Van Buren Paul Matthews. The secular meaning of the gospel, based on an analysis of its language

New York: The MacMillan Company, 1963. — 205 p.What is the Gospel? What is secularism? An author who sets out to find the secular meaning of the Gospel might be expected to have these polar terms clearly in hand. We con fess at once that we do not. We can suggest certain features that have been central in some interpretations of the Gospel, and we can suggest other features which seem to characterize secularism. Since we have no Archimedean point from which to make any final decisions about either question, we must accept the fact that we speak from within a period in which there is considerable confusion about the nature of both Christianity and secularism.
Taking secularism as a loose designation of the reaction to the Idealism of the last century, we may say that both modem so-called biblical theology and modern so-called analytic phi losophy are responses to secularism. The strictly non- Archimedean point from which this book is written is that of one who detects and affirms something in common in each of these modern movements in theology and philosophy and also in himself. Call this common feature certain empirical attitudes. Call it a deep interest in questions of human life this side of the “beyond,” and a corresponding lack of interest in what were once felt to be great metaphysical questions. Call it secularism. The question to which this book is addressed is a frankly autobiographical one and will have wider interest to the extent that others stand at or near the place from which it is asked. The question is: How may a Christian who is himself a secular man understand the Gospel in a secular way? In the exploration of this question, it is hoped that the meaning both of the Gospel and of secularism will become clearer, and that for some at least this clarity may help them to see more clearly the point at which they stand, regardless of its name.