trend, and there are many growing-points of constructive action. But
it can hardly be denied that the characteristic temptation of our day is
to give up the struggle with the world; or, if we do really live out our
lives in the world, we do not struggle with it. ¹

There are good reasons for this as well as bad. If we think that the
tendency is fundamentally the work of the devil, it is the more neces-
sary to look at the good reasons that have led people to this retreat.
First comes the revival of theological seriousness and the revival with
this of the theology of the Church. It is no longer possible in Britain to
confuse the Christian faith with any kind of social gospel, to identify
the Kingdom of God with the coming glories of a new social order or
the present reality of a comfortable civilization. It is not possible to tie
up the Gospel with current philosophies and cultural realities. But in
being aware of the uniqueness and separateness of Gospel truth, we are
in danger of making it irrelevant to the modern world. We are not in
danger of confusing Biblical language with the language of the phil-
osophers or the market-place; but are we not in danger of making it
meaningless? We are not in danger of confusing the Church with the
State or with any voluntary body; but are we not in danger of making
it a ghetto?

With this sound theology and deeper sense of the true mission of the
Church has gone a more widely based acceptance of the true basis for the
Church's concern with the world -- at least in general outline. The gospel
is not merely concerned with the improvement of the world and its
arrangements; the Church is not merely an institution for civilizing
men. We know that our concern is with God, and that God rules over
the whole world. He rules, and he rules over the whole world, so that
he is not to be confused with any part of its concerns. In asserting these
truths, we have, however, been tempted to forget that God rules over
the whole world. In attempting to express the reality of the distinction
between God and the world we have been tempted to equate it with
the distinction between religious and non-religious activities, so that in

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