Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/723

 REVIEWS 709

Jesus Christ and the Social Question. By FRANCIS GREENWOOD PEABODY, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in Harvard University. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1900. Pp. 374-

THE writer approaches the problems of modern society from the side of the ethical teaching of Jesus, who is treated here as a vast per- sonal force. Without apology or controversy this social fact is recog- nized, and its value estimated in a careful and scientific spirit. The questions of technical program and outward organization are regarded as of temporary and secondary importance. Moral energy is tieated as central and creative. In the teaching of Jesus this moral power finds three modes of expression : the view of life from above ; the approach to life from within ; and the direction of life to a spiritual ideal. The relation of Jesus himself to the social question is formu- lated in the sentence : his " teaching is, for those who can receive it, the chief source of this spiritual power, for whose transmission the social order is prepared."

The moral forces are found at work regulating and inspiring all social conduct, in the family, in the gaining and using of material wealth, in the care of the poor, in the treatment of wage-earners by employers and by the community, and in the cooperation of all united efforts to promote the welfare of humanity.

The author's wide study of the German Protestant social discussion has yielded rich returns, and many of the most important writers are introduced in a very helpful way. Anyone who wishes to travel over that road will find in this book an instructive and suggestive guide.

It is a pleasure to read the lucid, calm, and strong prose which the accomplished author makes the medium of his lofty message.

C. R. HENDERSON.

The Origins of Art: A Psychological and Social Inquiry. By YRJO HIRN. New York : The Macmillan Co., 1900. Pp. xi + 326. $3-25.

MR. HIRN is a colleague of Westermarck, in the University of Fin- land, and his book, like Westermarck's History of Human Marriage, is a very fascinating inquiry into a sociological question from the genetic standpoint ; and the polyglot powers of these two scholars lend them- selves equally to the treatment of subjects demanding reference to writers in many tongues.