JESUS AS WORLD-STATESMAN
The Life of Jesus. By Conrad Noel. (Dent and Sons. 12s. 6C1.) FATHER CONRAD NOEL, in this vivid and arresting book, has some severe things to say on "the heresy of the subjective Christ " ; but perhaps the reality of the pitfall to which he there draws attention is brought home to us best by the unconscious ease with which he has himself fallen. into it. The rich and living doctrine and personality of Jesus cannot - -as he rightly insists—be made to serve the purpose of the puritan, the teetotaller, the pacifist. But neither can it be pressed into the mould of the social revolutionary. It escapes all bounds ; and just because it transcends while it includes all legitimate human needs and interests, each attempted biography tells us at least as much about the writer as about the Hero of that which is really "the greatest story in the world." In all such works we see, and are bound to see, the Gospel record through a temperament ; and here the temperament is that of an ardent and devoted Christian Communist, who is sure that Empire even in the form of a benevolent tyranny is hostile to the Divine Will and even feels that "in the Irish Rebellion of 1916 and in the Spanish resist- ance to armed rebellion there may be seen the action and the presence of Jesus Christ."
Father Noel's declared aim is a synthesis between Christ's social teaching, His "plan for world liberation," and His intimate dealings with individuals. Jesus is shown as the saviour and redeemer not only of the soul, but of the whole social order : of humanity in its economic and political, as well as its religious, relationships. His greatness of mind is stressed no less than His greatness of heart. Christ is here a world-statesman, who sought the complete trans- formation of society by bringing in "a new set of the collective will " : for thus, and only thus, could the promised Messiah redeem His people and bring in the Kingdom of God. "I have tried to see His life and teaching from the angle of those who actually came across Him for the first time and were drawn within the orbit of His influence." Later theological interpretations of that life are left on one side, in order that it may be seen in its freshness, and in relation to its actual environment. It is in accordance with this design that great attention is here given to the historical and political situation within which the Messiah was born, and the nature of the hopes of the little group that "waited for the redemption of Israel." In the story of the Temptation in the Wilderness, which is treated as crucial for an understanding of His mind and career, Jesus is shown accepting His Messiahship, and reviewing and rejecting three ways in which that vocation might be actualised and His great powers be used. "His resources were huge, but like other men He had to harbour them and concentrate His energy if He were to do His work in the world."
The temptations, then, "were not trivial, but magnificent " they represented the choices which confronted one who knew Himself called to the redeeming of His people at the outset of His career. He might appear as the Supplier of men's fundamental needs, bring bread from stones and "solve the food problem." He might achieve the headship of the revolu- tionary Temple party—the so-called Zealots—which was the "pinnacle of nationalist fame;" and risk all in a desperate throw for Jewish freedom. Or, beyond these national aims, He might impose His reading of the Divine Will on all the kingdoms of the world, and bring in the. Kingdom of God by the deliberate exercise of personal power. But the economic, the revolutionary, the imperialist solutions of the social problem are all rejected. They are at best mere patches on the wounds of the world's sin. The Kingdom of God cannot be imposed from without. It is a social order which is the inevitable and practical expression of a profound fraternal love, and confers a universal freedom safeguarded by love ; penetrating like leaven the whole social fabric, and trahsforrning personal, economic and political life. This is the salvation, the com- munism of the heart, which Jesus announced, and the world refused to accept.
Father Noel presents this reading of the Gospel with much persuasive eloquence, giving fresh meaning and vigour to well-known incidents and phrases, and casting new light on many of the sayings of Christ. It is true that some of his readers will feel, and I think perhaps rightly, that the more deeply mysterious incidents of the Gospel record are insufficiently stressed ; and particularly that the treatment of the Passion is inadequate. But against these limitations must be set the many points at which a wholly new light, independent of theological interpretation, is cast on the personality and teaching of Jesus as given by the Evangelists. His book is strongly to be recom- mended to all who care for Christian realism ; and especially perhaps to those who are least inclined to agree with its author's
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