THOUGH THE TITLE of this paper suggests novelty, I am well aware how little in it is genuinely new. While I would not go so far as Koheleth in declaring that there is nothing new under sun, I am conscious that in points I wish to make I only tell you that which you yourselves do know. You will be justified in asking, then, why bother to rehearse ideas when they but echo yours. For this reason: I believe, to quote John Dewey, that the new vision does not arise out of nothing but emerges through seeing in terms of possibilities, that is of imagination, old things in new serving a new end, which new end aids in creating. HQe points by way of illustration to appearance of locomotive and telegraph. These did not exist before time of Stevenson and Morse. But conditions for their existence were there both in physical material and energies and in human capacity. Imagination seized hold upon idea of a rearrangement of existing things that would evolve new objects. The same thing is true of a painter, a musician, a poet, a philanthropist, a moral prophet. With this concept of newness, then, I propose to discuss certain existing conditions in field of peculiar interest to us, namely, study and teaching of religion, so that imaginations, our seeing in terms of possibilities, old things in new relations, may be exercised, and a new vision emerge. I have summarized these existing conditions in two statements, rather like obverse and reverse of same phenomena. I. We observe conditions which reveal religious confusion :--perplexity, dissatisfaction, criticism, rejection, denial, open op position, irreligion, secularism, materialism, despair. II. We observe conditions which suggest religious awakening :--deep stirrings of new life, of ardent desire, of quest for presence of Divine Reality, for power in personal life of constructive cooperative effort, of experimentation with more simple patterns for genuine Christ-like living. Obviously, it will be impossible to discuss these conditions in toto. So I have selected two aspects which will make discussion concrete. Before naming them, however, I want to indicate a method of approach. Of course we can declare that conditions described in my first statement arise from general cussedness of human nature, and let it go at that, but I doubt whether anyone in this group would be content with so summary a dismissal of problem. I believe that we should rather approach dark elements in spirit of conviction that the sins of these others are my sins. This is Hocking's phrase, which he quotes in discussing Nichiren, Japanese prophet of a type of Buddhism based on Lotus Sutra. He [Nichiren] felt that public sufferings and his own confirmed his belief: people had sinned and he was responsible, for he had not convinced them! If nation