THE CHURCH
301. =The Place of the Church in the Urban Community.=--In the city,
as in the country, the religious instinct expresses itself socially
through the institution of the church or synagogue. Spiritual force
cannot be confined within the limits of a single institution; religion
is a dynamic that permeates the life of society; yet in this age of
specialization, and especially in a country like the United States,
where religion is a voluntary affair, not to be entangled with the
school or the State, religion has naturally exerted its influence most
directly through the church. Charity and settlement workers are
inspired by a religion that makes humanitarianism a part of its creed,
and a large majority of them are church members, but as a rule they do
not attempt to introduce any religious forms or exercises into their
programmes. Most public-school teachers have their religious
connections and recognize the important place of religion in moulding
character, but religious teaching is not included in the curriculum
because of the recognized principle of complete religious liberty and
the separation of church and state. The result has been that religion
is not consciously felt as a vital force among many people who axe not
directly connected with an ecclesiastical institution. Those who are
definitely connected with the church in America contribute voluntarily
to its expenses, sometimes even at personal sacrifice. Most people who
have little religious interest realize the value of the mere presence
of a meeting-house in the community as a reminder of moral obligations
and an insurance against disorder. Its spire seems to point the way to
heaven, and to make a mute appeal to the best motives and the highest
ideals. The decline of the church is, therefore, regarded as a sign of
social degeneracy.
302. =Worship and Church Attendance.=--The church exists in the city
because it has certain specific functions to perform. To maintain
public worship, to persuade to definite convictions and inspire to
noble conduct, to furnish religious education, and to promote social
reform are its essential responsibilities. Worship is a natural
attitude to the individual who is prompted by a desire to adjust
himself to the universe and to obtain the peace of mind that follows
upon the establishment of a right relationship. To most people it is
easier to get into the proper atmosphere and spirit of worship in a
public assembly, and they therefore are accustomed to meet at stated
intervals and bow side by side as if in kinship together before the
Unseen. Long-established habit and a superstitious fear of the
consequences that may follow neglect keep some persons regular in
church attendance when they have no sense of spiritual satisfaction in
worship. Others go to church because of the social opportunities that
are present in any public gathering.
In recent years church attendance has not kept pace with the
increasing population of the city. A certain pride of intellect and a
feeling of security in the growing power of man over nature has
produced an indifference to religion and religious teachers.
Multiplicity of other interests overshadows the ecclesiastical
interests of the aristocracy; fatigue and hostility to an institution
that they think caters to the rich keeps the proletariat at home. In
addition the tendency of foreigners is to throw off religion along
with other compulsory things that belonged to the Old World life and
to add to the number of the unchurched.
303. =Evangelism and the History of Religious Conviction.=--A second
function of the church is to exert spiritual and moral suasion. It is
a social instinct to communicate ideas; language developed for that
purpose. It is natural, therefore, that a church that has definite
ideas about human obligation toward God and men should try to
influence individuals and even send out evangelists and missionaries
to propagate its faith widely. Those churches that think alike have
organized into denominations, and have arranged extensive propaganda
and trained and ordained their preachers to reason with and persuade
their auditors to receive and act upon the message that is spoken.
Several of the large cities of the United States contain
denominational headquarters where world-wide activities receive
direction, veritable dynamos for the generation of one of the vital
forces of society.
The convictions that prompt evangelism and missionary zeal are the
result of centuries of race experience. The Catholic, the Protestant,
and the Jewish churches have all grown out of religious experience and
religious thinking that have their roots in early human history. The
very forms of worship and of creed that constitute the framework of
religion in a modern city church date far back in their origins. The
religious instinct appears to be common to the whole human race. In
primitive times religious interest was prompted by fear, and the early
customs of sacrifice and worship were established by the group to
bring its members into friendly relations with the Power outside
themselves that might work to their undoing. Temples and shrines
testified to man's devotion and stirred his emotions by their symbols
and ceremonies. A special class of men was organized, a priesthood to
mediate with the gods for mankind. Children were taught to respect and
fear the higher powers, and their elders were often warned not to stir
the anger of deity. As the human mind developed, impulse and emotion
were supplemented by intellect. As man ruminated upon nature and human
experience he was satisfied that there was intelligence and power in
the universe, divine personality similar to but greater than himself,
and his reason sanctioned the religious acts to which he had become
accustomed. He added a creed to his cult. He did not associate his
moral ideas and habits with his religious obligations; these ideas and
habits grew out of the customs that had been found to work best in
social relations. Pagan religions were slow to develop any kinship
between religion and morals. It was among the Hebrews that the loftier
idea of a God of holiness and justice, who demanded right and kindly
conduct among men, came into prominence, and a few religious prophets
went so far as to declare that sacrifice was less important than
conduct. The fundamental teachings of Christianity were based on the
same conception of social duty and on the religious conception of God
as benevolent and loving, calling out loving fealty of heart rather
than external rite and sacrifice. In Christian times religion has
become a spiritual and moral motive power throughout the world.
304. =Church Organization.=--Throughout its long history society has
adjusted the organization of its religious activities to social custom
and social need. The church in any country is a name for an organized
system, with its nerve-centres and its ganglia ramifying into the
remotest localities. In the local community it binds together its
members in mutual relations, even though they live on different sides
of a city, or even in the suburbs. It has its relations to young and
old, and plans for the spiritual welfare of human beings of every age
through its boards and committees, classes and clubs. It presents a
variety of group types to match the inclinations and opinions of
different types of mind. One type is that of a closely knit,
centralized organization, claiming ecclesiastical authority over
individual opinions and practices on the principle that religion is a
static thing, a law fixed in the eternal order, and not to be improved
upon or questioned. Another type is that of loosely federated
ecclesiastical units, flexible in organization and creed, cherishing
religion as a dynamic thing, suiting itself to the changing mind of
man and adjusting itself to individual and social need. It is a social
law that both theology and organization conform in a degree to the
prevailing social philosophy and constitution, and therefore no type
can remain unchanged, but relatively one is always conservative and
the other always liberal, with a blending of types between the two
extremes. Denominational divisions are due partly to variety of
opinion, partly to ancestry, and partly to historical circumstance;
some of these divisions are international in extent; but through every
communion runs the line of cleavage between conservatism and
liberalism in the interpretation of custom and creed. The tendency of
the times is to minimize differences and to bring together divergent
types in federation or union on the ground that the church needs unity
in order to use its strength, and that religion can exert its full
energy in the midst of society only as the friction of too much
machinery is removed.
305. =Religious Education.=--A third function of the church is
religious education. This function of education in religion belongs
theoretically to the church, in common with the home and the school,
but the tendency has been to turn the religious education of children
over to the school of the church. The minister, priest, or rabbi is
the chief teacher of faith and duty, but in the Sunday-school the
laity also has found instruction of the young people to be one of its
functions. Instruction by both of these is supplemented by schools of
a distinctly religious type and by a religious press. As long as
society at large does not undertake to perform this function of
religious education, the church conceives it to be one of its chief
tasks to teach as well as to inspire the human will, by interpreting
the best religious thought that the centuries of history have handed
down, and for this purpose it uses the latest scientific knowledge
about the human mind and tries to devise improved methods to make
education more effective. Education is the twin art of evangelization.
306. =Promotion of Social Reform.=--As an institution hoary with age,
the church is naturally conservative, and it has been slow to champion
the various social reforms that have been proposed as panaceas. It has
been quite as much concerned with a future existence as with the
present, and has been prompt to point to heavenly bliss as a balance
for earthly woe. It has concerned itself with the soul rather than the
body, and with individual salvation rather than social reconstruction.
It is only within a century that the modern church has given much
attention to promoting social betterment as one of its principal
functions, but within a few years the conscience of church people has
been goading them to undertake a campaign of social welfare. Other
institutions have needed the help of the church, and in some cases the
church has had to take upon itself the burden that belonged to other
organizations; moral movements, like temperance, have asked for the
powerful sanction of religion, and the church has used its influence
to persuade men. What has been spontaneous and intermittent is now
becoming regular and continuous, until a social gospel is taking its
place alongside individual evangelism. The Biblical phrase, "the
kingdom of God," is being interpreted in terms of an improved social
order. Religion, therefore, becomes a present-day force for progress,
and the church an agency for social uplift.
307. =Adapting the Church to the Twentieth Century City.=--The church
in the country has a comparatively simple problem of existence. It
fits into the social organization of the community, and in most cases
seldom has to readjust itself by radical changes to fit a swift change
in the community. It is different with the church in the city. Urban
growth is one of the striking phenomena of recent decades; local
churches find themselves caught in the swirl, grow rapidly for a time,
and then are left high and dry as the current sweeps the crowd farther
along. Often the particular type that it represents is not suited to
the newer residents who settle in the section where the church stands.
It has the option of following the crowd or attempting a readjustment.
To decamp is usually the easier way; readjustment is often so
difficult as to be almost impossible. Financial resources have been
depleted. The existing organization is not geared to the customs of
the newcomers. Forms of worship must be improved if the church is to
function satisfactorily. The popular appeal of religion must be
couched in a new phraseology, often in a new language. Religious
educational methods must be revised. Social service must be fitted to
the new need. Small groups of workers must be organized to manage
classes and clubs, and to get into personal contact with individuals
whose orbit is on a different plane. The church must become a magnet
to draw them within the influence of religion. It finds itself
compelled to adopt such methods as these if it is not to become a mere
survival of a better day.
If, however, a locally disabled church can call upon the resources of
a whole denomination, it may be able to make the necessary adjustments
with ease, or even to continue its spiritual ministry along the old
lines by means of subsidies. It is reasonable to believe that society
will find a way to adjust the church to the needs of city people. It
cannot afford to do without it. The church has been the conserver and
propagator of spiritual force. It has supplied to thousands of persons
the regenerative power of religion that alone has matched the
degenerating influence of immoral habits. It has produced auxiliary
organizations, like the Young Men's Christian Association and the
Young Women's Christian Association. It has found a way, as in the
Salvation Army, to get a grip upon the weak-willed and despairing.
Missions and chapels in the slums and synagogues in the ghettos have
carried religion to the lowest classes. These considerations argue for
a wider co-operation among city people in strengthening an institution
that represents social idealism.
READING REFERENCES
TRAWICK: _The City Church and Its Social Mission_, pages 14-22,
50-76, 95-99, 122-160.
STRAYER: _Reconstruction of the Church_, pages 161-249.
MENZIES: _History of Religion_, pages 19-78.
RAUSCHENBUSCH: _Christianizing the Social Order_, pages 7-29,
96-102.
MCCULLOCH: _The Open Church for the Unchurched_, pages 33-164.
COE: _Education in Religion and Morals_, pages 373-388.