I SUGGESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II THE AGE OF MYTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 III STORIES OF CREATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 IV MAGIC AND RITUAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 V THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTIANITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 VI THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 VII THE EVOLUTION OF CHRISTIANITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 VIII THE CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY . . . . . . . . 98 IX THE LIMITS OF PERSONAL AGENCY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 X DO MIRACLES HAPPEN? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 XI THE SOUL AND IMMORTALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 XII THE PROBLEM OF EVIL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 XIII RELIGION AND ETHICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 XIV THE CHURCH AS AN INSTITUTION--THE CATHOLIC CHURCH . . . . 187 XV THE CHURCH AS AN INSTITUTION--PROTESTANTISM . . . . . . . 198 XVI THE HUMANIST'S RELIGION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 {1} THE NEXT STEP IN RELIGION CHAPTER I SUGGESTIONS More than people are consciously aware, a new view of the universe and of man's place in it is forming. It is forming in the laboratories of scientists, the studies of thinkers, the congresses of social workers, the assemblies of reformers, the studios of artists and, even more quietly, in the circles of many homes. This new view is growing beneath the old as a bud grows beneath its covering, and is slowly pushing it aside. While the inherited outlook, still apparently so strong, is losing effectiveness and becoming a thing of conventions and phrases, the ideas and purposes which are replacing it possess the vigor and momentum of contact with the living tendencies and needs of the present. Mankind grows away from its traditional beliefs as inevitably as does the boy or girl from childhood fancies, and often with much the same lack of realization. But the time is certain to come to both when the change is pressed home and there is need for interpretation and serious self-communing. At such a time, kindly--yet uncompromising and veracious--explanation of the nature and implications of the crisis is the course dictated by wisdom. Nothing can be more cruel, disorganizing, and, in a way, insulting than the attempt to {2} harmonize what cannot in the long run be harmonized. The agony is then sure to be long drawn out and the strength of soul, given by fearlessness, is lost. I feel that the first law of personality is _spiritual courage_. Actions and methods founded on a doubt of this primary law lead to a blunting of the fine edge of the self, an injury greater than which can scarcely be conceived.