Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-20
Must Have Spiritual Power.


the religion of the dominant races.
But though its wide diffusion and po-
litiCal asCendanCy may he due to the
energy. inVentiVeneSS and perSever-
ance of the European stocks. even an
unbeliever might agree with TroeltSch
that a religion which has satisfied for
so long the most progressive nations
of the world must have such spiritual
mower that it may justly be deemed
revelation of divine truth.
But We must define our terms.
What do we mean by Christianity?
Historically. Jesus of Nazareth placed
himself in the line of the prophetic
succession He was called the prophet
of Nazareth in Galilee. His manner
of life - that of wandering
preacher-waS the way of the Jewish
prophets. His message was prophetic.
His stirring call tn repentance and
amendment: His emphasis on moral
conduct: His prediction Of coming
day of the Lord; His dispara cement
of ritual and tradition: His conflicts
with the prieStS-all belong to the
prophetic tradition. His teaching was
individual and universal. He had no
thought of founding a new religion
or a rival hierarchy. though His enc
mics saw more clearly than His dis
ciples that He was in fact undermine
ing the authority of the Jewish
Church. He was no revolutionary:
He abolished all barriers by ignoring
them. 1t is Impossible to say that
the substance of His message was
Jewish or Greek. Eastern or Western.
II is the pure religion of the Spirit,
eternal and worldwide.
The little group of disciples in
Palestine who came together again
after the tragedy on Mount Calvary
nd iGt1 - no i'll
orthodox and pious Jews. who held
nne distinctive tenet that the en-
peCted Messiah would he their cruel
fed and risen Master. Messianism
however. made only weak appeal to
the Jews of the Dispersion. and was
unintelliGihle to the Gentle world.
Under the influence mainly of st.
Paul. the new wine burst the bottles
in which ii had been confined:
christianity became a religion for the
Graeco- Roman empire. This was the
greatest crisis that the church has
ever encountered. If the gospel had
beer purely Semitic and apotalyptic.
as some assert. il could not have sur
Vived such an uprootinc. AS il was.
christianity took very kindly to the
Greek language and ways of thinking.
Long before the closing of the New
Testament anon it had discovered its
affinity with the PlatoniSm of the
time, which was drawing into itself
stoical morality. Pytha Gorean mysti-
cism nd all that was most alive in the
long tradition of Greek philosophy.
The Orient. il is true. was lost and it
has never been recovered. Christia nifty
is now perhaps the least Asiatic of all
religions.
Deep i'm Civilization.
The Christianity to which Europe
was converted had it's roots deeD in
European civilization. The Catholic
Church was the last creative achieve
ment of classical antiquity, which may
he said To have died in giving birth
to it. Its philosophy and theology
were mainly Platonic. its ethics were
ut first largely stoical: but the latter
were profoundly modified by the
"entler and humber spirit of the
original gospel. While Judaism con
iihuted certain features which do not
fit in we'll with Platonism Among
these were belief in the creation and
"a Of the world in time and
Stronger hold on divine and human
personality. Even more important for
the victory of the church was the
Jewish refusal to make any terms
with ''idoatry." or with the syn
cretistic mystery cults. Both came
back later: hut the church would
MAKE no terms WITH the bIu fe1clOnS.
Christianity was prosecuted n the foe
nf the old culture and as an imDerium
in imperio. The fear which inspired
the prosecutions is inteligible but
they had the natural result of alienat-
ing the church more completely from
the classical tradition
The social and political structure of
the old world WAS crUmblng and the
Greeks and Romans were themselves
,I--ir hp cit
served as far as possible under the
empire: but civilizat ton was increas-
inCly menaCed by the inroads of bar
harians from the North and East, and
n centra ization of a definitely non
European type was forced upon the
government. The principate OF
Augustus had been camoufla sed
perpetual dictatorship: the monarchy
oG DioCletian was an undisguised
Asiatic sultanate. 1t was at this con
iuncture that Christianity. after y
sharp struggle. became the official
religion of the Graeco Roman world
The great Mediterra empire
soon afterwards split into two halves.
nf which the eastern spoke Greek and
the western Latin. The position of
the church was not the same in the
two sections. In the East Roman
Empire. which lasted till 1853. the
form of government was that known
as Caesaropapism. The church was
the right hand of the narchy
honored and protected by il but de-
prived of independent powe This
type of polity. which is not favorable
to the spread of progressive ideas in
church or state, subsisted in Russia
till the bolshevik revolution. 1t is
noteworthy that the Cars we're SO
JEALOUS of possible eastern papacy
that they p@t the patriarchate into