Social Work in the Churches: A Study in the Practice of Fellowship (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Holt, Arthur E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1331779898 ISBN 13: 9781331779896

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2019

Synopsis

Excerpt from Social Work in the Churches: A Study in the Practice of Fellowship The social judgments of men are built up out of experience gained in search for the goods of life. Some men love to whip a mountain stream with a trout line and they never see the clear waters of a rushing brook break around the large boulders and then come together at the lower edge of the pool, that they do not experience the peculiar thrill of fishermen who know where the trout generally strike. It is an instinctive attitude in which reason plays a smaller part than countless pleasurable experiences in the past. They see the stream in terms of trout pools. Other men have for fifty years been perfecting an irrigation system largely by the construction of storage reservoirs. As they see the mountain canon separate and then come together until the walls allow the river to pass through a narrow channel, they are certain to remark, "What a place for a storage reservoir!" "And," remarks the electrical engineer, "Along with your storage reservoir, we'll build a power-site." Both judgments are instinctive and root in the life experiences of the men. Some men see a factory and immediately begin to ask questions concerning profits. They are investors of capital. Other men see the same factory and begin to inquire about hours and wages. They are men with labor to invest. Now these instinctive judgments which root in the practical interests of men are the vital realities of the moral and social world with which the seekers of the "good life" must deal. When these judgments are partial or warped, men act badly; when they are adequate, men build civilization. It is with organized mental attitudes such as these that the church in its social work must deal. As the Apostle Paul said, "For ours is not a conflict with mere flesh and blood but with the despotisms, the empires and the forces that control and govern this dark world - the spiritual host of evil arrayed against us in the heavenly warfare." A

About this edition

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1331779898
• ISBN 13: 9781331779896
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 146