Part 19

There remains public worship and community-religion. It is clear that whereas a Church in the Middle Ages was not only Church but also Museum of curiosities, Art-gallery and Theatre, and in large measure also took the place of our press and public libraries, now it is none of these things. There is now less reason for public worship, fewer functions for it to perform. On the other hand a religion is essentially in one aspect social, and not only does the unity of nature demand a unity of religion, but such unity of religion would be of the highest importance as a bond of civilization and a guarantee of the federalist as against the solely nationalist ideal. Moreover, to many types of mind, and to almost all men in certain circumstances, the partaking in a public religious ceremony in common with others is of real importance. It is safe to say, therefore, that these ceremonies will continue, however much modified, and that for them a mediator or priest, even if but temporarily acting as such, will be needed. The problem is largely that of combining in public worship the religious effectiveness of the simple, the hallowed, and the universally familiar--such as inheres in many of the prayers, psalms, and hymns of the Church to-day--with the spontaneity and immediacy which, for instance, are to be found at a devotional meeting of the Society of Friends.

In any case, the new intellectual premisses once granted, the limitations imposed on human mind once understood, the important thing is to give a greater vigour and reality to religious experience itself, whether personal and private or social and public. It is just here that Science may help, where knowledge may be power. Atonement, conversion, sense of grace, ecstasy, prayer, sacrifice--the meaning and value of these and of other religious acts and experiences can be put on a proper psychological basis, they can be shorn of excrescences, and their practice take its place in normal spiritual development. That is of the essence of any religion rooted in scientific ideas--that comprehension should make practice easier and better worth while.

I am only too painfully aware of the omissions which such a cursory treatment of the subject inevitably involves. I have given you, I know, little but dry bones; but bones are the framework necessary before impatient life can animate a new form. If Science can construct that form, the emotions and hopes and energies of humanity will vivify and clothe it. It is with the aid of such intellectual scaffolding that the common mind of humanity in the future, inevitably rooted in scientific conceptions as it will be, must try to raise that much-desired building, a religion common to all.

In any case, I shall be more than content if I have been able to persuade you first that the term God, just as much as the terms Energy, say, or Justice, has a real meaning and scientifically-based sense. Second, that the idea of God has and will continue to have an important biological function in man as denoting an idea, organized in a particular way, of the whole of the reality with which he is in contact. Thirdly, that the physical and biological sciences, in discovering the unity of matter and energy, and the direction operating in cosmic evolution, have provided a real basis for what up till now have been only theological speculations. Fourthly, that psychological science, in revealing some of the mechanism of mind, is helping us to appreciate the value of so-called mystical experience, is laying a foundation for the proper spiritual training and development of human mind, and shows us how the idea of God may be efficacious as a dominant idea in the all-important process of sublimation. And finally that, since the scientific mode of thought is of general and not merely local or temporary validity, to build a religion on its basis is to make it possible for that religion to acquire a stability, a universality, and a practical value hitherto unattained.

We are yet at the very beginning of that task, but I cannot close better than by reminding you of another biological fact of importance, that from all analogy the human species is yet near the beginning of its evolutionary career, and that man has before him vast tracts of time to set against the vastness of his tasks.

A chapter in the history of Earth closed with the appearance of Man. In man, the _Weltstoff_ had been made able to think and feel, to love beauty and truth--the cosmos had generated soul. A new chapter then began, a chapter in which we all are characters. Matter had flowered in soul. Soul has now to mould matter.

That moulding of matter by spirit is, under one aspect, Science; under another, Art; under still another, Religion. Let us be careful not to allow the moulding forces to counteract each other when they might be made to co-operate.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnold, M., ’73, ’75. “Literature and Dogma”; and “God and the Bible.” London, 1873 and 1875.

Baudouin, C., ’20. “Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion.” London, 1920.

Bergson, H., ’11. “Creative Evolution.” London, 1911.

Boutroux, E., ’12. “Science and Religion in Contemporary Philosophy.” London, 1912.

Brown, W., ’22. “Psychology and Psychotherapy.” London, 1922.

Buckland, ’37. “Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology.” London, 1837.

Crawley, ’02. “The Mystic Rose.” London, 1902.

Danysz, J., ’21. “La Genèse de l’Energie Psychique.” Paris, 1921.

Flaubert, G. “La Tentation de St. Antoine.”

Frazer, J. “The Golden Bough.” 3 vols.

Freud, S., ’13. “The Interpretation of Dreams.” London, 1913. ’14. “Psychopathology of Everyday Life.” London, 1914.

Haldane, J. S., ’21. “Mechanism, Life, and Personality.” London, 1921.

Harrison, Jane, ’09. “The Influence of Darwin on the Study of Religions.” In Seward, ’09, q. v.

Huxley, T. H. “Evolution and Ethics. Collected Essays.” Vol. 9. London, 1906.

James, W., ’02. “Varieties of Religious Experience.” London, 1902.

---- ---- ’09. “A Pluralistic Universe.” London, 1909.

Jevons, ’10. “The Idea of God in Early Religions.” Cambridge, 1910.

Johnstone, J., ’21. “The Mechanism of Life.” London, 1921.

Jung, C. G., ’18 and ’20. “Psychology of the Unconscious.” London, 1918; “Analytical Psychology.” London, 1920.

Lloyd-Morgan, ’23. “Emergent Evolution.” London, 1923.

Lull, R. S., ’17. “Organic Evolution.” New York, 1917.

M’Dougall, W., ’16. “Social Psychology” (10th Ed.). London, 1916.

Nicoll, ’20. _In_ “Functional Nerve Disease” (Ed. H. Crichton Miller). Oxford, 1920.

Prince, M., ’06. “The Dissociation of a Personality.” New York, 1906.

---- ---- ’16. “The Unconscious.” New York, 1916.

Reinach, S., ’09. “Orpheus; a General History of Religions.” London, 1909.

Rivers, W. H., ’20. “Instinct and the Unconscious.” Cambridge, 1920.

Russell, Bertrand, ’17. “A Free Man’s Worship,” _in_ “Principles of Social Reconstruction.” London, 1917.

Seward, A. C. (ed.), ’09. “Darwin and Modern Science.” Cambridge, 1909.

Thouless, ’23. “Introduction to the Psychology of Religion.” Cambridge, 1923.

Trotter, W., ’19. “Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War” (2nd Ed.). London, 1919.

Turner, A. C, ’16. _In_ “Concerning Prayer.” By the author of “Pro Christo et Ecclesia” and Others. London, 1916.

Underhill, E., ’20. “Essentials of Mysticism.” London, 1920.

Webb, C. C. J., ’18. “God and Personality.” London, 1918.

Wells, H. G., ’17. “God the Invisible King.” London, 1917.

FOOTNOTES:

[44] W. James, ’09, p. 21.

[45] See Danysz, ’21.

[46] See Danysz, ’21.

[47] See Haldane, ’21; Thouless, ’23.

[48] A confusion of thought easily arises here. It may be absolutely true that 2 and 2 make 4; we may be absolutely right in certain cases to tell a lie; or may find an expression of absolute beauty in some one lovely thing. But we may grow to find that same thing aesthetically unsatisfying; we can imagine a state of society in which it would never be right to lie; while our correct knowledge of elementary arithmetic is something very partial and incomplete considered in relation to mathematical truth as a whole.

[49] It is interesting to note that a scientific treatment of the problem may force an author almost unwittingly to similar conclusions. For instance, in Jevons’ book (’10) the term “God” hardly occurs at all, whereas the phrase “the idea of God” is to be found on nearly every page. If, as we are urging, God as efficient agent in the world and as reality in contact with human beings _is_ outer world organized as idea, the reason for such periphrasis at once appears.

[50] See Prince, ’06 and ’16; Freud, ’22; Jung, ’19; Rivers, ’20; Brown, ’22.

[51] See Trotter, ’19.

[52] See Turner, ’16.

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