298 THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION

an illusionary Christ." Faith beyond conscious- sex; the substitutionof slogansfor rationaldis-
ness and confrontation by God beyond con- cussion,of cynical use of force and sentimen-
sciousness are as impossible in I948 as they were tality for the rule of law, these and othercon-
in I923. If no one can love his neighbor, Jesus comitantexpressionsof dehumanization repre-
must have been very humorous when he quoted sent "the chaosof emptiness"incarnatein Hit-
the Jewish precept demanding it. If God is to- ler'sdictatorship.So longas contemporary man
tally other, man's reason unreliable, history and continuesin his presentstate of discontinuity
culture unable to promote the quest for valid anddisjointedness, he will (withno centerwith-
information concerning God, man, and life, then in) remaina potentialvictim of the "external
the task of attaining peace between Christianity fixations"of dictatorship.
and Judaism must, in spite of the author's unbe- Althoughcertainsectionsof the book offer
lief, be handed over to despised liberalism, that brilliantilluminationof the "annihilationof
is, to modernism, humanism, and science. At man"in the past decade,the authorstrangely
any rate the gospel of Jesus is very different enoughgiveslittle attentionto the institutional
from the gospel concerning Jesus in its Pauline, and no attentionto the economicproblemsin-
Catholic, or "Protestant neo-Reformation" volved.Thestyle,whichis fluentandaphoristic,
forms. Possibly a re-reading of Weiss's Christ, often degeneratesinto moralistichyperboleand
the Beginnings of Dogma might aid in a recon- oraculargeneralization. The Germanpeople,we
struction of the theology of the revised Ameri- are told, is "incapableof insightinto its guilt;
can Barthianism. the Germanof today (andthereis no difference
CONRADHENRY MOEHLMAN in this respectbetweenNazi and non-Nazi)has
Colgate-Rochester no innercontinuity";he cannotremembereven
his crimes.Psychoanalysis,existentialism,an-
throposophy,JamesJoyceand Dos Passos,and
other theoriesand figuresof our time are pre-
Hitler in OurSelves. By MAXPICARD. Introduc- sentedin
tion by ROBERT S. HARTMAN. Translated
disjointedcaricature.The authoras-
serts, for example, that psychoanalysis,"far
from the German by HEINRICH HAUSER.
from turningagainstthe invasionsof sex into
Hinsdale: Henry Regnery Co., I947. 272
sphereswhereit does not belong,merelyregu-
pages. $3.50. lates the invasion"of pansexuality.Oneconse-
"There is nothing a jellyfish likes so much as quenceof the "invasion"is that many "faces
a rock." The thesis of this book by a Swiss au- look as if they were themselvessome sexual
thor could be stated in this familiar aphorism. organ." (The Human Face is the title of a pre-
The "Hitler" that is "in our selves" is the pre- vious bookby the author.)
occupation with "the momentary," a preoccu- The remedyfor Hitlerism,for the discon-
pation that today has led to almost complete tinuity and the disjointedness that are in us, is
disjointedness in our spiritual aspirations and in simple-and in its way dubious."In that Christ
our actions, private and public. This disjointed- becamemanand in that manbelievesin Christ,
ness bespeaks the loss of Christian humanism this discontinuityis abridged."The frequent
which formerly gave continuity and integrity to laudatoryuse of the word "hierarchy"in the
the life of the individual and to the course of volumecouldgive the impressionthat the au-
Western society. The consequence of this loss is thorhopesfor the restorationof someelite. But
the multiple forms of overt and covert nihilism one cannotbe certainof this,forhe doesnot tell
of which Hitlerism was simply the logical ex- us muchabout the specificsocialingredientsof
pression. the "remedy,"beyondrecommending the divi-
Lacking a sense of continuity with the past sion of Germanyinto small states where it
and of man's openness on the one side to the wouldbe "easierfor the individualto realizehis
infinite, man has lost the human sense of mean- own limitations and to find himself again."
ingful time and history and has spatialized and But one can be sure that the authorbelieves
absolutized the moment, the fragmentary, the Christian"continuity"shouldbe the normfor
sensational, the arbitrary, the sheer act of will. all the religions;for, afterlamentingthe stage-
This is the way of insanity, for it presupposes by-stagedecline"fromreligiousanti-Semitism
only the "logic of the non-sensical--the counter- to social anti-Semitism,and, still further, to
logic of the Logos." The vulgarization of lan- racialanti-Semitism,"he recallsthat the Jews
guage, education, art, philosophy, politics, and were those "whofirst and by an act of violent

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 CRITICALREVIEWS 299

decision separated themselves from Christ." patterns.With the coming of WorldWar II,
"In a worldwhichprogressively,and of late al- Protestantismbegan to recognizeracial dis-
mostcompletely,has turnedawayfromChrist," criminationin industry,economics,politics,and
he says, "it wasinevitablethat thosewhofirstof civil affairs.It was not until the end of World
all had turnedaway from Christshouldagain War II that the Protestantchurchesbeganto
becomeconspicuous."Is this Christianhuman- see that "the heart of the problemof Negro-
ism or Christianimperialism? Whiterelationsis segregation-in employment,
in education,in housing,and in the Church."
JAMESLUTHERADAMS For the most part, the pronouncements
Universityof Chicago againstsegregationare officialstatementsand
have not influencedthe rank and file. There
seemsto have beenno statementagainstsegre-
The ProtestantChurchand the Negro. By FRANK gation by the churchbeforeI935 and no very
LOESCHER. New York: Association Press, strongstatementsagainstit beforethe forties.
I948. I59 pages. $3.00.
The greateststatementagainstsegregationwas
Frank Loescher, in his book The Protestant
adoptedby the FederalCouncilof Churchesof
Christat its calledmeetingin March,1946.At
Church and the Negro, gives conclusive proof this meetingthe FederalCouncilwenton record
that the Protestant church is perhaps the most as renouncingsegregationandpromisedto work
segregated institution in America. There are ap- for a "non-segregated Churchand a non-segre-
proximately 8,ooo,ooo Protestant Negroes in gated society."Loescherpoints out that "the
the United States. Its is carefully estimated that
are in separate Negro denominations.
pattern of racial segregation that prevails
7,500,000
among Protestant Churchesis found among
Considering the local church and moving up- Protestanteducationalinstitutionsas well."
ward through national assemblies, more than
Now that the churchesare condemningseg-
93 per cent of the Negroes have no association
in work and worship with Christians of other regationitself,it is to be hopedthat the Protes-
tant churcheswill move rapidly beyond pro-
racial groups except, in a few instances, in inter-
nouncementagainst segregationand demon-
denominational organizations. Even when we
strate in workand worshipthe true Christian
consider the 500,000 Negroes who are in de-
nominations that are predominantly "white," fellowshipthat knowsno raciallines.But unfor-
tunatelythe churchseldomleads in such mat-
99 per cent of them are in segregated congrega-
tions. Loescher estimates that only about one- ters; it follows.This book should be read by
tenth of I per cent of all the Negro Protestant everychurchmanwhoclaimsto be a Christian.
It shouldmake our guilty consciencesuneasy.
Christians in the United States-8,ooo souls-
are members of local "white" churches. As a BENJAIN E. MAYS
rule, the local churches have no stated policy Morehouse College
regarding Negro membership; nor have the Atlanta,Georgia
national churches, except pronouncements.
Furthermore,he demonstrates again the his-
torical fact that the churchas an organizedinsti-
tution is highly conservative and that it seldom ProjectedVisual Aids in the Church.By WILLIAM
leads in making constructive social changes. S. HOCIMAN.Boston: Pilgrim Press, I947.
The modern Protestant church, on the whole, vi+2I4 pages. $3.75.
accepts segregation in secular and religious life What is the place of visual instruction in the
without protest. church? What does it contribute to the objec-
Before World War I the churches had prac- tives of the church school? How may it enrich
tically nothing to say about improving race re- the worship service? How may visual materials
lations. The Protestant churchesbegan to speak be utilized to the best advantage in the total
out against certain injustices only after World religious program? The answers to these and
War I. In the period following I9I9, Protestant- many other questions are to be found in this
ism condemnedlynching and brutality. It called recent publication which discusses the practical
for justice, but within the segregated patterns. aspects of visual instruction in religious experi-
When the depression came, the church empha- ence. The book begins with a discussion of basic
sized equal opportunity within the segregated principles and outlines the techniques of utiliza-

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