So it takes anything from 800 to 1400 years to emerge from a dark-age; and Hitler’s 1000 year Reich was by no means a fantasy.
Hence my view that if Christianity is to contribute to a revival of national life, it is imperative to re-interpret it yet again; this time not only recognising scientific knowledge, but also integrating the Christian citizen with Society or the State. The whole point of trying to recreate a vision of Nature and the Universe is to integrate the lives of individual citizens into the life of the State, so that it is possible to say once again that Britain is an example of a Christian civilization, which the last War was fought principally to preserve. Not of course an uncritical member, but a loyal citizen, who does his duty for all that. Augustine was right; the City of God sits beside the City of Rome, reproving it if need be. The intricacies of Jewish thought of 2000 years ago, no doubt fascinating to scholars, do not solve our problems today.
In order for anyone to create a Christian vision of Nature and the Universe today, they would need to have a reasonable knowledge of Religion, Science and Conflict. Too great a knowledge of all, or any, of these subjects, and they would find it impossible in practice to have any vision; they would be unable to see the wood for the trees. In Religion, even to be bogged down in parish affairs would disable you from seeing much outside the parish. In Science, you would need to have some experience of conducting experiments as well as having a grasp of fundamental theory, and the limitations of the idea of causation; but even at an elementary level, science exerts a subtle pressure on the mind to think in terms of simple mechanical models, which steers the mind towards materialism. So you do not want too much experience. In Conflict, which in all its forms is governed by the same basic principles, probably you do not want the experience of battle; or the trauma of that experience would swamp all other mental disciplines. One’s reading too must be broad but not too deep, well informed but not scholarly. With too much scholarship, any vision would be distorted into pedantry. Of necessity therefore, any universal vision will be torn apart by those who possess more experience, and more scholarship in its various aspects, than one has oneself. No new way of looking at things is ever welcomed by those entrenched in the authority of convention, least of all by those entrenched in the authority of the Christian Church.
But is it necessary that Christianity should survive? Well, Science can do nothing for the yearnings of the human spirit, except open one’s eyes to the wonders of Nature. Science’s job is to provide a mechanical description of the Universe, that corresponds roughly to our experience of it, leaving out of account any spiritual content which it may have. And gazing at the wonders of nature does nothing to instruct men how to fashion the world to their liking. Indeed some scientists are so embarrassed by its impotence in this regard, that they pretend that the spiritual world does not exist.