James Freeman Clarke
Ten Great Religions
An Essay in Comparative Theology
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664130389
Table of Contents
Index of the Principal Authors Consulted in the Preparation of this Work.
Index of Subjects Treated in this Work.
Chapter I.
Introduction.—Ethnic and Catholic Religions.
§ 1. Object of the present Work.
§ 2. Comparative Theology; its Nature, Value, and present Position.
§ 3. Ethnic Religions. Injustice often done to them by Christian Apologists.
§ 4. How Ethnic Religions were regarded by Christ and his Apostles.
§ 5. Comparative Theology will furnish a new Class of Evidences in Support of Christianity.
§ 6. It will show that, while most of the Religions of the World are Ethnic, or the Religions of Races, Christianity is Catholic, or adapted to become the Religion of all Races.
§ 7. It will show that Ethnic Religions are Partial, Christianity Universal.
§ 8. It will show that Ethnic Religions are arrested, but that Christianity is steadily progressive.
§ 1. Object of the present Work.
The present work is what the Germans call a Versuch, and the English an Essay, 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.