responsibility, prophetically seeking new forms of corporate Christian
witness in the face of the new challenges of each succeeding decade.
This is where, Oldham believed, faith must stand if it is to live
and grow. Retrieving this interpretation of Christian mission
was the objective of this biography. Clements is to be congratulated
on so splendidly fulfilling his goal.
JSC
2) John F.Pollard, The Unknown Pope. Benedict XV (1914-1922) and the Pursuit of Peace. London: Geoffrey Chapman 1999 240 pp ISBN 0-225-66344-0
John Pollard calls Benedict XV the "unknown Pope
mainly because his short reign was overshadowed by the First World
War and its contentious aftermath, and also because later Popes,
such as Pius XII and John XXII, have attracted more notice and
controversy. But Pollard,s skillfully researched biography provides
the English-speaking reader with a clear account of this pontiff,s
career, which he sees as one of the most significant, though often
overlooked, reigns of the past century. In particular, he contends
that Benedict,s pursuit of peace in the midst of an unprecedented
and horrific war raised the papacy to a new level of moral authority.
Giacomo Della Chiesa came from a noble but impoverished
Genoa family. Thanks to various patrons he was able to be trained
for the Vatican,s diplomatic service. He became a protege of Cardinal
Rampolla, later Secretary of State to Pope Leo XIII. But in 1903,
on Leo,s death, Rampolla failed to be elected Pope, and so he
and his protege suffered an eclipse at the hands of the more "integrist
Pius X and his much younger Secretary of State, Merry del Val.
Eventually Della Chiesa was sent off to the provinces to be Archbishop
of Bologna, but was denied promotion to the rank of Cardinal for
seven years until the spring of 1914.
On August 1st 1914 war erupted across Europe. Less than
a month later Pius X died. In the subsequent conclave, the Cardinals
were clearly looking for someone in a different mould. Della
Chiesa had the right combination of diplomatic, curial and pastoral
experience. At 60, he was the right age, and had enough discretion
to recognize how crucial his future policy would be for the welfare,
or even existence, of the Church.
Pollard makes the claim that in 1914 the Vatican had reached
the nadir of its international prestige. France had recently disestablished
the Church, Britain and Germany were controlled by anti-Catholic
leaders, and Russia brooded in distant hostility. The new nation
of Italy was militantly anti-Papal. Only Austria with its aged
Emperor supported the Holy See, but its involvement in the Balkans
was to prove a self-inflicted and lethal wound.
With the 1914 outbreak of war, the situation changed.
Pollard places much emphasis, as his sub-title suggests, on Benedict,s
efforts to promote peace. He also skillfully outlines the parameters
within which the Vatican was operating and the numerous frustrations
which these constraints caused. In reality, the Holy See possessed
little real power or influence, but it was presumed to have immense
potential moral force. Hence both warring sides exerted themselves
to attempt to win the Vatican over to their cause, or equally
strenuously to prevent the other side from doing so. Benedict,s
initial horror at the bloodshed and the losses inflicted on the
Catholic populations impelled him to seeks ways and means to stop
the hostilities, or at least to mitigate the results. Such a
stand necessitated impartiality, and also led to large expenditures
to assist the victims of the war without favour to either side.
Benedict,s strenuous efforts to hinder Italy from joining
in were thwarted in 1915. Worse still, he found the Italian government
continuously opposed to his humanitarian gestures, putting practical
difficulties in the way of many of his initiatives. Such a situation
revealed how much the Pope was a prisoner within the Vatican,s
walls and at the mercy of Italy,s anti-clerical and Masonic politicians.
As an example, the Italian High Command and censorship office
broke all the, admittedly primitive, Vatican codes and intercepted
its telegraph traffic. The security of the Vatican,s diplomatic
mail was constantly violated. The Italian police were effectively
spying on the Pope and Curia without hindrance. The unkindest
cut of all came when the Italian government negotiated with the
western powers to join the war in 1915, and deliberately included
in their secret treaty the demand that the Holy See should be
barred from taking part in any peace settlement once the war was
won. Benedict only found out about this later to his great chagrin.
Benedict, and his closest advisor Cardinal Gasparri, were
under tremendous pressure to move away from their impartial stance.
Every move, every speech was scrutinized to see if it gave advantage
to either side. Journalists constantly launched rumours of this
or that piece of favouritism. This led to a spate of denials,
and at times brought out in Benedict his obstinacy, his notorious
irascibility and not a little paranoia. Nevertheless he was determined
not to give up. Too much was at stake for the Catholic Church.
By 1916 he realized that general moral exhortations for peace
would achieve nothing. But he still believed that, as a neutral
power, the Vatican,s influence could be effective at a time when
both sides wanted to bring hostilities to a close. Such was the
case in 1917. In Germany, a strong group of Reichstag members,
led by the Catholic politician, Matthias Erzberger, passed a peace
resolution in July. This seemed to offer possibilities, and the
Vatican envoy to Germany, Eugenio Pacelli, was sent to explore
with the Kaiser and his Chancellor, Bethman-Hollweg, what terms
might be feasible, such as a general limitation of armaments,
the German withdrawal from Belgium and other occupied areas, and
the creation of international arbitration courts. Accordingly
in August Benedict sent out a Peace Note to all the belligerent
powers, setting out systematic proposals for bringing the war
to an end and securing a just and enduring peace.
Unfortunately, at that very moment, Bethman-Hollweg was
overthrown by the German army leaders, who were still fixated
on a German military victory. Even the western powers showed reluctance.
The British Government acknowledged receipt of the Note, but did
nothing. The French never replied at all. And the Italians intrigued
hard to prevent the Vatican from getting any increase in international
prestige and profile. President Wilson usurped many of the Papal
ideas in order to incorporate them in his own 14 Points a few
months later. The Papal initiative failed.
Nevertheless, these attempts, and the large-scale humanitarian
efforts launched by the Vatican, induced a much more open and
friendly climate towards the Holy See, even in the ranks of the
Italian government. To be sure, the Vatican was barred from taking
part in the Versailles peace-making, but Pollard judges this to
have been a disguised blessing, as the Holy See was therefore
not burdened by having to defend this much-vilified Treaty.
So too, Benedict was not able to find any solution to the vexed
question of the Vatican,s own status in Italy, which was left
to his successor, Pius XI, to solve.
More successful were Benedict,s efforts to alter the tone
of theological debate within his own ranks. The intolerant dogmatism
of his predecessor, Pius X, with its strident invectives and condemnations
of anyone suspected of the so-called Modernist "heresy, had
done much damage in the supposed interests of "integrisme.
While not prepared to disavow the hierarchy,s stance, Benedict
moved to eject zealots from sensitive positions.
But from the end of the war, it was political rather than
theological radicalism which seemed to be the greater danger.
All of Benedict,s conservative instincts were predictably brought
into play against the spread of militant violence or disorder.
The kind of bitter class warfare seen in the Soviet Union, Hungary
and Germany, boded ill for the Church, as did also the unbridled
agitation of more domestic foes such as Benito Mussolini. The
rise of Fascism in Italy was constantly deplored by the Vatican,
even when the alternative of a Socialist victory looked worse.
In fact, when Mussolini eventually seized power, he wisely recognized
the need for a more harmonious relationship with the Church.
But Benedict did not live to see this development. As for the
Vatican, it was to swallow the stifling of Italian democracy for
the sake of a new and more stable settlement of its future international
position.
Benedict,s conservatism, as Pollard points out, was equally
displayed in his antagonism towards both Protestantism and Orthodoxy.
Although the war had demonstrated the urgency of all Christians
standing together, Rome remained implacable. Error had no rights.
The post-war ecumenical movement was therefore built without
Catholics. Yet it can be argued that what the Catholic Church
needed was consolidation not experimentation. This is what Benedict
in his short reign provided. And Pollard,s final verdict is surely
correct: "He steered the barque of St. Peter through some
very stormy waters. . . and in the process left his enduring
mark on the Roman Catholic Church (p.215). We can certainly be
grateful to John Pollard for this comprehensive and sympathetic
account.
JSC
3) ed K.Chadwick,Catholicism, Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century
France. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press 2000 295pp
Renee Bedarida, Les Catholiques dans la guerre 1939-1945. Entre
Vichy et la Resistance.
Paris: Hachette litteratures, 1998
In recent years the writing of French church history
has been very much an "in-house affair. Foreigners were
not encouraged. The only significant work in English was W.D.Halls,
Politics, Society and Christianity in Vichy France, (1995). So
the appearance of this volume from Liverpool is much to be welcomed.
Under the editorship of Kay Chadwick, this collection of essays
is both bi-lingual and bi-national, where senior French scholars
such as Emile Poulat and Y-M.Hilaire are joined by younger British
scholars, mostly from the provincial universities. The title is
clearly derivative from Halls, study, but covers the whole of
the twentieth century. There is a variety of interesting perspectives
on the position of the Catholic Church over this period, though
the Church,s theology is virtually ignored, as is any treatment
of Protestantism.
The century began with the controversial disestablishment
of the Catholic Church in 1905. With the advantage of hindsight,
Professor Poulat now argues that this can be seen as a beneficial
move, by liberating the church from the state,s bondage. But at
the time and for many years after, the imposition of this move
at the hands of radical anti-clericals seemed to be a bitter blow.
Hence the eagerness with which numerous Catholics greeted the
overthrow of republicanism in 1940, and espoused the hopes for
a better deal under Petain. But in fact, over the past fifty
years, republicanism has shown a more moderate face, and the secular
nature of the state is now assured. Catholic schooling plays
a very considerable role, as an example of pluralism. There are
even moves to urge Islam to follow the Catholic path as a means
of integration within the French state.
The 1905 loss of status was undoubtedly induced, in part,
by the reactionary stance of most Catholics in the Dreyfus affair.
The rootedness of Catholic antisemitism cannot be denied. But
as two of these essays show, attitudes have changed. To be sure,
the stance of the Catholic hierarchy in face of the German war-time
persecution of the Jews looks vacillating, but at least some bishops
and several courageous priests and lay persons raised voices of
protest to defy both Vichy and the Nazis. This paved the way
for a new epoch of Christian-Jewish dialogue, led by such figures
as Jules Isaac and Jacques Maritain. Though antisemitism and racialism
still exist in France, such forces have no religious support from
Catholics.
Another significant change over the years has been in
the political stance of French Catholics. At first the polemical
attacks of the republican left prevented any political sympathy
from Catholics, and entrenched the right-wing attitudes of such
groups as Action francaise or the Croix de Fer. After 1945, however,
the scene changed. A new openness to at least some dialogue with
Marxists showed that some Catholics were interested to have a
potential stimulus to Catholic social thought or alternatives
to capitalism. And this paved the way for a much more committed
stance towards issues of social justice. Even though the experiment
of worker priests was abandoned, the impact remained.
On the other hand, the rigidity of Catholic doctrine,
especially on sexual matters, has undoubtedly contributed to Catholicism,s
institutional decline in France. The majority of priests are
elderly, more parishes are "orphaned and monastic life has
suffered badly. In part, this is a reflection of the European-wide
growth of a secular culture, but does not necessarily mean a loss
of faith. France now has a multi-cultural appearance, in which
French Catholicism appears in many guises.
Renee Bedarida and her husband Francois are among the
most distinguished practitioners of French contemporary history,
especially of that period of national tragedy, the Second World
War and the ill-fated Vichy regime. Madame Bedarida has already
written extensively on the spiritual resistance to the Nazi onslaught
of those years, arising out of her own participation as a student
in the resistance movement. Not surprisingly, therefore, in
her sprightly survey of the fate of French Catholics during the
war, those men and women who upheld their true Christian faith,
alongside their French nationalism, occupy a place of honour.
Following a chronological basis, Bedarida depicts the attitudes
of the Catholic literate elite, from its troubled and ambiguous
relationship to the anti-clerical secularist Third Republic before
the war to the heartfelt patriotic response of 1939. But the
1940 defeat proved that patriotism was not enough. In its place,
the Catholic hierarchy preferred to place their faith in Marshal
Petain as the saviour of the nation. The majority of Catholics
loyally followed this lead, though, as Bedarida shows, only a
handful of Catholic intellectuals were seduced into giving their
support. By contrast, those who for Christian reasons opposed
Nazism were increasingly sceptical of Petain and his compromises
with the conqueror. But de Gaulle, in London, never got any support
from the church hierarchy. Several Catholic writers and other
resisters expressed their opposition in clandestine publications,
and when caught, paid the ultimate price. Others retreated to
less obvious, but no less determined passive resistance, concentrating
on assisting the Nazis, victims, such as the Jews. If, at first,
French Catholics had been silent about the Nazi persecution of
the Jews, this changed in 1942. In August and September, no fewer
than five bishops protested publicly against the inhuman mistreatment
of the Jews in France, and this signal produced a wave of support,
much to the consternation of the Vichy authorities. Despite continued
assertions of the clergy,s respect for Petain, these protests
were the first breach of Catholic loyalty. Even more striking
in 1943 was the response to Vichy,s ordering young Frenchmen to
be conscripted for work in German factories. The bishops prevaricated,
though they were much more vocal in protesting the idea of recruiting
young French women. But only the underground press urged these
recruits, as a Christian duty, to join the secret resistance movement
instead. Those who took this step of joining the underground,
or Maquis, were not given the support of the Catholics bishops,
though a few clergy risked their lives by acting as chaplains.
The moral dilemmas caused by the threat of civil war, and the
fears of communism, restrained the church leaders from openly
endorsing the resistance, but in fact the number of young Catholics
who did so grew rapidly, and their witness was to be a significant
factor in the post-war renewal of the church.
In the aftermath, recriminations and accusations abounded.
The thorniest question for Catholics was what to do with those
bishops who had so enthusiastically endorsed the Petain regime.
Some demanded that at least twenty-five bishops be dismissed;
others would have been content with an acknowledgment of their
faulty judgment and an expression of repentance. In fact the hierarchy
gave neither. It insisted that it had only done its religious
duty in seeking to uphold the Christian faith and to safeguard
the church,s autonomy. They now preached reconciliation and rebirth.
And, in fact, the Vatican refused to hear of any forcible removals,
but quickly appointed a new Nuncio, the future Pope John XXIII,
to act as mediator.
In all, Bedarida stresses the positive impact of the war
on the Catholic church in France. For the first time, barriers
between Catholics and others were broken down. In captivity or
deportation or concentration camps, the clergy and laity were
thrown together to their mutual enrichment. As a result Catholics
were willing to play a more constructive role in the new political
order, and their spiritual renewal brought new life to the parishes.
To be sure the old habits of mind were still found in some of
the hierarchy, who still clung to their traditional conservative
and moralistic mentalities. But, Bedarida claims, this clash
between temporal political conformism and audacious creativity
in the spiritual and pastoral spheres opened the way for the kind
of reforms, which twenty years later, were to be adopted by the
whole Church,s aggiornamento at the Second Vatican Council.
With every best wish to you all,
John Conway
jconway@interchange.ubc.ca
Association of Contemporary Church Historians: website:
http:www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/akz/