Ebook Church, State and Education

At the end of one of my latest books (principles of Social and Political Theory, published in 1951) I find myself still confronted by the same tension, and arguing in much the same sense as I had argued long ago in 1914. And therefore, on the whole, I see no real change in my views; I see only a different emphasis, varying from time to time, now on this and now on that side of the permanent tension between the authority of the State and the voluntary play of freely formed and freely acting groups or societies. It is impos sible not to experience and confess some change of mind and alteration of view with the change of circumstance and the alter ation of contingencies. But I do not think that this means any real or substantial change of View. The tension remains: the circum stances surrounding it change: the barometer of the re?ective mind just registers the consequential change in the character and balance of the tension which must always continue to exist.