In Britain we have lived in a Christian culture for 1400 years, ever since the Canterbury St.Augustine in the South, and Aidan and Cuthbert in the North, came here in about 600 AD. Of the 150 years before that, we know nothing; the history books are a blank. That is when our culture was born. But a culture is no more immortal than is an individual. If it has a birth, it may also have a death. It has not only to be kept going; it has to be renewed, if it is not to die. And just at the moment, our Christian culture is not being renewed; it is disintegrating fast due to the presence of so many barbarians in our midst, and also, in my opinion, by the Church’s failure to come to terms with the modern mind at its best. What a pleasure it is to read a Chapter of Lord Dampier’s History of Science, and to read again how the men of science prized open the Medieval Church’s stranglehold on the freedom of thought. It was a struggle in which the Church usually, but not always, opposed freedom of thought fiercely. Roger Bacon published his great work with the encouragement of a sympathetic Pope, but his works were burned and he spent long years in prison after that Pope died.
How has the Church failed to come to terms with the modern mind? The Church failed to deal with the bogey of materialistic determinism that followed the publication of Newton’s Gravitation, on the whole opposed Darwin’s The Origin of Species, failed to understand Einstein’s Relativity and the significance of modern discoveries in astronomy, and it ducked learning about modern psychology. Is it any wonder that Teilhard de Chardin said that modern science had shaken all the ancient religions to the core? And if the real difference between science and religion lies in the difference between the attitude of mind of the scientist and that of the religious person, is it any wonder that those who accept science, and better still know a little science, are a bit disdainful of those who appear unable to talk in any language but their own. The modern mind, engendered by science, is in the best possible position to examine the doctrines of the Church, and separate the wheat from the chaff. And if the Church finds this a somewhat demeaning situation, she has no-one to blame but herself. Religion, after all, is too important to be left to priests.
Ordinary people are often much better company than Church people; and if one influences them, it should surely be by example and not by persuasion? So one does not go around thinking, and still less saying, that all one’s friends and acquaintances are idolaters. They may however have the odd obsession. In sport one finds more and more that those who regard a sport as just a hobby, are increasingly left far behind. When I was young, it was possible for me to think that I could be led up some of the hardest climbs then being climbed in Britain. I could not possibly have led them; but I might have been able to follow, when fit and in practice. If I were young now, it would be unthinkable. The highest standard is set by those who live for climbing, and do little else. Many do not have a proper job; their job is to provide money for them to live to climb. And the things they get up are fantastic. It all seems to me a bit mad, and a far cry from being public spirited in public service; but I expect that is what many people thought about me sixty years ago. All sport seems to have gone the same way; and when somebody wins or scores a goal, they put on an orang-utan expression, which signifies I suppose that they think something extraordinary has been achieved. But has it?
In the world of the mind too, more and more intolerant do many people seem to be becoming of opinions contrary to those held by the self-appointed guardians of public opinion. There is not only no meeting of minds with them; there is no willingness to have a meeting of minds. Those holding contrary opinions are not to be allowed to speak at all. In short, our Christian heritage is crumbling, and barbarism is replacing it.