eratate at ata Mes PREC LE eee eta! :. < Carey ewes vs Wary rs eee atet - eo 3 >. Me A Seaohy ates pores Soot a4 ee : if a toa a dancin! aisrentet bss! eearis ae rete aes eee ret Y ox LARD ete aN Bak) iit Le REE eae we wrer heat ay > ; . - . tats ¢ - ‘ - : e925 : se oar ee 3 2 ; See Peibgy 23 E35 iis ; 4 zh vith, pees etrtthe sit eh B u } + i je}es ; ; Shes Peas f mis erte5? 32 ; Saeseiy 74 op a ; ae ; hates : reds aga st ee ; z jG am 3 : + cA ‘ert Ps ZA i tt erat $i = ie 3 iis oot apts titers pT se So eo shih cos iis : ; os tiRe oe ; 5e4"d" aS protect ess at ; : a perjtitls herent lt Pe teltit ith te eet i v ‘ 1eeP si WORT ay { Ww ky atu Biblical and Oriental Series SAMUEL A. B. MERCER, General Editor THE LIVING RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD "Biblical and Oriental Series SAMUEL A. B. MERCER, General Editor The object of this Series on the Bible and Oriental Civilization is to make the results of expert investi- gation accessible to laymen. Sometimes these results will be presented in the form of daily readings, and sometimes in that of continuous discussion. Specialists in every case will be employed, who will endeavor to present their subjects in the most effective and profit- able way. Tue Livinc RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD By John A. Maynard THE Book or GENESIS FOR BIBLE CLASSES AND PRI- VATE STUDY By Samuel A. B. Mercer THE GrowTH oF RELicious AND Mora. IDEAS IN E.cyPT By Samuel A. B. Mercer RELicious AND Mora. IpEas in BasyLonia AND As- SYRIA By Samuel A. B. Mercer LirE AND GROWTH OF ISRAEL By Samuel A. B. Mercer TUTANKHAMEN AND EcypToLocy By Samuel A. B. Mercer A Survey oF HEBREW EDUCATION By John A. Maynard THe BirtH oF JUDAISM By John A. Maynard (in preparation). MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING COMPANY ~~ deol nk nen t 4 1 asin i * a hype fied ha no aS aye wi Ming Ge its Lae id n/ IGTONS CE PUA L St By JOHN A..“MAYNARD, M.A., Ph.D., Pd.D., D.D Associate Professor of Semitic Languages and of the History of Religion in Bryn Mawr College. Fellow of the Society of Oriental Research. Member of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CO. MILWAUKEE, WIS. A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. LONDON COPYRIGHT BY THE MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CoO., 1925. THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED TO FRIENDS OF MANY LANDS AND CREEBS WHO BY THE TESTIMONY OF THEIR LIFE AND OF THEIR WORDS HAVE TAUGHT THE AUTHOR THAT THERE ARE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES IN CHRIST ' é a ‘4 rh te CONTENTS Forpworp: Meruops or Srupy A List oF ImMportTANT DATES . I.—ANIMISM . II.—BuppHISM I1I.—HINDUISM SM ac WAVINE Roun OSLAGRE IV.—TuHeE RELIGIONS OF CHINA AND TIBET V.—TuHE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN VI.— JUDAISM VII.—IsuLAM . CoNCLUSION INDEX . 9 ; r rie) eect i * . FOREWORD THE OBJECT OF THIS BOOK is to give a practical survey of the religions of the world today and to offset some of the loose notions about compara- tive religions common among us. Some of the re- ligions of the world are in a process of decadence, others are stationary, and that means an un- healthy condition. Others are living and growing. The World War has taught us that we can no longer think in national issues without involving world issues. This is true of religion. Every- where in the world, the Christian Church is en- gaged in a missionary work which has now passed the stage of sporadic evangelism, and reached a critical stage of growth. We want to help the average Christian to think more intelligently of the problems thus created, and to be fair to racial groups different from the Anglo-American. A study of the living religions of the world should teach us to enter sympathetically into the hearts of men, to see them like ourselves as parts of that great whole, each having a responsibility towards it and a contribution to make to it. In no case has the contribution been fully made. We our- selves are not what we should be. We have left 1x x The Living Religions of the World many things undone, many words unsaid, many | thoughts unformed. It behooves us to be patient, kind, and fair. We want also to think coura- geously. Gifts of money to mission work should be accompanied by good-will towards men and the prayers of understanding hearts. Is not this book too small for the purpose? We think not, if it is realized that most people do not need and do not care for encyclopedic learn- ing, but certainly want, or should want, on this subject, a set of ideas which will not be too for- eign to their ordinary mental processes. We there- fore have endeavored to present and to correlate essential facts bearing on the non-Christian re- ligions of today, so that this book can be used as a basis of study in an adult group or in the high school department of a Church school. A good method of study is to read a chapter first for general understanding, and a second time for a more careful knowledge of details. Then read the synopsis of the chapter, dwelling on each sentence, reviewing mentally what you know about it. If necessary, look up the corresponding section again. Glance over these pages the day after, and then read the synopsis in the same way as before. If the student desires to pursue the study of the subject, he can easily do so by reading the references given at the end of each chapter. These are grouped in three sections. The first one gives references to G. A. Barton’s The Religions of the Foreword xi World, which is unsurpassed as a college text book. Section B generally gives references to the best text book for more advanced students, namely G. F. Moore’s History of Religions, in two vol- umes. Section C refers the reader to more spe- cialized literature. In a field of study which is practically new to the average student, it is a good policy to master thoroughly a shorter book before one reads extensively a literature of the subject which necessarily includes many contra- dictions and a number of errors. The student or teacher who will study a chapter in this text book, according to the principles given above, should then take the source given in group A, namely, Barton’s work, or a similar section in the books on History of Religion, by Hume, Soper, or Hawkins. No book more than ten years old should be read as a substitute. Then the reading in group B should be taken up before source material in group C be taken up. Repetitio est mater studi- orum is a true motto. If to repetition is added evolution and development of ideas, success is certain. In no field of study is there such need of a disciplined mind. The literature of the subject is immense. The author would strongly advise his readers not to waste their time with any book emphasizing the sexual element in (so-called) comparative religion. Their authors commonly have an unhealthy mind and their scholarly prep- aration is usually as bad as their critical sense. xii The Living Religions of the World This volume limits itself to living religions of . the world. Babylonian and Egyptian religion can be studied in Professor S. A. B. Mercer’s books in this series. The Hebrew religion is described in the Life and Growth of Israel, by S. A. B. Mercer, and in The Birth of Judaism (in preparation) by myself. A volume on primitive Semitic relig- ions and one on the Religions of Persia are also planned. The latter will treat of Parsism, which is not included here, because it scarcely exists to- day as a world problem. j If a class studying the book is large enough to form two groups, the questions for discussion could be divided among them, one group taking the affirmative point of view, and the other the negative. My thanks are due to my colleague, Professor R. D. Owen, and to Professor S. A. B. Mercer, a friend of long standing, for reading my manu- script and offering valuable suggestions. A LIST OF IMPORTANT DATES Probable Date of the Exodus. Approximate date of Zoroaster. Amos preaches at Bethel. Birth of Lao-Tze. Birth of Buddha. Birth of Confucius. Buddhism brought to Ceylon. Approximate date of Bhagavad Gita. Birth of Christ. The Crucifixion. The Resurrection. Foundation of the Christian Church. Official introduction of Buddhism into China. Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. Death of Rabbi Akiba. Probable date of the Mishnah. Buddhism brought to Japan. Birth of Muhammad. The emigration of Muhammad to Medina (Hijra). Jerusalem taken by the Moslems. Abbasid Caliphate. Fall of the Abbasid Caliphate. Last Crusade. Death of Kabir. Saint Francis Xavier arrives in India. Jesuit missionary work begins in Japan. Matteo Ricci establishes the Jesuit mission in China. xii XIV 1800 1803 1818 1828 1844 1859 1875 1911 1924 The Living Religions of the World Effective penetration of India by the West. Carey > begins Serampore Mission. Wahhabis conquer Mecca and occupy it ten years. Robert Morrison publishes Chinese Bible. Foundation of the Brahma Samaj. Protestant Mission work in China. Protestant Mission work in Japan. Foundation of the Arya Samaj and the Theo- sophical Society. Republic proclaimed in China. Abolition of the Turkish Caliphate. CHAPTER I A\NIMISM 1. Where can animism be best studied. 2. Errors of in- terpretation to be avoided. 3. Potentialities of men of lower culture. 4. Working definition of religion. 5. Mana. 6. Taboo. 7. Magic. 8. Life after death. 9. Transmigra- tion. 10, Manes, 11. Nature powers. 12. God. 18. Fetish. 14, Priesthood. 15. Sacrifice. 16. Totem. 17. Extension of animism in the world. 18. Recrudescence of animistic practices in the western world. 19. Our attitude towards animism. ANIMISM was once the common belief of man- kind. It is a form of religion still combined with an undeveloped and perhaps embryonic philoso- phy, and also connected with primitive science. The religious aspect of this early science is often called magic. 1. The best place to study primitive religion is evidently among wilder tribes which have re- mained relatively uninfluenced by the growth of civilization. Investigators and students must how- ever be careful in noting what stage of evolu- tion is represented by a tribe. Its culture may show such evidences of decay that it would be practically worthless as a field of research of prim- l 2 The Living Religions of the World itive religion. A good many erroneous ideas have crept into books written on primitive religion because the Aruntas, a wild Australian tribe, were described with the greatest care by B. Spen- cer and W. B. Gillen in an epoch-making work, The Native Tribes of Central Australia. The abundance of their documentation, not always critically sifted, led Professor Durckheim to build up on that basis an elaborate theory on The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, which is entirely misleading and of little value, because the Arunta do not represent a primitive culture at all. Today, we may find populations of very low culture in Africa, where good studies of the Pyg- mies and of the Bushmen and Hottentots have been made. The Bantus and the negroes of West Africa represent a far higher level. In India, remnants of pre-Dravidian tribes, more especially the Veddas, the Todas, the Andamanese, have been thoroughly studied. In Australia and Mel- anesia, sociologists have been also at work. The American Indian is also fairly well known, but he represents a higher level. 2. When reading works written by observers of these races, whether they be competent or not, we must guard against errors of interpreta- tion. First, we must remember that the present deg- radation of certain tribes may be due to their having been defeated in warfare long ago, and Animism 3 driven to the poorest lands. It does not neces- sarily represent their earlier culture. Secondly, the difference of mental make-up be- tween an uncultured race and ourselves is not fundamental. Individuals from African and American Indian tribes have proved it frequently. To say here that the exception proves the rule may be witty. It is nevertheless, as always, un- true. Thirdly, the very basis of Christian missions is that all men are equal before God. The writer of this book will ever remember the saintly per- sonality of Bishop Johnson, of the Diocese of Lagos, a native of Sierra Leone. He is still wait- ing to see a better man. If countless numbers of men and women, through conversions to Chris- tianity, have reached such a high level of char- acter, it is clear that they had within themselves amazing possibilities of growth, spiritual, ethical, and mental. 3. It is hard to believe that these potential- ities remained always altogether dormant. If ob- servers or students of primitive religion claim that it is always and only limited to lower ele- ments, and that it does not generally include, for instance, some form of faith in God, we shall do well if we are somewhat skeptical as to the qualifications of these students. We shall be led to suppose that they lacked sympathy with the people they examined, and also that their own conception of religion was over intellectualized 4 The Living Religions of the World and probably unreal. Their isolated testimony does not make void the great discovery of relig- ious ethnology that the heart of man is uniformly complex but is also fundamentally similar. The differences between us and the more primitive races are only of degree and of details. Psycho- logical processes are identical. 4. Today we notice the achievements of nature peoples in the field of basketry, carving, and weav- ing. We are also led to infer that they achieved some interesting results in that noble art which is called religion. Many observations now confirm the inference. The life of primitive peoples shows this art in a constant decoration on the web of their life. The art may be barbarous or unprac- tical, the craftsmanship may not allow delicacy and speed of execution, the material may be of poor abiding quality, the product may not stand competition with Western products, but the art is there always, and God as Power, and to some extent as the Lord of the Good, is the first motive. The other is great secret concerning what hap- pens beyond this life. An art and secrets, that is religion. 5. Among all primitive peoples one finds a belief in a sacred and mysterious Power, work- ing from the Unseen as an inexhaustible source of spiritual electricity. It is called mana (pro- nounce the first a short, and the second long). This word is taken over from a Melanesian dia- lect. It cannot be translated into English. “It Animism 5 is only a word,” said the Maori authority, Mr. J. S. Tikao, to H. Beattie, “but no one can wash it out.”” It was a fire. The earthquake is fire, but common fire used for cooking has no mana. A sacred fire with mana may be covered up, but if dug up, even a hundred years afterwards, its mana would kill. The connotation of the word mana includes, therefore, religious awe. This emotional element is most important. The fact that much laughter or merriment may be mixed with religion should not lead us astray. 6. Closely connected with mana is taboo, or tabu, or tapu. Literally it means marked off, marked exceedingly. Contact with a person or thing which is tabu entails mystic danger. This mystic quality is physically contagious. Hence the idea of prohibition came to be commonly asso- ciated with the word tabu. Tabu had a real, prac- tical value. The man or the men who were in charge of tabooing would regulate food produc- tion and prevent food waste by a regular system of cultivation tabus. Herman Melville describes in Omoo how the captain of a whaler reaching one of the Marquesa Islands persuaded the chiefs to tabu the ship in order to prevent disorderly scenes and facilities for desertion, which would ensue were the natives allowed to come off to it freely. So the chiefs laid their heads together 1 Journal of the Polynesian Society, 30: 16-18. 6 The Living Religions of the World and “went over a little mummery” as Melville will describe it. Then the leader tore a long strip of bark cloth from his girdle and gave it to the mate, who fastened the mystic symbol to a mast. A party of natives who were swimming towards the ship turned about immediately with loud cries of “Tabu! tabu!” This mystic ban should be removed by a special ceremony. When tabu was abolished by the missionaries, mana disappeared. The ritual laying and removing of tabu give us the essential character of primitive religion, which is primarily social and practical rather than individual, and still less intellectual. Religion consists mainly of proper manners in the spiri- tual world. 7. Magic is less respectful. It practically leaves God out, it aims at winning over or conquering the influence of the spirits for a utilitarian and generally mischievous purpose. Magic is clearly distinguished from religion. As Marett says, “Magic includes all bad ways, religion all good ways of dealing with the supernatural.” All witchcraft is bad. The wizard is hated and feared. Part of the religion of lower culture races is de- pendence on the ability of witch-doctors to com- bat witchcraft by counter sorcery. Wizards and witches can snatch the soul or vital principle of man. The soul has sometimes a multiple form. It is connected with blood, with breath, with the vital heat of the body, with the shadow, with the name. The soul beats in the Animism 7 heart and shines in the eyes. At night, it is visited by other souls or goes out visiting them. This is dreaming. It is an ethereal substance. A witch-doctor can for a consideration safeguard a life from ordinary danger by placing the soul in a tree. If the tree is cut, so dies the man. If more powerful magic harm the man in spite of this precaution, the tree will dry up and die also. 8. Belief in survival of life after death is uni- versal among lower races. Hence their elaborate and sometimes cruel forms of mourning, and their careful attention to funeral rites. The departed are provided with food and drink, clothing and tools, utensils and weapons, and even with wives, cattle, and slaves, who, at least in the case of mighty men, were buried with him. After death the soul may bear a new name; it is essentially the same in the case of strong men. As for weaker persons, their soul is rather unimportant and it is often held that it soon fades away. People of no account and children do not live again. The same tribe may not even entertain a unified idea of the place of departed spirits. It may be the grave itself, or the forest, or a great village under the earth. 9. The souls of infants emanate from dead per- sons. Souls may enter also the body of animals. It is not necessarily a complete reincarnation of one soul into a new life. The form of this be- lief in transmigration varies but it is very com- mon, although not universal. The belief that the 8 The Living Religions of the World underworld is a “land of no return” is also fairly common. 10. The survival of the soul is thus uncon- nected with ethics in our sense of the word, but it is with the importance of the man, or his power. The connection with ethics is indirect. If you treat a man wrongly, he will remember even after death. Indeed the departed know more than the living. They are strong and often vindic- tive. They take interest in the affairs of this world. Therefore they should be feared, worship- ped, and their needs duly considered. The world is ruled by the souls of great men or culture-heroes. Men have an habitual, all-per- vading sense of dependence on them. “It is the shades who guard and protect them, the shades who try to hurt them; the shades are those to whom they pray, the shades are those whom they fear and must placate. The shades are that from which they can never escape. It is the shades who control every act and thought.’” Manism is the essential feature of their religion 11. Other spirits are nature powers. Their birth is due to the sense of wonder. This un- expected storm which darkens the sky, uproots mighty trees, and upturns the canoes of the un- wary, how did it happen? This deep forest, hiding its silent mystery behind morasses and an im- penetrable jungle, who is its master and lord? 2F. H. Melland, In Witch Bound Africa, p. 132. Animism 9 This immense river which flows for ever and ever, mother of fishes and alligators, it is also a mystery. To respect, to acknowledge by a gift the rights of those who have the power behind this mystery, is vain. Thus are the spirits of big trees, of rivers and mountains, of springs and of lakes, and of the stormy wind, worshipped by sacrifice. 12. Above these ghosts and spirits, but usually without any essential connection with them, is God. He is called the Great Great, the Master, the Powerful, He who speaks, He who fashions, the One from on High, the One of the Sky, the One of the Light. His dwelling is usually in the sky. In Africa he has no priests, no images, no temple. Magic has no power over him. He is really an absentee Lord. Some tribes, like the Kaonde, studied by Melland, remember him only when they want rain. Then the whole village, men, women, and children, congregates in the open air, near a tall white pole just erected. The headman sits in the centre. He says “Thou God, we are all thy people, send us rain.” Then the people clap their hands and return to the village. It is quite certain that he is not a deified chief, because the Negrillos have no chief and worship the dead far less than the more civilized Bantu, and yet their idea of a Supreme God is very pre- cise. This God is not essentially the principle of good. The Wanika say that we are God’s hens and chickens. When some one dies, it means that a stranger has arrived in heaven and God wanted 10 The Living Religions of the World some poultry to entertain the guest at a feast. The explanation thus given may be partly ficti- tious, the belief as to the character of God which it illustrates is real and common. 13. A spirit may be induced to dwell in a material object. We call it a fetish. The fetish may be a hen or some animal into which the spirit has entered. It is usually an inanimate object, a receptacle for the spirit, sometimes in the shape of an image. A tribal fetish may be a large bundle of various sacred objects, leaves, eggshells, bones, pieces of skull, teeth, serpent heads, bird beaks, etc. The fetish may be either kept hidden in a special house or placed over the door of a house, in the fields, at the entrance of the village. When vacated by the spirit, it may be sold or given away. Thus do fetishes come to our museums. They are even made as curios for exportation. In that case they have only the appearance of a fetish; a spirit never dwelt in them. An amulet is a kind of fetish carried about the body. Fetishism does not explain all of worship, still less is it all of religion. 14. External manifestations of religion are very simple. In Africa, when it is a familiar affair, it is performed mostly by the head of the house, who prepares his eldest son to succeed him. When the prestige of such a man goes beyond his family, he may be asked to perform rites for other fam- ilies or even for a village. He may thus become Animism 11 a professional, or more commonly a semi-profes- sional, As such, he interprets dreams, makes remedies for the sick, and charms and amulets. He exorcises the possessed, enacts and removes tabus, makes rain, offers sacrifices, presides over initiations, combats magic. The secrets of such a ministry may not necessarily be taught by a man to his eldest son, but to any one of his sons, or even to a stranger willing to pay a fee. The would-be student may have had a real vo- cation by a dream, by a mysterious illness, or by spirit possession. There may be several students desirous to learn from a famous witch-doctor, and forming a technical school. Not only may the same man very well combine the office of house minister with that of diviner and physician revered by all, but he may also be a dreaded sorcerer to whom people come in secret for mali- cious magic. Public ritual is often associated with ritual dancing and singing. The dancers wear special ornaments, and often masks. 15. The meaning of sacrifice varies. The manes need food and beer and blood, and these are given to them. There is not, in Africa at least, any idea of communion. The spirit should be also propi- tiated by gifts of the same nature. The intrinsic value of the sacrifice is not important. Saliva is often offered. To God above, the sacrifice is only symbolic, as when the Masai offer him a handful of grass or a pebble. 12 The Living Religions of the World 16. Among many tribes a social unit, tribe, clan, secret society, may have a totem. This totem is not an individual but a class of animals, a vegetable species, a kind of mineral product, or even an atmospheric phenomenon like the wind or a heavenly body. To the totem certain emo- tional and social values are attached so that it is looked upon as an ancestor, protector, and symbol of social unity and identity. Totemism is therefore not religious in itself, but because the whole life of primitive man is religious. If the totem is an animal, it may not be killed or eaten, except in a sacramental feast. The totem is not a fetish. The fetish is individual, the totem is a class. Totemism does not exist among the ma- jority of primitive peoples. Half of the negro races and two thirds of the yellow races (includ- ing the South American) never had any totemism. Such a practice should not be taken, as it was by Durkheim, as the explanation of religion. 17. Religious statistics credit Animism with the allegiance of about one tenth of the popula- tion of the world. This is true of animism proper. In addition to that we must remember that there is much animism in lands recently conquered by Islam, by Hinduism, and in many cases by Chris- tianity. Animism is really the fundamental re- ligion of the masses in China. It is strong in Tibet and Siam. One wonders whether it would not be truer to say that half of the world, or nearly, is animistic, at least in part. This oldest Animism 13 religion of the world would therefore be one of the most important yet, perhaps the second in the world and next to Christianity. 18. Animism is not organized for propaganda. It is not aggressive. It has even learned to be shy, and, as it were, ashamed before more intellectually developed beliefs. It has been dying of a slow death for hundreds of years in what is now called the European civilized world. It is still found there to some extent and is usually called super- stition. We may probably say with fairness that, were it not for the remnants of ancient native population, North America, and, still more, Aus- tralia, are rather free from animism, because the immigrant stock which settled in these countries broke from old associations. But even there, hered- itary tendencies seemingly dead are only asleep especially among people less accustomed to social and cultural inhibitions. They appear again in some features of what was called “revivalism” and is now more often named “Pentecostal” re- ligion. Preachers cultivating these highly emo- tional states think they are a return to “Old Time Religion.” So they are, for they bring back a re- ligion older than Early Christianity.’ 3 Professor F. M. Davenport’s book on Primitive Traits in Re- ligious Revivals, should be known to religious leaders in com- munities endangered by recrudescences of this type. It would however be unwise to use the book as such. It should be trans- lated into sympathetic terms by the man who has read it. There would be far less call for Old Time Religion if the Church made religion her affair and that a real one, and if she fully gratified the longings of the heart of man. 14 The Living Religions of the World Another form of animism is found in “Spiri- tualism,” in so far that it is ghost possession. The author of this book does not want this statement to be understood as a sweeping condemnation of “Spiritualism.” He is not qualified to judge it. He has only observed that the movement seems to attract mostly the weakly inhibited and does not improve their higher reasoning powers. Men more highly cultured may suffer less from it, but are not necessarily improved. In the same way, a steelworker can get rid of alcoholic poison which harms a sedentary man. But it is safer for all to avoid “spirits.” Writing about the present situa- tion in England, the Rt. Hon. C. T. G. Masterman says “No Church is gaining any converts in an England still half insane after the war, and seek- ing wizards to cure them of bodily ills, and witches to open up communications with the dead.” If things be so with our Anglo-Saxon, it behooves us not to expect perfection at once in the new Churches of the Mission Field. 19. In spite of its temporary recrudescence, closely paralleled by recent developments in the field of musie and art, Animism has no real mes- sage for the modern world. Its decay in Africa and Melanesia is evident. The influx of civilization is bringing about the ruin of the whole social fabric of native races and often of the race itself. This destruction of lower culture peoples is not the work of mission- The Churchman, January 3, 1925, p. 10. Animism 15 aries today, whatever may have been true in the past. Modern missionaries are usually the best friends of men less civilized than we think we are. By their propaganda against alcohol, by their teaching of sexual purity, by their setting forth a simple, happy, Christian life, they offer to lower culture races, a means of safeguarding their ex- istence. SUPPLEMENTARY READING A. G. A. Barton. The Religions of the World. Chapter I. B. E. W. SmitTuH. The Religion of Lower Races as illustrated by the African Bantu. New York: Macmillan, 1923, pp. 97. C. A. Leroy. The Religion of the Primitives. New York: Macmillan, 1922. R. R. Maretr. The Threshold of Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1914. Articles on Ancestor Worship, Death and Disposal of the Dead (Introductory and Primitive), EHthics (Rudimentary), Fetishism (Introductory), God (Primitive and Savage), Mana, Orenda, Secret So- cieties (African), Soul (Primitve), Tabu, Totemism, Worship (Primitive), in Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Can you illustrate from your personal knowledge of your- self, and what you know of men of early culture, that our psychological processes are identical? 2. To what extent does the development of a child’s mind illustrate the animism of a previous stage of our race? Show also dissimilarities. 8. Can you find instances of tabu in American life? 4. Do you know of remaining magical practices among us? 5. What are the limitations of animism as an influence upon the development of character? CHAPTER II BUDDHISM AND JAINISM 1. The Buddhist world. 2. Life of Siddartha. 3. The non-reality of being. The aggregates. 4. Deliverance from pain. 5. The four noble truths. 6. The eightfold path. 7. Buddhist Beatitudes; 8. Nirvana. 9. Attitude towards the body. 10. Buddha’s method of teaching. 11. An esti- mate of his character. 12. Formula of admission. 18. Monasticism. 14. The salvation of women. 15. Asoka. 16. Testimony of the “rock” and “pillar” edicts to the char- acter of early Buddhism. 17. Kanishka. 18. Mahayana and Hinayana. 19. Tantrayana. 20. Buddhist temples and wor- ship. 21. Relations of Buddhism and Christianity. 22. Theosophy. 28. Neo-Buddhism. 24. Christian missions in Buddhist lands. 25. Jainism. Parsva. 26. Mahavira. 27. Respect of all life. Nirvana. 28. The three divisions of Jainism. 29. Decadence. 1. BuppuisMm began in the fifth century B. C., as a protest movement against Brahmanism, but within Hinduism. It had within itself the char- acteristics of a possible world religion, and it has today 138,000,000 adherents. Its zone of in- fluence in other lands, especially China and Japan, includes 360,000,000 other people. In India proper Buddhism is only a memory. Buddhism has dis- appeared also from Java and Sumatra and from Turkestan. Today it is active in Japan only. 16 Buddhism 17 2. Siddartha, the founder of Buddhism, was the son of the Rajah of Kapilavastu, a town be- tween Benares and the Himalayas. He was born about 560 B.C. His family’s name was Gautama and the name of his tribe Sakya (pronounced Shakya). Hence he was called later Sakyamuni, the Sakya ascetic. The title Buddha given to him means “enlightened.” It is difficult to distinguish in his life the legen- dary from the real. After all, both are equally im- portant, as they are equally believed. The legend says that Siddartha’s father kept him safely shel- tered from any knowledge of the sad things of life, until one day the young prince, leaving his beautiful palace, saw a leper, a very old man, and a corpse, and the pain of India laid its cold hand upon his heart. In order to liberate his mind, the young prince abandoned wealth and power, his wife Yosidhara, and his little boy Rahula. He took the beggar’s bowl and wandered through the land, seeking the solution of the mys- tery of life and of the problem of evil. He was twenty-one when he made this “Great Renuncia- tion.” For six years, he tried to find liberation by philosophical mysticism and by asceticism, un- til he saw the vanity of it all. He sat one day un- der a certain fig-tree, called since by his followers the Bo-tree, the tree of wisdom, determined to stay there until he had found out the truth. As the morning sun rose in the sky, he saw; he was enlightened. 18 The Living Religions of the World 3. The essential of Buddhist doctrine is that there is no being, there is only a becoming. There is no soul, but only a succession of mental states. A person is only a collection of five aggregates constantly changing: Material elements. Sense perceptions. Emotions. Thoughts, as reactions to feelings. . Consciousness. This Soin of view is well expressed by these verses ascribed to Vajira, one of the Sisters of the Order: “gue 99 to “MARA “Who has this being fashioned? Where is The maker of this being? Whence hath it sprung? Where doth this being cease and pass away? “VASJIRA * ‘Being?’ Why dost thou harp upon that word? ’"Mong false opinions, Mara, art thou strayed. This a mere bundle of formations is. Therefrom no ‘being’ mayest thou obtain, For e’en as, when the factors are arranged, By the word ‘chariot’ is the product known, So doth our usage covenant to say ‘A being’ when the Aggregates are there.’” “Neither self nor aught belonging to self, brethren, can really and truly exist.” So goes one of the reputed sayings of Buddha. 4, The unity of forces which make a being must eventually be dissolved, in the case of the gods hundreds of thousands of years after their birth, Buddhism 19 in the case of some insects a few hours only. In every case, the cause of sorrow is a vain effort to delay this dissolution. Beginning is fraught with the ending, birth with death, life with pain, which is craving or thirst. Ignorance is the cause of this misery. It leads men to believe in their separateness from the ex- ternal world and from other beings in the past, in the present, and in the future. Men fail to see that they are a mere fleeting result of causes. They consider real what is not real, prize what is worthless, and pursue what is continually es- caping. 5. This ignorance can be dispelled by the four noble (Aryan) truths: First. There is pain. Secondly. This comes from desire (or crav- ing, or thirst). Thirdly. Pain can be conquered. It is over- come in Nirvana. Fourthly. There is a way leading to such a state or condition. 6. The way is the Middle Path or Noble Eight- fold Path, which has eight stages, the first two belonging to uprightness in deed, the third to up- rightness in word, the five others to uprightness in thought. | The first stage is Right Belief. It is the under- standing of life, and of its three woes, old age, disease, and death. It is a comprehension of the 20 The Living Religions of the World fact that everything flows and that there is no self. It is the right acceptance of the four Noble Truths of the Law of Buddha. The second stage is Right Aspiration. We should be compassionate, benevolent, and helpful. The third stage is Right Speech. It means love and compassion, mildness, and the love of the truth. The fourth stage is Right Action, when every phase of conduct becomes full of sympathy and compassion. It means, for the layman, keeping the five precepts, avoiding murder, theft, adultery, drunkenness, and lying. For the monk, there are three additional precepts, namely, abstaining from partaking of food after midday, from using high and wide beds, and from watching plays. The fifth stage is Right Livelihood, when life becomes purer and every action is harmonious and produces serenity. One should not make money by harmful means, such as trafficking in slaves, weapons of war, or liquor. The sixth stage is Right Effort. It is training of the mind and of the will. The seventh stage is Right Mindfulness, a con- centration of the thoughts on holy purposes. The eighth stage is Right Rapture. In it one constantly ponders upon holy things with a pure mind, realizing the highest moral ideals in one’s person, in deep meditation on the realities of life. Buddhism 21 There are ten fetters which must be broken by those who follow the path: Delusion of self, Doubt, Efficacy of good works, Sensuality or bodily passions, Tll-will, Love of life on earth, Desire for future life, Pride, Self-righteousness, Ignorance. 7. Those who break these fetters become ar- hats (venerable ones). They attain nirvana, the highest bliss. The Buddhist Beatitudes have been translated as follows: “To shun the fool, to court the wise, This is the highest Paradise. “Pay ye respect where it is due, So will true blessing wait on you. “Seek a fit place and there remain Striving self-knowledge to attain. “Tf in past lives you’ve stored up merit The fruits thereof you'll now inherit. “Let wisdom, skill, and discipline And gracious kindly words be thine. “Tend parents, cherish wife and child, Pursue a blameless life and mild. “Live thou devout, give ample alms, Protect thy kin from life’s alarms. 22 The Living Religions of the World “Do good, shun ill, and still beware Of the red wine’s insidious snare. “So do thou persevere in good; This is the true Beatitude. “Be humble, with thy lot content, Grateful, and ever reverent. “Study the Law of Righteousness ; This is the path that leads to Bliss. “Be patient thou, the Saints frequent, And ponder still their argument ; “The Noble Truths, the life austere And chaste, that brings Nirvana here; “The life from eightfold bond secure, The life of peace that crowns the pure; “This is the Highest Bliss to find; This the chief blessing of mankind.” 8. Buddhist texts bearing on Nirvana give va- rious points of view. The word means “blowing off.” Some texts describe it as annihilation, others as existence beyond reason and conception. A third group of texts are frankly agnostic and limit themselves to saying what Nirvana is not. Apparently Gautama discouraged discussion on its nature but emphasized the search for it. He is reported to have said, “As the vast ocean, O disciples, is impregnated with the flavor of salt, so also, my disciples, this law and discipline is impregnated with but one flavor, with the taste of deliverance.” Nirvana is a sinless, calm state of mind, perfect peace, goodness, and wisdom. It is the cool happiness which comes from righteous Buddhism Zo living coupled with a trance-like mystical experi- ence attained through meditation. Nirvana is deliverance from transmigration, which Indian pessimism had learned to dread. Modern Buddhists understand it as being one of these three conditions (or a blending of two) : 1. Annihilation, 2. Extinction of evil, 3. A paradise of bliss. The three points of view are justified by early documents. The three were certainly believed in India, although the third is now found mostly in Mahayana Buddhism. 9. The body is called an impure and foul thing, a wound or sore, the old worn out skin of a snake, a dressed up lump covered with wounds, a heap of corruption, the greatest of pains. Disgust for it is the motive for religious life. “Passion and hatred have their origin from this (body); dis- gust, delight, and horror arise from this body; arising from this body, doubts vex the mind as boys vex a crow.” And yet suicide is forbidden, in Buddhism. Food is to be used with moderation, but enjoyed. Bodily acts are to be watched over, in self-control, thus cutting down the forest of lust. It is good to keep on meditating on a corpse eaten by worms. Visits to a cemetery or to crema- tion grounds are good spiritual hygiene. 10. It is not improbable that Gautama began to preach at once the essentials of this message, if “preaching” can be used to designate his method 24 The Living Religions of the World of making converts. He called his doctrine a medicine, a therapeutic. He was the physician who cures the disease of individuality by dialec- tic. He exposed the point of view of his hearer, the plausibility of the other point of view, the futility of discussion, then the middle path. “A man wounded b¥ a poisoned arrow,” said he, “would not wait to have it taken out until he knew all about the man who shot him.” Many of his hearers had highly trained minds and revelled in hair splitting word distinctions. For forty-five years, until his death in 480 B.C. Buddha wan- dered over India in the region of the United Prov- inces, until he entered into the Great Peace which comes after the Path. His faithful disciple Ananda was weeping. “Peace, Ananda!” he said. “Weep not. Have I not told thee that it is in the nature of things that we must be separated from all that is dearest and nearest to us? Must not that which is made up of component parts dissolve and pass away? . . . Remember that life and death are one.” 11. The figure of Buddha remains today win- some and majestic. He was humble, tender hearted, courteous. He was patience, kindness, gentleness. He has been called the Light of Asia by many Europeans who admired his character and his life through the mist of legend. He called himself the Eye of Asia, according to a tradition. That is a designation more modest and more ac- curate. Buddhism 25 From the very first he had had many followers, especially among the warriors. He organized them as an order of monks, to which he later added an order of nuns. There was a much more numerous third order of laymen. 12. The formula of admission to the Order is: I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in the Law (Dharma). I take refuge in the Sangha (Order, or Church). 13. Indeed the Church is a monastic order. The monk is above the layman because of his celibate life and of his separation from the world. In orthodox Buddhism, a layman may not reach Nirvana. The best he can do is to support the Sangha by his gifts, and to practise the rules of the Law which are meant for laymen. Thus may he deserve to have a chance to be born again as a monk in order to reach deliverance. Buddhism rejected the caste system. It pro- hibited the taking of life at least by monks. Thus hunting and wars of aggression were condemned. The monks may take life vows but go back to the world “if desire be born again in their hearts.” They usually dwell in monasteries. The yellow- robed mendicants beg their food silently, with downcast eyes. They thank no one for his gift. Their head is shaved. They must be pure, poor, taking no interest in the world. They read the holy books and meditate. 26 The Living Religions of the World Versed in the Righteous Law they are, and skilful; Aye, and they practise too the law they preach; Learned and self-possessed and ever watchful, Living in all things as the Sages teach. Downcast their eyes; their paces measured, sober, They meditate, nor look to left or right: They lay not up on earth the fleeting treasure; Finished their quest, their lofty goal in sight! Poor are they too, yet touch not gold or silver; Each day supplies for them their simple needs; From many lands and towns they join the Order, Bound in the sacred tie of loving deeds. Truly Saint Francis of Assisi would have un- derstood them and they would have looked upon him as a brother and a saint, a bodhisattva. Monasteries are open to all, even to the scoffing European whose servants bring game and kill chickens where life is held so sacred. If the igno- rant respect not what is good, he hurts no one but himself, think the monks. Each monastery is self-governing. Public opin- ion is the only check on discipline. In Burma a monk who misbehaves will have to leave because the villagers will cease to respect him and refuse him food. There is no priesthood in Buddhism, at least in the Buddhism of Ceylon and Burma which best represents the teaching and practice of the early followers of Buddha. 14. There are very few nuns, although, when the monks hold public services, the congregations are nearly all women. “Women,” say the monks, ‘never understand. They cannot learn. And so Buddhism 27 we say that most women must be born again, as men, before they can see the light, and understand the lawa of righteousness.” * 15. Buddhism had a famous protector in the person of Asoka (pronounced Ashoka), who ruled over most of India (273-231 B. C.). should not be called a Buddhist Constantine, for he was a better man than the Roman Emperor. The edicts of Asoka engraved upon rocks and pil- lars show us that the Buddhist canonical texts, written in the Pali language and preserved in Ceylon, represent practically the form of the Buddhist teaching in Asoka’s time, although these texts were not written until the first century B. C. Asoka tried to enforce the observance of Dharma by edict, showing, however, a spirit of remarkable tolerance, as can be seen by this quo- tation from Rock Edict IV: “In such wise as has not been before in many cen- turies, there has been at present, owing to the inculca- tion of piety by King Piyadasi (one of mild, pleasant countenance, a new name adopted by Asoka), dear to the gods, growth in abstinence from taking life, in abstinence from ill-usage of living creatures, in proper behaviour towards relatives, proper behaviour towards Brahmans and ascetics, obedience to mother and father, obedience to elders. In these and other manifold ways, pious observance has grown, and this pious observance, king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, will make still to grow. The sons, also, and grandsons, and great-grandsons of king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, will foster this pious observance until the end of the time.” 1H. F. Hall, The Soul of a People. p. 150-151. 28 The Living Religions of the World 16. Another edict defines the Law of piety as “compassion, almsgiving, truth, purity, gentle- ness, and saintliness.” This piety gives bliss here and hereafter. The teaching is practical, not in- tellectual. “Let small and great exert themselves,” de- clares the King. ... “Whatever exertions His sacred and glorious Majesty the King makes, are all for the sake of the life hereafter, so that every one may be freed from peril, which peril is vice. Difficult, however, it is to attain to such freedom, whether by people of low or of high degree, save by the utmost exertion and giving up all other aims. That, however, for him of high degree is difficult.” “Hven the small man who choses to exert himself, immense heavenly bliss may be won.” This teaching is in harmony with a saying of the Dhammapada: “By ourselves is evil done, By ourselves we pain endure, By ourselves we cease from wrong, By ourselves become we pure. “No one saves us but ourselves, No one can and no one may, We ourselves must tread the Path. Buddhas only show the way.” Asoka himself took the yellow robe of a monk, although he remained King. In his time, there were no statues of Buddha. The King is said to have built 84,000 shrines (stupas), distributing Buddhism 29 among them the relics of Buddha which had been preserved in only eight places before. We cannot tell how far this reverence to Buddha was already a cult. The King sent missionaries to foreign countries. To these is due the conversion of Cey- lon to Buddhism. The Buddhist missionaries who converted Burma came from Ceylon. It is there- fore clear that without this missionary zeal of Asoka, Buddhism would have perished in its most authentic form. 17. After the death of Asoka, Buddhism passed through a series of transformations. In north- western India, Greek culture brought wonderful forms of art. The first statues of Buddha (Gand- hara sculptures) are Greek in design. Gautama was already worshipped as a god. Thus did popu- lar piety take its revenge upon an agnostic relig- ion, which had tried to banish the soul and God. In the first century A.D. Kanishka, a Mongol King, conqueror of Northern India, became a con- vert to Buddhism, at least as much as he could. He summoned a great Buddhist council in Kash- mir. There, the new developments of the faith were sanctioned in spite of the opposition of a strong conservative party. 18. The new religion was called by its advo- cates Mahayana, or the Great Vehicle, while the older point of view was labelled Hinayana Mean or Wretched Vehicle. Mahayana Buddhism is also called Northern Buddhism, and Hinayana is named Southern Buddhism. The distinction be- 30 The Living Religions of the World tween the two systems is partly artificial but it is necessary for the sake of clearness. It must be remembered that many Northern Buddhist schol- ars claim that there is no distinction. Hinayana Buddhism has about thirty million adherents, Mahayana more than a hundred mil- lions, not to mention more than three hundred and sixty millions of Chinese and Japanese who are, to a great extent, Buddhists of the Mahayana type. Even in Hinayana lands one finds a good many animistic survivals, but they are more con- spicuous in Northern Buddhism. In Hinayana, the way of salvation is narrow. It leads to salvation in this life, when a monk may become an arhat or venerable one, by medi- tation and following the Path. When dying, the arhat enters into Nirvana. Indeed he has attained it in this life. Mahayana is Buddhist gnosticism. It is found in various forms. In the main it shows a broad way of salvation. It leads to heaven, “the beauti- ful world” in the West. It emphasizes the wor- ship of the Buddhas, who are really gods; of the bodhisattvas, who are divine saints; and of other gods and goddesses. Mahayana is also a slower way of salvation than Hinayana. To obtain deliverance takes sev- eral centuries. One should tend to become first a bodhisattva or future Buddha. Practically the system provides short cuts. 19. Besides these, there developed in India the Buddhism 31 tantrayana (Tantric Vehicle), which was at the same time broad and rapid. It was taught that every man can by meditation, spells, theurgic and erotic practices, realize his inmost Buddha na- ture. Tantrayana was fatal to Indian Buddhism. It has marred the ethical value of Tibetan Bud- dhism and of its branches. 20. Buddhist temples were at first built of wood. In Burma the custom has persisted. The characteristic feature is a stupa (or tope, or dagoba) which is a cylindrical or prismatic tower topped by an elongated cupola. It contains either a relic of Buddha or a commemorative object. The stupa is fenced by a railing. Other temples were halls with aisles and an apse, containing a small stupa and an altar. Another class was represented by assembly halls for the monks, with cells at the side. Both classes of halls were often enlarged caves or even wholly dug in the rock. Worship is the best among the “roots of merit” without which no man can in a future existence enter into the Path. The Buddhas, the Dharma, and the Sangha are “fields of merit.” Worship consists in offerings of flowers, in lis- tening to the reading of the Dharma, in medita- tion. The mind is playful and restless like the monkey who jumps from branch to branch. By meditation it becomes “pointed,” and being, as it were, no longer surrounded by these branches, is no longer restless, but calm, gentle, full of benignity. 32 The Living Religions of the World 21. The claim that Buddhism influenced Chris- tianity has been made largely on the basis of un- classified sources. No Buddhistic influence on the Therapeutes and Essenes has been demonstrated. It is true that Josaphat, a legendary Christian saint, whose day falls on November 27th, is really the Buddha. It is true also that Mani, the founder of Manicheism, knew something about Buddhism and through him the movement of the Bogomils, Patarini, and Albigenses is connected with Bud- dhism by a tenuous thread. More important pos- sibly was the influence of Nestorian Christianity on the development of Buddha’s legend, and even of some aspects of Mahayana. This question is still open. Far more obvious is the relation of Bud- dhism to Theosophy. 22. When Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Ol- cott founded the Theosophical Society in New York (1875), they apparently knew nothing of Buddhism. Soon they realized that there was a remarkable affinity between the teaching of Gau- tama and the intellectual aims of the new organi- zation. Mrs. Blavatsky’s myth of the Great White Brotherhood in Tibet, the story of her imaginary expedition there, the writing by Colonel Olcott of a Buddhist catechism which was approved by Buddhist leaders in Ceylon, Burma, Japan, and Mongolia, are so many ties between Theosophy and Buddhism. Apparently the Buddhists hoped that theosophical activities in India would lead to a renaissance of Buddhism there. Theosophical Buddhism 33 literature is not especially remarkable for its ac- curacy, but it has kept alive among the 30,000 adherents of the movement, and among many others influenced by them, a certain vague knowl- edge of an emasculated Buddhism, mostly imagi- nary, which has been called “esoteric.” There is no such thing of course, as esoteric Buddhism—as there is no such thing as the “Great White Brotherhood.” The real affinity between Theosophy and Buddhism is due to the influence of the Upanishads on both. 23. More authentic is the Neo-Buddhism of Ger- many. Some enthusiasts claim that it has made half a million converts. These are oriental figures ; they must be divided by ten. Even then, they show that the agnosticism of the noble Gautama finds an echo in Western hearts who have lost faith in God. But reading with approval the words of Buddha, and even declaring oneself a Bud- dhist, does not make one a Buddhist. No one is a Buddhist without the Dharma and the Sangha. Indeed no one is a Buddhist without wearing the yellow robe, at least for a time. So far German Neo-Buddhism is only academic and sentimental. It has no vital relation with Buddhism as it is in Asia. 24. In the lands of real Buddhism, Christian missions have not been very successful, except among tribes steeped in animism. A study of pre- mahayanist tendencies and of the cause of their development should give a point of contact. One 34 The Living Religions of the World should not emphasize the similarity of Buddhism and Christianity. Buddhism is agnostic, pessimis- tic, involves no living relation with its founder. It treats sin as ignorance. It claims that salva- tion has to be earned. Its idealism is fantastic and disappointing. The value of the intention is overemphasized, while action is discouraged. The Tibetan lamas are real Buddhists when they pre- tend that to scatter in the storm bits of paper with printed pictures of horses is a work of merit as much as giving actual help to stranded travel- lers. Buddhism has all the defects of a cloister religion. It is bookish, misogynic, hairsplitting in its dialectic. It is uncritical, unpractical, softening. In many ways the coming age in Burma and Siam is going to parallel the period of inva- sions in India after Asoka. Will Buddhism tide over the crisis caused by the coming of competi- tion, industrialism, and the merciless materialism to which we have had to become accustomed in the West, although our own religion was some- what mangled in the process? 25. Simultaneously with Buddhism, Jainism de- veloped as a protest against ceremonial and sacri- ficial religion. It is commonly said that Jainism was founded by Vahamana Mahavira. The Jains claim, however, that before him there were twenty- three great teachers. One of them called Parsva (pronounced Parshva), lived in the eighth cen- tury and would be the real founder of Jainism. He taught the necessity of four vows, namely, Buddhism 35 not injuring life, not telling a falsehood, not steal- ing, possessing no property (but allowing clothes). Mahavira added a vow of strict chastity and forbade the wearing of clothes. 26. Mahavira’s life is, like Siddartha’s, largely legendary. He married and had a daughter. At thirty he became a wandering ascetic, subduing all his senses. He died in 468 B. C. His followers were mostly Kshatriyas. He formed them in com- munities of monks and laity. 27. Belief in transmigration led the Jains to emphasize respect for all living things, including vermin; to deny a supreme God to whom sacri- fices should be offered; to seek a way out of the misery of life by austerity and even self-starva- tion. The Jains are indifferent to the Vedas but they did not break with Hinduism, as thoroughly as the Buddhists. Jainism does not deny the real- ity of the soul. It attributes more importance to outer acts than does Buddhism. Karma is of mate- rial nature. Nirvana is endless blessedness reached by perfect faith, perfect knowledge of the Jina doctrine, and right conduct, without either desire or aversion to the world. All perfect men are di- vine, being characterized by “omniscience, bound- less vision, illimitable righteousness, infinite strength, perfect bliss, indestructibility, exis- tence without form, a body that is neither light nor heavy.” By accumulating merits, a man may be reborn as a god, and remain one, until he has exhausted his stock of merits. The liberated souls 36 The Living Religions of the World of men who have become Jina (victorious) are above the gods, for they are never born again. 28. Today the Jains, who number about 1,200- 000, and are all found in India, are divided into three sects, each having about the same number of adherents. In the first sect, the monks wear white clothes; in the second, they are “sky clad.” This distinction may go back to a survival of Parsva’s teaching which led to a schism after the death of Mahavira. The third sect is made of Reformed Jains. Recently leaders of ita three sects of Jainism formed the All India Jain Association, which has officially declared what the spirit of Jainism means: First, Spiritual independence, that is to say in- dividual freedom and unlimited responsibility. The soul depends upon no one else for its prog- ress. Secondly, Universal brotherhood, not only with all men, but with all that lives. The current of life in the lowest living organism is said to be as sacred, subtle, sensitive, mighty, and eternal, as in Juliet, Cleopatra, Caesar, Alexander, Christ, Mahomet, and Lord Mahavira himself. Some of the Jains show extreme respect for animal life by sweeping the ground before they tread upon it, wearing a veil in order to swallow no insect, and even straining the water they drink for the same reason. Some Jains will not Buddhism _ 37 even eat honey because that means robbing the bees. They maintain hospitals for animals, tak- ing however no account of the amount of suffering it entails when the animal should really be put to death by a humanitarian. 29. Jainism reached its highest power at the same time as Buddhism. The growth of Neo-Brah- manism and of bhakti religions caused its down- fall. When persecuted the Jains professed Hindu- ism. Thus they weathered the storm, to some ex- tent. There is now a constant drifting of Jains into Hinduism, made all the easier by the fact that nearly all Jains employ Brahmans as domes- tic chaplains and even as ministers in their temples. Jainism is in the fetters of caste as much as Hinduism. The Jain community is wealthy and well educated but religiously in a precarious con- dition. Jainism is not missionary. Its day is over. SUPPLEMENTARY READING A. G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter IX. B. G. F. Moore, History of Religion. I. Chapter XII. C. K. J. SAUNDERS. The Story of Buddhism. Oxford Univer- sity Press, 1916. Mrs. Ruys Davips. Buddhism, a Study of the Buddhist Norm. Home University Library. T. W. Ruys Davins. Buddhism, its History and Litera- ture. New York, Putnam, 1896. S. Stevenson. The Heart of Jainism. Oxford University Press. 38 The Living Religions of the World Sir Epwin Arnoup. The Light of Asia. (This is a very beautiful poem, setting forth the latter conception of the life of Gautama in documents equivalent in historical value to the Apocryphal Gospels.) QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Is it right to reduce sin to ignorance as Buddhism does? 2. Is suffering the supreme evil? 3. Is the body a sore or a shrine? 4. What does the transformation of Buddhism after Asoka teach us concerning the fate of agnosticism and ethical culture movements ? 5. Should life be always respected? Should you let a cobra free? Would you let a litter of puppies slowly starve to death, or drown them? Can you find parallels in other religions to this extreme emphasis upon one point? CHAPTER III HINDUISM 1. Hinduism defined. 2. How to study it. 3. The great gods of Hinduism. 4. The avatars of Vishnu. 5. The Bhagavad Gita and its teaching. 6. Ramayana. 7. Tulsi Das. 8. Puranas. 9. The way of knowledge. 10. The way of Bhakti. 11. The way of action. 12. Shiva’s composite character. 18. Saivite thinkers and saints. 14. Sakta. 15. Tantras. 16. Sadhus. 17. Caste. 18. Hinduism at the cross roads. 19. Influence of Hinduism on the Western world. 20. Christianity and Hinduism. 1. Hinpvuism is what the Hindu does. It is the web of Indian life. Like India itself, it has no unity but of the spirit. Like India it is so com- plex that no one can know it thoroughly. Like the Indian mind, it refuses to lend itself to the categories of the Western mind and is totally in- different to accurate measurements and chrono- logical sequences. It is mythological and ritual- istic, philosophical and mystical, social and na- tional. 2. There are for us two methods of studying Hinduism. The first is to study the poetical litera- ture of India, both Sanskrit and vernacular, both 39 40 The Living Religions of the World epic and lyric. The second is to read books describ- ing Hinduism as it is today, written by compe- tent writers. It is wise to become well grounded in the first class of works before attempting the second. Otherwise we are apt to lose ourselves in a mass of unconnected data without the ability to classify and synthetize. And yet it is essential to remember that religion should not only be studied in religious texts but also in actual practice. We know very well that the reading of the Bible, of the Pilgrim’s Progress, and of the Imitation of Christ, would not give an adequate idea of what Christianity is. 3. Hinduism is the legitimate successor of Brahmanism as the latter was the continuation of Vedism. It may perhaps be called Neo-Brah- manism. It is difficult to say when Hinduism be- gan. At the time of Megasthenes, about 300 B. C., Rama and Krishna were already worshipped as gods. At the beginning of the second century B.C., they were certainly regarded as incarnations of Vishnu. The growth of Buddhism and its trans- formation, the growth of Jainism, the develop- ment of Upanishad doctrine, the composition of the Mahabharata the writing of a good deal of brahmanical literature, took place simultaneously. A Hindu is one born of Hindu parents, who marries a Hindu, respects the cow, practises cre- mation, reverences the Brahmans, and recognizes God in a certain form. This last statement may cover any form of religion from monotheism to Hinduism 4] animism and—strange to say—professed atheism. For practical purposes Hinduism may be said to include every native of India who is not Jain, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi, Jew, or Moslem. Hin- duism strongly influences, however, all these other religions and it may possibly in the future in- clude most of them, if not all, in so far as they are professed by the native born. As yet no Euro- pean may be a Hindu. The last census of India gave the number of Hindus as 234,000,000. The great gods of the Vedas and of the Brahmans have now been crowded out by the three hundred and thirty million gods of Hinduism. There is but one temple of Indra in India. The great gods of Hinduism are Vishnu in his different incarna- tions, and Shiva.* They go back to Vedic times, when Vishnu’s fame rested mainly on the three strides which he took as a sun god traversing the earth, the air, and the heaven. Shiva (Auspicious) is an euphemistic epithet given to the destructive Vedic storm-god Rudra, who was usually mal- evolent but also healing and beneficent. In the Hindu Pantheon the incomprehensible Brahman, the cosmic soul is manifested in a triad, Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva. Brahma, the Creator, mar- ried Sarasvati, the goddess of learning. Vishnu married Lakshmi or Shri, goddess of wealth. Shiva married Uma, also called Parvati, Durga, Kali. 1The name of this god is written by Indianists Siva or Civa, which is in either case pronounced Shiva. His religion is Saiv- ism, to be pronounced Shaivism. 42 The Living Religions of the World 4, The religion of Vishnu absorbed many other local cults and even Indian Buddhism itself. This absorption was made easy by the doctrine of the avatars, or incarnations of the god. It became an article of belief that Vishnu became incarnate ‘whensoever the Law fails and lawlessness up- rises ... to guard the righteous, to destroy evil doers, to establish the Law.” There are 24 avatars of Vishnu, the ten most important being the fish, the tortoise, the boar, the man-lion, the dwarf, Rama with the axe, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Kalki. The first three are now interpreted by prog- ressive Hindu thinkers as beneficent interventions of Vishnu before mankind evolved out of the ani- mal stage. The fourth represents an age of transi- tion, as also the fifth. The sixth is mankind as brute. The seventh is civilization with the god Rama coming with family life, with its affections, its trials, and triumphs. The eighth incarnation with Krishna solves the problem of the warfare of the world. As Buddha, Vishnu was compassion and redemption, and incidentally his religion ab- sorbed the remnants of Buddhism in India. As Kalki, the militant God Vishnu will come in the future to fight evil and unrighteousness. 5. The most influential book in India today is the Bhagavad Gita (Song of the Adorable Lord), a Vaishnava work probably written in the sec- ond century B. C. Reprinted editions, new trans- lations, and commentaries, are continually issued by Indian publishing firms. William von Hum- Hinduism 43 boldt ealled it “the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue.” Its appeal is declared to be uni- versal. The Gita is about as long as the fourth gospel. It forms one of the cantos of the un- wieldy epic of the Mahabharata. Before the dread- ful eighteen battles between the Kurus and the Pandavas, where 1,660,000,000 warriors were to be killed and less than ten men survived, Arjuna hesitates before the battle, thinking that it may well be fatal to the caste of the Kshatriyas (war- riors). Krishna, who acts as his charioteer, ex- horts him to lay aside these doubts. Souls are with- out beginning and without end. It is said com- monly that “the Upanishads are the cows, Krish- na is the milker, Arjuna the calf, and the nectar- like Gita is the excellent milk.” The philosophi- cal basis of the Gita is that as the atman (or self) is behind the fleeting senses and the body, so is Brahman (or the cosmic self) behind the fleeting objects of the world. The two are one. He is within all beings—and without— Motionless, yet still moving, not discerned For subtlety of instant presence; close To all, to each; yet measurelessly far; Not manifold, and yet subsisting still In all which lives. The light of lights, he is in the heart of the dark Shining eternally. Since that changeless spirit, and not the body as a temporary abode, is the essential thing in man, so there is after all no real slaying, let Ar- 44 The Living Religions of the World juna do the duty of his caste, which is to fight without heeding consequences. 6. The second greatest book in India is the Ramayana, also a Vaishnava book although its original form, the work written by Valmiki in the fifth century B. C., was a mere epic telling of the conflict between Rama, rightful heir to the king- dom of Ayodhia (Oudh), and Ravana, chief of the demons, whose stronghold was Ceylon, and who has ravished Sita, the tender, noble, and pure wife of Rama. In the later form of the epic, Ravana is an archfiend, who, having obtained from Brahma the gift of being invulnerable to gods and demons, filled the earth with wicked- ness, while the gods looked on powerless. They begged Vishnu to be born as a man, and thus to do away with Ravana. After his victory he es- tablishes in the royal city of Ayodhia a messianic age. Peace reigns among men and among the ani- mals of the jungle, the Brahmans receiving abun- dant gifts. “Faith is all-powerful and a mine of every blessing, but men cannot attain to it except by the fellowship of the saints. Now there-is no other meritorious deed in the whole world but this one, to worship Brahmans in thought, word, and deed. ” This statement of the Ranayane is significant. 7. There are many vernacular translations of this Sanskrit epic. The best known is the Hindu version of Tulsi Das, which is the Bible of a hun- dred million people in India. Tulsi Das lived from Hinduism 45 A. D. 1532-1623, a date when Nestorian influences may very well have already been at work in In- dia. “Place the name of Rama as a jewelled lamp at the door of our lips and there will be light, as we will, both inside and out.” says Tulsi Das. In earlier ages salvation may have been reached by contemplation, sacrifice, or temple worship, but “in these evil days, neither good deeds, nor piety, nor spiritual wisdom, is of any avail but only the name of Rama.” 8. The Puranas are sectarian poems giving an account of the origin of the world, genealogies and legends on the ages of the world. The word Pu- rana means “old” and so they can be looked upon as being at first “Books of origins,” a sort of Hindu Genesis. The earliest of these works go back to the fourth century A. D., but their text was largely interpolated by worshippers of the great Hindu gods, especially Vishnu and Shiva, so that most of the material is late. They are very widely read, both in Sanskrit and in numerous translations and adaptions. In the Vishnu we find the legendary life of Krishna, his mischief- making childhood, his amorous dealings with the Gopis or shepherd girls, and his love of Radha. Thus is Krishna, whom some call the Hindu Christ, unhappily connected with eroticism. It is true that his followers do sublimate these stories into mystical love, as Christian saints have done with the Song of Songs. The similarity stops there. The Song of Songs is not essential to Chris- 46 The Living Religions of the World tianity. The New Testament does not quote it. The Krishna stories are essential to Vaishnavism. There is necessarily something unhealthy in a conception of the divinity, when a Vaishnava like Tulsi Das needs to write in his Ramayana: “The fool, who, in the pride of knowledge, presumes to copy the gods, saying it is the same for a man as for a god, shall be cast into hell for as long as this world lasts.” * An incarnation which brings not a pattern of life as well as a teaching about the way of life is seriously lacking in value. 9. In Hinduism, as in Brahmanism, salvation means release from rebirth. In the Upanishads, deliverance is reached by mystic knowledge, but this was accessible only to the cultured. No truly Hindu religious system could give up this method but in Hindu theism we find an alternate way within the reach of all, that of bhakti or deyotion to God. Another way is the way of action, or Karma. To some extent these three ways are one, at least there is a unifying principle underlying them all, as a quest after the ultimate reality. Knowledge is mystic vision of the real. The Gita says: “There is ‘true’ Knowledge. Learn thou it is this: To see one changeless Life in all the Lives, And in the separate, One inseparable.” This knowledge is reached by purification, con- centration, meditation. In calm, stillness, and 4 Quoted by Sydney Cave, Redemption: Hindu and Christian, p. 222. Hinduism 47 silence the vision of the Truth comes when the mind, steadied like an unruffled lake, reflects the Wisdom from above. When Truth is thus seen, by a supra-sensorial knowledge, sense and self lose their power..: 10. As the way of Knowledge (jnana marga) is the right activity of the mind, so is the Way of Love and Devotion (Bhakti marga) the right activity of the emotional life. Krishna says in the Gita: “This is my word of promise, that he who loveth Me shall not perish.” . . . “Even if a man of evil conduct turns to Me with a sole and entire love, he must be regarded as a saint”... “Merge thy mind in Me, be my devotee, prostrate thyself before Me, thou shalt come even unto Me. I pledge thee my troth, thou art dear to Me . Come unto Me alone for shelter; sorrow not, I will liberate thee from all sins.” 11. The way of action (Karma marga) is right activity of the will. Says Krishna in the Gita: “There is ‘right’ Action: that which—being enjoined— Is wrought without attachment, passionlessly, For duty, not for love, nor hate, nor gain. “There is the ‘rightful’ doer; he who acts Free from self-seeking, humble, resolute, Steadfast, in good or evil hap the same, Content to do aright. 12. For the study of Saivism, we have no such outstanding work as the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana. In the South of India, among the Tamil-speaking people, who number eighteen 48 The Living Religions of the World millions, there are two collections of vernacular poems, the Devaram, written between 600 and 800 A. D. by three Saivite poets, and the Tiru- vachakam, written probably a century or two later by Manikka Vasahar, who stands even higher as a writer of religious poetry. These can best be studied in Hymns of the Tamil Saivite Saints, by F. Kingsbury and G. E. Phillips, in The Heritage of India series. As soon as it be- comes distinct in history Shiva worship is com- posite and so is the character of the god. He is first a destructive power in nature, a god of storm and lightening. He is a reproductive power of na- ture whose symbol is the linga (phallic symbol). He is a typical yogi, with matted hair, whose naked body is smeared with ashes, whose look was sufficient to reduce to ashes Kama, the God of Love. He is a learned sage, philosopher, and teacher. He is a wild mountaineer fond of drink- ing, music, and dancing. 138. These different aspects of Shiva, due per- haps to the assimilation of local gods, were subli- mated by the theological thought of his devotees. Shiva’s dance was interpreted as the source of all movement within the universe and the place of the dance was said to be in reality within the heart. The evil forms of Shiva were explained on the basis that even demons must be a portion of God. Shiva’s staying near the cremation-grounds was understood as his abiding in the heart of the devotee as the place where the self and his deeds Hinduism 49 are burnt away. There is a beautiful legend of Shiva drinking a stream of black poison which would have killed the gods while ambrosia was being made for them. The poison did not take away his life but his throat remained dark and swollen. So the poet Manikka Vasahar says to Shiva: “Abusing thee or praising—crushed by sin, and grieved am I. Lo, thou’st forsaken me, thou brightness on red coral hill, Thou mad’st me thine; didst fiery poison eat, pitying poor souls, That I might thine ambrosia taste, I, meanest one.” Shiva has no incarnations, although he often appears in visible form. His worship has attracted some of the greatest minds in India such as Shan- kara, and some of its most gifted poets. Shiva has won their hearts. Manikka Vasagar says: “The ignorant say, Love and God are different; None know that Love and God are the same; When they know that Love and God are the same, They rest in God as Love.” The Saivite philosophers are usually monists. It is remarkable that with some exceptions Sai- vite lyrics are not erotic like those of Krishna. It is the more remarkable because of the nature of the symbol of Shiva and of the fact that in many of his temples the devadasis, the hetairae of India, are associated with the worship of the god. 50 The Living Religions of the World Some of the Saints exalt bhakti above any other form of religion: “What though ye be great doctors?... What though the duty ye assume Of doling out cooked food and gifts? . . It boots him naught who does not feel The noble truth that God is love. “What though ye roam through lands and wilds? What though ye faultless penance make? What though ye give up eating meat And heav’nward look? None wins reward But those that praise the knowing Lord. “What though your views are proper, true? What though ye fast? Upon a hill What though ye make a penance great? What though ye bathe and show you fair? It boots none aught but those that feel That all through Time the Lord endures!” The religion of Shiva offers, like Vaishnavism, salvation to all and become often a practical monotheism. The god fills the horizon of the heart of his devotee so completely that there is room for no other god. Brahma fades away and Vishnu or Shiva, as the case may be, is the only God. Says Manikka Vasahar, the Saivite poet: “Indra or Vishnu or Brahm, Their divine bliss crave not I: I seek the love of thy saints, Though my house perish thereby. To the worst hell I will go, So but Thy grace be with me. Best of all, how could my heart Think of a god beside Thee?” 1Extract of a hymn of Appar, a Saivite saint. Cf. J. N. Farquhar, Primer of Hinduism, p. 124. Hinduism 51 “The sky, earth, wind, the light, our very flesh and life art Thou, Being art Thou, non-being too, Thou King, who see’st how Men dance like puppets with their foolish thoughts of ‘Tl’ and ‘Mine’ While Thou the cords dost pull. What words can tell Thy praise divine?” 14. The worship of Sakti (pronounce Shakti) or energy is found in connection with Shiva. The god is transcendent in himself and immanent by Sakti. The Sakti is the consort of Shiva. In Bengal, where Vaishnavism is the religion of one fourth of the Hindus, the other three fourths wor- ship Kali and Durga, who are both names or forms of Shiva’s consort. This form of religion is attended with animal sacrifices, licentious songs, and lewd dances. The worst forms of Sakta are the most degraded worship that has ever been. Not very long ago, human sacrifices were offered to Kali. The Thugs strangled travellers and other victims to her. There is associated with Sakta a good deal of magic. Saktism is usually divided into two sects, “the right-hand Saktas” who avoid the coarse and cruel forms of Kali worship, and the “left-hand Saktas” who meet in secret and partake of the five “real- ities” or elements of worship, the Sanskrit names of which begin with M: wine, meat, fish, parched grain (or finger signs), and women. A number of hymns to Sakti as “the Mother” have been translated in Thompson and Spencer, 52 The Living Religions of the World Bengali Religious Lyrics, Sakta, where one can see the loftier aspects of this religion. Ramprasad Sen, one of these poets, says “What is the worth of salvation if it means absorption, the mixing of water with water? Sugar I love to eat, but I have no wish to become sugar.” This is totally different from the point of view of Indian philosophers but represents a side of Hinduism which is far more conspicuous than literary sources would lead us to think. 15. The manuals describing Sakta worship and belief are called Tantras (webs or warps). Only a small part of this literature has been trans- lated. Besides much metaphysical speculation, the Tantras contain spells and whole pages of mys- tical syllables om, am, um. 16. Since the days of Alexander, foreigners coming to India have wondered at the respect shown to ascetics. These are now called sadhus, and differ from the hermits of early India in that they do not give up worship. Indeed most of them are Vaishnava or Saivite. The sadhus are wandering mendicants who perform pilgrimages. They usually have a rosary, a staff, and a begging bowl, often a pipe for smoking hemp and other drugs. They wear some- times a yellow robe, sometimes rags, sometimes a loin cloth. They usually have a sectarian mark on the forehead and carry a sect symbol, a trident if they belong to Shiva, a discus or conch shell if they are followers of Vishnu. Often does a sadhu Hinduism 53 lie on a bed of spikes, or he hangs head down- ward above a smoky fire, or wears an enormous weight of chains, or measures his length along the road for hundreds of miles. Few of these sadhus are scholars. Most of them are ignorant, many of them are coarse and immoral, no better than vagabonds. 17. Caste is an essential feature of Hinduism. It is idealized in the Bhagavad Gita. Educated Hindus claim that behind the idea of caste is the principle of ‘Noblesse oblige,” as Krishna taught Arjuna. Modern castes of Hinduism form three groups; first the twice born, who alone wear the sacred thread, and may be educated in sacred literature. They are divided in three castes, Brahmans or priests, Kshatriyas or rulers and warriors, and Vaisyas or business men and farmers. In North- ern India these three castes are quite distinct. Un- der them we find a large number of lower castes. In the South, there are very few Kshatriyas and Vaisyas so that the population is composed of Brahmans, Sudras (the fourth caste of the old Brahmanical system), and Panchamas or fifth- caste men, who are called also outcasts and un- touchables. The Pariahs are a large section of this group. Foreigners, even though they be rulers, are unclean. Only the first four castes may enter Hindu temples. Caste is closely connected with belief in trans- migration. A man is born again into a caste or 54 The Living Religions of the World subeaste according to the quality of his former deeds. Each member of the caste should perform his duty therein. As the Bhagavad Gita says (XVIII, 45): “According as each man devotes himself to his proper work does he obtain consummation.” | The chief of the rules of caste are: 1. No man may marry outside his own caste. Usually also he must marry within certain sub- divisions. 2. Certain foods are forbidden. Food should be prepared by people of determined caste or subcaste. 3. No man may eat with one of lower caste. 4. A man must follow certain occupations. 5. None may cross the ocean. This fifth rule has suffered so many exceptions that it is now gradually falling into abeyance. The penalty for breaking a rule of the caste may be a fine or excommunication which operates upon the descendants of the guilty men fore- ever. 18. Hindu social life shows unmistakable signs of impending disintegration. Its strength lay in the family, ancestor worship, caste, and in a religion which somehow combines the highest con- ceptions with animism, demon worship, and idola- try. But now India is passing through a tremen- dous economic and social crisis, deeper perhaps Hinduism 55 than anything happening in the Western world. She is now at the parting of the ways. For the sake of the ideal of the world, to which India has contributed so much, we hope that she will follow Gandhi, that embodiment of the best in Hinduism, rather than a materialism imitated from the West. 19. In spite of the haughty and sometimes unfriendly attitude of the Anglo-Saxon world towards Hindus, and especially towards Ben- galis, Hindu thought has strongly influenced our Western world. Theosophy is an Eura- sian hybrid faith reaching far through spir- itualistic societies. There are Vedanta mis- sionaries in England and America who move among the leisure class. They make few real converts, but their success is greatly magnified in India where stories have a knack of growing fast. The genius of Tagore has popularized among us a thoroughly Hindu conception of life, which would be felt more strongly, were we not living at a time of cursory reading and in a world of unretentive minds. Christian Science owes much to the Bhagavad Gita although quotations from that work have been suppressed since the publica- tion of the thirty-fourth edition of Science and Health. It is therefore quite evident that the study of Hinduism has for us a practical value.’ 1J. A. Maynard, Christian Theology and ‘Hindu Religious Thinking. Anglican Theological Review I, 1918, pp. 184-190. 56 The Living Religions of the World 20. What about the influence of Christianity upon India and her religion? Missionaries to In- dia have learned to be fair to Hinduism, some- times perhaps more than fair. Their aim is no longer to destroy, but to fulfil. They see in Christ “The Crown of Hinduism.” The best solution of the problem of bringing Christianity. to the heart of India is given in a little book by J. C. Winslow, entitled Christian Yoga.’ We have much to learn from India. We also think that she may learn from us that there should be accuracy in religious matters, and there should be no religion without a lofty and practical conception of ethics. The history of the past tells us clearly that India has not made as great a contribution to these aspects of religion as to mystical philosophy. SUPPLEMENTARY READING A. G. A. BARTON. Religions of the World. Chapter X. B. G. F, Moore. History of Religions. I, Chapters XIII-XIV. C. L. D. Barnett. The Heart of India (“Wisdom of the Hast” Series) London: Murray, 1913. J. N. FaArQuHAR. A Primer of Hinduism. Oxford Univer- sity Press, 1912. J. N. Farquuar. The Crown of Hinduism, Oxford Uni- versity Press, 1915. J. N. FarquHar. An Outline of the Religious Literature of India. Oxford University Press, 1920. 2J. A. Maynard, Hinduism and the Christian Spirit. Anglican Theological Review, VII, 1924, pp. 32-39. Hinduism 57 BE. Arnotp. The Song Celestial or Bhagavad Gita (can often be found second-hand). S. RADHAKRISHNAN, Indian Philosophy. New York: Mac- millan, vol. I (19238). S1sTER NivepitA (Margaret E. Noble) and A. K. Cooma- raswamy, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, Lon- don: Harrap, 1918 (uncritical, but gives point of view common in India. The obnoxious element in Hinduism is explained away, but that may be just as well.) QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. In what way can we assimilate the values found in the way of Bhakti? 2. Compare the ideal of ascetic inactivity and that of service. 3. What are the equivalents of caste found among us? Is their existence legitimate? ; 4. What valuable religious element is found in idol worship? How can it be preserved in a less objectionable manner? 5. What master forces do you find in Hinduism? How would you emphasize them in Western ways? CHAPTER IV THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA AND TIBET 1. China, a problem for religious statistics, syncretism. 2. Universism, Yang and Yin. Macrocosm and microcosm. 3. The war against specters. 4. Ancestor worship. 5. Value of universism for morality. 6. Taoism. 7. Lao-Tze. 8. Taoist Priesthood. 9. Higher aspect of Taoism. 10. Con- fucius. 11. His life. 12. The ideal of Confucius. 13. Wor- ship of Heaven. 14. The five relations—Reciprocity— Propriety. 15. Mencius. 16. Educational system. 17. An estimate of Confucianism—Contact with Christianity. 18. Buddhism. 19. The making of a bodhisattva. 20. Canon. 21. Polytheism. 22. Chinese Buddhism in Amer- ica. 23. Islam in China. 24. The outlook for Christianity in China. 25. Lamaism. 26. Bon. 1. THE REAL RELIGION of China is universism. It is the first religion of the Chinese race. It de- veloped under the influence of a strong conser- vatism, and even Buddhism had to bow to it in a nearly abject fashion. It is often said that Con- fucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are the three religions of China. A curious situation arises however when it comes to religious statistics. The population of China is about four hundred mil- lions. They should not be divided among the three 58 The Religions of China and Tibet 59 systems since they belong to each of the three in some way and really to a fourth one. Thus China may be said, from one point of view, to contain four hundred million Buddhists and that makes Buddhism the religion of five hundred million people on the face of the earth. Or, from another point of view, China contains four hundred mil- lion Confucianists and nearly as many Taoists. The Chinese are a remarkable race, but we ob- ject to their being counted three times. As a matter of fact, Confucianism is really limited to the literary class, although it provides the ethical and social leaven of China. The priests of Buddhism are the only real Buddhists. The statistical problem of Taoism is still more dif- ficult. It is nearer to the basic religion of China than Chinese Buddhism, but in a way the Taoist priests are the only real Taoists. All the Chinese revere Confucius. All the Chinese, except the Christians, worship occasionally in Buddhist temples, and make use of the Taoist priests. The Emperor was the high priest of the State religion and yet he had in his own palaces Buddhist and Taoist shrines. The Chinese have no word for religion. Of the two words used, the first denotes rites and customs, the second means teaching. Pidgin Eng- lish (pidgin means business) is the dialect spoken by the lower class of Chinese who come into con- tact with Europeans. In this language God is called Joss, a corruption of the Portuguese Deos. 60 The Living Religions of the World Hence the term Joss-house for temples, Joss pidgin for ceremonies, Joss paper for gilt and silver paper placed in them, Joss stick for incense stick. The superficial psychology of these terms shows that Chinese religion is easily misunder- stood by a stranger. Chinese politeness is not absent from religion. “Sacrifice,” says the “Record of Rites,” “should not be frequently repeated, for such frequency is indicative of importunateness, and importunate- ness is inconsistent with reverence. Nor should they be at distant intervals, for such infrequency is indicative of indifference.” Thus prayer avoids direct petition, which would seem to be degrading to the worshipper and embarrassing to the god. On the other hand, religion admits of the noisiest and the crudest performances for the driving away of evil spirits. 2. De Groot, who is the foremost authority on the religion of China, says that it was from the very first based on “an implicit belief in the animation of the universe and of every being or thing which exists in it.” He called this form of religion “Universism,” a shorter term than uni- versalistic animism. Its basis is that there are two opposite cosmic souls (or breaths), the Yang and the Yin.’ Yang is light, warmth, life, heaven. Yin is darkness, cold, death, earth. They are both 1As a mnemotechnic way of remembering which is which, I usually say to students that a comes before i, and light is pre- ferred to darkness. The Religions of China and Tibet 61 divided in an indefinite number of spirits. The good spirits (shen) from Yang, the specters (Kwet) from Yin. The Tao is the cosmic order, “the way of the road of the Yin and the Yang.” To this Tao of the world there answers, as the microcosm to the macrocosm, a Tao of man. Happiness comes from the harmony of both. The cosmic Tao has two parts, or souls, the T’ien Tao (or Tao of Heaven), and the 7’ tao (or Tao of Earth). “Man,” says the classic book Li-ki, “is a product of the beneficial operation of Heaven and Harth, or of the copulation of the Yin and Yang, and the union of a Kwei with a shen.” Death is a division. Not only man but every animal, plant, object, has a double soul. The only god of the Chinese is the Ti’en Tao. It is an anonymous, cosmic god. 3. The world is crowded with spirits, good and bad. The spirits animating the sun, the moon, the stars, the wind, the rain, the clouds, fire, the earth, the sea, the mountains, the rivers, the rocks are gods, as are also souls of deceased great men. The aim of popular religion is to in- duce the gods to defend man against the specters. There is a science of magic which renders demons harmless. It is based on analogy. For instance, it is a well known fact that the specters are strong at night, but flee the light of day. No doubt the crowing of the cock heralding the day is a signal for their departure. Hence the use of 62 The Living Religions of the World the blood of a cock, if a man suddenly swoons because a devil has seized him. Hence also the use of earthenware roosters on top of houses, and | of images of cocks on New Year’s day. Similarly the triumphal progress of Yang in the spring happens at the time of the blossoming of peach trees. Hence the use of red paper to drive away specters. Another method of fighting specters is with fire crackers and incense, with drums, cymbals, gongs, and horns. The making of noise is a meri- torious work. Since all that is normal, correct, and proper responds to the cosmic Tao, it neutralizes the power of specters and drives them away. Hence the value of classical writings, the anti-spectral influence of the litterati. A page of a classic, and especially of the almanac, the red ink-pencil used by a mandarin, the impression of his seal, are powerful defences against specters. The classics are the best lullabies for restless babies. Reciting them in the darkness gives courage and secures safety. No wonder that the demons howled with dismay when writing was discovered! 4, The worship of ancestors leads to elaborate and costly funerals, with the sacrifice of paper silver, paper slaves, paper concubines. Special attention is paid to coffins and vaults. Corpses, coffins, and graves when prepared according to rule, become seats of Yang-stuff and provide amulets. When a specter makes a baby cry at The Religions of China and Tibet 63 night, burning a piece of some old coffin next to the baby will pacify him. Coffin wood makes good musical instruments, doubly efficacious against the specters. This aspect of universism makes for morality. Ghosts pursue murderers or even a bad judge. One takes better care of the aged and of the dying for fear of their revenge after death. The founding of a family is clearly the duty of every man so that his soul will be catered to. A man will be afraid to drive another to suicide for fear of having a terrible enemy in the world of specters. 6. Taoism is universism systematized. It in- cludes all that Confucianism disliked. It is closely connected with magic, medicine, and geomancy. It permeates Chinese art, poetry, folklore, and the drama. It has a mystic philosophy, most difficult to understand. 7. The personality of Lao-Tze (born in 604 B. C.), the “Old Master,” commonly regarded as the founder of Taoism, is partly legendary. He was probably an imperial archivist, a profession which would tend to make a man conservative, even if the genius of race were not so. How far the teaching of Lao-Tze is a restatement of ideas already expressed in China is an open question. He probably knew some form of Upanishad teach- ing. The naturalistic pantheism of Tao may per- haps be derived fram the monistic pantheism of the Upanishads, Lao-Tze wrote a small book, the 64 The Living Religions of the World Tao Teh King (the Classic of the Way and of Virtue). “To know and yet (think) that we do not know is the highest (attainment),” writes. the sage; “not to know (and yet think) we do know is a disease ... He who overcomes men has force; he who overcomes himself is strong; he who knows he has enough is rich.” Lao Tze emphasizes freedom from desire. Violent action is futile. The sage is indifferent. He only grasps “the one,” which is Tao, the universal principle of being. Morality is conformity to the Tao. This point of view explains why Taoism developed into a quest after magical powers. 8. There is a Taoist pope called “Master of Heaven,” whose dignity is hereditary, and a priesthood both celibate and married. Their chief work is exorcism. Buddhism strongly influenced Taoism, which borrowed from it the belief in transmigration. Lao-Tze himself was deified and forms a triad with Pan-ku (the Great Beginning or Demiurge) and the “Jewelled Sovereign Lord.” 9. In spite of its polydemonistic features Taoism may be more congenial to Christianity than Confucianism. It certainly is more religious. For instance, Chuang-tze (circa 330 B.C.) writes: “Human knowledge is limited, and yet by going on to what he does not know, man comes to know, what is meant by Heaven or God. He knows Him as the Great Mystery; he knows Him as the Great Illuminator; he knows Him as the Great The Religions of China and Tibet 65 Equitable; he knows Him as the Great Infinite; he knows Him as the Great Hope; he knows Him as the Great Destiny—this is ultimate knowl- edge. The Great Unity is everywhere ... The ultimate end is God. By conformity comes enlight- enment. He is the revolving center. He is the be- ginning . . . From of old comprehension of the Law (Tao) must be preceded by the comprehen- sion of Heaven or of God.” It has been main- tained that the Tao may well be understood as the Logos.’ 10. Kung-Foo-Tze (Kung the Master), whose name was latinized by the Jesuit missionaries into Confucius, was not a religious reformer. He was partly a skeptic, certainly a man who mis- trusted his ‘imagination. He claimed to be “a transmitter and not a maker, believing in and loving the ancients.” His interest lay in rules of conduct and in the preservation of the state. 11. He was born in 551 B.C. in the province of Shantung. He became a teacher, and later, for a time, a government official, becoming a teacher again because his sovereign did not live up his ideal of a ruler. He died a poor man in 478 B.C. 12. The ideal of Confucius was study of the past. He said: “I was not born a man of knowl- edge; I am naturally only quick to search out the truth, from a love for the wisdom of the 2G. Reid, A Ohristian’s Appreciation of Other Faiths, p. 38. The second chapter of this work is the most sympathetic study of Taoism that we know. 66 The Living Religions of the World ancients ... I am not presumptuous enough to set up for a wise and benevolent man. It can be said of me, however, that I am not weary in well doing, and that I am untiring in teaching others ... I have gone all day without food and all night without sleep in order to think. I find it unprofitable, however, and look upon study as preferable.” Confucius avoided conversation on the super- natural. “We cannot as yet,” said he, “perform our duties to men; how can we perform our duties to spirit? . . . We know not as yet about life; how can we know about death?” He believes that all men should worship the spirits of their ancestors, but going beyond their circle was flat- tery. Prayers consisted in a virtuous conduct. “My prayers,” said he, “were offered long ago.” 13. The Emperor alone should worship Heaven. The Altar to Heaven is a beautiful structure of white marble in the open air, surrounded by a large park. There the Emperor performed a simple and beautiful service on the morning of the win- ter solstice. The Altar to Earth is built of dark colored marble, also in the open, surrounded by another park. There the Emperor worshipped in the morning of the summer solstice both for himself and as the representative of the people. He was called Son of Heaven and worshipped. as such. With the proclamation of the republic in 1911 came the end of this phase of Confucian- ism. Yuan Shi Kai tried to reéstablish the Im- The Religions of China and Tibet 67 perial rites but his attempt was only an usur- pation and it failed. Today the Altar of Heaven in the sacred palace is not only disused but sadly in need of repair. 14. According to Confucius, man’s nature is good. All that is needed is a right understand- ing of social relations and of the rules of pro- priety. There are five natural relations, namely, of sovereign and subject, husband and wife, parent and child, elder and younger brothers, friend and friend. The three mainstays of society are the subservience of wife to husband, child to parent, subject to sovereign. “A noble-minded man has four rules to regulate his conduct: to serve his parents in such a manner as is required of a son; to ‘serve his sovereign in such a manner as is required of a subject; to serve his elder brother in such a manner as is required of a younger brother; to set the example of dealing with his friends in such a manner as is required of friends.” Ethics is summarized in reciprocity. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” Another basic principle is propri- ety. From that there is no appeal. 15. Mencius (871-288 B.C.) developed the speculative element of Confucianism. He empha- sized the natural goodness of man and his inborn sense of propriety. He had even less interest in religion than Confucius. 16. The old educational system of China was Confucianist to the core. It granted official po- 68 The Living Religions of the World sitions after competitive examinations. It brought about the formation of a class of litterati who ruled the country, and whose very existence was an element of cohesion and stability. The high regard of Confucius for a golden age in the past explains why knowledge of the ancient classics was the content of education and the test of real achievement. 17. The value of Confucianism lies in its suit- ability to Chinese ideals, in its moral code, in its full recognition of the power of law. Its weak- ness lies in the fact that it makes man the center . of the Universe and ignores God, the spiritual needs of man and progress. His system leaves out the power of the ideal; it does not satisfy the eternal quest of man for the motive of virtue. Christianity has much to give to the Chinese if it accepts, as it may very well do, Confucianism as a lasting contribution to the development of the world. Western customs are not better than Chinese customs and should not be presented as such. Indeed they are, as we know very well, no part of Christianity. Moreover it is well to remember that the Chinese are quite convinced that the Westerners are only nouveaux riches in the realm of learning and culture. Confucianism is not tolerant. It may cease to persecute Buddhism and tolerate Islam because Buddhists and Moslems make no scruple to offer secrifices to the ancestors, and because, even in the case of the latter, religious propaganda is not The Religions of China and Tibet 69 conspicuous and does not disrupt family relations. Christianity has been persecuted in the past largely because converts have refused to worship the ancestors, to perform the elaborate rites of mourning, and have thus disregarded the most elementary rules of filial piety. One questions whether missionaries have acted wisely when they appealed to consuls, ambassadors, and the argu- ment of foreign guns, to protect their converts for breaking laws that are fundamental to Chi- nese society. 18. Universism also permeates Chinese Bud- dhism, which is now nineteen centuries old. In the third year of his reign, A. D. 61, the Chinese Emperor Ming-ti is said to have had a dream in which he saw a golden figure with a halo flying from heaven and hovering over his palace. One of his ministers told him of a divine person wor- shipped in India and called Buddha. An embassy was sent to India and returned in A. D. 67 with books, relics, and two monks. In 71 A. D. a Bud- dhist temple was built. Since then Buddhism has at times been persecuted and at other periods has prospered. Chinese Buddhism formed many sects of Mahayana, some based on Indian sects, some purely Chinese. Hinayana literature was also in- troduced, but never became popular. The great principle of Mahayana, the order of the world of Dharma, was identified with the Tao. Dharma manifests itself by the universal light emitted by an infinite number of Buddhas. 70 The Living Religions of the World To be a monk is to be a consistent Buddhist. Only, in China the monks do not beg. Whenever it is necessary, the abbot of a Buddhist monastery sends several brethren to collect for the commu- nity. The begging bowl is only an ordination sym- bol. 19. The process of becoming a Buddha is by a series of monastic ordinations. The first stage in salvation is becoming a deva or saint; Literally the word means god. It is reached by men who enter the sangha, promise to keep the ten com- mandments of Buddhism, and receive the tonsure and the garment of poverty. A day or two later, they are admitted to the order of mendicants, each candidate receiving an alms-dish. They promise to obey the two hundred and fifty monas- tic rules of life. That makes them arhats. After a day or two more, they confess their sins, per- form an ablution, put on new clothes, and swear to obey the fifty-eight commandments of the Mahayana contained in the Sutra of the Net of Brahma. They recite a long litany, calling on the names of three hundred buddhas, prostrating themselves at each name. Then the other monks stick over the shaven heads of the ordinands a number of bits of charcoal. These are lighted by the ordaining monks so that they burn into the scalp. Thus does one become a bodhisattva. The seventh month of the year is devoted to propitiary readings for the departed. The laity can be promoted to the dignity of bodhisattva The Religions of China and Tibet 71 after their death if the sacred Buddhist books are read by the monks, in the presence of the corpse, every seventh day up to seven times seven. The beneficent influence claimed by Buddhism on the welfare of the dead is what saved it in China. 20. The high value set upon the sutras or sa- cred books for that purpose explains why they increased so that the Buddhist Canon translated into Chinese is exceedingly bulky. One set was sent to England by the Japanese government in 1874. It filled seven boxes. The books would fill 110 feet of shelves. Their number is about two thousand. The location of the monasteries or of pagodas is often due to geomancy (fung-shui). Their pres- ence on the mountains, together with the sacred reading of the monks and their magic practices, guarantees a regular rainfall. In these temples are found many statues of buddhas and bodhi- sattvas. Chinese Buddhism emphasizes not only the hope of a blissful heaven but also the fear of the most gruesome hells, providing for the gen- erously minded a way to escape from these. 21. Chinese Buddhism is polytheistic. The prin- cipal gods are Kwanyin, ‘‘she who hears the cries of men,” and her father Amida (a corrupt form of the Sanskrit Amitabha, “the boundless light’), the divine Lord of Western Paradise. There are also statues of Sakyamuni or Sakya (the name Gautama is not used in Mahayana) and of Mait- reya, the Buddha to come. Worship is performed 72 The Living Religions of the World with incense, the offering of flowers and cakes, the chanting of litanies and sacred texts, the repe-. tition of short invocations and of mystic vowels on the rosary. Confucianists were hostile to Buddhism because they thought the practice of celibacy anti-patriotic and sinful, the building of monasteries and pa- godas a mere waste of money, teaching about heavenly bliss absurd gossip, the doctrine of re- wards and punishments after death an infringe- ment of the Rights of the Son of Heaven and of the Mandarins. This led to fierce persecutions of Buddhism and to its decay in China, in spite of the remarkable spirit of adaptation of that re- ligion, and of its assimilation of a whole pantheon and pandemonium taken from Chinese univers- ism. 22. Chinese Buddhism in America has been also declining, especially since the establishment of the republic. At the time of the San Francisco earthquake (1906) there were nearly 100 places of worship. Nearly half of these were destroyed and only a few were rebuilt. No list of members is kept. No sermon is preached. The worshipper prays privately before one of the shrines. He offers incense sticks, which must be in number one or three, or a multiple of three; two red candles, and some sacrificial papers. On special occasions wine is offered in tiny cups in rows of three, six, or nine, with as many chopsticks between the The Religions of China and Tibet 73 cups. Steamed chicken or roast pig is offered at the same time. The worshipper usually wants to consult the gods on a certain course of action. He makes his request, bowing to the floor. The answer is given by lot with pieces of bamboo or of wood. Three gods chiefly are worshipped, namely Kuan-Ti, the God of War and upright- ness, a deified general who lived circa 200 A. D., the God of Fortune, and Kwan-yin, the Goddess of mercy. The Joss houses are usually in close connection with the Tong associations. Needless to say, Americans of European race are uninfluenced by them religiously. In 1907 a Confucian society was organized in Chinatown, New York. It holds weekly services which are fairly well attended. Hymns praising Confucius are sung and sermons based on his teaching are preached. The aim of the society is to emphasize the religious aspect of Confucianism as representing a national ideal. 23. It is very difficult to estimate the number of Moslems in China proper. It is probably eight millions. There are about two million more in Chinese Turkestan. They are mostly converts or the descendants of converts. Prohibition of pork, alcohol, and opium is uncongenial to the Chinese. Moslems keep very much to themselves. Their usual zeal for the faith shows itself in buying children of the poor, who are educated as Mos- lems. There is no open propaganda of Islam. In 74 The Living Religions of the World dress, in language, and in most of their customs, the Moslems are scarcely different from the other Chinese. 24, Christian missions in China have had a chequered career. Terrible persecutions of the Roman Catholic missions took place in the past. Protestant missions suffered much during the Boxer rebellion. Christianity is making a large number of converts now so that there are in China about three million Christians, two-thirds of these at least being Roman Catholics. There is a good deal of opposition both among the Chinese educated in Western ways and among the ignorant, who resent the ways of the “foreign devils.” The Chinese care little for imported de- nominationalism. A truly national Chinese Church has a great future because there is no fear that the Chinese will ever neglect the ethical aspect of religion. 25. The official religion of Tibet is well named “Jamaism” because of the lamas (monks, priests), who keep the laity in subjection. The latter are characteristically called “the givers of alms.” Lama means “unsurpassed.” The chief ruler is the Grand Lama, who is looked upon as a Living Buddha. During the last century the monks were said to number one third of the population. This proportion is probably not so high today. Tibetan Buddhism is of the Mahayana type. 26. It is strongly mixed with Tantric features which came over from India with Buddhism it- The Religions of China and Tibet 75 self. Besides, Bon, the old religion of Tibet, still lives in shamanistie practices, devil dancing, and other demonologist features. Today, Bon is the main religion of about two-thirds of the Tibetans, including most of the agricultural people. The nomads and the city-dwellers of Central and West- ern Tibet are more faithful to Buddhism. Even there prayers are mostly addressed to devils. The Tibetans are famous for their mechanical development of prayer. There are all kinds of prayer wheels, even many automatic ones. A famous Sanskrit spell constantly repeated is Om mani padme Hum (Om! the jewel in the lotus, Hum), which gains entrance into the Para- dise of Amitabha, by securing the favor of the god of Mercy, “clad with eyes,” who regulates transmigration. Bon priests say the formula backwards. Tibet is a forbidden land to Europeans. There are very few Christians in the country. They have been severely persecuted. They are found only in Bon sections of Tibet. SUPPLEMENTARY READING A. G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter XI. B. G. F. Moore. History of Religions, I, Chapters I-IV. C. J. J. N. De Groot. The Religion of the Chinese. New York: Macmillan, 1910. 76 The Living Religions of the World J.J. N. DE Groot. Religion in China, Universism a Key to the Study of Taoism and Confucianism. New York:. Putnam, 1912. W. E. Sootuitit. The Three Religions of China. Oxford University Press, 1924. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Would it be a good policy to allow Christians to acknowl- edge Confucianism ? 2. What will be the effect of the economic and social changes taking place in China on the five relations? 3. What should be our attitude towards ancestor-worship ? 4. Is it right to apply extra-territoriality to persecuted Chinese Christians? 5. Do you think that Chinese classics could be used for pub- lic reading in Christian worship, instead of, or together with, the Old Testament? CHAPTER V THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN 1. Japanese syncretism. Tolerance. 2. Shinto. 3. Its mythology. 4. Its pantheon. 5. Shrines. 6. Worship. 7. Priesthood. 8. Ancestor worship. 9. Butsudo. Coming of Buddhism and Chinese culture. 10. The renaissance of Shinto. 11. Character of Japanese Buddhism. 12. Secta- rianism. 18. Pure Land sects—Jodo—Shin. 14. Holy way sects—Nichiren. 15. Temples—Worship. 16. Canon. 17. Bushido. 18. Buddhist Mission to America. 19. Chris- tianity in Japan. 1. THH RELIGIONS or JAPAN form today a syn- cretism which has been fifteen centuries in the making. Its two main elements are Shinto, or the way of the gods, and Butsudo, or the way of Buddha, who is called Butso by the Japanese. To these must be added Confucianism in its Ja- panese form. Shintoism and Buddhism have not a common organization, and their rituals, which are very different, are performed in separate temples. Indeed some Japanese will claim to belong to either of these religions, but most of them be- long to both, and most certainly all of them have 77 78 The Living Religions of the World beliefs which pertain to both. There is, of course, a large element among the educated classes which declares itself agnostic and, doing away with re- ligion, would teach ethics on the basis of Neo- Confucianism. Another important group would build up an idealistic religion of science. The common religious syncretism of the Japa- nese is made possible by the accommodating char- acter of the two religions of Japan. In them, we do not find the idea of a Church as a definite body of believers of which one becomes a part by pro- fession of faith or through the medium of a cer- tain sacrament. The public exercise of religion consists in attendance at certain ceremonies, which may be performed, either at a buddhist or a shintoist sanctuary. The average person does not care to investigate which divinity has a home in it. The great educator Fukuzawa, whose works have reached a circulation of eight million copies, even declares that the difference between relig- ions, like Buddhism and Christianity as that be- tween green tea and black tea. He was in favor of adopting Christianity as the religion of Japan. It would of course be a bitter pill, he admitted, and it would be unwise to chew it before swallow- ing it. Again, he said that religion is like cloth- ing that one puts on and off. One should be eclectic and tolerant. Attending a Christian ser- vice is like shaking hands, or offering your arm to a lady, or dancing. All these are equally ab- The Religions of Japan 79 surd, but are done for the sake of courtesy and adaptation. | This attitude of the majority of thoughtful ed- ucated Japanese is found also in the words of Kunitake Kume: “In what religion, then, do I believe? I cannot answer that question directly. I turn to the shinto priest in case of public festi- vals, while the Buddhist priest is my ministrant for funeral services. I regulate my conduct ac- cording to Confucian maxims and Christian mor- als. I care little for external forms, and doubt whether there are any essential differences, in the eyes of the Deity, between any of the relig- ions of the civilized world.” 2. Shinto is the old religion of Japan, and yet its very name is Chinese, and was given to it only after the introduction of Buddhism, and to distinguish it from the latter. “The way of the Gods” is called in Japanese Kami no michi, but this name was not used until later. 3. The mythology which is so intimately con- nected with Shinto is found in two histories of old Japan, the Kojiki and the Nihongi, written in the eighth century A. D., at a time when Chinese influence was already at work. Indeed the second is written in Chinese, and the first in a mingled Chinese and archaic Japanese with a Chinese preface. The cosmogony explains by the courtship and marriage of Izanagi-no-Kami (the Deity male who invites) and Izanami-no-Kami (the Deity Female 80 The Living Religions of the World who invites) the birth of islands, and of gods who are forces of nature, seasons, wind, sea, rain, food, and fire. The birth of the Fire Prince causes the death of his mother Izanami. The father killed the child, and his blood and body gave rise to more nature deities. Izanami went to the under- world where Izanagi pursued her and saw her putrified body giving birth to the eight thunder gods. Izanagi escaped this horrible place. When he purified himself, he gave birth to other divini- ties. 4, Shinto was in its early form the worship of nature-forces. The development of its nationalist aspect is modern, but it goes back to early mythol- ogy, where the ancestor of the Japanese dynasty is shown to be a grandson of the sun-goddess. This element of Shintoism is what saved it from complete absorbtion into Buddhism. It was too valuable a theory of divine right to be put aside, when Buddhism conquered Japan. The gods of Shinto are called Kami, a term which really means “high, exalted” and is also applied to demons. The gods form two main groups, deified nature powers and deified men. The Sun goddess is the queen of Heaven; she rules the gods. Next to her is the god of the Earth. The fox-god Inari was originally the god of rice and cultivation. He is represented as an old man riding a white fox. The foxes of his great temple near Kyoto are greatly respected. Deified heroes form the second class of Kami. The Religions of Japan . 81 Among these are found the Mikados. An Ameri- can who had discovered coal mines in Japan, and who died a few years ago in Philadelphia, was officially made a Kami, even before his death, as a token of gratefulness. The number of the gods is commonly said to be eight millions. 5. All foreigners visiting Japan are struck by the beautiful gateways (torii) with delicately curved lines which mark the approach of sanctu- aries. The word means “bird-perch,” and the torii may have been originally a roost for cocks, who heralded the sunrise. The little shrines on the domestic godshelf also have a diminutive torii. Shinto shrines are very small and built in the primitive way of old Japan. The roof is thatched or shingled, never tiled. The wood is not painted. The worshipper approaches the front room, but does not enter, in order to call the attention of the god to his prayers, he rings the bell or strikes the gong, and claps his hands with reverence. He also deposits an offering in the money-box. The small room in the back is a holy place which is entered only by the priests. There the sacred sym- bols are kept. There is no preaching and no con- gregational worship. In the court, there is a laver for ablutions, and often a stage for sacred panto- mimes and dances. There are more than fifty-eight thousand of these shrines. Only one of these has the three symbols of the gods, the mirror, the sword, and 82 The Living Religions of the World the crystal. All the others have the mirror only. Its meaning is found in the words of the Sun- goddess: “Look upon this mirror as my spirit, keep it in the same house and on the same floor with yourself, and worship it as though you were worshipping my actual presence.” Others say that the mirror represents the human heart, which re- flects the very image of Kami, when it is clear and clean. There is no Shintoist creed, no theology. A leading priest has said, “If shinto has a dogma, it is purity.” Dr. Griffis says “Mikadoism is the heart of Shinto.” An important aspect and value of Shinto is its connection with craftsmanship. The making of a sword was a religious act; each blade was made with prayer. Such was the case generally in the art of Japan which the whole world admires, and which owes so much to Shinto and its sensibility to the divine in nature. 6. The daily ritual is very simple. It consists in simple offerings of food and drink made morn- ing and evening. At festivals more food is offered with silk and other presents. There is also music and dancing. There is a good deal of mirth with- out boisterousness. Very important are the puri- fication ceremonies which take place twice a year. 7. The priests follow other occupations as well. Their dignity is hereditary. They wear an old form of court dress when officiating. The high priesthood of the Mikado is an essential part of his office. He is called “Incarnate Kami,” but it The Religions of Japan 83 must be remembered that kami does not exactly mean God. 8. In his book on Ancestor worship, Professor Hozumi says: “We firmly believe that our ances- tors, other than their bodies, do not die. They are immortal. The spirits of the fathers and mothers who loved their children still live in the other world and watch over their descendants.” Shin- toist ancestor-worship was strongly influenced by Chinese religion. By the virtue of certain Shin- toist prayers, the soul of the departed partly dwells in the tablet of the ancestors where their names are written. This tablet is kept in a white wooden box called the “house of souls.” Before it are offered daily rice, sake (rice wine), cakes, fruit, and flowers. Photographs are sometimes used now instead of tablets. Responsible persons in the Japanese govern- ment have often declared that Shinto is not a re- ligion. Their aim has been to make it possible for every Japanese, whether Christian or Buddhist, to be a Shintoist as well, namely to be loyal to the Mikado. Even the worship of the Emperor’s picture is now Officially called only “reverential salutation.” It is quite evident that Shintoism cannot be missionary. 9. Butsudo, the way of the Buddhas, is Japan- ese Buddhism. In 552 A. D., a petty king of South- west Korea made an effort to form an alliance with the Mikado. At that time the Chinese owned a good deal of northern Korea and the Japanese 84 The Living Religions of the World had a foothold in the South. The Korean King sent to the Emperor of Japan, a golden statue of Buddha, several sacred books, and other pres- ents, and, naturally, some priests. With these went a letter praising the Buddhist religion and setting forth its evident destiny to travel con- stantly eastward. At the Mikado’s court there was at once a strong opposition to the foreign relig- ion. The chief minister, Soga no Iname, being al- ready well disposed towards the religion of the West, it was finally decided that he would be al- lowed to turn his house into a temple. To Soga’s house the statue was therefore taken. The coming of a plague of smallpox was taken as a sign of displeasure of the gods of the land. Therefore the temple was destroyed and the statue cast into a canal. Then a flash of lightning from a cloudless sky set fire to the Imperial Palace, a manifest sign of Buddha’s anger, and permission to re- build the temple was given and the statue was fished out of the canal and duly set in the new sanctuary. A civil war which followed saw the growth of the power of the house of Soga, which raised to the throne the empress Suiko Tenno (593-628 A. D.) with the prince Shotoku Taishi as regent and heir apparent. Until then, there had been very few converts, but now, under the protection of Shotoku, Buddhism became the court religion. Shotoku was learned in Chinese philosophy and literature as well as in Buddhist doctrine. He The Religions of Japan 85 sent a number of Japanese students to China to study these as well as the science of government. The progress of Buddhism was at first suffi- ciently slow to be a healthy growth. After Shoto- ku’s death (621 A. D.) there were 46 temples with nearly 1,400 monks and nuns. Shotoku was made a Buddhist god. The returned students took to heart the work of the reformation. In 645, great reforms were enacted and the change was as rapid as, and more thorough than, that which has taken place in Japan within the last two generations. A centralized government was established, with a legal system, a code in the Chinese language, a census, taxes, a bureaucracy. Thus with Buddhism came a whole civilization, Chinese writing and literature, arts and laws, architecture, sculpture, painting, and the art of casting bronze. The only thing that could not be imported was the state religion of China for ob- vious reasons. Shintoism was not sufficiently organized. Its simple beauty akin to poverty faded before the pomposity of the new religion, with its philosophy, its ethics, its ritual, its hierarchy, and its orders. Moreover Buddhism was a very adaptable sys- tem. There was found at once room for the gods of shinto into the manifold incarnations of Buddha. Buddhist and Shinto ceremonies were combined, and that was all to the advantage of the former, because most of the clergy of Shinto 86 The Living Religions of the World were Buddhist, except in a few sanctuaries such as Ise and Izuno. | 10. Only its mythology, so closely connected with the ruling families of Japan and with na- tional origins, kept Shinto alive until there was, circa 1700, a Renaissance of Shinto connected with a nationalist and literary revival. The best known of the leaders of this movement were Motoori (1730-1801) and his disciple Hirata (1775-1841)..The champions of the creed of old Japan studied the old manuscripts and imitated their language. They extolled the power of the Mikado, who had only the shadow of power un- der the Shogun, until the revolution of 1868 rein- stated the Mikado as a real Emperor. From the Shintoist temples they removed and destroyed Buddhist sanctuaries and sacred ornaments. The Buddhist temple were often given to the revived religion. Even Buddhist influences on Jap- anese art were under the ban. 11. Buddhism is not being persecuted any more and it is even claimed that all the Japanese (ex- cept the Christians, who are still few in number) are Buddhists. Japanese Buddhism belongs to the Mahayana type, but has been thoroughly modified to meet Japanese requirements espe- cially in the teaching of the sects who have arisen since the twelfth century. The Japanese are not a pessimistic people and therefore did not really grasp the doctrine of karma and of redemption as Buddha proclaimed it. The Religions of Japan 87 The historical Buddha is rather unimportant. Far more important is the celestial and ideal Buddha called Amida (Amitabha), and among the Bodhisattvas, the goddess of mercy, Kwannon. There is a multitude of lesser gods and demons, including gods of Shinto. Belief in a real trans- migrating soul is common. 138. Japanese Buddhism forms a large number of sects. There are fifty-eight of them, plus thir- teen combined with Shinto. This, with the twelve pure Shinto sects and the many denominations of Christians, makes Japan a country of religious sectarianism. Were it not for the character of the Japanese people, it would create a serious con- dition. The sects of Buddhism form two groups. In the “Pure Land” sects, which were called by six- teenth century Jesuit missionaries a kind of Bud- dhist Lutheranism, man is saved by divine grace. In the “Holy Way” sects, he is saved by his own strength. 14. There are three “Pure Land” sects of Bud- dhism namely Jodo, Shin, and Ji. They teach that those who have directed their thought to be born in the wonderful Buddha country of the West, even though they have repeated the thought only ten times, shall obtain their desire. In that won- derful land, free from hindrances, they develop into Buddhahood. The Jodo sect teaches salvation by faith. Whosoever calls upon the name of Amida shall.be saved. It is meet therefore to repeat con- 88 The Living Religions of the World stantly Namu Amida Butsu, Adoration to Amida Buddha. Jodo does not reject Kwannon and other Buddhas. Some even say that the repetition of the formula given above without faith brings sal- vation. The Shin sect (the True sect) is very similar to Jodo. It rejects the worship of any god save Amida. It teaches that asceticism is not necessary to salvation. It rejects also vegetarianism. Priests may marry and need not live in monasteries. They preach sermons and have a beautiful ritual. The clergy wear their priestly garb only when engaged in a religious function. Shin has no deep meta- physic. Its priests find it easy to accept the re- sults of modern science. Shin, like Jodo, offers salvation to the layman. There are ten branches of the Shin sect. The Shin sect has reached mostly the humbler class of Japanese, but it has taught them to be generous to the Church, and it main- tains missions to China and Korea. 15. More orthodox Mahayana Buddhism is found in the sects of the Holy Way (or Pure Path). They emphasize contemplation and meta- physical knowledge. The Zen sect prescribes post- ures and methods of meditation, sitting motion- less, thinking of not thinking. In most “Pure Path” sects, salvation is only for monks. All that the layman can hope is for a chance to be reborn as one. The Nichiren (lotus of the sun) sect, so-called after the name of its founder, is a reactionary The Religions of Japan 89 and intolerant “Holy Way” sect. Those who serve Amida, said Nichiren, belong to hell, the disciples of Zen are devils. The preaching of Nichiren led to religious wars with Shin. For hours the faith- ful, accompanied by a drum, recite Veneration to the Sutra of the mysterious Law of the lotus flower. This book is a manifestation of Buddha. There are many gods. Images are worshipped, including, naturally, the statue of the founder as an incarnation of Buddha. 16. There are 71,750 Buddhist temples, far larger and more gorgeous than the shinto shrines. In some of these the services are very beautiful. The vestments of the priests, the pictures and images, the clouds of incense veiling the altar, the intoned service, seem to be an Eastern adap- tation of Roman or Greek Catholic ceremonial. Worship is theoretically congregational in so far that the faithful may attend. There are 181,100 Buddhist priests. 17. The sacred books, even the Tripitaka, have never been translated into Japanese. They remain in Chinese which only the educated can read at all. The canon is very bulky (6771 volumes). Each sect emphasizes certain parts of it. It is some- times placed on a revolving book case. By making the book case turn, one is supposed to have ac- quired as much merit as by reading it. Such an idea is perfectly logical in Buddhism. 18. Bushido has been truly called the Soul of Japan. It means literally Fighting—Knight— 90 The Living Religions of the World ways, that is, to say the Precepts of Chivalry. The sources of Bushido were several. Buddhism gave to it a quiet submission to Fate. From Shinto came loyalty to the ruler, love of country, and reverence for the ancestors. Confucianism gave to Bushido the five moral relations. The books of Confucius and Mencius were studied by the sam- urai until they were assimilated in mind and character. The Bushido as an ethical code empha- sized rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, truthfulness, honor, loyalty, self-control. The Bushido ideal of woman was domestic and ama- zonian as well. Revenge and in some cases suicide (harakiri) were the duties of the samurai. The Japanese compare Bushido to the ideal of the gentleman which has done so much to form the character of Britishers. 19. There has been an attempt to make Bud- dhism known to Americans. In 1899, a mission was established in San Francisco by members of the Shin sect. Several Americans were admitted into the Church. A few more were only interested. The movement has remained exotic so far as Americans of European descent are concerned. More successful has been the shepherding of Ja- panese residents in America. In 1916 there were eleven Japanese Buddhist temples and one shinto shrine in the United States. They declared 5,639 members. There is a bishop at San Francisco with twenty ministers under him. In the Ha- waiian islands, we find another bishop, 54 minis- The Religions of Japan 91 ters, and 35 temples. Regular services are held usually on Sunday afternoons. There are day schools and Sunday schools and Young Men’s Buddhist Associations. 20. Since 1889, conversion of a Japanese to Christianity is no longer a criminal offense as it became after the terrible persecution which destroyed the Jesuit missions in the seventeenth century. More liberty and more consideration is granted to Christianity in Japan than in many European countries. In 1920, among the 49 million and a half of Japanese (not including Korea, Formosa, and the other dependencies), there were 230,000 Chris- tians, 115,250 being Protestants, 79,000 Roman Catholics, and about 36,000 Greek Orthodox. The progress of Christianity is relatively slow. There is a good number of well educated Japanese min- isters. The Anglican Church of Japan, which has now 17,000 Church members, is developing a native episcopate. The Greek Orthodox mission has been depending on a native priesthood from the very first and has been very successful. The way of approach for Christianity would seem to be through the teaching of the “Pure Land” sects, although the influence of Christian- ity on the development of these sects is as yet unproved. The immediate disappearance of the veneration of the Japanese for the ancestors of the Mikado and for their own ancestors is not a thing to be 92 The Living Religions of the World desired. It would disrupt the whole social fabric of Japan. The Japanese do not like to hear un- sympathetic remarks on their form of patriotism. Bushido should not be condemned. It has done too much for Japan in the past. It will, of course, evolve. It need not disappear. SUPPLEMENTARY READING A. G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter XII. B. G. F. Moors. History of Religion. I, Chapters VI-VII. C. G. W. Knox. The Development of Religion in Japan, New York: Putnam, 1907. Tasuku HaArapDA. The Faith of Japan. New York: Mac- millan, 1914. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of religious syncretism ? How does Japan illustrate them? 2. Would you justify the Japanese point of view on ancestor worship? 8. To what extent could Christianity be able to accept a modified Shinto? Would it be different from the position of the Church in regard to patriotism and nationalism among us? 4. What should be our attitude towards the Buddhist sects more especially of the ‘“‘Pure Land’? 5. What can we do to remove misunderstandings between the Anglo-Saxon and the Japanese? What can our religion teach us in this problem of international and interracial relations? CHAPTER VI JUDAISM 1. Extension of Judaism. 2. Ashkenazim and Sephar- dim. 8. Sabbath. 4. Synagogue service. Ministry. 5. Char- acter of the prayers. 6. The Eighteen Benedictions. 7. Passover. 8. New Year. 9. Day of Atonement. 10. Juda- ism as a racial religion. 11. Shema. 12. Reform Juda- ism. 18. Creeds and Judaism. The thirteen articles of Maimonides. 14. Shorter creeds. 15. Canon. 16. Talmud. 17. Education of children. 18. Marriage. 19. Prayer for the dead. 20. Mixed marriages. 21. Zionism. 22. Christian attitude towards Judaism. 1. Ir 1s HARD to tell when Judaism began. It cannot be identified with the exilic religion of Israel although we may rightly claim that the synthesis of the various elements which are found in Judaism was the result of the Exile. This first stage of Judaism belongs properly to the ancient religion of Israel and as such remains ouside of the limits of this work. There are about 14,000,000 Jews in the world today, 3,300,000 of these being in the United States; half of this number in the state of New York. Judaism is commonly misunderstood. Relig- 93 94 The Living Religions of the World iously, it is a thorough-going ritualistic system exceedingly complex. It is a lay religion for a nation of priests. It has also social, national, and racial aspects. 2. From the point of view of ritual use, the Jews are classified as Ashkenazim (German and Russian Jews) and Sephardim (formerly Spanish and Portuguese, now North African and Near East Jews). There are very few Sephardic Jews in America. Racially the Jews do not show a uniform physi- cal type. They have no common language. Hebrew is now being revived as a spoken tongue in the Jewish settlements of Palestine. The average Jew in America does not know Hebrew better than the average Roman Catholic knows Latin. Ash- kenazim Jews speak a German dialect called Yiddish, written in Hebrew characters. Sephar- dim Jews commonly use Spanish, Arabic, or Per- sian, written also in Hebrew letters. It is a re- markable fact that in countries where Jews are assimilating a foreign culture to the detriment of the old time religion, as in America, France, or Italy, there is no literature in English, French, or Italian using Hebrew characters. 3. The Jews reckon the days from sunset to sunset. The seventh day of the week is the sab- bath, which begins on Friday at nightfall. Sab- bath is a day of joy and of complete rest from labor; the Mishnah enumerates thirty-nine classes of prohibited work. The prohibition of lighting a Judaism 95 fire is a conspicuous feature of Sabbath obser- vance. Many ways were found to make Sabbath regulations less irksome, one of them being the employment of non-Jews. However, such may not be strictly used unless the work they perform for a Jew, be supposedly not done for themselves. 4, The Sabbath is sanctified by attending ser- vices at the synagogue. Each synagogue is an in- dependent organization essentially democratic, as there is no real, active priesthood in Judaism. The minister of the synagogue is a layman. Cer- tain parts of the service belong by right to the descendants of priests and levites provided they have preserved their lineage unsullied. These priests and levites are now engaged in secular oc- cupations. Rabbis are learned laymen. Their pres- ence it not necessary at a service, even on a Sab- bath day, when the minister, or Hazzan, whose principal merit is the quality of his singing voice, is far more important than the rabbi. The latter is primarily an authority on practical questions bearing on law and ritual, and on purity of food. All services of the orthodox are conducted in Hebrew and Aramaic. They are very long and often are conducted with a great deal of speed. The psalms form the groundwork of the service. The reading of the scripture lessons occupies a central part in the service. The scroll of the Law is taken from the “ark” (a kind of tabernacle) and carried processionally through the synagogue with great solemnity. It is a great honor to be 96 The Living Religions of the World asked to read—or rather to make an attempt to read—the lessons. In orthodox synagogues the whole Pentateuch is read yearly on Sabbath mornings and many other sections of the prophets and holy writings which form the rest of the Old Testament. 5. Prayers and readings are cantillated or chanted. There is very little preaching and only on special occasions, The following is one of the oldest prayers of the Liturgy, which is said at an-early part of the service. The later accretions to the perk are given between parentheses: “With abounding love (Ahavo Rabo), hast Thou loved us, O Lord our God; with great and exceeding compas- sion hast Thou taken compassion on us. Our Father, our King (for the sake of Thy great Name), for the sake of our fathers who trusted in Thee, and whom Thou taughtest the statutes of life (that they might perform Thy will with their whole heart), be also gracious unto us. (Our Father, merciful Father, compassionate, have merey upon us. Place in our hearts intelligence that we may understand, consider, hearken, learn, teach, keep, perform, and accomplish with love all the words of Thy Law.) Enlighten our eyes in Thy Law. Make our hearts cleave to Thy commandments. Unite our hearts to love and fear Thy Name, that we be not confounded (or put to shame, and that we stumble not for ever and ever). For we trust in Thy holy Name (great, mighty, and aw- ful). We rejoice and exult in Thy salvation. (May not Thy mercies and Thy great loving kindness abandon us for ever and ever. Hasten and bring us blessing and peace from the four corners of the whole earth. Lead us securely to our Land.) For Thou art the God who workest salvation, and Thou hast chosen us from all Judaism 97 peoples and tongues, and Thou hast brought us (O our King), nigh unto Thy great Name in Love, to praise Thee, to proclaim Thy Unity, and to love Thy Name. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who hast chosen Thy people Israel in Love.” This prayer presents the characteristics of most of the prayers in the liturgical services. 6. Benedictions form a conspicuous part of Jewish ritual both public and private. We shall give the text of the eighteen blessings as they were used in the first century. There are now nineteen, because of the addition of a twelfth one, which is not so ancient. The text used today is longer, owing to accretions. * THE EIGHTEEN BENEDICTIONS (Shemoneh Esreh) (Blessings of Praise) “1. (Patriarchs.) Blessed be Thou, O Lord, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, the Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth, our Shield and the Shield of our fathers; blessed be Thou, O Lord, Shield of Abraham. “2. (Powers, or Resurrection of the dead.) Thou art mighty, living for ever, nourishing the living, quickening the dead. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who quickenest the dead. “3. (Sanctification of the Name.) Thou art holy and Thy Name is dreadful, and there is no God be- sides Thee. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, the holy God. (Petitions) “4, Mercifully grant us knowledge of Thee, our Father, understanding and insight of Thy Law. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who grantest knowledge. 1 We give the “Highteen” as they are found in P. Fiebig, Jesu Bergpredigt p. 51, where the early Palestinian text is given. 98 Seyi 6 Fa tte “9, “10. yl B La “13. “14. “15. The Living Religions of the World Lead us back, O Lord, to Thee, that we may return (or repent). Renew our days, as of old. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who takest pleasure in repen- tance. Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned against Thee. Wipe our transgressions away from Thine eyes. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who forgivest abundantly. Look upon our affliction, take our side in our con- © flict, and redeem us for Thy Name’s sake. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, Redeemer of Israel. Heal us, O Lord our God, from the afflictions of our hearts. Cause to rise up a healing for our wounds. Blessed be Thou, who healest the sick of Thy people Israel. Bless for us, O Lord our God, this year, and satisfy the world with the treasures of Thy bounty. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who blessest the years. Blow the great trumpet for our liberation, and lift a standard to gather our exiles. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who gathered the dispersed of Thy peo- ple Israel. Restore our judges as in former days and our counsellors as in the beginning. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who lovest righteousness. To the slanderers may there be no hope. May the Kingdom of haughtiness speedily perish. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who humblest the haughty. Upon the righteous proselytes may Thy mercies be stirred. Bestow upon us a good reward with those who do Thy will. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, reliance of the righteous. Have mercy, O Lord our God, upon Jerusalem Thy city and upon Zion the dwelling place of Thy Glory. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, God of David, who buildest Jerusalem. The sprout of David Thy servant speedily cause Thou to sprout up. Uplift our horn through Judaism 99 Thy salvation. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who causest the horn of salvation to sprout up. “16. Hearken, O Lord our God, to the voice of our sup- plication, for Thou art a merciful and compas- Sionate God. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who hearest prayer. (Thanks) “17. (Service.) Be pleased, O Lord our God, to dwell in Zion, and may Thy servants serve Thee in Jerusalem. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, whom we serve in fear. “18. (Thanksgiving.) We thank Thee, O Lord our God, for all the blessings, the kindness Thou hast shown to us. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, whom it is good to praise. “19. (Blessing of the priests.) Bestow Thy peace on Israel Thy people and bless us all together. Blessed be Thou, O Lord, who makest peace.” Many congregations do not use the twelfth benediction. Often several benedictions are com- bined. The group of intermediate benedictions (4-16) may be abridged in a few lines (Habi- nenu). The prayer books are now usually printed with the Hebrew (or Aramaic) and the translation on opposite pages. These translations are often very free. A rationalizing tendency has evidently been at work and the vigor of the Hebrew prayers has not always been preserved. Public services cannot be begun without a minimum attendance of ten men. A boy above thirteen is reckoned as a man. Women are not counted to form this quorum. Indeed in another 100 The Living Religions of the World series of benedictions formerly used at public service by all the orthodox congregations, we find the following sentences: Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, King of the world, who hast not made me a Goy (heathen, Gentile). Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, King of the World, who hast not made me a slave. Blessed be Thou, O Lord our God, King of the World, who hast not made me a woman. For the women the end of this blessing is said in this form: “‘who hast made me according to Thy will.” 7. The year has twelve or thirteen lunar months. The Passover is celebrated in the middle of the month of Nisan (March-April). Although the festival is duly commemorated in synagogue services, it is emphatically a family affair, and has had a remarkable influence in preserving the spiritual beauty of Hebrew home life. This family service is called Seder by the Ashkenazim. Un- leavened cakes, water cress, and horse radish, representing the bitter herbs, are eaten. There is also on the table parsley and a bowl of salt water to represent the hyssop and blood of the First Passover, and a mixture of nuts and apples to imitate the clay which had to be made into bricks. A roasted bone represents the paschal lamb, which is not eaten since the destruction of the Temple. This meal is the occasion of a kind of catechetical teaching on the meaning of the rite with a young child asking the set questions. Wine is on the table with a cup or glass for each member of the family and an extra glass for the prophet Elijah. Judaism 101 8. The two great Jewish holidays are New Year’s Day and the Day of Atonement. New Year’s Day (Rosh hashshanah) commemorates the creation of the world. It is celebrated on the first and second days of Tishri (September- October). It is also the annual day of Judgment when Satan accuses men. God opens the Book of Records and fixes who shall live and who shall die. Hence the New Year’s salutation, ‘“Mayest thou be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for a happy year.” An important feature of the day’s services is the blowing of the shofar (usually translated trumpet), which really represents a horn. The ten days between New Year’s Day and the Day of Atonement are penitential days. 9. The tenth of Tishri is the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) when a final account is taken and fates are sealed. On the eve of the day of Atone- ment the cantor chants the well known prayer Kol mdre, set to a marvellously plaintive melody. This is the translation of it: “All vows (Kol nidre), obligations, oaths, and anathe- mas, whether called konam, konas, or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be deemed made of none effect; they shall not bind us nor have power over us. The vows shall not be reckoned vows; the obligations shall not be obligatory; nor the oaths be oaths.” In the nineteenth century this prayer was ex- punged from the prayer book of many Hebrew 102 The Living Religions of the World congregations. Its character may easily be mis- understood, unless one understands its historical setting and remembers all that Jews have had to suffer in the way of unjust treatment and per- secution. On the Day of Atonement itself (Yom Kippur) the services are continuous. Very few Jews fail to attend. Services are held not only in synagogues but in theaters and halls. The ritual is very impressive. It consists of confessions of sins and prayers for forgiveness. Many of these are set to beautiful ancient tunes. The day is one of strict fast. ( 10. Judaism is a racial religion. “The Jewish people,” says K. Kohler, “stand in the same rela- tion to Judaism as the body to the soul.”* This relation makes it very difficult for non-Jews to understand certain features of Judaism. For in- stance a Jew may be breaking all the precepts of the Torah, apparently profess the most complete unbelief, and yet remain a Jew, unless he joins some other religious body. 11. The creed of Judaism is most nobly ex- pressed in these words: “Hear, O Israel; The Lord is our God, the Lord is One” (Deut. 6, 4). The word “hear” is in Hebrew Shema. Hence this sentence with the words that follow it is called the Shema. There is a wonderful legend about the noble Rabbi Akiba. As he was being tortured by the Romans, the death of a martyr came to him at the time of the Shema and, as he said it, dwell- 1 Jewish Theology, p. 7. Judaism 103 ing on the word “One,” his soul was taken to God. This creed is the glory of Israel, and the religious treasure he gave to the world. It is well that it be repeated frequently at public services. 12, There are in Judaism two tendencies, the first expressing the spirit of legalistic national- ism, strongly emphasized in orthodox Judaism, the second that of prophetic universalism, which is clearly set forth by Reform Judaism, but has ever been to some extent maintained by the leaders of Jewish thought. In America, Jews are sometimes classified as orthodox or reformed. Owing to the undogmatic character of Judaism, the distinction cannot al- ways be made easily. There are only two hundred congregations of the “Reform” type in America, but their rabbis are often men of great influence outside of their group. The practices of a large number of non-Reform congregations scarcely savor of orthodoxy in the eyes of Jews of Galicia and Lithuania. In England and France, Judaism is generally conservative. In Germany, both types are found. Indeed the Reform Movement began in Germany and has been most successful among American Jews of German origin. The difficulty of defining the line of cleavage between orthodoxy and “Reform” is due largely to the fact that congregations are independent and autonomous. The reformed Jews are less bound than the orthodox to ritualistic observances. The services 104 The Living Religions of the World are largely, sometimes almost entirely, in Eng- lish, and are very similar to Protestant services, with preaching taking the central part. In all re- formed Temples, men and women sit together, while in strict orthodox synagogues the women must sit in a separate room or gallery. A num- ber of Reform congregations worship on Sunday. In Reform congregations, the rabbi is a preacher and minister in the Protestant sense of the word. Organs were used at first only by Reform congre- gations. There was a great deal of opposition among the orthodox, because playing any musical instruments was forbidden on the Sabbath, and also because music is not proper, when the thought of the destruction of Jerusalem should be upper- most. It was also realized that it was an inva- sion of Christian customs into Judaism. Now the organ is used even in many non-Reform congre- gations. In Reform congregations men do not keep their hats on during the services, neither do they wear the tallith or prayer-stole. Not only in Reform Judaism, but among a growing number of Jews, there is a disregard of dietary laws. However there is a large number of Kosher shops selling meat of “pure” animals, slaughtered according to Jewish methods. In America, the custom of shaving the beard and the side locks is almost universal and Jewish women no longer commonly hide their hair under a wig. 13. Creeds, as such, are foreign to the spirit of Judaism. Because of controversy with Christian- Judaism 105 ity, and especially with Islam, creeds were evolved. The most famous was written by Maimonides (1135-1204) which is found in many Hebrew prayer books. (The Creator and His Attributes) “1. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, is the Guide and Creator of all creatures; and He alone was, is, and will be the Maker of everything. “2. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, is One; that there is no Unity like unto Him in any way; and that He alone was, is, and will be our God. “3. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, is Incorporeal, that He has not any corporeal qualities, and that nothing can be compared unto Him. “4. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, was the first and will be the last. “5. I believe with perfect faith, that to the Creator, blessed be His Name, to Him alone it is proper to pray, and there is none besides Him to whom it is proper to pray. (Revelation ) “6. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true. “7, I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of our Teacher Moses, peace be with him, was the truth, and that he was the father (i. e. chief) of the wise men, both of those before him and those after him. “8. I believe with perfect faith that all the Torah (or Law) which is found at present in our hands, is that which was given unto our Teacher Moses, peace be with him. 106 The Living Religions of the World “9. I believe with perfect faith that this Law will not be changed and neither will there be any other law from the Creator, blessed be His Name. (God’s Providence and Justice) “10. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, knoweth all the deeds of the sons of men and all their thoughts, as it is said, He who hath formed their hearts altogether, He knoweth all their deeds. “11. I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His Name, rewards those who keep His com- mandments, and punishes those who transgress His commandments. (The Messiah) “12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and although He tarries, I wait never- theless every day till He comes. (Future Life) “13. I believe with perfect faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead, at the time when it will please the Creator, blessed be His Name, and exalted be His remembrance for ever and ever. Amen. 14. Joseph Albo in his Book of Foundations written in 1425 reduced the Hebrew creed to three articles bearing respectively— 1. on the essence of the Name (i. e. of God); 2. on the Torah of Moses which came from heaven, 3. on rewards and punishments (of human actions). American Reform Judaism shows a clear ten- dency to reject belief in the resurrection and to Judaism 107 replace it by belief in the immortality of the soul. 15. The Holy Scriptures of the Jews are called by Christians the Old Testament. The Torah (or Pentateuch) is ascribed to Moses by the conser- vative. It is really the only canonical collection, in the strict sense of the term. In a broader sense, the prophets and the Hagiographa are also canon- ical. Orthodox Jews—with the exception of the Karaites—are so strongly influenced by their tal- mudie point of view in their understanding of the Holy Scriptures that it is rightly claimed by Christians that the Talmud has crowded the Bible out. However, the Christian accusation of “legal- ism” often aimed at Jewish theology is not al- together fair and is much resented. 16. The Talmud (Teaching) is a bulky collec- tion of legal and ritualistic matter, preserved at first orally. It is composed of the Mishnah (Repe- tition) explaining the Torah in detail, the oldest element, and of the Gemara (learning). It is us- ually printed with a medieval rabbinical com- mentary (Rashi) and additions (Tosafot). The study of the Talmud is in great honor among the strictly orthodox Jews. It consists in commit- ting the books to memory. American conditions do not allow Jewish children to become talmud- ists and, moreover, a talmudic scholar is far from being so highly regarded among American Jews as he is in eastern Europe. In certain Hebrew communities, particularly 108 The Living Religions of the World the Sephardim of North Africa and the Hasidim (or Jewish pietists) of eastern Europe, cabalistic science, especially as it is embodied in a medieval book called the Zohar, competes with the Talmud as a religious study. 17. Circumcision, performed at the age of eight days, marks the entrance of a child into the Jew- ish fold. It is no longer practised by all the Jews. The Reform rabbis do not enforce it upon adult converts to Judaism. Very early the relig- ious education of the child begins in great se- riousness and thoroughness, except of course when American conditions are allowed to inter- fere. On the first Sabbath after he has reached the age of fourteen, the boy is called upon to read one of the Scripture lessons for the day (about a chapter) or at least the benediction before and after the reading. He is then a Bar Mizwah (son of the commandment) and it is incumbent upon him to fulfil all the religious duties of a man. Reform congregations substitute for this ceremony an annual confirmation service on the Day of Pentecost. The intellectual achievements of the Jews are well known. They are not due to a superior racial ability—which remains to be proved—but to the fact that Jews appreciate the value of education and of intellectual achievements, more than any other racial group. 18. Marriage is a duty for all. Celibacy is a sin. Divorces are apparently less common than Judaism 109 among Christians although theoretically easier. The purpose of marriage is the procreation of children. 19. Prayer for the dead is a duty of the orphan. It is an Aramaic prayer called Kaddish, which at first had nothing to do with the departed, as can be seen by its translation: “Magnified and sanctified be His great Name through- out the world that He hath created according to His Will. His kingdom come in your life time and within your days and within the days of all the house of Israel, speedily and at a near time. And say ye Amen. Blessed, and praised, and glorified, and exalted, and extolled, and honored, and magnified, and lauded, be His Holy Name. Blessed be He, though He be far above all bene- dictions and hymns, praises and consolations, that are uttered throughout the world. And say ye, Amen.” The Kaddish is used frequently and on many occasions. | 20. Marriage with non-Jews is distinctly dis- couraged by the rabbis, who never officiate at such a marriage. These unions do of course take place quite often now, and the result is almost invariably that the children will not be brought up in Judaism. 21. It has already been noticed that Judaism is closely connected with the hope of the resto- ration of Palestine as the Jewish homeland. The desire of orthodox Jews has ever been to die in the Holy land. This wish led even to the growth of the practice of placing with the body of the dead, who did not have the privilege of being 110 The Living Religions of the World buried in Palestine, a little tool similar to a fork, so that the departed could dig his way under the earth and creep through until he should emerge into the Holy Land of Israel, for Jerusalem is the only city where the dead shall blossom forth like grass. More recently this hope has taken the form of Zionism, a movement fostering the return of Israel to the home-land. The Zionist colonists of today are not generally orthodox, and have little religion, if any. The movement has created a great deal of apprehension among Syrian Ar- abs, who form nine tenths of the population of Palestine. Jewish capitalism in America and Europe so generously supports philanthropical enterprises, that naturally it backs up Zionism with immense resources. One seventh of the cul- tivable land of Palestine has already been bought from native owners. The situation is fraught with many dangers, racial, economical, and religious. 22. It seems quite evident that orthodox Ju- daism cannot survive American conditions. Re- form Judaism is the only system which can pre- serve religion among Jews. All Christians should wish it success, not only because some of the Re- form rabbis are a real power for righteousness in our midst, but because, if Reform Judaism fails to hold the allegiance of the Jewish community to some measure of its ancestral religion, America will have to face a tremendous problem. No Chris- tian should therefore attack Judaism, more espe- Judaism 111 cially if he remembers that Christ and all the Apostles belonged to Israel. Anti-semitism, which is a misnomer for Anti-Judaism, is unworthy of real Christianity. If there is a certain clannishness among Jews, they are not the only group showing such a spirit. If assumption of superiority made by a Jew grates upon others, they must remember that no race is guiltless on that account. If Christians practise the Sermon on the Mount, which is Judaism sublimated, Jewish clannish- ness will thaw out. If we acknowledge the dignity of Judaism as a religion, we shall hear less often the unfounded statement made by Jewish preach- ers that Christianity compromised with faith in the Divine Unity. If we do not emphasize segregation there will be less said about a “Jew- ish race,” which is a figment of the imagination and a “Jewish nationality” which is incompatible with the modern idea of undivided loyalty to one’s country. Jews are learning to forgive us for the evil done their race in the past in the name of the Church. Many Jewish leaders are proud of the fact that their race produced “the most fasci- nating figure in history ... combining what is best and most mysterious and most enchanting in Israel.” Jewish scholars have removed from editions of the Talmud several passages which PES ees Enelow, A Jewish View of Jesus, New York, Macmillan, 1920. This is an excellent book, which should be in every Ameri- can public library, doing its silent work in removing misun- derstandings. 12 The Living Religions of the World gave offence to Christians. Jewish congregations are learning to leave out of their prayer book, as we saw above, prayers which are now meaningless in a more tolerant world. Christians should be equally willing to wipe away prejudices and an- cient errors. The greatest of virtues is charity, as we learn from the only Apostle who had what answers to the training of a rabbi. The question of Christian missions to the Jews is a very difficult one. Sections of our great cities where the poorer Jews congregate are dotted here and there by small missions usually of a “fundamentalist” type. Their presence is much resented by enlightened Jews. Their methods have not always been good and their success has been negligible in the number of converts and some- times disappointing in their quality. - On the other band there has been a constant drifting away from Judaism into Christian Churches, more especially, perhaps, when no spe- cial attempt has been made to reach the Jews as such. It is quite evident that Christian Churches should welcome Jews, who no longer find in the faith of their fathers an inspiration and a help in right living. Christian ministers should be able to show them that, far more than Talmud and Zohar, the New Testament is an inspired appen- dix to the Old. The prophetical arguments used by the older Christian apologetic were crude. They embodied however an abiding truth, namely that Christ performed in Himself the best of all Israel, Tani ass 113 its hopes, its prophetical spirit, its priestly at- tempt at purification, the searchings of heart of its thinkers. Christ was Israel, and Israel still finds itself in Him. Apologetics thought out on this basis, and expressed without a proselytizing spirit, should give to the Jews detached from their ancestral religion the clear impression that they are quite welcome in a Church which was founded by Jewish idealists nineteen hun- dred years ago, and has, after all, pretty well preserved the real spiritual treasures of Judaism. One of the needs of Christian theology today is a modern presentation of the relation of the New Testament to the Old, preserving the es- sential values of the traditional view. Unless we find it, we run the danger of stultifying the Christian faith. Until we find it and know how to present it, the problem of our relation with Judaism will be often distressing to our minds and hearts. SUPPLEMENTARY READING A. G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter V. B. G. T. Moore. History of Religions. Vol. II, chapters III and IV. E. Levine. Judaism. London, Jack. New York: Dodge. C K. Kouter. Jewish Theology. New York: Macmillan, 1918. W. O. E. Orstertey and G. H. Box. The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue. 2d ed., London: 1911. 114 The Living Religions of the World Article on Judaism in Hastings’ Hncyclopedia of Relig- ion and Ethics. The Jewish Encyclopedia a work of great accuracy and fairness, though naturally of unequal value, and is a mine of information. Controversial Literature, of polemic character, is not recommended. ‘Antisemitic’ publications had bet- ter be ignored, if one wants to understand Jewish religion so as to give the hand of fellowship to one’s neighbor. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. Can you find in the prayers for the Sabbath quoted here some of the essential features of Judaism? 2. How can one defend or attack the point of view that Christianity rather than Judaism fulfils Old Testament religion? 8. Can a racial religion be justified today? 4. Can you illustrate from your observation the statement that Judaism has fostered education ? 5. How can we show in a practical form our sympathy for the efforts of Reform leaders of Judaism? CHAPTER VII ISLAM 1. Arabia before Islam. 2. Preparation for Islam. 3. Life of Muhammad. 4. His character. 5. The Quran. 6. Hadith and Sunna. 7. The five pillars of Islam. 8. Faith. 9. Prayer. 10. Friday observance. 11. Mosques. 12. Alms- giving. 13. Fasting. 14. Pilgrimage. 15. Holy war. 16. Predestination. 17. Eschatology. The Judgment. 18. Heaven and Hell. 19. The Caliphate. 20. Treatment of other religions. 21. Sects of Islam Shiah Wahhabis. Ahmadiyya movement. 22. Sufism. 23. Brotherhood. 24. Worship of saints. 25. Mahdism. 26. Duties of Moslems. 27. Missionary activity. 28. The future of Islam. 29. Mos- lem Missions in Christian lands. 30. Christian missions in Moslem lands. 1. Istam (surrender, submission), or as most Europeans and Americans prefer to call it erro- neously, Mohammedanism, is the only living grow- ing, and universal religion in the world besides Christianity. The Moslems or Muhammadans, as Westerners prefer also to call them, number about 250,000,000. They are found mostly in tropical and sub-tropical lands. The home of Islam is Arabia. It is a vast but poor land. The only fertile parts are in the moun- 115 116 The Living Religions of the World tains of the South (Yemen) and the oases scat- tered through the rest of the country. Both town-dwellers and nomads among the Arabs believed in many gods and jinns (or spir- its). They worshipped idols, sacred stones, and trees, and also the stars and heavenly bodies. The most important sanctuary was at Mecca, a city built in a desolate valley but on an important trade-route, around the Kaabah, an old sanctuary of cubic form, in the wall of which was imbedded the sacred “Black Stone.” There was much gam- bling, drunkenness, and sensuality. Daughters were unwelcome and often buried alive.at birth; “The best son-in-law is the grave” was a common prov- erb. The position of women was low. The Arabs on the whole took very little interest in religion and their moral sense was undeveloped. Inter- tribal warfare and plundering was the normal condition. 2. A number of Arabian tribes were partly Christianized in the sixth and seventh centuries. There were five bishoprics on the Persian gulf. There were also some strong Churches in South Arabia, which was for a time under the domina- tion of Christian Abyssinia. The Jews were strong there as well and they had also settled in the northern oases of the Hedjaz itself. In Mecca there were several individuals called Hanifs who were monotheists, and had probably some ac- quaintance with Judaism, and even with Chris- tianity. They were not organized, neither were Islam ; Ut7 they aggressive in their hostility to the current idolatry. To what extent these various religious forces prepared the ground for Islam is an open question. It seems certain that Muhammad’s faith was influenced by Judaism or Christianity only in minor points. The essential was his own. 3. Muhammad (The Praised) was born in Mecca about 570 A. D. He belonged to the tribe of the Quraish. His father died before his birth, and his mother, when he was an infant. The orphan was brought up, first by his grandfather, and later by an uncle. The family was poor, but had seen better days. At the age of twenty-five, Muhammad married a widow named Khadijah, fifteen years older than he, of good birth and wealthy. She bore him several children, two sons who died in infancy and four daughters. Their married life was very happy, and while Khadijah was living, a period of twenty-four years, Muhammad took no other wife. After her death he still spoke so much of their mutual love, that Ayishah, who was then his favorite wife, was more jealous of the old woman whom she had never seen, than of all the other wives of the prophet. When Muhammad approached his fortieth year, he became still more fond of solitude than before. He gave much thought to religion, a subject in which the Meccans were not particularly inter- ested. The Arabs he thought were a noble race, endowed with many gifts, and especially with a 118 The Living Religions of the World beautiful language, and yet without a prophet of their own to proclaim again to them the lost faith of their ancestor Abraham. Burdened with his thoughts, Muhammad often withdrew for retreat and meditation into a cave at the fount of Mount Hira, about an hour’s walk from Mecca. There he heard a voice saying, “Read.” “What shall I read?” he answered, quite as- tonished, because he was illiterate. “Read in the name of Thy Lord who Created man from a clot of blood. Read, for Thy Lord is the most. bountiful Who taught (to write) with the pen Taught man what he knew not.” These lines form now the opening verses of the 74th chapter (or Sura) of the Quran. Trembling with awe, Muhammad went home and told Khadijah what he had heard. She be- lieved him, encouraged and comforted him. Some time afterward the voice came back to him. It was the angel Gabriel, telling him, “Thou art the messenger of Allah.” Muhammad went back to Khadijah again. “Wrap me, wrap me,” he said, and thus the second message came to him, in words which form the beginning of the 73rd Sura. | At once Muhammad began to deliver the mes- sage. For ten years he labored in Mecca, preach- ing faith in Allah as the only God, whose apostle was Muhammad, and in the life to come with re- Islam 119 wards and punishments. He exhorted men to abandon idolatry and to practise almsgiving and a righteous life. Portions of the Quran as they were revealed were committed to memory by the converts and -were recited as part of their daily prayers. The wealthy and the powerful in Mecca showed their hostility to the new religion, which dis- countenanced so clearly the worship of idols and thus seemed to endanger the preéminence of the Kaaba and of Mecca itself among the tribes of the Arabs. The Moslems were presecuted and placed under a ban. In 621, twelve men of Yathrib, who had come to Mecca to perform the ancient rites of pilgrim- age, accepted Islam. They went back to Yathrib. By their witnessing to the new religion, the num- ber of Moslems in that city had grown to seventy- three, when, in 622, Muhammad abandoned Mecca with seventy Moslems and settled in Yathrib, which took then the name of Medina (the City, i.e., of the Prophet). There the teaching of Islam became more definite. The emigration (Hijra) of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina was made the starting point of the Moslem calendar, whose years are connoted by the letters A. H. Very soon after he had arrived at Medina, the Prophet began to attack the caravans of the Quraish. At the battle of Badr (A. H. 2, A. D. 624) he defeated a Meccan army of 905 men (in- cluding one hundred mail clad horsemen). Mu- 120 The Living Religions of the World hammad had only 305 men and 2 horses. The fol- lowing year he was defeated at Uhud by a much stronger force, but the Quraish were unable to take Medina, and in 5 A.H., peace was made, after a war which had been marked by a great deal of savagery. In the year 8 A.H., the gates of Mecca were opened to the triumphant Muham- mad, who dealt very generously with his former enemies. All Arabs submitted to him and accepted Islam. The prophet died soon after (11 A. H., or 632 A. D.). 4. It was formerly quite customary among Christian controversialists to attack the charac- ter of Muhammad. And yet it would be absurd to deny that he was a remarkable character. Ner- yous, imaginative, taciturn, reserved, a man of very simple tastes, controlling easily the strong passions of the pure Semite, Muhammad had a remarkable force and fixedness of will. He was gentle, considerate, and highly respected. The name given to him was Al-Amin, the Faithful One. He was generous, as are all Arabs, but with- out ostentation. He remained poor, but his poverty was noble. He lived on dates and water, or barley bread. Milk and honey were luxuries of which he rarely partook. He was courteous but with great simplicity. He was fond of children and tender to animals. He gained the affection of many, even of those who knew him best. There was no truer friend. He was courteous but with great simplic- ity. He never was the first to withdraw his hand Islam 121 from the one who offered him his. “He was as bashful as a veiled virgin,” said of him his wife Ayishah. That he became a polygamist after the death of Khadijah, when he himself was fifty years old, was not because of sensuality, but of generosity. Most of his wives were poor widows of champions of the faith killed in battle. That he was sincere, none but a controversialist may doubt—and even in that case, not very wisely. 5. The Quran (recitation), or Koran as it is more commonly called, contains the revelations made by Allah to Muhammad. It is written in rhymed prose, the rhymes being very weak. It contains one hundred and fourteen Suras or chapters. The Fatiha (Opening) is the first Sura of the Quran. It is used very often by Moslems, not only at stated prayers, but on many occasions. This is its translation: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful! Praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds, The Beneficent, the Merciful. King of the day of Judgment Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help. xuide us on the right path, The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed fa- vors, Not those upon whom wrath is brought down, nor those who go astray. Amen.” The style of the Quran is truly remarkable. Muhammad performed no miracles but often claimed that the Quran was the most wonderful of miracles. 122 The Living Religions of the World It is very difficult to translate it. There are several English translations, the worst being by Sale, the best by Muhammad Ali. Better than Sale’s translation, but far from satisfactory, are the translation of Palmer, published in the Sacred Books of the East, and that of Rodwell, which at- tempts to give the Suras in chronological order. The Suras which follow the Fatiha are arranged according to their size, without regard to chron- ology or contents. The title of each Sura indi- cates whether it was composed in Mecca or Med- ina. Traditions which are apparently reliable give us the date of the Suras. The long Suras were usually revealed in Medina. The oldest are short. The characteristic doctrine of Islam which is the Unity of God is well expressed by an ans Meccan Sura. “The Unity (Sura 112) “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful! Say, He, Allah is One. Allah is He on whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And none is like unto Him.” 6. The teaching of the Quran is completed by Hadith (tradition) and Sunna (way or practice). What the Prophet is reported to have said is Hadith. What he did is Sunna. The Sunna is there- fore derived from the Hadith. Each hadith is a short story preceded by a list of names of men who transmitted it orally from one to the other. Hadith were manufactured in abundance after Islam | veo Muhammad’s days when there was need of justi- fying a solution of new religious, moral, and po- litical problems. Some of the hadith are striking. We read in some of them. “When God created the creation, He wrote a book which is near Him upon the sovran Throne; and what is written in it is this: Verily my compassion overcometh my wrath. “A man’s giving in alms one piece of silver in his lifetime is better for him than giving one hundred when about to die. “Give the laborer his wage before his perspiration be dry. “Every woman who dieth, and her husband is pleased with her, shall enter into Paradise. “A man who behaveth ill to his slave will not enter into Paradise. “Forgive thy servant seventy times a day. “Whoso comforteth a woman who has lost her child will be covered with a garment in Paradise. “Paradise is at the foot of mothers.” 7. The five pillars of Islam are faith, prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and the pilgrimage. 8. Faith consists in bearing witness to the Unity of God by saying a formula which is as follows: “There is no God but Allah and Muham- mad is the apostle of Allah.” 9. Prayer is to the Moslem a real duty. It should be performed five times a day. The first prayer is between dawn and sunrise, the second in the early afternoon, the third in the late afternoon, the fourth immediately after sunset, the fifth at any time between this and midnight. 124 The Living Religions of the World The prayers are said in Arabic and are always preceded by ablution of the face, hands, and feet. When water is not available, dust or sand can be used. Prayers can be said anywhere, whether in a mosque, or in the house, in the field, or even in the street. Before the stated times of prayer, the faithful are called to perform this duty by a muezzin who recites the call to prayer or azan from the minaret of the mosque. This is the text of the Azan before morning prayer: “Allah is the greatest” (repeated four times). “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah” (twice). “I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah” (twice). ‘Come to prayer” (twice). “Come to success” (twice). “Prayer is better than sleep” (twice). “Allah is the greatest” (twice). “There is no God but Allah.” 10. There is no sabbath day among the Moslems, except, to some extent, Friday, which is the day when every one should attend the early afternoon prayer in the Great Mosque, and therefore cease from work for a time. 11. There is no priesthood in Islam. When a number of the faithful pray together, one of them, distinguished only by his rank, his scholarship, or his piety, acts as imam or prayer-leader. He stands in front of the others, who usually make their ritual bowings and prostration synchronize with his. The mosques are oriented towards Mecca, which is the direction towards which all Moslems must pray. There are in them no images or statues Islam 125 (which are forbidden in Islam) and no seats. There is a pulpit consisting of a flight of steps from which a short stereotyped sermon is de- livered at the Friday service. All should remove their shoes when entering a mosque. Islam is remarkable for a spirit of social equal- ity. Poor and rich, men of various ranks, stand side by side in prayer. Women are not however allowed to mingle with the men in the mosque and their attendance at services is not encour- aged. People do tarry in the mosque for quiet conversation or even for rest and sleep. 12. Almsgiving, or rather the poor-rate, is for the benefit of the poor and needy, those in debt, those whose hearts are made to incline to truth, for the way of Allah (or propagation of Islam), and for the officials appointed to the administra- tion of these objects. It amounts to two and a half per cent of hoarded wealth. 18. Fasting means abstinence of food and drink while it is light during the month of Ramadhan. It is connected with an increased religious zeal and spirituality. It is on the whole remarkably well observed, although it entails great hardships as soon as one lives outside of the tropical zone, when days may be very long. 14. The pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca should be performed by every Moslem once in his lifetime, provided that he does not thereby cause hardship to those dependent upon him. The pilgrim must reach Mecca before the seventh day of the month 126 The Living Religions of the World Zulhijjah. As soon as he comes to the boundary of the sacred territory surrounding Mecca, the pilgrim takes off his ordinary clothing and wears the ihram, which consists of two seamless sheets, leaving the head uncovered in the case of men. The pilgrimage consists in several ceremonies consisting in making circuits around the Kaabah, running between the two hills of Safa and Marwa, staying in the plain of Arafat, and sacrificing a sheep. The pilgrim is then called a hajji. The annual hajj has been a means of knitting together the Moslem world into a living unity. About one hundred thousand Moslems perform it annually. 15. The Jehad (literally crn is the Holy War. It was enjoined against unbelievers who had to be conquered or converted. As for idolaters, they had to be converted or killed. The Jehad, like the Crusade, is now an antiquated notion. It has been so misused for imperialistic ends, that a proclamation of the Holy War would have no meaning today. All there is left of it is a strong community of feeling in all of Islam, which causes the Bengali Moslems to rejoice because of the successes of the men of Riff against the Spanish army, or to grieve when Moslems anywhere are ill treated by a European power. Enlightened Mos- lems spiritualize the notion of Jehad into a “Mos- lem Endeavor” for the Faith. It is often said that the reason why the Jehad was popular among Moslems is because any one Islam 127 dying on the Path of Allah is certain of entering Paradise. However, there are many other ways of deserving heaven, according to the common be- lief, such as falling into a precipice, dying of love or of seasickness, or even dying in a foreign land. This extension of martyrdom leads us to think that the offer of heavenly reward was not such a conspicuous element in the call to Jehad, as Europeans seem to believe. 16. The teaching of the Quran on predestina- tion is not definite. According to orthodox Is- lam, God is the Creator of men and of their acts, physical and intellectual. 17. As soon as the dead have been placed in their tomb, the angels Munkar and Nakir ex- amine them on points of belief. Then the good and evil deeds of men are weighed on the scale and the souls are made to cross a bridge stretched over hell, which broadens for the righteous and becomes narrower than the edge of a sword for the wicked. 18. The Moslem Paradise is a glorified oasis where the soil is musk and the rivers milk, wine, and honey. There the blessed, sheltered from heat and cold, clothed in silk and gold cloth, rest on golden couches amidst shady trees, while at- tendants ever young bring to them cups of non- intoxicating wine and all kind of fruits. The houris, beautiful girls with eyes of gazelles and bodies transparent and pure like pearls, endowed with everlasting youth, are the wives of the 128 The Living Religions of the World blessed, who may, however, have with them their own wives as well, if they so desire. In hell the wicked will suffer from fire, so strong that it melts stones, a scorching wind, and thick smoke. They will drink boiling water and eat thorns. They will be clothed in burning clothes, drenched with boiling water, crushed with iron maces. The pains of hell are not eternal. Some Moslem theo- logians have allegorized these descriptions. They think that the houris of Paradise are a man’s own deeds and that the imagery of heaven and hell only sets forth in lurid terms the realization of the possession or of the loss of God. The mystics of Islam taught that man is an epitome of heaven and hell, as Fitzgerald’s Omar Khayyam says: “Heav’n but the Vision of fulfilled Desire, And Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire, Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves So late emerged from, shall so soon expire.” 19. At the death of Muhammad, Abu-Bekr was acknowledged as caliph (vicar) of the Apostle of Allah. He was a man of lofty character, a real be- liever, sincere and austere. As soon as the news of Muhammad’s death reached the rest of Arabia, most of the tribes rejected Islam, and had to be reconquered and reconverted. In 634, Omar suc- ceeded Abu Bekr and began the conquest of the world. When he died ten years afterwards, Syria, Egypt, and Persia had been conquered. Othman was a less worthy and a less successful ruler. The fourth caliph was Ali, husband of Fatimah, Islam ; 129 daughter of Muhammad. After his death (661) Moawiya founded the Omayyad dynasty of caliphs which lasted nearly a century at Damascus. This dynasty was succeeded in 750 by the Abbasid caliphate of Bagdad, so well known to all western readers of the Arabian Nights. 20. It is not true that the Moslems offered to the conquered countries the dilemma, “Islam or the sword.” That choice is forced only upon the heathen, not on Christians or Jews or even Zor- oastrians. These subjects of the Empire were made to pay special taxes, but they were, on the other hand, exempt from military service. The Omay- yads did not by any means seek the conversion of their subjects for fear of decreasing their own revenue. Not only were not the Christians usually per- secuted by the Moslems, but most of the adminis- tration offices were in their hands at least in Egypt and Syria. The Jews did not fare as well as the Christians. The Moslems treated them very much as medieval Europeans did, but without the spasmodic massacres indulged in by the latter. 21. Today the largest number of Moslems are Sunnite and form one Church. The authority in matters of faith is not vested in any visible or- ganization. There are fewer sects in Islam than in other religions. The Shiah or Shiites form the largest dissent- ing body. They number about fifteen million and are found mostly in Persia, in India, in Mesopo- 130 The Living Religions of the World tamia, and even in Arabia. The Shiah perform the pilgrimage to Mecca like the Sunnites. Other sects of Islam are unimportant except two. The first is the sect of the Wahhabis, Puritans of Is- lam, austere, uncompromising, even hostile to heathen survivals in Islam, such as the hajj cere- monies. The second is the Ahmadiyya Movement, which was started in 1889 at Qadian in the Pun- jab, by Ahmad, who declared that he was the Mahdi, as well as Christ, and Kalki, the last avatar of Vishnu. This sect numbers probably a hundred thousand adherents. It has organized missionary work in several Ou with paid missionaries. 22. The Sufis are the mystics of Islam. Their name is derived from their clothing of coarse wool (Sufa). Sufism was influenced by Neo-Platonism and especially by Christian asceticism. Sufis writers quote many hadith, justifying their point of view, which are of doubtful authority. Seekers after God place themselves under a spiritual di- rector who guides them on the “Path.” They prac- tise poverty, hence their name of fakir (poor man) and dervish (mendicant). The discipline of the Path includes fasting, silence, solitude, end- less repetitions of the name of Allah, meditation, illumination, and ecstacy. The ultimate teaching of Sufism cannot be un- derstood without following the Path—or knowing a similar path in Christianity. They write of wine and earthly love, of carouse and revelry, using Islam Si them as symbols of the Love of God. God is the Cupbearer. God is the Beloved. Jalaluddin writes: “Lo, from the flagon of Thy love, O Lord, my soul is swimming, And ruined all my body’s house of clay When first the Giver of the grape my lonely heart befriended, Wine fired my bosom and my veins filled up.” The Beloved and the lover are one in the mystic unity of Love. Thus Al Hallaj says: “Thy Spirit is mingled in my spirit even as wine is mingled with pure water. When anything touches Thee, it touches me. Lo, in every case Thou art I.” 23. Sufism under a more or less diluted form is taught in many of the brotherhoods of Islam, who have hundreds of thousands of members, es- pecially in Africa. The members of the fraternity are either professed dervishes living in a monas- tery, or laymen who come to the house of the order at stated times for mystical exercises. Well known to tourists are the howling and the whirling der- vishes, and the Aissauas, who slash their bodies with swords and eat fire and glass, without any sign of pain. 24. In all the lands of Islam one can see small buildings which are the tombs of welis (saints). Some of these saints are really local gods of Hellenistic paganism, which became Christian saints, until the conquest of the land by Islam changed them into Moslem saints. Saints are 132 The Living Religions of the World called on to help in time of trouble. They heal the sick and grant children to the barren. They per- form miracles. Living saints are also givers of blessing, more especially the heads of brotherhoods whose dignity is hereditary. 25. Messianism looms large in Moslem belief. From time to time, an individual arises and claims to be the Mahdi, sent and guided by Allah to restore decadent Islam, and to establish a reign of righteousness before the last day. There is a belief that such a reformer may rise in every century. There is also a belief that Jesus is the only Mahdi and that He will come at the end of days. 26. In Islam there is nothing like the caste sys- tem of India or the recent drawing of the color line so conspicuous in the Anglo-Saxon world. There is also a good deal of generosity and of true hospitality. The duties of a Moslem to an- other are six: 1. When you meet a Moslem, say Salam (peace) to him. 2. When he invites you to dinner, accept it. 3. When he asks you for advice, give it to him, 4. When he sneezes and says “Praise be to Allah,” you should say “May Allah have compassion upon thee.” 5. When he is sick, visit him. 6. When he dies, follow his bier. Islam 133 The Quran allows polygamy. The number of wives should not exceed four. The condition of women was greatly improved by Islam in Arabia. For economic reasons monogamy is the rule and polygamy the exception. A worse evil than poly- gamy is divorce, which is exceedingly common. 27. As a missionary religion, Islam has an ex- cellent record. It is now conquering Africa. This success is due to several causes. First. It is a very simple religion. It is accom- modating in its first stage, then fanatical enough to consolidate its conquests. Secondly. It has no color line. Thirdly. It voices African nationalism better than any other religious agency. Fourthly. It has no cumbrous organization, no constant money raising drives. Fifth. Islam is practically one, while Christen- dom is divided. Sixth. The Moslem brotherhoods provide an ex- cellent organization and a certain amount of prac- tical mysticism. Seventh. Generally speaking, every Moslem - is a missionary. Eighth. Moslems, by praying in public, impress favorably the African. Ninth. Islam allows polygamy and does not disrupt the family of a convert as does Chris- tianity. Tenth. Islam provides counter magic by the use of talismans. 134 The Living Religions of the World Eleventh. The Moslem heaven is more lurid than the Christian heaven. Twelfth. Islam makes the convert more digni- fied. 28. What is the future of Islam? Yellow press makes much of a Pan-Islamic peril, simply be- cause the yellow press must live. There is nat- urally no danger to Europe or America in the Moslem world today. Politically, Islam is in com- plete decadence. The only independent Moslem countries are Turkey, now much reduced in size, the emirates of Arabia, Afghanistan, and Persia. One hundred million Moslems live in the British Empire. They are indeed more numerous than the Christians in it. Holland has also more Moslems than Christians under its rule. If the conversion of Africa to Islam goes on, as it does now, France may soon be in the same position. There is no political unity in Islam. Since Turkey banished the last caliph for reasons good and bad, there is no visible head of Islam. And yet Islam is not declining as a religion. It has never been so strong as it is today as a mis- sionary Church. 29. Moslem missions in Europe and America are conducted mostly by the Ahmadiyya. In Lon- don the strict Ahmadiyya have a small mission. A far more successful work was founded by Kamal-ud-Din, who belonged to a branch of the Ahmadiyya movement which does not apparently Islam | 135 differ much from orthodox Islam. This mission has a prayer-house in London and holds services in a beautiful little mosque at Woking near Lon- don. The stricter Ahmadiyya founded a mission in the United States. Hundreds of converts were made among the negroes of Chicago. It seems that these Chicago converts are not very deeply grounded in Islamic knowledge and that back- sliding is quite common. The services have no singing, and the preaching none of the arousing qualities which the colored American likes. Were a real leader to arise, who could voice with en- thusiasm the dissatisfaction caused by the color- line, the situation would be different. The Ahmadi- yya are also at work in Berlin. Even the leaders of these missions do not expect to see large num- bers of Christians converted to Islam. 30, What of Christianity and Islam? Mission- ary work among Moslems was most difficult before the World War. In countries where Islam is firmly established it had completely failed. Only on the margin of Islam, where it was established yesterday, as it were, among the animistic peoples of the Dutch East Indies, were any converts made in large numbers. Today, Moslems resent very much the harsh- ness, the unfairness, and what they call the dis- honesty of European governments and of their diplomats. The anti-Turkish attitude of the Chris- tian Church at home, during the attempted dis- 136 The Living Religions of the World memberment of Turkey, will not be forgotten for many years. It will make still more difficult a con- version of the Moslem world to Christianity. If Christians want to show the value of their religion to the Moslem world, they must clearly and openly disassociate themselves from, and dis- ° approve of, European imperialism. We are in- clined to think that the best way of approach for Christianity is through Sufism. Islam, like all other religions, is at the cross roads today. The political downfall of political Is- lam is distressing to the Moslems. The invasion by European capitalism and machine-made luxury is destructive of the ideals of the past. The end of the Caliphate, the emanicipation of women in Turkey, the growing unbelief coming with modern education, the practical difficulties in the way of the hajj, which may be the outcome of the growth of Wahhabi power, all these are problems which Islam must solve. SUPPLEMENTARY READING 9 Acs G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter VI. B. G. F. Moore. History of Religions. Vol II. Chapters XVI-XXII, D, M. Kay. The Semitic Religions, Lecture V. Edinburgh, 19138. C. MAULVI MUHAMMAD ALI. The Holy Qur-an containing the Arabic Text with Translation and commentary. Islam 137 The Islamic Review Office, Oriental Road, Woking, Surrey, England. The commentary is of modernist teaching. J. H. Ropweiu. The Koran Translated from the Arabic (in Everyman’s Library), New York: Dutton. Articles on Muhammad and Muhammadanism in Hast- ings’ Hncycl. of Rel. a. Ethics. D. B. Macponatp. The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam. University of Chicago Press, 1909. R. A. NicHouson. The Mystics of Islam. London, Bell, 1914, An idealized aspect of the subject of Sufism can be seen in Edwin Arnold, Pearls of the Faith. Boston, 18838 (often found second hand). QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of praying in public as the Moslems do? 2. Compare Jehad and Crusade. Are we justified in using the last word today? 3. Is it legitimate to describe life after death in symbolical terms? 4. In what way could we show clearly that we disassociate ourselves from past errors or from present unfortunate aspects of our form of civilization? 5. Is a policy of clear cut opposition justified and wise in dealing with a religion like Islam? CONCLUSION, THE GREATER PART Of the “civilized” world today is Christian. It is becoming so more and more, and the whole world with it. There is of course a good deal of unbelief in Christian lands. It is due to a misunderstanding. It is therefore an acci- dent and a calamity. Conscientious Christians are not called upon to bear the burden of the whole world, not even in the spiritual sphere. They are only expected, if they be men who do not shirk their higher duty as men, to leave the world im- mediately near them better than they found it. At the same time, they are expected to become bet- ter men and women. If our religion does not help us to realize in a measure this ideal, there is something wrong, either with the way we assimilate religion, or with the form of religion itself. Religion must therefore be tested. There is no disrespect in that. Religion is only a human at- tempt and a human quest. It must pass the test of reason, of science, of history. Provided of course that reason be logical, that science be me- thodical, that history be well informed. Religion 138 Conclusion 139 must be ethical and ethically inspiring. It must pass the test of universality, for the best bears within itself the seed of eternity. We personally have come to see in the Christian faith unlimited potentialities. If it were not so, it would hardly be Christian. We dare not, for our part, strike away from our conception of Christianity these sayings of Christ: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Me” (John 12, 32) ; “I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 8, 11). So far they have come mostly from the West, and the East must have a chance. Note that they must come and be drawn up- wards. The question of the relation of the Chris- tian religion to non-Christian faiths is therefore not one of adaptation of the former to other forms of the Quest of Man after God. It is a question of integration. The Christian message should be such that a Hindu may rightly think that he can best be himself, as a Hindu, when he is also a Christian. The same should be true of the Chinese, of the African, of the Bedouin. The claim of universality has been made of course for other religions. Swami Vivekananda said in his Madras Lec- tures: “I am an imaginative man, and my idea is the conquest of the whole world by the Hindu race . . . Up, India, and conquer the world with 140 The Living Religions of the World your spirituality! . . . The world wants it; with- out it the world will be destroyed.” * The same claim has been made for Buddhism, but in more measured terms, for it is a religion of kindness, courteous and considerate of the feelings of others. The claim has been made for Islam. “Islam as the religion of humanity,” is one of the points made by Maulvi Muhammad Ali, in the preface to his translation of the Quran. “The scope of re- ligion, in the true sense of the word, extends as far back and is as wide as humanity itself, the fundamental principles always remaining the same, the accidents changing with the changing needs of humanity.” One weak point about these forms of religion is that they integrated too strong a racial ele- ment. Muhammad was probably right in presery- ing in the pilgrimage-rites of Islam a good deal of purified Arabian paganism, but this element has to be explained away to Westerners. Buddhism is too closely connected with the subtlest of arm- chair psychologies and to Indian pessimism. Hinduism is bound to caste and to the doctrine of Karma. None of these religions could shake off these basic elements. It is so true that Kuropean or American converts to Buddhism, Islam, or to some approximation of Hinduism, are no longer at home in their own land, unless their conversion be extremely superficial. They usually change Quoted in Farquhar, A primer of Hinduism, p. 162. Conclusion — 141 their English name and they need to make periodi- cal visits to the land of their adopted faith. Ap- parently none of these three religions can integ- rate Western life. Their claim to universality is therefore sentimental, or dogmatic, or generous. It does not stand the test of reality. The universalism of Christianity has admittedly been endangered by an hellenistic overemphasis on intellectualism, or by a western implicit faith in administrative machinery, or by an alliance with imperialism and racial prejudice. But all these elements are unessential to it and can be ignored without danger. From the day of Pente- cost there has been a cosmopolitan element in Christianity. The very smallness of its home-base in Judea, its early success, the fall of Jerusalem, gave it at once the character of a world religion proof against the worst lack of understanding of its followers. | The whole world—and that means also’ our- selves—has much to learn and a good deal to for- get in the way of religion. Let us trust it will not forget too much. As for us, let us not ask others to forget too much. On the other hand, re- ligion is not religiosity affected with mental nomadism. It may, it must, prove all things, but also hold fast that which is good. As Christians we may summarize our attitude towards other religions under the following heads: | First. There is a certain underlying unity in 142 The Living Religions of the World all religions, probably due to the psychological unity of mankind. Secondly. Each religion has been of value. Through the worst religion there is some kind of a path leading to God; indeed from the point of view of the prologue of the fourth Gospel, this path is lighted by the universal Christ, “the light which lighteth every man” (John 119). Thirdly. Each religion is acceptable to God, at least as a preparatory stage. “I see quite plainly that God has no favorites, but that he who rever- ences Him and lives a good life in any nation is welcomed by Him” (Acts 10, 34-35). Fourthly. We have not yet understood the real Christ. That may be only when we see Him “face to face.” Until then, we see, as in an antique brass mirror, indistinctly. We are only approximating a true knowledge of Him. Fifthly. We are members one of another. Our knowledge of God and of Christ suffers from the fact that there is much unbelief in our own lands and also much hardness, fanaticism, and sin within the Churches and ourselves. We may feel secure in the fold kept by the good Shepherd, but epidemics are not stopped by barriers. Besides the flock must go out to the pasture—and there are no barriers in it. Today the pasture is the whole world. Influenza in the mental and spiritual world travels fast. Racial religion is now mean- ingless. Sixth. There is no true religion without abso- Conclusion — 143 lute sincerity. When two augurs cannot look at each other without laughing, the system is doomed. Seventh. There are saints in other religions. By their fruits we know them. Highth. There are great differences between the various religions. They vary in value. Ninth. Religions, being human, grow, decline, and die. We do not care to murder them, but we do not deny that the marks of old age are warn- ings. We see them on many religions. Tenth. Religion must be able to bear the test of the most difficult conditions, social, economic, intellectual. Eleventh. The best religion is the one that pre- serves most of the best in others. There is Relig- ion in religions. Twelfth. Religion must evolve in time and space and yet remain itself. If these principles are granted, Buddhism, Hin- duism, and even Islam, fail before some of the tests. Christianity as we understand it passes them all. In its Founder is focussed every ray of light that shines in the world. He is Light of Light, Truth of Truth, and Love of Love. 144 The Lwing Religions of the World SUPPLEMENTARY READING A. G. A. Barton. Religions of the World. Chapter XV. B. ©. L. Dissre. A Grammar of Belief. Milwaukee, More- house, 1922. BE. S. Drown. The Creative Christ. New York: Macmillan, 1922. W. Temprte. The Universality of Christ. New York: Doran, 1921. QUESTIONS FoR DISCUSSION 1. In what way do the various religions studied by us fail to pass some of the tests enumerated as the twelve principles of appreciation of religious values? 2. What would you have to lose if you became a real Bud- dhist, or a true Moslem? : 3. In what way can Christianity be better understood and better applied by us, so that it may pass the same tests? 4. What should be our attitude towards the efforts made by members and leaders of other religions to transform their re- ligion so that it would pass these tests? 5. You have heard the statement that “All religions are the same.” Does our study modify your previous attitude towards this statement? If so, in what direction? Compare this to the eleventh statement in this chapter. Index | 145 INDEX This index does not include items listed in the synopses at the head of each chapter. A Al Hallaj, 181. Amida, 71, 87. arhat, 30. avatar, 42. azan, 124. B Boddhisattva, 30. bo-tree, 17. Brahma, 41. Cc Chuang-Tze, 64. D Dharma, 25. derwish, 130. Durkheim, 2. Durga, 41. F Fatiha, 121. fakir, 1380. G Gandhi, 55. H Hajj, 125. hasidim, 108. hazzan, 95. Ihram, 126. Imam, 124. J Jinn, 116. jehad, 126. joss, 59. K Kaddish, 109. Kali, 41, 51. Kalki, 42. Kama, 48. kami, 80. kol nidre, 101. 146 The Living Religions of the World kosher, 104. kshatriya, 43. Kwanyin, 71. L Lakshmi, 41 linga, 48. M Mana, 4. muezzin, 124. N Nirvana, 22. oO Oleott, 32. Pp Parvati, 41. Parsva, 34. PRINTED IN U. S, A. BY MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CO., MILWAUKEE, WIS. paryas, 53. purana, 45. S Sangha, 25. Sarasvati, 41. seder, 100. shiite, 129. Shiva, 41. shema, 102. stupa, 31. sunnite, 129. + Tabu, 5. Tao, G1.) torii, 81. totemism, 2, 12. WwW Weli, 131. AVE Ue © #1 . t tate hee Thtets: 3 teen i= niet f rsh ikz A? Bs ite rete 5 E . at at asceaessy 3k¢ S? *, seat! 7 eet ats 53585 Tieite Bet $5 seae zs Stet ste tele Ae tetnite Teiey,2 - vite ots. ee ‘? 25535 i et. spar Sik 535358 eit: \e tact. af erate 742 > oe + , F, *, Tee *- c? ¢ f 7 ¢ a telah ial aE e 7; 3% Tel S? se tel eretes ta aosibe be . 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