FOUR LIBERAL GROUPS OF RELIGION DEFINED

"At the present time there are four well defined groups of religious thought to which the title 'Liberal' or 'Modern' is attached. The first I represent by the viewpoint of Harry Elmer Barnes, the second by that of John Haynes Holmes, the third by that of Walter Lippmann, Julian Huxley, and Bertrand Russell, and the fourth by the name of Harry Emerson Fosdick." T. L. Harris, adviser in Religion in the University, said last night at a Liberal Club gathering in Lowell House.

"Emotional liberalism, rising from the desire to shock people, is propagated by Mr. Barnes, a well-known writer on controversial social topics. This is not real liberalism, I believe, but a reaction from the established routine of things. People in this class I would classify as conventionally unconventional.

"The members of the next group, which I consider to be typified by Mr. Holmes, hold that every new opinion which turns up should be seen from a conservative view, in order to make that opinion more rational and correct," Dr. Harris continued. These people have broken with traditional forms of religion, but regard religious ideas with a fitting ethical seriousness. They have no clear grasp of the difference which exist between intelligent men of different religious beliefs, according to the lecturer.

"Every man who wants to be religious should read Lippmann's "Preface to Morals," Huxley's "Religion Without Revelation," and Russell's "What I Believe," Dr. Harris said. These writers have no naive belief in Science as the now Mesiah, but own a humanistic point of view in all matters. "I think that these authors have inclined to an over-analytic train of thought."

"Dr. Fosdick's followers are living on in sentimental tradition while their bases of thought have toppled," Dr. Harris said in sharply criticizing the enthusiastic idealism of this class.

The speaker, a graduate of the University of Cambridge, cited examples of liberalism in religious fields, as the fight against church control in politics, as seen in the regulation of the Church of England.

He also mentioned the fight against church control of thought, an example of which the speaker mentioned the founding of Yale.