261 CHRONICLESnperennial problem to which religionnhad always responded—suffering. OlivernWendell Holmes Jr. asserted thatn”suffering is a wrong which can be andnought to be prevented.” Both ideasnare, necessarily, man-centered, the resultnof a new appreciation of personalitynwhich, unchecked, came to be individualism.nSince it was the individualnand not God who made choices, beliefnin the supernatural became offensivento one’s moral sensibility. Submissionnto any external authority “endangerednthe moral integrity” of the person. “Tonvindicate liberty I must dethronenGod,” said Samuel Putnam.nMainstream Protestantism in thenUnited States encouraged the moralizingnof God because of its strategy ofnmaking religion conform to the demandsnof the modern world. The notionnthat it is the world which opposednitself to Christianity was put aside.nOne did not dare to be in opposition tonwhat the prevailing culture regarded asnobvious, natural, and plausible. Godnbecame merely a part of history, not asnHe had in the Incarnation but as if Henwas a part of creation:nThe great error of churchnleaders—their blasphemy, tonput it in their terms—was tonforget the tension that mustnexist between man’s wishes andnthe intentions of a Deity whonmight plausibly be imagined tonhave created our universe.nThey had let gather dust thenancient wisdom that creationntranscended human grasp.nAt this point the Comte thesis cameninto play. A secular morality was possiblenonly if a new central compellingnimage for culture was available; thennew idea of man was available. WorknBOOKS IN BRIEF—EDUCATIONnin anthropology and archaeology demonstratednin purely natural terms thatnman evolved his morality by living innresponse to nature. Morals are thenexpression of “the secular experiencenof mankind.” The guardians of beliefnhad made God so much like man thatnit became feasible to abandon God andnbelieve in man alone.nIn short, God as the ruler of naturenwas abstracted into a scientific explanation.nGod as the source for the codenof moral behavior was humanized.nGod as mysterious and transcendentnwas tamed and made to appear irrelevantnto human needs. These changesncame about because church leadersnand intellectuals chose to deal withnmodernity by embracing it. What modernitynwanted as a functional Godncould not be made compatible with antranscendent God.nAt bottom, this error resulted from anradical misunderstanding of Incarna-nHon, the historical event which gavenflesh to the Still Point about which thenuniverse turns. In Four Quartets T.S.nEliot named Incarnation the impossiblenunion of timeless and time. Andnfor us who are trying, the timeless cannbe found only in time. Thus, history isnnot progress or evolution or mere addition,nbut a pattern of timeless moments.nHence, aH of us have had thenexperience but missed the meaning,nyet in the effort to find the meaningnthe experience can be purified. AlthoughnGod is not owned by history, ifnyou take Him out of it—separate Himnfrom hunks, colors, gardens, and garbagendumps—you lose Him, havingnmissed the whole point of the freentruth of Revelation, which is GhristnIncarnate in history. The true distinctionn(and marriage) of divine andnhuman can be found only through thenNone of the Above: Behind the Myth of Scholastic Aptitude by David Owen, Boston:nHoughton Mifflin; $16.95. A leftist attack on the ehtism of the Educational Testing Service.nOwen does a splendid job of uncovering the bias and stupidity of the testing bureaucracynwhich has boiled down all the world’s learning to a choice of A, B, C, or D—a welcomencontribution to the current debate.nLast Chance for OUT Children: How You Can Help Save Our Schools by Bill Honig,nReading, MA: Addison-Wesley; $12.95. A practical nuts-and-bolts approach to educationalnreform by the California Superintendent of public education. While Honig has written anneminently useful guide for parents, he gives little evidence of original thought or of a positivenvision of how eduction should function. The low style and level of discourse throughout arenhighly unsuitable in an author professing an attachment to excellence in education.nnnrevelation of the impossible unionn—that essential paradox.nTurner’s sense of an incomprehensiblenGod and of the hopeless fallibilitynof human effort to know Him threatensnto jeopardize his otherwise soundnstudy. An essential part of God’s transcendentnmystery is that He did revealnHimself in time in the person of thenSon who is like us in all things but sin.nAs a result of His coming, we have notnbeen left orphans. The conclusion thatncan be drawn from the rest of hisnstudy, however, is of great value. ThenProtestant aggiornamento, which isnstill going on particularly in mainstreamnProtestantism, is presented lucidly.nTurner’s final words are cautionary;nin 1986 they can be read asnapplying equally to the Gatholicnaggiornamento: “Yet perhaps after all,nthere is really one lesson here. Thenuniverse is not tailored to our measurements.nForgetting that, many believersnlost their God. So may we allnrun into trouble.”nHabits of the Heart is also concernednwith individualism, and onenwishes that it had been a better book.nWritten in jejune prose, it hardlynseems to know that it is asking the rightnquestion: Given the cancerous effect ofnmodern American individualism, howncan we preserve or create a morallyncoherent life? It is difficult to imaginena group of writers less likely thannBellah & Associates to consider such anquestion. They think the answer is tonbe found in taking a survey. Fournresearch projects are the models withinnwhich the answer can be found. But ofncourse the answer is already in theirnheads. Some 200 persons were interviewed,nhalf of whom were Californians,nhalf of them being therapists or inntherapy, and the third quarter werenpolitical activists who come from thenleft side of the political spectrum. Inthought of the Kinsey Report. Anothernmethod was wanted, and I make boldnto recommend it to them. Study St.nAugustine. I think he offers what Bellahn& Associates were looking for.n”‘Bad times, troublesome time,’ thusnmen are saying. Let our lives be goodnand our times will be good. We makenour times what we are.” On secondnthought, I wonder if Bellah & Associatesnwould be willing to embrace thenbase on which St. Augustine stood andnwhich was the source of his wisdom.n