Word: brunner
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Calvinist Theologian Emil Brunner of Switzerland knows that "Christianity and Civilization" is a big subject. He does not even believe that there has ever been such a thing as a Christian civilization. "What is usually called by that name," he says, "is a compromise between Christian and non-Christian forces." But he chose to tackle the subject because he feels that no civilization can rightly be called "human" that is not based upon Christianity...
...Brunner's first series of Gifford lectures was delivered at Scotland's St. Andrews University in 1947, and published last year. Published last week was his second series of lectures-Christianity and Civilization, Part 2 (Scribner...
...Shameful?" Brunner examines the specific application of Christianity to nine aspects of civilized life: technics, science, tradition, education, work, art, wealth, social custom and power. In putting each in its Christian place, he is not afraid to expose himself to the fire power of experts in the various fields. He tells scientists that there is nothing wrong with their subject except that it has grown too big for its britches. "Science knows what is, it does not know what ought to be ... Speaking in general, science in our day claims more room within the totality of human life than...
Theologian Brunner tells sociologists that the dehumanized quality of modern life is not the fault of technics (mass production, high-speed communications, etc.), but is to be blamed on the secularized, un-Christian men who put technics to work. Here, says Brunner, the Christian church has woefully let men down: "Is it not shameful for the Christian society that Confucian China was capable of suppressing the military use of gunpowder, while the Christian Church could not prevent . . . the development of a war machinery incomparably more dreadful...
Andersen was the kind of man "who always chose that another might die so that he might live." When the Japs came, he cooperated; when Brunner came, he was kind to him. In him, Brunner came to see what he too might become if he stayed on. Andersen had a daughter; she was very beautiful and the next 15 pages are very predictable. When an American advance party hit the island to prepare for an invasion, Brunner joined the troops...