Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-08-31
THE COMING RELIGION
Dr.. Eliot Says Neither Creed Nor
Dogma Will Bind 1t.
PREVENTION ITS WATCHW0RD

Cornerstone Of New Belief, Says
Harvard's President Emeritus, Will
Be Love Of God and Service to Fell
low Men-skiiIfuI Surgeon to Be
One Of Its Ministers.
Charles W. Eliot, president emeritus
of Harvard university. outlined in an
address before the Harvard Summer
School of Theology at Cambridge,
Mass, the other afternoon his idea of
the new religion-that Of the twentieth
century-a religion not based upon au.
thority or dealing in promises of future
compensations, a religion among whose
ministers would be the skillful sur
geon, whose aim would be prevention,
not consolation.
"You have been studying this veal"
said Dr. Elliot, "about changed views
Of religion and increased knowledge,
new ideas of God as seen along many
lines. You have learned that social
progress has been modified and that
energy is being conserved. From
these and other indications you must
believe that religion is not fixed, but
fluent, and that it changes from cen
fury to century. Such, indeed, has
been the case.
'The progress in the nineteenth CEN
tury far outstripped that Of similar
periods, and it is fair to assume that
the progress of the twentieth century
will bring about what L call the new
religion. First, I shall tell you what
this new religion will not be, and, Sec
ond, what It will be. - e.
Its Faith Not to 81 Racial or Tribal.
1.-THE new religion will not be based
upon authority, either spiritual or tenn.
poral. The present generation Is ready
to be led, but not driven. As rule,
the older Christian churches have re-
lied on authority. But there is now
a tendency toward liberty and prog.
ress, and among educated men this
feeling is irresistible. In the new re-
1igion. there will be no personifcation
Of natural objects. There will be no
DELEGATION Of remarkable human be.
.ings, and the faith win not be racial
or tribal ! - Il. ~ 50. ~ s1 IS;
:. 1.-THE new religion: will not afford
safety primarily to the individual; it
win think first. Of the common good
and will not teach that character can
be changed quickly. :. - = !.
" "The new religion will not think Of
God as a large and glorified man or as
q king or a patriarch. 1t will not deal
chiefly with sorrow and death, but
with Joy. and life. n It will believe In
no malignant powers, and It will at
tack quickly all forms az evil. ...: ID. .s5
!. "a new thought Of God will be its
characteristic. The twentieth
religion accepts literally ct. Paul's
statement, In him we live and move
and have our being This new re-
ligion will be thoroughly monotheistic.
God will be 80 Imminent that no inter-
mediary will be needed. For every
man God viii be a multiplication Of
infinities. A humane and worthy idea
of God then Will be the central thought
OF the new religion. y. 4
This religion rejects the idea that
man is alien or fallen being who is
hopelessly wicked. It finds such be-
Jliefs inconsistent with worthy idea
Of God. Man has always attributed to
man q spirit associated with but indie
pendent of the body. This spirit Ii
shown in mans habits, In bis appear
ance and actons-in short it's his