Comparative Theology #248671

But allowing (what few will deny) that Christianity is the abso lute religion, it may be asked, DO the faiths of the past and of the present have any bearing upon its content? Is it possible to take any Christian belief, and, after comparing it with those of other faiths, to find any resemblance to it? And if so, may we say that the earlier belief is a foreshadowing of, a kind of testimony to, and a preparation for, the final form? Sacrifice, for example, is a common custom in many, if not all religions, and the Sacrifice of our Lord is a verity of the Christian creed. Have we here any preparation for this important historic fact in the earlier beliefs concerning sacrifice? Is it possible to compare them with it in order to Obtain some conception of the ideas underlying the custom? Did they foreshadow to waiting humanity the one Sacrifice of the Cross? So with other beliefs, such as the existence of a Supreme God, the Incarnation, the Future Life, the Church, Inspiration. In a word, the question comes to be, IS there a comparative method possible in Christian theology? This book is an attempt to answer the question from the point Of view of one who accepts fully and faithfully the Christian creed, yet who is assured that at no time in the world's history did God leave Himself without witness, but in divers parts and in many manners led mankind on to the Christ who was to be. If God controls the movements of history and the life of the universe, He equally watches over the religious beliefs of the soul, so that however much men may go astray, and however degraded these beliefs may be, they shall yet preserve some seed Of truth which will be fruitful in time to come.