PREFACE

THE bearing of Christian teaching on the life of the community is a matter of great interest from many points of view. In lectures at the London School of Economics in 1913 I endeavoured to deal with the relations of Christianity and Economic Science, reserving for the time the practical questions as to political duty: this was the subject of the course of Lowell Lectures which I had the honour of delivering in the autumn of 1914. There has been the greatest difference of opinion between different bodies of Christians as to the mode of bringing Christianity to bear on political life, and the differences are so fundamental that it is worth while to examine them in turn, and see how far each opinion has justified itself as a matter of practical experience. The more we are aware of the danger of giving exaggerated importance to any half truth, the better prospect there will be of finding common ground, on which all can work together without any sacrifice of principle. The Lowell Lectures, as originally written, were chiefly concerned with the internal government of a community; but the war has given importance to all questions of international