To those accustomed to the old mythological setting of religion with its glance away from human life as a whole, this prophecy will but confirm their conviction of the revolutionary character of the thesis which this book has sought to champion. But I feel certain that, if they will permit themselves a dispassionate study of the facts, they will, sooner or later, be forced to acknowledge the inevitableness of the conclusion. If religion is to survive, it must be human and social. It is they who insist upon a supernatural foundation and object who are its enemies. Man's life is spiritual in its own right. So long as he shall dream of beauty and goodness and truth his life will not lack religion.
[1] Those who are interested in a constructive philosophical position which meets the results of modern science may be referred to my two books, _Critical Realism_ and _The Essentials of Philosophy_. I have there shown that the mind-body dualism has been due to a false way of approach. Psychology gives knowledge about the functional capacities of the nervous system additional to that given by the physical science, and in no way conflicting with it, and consciousness is in the brain.
[2] See especially _The Next Step in Democracy_, ch. 5.
Agency, impersonal, 117 f.; limits of personal, 121 f.
Christianity, origins of, 58 f.; historical approach to, 60 f.; setting of, 68 f.; democratic movements in, 73; in transition, 95 f.; naïveté of doctrines, 101 f.
Ethics, and early religion, 170 f.; in the Middle Ages, 173 f.; heteronomous, 175 f.; modern, 177 f.; 184 f.
Evil, for primitive man, 153; and Satan, 156; created by God, 158; as illusion, 164 f.; disappearance of problem of, 165
Evolution, and myth, 41 f.; biological, 104 f.
God, for Christianity, 115 f.; ideas of, 159 f.
Immortality, arguments for, 146 f.; and early peoples, 139 f.; and Christianity, 142; philosophical aspect of, 148 f.
Jesus, 75, 79 f.; death of, 82; as Messiah, 85; become God, 91; and the Hebrew prophets, 158 f.
Miracles, 123 f.; of Jesus, 127 f; evidence for, 130 f.; and their logic, 133
Monotheism, ethical, 91, 115; Christian, 111 f.; of Isaiah, 158 f.
Myths, and morality, 24 f.; surrendering of, 108
Protestantism, beginnings of, 93; aspects of, 199 f.; sects of, 205