of the member churches as appropriate to the present period ; and the hope as we approach the Evanston Assembly is that that Assembly may feel justified in voting a general budget which will permit the fulfilment of the programme of work which is to be submitted by the Central Committee, and that the member churches may find it possible to provide the necessary increase in revenue.

FRANK NORTHAM.

A HISTORY OF THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT, 1517-1948

The preparation of the History has been so important a part of ecumenical activity, and in particular of the preparations for Evanston, that readers of The Ecumenical Review have been kept in touch from time to time with its progress. Miss Rouse’s article in this number gives an account of the process (and the trials) of history writing. In the next number will appear a full review, of the length of an article, from the pen of Professor Roland H. Bainton of New Haven, well qualified for this work by his objective detachment as a scientific church historian. Now that the History is on the point of appearing from the Press, readers may be interested to know roughly what they will find between the covers of this, the first attempt at a full-scale account of the unitive efforts of the Christian Churches.

In the Introduction, Bishop Neil1 surveys very briefly unitive efforts before the Reformation, and indicates a field concerning which, on the basis of extensive researches yet to be made, a further volume of ecumenical history ought one day to be written.

Taking up the story in the period of the Reformation, Professor McNeill shows the unfailing concern for unity in all the Christian confessions through- out that time of many divisions. In Chapter 11, Professor Martin Schmidt of Berlin deals with ecumenical effort and witness on the continent of Europe till the end of the 18th century ; the material is so rich, and the ecumenical efforts and view-points so many, that the reader who is not already familiar with the background of the history may find this chapter a little confusing. Professor Norman Sykes of Cambridge, dealing with the same period in England, largely on the basis of his own independent research, may succeed in making clear to continental readers, perhaps for the first time, that English Church history is after all an enthralling and rewarding study. Professor Florovsky’s material on the Orthodox (Chapter IV) was so extensive that it would easily have filled a large volume. Both author and editors, looking at the chapter as it appears in the History, cannot but feel a little like Aaron when he cast the gold of the Israelites into the water “and there came out this calf.”

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Some Europeans do not believe that there is any American Church history. On reading Dr. Don (not Donald) Yoder’s Chapter V, they will discover their mistake ; the continuity and variety of American unitive effort is most impressive. Fr. Brandreth (Chapter VI) and Miss Rouse (Chapter VII), on the 19th century in Europe, are dealing with rather more familiar material - the Evangelical Revival, the Oxford Movement, etc. ; but almost all readers will find much that is new to them, especially perhaps on the formation and ecumenical witness of the Evangelical Alliance of 1846. By this point, all roads are leading to Edinburgh, and the trumpets begin to sound for the inauguration of the contemporary ecumenical movement.

Taking his start from the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910, the great new starting-point, Professor Latourette surveys the development of Christian co-operation in the lands of the younger Churches. His material was so condensed that the Committee felt it wise to ask him to extend his section on China as a type and specimen of an astonishingly varied and fertile period of growth, and to reduce his sections on other countries to summaries. Happily, some of the material thus excluded can be found in Dr. Richey Hogg’s great book on the History of the International Missionary Council, Ecumenical Foundations. In Chapter IX, Canon Tatlow sketches the origin and growth of Faith and Order. His natural modesty has not been able to eliminate all references to “Mr. Tatlow”; but perhaps one defect of this chapter is that Canon Tatlow the writer of Church history does not quite do justice to Canon Tatlow the maker of Church history. (This chapter contains an awful warning ; nowhere in the world is there to be found a com- plete set of the Faith and Order official publications.) Bishop Neill, dealing in Chapter X with movements for Church union since 1910, decided to treat his material selectively, and to deal with only a small number of different types of Church union in varying ecclesiastical situations. This selective treatment is supplemented by a table of negotiations and unions, which sets forth in a few pages the results of more painstaking research than has gone into many a portly volume. Chapters XI and XI1 hang closely together, and appropriately are both by Swedish authors, Dean Nils Karlstrom and Dr. Nils Ehrenstrom ; appropriately, since the giant figure of Archbishop Soder- blom broods over the whole field of Life and Work and the World Alliance. Chapter XI leads up to the great Stockholm Conference of 1925. Chapter XII, starting from Stockholm as challenge, leads up to Oxford 1937 as response, and traces the growth of many creative ideas which are still at work within the World Council of Churches. In Chapter XI11 Miss Rouse (working in part on material supplied by Dr. H. Paul Douglass and Dr. Edwin Espy) has brought together such an immense mass of varied material that it was seriously suggested that this chapter should be called “Varieties of Ecumenical Experience.” Here attention is directed to many forms of unitive enterprise

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which do not contribute to the central stream represented by the World Council. In Chapters XIV and XI respectively, Dr. Nicolas Zernov and Canon Oliver Tomkins consider the contributions of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches in recent years, drawing together much that is elsewhere only to be found in scattered fragments. In Chapter XVI, Dr. Visser 't Hooft, the person in the world best qualified to do it, treats of the genesis of the World Council, bringing the History up to 1948. In a cautiously worded Epilogue, Bishop Neil1 sums up the lessons of four centuries and indicates some of the possibilities of the future.

It remains only to mention two gigantic works of compilation. The Bibliography, rigidly selective in character, lists about a thousand titles. The drawing up of this Bibliography has been a task of very great difficulty ; but it is hoped that, imperfect as it is (as a specimen of the misfortunes that have accompanied the History throughout its life, it may be mentioned that, incredible as it may seem, a number of sheets of the proofs of the Bibliography were lost between the printer's office in London and his works in Aylesbury), it may at least indicate to the student where he should go from here. A full Index, with a number of classified entries, should make it possible for the reader to find his way without difficulty and without delay to any subject in the History which specially interests him.

The Committee owes an immense debt of gratitude to the publishers, the S.P.C.K. of London, and the printers, Messrs. Hazel1 and Viney, for minutely accurate work at every stage. It is only through devoted co-operation on the part of authors, editors, committee, printers and publishers that it has been possible to offer this big book of over 800 pages to the reader at the price of 32s. 6d., so low a figure could be fixed only in the hope of rapid and extensive sales.

Copies of earlier issues of THE ECUMENICAL REVIEW Volume I No. 1 - 4 Volume I1 No. 1 - 4 Volume TI1 No. 1 - 4 Volume IV No. 1 - 4 Volume V No. 1 - 4

are still available. Vol. I. to IV can be supplied at reduced ,rates either in sets or as separate copies. Those who wish to complete their sets are requested to apply to: The Secretary or the Ecumenical Review The Ecumenical Review World Council of Churches World Council of Churches 17 Route de Malagnou 156 Fifth Avenue GENEVA (Switzerland) NEW YORK 10, N.Y. (U.S.A.)

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