Murry suggested that loss of faith had something to do with wider human understanding of the immensity of the universe. When Christianity was the central religion of Europe and the heart of civilisation for 1500 years “the universe was a small place, with the Earth set solidly at its centre. The Sun and the Moon revolved about it, evidently for the sustenance and comfort of man”. But that was far more difficult in the twentieth century after the scientific revolution and more sophisticated cosmology: “Nor is there much doubt that it is largely because Christianity has insisted that, in recognizing the Fatherhood of God, we must also recognize that the same God controls the cosmos, that the vast mass of men have drifted away from the Christian faith. I do not believe that they will ever be brought back to it: yet it is (I think) quite clear to me that unless they are brought back to the central experience of Christianity – to the crucial and eternal truth it contains – it will be an unmitigated disaster”.
What Murry seems to be implying is that Christians should concentrate on the central mystery of Christian faith, its essential spiritual message, without needing to believe that by doing so they are in contact with the power that controls the universe. As Alec Vidler observed of Murry in such matters he seemed unorthodox or on the fringes of orthodox Christian doctrine.
[Quote from Middleton Murry, Not As The Scribes, pp.40-41].