Showing papers in "The Journal of Religion in 1932"

Human MotivationThe Mind in Action: A Study of Motives and Values. A. Campbell Garnett

Abstract: In his Preface the author' says that he started out to review all the more important theories upon the topics ordinarily discussed under human motivation but soon found himself more and more limited to the presentation of his own point of view. This very well characterizes the book. It is a very personal product. It is an outline with some defense of the author's own thinking about instincts and appetites and sentiments and how they function in human behavior. And as the author draws so heavily upon James and McDougall, especially the latter, the book may well be looked upon as a sort of sequel to their efforts. There is a thought-provoking distinction presented between instinct and appetite. An instinct is said to be aroused always by something in the external situation; and, correspondingly, an appetite is said to be aroused by sensations from within the body itself. This places, of course, a heavy emphasis upon the cognitive factor in all instinctive behaviors; and the author prefers to use the cognitive factor, especially the knowledge of that end-experience which will satisfy, as a means of differentiating one instinct from another. In this there is a recognized difference from McDougall who placed more emphasis for differentiation upon the emotional accompaniment. The list of instincts arrived at by this procedure is much like that of McDougall, although the author is forced by his criteria to present the possibility of food-seeking and sex and sleep operating both in the manner of an appetite and also as an instinct. The Shand-McDougall concept of sentiment is taken over and used in the explanation of moral motivation. There is the development within each personality of a sentiment for some moral principle. But this sentiment is not a very powerful motivating factor. It is reinforced by social pressures and by religion, which is treated as an effort of finite man to live in harmony with the infinite reality. Those whose psychological thinking is largely in terms of McDougall will doubtless find this volume a very satisfying expansion; but those who are at all inclined to support their psychological thinking by reference to experimental studies will not be so well pleased. The James-Lange theory, for example, is discussed without mention of the many experimental studies which it has provoked. Theoretical sources appear in general to be preferred to experimental investigations.

A History of the Russian Church

Abstract: Bayle the Sceptic is called the father of modern rationalism. He is also the foremost defender of absolute toleration in his century. Closely related, it is difficult to tell which has logical priority, skepticism or tolerance. Surely, one might say that tolerance was learned by his disgust with the high-handedness of Louis XIV and the French church toward the Huguenots, particularly Bayle's own family in Sedan, while the exclusivism of Jurieu was equally distasteful to him. Thus grew the conviction that men of the most varying creeds could, if they would, live together, for the matters that separated them were at least socially inconsequential. On the other hand, his skepticism was more than a derivative from tolerance. His study of Manichaeism leads him to prefer its solution of the problem of the origin of evil to the Christian. The vices of the French church and the intolerance of Jurieu, et al., lead him to think that morality and religion are at best very loosely joined. Such reflections induce in him a respect for the thinkers of all ages, past and present. The atrophied seventeenth-century Calvinism which had all but expired under the reign of the swashbuckling Descartes could not but fail to appreciate that Bayle's rationalism was not unrelated to the thought of John Calvin. Bayle might have recalled them to the rock whence they were hewn, predicating appropriate qualifications. Calvin roots largely in the Italian Renaissance, and certainly makes no apologies when he invokes Valla in his reply to the Council of Trent. His consuming desire to establish the Genevan theocracy sublimated the disinterested scholar in

Reactions of Ex-Ministers toward the Ministry

Abstract: WITHIN recent years a number of articles, discussing the dearth of ministers and general conditions in the churches, have appeared. According to certain estimates there are io,ooo Protestant churches in the United States without pastors, and according to statements of some seminary presidents there is each year a more decided determination on the part of promising young men to shun the ministry. More recently a few ministers have published their reasons for resigning from the active pastorate. These, and contacts with a number of teachers who were formerly ministers, led me to attempt this inquiry into why men enter and leave the ministry. Letters were sent to sixty-five Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish theological schools, both white and colored, asking for the names and addresses of their former students who had left the active ministry; but only thirty-five replies were received. Although a self-addressed and stamped envelope was enclosed, not a reply was received from any Catholic seminary. Two of the Protestant seminaries proffered to sell their year-books or general catalogues, and four offered to engage a secretary to go through their files for the desired information provided I would bear the expense, but as no fund was available for making the study, these offers had to be rejected. A number of theological seminaries, especially in the South, apparently make no effort to keep any records of the activities of their former students, and have no idea of what happens to most of them after graduation. While a number of the seminary officials were heartily in favor of the investigation and have co-operated in every way possible, a few were evidently afraid that the study might reveal conditions which they thought should not be made

Religion on the Radio

Abstract: cure of souls\" rather than the prevention of the disease called sin the main interest of religion? Even though it is argued that the gospel of salvation by education is unsupported by substantial result, is not the American public school system an instance, and a chief instance, of \"love working through psychological technique\"? When it comes to the view of the Living Christ advanced in the second part, why is this divine Logos called \"Christ\" at all, since it must include, by the author's admission, the Living Buddha, and, by the same token, the Living Confucius, the Living Mohammed, and every other elevating personality and influence in the history of religion? Even if the historic Jesus is difficult to come upon, has the Synoptic Jesus little to contribute to the aspiring life of religion in our day? Is he unavailable, while the diffused and mystical Living Christ portrayed is immediately accessible? These are some of the questions which occur to one who reads this stimulating argument. What the assured results of psychology can contribute to their answer perhaps remains to be determined. HENRY B. ROBINS

Hebrew PoetryThe Prophetic Poetry of Isaiah. W. Popper

Abstract: relegated to footnotes. In regard to the so-called Passover papyrus from Elephantine, Olmstead repeats the fallacy now unfortunately perpetuated in Cowley's edition of baldly writing "passover" into the text, a presumption fully contradicted by Arnold in Journal of Biblical Literature, 1912, I ff. It has recently occurred to the writer that in any case the Jerusalem priesthood could not have ordered the passover sacrifice outside of their temple; the domestic passover celebration came in only after the destruction of the temple and is, of course, only a memorial feast. Hence no deductions can be drawn from the absence of reference to the passover in conjunction with regulations for the feast of unleaven. It is a pleasure to have a book like this, constructed on such broad lines and profound scholarship, to put in the hands of students and readers; and equally it will long remain a treasure-house of reference and his-

The Religious Bearings of a Secular Mind: George Herbert Mead

Abstract: GEORGE HERBERT MEAD built upon secular founG Tdations a mind and personality and philosophy so wholesomely virile as constantly to seem to exemplify and celebrate in daily living the finest human emotions. To religious men who are at the same time statesmen of the modern spirit he has therefore more to offer than a substantial reminder of what as thinkers and teachers they are up against. He has a formula of life prepotent to engender such emotions as he celebrated in theory and practice. Moreover, he has a doctrine to accompany his formula, a doctrine of altruistic potentiality not unlikely more intelligible to this generation than any yet presented in the name of religion., But before articulating his formula or indicating his doctrine, let me take up, conjecturally where I cannot do it more substantially, the slack between his religious childhood and his secular, unscarred maturity.

The Effect of the College Experience upon Students' Concepts of God

Abstract: HE religion of college students is a subject of perennial interest. Frequently the claim has been advanced that our colleges rob young people of their faith, and as frequently the college has been painted as a place of spiritual enlightenment and development, where significant consecrations occur, and where great spiritual movements are born. Many observations have been published as to the result of the college experience upon the religious life and belief of students, some of which have been keen, and quite true, no doubt, to situations portrayed. Few attempts have been made, however, to determine by methods of objective measurement the effect of the college experience on the religious belief of students. Until such methods are perfected we cannot be sure of the facts. The present study is an attempt to discover by objective method what happens to one important aspect of student religious thinking during college days. As the idea of God is conceived generally to be the central and pivotal concept of religion, the study has been directed specifically to discovering in what terms students conceive of God, and what changes are produced in their concepts as a result of four years in college. Limiting the study to one fundamental concept was done for the sake both of greater thoroughness with respect to it and the possibility of securing a much larger number of responses to a simple than to a complex study. Young people find it very difficult to articulate their beliefs in religion, so it was determined that the instrument of investigation must be so constructed that students would have only to identify their own opinions from a number of possible choices

The Relations of Religion and Science

Abstract: plus an indefinite pragmatism. Religion seems to be identified in large measure with the church, and to clinch the argument he asserts that \"the Christian church controls ninety-five per cent of the world's altruism.\" One is tempted to ask Professor Millikan for the experimental data back of so interesting and sweeping a generalization. The previous criticisms cannot by any means apply to all the contributors. Professor Einstein analyzes what he calls the three types of religion, and concludes that science does give us the possibility of a cosmic religion which will meet the needs of men. Professor Julian Huxley, though an avowed humanist, is by no means blind to the emotional problems involved in the passing of an older faith. He recognizes that men still need salvation: \"a sense of harmony and peace, a conviction of the value of existence, a feeling that their relation with the world at large is no longer confused and meaningless, but right and significant.\

A Temporalist View of God

Abstract: IN PRESENTING a temporalist view of God, I shall assume that there is a God and that he is a person, although much of what is said would apply equally well to any possible view of God. God is commonly thought of as the Eternal, and it is reasonable that he should be, for religion is concerned with the permanent and trustworthy aspects of the universe. Nevertheless, the religious idea of the Eternal is not that of an utterly timeless being. The Hebrew tiY and the Greek ailn'os indicate what is everlasting, without beginning or end, not what is timeless. The "Being" of Parmenides, the Platonic "Ideas," Aristotle's "Pure Form," the "One" of Plotinus, Spinoza's "substance," Kant's "Dinge an sich," Hegel's "Absolute" (taken in one of its aspects), the formulas of mathematics, logic, and even of physics-these are all timeless validities of some sort, based on abstractions from temporal experience; but in no case are they the God of religion, and in no case are they reality. The thesis of the present paper is that the God of religion, from everlasting to everlasting, is a temporal being. Indeed, it may be said that all reality, all experience, whether human or divine, is a temporally moving present. Nothing real is a nunc stans. Activity, change, duration, are the essence of the real. The real endures; the real changes; the real grows. God is the real, or at least the most significant part of the real. The first comment which this thesis is likely to elicit is the question: Is there then nothing eternal? In answer, it must be said that nothing real is timeless, in the sense of being out of all time, atemporal. Eternity is a function of time, not time of eternity. With Heraclitus we may assert that all things change

Concerning the Christian Idea of God

Abstract: IN THE present article I do not pretend to present the Christian idea of God in its entirety. I am trying to give no more than the framework within which this idea should be thought. The fact that I am concerned only with the Christian idea of God and not some general speculation, that is to say, the fact that the theme is essentially dogmatical, has led me to select the following topics for discussion: First, the reality of God with regard to the problem of the theory of knowledge; second, God and history; third, the paradoxical God in the doctrine of justification. The connection between these three parts and the progress from the first to the last one will be seen in the course of the treatment.

The Church and World Peace

Abstract: S THE Christian church opposed to war? Is it a force for peace? Many would immediately respond in the affirmative. Is not Jesus traditionally the "Prince of Peace"? Does not the ethic he preached include "Resist not," and the injunctions to turn the other cheek and to forgive even to seventy times seven? True, the injunctions of the Sermon on the Mount are capable of convenient interpretation to make way for common personal and business practices; but the very genius of Christianity, the brotherhood of God's children, it is generally assumed, is quite opposed to the unbrotherliness of war. Not alone in view of Christian principles would there be an affirmative answer. Did not 62 per cent of almost twenty thousand clergymen responding to a recent questionnaire declare their belief that the church should go on record as refusing to sanction or support any future war, while 54 per cent declared that in any case they themselves would refuse to participate? One's mind runs back over the numerous post-war declarations of religious conferences (of which one assiduous student has collected 239) in behalf of peace, of education for peace, of disarmament, of the League or a league of nations, of outlawry, of arbitration, of the Kellogg Pact, and the resolutions condemning war in such terms as "inglorious, ineffective, wasteful, and unchristian," "a colossal and ruinous sin." One thinks of the annual Armistice Day message of the Federal Council of Churches and of the thousands of sermons on the theme-It must not be again. The host of religious organizations working for peace comes to mind: The Church Peace Union, The World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches, The Women's Church Committee on International Good-Will, The Catholic Association for International Peace, The Committee on International Jus-

A Student of Theology at the End of the Sixteenth Century

Abstract: AN UNPUBLISHED manuscript in the Harper Library of the University of Chicago contains the biography of Johann Jacob Breitinger, anstites of the Reformed church in Ztirich.' From it we obtain some insight into a student's life at the end of the sixteenth century. We can see what attracted the students to different universities, what manner of life they led, and what zeal and devotion inspired their work. Such details illuminate a period about which we are ill-informed. In his admirable survey of German education Friedrich Paulsen says: "We are less in touch with the period from the middle of the sixteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century than with any other in the entire national history."2 According to C. G. J6cher, Breitinger was a Swiss theologian; he went in 1593 to the Academy of Herborn, in 1594 to Marburg, Bremen, Franecker in Friesland, in 1596 to Heidelberg and Basel; in 1597 he became pastor at Zumikhen (near ZUrich), in 16oo preceptor at the Gymnasium of Zirich, in 1605 professor at the Gymnasium, in 6o05 professor of logic in the Collegium humanitatis, in 1611 deacon of St. Peter in Ziirich. He was then offered the professio theologica, but he refused it. In 1613 he became pastor of the Great Minster and in 1618 he was sent to the synod of Dordrecht. He died on March 26,

The Knowableness of God

Abstract: Professor Jones' believes that there are enduring elements in the Christian faith that will empower it to meet the needs of our changing civilization. The way it is to be done is the problem. We have grown accustomed to such reassurances as this. The history of Christianity is a perpetuation of such faith. The fact that the Christian way of life has so frequently been adapted to changing culture in the past reinforces the confidence of

Christianity and Idealism

Abstract: OR many years the discussion of Christianity and idealism remained an entirely barren and uncertain controversy about concepts. Now gradually we are beginning to perceive that these two great phenomena of the occidental consciousness are not philosophical theories but are historical displays of spiritual energy, whose course in the evolution of European life has to be traced and recorded. Only thus can the way be prepared for a correct opinion regarding the significance of these two groups of ideas. But even then our interpretation can succeed only when historical and philosophical examination starts with their primal origins, which by no means coincide with the beginnings of our culture. The latter, in which the Nordic mind in later antiquity integrates itself into an original organism, falls in a period much later than Christianity, idealism, and their related ideas. For this reason the question concerning religion and culture should not be confused with the much more concrete historical and philosophical consideration of Christianity and idealism. Only in the fertile valley of historical experience can one cultivate the soil from which springs the knowledge of mysterious, vital, spiritual accomplishments. They can be comprehended as creative ideas, guides, and forces of growth; they effect in the Old World that change whose fifteen hundredth anniversary we reverently commemorate on the year of the death of the great

Oriental MysticismMysticism East and West. Rudolf Otto , Bertha L. Bracey , Richenda C. Payne

Abstract: Probably no other living person is so well equipped for writing a book on mysticism East and West as Dr. Rudolf Otto., His profound and extensive knowledge of the history of religions, his easy familiarity with philosophy and theology, his penetrating insight into the depths and subtleties of the religious consciousness, his extraordinary power of acute analysis, which were revealed so conspicuously in The Idea of the Holy, are no less in evidence in this book. The main theme is the striking resemblances between Sankara in the ninth century A.D. in India and Eckhart in the thirteenth century A.D. in Germany and their no less striking differences. The theme would seem at first thought to be remote from present interest and therefore to be the concern only of the historian, but the book is not merely historical. What the author is really intent on is probing the mysticism of Sankara and Eckhart with a view to discovering the significant elements in the mystical experience itself. He classes himself among the non-mystical, but his analysis of mysticism is so penetrating, his insight into the mystic's mind is so clairvoyant, that the reader feels compelled to believe that something more than historical knowledge and conceptual thinking has gone into the making of the book. The author does not overlook the current hostility to mysticism on the ground that \"it is submerged in pale abstractions, in the void and empty formulas of systematized nonentities .... a game with abstractions like finite and infinite, .... dissolution into the rare atmosphere of ghostly metaphorical forms .... . \"; but he contends that, though all the pronouncements of Sankara and Eckhart on Being and \"the modeless Godhead\" are indeed \"ontological\" expressions, they are at the same time in the highest degree expressions of value. They contain and declare a \"salvation\" for him who feels and suffers from the instability of Becoming. Without this valuation neither Sankara nor Eckhart would have written a line.

The Illusion of Religion

Abstract: THERE is a growing suspicion that religion may be a mirage. Man's journey is uncertain as to whence and whither. His resources are inadequate and his desires strain longingly after some hope of deliverance as he falters along. Lost in a desert universe, hope springs immortal in the human breast, sketching visions of paradise too good to be true. Thirsting for something to satisfy and finding it not, a ready imagination holds up inviting religious illusions, whose deception his eyes are too feeble to pierce. Man is incurably religious, perhaps because he insists on fooling himself. Such misgivings readily become vocal in psychological explanations. Religious experience, when psychoanalyzed, appears as one of the fantasies whereby the patient subjectively disposes of uncomfortable realities. Man is religious because it is an easy way out of bad situations. It is natural to avoid difficulties. Living, under human conditions, is crowded with difficulties which most of us try to escape by one turn or another. Some use intoxicants, others employ narcotics to take the dull depression or the stinging edge off of experience. Some escape by daydreaming or dwelling in play worlds of make-believe, by reading adventure stories, and assuming r6les of fictional heroes. Some take to boasting and expansive moods, or to indignant anger in cases of affronted dignity. Some fall into hysteria and chronic psychic disturbances, while all of us deal in skilful rationalizations to dress up our motives. Religion is diagnosed as one of these escape devices widely used to retreat from painful situations.

Job Answers God: Being the Religious Perplexities of an Obscure Pharisee

Abstract: LOST in the d6bris of literature-that pathetic agglomeration of broken ideas, shards of books, unprinted manuI scripts, unedited texts, and tomes moldering in the dust of research libraries-lie all of those products of the human intellect on which the judgment of posterity has issued adverse decision. Despite all mystic faith to the contrary, the generations that follow the appearance of a literary work are no more trustworthy judges of its value than those contemporary with it. And yet, as with men, so with books, a rough, though delayed, justice may eventually be dispensed. Buried and half forgotten under deposits of literary rubble, a book waits for a review of judgment-appealing from the verdict of two millennia of posterity. An evil fate has pursued the slender volume known as the \"Ezra Apocalypse.\" Corruptions of text, alien additions, unsympathetic translations-all alike have conspired to muffle its agonized voice of protest against the iniquities of the universe. And yet, to the initiate, to a small esoteric circle, this frail booklet has been a prime achievement of the moral and literary life of man, burning with restless indignation, rebellious of prevailing modes of thought, and expressive of eternal determinations of man's heart. Taking up the thread of discourse at the point at which Job sinks into unsatis-