The renewed emphasis on the doctrine of apostolic succession which was the outcome of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England is an example of the power inherent in dogmas to recover their vitality. This is no isolated phenomenon confined exclusively to the dogmas of the Christian faith; in our own times we have witnessed the far-reaching results of the revival of the Marxian dogma of dialectical materialism in the sphere of international politics. That bishops are the successors of the Apostles was a belief held without question by the majority of Anglican Churchmen at the dawn of the nineteenth century, but it cannot be contended that they were fully alive to its implications. The awakening came through the publication of the Tracts for the Times. The challenge was sounded with unambiguous clarity in the very first of them to issue from the press. ‘Now then, ’ wrote John Henry Newman, ‘let me come at once to the subject which leads me to address you. Should the Government and the country so far forget their God as to cast off the Church, to deprive it of its temporal honours and substance, on what will you rest the claim of respect and attention which you make upon your flocks? Hitherto you have been upheld by your birth, your education, your wealth, your connexions; should these secular advantages cease, on what must Christ's ministers depend?… I fear we have neglected the real ground on which our authority is built: our Apostolic Descent.

In the belief that the Church of Christ is ‘one, holy, catholic, and apostolic’, and with the prayer that God may bless the Ecumenical Movement and all who strive for the unity—not uniformity—of the Churches, this examination of the Anglican ‘Ordinal’, in so far as it throws light upon the relationship of presbyterate and episcopate, is undertaken.

While the antithesis between theology and philosophy has never perhaps been as sharply pointed as it is today, in one direction at least it may be considered that research in both disciplines is running along parallel lines. In the study of time there is a common ground of interest. This is observable in such essays as The Fulness of Time, In the end God, Christus und die Zeit and in the current interest in eschatology. In philosophy, particularly in twentieth century France from Bergson to Berdyaev, there is a growing ‘respect’ for time—and an increasing awareness of its moral significance. In the belief that this subject affords a common vocabulary we make the following suggestion as a new topic in apologetic conversation. We shall first describe the new conception of time which is emerging, then note its relevance to one aspect of theology, the Fall, and finally suggest the apologetic significance.

It is by no means an easy matter to trace the precise origins of the rite of Christian Baptism, both because there is a vast amount of material relevant to it, and because the New Testament does not seem to offer any one clear line for consideration. It takes all this for granted and speaks of Baptism quite naturally and without any difficulty of communication, and without any need for explanation. The derivation of the rite and the actions involved are everywhere presumed as familiar. That makes it all the more difficult for us, for we have to examine minutely the many allusions, hints and images employed in the New Testament writings, and in particular the references and citations (often very incomplete) from the Old Testament, in order to place ourselves as completely as possible in the position of the New Testament writers, and then from their Sitz im Denken as well as Sitz im Leben, seek to unravel their presuppositions and interpret their meaning.

Is there a conflict between the principles of pastoral counselling and traditional Christian theology?

In discussing this question, I shall consider Carroll A. Wise' Pastoral Counselling as a representative statement of counselling principles. What I mean by ‘traditional’ theology will, I hope, become reasonably clear in the course of the essay.

It seems worth considering whether in the Emmaus story we have the missing account of Jesus' special Appearance to Simon Peter, which Mark foreshadows before his Gospel breaks off and which Paul recalled in the earliest list of Resurrection Appearances of all (‘He was seen of Cephas’).