RELIGIOUS REVIVAL IS IMMINENT SAYS FOSDICK

"A renaissance of religion is taking place," declared the Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick D.D. yesterday afternoon at a joint meeting of the Graduate Schools Society and the Business School Club in the Living Room of the Union.

He continued, "The tremendous popularity of such teachers as Coue outside the church, and the great growth of Protestantism in the last few years have proved the existence of a religious revival beyond a shadow of a doubt. Irreligion had its greatest chance in the last generation, when far-reaching social, educational, and economic changes dealt a heavy blow to the old religious dogmas. Yet, in spite of these events that many people thought would be fatal to religion, it has gained a firmer held than ever before."

In analyzing this new movement toward faith, this era of spiritual restlessness, Dr. Fosdick brought out several factors that he considered to be the fundamental sources of modern religion. He showed that an intellectual revolt from the hard, materialistic view of the world was becoming more and more in evidence.

However, Dr. Fosdick stated that he was not predicting a return to dogma, but rather a growing mistrust in the intellect as the sole guide of life without reference to the spiritual side of man.

A second tendency that is acting to bring back religion, he declared, was the profound disillusionment about man's superficial progress. "May it not be," he asked, "that the progress of man depends not upon the abundance of his material possessions?"

Dr. Fosdick mentioned the pitiful role our much-vaunted civilization has played in Christianizing the Far East. "We did not really recognize Japan as an equal," he said, "until she had slain her thousands in the Russo-Japanese War." Bringing matters a little nearer home, he mentioned the fact that Channing Pollock, writer of "The Fool" had declared that it took him three years to get the play accepted because the producers did not believe that the "public cared for that sort of thing."

"Other factors in the renaissance of faith," Dr. Fosdick declared in conclusion, "are the popular apprehension at the modern break-up of homes, and the realization of man's need for spiritual protection."