Man of the Century

An outstanding career in U.S. Protestant journalism was drawing to a close. Dr. Charles Clayton Morrison, 72, editor of the Christian Century, decided that it was time to retire and turn the magazine over to his longtime managing editor, Dr. Paul Hutchinson. Last week, Dr. Hutchinson prepared to take over. Dr. Morrison will stay on the staff as contributing editor of the weekly magazine that he has made into Protestantism's most vigorous voice.

A slender, decorous man with old-world manners, Dr. Morrison wears gold-rimmed glasses that do not quite hide the fire in his eyes. Even in his youth, he never lacked for words. Like his father, he became a minister of the Disciples of Christ, a denomination originally formed by Presbyterians who wanted less sectarianism and more church unity. Once in his preaching career Dr. Morrison, in the pulpit of a church he was visiting, discovered a clock with a warning sign: "Preach not over 30 minutes." Dr. Morrison preached right on past the deadline.

In 1908, he went to the public auction of a struggling little Disciples of Christ publication (circ. about 600). No other prospective customers showed up, so Dr. Morrison got the Christian Century for $1,500 cash.

As he explains it now, Editor Morrison never really gave up his pulpit: "I was simply acquiring a larger pulpit." From the first, the distinguishing characteristic of the Century under Morrison was its intellectual vigor. It rose to its present circulation (40,000) in a time when Protestantism was so mired down in social reform that it tended to forget theology--a time when the intellectual world often looked on religion as a misty-minded form of escapism. In such an era, the Century dared to speak of Christianity as a way of life, and stuck to the truths of Christian gospel.

Beacon in a Fog. While most other Protestant publications were displaying their intellectual poverty either by clinging stubbornly to dogma or retreating headlong before the advance of secularism, the Christian Century remained stimulating and profound; it eventually became a beacon of level-headedness in a fog of misty thinking.

On strictly theological issues, such standards led the Century to oppose fundamentalism (when fundamentalism v. liberalism was a burning issue), to crusade for unity among Protestants (in 1917 it abandoned its affiliation with the Disciples of Christ and became frankly non-denominational), to take a position that was pro-ecumenical but anti-Roman Catholic.

But Dr. Morrison's belief that Christianity is responsible for the character of civilization also prompted him to apply Christian principles to the whole area of current events. The Century, at various times, campaigned for the League of Nations, for prohibition, for NRA, for the rights of labor. Sometimes it campaigned itself into positions that many readers thought untenable (e.g., attempting to be both crusading and pacifist in support of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, the Century naively hoped that a pact to "outlaw" war could, in fact, outlaw it). But the Century's alertness, firmly backed by the principles of evangelical Christianity, never degenerated into sterile intellectualism; and whatever side it took, the Century always came up with a challenging case.

The Integrated "We." For 39 years, Dr. Morrison's pulpit has kept growing: Century readership has increased steadily, almost from the time he took over. The paper is now owned by the "editorial family" (the names listed on the masthead), with Dr. Morrison as chief stockholder. Like very few butcher-paper weeklies, it pays its own way without patrons.

Behind the Century's editorial "we," consistent readers have come to recognize the Morrison touch: a subtle blend of scholarship, sweet reasonableness and hard-punching prose. But Dr. Morrison attributes the rise of the Century to no one man. Editorial conferences, he says, are always "a highly integrated collective mind" engaging in "an informal continuum of conversation."

New Editor Hutchinson, a Methodist with a D.D. from both DePauw and Garrett Biblical Institute, and a Century veteran for 23 years, has no intention of changing the weekly's vigorous liberalism, its anti-denominationalism, its habit of speaking its mind. His biggest policy change, he says, will be a greater attempt to appeal to the laity. About 25% of the Century's readers are laymen; Editor Hutchinson hopes to boost it to 50%. Says he: "I'd like to keep our theological editorials short and crisp. Now, Dr. Morrison's editorials on theology are certainly impressive, but a bit overpowering."

Searching and often inspiring--as well as overpowering--Dr. Morrison's editorials have been the chief factor in making the Christian Century one of the few publications in its time, lay or religious, which combine high intellectual standards, humanitarian crusading and a basically Christian orientation.

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