The first part of this article, in the October Blackfriars, was designed to show that, in the Catholic view, Scripture is constitutive of the content of revelation; it embodies the Word of God in inspired writing, while Tradition is regulative of that content; for it interprets the sense of Scripture, and defines that sense by Apostolic authority to be what God’s word to men is and means. This authority, which is exercised both in the Church’s ordinary and in its supreme magisterium, is not the sole regulative element in Tradition, though it is the finally decisive one. The true direction of the developing mind of the Church is continuously maintained, though in a relative and less final sense, by a twofold operation, the lex orandi and the work of the schola theologorum. The former (through liturgy and devotion) draws out the implications of dogma in terms of living, and thus clarifies to the worshipper the full meaning and inter-connection of the truths of Faith. The latter, by the science of theology, brings rational analysis to the elucidation of revealed truth, making use of the researches of various branches of scholarship; philosophical, exegetical, historical and scientific. The function of sound learning therefore is to provide the checks by which human reason, under the guidance of Tradition, assesses new developments in the light of their coherence with the constant teaching of the Church and their consonance with the biblical data, in which the substance of the depositum fidei is embodied.

Happy is the minority that has no history. The Jews of Britain, Dr Neustatter shows in this book, are impossible to count with any accuracy. They carry no identity cards, fill no special column of the census, have no special status defined by law. Once, at the beginning of their community in the seventeenth century, they would have wished for such a status. Luckily for themselves, they were never given it. They have had to contend, says Dr Parkes, with conservatism rather than official hostility or formal anti-semitism. They have increased, flourished, and absorbed what has sometimes been a trickle and sometimes a flood of new immigrants. There were 350 Jews in Britain in 1690, 35,000 in 1850, 350,000 in the late ‘thirties, 450,000 in 1950. One European Jew in 27 was British in the ‘thirties, one in six, after the Hitlerite massacres, in 1951.

Naturally, there have been times of difficulty. The great flight from Russia from the 1880’s to the first World War, which filled up trades like tailoring and the classic Jewish quarters of the East End, threatened to associate Jewry in the public mind with sweating, overcrowding, and undesirable aliens. But the crisis was handled skilfully and passed, thanks partly to the good sense and qualities of the immigrants themselves and partly to the cohesion, good management, and readiness to pay of the Jewish community previously established. The Jewish immigration as a whole has brought great economic benefits to Britain. Perhaps I see these through too rosy spectacles, for who is a Montague Burton Professor to bite the Chair he sits on? But look at commerce alone, think of a few of the Jewish names which have become household words, and it is obvious what the gain has been. Montague Burton is one: Marks and Spencer another: Lyons a third. These are the giants.

During the first three months of 1955 imports exceeded exports by an average of £77 millions. In March the Trade gap was £92 millions. There was a slight improvement in April and May; but in June exports were £128 millions less than imports and in July they were still £107 millions short. And exports in June were £90 millions less than they were in June 1954.

Gold and dollar reserves at the end of July were £48 millions lower than they had been at the end of June. At the end of August they were a further £31 millions lower still. The country’s balance of payments situation was clearly deteriorating in the summer sunshine of 1955. And although Mr Butler said that there was no crisis in a speech at the end of July, a month later Sir Anthony Eden warned the country that the balance of payments situation was getting worse and that rising prices were tending to lead to loss of export markets. He declared that the Government were determined to enforce all necessary measures to ensure the health and stability of the economy.

The balance of payments difficulties with which the country was faced in 1949 were to some extent due to the recession in America in the summer of that year and to excessive dollar spending by Australia. The crisis of 1951 was mainly due to the 16 per cent increase in import prices in that year. But today there is no recession in America: there is a boom.

In Christ all things are reconciled to the Father for he makes peace ‘through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven’ (Col. I, 20). As the second Adam he brings to mankind the forgiveness of God. The work of redemption is accomplished in that the redemptive deed has taken place. In order that the deed may be brought to bear on human beings who live a time-conditioned existence the saving rule of God, established in Christ, is given a temporal character. So that human souls may become ‘holy’ Christ is constituted as the ‘head of the body the church’, for God ‘hath subjected all things under his feet and hath made him head over all the church, which is his body, and the fulness of him who is filled all in all’ (Ephesians I, 22-23). Christ is thus present to men in and by the Church.

The Church is the assembly of those, who believing by faith in Christ, live under the rule of Christ. Christ is ‘in’ the Church in that the Church teaches in obedience to his command. Christ, the head of the body, rules as King and the directive work of the Church, her leadership of man towards God, is a sharing, in the Spirit, of Christ’s supreme governance. Her voice as she represents in each age the teaching of Christ, is the voice of Christ speaking to man. The Church does not only bring teaching and direction, she also brings life to the soul.