His description of God as "the Power not ourselves which makes
for righteousness," might seem, in fact, the negation of Pantheism,
because, if God is not ourselves, there is something other than God. But
the man who deliberately justified the loose phraseology of the Bible
about infinite Being, by the plea that it was language "thrown out" at
an object infinitely transcending linguistic expression, ought not
himself to be pinned to the implications logically deducible from his
own words "thrown out" at the same transcendant object. And, though
Matthew Arnold was too literary to be a Pantheist, that is, though he
thought more of forms of expression than of ultimate reality, his
satirical disintegration of the creeds, wherever it is effective, makes
Pantheism the only religious alternative. So-called "secular" and
godless alternatives may be offered; but their incongruity with the
whole evolution of humanity from prehistoric animism to the higher
Pantheism will make their doom short and sure.
[Sidenote: Why Pantheism as a Religion was called Modern.]
In the earlier part of this essay I made the remark that Pantheism as a
religion is almost entirely modern. The context, however, clearly showed
what was meant; for several pages have been occupied with indications of
the ideas and teaching of individual Pantheists from Xenophanes to
Spinoza. But we do not usually take much note of a religion that is
confined to one or two men in an age.
Pages:
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76