Part 12 (1/2)
3. Would it raise the economic efficiency of an African tribe to become Christians? Would it raise the efficiency of the Mexican people if they adopted a purer type of Christianity? How?
4. Where is the idler's place in the Kingdom of G.o.d?
IV. _The Reenforcement of Christianity by the Kingdom Ideal_
1. Is a call to be converted a call to enjoy spiritual peace or to exert spiritual energy?
2. How has the idea arisen that Christianity is a ”dope” to make people contented amid wrong conditions?
3. How would the Kingdom faith give religious quality to the plain man's job?
4. Other things being equal, has a religious man more or less fighting energy against wrong than a non-religious man?
5. If a man pa.s.ses from an individualistic to a social conception of religion, what change will it make in moral action?
6. To what extent is the enterprise of the Kingdom of G.o.d a dynamic expression of accepted sociological principles?
7. What is the special obligation of college men and women to the Kingdom of G.o.d?
V. _For Special Discussion_
1. Is the Kingdom of G.o.d to be brought about by an act of G.o.d in the future or by the work of men in the present? Does the one exclude the other?
2. Does our social order call out the full energy and intelligence of the working people?
3. Can an overworked and underpaid workman feel that _he is working_ for the Kingdom of G.o.d?
4. Does the Kingdom of G.o.d necessarily involve elements of social readjustment and change?
5. Would a predatory governing cla.s.s in the past have allowed the preaching of a social conception of the Kingdom of G.o.d?
Chapter VI. A New Age And New Standards
_As the Kingdom Comes Ethical Standards Must Advance_
Every approximation to the Reign of G.o.d in humanity demands an advance in the social relations of men, that is, an advance in ethics. Every really epochal advance must have it or slip back. There must be, first, better obedience to the moral principles already recognized and accepted by society; second, an expansion of the sway of ethical duty to new fields and wider groups of humanity; and third, a recognition of new duties and the a.s.similation of new and higher ethical conceptions.
To what extent did Jesus appreciate these supreme needs?
DAILY READINGS
First Day: Living up to the Old Standards