CHAPTER III

There is a third feature characteristic of the life of man which adds another aspect to the process of Self-realization that we have been studying-the presence in human experience of universal reality. This essential feature of our lives necessitates a third adjustment, the adjustment of man to the universe, the integration of universal reality within the life of the human self. This, the final step in the organization of conduct, is an affair of religion rather than of morality. The conception of religion which it suggests is not unfamiliar,--it is most common at present, although differently expressed by different thinkers, according to each one's philosophical bias, as the “final synthesis of subject and object” or the “feeling of harmony between ourselves and the universe,” or a “faith in the ultimate conservation of values.” But when understood in connection with the theory of moral development just outlined, this conception of religion ass an adjustment of man to the universe is to the development of the religious consciousness and the relation of religion and morality. If we thus regard religion as the final step in Self-realization, it is possible to distinguish three stages in its evolution and also to show why these three stages are directly dependent for their specific character upon the degree of moral development attained by the self.' The first two adjustments, which belong properly to the field of morality, are logically prior to that of religion; since the

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justment.of the self to the universe can be attained only when its capacities have been fully realized in its natural and social environment. But notwithstanding the fact that such a relation of dependence exists between these different steps in the process of Self-realization, they do not occur in strict temporal sequence. Thus religion does not delay its appearance until moral development is complete and the individual thoroughly socialized. We find the religious adjustment attempted in the lowest stage of human culture. The universe presses in upon the individual and forces him to take towards it some attitude. It is inevitable that the attitude taken should vary with the character of the self. The form of belief required to adjust man and the universe will depend upon the needs and aspirations of the human self and the view which it takes of the universe. Thus religion while distinct from morality is still dependent on it, and its successive stages are determined by the successive epochs in moral development. At the lowest stage the self consists of a medley of different impulses, unregulated except by those customs which have grown up as conditions of social survival, and whose significance is not understood by those who obey them. Anything like a controlling aim or life-purpose is entirely absent from the consciousness of the self at this stage. The universe is regarded as an aggregate of objects or agencies capable of ministering to the desires of man, or of inflicting upon him dire calamities. Religion at this stage takes the form of belief in divinities which, in response to human appeal, have power to influence the objects and forces of nature so that they may minister to human needs. As there are many impulses and many objects, so there are many gods. Each main source of food supply has its divinity, so have springs and wells. There is a god of the chase and one who controls procreation. The leading attribute of deity at this stage is Power. This power is

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neither exclusively physical nor mental but something of both, the two not being clearly distinguished. The worship of such divinities takes the form of an endeavor to placate them by offering and sacrifice. They are assumed to have the same desires as man, and their favor is sought by gifts of food and drink. Within this stage fall the various forms of religion usually regarded as primitive, from animism, through the different forms of nature-worship, to polytheism. In the second stage we find the self in possession of a well-developed individuality, the result of subordinating the many conflicting impulses to a few controlling aims and ambitions which represent the interest of the self as a uiait. The universe is consequently looked upon as a factor influencing the fortunes of the individual. The form of religion needed to adjust individual interest and the universal order, is belief in a power able to guarantee to the individual who fulfils certain stated conditions, the realization of his own ambitions. Hence the tendency is at this stage to conceive of God as a conscious individual possessing the attribute of Justice in addition to the power possessed by the divinities of an earlier stage. He is regarded as one who rewards or punishes men according to their deserts. As the human individual has his own interests and ambitions, so God is believed to have his own designs and purposes. These are expressed in laws and decrees supernaturally revealed. The man who obeys these divine laws is rewarded with happiness and the fulfilment of his ambition while he who disobeys is punished by misery and deprivation; for God is not only Legislator but Judge of all the world. The reward of those who obey the divine commands is at first supposed to come within the limits of earthly existence. But experience proving that fortune does not discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving in this present world, the reward of the individual

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who serves God is postponed to a future life. This stage includes types of religion from organized polytheism through heuotheism to monotheism-at least such monotheism as makes God sharply individual and separate from the world. Finally, in the third place, we have the social or ideal self more or less fully developed, as the result of the adjustment of individual interest to the welfare of society. Man seeks to realize, now, not narrow self-centered ambitions which are different from, and opposed to, the good of others, but those larger ends which embrace the well-being of humanity. He looks upon the universe, not as deciding his fortunes as an individual, but as determining the destiny of man and the reality of those ideals, social and intellectual, which are being slowly and painfully realized in the course of human progress. The kind of belief required to adjust the individual, thus socialized, to the universe, is faith in the existence of a universal principle of such character as to conserve the highest human welfare and guarantee the reality of those values to which man attributes supreme moral worth. Now man, at the height of his moral development, regards the complete social life, -the recognition of brotherhood, the feeling of sympathy, the practice of cobperation,-as the object of supreme worth in human life. Hence the religion that gives reality to those values which man holds highest, is one which finds the nature of God, the universal principle, most completely expressed, not in power, not in justice, but in Benevolence. Faith in such a God who is the expression of infinite benevolence, gives to those altruistic qualities and habits which the social life demands, a foundation deep in the nature of reality. The individual who sacrifices health and possessions and even, in extreme cases, physical existence itself, in the service of others, receives from such a faith the assurance that he has not lost but gained reality thereby;

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for such a life approaches most nearly to the absolutely, real. At this, the culminating stage in the evolution of the religious consciousness, man adjusts himself to the universe, not by sacrifice offered to win the favor of a capricious divinity, nor by obedience to a law externally imposed by a deity who has his own ends to attain, but by faithfully discharging his duties in society and devoting his life to the service of his fellow-beings. Thus the claims of religion and morality are brought into perfect harmony, and man, by the performance of earthly duty, identifies himself with Universal Reality. This final form of religion may be called theism (if we contrast theism with deisrn) or, as has been suggested, spiritual pantheism. IThe existence of a Universal Purpose which is striving to adapt the natural world to the needs of a society of free, self-developing persons has, to be sure, not been demonstrated. Complete proof of the working of such a Universal Purpose whose aim is the welfare of all intelligent beings, will be given only when this purpose is itself realized. The realization of the purpose awaits the fulfilment of the process of Self-realization which is being accomplished in the moral development of man. But faith in the existence of a universal principle which makes for righteousness is being justified, belief in a God of universal benevolence is receiving verification, in the power which it has given, and is giving, to man of organizing his life and adapting the conditions of his existence to the demands of a free personal life. Indeed, this is all the proof we should expect since, as we have seen, man's personal development at every stage depends upon the exercise of faith-a faith which is justified only through the success which it gives to the human self in attaining a larger and more comprehensive life. The religious adjustment is the basis of two further virtues whose place and importance in the moral life is

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generally recognized. It requires, first, the subordination of all the particular interests of the human species to the ends of universal intelligence, or reverence. Reverence for God is thus an expression of the reverence which we owe to the Moral Ideal itself-when this ideal is defined and personalized. Second and finally, self-organization requires that man employ all distinctively human abilities in the realization of the Divine Purpose, and this is to practise piety.