The Priesthood of All Believers

Abstract

"The Priesthood of all Believers." It seems an innocuous enough phrase today a piece of theological tradition worn smooth with the years, and able to be taken for granted. But history shows that this phrase conceals explosive forces, and that it has been capable in times past of kindling the passions of men in an extraordinary degree, and of inspiring them with a courage and devotion of the rarest kind. The phrase is in fact more like a battle cry than a dogma, and if we do not feel its power today as our fathers did, that is partly because conditions have changed. The actual principles involved are as vital as ever, and it may be that, with a change of social climate, we shall once more realise in a new way their great power."