Theological Essays and Other Papers, vol 1 | Page 2

our earth is in no true
centre, the disorder of parallax shall trouble the laws of light; and,
because we ourselves are wandering, the heavens shall seem fickle.
Exactly in the predicament of such a planet is Christianity: its motions
are intermingled with other motions; crossed and thwarted, eclipsed
and disguised, by counter-motions in man himself, and by disturbances
that man cannot overrule. Upon lines that are direct, upon curves that
are circuitous, Christianity is advancing for ever; but from our
imperfect vision, or from our imperfect opportunities for applying even
such a vision, we cannot trace it continuously. We lose it, we regain it;
we see it doubtfully, we see it interruptedly; we see it in collision, we
see it in combination; in collision with darkness that confounds, in
combination with cross lights that perplex. And this in part is
irremediable; so that no finite intellect will ever retrace the total curve
upon which Christianity has moved, any more than eyes that are
incarnate will ever see God.
But part of this difficulty in unweaving the maze, has its source in a
misconception of the original machinery by which Christianity moved,
and of the initial principle which constituted its differential power. In
books, at least, I have observed one capital blunder upon the relations
which Christianity bears to Paganism: and out of that one mistake,
grows a liability to others, upon the possible relations of Christianity to
the total drama of this world. I will endeavor to explain my views. And
the reader, who takes any interest in the subject, will not need to fear
that the explanation should prove tedious; for the mere want of space,
will put me under a coercion to move rapidly over the ground; I cannot
be diffuse; and, as regards quality, he will find in this paper little of
what is scattered over the surface of books.
I begin with this question:--What do people mean in a Christian land by
the word _'religion?'_ My purpose is not to propound any metaphysical
problem; I wish only, in the plainest possible sense, to ask, and to have
an answer, upon this one point--how much is understood by that
obscure term,* _'religion,'_ when used by a Christian? Only I am

punctilious upon one demand, viz., that the answer shall be
comprehensive. We are apt in such cases to answer elliptically,
omitting, because silently presuming as understood between us,
whatever seems obvious. To prevent that, we will suppose the question
to be proposed by an emissary from some remote planet,--who,
knowing as yet absolutely nothing of us and our intellectual differences,
must insist (as I insist) upon absolute precision, so that nothing
essential shall be wanting, and nothing shall be redundant.
*[Footnote: '_That obscure term;_'--i. e. not obscure as regards the use
of the term, or its present value, but as regards its original genesis, or
what in civil law is called the deductio. Under what angle, under what
aspect, or relation, to the field which it concerns did the term religion
originally come forward? The general field, overlooked by religion, is
the ground which lies between the spirit of man and the supernatural
world. At present, under the humblest conception of religion, the
human spirit is supposed to be interested in such a field by the
conscience and the nobler affections, But I suspect that originally these
great faculties were absolutely excluded from the point of view.
Probably the relation between spiritual terrors and man's power of
propitiation, was the problem to which the word religion formed the
answer. Religion meant apparently, in the infancies of the various
idolatries, that latreia, or service of sycophantic fear, by which, as the
most approved method of approach, man was able to conciliate the
favor, or to buy off the malice of supernatural powers. In all Pagan
nations, it is probable that religion would, an the whole, be a degrading
influence; although I see, even for such nations, two cases, at the least,
where the uses of a religion would be indispensable; viz. for the
sanction of oaths, and as a channel for gratitude not pointing to a
human object. If so, the answer is easy: religion was degrading: but
heavier degradations would have arisen from irreligion. The noblest of
all idolatrous peoples, viz. the Romans, have left deeply scored in their
very use of their word religlo, their testimony to the degradation
wrought by any religion that Paganism could yield. Rarely indeed is
this word employed, by a Latin author, in speaking of an individual,
without more or less of sneer. Reading that word, in a Latin book, we
all try it and ring it, as a petty shopkeeper rings a half-crown, before we
venture to receive it as offered in good faith and loyalty. Even the

Greeks are nearly