The Archbishops of Canterbury and York recently called the nation to a renewed sense of moral purpose. “We are drifting, anchorless, towards chaos,” said Dr. Cogan. “A materialistic answer is no answer at all.”
A brisk controversy at once broke out. Tens of thousands of letters, almost all favourable, poured into Lambeth, but organs of Left and Right attacked Dr. Coggan from different angles. Was he interfering in politics —or not being political enough? Enoch Powell thought him too far to the Left and Bishop Stockwood considered hm too far to the Right. The Times Religious Correspondent alleged that the bishops were split half and half, for and against. It formed the greatest debate of its kind since Dr. John Robinson published Honest to God and launched the New Morality.
Meanwhile, hundreds of discussion groups mushroomed all over the country to study the Archbishops’ two questions – “What sort of a society do you want?” and “What sort of people must we be to achieve it?”.
Garth Lean, whose books (with the late Sir Arnold Lunn) were the first to examine and challenge the theories of the New -Moralists, outlines the present controversy with the “logical astringency” and “considerable; debating skill” noted in those books. He also gives evidence of developments in family, industrial and public life in Britain and abroad which make one hope that the Call could be a turning point for Britain with repercussions far and wide. It is a guide through the millions of words already ' uttered in the debate and a useful text for discussion groups.
This pungent book probes a British situation, but it is a situation so similar to that in other countries that readers all over the world will be inspired by it, as they were by the author’s seven previous books.
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