THE IDEA OF GOD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19198, 14 June 1924, Page 4

THE IDEA OF GOD.

Bt Constant Reader.

A UELIGIOUS REVIVAL. I

Tho prosonco in tho dominion of the revivalist, known a.) Captain Gipsy Bat Smith, who is shortly to bo followed by a Japanese evangelist named IvTiiiimori. raises tho question as to what form the religion.') revival of tho future is likely to take, Tho feeling has been expressed that tho world’s problems will have to be solved and the world's troubles assuaged by a revival of religion; —in short, (here is a rail for a Christianity adequate to restoring order out of tho present chaos. But, ns tho discussions at the C.O.P.E.C. Conference clearly revealed, considerable difficulty is being experienced in reconciling the various conceptions of applied Liiristianity,—viz., what practical Christianity really is and what it actually teaches. Obviously any conception of Christianity is derived from tho idea of Cod which underlies tlmtooucoptipn. Consequently much attention is being directed to the evolution of tho idea of God and its relation to a progressive Christianity. Until comparatively recent years this theory of the evolution of the idea of God was one of the trump cards with which the Rationalists attacked the foundations of Christianity. It was elaborated by Grant Allan and buttressed by Sir .T. G. Frazer in the pages of "The Golden Bough.” Today the outstanding feature of the controversy is the way in which modern churchmen have taken their courage in both hands, and, while making concessions to their adversaries, which have provoked tho antagonism of the Fundamentalists, are boldly carrying tho war into tho enemy’s country. To this the following five volumes bear notable witness. I.—THE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA. Dr Edward Paco is a reader in Divinity in the Durham University and vicc-mastor of Hatfield College, London. Ho increfore combines the diligence of the student with tho aptitude of the teacher. In a book entitled “Ideas of God in Israel,” he attempts “to isolate for study that element in religion which is of primary importance—namely, belief in a God whose nature and character are known to his worshippers. This belief, as it takes form and shape in the minds of tho worshippers, is their idea of God.” Dr Pace, in a brief preface, outlines the scope and purpose of his book: In Israel, as indeed in all nations, there was not a single uniform type of belief, nor was there one and only one idea of God. As there is more than one cultural level in any given nation, so there is more than one religious level, though tho lines' of demarcation in the two spheres do not necessarily coincide. What is commonly called the religion of Israel is in fact the religion of a spiritual aristocracy which was often in sharp opposition to the majority of the people. It is maintained in what follows, that throughout tho history of Israel different types- of religious belief, resulting in different ideas of God, existed side by side within the nation. Attention is directed to the lower as well as to the higher types. Tho literature of Israel has been handed down to us by those who stood on the higher spiritual levels, but, nevertheless, it contains many traces of the beliefs and practices of those who did not attain to these levels. It is of much importance for a sincere and candid interpretation of the Old Testament and the rest of tho literature that these traces should be frankly recognised for what they are, and that we should not try by forced and unnatural methods to incorporate them into tho religion of the prophets and sages. If, on the contrary. we can distinguish and hold apart the higher and lower types of belief, and approach with sympathy tho hitter as well as the former, wo may learn from both not only something concerning the mind of man towards a more perfect understanding but also something concerning the God who reveals himself by divers portions and by divers manners, according as men are prepared to apprehend him. If wo try to follow this human development and divine self-revelation historically, we shall learn tho more. Dr Pace begins with the contention that it is more correct to speak of “ideas of God in Israel” than “tho idea of God.” Accordingly ho sets out to discern “a few broad types of doctrine and belief, under which may be classified the various conceptions of God appearing in the Old Testaj ment and the l-.ter literature of Judaism.” Starting at the point when Jesus was teaching in Galilee and with the ideas of God embodied in that teaching, their antecedents are traced back through the Apocryphal and Apocalyptic literature of the Jews and the documents of the Old Testament to the beginnings of the History of Israel. This method is diametrically opposed to that usually adopted by rationalistic reasoners, but, as Dr Pace points out, while having its difficulties and dangers it may have tho advantage that “wo shall be proceeding from the relatively clear to the more obscure, and shall be safeguarded to some extent from imposing our own arbitrary interpretation upon the facts that are dimly discerned in tho oldest sources of our knowledge.” Dr Paco produces evidence to show the survival in our own day of primitive ideas of God among tho people of Syria and Palestine. From this he infers the existence of similar ideas in the same region in the days of Jesus, There was a localisation of the Divine. The ignorant peasants, nominally believers in one God, actually, like their forefathers, worshipped divine beings at numerous sacred places. “ These people venerated sacred stones, trees, and waters as the abode or embodiment of divinities. They regarded such beings as magnified men, attributing to them both a physical, organism and tho moral qualities exhibited bv human rulers. They sought, to propitiate them by sacrifices and the ritual use of the blood of their victims. Their conceptions of the supreme God were vague and exercised little influence upon daily The primitive ideas of God in the popplar religion of 'lsrael are passed in review, these including the worship of animals and of ancestors, totemism and necromancy. Tho references to astral worship are glanced at, notably the statement that “the stars in’ their courses fought against Siscra” ; and consideration is given to tho institution of sacrifice in the religious life of Israel. The significance of Hebrew proper names as reflecting tho, primitive ideas of God is olso interestingly examined. Summarising the facts quoted and the inferences deduced. Dr Pace reaches some noteworthy conclusions. His vision comprehends the idea of God as conceived in the mind of the people, of Israel who were little, or not, at all. affected by tho higher teaching of tho prophets and law-givers. The idea was not monothnistic, rusher was ifc a flevolnned polytheism. “What we have clear evidence of is polydaemonism—that is. the recognition of numerous spirits, in nature, which were credited with superhuman powers, but had not. enquired a name and character which would entitle them to be colled in the strict, sense gods.” Animism lies behind polydaemonism and develops in the direction into Tolomlsm. The idea of God was certainly anthropomorphic, nud_ tho rite of sacrifice presupposes both animism and onthroporphism. Dr Paco adds; "We may imagine, then, tho religion of Ibn uninstructod peasant Israel at almost any period between Moses and Christ. He lives in a world full of spiritual powers, most of which he fears as potentially hurtful to himself and his social group. With some however, he has established friondlv relations, and he knows how to meet them at the neighbouring sanctuary, where a divine presence is manifested in sacred stone, or tree, or well. But, the peasant belongs not only to his local group. Ho ; s a member of sacred nation where God is Jahwo. To h'S banner be may be called, when wars alarm united the' nation in a common effort, ... His religion has its darker features on which wo have dwelt already; it sometimes elevated excess, it was sometimes cruel, ,'t was always narrow, and superstition tended to smother morality. In a second part of his book Dr Pirno ,roceeds to discuss at length, and with learning, the prophetic ideas of God and their development, and he follows this with

a third part dealing with ‘'Legalistic Ideas of God.” In a concluding chapter ho summarises his entire argument, which may bo outlined in a sentence or two:— There is no single lino of evolution or development in the doctrine of God in Israel in the long period between Moses and Christ, and there is more than ono type of interpretation of the idea of God. The evolution of the idea of God is tho progressive discovery of the truth about God’s nature and character by successive thinkers. In so far ns any religion contains truth, it is a revealed religion. And therefore we would not deny a real though fragmentary revelation of God in the primitive culture whoso traces we find in animistic notions in tho Old Testament. In Israel we discern a special revelation of God mediated through a succession of groat personalities beginning with Moses and culminating in Jesus Christ. Is this revelation unique? The answer is; Look to the culmination; and if there is to bo seen, as this study has sought to show, an organic connection between the idea of God in the teaching of Jesus, and the doctrines of the prophets, then it will not be denied that in days past God chose Israel out of all the nations to receive in a unique degree the knowledge of Himself. 11-INTERPRETATIONS OF THE IDEA. Dr Paco remarks that tho pioneers of religion in its animistic stage are as much lost in the mists of the past as the authors of folk-lore. These words make apt commentary upon Mr Lewis Johnson’s book on I ho Legends of Israel.” Twenty-five of the best-known Old Testament stories have been selected and are discussed from the point of view of historical and literary criticism. At the same time the message and moral embodied in these stories is made clear and applied to present-day conditions “Some of the stories,” says Mr Johnson, “are primitive myths; others are folk-tales of early heroes- cithers are fragment* of history more or less richly embroidered with fancy; others again are deliberate works of artistic fiction. But all have the common character of popular tales told down the ages and always to be told, because of certairf fundamental truths embedded in them.” Manifestly, the idea of God has evolved slowly out of the primitive into tho cultural. The same evolution may be observed in the literature which interprets the idea. Read in this light, the familiar Old Testament stories assume a fresh meaning and possess a new interest. _ This is exactly what Mr Johnson succeeds in doing with the allegory of the Lost Eden, the legend of tho Rainbow, the fiction of the Walls ot Jericho, the story of David and Goliath, mid many other familiar narratives. His treatment of Jonah and the Whale will sufficiently attest his standpoint and way of approach ; This delightful little book has had a most unfortunate career. The inventive ability of its author has concocted so startling an incident that popular attention has boon diverted from the ethical message of tho book to think only of Jonah’s uncomfortable lodging in the belly of the whale. And nonsensical notions of tho inspiration of Scripture have' led folk to swallow the whole tale as pure matter of fact —an exploit in voracity that beats the whale itself. But the author had no intention of stretching our mental gullets to that extent. However, the purpose and character cf the Book of Jonah are becoming clear to us again nowadays, as no doubt they were to its original readers, who enjoyed tho story of the whale just as we enjoy the story of Cinderella’s fairy coach. And because we can take it at its proper value, our minds are disengaged to dwell upon the moral message of the allegory: and its incomparable generosity and tenderness captivate our hearts and make us want to bind this quaint, glorious little book in vellum and gold. Its author had the heart of a Christian missionary. . . •. Mr Johnson makes allusion to another controversial point when he refers to “the unhappy insertion of the fortieth verse in Matthew’s twelfth chapter which compares Jonah’s sojourn in the belly of tho whale to tho Son of Man’s burial for ‘three days and nights in the heart of tho earth.’ ” In explanation, he says: “This verse is in all probability an annotation by some commentator who was a good bit of a fool, and it has by inadvertence got written into the text from the margin where it was first jotted down in some old manuscript. It is not likely to be part of what Matthew originally wrote; and it is best to put one’s pen through it and forget it.” In conclusion, Mr Johnson says:— We may still study tho Jewish Old Testament with vast profit, but only as the foundation of that New Testament which is the spiritual Magna Charta of the whole human race. And the New Testament stands or falls for ever by one only sign of divine authority—the sign of the prophet Jonah, in whose story the ultimate evangel of love was first uttered, and whose preaching was authenticated by tho repentance of Israel’s arch-enemy, the dreaded city of Nineveh. HI -MANIFESTATION OF THE IDEA. It the evolution bo conceded and fhe interpretation accepted, what shall be said of the present-day manifestation of the Idea of God in human form? The point is definitely raised by Mi Roman Holland in a book just translated into English under the title of “Mahatma Gandhi, tho Man who became Ono with the Universal Being.” M. Holland is well known as author of that masterpiece “Jean Chriatopho”—a novel which, written before the war, symbolised the ultimate reconciliation and fusion of the French and German nations by the medium of music, an art which M. Holland had studied and loved. When after the outbreak of hostilities, M. Holland retired to Switzerland and from “Above the Battle” preached a doctrine of neutrality, he was execrated by a section of his countrymen, even M. Anatole France joining in tho crusade. With the passing of the years M. Holland, by his undoubted talent, is regaining the public ear, and this essay in biography * is calculated to dissipate finally the remnants of popular prejudice. A foreword declares:— The literal translation of Mahotma, the name which tho people of India gave to Gandhi, is “the great Soul,” maha, great; atma, soul. The word goes back to the Upanishads, where it is used in sneaking of the Supreme Being, and through communion of Knowledge and Love, of those who become One with Him: '“He ts the One Luminous, Creator of AH, Mahiitmn. Always in the hearts of the people enshrined. Revealed through Love-, Intuition, and Thought. Whoever knows him, Immortal becomes. . . .” Tagore, on a visit to Ashram, Gandhi’s favourite retreat, quoted this stanza, referring to the Apostle. The two men who to-day sway most powerfully the natives of India are Gandhi and Tagore, and not the least interesting nart of M. Rolland’s biographical sketch is that in which he refers to tho differences of opinion between the two. “The controversy between Tagore and Gandhi, between two great minds, both moved by mutual admiration and esteem, hut as fatally separated in their feelings as a philosopher can he from an apostle, a St. Paul from a Plato, is important. For on the one side we have a spirit of religious faith and charity seeking to found a new humanity. On the. other we have intelligence, free-horn, serene, and broad, seeking to unite aspirations of all humanity in sympathy and understanding. Tagore always looked upon Ghandi as a saint, and I have often heard him speak of him with veneration. . . . Gandhi’s attitude to Tagore is one of loving regard, and it does not change even when the two disagree." The details of the disagreement make instructive reading; stated ■ briefly. Tagore stands for spiritual fervour and moral suasion as the instrument of India’s uplifting, and deplores Gandhi’s descent into the stormy sea of politics. India’s mission, according to Tagore, “is to awaken the dead to life by soul-fire.” “It is criminal,” he declared, “to transform moral force into force.” To which M. Holland adds:— This is what Tagore felt at tia spectacular launching of tho non-co-operation camrmign and at the unrest stirred up in tho ‘name of tho Kbilafat cause and the massacres of the Punjab. He feared the results of the campaign on an easily excitable mob subject (o attacks of hysterical fnrv. He would have liked to turn people’s minds away from vengeance and dreams of impossible redress; be would have had them forget the irreparable and devote all efforts to constructing and fashioning a new soul for India. And although ho admired Gandhi's doctrines and tho ardent fire of his spirit of self-sacrifice, he hated the element of

negation contained in non-co-operation. Tagore instinctively recoiled from everything that stood for “No.” Mr Holland writes sympathetically, but ho does not attempt to defend Gnndni. lie is content to picture tho real man and allow him to be an apologist. The result is a manifestation of the idea of God, which no one who entertains a belief in religion ns tho regenerator of the British Empire and of (ho world, can afford to ignore. It is a manifestation calculated to provoke thought and evoke heart-search-ing. According to Gandhi, India’s message to the world is self-sacrifice. “Our object,” Gandhi has said, “is friendship with the whole world. Non-violence has come to men and will remain. It, is tho annunciation of peace on earth.” On which Mr Holland comments in Conclusion : This is Gandhi’s message. The only thing lacking is the cross. Everyone knows that had ii ”ot been for tho Jews, Romo would not have given it to Christ. The British Empire is no better than ancient Romo. The impetus has been given. The soul of Oriental peoples has been moved in its deepest fibres, and its vibrations are felt the whole world over. Tho great religious apparitions of the Orient are ruled bv a, rhythm One thing is certain; Either Gandhi’s spirit will triumph, or it will manifest itself again, as wore manifested centuries before, the Messiah and the Buddha, till there finnllv is manifested, in a mortal half god, the perfect incarnation of the which will lead a now humanity on to a new path. TV.—CRITICISM 01 THE IDEA. Within the last 10 years Mr H. G. Wood has contributed a number of articles to the Contemporary Review and other serious journals which he has now collected in a volume entitled “Living Issues in Religious “Thought” with (he sub-title “From George Fox to Bertrand Russell.” Mr Wood explains that this sub-title is not chronologically exact, and is not intended (o suggest cither the starting point or the goal of a spiritual pilgrimage. “It is merely,” he writes, “a rough indication of the range of subjects dealt with in these essays. Any unity and any value these essays may possess are bound up with the hope that, they may contribute to a revival of Christianity in the true sense of those much-abused words.” Mr Wood occupies tho positions of Professor of New Testament Literature and Church History at, the Sellv Oak Colleges and Director of Studies at Woodbroke, and therefore to a largo extent he represents the Quaker position and attitude. On this account his papers on “Quakerism : An Historical Survey” and on “Personal Religion and Social Progress”—the latter a study of John Woolman—arc of special value in that they “indicate those inexhaustible truths in the Quaker position which the world especially needs to-day.” In the opening essay in his hook Mr Wood discusses the views of such writers as Miss Jane .Harrison and Messrs G. Lowes Dickinson and F. M. Cornford. of Cam bridge, and Professor Gilbert Murray, of Oxford. Of this group he says: “ihev are keenly alive to the conflicts between science and religion, and feel with Dr Frazer that the advance of anthropology is destined to demolish the already tottering fabric, of the Christian faith. Their intellectual attitude might be described as Neo-positivist in so far as they would exclude religion from the realm of knowledge. On the other hand, they are not content with bar© rationalism, and they seek in the Greek spirit some guidance for the tentative expression of religious aspiration. The view of religion set forth in the writings cf this school rests on two fundamental and allied convictions. Th© v hold that true religion will he essentia lbundogmatic; the- hold further that the true sphere of religon is the unknown. In otherr words, they deny that there is or should be any element of objective knowledge in religious faith.” To this Mr Wood retorts that “the greatest Christian thinkers have always been agnostic rather than dogmatic,” and “a God entirely unknown would ho incapable of inspiring worship and trust.” Mr Wood proceeds to examine in detail the views of Mr Bertrand Russell as expressed in “Mysticism and Logic.” and criticises the pessimism of Mr Russell’s “Tree Man’s Worship.” He analyses the attitude of Mr H. G. Wells towards Jesus Ohrist. as set forth in “God, the Invisible King,” and discusses Mr Bernard Shaw’s relation to religion as expounded jn the preface to “Androcles .and the Lion,” — all with a view to showing the strength and weakness of the arguments of these thinkers in their attempts to furnish a theo logy or a gospel for tho next revival of religion. All this leads up to _ what Mr Wood regards as the central point of his book—the essay on “The Next Revival of Religion,” originally contributed to the Friends' Quarterly Examiner. “The war it was truly said.” writes Mr Wood, “found us in great poverty towards God. The situation since tho war has but emphasised the need of a religious revival.” Mr Wood echoes tho feeling when he exclaims: “It is difficult to see how disaster is to he avoided in Europe without tho enthusiasm of a renewed faith.” He discerns flashes of revival in various directions, and even a measure of religious fervour in GorPmunism. which, however, is too destructive to inspire hope. “At the moment.” he adds, “the most vigorous revival movements seem to be of a strictly limited character. They are revivals in tho literal sense of the word—attempts to reanimate old ideas. There is. for example, in many quarters, a return to tho religions of authority. Fundamentalism is the attempt to revive religion bv galvanising into life the old dogma of tho inorrant and infallible Bible. Alongside of it we have the revival of millenarian hopes and speculations. Elsewhere wo find a reverend interest in spiritualism.” Mr Wood sees in all these quickening movements in the realm of religion only a pouring of new wine into old wine skins, and he looks elsewhere for the revival the world needs. On this point he waxes emphatic -. — No fervid reaffirmations of old shibboleths whether they be the threadbare dogmas cf Karl Marx or tho presuppositions either of Catholicism or of the older Evangelicalism can really meet the demands of the present situations. No return to old standards, and no mere continuation cf the work of great leaders like Moody and Sankev, will issue in the revival we need to-day. The world requires a revival of Christianity comparable to tho Reformation itself or to the Evangelical Revival taken as a whole. Mr Wood further asserts that “any religious movement which ignores cr defies tho thought of the modern world will - ‘ prove to he the revival we need.” He significantly adds: “Many people are praying for a revival as a bulwark against Bolshevism. Now. tho revival when it comes will certainly render Bolshevism negligible, but it will as certainly not be an mil i-Bolshevist movement. It will disarm Bolshevism because its leaders will have a deeper sense of social responsibilifv and a truer doctrine of society than the Bolshevists possess.” Mr Wood, describing the features of the next revival, ventures to say i'll will soring from a renewed understanding of the heart of Christianity—a. renewed loyalty tr> the central figure in Christianity, which v-f’ ---i-o clear the non-essential character of much th"t men assort to be essential still. The revival will bring men back to the Bible and to the Church, but it will shatter the legends of verbal inspiration and infallible authority. It will be spoken against by the Fundamentalists, because it will shake their sandy foundations and by the Ecclesiastics, because if- will rebuke that over-valuing of details of ritual and order which hinders Christian fellowship. But it v-ill so exalt Christ before tho nations th-t the” will see in Him tho wisdom of God cud forsake the wisdom of this world. The clay cannot be far off when the prophets of the next revival will be man- . V.—DEFENCE OF THE IDEA. Tho concluding volume of Dr Gore’s trilogy on “The Reconstruction of Belief" deals with “Tho Holy Spirit and tho Church.” In a preface Dr Gore repudiates tho charge made by critics against hi? previous volumes that “ns an orthodox professor of religion” ho is “reasoning in chains.” Fie. believes that tho main reason, intellectually speaking, why so many men have been led astray in their personal convictions on religious subjects is “because the Church has appeared to them not to bo encouraging free-thinking or criticism.” Dr Gore boldly avows himself a freethinker, ,and says: This volume, no less than that which preceded it, is a challenge to men to think freely. Wo are apt to “reason in fetters.” And. to-day tho fetters are quite as likely to be the fetters of what professes to be ‘criticism’ but is really a false philosophy which denies the transcendence of God and (very probably) the real freedom of man, as the fetters of an unreasoning orthodoxy. And when wo come down to the region of current ecclesiastical controversies, the fetters are likely to be those of tho spirit of our parly, which is ant to be singularly enslaving. But whatever the source of possible enslavements, the challenge of these books to men is to dare to think freely In this spirit Dr Gore attacks such ques-

lions as “Did Josus Christ Found tho Church?’’ “Christianity and tho Mystery Religions,” “The Authority of tho Church,” and “The Authority of Holy Scripture.” In a linal chapter on “Present Day Application” ho refers to the collapse within the last two generations, on a very large scale, of “the old religious tradition in all classes of our society”—a collapse largely duo to intellectual causes. “These intellectual and social movements have been accompanied with a wave of moral rebelliousness, fostered by tho war, which has been ‘up against’ tho Commandments as well as the Creed and the Bible. And the result of those disintegrating influences is apparent in a general condition of religious and moraj imsettloment and an almost chaotic individualism of belief or scepticism or blatant disbelief. Strongholds of, tradition remain, reiterating conservative formulas and warnings. But the area of confusion is very wide, and it is reflected and fostered in popular literature.” Dr Gore prescribes, as a remedy for this confusion, “the deliberate reconstruction of belief from its foundation, inspired by a fearless trust in real freedom of thought.” He despairs of anything like “a mass recovery of faith,” and expresses the opinion that tho process must he the reconstruction of belief in individuals —a process at which ins books aim. A final paragraph will excite no surprise in tlie minds of those who know Dr Gore s views:— I should lie untrue to convictions which I share with, I believe, only a few, if I did not say. finally, that whatever is to bo said in other ages and other situations for established churches, I believe the existence of an Anglican Bstablishmont to-day in our country is inconsistent with the actual state of beliefs in the nation, and a real disadvantage to religion on the whole. And I cherish tho belief, well grounded, I feel sure, that if wo were disestablished our internal cohesiveness would prove to be surprisingly groat.