Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...is to be a readjustment which will in no measure injure our modern institutions, but which will give them their scientific place in the community structure and process. The institutions which first learn this truth will be the ones privileged to render the greatest service in the future, organized community. (3) The recognition of the social law of the division of labor. As life increases in complexity it becomes more social. That is to say, it creates more needs which can only be met by cooperation. Our primitive ancestors had fewer wants than we have. They also had fewer diseases. Their social organization was necessarily simple and institutionalism played a very small part in its processes. The first institutions were extensive rather than intensive in function. The evolution of institutional growth, in an increasingly complex society, is from general programs to specific programs. The Institutional Evolution Of The Church The early Christian Church was an institution with generalized functions. Among these functions were: (a) Expounding religious doctrine. (b) Religious and ethical education. (c) General education. (d) Economic control. (e) Philanthropy. In addition to these functions there have been, at various periods of the evolution of the Church, other offices which the Church discharged. It has at times been specifically political in a semi-functionary sense. In its more modern stages of evolution, some branches of the Church have assumed recreational and sociable functions, but these must be regarded as atavistic phenomena and not as a part of the more fundamental evolution. In an historical sense, the evolution of the Church has been from generalized function to specific function. This has been particularly true of the...
