Ten Great Religions | Page 3

or attempt. It is an attempt to compare the great religions of
the world with each other. When completed, this comparison ought to
show what each is, what it contains, wherein it resembles the others,
wherein it differs from the others; its origin and development, its place
in universal history; its positive and negative qualities, its truths and
errors, and its influence, past, present, or future, on the welfare of
mankind. For everything becomes more clear by comparison We can
never understand the nature of a phenomenon when we contemplate it
by itself, as well as when we look at it in its relations to other
phenomena of the same kind. The qualities of each become more clear
in contrast with those of the others. By comparing together, therefore,

the religions of mankind, to see wherein they agree and wherein they
differ, we are able to perceive with greater accuracy what each is. The
first problem in Comparative Theology is therefore analytical, being to
distinguish each religion from the rest. We compare them to see
wherein they agree and wherein they differ. But the next problem in
Comparative Theology is synthetical, and considers the adaptation of
each system to every other, to determine its place, use, and value, in
reference to universal or absolute religion. It must, therefore, examine
the different religions to find wherein each is complete or defective,
true or false; how each may supply the defects of the other or prepare
the way for a better; how each religion acts on the race which receives
it, is adapted to that race, and to the region of the earth which it inhabits.
In this department, therefore, it connects itself with Comparative
Geography, with universal history, and with ethics. Finally, this
department of Comparative Theology shows the relation of each partial
religion to human civilization, and observes how each religion of the
world is a step in the progress of humanity. It shows that both the
positive and negative side of a religion make it a preparation for a
higher religion, and that the universal religion must root itself in the
decaying soil of partial religions. And in this sense Comparative
Theology becomes the science of missions.
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.[1] 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 Müller, Bunsen, Burnouf,
Döllinger, Hardwicke, St. Hilaire, Düncker, F. C. Baur, Rénan, Creuzer,
Maurice, G. W. Cox, and others.
In America, except Mr. Alger's admirable monograph on the "Doctrine
of the Future Life," we have scarcely