German Protestantism

...He should, however, know that that movement has already resulted in the passage of a number of well-known clergymen to the Anglo-Catholic parry of the Church of England, whence their transi547 tion to Catholicism is but a logical, if not an inevitable step...

...Wallau is thinking of something parallel to the so-called "free Catholic" movement which has made some stir in England...

...It is no longer enough for Protestantism to be anti-Catholic, for Catholicity, says Dr...

...Or if he is dreaming of a High-Church movement in the German Lutheran Church, on less "Roman" lines than such a movement has already followed, he must know that this must inevitably increase the inner and outward disunion or Zer-rissenheit which he so much deplores...

...the fundamental principles of New Testament Christianity—these must be preserved...

...Wallau's sincere article is to be taken as at all characteristic of the present tendency in German Protestantism, it is clear that there is, on the one hand, a strong though vague feeling that only a visible church, possessing authority, can save Protestantism...

...In the home of Protestantism, however—in Germany, that is—there is still a serious effort to give more than a vague, merely negative-classificatory content to the word, and a characteristic example of this endeavor appeared not long ago in the Europaische Revue, published at Leipzig...

...Apparently this is to be done by the adoption of the primitive Christian forms of service, imposed as a discipline, but informed by modern social ideas...

...Perhaps, although he does not mention it, Dr...

...It is this that inspires the fervid effort toward Protestant reunion shown in the Stockholm Conference...

...Wallau, has been generally recognized in the New Testament...

...The object of the protest of Protestantism changes with each generation—and here a kind of theory of development on the Newman model is attempted...

...Wallau seems to see the only prospect of thoroughgoing Protestant rehabilitation, is today toward the ecumenical principle—the recognition of the Church as an organization in relation to the community...

...Rene Wal-lau, of Frankfort, and his opening paragraphs betray the apprehension felt by many Protestants in Europe lest their disunion, too long continued in the face of the renewed Catholic effort in all parts of the world, may have disastrous consequences, even in those countries where the non-Catholic religious Weltanschauung—for we must leave aside the mere materialistic anti-Catholic movement of thought—has been entrenched for centuries...

...But the proclamation positively of what Protestantism stands for—that is the vital problem...

...The younger generation has to struggle against a too great emphasis on the individual in relation to God, a too little appreciation of man as a member of society...

...GERMAN PROTESTANTISM By JOHN STAPLETON IN MOST countries, it is no longer possible to consider Protestantism as anything but a conglomeration of varying sects, or, at best, as a generic term covering all those Christian organizations which, in greater or less degree, champion the principle of private judgment without carrying their negation of authority to its fatal, logical conclusion...

...Wallau rightly perceives, the non-Catholic Christian world can never hope to rescue itself from anarchy and face the future with confidence...

...and, on the other, that there is a rather pathetic belief that harking back to primitive forms can meet the situation...

...Wallau has ever wandered through the Catacombs and considered the primitive belief which was the only raison d'etre of the primitive forms...

...It was written by a well-known German Evangelical pastor, Dr...

...Faith, of course...

...If Dr...

...Here is the basis of the new synthesis, but there will be no solid building on it until the opposition of the older generation is overcome...

...Religion must no longer be a personal individual thing, a matter for the heart...

...The tendency, in whose encouragement Dr...

...Protestantism as an individual, positive entity, a unified movement, or even a unified outlook on life, hardly exists anywhere today, even in the so-called "Protestant countries...

...The solution, according to this thoughtful writer, must be sought in a union of the modern liturgical movement in German Protestantism with a renewed evangelical universalism...

...One wonders whether Dr...

...But, given these, the main problem is "Gestaltung," the outward and visible form in which Protestantism shall present these to the world and make clear their relationship with the world of today...

...The symbol of the Mass and the invocation of Petrine authority still have lessons, even for twentieth-century German Protestants in-search of a unified, vital Gestaltung without which, as Dr...

...it must be given an agreed outward manifestation and brought into contact with social and political realities...