But it will not do to read the gospels with a mind furnished only for
the reception of, say, a biography of Goethe. You will not make sense of
them, nor even be able without impatient weariness to persevere in the
task of going steadily through them, unless you know something of the
history of the human imagination as applied to religion. Not long ago I
asked a writer of distinguished intellectual competence whether he had
made a study of the gospels since his childhood. His reply was that he
had lately tried, but "found it all such nonsense that I could not stick
it." As I do not want to send anyone to the gospels with this result,
I had better here give a brief exposition of how much of the history of
religion is needed to make the gospels and the conduct and ultimate fate
of Jesus intelligible and interesting.