Christianity and History

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Of the human spirit. Observe that we pos tulate mere curiosity and interest in human nature, as a phenomenon, we postulate no sym pathy or interest in religious belief as such. For the Martian as described is a being for whom religion is an impossibility and the Christian ideal a subject for laughter. He would natur ally pass by our churches, ignore our religious books and newspapers, and regard the denuncia tion of the advancing tide of infidelity by Bishops and Archdeacons, as a proof that the terrestrials are only still at the lowest rung of the ladder, scaled already by the inhabitants of Mars. Yet none the less such a being could not be long upon earth, before he would be driven to the conclusion that if he desired to understand the civilization of Europe and America, to enter into the meaning of its poli tics, its literature, its art, and even to appreciate its political geography, there was one subject of which he must strive to make himself a master - the history of Christianity, of the manifold forms which it has assumed, of the strange spell cast by it upon the most practical of the races upon earth, and the still stranger reactions which it has exercised upon politics and culture.

Of the human spirit. Observe that we pos tulate mere curiosity and interest in human nature, as a phenomenon, we postulate no sym pathy or interest in religious belief as such. For the Martian as described is a being for whom religion is an impossibility and the Christian ideal a subject for laughter. He would natur ally pass by our churches, ignore our religious books and newspapers, and regard the denuncia tion of the advancing tide of infidelity by Bishops and Archdeacons, as a proof that the terrestrials are only still at the lowest rung of the ladder, scaled already by the inhabitants of Mars. Yet none the less such a being could not be long upon earth, before he would be driven to the conclusion that if he desired to understand the civilization of Europe and America, to enter into the meaning of its poli tics, its literature, its art, and even to appreciate its political geography, there was one subject of which he must strive to make himself a master — the history of Christianity, of the manifold forms which it has assumed, of the strange spell cast by it upon the most practical of the races upon earth, and the still stranger reactions which it has exercised upon politics and culture.