GENERAL PRINCIPLES 5 



such groups of churches, in truly ecu- 

 menical conferences, as at Cologne, Bonn, 

 and Griinwald, have been approaching the 

 problem of unity from the most diverse 

 positions. Meanwhile, too, the great 

 Christian heart of the age has been pray- 

 ing and hoping, as never before, that 

 Christ's own prayer for oneness might be 

 fulfilled. 



EXPLANATIONS OF THE MOVEMENT 



A movement so universal and deep- 

 seated as this cannot be regarded as any 

 mere accidental outburst or religious fash- 

 ion of the time. The student of church 

 history sees in it only an age-spirit which 

 has been born of the ages. It appears to 

 him in this light from various points of 

 view. According to one view, ingenious 

 but fanciful, the trend toward unity is but 

 the issue of great Christian tendencies 

 which from the first were typified by the 

 three chief apostles as their representa- 

 tives. The legal spirit of Peter and the 

 evangelical spirit of Paul are to be har- 

 monized by the loving spirit of John. As 

 in the early Church the Petrine type of 

 Jewish Christianity was opposed by the 



