ATTITUDE IN RELIGION.*
ATTITUDE counts for much in religion, and many elements enter into it—temperament, association, environment. Per- haps, when the New Psychology comes to its own, we shall require our religious teachers to be psycho-analysed before we listen to them. Meanwhile we must do our best with less disputed methods, analysing the teaching if we cannot analyse the teacher, and "believing not every word."
The publishers of The Twilight of the Gods' inform us that "this fascinating work has been written with a careful avoid- ance of dogmatism." Well, " fascinating " is matter of opinion ; "avoidance of dogmatism" of fact. Mr. McCabe is an anti-dogmatic dogmatist. He represents, in an extreme form, that reaction against the Churches—for which, it must be admitted, the Churches are themselves largely responsible— which is more common in the Latin countries than in England ; and even there was more common fifty years ago than it is now. Personal reasons may account for this : only those who 'have suffered under religious tyranny know how galling it can be. But the sense of wrong need not degenerate into bitterness ; nor should a rival fanaticism replace that which has been discarded. Mr. McCabe has a poor opinion of philo- sophers: "How little they know of human nature I " If this is a " note " of philosophers, Saul also is among the pro- phets. For a little knowledge of human nature would have shown him the extent to which the beliefs of the pre-critical age have fallen out of the current teaching of the Churches— people do not now think in this way ; it would also have made him slow to confine the intellectual and moral virtues to free- thinkers, and to attribute the decline of church-going to the rejection of religion. Has he never known people who do what they believe to be wrong ? The Church of Rome forbids duelling, drunkenness and unchastity no less severely than it forbids missing Mass. But are there no Catholics who miss Mass, or who are duellists, drunkards or adulterers ? There are, and have been, many : deteriara sequor. While to assume that those who accept Christianity occupy the lowest moral and intellectual levels, and those who reject it the highest, is to load the dice. Much that Mr. McCabe says is to the point ; but he says it with an amazing one-sidedness and want of urbanity. His attitude is calculated to dis- commend Rationalism, which, as he presents it, will seem to many, perhaps to most of us, an impossibly cold and inhuman creed. And hi; facts" need testing. To say that
there was no Stoic, and is no Buddhist, religion is paradoxical ; and to quote the late Lo-u Brampton as an Agnostic is IBIS- ending. He was probably more eminent as a judge than as a theologian ; but, as a fact, he died a Roman Catholic, and
had been one for some years before his death.
A philosopher, being asked what religion he was of, replied, "Of that of all wise men " ; but, when questioned further as to what this religion was, "That," he answered, "wise
men never tell." Mr. Wates 2 has been more outspoken. Perhaps unadvisedly. It is possible that some wise men are Df his religion ; it is certain that many are not, so that the definition is what the old logicians call indistinctive, i.e., it
does not define. The attitude of the book is anti-ecclesiastical.
"A creed manufactured by princes and ecclesiastics before Galileo is an anachronism " ; the "low ethical standard of the Churches" is emphasized ; "crutches of comfort" are to be rejected—in spite of Harnack's reminder that "strength and crutches come from the same hand." We have heard this sort of thing before ; and it amounts to very little. A Church has been described as "a necessary evil " ; but stress must be laid on both words.
• (1) The Twilight of the Gode. By Joseph McCabe. London: Watts and Co. [4a. ed.]—(2) The Religion of Wise Men. By 0. F. Wates. London: George Allen and UnwIn. I4a. 6d4—(3) Jesus Christ and the World To-Day. By Grace Hutchins and Anna Rochester. London: George Allen and Unwin. [Se.)- 4) Beauty and Religion, By A, Maude Boyden, London : 0. P. Putnam, [Ss, 05,] Jesus Christ and the World To-days is a book which may be found suggestive by study circles. At the end of each chapter social and economic questions are proposed for discussion— such as "Can a Christian consistently live on income from investments ? " "Should wage-earners have access to the company books ? " "List the principles common to Judaea in the first century and the United States in the twentieth." The attitude is that of a not very inspiring common sense ; one is reminded of Renan's description of Channing as "le representant le plus complet de cette tentative tout arnericaine de religion sans mysteres, de rationalisme sans critique, de culture intelleetuelle sans haute poesie, qui semble l'ideal auquel aspire la religion des Etats-Unis."
Miss Royden's Beauty in Religion a transports us to a higher level and into a larger air. The book has the note of inspira- tion. "The assurance of God comes to most of us through beauty " ; yet nothing is so generally neglected, or so often sought amiss.
"You do not get a great religious experience out of bad art, out of cheap, dishonest, sentimental music, out of shoddy emotions. No I you have to use your brains for all they are worth ; and when you have gone to the utmost limit of your capacity, there flashes upon your mind something that transcends reason, but includes it, something which is . . the whole sum of our being, for that is the. spiritual faculty."
This is the point of view from which these strikingly living sermons regard poetry and religion, the gospels and the personal teaching of Christ. That on Religion and Laughter ends with a reflection which should be helpful to the critic of the religious world, i.e., that we should realize that "God is able to see at least as well as we are what is absurd." If this is so, there can be no lack of material for celestial mirth!
ALFRED FAWKES.
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