The Christian ethic as an economic factor : the social service lecture, 1926 / by Sir Josiah Stamp.

  • Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp
Date:
[1926]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Christian ethic as an economic factor : the social service lecture, 1926 / by Sir Josiah Stamp. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    misdirecting their efforts, or working energetically to useless purposes when so much awaits them which would amply repay their thought in practical achievement. The injunction on all hands that Christian principles must be made to prevail in industrial and social life seems to me to raise certain presumptions without duly weighing them ; and the numerous speeches, conferences, and handbooks on the subject make certain assumptions without testing them. The common haste to get to the ‘ heart * of a subject in its practical aspects creates a tendency to ignore certain funda¬ mental considerations. I make no apology, therefore, for much abstract generalization, using the so-called practical applications on this occasion as illustrations and indications of my ideas. 2. What are we to Understand by the Christian Ethic ? We should understand, for this purpose, as the Christian ethic, something more than a body of doctrine or teaching, a set of principles or rules on spiritual and yet logical lines, and our discussion must go beyond the question whether these principles are ' consistent ' with some form of modern social and industrial life. The Christian ethic is also a dynamic, modifying the spirit and will of man, touching his power to do, as well as his knowledge of what should be done. It covers not only the scope of Christian ideas as ideas worthy of pursuit if human nature could only be raised to the required standard of effort. It also touches the pos¬ sibility itself. Indeed, it goes much further than that. Suppose that the concrete body of ethical precept given by Christ, as a collection of illustrations of practical conduct, were found upon examination to be limited in strict applica¬ tion to the period and place when and where they were given, so that they were literally impracticable in a modern world where many new factors are present and many old