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The author is Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics at the University of Chicago. In this volume he has summed up fairly well a
goodly number of the problems of modern man. He is well informed and although a little pedagogic, he is sincere and generally forthright. There is a tendency to dismiss science in certain important matters where science merely would say there is a lack of knowledge. The whole discussion is quite modern and shot through with facts and hypotheses culled from many fields. The tone is neither mystic nor righteous and has the friendliness and seeking that one finds in many clergymen today; perhaps an element of what the author refers to as first century fellowship. This is partly stultified by the clinging to words built up centuries before and after by the churches and which words have had the meaning well nigh pounded out of them. The durability of words sometimes is amazing. On the other hand great religious leaders have been notorious for being miscreant with the word. It is hopeful to see the newer tendency in such writings, for in reading Aubrey one almost has the feeling that the cliche facade of words could be plucked off like ornaments from a cake without at all damaging the true value. Aubrey breaks through cant and seems something of a Paulist.
To all those who prate of freedom he gives the challenging question, “But would we dare to stand in such freedom, supported and guarded no longer by our class, our own kind, and therefore forced to stand on our own individual merit ?” It does seem that preciously few give any semblance in their lipped protests that they remotely could stand alone. In the chapter on “The Search for Freedom,” the author without knowing it has given an excellent description of modern mass hysteria. The crucial problem also is neatly presented, “How to be socialized yet not to be a victim to the group—this is the individual's dilemma.” Very few even see the dilemma. In the conclusion the author presents a the