CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGY. VIII. 1
THE PROCESS OF SOCIAL REGENERATION.
THIS, then, is the core of the social doctrine of Jesus divine sonship and consequent human brotherliness. This it is that gives unity to his varied teachings, and, with all the moral force it involves, is that upon which he believed could be based the development of his kingdom. Nay, may we not say, the moral force generated by the revelation of this new divine and human relationship could be trusted itself to work out reforms ? If this were the position of Jesus it would in large measure explain how it came about that, except as already indicated, he gave so few detailed directions as to specific reforms. Was he indifferent to the process of regeneration ? Or did he in the case of both individual and society anticipate if not the details, at least the general character of those struggles and developments that have resulted from the workings of Christianity ? To put the question in another form. Has Christianity in its attempts to regenerate humanity followed the programme of Jesus or of some other man ?
I.
It is by no means impossible that one should have agreed with the presentation thus far made of the teaching of Jesus and yet hesitate to believe that the future of the kingdom as he conceived of it involved either universality or even appreciable progress. Even Wendt seems to commit Jesus to the belief that the new kingdom was to be hardly more than an extended Israel into which a few Gentiles might be admitted. 2 That an unknown, uninfluential Jew like Jesus should have had
'This paper concludes the present series.
- Teaching of Jesus, II, 350-51. See also his commentary on Acts (10 : 1 ; 15:1)
in the Meyer series.
416
