In preparing a critical analysis of the character of Jesus, it is freely
admitted that many of the thoughts attributed to the son of Mary are
superlatively fine. They will live forever whether the personality of
Jesus be rejected as a divinity or not. That these beautiful preachments
are ignored here is not due to any desire to belittle admirable
sentiments or to disparage right living. The loving side of Jesus has
been emphasized again and again and will be borne in mind by the reader
when other less admirable traits are criticized. The intent of this
criticism is not to destroy idealism but to assist the spirit of true
progress.
_Christianity Must Go_
The significance of this investigation lies in the changes that would
have to be made in religious thought if it should be found that Jesus
was not perfect. If Jesus was in error concerning conditions of his own
time and exhibited no knowledge of our modern problems, his authority
will be lessened. Searchers after the true way of life will not continue
to worship a person whose conception of the physical and spiritual world
was erroneous. If Jesus made mistakes, he is neither the Son of God nor
an infallible man.
So long as people feel compelled to worship what has been proved
imperfect, or to evade important doctrines of their creeds for fear of
losing faith in old traditions, their minds will not be receptive to
changes in social conditions that require abandonment of established
customs. Christians are imbued with a psychology derived from a
completed revelation. The firmer their belief in Jesus, the greater
their resistance to new ideas. Catholics are more reluctant to join
progressive movements than Modernists and Modernists than Evolutionists.
Religious people are apt to be afraid of the new world; they doubt the
possibility of eliminating war, poverty and injustice--customs as deeply
rooted in the social world as belief in Jesus is in the religious world.
If the chief reactionary bulwark of the past is abandoned, there will be
greater possibility of accepting new revelations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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