File:The light of the world - a brief comparative study of Christianity and non-Christian religions (1911) (14760778966).jpg

Identifier: lightofworldbrie00spe (find matches)
Title: The light of the world : a brief comparative study of Christianity and non-Christian religions
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Speer, Robert E. (Robert Elliott), 1867-1947
Subjects: Christianity and other religions Religions
Publisher: West Medford, Mass. : Central Committee on the United Study of Missions
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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thing old,however outworn or irrational. The existence side by side of customs like polygamyand the prohibition of widow remarriage similarlyshows a bad organization of society. The one keeps upan unduly low standard of morality among men, theother demands an impossibly high standard fromwomen. To enforce the standard we suppress our feel-ings of humanity and affection and inflict severitiesupon widows to keep their vitality low and make themless attractive; yet the impossibility remains and thelaws of nature we have ignored avenge themselves; for,in spite of our harsh measures, we fail to preserve evenan ordinary standard of morality in this much ill-treatedclass. We do well, therefore, in protesting against theseevils and striving for their alteration. We should, however, realize where the evil lies. Itis in the lowering of our ideas about women and therelations of the sexes. It is this ideal of woman which Christianity mustraise for India. 3. Religion and morality in India are both
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HINDUISM 47 vitiated by the pantheistic idea of God which A Falserules Indian thought and which has alwa)Ts Thought oftriumphed over every reforming protest in behalf God.of theism. Pantheism, says Flint in Anti-Theistic Theories, is the theory which regardsall finite things as merely aspects, modifications,or parts of one eternal and self-existent being;which views all material objects, and all particu-lar minds, as necessarily derived from a singleinfinite substance. The one absolute substance—the one all-comprehensive being—it calls God.Thus God, according to it, is all that is, andnothing is which is not essentially included in,or which has not been necessarily evolved out of,God. This conception of God and man cannotnourish a religion of affectionate devotion. In-stead of love and communion in love, it can onlycommend to us the contemplation of an objectwhich is incomprehensible, devoid of all affec-tions, and indifferent to all actions. When feel-ings like love, gratitude, a

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