A series of eight lectures by the Rev. V. A. Demant , Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford
Given before an audience in the Council Chamber, Broadcasting House. London 1
—The Great Reversal
In this opening lecture Canon Demant begins with a reference to the lectures given by R. H. Tawney in 1922 on Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. Those lectures were about the influence of religious ideas on economic change. Canon Demant goes on to define what arose as Capitalism and is now in decline. He shows how unusual a development it was, and analyses the implications of its decline. There is a religious significance in the end of the short life of Capitalism; the many strands usually included in this one system must be shown to be separate; its organisation, its culture, and its philosophy do not necessarily all decline together. Canon Demant gives some of the reasons for the decline, and raises the question whether the reversal is a return to a more natural condition or whether it is the end of the whole civilised career of man.
This lecture, to be repeated on May 2, will be printed in The Listener ' dated May 11. Next lecture: May 6