It has been my endeavour to eliminate doctrinal considerations as far as possible, and to lay stress on what is inherent in the Christian religion. As a study in the Philosophy of Religion,-which "seeks to ascertain how much of the content of religion may be discovered, proved, or at least confirmed, agreeably to reason," ,”—the book aims at being constructive and not controversial. No pretence is made to trench upon disputed points of creed. I am indebted to many sources of information, and I have tried to indicate my main obligations in the notes. It need scarcely be said that without the venerable Zeller's monumental work this study could not have been undertaken. I should like to add that, in their various departments, the books of Drs Jowett, James Drummond, Kuenen, Wellhausen, and Keim, have been of the utmost assistance. But these writers are in no way to be held responsible for the errors into which I may have fallen. It may be of interest to state that direction was first given to this review by the preparation of an essay to which the Rae-Wilson Medal at Glasgow University was awarded in 1883. But no part of that dissertation has been reproduced here. QUEEN MARGARET COLLEGE, GLASGOW, May 1889. R. M. W. SOCRATES AND CHRIST. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY-SOCRATES AND CHRIST. SINCE the time of Bossuet's 'Histoire Universelle,' as Burnouf points out,1 many have supposed the various forms of religion to be but corruptions of an original revelation. The Platonic doctrine of reminiscence was resuscitated after a fashion, and employed to explain the apparently inexplicable. If the Greek philosopher thought that man's sublimer moments were simply faint memories of a former pure state, the earlier modern investigators of the "science of religion" believed, similarly, that faith and worship were adaptations of a "primordial revelation." On this theory it would not be difficult to form a comparative estimate of any given religious system. For, if at the outset of the inquiry a deus ex machina be assumed, it is easy to deal with even the most formidable problems. But, unfortun1 Cf. La Science des Religions, p. 81. A ately, the opinion of Bossuet and those who think with him is no longer tenable. Religion is progressing towards a pure manifestation rather than looking back with more or less distorted vision. Had a specific revelation been planted on this earth at the first, and left to take its chance, so to speak, then of the "Three Reverences "1 the first alone would have been possible. The fear of the Lord is only the beginning of wisdom, and reverence for what is above us is only the beginning of religion. "The Second Religion," as Goethe has it, "founds itself on reverence for what is around us. . . . The Third Religion is grounded on reverence for what is beneath us. . . And this being now attained, the human species cannot retrograde." For, "out of those three Reverences springs the highest reverence, reverence for one's self, and those again unfold themselves from this; so that man attains the highest elevation of which he is capable, that of being justified in reckoning himself the best that God and Nature have produced: nay, of being able to continue on this lofty eminence, without being again by selfconceit and presumption drawn down from it into the vulgar level." In other words, each one has his own place in the spiritual order of the world, and his work cannot be done for him by any other person. His value is absolute because he is unique. If this doctrine be true universally, its significance in special cases is supreme. Those who have given shape to the ideals of entire nations and ages achieve a fuller immortality. Sacredness diffuses itself over all who have toiled amidst difficulty, or suffered for con1 Cf. Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre, chaps. x., xi. 2 The translation is Carlyle's. |