Part 13 (1/2)
The decisive thing in the comparison is said to be not the change of form nor the a.s.surance that the revealing spirit would always be with the prophet, ”but that he revealed himself, to the heathen as the Shepherd of men (_Menschenhirten_), to the Christian as the Shepherd of this man.”[254] The comparison leads Reitzenstein to the twofold conclusion that the ”Shepherd” of Hermas has taken over awkwardly a type foreign to Christian revelation literature, and that ”the Christian borrowed that description of the shepherd from an originally fuller text.”[255]
254: ”Poimandres,” p. 12.
255: _Ibid._, pp. 13, 32.
The argument for borrowing is obviously weakened by the admission that Hermas did not borrow from the extant ”Poimandres” but from an a.s.sumed earlier form of the text; and, further, it is by no means clear why the figure of the shepherd, familiar in the Old Testament and in the Gospel parables, should be a foreign type in Christian literature. Nor is the case materially strengthened by the argument that a later mention of a mountain in Arcadia, in the ”Shepherd,” implies an acquaintance with the ”Poimandres” where no mention of Arcadia, but simply of descent from a mountain, is made. It is admitted that the leading up upon a mountain is a current form of Christian literature, but it is said that ”the exact choice of Arcadia is more than surprising, since the author lived in Rome, and besides saw his visions at Rome or c.u.mae.”[256]
256: ”Poimandres,” p. 33.
It seems unnecessary to guess with Zahn that ”Arikia” should be read instead of ”Arkadia,” or to a.s.sume that Hermas was a native of Arcadia, or had a book of travels in his hands, or that he was thinking of Hermes or the Hermetic writings. The literary tradition connecting Arcadia with shepherds and with pastoral poetry was in itself enough, as Vergil's ”Eclogues” may suggest. It is admitted that Hermas was a literary man even if ”a man of the people,” and what more natural place for a shepherd to appear, if it was to be upon a mountain, than a mountain in Arcadia? Shepherds have suggested Arcadia from the time of Vergil to that of Sir Philip Sydney, and Vergil, in breaking away from the Sicily of Theocritus, was quite probably following a tradition already established at Rome.
An historian of Roman religion, W. Warde Fowler, says of Christianity as preached by Paul that ”the plant, though grown in a soil which had borne other crops, was wholly new in structure and vital principle. I say this deliberately, after spending so many years on the study of the religion of the Romans, and making myself acquainted in some measure with the religions of other peoples. The love of Christ is the entirely new power that has come into the world; not merely as a new type of morality, but as 'a Divine influence transfiguring human nature in a universal love.'
The pa.s.sion of St. Paul's appeal lies in the consecration of every detail of it by reference to the life and death of the Master.”[257]
257: ”The Religious Experience of the Roman People,” 1911, pp. 466, 467.
The gospel which conquered the Roman Empire was no syncretic product growing from Graeco-Roman soil, no _melange_ of oriental religions and Greek philosophy, no cunningly devised fable or myth for the myth-loving Greeks. No explanation of the character of Pauline Christianity, or of its victory over its rivals in the ancient world, can ignore the statements of Paul himself: ”When the fulness of time was come, G.o.d sent forth his Son; he revealed his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles” (Gal. iv. 4; i. 16).
II. CHRISTIANITY AND MODERN RELIGIONS
The relation of Christianity to modern religions is a matter of practical rather than theoretical interest. After the brilliant victories of the early missionary age, the activity of the church in spreading the gospel among the non-Christian peoples was for many centuries remitted, and it is only practically within the last one hundred years that the Christian Faith has been brought into actual contact, through the work of its missionaries, with the non-Christian religions.
Through its missionary propaganda Christianity has shown its genuineness and its devotion to the commands of its Founder; and so far as it has proved its ability to meet the religious needs and quicken the religious and intellectual life of diverse nationalities, it has supplied a practical demonstration of its divine origin and authority. The missionaries have supplied the church with a pattern of apostolic zeal, and have kept burning the fire of a pa.s.sionate love and devotion for their Master. A British statesman has said that the unselfish imperialism of its missionary propaganda has been the crowning glory of the Anglo-Saxon race.
While the unceasing struggle of Christianity against worldliness, greed, indifference and unbelief still continues, it may be said that Christianity has to-day no rival as a claimant to be the universal religion. It alone can stand the white light of modern science, and it alone can stand the test of those moral ideals which have been largely created by itself. It is absolutely certain that none of the present ethnic religions can compete with Christianity in its contest for world supremacy.
The great danger to Christianity to-day, from the side of other religions, is not that of persecution or the hostility of the state. The danger lies in the temptation to compromise. Let Christianity, it is said, lay aside its a.s.sumption of divine and exclusive authority and of infinite superiority to all other religions, and let it make in its ethics some concessions to the weakness of human nature, and the path to world-conquest will be open.
Never was the temptation to compromise, with Judaism on the one hand and heathenism on the other, stronger than it was in the early ages of the Christian Church. If Christianity had compromised in the time of Jesus and Paul, persecution would have ceased and the scandal of the cross would have been removed. If early Christianity had compromised with heathenism, and had not waged unrelenting warfare upon idolatry, it could have escaped the united hostility of the state and of the other religions and philosophies; on the other hand, if Christianity had come to terms with Judaism or Paganism, while it might perhaps be known historically as an obscure Jewish sect, or as a ripple upon the wave of oriental religious influence upon the Graeco-Roman world, it would never have been the mighty spiritual power that it has been in human society.
It is a mistake to-day to think that for Christianity the way of conquest is the way of compromise, and that Christianity can become a world religion, superseding all others, by laying aside its distinctive features and its exalted and exclusive claims. It would, indeed, be a mistake to import our doctrinal systems in all their controversial details into the heathen world, and the mystical oriental mind may easily clothe Christianity, itself an oriental religion, in new and more beautiful forms; but it would be, if possible, a greater mistake to attempt to subst.i.tute ethics or natural religion for doctrinal Christianity.
The rock of Islam will not yield to the preaching of a merely human and prophetic Jesus; nor will the preaching of the Fatherhood of G.o.d and the Brotherhood of man--the same message which the Swamis and Babists, with a more pantheistic content to their message, preach in England and America--be effective to overthrow the h.o.a.ry superst.i.tions of India and the caste system with its hold upon every fibre of human nature.
A prominent educator and leader of thought has recently complained that Christianity as usually preached in foreign lands is unsuitable to the oriental mind. On the other hand, he chides the members of his own religious communion because they, ”with magnificent ideals, with glorious concepts, with the truth of Christ in all its purity and simplicity, sit in smug content offering the world of missions, in the hour of its hunger, only the dry bones of criticism of those who already serve.”[258] But every practical movement, enlisting great ma.s.ses of men and demanding tremendous sacrifice for its accomplishment, must have a rational basis. A humanitarian impulse is not sufficient to carry through to a conclusion so vast and world-embracing a plan as is contemplated by Christian Missions. The impulse however strong and n.o.ble will evaporate, unless based upon and fed by a theory of what the Christian religion is, of what it offers to men, of man's need of it, and of the obligation of Christians to carry it to the non-Christian nations. The history of missions has shown that no mere feeling of benevolence or desire to better social and economic conditions, but the command of Christ, love for Christ and grat.i.tude to Christ has led the army of missionaries to endure separation, hards.h.i.+p, persecution and death.
258: Dr. Charles W. Eliot as reported in the press.
Lowell has said that every new edition of an Elizabethan dramatist ”is but the putting of another witness into the box to prove the inaccessibility of Shakespeare's standpoint as poet and artist.” Every comparison of Christianity with other religions, ancient and modern, brings its own superiority into stronger relief. In Jesus Christ and in Him alone have been fulfilled the great religious ideas of the race. In Him as prophet G.o.d's word is perfectly spoken, and He is the example who leads in the way of His own precepts. In Him are fulfilled the ideas of sacrifice and priesthood; He is the great High Priest, separate from sinners in His holiness, but near them in His compa.s.sion and mercy. He has put away sin and put away sacrifice by the offering of Himself once for all, and has destroyed the whole sacrificial system of Jews and Gentiles. He is the fulfillment of the idea of incarnation, of G.o.d coming to man and of the Most High visiting the children of men, for their rescue from all danger and the supply of all their needs.
In other religious and philosophical systems there have been golden maxims for the conduct of life, wonderful insights into truth and visions of beauty, and evidences of the reaching out of the human soul after G.o.d; but Christianity is the only religion of which the enlightened reason and conscience of the world can say that it is from heaven and not from men. In no other religion has there been a long period of centuries of preparation in the religious education of a people to be the recipients and the messengers, in the fullness of time, of the final revelation. In no other religion is there found a teaching so profound, and yet so simple and self-evidencing, upon the great themes of human interest, G.o.d, Immortality and Duty. From no other has gone forth an influence so beneficent and transforming in human history. In no other has there been a Calvary and an Easter Day, the great historic facts upon which the hopes of the world rest, and in no other has the undiscovered country been transformed into ”the Father's house.”
VI
The Christian Faith and Biblical Criticism
We are living at a time when territory formerly deemed sacred is being traversed by hosts of forbidding aspect under the banners of natural science, of philosophy, and of the psychology and history of religion.