INTRODUCTION

I. OBJECT.

RELIGION is activity of souls in which it is supposed
that there is intercourse with supernatural power-that
is, power which is different from and has control over
the ordinary things and processes of human existence.
A religion is a recognized kind of such activity. Now
religion involves ideas concerning the nature of the
power with which intercourse is supposed to be held
and concerning the means of intercourse.
And as
the moral sense develops, there arise and grow ideas
concerning right and wrong, together with reward and
punishment from the being or beings which are the
objects of religion. Accordingly religion carries with
it some sort of thought concerning the controlling being
or beings of the world and concerning the use to be
made of human life, so as to avoid evil and obtain
good.

There is a tendency in the human mind to try
to extend the systems of thought connected with
religion, without regard to the practical requirements
of religion or of the conduct of life. For abundance
and completeness of thought seem to be intrinsically
good. But it may be that such theology prepares for
progress in religion and the conduct of life, even as
scientific inquiries which were pursued purely for the
sake of the extension of knowledge proved subsequently
of great practical utility. Certainly it seems likely
that if the present life is to be followed by life after

INTRODUCTION

I. OBJECT.

RELIGION is activity of souls in which it is supposed that there is intercourse with supernatural power-that is, power which is different from and has control over the ordinary things and processes of human existence. A religion is a recognized kind of such activity. Now religion involves ideas concerning the nature of the power with which intercourse is supposed to be held and concerning the means of intercourse. And as the moral sense develops, there arise and grow ideas concerning right and wrong, together with reward and punishment from the being or beings which are the objects of religion. Accordingly religion carries with it some sort of thought concerning the controlling being or beings of the world and concerning the use to be made of human life, so as to avoid evil and obtain good.

There is a tendency in the human mind to try to extend the systems of thought connected with religion, without regard to the practical requirements of religion or of the conduct of life. For abundance and completeness of thought seem to be intrinsically good. But it may be that such theology prepares for progress in religion and the conduct of life, even as scientific inquiries which were pursued purely for the sake of the extension of knowledge proved subsequently of great practical utility. Certainly it seems likely that if the present life is to be followed by life after

death, some knowledge of the latter order of life may assist towards good use of the former. And gener

ally, as human beings become more and more capable of intelligently ordering their life, so, it is probable, do they become more able to obtain and to profit by knowledge of their relation to this power.

We wish to know the truth of the subjects with which the main doctrines of Christianity deal: namely, the means of intercourse of human souls with God, the position of human souls in the Universe, the destiny of God for them in the future and conditions of fulfilling that destiny. For such knowledge will assuredly greatly assist towards good for humanity.

We choose to consider the doctrines of Christianity rather than those of any other religion, because Christianity is more familiar to us, and because it is professedly the religion of those portions of humanity which, on the whole, appear most developed.

II. METHOD.

How are we to find the desired truth? It is not possible in this quest to treat the Bible as infallible. Geology, biology, and literary criticism have dispelled the dream of the literal inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures of Christianity. The account in Genesis of the creation of the world and of man, however inspiring and religiously valuable, has been demonstrated by natural science to be not in accordance with the facts. The Pentateuch has been shown to be a composite work, in which later developments of the Israelitish religion have been referred to an early stage of it. Interpolations and additions, made long after the death of the men under whose names the books stand, have been brought to light in the records of Hebrew prophecy, and also predictions concerning the near future, which were not fulfilled. Grave disparities have appeared between the so-called Synoptic Gospels

and the Fourth Gospel. And in the former there is recorded prophecy of a catastrophic end of the world within the then living generation, which did not take place. The writings of St. Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews contain far-fetched interpretations of the Jewish Scriptures, and are here and there tinctured with a rabbinical mode of thought which is out of harmony with the highest Christian spirit. The Apocalypse of John the Divine is largely a product of pre-Christian imagination concerning the end of the world, with comparatively little of the peculiar ethical and religious ideas of the gospels.

But the Bible may appeal in respect of the religion which it expresses even to those to whom its science is crude. Wherefore distinction between the science and the religion of the Bible may help towards appreciation of its value. The Bible issued from a series of strong religious movements in people who were relatively unaffected by ideas derived from systematic study of Nature. Hence it has served to present religion and morality, after its views of the processes of the physical world had become superseded. Its astronomy is pre-Copernican, its biology is pre-Darwinian; but through its representation of the nature of God and the ideal for man it has uplifted many who have been learned in Copernican and Darwinian science. The religious and moral value of the Bible is, to a high degree at least, independent of its errors as to material existence.

But how is it with the theology of the Bible, which stands, as it were, between its religion and its ideas about Nature? The Hebrew conception of God in His creative activity can hardly be maintained. Some of the descriptions of the Divine judgment of souls are out of harmony with a more mature view of the processes of the Universe. The presentation of the principle of the redemption of man is coloured with ethical and religious ideas which do not seem in accord with the