Modern Religious Cults and Movements | Page 2

the border-land people--discover the authority for
their faith in philosophies which, for the most part, have not the
sanction of the schools and the demonstration of the reality of their
faith in personal experience for which there is very little proof except
their own testimony--and their testimony itself is often confused
enough.
But James made no attempt to relate his governing conceptions to

particular organizations and movements save in the most general way.
His fundamentals, the distinction he draws between the "once-born"
and the "twice-born," between the religion of healthy-mindedness and
the need of the sick soul, the psychological bases which he supplies for
conversation and the rarer religious experiences are immensely
illuminating, but all this is only the nebulæ out of which religions are
organized into systems; the systems still remain to be considered.
There has been of late a new interest in Mysticism, itself a border-land
word, strangely difficult of definition yet meaning generally the
persuasion that through certain spiritual disciplines--commonly called
the mystic way--we may come into a first-hand knowledge of God and
the spiritual order, in no sense dependent upon reason or sense
testimony. Some modern movements are akin to mysticism but they
cannot all be fairly included in any history of mysticism. Neither can
they be included in any history of Christianity; some of them
completely ignore the Christian religion; some of them press less
central aspects of it out of all proportion; one of them undertakes to
recast Christianity in its own moulds but certainly gives it a quality in
so dealing with it which cannot be supported by any critical
examination of the Gospels or considered as the logical development of
Christian dogma. Here are really new adventures in religion with new
gospels, new prophets and new creeds. They need to be twice
approached, once through an examination of those things which are
fundamental in religion itself, for they have behind them the power of
what one may call the religious urge, and they will ultimately stand as
they meet, with a measure of finality, those needs of the soul of which
religion has always been the expression, or fall as they fail to meet
them. But since some limitation or other in the types of Christianity
which are dominant amongst us has given them their opportunity they
must also be approached through some consideration of the Christianity
against which they have reacted. Unsatisfied needs of the inner life
have unlocked the doors through which they have made their abundant
entry. Since they also reflect, as religion always reflects,
contemporaneous movements in Philosophy, Science, Ethics and Social
Relationship, they cannot be understood without some consideration of
the forces under whose strong impact inherited faiths have, during the

last half century, been slowly breaking down, and in answer to whose
suggestions faith has been taking a new form.
A rewarding approach, then, to Modern Religious Cults and
Movements must necessarily move along a wide front, and a certain
amount of patience and faith is asked of the reader in the opening
chapters of this book: patience enough to follow through the discussion
of general principles, and faith enough to believe that such a discussion
will in the end contribute to the practical understanding of movements
with which we are all more or less familiar, and by which we are all
more or less affected.
G.G.A.
Detroit, Michigan.

Contents
I. FORMS AND BACKGROUNDS OF INHERITED
CHRISTIANITY 13
Certain Qualities Common to All Religions--Christianity Historically
Organized Around a Transcendent God and a Fallen Humanity--The
Incarnation; the Cross the Supreme Symbol of Western Theology--The
Catholic Belief in the Authority of an Inerrant Church--The Protestant
Church Made Faith the Key to Salvation--Protestantism and an
Infallibly Inspired Bible--The Strength and Weakness of This
Position--Evangelical Protestantism the Outcome--Individual
Experience of the Believer the Keystone of Evangelical
Protestantism--Readjustment of Both Catholic and Protestant Systems
Inevitable.
II. NEW FORCES AND OLD FAITHS 46
The Far-reaching Readjustments of Christian Faith in the Last Fifty
Years--The Reaction of Evolution Upon Religion--The Reaction of
Biblical Criticism Upon Faith--The Average Man Loses His

Bearings--The New Psychology--The Influence of Philosophy and the
Social Situation--An Age of Confusion--The Lure of the Short
Cut--Popular Education--The Churches Lose Authority--Efforts at
Reconstruction--An Age of Doubt and a Twilight-Zone in History--The
Hunger of the Soul and the Need for Faith--Modern Religious Cults
and Movements: Their Three Centers About Which They Have
Organized Themselves.
III. FAITH HEALING IN GENERAL 82
The Bases of Faith and Mental Healing--Cannon's Study of Emotional
Reactions--The Two Doors--The Challenge of Hypnotism--Changed
Attention Affects Physical States--The Power of Faith to Change
Mental Attitudes--Demon Possession--The Beginnings of Scientific
Medicine--The Attitude of the Early and Medieval Church--Saints and
Shrines--Magic, Charms, and the King's Touch: The Rise of the Faith
Healer.
IV. THE APPROACH TO CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND MARY
BAKER EDDY 108
Mesmerism--The Scientific