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Introduction.--Ethnic and Catholic Religions.

? 1. Object of the present Work ? 2. Comparative Theology; its Nature, Value, and present Position ? 3. Ethnic Religions. Injustice often done to them by Christian Apologists ? 4. How Ethnic Religions were regarded by Christ and his Apostles ? 5. Comparative Theology will furnish a new Class of Evidences in Support of Christianity ? 6. It will show that, while most of the Religions of the World are Ethnic, or the Religions of Races, Christianity is Catholic, or adapted to become the Religion of all Races ? 7. It will show that Ethnic Religions are partial, Christianity universal ? 8. It will show that Ethnic Religions are arrested, but that Christianity is steadily progressive

Confucius and the Chinese, or the Prose of Asia.

? 1. Peculiarities of Chinese Civilization ? 2. Chinese Government based on Education. Civil-Service Examinations ? 3. Life and Character of Confucius ? 4. Philosophy and subsequent Development of Confucianism ? 5. Lao-tse and Tao-ism ? 6. Religious Character of the "Kings." ? 7. Confucius and Christianity. Character of the Chinese ? 8. The Tae-ping Insurrection Note. The Nestorian Inscription in China

Brahmanism.

? 1. Our Knowledge of Brahmanism. Sir William Jones ? 2. Difficulty of this Study. The Complexity of the System. The Hindoos have no History. Their Ultra-Spiritualism ? 3. Helps from Comparative Philology. The Aryans in Central Asia ? 4. The Aryans in India. The Native Races. The Vedic Age. Theology of the Vedas ? 5. Second Period. Laws of Manu. The Brahmanic Age ? 6. The Three Hindoo Systems of Philosophy,--The Sankhya, Vedanta, and Nyasa ? 7. Origin of the Hindoo Triad ? 8. The Epics, the Puranas, and Modern Hindoo Worship ? 9. Relation of Brahmanism to Christianity

Buddhism, or the Protestantism of the East.

? 1. Buddhism, in its Forms, resembles Romanism; in its Spirit, Protestantism ? 2. Extent of Buddhism. Its Scriptures ? 3. Sakya-muni, the Founder of Buddhism ? 4. Leading Doctrines of Buddhism ? 5. The Spirit of Buddhism Rational and Humane ? 6. Buddhism as a Religion ? 7. Karma and Nirvana ? 8. Good and Evil of Buddhism ? 9. Relation of Buddhism to Christianity

Zoroaster and the Zend Avesta.

? 1. Ruins of the Palace of Xerxes at Persepolis ? 2. Greek Accounts of Zoroaster. Plutarch's Description of his Religion ? 3. Anquetil du Perron and his Discovery of the Zend Avesta ? 4. Epoch of Zoroaster. What do we know of him? ? 5. Spirit of Zoroaster and of his Religion ? 6. Character of the Zend Avesta ? 7. Later Development of the System in the Bundehesch ? 8. Relation of the Religion of the Zend Avesta to that of the Vedas ? 9. Is Monotheism or pure Dualism the Doctrine of the Zend Avesta ? 10. Relation of this System to Christianity. The Kingdom of Heaven

The Gods of Egypt.

? 1. Antiquity and Extent of Egyptian Civilization ? 2. Religious Character of the Egyptians. Their Ritual ? 3. Theology of Egypt. Sources of our Knowledge concerning it ? 4. Central Idea of Egyptian Theology and Religion. Animal Worship ? 5. Sources of Egyptian Theology. Age of the Empire and Affinities of the Race ? 6. The Three Orders of Gods ? 7. Influence upon Judaism and Christianity

The Gods Of Greece.

? 1. The Land and the Race ? 2. Idea and general Character of Greek Religion ? 3. The Gods of Greece before Homer ? 4. The Gods of the Poets ? 5. The Gods of the Artists ? 6. The Gods of the Philosophers ? 7. Worship of Greece ? 8. The Mysteries. Orphism ? 9. Relation of Greek Religion to Christianity

The Religion of Rome.

? 1. Origin and essential Character of the Religion of Rome ? 2. The Gods of Rome ? 3. Worship and Ritual ? 4. The Decay of the Roman Religion ? 5. Relation of the Roman Religion to Christianity

The Teutonic and Scandinavian Religion.

? 1. The Land and the Race ? 2. Idea of the Scandinavian Religion ? 3. The Eddas and their Contents ? 4. The Gods of Scandinavia ? 5. Resemblance of the Scandinavian Mythology to that of Zoroaster ? 6. Scandinavian Worship ? 7. Social Character, Maritime Discoveries, and Political Institutions of the Scandinavians ? 8. Relation of this System to Christianity

The Jewish Religion.

? 1. Palestine, and the Semitic Races ? 2. Abraham; or, Judaism as the Family Worship of a Supreme Being ? 3. Moses; or, Judaism as the national Worship of a just and holy King ? 4. David; or, Judaism as the personal Worship of a Father and Friend ? 5. Solomon; or, the Religious Relapse ? 6. The Prophets; or, Judaism as a Hope of a spiritual and universal Kingdom of God ? 7. Judaism as a Preparation for Christianity

Mohammed and Islam.

? 1. Recent Works on the Life of Mohammed ? 2. The Arabs and Arabia ? 3. Early Life of Mohammed, to the Hegira ? 4. Change in the Character of Mohammed after the Hegira ? 5. Religious Doctrines and Practices among the Mohammedans ? 6. The Criticism of Mr. Palgrave on Mohammedan Theology ? 7. Mohammedanism a Relapse; the worst Form of Monotheism, and a retarding Element in Civilization Note

The Ten Religions and Christianity.

? 1. General Results of this Survey ? 2. Christianity a Pleroma, or Fulness of Life ? 3. Christianity, as a Pleroma, compared with Brahmanism, Confucianism, and Buddhism ? 4. Christianity compared with the Avesta and the Eddas. The Duad in all Religions ? 5. Christianity and the Religions of Egypt, Greece, and Rome ? 6. Christianity in Relation to Judaism and Mohammedanism. The Monad in all Religions ? 7. The Fulness of Christianity is derived from the Life of Jesus ? 8. Christianity as a Religion of Progress and of universal Unity

Ten Great Religions.

Introduction.--Ethnic and Catholic Religions.

? 1. Object of the present Work. ? 2. Comparative Theology; its Nature, Value, and present Position. ? 3. Ethnic Religions. Injustice often done to them by Christian Apologists. ? 4. How Ethnic Religions were regarded by Christ and his Apostles. ? 5. Comparative Theology will furnish a new Class of Evidences in Support of Christianity. ? 6. It will show that, while most of the Religions of the World are Ethnic, or the Religions of Races, Christianity is Catholic, or adapted to become the Religion of all Races. ? 7. It will show that Ethnic Religions are Partial, Christianity Universal. ? 8. It will show that Ethnic Religions are arrested, but that Christianity is steadily progressive.

? 1. Object of the present Work.

Such a work as this is evidently too great for a single mind. Many students must co-operate, and that through many years, before it can be completed. This volume is intended as a contribution toward that end. It will contain an account of each of the principal religions, and its development. It will be, therefore, devoted to the natural history of ethnic and catholic religions, and its method will be that of analysis. The second part, which may be published hereafter, will compare these different systems to show what each teaches concerning the great subjects of religious thought,--God, Duty, and Immortality. Finally, it will compare them with Christianity, and will inquire whether or not that is capable of becoming the religion of the human race.

? 2. Comparative Theology; its Nature, Value, and present Position.

The work of Comparative Theology is to do equal justice to all the religious tendencies of mankind. Its position is that of a judge, not that of an advocate. Assuming, with the Apostle Paul, that each religion has come providentially, as a method by which different races "should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him," it attempts to show how each may be a step in the religious progress of the races, and "a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ." It is bound, however, to abstain from such inferences until it has accurately ascertained all the facts. Its first problem is to learn what each system contains; it may then go on, and endeavor to generalize from its facts.

Comparative Theology is, therefore, as yet in its infancy. The same tendency in this century, which has produced the sciences of Comparative Anatomy, Comparative Geography, and Comparative Philology, is now creating this new science of Comparative Theology. It will be to any special theology as Comparative Anatomy is to any special anatomy, Comparative Geography to any special geography, or Comparative Philology to the study of any particular language. It may be called a science, since it consists in the study of the facts of human history, and their relation to each other. It does not dogmatize: it observes. It deals only with phenomena,--single phenomena, or facts; grouped phenomena, or laws.

Several valuable works, bearing more or less directly on Comparative Theology, have recently appeared in Germany, France, and England. Among these may be mentioned those of Max M?ller, Bunsen, Burnouf, D?llinger, Hardwicke, St. Hilaire, D?ncker, F. C. Baur, R?nan, Creuzer, Maurice, G. W. Cox, and others.

? 3. Ethnic Religions. Injustice often done to them by Christian Apologists.

Comparative Theology, pursuing its impartial course as a positive science, will avoid the error into which most of the Christian apologists of the last century fell, in speaking of ethnic or heathen religions. In order to show the need of Christianity, they thought it necessary to disparage all other religions. Accordingly they have insisted that, while the Jewish and Christian religions were revealed, all other religions were invented; that, while these were from God, those were the work of man; that, while in the true religions there was nothing false, in the false religions there was nothing true. If any trace of truth was to be found in Polytheism, it was so mixed with error as to be practically only evil. As the doctrines of heathen religions were corrupt, so their worship was only a debasing superstition. Their influence was to make men worse, not better; their tendency was to produce sensuality, cruelty, and universal degradation. They did not proceed, in any sense, from God; they were not even the work of good men, but rather of deliberate imposition and priestcraft. A supernatural religion had become necessary in order to counteract the fatal consequences of these debased and debasing superstitions. This is the view of the great natural religions of the world which was taken by such writers as Leland, Whitby, and Warburton in the last century. Even liberal thinkers, like James Foster and John Locke, declare that, at the coming of Christ, mankind had fallen into utter darkness, and that vice and superstition filled the world. Infidel no less than Christian writers took the same disparaging view of natural religions. They considered them, in their source, the work of fraud; in their essence, corrupt superstitions; in their doctrines, wholly false; in their moral tendency, absolutely injurious; and in their result, degenerating more and more into greater evil.

A few writers, like Cudworth and the Platonists, endeavored to put in a good word for the Greek philosophers, but the religions of the world were abandoned to unmitigated reprobation. The account which so candid a writer as Mosheim gives of them is worth noticing, on account of its sweeping character. "All the nations of the world," he says, "except the Jews, were plunged in the grossest superstition. Some nations, indeed, went beyond others in impiety and absurdity, but all stood charged with irrationality and gross stupidity in matters of religion." "The greater part of the gods of all nations were ancient heroes, famous for their achievements and their worthy deeds, such as kings, generals, and founders of cities." "To these some added the more splendid and useful objects in the natural world, as the sun, moon, and stars; and some were not ashamed to pay divine honors to mountains, rivers, trees, etc." "The worship of these deities consisted in ceremonies, sacrifices, and prayers. The ceremonies were, for the most part, absurd and ridiculous, and throughout debasing, obscene, and cruel. The prayers were truly insipid and void of piety, both in their form and matter." "The priests who presided over this worship basely abused their authority to impose on the people." "The whole pagan system had not the least efficacy to produce and cherish virtuous emotions in the soul; because the gods and goddesses were patterns of vice, the priests bad men, and the doctrines false."

This view of heathen religions is probably much exaggerated. They must contain more truth than error, and must have been, on the whole, useful to mankind. We do not believe that they originated in human fraud, that their essence is superstition, that there is more falsehood than truth in their doctrines, that their moral tendency is mainly injurious, or that they continually degenerate into greater evil. No doubt it may be justly predicated of all these systems that they contain much which is false and injurious to human virtue. But the following considerations may tend to show that all the religions of the earth are providential, and that all tend to benefit mankind.

To ascribe the vast phenomena of religion, in their variety and complexity, to man as their author, and to suppose the whole a mere work of human fraud, is not a satisfactory solution of the facts before us. That priests, working on human ignorance or fear, should be able to build up such a great mass of belief, sentiment, and action, is like the Hindoo cosmogony, which supposes the globe to rest on an elephant, the elephant on a turtle, and the turtle on nothing at all.

And a reverence for Divine Providence brings us to the same conclusion. Can it be that God has left himself without a witness in the world, except among the Hebrews in ancient times and the Christians in modern times? This narrow creed excludes God from any communion with the great majority of human beings. The Father of the human race is represented as selecting a few of his children to keep near himself, and as leaving all the rest to perish in their ignorance and error. And this is not because they are prodigal children who have gone astray into a far country of their own accord; for they are just where they were placed by their Creator. HE "has determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." HE has caused some to be born in India, where they can only hear of him through Brahmanism; and some in China, where they can know him only through Buddha and Confucius. The doctrine which we are opposing is; that, being put there by God, they are born into hopeless error, and are then punished for their error by everlasting destruction. The doctrine for which we contend is that of the Apostle Paul, that God has "determined beforehand the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, IF HAPLY THEY MAY FEEL AFTER HIM AND FIND HIM." Paul teaches that "all nations dwelling on all the face of the earth" may not only seek and feel after God, but also FIND him. But as all living in heathen lands are heathen, if they find God at all, they must find him through heathenism. The pagan religions are the effort of man to feel after God. Otherwise we must conclude that the Being without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground, the Being who never puts an insect into the air or a polyp into the water without providing it with some appropriate food, so that it may live and grow, has left the vast majority of his human children, made with religious appetences of conscience, reverence, hope, without a corresponding nutriment of truth. This view tends to atheism; for if the presence of adaptation everywhere is the legitimate proof of creative design, the absence of adaptation in so important a sphere tends, so far, to set aside that proof.

The view which we are opposing contradicts that law of progress which alone gives meaning and unity to history. Instead of progress, it teaches degeneracy and failure. But elsewhere we see progress, not recession. Geology shows us higher forms of life succeeding to the lower. Botany exhibits the lichens and mosses preparing a soil for more complex forms of vegetation. Civil history shows the savage state giving way to the semi-civilized, and that to the civilized. If heathen religions are a step, a preparation for Christianity, then this law of degrees appears also in religion; then we see an order in the progress of the human soul,--"first the blade, then the ear, afterward the full corn in the ear." Then we can understand why Christ's coming was delayed till the fulness of the time had come. But otherwise all, in this most important sphere of human life, is in disorder, without unity, progress, meaning, or providence.

These views, we trust, will be amply confirmed when we come to examine each great religion separately and carefully. We shall find them always feeling after God, often finding him. We shall see that in their origin they are not the work of priestcraft, but of human nature; in their essence not superstitions, but religions; in their doctrines true more frequently than false; in their moral tendency good rather than evil. And instead of degenerating toward something worse, they come to prepare the way for something better.

? 4. How Ethnic Religions were regarded by Christ and his Apostles.

According to Christ and the Apostles, Christianity was to grow out of Judaism, and be developed into a universal religion. Accordingly, the method of Jesus was to go first to the Jews; and when he left the limits of Palestine on a single occasion, he declared himself as only going into Phoenicia to seek after the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But he stated that he had other sheep, not of this fold, whom he must bring, recognizing that there were, among the heathen, good and honest hearts prepared for Christianity, and already belonging to him; sheep who knew his voice and were ready to follow him. He also declared that the Roman centurion and the Phoenician woman already possessed great faith, the centurion more than he had yet found in Israel. But the most striking declaration of Jesus, and one singularly overlooked, concerning the character of the heathen, is to be found in his description of the day of judgment, in Matthew . It is very curious that men should speculate as to the fate of the heathen, when Jesus has here distinctly taught that all good men among them are his sheep, though they never heard of him. The account begins, "Before him shall be gathered all the Gentiles" . It is not a description of the judgment of the Christian world, but of the heathen world. The word here used occurs about one hundred and sixty-four times in the New Testament. It is translated "gentiles" oftener than by any other word, that is, about ninety-three times; by "heathen" four or five times; and in the remaining passages it is mostly translated "nations." That it means the Gentiles or heathen here appears from the fact that they are represented as ignorant of Christ, and are judged, not by the standard of Christian faith, but by their humanity and charity toward those in suffering. Jesus recognizes, therefore, among these ethnic or heathen people, some as belonging to himself,--the "other sheep," not of the Jewish fold.

The early Christian apologists often took the same view. Thus Clement of Alexandria believed that God had one great plan for educating the world, of which Christianity was the final step. He refused to consider the Jewish religion as the only divine preparation for Christianity, but regarded the Greek philosophy as also a preparation for Christ. Neander gives his views at length, and says that Clement was the founder of the true view of history. Tertullian declared the soul to be naturally Christian. The Sibylline books were quoted as good prophetic works along with the Jewish prophets. Socrates was called by the Fathers a Christian before Christ.

? 5. Comparative Theology will furnish a new Class of Evidences in Support of Christianity.

Such an examination, doing full justice to all other religions, acknowledging their partial truth and use, will not depreciate, but exalt the value of Christianity. It will furnish a new kind of evidence in its favor. But the usual form of argument may perhaps be changed.

Is Christianity a supernatural or a natural religion? Is it a religion attested to be from God by miracles? This has been the great question in evidences for the last century. The truth and divine origin of Christianity have been made to depend on its supernatural character, and to stand or fall with a certain view of miracles. And then, in order to maintain the reality of miracles, it became necessary to prove the infallibility of the record; and so we were taught that, to believe in Jesus Christ, we must first believe in the genuineness and authenticity of the whole New Testament. "All the theology of England," says Mr. Pattison, "was devoted to proving the Christian religion credible, in this manner." "The apostles," said Dr. Johnson, "were being tried one a week for the capital crime of forgery." This was the work of the school of Lardner, Paley, and Whately.

But the real question between Christians and unbelievers in Christianity is, not whether our religion is or is not supernatural; not whether Christ's miracles were or not violations of law; nor whether the New Testament, as it stands, is the work of inspired men. The main question, back of all these, is different, and not dependent on the views we may happen to take of the universality of law. It is this: Is Christianity, as taught by Jesus, intended by God to be the religion of the human race? Is it only one among natural religions? is it to be superseded in its turn by others, or is it the one religion which is to unite all mankind? "Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" This is the question which we ask of Jesus of Nazareth, and the answer to which makes the real problem of apologetic theology.

Now the defenders of Christianity have been so occupied with their special disputes about miracles, about naturalism and supernaturalism, and about the inspiration and infallibility of the apostles, that they have left uncultivated the wide field of inquiry belonging to Comparative Theology. But it belongs to this science to establish the truth of Christianity by showing that it possesses all the aptitudes which fit it to be the religion of the human race.

? 6. It will show that, while most of the Religions of the World are Ethnic, or the Religions of Races, Christianity is Catholic, or adapted to become the Religion of all Races.

The science of ethnology is a modern one, and is still in the process of formation. Some of its conclusions, however, may be considered as established. It has forever set aside Blumenbach's old classification of mankind into the Caucasian and four other varieties, and has given us, instead, a division of the largest part of mankind into Indo-European, Semitic, and Turanian families, leaving a considerable penumbra outside as yet unclassified.

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