A Religious Solution to the Social Problem

by Howard H. Brinton

Overview

As for the social problem for which we seek a solution, it is the fundamental dilemma out of which most present-day social problems arise. Stated as briefly as possible, we seek a remedy for excessive individualism, and we require of this remedy that it shall at the same time respect the hard-won rights of the individual.

The paradoxical character of this statement suggests that, if there be a solution, it may turn out to be a religious one, for religion feeds on paradox. No merely logical scheme, based wholly on science and reason, will, it is probable, do more than submerge the individual through some sort of mechanical collectivism. Religion at its highest and most creative stage is, we shall find, the one solvent for excessive individualism which at the same time enhances the respect for individual personality.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940149179381
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	30
File size:	65 KB

About the Author

Howard Brinton taught at half a dozen institutions, including such Quaker centers as Haverford, Guilford, Earlham and Woodbrooke. The last of these four provided a model for Pendle Hill. He also worked overseas in Japan and Europe for the American Friends Service Committee. Between 1936 and 1950, he served as director of Pendle Hill, sharing that job with his wife, Anna Brinton.

The Brintons first came to Pendle Hill in 1936, where they faced the contingencies of a pioneer school community. All sorts of odd jobs, which a maintenance crew might later handle, fell to the Director of Studies. Howard Brinton was frequently seen traipsing across campus on his way to negotiate the latest crisis, pursued by his rabbit Tibbar and the family dog Nuto. Gerald Heard, then a member of the Pendle Hill staff, watched this peaceable kingdom o n the march with delight and saw in it a practical illustration of the philosophy of survival by reconciliation.

In addition to writing more than a dozen Pendle Hill pamphlets, Howard Brinton wrote Friends for Three Hundred Years, a classic work of Quaker faith and history. Howard Brinton died in 1973.