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I
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR
The Faiths of Mankind
THE
REUGIONS OF MANKIND
EDMUND DAVISON ^FER
l i l iii rfiwi r i mj «<■.
ISON SOPER
m h »infcl'iiM» PaHMfcy
THE ABINGDON 1
W TORK CINCINNA11
I
Oopyrightf I9^x» by
EDMUND DAVISON SOPER
Printed in the United States of America
Edition Printed April, 1921
Reprinted October, ipai; October, zpaa
To My Mothbr
519718
CONTENTS
PAG8
Pbbfacb 9
CHAPTER I
THE NATURE OP RELIGION
Tbb Approach to thb Study of Religion ii
Tbb Pitting Attitudb Toward Other Patths 13
The Definition of Religion 16
The Origin of Religion 26
The Development of Religion 36
suggbsnons for purther study 44
CHAPTER II
ANIMISTIC RELIGION
ANDasnc Peoples and Their Habitat 45
Animism and the Mysterious Power 50
The Higher Powers of Animistic Religion 53
Totemism and Tabu 64
Animistic Worship 68
Magic and Religion 75
SuGGEsnoNs for Purther Study 79
CHAPTER III
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMU
The Nile Valley and Its Inhabitants 80
Egyptian Pantheon 85
Individual Here and Hereafter 91
The Gods of Babylonia and Assyria 96
Man's Approach to the Divine Powers loi
SUGGBSnONS FOR PURTRER STUDY IO4
CHAPTER IV
GREECE AND ROME
Rbugion Before Homer io6
The Homeric Contribution no
Tbb Mysteries 113
The Philosophers 116
Early Roman Reugion lao
4 CONTENTS
FACS
Thb CbnTACt WHH Grbbcb 124
Tbb Imtlubncb or ihb Bast ia8
SuGGBsnoNs FOR PuEiHBR Study 153
CHAPTER V
THB RELIGION OP ZOROASTER
Thb Indo-Bukopbans amd Tbbib Rbugion 135
ZOKQASIBR AND HiS RBFOKMATIOM I59
DbVBLOFMBNT SeNCB 2k>KOASTBR I44
Tbb Pabsis of thb Pbbsbiit Day 147
SUGGBSnONS FOB PUBTHBR StDDY I53
CHAPTER VI
HINDUISM
RbLXGION OF TBB VbDAS I53
PBIL090PHIC DbVBLOFMBMT I59
Casis Sysibm 164
HlNDUISlC SiNCB THB RiSB OF BODI»ISll 169
MODBBN RbFOBM MOVBMBMTS I74
SUGGBSnONS FOE PUBTHBK STUDY 1 79
CHAPTER Vn
BUDDHISM
Gautaxa THB Buddha i8o
Bably BuraxmsM 187
HiMAYANA AND MAHAYANA I97
Buddhism Among thb Pboflbs 204
suggbsnons fob pubthbb study 312
CHAPTER VIII
THB RELIGION OF THE CHINESE
Tbb Bably Rbugion 215
Confucius and His Contbibution 219
LAoaus AND Ta<»sm 227
Cbinbsb Buddhism 230
suggbsnons for purthbr study 234
CHAPTER DC
THE REUGIONS OP JAPAN
Shinto 235
Tbb Coming of Buddhism 240
Tbb Adophon of Confucianism 250
suggbsnons for fxtrthbr study 256
CX)NTENTS 5
CHAPTBRX
JUDAISM PAGB
Thb Rbugion op iHB SBicnBs 357
TAB Hbutagb of thb Old Testament 161
Judaism Since the Time of Chbist 265
Orthodoxy and Reform vjt
Suggestions for Further Study 275
CHAPTER XI
MOHAMMEDANISM
The Prophet 376
Faith and Practice 886
Islam in History 295
suggesnons for further study 3q3
CHAPTER Xn
CHRISTIANITY
Jesus Christ 304
Development of Life and Teaching 311
The Church and Its Expansion 320
The Ground of Its Appeal 328
Suggestions for Further Study 330
Index 33i
PREFACE
A SHAix book was published in 1918 entitled The Faiths
of Mankind. It belonged to a series of Collie Voluntary
Study Courses, and was prepared with that end in view.
Since that time the desire has been repeatedly expressed
that the writer prepare a volume with a wider public in
view. The needs of the general reader and ministers were
to be kept in mind as well as students in their college and
seminary courses. Coming directly out of contact with
students in the classroom, it is inevitable that the form of the
present book and the selection and arrangement of material
should be determined by that experience.
The guiding principle has been not to overload the text
with a multiplicity of facts, but to select and make use of
such facts as are relevant to the main lines of development,
and to make clear their meaning and relationships. To inter-
pret facts has been looked upon as important as to present
them. One of the main problems with students is to prevent
the confusion which results from presenting great quantities
of material which they are not prepared to assimilate and
make use of intelligently.
An introductory chapter on 'The Nature of Religion''
has been included. No doubt such a subject can only be
handled with satisfaction in a volume devoted to its consid-
eration, but even a rapid^ survey as is presented here may
introduce the student to the subject in such a manner as to
make far more intelligible than would otherwise be possible
the studies of religions which follow. The historical method
is adhered to throughout. The underlying purpose has been
to show how religion has developed in the history of the
world rather than to trace the development of any single
7
8 PREFACE
religion. Of course, the latter has been done in each case,
but with the desire of showing how it has fitted into the
growth of religion as a phase of human life. This has
made necessary the inclusion of chapters on ancient religions
which have passed away but which made their contribution
to the progress of religion in the world. The attempt has
not been made to deal with all the religions of the past or
present. The ends sought could be reached by a presenta-
tion of the great typical systems, and that has been done.
The lists of books at the end of the chapters are exceed-
ingly short. Bibliographies frequently offer such an array
of titles that students scarcely know which way to turn.
The lists have been pruned down to the minimum. Should
further references be desired, they are ready at hand in
many of the volumes given. The volumes of the History of
Religions, by Professor George Foot Moore have been
listed in connection with all the chapters save the first two.
As the standard work in English they should be at the dis-
posal of any reader who desires to proceed any distance
beyond the bounds of the present text. Mention should also
be made of Dr. James Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion
and Ethics, a monumental work now nearing completion
and covering every phase of the subject. Reference has
not been made to this work in the lists of books because the
items would have been too numerous for our space. But it
is the most valuable work on the subject, and should, if pos-
sible, be available to every reader and student.
The writer has laid a heavy obligation on himself to be
fair to each religion he has treated. He cannot hope to have
been completely successful, despite his endeavor to present
each faith in the light of all the available facts. Yet this has
been his purpose, a purpose none the less strong because
Jesus Christ is to him the light of all his seeing and the
only hope he is able to discover for the peoples of the world
in this day of change and reconstruction.
The thanks of the author are due the publishers of vol-
PREFACE 9
tunes from which quotations have been used in this work.
Credit is given in each case in a footnote where the volume
is quoted.
Evanston, Illinois. E. D. S.
March 30^ 1921.
I take the opportunity offered by the call for a new edition
(the third) to make needed corrections and changes. I am
debtor to indulgent friends and reviewers for their sugges-
tions. All criticisms have been carefully considered even
where I have not been able to see my way clear to make the
changes suggested.
April 4, 1922. E. D. S.
• 4 I.
CHAPTER I
THE NATURE OF RELIGION
The Approach to the Study of Religion
As far back as history and archeology are able to pene-
trate into the dim beginnings of human life man had a reli-
gion. From these primitive times down to the present reli-
gion has been playing its part at every stage in the course of
human development. To understand any people or any man,^
to trace the history of civilization or the growth of a custom,
religion must be called in to give its testimony, or we fail to
probe the deepest springs of conduct and the controlling
forces of human endeavor. The issues of life are deter-
mined far down among the impulses and motives with which
religion deals most powerfully and directly. The contribu-
tion religion has made to human progress makes it impera-
tive that it should be studied with great care. The pitfalls
are many, and misconceptions are difficult to avoid. A little
knowledge of religion is a dangerous thing, especially if it is
made to support theories which might topple if brought into
contact with all the facts in the case. The very seriousness
of the issues involved calls for thoroughness and applica-
tion, even in the understanding of what may at first sight
seem to be unimportant details. Only by such devotion can
the student hope to learn from an investigation of religion
the lessons most surely awaiting appropriation and use.
There are two ways of studying the religion of a people.
One might be called the method of immediate contact, as
when a traveler or a resident in a country uses his eyes and
ears to learn all he can about the religion as practiced at the
present time. He visits temples and sacred places, watches
the worship, and pays careful attention to the ritual, asks
II
• • •
• • •
12
•'THERELiGIONS'dF MANKIND
questions of all from whom he can secure information, takes
account of the effect of the religion on life, and in these and
other ways seeks to come to conclusions which correctly
interpret the religion. This method of study is obviously
indispensable wherever it can be applied. Certain religfions,
like those of ancient Greece and Rome, have died and
passed away. In these cases no living touch is possible and
we are compelled to resort to the evidence of archaeology
and literature. But even with the living religions much
investigation is still necessary before enough dependable
material is at hand to draw conclusions which shall be at
the same time correct and comprehensive.
But more is needed than this work of description. An-
other method must be called in to supplement and correct
the impressions which have come through immediate contact
with the people and their religious life. It may be called
the method of historical investigation. What is desired is
that the entire story of a religion shall be told from its
beginnings, so far as they can be ascertained, through all
the vicissitudes of its development, to the religion as it is
after all the storms and contests through which it has
passed. A religion cannot be fully explained by what lies
just at hand. It has a past and this past has made the pres-
ent what it is. Every belief and practice has its history and
cannot be understood without a knowledge of the stages of
its development. What could we know of Christianity with-
out the Gospels, or of Mohammedanism without the Koran ?
And what could we know of present-day Protestantism with
no knowledge of the Reformation ? or of the Buddhism of
Japan, ignorant of the long journey of the faith from India
through Chma and Korea to the Island Empire?
The only conclusion to be reached is that both methods
must be used, each shedding light on the other. In the
study of the religion of the most backward peoples, who
have neither literature nor history, the only approach is by
living contact, and among the most valuable contributions to
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 13
the whole science of religion have been the volumes coming
from devoted and self-sacrificing investigators who have
spent years in close contact with these savage tribes. In
every case, whether the study be historical or through con-
tact with the people, the rule must be to let no bit of evi-
dence pass unheeded, but to allow each fact to appear in its
true light and speak out its full message. Only by such
impartial procedure is it possible to arrive at results which
shall carry weight among candid students who are seeking
the exact truth with reference to the religions of the world.
The Fitting Attitude Toward Other Faiths
This is a practical problem. As students we are bound
to be fair in our study of other religions, but we are more
than students. Bom in a Christian land and nurtured in an
atmosphere which is a part of our common heritage, it is
inevitable that we should have a C3iristian bias. Whether
the student is himself a professing Christian or not, it makes
little diflFerence; he cannot divest himself of a certain bent
of mind which has come to him as naturally as washing his
face and hands before breakfast. If to be fair-minded in-
volves erasing from his mind his prepossessions and convic-
tions, then fair-mindedness is a fond dream. It is as impos-
sible for one man as for another; we are all alike in this
regard. Whatever we do and wherever we go, we carry our
convictions with us, and they must be taken into account.
The important question is. How shall we deal with them
that we may be fair-minded and free from unreasoning
prejudice?
Such a thing is not easily done, nor does it come all at
once. One must set himself resolutely through a consid-
erable period to weigh evidence with scrupulous care, and
not allow his conclusions to be vitiated by personal bias.
By such a course of training one may be able to formulate
his personal equation, like the astronomical observer. In
other words, he may come to understand what his prejudices
14 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
are and how far they tend to warp his judgment. He will
come to understand himself better as time passes and be able
more readily to know when he is approaching his danger
line. He will thus be able so to keep a check on himself
that he may see things as they are, and give each fact and,
in a larger way, each religion its correct valuation, not dis-
torted by unscientific dogmatism and prejudice.
This is not a natural gift; it is an achievement, but the
achievement becomes a sacred duty when one gives himself
to the delicate balancing of men's religious beliefs and prac-
tices. Instead of being a liability, the possession of a Chris-
tian experience may prove to be an important asset One's
ability to enter sympathetically into the religious life of
men of other faiths depends largely on the possession of a
religious experience himself. The fierceness of the conflict
with evil and the consciousness of victory in the moral
battle fit him the better to enter into the lives of others.
The sense of God's presence in his heart and the belief in
his goodness enable him the more completely to understand
what is going on in the minds of other men, though the con-
tent of their belief may differ widely from his own.
The Christian student may join heartily with any student
of religion, whatever his personal belief, in insisting that in
the interpretation of the facts of religion the natural expla-
nation must always be sought. Without this principle vig-
orously applied no science of religion can be built up. ' To
reach the point of willingness to allow everything in reli-
gion, including all we hold most sacred in our own faith,
to be exposed to the searchlight of historical and scientific
investigation is a real achievement of faith. It is only a
want of faith that would hedge in certain sacred spots with
a high barrier and forbid scientific investigation within the
proscribed inclosure. It is an admission of fear that science
might dissolve what is held sacred and that religion might
disappear in the brightness of the illumination. If anything
in the Christian religion is so flimsy and evanescent^ it is
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 15
certainly made of poor stuff and cannot long claim the alle-
giance of candid men and women.
And why should anyone be afraid? Every intelligent
Qiristian believes that all truth is of God, and that all hon-
est investigation can only arrive at further truth. And when
natural explanation is pushed back as far as science is able
to penetrate, a limit is reached beyond which no progress
can be made, and yet with certain things remaining unex-
plained. But these are the very things concerning which
men and women are most anxious for light and direction.
Religion, which up to this point has shared the field with
history and science and other phases of human culture, now
steps out alone and finds itself in its own unique habitat.
It is the only voice which gives satisfaction to the human
heart in the presence of the great crises of life, and espe-
cially when man looks out into the great unknown and wants
guidance and comfort. So long as human nature remains
what it is, so long will religion find a responsive echo in the
distraught lives of men and women seeking peace and failing
to find it elsewhere.
A Christian who is alert to the thought-life of the world
cannot be indifferent to the reUgion of other peoples. In
his consideration of the relation of his own faith to theirs
he must be able to combine two convictions which are fre-
quently strangers to each other. The first is the fundamen-
tal Christian conviction that Christianity is unique, that it is
the only faith adequate to meet the needs of all men. This
sounds exclusive, and so it is. Christianity as a propagating,
conquering faith would have ceased to exist long ago had
it not been for this conviction. A religion lives by the inten-
sity of its belief in its own peculiar worth and power.
'There is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4, 12). This is a truly
Christian statement ; it is the food on which our faith lives
and grows.
But with this conviction another must be held to 3^ve the
i6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
strong, exclusive belief just expressed from intolerance.
The logic of intolerance is well known. It is this: Christi-
anity is the only true faith, so all others must be false and
ought to be harried to death as soon as possible. The logic
of the Christian attitude is quite different. It starts with
the same high declaration of the unique place of Christianity
among the religions, but from that point the difference is
radical. The word "false" is not to be used with reference
to other religions. That word is reserved for the sordid and
insincere, for the unworthy and base among the adherents
of any religion, Christianity included. The Christian can-
not but look on all other religions as the expression of man's
unsatisfied longing after God and his attempt to reach the
blessedness God alone can impart. Seen in this light the
Christian cannot be intolerant. He must sympathize with
the religious spirit in every place, even when it is openly
antagonistic to him and his message. He will appreciate
all the good to be found in every faith at the same time that
he sees the inadequacy of the remedies that are applied.
And in the end it will be impossible to refrain from giving
to those who do not know Jesus Christ the message of moral
victory and spiritual exaltation which can only be achieved
through him. And this is the primary and everlasting pur-
pose of Christian missions.
The Definition of Religion
^Is a definition of religion possible? Mr. John Morley has
a caustic statement in his article on "Democracy and Reac-
tion" (Nineteenth Century, April, 1905) that "if we want
a platitude, there is nothing like a definition. Perhaps most
definitions hang between platitude and paradox* There are
said to be ten thousand definitions of religion."* An extreme,
view is taken by Professor C. C. J. Webb, who declares that
* Quoted by Edward Godd in his Animism, p. 9. (London, Con-
stabTe, 1905.)
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 17
" a definition of religion is needless and impossible.^t With-
out doubt this is true if we are looking for a definition which
shall be complete and comprehensive. There is that in reli-
gion which baffles us and which always must elude a defini-
tion. The best we may do is to be always approximating
a definition, but never reaching it. 'The great realities of
life are always bigger and deeper than we can comprehen^
^ developing thing can never be caged into a form of words
which attempts once and for all to tell us what it is. If then
we are looking for this kind of definition, perfect and com-
plete, we shall of necessity be disappointed. So far we may
go with Professor Webb.
But what we need is something different. Our aim is
more immediate and more modest. !We stand in need of a
guide, a basis of identification. ^ How is the student to know
in the welter of impressions which comes in upon him what
is religious and what is not? A definition should enable
him to detect religion and disentangle it from what is not
religion though very similar and closely connected with it.
Such a definition will not be complete, but it may be true;
it will be tentative, like a scientific hypothesis, but it may
prove extremely useful. And what is meant by being true
is that it shall point with precision in the right direction to-
ward the final goal. Religion doubtless is much more than
is embodied in a definition, but it is at least that. We may be
treading on safe ground and feel sure we have a reliable
clue. This is about as much as a definition of religion may
be expected to do, but it is highly significant for the practi-
cal purpose we have in view.
The assumption in the mind of everyone is that he knows
what religion is — that is, until he makes the attempt to put
down exactly what is in his mind. Then it becomes appar-
ent that his ideas are hazy and ill-defined, and that too much
had been taken for granted in his assumption of knowledge.
'Group Theories of Religion and the Individual, p. 37. (London,
Allen and Unwin, 1916.)
i8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
One's own viewpoint so affects his outlook that the danger
always is that he shall take what religion means to him, put
it into a statement, and call that religion. Like Parson
Thwackum in Tom Jones, he may be tempted to say, "When
I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion, and not
only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion, and
not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of Eng-
land/** We have a religion, but so has the Zulu, and any
definition worthy the name must be sufficiently inclusive to
serve in any land and among any people. Religions differ
greatly, as we shall see, but there must be some element or
elements which all the religions have in common, or no defi-
nition is possible. The common element or elements must
be distinctive of religion, so that we may be able to trace the
development of this one thing through the maze of the forms
it has asstuned. We must have in our definition a statement
which will embrace every manifestation which can be called
religious.
Numerous attempts have been made to define religion.
John Morley's "ten thousand definitions of religion" sounds
a bit rhetorical, but certainly points vividly to the fact that
about every writer who essays to write on religion at all
makes a trial at definition. Some of these definitions have
proved so significant and so determinative of later attempts
that a brief survey would seem to be imperative. Only
through many years have students been able to disengage
religion from other elements of culture and determine more
exactly its distinctive nature. Even now theories are ar-
rayed against each other which are so wide apart that it
becomes all the more important that some position should
be taken to save oneself from helpless confusion in the study
of the religious life of the various peoples.
A few definitions there have been which disparage reli-
gion. Salomon Reinach writes thus, "I propose to define
' Quoted by Edward Oodd, Animism, p. 9.
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 19
religion as : A sum of scruples which impede the free exer-
cise of our faculties/^ One more may be given, that of Giu-
seppe Sergi : "Religion is a pathological manifestation of the
protective function, a sort of deviation of the normal func-
tion, a deviation caused by ignorance of natural causes and
their effects.'" These definitions lack the fundamental re-
quirement of a definition. They do not spring from any
real insight into the meaning of what they are attempting to
define. Such insight can come only as a result of sympa-
thetic investigation of religious beliefs and practices, and
this is sadly lacking in the case of these scholars. A student
must understand before he defines, and to understand reli-
gion he must view it from within, feeling at home amid the
factors which make up the complex thing we know by
that name.
Not far removed from this cpmpletely negative attitude
is that which was held by the English Deists of the eight-
eenth century. To these skeptical writers the value of reli-
gion was merely as a practical discipline, an arrangement
for keeping people decent and respectable. By some it was
given a higher place than by others, by Herbert of Cher-
bury, for example, in contrast with Thomas Hobbes, but in
the estimation of all, religion was not of great importance
in itself, but only as a handmaid of morality. Hobbes goes
so far as to make religion a means of promoting the safety
of individuals. Society is looked upon as a great police
organization. All religious and civil authority springs from
fear and is necessary in order to keep men subservient and
within bounds.
It is quite evident that these men had no adequate appre-
ciation of religion, that they had never experienced the pres-
ence of God in their own hearts. While they had high
regard for decent living, they had never heard the thunders
of Sinai. Had they done so, they might have had a more
^ Orpheus : A General History of Religions, English trans., p. 3.
* Les Emotions, p. 404.
20 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
profound conception of the very morality which they pro-
fessed to admire so highly. They never realized that right-
eousness had its source in the inmost nature of God himself.
Such a view would have saved them from their superfi-
ciality, and would have raised religion to its rightful place
of primacy. They did well to set morality and religion in
the closest relationship, but by failing to appreciate the
nature of the bond they placed religion where its chief work
could not be accomplished and did violence to the morality
which they were so concerned to maintain.
Turning now to definitions of men who have shown high
regard for religion, we may expect a very different type of
definition. But even here restricted and one-sided views are
to be found, views which have had their day, but which in a
number of cases have been most influential in all later at-
tempts at definition. There are those definitions which
restrict religion to one phase of human life. Such is that of
Hegel, who makes religion a matter of the intellect. One of
his statements is this : "Thus religion is the Divine Spirit's
knowledge of itself through the mediation of finite spirit"
Leaving aside the monistic implication in this definition as
irrelevant to our immediate interest, it is clear that religion
was to Hegel purely a matter of thought. Others in a later
day have to a greater or less degree followed in the same
direction. Professor E. B. Tylor has a very simple state-
ment: "The minimum definition of religion is the belief in
spiritual beings."* This famous definition is one which re-
duces religion in its final analysis to a belief, an intellectual
attitude. Max Miiller makes religion "a mental faculty or
disposition, which, independent of — nay, in spite of — sense
and reason, enables man to apprehend the infinite under dif-
ferent names and under varying guises."* This was later mod-
ified. "Religion consists in the perception of the Infinite un-
der such manifestations as are able to influence the moral
• Primitive Culture, 1871, vol. i, p. 383.
* Introduction to Science of Religion, 1873, p. 17.
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 21
character of man/" But in both cases the emphasis is intel-
lectual, in spite of the necessity which caused Professor
Miiller in the second to incorporate the moral implication of
religion as a part of his definition.
Religion has been defined in terms of the emotions as
well as of the intellect. One of the most famous of all def-
initions is that of Schleiermacher : "The essence of the reli-
gious emotions consists in the feeling of an absolute depend-
ence.'** While this may be one-sided, the emphasis placed
upon the emotional element in religion by Schleiermacher has
deeply influenced subsequent attempts. In the present day
Professor John McTaggart has a definition with a simi-
lar emphasis: ''It seems to me that religion may best be^
described as an emotion, resting on a conviction of a har-
mony between ourselves and the universe at large.'"* While
it rests on a conviction, religion is "described as an emotion."
The emphasis is the same as that of Schleiermacher. And
finally, religion has been defined as will, or the fulfillment of
moral obligation. Kant stands first here with his declara-
tion that "religion is the recognition of all duties as divine
commands," and Matthew Arnold may be said to emphasize
the same side of religion in his well-known word, "Religion
is morality touched by emotion.""
In all of these cases we would be doing an injustice to
insist that no place was given in religion to the other func-
tions of the human mind, but the emphasis clearly has been
as indicated in the quotations. The difficulty is that the
emphasis is placed so strongly on one or another of the
factors that religion becomes less comprehensive than it
actually is. Religion is coming more and more to be recog-
nized as all-embracive, as functioning in every department
of human life, as involving the intellect, the emotions, and
the will if it is normal and true of type. So while all these
* The Origin of Religion, 1878, p. 21.
* On Religion, p. 106.
^ Some Dogmas of Religion, p. 3.
^ Literature and Dogma, 1873, p. 46.
22 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
definitions are true as far as they go, and have been widely
influential in subsequent investigations, they are partial and
incomplete nevertheless.
Another set of definitions — and these are all the product
of recent years — divide on the question of the individual as
contrasted with the social emphasis in religion. We choose
but two of these statements, both from American psychol-
ogists. The first is from William James : "Religion, there-
fore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for
us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in
their solitude, as far as they apprehend themselves to stand
in relation to whatever they may consider the divine."" The
other is from Professor William K. Wright: "The genius
of religion is the endeavor to secure the conservation of
socially recognized values.'"" Each of these definitions em-
phasizes an important truth of religion. Religion is both
individual and social. The danger lies in la3ring such exclu-
sive emphasis on one or the other of these factors that no
standing room seems left for the other. Religion is individ-
ual in that for each man his religious experience is his ownj
He has a vertical relationship which is between himself and
the higher powers on whom he believes, but James goes too
far when he speaks of the religion of "individual men in
their solitude," for a man's religion is so far determined by
his lateral relationships in society that what he has is not his
alone, nor did it come to him in solitude. Religion does un-
doubtedly conserve social values, and it is most fortunate
that this feature of religious life has been emphasized. But
to the individual religion is social and then something more.
The social aspects fill the horizon in the earlier stages of
development, when man as an individual can scarcely be
said to exist, but gradually, as personality develops and each
man begins to stand out in his separate individuality, a con-
** Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 31. (Longmans, New
York, 1913.)
''American Journal of Theology, voL xvi, pp. 585-409.
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 23
sdousness of a certain uniqueness comes over him and he
realizes that while he belongs to society he is separate and
detached from others in his own individuality and in his
relation to the powers on whom he is dependent.
There are those who define religion in terms of worship.
Professor Allan Menzies states it thus : "Religion is the wor-
ship of higher powers from a sense of need."^ Professor
A. S. Geden comes to this conclusion : "On the whole, then, •
it would seem that the essential quality or nature of religion
is best described as consisting in worship."^ One other, the
striking statement of Professor Auguste Sabatier, may be
given, "Prayer is religion in act — that is to say, real reli-
gion."* In these cases, as the context shows, worship is
broadened out to become the expression of the total attitude
of man, in the fullness of his life, toward his God. Yet,
ordinarily speaking, religion is more than worship. The
attitude of the worshiper must include more than the wor-
ship itself, or else his religion is restricted and incomplete.
Yet the central act of religion is worship, and religion would
die without it, so an adequate definition must provide for
this reaction of the mind toward the higher powers or be
found wanting.
In our own day a class of definitions is being presented
with no necessary reference to higher powers or to God.
The classic statement, and that which has largely influenced
others of the class, is that of Professor Harald Hoffding:
"The conservation of value is the characteristic axiom of
region."* Professor E, S. Ames has a definition very
similar: "Religion is the consciousness of the highest social
values.'*" Professor G. A. Coe speaks of "religion as an
immanent movement within our valuations, a movement that
'^ History of Rdigion, p. 13. (Scribners, New York, 1914.)
^Studies in the Religions of the East, p. 53. (Kelly, London,
1913.)
* Philosophy of Religion, p. 37. (James Pott, New York, 1913.)
^ Philosophy of Reli^on, p. 10. (MacmiUan, London, 1906.)
** Psychology of Religious Experience, p. vii (Houghton Miffliii«
Boston, I9iay
24 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
does not terminate in any single set of thought contents, or
in any set of particular values.'"* It is difEcult to do justice
to these writers without quoting much more fully than this
survey will permit, but we may at least say that these defini-
tions run counter to those we have been considering in that
religion is defined with no reference to any higher power.
The question which is raised is this: Is the distinguishing
thing in religion something subjective or is it objective? Is
the difference between religions one growing out of differ-
ences in values or of differences in the religious object? To
put it in other words : Must a man believe in God or some
higher power to be religious or can he be considered such
with no reference to divine powers of any kind?
Let us say at once that values always form a most im^r-
tant element in religion. Men want something which has
value for them. If it did not have value, they would not
pursue nor desire it. There are satisfactions of various
kinds which are craved, and these desires form the dynamic
of religion as of other human activities. But the question
which arises is this : Is the conservation of these values the
inner core of what we call religion ? True, it is the inevitable
accompaniment of religion, but is it the differentia of reli-
gion ? The question resolves itself into this pertinent prob-
lem : Shall we define religion by the ends which are desired
or by the means used to secure them? There are certain
desires which men have, desires emotional and intellectual,
individual and social. Now, if religion is the conservation
of values with no necessary reference to man's attempt to
secure this conservation through his relationship to higher
powers, then religion may be defined without any reference
to anything supernatural. That is incidental, even though
it may be frequent and even almost inevitable. It remains
only a means to an end, and the end which is sought is the
reality in religion.
But it is possible to look at it from another angle, that of
** Psychology of Religion, p. 72. (Univ. Chicago Press, 1916.)
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 25
man's experience as he rises out of lower and reaches the
higher planes of religious life. Man is after all sorts of
things, material, physical, social, moral, and spiritual. He
tries every means at his disposal, and among them is a cer-
tain conscious relation he holds with unseen higher powers.
This relationship, purified and developed, becomes the chief
glory of his life, raising him to a new dignity, bringing
peace and unity to his troubled mind, and taking its place
as the inspiring center of his whole life. And the remark-
able thing is that what to him at the beginning was a means
to an end becomes an end in itself. He is suffused with a
glory unknown to him before, and to know God is the su-
preme desire and chief end of his existence. At all stages
it does conserve values, but so do many other things which
could never be called religion. This one relationship is
unique; it makes its contribution to life as do the other
factors, but is to be distinguished by a content which places
it in a class by itself. The desire to conserve values is the
soil out of which religion springs, and the conservation itself
the end which religion seeks, but neither is to be confused
with the thing itself, which is a relation of men to powers
higher than themselves.
What, then, is religion? To sum up:^t seems clear that
religion consists of a number of elements. It is a relation-
ship of conscious dependence on higher powers ; it makes a
demand on the whole of man's life, intellect, emotion, and
will ; it is both individual and social ; it is worship, yet it is
more than worship; and it conserves all the values which
give worth and meaning to human life. The definition which
includes all these features as successfully as any is that of
L. de Grandmaison:V'Religion is the sum total of beliefs,
sentiments, and practices, individual and social, which have
for their object a power which man recognizes as supreme,
on which he depends and with which he can enter (or has
entered) into relation."iJ A very convenient form of state-
''The Histoiy of Religion, vol. i, p. 3. (Herder, St Lonis, 1914.)
26 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
mcnt IS that given by Professor William Newton Clarke,
''Religion is the life of man in his superhuman relations/**^
With these in mind we may venture on our study of the
religions of the world, with a clue sufficiently clear to guide
our steps in and out among the multitude of facts and fancies
which await classification and interpretation."
The Origin of Religion
About a half century ago Sir John Lubbock, in his volume
Prehistoric Times, attempted to show that religion was not
universal, that there were tribes of men scattered fairly
widely over the earth which had no religion, no worship, no
belief in higher powers with whom they were related. Pro-
fessor Robert Flint felt it necessary in his Baird Lecture for
1877, Anti-Theistic Theories, to answer Sir John Lubbock
at length. The interesting thing is that the answer followed
the same method as the argument it was answering. In each
case reports from travelers and others were studied and
criticized to determine as nearly as possible what the actual
condition of the tribes under scrutiny indicated. The con-
clusion reached by Professor Flint was this : "An impartial
examination of the relevant facts, it appears to me, shows
that religion is virtually imiversal.'""
Such a claim as that of Sir John Lubbock is no longer
made. Not only has the more careful study of savages led
to a deeper vmderstanding of their life, but psychology has
been developing as a science by leaps and bounds, and has
made almost tmnecessary any further investigation among
savages themselves to determine the fundamental question
of the essential religious nature of man. But even before
this development had more than begun. Professor Flint had
** An Outline of Christian Theology, p. i. (Scribners, New York,
1901.)
" I have been indebted for a number of these definitions to a list
of definitions of religion compiled by Professor Robert £. Hume, of
Union Theological Seminary.
"P. a6& (Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1899.)
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 27
sensed the conclusions reached by psychology in a more
recent time and declared that ^'the world has been so'^f ramed,
and the mind so constituted, that man, even in his lowest
estate, and all over the world, gives evidence of possessing
religious perceptions and emotions/'" This could scarcely
be better expressed by the most modem of our psychologists,
even though the technical terms might be a little different.
The study of human nature gives abundant proof that man
is normally religious, that religion is an experience which
man inevitably possesses as soon as his life begins to be or-
ganized and enters into relationship with his fellows and the
nature which surrounds him on all sides. We are dealing,
then, with what is a universal phenomenon.
It is the origin of religion that we are now to investigate.
The immediate impulse is to go back in history to the begin-
nings and there make a study of man in the process of
becoming religious. This implies that there must have been
a time when man had no religion, but*was developing into a
religious being. The very statement just made carries its
own refutation on its face. Man is fundamentally religious
and that ought to make it apparent at once that history would
afford no light on this question of origins. And such is the
case. nGo back as far as history extends and man is reli-
gious.") The same evidence is forthcoming when archeol-
ogy is called upon for its testimony. The prehistoric re-
mains in Europe and elsewhere, as far as they prove any-
thing, show man possessed of certain ideas and performing
certain acts which give strong evidence of being religious.
If, then, we are to know anything about the origin of reli-
gion — for it surely must have had an origin — ^we are com-
pelled to go elsewhere for the help we need.
The only other course open is the appeal to psychology.
What this means is that we must seek to find what in man
this thing called religion is genetically, what it is which
always develops in this way no matter where man is found.
~ Anti-Theistic Theories, p. ^68.
28 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
It is hard to know what to call it. Not an instinct surdy,
when one realizes the meaning of the instinctive life as now
given us by psycholc^cal analysis and experiment An
instinct is called by Alexander Bain, "that untaught ability
to perform actions."* Religion is not as simple a reaction
as that, but is more complex, the reaction resulting from the
combined action of the more fundamental features of the
mental life. But this is not to say that religion is not deeply
rooted in htmian nature. As Professor Coe puts it, 'This
way of organizing experience in terms of ideal values is a
first item in the religious nature of man. It is present in all
normal individuals, and is a type toward which freedom,
popular education, and democracy tend."" We may not be
able to arrive at a term more definite than that just used —
"the religious nature of man" — ^but the fact to be emphasized
is that the organizing of experience into what we call reli*
gion is the normal thing, so much so that, to quote again,
"Any individual who fails to meet the conditions of life in
this way we classify as imbecile."*
The material for such an investigation is quite accessible.
Child study has been carried to such a point that certain con-
clusions may well be accepted as certain, though the conflict
of opinions at other points is proof that much remains unset-
tled. The developing mind of a child must have some like-
ness to that of the early men of the race. The same may be
said of the psychology of the backward peoples which has
been pursued so earnestly by a small band of competent
scholars. But in each case the evidence can only be used
with caution. Neither the child nor the present-day savage
can be held to be just like primitive man. The determining
factor is undoubtedly normal psychology, our own develop-
ment as we look back at it, and what seems to us as reason-
" Quoted by James Ward, Psychological Principles, p. 53. (Cam-
bridge Univ. Press, 1919^)
" Psychology of Religion, p. 324.
" Coe, op. cit., p. 324.
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 29
able in the nature of things. What can be expected as a
result of such a method of procedure? The best that can
be said is that it is a more or less plausible conjecture. But
with all that there is value in the investigation, as it compels
us to think through certain aspects of the religious life more
thoroughly and in a manner which might otherwise be
missed.
We may only take a glance at a very old theory of the
origin of religion, that of<Lucretius7 who in a famous state-
ment ascribed the origin of religion to a sense of fear/ Now,
fear has played a large part in religion and continues to do
so,^ven among those whose religion should have ''cast out
fear," but to make fear responsible for religion is only a
part of the story. |No single cause can be assigned as the
originating principle of so absorbing and complex an expe-
rience as religion^ Aside from this early theory on the sub-
ject little was attempted until the time of the English Deists
in the eighteenth century. Christians, Jews, and Moham-
medans alike assumed a primitive divine revelation, and that
settled the whole question. They conceived that in the be-
ginning — that means when the first man 'was created and
placed in the Garden of Eden — God revealed to him in some
manner the essential truths of religion, such as the existence
of one God, the obligation to obey him, and the hope of
immortality. Thus furnished, he began his career, but when
sin emerged the revelation became hazy and indistinct and
finally was well-nigh if not completely lost. The difficulty
with this exceedingly fascinating picture is that it rests on
no solid foundation of fact. The Bible makes no clear state-
ment which would lead to this conclusion. When man began
to play his part he performed religious acts and engaged at
times in a religious ritual ; so much is evident, but nothing
is said as to origins.
That man received his religious nature from God is
very plausible, but that differs widely from the statement
that he came into life furnished with a full set of religious
30 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
ideas. The theory of evolution presents us with a very dif-
ferent account of early man, an account which makes belief
in a more or less complete revelation incongruous. He de-
veloped into what he has become and many ages passed be-
fore he was ready to appreciate the truths which on the other
theory he is said to have received as an original endowment.
The easy way in which through all the centuries of Christian
history thinkers accounted for the non-Christian religions
was to refer them to the devil as the author. This was a
simple solution of a difficult problem, and it carried the
Christian Church until within the last century or two, but
it is too simple to be convincing and betrays an ignorance so
profound that it is hard to be patient with it to-day.
Now the Deists had their own notion of the rise of reli-
gion. They were not only willing to allow that man might
have had an original endowment of religious ideas, but they
had the matter quite thoroughly worked out. A number of
conceptions which fitted in well with their idea of religion
as a natural phenomenon in the life of man were made to
constitute his original religious outfit. But this was not the
significant part of their theory. Man would have been all
right had he retained the simplicity of his original belief,
but this was not to be. A class of men arose, who came to
be known as priests, who found they could work upon the
fears and credulity of men and by so doing gain advantage
for themselves. In order to fasten their grip upon men
they devised beliefs and ritual practices which worked upon
the superstitious fears of men and gave the priesthood a hold
like bands of iron. This, then, explains the origin of the
religions which have grown up among men. These wily men
saw their chance to keep the people in their power, and have
even down to our day been devising new schemes to make
their tenure perpetual. No one would be foolhardy enough
now to propound such a theory of the origin of religion.
It is too superficial and shows great ignorance of religion
and its deep foundations in human life. And let us see, as
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 31
Professor Morris Jastrow points out, that it is not the func-
tion of priests to originate but to conserve. The prophet
and the seer are the dynamic creators in hmnan society, and
they have been free men troubling themselves little about the
paraphernalia of religion, but speaking out a message full of
pregnant meaning as men face a new age."
With these outworn theories as a background we may take
up those which have arisen more recently. They are the
result of scientific historical investigation and are an attempt
to explain religion on the basis of all the facts which are
available. But even here inference must play a large part
in the final conclusion. There §re facts, but they do not go
far enough back to give any sure standing ground for an
incontrovertible conclusion. The best approach is by way
of the theory enunciated by Professor E. B. Tylor in his
epoch-making volumes on Primitive Culture. It is called
the animistic theory . According to Professor Tylor early
man attributed life to nature and the objects arotmd him.
He looked upon all he saw as animated, as possessing a
spirit Uke his own. He did this by the only instrument of
reason he had to explain what he saw and heard and felt.
It was the principle of analogy, according to which all he
saw was explained by reference to his own personality. If
he saw a tree bend under the wind, he could only explain
it by thinking that he could make the wind blow, too, and
thus in a lesser but similar fashion do what he saw happen-
ing in nature. He could blow, and so there must be some
invisible but very big somebody out there who was blowing
very hard and causing the trees of the forest to bend and
groan in the gale. To him somebody more or less like him-
self was accountable for everything that happened. He
carried it out to such lengths that the very existence of a
separate thing, even a dead thing like a stone, could be ex-
plained only on the basis of an inner spirit which was its life.
Thus all nature became alive, filled with innumerable spirits
"The Stndy of Religion, chap. iv. (Scribners, New York, 191 !•)
32 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
everywhere and in everything. There was to early man
and to the savage to-day no such thing as inanimate nature.
It was all alive and throbbing with a life like his own.
Coming to the point which concerns us immediately, Pro-
fessor Tylor held that religion had its origin in the rela-
tionship which man established with certain of the spirits
of his animism. This theory has been criticized by Profes-
sor R. R. Marett in his The Threshold of Religion. He
agrees with Professor Tylor in his general conclusion that
primitive man came finally to an animistic conclusion, but
he feels that the finished animism of Professor Tylor gives
evidence of considerable development in early man. Ac-
cording to that theory man attributed a definite, distinct
spirit to the objects of nature, to each tree and mountain
and spring in his vicinity. But, says Professor Marett,
how could man thus attribute a spirit to what he saw when
his own spirit-life was so uncertain? His thinking was
confused and indistinct because, in the nature of the case,
he was not capable of anything more. In this condition it
takes far too much for granted to believe the savage capable
of seeing distinct spirits in the nature which surrounded
him. What Professor Marett feels is that to primitive man
nature was characterized by a kihd of aliveness just as he
was conscious of a certain aliveness in himself. Now, even
in this early stage we feel that religion had its beginnings,
that man did not have to wait until he could attribute a sep-
arate spirit to each object of nature in order to have a reli-
gion, so we have what may be called a *' preanimistic reji -
gion," using animism in the strict sense of Professor Tylor's
theory. This general aliveness later developed into the defi-
nite personification of the objects of nature, but the process
was completed long since, for no savages are now to be
found in the "preanimistic" stage.
But we feel that another point may be made in criticizing
the theory of Professor Tylor. The theory does not tell us
why man should have been led to worship the spirits of his
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 33
animism. This is, after all, the question of questions con-
cerning the origin of religion. Whatever our conclusion, let
us remember that the animistic theory of nature must be
the basis on which we must build. Without that we have no
approach which promises a valid explanation of the savage
way of looking at things.
A further development of the theory just stated is that of
Hprh^|-t Spencer . He accepted the animistic explanation
of primitive thinking, but emphasized that a? p^<r-t \yhich
deals with the spirit s nf tVip ^<*aH As far back as we can
dimly penetrate, man i^seen offering sacrifice to the spirits
of his departed ancestors, and this Herbert Spencer believes
to have been the earliest form of religion. Ancestors, then,
were the first beings worshiped. Even the more inclusive
worship of the objects of nature all around him is derived
from the worship ofiFered to those who have died and as
ghosts continue their existence not very far away. The crit-
icism to be made here is that a single form of primitive reli-
gion can scarcely be made to account for the origin of reli-
gion any more than some other aspects which might be men-
tioned. Why should death any more than some of the mani-
festations of power and activity evident on all sides be made
the sole explanation of the origin of religion ?
We are still far from an answer to the primary question
confronting us, What was it that caused primitive man to
turn in worship to certain beings whom he considered di-
vine? But before attempting an answer it is necessary to
take up one more recent theory which is receiving wide
attention to-day because of the skill and ability with which
it is presented. I refer to the sociological theory of the
origin of religion presented by Professor Emile Durkheim.
the leader of the school of French sociologists, in his work
entitled The Elem ptit^^fy Fnrmfi nf t he Religinus Life . To
Professor Durkheim religion is a genuine phase of human
life which will last because it corresponds to human need.
But religion is not a supernatural affair, nor does it imply
34 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
a belief in divine beings. It is a conscious relation to what
are called ''sacred things/' and the totem is the type of
these sacred things. We cannot at this point say more
about the totem than that it is an animal (or sometimes a
plant) with which a group of men believe they are closely
related. This theory is found among savage people in many
widely separated parts of the world. The sacredness which
attaches to the totem is to be explained by the presence in it
of a strange, mysterious force, pervasive and impersonal,
which is supposed to explain life and activity in men and
things. How did the thought that such a power existed
arise in the mind of primitive man ? Here is the distinctive
point in the theory of the French sociol(^[ist. The presence
of this force was aroused in man's mind by society. What
does this mean? The group consciousness is different from
that of the individual, though, of course, in each case it is
an experience of the individual. But he realizes that in his
group, which we call society, certain things come to him
which could not be his were he alone in the world. It is his
sense of the power, the protection, and the common inter-
ests of the group that becomes to him the consciousness of a
mysterious power in the world, and this is the power he
worships. The totem is its emblem, but the power wor-
shiped is society. So society is his god, and the only god
he has is society. The god of the clan is the clan itself.
Thus social relations explain everything, with no relation to
anything supernatural. Undoubtedly religion is social, but
this is quite different from saying with these scholars that
that is all there is to religion. Man persists in believing
that he is in touch not only with his fellows but with beings
who are over and above him. Is the lesson taught by the
whole history of religion mistaken? Is there no supernat-
ural? Is society all the God there is? "Yes," say these
scholars. But again, is there not an individual reference to
religion which becomes the more clear as religion develops
into its higher forms? A broader foundation must surely
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 35
be laid to explain the whole of what has been developed in
the course of man's religious history.
From what has been said earlier in this section it will be
apparent that man has a certain capacity for religion which
is his normally simply because he is a man. Man has a bent
in the direction of religion which only needs the proper
stimulus to become religion in one of its many recognizable
forms. Here, then, in principle is what we propose as a
sufBcient explanation of religion, that is, as far as this ori-
gin can be explained at all. There must be an inner response
to an influence from without before we are able to discover
religion in man; and both factors, the subjective and the
objective, are necessary to accoimt for the final product.
What is that influence from without to which the mind of
primitive man responds? It is the total impress of nature,
his environment, the outside world, the society of which he
is a part, on his primitive mind. The points of contact are
without number, and through every one come pouring in all
kinds of stimuli. Most of these have no particular religious
significance, but some affect him as so strange, so mysteri-
ous, ^awesome that he trembles when he is in their pres- Vjl*;^
ence.\lt is this sense of mystery and awe in the presence of v
what he conceives as higher powers coupled with a deep ^ \^ ' 9
dissatisfaction which urged him on to secure what he did
not have which is the beginning of religionTX
So much may be fairly clear, that religion is the result of
an inner response to outward influences, but the main point
is yet to be considered. How does it happen that in certain
cases his reaction to his environment is of that peculiar
nature which we call religious ? What causes primitive man
to assume an attitude of dependence and of worship as he
stands in the presence of what he looks upon as divine pow-
ers ? I do not think this question can be fully answered. We
may and ought to push natural explanation back as far as it
is possible with the light of the last fact which may serve
as a guide, but when that shall have been done there is still
36 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
some distance to travel. We may repeat the statement that
man has a religious nature, but when we come to close quar-
ters with that phrase it does not deliver up its full meaning
to our inquiry. Max Miiller cut the Gordian knot by sa3ring
that it was man's ''sense of the infinite" which accounts for
the possibility of the rise of religion in his soul. This has
been severely criticized by many writers, but, after all, it is
one way of stating that in man there is that which answers
to the voice from without and which in the end results in
religion. It points to that mysterious something which
makes man reach out beyond the seen to the invisible world
of which he is dimly conscious.
But when one believes that God has been revealing him-
self to man in many forms and at all periods in the long
story of his life it is possible to take one further step. We
are told that there is a light which lighteth every man com-
ing into the world, and that even far removed from any of
the legal systems which have been devised there is an inner
law in the breasts of men which acts as a monitor over their
thoughts and deeds. We may not believe in a primitive rev-
elation in the sense that it consisted of a number of reli-
gious ideas placed in the mind of primitive man, but it is a
very different matter to believe that man's religious nature,
his religious proclivity, is the gift of God, a part of his orig-
inal endowment, without which, whatever nature or society
might have done, religion would never have developed.
The Development of Religion
Two results of our study are doubtless already apparent.
^ne is that religion is fundamentally the same thing,,
whether found among wild men on an island in the South
Seas or among the cultivated members of a Christian
church. Jjt is always a relationship between man and higher
powers, a relationship stimulated by a sense of need.* The
other result is that all religions hark back to the most prim-
itive forms and are developments from this simple germ.
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 37
This introduces us at once to our present subject, the devel-
opment of religion.
The first question is, What is the key to this development?
or, What causes a religion to develop into something more
complex and sublime? The clue is to be found in the dis-
cussion of the origin of religion, where it was seen that
without a conscious sense of need man would never have
developed a religion at all. Now, the same causes which
led to the first beginnings of religion undoubtedly are the
explanation of its development. We may say, then, that the
development of religion follows and is determined by a sense
of need. /When needs are simple and crude, the religion
partakes of the same simplicity and crudity; when needs
become more extensive and refined, religion changes to meet
the new and enlarging need^ We may be sure of this, be-
cause, after all the religions we know of have been examined,
no savage people have ever been found with a highly devel-
oped religion. The religion they possess is suited to their
needs and is on the level of their advancement in culture
and outlook on life. An intelligent people demand a reli-
gion suited to their wants, or else it will gradually become
outgrown. If it is not able by reinterpretation or the assim-
ilation of new elements, borrowed or discovered by some
far-sighted prophet, to meet the newer needs, it is laid aside
for other forms or for another religion, which promise the
better to fit in with the advance in civilization which has
been achieved. In every period of transition from an old
order, which has become outworn, to a new order as yet
untried, this process has gone on. Some religions have
ceased to exist, and have been replaced by new religions,
which interpret better than the old the aspirations of the
people as they look forward with hope to a better day. In
other cases religions have shown a remarkable capacity of
adaptation and have continued to live and thrive until our
own time.
There is no more significant or interesting feature of the
38 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
study of the religions of the world than this. Certain well-
maiiced periods of crisis are to be discovered in the story
of every civilized or even semi-civilized people, and it is
just at these crucial turning points when, after religion has
seemed to be almost stationary for centuries it may be, a
new life can be discovered stirring among men, and the
result is the ushering in of a new age. Just at the present
time the religions of the world are passing through such a
crisis. The invasion of the Orient by ideas entirely strange,
the well-nigh complete acceptance of Western education,
and the contact with the moral and religious ideas of Chris-
tendom have created an unprecedented situation, involving a
crisis in the moral ideals and religious beliefs of all the
peoples who have come under their influence. What the
outcome will be no one can foresee. One thing is altogether
clear: a profound change is taking place, and the final result
will be apparent only when the nations have to a greater
or less extent settled down again as partakers of the culture
of the new age which is dawning.
One of the questions raised by such considerations con-
cerns the strange inequality in development. While no
people have been discovered who fail to show some evi-
dence of advance, that advance in many cases is so slight
that, compared with the great religious systems of the world,
it seems to be sluggish and almost stagnant. Now, the ques-
tion arises, why should one religion have advanced and
others remained almost in their primitive state? Why
should one people have developed needs and others not?
Again, wh/'Sfiomd a people remain savage for untold ages,
then suddenly begin the march forward? What makes the
difference between peoples ? Is it racial precosity ? Is it the
effect of environment? Is it because of outward stimulus?
Is it economic, or social, or individual ? No final answer has
been found to these and similar questions.
But while these final questions wait for a satisfying an-
swer we may go some distance into the process of devel-
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 39
optnent and seek to discover some of its laws.YWe may say
at once that the growth of anything so complex as religion
cannot be accounted for by any single cau^ Religion must
develop through the interaction of many elements, each
complex in itself. One of the clues which will provide a
fulcrum for our query is that there is a n ekinent of con-
|cisusjMirpose which determines the advance man makes in
rcUgionr Uf fiourse, he does not see the end, and his aim is
indefinite, but he does want something and moves forward,
even blindly at times, to secure it. While this may be
spoken of as an evolution, since, in general, there is dis-
cernible an advance from the simple to the more complex,
from the crude to the cultivated, several very important
factors must be taken into consideration to guard the state-
ment from false interpretation. In the first place, while the
general trend is toward progress, there come periods of
retrogression, of degeneracy, when any advance made seems
in danger of being lost. This phenomenon is to be found in
many places and makes it very difficult to speak of the whole
movement as an evolution — if by that term is meant steady
advance out of lower forms into higher. But when the
human factor is taken into consideration and given a deter-
minative place in the process, the whole situation b^[ins to
clear. Development for man, individual and social, is, as
Professor George Galloway points out, a vocation." He
may not be able to will anything he wants, and his choices
may be circumscribed by his outlook and his enyironment,
but — ^and this is the important point— ^gjjujgtwili ^^^^ ^^
that, or nothing happens. And when we thus mtro3uce into
the evolution the personal factor, we are dealing with that
which is more or less incalculable. But it is this very human
element which makes our study one of abiding interest We
may at any moment come into the presence of a gifted seer
who surprises us by his intuitions and fills* us with new
confidence in man and the religious life he has developed.
* Philosophy of Religion, chap. v. (Scribners, New York, 1914-)
40 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
There is, however, another side to this problem of reli-
gious development which cannot be neglected if we are to
secure a view relatively complete. Does the whole burden
of development rest on man alone? Is he the only one con-
cerned in his advance toward a\t0ore satisfying life? All
the religions have a very definite answer to this question, a
decided negative. All believe that in one way or another the
Divine has been seeking to make its will known to man.
Thus the course of the history of religion is from this stand-
point the progressive revelation of God to men, a revelation
disclosed just as rapidly as men were able to receive it.
There is, then, a divine pedagogy, God in his gracious pur-
pose meeting man with his needs and giving him that satis-
faction which makes him complete. It is a gradual process,
but man is not alone in its realization. God himself, the
Creator of man, is seen giving himself in ever fuller and
fuller measure until, in the Christian revelation, we see him
as he is in the face of Jesus Christ.
If, as we have tried to show, the development of religion
proceeds along with and is demanded by the enlarging needs
of man, it must be at once evident that the stages in religious
growth are coordinate with the stages of civilization and
culture. Religious development cannot be understood apart
from that of culture in general. The steps of the cultural
movement are the steps in the development in religion. We
sh^ll follow the three stages as given by Professor Gallo-
way, namely, the tribal, the national, and the universal."
I. The TribaL We do not know how man was organized
socially in the beginnings of his life. There are theories
according to which he lived promiscuously with his fellows,
with no family life, but there is an influential body of opin-
ion to-day which holds that a monogamous relation between
a man and his one wife was the earliest form of relationship
in society. But whatever may have been the fact in prehis-
toric times, we know of no simpler form of union than the
* Philosophy of Religion, chap. ii.
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 41
tribe. It is spoken of as the ''rudimentary form'' of social
union, and is the form in which all primitive or savage
peoples live to-day. In this stage the individual is next to
nothing, and the group as a group is the end-alL There is
little or no reflection on life and its meaning, and material
interests force themselves on the attention so exclusively
that little opportunity is offered for anything intellectual.
Longfellow's "Hiawatha" is an idealization and never had
its counterpart in reality. Savages simply do not have such
thoughts and feelings, which are the outcome of a very dif-
ferent social environment. The savage does not lead an
idyllic life, and only appears to do so when we from a dis-
tance far removed read into his crude, cramped life concep-
tions entirely foreign to his mind. In this stage law is cus-
tom, the members of the tribe being united by the blood-bond
and each member following as a matter of course in the cus-
tomary line. There is little or no individual initiative, and
all feel the bond of mutual responsibility. What affects one
affects all and the blame for what one does is shared by all.
Piety, if the word can be used at all, consists in being loyal
to the tribe and obeying its mandates, ^n this level man's
interests are determined by the constant necessity of secur-
ing enough to eat, and by watchfulness against the dangers
of nature and the attacks of his enemies. Under these con-
ditions the savage never rises above his material wants and
desires, and his religion remains on that same low level. ]
2. The National, Man could never get away from the
lower stage by pure reflection, for he had not learned to
think and had no incentive to do so. Some change induced
from the outside was necessary to produce a new stage men-
tally and religiously. A new set of needs must be created,
and this actually came about by the disappearance of the
tribe and the rise of the nation. We do not know exactly
how this change was brought about, but conjecture has been
able to make quite a satisfying picture of the process. War
must have had much to do with it, when one tribe established
42 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
its rule over other weaker ones, and tribes were brought
together and cemented in defense against common enemies
from without. Migrations caused by over-population and
the failure of sufficient subsistence cannot be left out as an
important factor. But out of it came the state, with a cap-
ital city which exercised authority over the country lying
about In such a state conditions of life differ greatly from
those in a tribe. There is now a division of labor, the sol-
dier and the priest, the artisan and the farmer emerging and
taking their place in the social organism. Reading and writ-
ing are now to be found among human accomplishments,
and out of them grow chronology and the writing of annals.
Such a civilization demands gods far different from those
of the tribe. They must be stronger and wiser and more
distinct. A certain division of labor is found among the
divinities, and we come to have what are known as '^depart-
mental gods." With more complexity in society came gods
with more attributes and a richer life. \One of the great
developments at this stage is social morality, and this has
the important effect of JHQI^i!^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ '^^
deities begin to be associated mm moral ideals in 'a manner
tmknown before. With great officials in the nation, from
the king himself to the lesser men who are in more immedi-
ate contact with the masses of the people, we find the "mo-
narchian idea" worked out among the gods, supreme gods
lording it over the lesser divinities and so on down to gods
which scarcely deserve the name. This is but a most gen-
eral statement, but it may serve to indicate the manner in
which the state of civilization is reflected in the organiza-
tion of the pantheon.
3. Thg Universal. Out of the national developed the uni-
versal. yThe universal is the outgrowth of a deepening and
individualizing of religion] As religion ceases to be merely
the possession of a group as such and is seen to involve an
individual relationship between the soul and his God, it be-
comes, potentially at least, universal. What is good for a
THE NATURE OF RELIGION 43
man as an individual is good for another man until by impli-
cation and in the ideal it begins its journey to claim the alle-
giance of all men everywhere. Only a few of the religions
have thus burst the nationalistic bonds and have sought to
become international or universal. Most of the great reli-
gions have remained through the ages attached to one people
or nation. It is a distinct advance when they deepen and
develop to such an extent that the very hope of their con-
tinued existence seems to lie in propagating them to the ends
of the earth. This is the highest form of religion, and is
to-day represented by three virile faiths, namely, Buddhism,
Mohammedanism, and Christianity. These three, as repre-
senting the missionary idea, must be the high points in
our study.
A last consideration must have to do with the method of
procedure. We may well take it up here because the three
stages of religious development just given point to the most
convenient and most significant outline to be followed in the
chapters which follow. Much has been written on the classi-
fication of religions, and many schemes have been devised,
but most of them fail to be convincing. They are of little
practical use and do not give any helpful clue in organizing
the material at hand. It seems best to take up animistic
religion first, representing as it does the religion of man in
the tribal form of organization. Following this the national
religions may be studied. Here the problem of order is
almost impossible of solution, if one desires to trace devel-
opment and historical continuity in any religion or in any
people. Two great families of religion are those of the
Indo-European peoples and the Semitic peoples. But where
shall we place Egyptian religion, which is in no sense Indo-
European and only partially Semitic ? How shall ^e study
Buddhism, which sprang out of Aryan soil in India, but
finally disappeared there and appeared among the so-called
Turanian peoples in China, Tibet, Korea, and Japan ? The
only thing to do is to decide arbitrarily on a certain course,
44 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
knowing full well that it cannot be entirely satisfactory. So,
after having discussed the religion of the animistic peoples
we shaU take up the national religions, starting in by a study
of the ancient faiths of Egypt and of Babylonia and Assyria.
Then we may begin the journey through the broad field of
the religions of the Indo-European peoples, those of ancient
Greece and Rome, the religion of Zoroaster, Hinduism, and
Buddhism. Having done this, we shall cross the mountains
into Eastern Asia and examine the religions of China and
Japan, in each case carrying on the story of Buddhism as
found m these countries. This, then, clears the field for the
religions of the Semitic peoples, Judaism and Islam. The
last section will be devoted to an inquiry into the origins, the
history, and significance of the Christian religion. The
journey is a loi^^ one, but the student will be amply re-
warded as he realizes that he deals with those matters which
are deepest in the human heart, and which are of the greatest
significance in tracing the history of man and his progress
in civilization.
Suggestions vok Fubthik Study
Morris Jastrow, Jr., The Study of Religion (New York, igoi).
George Galloway, The Philosophy of ReHgion (New York, 1914)1
Part I, The Nature and Development of Religion.
George Albert Coe, The Psychology of Religion (Chicago, 1916).
L. R. Famell, The Evolution of Religion (New York, 1905).
C. P. Tiele, Elements of the Science of Religion, 2 vols. (Edinburgh,
1897). Out of print, to be found in library.
J. B. Pratt, The Religious Consciousness (New York, 1990).
CHAPTER II
ANIMISTIC RELIGION
Animistic Peoples and Their Habitat
The rdigion we are about to describe has been called by
various names. It has been spoken of as tribal or primitive
religion, and also by the name we have used. Not any one
is entirely satisfactory. Tribal religion is an accurate desig-
nation because all the people who have this form of religion
and have not advanced beyond it are in the tribal form of
organization. It is only because one or two other terms
penetrate a little deeper into the inner meaning of the beliefs
and practices of these people that it is not used. Probably
the most widely used designation at the present time is prim-
itive religion. The difficulty is that what we are dealing
with is not really primitive. The religion of the most back-
ward peoples in the world gives undeniable evidences of de-
velopment out of something more simple and crude. At best
it only approximates the primitive, and is far removed from
what might be described correctly by that word. There is
objection also to the word "animistic" because that attitude
of mind is not left behind when higher forms of religion
are attained, and so is not peculiar to those who are at the
religious stage which is designated by that name. But it is
used here because it is the animistic outlook or interpreta-
tion of their world which dominates all the thoughts and
actions of the backward peoples. Their religion is the rela-
tionship which these peoples have established between them-
selves and certain of the spirits of their animism. Hence
this term penetrates to the underlying philosophy of these
peoples and has been chosen to designate their religion in
these studies.
45
46 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
There is good reason why this form of religion should be
most carefully investigated, and why it should be studied
first. As has already been pointed out, all the more fully
developed religions of the world have emerged out of these
more primitive forms. They have all passed through the
animistic stage and cannot be understood without a knowl-
edge of this period of their development. In every case it
will be necessary to describe that stage of each religion be-
fore going on to the forms it has later assumed. In this
way we shall be dealing with animistic religion frequently
and not only in this chapter. And even among the most civ-
ilized and cultured peoples many remnants or vestiges of this
early stage are still to be found. Superstitions of all kinds,
many of them innocent and others far more serious in their
effect, abound. The good luck to be expected from an old
horse-shoe and the ill luck which flows from the number
thirteen will suggest a score of other superstitions known
and more or less believed in among our own friends and rela-
tions. What is the meaning of these strange "survivals"?
No adequate explanation can be given without an under-
standing of the animistic outlook. These furtive beliefs
have only been handed down because in each generation re-
ceptive minds respond eagerly to such stimuli, minds which
have failed to rise to the stage from which these puerile
notions have been banished. But they are with us far and
wide and it becomes our duty to recognize the large place
they occupy and understand their significance in our
civilization.
No census has been taken of the animistic peoples as a
whole. We know how many there are in the United States,
in India, and in some other countries, but for the most part
they have lived until so recently outside the pale of civiliza-
tion that any scientific enumeration was not even thought of.
Now that the whole world has been parceled out and the
uncultured peoples are under the supervision of one or
another of the advanced nations we may expect that more
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 47
certain knowledge of the numbers of animists may be forth-
coming. At the present time we must depend upon esti-
mates. And when estimates differ widely we can only say
that we do not know much about the subject. One estimate
gives a hundred and fifty-seven millions' and another a hun-
dred and seventy-three millions.* At any rate they form a
not inconsiderable part of the population of the earth. In
no place is the population dense, the very conditions of their
life making anything approaching overcrowding impossible.
They are scattered more or less over both hemispheres.
No continent, not even Europe, is without some representa-
tives of these uncultured tribes. We have on this side of
the Atlantic the Eskimos and the many tribes of aboriginal
Indians, both in North and South America. The largest
single group of animists is to be found in Africa, where the
various Negro and Bantu tribes occupy the great body of
the continent. On the mainland of Asia are various aborig-
inal tribes, such as the Ainu in Japan, the Lolos, and others
in the mountain and desert fastnesses of northern, western,
and southwestern China, and the interesting hill tribes of
India, the Bhils, the Gonds, and many others. In all these
cases the more primitive peoples have been displaced by the
coming of those who, emigrating from some previous abode,
have taken possession of the country and driven the former
occupants back into the more inaccessible and undesirable
sections of the country. There they have remained much
as they were centuries, or even a millennium, ago. But,
again, in the island world of the Southern Pacific conditions
are much as they are in Africa. A large population of ani-
mistic tribesmen, out of touch through ages with peoples of
a higher civilization, live a life which has taken its form
i¥ith no outside influence to turn it from its natural devel-
opment. The great islands of Stunatra, Java, Borneo, and
'Encyclopaedia Britannica, nth edition, article, ''Missions."
'Zeller, as quoted in Waraeck's History of Protestant Missions,
lotfa German edition.
48 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
New Guinea, not to mention the aboriginal tribes in the Phil-
ippines, New Zealand, and Australia, furnish the largest part
of the population of this ocean world. But besides these
are the people of the hundreds of small islands, some little
better than coral reefs, scattered over the face of the broad
Pacific. Coming now very rapidly under the influence of
Western nations, these people are showing many signs of
change. They are still for the most part in the animistic
stage, but this condition must soon be exchanged for another
as they come into more intimate contact with the commerce
and education and religion of the Western world. The con-
tact already had has been both beneficial and baneful, and
the serious question is, whether the last end of these simple
people may not be worse than the first. It all depends upon
the side of our culture and civilization which succeeds in
making itself felt most powerfully as these people leave their
old moorings and enter the troubled stream of modem life.
The great variety of animistic peoples scattered over the
world is an embarrassment when their religious life is to be
studied. Each tribe has religious practices and beliefs which
differ from those of others. It would seem that the only
way in which the religion of these people could be ade-
quately presented would be to take each tribe or group of
similar tribes separately and give an account of its religious
rites and beliefs. This is the only way in which the great
national religions can be treated, so individual are they and
so different in their history and outlook. But while the
religion of a tribe is not the same as that of others the
case is quite different from that of the more developed
faiths. The differences are comparatively slight As soon
as certain superficial differences are noted an almost monot-
onous sameness is to be discovered. Probably owing to the
lack of suppleness in the thought-life of the animist little
diversity is to be found. Thought is weak and covers a
very limited range. It is not introspective, nor does it de-
velop into reflection. Its reactions are spontaneous and
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 49
naive, and hence more or less alike even among peoples sep-
arated by half the circumference of the globe. This being
the case, it is not necessary to describe many of the varieties
of practice to come to an understanding of the meaning of
animistic religion.
Before taking up the various aspects of savage belief and
life it may be weU to call attention to several of its more
general characteristics. It has been suggested that thp rplt-
gion of peoples }ivin^ in tlfe trivial form of organization ejc-
dbits three marked peculiarities, that it is traditional, nat-
nral, and spontaneous.
1. Traditional. These forms of religion, like the culture
niit of which thev spring, have no written language and no
literature. Thig ^ means no history and no possibili ty of aSiy
significant and conscious prop'ess . This is just what we
find. The religion of these peoples is about what it was a
thousand years ago. No advance can be made until the ex-
isting social order has been changed into something higher.
Religion may do this, but it must be religion brought in from
the outside. So long as the only means of passing on from
one generation to another the accumulated wisdom of the
past is by word of mouth there is no hope of building up
civilization which shall show marks of steady improvement.
A traditional civilization is alwavs stationary: it onlv rise s
to higher .levels when its acts ca n be recorded and trans-
mitted to posterity in forms which are permanen t.
2. Natural. By which is meant that the natural desires
are about as far as the savage goes in his outreach. He is
— - - — .
of necessity so occupied in the material and physical that
no other needs are felt. Enough for himself and his family
to eat, care of his animals, protection against his enemies,
the satisfaction of his primary impulses — ^these are about all
he thinks about. His needs are simple and crude and can
never become more complex and refined so long as he con-
tinues to live this life. He is not awake to himself and the
latent possibilities of his deeper nature. Spiritual attain-
so THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
ment is denied him because he has never felt any aspiration
after the things of the spirit. This condition is not acci-
dental, it is inevitable so long as people remain on this level.
We are dealing, then, with man not at his best, but man
tmdeveloped and curtailed and cramped and dwarfed. He
is a man, to be sure, but a man without the touch which
lifts him out of the purely natural into the sphere of the
spirit.
3. Spontaneous. They can point to no founder and no
rrtin'al tiimin^r.pnin ts which have determined the directi on
they should talce. Thpy havft grown sp ontaneously as a
feature of the life and culture of the tribe, and as u ncon-
gtiouslv as anv other feature. Like everything else m tne
life about him, the animistic savage takes religion for
granted, as he does the hill which stands opposite his village
or the chief of the tribe. Everything to his mind has always
been as it is now and needs no further justification or expla-
nation. Religion is perfectly normal and as much a part of
his life as sleeping at night or going to battle when an enemy
approaches. Spontaneity, together with the other two char-
acteristics just mentioned, shows us religion at its lowest
level and almost at a standstill. Variations are to be found,
but they are variations within the limits just given by these
three descriptive terms.
Animism and the Mysterious Power
All people believe in spirits. No degraded tribe has been
discovered without it. These spirits are everywhere, in the
sky above, on the earth beneath, in the depths of the waters,
and in the dark caverns and recesses of the mysterious
mountains. All nature is tenanted by an invisible host of
spiritual beings not far away from man and likely at any
moment to make their presence felt in any one of a hundred
ways. It is easy to understand why the savage should
think that animals are possessed of spirits like ourselves,
but it is not at first sight evident why the inanimate objects
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 51
of nature should be so possessed. Every river and lake,
mountain and hill, tree and shrub, stick and stone, is the
dwelling place of some spirit. The clouds, the stars, the
sun and the moon likewise are what they are because of
indwelling spirit. Savage man lives in a densely populated
world. Not only are these spirits the invisible souls of the
objects around him, but there are legions of free spirits
flitting around in the air, homeless wanderers, not belong-
ing in any one place, but at liberty to travel and range over
a wide area. He may know where many spirits are by the
objects which they inhabit, but that does not help him when
he is in the forest or crosses a river. He cannot tell when
and where a mischievous imp may trip him as he walks or
some devilish ogre pull him under the surface of the water
and cause him to drown. And then there is the smallpox
demon who may attack his village, or the blight which may
destroy his meager crop. Whatever happens is caused by
a spiritual agency. "What spirit is it who has killed my
cow?" asks the savage, or "Who was it that brought the
flood last spring?" The savage, in other words, is an ani-
mist; he lives a world that is alive and throbbing with
vitality all the time.
Now, while he believes in spirits this primitive man is
not spiritual in the true sense. He has not learned to dis-
tinguish between a material and a spiritual world. To him
there is no essential difference between the visible and the
invisible. He may not be able to see the spirit, but it might
be seen, he thinks. He looks upon it as a more or less thin
vapory substance which has qualities not possessed by the
heavier, tangible things he sees, but is of the same general
character. Very naturally he identifies the soul with the
breath, for when a man ceases to breathe, his spirit or soul
has left. This breath cannot usually be seen, but it can be
felt, and, on occasion when condensation takes place, it has
visible form and can be seen flowing from a man's mouth
and nostrils. He identifies this with the soul of the man
52 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
himself; he has not risen above the purely physical in his
explanation of the spirit worid.
That dreams have played an important part in making
the realm of the spirit real to him there can be little doubt.
A dream is just as real an experience to people living on
this plane as the experience of their viking moments.
They or their spirits actually do the things they dream
about. While they dream their bodies may remain in the
place where they lay down, but their spirits have traveled
far and have passed through strange and wonderful expe-
riences. There is no doubt about it ; it is altogether real to
them. The only difference between dreams and death is
that when one dreams his spirit has departed for a season
only, while when a man dies his spirit does not come back.
Flowing naturally from this is his unfailing belief in a life
after death. He continues to live on, in a world which he
has visited before. It is perfectly natural for him to think
that way. His ideas may differ according to natural condi-
tions and social environment, but the belief is there, un-
quenchable and strong.
Without attempting to go back into stages of development
man has left behind, we find in the mind of these peoples
today a conception which may explain the belief in spirits
and other ideas which are in his mind. It is the conception
of a mysterious pervasive power present in the universe and
recognized in many forms of activity. The familiar name
by which it is known is taken from Pol3niesia, where it is
called mafia . But it is known by other names, manitu by
the Algonquian family of Indians, arenda by the Iroquoian
family, and wakan by the Sioux, and by still other names
elsewhere. But by whatever name it is called it is looked
upon as about the same thing. The word mana came into
our vocabulary through the classic statement of Bishop R. H.
Codrington, in his volume. The Melanesians. "It is a power
or influence, not physical, and in a way supernatural; but
it shows itself in physical force, or in a kind of power or
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 53
excellence which a man possesses. This tnana is not fixed
in anything, and can be conveyed in aknost anything; but
spirits, whether disembodied souls or supernatural beings,
have it and can impart it; and it essentially belongs to per-
sonal beings to originate it, though it may act through the
medium of water, or a stone, or a bone/" Professor C. H.
Toy sums up its meaning in this short sentence :
word, a term for the force residing in any obiectJ
It is said that the conception is not to be found among the
most degraded savages, that some further development
seems to be necessary before men rise to the thought. It is
true also that as civilization advances the idea is laid aside
and ceases to function as a definite belief. But among ani-
mistic peoples as they are found the world over the idea of
this quasi-personal force is present and very influential as
an explanation of about all that happens. Men are alive
and do things, chiefs have authority, a tree puts out fruit
and leaves, an animal secures its prey, a fisherman is suc-
cessful in his catch, and a thousand other things are what
they are and accomplish what is done, all because of this
mysterious power. As we proceed in our study of the reli-
gion of these people, of their divine beings and their wor-
ship, of magic and fetishism, of totemism and tabu, re-
course must be had to this conception, for without it there
would be no means of explaining the results which appear
and the activities and repressions which make up the life of
the animistic peoples.
The Higher Powers of Animistic Reugion
What we have been describing is not religion but the raw
material out of which religion is made. Coming to the more
definite question of the objects of worship, th e first thing
to be said is that they are the spirits of their animism. Not
'The Melanesians, p. 119.
* Introduction to Uie History of Religions, p. loi. (Ginn, Boston,
1913.)
54 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
all of them are worshiped, but the more primitive peoples
know of no other objects they may worship. Let us beware
just here of concluding that these poor people do much
thinking as we should call it to-day. Their religion is far
more a matter of the emotions than of the intellect. Their
minds are greatly confused, and what they do depends far
more on the impulse of the moment and the excitement
bom of a dance or a period of fasting or an impressive
ceremonial than on sober thought. The instability of sav-
age nerves is mentioned frequently by writers on the life
of primitive people. Their reactions are largely of the
high-strung, emotional type and cannot be understood with-
out taking this into consideration. As a result their choice
of divinities and the worship accorded them is a choice
determined by the emotional reaction of the savage to his
environment. He is aware of scores and hundreds of
spirits around him, he turns to some of them in worship,
and this becomes his religion.
We Hn no t Icnnw w hat spirits he worshiped first. Herbert
Spencer's attempt to prove that ancestors were the first
gods men worshiped has failed to convince. All we know
is that man is found worshiping a great variety of beings
and doing it rather indiscriminately. The question of inter-
est, however, is to determine why certain objects were
chosen instead of others, for, although the savage may not
know why, there must be some reason for his choice. There
can be no question that the only being he would worship
must be one which for one reason or another appears to
him as possessed of power superior to his own. For this
reason the gods of these peoples are frequently called
Powers. That is the necessary and almost the only nec-
essary qualification. In wisdom, skill, cunning, as well as
in physical prowess he must exceed the might of man.
This is determined at times in ways which to us appear
naive and utterly inadequate. Mere physical force may
not seem to us to be indicative of superiority, but it does
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 55
to a savage. But besides this he is struck by what is
strange, uncanny, mysterious, or even grotesque and queer.
All these aspects of the things he finds go beyond his power
of comprehension and suggest strength, and often for no
other reason than their mysteriousness. And in this way
the pantheon, if it can be dignified by that name, of savage
people is not consistent and the same. New objects are con-
stantly attracting the attention of the animist and taking
the place of other powers now shrunk down to more ordi-
nary dimensions.
Inanimate obfects are worshiped wherever animists are
found. Trees are alive and provide shade and food — ^should
they not be worshiped? "Although the tree is rooted to
one spot, it responds to every influence without. Swayed
by the breeze, or smitten by the storm, it is never at rest.
Murmurs are heard in its leaves, or its branches creak and
writhe as in agony ; sounds are emitted from the gaunt stem
or hollow trunk — ^voices, the savage doubts not, of the in-
dwelling spirit whose life seems permanently associated
with the fixed tree."* Stones are also widely worshiped.
To a savage a stone is no dead inanimate object as to us. It
is so hard and sometimes so strange in color and shape that
the savage is deeply fascinated and turns in real adoration
to it and asks for some boon. Added to this is the fact that
some of these stones fell from heaven and hence must
surely be divine. Meteorites have been the objects of adora-
tion in many countries. "Great is Diana of the Ephesians,"
was the shout of devoted worshipers of an ugly aerolite
within the beautiful temple built to house it. Another such
stone was that of Cybele, the Great Mother of the Gods,
which was brought to Rome in B. C. 204, when the city was
in danger of attack by Hannibal. These illustrations show
the influence of stone worship in religions which had passed
out of the stage we are now considering. In Nigeria "when
men are sick in town, we cast lots, and then give food to
* Edward Qodd, Animism, p. 73.
56 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
the stones. We also give them pahn-wine or gin/** But
besides these, plants and mountains and fire and winds and
waters are objects of adoration, and in each case there is
some reason for the choice.
The greater objects of nature, the over-arching sky, the
dazzling sun, the resplendent nxxm, the distant stars, all
come in for their share of attention in the cult. But it must
be said that the lesser objects of nature, more nearly con-
nected with their daily wants and work, occupy the atten-
tion of these simple people far more than the grand, awe-
inspiring heavenly bodies. At a later time, when religion
had achieved a higher level, these greater objects came to
their own. The last form assumed by paganism before it
went down before Christianity in the fourth century was
the worship of Sol Invictus, the "Invincible Sun."
If objects inanimate serve as divinities for the savage,
how much more animals, full of life and movem ent and
cunning . The majesty of the lion, the ferocity ot tne
tiger, the wisdom of the elephant, the cunning of the fox,
the mysteriousness of the snake led in each case to an atti-
tude approaching worship. They inspired fear and needed
propitiation. This form of worship was at times carried
over into more highly developed religions, as we shall see
strikingly illustrated in the religion of Egypt. Savages
attribute to animals a wisdom and cunning far beyond their
due. 'This lifts them up to a plane as high, if not higher,
than man himself and makes worship seem quite natural.
And even where actual worship is not paid to animals, they
are held sacred and marks of respect and veneration are
shown.
yhe worship of human beings is widely spread , though
it is too much to say that it is universal. Living men,
chiefs and kings, emperors and saints, have been deified and
worshiped. A great man is possessed of power of the
same kind as causes one to tremble in the presence of a
* Edward Qodd, op. dt, p. 7%
ANIMISTIC RELIGION $7
strong animal or a rushing torrent, and hence may be wor-
shiped. But it is to the cult of the dead to which attention
is now specially called. Historical personages, legendary
or mythical ancestors among many peoples have been looked
upon as legitimate objects of worship. Among savages,
however, as well as among those more civilized, a man's
own ancestors have been raised to a high place among his
gods. A careful distinction must be made between rever-
ence and worship. In many cases the attitude is not that of
a worshiper at all, but when it does rise to that height it is
veritable worship.
Death makes a difference. A man cannot be the same
after he dies that he was when alive. Not hampered by his
body, he is free to roam at large. He has powers which
were not his before. He has not, however, become a spirit-
ual being, in our sense of the word, even though he is invis-
ible. He has the same desires and wants. Food and drink,
clothing and weapons, and in the case of the great man,
servants and attendants are as necessary as before. He
has not passed beyond the pale of his former relationships
and knows quite well what is going on. It is even thought
that his condition in the other world is determined, at least
in part, by the treatment he continues to receive from his
family. Should he fail to receive what he believes to be
his due, his anger is aroused and he may inflict sore chas-
tisement on his relatives here below. It is chiefly those of
the past two or three generations who are worshiped. Even
in China, where ancestor worship has been carried along
through all the stages of their development in civilization,
after the second or third generation the ancestral tablets are
removed to the clan hall. When memory becomes weak
or fails, the ancestor fades out of the life of the living and
his place is taken by those more recently lost.
What of the motives which actuate men when they wor-
ship their departed dead? Undoubtedlv love and the desire
to treat well and provide for their welfare have had influ-
58 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
ence in the long continuance of the custom, but the general
testimony is that fsaL^^ ^ powerful if not far more so as
a motive to-day. It is well to keep on good terms with the
dead. No one can tell what might happen if the sacrifices
were n^lected. As spirits, resentful of the neglect and
unfaithfulness of their descendants, they would tmdoubtedly
bring ill-luck afld catastrophe upon the living famil]
form of worthip is distinctively social and tends id keep
the family together and gives its members common inter-
ests and a common sanction for their ethical standards.
These must be lived up to, or the family may suffer. In
this way ancestor worship has been of benefit to the race.
One of the most singular and interesting features oi
religion of savages is fetishispa. Our term comes from the
Portuguese feiHgo (Latin, facer e, to make), a word applied
by Portuguese sailors to the objects held sacred by West
African natives, which were regarded by the Europeans as
charms or talismans. What does it mean in modem reli-
gious nomenclature ? It is very confusing, so much so that
some have been tempted to give it up entirely. The philos-
opher Comte makes it mean what we have called by the
general name of animism. Doctor Nassau and Miss Kings-
ley have given the name to all the religious practices of the
West African Negroes. It is not in this sense that we use
the word here, but in a much narrower sense. As Profes-
sor Menzies says, "It is best to limit it to the worship ^i
such natural objerts as are reverenced, not for their own
power or excellence, but because they are supposed t o 5e
occupied each bv a spirit."^
A fetish may be any natural object whatever, but there
must be some reason why the native selects a particular
object, something about it which appeals to him and shows
that it possesses supernatural power. Something strikes
him as being out of the ordinary, and that is enough; he
wiU take it as his fetish. ''So the fetish consists of a queer-
* History of Religion, p. 33.
ANIMISTIC RELIGION S9
shaped stone, a bright bead, a stick, parrots' feathers, a
root, claw, seed, bone, or any curious or conspicuous object''
Professor Tylor relates the story of how a man chose a
stone about as big as a hen's egg for his fetish. ''He was
going out on important business, but crossing the thresh-
old he trod on this stone suid hurt hiftself. 'Ha, ha!
thought he, 'art thou here?* So he took thfe stone, and it
helped him through his undertaking for days."*
In West Africa a fetish is not so much found as made
or concocted by the witch-doctor or medicine-man. We may
quote from Doctor R. H. Nassau :
"The next step, the admixture of the ingredients, is secret.
They are ground or triturated, or reduced to ashes, and
only the ash or charcoal of their wood is used. Among the
common ingredients are colored earths, chalk, or potter's
blue clay. Beyond the usual constituents constantly em-
ployed there are other single ones, which vary according
to the end to be obtained by the user of the fetish — for one
end, as elsewhere already mentioned, some portion of an
enemy's body; for another, an ancestor's powdered brain;
for another, the liver or gall-bladder of an animal ; for an-
other, a finger of a dead first-born child; for another, a
certain fish; and so on for a thousand possibilities. These
ingredients are compounded in secret, and with public drum-
ming, dancing, songs to the spirit, looking into limpid water
or a mirror, and sometimes with the addition of jugglers'
tricks, for example, the eating of fire.
"The ingredients having been thus properly prepared,
and the spirit, according to the magician's declarations,
having associated itself lovingly with these mixed articles,
they and it are put into the cavity of the selected horn or
other hollow thing (a gourd, a nut shell, and so forth).
They are packed in firmly. A black resin is plastered over
the opening. . . . While the resin is still soft, the red tail-
' Both quotations from Haddon, Magic and Fetishism, p. 73. (Con-
stable, London, 191a)
6o THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
feathers of the gray African parrot are stuck into it This
description is typical"*
Now, the fetish is very much like a man. It possesses
personality and will; it can fed and knows the meaning of
anger and resentment as well as gratitude and kindness. It
is also quite human in that while the particular spirit which
belongs to the natural object can belong to no other, it can
be and is sometimes separated from the object and seems to
disappear. Then the natural object ceases to be of any
value ; that is, it ceases to be a fetish. Everything depends
on the presence of the spirit to make the fetish object a
source of benefit to its possessor.
The fetish is treated as an object of worship, has offerings
made to it, and is addressed in prayer. But this is only a
part of the procedure. If the ends sought are not gained
in this way, the attitude changes and the fetish is coaxed
and even commanded to bring about the desired result. If
this does not succeed, the little thing is scolded for its dis-
obedience and may be compelled to sulnnit to a whipping.
And, finally, if this vigorous treatment proves unsuccess-
ful, the conclusion is reached that the spirit has departed,
or at any rate that some more powerful spirit is interfering
with the operation of the fetish. About all there is to do
after such a discovery is made is to lay it aside or throw
it away altogether. The savage does not lose faith in his
theory or in the practice; he has only come to the conclu-
sion that the particular fetish he had is of no use — ^he must
proceed to find another.
A number of theories have been advanced concerning the
origin of fetishism and its relation to the development of
religion. That it is a very low form nf reWpc^ no one can
deny. This has led some to the conclusion that it is the
earliest form of religion, the crude beginning of man's
attempt to relate himself to powers recognized as stronger
than himself. Others feel that it is a backward step from a
* Fetishism in West Africa, p. iiif. (Duckworth, London, 1904.)
ANIMISTIC RELIGIONT 6i
form of religion which was developing in the right direc-
tion, but which received this serious setback. Professor
Menzies speaks of a fetish as "a deity at his disposal/' not
above man, but below him, which if it will not do what man
wants at his reouest must be made to do so by coercion.
So far as the origin of this strai^ form of "religion'^ is
concerned, we shall probably never be able to find a satis-
factory explanation. But we may do that which is of more
significance, realize its meaning and evaluate it as one of
the manifestations of man's need of help from higher
power^^ e can only come to such an understanding, how-
ever, by studying fetishism in its relationship to magic,
which will appear in a later section of the chapter. Suffice
it to say here that fetishism ^g a deadening influence in the
life of the a nimist. and is one of the factors which tend to
keep him down in the mire of dread and apprehension in
njrhich his life is so largelv lived .
Before leaving the subject of the higher powers which
are worshiped by animistic peoples we must take up a ques-
tion of real interest, but at the same time of great difficulty.
It is the theory that in addition to the many spirits and
demons of his animism the savage possesses a conception of
a supreme spirit over ai^d above them all. The controversy
which has raged is not so much over the presence of the
conception, which is quite generally recognized, but has to
do with the origin and significance of the belief among
savage peoples. Andrew Lang brought the whole question
to a focus in his volume The Making of Religion. His
claim is that, while the savage peopled the universe with
spirits in accordance with his general animistic outlook, by
another channel, through a kind of intuition, he placed an
All-Father in the supreme place far above the world of his
spirits. It is easy to see that this conception lends itself
readily to the theory of a primitive monotheism, that before
man believed in higher powers in the form of the spirits of
his animism he had in his mind a single being, the creator
62 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
of all, the one on whom he was dependent and to whom he
offered worship. It is acknowledged at the same time that
no tribe of savages is to be found with this pure belief
to-day. In addition their world is filled with countless
spirits and demons with whom they are intimately related
in the affairs of everyday life. And what belief remains of
this Creative Father is exceedingly hazy. It is far in the
background of their thinking and not closely connected with
what they plan and carry out in their ordinary employ-
ments. They do not even worship this far-distant being.
They seem to feel that he is too far away to be interested
in the things which concern them. He is there as a con-
ception and that is about all. They are not monotheists in
reality. The presence of the belief does not seem to raise
their thoughts, nor to prevent them from a thousand prac-
tices which are utterly out of keeping with such a lofty
conception.
But it is there. What shall be done with it? It runs
counter to Tylor's theory that only as man advanced out of
cruder conceptions could he conceive of a god in the mono-
theistic sense. One suggestion which has been made is that
the idea is not original in the savage mind at all, but has been
put there through contact with Christian missionaries. This
may have been the case in some places, even where the
people have no memory of any such obligation to the white
man from across the seas. The memory of people who
live by tradition is very short and confused. But it would
be very reckless to claim that this was the only source of
the belief. It is too widely extended and too deeply im-
bedded in the popular consciousness to be accounted for in
that way. Andrew Lang's own explanation is not alto-
gether satisfying, not so much because primitive man could
not think monotheistically if the thought were suggested to
him, but because it seems so utterly unlike anything else in
his development and so useless in his life, as the relation-
ship which he holds to the conception amply demonstrates.
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 63
We do not know how it arose. It may have been by the
legendary embellishment of the traditions of a great tribal
hero. The myth-making tendency is always at work and
seeks to explain origins and strildng phenomena by telling
stories about natural objects, animals, and men, and making
them creators and saviours of men a nd tribes. /But what-'
ever may be the correct explanation, we cann6t go far wrong
by tying up this phenomenon with others more easily under-
stood which have their explanation in the working of the
principle of analogy. He could scarcely arrive at a con-
clusion utterly out of touch with his previous experience.
He has his intuitions, but intuitions are strongly emotional
and are not likely to lead to what is distinctly an intellectual
conception. What it does show is that man has the capacity
for such high thinking and gives evidence of it even in his
primitive state. He was made for monotheism and gives
promise of attaining it, by even these vague thoughts which
point in that direction.
Are the gods or higher powers of animistic i'<hllglUii guuif
gods? What, in otfier words, is their character? We
already have a clue; the powers partake of the character
of the nature from which they are taken, and the simple
fact is nature has no moral character. It is not moral nor
immoral, but nonmoral; it is neutral ethically. There is
another side to the question: nature may not be good or
evil in a high moral sense, but she does not treat people in
the same way on all occasions. Sometimes she is like a
tender mother or a beautiful summer afternoon, when peace
reigns everywhere and no sign of disturbance appears on
the horizon. But nature has other moods and may become
as fierce and ravenous as a wild beast, "red in tooth and
claw." A West Indian hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake,
a tidal wave, a volcanic eruption all represent another side,
which is very different from the calm and quiet of an au-
tumn sunset. Yet all come from the same source — what
can the savage think of nature and the spirits who are so
64 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
kind and also so destructive? In his mind they may have
a common origin, but he distinguishes between the spirits
which are beneficent and kind and the demons which are
constantly seeking to do him harm.
The strange thing, however, is that the mind of the sav-
is occupied far more with the demons whose influenc e
is seeking to e «f^p^ thg n the good spirits which might
he denendeH rm tn talcP ^ig <;iHi> and accompli sh his desire.
It is exceeding doubtful whether, before man had begun
to till the soil and thus formulate the conception of the
gods and goddesses of fertility and agriculture, his mind
was not so occupied with the malignant spirits which were
constantly on the watch to do him injury that little oppor-
tunity was offered for thought about the good spirits whom
he might have discovered. But when the age of agriculture
is reached unmistakable signs indicate that the soil which
furnishes food for man and beast is looked upon as kindly.
"Mother-Earth" is the term used to express this feeling of
gratitude and dependence. She at least could be depended
on. But even then the fear of the evil spirits which bring
blight and drought and the grasshopper is not absent. He
has confidence in certain spirits, but he lives a life of fear
nevertheless, a life not to be envied as idyllic by those who
live under more favorable conditions. So long as man
remains in the tribal form of organization he seems unable
to rise above the purely natural into the realm of ethical
good. He has his standards of action, and the moral does
enter in and determine to some extent his conduct, but, to
use Professor Galloway's words, "There are no instances
of the evolution of an ethical religion by a tribal group.
$ti»
TOTEMISM AND TaBU
Our main interest is religion, but closely connected with
the religion of animistic peoples ate customs and practices
without which their hfe — ^and consequently their religion —
" Philosophy of Religion, p. 108.
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 65
would be very different. One of these is totemism. Now,;
a tntPm is an animal ^or a plant or even, in a f ew cases, an
inatiimate object"^ verv closely related to a ^oup, wh ich
he y^nse f ]f \]\^\ r^^^^ffflghi P* holds it as something sacreTT
The word "totem" comes from the language of the Ojibway
Indians (Qiippewa) and signifies "a group." This relation
of the group to its totem separates it from other groups,
each with its own totem. It thus became a form of social
organization determining many features of the life of the
tribe. It is found developed most fully among the Amer-
ican Indians and the aboriginal tribes of Australia, but clear
indications of its presence are to be discovered in many
other regions. There are those who believe that totemism
is a stage of development through which all peoples have
passed, and that it is essential in order to explain many
features of subsequent development. The difficulty in de-
termining this fact is that what may seem to be a survival
of totemism may turn out to be only a survival of ordinary
animal worship.
Totemism is so complex and multiform that no attempt
can be made to describe it here. Its connection with reli -
^on, however.* may be pointed out . The totem animal^ to
which the totem group believes itself related^ is frequently
regarded as the ancestor of the group . There is no diffi-
culty among savages to believe in so close a relationship
between men and animals. They are so much alike that pas-
sage from one species to another is not strange nor unheard
' of in his tales repeated by the fireside. As the ancestor of a
group of men and women the animal may even be wor-
shiped. It must not be killed or maltreated. The only
exception to this rule is that among some peoples the totem
animal is killed on certain important occasions and eaten
sacramentally by all who belong to that totem clan. They
look upon it as a reestablishment of the bond between the
group and its totem, thus insuring friendly relations during
the time to come. But even where this custom does not
66 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
prevail and no worship is offered, the people are boand to-
gether closely and look upon what they do religiously as
well as in other ways as a common act. A common obliga-
tion holds them ti^ther and leads them to fed a sense of
mutual obligation and responsibility.
Qosely connected with totemism are several other cus-
toms most important in the life of the savage. There is, in
the first place, <*^ftpaniYf or marriage outside the totem dan.
This custom is very widdy spread and is one of the most
benefidal provisions in savage life. It effectually prevents
intermarriage between close relatives— effectually, for the
savage does not break over these unwritten but absolutdy
binding customs. The origin of exogamy is unknown. How
did such a beneficial rule come into existence among people
so far down in the social scale ? Professor Wilhebn Wundt,
in his Elements of Folk Psychology, disagrees violently
with the theory that exogamy arose with the consdous in-
tention of avoiding marriage within the bonds of near rela-
tionship, as benefidal as the custom proved to be. He holds
that a scholar like Professor J. G. Frazer ascribes far too
much intelligence and foresight to men in this backward
condition. The complicated organization of social life to
which exogamy bdongs is the result of a long devdopment
and not the deliberate plan of the so-called ''wise ancestors*'
of the present-day savage. It is hard to avoid Professor
Wundfs condusion that ''the phenomena arose in the course
of a long period of time, out of conditions inunanent in the
life and cult of these tribes.""
Among a great many savage peoples certain rites of initia^-
^on are practiced upon yotmg men and women. When at
the time of puberty they pass out of childhood into man-
hood and womanhood they are initiated into the secret lore
of their people. Then is disclosed to them the meaning of
customs and practices previously withhdd, and they are
admitted fully into the life of the tribe. The ceremonies
"P. i6d. (MacmiUaii, New York, 19161)
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 67
are long and complicated and subject the initiates to great
pain and weird and disgusting ordeals. Accompanied by
noise and dances which render the night hideous, the ritual
is performed in strict adherence to the traditions handed
down from generation to generation. These ceremonies are
largely social, but some of the secrets divulged are of a
religious nature, having to do with sacred objects and the
cult connected with them.
Tabu (taboo) comes from the Polynesian tapu, which
means "sacred' or **Drohibited .'' Thus the term means, as
a noun, a prohibition placed upon contact with or use of
certain things set aside as peculiarly sacred. Its connection
with totemism is that the totem is "tabu" to the members of
th^t totem clan, but tabu has a far wider application than
that. It is a widespread idea, and all over the world the
practice is in full force, affecting the acts and plans of men
in almost all their relationships. An illustration may be
taken from the Todas, a backward people in South India,
whose religion centers around a dairy-ritual. "Many, though
not all, of their buffaloes are sacred, and their milk may not
be drunk. The reason why it may not be drunk anthropolo-
gists may cast about to discover, but the Todas themselves
do not know. All that they know, and are concerned to
Idiow, is that things would somehow all go wrong if anyone
were foolish enough to commit such a sin. So in the Toda
temple, which is a dairy, the Toda priest, who is the dairy-
man, sets about rendering the sacred products harmless. . . .
Thus the ritual is essentially precautionary. A taboo is the
hinge of the whole affair.""
The question may be asked relative to tabu, whv the pro-
{libition is placed upon an object, thus rendering it sacred
and inviolable . Professor Frazer's explanation is that it is
because contact with the object is supposed to bring to the
one guilty or unfortunate enough to touch it some quality
or characteristic it possesses, and this, while normal to the
"R, R. Marctt, Anthropology, p. 217L (Heath, New York.)
68 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
original possessor, would be a baneful influence to the one
who secured it by his deliberate or inadvertent contact
But Professor Marett would go a step further and account
for the fear of contact by mana. . The object or the person
which is tabu is believed to possess an especially large
amount of that mysterious power which if released by con-
tact will cause calamity, pain, ill luck, and even death. The
main difficulty with the whole theory as held by savage
people is that it is devoid of reasonable r^[ulation. The,
practice runs wild and no discrimination is mad e betwem a
prohihitinn whiVb ig wig<> and preventive of harm and a
prohibition whirh ran nnly hamper normal life and acti^^
At even a much later day it was exceedingly difficult f or tfie^
Jewish people to see the difference between a ceremoniar
prohibition and one which involved moral and social issues.
Jysus' rplatifm to the Jewish SUbhath is a case in pgg T
He broke through the merely ceremonial tabus which made
the day a burden and, by declaring that the Sabbath was
made for man, turned the attention to the underlying social
and helpful purposes to which the day should be dedicated.
Let us note, however, that the idea of the sacred and the
holy, things which should not be profaned, existed in the
earliest forms of religion. It is an idea which only needed
elevation and reasonable direction to be fitted to function
in the highest forms of religion. We shall never reach the
point where recognition of what is holy, in human life and
relationship with God, must not be cotmted upon to protect
life from the irreverence which would ruin all possibility
of development.
Animistic Worship
Up to the present time we have been dealing largely with
belief, what the savage thinks about the world in which he
lives, the spirits which are everywhere, and about himself
and his fellows. He has his theories, and they effectively
control his life and its relationships. But he acts as well as
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 69
thinks; he dotihtless acts before he thinks; to him an a ct
{^ more important than the thoug ht he has about it . btu-""
dents of the early forms of religion are indebted to Profes-
sor W. Robertson Smith for pointing out that ritual pre-
cedes belief, that the reaction of a savage to his environ-
ment is first of all emotional, an act, a dance, a ceremonial,
and only latterly an intellectual thing, a belief or a concep-
tion. It is far more a matter of his feet and hands than of
his head. So in discussing the worship of the animistic
peoples we are entering into the very citadel of their reli-
gious life, into that which to them is religion itself.
The motive which actuates his worship — ^is it fear or
trust? Does he have confidence in the spirits with which he
deals or is he afraid of them that they may do him injury
unless he does something to propitiate them or ward them
off? We have already seen that the savage knows of benefi-
cent spirits who bring him the good things he has, but this
is a very little part of the story. His mind is occupied
rather with the thousand evil-minded spirits, the imps and
demons, who would crush him if they could, and are con-
stantly seeking opportunity to do so. Many witnesses are
forthcoming to tell of their experience among savage
peoples, an experience of agony as they have witnessed the
dread and terror which fill the savage mind. We choose
but one of these testimonies, that of J. H. Weeks, who spent
fifteen years among the Boloki of the Upper Congo. He
tells us: "Their system of belief has its basis in their fear
of those numerous invisible spirits — invisible to the ordi-
nary man, but not to the medicine man — which are con-
stantly trying to compass their sickness, misforttme, and
death; and the Boloki's sole object — ^and the same may be
written of his near and distant neighbors on the Congo —
is to cajole or appease, to cheat or conquer, and even destroy
the troublesome spirits, hence their witch-doctors with their
fetishes, their rites and ceremonies. If there were no
spirits to be circumvented, • there would be no need of
TO THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
medicine men as middlemen, and no need of fetishes as
mediums for getting into touch with the spirits/"*
It is no beautiful picture which confronts us when we
penetrate into the inner life of the savage peoples of the
world, and only distance makes possible a certain enchant-
ment as the "simple, rustic life" of a primitive tribe is de-
scribed by the traveler, who fails to penetrate the dark
recesses "at the back of the black man's mind." One fur-
ther quotation is needed to complete the picture and relieve
the strain. After a description of the dread which is pres-
ent in the minds of the Bantu peoples of Africa, we read
again, "However, it would be no doubt a great mistake to
imagine that the minds of the Bantu, or, indeed, of any sav-
ages, are perpetually occupied by a dread of evil spirits ; the
savage and, indeed, the civilized man is incapable, at least
in his normal state, of such excessive preoccupation with a
single idea, which, if prolonged, could hardly fail to end
in insanity."** We undoubtedly have in this attitude of fear
on the part of the savage the best explanation of his back-
ward state. Nobility of character and the development of
society never spring from the disorganizing motive of fear.
To develop the possibilities in man and to organize his life
in ever higher forms of social intercourse require a basis of
trust and confidence — trust and confidence in one another,
and even more fundamentally in the spirits and powers on
whom they are dependent. And these things cannot be
found and do not exist in savage life and religion.
Sagrifigy must be taken up first in the presentation of
worship ; indeed, in early religion the two are almost synon-
ymous. To come directly to the objects which are offered
in sacrifice, the general statement may be made that they
are the things which man himself needs or desires for his
nourishment and comfort and pleasure. Here is analogy at
work again; the spirits are suflSciently like men to need
^ Among Congo Cannibals, p. 259.
>^ Folk-lore, xx, 1909, p. 51 f.
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 71
what thev need and like what they like . So food and drink,
clothing and utensils constitute the body of sacrifice the
world over. Analogy has even gone further and demanded
the sacrifice of human beings — ^slaves, servants, children,
wives — ^to satisfy the beings who surely must need these
things as men do. A certain value must always attach to the
object offered, or it is not efiicacious. Life is the most pre-
cious thing in the world, and this recognition has led to the
taking of life in sacrifice and offering it to the higher pow-
ers. This led very early and widely to the offering of human
life, and the custom continued until the sensibilities of men
turned against such inhumanity with horror and animals
were substituted for htunan beings. But even to-day the
practice prevails in places and is with difikulty rooted up
by civilized governments which have made themselves re-
sponsible for the conduct of savage tribes. The story of
the sacrifice of Isaac in the book of Genesis is the story of
the transition from human sacrifice to the acceptance of an
animal substitute. The letting of blood has been a feature
of sacrifice from the earliest day, the idea being everywhere
present that in some very real fashion ''the life is the blood,"
and so to sacrifice by the effusion of blood is to be sure that
the life itself has been offered to the power before whom
one stands.
"The head of the animal or man may be cut off (and cus-
tom often requires that a single blow shall suffice), its spine
broken or its heart torn out; it may be stoned, beaten to
death or shot, torn in pieces, drowned or buried, burned
to death or hung, thrown down a precipice, strangled or
squeezed to death. The sacrifices may aim at causing a speedy
death or a slow one. The corpse may be burned, in part or
as a whole ; portions may be assigned to the priest, the sacri-
ficer, and the gods; the skull, bones, etc., may receive special
treatment; the fat or blood may be set aside, and they or
the ashes may be singled out as the share of the god, to be
offered upon the altar; the skin of the victim may be em-
y2 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
ployed as a covering for idol or material representative of
the god, either permanently or till the next animal sacri-
fice. The blood of the victim may be drunk by the priest
as a means of inducing inspiration, its entrails may be em-
ployed in divination, its flesh consumed in a common meal,
exposed to the birds and beasts of prey, or buried in the
earth,"^ so varied are the usages in the practice of sacrifice
in different parts of the world.
To placate an angry god is one idea lying back of sacrifice
everywhere. It is not the only purpose, but it prevails as
widely as sacrifice is found. He may be rendered propitious
by gifts or bought off by the bounty which is spread before
him. In the dire straits to which he is often reduced the
savage is willing to do anything to secure inmiunity from
disease or security from any one of a hundred dangers
which surround him. But he has another purpose in many
of his sacrifices. He is conscious, or the group is, that the
god is displeased because of something wrong that has been
done. A tabu has been broken or a custom has been in-
fringed, and the god must be propitiated, he must be ren-
dered friendly again. Again a sacrifice is offered by way of
atoning for the wrong done. An animal may be killed or
burned, the sins may be laid on a scape-goat and the animal
sent out in the wilderness bearing away the guilt of the
people. The guilt is acknowledged and the right of the god
to punish is recognized. The god is willing to accept a sub-
stitute in an animal slain, and thus the idea of the vicarious-
ness of suffering and punishment is established. These con-
ceptions come to their fruition only in the higher religions
where the sense of sin has become clear and poignant, but
the ideas themselves root back into the earlier forms when
men began to feel a sense of responsibility to higher powers.
The attempt to discover the earliest form of sacrifice,
that out of which all the other forms have developed, has
''N. W. Thomas, article. "Sacrifice," Encyclopaedia Britannica,
nth edition.
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 73
proved futile. Without doubt sacrifice does not hark back
to any one single form. The attempt has been made to
carry back every form to the eating of the totem animal
by the totem clan, where it is claimed that the animal is
thought of as being eaten in common by the god and his
people, thus establishing a more enduring friendship between
them. But this sacrifice may not be real commtmion at all ;
it may be a meal which is significant because by eating of a
sacred animal some of the desired qualities may pass into
the life of the eater. Sacrifices are made to ancestors to
provide them with needed articles or the consolations of hu-
man companionship in the world to which they have gone.
Human sacrifice may have originated in this way. Some of
the bloody holocausts which have been offered in Africa
within recent years have been immediately after the death
of a great chief.
Closely connected with sacrifice is prayer. It may be that
the earliest prayer was a call to the spirits to come and par-
take of the sacrifice which had been offered. It is always
the expression of a desire, the making of a request that this
or that may or may not take place. It is the instinctive
utterance of the human heart when in distress or threatened
by some danger. It is usually offered in time of need when
supernatural help mUst be called in to save a situation other-
wise hopeless. The prayer of savages never rises higher
than purely material needs and desires. This being true,
savage prayer never reaches up to the level where prayer
is looked upon as communion with God, and where this is
considered the very essence of the exercise. The chief
danger in prayer is that it may revert to a spell or incanta-
tion, the value of which lies in the mere repetition of the
words. Whether we understand their meaning or not it
makes no difference, there is potency in the words and they
will bring the desired end by being uttered. So far is this
carried that ''spell-narratives" about the gods are told, the
belief being that even talking about a thing makes it hap-
74 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
pen. Should the worshiper know the name of his god, he
has in his possession a wonderful lever to bring what he
desires to pass. The name is looked upon as a part of the
personality, and to ]>e able to use the name to reenforce a
request is to be far more sure of receiving the boon than
would otherwise be true. Widely extended is the belief in
the necessity of cleanness in approaching the spirits to be
propitiated. The purifications at times are really cleansing
so far as the body is concerned. The hands, the feet, the
mouth, and frequently the whole body must be pure to come
acceptably into the presence of the higher powers. But as
in so much in savage life reason does not give direction
where it is seriously needed. Uncleanness is connected
closely with the idea of tabu and is incurred by con-
tact with ceremonially dangerous and sacred things, like
corpses, newly bom infants, blood, and a hundred other
things. To us the "purification" seems in many cases as
defiling as the uncleanness itself. The chemical purity of
the cleansing agent has nothing to do with it. The most
disgusting things are considered highly purifying and are
believed in implicitly, even in religions advanced far beyond
that of the people we are studying. Only at a comparatively
late stage did the idea of moral defilement arise and seem
more terrible than ceremonial uncleanness. Then the out-
ward act of purification became a symbol of the inner cleans-
ing from the defilement of sin.
Early in the history of religion a class of men arose
known as priests, medicine-men, witch-doctors, shamans,
exorcists, and mediums. They are the members of the
community through whom communication is had with the
supernatural. The essential characteristic of the priest is
that he mediate between men and the powers on whom they
are dependent. In ancestor worship alone, where the father
and the clan heads are the leaders in the Worship, is the
priest not found in early religion. Not anyone could be a
priest He must demonstrate his ability to hold intercourse
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 75
with the gods. This he does by conduct which is quite
explicable to us as intoxication or ecstasy or epileptic seiz-
ures, but which to the savage clearly indicates that his per-
sonality is in the possession of some spirit other than his
own. The ejaculations and groans and incoherent utter-
ances, which to us are of no significance, to the savage are
full of meaning, only needing the interpretation of the priest
himself to be seen in their true light as a divine message.
The office frequently becomes hereditary in certain families
and when that point is reached the priesthood is a perma-
nent institution and tends to secure an ever stronger hold
upon the people. These experts in ritual become more indis-
pensable as the ritual is elaborated and access to the gods
is thought to be possible only through these channels of
communication.
Magic and Religion
Magic is one thing to us and another to the savage. We
look back upon it after it has shown itself to be what it
really is, after the distinction between magic and religion
may be clearly seen. Religion for us expresses itself in
worship of higher powers. The attitude is one of depend-
ence, coming into the presence of God in humility to thank
him for his goodness and to make request for certain good
things after which we crave. Magic, on the other hand,
means to us a very different attitude. Instead of seeking
our desires by humble entreaty the attitude in magic is that
of self-sufficiency, as though there were another method of
securing our ends without recourse to petition. We possess
the good luck talisman, we know what will charm away the
sickness, we can by doing this or that, by ^'knowing the
trick," bring good fortune and accomplish our wish. A
hundred examples could soon be collected from the prac-
tice of men and women in our own communities by which
they believe certain things can be brought about or pre-
vented by magic. The attitude is entirely different from
76 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
that of true religion. In one case we trust God ; in the other
we trust some contrivance or spell or charm. In one case
we secure our aims by making a request; in the other we
secure them by coercion. In one case we seek ; in the other
we demand. Not that the two attitudes are always kept
apart. Even among Christians there is the constant danger
that prayer, to use one illustration, may be looked upon
as meritorious in itself and as efficacious in its very per-
formance, as though we might secure the desired object
because we went through the act of praying.
But to the savage in the darkness of his mind such a dis-
tinction as we have just made is utterly out of the question.
He is in trouble and confusion before the dangers and un-
certainties of life. At his wits' end, he is willing to do any-
thing to get relief and secure what he so much desires.
Animism is the background of all his thinking about the
universe. Some kind of mana, or spiritual influence, is
everywhere, and whatever he does or gets must be done
through spiritual agency. In the use of these spiritual
agencies he is led into one or the other or both of two
methods. He is in fear of the spirits who can do him in-
jury; he must placate them by offerings and make request
of them by prayer; and we call this religion. But this is
not all he can do.' He has discovered that by doing certain
things results follow which are what he wants. He can hit
two stones together and produce a spark. He believes that
spiritual influences can be evoked by what he may do, and
around this belief and the coincidences which he has noted
he has built up what might almost be called a science of
cause and effect. Only the absence of any notion of nat-
ural law prevents us from giving these words their full
meaning as we use them now. All that is effected is to him
the result of spiritual forces. This being the case, we can-
not expect him to see the difference between what he does
when he sacrifices and prays and what he does when he shouts
some "Open Sesame" and expects the rock to roll away
ANIMISTIC RELIGION ^^
for him. He does not think much about it at all ; he finds
that it works; he knows that the all-pervasive mana is
accountable for it, and that is enough for him.
This discovery that by doing one thing another thing
happens leads him into an elaborate system of acts which
are based on several simple and to him most obvious con-
clusions. He believes implicitly that things which were once
connected and had some relationship with each other con-
tinue to have the same relationship even though they may be
separated by a long distance. A coat which was once owned
by some man still has some connection with him even
though he has discarded it or given it away to another.
If, then, you desire to do something to the original owner
you may find the coat a convenient medium. By tearing or
burning it a most uncomfortable experience may be caused
the man to whom it belonged. Especially is this true of the
hair and nails which are so much closer to him than his coat.
Great care is exercised in many places among savages to
bury all these cuttings and parings so that an enemy may
not do injury by taking advantage of the possession of a
part of you which still is considered as intimately con-
nected with your body and its welfare. This has been
called contagious magic, and finds a thousand applications
in the world of the animist.
Then, again, the savage seems unable to get away from
the feeling that like produces like. If this be true, a result
can be attained by imitating it. A rain-maker in one of the
islands in Torres Straits painted the front of his body white
and the back black. The explanation was that "all along
same as clouds — ^black behind, white he go first."" This
has been called mimetic or homceopathic magic. Then,
too, names and certain words have magical power, and the
same is true of talismans and amulets, which can bring to
pass what may be desired or ward off impending danger.
Professor Frazer claims that magic and religion are like
^Quoted by A. C Haddon, Magic and Fetishism, p. 17.
78 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
oil and water and will not mix. He holds that man started
with magic and, because this method did not bring him the
fulfillment of his desires, he was compelled to leave it and
try religion. One very heavy count against this theory is that
we find the two metfiods intermingling in the life of sav-
ages in all places and at all times. Both seem to have ex-
isted from the beginning and to have developed side by
side. The only distinction made by the savage himself is
that between his use of the spiritual or demonic influences
for his own private advantage, which may involve injury
or loss to his neighbor, and that use of these influences
which is for the public good. It is a very real distinction
to him, and he condemns and punishes the dealer in the
nefarious traffic with little mercy. On the basis of this
distinction, which is the only one the savage is capable of
making, there are those who would say that fundamentally
religion and magic are the same, the only difference being
that religion is social and magic unsocial or anti-social.
It is not a matter of method or attitude toward the spiritual
world, but only of purpose. Undoubtedly this difference
is real and must be taken into consideration when dealing
with magic and religion among savages, but, when the same
act may be social under certain conditions and anti-social
under others,'' it is quite clear that some other clue is nec-
essary to an understanding of the essential difference be-
tween them. ' This due we take from the distinction we
make when from our superior vantage-point we are able to
see what the savage cannot see, that there is a difference
in attitude between magic and religion which separates the
two fundamentally.
When, in the form of fetishism already mentioned, the
savage gives himself to coaxing and compelling his fetish
to do his bidding, the debasing character of his practice is
evident. Only because he may be able to look on some other
of his spirits, not as "gods at his disposal," but as powers
** See discussion hy Hartland in Ritnal and Belief.
ANIMISTIC RELIGION 79
to be feared and supplicated, is there any possibility of
advance into higher forms of religious faith. Unknown
to him the struggle between magic and religion has begun,
and only by the gradual ascendency of the true spirit of
religion has man attained the higher reaches of religious
experience. And to-day we find ourselves in the same con-
flict, the difference being that, knowing its danger, we may
set ourselves consciously and deliberately to trample magic
underfoot and raise religion to its exclusive place in our
lives as we come into the presence of God.
Suggestions for Fubthek Study
D. G. Brinton, The Religions of Primitive Peoples (New York,
1897).
R. R. Marett, The Threshold of Religion (New York, 1914).
Edwin Sidney Hartland, Ritual and Belief (New York, 1914). The
most thorough treatment of Religion and Magic.
Edward Qodd, Animism (London, 1905).
Alfred C Haddon, Magic and Fetishism (London, 1910).
Crawford Howell Toy, Introduction to the History of Religions
(Boston, I9i3)< An encyclopaedic work, to be used for
reference.
CHAPTER III
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA
The Nile Valley and Its Inhabitants
All the national religions have their roots in the animis-
tic ctilts we have studied in the previous chapter. While
many tribes scattered over the world have remained in
the tribal form of organization and the corresponding ani-
mistic forms of religious life, other peoples have left these
crude beginnings behind and have become nations and
started out on the long journey toward an advanced culture
and dvilizatipn. The earliest centers of such development
of which we have any knowledge are Egypt, Mesopotamia,
and China. ^In each case the development started on the
banks of a river — ^the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Yellow
River — and in each case the earliest b^nnings are hidden
from our view, so far back do they lie before history and
chronology had begun to be put down in permanent records.
Of these three ancient peoples only China has been able to
maintain itself distinct and separate from other nations
through the millenniums. The early civilization and reli-
gion of the Nile and the Euphrates have long since disap-
peared, and only the spade of the archaeologist is able to
recover precious bits of information which would otherwise
be entirely unknown. The ancient religion of China con-
tinues to exist, changed to be sure, but of immense inSuence
in the China of to-day; but the faiths, long since dead, of
Egypt and Mesopotamia — why should we spend time in
attempting to understand them in this fast-moving modem
world? One might make out a case for the study of these
religions, as well as those of Greece and Rome, on the
ground of sheer interest in what men have believed and
80
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 8i
practiced in an age different from our own. But while
these faiths have forever passed away as formal religions
the factors which made them live and which gave satisfac-
tion to the people who worshiped the old divinities cannot be
quenched. In so far as they possessed the principle of life
they did not die. Other manifestations of the same life-
principle begin to appear as religions change, but they
are the same old elements seeking higher forms. As reli-
gions they may die, but all the true religion they contained
keeps on living. We are more interested in religion than
in religions, so these ancient faiths may still teach us the
most important lessons concerning what religion is or ought
to be among men.
"Egypt is a gift of the Nile," quoted by Herodotus from
an earlier Greek writer, is the truest thing that could be said
of this narrow ribbon of a country, which is little more
than the banks of this wonderful river. There is first the
river itself, which flows from the strange, unknown lands of
the far south and, after twisting itself northward through a
thousand miles and more, spreads out into the famous delta
and empties into the Mediterranean through a number of
mouths. The land is low for some distance on either side
of the stream, and this is the real Egypt. Extending beyond
this fertile strip is higher ground, which in turn reaches out
to the high walls of the valley, beyond which stretches
away on both sides the blazing, howling desert.
With almost no rain the country must depend on the Nile
for its productivity. Every year the river rises above its
banks and overflows the low-lying strip on each side. This
is the secret of the fertility of Egypt. Not only is the
ground thoroughly soaked but a thin layer of alluvium is
brought down and deposited over the fields, thus replenish-
ing the constantly worked soil. But there are many sec-
tions which are not reached by the inundation, and they
must be irrigated by artificial means. This means canals
and embankments and sluice gates and the whole parapher-
82 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
nalia of irrigation. The importance of these facts for our
immediate consideration is that this economic need made
necessary common labor organized to make the best use of
the water supply, and with this development a similar
growth of poUtical organization. This necessity for orga-
nized toil marks the beginning of culture and civilization.
He was a savage like those who surrounded him when he
began, but in a short time the Egyptian b^ins to take a
place in advance, and after a time he is living in a different
world; he has developed a national life and is no longer
a savage with savage tastes and outlook.
It must also be noted that the development took place
during long centuries separated from contact with other
peoples and cultures. This, of course, is a relative state-
ment, for there was contact with the Semites to
the east at several periods during her long history, but
compared with other peoples Egypt was isolated and alone
during most of the long period of her independent life.
This enables us to study the religion of this country as the
unique product of her genius, untouched by influences which
might have turned it into very different channels.
The people of ancient Egypt were in all probability a
mixture of African tribes, called by many Hamitic, and
Semites, who at a very early age, long before the opening
of its recorded history, came over from Arabia, fused with
the natives, and formed the Egyptian type as we know it
even in our own time. The Egyptian countryman, the fella-
hin, who greets you as you set foot in Egypt to-day, is the
same man who gazes out at you from the oldest monuments
his land contains. The Semites came in as conquerors,
who in turn were compelled to adopt the higher civilization
of the natives, who had already made some advance in sub-
duing the land and harnessing the Nile to the uses of agri-
culture. All we can be relatively sure of is that this people,
now amalgamated into one, far back between B. C. 5000
and 4000 had settled down on both banks of the river,
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 83
organized in little principalities, which later were given the
Greek name of "nomes." There were more than forty of
these little states, about equally divided between the Delta
region, or Lower Egypt, and the long, narrow valley reach-
ing into the south, called Upper Egypt. Each of these had
its chief town or city in which dwelt the ruler and in which
also the chief god of the nome had his seat. Through all
the changes and vicissitudes of Egyptian history these nomes
persisted and exerted an influence on the civilization and
religion of the land.
The Egyptian has always been intensely religious. This
is one of the surest indications we meet in a study of the
earliest monuments erected by this gifted people. It was
of a unique type, as we shall see, but it was genuine and
deep. He was conservative beyond most people who have
ever lived. Somehow he never felt he could lay aside any-
thing he had ever picked up or discovered. He kept trail-
ing along after him all the lumber which should have been
discarded, as though he might suffer if he let go a single
thing he had ever practiced or believed. Thus at the end we
may study not only what the Egyptian thought then but all
he had ever believed in the millenniums of his history — ^in
fact, it all continue^ to be his belief still. Professor George
Foot Moore sums it all up in a pregnant sentence: "The
Egyptians of later ages could learn but not forget — ^the
most fatal of all disqualifications for progress."^
This people were singularly lacking in philosophic power.
They seemed incapable of abstract thinking — ^it must all be
in the realm of the concrete, of visible symbols. The priests
of Heliopolis and Thebes did work out a theology, but it
was not in conformity with any well-knit philosophy. The
Egyptian seemed always to be able to hold the most contra-
dictory views at the saxhe time with no sense of incongruity.
What would have been abhorrent to the Greek seemed per-
fectly natural to the Egyptian. He wanted to see things
* History of Religions, voL i, p. 148. (Scribners, New York, 1920.)
g4 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
clearly ; he was not willing to leave nrach to the imagination.
His art consisted of clear line-drawings and had not much
depth or mystic hazy backgromid. His writing was in the
language of symbols and with difficulty could be made to
express the abstract conceptions which even he must of
necessity employ. He was exceedingly practical and bent
everything to his insatiable desire to bring whatever he dealt
with within the compass of his alert but somewhat circum-
scribed mental outlook. His religion was, as a consequence,
practical and lacking in philosophical and mystical depth.
According to Manetho, "an Egyptian priest who wrote an
historical work in Greek/" the first king of united Egypt
was Menes, who reigned some time before B. C 3000. But
even before the time of this first king we have reason to
believe that Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, those
of Upper and Lower Egypt, and that eventually Lower, or
northern Egypt, was conquered by the south. Then came
Menes from the north and united all Egypt under one sway.
The dynasty thus introduced was the first of thirty-one
dynasties, extending from the time of Menes to the loss of
independence when Egypt was conquered by Alexander the
Great in B. C. 332. During this long period Egypt passed
through all the experiences from the most exalted culture
and prosperity, when foreign conquest added distant lands
to her sway, to the humiliation of internal decay and out-
ward defeat, when her borders were overrun by alien armies
and her government was in the hands of princes appointed
from far-away Mesopotamia. We cannot enter further
into the fascinating details of this history, as important as
it would be to understand the meaning of much in the reli-
gion which must otherwise remain obscure. All we may
do is to call attention to the fact that the political history
and the history of the religion experienced their periods of
development and decay simultaneously, one reacting on the
'Stemdor£F, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 5. (Putnam,
New York, 1905.)
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 85
other, religion and state being but different phases of a com-
mon culture from the beginning to the end of the story of
this people.
The Egyptian Pantheon
The nomes or little principalities of Egypt, each with its
central town and its prince, had each a chief god of its own.
These gods may all in the beginning have been without
names. The monuments refer to several local divinities
merely by the names of the nomes to which they belonged,
"he of Edfu" and "the lady of Elkab" being designations
of the supreme divine beings of those cities. But names
must very soon have been attached. They were originally
different, but very early the same name is to be found in
several places. This arose, it may be, by one name being
carried by war to another nome, for, while the Egyptians
were more peace-loving than their contemporaries in Meso-
potamia, these little principalities were frequently in con-
flict with each other. Or, perhaps, the god of one nome
was seen even beyond his own borders to be specially pow-
erful and willing to bring good to his people, and so his
name was taken as that which might bring good to another
district if it should be attached to the previously unnamed
god there. Another early tendency is also to be noted;
the gods of some of the nomes who originally had doubt-
less been merely the protecting divinity of his own people,
began to take on a deeper and wider significance. Amon,
the god of Thebes, came to be regarded in a more general
way as the god of fertility and generation. This would lead
also to an expansion of the sphere of influence of this god,
and so it was with others.
The various heavenly bodies, the River Nile, their kings,
trees, and even piles of stones were looked upon as divine
and received worship. But the gods of the Egyptians were
to a larger extent animals than anything else. This is one
of the peculiarities of the religion, and struck the people
86 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
*
4
of Greece and Rome as being as strange as it does us. The
pagan Celsus is quoted by Origen as saying, "If a stranger
reaches Egypt, he is struck by the splendid temples and
sacred groves that he sees, great and magnificent courts,
marvelous temples with pleasant walks about them, imposing
and occult ceremonies; but when he had entered into the
innermost sanctuary he finds the god worshiped in these
buildings to be a cat, or an ape, or a crocodile, or a he goat,
or a dog."* When the Romans were masters of the country
one of the legionaries "who had accidentally killed a cat was
torn to pieces by the mob For the majority of the people
the cat was an incarnate god."* Thout, the god of Her-
mopolis, was either a baboon or an ibis ; the god of the dis-
trict of the first cataract, whose name was Khnum, was a
he-goat, and Apis, the god of Memphis, was a bull. There
was no bird or animal or creeping thing or beetle or fish or
frog which did not take its place in the pantheon of the
Egyptians. Animal worship is to be f otmd in many other
places, but nowhere did it assume such proportions and
dominate the thinking of the people as in Egypt
The problem of the origin of this animal worship is as
yet unsolved. The temptation is strong to claim that it is
based on an early totemistic organization, the animals later
worshiped being the totems of various clans in the far-off
prehistoric age. The chief difficulty with this theory is
that not one shred of evidence is forthcoming that the
Egyptians believed that animals were the ancestors of men
or even that any intimate relationship existed between them.
Such a belief may have been held at one time, but it had
been so completely lost that no vestige of it remained even
in the most ancient times of which we have any informa-
tion. It is doubtless better for us to disclaim any certain
knowledge. What we do know is that there was something
' See Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. i8i.
^Sayce, The Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. loi. (Clark, Edin-
burgh, 1913.)
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 87
about animals and their actions which made a strong appeal
to the superstitious fears of the people and led them to treat
them as divine.
Very early the gods, many of them, began to be human-
ized. The worship of an animal as an animal ceased to
satisfy as culture increased ; a god must be more like a man
to be worthy of worship. The first step taken was to rep-
resent the gods with human bodies but with animal heads.
Khnum is represented as a man with a ram's head, Hekt
as a woman with the head of a frog, Sekhet, the wife of
Ptah, is the lion^s-headed woman, over whose head is rep-
resented the solar disk, crowned with the poisonous uraeus
serpent. Finally the gods became complete human beings,
head and all, but the man or woman god was given some
symbol to indicate a connection with the animal which it
originally was. Hathor, for example, is a full-fledged
woman with a cow's horns on her head. Amon Re is a man
holding in one hand a scepter and in the other the keylike
symbol of life and having his head crowned in several ways
in different places, either with the sun's disk and; two long
feathers or with a pair of ram's horns. But even in the
later day the conservatism of the Egyptian is seen in his
inability to drop the animal conception. It is after Chris-
tianity had begun to do its work in Egypt that the condition
described by Celsus obtained in all parts of the country.
He simply could not get away from his old crude conceptions
despite his advance in culture and refinement.
At Heliopolis in the days of the Middle Kingdom (from
about B. C 2000 to 1790) the priestly thinkers constructed a
theology in which their god, the sun god Re, was placed in
a position of supremacy above all the gods of the land. So
powerful was the influence of this priesthood and so highly
favored by the rulers that their theology spread far and
wide until for the first time all Egypt, officially at least, came
to recognize Re as the first god of the whole country. It
was a movement toward monotheism, but it did not reach
88 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
it; it was not sxifficiently exclusive to bar out the presence
and influence of other gods who were looked upon as helpers
of the one supreme god Re. One of the results of the exalta-
tion of Re was that many other gods were assimilated to
him, that is, they were mingled or identified with him in
name and in attribute, and thus a new conception of a god
came into existence. The other priesthoods did not want
their gods to be lost, so they joined their names with that of
Re and declared that Re was their god, too, only it was the
Re who had been united with the original god of their
temple. So we find such hyphenates as Re-Horus, Re-Amon,
and many others. Only a few of the old gods, like Osiris,
Ptah, and Thoth, were able to preserve their distinct iden-
tity, so strong was the influence exerted by the priests of
Heliopolis and their theology.
Here is the work of priests seeking to register in theology
what practically had come to be the position of their god in
the unified empire. But the priests in various cities went
further than this. They began to construct triads of gods,
grouping them as father, mother, and son. At Thebes we
find Amon the father, Mut the mother, and Montu the son ;
at Memphis it was Ptah, Sekhet, and Imhotep; and again
at Abydos Osiris, Isis, and Horus. In the stories told of
these trios the son inherits his father's authority and be-
comes his mother's husband. The mother does not die, not
being connected with the sun as her husband and son are.
Like the sun, which after the day's work sinks to rest be-
yond the western horizon, all the divine beings connected
with him have the same kind of mortality and must look
forward to an eclipse or death at the end of their journey.
But more artificial combinations were worked out by the
priests in various temples. They were not satisfied with
triads but went further and constructed enneads, or groups
of nine gods. The idea of a group of three was still present,
but now it was a multiple of three and not the original
simple triad. At Heliopolis and in a few other places two
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 89
enneads were gathered together, a greater and a lesser.
These combinations were the work of men who were not
content to see their pantheon in confusion with no order or
classification of the deities. They wanted to explain the
origin and relationship of the gods, and did so by placing
their great god at the apex of their ennead and the others as
derived from him in a descending series of ranks. It is
a clumsy and artificial construction on the part of priests,
who were not able to drop any gods from their list, and who
tried thus to bring some kind of unity out of the disorder.
Another development grew out of the subordination of
many gods to the sun god Re. It was a kind of solar pan-
theism. The sun, and only the sun, exists and makes up the
imiverse. All else is appearance, the manifestation of the
supreme and all-embracing sun. This, too, was a priestly
formulation. It represents rather a tendency than a finished
and widely accepted belief. The people went on in their own
way worshiping their local gods, animals and trees, and
other spirits, little influenced by the colleges of priests in the
great centers of official religion.
In the New Kingdom the capital was Thebes, and Amon
was looked upon as the national god of Egypt. But the in-
fluence of Re had for long been so pronounced that it was
with the double title Amon-Re that his supremacy was
acknowledged. Only one or two gods, like Ptah of Mem-
phis and Re of Heliopolis, could retain a measure of their
old prestige. Then came Amenophis IV, king of 'Egypt from
B. C. 137s to 1358. Educated with the priests of Heliop-
olis, this young prince was deeply religious. He came to
feel that the sun-god possessed the right to universal wor-
ship, and he sought to convert his conviction into practice.
He attempted to discredit all the other gods and put the sun-
god in their place. It was a movement toward monotheism.
It was the sun, Aton, the solar disk, closely related to Re,
which was to be the object of devotion. Aton "had not,
like Re, been fused with terrestrial gods of various beastly
90 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
shapes nor represented in human form, and by its freedom
from such associations his name was a fit symbol for god
in a purer solar monotheism/'* Aton was made the one
national deity ; all were required to serve this one god alone.
The statues of the other gods were to be destroyed and their
names forgotten. Amon of Thebes was the special object
of the rigor of his reforming zeal. The king changed his
name from Amenophis or Amen-hotep (''Amon is content")
to Ikhnaton ("Spirit of Aton") and moved his capital away
from Thebes. But, as usual in Egypt, the king, with sublime
inconsistency, allowed himself to be raised to the place of a
god and received divine worship. Throughout his reign the
reform lasted, but immediately upon his death the reaction
came. It was tremendous and far-reaching. Thebes and
its great god Amon won the day completely. Amon was
raised to the supreme place in the pantheon and was praised
almost in the same terms used of Aton. Yet the monothe-
istic feature of the reform was utterly repudiated, and other
gods were allowed their place in the worship of the temples.
In the thousand and more years which followed this at-
tempted reform on the part of Amenophis IV Egyptian reli-
gion failed to show any signs of originality or significant
development. The temples became more wealthy and power-
ful, but the life had departed. It was a state cult and the
common people found little there for them. The old local
gods were about all they had to give comfort to the heart
and confidence in facing the trials of life. The worship of
animals seemed to eat deeper into the religious life. Not
only the one animal in the temple was worshiped but the
whole species was reverenced and held in high honor. It
would seem that the people were reverting to prehistoric
conditions axid losing a part of what they had gained during
the long course of their history. The influence of Greece
was strongly felt under the reign of the successors of Alex-
ander the Great, the Ptolemys, who ruled from B. C
* G. F. Moore, History of Religions, voL i, p. 182.
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 91
332 to 31. A Greek god, Serapis, was brought in during
this period. His worship spread rapidly, and, identified with
the old Egyptian god Osiris, he became the national god.
But even he could not revive a dying paganism. Accompa-
nied by his wife, the old Egyptian goddess Isis, this new
Graeco-Egyptian deity took his journey to make new con-
quests out across the Mediterranean, and we shall meet
him again in Rome in the day when that city was reaching
out after a more satisfying religion.
The Individual Here and Hereaptex
Two unique features distinguish Egyptian religion from
all others — the extent to which the worship of animals was
carried and the view of individual immortality which was so
dominant in all the thinking of the people. The belief was
well-nigh universal. Only a few cynical pessimists could
see little hope of a sure hereafter, and ordered their lives
according to the familiar philosophy, ''Eat, drink, and be
merry, for to-morrow we die." The form taken by the
belief was determined partly by conditions in the land where
they lived. "The dry and microbe-free climate,"* where
nothing decays but merely dries up, seemed to suggest the
possibility of a kind of physical immortality in which the
body might be rendered everlasting and partake of the im-
mortality of the more immaterial parts. Egyptian archi-
tecture is above everything else massive, built to stand the
ravages of time. The gigantic pyramid tombs of the kings,
the ponderous sarcophagi found in all the cemeteries, as well
as the temples themselves, suggest permanence. Built out of
the hard rock to be found in inexhaustible quantities so near
at hand, the ancient monuments have come down to us but
slightly damaged through four of five thousand years. But
above all else the practice of mummification is evidence of
the keen interest of the Egyptian in a continued existence.
* Article, "Death (Es^tian)/' in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Reli-
gion and Ethics. (Scnbners, New York.)
92 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
The idea was that the body must be preserved as necessary
to immortality. Theories of the life beyond came to be held
which might be considered inconsistent with the necessity of
the preservation of the body, but inconsistencies were of
little consequence to an Egyptian, and he kept right on mak-
ing mummies of the bodies of his dead in sublime indiffer-
ence to any untoward theories which might stand in his way.
When a man died, professional embalmers would remove
the entrails and place them in jars, which were buried. This
would prevent the jackals from devouring them and clear
the body of the parts which would prevent successful
preservation. 'The body itself was laid in salt water and
treated with bitumen; it was then rolled in bandages and
cloths, while the abdominal cavity was also plugged up with
linen rolls and cushions.''' Herodotus tells of three methods
of treating the body, differing according to cost. The most
expensive method included the drawing out of the brain by
an iron hook inserted through the nose, great care in dispos-
ing of the viscera, and an elaborate and extended treatment
of the body before the final wrapping was undertaken. The
cheaper processes were much simpler. In all cases the
mumn^ was laid in a coffin of wood or stone. The chests
were frequently decorated "with a number of doors intended
to afford exit and entrance to the dead man. At the head-
end, where the face lay, it was not uncommon to insert a pair
of eyes; by the aid of these the deceased was expected to
look forth from the coffin and behold the rising sun. The
inner surfaces were at a later time inscribed with texts relat;
ing to the life after death — chapters from the Pyramid-
Texts and from the Book of the Dead; in addition there
were pictorial representations of all possible things which
the dead man could need in the hereafter.'" And then it
was laid away for safe keeping, for poor people very simply,
for the wealthy in elaborate tombs, and for kings in such
* Steindorff, The Reli^on of the Ancient Egyptians," p. 149.
* Steindorff, op. cit, p. 150!.
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 93
buildings as the pyramids, which are one of the wonders of
the world. The dead needed the care of their living rela-
tives, so offerings were offered at the tomb. In order to
secure rest and service in the next world those who had been
accustomed to servants were provided with Ushebtis, "an-
swerers," which were little porcelain doll-like images, sup-
posed to represent servants, which were buried with the
body. This may be a survival coming down from the time
when slaves were actually killed to accompany their lord
to the next world.
The Egyptians had worked out an elaborate psychology.
To us it seems fantastic, naive, and very confusing, as it
attempts to name and give a distinct character to various
phases of the personal life. Besides his body man had an
immortal soul which was composite. There was the Ka,
which is described as a man's double or guardian spirit with
which he was furnished at birth and which was liberated
from the body at death. "The Ka, which had been the com-
panion of the body in life, at death attained to independent
existence. It was to the Ka that funerary prayers and offer-
ings were made; to the mummy alone they were useless."*
The Ka and the mummy could be reunited, it was believed,
and the mummy reanimated and a new life lived, but in all
cases food and drink must be offered at the tomb. Besides
the Ka there was the Ba, which may best be described as the
soul of the departed man. It is often pictured as a bird, with
human head and hands, which at death would fly to the gods.
But this, too, must be fed and provided with the necessities
of life, as though the next life were not essentially different
from this.
The abode of the dead was variously pictured by the Egyp-
tians. They were not careful to work out a consistent pic-
ture, but, true to themselves, were quite willing to accumu-
late all the ideas which arose and take their pick and make
combinations as they might choose. There was the early
* Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 241.
94 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
belief that the dead continue to live in the tomb a life not
very different from the life they had lived before. They must
eat and drink, and this is furnished by the relatives. What
was not provided in this way was to be secured by magical
incantations and prayers, these being painted on the coffin
or mummy chest as an aid to the memory of the dead. He
may at times leave the tomb and wander around, but in doing
so it is necessary to be on his guard against ghostly enemies.
He may interfere in the affairs of his living relatives, who
dread his approach and influence. He is not as happy as
they and is looked upon as restless and anxious, able by the
aid of magic to assume different shapes and thus be a source
of terror. Then, again, there is a belief that men — at first
it was only kings, but later extended to all — ^might live a life
of bliss among the gods in heaven, accompanying them on
their journeys and enjoying their fellowship. To accom-
plish this a ladder was believed to exist in the west, and up
this ladder the dead might climb if peradventure they knew
the necessary magical formulae. But even this abode was
not entirely unlike the world in which they had previously
lived.
Still another conception places the dead in the lower
world. Beneath the earth there is another called Twet,
through which runs a river like the Nile. Here in long pas-
sages and in deep caverns the dead dwell. By night they
have the light of the sun, for through the twelve sections
into which this subterranean river-course is divided the sun
makes his progress, ready to appear at sunrise the next
morning in the eastern sky of the real Egypt overhead. The
gates separating the twelve sections are guarded by ser-
pents and demons, and the sun-god in his magnificent barge
must know their names to secure passage. It was believed
at a later time that others might share with the king this
nightly voyage of the sun, that is, if they were acquainted
with the appropriate incantations and magical formulae.
We come lastly to the most important of these conceptions.
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 95
that connected with Osiris. And here it becomes necessary
to refer to the myth, told in many forms, about Osiris and
his relation with the dead. Osiris was one of the ancient
divinities of Egypt. He was murdered by Set, who dismem-
bered his body and scattered it over the Delta. The mourn-
ing wife, Isis, wanders over the land seeking the body of
her husband, while Horus, their son, vows vengeance. In the
end Osiris is restored to life and becomes the "King of the
Western Folk," presiding over the realm of the dead. They
did not know exactly where this realm was, but it became
the most exalted of their conceptions df the hereafter. This
god had died and was alive again ; here lay the significance
of the myth and the belief connected with it. Like him men,
who knew that death was sure and could not be evaded,
might hope to rise again to a new life. The belief expanded
and deepened until the idea of the life beyond was that men
might become like Osiris; even more than this, that they
might become Osiris himself, losing in a real sense their own
personal identity. Dead men were considered as identified
with him until they were "Osiris so-and-so." This has been
given as a reason why the Egyptians never became ancestor-
worshipers. The dead relative ceased to be bound to them
now that he had become Osiris. No motive remained to
offer worship to him as a separate being, and this despite the
conditions in Egyptian family life which would otherwise
almost surely have led to that reverence and worship which
grew up among so many peoples.
As Osiris in the myth had been declared "just" by the
judges before whom he was tried, so every man before
entering his realm must come before a similar court. The
judge is Osiris himself, and at his side are forty-two terrible
creatures before whom confession must be made. The con-
fession is for the most part a statement of the sins one
has not committed, though some positive good things are
mentioned. "I have not done what the gods abominate."
'1 have not allowed anyone to be hungry," "I have done no
96 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
murder.^ '^I oppressed no man in possession of his prop-
erty/' So run the items of this confession. But this per-
sonal confession is not sufficient; his heart must be 'Ve^hed
on a great balance against the symbol of justice/' The heart
of the man found wanting is devoured by a hippopotamus
who stands close by and ready. This is about all we know
of the fate of the wicked. The good are conducted into the
presence of the king and become residents of the realm.
Thus, particularly in the later day, the moral sanction be-
comes an important feature in the thought of the hereafter,
though it must be said that the unfortunate prevalence of
magic in all that was connected with death and the condition
of the dead was so powerful that the conception of the
future was only partially moralized. And all tiie while the
mass of the people were continuing their local worships, but
slightly touched by the higher religion of the priests and
thinkers. When dristianity came the old religion died,
unable to hold its own against a faith so much fuller and
richer than anything it had to hold out to the people.
The Gods of Babylonia and Assyria
Three thousand years before Christ a civilization had been
developed in the lower Euphrates Valley. Like that of
Egypt it was a river civilization. In each case the control of
the water supply had made necessary concerted action and
political organization. Economic necessity was again respon-
sible for the formation of a number of small city states, each
with its prince or king and its chief god. In these respects
the civilization in Babylonia was like that of Egypt, but
there was a wide divergence whose cause is at once evident
by a glance at the map. Egypt was isolated and developed
her culture far distant from foreign influence. Babylonia,
on the other hand, was open on all sides to the incursion of
ideas as well as of armies. They might come from the
mountains of Elam on the east, the desert on the south and
west, and down the long Mesopotamian valley which reached.
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 97
off toward the northwest. In fact, her history was given
direction many times by forces which found their way to
Babylonia from each of these sources.
The civilization in this valley traveled northward from
the region near the head of the Persian Gulf. There at a
very early date a people were to be found called Sumerians.
We do not know who they were^ though it is quite sure they
were different from the Semites with whom they amalga-
mated at a later time. It is quite likely that they came from
the mountains which bounded the plain on the east. At any
rate it was they who founded cities and beg^n to build up a
civilization near the mouth of the Euphrates and the Tigris.
Ur, Eridu, Uruk, Larsa, and Nippur are the names of a
number of these cities. The city with the surrounding ter-
ritory made up the state. To the north were the Akkadians,
Semites related to the desert Arabs, and the Canaanites and
Amorites over on the Mediterranean coast. Wars between
these city states were very frequent and deeply influenced
the religion as well as other features of the life. It is to be
carefully noted that the various political transformations
which the land experienced made profound changes in the
relationships of the gods of the cities involved. After many
vicissitudes the whole of the land was finally united under
the mighty King Hammurabi, of the city of Babylon (B. C.
1958-1916). After his time no distinction can be made
between the Sumerian and the Akkadian elements of the
population ; they are now one people with a single language
and civilization. It was Hammurabi who gave his people
a famous code of laws, which clearly shows him to have
been a wise and righteous ruler. For a thousand years after
his time Babylon dominated the situation in the world of the
two rivers, and even far beyond.
But another power was rising in the north. The city of
Asshur on the banks of the Tigris, far away from the allu-
vial lowlands of Babylonia, had begun to rival the power
of her southern neighbor. Finally Babylon is outclassed and
98 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
the Assyrian empire is the dominant force in western Asia
from about B. C. 750 to 606. Babylon was shown no mercy
and the terror of the Assyrian name was carried as far as
Egypt. The city of Samaria fell and the northern kingdom
of Israel was carried away captive by this relentless power.
The chief glory of the empire was the reign of Assurbanipal,
who made Nineveh great and left behind him a magnificent
library of baked clay tablets in the cuneiform script which
in recent years has so enriched our knowledge of the ancient
Orient. But Nineveh and the Assyrian empire were in turn
crushed in the year B. C. 606, never again to rise, and their
place was taken by the rising power of the new Babylonia,
or Chaldea. From that time until Babylon itself fell into
the hands of the Medes and Persians tmder Cyrus, in B. C.
539f the Chaldean empire told its short tale. One great
ruler, however, made the era noteworthy. Nebuchadrezzar
made Babylon the greatest city the world had ever seen, but
his work was of little avail so far as permanence was con-
cerned. The empire was weak to its very center and fell a
ready prey into the hands of the hardy mountaineers from
the northeast.
The religion of the Euphrates Valley had long since
passed out of the animistic stage when the little city states
appear upon the scene. Yet there is plenty of evidence that
everything is built upon an animistic foundation. The
people continued to believe in the Zi, or spirits, in whom
they had believed in the days before any advance had been
made in civilization. As the states were in process of for-
mation certain of the spirits of their former belief grew in
importance and became distinct gods with personality and
attributes. This process was hastened by the political re-
lationships which became more complex as time passed.
The god of one city came to exercise influence as far as his
city was able to carry its conquests. But even at the end
of the process, when the gods had become far more than
nature powers, evidences could be found which pointed back
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 99
to their more humble origin. According to Professor Jas-
trow, the gods were personifications of the sun and the
moon, the power manifesting itself in vegetation, and that
of the waters and the storm. Larsa and Sippar had Sha-
mash, the sun-god, Ur and Harran worshiped Sin, the moon-
god, Uruk had Ishtar, the mother-goddess, while Eridu had
Ea, the water-deity, as its patron, and Enlil, of Nippur, was
the "lord of the storm." Professor Robert W. Rogers has
listed over sixty gods and goddesses gathered together on
one tablet, though many of these are duplications. "Nearly
every place in early times would have a sun-god or a moon-
god or both, and in the political development of the country
the moon-god of the conquering city displaced or absorbed
the moon-god of the conquered. When we have eliminated
these gods, who have practically disappeared, there remains
a comparatively small number of gods who outrank all the
others.""
In an early day the priests in the greater temples began
to form triads. The earliest of these was that of Anu,
Enlil, and Ea. Anu was the patron divinity of Uruk and
was associated with the overarching heavens, Enlil with
the earth and the atmosphere immediately above it, and Ea
with the waters, those on the earth and those below. Thus
this triad is inclusive of the universe as conceived by the
thinkers of the time. A second series of three consists of
Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar, gods of Babylonia, who did not
differ essentially from the Sumerian gods of the first triad
mentioned. In this second triad the place of Ishtar was
frequently taken by Adad, an Amorite god brought in dur-
ing the course of their relationship with outlying peoples.
Under Hammurabi Babylon became the capital of the em-
pire and Marduk, the patron divinity of the city, the god
par excellence of the empire. But even this position could
only be maintained by a process which transferred to him
^ The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 79. (Eaton & Mains,
New York, 19^)
100 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
the power and attributes of Enlil, of Nippur, and Ea, of
Eridu. Particularly was this true of Enlil, doubtless because
he was looked upon as the venerable patron of the oldest
seat of civilization and hence worthy of respect and honor,
even when another city was now the seat of far wider
authority and influence.
Only one other god could ever vie with Marduk in power,
and that was Ashur. He was the god of the Assyrian em-
pire and, as the recognized head of the pantheon, marched
at the head of the armies as they traveled far from the cap-
ital carrying destruction and terror all over western Asia
and even as far as Egypt. He differed from all the other
gods mentioned in that his worship was imageless and he
was represented as the disk of the sun from which rays or
wings proceed out in all directions. He was of a more
spiritual type than the other gods, but this does not seem to
have prevented him from being associated with all the cruelty
and bloodshed which accompanied the destructive march of
the armies of Assyria as they ruthlessly destroyed one city
after another.
The gods were given consorts or wives, but all we may
know of many of them is that they had a name. For the
most part they were of little or no significance. But one
among them stands out as a power of the first magnitude. It
is Ishtar, the goddess of generation and fertility, the goddess
of love and sexual relationships. Starting no doubt in the
perfectly justifiable veneration of fertility in field and ani-
mal and man, and being looked upon as presiding over the
increase upon which all life depends, this goddess became
the patroness of practices connected with her worship which
could only be debasing and demoralizing. It is a dark blot
on a religion which at best could never rise out of a not
very lofty polytheism and a worship which sadly needed the
touch of what was pure and ennobling.
An extensive mythology has come down to us from Baby-
lonia. The conflict of Bel or Marduk with the monster
• .
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA loi
Tiamat tells the story of creation in such manner that Mar-
duk is honored and his city, Babylon, is placed before all
others, so that it has been called "a great political treatise."
But it was religious as well and exercised an influence upon
the biblical account of the creation which is undeniable.
In the Bible, however, the gross polytheism has been laid
aside and the wonderful prose-poem is made to give honor
to the one God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. There
is also the epic of Gilgamesh, the great hero with many ex-
ploits to his name, to whom is told the deluge story with
features so nearly akin to the story in Genesis that it is im-
possible not to see a close connection, but here also the Baby-
lonian version revels in gods and their relations with men,
thus representing a level far below that occupied by the par-
allel narrative in Genesis. All this, and much besides, has
come down to us from the library of Assurbanipal the As-
syrian, causing us to be thankful beyond measure that in so
early a day he should have conceived the idea and actually
carried it into effect of preserving in permanent form the
best treasures of a civilization long since dead and otherwise
largely unknown.
Man's Approach to the Divine Powers
In Egypt the worship of animals and the views held con-
cerning immortality were noted as peculiar. Neither of
these had any place to speak of in Babylonia and Assyria.
Here the approach to the gods by divination and astrology
stands out so prominently that it cannot be avoided in any
account, however brief, of the religion. Divination was
practiced to learn or ''divine'' the will of the gods sufficiently
in advance to be able to prepare for what was coming; in
no sense was it to turn the gods from their purpose. Many
methods of divination were known. One of them was to
drop oil into a basin of water and determine from the man-
ner in which the oil scattered what the future might be.
But of all the methods the favorite was that by an examina-
- • •
« « • •
. • *
* «
I02 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
tion of a sheep's liver, called hepatoscopy. The theory on
which it was based was that the gods identified themselves
with the animal which was about to be sacrificed. By
observing the part of the animal which was considered the
seat of life the will of the god himself could be ascertained.
Now, among the Babylonians the liver was believed to be
the seat of life, probably because so large an amount of
blood was to be found in that organ. The function of the
heart was not clearly recognized. At a later day, as among
the Romans, when the heart had taken the place of the liver
as the seat of life, the heart together with the liver was
examined in the practice of divination. It was the liver of
the sheep, which has a very diversified surface. This of-
fered scope for an almost infinite number of combinations
of signs, all of which were worked out into an elaborate
system. In this way a pseudo-science, much like our mod-
em palmistry and phrenology, was constructed in great
detail and with much precision.
Another form of divination was by the observation of the
heavenly bodies, or astrology. A coordination was supposed
to exist between the happenings on earth and the movements
of the stars and planets and the sun and moon. The basis
on which such a theory could rest was the belief that the
gods and the heavenly bodies were one and the same, so
that if the heavens might be correctly read the will of the
gods was thereby determined. The first place in astral lore
was taken by Sin, the moon-god, the "lord of wisdom,"
that is, the wisdom to be ascertained by the scrutiny of the
sky. Astrology in Babylonia did not trouble itself with the
petty affairs of the individual, but only with important mat-
ters of state, and here we must note that the concept of the
state stood for the solidarity of people, king and god. So,
while the common people had some impersonal share in the
transactions of the state with the great gods, they had no
alternative in their own affairs than to go to the spirits and
demons which they believed surrounded them and deal with
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 103
them directly or through sorcerers and witches. The people
as well as the priests became adepts in interpreting dreams,
omens, portents, monstrosities, and prodigies. In the words
of Professor Morris Jastrow, "The significance attached
to omens was the most conspicuous outward manifestation
of the religious spirit of the people taken as a whole.""
But there was more to their religion than that. The elab-
orate ceremonials in the temples, while shot through with
the vitiating influences of magic, contained elements of reli-
gious aspiration and fervor. The Incantation Rituals were
in the hands of a special class of priests who had worked
out a gorgeous ceremonial calculated to impress the wor-
shipers deeply. Unfortunately, however, the gist of the
whole exercise was to avert the anger of the deities, which
might only be done by going through a series of incanta-
tions. The magical has penetrated the religion so deeply that
it seems exceedingly difficult to escape it. The fear of the
gods makes almost impossible an approach based on trust
and confidence in the good will of the divine beings. A
higher stage is reached in the Penitential Psalms. The
worshiper feels and confesses that he has done wrong. He
appeals to this god and to that for forgiveness and cleansing.
The sins confessed run all the way from moral evil to merely
ceremonial offenses, discrimination between the two not be-
ing carefully made. Even at this stage, the highest reached
by the Babylonians, there is much to be desired. The "ex-
ceeding sinfulness of sin" does not become apparent. Con-
fession and forgiveness are looked upon more as things to
be done in order not to suffer the evil that might otherwise
come than as the heartfelt expression of a heart filled with
its own unworthiness and desiring to get back into the love
and confidence of a compassionate Saviour-God.
So widely have the rewards and penalties of another life
been looked upon as furnishing the only sufficient sanction
ii
Civilization of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 266. (Lippincott, Phil-
adelphia, 1915.)
IQ4 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
for a moral life that many are led to wonder at the high
ethical standards of the Code of Hammurabi, when seen in
the light of the cheerless prospect of another world which
was as much as the Babylonians ever achieved. The lot of
the dead is not to be envied. There is nothing to do and
no pleasures to enjoy in the dusty, cold, and dark prison
where the dead, huddled together indiscriminately, live
out their miserable existence. There is no chance of a
return to the clear upper air, except it may be for a short
time. There is no retribution for the wicked, no reward
for the good, and no hope of anything better. The only
thing to make their condition worse would be for the corpse
to remain unburied or be mutilated. Then even a worse
fate is his, to roam over the world and feed upon offal in
company with other miserable ghosts. And yet, like the
Hebrews who held a similar belief relative to the future
Kfe, these people developed an ethical system which does
them high honor. But even here they were surpassd by
the ideals of Zoroastrianism which were brought into the
country with the coming of Cyrus. The old religion ceased
to be as an organized faith when the Assyrian and Baby-
lonian empires passed from the scene, but their influence
did not perish. Babylonian astrology and divination and
other features of their occult lore traveled westward and
exerted a potent influence in the later days of the paganism
of Greece and Rome, and even to-day the gypsy astrologer
and fortune-teller remind us of the days when these and
other forms of hocus-pocus were in their glory in the
Euphrates Valley.
Suggestions vmt Fuxthbe Study
Egypt:
J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times (New York, 1916), Chaps. I-III.
J. H. Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient
Egypt (New York, 1912).
(korg Steindorff, The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians (New
rork, 1905).
EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA 105
George Foot Moore, History of Religions (New York, 19x3), Vol. I,
Chaps. VIII, IX.
Babylonia and Assyria:
J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times, Chaps. IV, V.
Robert William Rogers, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria
(New York, 1908).
Morris Jastrow, Jr., Aspects of Religious Belief in Babylonia and
Assyria (New York, 191 1).
(korge Foot Moore^ History of Religions, Vol I, Chap. X.
CHAPTER IV
GREECE AND ROME
Reugion Befoke Homer
Long before the arrival of the Greeks a civilization had
flourished in the lands which they afterward occupied.
Until recent years little or nothing was known of this civiU-
zation, which had its center in the island of Crete and sent
out its influences to the adjacent shores of the mainland and
islands of the Mediterranean. The spade of the archaeolo-
gist has in the last generation unearthed remains which
prove that this sea-faring people had developed a remark-
able culture. The Minoan civilization, as it is called, was
divided into three periods, the first of which reaches back
as far as the pyramid age in Egypt, or about B. C. 2500,
while the last may be dated between B. C. 1600 and 1200.
The immediate interest we have in this development is that
when the Greek immigrants made their way down from the
north they came in contact with a far higher civilization
than their own. What we know as Greek civilization is
really the fusion of two cultures, a fusion which took place
at so distant a date and so long before these people kept rec-
ords that its actuality has only been fully established in recent
years. Excavations at MycensD and other localities in Greece
have revealed the existence of this early so-called Mycenaean
civilization and have opened up a new world for scholarly
investigation. This period in early Greek history synchro-
nizes with the last of the Minoan, that is, about B. C. 1600
to 1200.
The Greeks, then, came from the north and settled and
conquered and assimilated with the population already in
106
GREECE AND ROME 107
the land. We do not know much about them in that early
period. Without doubt they were a branch of the widely
extended Indo-European race, which we shall meet again
in Persia and India as well as in Europe. The Romans were
another branch of the same racial stock. But in each case
the Indo-European has come in contact with some aborig-
inal race whom it has conquered and with whom it has
blended. And while there is some resemblance between the
different members of this scattered family, each has devel-
oped marked individual traits. The Greek is quite distinct
from the Roman, and each has had its unique contribution
to make to the subsequent history of Western civilization.
Seen in this light, Greece and Rome still live, and the "glory
that was Greece" and the "grandeur that was Rome" are
still shedding their luster on the world of the twentieth
century.
We know little about the religion of the Greeks of the
early age. What can now be asserted is not known by direct
evidence so much as by inference. Hints of all kinds are
given which seem to point back to practices and beliefs of
an age long since past. This is not very satisfactory, but
it is the best we can do at the present time. Putting these
various hints together and interpreting them on the basis of
analogous situations in the development in other countries,
tentative conclusions more or less convincing may be formed.
It is important to do this, because any light which may be
shed on the beginnings of the religion of so remarkable a
people as the Greeks is welcomed as an aid to understand
the meaning of their genius and development.
It may be inferred that the early Greek was an animist
and thus in the same line of development with all other
peoples whose origins are known. Evidences are not lack-
ing that their deities were nature gods, and that they rev-
erenced and even worshiped their ancestors. It is probable
that at an early time the gods were sufficiently differentiated
to be considered in charge of this or that interest. They
io8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
had in some sense become ''departmental" gods, specially
connected with the great functions of nature and human
life. The reason why so much indefiniteness should exist
at this point is that the Greek mind so soon conceived of
its gods as like men and separated them from the objects in
nature with which they were connected that the relation
was very early all but lost and can now scarcely be discov-
ered. They were complete personalities like ourselves
and not at all suggestive of the natural objects which had
first appealed to the early Greek as alive and connected with
his affairs.
We know that the coming of the seasons was the signal
for the holding of the religious festivals, that these early
settlers believed in a future life, and looked upon their
departed ancestors as able to confer blessing upon their
faithful descendants. There is no reason for thinking that
images were worshiped in this period, nor that the references
to animals and their connection with the gods pointed back
to a totemic organization of society. In all probability each
community had its god of the heavens who sent the light
and the rain. There must have been a mother goddess,
representing "Mother Earth," the kindly and loving giver
of life. There is evidence that they worshiped "a queen
of wild beasts, the patron of the chase," "the shepherd god,"
"a god of fire," and "the spirits of the sea." As the Greeks
proceeded southward in their migrations and came into
contact with the older civilization, they took over certain
gods already in possession. Among these undoubtedly
were goddesses hitherto unknown but rapidly incorporated
in their worship. Their Greek names give no clue as to
their origin, thus making the problem of their Greek or non-
Greek origin the more difficult of solution.
Determined partly by the physical configuration of Greece,
divided by the sea and the mountains into tiny sections, but
as much if not more so by the bent of the Greek mind, with
its independence and love of individual initiative, Greek
GREECE AND ROME 109
civilization took the form of small independent principalities
or states. Each secluded valley or plain centered in a city,
and this city exercised its sway until the mountain or the
sea interposed and brought to an end its authority. Attempts
were made to break through this division into small states
and form larger units, even a kingdom or empire, but from
the beginning to the end the Greek polis, the city, and the
surrounding territory was the unit and determined the char-
acteristic form of Greek political life. In like manner Greek
religion was a religion of city states, each city differing in
some particulars from its neighbors, with its own divinities
and its own worship. With all the unity attained in later
times the local forms were so tenacious that they never
ceased to mark off the cult of one state from that of another.
The bearing of these two tendencies, the one divisive and
the other unifying, is highly important in the study of Greek
religion. The best known and greatest of the gods of
Greece was Zeus. Connected with the overarching sky, the
giver of the bounties which come with the light of the sun
and the rain, Zeus was early acknowledged as a god by all
the Greek states, but in each case the Zeus worshiped had
a secondary title. This title was local and represented the
god peculiar to each state, which had been retained when
he had been identified with the great Zeus. The small local
community also made possible one of the forms of worship,
the communal meal, in which all the citizens took part.
In it the close connection between the city and its gods was
sacramentally celebrated. The god was looked upon as
kindly disposed toward his own people, not an angry god
in need of propitiation. So these occasions were joyous
festivals, the eating together of the divinity and his people,
far removed from the awful sacrifices to which other peoples
gave themselves in times of stress. Greek religion had its
somber, more tragic phase, but in general, particularly in
the earlier period, was marked by an airy cheerfulness and
delight in beauty which were characteristic of the race.
no THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
The Homekic Contribution
The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer reflect the life and
religion of about B. C. looo. These epics fulfilled the two-
fold function of depicting the gods as they were conceived
by the people at an early day and of crystallizing for hun-
dreds of years the religious ideas of the growing commu-
nities of Greece. The stories contained in these poems were
composed to be sung, and, repeated many times over at
banquets and festivals, filled the imagination of the people
with the stately mythology and picturesque legends of their
own distant past.
The chief religious characteristic of the epics is anthropo-
morphism. The gods were personalities like men and
women. They were superhuman, to be sure, but for all
that they were only human beings built large. Their power
was manifested in nature ; the world was ruled from Mount
Olympus, the residence of King Zeus and his celestial court.
He, as the chief ruler of the universe, guided the events of
human history and determined the destiny of men. While
every conception of the gods is cast in a human mold,
the epic always insists on a difference between men and
gods. The gods are not confronted with the trials and
sufferings of men ; they are immortal and live on heavenly
nectar and ambrosia, far removed from death and decay.
Yet they are not omniscient, and in their passions and feel-
ings are just like ordinary men. It is almost an indignity
to man to say that the gods are like him, because in their
intercourse on Ol3m3pus the gods are guilty of such amours
and give exhibition of such passions as to bring ^ci blush to
the cheek of ordinary men at their bare recital. So we feel,
and so the thinkers and writers of the classical age in
Greece felt. They condemned such conduct in gods as well
as in men, refusing to believe that any god worthy of their
reverence should show such weaknesses. It may be said
that while in the epic the gods appear at a disadvantage.
GREECE AND ROME in
living in the company of one another in the celestial heights,
as individuals and in their relation to men and human
affairs they are seen in an entirely different light, thus
emphasizing the difference between the Homeric mythol-
ogy and the religion of the Greek states. In the cults the
gods appear as objects worthy of reverence and worship,
looked upon in the light of the religious traditions which had
grown up around them in the local centers.
Zeus was always the greatest of the gods, and such had
he been from the earliest times of which we have any knowl-
edge. He accompanied the Greeks as far as their colonies
were planted and became more than any other the national
god. He was ''the protector of political and social groups
from the state to the household. He also took under his
especial cognizance moral relations among men.''' Artemis
is the goddess of wild nature, and takes life, but, strange to
say, is the protector of all life as well. In the end she is
presented as a chaste huntress, punishing those who do not
remain pure and clean. Apollo, the model of manly beauty
and perfection, is a shepherd and the deity of the shep-
herds. At the same time he becomes the god of revelation
and at Delphi renders decisions on perplexing practical
questions. Here all Greece comes and offers him homage,
thus quickening the latent sense of unity which Greece so
much needed. Hermes was another shepherd god and closely
associated with Apollo. He was so swift of foot that he
came to be recognized as the messenger of the gods.
Besides these there were Poseidon, the god of, the sea;
Athena, second only to Zeus, the patroness of civilization,
the inventive genius, skilled in arts and industries. Aphro-
dite, the beautiful goddess of fertility and of love; Hera,
the wife of Zeus, presiding over husbandry and industry,
the patroness of married women; Hephaistos, the skillful
artificer, patron of craftsmen, god of fire and the forge;
Ares, the warrior, the fickle god, husband of Aphrodite;
* G. F. Moore, History of Religions, voL i, p. 416.
112 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Demeter, ''Mother Earth/' the goddess of the fertile soil
and of tillage, who at a later date emerges into great prom-
inence in the Eleusinian Mysteries. There are many other
divinities, each preserving his individuality despite the num-
ber of the gods in the pantheon. There was no worship of
gods seeking human ill. If at any time ill fortune came, it
was because the gods, capricious like men, were temporarily
angry. There was nothing vague or mystical about the
Greek idea of divinity. The outlines were dear, the form
perfect, and everything connected with the conception of
the worship of the gods was beautiful and harmonious.
Unfortunately, "they were not far enough oflf or holy enough
to make religion so potent a factor as it might be in Greek
life."*
While in general the relation between gods and men is
kindly and familiar, there is another side. Death is present,
and is only baleful and horrid. There is some sense of
wrongdoing and the need of sacrifice in view of sin. There
is a lower world, the abode of the Chthonian, or nether-
earth, gods, whose shadow falls at times over the path of
man even in sunny Greece. Worship, however, is more of a
companionship, doing reverence to a great king in the heav-
enly realm, without any of the cringing fear and abject
servility so common in other religions. Combined with an
artistic temperament of the finest quality, religion expressed
itself in outward adornment of exquisite beauty. All the
Greeks did was beautiful and harmonious, and in no feature
of their life was the result more telling or more influential
for all future generations than in the temples of their gods.
By the time of the epic poems all the coarse and cruel fea-
tures of the cult had been put away and every expression
of the religious sentiment was in accord with the finest taste,
a fitting counterpart to the beauties of nature and art to be
seen on all sides.
* From Handbook of Greek Rdigioa, Fairbanks (p. 148). Copyright.
By permission American Book Cc»npany, Publishers.
GREECE AND ROME 113
The Mysteries
Not for centuries after the rise of the epic did the worship
find its full development. Temples grew in beauty and ele-
gance, images were gradually introduced, and the ceremonial
became more ornate and finished in form and content. But
in all we have described there was little chance for the indi-
vidual as an individual to express his own religious emo-
tions. Everything was performed by the family or clan or
city; it was corporate worship with little reference to the
individual. But by the seventh century before our era the
individual had come to a place of importance as a citizen in
the city-state, and with this new attainment were bom new
needs and aspirations which could not be satisfied by the
formal, though beautiful and decorous, worship of the cor-
porate body of citizens. He needed and demanded what
was more personal and individual and vital.
Far to the north in Thrace lived a strange god named
Dionysus. He was "the old spirit of vegetable life, incar-
nate in the bull, incarnate in the wine." "His worship was
of a distinctly orgiastic character. Groups of his wor-
shipers, mainly women, found their way at night with
torches into wild glens on the mountains; the music of
drums and cymbals and flutes stirred sensitive spirits till
their whirling dances and wild swnmons to the god induced
a religious frenzy; serpents were fondled, the young of
wild animals were now suckled by human mothers, now torn
in pieces and eaten raw. The fawn-skin garment, the wand
tipped with a fir cone and wreathed in ivy, sometimes horns
attached to the head, recalled the god to whose service they
were devoted.'' The idea in all this wild worship was "the
identification of the worshipers and the god. The wilder
the frenzy, the more the worshiper felt himself free from
the restraints of the body and the restraints of the material
world.'" All this was incongruous with the orderly and
t Paiibanfcs'8 Greek Rdigkm (p. 241). See note, p. iia.
114 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
beautiful worship of the Olympian gods and could only find
its way into Greek life because of a deep need unsatisfied
by the Ttgahr forms of the established religion. It is true
that the crudeness of the frenzied practices was toned down
as they came into the south and became a permanent feature
of Greek religious life, but we are dealing in Dionysus wor-
ship with something foreign, which could only have been
admitted because of new desires which were stirring in the
hearts of the people. A longing for purification, a desire to
experience religion in the inner life, and the hope of immor-
tality were abroad and could not be stifled.
Another expression of the same spirit was the increasing
importance attached to the worship of Demeter, already
referred to as goddess of the soil and crops. According to
the myth, Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, is seized
by Hades and carried away to the lower world. Demeter,
controlling the growth of the grain, brings men and gods to
the point of famine by failing in her grief to perform her
wonted function. Zeus is compelled to intervene and suc-
ceeds in bringing Persephone back to earth and her mother.
But, having tasted the food of Hades, she must return and
spend a third of the year with him, but in the spring returns
with the blooming flowers and rejoices the hearts of all. The
touching story took renewed hold on the imagination of the
Greeks, and as a feature in the mysteries of Eleusis became
especially prominent in the classical age at Athens. The res-
cue of Persephone from the land of the shades becomes the
earnest of their expectation that men, too, might look for
a real immortality on the other side of the grave. "It is
another instance of the resuscitation of plant life after the
winter's death taken as the promise and proof that maii,
too, may rise to newness of life.*'*
The great Eleusinian mysteries were performed at Athens
and the adjacent Eleusis in the fall of the year, and became
a part of the established religion. The procession of the
*G. F. Moore, History of Religions, p. 45of.
GREECE AND ROME 115
initiated and the neophytes as it wended its way slowly to
the sacred precincts of Eleusis was in itself impressive.
There the ceremonies, of which we have exceedingly scant
information, lasted two or three days. The important thing
was not the doctrine which was imparted but the impression
made. The myth of Demeter and Persephone was doubtless
enacted, vividly picturing the return of the soul from the
clutches of death. The purpose of all the rites and cere-
monies was to satisfy the longing for immortality by the
assurance which comes through an emotional reaction. So
strong must have been the desire and so slightly was it min-
istered to by the ancient state cults that the mysteries at
Eleusis, and others which were less famous, continued to
exert an influence until Christianity superseded the old
paganism.
There were still other manifestations of the same reach-
ing out after a religion which touched the inner life. The
Orphic brotherhoods, wandering evangelists of a new life,
were to be met all over Greece. For a time in the fifth and
fourth centuries B. C. they exerted a more wide-reaching
influence than any other religious agency. They came into
Greece in connection with one of the waves of the worship
of Dionysus which swept over the country. They received
their name from Orpheus, the sweet singer, who charmed
the wild beasts and fierce men by his strains, and is even said
to have been able to move trees and stones. Grieving over
his wife, whom he had failed to rescue from Hades, he
betook himself to the mountain fastnesses, where he was
killed by the maenads, who tore him limb from limb. Here
was tragedy and pathos suflicient to appeal to the deepest feel-
ings of men. More than any of the other mysteries the Orphic
religion was concerned with the next life. It preached its
gospel to the individual, calling upon men to put away evil,
to accept a new way of salvation, and to enter into mystic
and sacramental union with their god. Unlike the Eleusinian
mysteries, which were incorporated into the established reli-
116 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
gion, the Oq)hic faith was a kind of vagrant, outside the
regvilar channels of religious life. This very fact serves,
however, to emphasize the inadequacy of the old formal
cults and the need for just the gospel which the Orphic
preachers proclaimed.
The Elusinia was almost exclusively Greek, Roman citi-
zens being the only outsiders to be admitted to the mystic
rites. The Orphic brotherhoods, on the contrary, had a
message for all men, ''Greek and barbarian, bond and free."
Man, they said, is half-divine and belongs to "the kindred
of God." He may in this life have communion with the
deity and in the next, after being purified from all his stains,
may have fellowship with him forever. This has a decid-
edly Christian sound ; it is, in fact, the high water mark of
Greek religion, only to be surpassed by the coming of a reli-
gion which could in a more complete manner fulfill the moral
and spiritual aspirations which Orphism could only par-
tially satisfy.
The Philosophers
At the same time the gospel of personal religion was re-
ceiving a wide hearing in Greece another movement, even
more significant for the future, was coming to its own and
making its contribution to Greek culture. It was the rise of
the philosopher and the philosophic poet. They, rather than
the priests, dominated the thought life of the Greeks and
gave to the people the most worthy ideas of God and the
soul which have come to us out of paganism. It was secu-
lar literature unhampered by the restraints of ecclesiastical
authority. The priesthoods of Greece never assumed con-
trolling authority over the opinions and actions of men.
They had no sacred scriptures to which they could appeal as
authoritative and which might serve as a touchstone of
orthodoxy. The result was that there were no doctrines
which formed a body of dogma to which all might be com-
pelled to conform. Nowhere in the ancient world, and only
GREECE AND ROME 117
in comparatively recent years in Christendom, has such lib-
erty prevailed as in Greece. It was the very atmosphere
which they breathed. The human mind was loosed to ven-
ture the hardest problems and to master the world of intel-
lect and of nature. Well was it that this opportunity came
to men of such consummate ability. Never have the two in
such measure been found in juxtaposition even down to
our own time. The Greeks have taught us how to think,
and we sit at their feet to-day. Their minds ranged over
the whole field of human learning, and were irresistibly
drawn to look into the human heart and interpret the
thoughts and desires which religion had implanted.
The Odes of Pindar, one of the earliest of the poets,
begin already to turn away from the epic account of the
gods and their actions. With all his love for the old stories he
does not hesitate to reject what is crude and immoral. He
will not believe that the gods are guilty of any such conduct,
and considers it blasphemy to impute wrong deeds to them.
The great dramatic poets have their contribution to make.
To them there is unity in the moral order of the universe.
Zeus is raised to a lofty position as the governor of the
world. His righteous rule extends over all men and holds
them to the exacting standards of justice and honor. Each
in his own way, the three great dramatic poets, ^schylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides, show little patience with the
stories of the gods, and exhibit the Nemesis of wrong-doing
and the tragic consequences of hate. They were on the side
of righteousness and the higher conception of man and God.
Similarly, the great philosophers of the classical period,
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, were leaders in moral as well
as intellectual development. Particularly was this true of
the first two named. Socrates was intent on pricking the
bubble of conceit for men who were self-satisfied and com-
placent in their theories, but more than that he was con-
stantly seeking to build men up in virtue. For Socrates
virtue is defiined as knowledge, so that to know things as
Ii8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
they are and to see dearly is to be good. A deeper concep-
tion of morality has taken us far past this stage, but the deep
feeling that there is a spiritual presence in the world working
for righteousness and the unconquerable hope of immor-
tality, which made him calm and even cheerful in the pres-
ence of a tragic death, mark Socrates as one of the great
souls in the history of ethics and religion.
Plato was the pupil of Socrates. He must have it that
the gods are good, that they will never stoop to evil in any
form. Thus, being righteous themselves, they demand the
same morality in men. Receiving from his great master an
ethical and spiritual outlook on life, Plato went much fur-
ther and elaborated his philosophy into a system whose influ-
ence is in many respects as powerful to-day as in past ages.
We live in a spiritual world in which ideas are the most real
and important ingredient. The great Idea is God and he is
one. Thus Plato was laying the foundations for a theistic
interpretation of the universe. In fact, he has been called
"the founder of theistic philosophy."* Aristotle, "the master
of those who know,'' is far more interested in the world of
nature around him. He is the man of science as well as the
philosopher. His God is farther away from men than that
of Plato. Man is midway between God and the physical
universe and so has a nature both spiritual and earthly. He
has no conception of immortality as a personal experience,
as was taught by Plato and Socrates. But with many dif-
ferences in outlook upon life and its problems Aristotle
takes his place with his great predecessors in the insistence
of his moral demands and in his belief in a unified universe
controlled and held together by a single spiritual Being
over all.
In the later period as we approach the Christian era sev-
eral philosophies emerge which seek to interpret life to a
changing, dissatisfied age. Epicureanism is not guilty of
recommending a life of indulgence, as has been charged,
*G. F. Moore, op. cit, p. 499.
GREECE AND ROME 119
but it has no religious message. Believing that a life of
contentment can only be lived if fear of the gods and dread
foreboding concerning the future be eliminated, it pro-
ceeded to construct a philosophy with no reference to the
spiritual world either now or hereafter. A very different
viewpoint was that occupied by Stoicism, stem and forbid-
ding as it was in so many features. There is a God, a living
God, who is present in every atom of the universe, and this
God is a spirit. But when spirit is defined it is seen not to
be spiritual in any sense at alL It is matter like everything
else, though matter in the more ethereal form of fire and
vapor. But it was in respect of morality that the Stoics
had a message which reached many of the finest spirits of
the age. Good and evil exist side by side, and it is man's
part to choose between them. It is his to choose virtue and
devote himself to it He is to do so solely for virtue's sake,
not for any good that may come by so doing — that were to
defeat the very end he has in view. Sternly he must sup-
press his impukes and live untouched by any emotional
appeals. It was no milk for babes, this Stoic creed. Small
wonder it found lodgment in the hearts of many of the
noblest men. It was exalted and far-reaching in its demands
on life and offered standing room for men who would not
be drawn down into the unethical thinking and low living
of the mass of the people around them.
But another idea was abroad in the land, the idea that
matter is intrinsically evil. Basing their teaching on Plato
and Pythagoras, these Neopythagoreans placed God, ''the
principle of good," in contrast and in conflict with matter,
which is evil and only evil. Men are partakers of the divine
nature, but are in danger of being drawn down into the
vileness of their natural environment. This can only be
prevented by overcoming their fleshly desires through a
strict regimen, which included becoming vegetarians and
celibates.
At the same time many men in Greece were turning their
lao THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
eyes to the mysterious East, for out of the East were com-
ing strange religions which found ready acceptance in the
lands of the West. We shall have more to say concerning
these mystery religions in connection with the later days
of the Roman religion, but mention is made of them here
because in Greece as well as Rome they found congenial
soil in which to grow.
The last phase of the development of the Greek intellect
was Neoplatonism. It based its teaching on the idealistic
philosophy of Plato, but added an element to which the
great philosopher was a stranger. It was philosophy touched
with emotion. It also partook of the prevailing thought of
the day that matter was evil. God was separated from man
by a great chasm, even though man originally came from
God. But man has forgotten his origin and his birthright
and goes about his affairs unmindful of his heritage. He
may, however, get back. This is to be done by stages, step
by step regaining what had been lost, until in the end he
loses himself in the God from whom he had come. Only
enough has been said about Neoplatonism and the other
philosophies to indicate that they were religious; that they
dealt not only with conduct but with salvation; that they
attempted to meet the needs of men and women who in an
age of confusion were seeking the light, and that they were
very evidently preparing the way for the coming of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, which gathered up into itself all the
elements of worthy appeal to be found in the philosophies
which had preceded it and which in addition could embody
in a spotless personality the very essence of its living power
— and this the Greek philosophies could not do.
Early Roman Religion
The mistake often has been made of thinking that Roman
religion was about the same as Greek religion. The mis-
take could easily be made because Greek religion was trans-
ported to Rome and became the possession of the Roman
GREECE AND ROME 121
people. But before the Greek influence began to be felt
Rome had a religion of its own, and the character of this
religion must be understood before the later mixture of
Greek and Roman ideas can be appreciated. Then it will
be seen how distinctive the Roman contribution was and
how its influence was a powerful factor in the later faith of
the city and empire of Rome.
The early religion of the people of Rome was above every-
thing else practical. They were an agricultural people and
their religion was suited to their agricultural needs. Already
we begin to see the distinctive character of whatever is
Roman. These people, unlike the Greeks, were not a think-
ing people; they were practical. They had no mythology
and no philosophic theories of the origins of things. They
were men who did not ask questions beyond the pragmatic
question. Is it useful? does it work? They were men of
law and order and authority with capacity to conquer and
to rule. They conquered the world of the Mediterranean
basin and even beyond, and out of the loose fragments
welded an empire, which was one of the most magnificent
products of human genius. They made little contribution to
the intellectual life of the world, but they developed one of
the most important gifts of the ancient to the modem world,
the Roman Law. The empire went to pieces when the bar-
barians from the north came pouring over the defenses along
the Rhine and the Danube and made the old empire their
home, but the influence of Rome still lives. Our laws bear
the impress of the various Roman codes, particularly that
of the Emperor Justinian, and in the Roman Catholic Church
we have in every country of the world the inheritor of the
organizing genius of the ancient Romans, which exercises
over its adherents to-day the same authority, and demands
the same implicit obedience as did Rome under both the
republic and the empire. Rome richly deserves the title
"eternal" both as respects her continued existence as a city
and her influence in the world.
122 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
The gods of the Romans were powers who were expected
to do the things they were capable of doing. They were
powers, numina, with scarcely enough personality to be
called gods. No images were made of them because the
Roman mind had never conceived of its divinities as per-
sonal. Each power had its own function and was not known
in any other way than in its performance. This caused a
division of labor among the powers which seems to reduce
the gods to very small dimensions. To illustrate, "Seia has
to do with the com before it sprouts, S^etia with com
when shot up. Tutilina with com stored in the granary,
Nodotus has for his care the knots in the straw. There is a
god Door, a goddess Hinge, a god Threshold. Each act in
opening infancy has its god or goddess. The child has
Cunina when lying in the cradle, Statina when he stands,
Edula when he eats, Locutius when he begins to speak,
Adeona when he makes for his mother, Abeona when he
leaves her; forty-three such gods of childhood have been
counted. Pilumnus, god of the pestle, and Diverra, goddess
of the broom, may close our small sample of the limitless
crowd.'** This is animism pure and simple, animism unde-
veloped into the higher forms which point toward polythe-
ism. With no imagination the Roman was content with such
a relation to the thousand powers around him, each doing its
little part in the practical work of life. Such was the condi-
tion in the earliest day, but later certain of the divinities
assumed an importance tmknown before and became the
greater gods of the state religion. Jupiter holds the first
place, and is called Optimus Maximus, and next comes
Mars, who (with Quirinus) is the God of War. Janus, after
whom the first month of our year is named, is the god of
opening, the old Roman god of the door at the entrance of
the house. The last of these larger gods of the early days
was Vesta, originally the goddess of the family hearth and
latterly the guardian of the state hearth.
* Allan Menzies, History of Religion, p. 307*
GREECE AND ROME 123
•
The religion of the family, as has just been intimated, was
the earliest form of Roman religion. The only priest in that
day was the father of the family, the paterfamilias. He
offered the sacrifices and led the family in its religious duties.
Certain of the eariiest deities were distinctively family gods'.
Vesta, the fire of the hearth, in which the family life cen-
tered, came first. The duty of caring for the fire and keep-
ing the hearth clean fell to the mistress of the house, who
thus had her part in the family worship. In a later day,
when Vesta became a goddess of the state, the place of the
mistress of the house was taken by six vestal virgins,
charged with the keeping of the fire and other duties spe-
cially assigned to them. The Lares, or ancestral spirits,
watched over the household, and the Penates protected the
storerooms, on which the sustenance of the family depended.
The Manes, "the kindly deities," were looked upon as well
disposed to the living, as their name indicates. Besides
these each individual had his own protecting divinity ; in the
case of a man it was his Genius, of a woman her Juno.
These "good angels," which seem often to be little more
than one's other self, have watch-care through life over one's
fortunes and at death go out into the great unknown
with him.
As the old family religion was enlarged into the state
religion it became in a very definite sense an affair of the
state. The ministers of religion were state officials, ap-
pointed and performing their duties like other officials.
True to their genius, the Romans organized this state reli-
gion as thoroughly as the government, of which in reality
it was a part. The cult was purely a formal performance
of the ritual and ceremonial with no vestige of sentiment
about it. Great care was exercised to secure correctness and
precision in the conduct of the worship, for the efficacy of
the rite depended upon just these things. Like a stem
earthly potentate who demands that he be approached with
circumspection and that he be addressed with the proper
124 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
titles^ so the gods were looked upon as making the same
demands. The gods could be counted upon to prevent evils
from befalling the people only if they on their part per-
formed their religious duties punctiliously and thus gave
them the honor which ¥ras their due.
The number of festival days was large. This made nec-
essary the organization of the religious officials, that all
the duties might be properly performed. The flamens were
priests assigned to this or that god, on whom the conduct
of the worship rested. The augurs were the official diviners,
set to the task of ascertaining the will of the god by various
forms of divination, notably the observation of the ffight of
birds and the examination of the livers of sheep. Other
groups might also be named, like the Arval brothers, who
officiated before the goddess who provided the needed crops,
and the Luperd, or wolf-men, who sacrificed goats and
dogs to a rustic god on the occasion of his annual festival. In
charge of the affairs of religion was the pontifex, of whom
there were at first five, later fifteen, whose duties were
varied, for, being state officials, they were charged with
duties now looked upon as purely secular. With their con-
ception of the gods as powers, scarcely personal, there was
little likelihood that any attempt would be made to repre-
sent them in images in human form, and with no images
there would be no temples, where the gods might dwelL
This development was not reached until a later day, when
Rome came under the influence of foreign cults.
The Contact with Greece
With all the changes introduced into Roman religion by
contact with outside cults what has already been described
continued as the religion of the people and the state down
through the period of the republic, which lasted from
B. C. 509 to 27. Before that was the age of the kings, and
after that the empire, which so far as the west was con-
cerned, came to an end in A. D. 476. * What we haye now
GREECE AND ROME 125
to recount took place in the days of the republic. But even
before that Roman religion had been modified by contact
with a people close at hand. The Etruscans lived in Italy
just north of the Tiber and were thus early brought into
contact with the Romans as they began to settle, say about
B. C. 750, on the hills south of that stream. It was Etruscan
influence which was responsible for the building of a wall
around the settlements on the hilltops, thus making Rome a
city with a sense of unity and pride in itself. And the same
influence was responsible for the pomerium, or plowed fur-
row around the dty within which no foreign deity might
be allowed to come. Thus Rome was provided through this
Etruscan contact with both a material and a spiritual wall,
which raised the people to a hitherto unknown sense of
their unique identity. They were now a complete, self-
sufficient power, able both to defend themselves and enter
upon the conquests which carried their eagles almost to the
bounds of the then known world. The Etruscan also intro-
duced the temple, or templum, which in that day did not
mean a building, but a rectangular area marked off on the
ground, which was supposed to be a counterpart of a heav-
enly rectangle, and from which the flight of birds could be
effectively observed. As Professor Jesse Benedict Carter
suggests,* the earliest religion of the Roman people, un-
touched by outside influences, appealed to the social instinct
— ^it was the religion of the family and family interests.
Under the influence of the Etruscans the religion made a
strong appeal to national instinct — ^Rome became a city, self-
conscious and strong and able to make a name for itself in
the world.
The current of Greek influence began about the time the
republic was established. The story of the beginnings of
this contact with Greece is shrouded in legend, but deserves
to be told even in so short a sketch as this. "A later age,
' The Rdigious Life of Ancient Rome, p. 63. (Houghton Mifflin,
Boston, 1911.)
126 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
from whom history has no secrets, with a cheap would*be
omniscience told of the old woman who visited Tarquin
(the last of the kings) and offered him nine books for a
certain price, and when he refused to pay it, went away,
burned three, and then returning offered him at the orig-
inal price the six that were left; on his again refusing she
went away, burned three more and finally offered at the
same old price the three that remained, which he accepted.
Except as a sidelight on the character of the early Greek
trader the story is worthless."* The fact is that Rome came
early into contact with the Greek colonies of Southern Italy
and at some time about the beginning of the republic came
into possession of the Sibylline books, the traditional story
of the acquisition of which from the old woman of Cumx
has just been told. These books were treasured by the
Romans as a sacred possession; they were placed for safe
keeping in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the
Capitoline Hill in tihe care of guardians specially appointed
for that purpose, the Quindecemviri; or the Fifteen. The
books were kept secret and under the control of the Senate,
who determined when the volumes might be consulted. All
this shows the reverence in which these mysterious books
were held. Now, the important thing about them was that
whenever they were consulted the answer always came that
certain deities, Greek deities of course, should be introduced
and worshiped. This does not account for the coming of
Greek religion into Italy, for it had been there long before
and had already begun to influence Rome, but it does place
the sanction of official approval on the reception of these
foreign deities and worships. So important is this remark-
able movement that Professor Carter says of it, "The study
of the outward and the inward effects of the Sibylline books
is therefore the real history of religion in the first half of
the republic'
yf
' Carter, The Religion of Numa, p. 65. (Macmillan, Londoiii 1906.)
'Carter, op. cit, p. 71*
GREECE AND ROME 127
In the year B. C. 496 Rome was in difficulty ; her crops
had failed and this rendered her position insecure in the war
with the Latins then being waged. Recourse was had to the
Sibylline books and the result was the introduction into
Rome of the worship of Demeter, Dionysus, and Persephone,
Greek deities .familiar to our ears. These foreign divinities
were not allowed within the pomerium, so continued to be
looked upon as outsiders. They dropped their Greek names
and were given Roman names, names of already existing
Roman gods and goddesses. By taking their names these
new Greek divinities crowded the Roman gods out of their
place until all that was left was a name. Demeter became
known as Ceres, an old fertility goddess about whom little
is known. But now Demeter with the old name Ceres be-
comes an important goddess with a splendid temple and
games to her honor. Dionysus is identified with Liber, the
patron of the vine, and so completely absorbs what individ-
uality Liber had developed that little is left of the Roman
god save the namei Persephone, or Kore, is identified
with Libera, the female counterpart of Liber, just men-
tioned. But there was such confusion that, when in a later
day Persephone was again introduced into Rome, this time
without change of name, as a goddess supposed to be un-
known before in the city, we have two Roman goddesses,
Proserpina and Libera, both representing the same Greek
deity.
After this Greek gods and goddesses came into Rome one
after another until they were all there. Rome had enlarged
her pantheon until it seemed literally to include all the
gods of the countries with whom she was in touch. Most
of these gods were brought in at some time of stress. They
did not come in deliberately to take the place of the old
Roman gods, but to perform some function for which no
Roman god seemed prepared. The very idea of deity was
changed by the process, the Romans coming in the end to
look upon their Greek gods with Latin names just as the
128 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Greeks looked upon them, personalities like men and women,
with images and temples in which they lived. The old ideas
and practices languished and the city was filled with new
forms of worship. It was a veritable conquest, Rome the
Conqueror vanquished in the things of the mind and the
spirit by the clever and versatile Greek. Zeus may be identi-
fied with Jupiter, Hera with Juno, Poseidon widi Neptune,
Athena with Minerva, Ares with Mars, Aphrodite with
Venus, Artemis with Diana, Hermes with Mercury, but in
the identification the Greek god lived on in power and influ-
ence despite the Latin name which had been assumed. In
the end these new deities were admitted within the pome^
Hum and thus were looked upon as thoroughly Roman.
From the time of the Second Punic War, about the year
B. C. 200, no differences can be detected between the Roman
and the Greek elements in the cult; it is a new religion in
fact, the Graeco-Roman, and such it remained until the day
when it disappeared with the oncoming of Christianity.
The last use of the Sibylline books of which we have any
record was in the crisis of B. C. 205, when Hannibal was in
Italy and Rome was in danger of falling into his hands.
The books were consulted and the answer came that the
enemy could be overcome if the Great Mother of the Gods
should be brought to Rome from her home in Central Asia
Minor. But now we have come to that period in the history
of Roman religion when a new element, not Roman, or even
Greek, finds its way into the worship and changes it still
further into a compound faith, with ingredients gathered
from all the lands of the East. To understand this influ-
ence is the final task in order to estimate the religion of
pre-Christian Rome.
The Influence of the East
During the period of the republic (about B. C. 500 to the
beginning of our era) Rome became mistress of the world.
Never had there been such an empire. Wealth poured into
GREECE AND ROME 129
the city and Rome became the metropolis of the world, the
center from which radiated all the ideas and forces which
came to a focus in the multiform activities of its busy life.
But Rome had changed ; she was not as religious as she had
been in the simpler days of the past. Greek philosophers
had come in with their criticism of the old religious beliefs
and aided the disintegration which had set in. The deteri-
oration was not only religious but moral^ Few people can_^
stand such rapid increase of wealth and influence, and the
Romans were no exception to the rule. The institution of
games in connection with the triumphs of her generals and
the religious festivals demoralized the people and led to
such excesses that the morals of Rome in the centuries just
before and just after Christ have become a byword and a
reproach in all succeeding generations. The offices of reli-
gion in connection with the state cult fell into disuse and
men could not be found to fill positions which were vacant.
Such ceremonies as were performed were carried through
only in the most perfunctory manner, like any other state
function. The very knowledge of some old religious cere-
monies perished and others were neglected, so that they had
lost all meaning. It was a desperate situation which pre-
vailed at the time when Julius Caesar passed off the scene
and his nephew Octavius, known later as Augustus Caesar,
took the reins of government into his hands and began to
reign. The days of the Roman empire had come, and
Augustus proved to be the man of the hour.
One of the events which mark his reign was the revival
of religion. It. was largely his own work. Augustus rec-
ognized that without religion a country is lost. He revived
old ceremonies, filled offices which had been unoccupied for
years, rebuilt temples, and in every way sought to restore
the religion to its old place of power in the life of the people.
He brought in some new features, the most remarkable of
which was Caesar-worship. At first it was worship of the
dead rulers of the past, then of the Uving emperor sitting on
I30 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
the throne in Rome. It was not called exactly by that name f
the Romans would have resented such a bald statement as
too much of an innovation. The proposal was to worship
the "Genius" of the emperor, the shadowy counterpart of the
living man which was more or less spiritual and other-
worldly. This was not quite so much a shock to their sensi-
bilities, but it was only a step removed from the actual wor-
ship of the emperor himself. This became the one universal
form of religion and the touchstone of loyalty to the empire.
By their refusal to perform the rites connected with this
worship the early Christians were declared treasonous and
were thrown to the lions.
Now, the important fact to keep in mind is that emperor
worship was an importation. The old Roman might hesi-
tate at such a step, but it was natural and easy for the Asi-
atic, and the introduction of the strange idea is an evidence
of the strength of the influence which had set in from the
eastern sections of the empire. The old religion had ceased
to satisfy the desires of even the stem old Romans, and its
place was being taken by religions which came trooping in
from Asia and Africa. We have already mentioned the
coming of the Great Mother of the Gods, whose home had
been in the wild mountains of Central Asia Minor. King
Attains presented the deputation which had come from the
Roman senate with the god in the form of a black aerolite,
and this was taken to Rome, received with due ceremony —
and the danger from Hannibal was averted. But who was
Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, thus brought to Rome,
so far from her original home? Attis is the husband of
Cybele, and he is violently killed. She mourns him with
tumultuous sorrow. He is finally raised to life again amid
the wildest rejoicing. Such in the briefest space is the
myth brought with the goddess to Rome in B. C. 205. Her
worship in Asia Minor was an imitation of the acts depicted
in the m3rth, and, as might be expected, was made up of
wild and uncontrolled orgies. The staid Romans were
GREECE AND ROME 131
shocked at these displays and the cult had a checkered
career in the capital, but in the days of the empire it won its
way into popular favor and received the sanction of the
government There was a procession, which was followed
by the exercises in the temple, where the old myth was
retold and reacted, producing "a state of rapturous ecstasy"
which swept the worshiper oS his feet and lifted him into
union with the deity. As Attis died and was raised to life
again, so would the worshiper be sure of another life. Union
with the god was sacramentally achieved by the bloody tau-
robolium. A man would stand in a deep trench under a
grating on which a bull was killed, and the blood would
pour through the grating over the head and body of the
worshiper. In this bath he believed he had entered into a
new life by physical contact with the life-giving blood. The
origin of the rite is obscure, but it doubtless goes back to
an ancient belief that one could physically transfuse the
strength of the animal into his body, and then later the whole
thing was spiritualized into the new birth of the soul.
Already the reason why such practices, so strange to old
Roman religion, could exercise so strong an influence is
evident. There was an emotional appeal which was irre-
sistible. The ancient faith had no message when men
began to be alive to new desires and aspirations. The old
religion was cold and prosaic; these religions which came
out of the East made an appeal to the senses, were full of
mystery, and were exceeding human and warm in sym-
pathy. That they descended to the level of the sensual at
times did not militate against their success, for there was
so much more which the old religion did not possess that
defects, even when seen as such, did not prevent them from
being acceptable. They were religions of salvation, of re-
wards and punishment, of immortality, and, last but not
least, they demanded personal allegiance based on belief in
the goodness of the divinity.
The religion of Isis and Osiris came from Egypt and
132 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
gathered a large popular following, despite persecotion dur-
ing its earlier days. But it, too, became domesticated and
was considered a legitimate faith by the state as well as the
people. Here, again, the appeal did not lie in its system of
thought, nor in its morality, which was exceedingly ques-
tionable, nor even in its doctrine of cleansing, but in the
intoxicating seduction of the ritual and the promise of im-
mortality. Again, in this religion there was a story told
about Isis and her husband Osiris, who was killed by the
evil-minded Typhon. Horus, their son, would wreak venge-
ance on his father's murderer, but in the end Osiris is
raised to a new life and Typhon is forgiven. At least so
runs the m3rth in one of its many forms. But in them all is
the appeal to the elemental passions of love, hate, vengeance,
and forgiveness. They are warm vrith human interest and
sympathy and come close to the daily life of men and women,
and this the old religion could never do.
A variety of beliefs and practices came in from Syria.
The most famous of the deities was Atargatis, the Dea
Syria, whose worship was associated with dreadful sensual-
ity. It could not help but work harm, yet in the ancient
world there was real confusion between the impure and the
sacred, and hence greater difikulty in seeing clearly what
had in it the seeds of evil, especially in religious practice.
From Syria, too, came astrology, which had its home in
Babylon, as we have seen, and which now entered into a
new phase among the peoples of the west. But of all these
religions that of Mithras is the most interesting and the
most important. Coming originally out of Persia, Mithras
was found about the beginning of our era in the mountains
of Asia Minor. From there it came into Rome about B. C.
70, the last of these Oriental faiths to reach the West. But
while it was slow in starting on its career of conquest, it
extended farther than all the others when its message began
to be known. Carried by merchants and slaves, but espe-
cially by soldiers, the mithreums, or underground chapels,
GREECE AND ROME 133
have been discovered wherever in the wide expanses of the
empire the Roman legions were stationed. There was
again the myth of how Mithras by slaying the bull brought
life and plenty to the world. This scene is depicted on all
the bas-reliefs in every place of worship. It was a man's
religion and made surprising moral demands upon its fol-
lowers. This at once raises it to a level higher than that of
the other Eastern cults. Through seven grades the initi-
ates were led until they had attained the highest level.
Mithras was the god of light and in the later time became
identified with the sun, and as Sol Invictus, the Invincible
Sun, was the last embodiment of the pagan idea of deity,
before it went down forever in the brighter light of another
religion from the East which was to supersede them all.
Christianity, then, was one of these Eastern faiths which
found a welcome in the West and in the end became the
religion of the whole empire. It, too, had a story to tell,
of a Saviour who was crucified and who rose again and was
seen by his disciples. It, too, touched the emotions, and held
out the promise of immortality. A religion from the East,
and in some respects like the others, Christianity, however,
rose to a level of moral sublimity and self-forgetful service
unattainable by Mithraism or the religion of Isis and the
Great Mother. And as compared with the other deities,
even Mithras, the Saviour in Christianity has the advan-
tage of being a real historical character and of exemplifying
in his own person all the moral excellencies of his own
doctrine.
Suggestions vob Fuithkr Study
Greece:
J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times (New York, 1916), Part III, The
Greeks.
Arthur Fairbanks, Greek Religion (New York, 1910). A compact
but complete survey.
L. R. Famell, OutHne-History of Greek Religion (London, 1921).
A short, comprehensive survey by one of the leading authori-
ties.
134 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Gebrge Foot Moore, History of Religions (New York, I913)» VoL I,
Chaps. XVII-XX.
Rorn^:
J. H. Breasted, Ancient Times, Parts IV and V, dealing with Rome
and the Roman empire.
J. B. Carter, The Religion of Numa (New York, igo6). A short
but helpful survey of the ancient religion.
Franz Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism (Chi-
cago, 1911). The best account of the influence of the East
W. Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People
(London, 1911). The most extended survey in English of the
religion to the time of Augustus.
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, VoL I, (Hiaps. XXI, XXIL
CHAPTER V
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER
The Indo-Europeans akd Their Religion
In the study of the religion of Zoroaster we make the
transition from the religions which have passed away and
ceased to be to the living religions of mankind. The wor-
shipers of Ahura Mazda in India and Persia to-day, small
in number though they be, are the descendants of those to
whom the prophet Zoroaster came, and are proud of their
history and unbroken tradition. The Parsis (a name de-
rived from "Persia") in India are an exclusive community
of about a hundred thousand souls, who have in recent dec-
ades prospered greatly and have become the best educated
and most progressive group in the whole land. So, because
of their long and honorable history and their present position
of prominence in the land of their adoption, it is altogether
fitting that we should seek to understand the religion which
has bound them together so closely. Bristling with difficul-
ties though the investigation may be, the student finds him-
self lured on as each step reveals, paf^ticularly in the earlier
development, glimpses of a faith with such a lofty concep-
tion of the Divine Being and such uncompromising insist-
ence on morality that he realizes he is dealing with one of
the highest religions to be found among men. But before
taking it up directly it is necessary to place it in its proper
setting as one of the religions of the Indo-European peoples.
At a period at least two or three thousand years before
Christ there roamed on the grassy plateaus and steppes
either east or west of the Caspian Sea — we cannot say which
— ^tribes of nomadic peoples seeking pasturage for their
135
136 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
flocks and herds. They were white men, speaking a com-
mon language, with vivid imaginations and boundless en-
ergy. For some reason — it may have been the natural in-
crease of population which tended to overcrowd the regions
already occupied — groups of these restless nomads would
start off to find a more congenial home, until in the end
they were scattered far to the east and south and west, all
the distance from Ireland and Scotland, in the cold and
misty west, to the plains of India, under a blazing tropical
sun. The branch which we know as the Kelts moved west-
ward at an early date and pushed far to the west into the
British Isles and France as we know them to-day. They
were followed by the Teutonic peoples to whom the Anglo-
Saxons and the Scandinavians belong, and these in turn must
have been urged westward by the Slavic tribes who finally
settled in central and eastern Europe. We know little about
their movements until in the early centuries of our era the
Teutonic peoples burst through the barriers of the Roman
empire and changed the whole course of civilization. Other
branches of the Indo-Europeans also pushed westward and
southward and had by mingling with the races already pres-
ent formed the national group which we know as the Greeks
and the Latins, or Italic people. Even more obscure are the
movements of still other branches which swarmed into
Asia Minor, whom we know as Hittites, Phrygians, Scyth-
ians, and Armenians.
These all moved toward the west. Others, however, were
led to take a different direction. They moved toward the
south and east and finally found a permanent home for
themselves in Persia and in India. This double branch of
the original stock is correctly known by the name "Aryan,"
which is frequently but less correctly given to all the Indo-
European peoples. These Aryans formed one more or less
homogeneous group for a period sufliciently long to develop
certain peculiarities which belong to these races, but which
are not to be found among the peoples who migrated west-
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 137
ward. We do not know when it occurred, but finally the
Aryans divided into two groups, one going to the southwest
and finding its home on the bleak, wind-swept plateau of
Persia, and the other going to the southeast, penetrating the
passes of the mountain barrier, and finally settling down in
the plains of northern India. It was among these immi-
grants into Iran, or Persia, that Zoroaster appeared and
preached his gospel of one God who demanded righteous-
ness in his worshipers.
In the days when all the Indo-European peoples lived in
more or less close connection with each other they pos-
sessed a common language, a common culture, and a com-
mon religion. As they separated differences began to appear,
and became more marked as the centuries passed, but cer-
tain likenesses, particularly in language, were not oblit-
erated and are used to-day to show the kinship between
these groups who in so many ways are poles apart in their
thinking and in their customs.
We owe much to Professor Otto Schrader for giving (in
an extensive article, "Aryan Religion,'' in the Encyclopaedia
of Religion and Ethics) an account of about all that can
be gleaned from a great variety of sources concerning this
early religion. It had two phases, the worship of dead an-
cestors and the worship of the "heavenly ones.'' Both
burial and cremation were known and practiced, burial
being supposed to have preceded cremation. The change
indicated a different viewpoint, for, while burial was a
means of continuing the connection between soul and body,
cremation was intended to separate the soul from its body as
soon as possible. One form of disposal of the dead did not
completely displace the other, and we have no means of
knowing why one was practiced in preference to the other.
But whatever might be the means used of disposing of their
bodies, the dead were held in high reverence and elaborate
rites were practiced in their memory. Gifts of various kinds
were made to the dead so as to provide them with what they
138 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
needed in the other world. They were not so far away, and
could come and really, though invisibly, share in the feast
which was spread in their honor. They had become more
powerful in the other world and yet continued to be vitally
interested in all the concerns of the family. They were
appealed to for help; they must also be placated, for they
were looked upon as even more severe than a stem parent
and quite easily angered. So urgent was the demand that
the good things of this life be provided for those who had
passed over that inhuman cruelty was not imcommonly
exhibited. Even wives and slaves were sent after the de-
parted one for his comfort, and for a young man who had
not yet been married and had met an untimely death a
marriage was performed with a young woman, who was
then burned or buried alive with the corpse !
The other side of the worship was that of the ''heavenly
ones." There are evidences of primitive animism, of fetish-
ism, and of the higher development into the worship of
certain great powers of nature. In Professor Schrader's
words, "The worship of the sky and the powers of nature
connected with it formed the real kernel of the primitive
Aryan (Indo-European) religion." This means the worship
of the sun and moon, fire, wind, and water. These gods
were not named ; they were looked upon as personal, but had
not been fully personified. The element of magic is quite
evident in the relations of the worshipers with the powers,
but genuine religion in the form of sacrifice and prayer raises
this relationship to a higher level. The father was the first
priest, but it was not long before a priestly class began to
develop and take charge of the sacrifices. Only gradually
were the greater gods personalized and moralized. Until
that took place the worship of ancestors was a far greater
moral force than the more sublime worship of the powers
of nature. Unfortunately, through it all there was the
somber thread of fatalism, which permeated life with a
retarding and depressing influence.
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 139
Such was the religion of our forefathers and the fore-
fathers of the peoples of Europe and of many of those in
Asia Minor, Persia, and India. This short sketch may help
us to understand the better the development which later
took place and also the present tendencies in life and thought
among the great Indo-European family of races and peoples.
Zoroaster and His Reformation
While those who were to settle in Persia and in India
were still together they developed certain common features
of ritual and belief which remained with them long after
they became separate peoples. They came to believe in a
number of gods who were believed in by both in later times.
Notable among them was Mithras (Mitra in India), who, as
we have seen, traveled west and found his last home in the
Roman empire in the last days of paganism. Fire is held in
high reverence to-day by the Parsis, and harks back to the
worship of the sacrificial flame by the early Aryans. They
prepared and venerated the intoxicating Haoma (Soma in
India), which was to play an important part in later Indian
religion. The cow had already become sacred and re-
mained so in both countries. There was already to be
found an injunction to ''good thoughts and good works."
and a priesthood of fire-kindlers, who were influential in
the religion of the people.* But as soon as the people sep-
arated differences of a very fundamental sort began to de-
velop. The tendency in India was toward speculation, in
Iran toward the practical and ethical. This cleavage goes
very deep and marks a difference between the peoples which
can scarcely be bridged over. We are in different worlds,
surrounded in each case by a totally different atmosphere.
In India we of the West feel oppressed by the pall of
pantheism and the moral inertia which everywhere seem to
be present, but in Persia in the days of Zoroaster the breezes
^The above facts taken from Professor Eduard Meyer, article,
^Persia," Encyclopedia Britannica, nth edit
I40 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
are charged with moral vigor and men see God and human
life and sin dear-eyed and enter the battle of life intending
to defeat evil and its agents and come out more than victors
in the contest.
Unfortunately, great uncertainty exists relative to the
Prophet and not many things can be set down with cer-
tainty. When he lived and where he worked are stiU sub-
jects of controversy. The traditional dates are B. C. 660
for his birth and B. C. 583 for his death. And when such
authorities as Professor A. V. Williams Jackson and Bishop
L. C. Casartelli are convinced that these dates are substan-
tially correct it is impossible to displace them hastily.
We need only state here, however, that other competent au-
thorities feel that the facts demand an earlier date, some
giving B. C. 1000 and others an earlier date still. It would
make the coincidence even more striking if the traditional
dates should prove to be correct, for that would bring Zoro-
aster into the same century with the Buddha,^ Confucius, ^i^t.
Pythagoras, and Jeremiah! Zoroaster was-a real historical
character despite the uncertainty in date and the locality
where he worked. Professor Jackson has carried many
others with him in his belief that the prophet came from the
northwest of what is now Persia and, traveling eastward,
found his life work in the northeastern part of the country.
Here he preached, and finally succeeded in converting the
king, Vishtaspa, to his doctrine. An intensely practical man,
the Prophet preached the doctrine of work, especially the
care of the* cattle which they were to protect from the wild
Turanians of the North. There, after many years of teach-
ing, while engaged in the"holy wars" in defense of the faith,
he was killed at the hand of an enemy, ''a Turanian whose
name is preserved to ill renown."
Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, as it is in the old Persian, must
have been a remarkable character, and, if he had been fol-
lowed by a succession of like-minded men, as was the case
among the Israelites, might have produced effects as wide-
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 141
reaching as the religion of the Old Testament. But this
solitary prophet found himself proclaiming a message little
appreciated by the men of his time. Unfortunately, he was
not concrete and simple in his teaching, as was Jesus, and
thus failed to win the people to himself and his doctrine. He
was abstract in his thinking and could never come down to
the level of his hearers. Despite all this he was intent on
reaching all with his new conceptions. He hated nature
worship and any form of anthropomorphism. God to him
was "high and lifted up'' above any likeness to anything in
heaven or earth. He denounced all the old "heavenly ones,"
calling them evil powers fit only to be destroyed and put
away. He spared none, not even "Mithras and his troops" ;
they were all to be banished. Zoroaster's god is Mazdah,
or Ahura Mazda, "the wise/' the wisdom in question
being the "knowledge of good and evil," or, as Professor
James Hope Moulton puts it, "The unerring instinct that can
distinguish between Truth and Falsehood, which for the
prophet were the most vital aspects of good and evil."*
Here, then, lie close together the two great truths which
Zoroaster would introduce, that God is one, and that he is
holy and irreconcilably at enmity with evil. This is not far
distant, surely, from the teachings of the Hebrew prophets.
So much is fairly clear, but the difficulties are immediately
forthcoming. Of the various parts of the Ave^ta, the sacred
bboks of the Zoroastrians, the Gathas are undoubtedly the
work of the prophet himself. They are exceedingly difficult
to translate and to understand. From beginning to end they
contain statements about "six highly abstract conceptions,"
known as Amesha Spenta, or "undying holy ones." They
are to be listed as follows :
1. Vohu Manah, Good Thought.
2. Asha, Right, or Divine, Order.
3. Khshathra, Dominion, or the Excellent Kingdom.
'Early Religioas Poetry of Persia, p. 56. (Cambridge Univ.
Press, 19x1.)
142 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
4. Aramaiti, Piety, or Holy Character.
5. Haurvatat, Health.
6. Ameretaty Immortality.
The last two are always found together in the Gatfaas.
Now, what are these Amesha Spenta? They have been
called ''vassals/' and "archangels," who help Ahura Mazda
in his work of truth and righteousness. But Professor
Moulton is so profoundly convinced that Zoroaster was a
monotheist that he prefers another explanation. To him
they are not outside but "within the Deity"; they "share
adoration with the Deity," and are not very real personifi-
cations even when they are caUed by their names or
tides.*
Again we come to a point of great interest and of real
difficulty. Zoroastrianism is usually considered a dualistic
system, but was the teaching of Zoroaster himself dualistic?
Undoubtedly in Zoroaster's mind the forces of righteousness
and the forces of evil are engaged in an irreconcilable con-
flict, which can only be ended in the complete victory of
what is true and noble and upright. Even more than this,
he holds that there is a personal spirit of evil, Ang^a Mainyu
(Ahriman), who in the beginning chose evil as his portion
and who now creates evil to oppose the good which exists
in the world. This being, Angra Mainyu, is the negative
counterpart of Spenta Mainyu, which is the special name of
Ahura Mazda as creator. So, Spenta Mainyu and Angra
Mainyu are even called "twins, inasmuch as they do not
exist independently, but each in relation to the other; they
meet in the higher unity of Ahura Mazda."* It is very easy
to see how a thoroughgoing dualism can be attributed to
Zoroaster, but the point which Professor Moulton insists on
time and again is "the uniqueness of the Creator as the central
'See Early Reli^ous Poetiy of Persia, The Treasure of the
Magi, and Early Zoroastrianism, all by Professor James Hope
Moulton.
* Moulton, Early Religions Poetry of Persia, p. 67.
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 143
feature of the faith/" Ethically he was a dualist, as every
man must be who is in the moral battle to win, but at the
same time he was a monotheist, believing in Ahura Mazda,
the sole creator and sustainer of the universe. The evidence
is not altogether clear, but this would seem to represent the
thought of Zoroaster better than the view that he looked
upon the personal creator of evil in the world as equal and
coordinate with the creator of good.
Let us be thankful for the testimony thus given to the
rightful place of morality in religion, such as has rarely
been surpassed. To have coming down through the history
of religion such unfailing emphasis on ''good thoughts, good
words, good deeds," is to raise that faith and its founder to
an eminent position among the world's religions. And, as
Professor Moulton has said, "It is a tribute to national
character that all evil should be summed up in the she-devil
'Deceit.' '" But at the same time Zoroaster's limitations are
most evident. He was a stern prophet, unmellowed by any
thought of God's love and mercy. These names are not
found among the Amesha Spenta, the personified qualities of
the god he worshiped. The final victory in the universe will
without question be a victory of the good — this is an essen-
tial element in all his teaching. His paradise is ethical and
only the pure in heart may enter, but there is little hope for
the sinner. He must cross from this world to the next over
"The Bridge of the Separator," which was "broad for the
righteous, narrow as a razor for the wicked, who fell off it
into hell."^ There is no mediator or Saviour or helper. A
man determines his own destiny and as he is wicked or good
goes to hell or heaven when he dies. It is very simple, but
very hopeless. Zoroastrianism is a religion of strenuous
moral endeavor, but has no salvation for him who has fallen
* Early Zoroastrianism, p. 122. (Williams & Norgate, Londoni
^'i|>
rly Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 66^
' Op. cit., p. 71,
144 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
by the way and yet longs for the good and the true and fhe
beaotiful which he has failed to attain.
Development Since Zoioastbr
We do not know what might have occurred had a suc-
cession of prophets arisen in the spirit of the great Zoroaster,
but there were none. We are hampered by not knowing
the condition of the religion during the reigns of the Achx-
menides, who ruled Persia from B. C. 558 to 331. Tradition
asserts that the kings were confirmed Zoroastrians, but of
this we cannot be sure. Not until the time of the Sassanids,
who ruled from A. D. 226 to 641, did the kingdom settle
down again and the land have rest These centuries, the
period of the "great kings/' were glorious days for the reli-
gion of Zoroaster, when with the revival of the faith a mis-
sionary spirit was developed and the teachings of the prophet
were carried to regions as far distant as China. But with
all this it was not the pure religion of its founder which was
heralded far and wide. It did not take long for polytheism
to find its way back when there was no longer any Zoro-
aster to keep burning the flame of reforming zeal.
The changes which were introduced into the religion are
accounted for by Professor Moulton, in large measure at
least, by referring them to the Magi. He looks upon the
Magi as an indigenous non- Aryan tribe who lived in western
Persia and who, when they came in contact with the Zoroas-
trians, succeeded in winning a place for themselves as the
priests of the people. Much remains to be investigated in
order to clear up the uncertainties still adhering to the his-
tory of the earlier periods, but we do know that the Magi
were the priests and exercised control over the faith during
the later centuries. They are known by their adherence to
astrology, divination, and the practice of magic, which, by
the way, derives its name from them, the practices of the
Magi being designated as magic. All this was alien to the
spirit of the master and indicates a serious declension from
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 145
the high level of his teachings. "They hardened the proph-
et's profound adumbrations of truth into a mechanic^ sys-
tem of dogma, therein showing the usual skill of priests in
preserving the letter and destroying the spirit/"
These men carried the ethical dualism of Zoroaster back
into their theology. Instead of continuing to place Ahura
Mazda over the whole creation, the one supreme Lord above
all, they made "2l systematic division of the world between
Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu." All the angels of the
one had counterparts, who were demonic ministers of the
other. Even the Amesha Spenta, who had become arch-
angels in the meantime, had their corresponding fiends in the
realm of evil. So the god of righteousness and the god of
evil divided the universe between them, each equally power-
ful and each having had his part in the original creation of
the world. It must be said, however, that even on this theory
at the end Ahura Mazda was to be completely victorious
over Angra Mainyu. The good was to conquer and the evil
would be finally overthrown. Men were to choose which
side they would take in the conflict, and so the ethical note
was retained intact. But the keen edge of Zoroaster's moral
insistence was dulled by the laws of purity as found in the
Vendidad, the priestly code of the religion. The dualism
of clean and unclean was carried to a ridiculous extreme,
until the whole of life was dominated by ideas of ceremonial
purity and cleanness. The moral factor was swamped un-
der the ceremonial. The elements of Are, earth, and water
were considered sacred, and many rules were laid down to
preserve them holy and uncontaminated. The religious life
was reduced in large measure to over-nice refinements and
scrupulous care to avoid pollution.
At two points the Magi sought to introduce practices
which were utterly strange to the people. In one they suc-
ceeded and in the other they failed. The method of disposal
Op. cit, p. 78.
146 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
of the dead among the Zoroastrians is to place the bodies
on a framework of iron within a low circular tower and
there allow them to be stripped of all flesh by vultures who
await with avidity the uncovering of the bodies to b^n their
gruesome work. The purpose of this strange custom is to
avoid the pollution of the earth and fire either by burial or
cremation. It was adopted by the Zoroastrians and remains
to this day one of the most marked peculiarities of their
practice. Wherever there is a Parsi community of sufficient
size to justify their presence tiiese Dakhmas, or "Towers of
Silence," are to be found, built in beautiful groves and sur-
rounded by the vultures, ever watchful for their Intimate
prey. The burial of the bones after they have been picked
clean is not supposed to pollute the earth in which they find
their resting place. The other practice which the Magi de-
sired to introduce and failed in doing was marriage between
the closest relatives. This was considered by the Magi as
"a religious duty of the most extravagant sanctity."* For-
tunately, it did not approve itself to the best sense of the
people and although it is frequently mentioned in the Avesta,
it is utterly repudiated by the modem Parsis.
The statement was made that other gods besides Ahura
Mazda were reintroduced. Zoroaster came into a land
where the great nature gods of the Aryans were worshiped.
He sought in his reformation to banish these forever as
unworthy of man's reverence, but upon the ascendency in
the religion of men who had not risen to his high idealism
back they came again and found a place in the hearts and
worship of the people. And yet even here Ahura Mazda is
still first among the objects of worship. And never from
the beginning until the present has any image ever been
made the object of worship. The symbol of the Supreme
Deity is fire. The Zoroastrians have been called fire-wor-
shipers, but it is quite certain that this is a com-
•Op. dt, p. 7j.
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 147
plete misnomer. The fire is the visible emblem or symbol of
divinity and is reverenced so highly as such that it is not
to be wondered at that they have actually been called fire-
worshipers. But this they have the right to disclaim.
In the Yashts, or "Songs of Praise" of the later Avesta,
poems are dedicated to a ntunber of gods, some of whose
names sotmd quite familiar: "Mithra, Anahita, Tishtrya,
Haoma, and the Fravashis."" Not only so, but in places
even the sublime Ahura Mazda is found in a position lower
than some of these divinities, and even offering them wor-
ship. And the case is not materially helped when these old
gods of paganism are looked upon as "angels." A name
does not change their nature, and they remain pagan still.
As the idea of the gods declines so does the idea of prayer
to them. Prayer becomes the repetition of formulae which
possess power by their mere repetition, whether the words
are understood by the worshiper or not. The old religion
with its pure and elevated outlook was not completely lost
by the incoming of these alien elements, but it has been so
encrusted over by features foreign to its original genius that
it is with difficulty that the modem Parsi is able to disengage
himself from the accretions and return to the conceptions
and practices of the holy prophet he so enthusiastically
venerates. ^
The Parsis of the Present Day
On December 10, 1916, the Parsis celebrated the twelve
hundredth anniversary of their landing in India. The
exact date and the detailed circumstances of the coming of
these "Pilgrim Fathers of Zoroastrianism" may be more or
less a legend, but what we do know is that when the con-
quering Islamic armies swept over Persia and most of the
inhabitants turned Mohammedan, a group of faithful men
and women made their escape from the country and settled
in India. Not all, however, did so. A small number who
"• The Treasure of the Magi, p. 87. (Oxford Univ. Press, 1917.)
148 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
did not deny the faith remained in Persia and have retained
their identity until the present day. Known as Gabars and
numbering about ten thousand, this small remnant eke out
a rather unenviable existence in Central Persia. Until the
end of the eighteenth century this community was regarded
by the Parsis of India as possessing a certain authority over
them in view of their residence in the ancient seat of their
holy faithy but even this acknowledgment is now a thing of
the past and there is little hope of any future for these up-
holders of the ancient traditions.
But even the main body of Parsis in India would seem
to be only a remnant, the memory of a departed glory. The
contrast is striking between a proud nation whose estab-
lished religion was Zoroastrianism and the little community
of exiles in India jealous of their faith and guarding it care-
fully against compromise with any other religion. The total
number is about a hundred thousand, one half of whom
make their home in Bombay. The others are scattered in
small groups, only one of which exceeds five thousand souls,
in a score of cities throughout India. Not only is the com-
munity small but it is exceedingly clannish. Contrary to the
theory which prevailed as late as the sixteenth century, the
Parsis are now opposed to any extension of their faith to
other nations or among the alien peoples by whom they are
surrounded. It has in recent years been a subject of hot
controversy whether the foreign wife of a Parsi might be
admitted to the worship in the Fire-temples and be consid-
ered one with them in the faith. The decision up to the
present has been against even so slight a lowering of the
bars. What is to become of such a small and exclusive com-
pany of people is a question they are being compelled to ask
ever more seriously. The danger of inbreeding faces them,
and the postponement of the age of marriage, which has
come with their contact with the west and the more strenu-
ous conditions of modem life, bodes ill for the permanence
of a community which has taken so exclusive an attitude.
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 149
The priesthood in Zoroastrianism is very important. The
Mobeds, as the priests of the fire-temples are called, are
essential to the conduct of the ceremonial and the upkeep of
the sacred fire. The order of priests is hereditary, and at
their head in connection with each great temple is the high
priest, or Dastur. Unfortunately, the priesthood in general
is not worthy of the community in education and intelligence.
There are some learned priests, but most of them are incap-
able of the leadership the people have a right to expect.
The very training which the neophytes must undergo is not
calculated to fit them for understanding and dealing with the
difficult problems of the present day. They must be able to
repeat from memory the whole of the Yasna, the oldest and
most important part of the Avesta, but in a language which
they do not understand. Is there any wonder the priesthood
as a profession has little appeal to-day for young men who
may be in line for the offibe, but can feel no incentive to such
a career?
The most important function they are called upon to per-
form is the care of the fire in the temples. This is the very
center of the cult, and most elaborate are the precautions
taken that the purity of the flame may not be endangered.
Only Parsis are allowed entrance into the inner precincts of
the temple, where the urn containing the fire stands upon a
stone pedestal. "Religious Parsis visit the Fire-temple
almost daily, and on four days of each month, those sacred
to Atar (3d, 9th, 17th, and 20th), there is a very large
attendance. There is no distinction between men and women
in their form or place of worship. Arrived at the temple^
the worshiper washes the uncovered parts, and recites the
KusH prayer. Then he passes through the outer hall, goes
barefoot through the inner hall to the threshold of the room
where the Fire bums, and recites prayers standing. Only
the priest is in the room itself. He receives from the wor-
shiper sandalwood and a piece of money, and brings him
ashes from the urn in a ladle, which he applies to his fore-
ISO THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
head and eyelashes. After his prayers he retires backward
to the place where he left his shoes, and goes home.""
Besides the fire-temple, which is for the living, each
Parsi community must have a Dakhma, one of the Towers
of Silence, for die disposal of the dead. Since vultures are
so essential to the carrying out of the ritual, it can readily
be seen that the commtmity must be of some size to be able
to dispose of their dead in this fashion without taking the
body to another and larger settlement of their fellow-reli-
gionists. In all there are about sixty of these towers, mostly
of course in western India. The ideas of purity and im-
purity held by the P^rsis come to a climax in their ideas of
the impurity connected with death. The ceremonial is care-
fully planned to obviate the pollution which would otherwise
adhere to anything connected with the last rites. The pro-
fessional corpse-bearers are a class set apart from tiieir
fellows because of the contamination they are unable to avoid
and which they cannot completely rid themselves of despite
frequent ablutions. And so from the time of death until
the vultures have done their work a constant watchfulness
is maintained through a long series of ceremonials to ward
off the dangerous influences which are now hovering so near.
Not only so, but frequently, especially at such times as initi-
ation into the community on the part of the young, marriage,
and the birth of children, elaborate ceremonies, largely mag-
ical in nature, are performed. With all the intelligence now
to be found among the Parsis these ceremonies, many of
them extravagant and exceedingly puerile, have not lost their
hold. They are still bound down by a tradition from which
many would be free.
In addition to the handicap of small and even dwindling
numbers the Parsi community is rent by serious disagree-
ment in belief. There are the conservatives, who are vigor-
ously opposed to any change and would have everything
remain as it is now. At the other extreme are the radicals,
*^ Moulton, op. cit, p. 145.
THE RELIGION OF ZOROASTER 151
who are anxious for the future and can see no hope unless
drastic reforms are introduced. And between the two are
all varieties of opinion both liberal and conservative. There
is the tendency to rationalize the faith. When this has been
done with vigor, as by Mr. H. T. Bhabha, the president of
the Fourth Zoroastrian Conference, held in 1913, the result,
put in his own words, is as follows: "It is singularly free
from dogmas, and is so simple in its tenets that it differs but
little from Unitarianism or Rationalism."** These more rad-
ical reformers are not adverse to the admission of converts,
but even they want only a few. They are afraid of being
swamped by the admission of those of another race who
cannot share their hereditary pride and cannot be counted
on to uphold unswervingly the ancient and distinctive tradi-
tions of the community. The reformers also have in their
program the use of prayers in a living language, the abolition
of meaningless ceremonials and of prayers for the dead, and
the mitigation of certain ceremonial restrictions placed on
women, particularly at childbirth. One other tendency is at
work and this in the direction of theosophy. Dabbling in
the occult and reaching out after contacts with the spirit-
world have affected the Parsis as similar gropings do in the
West, in disintegrating interest in genuine religion and mag-
nifying the importance of the physical in the attempt to
reach the spiritual.
But, after all, we cannot wonder that there should be a
sense of want and need among the Parsis. Their reUgion
at best lacks completeness ; there is no adequate doctrine of
salvation. A leading Parsi, Doctor Jivanji Modi, says, "A
Parsee has to believe that for the salvation of his soul he
has to look to nobody else, but to himself. Nobody — ^no
priest, or no prophet — will intercede for him. For his salva-
tion he has only to look to the purity of his own thoughts,
words, and actions. . . . Think of nothing but the truth,
speak nothing but the truth, and do nothing but what is
Quoted in The Treasure of the llagi, p. 174.
152 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
proper, and you are saved/"* A stem religion with a high
moral code and the example of a most vigorous champion
of righteousness in their great prophet, it has failed to pro-
vide for mercy and sacrifice, tenderness and love, and by
this failure has made it impossible for it to be a religion with
an appeal to a world lying in need not only of a noble ideal
but of grace and forgiveness.
SuGGBsnoNS KMt FuiTHn Snnnr
J. H. Breasted, Aneieni Times (New York, 1916), Chap. VL
Jmmes Hope lloulton. The Treasure of the Magi (LoodoOi 1917).
The best bandbook on die entire subject
A. V. WiUiams Jackson, Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran
(New York, is^i). All that is known about the prophet is
found here.
George Foot Moore, History of ReUffions, VoL I, Chaps. XV, XVL
** Quoted in The Treasure of the Magi, p. 20St
CHAPTER VI
HINDUISM
The Religion op the Vedas
One of the two branches of the Aryan offshoot of the
Indo-European peoples migrated, as we have seen, into
Persia. The other, traveling southeastward, found the
passes leading through the great mountain barrier and
emerged on the plains of northern India. In all probability
they did not come at any one time, but straggled into the
new country in smaller or larger groups during hundreds
of years. Some would say that they were still arriving
about B. C. 1500, while others would pbce their arrival
much earlier, even B. C. 2000 or 2500. Coming down into
northern India, these Aryans spread out fanlike over the
Punjab, or region of the ''five rivers," and then, as the
years passed, slowly extended their settlements to the south
and east, taking possession of the rich Ganges Valley as they
advanced. A picture of these ''tall, fair people" is given by
J. N. Farquhar: "They were then soldier-farmers, equally
used to the plow and the sword. They were constantly at
war with the aborigines around them; and they looked
eagerly for sunshine and rain to mature their crops and
give diem fodder for their cattle and herds. They were
still a primitive people, living in simple villages, with but
few of the arts of civilization, and untrammeled by the
bonds of caste. They had no writing and no coinage. They
ate beef and drank intoxicating drink. The tribes lived
each under its own chieftain, and now and then quarrels
led to war among them. The family was still in a healthy
condition. Their women had a great deal of freedom
throughout their lives. There was no child-marriage
153
154 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
among them^ no seclusion in the zenana, no widow-
burning, and no law against the remarriage of widows. Like
most primitive peoples, they practiced the exposure of girl
children and old people/'^
They brought with them a religion in many features sim-
ilar to that of the Persians when Zoroaster inaugurated his
reformation. Our knowledge of their beliefs and practices
is based on a collection of hymns known as the Rigveda.
These hymns, or "praises," were composed during a long
period and were committed to memory for use at the sac-
rifices. There were over a thousand of them, which were
finally written down in Sanskrit and preserved as a single
collection. In some ways this collection is the most remark-
able body of religious literature which has come down out
of the far distant past All the gods whose praises are sung
are nature deities, divided into three groups with eleven
gods in each group. They are the gods of the celestial
regions, those of the earth, and those of the atmosphere
between earth and sky. Of the gods of the high heavens
three may be mentioned: Mitra, who as Mithras we have
met in Persia and in' the last stages of Roman paganism;
Vishnu, who in a later day assumed an importance in Indian
religion which he had not known in the earlier period ; and
finally the great god Varuna. According to Barth, "Varuna
is the god of the vast luminous heavens, viewed as embrac-
ing all things, and as the primary source of all life and every
blessing."* The possibilities lying in the conception of this
god might have raised Hinduism to a far nobler level than
has been attained. Varuna was not only sublime in his
majesty and power, but was the judge of men's hearts and
the exemplar of nobility and truth and* uprightness, who
expected the same of the beings under his sway. But, most
unfortunately, these possibilities were not realized and Hin-
* A Primer of Hindoism, p. 21 f. (Oxford Univ. Press, 2nd edit,
1912.)
* The Religions of India, p. 16. (Triibner, London, 1906.)
HINDUISM IS5
duism suffers to-day because Varuna has been virtually dis-
carded and other gods representative of far different ideals
fill the minds and dominate the lives of its adherents.
There were three important gods of the earth, namely,
Agni, Soma, and Yama. Agni is fire, that of the lightning
and the sun as well as that we make use of every day. As
the flame ascends and seems to be traveling toward the
purified abode of the gods fire was early looked upon as a
priest conveying sacrifices to the gods. Many high func-
tions in human life and even in creation have devolved
upon this god, but in all the various forms of service to
which he has been assigned Agni has always remained just
the material fire with which we are familiar. Soma is the
name of an Indian plant, now unknown, and the fermented
juice which was extracted from it. It is intoxicating and
therefore divine, thought these early Aryans. They were
possessed of a spirit not their own when under the influ-
ence of the Soma, and their only explanation was that it
must come from the gods. Here is suggested to us the
origin of our term "ardent spirits," which literally take pos-
session of the man who has imbibed freely. But Soma also
has a celestial reference and is supposed to flow in the invis-
ible world as well as on the earth. The gods themselves
attained immortality by drinking the Soma, and so will men
when they drink the life-giving potion with Yama in the
land of the blessed. Again here, as in the case of Agni, the
physical character of the god is never lost. Soma remains
until the end, and in spite of the idealizing process, the juice
of the soma plant. Yama might have lived an immortal,
but he chose to die. He thus was the first to cross the
dreaded flood from which none return. The dead who have
lived nobly go to him. Not much is said about the wicked,
who perish or continue to exist "in dark and dismal pits"
with demons and other evil spirits.
Of the eleven gods of the enveloping atmosphere Indra
only need be mentioned. Of all the gods of the Rigveda
156 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Indra takes first place as the national god of the Aryans.
He is the "king of heaven/' the warrior who gives victory
to his people, and at the same time he is the giver of good
and the author and preserver of life. Indra not only fights
vuith the people when they are engaged in war, but fights
for them with his faithful companions, the Maruts, the
''bright ones" the gods of storm and lightning. Intoxicated
with Soma, he rides among the clouds, striking his enemies
with thtmderbolts. When it is remembered that it is to the
atmosphere the people of India must look not only for
prosperity but for life itself, it can be seen quite readily how
Indra, the god who defeats the enemies who would prevent
the breaking of the monsoon with its copious rains, would
be lifted up and idealized until he became their great cham*
pion and protector.
When one reads the hymns of the Rigveda he is confused
by the manner in which the qualities of one god are as-
cribed to another so that the lines of demarcation between
them become hazy and indistinct. This tendency to fuse
and assimilate the gods and their functions was the begin-
ning of a long process which continued until it led into the
pantheism which is so characteristic a feature of later
Indian thought. The Indian mind even at this early date
was beginning to feel out after a unity in which there
should be no distinctions, and, though the fully developed
theory was not completed for many centuries, the tendency
begins to make itself evident almost from the beginning.
One is also struck in these hymns by the ascriptions of
praise to one and then another of these divine beings, just
as if each god were the sole god of the universe. Many
gods are worshiped, but each in an exclusive manner. The
theology oscillates between polytheism and an approach
toward monotheism. Professor Max MtUler called it Ka-
thenotheism, the worship of "one god at a time." The
worshiper seemed a bit uneasy. He had inherited many
gods, with various f imctions, to provide him with requisite
HINDUISM 157
care and protection, but he was not satisfied. The desire
for unity was ab*eady present, making the worship of a
variety of gods seem incongruous. With this beginning and
by a very natural process among so thoughtful a people as
these Aryans the conception would change and develop
until all the gods came to be looked upon as manifestations
only, manifestations of a primal essence behind and in-
clusive of them all. We have anticipated somewhat, but
have done so in order to call attention thus early to
the tendency which can only be understood, it is true, by
following the development to its final issue, but which
begins to betray itself in the earliest movements of Indian
thought.
The worship of the gods was largely sacrificial. Animals
were offered in increasing numbers as the centuries passed
until the land ran red with blood by the time Buddhism rose
in the sixth and fifth centuries before our era. There were
also elaborate rites cotmected with the offering of the soma
and of ghi, or clarified butter. There were no temples and
no images in the early day, the worship being conducted in
the open air. Priests were in evidence very early, but as
the sacrifices became more elaborate they increased their
hold until in the end no bondage can compare with that in
which the people of India are held by their spiritual leaders.
The theory was very simple. Sacrifice was looked upon as
absolutely necessary, and the efficacy of the sacrifice de-
pended, not upon moral fitness, nor even upon the sincerity
of the worshiper, but upon the correctness with which the
ritual of the sacrifice was performed. This was believed im-
plicitly by all the people high and low. In the earliest day the
father was the priest of his family, but as the theory of
sacrifice developed it became increasingly difficult for him
to find time to master the ritual on which the fortunes of
the family depended. The priest took his place and per-
formed the ceremonies for him. They made themselves
experts in religion, masters of ceremony and ritual, and
158 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
thus became indispensable to the people. Nothing could
be done without them. They dominated life and exercised
their sway with ever-increasit^ severity. These Brahmins,
as they were called, came to occupy a unique position, wield-
ing the mightiest power in the land. Jealous of their posi-
tion, they separated themselves more and more from the
other classes and gave it out that they were superior beings,
veritable gods on earth.
The theory of the efficacy of sacrifice was carried so far
that sacrifice was looked upon as irresistible* Thus the
whole system became impregnated with magic. The sacri-
fice became more important than the being to whom it was
offered. The carrying out of the ritual with minute exact-
ness would bring about the desired end with little reference
to the will of the god who was addressed. This did not
tend to exalt the gods, but it did result in further enhancing
the authority of the divine priesthood which could perform
such wonders. It was even said that the gods themselves
had attained their present position by sacrifice, and so it
followed that it was not beyond the range of possibility for
mortal men now to reach the same goaL And in India
theories do not remain mere theories, but are put into action,
and men give themselves to all forms of religious prac-
tices and austerities in order to attain divinity at the end
of their self-imposed rq^en.
We have referred to the Rigyeda as the earliest literary
product of the Indian mind, but it was only the beginning.
Even before the rise of Buddhism the literature had grown
considerably. In addition to the Rigveda is the Samaveda,
an arrangement of verses from the Rigveda for use at the
Soma sacrifice, the Yajurveda, a double collection of prose
selections and verses from the Rigveda for use in the ritual,
and, finally, at a much later date, the Atharvaveda, a collec-
tion of magical formulx. By this time the heights of the
Rigveda had been left far behind and lower conceptions
were filling the minds of priests and people. In addition to
HINDUISM IS9
all these and appended to the Vedas were priestly writings
called the Brahmanas, which purport to give the inner mean-
ing of the sacrifices and to direct the priests in their per-
formance, but which are an arid waste of irrational theo-
rizing with no inspiration or uplift about them.
The Philosophic Development
When the Aryans came into India they possessed no
belief in the doctrine of transmigration, yet it is one of the
basic doctrines among Hindus to-day. Where did they get
it? The subject is obscure, but probably the idea was sug-
gested by their contact with the aboriginal population into
the midst of whom they were thrown. While the Aryans
came more and more to dominate the religious life of the
country of their adoption, they unconsciously absorbed
many of the ideas of the primitive Dravidians. One of
these was probably transmigration. The theory is that
when a man dies his soul, or his essence, leaves the dying
body and enters the body of some animal or human being
as it comes into the world to begin its career. And the
process may be repeated generation after generation times
without number.
While the theory doubtless came to the Aryan invaders in
a very crude form, the keen minds of the thinkers among
them would not allow it to rest, but worked it out to its
logical conclusion and made it a part of their growing
philosophical system. The law which determined the opera-
tion of transmigration was the law of Karma. Now,
Karma means "action" or "deed," but it refers to such
actions or deeds in one life as work out their results in the
next life and the next and so on until their force has been
entirely spent. According to our Karma, we are bom into
a new life well or strong, good or bad, rich or poor. It is a
kind of retribution working itself out automatically and
inevitably in existence after existence. There is absolutely
no escape from the clutches of this inexorable law. All we
i6o THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
can hope for is not to add to oar Karma, so that when what
we hare inherited is finally exhausted there will be no
more fuel to keep the fire burning. The fuel consists of
deeds — any deeds, good or bad — ^which stimulate life. To
live then — ^just to live, whether nobly or dishonorably, it
makes little difference — is an evil with a most unfortunate
entail for the future. If we might only cease from doing
deeds, from any activity, and simply exist with no attach-
ments to life, we would be on the way to emancipation.
But it is exceedingly difficult and cannot even be bq^
without devoting one's whole mind to that end. The ascetic
who gives himself to various kinds of cruel austerities and
would thereby cut the cords of desire which bind him fast
to life and its joys and sorrows, is on the highway of salva-
tion and at some time, it may be millenniums ahead, will
have exhausted his Karma and be thus set free from the
necessity of further transmigrations.
While all this was being developed and was becoming the
common property of the Aryan community in India, an-
other and deeper movement was in progress. Certain men
of intelligence and deep earnestness, dissatisfied with the
current explanations and the crude materialism of the sac-
rificial system, made the attempt to penetrate deeper into
the meaning of life and its problems, and in the end arrived
at astonishing conclusions. Appended to the Brahmanas
are to be found a group of writings called Aranyakas, or
teachings ''belonging to the forest" They were written by
men who, leaving the society of ordinary men and women,
went off into die forest and gave themselves to meditation
and austerities. The results of their thinking are to be
found in the Upanishads, which are embedded in the Aran-
yakas and are sometimes a little difficult to distinguish from
them. These philosophical writings embody the funda-
mental principles of Hindu thinking even down to the pres-
ent day.
The creed which these early philosophers evolved was very
HINDUISM i6i
simple. There is bot one Being in all the universe ; in fact,
this Being is the Universe. ' Here is real unity, and that is
what these thinkers were trying to find. It is pantheism
pure and simple. The gods and other spiritual beings
were not eternal, but only the temporary manifestations of
this one Absolute. The souls of men were '"sparks from the
central fire, drops from the ocean of divinity/' to be incar-
nated times without number, according to the law of Karma,
but in the end to find release and drop back into the bound- •
less ocean from which they came. The only eternal, un-
questionable fact in the tmiverse is Brahman, the World-
soul, and the conclusion was reached that the Atman, or
individual human soul, was identical with it. "Myself is
the infinite self" and "The soul of the universe, whole and
undivided, dwells in me," are two of the many ways in which
this identity was expressed. Probably the most used phrase
is, "Thou art That," also "I am Brahman," and "I am He."*
The object of life for these thinkers was to realize the
truth of these affirmations. Salvation was to be attained
by intuition, by a sudden flash of insight, which would drive
away the darkness and leave the man possessed of this lib-
erating thought. Should he achieve this insight by the
power of his intellect after profound meditation, concentrat-
ing his whole mind on this one thought, he was free. Aus-
terities were of no further use; he had broken the bond
which held him fast to the wheel of transmigration and he
would not be bom again. He was free forever ; the release
was complete and final.
We must look a little more closely at this Absolute Being,
Brahman. Farquhar says that Brahman is "a neuter noun
which expresses the common thought of the time, that the
world-soul is an impersonal essence present in all things."*
So enthusiastic were the forest thinkers over their "find"
that they could not restrain themselves in their rapture.
'Quoted from J. N. Farquhar, Primer of Hinduism, p. 4&
*Op. cit, p. 48.
i62 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Brahman is to them everything good and desirable, the aim
of all their longing. But when Brahman is described and
an attempt made to state the qualities and attributes in-
volved in their conception the result is most disappointing.
Nothing positive can be affirmed ; it must all be in n^atives.
Of each positive characteristic the only word is, he is not
that. It is only by accommodation that Brahman is called
"he" at all. He is impersonal and the word "Brahman" is
neuter, so the more appropriate term would be "it" But
even more serious is the impossibility of thinking of Brah-
man as holy or righteous. He is considered as a being
far beyond the distinction between right and wrong. That
were to lower him and bring him into the narrow circle of
human frailty and need. But the sad fact is that any
attempt to posit a being for whom ethical distinctions do not
exist is really to descend to a level below that we occupy.
Such a conception has no power to raise men to heights of
moral endeavor beyond the natural desires of the human
heart. This philosophical theory has crippled Hinduism
through all the years and holds out little promise for the
future when India needs all the moral and spiritual strength
she can obtain for the task of national reconstruction which
is before her.
The philosophic development which we have been con-
sidering was not completed for centuries after the writing
of the Upanishads, which occurred before B. C. 500. No
systematic presentation of any theory can be found in
these loosely connected writings. Exactly what occurred
during a long period we do not know, not until we come to
the name of one of the great characters in India's religious
history, that of Sankara, whose period of activity fell in
the first half of the ninth century of our era. The system
of which he was the supreme teacher is called the Vedanta,
the "end" or "aim" of the Veda. Basing his work on the
teachings of the Upanishads Sankara went to the utmost
limit and set forth an tmqualified monism. This had been
HINDUISM 163
hinted at often before, but never asserted so unwaveringly.
He not only refused to recognize anything as real except
Brahman; he declared that the world and all things in it
were only tfuiya, illusion. That we ourselves exist as dis-
tinct individuals is only an illusion, and the thing most nec-
essary for us is to rid ourselves of the fatal misconception
and realize that there is nothing else in existence except the
one absolute All and that we ourselves are that All. But
in addition to his uncompromising monism Sankara was
willing to allow, as a makeshift for those who could not
rise to the "higher" truth, certain of the current doctrines
about the gods, always maintaining that they were only
manifestations of the great Brahman and not themselves
eternal. As soon as one could reach the higher levels he
would see that these, too, were illusive and could give no
satisfaction for those who had attained.
The system of Vedanta as taught by Sankara, with its
attempt to deny the reality of the world altogether, was not
accepted by all. Other religious leaders, like Ramanuja
(about A. D. 1 100), approach more nearly a theistic position,
acknowledging that Brahman is the sole reality, but at the
same time holding that he has definite and positive charac-
teristics, like intelligence and goodness, and is not utterly
unapproachable by his children, who are real beings and not
the mere "shadow of a dream," Not only was there this
measure of divergence, but other philosophies arose, one
of which in particular was utterly different from the Ve-
danta. In the Sankhya system we have a dualism. There
is a primary active substance, called Prakriti, and also
many individual souls, called Purusha, which are eternal
and distinct like the primary substance itself. Here salva-
tion is attained by insight, as in the case of the Vedanta,
but the releasing truth which dawns on the mind is that
one's soul is eternally different from the active substance,
instead of being eternally one with the world-soul as in the
Vedanta. The system is utterly atheistic and contains less
164 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
of hope and help than the Vedanta to which it is so vigor-
ously opposed
The G^ste System
Hinduism is the most amorphous of all religions. Almost
anything can be said of it with the assurance that it is true,
and at the same time almost anything which is said may be
denied and that with good reason. Hinduism is a strange
medley of different and even contradictory elements mixed
together into a very irregular and uneven mass. What is it,
then, which makes a man a Hindu? What is the standard
of orthodoxy which may be applied to determine a man's
standing in the Hindu community? The only correct an-
swer is that it is neither belief nor yet the acceptance of a
moral code which makes a man an acceptable Hindu. He
may believe what he likes and do as he pleases and yet have
no question raised as to his standing as a Hindu. And yet
Hinduism is as rigid and as exclusive as any religion in
the world. In fact, no outsider can become a member of
their religious community, he must be bom into it, he
must be a "birthright*" Hindu or not be one at all. The clue
to this strange anomaly is to be found in caste, the form
of organization obtaining wherever Hbduism exists. To be
a Hindu means to belong to one of the castes and to obey
the caste rq^Iations. Orthodoxy, then, in Hinduism is
conformity to custom, petrified in a social organization.
A caste is a group of people kept apart from other caste
groups by regulations touching marriage, food, in some cases
occupation, and also residence. Taking them in the reverse
order, conformity with reference to residence, which is the
least important, means that a Hindu shall not travel or
reside outside India. The fact that the university centers in
Europe and America attract so many Hindus clearly indi-
cates that this rule rests lightly on those who feel impelled
to seek their education abroad. Yet among the stricter fam-
ilies a ceremony of purification is necessary on the return
HINDUISM 165
from a foreign country to cleanse away the taint which has
been incurred by travel and by association with foreigners,
the men and women they have met in our colleges and uni-
versities! Without this they cannot be received back into
the old fellowship in the family cult. But so far as the
travel itself is concerned most enlightened Hindus wink
calmly at it and pay no attention to the prohibition. Occu-
pation helps to determine caste in some cases, but this is
not of great importance, as members of many of the castes
are to be found widely scattered among the occupations
and professions.
In respect of food conformity is more significant. One
must not eat with a man of another caste, and frequently
among the higher castes the food he eats must be prepared
by a servant who belongs to his own caste. But even with
respect to this regulation many a Hindu to-day pays scant
attention to it at times. He will eat with others on a dining
car and at a banquet, even though he may be scrupulously
careful when he is at home. The women are more conserv-
ative and prevent the growth of more liberal ideas which
the men, particularly those of intelligence, might not be
adverse to introducing. At the present time, when India
begins to feel the need of unity in order to build up a
worthy national life, the bondage of caste becomes oppres-
sive, and leading men feel the necessity of breaking away
from the old customs and demonstrating the possibility of
all Indians, Mohammedans as well as Hindus, sharing a
common political and social life. Not a great deal has
been accomplished, but this is the tendency, and the papers
frequently report the meeting of various classes of the In-
dian community arotmd the common table.
But it is at the point of marriage that caste retains its
deathlike grip upon the social life of India. Hindu parents
are between two fires. It is a disgrace to have daughters
who remain unmarried after their early teens, and yet hus-
bands must be found within their own caste or subcaste.
i66 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
This rule is absolute and unbending. A Hindu may be lax
in respect of food and eating with other caste men, but at
this point he is like adamant. He simply will not marry
his children to outsiders and thus ''break caste." This is the
unforgivable sin in Hinduism. The problem that is sug-
gested by this dilemma has led to customs which have been
of tmtold injury to Indian life. Child marriage is an almost
inevitable outcome of the necessity of finding desirable hus-
bands and wives for all the boys and girls in the community.
Thousands of marriages are consummated before children
reach their teens, with physical and moral results which can
only be deplorable. This custom, in a land of high mortal-
ity, has produced thousands of little widows and widowers.
The boy may marry again, and usually does so, but the poor
girl — ^her story is the saddest of all the suffering little women
in the world. She is held responsible for the death of her
husband, and as a criminal her hair is shaved off and her
dearly loved ornaments are taken away and she is dressed
in a coarse garment and becomes the drudge of the family.
She may not remarry, but remains until the end of her life
a poor miserable soul — ^unless, of course, she be the mother
of sons. This lifts her to a position of honor from which
she cannot be completely displaced. The most commendable
thing for the widow to do until comparatively recent time
was to mount the funeral pile and be burned to death with
the body of her husband ; and, willingly or unvdllingly, this
horrible custom, called sati, or suttee, was carried out many
thousands of times before the British government put a stop
to it in 1829. Many of the measures of reform which are
being urged by the government and intelligent Hindus have
as their object the raising of the age. of marriage and the
relief of widows by allowing their remarriage. But with
all that wise reformers may say and do the mass of the
people still cling to the old customs, and women still con-
tinue to be looked upon as a kind of inevitable evil. The
day of woman's emancipation lies in the future, and the
HINDUISM 167
sad and discouraging fact is that all we have been discussing
is an integral part of the religion to which they cling with
such tenacity. It is embedded in their sacred literature and
has been enunciated by their great religious leaders.
No theory of the origin of caste is completely satisfactory.
We do not know the exact number of castes and subcastes.
We may get some clues to help us to understand the mean-
ing of the institution. The word for caste in Sanskrit, vama,
originally meant "color.** This would indicate that the
Aryan as he came into India from the north was origi-
nally fair-skinned in contrast to the dark Dravidian. In
their endeavor to preserve the purity of their blood and
the fairness of their skin they hedged themselves around
with restrictions touching their relations with the aborigines.
The earliest division we have on record separates into dis-
tinct groups the priests (Brahmins), the warriors (Kshat-
triyas), the agriculturalists (Vaisyas), and the menial la-
borers (Sudras). The three mentioned first constitute the
"twice-born" people, those who had the right to be initiated
or be born again into the religious community. The Sudras,
who are supposed to have been largely of Dravidian blood,
were outsiders so far as the ceremonial and the worship of
the "twice-born" was concerned. According to the theory
announced in the Institutes of Manu, the ancient book of
laws and customs, the Brahmins, Kshattriyas, and Vaisyas
were bom from the mouth, the arms, and the thighs re-
spectively of the Supreme Soul of the Universe, while the
poor Sudra proceeded from the feet and was looked upon
as the menial, doing his work at the bidding of the three
other orders.
But while no one has been able to give an acceptable ex-
planation of caste, the most evident fact in the whole system
is the preeminence of the Brahmin priest. He is the key
and dominates the system. All take their cue from him. He
looks upon himself as inherently superior to all the others.
Was he not created different and has he not demonstrated
x68 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
that he is not to be classified with the common run of men?
The caste system is his way of preserving his position invio-
late, and he clings to it with the most serious concern. At
many points he has deserved well of the people. He is right-
fully recognized as the gifted leader in the higher life of the
community. But on the other hand having little or no sjrm-
pathy with those who occupy a subordinate position and
filled with unfathomable pride, the Brahmin lords it over the
consciences and wills of men and exercises a tyranny un-
surpassed anywhere in the world.
Some good things may be said of caste. It engenders a
certain solidarity which is of great value in the precarious
conditions in which most of the people of India live. In
times of distress caste acts as a labor union or a trade guild
or as a relief association in giving assistance to those who
otherwise would have no recourse. There is a mutual help-
fulness exercised which is good and beneficial. But the
count against the system as a whole far outweighs any good
which may be claimed for it. It is fundamentally divisive
and stands as a strong bar against the unity which the for-
ward looking Hindu knows must be achieved before India
can become a strong nation ready and worthy to take its
place among the nations of the world. Even deeper than
this, however, caste kiUs all sense of brotherhood. To a
Hindu his '^brother" is a member of his caste and no one
else. He is taught to despise and look down upon the
lower castes as inferior, by contact with whom he must not
soil his hands. And when we come to the fifty millions of
out-castes, or "untouchables," we reach a depth of human
misery and degradation almost unbelievable. Their touch is
polluting and their very shadow falling on the food prepared
for a high-caste man renders it unfit for use. Centuries of
such disdain and abuse have created a race of cringing
creatures who, scorned by their own proud superiors, have
lost all. the self-respect they might have developed and are
to-day among the most pitiable people in the world. Thqr
HINDUISM 169
constitute one of the greatest challenges to social and reli-
gious service to be found anywhere. And yet despite their
name, out-castes, they are a part of a religio-sodal system
which is responsible for their present condition.
Hinduism Since the Rise of Buddhism
During the sixth century before our era Buddhism arose
in northern India. As a result of the example and teachings
of Gautama Buddha the whole complexion of things reli-
gious was greatly changed throughout the length and breadth
of the land. We may not at this time trace the rise and
development of the new doctrine and the new discipline
which affected so profoundly the life of the Indian peoples ;
that will be done in the following chapter. All that is needed
here is to state that Hinduism was greatly modified during
the centuries when Buddhism was in the ascendency. The
period is very obscure historically, and only occasionally is
light shed on the course of the religious development, and
then it is the condition of Buddhism which is illumined and
not Hinduism. Buddhism finally disappeared with the ar-
rival of the Mohammedan on the scene of Indian history
about the year A. D. 1000. But long before this decay had
set in and Buddhism was losing its hold. It is exceedingly
doubtful whether its teachings were ever so widely and so
deeply accepted that the tenure of Hinduism was really
imperiled. But what is true is that as Buddhism waned
Hinduism again came to its own, and in the end established
its supremacy over the land, a supremacy which has been
challenged only by Islam, an alien religion which has settled
itself in the land and won millions of the native peoples.
The Hinduism which raised its head again after centuries
of strong Buddhistic influence was not the same. The caste
system remained intact and even developed, though it was
not encouraged, to say the least, by the Buddha and liis fol-
lowers. It was too deeply ingrained and too fundamentally
in line with Hindu instincts to be eliminated by the slight
170 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
opposttioD offered by BaddhisnL The sacrificial system was
more seriously modified, but here the theory remained the
same; only the form of the sacrifice was chafiged. Bloody
sacrifices abnost ceased to be offered and their place was
taken in large part by cereals and flowers. We shall have
occasion to note one of the exceptions to this rule, but the
remarkable change is not to be minified by the relatively
few instances of animal sacrifice which continued to exist
And, finally, the Hinduism which emerged after the partial
eclipse of so many centuries presents a very different or-
ganization of the pantheon, and even worships a different
set of gods. The same names occur, but gods who were
once prominent have given place to others who held a sub-
ordinate position or to those whose names do not even
occur in the ancient records.
Bade in the period of the Gupta dynasty, A. D. 320-650, a
movement was on foot to lode upon Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva as the threefold manifestation of the Supreme, the
Absolute Brahman we have met before.* This triad, or
Hindu Trimurti, has never entered deeply into the thinking
of the people, though it is frequently mentioned in the reli-
gious literature, and is at times represented in sculpture in
the form of a triple head on one pair of shoulders. Brahma,
the first member of this trio, is looked upon as the creator,
the more or less personal source of the universe and the life
which it contains. He has no popular following, only one
or two temples in all India being devoted to his worship.
But the fact that he is looked upon as a personal creator
calls attention to the theistic tendency which has expressed
itself in various forms throughout the course of Hindu
* For convenience^ and in accordance wiA The Century Dictionary,
a difference in spelling has been introduced to distingnish the diree
meanings of the word frequenUy i^vcn as ''Brahnuui. This spelling
Brahmam designates the neuter, impersonal All, the philosophical
Absolute. Brahma stands for the personal creator, also called
Prajapati, one of the emanations of the Supreme Brahman. Broh-
mm, which spring from the same idea and root, is used of die
priests and the pnestly caste.
HINDXJISM 171
religious history, in spite of the popular polytheism which
is to be found at every turn and the deadening pantheism
which has so completely captured the intelligence of the
country.
The story of Vishnu and Siva is very different. Their
worship constitutes the sectarianism of modem Hinduism,
the people being roughly divided between the worshipers
of Vishnu and the worshipers of Siva. Vishnu was one of
the celestial gods in the Rigveda and was associated with
Indra, with whom, however, he could not compare in im-
portance. During the centuries Vishnu increased in dignity
and greatness and seemed to take to himself some of the
qualities of the great Indra himself, until in the end he
easily overtopped the national god of the Aryans of a
bygone age. The most marked characteristic of the worship
of Vishnu is that he is not worshiped in his own person, but
in that of one or another of his manifestations, or incarna-
tions, avatars, in Sanskrit. Through these incarnations
the worship of Vishnu absorbed many stray beliefs, even the
Buddha being acknowledged as one of the avatars. Accord-
ing to Barth, ''An Avatara ... is the presence, at once mystic
and real, of the supreme being in a htunan individual, who is
both truly god and truly man."* Vishnu himself was lifted
higher and higher until he was finally declared to be one
with the Universal Spirit, the great Preserver, and as such
almost fills the place of the sole god of the Universe. Hindu
thought thus fluctuates between what seem to us to be irrec-
oncilable extremes, polytheistic, theistic, and pantheistic,
with comparatively little difficulty.
The most prominent of the incarnations of this great god
are Rama and Krishna, heroes of the great epic poems, the
''Ramayana" and the "Mahabarata," but of the two Krishna
is incomparably the greater. He is probably worshiped by
more people than any other god in India. Krishna is an
incarnation with a very striking history. How much of it
* The Religiottd of India, p. 17a
172 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
is legendaiy and how much sober fact, if he ever lived at
all, it is exceedingly difficult to say. He is^ like Rama, a
great hero, "an exterminator of monsters, a victorious war-
rior,'' but unfortunately his record is not admirable. As
given in the Puranas he is said to have had sixteen thousand
wives and a hundred and eighty thousand children, many of
his days being spent in an impure round of gambols with
the shepherd maidens. Spiritualize these accounts as far as
one may, the dangerous journey through such mire to reach
the heights beyond is sure to leave its stain deep on the soul
of even the purest-minded reader. It is a sad plight in
which popular Hinduism finds itself with its most exalted
incarnation. If the great God above is like that, there is
little hope of raising the people to a high level of honor
and purity.
In connection with the worship of Vishnu arose a new
doctrine, that of Bhakti, or ''devotion," which is much like
the Christian idea of faith and trust. It is directed by the
worshiper toward one or another of these incarnations and
thus provides a point of contact with the typical attitude of
Christianity, that of trust in the "incarnate God." It is to
be noted that the idea of Bhakti has spread widely over
India and is directed to-day to many gods outside the bounds
of Vishnu worship. The Vaishnavas, as the worshipers of
Vishnu are called, are found principally in the north of
India. The actual worship is performed before an image
of the god or incarnation and consists of prayers and offer-
ings. The sacrifice of animals has entirely disappeared and
use is made of grain and fruit and flowers and milk.
The worshipers of Siva, or Saivites, are particularly strong
in the South. In strong contrast with Vishnu, the Preserver,
Siva is known as the Destroyer and represents the dark,
cruel aspects of life. He also represents the powers of re-
production and is always symbolized in his temples by the
Linga, or human phallus, instead of by an image. This
idea is strongly emphasized in Siva worship, Nandi the buU
HINDUISM 173
being represented as an attendant of the god, a striking ex-
ample of powerful passion and generative power. "Yet in
South India there are daily sung to Siva hymns that for
warmth of feeling have not often been excelled. . . . The
god seems so unlovable, yet the Saivite saints are intoxi-
cated with love for him, and call him Grace itself."* With
all his other attributes he becomes to them all that any of
the other gods stan^ for, and even ravishes their gaze as
they see in him the god of love. Both the philosopher and
the peasant see in Sfva the paragon of all excellence, for one
the basis of an all-embracing world-view and for the other
the friendly god who will be with him in trouble.
Unlike Vishnu, Siva has no incarnations, but he is not
alone in the world of gods. He has his consorts, or wives,
and is very frequently worshiped in their persons rather
than in his own. Among these wives are Devi, "the god-
dess," Duiga, "the inaccessible," Karala, "the horrible one,"
and Kali, "the black one." This terrible nest of harpies
accentuates the tragic feature of Siva worship, and illus-
trates to what lengths these poor people, on whom the
struggle of life has laid its heavy hand, are compelled to go
to find solace and relief. Kali, to take but one example, is the
goddess who is depicted as the cruel woman who with devil-
ish glee dances on the body of her husband, holding aloft a
human head she has just cut off. She can only be sat-
isfied with blood, and at her temples goats and calves are
killed in order to spatter her protruding tongue with the
bloody sacrifice. And yet women all over India cry out to
Mother Kali as their only hope in distress and suffering.
Qosely connected with the worship of Siva is that of
Ganesa, his son, the elephant-headed god of wisdom, whose
unique images are to be seen in all part of the country. The
Saivites are numbered by the million, and by their devotion
and earnestness attest the inalienable religiousness of the
Indian people, who cry out after God and must find him,
' Sydney Caye, Redemption Hindu and Christian, p. 124! .
174 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
even if in the grotesque and horrible forms in which Sm
and his company are represented.
Besides these main forms of rel^oos fife India has many
others. When we are told by Monier-Williams that ninety
per cent of all the people of India are demon-worshipers, we
ask how that can be when the people have been rooghly
divided between the two great sects. The fact is, the lines
are loosely drawn and are stepped over with ease. Millions
who may at times worship at the shrines of Krishna or
Siva are also devotees of lesser gods and village divinities,
who are little better than maUgnant demons. They see no
incongruity in so doing. They are in want and are fearful
as they look into the future— why should they not have
access to any and all gods who may possibly avert the dan-
gers which beset them? And so the worship extends out to
include the worship of heroes and saints, demons and spirits,
tutelary and village deities, the family ancestors, and even
animals and plants and stones and other inanimate objects.
There is no end to the fist of sacred objects held in reverence
and worshiped by the people. The cow is holy, and to be
treated with reverence. Even monkeys are sacred and invi-
olable, with temples erected in their honor, in whose courts
troops of the chattering fortunates are fed and treated like
spoiled children. India has gone mad on religion and finds
divinity everywhere. All the way from the lofty conception
of the Supreme Creator down to the depths, where, in Sak-
tism, the female principle, or Sakti, is worshiped with rites
which at times descend to the lowest level of vileness, India
has run the gamut of religious experience and doctrine. This
god-intoxicated land is not to be restrained in her long
quest for a satisfying conception of God and for an experi-
ence which will bring them into vital touch with him.
Modern Reform Movements
Great changes are taking place in India, but with all that
every form of belief and every practice which has been men-
HINDUISM 175
tioned obtains and is proclaimed with great earnestness. It
would seem that India is able to learn much and add it to her
religious life, but that she finds it exceedingly difficult to let
go time-honored forms and institutions even though they are
clearly outworn. As Mr. Farquhar points out, this conserva-
tism is due to the family system, founded on ancestor wor-
ship, the caste system, which is the dominant force in the
life of the Hindu, and the religious system, which is so
varied and multiform that a man may find just about what
he wants if he searches for it* But with all this India has
come into contact with the West and cannot remain the
same. Western education and ideas are eating into the
fabric of Indian culture and great changes are impending.
For years to come the customary restraints will continue to
hold men bound so far as their outward conformity and for-
mal acquiescence are concerned, but inwardly the pervasive
influence of new ideas is making impossible a hearty accept-
ance of the old beliefs. Educated men simply cannot believe
in polytheism. They are becoming too well informed to be
able to assert the divine origin of caste and the unnatural
distinctions which it involves. Somehow they cannot enter
sincerely into the ancestral rites which have played so im-
portant a part in the family life.
The growing national spirit is making a profound differ-
ence in the whole outlook of the leading men. They see the
possibility of the development of Indian nationality, which
was scarcely dreamed of a generation ago. Not that India
has not chafed for decades under the rule of the British,
but that until very recent years this has merely taken the
form of irritation because of foreign domination without
any intelligent plan for a better, united India governed by
her own people. Had the hand of Britain been lifted
at any time in the past, India would have been plunged into
civil war, Mohammedan against Hindu and even one section
' Primer of Hinduism, chap. xviL
176 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
of the Hindu community against another. There was no
solidarity, no sense of unity, no possibility of a real national-
ity. Even now the movement is so young and immature that
grave danger would be faced should Britain retire. What
the future holds out we do not know, but of one thing we
may be sure : India has caught the vision of nationality, of a
unified life, of the development of a distinctive civilization,
and is determined to bend all her energies and to make any
sacrifices necessary to accomplish this end. The e£Fect of
this on religion will be profound. Whatever stands in the
way of the desired aim will be laid aside. The ignorance of
the mass of the people will make the process a long one, but
the steady increase of education and the determined attitude
of the entire leadership of the country point to the day of
achievement. The religious exclusiveness of both Islam and
Hinduism, the divisiveness of caste, the deadening influence
of polytheism — all are looked upon as standing in the way of
any real progress and must therefore give way to the new
spirit.
What has happened in view of these contacts with the
West and all that they have involved ? One may say, in gen-
eral, that while the influence of the West has been recog-
nized, the attempt has been made to accommodate the old
beliefs to the newer views and thus fit them for the new
age. The national appeal is strong. The pride of the Indian
has been touched. Led by such men as Rabindranath
Tagore, he believes that India already possesses all that is
necessary to satisfy her religious needs without going to the
despised, practical, materialistic West for instruction in
religion. But even the most ardent nationalist feels the influ-
ence of the new day and knows he must accommodate him-
self to the new situation, or be lost. Even those who have the
hardihood to declare that Hinduism, taken just as it is, is
sufficient to meet all the needs of the land, have enlarged
their horizon and attempt to show how their religion can
fulfill the aspirations of all people everywhere. One of the
HINDUISM 177
most interesting of all these was Rama-Krishna P^rama-
hamsa, an ascetic, who lived in a temple near Calcutta. "He
was ready to accept and to practice any aspect of Hinduism,
and he imagined himself now a Christian, now a Mohamme-
dan."* His greatest disciple was the Swami Vivekananda,
who appeared at the Chicago Parliament of Religions, in
1893, and lectured to entranced audiences in various parts of
America. Everything in Hinduism was beautiful and noble
and needed only the touch of an idealizing interpretation to
appear as the climax of the world's religious development.
This is the attitude of Mrs. Annie Besant, who has stopped
at nothing in her acceptance of Hinduism, but sees every
feature as evidence of the essential divinity which adheres
to the whole system.
The most advanced of all the groups which realize the situ-
ation and are seeking to bring religion into line with the
new light from the West is the Brahmo Samaj. This Samaj,
or "church," has had an honorable history since the day of
its founding in 1828. A very remarkable man. Ram Mohan
Ray (1772-1833), highly educated and well versed in the
literature of Buddhism and Christianity as well as of Hin-
duism, turned against the polytheism, the idolatry, the social
abuses, and the moral blemishes of the faith in which he had
been brought up and founded a "Theistic Church." He had
few disciples and in all its history the society has had but
few members, not over five thousand at any time. Even
this small number has been seriously divided and has been
unable to present a united front against the social and reli-
gious abuses which it condemns. All hold to an tmqualified
monotheism and a purely spiritual worship. They are social
reformers, opposing caste, child-marriage, and the enforced
celibacy of widows, but at this point there is a division of
sentiment between the progressives and conservatives.
Caste feeling is too strong to be easily overcome, and one
• Op. cit, p. 157.
#•
178 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
wmgu.-4he less important let it be said — ^were trnmlling thus
to cut thesiselyes off from the Hindu community. The
'Trogressive Brahmo Samaj/' led by the gifted though er-
ratic Kesbab Chandra Sen (1838-1884), threw itself into
the work of reform with zeaL Kesbab was a deeply spirit-
ual man and read much in the literature of Christianity. He
held Christ in the highest honor and some were even opti-
mistic enouj^ to look forward to his conversion to Christian-
ity. He not only had no intention of taking this step, but in
the end lost his hold on his own followers by claiming almost
divine honors as a special channel of revelation. The Samaj
still lives and through its numerous publications promotes
the reforms for which it has stood and witnesses to its
belief in the one supreme God who may be approached only
in spiritual worship.
Of a very different sort is the Arya Samaj. Founded in
1875 by Dayananda Sarasvati, whose watchword was "Back
to the Vedas/' and who believed India could only be regen-
erated by a return to the ancient faith, this society has grown
in numbers until in 191 1 the census gives the membership as
almost a quarter of a million. Opposed to idolatry and
with the desire to promote the worship of one God, the
Samaj has stood for certain needed reforms, but caste has
not been successfully opposed, and the belief in transmigra-
tion and Karma nullifies what might otherwise be a worthy
advocacy of monotheism. Violently opposed to Christianity
and lending itself to the nationalistic agitation, the Arya
Samaj tends to become as much a political as a religious
movement. Its reforms do not go deep enough to promise
anything commensurate with the need, and its failure to
strike at the root of the religious needs of the country gives
little h6pe that India's regeneration will be furthered by
this agency.
According to Mr. Farquhar's analysis there is on one hand
a steady advance of the old faiths and an attempt to rein*
terpret them to meet the new situation, and at the same time
HINDXnSM 179
"a continuous and steadily increasing inner decay/"* The
direction which these movements have taken has been deter-
mined by the presence of Christianity in the country. With
comparatively few who as yet have abandoned their old
beliefs and become followers of Jesus Christ the tendency
is toward an amalgam of what is native to India and what is
brought in from the outside. But such combinations fail at
the point of appeal. They are cliunsily put together and are
neither one thing nor the other. India will remain religious
— ^that cannot be doubted. Her great problem is to discover,
as she awakens in a new, strange world, what her needs are
and where she must go for satisfaction. Already the proc-
ess has begun, and the results up to the present hour are not
favorable to the old religious formulas, and as she more com-
pletely comes to herself the query arises whether she will not
— ^much sooner than many now think possible — ^realize that in
the person of Jesus Christ all her aspirations and longings
may find complete fulfillment.
Suggestions for Fukthbr Stitdy
J. N. Farquhar, A Primer of Hinduism (Lx>ndon, second edit, 1912).
J. N. Farquhar, Modem Religious Movements in India (New York,
1915).
A. Barth, The Religions of India (London, fourth edit, 1906). One
of the best of the older books.
Monier Monier-Williams, Indian Wisdom (London, fourth edit,
1893). History of the religious literature, with numerous examples
from the writings.
James Bissett Pratt, India and Its Faiths (Boston, 1915). The rec-
ord of a traveler with a mind trained to interpret religious belief
and practice,
(korge Foot Moore, History of Religions, Vol I, Chaps. XI,
XIII, XIV.
"* Modem Reh'gious Movements in India, p. 431. (Macmillan,
'mum V'/\«>lr vnwe l
New Vork^ 1915J
CHAPTER Vn
BUDDHISM
Gautama the Buddha
About the middle of the sixth century before Christ a
little boy was bom in north India who was destined to influ-
ence the thought of Asia more than any other down to our
own time. The Aryan invaders had for centuries been ad-
vancing down the Ganges Valley and were now to be found
presenting a broad front along the western confines of what
we now know as the province of Bengal. There they had
settled down in little kingdoms not altogether friendly ¥rith
each other. Local chieftains wielded sway over limited terri-
tories and in some cases were organized into federations or
oligarchies, called republics. Now» Gautama the Buddha
was the son of one of these petty chieftains. Within recent
years the place of his birth has been identified with certainty.
At Kapilavastu, about a hundred and thirty miles north of
the modem city of Benares, just within the borders of the
native state of Nepal, a stone tablet was discovered in 1896
which marks the birthplace of India's greatest son. He was
given the name of Siddhartha, but is generally known as
Gautama, the name of the family or clan to which he be-
longed. The title Buddha, or ''enlightened one/' is applied
to many others, but it is Gautama the Buddha who was with-
out doubt a historical character and founded the system to
which he gave the name.
Many are the stories told of his birth and early years,
which are so fabulous that it is with difficulty we are able
to extract the modicum of truth they contain. We know
little of the life of young Siddhartha until he was about
thirty years of age. We may well believe the tradition that
180
BUDDHISM i8i
he excelled in manly sports. His endurance and the attain-
ment of a hale and hearty old age attest a strong constitu-
tion and a firm foundation laid in youth for a strenuous and
long life. What we are quite certain of is that he was
married and had one son, Rahula, of whom he was exceed-
ingly fond. A persistent tradition repeated many times over
in Buddhist literature indicates that he was of the medita-
tive and thoughtful type and possessed a nature deeply
touched by the pain and sorrow of life. We are told that
he was strangely moved by the sight of an old decrepit man,
a man suffering from an offensive disease, a putrefying
corpse, and finally a wandering monk who had realized the
vanity of life and had forsaken it forever to search for the
deeper satisfactions in religion and philosophy. We can only
guess at the feelings which were surging in the breast of
Gautama. What we do know is that about the age of thirty
he left house and home never to return to the old relation-
ships again. It has been called the ''great renunciation."
He turned away from wife and child, from his father and
the succession to the chieftainship, from all that the future
had to offer of honor and success — all these he rejected to
answer the summons of an inner craving which was not
satisfied and which could not be hushed. He made the break
just when he did because he found his little son was en-
twining himself so firmly about his heart that if he waited
any longer it would be impossible to tear himself away.
In thus abandoning his home and becoming a penniless
wanderer Gautama took the step which many before and
since his day in India have taken. Dissatisfied with life
and yet longing for satisfaction, reaching out after peace
and not knowing where to find it, India has always had its
holy men, who travel from place to place or else seek some
lonely spot in the jungle or on a mountainside and give
themselves to contemplation and ascetic practices. He was
merely doing what countless others have done in the same
quest. We know comparatively little about the next five or
v.!
182 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
six years. There is good evidence that he went to one reli-
gious teacher after another, but what they taught and what
he thought of their theories we do not know. It seems clear
that they could not satisfy the deep craving in the heart of
this earnest seeker. The opposition whidi he showed in
later years to the current philosophies would seem to have
begun at the time when they failed to give an adequate
answer to his questions. Gautama was by no means alone
in his search. Many others in India at that time were seek-
ing new answers to their religious questioning. The name of
one other, a contemporary of Gautama, has come down to us,
Mahavira, the founder of the religion of the Jains, which
numbers about a million and a quarter adherents at the
present time in India. He, too, forged a new belief out
of his thought and experiences and added another to the
number of cults in this deeply religious land. Based on the
principle of a ftmdamental dualism in life, the Jains have
given themselves to a severe asceticism and have made the
prohibition of killing any single living thing, large or small,
a cardinal doctrine. While Buddhism has ceased to exist
in the land of its birth, Jainism still thrives, though it is
of slight importance in comparison with the surrounding
Hinduism.
We left Gautama with ''the teachers, both hearing them,
and. asking them questions." Either after or during this
period he gave himself to a strict regimen. By abstinence
and other ascetic practices he reduced himself to a skeleton.
A small company of disciples gathered around him in admi-
ration of his fortitude and perseverance. They were not
able to follow him in the utter abandon of his efforts to
extort the peace he craved by hardships and deprivations.
He carried his exertions to the breaking point and nature
rebelled. He finally fell over in a swoon. His disciples
thought he had died and wondered at the pluck and resolu-
tion they had failed to attain. But he revived, much to
their surprise. Then an astonishing thing takes place.
BUDDHISM iSj
Gautama calmly declares to his followers that mortification
had failed to bring the peace he craved and that he would
give it up. His erstwhile disciples cannot understand a
statement so unorthodox, and forthwith take their leave
and go to Benares with contempt in their hearts for one
who has turned away from so time-honored a practice as
self-abnegation and asceticism. And just here the origi-
nality of Gautama begins to show itself. Up to this time
he had been a typical Hindu, but now he began to branch
off and follow a direction of his own. Asceticism had
failed to satisfy, so he turned away from it decisively.
From this time he became an advocate of the "middle way.''
His experience had led him to the conclusion that neither
luxury on one side nor asceticism on the other could satisfy
the inner craving he felt. The only thing to do then, so far
as every-day life was concerned, was to travel the "middle
way," not giving way to softness and luxury on one side,
nor undergoing the hardships of self-inflicted asceticism on
the other. He set men the example of simple living with
only a few regulations which were calculated to keep men
from the evils and sins which would make the development
of character impossible. It was good, wholesome living he
inculcated — ^wholesome in all particulars save one. Gautama
had separated himself from his home and his wife, and he
could not see that traveling the "middle way" ought to
mean the avoidance of unbridled license on one hand and
celibacy on the other. To him no advance could possibly
be made in character, no progress could be made toward
peace and satisfaction so long as man lived in company with
woman. He must turn away from home and wife and chil-
dren if he were to take up seriously the task of quieting the
craving within and winning the peace he desired. It was a
serious weakness. To make woman a stumbling-block to
man in the journey toward his heart's desire is to lower her
condition and at the same time to keep man down to a level
at which the finest flowers of individual and social life can
i84 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
never grow. Gautama did not see this, and his system has
suffered to our own day from this defect.
But all that he had attained was n^;ative. He had learned
that the inner rest he was craving was not to be had by
living a life of ease or by asceticism. The process of elim-
ination had been at work, but nothing positive had been
gained. The temptation came to give up the pursuit, go
back to his home, and take up his life where he had left it
on the night when he suddenly took his flight Would this
not be the best course out of the confusion in which his
failure had left him? But no, that would not have been
Gautama the Buddha. He found himself in a dreadful
moral and mental struggle, which is described most realisti-
cally in Buddhist literature. The forces of Mara, the enemy
of all that is good, charged like legions of armed demons
from the front and then from the rear, seeking to break
down his determined resistance, but through it all he sat
unmoved, with purpose unchanged and his desire un-
quenched. At last, under the shade of the famous Bo-tree,
where he had remained all the day fighting his battle for
spiritual emancipation, as the evening came on and the
quiet shadows crept in around him, the enlightenment came
and he was free. Thus did Gautama become the Buddha,
the "enlightened." His last battle with his lower nature had
been won, his doubts were dissolved, and the peace whose
elusive quest he had been following so long swept over his
soul, never again to be absent from his experience. He
had grasped the meaning of the world's sorrow and could
cure it.
Such a memorable experience and such a stupendous
claim demand explanation. What was the disease which
had doomed men and women to sorrow and despair? Surely
the man who could not only give the correct diagnosis but
also offer the cure was a benefactor the whole world was
seeking. Without doubt the strivings through which he
had been passing uninterruptedly for so many years and
BUDDHISM 185
the attempts he had made from every conceivable angle to
find the way out of his mental anguish account in large
measure for the final conclusion the Buddha reached, but
for him the whole matter was the result of a spiritual illu-
mination or mental intuition which burst upon him Uke a
light flowing in from the heavens. For many weary years
he had lived in the presence of his own inner discontent
and the sorrow of the world around him. What was the
cause of this sorrow and inner pain? Nothing less than
desire, the lust of gold and fame and pleasure, all that
made men cling to the things of life and sense. He had
laid his finger on the canker that was eating the life out of
his fellowmen. How much of all this he had thought out
before the day of concentration under the Bo-tree it is
impossible to say. The final element in his conclusion was
that peace and praise could only come by the suppression of
desire, the conquest of the lower nature by the power of
the human mind brought to bear on this root of htunan
misery.
The temptation which came to him at once was to become
a solitary recluse, spending his years in quiet enjoyment of
his newly found experience and thinking through all its
implications. But again this would not have been Gautama
the Buddha. Throughout his life benevolence and pity
toward his fellow creatures was a powerful motive and
determined his action. He deliberately made up his mind
to devote his time to the carrying of his message to men
as far as his journeys might lead him. He acted upon
his determination and proceeded at once to Benares, where
he found and won back the disciples who had so recently
left him. They felt the power of his conviction and the
truth he was uttering. In this way until the end of his
long life he continued to win converts until they could be
counted by the hundreds and thousands. His love for men
and his desire to lift from them the burden of sorrow and
misery they were carrying make the Buddha one of the
i86 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
world's great altruists. He never wearied of telling his
message and rejoiced as one after another men and women
came to him, were convinced, and went away with a new
life open before them. He had determined "To set roll-
mg the royal chariot-wheel of a miiversal empire of truth
and righteousness/' and he never lost an opportunity to
make a convert and set another soul free from the fetters
of desire.
The chronology of the life of the Buddha is uncertain.
The period from the time when he abandoned his home
until his emancipation was probably about five years,
rou^y from the age of thirty to thirty-five. He died at
about the age of eighty, thus spending forty-five years in
declaring his doctrine up and down northern India. During
the rainy season, called the "was," he remained in one
place teaching his disciples and preaching to the people who
came to him, but as soon as the dry season had come he was
off again on his long journeys, accompanied by a group of
his disciples. There were no decisive crises in his life after
the period of the Bo-tree experience, and the story is a
somewhat disconnected narrative of what he said and did
in the course of the years. He met many people, men and
women of all ranks and classes of society, and most inter-
esting are the accounts of his replies and admonitions. He
was dignified yet sympathetic, firm yet kindly, dealing 'm
each case with insight and sending each one away with an
appropriate and convincing word. No wonder he came to
be idolized by his followers. They looked on him as one
who could meet every emergency, as one who was not to
be bafHed by any carping or even sincere questioner. In
the course of his tours he came to his old home at Kapila-
vastu, and there met his wife and his son. He went back
several times. They may have thought to receive him back
to the old relationships, but that was not to be. They were
little more to him, that is, so far as his actions showed, than
fellowbeings who stood in need of his message. His words
BUDDHISM 187
fell on good ground in each case, and both wife and son
became members of the two orders he had instituted, one
for men and the other for women. They became penniless
wanderers like the Buddha himself, looldng for their daily
bread at the hand of the kindly laity who considered it
meritorious to feed and otherwise provide for these holy
men and women.
So the Buddha lived out his days, never ceasing this
round of teaching from place to place. At last the end
came as a result, so it is said by Professor T. W. Rhys
Davids, of an attack of dysentery caused by eating a meal
of rice and mushrooms.* He lived for a number of hours,
during which the time was spent in converse with Ananda,
his most devoted follower and personal attendant, and others
who desired a word with the dying leader. Shortly before
becoming unconscious he^summoned his strength and said,
"Mendicants ! I now impress it upon you, decay is inherent
in all component things ; work out your salvation with dili-
gence !" Earnest to the very last in his desire to give direc-
tion to all who might need it, the Buddha passed away in
the presence of a group of his faithful disciples. No purer
character has India given to the world, one worthy of the
honor which has been bestowed by countless believers in
all subsequent ages and worthy of our highest esteem and
admiration.
Eably Buddhism
Gautama left no written records. The early literature
has come down to us in the Pali language and consists of the
Three Pitakas, or "Baskets," which contain the rules which
the Brothers and Sisters are to observe, the truths which
are to be taught, and the psychological system on which it
is based. Besides the volumes collected in those writings
certain supplementary works have been added to them,
which are considered a part of the early canon. How much
^ Bttddhtsm (Manual), edit of 191a, p. Sa (S. P. C K., London.)
i88 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
of all the teaching came frcxm the Buddha himself it is im-
possible to say — ^probably very little. Even in writings like
the Dialogues of the Buddha, which are supposed by Pro-
fessor Rhys Davids to have been put into literary form
about fifty years after the death of Gautama, evidences of
systematization and of arrangement according to a mnemonic
system are quite apparent. It is easy, however, to go too
far in this direction. We may believe that with all that was
done in an early day to expand and elaborate the words and
teachings of the Buddha we have substantially what he
meant in his message to the India of that day. What we
have to work on, then, is a library of about twenty-nine
titles in which "The number of PaU words in the whole is
about twice the number of words in our English Bible."*
Of the various approaches which might be made to the
study of the teachings of early Buddhism there is none more
fruitful than that through the Three Signs, or Fundamental
Truths. The method of approach is of real importance, for
the teaching of the Buddha is somewhat bafHing and caution
must be exercised at a number of important turning points.
It is only within recent years, since the Pali literature has
been more fully explored and more carefully studied, that
scholars have felt that they are treading on firm ground and
really begin to know the genius of early Buddhism and the
places where emphasis should be placed in the study.
The first of the Fundamental Doctrines is the imperma-
nence of all things. To put it in the ancient phrase, "All
the constituents of life are impermanent." The statement
is also made, "There is no being — ^there is only a becoming."
This is to be accepted as literally true of all things ; gods as
well as the tiniest atom are equally included. The passing
away may be delayed for a long period, but the principle of
change is the principle of all existence, and sooner or later
the process will be evident. Just as soon as there is a bq^-
'Rhys Davids, Buddhism (American Lectares), p. 53. (Putnam,
New York. 1896.)
BUDDHISM 189
ning decay also begins ; the beginning of the end is at hand.
Here in India five hundred years before Christ is being
preached the philosophy of change. We do not live in a
static universe, but one in which everything is in a state of
flux. They were not deeply concerned with ultimate be-
ginnings or final endings ; what came home with great force
to these early thinkers was that there was a great force in
this world of ours which had always been causing change
and which would continue to do so indefinitely. At about
the same time in Greece the early philosophers were con-
juring with the same idea. Heracleitus, about B. C. 536-470,
denied that there was any such thing as permanence. 'There
is no static Being, no unchanging substratum. Change,
movement, is Lord of the universe."* And we to-day are
still discussing the same problem. Is there anything perma-
nent, or is everything subject to change? The doctrine of
evolution asserts the doctrine of change and links us to the
ancient Greeks and to the Buddha and his followers. It may
not be the final or complete answer, but so far as it reaches
it is the accepted doctrine in the world of the educated
to-day.
The early Buddhists excluded nothing from the sweep of
their philosophy. This is the explanation of the atheism
with which the Buddha has been charged. He was not an
atheist ; he took the gods of India for granted, but it made
no difference to him whether they were real beings or not.
Whatever they were and wherever they might be at any
time, they were bound by the same law of impermanence
and change. There was no essential difference between the
most exalted of them and men. All belonged to the same
universe and were subject in the same way to its laws. Why
should anyone look to them ? They could give no assistance
which man could not render himself. They were in the
possession of no powers man did not have at his disposal.
'A. K. Rogers, A Student's History of Philosophy, p. 15. (Mac-
millan, New York, new edit, 1916.)
190 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
The result was that the Buddha constructed a system in
which no god was needed. A sense of dependence on a god
was like leaning on a broken reed. He might for the time
being seem strong and wise, but it was only a passing phase
with no assurance of continuance. So, then, worship was
useless and prayer an empty form. What we have is a sys-
tem which strictly speaking is no religion at alL Later we
shall try to estimate the meaning of this conclusion in the
light of other facts, which would indicate that elements of
a true religious attitude were to be found in the system from
the beginning, even though formally everything religious
seemed to be excluded.
The second of the Fundamental Signs is that sorrow is
implicit in aU individuality. "All the constituents of life are
fuU of misery." The Buddha's discovery under the Bo-tree
was that the cause of the misery which he himself had
sought to escape and which he found everywhere in the
world was desire, and desire is the inevitable accompaniment
of conscious existence. We cannot gain what we want and
we cannot escape what we dislike, and this involves misery
and sorrow. This doctrine of suffering and its cure has
received classic expression in the teaching of the Four
Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, which we must
give as shortly as possible :
I. "Now, this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning
suffering." Then in many forms the statement is made that
all human experience involves suffering, because it flows
from individuality, or separate conscious existence. To
live and cling to life involves desire and hence sorrow. The
point to keep in mind is that it is not life, the mere living,
which is attended with sorrow. We shall see that when a
man has attained the "ideal state'' in this life he still may
continue to live on for many years without sorrow. This
is possible because he has learned how he can live with no
desire after continued individuality and all that that
involves.
BUDDHISM 191
2. "Now, this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning
the origin of suffering. Verily it originates in that craving
thirst which causes the renewal of becomings, is accom-
panied by sensual delights, and seeks satisfaction now here,
now there — that is to say, the craving for the gratification of
the passions, or the craving for a future life, or the craving
for success in this present life." So long as the enticements
of the outside world have the slightest attraction for us we
are subject to pain and sorrow.
3. "Now, this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning
the destruction of suffering.
"Verily, it is the destruction, in which no craving remains
over, of this very thirst ; the laying aside of, the getting rid
of, the being free from, the harboring no longer of, this
thirst."
4. "And this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning
the way which leads to the destruction of suffering."
"Verily, it is this Noble Eightfold Path ; that is to say :
"Right Views (free from superstition and delusion) —
"Right Aspirations (high, and worthy of the intelligent,
earnest man) —
"Right Speech (kindly, open, truthful) —
"Right Conduct (peaceful, honest, pure) —
"Right Livelihood (bringing hurt or danger to no living
thing)—
"Right Effort (in self-training and in self-control) —
"Right Mindfulness (the active, watchful mind) —
"Right Rapture (in deep meditation on the realities of
life)."*
In the course of his gradual progress in the Path the
monk must break the Ten Fetters, Delusion of Self, Doubt,
the EjBBcacy of Good Works and Ceremonies, Sensuality,
Ill-Will, Love of Life on Earth, Desire for a Future Life
in Heaven, Pride, Self-righteousness, and Ignorance.
When a man shall have achieved the eight positive char-
* Quoted from Buddhism (AmeriQa^ Lectures), pp. 136-138.
192 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
acteristics of the Noble Path and broken the Ten Fetters,
he has become an Arhat (also Arahat, Arahant), and thus
has realized the Buddhist ideal of life. It is also known as
Nirvana, or "the going out" — ^''the going out of the three
fires of lust, ill-will, and dullness, or ignorance." So then,
Arhatship, or Nirvana, may be attained here in this life, a
state of perfect mental quiet and rest, in which no desire
ruffles the poise of the peaceful monk (save, of course, the
desire for more of the present satisfaction and the desire to
bestow the gift on others) and no longing breaks in on his
contemplation. But is there no future life, no expectation
beyond the time when his body shall crumble away in old
age and death? This can only be answered by a considera-
tion of the last of the signs.
This Truth is that of the absence of a "soul," the "no-
soul" doctrine. "All the constituents of life are without a
souL" We are individuals, but we have no permanent or
even temporary soul as an entity in itself. It is all a delusion
that there is such a thing as a person or a chariot or a chair.
These are only names which we give to the temporary
gathering togetfier into a seeming unity of qualities or "ag-
gregates" which are only parts of the all-embracing uni-
verse in which we live and of which we form a part. You
may ask of a chair as you mention each part, "Is this the
chair?" and, of course, the answer must in each case be
"No." Then the Buddhist says: "Where, then, is your
chair?" It has eluded you — ^there is no chair! What you
call a chair is but the name you give to the temporary col-
lection of parts which when brought together may perform
a useful function. So of a htmian being. He is composed of
parts which when assembled under certain conditions we call
an individual, but there is no real person there, no you nor
I nor he. The parts which make up a htunan being are
called Skandhas, or "aggr^^ates," and they are five in num-
ber. First there are the material properties, in short our
physical bodies. Then follow four mental qualities, which.
BUDDHISM 193
as nearly as we are able to designate them in the terms of
modem psychology, may be given thus : sensations, or feel-
ings; abstract ideas, or perception; potentialities, or the
elements of consciousness; and thought, or consciousness
taken as a unified whole. We, to speak of ourselves as
individuals, are merely the name which is given to the five
skandhas when they are thus united. What holds them
together is what might be called the "thread of life." When
at death the thread is broken the skandhas fall apart never
again to reassemble. That individual has ceased to be and
will never come into existence again. There is no soul, so
how could he?
But Buddhism believes in transmigration, and the question
naturally arises. How can there be any transmigration when
there is no soul to transmigrate? It would seem that the
Buddha should have dropped this doctrine altogether. There
must have been good reason for retaining it when it plunged
him into such a strange dilemma. The fact is, the Buddha
held fast to the old theory because it offered him a moral
explanation of the cruel inequalities of life. He could not
find sufficient reason in men's conduct in this life to justify
the measure of blessing and suffering which was the lot of
his fellow human beings. It must be because of good deeds
or wickedness done in a previous life. Now, while this was
satisfying as far as it went — ^provided, of course, one could
believe in any kind of transmigration — the Buddha met the
same question again, How believe in transmigration when
one has no belief in a soul? And here is one of the most
difficult and subtle points in the whole theory of early Bud-
dhism, so important that it is repeated many times over in
the Pali literature. There is no soul, but something does
or may pass over into another existence. It is the sum total
or the net result of all the actions which have been per-
formed by the individuals who have followed one after
another in the series. That is, the individual now living
inherits from the individual which preceded him the result
194 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
of his moral achievement or failure. He may rise higher
in the scale or sink lower than his predecessor according
as he adds to or subtracts from the moral content which he
inherited. What causes him to be bom at all if he is not
the same individual who had lived before? So long as any
one dies and still has desire or craving (in the Buddhist
sense) left in his heart another set of skandhas is bound to
assemble and form another individual who must take up the
task where his predecessor left it. And so it goes on from
one individual to another until in the end the series to which
they have all belonged comes to an end forever when one
arises who succeeds in crushing out desire, becomes an
Arhat, and enters Nirvana. His body may keep on living
for years, but when it dies the skandhas fall apart and there
is nothing to require another set of skandhas to gather again,
for there is nothing left around which they may assemble.
Karma simply ceases to function in this case.
This is the Buddhist law of Karma. According to this
law, new individuals are bom one after another until all
desire is used up. There is no more Karma, or Karma
has been used up, are different ways of speaking of the same
process and its final ending. So with all the change taking
place in the universe and in every particle of matter in it,
there is an unchanging law according to which all this takes
place. It is impersonal and works by a kind of blind neces-
sity, but it is inevitable and unchanging, the one great pro-
pelling power in the universe. The Buddha gives no evi-
dence that he ever thought of these final questions. He was
averse to any such consideration. He makes the statement
many times that he is concerned with one thing only, and
that is sorrow and the curing of sorrow — all else is irrele-
vant. But the cure in its final outcome seems to us so inade-
quate. When an Arhat has in this life attained Nirvana,
what becomes of him when his body dies? What becomes
of a candle flame when it is blown out? We are on delicate
ground, but the Buddhist is likely to answer the inquirer
BUDDHISM I9S
at this point by saying that nothing essential is lost. We
of the West are not satisfied and insist, "Is not conscious-
ness lost, and personality lost, and without these what re-
mains ?" And still the Buddhist replies, "Nothing is lost" —
so wide is the chasm between the mind of the East and
the West I
Surely, all this could not be expected to find lodgment
in the minds of the common people, and it never did. At-
tainment was possible only to those who separated them-
selves from ordinary life and became monks, living a life
apart in communities to attain the end they sought. The
order was not a priesthood, standing between God and men.
The gods were of no use, and man must secure his attain-
ment by his own powers, so a priesthood would have been
an anomaly. The order was merely a means and an aid to
spiritual attainment. During the whole history of Buddhism
the order of monks is the key to its expansion and its power
in every land to which it has gone. The monasteries,
large and small, in every Buddhist country attest the hold
of the idea of salvation through self-discipline on the minds
of men and women. Formal and even degenerate though
they may have become in many cases, the monastic institu-
tions still continue to live and influence the lives of the
people.
The Buddha, the Doctrine, and the Order are the three
anchors of early Buddhism. When the candidate for the
order comes before the abbot of a monastery he repeats
this formula:
"I go for refuge to the Buddha.
I go for refuge to the Law (Dharma).
I go for refuge to the Order (Sangha).*^
This is about as near a prayer as early Buddhism achieved.
In it lies the germ of an amazing development when real
prayer was offered to real gods who were looked upon as
'Quoted from Rhys Davids, Buddhism (Manual), p. i6a
196 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
able to deliver them, but this does QOt belong to the early
day. The monasteries were not to be the permanent home
of the monks in the original intention. They were to be
penniless wanderers (Bhikshos), depending on the gifts of
the laity for their daily needs. Onty daring the rainy season
were they to be located in a definite place. Bat the tempta-
tion was great to possess a permanent seat, and there arose
great institations with magnificent establishments wherever
the religion was carried. A monk might possess nothing of
this world's goods, but the monastery could. As a result
they became powerful and had inynense influence, like the
monasteries in Europe in the Middle Ages. The equipment
of the monks was exceedingly simple. An almsbowl, in
which to secure food on the daily round; the three vest-
ments, so that the entire body might be covered; a staff, a
needle, a razor, a tooth-pick, a water-strainer, so as not to
destroy animal life in drinking — ^and he was fully furnished.
There was little variation in the daily routine. Early morn-
ing recitation of the sacred books and meditation, the round
for alms in the mid-morning, the simple noonday meal, rest
and meditation again, the day closing with service and reci-
tations in the hall of the monastery. There were no serv-
ices for the public and no real worship. During the rainy
season the monks would preach to the people. The regula-
tions have been changed greatly in different countries and
at different periods, but these simple rules were those with
which the institution started and to some extent prevail
to-day.
The monk was bound to obey The Eight Precepts :
"One should not destroy life.
''One should not take that which is not given.
"One should not tell lies.
"One should not become a drinker of intoxicating liquors.
"One should refrain from unlawful sexual intercourse —
an ignoble thing.
"One should not eat unseasonable food at nights.
BUDDHISM 197
"One should not wear garlands nor use perfumes.
"'One should sleep on a mat spread on the ground."*
The first five are manifestly on a different plane from the
last three. The Buddhists recognized this, and when incul-
cating moral principles among the conunon people required
of them a strict observance of the first five only. So while
the Buddhist did not believe in a soul, the moral system
clearly indicates that he set high store on the discipline of
life, through which he hoped for purity and honor. All this
is to the credit of the system and demands recognition as a
marked advance upon tfie practice and teaching of the sur-
rounding population of India. It has gone with Buddhism
into the Eastern world as a steadying influence, and doubt-
less explains in part its favorable reception into many lands
which might otherwise have turned away from its teaching.
HiNAYANA AND MaHAYANA
To recount the story of the development of Buddhism
and its expansion into the countries of eastern and southern
Asia would take long. The Buddha lived in the sixth and
fifth centuries before Christ; one estimate gives the dates as
B. C. 560-480. The first date in Indian history of which
we may be sure is when Alexander the Great invaded India
in B. C. 326. We do not know much about the condition of
Buddhism until the reign of Asoka, who ascended the throne
in B. C. 273 and ruled as the first real emperor of India for
about forty years. The significant fact is that Asoka became
a Buddhist and ruled his wide dominions according to the
precepts of the faith. He instituted the office of chief min-
ister of justice and religion, whose main task was to preserve
the purity of the faith. The most notable contribution he
made to the cause of Buddhism, however, was the sending
of embassies or missions to various countries to carry the
teaching. In this way many countries were reached, notably
* Quoted from Rhys Davids, Buddhism (Ifanoal), p. 139.
198 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Ceylon, whose history began with the coming of Buddhism.
Again there is a long period about which little is known. At
about the time of Christ a king arose in the far northwest of
India named Kanishka, who was not an Indian at all, but
belonged to one of the peoples of the great central Asian
plateau. He began to rule in A. D. 78, embraced Buddhism,
and took much interest in the faith and its development
Again there is little information for centuries until in the
fifth and again in the seventh century Chinese pilgrims,
men who had become Buddhists, made journeys to India to
visit the historic places where the Buddha had lived and
died and to carry back relics and books to their home in
China. We learn from the volumes these men wrote that
Buddhism, which had been very strong, was on the decline.
There may have been some persecution, but the real cause
of the deterioration was that Buddhism was not distinctive
and rigid enough to escape being drawn back into the Hin-
duism from which it had emerged. By the time of the Mo-
hanmiedan incursions into India, which began in the year
A. D. 1000, Buddhism had about disappeared, and now in
the land of its birth and early power the faith of Gautama
the Buddha, her most illustrious son, is only a memory.
Such, in brief, is the sad story of the disappearance of a
faith from the land for which it promised to do so much.
These outward changes and vicissitudes, however, are of
lesser interest compared with the inner development and
transformation which befell the faith itself. The evolution
cannot be traced with any accuracy; about all we know is
that at a certain time the faith was one thing, and then again
several centuries after it had become something very dif-
ferent. Councils were called to decide on questions on which
the monasteries differed, but much obscurity hangs over
these assemblies. A notable council was held under the
patronage of Kanishka about A. D. 100, after which a deep
cleavage is apparent between two schools of thought, the
Hinayana and the Mahayana. The name of Nagarjuna is
BUDDHISM 199
also heard ; he is reputed to have been one of the leaders who
made the crisis more significant and became the great pro-
moter of the Mahayana teaching.
The terms need defining. Hinayana means the "little ve-
hicle/' only fitted to carry a small number on the way to
salvation, and Mahayana means "large vehicle/' as a means
of salvation sufficient to accommodate all who would come.
Manifestly, the name "Hinayana" was given by their oppo-
nents who desired to call attention to their own superior
doctrine. But long before these two schools separated the
teaching, which later was to be called Hinayana, had devel-
oped. It was based on the teaching of the Buddha, but had
diverged widely from it at one or two points. Gautama had
turned his back on the gods of India and constructed a sys-
tem without worship, sacrifice, prayer, or any sense of de-
pendence on a higher power. He had essayed to do the
impossible — ^the need of help in the struggle of life and the
tendency to turn to some being who is powerful enough to
render assistance is too strongly intrenched in human nature
to be thus eradicated. Even in his own lifetime the Buddha
was raised to a most exalted position by his disciples. They
came to look upon him as almost omniscient and all-wise,
ready to meet any emergency. He carried himself with the
dignity which forbade undue intimacy. He was a man apart
from other men. Despite his democracy, which is un-
doubted, his elevation and disinterestedness in the ordinary
things of life cast an atmosphere of aloofness about him,
which was only increased by the sanctity which seemed nat-
urally to belong to one who was so kind and pure and good.
He was almost their god while he journeyed with them,
intent on teaching them that there was no need of gods.
Little wonder is it that in the centuries after he had passed
away the Buddha himself should have been raised to the
position in the spiritual world where men could look for his
assistance and raise hands to him in prayer. This is the
essence of the Hinayana. It became a kind of theistic faith.
200 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
pladng the Buddha above all the gods of the land. Gau-
tama was considered a sinless being; the doctrine arose that
he had been bom of a virgin, that he was perfect in wisdom
and power, and that he had been able to perform wonders
during his life. The theory arose that Gautama was the
last of a long series of Buddhas who had preceded him, and
that there was one yet to come, Maitriya Buddha, the gra-
cious god who would restore all things. This is the form of
Buddhism which with many differences prevails in Ceylon,
Burma, and Siam, and is frequently spoken of as Southern
Buddhism.
Professor Rhys Davids claims' that the teaching of Gau-
tama in its purity was not put in practice outside a narrow
circle in his own time and immediately following. Men are
in trouble and need help, and no teaching which attempts to
dam up the impulse to prayer and worship can succeed in
doing so very long ; the Nemesis will come and human nature
will assert its inalienable right to seek after God and claim
his protection and help. The Mahayana, however, went so
much farther than the Hinayana that it felt it could point
the finger of scorn at its less daring sister. When Bud-
dhism came into contact with the rough warriors and nomads
from the central Asian Steppes, who came into India about
the time of Christ, the ''no-soul" theory almost disappeared.
It was repugnant to the hardy men who were poles apart
from the meditative and more languid dwellers on the hot,
depressing plains of India. Among the thoughtful in all
the Eastern lands such a theory might hold its own, and, in
fact, we do meet with it to-day, but the people have little
place for it, and rejoice in the thought that they may not
only go to some god, but that they are beings who live and
have real power.
Much thought and work must have been put on the system
of the Mahayana before it was complete. When the cur-
* Article, ''Hinayana," in Ehtstmgs' Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics.
BUDDHISM 20I
tain is drawn we are amazed by its complexity and extent.
A new universe has been created filled with spiritual beings
and opening out possibilities to men they had not dreamed
of even in the Hinayana. The salvation was all-embracive,
fitted to the needs of men whether they might enter the por-
tals of a monastery or not. Many schools of teaching arose,
of which we may give only a typical though widespread and
influential example. At the forefront of this doctrine was
the conception of an Eternal Being, or Deity, the very
Lord of the Universe. This being is both a philosophical
conception, called Dharmakaya, the first of the "three bod-
ies'' of the eternal Buddha, and a more or less personal
god of love, known as Adi-Buddha. Men do not come into
immediate contact with this ultimate Being, but they are not
left helpless. This Adi-Buddha has by tihe power of con-
templation projected into existence five "Buddhas of Con-
templation" (Dhyani Buddhas), and these in turn have sent
out five other beings, who are the actual creators of the phys-
ical universe, and these again have their representatives in
the world of men. We are now living in the fourth of the
worlds which have been created, and our human Buddha,
the representative of the more exalted spiritual Buddhas,
is the historic Gautama. So in the Mahayana not only have
gods been created to meet the needs of men, but Gautama
has been relegated to a subordinate position. They pre-
ferred to scale the ladder of speculation and make gods to
their liking rather than remain true to the historic Gautama
and raise him to the supreme place in their pantheon.
A new career was opened up before men. In the teach-
ing of Gautama and the Hinayana to become an Arhat and
thus to enter Nirvana was the ideal. Another idea had been
known, however, and this proved useful to the fertile minds
of the Mahayana system makers. Gautama had long been
looked upon as one of a series of Buddhas, the last of which,
the ''coming one," was Maitriya Buddha. Here was the
conception of one yet to come, a Bodhisattva, a "Future
20B THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Buddha/' In the Mahayana this idea was developed and
made only second in importance to the doctrine of the Eter-
nal Ddty and his manifestations. Bodhisattva means ''one
whose essence is enlightenment/' but it is used to designate
those spiritual beings who are ready to enter the final state
of Buddhahoody which would mean separation from all the
concerns of men here below, but who refrain from doing so
for the time being in order that they may be of service to
all who may appeal to them. There are many of these ex-
alted beings, some of them widely revered, who are gods in
all lands where the Mahayana has been carried. To wor-
ship these Bodhisattvas now becomes the central point in
the religious life of the laymen. They have a full-fledged
religion with ''gods many and lords many." And now to
come back to the new career which was placed before men
— ^to prepare to become a Bodhisattva in the spiritual world
after we have passed out of this life is to be the goal of
all good men. Some progress can be made in this direction
even by laymen in this life, when as Future-Bodhisattvas
they may begin to take the steps and undergo the discipline
necessary to the purifying of life that the great goal may
ultimately be reached. The superiority of this aim over that
of the Arhat is readily seen. The Arhat treads the path to
win for himself release and peace; the Future-Bodhisattva
strives to fit himself to become a helper of men, a saviour
to all those in bondage and distress. Altruism has now be-
come the summum bonum, with a sweep that is universal.
Not one human being lies outside the purpose of those who
look forward to a life of unselfish service.
Instead of the lifeless Nirvana as the goal of all existence
the Mahayana has substituted a paradise where the souls of
men and women may live in conscious blessedness and peace.
The idea of the soul has come back and affects the doctrine
at several important points. As might be expected, a hell
is brought in for the wicked as a heaven is for the good.
It cannot be said that the life in heaven or hell is everlast-
BUDDHISM 203
ing. The haunting conception of Nirvana will not be com-
pletely put down^ and beyond the heavens and the hells —
for there are numbers of each — ^lies in the distant haze the
land of passionless peace, where men are lost in unconscious
absorption in the everlasting nothingness which India can-
not shake off.
It is manifestly impossible within the compass of a single
chapter to do justice to so complicated and multiform a
system as the Mahayana. The attempt has been made to
point out two of the lines of development, Mahayana as a
religion or devotion, in which spiritual beings are worshiped,
and Mahayana as a regimen or way of life, in which the
Future-Bodhisattva, or saint, enters upon the path which in
the end will lead to a career of unbounded usefuhiess in the
spiritual world. There is still another, a philosophical devel-
opment, which was hinted at when mention was made of the
Dharmakaya, or the first of the three bodies of the eternal
Buddha. This Dharmakaya, or "body of the law," is reality,
the actual substance or nature of every being, gods or men,
in the whole universe. The other bodies, Sambhogakaya, or
"body of bliss," and Nirmanakaya, or "magical body," are
manifestations of the ultimate reality in the world of spirit-
ual beings and men. The philosophical problem, then, hinges
on the conception of Dharmakaya, or what is reality? One
school, that of the Madhyamikas, makes Dharmakaya, or
reality, void or vacuity. They are the philosophical nihilists
of Buddhism. "Everything is void," is their conclusion. A
second school, that of the Vijnanavadins, the idealists of
Buddhism, claims that the only real existences are thoughts,
that thoughts do not stand for or reproduce any objective
reality. Thoughts can think themselves without a diinker
or reference to anything outside themselves. It is an eternal
illusion that object and subject exist; only thought has any
existence whatever. This philosophical development has
exerted a deep and lasting influence in all the countries of
Eastern Asia where Buddhism was carried.
204 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Buddhism Among thb Peoplbs
The Buddhism of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam is Hina-
yana. The religion was also carried in this form to Annam,
Cochin-China, and Cambodia, now parts of the French em-
pire in the Far East, It also made its vray to the island
world of the Dutch East Indies and took root in Java, Bali,
and Sumatra. This was long ago, for when Islam pene-
trated the eastern archipelago in the sixteenth century the
religion of the Buddha disappeared. Driven out of Java,
those who remained true to their faith fled to the little
island of Bali, but even there most have become Saivites and
little Buddhism is to be found. It is a question whether
the Mahayana or the Hinayana was the more prominent in
the islands, for both give evidence of having been preached
successfully. It is exceedingly interesting to find the ruins
of magnificent Mahayana buildings so many hundreds of
miles away from the lands where this form of the faith has
had its characteristic growth and development Differing
from the experience in India proper. Buddhism, after a
desperate conflict with Hinduism in the lands of Farther
India, came out victorious and remains in possession of the
field to this day.
But is it really the religion of the people? Outwardly it
would seem so. All these lands are filled with the para-
phernalia of the Buddhist religion : temples and monasteries,
pagodas and images are to be found everywhere. Each
country has its own characteristic forms, but each gives
ample evidence on every hand of its Buddhist allegiance.
The monks are there, and services and festivals are held,
to which the people come in gala dress, enjoying the occa-
sions to the full. With all this, however, the hold of Bud-
dhism on the inner lives of the people is precarious. A
man's inner convictions are revealed in the time of crisis,
when sorrow and suffering and loss stare him in the face.
What is his religion then? Which way does he turn for
r^
BUDDHISM 20S
help and comfort ? The testimony from each of these south-
ern lands is that it is not to the monks and the Buddha, but
to the old spirits and sprites of the animism which was theirs
before the coming of Buddhism. The new religion did not
succeed in driving out the old fears, and they have persisted
through the centuries despite the superior teaching which
should have supplanted them. And have we not the right to
expect this of one of the higher religions?
It is also unfortunate that the monks have to so large
an extent lost the confidence of the people. Of course there
are many exceptions. Worthy and good men, pure of life
and motive, are to be found, but the general reputation the
monks have is that they lead idle, useless lives and have not
succeeded in overcoming the temptations of the flesh, which
was a matter of such deep concern on the part of Gautama.
In Burma the religion has penetrated more deeply into the
life of the people than in any other of the Hinayana coun-
tries. This is doubtless due to the fact that education
has been in the hands of the monks, who thus are able to
instill Buddhist ideas into the minds of the people while
they are young and impressionable. It is also customary in
Burma for a young man to give a certain time to monastic
life. These features of the religious life of Burma have
succeeded in keeping the people in close touch with their
religious teachers. In Siam the king is the chief patron of
Buddhism. The heads of the order must be nominated by
the king, who honors the monks and supports them lav-
ishly. The present king, an enlightened and progressive
man, educated in England, has taken his religious task seri-
ously and is doing all he can to make the religion a power in
the kingdom. In Ceylon and Burma there is a reform move-
ment, made up of cultured people who desire to go back
to the simplicity of the practice and teaching of the Buddha
and to interpret the faith more in accord with Western
culture and the teachings of the schools. They have preach-
ing halls with sermons and the recitation of a creed.
2o6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Whether there is enough that is distinctive in the faith to
hold the minds and hearts of men and women as they
emerge into the strong current of modem life with all its
problems is a grave question, which can only be settled by
the test of time and experience.
In the north Buddhism has penetrated China, Korea, and
Japan. The faith here is of the Mahayana type, and is fre-
quently called Northern Buddhism. But besides these coun-
tries, the religion has taken deep root in the great elevated
plateau, the hinterland of Asia. Beginning its career in
Tibet, it has pushed farther and farther to the north and
northeast until one arm has swung around and come in con-
tact with Chinese Buddhism in the capital city of Peking.
It also is to be found in the little Himalayan states between
India and Tibet. So distinct is this form of Buddhism that
it deserves special treatment. It has been given the name
of Lamaism, from the monks, who are called "lamas,"
although that term belongs rightly to the abbots, meaning
as it does "superior" or "better." Tibetan history begins
with the coming of Buddhism into the country in the seventh
century A. D. It came in through two wives of an able
chieftain, one from Nepal and the other from China, both of
which countries had received Buddhism centuries before.
The peculiarity which at once attracts attention is the doc-
trine of incarnation, known nowhere else in Buddhism. It
did not become a fully accepted doctrine until the seven-
teenth century. Since then it has been held that the Bo-
dhisattva Avalokitesvara (also Padmapani) was incarnate
in the Dalai Lama, the ruler of the country. Other Grand
Lamas have their seats in different sections, all claiming to
be incarnations of Bodhisattvas, but none can approach the
Dalai Lama in earthly majesty because of his possession of
the scepter of the land. When the Dalai, or "Great,"
Lama dies the rule is placed in the hand of some young boy
who gives evidence (by strange and varied signs) that
Avalokita has taken up his abode in him. He is then ac-
BUDDHISM 207
claimed as the new incarnation^ and he holds sway, reli-
giously and politically, until his death.
The gods and spiritual beings of Lamaism form a pop-
ulous and strange pantheon. All the Buddhas and Bodhi-
sattvas of the Mahayana are there. The name of Amitabha
begins to appear, the being who is destined to take first
place in all eastern Asia. Besides all these there are ''heal-
ing" Buddhas and every kind of tutelary deity, kings of the
four cardinal points of the compass, Yama the judge of the
dead, and finally spirits and demons, and saints who have
passed over into the great beyond. Idolatry as well as
polytheism has run mad, and images of all these beings are
displayed and worshiped everywhere. The center of the
religion is, of course, the monastic life. There are said to
be over three thousand monasteries, or Lamasaries, in Tibet,
the largest in the capital, Lhassa, containing as many as ten
thousand monks. Waddell* emphasizes the terrible effect
of Buddhist monasticism on Tibet. The country has stead-
ily aeclined in power and numbers, the population now not
being a tenth part of its former size. He declares there is
"one monk for every three of the entire lay community,
including the women and children. . . . The population is,
presumably as a consequence of overmonasticism, steadily
drifting toward extinction."
Buddhism has raised the people out of certain depths of
savagery, but the notorious impurity of the monks and the
hardness and cruelty of nature and man in this forbidding
land have done little to inculcate high ideals of life. The
idea of recompense in heavens and hells and the fear of
evil spirits has taken strong hold until the religion is one
of fear and terror. All the poor layman wants of religion
is to secure charms against these spirits. It has become
pure magic. He repeats sacred formulas; he writes them
on paper and swallows them; he inscribes them on cloth and
'Article, "Lamaism,'' in Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics.
2o8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
allows them to flutter in the wind; he devises so-called
"prayer cylinders" and mechanically grinds out the charmed
petitions as he walks or works; he even harnesses them to
water-wheels and thus nature assists him in his "devotions."
Such is Buddhism at its worst, in a land exhausted physi-
cally and spiritually by priest-craft, for which there seems
little hope without the coming of a salvation which shall
save them from themselves and the strange devisings of
their hearts.
Buddhism probably reached China in the first century
A. D., but it did not spread rapidly until the fourth century,
when the Giinese were allowed to become monks. One of
the most remarkable events was the coming of Bodhidharma,
the Patriarch of Indian Buddhism, who took up his abode
in China in the year 526. Buddhism was not well suited to
China and has never ceased to be a kind of exotic. The
idle life of the monks who performed no productive labor
was utterly irrational to the practical Chinese, and the idea
of celibacy was repugnant to a people who believed as much
as they believed anything that not to be married and have
sons was a sin of the deepest dye. The religion has suffered
a number of bitter persecutions. In the eighth century
twelve thousand monks and nuns were compelled to come
back into ordinary life and behave themselves like other
folks. In the ninth century four thousand six hundred
monasteries were destroyed and more than two hundred and
sixty thousand members of the order were compelled
to become secular. But Buddhism could not be driven out
and remains a force in the land to this day.
The reason for this lies undoubtedly in the fact that it
brought into the life of the people elements which would
otherwise be wanting. A spiritual world, gods who were
human and full of compassion, rewards in another life, the
mediation of the monks who stand between the gods and
men — ^all these features of the Mahayana made an irresistible
appeal to the Chinese and explain the presence of Buddhism
BUDDHISM 209
in China. The pantheon is not so spacious as that of Tibet,
but the Chinese Buddhists worship Buddhas, Bodhisattvas,
saints, and patriarchs, and tutelary deities. Gautama holds
a high place, though Amitabha is first in the popular thought,
as he rules the western paradise, to which they desire to be
admitted through his mercy. Kwanyin, whom we met in
Tibet as Avalokitesvara, has now been transformed into a
female divinity and is worshiped as the goddess of mefcy.
The pagodas are everywhere and have become a part of
the nature superstition of the people. The people come to
the monks for all kinds of assistance, even the rich and edu-
cated on occasion. Yet with all that, the people are not to
be cotmted as Buddhists, only the monks and nuns should
be reckoned as such in any proper sense. The Chinese come
to Buddhism because of needs otherwise unmet, but they do
not exactly belong to the religion by inward allegiance and
appropriation.
Buddhism expanded eastward from China by way of
Korea. In Korea the religion took deep hold and for cen-
turies was the dominant religious influence in the country.
In A. D. 1392 a new dynasty came to the throne which
proved to be unfriendly to the Buddhists. The monks were
excluded from the capital city and were not encouraged in
any place. As a result the immense establishments have
dwindled until the aspect of Buddhism is that of decrept*
tude. Dr. H. Hackmann speaks of the picture o| Korean
Buddhism as ''on the whole a very dull and faded one."*
Temples and monasteries are still found, exemplifying some
unique artistic traits peculiar to the country, but for the
most part their best days seem to be in the past. An effort
is now being made by Japanese Buddhists to put new life
into the old forms, and only time will show what hope there
may be in this movement. The Korean people as a whole
have reverted to the old animism of pre-Buddhist days and
* Bttddhism as a Religion, p. 257. (Probsthain, London, xpia)
210 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
setm far more intent on exorcising demons than on paying
reverence to some Buddha or Bodhisattva.
We do not know just when the new faith reached Japan.
In A. D. 552 an embassy from the king of Korea gave a
formal introduction to the doctrine, which was to some ex-
tent already known. By the time the great imperial minister
Shotoku Taishi died in A. D. 621 Buddhism may be said to
have been acclimated. Shotoku embraced the faith and gave
himself to wholehearted advocacy of the new movement.
Far more than in China and Korea the faith of the Buddha
has entered into the life of the nation and the people. It
cannot be understood out of its relations with the whole
course of the nation's history. For a thousand years it was
the religion of the common people and the upper classes as
well. But early in the seventeenth century a reaction set in
and Buddhism has more or less ceased to be the power it
had been in the lives of the educated and the gentry. It
remained what it is to-day, the religion of the people.
Divided into a number of powerful sects, in some cases
very different from each other, the religion keeps up its
fojms and even its life, and is seeking to assimilate the
various factors of the new age which has dawned. Again
it is too early to estimate the strength inherent in these new
developments. Very unfortunately, the leadership, with
notable exceptions, is not measuring up to the demands of
the hour and leaves much to be desired in personal character
and influence. The average monk is an ignorant man, not
highly thought of, because of indolence, the reputation for
immorality, and charges of graft which have in recent years
been proved against certain influential leaders. Yet in all
probability Buddhism is more progressive and in a more
flourishing condition in Japan than in any other Buddhist
country.
It is a far call from Ceylon to Japan ; it is even farther
from Gautama to present-day Buddhism. The remarkable
part Qf it all is that we should still continue to call by the
BUDDHISM 211
name of the Buddha a religion which is so varied and con-
tains such contradictory elements in its various sects and in
the different countries of its adoption. What the Buddha
taught is denied, and what he repudiated is practiced by those
who would never admit the charge of unorthodoxy. They
speak of these changes as developments which lay in germ
in the mind of the great master. One might be inclined to
doubt the validity of this claim and yet justify the title
"Buddhism" to all the forms the religion has assumed. All
recognize that Gautama was the human founder of the faith
of which historically they are a part. All believe that his
ideas were living and germinal, and that it is possible to
live in general agreement with the inner meaning of his
purpose even though the actual doctrines may seem to con-
tradict much that he taught. They find sorrow in the world
as he did and are seeking to cure it ; they are quite willing
to follow his ethical demands as far better than anything
they had known; they look to him as the pure example of
loving service and find it difficult to measure up to his un-
selfish life. In all these regards they are the followers of
Gautama and consider it an honor to be known by his name,
so lasting is the influence of a life nobly lived.
Most unfortunately, practice has fallen far behind pre-
cept. That, of course, is true in all religions, but here bar-
riers exist which cannot be removed. The doctrine has
always been above the heads of the people, whether in the
teaching of Gautama or in its later developments. What
has been given to them is far removed from the sublime
teaching of the schools, into the depths of which few could
enter. Monasticism has been a bar to all progress, and Bud-
dhism has always brought the monk and the monastery. It
has produced a deep cleavage in human life between the
religious man and the laity, and it has never succeeded, ex-
cept in a few cases, in producing the type of character at
which it aimed. Monasticism has hung like a pall over
people who needed to see the light, and who, if they did not
212 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
see it in the lives of their religious leaders, would never see
it at all.
SucGESTiONS nm Fuxthei Study
T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhism (London, first edit 1S77, many sub-
sequent editions). The best-known manual on the early teaching.
Kenneth J. Saunders, Th4 Story of Buddhism (London, 1916).
Kenneth J. Saunders, Gotama Buddha (New York, 1920).
H. Hackmann, Buddhism as a Religion (London, 1910). The best
volume on the developments in the faith in the various lands of
its adoption.
Henry Clarke Warren, Buddhism in Translaiions (Cambridge^ 1909).
Translations of significant passages from the early literature.
George Foot Moore^ History of ReUffions, VoL I, Chaps. V,
VII, XIL
CHAPTER VIII
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE
The Eaxly Religion
What the original religion of the Chinese was has been
the subject of much controversy. Before the existence of
any records which have come down to us several types of
religious belief had been formulated, and the question is,
Which of them came out of the earliest religious attitude?
A study of the Chinese character for the Supreme Being
would indicate that the idea back of it was monotheistic, and
undoubtedly there has been the conception from an early
day of a Being raised high above all others in the spiritual
world. At the same time evidences of animistic concep-
tions are so numerous at every period that it is impossible to
believe the Chinese were ever without them. Probably the
most reasonable conclusion is that reached by Dr. W. £.
Soothill,* who is inclined to believe that animism first pre-
vailed, but that long before we have any records the recog-
nition of one Supreme Being over a real universe arose, so
that we have two conceptions, a lower and a higher, through
the long course of the history of Chinese religion.
We are on safe ground when we speak of the religion of
the Chinese. It is commonly stated that there are three
religions in the country, not to mention Mohammedanism,
which has always been looked upon as strange and foreign.
These are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. But un-
derneath them all and expressing itself through them all is a
religious attitude and life which existed for centuries before
the formal religions arose and which has not been changed
* The Three Religions of China, chap V. (Hodder ft Stongfaton,
London, 1913.)
213
214 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
essentially by them. The thoroughgoing conservatism of the
Chinese people is seen in as complete a manner here as it
would be possible to imagine. The gaze of the Chinese has
been directed backward for millenniums, and all their ideals
are in the past. We live in the period when for the first
time in their recorded history these lovers of antiquity have
come to realize that their only hope lies in a change of front
They are asking for all the West may have to oflFer. What
the ultimate effect will be no one can even g^ess. It may be
safe to say that Chinese nature will not be fundamentally
changed — it is too tough of fiber for that — but what the
outcome of this eager willingness to learn of the younger
nations will be is one of the most interesting questions
before us to-day.
The most characteristic form which religion has taken in
China is crudely animistic. All nature and all its parts are
possessed of spirits, good and bad, strong and weak. They
are to be found everywhere, on the mountains, among the
trees, in the ground, and under the water. Everything that
happens is accounted for by the action of spirits. Sickness is
caused by demons within the body which must be exorcised.
A child drowns not by any natural cause, but because a fiend-
ish spirit caught the child from under the ¥rater and drew
him dovm. These spirits flit about through the air, invisible
but exceedingly real. Streets must be made crooked because
these imps move in straight lines and can be stopped in their
wild career by a wall. Houses must be so constructed that a
solid wall shall be opposite every gate and door and window.
The whole life of the people is governed by their fear of
these dangerous beings, and much of their religion consists in
attempts to drive them away. Exorcism, then, plays a large
part in this low and yet all-prevalent superstition, and many
are its forms. The spirits are divided between those that
are good and benevolent (shen) and the evil-minded
(kwei). To secure the assistance of a powerful shen is the
best means of chasing off the harmful kwei. The sun is a
1
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 215
shen of the highest order^ and to secure his cooperation is to
have the benefit of the most powerful influence in the con-
test. Everything connected with the sun is efficacious. By
a subtle magic the peach blossom, because it appears as the
harbinger of the spring, when the sun again assumes control
of nature, is an omen of good. The actual blossoms are
replaced by red paper, which has the same value. Out of the
peach tree, on the same principle, a number of native rem-
edies are concocted. So, again, the blood of the cock may
ward off danger, and cocks are used as charms and in the
making of medicines, because the cock crows as the herald
of the rising of the sun ! The tiger because of some hazy
connection with the sun may bring good fortune. And nat-
urally light and heat are agencies of beneficence. Bonfires,
fire-crackers, torches, lanterns, candles, all kinds of noises,
scorching and cauterizing the skin — whatever suggests or is
derived from fire may be used to bring good luck or prevent
misfortune. This is only a slight suggestion of the many
forms the superstition takes. Whatever else he may be reli-
giously the Chinese is a believer in spirits and in the necessity
of exorcism. He may be ashamed of his belief, but he has
recourse nevertheless to the exorcists when he gets into a
tight place. He wants at least to be on the safe side in a
world so strange and fearsome. It has colored all his
thoughts and has kept him down to a level far below what
one has the right to expect of so cultivated a people.
There is another side to this animistic attitude which is
even more characteristic. It is ancestor-worship. Men par-
ticipate with nature in being possessed of spirits which
make them what they are. Even a living man, like the gov-
ernor of a province who has done well by his people, may be
deified and be accorded religious rites with no sense of in-
congruity. But especially men are worshiped after their
death. It takes the form of the worship of ancestors and
is so universally practiced and so implicitly believed in that
it has been looked upon as the very center and nerve of
2i6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Qiinese religion. Death in no sense breaks the bond be-
tween the members of a family. The family consists of its
dead as well as its livmg members, and, strangely enotigh
to us, the dead members are more important than the living.
All the arrangements of the household must be made with
the well-being and the comfort of the dead primarily in
mind. It is carried to the extent that it becomes an intoler-
able burden. A most extensive ritual is connected with the
worship. The funeral must be as elaborate and expensive
as the family can stand; frequently they go beyond the
bounds of reason and plunge into debt. The sacrifices are
carefully prescribed, and the utmost care is taken to see that
the mourning and all the other rites are carried out to the
letter. The choice of a site and the time for a burial are of
tragic importance, and frequently large sums are squandered
on Fung-Shui, or "wind and water," doctors, to determine
the lucky spot for the grave and the propitious time for the
interment. It may be long delayed, and China presents the
spectacle of thousands of unburied coffins kept above ground
for weeks and months by this kind of hocus-pocus. It is a
bondage from which the Chinese should be freed, but no-
where is the influence of immemorial custom more evident
the world over than in the beliefs and practices connected
with death and burial.
The ideas that lie back of the practices are the important
thing. Filial piety is the first of the Chinese virtues. It is
extended beyond the grave because the dead parent con-
tinues to be as much a part of the family as before. To all
the inducements which existed while the parent was living
to show him reverence and honor is added that of the un-
canny and mysterious fact that the soul has passed out into
the unknown bnd of the shades and may possess powers and
influence even more potent and surely more incalculable
than he possessed in life. To the motive of respect must be
added that of fear. What might not happen to the family
if the sacrifices were neglected and the shade should be
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 217
deprived of the support which it has a right to expect?
Above all the other duties that of being married and having
sons in order to continue the sacrifices down through the
generations is the most urgent. Mencius, the great follower
and interpreter of Confucius, declared, "Three things are
unfilial, and having no sons is the worst/' This deeply in-
grained conviction has driven the Chinese to two prac-
tices, polygamy and adoption. The effect has been that
woman has been looked upon as of little value in herself;
only as she fulfills her function and becomes the mother of
sons is she considered worthy of honor. In a real sense a
man's possessions belong to his ancestors, so no living man
has the right to dispose of what in the final analysis is not
his. So a daughter marrying out of the family gets prac-
tically nothing — ^it belongs to the ancestors and must not be
taken from them. Shall we call this whole attitude one of
worship or something of lesser significance? Some have
said that it is of the same nature as the respect we show our
deceased loved ones and friends and should not be taken
too seriously, but when the matter is seen in all its rela-
tionships there is little wonder that the large majority of
first-hand investigators have no hesitation in calling it wor-
ship in the most real sense. As Professor J. J. M. DeGroot
puts it, a Chinese "may renounce all other gods, but his an-
cestors he will renounce last and least of all."* It is not an
exalted type of worship and is carried on all too often to
obtain material advantage and welfare. As such it holds out
no hope that, so long as it remains worship, it can ever be-
come an uplifting factor in Chinese life.
The all-prevailing animism and ancestor worship which
have been described do not complete the round of early
Chinese religion. There is a state religion, based on the
same principles, but with a very different development. It
shows the mind of the Chinese in a far better light. Again
going back to the days before records were kept, the ani-
' Religion of the Chinese, p. 86. (Macmillan, New York, 1910.)
2i8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
mistic attitude of mind laid hold on the greater object^ of
nature, personified them more or less, and raised them to a
dignity not possessed by the other objects of worship. The
heavenly bodies, the earth and its subdivisions, and, above
all, the incomparable heavenly sphere became the great gods
of China. These objects were not supposed to be worshiped
by the people themselves. They were restricted to their own
ancestors. The august worship of the great gods became
the official duty of government ofiicials, of the governors
and the emperor. To the last alone was reserved the wor-
ship of High Heaven, the supreme religious act of Chinese
religion. It must be remembered, however, that in each
case the emperor performed the rites not for his own sake
but on behalf of all the people. He is looked upon as the
father of those over whom he is set to rule, and as a father
he worships for them.
The climax of the whole system is the worship of Heaven,
performed by the emperor at the capital city on the occasion
of the longest night of the year. With beautiful suggestive-
ness it is performed that night because it is when the forces
of cold and darkness in the world have done their worst,
the time when again the shortening days cease to become
shorter and the kindly influences of the sun begin again to
r^ain power and give the first promise of the coming glory
of spring and summer. Here under the open sky, with no
shelter from the elements, upon a circular terraced marble
platform, is performed one of the most remarkable religious
sacrifices known in the whole range of religious history.
There is a sublimity about the ritual which betokens a high
conception of its significance. Prayers are offered which
with little change might be used in Christian churches. The
worship is offered to Heaven, or Shang-ti. The term "Tien"
is also used. Some have thought that Shang-ti contains
more of personal implication than Tien, like the distinc-
tion we frequently make between "God" and "Providence,"
but others consider the two terms identical So lofty is the
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 219
conception that ''Shang-ti" has been generally agreed upon
as the word by which the Christian conception of ''God"
should be translated into Chinese. There is nothing un-
worthy in the conception in any way. It gives evidence of
the existence from the earliest times of a noble and uplifting
view of God and of what he requires of men. What of this
state religion now that China has ceased to be an empire
and has declared a republic? To make such a declaration
is relatively easy; it is a far different matter to change the
fundamental bent of a people's mind. So ingrained is the
paternal idea that the so-called "president" of the republic
has twice boldly dared to act as the "father" of his people
and conduct the worship of Shang-ti as aforetime. He may
even do so again in years to come, since he is still the
representative of the people, for in China even the emperor
has always held sway as the Son of Heaven by virtue of
popular sufferance.
CoNFuaus AND His Contribution
Confucius lived from B. C. 551 to 478. These dates may
be depended on as accurate, though scholars are far more
conservative now than formerly relative to Chinese dates
before Christ. According to Chinese chronology the country
was ruled by the model emperors, Yao, Shun, and YH, about
twenty-two hundred years before our era. It is not, how-
ever, until we come to the period of the Chao Dynasty,
B. C. 1122-256, that definite dates can be assigned with any
confidence. Confucius lived in this period, when China
was divided into many small states, frequently at war with
each other and owning not much more than nominal alle-
giance to the weak authority of the central government.
This unsatisfactory condition lasted until the Chao Dynasty
went to pieces, to be succeeded for a short but memorable
period by the Chin Dynasty (B. C. 256-205). The one great
ruler during these years was Shi Huang-ti, who has been
called the Napoleon of China. He abolished the feudal
220 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
form of goyenunent and effectively established a central*
ized empire in the form which lasted down to the destruc-
tion of the Manchu power and the setting up of the repub-
lic in 191 1. He is also to be remembered as the builder of
the Great Wall, which was intended to be a barrier to pro-
tect the empire from the encroachments of the wild no-
madic tribesmen, always watching for the opportunity to
sweep down on the rich plains to the south. He is also
remembered by the Chinese with execration because in vain
conceit he attempted to destroy utterly the classical literature
and by so doing inaugurate a new era which should begin
with himself and his period. It may be remarked in passing
that the name ''China" is said to be derived from the name
of this dynasty, the Chin.
In the midst of the unsettled days when China was lan-
guishing for want of a strong central authority, when war-
fare occupied the attention of the distracted people instead
of agriculture, when education was neglected and plague,
pestilence, and famine stalked through the land, Confucius
was bom. His birthplace was in the state of Lu, in the
western part of the modem province of Shantung. His
father was an old man of seventy when he married a young
woman, who soon became the mother of the sage. His lot
as a young boy was not easy, his father dying when his little
son was only three. We are able to say with certainty that
Confucius was married at nineteen and had one son. His
married life cannot be called a success. He ceased to live
with his wife after a short time and we hear little more of
her. His son appears at intervals in the story and seems
to have become one of his disciples. Early in his career
Confucius was appointed keeper of the state granaries, then
guardian of the common lands. For a considerable time he
was wholly devoted to teaching and labored at a new edition
of the ancient odes and historical records. When he was
about fifty he became a magistrate in his native state and
was promoted until he became what we should call the min-
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 221
ister of justice. His tenure did not last long, but it was
not on account of his failure or unfaithfulness. In fact,
he did his work only too well, with the result that the state
of Lu advanced to a position of commanding importance
among the states. The prince of a neighboring state was
full of envious resentment and determined to end the prog-
ress being made by Lu. He devised a plan as diabolical as
it was successful. He sent the prince of Lu a present of
some magnificent racing horses and a bevy of beautiful
dancing girls. It was too much for the prince of Lu. He
lost all interest in the welfare of his people and gave him-
self to pleasure and indulgence. Confucius protested, but to
deaf ears. He lost his position and was compelled to see
the work of his hand dissipated before his eyes.
The sage was so convinced that the experiment he had
made in his native sliate might prove of permanent value in
any state which would earnestly apply his principles that
he spent the next period of more than twelve years wan-
dering among the feudal states trying to induce one prince
after another to let him try his schemes and bring peace and
order out of the chronic confusion. He never succeeded,
but with all his discouragements never lost heart and be-
came pessimistic. He was convinced until the end that he
possessed the secret of statecraft and could make any king-
dom prosperous by the sincere cooperation of the ruler in the
application of his principles. But for one reason or another
he failed to convince a single prince and was compelled to
abandon his purpose and return to his native state and his
early home. There he lived the remainder of his life as a
private citizen, surrounded by an enlarging circle of admir-
ing disciples, and completing his literary labors. He
edited the classical literature which already had a his-
tory in his time, adding but one comparatively insig-
nificant portion, the Spring and Autumn Annals, from his
own pen. There in the year B. C. 478, at the ripe old age
of seventy-three, Confucius died and was buried. His tomb
322 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
is well marked at the present time, is visited by thousands
of pilgrims each year, and is destined, one may surely say,
to increase in interest, not only among the Chinese but among
men of every nation as they come to recognize the noble
example and the high ideals represented by the sage.
For a hundred years Gmfudus did not receive the rec-
ognition which his disciples felt was his due. Then arose
Mencius, the second greatest of China's sages, and by his
advocacy and enthusiastic admiration raised his master
to a pedestal from which he has never been dislodged. In-
creasingly Confucius has been looked upon as the embod-
iment of everything good in China, and the hold he has been
able to secure on the imagination and conscience of the
Chinese is as complete as could weU be conceived. The
temporary n^Iect which has followed the recent inrush
of ideas from the West cannot in the end divorce the Chi-
nese from their admiration for one who more than any other
has made China great, and who nrast play a large part in the
making of the China which is to be. He understood the
mind of China, and that mind will not be fundamentally
altered. With all the changes — ^and many are needed to
bring China into line with the needs of the modem world —
the thought of Confucius must play its part in so far as it
is the expression of the genius of the Chinese mind.
What was his contribution? Very little religiously. All
that has been described as the early religion of the people
was in fuU force in his day as it is in our own time. He
did not condemn it, he did not criticise it, he did not add to
it — ^he simply took it for granted. His temper of mind was
essentially practical; he seemed always to be averse to any
discussion of spiritual or purely philosophical matters. He
claimed to be agnostic concerning the next life and the
world of the gods. His mind was immersed in the affairs
of this life, with conduct, the development of character, the
relations of man with man, with the state and all the com-
plicated affairs of government. On these he considered he
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 223
had an opinion worth while, of which it would be well for
men, from the ruler to the humblest peasant, to take earnest
heed. He was a political reformer, and this meant for
Confucius the organization of society in accordance with
high ethical principles. Along with this went the most
careful attention to the culture of the individual self, the
development of the ideal or superior man. Confucius
claimed that the principles which guided him in all his
advice came down out of the past and were as old as the
eternal hills. He maintained that he was not an originator
but a transmitter, one who had discovered a mine of wis-
dom in the practice of the ancients, who stood out in his
mind as the paragons of all excellence. To conserve what
had been handed down was to him the sum of all virtue.
Of all preposterous things the thought that anything new
could be compared with advantage with the old and the
tried was the height of absurdity. This tenacious conserva-
tism, which was rooted and grounded in his deepest nature,
has had its lasting influence on Chinese thought and
practice.
The Confucian ideal of the superior man finds its best
exemplification in Confucius himself, though he in his mod-
esty makes no claim to personal attainment of the ideal he
has described. It is the picture of a dignified and grave
gentleman, somewhat stooped by study and earnest thought,
holding himself in perfect and dignified control, allowing
himself no levity and others no familiarity, ready to offer
advice to all and seeking by the power of example and ad-
monition to lead others in the straight and narrow way.
There is nothing of the free-and-easy so common in the
West. Every act and every relationship must be carefully
regulated according to well-thought-out principles. A rather
unattractive combination, would be the verdict of the typical
man in our unconventional life. And so it seems as we
think of the effect it had even in Confucius' own day. It
must have been somewhat difficult for Confucius' wife to
224 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
be compelled to get along with a companion in whom every
impulse to spontaneity was suppressed as a temptation of
the deviL The one or two conversations which are reported
between the sage and his son while still in his tender years
show not the slightest comprehension of boy nature. No
intimacy cotdd grow up between father and son on the basis
of such scrupulous formality. He who would r^^ulate
every action, even to the position to be taken in bed, could
scarcely win a boy's heart. Yet Confucius himself from the
time he was a little boy had preferred playing at etiquette
and ceremonies to the boisterous play of other boys. We
may smile as we think of a man punctiliously molding his
life in accordance with a rigid scheme which seems to us to
be devoid of living interest and practical benefit, but such
was ConfuduSy and we cannot withhold our admiration
when we realize that it was not a vain whim, but the result of
careful thought and calculated to bring out of life its very
best. He sincerely desired to be a good man whose ex-
ample might be followed with only beneficial results by all
with whom he came into contact.
In the estimation of Confucius human nature is naturally
good. The function of rules and regulations is to guide the
development of the individual in the right channels and
thus prevent the deterioration which might ensue if the
wrong course shotdd be followed. A man must depend on
his own unaided powers to achieve maturity of character,
but this was not so hard, because of his natural goodness.
He must seek to develop by the unfolding of his own inner
nature and thus be true to himself. Confucius was com-
pelled to recognize that the task was easier for some than
for others. Some seem to possess the necessary knowledge
and ability almost intuitively, others learn easily, but must
nevertheless apply themselves to learn, still others are able
to acquire knowledge with difficulty, while there are those
who will not learn, either through indifference or willful
ignorance. But whatever condition may confront a man, the
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 225
admonition of the sage is to make the very most of himself.
Religion, it is quite evident, did not enter into his scheme
of htiman life. Very little prayer would suffice and sacri-
fice had only a subjective influence. He confessed that he
could not enter into the meaning of the yearly sacrifice to
Shang-ti. He did not object to ancestor-worship, because it
encouraged and enforced the obligation of filial piety, and
filial conduct was the comer stone of his system of rela-
tionships.
But with all his interest in the development of individual
character Confucius was primarily interested in society and
the state. He believed that man could not live alone, but
that he had relationships which were necessary and inev-
itable. These relationships came to assume such impor-
tance that it would almost seem that society and the state
were more important than the individuals of which they
were compassed. He worked out a scheme intended to
cover all the relations of human life. They are called the
Five Relations, those of Father and Son, Ruler and Sub-
ject, Husband and Wife, Elder and Younger Brother, and
Friend and Friend. The significant thing about these
couplets is that in each case, save the last, the first named
is looked upon as the superior and the last the inferior, sub-
servient to the other. Human life is thus stereotyped in a
rigid balance between those who command and those who
obey. By inherent right the father, the ruler, the husband,
and the elder brother possess rights and privileges not to be
questioned by the other party. It may have rendered society
static and immovable, which was Confucius' idea, but it
has been responsible for gross injustice and abuse. When
one possesses all the rights and privileges and the other none
that are recognized, society is lopsided and the full develop-
ment of all its members becomes impossible.
The state was Confucius' hobby. All his theories were to
be measured by their value in relation to the state. He felt
that if the sage and the sovereign could be combined in one
226 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
person all would be well. Since out of the classical litera-
ture all wisdom could be drawn, there was obvious advan-
tage in the sovereign being able to delve in the ancient lore
and learn its wisdom for himself. One of his greatest doc-
trines in statecraft was the power of personal example. The
welfare of the state depended more upon the rectitude of the
ruler than on any other factor. In fact, the dependence was
almost absolute, according to many statements in the ancient
literature. Evil in the ruler means eventually a ruined coun-
try, and int^;rity and probity is the first and sure cure for a
country's ills. It is almost pathetic the lengths to which this
principle was believed to be applicable. With a great truth
at its center it laid too heavy a responsibility on a single
pair of shoulders and failed to take into account the per-
versity of human nature no matter how good an example
might be set. Confucius believed in reciprocity as the basis
of all relationships. He would have men take care not to
do to others what they would not want done to themselves.
It has been called the Negative Golden Rule. It is good and
wholesome as far as it goes, but still it is nq;ative. That is
the difficulty with the whole system. It lacks in the positive
heroic features found in the Sermon on the Mount. Con-
fucius is dignified and cautious and circumspect He fails
to throw out a challenge which by its sheer boldness and
audacity drives a man to dare the impossible and persist
when everything is against him.
But Confucianism is also a religion. Temples in which
the tablets of Confucius and his most noted disciples are dis-
played are to be found in all the centers and worship is per-
formed before them as before the tablets of ancestors. The
sage has in recent years been canonized and recognized as
one of the authorized objects of divine worship. An attempt
has been made since the Revolution in 191 1 to have the
worship made the state religion, but the movement came to
nothing. It is not along this line that the influence of Con-
fucius is to be felt in the coming years. His work was to
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 227
provide China with a moral code. He was a sincere patriot
and will continue to live in the estimation of his people as
the worthy example of one who saw what China might be
and bent all his energies to bring that about. All the more
is he to be honored in that, with no reward and unappre-
ciated except in his own circle, he never lost faith in his
country and gladly gave his all for its best good.
Laocius and Taoism
"Laocius" is the Latinized form of Lao-tse, just as "Con-
fucius" is of Kung Fu-tsu, the philosopher Kung. We
know little about his life. He was bom in B. C. 604, about
a half century before Confucius. Once the two met while
the younger man was on his wanderings from state to state,
but they could not understand each other — they were so
utterly different in their whole outlook on life. Laocius is
said to have been the keeper of the archives at the imperial
court of the Chao Dynasty. He became more and more dis-
couraged as he saw everything going to decay, and finally
resigned and retired. But still he was in the midst of
the dismay caused by the warring of the feudal states and
the supineness of the central power, so he determined upon
an even more drastic step. He started off into exile and
reached a noted pass in the mountains where the keeper in*
duced him to put down in writing the philosophy which he
had worked out and which would otherwise be lost. As a
result he remained long enough to put into written form the
Tao Teh King, a writing containing about five thousand Chi-
nese characters, which he intrusted to the keeper of the
pass and then passed on and disappeared. This altogether
too picturesque account can scarcely be received, but it is all
we know of the story of a very original thinker.
The Tao Teh King has been translated into English a
number of times, but so difficult is it to understand and ren-
der into coherent language that the various translations dif-
fer almost hopelessly. The difficulty begins in the name
228 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
itself. Beginning with the last word, King means "writing"
or "classic," Teh means "duty," "virtue," or "human respon-
sibility," but what does Too mean? Many definitions have
been given, very divergent and in some cases most confus-
ing. The shortest equivalent has been given as the "way."
Another is "nature," and still another "Providence." It has
also been conceived of as the "order of the universe," "the
rotation of the seasons," and even "time." It may be that
Doctor SoothiU's statement is about as helpful as any that
can be found. "Tao, then, may be considered as the eter-
nal and ubiquitous impersonal principle by which the uni-
verse has been produced and is supported and governed.""
The aim of the work seems to be to indicate that human
duty consists in imitating the Tao or "way" of the universe.
Man then becomes a follower of the heavens in their ma-
jestic and sublime progress. To learn Tao and imitate it is
the good to be sought. Now, what Laocius saw as he looked
out on nature was quiet, humility, and self-effacement,
placidity, emptiness, freedom from effort. It was the passiv-
ity of the processes of nature which impressed him, and
man was to follow nature as closely as he could. He must
live a life of "inward spontaneity"; he must not be head-
strong or self-willed; he must be possessed by a "spirit of
inanition." He must not even teach his doctrines ; they must
shine for themselves. Is there any wonder that Confucius,
the apostle of strenuous endeavor, and Laocius, the preacher
of the gospel of inactivity, should have been incompre-
hensible to each other? But Confucius has won the day,
and China has gone with him and not with Laocius. But
the quietist has had his imitators, too, men who retired
into the mountains alone and gave themselves to the disci-
pline of nature. They thought they might by so doing be-
come etherealized and even enter the company of the gods.
They fasted, believing that a saint needed no food, and
*The Three Religions of CSiina, p. &
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 229
became sadly emaciated, and when this did not have the
desired effect they sought drugs and elixirs to induce the
spiritualized condition they sought. They thought that by
absorbing the good in nature they might live long and
even achieve immortality. They practiced breathing exer-
cises to drink in the good influences of the atmosphere.
These strange ascetics did not grow in number nor thrive
greatly. Buddhism was abroad in the land and had a more
positive aim and a better organized monastic discipline. But
these seekers after Tao, the true Taoists, had some influence
in China and helped to bring in the belief in immortality,
which had been sadly lacking despite the ancestor worship
which was constantly in touch with another world.
But this is not what we know as Taoism to-day. The
modem variety, which still goes under the old name, is the
most silly jumble of superstitions that can anywhere be
found. It is the worst side of Chinese religion. There is
a priesthood, and Taoist temples exist everywhere. The-
oretically, the business of the priests is to help the people
live in accord with Tao, but practically it is magic run mad.
Soothsaying in every imaginable form, by the almanac and
combinations of lines, by magical religious ceremonies, in-
cantations, and what not, is carried on by a priesthood which
has become skillful in working on the superstitious fears of
the people and by so doing keeping them in subjection and
terror. The b^nnings of Taoism as a formal religion go
back to one named Chang Tao-ling, who was bom in A. D.
34. He discovered, so it is said, the elixir of immortality,
founded a priesthood and hierarchy, and set up a state in
the far western province of Sze-chuan, which was put down
with much bloodshed. Descended from this ambitious priest
a line of so-called Taoist popes has come down through the
centuries to our own time. They have for many years been
situated far away in an inaccessible mountain retreat in the
province of Kiang-si. The ''pope" does not exercise the
kind of authority his name would indicate, but he is looked
230 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
upon as the spiritual center of a system which in its sublime
beginnings gave promise of a better sequel than the poor
excuse of a religion it is to-day.
Chinese Buddhism
Buddhism exists in China to-day only because it meets a
felt need. The Chinese are practical and Confucius minis-
tered to that bent with such insight and wisdom that the
whole life of the people has been built up around his ideals.
He did not feel the need of more than the meagerest amount
of spiritual influence and believed that could be supplied out
of the religious life which already existed. But he was mis-
taken. The Chinese have deep spiritual longings and capac-
ity for mystical religion which many are not likely to appre-
ciate. Taoism so soon descended to the level of quackery
that all it could do was to trade on the superstitious fears of
the people. But still there was an unreached depth to the
Chinese heart which nothing in China had been able to touch.
This was the opportunity of Buddhism. Coming in its
Mahayana form with the assurance of being able to bring
men into vital contact with the spiritual world, the hearts
of many Chinese were touched. There is no other explana-
tion of the career of Buddhism in China, where it has per-
sisted despite the bitterest kind of persecution. The pres-
ence of a million Buddhist monks and nuns to-day speaks
eloquently of the hold of the religion on the Chinese mind
and heart.
These monks and nuns are scattered widely over the coun-
try. They are to be found in little temples in the cities and
villages, but here the conditions are not ideal. The contempt
in which the Buddhist monk is held in China is to be ac-
counted for largely by the conduct of these men, who are
in the world and also unfortunately of the world. Their
lives are not an example worthy of emulation and have
brought discredit to the whole brotherhood. We are as-
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 231
sured that many of the monks themselves deplore the con*
dition. They would not for a moment risk their reputation
in such company amid such surroundings. To them Bud-
dhism is a gospel to be sincerely followed. They betake
themselves to the monasteries where ideals are high and
where laxity is not tolerated. In such retreats they find
others likeminded and are able to give themselves uninter-
ruptedly to meditation and worship. Here are pure souls
seeking emancipation, who resist wrong-doing and lewdness
as they would a pestilence, and who are reaching out in every
way they know how to find the light.
The monks are divided into various schools or sects. It
is a difficult subject, on which it has been hard to secure
correct information. Many of the monks themselves are
not intelligent and add to the confusion. There have been
ten principal schools of thought, with subdivisions. Four
of the ten schools no longer play any part. The six remain-
ing schools fall into two essentially different groups, and
between the two the difference is "profound and radical."
The members of the first group are the adherents of Ch'an
tsung, Ch'an meaning "meditation," and tsung "school" or
"sect." Doctor Joseph Edkins calls them the "esoteric
schools." They made inwardness the one needed quality,
so meditation was the true fulfillment of the Buddhist ideal.
This school was founded by the Patriarch Bodhidharma.
He opposed the use of the sacred scriptures and all outward
ritual. The "inward look" was sufficient. The attempt was
made to empty the consciousness of every idea. It was to
be a subjective experience with no objective content ; it was
pure abstraction. Bodhidharma was called the "Wall-
Gazer," from his habit of looking intently at a blank wall as
he sought to divest his mind of thought and make it as
blank as the wall itself. Everything outward was consid-
ered superfluous, and, in the older writings, even the dis-
tinction between right and wrong was held to be the imper-
fection of a lower standpoint above which meditation would
232 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
lift one. A monk thus becomes indifferent to everything.
This school was split up into five subdivisions, each of which
became a school or sect. They do not vary greatly, though
one, the Lin Chi, took the lead and spread all over China
and even into Japan, where we shall meet it under a dif-
ferent name. The second group, comprising five of the ten
original schools, oppose the absolute subjectivism of the
Ch'an school and teach the value of objective content in one's
practice, the importance of ritual and ceremonies, and incul-
cate the reading of the sacred books. There are differences
between them, but the important characteristic is the com-
mon ground which they take in opposing the negative theory
of their rivals. The divergent views which are expressed
by western students of the life in the monasteries would indi-
cate that much investigation is necessary to get at the real
facts. The charge that moral laxity is prevalent and that
spiritual life is at a low ebb is met by the statement that
while that may be the case here and there, the general rule
is that real moral earnestness and spiritual aspiration exist
in the majority of these retreats. The very fact that a num-
ber of the monks themselves feel that they have as a class
been misunderstood and maligned should lead the candid
student to give them the benefit of the doubt tmtil a more
thorough investigation has been made.
Buddhism is also represented among the people in that
they come to the temples and have recourse to the monks.
They know nothing of the distinction between the schools.
They are taught that there are gods, the loving Amida and
the merciful Kwan-yin, who will hear their prayers and
receive their sacrifices. They are also told that there is a
heaven of bliss which they may attain and dreadful hells
which they may escape by throwing themselves on the mercy
of these benevolent beings. This is sufficient. There is no
message like that in the other religions ; it answers the crav-
ing; and the fear in their hearts. They do not throw over
dieir other religious practices in thus coming to a Buddhist
THE RELIGION OF THE CHINESE 233
temple. It has been said* that the several religions of China
answer to moods in the Chinese soul. Confucianism makes
plain their duty, Taoism ministers to their superstitious
fears, and Buddhism opens up the spiritual world and gives
them the promise of future blessedness. Buddhism has also
accommodated itself to ancestor worship. It offers prayers
for the dead and adds its comfort to the friends and rela-
tives who are concerned about the welfare of their departed
in the next world. Buddhism exists in China also in many
lay communities or secret societies, about which not much
is known. The members try to assist each other on the
road to salvation. The monastic idea is not insisted on, but
the five moral commandments of the Buddha must be kept.
In spite of persecution these societies are very ntmierous at
the present time, showing the hunger which exists for the
message of a spiritual religion.
Like everything in China, the outward aspect of Bud-
dhism is dingy and run-down. Here and there repairs have
been made and at places extensive alterations have been
undertaken, but in general it is the need of renewing which
strikes the eye of the visitor. But when this has been said
one must hasten to express his unbounded admiration at the
artistic sense and the eye for the appropriate which have
been displayed in the choice of temple and monastery sites.
Whether on the rock-bound island of Puto, where the waves
are never still, or the Little Orphan island which raises its
sharp crest far above the waters of the mighty Yang-tse
which surround it, or the lovely stillness of the shaded crest
of Kushan Mountain near Foochow, it is always the same.
By an unerring instinct the pioneers of Buddhism in China
found the places of beauty and claimed them for the prac-
tice of religion. The Chinese may be practical and material-
istic, but this is only half the tale. There is a depth to their
nature which Buddhism has touched, but which still re-
' W. J. Qennell, The Historical Development of Religion in
p. 13. (Fisher Unwin, London, 1917.)
234 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
mains unsounded — a love of beauty and a craving after the
things of the spirit. This is the true China, and some day
China is to come to her own.
Suggestions for Fubther Study
J. J. If. De Groot, The Religion of ihe Chinese (New York, 1910).
One of the clearest of all manuals.
W. E. SoothiU, The Three Religions of China (London, 1913).
Needed to correct certain statements made by De Groot
R. F. Johnston, Buddhist China (New York, 1913)* Especially vaU
nable on present-day Buddhism.
Miles M. Dawson, The Ethics of Confucius (New York, I9i3).
Translations with running comment
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, VoL I, Chaps. I-IV.
CHAPTER IX
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN
Shinto
Japan received her civilization from China. It is not
known when the influence began to be felt, but the process
was complete by the end of the seventh century of our era.
About everything which goes to make up the life of a people
came to Japan from across the sea, from the mother country
of all Far Eastern culture. By way of the peninsula of
Korea these influences were flowing in for several centuries
until in the end Japan had entered the stream of history,
and her course can be followed step by step from that time
to our own. The cultivation of the silk-worm, the language
and literature of China, the ethical system of Confucius and
the religion of the Buddha — ^all these and much else came in
and transformed Japan into a civilized country. Not, then,
for the first time in her history did Japan in the nineteenth
century show an eager willingness to receive from other
peoples what was necessary for her to take her place by the
side of the progressive nations of the world. She was only
doing what she had done before, thus proving her willing-
ness to learn from others whenever it is to her advantage
to do so. But by the side of this characteristic must be
placed another which is just as important if we are to un-
derstand the meaning of Japanese life and civilization. On
everything which Japan has ever received from the outside
she has not failed to put her own stamp. The sign-manual
of Japan is indelibly attached to all she produces, making
it her own unique output. There must be, then, a very
distinctive and tenacious Japanese racial fiber, which, while
assimilating with avidity all that may be offered, succeeds
235
236 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
in giving it a character which no one can mistake. At no
point is this to be seen to better advantage than in Japanese
religious development. This makes it incumbent to study
with care the religious life of the people before the coming
of religion from China.
The early religion is known as S hinto. This is itself a
Chinese word, or two words, both of which we have met
before. Shin is the same as the Chinese Shen, which means
"good spirits/' while to is the same as too, the "way," as it
may be translated for short The religion, then, is the "way
of the Good Spirits," or the "way of the Gods." The equiv-
alent name in pure Japanese is Kami-no-Michi, Michi mean-
ing "wa/* or "road," no being the possessive, and Kami
meaning the "deities" or "gods." The word Kami is the
clue to the whole system. It denotes that which is above,
any power or influence which can accomplish what man can-
not prevent It is something he must look up to as possess-
ing power. There are many Kami, presiding over all the
phases of life. Thus it is seen that as in all other countries
the earliest form of religion in Japan was nature-worship.
The cult was exceedingly simple. Unpainted, unadorned
wooden shrines were the centers of worship. No images
were to be found in the early day, though the presence of
the spirits was indicated by flutterii^ pieces of notched
paper. A gong above the entrance could be sounded to call
the attention of the spirits to the coming of worshipers.
Lustrations preceded the clapping of the hands and the offer-
ing of the brief prayers. There was no sacred book, no doc-
trine to be believed, and no code of laws to be followed. Of
all the religions of primitive peoples none has ever been
found more simple and unencumbered than the early reli-
gion of Japan.
Yet the people were intensely religious. Wayside shrines
were numerous, and various lesser divinities like the Kitchen
God presided over their home life and the daily task. The
God of Plenty and the God of Health had their place, as did
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 237
a hundred others, each with its designated function. An-
cestor worship was everywhere prevalent. To this day no
Japanese household is complete without its god-shelf with
the tablets of the deceased before which prayers and sacri-
fices are offered. Another aspect of Shinto which grew up
in the early period was reverence for the imperial house.
It was fully developed by the time the continental influences
had done their work and remains as one of the leading char-
acteristics of the Japanese to this day. As Dr. G. W. Knox
happily phrased it, everything in the ancient religion might
be summed up in the injunction, "Fear the gods and obey the
emperor." It was "essentially nature worship married to
the worship of the imperial house."*
A closer glance is necessary at this point. In A. D. 712
a book was written called the Kojiki, the "Record of An-
cient Matters," which has been called the Bible of the Jap-
anese. This was followed in 720 by another work, the
Nihongi, or "Qironicles of Japan," which covered much
the same ground, but which showed more of the Chinese
influence than the earlier volume. The object of the writers
seemed to be to trace the history of Japan and the imperial
line back to the very beginnings. We read there of the
divine beings Izanagi and his wife Izanami, who produced
many of the Japanese islands as well as the Japanese race;
also various tales of gods and goddesses, among whom was
the great sun-goddess, Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami. She ruled
in the heavens in brilliant light, the highest divinity of the
ancient pantheon. Not only so, it was her "grandson" Jimmu
Tenno, who assumed the rule in Japan, so it is said, in B. C.
660, and inaugurated the line of emperors. Remarkable to
say, the present sovereign, Yoshihito, is the one hundred and
twenty-third in direct descent from Jimmti .Tenno, the
grandson of the sun-goddess. We may be quite sure the
line has not been broken since records began to be kept in
* Devdopment of Religion in Japan, p. 66. (Putnam, New York,
238 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
the fiftb century, and how long before that we cannot
know. Suffice it to say that the Japanese are taught in
school as the first fact of history that their reigning emperor
is directly descended from Amaterasu, the sun-goddess.
Little wonder that patriotism is for them a part of their
religion and allegiance to the imperial house the highest
obligation they know.
Then came Buddhism and all but swallowed Shinto. It
would probably have done so had it not been for the reveren-
tial attachment to the ruling dynasty. This was their most
tangible connection with the gods, the world of divine power,
and held them fast during all the centuries. Even though
through most of their history the emperor has been little
more than a figure-head so far as the actual rule was con-
cerned, the Japanese have always looked on him as the rep-
resentative of the gods, as the final source of all authority.
This has been consistently recognized in theory even though
the treatment meted out to the ruler on many occasions
would seem to belie the fact. Whenever an important act
had been decided upon by the power in actual control of the
country the ''constitutional" thing to do was to proceed to
the imperial palace, lay the matter before his august throne,
and receive the approbation of the emperor. This continued
to be done until, in the year 1868, a revolution occurred and
the emperor was restored, for the first time in many cen-
turies, to his rightful place as actual ruler as well as theoret-
ical sovereign of his people. The loyalty which had centered
in devotion to feudal princes was at once, almost as if by
magic, transferred to the emperor himself. Undoubtedly
this could not have been accomplished had it not been that in
the background of all their thinking there lay Implicit the
thought that the divine representative of the power of heaven
was in the final analysis the foundation of their lesser loyal-
ties and might claim the right to their complete allegiance.
This may be little more than conjecture ; what we do know
is that in the eighteenth century there occurred what has
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 239
been called "The Revival of Pure Shinto." Motoori and
other scholars began to study anew the ancient literature,
notably the Kojiki, and came to the realization that things
were not as they should be. Why should the emperor be
kept in seclusion in the old capital of Kyoto while Japan was
being ruled by the family of the Tokugawas in Tokyo? It
was not so in the early day, that the literature made very
clear. Other powerful forces were at work and may have
had more to do with the actual course of events than this
literary movement, but it at least shows that men were thinks
ing and that it was along this line. As it was, the emperor
was restored and the Japanese have rallied around him with
a passionate devotion which evokes our admiration and sur-
prise. No theory of the "divine right of kings" is more far-
reaching and complete than the Japanese. But it goes a step
further and asserts divinity of the very person of the em-
peror. He is their divine ruler, and commands their loyalty
and obedience by a right seldom claimed in all history and
never in modem times except in the island empire. The
patriotism of the Japanese may readily be interpreted as
religion, and in fact is about all the religion many Japa-
nese have.
Shinto, then, was saved from almost complete extinction
by the connection it had with the ruling house. What be-
came of all the gods and goddesses of the early religion? In
a comparatively short time after its arrival Buddhism be-
came the dominant religion and overtopped the simple faith
of the early days. Pure Shinto remained little more than
the ritual and ceremonial of the court, in which the people
were only slightly interested. But we must always remem-
ber that even a simple faith like Shinto has its roots deep
down in the life of the people and cannot be torn up and
thrown away at will. So it was in Japan. The people mixed
their Shinto and their Buddhism together and the result was
not altogether incongruous. It was known as Ryobu, or
"Mixed," Shinto. The mixture almost became a compound
240 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
when by a happy thought or a stroke of genius, not to make
the charge of more sinister motives, a celebrated Buddhist
priest named Kobo Daishi (A. D. 774) declared that the old
Shinto deities were in reality incarnations of the Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas ! What they had been worshiping in ig-
norance of their true greatness he now made known to them,
and from that day the two religions have lived side by side in
peace, though it must be said that Buddhism got the lion's
share and received all the glory. In Japan to-^lay a Shinto
and a Buddhist gateway are frequently f otmd at the entrance
of the same temple, and inside a Shinto god and a Buddha
may share the honor and worship of the people.
Because of its connection with the imperial cult Shinto
was given a place of honor at the restoration in 1868, but
declined rapidly, until in 1899 the priests of the sacred
shrine at Ise, the shrine dedicated to Amaterasu, the divine
"god-mother" of the emperors, took steps to make Shinto
a purely secular organization. Now Shinto is the embodi-
ment of the spirit of patriotism. It expresses their confi-
dence "that there is a something more than their present
strength and wisdom which directs and aids and on which
they may rely.'
ff»
The Coming of Buddhism
The conquest of Japan by Buddhism was not without
opposition. After the embassy frc»n the Korean king in
A. D. 552 the new faith had its ups and downs before it
was able to prove that it possessed larger power and could
give greater material assistance to the Japanese than their
indigenous Shinto. When the cause of the new teaching
had been embraced by the prominent minister Shotoku-
Taishi (died 621) the opposition ceased and Buddhism was
accepted as belonging to the country. And when finally
Kobo Dtaishi amalgamated the two faiths by making the
Shinto divinities incarnations of the Buddhas and Bodhisatt-
*Koox, op. cit, p. yg.
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 241
vas no question could be raised even by the most scrupulous.
From that day to this Buddhism has remained the religion
of the masses of the people. For about three hundred years
other influences have taken possession of the minds of the
cultured and Buddhism has been more or less neglected in
these circles. Still it is the great religious power in the land,
thoroughly acclimated and with a development which is
peculiarly Japanese.
The contrast between Shinto and Buddhism is sharp and
complete. Shinto is simplicity itself, in the lack of all out-
ward adornment as well as of inner content. There was
almost nothing to believe and very little to do in the old
faith. Buddhism is the exact opposite of all this. It is
elaborate and complex in every feature. It has temples
ornate and profusely decorated without and full of images
and the paraphernalia of worship within. It has its books
and its ceremonial, its priests with their vestments— every-
thing we associate with color and form in religion came into
Japan with Buddhism and made the country over again.
Art was stimulated and the beauties we associate with Japan
began to appear. But more than these outward manifesta-
tions, it was rich in inner content. It opened up a spiritual
world to the wondering gaze of the simple Japanese. They
had never dreamed such a world existed, peopled with be-
ings so magnificent and resplendent that they could not
but win the awesome reverence of a backward people. The
hope of immortality became a reality for the first time, and
contact with merciful gods who were all-powerful yet inter-
ested in the salvation of men. The imagination was stimu-
lated and the glories of a paradise presided over by the
gracious Amida became real. In short, the hitherto unde-
veloped capacity of the Japanese for all that a spiritual
religion could supply found its satisfaction in Buddhism.
It could not be otherwise when the Japanese mind was
beginning to expand under the influence of the culture from
the continent. A more satisfying religion was necessary to
24a THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
parand the enlarging outlook of a new dvilization. It was
fortunate that Buddhism was on hand to fill the need
As in China so in Japan, the rise and growth of schools
or sects became a marked characteristic of the development
Some of the sects were introduced directly from China, but
those which have put a distinctive mark on Japanese Bud-
dhism were bom and grew up in Japan itsdf . This does
not mean that they are not related to the Buddhism across
the sea. Japanese Buddhism has preserved the historical
continuity of the faith, and even in the sects most distinctive
of the country the connection with older teachings is close
and vital. In a number of cases Japanese monks went to
China and brought back the nucleus of what they embodied
in their own systems. But it may truly be said that in the
Japanese sects Buddhism has reached its farthest bound in
doctrine and practice. Here Mahayana has developed to
the point of greatest departure from the teaching of Gautama
the Buddha. The logic of the newer ideas has been carried
out more consistently than in any other country. The sects
number about a dozen, but if 2dl the subsects are counted
the whole list comes to about thirty. The most inqx>rtant
for our purpose are six in number : Tendai, Shingon, Zen,
Jodo, Shin, and Nichiren.
Tendai arose early in the ninth century. It sought to be
comprehensive, in its attempt to gather in teachings of
all sorts, but later in its career it changed and chose to
be eclectic. Its chief claim to distinction is that of being
parent of several other important sects. Out of its great
establishment on Hiezan, a mountain near Kyoto, overlook-
ing the beautiful expanse of Lake Biwa, have come a num-
ber of the great historic leaders of Japanese Buddhism.
Not satisfied with the doctrinal stand taken by its leaders,
they withdrew and founded schools of thdr own, which
have become more famous than the mother of them all. It
has had a stormy history. In the days when feudalism was
in power and monks could be soldiers Hiezan became a ver-
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 243
itable fortress, sending out its armed men to help this side
and then that in the interminable strife of petty chieftains.
Finally in the sixteenth century Nobunaga, the dictator,
suspecting that the monks of Hiezan were against him, made
an attack, and after bloody fighting cleared the mountain
and burned every building on it. The sect has never recov-
ered from this blow, and now peaceful Hiezan is the sum-
mer home of beauty-loving Japanese and foreigners who
are glad to escape from the heat of the city.
Shingon arose in the same period, being founded in
806 by Kobo Daishi, whom we have already met. The
core of his teaching, according to Professor A. K. Reisch-
auer, is "that man can even in this present life attain Bud-
dhahood since he is essentially one with the eternal Bud-
dha."* This essential Buddha is Dainichi, in India Vairo-
chana, one of the Dhyani-Buddhas, early developed in Ma-
hayana. He is the all, inclusive of everything. The system
then is clearly pantheistic. Man came from out this all, is
essentially one with it now, and will be reabsorbed; this is
what it means to attain Buddhahood. There are two meth-
ods of attainment, one by meditation and knowledge and
the other by a righteous life. So there are two worlds, one
of ideas, "unchangeable and everlasting, having existence
only in universal thought," the other a world of phenom-
ena, the world we see and touch. Vairochana is the center
of both, but, of course, the one is only a seeming world,
destined to pass away. The real world, everlasting and
eternal, is the ideal world to which all must attain for final
salvation. Belief in the efficacy of the magic word, the spell,
the posture, has worked evil in the sect, partially saved by
the ideal philosophy on which it is based.
The Zen, founded in 1191, is by no means the most nu-
merous of the sects, but it has the largest number of temples.
It lays the greatest stress on contemplation and meditation,
'Studies in Japanese Buddhism, p. 94. (Macmillan, New York,
1917.)
244 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
thus being somewhat in harmony with the Buddha's way of
virtae. Like the Shingon, the Zen aims at a divine empti-
ness. There are in reality two selves, one which has the
world around us as its object and the other which looks
away into the real world of ideas. Only when one rises to
the experiences of the higher, true self is he on the road to
emancipation. The training of the will is of prime impor-
tance, for no advance can be made without the control of the
passions and the conquest of the physical desires. It
trained and hardened the resolution of its disciples and made
for stoical endurance of the experiences of life. For this
reason it made a strong appeal to the Samurai of old Japan,
the soldier-scholars, who better than any others represented
the ancient spirit. They were taught to laugh at hardship
and even welcome death without fear or the slightest evi-
dence of emotion. The practical philosophy of the Zen fitted
in splendidly with their ideal and gave a religious tone to
a spirit which otherwise was likely not to rise to a very
high level.
With the advent of the Jodo we find ourselves in another
atmosphere. Founded by Honen Shonin in 1175, it promul-
gated the doctrine of the Western paradise, or Pure Land,
which is presided over by the great Amida. The way of sal-
vation is by faith in him, who promises to deliver all those
who trust in him. But paradise cannot be assured without
the repetition, times without number, of the Nembutsu, or
prayer formula, "Namu-Amida-Butsu." The rosary thus
becomes an important article, as the prayers are told off one
by one. Of course, it becomes a meaningless and lifeless
form, even though merit and a nearer approach to the
heaven of Amida is the reward of faithfulness in its per-
formance. Another step must be taken for the "faith doc-
trine" to come to its own, and that was accomplished by
Shinran Shonin, the founder of the Shin sect, who saw the
line which must be taken.
This remarkable man had his introduction to Buddhist
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 24S
doctrine in the Tendai monastery on Hiezan. Dissatisfied
with the teaching, he went out determined to seek a more
satisfying way of salvation. He went to China and trav-
eled from center to center, and doubtless while there made
his discovery and formulated his distinctive doctrine. Com-
ing back to Japan, he founded a new sect in 1224. He gave
it the name of Shin or Shin-shu. It is also known as Jodo-
Shin, or True Pure Land, also the Monto, and the Hong-
wan ji Sect. He built directly on the teaching of the Jodo,
with its emphasis on the Western paradise of Amida. He
made much of Amida's vow. It is said that this spiritual
being, going on to the perfection of Buddhahood, solemnly
vowed that he would never allow himself the last and crown-
ing experience so long as men were left below in the world
of suffering whom he might help. He was still keeping the
vow and holding out his hands in love to all who would come
and throw themselves on his mercy. He would give them
an immediate salvation, the earnest of what was in store for
them in the great beyond. Shinran was very emphatic that
there was no other salvation, and that it could be attained
by faith and faith alone. Here is where he parted company
with the Jodo. There was no possibility of accumulating
merit by anything a man might do, not even by repetition of
the Nembutsu. Only by putting faith in Amida and believ-
ing that he would receive any who came might a man hope
for salvation.
It will repay us to pause a minute to look a little more
carefully at this way of salvation. In one of the sermons of
Tada Kanai this passage occurs: "This one name stands
revealed in the midst of a world of Shadow and Vision, and
it alone is neither Shadow nor Vision. It is revealed in the
world, but it belongs not to this world. It is Light. It is
the Way. It is Life. It is Power. This name alone has .
come down from Heaven, the Absolute and Invisible, to
Earth, the Finite and the Visible. It alone is the rope which
can draw us out from the burning fire of pain, and land us
246 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
safely in a place of pure and eternal bliss."* Even the faith
which we exercise is not in oar own power, but is gradousljr
bestowed by Amida. Not even prayer avails; there is na
merit in any form or "works" ; it is solely by the mercy of
the Saviour who looks with compassion on the heart of
anyone who is willing to trust him. There is no difference
between the priesthood and the laity. To enter a monastery
or to practice meditation is as useless to secure salvation as
it would be to storm the battlements of heaven.
Where did Shinran get this doctrine? That is a real
question, as yet unanswered. Professor Arthur Lloyd" spent
many years of serious study on the question and became
convinced that Shinran, either directly or indirectly, came
into contact with Christian teaching in China and adopted it
as his own. It is clear that we have here the doctrine of
salvation by faith as clearly taught as by Paul or Luther.
And' it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that Profes-
sor Lloyd's conclusion is correct. Nestorian Christian mis-
sionaries had been in China for several hundreds of years,
and it would be strange if some fragments at least of their
teaching should not have penetrated very much farther than
the direct influence of the missionaries themselves. Others
claim that Nestorian Christianity was so far removed from
the New Testament doctrine that Shinran could not have de-
rived his teaching from that source. The possibility remains
open that this way of salvation arose in India and was car-
ried to the Far East independent of any western influence.
But who is this wonderful being Amida in whom men are
asked so implicitly to place their confidence? Trace him
back through China to India and there as Amitabha he
appears as one of the Dhyani Buddhas, or Buddhas of Con-
templation. In the triple scheme worked out in the early
Mahayana days we have Amitabha, and under him Ava-
* The Praises of Amida, trans, by Arthur Lloyd, sermon L
* See especially The Creed of Half Japan. (Smith Elder, London,
1911.)
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 247
lokita, the Bodhisattva of Contemplation, and lastly Gau-
tama, the earthly manifestation. It is all an imaginary
scheme whose only sure historic foothold is Gautama, here
a very inferior being. So men are asked to pin their faith
on Amida, a figment of the imagination, placed in the heav-
ens as a Saviour because man felt the need for what such
a being could offer, but with no assured existence as a reality
in the true world of spiritual beings. Speaking of the dif-
ference between Amida and Jesus Christ, Professor Lloyd
says, "But, the one is an Idea, the other a Person — ^the one
a creature of theological Fancy, the other a Being whose
history is well defined."* But surely the Christ idea was
present in Shinran's mind, whether he learned it of Christian
missionaries or not, and some day the Japanese believers in
Amida may come to see that the true embodiment of their
ideal and tiie sure fulfillment of their hopes are to be found
in the person of Jesus Christ, who unlocked the doors of the
spiritual world and showed us the one true God.
The Shin sect is by far the largest and most influential
in Japan. Shinran was an innovator. Monasticism meant
nothing to him, so, like Luther, he broke through the bond-
age and married a wife. Celibacy could bring a man no
nearer the goal, so he would have none of it, and to this day
the priests of the Shin sect marry like their parishioners
and live among men like their fellows. They dress like the
laity except when attending to their priestly duties. They
are in close touch with men and are seeking to accommodate
their practice to the demands of modem life. They are
opposed to Christianity, but pay it the high compliment of
copying its methods. Preaching halls have been provided
and sermons are delivered. Sunday schools are conducted,
provided with the helps and apparatus of the Christian
schools, sometimes with a pathetic inability to put on the
original touch which would make them soundly Buddhistic.
Young Men's Buddhist Associations have been organized
' Praises of Amida, p. 150.
248 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
in various cities, and a periodical literature attempts to meet
the intellectual needs of the alert young students and the
cultured men and women. They are a force to he reckoned
on, with an enormous following, and a readiness to make
almost any move to meet the new situations as they arise.
We have one more sect to mention, the Nichiren. It was
founded by a remarkable man of that name in 1253. He was
scandalized at the neglect which was being shown the per-
son of the historical Gautama, and wished to reinstate him
in his rightful position. The Jodo and the Shin, recently
formed, had almost entirely neglected the great f otmder and
had placed other deities in his place. But Nichiren taught
that Gautama the Buddha was to be taken mystically. "The
true Buddha is a greatness permeating all being, the great
illumination we must find in ourselves."' What is to be
gained by a return to the historical Buddha when he is not
to be taken historically is a question. The system of Nichi-
ren is purely pantheistic. The sect has been noted in Japan
for its vigorous opposition to all rival sects and other reli-
gions. It condemns Buddhist sects which preach a different
doctrine almost as violently as it does Christianity. It will
not appear on the same platform with any other sect, but
prefers to go its own noisy way, fighting here and fighting
there wherever an enemy appears. But with all its mis-
directed zeal the movement seeks to follow the example of
its founder, who was one of the most picturesque person-
ages and noblest patriots Japan has ever known. Living in
a time when the country was in danger of an invasion by
the hordes of Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China,
Nichiren was the prophet of preparedness and had much to
do with the vigorous and successful defense which kept the
invader from landing on the sacred shores. Several times
he was exiled for patriotically resisting the evil counsels of
men in power. His life was in danger, but with singleness
of purpose he went his way, seeking to lead men aright both
* H. Hackmann, Baddhism as a Rdigion, p. 292.
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 249
politically and spiritually. Latterly he lived in the moun-
tains of Central Japan, in a little shelter he had built for
himself away from the confusion of a troubled time. The
inspiration of his name is still powerful as the story of his
unselfish devotion to native land is recounted in story
and song.
So much for the sects, to one or another of which the
people belong. They are not concerned about the philosophy
of the sects; they call the priests in to officiate in times of
need, and give themselves to such performances as are pre-
scribed. When it is remembered that Buddhism is the reli-
gion of the village people who comprise eighty per cent of
the entire population, it is easy to see that it is the religion
par excellence of the Japanese. One of the most unfortunate
facts about Buddhism is suggested by the different attitudes
of the intelligent and the ignorant masses toward its doc-
trines. The inner teaching cannot be understood by ninety
per cent of the people. To them the higher, the essential
teaching is not offered. An accommodated doctrine, suited
to their understanding, where symbol is used instead of idea,
is about all they can take. 'The esoteric teaching may have
to do with self-identification with the absolute, while the
popular preacher talks of a materialistic Hell and Heaven."*
Is one consistent with the other? If it is, no one could
object to the attempt to reach the heart of the people by
language and figures they can understand, but, when the
Japanese themsdves feel, as many of them do, that there is
a real discrepancy, the palpable insincerity of the whole
method is a serious bar to its acceptance by those who are
looking for both light and reality.
Again Buddhism has been paying a high price for its mili-
tant interference in affairs of state during the Middle Ages.
The Tokugawa rulers, who assumed control late in the six-
teenth century and retained it until the restoration in 1868,
curtailed the aggressiveness of the sects and reduced them
*K]iox, Development of Religion in Japan, p. 120.
2SO THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
to comparadye impotence. The religion lost the hold it
had on the gentry and became more exclusively what it
had always been and is to-day, the religion of the common
people of the coimtry. It is dependent for support entirely
on free-will offerings. A new earnestness is apparent, par-
ticularly in Shin-shu, which has become interested in the
condition of Buddhism in Korea and China and is stimulat-
ing by visitations and gifts the reclamation of decaying in-
stitutions and the inauguration of new enterprises to make
the faith again the fresh and vital force it was in the old
days of its missionary zeal. It is too early as yet to estimate
the real power lying back of the movement
The Adoption of Confucianisic
Buddhism did not provide a moral code for the masses
of the people; it had rules and regulations only for the
monks and the priestss. But at the same time Buddhism
came into Japan the teachings of Confucius also made their
way from the mainland. With what has already been said
concerning Confucius and his system we are prepared to
learn of its reception in Japan and of the development which
it underwent. For when the Japanese mind had finished
its work on the Confucianism which came from China it was
a very different thing. It was compelled to fit into the Jap-
anese mold, and in doing so received an impress which would
have caused the sage to shudder with horror. The condi-
tions in Japan were entirely different from those in China.
Confucius based all his practical injunctions on the family.
The first relation was that of father and son. But in Japan
it was somewhat different. The first relation was, rather,
that of ruler and subject. The state is first; loyalty, and
not filial piety, is the first virtue, though filial piety is of
supreme importance.
In China, again, peace is the great desideratum and the
scholar the first man in the social scale. The men who pro-
duce are put first, and the scholar is a producer of the high-
THE REUGIONS OF JAPAN 251
est and finest sort. The soldier, on the other hand, is looked
on as a destroyer, and as such is put down to the lowest
plane, beneath the farmer, the artisan, and the merchant.
In China the emperor ruled as the Son of Heaven so long
as he ruled in accordance with the principles of virtue and
benevolence. He might forfeit his right to the throne and
cease to be considered the Son of Heaven by unseemly con-
duct, provided, of course, the aggrieved people could find
a leader to organize them for victory, sweep the old tyrant
from the throne, and take the place himself as the accredited
ruler of the people. The voice of the people was in a real
sense the voice of God. Dynasty after dynasty in China has
been hurled from the throne by just this process. The
Chinese theory has been given in order to make clear the
situation in Japan, which is just the opposite. The emperor
is the Son of Heaven by right of descent from Amaterasu
— such was the theory. But,, more practically, he ruled by
right of conquest and the power of the sword. He or his
ancestors had won the first place in the land and intended
to maintain the position against all comers. When the tra-
dition had been established and the descent of the ruler from
the gods could be assumed the day was won. But it can
readily be seen that the whole theory was different from
that of China. The imperial family must be secured on the
throne at any price; peace, then, was of secondary impor-
tance, and has never been looked upon as a particularly desir-
able thing in Japanese history. As a consequence the sol-
dier became the first man in Japan, and underneath were
ranged the farmer, the artisan, and the merchant, in that
order. By an interesting turn the soldier was also the
scholar. The uniting of these two characters, which are
separated by the whole width of the social scale in China,
in one individual is one of the unique features we find pecu-
liar to Japanese life in the old regime.
Now, what happened when the Confucian ideal was
brought into contact with a condition as strange to its essen-
252 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
tial genius as this? The resultiiig Confucianism could
scarcely be recognized as such. Confucius was honored by
an acceptance of his system, but so changed that he would
hardly have recognized it as his own. Several of the essen-
tial notes of his system had been obliterated and his ideals
had been bowed out of court. There gradually developed
out of the transformation which took place a new code
which was admirably fitted to the feudalism which prevailed
in Japan until 1871. In China, as we remember, feudalism
had been abolished in the year B. C. 221, but even then it
was not a feudalism like that of Japan. The code was
called Bushido, Bushi meaning ''warrior'' and *^do" being
another form of the "too/' with which we have become
familiar. Here it might again be translated the "way,
making the whole word mean "The way of the warrior.
Much has been written about this old code — ^"Code of Hon-
or" we might call it — ^in praise and admiration. It deserves
about as much praise and condemnation as the old code of
the gentleman, with its dueling and its oversensitiveness on
questions of honor, which lasted so long in this country, par-
ticularly in the South. Its great virtue was loyalty — every
thing turned on this. A man must sacrifice everything to
loyalty, usually to his feudal lord. Life itself was of little
value compared with firmness and steadfastness in his
allegiance. It applied equally to the gentle women in Japan,
who were taught to sacrifice everything, even their honor,
if by so doing they might exhibit necessary loyalty in a time
of danger or crisis. Japanese literature is full of examples
of men and women who forfeited their all for the cause of
their liege-lord. Loyalty to parents was also included; in
fact, loyalty in every relationship where it might be called
into play. There was little chance for the development of
personality, the individual counted for almost nothing.
Other sides of Bushido will throw it into bolder relief.
Coupled with loyalty were hardness and stoic indifference
to suffering and loss and death. Simplicity was admired in
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 253
adornment and taste. Frugality in food and clothing be-
came a rule; the Samurai came to loathe money; to him it
was literally "filthy lucre." Laconic in speech, courtly in
manner, reserved among friends and dignified at all times, he
led a life which had been forced into a rigid mold with little
opportunity to relax and be his natural self. Never appear-
ing in public without his two swords, he was inured to the
thought that at any time he might be called on to use either
or both, the keen long blade on an enemy and the short
dirk on himself. For in Japan suicide was raised to the
position of a virtue, if performed to escape an ignominious
death at the hands of an enemy or if no other way remained
to vindicate one's honor. Is there any wonder the sword
was called "The Soul of Samurai"? Is there any wonder
the Japanese are fierce fighters and that martial virtues are
still held in such high esteem among them?
Such was one side of Confucianism when it had become
domesticated in Japan — ^but there is another. The Chinese
classics and the ethical system contained in them were
being studied with deep insight. Confucian ethics is not
utilitarian. It is based on the profound conception that be-
hind our work-a-day world there is another in which what
we strive to attain in moral conduct is an immanent prin-
ciple. The ethical system we seek to follow is an essential
part of the eternal nature of things and as such there is a
binding quality to its obligation which no merely utilitarian
system could command. This thought stirred the soul of
men here and there and a literature grew up which rooted
ethics in the very heart of a universe which in its inner es-
sence is righteousness. To be righteous ourselves is to
express in time and under mundane conditions what the
universe was expressing in the solemn majesty of its mighty
processes. This solemnized many a man and led him to
reverence the universe of which he was a part. It became
a religion for many who were not to be satisfied with the
philosophy and practice of Buddhism. As might be ex-
254 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
pected, there could be no propaganda, no enthusiasm estab-
lishing a kingdom, but the calm dignity of a quietism. Men
lived carefully, but, more than that, they felt hushed in the
presence of a world-order which was the embodiment of all
they admired and could respect. This high type of Con-
fudanist theory could only be the cherished possession of
a few. Yet it was and still is the inner groundwoiic of
belief of conservative men who have not been able to ally
themselves with any of the aggressive religious organiza-
tions which are seeking to win the allegiance of Japan.
And now again in Japan the question arises, What of the
future ? For the second time in her long history Japan has
reached out her arms to take all she needs and can assimi-
late of a civilization and culture to which she has until recent
years been a complete stranger. We have no way of deter-
mining what course the old religions would have taken had
Japan been left to herself any more than a would-be prophet
could have predicted what would have become of Shinto
just before the influences from the continent began to flow
in during the fourth or fifth century. Japan is to be a new
Japan, but of one thing we may be sure : no flooding of the
country by influences from without can obliterate the ten-
dencies that are distinctively Japanese nor prevent the mod-
ification of the new material in accordance with the essential
genius of the people.
Western science is doing its deadly work with the ancient
superstitions. The old myths, legends, cosmologies, and tra-
ditions, both Shinto and Buddhist, are doomed, the only
immediate hindrance at one point being the pressure of a
false patriotism which as yet is winning the victory over
historical truth in not permitting any statement to be made
which might discount the initial claim of the royal house to
be descended from the gods. But it is only a question of
time when, with universal elementary education and the
higher schools attended by an increasing proportion of the
most eager young minds, none of the old superstitions will
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 255
have any appreciable hold on the people. When that day
comes what will be the religion of the Japanese?
Can Buddhism be reinterpreted in the light of modem
thought so as to hold the intellect of young Japan? If not,
it must gradually lose its hold on the masses. The modem
world is a single community in which every class must take
its part and share the burden. What we do actually see
on every hand is great uncertainty and confusion. Even
the common people feel it and can be attracted by such '
emotional off-shoots of Shinto as Tenrikyo and Remmonkyo,
both led by uneducated enthusiasts, peasant women pro-
fessing to heal the body as well as minister comfort to the
soul. On the other hand, Buddhism has not been able to
hold the young intellectuals, as a census taken at the Im-
perial University in Tokyo a few years conclusively dem-
onstrated. Of about five thousand students four thousand
five hundred, in round numbers, returned answers to the
effect that they were either atheists or agnostics !
The Japanese leaders are deeply concerned. In 1912 the
Department of Education officially summoned what came
to be known as the Three Religions Conference, so called be-
cause it was composed of representatives of Buddhism,
Shinto, and Christianity. Education alone, said the officials
of the Department, was not able to build up the morality
which must be the foundation of a great state. Religion
must do its important work, for morality without religion
was a rope of sand. Could the government count on' the
hearty cooperation of the various religions represented to
do their part in the building up of the Japan that was to be?
Such was the final request of the government in a mem-
orable conference. What can Shinto do besides stimulate
the patriotism which already has proved itself quite suffi-
cient to make men willing to dare and to die? What can
Confucianism do more than it has done in inculcating a
code which has had its day, and which on careful exam-
ination scarcely seems strong enough to bear the weight of
2S6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
the new social problems and to emancipate the individual
who is coming to feel the supreme value of human per-
sonality? What can Buddhism do unless it succeed far
better than it now gives promise of doing in reaching the
intellect and heart of young Japan in search after a satis-
fying philosophy and a moral dynamic sufficient to meet the
temptations and trials of life? Is there a call for Chris-
tianity? Such is the view of many prominent leaders, not
Christians themselves, who see little or no hope in Japan's
own religious heritage and who are compelled to look in
the only other direction they know. It is an opportunity
and a challenge unsurpassed in all the history of our faith.
SuOGBSnONS FOK FUKTHEK StTJDY
George W. Knox, The Development of Religion in Japan (New
York, 1907).
August K Rcischauer, Studies in Japanese Buddhism (New York,
1917).
W. G. Aston, Shinto {The Way of the Gods), (London, 1905).
(jcorge Foot Moore, History of Religions, VoL I, Chaps. VI, VIL
CHAPTER X
JUDAISM
The Religion of the Semites
Of the sons of Noah, as given in the tenth chapter of
Genesis, the first is Shem. The classification of peoples
which follows is partly genealogical and partly geographical,
the "sons" of Shem, Ham, and Japheth bemg a list of
peoples and nations known in the period when these records
were written. The immediate "sons" of Shem are said to be
the Elamites, the Assyrians, the Lydians of Asia Minor, the
widely scattered Aramaeans, and Arpachshad, which Canon
Driver takes to mean "the supposed ancestor of the Kas-
dim," or Qialdaeans, who became "the ruling caste in Baby-
lonia."^ Shem is also called "the father of all the children of
Eber,"" which is intended to indicate the tribes of Arabia,
mentioned in Gen. lo. 25-30, and the children of Abraham,
the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Midianites, and Edomites. This
enumeration roughly corresponds to the modem classifica-
tion of the Semitic peoples, but at the same time differs in
several important particulars. The Lydians are not now
listed among the Semitic peoples, while the "sons" of
Canaan, who is put down in Genesis as one of the sons of
Ham, are now universally recognized as of the same racial
stock with the Hebrews and Arabs and their Semitic breth-
ren in the Mesopotamian valley. We know them as the
Canaanites, the Phoenicians, and the Amorites in historic
times. In general they fall into two great divisions, the
Northern and the Southern Semites. The home of the
* Commentary on Genesis, p. I2fif. ' (Methuen, London, 1913*)
' Gen. la 21.
257
258 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Southern branch is Arabia and that of the Northern the great
expanse of desert and fertile land lying to the north of
Arabia between the mountains of Persia on one side and the
Mediterranean on the other. But it is to be remembered that
the original home of all these peoples was Arabia, the cradle
of the Semitic race, which from time to time has poured out
into the adjacent lands groups of its people too hard pressed
by the rigors of a barren land, which is barely able to support
a limited number of nomads and a still smaller number of
dwellers in towns and cities.
Semitic civilization was essentially nomadic and in Arabia
retains this trait to the present time. They were divided into
many small tribes and lived an exceedingly simple life.
When they gave up the nomadic life, as they did when they
emigrated from their age-long home, the same exclusiveness
expressed itself in the founding of small city states. In his
characterization of the Semitic type Professor J. F. Mc-
Curdy makes these statements: "Long<<ontinued, intense
activity, within a wide yet monotonous and secluded terri-
tory, was the habit of this unique people. Such a habit of
necessity produces men eager, impulsive, and intense, but
narrow and unimaginative. Such were the prehistoric
Semites, and such the Semites of history. Religious, for
the most part, rather than moral; patient, resolute, endur-
ing, brave, serious; faithful to friends, implacable toward
foes — ^they have borne the stamp of tribalism all through
their history. . . . Not looking far around them, they have at
times seen all the farther beyond and above them. And
when it has been given them to see straight and dear, they
have beheld 'unspeakable things, which it is not possible for
a man to utter.' But they are apt to see only one thing at a
time, and so in their judgments of men and things they were
exclusive, partial, and extreme.'" To these intense Semites
men are either good or bad, and they themselves in their
contact with other peoples seem to have exemplified, as Pro-
* Hastings' Dictionary of the BiblCi Extra Volnme, "Senutes."
JUDAISM 259
fessor McCurdy suggests, one or the other of these two
extremes, being either a blessing or a bane wherever they
have gone.
Among the Semites the clan was the social unit. This
helps us to understand the exclusiveness of Semitic religion.
Each clan had its own god who was always considered the
father or ancestor of the clan and its peculiar possession.
A man was bom into the religion of his clan and would as
little think of changing his allegiance to another god as he
would think of changing his name or his family. The god
was with his people in all their enterprises; his interests
were bound up with theirs. Then, too, the gods had juris-
diction over particular territories, those in which their people
lived, and it was very difficult, if not impossible, for a god
to exert his influence away from his own country. In the
biblical narrative we find Naaman carrying away a little of
the soil of Palestine in order to be able to worship the God
of Palestine far away in Syria.* There were as many gods
as there were clans, and when one clan conquered another
the victorious god became the lord over the vanquished
people. In this case, however, the worship of their old god
did not cease, even though he had not been able to deliver
them out of the hands of their enemy. Thus there came
to be more than one god in a given territory until in the end,
as in Babylonia, there was a pantheon with one great god
supreme over the others.
All religious acts were clan acts, the god being worshiped
at the particular place where he had manifested his power.
Here was placed his symbol, frequently a stone, to which
was applied the blood of the sacrifice. In this way the
blood was brought near the god, and the god and his people
symbolized their blood-relationship. Worship, then, was
the renewal of the blood-bond. This was succeeded by a
common meal, the god participating with his worshipers in
the festivities. Religion was very simple and happy. The
*2 Kings 5. 17.
26o THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
thought of sin had not arisen to dear consciousness to stand
between the deity and his people. The identity of interests
between them was not questioned. The individual as an
individual could not be said to have come into being — every
act was that of the community, and the interest of each indi-
vidual was swallowed in the larger interest of the whole
group. Much of this is conmion to other forms of early
religion; what is distinctively Semitic is its exclusiveness
and humaxmess. The god takes his name from a htunan
relationship. He is "master" or "lord" or "king," and he
holds this relation to no people other than his own.
The after-life meant little to the Semites. The perpetuity
of the dan was looked for and enjoyed in prospect Indi-
vidual men continued to exist, but it was a shadowy exist-
ence in a somber underworld with nothing bright or attract-
ive to hold out hope of anything to be compared with the
joy of the present life. Every delineation was repelling,
enough to make a man shudder at the very thought of such
a possibility. Religion had to do with this life, and when
men passed into the great beyond they left the world of
gods as well as of men behind them. Rather than think of
themselves as individuals in the dreary world of shades
their minds were filled with the prosperity of the clan as
it continued to exist down through the years. A man was
happy if he had many children in whom he might feel that
he, too, was to have part in the deeds of the clan and share
its joy and well-being.
Semitic religion did not develop ancestor worship to the
same extent as the religions of other races. In fact it has
been emphatically denied that it existed at all. Recent ex-
cavations, however, confirm the opinion of scholars that
evidences of a real ancestor worship are to be found. The
danger now is that of going to the other extreme and making
too much of it as a factor in Semitic Ufe.
JUDAISM 261
The Heutagb of the Old Testament
The people whom we know as the Hebrews or Israelites
became a separate people during the period following the
exodus from Egypt, which occurred about the year B. C.
1230. On this "birthday of the nation" a number of Semitic
tribes who had been in Egypt for many years and had there
su£Fered severe hardships broke loose and began to make
their way toward their future home in Palestine. They were
under the guidance of a leader named Moses, who proved
to be one of the world's greatest heroes and nation-builders.
He guided them to a mountain in the wilderness in the penin-
sula of Sinai where, not many months before, he had come
to know the name of a wonderful God, who appeared
to him "in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush,'" and
who called him to go back and lead out his people from
Egypt. He had undoubtedly been known to at least some of
the people before, but, however that may be, the account in
Exodus would indicate that he came as a new revelation to
Moses and the Israelites when they came into the region of
Sinai. This God Yahweh, or Jehovah, as we have incor-
rectly transliterated it, seems to have been a God closely con-
nected with the volcanic mountain near which Moses kept
the sheep of his father-m-law Jethro. He manifested him-
self in thunder and lightning and storm, a "God of battles,"
who fought for his people and led them on to victory. True,
this is not the conception we get of Jehovah in the prophets
and the psalmists of a later age, but it is necessary to remem-
ber that it was by gradual stages and only after a long devel-
opment that the idea of God became what we see it to be in
Jeremiah and Isaiah. Yahweh was to these early tribesmen
the divine Being who had his residence in the sacred moun-
tain and who was willing to become their special protector —
they had not risen to the sublime heights of the monotheism
of a later day.
*£xod.3.a.
262 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
The relation between this God and his people was based on
a covenant or agreement This covenant was not founded
on blood-relationship, as though Yahweh was bound to them
by the indissoluble bonds of kinship; it was far freer and
more voluntary than that The covenant was a mutual
agreement or contract in which each side assumed certain
obligations which it was bound to carry out so long as the
other party to the contract remained true and loyaL And
when it is remembered that this agreement was morally con-
ditioned its uniqueness and greatness become evident The
conditions laid down, which the people of Israel were bound
to recognize and obey, demanded of them rigid adherence
to moral principle. Here lay the possibility of the moral
and spiritual advance which marks Judaism as the religion
of which more could be expected than of all the other reli-
gions of the ancient world. This covenant was interpreted
in ethical terms more and more as the centuries passed until
Jeremiah could affirm that the covenant was no longer to be
considered as an outer law written on ''tables of stone/' but
as an inner law, a spiritual principle, written in the hearts of
men. But in the early day everything was crude. The
presence of Yahweh was assured by the outward symbol
of the ark of the covenant, which was taken from place to
place, which went before them into battle, and which must
be protected on pain of losing the divine help and presence.
When these people with their desert training came into
the land which had been promised they ran the great danger
of fusion with the peoples already there and of losing the
distinctness of their covenant relation with Yahweh. The
book of Judges shows how great this peril really was. They
had been nomads living a wandering life in the open and
free desert; now they began to accustom themselves to the
more settled life of agriculture, and this meant a change in
all their habits and ways of looking at things. And since
they were learning so much from the Canaanites, among
whom they settied and who were never driven out com-
JUDAISM 263
pletely, was it not to be expected that they might absorb
much of their religion? This was the great danger, a
danger seen in its true light when we know the kind of
religion it was, with licentiousness and cruelty practiced in
the very temples of the gods. Yahweh was looked upon as
the "Lord" of their land, but the gods of other peoples and
lands were recognized as having their territory and people
too. An interesting incident is recorded of David/ when
he reasons with Saul, urging him not to drive him out of
the land of Yahweh, on the ground that such an act on Saul's
part would virtually mean that he sends David out of the
territory of Yahweh and says, "Go, serve other gods."
During all this period the religion was saved from absorp-
tion by the judges and the guilds or "schools" of prophets,
which were bands of patriotic men who kept alive in the
people their loyalty to the God who had been with them and
delivered them so often. Strange, wild men they were, as
the narrative in Samuel indicates, but they accomplished
their purpose, and must be judged by this accomplishment
rather than by our judgment as to what a prophet or spirit-
ual leader ought to be. The founding of the monarchy under
Saul and its extension under David and Solomon gave ma-
terial assistance in the same direction. But even then the
worship was crude and undefined, being conducted at many
shrines, the old centers of Canaanitish worship, and contain-
ing elements which must be put aside as the spiritual per-
ceptions of the people became sharpened. This took place
under the inspiration of prophetic leaders who began to
appear even before the division of the kingdoms and who
in the end ushered in a new era of religious history.
Elijah stands out as one of the great commanding fig-
ures in the history of religion. In his time again the danger
of serious contamination by contact with the Baal wor-
ship of the Phoenicians menaces the people and their reli-
gion, and Elijah suddenly appears as the heroic patriot who
*i Sam, a6. 17-19.
264 THE RELIGIONS OP MANKIND
is not afraid to use the most drastic measures to prevent
the threatened corruption. He is a man of action, adding
little or nothing to the religious conception of his people.
That was left to the remarkable group of men who» appear-
ing first in the eighth century, took the ideas of religion
already in the possession of the Hebrew people and refash-
ioned them into the sublime faith which was worthy to be
the foundation of the teaching of our Lord and the writers
of the New Testament. When Amos came into the city of
Bethel and proclaimed the judgment of the God of Israel
on all the nations round about and on Israel and Judah
as well, a new day had dawned. True monotheism, founded
on God's right to judge all peoples on the basis of a single
moral standard, b^an to come to its own, and in the hands
of Jeremiah and Isaiah and the gifted though unknown
''Evangelist of the Exile" received a statement so complete
and so sublime that ever after and to this day men have
been compelled to go back to these inspired utterances to
drink in the full meaning of the unity of God and his
ethical character. This is the great gift of the Jewish people
to the religious life of the world, a permanent possession
which can never be superseded. This is the priceless heri-
tage of the Old Testament to Judaism and to the whole
subsequent religious development of the human race, what-
ever its final form may be.
The Messianic hope, the universalism of the prophets,
the development of the Law, the spiritual experience of the
psalmists, the wisdom of the wise men, the apocalyptic
vision — ^these and other features of the Old Testament rev-
elation have not and cannot be tpentioned. All that has been
attempted has been to trace, and that with extreme brevity,
the development of the central message, the supreme gift of
the Old Testament to the progress of religion in the world.
The belief in one God who hates sin and loves righteousness,
a belief which the Jew has never been tempted to forget
since the days of the Babylonian exile, is the indispensable
JUDAISM 26s
foundation on which any faith which claims to be universal
must be built.
Judaism Since the Time of Christ
The Jews have no country they can call their own, yet
they are at home everywhere. This ubiquitous people has
been dispersed over all the world and no civilized land is
without its representatives. Despite the great longing which
has possessed their souls to return and be a nation once
more in Palestine there is little likelihood that the Jew will
cease to be a part of the nationality of the countries to which
he has gone. The capture of Jerusalem by General Allenby
and the opening up of the country to settlement by Jews
under a stable government will attract many of the race,
particularly those who have undergone bloody repression in
eastern Europe during recent years, but wiU probably not
result in diminishing the number of Jews in the countries
where they have prospered and have been given rights as
citizens of the land. Since the days of the Babylonian cap-
tivity they have been a scattered people ; the destruction of
the temple in Jerusalem and the final loss of nationality
drove them out into every comer of the world.
Their history has been a sad one. Success has attended
their commercial ventures, but unfortunately they have been
the prey all too often of avaricious princes and kings. Dis-
liked by almost all the peoples among whom they have set-
tled, they have been driven off by themselves into ghettos
where for hundreds of years they have lived a life apart
Not satisfied by such, treatment, the populace and their
leaders have frequently vented their rage in the bitterest per-
secution, and too often this has been done in the name of the
Christian religion. The enmity between Jew and Christian
dates back to the first century and continued unabated
through the Middle Ages and well down into modem times.
In the days of their weakness the Christians were the ones
to suffer at the hands of the Jews or at their instigation.
a66 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
but the tables were soon turned and the growth of Christian-
ity and its assumption of power boded iU for the Jew. This
unchristian enmity has continued to our own time. While
for the most part persecution has ceased and the Jew has
come to his own in western Europe and America, the feeling
of despite and hatred is still too frequently to be found. In
eastern Europe, however, the situation has been far different
There cruel persecution has been felt in recent days, while
the bloody pogroms in Russia attest the intensity of the
hatred which still dominates the masses and even the offi-
cials, who are frequently responsible for the horrible out-
breaks. We have good reason to believe that such experi-
ences lie in the past and that the security which the Jew en-
joys with his fellow nationals in other countries will soon
be extended to every land where he has made his home.
With more Jews living in the world to-day than at any other
time in their whole history the future would seem to be
bright as they face with vigor and enthusiasm the years
to come.
It was exceedingly unfortunate that for so many centuries
the Jew should have been compelled to live with little inter-
course with the Gentile world. Not only was the European
intolerant; the Jew was clannish and narrow; he preferred
to live his life alone. But since the liberating days of the
French Revolution they have broken through their isolation
and begun to share die life of the people around them.
Thanks to one of their greatest leaders, Moses Mendelssohn
(1729-1786), the Jewish people were led gradually to see
that their future must lie in sharing the common life of the
people in the midst of whom they lived. During all the
years of their isolation they had preserved a vigorous intel-
lectual life, but tmfortunately it was too closely concerned
with their own circle of interests, their history, their Law,
and their religion, but now a change takes place. Entering
the universities and feeling the force of the intellectual
currents of the time, the Jew became a citizen of the mod-
JUDAISM 267
eni world. His brilliant gifts, which had been but slightly
known, began to be manifest and after no long period he
appeared in positions of leadership in varied forms of activ-
ity. He is now an integral part of our world, taking his
place by the side of his fellow-citizens in every walk of life.
He is distinct in race, but one with us in nationality. With
unparalleled tenacity he has clung to his racial distinctive-
ness, and has done so because it is bound up so closely with
his religion, which to him would be lost if he did not pre-
serve his uniqueness as a people.
The loss of nationality and the destruction of the temple
and the sacrificial system by the Romans caused a profound
change in the Jewish religion. Other means had to be found
to maintain the unity of the people and preserve their reli-
gious life. Deep in their breasts was the belief in the one
God of Israel — they could no longer be alienated from him.
In their hands was the Old Testament, the Torah, or Law,
which became more precious as they were scattered far and
wide and needed the support of a divine revelation. Com-
mon worship on the holy Sabbath day was possible through
the institution of the s3magogue, which had become a part
of their life during the exile while they were deprived of
the ministries of the temple and the recurring feasts which
bound them to the soil of their native land. Not only so,
but the people of Israel, wherever they found themselves,
felt certain that their old covenant with Jehovah held good,
and, while the Ark with the tables of stone might be de-
stroyed, the new covenant was indelibly written in their
hearts and must remain in force forever.
Judaism has always been a religion of Law and remains
such to-day. It is easy to misinterpret the term and accuse
the Jew of being a narrow legalist. That this danger has
not been averted is freely acknowledged by leading Jewish
scholars, but to use it as a term of reproach and as applicable
to the religion as such would be unjust. As in the Old Tes-
tament period and at the time of Christ Jewish men and
268 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
women had penetrated behind the form to its inner spiritual
principle, so down through the ages the spiritually minded
have found God and have been nourished, not on the dry
husks of legal formalism, but on the living bread which has
come down from heaven. But when we have said this the
fact remains that to be a Jew meant to keep the Law.
Obedience to a written code has been the mark of the reli-
gion. Everything in conduct, even down to the most insig-
nificant details, was determined exactly, and to fail in the
observance of the written word was unthinkable in a well-
regulated Jewish household.
As might be expected, various codes have been con-
structed. Back of them all lies the Law, embedded in the
Old Testament This was God's voice speaking His mes-
sage in a form never to be superseded. But it was necessary
to apply it to new situations as time passed, hence the need
of further writings. The Sacred Scriptures needed inter-
pretation for practical and homiletic purposes, and this was
done in a long series of expositions written through many
centuries called the Midrash, which means ''inquiry" or
"interpretation.** The Talmud is the great codification of
Jewish law, civil and canonical. It consists of two parts, the
Mishna, or the text of the rules and regulations, and the
Gemara, or the commentary. The Talmud e;dsts in two
recensions, the Palestinian and the Babylonian, the latter
being later in time and by far the longer of -tlie two. It was
completed about the year A. D. 500. This grea{ body of law
is the mine from which Jewish scholars in all subsequent
ages have produced the precious truths and traditions on
which the people have been nourished. The Haggada, or
non-legal part, consisting of expositions of the Bible narra-
tives, and the Halacha, or legal sections, dealing with all
phases of conduct and ceremonial, together comprise the
great mass of rabbinical lore to be found in the Midrash and
in the Talmud. Based on the accumulated stores to be found
in these works other collections of laws have been formated.
JUDAISM 269
Among them is that of the great Spanish Rabbi, Maimonides
( 1 135-1204), who in 1 180 produced a code of law and cus-
tom called the "Strong Hand," which has been very influ-
ential among the Jews to the present time. Most Jews to-
day, however, live tinder the "Table Prepared," which was
compiled by Joseph Caro in the sixteenth century and is a
resume of the whole traditional law. But with all that has
been done to revivify the Law and make it appear as a living
expression of the will of God, the great problem is to make
it an abiding force in the advancing Jewish community to-
day. There is revolt against the binding character of the
multitudinous rules and regulations, which touch not only
the fundamental moral obligations, but cover an immense
range of ceremonial observances and customs. These have
become exceedingly irksome to the modem Jew in the
western world, who does not want to be marked off from
his fellows by obsolete and meaningless practices.
Judaism may be said to have no definite articles of belief.
A man's actions and conduct were most carefully reg^ated,
but his beliefs were without any authoritative ecclesiastical
sanction. This has led to laxity in belief along with great
strictness in conduct. Dogmatic tests could not be applied,
and few have been excommunicated for heresy. Notwith-
standing this, attempts frequently have been made to formu-
late the beliefs of Judaism, but never have they been suc-
cessful, and Mendelssohn used his influence to discourage
anyone from any further ventures in this direction. To
him religion was a life and not a creed, and could not be
compressed within the bounds of a formula.
But Judaism has believed, and believed with great earnest-
ness, in a few great doctrines. At the head and transcend-
ing all others is the unalterable belief in one God, high and
lifted up, the Cr^tor and sustainer of the universe, who at
the same time is a Father brooding over His children with
tender love. He is the God of justice and truth who will
brook no lowering of the moral standard, and who will one
270 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
day judge the world in righteousness. A list of thirteen
articles of faith was constructed by Malmonides, "the one
and only set of principles which have ever enjoyed wide
authority in Judaism.'" ''These are : (i) Belief in the exist-
ence of God, the Creator; (ii) belief in the unity of God;
(iii) belief in the incorporeality of God; (iv) belief in the
priority and eternity of God ; ( v) belief that to God, and God
alone, worship must be offered; (vi) belief in prophecy;
(vii) belief that Moses was the greatest of all prophets;
(viii) belief that the Law was revealed from heaven; (ix)
belief that the Law will never be abrogated, and that no
other Law will ever come from God ; (x) belief that God
knows the works of men; (xi) belief in reward and pun-
ishment; (xii) belief in the coming of the Messiah; (xiii)
belief in the resurrection of the dead." Maimonides was
deeply influenced, as were so many thinkers in the Middle
Ages, by Aristotle. He believed in the revelation to be
found in the Old Testament, but sought to show that the
truths of revelation were in harmony with reason and could
be thoroughly rationalized.
Down through Jewish history have come these two
streams of law and creed, one stringent and the other lax,
but there have been other tendencies. The Kabbala was a
revolt against the intellectualism of the schools. It was a
system of occult knowledge and mysticism, which exercised
a strange fascination over many minds both in Judaism and
Christianity. By uniting man and the divine Spirit through
the practice of virtue and the overcoming of evil, prepara-
tion would be made for the coming of the Messiah who will
restore all things. But here, too, there was excess in emo-
tion and in mystical vagaries, and the inevitable reaction
came. A new intellectualism arose with vigorous advocates.
The limit was reached by Spinoza (b. 1632) who, depending
on pure thought, reduced the whole system of the universe
to a thoroughgoing pantheism. With all these currents
'I. Abrahams, Judaism, p. 31!. (Constable, London, 1910.)
JUDAISM 271
streaming through her life Judaism emerged into the activ-
ities of the modem world something more than a hundred
years ago. A new era opened out before the Jew which has
profoundly affected the religious life and thought of the
people.
Orthodoxy and Reform
When Judaism came into intimate contact with modem
thought and began to take a new part in the activities of the
world a crisis could not but be precipitated. There were,
those who sought to keep their religion tme to the traditions
of the past and were scandalized by the thought of change.
They have continued down to our* own time and form a
very considerable part of the people. But even among these
conservatives the modem world has had its effect and all
degrees of modification of the old standards can be discov-
ered. On the other hand there is the Reform school com-
posed of liberals who believe that the only hope of the race
and the religion is to admit frankly that changes more or
less drastic must be introduced and that Judaism must
reinterpret itself in the light of modem knowledge. It is
admitted on both sides that the differences do not constitute
a schism, but may best be denominated as ^'schools." In the
words of the late lamented Dr. Solomon Schechter, a leader
of the conservative wing^ each party might look upon the
other as "His Majesty's Opposition"* in one great Parlia-
ment of Judaism.
There is complete agreement in both parties on certain
fundamental points. The primary and inalienable doctrine
of the faith is the unity of God, and, of course, there is not
the slightest hesitation here. Judaism stands or falls on the
platform of monotheism. So sure is she of her ground that
her leaders make bold to claim that the two ^'daughter"
religions, Christianity and Islam, have each done despite to
* Seminary Addresses and other Papers, p. 231^ (Ark Pub. Co.,
Cincinnati, 1913.)
272 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
this central doctrine. Christianity, they declare, has ceased
to believe in the essential unity of God by its doctrine of the
Trinity, and Islam has lost the high ethical note of both
Judaism and Christianity while it has been an unswerving wit-
ness to the one God as an indivisible unity. Another point
of agreement is with reference to the Jewish people as the
chosen race. The ancient call of God to Abraham and his
descendants in biblical times holds good and is a cardinal
point of emphasis to-day. The race must be preserved in-
tact and all intermarriage with Gentiles is severely con-
demned. And when it comes to the acceptance by any mem-
ber of the race of the claims of Christianity the anathemas
which are heaped upon the heads of these ''perverts" are
the bitterest of all the invectives of which the Jew is capable.
But with all this the conservative is not quite convinced that
the liberal has not let down the bars to such an extent that
fusion with the surrounding community may ultimately
result and the Jews as a distinct people cease to exist.
Since the days of the exile, when the unknown prophet
gave expression to the splendid universalism in the latter
part of the book of Isaiah, that note has not been lacking in
Judaism. True, a narrow particularism has more often been
victorious than the more liberal, wider view, but it has been
there nevertheless. The book of Jonah voices the protest
against the narrowness of the period following Ezra and
Nehemiah, and is one of the most splendid testimonies to
the ideal of universalism we have. The Maccabean revolt
naturally resulted in an exclusive attitude toward other
peoples, but soon after an active propaganda was instituted
which resulted in the addition of thousands of converts to
the synagogues scattered over the Roman empire. These
proselytes were either incorporated completely in the Jew-
ish community, by accepting the moral obligations of the
religion and also submitting to the authority of the cere-
monial regulations, or became "Proselytes of the Gate,"
men who feared the God of Israel and acknowledged the
JUDAISM 273
binding character of the moral law, but did not become cir-
cumcised and thus completely amalgamated with the Jewbh
people. At the time of Christ the school of Hillel and the
school of Shammai were in conflict, the former standing for
the broad and generous policy which furthered the winning
of proselytes, the latter being narrow and exclusive and
opposing all efforts to reach out after others. The school
of Shammai was finally victorious and with the loss of
nationality the Jew has not sought to win converts to his
religion.
This condition has obtained down through the centuries,
and even to-day, when a different outlook has become the
ideal of the more liberal Jews, no missionary propaganda is
contemplated. Still the universal note is being sounded
and the mission of Israel to the nations is earnestly ac-
claimed. The form taken by this ideal differs among the
orthodox and the Reform Jews. Holding fast the pro-
phetic vision of a coming Messiah who shall be bom of
their race and be established in power and righteousness in
Jerusalem, the men of orthodox faith see all nations coming
to do him honor and acknowledging his rightful sway over
the world. They shall all worship the one God Jehovah
and spread His name far and wide until the knowledge of
Jehovah shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
But in it all the Jew remains distinct and stands first, the
chosen of God, His messenger peculiarly fitted to do his
bidding and accomplish his desires. Such is the hope and
expectation of the more conservative wing of Judaism.
The Reform Jews, on the other hand, have a different ideal.
Universalism is far more prominent as an immediate possi-
bility than among the orthodox. According to several dec-
larations of conferences of American liberal rabbis, "The
Messianic aim of Israel is not the restoration of the old
Jewish state under a descendant of David, involving a second
separation from the nations of the earth, but the union of all
children of God in the confession of the unity of God, so
374 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
as to realize the unity of all rational creatnres and their call
to moral sanctification."* And agatn» to use the words of
one of the leading authorities, "The Messianic idea now
means to many Jews a belief in human development and
progress, with the Jews filling the role of the Messianic
people, but only as primus inter pares."^
Fear is expressed on the part of the conservatives that
their liberal brethren are breaking down the wall of parti-
tion between Jew and Gentile. It is possible now for one
who belongs to another race to ask for admission to a Re-
form synagogue and be received. This to a conservative is
rank heresy. Their ftmdamental beliefs may be the same,
but these new-fangled notions are sure to wreck the hopes
of the children of Israel. But even the most liberal are
strongly of the opinion that since monotheism has not yet
prevailed and Christianity has not succeeded in keeping the
doctrine unsullied their witness is essential to the religious
development of the world and that this can best be accom-
plished by the preservation of a people whose testimony to
the one true God is clear and unalloyed.
In the matter of the ceremonial law and the historic festi-
vals there is also a deep cleavage. In different degrees the
orthodox hold fast the ancient traditions and with reluc-
tance allow modifications to be introduced. They do not
want to remove the old landmarks, and fear disintegration
as a result. The Reform Jew, on the other hand, takes the
position that ceremonies must prove their value under the
conditions which now prevail, that they must not be retained
merely because they have come down out of the past and
have a certain historical value. In fact, he takes every-
thing in Judaism — ^law, creed, ceremony, and custom — and
subjects it to a searching criticism. He desires his religion
to be efficient in the present day, and is willing to lay aside
any item which may seem to him an encumbrance. The
' Quoted in L Abrahams, Judaism, p. gjf .
** I. Abrahams, op. cit, p. 94.
JUDAISM 275
pragmatic test is applied with vigor, and the conservative
stands by and wonders whether out of the process anything
worthy the ancient glory of Israel will remain. Yet what
is happening before our eyes is inevitable, and we may be
sure that with all its transmutations Judaism will long re-
main a religion among the religions of the world. With
their belief in one God, a God of moral concern, whose
influence has pervaded every relationship, given sanctity to
the home and dignity to the individual life, a belief which
has made prayer and praise a constant practice of the people
and has held them together through appalling experiences
which might have shattered a spirit less tenacious, the
people of Israel are with us to-day believing in themselves
and in their destiny. Spummg the idea of a mediator be-
tween God and men and rejecting the claims of that Man
of Jewish race who would have led his people into a ful-
fillment of their highest ideals, they have been kept apart
from a fellowship which might have brought in the era of
peace among the nations generations or even centuries
ago. What the future has in store we cannot say, but trust-
ing in the same God and reading the same Scriptures of the
Old Testament the Christian cannot but believe that the
revelation of that God which is contained in those writings
may yet assume to the Jew a new glory when seen in the
face of Jesus Christ his Son.
SuOCBSnONS FOR FUKTBER StUDY
W. Robertson Smith, Thi Religion of the Semites (London, new
edit, 1914). An epoch making volume on the early religion of
the Semitic peoples.
George A. Barton, The Religion of Israel (New York, 1918). A
short but excellent sketch of the Old Testament Period.
Israel Abrahams, Judaism (London, 1910). A splendid little sum-
mary of the entire development
K. Kohlcr, Jewish Theology (New York, 1918). An extended
statement from the standpoint of the Reform School.
George Foot Moore, History of Religions, VoL II» Chaps. I-IV.
CHAPTER XI
MOHAMMEDANISM
The PftoPHET
Islam/ the religion of Mohaimned^ arose in AraUa. The
followers of the Prophet fondly believe that their religion
was a new creation, handed down bodily and in finished form
from heaven. But even a rapid survey of the origins of the
faith is sufficient to show that, with all Mohammed added,
the religion is firmly rooted in the past, and has received a
number of its characteristic features from the preexisting
heathenism of Arabia. The isolation and inaccessibility of
the peninsula provided the conditions in which a develop-
ment could take place hidden from the rest of the world
until it was ready to start on its victorious march almost to
the ends of the earth. Wellhausen speaks of the gods of
Arabia as a ''Rubbish-heap of divine names";' that is, the
old religion was in a state of decrepitude. There were
many of these deities, the most prominent of which was
Allah. He was regarded as "the God," the supreme being,
having three daughters. Professor Theodor Noldeke be-
lieves that the name Allah may have been applied to a num-
ber of gods, and only gradually became the proper name of
the Supreme God.' So Mohammed did not invent his God ;
he clarified the conception and rid God of ''partners," but
the monotheistic idea was not new to Arabia when the
Prophet arose. Mecca was already a sacred city, the most
sacred in the land; with the cubical building, the Kaaba, the
center of worship. Near by was the holy well, Zemzem,
* Islam means "to submit," and is the religion of sabmission to the
will of God. Moslem, "one who has submitted," is the name fre-
quently used of the followers of Mohammed.
'Hastings' Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, article, "Arabs
(Ancient)."
276
MOHAMMEDANISM ^^
from which all pilgrims still drink. The whole ritual of
worship which is still followed was in existence and was
taken over complete into his religion by Mohammed. Islam
was not a bolt out of the blue, but an adaptation of much
that was old, thinly disguised and still persisting.
Mohammed, "the Praised/' was bom in Mecca in 570
A. D., the posthumous son of Abdallah, of the tribe ^of the
Koraish. His mother died when he was a little lad, and he
was given a home first by his grandfather and then by his
uncle Abu Talib. As a young child he was sent to be nursed
and cared for by a Bedouin woman in the desert. Mecca
was not a place where children could be expected to thrive,
so his mother was following a well-known custom. His
mother's death, which probably occurred shortly after his
return, made a deep impression on the boy. He never for-
got that his mother had been left a widow and he an orphan.
Throughout his life Mohammed was always solicitous that
widows and orphans were cared for, and it has left an abid-
ing mark on the religion which he founded. As a boy he
doubtless tended his uncle's sheep. As he grew older he
must have joined the caravans, which, with the entertain-
ment of the pilgrims at the time of the feasts, were the source
of Mecca's wealth. We do not know, but he may have vis-
ited distant parts of Arabia and the adjacent countries in
this way. It is quite certain that he made at least one trip
to the borders of Syria. This period of his life is obscure.
He seems to have been well thought of, earning the name
of Al Amin, the "Trusty," by some service faithfully
rendered.
At about the age of twenty-five a most important event
happened. A distant relative of his, the wealthy widow
Khadijah, was looking for some person to take charge of
her business affairs on one of the great caravan journeys
on which she herself could not go. Her attention was di-
rected to her kinsman Mohammed and the arrangement was
made. He not only performed the service to her great
278 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
satisfaction but was so pleasing in person and manner that
she oflFered him her hand. He accepted and they were
married, Mohammed a young man of twenty-five and she
his senior by fifteen years. Yet with all this diflFerence in
age these two lived happily together until her death twenty-
five years after. He never forgot her and always remem-
bered her with gratitude and respect to the end of his life.
She must have been a remarkable woman. During the long
period of their married life Mohanuned did not take an-
other wife. Several children were bom of the union, the
best known of whom, Fatima, became the wife of Ali, one
of the earliest of Mohammed's followers and famous in
the early history of Islam.
Mohammed's marriage to Khadijah changed the whole
course of his life. He had been a poor .young man, but now,
married to a wealthy woman, he had leisure. Naturally of
a pensive disposition, he could give full rein to his inclina-
tion with no anxiety concerning his daily bread. What
transpired during the next fifteen years we have little
means of knowing. He must have brooded long and
earnestly over the moral tragedy of the universe and the
issues of human life. Other men in Arabia at this time had
become dissatisfied with the old paganism. We have some
knowledge of these seekers after truth, Hanifs, as they were
called. They were seeking to find a pure religion and had
a strong drawing toward monotheism. Eventually these
men became either Christian or Mohammedan. But what
influence they exercised on Mohammed must have been
slight. There is no indication that he ever had any leaning
toward Christianity, although he had a certain knowledge
of the stories and characters of the Old and New Testa-
ments. The Christianity with which he might have come
into contact was so covered over with formalism and so lack-
ing in vitality that there was littie chance of his being drawn
in that direction. He must work things out for himself in
his own way.
MOHAMMEDANISM 279
In the year A. D. 610, while Mohammed with his family
was sojourning on Mount Hint, near Mecca, during the
most trying season of the year, he had an experience which
made him into a different man. He thought he heard a heav-
enly voice commanding him to convey a message. The
word was probably what we now have in the 96th Sura or
Chapter of the Koran.
I^ecite thou, m the name of tfay Lord who created; —
Created man from Qots of Blood : —
Recite thou I For thy Lord is the most Beneficent,
Who hath taught the use of the pen; —
Hath taught man that which he laioweth not**
— (Rodwell's Translation.)
Doubtless the Meccans had recently learned how to read
and write, and it was considered an evidence of divine
favor. God was almighty ; he had created man from "clots
of blood," which was their way of saying that God had
created man out of a very insignificant thing. The climax
of the revelation was that Mohammed was to proclaim a
message — ^"Recite thou." The participle of this verb is
Koran, ''that which is recited," and appropriately becomes
the name of the sacred book of the religion. It is literally
the collection of the inspired utterances of the Prophet
which he was to "recite" to the people.
Mohanuned was deeply agitated by his experience. He
was not sure of himself and was in doubt about the reality
of the call. He waited for another revelation to confirm the
trustworthiness of the first, but it did not come. Khadijah
comforted him with the assurance that God had really
spoken to him and would do so again if only he would have
patience. But still there was no voice, and he was driven
almost to desperation. He attempted to make away with his
life by throwing himself to sure death over one of the
precipices which aboimded on Mount Hira, but his good
angel Khadijah interposed and kept him from carrying out
his purpose. At last after two years (this is only one of the
28o THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
estimates of the length of the period of waiting) another
revelation came. It is given in the 74th Sura of the Koran.
"X) tfaoQ, enwrapped in thy mantle!
Arise and warn!
Thy Lord— magnify Him!
Thy Raiment— purify it!
The abomination — ^flee it!
And bestow not favors that thon mayest receive again witii
And for thy Lord wait thou patiently.
For when there shall be a tramp on the trumpet,
That shall be a distressful day,
A day, to the Infidels, devoid of ease."
— (Rodwell's Transktion.)
From this time to the end of his life Mohammed never
douhted that he was in immediate contact with God. The
revelations were forthcoming whenever circumstances called
for an authoritative word. He now had been told to ''arise
and warn/' to preach the message of God whether men were
pleased with it or not, to herald the coming of the Day of
Judgment, when unbelievers would find themselves in dire
distress.
But why that strange phrase, "O thou, enwrapped in thy
mantle"? There is much obscurity relative to the physical
accompaniments of the revelations. They came to him in
various forms and under different conditions. Here it
seems to have been while he was closely blanketed. Was it
during a seizure, say of epilepsy, or a kindred malady?
There are many who find evidence that Mohammed was
subject to such attacks, and that this accounts for many
things which otherwise would have no explanation. They
think of Mohammed as a "pathological case,'** that he was
not quite normal physically and mentally, and that the enig*
ma of his character and personality is to be solved only on
this supposition. The problem, however, is not yet solved.
'D. B. Macdonald, Aspects of Islam, p. 6a (Macmillan, New
York, 1911.)
MOHAMMEDANISM 281
If the second revelation came in the year 612 the re-
mainder of his life falls into two periods of ten years each,
the first of which was spent in Mecca, the latter in Medina.
Mohammed immediately began to preach to his friends in
Mecca. The burden of his message was that there was but
one God, Allah, that he would not tolerate the worship of
any other gods (''adding partners to God," was the phrase
used), that idolatry was an abomination, and that a Day of
Judgment was coming, when all those who refused to listen
would be hurled into the raging fire of Hell. Not many lis-
tened to him. Khadijah became his first convert. She was
followed by a few others of the best people in Mecca. There
were Abu Bakr, Ali, and finally Omar, all of whom became
Caliphs or "successors" of the Prophet. But aside from
these and a few others the Meccans turned a deaf ear to
his warnings. Only a small group of slaves and lowly
people accepted his leadership, and these, because they had
no standing in the community, were made the butt of ridi-
cule and abuse. It was carried to such an extent that they
left the country and found a refuge in the Christian king-
dom of Abyssinia across the Red Sea. Once they came back
on hearing that a better feeling existed between the Prophet
and the citizens of Mecca, but it was so shortlived that they
hastened back to their exile. How long they remained
there we do not know.
The better feeling which has been alluded to was occa-
sioned by a temporary willingness on the part of Moham-
med to recognize that the "daughters" of Allah, believed in
from of old by the Meccans, might be considered as "inter-
cessors" between men and Allah. The Meccans thought
they had gained a point and were willing now to listen to
the preaching of their fellow-townsman. He repented, how-
ever, of his weakness in a short time and withdrew the con-
cession entirely. This made the Meccans all the more bitter
and the breach between them widened. It came to such a
pass that a ban was proclaimed against Mohammed and his
28a THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
people. They were ostracized and lived precariously and
more or less alone. This period lasted, it may be, for two
years. The climax was reached for Mohammed in the year
620 by the death of his faithful companion Khadijah and
of his protector Abu Talib. His tmcle had never embraced
Islam, but stood by his prot^e until the end. No one could
lay hands on Mohammed while Abu Talib lived. So it was
a serious matter when Mohammed lost the protection of the
arm of his powerful uncle. But even more serious was
the loss of his wife. She had been his balance-wheel for
many years. Her wisdom and judgment, coupled with her
devotion, undoubtedly had saved many a difficult situation.
Now she was gone and Mohammed was never quite the
same again.
The question of the sincerity of the Prophet of Islam must
be faced here. The evidence up to this point does not
justify an adverse judgment. He preached his doctrine
unhesitatingly despite the opposition of the Meccans, whom
he was trying to win. Political expediency would have
dictated a different course. The compromise with the Mec-
cans was a momentary weakness. His deliberate judgment
is to be seen in his return to his former position, from which
he never deviated afterwards. He chose the unpopular
way whether it brought him success or not. But from the
time we have now reached on to the end of his life the Mo-
hammed with whom we deal is a different man.
The Prophet now realized that Mecca offered him no
field; he must go elsewhere if he were to secure the favor-
able hearing he desired. He b^;an to look around. He went
to Taif, not many miles away, to try out his message, but
was stoned out of the city. But about this time he discov-
ered that two tribes in Medina which had for many years
been in a jealous contest for supremacy were now anxious
to compose their differences under a common leader. This
was a splendid opportunity and Mohammed seized it.
Medina was the city from which his mother had come and
MOHAMMEDANISM 283
he was not unfamiliar with its problems. It took some time
to make such arrangements as would be acceptable to all
parties, so it was not until the year 622 that the transfer was
made. In the middle of that year, after his followers had
slipped away in little groups, the Prophet and Abu Bakr
left Mecca secretly and made their way by a round-about
route to Medina, which is just two hundred and fifty miles
north of Mecca. This Flight, or Hegira, marks the year
I A. H. (Anno Hegirae) in Mohammedan chronology. Mo-
hammed settled down and made Medina his home until he
died just ten years after in A. D. 632. AVhile in Mecca Mo-
hammed had been a preacher of righteousness, a wamer of
the wrath to come. He stood as a Prophet of God much
as the Old Testament prophets, whose successor he felt
himself to be. Now it is different He is a civil ruler, a
potentate, with administrative problems on his hands and
with his position to sustain against all comers. He became
perforce a soldier, making war and resisting attack — a, very
different role all around from that in Mecca. And the dif-
ference within is as great as that of the outward circum-
stances.
Fdrten years Mohammed led a strenuous life which it is
impossible here to follow in detail. He began as the ruler of
Medina with the very doubtful allegiance of very few tribes-
men; he ended his career as the recognized ruler of all
Arabia. Summary commands had even been sent out to sur-
rounding nations warning them against resisting the claims
of the Prophet. Mecca had been captured with no blood-
shed, the people opening the gates of the city and receiving
their old townsman with open arms. The sweep was com-
plete. It had not been accomplished without opposition and
bloody contests. Mohammed gave himself to practices —
breaking the sacred months of truce, assassination of per-
sonal enemies, raiding the caravans of the Meccans — ^prac-
tices which may have been necessary to win by force the
mastery of Arabia, but which are hard to defend when they
284 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
are the deeds of one who is a preacher of righteousness and
who claims to be voicing the inner counseb of the God of all
mankind. The battle was not always in favor of Moham-
med, but steadily and persistently he followed his course,
whether circumstances were for him or against him and
by fair means or foul, until he had attained his ambition.
But with Arabia at his feet he looked out on new worlds to
conquer, and the great campaigns which were carried on
after his death were probably bom in the mind of Moham-
med himself. His ambition had grown until it would brook
no restraint.
When the Prophet went to Medina three tribes of Jews
occupied their sections of the area which made up the larger
community. They thought Mohammed might accept their
faith because he had begun to claim that he was only restor-
ing the true religion of Abraham. Mohammed on his side
thought that the Jews would accept him as one of the
prophets and receive his message as a divine revelation.
Both were soon brought to disappointment For one cause
or another Mohammed took ag^essive action against the
Jews. Their tragic fate is one of the darkest blots on the
reputation of the Prophet, already sadly stained. Two of the
tribes were cruelly banished and the third suffered a more
terrible fate. Under circumstances which do little to miti-
gate the horror the women and children were sold into
slavery and the men — six or eight hundred of them — ^were
butchered in cold blood, their bodies in little groups of
threes and fours dropping into an enormous ditch which
had been prepared for their bloody reception. The Prophet
of God gave his sanction to this unbelievable cruelty with no
compunctions and with no diminution of his claim to be the
obedient servant of the great God of justice and mercy !
Whatever may have been in his mind before the death of
Khadijah Mohammed took no second wife while she lived.
But when she died he married soon again and continued to
increase his harem until he had twelve or thirteen wives.
MOHAMMEDANISM 285
Whatever we may think of polygamy, such conduct on the
part of the Prophet did not affect his followers. They
simply took it for granted as an accepted institution. But
the conditions under which he took several of his wives
were such as to make it impossible for us to doubt that
Mohammed was displa3ring every sign of being a sensualist.
In one case, when he married the wife of his adopted son,
Zeid, who divorced her that she might become the wife of
the Prophet, even his followers were scandalized, and only
the prompt arrival of a revelation from Allah saved his
face and made it right for him to do as he had done. Only
by such a terrible expedient did he cover the all too con-
trolling passion which lay so near the surface of his life.
His insane jealousy, fear that others might be enamoured
of his wives, was the real motive which led to the seclusion
of women behind the veil. This one act has been respon-
sible for as much of the backwardness and degradation of
life in the East as any other known influence. When to
polygamy are added facile divorce and the sanction of
slavery the charge against the system is about complete.
He was, it is true, a child of his time, but instead of leaving
woman better off he is responsible for binding her more
securely and for making the problem of her emancipation
and enlightenment infinitely more difficult than it might have
been had he never lived.
How explain the change? A seemingly sincere preacher
of righteousness until the last ten years of his life, then a
period which Professor Macdonald speaks of as "the last
terrible ten years"* — what can be the explanation? Only
this, that the loss of his gbod wife Khadijah and the acces-
sion of power as a ruler in Medina transformed him com-
pletely, and the side of his nature which had been held in
control gained the ascendency and ruined him. He may have
been more or less abnormal; tmdoubtedly his inner nature
^ Aspects of Islam, p. 74.
286 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
had not been fortified by careful discipline durit^ his out-
wardly correct years. Still it remains true that the loss of his
moral stay in his wife and the ra|nd increase of power
touched the two weak spots in Mohammed's character, and
he was undone. Yet vrith all that may be said on this side,
the Prophet appeared to his followers and must, as we see
him through their eyes, likewise appear to us as a reformer.
He found the Arabs practicing infanticide— of girl babies —
and he put an end to this effectively and for all time ; he
found the Arabs torn and weakened by the blood-feud, and
he welded them into a single brotherhood; he found them
worshiping many gods, and when he died they were acclaim-
ing Allah as the one God Almighty. He was a reformer, but
failed at the crucial point of personal character. The pathos
is that his greatness should have blinded the eyes of his
followers so that they failed to realize that he had forfeited
the right to their all^[iance by a surrender of the principles
of truth and honor and justice and mercy for which he had
once stood.
Faith and Practice
When Mohammed died in 632 the Koran had not been
compiled. It could be recited by those who had been his
close companions, but it had not been reduced entirely to
writing. When quite a number of the "Companions" were
killed in a desperate battle about a year after the Prophet's
death it became evident that something must be done, or the
inspired words would soon be lost. One compilation was
made by Zaid, Mohammed's former amanuensis, and, when
disputes arose over various readings, a final recension was
made by Zaid and several members of Mohammed's own
tribe, and this has been the standard version down to the
present day. The finished work, written in Arabic, the
"Language of the Angels," is about as long as the New Tes-
tament It consists of one hundred and fourteen chapters,
or suras, of very unequal length. They are arranged in
MOHAMMEDANISM 287
general with the long soras first and the short suras last,
but this order is almost the exact reverse of the correct
chronological order. The lack of a sufficient number of
names and dates by which the various sections can be identi-
fied and correctly placed in the life of the Prophet renders
the Koran a most di£Eicult book to use historically. Yet it is
our chief source on Mohammed. It is his book ; it undoubt-
edly came from him and is a correct transcript of his mind
and the development of his thought. The frequent repe-
tition of the word ''say" indicates that in Mohammed's
mind God is the speaker throughout and dictates to the
Prophet what he is to "say" to the people. The Moham-
medan theory of the Koran is the most extreme illustration
in any literature of plenary verbal inspiration. //The ac-v
cepted doctrine in the Mohammedan world is that the Koran \
is the uncreated word of God, which has always existed at
the right hand of Allah and which was delivered to Gabriel,
who in turn was to convey it piecemeal to the Prophet as /
each foreordained need should ariseTl There are many lofty
passages filled with poetic fire anclme burning passion of
righteousness, but when the ''awful machinery of divine
inspiration" is used to cover his own sensuality and to
compose petty difficulties in his harem the sincerity of Mo-
hammed is strained to the breaking point and the Koran
becomes a very human document, of great interest withal
because it opens the way into the mind and heart of one of
the most compelling of men.
The Koran is the chief foundation of Islam, the author-
ity par excellence on doctrine and practice. But much that
Mohammedans believe and do is taken from the Traditions,
the Sunna, as they are called. "The term signifies the cus-
tom, habit, usage of the Prophet."* They cover all phases
of life and are believed in by all the Faithful. They are lit-
erally "traditions," handed down by word of mouth in the
*F. A Klein, The Religion of Islam, p. 24. (Trubner, London,
1906.)
288 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
early day until they were put down in writing. They differ
in authority, depending on the trustworthiness of the per-
sons from whom they have been derived. Collections of the
Traditions have been made, which are received as standard
by the people. In recent years the tendency among Euro-
pean scholars has been to discredit a large number of the
received traditions, some going to such extremes that little
confidence can be placed in any fact concerning Mohammed
and his life unless it can be verified from other sources.
This is undoubtedly going too far, but enough has been done
to make the student wary of over-confidence in making
many statements he might have felt sure of a quarter of a
century ago. These two sources are called the Roots of
Islam — there are also two Branches.
Should the followers of Mohammed agree on any point
which is not specifically covered either in the Koran or the
Traditions that ''Agreement," or Ijma, is accepted as au-
thoritative. Now of course practically it is the agreement of
the doctors of the law, the recognized leaders of Moham-
medan opinion, but with Islam divided as it is to-day even
this is not easy to achieve so there shall be any real con-
sensus of view. Space is taken to mention it here because
any advance or change in thought and practice the religion
may make in the future depends upon this possibility. The
statement is frequently made that a changed Islam is no
longer Islam, but Islam has changed in the past, and un-
doubtedly, with the pressure of a new world situation, a new
Islam will come into being. There are scarcely any limits
to the possibility of transformation when a religion, brought
to bay, attempts to fit itself to new conditions. Whether the
changes are ftmdamental or only on the surface they will
be made, in spite of conservatives who are horrified at the
departure from the old landmarks. The last and least sig-
nificant of the sources of Islam, one of the Branches, is
Qias, or reasoning by analogy. The learned doctors may
deal with new problems which arise by comparing them with
MOHAMMEDANISM 289
similar cas^s already settled. The decision must be based
on the Koran, the Sunna, and the Ijma, to be valid. In these
ways do the Mohammedans seek to meet new situations as
they rise and still be true to the original faith of Mo-
hammed.
The religion of Islam is divided into two main divisions,
practical duties and doctrines to be believed. The duties are
five in number, called the Five Pillars of the Faith. There
are other lesser duties, but these stand out as the cardinal
points of practice, necessary to one who claims to be a
follower of the Prophet. The first is the repetition of the
creed, 'There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is the
Prophet of Allah." The simplest of all creeds, to be learned
quickly and never to be forgotten, its hold on the Moslem
world has been tremendous. It is repeated at sundry and
all times until it eats its way into the inner core of a man's
being, almost never to be eradicated. Gibbon speaks of it as
"an eternal truth and a necessary fiction." The idea of one
God is the eternal truth, but Islam needs more; the apos-
tleship of Mohammed is essential if Islam is to be Islam at
all. The second duty is the observance of the five stated
daily prayers. These prayers must be preceded by cere-
monial lustrations, with water if it is to be had, otherwise
with clean desert sand. The prayers are to be said either
in public or private and always in the direction of the sacred
Kaaba in Mecca. The times for these devotional periods
are highly important — ^just before sunrise, at high noon, in
the later afternoon (at the "yellowing" of the sun, as it is
known in the desert), just after sunset, and lastly when
night shuts in. At these times the Muezzin, or crier, ascends
the minaret and summons the faithful to prayer. The hu-
man voice is the church-bell in Moslem lands. There are
other prayers, but these are the regularly designated seasons
when without fail all must turn to Mecca and go through
the carefully regulated acts which accompany the repetition
of the well-known formulas. The hushed stillness of rev-
290 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
erence is upon a Mohainmedaii as he bows before Allah and
makes his requests known to him.
The third Pillar is the thirty days' Fast of Ramadan.
During this sacred month the faithful are to abstain from
foody drink, and bodily pleasure from sunrise to sunset.
It is carried so far that one is supposed not to swallow his
own saliva. The fast is not a severe hardship when the
month comes in the cool season, but when it falls in the
torrid season it becomes a real burden. Mohammed, prob-
ably out of sheer ignorance, would have nothing of inter-
calated months, with the result that the months move slowly
through the seasons and do not remain fixed. The Ramadan
fast is strictly observed, but like so much in Islam the ob-
servance is purely formal. Those who fast all day are
likely to feast all night — ^it makes no difference so long as
the letter of the law is kept The fourth duty is that of
Almsgiving, which is expected of every Moslem. In an
Islamic country under Moslem ofiicials the alms are col-
lected like a tax, but there are few countries under Moslem
rule to-day, and so it becomes a matter on each one's con-
science. Let us give the Mohammedans credit for taking
care of their poor. The last of the duties or Pillars is the
Pilgrimage to Mecca. It is the duty of every Moslem once
in his life to undertake the journey. If a man cannot go
himself, it is meritorious to send some one and thus go by
proxy. The Pilgrimage must be made at the appointed sea-
son. The details of the ceremonies connected with it are
quite elaborate. They include the wearing of the Ihram,
or two seamless wrappers, which must be put on as one
comes to the borders of the sacred region; standing on
Mount Arafat, near Mecca ; going around the Kaaba seven
times, during which each must kiss or touch the holy stone,
which is fixed in one comer of the building; tasting the
waters of the well Zemzem; and doing other strange and
unique things, all of which have to them a wellrknown
significance.
MOHAMMEDANISM 291
Another recognized duty, not included in the Pillars, is
that of Jihad, or the Holy War, which Moslem powers wage
against unbelievers. The last attempt to declare Jihad was
in the fall of 1914, when the Sheik-ul-Islam, the spiritual
head of Islam in Turkey, obeying the orders of the Sultan,
called upon all Moslems everywhere to turn against the
enemies of Turkey and fight the battles of the faith. It was
a Holy War so evidently "Made in Germany," as Professor
Snouck Hurgronje put it, that its call was only heeded as
far as Germany's influence extended and fell on deaf ears
in most of the Moslem world, which remained true to the
Allies. How the Holy War will be interpreted in the future
with Islam divided against itself is one of the most inter-
esting political questions before statesmen to-day, and is a
serious problem in Islam itself.
The essential doctrines of Mohammedanism are as defi-
nitely stated as the duties. They are again five in number,
the first being that of God, which we shall leave to the last.
The next is that of angels, the servants of God, whose one
desire is to love and know God. They are free from all
sin, and act as intercessors for men before God. Besides
the angels are the jinn, who also must be believed in. They
are the genii of the Arabian Nights, some of whom are
believers and some infidels. They were inherited, like so
many other things by Mohammed, from the superstitions of
pre-Islamic paganism. The doctrine of the Books stands
next. The chief sacred books are the Koran, the Pentateuch,
the Zabur, or Psalms of David, and the Injil, or Gospel of
Jesus. The orthodox believe that all previous books are
abrogated by the Koran, thus practically rejecting the Old
and New Testaments, although every reference to the Bible
in the Koran is favorable to a belief in its inspiration and
authority. The fourth doctrine is that of the Prophets.
Many are mentioned, but the leading names are Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. It is held
that all the others were sent to their own people while Mo-
292 THfe RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
hammed was sent to all peoples. Jesus, as is seen, is rec-
ognized as a prophet, the only sinless one among them,
according to the Koran and the traditions. His death on the
cross is denied as beneath the dignity of one of God's chosen
ones. But the one overwhelming fact enunciated by this
doctrine is that Mohammed is the Prophet superseding all
others. They led up to and pointed toward him, and only
by accepting his claims can one be true to the essential
message of all the others. Then follows the doctrine of
the Resurrection and the Last Day. There will be the
sounding of the Trumpets, the Descent of the Books, the
weighing in the Balances, and the crossing of the Narrow
Bridge, from which the wicked fall off into the fiery pit
below. All mankind, good and bad, will be raised and will
answer for their deeds. All Moslems will in the end be
saved no matter what their record may have been. The
last state is in heaven or hell, both of which are pictured
with vivid imagery, calculated to appeal to the imagination
of the dweller in the desert.
The doctrine of God is so important that it occupies nine
tenths of the space in Mohammedan works on theology.
There is but one God, Allah, and he is the omnipotent Cre-
ator and Ruler of the universe. He has many qualities
which the Moslem expresses by repeating the ninety-nine
most beautiful names of God. Of these attributes, or qual-
ities, what are called the essential attributes are life, knowl-
edge (absolute omniscience), power, and will. The doctrine
of the f oreordination of good and evil follows logically from
the emphasis which is put on the almightiness of Allah. It
has had an interesting history. The Prophet was no theo-
logian and gave expression to contradictory views in the
Koran, but as the suras are studied in chronological order
predestination becomes more marked. There the b^n-
nings are found of the fatalistic pall which has always hung
over Islam, cutting the nerve of moral enthusiasm and ren-
dering impossible any movement toward social refonxL Was
MOHAMMEDANISM 293
it not all pre-detertnined by the Almighty Allah ? Only once
was the doctrine seriously challenged. For thirty-four years
at the beginning of the third Islamic century, that is, about
A. D. 825, a party flourished in Bagdad, who denied divine
predestination and asserted free will in man. lliese Free-
thinkers in Islam, Mutazilites, or "Seceders," as they were
called, held other unorthodox doctrines, such as the creation
of the Koran, and had great power until they were over-
come and in turn suffered the persecution they had inflicted
on the more orthodox. They were finally discomfited in
debate and were unable again to lift up their heads through
the victory of al-Ashari, the orthodox champion, who had
once been a Mutazilite himself. He was a master of dialectic
and brought over into Islamic theology the methods of the
scholastic philosophy. He gave a great impetus to ortho-
doxy, which retains its almost undisputed hold to-day, and
of which no feature is emphasized with more insistence than
the doctrine of God's unchangeable decrees pre-determining
all that happens in the world of nature and of men.
With all the Koran says about the mercy and compassion
of Allah, the great, overshadowing attribute is power. This
was Mohammed's emphasis, and it still rules the Islamic
world. It is power unlimited, unrestrained by any law of
holiness or love. This were to lessen the dignity of Allah
and bring him down from the throne of his tmapproachable
might. It makes no difference to the Moslem to have it
suggested that it might be an inner limitation, growing out
of the very nature of God, which is essentially holiness and
love. It would be a limitation nevertheless, and that is
enough for him to spurn the suggestion as a temptation of the
evil one. Allah must be able to do as he wills with no let nor
hindrance. In this way Islam has played fast and loose
with morality, not being able to connect the fundamental dis-
tinction between right and wrong with the essential nature
of God. Sin, then, in man becomes not a breach of a moral
law founded on an eternal ethical cleavage which goes right
294 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
to the heart of the universe itself, but a mere violation of an
arbitrary command which might be changed according to the
whim or caprice of Allah, who thus becomes a typical Orien-
tal despot, irresponsible and unrestrained by any principle
within or without.
Another doctrine must be coupled with this to appreciate
the kind of God Allah is in relation to his people. It is the
doctrine of "difference," which asserts the absolute separa-
tion of Allah and men. God is not a Father ; that would be
to make him like men, for the term "father" suggests to
Moslems primarily and almost entirely physical generation,
which they hold would be unworthy of God. So man in no
sense is a partaker of the divine nature ; he was not made in
the image of God. God must not be brought down to so
low a level as that. Man is carnal and must always remain
so. Salvation does not mean the development of the divine
nature within so as to fit man for spiritual communion with
his Father. It is merely such an obedience to the rules and
regulations which have been laid down that man may secure
the reward in heaven which Allah has promised. And the
heaven is not spiritual, but one suited to the physical desires
which man is conscious of and which he will never outgrow.
It is a luscious garden of fruits and running streams with
delightful nooks in which are the houris, or damsels, which
are the principal reward of the righteous. Such is Islam in
its naked shame, holding men down to the purely physical,
and failing to lift their eyes to a world of spiritual light and
beauty where we shall be with God and see him and be
like him.
But there were and are Moslems not satisfied with such
an outlook. Mysticism has also found a home in Islam as
in Christianity. There have been men who felt that God
was in their hearts and was speaking to them, who desired
communion with him and would be satisfied with nothing
else. The greatest of these was al-Ghazzali, who died A. D.
II II. He was sure that there was that in man which could
MOHAMMEDANISM 295
come into contact with God His experience was more than
could be explained by the barren formulas of the scholastic
theology. Yet he was not unorthodox. He accepted the
apostleship of the Prophet, the authority of the Koran,
and the Traditions, and used the methods of the scholastic
philosophy. But he was a mystic, seeing the inner light and
experiencing the glow of the quiet presence of God in his
inmost being. He could not deny this reality, and his great
work was ''to reduce to an orthodox possibility those mysti-
cal conceptions, and to find a resting place for that possi-
bility in the church of Islam."* Others went far beyond
al-Ghazzali and were not so wise as he. They did not stop
until they had landed in sheer pantheism, virtually denying
all the specific doctrines of their faith and holding that all
beliefs and outward practices were meaningless in the pres-
ence of the mystic union of the soul and the great All, whom
they might still call Allah, but whose essential character they
had completely denied. The mystical experience was given
another vent, however, in the Darwish orders, which are
scattered so widely over the Islamic world. The meetings
of these brotherhoods seek to stimulate the emotional expe-
rience by well-understood exercises. Though they may be
a poor substitute for the communion with God which Chris-
tians experience in Jesus Christ, they give abundant testi-
mony to the presence in the heart of Moslems of a longing
after God which only his presence can satisfy.
Islam in Histoky
The rapid expansion of Islam is one of the marvels of
history. When Mohammed died in 632, plans of conquest
were already in his mind. During the period of the first
four, or orthodox. Caliphs (632-661), Persia, Syria, Pales-
tine, and Egypt were subjugated. In the year 711 the Mos-
lem armies entered Spain, having already crossed the entire
* D. B. Macdonald, Aspects of Islam, p. i$h.
296 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
breadth of North Africa, and by 732 were to be found as
far north as Central France. Here at Tours they were met
by King Charles, who received the name of Martel, or
"Hammer/' from this battle, and suffered a decisive defeat,
the first check the Moslem has met in his victorious prog-
ress. The battle of Tours was one of the decisive battles
of the world. The fate of Europe was decided that day,
whether it should be Moslem or Christian. The faith also
• spread into Turkestan and even entered remote China. These
conquests took place during the ascendency of the Arabs,
before they gave place to the Turks in the leadership of
Islam. After the four orthodox Caliphs, Abu Bakr, Omar,
Othman, and Ali, who ruled from the old seat of authority in
Arabia, the center was shifted to Damascus, where the
Omayyad Caliphs ruled from 661 to 750. Then again there
was a transfer and for a brilliant period Bagdad was the
center of the Islamic world. Here the Abbasid Caliphs held
sway in pomp and splendor from 750 to 1258. The last cen-
turies saw degeneracy and the slow but sure decline of pres-
tige. The authority was passing over to the Turks, who had
come in from Central Asia and were making themselves mas-
ters of the situation in Asia Minor.
How account for this marvelous expansion? Canon W.
H. T. Gairdner mentions^ a number of factors which help
in arriving at a conclusion. Zeal for God was a motive, not
unmixed with baser elements, which welded the loosely or-
ganized Arab tribesmen into a compact body and drove them
out to do battle against the enemies of Allah. To this must
be added zeal for plunder and slaves. This made a strong
appeal to the Arab. He was to be the soldier of Islam sup-
ported by the tribute of the peoples he conquered. Arabia
thus became the breeding place and training ground for army
after army which went out to conquer a world. The ex-
haustion might have come sooner than it did had it not been
' Rebuke of Islam, chap. liL (United Council for Missionary Edu-
cation, London, 1900.)
MOHAMMEDANISM 297
for the importation of large numbers of concubines and
women slaves which were increased greatly by the wars.
The countries which were conquered fell by the sword, but
after the initial bloodshed there was usually peace. The
enormous numbers converted to Islam were not necessarily
forced into Islam at the edge of the sword, though that hap-
pened at times. With a nation the alternative was Islam or
the sword, but with an individual after the new religion had
been installed it was Islam or tribute. They might remain
Qiristians on condition of paying tribute, and many did
this, as witness the Coptic Church in Egypt, the Armenian,
and other of the so-called Oriental Christian churches in the
Near East. When they turned Moslem it was usually the
pressure of the whole system. Under Islam, even if they
remained Christian, there was a large measure of justice
and less persecution than was frequently the case when in-
tolerance marked the attitude of the warring sects in the
decaying Eastern Roman Empire. It was a positive relief,
for example, in Egypt, to pass from Christian rule to that
of Islam. As soon as the Christians paid the tribute they
were under Moslem protection. The sexual freedom al-
lowed under Islam was a strong inducement to men not
strongly under the influence of Christian ideals. The Mos-
lem soldiers and those who followed the armies into any
country were free to intermarry with any of the women of
the land, and of course the children were always Moham-
medans. Thus Islam won its victories, both as a political
force and as a religion. The kind of Christianity Islam met
could expect no other fate. It was weak and corrupt and
divided and did not have the slightest chance against so
determined and convinced an adversary.
^^ During the last two centuries of the Caliphate in Bagdad
the real strength of Islam as a political power was Turkish.
The Turks had been brought to Bagdad as the bodyguard of
the Caliphs, with little thought that they would so soon as-
stmie the rule. First the Seljukian Turks (from the year
agS THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
1037) and then the Othmanli, or Ottoman Turks ({rom
1299 to the present time) took the lead. The Arab, seem-
ingly having had his day, retired into the background and
has never been able to r^ain the position he once held. Dur-
ing the period of the Seljuks occurred the crusades, when
Christian Europe made the desperate attempt to wrest the
holy sepulcher of our Lord from the Moslem, and, after tem-
porary success, was hurled back by the foUowers of Moham-
med. The Turks made Asia Minor completely Moslem,
crossed over into Europe and captured province after prov-
ince, until finally in 1453 Constantinople fell and the old
Eastern Empire came to an end. The tidal wave of Moham-
medan advance was not stopped until late in the seventeenth
century when Vienna was besieged, only to be relieved by the
Polish King John Sobieski. But the real turn of the tide
did not take place until the Greek War of Indq)endence
early in the nineteenth century. Since then the retrograde
movement has been rapid, so that at the opening of the
great war in 1914 Turkey in Europe consisted only of the
city of Constantinople and a few square miles of adjacent
territory.
But to return to the early days of life and vigor, Islam
under the Turk expanded eastward over Afghanistan, Balu-
chistan, and down into the plains of India. The forays into
India hegSLXi about the year A. D. 1000. In course of time
Delhi became the capital of a Mohammedan empire, which
under the Mogul emperors (1525-1707) was one of the
most brilliant epochs of Indian as well as of Islamic history.
During these years the faith penetrated more deeply into
Central Asia, many Moslems entering China and joining
¥ath their fellow religionists already there. In 1507 Islam
was carried by peaceful penetration into the southeast and
found lodgment in the island world, where it is still spread-
ing and making converts. Java with its population of twen-
ty-five millions is practically Moslem, the center of the
among the Malays.
MOHAMMEDANISM 299
The fidd of the mediaeval advance of Islam in Africa was
the Sahara and the Sudan. The Sahara fell rapidly to
Islam, the inducement to the Arabs being trade in ivory and
slaves. They introduced the camel as they advanced, pene-
trating farther and farther to the south and capturing some
of the best people in northern Sudan. Then after a quies-
cence of three hundred years, during which Islam remained
almost stationary, the advance southward was begun again
in our own day and threatens to submerge the continent.
Africa will not long remain pagan; will she be Moslem or
Christian? The odds are now greatly in favor of the reli-
gion of the Arabian Prophet. Why tfiis advance after cen-
turies of inactivity ? So long as the slave-trade continued to
exist the Arab traders could not desire the conversion of the
Negroes, for by Moslem law they were forbidden from mak-
ing slaves of fellow-Moslems — ^they all belonged to one great
brotherhood. But when the trade in slaves was forever
made impossible by European intervention it was now to the
advantage of the traders to deal with the blacks as Moslems.
Their wants became greater and their desires could be stim-
ulated, as was impossible in their pagan condition. Then,
too, when European governments in the last quarter of a
century inaugurated the rule of law and order wars were
brought to an end and the tribes were compelled to lay
down their arms, thus taking away the one pagan protec-
tion against Islam. For generations and even centuries they
had sedulously excluded any Mohammedan under any pre-
text. They feared the influence of Islam like a pestilence.
But now die Mohammedan trader and school-teacher and
missionary have access everywhere, and they are making
the most of their opportunity. When to all this is added the
actual patronage of Islam by certain governments for rea-
sons of political expediency, the impression made on the
native is most favorable to the religion of the Prophet — a
strange commentary on the influence of so-called Christian
nations.
300 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Thus Islam has advanced until to-day, with an estimated
strength of two htmdred millions, scattered all the way from
China to the shores of the Atlantic in Africa and from the
banks of the Volga in Russia to the waters of the south seas,
the religion of Mohammed is a world religion, the most
powerful of all the rivals of Christianity in its attempt to
win mankind. It has been said that Islam is a stepping-stcme
toward Christianity. Undoubtedly when a pagan tribe is
converted it is raised to a slightly higher level. But, unfor-
tunately, it is left there stranded with no possibility of fur-
ther progress. Islam adds dignity to the savage, clothes
him in a certain respectability, and brings him within the
bound of a world-embracing brotherhood. These benefits,
together with that of a belief in one great God, Allah, in-
stead of cringing fear in the presence of a thousand spirits
and demons, must be acknowledged in spite of the fact that
the change in many cases is more seeming than real. But —
and this is the final test — when Islam brings even greater
sensuality, stimulates divorce and polygamy and, in so far
as it dares, slavery ; when its presence always results in the
seclusion and n^lect of women, the religion of Islam can
only be looked upon as a blight to every people among whom
it has come. And as for being a stepping-stone, the proud
and overbearing attitude which is always assumed in the
presence of the followers of any other religion — ^and this is
particularly true of Christians — ^would make Islam appear
to be the greatest barrier to the progress of Christianity in
the world to-day.
But even Islam does not present a united front. Deep
cleavages began soon to appear and have always been pres-
ent. The most significant is that between the Sunnis and
the Shiites. The Sunnis represent the great body of Mos-
lems, the followers of the Sunna, or Traditions. The Shiites,
or "Followers," are the adherents of Ali, who married Mo-
hammed's daughter Fatima and thus continued the Proph-
et's line. The Shiites hold to "the divine right of the de-
MOHAMMEDANISM 301
scendants of the Prophet through the children of All and
Fatima"* to be the rulers of the Islamic world. This claim
is repudiated by the Sunnis, who have allowed the choice of
the people to determine the question of the headship of the
religion. The Shiites, who are about nine millions strong,
are found principally in Persia, though like-minded believ-
ers in Ali are widely scattered in various Moslem lands. To
them Ali was the first Imam, or head of the religion, after
the Prophet. He is* raised to such a level that even Mo-
hammed pales into insignificance before him. An Imam is
imperative for every age as the religious authority for the
people as well as their political ruler. There have been
twelve of these Imams, the last of whom is still alive, though
he has disappeared and exerts his influence invisibly. In the
end a Mahdi, or guide, is to appear to restore all things and
usher in the final consummation. The Messianic idea thus
has its place in Islam, repudiated for the most part by the
Sunnis but becoming "the vital nerve of the entire Shiite
system."* When to their positive views the Shiites have
added intolerance, even to fellow-Mohammedans not agree-
ing with them, this division in their ranks appears as a
serious impediment to unity of thought and purpose. Other
movements, like that of the Wahabites, who more than a
century ago in Arabia inaugurated a Puritan movement and
strenuously opposed all innovations as contrary to the tradi-
tions, and that of the Senussi in recent years, with their cen-
ter in an oasis in the Sahara, who sought to stimulate a
closer union between all Moslems, with the desire to make
Islam again the great power she had once been in the world
— such movements and others like them indicate restless-
ness within the ranks and the desire to push the claims of
Islam with greater zeal.
But these divisions and tendencies are for the time being
'Goldziher, Mohammed and Islam, p. 222. (Yale Univ. Press,
New Haven, 1917.)
* Goldziher, op. cit, p. 246.
302 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
of lesser importance than the political condition in which
Islam finds herself in the world. The movement called Pan-
Islamism, which had been stimulated for years by the Sultan
of Turkey, was making real progress, and the European
nations. Great Britain, Holland, and France, which had vast
populations of Moslems in their colonial possessions, were
watching anxiously the tendencies which were taking shape.
Then came the war in 1914 and the Moslem world was rent
in twain. Turkey allowed herself to become a pliable instru-
ment in the hands of Germany and attempted to persuade
and cajole the entire following of the Prophet into war on
the same side. But Islam failed to show the unity which
many fondly expected, and the dreams of a great united
Pan-Islamic movement were doomed to disappointment. To
add to the difficulties the Sherif of Mecca, the guardian of
the sacred cities of the faith, proclaimed the independence of
the Hejaz and set up a government of his own. Under
British protection he has held his place and may continue to
do so for the future. What attitude will the Moslems scat-
tered all over the world take ? The Turkish Sultan has been
recognized as the Caliph only by grace of necessity and the
power he has for so long been able to wield. But with the
sacred land of Mohammed in the hand of an Arab kii^,
what will be the attitude of Islam? Shall the Caliphate con-
tinue to be a perquisite of the Sublime Porte or shall it be
transferred to other hands? And even more significantly,
will Islam continue to claim the right to temporal power, or,
under the stress of circumstances, mil she be satisfied to be
reckoned among the religious forces of the world, depending
no longer on the power of the state but solely on her spirit-
ual resources? It has been said that this is impossible in
Islam, but no one in the present situation can predict the
changes which are to take place. And among these changes
none are more sure or more significant than those which
are to transform the religions of the world into forms very
different from those we now see. Islam has been more
MOHAMMEDANISM 303
deeply affected by recent world movements than many in
her own fold are willing to acknowledge, and it must eventu-
ally become evident that she must accommodate herself to
modem life and thought — or be lost
Suggestions fob Fubthxr Study
D. S. Margoliouth, Mohammedanism (Home University Library).
A short but excellent summary of the faith and its practices.
P. De Lacy Johnstone, Muhammed and His Power (Edinburgh,
1901). One of the best short accounts of the Prophet and his
system.
The Koran, translated by J. M. Rodwell (Everyman's Library). A
convenient volume, with Suras arranged chronologically and notes.
H. U. W. Stanton, The Teaching of the Qut^an (London, 1919). A
short summary with a ftdl index.
D. B. Macdonald, Aspects of Islam (New York, ipii). One of the
best interpretations, by a master.
C Snouck Hurgronje, Mohammedanism (New York, 1916). A
short but authoritative interpretation.
Cieorge Foot Moore^ History of Religions, VoL II, Chaps. XVI*
XXIL
CHAPTER XII
CHRISTIANITY
Jesus Chmst
Little is known of the early life of Jesus Christ. Bom
a few years before the year A. D. i in Bethlehem of Judaea,
he lived in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, until he was about
thirty years of age. We have no reason to doubt the tradi-
tion that after the death of Joseph, the head of the family,
Jesus became the main support of Mary and the younger
children. He worked at his trade, that of a carpenter, and
lived the life which would be expected of a religiously-
minded young Hebrew. We have only one glimpse into his
life and mind during all this period, and that was when Jesus
was a boy of twelve. He went up with Joseph and Mary
to Jerusalem to the feast of the Passover. Here he came
into touch with the ofiidal teachers of the people and amazed
them by his questions and his answers. He was not only
religiously inclined but showed insight and discrimination
beyond his years. Upon being questioned by his mother as
to his reason for staying in the city and not starting with
them on the homeward journey, Jesus seemed surprised that
it had not occurred to them that the natural place for him
to be was in his Father's house. He seemed already to show
a sense of unique relationship with God, whom it was nat-
ural for him to call Father. With this beginning at twelve
we may imagine the inner development and preparation for
his life task which must have taken place during the subse-
quent eighteen "silent years" at Nazareth, before he ap-
peared in a new role as a teacher of the people.
At about the age of thirty Jesus suddenly appeared at the
Jordan, where John, a cousin of his, was performing the
304
CHRISTIANITY 305
rite of baptism on those who came professing a desire to
amend their ways and live better lives. Jesus also came
and, against the scruples of John, who saw that Jesus was
in different case from the others, was baptized. It marked
a turning-point, for with the outward ritual act came an
inner spiritual experience of profound significance for Jesus.
A voice assured him that he was in a unique sense his
Father's "beloved Son," in whom he was "well pleased."
It seems to have been the consummation of his thought and
prayer and eager yearning for many years. He had re-
ceived his revelation. He was filled with a sense of mission,
of having a work to do and a message to deliver, which to
the end of his life did not leave him for a moment. Imme-
diately after this new experience Jesus passed through a
period of "temptation," in which he decided upon the prin-
ciples and the methods of his work in bringing in the king-
dom of God. This was his God-given task ; how was it to
be performed ? The kingdom must be ushered in by a clear
emphasis on the spiritual rather than the physical element;
by a firm reliance on God's goodness and power, which
would repudiate any spectacular aids ; and by such a single-
hearted allegiance to God that compromise with evil and
subservience to the lower standards represented by th«
evil one would be instantly repudiated. Having passed
through this crisis, Jesus went out and for a period, vari-
ously estimated from one to three years, proclaimed the
message of the new kingdom.
He went from place to place in Palestine preaching in
the synagogues and out-of-doors wherever the people con-
gregated, and talking to individuals and to groups as they
came to him with their questions and problems. He began
to gather about him a little company of disciples, which soon
grew to twelve and which accompanied him on all his jour-
neys. He spent much time in giving them instruction and
on several occasions sent them out to heal and to preach.
Around this smaller and more intimate group a larger num-
3o6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
ber, who had been attracted by the teacher and healer, gath-
ered and evidently followed him as far as their other duties
would allow. He spent much of his time in and about Gali-
lee, though on several notable occasions he went to Jerusa-
lem, the religious center of Jewish life, and there came into
contact with the leaders of the people. But whether with
individuals or large audiences, whether among friends or
bitter opponents, Jesus preserved the same poise and self-
control He was always simple, candid, and sincere, and
carried about with him such an atmosphere of quiet assur-
ance that what he said always struck home, and caused men
and women in spite of themselves to recognize his right to
speak and be heard. His words carried their own authority
and did not need the backing of rabbis and teachers and
writings of recognized worth. He was heard with equal
pleasure and understanding by the ignorant and learned, so
simple and concrete were his words. Yet lurking behind
these vivid stories, taken from the life all knew so well,
were the most profound and fundamental truths, which the
careless were quite likely to miss. Jesus even cast his
thought into story form, that of the parable, for the very
purpose of testing his hearers. It did not require high intel-
lectual attainment but moral sincerity was necessary to
probe beneath the surface and find the hidden truth, which
to the vulgar and the inert would mean little or nothing.
At other times his thought took the form of epigrams,
which among the peoples of the East are so dearly loved, and
still again he would use the forms of the apocalyptic writers
of his age. Whether all the imagery and all the predictions
placed in the mouth of Jesus in the great apocalyptic dis-
courses were given out by him in just this form, or in a few
cases at all, is an exceedingly difficult question. What we
may feel sure of is that he was not only a preacher of pleas-
ant and comforting things, but could be as severe as the
divine judgment itself in his denunciations of sin and un-
righteousness, of hypocrisy and unreality in religion.
CHRISTIANITY 307
Jesus came to establish a kingdom, and this was the bur-
den of his message. But he never forgot that the form of
the kingdom and many things connected with its coming
were of lesser significance than the inner facts and principles
on which it was based. The first of these was man's rela-
tionship with God. He had been called Father before, but
never with the fullness of meaning which it carried after
Jesus had by word and act shown what it meant. God is
our Father, with all the tender love and unfailing strength
which the term "Father" has taken on through Jesus* words
and example of filial trust. And quite as much did the term
take on new meaning through Jesus' example of compas-
sion and solicitude over suffering and sinning men and
women. It was a new revelation in the world, and has
opened the eyes of men since that time to a new conception
of the character of God, for nothing like that had ever been
seen among men. He taught that this Father was ready and
anxious to forgive all who came to him without respect to
race or position in society or any other outward distinction.
The condition of the heart was the only thing which mat-
tered. The seriousness of the issues of life were not mini-
fied, and terrible things were spoken with respect to the fate
of the obdurate, only it was never to be forgotten that men
were always dealing with a Father whose compassion would
never fail and who could save to the uttermost.
Jesus was not a social or political reformer. We cannot
even tell what he felt and thought about certain questions
which were agitating the men of his day, not to speak of all
the movements with which his name has been connected
from that time to this. Yet he laid down principles of the
relations of man to man which have been revolutionary in
the history of the world. He recognized none of the arbi-
trary distinctions which divide men, and on the basis of his
attitude a true democracy has been made possible. He did
not explicitly condemn slavery, but men have only been made
free where his example and his teaching have been made
3o8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
known. He did not inveigh against the forms of government
which prevailed in his day, but all tyrannies and autocracies
have had reason to fear when oppression and disr^fard of
the rights of man have been seen in the light of his teaching.
He did not proclaim a new social order, but the upheaval of
the present day, which is shaking the very fotmdations of
civilization, would never have come had it not been for the
vision of all men and women possessing equal rights and
opportunities which truly expresses the spirit of Jesus.
Jesus was always ready to urge that his kingdom was spirit-
ual, to be realized within the hearts of men, but the effect of
such a conception has been to work its way out into all the
relationships in which men find themselves and bring them
into harmony with his ideals.
Jesus was not only a teacher ; he was a worker of miracles.
The Gospels tell us that he cured the sick, opened the eyes
of the blind, fed the hungry, stilled the storm, and even
raised the dead. Much was made of these wonders by for-
mer generations of Christians, who used them as proofs of
the divine character of the one who performed them. Such
use of these incidents does not produce the effect it once did
and is being discarded. A closer study of the attitude of
Jesus toward his own miraculous power clearly indicates
that he minimized its significance. He would have men
secure a better perspective and realize that moral power was
on a higher level dian the ability to work marvels. With
this in view it scarcely seems congruous to use the miracles
in a way which could scarcely be acceptable to Jesus himself.
What they really do is to provide a window into the inner
life of Jesus, which presents a far more wonderful scene
than merely the ability to do what others could not It
shows the heart of compassion which was beating in his
breast, leading him to acts of mercy and kindness which
involved the use of all the powers at his command. It was
at the point of his unbounded compassion, which led him at
times almost against his better juc^gment to give of himself
^
CHRISTIANITY 309
to relieve suffering and sorrow and want, that the great dif-
ference between Jesus and themselves must have become
evident to his disciples. He lived vicariously — ^had it not
been so, his death would never have assumed the significance
it did for the disciples of that and all subsequent ages.
Jesus was living among sinning men and women and was
constantly dealing with the malady at the root of human life.
His analysis of character and his ability to read the inner
motives of men give ample evidence of the deepest moral
insight and sincerity. Yet with all this he was not conscious
of sin in his own life and was willing to throw out the chal-
lenge to anyone to lay his finger on any spot or blemish.
That a man should be able to state an ideal which still goes
beyond the possibility of the deepest ethical thinker to im-
prove is an achievement unmatched in the history of ethical
theory, but that this teacher should match his ideal with his
life, should live it out so that the example is more beautiful
than the precept, is to raise Jesus to an unapproachable pin-
nacle of excellence. We must use words which cannot be
applied to any other of the sons of men. That was the im-
pression he made then, and it i§ the same to-day. A unique
event had transpired — ^ UM Si ^ f^d trodden our earth of
whom it could be said that he had not sinned. How to
classify such an one has been the problem of problems in
theology since his appearance.
But of all the impressions Jesus made the strongest was
that he was in touch with God his Father and that this was
the explanation of all the wonderful things about him. His
prayer-life was so different from that of the disciples that
they came asking him to teach them how to pray. He was
with them day and night, and yet with all the closeness of
the fellowship they realized that their Master had a compan-
ionship which was more real and vital to him. He lived in
the presence of the spiritual world and seemed perfectly
at home. God was to him a personal Being with whom a
life might be shared, not some power or indefinite being
310 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
far off to whom we must send our prayers and who liyes
in a world so strange that he cannot enter into the mean-
ing of our mundane life. But this above all else is what
men want to know. Is there a being at the center of the
universe who cares? How can we be sure? In the pres-
ence of Jesus their questions were answered. In some mar-
velous manner their association with him carried more with
it than they had thought possible. They began to realize
that to be with Jesus gave them a sense of nearness to God,
and this continued until these Jews, dyed-in-the-wool mono-
theists as they were, found themselves offering an homage
to their Master which was little different from their attitude
toward God, and were doing it with no sense of incon-
gruity.
Jesus, however, was not only winning followers and bring-
ing them dose to God ; he had come into collision with the
religious authorities of his people, and in the end lost his
life at their hands. They were formalists and as such had
not averted the danger of losing sight of the vital principles
of their religion. Jesus was an innovator, and f dt free to
act in accordance with the inner spirit of the old precepts
even where by doing so he ran counter to the letter of the
law. Jesus also failed to fulfill the popular expectation of
what tbe expected Messiah should be, a military commander
and king, who should lead the Jewish nation on to victory
over the Roman Eagles and establish again the throne of
David forever. In different ways Jesus jarred upon the
sensibilities of the people and their leaders. He was not one
with either in their attitudes and expectations. As time
elapsed and they became the more incensed the scribes and
Pharisees set about deliberatdy to destroy him and put an
end to his influence.' The break had been coming for some
time, over the use to be made of the Sabbath. When the
leaders heard that he allowed his disdples to pluck com as
they passed through the fields and that he even healed a man
on the Sabbath day, they were scandalized. The final op-
CHRISTIANITY 311
portunity came when Jesus appeared in Jerusalem at the
feast of the Passover. He was seized and, after having had
a preliminary hearing before the Jewish high priest and
Sanhedrin, was taken before Pontius Pilate, the Roman pro-
curator, and was condemned to death. He was crucified,
together with two criminals, and died at the end of six
hours' agony on the cross. His body was taken down by
friends in the early evening and laid in a rock-hewn tomb.
The hopes of his disciples were dashed to the ground, and
undoubtedly the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities
thought they had rid themselves of an exceedingly trouble-
some creature.
But such was not to be, for a very remarkable thing hap-
pened the third day after. To the utter amazement of his
disciples, who had not recovered from the paralyzing effect
of their grief and disappointment, Jesus appeared to them
so unmistakably that they were convinced that death had
not been able to hold its victim and that Jesus was alive.
Their new enthusiasm, the founding of the Christian Church
on the assurance of the presence of the living Christ, the
adoption of the first day of the week as a memorial of the
day when Jesus reappeared alive — all these historic facts
bear witness to the genuineness of the disciples' testimony
that the same Jesus who had journeyed with them, who had
died and had been laid away in the tomb, was raised from
the dead, their living Master forevermore. They immedi-
ately went out to preach "the gospel of the resurrection,"
and with that the history of the Christian Church was begun.
Development op Life and Teaching
The earliest Christians were Jews. The only difference
between them and the non-Christian Jews was that they
believed that Jesus was the expected Messiah and the others
did not. They felt it inctunbent on them to observe the reg-
ulations and take part in the ceremonies of the Jewish faith.
312 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Coupled with this, of course, was their enthusiastic belief
that Jesus was the Christ and that in him all the hopes and
aspirations which had filled the minds of their people for
hundreds of years were in process of being fulfilled. It was
hard even for the disciples of Jesus to learn the lesson that
it was a spiritual kingdom which was to be inaugurated and
not a political kingdom, whose capital was to be in Jeru-
salem. There were these two aspects of the Messianic
hope, one kingly and political and the other spiritual and
sacrificial, and even to this day the two are at times sadly
confused. These early disciples took it for granted that
the way to Christ was through the portals of Judaism.
Already the idea of Gentiles becoming fellow-religionists
had become familiar through the inclusion of proselytes in
the Jewish community. Some came in completely by not
only accepting belief in Jehovah and the obligation of the
moral law, but by submitting to the rite of circumcision.
They were known as Proselytes of Righteousness. Others
were worshipers of Jehovah and kept the moral law, but
were not fully amalgamated with the community by the
distinctive rite of their religion. All this was well known
to the early Christians, and it did not occur to them that
Gentiles should come into their ranks in any other way.
Let them first become circumcised, then they would be eli-
gible to church membership.
This rigid theory did not continue long without challenge.
One of the most interesting developments which may be
traced in the Book of Acts is the movement toward greater
liberality. Much is made of the conversion of Cornelius the
centurion because he was a Roman, a "God-fearing man,"
as such proselytes were called in the New Testament, who
was baptized by Peter irrespective of his uncircumcised
condition. It was looked upon as a most important step,
only to be taken under the direct guidance of God's Spirit.
But the really significant move occurred when Paul forced
the issue and brought matters to a settlement in the Jem-
CHRISTIANITY 313
salem council, described in Acts 15. He had become quite
free in admitting Gentiles, and had come to the conviction
that the new religion ought to stand in its own right and not
be in the leading strings of Judaism. Opposed to him were
the '' Judaizers/' who contended that the obligation to become
circumcised and obey the ceremonial law was as binding on
the Christians as on the Jews. Paul brought the matter to
the elders at Jerusalem, and after careful deliberation the
momentous decision was reached that the Gentiles might
be admitted to the Christian churches irrespective of any
relation to Judaism. It was the first crisis through which
the early church passed, and from this time it became inde-
pendent, and the development which followed was that of
its own genius, as the inner meaning of the faith began to
unfold and the far-reaching conununities came into contact
with the world of thought and action round about.
The Old Testament was the Bible of the early Christians.
Only gradually were the books of the New Testament writ-
ten and accepted by the churches. The New Testament
presupposes the existence of a vigorous religious life, out
of which the Gospels and letters came. The words and acts
of Jesus were handed down by word of mouth and were
doubtless arranged in order for catechetical classes before
they took shape as we have them now. Not for about two
hundred years was the canon fixed, and even then certain
books, like the Revelation, were looked on askance by cer-
tain sections of the church. Many of the doctrines which
were taught, like belief in the one God and the obligation
of the moral law, were taken over from Judaism. More
and more completely, however, the meaning of the revela-
tion of Jesus Christ took possession of their minds and
transformed even the old truths into something more living
and real. He became the central fact of their faith and was
raised to a place in their thinking commensurate with the
place he occupied in their hearts and as dynamic in their
daily living.
314 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
The second Christian century is one of the most obscure;
we know little of the important changes which were taking
place. The churches came into contact with a movement
or tendency called Gnosticism. These "Knowers" had doubt-
less come into contact with a philosophy of life emanating
from Persia or even farther east and mingled with Greek
theories according to which a fundamental cleavage ran
ri|^t down through the universe, a cleavage not only between
right and wrong, but even more fundamentally between
spirit and matter. The two are separated by a chasm so
deep and wide that it would seem almost hopeless to bridge
it Matter was looked upon as intrinsically and inevitably
evil simply because it was matter. It could not be saved;
it must be left behind if the spirit of man were to be eman-
cipated. For it was just there the problem pressed — man
was both spirit and matter. He sought to be free, yet was
held down as by an unsupportable burden by the flesh and
its desires. The only hope was that by repudiating the flesh
and by giving one's self to ascetic deprivations the body
would have less and less hold and tiie spirit would be free
to rise slowly through dq;rees of divine attainment to the
plane of pure spirituality for which it longed. God, who
was the very essence of spirit, was far distant from this
earth. He created and sustains the processes of the material
world by subservient beings, or emanations, which exist as
a kind of heavenly hierarchy in varying grades, the lowest
of which have actual contact with men and their affairs.
This movement secured access to the church itself and
formed one or two sects about which little is known. They
wore themselves out in course of time without vitiating the
central stream of Christian life. The influence of the move-
ment remained, however, in an ascetic attitude which has
been far from wholesome in the church. Continuing to
believe that the body was inevitably corrupt and that its
desires, particularly die sexual impulse, were evil and should
be suppressed, a tan was put on marriage and celibacy was
CHRISTIANITY 315
declared to be a higher state. In one section of Syria no one
was to be baptized who was living in the married state. This
extreme was not followed farther west, but the tendency
maintained itself in the praise of virginity and the enforced
celibacy of monks and nuns and of the priesthood of the
church.
It was not long before the new faith came into contact
with the most powerful intellectual weapon ever forged by
the human mind, Greek thought. The origins of Christian-
ity were Hebraic, its forms of thought and the niethod of
presentation were derived from the Old Testament and the
habit of mind of the Jewish people. But even before the
new religion arose Judaism had come into contact with
Greek thought, notably in the cosmopolitan city of Alex-
andria in Egypt. There lived and wrote at about the time of
Christ the Jewish philosopher Philo, who was deeply tine-
ttu-ed with Greek learning. He made use of the conception
of the Logos, the word or the expression of the distant God,
a conception which was taken by the John of the fourth
Gospel and used to convey one of the most profound of the
great Christian ideas. It was inevitable that Christianity,
too, should sooner or later be influenced by the same power-
ful instrument, and be compelled to think out its doctrines
anew. At the very center of the faith was Christ. He had
saved men and women from their sins, he had given them
the hope of everlasting life, he had furnished a new moral
dynamic — ^in all these respects what Christianity had to
present was new and startling. Nothing like it had been
known in the world of Paganism. But a question began to
press itself home among the more thoughtful as to the kind
of being this Christ was. The discussion took many forms,
but what to make of Christ, related ^both to God and man,
was the burden of every argument. Jesus was a human
being, that was quite evident from his life among men, but
these Christian thinkers could not be satisfied to leave him
there. He was man, but more than man. This might be
3i6 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
easy enough to say, and would fit in well with the experi-
ence of the many followers of Jesus who had learned to
associate him with God and to worship him, but it was quite
a different thing when the attempt was made to form an
exact statement in the terms of the dominant Greek
philosophy.
How could a being be God and man at the same time?
There were no human analogies to which appeal might be
made. Two marked tendencies appeared, one to make Jesus
Christ the highest of all the creatures God had made, far
above any other being known in the universe, and yet a
creature below the dignity of God himself. The other was
to take the bold step of asserting that Jesus was truly
man and at the same time truly God, that he was not a
creature, but of the very essence of God, that he was as
much a part of God as the Father himself. This is the
meaning of the decision reached at the first general council of
the church held at Nicea in 325. Anus contended that Jesus
was a created being, withal the very highest of God's
creation, while Athanasius carried the council with him in
asserting that Jesus was of the "same substance" with the
Father, and as eternal Being had never been created at
all. The Christian Church has gone with Athanasius.
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity has passed through
many vicissitudes and may have many more crises yet to
meet, but so long as men are brought into the presence of
Christ and see in him their Saviour and Lord the problem
will not down. Where shall such a being be placed to do
justice to the impress of the facts on eager men and women
whose lives have been transformed by his touch? It can-
not be among men, and if higher, where else than in the
very being of God himself? And to do that means some
form of the doctrine of the Trinity, for the doctrine of the
Holy Spirit follows closely on that of the Christ The
final solution remains still to be discovered. It may be that
it will never be solved to entire satisfaction, but that will not
CHRISTIANITY 317
alter the situation — so long as lives are being made over in
the image of Jesus Christ, so long will men insist upon lift-
ing him up to the only level which will satisfy their sense of
the eternal fitness of things.
All these discussions took place in the East, which was
essentially metaphysical. The day of the West was not yet
come, but it was gathering strength during the years and
in the fourth and fifth centuries we come to the command-
ing figure of Augustine (354-430), the theologian of the
Western church. Now the West was the complete anti-
thesis of the East ; it was preeminently practical, concerned
less about metaphysical distinctions than the problems of
church organization. It accepted the doctrinal decisions of
the four great orthodox councils as a matter of course; it
knew how to submit to recognized authority. When it
came to further developments its genius was shown in the
formulation of the extremely practical doctrine of salva-
tion, of God's grace in receiving sinners and placing them
on a standing as citizens of the heavenly kingdom. This was
the great work of Augustine, who had become Bishop of
Hippo in North Africa. Together with this unfolding of
the doctrine of salvation another movement was in progress,
that of building up the church in theory and in practice as
the representative of God on earth. According to Augus-
tine man was a poor helpless creature, lost in sin and misery,
until God should deign to take him and by his irresistible
grace put him on his feet and make him one of his elect
children. Now, when the church came more and more to
stand between God and men and claim possession of the
only means — ^the sacraments — ^through which men could gain
access to God, the power of the church over the conscience
and destiny of men became unbounded. This assertion of
the church of the right to dominate the life of men, individ-
ually and in every relationship even up to the high position
of king and emperor, is the dominant note of the Middle
Ages. The modern world could only be ushered in by break-
3i8 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
ing through the authority of the church and setting free the
mind of man from the intolerable bondage.
This is what the Renaissance and the Reformation did
They gathered into striking power the forces which had
been developing for generations and proclaimed that man
was free. What the Renaissance of the fifteenth century
did for the intellect — and with many unfortunate features
withal — ^that the Reformation in the next century, led by
Martin Luther, accomplished for the conscience and the
spiritual life. Its primary religious accomplishment was
that it tore the church away from its position between God
and man. It declared clearly and unhesitatingly that the
soul of man stood immediately in the presence of its Maker
and that it could have direct dealing with him without cer-
emonies or ritual or sacraments or priest. The church had
its place, but not as an essential mediator between men
and God. It was fallible as the men who led it and com-
posed it were fallible and had not the right to demand un-
questioning obedience to its behests. So much the Refor-
mation settled for all those who have entered into the
heritage of its daring leaders. But having overturned the
authority of the visible church, it set up another audiority in
its place, that of the Bible. Undoubtedly all Protestants
recognize the right of the Bible to command their lives, pro-
vided, of course, they be given full right of interpretation.
But the danger has been that the Bible should be made the
final fact in Christianity. Protestants have been called the
People of the Book, and this has been carried almost if not
completely to the point of bibliolatry. On the other hand
there are those who would not dim the luster of the Book
nor diminish its rightful authority but who at the same time
see clearly that the revelation contained in the Book found
its culmination in a Person. So Christianity as its very
name indicates is in its truest sense the religion of a Person.
In this it differs from both Judaism and Islam, which are
far more truly religions of a Book and of obedience to its
CHRISTIANITY 319
requirements. Christians have a Book, which is necessary
to apprehend the Person, but the Person is primary, the cli-
mactic and distinguishing point in the religion.
One of the unfortunate results of the Reformation was tht
emphasis laid on orthodoxy. Men were to be saved by be-
lieving, but belief was defined, not in the PauUne sense of
trust, but as an act of the intellect, accepting a set of propo-
sitions as true. On this basis the important thing is to be-
lieve the right doctrines, so doctrine-making became the
occupation of the age, which lasted for a hundred years and
more. The great confessions, which still are the creedal
basis of our church life, came into being. But with all this
insistence on correctness of belief the churches did not
thrive. They were buried under the burden of being com-
pelled to believe so exactly and so much in order to be
saved. Orthodoxy was the sine qua nan, and acceptance of
doctrines covered a multitude of faults and even sins, which
were more or less likely to be winked at provided men ac-
cepted the standards which were imposed. The real reli-
gious life of these long generations in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries and even the nineteenth lay in other
directions. The Pietistic movement in Germany, beginning
under Spener and Francke late in the seventeenth century,
and the Evangelical Revival in England, under the lead of
John Wesley and George Whitefield in the eighteenth,
brought tens of thousands of the common people into an
immediate experience of communion with God, which
warmed their hearts and sent them out rejoicing to tell
others the good news of God's forgiving love and the victory
they were having over sin.
With this religious quickening came a new sense of social
and moral obligation. The emancipation of slaves, the refor-
mation of the prison system, the beginnings of the Sunday
school movement, and the founding of the great missionary
societies, near the close of the eighteenth century and in the
early decades of the nmeteenth, fonq a fitting sequel to the
330 THE REUGIONS OF MANKIND
stinii^^ of a real religioas life among the Protestant
churches. Slow to appreciate the significance of social serv-
ice, the churches have in recent years taken upon themselves
in a new way the burden of humanity and have made a social
creed a part of their working program. The work has only
yet begun, but convictions are being bom in the hearts of
an increasing number each year that the church can never
fulfill its duty and be true to its Master without devoting
itself to the task of making this world over again in all its
relationships, that justice and love, mutual forbearance and
respect, and an equal opportunity for all shall be the mark of
our civilization.
And now again Christianity finds herself in the midst of
an intellectual crisis. It has been in progress for a half
century and more and no one as yet quite sees the way out.
The doctrine of evolution, applied now to the social and
historical sciences as well as to inanimate nature, and the
methods of literary and historical criticism, whose sweep
nothing escapes, have brought the intellect of the world face
to face with the necessity of a new interpretation. It can-
not be escaped. Should Christianity fail to use the oppor-
tunity to make a reappraisal of its documents and its doc-
trines in the light of the new methods and the new knowl-
edge, its day would have passed. But this is just what
Christianity has done in the past and what it shows vigorous
signs of doing now. And when it shall have discovered the
eternal and disengaged it from the changing and the tem-
porary, and when it shall have learned to use with greater
intelligence the instruments which are now being put into
its hands, the religion of Jesus Christ shall again lead the
way into conquests of the mind and spirit greater than any
in the years that have gone by.
The Chukch and Its Expansion
That Jesus did not undertake a mission without the bor-
ders of his own land is quite evident ; that he did not con-
CHRISTIANITY 321
template an extension of his kingdom into all the world, as
some would maintain, is contrary not only to certain sayit^
which have come down to us, but to his general attitude and
bearing. He who saw "all the kingdoms of the world, and
the glory of them'' at the very inception of his ministry, and
he who was steeped in the message of the Old Testament
prophets, with their broad outlook, which extended out to
the very bounds of the then known world — such a one could
scarcely fail to see down through the years a kingdom which
would be as inclusive as the human race. And this may be
held despite the fact that Jesus gave implicit instruction to
his disciples, when he sent them out to preach and to heal,
to go to none save the 'iost sheep of the house of Israel,"
and despite the uncertain testimony of this verse or that
which has been questioned by textual criticism. Surely, the
Gospel of John rightly interprets the inner meaning of
Jesus' life and teaching when it shows him with his eyes
fixed on the wide world, and tearing down Jewish as well
as Samaritan pretensions in declaring that neither at Jeru-
salem nor yet on Mount Gerizim was the place where the
Father should be worshiped. God is a Spirit, and all that is
required is that he shall be worshiped "in spirit and truth,"
a condition which can be met anywhere. This declaration
has been called the "Charter of Universal Worship.**
The disciples in the earliest day failed to realize what
Jesus really meant. It remained for the imperial-minded
Paul to catch the vision of the full sweep of his Master's
kingdom. He made Christianity a world religion. In his
own person he carried the Gospel into the Greek world
of Ephesus and Corinth and Athens, and was not satisfied
until he had reached Rome. The whole motive of the
book of Acts, according to Hamack, is to trace this ad-
vance, from a comer of the empire to the imperial capi-
tal itself. When once it was domiciled there the new reli-
gion could claim to be in the full tide of the world's life,
and might rest assured that, given time, it would reach the
323 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
farthest extremities of the imperial r^ime, for in a literal
sense ''AH roads lead to Rome/' and from Rome back again
to the bounds of the civilized world. It took about three
hundred years to accomplish this result. When Constantine,
the ruler of the united empire, called the Council of Nicea
in 325, Christianity had triumphed. For many years pagan-
ism lingered on, showing considerable strength where Chris-
tianity had not as yet penetrated deeply, but its doom was
sealed. Constantine recognized that it was the one solid,
dependable unity in his empire, and espoused its cause. Not
that he was a devout man willing to bind his life by the
moral restraints of the religion, but that he saw its worth
and recognized that he must lean on it if he were to con-
solidate the gains which had come by his victories over
his rivals.
During the three hundred years of its conflict Christianity
had undergone a number of bitter and bloody persecutions.
It had overcome the strenuous opposition of the Eastern
cults, like Mithraism, which for a time had spread like wild-
fire, and it had given ample demonstration of an inner power
which was possessed by no other religion and which carried
it on to almost inevitable victory. Its works of mercy and
help, which were like a balm in a sorely tried world, its
strenuous insistence on the acceptance of a new moral stand-
ard, unknown before and scoffed at by a d^enerate race of
pleasure-seekers, the deliverance which it promised to men
and women held in bondage by vicious habits and to those
who were longing after spiritual freedom, gave the religion
of Jesus a leverage which enabled it to accomplish wonders
in that Roman world. Not that all was at peace within.
Different standards prevailed, heresy began to show its head,
and leaders were advancing theories and recommending
practices which did not command the approval of others
and which at times sadly rent the fabric of church life. But
what is clear is that the testimony of the church to the
leadership of a living Christ and the presence of the Spirit
CHRISTIANITY 323
within was made good, and men began to see that what the
Christians professed was not a cunningly devised fable but
a new power.
The adoption of the church by Constantine was a remark-
able testimony to the presence of a new force in the Western
world, with which no other could be compared. What hap-
pened in the decades which followed, when the recently per-
secuted faith was not only released from the dangers which
had constantly hung over it, but was placed in the position of
favor and of authority, is not pleasant reading. In order to
win the more readily the many pagans who still were to be
found and to make itself less forbidding to the elite and the
cultured in the cities and at court, the church lowered its
standards, and suffered immeasurably in its inner spirit and
life. Its opposition to the loose living which prevailed every-
where was not so genuine, and the admission of pagan prac-
tices and rites into the church contaminated the purity of
its testimony. Thus saint- and image-worship took the place
of the old polytheism and idolatry, and various masses which
arose had a most suspicious likeness to old heathen cere-
monies. The church had conquered the world in outward
conquest, but the world had infected the church with its
pagan spirit. Undoubtedly, much of this took place uncon-
sciously and very gradually, but the influence was just the
same. The church had become a great compact organiza-
tion under the theory of the monarchical episcopacy, and this
meant that it must act in the manner of such organizations.
Political expediency overbalanced all other considerations
and made of the church a great worldly power seeking by all
means to retain its ascendency. And when the unity of the
church, particularly in the active West, was assured by the
rise of the bishop of Rome to a place of commanding power,
its future could no longer be in doubt, despite the barbarian
inroads which threatened to engulf the old civilization in
their irresistible advance. The church which centered in
Rome was the one immovable rock in the welter of upheaval
324 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
and change. It hdd its own until the world settled down
again, and, with all our criticism and condemnation of irreg-
ularity and abuse, it must be credited with saving the day for
Christianity in a time when the very foundations seemed to
be crumbling.
During the Middle Ages the church succeeded in winning
the peoples of Northern Europe. The Kelts in France and
the British Isles, the Teutonic peoples who flooded westward
on the track of the retreating Kelts, the Slavs of central and
eastern Europe were all reached in turn. From the b^in-
nings, when Ulfilas preached to the Goths in the region
north of Constantinople and Martin of Tours was doing
his apostolic work in France in the fourth century, until
the Lithuanians finally accepted the faith in the fifteenth
is a period of more than a thousand years. The really in-
tensive work was accomplished, however, in about half that
time, from Gregory I, the "Great" (Pope 590-604), to
Gregory VII, Hildebrand (1073-1085). During that period
the northern cotmtries almost swarmed with monks. With
a zeal which has never been surpassed these ardent servants
of the church went to every tribe, and at the end of their
labors there were none left who did not acknowledge Jesus
as Lord and count themselves members of the Catholic
Church. The annals of Christian devotion would be lacking
some of the most illustrious examples were it not for Pat-
rick of Ireland, Columba of lona, Augustine of Kent, Boni-
face of Thuringia, Anskar of the far frozen north, and many
scores of others, who in the name of Christ counted not their
lives dear unto themselves, but in utter self-abandonment
went to the most inaccessible islands and the most hostile
peoples to tell them the message which had taken possession
of their own souls. They have left a priceless heritage of
courage and devotion which no criticism of their methods
can dim.
The net result of their labors was that northern Europe
was completely won to the church and to at least nominal
CHRISTIANITY 325
acceptance of its Christ. Unfortunately, it was so frequently
only a nominal acceptance that vital religion seems never to
have come to its own among large parts of the population.
With little training before baptism and with no adequate
instruction in the years which followed, the people remained
in ignorance of the true meaning of Christianity. Pagan
practices were not uprooted and attendance at the services
and the performance of the prescribed rites and ceremonies
meant little more to a vast majority than the practices they
had left behind, except that they were grander and more
impressive and carried with them the surer promise of favor
with God and of the life beyond. With ignorance almost
unchecked and loose living tardily rebuked, especially among
the powerful, the conditions left much to be desired. The
church was strong, so strong that the people were held in
terror of the penalties which it could inflict, and even em-
perors were cowed into submission. The Middle Ages pre-
sent the strange contrast of saintly devotion unsurpassed and
of churchly power misused to bind the lives of men in a
grip which must be broken before any progress could be
made.
When the great liberation came in the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries a new expansion might well be looked for.
A new world had been laid before the wondering gaze of
Europe by the discovery of the Americas and by the finding
of a sea route to India and the East For hundreds of years,
particularly since the crusades, Islam had stood as a barrier
between West and East. Europe knew little of the teeming
populations beyond and had strange ideas of their condi-
tion. But now the veil of mystery was to be taken down
and new empires were to be founded by the youthful Euro-
pean nations in far off seas. The Roman Catholic Church
at once took advantage of the splendid opportunity and sent
its missionaries east and west. The daring Jesuits, followed
by other orders, went through incredible hardships to carry
their message to Canada, South America, and to India,
326 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
China, and Japan. Strange to say. Protestantism did not
respond. Her task was an arduous one, to conserve the
results of the upheaval in Europe, but, even more than that,
her mind was occupied with the making of creeds, and was
more or less blinded by impossible methods of interpreta-
tion, which led to the conclusion that there was no longer
a call to the church to undertake a mission to the heathen.
That had been done by the original apostles, and if the na-
tions were not now Christian that was their own fault !
But the Pietistic movement in Germany and the Evangeli-
cal Revival in England stirred the hearts of men and led to
earnest questioning concerning the non-Christian world and
the conviction that the Gospel must be carried wherever it
was not known. At the end of the eighteenth century, under
the leadership of William Carey and his associates, action
was taken, first by the Baptists, then by other bodies both
within and outside the Established Church, until on both
sides of the Atlantic and on the Continent of Europe Prot-
estantism had taken seriously the task of evangelizing the
whole world. This has been one of the chief notes of church
life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In various
conferences the denominations have met to counsel and plan
their work together. The culminating point was reached
before the World War in the World Missionary Conference
held in Edinburgh in 1910. Here for the first time all Prot-
estantism was represented and by union in prayer and praise
and in loyalty to a common Lord, reaffirmed its essential
tmion in faith and purpose, thus giving practical expression
to the growing desire that all should be one. The new con-
sciousness of solidarity as they faced a common task has
seemed to many to be the harbinger of a new day, when the
imhappy divisions among God's people shall be healed and
they shall veritably advance "like a mighty army.*' So
strong was the impression made by this gathering that
Professor A. E. Garvie has made bold to declare that the
Edinburgh Conference may prove to be of greater signifi-
CHRISTIANITY 327
cance to the highest interests of the church than the Council
of Niceal
And after this came the World War, which tore Christen-
dom in two and set brother against brother along many
fronts. It revealed the awful fact that the Gospel had not
penetrated deeply enough beneath the surface to make such
a tragedy impossible, that while the message of peace had
been proved the very voice of God in individual hearts and
in countless churches and denominations, it had never been
seriously applied to society at large and among the na-
tions. The question was frequently broached whether Chris-
tianity had been found wanting, to receive the reply that it
had never been tried at just the point where the selfish ambi-
tions of nations were likely to clash. The smug satisfaction
which possessed the souls of many good people, who relied
on a civilization which had been made more or less by Chris-
tianity, is gone. A civilization which is not genuinely actu-
ated by the spirit of Jesus is a poor reed on which to lean.
To have learned this is exceedingly valuable, and places
before the Christian church a task of the first magnitude.
A reconstruction, which involves every feature of human
life and every relation m which men find themselves, is the
work which lies ahead, and so closely are the peoples related
and interrelated to-day that it involves an approach which
shall touch every section of the world simultaneously. Noth-
ing like it has ever been faced before by the Christian church.
Such a gospel must be preached as shall transform individ-
ual lives, make the denominations like cooperating regiments
in the same army, bring peace and good will in society on the
basis of justice and mutual respect, break down the artificial
barriers which stand in the way of true democracy, and
relate the nations so that as brothers in one family they
shall exist each in its own right in peace and prosperity and
each looking out for the good of all the others, not content
until all shall share its security and plenty. Such a vision
may be far from realization, yet nothing less is worthy of our
yA THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
Lord, the Prince of Peace, who came to establish his king-
dom to the ends of the earth and make ri^teousness pre-
as far as men are f onnd.
The Ground op Its Appeal
As the world stands tremblii^ in the uncertainty and
dismay of the aftermath of the war, what has Christianity to
offer ? Has it a unique message, which other religions do not
know ? Is there that in it which will win the confidence of
great world leaders, who are turning desperately this way
and that to find a cure for the world's ills? Such are the
questions being asked to-day — ^has Giristianity a sufficient
answer? It is taken for granted that nothing but religion
is adequate to the task. What has shaken man to the depths
of his nature can never be touched by any cure which does
not reach to the very center of life and the springs of motive
and desire. Only religion can do this, dealing, as it does,
with the ultimate facts of God and sin and salvation and the
hereafter. Only religion can give man a satisfying philoso-
phy of life, and, by pointing beyond the world while he is
still in the world, reveal the presence of other factors with-
out which much that he experiences would be utterly
inexplicable.
In its approach to the present-day world the Christian
religion has a personal note, which it would declare in the
ear of every man and woman. There is a good God whom
we may know by coming into fellowship with Jesus Christ
our Saviour and Lord. He would have every man come to
him by a path all may travel — ^that of trust. And when the
horror of sin falls like a pall over the heart, the tender word
of forgiveness may be spoken which will bring joy and
peace. And in place of palsied impotence in the presence
of temptation may come the assurance that a new dynamic
has been placed at the disposal of men which will make them
''more than conquerors.'' And lest the danger should arise
that sin may be thought of too lightly there is the cross of
CHRISTIANITY 329
Christ, revealing the awful agony in the heart of God be-
cause of human sin and at the same time the eager desire to
deal with it adequately irrespective of the suffering involved.
There is the social note in the gospel of Jesus Christ which
the world must hear. It is not enough that a man should be
saved alone, even if that were possible. He is bound to his
fellows by bonds so intricate and so enduring that, unless his
religion reaches out and seeks to make all these lateral rela-
tionships an expression of the same spirit which fills his
breast, the very meaning of what he has received is largely
lost. Is he a Christian? Then his family must be Christian.
And by the same token the business in which he is engaged,
the social relationships which he enjoys, the political party
to which he belongs, and the state to which he owes alle-
giance are bound to feel the steady pressure of his influence
as he seeks to make them the vehicle of the moral enthusi-
asms and spiritual aspirations which are pulsing in his own
life. A brotherhood of men in which the principles of the
Sermon on the Mount shall prevail is an ideal far away it
may be, but it is an essential note in that earthly kingdom
which Jesus Christ came to found.
And, lastly, there is the universal note, universal because
Christianity is personal and social. Since our religion is
able to speak the word of peace to the individual man and
woman, it becomes our duty to convey it to every man and
woman, for we are all fundamentally alike in our common
humanity. And since our religion is the only unbreakable
bond of brotherhood it can only be true to its essential nature
by drawing all within its sphere, until not one man is left
who has not felt the inner satisfaction of being a member
of a world-wide fraternity, which affects him at every point
of contact with his fellow men. Other religions make the
claim to be universal ; the Christian claim is unique in this,
that all it makes bold to proclaim is epitomized in the person
of its Lord and Master Jesus Christ. He is the perfect
man, the perfect example, the perfect image of the in-
330 THE RELIGIONS OF MANKIND
visible God our Father, and with all that he is the Hying
Saviour and Master who through his Spirit is in actual con-
tact with men. A present living experience of the power of
Jesus Christ, manifested many times over in every country
of the world, is the ground of our confidence that in him,
and in him alone, can the world and all the men and women
in it be saved.
^Suggestions fob Fumuu Stost
H. Franklin RaU, The Life of Jesus (New York; 1917)* A widely
used handbook.
Peake's Commentary on the Bible (New York, ^920), by many
writers, edited by Professor A. S. Peake. The be$t single volume
from which to gain a knowledge of the Christian Scriptures.
Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church (New York,
1918). The most successful attempt to condense the history into
one volume.
William Newton Qarke, An Outline of Christian Theology (New
York, first edit, 1894). A very influential statement of Christian
doctrine.
Alfred £. Garvie, A Handbook of Christian Apologetics (New York,
X913). A compact presentation of the grounds of the claims of
Christianity.
^he Missionary Outlook in the Light of the War (New York, 1920),
edited by the Committee on the War and the Religious OutlodL
(jeorge Foot Moore^ History of Religions, VoL II, Chaps. V-XV.
INDEX
CaHplis,396
AbdaUah, 277
Abeona, 133
Abraham, 357, 372, 3QI
Abrahams, I., on Maimonides,
370; on Messiah, 373I
Absolute, in India, 161, 163
Abu Bakr, 381, 283, 396
Abu Talib, 377, 383
Abydos, 88
Abvssinia, 38 x
Achaemenides, 144
Acts, Book of, 313, 331
Adad, 99
Adam, 391
Adeona, I33
Adi-Buddha, 30i
Adoption, in Quna, 317
Aerolites, worshiped, 5$
^Sschylus, 117
Af ehuiistan. 398
Africa, 47; Islam in, 399
Agni, 155
Agreement (Ijma), in Islam, 388
Ahura Maxda (Mazdah), 141, 143,
143, 145, 146, 147
Amu, 47
Akkadians, 97
Al-Amin, 377
Al-Ashari, 393
Alexander the Great, in Bgypt, 84,
90; in India, 197
Alexandria, 315
Al-Ghaszali, 3^.
Ali^onquin family of Indians, 53
All, 278, 381, 396, 300, 301
Allah, 376, 381, 385, 387, 289, 292;
Attributes of, 293f.; power of,
393; not a father, 394
AUenby, General, captures Jeru-
salem, 365
All-Pather, in animistic religiQn,6x
Alm^ving, in Islam, 290
Altruism, of the Buddha, i85f.; of
Mahayana, 202
Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami, 237, 238,
340
Amenophis IV (Amea-liotq>)« 89t
Ameretat, 143
America, discovery of, 335
Ames, B. S., defimtion of religion,
33 ^
Amesha Spenta, I4if., 143, 145
Amitabha (Amida), 307, 332, 341,
344, 245. 246
Amon, 85, 88, 89, 90
Amon-Re, 87, 89
Amorites, 97, 357
Amos, 364
Anahita, 147
AoaXo^t pnndple of, 31 ; in ani-
mistic religion, 63; in objects of
sacrifice, 71
Analogy (Qias), in Islam, 288
Ananda, 187
Ancestor worship, as origin of
religion, 33; among Animists, 57 ;
in Greece, 108; in China, 3i5f.;
in Japan, 337; among Semites,
360
Angds, in Islam, 391
Anglo-Saxons, 136
Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), 143,
145
Animal-worship, in Bgypt, 85f . ; in
Babylonia, loi
Animism, definition of, 31; in
Babylonia, 98; in Greece, 107;
in Rome, 133; among Indo-
Euxopeans, 138 ; in Korea, 309f . ;
in Qiina, 3i4f.; in lands of
Southern Buddhism, 304f .
Animistic peoples, numbers and
location, 46-^
Animistic religion, name of, 45;
why studied, 46; as traditionid,
49 ; as natural, 49! ; as spontane-
ous, 50
Annam, 304
Anskar, 324
Anthropomori^ism, in Greece,
no; m Persia, 141
Anu, 99
331
33^
INDEX
Aplitodite, tii, 12$
Apis, 86
Apc^, III
Aiatria, 8a, 296, 301; tribes ol,
357; cradle of Semitic race, 358;
rebgioa in, before Islanit 276,
289
Axabian Nights, 291
Arabic, language of Koran, 286
Arabs, 97; in ascendency in Islam,
296
Aralat, Mottit, 290
Aramaeans, 257
Aramaiti,|i42
Aianyskas, 160
Arehitecture, in Egypt, 91
Ares, III, 128
Arhat (Arahat, Anbant), 192^
194, 201, 202
Aristotle, 117!., 270
Arius, 316
Ark of the Covenant, 262, 267
Armenian Church, 297
Armenians, 136
Arnold, Matthew, definitioo of
religion, 21
Arpadisbad, 257
Art, Egyptian, 84
Artemis, iii, 128
Arval brothers, 124
Arya Samaj, 178
Aryans^ 156, 180; in India, 153
Asceticism, in India, 160; ol the
^ Buddha, 182; in Christian
Church, 3l4f.
Asha, 141
Ashur, 100
Asia Minor, 128, 130, 132, 136, 298
Asoka, 197
Asshur, 97
Assurbanipal, 98, loi
Assyrian armies, 100; Empire, 98,
100
Assyrians, 257
Astrology, in Babylonia, 102; in
Rome, 132
Atargatis, 132
Athanasius, 316
Atharvaveda, 158
Athena, iii, 128
Athens, 114
Atman, 161
Aton, 89f.
Attalus, 130
Attis, 130, 131
Augurs, 124
Augustine, 317, 324
Augustus QettT, 129
Austerities, in India, 158
Australia, 48
Avaloldtesvara (Avalokita, Plad-
mapani), 206, 209, 246, 247
Avatars, of Vishnu, 171
Avesta, 141, 146, I47. M9
bSj]^ 97. 98» 9?r loi
Babylonian captivity, 264, 265 •
Bagdad, 293, 296, 297
Bam, Alexander, on instinct, 28
BaU, 204
Baluchistan, 298
Bantu tribes, 47, 70
Baptists, 326
Barbarian invasions, 136
Berth, A., on Varuna, 154; on
avatars, 171
Bel, 100
Benares, 180, 183, 185
Bengal, 180
Besant, Mrs. Annie, 177
Bethlehem, 304
Bhabha, H. T., on Pftrsi bdicf , 151
Bhakti, 172
Bhikshus, 196
Bhi]s,47
Bible, on origin of religion, 29;
in Koran, 291; in Protestantism,
318
Biwa, lake, 242
Blood, in sacnfioe, 71
Bodhidharma, 208, 231
Bodhisattva, 20if.; in Tibet, 206;
in Japan, 240, 247
Boloki tribe, 69
Bombay, 148
Bomface, 324^
Book of the Dead. 92
Books, doctrine of the, in Islam,
291
Borneo, 47
Bo-tree, 184, 185, 186, 190
Brahma, creator, 170
Brahman, abeolitte, 161, 162, 163,
I70
BxBiimaiuis, 159
Brahmins, priests, 158, 167!
INDEX
333
Bralimo Samaj, 177L
Bridge of the Separator, 14^
Buddha, 171 ; significance of title,
180, 1 84 ; character of, 1 87 ; esti-
mation of by his disciples, 109
Buddhas of Contemplation (Dny-
ani Buddhas), 201, 246
Buddhism, 158; disappearance in
India, 198; transformations in«
211; in China, 23off.; monks
and nuns in, 230!, 233; sects,
231 ; contrasted with other re-
ligions, 233
Burma, Buddhism in« 200, 204,
205
Bushido, 252
Calcutta, 177
CaUphs, 281, 302; orthodoz» 295,
296
Cambodia, 204
Canaan^ Sons of, 257
Canaanites, 97, 257, 262
Canaanitish worship, 263
Canada, 325
Capitoline Hill, 126
Carey, William, 326
Caro, Joseph, 269
Carter, J. B., on Etruscan influ-
ence, 125; on Sibylline books,
126
Casartelli, L. C, on Zoroaster's
date, 140
Caspian Sea, 135
Caste, defined, i64f.; origin of,
167; good and evil in, 168; in
Brahmo Samaj, I77f.
Cave, Sidney, on Siva worship, 173
Celibacy, in early church, 3i4f.
Celsus, on Egyptian religion, 86f.
Central Asia, Islam in, 298
Ceres, 127
Ceylon, Buddhism in, 198, 200,
204, 205
Chaldea, 98
Chaldeans, 257
Chang Tao-ling, 229
Ch'an tsung, sdiool of Buddhism,
23lf.
Chao dynasty, 219, 22^
Child marriage, in India, 166
China, 144, 2^, 298, 326; ances-
tor woruiip in, 57; conservatism
of, 214; contrasted with Egypt
and Mesopotamia, 80; Bud-
dhism in, 206, 207, 208, 209
Chin dynasty, 219
Christianity, appeal of, ^28f.; in
India, 179; m Arabia, 278;
fadng intdlectual crisis, ^20;
uniqueness of, 15; as an Onen-
tal cult, 133
Chthonian gods, 112
Church, Roman doctrine of, 31 7f.;
Protestant doctrine of, 318
Circumcision, in earlv church, 312
City states, in Babylonia, 98
Clan organization, among Sem-
ites, 259; worship, 25^f.
Clarke, W. N., definition of re-
ligion, 26
Clarification of religions, 43
Clemiell, W. J., on Chinese re-
ligion,- 233
Ckxid, Edward, on tree-worship,
55
Codiin-China, 204
Codes, Jewish, 268f.-
Codrington, R. H., on mana, ^2f.
Coe, G. A., definition of religion,
23f . ; on religious nature of man,
28
Columba, 324
Comte, on fetishism, 58
Confucius, 140; contrasted with
Laocius, 228; life and labors,
2i9ff.; teachings, 222f.; esti-
mate of human nature, 224; so-
cial and political reformer, 225f . ;
estimate of, 227
Confucianism, as a religion, 226f.,
253; in Japa?, 25off.
Consorts of deities, in Babylonia,
100
Constantine, 322, 323
Constantinople, 324; fall of, 298
Conversions, to Islam, 297
Coptic Church, 297
Cmnth, 321
Cornelius, 312
Council, of Jerusalem, 3i2f.; Bud-
dhist, 198
Covenant, at Sinai, 262, 267
Cow, sacred among Aryans, 13^
Creation, in Bible and fiabylomaa
myths, loi
Creed, of Islam, 289
334
INDEX
Orete, io6
Crosades* 298, 535
Cumae, 116
Ctmeifonn script, 98
Cunixia, 123
Cybde, the Great Mother of the
Gods, 55, 130
Cyrus. 98, 104
Daimchi, 243
Dakhmas, 146, 150
Dalai Lama, 206
Damascus, 296
Danube, 121
Darwish orders, 295
Dastur, 149
David, 263
Davids, T. W. Rhys, on death of
the Buddha, 187; on Dialogues,
188; on Pali literature, 188; on
Buddhist order, 195; on extent
of acceptance of the Buddha's
teaching, 200
Dayananda Sarasvati, 178
Day of Judgment, in Islam, 280,
281
Dead, worship of, among animists,
Dea Syria, 132
Death, in animistic religion, 57
Definition of religion, nature of,
De6root, J. J. M., on ancestor
worship m China, 217
Deists, English, on religion, 19!;
on origin of religion, 29!
Delhi, 298
Deluge Story, in Babylon, loi
Demeter, in Greece, 112, 114, 115;
in Rome, 127
Demon-worship, in India, 174
Departmental deities, 42; in
Greece, 108
Description, as method of study,
12
Desire, the root of evil in Bud-
dhism, 185, 194
Development of religion, 37;
causes of, 38ff.
Devi, 173
Dhannakaya, 201, 203
Dhyani Buddhas, 201, 243, 246
Dialogues of the Buddha, 188
Diana of the Bphesiaiis» 55, ia8
Difference, doctrine of, in Islain,
394
Dionysus, in Greece, 113, X14; in
Rome, 127
Diverra, 122
Divination, in Babylonia, loil; in
Rome, 124
Dravidians, 159, 167
Dreams, among animistic peo-
^es, 52; in Babylonia, 103
Driver, Canon. 00 Arpachshad,
Dtnlism, m Zofoastrianism, 142L
Duiga, 173
Duricheim, Emile, on origin of
religion, 33f.
Dutch Baistlndies, Islam in, 204
Ea, 99. 100
Eastern Roman Bmpire, 297
Eber, children of, 257
Economic necessity, and origin of
Egvptian civilization, 82; of
Babylonian civilization, 96
Edfu, 85
Edkins, Joseph, on Chinese Bud-
dhist sects, 231
Ed(»nites, 257
Edula, 122
Egypt, as gift of Nile, 81 ; Lower
and Upper, 83; contrasted with
Mesopotamia, 98; exodus from,
a6i ; Islam in, 295, 297
Elamites, 2^7
Eleusinian M3rsterie8, 112, 114!,
116
Efijah, 263f.
Elkab, 85
Emanations, 314
Emperor-wor^p, in Rome, I29f.,
in Japan, 237
Enlil, 99, 100
Enneads, in Egypt, 88
Ephesus, 321
Epic poems, in Greece, 1x0; in
India, i^i
Epicureanism, ii8f.
Eridu, 97, 99, 100
Eskimos, 4Jr
Eternal Bemg, in Mahaswia, 201
Ethics, in Babylonia, 104; in
2^roastrianism, 143; in eariy
INDEX
335
Buddhisnit i9St; in Japan,
253!.
EtruscanB, I3^
Euphrates, River, 80, 97; Valley,
96,98
Euripides, 117
Evangelical Revival, 519, 326
Evangelist of the Enle, 264
Evolution, and origin of religion,
30
En>dus, 261
Exorcism, in animistic religion, 74;
in China, 2i4f.
Exogamy, 66
Ezra, 272
Fairbanks, Arthur, on Greek gods,
112
Fair-mindedness, in study of re-
ligion, 13
Farquhar, J. N., on Aryans in
India, I53f.; on Brahman, 161;
on Indian conservatism, 175; on
religious reform, I78f.
Fasting, in Islam, 290
Fatalian, in Indo-European re-
ligion, 138; in Islam, 292
Fatima, 278, 300
Fear, as motive in religion, 29; in
animistic religion, 6gf.
Fellahin, in Egypt, 82
Festivals, in Greece, 108; in
Rome, 124
Fetishism, defined, 58; descrip-
tion of fetish, 59f.; origin of,
6of.; related to magic, 61
Fetters, Ten, in Buddhism, 191
Feudalism, in China, 2i9f.; in
Japan. 252
Filial piety, in China, 2i6f.; in
Japan, 250
Fire, among Aryans, 1^9; as sym-
bol of Ahura Mazdia, 146; in
Parsi temples, 149
Five Relations, of Confucius, 225;
in Japan, 250
Flamens, 124
Flint, Robert, on religion as uni-
versal, 26
Foochow, 233
Fortune-tellers, modem, 104
France, 302, 324
Francke, 319
Fnivashis, 147
r, J. G., on exogamy, 66;
on tabu, 671; on magic and re-
ligion, 77f .
Freethinkers, in Islam, 293
French Revolution, and the Jews,
266
Fung-Shui, wind and water, 216
Future-Bodhisattva, 202, 203
Gabars, 148
Gabriel, 287
Gairdner, w. H. T., on sprea(f of
Islam, 296
Galilee, 304
Galloway, George, on develoi>-
ment of religion, 39; on ani-
mistic religion, 64
Ganesa, 173
Ganges Valley* I53> ^^
Garvie, A. E., onWorld Mission-
ary Conference, 326!
Gathas, 141
Gautaxna the Buddha, 169; &mily
name, 180; account of life,
i8off.: position of in later
period, 248
Gemara, 268
Genesis, book of, 71, loi, 257
Genii, see Jixm
Genius, 123, 1^0
Gentiles, 312; mtermarriage with*
272, 274
Genzim, Mount. 321
Gennany. and the Holy War, 291
Gonds, 47
Gibbon, Edward, on Islamic creed,
289
Gilgamesh, loi
Gnosticism, 314
God, doctrine of, in Islam, 292ff.
Goldziher, I., on Shiites, 300f.; on
Sunnis, 301
Gospel of Jesus, in Islam, 291
Go«)els, 308, 313
Goths, 324
Grace, Augustine's doctrine of,
317
GnDCO-Roman religion, 128
Grandmaison, L. de, definition of
religion, 25
Great Britain, 302
Great Kings of Persia, 144
336
INDEX
Great Mother of the Gods, see
Cybele
Great Wall of China, 230
Greek colonies, ia6
Greek civilization, origin of, io6f.
Greek influence, in Egypt, 90, in
Rome, I35f.
Greek thought, in Christiamty,
315
Greek War of Independence, 398
Gr^ory I, 324
Gregory VII (Hildehrand), 324
Gupta dynasty, 170
Hackmann, H., on Korean Bud-
dhism, 209
Haddon, A. C, on magic, 77
Hades, 114, 115
Haggada, 268
Halacha, 268
Ham, 257
Hamitic tribes, in Egypt, 82
Hammurabi, 97, 99; code of, 104
Hanifs, 278
Hannibal, 55, 128
Haoma (Soma), 139, 147
Hamack, Adolph, on book of
Acts, 321
Harran, 99
Hartlan<l, B. S., on magic and
religion, 78
Hathor, 87
Haurvatat, 112
Heaven, wor^ped in China, 218
Heavenly Ones, I37f.
Hebrews, 2^7^ 261
Hegel, definition of reUgioa, 20
He^, 283
Hejas, 302
Hckt, 87
HeliopoHs, priests of, 83, 87, 88, 89
Hepatosoopy, divination by
sheep's fiver, 102
Hephaistos, iii
Hera, 128
Heradeitus, on impermanence,
189
Hertiert of Cherbury, on reUgicm,
19
Hermes, iii, 128
Hermopolis, 86
Herodotus, 81; on fanbalming in
Egypt, 92
mesaa, 242, 343, 245
Hillcl, 273
Himalayan states, Buddhism in,
206
Hinayana, defined, and described,
1901,204
Hinduism, modified by Buddhism.
i69f.
SJPPo, 3»7
Hira, Mount, 279
Historical method, 12
Hittites, 136
Hobbes, Thomas, on reUgion, 19
Hoffding, Harald, definition of
religion, 23
Holland, 302
Holy Smnt, 316
Holy War, in Islam, 291
Homer, no
Honen, Shonin, 244
Horus, 88, 95, 132
Houris, 294
Human sacrifice, 73 '
Hurgron je, Snouck, on Holy War,
291
Ideas, of Plato, 118
Ihram. 290
lima (agreement), 288, 289
Ikhnaton, 90
Iliad, no
Imam, 301
Imhotep, 88
Immortality, in Egypt^ 9iff.; in
Bal^kmia, loi, 104; m Greece,
IX4£; among Semites, 260
Imperial House, of Japan, 251
Impermanenoe, doctrine of m
Buddhism, i88f.
Incantation rituals, in Babykmia,
103
Incarnations, in Hinduism, see
avatars
India, 107, 136, 137, 325; Islam in,
298
Indians, American, 47
Indo-Europeans, 107, I35ff.
Imtiation ntes, among ammists,
66f.
Injil (goepel), 291
Instinct, and religion, 28
Tfifio X2A
INDEX
337
Irdaxid, 136, 334
Iroquoian feimly, of IndiaiUt 53
Isaac, sacrifioe of, 71
Isaiah, 261, 364, 273
Ise, 340
Ishmaelites, 357
Ishtar, 99, 100
Isis, 88, 91, 95. 131. 132
Islam, effect of, in Africa, 300;
sacred book in, 318; between
Bast and West, 335; name de-
fined. 376
Israel, Northern Kingdom, 98
Israelites, 357, 361
Italic people, 136
Italy, 138
Izanagi, 337
Izanami, 337
Jackson, A. V. W., on date of
Zoroaster, 140
Jains, rdigion of, 183
ames, mlliam, definition of re>
Ijgion, 33
Japan, Buddhism in, 306, 3 10;
somxse of civilization, 335;
Jesuits in, 336
Taphct, 357
Jastrow, Morris, Jr., otk function
of priest, 31; on gods of Baby-
lonia, 99; on omens in Bat^-
lonia, 103
Java, 47; Buddhism in, 304; Islam
Jehovah, see Yahweh
, eremiah, 140, 361, 363, 364
, enisalem, 365, 304, 31 x, 313, 313
^ esuit missions, 335f.
Jesus Christ, account of life and
teaching, 304ff.; resurrection of»
311; and world vision, 331; in
Koran, 39if.; in early diurch,
' 313; in Christian theology, 3i5f.
Jethxo, 361
ews, without a country, 365;
persecution of, 365f.; of Me-
dina, 384
Jihad, see Holy War
Jimmu Tenno, 337
^ inn, in Islam, 391
, odo, sect, 344f .
, bhn the Baptist, 304
John, Gospel of, 331
Jonalit 373
/ordan, 304
,08eph,304
. udaism, and early church, 313;
sacred book in, 318; and the
covenant, 363; Reform school
and conservatives, 37 iff.
udaizers, in early church, 313
, udea, 304
^ udges, book of, 363
ulius Caesar, 139
uno, 133, 138
upiter G^timus Maximus, X33,
136, 138
Justinian, code of, I3i
Ka,93
Kaaba, 376, 389, 390
TT^M^i^lfl ^ 270
Kali, 173
Kami, 336
Kami-no-michi, 336
Kanishka, igS
Kant, definition of religion, 31
Kapilavastu, 180, 186
Karala, 173
Karma, in Hinduism, 159, 160,
161, 178; in Buddhism, 194
Kathenotheism, 156
Kelts, 136, 334
Kent, 334
Keshab Chunder Sen, 178
Khadijah, 377, 378, 379, 381, 29a,
284, 385
Khaum, 86f.
Khshathra, 141
Kiang-si, 339
KtDgdey, Mary, on fetishism, 58
Ctdien-god, in Jftpui, 336
Knox, G. W., on Shinto, 337; on
Buddhist t.eaching in Japan, 349
Kobo Daishi, 340, 343
Kojiki, 337, ^39
Koraish, 377
Koran, 379, 380, 386f.; in^ira-
tion of, 387, 391, 393, 393
Kore, 137
Korea, Buddhism in, 306, 309; and
Japanese civilization, 335
Krishna, 171!, 174
Kshattnyas, 167
Kublai Khan, 348
338
INDEX
Kwanym, in China, ao9» a^a
Kwa, 314
Kyoto, 239
T^amaiwn, in Tibet, 3o6f.; fods of,
207; monasticiian of, 207
T<amafii 206
Lamasanes, 207
Lang, Andrew, on Suprenie Beinsii
in animistic religion, 6if .
Laodus (Lao-tse), life, 227; teadi-
ing, 227f.; and Confucius, 228
Lares, 123
Larsa,97, 99
Last Day, m Islam, 292
Latins, 127, 136
Law, Jewish, 266I.
Legalism, Jewish, 267f •
Lhassa, 207
Liber, 127
Libera, 127
Linga, 172
Lithuanians, 324
Little Orphan Island, 233 ^
Liver, of sheep, in divination, in
Babylonia, 102; in Rome, 124
Lin Chi, sect, 232
Lloyd, Arthur, on Shinian, 246;
on Amida, 247
Locutius, 122
Logos, used by Philo and John,
Loios, 47
Loyalty, in Jsma, 252f .
LU| state in China, 220!
Lubbock, John, on tribes without
religion, 26
Lucretius, on origin of religion,
Luther, Martin, 318
Lydians, 257
McCurdy, J. P., on Semitic t3rpe,
258
McTaggart, John, definition of re-
ligion, 21
Maccabean revolt, 272
Macdooald, D. B., on Moham-
med, 280, 285; on mysticism,
295
Aujbdhvamilcas, ttOubstSB 203
Maenads, 115
Magi, 144, 145, 146
Magic, xdatiain to numa, y6Li
contagious, 77; mimetic or
homeopatluc, 77; in Egypt, 94;
in India, 158; m Indo-Euxopean
rehgiott, 138; in Tibet, 2071.
Mahabarata, 171
Mahavira, foimder of Jain le-
ligioQ, 182
Mafaayana, defined, 199; in Dutch
East Imfies, 204; in Qxina,
Korea, and Japan, 206; de-
velopment in Japan, 242L
Mahdi, the guide, 301
Matmonides, code of, 268f.; be-
liefs of, 270
Maitriya Buddha, the coming one,
200
Mana, 52; and tabu, 68; and
magic, 76f .
Mandius, in China, 220
Manes, 123
Manetho, on Egyptian history, 84
Manitu, 52
Manu, Institutes of, 167
Mara, 184
Maiduk, 99, 100, loi
Marett, R. R., cm origin of re-
ligion, 32; on Toda ritual, 67; on
tabu, 67
Marriage, in early dxurdi, 3X4f.;
in Ii^ia, i65f.
Mars, 122, 128
Martel, Charles, 296
Martin of Tours, 324
Maruts, 156
Mary, mother of Jesus, 304
Matter, as evil, 314
Maya, illusion, 163
Mecca, 276, 277, 281, 283, 289
Medes, 98
Mendelssohn, Moses, 266, 269
Medina, 281, 282, 283, 285
Mediterranean Sot, 81, 97, 106
Memphis, 86, 88, 89
Menaus, on fihal-piety, 217; on
Confucius, 222
Menes, 84
Menzies, Allan, definition of re-
Ugion, 23; on fetishism, 58, 61;
on Roman deities, 122
Mercury, 128
INDEX
339
M€88tah, Mesnanic hope, ^73, 311;
1^ in early church, 31a; in Islam,
^i ; in Judaism, 273!.
Middle Ages, cfauidi in, 324; Jews
in, 265
Middle Kingdom, in Egypt, 87
Middle Way, of the Buddha, 183
Midianites, 257
Midrash, 268
Minerva, 128
Minoan civilization, 106
Misery, see sorrow
Mishna, 268
Missions, Buddhist, I97f>; I^
lamic, in Africa, 299; Christian,
in Middle Ages, 324f.; modem,
?25f.
Mithraism, 322
Mithras (Mithra, Mitra), 132, X33,
139. 141. 147, 154
Mithreums, 132
Mobeds, 149
Modi, Jivanji, on Parsi idea of
salvation, 151
Mogul emperors, 298
Mohammra, life and work, 2jyS,;
as pathological case, 280; sin-
cerity of, 282, 285; relations
with Jews, 284 ; marriages, 284f . ;
as reformer, 286
Monastidsm, in Buddhism, I95f;
influence of, 211; in Southern
Buddhian, 205; in Chinese
Buddhism, 232; in Japan, 242ff.
Monier-Williams, Monier, on
Hinduism, 17^
Monism, in India, i62f.
Monotheism, in animistic religion,
6if.; in Egvpt, 89f.; in Persia,
I4if.; in China, 213; in Israel,
264; in Judaism, 269, 271; in
Islam, 276, 278
Monsoon, m India, 156
Montu, 88
Moore, G. P., on Egyptian con-
servatism, 83; on Aton, 89f.;
on Plato, 118
Morley, John, on definition of re-
ligion, 16, 18
Moses, 261, 291
Mother-Earth, 64, 108, 112
Motoori, 239
Moulton, J. H., on Masdah, 141,
142, 143; on the magi, 1441.;
on Ar^ gods, 147; on PMa
worship, 149^*
Muezzin, 289
Mttiler, Max, definition of re-
ligion, 2of . ; on origin of religion,
36; on Indian gods, 156
Mummies, 91, 92
Mut, 88
Mutazilites, Seceders, 293
Mycensan civilization, 106
Mysticism, in Islam, 294f.
Mythology, in Babylonia, loof.;
m Greece, ixi
Naaman, 259
Nagarjuna, I98f.
Name, power of, 74
Nandi, I72f.
Nassau, R. H., on fetishism, 58,
59,60
National stage, of religious de-
velopment, 41 f.
Nationality, loss of by Jews, 265;
in India, I75f.
Nazareth, 304
Near East, 297
Nebuchadrezzar, 98
Negro tribes, 47
Ndemiah, 272
Nembutsu, prayer formula, 244,
245
Neoplatonism, 120
Neopvthagoreans, 119
Nepal, 180, 206
Neptune, 128
Nestorians, in China, 246
New Guinea, 48
New Kingdom, in Egypt, 89
New Testament, 312
New Zealand^ 48
Nicea, Council of, 316, 322, 327
Nichiren, founder of sect and
patriot, 248
Nigeria, 55
Nihongi, 237
Nile River, 8of.; as deity, 85;
underground, 94
Nineveh, 98
Nippur, 07, 100
Nirmanakaya, magical body, 203
Nirvana, in Budifidsmt ^9^* I94f
201, 202, 203
Noah, 257, 291
340
INDEX
Noble Eightfold Bath, 190!
Noble Pottrfold Truth, 190C
Nobunaga, 243
NodotttS, 122
Ndldeke. Theodor, on Allah, 276
Nomes, m Bgypt, 8^, 85
No-Soul doctnne, in Buddhisn,
I92f.; in contact with nnmadfi,
200
Numina^ of Roman deities, 122
Octavius, see Angtisttis Cflesar
Odyssey, no
Oil, in divination, loi
^bway (Chippewa), Indians, 65
Old Testament, heritage, 264; as
Bible of eariy church, 313
Olympus, no
Omayyad Caliphs , 296
Omar, 281, 296
Omens, in Babylonia, 103
Orenda, 52
Oriental Christian churches, 297
Oriental religions, in Rome, I3iff.
Origen, quotes Cdsus, 86
Orpheus, 115
Orphic brotherhoods and religion,
115!.
Orthodoxy, in Hinduism, 164; em-
phasis on after Reformation, 319
Osiris, 88, 91, 95f., 131, 132
Othman, 296
Othmanli (Ottoman) Turks, 298
Out-castes, in India, 169
Psdmapani, see Avaloldtesvara
Palestine. 259, 265, 295, 305
Pali, language, 187; literature, 188,
Palmistry, 102
Pan-Islamism, 302
Pantheism, in Bgypt, 89; in In-
dia, 161; in Japan, 243, 248; of
Spinoza, 270; in Islam, 295
Paradise, in Mahayana, 202; in
Islam, 294
Parliament of Religions, 177
Parsis, 135; come to India, 147;
number of, 148; become ex-
clusive, 148; worship of, I49f.;
differences between, i5of.
Parson Thwackum, on rdigion, 18
r, 304* 311
Patrick, 324
Paul, 3i2f.; the imperial-
>dang.
206
Penates, 123
Psahns,
in Babylonay
Penitential
IQ3
Pentateuch, 291
Persephone, in Greece, ii4t ii5«
in Rome, 127
Persia, 98, 107, 132, 136, 137, 295,
301, 314
Persian Gulf, oj
Pessimism, in Egypt, 91
Peter, 312
Pharisees, 310
Phik), 315
Philosophy, in (jreece, ii6ff.; of
Mahayana, 203
Phoenicians, 257, 263
Phrendogy, 102
Phrygians, 136
Pieostic Movement, in Germany,
Pilgrimage, to Mecca, 290
Pilgrims, Chinese Buddhist, 198
Pilunmus, 122
Pindar, Odes of, 117
Pitakas, Baskets, early Buddhist
literature, 187
Plato, 117, 118, 119, 120
Polis, (jreek, 109
Polygamy, in China, 217
Polynesia, 52
Pomerium, 125, 127, 128
Pontifex, 124
Pontius Pilate, 31X
Poseidon, in Greece, iii; in
Rome, 128
Prakriti, 163
Prayer, in animistic religion, 73f.;
in Zoroastrianism, 147; cylin-
ders in Tibet, 208; in Islam, 289
Preanimistic rdigion, 32
Precepts, Eight, in Buddhism,
I96f.
Priests, in animistic religion, 74f.;
in Babybnia, 99; in Greece, 1 16;
in Rome, 123; in Zoroastrian-
ism, 149; in India, 157
Primitive Revelation, 29
Progressive Brahmo Samaj, 178
INDEX
341
Pnifkhets, in load, 265!.; in
Islam, 391L
Pftiselvtes, of the Gate» 272; of
Righteousness, 312
Proserpina, 127
Psakns, of David, 291
Psychology, and study of religion,
26ff.; in Bgypt, 93; of early
Buddhism, I92f.
Ptah, 87, 88, 89
Ptolemys, in Egypt, 90
Punjab, 153
Puranas, 172
Purification, in animistic religion«
74; among Parsis, 150
Ptmisha, 163
Puto. island, 233
Pyramid Texts, 92
Pyramids, as tombs, 91
Pythagoras, 119, 140
Qias (analogy), in Islam, 288
Quietism, in Japan, 253f.
euindecemviri, 126
uirinus, 122
Rahula, 181
Rama, 171, 172
Ramadan, Fast of, 290
Rama-Krishna, Paramahamsa, 177
Ramanuja, 163
Ramayana, 171
Ram Mohan Kay, 177
Rationalism, among Parsis, 151
Re, 87, 89
Re-Amon, 88
Reciprocity, in Confucianism, 226
Reformation, Protestant, 318
Reform, in India, I75ff.
Reform school, in Judaism, 271,
^ 2Z3. 274
Re-Horus, 88
Reinach, Salomon, definition of
religion, i8f.
Religion^ importance of study, 1 1 ;
as social, 22; as individual, 22;
as worship, 23; as value, 24f.;
elements cKf definition of, 25;
necessity of, 328
Remmonl^, sect, 255
Renaissance, 318
Renunciation, of the Buddha, 181
Res ur rection, in Islam* 292; ol
Jesus Christ, 311
Revdation, Book of, 313
Rhine River, 121
Rigveda, 154? I55. .156. 158. X7i
Rogers, A. iC., on impermanenoe,
189
Rogers, R. W., on deities of Baby-
lonia, 99
Roman QithoHc Church, 121
Roman Bmpire, 129; Judaism in,
272
Roman Law, 121
Roman Republic, 124
Romans, 107
Rome, 55, 321, 322
Russia, nogroms in. 266
Ryobu-Shinto, 239f.
Sabatier, Auguste, definition of
religion, 23
Sabbath, as tabu, 68; in history
of Judaism, 267; and Jesus, 310
Sacrifice, in animistic religion,
7of.; origin of, 72f.; in India,
ei57«-
Sahara, 299, 301
Saivites, 172, 173
Sakti, Saktism, 174
Salvation, in India, 161 ; in Islam,
294
Samaria, dty of, 98
Samaveda. 158
Sambhogakaya, body of bliss* 203
Samuel, 263
Samurai, 244, 253
Sanhedrm, 311
Sankara, 162, 163
Sankh^a, 163
Sanskrit, 154, 167, 171
Sassanids, 144
Sati (Suttee), 166
Saul, 263
Scandinavians, 136
Schechter, Solomon, on schools in
Judaism, 271
Sdoleiermacher, definition of r^
ligion, 21
Scholastic philosophy, in Islam,
293 ,
Schools of the Prophets, 263
Schrader, Otto, on indo-Buropean
religion, 137!
34^
INDEX
GciiMKB of iHlginfii possibility of ,
14
Sciftfv^^ Western, in Ji^mud, 254i>
Scotland, 136
Scythians, 136
Second Punic War, 128
Sectarianism, in Hinduism, 171
Sects, in Chinfwe Buddhism, 33 if.;
in Japanese Buddhism, 2421.
Segetia, 122
Soa, 122
Sekhet, 87, 88
Seljuldan Turks, 297f .
Semites, in Egypt, 82; in Mesopo-
tamia, 97; ncnthem and south-
cm, 257
Semitic aviHzation, 258!
Semitic peoples, 257
Senussi, 301
Serapis, ^i
Sergi, Giuseppe, definition of re-
Ugion, 19
Set, 95
Sexual, in religion, in Babylonia,
100; laxity in Islam, 297
Shamans, 74
Shamash, 99
Shammai, 273
Shang-ti, 218, 219
Sheik-ul-Islam, 291
Shem, 257
Shen, 214
Sherif of Mecca, 302
Shih Huang-ti, 2i9f.
Shiites, 300, 301
Shingon, sect, 243
Shinxan Shonin, 244f., 246
Shin (Shin-shu), sect, 244f., 247,
250
Shinto, defined, 236; revival of,
239; mixed with Buddhism, 239;
contrast with Buddhism, 241;
and Emperor worship, 238f.
Shotoku Taishi, 210, 240
Shun, 219
Siam, Buddhism in, 200, 204, 205
Sibylline books, 126, 127, 128
Siddhartha, given name of the
Buddha, 180
Siens, Three Fundamental, of
Buddhism, i88ff.
Sin, 99
Sin, m Islam, 293L
Sinai, 261
Sioux family of Indians, 53
Sippar, 99
Siva, 170, 171, 172, 173
Skandhas (aggregates), I92f., 194
Slave trade, and Islazn, 299
Slavic peoples, 136, ^
Smith, W. R., on ntual and be-
lief , 69
Sobiesld, King John, 298
Social service, in Christianitjr, 320
Sodolo^cal theory oi origin of
religion, 33!
Socrates, 11^
Solar pantheism, in Egypt, 89
Sol Invictus, 56, 133
Soma, 155. i{^
Soothill, W. £., on early religioii
in China, 213; on Tao, 228
Sophodes, 117
Sottow, in Buddhism, I90f.
Soul, as breath, 51
South America, 325
Southern Buddhism, 200
South Seas, 300
Spain, 295
^)eculation, in Mahayana, 201I
Spencer, Herbert, on origin of r&-
ligion, 33, 54
Speaer, 31^
Spenta Mainyu, 142
^inoza, 270
l^nrits, in animistic religion, soff.
State religion, in China, 217!
Statina, 122
Stoicism, 119
Stone-worship, among animists, 55
Sublime Porte, see Sultan
Sudan, 299
Sudras, 167
Su£fering, m Buddhism, I90f.
Sultan, 291, 302
Sumatra, 47, 204
Sumerians, 97; Sumerian deities,
99
Sun, in Chinese animism, 214!
Sunna, in Islam, 287, 289, 300, 301
Superior man, the ideal of Con-
fucius, 223
Supreme Bongs, in animistic re-
hgion, 61
Suras of Koran, 279
Synagogue, 267, 272
$rria, 132, 259, 277, 295, 315
Soe^uan, 229
INDEX
343
Table Prepared, of Joseph Cato,
Tabu (Taboo), 67
Tada Kanai, on Amida, 34^.
Tagore, Rabindranath, as Indian
nationalist, 176
Talmud, 268
Tao, defined, 228
Taoism, today, 229, 230, 233
Taoist popes, 229
Tao TcAi king, of Laodus, 227f.
Tarquin, 126
Tatirobolium, 131
Teh, defined, 228
Templum, 125
Tendai, sect, 242f., 245
Tenrikyo, sect, 255
Teutonic peoples, 136, 324
Thebes, priests of, 83; Amon god
of, 85. 88, 89, 90
Three Religions Conference, 255
Theism, in India, lyof.
Theistic Church, in India, 177
Theosophy, among Parsis, 151
Thomas, N. W., on sacrifice, 7if.
Thoth, 88
Thout, 86
Thrace, 113
Thuringia, 324
Tiamat, loi
Tiber River, 125
Tibet, Buddhism in, 206f .
Tien, 218
Tigris River, 97
Tishtrya, 147
Todas, 67
Tokugawa family, 239; and Bud-
dhism, 249f.
Tolerance, m study of religion, 16
Torah, see Law, Jewish
Torres Straits, magic in, 77
Totemism, and origin of religion,
34; denned, 65; and animal
worship, 65; in Egypt, 86
Tours, Battle of, 296
Towefs of Silence, 146, 150
Toy, C. H., on mana, 53
Traditions, in Islam, 287!, 292
Transmigration, in Hinduism,
159!., 160, 178; in Buddhism,
Tree-worship, among animists, S5
Triads, in Egypt, 88; in Baby-
lonia, 99
Tribal stage, of rdigkMui develop-
ment, 40f •
Trimurti, I70
Trinity, Christian doctrine of,
3i6f.
Turanians, 140
Turkestan, 296
Turkey, and the World War, 291,
302; in Europe, 298
Tifflcs, in Islam, 296, 297f.
Tutilina, 122
Twet, 04
Twice-born, in India, 167
Tylor, E. B., definition of re-
ligion, 20; on origin of religion,
3if.; on fetishism^ 5^; on mono-
theism among anmusts, 62
Typhon (Set), 132
Ulfilas, 324
Unitarianism, among Parsis, 151
Universal stage, of religious de-
velopment, 42f .
Universalism, in Judaism, 272,
273; in Christiamty, 329!
University of ToWo, 255
Untouchables, in India, 168
Upanishads, 160, 162
H'» ?7. 99
Uruk, 97, 99
Ush^tis, 93
Vairochana, 243
Vaishnavas, 172
Vaisyas, 167
Varna, 167
Varuna, I54f.
Vedanta, 162, 163
Vedas, 159, 178
Vendidad, 145
Venus, 128
Vesta, 122, 123
Vienna, 29^
Vijnanavadins, idealists, 203
Vishnu, 154. 170, 17^ 172, 173
Vishtaspa, 140
Vivekananda, Swami, 177
Vohu Manah, 141
Volga River, 300
Wadddl, L. A., on Tibetan mooaa-
ticismt 307
344
INDEX
Wahabttes, 301
WakaOt 52
Webb» C. C. J., 00 dirfinitian of
religion, i6l.
Weeks, J. H., <m fear among
aniinists, 69!.
WeUhanaen, Juliut, on Axabiaa
deities, 376
Wesley, John, 319
Western Church, 317
Whitefidd, Geoige, 319
Widows, in India, 166
Woman, in Buddhism, 183; in
China, 317; in Islam, 385; in
Hinduism, 165!.
World MissioDary Conference, 336
World WaTp and Christianity, 337
Worship, m animistic rwgion,
68ff.; motive of, 69; in Greece,
I I3£F. ; in Rome, I33f. ; in Hindu-
ism, I57f.; lack of in eaiiy
Buddhism, 190; in China,
3l8f.
Wnght, W.^., definition of re-
ligion, 33 *
Wundt, Wilhdm, 00 caogamy, 66
Yahfidi Ocliovah)t 361, 362. 363
273. 3"
Yajurveda, 158
Yama, 155
Yao, 319
Yashts, 147
Yasna, 149
Ydkyw River, 80
Yoshihito, 337
YQ,3I9
Zabnr, 391
Zeller, on nunfBer of animists, 47
Zeid, adopted son of Mohammed,
385, amanuffisis of Mohammed,
386
2^emxem, 376, 390
Zen, sect, 343f .
Zeus, 109, no. III, 114, 117, 138
Zi,98
Zoroaster (Zarathustra), 135, 137;
life and work, I39f.; teaching,
I4if.; contrasted with Jesus
Qirist, i^i ; limitations, 143, 146
Zoroastnanism, 104; contrasted
with Hinduism, 139L; weakness
of, 1511
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