From what has been already said, it should be clear that a complete
understanding of religious phenomena--whether legitimately or wrongly so
called--involves acquaintance with a number of factors that are not
usually called religious. Man's religious beliefs are usually a very
composite product; they are built up from a number of states of feeling
and mental convictions, some of which have only an accidental connection
with the religious idea itself. Unfortunately, the training given to
professional religious teachers rarely equips them for dealing with
religion from the scientific point of view. Their training gives them a
knowledge of several ancient languages, makes them acquainted with the
rise and fall of certain doctrines, the nature of Church ritual and the
like, all of which, while interesting enough in themselves, give little
more genuine enlightenment than a knowledge of the dates of English
monarchs provides of the character of genuine historic processes. One
writer pertinently asks:--
"What does the ordinary seminary graduate know of the histology,
anatomy, and physiology of the soul? Absolutely nothing. He must stumble
along through years of trying experience and look back over countless
mistakes before he understands these things even in a general way. What
does the ordinary graduate understand about doubt? It is all classed
together, whether in adolescents or in hardened sinners, and one dose is
applied. What does the graduate know about sexuality, so closely allied
with certain forms of religious manifestations? What about ecstasy, in
its various forms, the numerous methods of faith cure thrust upon an
illiterate but credulous people, or the significance or insignificance
of visions and dreams?"[142]
It is, indeed, not too much to say that a theological training tends to
prevent a rational comprehension of religion in both its normal and
abnormal manifestations. Religious phenomena are not affiliated to
phenomena as a whole; they are treated as quite distinct from the rest
of life, possessing both an independent origin and justification. The
consequence is that what are usually called studies of religion move
round and round the same circle of ideas, and a revolution is mistaken
for progress. Genuine enlightenment has come to us from men who have
attacked the subject from a quite different point of view. They
recognised that whether the religious idea was accepted as true or
rejected as false, it could not be separated from that host of ideas and
beliefs which make up the psychological side of the social structure. It
was to be studied as a piece of natural history first of all. Whether it
involved more than this they left to be settled later. It cannot be said
that they belittled the _power_ of religion; on the contrary, the
investigations showed it to be one of the most potent of the forces that
shape social institutions. But they demonstrated the absurdity of
placing religion in a category of its own. As an objective fact, they
showed that religion was subject to the same forces that determine the
form of other objective facts. As a culture fact, they traced its
connection with corresponding phases of social development; and as a
psychological fact, they demonstrated its workings to be in harmony with
workings of normal psychological laws. Five thousand years of
theological study had left the world as ignorant of the nature of
religious phenomena as it was in the days of ancient Chaldea. Fifty
years of scientific study has served to make at least a broad path
through what was hitherto an impenetrable jungle.
What has been said holds with peculiar force of the subject of
conversion. This is not a phenomenon peculiar to Christianity, for
initiation and conversion accompanies religion in all its phases. I do
not think that it is peculiar to religion even as a whole. A sudden
discharge of feeling in a special direction leading to a changed
attitude, more or less permanent towards life, may be seen in connection
with the non-religious life, although it fails to receive the attention
bestowed on changes that are connected with religion. But if conversion
is not a peculiarly Christian phenomenon, one school of theologians, at
least, has raised it to a position of peculiar eminence in connection
with Christianity. They have taken it to be the mark of a person who has
attained spiritual manhood, and have laid down elaborate rules for its
achievement. Many theologians will agree that this has been almost
wholly disastrous. On the one side, conversion has been dwelt upon as a
cataclysmal epoch in a person's life, produced, negatively, by an act of
self-surrender, and, positively, by a supernatural act of grace. This
has had the effect of blinding people to the real nature of the process,
and has led to certain evil consequences that must always accompany
attempts at wholesale conversion. On the other hand, it has given rise
to a class of professional evangelists who count their trophies in
'souls' as a Red Indian might count scalps, and who are ignorant of
nearly everything except the art of working upon the emotions of a crowd
of more or less uncultured people. Here, for instance, is an account of
an American evangelist and ex-prize fighter, and evidently a great
favourite with certain sections of the religious public in America. The
account is cited by Dr. Cutten from a local paper, Illinois:--
"5843 converts, 683 in a day. Total gift to Mr. Sunday, $10,431.
Greatest revival in history. Will attract the attention of the religious
world. Sermon on 'Booze,' the great effort of the revival! These are all
headlines to the report of the meeting, which covers six
columns--evidently a response to the interest shown in 'Billy' Sunday's
meetings. The sermon on 'Booze' is given in full, and the physical
exertions of the preacher described in detail. He began with his coat,
vest, tie, and collar off. In a few moments his shirt and undershirt
were gaping open to the waist, and the muscles of his neck and chest
were seen working like those in the arm of a blacksmith, while
perspiration poured from every pore. His clothing was soaked, as if a
hose had been turned on him. He strained, and twisted, and reached up
and down. Once he was on the floor for just a second, in the attitude of
crawling, to show that all crime crawled out of the saloon; then he was
on his feet as quickly as a cat could jump. At the end of forty-five
minutes he mounted a chair, reached high, as he shouted, then again was
on the floor, and dropped prostrate to illustrate a story of a drunken
man, bounded to his feet again as if steel springs filled that lithe,
slender, lightning-like body. He generally breaks a common kitchen chair
in this sermon, and this came after a terrible effort, with eyes
flashing, face scowling, the picture of hate. He whirled the chair over
his head, smashed the chair to the platform floor, whirled the shattered
wreck in the air again, and threw it to the ground in front of the
pulpit. In two minutes men from the front row were tearing the wreck to
pieces and dividing it up--a round here, a leg there, a piece of the
back to another, and so on. Later, men carried away in cheering could be
seen in the audience waving those chair fragments in the air."
This is, of course, an extreme case, although it is but an exaggeration
of methods in common use among these professional revivalists. The whole
aim and purpose of these men is to arouse in the audience a high
emotional tension, and any means is acceptable that succeeds in doing
this. On the part of the congregation a large portion go for the express
purpose of indulging in an emotional debauch. Many attend revival after
revival, living over again the debauch of the last, and treasuring
lively expectations of the next. Between these and the victim of alcohol
tasting again his last 'burst,' and seeking opportunities for another,
there is really little moral or psychological distinction. The social
consequences of these engineered revivals have never been fully worked
out, but when it is done by some competent person, the conclusions will
be a revelation to many. One thing is certain: to expect really useful
social results from such methods is verily to look to gather grapes from
thistles.
During recent years the phenomena of religious conversion have been
studied in a more scientific spirit.[143] Statistics have been compiled
and analysed, the frames of mind attendant on conversion arranged and
studied, with the result that the salient features are to be discerned
by all who approach the study of the subject with a little detachment of
mind. One outstanding feature of this more scientific enquiry into the
nature of conversion has been to demonstrate that it is almost
exclusively a phenomenon of puberty and adolescence. Mr. Hall has
compiled a lengthy list of the ages at which noted religious characters
experienced what is known as conversion.[144] From this I take the
following examples. Religious conviction came to St. Thekla at the age
of 18, to St. Agnes at 13, St. Antony at 18, Martin of Tours at 18,
Euphrasia at 12, Benedict at 14, Cuthbert at 15, St. Bernard at 12, St.
Dominic at 15, St. Collette at 20, St. Catherine at 7, St. Teresa at 12,
St. Francis of Sales at 11. In his _Life of Jesus_, Keim also remarks
that although some of the disciples may have been married, most of them
were probably about twenty years of age.[145]
Professor Starbuck, placing on one side both historical and
anthropological aspects, set himself the task of examining cases of the
present day. A paper was sent out asking various questions as to age,
state of health, frame of mind, before, during, and following
conversion. The questions were sent to male and female members of
different religious denominations. In reply, 1265 papers were filled up
and returned. One result of a scrutiny of these returns was to show that
the age at which religious conversion was experienced began as early as
7 or 8 years, it increased gradually till 10 or 11, then a more rapid
increase till 18 or 20, a decline increasing in rapidity to the age of
25, and its practical disappearance beyond the age of 30. In girls, the
period of conversion antedates that of boys by about two years.[146]
Starbuck's conclusion is the perfectly valid one that conversion
"belongs almost exclusively to the years between 10 and 25," and is
distinctly a phenomenon of adolescence.
This conclusion would be borne out by a study of almost any revival
crusade. Thus a few years ago--1904--England received a visit from the
American evangelist, Dr. Torrey. At the conclusion of his visit, Sir
Robertson Nicol invited opinions from ministers in the towns visited by
Torrey, and published the replies in his paper, _The British Weekly_, on
October 27. There was no attempt whatever to elicit the ages of the
reported converts; the enquiry was directed to the point of ascertaining
whether these engineered missions had a beneficial effect on church
life, or the reverse. But incidentally the ages of the converts were
given in some cases, and one may safely assume that in the reports where
no age was mentioned the facts, if disclosed, would not run counter to
the generalisation above given. The Rev. T. Towers, Birmingham, noted
that 16 out of 25 reported converts were children. Rev. A. Le Gros,
Rugby, reported: "A number of our youngest members, especially amongst
the young girls, were amongst those who professed conversion." Rev. H.
Singleton, Smethwick, says: "The bulk of the names sent to me were those
of children under thirteen years of age." Rev. W. G. Percival, Lozells
Congregational Church, says of the 'inquiry' meeting held after the
preaching: "The dear little things followed one another for inquiry
until the place was a scene of utter confusion." Reports of a similar
nature came from other places. The ages were pointed out quite
incidentally; conversions of youths of 17 or 18 would not excite comment
with these. Were the ages of all given, we should, without doubt, find
them fall into line with Starbuck's and Hall's figures.
Professor James quite accepts this view of conversion. The conclusion,
he says, "would seem to be the only sound one: conversion is in its
essence a normal adolescent phenomenon, incidental to the passage from
the child's small universe to the wider intellectual and spiritual life
of maturity."[147] Conversion, in the sense of a change from "the
child's small universe" to the large world of human society, may be a
normal fact in life, but the really essential fact in the enquiry is not
the fact of growth, but growth in a specific direction. Why should this
normal change from childhood to maturity be the period during which
_religious_ conversion is experienced? This question is not only ignored
by Professor James, it is made more confused by his method of stating
it. Of course, if all people experienced this religious conviction, as
all people undergo other changes at adolescence, the question would be
simplified. But this is obviously not the case. A large number of people
never experience it so long as they are only brought into contact with
ordinary social forces. Special circumstances seem usually to be
required to rouse this sense of religious conviction. Nearly every story
of conversion turns upon something unusual, unexpected, or dramatic
occurring as the exciting cause. The question is, therefore, why should
the line of growth, general with all at adolescence, be, in the case of
some, diverted into religious channels? A study of the subject from this
point of view will, I think, show that conversion is only normal in the
sense that in an environment where religious influences are powerful
each person is normally exposed to it. Those on whom the religious
influence fails to operate experience the change from childhood to
adolescence, on to complete maturity, without their nature evincing any
lack of completeness. This is the vital truth of which Professor James
loses sight, and it is ignored by the vast majority of writers who treat
of the subject.
Leaving, for a while, the statistical view of conversion, we may turn to
its other aspects. By the more advanced of religious teachers to-day the
developments attendant on adolescence are taken as supplying no more
than a favourable occasion for directing mind and emotion to definite
religious conviction. Here the connection is admittedly more or less
accidental. But by the great majority of theologians there is assumed a
direct supernatural influence in the states of mind developed during
adolescence. In more primitive times the connection is of a yet closer
character. Puberty does not at this stage represent what a modern would
call an awakening of the religious consciousness, but a direct
impingement of supernatural influence. From one point of view this
conception still remains part of all religious systems, however overlaid
it may be with modern ideas concerning sexual maturity. And we have, as
a mere matter of historic fact, a whole series of customs commencing
with the initiatory customs of savages and running right on to the
modern practice of confirmation.
In a previous chapter it was pointed out what is the savage state of
mind in relation to the beginnings of sex life as it is manifested in
both boys and girls. Adolescence does not, to the primitive mind, serve
as an occasion for the creation of an interest in the religious life, it
is the sign of direct supernatural influence. One consequence of this is
the rise of more or less elaborate ceremonials marking the initiation of
youth into direct communion with the spiritual forces that govern tribal
life.[148] Among the Polynesians tattooing forms part of the religious
ceremony, and during the time the marks are healing the boy is taboo to
the rest of the tribe, owing to his having been touched by the gods.
With the North American Indians the following ceremony seems
characteristic:--
"When a boy has attained the age of fourteen or fifteen years he absents
himself from his father's lodge, lying on the ground in some remote or
secluded spot, crying to the Great Spirit, and fasting the whole time.
During this period of peril and abstinence, when he falls asleep, the
first animal, bird, or reptile, of which he dreams, he considers the
Great Spirit has designated for his mysterious protector through
life."[149] Similar ceremonies are described by Livingstone as existing
among the South African tribes. These customs are too widespread, and
bear too great a similarity to be described with reference to many
races. The variations are unimportant, and such as they are they may be
studied in the pages of Hall, Frazer, and numerous other writers. With
girls the measures adopted are of a more elaborate character than is the
case with boys, because, for reasons already stated, the occurrence of
puberty in girls gives the supernatural act a more startling and
significant character. Hence the strict seclusion of girls almost
universally practised among uncivilised peoples. The precautions taken
indicate, as Hartland points out, that they are at this period not
merely charged with a malign influence, but are peculiarly susceptible
to the onset of powers other than human. And with a modification of
language the same idea has persisted down to our time, even amongst
those who would reject with indignation the statement that savage ideas
concerning the nature of puberty form the real basis of their own mental
attitude.
This truth cannot be too strongly emphasised. To ignore it is to miss
the whole significance of continuity in human institutions and ideas.
The ceremonies described do, of course, gather round the fact of sexual
development, but they are not concerned with the sexual life, as such.
It is sex as a supernatural manifestation that is the vital feature of
the situation. The governing idea is that puberty marks the direct
association of the individual with a spiritual world to the influence of
which the functional changes are due. As more accurate conceptions are
formed, the older and inaccurate one is not altogether discarded. It has
become incarnate in ceremonies, it is part of the traditional psychic
life of the people, and the change is one of transformation rather than
of eradication. In later cultural stages the physiological nature of the
changes are seen, but they are expressed in terms of religion. Such
expressions as "the soul's awareness of God," "the dawning consciousness
of religion," etc., take the place of the earlier and more direct
animistic interpretation. But the essential misinterpretation is
retained, disguised from careless or uninformed people by the use of a
modified terminology. But in substance the use made of puberty by
organised religious forces remains the same throughout. We have the same
absence of a rational explanation in both instances. In the one because
the state of knowledge makes any other impossible; in the other because
tradition, self-interest, and prejudice prevent its use. It is not only
in his physical structure that man carries reminiscences of a lower form
of life; such reminders are quite as plentiful in his mental life, and
in social institutions.
Even with many who perceive the mechanism of conversion its real
significance is often missed. For the important thing is, not that some
people express the changes incident to adolescence in terms of religion,
but that many do not, and also that these find complete satisfaction
along lines of æsthetic, intellectual, or social interest. Yet one often
finds it assumed that the difference between the two classes is
explained by assuming a certain lack of 'spiritual' development in the
non-religious class. As stated, this is often perilously near to
impertinence, and in any case is little better than the language of a
charlatan. In the same way, the use of amatory phraseology is often
treated as the intrusion of the sex element in a sphere in which it has
no proper place. Enough has already been said to furnish good grounds
for believing that there is much more than this in the phenomenon, and
that one is justified in treating it as symptomatic of the operation of
forces of the nature of which the subject is quite unaware. The only
explanation of the facts already cited is that a misinterpretation of
sexual states lies at the heart of the question. No other hypothesis
covers the facts; no other hypothesis will explain why the larger number
of people should find complete development in activities that lie
outside the field of religion.
How easy it is to see the truth and distort it in the stating may be
seen in the following passage:--
"Passing over the fact that the period of adolescence is noticeably a
period of 'susceptibility,' we may take as an example of the intrusion
or the persistence of the sexual elements in conditions of a non-sexual
kind the frequent association of sexual with religious excitement. The
appeal made during a religious revival to an unconverted person has
psychologically some resemblance to the attempt of the male to overcome
the hesitancy of the female. In each case the will has to be set aside,
and strong suggestive means are used; and in both cases the appeal is
not of the conflict type, but of an intimate, sympathetic, and pleading
kind. In the effort to make a moral adjustment, it consequently turns
out that a technique is used which was derived originally from sexual
life, and the use, so to speak, of the sexual machinery for a moral
adjustment involves, in some cases, the carrying over into the general
process of some sexual manifestations."[150]
The important questions, why religion should so powerfully appeal to
people at adolescence, why its strength should reside so largely in the
appeal to feelings associated with sexual development, and why
conversion should be so rarely experienced when the period of sexual
crisis is past, are quite ignored by Mr. Thomas. Yet it is precisely
these questions that call most loudly for answers, and which, I believe,
contain the key of the situation.
From many points of view adolescence is perhaps the most important epoch
in the life of every individual. It is a time of great and significant
organic growth, with the development of new organs and functions, and a
corresponding transformation of both the emotional and intellectual
output. So far as the brain, the most important organ of all, is
concerned, one may safely say that before puberty its main function has
been acquisition. After puberty vast tracts of brain tissue become
active, and an era of rapid development sets in. There is a rapid growth
of new nerve connections which occasions both physiological and
psychological unrest.[151] An important point to bear in mind, also, is
that all periods of rapid development involve conditions of relative
instability--one is, in fact, only the obverse side of the other. Dr.
Mercier says that with girls "more or less decided manifestations of
hysteria are the rule," and with both sexes this instability involves a
peculiar susceptibility to suggestions and impressions. Accompanying the
purely physical changes the mental and emotional nature undergoes what
is little less than a transformation. There is less direct concern with
self, and a more conscious concern with others. There is a craving for
sympathy, for fellowship, a tendency to look at oneself from the
outside, so to speak, a susceptibility to sights and sounds and
impressions that formerly had little influence. Each one is conscious of
new desires, new attractions, expressed often only in a vague feeling of
unrest, with a desire, half shy because half conscious, for the company
of the opposite sex. The childish desire for protection weakens; the
more mature desire to protect others begins to express itself.
Now, the whole significance of these changes, physical and mental, is
fundamentally sexual and social. Human life, it may be said, has a
twofold aspect. As a mere animal organism, there is the perpetuation of
the species, which nature secures by the mere force of the sex impulse.
As a human being, he is part of a social structure, cell in the social
tissue, to use Leslie Stephen's expressive phrase. And in this direction
nature secures what is necessary by the presence of impulses and
cravings as imperious as, and even more permanent than, those of mere
sex. Of course, in practice these two things operate together. By a
process of selection, the anti-social character is weeded out, and the
two sets of feelings work together in harmony for the furtherance and
the development of the life of the species. The species is perpetuated
in the interests of society; society is perpetuated in the interests of
the species. Further, it is part of the natural 'plan' that there shall
be developed impulses and capacities suitable to each phase of life as
it emerges. Thus it has been shown that the lengthening of infancy--that
is, the prolongation of the time during which the young human being is
dependent upon its parents for support and protection--is nature's
method of developing to a greater degree the capacity of the human
animal for more complex adjustment. Instead of being launched on the
world with a number of instincts practically fully developed, and so
capable of attending to its own needs almost as soon as born, man is
born with few instincts, and a great capacity for education enabling him
to adjust his conduct to the demands of an environment constantly
increasing in complexity. In the same way it has been shown that the
instinct for play, practically universal throughout the whole of the
animal world, is nature's method of preparing the young for the more
serious business of nature.[152] It is, therefore, only in line with
what is found to be true elsewhere that the changes incident to puberty
should receive their rational interpretation in the necessities of
social life. That these necessities should be met largely by the play of
unreasoning impulse is, again, quite in line with what occurs in other
directions. The insistent pressure of social life for thousands of
generations secures the emergence of needs of the true nature of which
the individual may be ignorant. In no other way, in fact, could the
persistence of the species and of human society be secured.
The whole significance, then, of puberty and adolescence is the entry of
the individual into the larger life of the race. It is, too, a statement
beyond reasonable dispute that if we eliminate religion altogether from
the environment there is not a single feeling experienced at
adolescence, not a single intellectual craving, that would not undergo
full development and receive complete satisfaction. The proof of the
truth of this is that it occurs in a large number of cases. Sacrifice,
the craving for the ideal, with every other feeling associated by many
with religion, exist in connection with non-religious phases of life. It
is idle to argue that some people have a craving for religion, and
nothing but religion will satisfy them. Where an individual is in
complete ignorance of the nature and significance of his own
development, and those around him no better informed; where, moreover,
there are others in a position of authority ready with a special
interpretation, it is not surprising if the religious explanation is
accepted as the genuine and only one. But in reality a sound judgment is
formed, not on the basis of what some declare they cannot do without,
but on the basis of what others actually do without, and suffer no
observable loss in consequence. We do not estimate the value of alcohol
on the basis of those who declare they cannot do without it. The true
test is found in those who abstain from its use. So, also, in the case
of religion. That some, even the majority, declare that religious belief
is essential to their welfare, proves little or nothing. Human nature
being what it is, and the history of society being what it is, it would
be surprising were it otherwise. There is much greater significance in
so large a number of people finding complete satisfaction in purely
secular activities.
After what has been said of the misinterpretation of mental and
emotional states in terms of religious belief, it is not surprising to
find a writer, a clergyman, and one with experience of growing boys,
express himself as follows:--
"My experience confirms the opinion of the psychologists that most boys
of the public school age have a strongly mystical tendency. This is to
be expected, on account of the great emotional development of that
period of life. But it is obscured by the fact that the boy is both
unwilling and unable to give any verbal expression to this tendency. He
is unwilling because it is something very new and curious in his
experience; he is often a little frightened of it, and he is exceedingly
frightened of other people's contempt for it. And he is unable, because
the words he is accustomed to use are valueless in this connection, and
he feels priggish if he tries to use others.... But, though unexplained,
the mystical tendency is there, and should be appealed to and
developed."[153]
Now, clearly, all that can be reasonably meant by saying that a boy of,
apparently, from 12 to 16 has a mystical tendency, is that the
physiological changes incident to puberty are accompanied by a mass of
feeling of a vague and formless character. Naturally, his boyish
experience is unable to furnish him with the means of giving adequate
expression to his feelings. That can only come with the experience of
maturity. And with equal inevitability he is at the mercy of the
explanation furnished him by those whom he regards as his teachers and
guides. When he is told that this element of 'mysticism' is the
awakening of religion in his soul, he accepts the explanation precisely
as he accepts explanations of other things. That this 'mystical
tendency' should be appealed to and developed is a statement open to
very great doubt. It should rather be explained, not perhaps in a
brutally frank manner, but in a way that would lead the boy to see
himself as an organic part of society, with definite duties and
obligations. If this were done, adolescence might provide us with the
raw material for a much greater number of useful and intelligent
citizens than it does at present. The true nature of the process, so
elaborately misunderstood by Dr. Temple, is clearly outlined by Dr.
Mercier:--
"In connection with normal development, a large body of vague and
formless feeling arises, and, until experience gives it shape, the
possessor remains ignorant of the source and nature of the feeling. If
the circumstances are appropriate for the natural outlet and expression
of the activities, they are expressed in affection, and are a source of
health and strength to the possessor. But if no such outlet exists, the
vague, voluminous, formless feelings are referred to an occasion that is
vague, voluminous, and wanting in definite form, they are ascribed to
the direct influence of the Deity, and assume a place in religious
emotion."[154]
Leaving this aspect of the subject for a time, let us look more closely
at the process of conversion. It has already been pointed out that one
great feature of adolescence is susceptibility to impressions and
suggestions. One is not surprised to find, therefore, that in
Starbuck's collection of cases 34 per cent. of the females and 29 per
cent. of the males described their conversion as being directly due to
imitation, social pressure, and example. If we were to add to these the
cases where unconscious imitation and suggestion is at work, the
proportion would be much greater. Religion, like dress, has its modes,
and imitation will occur in the one direction as readily as in the
other. Nothing is more striking in the records of conversion than the
monotony of the language used to describe the feelings experienced. It
is exactly as though the converts had been learning a regular catechism,
as in a way they have been. Young boys and girls will confess their
sinful state in language identical with that used by one who has
actually lived a career of vice and crime. Others of an aggressively
commonplace character will use the language of exalted mysticism
suitable to an Augustine or a Jacob Boehme. In these cases we have not
identity of feeling finding expression in identity of language; it is
pure imitation and suggestion without the least regard to the fitness of
the language employed.
The full power of suggestion would be more fitly considered in
connection with waves of religious feeling that have assumed an epidemic
form; but it will not be out of place here to call attention to this
factor in such a recent case as the outbreaks in Wales under the
leadership of persons such as Evan Roberts. Quite apart from the
suggestion and imitation operating in the gatherings themselves, it is
plain that many went to the meetings quite prepared to act in accordance
with what had gone before. Newspapers had published elaborate reports
of the 'scenes,' certain manifestations were recognised as signs of the
"workings of the Spirit," with the result that all these operated as
powerful suggestions, particularly with those of a hysterical
disposition. And behind this particular revival there were the
traditions of other revivals, all of which had created a heritage as
coercive as any purely social tradition. A crowd of people in a state of
eager expectancy, exposed to the assaults of a preacher skilled in
rousing their emotion to fever pitch, is naturally ready to see and hear
things that none would see and hear in their normal moments. No better
field for the study of crowd psychology, particularly at the point at
which it merges into the abnormal, could be imagined than the ordinary
revival.
In America these revival out breaks seem to assume a much more
extravagant form than with us. Mr. Stanley Hall, for example, thus
describes a Kentucky camp meeting in which the prevailing term of
spiritual manifestation was that of 'jerking.' Quoting from an
eye-witness, he says:--
"The crowd swarmed all night round the preacher, singing, shouting,
laughing, some plunging wildly over stumps and benches into the forest,
shouting 'Lost, lost!' others leaping and bounding about like live fish
out of water; others rolling over and over on the ground for hours;
others lying on the ground and talking when they could not move; and yet
others beating the ground with their heels. As the excitement increased,
it grew more morbid and took the form of 'jerkings,' or in others the
holy laugh. The jerks began with the head, which was thrown violently
from side to side so rapidly that the features were blurred and the
hair almost seemed to snap, and when the sufferer struck an obstacle and
fell he would bounce about like a ball. Saplings were sometimes cut
breast high for the people to jerk by. In one place the earth about the
roots of one of them was kicked about as though by the feet of a horse
stamping flies. One sufferer mounted his horse to ride away when the
jerks threw him to the earth, whence he rose a Christian. A lad, who
feigned illness to stay away, was dragged there by the spirit and his
head dashed against the wall till he had to pray. A sceptic who cursed
and swore was crushed by a falling tree. Men fancied themselves dogs,
and gathered round a tree barking and 'treeing the devil.' They saw
visions and dreamed dreams, and as the revival waned, it left a crop of
nervous and hysterical disorders in its wake."[155]
We have nothing quite so extreme as this in British revivals, but the
home phenomena are not substantially different in nature. A medical
observer of some of the earliest Methodist revivals thus describes the
symptoms of those who were subject to 'divine' seizures under the
influence of Wesley and his immediate followers:--
"There came on first a feeling of faintness, with rigor and a sense of
weight at the pit of the stomach; soon after which the patient cried out
as though in the agonies of labour. The convulsions then began, first
showing themselves in the muscles of the eyelids, though the eyes
themselves were fixed and staring. The most frightful contortions of the
countenance followed, and the convulsions now took their course
downwards, so that the muscles of the trunk and neck were affected,
causing a sobbing respiration, which was performed with great effort.
Tremors and agitations ensued, and the patients screamed out violently,
and tossed their heads from side to side. As the complaint increased, it
seized the arms, and its victims beat their breasts, clasped their
hands, and made all sorts of strange noises."
To the non-medical religious observer the scenes produced a different
impression, thus:--
"When the power of religion began to be spoken of, the presence of God
really filled the place.... The greatest number of them who cried or
fell were men; but some women and several children felt the power of the
same Almighty Spirit, and seemed just sinking into hell. This occasioned
a mixture of sounds, some shrieking, some roaring aloud. The most
general was a loud breathing, like that of people half strangled and
gasping for life; and, indeed, almost all the cries were like those of
human creatures dying in bitter anguish.... I stood on a pew seat, as
did a young man in the opposite pew, an able-bodied, fresh, healthy
countryman; but in a moment, while he seemed to think of nothing less,
down he dropt with a violence inconceivable. The adjoining pews seemed
shook with his fall. I heard afterwards the stamping of his feet ready
to break the boards as he lay in strong convulsions at the bottom of the
pew.... Among the children who felt the arrows of the Almighty, I saw a
sturdy boy, about eight years old, who roared above his fellows, and
seemed, in his agony, to struggle with the strength of a grown man. His
face was red as scarlet; and almost all on whom God laid His hand turned
either very red or almost black."[156]
In other instances connected with the same movement, a girl is described
as "lying on the floor as one dead." One woman "tore up the ground with
her hands, filling them with dust and with the hard-trodden grass";
another "roared and screamed in dreadful agony." A child, seven years
old, "saw visions, and astonished the neighbours with her awful manner
of relating them." John Wesley personally interviewed a number of the
people seized in this manner, and was quite convinced of the
supernatural nature of the attacks. He said that he had "generally
observed more or less of these outward symptoms to attend the beginning
of a general work of God," although he admitted that in some cases
"Satan mimicked God's work in order to discredit the whole work." But
whether of God or Satan there was no question of their supernatural
character. Moreover, whatever may be one's opinion of these outbreaks,
there is one fact that stands out clear and indisputable. This is that
the Methodist revival owed a great deal of its vitality--as is also the
case with other religious movements--to phenomena of a distinctly
pathologic nature. Subtract from these movements all phenomena of the
class indicated, and such phrases as 'the revival fire' become
meaningless. Right through history religious conviction has been gained
in innumerable cases by the operation of factors that a more accurate
knowledge finds can be explained without any reference whatever to
supernatural forces.
Lest the above examples be dismissed as belonging to an old order of
things, I subjoin the following account--from a missionary--of a recent
revival scene in India:--
"There were people ... on the floor fairly writhing over the realisation
of sin as it came over them.... Saturday we were favoured with a
wonderful manifestation of the Spirit. One of the older girls who had
had a remarkable experience, went into a trance, with her head thrown
back, her arms folded, and motionless, except for a slight movement of
her foot. She seemed to be seeing something wonderful, for she would
marvel at it, and then laugh excitedly.... One girl rushed to the back
of the vestibule and, lying across a bench, with her head and hands
against the wall, she fairly writhed in agony for two hours before peace
came to her."[157]
I do not know on what grounds we are justified in calling civilised
people who chronicle these outbreaks as "a wonderful manifestation of
the Spirit." Civilised in other respects, in relation to other matters,
they may be. Civilised in relation to this particular matter they
certainly are not. Their viewpoint is precisely that of the lowest tribe
of savages. Savages, indeed, could not do more; our 'civilised'
missionaries do no less. Tylor well says that "such descriptions carry
us far back in the history of the human mind, showing modern men still
in ignorant sincerity producing the very fits and swoons to which for
untold ages savage tribes have given religious import. These
manifestations in modern Europe indeed form part of a revival of
religion, the religion of mental disease."[158]
The truth is that the appeals usually made to induce conversion, and the
methods adopted, tend to develop a morbid state of mind, which very
easily passes into the pathological. A too insistent habit of
introspection is always dangerous, and the danger is heightened when it
takes the form of religious brooding. In Dr. Starbuck's collection of
cases, seventy-five per cent. of the males and sixty per cent. of the
females confessed to feelings of depression, anxiety, and sadness before
conversion. This may be attributed partly to the harping upon a
conviction of sinfulness, which in itself is wholly of an unhealthy
character. It does not indicate moral health, and it is very far from
indicating physiological health. The following confessions are
pertinent, and will illustrate both points. I give in brackets the ages
of the subjects where stated:--
"I felt the wrath of God resting on me. I called on Him for aid, and
felt my sins forgiven" (13).
"I couldn't eat, and would lie awake all night."
"Often, very often, I cried myself to sleep" (19).
"Hymns would sound in my ears as if sung" (10).
"I had visions of Christ saying to me, Come to Me, My child" (15).
"Just before conversion I was walking along a pathway, thinking of
religious matters, when suddenly the word H-e-l-l was spelled out five
yards ahead of me" (17).
"I felt a touch of the Divine One, and a voice said 'Thy sins are
forgiven thee; arise and go in peace'" (12).
"The thoughts of my condition were terrible" (13).
"For three months it seemed as if God's Spirit had withdrawn from me.
Fear took hold of me. For a week I was on the border of despair" (16).
"A sense of sinfulness and estrangement from God grew daily" (15).
"Everything went wrong with me; it felt like Sunday all the time" (12).
"I felt that something terrible was going to happen" (14).
"I fell on my face by a bench and tried to pray. Every time I would call
on God something like a man's hand would strangle me by choking. I
thought I would surely die if I could not get help. I made one final
effort to call on God for mercy if I did strangle and die, and the last
I remember at that time was falling back on the ground with that unseen
hand on my throat. When I came to myself there was a crowd around
praising God."
A crowd around praising God! For all substantial purposes this last
might be the description of a state of affairs in Central Africa instead
of an occurrence in a country that claims to be civilised. It is not
surprising that so great an authority as Sir T. S. Clouston gives an
emphatic warning against revival services and unusual religious
meetings, which should "on no account be attended by persons with weak
heads, excitable dispositions, and neurotic constitutions."[159]
Unfortunately it is precisely these classes for whom they possess the
greatest attractions, and from whom the larger number of chronicled
cases are drawn. The excitement of the revival meeting is as fatal an
attraction to them as the dram is to the confirmed alcoholist; and if
the ill-consequences are neither so immediately discernible nor as
repulsive in character, they are none the less present in a large number
of cases. The emotional strain to which the organism is subjected
occurs, as the ages of the converts show, precisely at the time when it
is least able to bear it safely. The main characteristic of adolescence
is instability, physical, emotional, and intellectual. It is a time of
stress and strain, of the formation of new feelings and associations and
desires that crave for expression and gratification. The instability of
the organic conditions is evidenced by the large proportion of nervous
disorders that occur during adolescence. Adolescent insanity is a
well-known form of mania, although it is usually of brief duration. Sir
T. S. Clouston, in his _Neuroses of Development_, gives a long list of
complaints attendant on adolescence, and Sir W. R. Gowers, dealing with
1450 cases of epilepsy, points out that "three-quarters of the cases of
epilepsy begin under twenty years, and nearly half (46 per cent.)
between ten and twenty, the maximum being at fourteen, fifteen, and
sixteen." Of hysteria, the same writer points out that of the total
cases 50 per cent. occurs from ten to twenty years of age, 20 per cent.
from twenty to thirty, and only 10 per cent. from thirty to forty.[160]
The peculiar danger, then, of the modern appeal for conversion is that
it is couched in a form likely to do the minimum of good and the maximum
of harm. Where religion exists as a normally operative factor of the
environment--as in lower stages of culture--the danger is avoided,
because no special machinery is required to bring about religious
conviction. The general social life secures this. But at a later stage,
when the religious and secular aspects of life become separated, with a
growing preponderance of the latter, religion must be, as it were,
specially and forcibly introduced. Whether for good or ill, it is a
disturbing force. It strives to divert the developing organic energies
into a new channel. To effect this, it plays upon the emotions to an
altogether dangerous extent, in complete ignorance of the nature of the
passions excited. In the older form of the religious appeal, that in
which fear was the chief emotion aroused, it is now generally conceded
that the consequences were wholly bad. But under any form the emotional
appeal is fraught with danger, since the tendency is for it to bring out
unsuspected weaknesses in other directions. Sir W. R. Gowers wisely
points out that "mental emotion--fright, excitement, anxiety--is the
most potent cause of epilepsy," which is accounted for by bearing in
mind "the profoundly disturbing effect of alarm on the nervous system,
deranging as it does almost every function of the nervous system."
Persons with predispositions to nervous disorders may pass with safety
through the period of adolescence so long as their circumstances provide
opportunities for healthy occupation with no undue emotional strain. But
let the former be lacking, and the latter danger is always present. The
hidden weakness develops, and injury more or less permanent follows.
There is hardly a qualified medical authority in the country who would
deny the truth of what has been said, although many do not care to speak
out in relation to religious matters. But all would doubtless agree with
Dr. Mercier that "every revival is attended by its crop of cases of
insanity, which are the more numerous as the revival is more fervent and
long continued."[161]
Something must be said on the moral character of conversions in
general. This is, naturally, greatly exaggerated, often deliberately so.
In the first place, confessions of 'sinfulness' in a pre-conversion
state, when made by youths of both sexes, may be dismissed as quite
worthless. They are merely using the language placed in their mouths by
professional evangelists, and the similarity of the confessions carry
their own condemnation. Leading a sinful, or even a vicious life,
usually means no more than visiting a theatre, or a music hall, or
playing cards, or non-attendance at church, or not troubling about
religious doctrines. Very often the vague feeling of restlessness
incident to adolescence is interpreted as due to sin or estrangement
from God, and after conversion the convert is, for purposes of
self-glorification, given to magnify the benefits and comforts derived
from his religious convictions. The magnitude of the change increases
the value of the convert, and with well-known characters there has been
as great an exaggeration of vices before conversion as of virtues
subsequently. The way in which evangelical Christianity has created a
life of the wildest dissipation for the earlier years of John Bunyan is
an instructive instance of this procedure.
So far as older converts are concerned, everyone of balanced judgment
will regard stories of conversion from extreme vice to extreme virtue
with the greatest suspicion. Character does not change suddenly,
although there may be cases of 'sports' in the moral world as elsewhere.
Where some modification of conduct, but hardly of character, results,
the machinery is very obvious, and does not in the least necessitate an
appeal to the intrusion of a supernatural influence for an explanation.
The religious gathering opens--as any non-religious meeting may open--a
new circle of associates with different ideals and standards of value.
So long as the newcomer is desirous of retaining the respect of his
fresh associates, so long he will try to act as they act and think as
they think. There will be a change of conduct, but not, as I have said,
of character. Those who look closely will find the same character still
active. The mean character remains mean, the untruthful one remains
untruthful. The only difference is that these qualities will be
expressed in a different form. Moreover, the same thing may be seen
occurring quite apart from religion. Every association of men and women
exerts precisely the same influence. In the army, a regiment that has a
reputation for steadiness and sobriety develops these qualities in all
who enter it. Regiments with a reputation for opposite qualities do not
fail to convert newcomers. A workshop, a club, a profession, exerts a
precisely similar influence. One man finds inspiration in the Bible and
another in the Newgate Calendar. A man will usually be guided by the
ideals of his associates, whether these ideals be those of a thieves'
kitchen or of a philanthropic institution. This only means that each
individual is subject to the influence of the group spirit. For good and
evil this is one of the deepest and most pregnant facts of human nature.
The utilisation and distortion of this fact in the interests of
religious organisations has served to prevent its general recognition
and the wise use of it by the community at large.
Finally, it has to be borne in mind, in view of the data given above,
that conversion is experienced by the individual at that period of life
when the more social side of human nature is beginning to find
expression. In this way the natural growth from the small world of
childhood to the larger world of adult humanity is taken advantage of by
religion, and the process of inevitable growth is attributed to the
influence of religious belief. In itself the phenomenon is in no degree
religious, but wholly social. The process is well enough described by
Starbuck in the following passage--although there are certain quite
unnecessary theological implications:--
"Conversion is the surrender of the personal will to be guided by the
larger forces of which it is a part. These two aspects are often
mingled. In both there is much in common. There is a sudden revelation
and recognition of a higher order than that of the personal will. The
sympathies follow the direction of the new insight, and the convert
transfers the centre of life and activity from the part to the whole.
With new insight comes new beauty. Beauty and worth awaken love--love
for parents, kindred, kind, society, cosmic order, truth, and spiritual
life. The individual learns to transfer himself from a centre of
self-activity into an organ of revelation of universal being, and to
live a life of affection for and oneness with the larger life outside.
As a necessary condition of the spiritual awakening is the birth of
fresh activity and of a larger self-consciousness, which often assert
themselves as the dominant element in consciousness."[162]
Adolescence is the golden period of life, because it is the age in which
the formative influences effect their strongest and most permanent
impressions. But this susceptibility, while pregnant with promise, is
because of this susceptibility likewise fraught with the possibilities
of danger. The developing qualities of mind need to be wisely and
carefully guided; and it is little short of criminal that at this
critical juncture so many young people should be handed over to the
ignorant ministrations of professional evangelism. The true sociological
significance of the development is ignored, and it is small wonder that,
having wasted this impressionable period, so many people should go
through life with a quite rudimentary sense of social responsibility and
duty. An American author, speaking of the connection between certain
brutal manifestations in social life in the United States and religious
teaching, says:--
"It is well known that lynching in the South is carried on largely by
the ignorant and baser elements of the white population. It is also well
known that the chief method of religious influence and training of the
black man and the ignorant white man is impulsive and emotional
revivalism. It is a highly dangerous situation, and deserves the earnest
consideration of the ecclesiastical statesmen of all denominations which
work in the South. It will be impossible to protect that part of the
nation, or any other, from the epidemic madness of the lynching mob if
the seeds of it are sown in the sacred soil of religion.... Their
preachers are great 'soul-savers,' but they lack the practical sense to
build up their emotionalised converts into anything that approaches a
higher life."[163]
The truth of this passage has a very wide implication. It is not alone
true that so long as the lower kind of revivalism is encouraged, we are
unconsciously perpetuating certain very ugly manifestations of social
life; it is also true that while we give a supernaturalistic
interpretation of phenomena that are wholly physiological and
sociological in character, we can never make the most of the human
material we possess. On the one side we have a deplorable encouragement
of unhealthy emotionalism, and on the other a sheer misdirection and
misuse of human faculty. The increase of self-consciousness, the craving
for sympathy and communion with one's fellows, the impulse to service in
the common life of the State, have no genuine connection with religion,
although all these qualities are classified as religious, and are
utilised by religious organisations. Actually and fundamentally they
belong to the social side of human nature. As our hands are developed
for grasping, and the various organs of the body for their respective
functions, so mental and emotional qualities are developed in their due
course for a rational social life. Biologically and psychologically,
male and female are at adolescence entering into a deeper and more
enduring relationship with the life of the race. There is no other
meaning to the process.
Naturally enough, the vast majority of people express their developing
nature in accordance with the fashion of their environment. If this
environmental influence were rationally non-religious, the language
would be that of a non-religious philosophy. As, however,
supernaturalism, in some form or other, is still a potent force we have
a contrary result. It is only here and there that one is found with the
inclination or the wit to analyse his or her impulses, and few possess
enough knowledge to make the analysis profitable. There is no wonder
that concerning many of the most important phenomena of human life we
are still little above the level of the fetish worshipper. We may have a
more elaborate phraseology, but the old ideas are still operative. The
consequence is that each newcomer finds certain ideas and forms of
speech ready for his acceptance, and is handed over, bound hand and
foot, to influences that are the least capable of sane direction. We do
not merely sacrifice our first-born; we immolate the whole of our
progeny. The ignorant past plays into the hands of the designing
present; the present conspires with the past to rob the future of the
good that might result from the growth of a wiser and a better race.
Were society really enlightened and genuinely civilised, the truth of
what has been said would be recognised as soon as stated. It would,
indeed, be unnecessary to labour what would then be a generally
recognised truth. But the mass of the people are not genuinely
enlightened, our civilisation is largely a veneer, and numerous agencies
prevent our reaping the full benefit of our available knowledge. Thus it
happens that in place of an explanation of human qualities in terms of
biologic and social evolution, we find current an explanation that is
based upon pre-scientific ideas. Because our less instructed ancestors
accounted for various manifestations of human qualities as due to a
supernatural influence, we continue to perpetuate the delusion. We teach
youth to express itself in terms of supernaturalism, and then treat the
language and the fact as inseparable. In this respect, sociology is
passing through a phase from which some of the sciences have finally
emerged. In physics and astronomy, for instance, the fact has been
separated from the supernatural explanation, and shown to be
independent of it. An exploitation of social life in the interests of
supernaturalism is still in active operation. It is this that is really
the central truth of the situation. And in ignoring this truth we expose
a growing generation to the worst possible of educative influences, at a
time when a wiser control would be preparing it for an intelligent
participation in the serious and enduring work of social organisation.