Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-05

justly open to the
charge of Theological
narrowness," and then
| seeks to eXtenuate the 81
offense by attributing it
| to the bleak and bar =# aaAsseNY
rem soil in which the 4. s
| Christian religion had s'
! its origin. He. seems .tAsssssNY
!. : !
| to think If Greece, in
stead of Galilee had
| been the birth place Of III III s.
Christianity, the Church r. III
might have escaped the s*&
"narroWness w / t h 49,
which he imagines it 63 r
is blemished, and might a&a1AA'7z ~A
have inherited the love
of art and beauty which characterized the
Greeks. He conceives that this defect, or
deformity, of the Church reflects Galilee's
barrenness of beauty.
BY "Galilee" he probably means the Jew
ish people of all the Holy Land; for he
| must know that in the strictest sense Cali
lee was not the birthplace of Christianity.
Christ was born in Bethlehem and crucified
in Jerusalem, both places being in Judea.
At Jerusalem was achieved the first great
triumph of the Christian religion on the day
of Pentecost; and for many years the most
influential of all the Christian Churches
was that of Jerusalem No church in Gal
lice was conspicuous in those days, and no
Galilean church ever attained to the prom
churches.
The writer OF this article seems to be
striving to find something to say worthy of
the columns of the periodical for which
he is writing rather than to be in posses
sion of any important truth which constrain-
sd him to utter it.
He goes on to say:
1.-The critic charges the Church today with
being circumscribed and narrow. Does he
pause to realize that the Christian Church
had its origin among a people c1rcumscrlbed
and narrow as perhaps no other nation ever
was4-a people with a gypsy heritage of labo-
rious wanderings, with poems heritage OF
unrequtted and servile toll, with yassals
heritage of conquest and suppression? Where
were the joyous interludes in the history
of Israel-a history composed of nomadlc
excursions, of captivity of generation in
the wilderness, of hard and doubtful fight
ing, of civil war, of further captivity and
transportation, of return to a devastated
home, of revolt, of subjugation and tyranny?
How could the heirs of such travail be the
purveyors to the world of gospel of bright
ness and loYe? If the Church has been joy
less and narrow, there was excuse enough in
its fiber and SineW. J"
He thus foolishy admits unfounded
charge of which the Church is accused, and
brings false accusation against the Jewish
nation, while pretending to summarize its
history and set forth it's characteristics.
1t is true that the Jews did not cultivate
the arts of painting and SCULPTURE. Nor did
they excel in architecture, although many
noble structures adorned Jerusalem in both
the days of Solomon and the time of Jesus.
But Jewish literature. all of which was re-
ligious, more joyous than that of any
contemporary nation. Where is anything in
Grecian literature in which there is so much
joy and beauty as in the Hebrew Psalms?
The Jewish religion was more pure and
joyous than the religions of any neighboring
nations This contrast is quite marked be-
tween the gloomy and bloody Baallsm, which
Jezebel brought into Israel in the days OF
Aham, and the noble faith which sings in
the fervent compositions of David and scars
in the lofty periods ofIsaiah. The contrast
is scarcely less striking when Hebraism is
compared with pagan Hellenism.
The Grecian gods conceived with
certain sensuous beauty and gadness, but
there was about them nothing akin ito the
beauty of holiness" They were represented
practicing the fOulest crimes and indulg
Ing the most repulsive vices Some of the
Grecian sculpture, which has survived until
our day, represents them in forms suggest
ing the merely physical and embodying their
sensuous indulgences. Would such things
have given to the Christian religion an add
ed charm or would they have impaired re-
pulsive characteristics? Which?
The Christian art of Michael Angelo, Ra
phael, Rubens, Murllo, and a host of other
masters, is far above the art of ancient
Greece as the blue sky is above a polluted
cess pool. And Christian architecture is not
less superior to the noblest buildings of
Athens. What structures had the Greeks
more impressive than st. Peters in Rome
or st. PauIs in London, or the inspiring Ca
thedral of Cologne?
The following is "a most astonishing pas
sage found in this article of amazing non
sense:
eve worship, to a large extent, in most
unlovely buildings. The world is many-coI-
ored and very much alive. But the SOM
berness of our churches has annulled the
beauty, the artificial atmosphere of devotion
has stilled the activity, and the dead level
of mediocrity has caused the cooring to
pale; and we have essayed a dull and I'M
inspired task In the name of religion! In
the name of Godi We afraid that His
voice can not be heard above the babel, or
the perfume of His presence rival the rose!
of our services are dreary, If our places
of worship are ugly and uncomfortable, it is
not fitting that this generation should shout
der all the blame Again we are heirs of all
that went before, even to the dark rituals OF
the historical synagogue"
Doubtless among the millions of houses
of worship in ChTistendom there are many
"unlovely buildings;" but not all the shrines
of ancient Greece were beautiful Some Gre
clan places of worship were scarcely less
than hideous. Not place of worship in
all ancient Greece approached the beauty