God in the New World
by Lloyd Geering

Foreword by the Very Rev. J.M. Bates

Has the Christian Church anything relevant to say to modern man in a secular age.?

It has. But before its message can be clearly perceived there are some mists of ignorance and misunderstanding to be blown away. The object of this book is to contribute to this process. In particular there are two points on which the Church today must be ready to speak plainly. One concerns the Bible; the other the relation of the Christian faith to the secular scientific outlook.

Far too few Christians understand the real nature of the Bible, yet some knowledge of how it came to be the book we now have in our hands is a necessity for the whole Church in this modern age. For the most part, at the present time the pulpit and the pew are not on the same wavelength in this matter, and it is high time they were.

Then, too, we have to face the question whether there can be any point of contact between the Christian view of things, and the way educated men look at the world and its history today. This book maintains that there can be, and that the message and meaning of Christ crucified applies to human beings, as such, whatever their circumstances. The secularity of the modern world has not made Christ irrelevant; on the contrary it has made his relevance more evident.

This is a book for thinking people to read and talk about.

-- J. M. Bates, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand