THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Bibliogbaphy: Consult, besides the literature named in the text: C. R. E. von Hartmann, Das religiose Bewusstsein der Menschheit, Berlin, 1882; P. de Broglie, Problemes et conclusions de Vhistoire des religions, Paris, 1885; E. Burnouf, La Science des religions, Paris, 1885; Eng. transl., Science of Religions, London, 1888; H. Derenbourg. La Science des religions, Paris, 1885; J. E. Carpenter, Place of the History of Religion in Theological Study, London, 1890; Henry R. Marshall, Instinct and Reason, New York, 1899; A. J. Balfour, The Foundations of Belief, ib. 1901; H. Fielding-Hall, The Hearts of Men, ib. 1901; J. Buchan, The First Things: Studies in the Embryology of Religion, Edinburgh, 1902; G. Trespioli, Saggio per uno studio sulla conscienza sociale e giuridica nei codici religiosi, Parma, 1902; V Staley, The Natural Religion, Oxford, 1903; J. A. Picton, The Religion of the Universe, London, 1904; R. Eucken, Der Wahrheitsgehalt der Religion, Leipsic, 1905; L. R. Famell, Evolution of Religion. An Anthropological Study, London, 1905; J. B. Kinnear, Foundations of Religion, ib. 1905; J. L. de Lanessau, La Morale des religions, Paris, 1905; J. Martineau, The Seat of Authority in Religion, London, 1905; A. Drews, Die Religion als Selbst-Bewusstsein Gottes. Eine philosophische Vntersuchung ijber das Wesen der Religion, Jena, 1906; F. B. Jevons, Religion in Evolution, London, 1906; O. Pfleiderer, Religion and Historic Faith, New York, 1907; E. Grimm, Theorie der Religion, Leipsic, 1908; Religion and the Modern Mind. Lectures delivered before the Glasgow University Society of St. Ninian. By Various Authors, London, 1908; M. Schinz, Die Wahrheit der Religion nach den neuesten Vertretern der Religionsphilosophie, Zurich, 1908; W. Schmidt, Die Verschiedenen Typen religioser Erfahrung und die Psychologie, Giitersloh, 1908; M. Serol, Le Besoin et le devoir religieux, Paris, 1908; C. G. Shaw, The Precinct of Religion in the Culture of Humanity, London, 1908; J. Watson, The Philosophical Basis of Religion, Glasgow, 1908; H. Rashdall, Philosophy and Religion, London, 1909; H. E. Sampson, Progressive Creation. A Reconciliation of Religion with Science, 2 vols., ib. 1909; E. M. Chapman, English Literature in Account with Religion, 1800-1900, Boston, 1910; W. A. Hinckle, The Evolution of Religion, Peoria, 111., 1910; J. H. Leckie, Authority in Religion, New York, 1910; H. Vrooman, Religion Rationalized, Philadelphia, 1910; B. P. Bowne, The Essence of Religion, Boston, 1910.
RELIGION AND LITERATURE.
Common Origin of Religion and Literature (§ 1). Their Common Appeal to Life (§ 2). Similarity in Methods (§3). Literature's Indebtedness to Religion (§ 4). Illustrations; Pope, Goethe (§ 5). Wordsworth (§6). Browning (§7). Tennyson (§ 8).
Religion and literature spring from the same fundamental sources. Religion is the relation which man bears to ultimate Being. It is concerned with the substance which lies behind phenomena, and also with the duty which man owes to i. Common this Being, universal and eternal. It is Origin of concerned, too, with the questions Religion what, whence, whither. Literature, in and its final analysis, represents the same Literature, fundamental relationship: it seeks to explain, to justify, to reconcile, to interpret, and even to comfort and to console. The Homeric poems are pervaded with the religious atmosphere of wonder, of obedience to the eternal, and of the recognition of the interest of the gods in human affairs. A significant place is held by religion in Greek tragedy. A Divine Providence, the eternity, universality, and immutability of law, the inevitableness of penalty, and the assurance of reward represent great forces in the three chief Greek tragedians. Less impressively, yet with significance, the poems of Vergil are bathed in the air of religious
mystery and submission. The great work of Lucretius, De rerum natura, is, of course, an expression of the human mind in its attempt to penetrate the mysteries of being. The mythology, too, of the non-Christian nations of the north, as well as the literature of the medieval peoples, is concerned with the existence and the work of the gods. In Scandinavian mythology, literature and religion are in no small degree united.
Not only do religion and literature spring from
the same fundamental sources, they also are formed
by the same forces. They both make a constant
appeal to life. They assume the pres-
2. Their ence and orderly use of the reason; they Common accept the strength of the human emo- Appeal to tions of love, fear, curiosity, reverence,
Life. — and they both presume and accept the categorical imperative of the conscience and the freedom and force of the will of man. Both gain in dominance, prestige, and usefulness as they are the more intimately related to life. The great themes of religion and literature are similar and are vital: sin, its origin, penalties, and deliverance therefrom; love — the passion, and the will — its place and its limitations; righteousness, and the relation of men to each other. In illustration of the identities of the themes of religion and literature, one may refer to Dante's " Divine Comedy," which is concerned with the passing from and through Hell, where live those who knew not Christ in the earthly life, or, if they knew him, refused to obey, through Purgatory, where dwell those whose sins are not mortal, and into the Paradise where dwell the righteous in an eternity of light and of love. The great poem of the Middle Ages is at once great literature and a certain type of religion. French literature is also pervaded by the religious atmosphere. The religious element in the system of Descartes — both philosophy in literature and literature in philosophy— and of his followers is marked, and from them later French literature drew religion and inspiration. This inspiration, be it said, was both emotional and intellectual. The whole field of modern fiction abounds in examples of the connection between literature and religion; Hawthorne significantly represents the more modern unity in America of the two forces, and among all his works The Scarlet Letter and The Marble Faun are in this respect most notable. In English fiction George Eliot exemplifies this unity, and of her works Adam Bede is an impressive illustration. Religion and literature, moreover, adopt methods not dissimilar. They stand for the value of the imagination; they represent the artistic, rather than the scientific, methods of inter-
3. Simi- preting life and phenomena. If theollarity in ogy, which is the science of religion, Methods, lends itself to definition and to rational processes largely, religion belongs to the realm of the sentiments and sensibilities— the heart, the conscience, and the will. Literature, too, likewise declines to enter the realm of the formal definition; it is the product of the imagination, and to the imagination it makes its primary appeal, especially in poetry and, to some extent, in noble prose composition. Neither argues or