The Future of Europe, 1944–45

Abstract

At the same time as being drawn towards building-up the British alliance with the United States, the Churches’ Peace Aims Group correspondingly shifted its attention away from the rest of Europe. A powerful array of factors relating to national identity, confessional background, ecumenical and personal relationships and the ruling conventions of Church-State relations contributed to a predisposition to look beyond Europe in imagining the future. This potential was catalysed by a determination to avoid ‘utopianism’ at almost any cost which was prompted by the failure of the League of Nations, and the often uncritical support which the Churches had accorded it. However, without William Paton, these general propensities might have remained unexpressed or, even if articulated, have drifted impotently heavenward. Paton gave these ideas their legs: Through his energy, tenacity and facility; through the network of relationships spanning the Atlantic and linking Church and State which he fostered and tirelessly maintained.