_Development of Monotheism._
Such an allusion to the Romans, in an exposition like the present
one, is not without its significance. It was partly through political
circumstances that a truly theistic idea was developed out of the
chaotic and fragmentary ghost theories and nature-worship of the
primeval world. To the framing of the vastest of all possible
conceptions, the idea of God, man came but slowly. This nature-worship
and ancestor-worship of early times was scarcely theism. In their
recognition of man's utter dependence upon something outside of himself
which yet was not wholly unlike himself, these primitive religions
contained the essential germ out of which theism was to grow; but it is
a long way from the propitiation of ghosts and the adoration of the
rising sun to the worship of the infinite and eternal God, the maker
of heaven and earth, in whom we live, and move, and have our being.
Before men could arrive at such a conception, it was necessary for
them to obtain some integral idea of the heaven and the earth; it was
necessary for them to frame, however inadequately, the conception of
a physical universe. Such a conception had been reached by civilized
peoples before the Christian era, and by the Greeks a remarkable
beginning had been made in the generalization and interpretation of
physical phenomena. The intellectual atmosphere of Alexandria, for two
centuries before and three centuries after the time of Christ, was
more modern than anything that followed down to the days of Bacon and
Descartes; and all the leaders of Greek thought since Anaxagoras had
been virtually or avowedly monotheists. As the phenomena of nature
were generalized, the deities or superhuman beings regarded as their
sources were likewise generalized, until the conception of nature as a
whole gave rise to the conception of a single Deity as the author and
ruler of nature; and in accordance with the order of its genesis, this
notion of Deity was still the notion of a Being possessed of psychical
attributes, and in some way like unto Man.
But there was another cause, besides scientific generalization, which
led men's minds toward monotheism. The conception of tutelar deities,
which was the most prominent practical feature of ancestor-worship,
was directly affected by the political development of the peoples of
antiquity. As tribes were consolidated into nations, the tutelar gods
of the tribes became generalized, or the god of some leading tribe
came to supersede his fellows, until the result was a single national
deity, at first regarded as the greatest among gods, afterwards as the
only God. The most striking instance of this method of development is
afforded by the Hebrew conception of Jehovah. The most primitive form
of Hebrew religion discernible in the Old Testament is a fetichism, or
very crude polytheism, in which ancestor-worship becomes more prominent
than nature-worship. At first the _teraphim_, or tutelar household
deities, play an important part, but nature-gods, such as Baal, and
Moloch, and Astarte, are extensively worshipped. It is the plural
_elohim_ who create the earth, and whose sons visit the daughters of
antediluvian men. The tutelar deity, Jehovah, is originally thought
of as one of the _elohim_, then as chief among _elohim_, and Lord of
the hosts of heaven. Through his favour his chosen prophet overcomes
the prophets of Baal, he is greater than the deities of neighbouring
peoples, he is the only true god, and thus finally he is thought of
as the only God, and his name becomes the symbol of monotheism. The
Jews have always been one of the most highly-gifted races in the
world. In antiquity they developed an intense sentiment of nationality,
and for earnestness and depth of ethical feeling they surpassed all
other peoples. The conception of Jehovah set forth in the writings of
the prophets was the loftiest conception of deity anywhere attained
before the time of Christ; in ethical value it immeasurably surpassed
anything to be found in the pantheon of the Greeks and Romans. It was
natural that such a conception of deity should be adopted throughout
the Roman world. At the beginning of the Christian era the classic
polytheism had well-nigh lost its hold upon men's minds; its value had
become chiefly literary, as a mere collection of pretty stories; it
had begun its descent into the humble realm of folk-lore. For want of
anything better people had recourse to elaborate Eastern ceremonials,
or contented themselves with the time-honoured domestic worship of the
_lares_ and _penates_. Yet their minds were ripe for some kind of
monotheism, and in order that the Jewish conception should come to be
generally adopted, it was only necessary that it should be freed from
its limitations of nationality, and that Jehovah should be set forth
as Sustainer of the universe and Father of all mankind. This was done
by Jesus and Paul. The theory of divine action implied throughout the
gospels and the epistles was the first complete monotheism attained
by mankind, or at least by that portion of it from which our modern
civilization has descended. Here for the first time we have the idea
of God dissociated from the limiting circumstances with which it had
been entangled in all the ethnic religions of antiquity. Individual
thinkers here and there had already, doubtless, reached an equally
true conception, as was shown by Kleanthes in his sublime hymn to
Zeus;[9] but it was now for the first time set forth in such wise as
to win assent from the common folk as well as the philosophers, and to
make its way into the hearts of all men. Its acceptance was hastened,
and its hold upon mankind immeasurably strengthened, by the divinely
beautiful ethical teaching in which Jesus couched it,--that teaching,
so often misunderstood yet so profoundly true, which heralded the time
when Man shall have thrown off the burden of his bestial inheritance
and strife and sorrow shall cease from the earth.[10]
We shall presently see that in its fundamental features the theism of
Jesus and Paul was so true that it must endure as long as man endures.
Changes of statement may alter the outward appearance of it, but the
kernel of truth will remain the same forever. But the shifting body of
religious doctrine known as Christianity has at various times contained
much that is unknown to this pure theism, and much that has shown
itself to be ephemeral in its hold upon men. The change from polytheism
to monotheism could not be thoroughly accomplished all at once. As
Christianity spread over the Roman world it became encrusted with pagan
notions and observances, and a similar process went on during the
conversion of the Teutonic barbarians. Yuletide and Easter and other
church holidays were directly adopted from the old nature-worship; the
adoration of tutelar household deities survived in the homage paid to
patron saints; and the worship of the Berecynthian Mother was continued
in that of the Virgin Mary.[11] Even the name _God_, applied to the
Deity throughout Teutonic Christendom, seems to be neither more nor
less than _Wodan_, the personification of the storm-wind, the supreme
divinity of our pagan forefathers.[B]
[B] See note B. at the end of the volume.
That Christianity should thus have retained names and symbols and
rites belonging to heathen antiquity was inevitable. The system of
Christian theism was the work of some of the loftiest minds that have
ever appeared upon the earth; but it was adopted by millions of men
and women, of all degrees of knowledge and ignorance, of keenness
and dullness, of spirituality and grossness, and these brought to it
their various inherited notions and habits of thought. In all its
ages, therefore, Christian theism has meant one thing to one person,
and another thing to another. While the highest Christian minds have
always been monotheistic, the multitude have outgrown polytheism but
slowly; and even the monotheism of the highest minds has been coloured
by notions ultimately derived from the primeval ghost-world which have
interfered with its purity, and have seriously hampered men in their
search after truth.
In illustration of this point we have now to notice two strongly
contrasted views of the divine nature which have been held by Christian
theists, and to observe their bearings upon the scientific thought of
modern times.