ESSAYS ON CHRISTIAN POLITICS . AND KINDRED SUBJECTS. By William
Temple. (Longmans. 7s. ad.)— The reproach that he speaks with uncertainty cannot be levelled at the Bishop of Manchester. These essays and addresses, written or delivered within the last seven years, will be understood of all men. But whether more than a very few will be found to agree with all the Bishop says is highly doubtful. The Socialist Iligh Churchman may find the writer's attitude to the Labour Party's programme most pleasing, but his teaching on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the exact opposite I The Low Churchman, if he has lost Kingsley's zeal, will feel less certain about the Bishop's " Christian Politics," yet glad concerning his teaching upon the central rite. Many a Christian, of no partisan views at all, will dissent from the rigidity of the essay on Marriage, in which part of the law of England is, in spirit, challenged. The Modernist will be justifiably disappointed over an insist- ence on the necessity for a layman to accept the whole historic creed. The insistence is, however, accompanied by a sug- gestion that might make this book memorable. New move- ments and societies are easily made and with difficulty sus- tained. Yet, if Dr. Temple would define what he means by the " catechumenate " (p. 102); which he proposes for those of "honest doubt" and goodwill, and collect, as he suggests should be done, ()Pinions as to the type of fellowship inte which these could enter, he would only be performing a task which he is eminently fitted for, and which, perhaps, it is his duty to discharge. But the word- catechumenate• sounds patronizing. Let him straightway discard it.
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