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diff --git a/77050-h/77050-h.htm b/77050-h/77050-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..478a817 --- /dev/null +++ b/77050-h/77050-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6424 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <title> + Does civilization need religion? | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +.fake-h1 { + font-size: 2em; + font-weight: bold; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: avoid; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +.smaller {font-size: smaller;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; + page-break-before: avoid; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%; visibility: hidden;} +@media print { hr.chap {} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + width:30em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table td { padding: 0.25em; font-variant: small-caps; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +/* Footnotes */ + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77050 ***</div> + + +<h1> +DOES CIVILIZATION<br> +NEED RELIGION? +</h1> + +<p class="center"> +<i>A Study in the Social Resources</i><br> +<i>and Limitations of Religion</i><br> +<i>in Modern Life</i><br> +<br> +<br> +BY<br> +<span style="font-size:x-large">REINHOLD NIEBUHR</span><br> +<br> +<br> +NEW YORK<br> +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br> +1927<br> +<i>All rights reserved</i> +</p> + +<hr> +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1927,<br> +<span class="smcap">By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.<br> +<br> +Set up and electrotyped.<br> +Published December, 1927.<br> +<br> +<br> +SET UP BY BROWN BROTHERS, LINOTYPERS<br> +<i>Printed in the United States of America by</i><br> +THE FERRIS PRINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK +</p> + +<hr> +<div class="center"> +TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER<br> +<br> +<span class="smaller">WHO TAUGHT ME THAT THE CRITICAL<br> +FACULTY CAN BE UNITED WITH A<br> +REVERENT SPIRIT</span><br> +<br> +<i>and</i><br> +<br> +TO MY MOTHER<br> +<br> +<span class="smaller">WHO FOR TWELVE YEARS HAS SHARED<br> +WITH ME THE WORK OF A<br> +CHRISTIAN PASTORATE</span> +</div> + +<hr> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS"> + CONTENTS + </h2> +</div> + +<table> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td class="tdl smaller">CHAPTER</td> + <td class="tdr smaller">PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">I.</td> + <td class="tdl">The State of Religion in Modern Society</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">II.</td> + <td class="tdl">Nature and Civilization as Foes of Personality</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">III.</td> + <td class="tdl">The Social Resources of Religion</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">IV.</td> + <td class="tdl">The Social Conservatism of Modern Religion</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">V.</td> + <td class="tdl">Religion and Life: Conflict and Compromise</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VI.</td> + <td class="tdl">Social Complexity and Ethical Impotence</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VII.</td> + <td class="tdl">Transcending and Transforming the World</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">VIII.</td> + <td class="tdl">A Philosophical Basis for an Ethical Religion</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdr">IX.</td> + <td class="tdl">Conclusion</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> + <div class="center fake-h1"> + DOES CIVILIZATION NEED + RELIGION? + </div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I"> + CHAPTER I + <br> + THE STATE OF RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETY + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>Religion is not in a robust state of health +in modern civilization. Vast multitudes, particularly +in industrial and urban centers, live +without seeking its sanctions for their actions +and die without claiming its comforts in their +extremities. While its influence is still considerable +among agrarians and the middle +classes of the city, an ever-increasing number +of the privileged classes are indifferent to its +values. Spiritual and moral forces have always +been in a perennial state of decay in those +circles of society in which physical ease and +cultural advantages combine to make intellectual +scruples more pressing than moral +ones. But modern scientific education has +greatly multiplied the intellectual difficulties +of religion and the increasing opulence of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span> +Western life has rendered its moral problems +more perplexing. Industrial workers, in as +far as they are socially self-conscious, are +almost universally inimical to religion, and +their opposition represents a type of anti-religious +sentiment which is entirely new in +history.</p> + +<p>Since the dawn of the modern era the tides +of faith have ebbed and flowed so that it is not +easy to chart their general course; but it is +difficult to escape the conclusion that each new +tide has barely exceeded the mark left by a +previous ebb. The stream of religious life has +been deepened at times, as in the Protestant +Reformation, but the impartial observer will +note that it has been narrowed as well. A +psychology of defeat, of which both fundamentalism +and modernism are symptoms, has +gripped the forces of religion. Extreme +orthodoxy betrays by its very frenzy that the +poison of scepticism has entered the soul of the +church; for men insist most vehemently upon +their certainties when their hold upon them has +been shaken. Frantic orthodoxy is a method +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span> +for obscuring doubt. Liberalism tries vainly +to give each new strategic retreat the semblance +of a victorious engagement. To retreat from +untenable positions is no doubt a necessary +step in preparation for new advances; but this +necessary strategy has not been accompanied +by the kind of spiritual vigor which would +promise ultimate victory. The general tendencies +toward the secularization of life have +been consistent enough to prompt its foes to +predict religion’s ultimate extinction as a +major interest of mankind and to tempt even +friendly observers to regard its future with +grave apprehension. There are indeed many +forms of religion which are clearly vestigial +remnants of another day with other interests. +They have no vital influence upon the life of +modern man, and their continued existence +only proves that history, like nature, is slow to +destroy what it has found useless, and even +slower to inter what it has destroyed. Scattered +among the living forms of each civilization are +the whitened bones of what was once flesh and +blood.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span> +</p> + +<p>The sickness of faith in our day may be the +senility which precedes death; on the other +hand, it may be a specific malady which time +and thought can cure. If history is slow to +destroy what has become useless, it may be as +patient and persistent in reviving what is useful +but seems dead. Five hundred years are +but a short span in history, and a constant tendency +over such a period may lead to premature +conclusions. If religion contains indispensable +resources for the life of man, its +revival waits only upon the elimination of +those maladjustments which have hindered it +from making its resources available for the +citizen of the modern era. Whatever may be +said of specific religions and religious forms, it +is difficult to imagine man without religion; +for religion is the champion of personality in a +seemingly impersonal world. It prompts man +to organize his various impulses, inherited and +acquired, into a moral unity; it persuades him, +when its vitality is unimpaired, to regard his +fellows with an appreciation commensurate +with his own self-respect; and it finally discovers +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> +and creates a universe in which the +human spirit is guaranteed security against the +forces of nature which always seem to reduce +it to a mere effervescence unable to outlast the +collocation of forces which produced it. The +plight of religion in our own day is due to the +fact that it has been more than ordinarily +pressed by foes on the two lines on which it +defends the dignity and value of personality. +The sciences have greatly complicated the +problem of maintaining the plausibility of +the personalization of the universe by which +religion guarantees the worth of human personality; +and science applied to the world’s +work has created a type of society in which +human personality is easily debased. The pure +sciences have revealed a world of nature much +more impersonal and, seemingly, much less +amenable to a divine will and to human needs +than had been traditionally assumed; and the +applied sciences have created an impersonal +civilization in which human relations are so +complex, its groups and units so large, its +processes so impersonal, the production of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> +things so important, and ethical action so difficult, +that personality is both dwarfed and outraged +in it.</p> + +<p>Personality is that type of reality which is +self-conscious and self-determining. The concept +of personality is valid only in a universe +in which creative freedom is developed and +maintained in individual life as well as in the +universe. Religion therefore needs the support +of both metaphysics and ethics. It tries to +prompt man to ethical action by the sublime +assumption that the universe is itself ethical +in its ultimate nature whatever data to the +contrary the immediate and obvious scene may +reveal; and through the cultivation of the +ethical life in man it seeks to make such a +personalization of the universe both necessary +and plausible. It teaches men to find God by +loving their brothers, and to love their brothers +because they have found God. It inspires a +mystical reverence for human personality, +prompted by the discovery and creation of a +universe in which personality is the supreme +power and value; and it persuades men to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> +discover personal values in the universe because +they have first come upon clues to the transcendent +value of personality in the lives of their +fellows. Its ethics is dependent upon its metaphysics +and its metaphysics is rooted in its +ethics. Religion is thus obviously placed in a +desperate plight when its metaphysics and its +ethics are imperiled at the same time. It must +face and do battle with two hosts of enemies, +those who do not believe in men because they +do not believe in God, and those who do not +believe in God because modern civilization has +robbed them of their faith in the moral +integrity of men.</p> + +<p>Since it is difficult to fight on two fronts at +the same time, the forces of religion have been +forced to choose one of the two fronts for +their major defensive effort. Perhaps it was +inevitable that they should choose the easier +task. It is easier to challenge the idea of an +impersonal universe than to change the fact +of an impersonal civilization. That is what the +modern church has done and is doing. It is +spending all its energy in discounting the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span> +excessive claims of a deterministic science. It +has exhausted its ingenuity in retreating from +the untenable positions of an orthodoxy which +overstated the freedom and the virtue in the +physical universe and therefore aggravated the +very determinism by which it was defeated. +Outraged truth has a way of avenging itself. +The idea of a capricious God working his will +in the universe without the restraint of law or +the hindrance of any circumstance helped to +create the concept of a mechanistic world in +which all freedom is an illusion and therefore +all morality a sham. Thus the strategic +retreats of religion in the field of metaphysics +have been the necessary prelude to any new +religious advance. Religion may in fact be +forced to make some concessions which even +modern liberalism seems still unwilling to +make. Modern religionists, particularly popular +apologists are inclined to add the word +creative to the word evolution, and assume that +their problem is solved. The modern church +has very generally borrowed its apologetic +strategy from John Fiske and Henry Drummond, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> +and has tried to visualize a God who +differed from older conception only in this—that +he took more time to gain his ends than +had once been assumed. The important fact +which has escaped many modern defenders of +the faith is that the patience of the creative +will is a necessary characteristic rather than +a self-imposed restraint. There is a stubborn +inertia in every type of reality which offers +resistance to each new step in creation, so that +an emerging type of reality is always in some +sense a compromise between the creative will +and the established facts of the concrete world. +Whether we view the inorganic world, organic +life or the world of personal and moral values, +each new type of reality represents in some +sense a defeat of God as well as a revelation +of him. Religious apologetics will probably +be forced to concede this fact more generously +than has been its wont before it can bring +religious affirmations into harmony with +scientific facts. Modern liberalism is steeped +in a religious optimism which is true to the +facts of neither the world of nature nor the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span> +world of history. The ultimate worth of +human personality in the universe may not be +guaranteed as immediately nor as obviously as +liberal religion seems inclined to assume. +Liberal religion may be forced to discard its +metaphysical and theological monisms, which +have been its support even more than orthodoxy’s, +and concede that freedom and +creativity in both man and the cosmic order +are more seriously circumscribed than religion +had assumed. But after that concession is +made it is not likely that the idea of freedom, +and the dignity of personality which is associated +with it, will ever be completely discredited, +whatever may be the deterministic +obsessions of modern science. The various +sciences can momentarily afford to indulge in +their various determinisms because the prestige +of metaphysics as a coördinator of the sciences +has been destroyed for the time being. Each +science is therefore able to disavow the authority +of metaphysics and work upon the basis +of its own metaphysical assumptions, which +are usually unreflective and generally deterministic. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span> +But the bulk of new knowledge +which has momentarily destroyed the authority +of any unifying perspective must in time be +mastered by philosophical thought; and absolute +determinism is bound to be discredited in +such a development.⁠<a id="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>There can be no question but that the +development of the physical sciences has permanently +increased the difficulty of justifying +the personalization of the universe upon which +all religious affirmations are based. Every +new form of reality is so closely linked to every +preceding form out of which it emerges that +it is not easy to discern the place where free +creativity functions. Yet no total view of +reality can ever be permanently mechanistic, +for new types of reality do emerge and science +is able to explain only the process and not the +cause of their emergence.</p> + +<p>Important, then, as the metaphysical problem +of religion is, it is not the only problem +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> +which it faces. Though it is a real task to +reinterpret religious truth in the light of +modern science, it is by no means a hopeless +one; and though it is necessary, it is not the +only necessary task. In the light of modern +philosophical inquiries it is justifiable to +assume that the most needed hypotheses of +religion are metaphysically defensible. In the +present situation of religion in civilization, it +is more necessary to inquire if and how the +peculiar attitudes and the unique life which +proceeds from a religious interpretation of the +universe may be made to serve the needs of +men in modern civilization. The fact is that +more men in our modern era are irreligious +because religion has failed to make civilization +ethical than because it has failed to maintain +its intellectual respectability. For every person +who disavows religion because some ancient +and unrevised dogma outrages his intelligence, +several become irreligious because the social +impotence of religion outrages their conscience. +Religion never lacks moral fruits so long as it +has any vitality. It has been placed in such a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> +sorry plight in fulfilling its ethical task in +modern civilization because the mechanization +of society has made an ethical life for the +individual at once more necessary and +more difficult, and failure more obvious, +than in any previous civilization. If we +are not less ethical than our fathers, our +happiness is certainly more dependent than +that of our fathers upon the ethical character +of our society. Rapid means of commerce and +communication have brought us into terms of +intimacy with all the world without increasing +the spiritual dynamic and ethical intelligence +which makes such close contact sufferable. We +have multiplied the tools of destruction which +a confused conscience may wield and have thus +armed the world of nature which lives in the +soul of man by the same science by which we +imagined ourselves to have conquered nature. +We have developed so complex a society that +it cannot be made ethical by moral goodwill +alone, if moral purpose is not astutely guided. +Lacking social intelligence, modern civilization +has thus robbed man of confidence in his own +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> +and his neighbor’s moral integrity even when +ethical motives were not totally lacking. +Civilization with its impersonal and mechanized +relationships tends on the one hand to make +society less ethical, and on the other to reveal +its immoralities more vividly than in any previous +age. Religion has a relation to both +cause and effect to the moral life. Both its +friends and its foes are inclined to judge it by +its moral fruits, regarding it as primarily the +root, fancied or real, of morality. Yet morality +is as much the root as the fruit of religion; +for religious sentiment develops out of moral +experience and religious convictions are the +logic by which moral life justifies itself. In a +civilization in which the dominant motives and +basic relationships are unethical, religion is +therefore doubly affected. The immoralities +which bring the reproach of impotence upon it +are also the reason for the impotence. Thus +modern civilization creates a temper of scorn +for a religion which fails to challenge recognized +social iniquities, and at the same time it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> +destroys the vitality which religion needs to +issue such a challenge. The defection of the +industrial workers from religious life and +institutions, one of the most significant phenomena +of our time, has this double significance. +The industrial worker is indifferent to +religion, partly because he is enmeshed in +relations which are so impersonal and fundamentally +so unethical that his religious sense +atrophies in him. On the other hand he is +hostile to religion because he observes the +ethical impotence of the religion of the privileged +classes, particularly in its failure to +effect improvement in economic and social +attitudes. The industrial worker raises a +general characteristic of modern urban man to +a unique degree. His own experiences help him +to see the moral limitations of modern civilization +more clearly than do the more privileged +classes; but what is true of him is generally +true of all members of a complex society in +which human relations are impersonal and +complicated. If religion is senescent in modern +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> +civilization, its social impotence is as +responsible for its decline as is its metaphysical +maladjustment.</p> + +<p>The restoration of its vitality must wait +upon the adjustment of its tenets and the +reorganization of its life to meet the problems +which both the pure and the applied sciences, +which both the depersonalization of the universe +and the depersonalization of civilization, +have created. The metaphysical problem of +religion cannot be depreciated. In the long +run religion must be able to impress the mind +of modern man with the essential plausibility +and scientific respectability of its fundamental +affirmations. But the scientific respectability +of religious affirmations will not avail if the life +which issues from them will not help to solve +man’s urgent social problems. If modern +churches continue to prefer their intellectual +to their ethical problems, they will merely +succeed in maintaining a vestige of religion in +those classes which are not sensitive enough to +feel and not unfortunate enough to suffer from +the moral limitations of modern society. An +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> +unethical civilization will inevitably destroy the +vitality of the religion of the victims and the +sincerity and moral prestige of the religion of +the beneficiaries of its unethical inequalities.</p> + +<p>The future of religion and the future of +civilization are thus hung in the same balance. +Both as a means to a moral end and as an end +in itself, for which the moral life is the means, +the future of religion is involved in the ethical +reconstruction of modern society. Social and +economic problems are not the only problems +which fret the mind and engage the interest of +modern men. But they are proportionately +more important in an advanced than in a +primitive society. Modern men face no problem +that is greater than that of their aggregate +existence. How can they live in some kind +of decent harmony with their fellow men when +the size and intricacy of their social machinery +tends continually to aggravate the vices which +make human life inhuman? How shall they +gain mastery over the instruments by which +they have mastered nature so that these will +not become the means of projecting nature’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> +vices into human history? How shall they +bring the life of great social and political +groups under the dominion of conscience and +moral law? These are the problems upon +which hangs the future of civilization. Such +social problems are fundamentally ethical and +the intimate relation between religion and +morality bring them inevitably into the province +of religion. Can it help to solve them? +Will their solution give religious idealism new +vitality? Is the present social impotence of +religion due to innate defects? Or is it due to +specific and historical limitations which the +years may change at least as quickly as they +produced them? To such questions we must +address ourselves.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> +</p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II"> + CHAPTER II + <br> + NATURE AND CIVILIZATION AS FOES OF + PERSONALITY + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>It would be extravagant to claim that the +possibility of making the resources of religion +available for the solution of social problems +of modern civilization is absolutely determining +for its future. Religion would continue to +maintain itself in modern society even if it +produced only the scarcest socio-ethical fruits. +The problem of living together is not the only +problem which men face, and civilization is not +the only foe with which personality contends. +At least two other fundamental problems +engage the interest of every normal individual, +that of developing the multifarious forces of +his personality into some kind of harmony and +unity and that of asserting the dignity and +worth of human personality in defiance of +nature’s indifference and contempt. If religion +can render the human spirit a tolerably effective +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> +service in the solution of these two problems, +its aid will not be scorned though it fail +him in his social problem. It will not maintain +itself with equal vitality in all strata of society, +but it will continue some kind of existence in +all of them, and a fairly vigorous life in those +classes in which social problems are least +urgent.</p> + +<p>Psychiatry and the psychological sciences +are encroaching upon one service to the perplexed +spirit of man which was once an almost +exclusive province of religion. They are +offering him aid in the task of integrating +the heterogeneous forces, with which ages of +human and prehuman history have endowed +him, into the unity of dependable character; +and there are those who think that this service +will obviate his need for religion in this field. +Undoubtedly it will be to the advantage of any +moral or religious discipline of the individual +life to avail itself of a more precise knowledge +of the intricacies of human personality; yet +only the most mechanistic and naturalistic +ethical theorist would maintain that the knowledge +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> +of self is the only prerequisite of self-mastery, +and that the eternal conflict between +the higher will and the immediate desires, about +which the religious of every age have testified, +may be composed by nothing more than a +better understanding of the devious ways of +human intelligence and emotion. The psychological +sciences have undoubtedly saved +men from some morbid fears and repressions, +but the most modern school of psychological +mechanists and determinists seems more +anxious to destroy restraints which are the +product of ages of moral experience than to +correct the defects which reveal themselves +inevitably on the fringe of every moral discipline. +The reason mechanistic psychiatry and +psycho-analysis run easily into a justification +of license is because they labor under the +illusion that the higher self (they would scorn +that term) is able to put all internal forces in +their proper place, if only it knows their previous +history and actual direction. Under +such an illusion the clamant desires of man’s +physical life are bound to be closer to the center +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> +of character than any moral discipline would +allow. Modern determinism is too naturalistic +to see or to be willing to regard human personality +as the incarnation of moral and +spiritual values which did not have their origin +in any immediate necessity and which no +individual will maintain if his resolution is not +strengthened by something more than his +momentary and obvious experience. This is +not to say that moral discipline in individual +life can be maintained by religion alone. A +humanistic ethical idealism, which makes the +experience of the race the guide and inspiration +of individual conduct, will not fail to aid +men toward some higher integration of personality, +though it will seldom go beyond the +Greek ideal of a balanced life which knows +how to escape sublime enthusiasms as well as +crass excesses. The value of religion in composing +the conflict with which the inner life of +man is torn is that it identifies man’s highest +values, about which he would center his life, +with realities in the universe itself, and teaches +him how to bring his momentary impulses +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> +under the dominion of his will by subjecting +his will to the guidance of an absolute will. +“Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be +free,” has ever been the prayer of religious +people. “He who loses his life for my sake +shall find it,” said Jesus. In such paradoxes +the truth is revealed that the highest peace +comes to men where their life is centered not +in what is best in them but in that beyond them +which is better than their best.</p> + +<p>Obviously this function of religion in the +life of the individual has its social implications; +but it is not to be assumed that the integration +of personality automatically solves man’s social +problem. That assumption, which religion +invariably makes, is one of its very defects in +dealing with the social problem. A unified +personality may still be anti-social in its +dominant desires and the very self-respect +which issues from its higher integration may +become the screen for its unsocial attitudes.</p> + +<p>Just as important as the problem of bringing +peace to the warring factions within the soul of +man is the task of giving human personality a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> +sense of worth in the face of nature’s indifference +and contempt; and of adjusting man’s +highest values to nature’s sublimer moods. +The significance of the religious inclinations of +country people lies just here. The peasant is +religious because man’s relation to the natural +world about him is still the agrarian’s great +interest. His ethical life is simple and +develops in those primary or family relationships +in which problems are comparatively few +and a disturbance of the religious temper by +unethical social facts rather infrequent. He is +close enough to nature to be prompted to awe +and reverence by her beauties and sublimities, +to gratitude by her vast and perennial benevolences, +and to fear by her occasional cruel +caprices. He expresses his awe in worship, +his gratitude in the spring and harvest festivals, +which are traditional in all religions, and +when her momentary atrocities overtake him +he appeals from nature’s God to the God who +is above nature and seeks the intervention of a +supernatural ally in behalf of human personality. +In a sense the religion of peasants +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> +remains the constant spring of religious sentiment +in every class of society, which others +may corrupt or refine but never quite destroy. +Urban men suffer from an atrophy of the +religious sense because they lose, as they are +divorced from the soil, some of the reverence +to which a view of the serene majesties of +nature prompts and some of the fear occasioned +by her elemental passions. Yet the most +sophisticated and emancipated city dweller +cannot finally escape the problem of the relation +of the human spirit to the natural world +in which it is at once child and rebel. Even +the refinements and artificialities of urban life +will not save man from facing nature’s last and +most implacable servant—death, nor free him +of the necessity of making some kind of appeal +against the obvious victory which nature +claims at the grave. The fight of personality +against nature is religion’s first battle, and that +is one reason why there is always a possibility +that other struggles will be neglected for it. +Traditional religion fails in its social tasks +partly because men have suffered longer from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> +the sins of nature than from the sins of man; +and religious forms and traditions are therefore +better adjusted to offer them comfort for +these distresses than for any other from which +they suffer. Religion is not yet fully oriented +to the new perils to personality which are +developed in civilization. But it may fail to +meet these and yet not be totally discredited; +for the new perils have not supplanted the old +ones. At its best religion is both a sublimation +and a qualification of the will to live. Defeated +by nature the human spirit rises above nature +through religious faith, discovering and creating +a universe in which divine personality is +the supreme power and human personality a +cherished, protected and deathless reality. +But this religious sublimation of the will to +live must be balanced by a qualification of that +will to live by which men are persuaded to +sacrifice themselves for each other, that they +may save themselves from each other and +realize their highest self. Love is a natural +fruit of religion but not an inevitable one. A +high appreciation of personality ought to issue +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> +in a reverence for all personalities and in a +qualification of the tendency to self-assertion +for the sake of other personalities. But left +to itself religion easily becomes a force which +sublimates but does not qualify man’s desire +for survival; in which case it may still function +in simple societies but will be less useful in +those which are highly complex and in which +the problem of human relationships has become +very important.</p> + +<p>Next to the faith of agrarian classes the +greatest stronghold of religion is in the life of +the middle classes of the city. This phenomenon +is due to several causes. Ideals of self-mastery +and personal rectitude are always +strongest in those classes in which physical +resources are not so abundant as to tempt to +sensual excesses and not so scant as to lead to +an obsession with life’s externalities. For that +reason the resources of religion for the solution +of personal moral problems are particularly +coveted by the middle classes. On the other +hand the middle classes are also religious +because they are comparatively unconscious of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> +their responsibility for society’s sins and comparatively +untouched by the evil consequences +of an unethical civilization. They may therefore +indulge in a religion which creates moral +respectability, and reinforces self-respect, even +though it does not force them to share their +sense of worth with all their fellows. There is +for this reason an element of hypocrisy in all +middle-class religion of which it never becomes +clearly conscious but which helps to create +the corroding cynicism from which the lower +classes of modern society suffer.</p> + +<p>Since ideals of personal righteousness flourish +in the genteel poverty of the countryside at +least as well as in urban middle class conditions, +the religion of peasants and the city’s +middle classes have two characteristics in common: +their preoccupation with problems of the +individual life and their concern for the adjustment +of the soul to nature’s realities. But +while they share these elements the two types +of religion are by no means identical. The +simple expedient of claiming divine and supernatural +intervention in the soul’s specific cases +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span> +of distress does not appeal to the sophisticated +intelligence of city people, particularly since +higher learning has become so general and +science has become the burden of this learning. +They are anxious to correct the intellectual +inadequacies of traditional religion; and if they +are conscious of any moral defects in it, they +have the easy faith that these will be eliminated +with a proper adjustment of religious +affirmations to the world of scientific fact.</p> + +<p>The conflict between orthodoxy and liberalism, +between fundamentalism and modernism, +is essentially a conflict between city and +countryside. Though the Protestant Reformation +was used by the rising cities to assert the +needs of the inner life against a too artificially +elaborated institutional religion and to express +an ethic of individualism against the traditional +loyalties of the peasants rather than to +make a readjustment of religion to the growing +demands of intellectual life, the humanistic +revival which preceded the Reformation was +clearly determined by this latter interest and it +contributed to the dissolution of the medieval +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> +religious structure. In the recent theological +controversies within Protestantism, between +Conservatism and Liberalism, the religious +naïvete of the agrarian and the intellectual +sophistication of the city are more obvious +influences in the conflict.</p> + +<p>The revision of ancient affirmations of faith +in the light of modern learning was of course +necessary from the point of view of the general +needs of the age, and not required merely to +satisfy the intellectual scruples of a particular +class in society which has a preponderant influence +in the Protestant church. It might be +better to say therefore that the commercial +middle classes appropriated as much as they +prompted the revision of Protestant theology +and religion.</p> + +<p>By doing this they have indeed created a +religion capable of maintaining itself in urban +civilization, but it develops little power for the +ethical reconstruction of industrial society. +The same religionists who pride themselves +upon the reasonableness of their faith generally +use their very modern and revised religion to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> +sanctify a very unmodern and unrevised +ethical orthodoxy, an individualistic orthodoxy +which makes much of self-realization and comparatively +little of the social needs of modern +life.</p> + +<p>The kind of liberal religion which thrives +among the privileged classes of the city gives +them some guarantee of the worth of their +personalities against the threats of a seemingly +impersonal universe which science has revealed, +but it does not help to make them aware of +the perils to personality in society itself. The +final test of any religion must be its ability to +prompt ethical action upon the basis of reverence +for personality. To create a world view +which justifies a high appreciation of personality +and fails to develop an ethic which guarantees +the worth of personality in society, is the +great hypocrisy. It is the hypocrisy which is +corrupting almost all modern religion. In a +sense hypocrisy is the inevitable by-product of +every religion. Men are never as good as their +ideals and never as conscious as the impartial +observer of their divergence from them. Every +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span> +religious person commits the error of solipsism +in some form or other, the sin of claiming for +himself what he will not grant to his brothers. +The religion of modern men, particularly of +the privileged classes, seems to be more than +ordinarily insincere, partly because the social +simplicity of another age obscured this +inevitable hypocrisy and partly because the +privilege of the religious classes is so great and +its unethical basis in modern society, particularly +from the perspective of the lowly, so +patent and so destructive, that it is no longer +possible to veil the immoral implications of a +self-centered religion.</p> + +<p>The question which we really face, therefore, +is whether religion is constitutionally but +a sublimation of man’s will to live or whether it +can really qualify the will of the individual and +restrain his expansive desires for the sake of +society. If it is only the former, it will continue +to be the peculiar possession either of +those who have no urgent social problems or of +those who are the beneficiaries and not the victims +of social maladjustments. If religion is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> +not now functioning in the solution of social +and ethical problems, its impotence in this field +may be due to constitutional weaknesses which +may be corrected, once they are understood, or +it may be due to certain specific historical +influences of the past centuries of Western life +which further experience will change and +qualify. If religion has resources for the +solution of social and ethical problems which +have not been made available for the uses of +society, it is the duty of modern teachers of +religion and of all who still have confidence in +its social efficacy or who benefit by its comforts +to work for the elimination of its social limitations, +whether they seem to be incidental and +casual or basic and constitutional. Even constitutional +limitations in the social task need +not discredit religion as a social force; for a +valuable resource may be closely related to a +social limitation and a way may be discovered +to detach the one from the other. Men always +tend to be either uncritical devotees or merciless +critics of the various values which emerge +in human life. This is particularly true in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span> +regard to the values of religion, the limitations +of which are always aggravated by its unreflective +champions and made the occasion of +sweeping abuse by its critics. Religious people +have assumed too easily that a religious life +must issue not only in private rectitude but in +perfect social attitudes. This overestimate of +its social usefulness easily creates a reaction of +criticism which denies that there is any useful +counsel in religion for the problems of society +or any dynamic necessary for their solution.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> +</p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III"> + CHAPTER III + <br> + THE SOCIAL RESOURCES OF RELIGION + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The task of analyzing and isolating the +ethical limitations and the social deficiencies +of religion is to no purpose if there is not in +religion itself, at its best, some resources which +civilization and society need for the solution +of their problems. Some critics of religion +discount it entirely as a social force, or at least +as a force of social progress. Bertrand Russell’s +prejudices on this subject are too violent +to make his testimony against religion particularly +weighty. Yet he speaks for a large +number of ethically sensitive individuals who +share his critical attitude, if not his vehemence, +when he declares: “Since the thirteenth century +the church has consistently encouraged men’s +blood lust and avarice and discouraged every +approach to human and kindly feeling.... +Emancipation from the churches is still an +essential condition of improvement, particularly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span> +in America where the churches have more +influence than in Europe.... Of all requisites +for the regeneration of society the decay +of religion seems to me to have the best chance +of being realized.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_2_2" href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The number of people +among the middle and higher classes who +would subscribe to such a denunciation of +organized religion is probably not very large. +But there are very many who ignore the +church as a force for social amelioration; and +in the class of industrial workers a temper +against the church exceeding even Mr. Russell’s +violence is very general.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be the facts in regard to +contemporary religion and to other specific +types of organized religious life, it is relevant +to ask whether religion as such, freed from its +specific limitations, contains indispensable +resources for the ethical reconstruction of +society.</p> + +<p>The first resource which would seem to be of +social value is the social imagination which +religion, at its best, develops upon the basis of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> +its high evaluation of personality. A spiritual +interpretation of the universe may not issue +automatically in a high appreciation of human +personality, but religion is never quite able to +deny this ethical implication of its faith, and +in occasional moments of high insight it revels +in it. It persuades men to regard their fellows +as their brothers because they are all children +of God. It insists, in other words, that temporal +circumstance and obvious differences are +dwarfed before the spiritual affinities which +men have through their common relation to a +divine creator. Thus Jesus could deal sympathetically +with the harlot of the street, the +publican at the gate, the Samaritan woman at +the well and the blinded fanatics and their +dupes who crucified him. The apostle Paul, +though he did not always understand the +genius of his master, was nevertheless able to +apprehend this central dogma at the heart of +religion and declare: “In Christ there is +neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free.” +Celsus, the critic of the Christian church in the +first century, derides the church for its failure +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> +to distinguish between outcasts and respectable +citizens. The fervor and consistency with +which the church has espoused the ideal of the +equal worth of all personalities has not always +equaled that of the early church; many +compromises with the brute facts of history +have been made; yet the church has never been +able to betray this faith altogether. The +missionary enterprise with all its weaknesses +is still a revelation of this power in religion. +Oceans are bridged and varying circumstances +of race and environment are ignored in order +that the soul inspired by God may claim kinship +with other souls of every race and every +clime.</p> + +<p>The physical characteristics and outward +circumstances in which men differ are sometimes +not so great as they seem to the superficial +observer; wherefore education may do as +much as religion to cultivate and discover those +profounder unities which made all men +brothers. There are hatreds which are due +merely to misunderstanding. They spring +from the parochialism of the average mind, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> +which knows no better than to regard with contempt +what differs from the standards and +values to which it has become habituated. +Education and culture may emancipate men +from such hatreds. Other misunderstandings +which are caused by a superficial analysis of +men’s action may be dissipated by a profounder +appreciation of the complex life of every individual +out of which each action emerges. Yet +understanding alone does not solve all the +problems of living together. We do not hate +only those whom we do not know or understand. +Sometimes we hate those most whom +we know best. Love does not flow inevitably +out of intimacy. Intimacy may merely accentuate +previous attitudes, whether they be +benevolent or malevolent. Anthropologists are +easily obsessed with the inequalities which men +reveal in their natural state, and the very +abundance of their knowledge prompts them +to an ethically enervating determinism when +they attempt to gauge the potentialities of +so-called primitive peoples. The modern +psychologists are more inclined to accept the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> +dogma of the total depravity of man than the +ancient theologians were, and they prove +thereby that a profound knowledge of human +nature need not incline men to regard human +beings with reverence and affection. Mr. +H. L. Mencken may not speak for the scientists, +but he is somewhat typical of the cynicism +which follows in the wake of intellectualism. +His estimate of human beings is: “Man is a +sick fly taking a dizzy ride on a gigantic +flywheel.... He is lazy, improvident, unclean.... +Life is a combat between jackals and +jackasses.” Love is always slightly irrational +and requires an irrational urge for its support. +It is at least as irrational as hatred and the +same intelligence which mitigates the one may +enervate the other. A highly sophisticated +intelligence is generally unable to survey the +human scene with any higher attitude than that +of pity for human beings, and pity is a form +of contempt under a thin disguise of sympathy.</p> + +<p>The facts of human nature are sufficiently +complex to validate almost any hypothesis +which may be projected into them. Therefore +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> +the assumptions upon which we essay our social +contacts are all important. One reason why +the social sciences can never attain the scientific +prestige of the physical sciences to which they +aspire is that the importance of hypotheses +increases with the complexity and variability +of the data into which they are projected. +Every assumption is an hypothesis, and human +nature is so complex that it justifies almost +every assumption and prejudice with which +either a scientific investigation or an ordinary +human contact is initiated. A vital religion +not only prompts men to venture the assumption +that human beings are essentially trustworthy +and lovable, but it endows them with +the courage and inclination to maintain their +hypothesis when immediate facts contradict it +until fuller facts are brought in to verify it. +Mere sentiment is easily defeated by life’s disappointing +realities. Anatole France observed +that if one started with the supposition that +men are naturally good and virtuous, one +inevitably ends by wishing to kill them all. +Human nature is neither lovable nor trustworthy +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> +in its undisciplined state and a sentimental +overestimate of its virtue may well +result in the reaction to which Anatole France +alludes. Yet its undeveloped resources are +always greater than either a superficial or critical +intelligence is able to fathom. There must +be an element of faith in love if it is to be +creative. “Love,” said Paul, “believes all +things”; and it may be added that it saves its +faith from absurdity by creating some of the +evidence which justifies its assumptions. It +“hopes till hope creates from its own wreck the +thing it contemplates.” Nothing less than +a religious appreciation of personality, supported +by a spiritual interpretation of the universe +itself in terms of moral goodwill, will +make love robust enough to overcome momentary +disappointments and gain its final victory. +The injunction of Jesus to his disciples to forgive +not seven times, but seventy times seven, +represents the natural social strategy of a +robust and vital religious idealism, which subdues +evil by its unswerving confidence in the +good.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> +</p> + +<p>While it is true that religion does not issue +automatically in an attitude of reverence and +goodwill toward all human personalities, it +nevertheless remains a fact that a religious +world view does incline men to regard their +fellow men from a perspective which obscures +differences and imperfections and reveals affinities +and potential virtue. Even if intelligence +became imaginative enough to discover the +affinities, it could not be courageous enough to +challenge the evil in men in the name of their +better selves. The art of forgiveness can be +learned only in the school of religion. And it +is an art which men must learn increasingly as +a complex society makes human associations +more and more intimate. Whatever improvement +a growing social science may establish +in the technique of social intercourse, men will +never escape the necessity of overcoming the +evil, which they inflict upon each other, by +creative patience and courageous trust. A +higher intelligence may mitigate our fears and +an exacter justice may restrain the inclination +to wreak vengeance upon the wrongdoer; but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> +only the stubborn forces of religion will turn +fear into trust and hatred into love. Sometimes +mutual fear and hatred reduce themselves +to such an absurdity (as in the late +World War) that even a superficial intelligence +can recognize it; but their absurdity does +not become patent until they have issued in +mutual annihilation. Even then the person +with an ordinary commonsense view of life can +do no better than to substitute partial trust for +fear and partial understanding for hatred. So +one war breeds the next. All men are potentially +at once our foes and our friends. An +unreflective social life assumes that they are +enemies and helps to make them so. A higher +social intelligence establishes a nicely balanced +compromise between trust and mistrust so that +the one cannot be very creative and the other +not too destructive. Only the foolishness of +faith knows how to assume the brotherhood of +man and to create it by the help of the assumption. +A religious ideal is always a little absurd +because it insists on the truth of what ought to +be true but is only partly true; it is however +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> +the ultimate wisdom, because reality slowly +approaches the ideals which are implicit in its +life. A merely realistic analysis of any given +set of facts is therefore as dangerous as it is +helpful. The creative and redemptive force is +a faith which defies the real in the name of the +ideal, and subdues it.</p> + +<p>Love is, in short, a religious attitude. There +are circumstances in which it may prosper +without the inspiration of religion. In the +family relation and in other intimate circles +proximity and consanguinity may prompt men +to regard human beings as essentially good, +and direct experience validate their faith. +That is why Jesus discounted love in the +family as a religious achievement. “If ye love +those who love you, what thanks have ye?” In +the secondary relations, which are no longer +secondary in the matter of importance to +human welfare, the matter is not so simple. +In these only a sublime assumption will persuade +men to embark upon the adventure of +brotherhood, and only a robust and constantly +replenished faith will inure them against +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> +inevitable disappointments. The religious +interpretation of the world is essentially an +insistence that the ideal is real and that the real +can be understood only in the light of the ideal. +Since the family relation is the most ethical +relation men know, religious faith interprets +all life in terms of that relation. In view of +many of the facts of history which seem to +reveal the world of man as but a projection of +the world of nature in which animal fights with +animal and herd with herd, this kind of interpretation +is superficially too absurd to persuade +a highly sophisticated intelligence. It is +the truth which is withheld from the wise and +revealed to babes. Yet it is the truth without +which men will not be able to build a peaceful +society. It is the truth which even the physical +facts of a highly complex civilization, in which +space and time are being annihilated, are conspiring +to make true. The races and groups +of mankind are obviously not living as a +family; but they ought to. And as the necessity +becomes more urgent the truth of the ideal +becomes more real.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> +</p> + +<p>It would be foolish to insist that goodwill +alone will create conscience and that to detect +the ethical core at the heart of man’s being is +all that is required to make him ethical. It is +a task to persuade human beings to trust their +fellows; but is equally important to prompt +their fellows to trustworthy action. If human +nature is left unchallenged and undeveloped, +it hardly qualifies the brute struggle for survival +sufficiently to validate any religion or +ethic of trust. Men’s actions are not as free as +we have imagined. The social, economic and +psychological sciences have restricted the concept +of freedom in the soul of man as the +physical sciences have restricted it in the universe. +Man is not only less free than he had +once imagined, but he is not as free as he once +was. If science has discredited the idea of +freedom, civilization has circumscribed the fact. +It is easier for man to act as an ethical individual +in a comparatively simple social group, +such as the family, than in a very large and +complex social group when even the most +robust ethical purpose must meet the resistance +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> +and the corruption of the primitive and +untamed desires of the group. If man is +capable of sacrificing immediate advantages +for ultimate ones and his own advantages for +the sake of society, this capacity is an achievement +which he gains only after much effort and +preserves from corruption only at the price of +eternal vigilance. The first requisite of an +ethical life in modern civilization is a realization +of the difficulties which face the human +conscience in maintaining itself against the +pressure of immediate desires to which the +whole emotional life of man is wedded. It is +not easy to sacrifice meat for beauty, pleasure +for some seemingly ephemeral value, self-interest +for the sake of the family, the interest +of the family for the sake of society, the +interest of our generation for the society of +to-morrow. Yet only by such sacrifices can +man prove the reality and potency of his creative +will. If such sacrifices are not actually +made, all so-called morality becomes in fact a +device for obscuring the bestiality of man +without overcoming it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> +</p> + +<p>The fact that, in spite of the pressure of the +struggle for survival, man has created a kingdom +of values in which truth, beauty and goodness +have been made real, is proof that he is +more free and more moral than the modern +cynic is willing to concede. But his kingdom +of values is never as uncorrupted as he +imagines. The task therefore of binding men +to spiritual values, and of prompting them to +sacrifice immediate pleasures and physical +satisfactions for them, is difficult almost to the +point of desperation. Religion makes its contribution +to it by giving man the assurance +that the world of values really has a relevant +place in the universe and that values are permanent +and will be conserved. He is challenged +to sacrifice in a universe in which love +is a basic law. He is asked to prefer personal +values to property values in a world in which +personality is the highest reality. He is +prompted to exercise his conscience under the +scrutiny and with the sympathy of a higher +conscience. Religion in its purest form does +not guarantee man an immediate reward for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> +every ethical achievement; indeed it may offer +him no reward at all except the reward which +inheres in the act itself. But it does give him +the final satisfaction of guaranteeing the +reality of a universe which is not blind to the +values for which he must pay such a high price, +and which is not indifferent or hostile to his +struggle. It asks him to respect human personality +because the universe itself, in spite of +some obvious evidence to the contrary, knows +how to conserve personality; and to create +values in a world in which values are not an +effervescence but a reality. Religion is in +short the courageous logic which makes the +ethical struggle consistent with world facts. +In its most vital form religion validates its +sublime assumptions in immediate experience +and gives man an unshakable certainty. It +thus becomes the dynamic of moral action as +well as the logic which makes the action +reasonable.</p> + +<p>The force of its faith operates not only to +preserve moral vigor but to sensitize moral +judgments. The God of religious devotion is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> +not only revealed in the moral values of the +universe outside of man, but he is revealed in +the aspirations of man which are beyond his +achievements. God insures not only the preservation +of values but their perfection. All +moral achievement is qualified by the relativities +of time and circumstance. The worship of +a holy God saves the soul from taking premature +satisfaction in its partial achievement. It +subjects every moral value to comparison with +a more perfect moral ideal. Of course the +absolute perfection of God is itself conditioned +by the imperfect human insight which conceives +it. A cruel age may picture God more cruel +than itself, and to a generation lusting for +power God may be the supreme tyrant. Thus +religion may become the sanctification of +human imperfections. Yet in its highest form +religion does inculcate a wholesome spirit of +humility which gives the soul no peace in any +virtue while higher virtue is attainable.</p> + +<p>The force of religion in moral action and +the necessity of religious assurance for the +highest type of social life may be gauged by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> +an analysis of possible alternatives to a social +life which is oriented by a religious world view. +There are two real alternatives to such a life. +The one is based upon an ethical but unreligious +world view, and the other scorns both +ethics and religion in its absolute determinism. +An ethical life which claims no support from +religion may on occasion develop a very high +type of social idealism, particularly since it +escapes the ethical defects of religion even +while it sacrifices religious resources. Stoicism +is in many respects superior to pantheistic +religions; for there are moral advantages in +underestimating rather than overestimating +the virtue of the universe. It is better to create +a sense of tension between the conscience of +man and a morally indifferent nature than to +obscure the moral defects of nature by a deification +of the natural order. But if men disavow +all faith in a power not their own which +makes for righteousness, they cannot finally +save themselves from either arrogance or +despair. Religion may destroy man’s self-reliance +by an undue sense of humility, but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> +even that limitation is no more destructive of +moral values than a self-reliance which prompts +the human spirit to strut for a while on this +narrow world in the consciousness of unique +virtue before capitulating to a world which is +too blind to know what it has destroyed. +Thomas Huxley thought he would as soon +worship “a wilderness of monkeys” as to give +himself to the worship of humanity after the +fashion of Comte. To insist too strenuously +upon the uniqueness of human life in the cosmic +order must inevitably issue in the pride which +such a worship implies. Since the Renaissance +there has been a marked decay of the spirit of +humility in Western civilization which is closely +associated with the secularization of its ethical +idealism. The difference between the pride of +secular idealism and the humility implicit in +genuine religion may be gauged, as Professor +Irving Babbitt suggests, by comparing Confucius +with Buddha and Marcus Aurelius +with Jesus. Pascal thought the stoics were +guilty of “diabolical pride.” The judgment +may be too severe, but it must be confessed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span> +that a purely secular idealism has difficulty in +escaping a morally destructive arrogance from +which true religion is saved because it subjects +all values and achievements to measurement, +with its absolutes as the criteria. “Why callest +thou me good?” said Jesus: “no one is good +save God.” In the religion of Jesus the perfection +of God is consistently defined as an +absolute love by comparison with which all +altruistic achievements fall short. “I say unto +you, love your enemies; bless them that curse +you; do good to them that despitefully use you +and persecute you; that ye may be children of +your Father in heaven; for he maketh his sun +to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth +rain upon the just and on the unjust. For if +ye love them which love you, what reward have +ye? Do not even the publicans the same?... +Be ye therefore perfect even as your +Father in heaven is perfect.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_3_3" href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Here the value +of an absolute standard to save from undue +pride in partial ethical achievements is particularly +apparent. Prudential morality can +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> +hardly go beyond the encouragement of altruism +within the social group, i.e. loving those +“which love you.” That is precisely what +Stoicism did. It is just this pride in partial +achievement which complicates the moral problem +of modern life; for our ethical difficulties +are created by the very tendency of reasonable +ethics to make life within groups moral and +never to aspire to the moral redemption of +inter-group relations. Humility is therefore a +spiritual grace which has value not only for +its own sake but for its influence upon social +problems. Traditional religions, which live off +of original inspirations and experiences without +recreating them, easily fall into a pride of their +own, the pride which comes from identifying +the absolute standards of their inspired source +with their partial achievements and inevitable +compromises. But religion in its purest and +most unspoiled form is always productive of a +spirit of humility which regards every moral +achievement as but a vantage point from which +new ventures of faith and life are to be initiated +toward the alluring perfection which is in God.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> +</p> + +<p>An ethical idealism unsupported by religion +is almost as certain to issue in final despair as +in unjustified pride. A few choice spirits are +sometimes able to imagine themselves in +rebellion against the universe without finally +succumbing to a temper of sullenness; but the +dreadful logic of insisting upon conscience in a +conscienceless world inevitably leaves its mark +upon the multitude. Oswald Spengler, in his +morphology of civilizations,⁠<a id="FNanchor_4_4" href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> presents “religion +without God” as the unvarying symptom of a +dying civilization, too sophisticated to believe +in the cosmic worth of its moral values but not +quite ready to abandon them. The enervating +effect of a moral idealism which has sacrificed +its hopes with its illusions always becomes +apparent in the long run, but frequently it +reveals itself quite immediately in the very lives +of its most robust champions.</p> + +<p>Mr. Russell may think that the “firm +foundation of unyielding despair” is an adequate +basis for an ethical life, but his own +growing bitterness betrays how such a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> +philosophy corrupts moral idealism with a +sense of frustration. The idealist is put into +the position of sacrificing everything for values +which have no guaranteed reality in the cosmic +order. Even his faith in mankind is finally +destroyed; for however precious personal +values may seem in a given moment, his +philosophy denies him the right to attribute +any lasting worth to them. True religion +gives man a sense of both humility and security +before the holiness which is at once the source +and the goal of his virtue; and thus it saves +him at the same time from premature complacency +and ultimate despair. The choice +between irreligious and religious idealism is +the choice between pride which issues in +despondency and humility which becomes the +basis of self-respect. There is an irrational +element in either alternative; but the irreligious +idealist is in error when he imagines that he +has chosen the more reasonable alternative; +his choice is no more reasonable and morally +much less potent.</p> + +<p>The absolute determinists who have as little +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> +confidence in the moral integrity of human +nature as in any moral meaning in cosmic facts +are more consistent than the Stoics, but they +are involved in worse absurdities. Their +cynicism robs them of both an adequate motive +and an adequate method for social reconstruction. +Discounting moral idealism even while +they exhibit it in their social passion, they +ostensibly desire social reconstruction only in +the interest of the class to which they belong. +But their personal interests are not frequently +identical with those of the oppressed classes +and they are moved as much by sympathy for +the plight of the victims of our present society +as by any selfish considerations. They profess +to be prompted by the reflection that individual +action has become useless in a capitalistic +age and that it is possible to advance the interests +of an individual only by making common +cause with other individuals in a similar predicament. +Meanwhile there is hardly an economic +determinist, even among those who are +actually members of the class of the oppressed, +who could not gain higher advantages for himself +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> +by disassociating himself from his class +than by making common cause with it. This +is certainly true of those who are intelligent +enough to evolve or elaborate the theory of +absolute determinism.</p> + +<p>Absolute determinism, when developed consistently, +must disavow all other methods of +social reconstruction but that of ruthless conflict. +If nothing qualifies the self-interest of +men, a conflict of interests becomes inevitable. +This defect in method is even more important +than the defect in its motive. A ruthless +struggle can result in an ordered society only +if the victors are able to annihilate their foes. +But even in that event the interests of the +members of any class engaged in a social or +political struggle will cease to be identical as +soon as its foes are eliminated. Thus a new +and equally ruthless struggle must result +between the comparatively strong and comparatively +weak, the comparatively privileged +and the comparatively underprivileged victors. +Ultimately men cannot escape the necessity +of building a stable society by the mutual +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> +compromise and the mutual sacrifice of conflicting +rights. The determinists have made +an important contribution to the modern +social problem by revealing the brutal nature +of much of man’s social life. Even if the +human conscience could be sensitized to a much +greater degree than now seems probable, it +will not be possible to eliminate conflict +between various social and economic groups.⁠<a id="FNanchor_5_5" href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +Good men do not easily realize how selfish they +are if someone does not resist their selfishness; +and they are not inclined to abridge their +power if someone does not challenge their right +to hold it. Religious and moral idealism cannot +be expected to eliminate, but it can be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> +expected to mitigate social warfare. The conscience +of man must finally be the force which +builds a new society; and a man with a conscience +must be the end for which such a society +is built. If there is no virtue in man which lifts +him above the brute struggle for survival, +there is no value in him to justify the effort of +building a new and more perfect society—and +he is not the stuff out of which such a society +can be built. It is difficult to escape the conclusion +that the reverence for personality +which is implicit in religion is necessary to +establish an adequate motive and an adequate +method of social reconstruction. Reverence +for personality qualifies the individual’s will to +power so that his life can be integrated with +other lives with a minimum of conflict; and it +saves society from sacrificing the individual to +the needs of the group. In the religion of +Jesus both a social and an individualistic +emphasis issues from a spiritual appreciation +of human personality. The individual is given +a place and prestige which he never before possessed +in society. Western civilization owes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> +much to the high evaluation of the individual +which Jesus introduced into the thought of the +world. On the other hand this emphasis is +saved from mere individualism by an ethic +which helps the individual to realize his highest +self by sacrificing personal advantages for +social values.</p> + +<p>The contribution of religion to the task of +an ethical reconstruction of society is its reverence +for human personality and its aid in creating +the type of personality which deserves +reverence. Men cannot create a society if they +do not believe in each other. They cannot +believe in each other if they cannot see the +potential in the real facts of human nature. +And they cannot have the faith which discovers +potentialities if they cannot interpret human +nature in the light of a universe which is perfecting +and not destroying personal values.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> +</p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV"> + CHAPTER IV + <br> + THE SOCIAL CONSERVATISM OF MODERN RELIGION + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The charge against religion most frequently +made by critics who are interested in social +reconstruction is that it is a conservative force +which impedes social progress. If it has +resources which are indispensable for the life +of society, social idealists will not appreciate +them if its contemporary forms are invariably +aligned with the social forces most intent upon +preserving the status quo. Contemporary liberal +Christianity refutes the charge of social +conservatism by appealing to the social +radicalism of Jesus which it alleges to have +appropriated. By this appeal liberal Christianity +exhibits one of the very tendencies of +religion which subjects it to the criticism of +social liberals. Religion is easily tempted to +make devotion to the ideal a substitute for its +realization and to become oblivious to the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> +inevitable compromise between its ideal and the +brute facts of life. The absolute nature of the +ethics of Jesus and the perfect harmony +between his religion and his ethics may be the +guarantee of the perennial spiritual and +ethical renewal of the Christian religion; but +it is also occasion for the self-deception of many +professed disciples. Many streams of thought +have contributed to the current of modern +liberal Christianity and it contains alluvial +deposits from all Western civilizations. Yet +it imagines that it represents a simple return +to radical and dynamic ethics of the religion of +Jesus. By this deception it easily becomes the +façade behind which the brutal facts of modern +industrial civilization may be obscured rather +than a force by which they might be eliminated. +The Protestant Reformation suffered from the +same deception. It thought of itself as a +return to the original ideal when it was, as a +matter of fact, a new type of compromise.</p> + +<p>Catholicism was a compound of early Christianity +and the thought and life of Græco-Roman +civilization. The medieval church was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> +a kind of ghostly aftermath of the Roman +empire and the popes were inspired by the +genius of Cæsar as much as by the spirit of +Christ. The north European peoples first +accepted this latinized Christianity, partly +because they were attracted by those universal +elements in it which have made their appeal to +all peoples, and particularly those of the +Western world, and partly because it was for +them the symbol of the ordered civilization of +Rome which they first envied, then destroyed, +and finally tried to rebuild. In time they +reacted against the ecclesiastical, international +and feudal solidarities of this whole politico-religious +world, prompted no doubt by the +untamed spirit of liberty which characterized +the northern peoples and which resented the +tyranny by which the middle ages achieved +their high measure of social cohesion. Thus +Protestantism became the handmaiden of a +budding nationalism which was impatient of +the restraints of an international papacy, as +it has since been impatient of every other type +of international control. In time it also came +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> +to be the peculiar spiritual possession of those +classes among the northern peoples who developed +modern commerce and industry. The +affinity between its sanctification of the principle +of liberty and the necessary individualism +of classes which were intent upon destroying +the traditional restraints of the ancient world +for the sake of giving unhampered play to a +growing commercial and industrial life, has +been so perfect that it is hardly possible to +decide which of the two is cause and which +effect. Max Weber⁠<a id="FNanchor_6_6" href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> has made an interesting +analysis of commercial and industrial superiority +of Protestant nations. It may be that the +aptitude for commercial and industrial pursuits +and an inclination to the Protestant form of +the Christian faith are concomitant characteristics +of north European peoples rather +than casually related phenomena. Yet they +have become so intimately related in history +that the most typical commercial classes and +nations are most generally Protestant, and +most uniquely Protestant. In England the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> +nonconformist sects are almost identical with +the commercial middle classes, while the established +church with its semi-Catholic genius has +spiritual affinities both with the old Tories and +the new world of the industrial worker. In +Germany there is a similar alignment with +Catholic and agrarian Bavaria on the one hand +and the highly industrialized and Protestant +Prussia on the other. The contrast between +Protestant and industrial Ulster and Catholic +and agrarian south Ireland is equally significant. +Everywhere in Western civilization, and +nowhere more than in America, Protestantism +with its individualism became a kind of +spiritual sanctification of the peculiar interests +and prejudices of the races and classes which +dominate the industrial and commercial expansion +of Western civilization.</p> + +<p>Since liberal Christianity is the product of +an adjustment of the main tenets of orthodox +Protestantism to the sophistication of the cities +and the growing intelligence of the privileged +and therefore educated classes, its whole moral +atmosphere is much more determined by the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> +special interests of these classes than it is willing +to admit. The authority of Jesus, to which +it appeals, has indeed been given a new +emphasis, but this has been done because liberal +Christianity valued the theological simplicity +rather than the moral austerity of his gospel. +In the same way many liberal Jews have +appealed from the law to the prophets, not +because they had a great passion for the ethical +rigors of an Amos or Isaiah but because they +found obedience to the minute exactions of the +law too onerous in a sophisticated age. Jesus +is valuable to the modern Christian because he +offers an escape from the theological absurdities +of the ancient creeds; meanwhile his +ethical and religious idealism will not leave the +lives of those who profess to follow him unaffected. +In time it may become the instrument +of the regeneration of Western society; but +this will not be possible if the liberal church +does not overcome its self-deception and realizes +that its religious and moral life is a composite +into which have entered the imperialism +of Rome, the sophistication of the Greeks, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> +fierce tribalism and individualism of the +Nordics and the prudential ethics of an +industrial civilization.</p> + +<p>Religion can be healthy and vital only if a +certain tension is maintained between it and +the civilization in which it functions. In time +this tension is inevitably resolved into some +kind of compromise. The tendency of religion +to become a conservative social force is partly +derived from its ambition to defend the +resultant compromise in the name of its original +ideal. Thus all partial values, determined +by geographic, economic, social and political +forces, are given a pseudo-absolute character +by the religious elements which entered into the +compromise; and their defects are sufficiently +obscured and sanctified to make them comparatively +impregnable to the attacks of the critics +of the status quo. The Russian moujik was +more than ordinarily docile under the tyranny +of the czars and more than ordinarily patient +with the imperfections of his society, because +his obedience was claimed not by Russia but +by “holy Russia,” the historic incarnation of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span> +his religion. In the same way the medieval +church became organically involved with feudalism +and forced the critics of feudal society to +undermine its influence before they could hope +to change the feudal social order. Orthodox +Protestantism is intimately related to this day +with Nordicism, with the racial arrogance of +north European peoples. The Ku Klux Klan, +which thrives in the hinterlands of America, +maintains its influence over simple minds by +screening racial prejudice against Slavic, +Latin and Semitic peoples behind a devotion +to the spiritual treasures of Protestantism and +their defense against the fancied peril of +allegedly inferior religions. In Ireland the +racial pride of Ulstermen expresses itself in a +passionate espousal of the Presbyterian +religion and a contemptuous attitude toward +the Catholicism of the Irish. In modern prewar +Germany there was a curious partnership +between “Thron und Altar,” the interests of +the nationalist German state, as integrated by +the Prussian royal house, with the interests of +Protestantism. To this day the fanatic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> +monarchists of Germany are also Protestant +extremists who imagine that the monarchy was +undermined by religiously motivated conspiracies +of Jews and Catholics. Incidentally +the Lutheran type of Protestantism which +flourishes in Germany has always been less +intimately aligned with the commercial classes +than the Calvinistic sects of other Western +nations. While the German socialists include +the Lutheran church among the forces of reaction +with which they must contend, the church’s +real strength is among the peasants and junkers, +who are also the strongest support of +monarchist opinion and who abhor the democratic +liberalism of commercial and industrial +Germany as much as they despise socialist +radicalism; and they imagine both to be +inspired by Semitic designs upon their national +integrity. The real inspiration of this liberalism +with its emphasis on international conciliation +and coöperation is born out of the +economic and political necessities of an industrial +and commercial state which cannot afford +to indulge in the fanatic nationalism to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> +which peasants and agrarian aristocrats are +prone.</p> + +<p>Liberal Christianity as it has developed in +the urban centers of the Western world grew +out of the intellectual and religious needs of +the privileged classes and bears the marks of +its social environment just as much as the other +types of religion which have preceded it and +with which it is historically related. It is in the +same danger of becoming a spiritual sublimation +of the peculiar interests and prejudices of +these classes while it imagines itself the bearer +of an unconditioned message to its day. It has +preserved the same individualistic ethics which +has characterized orthodox Protestantism and +which is so dear to the hearts of the commercial +classes, and so unequal to the moral problems +of a complex civilization in which the needs of +interdependence outweigh the values of personal +liberty. The supposed devotion of the +privileged classes to a religion in which the +sacrifice rather than the stubborn preservation +of individual rights is enjoined and in which +the prudential and utilitarian root of morality +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> +is completely plucked out is one of the incongruities +which frequently occur when a civilization +harks back to the spiritual visions of its +childhood in order to obscure the sober and +disenchanted practicality of its maturity.</p> + +<p>If the modern church is really to become an +instrument of social redemption, it must learn +how to divorce itself from the moral temper of +its age even while it tries to accommodate itself +to the intellectual needs of the generation. +The religion of Jesus is free of theological +absurdities. Its very simplicity saves it from +undue entanglements with discredited cosmologies. +But those who espouse it chiefly for +this reason easily miss its real genius. Its +essential assumptions may not outrage the +mind, but neither are they readily accepted by +an age which has sanctified cool and careful, +moral prudence. Its solemn injunction, “Take +no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or +what ye shall drink ... but seek ye first the +kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all +these things shall be added unto you,” is +strangely anachronistic in a day which worships +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> +obvious and tangible success and appreciates +virtue only as it insures those advantages of +health and prosperity which are its highest +desiderata. Prudential morality has its own +uses. Few men have either the imagination or +the courage to pursue an ideal if it does not +justify itself by some fairly immediate advantage. +Society is not altogether the loser if men +discover that “Godliness is profitable unto all +things,” and espouse an ideal because they have +their eye upon the concrete and obvious advantages +which flow from it. But a prudential +morality has its limitations and these will prove +less detrimental to society if they are not +sanctified by religion. It is better therefore to +seek no other basis for utilitarian ethics than +the social experience from which it is really +derived. Honesty will prove itself the best +policy without the authority of religion. The +function of religion is to nerve men for an +ethical achievement when it promises no +immediate returns. From the perspective of +an impartial observer there is an element of +hypocrisy in all prudential morality. The cool +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> +intelligence which computes selfish advantage +which may flow from moral action is not +imaginative enough to include all persons who +are affected by an action and not dynamic +enough to balance the drive of self-interest +which influences it.</p> + +<p>In modern industrial society those who are +in position of power and privilege are most +inclined to espouse an ethical ideal because it +tends to stabilize social life and thus insures +the perpetuation of privilege. They are also +most easily tempted to restrict ethical action so +that it will prompt to no sacrifices which are +not consistent with a wise self-interest. Since +they are also the classes which have, for reasons +previously discussed, maintained their loyalty +to religion, the church can avoid connivance +with their prudential morality only by a continual +regeneration of its religious life. Failing +to maintain a distinction between utilitarian +ethics and a religiously inspired moral life, the +church cannot escape the fate of becoming a +useful adjunct of the forces of privilege in the +social and economic conflict in which modern +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> +society is engaged. It may be good business +to pay high wages, but social good may demand +an increase in the wages of workers beyond the +point where economic advantage is derived +from an enlightened wage policy. It may be +wise to share some privileges so that all of them +will not be lost, but sensitive ethical insight will +detect the selfishness and insincerity in such a +course. A religion which sanctifies such social +prudence is ultimately a hindrance to the +ethical reconstruction of modern society. A +religion which discovers and amends the limitations +of prudential morality by the elements +of its reverence for personality and its quest +for the absolute is a necessary factor in social +reconstruction.</p> + +<p>The question which faces the modern church +is whether it will help to hide or to discover the +limitations in the ethical orientation of modern +life. Its devotion to the gospel of Jesus may +serve either purpose. The contempt for ethical +opportunism implied in the whole idealism of +Jesus and its scorn for immediate advantages +are the very ethical values which the generation +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> +needs, but they are also the values which have +given the Christian religion its great moral +authority and prestige which the church can +so easily misuse. If the authority of Jesus +prompts men to a courage and imagination +which escapes the defects of contemporary +morality, its influence will be redemptive; if it +is used merely to hide the defects, the critics +of the church will be justified in regarding it +as detriment to social progress. The religion +which is socially most useful is one which can +maintain a stubborn indifference to immediate +ends and thus give the ethical life of man that +touch of the absolute without which all +morality is finally reduced to a decorous but +essentially unqualified self-assertiveness. The +paradox of religion is that it serves the world +best when it maintains its high disdain for the +world’s values. Its social usefulness is dependent +upon its ability to maintain devotion to +absolute moral and spiritual values without +too much concern for their practical, even for +their social usefulness. The church is in a very +favorable position to make a necessary contribution +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> +to social life, for it reveres as Lord +one whose life incarnates the strategy which +saves morality from insincerity. But its assets +easily became moral liabilities when it compounds +the pure idealism of Jesus with the calculated +practicalities of the age and attempts +to give the resultant compromise the prestige +of absolute authority.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> +</p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V"> + CHAPTER V + <br> + RELIGION AND LIFE: CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>It is obvious that the ethical potency of +religion depends largely upon its ability to +make its ideals effective in the world and yet +preserve a measure of detachment from those +natural forces which express themselves in +human society and offer such stubborn resistance +to every spiritual and ethical ideal that +no victory has yet been gained over them in +which the heel of the victor has not been +bruised. Ideal religion makes reverence for +personality the end of human action. Society +has its various secular ends the attainment of +which necessitates the debasement of personality. +Religion seeks to persuade men to +sacrifice immediate advantages for ultimate +values; the average man whose influence is +dominant in all large social groups is not easily +persuaded to forego immediate and concrete +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> +advantages for values which are too remote and +too ephemeral to captivate his imagination. +There must therefore be a tension between the +spiritual ideal and all historic societies. The +significance of Jesus for the religious life of +the Western world is due to his attainment and +incarnation of a spiritual and moral ideal of +such absolute and transcendent nature that +none of his followers have been able to +compromise it by their practical adjustments +to the social necessities of their day. There +is therefore a resource in the avowed loyalty +of Western civilization to his ideal which may +yet become the basis of its redemption. It is +the peculiar characteristic of men and societies, +and an evidence of both their moral and +immoral nature, that they reserve their most +unqualified devotion for those ideals and personalities +which they find difficult to realize +or emulate. They pay tribute to the ideal even +while they are corrupting it and they reward +those who have accommodated it to their indifferent +capacities with a more qualified respect.</p> + +<p>It was probably inevitable that the church +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> +should adjust the spiritual ideal, which to +propagate it ostensibly regards as its very +raison d’être, to the practical needs of the +various ages and social orders with which it +came in contact. But it is necessary that it +should be shrewd enough to see the compromise +involved in every adjustment and be stubborn +enough to make a new bid for victory after +every partial defeat. On the whole the +Catholic church, which Protestants easily +assume to have been more amenable to the +practical demands of an unregenerate society +than the churches of the Reformation, has +really been much shrewder than these in +gauging the hazards to virtue in the most +natural social relationships. Some of the +moral weaknesses in the modern church may +be traced directly to the naïvete of Protestantism +in dealing with the vagaries of human +nature, and in failing to estimate the overt and +covert peril to its values in the ordinary ways +of men.</p> + +<p>Medieval Catholicism had various strategies +in preserving and relaxing the tension between +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span> +the ideal of religion and the practical needs of +men and society. It made fewest demands upon +the individual. He was permitted to indulge +almost all the natural appetites and ambitions +which characterize the life of the average man. +For him the religion of the church was a magic +which guaranteed divine intervention in critical +moments and which offered a rather easy +short-cut to the prizes of the spirit which ought +to be won only by virtuous achievement. Yet +this same church had an uncompromising attitude +toward the various social institutions +which Protestantism has never equaled. It +insisted on the sacramental nature of the family +union with such intransigeance that it may +fairly be accused of failing to make necessary +accommodations of its spiritual ideal to the +imperfections of human nature. It dealt with +economic relations with less severity but +enforced ethical ideals upon them which must +seem unusually exacting to an age which has +become accustomed to the connivance of Protestantism +with laissez-faire economics. The +master of the medieval church, Thomas +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> +Aquinas, had elaborated a theory of the just +price for all commercial transactions, which the +church made every effort to apply and which +it enforced through the canonical law. The +church did not organize the guilds but it +blessed them; and their efforts to regulate +wages, fix fair profits, insure high quality of +merchandise and organize mutual aid among +their members were prompted by a religiously +inspired moral idealism. While it dealt less +successfully with the ethical implications of +the relations between landowners and peasants, +it impressed the owners with a sense of their +obligation toward those who were economically +dependent upon them which to this day gives +the landed aristocracy of European nations a +certain moral superiority over the industrial +overlords who have been trained in more +modern schools of thought. The ambition of +the medieval church to dominate the life of the +nations is well known but frequently misinterpreted. +The contest between the papacy and +the empire was indeed in some of its aspects no +more than a conflict between two great political +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> +organizations lusting for the power which +easily becomes the sole end of the life of social +and political organisms. Yet there was a +measure of ethical idealism in the political +aspirations of the popes to which Protestant +thought has given scant justice. In the two +greatest exponents of the papacy as an international +political force, Gregory VII and +Innocence III, particularly in Gregory, the +ethical ideal of a unified Christian society +which knows how to hold the capricious self-will +of nations in check and how to set bounds +to their natural lust for power is of no small +moment in the development of papal policy. +The very autocracy of the papacy, which the +modern world finds so little to its liking, was +elaborated by Gregory in order to save the +church from international anarchy and make it +an instrument of international unification. +Incidentally Gregory was neither the first nor +the last great statesman who preferred autocracy +to anarchy, and the preference is supported +by more than one lesson of history. +Free coöperation between individuals and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> +groups is a high and rare political and moral +achievement, and where men’s capacities are +unequal to it there are occasions when it may +be better to sacrifice freedom than to destroy +social cohesion. At any rate the medieval +church revealed both political shrewdness and +spiritual idealism in its attempt to dominate +the life of nations. Naturally its efforts did +not result in any ideal society. The ambition +of the Cæsar haunted the life of the popes +and in many respects the work of their hands +approximated the dominion of an Augustus +more nearly than the kingdom of God of +Christian dreams. The Christian ideal of an +ethical international society was thus corrupted +by imperial ambition in its very inception, and +the historical realities which sprang from it +diverged even farther from any conceivable +ideal. Yet the whole political policy of the +medieval church is in marked contrast to the +easy capitulation of historic Protestantism +before the force of economic and political +groups. If Catholicism’s treatment of the +moral problems of the individual represents +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> +the relaxation of the tension between religion +and life, and its social and political policy represents +the compromise which follows inevitably +upon the conflict of the ideal with the +moral inertia of life, its monasticism represents +the strategy of religion when it seeks to maintain +an absolute tension between its ideal and +historic reality.</p> + +<p>The various ascetic movements which prospered +under the general ægis of the medieval +church represent so many different types of +religious idealism that no generalization about +them will be accurate. Protestantism reacted +violently from the monastic ideal and therefore +has been able to see nothing in monasticism +but a selfish flight from life’s realities. +Monasticism may be a retreat from life, but +at its best it was not a selfish retreat. Its +development of the arts, its emphasis on learning, +its vast philanthropies and its religious +zeal for those outside of the monastic walls are +not selfish characteristics. It did sometimes +degenerate into a very odious type of spiritual +selfishness and pride; but if we judge it by its +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> +typical exemplars, we cannot accuse it of a +lack of social passion. The religious fervor of +Catholic ascetics has been matched by Protestant +mystics, but their ethical insights have +never been excelled. Their superior moral +shrewdness was revealed in their ability to +detect the perils to the ethical ideal which are +covert in the natural and, from any obvious +perspective, virtuous social relationships. They +saw that the family, in itself the most virtuous +of human groups, could easily become the occasion +for disloyalty to high fealties of the soul. +“Whoso loveth father or mother more than me +is not worthy of me,” Jesus had said, and no +one in the history of the church seems to have +understood the problem with which he dealt +in those words as well as Catholic ascetics. It +must be said that the celibacy of the monasteries +was not prompted solely by the desire to +avoid conflicting loyalties; it sprang partly +from a morbid evaluation of the sexual relation. +That was probably the weakest and least +worthy characteristic of medieval asceticism. +Its understanding of the perils to the spirit in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> +the possessive instinct was perhaps its finest bit +of insight. It understood how easily the +privilege and power which spring from the +possession of property may corrupt the soul +with pride and destroy a loving relationship +between individuals. It therefore insisted +upon the vow of poverty. In all these problems +the insight of asceticism was superior to +its strategy. It saw peril in ordinary human +relationships where most modern Christians +are unable to detect them; but it knew of no +way to overcome the peril except by destroying +the relationships and building its unique +fellowship of the spirit upon the basis of celibacy, +poverty and absolute obedience. In +asceticism the flowers of the spirit are cut from +the roots by which they are supported and life +is destroyed in the process of its purification. +Asceticism creates a high type of ethical +spirituality which cannot be universalized without +completely destroying society; and the +virtue which it develops can be maintained +only in its own artificial media and therefore +lacks redemptive force. The great medieval +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span> +ascetics have always claimed Jesus as their +authority though he was not an ascetic in their +sense. He disassociated himself from the +asceticism of John the Baptist, who had come +“neither eating nor drinking,” and unlike the +ascetics he had no morbid fears of natural +enjoyments. Protestantism has therefore +regarded asceticism as the result of a foolish +literalism which failed to allow for poetic latitude +in the words of Jesus. Nevertheless it +must be admitted that both his words and his +practice have a closer affinity to medieval +asceticism at its best than to any modern +spiritualized worldliness which tries vainly to +unite the largest number of spiritual graces +with the greatest possible temporal advantages. +Francis of Assisi was surely more like +the real Jesus than Bruce Barton’s modernized +caricature of the original. The strategy +of Jesus might be described as a leaning in the +direction of asceticism, as a hovering upon its +brink. He is saved from its morbid temper by +the wholesome common sense which leavens all +his attitudes. The virtue of asceticism lies in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span> +its ability to detect the perils to a virtuous life +in the necessary and inevitable social relationships +in which all individual personality must +develop; its limitation is its inclination to +destroy the relationships in order to overcome +the peril. Religious idealism, nurtured in the +individualism of Protestantism, fails to appreciate +the virtue of asceticism, while it condemns +its limitations because it fails to realize how +fundamentally all individual ethical achievements +are qualified by the society in which men +live. Wherever that fact is fully understood, +every honest effort to maintain the purity of +the religious ideal will result in strategies +which will approximate asceticism at many +points and which may excel it only in the ability +to avoid its depreciation, occasionally morbid +depreciation, of the ordinary functions of life.</p> + +<p>Protestantism’s reactions to the problems of +preserving a sense of tension between religion +and life have been a little more varied than +those of the medieval church because of the +multifarious nature of its historic forms. But +varied as may be the strategies of the various +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> +churches, they do not finally differ from the +three which Catholicism employed, i.e., capitulation +without a struggle, compromise after a +struggle, and victory gained through the device +of avoiding some of the issues. The marked +differences between the medieval and the modern +church lie in the areas of life where the +struggle between religion and human inertia +was attempted, where the compromises were +made and where the victories were won. If +Catholicism left the individual to his own +devices, the churches of the Reformation followed +a similar course in dealing with the moral +problems of all human groups. The state was +completely secularized under Protestant influence. +The Reformation was in some of its +aspects simply a simultaneous revolt of the +various new nations of Europe against the +restraints of the international papacy. In +Germany, Scotland and finally in England, the +nationalistic motive was a decided force in +destroying the prestige of the old religion. +Lutheranism capitulated much more easily to +the secular state than Calvinism, which tried +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> +in fact to maintain the ancient controls upon +political life. But once the Reformation had +destroyed the old unity of Western society and +the prestige of the organization which maintained +it, secular nationalism became the universal +characteristic of Western civilization. +Even Calvinism, which was ambitious to +dominate the policy of political states, hardly +had the opportunity of affecting international +relations. Its influence barely went beyond +domestic policy, and there it was less interested +in the morality of the state than in the legal +enforcement of individual moral ideals. The +greed and lust for power of national groups is +not a unique characteristic of the modern +world; but our own era takes the moral autonomy +of the nation for granted more generally +than did the Middle Ages. The Protestant +church did not create Machiavellian politics +but it was more impotent before unscrupulous +nationalism than any other institution of the +religious ideal, and its impotence was partly +due to its lack of interest in social problems.</p> + +<p>The emancipation of economic relations +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span> +from all ethical restraint was more or less concomitant +with the Reformation movements, +but it is a question how much it was causally +and how much coincidentally related. Tawney⁠<a id="FNanchor_7_7" href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +thinks that the growing complexity of +commercial transactions invalidated the old +canonical laws designed to enforce ethical +standards in business, and thus made the +secularization of economics inevitable even +before the Reformation. Luther and Calvin +were as anxious as the fathers of the medieval +church to preserve moral standards in business. +But they were no more ingenious than these in +devising new and more flexible methods of +control when the prohibition of usury and the +fixation of a just price were swept away by a +growing commerce which made money-lending +an incident of commercial enterprise rather +than a philanthropic device, and which +engulfed the standards by which a just price +was determined in a sea of economic relativities. +Luther was completely baffled by the +intricacies of the new world and could do little +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span> +more than try vehemently but futilely to +maintain the old prohibition against usury and +insinuate meanwhile that the recently developed +system of international banking was in +some mysterious way related to the evil conspiracies +of the papacy. Calvinism, true to its +genius, was more ambitious in dealing with the +problems of commerce; so much so in fact that +Beza’s thunderous denunciations of covetousness +prompted the Geneva Council to declare +that he stirred up class hatred against the +wealthy. Yet it was Calvin who finally +destroyed the last vestige of medievalism in +economics by justifying interest. Though his +action prompted the charge that “usury was +the brat of heresy,” he probably did no more +than to recognize the logic inherent in the facts +of a new economic development. There was +no more conscious desire to emancipate commercial +life from the sanctions of morality and +religion in Protestantism than in the ancient +church; but the preoccupation of the leaders of +the Reformation with the problem of the inner +life and the general temper of individualism +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span> +which characterized the Protestant churches +undeniably accelerated the processes of secularization. +In time Adam Smith rather than +Thomas Aquinas became the moral authority +of the commercial world, and, whatever may +have been the futile fury of the early reformers, +Protestantism did finally accept the economics +of laissez faire and habituated itself to a world +in which vast areas or life were withdrawn not +only from the influence of religiously inspired +ethical ideals, but from every ethical sanction +whatsoever. Thus was the present world +created in which “business is business” and +“politics is politics,” i.e., in which the non-moral +character of two of the most important +social relationships of mankind is taken for +granted.</p> + +<p>If Protestantism made its easy capitulation +before the larger social groups of mankind and +its premature peace with them, it developed +its most stubborn resistance to the natural +appetites of men in its influence upon the +individual life. It was precisely in that area +of life in which the medieval church was least +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span> +effective that Protestantism displayed its +highest ambition. At this point it becomes +impossible to speak in general terms of +Protestantism, for the strategies of Calvinism +and Lutheranism in dealing with the problems +of the inner life differ widely, even more widely +than their social policies. The unique characteristics +of either are frequently the common +characteristics of Protestantism when viewed +from some external perspective; but an intimate +view may reveal them in the light of very +different religions. Calvinism is religion’s +most energetic effort to master the ethical life +of the individual. In some of its historic +forms, in Geneva and Scotland and the +American colonies for instance, its social policy +was ambitious enough to compare with that of +Pope Gregory, but its chief interest was not +in the social institution as such. It merely used +the political power to reinforce an uncompromising +ethical rigor in the life of the individual. +In Calvinism the religion of the modern +world makes its boldest bid for the ethical +mastery of life. Calvinism believed that life +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span> +could be dominated by the spiritual and ethical +ideal if the individual could be persuaded to +control his appetites and to overcome his natural +indolence. A temperate, industrious, +thrifty and honest individual was, in its esteem, +the perfect exemplar of the religious ideal and +the stuff out of which a new society could be +built. It never faced the problem of the conflict +between the ideal in the soul of the individual +and the intractable forces in human +society because its moral ideals were socially +and economically very useful and it could +therefore indulge the illusion that economic +success, social well-being and obvious happiness +are the natural and inevitable fruits of the +religious life. Hence it was a religion admirably +suited for the middle classes who rose to +power in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth +century, for it endowed them with virtues +which would insure their success and it +doubled their zeal by giving religious sanction +to their secular enterprises. The ancient and +medieval world had given moral precedence to +a life of leisure and meditation, whether of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> +aristocrat or philosopher, of monk or priest. +Calvinism was as contemptuous of luxury and +leisure as of the arts and amenities which +flourished in them. Its sanctification of the +common task, of manual toil and of commercial +enterprise was in itself a valuable contribution +to social progress. It was in a way the +spiritual foundation upon which the whole +structure of modern civilization has been built. +It developed a high type of honesty without +which the intricate credit relationships of modern +commerce would have been impossible. It +encouraged a diligence which was the driving +force in establishing the commercial classes in +power over a moribund aristocracy. Its +religiously inspired habits of continence and +temperance gave the lower classes a sense of +moral dignity and a natural self-respect which +they needed in challenging the pride and complacency +of the aristocratic world. These +puritan virtues have moreover given the whole +north European world and America (which is +more puritan than any nation, because here the +puritan life flourished on virgin soil and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> +remained unqualified by the vestiges of +medievalism which remain firmly imbedded in +the culture of even the most modern European +nations) a robust vitality and moral urge +which have had no small part in developing +their political hegemony in the modern world.</p> + +<p>The conflict of puritan religion with the +world has however resulted in the inevitable +compromise between the religious ideal and the +world’s primitive urges and desires. Its moral +weakness lies in its naïve confidence of victory +over the world and its inability to discover the +relativities and qualifications which history has +wrought upon its absolute. If the spiritual +idealism of Jesus is the norm for Christians, +the Calvinists and puritans diverged from it +more seriously than they knew in the very conception +of their ideal. The love and reverence +for personality which is the basis of the ethics +of Jesus is totally lacking in Calvinism. It +knows how to create self-respect but lacks the +imagination to inculcate a religious respect for +others, except possibly for the respectable. Its +confidence in the obvious rewards of virtue +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span> +tempted it to abhor poverty and hold the poor +in contempt, though they might become the +helpful occasion for the exercise of that philanthropy +without which the idea of Christian +stewardship could not be realized. While early +Calvinism had an heroic mood which would +have scorned to make a concession to the selfishness +of man through the sanctification of +prudential ethics, its ethical theories did nevertheless +lend themselves to easy appropriation +by moralists who were intent upon identifying +the social good with a decent selfishness. The +uncompromising spirituality of the ethics of +Jesus is totally lacking in Calvinism. Its +moral theories were in fact derived from the +Old rather than the New Testament; and there +is hardly a scintilla of evidence in Calvinistic +thought that the Sermon on the Mount is +recorded in the scripture which it accepted as +revealed finality. Its very bibliolatry was +partly responsible for its non-Christian type +of ethics, for through it the casual moral +theories of the early Hebrews achieved the dignity +of absolute truth. Lack of historical perspective +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span> +in the use of the Old Testament further +aggravated this error, for the real worth +of the prophets was never appreciated and their +high type of moral idealism could not serve +to qualify the less heroic morality of the law +and the superficial moralizing of the Wisdom +literature. Incidentally it may be observed +that bibliolatry is one of the handicaps to moral +progress in almost all religions. Through it +primitive cultures and moral customs which +happen to be enshrined in the canon become +absolutely authoritative, and the weight of +their influence is set against new ventures in +moral life.</p> + +<p>If Calvinistic and puritan idealism departed +from its assumed norm in its very conception, +the moral realities which issued from it bore +even less resemblance to the absolute idealism +of the ethics of Jesus. Its unqualified confidence +in the power of individual virtue to overcome +the world and change society contributed +to the relaxation of moral restraints upon +social institutions and the secularization of +society to which reference has been made. Its +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span> +sanctification of secular tasks led inevitably to +a sanctification of secular motives which it did +not desire but could not prevent. Men were +to serve God by diligence in their daily toil. +But what was the end of industry which +endowed it with virtue? The puritan answer +was to regard work as an end in itself, an +emphasis which it learned to make in its reaction +to monastic and aristocratic idleness. But +that answer alone could not suffice. Inevitably +the material gains which were the rewards of +industry were given a special religious sanction. +“If God show you a way in which you +may lawfully get more than in another way, +without wrong to your soul or to any other, if +you refuse this and choose the less gainful, you +cross one of the ends of your Calling and refuse +to be God’s steward,” said Governor Bradford.⁠<a id="FNanchor_8_8" href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +The ancient and medieval world had +been more or less scornful of the pursuit of +wealth and abounded in characters among both +the nobility and the peasantry who thought it +beneath their dignity to increase their patrimony. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span> +The religious sanction of material gain +was a new thing in history and undoubtedly +helped to fashion the moral temper of modern +society in which diligence is the great virtue +and greed the besetting vice.⁠<a id="FNanchor_9_9" href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It is the puritan +heritage of America which gives a clew to the +paradox of our national life. It explains how +we can be at the same time the most religious +and the most materialistic of all modern +nations.</p> + +<p>If puritanism failed to see how easily the virtue +of thrift might be transmuted into the vice +of avarice, it was even less careful to guard the +righteous soul against the perils to virtue which +inhere in the power which wealth supplies. +There are few men who can wield extraordinary +power without making it the tool of +their own desires and without magnifying their +limitations which might pass unnoticed in less +puissant individuals. Puritanism did indeed +have a doctrine of stewardship, but it was +applied to the privilege which flowed from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span> +economic power and not to the possession of +power itself. There was never enough imagination +in puritanic religion to detect how +nature in the soul of man, frustrated by a discipline +of the senses, comes into its own through +the sins of the mind. It knew how to redeem +human life from its vagrant passions, but it did +not know how to deal with those dominant +desires, the lust for power and the greed for +gain, which express themselves more frequently +in a disciplined personality than in a chaotic +one and which may be more detrimental to the +welfare of others than the consequences of +undisciplined and momentary passions. It was +a spiritual discipline admirably suited to lift +the middle classes to a dominant position in +society but hardly designed to guide them in +the use of the power once they had achieved it. +Even its abhorrence of luxury and prohibition +of extravagance is finally softened in a civilization +which has profited all too well by its virtues +and is tempted to destroy them by the +very advantages which the virtues supplied. +John Wesley, who revived puritan morality +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span> +after it had declined in its original form, saw +this problem more clearly than his predecessors, +but he had no answer for it except to +advocate philanthropic generosity. He writes +in his <i>Journal</i>: “Religion must necessarily produce +both industry and frugality, and these +cannot but produce riches. But as riches +increase so will pride, anger and love of the +world in all its branches.... So although the +form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly +vanishing away. Is there no way to prevent +this—this continual decay of pure religion? +We ought not prevent people from being diligent +and frugal; we must exhort all Christians +to gain all they can and save all they can; that +is, in effect, to grow rich. What way then can +we take that our money may not sink us in +the nethermost hell? There is one way and +there is no other under heaven. If those who +gain all they can and save all they can will +likewise give all they can, then the more they +give the more will they grow in grace and the +more treasure will they lay in heaven.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_10_10" href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> +Wesley, of course, could hardly be expected to +appreciate that money represents power even +more than privilege in modern society, and that +philanthropy may become a method of satisfying +the ego and displaying power.</p> + +<p>Many of the moral and religious limitations +of modern civilization may be attributed first +to the partial victory and then to the self-destruction +of puritan religion in modern civilization. +In puritanism religion made one of +its boldest advances upon the world; and so +confident was it of victory that it prepared no +one for the moral relativities which were the +inevitable issue of its enterprise. In dealing +with the stubborn resistance of the material +world it is better to expect victory than to +assume defeat before the battle is begun. Yet +an undue confidence may be as dangerous to +the enterprise as a timorous spirit. The +medieval ascetics who regarded all human +relationships with a critical spirit, and rather +expected the old Adam to assert himself in +seemingly the most innocent human concerns, +possessed spiritual insights which were totally +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span> +lacking in the typical puritan. He expected +to build a society in which the scripture was +“really and materially to be fulfilled.”</p> + +<p>It will have been noted that Calvinism and +puritanism have been used in this discussion as +interchangeable terms. The fact is that, while +the two terms are not synonymous theologically, +the moral temper of Calvinism was so +potent in the whole non-Lutheran Protestant +world that all of the various denominations +were indoctrinated with its puritan spirit. The +various sects had their own theological peculiarities, +but in their puritan spirit they were +essentially one. Only the Quakers departed +from it; for George Fox had discovered the +ethics of Jesus, and the religion of the Friends +was ever after to express itself in terms relevant +to the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount. +Denominations such as the Baptists and +Methodists who evangelized Western America +gave a rebirth to the puritan spirit when it +suffered decay in its more native haunts. Their +history is additional evidence for the thesis that +puritanism is a religious sublimation of the life +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span> +of the middle classes. For when the heroic +spirit of puritanism declined in those classes +which it had lifted to power, it was reborn in +the lower middle classes of England and the +Western pioneers of America. Methodism is +theologically as unrelated to Calvinism as can +be imagined. Its theological presuppositions +are really more congenial to a dynamic puritanism +than those of Calvinism; for the moral +vigor of Calvinism was logically incompatible +with its deterministic faith. Denominations +such as the Baptists and Methodists with their +strong emphasis on regeneration as the basis of +church membership aggravated one weakness +of Protestantism, for all of their spiritual +vigor. Their tests of what constituted regeneration +were drawn from religious experience +rather than from its moral fruits; yet they were +bound to assume that a marked moral contrast +existed between the saved and the unsaved. +Thus they accentuated what Professor A. +Whitehead has defined as the Protestant oversimplification +of ethics, i.e., a tendency to judge +men, in spite of the intricacy of their inner life +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span> +and the complexity of their social relations, as +being either good or bad. This is simply +another aspect of Protestant individualism, but +it is an aspect which emerges more clearly in +the free churches which have renounced all +ambition to have a membership coextensive +with the citizenship of the state than in those +churches in which some vestige of the state-church +idea still remains. The superior +spiritual vigor of churches which make a +religious experience the prerequisite of fellowship +in the church may well be conceded; but +that does not change the fact that ethical values +in a complex civilization are frequently +imperiled by the oversimplification of moral +issues, which is the inevitable by-product of +simple religious tests. Men are neither totally +good nor totally bad when they live in a society +which may corrupt the virtuous intention of +the most robust idealist, or when their own +inner life is so complex that moral purpose +may express itself in one of its areas and be +betrayed in another. There is a moral simplicity +in Protestantism which is closely related +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span> +to its individualism and which is particularly +unfortunate, since it is the characteristic of a +religion which orients the ethical life of peoples +who have tremendous responsibilities in the +complex life of Western civilization.</p> + +<p>Calvinism has frequently been referred to as +Protestant asceticism.⁠<a id="FNanchor_11_11" href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Its robust moral +energies are indeed commensurate with the +strict ethical discipline of medieval monasticism, +but with this difference: that one is developed +within the world and the other outside +of the world of ordinary human relations. But +it is precisely this difference which makes +Lutheranism more closely related to asceticism +than Calvinism; for Lutheranism is the +Protestant way of despairing of the world and +of claiming victory for the religious ideal without +engaging the world in combat. Both are +founded upon an ethical dualism. The +medieval ascetic flees from the world into the +monastery and there attempts realization of +his religious ideal; the Lutheran quietist flees +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span> +from the world into the asylum of his inner +life where he comes into the emotional possession +of the ideal without risking its refinements +in the world of cruel realities. The one +has a dualism which divides the monastic from +ordinary men; the other draws the line within +the soul of each individual and expects him to +realize in his religious experience what he cannot +reveal in ordinary human relations. If +Calvinism is <i>Weltfreundlich</i>, Lutheranism like +asceticism is <i>Weltfeindlich</i>. It has little hope +that a kingdom of God will be established upon +earth, except perhaps through supernatural +intervention. It places all its emphasis upon +the sentiment of Jesus: “The kingdom of God +is within you.” It must be admitted that +Jesus’ conception of the kingdom of God is +probably as much related to quietistic religion +as to puritan morality, though ascetic religion +seems closer to him than either. The modern +church has dismissed the eschatological element +in Jesus’ teachings as the Semitic shell in +which Jesus developed his conception of the +kingdom of God as a social ideal; but it was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span> +more probably his way of expressing doubt +that his ideal could ever be realized in history +except by a miracle of God. Yet the apocalyptic +element in the gospel was qualified by +the idea of the kingdom to be realized by evolutionary +process. The kingdom of God was +also “like unto a mustard seed.” Jesus in short +was both pessimistic and optimistic in regard +to the spiritual potentialities of human society, +and in his paradoxical rather than consistent +position he was able to maintain the tension +between religion and life in a way which has +escaped both parties in the churches of the +Reformation. Of this more will be said later. +The attitude of Lutheran piety toward the +world has the merit and the limitation characteristic +of all pessimism. It sharpens the +ideal but despairs of its realization. Lutheran +doctrine was fashioned out of the religious +experiences of a tumultuous soul seeking peace +and failing to find it in any of the institutions +which were meant to incarnate the religious +ideal or in any of the observance which were +intended to express it. The institution shocked +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span> +him by their imperfections, and the observances +and rituals had undergone the inevitable +process which reduces a necessary symbolism +to a kind of magic in which the symbol achieves +potencies originally ascribed only to the +ineffable truth or reality for which it stands. +From all historic relativities of the institutions +and superficialities of religious rites Luther +reacted and discovered his absolute in the +religious experience in which the soul appropriates +the grace of God. In that mystic communion +all natural imperfections of the human +spirit are transcended and the soul is lifted out +of the relativities of time and circumstance. It +is easy to see how inevitable is this emphasis in +the history of religion but also how perilous it +may become to moral values. It is inevitable +because every sensitive conscience suffers at +times from a realization that “our reach is +beyond our grasp,” that moral capacities are +not equal to the goals set by imagination and +hope. The apostle Paul, whose religious +experience closely paralleled those of Luther +and whose theology therefore became authoritative +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span> +for him, complained: “... the good +that I would, I do not; but the evil which I +would not, that I do.... For I delight in the +law of God after the inward man. But I see +another law in my members, warring against +the law in my mind and bringing me into captivity +to the law of sin that is in my members. +O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver +me from the body of this death? I thank God +through Jesus Christ our Lord.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_12_12" href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> That is a +classic statement of the dualism in life which +every religion is tempted to overcome by transcending +it. Lutheranism was in fact but a +revival of Pauline Christianity and it was +Pauline Christianity which had built the Christian +church. In it the tension between religion +and life which is maintained in the religious +idealism of Jesus is relaxed and the sensitive +soul is given the assurance that a merciful God +will know how to complete what is so incomplete +and how to perfect our manifest imperfections. +Thus the same Jesus who in the +gospels is a bold adventurer of the spirit who +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span> +challenges his disciples to be perfect as their +Father in heaven is perfect becomes in the +epistles the symbol of the divine grace which +knows how to accept our intentions for our +achievements. It may be unfair to speak of a +conflict between the religion of Jesus and the +religion of Paul; for it was a heavenly Father +and not a jealous judge who was central in +the thought of Jesus, and his emphasis upon +forgiveness shocked the strict moralists of his +day. But if there is no conflict at this point, +there is a marked change in emphasis. In the +one the appropriation of divine grace is a +necessary part of the moral adventure; in the +other it is separated from the moral enterprise +and easily becomes a substitute for it. Paul +had indeed disavowed all antinomian tendencies +in his doctrine of grace. “What shall we +then say? Shall we continue to sin that grace +may abound? God forbid. How shall we that +are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” +Obviously the mystical experience in both the +Pauline and the Lutheran religion was not +unrelated to the life of moral purpose and was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> +not consciously used to obviate the necessity +for moral enterprise. But what is to prevent +men from making a premature appropriation +of the peace it guarantees, before and without +deserving it? In that lies a peril to morality in +almost all religion which Pauline and Lutheran +theology did not create but which it may +accentuate. It is well to remember that some +of the greatest perils to morality in the life of +religion arise out of its most cherished and +necessary characteristics. Religion is at once +the necessary partner and the potential foe of +moral life.</p> + +<p>The quietistic tendencies of religion, particularly +as elaborated by Pauline and Lutheran +theology, are less dangerous in a simple +society than in a complex one. Ethical attitudes +in simple social relations flow almost +automatically out of a religious experience, +even though the conscious interpretation of the +experience is scornful of the “righteousness of +works.” But in the secondary and more complex +social relationships the moral urge which +issues out of the religious experience is easily +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> +frustrated by the intricacies and relativities of +historic realities and institutions. How shall +the soul preserve the sense of the absolute +which it has gained in the religious experience +from contamination by the sins which are +covert in all social relations? It is in the varying +answers of quietistic religion to that question +that its ethical limitations are vividly +revealed. One answer is to avoid conflict with +political and social institutions on the score +that they are divinely ordained. “Let every +soul be subject unto the higher powers. For +there is no power but of God; the powers that +be are ordained of God,” said the apostle +Paul. When it is remembered that the reference +is to the government of the Roman +empire, the social conservatism implicit in this +logic is obvious. It was this attitude of Paul +which made it easy for Luther to bring his +church into such intimate union with the various +governments of Germany and to maintain +an attitude bordering on subservience toward +the German princes. The political conservatism +of Lutheranism has since been its +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span> +unvarying characteristic and has had its +marked effects upon history, in no period more +so than in that of the World War. State +churches of any kind easily become the tools +of the secular state, but Lutheran state +churches have usually been more compliant +tools than the Anglican church, for instance, +which has never quite renounced the old +Catholic ambitions of partnership with the +state.</p> + +<p>Another method of which quietistic religion +avails itself in dealing with the world is to +assume that its ideal will somehow achieve +automatic realization in the intricacies of economic +and social life. This method is hardly +consistent with its pessimism, but it satisfies +the desire for practical results which is bound +to assert itself in even the most supra-moral +religion. Thus Luther declares:⁠<a id="FNanchor_13_13" href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> “There can +be no better instructions in ... all transactions +in temporal goods than that every man +who is to deal with his neighbor present to himself +these commandments: ‘What you would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span> +that others should do unto you, do ye also to +them,’ and ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ If +these were followed out, then everything would +arrange and instruct itself; all things would +quietly and simply be set to rights, for everyone’s +heart and conscience would guide him.” +It is a conceit of religious people, by no means +confined to Lutherans, that a vigorous statement +of the ideal ought to result in its realization. +No one can estimate how often the pulpit +has insisted in these latter days that war could +be abolished if only the nations “would live +according to the law of Christ.” This characteristic +frequently gives the church’s pronouncements +a curious air of futility; for +ideals are neither challenged nor applied if +they are not finally embodied in concrete proposals +for specific situations. It is in such +situations that the ideal meets its real test and +runs the peril of corruption. Frequently the +tendency of religion to be content with the +statement of abstract principles is due to a +want of intellectual vigor which results easily +from religion’s mistrust of reason.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span> +</p> + +<p>A method of dealing with the world which is +more consistent with the essential dualism of +quietistic religion is its effort to give some +realization to the ideal by means of subjective +religious emotion which transcends the imperfections +of society without attempting to +change them. Thus the ideal of brotherhood +is to be realized by a religious appreciation of +all men as brothers, however much economic +and social facts may give the lie to the ideal. +This was the apostle Paul’s method of dealing +with slavery and Luther emulated it in his attitude +toward the peasant’s revolt. Nothing +gives a more illuminating clue to the conservative +implications of this type of religion than +this incident in the Reformation. The +peasants, suffering in a state of semi-slavery, +saw in Luther’s statement of the gospel principles +of freedom, and in the religious ideal of +the equal worth of all souls, implicit in Christian +teaching, a justification for their revolt +against the intolerable conditions of serfdom. +They declared: “It has been custom hitherto +for men to hold us as their own property, which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> +is pitiable enough considering that Christ has +delivered and redeemed us all, the lowly as +well as the great, by the shedding of his +precious blood. Accordingly it is consistent +with scripture that we should be free and +should wish to be so. We therefore take it for +granted that you will release us from serfdom +as true Christians, unless it should be shown +from the gospels that we are serfs.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_14_14" href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Luther +violently disavowed this practical application +of his gospel. “This article would make all +men equal and so change the spiritual kingdom +of Christ into an external worldly one. Impossible. +An earthly kingdom cannot exist without +inequality of persons. Some must be free, +others serfs, some rulers, others subjects. As +St. Paul says, ‘In Christ there is neither bond +nor free.’” The violence of Luther’s reaction +in this instance was partly due to considerations +of expediency; for he feared to lose caste +with the princes by having the Reformation +identified with radical political movements; yet +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span> +it is fairly faithful to his general conceptions +of the nature and function of religion. Obviously +the dualism of Protestantism which +separates the religious experience of the individual +from the social realities in which alone +personality can achieve significance has defects +which are more perilous to social values than +the ethical dualism of medieval monasticism. +If the ideal is to be withdrawn from life to save +it from corruption, it is better that it be realized +in some social medium, however artificial, +than that it be suspended in the thin air of +religious sentiment and be realized only in subjective +experience.</p> + +<p>An analysis of the various strategies of +religion in establishing contact with the historic +situations and social realities in which it must +function reveals, in short, that it can pursue no +course which is altogether free of peril to its +moral values. Capitulation without conflict +reduces religion to magic and secularizes life. +A stubborn conflict with the intractable forces +of nature and history results in some kind of +compromise. Neither papal internationalism +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span> +nor puritan plutocracy are what the idealists +who were responsible for them really desired. +And what they really desired fell short of their +pretended goals. Withdrawal from the world +is equally dangerous. For it may lead either +to the morbid artificialities of asceticism or to +the sentimental subjectivism of quietistic +religion. There are values in each of the various +strategies as well as perils. Perhaps those +who are too critical of their limitations can +never create their values. Religion must +create its values in naïve faith and subject their +limitations to a critical intelligence. Of the +various strategies asceticism is probably nearest +to the real genius of religion and most adequate +for the moral needs of our day. If a +world is completely astray the higher perspective +from which it may be convicted of sin +and the greater dynamic which may function +redemptively in its life both depend upon some +kind of detachment of religion from life.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span> +</p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI"> + CHAPTER VI + <br> + SOCIAL COMPLEXITY AND ETHICAL IMPOTENCE + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>While there is good reason to regret the +individualism of Protestantism in a civilization +which has increased the intimacy of all human +relations and made social and economic interdependence +a basic fact, yet it alone cannot be +held responsible for the unethical nature of +modern society. This is attributable as much +to the greater difficulties which the human conscience +faces in modern life as to any weakness +in the moral and religious idealism by which +it is informed. A much more adequate type of +religious idealism might have been unequal to +the task of preserving ethical values in modern +life.</p> + +<p>The gradual secularization of economics +through the growing complexity of commercial +relations has been a previous interest of our +study. When it became inconvenient and difficult +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> +to make simple moral standards, expressed +in prohibitions of usury and maintenance of a +“just price,” fit the new intricacies of international +commerce and industrial production, +we have seen how men turned naturally and +inevitably to the consoling reflection that “in +the providence of God life is so arranged that +each man seeking his own shall serve the common +weal.” The doctrine of laissez faire was +in other words as much an admission of defeat +on the part of the moral forces of society as it +was a conscious effort toward secularization. +Other factors beside a growing complexity of +social life helped however to secularize modern +society. Modern commerce and industry tend +to increase the extent of coöperative effort +while they diminish personal contacts. World +commerce and large-scale production make +human beings interdependent without offering +them the opportunity of entering upon personal +associations. There is a natural sympathy +in the soul which saves men from actions which +are very obviously detrimental to their fellows. +But if they are unable to survey the consequences +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span> +of their actions or to gauge the reactions +to their attitudes in the lives of others, +their temptation to unethical conduct is materially +increased. The master of a manufacturing +unit in the old handcraft period of industry +thus found it much easier to maintain moral +relations to his workers than a modern, frequently +absentee, owner of a large factory. If +in addition ownership becomes collective, with +the resulting division of responsibility, while +the number of workers increases until individuals +lose their significance in the mass, the +problem of making industrial relations ethical +is further complicated. Ethical conduct is, in +its last analysis, based upon reverence for personality; +and personality fails to make its +appeal to the conscience when considered in the +mass and when regarded at too long range. In +such circumstances a degree of intelligence and +imagination, which mankind has not yet +achieved, is required to gauge the effect of +industrial and commercial policy upon the individuals +who are involved in it. The unethical +nature of modern civilization with its destruction +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span> +of confidence in the moral integrity of +human nature and with its deterministic obsessions +is largely due to its mechanical perfections +which have increased the extent of social +coöperation while they have decreased personal +contacts.</p> + +<p>The same means of commerce and communication +which have increased the size of industrial +groups and extended the range of commercial +transactions have also enlarged the +political units and increased interdependence +between them. We are living in a world in +which a financial depression in America results +in a panic upon the silk exchange of Tokio; in +which a boycott upon cotton goods initiated by +a Gandhi in India throws thousands of cotton +spinners in Manchester into unemployment; +and in which Western industrialism may +exploit Chinese labor in the seaports of China +without one beneficiary of this industrialism +out of a million being able to make a mental +picture of the social consequences of the commercial +policies from which he benefits. The +difficulty of these long-range relationships is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span> +further complicated by the fact that the participants +are separated not only by great distances +but by the barriers of race and nationality. +All social decencies in the past have +developed within the bounds of the group, and +men have not yet learned to treat individuals +in other groups with confidence, respect and +honesty. Attitudes of tenderness, sympathy +and affection have been confined very largely +to the family group. From this intimate group +they were finally sluiced out to effect social +relations in larger groups, but they have not +changed inter-group relations. Civilization +has increased the size of groups in which human +relations have an ethical basis, but it has not +moralized the action of the group nor taught +individuals in one social group to treat individuals +in other groups with the respect and +confidence which a wholesome social life +requires. The connotation of contempt which +the Jews placed in the word “gentile” and the +Greeks in the word “barbarian” may be matched +in the terminology of practically every people. +When groups are geographically separated, as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span> +in the case of political states, fear and misunderstanding +are multiplied by the ignorance +which results from a lack of contacts. But +contacts alone do not remove them; for the +relations of political, social and racial groups +within the boundaries of the same state are only +slightly more ethical, as for instance the relation +between white and colored people in the +United States or of the Scotch and Irish in +Ulster. Human imagination and intelligence +have not been equal to the task of extending +ethical attitudes beyond the boundaries of the +group.</p> + +<p>The ethical problem of group relations is +made still more difficult by the expansive +desires and unethical attitudes which develop +naturally within the group as a corporate +entity. That is, groups as such find it even +more difficult to maintain moral attitudes +toward other groups than do the individuals +within it toward individuals in other racial or +political unities. All human groups tend to be +more predatory than the individuals which +compose them. The most tender emotions may +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span> +characterize the relations of members of a +family to each other; but the family as such is +easily tempted to gain its advantages at the +expense of other families. The tendency of +family loyalty to accentuate covetousness has +been frequently noted by social observers who +have seen the family instinct as the very basis +of the sanctity which civilization has given +private property. Religious organizations are +not free of the imperial ambitions which come +naturally to social groups of every kind. One +fruitful cause of the dilution of religious idealism +is the desire of religious groups to gain +power and prestige among larger numbers. +They therefore soften the rigor of their ideal +that it may captivate the morally mediocre +majority. Both employers and employees frequently +find agreement in specific cases of conflict +difficult because the policies of both are +determined by considerations of loyalty to their +respective groups. Of all human groups the +political state is probably most inclined to +unethical conduct. It was a dictum of George +Washington’s that a nation was not to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span> +trusted beyond its interests, and history supports +the justice of his observation. After +shrewdly observing the statesmen of England +equivocate on the attitude of their nation +toward the southern rebellion until they could +determine their policy by considerations of +expediency, Henry Adams came to the melancholy +conclusion that masses of men were +always moved by interest and never by conscience +and that morality is a private and a +costly luxury.⁠<a id="FNanchor_15_15" href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> One reason why the relations +of nations to each other are still characterized +by primitive fears and excessive caution is +because their actions have not, as a matter of +fact, been morally dependable. The problem +of making nations and other groups conform +to ethical standards of any kind is particularly +difficult because the ethical attitude of the individual +toward his group easily obscures the +unethical nature of the group’s desires. The +patriot identifies his tender emotions toward +his nation with the attitude of the nation itself +until he becomes incapable of a critical +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span> +appraisal of its policy; or he frankly condones +the selfishness of the nation because he recognizes +no ethical values beyond those implicit in +group loyalty. The father of a family may +feel moral pride in essentially selfish pursuits +because he means to secure advantages by them +not for himself but for his family. Loyalty to +“the firm” may give the business man a consciousness +of virtue even though it forces him +to connive in predatory practices of his concern. +The class-conscious worker may be willing +to disrupt society in the interest of his class +because all his moral needs are satisfied by his +devotion to what he regards as the most significant +social group. While this ethical paradox +of patriotism is obviously not confined to +political groups, the nation is most seriously +tempted to unethical conduct because it is not +a voluntary association, its group is conveniently +isolated from others and loyalty to +it is least qualified by other conflicting loyalties. +It may be set down as a truth of almost +axiomatic finality, that groups tend to be +unethical in proportion to the degree of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span> +unqualified loyalty which they are able to +claim or exact of their members. In this connection +it may be noted that democracy has +increased rather than diminished the imperialism +of nations, for it has given patriotism a +higher moral sanction and thus reduced the +moral scruples which might qualify the loyalty +of their citizens. The arrogance of nations and +their insistence on moral autonomy has developed +simultaneously with the extension of +democracy. It is this ethical paradox of +patriotism which invalidates the contention +that the root of all imperialism is the imperialism +of the individual. It is true of course that +group loyalty may become a device for delegating +our vices to the group and imagining +ourselves virtuous. Some types of political +arrogance and race prejudice are obviously +methods of compensating individuals for their +lack of opportunity to bully their immediate +neighbors. Yet on the whole the unethical +character of group action is determined as +much by the partial virtues as by the vices of +individuals.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span> +</p> + +<p>The problem of bringing groups under some +kind of ethical control is not new in history. +It has become unusually difficult in the modern +world not only because of the consolidation of +the authority of the state but also because rapid +means of communication have increased the +size of social, political and economic units and +made relations between them more intricate. +The larger the unit the more unqualified seems +to be the moral sanction which loyalty to it may +claim. To an average citizen, immersed in his +parochial interests, the nation appears in the +light of a universal community in contrast +to the smaller and voluntary communities +within the nation. Yet this same nation is one +of many human groups, most of which betray +imperial desires reminiscent of Rome but +which aspire in vain after the universal +dominion which gave Roman imperialism a +measure of moral worth. Treitschke, whose +philosophy of history was the object of so +much opprobrium during the World War that +its faithfulness to the general prejudices of +Western life would hardly be surmised, presented +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span> +the nation as the ultimate community +because all smaller societies are too petty to +deserve and all larger ones too vague and +abstract to claim the unqualified allegiance of +men.</p> + +<p>The intricacies and propinquities of an +industrial civilization tend at some points to +increase the imperial desires of nations and at +others to make their ordinary lusts more +deadly. The feud between Germany and +France is a very ancient one, but the need of +French industry for German coal and of German +industry for French iron explains some +aspects of their present difficulties which are +not derived from ancient animosities. Modern +industry needs a unified world and, lacking it, +each nation is inclined to seek the completion +of its industrial establishment by the forcible +appropriation of territory, rich in needed +resources. The economic imperialism of +industrially advanced nations is a product of +the high productivity of modern industry +which produces more than one national unit +can consume and which needs more raw +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span> +materials than the same nation can produce. +Covetous eyes are consequently turned upon +undeveloped portions of the globe, rich in raw +materials and hungry for the products of +modern industry. In one sense the European +war was incubated in Africa. Rapid means +of communication also extend the reach of the +grasping nations. China is attempting to +throw off the shackles of a Western imperialism +which could never have gained the position +it holds on Chinese soil but for the new contiguity +which has destroyed the boundaries +between East and West. Moreover, the intricacies +of international commerce and finance +offer opportunities for a new kind of economic +imperialism which hardly needs, though it does +not always avoid, the use of political force. +The economic forces of one nation simply +penetrate the economic life of another and, if +there is a great disparity in economic power, +the weaker nation is brought under the +dominion of the stronger without the citizens +of either being aware of the process by which +this has been accomplished. This is the type +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span> +of imperialism which America is most fitted +and inclined to develop. In South America +political pressure does accompany economic +penetration, but in Europe American power +increases under a policy of political isolation. +The isolationism of America, which has +become a firmly established foreign policy +since the war, is prompted partly by the sense +of power which America feels as the richest +nation of the world, and partly by a political +infantilism which tempts us both to pharisaism +and to fear when dealing with the supposedly +more astute political bargainers of Europe. +The relation of America to the rest of the +world is a perfect example of the moral peril +in the new intricacies of modern civilization. +The citizen of the state is as ignorant of the +actual character of his nation’s relation to other +nations as of other peoples’ reactions to the +real policy of his own government. Probably +not one American in a thousand is able to comprehend +a single reason why Europe should +fear or hate America and not more than one +in a hundred is actually aware of the existence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> +of such hatreds and fears. There is therefore +an unconscious hypocrisy in the moral pretensions +of the citizens of every nation, a more or +less conscious hypocrisy in the attitudes of the +governments which do not share but yet exploit +the political ignorance of the people, and an +inevitable reaction of cynicism on the part of +those who know the real facts and suffer from +the moral limitations of the nation’s policy. +Group relations, particularly those which are +intricate, are thus persistently unethical +because part of the modern world is too +ignorant to make them ethical and the other +part is so worldly-wise that it has lost confidence +in the possibility of ethical relations. +Frequently hypocrisy and cynicism are united +in the same person who knows how to discount +the moral pretensions of other groups but +lacks the perspective from which he might +arrive at a critical evaluation of the real character +of his own group. This curious combination +of insincerity and cynicism is obvious in +the relation of both economic and national +groups, but it is particularly noticeable in international +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> +difficulties. In the struggle between +economic groups there is a growing inclination +to make no moral pretensions on either +side. Sometimes the group in power makes +them but in that case its insincerity is usually +conscious rather than ignorant. In international +affairs the same patriots who ignorantly +persecute every person who seeks to qualify +national loyalty or to make a dispassionate +appraisal of national policies frequently sink +into moral despair and disillusionment when +history unfolds the inevitable consequences of +the anarchy of conflicting national lusts.</p> + +<p>The task of making complex group relations +ethical belongs primarily to religion and education +because statecraft cannot rise above the +universal limitations of human imagination +and intelligence. A robust ethical idealism, an +extraordinary spiritual insight and a high +degree of intelligence are equally necessary for +such a social task. The difficulties of the problem +are enhanced by the fact that the religious +imagination and astute intelligence which are +equally necessary for its solution are incompatible +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> +with each other. Religion is naturally +jealous of any partner in a redemptive enterprise; +and the same intelligence which is needed +to guide moral purpose in a complex situation +easily lames the moral will and dulls the +spiritual insight. It is possible that this difficulty +may permanently destroy every vestige +of morality in the group relations of modern +society. The necessary partnership and the +inevitable conflict between the religio-moral +and the rational forces is obvious in both the +political and the economic problems of the +present age.</p> + +<p>The unqualified authority and the boundless +lusts of a modern state need first of all to be +brought under the scrutiny of clear minds who +understand the implications and can gauge the +consequences of its pretensions. Patriotism is +a form of altruism and as such represents the +victory of ultra-rational sanctions over the selfish +inclinations of individuals which seem quite +reasonable to the average man. The emotional +attitude and ethical achievement in patriotism +endows the patriot with a kind of madness and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span> +pride which make him as scornful of more +rational types of altruism as of the prudent +and cautious selfishness with which he has his +primary conflict. It is because patriotism represents +a victory of an ethical ideal that religion +so easily becomes its uncritical partner. When +many hearts are cold anything that warms +them will seem religious to the undiscriminating +champion of religious values. The defects +of patriotic altruism are thus left to the correction +of rationalistic idealists who know how +to discover the absurdities into which an +uncritical devotion to partial values may issue +and how to envisage the larger community of +mankind of which the nation is a part. During +the last war moral idealists of rationalistic persuasion, +such as Bertrand Russell, Romain +Rolland, Henri Barbusse and Bernard Shaw, +were more detached in their perspective and +freer of war hysterias than any religious leaders +of equal standing. To envisage the larger +community of mankind which lacks the physical +symbols of the state and to dispel the +parochial prejudices which are harbored in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span> +mediocre minds and which make hatred of +others the inevitable commitant of love for +one’s own is clearly a task to which a discriminating +intelligence must contribute.</p> + +<p>However the problem of group relations, as +has been previously noted, is created not only +by the parochialism of individuals but by the +lust and greed of the group itself. The task +of persuading the group to sacrifice some of its +advantages for the sake of the whole of human +society is so difficult that it almost leads to +despair. If it will ever be accomplished religio-moral +forces, whatever their present impotence, +must come to the aid of reason. Prudence +alone may prompt nations to a measure of self-sacrificing +action, since unqualified self-assertion +must lead to mutual destruction. But +prudential morality reveals the same defects in +inter-group relations which we have noted in +simpler social problems. Its ends are always +too immediate and its perspective is too narrow. +Moral action which lacks some reference +to an absolute standard and some ultra-rational +dynamic inevitably falls short even of satisfying +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span> +the social necessities. The prudence of +nations in the present state of international +relations tends to prompt a few, usually neighboring +nations, to compose their differences, but +for the sake and at the price of sharpening the +conflict with some other alliance of states. The +net result of such an enterprise is simply to +enlarge the unit of conflict once more without +abolishing warfare. The manner in which the +triple entente and the triple alliance, both +formed with high moral pretensions, helped to +make the World War inevitable is a matter of +history. More recently there are indications +that France and Germany will compose their +differences “for the sake of Europe.” Such +a reconciliation will hasten the unification of +Europe but will also help to raise the specter +of intercontinental wars with continental units +of conflict. The unification of Asia upon a +basis of common resentment against Western +imperialism is an almost unavoidable development +in international affairs. All these continental +alliances are logical enough from any +immediate perspective but dangerous from the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span> +perspective of the welfare of the whole race. +There is no indication that prudential statecraft +has the resources to prevent America +from inciting the whole of Europe against our +economic overlordship of that continent. The +increasing feeling aroused by the problem of +debt liquidations is symptomatic of the natural +resentment which must inevitably issue out +of a relation of economic interdependence +between a very wealthy and a poor continent. +For the settlement of this issue no policy will be +wise except one which will appear very foolish +to the wise statesmen. A prudent statecraft +has made the anxiety of a wealthy creditor the +dominant note in American international +policy, and envy and fear the chief characteristics +in the attitudes of the peoples who must +deal with us.</p> + +<p>Social intelligence does of course produce a +finer fruit than the type of prudence which characterizes +the international policy of modern +states. There is a whole class of social idealists +who understand the economic basis of most +international difficulties and who would bring +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span> +peace to the warring classes and nations by +an economic reorganization of modern society. +Since modern industrialism and capitalism +have materially complicated the ancient feuds +between races and classes, it is evident that no +amount of moral and spiritual goodwill can +produce an ordered and stable international +society if the economic roots of war are not +clearly discerned and finally eliminated. However +the same intelligence which is capable of +such discernment easily drifts into a cynicism +which discounts all moral and personal factors +in social reconstruction and places its hope +entirely in a new social strategy. Loyalty to +the class is substituted for loyalty to the state, +and class conflict is expected to issue in a lasting +peace for both classes and nations. Economic +determinists show a superior discernment +in recognizing that in a civilization which +is forced to organize its economic life across +national boundaries the conflict of interest +between classes does become more significant +than the conflict between states, particularly +since the latter conflict is due either to economic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span> +or to fantastic and imaginary causes. But +their very realism betrays them into a cynicism +which finally issues in the most romantic and +unrealistic dreams. They imagine that social +peace will result from the victory of one class +over all other classes. They have not taken +into account that modern capitalism produces +a formidable middle class the interests of which +are not identical with the proletarians. Moral +and spiritual considerations may conceivably +prompt this class to make common cause with +the workers in the attainment of ethical social +ends, but it will never be annihilated even by +the most ruthless class conflict nor will it be +persuaded by the logic of economic facts that +its interests are altogether identical with those +of the workers. Even if one class were able to +eliminate all other classes, which is hardly +probable, it would require some social grace +and moral dynamic to preserve harmony +between the various national groups by which +this vast mass would be organized and into +which it would disintegrate. Even within one +national unit any economic class will dissolve +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span> +into various groups, according to varying and +sometimes conflicting interests, as soon as its +foes are eliminated. The Russian communists +were not long able to preserve their absolute +solidarity after their revolution was firmly +established. The dominant group soon learned +that no amount of ruthlessness was able to +prevent the gradual formation of a minority +group under Trotzky and Zinoviev. Significantly, +the conflict of interest between peasants +and industrial workers is the real basis of this +schism within communist ranks.</p> + +<p>In Europe the qualification of patriotism by +class loyalties has in some instances led to a +mitigation of national animosities, but it has +not destroyed them. On the contrary it has +added new hatreds to the old and created a +society which is divided not only by vertical but +also by horizontal divisions. The Marxian +idea of the unification of the world upon the +basis of the common interests of the proletarian +class must be relegated to the category +of millennial dreams. It is based upon an illusion +little better than that of nationalism. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span> +The nationalists seek to escape the moral +problem by delegating the vices of the individual +to the group and the Marxians fantastically +endow the group with virtues which +it does not possess. Religious and moral idealism, +preaching goodwill and peace without +taking the brutal realities of the modern economic +conflict into consideration, is little better, +and probably less serviceable than a cynical +realism which is blind to everything but the +secular facts revealed in modern economic life. +The moral futility of such idealism is one of +the very roots of such a cynicism. Yet, finally, +the problem of social reconstruction cannot be +solved without the resources of religious insight +and moral goodwill. The economic reorganization +of society will not be effected without conflict +between those who possess the privileges +and those who suffer from the inequalities of +modern industrialism. Neither can it be +effected without the mutual sacrifice of rights, +the mutual forgiveness of sins and a mutual +trust going beyond the deserts of any party to +the controversy. In England, where economic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span> +theory and practice has never been as completely +divorced from religious idealism as on +the Continent, a gradual transfer political +power and social privilege to the ranks of the +workers is being made with much less peril of +a social convulsion than in any nation of the +Continent. Both the possessors of privilege +and those who challenge the possession are +stubborn in the defense of their advantages and +in the championship of their rights; but at least +a measure of influence upon the struggle is +exercised by spiritual and moral considerations +which Continental critics of England identify +with the British capacity for compromise but +which probably has deeper and more spiritual +roots. Meanwhile religious idealism in +America is almost completely corrupted by +sentimentality and betrayed into social futility +because the momentary unification of American +society upon the basis of the interests of +the middle classes absolves the religious conscience +from facing the moral challenge in the +social and economic facts of modern society.</p> + +<p>Economic determinists are not alone in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span> +sharing with an ordinary prudential statecraft +in the effort to organize the life of groups by +means of the resources of intelligence. The +hopes of the more conventional yet socially +intelligent people for a new world are involved +in the idea of a society or league of nations. +Since an inchoate international society created +by the new intimacy in which nations live exists +in spite of international anarchy, it is reasonable +to attempt the creation of more adequate forms +and machinery for the crystallization and +expression of its collective will, the conciliation +of disputes among its members and the closer +integration of its life. Moral and spiritual +forces are sometimes frustrated merely by the +lack of adequate machinery for the application +of generally accepted principles to specific +situations. There is therefore great need for +an intelligent statesmanship which will give the +soul of an international society a body, and +incarnate its aspirations in the instruments of +political order.</p> + +<p>From another point of view, however, international +society does not yet exist and needs to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span> +be created; and the means for its creation are +not laws but attitudes, not organization but a +type of life. Politically minded people easily +suffer from the illusion that laws create morality, +that organization creates society. Societies +are not created by political mechanism but by +attitudes of mutual respect and trust. Where +these exist social relations are established and +traditions formed. These in turn are gradually +codified and given definition and precision by +legal enactments. No one now takes the +theory seriously that human society was +created by a conscious mutual contract between +individuals who suddenly realized that they +could save themselves in no other way from +mutual self-destruction. Society is older than +human history and exists wherever individuals +establish relations of mutual reverence and +trust. The family is usually the beginning of +society because here nature aids the imagination +and consanguinity creates an atmosphere +of mutual trust. The family is enlarged by +the fortunes and the needs of war, the resulting +clans may amalgamate into larger units +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span> +through intermarriage of leaders or through +other exigencies, and the emerging national or +racial group is formed by similar forces. The +love and trust which unite a society are no +more rational than the hatred and mistrust +which divide one society from another. People +do not regard each other as morally dependable +because reason persuades or experience +prompts them to such an attitude. The attitude +is determined by natural and instinctive +or by ideal and religious forces and, once it is +assumed, is inevitably verified; for in an atmosphere +of mutual trust human action finally +becomes trustworthy and morally dependable. +In so far as national and racial groups live +in a state of mutual fear and hold life outside +of the group in contempt rather than in reverence +there is no international society nor can +political machinery create it. Only in rare +instances are new social traditions created by +legal enactments. Political forms and legal +measures are usually belated recognitions of +previously established social facts and necessities. +The problem of group relations in modern +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span> +society is as difficult as it is because natural +causes have operated to make the social units +larger and larger while no ideal forces have +been strong enough to prompt the group to +enter into ethical relations with other groups. +If a higher degree of imagination than now +seems probable does not inform the life of +modern nations only, one further step is possible—the +consolidation of continents. In such +an eventuality the present League of Nations +could easily become the instrument of pan-Europeanism +in conflict with other Continents. +A society of nations is impossible, in short, +without those ultra-rational attitudes which +either instinct or religion must create and +which in the case of this final venture is +beyond the resources of natural instincts—except +in the event of a threat from some other +planetary community.</p> + +<p>If the creation of an international society is +a task to which moral and spiritual resources +must contribute, its maintenance and development +are no less dependent upon the coöperation +of spiritual insight with political prudence. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span> +Even at best human nature is so imperfect +and relations between groups as well as individuals +so fruitful in misunderstandings that +it is impossible to maintain the mutual trust +and confidence which are the basis of society +without the spiritual achievement of mutual +repentance and forgiveness. In the relation +between groups the ability to detect flaws in +one’s own and extenuating circumstances in the +actions and attitudes of others is at once more +necessary and more difficult than in intra-group +relations. It is more difficult because +the intricacy and long range of the relations, +and the inevitable hypocrisy in the pretensions +of governments, easily obscure the limitations +of one and the virtues and good intentions of +the other party of the relationship. It is more +necessary because the frictions which fret the +relations of national and other groups are +much more generally due to mutual guilt than +those of individual relations. They develop +in a narrow world and in a society of but few +members in which a suspected peril may lead +to a gesture of defense, the defensive measure +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span> +be regarded as offensive and in turn prompt an +actual attack which will be justified in turn as +a defensive measure. Thus fears produce +hatreds, hatreds express themselves in ugly +grimaces and someone finally strikes the first +blow. The World War resulted from a spontaneous +combustion of fears and hatreds, and +the partial mobilizations, full mobilizations +and final declarations of war are so intimately +related to each other that impartial historians +find it increasingly difficult and irrelevant to +decide who was responsible for the actual hostilities. +The obvious fact is that every generation +of every European state for several centuries +had gathered fuel for flames of war. +Yet each group declared its absolute innocence +and heaped abuse upon the foe. Years after +the conflict only a small minority in each of the +participating nations has had the imagination +to see or the grace to confess the share of its +nation in the mutual guilt. Meanwhile ancient +feuds are perpetuated because the hypocrisy of +the victors is written into solemn treaties and +produces a resentment among the vanquished +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span> +which makes them incapable of any higher sincerity. +Issues between nations are so involved +that only expert knowledge is able to ascertain +the real facts, but the very intricacies of the +problems involved make it possible to use the +facts for the validation of almost any thesis +which national pride may dictate. The real +task of persuading groups to encourage forgiveness +by repentance and repentance by forgiveness, +and thus to overcome rather than +perpetuate evil, is a spiritual and a moral one +and cannot be accomplished in a completely +secular atmosphere. There is little evidence +to justify the hope that spiritual and moral +forces, as they are now oriented, are prepared +to aid in such a task. But their responsibility +is obvious; social intelligence may be a partner +in the process of conciliation but intelligence +cannot bear the burden alone when a disposition +to humility and a capacity for mercy is +lacking.</p> + +<p>Urging the necessity of religious attitudes +between social and political groups may seem +to be a counsel of perfection when it is remembered +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span> +that intra-group relations, except in the +circle of the family and in small religious fellowships, +have never been able to profit by their +aid. Society in general has usually contented +itself with the expedient of composing social +friction and arbitrating dispute by apportioning +the relative guilt and innocence of the disputants +through a presumably impartial +judicatory which enforces its decisions upon +the belligerents, however irreconcilable or +obstreperous they may be. But the fact is that +such a method is both easier and more effective +in a society composed of individuals than in a +society of groups. In an ordinary national +society the impartiality of the court is guaranteed +by a society of thousands and even +millions of individuals who are supposed not +to be biased in favor of one or the other litigants; +and the parties to a controversy are +therefore more inclined to accept the verdict +of a court. Furthermore the society which supports +the judicial tribunal is so powerful compared +to whatever political or physical strength +the litigants possess that it is able to enforce +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> +the awards of the latter however recalcitrant +the disputants may be. But the society of +nations is too small, judged by the number of +its member nations, to function with absolute +impartiality in any major dispute. Judicial +action is therefore immediately less effective. +It is to be noted that courts are less serviceable +instruments of social conciliation even within +nations when they deal with large economic +and social groups such as unions and trusts or +when the issue involves basic economic problems; +and the reason for this is that the parties +to a litigation represent so large a part of the +total community that the unbiased character +of the court is not as readily assumed and ought +not be taken for granted. Tradition and social +custom usually bias the court in favor of one +or the other litigants, generally the one most +firmly established in the traditional organization +of the society. In the case of nations it is +obvious that for some time to come an international +court must confine itself mainly to +petty disputes among powerful nations and to +the real disputes of the petty nations, from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span> +whose perspective the large nations may represent +an impartial international society.⁠<a id="FNanchor_16_16" href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +Even at best no formal conciliation can heal +wounds such as were made by the World War +if nations cannot develop the capacity for +repentance and mercy and learn how to +restrain both the proud and the vindictive +passions which are the natural products of +unreflective social life.</p> + +<p>Though morally dependable action develops +most readily in an atmosphere of mutual trust, +it is not to be assumed that either nations or +individuals always justify trust by trustworthy +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span> +action. Faith does not produce conscience +automatically. Much of the pacifism now +cultivated by socially effective religious forces +has the defect that it fails to gauge the stubborn +resistance to ideal forces in the predatory +nature of national groups. It is difficult to +develop moral attitudes sufficiently honest not +only to give the bearer of trust the prestige of +sincerity but to make the object of trust +worthy of its faith. Trust united with selfishness +results in moral futility; and when it is +based upon illusion and fails to take account +of the imperfect social attitudes which it must +overcome, it issues in mere sentimentality. It +is significant that the idea of the outlawry of +war should be espoused particularly in +America and find little favor in other nations; +for here extraordinary power is united with +remarkable political naïvete, so that American +idealists find it difficult to appreciate the +unsatisfied hungers of other nations or their +resentful reaction to our own satiety. If +nations cannot be moved to make some sacrifices +for the sake of the ideal and to qualify +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> +their expansive desires by moral purpose, all +efforts to create an international society must +finally prove vain. It may be that the secular +ambitions of nations are so firmly established +in social custom and their unethical attitudes +so generally sanctioned by the popular mind +that nothing will avail to give their actions even +a touch of ethical character. It is difficult +enough to subdue and discipline the immediate +and anarchic desires which struggle for +expression in the soul of the individual; but +when they express themselves in the life of +groups and are veiled in seeming sanctities +even while they achieve new and more diabolical +forms they can be subdued only by the most +astute intelligence united with a high moral +passion. Modern civilization lacks both this +intelligence and this moral passion and is in the +peril of losing what it has of the latter as it +develops the former. Moral idealism which +fails to gauge the measure of resistance which +its ideals must meet in the confused realities of +life or to fashion adequate weapons for its conflict +degenerates into mere sentimentality. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> +But a social intelligence which is overwhelmed +by the discouraging realities and despairs of +the attainment of any ideal sinks into a morally +enervating cynicism. Moral leadership in +Western society is divided to-day between +sentimentalists and cynics who combine to +render the prospect of an ethical regeneration +of modern life well-nigh hopeless. If men are +really to be redeemed from the sins of greed +and mutual fears and hatreds by which they +make their common life intolerable they need +a faith which is not held too cheaply but which +is held nevertheless in defiance of every discouragement. +The same intelligence which the +complexities of modern life demand and create +easily prompts not only to the cynicism which +declares that “all men are liars” but to a moral +ennui which cries, “Vanity, vanity, all is +vanity.”</p> + +<p>Benjamin Kidd who understood the need +for ultra-rational sanctions in social life better +than most sociologists put the problem of modern +society in these words: “The great problem +with which every progressive society stands +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span> +confronted is: How to retain the highest operative +ultra-rational sanctions for those onerous +conditions of life which are essential to its life, +and at one and the same time to allow freest +play to those intellectual forces which, while +tending to come into conflict with such sanctions, +contribute nevertheless to raise to the +highest degree of social efficiency the whole +of its members.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_17_17" href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>To develop the wisdom of serpents while +they retain the guilelessness of doves is the +task which faces the religio-moral forces if they +would aid in the moral regeneration of society. +It may be that such a task is too difficult for +the resources of this or any generation of the +immediate future and that painful experience +must first prove other strategies inadequate. +Meanwhile even the possibility of future usefulness +of religion demands the largest possible +measure of immediate detachment from +the unethical characteristics of modern society. +If religion cannot transform society, it must +find its social function in criticizing present +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span> +realities from some ideal perspective and in +presenting the ideal without corruption, so +that it may sharpen the conscience and +strengthen the faith of each generation.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> +</p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII"> + CHAPTER VII + <br> + TRANSCENDING AND TRANSFORMING THE WORLD + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The tendency of modern religion to make +itself at home in the world and to enter into +intimate relations with civilization is not due +solely to the puritan confidence of victory over +life. It is partly due to the influences of a sentimental +and optimistic evaluation of human +nature which came to the modern church +through Rousseau and romanticism. It is also +a product of the evolutionary optimism which +has characterized religious thought since +ethicists and religionists have learnt to overcome +the melancholy conclusions implicit in +the Darwinian theory and to see the bright side +of evolution. Traditional religion is other-worldly. +The modern church prides itself on +its bright and happy worldliness. It is more +interested in transforming the natural and +social environment of personality than in persuading +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span> +the soul to transcend all circumstances +and find its happiness in inner peace. The +modern church regards this mundane interest +as its social passion. But it is also the mark +of its slavery to society. Whenever religion +feels completely at home in the world, it is the +salt which has lost its savor. If it sacrifices +the strategy of renouncing the world, it has no +strategy by which it may convict the world of +sin. A movement which detaches religion from +life to give it perspective and power over life +must on the other hand run the risk of centering +the interests of men on other than social +problems. Religion thus faces a dilemma +which is not easily solved. A religion of social +amelioration easily becomes a beautiful +romance which obscures the unlovely realities +of life. A religion of detachment from the +world may persuade the soul to find both happiness +and virtue in defiance of physical and +social circumstances and thus to regard all +social problems as irrelevant to its main purpose. +This dilemma is not due to any specific +or historic weaknesses in types of religion but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span> +arises out of the nature and constitution of +religion as such.</p> + +<p>Religion in its unspoiled form is always +other-worldly and disenchanted. Puritanism, +romanticism and evolutionary optimism are +really but reflections and refractions of the +general temper of Western life, which has +slowly gained the ascendancy over the religious +spirit. It is a temper of friendliness to, or at +least fearlessness before the world. In puritanism +the tension between religion and life is +maintained, but the soul is persuaded that it +can bring the whole of life under the dominion +of conscience. In romanticism there is a frank +identification of human virtue with a sentimentally +idealized natural world. Religious +and ethical thought which has come under the +influence of evolutionary optimism maintains a +sense of tension between the soul and the natural +world in rare instances; more frequently +it regards human history as but the last chapter +in the beautiful story of progress which all life +has unfolded and which time and patience will +inevitably bring to a happy issue. The foundation +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> +for the Western strategy of life was laid +by the Greeks who, overcoming the awe and +reverence with which the Oriental brooded over +nature’s mysteries, thrust impious hands into +her secrets and made shrewd guesses about her +varied phenomena. The Greeks learned to +make only slight practical application of their +knowledge, and the rise of Christianity eclipsed +their scientific temper. It came into its own +again at the close of the Middle Ages and at +the dawn of the modern era. The fact that +science developed in the West rather than the +East is due to this attitude toward the natural +world. The Orient is not less curious than the +Occident, but it directs its mind to other problems. +While it cradles philosophies and +religions the West gives birth to science.</p> + +<p>Since the dawn of the industrial era scientific +knowledge is used increasingly for the purpose +of transforming the natural circumstance +of human life. Nature is not transcended but +transformed in the interest of human happiness. +Comforts are multiplied; power is +increased; time and distance are destroyed; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span> +hours of toil are reduced; natural environment +is changed; disease is eliminated and death +postponed; the hostilities of nature are overcome +and her benevolence multiplied for the +sake of human welfare. Our birth may be +“but a sleep and a forgetting” but our life is +undeniably lived in natural conditions which +profoundly affect not only physical well-being +but cultural and spiritual character. It is evident +therefore that there is profound wisdom +in the scientific strategy which transforms the +natural world in the interest of the human +spirit. Not only is the Western world firmly +committed to it, but there are indications that +the Orient will adopt it in spite of the opposition +of religious leaders such as Gandhi. Whatever +perils to the spiritual life may lurk in the +preoccupation of the soul with its physical circumstances, +it is clear that human personality +may be served by improving the natural +environment which conditions it. Wealth may +lead to sensual excess but it is also the basis of +culture. Leisure may be secured by reducing +physical wants to a minimum, but there are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span> +cultural advantages in a leisure which does not +preclude the satisfaction of all reasonable +desires. Comforts may lead men to become +obsessed with their external circumstances, but +they also reduce irrelevant distractions to life’s +main purpose. Physical health is not a necessary +but a convenient condition for moral and +spiritual enterprise.</p> + +<p>In spite of these advantages religion, except +in a few contemporary forms, has always been +either hostile or indifferent to the business of +transforming nature in the interest of personal +values. It has counseled the soul to seek its +happiness not in changing but in becoming +independent of circumstances. In Buddhism +the highest happiness is sought by throttling all +desires. Jesus was more careful to distinguish +between the will to live and its physical expressions. +But he was critical of all physical +desires and satisfactions. He had the Orient’s +profound indifference to the “business of +earth.” If our ears were not so habituated to +his words that they fail to catch their real significance, +a modern congregation would be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span> +shocked by the admonition: “Take no thought +for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall +drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put +on. Is not life more than meat and the body +more than raiment?” “Lay not up for yourselves +treasures upon earth where moth and rust +doth corrupt and where thieves break through +and steal, for where your treasure is, there will +your heart be also.” “Fear not them which +kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; +but rather fear him which is able to destroy +both soul and body in hell.” The modern +Christian is inclined to destroy the force of the +profound other-worldliness of such sentiments +by reflecting that they represent an Oriental +cast which is incidental and not essential to the +gospel of Jesus. They are Oriental no doubt, +but precisely because they are religious; and to +regard them as incidental is to miss the whole +meaning of the gospel. Though the West is +unable to accept them, it pays an unconscious +tribute to the truth involved in them. For the +absolute moral values incarnated in the personality +of Jesus, which the West still reveres, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span> +are organically related to this other-worldliness.</p> + +<p>Whatever the limitations of this emphasis, it +is evident that religion cannot escape it. Concerned +with the soul’s inner peace and perfect +virtue it is forced to lift it above the corruptions +and irrelevancies of temporal conditions. +The whole course of modern history is ample +justification for Jesus’ warning: Where your +treasure is, there will your heart be also. The +instruments of personality’s victory over +nature have become the chains for a new kind +of thraldom. Western civilization is enslaved +to its machines and the things which the +machines produce. Spiritual forces are emancipated +from the forces of nature only to +become the victims of a mechanized civilization. +It is a Pyrrhic victory. America, which has +developed the Western strategy with greater +consistency than any other nation, is at once +the envy and the scorn of the world. The scorn +may be a device for hiding the envy, but there +is moral justification for reproach. What the +world regards as our vulgarity is more than the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span> +awkwardness of youth; it is an undue preoccupation +with life’s instrumentality and an +obsession of the soul with the concrete world.</p> + +<p>The Orient may be more cruel than the +West, but our superior tenderness is matched +by our more expansive avarice. Having determined +that life consists in things a man possesses, +the West sacrifices both inner peace and +social harmony in the mad scramble for the +power and privilege which the conquests of +nature has supplied. Neither the imperialism +of nations nor the monstrous avarice of economic +groups is confined to Western life, but +covetousness and greed have been manifestly +increased by the temper and strategy of the +Occident. The Biblical analysis which discovers +covetousness as the root of conflict is +applicable to our own day: “Ye lust and have +not; ye kill and desire to have, and cannot +obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not +because ye ask amiss.... Know ye not that +the friendship of this world is enmity with +God?”⁠<a id="FNanchor_18_18" href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> However necessary it may be to make +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> +a more equitable distribution of the physical +blessings of life, religion’s true function is to +develop an attitude of indifference toward the +very goods for the possession of which men contend +so frantically. When Jesus rebuked the +young man who desired his aid in correcting the +inequitable division of an inheritance, his +unwillingness to assume a judicial function +was manifestly dictated by the thought that +the whole inheritance ought to have been a +matter of indifference to the young man. It +is easy to see that such an attitude may lend +itself to abuse and be used to perpetuate +inequalities. If advocated by religious groups +which have profited by economic inequalities, it +becomes the tool of hypocrisy. Yet it is an +emphasis which religion cannot disavow. It is +basic to its whole world view.</p> + +<p>The peril to happiness as well as to virtue +in reliance upon the external fortunes of life +justifies the counsel of religion that happiness +must be founded on internal rather than +external resources. The conquest of nature is +really but a relative victory of personality over +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span> +circumstance. Though the caprice of nature’s +forces has been checked, fortune remains fickle. +If men cannot learn “how to be abased and +how to abound,” there is no guarantee of happiness +for them. Poverty may be a curse, but +voluntarily chosen or consented to without +sullenness it may become the way of the soul’s +emancipation. The elimination of disease is a +boon to mankind, but there is little likelihood +that science will be able to overcome all ills to +which the human flesh is heir. No scientific +advance will obviate the necessity for the discovery +of faith that “God’s strength is made +perfect in weakness,” that the infirmities of the +flesh may become the occasion for the cultivation +of spiritual graces. Even at best science +cannot destroy nature’s final irrelevancy—death. +There can therefore be no real victory +over nature except by the strategy of transcending +her fortunes. The more hostages +taken from her the greater will be the disappointment +in the hour of her final victory. +It is man’s sublime and tragic fate that he must +find happiness in the search for infinitude +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span> +amidst the flux of time and he can therefore +never accept the portion of mortality for himself +with equanimity. Hence his final comfort +must come from the counsel of religion which +teaches him how he may identify himself with +the eternal values of his devotion, so that +“though the outward man perish yet the inward +man is renewed day by day.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_19_19" href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>The temper of Western civilization has made +the modern church quite ashamed of the +other-worldly character of traditional religion, +and intent upon discarding it as much as possible. +Everything is done to impress the generation +with the mundane interests of religious +idealism and to secularize religion itself so that +it may survive in a secular age as a kind of +harmless adornment of the moral life. Yet its +service to both human happiness and virtue are +involved in its other-worldliness. It is through +that element that it gains the power to raise +morality above the utilitarian plane and to give +human happiness a firmer foundation than +fickle fortune. If men can find no basis for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span> +happiness except in their adjustment to +external realities, they will not suffer pain to +realize a kingdom of righteousness. If they +are taught to identify physical well-being with +their cherished peace, they will not venture +farther than such actions as a cool prudence +prompts. The cross was inspired by devotion +to a “kingdom which is not of this world”; but +the cross was also the method by which that +kingdom was changed from an ethereal to a +concrete reality. It is the absolute ideal which +has no basis in concrete reality which moves +men to defy the limitations of the concrete and +overcome them. A religion which is perfectly +at home in the world has no counsel for it +which the world could not gain by an easier +method.</p> + +<p>Yet the reaction of modern religion to traditional +other-worldliness is natural enough and, +in a way, necessary. While religion cannot +afford to discard its other-worldliness, the +moral and social limitations which issue from +it are obvious enough. We have previously +observed the tendency of types of religion to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span> +withdraw the ideal from life and to imagine +that it has magic potencies over life’s realities, +or that subjective devotion to it may absolve +them of the duty of realizing it in history. All +these defects are due to vagaries which are not +inevitable characteristics of religious life. But +the social limitations which result from the +religious strategy of transcending the fortunes +of life are constitutional and central. They +therefore offer a very serious problem. If the +soul is lifted above circumstances, it easily +loses interest in changing them to better advantage. +If its happiness is made independent of +fortune, there is less purpose in making fortune +secure. If personality discovers its highest +satisfactions in defying environmental factors, +it may become indifferent to the necessary +projects of creating a more favorable environment +for personal values. Human personality +is an historic product, determined by specific +forces of natural and social environment, and +though it may attain its highest glory by transcending +all circumstances, it will fall short if +it adopts that strategy at the beginning and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span> +not at the end of its efforts. The Orient, which +produces more saints than the Occident, pays +for them by the abject misery of its multitudes. +Its highest moral achievements are really +determined by a cruel law of survival. Only +personalities of great spiritual resource can +overcome the general physical conditions of its +life which submerge the mass in hopeless +poverty.</p> + +<p>Some credit for the advantages of Western +life must be given to the moral superiority of +Christianity over Buddhism, which represents +the quintessence of the Oriental spirit. Christianity +is a life-affirming and Buddhism a life-denying +faith. The one does not destroy but +refines the energy of life. The other destroys +energy in the process of refinement. The +Orient is pantheistic; and by deifying all of +life, offers no avenue of escape from its imperfections +except by annihilation of life itself. +There is a difference between fleeing to God +from life’s unbearable realities and identifying +these with the divine will. At its worst the +strategy of the Orient is a fatalistic acceptance +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span> +of life’s circumstances; at its best it is a stifling +of all desires so that the soul may be free of the +world. Yet there is a social peril even in the +more wholesome strategy of Christianity which +affirms life but divorces it from its physical +necessities. This limitation is felt particularly +when the conditions which invite change are +social rather than natural. Nature is inexorable +and it is well to learn that only they are +able to escape her furies who also know how to +renounce her delights. But the world which +man has created retains its cruelties only by +the sufferance of man. Anything which will +incline men to assume an attitude of indifference +toward projects of social reform and +amelioration is therefore a potential peril to +social progress. When Jesus rebuked the +young man for his anxiety about an equitable +division of his inheritance, he took a high +spiritual ground which easily lends itself to +abuse in the disillusioning realities of economic +and social life. What if a sublime +renunciation does not soften the hearts of those +who hold more than their just share of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> +inheritance? And what if the welfare of others +besides that of the moral idealist is involved in +the renunciation? Shall the Biblical injunction +to servants that they be obedient to their +masters “not only to the good and gentle but +also to the froward” apply to political tyrannies? +Obviously an attitude which represents +a high spiritual achievement in the individual +instance has its limitations when raised to a +general social policy. Social radicals who +have been confronted with the conservatism of +religion have parodied the other-worldly +temper at the heart of this characteristic in the +words: “Bye and bye, there’ll be pie in the +sky.” The sneer in this parody hardly +does justice to religious other-worldliness. +The emphasis is not so much upon a future life +as distinguished from the present existence as +upon a type of life which can afford to regard +“pie” with disdain whether in this or any other +world. Nevertheless, even the highest type of +other-worldliness may become the cause of +indifference to social conditions. The very sensitiveness +of religion which persuades it to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> +regard human society in the same category +with the world of nature as “the world” may +result in the completer secularization of society +and its abandonment to the unchecked forces +of nature.</p> + +<p>There is no easy formula for avoiding this +social peril in the strategy of religion. The +elimination of pantheism is a material aid in +its solution. The superior energy of the West +may be due to a tentative dualism in its +religion which has been qualified from time to +time by pantheistic and monistic thought but +never completely destroyed. Yet even the +dualism of Christianity does not save it altogether +from positions which offer peril to social +and moral values. Even an observer who is +entirely sympathetic to religion must come to +the conclusion that the West owes many of its +advantages to the fact that religion has had no +easy time in Western life, and that in the past +centuries not only scientific thought but scientific +life-strategy has challenged religion at +every turn. Some of the excellencies of +Western life are clearly the fruits of our +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span> +science rather than our religion. Of course, +these advantages have been bought at a price. +The empirical instincts of science drive it to +deny the continuities in reality and to see +everything only in its momentary and immediate +situation. The modern behavioristic +destruction of the concept of personality is +therefore one of the natural results of scientific +thought betrayed into absurdity by its own consistency. +But a consistent religion is generally +equally absurd. Regarding all reality, and +personality in particular, <i>sub specie æternitatis</i>, +it fails to see how truly personality is the +product of specific social and natural forces and +neglects to change the material environment +in the interest of human welfare. Human personality +can be understood neither in terms of +its environment alone nor in absolute terms +which leave the material world in which it +develops out of account. The final victory of +personality must be gained by transcending +concrete situations and material circumstances; +but it is a hollow victory if circumstances are +not previously used and amended to improve +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span> +personal values. The soul is at once the victim +and the master of the material world. It +gains its highest triumph by renouncing the +world, but the renunciation is premature if a +futile and yet not futile effort is not made to +make the natural world conform to the needs +of human character.</p> + +<p>While the Western world has much to learn +from the East in its strategy of life, there is no +gain in substituting one strategy for the other; +for they are both defective. The plight of the +West is due to the complete bankruptcy of +religious forces and the unchallenged dominion +of science; just as the plight of the East is due +to the unchallenged sway of religion. Applied +science has created a civilization which may be +as destructive of personality for the meagerly +endowed multitudes as the natural poverty of +Asia. But Western civilization may at least +boast of developing a middle class which enjoys +physical and spiritual advantages which no +considerable class of the Orient possesses. +Neither the West nor the East has arrived at +a perfect basis for happiness. The Oriental +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span> +soul is like a bird, freed of its cage, but with no +wings to fly. The Occidental soul has wings +but is so fascinated by its gilded cage that it +does not care to fly.</p> + +<p>The conclusion which emerges from such +reflections will shock orthodox religionists. It +is that the values of religion are conditioned +and not absolute and that they attain their +highest usefulness not when they subdue all +other values but when they are in perpetual +conflict with them, or it may be truer to say +when they are coördinated with them. Western +life gained an advantage over the East by centuries +of conflict between the religious and +scientific strategy of life. It is losing the +advantage by an excessive devotion to concrete +interests and by the capitulation of religion. +The supreme tragedy of history would be the +not improbable armed conflict between West +and East, with the Orient in a frenzy of resentment +against the greed of the Occident and +the Occident in a natural fear of the low living +standards of Asia. Part of the truth would +be on either side and the conflict could result +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> +only in exaggerating the limitations of the +partial truth which each side holds.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile there is the possibility of coördinating +the values of East and West, of +science and religion. Let the East learn to +live in time and the West to view its temporalities +with indifference. The coördination is not +easy because men are not inclined to be at once +critical and appreciative of the values with +which they must deal. They always tend to +increase the limitations of certain values by an +uncritical devotion, or to destroy the values in +mad resentment against their limitations. +Since man is a citizen of two worlds, he cannot +afford to renounce his citizenship in either. +He must work out his destiny both as a child +of nature and as a servant of the absolute.</p> + +<p>The prospects for an exchange of values +between the East and the West are not particularly +bright. The Orient is indeed being +“Americanized,” but partly through the policy +of Western imperialism exploiting the low +living standards of Asia to the advantage of +Western industry. There is no powerful +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span> +movement in the West to dissuade it from its +complete trust in physical power as the method +of self-realization, and in physical comfort as +the way to happiness. Modern religion has +not been totally ineffective in qualifying racial +arrogance and parochial prejudices. But it +has had practically no effect upon the instincts +of avarice which dominate Western life. The +religious groups which are still ambitious to +defy civilization in the name of their faith have +a theology which cannot gain the respect of +the thoughtful leaders of modern life; and the +sins of which they convict modern society are +not its real sins. The intellectually emancipated +religious groups are too thoroughly +acclimatized to the atmosphere of Western life +to have any sensitiveness for its imperfections.</p> + +<p>The greatest hope lies in the missionary +enterprise, which through its very effort +toward the universalization of the Christian +faith has a tendency to strip it of its Occidental +accretions, so that it may become intrinsically +worthy of its world expansion. The missionary +enterprise may thereby contribute as much +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> +toward the spiritualization of Western life as +toward the regeneration of the East. Its very +contact with the East gives it a perspective on +the limitations of Western life which churches +at home do not possess. There is, of course, +the possibility that Western imperialism will +so thoroughly discredit the missionary enterprise +before it can function in this way that it +will lose its whole prestige in the Eastern +world. In that case Japan will probably continue +to unify and occidentalize Asia in the +hope of fighting fire with fire. A small minority +of thoughtful missionaries are making a +desperate effort to disassociate the missionary +enterprise from the politics of Western +imperialism in the Orient. Considering the +difficulty of their task, they have made commendable +progress. Yet if Christianity at +home does not become disassociated from and +does not qualify the greed of which the Oriental +politics of Western nations is but one expression, +the heroic efforts of the missionaries may +be vain. Men of prudence in the Orient may +be willing to concede that ideals have validity +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> +even if they are outraged by those who ostensibly +accept them. But the final test of ideals +must include their ability to qualify human +action. If Christian idealism is to be a force +which will help to create a unified world culture, +capable of destroying the moral limitations +of both the Oriental and the Occidental +strategy of life, it must detach itself more completely +from the temper of Western life even +while it seeks to influence the thought of the +East.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> +</p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII"> + CHAPTER VIII + <br> + A PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS FOR AN ETHICAL RELIGION + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>The ethical problem of religion may be more +important than the metaphysical one, as previously +observed, but it cannot be solved without +a reorientation of the present philosophical +basis of religious conviction. The Western +world has had a slight advantage over the East +in the tentative dualism of Christianity, but +this advantage has been lost by the inevitable +drift toward pantheism in Western thought. +Pantheistic tendencies are potential perils to +moral values in practically all religions. By +identifying God and the natural world they +either persuade men to resign themselves to +the inadequacies of nature, under the illusion +that divine sanctity has rendered them immutable, +or they blind the eye to the imperfections +of nature and thus destroy the moral sensitiveness +of religion. The Orient has usually +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span> +derived a morally enervating pessimism from +its pantheism, while the Occident has chosen +the other horn of the monistic dilemma and +fallen into a sentimental optimism. Both +alternatives are as untrue to the facts as they +are inadequate to men’s moral needs.</p> + +<p>In the Western world religious optimism +has been gradually destroyed by the advance +of science which discredited the moral overestimate +of the cosmic order, implicit as one of +two tendencies in pantheism. The practical +and tragic realities of its international and +industrial life have added to the disillusionment +and made men as sceptical of human as of +cosmic virtue. Thus the cynicism of disillusioned +intelligence is added to the despair +of an outraged conscience to unite in a +pessimism which questions both the rationality +of the universe and the morality of man. The +despair of the West is even more devastating +to moral values than the pessimism of the East, +for the Orient is prompted by its religion to a +serene resignation while the West spends itself +in blind fury or sensual excess. When all confidence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span> +in moral values is destroyed, the strong +express themselves by asserting their power +or resenting their seeming impotence, while +the weak sink into an easy indulgence of natural +appetites. The real history of Western +society is being written by Nietzschian and +Marxian cynics who have subdued every +scruple which might qualify their contest for +power. Meanwhile their conflict is lazily witnessed +by vast hordes whose main purpose in +life is to gratify their senses and who give their +sympathy to one or the other side according as +it offers least hindrance to their enjoyments. +In such a situation religion is easily relegated +to the position of restraining the petty and +obscuring the major vices of the small minority +which still profess it. This is particularly +true when optimism and sentimentality, such +as characterize modern religion, make it incapable +of a realistic evaluation of the forces +which reveal themselves in human society.</p> + +<p>Albert Schweitzer⁠<a id="FNanchor_20_20" href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> interprets the whole +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span> +moral bankruptcy of Western civilization as a +pessimistic reaction to the extravagant optimism +of its traditional religions and philosophies. +While other factors, such as the complexity +and the impersonal nature of industrial +society, have been contributory factors to the +disillusionment of the age, it is probably true +that men are inclined to expect too little of the +world and of man mostly because too much +has been claimed for them and extravagant +hopes have been disappointed. A regeneration +of the ethical life of Western society must +depend, therefore, upon the revival of a +religion in which the Scylla of pantheism and +the Charybdis of pure naturalism are avoided. +While the Orient has a serenity which will +contribute much to the art of living in a unified +world civilization, there is no health for our +sickness in its religious philosophies. Its pantheism +cannot be maintained in the scientific +atmosphere of the West, and if it could, as it +is in rare instances, it would only present us +with the impossible choice between the moral +ennui of pessimism and the sentimentality of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span> +an unqualified optimism. The youthful +exuberance of the Western mind invariably +inclines it to the least defensible of these two +bad alternatives, the optimistic one. When +the West borrows religion from the East, as +for instance in theosophy and Christian +Science, it is used to support optimistic illusions +so palpably absurd that they flourish only +in those circles of society in which life is +extremely comfortable and not too intelligent.</p> + +<p>The only fruitful alternative to a monism +and pantheism which identifies God and the +world, the real and the ideal, is a dualism which +maintains some kind of distinction between +them and does not lose one in the other. Dualistic +solutions to the riddles of life are not new +in the history of religious thought. They are +in fact as numerous as pantheistic ones, but +their metaphysical limitations have usually +outweighed their moral advantages and shortened +their life. In Zoroastrianism, the noblest +of purely Aryan faiths, Ahirman the spirit of +evil exists independently of Ormuzd the good +spirit. The influence of this Persian dualism +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span> +is seen in both Hebrew and Christian thought. +The satanology of the Old Testament is +partly derived from it; and Manichæism, +through which Augustine passed before he +embraced and elaborated Catholic orthodoxy, +is a compound of Persian and Christian +religion. Mythology is filled with efforts to do +justice to the conflicts which the world reveals +as obviously as its unities, as for instance in the +myth of Prometheus and Zeus. Even Plato, +from whom most Western pantheism has been +indirectly derived, held that God’s perfect +goodness was thwarted by the intractableness +of the materials with which he worked.</p> + +<p>Early Hebrew religion was naïvely dualistic, +and that is one reason why it has been so +potent in the history of religion. God was +indeed conceived of as omnipotent; that conception +was the path that led to monotheism. +But the idea of omnipotence was elaborated +dramatically rather than philosophically. The +heavens might declare his glory and the firmament +show his handiwork, but he was revealed +in national history and (according to the conception +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span> +of the later prophets) in personal experience +more than in natural phenomena. Even a +very early prophet discovered that the still small +voice rather than the earthquake or the fire was +the symbol of his presence. The Genesis +account of the fall solves the problem of evil +upon an essentially monistic basis by making +human sin responsible for even the inadequacies +of nature and attributing everything from +weeds to mortality to the luckless error of the +first man. Neither the goodness nor the omnipotence +of God is abridged in this naïve but +sublime conception in which the human conscience +assumes responsibility for more than its +share of human ills in order to save the reputation +of divine virtue. The monism of this +account is, however, qualified by the injection +of the tempting serpent, an element which is +precursory of the belief in the devil, which the +Jews inherited from Babylonia and Persia and +which has fortunately qualified all monistic +tendencies in Jewish and Christian orthodoxy +until this day. A profounder instinct than +reveals itself to the casual observer persuades +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> +fundamentalism to defend the reality of the +devil with such vehemence. It may be metaphysically +inconsistent to have two absolutes, +one good and one evil, but the conception provides +at least for a dramatic portrayal of the +conflict which disturbs the harmonies and +unities of the universe, and therefore, it has a +practical and ethical value. The idea of +attributing personality to evil may be scientifically +absurd but it rests upon a natural error. +When the blind and impersonal forces of +nature come to life in man they are given the +semblance of personality.</p> + +<p>Professor Albert Schweitzer⁠<a id="FNanchor_21_21" href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> ascribes the +moral superiority of prophetic Judaism and +Christianity over other world religions to the +naïve dualism of the prophets and Jesus, who +emphasized the moral rather than the metaphysical +attributes of God in such a way as to +develop a practical and morally potent distinction +between God and the universe, between +the ideal of religious devotion and the disappointing +realities of life. The distinction +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span> +between Oriental monism and the practical +dualism of Christianity in its unspoiled form +is succinctly stated by Professor Alfred +Whitehead: “Christianity has always been a +religion seeking a metaphysics in contrast to +Buddhism which is a metaphysics generating a +religion.... The defect of a metaphysical +system is the very fact that it is a neat little +system which thereby oversimplifies its expression +of the world.... In respect to its treatment +of evil, Christianity is therefore less clear +in its metaphysical idea but more inclusive of +the facts.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_22_22" href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<p>In the early Christian church the naïve +dualism of Jesus was given dramatic and +dynamic force through his deification, so that +he became, in a sense, the God of the ideal, the +symbol of the redemptive force in life which +is in conflict with evil. Since no clear distinction +was made between the spirit of the living +Christ and the indwelling Holy Ghost, the +doctrine of the trinity was, in effect, a symbol +of an essential dualism. Orthodox Christianity +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span> +did indeed renounce the gnostic heresy +which tried to give this implicit dualism explicit +character by its distinction between the God +who was revealed in Jesus and the God of +creation. And history has justified the wisdom +of its course. The scientific precision necessary +to save such theology from essential polytheism +was lacking and Christianity was intent upon +guarding its monotheism. Yet it preserved +enough metaphysical inconsistency to retain +dualistic tendencies in its monistic orthodoxy. +Its symbols lacked philosophical precision but +they did give vivid and dramatic force to the +idea of a conflict between evil and the redemptive +and creative force in life. Thus it could +fulfill the two great functions of religion +in prompting men to repent of their sins, and +in encouraging them to hope for redemption +from them. No mechanical or magical explanations +of the significance of the crucifixion +have ever permanently obscured the helpful +spiritual symbolism of the cross in which the +conflict between good and evil is portrayed and +the possibility as well as the difficulty of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span> +triumph of the good over evil is dramatized. +An absolute dualism either between God and +the universe or between man and nature, or +spirit and matter, or good and evil, is neither +possible nor necessary. What is important is +that justice be done to the fact that creative +purpose meets resistance in the world and that +the ideal which is implicit in every reality is +also in conflict with it. The reason why naïve +religions are “more inclusive of the facts” in +portraying this struggle than highly elaborated +theologies is that the latter are always +prompted by the rational need of consistency +to obscure some facts for the sake of developing +an intellectual plausible unity. Religions +grow out of real experience in which tragedy +mingles with beauty and man learns that the +moral values which dignify his life are +embattled in his own soul and imperiled in the +world. He is inclined neither to obscure the +reality of the struggle nor to sacrifice the hope +of victory until too much reflection persuades +him to believe either that all partial evil is +universal good or that destiny makes his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> +struggle futile and his defeat inevitable. That +is how morality dies with religion when an age +has become too sophisticated.</p> + +<p>Naïve Christianity was unable to maintain +itself in the Græco-Roman world without +making concessions to its intellectual scruples +and paying for its conquests by incorporating +Hellenic philosophies in its theology. The +gospel was diluted with neo-Platonism to make +it more palatable for a cultured world. The +naïvely and dramatically conceived omnipotence +of God was metaphysically elaborated +and inevitably betrayed the church into an +essential pantheism, which “turns the natural +world, man’s stamping-ground and system of +opportunities, into a self-justifying and sacred +life, endows the blameless giant with an +inhuman soul and worships the monstrous +divinity it has fabricated.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_23_23" href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> The process of +compounding the simplicities of the gospel with +the dialectic achievements of Greek philosophy +culminated in St. Augustine who laid the +foundation for Christian orthodoxy and made +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span> +the simple Christian epic the basis of an elaborate +theological structure in which God +becomes at the same time the guarantee of the +reality of the ideal and the actual cause of every +concrete reality. Christianity has always +anathematized pantheism officially, but probably—as +Professor Santayana suggests—because +it suspected that it was a suppressed +but not entirely quiescent half of its dogma. +Vital religion has a way of expressing itself +outside the limits of its rationally fixed concepts +and the essential pantheism of orthodox +Christianity therefore did not destroy the +moral vigor of even such resolute determinists +as Augustine or John Calvin. Yet in the end +the logic of a system of ideas becomes the pattern +of human action. A rigorous determinism +as well as an unqualified pantheism destroys +moral vigor because it either makes the attainment +of the ideal too certain or idealizes the +real beyond all evidence. If reality only thinly +veils the ideal implicit in it, or if the implicit +ideal is certain to become real in history, there +is no occasion for moral adventure and no +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span> +reason for moral enthusiasm. In a sense pantheism +is naturalism with an unnatural light +upon it. That is why the determinism implied +in pantheism may lead so easily to a reaction +of naturalistic determinism. Thus Karl Marx +appropriated Hegel’s determinism and put it +to his own use. When the whole wealth of +Hegel’s dialectical skill served no better purpose +than to deify the Prussian military state, +as a kind of ultimate revelation of the counsels +of God, it was easy enough to discredit its +optimistic illusions without destroying its +determinism. The residual determinism +became the basis of a new philosophy of history +in which natural instinct and economic +necessity took the place of divine will as man’s +inexorable fate. The reaction from Hegel to +Marx is a perfect symbol of the whole course +of Western thought in the last hundred years +with its change from a supernatural to a +naturalistic determinism.</p> + +<p>Religion left to itself, even when it elaborates +theologies, tries to do some justice to the +reality of moral conflict even though it may +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span> +confuse the issue by a faulty definition of +divine omnipotence. But its necessary coöperation +with metaphysics drives it inevitably +into more and more consistent monisms in +which moral enthusiasms are destroyed. The +monistic and pantheistic element in Western +religion was greatly increased by its intimate +collaboration with philosophies which dealt +chiefly with the problem of knowledge. For +the solution of the epistemological problem the +philosophical idealists thought it necessary to +posit an all-knowing intelligence. It was this +all-knowing absolute which became the support +of religion’s faith in God against the attacks of +realists and empiricists, though there was little +enough affinity between the God of any healthy +religious theism and the impersonal absolute of +monistic philosophers.</p> + +<p>When religious apologists found it necessary +to readjust the age-old affirmations of faith to +the evolutionary facts revealed by science they +usually sank even more deeply into the morass +of pantheistic and monistic philosophy. The +old and naïve conceptions of a capricious omnipotence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span> +working its will upon natural phenomena +became manifestly untenable and a +way had to be found to relate divine purpose +to and discover the area of creativity in the +natural and cosmic processes. It was practically +inevitable that such a task would be accomplished +only by an overemphasis on divine +immanence and a consequent betrayal of +religion into a sentimental optimism. When +defenders of religious faith were borrowing +from the quiver of their opponents they would +have done well to consult Thomas Huxley +more and Herbert Spencer less; for Huxley +was morally much more realistic than Spencer. +Spencerian doctrines lent themselves more +easily to the strategy of linking religious +theism with the faith of science in the dependability +of the universe; but there was something +lacking in Spencerian optimism which is very +vital to religion, a sense of the tragic in life +and an awareness of the frustration which +moral purpose and creative will must meet +in nature and in man. The sentimentality of +modern religion is of course older than the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span> +optimism which it derived from Spencer. +Part of it is derived from Rousseau and the +romanticism of the eighteenth century. Here +again religion suffered the fate of snatching +error while it was borrowing truth from its +opponents. Renouncing the idea of total +depravity which was central in medieval +religion, and in orthodox Protestantism for +that matter, it evolved a sentimental overestimate +of human virtue which is no nearer +the truth than the medieval conceptions of +original sin. It is a strange irony in history +that to-day irreligion, in the form of deterministic +psychology, should elaborate doctrines +strangely akin to the derogatory estimates of +human resources made by medieval theologians. +So modern churches are involved in an optimistic +overestimate of the virtue of both man +and nature at the very time when science +tempts men to despair of discovering moral +integrity in the one and moral meaning in the +other. Modern religion is, in short, not sufficiently +modern. In it eighteenth-century +sentimentality and nineteenth-century individualism +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span> +are still claiming victory over the +ethical and religious prejudices of the Middle +Ages. Meanwhile life has moved on and the +practical needs of modern society demand an +ethic which is not individualistic and a religion +which is not unqualifiedly optimistic.</p> + +<p>The practical effects of this lack of contact +of modern religion with the real temper of +modern life may be gauged by comparing the +observations of any average denominational +journal of religion upon the events of contemporary +history with the realistic analyses of +secular journals. The brutalities of the economic +conflict, the disillusioning realities of +international relations, the monstrous avarice +of nations and the arrogance of races, all these +sins with which the life of modern society is +cursed are treated with an easy complacency +by religious observers which contrasts strangely +with the frantic anxiety of secular idealists. +In a recent world conference of the churches +at Stockholm members of the German delegation +objected to what they regarded as an +identification of the Kingdom of God with the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> +League of Nations made by a good bishop in +the opening sermon. National prejudice may +have prompted this criticism but the superior +perspective lent by bitter experience gave +it a measure of justification, and it would +be applicable to other sermonic interpretations +of current history besides those of the +bishop.</p> + +<p>The war itself was a disheartening revelation +of the moral obfuscation of modern religion +when dealing with the tragedies of history. +The easy partnership of religious sentiment +with patriotic fervor has been previously +ascribed to the natural relation between +religion and any devotion to an ethical ideal, +however imperfect. There is, however, yet +another reason for the blindness of religious +idealists to the horrors of war. The monistic +orientation of modern religion made it necessary +for the church to save religious faith by +discovering the saving virtues in the great evil. +It was therefore unable to view the realities in +proper proportion. For a realistic interpretation +of the great tragedy modern society had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span> +to depend upon secular idealists who did not +feel called upon to save either God’s or man’s +reputation.</p> + +<p>Sentimentality is a poor weapon against +cynicism, and idealistic determinism has no +way of defeating determinism of the naturalistic +type. Since both the latter represent reactions +to the former, they can be overcome only +by bringing these into closer conformity with +the facts. The freedom and moral integrity of +man is not an illusion but it is a fact very seriously +circumscribed. Transcendent purpose +and creative will in the universe may be scientifically +validated but do not thereby become +the effective cause of every natural phenomenon. +What is needed is a philosophy and a +religion which will do justice both to the purpose +and to the frustration which purpose +meets in the inertia of the concrete world, both +to the ideal which fashions the real and to the +real which defeats the ideal, both to the essential +harmony and to the inevitable conflict in +the cosmos and in the soul. In a sense there is +not a single dualism in life; rather there are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span> +many of them. In his own life man may +experience a conflict between his moral will and +the anarchic desires with which nature has +endowed him; or he may experience a conflict +between his cherished values and the caprices +of nature which know nothing of the economy +of values in human life. In the cosmic order +the conflict is between creativity and the +resistance which frustrates creative purpose. +Whether the dualism is defined as one of mind +and matter, or thought and extension, or force +and inertia, or God and the devil, it approximates +the real facts of life. It may be impossible +to do full justice to the two types of facts +by any set of symbols or definitions; but life +gives the lie to any attempt by which one is +explained completely in terms of the other. +There is no more reason to-day to deny the +reality of God than to explain every casual +phenomenon in terms of his omnipotent will.</p> + +<p>Our interest is in the moral fruits of religious +and philosophical ideas rather than in their perfect +consistency, but it may be noted in passing +that philosophically competent scientists and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span> +scientifically competent philosophers arrive at +conclusions to-day which are in closer accord +with a naïve theism than with the monism of +absolute idealism. They do not of course picture +a God who is outside of the world and at +work upon it as a potter upon his clay; but they +do justice to both the purpose and the limitation +of purpose in the creative process. Professor +Hobhouse writes: “The evolutionary +process can best be understood as the effect of +a purpose slowly working itself out under +limiting conditions which it brings successively +under control.... This would mean not that +reality is spiritual or the creation of an unconditioned +mind ... but that there is a spiritual +element integral to the structure and movement +of reality and that evolution is the +process by which this principle makes itself +master of the residual conditions which at first +dominate its life and thwart its efforts.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_24_24" href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> It +may be a natural overbelief and an inevitable +anthropomorphism if religion attributes all the +characteristics of personality to the purpose, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span> +“the spiritual element integral to the structure +and movement of reality.” But if a place for +freedom and purpose in the cosmic order, however +conditioned, is discovered the essential +affirmation of religious faith is metaphysically +verified. The values of personality are related +to cosmic facts. Professor Alfred Whitehead +defines God as that in reality which is not concrete +but the principle of every concrete actuality. +He makes the telling observation that +while a dynamic view of reality may dispense +with God as the prime mover it must substitute +for Aristotle’s prime mover a principle of +limitation and concretion, since the dynamic +nature of reality does not account for the various +forms in which it is made concrete.⁠<a id="FNanchor_25_25" href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> In +other words the faith of religion in both the +transcendence and immanence of God is given +a new metaphysical validation. His unchangeableness +is “his self-consistency in relation to +all change”; but this does not justify the deterministic +conclusion of a “complete self-consistency +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span> +of the temporal world.” The reality +of God and the reality of evil as a positive +force are thus both accepted.</p> + +<p>There is, in short, no reason why religion +should not hold to its faith in God without +either identifying him with or losing him in +the concrete world. The moral and spiritual +values in which religion is interested have a +basis in concrete actuality. They are on the +one hand not a mere effervescence on the surface +of the concrete, and on the other hand +they are not the only basis of historical realities. +The pluralism of William James, which +has been criticized as scientifically inaccurate +and metaphysically inconsistent, seems +to have both scientific and metaphysical +virtues. There is good reason to accept +at least a qualified dualism not only because +it is morally more potent than traditional +monisms, but because it is metaphysically +acceptable. It is not to be expected that +science will ever invest the concept of God with +the attributes which religious devotion assigns +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> +to it. But there is no reason why religious +and moral experience should not build further +upon the foundation laid by science. It is +manifestly necessary to have some metaphysical +basis for religious conviction, for there is no +spiritual vigor in the conscious self-deception +of purely subjective religions. But it is not +necessary to limit religion to the bare concepts +which science establishes. It is in fact better +for religion to forego perfect metaphysical +consistency for the sake of moral potency. In +a sense religion is always forced to choose +between an adequate metaphysics and an adequate +ethics. That is not to say that the two +interests are incompatible but that they are not +identical. When there is a conflict between +them it is better to leave the metaphysical problem +with some loose ends than to develop a +religion which is inimical to moral values. The +reason why naïve religions have frequently +been morally more potent than highly rationalized +ones is not because the faith which gave +them moral fervor was necessarily inconsistent +with the facts, but because they based their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span> +affirmations upon facts and experiences which +were inconsistent with each other or seemed to +be but were equally true and equally necessary +for the maintenance of moral and spiritual +energy.</p> + +<p>The objection to religious dualism comes +not only from those who subordinate all advantages +to that of rational consistency but also +from those who believe that it imperils purely +religious values. It robs God of omnipotence +(so the argument runs) and the universe of +dependability. It gives no certain guarantee +of the triumph of personal and spiritual +values. It may put a note of challenge in +religion, but it also destroys its comforting +assurances. The answer to such a criticism is +that the moral virtues of dualism are derived +from precisely that characteristic. It is not +easy to challenge to conflict and to guarantee +victory at one and the same time. By dignifying +personality religion runs the peril of +obscuring the defects of human nature; if it +makes the triumph of righteousness certain, it +may incline men to take “moral holidays.” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span> +Too much emphasis upon the harmonies of the +universe may make evil seem unreal. If men +are given the opportunity, they will extract +comfort from religion and forget the challenge +implied in its faith; which simply means that +they will use religion to sublimate rather than +to qualify their will to live. They will accept +the assurance of faith that the frustrations of +the natural world are not permanent, but they +will not accept the challenge of faith to overcome +the corruptions of nature in their own +souls.</p> + +<p>The perennial conflict between priest and +prophet is given in the double function of +religion. The priest dispenses comfort and the +prophet makes the challenge of religion potent. +The priest is more numerous than the prophet +because human selfishness is as determining in +religion as in other fields. Though the priest +always defeats the prophet in the end, the +prophet is avenged because his original experience +is the reality which makes the priest’s +assurance plausible. There is no way of guaranteeing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span> +the reality of God if someone does not +make him real in experience, and there is no +way of declaring the victory of the ideal if +someone does not defeat reality in the name of +the ideal in history. Religion validates itself in +spiritual experience and moral triumph. Speculation +and deduction contribute to religious +certainty only after experience has laid the +foundation for faith. It is not possible to free +religion altogether of its priestly corruptions. +But anything which will make it more difficult +to accept the comforts of faith without accepting +its challenges will increase the moral +potency of religion and decrease the possibility +of its corruption by those who want to use it +for the purpose of insuring the dignity of +human life without paying the price of moral +effort for the boon.</p> + +<p>There is no reason why the comforting +assurances of religion should be sacrificed +completely. Science is not inimical to the +assumption of religion that personal and moral +values have a basis in the universe itself which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span> +insures their permanence and their further +refinement. Though God works his will +against the inertia of the concrete world and +the waywardness of man, neither science nor +history justifies the conclusion that his +resources are not ultimately equal to the creative +task. The intractableness of the world +makes the creative and redemptive struggle +real but not hopeless. Religion has as much +right to preach hope as it has to preach +repentance. It fails in its task if it does not +save men from despair as well as from undue +pride and complacency. There is nothing in +either science or history which invalidates +either function of religion. But science unites +with moral experience in insisting on the +reality and the painfulness of the creative +process in man and in nature. If the resistance +to moral purpose in cosmic history is underestimated, +it merely serves to increase that +resistance in the life of man by justifying his +moral inertia. The needs of a dynamic +religion are consistent with scientific fact, +though not always compatible with a completely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span> +consistent metaphysics. Science may +well combine with religion in persuading man +that “if hopes are dupes, fear may be liars,” +and that he must “work out his salvation with +fear and trembling.”</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span> +</p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX"> + CHAPTER IX + <br> + CONCLUSION + </h2> +</div> + + +<p>At the risk of unnecessary repetition it may +be well to capitulate the most important conclusions +which emerge from our study of +religion in contemporary civilization. Religion +is dying in modern civilization not only because +it has not yet been able to restate its affirmations +so that they will be consistent with scientific +fact, but also because it has not been able +to make its ethical and social resources available +for the solution of the moral problems of +modern civilization. Its rejuvenation therefore +waits upon a reorientation of its ethical +traditions as well as of its theological conceptions. +It is under the necessity of finding some +metaphysical basis for its personalization of +the universe, but its scientific and philosophical +respectability will be of no avail if the moral +fruits which issue from its affirmations and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span> +experiences do not actually qualify the brute +struggle of life, so largely determined by +natural forces.</p> + +<p>Religion is scientifically verified if freedom +and purpose are found to have a place in the +cosmic processes, and it is ethically justified if +it helps to create and maintain creative freedom +and moral purpose in human life. The present +moral impotence of Protestant Christianity is +partially derived from the inadequacy of some +of its traditions which it inherited out of +periods of history which had different moral +needs than our own day. Its individualism +rendered a universal service at the dawn of the +modern era but survives to-day chiefly as a +sanctification of the peculiar interests and +prejudices of one particular class in Western +society. The limitations of its ethical traditions +are easily obscured not only because all +religion easily gives the semblance of finality +to the relativities of history, but because a +religion which imagines itself devoted to +the spirit of Jesus is under the temptation +of exploiting the prestige of his absolute +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span> +ethics without approximating his ethical position.</p> + +<p>The moral effectiveness of religion depends +upon its ability to detach itself from the historical +relativities with which its ideals are +inevitably compounded in the course of history. +The avowed loyalty of the Christian church to +the spirit of Christ may become the basis of +such a detachment, since there is little in the +gospel of Jesus which conforms to the dominant +interests of modern life. But the very +reverence in which Jesus is held may operate +to obscure the essential genius of his life. +Religion is therefore under the necessity of +developing the critical faculty even while it +maintains its naïvete and reverence. The +necessity of coöperation between the naturally +incompatible factors of reason and imagination, +of intelligence and moral dynamic, is really the +crux of the religious and moral problem in +modern civilization. The complexity of modern +life demands that moral purpose be +astutely guided; but moral purpose itself is +rooted in ultra-rational sanctions and may be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span> +destroyed by the same intelligence which is +needed to direct it. Both humility and love, +the highest religious virtues, are ultra-rational; +yet they cannot be achieved in an intricate +social life without a discriminating intelligence +which knows how to uncover covert sins and to +discover potential virtues. The incidental +limitations which every historic type of religion +reveals can be dealt with only if the religious +devotee can be persuaded to regard the values +of his religion critically; yet the cultivation of +such a critical spirit may easily lead to the +enervation of the religious spirit itself. If the +highest values of religion are themselves conditioned +rather than absolute, it must be possible +to assign them a place in the hierarchy +of values, without encouraging a complete loss +of confidence in them. Such a task is difficult +but not impossible. A robust moral idealism +will help to create a spiritual fervor which will +not be easily defeated by any superficial intellectualism. +If institutions of religion gave +preference to the ethical rather than the intellectual +problem of religious faith, it might be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span> +possible to create a religious spirit sufficiently +vigorous to permit the free play of the critical +faculties without a loss of moral or spiritual +dynamic. Obviously civilization cannot afford +to dispense with either the irrational moral will +or the critical intelligence by which it is made +effective in complex situations. Men need to +subject all partial moral achievements to comparison +with the absolute standards of truth, +beauty and goodness of their religious faith, +and yet be able to see and willing to concede +the relativities in the absolute values of their +devotion. They can be saved from a morality +of mere utilitarianism only by the religious +quest for an absolute moral standard; yet they +need to be discerning enough to see that every +ethical achievement, even when inspired by +religious motives, is tinged with prudential self-interest. +They must continue to strive after +freedom and yet realize that human life and +character is largely determined by environment. +If they seek happiness, divorced from +fortune, they nevertheless cannot escape the +duty of making the material world serve human +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span> +welfare. Their ability to discover the transcendent +values in human personality has value +only if they maintain faith in human nature +after they have discovered its imperfections. +They must search after the perfect goodness +in God and yet be prepared to face the cruelties +of life without either denying their reality +or being driven to despair by them.</p> + +<p>If it is true that moral sincerity is even more +necessary to a vital religion in modern life than +intellectual modernity, a strategy must be +developed to sever religious idealism from the +unethical tendencies in modern civilization. +Any strategy which will succeed in such an +enterprise will savor of asceticism. The limitations +of historic asceticism may teach the +present how to avoid inevitable pitfalls in the +task of detaching religious idealism from the +corruptions of society. An asceticism which +flees the world and develops its saints at the +price of abandoning industrial civilization even +more completely to the natural and anarchic +forces which operate in its life, is obviously of +no use to modern civilization. Yet a type of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span> +asceticism is needed, if for no other reason, +because greed is the dominant motive of +Western civilization and nothing less than an +ascetic discipline will free religious idealism +from its entanglement with the covetousness +of modern life. Since Western life is intent +upon material advantages, no religious idealism +can maintain any degree of purity if it does +not enter into a conscious conflict with the civilization +in which it functions and succeed in +setting some bounds to the expansive desires +of men and of nations.</p> + +<p>The church as such has sufficient spiritual +resources to become the recruiting ground for +such a movement of detachment, but it is too +much to hope that it will take the leadership +in it. It is too deeply enmeshed with the interests +and prejudices of contemporary civilization +to possess the insight and courage which +the enterprise requires. Such a movement of +detachment must be, as it has always been, a +minority movement. But the minority ought +not detach itself from the majority so completely +that it will sacrifice the possibility of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span> +acting as a leaven in it. There is no force or +strategy which can prevent the great majority +from using religion to give human personality +dignity and self-respect without a serious effort +to approximate a moral ideal which would +justify religion’s estimate of human worth. +Some types of religion will continue to obscure +the defects in nature and human nature. They +will reassure the perplexed soul by recounting +the victories of the past without seeking new +triumphs. They will build systems of faith +upon past experiences without any effort to +validate or amend them in fresh experience. +Thus rejuvenation and progress must come +from the few who understand the fuller implications +of the faith which they share with the +multitudes whose eyes are holden and who lack +the courage to follow even such visions as may +come to them.</p> + +<p>A highly spiritual religion cannot be an +esoteric possession to which the multitudes +may never aspire. It cannot afford to lose confidence +in the multitudes; yet it must resist the +gravitation toward moral mediocrity among +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span> +them. It certainly must avoid the cultivation +of a priestly cult into which the layman cannot +be initiated. If the modern movement of +detachment is to be effective it must in fact be +a layman’s movement; for it must express itself +in rebuilding the social order rather than +in building new religious institutions. Its +most effective ministers will be laymen who +will lack neither the technical skill nor the +spiritual resource to deal with the practical +problems of industry and politics. Religious +teachers may help to inspire such a movement, +but its efficacy will depend upon those who are +engaged in the world’s work. If the greed of +Western civilization is to be qualified by +religious idealism, it will be accomplished by +men who use and direct the machines of modern +industry without making mechanical efficiency +an end in itself and without succumbing to the +lure of the material rewards which come so +easily to those who are proficient in the industrial +enterprise. A revival of either puritan or +monastic asceticism will be unequal to the task +which faces modern religion. Puritanism sanctified +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span> +economic power, and monasticism fled its +responsibilities. The new asceticism must produce +spiritualized technicians who will continue +to conquer and exploit nature in the interest +of human welfare, but who will regard their +task as a social service and scorn to take a +larger share of the returns of industry than is +justified by reasonable and carefully scrutinized +needs. The new asceticism must, in short, +be in the world and yet not of the world. It +must be truly scientific in gauging the advantage +to human personality in the conquest of +nature and truly religious in finding a basis +for human happiness beyond the material +rewards which this conquest returns.</p> + +<p>If Christian idealists are to make religion +socially effective they will be forced to detach +themselves from the dominant secular desires +of the nations as well as from the greed of +economic groups. The socially minded portion +of the church has in fact made some progress +in this direction. The lessons of the World +War have not been altogether futile, and there +is a wholesome mood of repentance in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span> +church for its easy connivance with an unethical +nationalism in the past centuries. The church +has not yet had an opportunity to prove the +sincerity of its contrition in this matter, for the +moment of crisis has not yet come. In that +moment, which will come inevitably, many +religiously inspired peace idealists will no +doubt bow their knees to Baal; but there is +real reason to hope that there is a new conscience +in the church which will resist the claims +of an unethical nationalism to the utmost. +Perhaps the greatest weakness of the religious +idealists who have become critical of an +unethical nationalism is that they are not sufficiently +aware of the intimate and organic relation +between the imperialism of nations and +the whole tendency of avarice which characterizes +Western life. Too few realize that it is +not possible to detach oneself from an +unethical nationalism if one continues to enjoy +the material advantages which flow from the +nation’s unqualified insistence upon the right +to hold its advantages against the world. It +may be impossible to arrive at a complete +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span> +equalization of living standards among all individuals +who desire to achieve and express the +ideal of the brotherhood of man. But a +religious idealism which does not move in that +direction will be convicted of insincerity and +moral confusion. Unrepentant political realists +may well pour contempt upon it and justly +accuse those who profess it of profiting from +policies which they ostensibly condemn. Religious +idealism is in desperate need of a strategy +which will express its detachment from the +dominant desires and impulses of modern civilization +by something more than desultory and +usually qualified criticism of unethical political +ideals and industrial policies.</p> + +<p>The old challenge “be ye not conformed to +this world” must be accepted anew in a more +heroic fashion than is customary in enlightened +religious circles. The policy of building a +Kingdom of God by regenerating individual +lives has become discredited, not because moral +character is dispensable to a wholesome social +life, but because the criteria of moral character +have been too individualistic to serve the needs +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span> +of modern society. It is important enough +that men gain some control over their immediate +desires and discipline their momentary +passions. Society is always in need of integrated +personalities. But the validity of the +religious ideal must finally be judged by its +capacity to create not only unified personalities +but personalities which know how to restrain +their expansive desires for the sake of social +peace. Religion intensifies selfishness when it +adds sanctity to a respectable selfish life and +creates a self-respect which is impervious to +emotions of contrition. If the religious ideal +is to gain any potency in modern life it must be +able to convict men of sin and inspire them to a +conversion. But the sins of which they need +most to be convicted are those which are covert +in the social and economic relations which custom +has hallowed; and the conversion of life +which is most needed is that which will express +itself in terms of the economic and political +relationships in which men live. Not to be conformed +to this world, if it is to have any real +meaning in modern life, will mean that the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span> +religiously inspired soul knows how to defeat +the avarice and to overcome the indifference to +the worth of human personality which inheres +in the whole economic and industrial structure +of modern society. Practically and individually +such a detachment from the world will +express itself in the sacrifice of material advantages +for the sake of realizing a more intimate +fellowship with the underprivileged, in the +careful analysis of industrial policies from the +standpoint of their effect upon personality, in an +unwillingness to profit by social and economic +practices and policies which are fundamentally +unethical and in a willingness to bear some +pain for the sake of expressing loyalty to the +community of mankind as against all lesser and +conflicting loyalties.</p> + +<p>The hope of persuading any large number +of religious people to express their spiritual +convictions in any such socially tangible and +revolutionary terms is made rather desperate +by the fact that the modern church seems no +more inclined to undertake the task of spiritual +regeneration than the orthodox church. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span> +orthodox church still possesses some of the +religious fervor which is required to defy the +world, but it is too anti-rational in its theology +to gain the respect of the intelligent classes and +too individualistic in its ethics to express religious +idealism in socially helpful terms. The +modern churches are not acutely conscious of +any serious defects in contemporary civilization. +If they do recognize limitations in the +social order, they give themselves to the pleasant +hope that time and natural progress will +bring inevitable triumph to every virtuous +enterprise. They have relegated the eschatological +note of the gospel, by which Jesus +expressed his sense of the tragic, to the limbo +of theological antiquities. The possibility of a +catastrophe seems never to arouse their fears +or to give energy to their ambitions. Life, +according to their gospel, goes automatically +from grace to grace and from strength to +strength.</p> + +<p>Though neither the orthodox nor the modern +wing of the Christian church seems +capable of initiating a genuine religious +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span> +revival which will evolve a morality capable of +challenging and maintaining itself against the +dominant desires of modern civilization and +yet expressing itself in terms relevant to +civilization’s needs, there are resources in the +Christian religion which make it the inevitable +basis of any spiritual regeneration of Western +civilization. Christianity, as Dr. Ernst +Troeltsch has observed, is the fate of Western +society. Spiritual idealisms of other cultures +and societies may aid it in reclaiming its own +highest resources; and any universal religion +capable of inspiring an ultimately unified +world culture may borrow from other religions. +But the task of redeeming Western society +rests in a peculiar sense upon Christianity. It +is congenial to the energy and activism of +Western peoples and is yet capable of setting +bounds to their expansive desires. It has +reduced the eternal conflict between self-assertion +and self-denial to the paradox of self-assertion +through self-denial and made the +cross the symbol of life’s highest achievement. +Its optimism is rooted in pessimism and it is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span> +therefore able to preach both repentance and +hope. It is able to condemn the world without +enervating life and to create faith without +breeding illusions. Its adoration of Jesus +sometimes obscures the real genius of his life +but cannot permanently destroy the fruitfulness +of his inspiration. If there is any lack of +identity between the Jesus of history and the +Christ of religious experience, the Jesus of history +is nevertheless more capable of giving +historical reality to the necessary Christ idea +than any character of history. Intelligence +will gradually soften prejudices and allay the +conflict between Christianity and the Judaism +out of which it emerged and with which it is +organically related so that the religions of the +prophetic ideal may make common cause. +Such a coöperation will probably never lead +to complete fusion because Christianity cannot +afford to sacrifice the Christ idea and the Jews +will continue to regard this as a Hellenistic +and unacceptable element in the Christian +religion. Christianity will not disavow it, for +it gives dramatic force and historical concretion +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span> +to its theism and dualism. The God of our +devotion is veritably revealed most adequately +in the most perfect personality we know, as he +is potentially revealed in all personal values; +and his conflict with the inertia of the concrete +and historical world is expressed most vividly +in the cross of Christ. When dealing with +life’s ultimates, symbolism is indispensable, +and a symbolism which has a basis in historic +incident is most effective. The idea of a potent +but yet suffering divine ideal which is defeated +by the world but gains its victory in the defeat +must remain basic in any morally creative +world view.</p> + +<p>It is possible of course that the resources of +the Christian religion will not be made available +in time to save Western civilization from +moral bankruptcy. It is possible that life will +continue to run its course of conflict between +the unrestrained ambitions and desires of individuals +and groups until unqualified self-assertiveness +will issue in mutual destruction. +It is possible that cynicism will continue to discount +the moral potentialities of human nature +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span> +while science continues to give plausibility to a +depreciation of the moral factors in life by +arming the brute in man and making his vices +more deadly. Civilization may be beyond +moral redemption; but if it is to be redeemed +a religiously inspired moral idealism must aid +in the task. A purely naturalistic ethics will +not only be overcome by a sense of frustration +and sink into despair, but it will lack the force +to restrain the self-will and self-interest of men +and of nations. If life cannot be centered in +something beyond nature, it will not be possible +to lift men above the brute struggle for survival. +Intelligence may mitigate its cruelties +and prudence may prompt men to eliminate its +worst inhumanities; but the increased power +which the conquest of nature supplies merely +substitutes unintended cruelties for those which +have been consciously abolished. Living on +the naturalistic level men are bound to contend +for life’s physical prizes and to use physical +force in the contest with more and more deadly +effect.</p> + +<p>It is the virtue of a vital religious idealism +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span> +that it lifts life above the level of nature and +makes the development of an ethical personality +the ultimate goal of human existence. +Without the vivid and realistic other-worldly +hopes and fears with which the medieval +church disciplined life and which the modern +church cannot restore, it may seem that religion +possesses no force which could counteract the +primitive impulses which move men and +nations. But these hopes and fears were +merely crude ways of expressing the idea that +life is fundamentally moral and that its destiny +transcends the animal conflict. Life will continue +to develop in the direction of the ideal +implicit in it and every organism is impelled to +move toward the goal of its own completeness. +The ideal implicit in human character is that of +ethical freedom; and awakened personalities +will seek to realize that ideal. They will seek +to realize it even at the expense of physical +sacrifices and pain. They will learn how to +find life by losing it. It is the quest for what +is not real but is always becoming real, for what +is not true but is always becoming true, that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span> +makes man incurably religious. Modern +religion is therefore not without resource in +contending against the forces of nature. The +great difficulty is that the struggle for ethical +integrity is so painful that most men are +tempted to seek some short-cut to it; and +organized religion generally expresses the +hopes and desires of this easygoing multitude. +In the medieval church magic provided the +short-cut. In the modern church it is provided +by a sanctified prudence which teaches +men how to be unselfish and selfish at the same +time, how to gain moral self-respect without +sacrificing too many temporal advantages. +The hope of a revival of ethical religion and +of an ethical reconstruction of society therefore +depends, as it did in the past, upon a +renunciation of the religious short-cuts which +lead to hypocrisy.</p> + +<p>If religious aspiration can be united with +perfect moral sincerity a fruitful partnership +may again be established between religion and +morality. The moral struggle will give meaning +to the affirmations of religion and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span> +religious experience will strengthen the moral +purpose. While religion does not issue automatically +in moral action and the moral enterprise +does not inevitably create religious +experience and hope, there is nevertheless a +relation of interdependence between religious +aspiration and moral endeavor. This relationship +is due to the fact that a perfect ethical +freedom is possible only if personality is withdrawn +from or lifted above the immediate +necessities of the physical life. The other-worldly +hopes and the mystical experience of +religion by which the strategy of withdrawal +and transcendence has been effected is momentarily +discredited because it has resulted too +frequently in absolving the soul of its moral +responsibilities in the specific problems of +society. But the fact that religious hopes and +religious experiences may help people to escape +the onerous duties of the moral enterprise cannot +permanently obscure the need of religious +experience and religious hope for the development +of an ethical life. If men are to center +their life in moral purpose they must reassure +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span> +themselves periodically on the moral purpose +in life itself. That is mysticism and prayer. +If they are to develop a perfect ethical freedom +which makes no compromises with life’s +immediate necessities, they must find a content +and a meaning in life beyond its present conflict +of interests and desires. That is other-worldliness. +If the quest for ethical freedom +and integrity does not lead to religious experience +and religious hope, it will issue in despair. +If the assurances of religious hope and the certainties +of religious experience are not accompanied +by sincere moral effort, they result in +hypocrisy. The hope of an ethical society is +therefore bound up in the possibility of restoring +ethical integrity to religion and religious +dynamic to the moral effect.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES"> + FOOTNOTES + </h2> +</div> + + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> Professor Alfred Whitehead, in his <i>Science and the Modern +World</i> and <i>Religion in the Making</i>, indicates the inevitable +anti-mechanistic trend of philosophical thought as it achieves +mastery of the varied fields of modern science.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_2" href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="label">[2]</a> <i>Prospects of Industrial Civilization</i>, page 218.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_3" href="#FNanchor_3_3" class="label">[3]</a> Matthew v. 43–48.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_4" href="#FNanchor_4_4" class="label">[4]</a> <i>The Decline of the West.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_5" href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="label">[5]</a> Stuart Mill’s refutation of LePlay’s thesis that the salvation +of the working classes can come only through the benevolence +of their superiors is worth quoting in this connection: +“No times can be pointed out in which the higher classes of +this or any other country performed a part even distantly +resembling the one assigned to them in this theory. All +privileged and powerful classes have used their power in the +interest of their own selfishness. I do not affirm that what +has always been must always be. This at least seems to be +undeniable, that long before superior classes could be sufficiently +inspired to govern in the tutelary manner supposed, +the inferior classes would be too much improved to be +governed.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_6" href="#FNanchor_6_6" class="label">[6]</a> <i>Gesammelte Aufsaetze zur Religions-Sociologie.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_7" href="#FNanchor_7_7" class="label">[7]</a> <i>Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_8" href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="label">[8]</a> Quoted by Tawney, <i>op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_9" href="#FNanchor_9_9" class="label">[9]</a> The relation of puritanism to modern capitalism has been +most exhaustively treated by Max Weber in his essay on “Die +Protestantische Ethic und der Geist des Kapitalismus.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_10" href="#FNanchor_10_10" class="label">[10]</a> Quoted in Southey’s <i>Life of Wesley</i>, Chapter xxix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_11" href="#FNanchor_11_11" class="label">[11]</a> Both Max Weber and E. Troeltsch make much of the relation +of Calvinism to medieval asceticism. See Max Weber, +<i>op. cit.</i>, and E. Troeltsch, <i>Sociallehren der Christlichen Kirche</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_12" href="#FNanchor_12_12" class="label">[12]</a> Romans vii. 19–25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_13" href="#FNanchor_13_13" class="label">[13]</a> <i>Grosser Sermon vom Wucher</i> (<i>Werke</i>, Vol. IV, page 49).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_14" href="#FNanchor_14_14" class="label">[14]</a> Article 3 in Twelve Articles, quoted by J. S. Shapiro in +<i>Social Reform and the Reformation</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15_15" href="#FNanchor_15_15" class="label">[15]</a> In his <i>Education of Henry Adams</i>, Chapter x.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16_16" href="#FNanchor_16_16" class="label">[16]</a> Commenting on the first Hague conference Count Holstein +of the German foreign office made some realistic observations +which may not have justified his obstructive conclusions but +which are nevertheless pertinent. He wrote: “Subjects of +international law are states and not individuals. It will +therefore be formally difficult and practically impossible to +isolate the individual judge from the passions and interests +of the whole in a way that happens or is supposed to happen +in private law. Of all conceivable judges Great Powers are +least disinterested, for in every conceivable question of any +importance that may come up all Great Powers are interested +<i>à un degre quelconque</i>. An impartial decision is therefore +excluded by the nature of things.... Small disinterested +states as subjects, small questions as objects of arbitral decision +are conceivable; great states and great questions are not.” +(Quoted by Dickinson in <i>International Anarchy</i>, p. 351.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17_17" href="#FNanchor_17_17" class="label">[17]</a> <i>Social Evolution</i>, page 140.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_18_18" href="#FNanchor_18_18" class="label">[18]</a> James iv. 2–4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_19_19" href="#FNanchor_19_19" class="label">[19]</a> II Corinthians iv. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_20_20" href="#FNanchor_20_20" class="label">[20]</a> In <i>Civilization and Ethics</i> and <i>The Decay and Restoration +of Civilization</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_21_21" href="#FNanchor_21_21" class="label">[21]</a> <i>Christianity and Other World Religions.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_22_22" href="#FNanchor_22_22" class="label">[22]</a> <i>Religion in the Making</i>, page 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_23_23" href="#FNanchor_23_23" class="label">[23]</a> George Santayana in <i>Religion and Reason</i>, page 176.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_24_24" href="#FNanchor_24_24" class="label">[24]</a> In <i>Development and Purpose</i>, page 360.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_25_25" href="#FNanchor_25_25" class="label">[25]</a> In <i>Religion in the Making</i>.</p></div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77050 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/77050-h/images/cover.jpg b/77050-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbddbd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/77050-h/images/cover.jpg |
