Christianity and Crisis

From Christianity and Crisis, July 1947: “The beginning of wisdom is to know that God’s will rules His world.” But discerning the end of wisdom is more complicated.

A.J. Brace discusses the dangers of the rising Chinese Communist Party 75 years ago.

Shortly after he appeared on the cover of Time, English historian Arnold Toynbee wrote an essay about how Christians should view history.

“The people of Munich were informed by proclamation of the city administration that the requisition of private homes for army housing was to be carried through, and to a greater extent than had been hitherto feared.”

Man is troubled—more troubled than at any previous time in the brief sojourn of his kind on this planet. Wars, revolutions and social convulsions all indicate the depth of his disquiet. He is troubled because he does not know, and he wants to know, the meaning of his own life.

Recognizing the place for a genuine religious hope born of faith and for an enthusiasm for realization of social and ethical gains in any historical situation, Christianity will nevertheless, when true to itself, set its face against utopianism or popular brands of optimism.

Now what is here symbolized has been the most fundamental idea in our American democracy. Ours is a government by discussion.

“Unless we accept the Russian view of the nature of man, we cannot work with the USSR to a common end for human society.”

During an address to the US Congress on March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman called for military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece to counter communist threats. This began the Truman Doctrine, and Christian realists responded a month later.