History of Religions, Vol. 2: Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from History of Religions, Vol. 2: Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism

Each of them, conceiving itself as the one true religion, attributes to itself finality, and believes itself destined to universality. In them all the ideal of universality assumed political forms. In Judaism, indeed, the dream of ruling over the nations of the earth in the name of the Lord never had a chance to translate itself into historical reality or even into essay. But in Christianity and Islam the idea of empire as the embodiment of religion dominated centuries of history, and ruthless wars of conquest glorified themselves as the victories of the faith. A further consequence of the ideal of exclusive universality in Christendom was the prin ciple that a Christian state should not tolerate within it any other religion than Christianity, nor any other kind of Christianity than the one true kind. Religious liberty logi cally involves the secularisation of the state.

In modern times the expansion of both Christianity and Islam has been by commerce, missions, and colonisation rather than by conquest, but commerce and missions have often been but steps to protection, occupation, and annexa tion by Christian states. The belief in ultimate universality must persist as long as each believes itself the one true reli gion, and so long as it persists the religions must strive in the ways of the time to achieve their universal destiny.

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