D. B. Macdonald, Aspects of Islam; Religious Attitude and Life in Islam. S. Reinach, Orpheus, chap. vi. A. Menzies, History of Religion, chap. XIII. T. W. Arnold, Preaching of Islam. W. St. C. Tisdall, Religion of the Crescent. E. Sill, Faith of Islam. F. A. Klein, Religion of Islam. Syed Ameer Ali, Spirit of Islam. Articles in Hasting's and Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia, and Encyclopædia Britannica. Harvard Theological Review, vol. 5, p. 474.

SUMMARY OF PART I

What has been the trend of religious evolution?

FROM the welter of primitive superstitions to the pure and noble ideals of Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity is a far journey. But the causes that have produced these profound changes in belief and practice are, in general, not difficult to discern. We are not to think of the mere unfolding of a universal and always latent "religious instinct"; nor is the road from the naïve animism of savage peoples to the concepts of modern liberal religion a highway along which mankind as a whole have advanced. Rather, there have been innumerable experiments and failures; beliefs have dawned, thrilled their converts, and disappeared; the religions that have survived have grown far from the visions of their founders, and show the marks of many a struggle and change. In this sphere, as everywhere, the evolutionary process has produced widely different results under differing conditions. And if a large proportion of living men to-day subscribe to rather closely analogous creeds, it is simply because the intercommunication of modern life, together with the many unifying forces at work, has made it possible for a few faiths to override and supersede their numerous rivals.

Religion is, at its beginning, not something new injecte into human life; it emerges rather through that gradual differentiation of human interests which also marked out the spheres of art and science. Closely bound up with the social structure of primitive life, the development of religious ideas is to be explained largely in terms of contemporary social and intellectual change. Whatever activities and ideas and

interests are vital in the tribal life are sure to be reflected in religious practices. Thus religious evolution is not a selfcontained process, carrying within itself its own explanation, as an acorn might be said to contain the germ of all that the oak is to be. On the contrary, a religion may veer in any direction, under the influence of current science and philosophy, the conscious or unconscious manipulation of priests, the political status and cultural development of the people. The mutual intercourse of tribes brought alien products into the various home-grown cults; and the eventual dominance of one or other was determined chiefly by the physical superiority of the conquering nations. Great personalities moulded the religion of their countrymen in the direction of their personal visions and ideals. The innumerable forces at work shaping tribal or national morals put their stamp equally upon religious practices and ideas, which are in early life a hardly distinguishable aspect thereof.1

Yet, as in the case of moral evolution, so in religious evolution, a few simple constant forces determine in the end the direction of development. Whatever variations of belief and practice may arise, there is in the long run a natural selection for survival of those that meet certain underlying human needs. These needs are threefold: for consolation, for inspiration, and for comprehension. In general, and in the long run, those conceptions tend to prevail which are happier and more hopeful; those which are more moral, or spiritual — i.e., which lead the believer into the better ways of life; and those which are more rational, more in harmony with men's observations of what is true or probable. Such beliefs have an inherent stability which is lacking to the gloomy or fearful beliefs, to the immoral practices, and to the more fantastic and obviously irrational conceptions. It is impos

1 For a detailed discussion of these forces see my Problems of Conduct, Part I.

sible for most of us to-day to believe, for example, in original sin and predestination to damnation; to worship the cruel and immoral gods of Babylon — or, for that matter, of the prophet Samuel or of Calvin; to take seriously the predicted world-catastrophes of the book of Revelation or the Heaven and Hell of Dante. To judge from observable tendencies, the goal of religious evolution would seem to be a faith that shall be cheering, pure in its morality, and in harmony with the dicta of our scientific knowledge of the world.

The most striking example of the working of the first of these three forces is to be found in the growth and spread of monotheism. Polytheism, although a more natural and instinctive reaction to the complex and often opposed forces of nature, leaves the mind confused and hope uncertain. However favorably disposed a god may be, his power is limited by that of other and perhaps less beneficent beings. Athene, for example, was sure to work for the city that bore her name; but Hera's power was also to be reckoned with. Jehovah would fight for his tribes, but so would Baal and Chemosh for theirs. Only when the belief should grow up in a single god of all peoples, all-powerful and beneficent, could men feel wholly confident in his strength. Such a belief grew up in several places, under the influence of somewhat differing causes. But the monotheism of the Greeks was too speculative, too lacking in roots in the soil, to spread far beyond the circle of the educated or survive the overthrow of Hellenic culture. The monotheism of the Brahmanic priests was likewise too speculative, and lacking in warmth of human interests and idealism, so that it waned before the more spiritual atheism of Buddha — although the hunger for a God in whom to trust quickly found another object in the worship of Buddha himself.

But the monotheistic development of greatest ultimate 1 Cf. 1 Sam. chap. 15.

significance was that which took place within the Hebrew religion. The enhancement of Jehovah's powers until he came to be thought of as the only god worthy of worship, and finally as the only existing god, was a process much closer to the practical life of men; it was linked with historical and local events, and brought into play the patriotism and moral fervor of an intense and ardent people. Instead of offering a vague hope, such as we find in Marcus Aurelius, that events are ultimately governed by reason and therefore to be patiently, even loyally, acquiesced in, it brought, in its eventual form, a pledge to the individual of the fulfillment of his personal hopes and longings. A belief so inspiring as this found ready and tenacious acceptance; no wonder that it swept over the western world. What made it prevail was, of course, not any evidence of its truth, but the immense consolation and hope it brought to the hearts of men.

The prevailing power of the higher moral conceptions in a religion is to be seen in the rise of many faiths, as, notably, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. But its most striking example is the prophetic movement among the Hebrews, culminating in the tender and noble ideals of Christ and the early Christians. The dominance of Christianity is to be explained quite as much on the ground of the greater spirituality of its ideals as on the ground of its consolation and hope.

Finally, the survival value of rationality in a religion is best seen in the conflict of beliefs within Christianity, and the process, gradual but sure, by which those forms of the religion which are most sharply in conflict with reason and science are becoming discredited and yielding place to interpretations of the faith that are consonant with the intellectual outlook of the modern world.