Whenever a child cries in its cradle, the heavenly bodies vibrate; by mercifully entering the world, Christ has consecrated it these two sentences, quoted by Prof Schillebeeckx from an unnamed atomic scientist and from the Dominican liturgy respectively, indicate the two convictions which unify the articles collected in World and Church. The author argues persuasively that the Christian world-view is a necessary implication of humanist faith about the world and about society, and that the process of secularisation, so far from being a threat, is sanctifying, stemming from the transcendent community with God in Christ.