Article April 30, 1960 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from D. Elton Trueblood, Virginia Matthews Wilson, W. H. Bourne

The Reverend D. Elton Trueblood, S.T.D. in the Christian Herald New York, New York

It is often true that the most significant movements, particularly movements in depth, never reach the newspaper headlines. This is conspicuously true of the religious vitality of our time, of which much has been written and spoken. It is easy to make an impression by reference to big attendance at public worship or by statistics of membership, but these may, in the long run, be superficial. The deeper evidences are seldom obvious, but they are the ones we need to know.

The most significant of these evidences is the remarkable change that has occurred in the expectations as well as the practices of those whom, in the past, we have called laymen. ... We have long known the phrase, "The priesthood of every believer." The exciting feature of our time is that this has, for thousands, ceased to be a mere catchword or slogan and has become a practical reality in everyday life.

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