Man in rapid social change
- New York Doubleday & Company 1961
- 240p.
We live in the midst of political and social upheavals, extending over the width and breadth of this world. There have been other times when, for parts of humanity, epochal changes occurred. But never have they, as in our age, affected mankind every where. Dramatic pointers in recent years have been the attack by the Chinese on age-old Tibetan beliefs and institutions, the death of one of the oldest nations and civilizations, and simul taneously, the birthpangs of a large number of new African nations.
We are all the people of the earth; we also are all the churches - and their membership. From its institution, the World Council of Churches has seen this avalanche of events, movements and inner revolutions as a challenge to its witness and service. After the second Assembly, at Evanston in 1954, it authorized a study on areas of rapid social change' and called it a study on our common responsibility. The study was designed to last three years, to be restricted to
eight countries and to deal mainly with four topics. The dyna
mics of our age, the rapidity of movement, has not allowed those who were in charge of the project to confine themselves to a neat piece of applied social science. The responsibilities of nen and women in the cross currents of hope and fear, of men progress and danger, had to lead to concerted action as well as disciplined thought.
At the end of three years, at an ecumenical conference at Saloniki, Greece, in 1959, we found ourselves in a process of joint study and action, a study not restricted in scope or field of activity, nor by any geographical limitation.
It had been decided that at the end of the three years, the results of the study were to be recorded in a publication. This is the nature of the present volume, to appear side by side with a volume on Christian action in rapid social change, by the Rev. Paul Abrecht, the untiring secretary of the programme.