Christian and Contemporary Doctrines of Man

Abstract

A new and thoughtful English literary critic, making an inquiry into the assumptions as to the nature and purpose of Man which underlies much modern literature, opens his work with these words: "In the Middle Ages, however much people might disagree about all sorts of things, they had one doctrine in common -- they agreed on the whole as to the nature of Man. Since the Renaissance there have been conflicting views on this, and in our own century, in particular, few writers can assume that their readers will have this common ground to build on." A realization that all political philosophy, and that the conditioning fact in the shaping of all human institutions are rooted in this basic fact of the nature of man betrays the urgency and the insecurity of such a situation. At the moment when humankind is in dire need of an integration of all the forces that make for community, we are divided on this fundamental issue.