• * * The Bishop of Birmingham has addressed an
Open Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury in regard to the interruption of the service at St. Paul's Cathedral last Sunday. The Bishop restates his doctrinal position and accuses the Church of estranging the sympathy of educated people by lagging behind in the acceptance of modern scientific knowledge. In so far as the Bishop believes that religion has nothing whatever to fear from science, and indeed much to gain from it, he can safely rely upon the active collaboration of most enlightened persons. Ultimately science and religion cannot clash, for "whence" and " why " are beyond scientific reach, as most men of science humbly admit. Our own impression is that the Bishop is inclined to mistake the "writing up "' of Church controversies by newspapers and much foolish correspon- dence published there as a guide to the state of feeling in the Church. The present writer knows no well- educated clergyman who denies evolution. Most clergy see in the evolutionary rise of man a wonderfully impres- sive example of divine design in the universe. No doubt the Augustinian theology needs restatement, but im- plicitly it is being steadily restated, as one can see in the amazing changes since Huxley's day. -
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