CAIRNS, FRED I. Progress Is Unorthodox. Pp. x, 185. Boston: The Beacon Press, 1950. $2.50
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Author | Jerome Davis |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625127400190 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
256
areas,
and
then
subsiding-if
it
does
sub-
side-or
changing,
Protean,
into
other
forms.
I
am
afraid
it
does
not,
and
the
reason
is
that
the
editor
did
not
take
hold
of
the
book
and
bring
it
under
his
control.
There
is
no
integrative
beginning
or
end.
The
book
is
particularistic,
and
the
insula-
tion
between
disciplines
is
impermeable.
Finally,
and
more
importantly-if
evolu-
tionary
thought
was
the
dominant
theme
of
the
late
nineteenth
and
early
twentieth
centuries,
and
if
it
is
no
longer
the
domi-
nant
theme,
what
has
displaced
it?
We
may
not-and
certainly
should
not-ask
for
a
longer
book,
but
we
are
left
dangling.
Metamorphosis
is
a
process
&dquo;to&dquo;
as
well
as
&dquo;from.&dquo;
In
larger
terms,
into
what
has
evolution
evolved?
ROBERT
E.
LANE
Yale
University
CAIRNS,
FRED
I.
Progress
Is
Unorthodox.
Pp.
x,
185.
Boston:
The
Beacon
Press,
1950.
$2.50.
This
is
a
popular
account
of
those
who
have
been
willing
to
risk
something
for
the
truth
which
they
believe
in.
The
author
is
trying
to
establish
the
point
that
progress
is
always
the
result
of
someone’s
being
willing
to
break
with
the
pattern
of
the
past.
The
story
is
told
through
a
record
of
some
of
the
major
controversies
in
the
field
of
religion.
Fred
Cairns
claims
that
today
&dquo;ranking
scholars
are
as
urgent
in
their
defense
of
the
customs
and
creeds
they
uphold
as
Cain
was&dquo;
when
he
killed
his
brother.
To
be
sure,
the
scholars
do
not
use
the
same
methods,
although
na-
tions
kill
many
more
by
means
of
the
mod-
ern
technology
of
war.
The
prophets
were
willing
to
pay
with
their
lives
for
progress
at
the
expense
of
orthodoxy.
So
was
Jesus.
Jesus
taught,
&dquo;If
a
man
say
’I
love
God’
and
hateth
his
brother,
he
is
a
liar.&dquo;
He
advocated
lov-
ing
one’s
enemies.
But
this
is
a
dangerous
exhortation
even
today,
especially
in
a
pe-
riod
of
the
cold
war.
In
a
series
of
successive
chapters
the
au-
thor
tells
of
the
banishment
of
Arius
be-
cause
he
believed
&dquo;what
appeared
to
be
rea-
sonable,&dquo;
of
Luther’s
break
with
the
Ro-
man
Church,
and
of
John
Calvin’s
burning
of
Servetus,
of
how
some
time
later
Dr.
Priestley’s
church,
his
home,
and
his
per-
sonal
belongings
were
burned
in
Birming-
ham,
England,
and
eventually
of
how
the
Unitarian
Church
was
founded
in
America.
The
author
aims
vigorous
blows
at
the-
ology
which
he
claims
is
a
sort
of
chame-
leon
which
-changes
to
suit
the
immediate
situation.
The
author
pleads
that
instead
of
dogmas
we
should
try out
other
possi-
bilities
such
as
labor
unions
to
provide
biead
and
medicine
as
a
substitute
for
miracles.
The
treatment
is
provocative
and
chal-
lenging.
Many
will
feel
that
the
author
makes
many
rash
assertions
as
when
he
says
that
those
who
have
&dquo;the
highest
re-
gard
for
the
deity
of
Jesus
have
the
least
regard
for
their
fellowmen.&dquo;
This
is
an
as-
sumption
which
demands
proof
rather
than
blanket
assertion.
Again
the
book
would
have
been
vastly
improved
had
the
author
included
a
few
dates
for
each
of
the
inci-
dents
sketched.
As
it
is,
the
reader
who
is
not
familiar
with
the
history
of
religion
is
left
in
the
dark
as
to
even
the
century
when
the
events
recorded
in
the
chapter
took
place.
This
is
a
book
which
religious
believers
would
do
well
to
read
and
ponder
but
not
necessarily
accept.
JEROME
DAVIS
Westhaven,
Conn.
KRESGE,
E. E.
The
Search
for
a
Way
of
Life:
A
Review
of
the
Major
Classical
and
Contemporary
Ethical
Systems
of
the
Western
World.
Pp.
xiv,
434.
New
York:
Exposition
Press,
1950.
$4.00.
The
clarity,
the
simplicity,
the
honesty
of
this
book
stand
out
in
sharp
contrast
to
the
muddied
hysteria
which
now
threatens
the
affairs
of
men.
As
the
title
makes
evi-
dent,
the
purpose
of
this
book
is
to
illu-
mine
contemporary
man’s
search
for
the
good
life
by
viewing
his
problems
against
the
background
of
the
ethical
heritage
of
the
West.
The
book
is
written
in
the
con-
viction
that
our
basic
problems
are
moral
problems
and
can
be
met
only
on
a
moral
basis.
It
is
this
union
of
ethical
perspec-
tive with
the
insistent
problems
of
con-
temporary
democracy
that
gives
The
Search
for
a
Way
of
Life
its
sanity
and
its
time-
liness.
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