wi ARK NOT DIVIDKO CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE INTRODUCTION ix I. FORERUNNERS AND ORIGINS i II. THE COUNCIL is BORN 34 III. YEARS OF GROWTH 54 IV. WINDS OF DOCTRINE 78 V. CRUSADE FOR BROTHERHOOD 99 VI. IN SEARCH OF PEACE 163 VII. TOWARD A WORLD CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY 223 VIII. THE COUNCIL AS TEACHER 271 IX. CONCLUSIONS 297 BIBLIOGRAPHY 317 NOTES 327 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I WISH TO ACKNOWLEDGE the permission granted by the following publishers to quote from the publications listed, on which they hold the copyright Abingdon Press, Unittve Protestantism, Church and Society E. P. Dutton Company, Christian Unity Henry Holt Company, Communal Pietism Among Early Amer ican Moravians, Harper and Brothers, The Social Gospel Re examined Huebsch, The Conscientious Objector in America the Macmillan Company, Christian Unity in Practice and Prophecy, The Christian Crusade for a Warless World, Across the Years, The Second Conference on Faith and Order, the Oxford Press, The Stockholm Conference on Life and Wor Fleming Revell Company, The Peace Problem, the Fight for Peace, Christian Service in the Modern World, The Church and the Great War, President Wilson and the Moral Aims of the War, Steps Toward the World Council Round Table Press, Preachers Present Arms Charles Scnbners Sons, The Church Through Half a Century, Church and State in Contemporary America Willet Clark, Oxford Conference Official Report Federal Council of Churches, Annual, Biennial, and Quadrennial Reports, pam phlets, books, etc., published by the Council. INTRODUCTION Ar THE outset I wish to say a few words about the nature and the limitations of this discussion of t the Federal Coun cil. My primary concern has not been the actual work or pro gramo the organization but rather the ideas which have been expressed in and through it. In order to deal adequately with die work, the results, and significance of an organization such as the Council it would be necessary to have a longer and more intimate acquaintance with it than has been my privilege. Thus I have consciously limited myself to a discussion and analysis of the ideas which have found expression in and through the Council, as those ideas have been recorded in the extensive and various literature of the Council. In this connection I wish to point out die difficult problem of discerning what documents arc truly representative of the Councils thought and which are not. The Council, as the following study seeks to point out, is not a closely integrated organization which maintains close control over the utterances of its members and personnel. Rather it may perhaps be described as a kind of orbit within which move many different and sometimes conflicting ideas. To separate those which may in some sense be said to be representative of the Councils membership or of its leadership from those which are the product of a vocal minority is a difficult task. The line of separation by no means always follows the distinction between those statements labelled by the Executive Committee as official, and those published unofficially. In the present study no general rule has been followed. I have tried rather to consider each state ment or idea on its own merit, and in the light of as many fac tors as possible, often consulting with the individuals and groups rcsjxmsiblc for it. ix x INTRODUCTION Whatever the limitations of a study devoted principally to the literature of the Council, itdoes point to an important fact about the organization. As an organization whose basic purpose is educational, its most important activities are the ideas which it expresses. The most important single aspect of what it does is what it says. The ideas which it has expressed have given mean ing and guidance to its program of activities. To be sure, there are important exceptions to this rule. Significant activities of the staff have often never been embodied in the Councils pronounce ments...