AN INTRODUCTORY SURVEY BY DURANT DRAKE A.M. (HARVARD), PH.D. (COLUMBIA) Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE The Riverside Press PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. PREFACE THIS book, like its predecessor, Problems of Conduct, represents a course of lectures given for several years to undergraduates of Wesleyan University. It is hoped that these lectures in printed form will be useful, not only for other college classes, but for the general reading public that is interested in the great and vital problems of religion. Their aim is to give a rapid survey of the field, such that the man who is confused by the chaos of opinions on these matters, and himself but little able to judge between conflicting statements, may here get his bearings and see his way to stable belief and energetic action. In so limited a space it will not be possible to attempt an adequate presentation of the arguments for each view advanced or a rebuttal of the infinitely numerous and shifting arguments by which the various current doctrines seek to justify themselves. All that can be done is to offer the results of the best scholarly work in the wide field covered, and thereby to present a general perspective of those truths, some old and some but recently acquired, which bear practically on our religion. The carefully chosen lists of readings appended to each chapter, together with the more specific references in the footnotes, will serve for those who are interested enough to pursue any topic further as a check upon the author's conclusions and an initiation into the further aspects of the several problems. Practically all of this selected literature is in English, and is readable, as well as worth reading. The hopelessly antiquated literature is not cited, except occasionally, where it seems necessary for the sake of fair |