The State and the Church in a Free Society

Published in 1958 this book examines the role between the Church and the State at that time. Dr Murray sees the 'Church' as more than a particular religious establishment: it is an ideal community, a standard by which the individual church is judged. Similarly the State is more than a particular government: it is the whole organization of secular affairs, which now affects every part of the ordinary man's life. The relationship between the two institutions is thus involved in everything we do and are. What then ought to be the part played by the Church in the modern civilized world? What ideal or standard of behaviour does the Church, so considered, enjoin on the worker, the educator, the statesman, the citizen generally? How does the Christian envisage the secular political aims of liberty, equality and fraternity, the universal social problems of contract, status and mutual responsibility? What is the desirable model of a Christian community?