Sydney's theology of hope #2

When researching my church history essay I came across SJ Kirkby, Bishop Coadjutor of Diocese of Sydney in the 1930s. Check this bit out from his Presidential address to the Synod of 1933:

For what are the motivating impulses to war? Are they not desire for world rule and possession, arrogant pride in merely national culture, the temptation open always to the strong to exploit the week, fierce racial jealousies too often the outcome of pure misunderstanding? We not only deny the morality of all these motives, but we would supplant them with something finer and greater. We present unto mankind that divine ideal which swallows up all world ideals, an ideal which is able to capture the imagination and thrill the hearts of man, an ideal which challenges and calls forth all that splendid sacrifice too often wasted in war, the ideal of tremendous freedom giving, peace-ensuing truth of St. Paul: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, but ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Note when this was delivered. In 1933 Hitler was stirring in Germany, and there was a growing fascist movement here in Australia. And here is one of Sydney's senior clergy taking these issues on and providing a clear call to a theological alternative. Not only would this have challenged society's policy makers, but also all those in the pews who were playing with the idea of falling in with either the communists or fascists as a way of dealing with the hopelessness of the Depression. As an alternative Kirkby posits the hope of a humanity reconstituted in Christ. Nice!